Cheryl Wright

Our lives feel small, lim­it­ed and clut­tered, we could use some com­mon re­mod­el­ing terms to cre­ate space for the life we want.

Re-de­fine our style.

Re-defin­ing our in­di­vid­ual style and how it is re­flect­ed in our homes, can give each room a new lease on life. The at­ti­tudes and habits that de­fine us may cause frac­tures in our re­la­tion­ships, stymie our pro­fes­sion­al ad­vance­ment and stall our dreams. In­stead of try­ing to please every­body, we could con­cen­trate on un­der­stand­ing who we are and choos­ing the best place to at­tach our loy­al­ties. In­stead of fill­ing our lives with mod­ern-day at­ti­tudes, ac­tions and ma­te­r­i­al things, we could fo­cus on nur­tur­ing pos­i­tive at­ti­tudes, cul­ti­vat­ing sta­ble re­la­tion­ships and de­vel­op­ing habits that im­prove our lives and help oth­ers.

In­stead of lament­ing the past, we could cut neg­a­tiv­i­ty down to size. In­stead of dab­bling in gos­sip, we could fend off dis­trac­tions and de­trac­tors.

Re­move walls.

Just as a house has walls that do not sup­port the main struc­ture, we have walls that do not sup­port the life we live or the life we want. If we re­move the emo­tion­al walls we've erect­ed be­cause of un­hap­py ex­pe­ri­ences and past hurts, pos­si­bil­i­ties will emerge for more ful­fill­ing re­la­tion­ships, a deep­er sense of pur­pose, in­creased self-con­fi­dence and ad­vance­ment in our ca­reers. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, we can ex­pect to de­vel­op a fear­less­ness that pro­pels us to take the kind of cal­cu­lat­ed risks that help us ac­com­plish our goals.

Bump out.

When a room feels too small, a de­sign­er may sug­gest that we bump out the ex­ist­ing win­dows for more light, a larg­er out­door view, in­creased air­flow and maybe even added seat­ing and stor­age with a win­dow seat. Some­times life can feel just as boxy. We com­plain that our lives are lim­it­ed and noth­ing much is hap­pen­ing. We live as if we can't see be­yond our prob­lems, the bills, the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and the dai­ly stress. What if we bumped out our way of think­ing, the old feel­ings, the old way of do­ing things and the cur­rent vi­sion we have of the fu­ture. We might get a bright new per­spec­tive on life in gen­er­al, a pos­i­tive slant to our neg­a­tive cir­cum­stances, an in­creased flow of in­spi­ra­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty, a larg­er, more de­tailed vi­sion of fu­ture pos­si­bil­i­ties, and who knows what else.

Build up.

If a room doesn't al­low us to build out, we have the op­tion to build up, not on­ly for in­creased stor­age, but to add char­ac­ter and style. We can do the same with our lives, re­la­tion­ships, ca­reers and dreams, when they feel cramped. Liv­ing on a hor­i­zon­tal plane gets bor­ing. Build­ing up can add pur­pose to our lives, sub­stance to our re­la­tion­ships, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, pos­si­bil­i­ty and ful­fil­ment to our ca­reers and ex­panse to our dreams. We could build up our char­ac­ter with in­tegri­ty, com­pas­sion, grat­i­tude, pos­i­tive at­ti­tudes and de­ci­sive ac­tions. They help to cre­ate a space where love, dreams, pur­pose and prac­tice thrive.

Re­pur­pose

Fi­nan­cial sav­ings ac­crue when we re­pose old things, giv­ing them a new way to make our homes look, feel and func­tion bet­ter. Some­times, do­ing things the same old way gets, well, old. Even when the out­come is good, it lacks "Ta Daa". We may have been us­ing our tal­ents, skills and ex­pe­ri­ences for the wrong pur­pose, in­ef­fi­cient­ly or un­pro­duc­tive­ly. They may have failed to gen­er­ate the suc­cess or sat­is­fac­tion we want. Our lives could be fresh­er, fuller and more sat­is­fy­ing if we re­pur­pose them: re­view where we ap­ply them, re­con­fig­ure how we use them and nar­row or widen their fo­cus for bet­ter and faster re­sults. How would you re­mod­el your life?

8 TIPS for pos­i­tive think­ing

The pow­er of pos­i­tive think­ing is im­mense; the val­ue of a pos­i­tive men­tal at­ti­tude is price­less. It is a val­ue every­one must have. It is the pre­lude to suc­cess, with­in and with­out.

1 Learn. Read. Lis­ten. Dai­ly.

To in­spir­ing thoughts, au­dios, movies, bat­tles con­quered, ad­ven­tures en­coun­tered, ob­sta­cles over­come. As­so­ciate your­self with peo­ple who think pos­i­tive­ly.

2 Op­ti­mism.

There will be bet­ter days. Be­lief and hope is half the bat­tle won.

3 Grat­i­tude.

What­ev­er hap­pens, there are worse sit­u­a­tions. If you are breath­ing, be glad to be alive.

4 Tak­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in­stead of blame.

Don't wait for the oth­er per­son to re­act be­fore you make the first move.

5 Not al­low­ing neg­a­tive emo­tions to over­whelm you.

You may have been beat­en sore. But there is still breath in you enough to fight an­oth­er day.

6 Per­sis­tence. Push. Be­yond The Dip. Seth Godin ex­plains that the rea­son most peo­ple do not achieve what they want is be­cause they give up be­fore they cross The Dip. What is The Dip? It is the 10th job in­ter­view where they nev­er even call you back. It is the 100th time you fall on your butt while learn­ing to snow­board. It is any rough patch you have to get through be­fore achiev­ing your big goal. Suc­cess is on­ly a step away. Or maybe a few more steps. Nev­er give up. Don't quit. Ask. And you will re­ceive.

7 Be­lieve. Even if every­thing tells you oth­er­wise. In your gut feel­ing. That there can be mir­a­cles. That things can be changed. Ex­pectan­cy. Be­lief in your­self. In bet­ter days. In hope. In good­ness. Trust in God to take you through.

8 Seek di­vine guid­ance. When you are over­whelmed. When bad things hap­pen to good peo­ple like your­self. When you are stuck and find no way out. Or even be­fore the start of an or­di­nary day.