Good morning, happy new year, and happy Monday!
We’re sending you Holiday Cheer
for an Amazing New Year.
May God bless you, your family, and your work!

 

I believe I have found the key to happiness and success and it can be observed first hand in millions of homes and children’s hearts this holiday season. The key is to be like a kid on Christmas morning – Thankful for the gifts you have received and optimistic and excited about the new gifts that are coming your way with 2018.

It starts with being grateful. When you are grateful for the gifts in your life, big and small, you always seem to find more things to be grateful about. That’s why abundance will flow into our life when gratitude flows out of our heart.

We become a gratitude magnet and experience more joy, love, peace, and happiness. (Note: I’m not talking about material gifts. I’m talking about the gifts of the heart.)

But what about my desire for a promotion, a better job, more money, more friends, better health, more success you might ask? Isn’t it important to strive for more? Doesn’t gratitude breed contentment and stagnation? How can I be thankful when I know my life can be so much better?

That’s why it’s important to also be optimistic and excited about the new gifts that are coming your way.
Sure, you are thankful for what you have but you also look forward to more gifts in the future. You believe that your best days are ahead of you, not behind you. When people ask you how things are going you say, “Getting better every day.”
This was something I learned a number of years ago. At the peak of my misery, struggles and failures I realized I had to stop being disappointed about where I was and needed to start looking forward to where I was going. Once I started being thankful for the simple gifts in my life and became excited about the road ahead I experienced a completely different journey.

15 years ago, I looked out into the Canal behind my house on New Year’s Day with fear in my heart and uncertainty in my life. I had been fired, had a broken arm, was pregnant with a toddler, and forced to put my disabled mother in a home in San Ignacio because I couldn’t care for her. We had minimal savings and a relatively new marriage. Talk about stress, we had it. That year I decided that despite all our obstacles I would face the new year with NO FEAR. Regardless of the circumstances I was facing, this would be the year where I would trust and go for it. This would be the year I would be bold in actions and faith. No longer could I do it alone. Now I needed a miracle and I decided to act as if my future depended on me and pray like it depended on God.

At that point I decided I would no longer allow fear to cut off the flow of abundant and positive energy in my life. No longer would I allow fear to paralyze me. Instead of fear I would trust. In that trust I was offered a job at BELTRAIDE by Eamon Courtenay despite the fact that I was pregnant and rejected by many employers, my aunt Martha stepped forwarded and assisted with my mom’s care so that I could bring her home from the Octavia Waight Center to whom I remain forever grateful for the kindness they share to our elderly. To all the angels in my lifetime I remain grateful.

Now, 15 years later, I’m doing something I’ve never done before, exploring Blue Creek Cave in beautiful Punta Gorda on New Year’s Day. It has become my yearly ritual to do a first of something that challenges me to remind myself to follow my passion, live life to the fullest, surrender and to stay one step ahead of the fear that hovers around me.

And as I take my climb into the mountains I want to invite you to climb with me. Perhaps not in a cave but in the depths of your mind. This climb doesn’t necessarily require mountains and a dark cave but rather a leap of faith in your belief system and a shift in your mindset. The antidote to fear is trust and it is only a thought away.

No one is going to push you over the chasm of struggle to the life that you want. God will nudge you, but you must take the leap of limb. You must make this jump in your mind and then with your actions. You must make this jump with trust, determination, and faith.
After all, they don’t call it a leap of fear. They call it a “leap of faith” for a reason.

You will always feel fear. Everyone will. But your trust must be bigger than your fear. The bigger your trust the smaller your fear becomes. And the more you trust the more you become a conduit for miracles. I know. That job came from out of the blue and we were able to pay our mortgage, Octavia Waight that was full had an opening and my aunt stepped in to help. notice the right opportunities came our way and somehow, some way my family and I were carried. That job launched me and Chamberlain Consulting into what it is today with networking, knowledge, information, and education.

When you change your heart and mind you change the direction of your life.

So, what are you thankful for? What is right about your life? Be sincerely grateful. Then think about what your brighter and better future looks like. What do you hope for? Trust it is possible. Get excited.

Maybe 2017 wasn’t a great year for you but I believe the New Year represents a fresh start and presents a new opportunity to create the life and career you want. All you have to do is climb or jump in with all that you are and all that you wish to become. We often think that we’ll get excited about life when we have a life that is exciting, but it works just the opposite.
When we get excited about life, we get a life that is exciting.

In this spirit may you experience amazing gifts this holiday season and may your 2018 bring you even greater gifts than you could imagine.

I wish you an amazing 2018 and I’m sending positive energy your way.

With love,
Dionne Chamberlain Miranda