This is my personal blog, written from my personal Learning journal where I share things that I learn every day. I do spend a lot of my time studying areas of personal development, leadership and success principles as well Bible studies. I love to study Bible personalities and complete Bible books (especially from the New Testament).

I do have blogs that are dedicated to Personal Development:
Mindset For Living (mindsetforliving.com) is dedicated to articles on how to create a positive mindset.

The theme is:

Kiwichamp.com is a blog that was started in 2008, and there I am sharing studies about Bible Personalities, Personal Development for Christians as well as the story of my first years on the mission field. The central theme of Kiwichamp is:

I invite you to visit these blogs also, and subscribe to the one(s) that interest you.

I would love to see you there and invite you to share your thoughts and experiences on these blogs as well as here. I would love to hear from you.

My Other Interests:
This week as I was reviewing this blog I decided that because I am writing from my learning journal, it would be good to blog about some of my other areas of interest here too.

These areas include health, natural solutions to health issues, photography, finances (I have a strong interest in the Forex Market), technology (yep I am a bit of a “Geek”). I don’t have too much time to spend in the techie area, but those new toys that keep coming on the market DO fascinate me too

I also like little dogs (I may get another one. Sadly my last dog was killed by a car. That took some getting over.)

When there is time, I also like to work with WordPress, html a little php and some other areas of coding.

You may also find an article or two about travel, culture, brain science or learning techniques, You may also find some snippets of world news, interesting historical facts (from today in history).

Then there will be articles about music (especially jazz and easy listening), my daily adventures or even teddy bears (yep I am a collector) – in fact – this blog is about to turn into the theme:

I trust you will enjoy the new expanded theme of this blog and please do come and join in the fun and share some of your life experiences too.

I look forward to hearing from you and getting to know you here as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

My Facebook Page
Kiwichamp (Jill R) on Twitter

I look forward to seeing you here often, and hearing about your life experiences too.

Today’s question is:
Are you REALLY taking full advantage of the opportunity that life is offering you today?

Do you realize that life IS an opportunity?

Well those are two questions right? But they are very valid ones, and your answers will lead you to a life changing experience.

If you read What Does Each Day Mean To You? you will have already begun to consider the importance of taking advantage of the opportunities that each day brings.

How can you really live life to the full?
Isn’t it true that so often it is not until you are in danger of losing something in life that you actually fully recognize it’s real value?

Have you ever wondered why so often it is not until we face a near death experience or a similar severe challenge in life that recognize what a precious gift life really is?

So often we do not really recognize that life is an opportunity because:

1. We get busy with the daily routines and forget to look at the big picture.

Solution: Schedule at least 15 minutes EVERY day to spend time alone reflecting on all of the things you enjoy in life. Give thanks for each one.

It is so easy to take the good things that you enjoy in life for granted. And when that happens you don’t even realize just how many things you DO enjoy every day.

2. We are overcome with fear and doubt.

Solution: Recognize that fear will destroy your life and cloud your perspective of everything you do. It will stop you from REALLY enjoying anything in life.

Once you recognize the presence of fear, start to DISPLACE it with faith. You cannot get rid of a negative emotion or attitude in your life by focusing on it. You need to start intentially and deliberately focusing on the very opposite attitude.

Read: Fear Is A Developed Habit

Yes, fear is a developed habit and so to reverse this habit it will take daily focused action. What kind of action? Deliberately focus on positive solutions in every area of your life.

3. Our life dreams are frustrated.

I have left the best for the last

Solution:
Did you know that you were born with the seed of your destiny in your heart? This destiny includes your dreams, your passions and aspirations in life. It also includes a deep desire for a relationship with the Living God.

There are two major areas of life that are deeply connected with your dreams and your COMPLETE sense of purpose in life:

a. Relationship with God.
Yes I believe the Bible and the simple Gospel of abundant life in Christ. Without this relationship with God through Christ, no matter what level of success you rise to in life, there will always be a deep nagging emptiness in your heart. It won’t go away no matter what you try to fill it UNLESS you decide to follow Jesus. (Read John 1:12 and John 3:1-23 in the Bible).

b. Fulfillment of your destiny (or WHY = life’s dreams and purpose).
You will never be fully satisfied in life either until you are working towards your dream and then living it. We will be discussing this more in future articles on this blog. Meanwhile, I highly recommend you get this CD Find Your Why Now. See below under the resources section for more information.

Life is an opportunity – are you fully benefiting from it?

Resources:
Fear Is Wrongly Focused Faith,
Worry is wrong meditation
Find Your Why Now (Don’t miss this tremendous opportunity to get hold of a great CD plus several mp3s that will really change your life).

Photo Credit

Remember these enemies were:
**Lack of forgiveness.
**Fear.

When either of these two enemies are hidden somewhere in your mind they will cloud your vision whenever you face a challenge.

When your vision starts to dim you begin to doubt yourself, your abilities and perhaps even your worthiness of success. If you allow these doubting thoughts to continue you may even lose sight of your dreams completely.

Then your mind will be quick to take you back to other difficult times of your life to show you why you cannot succeed, You failed here, you failed there .. how can you expect this attempt to be different is what your mind will tell you.

What happened? Your vision dimmed, even went out of sight in the pressure and strain of the present challenge and your mind was quick to fill in the gap by replaying your past.

How to prevent this “meltdown” from happening in your life?

Deal with these two big enemies. But how?

1. Forgive, forgive, forgive.
A great part of forgiveness is release. You simply decide to forgive and release the person (or persons) and release them from your life. Now I don’t mean to over simplify something that is often so hard to do, but the reality is this is all that it takes to forgive – a decision and an action that follows through on the decision.

Forgiveness also means you will release the situation and the people involved. That will get rid of quite a burden from your life.

2. Write down the vision you have for your life (your why).
Make a list of your dreams. Illustration them with pictures on words (yes create a vision board).

3 Focus on your vision and your goals every day.
Keep them in front of you, in pictures, in words, in audio and in video.

4. Faith will begin to grow in your heart
When you begin to focus on the positive things such as your vision and your goals, faith will begin to grow in your heart.

Your life vision (or purpose) was planted in your heart from the day you were born. This seed needs to be nurtured and watered by faith for it to grow and become the healthy plant or tree it was destined to be,

5. Faith comes by hearing and hearing …
There is another very interesting verse in the Bible that is found in Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The foundation of a strong faith in life is a having a living relationship with Jesus Christ (no – not religion, relationship). To find this relationship, simply reach out to God who is already reaching out to you. (John 1:!2).

• Reading the Bible (the Gospel of Mark is a good place to start) is a great way to build your faith.
• As well as the Bible, read at least one non fiction book a month.
• Make sure you spend time writing, dreaming and visualizing your dreams and your focus and faith will strengthen.

Focus is a very active verb. It takes discipline and determination to be able to focus well. Disciplined, determined action will support you in developing the habits in your life that you need to push you forward to the success you are seeking.

In Philippians 3:13 in the Bible, the apostle Paul made this declaration:
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

If you follow these 5 tips you will have a strong advantage over these two big enemies.

Keep your eyes on your vision, don’t let anything or anyone (not even an enemy within) steal your dream.

Photo Credit Looking Back on Flickr