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Feature Article What's On Your Shift List? Author: Keith Varnum The most happy and successful people on earth have a personal Shift List. They probably don't call it by that name, but they have one. How do I know? Because these folks are enjoying their journey on our challenging planet! A Shift List is simply a list of activities and attitudes that have the power to shift you from feeling blue to feeling new. Your Shift List is any way you devise to remind yourself of the actions that have the power to transform your mood and put you back on a roll. Your reminders might be a formal written list or journal, a set of well-placed post-its or notes, pictures or photos, cartoons or symbols, poems or songs-or a phone or email "shift" partner. When your aliveness begins to fade, you can consult your "list" to trigger actions that will get you back on track and into the Zone! Here are some possibilities for your Shift List: Shift Your Attitude On average, a person has 60,000 separate thoughts a day. Every thought you have either makes you stronger or weaker. Thoughts of kindness, forgiveness and peace are strengthening. Focusing on anger, anxiety, and worry weakens you. If you keep your creating attention on the outlook that the universe is plentiful and providing, you'll attract abundance and support. If you dwell on the view that you're being short-changed and nothing ever goes right, you'll experience a world of scarcity and struggle. Focus on what's right about you or other people, instead of what's wrong. See what's working in your life rather than what's messed up. Shift Your Activity Devote your free time to ventures that enrich your enjoyment of life. Pursue activities that make you feel fantastic and blissed out. Begin each day with the projects that are the most exciting to you, not the chores you think you should get done. Schedule "personal aliveness time" in your calendar. Treat yourself to a full day at the spa or a relaxing ride in the country. Explore a new part of town. Indulge in your favorite food. Eat some new delight. Go on a fun date with yourself. The rest of your life will get a big boost and you'll find that you are effortlessly getting necessary tasks accomplished. Shift Your Approach Life is too short to work so hard at pursuits that aren't really fulfilling! You can either live your life regretting all the roads left unexplored, or you can start living the life you really want. Write your dreams down on paper to give them concrete form and power. You now have an energized blueprint of what you want and this gives your subconscious a clear signal for what to attract. To add even more voltage to your goals, visualize how you would like each day to go. Shift from thinking of yourself as a victim to realizing you can be the source, cause, creator, of what happens to you. Shift Your Focus Put your Self first. Choose to live life on your terms, not someone else's. Define success for yourself. What would it look like and feel like? Write down what success means for you. Use these answers as your barometer. Make your priority whatever is most important to you-God, family, friends, passion, art, your life purpose. You'll find that decisions come more easily, and you'll activate more support, love, money and magic in your life. Shift Your Intake We're strongly influenced by the people, thoughts and atmosphere around us. We absorb the energy of what we allow into our space. Hang with people who have the same life focus as you. Cut short draining conversations. Give extra time to interactions that are exhilarating. Switch to more inspirational reading that activates the best aspects of your character. Shift Your Outflow Get rid of energy drains. Resolve any issues that you have been brooding about for a long time. Bury the hatchet with friends and relatives. Praise people rather than criticize. Detach from the need to be right-and from the habit of judging or controlling others. Catch yourself verbalizing self-defeating thoughts. Stop labeling yourself while you're at it! Shift Your Space Clutter: The Silent Energy Sucker! Clutter has a real physical effect on your energy levels. You don't need to clean out your garage or closet all at once. Just take 15 minutes a day to de-clutter some aspect of your space. Get rid of old, dead things you don't use anymore. Add new, fresh elements to your life. Feng-shui all areas of your earth adventure. What's on the outside is a reflection of what's on the inside. What about outdated relationships? Activities that no longer thrill you? Habits which have ceased to serve a purpose? Shift Your Environment Get outside. Connect with nature and open spaces. Even in a city you can find a park and some greenery. Breathe in the fresh air and stretch your legs. Lie on your back, clear your mind and follow the clouds drifting by. Listen to the grass grow. Watch flowers bloom! Shift Your Body Move your body as much and as often as you can all day. Active, physical movement will center, balance, ground and revitalize you. The more you participate in life, the more life-in the form of love, money and health-will flow through you. Hike, jog, skip, swim, garden, cook, sing, skydive, quilt or paint. Let your body dance you. Play music that speaks to your soul. Shift Your Vibration Spend part of each day in silence so that you can hear Spirit speak to you. This can be an active meditation-like yoga, tai-chi, walking, running, knitting, or petting an animal-as well as a quiet sitting mediation. Shift Your Pace Most of us feel like we are victims to time-when in reality we control how we use our time. Slow down. Rushing has become a way of life for most of us. Gear down your walk. Slow down your speech. Take a moment to breathe. Set the tempo so that you can enjoy doing whatever you're doing.You will see dramatic positive results. Shift Your Age Play on the ground like a baby. Fly a kite, roll in the grass, or build a fort like a kid. Laugh with delight for no reason like a child. Dance all night like a teenager. Sit on a mountaintop like an old sage. Shift Your Style Under promise and over deliver. Give yourself more time to complete a project than you feel you'll need-and deliver it early! Learn to say no when an activity isn't intuitively right for you. Focus on thriving, not just surviving. Your days will not feel as frantic. You'll feel more fulfilled and happy! ©2004, Keith Varnum. All rights in all media reserved. About the Author Drawing from the wisdom of native and ancient spiritual traditions, Keith Varnum shares his 30 years of practical success as an author, personal coach, acupuncturist, filmmaker, radio host, restaurateur, vision quest guide and international seminar leader with "The Dream Workshops." Keith helps people get the love, money and health they want with his free Prosperity Ezine, free Empowerment Tape and free Coaching at www.TheDream.com. ... Subscribe to our Poetry newsletter! Your email:

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