Don't Give Up

What are the secrets that can help you to achieve anything that you want in your life? One of the secret is to never give up. What this means is that you must decide exactly what it is that you want to do, or to have, in your life and give your complete focus and attention to that thing. Talk about it, write about it, meditate about it and think about it until you can visualize it clearly in your mind quickly and easily.

By giving so much time and energy to what you want in your life, you are bringing it closer to your reality. Most people never write down what they want to achieve and rarely speak about it to others. The people who are successful in getting what they want engage in behavior that surrounds them with people and ideas and thoughts that are directly related to getting what they want.

1. Think about what you want to do or have in your life. Spend some time each day meditating and visualizing exactly what it will be like when you have achieved your dreams and goals.
2. Tell others about these dreams and goals and hear yourself as you speak out loud about them
3. Write down what you want and give detailed explanations and information about how it will be when you realize and achieve these things in your life.
Most of all, never give up. It may take some time for you to do and have the things you want in your life, but they will come much more quickly if you are clear about your intentions and never, ever give up on them.

Leadership Principles That Can Change the World

There are seven universal principles at work behind every choice, every interaction, every word that is said and every action that is taken. Understanding these underlying principles will help you grow and prosper as a leader and as a person.

1. Fairness

Fairness is a principle that's understood by children everywhere, but as we grow up, we each may develop our own individual concept of what is and isn't fair. On your team, there needs to be a common understanding of fairness, and it needs to be defined, communicated and demonstrated by you as the leader every day.

When you make decisions, be open and honest with your team about how they were made and why. People may be resentful or mistrusting of decisions that have been handed down arbitrarily or without input and explanation.

2. Honesty, Integrity and Trust

The people on your team want and need to trust you. They want to know that you've given them all of the facts and that nothing is being hidden from them. The way to gain that trust is by being honest and living with integrity.

If you meet this need for them, you'll gain their trust, understanding and faith. This can't be accomplished by what you say; it needs to be proven by how you live.

When you do make a mistake or a bad decision, disclose it. Don't blame someone else, lie or pretend it didn't happen. Be honest about it and move forward.

3. Potential

Everyone is capable of being and doing more than they are now. Everyone on your team - whether they're a rookie or a subject matter expert - needs to feel that you see his or her potential to grow, acquire new skills and develop.

People look to a leader to evoke that from them, inspiring and allowing them to grow, evolve and fulfill their potential so they're constantly improving and learning new things. Don't restrict their growth by assuming they'll adhere to your predictions of how they'll act, think or talk.

See each person's potential and not their limitations. Assume they're growing and evolving all the time, and this will empower them to grow into the next phase of their development, instead of stagnating where they are.

4. Growth

When you're tuned in to each individual's potential for growth and change, you can help that along, actively supporting the new skills they have acquired that will fulfill their potential. You can accelerate their growth by offering them concrete opportunities such as training and upgrading of skills or connecting them to a business coach or mentor.

Growth will occur through both positive and negative experiences, so encourage your team members to try new things and to learn and grow even through failure and mistakes.

5. Respect and Dignity

Respect is difficult to earn and easy to lose. Adopt the "golden rule" – treat people how you want to be treated. Treat each team member with respect and dignity for who they are and for the work that they're doing. Recognize and embrace their differences and diversity.

Earn respect by acting with dignity and showing that you have respect for yourself. Be a role model and hold yourself to a higher standard on a daily basis.

Reward people in public and correct them in private. This will protect their dignity and reinforce that they can take risks. They'll know that if they do make a mistake or fail they won't be publicly disgraced for it.

6. Service

"For he that is least among you all, the same shall be great" Luke, 9:48. A good leader not only leads the group, he or she is also a servant to the group - a champion for their cause; someone in their corner that will back them up, support them and mentor them.

It's about not just being a figurehead leader, but being of service, working WITH the team and meeting their needs. Examples include making sure they have the equipment they need to fulfill their roles or helping them to cut through the red tape of bureaucracy.

In his book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", Stephen Covey advocates that you "seek to understand rather than be understood". Aim to understand the needs of your team members, and to serve them instead of just leading them.

The leader has to create the sense of a team or a family, adopting the mentality that, "We succeed or fail as a team". Leaders who don't understand this are the ones who take the credit when things are good and blame others when things are bad.

In difficult times, teams need to have a leader they can rely on to act as their champion. It is the leader's job to wear the target and shield the team if they come under fire. That may mean taking ultimate responsibility for a failure or mistake, or fighting to keep funds or people. When the outside world is taking shots at the project, or if there are roadblocks to the project, it's the leader's job to shelter the team, take the shots and get through the roadblocks, so the team can focus on getting the job done, and not get distracted by these outside challenges.

7. Quality

"On my Honor I will do my best". Understand that people want to do their best and put out a good product, no one shows up at work to screw up. As a leader, strive to always exemplify that, "quality is job one".

Establish a culture where going above and beyond expectations is the standard; not just for the products or services you create and deliver, but for how you live and work. "Walk the walk", and exemplify this standard in how YOU live and work, and also in how you lead. Don't cut any corners. Always doing your best is a SACRED PLEDGE that you make to your team.

By recognizing and nurturing these seven universal principles, you'll capture the hearts and minds of everyone that you interact with. We are all looking to have the universal principles of Fairness, Honesty, Potential, Growth, Respect, Service and Quality fulfilled in our lives. If you can fulfill them for your team members, you'll connect at a deep level.

You can achieve anything together if you can connect at this basic human level, and your team will work harder for you when they feel that connection. And vice-versa, you'll connect and feel supported by your team if you recognize these needs in them and in yourself.

Steve Farmer is a leader in the field of Coaching. As a skilled professional coach, inspirational speaker and author he brings the power of individual coaching to everyday living. In our frequently over stressed and under involved society, he empowers individuals to follow their dreams, achieve more in their current careers, and maintain a balance between their personal and professional lives.

A busy entrepreneur himself, Steve understands the many demands and challenges facing today's busy adults. He also knows that amidst the chaos, people sometimes need support in maintaining both their sanity and a balanced life. With his innate listening and problem-solving gifts, Steve helps individuals find solutions to their difficult problems. Whether through one-on-one coaching, workshops, courses or keynote addresses, he helps people to better develop their personal talents and skills so that their journey to success and happiness is easier, more rewarding and less frustrating.

How Successful People Think

 By : John C Maxwell
What’s a successful person’s greatest resource in difficult times? Good thinking!
Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.
Good thinkers solve problems, they never lack ideas for building an organization, and they always have hope for a better future. Good thinkers rarely find themselves at the mercy of ruthless people who would take advantage of them or try to deceive them, people like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who once boasted, “What luck for rulers that men do not think.”
Those who develop the process of good thinking can rule themselves – even while under an oppressive ruler or in other difficult circumstances.  In short, good thinkers are successful.

***

I’ve studied successful people for forty years, and though the diversity you find among them is astounding, I’ve found that they are all alike in one way: how they think!
That is the one thing that separates successful people from unsuccessful ones.  And here’s the good news.  How successful people think can be learned. If you change your thinking, you can change your life!
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER THINKER
Do you want to master the process of good thinking? Do you want to be a better thinker tomorrow than you are today?  Then you need to engage in an ongoing process that improves your thinking.  I recommend you do the following:
1. Expose Yourself to Good Input

Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.

Read books, review trade magazines, listen to CDs, and spend time with good thinkers. And when something intrigues you-whether it’s someone else’s idea or the seed of an idea that you’ve come up with yourself-keep it in front of you. Put it in writing and keep it somewhere in a favorite place to stimulate your thinking.

2. Expose Yourself to Good Thinkers

All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers. Now, I love all people. I try to be kind to everyone I meet, and I desire to add value to as many people as I can through conferences, books, audio lessons, etc. But the people I seek out and choose to spend time with all challenge me with their thinking and their actions. They are constantly trying to grow and learn.

The writer of Proverbs observed that sharp people sharpen one another, just as iron sharpens iron. If you want to be a sharp thinker, be around sharp people.

3. Choose to Think Good Thoughts

To become a good thinker, you must become intentional about the thinking process. Regularly put yourself in the right place to think, shape, stretch, and land your thoughts. Make it a priority. Thinking is a discipline.

Recently I had breakfast with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, a fast food restaurant chain headquartered in the Atlanta area. I told him that I was working on this book and I asked him if he made thinking time a high priority. Not only did he say yes, but he told me about what he calls his “thinking schedule.” It helps him to fight the hectic pace of life that discourages intentional thinking. Dan says he sets aside time just to think for half a day every two weeks, for one whole day every month, and for two or three full days every year. Dan explains, “This helps me ‘keep the main thing, the main thing,’ since I am so easily distracted.”

You may want to do something similar, or you can develop a schedule and method of your own. No matter what you choose to do, go to a special thinking place, take paper and pen, and make sure you capture your ideas in writing.

4. Act on Your Good Thoughts

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said it all when he remarked, “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through-then follow through.”

5. Allow Your Emotions to Create Another Good Thought

To start the thinking process, you cannot rely on your feelings. In Failing Forward, I wrote that you can act your way into feeling long before you can feel your way into action. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it. The same is true for thinking. You cannot wait until you feel like thinking to do it. However, I’ve found that once you engage in the process of good thinking, you can use your emotions to feed the process and create mental momentum.

Try it for yourself. After you go through the disciplined process of thinking and enjoy some success, allow yourself to savor the moment and try riding the mental energy of that success. If you’re like me, it’s likely to spur additional thoughts and productive ideas.

6. Repeat the Process

One good thought does not make a good life. The people who have one good thought and try to ride it for an entire career often end up unhappy or destitute. They are the one-hit wonders, the one-book authors, the one-message speakers, the one-time inventors who spend their life struggling to protect or promote their single idea. Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years. To become someone who can mine a lot of gold, you need to keep repeating the process of good thinking.

***

This article is an excerpt from the introduction to the book, How Successful People Think. It’s derived from the book, Thinking for a Change.
Edited and distilled down to the bare essentials, this book is designed to help you expand your thinking and achieve your dreams with the following…

11 keys to successful thinking:

1.         Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking
2.         Engage in Focused Thinking
3.         Harness Creative Thinking
4.         Employ Realistic Thinking
5.         Utilize Strategic Thinking
6.         Explore Possibility Thinking
7.         Learn from Reflective Thinking
8.         Question Popular Thinking
9.         Benefit from Shared Thinking
10.       Practice Unselfish Thinking
11.       Rely on Bottom-Line Thinking

Three Pillars Of Leadership

The three pillars on which leadership thrives are actually three areas of personal mastery – focus, feedback, and leadership. They will pay the greatest dividends for the time invested. With them, you'll lead effectively at the highest levels. Without them, your execution excellence potential and consistency is severely limited regardless of your role or station in life.

There are two categories of people in personal and professional development – the ‘green and growing’ and the ‘ripe and rotting’. In other words, the people who need training and performance improvement the most want it the least; and the people who need training the least, want it the most.

Let’s study the three pillars intensively:

Focus:
Everyone knows that focus is absolutely essential for success, but what everyone does not know is that focus is under attack from entropy, which is your constant enemy. It stands for ambiguity, chaos and confusion. The devil everyone is fighting constantly. Entropy is the second law of thermodynamics and essentially states that in nature, everything goes from a state of order to a state of disorder - naturally, by itself. In other words, at this very moment dust is settling everywhere around you. Just as your car is decreasing in value; and mechanically getting worse, naturally, your teams and organizations also slacken naturally. They need constant light to grow and achieve their potential otherwise they quickly become more and more unproductive. So, you have to provide focus in the right manner with the right tools. Without the right skills and tools, leadership is doomed to never realize the full potential of the team. This may be your single greatest calling as a leader.

Feedback:
Leadership thrives on feedback, even if some of it might cause heartburn for some time. Execution is aided by the key competency of displaying meaningful metrics all the way to frontline people. After all, it is the frontline that produces the bottom-line, so allow them the visual depiction of goal progress via a scoreboard. Just as you wouldn’t drive across the continent with black tape across your automobile's dashboard, you cannot lead without getting feedback. You need to know how fast you're traveling and how much gas you have and so on and so forth.

Studies have revealed some astounding facts. A survey conducted by Harris Polling in 2004 revealed that out of 12,000 people in eight industries only 15% knew their organization's top goals and priorities, and only 16% said their organization provided a compelling scoreboard that depicted progress against their goals or organizational objectives.

Thus, this area is not the strength of most executives, managers or some coaches. The obvious reasons are lack of courage and incapability to make an improvement. After all, it is not comfortable to confront poor performance.
Delegation:
It's a well-known fact that delegation is not the strength of most managers. As Michael Gerber has written in his book The Entrepreneurial Myth that most managers, owners and executives are so busy working ‘in’ the business that they fail to work ‘on’ the business. You cannot work on the business when you are constantly in the business reacting to both urgent and important demands and fires to put out, to-do lists that are too long. Inability to delegate work springs from lack of clarity of goals. They can’t let go intelligently because they are not focused on developing people. To be able to delegate work to your employees, you need additional time to work on the business. Delegation is wrought with real risks. It takes real courage to let go. But, the dual benefits of increased personal time on your part and building and developing your key talent outweigh the associated risks.

Making Choices And Decisions

Life is like a road. There are long and short roads; smooth and rocky roads; crooked and straight paths. In our life many roads would come our way as we journey through life. There are roads that lead to a life of single blessedness, marriage, and religious vocation. There are also roads that lead to fame and fortune on one hand, or isolation and poverty on the other. There are roads to happiness as there are roads to sadness, roads towards victory and jubilation, and roads leading to defeat and disappointment.
Just like any road, there are corners, detours, and crossroads in life. Perhaps the most perplexing road that you would encounter is a crossroad. With four roads to choose from and with limited knowledge on where they would go, which road will you take? What is the guarantee that we would choose the right one along the way? Would you take any road, or just stay where you are: in front of a crossroad?
There are no guarantees.
You do not really know where a road will lead you until you take it. There are no guarantees. This is one of the most important things you need to realize about life. Nobody said that choosing to do the right thing all the time would always lead you to happiness. Loving someone with all your heart does not guarantee that it would be returned. Gaining fame and fortune does not guarantee happiness. Accepting a good word from an influential superior to cut your trip short up the career ladder is not always bad, especially if you are highly qualified and competent. There are too many possible outcomes, which your really cannot control. The only thing you have power over is the decisions that you will make, and how you would act and react to different situations.
Wrong decisions are always at hindsight.
Had you known that you were making a wrong decision, would you have gone along with it? Perhaps not, why would you choose a certain path when you know it would get you lost? Why make a certain decision if you knew from the very beginning that it is not the right one. It is only after you have made a decision and reflected on it that you realize its soundness. If the consequences or outcomes are good for you, then you have decided correctly. Otherwise, your decision was wrong.
Take the risk and decide.
Since life offers no guarantee and you would never know that your decision would be wrong until you have made it, then you might as well take the risk and decide. It is definitely better than keeping yourself in limbo. Although it is true that one wrong turn could get you lost, it could also be that such a turn could be an opportunity for an adventure, moreover open more roads. It is all a matter of perspective. You have the choice between being a lost traveller or an accidental tourist of life. But take caution that you do not make decisions haphazardly. Taking risks is not about being careless and stupid. Here are some pointers that could help you choose the best option in the face of life’s crossroads:
Get as many information as you can about your situation.
You cannot find the confidence to decide when you know so little about what you are faced with. Just like any news reporter, ask the 5 W’s: what, who, when, where, and why. What is the situation? Who are the people involved? When did this happen? Where is this leading? Why are you in this situation? These are just some of the possible questions to ask to know more about your situation. This is important. Oftentimes, the reason for indecision is the lack of information about a situation.
Identify and create options.
What options do the situation give you? Sometimes the options are few, but sometimes they are numerous. But what do you do when you think that the situation offers no options? This is the time that you create your own. Make your creative mind work. From the most simplistic to the most complicated, entertain all ideas. Do not shoot anything down when an idea comes to your head. Sometimes the most outrageous idea could prove to be the right one in the end. You can ask a friend to help you identify options and even make more options if you encounter some difficulty, but make sure that you make the decision yourself in the end.
Weigh the pros and cons of every option.
Assess each option by looking at the advantages and disadvantages it offers you. In this way, you get more insights about the consequences of such an option.
Trust yourself and make that decision.
Now that you have assessed your options, it is now time to trust yourself. Remember that there are no guarantees and wrong decisions are always at hindsight. So choose… decide… believe that you are choosing the best option at this point in time.
Now that you have made a decision, be ready to face its consequences: good and bad. It may take you to a place of promise or to a land of problems. But the important thing is that you have chosen to live your life instead of remaining as a bystander or a passive audience to your own life. Whether it is the right decision or not, only time can tell. But do not regret it whatever the outcome. Instead, learn from it and remember that you always have the chance to make better decisions in the future.

Developing Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is an ability of an individual to provide ideas and thoughts that are not something the average people would think of. Creative thinking can be defined as thinking outside the box, which means thinking beyond the normal boundary.
There are many techniques for creative thinking, it is usually something people have to develop as it is not usually a second nature. When a person develops their creative thinking abilities, they will find they can come up with ideas quickly. They will likely begin with the not-so-obvious answers to questions instead of jumping right in with the obvious solutions. Individual like that is a great contributor to a problem-solving situation.
The thought process of a creative thinker generally goes through the following four steps...
Step 1: Analysis
It starts by looking over the situation. It involves finding out the who, what, where, when and how of the situation. When analysis is complete, you should be able to completely explain the situation including any obvious problems or issues.
Step 2: Brainstorming
This is the true area of creative thinking. Once the situation is fully understood, a brainstorming process is spawned. Brainstorming can take on many forms. You can write things down, talk things out or even conduct experiments. Since brainstorming is free flowing, you should write them down so no good ideas are lost.
Step 3: Break It Down
Once ideas and possibilities are collected, you can start to link together related ideas and weed out those that are not relevant. Eventually, you will end up with ideas that seem to be the best solutions.
Step 4: Review
The final step involves reviewing several related ideas and come up with a final one or two ideas that seem to stand out and be the best ideas.
Being a creative thinker involves being able to think without a lot of structure, these four steps are the basics of any thinking process. They can help to organize your though processes. Of course these four steps need to be nurtured and developed over time until they become your second nature. That's how you develop your creative thinking ability. Hope you find this article useful.

Underlying foundation

If you’re planning to build anything to an impressive height, be sure you first have a strong foundation in place. In any undertaking, the foundation is most decidedly not the exciting part. Yet it is essential for all the rest. The world does not see or marvel at the solid foundation, but without that foundation the world sees nothing.
Take a lesson from nature. The tallest and most stately trees have the strongest and most developed root systems. You don’t see the roots, and yet without them the tree could not stand.
Building a strong foundation in your own life may often seem limiting and tedious. Upholding your integrity is not always fun or easy. Developing self discipline often requires you to forgo the fleeting pleasures of the moment.
And yet, a strong foundation ultimately is not something which limits you. Rather it enables you to live life on your own terms. The energy and commitment you put into building and strengthening your own sturdy root system will continue to provide you with nourishment and support as you grow your life to spectacular heights

Leave Your "Comfort Zone"

Perhaps the best explanation you can find for "comfort zone" is from Wikipedia. It defines comfort zone as follow...
"A comfort zone denotes that limited set of behaviors that a person will engage without becoming anxious. Alternatively denoted as a "plateau" it describes that set of behaviors that have become comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. A person's personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish." - quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_zone
If you have a house and family to go home to and you have a job that can support your daily basic necessities, it's ok to feel comfortable. However, you must always keep your 3rd eye open to the never-stopping of movements and changes of the world. The comfort zone can become the danger zone when you're stuck in it persistently even though you know that there is a better alternative.
The danger is that when you're deeply engraved in your comfort zone, you're mentally conditioned to feel safe without realizing that you're actually staying in a grave zone. This condition is best described by the following frog-boiling story...
It has been said that if a frog is threw into a container of boiling water, it will instantly jump out of the boiling water. But, if it is placed into a container of cold water, it liked it and stayed in the container. When the heat was turned on at the bottom of the container and the water get warmer, the frog felt comfortable and relaxed and even took a nap. The frog was so comfortable that it stayed in the container until it was “cooked”.
Most people are in the “comfort zone” and they prefer to stay there because it feels safe. Like the boiling frog in the story, we refuse to get out of our comfort zone and prefer to stay where we are because we feel warm and comfortable. We become unaware of the gradual shift of our comfort zone to danger zone. Remember that there is no such thing as “staying where we are”, because by nature things are evolving and changing. If we are always staying where we are, that means we're not moving ahead in life. And if we're not moving ahead, according to the law of nature, we're actually moving in the opposite direction... to the danger zone!

Leadership

The greatest leaders are those who lead not only with their words and ideas. The greatest leaders are those who lead primarily by their example. The most effective form of leadership is born out of the sincere desire and proven ability to make a positive contribution.

Those who lead best are those for whom leadership itself is not the primary aim. Those who lead best are those who can inspire others to embrace the positive values and priorities by which they themselves live.

True leadership comes not from position but from participation and effectiveness. Those who are willing and able to get things done are best suited to lead. To be a leader, be a shining example. Do that which you would lead others to do, and do it spectacularly. Leadership at its best enlarges and duplicates the efforts of the leader. Make those efforts the best they can be, and they’ll result in true, effective leadership.

The World Around You

The way you see yourself is the way you see the world. And the way you see the world is the way you see yourself. To live in a world that is filled with kindness, be kind. To enjoy a world that is respectful, practice respect for others. If you wish to live in a world filled with abundance, be creative.

When you wish to feel better about yourself, make an effort to help someone else. Admire the beauty of the world around you and that beauty becomes a part of you. Value and appreciate the achievements of others, and you strengthen your own capacity for achievement.

There is an entire universe which surrounds you, and it is yours to experience. The quality of that experience is largely up to you. Those who seem to hold the world in their hands do so by virtue of the way they perceive and relate with the world.

Forge a positive relationship with the world around you and the world will become a better place for you to live.

Optimism Versus Pessimism

You will always face choices in life and those choices can be negative or positive, depending on how you view life. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s route and live a challenging and fulfilling life.
So why would you nurture an optimist’s point of view?
Well, optimism has been linked to many good things, such as a positive mood, good morale; to success in many areas of life; to popularity; to good health and even to long life.
On the other hand, the rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. It affects middle-aged adults as well as younger people. Incredibly the mean age of onset has halved from 30 to 15, therefore becoming a teen-ager’s disorder’ as well as a middle age one.
You can see why it really pays to be an optimist:
Optimists expect and receive the best from life
The unfortunate, defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events are their own fault, and this belief will last a long time, undermining everything they do. Whereas optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks in life but believe defeat is just a temporary setback, and that its causes are confined to this one case.
Optimists usually focus on the 'problem' at hand. They reinterpret a negative experience in a way that helps them learn and grow as a person. Such people are completely unfazed by a bad situation as they see it is a challenge and try harder.
The positive expectancies of optimists also predict better reactions during upheavals and major changes, sudden tragedies and unlikely turn of events. As a child learning to walk falls and immediately stands up again, so do they. They see only opportunities not obstacles.
People respond positively to optimists.
Optimists are proactive and much less dependent on others for their happiness or success. They find no need to control, co-erce or manipulate people. They usually find people are drawn towards them, as their optimistic view of the world can be contagious and influence those they are with.
Optimism is a socially desirable trait in all communities. Those who share their positive expectancies are generally accepted while those who spread despair, panic and hysteria are treated unfavorably.
In life, these people often win elections or prizes; get voted most congenial and sought for advice.
It has to be said that when the going gets tough, optimists get tougher.
Optimists typically remain much calmer during times of stress than do people who are less optimistic. In contrast, pessimists are likely to react to stressful events by denying that they exist or by delay dealing with problems.
They persevere. Giving up for them is not really an option. They are also known for their patience, taking their time to reach their goal or elusive dream.
Optimists are generally much healthier and live longer. Medical research has justified that simple pleasures and a positive outlook on life can cause a measurable increase in the body's ability to fight disease. Whereas if you give up mentally, then your body gives up physically.
So why not be an optimist today? And think positively towards a more fulfilled life. Look forward to success in all your endeavours and you will succeed. Be resilient and pick yourself up every time you fall. See life on the bright side and inspire those around you.

ACTIVITIES vs ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Many of us are confused by activity with accomplishment, we feel like going round and round like a merry-go-round, with no concrete results. Although there are many opportunities around us but we can't see them. Therefore, it's very IMPORTANT that you have specific goals and objectives that you can measure.
If we don't have a goal, we might as well be like the caterpillars.
There was an experiment conducted on the Processionary Caterpillars. These caterpillars would blindly follow the one in front of them. The caterpillars were carefully arranged in a circle around the rim of a flowerpot, so that the lead caterpillar came into contact with the last one, making a complete circle.
Some pine needles, the food of the processionary caterpillars were placed in the middle of the flowerpot. The caterpillars went round and round
the circular flowerpot. They continued to go round and round for seven days and seven nights, and finally dropped dead of starvation and exhaustion, ironically, with abundance of food within reach.
Moral of the story: Don't wander around without specific goals in life. Set goals and keep moving ahead.

Focus Your Energy On Positive Solutions

Conflicts and disagreements are part of our lives. We all will experience it at one time or another. When we have conflicts, the important thing to remember is NOT to cling onto the problem and get stuck.
We need to be able to find ways to resolve our problems effectively and move forward.That’s why it’s important we always focus our energy on positive solutions.
Here are some tips to help you focus your energy on positive things:
1.) Relax and be positive. Let go of the need to list all that had gone wrong in the past or it might go wrong.
2.) Plan ahead, lay out your action plan and focus on the steps that will move you closer to your goals. Focus your time and energy on things that will move you closer to your goals and stay away from those things that move you farther from your goals. Having a concrete plan will make you better prepared to anticipate the unexpected.
3.) Give proper weight to the ideas and advice of others. Recognize that others may see things differently than you do. Know your own capability well and respect other people’s opinions.
4.) When you meet successful people, don’t just hear what they say, watch what they DO! Use their experience as stepping-stones to your own success, but let go of the idea that you need to have what they have in order to move forward.
5.) Give a careful thought to your plan and goals in life. Believe in yourself, put time and energy on your plan and continue to forge on. Other people may not agree with you and some may even try to steal your dreams but you’re always well prepared and have positive energy to break through the challenges that crop up. Because you’re confident that you’re making wise choices.
Follow the power tips above and you’ll always be able to eliminate the effects of negativity and reach for the empowerment of positive focus instead.

QUALITIES OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRENEUR

When people talk about the qualities of an entrepreneur, they often mention about leadership, visionary, self-confidence, organization and coordination. But in this article, I would like to mention 5 more important qualities that shape a successful entrepreneur.
Just ask yourself the following 5 questions...
1. What is your personal mission statement in life? As Stephen Covey wrote in his popular book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", the second habit he talks about is "Begin with the End In Mind". He recommends formulating a "personal vision statement" to document one's perception of one's own vision in life.
What do you want to accomplish in your life? One effective way to write your personal mission statement is to visualize the day when you die. What do you want your loved ones and friends to say and remember about you? Another approach is to write your own obituary. Without a clear personal mission statement, you will quickly lose focus and direction in your business.
Without a personal mission statement, you won't be able to find a passion or desire for success.

2. Are you self-motivated? Perhaps one of the most crucial qualities for people who are self-employed to succeed. Without self motivation, you will always find yourself putting things off. You won't be able to accomplish anything as there is no one there to motivate you or watch over your shoulder when you're your own boss. So if you are not a self-motivated kind of person, working for yourself or being an entrepreneur is definitely a NO-NO for you.

3. Are you persistent? Understand that there is no "instant gratification" when you're doing your own business. You won't get a paycheck every month like you do in a 9 to 5 job. Initially, you may need to work very hard for little rewards.
If you're not persistent or don't believe in yourself and the business, you will have find yourself given up very quickly. Of course, it is possible to earn good money by running your own business, but you need to remember that it will take hard work, time and persistence to achieve success.

4. Are you financially responsible? A very important quality for all business owners. When you're your own boss, you're a CEO, accountant and finance manager. You're responsible in managing and controlling your business budget. When you start making profits, you need to know how to manage it wisely. Often times, you will want to put a portion of your profit back into your business to help it grow and expand further.

5. Are you hungry for success? If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to think and behave like one. Understand that business is not the same as hobby where you can take it lightly. If you treat your business like a hobby, you will never be able to achieve true success. A business needs to be worked at seriously and professionally, you can't allow personal things to get into your business. Remember what the headline in Donald Trump's Apprentice show say? "It's Not Personal - It's Just Business".

BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRENEUR

"When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure." ~ Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Ten Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur
By David L Allred
Free Enterprise: Either you are into it yourself or you are working for someone who is.Running a successful business can be very difficult without the right tools. I have made a list of the ten most important steps that have helped me along the way.
1. Your Why is the fuel behind your drive. This is what will drive you to success and must be strong. This is the Reason you want success. Why do you want to be rich? Why do you want success? Get clear on that and visualize the outcome every day.
2. Your Belief system is vital to achieving any level of success. Do you believe in yourself and your abilities? Do you believe in the products that you offer and also your own business? Your beliefs must be tied directly to your "Why" to the point that you have the Will-power to do whatever it takes to obtain your goals.
3. Having a Solid Business Model or a good business plan as the vehicle as well as short term, mid term and long term Goals that are obtainable but that will also stretch you.
4. You must create a Board of Directors for yourself. It refers to this in Napoleon Hills "Think and Grow Rich." Your board of directors can be people in your immediate circle of friends or individuals that don't even exist. These are people who know more than you do in different areas of business or personal success. People who you can confide in and ask advice from. This is called Masterminding. Henry Ford, the founder of the great Ford Automobile Company, didn't know everything there is to know about the industry. But you see, he didn't have to. He surrounded himself with those who did.
If you want to become successful then you must surround yourself with successful people. Avoid negative people and focus on those who are positive in thinking.
5. Be in the Service of others. You must also realize, when you help others to get what they want....you will get what you want. This doesn't mean that you will have to bow down and give your entire life away to serving others at no charge. Most businesses are based on a service.
6. Personal Development. Always be learning and improving. Always be a student in the school of life and business. Self improvement and knowledge are what creates energy in your countenance. Have you ever been into the home of someone you considered as very successful? Did they have a library or large collection of books or information? Most likely they did.
7. Persistence is the key to getting the results you are looking for. Have you ever heard of the term, "Burn your boats," or "Don't leave yourself a back door?" Basically, don't have the option of failure in your mind. If you give yourself a way out, then you are sure to take it. If your "Why" is strong then you will persist until you succeed.
8. Do the thing. Set aside a specified amount of time for Money Making Activities every day. This is how the money is made. Establish a DMO, daily method of operation, that includes income producing activities that will not be interrupted.
9. In every business you must have a strong Marketing/advertising campaign. Get your name out there.
10. If you plan to win big and be a successful entrepreneur, you must also Play Big. If you play small, you will win small. I see so many small businesses who try to rent an older building, start out small and then go out of business. If you are looking for all out massive results, play big and play to win.

TURNING FAILURES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

We often hear people say that... "Failure is an opportunity to begin again in a more intelligent way". This is very true! And in fact, failure is part of life. No one can avoid failure, those who try will end up losing more instead. Learn to accept failure and turn it into a golden opportunity is a much better option!

Here are some reasons why we should learn to accept failures:
1. Accepting failure will give us an awareness or realization that we have made a mistake and we should learn from it. If we learn from our mistakes, we will gain emotional experience and knowledge that can empower us to make a revolutionary breakthrough. When we start to accept our failure and learn from mistakes, new opportunities appear.

2. Failure makes us stronger. Yes, we may feel devastated and hurt at the beginning but if we learn to separate ourselves from the situation, we are going to grow stronger. Failure can strengthen a person's character.

3. Failure can inspire our spirits. If you accept failure as part of your life, you can use failure as a reminder to work smarter or more intelligently next time. It's ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them so that you will never make the same mistakes again.

4. Failure will build your courage. If you are able to accept failure as an integral part of life, then you will the courage to face life challenges and accept all possibilities. You will learn not only the courage to take risks but also how to manage them.

5. Accepting failure may create a path that can take you to an opportunity or a better opportunity.

6. Failure makes success sweeter. We tend to be more appreciative of a victory after we experienced a defeat.

You see, when we accept failures as part of our life, we are telling ourselves mentally to refuse to surrender. This will empower us to analyze our mistakes and seek for new opportunities. If you have identified the cause of your mistakes/failures, you must take steps to correct the problems immediately. If necessary, develop a new method or system to prevent the same mistakes to happen again.
Remember that the KEY to turn failures into opportunities is... NOT to repeat the same mistakes again!
Once you have identified and corrected your mistakes, do not dwell on them again... focus your energy on the new method that you have just developed and move forward. That's the attitude we must adopt in life so that we can always rise from failures or mistakes. With this attitude, you will go very far and enjoy success and happiness in life.

WHEN GOD PUTS A DREAM IN HEART

Follow the beautiful trail wherever He leads You.Be open to what each day ask of You and welcome what it may hold, knowing the desire of Your Heart are in God's hands.

No matter where life leads, He Goes with You step by step with open arms and heart; trust Him on Your journey.

He is the Maker of every dreams and the Keeper of all His promises; share in the joy of celebrating what of he's given to You.

Find Joy in every opportunity to live out His purpose for You and, know Your efforts have meaning. Accept any detours as part of His plan, keep Your eyes on God and You'll never lose Way.

BECOMING A STRONG LEADER

A Leader is Not Born. A Leader is Established.
How can you become a strong leader? One who uplifts and motivates others? Pushes individuals in the direction of excellence, holds individuals responsible, all while instilling a sense of trust? Truly understanding exactly what constitutes a excellent leader is the initial step.
Here are a few steps you can take to become the leader you want to be:
1. Restrain Yourself.
Each and every good leader has had to become an expert regarding self-discipline as well as willpower to be able to keep a clear head on the main issue. Without having an objective or even the push to attain it, you cannot lead other people to achieve theirs.
• Follow through regarding all you do. As difficult as it might be, you have to be disciplined enough to be where you have to be, when you really need to be there, regardless of whether you would like to. When you are powerful inside your resolve as well as fighting off enticement to stop, you're setting a good example for other people to live up to.
• Select your psychological response to a scenario very carefully. Occasionally you will need to exercise the skill of silencing your own inner feelings if they are not really suitable to be able to set an optimistic example.
2. Project Your Own Objectives.
In case the individuals you are leading do not totally realize the much deeper meaning within their job, they won't share your own perspective or work ethic. Each and every step of the way, talk with your group to ensure they are on exactly the same wavelength as well as understand what you expect of them.
• Get your group active in the preparing procedure and also the execution of your strategies. This provides everybody a better feeling of ownership towards the outcome.
3. Compliment Remarkably As Well As Criticize Constructively.
How you compliment as well as criticize other people will make a big difference in being in a position to lead successfully.
• Be sure you openly compliment individuals who do superb work for you. You will give the individual a sense of achievement and also the desire to do better still.
• Whenever somebody does anything completely wrong, provide helpful criticism and also get it done privately. Recommend options on what they are able to improve and also take time to respond to any questions. They will acknowledge your own feedback much more willingly when they understand it is implemented to assist and never to damage.
4. Understand Your Men And Women.
You cannot genuinely lead any crowd if you don't genuinely comprehend their own expectations, goals, challenges, discomfort, and aspirations. All of the great intentions on the planet really mean absolutely nothing if you don't possess a genuine feeling of the people you are dealing with.
• Speak to your group and get to know them. Understanding one another on a individual level will certainly reinforce the actual relationship in between you. They will want to do better for you simply because you are not only a "boss."?
• Always be their leader, first, as well as their good friend second. You are their leader which of course means you need to make challenging choices every once in awhile. These types of choices can't be impacted by individual associations.
5. Make The Difficult Call.
Occasionally you need to bite the bullet and make a few distressing choices. Sacking, demoting, as well as holding individuals responsible for their particular activities can be quite difficult sometimes. Being a leader, it is your obligation to take care of these matters.
No matter where your own leadership role takes you, recognize you'll be able to a solid leader. Keep in mind that to be able to lead other people, you have to be disciplined yourself. In the end, your actions will certainly communicate louder compared to whatever you can say.
To be able to acquire the respect of other people, make an effort to lead by example in each and every part of your daily life.
If you adhere to these basic recommendations, you will be well on your way to becoming a genuine leader.

Take Control of Your Thoughts - They Control Your Destiny

"Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny." Chinese Proverb, Author unknown
Wonderful words from the past that are relevant to today's time and they deserve to be repeated. If we slow down and examine what was shared so many years ago, we'll discover that we were told how we can change or direct our destiny.
What we think often comes out of our mouth and into someone else's ears. Our words impact how we feel about ourselves and they can impact how others think and feel. Words are symbols that communicate what's going on inside our heads to ourselves and others. We share our fears, our sorrow, our joy, our love and our dreams with our words.
Our words create action. Our words can create intimacy or separation. With our words we can motivate ourselves to do things we never thought we could do, and our words can also move others to step forward into their own personal power so they can be of service to their community. Words can calm us or excite us. Words can actually change the direction of a nation. So watch what you think and be aware of the words that come from your thoughts, and the actions that follow your words.
A habit is an action we do regularly, often without thinking. It's just what we do. If we do an action and it feels good or we get the results we want, then we often repeat it over and over. Some habits are beneficial and some can be detrimental. If it's detrimental, it's usually called an addiction. If it's beneficial, it's called a good discipline. Our day is full of small little "habits" that we do unconsciously. Some of us are habitually tidy, or messy, or early, or late, or rude, or courteous, or happy, or angry. These are all habitual ways of being. So, our habits become who we are, or they become our character.
Others know us by our character. It's our stamp of individuality. It's all of our distinctive qualities. When we describe someone, we are describing the person's character. "He's a great guy!" "When I want something to be done right, I give it to her!" "When I'm around him, I watch my pockets, because he's always trying to get me to buy into a scheme" "When I think of her, a smile comes on my face and I just feel at peace." Our character comes from the thoughts and actions we do habitually through time.
The thoughts and actions we do habitually through time determines our destiny. If I think negative thoughts and if I am filled with judgments towards myself and others, my actions will follow my thoughts and I will get what I focus on. Most people will not want to be around me, because they don't like being judged and they don't like hearing me judge others. I will feel lonely and victimized, which will cycle around and around and in time my destiny will appear bleak. However, if I think positive thoughts and take positive actions toward my goals, my destiny can be one of joy and upliftment, with moments of gleefulness. I might fall and get a few bruises along the way, but if my habit is to get up one more time than I fall, my destiny will be one of success. People will want to be around me because of my positive thinking. They will want to know how I create so many wonderful things in my life. Because of my abundance and my generous character, I'll freely give the joy and love that percolates in my heart. Thus, by holding positive thoughts, habitually taking positive action, I create a character destined for upliftment.

SOARING WITH WING LIKE AN EAGLE - A Lesson on Life Success and Goal Setting

1. Eagles see the Big Picture: In life we also need to see the big picture and detach ourselves from the daily hassles of life. Unless we can see the Big Picture from a vantage point it will be difficult for us to identify our Core Values and Life Purpose.
2. They have a stable base. Likewise it is important that we too have a solid base of Core Values and a clear Life Purpose that keeps us grounded to what is important in life.
3. They move with Power. Being aware of the presence we project around us and the way that we move can help us to use our movements and gestures to generate self-confidence and positive feelings.
4. They are clear and focused. This is a lesson we need to learn because unless we are clearly focused on what we want to achieve and move single mindedly towards our goal we can hardly achieve our Dream. On the other hand it is important to adapt to what life presents us with.
5. They are courageous and not afraid to take risks. Like eagles we have to take risks in life and go for HUGE Goals that may seem daunting and beyond our ability to achieve.
6. They are Energy efficient. In the same way we have to use our resources effectively and simplify the way we do things. By focusing on the important rocks of life and the activities that give us more results we will be soaring efficiently through life’s challenges. By biding the time and pouncing on opportunities as they arise we will be utilizing what life provides us with.
7. They are quick to see opportunities and swift to take action. Likewise it is important that we are quick to grasp opportunities and once we have taken a decision we should act immediately on it and follow through on our decisions swiftly.
8. They gain Success through failure and practice. Life may give us a lot of bumps and tumbles. We may experience a lot of failure in the process but failure can be Providence's way of teaching us how to fly.
9. They seek Freedom and manifest their glory. We must learn to fly above our self-limiting actions and thoughts and live according to our own high standards unhampered by negative thoughts or expectations of others. By being free to manifest our true essence and celebrate our successes in life we will be living in freedom and joy.
10. They learn from Role models. We can likewise look for role models and learn from them the laws of success.
11. Actions not words. In life we have to focus more on our actions than our words. Unless we walk our talk we are bound to lose credibility and respect.
Learn the lessons from the eagle and spread your wings to fly high.

I CAN

Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve. Dream great dreams and make them come true. Do it now!

You are unique. In all the history of the world there was never anyone else exactly like you, and in all the infinity to come there will never be another you. Never affirm self-limitations. What you believe yourself to be, you are.

To accomplish great things, you must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost - put foundations under them. Yes you can. Believing is magic, you can always better your best. You don’t know what you can do until you try.

Nothing will come of nothing. If you don’t go out on a limb, you're never going to get the fruit. There is no failure except in no longer trying. Hazy goals produce hazy results. Clearly define your goals. Write them down, make a plan for achieving them, set a deadline, visualize the results and go after them. Just don’t look back unless you want to go that way.

Defeat may test you; it need not stop you. If at first you don’t succeed, try another way. For every obstacle there is a solution. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. The greatest mistake is giving up. Wishing will not bring success, but planning, persistence and burning desire will.

There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract all the necessary ingredients. Success is an attitude. Get yours right. It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen.

I CAN!

People Management Skills

People management skills are important in all walks of life. Whether you’re rich or poor, employed or unemployed, a corporate CEO or a plumber, strengthening these skills can help you live the life you desire.
Imagine how much easier life would be if people heeded your every wish! Your kids would be willing to do their chores, your spouse would do some of your chores, and your business life would soar to new heights! Surprisingly, strong people management skills can make all this possible.
Even if you feel like you currently have none, you can gain these people skills by becoming familiar with some basic psychology and then putting this knowledge to work for you.
We all share some basic desires. We all have many of the same wants and needs. When you meet these needs of others, people tend to be very easy to get along with. With patience, practice, and a willingness to understand people, you can develop strong people management skills.
Here are some good techniques for strengthening your people management skills:
1. Put yourself in their shoes. If you had their position, would you like yourself as a manager? Great managers know what people are thinking and feeling. They’re quick to pick up on things and work hard to solve problems among their team. Ask yourself if you’re willing to do the same.
2. Show gratitude and appreciation. You might feel appreciative of your team, but without action they’ll never know it. Always be on the lookout for new and exciting ways to show these emotions.
Remember to say “Thank you” when others do something nice for you. People love to be appreciated and a sincere “Thank you” makes them feel good! They tend to want to please you even more when they know you appreciate what they do.
Show your appreciation by doing special things for others that you know they’ll appreciate.
3. Give sincere compliments. Think about what you really like about your team and point these things out as regular compliments. If you’re sincere, chances are that the recipient will sense your genuine appreciation.
4. Treat others with respect. Strive to always treat people with respect, no matter what their stance in life. Treat them the way you’d like to be treated. This shows character and strength, both of which are characteristics of someone with superior people skills.
5. Delegate appropriately. When you delegate the right tasks to the right people, everyone gets a chance to excel and the team works together at its best. This raises the morale of the people around you and motivates them to do a good job.
6. Be honest. Honesty is always the best policy. If you’ve ever been caught in a lie, you know how quickly you can lose someone’s trust. Earning and maintaining trust is an important people management skill. When others trust you, they believe in you, and your opinions mean more to them.
7. Listen attentively. Listening is fifty percent of communication. Truly listen to what it is that people are telling you. Make an effort to understand their point of view, even if you don’t agree with it. When they know you consider their feelings as important, you’ve already won half the battle.
Practice these strategies each day in your communications with others, and one day soon you’ll find that more and more people agree with you!

How To Deal With Difficult People

If you’re human, you’re going to be dealing with difficult people from time to time. You’ll find them at work, at home, or even while out shopping. While you’ll likely to solve a problem with a relative or friend differently than a stranger, there are also some universal ways of communicating effectively with difficult people.
Here are some tips to turn those lions into lambs:
1.Give them the benefit of the doubt. See if you can get to the root of why they’re acting difficult. Sometimes people are just having a bad day.  Or perhaps the reason could have nothing to do with the situation at hand, but something else in their life.
2.Be kind. Fighting fire with fire often makes the situation worse. If someone’s being difficult with you, just keep a cool head and remain calm and kind. Chances are that this person will appreciate the fact that you’re being patient.
Kindness can help your relationship with any difficult person. Even if you don’t particularly feel like being kind, try it at every opportunity. You could end up making a new friend!
3.Focus on the positive. This tip is especially important when the difficult person in your life is a family member. Because that person will always be in your life, it would benefit you in many ways to have a positive relationship. Even if they are difficult, they have some good aspects too. Spend your time focusing on and bringing out these positive aspects.
4.Avoid pointing fingers. It’s tempting to place blame for difficult situations on the other person. Adopt the mentality that neither of you are to blame for the problem. It’ll help you gain peace and clarity about the situation.
It’s also important not to fight the other person. You don’t want to be considered a difficult person either. Practice expressing your opinion without resorting to arguments.
5.Focus on the humor. You’ve probably been in a difficult situation before where you suffered at the time, but later it turned out to be quite a humorous story. Find the humor in your current difficulty. It may help you both be more relaxed and apt to seek a positive solution.
6.Determine what can be remedied. Focus on the particular things that you can take action on in the situation. For instance, if you’re having a problem at work, mediate the problem if possible. In fixing what you can, you might find that many unresolved issues with others resolve themselves.
You also need to have the wisdom to understand when you won’t be able to change something. You may need to come to terms with the fact that a person will always cause you difficulty. This acceptance alone may help you to better deal with this person.
7.Get help from others. You may be able to find someone who has gone through a very similar situation. Ask them how they handled the problem. This other person may be able to show you how to approach the situation with a different mindset. After all, you never really know what piece of important advice someone else may be able to give you.
Difficult people will always be in your life, but that doesn’t mean that dealing with them always needs to be hard. Try these strategies to smooth out challenging situations and make your communications more effective.
With a little effort and understanding, you may find that some of these people really aren’t even difficult at all!

The road to accomplishment

When the challenges are great, so are the possibilities for making real progress. Accept that those challenges exist, and yet do not be resigned to them. Be clear and honest about where you are. Then begin moving boldly toward where you wish to go.
Look realistically at the difficulties you face. In every single one of them, there is opportunity.
No one is better positioned than you to make the most of those unique and meaningful opportunities. For you know exactly where you are, where you intend to be, and what you have to work with.
The road to real accomplishment leads directly through the challenges. Right now, you have what it takes to begin moving forward on that road.
You know what must be done, and more importantly, you know why you must do it. Step confidently into the challenges, and keep going until you reach the success that is on the other side.

Value deep within

There are days when it can be difficult to keep going. There are times when it seems that all you've done has not done any good at all. Yet somewhere deep within, you know that your positive efforts are already being rewarded. You know that even though the outer results have been disappointing, a real and lasting inner value has already been created.
The outer results you obtain, even when they are exactly what you want, will eventually fade. Yet the inner value you build will always be with you, and will grow even more precious with each passing day.
Even when the world offers you nothing but frustrating setbacks, the real person deep within grows ever stronger and more beautiful. Even when the world outside gives you little reason to keep going, there is in fact more reason than ever before.
Learn to let the outer world, with all its ups and downs, flow gently and continually past you. And carefully choose what truly matters to add to the treasure inside you.
Stay connected to the real, lasting value that is deep within. And life will grow richer with each passing moment.

Bring your vision to life

To change your reality, first change your perceptions. To bring something into your world, first bring it fully to life within yourself.
Go beyond merely thinking about what you would like to do, or be, or create. Go ahead and experience it in detail with all that you are.
In your mind's eye, with your emotions fully engaged, surround yourself with the richness of whatever you envision. Fill your awareness with the sights, the sounds, the feelings, and the texture of it all.
Allow yourself to experience the pure joy of the best life you can imagine. Let that feeling penetrate to the very depth of your being.
Make it real within you, and you'll begin to make it real in the world around you. Know without a doubt that it is, and it will begin to be.
Bring your vision to life on the stage of your awareness. And the positive energy you focus upon it will surely make it real.

VISUALISE IT

You have the power to visualize. And what you intensely and persistently visualize, you will create. Before you can go where you want to go, you must know exactly where that is. Seeing the destination clearly and in rich detail puts you well on the way there.
See it in your mind, and you'll move naturally, vigorously and effectively toward it in your life. Fill your awareness with the substance of your dreams, and those dreams begin their transformation into reality.
Visualization not only enables you to clearly see what you wish to do. It also gets you to profoundly feel the reason why.
For you can do more than imagine how you wish to feel. You can go ahead and feel now how it will feel to reach your dream.
Know what you want, and you're on your way there. Visualize how it will be, feel how it will feel, and make yourself unstoppable.

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING (TWO)

James Allen describes one of the best analogies on the power of positive thinking that I have ever read in his timeless classic “As a Man Thinketh.” He likens the mind to a garden. If planted with beautiful plants and carefully nurtured and tended to, the garden will yield beautiful flowers and be a place of comfort, beauty and peace. If neglected, weeds will creep in and destroy the beauty and yield thorns, destruction and harshness. Of-course, some twisted or strange gardener may actually deliberately plant weeds and unpleasant plants.
It is the same with the mind. If you plant beautiful, healthy thoughts into your mind you will reap a beautiful, healthy life. If you plant negative thoughts you will reap destruction and despair in your life. If you neglect to feed your mind healthy thoughts and to protect it from negative thoughts, the weeds of destruction will creep in and choke your mind. Another way thoughts can be planted in your mind is through Subliminal messages.
The power of positive thinking will yield good results in the same way that negative thinking will yield bad results.
You cannot sow poison ivy and hope to reap apples. You cannot think negative thoughts and hope to live a positive life. Seedtime and harvest are the laws we live by. You reap what you sow. You live what you think. You live what you say. That is why it is important to say the right things and sometimes we have to make a deliberate effort to do so through positive affirmations
Here is a quote that can be related to the power of positive thinking:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

KJV Bible - Galatians 6:7

Here’s another quote illustrating the power of positive thinking:

Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise,
think on these things.

KJV Bible Philipians 4:8

Any self-improvement program or journey of personal development starts with your thoughts. Master your thoughts first. Then you can master your environment and circumstances. Self motivation is easy if you have this step figured out.
Realize that your thoughts are under your control. If you don’t, you will be under the control of your thoughts! Realize what the power of positive thinking can do to change your life and give you a brighter future – the kind of future you want!

YOU ARE IN CONTROL - HARNESS THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING.
Isn’t that good news? That means YOU are in control. Not fate. Not lady luck. YOU. If you can think it, you can have it!

Whatever
THE MIND OF MAN
Can
CONCEIVE
And
BELIEVE
it can
ACHIEVE

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill.

That has got to be the best positive thinking quote ever. It’s short and to the point, yet so powerful and true. Absorb it. Memorize it. Live by it!
Negative thoughts as well as positive thoughts will bear fruit. Conceive negative – achieve negative. Conceive positive – achieve positive. Positive thinking is the key. Norman Vincent Peale knew this when he wrote his classic book - The power of Positive Thinking
Self motivation begins with believing in yourself.

DEVELOP THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING - THINK THE RIGHT THOUGHTS.
There are many techniques that I have come across to do this. Some of the most practical are:
- Expose your mind to the right things.
- Watch the right movies.
- Listen to the right music.
- Read the right books.
- Associate with the right people.

Stay away from negative people – they will drain you of your energy and drag you down with them. Avoid them like the plague.
Thinking right is not a quick-fix process. You cannot change 20 year old habits in one week. You should not attempt to. It will frustrate you. Start slowly. Before long, it will become a habit to think right. Don’t get discouraged if you struggle a little with it. It takes time. It is a lifelong process. It is a way of life. It only ends when you die. Persevere.

Anything that is not in harmony with your dreams and desires – throw it out. Weed it out of your mind. Continually work at it and you will develop a beautiful mind. You will develop a mind that will deliver to you the power of positive thinking and all the lovely things that go with it.

"Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny".

David O. McKay

Ready to take the next step? The Power of positive thinking - Believe in Yourself and in your abilities. If you truly desire to live your dreams you need to take stock of your worth. Maybe you will realise your dreams are not as big as they should be!
Once you are sure that your dreams are in harmony with your worth and your deepest convictions, you need to talk your dreams into reality. It's all up to YOU. YOU are in charge of your destiny. YOU CAN do it.

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING (ONE)

A life of success and achievement is a direct result of utilizing the power of positive thinking. The most important asset you have in your quest to live your dreams? It’s right under your nose. Actually your nose is part of it. It’s simply – YOU. More specifically YOUR MIND.
THE POWERHOUSE TO YOUR DREAMS - YOUR MIND AND THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING.
Your thoughts are the most important asset you have in your desire to achieve your dreams. They affect you in ways you never thought possible. The truth is, whether you know it or not, your thoughts are responsible for whatever place or situation you are in right now.
Nobody would argue that electricity exists. You can’t touch, smell, hear or see it, but its effects are evident everywhere you look. Its power is evident everywhere you look.
In the same way, your thoughts are energy. Your thoughts drive your life just as electricity drives a motor. That is the power there is in having a positive mental attitude.
Yes, I am not the first one to say this and I bet I won’t be the last either. You know why? Because it is true. It’s simple, but true. There is power in thoughts; in negative and in positive thinking. Choose positive thinking and you will enjoy positive energy and positive results.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK. This is one of my favorite positive thinking quotes:
If you think you are beaten you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you want to win but think you can't;
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose you're lost;
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in a state of mind.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

Wonderful possibilities

You are blessed, right here and right now, with the miracle that is your life. With magnificent abundance swirling all around you, the possibilities are more numerous than can be imagined. 

Yes, the setbacks and disappointments can be acutely painful. And yet the only reason you're able to feel the pain is because you know that joy and fulfillment are always possible. 

There is no limit to the potential that is in this moment. For in this moment you can put your highest, most treasured values into action.

In this moment, you have a choice. And you have all that is necessary to follow that choice.
In this moment you can choose to benefit from a lifetime of learning, experience, dreams and longings. All that has brought you to this day is yours to make use of in fulfilling your best possibilities.
Every bit of energy you sense around you can be focused in the service of the most wonderful possibilities you can imagine. Go ahead, imagine, and bring those possibilities to life
Read more: http://greatday.com/motivate/080725.html#ixzz1AGINt04k