Don't Be Shy - Boost Your Confidence Before Giving Your Presentation

Have you ever been in a situation where you've given a speech, a presentation or a meeting update and it hasn't flowed as well as you would have liked? You're hesitant the next time you're about to present? If you're feeling uncertain about an up and coming event (such as a meeting, speech or presentation) check out these 10 pre-event confidence-boosting questions and see if answering them makes the difference:

1. Are you certain of your core message, point or outcome? If not establish what this is from the outset and allow everything else to flow from it

2. Have you prepared well enough for the event? If not what else can you do to prepare?

3. Does what you're doing make sense to you? Does it sit well with your values and principles? Just how important is it to you? How can you raise its importance in your mind?

4. What is your relationship with the people around you? Are there any issues here? How will this impact on your delivery? How can you modify your thoughts, feelings and behaviour to address the issues?

5. How can you ensure you express yourself clearly and well? (If you're certain of your core message and you're well prepared it should be much easier to state your case clearly and with conviction). Can you draw on a similar situation when things went well? What is the difference between how you felt then and how you feel now? Why is this?

6. What kind of material do you have? Is it clear and simple to understand for the visual, audio and kinaesthetic among your audience? Can you improve, simplify or clarify it?

7. Have you anticipated any tricky questions that may come up, and prepared responses to them?

8. What are you saying and thinking to yourself about the event? If you're telling yourself how badly it's going to go that's exactly what you risk manifesting

9. Have you looked at the situation from the vantage point of each person who will be at that event? What questions or issues arise when you do this? Can you deal with any of them in advance? If so how?

10. What other messages are being communicated to you from this uncertainty? What do you need to do to quell them?

Answering these questions should go some way to increasing your confidence and ensuring you are well prepared for your event.

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The Power of Thankfulness: 5 Essential Tips

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
G.K. Chesterton

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week many of my readers will celebrate Thanksgiving.

So I thought it would be a good time to share a handful of my favorite tips for making thankfulness a daily part of life.

Because being thankful for what you have is one of the simplest and easiest ways to lift your mood. To give your motivation a jolt. And to live a happier life.

No matter who you are or where you live in the world.



1. Pause and look around yourself.

A simple first step to being more thankful is to pause during your day and ask yourself these two questions:
What are 3 things I can be thankful for in my life today?
Who are 3 people I can be thankful to have in my life and why?

If you don’t come up with 3 people and 3 things each day then that is OK. One thing or person is great too.

But if you can, try to not repeat yourself too often. Instead, think of more people and things to be grateful for to, day by day, expand your thankful view of your world.

2. Express your thankfulness.

Don’t stop at just coming up with people for whom you are grateful to have in your life.

Take a few seconds to tell them about it. This will make their lives happier. And as their faces light up with a smile you’ll feel happier too.

Now, that gratitude could just be a small sentence. But it can have a big impact on someone’s day, week or even life.

So be sure to make the small effort to express it.

3. Look towards yourself too.

It is not only things that are important. Or other people.

You are important and valuable too.

So appreciate that.

Ask yourself:

What are 3 things I can be thankful for about myself?

It could be that you were a good sister during a crisis last week. It could be that you finally got done with that boring or difficult task you had been procrastinating on.

Your self-gratitude does not have to be all about achievements. You can simply be thankful for your good sense of humor. Or the help you give your friends and family by being a good listener from time to time.

And the thankfulness doesn’t have to be about big things either. It could simply be about the fact that you floss for a couple of minutes in the morning.

4. Be thankful for the things you may take for granted.

The things we get very used to having can become things we take for granted. But they are not things everyone in the world has access to.

A few such things that I like to reflect upon and feel very thankful for having are:
A roof over my head and a warm home.
Plenty of drinkable water.
That I don’t have to go hungry.
Being able to enjoy the small and free pleasures of life.
Access to the internet so that I can learn and connect with people.

I have found that being grateful for things like these are especially helpful to zoom out and to put my situation in perspective when I am going through a tough time in life.

5. Start or end your day with thankfulness.

To make thankfulness into a habit that sticks find a regular time for it in your day.

For example, you can start your day in a good way by finding 3 things to be grateful for about yourself over breakfast.

Or you can take a few minutes in the evening, just before going to bed, to use a journal to write down 3 things you are grateful for about your day.

Try a tiny time commitment like one of these and see what impact it has on your life.

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7 Steps Towards a Positive State of Mind

Most of us have heard the saying: The optimist sees the glass half full, while the pessimist sees it half-empty. In its simplest terms, positive thinking is optimism and negative thinking is pessimism. It is an attitude towards life, yourself and particular predicaments and events in life.

Positive thinkers quickly zone in on the positive side of even the darkest moments in their lives, and often see those predicaments as opportunities for growth and learning. Positive thinkers are resilient and able to deal with stressful situations in productive ways.

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."- Anthony J. D'Angelo

Becoming a positive thinker is not necessarily something that will happen overnight. Depending on the severity of the negativity, it can take time to make appropriate changes.

The practice of positive thinking, and making it a character trait rather than a one-time thing, takes effort, patience, and time. If optimism is not natural to you, there are ways to turn it around.

Work towards combating the negativity you identified and maintaining an optimistic nature and use these steps as tools in the process.

7 Steps To A Positive Attitude

1. Say something positive whenever you think something negative. The tricky part about this is catching each negative thought as is happens. As much as possible, stop the negative thought as it happens and say something constructive to yourself, such as "today is going to be great."

Positive affirmations can be recited daily to reprogram the mind of negative thinking. There is a positive opposite for virtually everything negative...

"The weather is too hot." versus "The sun feels good on my skin."

"People at work are annoying." versus "It's great to a have a team to help with the workload."

"I look fat in that dress." versus "I look awesome in that dress."

"I screwed up again." versus "I made a mistake that I will learn from."

"I should be graduating at the top of my class." versus "I am so proud that I am graduating."

"All this snow is a hassle; it makes life harder and creates more work." versus "The snow left my backyard looking like a scene from a postcard."

"My husband cooked dinner for me, but it was only pasta." versus "I so appreciate my husband cooking dinner for me."

"I worked hard all day but did not get nearly enough done." versus "Wow, what a productive day I had at work."

2. Laugh often. Negative thinkers tend to be very uptight, and it's no wonder considering the heavy burden they often carry and the lack of positivity in their life. Allow yourself to laugh and often. Seek out scenarios where you laugh, like hanging out with funny people or visiting comedy clubs. Learn to see the humor in life, even during painful times. Laughter reduces stress, stops you from taking everything too seriously, and yields a more optimistic outlook.

3. Surround yourself with positive people. Negativity breeds more negativity. A positive attitude is contagious, and the best way to adopt such a thought process is to learn first-hand from a master. Having positive people in your life will allow you to view first-hand what it looks like, and positive people will give you uplifting advice, feed a positive outlook and problem solving suggestions, as opposed to negative people who will only want to sink in the muck with you and feed your negativity.

4. View every experience as a learning opportunity. Consider this scenario. A positive thinker finds out that their significant other has cheated. They break off the relationship, evaluate what went wrong, and attempt to learn from the situation, viewing it as a growing experience and a stepping-stone to a brighter future with someone else. Their process is a positive one that will include pain, and anger, but the way the positive thinker deals with it is constructive. The optimist knows that not everyone is a liar or a cheater, and that they can and will meet someone honest.

A negative thinker founds out that their significant other has been unfaithful and thinks thoughts like, "all men/women are liars and cheats;" I hate them all." They will dwell in the misery, and pain, and not view the experience as a learning process. They may become consumed by anger and hatred and generalize the entire opposite sex as evil, and eventually they may fall into a state of depression and experience anxiety and other ill health effects. Their next relationship may inevitably suffer, as their general distrust of the opposite sex will surely affect intimacy.

The positive thinker's resiliency and attitude allows them to grow through the painful experience, come out better for it on the other side, and avoid possible health manifestations that can result from negativity and its stress.

The negative thinker's own attitude will result in them missing an opportunity to grow, and the stress that attitude puts on their emotional and mental health will only harm them in the long run.

5. Adopt practices such as yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, tai chi and deep relaxation. These practices help you to focus your mind, build self-awareness, and obtain a deep peace. They also help you to maintain awareness about your thoughts and feelings, which helps you to control them so that you can build more positive energy in your mind and body.

6. Use positive affirmations. Our own inner dialogue determines our emotions, this means that we must be deliberate and conscious about what we say to ourselves. Speak positive affirmations to yourself every day, as they can help re-program your mind towards the positive mode and control your inner dialog.

Our mind is a garden and our attitudes are the seeds of its life, so plant healthy and weed regularly! Always repeat positive affirmations phrased in the present and personal tense, for example:

"I like myself!"

"I love today!"

"I love my life!"

"I see the positive in everything!"

"I can deal with anything!"

"I am strong!"

"I am optimistic!"

"I enjoy being around positive people!"

"I am aware of my thoughts"

And my favourite of all - "You are stronger than you seem, braver than you believe and far more capable than you think you are."

7. Practice Gratitude. There are multiple methods to transform your negative feelings. One of the fastest and highly effective ways is to harvest feelings of thankfulness and appreciation directed towards:

• Yourself

• Other people in your life

• Material things

• Your life circumstances

• And even strangers

Practice starting your day by focusing on being grateful, and bring to mind several specific things. This will help you move your mind towards positive thinking and positive energy vibrations.

There is nothing stopping you from achieving a more positive state of mind other than yourself. Start by acknowledging your negative thoughts, determining their source, and then transforming them into positivity.

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You Were Not Born to Be Ordinary, So Stand Out and Be EXTRAORDINARY!

Why do we spend so much time and energy out of our precious lives trying to fit the mold that other people try to put us in? We spend so much time trying to fit in when we were born to stand out. It is important to remain yourself and who you were born to be. The world would be so boring and uninteresting if we were all the same type of person doing the same type of thing. That would also hinder our purpose and creativity.

Living a happier and more fulfilled life for me began when I began to "break the rules," and what I mean by "break the rules" is going against the grain of what other people felt like I should be doing, and going with the grain of what I was being divinely led to do. I discovered that I was born to be unique. And by unique I mean creative and phenomenal. Now going against the grain doesn't mean that you never consider the advice of others, but it should be positive advice that is supportive of your uniqueness.

Many times we care too much about what other people are going to think about us, or what other people are going to say about us. So we stay in a "safe place" and never step out to be who we really are. When in reality why does what other people think about us or say about us even matter? Maybe those other people are so critical because they wish they had the courage to step out and allow their uniqueness to shine, but they don't have that courage, so instead they are critical of those who do.

Being true to yourself means that you are in alignment with who you were born to be and what you were called to do. You can create a lot of positive space in your life just by being yourself. And nobody wants to look back 20 years from now and realize that he or she lived their life according to the constraints and guidelines of others. And guess what? Those critical people are not going to have to live with the regret, only you are.

Here is the best way to live your life extraordinary... do what you are being divinely led to do! Even if it makes no sense to others, and it might not make sense to others since it is what you are being divinely led to do and not them. It is often hard for others to identify with things we are inspired to do. And sometimes they don't understand until the results manifest.

You might be surprised at how just going against "what's normal" can contribute to your success. People are drawn to things that are unique and stand out. If you just blend in the same with everyone else in life or in business, how will you stand out and make the impact you were truly born to make?

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Improving The Quality Of Your Life One Step At A Time

Feel like your life is bankrupt sometimes? Knowing how to improve the quality of your life can't be left for chance or vague notions.

Knowing how others have improved the quality of their lifestyles is what you need. Here are 7 keys to guarantee the quality and substance of your life will get better:

1. You can't deny that all of your life hinges upon the quality of your health. Without good health, you can't maintain the lifestyle you desire, and good health doesn't stay by accident. Paying attention to your health is the starting place for improvement.

2. The way you handle finances has a direct bearing on the condition of every part of your life. Irresponsibility to money causes untold stress in every part of life. Personal money management is a must when it comes to improving your life.

3. The condition of your life is reflected by the friends you keep. You are the people you surround yourself with. Are your friends exemplifying the quality of life you desire? Chose friends wisely for the best life possible.

4. Gratitude is the unsung hero of all great people living dynamic and enhanced lives. Gratitude includes a thank you, but goes much deeper. Thankfulness for what you have is an attitude that when practiced brings life beyond your wildest expectations.

5. Simplicity is the opposite of confusion and drama. Make your life as simple as possible by deleting everything in it that you don't truly love. Take a look around your home, and decide what you truly need, and use. Discard everything else so that your life has room to expand and improve.

6. Give, give, give. Don't be tricked into thinking that giving what you have no use for will expand the quality of your life. To watch the quality of your life explode start looking around for someone in need of what you have already. Give your money, your possessions, and your time. When you give what you use and need it will come back many times over.

7. Last and not least is a plan to learn how to improve the quality of your life. Set aside an hour each week to do nothing more than think and read about methods for making your life better. This will make you conscious of what needs changing and how to change.

Getting the most out of anything always requires giving all you have, and life is no different. Make your life a long and rewarding adventure when you live it with a conscious intention to make it great.

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5 Ways to Find Willpower When You Feel Burnt Out and Hopeless

We all experience periods in our lives when we hit a rough patch and Lady Luckno longer seems to support us. We’re left feeling crushed by life itself. Times when unexpected events have happened, often beyond our control, and it’s pushed us to our breaking point. When tough times hit, we often feel our willpower severely waning.

We feel so burnt out and devoid of energy that our viewpoint into our future starts to look bleak and hopeless. When we’ve reached this point, it’s pretty hard to find a reason to push on. But luckily, there are some ways to fight back and regain your inner power.
Here are my favorite ways on how to have willpower when you feel burnt out and hopeless:

1) Gratitude.

Sometimes, when I’m at my lowest points, when I can’t think of anything positive and life just seems completely pointless, I like to take a moment to remember everything that I do have in my life and feel grateful.

Here’s how gratefulness can help you on how to have willpower again.

Remember that:
Your gratitude list can include anything. In fact, when times are super tough and I can’t think of anything one thing to be grateful for, I remember that at least for right now, I have a roof over my head and food in my belly, that there are millions of men, women, and children around the globe who don’t have those basic life necessities available to them on a regular basis.

However, you can also be grateful for your toothbrush, Snickers bars, your pets, or your BMW. It’s your choice and your list so name whatever you want that makes you remember life has great moments – even during the darkest times.
Keep a gratitude journal near your bed. Every morning and/or night, write down a list of 5-20 things that you are grateful for during the day. In time you’ll see that you really do have a lot more to be grateful for than you ever could have imagined. It’s also really beneficial to turn to those lists when you’re feeling down about life.

You’ll remember you have a whole notebook of things that are really great in your life and that will help boost your willpower to keep moving forward.

Gratitude helps take the focus away from whatever isn’t showing up in my life and redirects me to notice what I do have that is so amazing. Using gratitude to boost your willpower can give you a new perspective on what’s really going on. It will help you feel more grounded and resilient, rather than burnt out and hopeless.


2) Volunteer

Being around others who value your service and who need your help – whether that’s the environment, animals, children or other adults in need, it’s a great way for you to feel life is hopeful, not hopeless.

Not only do you get a chance to see that others too, are going through a difficult time, but volunteering will help remind you that no matter what is going on in your life, you can still do some good in the world. What you do matters, and that you make a positive difference to others.

Remember to:
Find a volunteer position or charity that is aligned with your time and energy levels. Ask friends about where they volunteer. Maybe even try out a few before you settle on a specific one. But find one leaves you feeling energized and happy afterwards rather than sad and depleted.

While sometimes you may be witnessing a sad situation, like when I volunteered as a groomer at an animal shelter and saw many cases of abuse, it helped when I focused on how I was helping the animals transition from dirty and alone to happy, healthy and on their way to their new forever homes.
Keep searching – there are tons of volunteer opportunities out there that can fit everyone’s lifestyle, needs, and schedule. You can even find volunteering or mentoring positions that you can do online. So keep searching until you find one you really love. If you don’t see it out there, you can always start your own charity based on needs you see in your own community that aren’t yet being met.

Volunteering your time, money or expertise will get your willpower back up and running in no time as you’ll be reminded that there’s a lot more than just you on this planet and that you’re needed by others.


3) Treat Yourself!

If you have gotten to the point where your willpower is so low that you can barely get out of bed, then this is the time to start treating yourself a whole lot better! We are taught that giving is the greatest thing we can do, but if we do not stop and allow ourselves to receive, it’s possible to give until we are sucked dry.

It doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive or elaborate. Just do something for yourself that makes you feel happy. Do things like that as often as you can. The more you give to yourself, the less hopeless you’ll feel. You’ll be more able to give joyfully and abundantly to others.

Remember that:
Make treating yourself an everyday habit. The more you give to yourself, the more energy you will have, so set aside some time every day to do something kind for yourself. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time, but it does need to help you remember that life can be and is, good.
Change it up. You don’t have to do the same nice thing for yourself every day. The more you choose to vary your treats, the more you’ll enjoy the process and the more likely you’ll be able to keep up this healthy practice of self love. The more you receive, the more you’ll be able to give.

4) Start Treating Yourself Better

Most of us are running on empty. We have too much going on in our lives. Of course, rather than letting the ball drop in any area we allow our minds, bodies, and spirits to take the brunt and then we wonder while all of a sudden we’re feeling depleted and burnt out.

When we’re short on time, energy and/or personal happiness, it’s really easy to start losing our willpower and feel hopeless. This is where daily self care comes in handy. By daily care I mean getting enough sleep to feel rejuvenated, NOT exhausted when you wake


Remember that:
If you don’t like it, use it or need it anymore, let it go. Holding on to stuff that no longer holds true value to you only weighs you down in body, mind and spirit, so for the sake of your mental and physical health it’s a good idea to purge all the negativity and waste from your life.
This exercise will lead to a great awareness of what really matters in your life – if you do it properly. It will help you realize that keeping positive people and things in your space have a great effect on how you feel and how you make decisions. Do yourself a favor and start getting rid anything negative out of your life. See how wonderful, free, and happy you start feeling.


Whether it’s going on a much needed vacation, making a quick trip to the manicurist or buying yourself a decadent brownie as a rare treat, do something that makes you feel happy and joyful. Giving too much can burn us out and leave us feeling depleted. This is why we need to give to ourselves just as much as we give to others.

up.

Practicing daily care also means choosing to eat natural, real food rather than products made with salt, sugar, and fat to help you feel good, happy, and healthy from the inside-out. Daily care also means exercising regularly so that you remain strong, healthy and limber.

Remember that:
Little steps can lead to big improvements. Even something small like going to bed at the same time every night can lead to quickly feeling happier and healthier. It’s also important to incorporate these daily care rituals into your schedule so that they become just part of your routine, rather than something you have to squeeze into your day. This will ensure you keep up the practice and actually reap and enjoy their myriad benefits.
Get support. It’s important when you are trying to make positive changes to have the right support system. Whether you hire someone, join a group or get a friend, spouse or relative to help you out, the more you’ll feel encouraged and supported in making positive changes. This makes it easier for you to maintain these changes.

If you’re thinking about how to have willpower, remember that being healthy is what will help you. Treating yourself better will push through those tough, hopeless times with much more ease and grace than you can if you’re not caring for yourself on a regular basis.

Taking care of yourself every day is essential for a happy, healthy, and productive life. You simply cannot allow caring for yourself to go by the wayside, no matter how busy you become or things will start to crumble out of your control.


5) Remove Everything in your Life that Leaves you Feeling Burnt Out and Hopeless.

There are so many decisions we have to make these days. So many choices that can lead us down a variety of different paths. It can become exhausting just trying to figure out the right path for yourself. The more decisions you have to make, the more burnt out you’ll probably feel.

Wondering how to have willpower to gain energy reserves and enjoy feeling like you’re actually in control? It’s important to let go of everything that doesn’t hold any value or meaning in your life.


Be kind to yourself, be grateful, and don’t cling to things of no value. This is how to have willpower again – despite feelings of hopelessness and exhaustion.

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How To Live In The Moment & Appreciate What You Have With These Tips

There is a saying, “Stop and smell the roses.” It doesn’t mean to simply smell flowers, it means to live in the moment with a great appreciation for the present and the things around you.

So let me ask you…

Do you ever stop to smell the roses?

It’s very easy to get completely caught up in planning for the future, that we often forget to take the time to appreciate the wonderful things happening in our daily lives.

I’d like to offer 3 things you can do today to live in the present and start appreciating the moment.

1) Become Very Self-Aware

The first thing you can do to live in the present is to become very self-aware.

To perform your best, acknowledge the beauty of your life and be happy, you need to know who you are and why you think and feel the way you do. You are where you are and what you are because of yourself.

You have gotten yourself to where you are as the result of the choices and decisions that you have made in the past. If you want to be somewhere else in the future, it is up to you to make new and better choices and decisions in the present.

2) Embrace Your Natural State Of Being In Life

Next, start to embrace your natural state of being in life.

Your normal, natural, healthy state of being alive is a wonderful gift and should be treated that way.

Try to tune into the amount of joy you experience and the number of times you laugh on a daily basis, to demonstrate the fullness of your current life position. Acknowledge these moments and be grateful for them each time that they happen.

Eventually, reacting to these moments with gratitude will become a habit, and you will start to feel happier all the time.

3) Develop An Attitude Of Gratitude

Lastly, if you want to be truly present and benefit from appreciating your daily life, you must develop an attitude of gratitude.

The habit of feeling grateful and expressing that gratitude to other people, by saying “thank you” to those in your life, and to yourself for all of the wonderful things in your life every day will have amazing effects on your personality, and your ability to live in the present.

An attitude of gratitude makes you a warmer, friendlier, and more genial. An attitude of gratitude makes you more sensitive and more aware of others around you and your environment.

The more gratitude you have, and the more gratitude you express, the happier and brighter your life will become.

When we are thankful to others and express a wonderful attitude to those around us on a regular basis, we can change the lives of others as well as our own.

Start each morning by saying, “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.”

Repeat it over and over.

What are 2 things in your daily life that you are grateful for?

Leave a comment below, and I’ll be sure to follow up with you.

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7 Ways To Show Gratitude, Be Thankful, & Boost Your Motivation

In honor of Thanksgiving this week, I want to encourage you to voice your “attitude of gratitude”. Say thank you and give constructive feedback to your staff, friends, children, and co-workers and encourage them to be better in their lives and work.

Make it a habit to give people continual praise and encouragement. The more you praise and encourage positive constructive behaviors, the more deposits you make to the “emotional bank account.”

1) Appreciate People For Everything They Do

Always show appreciation. Every time you thank another person, you cause that person to like themselves better. You raise their self-esteem and improve their self-image. You cause them to feel more important. You make them feel that what they did was valuable and worthwhile. You empower them.

2) Build Your Own Self-Esteem By Thanking Others

And the wonderful thing about thanking other people is that, every time you say the words “thank you,” you like yourself better as well.

You feel better inside. You feel happier and more content with yourself and life. You feel more fully integrated and positive about what you are doing.

When you develop an attitude of gratitude that flows forth from you in all of your interactions with others, you will be amazed at how popular you will become and how eager others will be to help you in whatever you are doing.

3) Praise And Approve Others Continually

Another way to make people feel important and give them a sense of power and energy, is by the generous use of praise and approval. Psychological tests show that, when children are praised by the people that they look up to, their energy levels rise, their heart rates and respiratory rates increase and they feel happier about themselves overall.

4) Try “One Minute Praising”

Perhaps the most valuable lesson in Ken Blanchard’s book The One Minute Manager is his recommendation to be giving “One-Minute Praising” at every opportunity.

If you go around your home and through your social relationships praising and giving genuine and honest approval to people for their accomplishments, large and small, you will be amazed at how much more people like you and how much more willing they are to help you achieve your goals.

5) Practice The Law Of Reciprocity

There is a psychological law of reciprocity that says, “If you make me feel good about myself, I will find a way to make you feel good about yourself.”

In other words, people will always look for ways to reciprocate your kindnesses toward them. When you look for every opportunity to do and say things that make other people feel good about themselves, you will be astonished at not only how good you feel, but at the wonderful things that begin to happen all around you.

6) Pay Attention And Listen To Others

The third way to empower others, to build their self-esteem and make them feel important is simply to pay close attention to them when they talk.

The great majority of people are so busy trying to be heard that they become impatient when others are talking. But this is not for you. Remember, the most important single activity that takes place over time is listening intently to the other person when he or she is talking and expressing himself or herself.

7) Take Every Opportunity To Build People Up

Again, the three general rules for empowering the people around you, which apply to everyone you meet, are appreciation, approval, and attention.

Say thank you and voice your gratitude to others on every occasion. Praise them for every accomplishment. And pay close attention to them when they talk and want to interact with you. These three behaviors alone will make you a master of human interaction and will greatly empower the people around you.

Please leave a comment or share with your friends if you’ve enjoyed this post!

I hope that the holiday season treats you well and helps you to think about how thankful you are for what’s important in your life. As a thank you for being a loyal follower, I’d like to offer you some wonderful deals on some of my favorite products.

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The Power of Gratitude: 5 Small Tips for a Lighter and Happier Life Starting Today

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
Lionel Hampton

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Marcel Proust

Maybe the simplest and most effortless habit for living a happier life is to take one or a few minutes every day to focus on what is already here and that you can be grateful for in your life.

It can help you to…
Lift your mood and boost motivation very quickly.
Find the things in your life that you want to focus even more of your time and energy on.
Not just take things for granted and to find joy even during the tougher times.

It is simply an awesome habit to cultivate that demands little but gives much back.

So this week I’d like to explore 5 small tips that you can use to cultivate more gratitude and happiness in your life.



1. Pause and look around yourself.

A first simple step to build the gratitude habit is simply to pause in your everyday life and to ask yourself questions like:
What can I be grateful for in my life today?
Who are 3 people that I can be grateful to have in my life and why?

If you cannot come up with several things or people every day then that is OK. If you find one thing or one person then that is great too. Don’t get hung up on the numbers. Just take a few minutes and see what you come up with.

Try to not repeat the same things too often. Instead, try to think of more things and people you can be grateful for in your life.

2. Look towards yourself.

Don’t just look outward.

Take a look at yourself too. A habit of being appreciative and grateful towards yourself is a simple way to improve self-esteem and self-confidence.

Ask yourself:

What are 3 things I can be grateful for about myself?

It could be that you were a good father in a moment of crisis this week. It could be that you finally got done with that task you had been procrastinating on.

Your self-gratitude does not have to be all about achievements at work or in school for example. You can simply be grateful for your good sense of humor or that you help people out a lot by being a good listener from time to time.

3. Take a closer look at the very smaller things or what you may take for granted.
Don’t just focus on the big and obvious things you can be grateful for.

Think about what very small things you can be grateful for too.

Like the plant just in front of my laptop that I am writing these words on.

It is not a remarkable plant. But its simple beauty in the vibrant green color, how it keeps growing on just a little water and sunshine and the faint smell of nature is something simple I feel grateful for.

Another thing that I am grateful for today – that I may sometimes take for granted – was my lunch. It was a few potatoes with some grilled chicken and a dollop of sauce. It was delicious. And, more importantly, I don’t have to go hungry. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to eat lunch every day.

Ask yourself:
What is one very small thing that I can be grateful for today?
What is one thing I may usually for granted that I can be grateful for?

Opening your eyes to the small and daily things you can appreciate lets you truly see more of the simple beauty in life.

4. Do it early or late in your day.

But how do you get the gratitude habit to stick and not just become one of those things you forget about or abandon after a few days.

Two things that I have found effective are:
Take 1 minute in the morning to get a good start to your day by finding 3 small or big things you are grateful for in your life.
Take 1-2 minutes each evening and use a journal to write down maybe 3 or 5 things you are grateful for about your day, about yourself or about your life.

Try one of these tiny time commitments every day for a week and see how it impacts your life.

5. Express your gratitude.
Don’t just keep the gratitude on the inside. Express it.

Make other people happier too – and help them to perhaps pay it forward later on – by expressing how you are grateful for having them in your life. Plus, their smile and the joy in their eyes when you tell them this will make you happier too.

Now, that gratitude could just be a small sentence. But it can have a big impact on someone’s day, week or even life sometimes.

So tell the people in your life.

Tell them in person tonight. Or write an email or a letter to someone a little further away in the world. Or send a small text message right now.

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15 Simple Ways to Spread Happiness and Kindness Around You

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”
Albert Schweitzer

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”
Amelia Earhart

A very simple way to spread more happiness in your own little world is through kindness. It’s often an easy and quick thing you can do as you move through your daily life.

But we sometimes forget about it. Or don’t remember how it can help us all.

Three things that I like to keep in mind and that help me to try to be a kinder person are these:
I get what I give. Yep, some people will be ungrateful, miserable and not reciprocating no matter what you may do. But most people will over time treat you as you treat them.
By being kinder to others I am more likely to be kinder to myself.It may sound a bit odd but my experience is that when I am kinder towards others then my self-esteem goes up.
It creates a happier place to live in. Being kinder simply makes my own little world a nicer and happier place to live in.


So how can you start spreading the kindness and happiness in your daily life?

Here are 15 simple ways to do it.



Pick one of them that resonates with you and start using it today.

1. Express your gratitude.

Think about what you can be grateful for about someone in your life. Maybe that he is a good listener, that he often is quick to help out or that he always adds great songs to a Spotify playlist. Or simply that he held up the door for you.

Then express that gratitude in a simple “thank you!” or in a sincere sentence or two.

2. Replace the judgements.

No one likes to be judged. And the more you judge other people the more you tend to judge yourself. So despite the temporary benefit of deriving pleasure from the judgements it is not a good or smart long-term habit.

When you feel the urge to judge ask yourself: what is one kind thing I can think or do in this situation instead?

3. Replace the un-constructive criticism.

Try encouragement instead of excessive criticism. It helps people to both raise their self-esteem and to do a better job.

And it will make things more fun and more light-hearted in the long run.

4. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

It is quite easy to resort to unkindness when you see things just from your perspective. Two questions that help me to see and to better understand other viewpoints are:
How would I think and feel it if I were in his or her shoes?
What parts of this person can I see in myself?

5. Recall how people’s kindness made you feel.

Just sit down for a few minutes and try to recall one time or a few times when other people’s kindness really touched you and helped you out.

Then think about how you can do those very same things for someone in your life.

6. Express kindness for something you may often take for granted.

It is easy to remember and to feel motivated to express kindness when someone is having a rough time or have just finished an important project.

But also remember to express kindness for how someone continues to put so much love into the dinners you eat. Or for being on time every day and doing their job well and keeping deadlines.

7. Hide a surprising and kind note.

Leave a small note with a loving or encouraging sentence in your partner’s or child’s lunchbox, hat, tea-container or book that he or she is reading right now.

That minute of your time will put a smile on her face and joy and motivation in her heart.

8. Just be there.

Listen – without thinking about something else – when someone needs to vent.

Just be there fully with your attention. Or have a conversation and help someone find his or her way out of fear and to a more constructive and grounded perspective.

9. Remember the small acts of kindness too.

Let someone into your lane while driving. Let someone skip ahead of you in a line if he’s in a real hurry. Hold up the door for someone or ask if they need help when you see them standing around with a map and a confused look.

10. Give someone an uplifting gift.
Someone in your life may have a bit of a tough time right now. Then send him or her an inspirational book or movie. Or simply send an email with a link to something inspiring or funny that you have found like a blog, podcast or a comic.

11. Help someone out practically.

Give them a hand when moving or with making dinner or arrangements before a party. If they need information, then help out by googling it or by asking knowledgeable people that you know.

12. Help the people in your life see how they make a difference in their lives.

When you talk to someone about his or her day or what has been going on lately then make sure to point out how he or she also has spread kindness and happiness. People are often unaware of the positive things they do or they minimise them in their own minds.

So help them to see themselves in a more positive light and to improve their own self-esteem.

13. Remember the 3 reasons for kindness at the start of this article.

It will help you to be kinder even when you may not always feel much like it. If you like, write those reasons down on a piece of paper and put that note where you can see it every day.

14. Pay it forward.

When someone does something kind for you – no matter how big or small – then try to pay that forward by being kind to someone else as soon as you can.

15. Be kinder towards yourself.

Then you will naturally treat other people with more kindness too. It is truly a win-win habit.

A simple way to start being kinder toward yourself is to each evening write down 3 things you appreciate about yourself and about what you have done that day in a journal.

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