InspirationMessages

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As you will have read from various inspiration messages, there are certain guidelines to follow if you want to get the most success from your life. There are certainly a great deal of gurus and authors around to pass on the words of motivation you need. But in my opinion there are simple things to do now that do not need any great change in lifestyle and yet could make a difference.

We have already mentioned the positive influences to be found closer to home in this blog post but, like prospectors sifting the gold from river silt, there are plenty of events and words of motivation to be found in our daily lives.

It all takes a decision to enjoy the life you have while striving to achieve the life you would like.

One of the important things is to understand what you can change in life and what you cannot change. The newspapers, television and online news are full of information that is frankly of no use to us. Most of what is reported is negative and is nothing we can influence. So why worry about it?

At the end of the day, we are here to sort out our own lives, to help those close to you and do what you can to positively influence your immediate community. It may seem a strange inspirational message, but I would suggest you stay away from politics and worrying about politics (until you have to vote), as the vast majority of political bickering is negative and of no use to us whatsoever.

Too many people live their lives as if they are in a television drama or soap opera. Real life is not like that. You have almost total control of your life and can easily avoid all the confrontation and stress represented in the media. If you can, why not avoid watching it all? As Noel Coward once said, “Television is for appearing on – not for looking at.”

So where can we find the positive influences we need? Of course there are plenty of good books to be had. Another quote, this one from Groucho Marx: “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

Like Groucho Marx, it is very easy to find the humour in the world around us. Find a great comedy movie such as a Naked Gun film or a Carry On but also people generally are never far from cracking a wry joke. Enjoy and savour each one.

You can also find your own reasons to laugh. I am not talking about laughing at other people’s pain but rather the ridiculous situations we all get into. With the right frame of mind, silly dramas and debates can be turned into laughter and very often other people will realise how daft the situation is. Look out for opportunities to have positive fun and the reduction in stress will be as good as a dozen inspiration messages.

If you get into a situation where it is hard to see the humour, then there are four words that are worth using: This Too Shall Pass. Nothing is permanent. If you are in a difficult situation, understand that it will not last forever. You are a born survivor and everything will work out fine.

Look for the beauty in life and you will find inspiration everywhere. I have found on occasions of high stress that a visit to the garden to look at the plants and birds there brings it all into perspective. On one occasion I was stressed about money and looked out of the window. There was a group of sparrows fluttering around the top of one of the trees and they did not care about my problem. Life was carrying on as normal. It made me realise how transient the problem was.

Every day reminds us about how inspiring is the world around us. Enjoy every coincidence and spectacular storm cloud. Find inspiration messages in the rain and sun and in the wind. Become childlike in your awe of everything around you. I even found myself admiring the wheel of a new car recently, amazed at the cleverness of its design.

In the United Kingdom this year, we have good reasons to have a great attitude. Last year we watched the Royal Wedding between the now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and this year it is the Queens Diamond Jubilee. In addition of course the Olympics and Paralympics will be held here too. As usual, there are plenty of people who will see these events as irrelevant and a waste of money when the economies of the world are struggling but in reality all these events are great opportunities to enjoy and gain inspiration messages.

Grasp every opportunity to find the positive and fun from occasions such as these. The Royal Wedding was a source of great positive energy for those who were open to it and this year’s events will be the same. Enjoy the pageantry and spectacle and your life will be the better for it.

As James Allen wrote: “The irksomeness and sting which you feel to be in your task are in your mind only.” Adjust your thinking to the world around you and your life is bound to change for the better.

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By Deanne P Wells, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Deanne_P_Wells

“An optimist is the human personification of spring.”

- Susan J. Bissonette

Spring is here! It’s time to throw open the doors and windows to let the fresh air in! That means, not only in our house, but into our minds and bodies, too! Spring is the perfect time to clear out the mental clutter of what’s holding us back in our lives. Every year, spring brings rejuvenation all around us and it only seems fit that we join in with healthy growth and renewal. House clutter, mental baggage, and overloads of paperwork can pile up quickly like weeds, so while we’re clearing out our office, garage, house, and garden, it only seems fit to do a little work on our minds.

Spring cleaning isn’t just about discarding material clutter, it’s also about clearing out the compulsive mental hoarding we’ve accumulated in our lives! Storing months and even years of unnecessary worries, guilt, and fears can cause unwanted health risks, impaired judgment, adverse effects on one’s job, finances, family, and friends. We might think that people aren’t visually exposed to what has built up inside our minds (like we would see in their garage), but we are! We know when someone’s walking around with a black cloud over their head, carrying extra weight on their shoulders, or have a lot on their mind. Just like a hoarder’s kitchen that’s piled with useless garbage, a person’s mind can also be filled with toxic trash that’s not even worthy of a recycle bin. Fear, anxiety, depression, and mood swings are all signs of mental hoarding. Imagine for a moment having to climb over boxes and boxes of waste inside your head, boxes that have been buried and unopened for years. Hoarding does not only exist in someone’s garage, house, backyard, or basement… it can also exist in the attic of our minds.

Many compulsive hoarders have trouble admitting when they’ve accumulated too much clutter. They believe that their items are of value whether they’re old or new, broken or intact. Hoarders tend to hide their compulsiveness and remain in denial even though they might know there is a problem. Hoarding can fall into every facet of our lives. Hanging on to past hurts, guilt, obsessive thoughts, negative affirmations, criticisms, unfinished business, procrastination, indecision, dysfunctional relationships, or overwhelming responsibilities are all part of mental clutter. When we allow weeds to grow freely around the environment we live in, eventually they will spread into every weakness, crack or crevice, and finally to the inside of our minds. Imagine a building that’s abandoned, the weeds and vines will slowly engulf the unmaintained building until someone finally accepts that it needs maintenance. Think about someone who has trouble getting rid of things because they feel there are too many sentimental attachments… imagine for a moment what their mind might look like! Longing and daydreaming over someone from our past who doesn’t want anything to do with us can also be considered mental hoarding. Again, being in denial plays a big role in whether or not we want to be clear-minded and it’s important to accept when it’s time to do a mind sweep and let clutter go.

Disorder comes in all shapes and forms, not just as boxes. Not all clutter is clearly labeled, nor does it have a flashing red light to tell us what needs to go. But, if we pay close attention to our intuition (what our gut is telling us), more than likely we will know what needs to go. It’s important that we stop replaying different scenarios over and over in our heads, such as, “if I would have done this, or I should have done that, and I could always do this.” Those phrases are only a waste of more precious mental energy. By recalling the woulda, coulda, shouldas, we’re not being productive and just creating more clutter. Imagine your mind as a computer hard drive that eventually uses all its memory, so you go out and buy an external hard drive to back up all your important data- so this way you don’t have to delete anything. Many people are hoarders mental or physical, we just don’t like to throw things away. So our “stuff” just keeps piling up and piling up, and before you know it we can’t keep our head above clutter!

The problem is… where do we begin decluttering? Most of us would agree, excuses are the biggest factor that keep us from accomplishing anything in our life, e.g., “I don’t know where to start. I need help. I’m confused. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t have time.” And so on. It’s time to stop making excuses and start living our life! Start somewhere! Start anywhere! We all have time to clear out mental clutter. Hit the delete button on the mental negativity that’s holding you down from living the life you want to live. Get out the weed whacker and cut down those weeds! It’s an everyday process, and just like weeds do, they always come back, but it’s up to us to keep up with our mental maintenance. No one is going to maintain your mind for you, we can get guidance and education, but ultimately, keeping up with the maintenance is always up to you! We all have busy lives, but if you didn’t do your laundry every week it would continue to pile up. Nobody wants to do your laundry for you… we each have our own responsibilities. It’s your dirty laundry and it’s your mental clutter. Accept it and deal with it. Wash it or leave it pile up, the choice is always yours. Ask yourself, “What is holding me back from growing and flourishing to my fullest extent?”

We all deserve a chance for renewal… a chance to join in with the growth around us. It’s time to dust off usable items, pull out the weeds, do a little pruning, and feed our minds and bodies with the right nutrients to help us grow stronger. We must be optimistic that we can make time to improve our lives for the better and cut back on what we don’t need. So, when we’re feeling overwhelmed- there’s a good chance we’re being smothered by unnecessary clutter and the red warning flags are telling us that something needs to change. We put a lot of maintenance into the things around us in our daily lives, but we can’t forget take care of ourselves- in order for us to truly flourish we must trim back on the overgrowth of clutter. It’s time to clear out the weeds to allow positivity to grow.“A beautiful flower deserves to stand out from the weeds.”

- Deanne P. Wells

Deanne P. Wells is the owner and Editor of the South Texas Women’s World Magazine, a life coach, speaker, and author. She has published several self-improvement and motivational articles on life empowering topics. She assists women in business and personal to provide insight, structure, and encouragement in reaching their full potential.

Contact her for a complimentary coaching session: Editor@stww.net

Visit virtually: http://www.stww.net

http://www.facebook.com/stwwmag

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By Danny Griffin, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Danny_Griffin

We all work so hard so that some day we can be comfortable. You know, that place in life when you can live worry free. Maybe you’re picturing a time where you can save so much money, that you can live off of the dividends and pursue your supposed heart’s desires. Maybe you’ve already made it there or were lucky enough to be born into financial freedom. Whatever the case may be, we seem to all be measuring ourselves against the goal of sitting back on the porch with a cool glass of ice tea just watching time go by without a care in the world.

However, is this really what we’re after? Who says it’s so great? How did we set that as the benchmark for success? I remember reading a fascinating book called the Okinawa Program that revealed why such a high percentage of Okinawans live beyond 100 years. While diet played a big role, the most significant revelation was that many of them reinvented themselves over the course of their lives. Rather then retiring, they often had up to 4 different careers.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreamed of living multiple lives to come back and try a wide variety of opportunities and here was a bunch of people doing it in just one lifetime and being rewarded with longevity! How can that be most of us would say? Don’t we all start to wind down in our seventies if we even make it that far? Plus where would we get all that energy to keep on keeping on? Working and grinding to figure out new uncharted waters? Why in the world do that?

Why would these “elderly” people care to test themselves like that? It’s impossible to compete with the young and adapt to all the new ways of living and making our way. Isn’t this why we have Social Security in the U.S. so we can pass the baton to the next generation who owes the last ten fingers into retirement? The Okinawans might argue that this is actually just helping us into the grave a bit sooner.

How about some of the most competitive amongst us like professional athletes? Only when they’re really tested do they see what is truly possible. You see it on their faces as they overcome the seemingly impossible. What’s even more compelling is that many of us will pay big bucks just to sit in the arena and witness the test. We might even shed a tear or two as we celebrate the incredible fortitude of our fellow man to go so far.

So what’s the point? Without being tested you’ll never really grow. Sure you can be moving the agenda forward and sometimes end up on greased rails sailing easily through life, but until you get pushed to the edge you’ll never really know who you are. Some of us never really stumble into any real setbacks so we have to go in search of them. We have to go down to the corner and pick a fight with life and our own comfort zone. Why look back on life in the final hours only to realize that you never really took your sword into the arena and called out the Challenger? Test yourself and LIVE!

http://www.FreeThinkingTools.com to sign up for Free “thinking tools” for your toolbox delivered directly to you! Remember little distinctions bring big changes!

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By Tim Connor, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Tim_Connor

What exactly is a personal barrier and why bother with them? Is it necessary to even give them time and energy, consideration or time?

Consider for a moment that everyone;

- has personal blind spots

- has old emotional baggage

- wants something better or different in their life

- has emotional scars

- needs some kind of help or guidance now and then

- suffers from the impact of stress

- carries some type of fear in their mind

- is capable of doing or having more in their life

- functions in the same world

- filters everything in their life

So what does all of this have to do with our personal barriers and how to plow through them?

A barrier is nothing more than a temporary roadblock, detour or obstruction that forces us to seek a different path, move in another direction, take a different road or remain stuck while we wait for the barrier to be removed.

The biggest barriers people face are their emotional, psychological or attitudinal as opposed to their physical ones. These inner barriers are generally created by us and our attention to them, our constant awareness of them or our acceptance of them through our many years of conditioning from others, our personal experiences and our learning whether by accident or our active purpose to grow, learn and mature.

Failing to recognize, address and learn to overcome our inner barriers or effectively manage them so they don’t prevent the loss of self-esteem, loss of inner peace or stall or even prevent the achievement of a person’s potential or goals is an admission that we have little or no control of who we are, our weaknesses and that we are a victim to circumstances and have lack ability to achieve these in life.

What are some of the common barriers that people face?

-Past decisions that turned out badly and the ability to use them as learning tools to improve in the future.

-An over concern for the opinions of others and our need for approval, acceptance and/or validation.

-The fear of making decisions due to their uncertainty when it comes to outcomes or new unknowns that we must deal with.

-The emotional maturity to accept ourselves as humans who frequently do really dumb things caused by ego driven needs, arrogance or immaturity.

-Failure to confront our opinions, judgments or mindsets that do not serve us well and finding the courage to change them.

-The unwillingness to admit that we just don’t know it all.

-The inability to take full responsibility for our actions, choices, decisions and behavior.

-Spending too much time in a mindset of blaming others or circumstances for our situations.

-Remaining in denial when all evidence proves that something we refuse to accept is real or true.

There are thousands of other barriers that people fail to successfully address that in a number of ways have a negative impact on the quality of a person’s life both external and internal.

It takes awareness, attention, courage, inner work and patience to successfully handle your barriers but in the end if and when you are able to accomplish this – the outcomes are more than worth it. The question is simply – do you want something better in life and are you willing to do the work or are you willing to settle with what is – refusing to even try to deal with what may be preventing happiness, success and inner peace?

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 4000 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 70 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, SOLD, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at http://www.timconnor.com.

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The ideal motivation in our lives is internal – in other words, how we find words of motivation within ourselves. However the reality for most people is they find their inspiration around them.

The obvious example of finding inspirational messages in this way is propaganda. History shows so many examples of individuals acting on false messages often from governments. This is still the case today, although it has often been given the modern description of ‘spin.’

There was a fascinating article on this subject in the Daily Telegraph recently.

Another source of inspiration messages comes from the celebrity culture. Many people do or wear crazy things in the name of fashion or because they want to follow a particular craze or celebrity. I believe this is called ‘being cool.’

So where can we get good, reliable inspiration?

Obviously there are excellent authors, speakers and positive personalities we can follow and it is great if we do so. But I would argue there are people nearer to us who can provide a good, positive influence.

Friends and family may not always understand why we do what we do but, unless you are really unlucky, they show their love for you nonetheless. We need to look for the signs of love and draw inspiration from them.

Often a partner or parent will say ‘Be careful’ or ‘Take care,’ which used to annoy me, as I would read it as ‘Take care as you are not able to look after yourself.’ As time has gone by however I have come to realize this actually means ‘Take care, as I don’t know what I would do if you hurt yourself:” a much more positive inspirational message.

Friends will often call up and invite you out or just call for a chat and you have to understand they are doing this because they want to do so. Value those days when you just sit and chat with those close to you, their just being there is an affirmation of their love for you. It is just a case of seeing the inspirational messages in what they do for you.

For this reason I suggest we take more care of the relationships we have. I often say we need to watch what we say to people, as you don’t know whose life you could influence positively, indeed, whose life you could change with a kind word. But these words of motivation can come from other people to boost your confidence and will do so if you nurture the relationships with those around you. Spend time with family and friends and listen to them to show how much you care for them and you will find that they will do all they can to build you up.

It is just a case of understanding when people are showing their affection for you and seizing the words of inspiration and strength that will be there.

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By Micheal Lowe, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Micheal_Lowe

A little boy was waiting patiently by the door for his Daddy to come home. Finally, in walked Dad. He was tired, stressed and still thinking about the dramas that had unfolded at work earlier that day. The little boy, seeing his Daddy head for his office with briefcase in hand, realized he was in for another lonely night. A few hours later, the boy sneaked into his Dad’s office and asked sheepishly, “Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?” His Dad thought, “What a strange question.” “Son, if you must know, I make $50 an hour!” The little boy stopped, pondered for a moment and then asked, “Daddy, can I borrow $20?” “$20!” his father scolded, “Forget it, Son, and get to bed. It’s way past your bed time!” Later that night, the father noticed the light on in his son’s bedroom and was angered to see his boy still up. “It’s well after your bed time!” he barked. Seeing a few crumpled-up notes stashed under his son’s pillow, he exploded with, “What’s this? A few hours ago, you asked me for $20 and you already have $30! What on earth do you need all this money for?” The little boy swallowed hard and said softly, “Daddy, I had hoped that I would have saved up enough money by now to have been able to buy one hour of your time.”

Often we are so preoccupied with our other interests we fail to see the gradual deterioration of our valued relationships. A few minor adjustments today may prevent heartache and regret tomorrow. A soul-searching question that may help you pinpoint where your valued relationships are at present is, “If I happened to be my wife, husband, child or children, would I like to have a spouse or parent like me?” If you don’t like the answer(s) you receive, make a note why and then use your power of choice to head off those concerns.

A good way to gain awareness on the status of your marriage is to ask your partner, “Is there anything I do right now that annoys you?” Once you ask this question, bite your tongue and hear your spouse out. Another way to avoid a trip to the divorce courts is to reinvent your marriage vows. This time, however, don’t aim for “better or for worse” but instead “for better and for better”. As boredom leads to frustration, spontaneity and surprises lead back to renewed passion. Do you know that passion can be re-created at any time simply by re-creating the experiences that originally sparked it? Therefore, develop the habit of scheduling your baby sitter every couple of weeks so you and your spouse can enjoy a good-quality movie or meal in solitude – and remember the red roses!

Relationship Goal Suggestions

- If you don’t have a family, consider setting a goal to spend more time with loved ones and friends.

- How can you develop a stronger relationship with each of your children?

- Do you need to restore the lines of communication with your children? How?

- What is something special you can do weekly with your family?

- Could you take them out to dinner or to a theme park?

- How about committing to spend one hour a day as quality time with your family?

- How can you show more appreciation for the little things your spouse do which you have been taking for granted?

- What is one thing you can do, starting today, to spice up your relationships?

- Where would you like to take your family for your next Christmas holidays?

- How about taking your parents out to dinner once every couple of months?

There is one other thing I feel strongly about in this area. May I suggest you set aside Sundays wherever possible and spend them as quality time with your family. Even God Himself took one day off! Know more about how to achieve your smart goals now.

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In writing down what we want out of life – our dreams – and finding the inspiration messages to improve our lives, it is important to ensure what we want is in line with what we value in life. Success on any terms but those dictated by our consciences is likely to be a hollow triumph.

Perhaps one of the most significant standards we can set ourselves is that of honesty.

In his important book, The Magic Of Thinking Big, David Schwartz tells the story of a bright student who flunked an examination paper. The student told Dr. Schwartz he knew he had been spotted cheating and imagined what would happen to him. As a result, the student’s work had gone to pieces and Dr. Schwartz had to give him some strong words of motivation to get him to carry on, certain he had learned a lesson on the value of honesty.

Many people believe they can short-circuit success in a dishonest manner and get away with it. The truth is, even if you think no one noticed your dishonest act, there is always a witness – you. Somewhere deep inside us is the urge to be honest.

As David Schwartz wrote: “There is within each of us a desire to be right, to think right, and act right. When we go against that desire we put a cancer in our conscience. Avoid doing anything that will cause you to ask yourself: ‘will I get caught? Will they find out? Will I get away with it?’”

All too often men have extramarital affairs without thinking of the consequences to their own lives. Frequently they are overcome with guilt and fear that they might be found out. Sometimes they compensate by feigning a hard exterior, a devil-may-care image, but sadly this can become a habit that can reduce the chances of finding a healthy, loving and fulfilling relationship at all.

Many criminals are caught simply because they act in a guilty manner.  David Schwartz put it this way: “There is within each of us a desire to be right, top think right, and act right. When we go against that desire we put a cancer in our conscience.’

In any case, most people appreciate others to be honest and individuals prefer to deal with those who they consider to be honest.

I have worked for a car importing company that moved thousands of cars every week. Collisions were inevitable but the overriding rule was the company did not mind if a driver had the occasional bump as long as he or she was honest about it.

Not only do others like to trust people they know are honest but you too will feel better about it. Dishonesty eats away at your own self-image. Honesty gives you a solid foundation upon which to build your dreams – and the confidence other people have in you will also encourage them to help you achieve what you want in life. Inspiration messages will be easier to follow and people will be happier listening to any of your words of motivation.

A lack of honesty can complicate your life in other ways too; you may tell a lie on one occasion and then you have to remember what you said for future meetings. I have known people get tangled up in the mesh of their own lies when the story gets too complicated. Inconsistencies in a story will create suspicion, inevitably they get found out and their reputation is destroyed for sometime to come.

I recall there was a divorce reported after the New York disaster on 9 September 2001 when a cheating husband, unaware of the events and visiting his girlfriends home, answered his wife’s telephone call and said he was at work in the Twin Towers – as she was watching them collapse on television.  Dishonesty rarely pays.

It is true that you can achieve some measure of success in life without being truly honest but I believe that your happiness will be incomplete. Each person’s definition of success is different but to me a situation where people have no trust in you, distrust your words of motivation and your relationships are shallow is not success at all.

There is however a warning to be heeded. In some situations diplomacy is more relevant than honesty; this is particularly true in cases involving vanity. The classic example occurs when your wife asks ‘Does this dress make me look fat?’ If you answer honestly you are risking serious injury so a little lie is appropriate to keep the peace and restore her self-image. Some words of motivation need not to be strictly true.

Overall however my inspirational message is that honesty and an open heart is the fastest way to true success and peace of mind. You will never find motivating quotes suggesting you do otherwise.

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By Alex Gunn, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alex_Gunn

Now, this might sound like a rather extravagant claim. To be more accurate, a completely extravagant claim, but I promise that at the very least this will be useful information, and at best it will help you change your life and achieve the impossible.

Firstly let me ask you two questions. Do you believe that when you really, really make up your mind to do something you do it? Do you also believe that when you haven’t really made up your mind, when your heart’s not really in it, things don’t work out? I would go one step further and say that most things we fail to achieve is purely because our heart is not really in it.

Think back over all the things you have managed to achieve in life and I bet that all of them were things that you really, really wanted; getting married, (getting divorced), passing exams, your driving test, having children, buying your house, getting your job. All of these things have one thing in common…you really wanted to make them happen.

Now think of all the things you have so far failed at; quitting smoking, cutting down on drinking, losing weight, becoming a millionaire, eating less junk food, living on a private Mediterranean island in a huge white villa with a swimming pool in the shape of a dove…or whatever. I bet you this second list, as desirable as it all might be, do not occupy as much time in your “top three important things in my life” list. And this, in a nutshell, is the problem.

So how do we bump all these things in our second list up to the first list? Believe it or not, it’s quite straight forward.

I really began to get interested in what has now become known as Motivational Psychology twenty-two years ago while working as a psycho-therapist in a specialist clinic for people with alcohol problems. Why did some people seem to achieve the impossible and others, often returning home to more supportive environments, did not.

To begin the process of bumping things up to our first list,(the list of things that we achieve) we have to start, what is called in motivational psychology terms “increasing importance”. This has been a special interest of mine for many years, probably because I have heard so many people, rather depressingly say “you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”…oh yes you can.

Firstly target any one item on your second list (the “failed at so far” list) and give yourself a score out of ten of how important it really is to you. Not how important you would like it to be, but how important it really is, with ten being the most important thing in your world right now and zero being gloriously unimportant. Be honest.

Once you have got that number in your head think about why you have given yourself that number. Why is it as high as it is? What would help to increase your number by just one or two digits, or maybe more? Don’t give yourself an easy time, ask your self these difficult questions and give yourself some honest answers.

The second thing to start doing is to identify what you are telling yourself about whatever it is you are thinking of and wheedle out all the self sabotaging statements. Why are you telling yourself that you can’t stop smoking, or eat more healthily? There is more and more research piling up that suggests that the only thing stopping yourself achieving whatever it is you want is what you are telling yourself. It is summed up in a really useful quote coined by the psychologist Daryl Bem “we learn what we believe as we hear ourselves speak”. So start speaking more positively, it will make a difference.

Now hopefully some of this information has been useful for you and I hope even life changing. Who knows, in a year from today you might be toddling out onto your verandah for a well earned swim in your own dove shaped pool.

Alex Gunn invites you to find out how real people are making real changes in their lives at http://thelifechangepeople.com/read-my-story/153-elizabeths-story

Learn five important steps to changing your life http://thelifechangepeople.com/news-and-reviews/news/81-how-can-i-change-my-life

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By Danny Griffin, http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Danny_Griffin

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So where is it? It has to be there somewhere. Didn’t we have it a couple of times before? Where the heck did we leave it? Think. Remember that time when you felt it? It welled up inside you so strongly that you felt electric. The feeling was so strong that it lasted the whole day. You even went to sleep with a smile on your face and slept like a brick. Pure euphoria.

The next day you still felt it. Your friends and family seemed to be treating you differently. Your business was thriving. It seemed like you had some sort of magnetic pull. Nothing could go wrong. Yet as the days wear on, you notice the positive vibe is cooling down until one day you just can’t seem to find it. You certainly can remember it, but somehow it’s nowhere to be found.

What is it that we’re looking for again? Oh that’s right…it’s our best. The person that seems to emerge once in a blue moon only to be subdued by the magnetic pull of mediocrity. We can’t say that it’s been defeated because it does in fact come round the way once in a while to do some amazing things. Remember the time when it showed up when the gremlins had you pinned to the ground?

Your best came and took up the sword and slayed the dragon. The crowd cheered and crowned the victor only to see it disappear once again in to the mist. Why does it come and go like that? It frustrates us and we get so mad that we condemn it and call it a trickster and a deliverer of false hope. If your best were real then why in the world would it be so disloyal? Cheating us of that great feeling…what a tease. It’s comings and goings can be so maddening that we might slip into a complete melt down over its departure.

But wait a minute. Does your best really have the ability to come and go as it pleases? Is it really subject to the forces of luck, emerging only when the stars align? Or is the truth that we actually let it slip away. Maybe our best recognized the cold shoulder and slipped out the back door while nobody was looking. Maybe our best was embarrassed.

You see, our best can be so good to us that we can become intoxicated by what it delivers. As we sit and revel in that temporary glory, our best grows restless as it begs for more challenge like a child tugs on your arm to play. Yet neglected both eventually move off in their own direction in pursuit of a playmate.

While it requires great energy to pay attention and nurture your best, it’s simply a game worth playing. The best news is that your best is adaptable and always open to new challenges even when it requires the development of new skills. So stop ignoring your best, because if it weren’t for its existence you would have never known the reward of those great moments.

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