There are 8 things that can change your life forever, and for the better! 

Know yourself better. 

Knowing your self is an important exercise to do. That’s known as self-awareness. 

This is the ability to tap into who you are. It is something you do to connect with your inner being. One of the ways to do it is through a set of spiritual disciplines, which you can do in the form of regular meditation. 

There are also other tools you could use to discover more about your self. These are known as self assessment. They help you learn about your personality, responses to life (emotion) and how easily you can adapt to cultural changes around you. That’s a conversation for another day. 

To better assess your self using any of the tools out there, I would rather encourage you to do with the help of a counselor or coach (personal, professional or spiritual). Talk to someone in your community, at your church or work place if you want to go through this process. 

Knowing your self better helps you find more meaning in life. This results from the empowerment you get out of connecting with your self and God. Also, your values are more clear, and which provide you with the ability to bear much good fruit in life.  

Through the practice of connecting with yourself and God, you become empowered to bear much fruit in life. Not only you become fruitful, your values are clear. In the Bible, Jesus used the analogy of the vine and the branches (see John 15).

Branches cannot, on their own, 1) live and 2) bear fruit. This is first spiritual principle that comes out of this text (John 15). That implies the power to be fully alive and bear fruit does not completely lie into what we daily do. It depends on how we are connected to ourselves and the source of all life: Jesus.

The second principle that comes out of this Biblical story is that branches that are alive, but which do not bear fruit, will cut off and thrown away. This sounds rush, but is it not the reality of what happens in true life?

I strongly believe that you and I are here to add value to people and everything we have and do in life.

Am I trying to say that if we have no value added, we become worthless?

Not at all. That’s not what I am saying here.

What you should know is that there could be many reasons you may seem to think you’re not adding value to society in your life. Perhaps, it’s because you don’t know well your potential. Or, it could be you are doing the wrong thing at this point. Maybe, it’s the right thing you’re doing, but at the wrong time. The list can go on and on.

You probably need to talk to someone who can help you figure this out. The question you could ask yourself: “why am I here on earth?” This is something I touched on in one of my previous posts, you were destined for here on earth. The post will help you at least start the process of finding clarity about who you are. 

One very important thing about connecting with yourself is that you’ll discover more about yourself and life around you. As a result, you’ll learn to appreciate yourself, the people in your life and your surroundings. 

Draw a map for your life. 

Tapping into yourself will give you some clarity about your life. You will begin to be more aware of the territory where you live better than before. You’ll also grasp the idea of where you would like to end up in life.

Consequently, you will become able to visualize your itinerary that will take you from one place to the next, depending on where you are in life.

With that clarity, which has resulted from connecting to the spiritual (God and self), will help you plan your life. In the beginning, practicing spirituality (meditation) will seem quite overwhelming. But, with time, it will get easier, especially if you get help from a professional (coach, spiritual director, and so forth). 

A starting point, especially that you now have some clarity about your life, is to develop a personal mission statement. 

With a personal mission statement, take life, one day at a time. Track your progress daily. Decide what to change in the evening and put it into action the following day. 

Don’t dwell in your past. 

Life has three major components that are interrelated: past, present and future. 

Isaiah, a prophet in Israel, said once: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (Isaiah 43: 18,ESV). 

What that means is you should not make your past become your teacher. In other words, don’t let what happened in your past be the defining elements of your life today. 

I know we can’t forget our past, especially those major events such as: loss of a job or a loved one, disappointment, illness, divorce, and so forth. 

Psychologists claim that anything happening, and which has some emotional attachment from us, is likely to never be forgotten. 

So, what do you do with what’s impossible to forget, but which you don’t need? 

• Find one or two things about what has happened to you in the past: failures, disappointments, illnesses, broken relationships, etc. 
• Think of every single one of them as a stepping block to propel you into a brighter future. Look at them as the building elements of the great future you’ve thought of.
• Forgive people and circumstances that may have caused some of your past wounds.

Take risks.

I look at life as a series of risks every human being takes from birth to death. Also, there is no way to grow if we don’t stretch ourselves more.

A risk is a calculated way of reaching what you haven’t reached yet in life. 

It requires two things: 

• Have a smart goal. 
• Set a plan and get into action. This defines how you want to achieve your goal and how you can track your progress. Procrastination doesn’t help if you really want to move forward and walk boldly into your future. 

Don’t fear. 

When you have a goal, a clear plan helps reduce the level of fear. But, keep in mind that fear isn’t always a bad thing. You can turn any fear into an opportunity for your own growth. 

The kind of fear you have to get rid of is what prevents you from moving forward with life. Negative fears get you stuck. 

But, you can overcome all your fears and move forward no matter what. Know that you can endure anything from your past and the fear you face now. 

Live well. 

One thing you should keep in mind is that, no matter how smart your goals may be, you still have other obligations or demands in life. 

You have to live well. What I mean by this is you need balance. 

All aspects of your life should be in balance in a way that you will reduce stress to its very minimal point. 

Believe in yourself. 

Believing in yourself is a choice you’ve got to make on your own. The primary resource to you is you! The way you respond to anything in life depends on you. Not other people. 

The power to change everything in your life is in you. The potential you need to call your dreams into reality is found in you. All what you need you already have it. 

There are a lot of benefits that come with believing in yourself.

• You will boost your self-confidence. 
• You will learn how to appreciate yourself, others and your surroundings. 
• You will change yourself and the world around you. 

Never stop learning. 

Learning is a very important need for our personal growth. Even though you have all what it takes to live to your  fullest, you’ll still need someone else in your life. 

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together! This is a saying from Africa that speaks to the idea that we all need each other in order to get where we should be in life. 

There are a lot of ways to learn today with a rapidly growing technology we have at our disposal.

Learning can formal or informal. Here are some of the ways I use to continue learning on a daily basis: 

• Books on Kindle. I love Kindle because I can a ton of books with me on my devices and read from anywhere I am.
• Podcasts. Every time I am driving, I have always made it my discipline to learn one or two things from someone else on Podcast.
• Youtube. I search for something I need and watch it on Youtube.
• Newsify is an RSS news reader for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It helps you read and share your favorite websites and blogs on your devices.
• Udemy is another tool I use for my own learning. Some courses are paid and others are not.

Bringing it all together.

Know yourself better, Draw a map for your life, Don’t dwell in your past, Take risks, Live well, Don’t fear, Believe in yourself and Never stop learning are the 8 things that can change your life forever. 

There could be many more, and if you can think of any, I would like you to share it with me. Also, please, share this post with someone else. Thank you very much for doing so.