Olympic Success: Secrets of a Three
How does someone who did not even take up the sport of luge until he was 21 become a Three-Time Olympian? As I tell thousands of people in my speeches, I'm not a big shot. I'm just a little shot that keeps on shooting. I'm proof that ordinary people can aspire to achieve extraordinary things if they will just follow a few simple steps.
Step 1: Choose a goal
What changes would you like to make in your life that excite you just by thinking about them,"I'm not sure? What would you love to do? Where do you want to be 10 years from now? What is your dream?
Ever since I was in the third grade I wanted to be an Olympic Athlete. I respected the Olympians because they were an example of what I believed in - they are willing to commit to a goal, willing to risk adversity in the pursuit of it, willing to fail and at the same time keep trying until they succeeded. But it was not until I was in college and saw Scott Hamilton compete in the Sarajevo games that I actually made the decision to train for the Olympics.
Just thinking about your goal is not enough. If you want to reach your goal, you need to make it real - write it down! Don't worry how you will make your dream come true at first. Magic happens when you put your goals down on paper. Writing it down is the first step in turning a dream you might achieve into a goal you will achieve.
When Tiger Woods was a young boy, he wrote down on a 3x5 card that he intended to break all of Jack Nicklaus' records. Tiger read his card every night. Jack Nicklaus agrees that Tiger in on track to make it happen.
Write your goals down on a 3x5 card. Write them in the present tense along with a completion date,So Below. On the other side of your card write at least three reasons why you will do it. The more reasons the more you increase your belief.
Read your card first thing in the morning EVERY DAY to stay focused on the objective. Then read your card EVERY NIGHT before turning out the lights so your subconscious mind can work all night on ways to make it happen.
Step 2: See yourself succeeding at your goal.
Several times a day close your eyes and for a couple of minutes vividly imagine what it's going to feel like when you achieve your goal. Really get into it. Feel it as if it were really happening right now! What's it going to look like? What's it going sound like? What's it going to feel like when you finally make your dream come true,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots?
Get excited! Your subconscious does not know the difference between imagining it and it really happening. By doing this, you become passionate about your desire, your belief becomes unshakeable and you become unstoppable.
Seeing yourself succeeding is an important step because imagining yourself succeeding will keep you from quitting when the going gets tough.
Step 3: Choose a quality that will help you reach your goal.
Have you ever looked at someone and wished you could be like them? Everyone has at one time or another. The good news is that if you notice a quality in someone else, you have some of that quality in yourself. You just need to develop it further. "It takes one to know one". Any quality you admire in someone else is a quality you have you just need to practice it!
So step number three in reaching your goal is to choose the main quality you think you will need to reach your goal. Is it Boldness? Creativity? Enthusiasm? Patience? Leadership?
In my case it was Perseverance. To get good at the luge, I knew I was going to have to endure many crashes and injuries and simply refuse to give up. So I made a decision to become perseverant. To never quit. Someone has said, "The main difference between a success and a failure is that the success tried one more time." I decided to persevere in trying one more time.
Step 4: Create a new habit that will help you achieve your goal.
Good habits usually don't just happen. You need to develop a specific plan for creating a new habit. It's simply a matter of choosing an action that helps develop your quality, deciding when to practice that habit, knowing that you are going to have to repeat it many times and then give yourself a reminder.
Since perseverance was the most important quality I needed to have to reach my goal, I needed to find ways to develop my perseverance. I had to get good at "not quitting". So I decided to become an expert on perseverance. I read books about people who had faced great challenges and refused to give up. I got inspired that if they could I could!
You can do it. No matter what your dream is, you can make it happen if you follow these four simple steps: 1) Choose a goal, 2) see yourself succeeding, 3) choose a quality, and 4) create a habit to develop your quality. Commit to these four steps.
The difference between people is there are those who are interested and there are those who are committed. A key to success in life is going from being just interested to being fully committed. Once you are committed you will produce results. At the point of commitment, you mentally "burn all the bridges" and you do whatever it takes to make it happen. THAT'S when you become unstoppable,Just let them be!
Commit to these four steps and you too will achieve more than ever before.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
a stack of 3x5 index cards and a pen.
LifeHacking Your Grocery Shopping
"The cupboards are full and there's 'nothing' to eat". Has that phrase ever echoed through your kitchen? Do you have stacks of food items that don't really go together taking up space? Do you throw away food items in your refrigerator because you didn't get around to making the item you bought it for or just plain forgot about it? Do you have 3 jars of peanut butter or 5 bottles of ketchup because you forgot you already bought some? Have you ever made a special trip to the store to get the items for a specific meal only to get home and realize you missed a critical ingredient?
While these kinds of things are annoying, they're also wasteful of your grocery money (a big portion of most family budgets), your time and of the food itself.
Taking control of your grocery process can result in lower stress at mealtime,I was his patient. This man used to be a general practitioner, less wasted food and money,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, more space in your cupboard, more variety in your eating and it all can be done with very little effort, starting with dinner tonight. We'll use the gap time during the cooking (waiting for water to boil, onions to sweat, etc.) instead of dedicated blocks of time to make the system easy to integrate into your busy schedule.
The reason that we often have lots of food, but nothing that goes together is that most of us buy our groceries either with an arbitrary list of things we usually get or worse, just wander the store, filling the cart with things that appeal to us. As a result, rather than buying to feed our families, we're buying to feed our imagination. When we start taking control of this impulse, our grocery bill will shrink, meals will be easy to prepare and you may actually find yourself enjoying cooking again.
What you'll need:
a stack of 3x5 index cards and a pen.
A box, rubber band, binder clip or some other way to keep your meal cards together.
Start by making a card for each meal you make. Name the meals the same way you refer to them in your house. So, for instance, we have a card labeled: "Spaghetti and Garlic Bread". In addition to the meal title, note down the time you start making the meal. Leave space next to it for another time to be written down. Write this "summary" information on one side of the card. I usually use the non-ruled side if there's a difference on your cards. We'll use the other side for our data.
On that card, we're not going to put the recipe. Instead, we're going to list the actual physical grocery items we open and use while making it. So, in this case, we'd write down the half a box of dried pasta, the jar of sauce, the half a loaf of french bread and the butter. Dried spices, etc. that are always on hand (like garlic powder) are assumed. If a recipe is needed, note down which book, website or other reference contains the recipe and where it's typically stored. Write this information on the other side of the card (the data side). However, any rare, seasonal or expensive ingredients should be noted specifically on the front. This will help you avoid making a meal that requires fresh corn on the cob in January when there's either none around or it's 4 times too expensive.
Anything you take out of the refrigerator, freezer, a box, a jar, a can, etc. goes on the card. Write down not the amount that goes into the pot or the recipe, but how much you will use or waste. Note down brand names, preferences for flavors, etc. It will help down the road to know that a particular brand of pasta sauce makes you want to gag when you're staring at the aisle full of jars. Also note down for which times of day this meal is "acceptable" in your house. I make this distinction because I grew up in a household where pancakes (American buttermilk flapjacks) were a fairly normal evening meal. My wife considers them only valid for breakfast. Write this on the data side.
When the food is ready to be eaten (not necessarily when you actually eat), note that time down next to the start time,speaking your truth. The difference between them is the real preparation time for your family. I don't care if the recipe book says "30 minutes", if it takes an hour from going into the kitchen to being able to eat, that's the time that matters. This preparation time number can help you avoid meals that take longer than you tend to think they do and may reveal some suprisingly quick meals that you don't consider often enough in the midst of a time crunch. Write these time bits on the summary side.
When the meal is over, if there are leftovers, note that on the card, along with how many servings and their typical purpose are left. For instance, if the spaghetti meal results in lunch for one of the parents, write that down. When you make this in the future, you can either plan for this outcome or eliminate it by adjusting the amounts.
Then, file the card. For the extra geeky among us, the contents can also be entered into the computer using database software or something like WikidPad. However, an entirely card-based setup will work fine. Do this recording of meals for a few weeks and otherwise go about your normal routine. If you need groceries before you are ready for the next stage, just do it the way you normally would and don't worry about it.
When you reach a point where you're not creating a card for most of your meals because you already have one, it's time to move on to the next phase. By doing the recording of meals as they happen, you avoid the typical problems with a system like this. Instead of taking an entire evening trying to "organize our kitchen", we're just noting a few things down while making dinner for a few weeks. The work is minimal at each meal and is spread out over time.
What you essentially have is a menu of choices for the meals your family eats,but it isn't acceptable. With hours to study the child. From this deck of cards, plan out your next week's meals. In our house, we eat dinner together Sun-Fri, go out to eat for dinner on Sat, eat breakfast and lunch at home on the weekends and that's our "home" list. Our weekday breakfasts and lunches are taken care of at work. Your list will likely be different. All that matters is that you end up with a count: 6 dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. Consider snacks as well, given that we will be restricting the shopping to our list of meals.
Take your meal cards and pull out meals to fill each slot. This smaller stack of cards is your meal plan for the week (or 2 weeks or month as the case may be). File the rest away for next time. Grab an empty card to serve as your grocery list.
Take your meal plan and go through your kitchen and food storage to see if you already have the items. For those you don't, write the item on your grocery list.
When in the grocery store, only buy the items on your list. Nothing else. Bring the groceries home, unpack and file the receipt with your cards. Keep the current cards out (a good place is the side of the refrigerator) as a reference for what meals are available for the week. This can let you and your family shuffle a bit on the fly. When it's time to make a meal, pull out the receipt and mark down the actual cost of the grocery items already on the card. Total them up and divide by the number of people who eat it. This gives you a total meal cost and a per person cost regardless of what the serving sizes are on any packaging. Write both numbers down near the title. If you're also concerned with nutritional information like calories, fat grams, carb grams, etc. include this as well. Write this information on the summary side.
Once a meal has been made, return its card to the main stack.
You've now completed a full cycle. From here on out, any meal that hasn't made it to this point goes through the process described above. This works for new recipes from cookbooks, TV shows, etc. Once a meal has gone through the complete process, you have a card that has a quick name, preparation time, cost per person information and possibly nutrition information on one side and detailed shopping list information on the other.
After a few cycles, you should have removed any extra, stored food from your cupboards and freezer and anything that hasn't been used is unlikely to get used and should be given away (support your local foodshelf) or a meal planned that specifically uses it.
If you want to extend the system, making up cards that have defined week-long meal lists or bundles of cards in week-long groups will let you just grab an entire plan for the week with absolutely no effort. Add a copy of the grocery list for that bundle and you can go to the grocery store at a moment's notice. These further enhancements result in an eventual system that's nearly maintenance free in the long run. Only new recipes or variations on your normal routine require any new work.
"The cupboards are full and there's 'nothing' to eat". Has that phrase ever echoed through your kitchen? Do you have stacks of food items that don't really go together taking up space? Do you throw away food items in your refrigerator because you didn't get around to making the item you bought it for or just plain forgot about it? Do you have 3 jars of peanut butter or 5 bottles of ketchup because you forgot you already bought some? Have you ever made a special trip to the store to get the items for a specific meal only to get home and realize you missed a critical ingredient?
While these kinds of things are annoying, they're also wasteful of your grocery money (a big portion of most family budgets), your time and of the food itself.
Taking control of your grocery process can result in lower stress at mealtime,I was his patient. This man used to be a general practitioner, less wasted food and money,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, more space in your cupboard, more variety in your eating and it all can be done with very little effort, starting with dinner tonight. We'll use the gap time during the cooking (waiting for water to boil, onions to sweat, etc.) instead of dedicated blocks of time to make the system easy to integrate into your busy schedule.
The reason that we often have lots of food, but nothing that goes together is that most of us buy our groceries either with an arbitrary list of things we usually get or worse, just wander the store, filling the cart with things that appeal to us. As a result, rather than buying to feed our families, we're buying to feed our imagination. When we start taking control of this impulse, our grocery bill will shrink, meals will be easy to prepare and you may actually find yourself enjoying cooking again.
What you'll need:
a stack of 3x5 index cards and a pen.
A box, rubber band, binder clip or some other way to keep your meal cards together.
Start by making a card for each meal you make. Name the meals the same way you refer to them in your house. So, for instance, we have a card labeled: "Spaghetti and Garlic Bread". In addition to the meal title, note down the time you start making the meal. Leave space next to it for another time to be written down. Write this "summary" information on one side of the card. I usually use the non-ruled side if there's a difference on your cards. We'll use the other side for our data.
On that card, we're not going to put the recipe. Instead, we're going to list the actual physical grocery items we open and use while making it. So, in this case, we'd write down the half a box of dried pasta, the jar of sauce, the half a loaf of french bread and the butter. Dried spices, etc. that are always on hand (like garlic powder) are assumed. If a recipe is needed, note down which book, website or other reference contains the recipe and where it's typically stored. Write this information on the other side of the card (the data side). However, any rare, seasonal or expensive ingredients should be noted specifically on the front. This will help you avoid making a meal that requires fresh corn on the cob in January when there's either none around or it's 4 times too expensive.
Anything you take out of the refrigerator, freezer, a box, a jar, a can, etc. goes on the card. Write down not the amount that goes into the pot or the recipe, but how much you will use or waste. Note down brand names, preferences for flavors, etc. It will help down the road to know that a particular brand of pasta sauce makes you want to gag when you're staring at the aisle full of jars. Also note down for which times of day this meal is "acceptable" in your house. I make this distinction because I grew up in a household where pancakes (American buttermilk flapjacks) were a fairly normal evening meal. My wife considers them only valid for breakfast. Write this on the data side.
When the food is ready to be eaten (not necessarily when you actually eat), note that time down next to the start time,speaking your truth. The difference between them is the real preparation time for your family. I don't care if the recipe book says "30 minutes", if it takes an hour from going into the kitchen to being able to eat, that's the time that matters. This preparation time number can help you avoid meals that take longer than you tend to think they do and may reveal some suprisingly quick meals that you don't consider often enough in the midst of a time crunch. Write these time bits on the summary side.
When the meal is over, if there are leftovers, note that on the card, along with how many servings and their typical purpose are left. For instance, if the spaghetti meal results in lunch for one of the parents, write that down. When you make this in the future, you can either plan for this outcome or eliminate it by adjusting the amounts.
Then, file the card. For the extra geeky among us, the contents can also be entered into the computer using database software or something like WikidPad. However, an entirely card-based setup will work fine. Do this recording of meals for a few weeks and otherwise go about your normal routine. If you need groceries before you are ready for the next stage, just do it the way you normally would and don't worry about it.
When you reach a point where you're not creating a card for most of your meals because you already have one, it's time to move on to the next phase. By doing the recording of meals as they happen, you avoid the typical problems with a system like this. Instead of taking an entire evening trying to "organize our kitchen", we're just noting a few things down while making dinner for a few weeks. The work is minimal at each meal and is spread out over time.
What you essentially have is a menu of choices for the meals your family eats,but it isn't acceptable. With hours to study the child. From this deck of cards, plan out your next week's meals. In our house, we eat dinner together Sun-Fri, go out to eat for dinner on Sat, eat breakfast and lunch at home on the weekends and that's our "home" list. Our weekday breakfasts and lunches are taken care of at work. Your list will likely be different. All that matters is that you end up with a count: 6 dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. Consider snacks as well, given that we will be restricting the shopping to our list of meals.
Take your meal cards and pull out meals to fill each slot. This smaller stack of cards is your meal plan for the week (or 2 weeks or month as the case may be). File the rest away for next time. Grab an empty card to serve as your grocery list.
Take your meal plan and go through your kitchen and food storage to see if you already have the items. For those you don't, write the item on your grocery list.
When in the grocery store, only buy the items on your list. Nothing else. Bring the groceries home, unpack and file the receipt with your cards. Keep the current cards out (a good place is the side of the refrigerator) as a reference for what meals are available for the week. This can let you and your family shuffle a bit on the fly. When it's time to make a meal, pull out the receipt and mark down the actual cost of the grocery items already on the card. Total them up and divide by the number of people who eat it. This gives you a total meal cost and a per person cost regardless of what the serving sizes are on any packaging. Write both numbers down near the title. If you're also concerned with nutritional information like calories, fat grams, carb grams, etc. include this as well. Write this information on the summary side.
Once a meal has been made, return its card to the main stack.
You've now completed a full cycle. From here on out, any meal that hasn't made it to this point goes through the process described above. This works for new recipes from cookbooks, TV shows, etc. Once a meal has gone through the complete process, you have a card that has a quick name, preparation time, cost per person information and possibly nutrition information on one side and detailed shopping list information on the other.
After a few cycles, you should have removed any extra, stored food from your cupboards and freezer and anything that hasn't been used is unlikely to get used and should be given away (support your local foodshelf) or a meal planned that specifically uses it.
If you want to extend the system, making up cards that have defined week-long meal lists or bundles of cards in week-long groups will let you just grab an entire plan for the week with absolutely no effort. Add a copy of the grocery list for that bundle and you can go to the grocery store at a moment's notice. These further enhancements result in an eventual system that's nearly maintenance free in the long run. Only new recipes or variations on your normal routine require any new work.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Hiking in the Forest Knowing When to Slow Down
Hiking in the Forest Knowing When to Slow Down
One morning in mid summer, I headed out for some time to myself on the trails of Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, Nebraska,Why not schedule an appointment with yourself and write it on your calendar. When the time comes. As usual,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, I stopped in at the Visitor Center to pay the entrance fee, then got back in my car and drove a couple miles down a long and winding road to the quieter back entrance.
It was a typical warm and humid summer day in Nebraska. Starting out on the lush green trail, I was already uncomfortably warm. The bugs were everywhere: mosquitoes, gnats, flies, bees, you name it. I followed the stream trail, which made its way through four-foot high grass. I tried to enjoy the setting but had to constantly fan away the bugs in front of my face. I grew increasingly frustrated.
Eventually becoming exasperated with the bugs, I stopped dead in my tracks and waved my arms all around while turning around in a circle. I accentuated my attack on the insects with a slight growl to alleviate my anger. Just then the whole world moved and went tearing around me. After my initial shock, I saw what I had missed the moment before.
It seems that a deer had been nestled in the tall grass just one foot, (one foot!) from where I stood. I missed it because of my preoccupation with the insects which I believed were bent on ruining my morning. When I started making such a fit, the deer was forced to abandon its spot. It leaped in the air right before my eyes, literally, and dashed off for better cover,you experience the result of his persistence in the face of continuous failure..
It was too late. I missed it. Now I was attentive and ready to see what was around me, but the sight that might have been seen was gone. It killed me to know that I missed the enjoyment of being so close to wildlife! Immediately I wondered what else I was missing, and not just there on the trail,all that is good within oneself. Begin and end the day with spiritually caring for yourself.. I wondered how the bothersome bugs of my life kept me from noticing really important stuff. This has become a life lesson that Ive remembered often. Its affected my visits with my Grandma, the time alone with my husband, and get-togethers with friends. Its affected my to do lists. My motto is If I dont do it, will anybody notice? If it doesnt add value, I simply cross it off my list. Ive learned from my mistake.
One day this summer while visiting Colorado, my husband and I sat quietly on the bank of a pond and watched swallows dance in the air to catch flying prey. I was amazed at the sharp changes of directions they could make in mid-air. After I sat there for quite some time wearing my bright green hiking hat, an equally green hummingbird flew up to within two inches (two inches!) of my eyes, gave me a look over, and flew away. He was gone, having paused only for one full second, but this time I didnt miss it. I remember exactly what that hummingbird looked like.
One morning in mid summer, I headed out for some time to myself on the trails of Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, Nebraska,Why not schedule an appointment with yourself and write it on your calendar. When the time comes. As usual,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, I stopped in at the Visitor Center to pay the entrance fee, then got back in my car and drove a couple miles down a long and winding road to the quieter back entrance.
It was a typical warm and humid summer day in Nebraska. Starting out on the lush green trail, I was already uncomfortably warm. The bugs were everywhere: mosquitoes, gnats, flies, bees, you name it. I followed the stream trail, which made its way through four-foot high grass. I tried to enjoy the setting but had to constantly fan away the bugs in front of my face. I grew increasingly frustrated.
Eventually becoming exasperated with the bugs, I stopped dead in my tracks and waved my arms all around while turning around in a circle. I accentuated my attack on the insects with a slight growl to alleviate my anger. Just then the whole world moved and went tearing around me. After my initial shock, I saw what I had missed the moment before.
It seems that a deer had been nestled in the tall grass just one foot, (one foot!) from where I stood. I missed it because of my preoccupation with the insects which I believed were bent on ruining my morning. When I started making such a fit, the deer was forced to abandon its spot. It leaped in the air right before my eyes, literally, and dashed off for better cover,you experience the result of his persistence in the face of continuous failure..
It was too late. I missed it. Now I was attentive and ready to see what was around me, but the sight that might have been seen was gone. It killed me to know that I missed the enjoyment of being so close to wildlife! Immediately I wondered what else I was missing, and not just there on the trail,all that is good within oneself. Begin and end the day with spiritually caring for yourself.. I wondered how the bothersome bugs of my life kept me from noticing really important stuff. This has become a life lesson that Ive remembered often. Its affected my visits with my Grandma, the time alone with my husband, and get-togethers with friends. Its affected my to do lists. My motto is If I dont do it, will anybody notice? If it doesnt add value, I simply cross it off my list. Ive learned from my mistake.
One day this summer while visiting Colorado, my husband and I sat quietly on the bank of a pond and watched swallows dance in the air to catch flying prey. I was amazed at the sharp changes of directions they could make in mid-air. After I sat there for quite some time wearing my bright green hiking hat, an equally green hummingbird flew up to within two inches (two inches!) of my eyes, gave me a look over, and flew away. He was gone, having paused only for one full second, but this time I didnt miss it. I remember exactly what that hummingbird looked like.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
you will naturally progress in that direction.
Everlasting Motivation by Ralph Jean Paul
I'm sure you've been there. You have a goal in mind that you are excited about reaching. Maybe you finally decided to lose weight or you are inching towards the place you want to be in your career. But as the time goes, so does your motivation and drive. We all need motivation in order to complete our goals and insure our success. Motivation is the fuel that lights that fire in the heart and enables us to propel past obstacles and seize our goals. But in order for that to happen you must sustain your motivation. Here are three ways to have everlasting motivation.
Set Viable Goals
One reason most people do not reach their goals is because they put themselves in a position to fail. Think about planting a sunflower seed in a spot in your backyard where the sunlight does not shine. No matter how much water or fertilizer you give to seed it will not grow because it was never put in a position to grow. If your goal is to lose weight or to make more money then you should put yourself in a position that makes that possible. Your goals should also have a solid foundation. The slab that your goal sits on should be deep rooted and unmovable. For example, let's say you want to have a better body. Your goal should never be to lose weight for the summer or an upcoming special occasion. Because you may develop a better body, but what happens when the summer is over or the occasion has passed? In order to stay motivated you must give your goals a fighting chance. Review what you want to accomplish and make sure that you've made success possible.
Finish Line Vision
In order to maintain your motivation and to complete your goal, you must look past your obstacles and see your success,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. I always use to wonder how martial artist could break wood boards and concrete bricks with their bare hands. Just the thought of punching a cinder block makes my hand hurt. But there is a unique tactic that is applied that you can use to stay motivated. Before one of these experts drives their fist into a solid object, they visualize an imaginary target that is past that object. In other words instead of focusing on the board and what your hand is going to smash, look past the board to where you hand is going to be. The mind will be so focused on the target that it will continue through any obstacle until it reaches that target,In your relationships. If you see your goal and have the finish line as your focus, you will naturally progress in that direction.
Reset the Bar
You must challenge yourself in different ways in order to keep the fire going. Believe it or not one of the biggest motivation killers is progress. Sometimes when we have a goal, and we see immediate progress, we have one of two reactions. We either get so excited by the progress that it makes us want to accomplish more, or we become so content with our improvement that it causes us to slow down. Setting little goals along the way may give you a boost and raising the bar will keep you climbing," versus "What does it cost me to keep it. New challenges bring new motivation and new motivation breeds new success. Have confidence in your ability to surpass your own achievements.
The greatest athletes, musicians, and leaders realize that they are their own competition. In order to gain success they must find that fire that burns inside and harness it to propel them to their goal. Once you learn how to light your fire and keep it lit,then you will not come face to face with failure, you will graduate from acceptable to excellence.
I'm sure you've been there. You have a goal in mind that you are excited about reaching. Maybe you finally decided to lose weight or you are inching towards the place you want to be in your career. But as the time goes, so does your motivation and drive. We all need motivation in order to complete our goals and insure our success. Motivation is the fuel that lights that fire in the heart and enables us to propel past obstacles and seize our goals. But in order for that to happen you must sustain your motivation. Here are three ways to have everlasting motivation.
Set Viable Goals
One reason most people do not reach their goals is because they put themselves in a position to fail. Think about planting a sunflower seed in a spot in your backyard where the sunlight does not shine. No matter how much water or fertilizer you give to seed it will not grow because it was never put in a position to grow. If your goal is to lose weight or to make more money then you should put yourself in a position that makes that possible. Your goals should also have a solid foundation. The slab that your goal sits on should be deep rooted and unmovable. For example, let's say you want to have a better body. Your goal should never be to lose weight for the summer or an upcoming special occasion. Because you may develop a better body, but what happens when the summer is over or the occasion has passed? In order to stay motivated you must give your goals a fighting chance. Review what you want to accomplish and make sure that you've made success possible.
Finish Line Vision
In order to maintain your motivation and to complete your goal, you must look past your obstacles and see your success,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. I always use to wonder how martial artist could break wood boards and concrete bricks with their bare hands. Just the thought of punching a cinder block makes my hand hurt. But there is a unique tactic that is applied that you can use to stay motivated. Before one of these experts drives their fist into a solid object, they visualize an imaginary target that is past that object. In other words instead of focusing on the board and what your hand is going to smash, look past the board to where you hand is going to be. The mind will be so focused on the target that it will continue through any obstacle until it reaches that target,In your relationships. If you see your goal and have the finish line as your focus, you will naturally progress in that direction.
Reset the Bar
You must challenge yourself in different ways in order to keep the fire going. Believe it or not one of the biggest motivation killers is progress. Sometimes when we have a goal, and we see immediate progress, we have one of two reactions. We either get so excited by the progress that it makes us want to accomplish more, or we become so content with our improvement that it causes us to slow down. Setting little goals along the way may give you a boost and raising the bar will keep you climbing," versus "What does it cost me to keep it. New challenges bring new motivation and new motivation breeds new success. Have confidence in your ability to surpass your own achievements.
The greatest athletes, musicians, and leaders realize that they are their own competition. In order to gain success they must find that fire that burns inside and harness it to propel them to their goal. Once you learn how to light your fire and keep it lit,then you will not come face to face with failure, you will graduate from acceptable to excellence.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
like other forms of addiction
The 3 Stages Of Alcoholism
Alcoholism,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, like other forms of addiction, is a condition that can progressively worsen.
It's generally agreed by medical experts that alcoholism has three or four stages which the chronic drinker will pass through, getting noticeably more addicted after completing each stage.
An understanding of the particular characteristics of each can help an individual suffering from alcoholism and their loved ones to recognize the stages of alcoholism and facilitate recovery.
The first stage of alcoholism is where someone starts to develop growing resilience to the intoxicating effects of alcohol.
When the drinker has reached this point, it requires more and more alcohol to achieve the buzz they have to have.
Often, many people in this stage are unaware of the changes that are taking place within them and would be quick to deny any risk of descending into a full blown alcohol addict.
There's a bit more drama associated with the second stage.
At this point, a strong dependency on alcohol to function in social settings is developing and the individual may not feel confident to function unless they have been drinking.
At this point, the individual's vitally important relationships - especially with with family and friends - begin to erode.
It is at this stage of alcoholism that the individual may sink into debt or have other financial problems, and is likely to lose their job.
And not surprisingly, when they reach the next and final stage of alcoholism,we are able to quickly gain rapport, the situation reaches a climax.
The alcoholic's need for alcohol becomes the driving force in life and the only goal that remains is the pursuit of obtaining more alcohol,global warming.
This by far constitutes the highest risk to the alcoholic's safety of all the stages of alcoholism as the individual engages in increasingly risky behavior.
The alcoholic's physical appearance sees a marked deterioration and the effect on internal body organs such as the liver will start to take their toll,you send it back to the chef..
It is never too late for a person to be weaned off alcohol addiction.
However, the ability to interpret the outward telltale signs plays a key part in how effective the rehabilitation and therapy will be.
This is why it's vitally important for people to understand the stages of alcoholism.
Alcoholism,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, like other forms of addiction, is a condition that can progressively worsen.
It's generally agreed by medical experts that alcoholism has three or four stages which the chronic drinker will pass through, getting noticeably more addicted after completing each stage.
An understanding of the particular characteristics of each can help an individual suffering from alcoholism and their loved ones to recognize the stages of alcoholism and facilitate recovery.
The first stage of alcoholism is where someone starts to develop growing resilience to the intoxicating effects of alcohol.
When the drinker has reached this point, it requires more and more alcohol to achieve the buzz they have to have.
Often, many people in this stage are unaware of the changes that are taking place within them and would be quick to deny any risk of descending into a full blown alcohol addict.
There's a bit more drama associated with the second stage.
At this point, a strong dependency on alcohol to function in social settings is developing and the individual may not feel confident to function unless they have been drinking.
At this point, the individual's vitally important relationships - especially with with family and friends - begin to erode.
It is at this stage of alcoholism that the individual may sink into debt or have other financial problems, and is likely to lose their job.
And not surprisingly, when they reach the next and final stage of alcoholism,we are able to quickly gain rapport, the situation reaches a climax.
The alcoholic's need for alcohol becomes the driving force in life and the only goal that remains is the pursuit of obtaining more alcohol,global warming.
This by far constitutes the highest risk to the alcoholic's safety of all the stages of alcoholism as the individual engages in increasingly risky behavior.
The alcoholic's physical appearance sees a marked deterioration and the effect on internal body organs such as the liver will start to take their toll,you send it back to the chef..
It is never too late for a person to be weaned off alcohol addiction.
However, the ability to interpret the outward telltale signs plays a key part in how effective the rehabilitation and therapy will be.
This is why it's vitally important for people to understand the stages of alcoholism.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
such as back pain or some form of illness.
Managing Loneliness
My experience from 37 years of counseling individuals and couples is that most of the problems from which people suffer stem from how they handle the events of life,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, rather than the events themselves.
Certainly traumatic and tragic events such as loss of loved ones, financial loss, and health issues are extremely challenging. However, some people manage to move through these events with equanimity, while others remain stuck in fear, anxiety, and depression. The difference is in how people handle deeply painful feelings.
I have discovered that there are two core feelings that most people will do almost anything to avoid feeling: loneliness and helplessness.
Loneliness is an intense empty,imagine your navel sinking in toward your spine., sad, sinking or burning feeling within. This feeling can be triggered by four different situations:
1) Loss of a loved one.
2) Not having a partner, family or friends with whom to share time and love.
3) Being around others but being closed off to them.
4) Being around others when they are closed off to you.
Other than a traumatic loss, the latter is often the most challenging in everyday life, and this can occur throughout the day. For example, you walk into work happy and open. You greet your friend, and he or she barely responds to you. If you are truly open to your own feelings, you will feel a stab of loneliness. Yet most people are so closed off to this feeling that they immediately attempt to avoid the feeling with some kind of addictive behavior. They might grab a donut while shaming or blaming - telling themselves that they must have done something wrong or that their friend is a jerk. These addictive behaviors are geared to protect against feeling the pain of the loneliness. And they work for the moment to appease the feeling, but the feeling doesn't actually go away. It just goes deeper within and may eventually cause physical symptoms, such as back pain or some form of illness.
Helplessness is a similar feeling to loneliness intense inner turmoil. In the example above, not only do you have the stab of loneliness, but you also feel the pain of helplessness over your friend's behavior. You cannot make him or her connect with you. However, because this is such a difficult feeling, you don't want to know that you cannot have control over another or over the outcome of things. To avoid knowing about your lack of control, you may shame yourself: "It's my fault. If I'm different, I can get others to be different." Or you might blame your friend, attempting to get him or her to change. Both shame and blame are attempts to avoid accepting helplessness over others.
Once you turn to addictive behaviors such as food, alcohol, drugs, activities, shame and blame, you have abandoned yourself. In attempting to avoid feeling the loneliness and helplessness, you have created inner aloneness self-abandonment. Self-abandonment occurs when your intent is to avoid pain rather than lovingly attend to your authentic feelings. The combination of avoiding loneliness, helplessness and the aloneness that comes from inner abandonment can lead to anxiety, depression and despair. People then often turn to prescription drugs to further avoid their feelings.
Managing the feelings of loneliness and helplessness is not as hard as you may think it is. If you practice the following process, you will find that you do not need to use your various addictions to avoid pain.
1) Stay tuned into your body/feelings so that you know when you are feeling lonely or helpless. It's very important to be able to name the feeling, and it may take some time to recognize these feelings since you may have been avoiding them for so long.
2) Welcome and embrace the feelings, opening with deep compassion for these feelings. If you are connected with a spiritual Source of love and compassion, open to this Source and ask for help in being in compassion for the feelings.
3) Hold the feelings as you would a child who is hurting, with deep love and understanding. Just be with the feelings with deep acceptance of them for a few minutes.
4) Consciously be willing to release the feelings,an opening in the superintendent's office came up. Imagine the feelings of loneliness and helplessness moving through you and being released into the Universe into Divine Love.
You will find that these painful feelings will quickly release if you practice these steps rather than abandon yourself in the face of painful events and experiences,over a period of time.
My experience from 37 years of counseling individuals and couples is that most of the problems from which people suffer stem from how they handle the events of life,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots, rather than the events themselves.
Certainly traumatic and tragic events such as loss of loved ones, financial loss, and health issues are extremely challenging. However, some people manage to move through these events with equanimity, while others remain stuck in fear, anxiety, and depression. The difference is in how people handle deeply painful feelings.
I have discovered that there are two core feelings that most people will do almost anything to avoid feeling: loneliness and helplessness.
Loneliness is an intense empty,imagine your navel sinking in toward your spine., sad, sinking or burning feeling within. This feeling can be triggered by four different situations:
1) Loss of a loved one.
2) Not having a partner, family or friends with whom to share time and love.
3) Being around others but being closed off to them.
4) Being around others when they are closed off to you.
Other than a traumatic loss, the latter is often the most challenging in everyday life, and this can occur throughout the day. For example, you walk into work happy and open. You greet your friend, and he or she barely responds to you. If you are truly open to your own feelings, you will feel a stab of loneliness. Yet most people are so closed off to this feeling that they immediately attempt to avoid the feeling with some kind of addictive behavior. They might grab a donut while shaming or blaming - telling themselves that they must have done something wrong or that their friend is a jerk. These addictive behaviors are geared to protect against feeling the pain of the loneliness. And they work for the moment to appease the feeling, but the feeling doesn't actually go away. It just goes deeper within and may eventually cause physical symptoms, such as back pain or some form of illness.
Helplessness is a similar feeling to loneliness intense inner turmoil. In the example above, not only do you have the stab of loneliness, but you also feel the pain of helplessness over your friend's behavior. You cannot make him or her connect with you. However, because this is such a difficult feeling, you don't want to know that you cannot have control over another or over the outcome of things. To avoid knowing about your lack of control, you may shame yourself: "It's my fault. If I'm different, I can get others to be different." Or you might blame your friend, attempting to get him or her to change. Both shame and blame are attempts to avoid accepting helplessness over others.
Once you turn to addictive behaviors such as food, alcohol, drugs, activities, shame and blame, you have abandoned yourself. In attempting to avoid feeling the loneliness and helplessness, you have created inner aloneness self-abandonment. Self-abandonment occurs when your intent is to avoid pain rather than lovingly attend to your authentic feelings. The combination of avoiding loneliness, helplessness and the aloneness that comes from inner abandonment can lead to anxiety, depression and despair. People then often turn to prescription drugs to further avoid their feelings.
Managing the feelings of loneliness and helplessness is not as hard as you may think it is. If you practice the following process, you will find that you do not need to use your various addictions to avoid pain.
1) Stay tuned into your body/feelings so that you know when you are feeling lonely or helpless. It's very important to be able to name the feeling, and it may take some time to recognize these feelings since you may have been avoiding them for so long.
2) Welcome and embrace the feelings, opening with deep compassion for these feelings. If you are connected with a spiritual Source of love and compassion, open to this Source and ask for help in being in compassion for the feelings.
3) Hold the feelings as you would a child who is hurting, with deep love and understanding. Just be with the feelings with deep acceptance of them for a few minutes.
4) Consciously be willing to release the feelings,an opening in the superintendent's office came up. Imagine the feelings of loneliness and helplessness moving through you and being released into the Universe into Divine Love.
You will find that these painful feelings will quickly release if you practice these steps rather than abandon yourself in the face of painful events and experiences,over a period of time.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
nobody knows if a relationships will work until it's entered
Dealing With The Unknown by Cody Butler
"At times we shall simply have to admit that, one way or another, what we can neither explain nor understand certainly doesn't cease to exist because we cannot how it does or why it should." - Dr Mark Hyman
The above quote is a brilliant way of illustrating the fact that you simply don't know what you don't know until you know it ,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. It may sound funny but it's true. In order to know what you don't know you would obviously have to have some knowledge of it, in which case you would then know it,in reality. I don't want to move away from the concept of personal development and life coaching here and into the area of philosophy, but I think that this is a very important point. In a way you could even call this concept faith. It's believing something exist without have any knowledge of it or how or why it exists.
Being able to have the vision and faith to move forward towards something that to our five senses seems impossible is a skill that anyone seeking an exceptional life quality needs. If you can only achieve what you already know, then personal growth would be impossible. What I am saying here is that the only way to successfully deal with the unknown is from a position of faith,then you are unlovable and unworthy. Knowing that there is a power and intelligence that we cannot understand that is in control of the situation and moving it forward for our greater good,I am so grateful to have completed this part. As in the quote, not understanding or being able to explain that power does not cause it to cease to exist.
I have dreams and goals as do we all, and like most I don't know how those dreams will be achieved. The achievement still rests in the unknown for me. By having the faith to know that even though I don't know, a way will reveal itself gives me the strength and motivation to continue when otherwise defeat would seem the only possible outcome.
One of the big keys to personal development and growth is learning to deal with the unknown, being able to jump without seeing how high you are or how you are going to land. Faith is the parachute, but it will not open until you make that leap. Most will never make that leap because they need to know the parachute will open before jumping. They will live a very ordinary life as a result. It just doesn't work like that sadly. If it did, how easy life would be! Nobody knows if a business will succeed until it's opened, nobody knows if a relationships will work until it's entered, nobody wins the lottery without buying a ticket, this is how life works. All of these require a leap of faith into the unknown.
The unknown is not something to fear, it's something to be embraced, it is where you hopes, goals and aspirations currently reside. It is where your destiny is. Overcome your fear and watch your life leap from strength to strength.
For more on this and other topics visit
"At times we shall simply have to admit that, one way or another, what we can neither explain nor understand certainly doesn't cease to exist because we cannot how it does or why it should." - Dr Mark Hyman
The above quote is a brilliant way of illustrating the fact that you simply don't know what you don't know until you know it ,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. It may sound funny but it's true. In order to know what you don't know you would obviously have to have some knowledge of it, in which case you would then know it,in reality. I don't want to move away from the concept of personal development and life coaching here and into the area of philosophy, but I think that this is a very important point. In a way you could even call this concept faith. It's believing something exist without have any knowledge of it or how or why it exists.
Being able to have the vision and faith to move forward towards something that to our five senses seems impossible is a skill that anyone seeking an exceptional life quality needs. If you can only achieve what you already know, then personal growth would be impossible. What I am saying here is that the only way to successfully deal with the unknown is from a position of faith,then you are unlovable and unworthy. Knowing that there is a power and intelligence that we cannot understand that is in control of the situation and moving it forward for our greater good,I am so grateful to have completed this part. As in the quote, not understanding or being able to explain that power does not cause it to cease to exist.
I have dreams and goals as do we all, and like most I don't know how those dreams will be achieved. The achievement still rests in the unknown for me. By having the faith to know that even though I don't know, a way will reveal itself gives me the strength and motivation to continue when otherwise defeat would seem the only possible outcome.
One of the big keys to personal development and growth is learning to deal with the unknown, being able to jump without seeing how high you are or how you are going to land. Faith is the parachute, but it will not open until you make that leap. Most will never make that leap because they need to know the parachute will open before jumping. They will live a very ordinary life as a result. It just doesn't work like that sadly. If it did, how easy life would be! Nobody knows if a business will succeed until it's opened, nobody knows if a relationships will work until it's entered, nobody wins the lottery without buying a ticket, this is how life works. All of these require a leap of faith into the unknown.
The unknown is not something to fear, it's something to be embraced, it is where you hopes, goals and aspirations currently reside. It is where your destiny is. Overcome your fear and watch your life leap from strength to strength.
For more on this and other topics visit
Friday, November 9, 2012
the man without courage draws to himself all the qualities of a weak man
Courage: The Tail That Wags the Cowardly Man by Nicholas Dixon,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots
Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage has persistence. He states what he believes and puts it into execution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himself all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a strong man. Whereas, the man without courage draws to himself all the qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy,as if in a hovering helicopter. From here, and unsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value of concentration on courage. It is a most vital element of success.
The lack of courage creates financial, as well as mental and moral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of looking upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure is naturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject well worthy of your study.
Look upon everything within your power as a possibility instead of as merely a probability and you will accomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing as impossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elements that contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys your confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute attitude so important to success.
The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all that is contemptible, weakening, demoralizing and destructive. He then blames his luck when he does not secure the things he weakly desires,understood and supported in practical matters such as taking action to make your dreams a reality.. We must first have the courage to strongly desire something. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by the strength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enough commanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The man with courage commands, whether be is on the battlefield or in business life.
What is courage? It is the Will To Do. It takes no more energy to be courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the right training in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forces on the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily, deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success, toward the desired end. Cowardice on the other hand, dissipates both our mental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure.
As we are creatures of habits, we should avoid persons that lack courage. They are easy to discover because of their habits of fear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is never afraid.
Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why you should not be courageous. If any fear-thoughts come to you cast them off as you would the deadly viper. Form the habit of never thinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. In dealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, "I am courageous,but the bad.." Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of your mind, banish it. Remember, you as master of your mind control its every thought, and here is a good one to often affirm, "I have courage because I desire it; because I need it; because I use it and because I refuse to become such a weakling as cowardice produces."
Nicholas Dixon
Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage has persistence. He states what he believes and puts it into execution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himself all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a strong man. Whereas, the man without courage draws to himself all the qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy,as if in a hovering helicopter. From here, and unsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value of concentration on courage. It is a most vital element of success.
The lack of courage creates financial, as well as mental and moral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of looking upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure is naturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject well worthy of your study.
Look upon everything within your power as a possibility instead of as merely a probability and you will accomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing as impossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elements that contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys your confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute attitude so important to success.
The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all that is contemptible, weakening, demoralizing and destructive. He then blames his luck when he does not secure the things he weakly desires,understood and supported in practical matters such as taking action to make your dreams a reality.. We must first have the courage to strongly desire something. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by the strength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enough commanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The man with courage commands, whether be is on the battlefield or in business life.
What is courage? It is the Will To Do. It takes no more energy to be courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the right training in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forces on the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily, deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success, toward the desired end. Cowardice on the other hand, dissipates both our mental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure.
As we are creatures of habits, we should avoid persons that lack courage. They are easy to discover because of their habits of fear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is never afraid.
Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why you should not be courageous. If any fear-thoughts come to you cast them off as you would the deadly viper. Form the habit of never thinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. In dealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, "I am courageous,but the bad.." Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of your mind, banish it. Remember, you as master of your mind control its every thought, and here is a good one to often affirm, "I have courage because I desire it; because I need it; because I use it and because I refuse to become such a weakling as cowardice produces."
Nicholas Dixon
Thursday, November 8, 2012
one cookie
One Kindness At A Time Makes a World of Difference
Do you want to make a real difference in the world? Is there something you'd like to change - some way to find your own purpose for being on this earth?
You know, you don't have to do take-on-the-whole-world-by-yourself projects. The easiest and most effective way to change the world is for each of us to do one small kindness at a time. One kindness has a ripple effect,or 2 pounds each week, with far-reaching consequences you may never know about.
Below you will find five ways you can make a difference from the e-book, "101 Ways to Change the World". Many things can be done that don't cost a lot - just a small investment of your time.
1. Give anonymous surprise gifts to co-workers or friends - with a note telling them they matter,scan the entire area. It doesn't have to be much to let them know someone cares, how about:
a candy bar
one cookie
a flower
something you have lying around your house
Every time, it will be the fun of knowing someone cares that will make their life better - just by giving a little time and thought to someone else.
2. Give away a professional service - offer it FREE once a week, twice a month or once a month to someone who needs it.
Free dental cleanings
Free house cleaning
Free meal at your restaurant
Free accounting service
3. Form your own "Good Deed Patrol" for a fun way to change your world.
Watch for people doing something to make a difference in the community. Listen to conversations to discover these people.
Talk with your radio station or local newspaper and ask if they will include a small section in the paper or a small spot on radio programs to say THANK YOU to these people - it doesn't have to be much,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots.
Think how excited someone would be to open the paper and see a THANK YOU NOTICE to them for something they did.
Since no one will know who the Good Deed Patrol is, this might encourage people to do their best at all times!
4. Respond with kindness every time someone is rude or mean to you. One lady was treated very rudely by an attendant at her gas station. She responded by taking him a plate of cookies and telling him to have a nice day. Now he goes out of his way to be nice to her. Each of us can choose to respond this way,I have a favorite saying!
5. If you like to give parties, you can make an even bigger difference.
Throw a big party and invite as many people as you can fit.
Their "ticket" to the event will be a bag of groceries for a local food pantry.
Make sure to send along a list of what the Food Pantry needs most.
There you have it - just a few simple ideas to get you started. If these didn't spark your imagination, go to to download a copy of the e-book, "101 Ways to Change the World". Let's start a kindness revolution!
Do you want to make a real difference in the world? Is there something you'd like to change - some way to find your own purpose for being on this earth?
You know, you don't have to do take-on-the-whole-world-by-yourself projects. The easiest and most effective way to change the world is for each of us to do one small kindness at a time. One kindness has a ripple effect,or 2 pounds each week, with far-reaching consequences you may never know about.
Below you will find five ways you can make a difference from the e-book, "101 Ways to Change the World". Many things can be done that don't cost a lot - just a small investment of your time.
1. Give anonymous surprise gifts to co-workers or friends - with a note telling them they matter,scan the entire area. It doesn't have to be much to let them know someone cares, how about:
a candy bar
one cookie
a flower
something you have lying around your house
Every time, it will be the fun of knowing someone cares that will make their life better - just by giving a little time and thought to someone else.
2. Give away a professional service - offer it FREE once a week, twice a month or once a month to someone who needs it.
Free dental cleanings
Free house cleaning
Free meal at your restaurant
Free accounting service
3. Form your own "Good Deed Patrol" for a fun way to change your world.
Watch for people doing something to make a difference in the community. Listen to conversations to discover these people.
Talk with your radio station or local newspaper and ask if they will include a small section in the paper or a small spot on radio programs to say THANK YOU to these people - it doesn't have to be much,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots.
Think how excited someone would be to open the paper and see a THANK YOU NOTICE to them for something they did.
Since no one will know who the Good Deed Patrol is, this might encourage people to do their best at all times!
4. Respond with kindness every time someone is rude or mean to you. One lady was treated very rudely by an attendant at her gas station. She responded by taking him a plate of cookies and telling him to have a nice day. Now he goes out of his way to be nice to her. Each of us can choose to respond this way,I have a favorite saying!
5. If you like to give parties, you can make an even bigger difference.
Throw a big party and invite as many people as you can fit.
Their "ticket" to the event will be a bag of groceries for a local food pantry.
Make sure to send along a list of what the Food Pantry needs most.
There you have it - just a few simple ideas to get you started. If these didn't spark your imagination, go to to download a copy of the e-book, "101 Ways to Change the World". Let's start a kindness revolution!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
A big problem for most people
How to Improve Your Study Habits
If you're a student attending classes, you have probably experienced many moments when it was hard to make yourself settle down and study, even when an important exam was coming up.
If you're like most students, you put off studying until the very last minute. The night before the exam, you'll stay up all night cramming,premature ejaculation, getting little or no sleep. In the morning, you'll drag yourself out of bed, psych yourself up with lots of coffee and some cigarettes, and go into the exam feeling exhausted, drained and jittery all at the same time. You'll find it hard to focus or think, and you'll be cursing yourself for not starting to study sooner.
And not surprisingly, unless you're blessed with natural brilliance, or you happen to know the subject matter extremely well, you'll probably do terribly on the test.
If this is your typical method of studying, you already know it doesn't work. Every time you go through this ritual, you tell yourself that you're going to smarten up the next time you face a big exam. Next time you'll start to study weeks in advance, you say. But instead, you keep repeating this crazy pattern. Why does this keep happening? And what should you be doing instead if you want to get better marks?
A big problem for most people, especially those who are young students, is that life gets in the way. If you're a student, you probably have a part time job, and like most young people, you also want to have a social life.
Studying can seem very boring compared to all the exciting temptations just outside your door. Or the games on your computer. Even watching old reruns of Sesame Street can seem more interesting than the biology text your teacher is expecting you to master!
One reason we often don't start studying until the last possible minute is that we have misjudged how long it will actually take us to absorb and understand the material. If your mid-term is still six weeks away, that might seem like plenty of time left before you need to get around to studying. You might find however, that the subject matter is a lot harder to understand than you thought it would be, and all of a sudden there's no time left to ask someone to explain it to you.
Another reason we often put off starting to study is that we are too overwhelmed with how big the project actually seems to be. Somehow we convince ourselves that putting off a tough study project can be the best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed by it.
When we are faced with a study project that seems exceptionally difficult and overwhelming, it can be to maintain a high level of interest and motivation for the duration of the learning process.
If you have been guilty of all these bad study habits, it's not too late to learn some other habits that will work better for you.
First, remind yourself why you want to do better in your studies,No- Thingness. It's not that there is nothing there. Maybe you need a good mark to get into a good college. Maybe you want a chance at a career that will pay you well. Always keep your end goal in mind.
You can put little cards up around your room with inspirational messages, and attractive photographs that will remind you why you want to do well in school.
If you feel very overwhelmed, you can improve your motivation and your performance by breaking up the project into smaller sections, or "chunks". Each time you accomplish one little bit successfully, give yourself a meaningful reward.
If you have a deadline looming, decide how much of the project you need to tackle at one time,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots.
Let's say you have six weeks to master the content of a difficult biology text. Looking through the book you realize that if you study one chapter each night, you can get through the book in 28 days, leaving two weeks in which you can again review the material.
With this knowledge you can pace yourself. You know what your assignment is. You know how much you need to read every night. Concentrate on the immediate task at hand. You don't need to feel overwhelmed by the entire book at one time. Next, work out a system of rewards for yourself. Give yourself a series of small rewards each time you master one chapter, and a larger reward for completing the entire book.
For rewards to work they must be immediate, and personally meaningful to you. There is no point in rewarding yourself with a new fishing rod if you hate fishing.
Rewards don't need to be material objects if there is something else that would really motivate and inspire you. How about attending a special concert, or taking a special trip? You decide. Get creative and think of something that will spur you to take action.
It's very important that the reward take place soon after the work has been accomplished. This creates a sense of positive reinforcement. Give yourself a small reward every time you finish a small part of the job, and a bigger reward when the project is completed. If there is too long a gap between the activity and the reward, it will not have the effect of reinforcing the desired activity.
Besides motivating yourself with a series of external rewards, learn to motivate yourself internally. Tell yourself you're a good learner. Tell yourself you enjoy learning. Tell yourself you enjoy giving your brain a good work out. Congratulate yourself for your efforts. Tell yourself you love acquiring new knowledge, and let yourself feel a joy in learning. Be proud of yourself for the work you do to gain more knowledge.
For information to sink into your brain and be accessible to you, you need to review it several times, and your brain needs to sleep properly for the memories to be encoded in your neurons. You need to reduce your mental stress. Your brain needs good nutrition and it needs to be in a peaceful, confident state. Drugs and alcohol don't help the process of learning.
Write out what you are learning in your own words, and find a learning buddy. Practice explaining to someone else what you have learned. This will increase the likelihood that your brain will remember it.
If you start to cram the night before, you are putting your brain at a big disadvantage.
You're increasing your physical and mental stress,Figure out what you are passionate about., and you're not giving yourself time to review the material several times. By cutting back on your sleep, you're not giving your brain a chance to put the information you've been studying into the hard drive storage of your brain.
By starting your studies early, and reviewing what you've learned, you have a much better chance of remembering and understanding what you need to know when you face a big exam.
If you're a student attending classes, you have probably experienced many moments when it was hard to make yourself settle down and study, even when an important exam was coming up.
If you're like most students, you put off studying until the very last minute. The night before the exam, you'll stay up all night cramming,premature ejaculation, getting little or no sleep. In the morning, you'll drag yourself out of bed, psych yourself up with lots of coffee and some cigarettes, and go into the exam feeling exhausted, drained and jittery all at the same time. You'll find it hard to focus or think, and you'll be cursing yourself for not starting to study sooner.
And not surprisingly, unless you're blessed with natural brilliance, or you happen to know the subject matter extremely well, you'll probably do terribly on the test.
If this is your typical method of studying, you already know it doesn't work. Every time you go through this ritual, you tell yourself that you're going to smarten up the next time you face a big exam. Next time you'll start to study weeks in advance, you say. But instead, you keep repeating this crazy pattern. Why does this keep happening? And what should you be doing instead if you want to get better marks?
A big problem for most people, especially those who are young students, is that life gets in the way. If you're a student, you probably have a part time job, and like most young people, you also want to have a social life.
Studying can seem very boring compared to all the exciting temptations just outside your door. Or the games on your computer. Even watching old reruns of Sesame Street can seem more interesting than the biology text your teacher is expecting you to master!
One reason we often don't start studying until the last possible minute is that we have misjudged how long it will actually take us to absorb and understand the material. If your mid-term is still six weeks away, that might seem like plenty of time left before you need to get around to studying. You might find however, that the subject matter is a lot harder to understand than you thought it would be, and all of a sudden there's no time left to ask someone to explain it to you.
Another reason we often put off starting to study is that we are too overwhelmed with how big the project actually seems to be. Somehow we convince ourselves that putting off a tough study project can be the best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed by it.
When we are faced with a study project that seems exceptionally difficult and overwhelming, it can be to maintain a high level of interest and motivation for the duration of the learning process.
If you have been guilty of all these bad study habits, it's not too late to learn some other habits that will work better for you.
First, remind yourself why you want to do better in your studies,No- Thingness. It's not that there is nothing there. Maybe you need a good mark to get into a good college. Maybe you want a chance at a career that will pay you well. Always keep your end goal in mind.
You can put little cards up around your room with inspirational messages, and attractive photographs that will remind you why you want to do well in school.
If you feel very overwhelmed, you can improve your motivation and your performance by breaking up the project into smaller sections, or "chunks". Each time you accomplish one little bit successfully, give yourself a meaningful reward.
If you have a deadline looming, decide how much of the project you need to tackle at one time,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots.
Let's say you have six weeks to master the content of a difficult biology text. Looking through the book you realize that if you study one chapter each night, you can get through the book in 28 days, leaving two weeks in which you can again review the material.
With this knowledge you can pace yourself. You know what your assignment is. You know how much you need to read every night. Concentrate on the immediate task at hand. You don't need to feel overwhelmed by the entire book at one time. Next, work out a system of rewards for yourself. Give yourself a series of small rewards each time you master one chapter, and a larger reward for completing the entire book.
For rewards to work they must be immediate, and personally meaningful to you. There is no point in rewarding yourself with a new fishing rod if you hate fishing.
Rewards don't need to be material objects if there is something else that would really motivate and inspire you. How about attending a special concert, or taking a special trip? You decide. Get creative and think of something that will spur you to take action.
It's very important that the reward take place soon after the work has been accomplished. This creates a sense of positive reinforcement. Give yourself a small reward every time you finish a small part of the job, and a bigger reward when the project is completed. If there is too long a gap between the activity and the reward, it will not have the effect of reinforcing the desired activity.
Besides motivating yourself with a series of external rewards, learn to motivate yourself internally. Tell yourself you're a good learner. Tell yourself you enjoy learning. Tell yourself you enjoy giving your brain a good work out. Congratulate yourself for your efforts. Tell yourself you love acquiring new knowledge, and let yourself feel a joy in learning. Be proud of yourself for the work you do to gain more knowledge.
For information to sink into your brain and be accessible to you, you need to review it several times, and your brain needs to sleep properly for the memories to be encoded in your neurons. You need to reduce your mental stress. Your brain needs good nutrition and it needs to be in a peaceful, confident state. Drugs and alcohol don't help the process of learning.
Write out what you are learning in your own words, and find a learning buddy. Practice explaining to someone else what you have learned. This will increase the likelihood that your brain will remember it.
If you start to cram the night before, you are putting your brain at a big disadvantage.
You're increasing your physical and mental stress,Figure out what you are passionate about., and you're not giving yourself time to review the material several times. By cutting back on your sleep, you're not giving your brain a chance to put the information you've been studying into the hard drive storage of your brain.
By starting your studies early, and reviewing what you've learned, you have a much better chance of remembering and understanding what you need to know when you face a big exam.
Monday, November 5, 2012
The book she was reading
Tripping On Mindfulness
One of the ironies of mindfulness is that it's still possible to be forgetful, klutzy, or even distracted while doing our best to pay attention.
Why? We are choosing where to focus and so there are, by necessity, bits of information that aren't getting the full laser treatment. It's simply not possible to be mindful of everything all at once.
That's the beauty of it.
You can shine your mental high beams on, say, fully connecting with every person you talk to today. While being very aware of your interactions with others, you might trip on the edge of the carpet.
Clumsy and mindful may seem like strange bedfellows, but they are intimate nonetheless.
True story: I know a reference librarian who was in the habit of reading while walking. One day, she was walking the two blocks to her house during her lunch break while reading a new book. She was so completely focused on the words she was reading that she tripped on the sidewalk, landing in a heap right there on Ash Street.
Fortunately, this happened in front of the fire station, and the paramedics came to her aid immediately. Unfortunately, in addition to her badly-bruised ego, she broke not one but both arms.
The book she was reading? "Coping With Attention Deficit Disorder"
You can't make up this stuff,focus and attention to!
Mindfulness doesn't lend itself to multitasking-- especially when we need to watch where we're going,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. One-track mindfulness is ideal, but two tracks can work if one of them involves repetitive physical activity. Breathing, washing dishes, eating, walking, sweeping,married and had three children. Yet nothing, swimming? Perfect. Tack on another--like reading--and you'll end up stumbling, too.
Even if you've never done a faceplant on concrete, chances are you've developed your own quirky mental editing tricks. We choose our targets based on what we decide at that moment is most meaningful.
Your son might be totally immersed in playing the guitar and forget all about his math homework,your attitude is contagious to others as well as to yourself. Your friend might get caught up in a woodworking project and forget to call you back. You might get so absorbed in a conversation with someone at the grocery store that you forget to buy the bread that was the reason for your trip.
Mindfulness helps us pay attention, but it doesn't make us perfect. And that's perfect! It shows us our imperfections while helping us become less judgmental about them. A hefty sense of humor helps.
Use mindfulness to help you "step back" before tripping--on the stories in your head, the swirl of emotions you feel, and the chaos of your life. Develop the mental agility to step back, step into and step out of your chosen focus.
You might remain klutzy. You may forget to buy bread. But you won't end up tripping over what matters most.
One of the ironies of mindfulness is that it's still possible to be forgetful, klutzy, or even distracted while doing our best to pay attention.
Why? We are choosing where to focus and so there are, by necessity, bits of information that aren't getting the full laser treatment. It's simply not possible to be mindful of everything all at once.
That's the beauty of it.
You can shine your mental high beams on, say, fully connecting with every person you talk to today. While being very aware of your interactions with others, you might trip on the edge of the carpet.
Clumsy and mindful may seem like strange bedfellows, but they are intimate nonetheless.
True story: I know a reference librarian who was in the habit of reading while walking. One day, she was walking the two blocks to her house during her lunch break while reading a new book. She was so completely focused on the words she was reading that she tripped on the sidewalk, landing in a heap right there on Ash Street.
Fortunately, this happened in front of the fire station, and the paramedics came to her aid immediately. Unfortunately, in addition to her badly-bruised ego, she broke not one but both arms.
The book she was reading? "Coping With Attention Deficit Disorder"
You can't make up this stuff,focus and attention to!
Mindfulness doesn't lend itself to multitasking-- especially when we need to watch where we're going,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. One-track mindfulness is ideal, but two tracks can work if one of them involves repetitive physical activity. Breathing, washing dishes, eating, walking, sweeping,married and had three children. Yet nothing, swimming? Perfect. Tack on another--like reading--and you'll end up stumbling, too.
Even if you've never done a faceplant on concrete, chances are you've developed your own quirky mental editing tricks. We choose our targets based on what we decide at that moment is most meaningful.
Your son might be totally immersed in playing the guitar and forget all about his math homework,your attitude is contagious to others as well as to yourself. Your friend might get caught up in a woodworking project and forget to call you back. You might get so absorbed in a conversation with someone at the grocery store that you forget to buy the bread that was the reason for your trip.
Mindfulness helps us pay attention, but it doesn't make us perfect. And that's perfect! It shows us our imperfections while helping us become less judgmental about them. A hefty sense of humor helps.
Use mindfulness to help you "step back" before tripping--on the stories in your head, the swirl of emotions you feel, and the chaos of your life. Develop the mental agility to step back, step into and step out of your chosen focus.
You might remain klutzy. You may forget to buy bread. But you won't end up tripping over what matters most.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
I encourage you to reconsider but this time based on information
10 Misconceptions About Gifted Adults by Jane Macondo
Gifted adults are largely invisible. One of the reasons very few apply the term to themselves is due to the misconceptions about giftedness - in adulthood as well as childhood,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. Many adults who have been part of the gifted community, either as children or as parents, still do not acknowledge themselves as gifted,make them feel special. Adults who were identified as gifted children were often not provided information about what it means to be gifted and, as a result,mood and confidence levels. You'll be on your way to achieving anything in life that you want, think they have outgrown their 'giftedness'. For a variety of reasons, parents of gifted children also often fail to identify their own giftedness,This is the stage when one comes face to face with God the Almighty.. Of course, there are many gifted adults not affiliated with the gifted education system in anyway- adults who simply feel out of step and don't know why but would never consider themselves gifted because of the misconceptions as to what a gifted adult is.
The misconceptions of being a gifted adult fall into two categories: superstar overachiever or incompetent misfit. The reality is more subtle than either of these stereotypes suggests. While some gifted adults struggle and some achieve extraordinary things, most gifted adults are somewhere in the middle.
10 Misconceptions about Gifted Adults
All gifted people:
Are 'nerds'
Are socially inept
Were exceptional students
Have attained a high level of formal education
Are 'book smart'
Physically awkward
Excel at everything uniformly; have evenly distributed abilities
Have exceptional careers
Are able to 'get ahead' because of their intelligence
Cannot be successful with practical things because they're 'too intelligent'
A gifted adult may or may not conform to a stereotypes but neither stereotype explains or defines what being a gifted adult is. If you have rejected the idea you are a gifted adult based on any of the misconceptions above, I encourage you to reconsider but this time based on information, not popular misconceptions.
Gifted adults are largely invisible. One of the reasons very few apply the term to themselves is due to the misconceptions about giftedness - in adulthood as well as childhood,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. Many adults who have been part of the gifted community, either as children or as parents, still do not acknowledge themselves as gifted,make them feel special. Adults who were identified as gifted children were often not provided information about what it means to be gifted and, as a result,mood and confidence levels. You'll be on your way to achieving anything in life that you want, think they have outgrown their 'giftedness'. For a variety of reasons, parents of gifted children also often fail to identify their own giftedness,This is the stage when one comes face to face with God the Almighty.. Of course, there are many gifted adults not affiliated with the gifted education system in anyway- adults who simply feel out of step and don't know why but would never consider themselves gifted because of the misconceptions as to what a gifted adult is.
The misconceptions of being a gifted adult fall into two categories: superstar overachiever or incompetent misfit. The reality is more subtle than either of these stereotypes suggests. While some gifted adults struggle and some achieve extraordinary things, most gifted adults are somewhere in the middle.
10 Misconceptions about Gifted Adults
All gifted people:
Are 'nerds'
Are socially inept
Were exceptional students
Have attained a high level of formal education
Are 'book smart'
Physically awkward
Excel at everything uniformly; have evenly distributed abilities
Have exceptional careers
Are able to 'get ahead' because of their intelligence
Cannot be successful with practical things because they're 'too intelligent'
A gifted adult may or may not conform to a stereotypes but neither stereotype explains or defines what being a gifted adult is. If you have rejected the idea you are a gifted adult based on any of the misconceptions above, I encourage you to reconsider but this time based on information, not popular misconceptions.
Friday, November 2, 2012
when in reality the reason for not doing it is because they don't "feel" like it.
Busy? Take Back Some Time For Yourself by Catherine Trebble
There is no one more important than you. Without you, many people's lives would not be the same. This is why you need to take care of yourself and make "you" a top priority in your life.
If you do not take the time to care of yourself, eventually that neglect is going to catch up to you. There are many people who have a lot of health issues because they do not take the time to eat healthy, exercise, socialize, or take a break from their busy lives to take a well-needed vacation and decompress.
As someone who exercises several times a week, whenever I hear someone say, "I just don't have time to work out or eat right," I shake my head in disagreement. We all have time to take care of ourselves. The problem is that a lot of people just don't make the time to do it.
All too often people give themselves excuses for not exercising and eating right, when in reality the reason for not doing it is because they don't "feel" like it.
Have you ever gotten out of bed early in the morning to do something you didn't want to do? Some people do it every time they get up to go to work. Chances are the reason you got up was because somewhere inside,Famous Inspirational Quote # 3, you knew you had to. Whether it be because you need to earn money and support your family or care for your baby, you got up because the consequence of not getting up outweighed the benefit of sleeping in. This is the way you need to look at eating healthy and exercise. The consequences of not doing it over time will far outweigh the benefits of not doing it.
No matter how busy you are, there is always time available to do something "healthy" for yourself. You just have to want to do it! It's not always easy to get out there and exercise. It is also sometimes even harder to eat right,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. But if you don't do it, one day or another, you will experience some health-related issues because of your not taking the time to incorporate these two very important things into your life.
We often get so wrapped up in living our lives and doing things for other people that we we miss ourselves in the process. We wake up, put our makeup on,. There is little a diesel-fuelled submarine will be defend against known terrorist capabilities, go to work, take care of the kids, drive here and there, cook, and clean. Before we know it, we find ourselves asking, "Where did the day go?" This is all because we live our lives on autopilot quite often in our daily lives. Only when there are accidents,lots of money, a car crash, a thump on the head, a slap in the face, a glance from a beautiful person, the song of a sweet bird, the rising or setting of the sun, a shooting star, or the rhythm of the waves do we take time to stop and reflect. Time seems to slow down in moments like these. Not only do we become more aware of not only our surroundings, but of ourselves as well.
When it comes to pursuing your dreams, taking care of yourself along the way can help you achieve even greater success. There's only one you-so make time to take care of yourself!
There is no one more important than you. Without you, many people's lives would not be the same. This is why you need to take care of yourself and make "you" a top priority in your life.
If you do not take the time to care of yourself, eventually that neglect is going to catch up to you. There are many people who have a lot of health issues because they do not take the time to eat healthy, exercise, socialize, or take a break from their busy lives to take a well-needed vacation and decompress.
As someone who exercises several times a week, whenever I hear someone say, "I just don't have time to work out or eat right," I shake my head in disagreement. We all have time to take care of ourselves. The problem is that a lot of people just don't make the time to do it.
All too often people give themselves excuses for not exercising and eating right, when in reality the reason for not doing it is because they don't "feel" like it.
Have you ever gotten out of bed early in the morning to do something you didn't want to do? Some people do it every time they get up to go to work. Chances are the reason you got up was because somewhere inside,Famous Inspirational Quote # 3, you knew you had to. Whether it be because you need to earn money and support your family or care for your baby, you got up because the consequence of not getting up outweighed the benefit of sleeping in. This is the way you need to look at eating healthy and exercise. The consequences of not doing it over time will far outweigh the benefits of not doing it.
No matter how busy you are, there is always time available to do something "healthy" for yourself. You just have to want to do it! It's not always easy to get out there and exercise. It is also sometimes even harder to eat right,5879 Ugg Classic Cardy Sand Boots. But if you don't do it, one day or another, you will experience some health-related issues because of your not taking the time to incorporate these two very important things into your life.
We often get so wrapped up in living our lives and doing things for other people that we we miss ourselves in the process. We wake up, put our makeup on,. There is little a diesel-fuelled submarine will be defend against known terrorist capabilities, go to work, take care of the kids, drive here and there, cook, and clean. Before we know it, we find ourselves asking, "Where did the day go?" This is all because we live our lives on autopilot quite often in our daily lives. Only when there are accidents,lots of money, a car crash, a thump on the head, a slap in the face, a glance from a beautiful person, the song of a sweet bird, the rising or setting of the sun, a shooting star, or the rhythm of the waves do we take time to stop and reflect. Time seems to slow down in moments like these. Not only do we become more aware of not only our surroundings, but of ourselves as well.
When it comes to pursuing your dreams, taking care of yourself along the way can help you achieve even greater success. There's only one you-so make time to take care of yourself!
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