The Tribune

By MICHELLE MILLER

Aiming to take your life higher isn’t about achieving some external outcome. Actually, it’s more about experiencing a higher level of self-awareness and self-fulfillment. It’s about being fully engaged in the development of a positive outlook for your life.

Where you are focused not only on looking forward to see what you want, but where you take time to reflect on yesterday. You are then better able to divorce yourself from habits and behaviours that counterproductive.

Every journey has a beginning and an intended destination. Your life journey is no exception. However, it is up to you to take the first step by designing the kind of life you want to live.

The first line in the national anthem of the Bahamas admonishes you to “Lift up your head to he rising sun”.

You cannot aim to take your life higher if your head facing the ground. I believe that the anthem of a nation impels the people towards their greatest good.

It certainly does so for me. As such, despite the many challenges that will invariably come your way, you still pledge to excel. Because courage is not the absence of fear, just the realisation that some things are more important than fear.

Taking your life higher is a personal pledge and it has much to do with your willingness to commit. Many believe that “everything is possible”. However, while this may be a motivating adage, the fact of the matter is everything is only possible with commitment.

Fail to invest your commitment and you will not achieve your desired outcome. Your capacity to take your life higher requires a major investment of commitment. This speaks to you being mindful and responsible for the way you expend your time, your attention.

“Pay attention” is a very familiar phrase used by teachers to get students to focus. If students don’t pay attention they miss out on the lesson being shared. Taking your life higher has a price. You must pay attention. In other words, you pay with your attention.

This should clue you into the fact that your attention has incredible value. For this reason you ought to be very discriminate about the way you expend your attention. With the myriad of free media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat and the various talk shows, many find themselves absentmindedly trapped; held hostage by the habit of ceaseless talking, texting and posting. The bulk of which produces nothing. No positive changes. No self-improvements. No life solutions. Yet this habitual time wasting has become a way of life for many.

Wastefully spending the currency of your attention is an unfortunate misstep that cannot empower you to take your life higher. Your time is a gift that must be respected. One thing I know for sure is that time always tells. Time is the great equaliser, levelling the playing field. Everybody gets 24 hours per day. Time reveals exactly what you have been doing or not doing with it. Time always tells.

Take for example an individual who has a habit of misusing alcohol. Without receiving some kind of positive intervention it is only a matter of time before they become an alcoholic.

Similarly, the individual who commits to studying law and doesn’t fall prey to any distracting factors in time becomes a fully qualified attorney.

Time doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t play favourites. It only exposes what you have been doing with it. Perhaps you’ve wasted a lot of your time last year and you desire this year to be better. That’s a great thing. But you cannot experience something better until you become someone better. This means that before you can improve your life you must first improve yourself.

Leader to leader, take time to reevaluate how you spend your time. Once you are ready to commit to improving your life, consider joining my upcoming Life Outlook Goals programme designed to help you set higher goals and redirect your life.

This interactive session will help you better understand who you are and clarify what you really want for your life. Remember that growth must be intentional. Nobody can make you grow; you must choose to grow from the inside out. Aiming to take your life higher is about your personal growth. When you take the time to grow you drive your life forward. In so doing, you take another giant step towards living an empowered life. And yes, you definitely can do it.

What do you think?

Please send your comments to coaching242@yahoo.com or 429-6770.

• Michelle M Miller is a certified life coach, communication and leadership expert. Visit www.talktomichellemiller.com or call 1-888-620-7894; mail can be sent to PO Box CB-13060.