How To Control Your Mind

 

In this video, Dandapani, explains how he learnt how the mind works and how you can control it.

He explains that in a world of distraction, you can’t sustain the energy to keep your focus on everything that's going on. He further explains that energy is like money, and that it’s a finite resource that you have to manage and invest wisely.

You get good at what you practice, and if you’re practising being distracted for most of the day, you’ll become good at it. So, you need to practice concentration throughout your day.

Once you start concentrating your mind, you’ll be in control of it. Once you’re in control of your mind, you can focus it. As the saying goes, "you get what you focus on", so you can start using your mind to get you what you want in life.

So, what’s the best way to develop concentration? Bring it into your daily practice. Look for situations throughout your day that will let you practice concentration.

“Once you know how the mind works, you can control it.
And once you can control it, you can focus it”

 - Dandapani

Manifest The Life You Want

 

"You know, there are two good things in life,

freedom of thought and freedom of action"

- W. Somerset Maugham

There’s nothing better than having your own freedom in your life. This can be accomplished by taking action and learning to manifest your life to its fullest potential. You shouldn’t have to put your needs, goals and dreams aside simply because you don’t think they’re important enough or that you’re not worthy enough to deserve and achieve your dreams. The easiest way out of taking responsibility for your life is to think that your dreams are never going to come true and that it’s best to stick with ‘reality’. It can be so easy to just give up rather than have a strong soul that can guide you to your dreams. The path to achieving your dreams and desires is a harder path to travel, but it’s the only path that can lead you to the true freedom that you deserve.

It can be difficult to try to be strong in a society that advertises so much negativity. This negativity can even be found within your own family or close friends. These are the people that say you can’t do something, that it’s out of your reach, or that you should quit living in the clouds and come back to reality. All of these comments can get deeply ingrained in your mind and you ultimately fall for this negativity and start to believe that these comments are true. If you want to be strong and have high levels of self-worth, spiritual-awareness and self-value, you have to be strong in blocking out this negativity. This isn’t an easy task to do, because in today’s society we have been brought up to listen to other people’s opinions and not question them. For example, we believe what we were taught by our parents, teachers and our peers. We just take what they say as fact rather than question their teaching methods or what they’re saying. You have to be aware of what people are saying to you and make a conscious decision to differentiate what information and comments you want to take in and what information and comments you want to block out. If someone says you can’t do something, simply because they don’t believe that you can do it or, as is more likely the case, that they can’t do it, this is where you can use your inner strength to shine and prove them wrong.

The concept of manifestation can teach us everything we need to know about living our dream life and not simply wishing to be able to live our dreams. Manifestation can help us change our lives to being more positive which is consistent with our vision of our ideal life. We can exhibit all the qualities that we’ve always had, but never practiced. Being a positive person that thinks positively and avoids negative energies is a person that has learned to manifest their life and practices manifestation daily. You too can be part of this positive circle of energy. Live the life you want to live. After all, you deserve the very best in your life. Freedom is the most important thing in anyone’s life. If you would like to seek this and much more, then manifestation could be the answer to your dreams, which could become your reality.

The Secret Of Happiness

“Happiness is not something readymade.
It comes from your own actions”

– Dalai Lama

What does happiness mean to you?

There’s a lot of searching going on these days for the elusive emotion of ‘being happy’.

Where do you find it? How do you get it? Is it something that will come in the future? What does ‘being happy’ actually mean?

Here’s the secret about ‘being happy’: happiness is not just for a lucky few who were born with it or who have attained it by what they’ve achieved in their lives.

You see, happiness isn’t something you can reach out and touch or put in the refrigerator and take a sip when you need it. Happiness is not found on a beach in Hawaii (really!) or in a perfect body. It’s not even in that perfect relationship that we’re constantly being sold in TV adverts. Yet from the images bombarding us every day, it’s easy to believe that happiness will arrive when we have that new car, the best clothes, a fancy home, the latest phone, isn’t it? It’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that if you could just find the right person or live in the right area, you’d magically become happy. But all this type of thinking does is convince you that happiness is something to be found outside of yourself. And that’s where you get off track.

Because the real secret is that happiness is simply a by-product of creating and living a life that works for you, a life that you enjoy - whatever that is for you. Happiness comes from doing what you want, where you want to do it, who you want to do it with, and so on. More specifically, happiness comes from within you.

You see, happiness starts by believing that you have control over your life; and then grows by making choices that will give you a sense of well-being and satisfaction. Happiness comes from making choices that are in line with your highest values and that make you feel inspired. Happiness comes from deciding what YOU want to do, and not what others want you to do.

Happiness is about making the best choices you can about who you spend your time with; how you make your living; what, and how much, you learn; what you eat and drink; how you live; and how you spend your time. Because when you feel good about the space you’re in, when you’re with people you admire and respect and they admire and respect you, when you’re working on a project that’s meaningful to you - happiness will shine right through.

So, decide today to stop chasing happiness, and instead choose three things that you love to do, that contribute to your feeling of well-being and satisfaction, and that inspire you. Schedule time for them, every day if possible, every week at the very least. It doesn’t have to be for a long time, just 10 minutes a day will help you create the happiness that you’re looking for.

3 Powerful Techniques To Change Your Life: 7 Day Challenge

 

In this video, Dr Joe Dispenza gives us three things that we can practice for the next 7 days to start seeing incredible things happen in our lives:

1. Start your day with this simple question: “What is the greatest ideal of myself that I can be today?”

Most people live their lives doing the same things every day. They’re running their lives from a program and they’ve lost their free will to the program.

Become conscious of your mental and physical states during the day. Ask yourself what thoughts and behaviours you want to have and exhibit during the day. Raise your awareness so that you’re in charge of your day.

2. Take time at the end of the day to feel gratitude and give thanks.

Gratitude is the ultimate state of receiving. Being grateful gives you more things to be grateful for.

At the end of the day spend 10 minutes feeling gratitude for everything that’s happened during the day. Really feel the emotion of gratitude with all your heart, and prepare your mind and body for receiving more to be grateful for.

3. Take time during the day to sit down and close your eyes, and open your awareness to the space around you.

Start raising your awareness to the space around you. Sense the space and pay attention to it. Raising your awareness helps to reduce stress and creates more coherent brainwave states.

“Most people…get up in the morning…they’re in a program. They’ve actually lost their free will to the program” 

– Dr Joe Dispenza

7 Day Challenge: For the next 7 days, try the three techniques described by Dr Joe Dispenza in this video and see what changes they make to your life.

4 Quick Stress Busters

How are you going through your day? How do you react when your plans fall through? Do you roll with the punches or do you let it get to you? Are you letting the everyday pressures keep you from enjoying life?

Here are 4 simple things that you can do to help keep your stress under control:

1. Sleep more

This might sound obvious, and everyone probably knows this, but in modern society, it’s not uncommon for people to be existing on less than 6 hours of sleep a night.

Experts recommend 6-8 hours of sleep every night. Not just to rest our bodies, but to rejuvenate our minds. Sleeping is the time for our body not just to rest, but also to heal itself. During sleep, your mind processes the events of your day. If you’re not getting sufficient sleep, your mind can’t fully process and store the information it’s taken in during the previous day.

A lack of sleep can also make people feel sluggish and short-tempered.

Make getting a good night’s sleep a habit, and you can make a big difference in your life.

2. Turn it off

The convenience that technology, particularly cell phones, tablets and laptops, have added to our lives can actually be a double-edged sword.

Whilst technology has brought great benefits and ease to areas of our lives, we are so dependent on them nowadays, that it seems that we can’t live without them. Our minds are constantly being distracted and filled with news, social media, emails, and other notifications, that it’s nearly impossible for our minds to settle and relax. Take time out from technology during the day, particularly if you’re using technology throughout the day, and do something that doesn’t require technology, for example, go for a walk outside, take a bath or read a book. To help you sleep better, stay off your phone, TV and laptop at least 30 minutes before going to bed.

3. Take a proper break

Taking a good break where you can get away from all the pressures you’re facing can help to bust the levels of stress you’re feeling. It doesn’t have to be a long holiday at a fancy resort (although there’s no harm in doing that if you can!), just a simple day out at the beach or an afternoon at the park will help you to reduce your stress levels. Just find somewhere you can be at peace and not think about the bills, work, or whatever tensions you may have at that time. It’s important to take time for yourself, so always make sure that you schedule the time and do it!

4. Do something you love

Sometimes we can be so busy doing things that we think we should be doing, such as work or doing chores, that we can often forget to take time out to do something that we love doing.

Remember to take time out during the day to do something that you love. It doesn’t have to be something big: take a quick walk in nature, listen to some music, play a musical instrument or do any other hobby that you may have. Doing something that you love can often be enough to help you release any stress you feel building up.

Schedule a time during your day where you can do something that you love, or do it whenever you’re feeling the stress beginning to build up and get too much.

17 Quotes For Motivation

 

Are you struggling to get motivated? Here are 17 quotes that can help you find your motivation whenever you feel you can’t get going:

1. “No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying” – Tony Robbins

2. “You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit” – Laozi

4. “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better” – Dalai Lama

5. “Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results” – Robin Sharma

6. “Beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success” – William J. H. Boetcker

7. “Tough times never last but tough people do” – Robert H. Schuller

8. “Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard” – Tim Notke

9. “Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit” – Conrad Hilton

10. “To ensure you succeed, always try just one more time” – Unknown

11. “It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up” – Vince Lombardi

12. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit” – Will Durant

13. “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star” – W. Clement Stone

14. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence” - Calvin Coolidge

15. “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful” – John Wooden

16. “I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed” – Michael Jordan

17. “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work” – Thomas Edison

Triumphing Over Mediocrity

“Never surrender to the momentum of mediocrity”
– Marlon Brando 

Are you tired of the same old existence? Do you feel stuck in a rut? Do you want more out of life than what life seems to be giving you?

You might feel like you’re stuck in your life, but you can rise above mediocrity.

First, you must change your mindset.

The first step to changing your mindset to overcome mediocrity is that you must have a keen desire for change in your life. You must know what you want, even if you don’t yet know how to get it. Be clear in your desires. If you only had a short time to live, what would you really want to see, do and experience? It’s important to be clear on what you want so that you can put the image clearly in your mind and set your subconscious to work on getting it.

Make it a habit to practice the techniques below to help you to manifest your desires and banish mediocrity from your life:

• Set clear intentions for your life. An ‘intention’ is what you want to see happen. What do you want to get? What do you want to see or experience? Who do you want to meet? What do you want to achieve? By setting clear intentions, you give your mind something to focus on and you’ll start to see opportunities appear that will help you to achieve your desires. A clear intention is the first step to getting what you want in your life. If you don’t set your mind a clear target, it will always miss.

• Your energy goes where your attention goes. Concentrate your thoughts and energy on your desires and what you want. Don’t focus your attention and energy on what you don’t want or don’t have. Remember that life happens in the present, so keep your thoughts and energy on your desires in the here and now and don’t focus your thoughts on getting your desire at some point in the future. Embrace the present and let tomorrow take care of itself.

• Be patient and let go of any anxiety, disbelief and doubt about getting what you want. Expectation and belief are two of the strongest feelings that you can give to your desires, so expect and believe that you already have what you want.

• Get charged up emotionally about your desire. Don’t just visualise it…. feel it.  Feelings go hand-in-hand with your thoughts in helping you to get what you want. The more feeling you can give to having achieved your desires, the quicker you’ll attract them to you.

• Affirm daily to yourself exactly what you want. An ‘affirmation’ is your declaration to the Universe of what you want. When you’re affirming what you want, make sure that you believe it. Any disbelief in your affirmation will hinder the manifestation of your desires.

• Clear your mind of any, and all, negative thoughts. Negativity blocks the manifestation process, lowers your confidence and ultimately keeps you stuck in a life of mediocrity. Stay focused in a positive way at all times on your desire. If you experience any negativity, switch back to a positive mindset as soon as you can.

• Believe in yourself. A belief is a thought, and as energy and thoughts go hand-in-hand, a lack of belief in yourself and achieving your desires will greatly reduce your chances of manifesting what you want. Your beliefs have a great influence on you (and others around you) and can work for, or against you. Identify any limiting beliefs that you have towards your desire and which don’t serve you. Identify the beliefs that you need, and work on replacing your limiting beliefs with the new empowering beliefs.

• Stay focused on your desire. The more you visualise, feel, believe and affirm your desire, the more real it will become and the quicker it will manifest in your life. The more you focus on your desires, the more likely it is that you’ll keep going when things don’t go as you expected or planned.

Program Your Mind To Achieve Your Wishes And Desires

 

In this video, Dr Bruce Lipton explains how we’re in control of our wishes and desires when our conscious mind is focused. However, when our conscious mind starts to wander and lose focus, our subconscious mind takes over and we go through our day based on our programs.

Dr Lipton explains that we spend 95% of our day working our programs, and that if we program our subconscious with our wishes and desires, we can spend more of our day working towards our goals. Dr Lipton then goes on to explain that we can reprogram our subconscious while we sleep, and that reprogramming our subconscious with wishes and desires means that we’ll be successful, and we won’t even have to think about it.

So, ask yourself, “how do I want my life to be?” and then reprogram your mind during your sleep to help you achieve your wishes and desires!

"You will be successful, because 95% of the day your program automatically will be seeking your wishes"

- Dr Bruce Lipton

Healthy Brain - Happy Brain: 3 Tips To Help Look After Your Brain

The brain is one of those organs that we can neglect. In this article I want to share 3 quick, simple, yet effective, tips to help you look after your brain and keep it in top condition.

1. Drink more water

The brain is made up of 80% water, and this water plays an essential part in its function. When we are dehydrated, it can reduce our sense of well-being and significantly reduce our performance and ability to learn. Dehydration can also pose a risk to our long-term mental health if we are not looking after our brain.

On average, the human body can lose up to 2.5 litres of water every day and our aim should be to at least replenish this loss on a daily basis. Try drinking more water throughout the day and eat more fruit and vegetables, as these have a lot of water in them.

2. Eat the right fats for your brain

The brain is made up of a total of 60% fat, which includes saturated fat and cholesterol. Most of us may at first consider fat to be unhealthy, but there are some fats that are essential for our brains to function normally. 20% of the brain's fat should be made up of essential fatty acids or Omega-3 and Omega-6. These two essential fatty acids are important as they cannot be made within your body, so you need to make sure that you’re getting them from your diet or through supplements.

3. Exercise

Keep your brain fit and healthy by keeping your body fit and healthy. It’s been shown that regular exercise can significantly reduce the effects of depression, anxiety and stress. In a lot of cases, exercise can work just as well as anti-depressants. Keeping your brain happy will also keep it healthy! You can do any simple exercise, such as taking a daily brisk walk through the park or doing something fun that also burns a lot of calories, such as taking a dance class or playing a sport you like. Doing a sport or dance class can also help to keep your brain active by learning a new skill and improving your co-ordination.

2 Ways To Boost Your Confidence

Confidence is critical for your success. Whilst you can achieve some of your goals with limited or fluctuating confidence, to achieve your biggest goals and dreams, confidence is crucial to help you face your problems and fears, and to keep going when things don’t go as planned!

There are all kinds of strategies, ways of thinking, patterns of behaviour and practical tips for improving your life and feeling better about yourself, but they won’t be much use if the foundation isn't there. That foundation is the real and authentic you. The ‘you’ that you know deep down you are. When you know who you truly are, you live more authentically. When you’re trying to live how other people want you to live, you spend your life trying to meet their expectations. This can have significant impacts on your confidence, as you’re not living in line with who you are. It takes confidence to be yourself in today’s world, and being yourself creates confidence – it’s a positive cycle.

Here are two ways to help you build your confidence and live your life more authentically:

1. Get to know your values

Personal values are a big passion of mine and I’m constantly reviewing my life and my values to see how they’re aligning. I’ve found that they’re one of the most important things that someone can know about themselves and are vital to building and achieving genuine unbreakable inner confidence. Your values can be buried deep inside you, right at the very core of who you are; and they’re the building blocks, the foundations and cornerstones for who you truly are.

A value is something in yourself, in others or in the world that’s most important to you, and can include things like: what you enjoy doing, work and career, family, relationships, where you enjoy being, personal achievement, service to others or freedom.

Why is it that some people and situations leave you feeling angry, frustrated, demotivated or deflated? It’s because one or more of your values is being denied or suppressed or the situation is in conflict with one of your highest values – and you experience that as a negative experience because it’s denying a fundamental part of who you are.

Conversely, when you’re in a situation or surrounded by people that make you feel really alive, amazing or buzzing, you’re living in a time when one or more of your values are being met and honoured.

Your values are uniquely yours. No two people will have the exact same set of values. You can have absolute confidence in your values, because they’re always there. When you get to know your values, you can start to make choices that align with them and adjust your life around them. It’s so simple and it feels amazing because all that really means is that you’re allowing who you are to live in the real world.

2. Exercise the muscle

Confidence is a muscle, and like any muscle, the more you exercise it, the bigger and stronger it becomes. But if you neglect it, it will shrink and become weaker. The problem is that unlike your biceps or glutes, which are easy to see, your confidence muscle can be harder to find.

How do you develop and build up your biceps or firm up your glutes? By doing exercises that are designed to work that muscle over a period of time until you see the results you were looking for.

It’s the same approach to building your confidence. We normally have more confidence when we’re doing the things that we have experience with and have a good idea of what we need to do, or we know that the likely consequences of getting it wrong won’t be significant, but when we’re trying something new or we fear the consequences of us getting it wrong are greater, our confidence may be low, if we have any at all!

It's easier to think that we can build our confidence by doing the things that we know we can do well, but that approach generally comes from a position of fear, and ultimately it ends up lowering our confidence as we continually put off the things that are holding us back.

Are you the kind of person that doesn’t take many risks, who goes through each day doing what needs to be done and doing it well, but not really stretching yourself? Do you sometimes talk yourself out of doing something because it’s too scary or because you think to yourself ”I’m not good enough”; ”that’s not who I am”; or ”I don’t really want it anyway”?

This type of person lives within what they know and what keeps them safe and comfortable. They spend their lives living in their ‘comfort zone’. The fewer risks they take, the less confident they need to be and so the less confident they become.

To work your confidence muscle, you need to be prepared to take risks – big or small. You need to be willing to stretch yourself in an unfamiliar direction, to try something new or try something in a slightly different way. You need to open yourself up to the possibilities around you and push yourself to increase what you know, what you do and who you are. The more open you are to risk, opportunity and possibility, the more confident you need to be, and so the more confidence you’ll develop. That’s your confidence muscle.

The question is, what are you going to do to exercise your confidence muscle?

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2 Rules For Achieving The Success You Want

Arnold Schwarzenegger has achieved a great deal in his life, and in this video he provides us with the 2 rules that he follows to achieve his success:

Rule No. 1: Have a vision

Rule No. 2: Don’t listen to the nay-sayers

 

“Visualising a goal and going after it is fun. You have to have a purpose, no matter what you do in life, you have to have a purpose”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Achieving Your Goals With A Plan Of Action

If you’ve ever set goals before, but failed to achieve them, it may have been because you didn’t create a specific plan of action to accomplish those goals.

Taking the time to identify your goals is only part of the process of goal setting, and many people often overlook the other part - creating a plan.

Without a plan your goals remain incomplete. It’s like going on a journey and setting a destination of where you want to go, but without looking at a map to see how you’ll get there. You might get to your destination, with some luck and probably a lot of frustration, but if you plan how you’re going to get there, the chances of success of significantly improved.

Remember that your goals tell you where you want to go in life, and your plan shows you how to get there.

A goal plan is simply a list of scheduled activities that you will do at some point in the future to help you achieve your goal. These may include activities done over a series of days, weeks, months or even years depending on the type of goal you’ve set for yourself.

Your plan does not have to be completed perfectly the first time. Usually, you’ll find that your first attempt at creating a goal plan will be vague and incomplete. Don’t worry this is ok. You may not know all the steps that you need to take to achieve your goal, particularly if you’ve set yourself a long-term goal over a number of years. Goal plans should be flexible to allow you to change them if needed, and you could find yourself regularly updating your plan as you move towards completing your primary goal.

In your goal plan you should create a series of steps that you think you will need to take in order to accomplish the goal you’ve set. If you have a good idea of the steps you need to take to achieve your goal, you can set the plan yourself. If you don’t know the steps to take, you can talk to someone who has achieved a similar goal and find out what steps they took, and use that as a starting plan.

Creating a goal plan is frequently overlooked, and many people discipline themselves to write their goals every day but create no plan! So, make sure you take the time to decide where you want to go (your goals) and then create a plan that will tell you how to get there.

22 Quotes For Determination

When you’re feeling stuck or blocked from continuing to move forward on your goals and in your life, these 22 quotes will help you find your determination to keep going:

1. “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work” – Colin Powell

2. “Never go backward. Attempt, and do it with all your might. Determination is power” – Charles Simmons

3. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill

4. “Beginners are many; finishers are few” – Stephen Covey

5. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run” – Babe Ruth

6. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop” – Confucius

7. “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark” – Charles Spurgeon

8. “I am thankful for the adversities, which have crossed my pathway, for they taught me tolerance, sympathy, self-control, perseverance and some other virtues I might never have known” – Napoleon Hill

9. “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb” – Nelson Mandela

10. “Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there” – Josh Billings

11. “Problems are guidelines, not stop signs!” – Robert H. Schuller

12. “Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough” – Randy Pausch

13. “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second” – William James

14. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in” - Bill Bradley

15. “There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this” – Terry Pratchett

16. “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant” – Robert Louis Stevenson

17. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go” – William Feather

18. “Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

19. “People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit” – George Allen

20. “Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind” – Alex Karras

21. “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog” - Mark Twain

22. “There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

Do You Think Motivational Thoughts?

 

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going”

– Jim Rohn

 

What do motivational thoughts do and why would you want them?

Motivational thoughts help you to take action. This is especially important when you find yourself putting off what you know you need to do.

Motivational thoughts aren’t about positive thinking or motivating quotes, although those do have their place in helping you to shape your attitude and thinking. What motivates each of us is unique to us, so we need to have our own thoughts which are most effective at getting us started.

• Motivational Thoughts of Your Own

Making it your own means experimenting with a good thought until you find a way to use it in your own recipe for motivation. Let’s imagine you're in a difficult situation and you don't feel like dealing with it. As you sit there, you start playing around with the idea that there’s an opportunity that can come from the difficulty you’re facing. Fortunately, you discover that this situation offers you an opportunity to improve a skill that you want to learn, and this thought pulls you out of your slump and gives you the motivation to take that first step that, up until now, you’ve been putting off. This is how you can create your own motivational thoughts. Look for the positives in the situations that you see as negative. The thoughts that work for you are the thoughts that you need to be thinking. 

• Learn Your Motivations

Try different ways of motivating yourself and get to know how your mind works. Some people may be motivated by positive incentives, such as thinking about all the good things that will happen when they achieve their task or goal, whereas others may be motivated by negative incentives, such as thinking about all the perceived negative things that could happen if they don’t achieve their task or goal. I find that reading or watching something about my goal gets me thinking about what I want to achieve, and that gets me excited. When I feel unmotivated about a goal that I’ve set myself, I read, listen or watch something related to what I want to achieve. This is normally enough to get me excited and take the first step to working on my actions and goals. The first step is often the hardest, and once I’ve started, I normally find it easy to keep going.

You can get creative in your motivational experiments. Maybe thinking about being poor makes you get up and get to work, or maybe thinking about being rich and having the luxuries that you want will get you going. If you find that visual thoughts are more motivating than mental conversations, then use those. See pictures in your head that get you going. Maybe you find that when people say you can't do something, you do whatever it takes to prove them wrong. Then you might find it motivational to think about people saying you can't do the thing that you want to do.

When there is a truly uninspiring task you have to do, try promising yourself a reward for completing it - make it one that really means something to you. Keep that thought in your mind to keep yourself motivated.

You may also find that different motivational thoughts inspire you better for tasks that you find uninspiring. Whilst thinking about the positive outcomes may inspire you to take action on your goals, you may find that the potential negative outcomes of not completing an uninspiring task motivate you more to get started.

Everyone is different, so try different ways of motivating yourself until you find what works for you. Then use those motivational thoughts to get you going when you need that extra push!

The Skill Of Self-Confidence

In this video, Dr Ivan Joseph provides a talk on the importance of self-confidence and how you can build yours.

Dr Joseph defines self-confidence as “the ability or the belief to believe in yourself, to accomplish any task, no matter the odds, no matter the difficulty, no matter the adversity”.

Dr Joseph believes that self-confidence is a skill that can be learned, and in this video he provides two things that you should work on and master to become skilful at becoming self-confident:

1. Repetition: The way to get good at any skill is repetition, repetition, repetition, stay persistent and do not accept failure.

2. Self-talk: Thoughts influence actions, so we all need to stop our negative talk and get our own positive self-affirmations. Getting away from people who will tear you down is also an effective way of helping you to build your self-confidence.

Dr Joseph also notes that self-confident people have the ability to interpret feedback in the way that they choose to, and which is consistent with a positive view that they have for themselves and what they want in life.

If there is one thing to take away from his talk, Dr Joseph says that it is that “no one will believe in you unless you do”.

How To Stop Living Your Life On Autopilot

If you find yourself doing the same routine day after day, never remembering what you did the day before, having nothing to look forward to, living your life - but never really enjoying it, or being inspired by it, or anything in it...you’re probably living your life on autopilot. 

The really devastating part about living life on autopilot, especially when it comes to your relationships, is that most of the time you’re not even aware that you're doing it. You're just living your life, wishing for more, but not really sure if there is more or how to get it. While many people live out their entire lives on autopilot, which is truly sad, the way to have truly rewarding and successful lives and relationships is to be totally aware and adaptable when it comes to your life.

Being aware of what’s going on in your life can be easier said than done, particularly if you’ve spent most of it on autopilot.

So, how can you become more aware of how your life is going and what’s happening in it? Here are three simple, yet effective, techniques for raising your awareness:

1. Stop and smell the roses (literally). Take time to notice and appreciate all the little things that are around you. Be like a child and be inquisitive about your surroundings.

2. Think about your short-term and long-term goals. Have you set any goals for yourself? If you have, do you still have or even remember them? Set yourself some goals, or re-write your previous goals, and start working on them.

3. Remember your relationships? When was the last time you did something new with a friend or a partner? When was the last time you even wanted to? Start thinking about your relationships and stop just 'being in them'.

Finally, it’s important to realise that if you are on autopilot there's a reason why.

Your life is out of balance. It's either too stressful, too complicated, too boring or you’ve surrendered your life to a 'routine'.

Take one day this week and really think about your life, your relationships and what you want to achieve. How can you shake things up? Make things more interesting? How can you get back in balance and in love with your life again?

Small Steps To Start Getting The Life You Want

 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

– Lao Tzu

 

Do you want to change something in your life? Big changes can be difficult and seem daunting, they can take time and require a lot of effort.

The (not so) secret to moving forward is to keep taking steps. It doesn’t matter how small the step you take, if you keep taking steps, over time you’ll get somewhere.

When you know where you want to go, and you keep taking the steps to get there, you can achieve whatever you want in your life.

Taking action can seem daunting, but it's easy just to look, right?

Start looking for specific ways to make your life better, and to improve yourself. Even if you don't accomplish anything immediately, you are preparing yourself and your mind for the future that you want.

Thinking about change also starts getting your mind and your motivation going, which makes taking that first step a lot easier.

This isn’t an excuse to avoid difficult tasks or procrastinate, but you wouldn't expect to quit cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine and complaining all at once, would you? Just make things better today, in any small way. Seeing results will motivate you for the more difficult steps ahead.

To help build up your motivation to take that first, and then the next, step, consider some of the following simple actions:

1. Write down some things you’d like to change. This takes the idea out of your head and makes it feel more real and possible. This also gets your mind working on what you need to do to make the changes you want. Eventually you can turn this ’wish list‘ into real goals, that you can then devise specific plans to work on.

2. Whenever you feel stressed, anxious or low, close your eyes and breathe deeply through your nose. Allow your heart and breathing rates, and your thoughts if they’re racing, to slow down. Stress, anxiety and low feelings are some of the biggest barriers to a better life. Simple stress-management techniques like this can help a lot. Use stress busting techniques whenever you’re feeling stressed, anxious or low so that they become a habit.

3. Make a list of all the good things in your life. This will help you to be grateful for the things that you have and that are happening (or have happened) in your life. The more grateful you are for the things that you have, the more things you’ll receive to be grateful for! As you start seeing the good things in your life, you’ll begin to notice that there are more things to feel good about.

It takes more than simply thinking about how good your life is, and could be, for you to live the life you want, but you have to start somewhere. The point of this article is to get you thinking and to start the process of getting your mind engaged in going for the life that you want, which in turn will get you started on taking the steps and actions you need to take to achieve your goals and dreams.

Action is the key to getting the life you want, but before you start a journey, it’s good to know where you want to go, that you’re willing and committed to make the journey and what will happen when you get to the destination. This all starts in the mind, and the three simple actions above can help you get the clarity and motivation to start your journey.

What Is Success To You?

In this video, actor Matthew McConaughey, says that the question we have to ask ourselves is “What is success to us?”

Whatever your answer is, and however you define success for you, make sure you prioritise your life around who you are and who you want to be.

Get rid of the excess in your life. Once you’ve removed the things in your life that aren’t important or beneficial to you, you will have, by the process of elimination, put in front of you what is important.

 

“You are the author of the book of your life”

 - Matthew McConaughey

 

Doing What You Love

 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’m sure you were asked this question at least once when you were a child. When asked the question, did you have an answer at the ready, or did you need a few minutes to think about it?

Most of us would probably have had dreams of becoming something great, like a firefighter, a teacher, or a rock star, to name just a few. Well, how did you do? Did you become who you wanted to be?

Maybe you changed your mind as you got older, things change. The older we get, our tastes change, our view of the world changes, even our goals change.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned during my career is to do something you love to do.

Why is this so important? I’ve found that if you enjoy what you’re making a living at, you end up being happy in more ways than one. Life itself becomes much more interesting and fun. You find the challenges exhilarating and overcoming them part of the fun, rather than a hinderance to your enjoyment. You find yourself speaking passionately to others about your work, which not only helps you feel inspired, but also inspires others around you. The experiences and challenges you have along the way become much more rewarding, and enrich your life in many ways. You also meet people that you find fascinating and who can contribute greatly to your life.

While no job or business is perfect, the important thing is to enjoy it. If you love the work you’re doing, you’ll enjoy the learning experiences, even when the challenges seem daunting or frustrating.

If you’re unhappy in your current situation, why not take steps now to change it?

Somewhere out there is a job or business that is perfect for you. If you’re already there - congratulations! If not, realise that it may take some time to figure out what you really want to do, and even more time to actually get there.

That’s all right though! Finding and doing what you love will be absolutely worth it, every step of the way. All of the research, training, and hands-on experience will make you a stronger, happier person. There’s no greater feeing than the feeling of being in charge of your own destiny.

Do what you love, and love what you do, whatever that may be. You’ll be happier for it, your life will change for the better and you’ll never look back.

27 Quotes For Success

When you’re looking for an extra push to help you keep moving forward on your goals and dreams, take a look at these 27 quotes on success to get the boost you need:

1. “There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs” – Zig Ziglar

2. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action” – Tony Robbins

3. “The better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance of success” – John C. Maxwell

4. “Whenever an individual or business decides that success has been attained, progress stops” – Thomas J. Watson

5. “Before anything else, preparation is key to success” – Alexander Graham Bell

6. “Without a plan, even the most brilliant business can get lost. You need to have goals, create milestones and have a strategy in place to set yourself up for success” – Yogi Berra

7. “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year” – John Foster Dulles

8. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work” – Thomas Edison

9. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself” – Maya Angelou

10. “Most great people have attained greatest success one step beyond their greatest failure” – Napoleon Hill

11. “If you want to succeed, focus on changing yourself, not others” – Unknown

12. “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done” – Lucille Ball

13. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up” – Babe Ruth

14. “Your success and happiness lie in you” – Helen Keller

15. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success” – Dale Carnegie

16. “The strongest factor for success is self-esteem. Believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it” – Unknown

17. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does” – William James

18. “The best revenge is massive success” – Frank Sinatra

19. “It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not” – Denis Waitley

20. “It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change” – HRH Queen Elizabeth II

21. “Nothing succeeds like success” – Alexandre Dumas

22. “Don’t count the days, make the days count” – Muhammad Ali

23. “You must be wise and stay focused on the goals you are trying to reach” – Germany Kent

24. “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script” – Oprah Winfrey

25. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu

26. “Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny” – Stuart Scott

27. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small” – Richard Branson

 

Are You An Optimist?

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”

– Winston Churchill

An optimist is someone who, when faced with a problem, tends to find the upside or positive to the situation and starts looking for ways to solve that problem, or ways in which they can turn the problem around to make it into an opportunity. A pessimist, however, immediately feels overwhelmed by the problem, throws up their hands, and yells something like “That’s it; it’s all over”, “I can’t handle this anymore” or “It’s too difficult”, or they may distance themselves from the problem, pretending it doesn’t matter or hopes that it’ll go away.

According to the world's foremost expert on optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman, everyone is born optimistic. And yet, the vast majority of grown-ups are pessimists, not optimists. Why is this? What changes as people get older? Why do some people seem to see the glass as half-empty whilst others see it as half-full? Is it really as simple as that though, or is it possible for people to be a bit of both?

When you think about it, most people tend to show both qualities and are an optimist sometimes and a pessimist at other times.

A lot of times, how a person tends to view things will depend on how they feel about the situation, and whether it is something that they want to do or not.

Ironically, often when a person feels like something will go well or feels optimistic about it, it usually seems to go well. The same is true when someone feels pessimistic about something or that it won’t go well – it tends not to go well!

An indication that you’re dealing with a pessimist is by the words and phrases that they use in stressful situations, or situations that don’t seem to be going well or as planned. The pessimist will feel helpless, powerless and take on the role of a victim of the situation, and this shows in how they talk as they use phrases such as “I can’t” or “It’s all going wrong” or “There’s nothing I can do”. The optimist, on the other hand, will use phrases such as “How can I change this situation?” or “How does this situation help me?” or “What can I do to improve the situation?”. The optimist is making a conscious choice to accept what is happening and actively looking at a way to either change the situation or how they are viewing it.

An optimist prefers to think more positively. They focus on what they really want, not what might happen to them. An optimist will look to focus on, and take control of, what they can control.

Take a look at the following statements:

• Optimists achieve their goals because they never give up.
• Optimists attract success naturally.
• Optimists are happier, healthier and more energetic than pessimists.
• Optimists are easier to be around and they inspire people around them to be positive.
• Optimists live longer and suffer from fewer and less severe diseases.
• Optimists tend to live a higher quality of life.

These are all probably true just by the fact that the optimists positive thinking changes the way they see challenging situations and reframes the perceived negative outcomes into ways in which the situation helps the person. 

It should be noted that being optimistic is not going through life with ‘rose-tinted’ glasses or sitting back, thinking positive thoughts, and hoping everything will turn out all right. It’s how you see the world, positively rather than negatively. You face each situation, each problem, and each occasion with a positive attitude; and you look for the benefits and positive outcomes that you’ll get from it. You have a choice as to how you view the world, and an optimist has chosen to view it positively. As Norman Vincent Peale said “Change your thoughts and change your world”.

What it ultimately comes down to, is that your attitude is a conscious choice. If you choose pessimism, you’re choosing to see the down side of every situation, judge people unfairly, and live unhappily for the rest of your life. Is that really how you would want to live?

On the other hand, if you choose optimism, you’re empowering yourself to see the positive side of each challenge, seeing the good in people, and helping them to see the good in life too. An optimistic and positive attitude will help you to take action to further improve your life, live happily with friends and family who care about you, and attract good things and opportunities to yourself. Choosing to be more optimistic and positive does not mean you won’t encounter difficult times, trauma, loss and many challenges. What it does mean is that you will have more power on your side to help you get through those tough times. You’ll bounce back faster and make better choices, rather than letting life just wash over you. A positive and optimistic attitude will help you learn to be proactive, instead of reactive.

If you’re not normally optimistic and positive, don’t worry. You can learn how to use your thoughts to change your attitude and emotions. It won’t be easy though and some days will be very challenging, but you can do it. Improving your attitude is one of the most important actions you can take to improve your life. But it doesn't come automatically. It takes effort and deliberate, conscious awareness of your thoughts and feelings, and then acting on that awareness.

Spend time during the day being aware of your thoughts and feelings, and each time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, stop the thought before it goes any further, then look for a positive aspect of the situation. This may seem difficult at first, but the more you do it, the easier it will become and the quicker you’ll be able to identify negative thoughts and change them for positive ones. Each time you do this, you’ll build on your previous positive thoughts and it’ll soon become a habit. Then you’ll start thinking more positively and upbeat about your life.

Give yourself permission to think new thoughts and feel new feelings, especially if you’ve been feeling guilty about something or you feel you don’t deserve the best in your life.

Your attitude plays a critical role in determining the quality of your life and what you get out of it. Being optimistic and positive will help you take the necessary actions to achieve your goals and dreams, and face the challenges that will come your way.