TODAY I am celebrating 1 year on Steemit!!!
I am extremely blessed to have found this beautiful platform be part of a great supportive community.

Thank you to all who have worked behind the scenes to keep this community alive, and to everyone who contributes as an active member of this community.

This year.....a reflection

During 2017 a lot has happened in my life and I bet you have also had an intense year. It was a year was filled with many facets of joy, excitement, adventure, love, fear, guilt, shame, judgments etc. It was also filled with reward for courageous acts.

When we decide to challenge everyday routine, what we believe, step out of our comfort zone and roll with the punches; also keeping a positive outlook on life, it seems that the rewards are more than we could ever expect.

One of my favourite quotes by Napoleon Hill summarizes life quite well:

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

One of the biggest challenges we faced in 2017 was to step towards our dreams and completely out of our comfort zones by doing the following:

• Quiting our Jobs in April 2017
• Selling all our cars & household content by April 2017
• Boarding a plane to South America not knowing a word of Spanish on 21 May 2017

Now we are living our dream of traveling full time for the last 14 Months. At times our travels have been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, we had absolutely beautiful and rewarding times, and then other times it was quite challenging to manage logistics in a place where you are still coming to grips with the language and customs...

I am extremely thankful for the experiences that I am having while traveling, like seeing Machu Picchu.

More than that, I am constantly in awe of the beauty and greatness of nature around me.

This year I learned so much about myself and life, this would not have been the case if I had not stepped past the fear that held me back so many times in the past.

The past few days I have done a lot of reflecting and analysis of where I am and where I am going with my life. During my reflections I realized a the following:

1. Selfmade Prisons:

We all have judgements and ways of living this life. Everyday we are building a little box of possibilities and limitations around us. Realising that I have created my own little box of limitations, I remembered what I learned at a seminar on changing mindsets.

We are all creatures of habit, every day is made up of some form of acting/reacting in a habitual pattern. All our thoughts about any subject is programmed to go to the most used path, let's use money for example: The first thought can be that "money is difficult to get" or "it's easy to make money". These thoughts are rooted in our beliefs, these beliefs we may have formed unconsicously by agreements we made with the beliefs of others. What helps anchor beliefs even stronger is the emotions attached at the time when the belief is formed.

Using the money example, as a kid you may have wanted an icecream and the person you asked could've said "No, there is not enough money" or "Yes, lets go get some, here is the money." as a kid the emotion is so real and strong that it roots the belief of money instantly.
All our everyday actions and results are because of combinations of the above. So getting out of this selfmade prison is about changing my habitual actions and making the choice to change my life in every moment.

2. The Power of Choice:

Everyday is filled with moments of choice, when you realise that your thoughts and habits are in control, then you are in a powerful moment where a new choice can be made. Future moments will have this new choice as an alternative and if we stick to this choice it will become part of our everyday habits.
When we want to make big changes it is always good to remember that many small choices make it easier.

3. The Discipline Concept:

We have a warped concept of what discipline is, due to the imposed disciplinary systems in society. It should not be something to reject or shy away from.

A good discipline could be keeping a gratitude journal, meditation, walking, creative writing etc.

Discipline,especially personal discipline should be embraced as a powerful tool for change. Creating a new discipline is as easy as making a choice, make sure that this discipline is easy enough to see through daily to create a good habit in your life.

Check out my "Year of change and celebration video" on Dtube

Follow our travels on instagram
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