From Accidental to Intentional Growth

by Illens Dort | May 18, 2019 | Life Spark Mentoring

Change from Accidental to Intentional Growth

How do you know if you’ve slipped into a rut? Take a look at the differences between accidental growth and intentional growth:

How do you score your growth pattern? Find one or two area where you need to make the transition from accidental growth to intentional growth and make the decision today to overcome that weakness. Work on it until it becomes a strength. If you start today, you know that you are on your way to overcome the procrastination weakness.

Avoid Distraction While You Are on Your Growth Journey

by Illens Dort | May 14, 2019 | Life Spark Mentoring

Distraction: It is from Latin distractionem—taking the mind away from one point or course to another. Another definition is “A thing that keeps someone from concentrating on another thing.” Distractions happen so frequently that we sometime don’t pay attention to them. Athletes and other professionals have learned the importance of staying focused on the task at hands. The mind does not multi tasks very well. A lot of productive hours are wasted because of distractions at work.

Here are some examples of distractions that you need to be aware of:

This one happens to me too often. I open my emails to either read new emails or send emails. I look at the unread emails and start deleting them. Emptying my mail box is not bad thing to do. But when I do it when I am supposed to do a task that was scheduled (or a task that had a higher priority), I allow that activity to distract me.

Social media: How can social media be a distraction?

TV: How can watching TV be a distraction?

Chat: How can that be a distraction?

The list of distractions can go on and on. I challenge you this week to pay attention to the distractions in your lives. When you assign a time to a task, stick to the assignment. It is easy to do fun things in the place of the things you have to do.

Time is a currency of exchange and growth. It is given to all of us equally. We can either spend it or invest it. Time spent does not pay dividends. Time invested pays dividends and compounds. Getting distracted in doing fun things or things we did not assign time to is a great way to spend time. Being disciplined and remaining focused on the task before us is a great way to invest our time.

As you catch yourself in the distraction mode, be strong and realign yourself. Growth is not automatic. Neither is success.

Growing Pain and Growing Joy

by Illens Dort | May 12, 2019 | Life Spark Mentoring

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers who are reading this post this day. As I was contemplating the topic for this post, it came to my mind the reminder that all mothers have experienced some growing pains and some growing joys. At least at one moment in their lives—during labor—they experience the pain and the joy within a short amount of time – even within few hours; the pain that comes with the preparation of the body for delivery and the joy of being delivered and welcoming that precious child.

When you are growing you may experience some pains before you experience some joys. When I first attended my core fitness class, I experienced a lot of pains. It’s has been many decades since I worked on my core. I did not even know that I could do these exercises to strengthen my core. Every move was painful and hard. They still continue to be hard for me. The instructor seemed to be having a lot of fun.

With passing of time and after taking several moments to reflect and evaluate my life I have learned 3 attributes that one must constantly be focusing one when taking a growth journey. These attributes are resiliency, humility, and gratitude.

Resiliency: You must be resilient during the growing process because at time you will experience setbacks and failures. You have to be ready to bounce back. A lady who had participated in multiple Paralympics and who had won silver in one of them said “that the difference between the lady who won gold and her and the rest was not the fact that lady did not fall during her runs. The difference was that in how fast she got up after a fall.”  Being resilient will help you stay the course despite the difficulties you may face.

Humility: Be humble during moments of bountiful so you can be resilient during times of trials. Humility will keep you grounded. It will also give you the strength you need to move toward the next phase of the journey. Too many people start celebrating their victory before they cross the finish line. Remember in growing, there is no finish line. There are only milestones. You can rejoice and celebrate each milestone. But do it with a grateful heart. And after that, get moving.

Gratitude: A grateful heart is a heart that is always growing. Our heart enjoys every single breath it takes. For that breath gives it life. Be grateful that you can grow. Be grateful during the growing pain and the growing joy.

Cultivating these attributes daily will help keep your heart and mind focus on the journey and the goal. I am so grateful and humble that I can walk with you on this growth journey. Having you by my side helps me to be more resilient.

The Law of Awareness

by Illens Dort | May 11, 2019 | Life Spark Mentoring

You must know yourself to grow yourself

“No one can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.” James Russell Lowell

There are only three kinds of people when it comes to having direction in life:

1. People who don’t know what they would like to do
2. People who know what they would like to do but don’t do it
3. People who know what they would like to do and do it. These people are fulfilled

“Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess.” Samuel Johnson

I have researching these 2 questions and interviewing people in all walks of life. These questions seem to be simple at first. But one tries to answer them, one quickly discover that they are not easy. And yet we all, at one point in our lives, had the answer to these questions. Over time the memory of some people faded away as they spent time looking in the mirror with the hope they will see something else.

To appreciate the beauty of this creation and the place of humanity in it, one must answer these questions. To achieve our full potential, we must know and appreciate the power of the seed of greatness that we are born with.

Here are the questions: What is the purpose of life? What is your purpose in this life?

The Law of the Mirror

by Illens Dort | May 10, 2019 | Life Spark Mentoring

You must see value in yourself to add value to yourself.

“Being true to yourself and your values is a tremendous self-esteem builder. Every time you take action that builds your character, you become stronger as a person-the harder the task, the greater the character builder. You can actually “act yourself” into feeling good about yourself, because positive character expands into every area of your life, giving you confidence and positive feelings about everything you do.” JCM