Month: September 2017

It is said that ambition and achievement are soul mates. But it is the action that brings them together so that sparks can fly and the world is set on fire. Ambition and achievement walk hand in hand on this avenue called life.

Achievement is just like an honorable gentleman, while ambition is more like a tramp than a lady. If ambition doesn’t use its powers creatively, constructively, then it could damage the one summoning its presence. Ambition is just as powerful as the electricity. It can enhance your life, or it can destroy it. Ambition only becomes dangerous when we become easy targets for greed because we are so easily blinded by its charms.

Greed is a very effective messenger of the dark side.

It’s no wonder that so many us flee from being authentic because it is too dangerous to admit, even to ourselves, that we possess not only aspirations but ambitions. Have you ever thought that maybe ambition is a gift of the Spirit? What if we were supposed to be ambitious? What if ambition is necessary so that we can transform our lives.

One thing is sure. We cannot achieve anything in life without ambition. That’s why I always make a list with what I want to achieve in life, listen to my inner voice, take a closer look at my possibilities, and use my ambition in a positive, creative way to enhance my life.

Love,

Carmen Monica

I came to realize that I am the creator of my own life, so I wonder what story am I telling about myself?  Do I honestly believe there are things I can and cannot do? Is this the story I am telling about myself? Because it’s not true.

What should I do when someone says that I am less than anyone else, or that I am limited in any way? What should I do when someone says that I can’t-do what I love to do and earn a living from it? What should I do if someone says I am not as valuable and worthy as any other great human being who has lived? What should I do when someone says that I am not good enough now and I have to prove myself in life? What should I do when I’m told that I can’t have what I love or do what I love or be what I love.

I simply don’t listen!

If I believe it, then I set limits on myself, and they won’t be true. I know that there is not one thing that is too good for me or too good to be true. I learned that whatever I give, I receive back. I know that I am good, and worthy, and deserving now, not in the future, or in the time that is convenient for someone else’s plans. I am good enough now, at this moment, as I will be tomorrow and every day of my life.

Love,

Carmen Monica

How many of us feel like a failure because we haven’t followed our true calling? How many of us wake up in the morning dreading the day ahead because we are stuck in a dead end situation? We have bills to pay for our homes, education, food, gas, and so on. The list is exhausting.

The vast majority has chosen to follow careers that turned out to be a big disappointment but continued to follow the same path because it was familiar. Maybe some wanted to be musicians and had become doctors instead, abandoning their true calling. Maybe others wanted to be writers and had become accountants instead. Others wanted to have their own fitness center and had worked in restaurants all their lives. I know a man who wanted to learn to play guitar and never had the time to do it. But he kept the guitar in his office as a reminder of his failure.

I wonder how many of us will mourn the road we have abandoned?  

We long for something to change, we consider not following our true calling a failure, often being as scared and ashamed as those people who have been fired. How many people were laid off from their jobs through no fault of their own? They feel that somehow they have failed. The truth is that a new world of opportunities opens to them. All they have to do is let go of the familiar and embrace change.

How many people are stuck in jobs they hate, are terrified to risk change, and despite themselves for doing less than their best?

It could happen that at this very moment the world praises us, and we still believe that we have failed our own best hopes, our dreams. Everyone is terrified of failing, but whether we risk it all or play it safe, we can’t avoid failure. But failure is good because it stretches us beyond our own limits and helps us grow into our authentic self. It guides to become whom we were meant to be since the beginning. That’s why we should see failure as a generous gift.

The worst thing it can happen isn’t failure. It is never having tried.                                   

Love,

Carmen Monica

September is the month for reflection and resolution. And it has been this way since ancient times. For example, Jews observe the High Holiday of Yom Kippur as the day for public and private atonement, when they retire from the world for twenty-four hours to become right with God and the ones around, so that real life has a chance to be renewed with passion and purpose.

We notice the changes in the natural world when summer gives way gently to fall. Soon the leaves will start turning colors, and just like them, it is time for turning over a personal leaf so that our own lives can be restored.

September resolutions are about authentic wants. It is the time to ask ourselves what we want more or less in our lives so that we can love the lives we’re having? Some will say that they want to see their friends more often, others will say they want to set time aside to have adventures with their children while they still can. Some will want to rekindle the romance in their daily routine, other will want to designate a solitary hour a day as their own or just to take walks in a dazzling sunshine.

Whatever your resolution is, no one will know it. It will be between you and the fall. Fall resolutions don’t come surrounded by champagne or confetti, but they only ask that we open ourselves to positive change.

I will try to do that. You have to try it too.

Love,

Carmen Monica