It’s easy to see how much others have accomplished in a week, month, year, or decade—to see projects they’ve started and completed; to see how much they’ve grown.

Yet, it’s often difficult for us to see how much we’veaccomplished in our ownlives. We get so caught up in our to-dos and the daily grind that we forget to slow down just long enough to honor ourselves for how far we’ve come.

So, I ask you to stop for just a moment right now and think about just how powerful you are. Take stock in the challenges you’ve overcome in the last week, month, year. Observe where you were a year ago, versus where you are right now. What has changed? How have you evolved?

YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU HAVE

Now that you’ve thoughtabout all of the things you’ve accomplished over the past year, I invite you to go through your calendar and take a closer look. We get much more done than we think we do, and looking at your calendar is a great reminder of the small things you may have forgotten about.

Make a list of all of your accomplishments big and small—creating a visual helps solidify just how powerful, strong, and capable you really are.

Here’s a snippet of my list so far this week: designed a website, started a second web design, written 15 blog posts, posted to Instagram and Facebook on two separate accounts, did two portrait sessions, edited those shoots (which takes hours), booked two more portrait sessions, worked on my quantum light coaching certification classes, meditated, journaled, read a book, cleaned the house, did laundry, shoveled snow, went grocery shopping, walked the dog, yoga, running, and more.

We don’t even realize how much we accomplish in a day, let alone in a week, month, or year. We forget just how powerful we really are.

Even if you’re going through a tough time, you’re still moving forward. You may not be moving as quickly as you’d like to be, but you’re still moving forward.

As I think back to two years ago while in the depths of depression—during my dark night of the soul—ridden with fatigue heavier than I had ever felt before, struggling with the negative thoughts that filled my head, in a body that felt dense and weak in comparison to years prior, and suffering from migraines five times per week, I was still capable of running a business, doing research on self-development, digging deep into the cause of depression, and applying what I was learning.

I was hard on myself as I watched people move faster than me. I would grieve for the person I had become and compare myself to who I was before—the vibrant, physically strong, energetic, fearless woman that didn’t let fear hold her back—which ultimately made me feel worse.

Until one day I realized that I still am that fearless woman because I didn’t let depression take my life completely. While it may have slowed me down, it did not stop me in my tracks. I went into gratitude for things I already have. And I continuously looked at the things I was accomplishing each day, week, and month as a reminder that I hadn’t given up.

If you have time, go a step further and look back throughout your entire life and write down all that you’ve accomplished. All of it! All of the big and small accomplishments. We’ve really done a lot, right? Granted, not all of us have the drive that Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Oprah have, but we’ve done a lot, right?

We’ve built beautiful lives. We’ve graduated from high school, gone on to college or tech college, started a business, got our dream job, got married, had kids, bought a house, moved out of state, made new friends, and more. That ALL takes courage, right?

And you’ve stepped into each of those chapters with faith. You had no idea what you were doing or what the outcome would be, right? You prepare as much as possible, learn as you go, and figure it out.

And even with all the preparation in the world, sometimes nothinggoes as expected and then you quickly shift and change to make things work. We really are intelligent creatures and we really do have a lot of power within us.

So take a moment and honor yourself for all of the times you’ve stepped into the unknown, celebrate every single win, and celebrate every failure. Failures are accomplishments in and of themselves. Failures are training sessions along the journey to success.

Honor yourself for everythingyou’ve done. Take a breath and sit in silence for a moment. Say a little prayer. Thank yourself for being so strong, smart, gifted, and kind. Remind yourself that everything you do is not only for yourself, but everyone around you.

IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE OF THIS INNER KNOWING AND TENACITY TO LEVEL UP IN LIFE

What are you going to need to have in place as you move forward? What are you awake to in this moment that is a gift? What steps do you need to take to move toward your visualized dream life? What do you need to shift in order to give yourself space? How do you need to act? How do you need to show up?

By answering these questions, you’re shifting your mindset. Honoring yourself for your accomplishments, inner strength, character, and gifts that only you have, and then thinking about who you need to be from here on to move into your visualized dream life, will change the way your brain and body respond in the current moment.

It’ll help simplify your goals and move into action instead of paralysis. You’re simply bringing positive thoughts about yourself to the forefront (reminding yourself who you really are), in order to use your best attributes as your strengths, to show up as your high-self each day, to continue taking one step at a time toward living your dream life.

YOU MUST TAKE ACTION!

What’s the smallest move you can make right now to shift into your dream life? You can do something today, right now. It doesn’t matter what it is, or how small it is.

IF YOU WANT TO START SOMETHING NEW, LEVEL UP, OR MAKE A BIG CHANGE, IT STARTS WITH ONE SMALL ACTION.

For example, let’s say you work in an office but you desire to start a business (you can apply this example to anything—to exercise, health, or changing jobs). Ask yourself, “What’s the smallest step I can take today that will move me in the direction of entrepreneurship?”

You can do a Google search during your lunch break and learn about how to get a business license. That’s one small step. After work that day, or during your lunch break the following day, you can take another small step and apply for a business license.

Now you’re one step closer to living your dream life. Not only that, you’ve just shifted the cells in your body to believe that you want this. You’re going to receive more intuitive thoughts and ideas on next steps to take, then take action.

Keep taking one small step each day. Build momentum. Eventually, you’ll become unstoppable. You’ll feel pulled by a force outside of yourself to keep moving in that direction and it will feel effortless.

THOUGHTS + ACTIONS = NEW HABITS = DREAM LIFE

When you show up each day and act in alignment with who you want to become, the Universe/God responds. The Universe is like, “Oh, she means business! She really wants this! Let’s help her out and make it happen for her!”

And that’s when serendipitous things begin to happen. You’ll run into people who can help you, new and creative ideas will come to you, you’ll be open and receptive to messages, you’ll break old limiting beliefs, and you’ll build new patterns.

This doesn’t mean you won’t have moments of doubt, you’ll ALWAYS feel the complete range of emotions—no matter how enlightened you are. It’s completely normal to feel the bad with the good, the positive with the negative. We’re living in duality as human beings who feel emotions.

Feel the emotions, honor them, understand where they’re coming from, and then let them go. Don’t let negative emotions and feelings guide your actions or inaction.

STAY IN GRATITUDE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Appreciation and gratitude are two of the most powerful emotions you can have with the highest energy frequency there is.

Gratitude will raise your energy no matter what level you’re at; if you’re at the top of your game, or in full depression, gratitude and appreciation will raise your energy and give you that needed boost of momentum to take another step forward.

You have so much to be thankful for. You have a roof over your head, you have air to breathe, you have food in the refrigerator; there’s always something to be grateful for. Even if you have nothing at all or everything money can buy, you still have something to be grateful for.

Being in appreciation and gratitude not only raises your frequency, but it’s also a good reminder that you already have everything you need, and everything within you to get to where you want to go. It’s a good reminder of who you are at the soul level.

GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GO AFTER WHAT YOU WANT NO MATTER WHAT IT IS.

Take the risk. Take the leap. Bring everybody with you. Dandapani uses an example of when he joined the monastery. And I paraphrase. He said to his mentor that he felt he was being selfish because he left his family behind to do this work. His mentor laid a Kleenex on the table in from of them and said, “Let’s pretend this Kleenex represents you and your family. You’re here in the middle and each family member is a corner of the Kleenex.” He then lifted up the Kleenex from the center as he said, “When you lift yourself up, you automatically bring everyone with you.”

It was an excellent visual as to what happens when we shift ourselvesfrom the inside. Studies show that when your frequency is high in appreciation and gratitude you’re affecting 750,000 people around you.

You’re not being selfish for taking care of yourself or going after your dreams. You’re creating the best version of YOU and bringing everyone along with you. Imagine how different your life would be if you lived up to your full potential and your whole family lived up to their potential. Your life would be completely different.

I often hear people say, “I can’t do this because of that.” “I can’t start a business because it would take time away from my family.” “I can’t travel because of my kids.”

Bring your kids with you on your journey. Bring your friends with you. Bring your community with you. You’re not doing anyone any good by holding yourself back.

If you were to fully communicate your dreams of starting a business to your family and explain how it would change their lives for the better, your family would come together as a team to help out. Your kids would see you work hard and overcome challenges and obstacles which would give them permission to do the same.

I see families traveling together all the time with kids of different ages. Imagine how much your kids would learn about the world and themselves if you were to take them to another country—even to another city.

These are just a few examples, I could go on and on.

What it comes down to is this, change feels hard at first at first because you’re changing your rebuilding cells in your body—releasing the old and in with the new—you’re building new neuropathways in your brain, you’re bringing something new into your life, but it gets easier.

Any time you start something new it’s awkward at first, right? Until you get in the groove, and then it just kind of becomes your new normal, right?

Work through it. Give yourself space and grace to work out the kinks. Challenge yourself, but be kind to yourself.

And know that the path is not a straight line upward without struggle, but a squiggly curvy mixed up path that requires bumps, bruises, and failures along the way. You’ll take one step forward and three steps back, ten steps forward and four steps back, and that’s just how it goes.

It isn’t easier for anyone. No one has something that you don’t.

It’s a process. Keep your head in the game and go at your own pace. Don’t compare yourself to anyone. Have patience beautiful.

Enjoy the journey for the destination is always changing.

The only thing standing in your way is you. Change your thoughts, step into action, build new habits, and live into your dream life.

Live light. Be free. Always stay young at heart.