Feeding Your Mind With Information

It has been said that information is power, so the more information someone has, the more powerful they can become. Considering this statement, it is important for parents to understand that their children need a good education so they can have an advantage in our society.

Education is not just the act of going to school and doing homework, but it also involves reading books. One of the most important things a parent to do is to create a culture of reading in the home for the child to explore. There are a few steps that can be taken to accomplish this, but the first one is to start reading to the child at a very early age.

Many people have pleasant memories of their parent's reading to them when they were younger, especially bedtime stories. Pass that along to your child, and keep books in their room so they get used to having them around.

Children who grew up around books will always be comfortable and used to having them nearby, and will always want to be close to them. This helps them to develop a positive attitude towards reading, and it will become a regular part of their lives. Also, remember to encourage them in their reading.

Being a reading role model for your child, they can imitate you and develop a love for reading. Your children always notice what their parents do, and often mimic them. This is great with reading, and if they see how you enjoy it, they may learn to as well. Let them see you reading a variety of different things.

Make sure that the books nearby your kids are on topics that they are interested in, and continually remind them that good reading habits will expand their world.

Once they start to nurture the culture of reading that you inspired in them, let them start to choose their books themselves.

Not only will this give them a sense of ownership in picking titles themselves, but they will want to get their hands on as many books as possible. This will help them to keep learning more and more as they read on.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Shorn

3 Tips For Waking Up Your Self Confidence

If you want to be more confident as a person about your self worth and the way you value your own opinion then you need to try these three things: 1) be grateful, 2) be complimentary, and 3) speak up.

What does it mean to be grateful? Take time each and every day to reflect on your life. What happened to you that you are proud of, what have you accomplished? If you reflect on these items and channel that positive energy will you quickly begin to fell better about who you are as a person.

Another thing you should go out of your way to do is to be complimentary. This benefits you in that people want to be around you more and you get to feel good about cheering people up. The more likable you become, the more confident you become as well. You should be above gossip and putting people down. You can bring out the best in everyone around you by complimenting them. Tell them they look nice or you appreciate them and your world will start to take a positive turn.

Are you shy? I know I am and it really can make you feel like less of a person or not as smart as those around you. You need to break free from your comfort zone and not be afraid to speak up. When you do this not everyone will agree with you and that is where a lot of our fears play out, but the more you do it the easier it will become and the less you'll worry about everyone liking you. Speaking up and stating your opinion in an kind and constructive manner will do wonders for your confidence.

I'm certain if you'll take these three tips and apply them to your everyday life, you'll quickly become more confident and more fun to be around.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mason_Russell

Want to Be More Confident?

How would you like to feel a little more sure of yourself, or comfortable to speak in front of a crowd, or confident enough to speak up for yourself and disagree if you want to? A lack of confidence has the ability to affect one in so very many different ways.

Most people worry about a lack of confidence in relation to wanting to do the "big things" in life, but it is really important to feel confident about the little things in life as well. In fact, it is in many, many small ways that an increased self-confidence can make your life so very much better. All of those little instances add up to create an incredibly huge impact upon your life.

For example, if you lack driving confidence, your life is impacted in many different ways. But once you gain driving confidence you can go wherever you want to whenever you want to. This makes a huge impact upon every day of your life.

If, for a further example, you were afraid of blushing, you might either avoid a whole host of situations or feel amazingly uncomfortable in them. That makes life really, really uncomfortable. But if you were to stop blushing and feel confident instead, you could do many more things and feel comfortable whilst doing them.

I could ramble on and on providing these types of examples, illuminating the fact that it is confidence relating to the little things in life that has the most impact. So why do people seek assistance with confidence when they want to make a speech, or shine in a job interview, or such like, more readily than they do in relation to more everyday things?

Perhaps the reason for this is that if someone is planning to make a speech, for instance, they already have a reasonable level of confidence in other things and realize that confidence can be learned and improved upon. It's almost as if they have sufficient confidence to go out and get more confidence; confidence breeds confidence.

In contrast, someone who is severely lacking in confidence might perhaps be too shy to seek help or have so little self-belief that they do not think that they can be helped. But in this assumption I would have to say that they are not correct. Everyone can learn to build confidence and to feel more comfortable in their own skin, so long as they know how to go about this task.

The most important thing to acquire so as to enable you to enjoy life and be happy is confidence. Possessions will not provide you with happiness and contentment. A change in your outer image may help, but it will not provide you with real self-confidence and happiness. As someone said to me the other day, she got hair extensions so as to make herself feel better, but now she wants laser surgery on her eyes; she had the insight to observe that even this wouldn't satisfy herself either - there would always be something else to crave in the vain hope that it would make her happy.

Diets, hair extensions or funky clothes do not make you happy; being confident does.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roseanna_Leaton

How to Keep a Positive Attitude in Life

It can be extremely hard to keep a positive attitude in life, especially when circumstances do not go your way. It is much easier to blame and be negative about the situation rather than to focus on what caused the issue to happen and why. There are some rare cases where people are naturally content and negative thoughts rarely cross their minds. Others have a difficult time trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel. If you are wondering how to keep a positive attitude in life, you have come to the right place.

There are always two ways to perceive a situation. A positive person will see the good in the outcome and move on from the situation. A negative person will dwell on the issue, complain and take a while to move on. For example; you tried to take a shortcut to avoid traffic in rush hour and it ended up taking you longer to get home because you got lost. The negative thought is obvious; the positive thought could be that now you know that the alternate route does not work, perhaps another route will be faster on your next attempt.

With many situations there can be a positive resolution around the corner. Working on positive thoughts will help you expand and train your mind into eventually having positive thoughts that come naturally.

Negative thoughts can have detrimental effects in the real world. Think of the people you surround yourself with, are any of them negative? What do you think about these friends? They are probably not fun to be around. Your work life, family and social life can suffer if you are constantly down about yourself or a situation.

Learning how to keep a positive attitude in life is a habit that is hard to obtain but once you master your thought process you will be able to find the light at the end of the tunnel in no time. Next time you are in a bad situation take a breath and do the right thing. It will pay off in the end.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lark_A._Miller

5 Quotes on Positive Thinking

Here's 5 quotes on positive thinking together with their meanings.

1. "The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible" - Author Unknown

This quote means: Someone who chooses positive thoughts over negative ones has several advantages over most people. First, positive thinkers are able to see the good in things that other people cannot see.

Secondly, a positive thinker can feel things that are not visible - such as a strong sense of 'correct' gut feeling. A positive thinker has access to things that the masses think are myths. Lastly, a positive thinker is capable of achieving things that most people believe are not possible.

2. Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results" - Willie Nelson

This quote means: The intention with this quote is to show you just how powerful your thoughts are. If they are positive, good things will start to happen in your life. This is pretty much about persuading you how much of a say your thoughts have in your life - they make a huge contribution.

We're at the half way stage of these quotes on positive thinking - I hope you're getting something from them!

3. "Where the loser saw barriers, the winner saw hurdles" - Robert Brault

This quote means: A positive thinker (the winner, of course!) sees the negative as something to be overcome. The negative thinker views the negative as a blockage that cannot be beaten. Seeing something as a hurdle means that you still believe getting past it is achievable. This is the positive attitude that leads to success.

4. "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" Dr. Wayne Dyer

This quote means: Things are whatever you think they are. Nothing has a set opinion. So, if you change your view of something, it's appearance will also change with your thinking. The world is a bright place if you choose to see it that way. Realising that you have choice is one of the key factors to being more positive, and that makes this one of the most important quotes on positive thinking.

5. "I have found that if you love life, life will love you back" - Arthur Rubinstein

This quote means: If you choose to see things positively in life, your reality will feel positive itself. Your life becomes as positive as your mind is.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_R._A._Davis

Rising Above Negative Attitudes

Negativity can be classed as an illness in some cases where it has been ingrained in a person's mind and they cannot overcome it. It does not matter how positive you are as a person, if you are surrounded by negative people you will succumb to behaving and thinking negatively as it is infectious. Consequently, the more time you spend with this type of person the more negative you will become.

Although most of us know someone who is negative as it affects quite a high percentage of people at some time or other, normally they are able to rise above any negative attitudes they are confronted with.

Adversity can be the cause of a negative state of mind. But instead of learning from adversity, sometimes you can get pulled down by it and sink into a depressed state of mind.

One very common complaint that is a result of the pace we live our lives today is depression. Doctors prescribe medication for this condition in some cases and the drugs that treat it can have side effects. In addition to this, you could be on medication for the rest of your life.

However, life can be very inspirational as there is so much goodness in our lives if we only look for it and embrace it. Everyone has the ability to appreciate all that nature has given us, the rugged countryside, flora and fauna, oceans, mountains and so much more. These wonders of beauty and nature cannot be taken away and should be appreciated.

When sinking into a negative depressed state of mind over a trivial matter, count your blessings and remember all that is good in your life and take this into account. This will help you in rising above negative attitudes. Negativity will only consume you if you allow it to. Everyone has a choice and to replace any negative thought that comes into your mind with a positive one is an action that everyone is capable of taking.

When you analyse negativity most of the time it is worrying about what might happen. It is the pessimist who thinks that the worst will happen and in thinking this way it generally does. On the contrary, the optimist thinks that the best will happen and creates a positive thought which is generally the result.

Everyone has the ability to control their thoughts so why do they allow themselves to become depressed? Why are they consumed by negativity when rising above negative attitudes is so easy?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_R_James

Why You Have to Fail to Be Successful

The reason that success seems so hard to obtain for most people is because there are so many obstacles on the way to becoming successful. If you look at any successful person, you can bet your butt that they didn't get there by being lucky. They got there through hard work and determination, as well as by having many setbacks and failures along the way. The difference is that the successful person manages to overcome all those failures and challenges and rise above them in the end.

Success starts with taking an action, and most people don't take action due to fear of failure. It's not about taking a risk and either becoming successful or not, in fact failure and success are the same thing. You can't have one without the other. Look at all the different types of failure, eg, muscle failure, mental failure, project failure. A good example to use is body building. You will hear body builders speak about pushing your body to failure. The body is designed to re-grow muscle bigger than when you started, so if you don't push your body to failure, your body won't grow.

In the same way, if you are not having the success level that you want, you are not failing enough. You need to take more action and more risk. In this way you learn the lessons that you need to learn to climb the ladder to success. Everyone who has climbed to the top of the ladder, has gone through loads of failure on the way. It takes longevity, hard work and learning from failure to succeed. You need to become comfortable with the concept that you will fail, and have no attachment to the outcome. Make it a game or battle, and in this way you will conquer your fear.

Remember that no failure means no learning, and no learning means no success.

If you are comfortable and you are not willing to take risks, then your goals are not big enough. You will not feel inspired. Redo your goals in such a way that they make you feel a little edgy and nervous, and in this way you will push yourself further.

As an entrepreneur, you want things to happen yesterday, but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes constantly educating yourself and growing. If you keep on working towards your goals one little piece at a time, you will get there, but if you don't have setbacks on the way you won't learn from your mistakes and grow as a person. As they say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

A lot of people tend to give up at the first sign of hardship, instead of looking at each new obstacle as a challenge and using the obstacle to keep learning and growing. Celebrate each movement forward, and work through your challenges and you will be successful in the end.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michel_Maling

How to Turn Failure Into Success

Success begins with your state of mind. If you have failed before then you have the ability to succeed. It is just a matter of using those failures in a positive way.

Your failures should be used as a foundation for your eventual success. The worst thing you can do is look at your setbacks as permanent situations that you find yourself in.

That is the most common reason that people usually become failures. They look at their temporary situation as hopeless and they quit.

The moment that you decide to give up on your dreams because of the difficulty involved in acquiring them then you have truly failed. If you never allow this to become your fate then you will eventually win.

Learn from every mistake and try not to make the same mistake twice. Use your failures. Bounce back by asking better questions. Ask them of yourself and seek out experts who have broken through the barriers that are stopping you.

Use every failure as a form of feedback. The information that you receive is not negative or positive. It is just data. It is feedback that you can use in order to improve your results. Simply retool your approach based upon your feedback.

With every failure that you experience you can actually grow if you use it in this way. Improve upon your previous results by examining the feedback that you receive from those attempts.

Do not let the struggle frustrate you to the point of giving up. Take a short break if you have to. Recharge your batteries and start again. Also, read biographies of people who have succeeded in spite of tremendous odds. This will put your disappointments in the proper prospective. You will come to realize that your situation is not unique. You will also see that in the whole scheme of things the obstacles that you face are not so big after all.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_D_Carter

3 Steps to You Becoming A Good Leader by Being a Good Listener

God gave us two ears and one mouth. Maybe we should listen twice as much as we talk. Most people do too much of the talking and thus they miss opportunities.

The person who controls a conversation is the one asking the questions. And, when we let others do most of the talking, that makes them feel important and they, in turn, like us and want to help us.

Thus, here is how you can become a great listener and benefit from that habit:

1. Ask people questions that they will enjoy answering: Where are you from originally? If from here, have they lived here all their lives? If not from here, what brought them here? Do they have a family? What do they do? What did they want to be when they were growing up?

2. When they tell you something that is especially interesting, state the following: Tell me more about that.

3. When you part, make notes of what that person told you about themselves and refer to some of those points in the future. They will be honored and consider you to be a very special person. They will naturally look for ways to be of service to you.

So, here is a positive affirmation that, when stated out loud the first thing each morning and the last thing each night, will help you to become a great listener:

I am genuinely interested in other people. I ask a lot of questions and let them do most of the talking.

Do this for at least 30 days and I believe that you will be amazed with the positive results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Boaz_Rauchwerger

Achieve Success in Life by First Starting to Build Trust in Relationships at Home

As human beings, relationships are at the core of our social interaction and networking. Our relationships are often integral to our success, whether in the workplace, social environments or in our personal lives. To maintain success in our relationships, we have to be able to build strong foundations of trust.

As one person begins to trust another, they start to feel more comfortable about "opening up", declaring their feelings or opinions and even exposing some of their vulnerabilities. Recognizing and being respectful of these initial stages are some of the first steps to building trust.

To further build trust, those involved must have reasonable expectations of what they require from one another, and communicate these well. If all parties are not able to agree on what they expect out of a relationship, or what they consider acceptable conduct within it, then the trust could be jeopardized, and in turn the relationship.

Being open and providing good communication is key to building trust. Nothing does more harm to trust than negative surprise. Each party must be aware of their actions and the impact they may have on those they are involved with. Communicating well to avoid any situations of "not knowing" or negative reaction is a great investment towards building up trust.

Trust often increases or decreases depending on personal experience. Learning to trust from an early age can be extremely important in building trustworthy relationships later in life. Similarly it can be difficult for a person who has experienced destruction of trust in the past to place trust in future relationships.

Trust is a two way requirement. A relationship does not fair well if only one party feels comfortable to trust. Not feeling trustworthy can be as harmful to a relationship as not being able to trust. If there are trust issues within a relationship, they must be discussed and if at all possible, resolved.

Once achieved, there is huge satisfaction and personal benefit to be enjoyed from experiencing trust in relationships. The security and stability that it produces provide strong platforms for personal development and growth, and therefore trust should be considered fundamental to the development of any relationship.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=BH_Yao

Make One Small Shift And Change Your Life

Making changes scares many of us, doesn't it? What exactly are we frightened of? What are YOU frightened of? Not getting positive results? Not receiving support through the process? Finding out you don't have the courage? Learning that other people don't approve? Not knowing where to start? Just hearing the word CHANGE may give you stomach butterflies, a throbbing headache, body quivers, or a lot of self doubt. So maybe it's time to try a different approach to getting more of what you need and want. Maybe it's time to make ONE SMALL SHIFT to the left or to the right. One tiny movement away from where you are this very minute...instead of trying to do something really big.

One tiny step can have a ripple effect that eventually makes a huge difference. For example, if you rarely or never smile, try smiling to someone who is steadily present in your life before you go to bed tonight. Observe the other person's reaction. That single smile possesses the power to alter your entire relationship with this individual. If you smoke, indulge in one less cigarette today. It could be the beginning of a smoking cessation program for you.

If you typically eat too many unhealthy foods, substitute one healthy item for that bag of potato chips or pack of cupcakes. If you constantly complain about work, choose one positive thing to say about your day when you next talk with a friend, family member, or peer. If you've got a pile of papers on your desk that needs purged, pick up one of those papers and deal with it. The key word is ONE. One tiny action can lead to greater happiness, improved health, increased productivity. There's a lot of magic in one small shift.

What kind of magic? It's actually an emotional and psychological magic. Think about how you feel when you smile, smoke less, eat healthy food, say something good, or file one paper. You feel great about yourself, don't you? You feel great about YOU because you did something you didn't think you could do, something you put off doing for a long time, something you simply didn't take the time to do. You also feel great because you know you are now in closer alignment with your personal values and priorities.

This sense of alignment brings you happiness in a way that nothing else can. There is no substitute for taking steps toward becoming the kind of person we desire to be. When you eat an apple instead of a piece of cake, you prove to yourself that you value good nutrition and care about your health. Further, if weight loss is a priority, then you consume eighty calories of vitamins and fiber rather than four hundred calories of sugar, fat, and simple carbohydrates.

When you file an important paper, you prove to yourself that you value organization. If office neatness is a priority, than you are moving toward cleaning up the mess. When you smile at someone, you prove to yourself that you value amicable relationships with others. If patching up your relationship with a coworker is a priority, then you're on the way to accomplishing it.

Taking these little steps on a regular basis brings about the major change we seek. If there are thirty papers on the pile and you file one paper per day, the entire pile obviously disappears within a month. As a result, filing the stack of papers is painless. Smoking one less cigarette each day for a month is easier than suddenly cutting out thirty cigarettes in a day or a week. It's all about getting started in a way that seems possible for you. Getting started is the hardest part of making any kind of change.

So how do you come around to actually making one small shift and ultimately the major change? Try the following:

1. Determine the major change you eventually want to make.

2. Decide upon a realistic time line for making that change.

3. Make a list of the circumstances, people, and other barriers that could sabotage or slow down your change making efforts. Develop strategies for dealing with them.

4. Identify all of the steps you need to take in order to make the big change. You must perceive each step as do-able.

5. Assign a completion date to each of those steps.

6. Focus on the first step and ask yourself what needs to happen so that you take that step.

7. Find a trustworthy accountability partner who agrees to check in with you periodically during the entire change making process.

8. Take that first critical step.

9. Assess your feelings upon completion of that step. Celebrate your mini success.

10. Complete all necessary steps within their respective time frames to make the big change you want.

If you find yourself dragging your feet on one or more of the steps you've outlined, have an honest conversation with yourself. Do you really want to make that particular change? Do you want to make it but at a later time or for a different reason?

Are you attempting to make this change because somebody else recommended it and you wish to satisfy that person? In order to make change successfully, you must be motivated deep inside yourself. You really can't make long lasting change unless YOU want to. When YOU truly want to do it, however, the outcome is powerful.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sylvia_Hepler

The Secret to Intense Focus By

One of the common elements you see in almost all successful people is focus. They saw what they wanted to achieve and they focused in on it like a laser. Then, when they become famous and we, the common folk, know their name, we are amazed at the focus they have.

Focus will set two people apart who have equal skills.

What I am about to say may appear to be blasphemous to some:
Tiger Woods is not that much more highly skilled than the other top PGA players!

No, I haven't lost my marbles. Take any of the big names and stick them on any course and on any given day they can shoot a 65 for 18 holes. You see, it isn't whether they can - they all CAN - it is whether or not they DO. And that is determined mostly by F-O-C-U-S.

Watch Tiger sometime in a close race to the finish. Watch when he hits a bad shot. Does he fall apart and grumble to anyone who will listen? No! In fact it is almost eerie to watch him lock back in, even more focused than ever. THAT is what makes him a champion. I truly believe it is Tiger's focus that has distinguished him from the rest of the field to become the best golfer ever.

The same is true with others who achieve great things, even in crucial and highly tense situations. Think John Elway in those final minutes of those games he brought the Broncos back in. Think of all of those last second shots that Michael Jordan took (that everyone in the entire arena knew he was going to take - including the other team). These were classic examples of focus.

So what can the average person do to increase their focus? There are some things to do to train yourself. You may never be Tiger Woods, either on the golf course or in the office, but you can increase your focus to where it needs to be to give you the success you desire.

In the remaining part of this article I want to show you how to stay away from a common mistake and turn toward a discipline of focus that will be the first step in greatly enhancing your ability to focus. I will show you a practice technique to use that will greatly enhance your focus and your performance.

The myth is that to focus we must push other things out of your mind. For example, people will say to an athlete, "Don't listen to the fans." Or someone will say to another, "Don't think about..." This doesn't work! For example, right now, do not picture your car. You thought of it right? Exactly. This myth actually gets you to focus on exactly what you don't want to focus on!

Instead, the secret to intense focus is to set your mind intently on what it is you want to focus in on. For example (I'm hoping we have some golfers here - and if not, make the changes you need to, but you should get the point), let's say you are standing over a ten foot putt.

What do you want to focus on? Making that putt! So what are the elements you should be aware of? Then focus on them. But go beyond mere observation. Most people just look at the line of the putt, take a guess on how hard to hit and fire away...

Here are some other things to do (remember the process here is to get you highly aware of your surroundings and to focus with intensity):

Look at the hole. Is the plastic cup even with the top of the grass or is it sunken in? How much? Bet you never noticed that before. Does the grass tip in at the edge or is it even?
How long is the grass between you and the hole? Does it waver in length from foot to foot?

Is there sand along the way in your path? How much? What color? What size? Is it even or just for a section?

Are there any bugs sitting on the ground between you and the hole?
Does the hill go up or down at all? Not significantly - you would have already noticed that - but even slightly?

Is there a slight wind? Can you feel it blowing on your face?

Lastly, imagine that ball rolling along that path, curving slightly if it has to, and falling in the hole. I mean, really create that movie in your head and watch it!

Chris, is this the secret to making your putts? No, but it's an example of how to focus... Be observant. Notice. Focus. Lock into your focal point(s).

The same could be done at a business meeting with all of the people there, what questions they are asking, what points are being made, what may come next, what the others are wearing, why they chose that outfit for this meeting (What they were trying to accomplish etc).

The myth of most focus advice is to try to not focus on bad things.

The secret to intense focus is to focus to a higher degree than you normally do on the "good things" - the things you are trying to accomplish!

Give it a try for a week. Focus intensely on what it is you want to accomplish. Bring yourself to a much higher degree of awareness of the surroundings etc... and see for yourself the power behind this methodology!

Then when you have taught yourself to do this for practice, it will become a part of you and you will start to do it naturally and that will be an incredible day!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Widener

Manifesting Success With Creative Visualization

Think that creative visualization is a mental technique reserved just for artists and writers?

Think again! Creative visualization - a technique where one envisions and focuses on a particular goal, like losing weight or gaining a promotion at work - is not just a positive and powerful self-affirmation; it is a key method that allows you to manifest thoughts and beliefs into reality.

Ask any successful business owner or movie star how they got to where they are today, and they will let you in on a little secret: they envisioned their dream goals from Day One. And those visions gave them the strength and hope to work hard towards their dreams, even in the face of some pretty tough obstacles.

But you do not have to be the next Bill Gates to learn how to manifest your own success with creative visualization!

If you have heard of the law of attraction, then think of visualization as the road map that helps you get to your ultimate destination. Visualization creates powerful thoughts within our subconscious minds; the more we visualize and believe that something is true, the more our thoughts, attitudes and actions shift in recognition of this belief. And it is these shifts that are directly responsible for bringing the things we most want and need into our lives.

Think of the last really amazing day you had. You probably woke up with a smile on your face, bounded out of bed, and greeted your family with a big kiss. When you arrived at work, your boss noted your positive attitude and gave you an exciting and rewarding project to work on. After spending a blissful day in the office, you came home again, and spent the rest of the evening playing out in the backyard with your kids, all of whom brought home as on their report cards.

That was not all just a happy coincidence: in fact, because you filled your subconscious with positive thoughts, you attracted positive outcome your way. You visualized and believe in a happy family and a rewarding career - and you got it.

Creative visualization can help you to make those amazing days more common. The more you visualize your ultimate dream life - like a house by the beach or a wonderful husband and kids - the more powerful your thoughts and attitudes will become. And if there is anything to be learned from the law of attraction, it is this: the universe will always find a way to manifest powerful thoughts and beliefs into reality.

So what is that ultimate destination for you? Are you determined to find a more rewarding career with a better salary? Are you desperate to backpack across Europe for a couple of months? Do you want to erase all toxic debt from your life? No matter what the goal, mapping out your eventual destiny will help you to make those mental shifts that manifest themselves into real life.

So do not just sit back and wait for that promotion to come your way - truly believe that you are going to get it. Visualize yourself sanding in your new corner office, surrounded by your admiring co-workers. Picture yourself receiving that lucrative new paycheck. Imagine how good it feels to finally get recognized for your work. Finally, follow up with affirming action! Eventually, success will come your way - thanks to using the power of your thoughts, imagination and inspired actions!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Evelyn_Lim

The Difference Between "Looking" and "Being"

I am a naturally small guy, so I would always overeat to try to gain muscle mass. I remember years ago when I got my first gym membership. The personal trainer was teaching me how to bench press. I remember how he kept taking the weights off of the bar, 10 pounds at a time, because I would struggle with the weight.

When the trainer finally took the last two 10 pound weights off of the bar, I still struggled to lift the bar. I felt so weak. I remember the look on his face when I struggled to bench press that empty bar. He actually shook his head in disgust and walked away, leaving me to struggle with the bench press bar.

I was so embarrassed that I decided I would never be weak again. I started going to the gym every day as soon as they opened at 5 in the morning. I wanted to get there before anybody else, because I was so ashamed for other people to see me trying to work out. I was the first person in the gym every morning. Some days I would get there at 4:30 am and would be waiting on the steps when the trainer arrived.

I bought a body building encyclopedia and I was determined to train myself. I was frustrated because regardless of how much I worked out, I could not gain any weight. This is when I started drinking those disgusting weight gainers and protein shakes. I would also go to an all-you-can-eat buffet every morning after my work out.

I also had a pizza delivery job at the time and we always had extra pizza, so I started eating two whole pizzas every day. Before I knew it I had started to put on muscle mass and people started to notice.

I developed two habits in my early twenties that stayed with me for the next decade. I always worked out even though I was inconsistent, and I also developed the habit of eating massive amounts of junk food.

It was a couple of years before I started working out at they gym, when I saw my first network marketing business presentation.

The presenter was wearing an expensive suit and alligator shoes, and he talked about how a job was an acronym for "Just Over Broke". He also talked about all of the money he was making in network marketing. I was a broke college student at the time, and to me he "looked" rich.

I have always wanted to be rich since I was a little kid, but I never knew how. After attending that network marketing presentation, I finally thought I had the answer, but I was flat broke at the time and the cost to get started was $500.

I went home trying to figure out how I would come up with the $500. My parents had just bought me a new computer for school, and I was able to pawn it for exactly $500.

Well, I was going to school at Tuskegee University in Alabama at the time. The nearest training facility for that particular network marketing opportunity was in Atlanta, Georgia.

My up-line told me that I needed to do two things to be successful:

1. Never miss a weekly training

2. Always bring new people to the weekly business presentation

I would drive two hours both ways every week from Tuskegee, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia. I brought new people with me every time, but I barely sponsored enough people to make my money back. Even worse, nobody on my team made any money at all.

I ended up dropping out of college, because I knew that I could not get rich by learning how to work for someone else. In hindsight I realize that I did not have the best decision making skills, because I ended up losing a full scholarship.

Well, I spent the next decade of my life chasing my dream of financial freedom. I was susceptible to "get rich quick" schemes, and I would try just about anything that I thought would help me make a lot of money.

I was also taught to dress for success, and how to look successful. This was part of the reason why I was able to sponsor over 150 people when I tried another network marketing business a few years later.

Well, if you fast forward to December of 2009, my eating habits and financial habits had finally caught up with me. A few months prior, I had filed for bankruptcy and my home/investment property had been foreclosed.

I also had a mini-stroke, but I did not realize it until I noticed that it was becoming difficult for me to speak clearly and I also started to lose my balance.

By January of 2010, I was homeless and I had reached the lowest point of my life. It was at that point that I made the decision that I no longer cared about "looking" healthy. I wanted to "be" healthy. I also do not care about "looking" rich. I want to "be" rich.

There is a big difference between " looking" and "being". I do not agree with the idea of "fake it until you make it." "Looking" is about giving a false perception, or in other words being fake. "Being" is about developing the characteristics and your character.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremiah_Carstarphen

3 Proven Principles How You Can Unleash Your Maximum Potential

Do you want to know how you can unleash your maximum potential so that you can and are able to produce amazing results in your life just like every other successful did? If your answer is a yes, this will be the perfect article that you cannot miss.

Since you are reading this article right now, I believe that you do not want to live in mediocrity. You strongly believe that you would like to learn the secret of how you can unleash your greatness to achieve all your goals and make all your dreams come true. And this is exactly what you are going to discover below, the 3 proven principles to uncover your maximum potential...

1. In order to produce the results you want in your life, you must be clear about what you want in your life. In other words, you have to be visionary. Spend some time right now to think about your future. Take out a piece of paper and write down your dreams. You do not have to be very specific down to every detail. You just need to know what you want in your life.

2. Next, the main difference between a successful person and an ordinary person is the habit of doing something that you dislike. Do you think you love to wake up early in the morning to go for jogging? Of course not, you will rather continue to sleep in your warm blanket. However, successful people are able to do what most people dislike and be great in doing it.

Can you see the difference between these two groups of people right now? And one more important key is that successful people focus on the rewards instead of the process. When you think about waking up in the morning, you will feel like procrastinating because it is not a fun thing to do. However, if you focus on the reward that you are going to get, you will feel motivated to do it.

3. Finally, you must take action and keep going. It does not matter whether you are using the right plan or strategy to accomplish your goals, the most important key is to keep it going. You do not have to wait until everything is right only then you want to act. Therefore, if you have a thought of starting your own business, go ahead. Do not wait until it is perfect. Just do it and things will get right.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Li

4 Steps to Success by Taking Charge of Your Life

All Engines "GO"

In the following segment, we'll go through four steps that will help you "take off" in the right direction. Make no mistake - if you are completely serious about taking charge of your life, and finding the success you're looking for, the tips presented in our series will put you on the right path.

So, let's get started!

Step 1: Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Once you have acquired clarity of vision and purpose, the next step to achieving success is to specifically define S.M.A.R.T. goals. The acronym 'SMART' stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive. Identifying what you want and determining S.M.A.R.T. goals as benchmarks is another key to achieving success. If you don't have a clear roadmap of where you're going, you're likely to end up anywhere BUT your intended destination!

Step 2: Defer, Delegate, or Delete

In addition to making your plan, you also need to develop a direction to your action plan. This will keep you motivated to keep going forward at all times. Although you may need some self-discipline to accomplish this, it is a vital aspect of any kind of achievement. Before beginning any new activity, examine it to see if it will help in moving you closer to the goals you have in mind. If it doesn't, you may need to put it aside for another time.

Deferring, delegating, or to deleting are the 3 D's taught by many personal and business coaches. If a certain activity can be put away for a later time, defer it. If that activity can be done by somebody else, delegate it. If it does not really need to be done at all, delete it. This kind of examination of each activity will help keep you focused on the things that are really important.

Step 3: Decide on the Course of Action

One of the first steps in the process of successfully taking control of your life is to make the decision to move from where you are now to where you want to be, personally and professionally. All of us know that nothing happens until that first decision is made. Acknowledging your decision is a basic step, but often one many people tend to overlook. So, decide you will move forward, put your decision in writing to keep it in focus, and then continue in a positive direction from there.

Step 4: Take Action

The eighth and final step is the catalyst to transforming your personal or professional life into whatever you want it to be. Absolutely nothing can be attained or achieved until action is taken. By putting your plan of action into motion, you will gain control over your own life and confidently headed down your road of success!

It's a wonderful feeling when you know you are becoming a successful "C.E.O. of Your Life" and are finally back in the driver's seat. Print out the 8 steps we covered and tape them to your bathroom mirror or your computer screen so you can review them daily as you journey forward towards the personal and professional results you're seeking in your life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kris_Cavanaugh

Can the Level of Our Achievement So Often Depend on Our Self-Image?

Start by doing something far better than you expect, then watch how your sub-conscious goes to work to sabotage your early efforts! The result? You finish up with the overall level of achievement you would have anticipated! And how do we anticipate that level - by referring to our self- image! Ask a golfer!

Take a mediocre golfer who plays rarely and yet has all the attributes to play well. Fix a friendly round for him with a good golfing friend who agrees to keep score in this non-competitive encounter. The mediocre player can play the first few holes like a dream, while nothing is said! But watch what happens when the golfing friend checks the score to-date and then announces, " I don't know whether you realise it, but if you go on like this you will have a round of only 10 over par!" (Which for those who don't play is pretty good for an occasional player!)

Stunned by the implication, our mediocre player does not so much feel an inner elation and pride, as a discomfort that actually he could be that good. The discomfort quickly spreads to his sub-conscious, which is ever-ready to maintain the status quo, and his quality of play immediately begins to nose-dive! By the end of the round his overall score is as he would have expected!

Perhaps stranger, the reverse can apply. The initial holes can be an absolute disaster, to a point where even his sub-conscious self-image is so offended that it calls for a different approach. And Hey! Standard of play improves and the overall score at the end rights itself!

Self-image, self-esteem, self-worth are very powerful cognitive drivers in terms of achievement and performance. Cognitive research has demonstrated that where we have unjustifiably low opinions of ourselves - unjustified because we are not as bad at something as we think - the low self-image triumphs over our greater ability almost every time.

However what should interest us and inspire us is the news that the converse is also true. If we have a higher self image than our actual ability would justify, most often it is that higher self-image we perform to.

So working on our self-image, feeding it with positive and upbeat messages does pay! We then perform better. We readjust our self-image and again perform better still.

But remember we do not have an overall self-image of ourselves. We have hundreds. Our self-image for singing could be low, golf - high, public-speaking - very low, cooking - very high, etc etc. We can work on each in turn to achieve more, by employing psychology simplified to its basics..

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gerry_Neale

How Personal Success Rituals Will Dramatically Change Your Results

I want to share with you my personal experience with success rituals and why you should create them. The importance of success rituals is far beyond your imagination, because when you will start to follow your rituals you will see that your actions will be more effective and you will get better results.

First of all what is personal success ritual and how to create one? It is when you do some action over and over again every day with intention of creating habit. It is when you use the strength of your will power and you create a habit in order to do particular action automatically. And why you should want to do this? Because it will help you prepare for the day and you will be more focus on your income producing activities.

Every successful person has personal success rituals and you should definitely create yours TODAY. The best time to do success rituals is in the morning. I will tell you what are my success rituals and this way you will get also some tips so you can create yours today.

Every day I wake up and I drink half a liter of water, because body is dehydrated from the night, so it will help me to activate my body. After that I do my body exercise, it takes me about 30 minutes. I also heard one time that great recipe for better feelings is to increase heartbeat and exercise is the best method. Then I go to shower and do bathroom stuff. Then I visualize for about 10 minutes, I read my affirmations, and for about 5 minutes I am repeating magic mantra "Every day in every way I am getting better and better". After that I read some personal development book.

Every time when I miss my success rituals my day is much worse, because when I do my rituals my mind is calm and I am more focus on my daily actions. Just like in every activity there is a lot of inspiration in first days, but after 6, 7 days it is much harder to do these actions. Why? Because we need to get from our comfort zone and it is not always pleasure for our mind to do that.

It is a trick of our mind, but in this point we have to use our will power and just do it. But if you break through, it will be easier to do your rituals and it takes about 30 days to create a habit. And what is habit? Habit is when you do things automatically and this is exactly what we want, do our success rituals automatically every day, without hesitating if I should do my rituals today or I will do them tomorrow, because today I am just lazy.

In one of the ancient book I read that your mind can be your worst enemy or your best friend. It all depends if you are master of your mind or mind is a master of you. If you are master of your mind, then mind is your best friend. If mind is your master, your mind is your worst enemy. Success is based upon that you are controller of your thoughts, feelings and actions. It is just like yoga. In yoga system the main goal is to control your mind, because if your mind controls you, you will never achieve anything.

You maybe think that these are hard words and let me tell you that they are. How many times you heard about the power of your mind and your thoughts. Napoleon Hill talks about that, Wallace D. Wattles talks about that, Emmerson talks about that, Bob Proctor talks about that, The Secret talks about that. But what is the point? That you control your mind and your thoughts, because it is not easy to think about wealth if you are in debt, it is not easy to think about health if you have some disease and it is not easy to think about thin body if you are fat. So you have to use your will power and control your mind and thoughts.

Do not be discouraged if you fail some day, you have to know that it is a journey and it will not happen overnight. You have to be persistent, get up and do it again and again. Your goal is to create a habit and you should know that it take some time, so keep going my friend and never give up.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jiri_Majkus

More Reflection on Our Have To's and Want To's in Relation to Achievement

Oh! To be able to lead a life of "Want To's." Just imagine actually having no "Have To's!" What I hope sincerely would be a bonus for you would be the realisation that you can convert many activities from being "Have To's" into unqualified "Want To's" for yourself.

I hope you won't take me too literally. Perhaps you would like paint, to write, to cook or dance, take up a sport - the choice of what we can do is endless. It matters not what you take up as an interest. What is key, is your "wanting to" do it, for your own satisfaction. Making it solely for your pleasure and your sense of achievement is key. There need be no "Have to" about it, at all!

Life today for so many of us is a long succession of "Have To's" or at least "Ought To's". If that is not the actual reality of our lives, it can still be our perception and it can still put us under more pressure.

However doing something that is our own; doing it at our own pace; doing it because we want to get better at it, does not make it self-indulgent and selfish. This is a very important way to sustain a sense of Life Balance.

Of course, it goes without saying that to take up something manically, with total and utter missionary zeal at the expense of all other commitments would not be good idea. But finding the times in the week when you can learn a new skill is a great way to relax and restore belief in your own creative powers. That is a great feeling. And it provides an object lesson to those around us that having a more balanced lifestyle is important and is achievable.

And there is one hidden secret lesson in all this. A tutorial in simplified psychology, if you will!

Show yourself how easily and quickly you learn the tricks of the new activity of entirely your choosing, and it will show you, first, how powerfully the mind can respond to your deep desire to do something.

That's all still very different to learning a "Have To"!

But with your new chosen skill learned (or at a stage where it is well on the way to towards being acquired), then you will have the stark proof of the high worth of the important recommendation that follows..

Faced with any new "Have To" or "Ought To", forget who is imposing it on you and look for the value to you in it. Look for the value in it to those you love and to those you care about and respect. If, while you gain little and they would gain great satisfaction out of it, then look to share in their pleasure and want to do it.

The more of that value you find and can cherish, the more you will find powerful parallels with the things you have chosen to achieve. The more you do that, the quicker you will dilute that "have to" feeling. Doing that will, in turn, open the way to achieving the once "have to" goal and being able to draw great satisfaction from it as an adopted choice rather than a imposition.

Have some fun! And be canny too in finding advantages to things apparently foisted on you! And notice just how much more you achieve!

We can blot out harmful self-talk and by using the natural thinking processes resident within us, we can teach ourselves new Want to's. Try it! you will be amazed!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gerry_Neale

5 Amazing Tips For Taking More Action

In order to reach any dream or goal in life, one has to take action - things usually don't happen if you just sit home waiting for miracles. The annoying thing is that taking action is pretty hard for most people, and it is much easier to procrastinate on things and wait for a better moment time after time. Unfortunately the time is never just right, so what we should do instead is to find ways of starting g the things we have to do, and start right now.

I have collected here five great tips that will help you to take more action:

1. Use a to-do list with only three tasks

If you have too many things in your to-do list, you will get overwhelmed and it is likely that you won't get anything done. Instead, choose only three very crucial things every day that you want to get done. It will be much more than what most people achieve daily anyway.

2. Tell other people what you are going to do

When you are accountable to other people, it will be much easier for you to keep your word. You don't want to disappoint your friends, so tell them what your plan of action is and then just keep your word.

3. Set rules for yourself and don't cheat

Respect yourself and remember that cheating yourself is not an option. Set your own standards and principles for how you want to behave - when you follow these principles over time, you will create a habit of being effective every day, which on the other hand will make you feel good.

4. Leave "shoulds" away

Instead of thinking that you should do something, always choose to do things. When you take the control back to yourself and decide what you choose to do instead of giving your personal power away, it will be much easier to take action.

5. Find enthusiasm

Sometimes the lack of motivation is the biggest obstacle in taking action. Think about the bigger goals in life that you will achieve when you start taking those small steps daily. One good way of finding the right mood is by listening to music that pumps you up and gets you full of energy. Then it is much easier to take action.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Petteri_Ollila

Moving Along With Change

• "No plan survives contact with the enemy." - popular military saying
• "Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance." - yet another popular military saying
• "Don't forget to bring your towel." - Douglas Adams's fans*

Of these three sayings, the one about the towel captures the gist of this article perfectly. It's when the plan hits the real world that you need to keep a clear head --and your towel close. Whatever life throws at you, when you know where your towel is, you're good to go.

Goals are not plans.

Goals are the end point, plans are what you refer to to guide you there. If the terrain sudden changes on the way to your goal, you need to adjust. Forcing reality to adjust to your plans is a waste of energy. Accept the situation for what it is, without judgment, and get going. What can you realistically do to deal with the situation and turn it to your advantage? Where's the silver lining?

Plans cannot translate to real life without action.

All the paper and diagrams in the world don't mean squat if you do nothing to bring them to life. Your monthly goals, your yearly tracker? You still have to fill those up, they won't write themselves.

Plans cannot translate to real life without action. Action can't happen without you.

How sure are you that the goals you have now are what you really need or want? How invested are you to making it to your goals? What will you consider as acceptable losses? What will you willingly give up to get there? Your answers will determine how you'll deal with the trade-off you'll encounter on the way and how you can make the hardship worth it.

Plans do not equal preparation.

Plans are possible courses of action captured on paper, preparation is you carrying out the concrete action. It's like money, in a way. By itself in your wallet, a 10-dollar bill can't do anything. In your hands, however, it can be exchanged for the things you need. But you still have to make the trade.

Build some slack into your plans.

Perfect plans are only perfect on paper. That's because they stay plans, and plans are perfect in theory. When you apply plans to real life, real life trumps theory, and you must adjust accordingly. And adjusting is easier when you build some lee-way into your plans, whether in terms of money, time or labor.

Slack doesn't mean sloppy. Or lazy.

Building buffers means you've acknowledged your strengths and weaknesses and you're using them to build acceptable limits into your day and your life. You find out what suits you, whether what suits you refers to a schedule, a workload, certain kinds of people, a work environment etc. and you do your best to find them and make them work for you.

Failure makes us think.

Don't be afraid to make small mistakes, they can help prevent big ones. Those, you have to look out for.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ariadne_Roxas