Becoming More Decisive

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Maybe it's selecting what to order from an extensive restaurant menu. Or choosing which event to attend when two are happening at the same time. We are faced with many decisions every day. Hundreds of them, if you really stop to think about it.

Some of them are easy, like what to have for breakfast or what to wear (that one is generally easier for men than women, in my experience).

Other decisions are more involved. They may require gathering additional information or input from others.

One thing that is clear about highly productive and successful people is that they are good at making decisions. They make decisions in a timely manner, and deal with the outcomes as they occur.

To Decide Or Not To Decide

I don't know about you, but I am not a very good decision maker.

I can handle the easy stuff. In fact, I am pretty productive person and make lots of decisions that I can implement myself.

But when it comes to things that require the involvement of other people or more coordination, I struggle.

I get too wrapped up in the different possibilities. I magnify the things that need to happen in order to gather the appropriate information or to execute the decision. I worry way too much about making the wrong decision. (And later I beat myself up for making wrong decisions, or not making the right one soon enough.)

What happens is I freeze.

I do nothing. I wait to see if things will just "work themselves out."

And here's the thing. Stuff does actually work out one way or another. Days continue to go by. But there isn't a lot of change or growth that happens if you are frozen.

Being wrong

In order to become more decisive, I have to accept the possibility of being wrong.

I mean, no one can be right 100% of the time. We're human beings, and we make bad decisions all the time. It's not the end of the world.

Plus, a lot of decisions don't really have a "right" or "wrong," just different outcomes. Trade offs. Maybe several outcomes are good, just in different ways. Maybe none of the outcomes are good, but you have to choose one anyway (I hate those kind!!)

Making decisions takes a strength of character that can manage the outcomes, no matter what they might be.

Each year I choose a word to guide my actions, priorities and growth. This year, my word is decisiveness.

I will be working to improve my ability to make decisions with wisdom and courage. How about you? Could you be a little more decisive in your life and your business? Do you tend to freeze when faced with difficult situations? Maybe you have a different relationship with decisiveness. I think this is a valuable area to explore and discuss, so share your thoughts in the comments.

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Turbo Charge Your Personal Development

You have just purchased your next personal development program / book and now what do you do? They say only 10% of the people even get past the first CD/ Download / chapter, let alone finish.

Would you like to know how to get at least 90% more from all of the personal development programs you have just purchased? And no, I won't tell you to just listen to them 5 times.

Yes, that would increase your results, but not as much as what I am going to share. Besides who has the time to listen to their programs 5 times? How about getting more out of the first time?

Let's say you are one of the few people that actually gets to the end of one of those personal development programs. How would you like to have a system to guarantee that you implement all the great stuff you just learned? How many times have you heard some really great ideas, only to find yourself 4 weeks later not applying any of it?

Your first step is to setup a system to insure you actually finish the program. It will do you no good if you never hear the message. These steps might seem cumbersome, however at the end of this article, I will introduce you to a tool that will make these steps easier.

The first step is to get Accountable to someone that you will finish the program. Now this is a very easy step to brush off, but committing to someone else will send a very powerful message to your subconscious mind and clear away a lot of the future mental hiccups.

Tell your Accountability Buddy when you will complete this program and that you will be giving them weekly updates on your progress. I will explain what you will put in those weekly progress reports below.

Now you have a system in place to give you the best chance at completing your personal development program. It is time to start. Choose a schedule of when you want to learn the program.

Each day you scheduled yourself to listen to the program, write down a Yes or No to the question, "Did I listen to my personal development program today?" Next, write down the most important piece of information about the program you learned.

These two pieces of information are going to be what is in the progress reports you give your Accountability Buddy each week.

Once you complete the program, review your progress reports and celebrate your victory with your Accountability Buddy.

Why does this work?

There are a couple of forces at play here. The first is being accountable to someone else. We all want to look good to our friends, so being on the hook to complete the program will definitely get us to extend ourselves. We might not be 100%, but we will definitely get much more done then if we didn't employ our Accountability Buddy.

The next force at play is tracking what we are doing. No longer will life be a blur of events that get lost in the past. We will have a very specific history of where we are slipping and we will have the chance to make course corrections along the way.

We all make mistakes and slip up sometimes. It is only when we have no clue as to when it is happening that we can find ourselves in deep trouble.

Lastly, you are employing a system of super learning called spaced repetition to lock the new information into your long term memory. First, you listen to the material. Later that day, you write down the most important point anchoring that information in your mind.

Upon completion of the program, you lock the information in your long term memory with you're a final review, not to mention, it is always there if your need a quick refresh.

After you finish your personal development program and it is locked in your long term memory, it is time to put it into action. Follow the exact same system you used to finish the program in the first place.

1. Find someone to get accountable to implementing the new information in your life.

2. Set up the days you will work on implementing the system.

3. Write down the key thing you did to implement the new information on that day.

4. Share your progress reports with your Accountability Buddy.

5. Celebrate your success and review your progress reports when complete.

If the new information you learned will take a long time to implement, feel free to break it down into parts so you can celebrate on the way and review your progress. Now get accountable and get yourself going.

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7 Fool-Proof Steps to Achieving Your Goals In 2017

Years ago Scranton University did a survey and found that as high as 92% of people who set their New Year resolutions fail to accomplish them. Only a small 8% of people managed to achieve their resolutions. Why is this so?

Everyone wants to be successful and accomplish their goals; unfortunately, most people fail to do so. And this article is going to show exactly how you can turn your goals into reality.

7 Steps to Achieving Your Goals In 2017

You are going to learn the 7-step strategy that you can use to improve your chances of hitting your goals greatly:


Step #1 – Create the Intention

The first step you need to do is to create the intention. Most people fail because they are not taking any action, or they forget about their goals.

In other words, they never have the intention in their mind. Thus, if you want to achieve what you want in life; build the intention by constantly thinking about your goals.

Successful people are successful because they cannot get their dreams and their goals out of their mind. They constantly think about what they want and what they want to accomplish.

When you think about what you want, you will activate the Law of Attraction and build the intention; hence, you are more likely to take action.

So what do you think about most of the time? Do you think about your goals and what can you do to achieve them all the time? Or do you think about what to eat for dinner, which movie to watch or what you should do over the weekend?

Action Steps: Create intention and reminders for your goals. Practice daily goal setting by writing down your goals every day. You have to review and visit your goals from time to time to program them into your subconscious mind.


Step #2 – Make your goals tangible

The next step you need to do is to make your goals tangible. For instance, you can use affirmations, creative visualization, and a vision board to do this.

You want to make your goals as real as possible. This is why a vision board is so powerful because whenever you look at the things that you want, you remind yourself and consciously think about them.

Most people’s goals are just too vague and they cannot tell if they have achieved them. For example, if your goal is to be happy, or to get rich, how can you measure it?

If it is not measurable, it is not tangible. If your goal is to get rich, how much money do you need in order to become rich? Make it specific and make it tangible.

Action Steps: Make sure your goals are something tangible that you can actually perform and measure. Make your goals actionable.


Step #3 – Practice the ‘Big 5’ Strategy

What you need to do here is to take 5 action steps that will move you toward your goals. No matter how big or small the steps, you must do it.

Action is the bridge that connects what you want and your reality. Without taking action or doing anything, there is no way you can manifest your dreams and your goals.

The action can be as small as making a phone call or sending an email. If you follow this method of doing 5 little things each day, within a year, you will have accomplished 1825 small victories.

Never underestimate the power of consistency. What you do every day is more important than what you do once in a while.

If you take small but consistent action each day, you will eventually reach your goals, as long as you never give up.

Action Steps: Create your plan and milestones to hit each month and each week. Write down the 5 things you need to do the following day the night before.


Step #4 – Improve Your Skills

Abraham Lincoln once said;


“GIVE ME SIX HOURS TO CHOP DOWN A TREE AND I WILL SPEND THE FIRST FOUR SHARPENING THE AXE.”

Sadly, most people never spend any time to improve their skills or knowledge. Most people never read a book after their school days.

Imagine if you read 2 books a month, after a year you will have read 24. And if you can learn something new and improve your skills by at least 1% from a single book, you will become the best in your industry within a few short years.

Why do you think successful people are able to produce remarkable results in their lives? It is through hard work, persistence and their will to constantly improve on what they do.

Action Steps: Commit to reading and learning for at least 30 minutes a day. If you can’t find time for this, just wake up 30 minutes earlier. By just investing 30 minutes into reading, you will have read about 2 books in a month and 24 books in a year. Can you see how this can positively impact your life?

Step #5 – Make A Public Declaration

One of the main reasons people fail to reach their goal is because they are not committed to it. They say they want to build an internet business at night, but when they reach home after working, they choose to watch TV and waste time on Facebook.

When you are interested, you will do what is convenient, but when you are committed; you will do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.

So make a public commitment so that you will be more committed toward your goals. You don’t have to shout to everyone and share your goals with everyone. Choose to share them with those who will support and inspire you.

You can share with your spouse, your friends, colleagues or even your boss. Put yourself on the line so that you cannot fail.

Action Steps: Identify at least 3 people that you would like to share your goals and progress with. You have to create some form of commitment and accountability to put yourself into action.


Step #6 – Tracking Your Progress

This is a very important step that most people never do. They think that goal setting is a one-time job, and they forget about their goals a few days after they set them.

Never let this happen to you. You must consistently track your progress. Create a scoreboard for your actions and the results you are getting.

You should do this at least once a week. People who keep score on their goals are more committed; they know their standings, and they know what they need to do to hit their goals.

When you switch on the TV to watch a football match, the first thing you will check is the score. Imagine the football players playing without the score; do you think they will play as seriously?

When you know your progress and your score, you will understand if you are making progress or are you lacking behind. Your score will motivate you.

Action Steps: Create a scoreboard to track your progress each day. You just need to use a simple spreadsheet for this. It should be something easy to understand and simple to update.


Step #7 – Review Your Results
What happens when you take action but never get the results you want? And what happens if you don’t manage to reach your goals by the deadline?

This is where most people will give up and quit. Please understand that the main reason you set a goal is so that the goal can direct you and tell you what to do and where to go in your life.

If you fail to reach your goals, it does not mean that you have failed. As long as you are taking action and doing something to progress toward what you want in life, you are much better than when you first started.

The key is to make progress. Thus, if you did not reach your target, simply review your goals and create a new one.

Maybe you overestimated your ability or the time frame you set wasn’t reasonable. Review your goals and set out to accomplish them again.

Action Steps: Review your results each month or every quarter. If you hit your milestones, congratulations and keep moving forward. If you fail, do a post-mortem and find out where you can improve to get better results for the next term.


Conclusion
Achieving your goals can be something challenging especially if the goals you set are high. It doesn’t matter what your goals are. The most important thing is to make it challenging and make it fun.

Follow these 7 steps above and build a fool-proof strategy to achieve the things that you want in life.
So what do you think about this article? Do you think that these steps are useful to you? Share with me in the comment section below and let me know your thoughts.

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3 Sure Fire Ways To Help With Self Improvement

3 Sure Fire Ways To Help With Self Improvement

Many people today have a hard time with daily routine. Sure, they get up early and go to work, but outside of that, they find themselves struggling to cope with life. If you are one of these people, there are a few things that you can do to help with self-improvement. There's a reason why so many books, videos, and even mental health professionals work in this arena. If you want to ensure that you are able to gain a semblance of control for your life, consider a few things that you can do to help your body and mind today.

Create A Safe Place In Your Home

One of the coolest things that you can do to help yourself is to change up your home's configuration. Create a room that you will want to spend some alone time in. Whether you meditate, pray, or perhaps read, find an area that allows you to enjoy a bit of relaxation. You'll find that having a room to yourself, quiet, and full of the little things you like, can go a long way. You can turn a small closet into a reading room, or set up a bunker for some alone time, but overall this is going to help you gain the upper hand.

Face Your Fears

The next thing that you can do to help you with self-improvement is to conquer your fears. That's right, face your fears and you'll grow such confidence, that you will not be able to get toppled. You need to know what you're afraid of first, but then moving forward to face off against it. Once you face off against it, you will be able to take on the world and feel so much better. Facing your fears is a difficult thing at first glance, but it's definitely a positive thing.

Get Better At What You Do

What do you do for work? Take your job and improve your skills. Brush up on typing, learn a new language, take a speech class. You're going to find that if you improve yourself to the point where your job gets easier, you'll be paid more down the line. Management will see that you're actively improving, and will be able to showcase amazing things to your immediate supervisors and manager. When they see that you're constantly improving, they are more likely to promote you and notice that you're a key asset to the company. You can level up what you do and get a new sense of confidence, and self-esteem.

These 3 sure fire ways to help yourself get better in regards to your life, will improve a lot of things. They help your body, mind, and work. As long as you push through the things that are holding you back, and walk forward through the fires that are ahead of you, you'll end up with a huge jump. Life is tough. However, you can navigate it while improving yourself through time. Test the waters, try these things out and see where you will get to after the fact.



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7 Ways to Tell People the Truth Without Hurting Their Feelings

It seems to me that we have been living in a world that is unwilling to share the truth. More and more I meet people who are willing to talk about someone, more than we are willing to talk to someone.

Several people that I have met have been walking around bitter and angry and seem to almost relish that chip on their shoulder, but will do nothing about it. What the world needs today are real truth tellers.

These are men and women who compassionately speak the truth in love to the people around them.

So if you’re struggling to tell people the truth without hurting their feelings, what do you do?

Here’s 7 ways you can start telling the truth and sparing people’s feelings at the same time:

1. Build Relationships Built on Truth

Maybe it is because of the media or maybe it is because we fear being labeled as too judgmental or narrow minded, but we have built too many relationships on lies.

There is many places to look if we are going to place blame. But the truth is this. If we love our friends and our neighbors we must steel ourselves and tell people the truth. I appreciate it when someone tells me the truth.

Sure not right at the moment.

But eventually it dawns on me that the truth is helping me to quit playing the fool. The man who thinks that he can dance, but looks more like a person with some sort of muscular issue needs to be told or better shown what he looks like.

A woman who has ambition to sing on the next season of the Voice needs to be told up front that she sounds like the cat yowling. This is how we build honest relationships. If we have built our relationships on that model it becomes easier to gently break the truth to others.


THINK OF A MARRIAGE THAT HAS BEEN BUILT ON LIES. HOW CAN IT SURVIVE ON SUCH A WEAK FOUNDATION?

All relationships are in similar peril unless we build them on the bedrock of truth.


Understand this fact: the truth ultimately comes out no matter what so it might as well come out on your terms right at the front. If not your friend who sings like a cat will discover that you knew she would look like a fool in front of the nation and you did nothing to stop her.

Build your relationships on truth.



2. Be a Consistent Truth Teller

As with anything, practice helps us to become better at what we do. When the Olympics comes, millions of people sitting on their couches eating cake are thinking that they could out run, out swim and generally outperform every athlete out there.

But the truth is that they have not put in the practice to perform at that level. With practice I could work to get a gold medal for telling the truth. But if I want to do that I need to practice at every opportunity that I get.

Yes there are risks involved. You will do it wrong sometimes. But taking the opportunity to practice will make it more natural to you and you will be able to share the truth in a caring manner, that will get you to the podium in life.




3. Redirect

As you share the truth with someone they will feel hurt and maybe embarrassed.

You can offset those feelings by redirecting them to something that they do well. In some situations you can help them find the silver lining in some disastrous situation. In all situations you can help them move from grief to healing.



4. Be Humble

I love the truth and I love to hear the truth spoken.

However, some folks have this sound in their voice that seems to insult and attack the person.


“I TOLD YOU THAT YOUR MAN WOULD CHEAT ON YOU.”

Wow! That is not the way to do it. Be there as the bearer of love.

When you know the truth, control your emotions and plainly, with sincere care in your voice share the truth. This is not the time to insult and tear down. Yes you will cause pain.

Many years ago I had a root canal and the dentist had to cause pain to relieve my pain. He did not seem to take any pleasure from the activity. Delicately he performed the operation with care and ensured as much comfort as possible.

When we share the truth with someone we should do so in a similar fashion.


5. Use Story

For the creative among us you can use fables, parables or other story line feature to help expose the truth to the person that you are working with.

By using this technique you are illustrating the concern and the person that you are speaking with will be able to receive the information without being guarded or defensive.

Many years ago I was working with some youth who had consistently gotten themselves into trouble. They would complain about any punishment the school, parents or justice system might throw at them.

Using story I told them about a man who complained about a broken hand. He had broken his hand because he liked to hit it with a hammer. The pain that he inflicted on himself was incredible. But despite warnings of professionals he kept up the practice.


The youth all said that was stupid and that the man was a fool for not listening to the professionals. When I pointed out that they were making a similar choice they were silent and the message was received.


6. Guard Your Non Verbal’s:

Over time I have met some folks who have a powerful poker face when it comes to hiding their true feelings.

But the truth is that most folks loosen up too much and expose what they are really thinking.

When we are trying to share the truth in a caring way it helps to let your face know that you care. Keep yourself from looking smug or arrogant in any way. One technique is to share the information using comforting gestures as if you were stretching for a hug.

This makes the conversation safe and enables you to share the truth without hurting anyone’s feelings.


7. Share the Truth Over Food & Fellowship

Food and fun make the telling of truth so much easier.

Create a good atmosphere and encourage happiness and joy. Express caring and a servant heart as you care for this person that you are about to share truth with. Something about the food makes the whole process easier and lightens any tension that might show itself.


Summary

Love without truth is not really love.

Truth without love is cruel. We must find the place where these two concepts meet and express our love for mankind in truth. Sharing truth can save a person from embarrassment or potentially painful circumstances.

Doing such things makes you heroic. We all should live such heroic lives.

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9 Methods Of Benefiting From Criticism

Would you rather listen to someone tell you that you have beautiful eyes or that you're a terrible dancer? Compliments are easy to take. Criticism isn't quite as easy to take in. But criticism can be vital to your long-lasting success. Criticism is nothing more than advice in disguise.

You can decide to take advantage of it or ignore it. Nonetheless, not all criticism is accurate, well-intended, or beneficial.

Obtain criticism and use it to your benefit:

1. Adjust your viewpoint. We naturally love to listen to compliments as well as shy away from criticism. While compliments feel great, they do not accomplish much else. Objection can hurt, yet can inevitably be incredibly helpful. Discover how to value objection and criticism. You could even consider seeking objection as a tool for finding out how you can improve, and also as a useful tool for self-development.

2. Identify if the criticism is useful or harmful. Damaging objection can be overlooked. The intent of the person giving destructive criticism, is to create damage and harm. Constructive criticism has the possibility to be helpful. Consider the source and also the scenario prior to listening to the objective of the criticizer.

3. Swallow your pride. No one appreciates becoming aware of their imperfections or errors. Nevertheless, constructive criticism can be a valuable gift. Possibly you're discovering something that would certainly have taken years to determine by yourself. Leave your vanity at the door and also listen. No person is perfect.

4. Take your time. There's a propensity to react quickly as well as adversely to objection and criticism. You may deserve to be distressed, but then again, you might not.

Take the time to think of it before responding. If possible, sleep on it or even take the weekend to ponder it.

5. Don't be so hard on yourself. Simply because you may have done something the wrong way does not indicate you're less beneficial as a person. Go easy on yourself. Managing criticism and objection well is one method to reveal on your own that you truly do stand out from the crowd.

Few individuals can take criticism well. You'll have a big advantage over others if you can.

6. Take into consideration the validity. When criticism comes from the appropriate resource, it's most likely to be helpful and true. Be objective as well as determine if there is fact to the criticism. Often, individuals are running from misconceptions. Not all criticism is valid. It's up to you to figure out if the objection has any worth.

7. Include the info into your life. Now you recognize that you can be impatient, inexpensive, remote, or that you're a bad driver. Make a plan to resolve this concern if it is important to you. Remember that if a relied on source wanted to bring it up, it might be crucial. Provide it with the focus it deserves.

8. Decide that you're going to do better next time. You'll have plenty of chances to put your new understanding to the test. Bide your time until that chance shows up. This perspective can do marvels for your self-worth and also give you a sense of control over your life. Simply keep trying to improve. There's always tomorrow to try again.

9. Be grateful. It's hard to offer positive criticism to a friend, employee, or member of the family. Be thankful that somebody wanted to do that for you.

You can choose to snap or decide to be grateful when criticism comes your way. Some criticism is only meant to be upsetting and ought to be neglected. Constructive criticism from a trusted source can be a fantastic learning opportunity. Think about whether the objection is accurate as well as legitimate prior to considering it.

Be grateful for the constructive criticism you receive. It wasn't easy on the person providing it.

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The Effects of Negative Thinking

How many negative thoughts do you think you have in a day? It is estimated that most people think about 50,000 negative thoughts each day. This works out to about 80% of our total thoughts, so we don't really leave much room for positive thinking.

These negative thoughts can have a huge effect on how we life our lives. The way we think guides us towards failure or success, happiness or unhappiness and gives us the ability to make good or bad decisions. If we see life from a negative perspective, we are likely to struggle and never expect anything good to happen to us.

When we have negative thoughts, we have a choice as to what we can do. We can:

• dwell on them and allow them to make us miserable
• ignore them and hope they won't come back again
• change them into positive thoughts and create a new habit of positive thinking

Practice focusing on your thoughts. Be consciously aware of what you are thinking and challenge any negative thoughts. Don't allow yourself to be held captive by your thinking. Take control and change anything negative into something positive. All it takes is practice until it becomes a habit, a good one.

Do you think that something bad is going to happen to you? If you focus on this thought, something bad might just happen to you, especially since you are expecting it. Try thinking about some good things that could happen and you might just get a surprise.

When you look for the negatives in life, you will always find them. This world is full of negativity. However, the same thing happens when you look for the positives in life. You usually find what you are looking for. So focus on the positives in your life and start enjoying your life.

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Developing Strong Manifesting Power

If the truth be told, you already know exactly how to create in a powerful and almost instant way. You've been doing it your whole life. The problem is you've been using this power to create what you fear, what you hope doesn't happen and what you most deeply dislike over and again.

Now to discover the conscious way of creating exactly that which you most desire to experience. Leave the fear and dread at the door and move into a brand new way of life.

First get very clear about exactly what you want. Write down your dreams and then go back over them to fill in the details all the way to the end. For example if you want more money, start there, but go all the way to what you want the money for. Do you want freedom to travel? Where to? Do you desire a nice home? What exactly does it look like. Being detailed brings a vividness to your dreams.

Once you have moved into a full knowledge of what you desire to experience use your most powerful manifestation tool, your imagination. Go deeper than just thinking of your dreams, be there in the real life experience of you being, doing, experiencing from that very reality. You do this when you worry, you create a final picture of what "will happen" and feel it very deeply. Use that level of imagination to FEEL your state of being, your new life, new you, during this time of imagination.

Practice this morning, noon and night until it is more real to you than the life you are now living. It gets easier as you go along and you will begin to feel an urging to go into the imagined state to participate with that life. Follow that nudge and allow yourself to feel that you are that new person living that new life.

You must at last be willing to receive this new life through awareness of it forming around you. Celebrate each unfolding experience. Understand that as the new begins to form the old you, the old life, will begin to fall away. Don't grab on and try to keep them or you will return to your old life with nothing changed. Accept that this is the natural way of manifestation. A seed when put into the darkness of the earth transforms into a new experience. This is the way of creation.

These are the only steps you need to consciously create a new life, practice them faithfully and you will soon develop strong manifestation powers whereby you create exactly according to your desires.

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