And that, my friend, is what they call a closure!
- F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Year 2017 has come to an end and the new fresh era of 2018 is starting. Every year in this transition, everyone around the world becomes busy celebrating and partying. Some plan to make the coming year even better and more productive, because for many of us, new year is like a mark to start all over again.

So is the old year really a closure? Yes, for many of us it is. But we do carry the memories, achievements as well as mistakes along with us. As human beings we should never forget what mistakes we have made in order to correct it and never repeat it. So, the best way to start the new year is to take along the things of the past infiltrating only the things essential for you to grow.
A practice that many of us follow is to make new year resolutions. Well, then we try to complete them, succeeding or failing in order to do so. To succeed, try to complete them, one small task at a time and by giving yourself mini-goals. In this way many small things will be accomplished and you will get a self-satisfaction of completing so many targets.

So, a very happy new year to you and share your new year resolutions in the comment section below!

Have you ever imagined a life where you are free to go anywhere, just fly around the world, where you are answerable to nobody, fulfil all your passions or do silly things? Yes, we all have something of that kind in our minds which remains unaccomplished and have no hope that it will be done in the future. The reason being that as we grow, we set limits to ourselves, some of them are put by people associated to us, the rest is put upon by ourselves.

Now, I am going to tell a truth which you probably have not seen by yourself till now. Limits are not real. Yes, you read it right. As I have told you that these boundaries are set by us and other people of the society, so it is an illusion. People blindfold us for many reasons, often for our own safety. People with much experience than us, who are hurt by certain things and know the world, prevent us from going down the same path by setting limits.

The first step to live your life without limits is to be your own boss. Well, this is the hardest part, I believe. Most of us are stuck in responsibilities and jobs to fulfil. But make your ultimate motive to take charge of yourself if you want to set your life free.

We are often bound to stay in limits because of the so called status quo. We think that we have to maintain standards, behave in a certain way, dress in a certain style or smile in a certain way. Thus, we maintain our ‘fake’ self just to appear good in front of others. But the reality is, nobody cares after a certain time, they sometimes do not remember that at all. Hence, do not forget yourself while maintaining your status.

Well, to break your limits, you have to use your imagination and your creativity to the best level you can. Be curious because it is the thing that will make you keep learning. This is the thing which helped us know things and grow mentally since we were kids, so never let it die even as an adult. Imagine the best possible way so as to do other stuff you always dreamt of without much disrupting your current life.

Doing such things need patience. It is not a job of a night to think of a way to get out of our monotonous life and be free. But never let go off hope, keep that alive. Believe in yourself that you can break your limits. Save your precious energy by worrying less and do not stress yourself. It will take time but it will happen if you keep on thinking and doing as you planned.

Many a times we come across with setbacks and failures. These deeply affect our self-confidence. Overcoming the fear after a failure becomes hard for us. However, by making small changes in our life and changing our attitude towards dealing with certain things and situations, we can boost our self-confidence to a great extent. By working on your self-esteem over a period of time, you can really overcome your fear.
It is nearly impossible to give time to your plans about your future, uplift your position and be truly yourself if you have a low self-confidence. So, there are certain things you can do which can enhance your confidence about your own self.

Keep Yourself Well-Groomed

Change the way you dress if it needs to be. Maybe a nice haircut will make you feel nice. Go to shopping and reward yourself with grooming kits. If you feel that you are looking good to others, it will make you more confident and will dramatically change your personality.

Keep your Positivity Alive

Hardships change your vision towards your purpose. Now you may feel low and will want to do nothing towards it. Change this attitude. Life keeps on going and so would you have to. Often you cannot control your thoughts and negativity keeps on flowing in your mind. Try to work harder on it and replace them with positive thoughts. Make small goals to accomplish everyday. Once you start completing small goals, you get the confidence that you are still able to fulfil your purpose.

Know Yourself

When you are struggling with all those negative thoughts, you yourself become your enemy. To fight with your enemy, what do you do first? You try to know them better and better. Hence, in this situation, get to know yourself better. Think deep and meditate if possible. Analyze your strong as well as weak points. Think of your limitations and the possible measures you can take to extend it.

Be Good to Others

Show your kindness and generosity to others. Spread love and be compassionate. Do small and big favors and help as much as possible to those who are in need. Doing such things will make you feel good about yourself. When your self-confidence goes down, you take down your image in front of yourself. Being kind improves your thinking about yourself.

Plan

Your low self-confidence is often a result of failure to achieve something. Start planning new ways to achieve your goal. Get confident in the fact that now you have experience of the journey. So, prepare yourself as much as possible.

We live in a city called life which gives us roads to walk and destination to go. We either succeed in reaching there or we fail. Failure is an invincible thing, you cannot skip it or overpower it. This is a sure thing to come if you have goals to fulfil. Therefore, you must always expect it to come so as to lessen your fear of it. Remember, failure is not that bad, it only proves that you are a human being who tried.

We can fail at many things – sticking to the New Year resolution, overcoming an addiction, completing career goals, getting good grades, relationships, a long list goes on like this. Failure at most of the times induces negativity in us. Our hopes slowly start fading as does our ability to get over it and take the next step. We start blaming us or others because of whom we failed.


Remember, there is an opportunity whether small or big every time you fail and in all of your setbacks. Your perspective of seeing a failure decides if you see that opportunity. If success creates a good leader then failure creates a good guide. If you cannot tell others the right path, you can always tell them which path not to go. Now you know what not to do if you want to succeed the next time. A failure only draws you near success every time it happens. This makes failure a very necessary part of life.

To move on with your life and find positivity, firstly you must admit and accept the failure. Sometimes you become so lost in your purpose that you find it hard to believe that you failed. You think that you tried so hard that it is unacceptable to fail. But your growth starts with accepting that you were unable to succeed in you purpose.

You are not alone who failed. Lots of people in this world who tried to achieve anything failed at least once. You can always find comfort in this fact. You can find lots and lots of examples of such people. Like that if you fail try to be an example.

Even after failure, try not to give up ever. If you are determined in achieving something, you will eventually find a way. Hope should be the only thing in your life that should keep you alive. Just follow you mission and you purpose. Your success is waiting somewhere for you and failures are just roadblocks. It is your choice whether you want to meet it or not.

In life we all need company to keep us occupied and to share our world. Friends are an essential factor in our mental growth. When we are kids they decide what to play, when we are teens they shape our thoughts, when we are adults they become a partner in our actions. In any way they keep us occupied and prevent us from being lonely especially in difficult times. As we grow our choice of friends change. First quantity would be a factor and then later on quality will start making influence in our choices.

Now, we always tend to focus on having good friends, friends who will support us through ups and downs. We are always preoccupied with having friends rather than being one, a good one. If we try to care about being a good person for someone else, just think how the world can change. Instead of keeping expectation from others why not be an example of a good friend.


Remember, a good friend always keeps his or her company motivated. He or she should always be supportive in their friends’ good motives and guide them to choose the right path. People often tend to deviate towards wrong path, and that is where a good friend becomes a strong wall to keep their friend away from going there.

For being a motivational friend you should first focus on being a good person. You should keep your life as positive as possible so that it can have a good influence over people in your lives. People subconsciously notice your behavior and attitude towards various situations of life. Whenever you are in a presence of a friend, keep them inspired through your speech and action.

Be a person on whom your friend can trust and do not be judgmental about your friend. Respect is always earned, show respect to everyone in your friend circle and in return they too will respect you. Be a company with whom your friends can enjoy and talk their heart out. Loyalty matters a lot in friendship, maintain loyalty with your friends, keep their secret a secret if they want it to because there is no remedy of a broken trust.

If you are to be a supportive stem to your friend, learn the art of listening and be patient with it. Try to understand their point of view. After that ask them what help they need and tell them that you are there for them and the extent to which you can help. You should always keep a good communication to make your friends feel that they are being heard.

If you want to have good friends, you should be one first. Help each other to fulfil a good purpose. Use your experience to teach one another in their missions. Keep your friends morally clean, warn them if they are going in any wrong direction. Always keep giving advises and suggestions to be positive in their lives.

In this world, we all have a purpose to fulfil. We have goals and responsibilities. In the midst of everything and doing things to achieve the purpose of our lives we often forget ourselves. And more than that we make us suffer without even sometimes knowing it. We live under stress and pressure and accept it as a way of life. These things lead us to irritation and other negative things.

However to live life in a good way we need positivity to surround us. Positive things and people give us feeling of relaxation. Then we can get going with doing what we have to do in our lives. Here, I am giving you all some tips on how to lead a positive life.

1. Try to stay physically healthy

A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Take care of yourself physically and keep your body fit. Eat healthy diet and take proper rest. You can’t even think properly if you are unable to distract your attention from your sick and unhealthy body. Also a healthy body boosts you confidence and hence induce positivity in you thinking.

2. Read and Listen to Positive Things

Make it your regular habit to read good books which motivates you along with entertaining you. A good book is your best friend. Make the choice of books you read wisely. Take suggestion from your friends, family or colleagues. Books go deep into your mind and induce their message in a sub-conscious way. Hence, read inspiring stories, fictions and biographies.

Along with reading listening also goes deep into your mind and action. Listen to motivational speeches and surround yourself with people who stay positive and also lead a positive life.

3. Give Space to Yourself

Make time for yourself from your busy schedule. Meditation is a good way to spend time with yourself. Introspect and observe things around you. In this way you will find peace and know yourself better. Have a keen observation for the connectivity of body and soul. Develop a spiritual feeling for this. Not only your body and mind contributes you, your spirit also contributed to your positive wellness.

4. Remember to Smile

A good laugh can make your day. If you had a gloomy day, were not able to do pretty much thing and had a feeling of dissatisfaction, remember to smile. I know it is difficult to do so, but your day could have been worse. Smile because you love yourself anyway. Have people around you who make you smile and laugh.

5. Sharpen your Social Skills

Having people around you is good for you. Happiness comes from interaction and fun with people. Improve your communication and social skills to enhance the quality of your life. The good thing with being social is you focus outward instead of inward, thus not focusing on the negativity in your life.

We run our lives by doing actions. We wake up, do our chores, go to our jobs, return, engage in entertaining things, and do all other things we can and what we have to do. But here the question is why we do the things we do. There are various factors which we know in our conscious mind. Also we do many things subconsciously.

We are motivated by various factors, persons, happenings, etc. We keep idols in our lives whom we follow. Even a small event in our day to day lives can inspire us to do something. You can find motivation in a small story shared by your friend, or just a sapling struggling to grow in difficult terrain or from your past experiences. We also do things in answer to an action done by someone else. For example, we express our gratitude in return of a small favor from someone or we laugh at a joke shared by a comedian. In this way, small or big motivations give way to our actions.

Our past and way of life also decide what kind of actions do we do. How are we brought up, our environment and our culture gives a shape to our thoughts and actions. If we follow certain culture, we tend to reciprocate the things taught us by people of the same culture. We notice and we learn them. This process comes naturally to us without any outside effort. We learn from our parents, guardians, siblings and other close family members in the same way.
Along with family, the next most important people whom we are so close to is our peer group – our friends and people of our same age group close to us. We have the tendency to remain as a prominent member in our group and we do things to keep that status or to increase it. Sometimes we do things which are pressurized to us forcibly or simple for not being called ‘cowards’.

During the day we feel and think about matters important to us or simply just because they come in our minds. Thinking changes the way we feel about a subject or a person. Hence, our actions differ for different persons in different situations. Some feelings make us avoid someone. On the other hand some feelings such as love and attraction make us go close to someone.

Hence the answer comes – we do things because of people around us, to answer to any action done to us, in response to feelings associated to a place, person or situation, because of our habits or sometimes without even thinking anything because our mind is a complex one; it is a place where logic and randomness meets.

We face different kind of obstacles in our day to day life. Some of them are the ones for which we are prepared for, some of those are the ones we are not prepared for. Some of them are predictable, some are not. Obstacles are necessary in the path of success as they prepare us for hardships and make us strong. But there are some things that should be kept in mind to deal with obstacles which are mentioned as follows.

Sometimes the real obstacle is you yourself. We sometimes fear that we are unable to achieve anything and thus unable to succeed. This fear makes us paralyzed to make the next step. We do not believe our own ability to succeed. Every obstacle that comes from the
outside world can be hurdled if you believe in yourself. There is no chance to fight the world if you are the one stopping yourself.



The second thing we are afraid of is the obstacle itself. Even before facing anything, we fear the possibility to fail in dealing with any of it. Off course, it is inevitable that you will have to face problems and obstacles, but do not ever let it keep you down and inactive. The only way to go and grow further is to move forward anyway. Obstacles teach you a lot. Hence, instead of fearing it, take it as a challenge. For this, you will have to think of unique and creative ways but if you want something that badly, you will eventually find a way.

Pre-planning and preparing is a good way to tackle obstacles. Use your and others’ experience to make yourself prepared. Expect what is to come because in this way your life will disrupt lesser than what it would have been if you were not prepared. Pay attention to every possible detail and the consequences. The more efficiently you predict, the more confident you are. This eventually makes you a smarter person.

Obstacles vary in their nature. Some are easy and some are not depending on your experience and the ability to deal with them. But not for even a single time, take any obstacle lightly. Underestimating the situation makes it more of a threat to you and the concerned persons. Experience makes you good at a thing but do not let it make you over-confident. Keep your feet on earth and anticipate the situation as far as you can.

So,

Do not worry so much, make yourself disciplined and organized, keep your energy saved and pre-plan for every situation that is to come. Remember to think of the consequences before taking every single step.

Life is full of up and downs. At times happiness surrounds you and at other times you struggle to get out of your hardships like there is no end to it. You feel like choking in the smoke of negativity and slowly losing all your hopes. As you go through this phase, you may be so much saturated with negative thoughts that you may accept the situation as a way of life.

It is a fact that you cannot change what the situations are, but you can change your attitude towards it. By building small bits of positivity around you just like small drops of water builds an ocean, you can cope through the situation and may ultimately find any solution to beat it.

Never let your hope die. This is rather easy to say but hope is the only light in the darkness and mist of negativity and hardships. You cannot let the light go off. Remember that there is no such thing as darkness, it is only the absence of light. Just like that, hope keeps your soul alive.

There will be things in your control and things that will not be. Try to learn the difference. Don’t cry over spilt milk. Do not worry on things which cannot possibly change. These kinds of situation makes a human being think it over and over, making him or her entangled and unable to make some progress. Things may not always turn out to suit your best, but sooner you get over it, the quicker you will be able to take your next step.

Choose your company wisely. Live in the presence of people who lift you up and stay with you in your hard times. A nice and motivating company in these situations can change your attitude towards negativity to a great deal. You feel like you are not alone, because loneliness only makes you worse. Along with nice people, find nice books to read and listen to positive things. When you read uplifting and inspiring articles you feel motivated.

In the road of life you may have done several mistakes. It is all right to do it being a human. But it is the act of a foolish human being to repeat his or her mistakes. Mistakes are for learning, not repeating. Also mistakes give you more lessons than success. Observe yourself and think what to do so as to not get to the wrong path where you previously went. Now that you know the path, tackle the situation differently.

When you struggle, you will find victories, small or big. Celebrate every one of it because you deserve to be rewarded. Celebration cheers and boosts you up, thus making you ready and charged for the journey ahead.

It is known to all that most of the people are working in a job that they somewhat do not like or do not like at all. The unfriendly work environment makes such job even worse. Situations and people like your moody boss, nasty co-workers and bad company policies make your life worse than hell in your workplace.

But if quitting immediately is not your option and you want to go on with your job anyway because you have to grow your career and become financially stable or if you have a family to support, you have to find some ways to be at peace at work.

The best way is to not take things personally. People at your workplace matter only at your workplace; do not involve them or their opinion personally, especially if it is influencing you negatively. You have to fully understand and accept that there are things which you can change and then there are things you cannot. Whenever you feel low, reconnect with the purpose and goal you want to achieve in your life. It is the best motivation when you are feeling negative.

Now, whatever mentioned here is off course easier said than done. Here are some ways which you can follow so as to calm your mind and focus on your goals.

1. Communication

The first way is to communicate. If you are not able to understand something or feeling that you are getting into a misunderstanding, communicate immediately, do not delay. The longer you take, the complex the situation may become. Communication is also necessary to convey your message effectively and let others understand you in a better way. Be as detailed as it needs to be and speak professionally.

2. Stay Away from Drama

Yes, it is necessary to communicate, but not unnecessarily. There may be people at you workplace who love to create dramas and may also want you to involve. Remember, however entertaining these dramatic situations may seem, they always waste your precious time and sometimes energy. These situations may also give you unnecessary mental stress and thus making you unable to focus on your job. So stay away from dramatic people and unnecessary gossips.

3. Find Places to Relief Stress

Find a place or some activity though which you can relax yourself. A cafeteria nearby, a small break, lunch with a friend, a good book or meditation for a few minutes can do the work. Whatever you find relaxing, include it in your daily work schedule.

4. Establish some boundaries

Maintain certain limits for people at the workplace. Learning to say no is the first and foremost necessary. It may seem hard, but it will be worth it. Do not let anyone involve in your personal life unless they are really worth it. The place is full of office politics, so don’t let anyone take advantage of you.

5. Don’t Carry Work at Home

If you have already felt negativity at your workplace, why carry it at home. Home should be a place full of positivity and relaxation, where you can be comfortable. Try not to think and do stuff which you do at work unless very necessary.

Life is not a smooth sail. It goes through sunshines and shadows, hardships and happiness. It has its own twists and turns, sometimes known, sometimes unknown. Sometimes it is predictable, sometimes it is not. Life has unique uncertainties, and that's what makes it beautiful and interesting.

Uncertainties in life test us and our abilities. They make us stronger, stronger for other uncertainties and hardships to come. Both hard as well as merry times are unpredictable. Along with difficulties, life sometimes presents you with happiness as a reward for what you have gone through, and thus energizing you enough to face what's ahead.


But if you are going through one of those 'unpredictable' times, you should always keep these in mind:

Have a Strong Grip on your Willpower

Never, ever let go off your hope and will power. In the hardest times your will keeps you alive and motivated and makes you stay positive about things. Life may make things slip from your hands like sand, but trust your inner self enough that you will make through such situations.

Pain is a very good Motivator

Yes, you heard it right. But only if you accept it. Denial of pain only gives you more of it. But if you make this weakness of yours a strength, nothing better than pain gets you going. And if you make pain your best friend, then nothing else in this whole world can beat you.

Patience is the Key

Remember than winning does not come eventually, it takes time and effort. The more patient you are, the more fruitful is your gain. So, do not get broken if it is taking time.

You are not Alone

Wipe out the words "Why me" from your dictionary. Life tests different persons in different ways. The very truth of life is that is is unfair. Accept that it is so and instead of whining for your hardships, focus on getting a solution and to stay positive.

Accepting the problem changes the nature of the problem. The diamond wouldn't have stood out shining if it weren't pressurized so much.