In order to assure you have a better life, it begins with making better decisions. This worksheet is for women who want to make better decisions by aligning those decisions with your core values. Learn what a value is, how to rank your values, and determine what changes needs to be made to assure your life is a reflection of your values.
So the other day I received an email from someone who was celebrating a monumental success; she had succeeded at something that I failed at tremendously this year. Although I was happy for her, there was a part of me that felt disappointment and then those feelings of envy started to creep in – until I checked my thoughts.
Sometimes it can be difficult to celebrate the success of others when they’re in their season of victory and you’ve been in a season of wilderness, failures and setbacks. Have you ever experienced a time where you’ve tried everything to prosper at your dreams and nothing is working? It seems like the harder you try, the more resistance you experience?
Well, that’s because not every season is your season of victory. There will be times of your life where you’ll have to endure some uncomfortable, faith-stretching, character-testing circumstances. To add insult to injury, it will seem like everyone else around you is winning and feel like God has forgotten about you.
We all go through those seasons and tend to compare our behind-the-scenes to the highlight reel of others in this social media world. In those seasons, you have a choice to continue moving forward or to abort mission.
Although these seasons may be a wilderness that you weren’t expecting, they are always followed by a promised land. After winter, always comes spring. The most excruciating and frequent pains of pregnancy are right before birth. You may be one last push away from receiving all that you’ve prayed, hoped and cried for and that’s why it’s getting harder for you right now. All hell might be trying to break loose in your life and you think that your prosperity and success is still years away, but I’m here to tell you that you’ve come way to far from where you started to abort your mission now.
Something new is on the horizon for you. Until it manifests, wait for it with joy and expectancy. Even if it’s hard, celebrate and support the success of others and be committed to walking in love. How you wait for your Promised Land shows a lot about your character; so carefully choose your attitude. If someone has offended you, forgive them because that lack of forgiveness could be what’s holding you back from experiencing your success.
I have such an overwhelming feeling that 2016 is your “something new” year. God is going to do a new thing in your life and open doors for you that are so blessed that it will be worth every tear you’ve cried. Your finances, family, relationships, businesses and careers will be blessed and restored.
Don’t allow the disappointments of your past to dictate what God can do for your future. You may think about how things didn’t work out before and it will stop you from believing for better. I want you to forget those former things and press on towards what is ahead. Don’t even consider disappointment as an option and believe that 2016 is your “something new and promised land” year!
Leave your wilderness behind and walk into your new season of victory!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
I have some bad news for you. If you haven’t started to plan your 2016 or to work on your 2016 goals, then you’re already behind my dear! But no worries because we’re about to fix that!
One of the greatest keys to success is clarity of vision. If you don’t know what you want, how will you know when you’ve reached it? Better yet, how will you make your plans to achieve it if you don’t know what you want?
Once you determine what you want, you can start to set goals to help you get there. I like to call it my “cause and effect” strategy or simply working backwards. Don’t wait until 2016 to start planning 2016, determine what you want to happen in 2016 and start setting your goals now.
Get specific with your goals. “Gaining weight” is not an effective goal neither is “Getting closer to God” or “Be happy.” Neither of these goals is specific and measurable with deadlines. Your goals must be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Specific.
Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. That’s why it’s vital to set your 2016 goals now, not on January 15th. I set my 2016 goals about a month ago. Once I did that, I set my December goals as action steps to help me accomplish my 2016 goals. Instead of looking behind, press on towards the rewards of your future. You have to be proactive in manifesting your vision for 2016. Vague goals will produce vague results.
Instead of a goal being, “Getting closer to God” change it around to be “I will spend 15 minutes a day in prayer and meditation on God’s word, five times a week.” Or instead of saying “make more money,” change it to “I will get new job making an annual salary of at least $70,000.” The latter goals are more descriptive and it dictates the action that you need to take to accomplish your goal.
Also, start to expect goodness, miracles and favor to come your way for 2016. Expectation sets the atmosphere for a miracle and too many of us have been bamboozled to think negatively or have limited thinking. Limited thinking will breed limited results.
Speak out loud what you want to see happen in 2016. Write out a list of things that you want to see realized in your life and read it out loud daily until you see it happen. Confess it and declare it in faith. You are to walk and live by faith, not by sight. If there’s one thing that I challenge you to do differently, is to change the way you think and speak. Stop focusing on what you can do in your own strength, and start to speak out what God can do for you simply because of His grace. You don’t earn it; you just believe it and receive it.
You’ll get what you expect and you’ll attract what you believe. It’s time to leave the limited thinking and the faithless attitude in 2015. If you’ve been disappointed in 2015, don’t let your disappointment steal your expectation. Without expectation, change will never be made visible in your life.
Last year, I shared this exercise with you and I want you to do it again to help you determine what areas of your life need a little bit more transforming than others for 2016. Below is a photo of “The Wheel of Life” which is broken down into the following areas: career, finance, personal growth, health, family, spirituality, social life, and attitude.
Within each category, there are numbers between 1-10 which are there to help you rate your life in that category; 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. After you rate your life in the corresponding category, you then color into the number you rated the category which is depicted in the wheel above. If there are categories that are low, then it’s time to live with intention and fix it. Why is it low? What do you think you need to learn from this situation? What measures are you going to take to raise that category in 2016? If you have several low ranking categories, then attack one category at a time and start with the easiest one first and move on to the next.
I declare that 2016 is your year of restoration, reconciliation and recompense. This is your year for change and although you’ve been praying for change, it’s time for you to exercise the power and ability living inside of you to create change with your thoughts, words, actions, expectation and attitude.
2016 is your year to become legendary!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
Take a second and reflect on this question: Do you think life is happening to you or are you making life happen for you?
Tough question. Nevertheless, I want you to take a good look at your life, analyze it and determine if you are drifting through life or are you intentionally pursuing the life you want. Are there any hiccups that you’re dealing with? Do you like where you’re at in life? When you made your five-year goals five years ago, is your current life a depiction of those goals manifested?
If all is well then great. If not, then let’s begin doing something to reach that optimal life that you want and deserve.
Have you ever heard of a concept called “drifting?” It’s when you go through life with no exact direction and you allow life to happen to you. It’s living life without intention, purpose and most importantly goals. If you’ve been allowing this to happen to you then this is the time to make some drastic changes. Life is short and we say that all time but it really is. You are not promised tomorrow or next year. What you have is this very moment and it’s time to take full advantage of every moment you have. The fact that you are breathing and reading this indicate that you have the power living inside of you to create your optimal life.
I don’t know why we’ve been led to believe that we have to settle for average or just good enough. Whatever happened to striving towards excellence and being extraordinary? There is an insurmountable power in living life with intention, purpose and being clear on the “why” you are doing something as opposed to allowing life to happen to you – which sometimes is an indication of feeling as though we are not worth more. My love, yes you are!!! You were created with a purpose and you have a legacy to live.
Have you taken the time to not only set your 1-year, 5-year and 10-year goals, but also take the necessary measures to accomplish those goals? Are you setting you goals but then that’s as far is it goes – set goals? Are you leading your life to it’s optimal place?
You are the leader of your life, not what circumstances come your way. You have the power to set goals AND see them through. And, I want to help you.
Below is an exercise I want to share with you to help you determine what areas of your life need a little bit more transforming than others. It’s called “The Wheel of Life” which is broken down into the following areas: career, finance, personal growth, health, family, spirituality, social life, and attitude.
My loves, it’s time to live our lives with intention and purpose so we can fully embrace our legacies. You have the power living within you to take your life from average to optimal. The choice is yours.
There are probably parts of your past that you would want to keep a secret forever in fear of judgment or rejection. It can be easier to forgive someone else but a lot harder to forgive ourselves of mistakes, right?
Mistakes can be brutally painful which can lead to feelings of resentment, regret and even bitterness. But you are NOT defined by your past or current mistakes and instead of getting bitter, get better.
Lies will try to convince you that you’re never going to change or that because of past or current disappointments that you’ll never succeed. But those are all lies.
If you’re still breathing, then that means that God still has a plan for you. And that mess that you’re currently in or the one you keep dwelling on from your past will be transformed into your message.
A righteous person may fall down seven times but gets back up again. It’s in those mistakes that often lay the precious jewels of wisdom that life can offer. What defines you is how you choose to respond to the lesson that you learned in your failure.
It’s been said that experience is the best teacher and that’s because once you go through an experience that teaches you a valuable lesson, you will gain an understanding that no one can take away from you. That’s the hidden beauty in making mistakes.
Also, a mistake may be a part of God’s overall plan for your life. He’s the great architect so He already knew the decisions you would make and with His power and infinite wisdom, He still ordered your steps to experience the wonderful destiny and plans He already predestined for you.
You are NOT your mistakes, you are NOT your pitfalls and you are NOT defined by your current or past circumstances. It took me a few years to understand that nothing that happens to me defines me and that’s a lesson that I’m sharing with you. Often it’s in your pain that you will discover your purpose.
If you keep making the same mistake, then perhaps you haven’t learned the lesson that you need to learn in order to qualify getting to the next level in your life. Maybe there needs to be a change but you keep missing it. It’s time to discern what lesson it is that you’re to learn.
Your lesson may be to learn to manage your emotions, or to change your attitude, or to learn to depend on God instead of allowing your ego to “edge God out.” Whatever the lesson is that you’re supposed to learn, embrace the wisdom, get back up again and begin to apply that new understanding to your life.
The key to overcoming your mistakes is rooted in your relationship with yourself. Stop being so hard on yourself and make a commitment to have a healthy, positive and secure relationship with you. You are not perfect, none of us are and none of us ever will be. That’s not an excuse to be lazy in your growth as woman but it’s time to release those shackles of “perfection” imprisonment.
Don’t be afraid to pray for wisdom either. Instead of jumping head first into your decisions, ask God for guidance so that you don’t make the same mistake as before. And if you don’t have peace about it, then don’t do it. I’m at point in my life where I will not move on anything if I don’t feel like its God’s best for me. But it took me years of making the same mistakes to arrive to this point.
That wisdom you gain from your mistakes will help you inspire someone else in the future. Don’t have a limited view on your experience because you never know how it will benefit someone else because it usually does.
So shut down the RSVP’s to your pity party, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get back up again, even if it’s for the 99th time!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
This is our BOLDEST class yet! For any of you ladies, who’ve been teetering on the line of quitting your day job to pursue your dreams then this is THE class for you!
I know what that fear and uncertainty can feel like. It was about four years ago when I was completely miserable at my “dream job” at a major record label working where I was paralyzed by the fear of rejection, failure and of the unknown. But my love for myself, my purpose, my dreams and my faith trumped my fears and after years of misery, I made the best decision of my life by choosing courage over comfort to pursue my purpose as not only an entrepreneur but now author, speaker and women empowerment advocate.
I didn’t start my journey with an elaborate plan, but more of elaborate faith. Embrace Her Legacy started as me having small, networking events for women and now I’ve grown to become an author of Take the Limits Off Your Legacy: A Woman’s Guide to Unlock Purpose and Vision, executive producer and creator of empowerment programs and personal development resources for women and girls all over the world! Embrace Her Legacy’s mission is to empower you to become legendary in vision, purpose, spirit and of course – legacy!
I know it can be intimidating to choose the path of the unknown but you have to create the life you desire, not one that you’ve settled for. This class is going to teach you how to do that. I’m going to be candid and clear with you on what to expect on your journey and I’m going to give you the tools and resources that you’ll need to succeed in your after “9 to 5” life!
If you’re still on the fence about making that leap of faith, take the time to ask yourself what does your ideal life look like? Better yet, ask yourself, what story do I want my life to tell – 30 or 40 years from now what do you want to be able to share with your children and grandchildren about your life. Do you want to have a story of courage or comfort? You can choose courage or comfort, but you can’t have both.
No one prepared me for the journey so I want you to be fully prepared of what to expect and learn from my mistakes. I want you to be clear on what it is that you want to accomplish, clarity is one of the pertinent keys to success and if you have no plan, then you plan to fail. Don’t worry because I’ll show you how to create your winning plan so that you succeed in your life of purpose.
It’s OK to admit that you want more than just a job, but you want to live in your purpose. It’s OK to desire flexibility in your schedule to spend more time with those that matter, it OK to want to be in control of your destiny instead of waiting every other Friday for your paycheck. It’s OK to desire a life that fulfills you and I’m going to show you how to make it happen.
What You’ll Learn:
This is a 2-hour audio class which you can listen to at your leisure. It’s filled with information and inspiration to help you thrive in your after 9-to-5 life. Make sure you get your notebook and pen ready to take notes!
*Please note that this is a 2-part class, make sure to download both parts of the class. There are no-refunds for this class. Download the class below!
