When life gives you lemons it’s not all a basket of sour things. Although reality may feel dull and gray, you can practically spruce up your space with sun-shiny brilliant ideas and yellow-ness, and an infusion of extraordinary zest. The color yellow can upgrade and energize modes. Yellow is associated with sunshine, freshness, hope, happiness, optimism, positivity, clarity, energy, enlightenment, remembrance, honor, intellect, loyalty, joy, and more. But, be aware that a dull or dingy shade of yellow may represent conflicting associations such as caution, sickness, cowardice, and deceit, so stay clear of dull and dingy. Moreover, always remember that you can change the picture you’re seeing — your decor, your outfit, your outlook, your intake, your surroundings. Get bright and bold! Use real lemons to help freshen things, including the air. A revitalizing intake can be to refresh yourself by drinking lemon water. Or, you can really transform that fragrant fruit into an exquisite glass of lemonade. Go at it with full gusto!
Let’s do this! For making an awesome pitcher of lemonade: Use freshly squeezed lemons and all-natural ingredients, plain and simple. Note: I’m not just a discerning aficionado, but a connoisseur of lemonade and palate-pleasing mocktails! I am scientifically finicky about making lemonade with exceptional flavors, but it’s tricky to quantify what my palate knows. Therefore, if you need a lemonade recipe with the exact measurement of ingredients, you may search online then simply modify that recipe to suit your taste. [Developing the trait of perseverance must be an individual quest.] I can certainly help with the refined adjustments via some tantalizing tips I will share with you. For example, many people overlook the particular taste and texture of water, the essential life-giving ingredient in lemonade. Unpleasant water could distress a good recipe. But don’t worry — I’ll share some mixological knowledge so that when life gives you lemons, you too can craft an awesome concoction!
Boil sufficient water in which to dissolve sugar (make simple syrup) for sweetening — if not, sugar would dissolve slowly in cold water and lemonade may be much sweeter (too sweet) later when finally the sugar is fully dissolved. Ordinarily, lemonade drink is the combination of lemon juice in water and sweetened. However, let’s go beyond ordinary – to make this extraordinary!
Trust yourself. You already have the culinary skills to harmoniously balance components in your beverage. Your taste buds know and will direct how to handle this. You’ve got greatness in you! Rely on the sensory nerves of your palate instead of exact measurements from a recipe — because all lemons won’t taste the same, acidity levels differ, water would be different, etc. [Strain-filter any pulpy, seedy, grainy, or pureed ingredients you plan to use.] Combine ingredients in moderation and swirl to suit your level of sweetness or tartness — measure, mix, and sample (in a tester glass) at every stage to find your best blend. Once you’ve got the basics, develop your taste-testing skills to mastery. 
My ‘pink lemonade’ includes (with a sway of orange juice) a stupendous splash of cranberry or cherry juice, or (va-voom!) Caribbean sorrel for color and pizazz! This deliberate deviation is a more refined ensemble somewhat like jazz music. What sets jazz apart from other rhythms is this cool thing called improvisation. Create and integrate as you go. Crafting a decadent lemonade concoction, this is where you set yourself apart from the ordinary — symphonically swirling ingredients to find that splendid vibe, just right, none upstaging the other. Instrumentally choreograph the right mix … according to palate — add a little of something, sip a bit, decide what else you’d like in it. One’s palate should experience the delightful contribution of every ingredient in perfect proportion.
Want to venture into making green lemonade? Naturally, there is such a thing — with hints of spinach and ginger, and sorts (pureed and strained). You can do it! Lemon is an amazingly versatile fruit. You can distinctively formulate lemonade to specifically promote hydration, aid digestion, or support multiple modes to improve health and wellness. Possibilities abound! So, when life gives you lemons, slice it, dice it, spice it, spike it, you’ve got options. You can confidently create a medicinal concoction. Hence, even as we continue to grapple and wrestle with exactly what will happen with COVID-19, get your creative juices flowing — thoughts, ideas, goals, …, resolve to seize the flavors of life. Persevere. Don’t miss the high potency of such moments set to refuel hope. 
Your vision is both a whispered promise and a process. It takes courage to believe you can contribute, produce, or achieve something out of a mere idea. The process must unfold in orchestrated steps to prepare and position you for success. Stepping stones are important; don’t be disheartened by the steps. That process must also include a strategy to break through obstacles that stand between you and the envisioned destination. The first and last aid or hindrance is usually your mind. Be mindful. Calm your spirit; God will give you a strategy for where you ought to be – if you ask. With pray, push forward with prowess, plans, patience, persistence, perseverance.
Don’t overlook the small steps in the interim. They’re character-building. (Review week #5 resource, Two Mindsets by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., an insightful inspiration to adopt a growth mindset.) Practice perseverance even in mundane tasks. Little things can mean a lot. For example, mastering a lemonade mocktail could delight your guests, enhance hospitality ranking, boost attentiveness to others, amplify culinary skills, or at least improve your attention to details. My lengthy outpouring about lemonade is not simply because it’s a favored thingamajig, but for you to see that YOU CAN revolutionize distasteful events in life — and propel with knack.
Tap into the counter-balancing benefits of lemon. And here is an uplifting thought — think of lemon cupcakes (for example), and squeeze other transformative delights from the lemony moment. It’s okay to find sweet little cues and cures for a quick smile — smiling can boost the immune system. Retain what’s enriching and reappropriate what’s not. 
What can you do to become unstoppable? Take practical steps to being focused and mentally calm. Then, decide where is best to dispense your valuable energy. Circumvent fear and dread with sound strategic actions. (In prior weeks) having made a clear list of goals set for accomplishing, focus on actions you can now take aligning those ambitions. Reposition yourself. You have the metamorphic power to change dramatically. You are the ultimate game-changer! Be courageous enough to persevere to greater heights in becoming unstoppable.
Everyone experiences setbacks, both large and small. That’s simply a scripted part of life, with all of its highs and lows. The bigger ones may feel more influential, but even the smaller struggles can sip into our psyche and take a toll on the way we think and feel. Incessant little challenges can wear a person down. Tests and trials can lead to reconsidering our chosen paths and goals. The tough times and arduous uphill battles can make you want to run for the nearest exit. But, keep in mind that personal development is a lifelong quest and success requires strategy, strength, and stamina. Practice faithful and dogged determination to hang in there until you achieve the mission that you’ve locked into.
Admittedly, we all need a refreshing pause to refuel on occasion. Stand still. Take rejuvenating breaks. Rest is indeed an essential function in life – helping to repair our body at the molecular level. Sometimes, we are forcibly subdued into immobility by circumstances beyond our control. We rightfully protest to reclaim our ‘normal’ again. But, there are times when we need to be still — calm in spirit, mind, and body. Anxiety is exhausting, regardless of the source. No worries, the whirlwind episode won’t last forever. It’s important to power-charge hope and confidence from within. Never forsake the self-care triad: sleep, nutrition, and exercise – which is especially critical in building up mental and physical stamina, which is an indispensable part of the script for perseverance; the arrangement of quantity and quality can be a transformative remix.
Halfway through writing this post, I resigned. Well, there were other pressing things to do. The website plugins (software updates) had distorted the webpage layout — yet again, another hiccup to be resolved! Work became taxing. Where is my tea and sympathy? I was yearning to recapture my canceled vacation trips in any possible way!!! And why did I choose to write about Life’s Lemons and PERSEVERANCE? Currently, I had no motivation to write anything! Me not writing — that’s evidence of a really bad-n-busy day. I was feeling painfully guilt-ridden to ‘stick to script’ as per the agenda I had previously posted.
Everything in me craved rest, relaxation, and ‘may-as-well’ Netflix. So, as I enjoyed my favorite mocktails, meandering and going-about, basking in dense digital distractions, leisurely scrolling through YouTube subscriptions, one podcast featured an impressive guest with a new book – Jim Kwik, Limitless. He quickly struck a chord with me, and I with Amazon in an instant to purchase the e-book (with audible narration) for quick digestive reading. This book revolutionized my script. Now I can highly recommend the book “Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life” – by Jim Kwik, which offers excellent insights on mindset, motivation, and methods to truly engage our mind for better success in life. It’s about refuting LIEs (limiting ideas entertained), eradicating ANTs (automatic negative thoughts), and a whole lot more — learning how to learn, remember, and think, using the most powerful technology in the world: your brain. Please continue Expanding the Script. “Don’t shrink what’s possible to fit your mind, expand your mind to fit what’s possible.”
Adapting to changes in life, without falling prey to the gravitation pull of circumstances – that’s the heart of perseverance. When life gives you lemons, cut into the core of it. The counterweights of canned energy or stored tension could unleash electrifying results to offset surrounding circumstances. There is a never-ending script of major breakthroughs you can experience within that phase. Choose among myriad methods and remedial measures. Reclaim hope. Secure refreshment. Refuel whatever is necessary. Cultivate grit. Get up again one more time than you’ve fallen. You’re expanding willpower muscle! And you will proudly recount the championship story of how you did not resign from the encounter nor exit the contest. These are those pivotal moments that form the springboard to catapult you forward. Now, evaluate your position: Are you resting, reclining, refueling, recharging, reshuffling, refreshed, revitalized, … on course? How can you further extend the runway to your next milestone? [Practice perseverance!]
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