Archive for the ‘Personal Development’ Category
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
 Two people can view the same situation entirely different. One may see the glass half empty; another sees the glass half full. Both observations are correct, but the subtle difference in thought process and phrasing is important. The former is bemoaning what isn’t and the latter is appreciating what is. The way you view and describe a situation greatly influences how you feel about it and how you respond to it. You have the power to choose how you see life. You always have the option of viewing situations in either a positive or negative manner.
When someone asks you how you genuinely feel about yourself, what thoughts first come to your mind? Do you instinctively think about your shortcomings and failures, or do you think about your worth and potential? Your view of yourself affects your development. When you focus on your potential, you foster vision and motivation for growth. When you expect positive outcomes, you will be more inclined to work for and get them. If you motivate employees and create an environment where they want to succeed, they will be more likely to do so. If you have positive expectations, they will strive to live up to them. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and help them become what they’re capable of being.”
When you see life positively, you will be in a stronger position to ward off the negative influences that constantly bombard you. You will be able to set your goals and sustain your efforts to achieve them. Take an inventory of your internal attitudes. Listen closely to your dialogue with yourself. You will become increasingly aware of the many negative thoughts that you may entertain on a daily basis.
Be conscious of your thoughts and make a commitment to change those negative thoughts into positive commitments. Just as you exercise your body to make it healthy, exercise your mind with positive thoughts that begin with “I can” and “I will.” You have no doubt encountered people who move forward through life with vigor and enthusiasm. They seem to possess an indefinable quality that propels them over and around obstacles. They don’t get discouraged, and they don’t indulge in self-doubt or self-pity. That quality is a positive view of life. You can almost hear them saying aloud to themselves, “I can” and “I will,” and as a result they do!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has been the first choice among business partners for creating successful business consultants and coaches. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: Attitudes, development, focus, full, glass half empty, influence, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, negative, positive, RAC, resource associates, Success
Posted in Attitudes, Personal Development, Success | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 26th, 2010
He went to war as a Captain and returned as a Private. Afterward, he failed in business. As a lawyer in Springfield he was too impracticable and temperamental to be a success. As he turned to politics, he was defeated for the legislature in 1832. In 1833, he ventured into the business world again, and again he did not succeed. 1834, he was elected to the state legislature. In 1838, he was defeated for Speaker, in 1840, he was defeated for Elector. In 1844, he lost a race for a congressional seat. In 1846, he gained a seat in Congress, only to lose it in 1848. He ran for the Senate in 1854, but lost. In 1856, he ran for Vice President but lost again. In 1858, he ran for the Senate again and again was defeated. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.
Certainly, Lincoln’s life was a bit unusual. Not many of us are born in a log cabin and rise to be the leader of one of the greatest nations in the world. But there are lessons to be learned from Lincoln’s journey to success. The road to outstanding goal achievement is filled with adversity. If you expect your road to success to be a smooth highway, you will be frustrated and disappointed. The journey is a process of trying, failing, adjusting, and choosing to continually move forward. Along the way you will make mistakes, but without mistakes there is never progress.
Often people fear making mistakes, but fear of mistakes inhibits your personal development. Rather than risk making another mistake, you might tend to play it safe. Fear of failure breeds mediocrity and the accomplishment of very little.
If you suffer from a fear of mistakes, you can conquer it by changing your attitude. Recognize that past errors, mistakes, and negative experiences do not inhibit your development. In fact, they contribute to the learning process. Use them as feedback for personal and professional growth. If you make a mistake, admit it, learn from it, adjust your thinking, and redirect the necessary efforts toward your goal. Focus on the positive. Consciously forget the error and dwell upon the successful aspects of the attempt. No one likes to make mistakes, but the fact is everybody does. You can choose to view a mistake either as a failure or as a lesson learned. If you continue to criticize yourself for past errors, you will perpetuate the very behavior you want to change. The moment you change your mindset and stop giving power to past mistakes, you will be released from the power that past mistakes have over you.
Errors are road signs to direct you on your journey to personal success and achievement. They are necessary steps in the learning process, but they are a means not an end. When they have served their purpose for learning, move past them. You are responsible for your own success. Take responsibility for your mistakes and failures and don’t try to shift blame to other people or circumstances. Remember, by taking responsibility in life you will also gain power and influence.
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.” George Bernard Shaw
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, accomplishment, failure, George Bernard Shaw, learning process, mistakes, RAC, Resource Associates Corporation, Success
Posted in Personal Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
No is such a small word and yet so hard to say.
Often we don’t want to say no, even when that’s the right thing to do because we don’t want to risk appearing unable, unappreciative, or disrespectful. We don’t always act as we know we should. Many people place more value on what others think of them rather than on what they think of themselves. Their need to please others is so strong that, in pleasing others, they continue to diminish their own worth and the quality of their lives. If you, like many people, inadvertently are more concerned about pleasing others than pleasing yourself, it’s time to change.
If you consider what others think of you to be more important than what you think of yourself, you are likely to accept more responsibility than you want or can handle. In a childish attempt to please, you might accept too many responsibilities and become overwhelmed. We’ve all had occasions when we were afraid to tell the boss no. We’ve hesitated about refusing an invitation lest we hurt someone’s feelings, or we’ve agreed to help out a friend even when we didn’t have the time to do so. As stated before, this can cause you to feel overworked, underpaid, out of control, and unappreciated!
If your self-image is healthy and your need to please others is secondary to pleasing yourself, you will tend to frame your responses in light of your values and priorities. As a result, you will find yourself appropriately saying no when requests are not in alignment with your values and goals. Focus on developing attitudes and habits that continuously enhance a positive self-image and a high level of confidence. Focus on doing the right things for the right reasons.
The key to changing any habit is having a desire to change. Desire is reinforced by your conviction that your goals and priorities are right. Habits are very powerful and difficult to break. Therefore, you must really want to change and the rewards or the consequences must outweigh the alternative. If not, you’ll do what’s comfortable. It is frequently easier to do what is familiar than to do what we know is right, but familiar may not be best.
Choose the outcomes you desire. Who you are today may have been the result of choices made by many others in years past. Who you become tomorrow will be a result of choices you make today. Look to the future, not to the past. View setbacks not at failures but as learning experiences and opportunities for growth. Situations do not control you. If you feel your job, your life, your boss, your employees, or your family controls your time, you’ve chosen to let them. You can choose to control your own life. You can select the events in which you want to participate and affect the ultimate outcome. Alan Kay once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” People may choose to control our lives, but they are only successful of we choose to let them. What you accomplish and the amount of time you spend getting there depends on the choices you continue to make.
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Posted in Personal Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Achieving success in life, business, sports, etc. is about mastering excellence. Success is about commitment, persistence, skill, confidence, and execution. Vince Lombardi was quoted as saying, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field or endeavor.” So the question becomes no matter what your chosen field or endeavor, how do you master excellence?
In my experience there are three key ingredients that, when embraced, create the foundation for mastering excellence.
1. Having the right attitude.
Having the right attitude is a decision you need to make every day. Your attitude not only affects you, but it affects the people around you. There are two ways you can look at virtually everything in your life. A pessimist looks for the difficulty in the opportunity, and the optimist looks for opportunity in difficulty. Frederick Langbridge reinforces the different views of an optimist and a pessimist in the following quote, “Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.”
Your attitude affects your body language and your behavior. Folks with the right attitude often appear strong, confident and happy. Folks with a more pessimistic view often appear haggard, unhappy, and stressed. Having the right attitude gives you energy and that energy is very contagious … being optimistic fuels better health. Even when the world around you seems to be challenging or crumbling, having the right attitude will reaffirm that you have what is necessary to face any challenge and create the right outcome for you. Your attitude has a direct correlation to your ability to master excellence in whatever you choose to pursue. There really is only one right option-embrace the right attitude!
2. Being goal oriented.
Know what you want, why you want it, and define how to achieve it. Defining personal and professional goals will create a road map for your success. It is not enough to have a dream. In order to have a dream become a reality there needs to be a goal with defined action steps. Action is what makes things happen and being goal oriented is an empowering process. As you achieve things from your list, you start to feel an energy building that will very quickly snowball. The more you start to achieve by being goal oriented the more you want to achieve and the more you know you can achieve.
3. The devil is the details.
Attention to detail is critical to mastering excellence and it will make you stand out in comparison to others. Attention to detail means nothing goes unnoticed. It is paying attention to how you dress, how you behave, how you communicate, how you carry yourself, how you take care of your surroundings, how quickly and efficiently you follow up, and how you treat others. Make every detail meaningful and reap the rewards of success.
You have the ability to be excellent at whatever you pursue or endeavor, and being excellent is a choice that is 100% within your control. Decide today to raise your level of success by having the right attitude, by being goal oriented, and by paying attention to every detail. Excellence and success go hand in hand!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: attitude, detail, devil, excellence, Frederick Langbridge, goal oriented, optimist, pessimist, RAC, resource associates, Resource Associates Corporation, Success, Vince Lombardi
Posted in Personal Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
We have two distinct minds—our conscious mind and our subconscious mind.
Most of us are very aware of our conscious mind because we “seem” to spend a great deal of time there. However, depending on which study you read, it has been proven that 60-95% of the decisions we make and the behaviors we exhibit are generated by our subconscious mind. Think about that staggering percentage and now think about your daily routine. When you got up this morning did you give any specific thought to the routine of getting ready and preparing for your day? Did you implement any step out of traditional order? If you took the kids to school or drove to work, did you drive the exact same route as yesterday? As you have continued through your day have you given any specific thought to breathing? There is always an exception to every rule, however, in most cases the answer to all these questions for many would be ‘no.’
As we live new experiences our subconscious mind very quickly stores data, creates neuro-pathways, and develops routines that allow us to easily duplicate an action or process in the future like driving to work and, yes, breathing. These pre-existing processes are convenient and even helpful. However, there are two questions I think are important to ponder.
- Are you comfortable spending a significant portion of your life on autopilot?
- How can you tap into the power of your subconscious mind to accomplish what is meaningful in your life?
Autopilot is fine for certain things like which to do first take a shower or have a cup of coffee. However, being on autopilot allows us not to be ‘present’ and provides for missed opportunities. How many opportunities have you missed with your family, your spouse, or at work to do, say, or be something better simply because you were on cruise control. Applied knowledge is power and understanding the power of our subconscious mind allows us to step out of autopilot and unleash our untapped potential. Do you really know what you want? Can you see it clearly in your mind down to the smallest detail? Have you written it down in a clear and concise manner? Do you know why you want it? Do you believe you can obtain it? Charles Simmons, author of Your Subconscious Power states, “Your subconscious thrives on knowledge. In dealing with a condition of life, whether it is a problem or an opportunity, consciously observe its traits. Then decide how you deal with the condition. Assign your knowledge, and your intention to act, to your subconscious. With its reserve of knowledge, your subconscious will then come to your aid.”
Tapping into the power of your subconscious mind can begin by committing to two things. First, deliberately focus your conscious action on positive and results-oriented action. Your subconscious will record these patterns which will help you maintain a positive attitude and focus even when life events take place that could take you off course. Second, change negative influences by deliberately cultivating positive habits that offset negative ones. You cannot erase a negative or bad habit; however, you can replace it with a new and positive influence by simply creating a new pattern your subconscious mind finds noteworthy and is worth repeating. Affirmations are a great system to help make these positive changes take place.
There are so many things in our environment that we cannot control nor influence. However, we have an incredible power source in the combination of our conscious and subconscious mind that is totally within our control. Take control of your destiny, your life, and your success by effectively using the power of your two distinct minds.
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: Behaviors, Conscious Mind, Positive Habits, Potential, RAC, Resource Associates Corporation, Subconscious Mind
Posted in Personal Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
You will get more out of your time when you learn how to get more out of your life.
After you determine what you want, what you value, what you believe, and where your priorities lie. Determining how to spend a given day or hour is easy. In order to get more out of your time, know what you want to get out of it. That may seem very basic, but many people fail to define their values, purpose, and goals. They are immersed in their daily activities, and they fail to think about what they really like or want to do. They overlook the purpose of their lives.
Purpose
What is your purpose in life? Do you have a purpose? You will be happiest when you are achieving goals that are consistent with your purpose. If you knew that you had only one year to live, what would you do differently? Why?
Now imagine that you have many years to live and achieve. Visualize yourself and your life in one, three, and five years. What do you see? What is your occupation? What are your family responsibilities? What kind of future do you want? Are your present activities and priorities compatible with that envisioned future? Is there anything you can do differently today that can make a significant difference in your tomorrow? Answering these questions will help you determine your purpose, your vision, your values, and your priorities in life. Every life has a purpose and you exist for a purpose. Within the boundaries of that purpose you shape your attitude, skills, and goals. When you define your purpose and understand your ultimate goals, you have a strong foundation upon which to manage both your time and your life. Choices become easier because you make them in relation to your purpose, your values, and all that is important to you.
Values
Values are the principles you use to make decisions. They are your morals, ethics, and standards: those things that are important to you. They are what you perceive to be right and honest. They are non-negotiable, and unlike opinions, do not change. Take some time to evaluate your priorities and crystallize your values. Create a list of what is important to you. As you create your list of values, consider these questions:
- What gives your life meaning?
- What’s most important to you?
- What do you value?
In order to enjoy a life of fulfillment, you must decide what you want to be and do in your life. One of the most worthwhile activities in which you can engage, regardless of your age or station in life, is an exercise in introspection and values clarification. As was observed by Plato centuries ago, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” You make better choices when you understand what’s really important to you. The right choices improve the quality to your life.
Vision
Visualization, like introspection, is a power tool. It’s the process of forming a mental picture of the future. We must mentally accomplish something before we can physically accomplish it. Your ability to visualize your future is one of the most powerful tools for creating the future you want.
A clear and strong vision will help you to stretch your ability and achieve higher levels of success. A positive vision of our future gives meaning to life, and a significant vision precedes significant success. In addition to giving meaning to your life, a clear vision accompanied by specific goals automatically helps you prioritize options and make good decisions. If you know what is important to you and you can clearly see the long-term future you want, the daily decisions about how to get there become easier. To create the future you want and deserve, you must harness the power of visualization and activate your positive thoughts. Your thoughts will then bring about the appropriate and necessary behavior. The picture you carry within you will determine all that you accomplish in life; therefore your expectations influence your results.
So many people feel out of control and that the world around them is controlling their life as opposed to the way it ought to be. Take back control of your life and destiny by clarifying your purpose, values, and vision. Clearly knowing what you exist to accomplish combined with a clear understanding of what you value while visualizing where you see yourself in one, three, and five years provides liberating power. Take back control of your life and achieve what you were meant to achieve!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: goals, Plato, Purpose, Success, Time, Values, Vision
Posted in Personal Development | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Are you inspired? Does your life currently hold within it surpassing brilliance or excellence? Are your dreams becoming a reality?
All accomplishments begin with an idea, a seed, or a dream. It is impossible to emphasize strongly enough the power of a creative and uninhibited imagination. Every achievement has emerged as the end result of a dream, a vision, or what may even have seemed to be a far-fetched idea. When is the last time you exercised your inspiration?
It is so easy to get caught up in the function of business and life that often times we forget to stop and think about what we are really working for or toward. Our daily routine becomes just that … a routine. We get used to going through the motions, and our dreams and inspirations start to take a back seat to the job, the career, and the family—and then slowly slip away into oblivion.
Have you ever created a Dream Inventory©. A Dream Inventory is a continuous, life-long list of ideas and dreams no matter how extravagant or insignificant. It is a list that contains everything you ever wanted to do, to have, to be, and to become. It is an exercise that allows you to take off the blinders of probability and possibility and throws out the filters of whether you need it, deserve it, or are worth it. It is lifelong exercise that gives you permission to exercise your inspiration.
Create a personal Dream Inventory and fill it in spontaneously. It will later provide clues to the kind of things that will motivate you. Many of the dreams that you put on your inventory may seem totally out of reach and that is okay. As you begin to grow and achieve, some of your dreams will become goals and some never will. Keep in mind that this is an exercise of dreaming and inspiration so give no thought to your ability to obtain the dreams. Many of your dreams may seem too small or insignificant to list in your inventory but list them anyway. There is no such thing as a small dream. If a dream has value to you, it is important.
I filled out my first Dream Inventory in 1985 when I started working for my current firm. In 1996 as I was updating my Dream Inventory, I listed I wanted to become President of my current firm. I listed it with really no thought as to a specific action plan, but I knew that role was what I was inspired to become. In 2002, I became President of the firm and remain in that role today.
The power of capturing your dreams and inspiration is life altering. The power of capturing an idea in writing, placing the thought in your subconscious, and letting your subconscious work on the action plan is a science we are only beginning to understand. What we do know is many inspired individuals throughout history have harnessed the power of dreaming to create surpassing brilliance and excellence! I challenge you to create your Dream Inventory today!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: business, Dream Inventory, dreams, imagination, Inspiration, Leadership, Management, Motivation, subconscious, Success
Posted in Goal Planning, Personal Development | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
The title of this blog comes from a principle theme within a book entitled Change The Way You See Everything by Kathryn D. Cramer and Hank Wasiak. Most people are busy juggling a life that includes an overwhelming amount of work, home, family, and children, as well as faith-based and community activities. Each event or activity in isolation has priority and importance, however many of us deal with colliding priorities every day. For example, you need to get the final numbers to accounting by 5:00 today and you are behind schedule. Your daughter has a soccer game right after school at 3:30. You become instantly stressed. Perhaps you rush through the project at work, get it turned in to accounting but all the while you are at your daughter’s game you are rethinking your work wondering if you made any mistakes. While you stand on the sidelines worrying there is no way you are really watching and enjoying your daughter’s soccer acumen and her love of the game.
Your competing priorities are not going away. Therefore the question becomes how can you contribute your best to every priority as well as be the best you you can be!
Stop and breathe. Not every situation or competing priority deserves crisis status. Stop … take a deep breath and think. Take an extra minute to think about what the next best step really is. When you take these few minutes to breathe and think, you will be much less reactive and much more proactive. Living in a constant reactive state reinforces feelings of frustration, self-criticism, and self-doubt. Being proactive reinforces confidence and competence.
Forget perfection: Pursuing perfection is not an asset. Mistakes and challenges are inevitable; therefore, the pursuit of perfection only serves to focus on what did not go well or right. However, if you give yourself permission to believe you are perfect just the way you are, you give yourself permission to focus on your strengths. Commit to always maximize your strengths and you will find the flaws slip away. Babe Ruth held the title of most career home runs for 39 years with 714 until Hank Aaron achieved 755, and most recently Barry Bonds hit 763. All three of these men stood at-bat thousands of times in order to achieve this greatness. Many of those at-bats were even strikeouts. Focus on your home runs as they are what really matter and not your strikeouts! “I swing big with everything I got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.” Babe Ruth
Focus on what is next. Get out of the past and focus on the future. Learn to widen your view so you do not miss any opportunities. “Illuminating the possibilities and opportunities that abound in everyday circumstances increases your options, energizes situations, and inspires you and others” (Cramer and Wasiak). Develop the habit of looking ahead. Where do you see yourself tomorrow, next month, or next year? All accomplishments begin with an idea, a seed, a dream. Create a Dream Inventory (copyright symbol) and list all of your ideas and dreams that matter to you—no matter how extravagant or insignificant they may seem. It’s impossible to emphasize strongly enough the power of creative and uninhibited imagination. Do not let life stifle yours.
Your unlimited success depends on your ability to magnify your strengths and focus on your future. Start today!
Tags: Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, change the way you see everything, crisis, Dream Inventory, focus, Hank Aaron, perfection, priorities, proactive, reactive, Strengths
Posted in Personal Development | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
“One day a donkey fell into a well. When the owner discovered what had happened, he frantically searched for ways to rescue the animal, with no success. Regretfully the owner decided that since the donkey was growing old, he should give up the idea of rescuing the animal and simply fill in the well. Hopefully, the donkey’s demise would be quick and painless. The farmer then called his neighbors to help with the task, and soon several men began shoveling dirt into the well. When the donkey realized what was happening, he brayed, and struggled … but finally the noise stopped.
After a few sad moments, the farmer looked into the well and there stood the donkey. Alive and progressing to the top, the donkey had found that by shaking off the dirt instead of allowing it to bury him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as its level rose. Then he could easily step out of the well and trot off happily.
As you may have noticed, life often attempts to cover us over with dirt and clutter. The trick is to shake it off and do something to take the next step up!” 12 Choices That Lead To Your Success – David Cottrell
Are you frequently shaking off dirt? Are constantly trying to move clutter from your business or life?
I believe there are three lessons that can be learned from this short story.
- Sometimes trying to bury our mistakes is a mistake. It is better to face them and learn from them and move on!
- Wisdom comes from experience. It is practical wisdom that your customers grow to expect and will always find valuable.
- When you are in a hole and you feel like everything is coming in on top of you, that is the time to refocus on your purpose, your goals, and your affirmations.
Life and business do have a tendency to throw us a number of curve balls, however many of those curve balls can be avoided by developing a specific plan for what you want to accomplish and creating a time line in order to manage the steps of accomplishment.
However, the choice is always yours. You can choose to operate your life and your business like the owner or your can choose to operate your life like donkey.
It is your choice, which will it be?
Tags: accomplishment, development, dirt, Donkey, lessons, plan, steps, well
Posted in Personal Development | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
The phrase you ‘create your own reality’ is something that many new age folks talk about, but what does it really mean, and how does it apply to you?
‘Creating your own reality’ is your perception of how you view your world, how you interact with your world, and how you interact with yourself and others. Perception is not limited to visually seeing something, it is not limited to your thought processes, and it is not limited to your emotions. Perception is all encompassing. What you communicate and the energy you give off based on your beliefs, your emotions, and your behaviors determines what kind of life experiences you have. Your perception of your reality is literally a mirror. At any given moment, your external world and behaviors perfectly mirror your inner consciousness.
When you get right down to it, there is no one more strong or more in control of you than you. As a society we have been practicing, preaching, and implementing these philosophies for an incredibly long time. The challenge is we often forget and then fail to implement. It is impossible to feel badly about yourself without thinking badly about yourself. The only thing that can keep you from enjoying everything you were meant to be and do is thought. Simple but powerful thought. Thinking is an awesome capability, and it can be used either as a tool or a weapon against ourselves.
A lot of people might say their lives or businesses aren’t functioning very well but they can’t identify what is wrong. The root cause of the problem is usually our own thought process. If you fall into this category, here is a suggestion. Buy a notebook that can fit into your briefcase, jacket, purse, whatever is convenient but easily and frequently accessible. For thirty days jot down every single thought you have had about yourself—expressed or unexpressed. At the end of the month, read what you have jotted down and I guarantee you will be inspired to change. By completing this exercise, you will see your negative thoughts fall into specific categories and these identified categories will become the focused areas in which you can commit to improve. After those categories have been identified, there is a proven process that can help you define and select the best solutions and action steps.
Do you know what the number 1440 represents? 1440 represents the number of minutes in a given day. This is the number of opportunities we have to create a positive, productive, and goal-oriented reality or a negative reality. Affirmations are a positive tool to help reinforce a positive reality and many people committed to affirmations typically read or say them 2/3 times a day for about 5 minutes. That equates to about 15 minutes of purposeful and positive input into your brain. How are you managing the remaining 1425 minutes in your day? How are you guaranteeing you are reflecting the positive? Your own mental space can be a castle or a cage, and you have the power to decide which it will be.
As you build your mental castle watch out for cages imposed by allowing other people’s agendas and issues in to your life. We attract this “stuff” into our lives every day. While we certainly learn from other people’s “stuff,” when we get deeply involved with another person’s agenda or issue watch out. It can become very easy for us to adopt and claim another individuals “stuff” for our own. Your mind is the place where you store your success oriented attitudes and corresponding behaviors. Your meaning of life, your purpose, and your success are based on those thoughts. When you have to move or expand your mind to input more good “stuff” that is a good thing. Protect your good “stuff” and don’t let anyone tell you you are off purpose or that your stuff is not the right stuff! Your mind is a place to store all your stuff, but the question really is do you have the right stuff stored? The point being is that your stuff, your attitude, and behaviors, need to always be yours. We achieve more results when we are paying attention to our own stuff! If we let others’ stuff get in the way we hinder our results personally and professionally.
Create within your mind your reality and the reflection you want to see. Believe in yourself. Believe in your ability and business acumen. You have value. You have a set of experiences that no one else has. Have confidence in yourself and commit to be the best you can be!
Tags: 1440, affirmations, best you can be, create, interact, perception, Personal Development, Power within, reality, thought process
Posted in Personal Development | No Comments »
|
