Why Every Successful Person Sets Goals

Have you ever heard of any successful people, super achievers or elite performers who don't set goals at all?

Honestly I have not.

Goal setting is an important aspect in both your professional and personal lives. Without having goals to strive for, we won't be able to measure our success or achievements. We won't be able to spot our weaknesses and improve ourselves. We won't be able to target our strengths and fully unleash our potential.

While setting goals is crucial to getting what you want in life, what other amazing benefits do this simple act bring you that make all the successful people love?

#1 Control and Certainty

By regularly setting goals and achieving them you are taking control of your life.

This is an empowering mindset, attitude and behavior to have because you are acknowledging that life doesn't 'just happen to you'. There is a lot that is within your control when it comes to creating the ideal life you want and working towards the direction that's right for you.

#2 Optimism and Positivity

Apart from being certain about the future you're heading, setting goals and taking action to achieve them will influence you to have a more positive and optimistic outlook.

This vibe of positivity will help you build stronger mental resilience, which is essential to help you keep going when things become tough or when you got hit by challenges.

Instead of feeling down, depressed or defeated by the hardships, your resilience, optimism and mental toughness will ensure that you see the temporary setback as it is and pick yourself up using your personal power to find a creative way to overcome it.

#3 Wellbeing

Through goal setting you will have created a long-term plan for your life. In your mind, you've created a vision of what you want and worked out a way to get there.

This sense of purpose gives you a feeling of hope that you can achieve what you want. These are all positive emotions which have powerful effects on your mental and physical wellbeing.

Stress levels will be reduced, as will the likelihood of depression emerging. While you are working towards achieving your goals, you will increase your levels of focus and your ability to use it at will to help you get the results you want.

#4 Getting Into Flow State

The regular setting of meaningful goals ensures that you maximize opportunities to utilize the power of flow.

This miraculous flow state occurs when:

you have a meaningful goal;

position yourself away from external distractions;

have all the necessary resources at hand;

have matched the task to your abilities so that it contains enough challenge to keep you motivated and engaged but not too little so that you become bored; and

immerse yourself in the task completely.

Getting into the flow state not only helps you achieve goals, but it also drastically elevates your productivity, relieves stress and increases happiness. The benefits of the flow state have been recorded by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the Hungarian positive psychologist who wrote the famous book <Flow: The Psychology of Happiness>.

By having goals, you are increasing your chances of success. You are also taking positive steps to creating the life or business that you want.

While it seems to take a lot of effort setting goals at the beginning, the benefits you experience will far outweigh any time spent creating, monitoring and meeting them. If you desire to become a more productive, optimistic and proactive, then you should definitely follow what other successful people do - setting goals.

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3 Tips To Upgrade Your Morning Routine

Having a morning routine is one of the best ways to kick-start a day in the most productive, positive and healthy manner and be energized and motivated throughout the whole day.

It takes time to form it as a habit. You begin by waking up earlier than you have to and investing that time in some activities that are good for your mind, body and soul. Over time, you add new elements to it like meditating, working out, creating your to-do list for the day, organizing things to save time later on, etc.

For some people, however, it never gets easier no matter how long they've been having a ritual to start the day successfully. Sometimes, it's still a struggle and you realize you can't become a morning person, don't find enough joy in this whole thing, aren't as effective as you should and feel upset because of all this.

If that sounds familiar, then here are some tips to deal with your morning routine struggle, and take your mornings to the next level by making the most of every minute:

1. Go to bed with intention.

In life you should always know why you do what you do. A reason becomes a purpose and makes everything easier and meaningful. To apply that approach to how you start your day means to decide to have a powerful morning routine the night before, go to bed with that thought in mind and prepare to prevent failing.

Here are some things you can do tonight for a highly productive and inspiring early morning:

Write down why your morning ritual matters to you and how it can change your life - doing that before sleep gets the message to your subconscious mind and you truly believe in the power of starting the day this way. You'll wake up motivated to do all the morning habits you desire.

Be excited about it - look forward to leaving bed earlier tomorrow morning. Remember that few people find the willpower to actually get up earlier than they have to and use that extra time to become more disciplined, organized, energized and productive.

Put your alarm clock on the other side of the room so that you'll have to go get it and thus avoid the temptation to close your eyes for 5 minutes more.

Prepare your clothes - keep them beside your bed to know what to do in the morning and make it more likely to dress up.

De-clutter - seeing chaos first thing in the morning will keep you in a bad mood for the whole day. Make sure you put everything back in its place, wash the dishes, organize your desk, etc.

2. Make the ritual more fun.

To look forward to waking up in the morning and make sure you do your whole routine, include activities you enjoy, or stuff that can't happen at any other moment of the day. 

Wanna take up a new hobby? Wake up an hour earlier and dedicate that time to it. Be it painting, learning a new language, creating a digital business, or taking a fun course online.

If you are looking for some peaceful me time, there's no better choice than the early hours of the day. Do some reading or writing, while listening to music or drinking your coffee or tea slowly and with a smile on your face. No one will be there to bother you and you'll keep that calm attitude till the evening.

3. See how others are doing it.

If you struggle with your morning ritual, take a look at what some remarkable people out there are doing first thing in the morning to stay motivated and steal an idea or a few. 

Read about the daily rituals of famous men in history, read blog posts from successful entrepreneurs and notice how they start each day. They'll all talk about how this is one of their best habits. Whatever you do, keep in mind you're working on yourself and thus being a role model. You inspire with your actions!

But if you don't take control of your morning, you'll still have a routine, it will just be a bad one. The average person wakes up with the last alarm, complains about having to be up at that time, doesn't have time to prepare for the day, leaves in a hurry, often forgets something, and begins the day in an awful mood. Don't become someone like that. Even if you're struggling with your ritual, keep working and making changes slowly over time. It's worth it!

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Did You Know That You Can Build Self Confidence Through Positive Thinking?

The state of your mind dictates many aspects of your life, including your health, the success you achieve in your career, the love, and stability in your personal life, and much more. Negative thoughts lower your level of confidence, which in turn harms your mental state.

A lack of self-confidence plagues many people, though it comes in different levels. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Some people have no confidence at all, while others may exhibit a lack of it under certain situations like on dates with the opposite sex. The good news is that you can do a lot towards building your self-confidence.

By integrating positive thinking into your life, you can slowly push out these negative thoughts for good, and heighten your level of confidence.

The first step is believing that you are worthy of confidence, and that means having a healthy self-esteem where you love who you are without reservation or conditions. If self-esteem is a major issue, a good therapist can go a long way to helping in this regard.

Here are five effective ways to change your mindset and become a more confident individual.

5 Tips For Building Confidence Through Positive Thinking

No matter where you are on the spectrum of self-confidence, whether very low or somewhere in the middle or even near the top, these steps will help you reach that next level.

Self-Appraisal

The first step is building confidence is to truly become in touch with all your great qualities, talents, abilities and attributes. Who are you? What makes you a good person? What do you excel at? What is in your heart? What kind of friend are you? Are you funny? Honest? Caring? Giving? Answering these questions and literally making a list is a great beginning to identifying those things that build our confidence. How you think about yourself actually has a great deal to do with your confidence level. Many are negative thinkers by habit, one that has become engrained in us over the years, possibly starting in childhood when raised by critical parent(s). Make a list, and begin to reinforce this list to yourself daily. Include aspects of your appearance, your talents, activities that you're good at and who you truly are. Anytime you feel upset or are thinking negative thoughts, take out this list and remind yourself of your best qualities.

Self-Praise

While too much self-praise could lead to pride, a healthy dose of self-praise on a regular basis can be extremely useful for building confidence. Positive affirmations push out negative perceptions and create a stronger self-image. You should habitually praise yourself for doing something well or for a new behavior that you want to encourage. It may seem strange telling yourself, "Great job!" or "I like myself," or "I've got this!" but this is the kind of positive thinking that helps you feel better about who you are. If you are a more visual person, it may be helpful to write down a list every day of all your achievements. Meditative on the items on your list before bed, and congratulate yourself for all the achievements of the day.

Accepting Compliments

Many people with low self-esteem brush off and negate compliments with statements like, "I messed up my painting here and here" or "My shirt isn't that great, it's just the first thing I grabbed." Other people will seem to receive the compliment but then internally tell themselves why it isn't true. Compliments are confirmation from other people about your admirable qualities. You should accept the compliments with grace by simply saying "thank you," or "I so appreciate your noticing," so that your mind continuously affirms your positive traits. Stay conscious of each time you negate someone's compliment, and do better next time.

Creative Visualization Exercises

Creative visualization is becoming an increasingly popular way to help people obtain their goals. The concept calls for you to repeatedly visualize the outcome of your goal. If you are an actor, you might envision yourself holding an Oscar. If you are aiming to build your confidence, you may want to envision an action that represents confidence from your own perspective. It could be something like leading a meeting with top executives or asking for a raise. Through creative visualization, you are building confidence by mentally preparing yourself for your desired outcome(s).

Positive People

Do you have a friend or acquaintance who continually brings you down, whether intentionally or unintentionally? You may want to consider whether that person should remain in your life. Even if the person is family, you need to separate yourself from that person however possible. If he or she isn't respecting you, then he or she will have to understand that you two can no longer associate until respect is part of the relationship. This may sound harsh, but negative people have one of the strongest, if not the strongest, impact on your self-confidence. While it may be difficult to let go of that relationship, it is a necessary step towards building your self-confidence.

Remember, building your confidence is not going to happen overnight. Integrate these tips into your life, and over time, you will see change. The most important point to remember is that positive thinking is key to building confidence. Whenever you feel the negative thoughts creeping in, turn them around into something positive.

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9 Easy Steps To Defeat Laziness

Everybody feels a little lazy at times. But laziness on a regular basis can have a severe unfavorable effect on your life. Laziness is a natural tendency. All animals incline towards comfort, or at least what's viewed to be comfortable. However, laziness is indulging in short-term convenience at the cost of long-term pain.

Do you understand anybody with a terrific life that's lazy? In time, the law of cause and effect holds true. Laziness has a long-lasting cost.

Beat laziness and accomplish more:

1. Discover a reason to get excited. Think about the advantages you'll get by getting it done. It might be the completed result that thrills you or that you're learning and growing. Perhaps showing self-discipline is something that you can get thrilled about. It's much more difficult to accomplish something if you're complaining about it.

2. Set a due date. When you have plenty of time to complete something, or no deadline at all, it's human nature to procrastinate. Setting a deadline in the near future can help to focus your interest and energy.

3. Develop smaller sized jobs from the main task. Every big job can be done in steps. Even building a house has steps. First the site needs to be prepared. Then the foundation is created, and the framing begins. The remaining steps are followed until your house is completed.

The total task might be big and challenging. However, the individual jobs, or steps, might be easier to handle.

4. Concentrate on taking the first step. When you get started, the momentum you have actually produced can carry you far. Action breeds further action. Sitting on the sofa tends to result in more sitting. Instead of stressing over the mountain of work ahead of you, focus on getting one easy job finished.

5. Find something that motivates you. It can be something as basic as a book of motivating quotes or a song that energizes you. You already know what inspires you. Utilize it to your benefit.

6. Consider the pain of not starting. We're good at imagining the discomfort of getting started, but attempt to imagine the opposite. Exactly what will take place if you continue to be lazy? What will it cost you in the future? What has it cost you so far? Instead of using discomfort as a need to lazy, use pain to produce action.

7. Remind yourself that the last few years have flown by. Laziness is frequently a chronic condition. A great deal of time has passed in the last 5 years, but how much have you achieved? Five years goes by quickly, especially when one day appears to be a copy of every other day. Life is wasting away. Get up and do something!

8. Reward yourself for taking action. Get something done and celebrate. You may not have done enough to reward yourself with a brand-new car, but you deserve to get excited and take pride in yourself and your accomplishments.

9. Be patient. It's common to believe that action comes from inspiration, but the opposite might be more real. Action results in more and better results.

As you achieve results, that breeds more motivation. Be psychologically tough and just get busy. You'll have a need to be motivated soon enough.

Avoid enabling laziness to keep you on the sidelines. It will take your time and limit your results!

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10 Reasons to Chase Your Passion & Not the Money

We’ve all been in that situation…

We had to decide between whether or not to chase something that makes more money, or something that we are more interested in.

So what do we do?

Answering this question is not easy. It may seem easy because everyone around you is telling you to follow your passion. But in reality, it’s much tougher because some part of you still think you will be happier with the money.


10 Reasons to Chase Your Passion

Today I want to share with you 10 solid reasons, which I learnt from successful people, on why you should chase your passion. Not the money.


1. Becoming really good at what you’re interested in can bring you even more money, even if you think it can’t

Now, I’m not one of those spiritual gurus who will tell you that you can make infinite money from any skill or passion or interest you can think of. If it was that easy everyone would already be doing it.

What I am saying is simply that if you can become really good at what you do you can make a lot of money doing it. If there is market demand for your skill. Of course, some interests are very tough to turn into money.

VERY FEW PEOPLE, IF ANY, WILL PAY TO WATCH YOU SIT ON A COUCH AND WATCH TV.

But one thing I can tell you is that you probably underestimated how many skills can be turned into passions. For example, most people do not think that you can make a decent living let alone a great living off a topic like spirituality.

But when you dive into the subject, you find people like Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer who have made a lot of money off that exact topic.


2. Money can act as a crutch you depend on

There are tons of successful wealthy people who depend on money to validate their existence.


Some of them use money to show off to others. Some of them use it to show their superiority. And Some of them buy all these expensive things just because culture has told them that this is what success is.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT DEEP DOWN THEY STILL FEEL UNHAPPY AND UNFULFILLED. I HEAR STORIES ABOUT THIS ALMOST EVERYDAY WHEN I LISTEN TO PODCASTS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS.

By first establishing a solid independent foundation where you do not have to depend on money, you can live freely once you have it. Otherwise your possessions end up owning you rather than the other way around.

3. Money can come and go

There are very few things in the world that we can really fully control.

As hinted at in the last point, if you do not have a solid foundation of internal love and independence, you leave yourself open to being dependent on factors of life you cannot control for your happiness.

And when you leave your life up to a couple of factors that can change in a moment’s notice, they sometimes do change.

Sometimes it can seem like you have a rock solid business or career that is generating a lot of money for you. But all the same, one day, you lose that money because that career or business meets unexpected obstacles.

If you can find internal passion, you can still find love and joy and delight at what you do regardless of if you are broke, middle-income, or rich.

4. Money will not bring you as much happiness as you think

In the past, any advice on what brings happiness was purely based on opinion.

And the problem with opinion is that you don’t know if it’s actually fact or not. Nowadays, there has been extensive scientific studies done on the science of happiness. We have definitive evidence on what brings happiness and what does not.

SCIENCE HAS SHOWN THE AMOUNT OF EXTRA LONG-TERM HAPPINESS, AS YOU’RE INCREASING HOW MUCH YOU EARN, RAPIDLY DIMINISHES AFTER YOU HIT A MODEST FIRST WORLD MIDDLE-INCOME.

The craziest part about modern society is that 99% of people still case excessive money. Based on a false belief that it will give them a huge long-lasting boost in happiness. save yourself some time.


5. If you start with money, you can end up miserable

This is a simple but often overlooked fact. Many people chase, and chase, and chase the money until they get a lot of it. But then they look around and they find themselves in a career or business that they cannot get out of and no time to spend that money.

The worst part?

They absolutely hate every single second that they spend working because they found themselves in an industry that they hate.

I don’t know about you, but I do not think success is working 10 to 12 hour days at a job that you hate to make excessive amounts of money that you don’t even have the time to spend or enjoy.


6. By chasing money first, you can end up in a cycle of constant never-ending chasing

Many people who chase money first end up in an addictive cycle of chasing more and more, even once they hit their financial goals. They quickly get used to the money that they achieved and it’s never enough.

The scientific term for this process, taking the money we have for granted, is called the hedonic treadmill.

Now, notice how I said “many.”

Some people are smarter than that. Some people who chase money first quickly realise that money shouldn’t be their main goal. And so they start sculpting their career into one that follows passion as well.

Others eventually learn that this cycle is not the right way and they turn to passion, purpose and fulfilment.

YOU CAN GET A HEAD-START BY STARTING WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE TO BEGIN WITH. I’M NOT SAYING THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER TAKE ANY MONEY.

Money is good. I am simply saying that while you are reaching and moving towards higher and higher goals, you should always have a sense of independent fulfilment, that doesn’t depend on more money for your levels of happiness.

7. Status, Validation and Ego end up being meaningless

Countless successful people strive their entire lives for awards, medals, and achievements.

Some of it is healthy. These are people who want to break the mold, who want to break records that have never been achieved, or even change the entire industry in a way that no one has ever seen before.

But others do what they do for internal validation or unhealthy psychological reasons. Many successful entrepreneurs made all their money simply because they were never validated or proved as a child. This can lead to an unhealthy, unfeeling desire that never ends.

The biggest reason why spending too much time chasing your self validation is that you will die one day. There are plenty of people who have all these awards and accomplishments at their deathbed but they still feel unfulfilled when they die and no one really loves them.

I really like the billionaire Warren Buffett’s philosophy on this topic because he believes that he would rather sacrifice making more money so that the people that he wants to love him actually love him.

He came to this conclusion after seeing a lot of rich people he knew who had all these monuments named after them yet no one that they wanted to love them actually love them. Everyone was simply there at the funeral to see if they can get any money.

8. Money gets old

It’s very tough for someone who never had much money to really understand the idea of money gets old.

But one way of relating, is to think of something that you really used to love or look forward to as a child that you now have and you have gotten used to and taken for granted.

This could be your clothes, the food that you can buy, or just the privileges you have. for me, it is the indoor plumbing and access to ice cream that I did not have as a child frequently that I now have all the time.

In a similar way, a lot of wealthy people have admitted that their expensive toys get old.

Many of them sell businesses that they are passionate about to play on the golf course every day. But after a couple months or years playing at the golf course, they get bored and end up returning to business.

Especially when you are young, having a lot of money and no passion can lead to a lot of boredom. Many people who stumble upon a lot of money end up quickly losing that spark within a couple years.

They should realise that they have losing that spark within a couple years. They should realise that they have Decades of their life ahead of them and not much else to spend their money on decades of your life ahead of them and not much else to spend their money on.


9. With a passion, you have something that is with you no matter where you go

Passion stays with you.

No matter how tough your day is or if you have a lot of money, you always know that your day will mostly be filled with enjoyment because you love what you do.

On the other hand, if you only have money, you don’t know how the rest of your day will turn out. In fact, your day could be completely horrible most of the time because you are at a job that you absolutely hate going to and every moment is driving you insane.


10. A passion is like wine. It gets better with age (unlike money)

Many people get more and more interested in their craft as they progressed and become Masters at their craft. They end up being able to do more interesting sophisticated and pool things as they get older and have more years of practice under their belt.

EVERY YEAR BECOMES MORE AND MORE EXCITING AS THEY CAN TRY OUT NEW THINGS. DO MORE INTRICATE AND COMPLEX THINGS. AND GET GREATER RESULTS BECAUSE THEY’RE BUILDING SKILLS.

Money, on the other hand, gets old. The older you get, the less utility it has for you. Maybe you wanted to travel the world when you were young. But now that you’re old, your body cannot handle travelling. And your eyes are too weak to really experience the sites.

A lot of the cool experiences you wish you had dulled with age. Or they just become less of a priority or less enjoyable.

Warren Buffett calls this saving up sex for old age. You can still have a lot of fun when you are old but it’s also important to realise that many things were meant to be enjoyed young.


Conclusion
Money is important. I’m not saying to give up on making money. I’m actually saying that you should have it all if you want it. If you want to do it right though, you should start with finding out what is your passion and your purpose.

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE YOUR END-ALL-BE-ALL GRAND ANSWER. JUST START MOVING TOWARDS IT OR TESTING DIFFERENT THINGS OUT.

By starting with your passion and purpose, your happiness will naturally rise and stay there based on science. And you will have a solid foundation to continue living your life and improving it to make more money.

This leave you with a castle built with a solid foundation. Instead of one built on sand pillars that easily crumble.

Unfortunately, most people build their castles on sand by chasing the money first. They ending up quitting a highly profitable job or business, because they cannot take the lack of interest anymore.


Wrapping up

Now, I have a question for you:
What’s the number one reason that really impacted you on this list?

Let me know in the comments below and let me know why it help you so much. your import could really help another reader make the breakthrough that they have been seeking.