Thea Westra

www.forwardstepsblog.com

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Positive Life Lessons And Self Improvement Expert

Thea Westra

Thea Westra Quick Facts

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Positive Life Lessons and Self Improvement
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personal development author at Forward Steps

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Hi! I’m Thea Westra, the author of Time For My Life: 365 Stepping Stones and creator of the 365 Forward Steps Notes.

I live in Perth, Western Australia with my husband Greg.

My age is late fifties, however I only ever publish this photo of me taken at age 49. It has now become a kind of recognizable logo, so I’ll not be changing that.

By sharing positive, thought-provoking content, my aim is to help you discover and step closer towards, what you really want.

My mission is to add wings to each of our unique life jou eys.

Here’s a little about my background…

Born on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, I spent my childhood in Holland, and eventually moved to Australia, where I now live and publish lots of positive, upbeat content to empower people to do what I did…

Like most people, I lead a “typical” life that included studying hard in school, working as a teacher for 23 years, socializing with friends and dating, and buying my own house.

At the age of 41, however, I came to a stark realization that I was living a life which seemed like it had been designed FOR me and not wholly BY me. Can you relate?

Most of us have dreams in life to do great things, but those dreams get put aside as we deal with the daily chores of everyday life. I’m here to tell you that you can create the life you want—you can choose where and how to live a life that’s fulfilling to you! I know this to be true, because I did it, and you can too.

In my early 40s, I did something most people wish they could do—I quit my job, sold my home, and moved across the country on my own. The one questio I wanted to answer—I needed to answer—was this: “Who am I without the house, the career, and the labels bestowed by society?”

One of the greatest realizations I learned on my personal journey is this—there are thousands of possible ways to experience our life and we really do get to pick! Was I going to just let life play out anyway it wanted to, or was I going to start making my own dreams reality?

Taking action, I decided to try out the notion of living any life I chose without the chains of a mortgage and a secure career shackling me. What I wanted for the rest of my life had to be tested.

Before You Read On… Collect Your FREE “179 Forward Steps” eBook HERE

Shortly after moving to Perth, Western Australia, I met Greg, who is now my husband. Sharing life with Greg has definitely been a real, positive change in my life. Meanwhile, I started painting, managing a gallery space, and even selling my own paintings for a good price. While I enjoyed painting, the challenge of managing 150 artists and organizing regular exhibitions at the gallery became a little less fun for me. So, I decided to set up my own solo business.

Throughout my lifetime, people would often approach me for advice when they felt a bit stuck in their lives. I had always had an interest in self-improvement information and reading “how to” books and articles related to personal transformation, in addition to participating in many years of personal growth training programs.

My knowledge and experience of helping others with their lives turned into a new career. I became a life coach and built my own business using the power of the internet to connect with many people around the world.

Proving that you’re never too old to learn something new, I started writing a blog, delivering a newsletter online, and designing websites in an effort to present ideas and inspiration to empower people.

By sharing positive, thought-provoking content, my aim is to help people like you discover and move toward what you really want, rather than feeling stuck, trapped or in a rut.

The reaso I call my main website “Forward Steps” is because I believe that we can choose to make our vision tangibly real by taking consistent action and by taking incremental forward steps towards our desired direction. A favorite saying of mine is this: “Whatever you focus on WILL expand”.

In order to grow, expand and develop as people, we need to challenge ourselves, even just a little each day, and open up fresh perspectives on life. New experiences are vital to life. A shift in our habits can literally transform our lives.

I wanted to be able to find a place on the internet where I’d get daily inspiration, yet was never satisfied with what I found. So, I created my own powerful content to “power up my thinking” on a daily basis and give myself specific actions to take on days I might feel a bit directionless.

That content is something I share with you through email, online posts, articles, and books. I like to get people thinking about their life, offering them life power tips (short, simple messages with a focus point), as well as questions, affirmations, quotations, challenges and actions to take.

I realize that I don’t have “all the answers” to life and I am certainly no ‘guru’. Therefore, I’m pleased to simply share online resources where we can explore motivational messages, recommended books, movie/video suggestions, inspiring music and humorous stuff for a laugh.

Namasté,
Thea

P.S. If you have any questions or comments, just reply to any Forward Steps email you receive from me and let me know your thoughts. I read and answer all my emails personally.

Connect with me at a few of the following social profiles:

Join me on Facebook
Connect with me on Twitter
Get in touch at Google+
Check my profile in LinkedIn
Watch my videos on YouTube
Enjoy my images at Pinterest
Visit my Forward Steps Blog

Free Articles & Book Excerpts

Free Audio & Video Samples

Thea Westra Audio & Video Programs

Thea Westra Books

Articles by this expert

SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.

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If like attracts like, then what do you see surrounding you at this time? Someone once said to me, if you want to know to what you're committed, just take a look around you. They are words I have never forgotten, and they can raise my spirit, or other times can leave me a little flat. Depending on how I interpret my surroundings in the moment.

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1. All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible. This is something I often repeat, however I cannot stress highly enough the need to know what you want, and to define a singular, overriding goal for your life. We do not need to know how we will accomplish that, we just need to be mindful that the things we do, move forward this singular purpose. 2.

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Remember, that this is only a short segment of each year and much of it is "driven" by media advertising hype or our wanting to keep up "appearances". Keep it in perspective. Mentally sketch a clear portrait of what a "great" festive season would look like for you. Once you are crystal clear about what you want, then start planning plus, practice in a mirror saying "no" to the suggestions/invitations from others that do not fit your picture! Discard the preconceived ideas of what this time of year "should" be like.

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1. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. There is nothing more satisfying than that sense of being completely "at home" in your own skin. When you achieve that as a natural state of "being", then you can finally look beyond yourself and fully contribute all your talents to the world. 2. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. So many look to eradicate fear from their lives, when that is an impossible task.

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The power of the mind to influence the body is quite remarkable. Imagery can be helpful in 90 percent of the problems that people bring to their doctors or counselors. Images are the most fundamental language we have. Everything you do, the mind processes through images. When we recall events from our past, it is hardly ever through words. Images may not be limited to visual. We can include sounds, tastes, smells or a combination of those sensations.

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I heard that line - dream beyond the common order of things - in an advertisement for tea, of all places. Yet the words jumped out at me like a vivid memory. I know that I have had many times in my life when I have created things bigger tha I thought I knew how to achieve, and personally produced results that even left me in a state of bewilderment about what was possible for my life. Have you ever experienced those moments? They are well worth revisiting and building on. They are your key to producing such results again, if you still have some more big dreams to accomplish.

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Avoid being road-kill on this super charged super highway called life in the 21st century. There is an increase in the amount of information and activity that bombards us on a daily basis and there is no sign of a slow down. In fact, we can feel its exponential growth. It is time to take charge of our lives again and do it in a way that does not add to the current of overwhelm. Get a crystal clear view of where you want to take your life. Know which activities move you toward your end goals and which ones actually side track you.

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Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed or rushed, check-in with your personal perception and experience of ‘reality’. It might be useful to remember that our calendars and clocks are man-made; therefore these can also be ‘man-unmade’. The fact is, our globe moves around the sun and tilts on its axis to give us light or dark moments, depending where we are on the globe. Who has put the pressure on you? What are you thinking that has put you in that state?

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Here are a few of my daily habits that have contributed to my success: Read, read, read! I could not begin to tell you how many personal development books, articles, blogs and sites that I have read. I love to keep up with the latest. Information being disseminated is prolific and the personal growth 'conversation' is growing exponentially. Stay in communication. Each day I am connected with others who are in the personal growth world. We find things out from each other and share each others' experiences.

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I have often heard it said that, "The Universe loves speed" and this of course includes, the speed of your own personal vibration. How the world responds to you and therefore the results that you produce, are reliant on the vibrational energy that you put out. You have likely observed it yourself, many times. One person can walk into a room full of people and everyone turns and notices.

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Write a list of your 101 personal accomplishments and 101 personal achievements for last year. Then write a list of your 101 intended accomplishments for the new year. While you write, you may notice secondary thoughts or things you say to yourself. You have likely heard it before that we have approx. 60,000 thoughts a day. Nearly two-thirds of those are not very positive and that does not mean the remaining third are much to write home about either! Recall all the things you said to yourself, as you wrote your lists.

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Sometimes when we are working toward a particular end result, things may not move as quickly as we would like then to move. Also, life can throw in some real curve balls that frustrate us or thwart our intentions. What can we do at times like that? Comparing yourself and your progress, to that of another person, is a trap. Your journey is meant to be your own unique journey and the lessons you learn along the way are being presented to you for a particular purpose. Very often, when making comparisons we are not looking at a true picture.

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Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Thea Westra

    Rightness: Long ago, a brilliant psychologist proved that if you present a rat with 3 tunnels, only one of which has some cheese in it, the rat would explore all the avenues until he finds the cheese. And, after reinforcement, he will ignore all non-cheese tunnels, and go down only the one with the payoff. Then, if you take away the cheese, he will soon learn that it’s gone, and will begin to explore all tunnels again, looking for the reward. Human beings, in stark contrast, will go up a tunnel looking for whatever 'cheese' the situation is, never get any, but they proceed to go up that same tunnel for a lifetime. And what’s driving them is reasonableness, or rightness. That is, they get to say to themselves, quite logically: 'I saw cheese go up that tunnel. It’s got to be up there. I’ll find it, goddam it, if it takes me a lifetime.' So they get to spend a lifetime without cheese, but always being able to explain (to wives, friends, acquaintances—anyone who will listen) that they’re up a very reasonable tunnel. And they find people to agree that the cheese really belongs up that tunnel. (Those people are called really close friends!) If you’re running your life up a tunnel (or a series of them) with no 'cheese' for you; you’re beginning to get what I’m driving at: that running your life being right is pointless and I don't mean that what you’re doing is wrong; I simply mean it doesn't work, and that should be the main criterion…From EST: Playing The Game The New Way written by Carl Frederick in 1972
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    Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny…Mahatma Gandhi
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    Life is a bunch of accidents that happen to you and somehow you survive them by taking advantage of them and then something magical happens and violá - you have the beginning of your dream. But the accidents are the result of an intention - an intention created from a dream you are passionate about. So passionate, so strong is your passion that the energy of it fuels your intention. And when it becomes so strong that not even the Universe can deny it, that's when the 'accidents' take place. The double-edged sword, the element that makes it all happen - that binds it all together - YOU HAVE TO BE OKAY IF IT DOESN'T HAPPEN!! It's the excitment of the possibility of the adventure of the nothingness. You must be willing to trade what you have, that may look great but FEELS wrong for this nothing that could be something. It's the excitement of having the courage to leave behind what you have for the possibility of what could be. You must be able to let go of what you have. You must not need it or let it define who you are. You must be okay without it AND you must be okay if the nothing turns into that - just nothing. You become okay with the decision simply because you made the decision! It's the act of leaving what isn't supporting you for the possibility of something better that makes you like yourself more for simply making this decision. WHAT'S MY DREAM?? How do you recognize your true dream from all the other wants and desires in your life? IF YOU ENJOY THE PROCESS - IT'S YOUR DREAM! If you are enduring the process, desperate for the result - it's SOMEBODY ELSE'S DREAM!!…Salma Hayek
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    Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others….Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love

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Hi! I’m Thea Westra, the author of Time For My Life: 365 Stepping Stones and creator of the 365 Forward Steps Notes.

I live in Perth, Western Australia with my husband Greg.

By sharing positive, thought-provoking content, my aim is to help you discover and step closer towards, what you really want.

My mission is to add wings to each of our unique life jou eys.

Connect with me at a few of the following social profiles:

Join me on Facebook
Connect with me on Twitter
Get in touch at Google+
Check my profile in LinkedIn
Watch my videos on YouTube
Enjoy my images at Pinterest
Visit my Forward Steps Blog

Other highlights

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