How to Be Successful When Success Comes Slowly

Learning how to be successful in life can be slow sometimes and it can make you feel frustrated at sluggish progress in your success journey - despite all the know-how and principles you rigorously employ.

Can success be sped up? Is there an antidote to slow outcomes despite arduous planning and actions taken? What's the secret for seeing huge results right now?

Let's get one thing straight…

When we admire someone's success, or even our own, we often focus on the end result and not so much on the effort (and time) that it took to become successful. This can cultivate unrealistic expectations, especially the idea that overnight success can happen through careful strategy and an execution of sound advice.
How to be Successful By Focusing on What IS Working

The truth be told, success typically follows a series of little events and achievements that can seem to take an eternity, that include a few disappointments along the way, and that challenge everything about you to the core - your stamina, courage, integrity, and even your willingness to keep going.

If you focus on what's not working, guess what: You're likely coming from a place of aggravation as your mind wraps around all that is wrong.

You may even have negative thoughts like, "I'm not good enough," "It will never work," or "Something must be wrong with me."

What this mentally does is engender more of these counter-productive feelings. You attract what you are feeling. So, negative experiences, people, and results will beget more negative experience, people, and results.

There's not much success in that.

The key in learning how to be successful then, is to focus on what IS working.
Practice Journaling and Meditation

In order to focus on what is working, I recommend two simple practices: journaling and meditation.

Maintaining a journal or as I like to call it, a gratitude journal is a great way to steer your attention to the positive and continually renew your vision for yourself.

Start each day with reflections on what you are grateful for in your life (list them out!) and end each day with notes on what went right (again, write them down) however small they may seem.

Spend time each day in quiet contemplation, prayer or meditation.

Learning how to meditate can be a powerful tool for arriving at solutions to problems and shifting your attitude so you can attract success sooner rather than later.

The magic of meditation is it’s ability to essentially shut down the outer layer of your judgmental, highly-critical brain and allow your unconscious mind to take over. This is where you enter a deeper state of inner peace and joy, tapping into a higher level of creativity that will help usher in the results you want.

Let's say you're doing ALL these things, but you still aren't happy with your success...

I'll ask you then, are you taking real ACTION?

You may be taking the actions you are used to taking. But, if you keep doing what you've already done, then you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. It's a matter of practicing some new behaviors. Shake things up a bit and see if you can take new actions or modify existing ones.

Every day do five specific things that take you toward your goal. Change up the five actions regularly and be open to feedback so you know when you're off course.
Success Takes Patience

Lastly, I want to remind you about patience.

It's natural to underestimate how long a certain goal can take, especially a profound one. When I set a goal to become a millionaire the year was 1983.

How long did it take? Eleven years. It took time for Chicken Soup for the Soul to hit the bestseller lists. You could say our tenure on the New York Times list was more than a decade in the making.

That's a lot of patience for someone who initially wanted overnight success.
Continue to Take Action

So, yes, patience is a virtue. But, keep at it, and in no time, you'll be only one week, or one day away from your ultimate success.

Remember... be grateful, reflect on what IS working and continue to take ACTION!

I want to leave you with a bit of homework to complete. Resolve to start a gratitude journal to begin steering your attention to the positive and continually renew your vision for yourself.

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How to Get over Your Fear of Public Speaking

At some point in your business career, you’re going to need to start presenting and selling to crowds. You’re going to need to learn how to influence groups of people.

Most importantly, you will need to communicate the value of what you’re offering in such a way that at the end, the crowd is pulling out their credit cards ready to buy.

It’s one of the most powerful skills you can possess as an entrepreneur, and it’s what separates the top earners from the masses. But for a lot of people, just the thought of speaking to an audience (let alone selling) terrifies them.


And you know what? I get it.

See, in high school and college, when the teacher said “Class, we’re going to do an oral assignment,” my heart immediately started pounding from anxiety. I was the guy who’d mysteriously be sick on the day it was due, unable to make it to class. Some years later, I got into internet marketing (late 2008) and I remember going to a live event in the suburbs of Perth with about 100 other strangers.

There were five different speakers who got up on stage and pitched their direct sales business, which I’d been looking at joining for a few weeks. I left that event feeling completely deflated: “If this is what it takes to be successful in this industry—getting up on stage and delivering live sales presentations—,” I thought, “then I have absolutely no hope!”

For years after I started my business, I avoided delivering live sales presentations at all costs. You couldn’t even get me to do a webinar, even though I’d be able to hide behind my computer.

Eventually, the loss in potential income that this avoidance was causing me began to outweigh my fear. So I forced myself to start doing public sales presentations. No matter how uncomfortable I felt, I’d consciously put myself in a position where I had no other choice but to deliver the presentation.

Since then, I’ve sold tens of millions of dollars worth of programs through public presentations.

Chances are that you will also need to sell to a live audience at some point. Here are the four most important lessons I’ve learned, which may help make it easier for you:
Don’t Write and Memorize a Script

What’s everyone’s greatest fear about speaking in front of others? It’s that when they get up there, they’ll forget what to say, that their brain will freeze and they’ll mumble and stumble and otherwise look like a fool.

So what do most people do? They write a script. If you write it down and memorize it, then you won’t have to be quick on your feet and your speech will become some sort of reflex or muscle memory. It’ll be as easy as hitting play on your iPod. Or so goes the theory.

I don’t recommend this approach for anyone because when you memorize a speech, your presentation ends up sounding stiff and rehearsed. It’s less likely to connect with your audience, which means you’re also less likely to make sales.
Use the “Table of Contents” Method

Think of your presentation as being a story you tell your audience. But instead of writing and memorizing an entire story, your notes will be more like a story’s table of contents—a couple of lines to remind you of what the entire “chapter” is about, so you don’t have to memorize a lot of material.

So, think of all the points you want to cover and then create a PowerPoint with just a line or two of notes on each slide.

Then, start practicing but instead of just reading off the slides, you should elaborate on each point and then fill in the talk off the top of your head. The first time around, you’ll find yourself starting and stopping, with a bunch of awkward pauses and do-overs. Don’t worry, take a break and go back to it. Try a few sessions throughout the day and let the ideas and different turns of phrases percolate a bit.

By the end of the day, you’ll find that you’ve more or less memorized the speech, but in a much more organic way than if you had memorized it word for word. It won’t necessarily be exactly the same each time you make the presentation, but that’s okay. You’ll know how to transition between each slide and you’ll give a more natural, authentic and truly live presentation.
Learn to Let Go

Whenever I feel uncomfortable about an upcoming talk, it’s often because there’s a particular point in it or a slide with something on it that I don’t feel 100% on board with. It may also be something that I’m trying to get a certain reaction from the crowd with. Sometimes it’s just the phrasing of something. For instance, a friend who listens to your talk may zero in on something they think the audience will misunderstand (though you know that only a fraction of the audience will likely be affected).

What should you do with these thoughts about how your talk will be interpreted? Forget ’em. Let go of the minutiae and share what you have. It’s about how you say it and not necessarily what you say. So don’t let the actual phrasing stress you out.
PowerPoint Doesn’t Give the Presentation

It may be a tempting “security blanket” to fill your PowerPoint slides with content and then read it word for word to your audience.

That will only be slightly less exciting for your audience as hearing a memorized speech. It’s annoying and also implies that they are not smart enough to read the slides for themselves.

Don’t do it.

Instead, put a little bit of info on each slide and make the font size large. Then focus on your delivery and engage your crowd directly.

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How to Overcome Failure: 9 Powerful Habits

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”
C. S. Lewis

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
Michael Jordan

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Samuel Beckett

Oftentimes things go OK or even better than that.

But on some days they don’t.

You make a mistake, have setback or you simply fail. It’s no fun. But you can’t avoid it either unless you avoid doing anything at all.

So what’s needed is a smart and self-kind way to handle such situations instead of letting them lead to vicious self-beatings and to them dragging you down into negativity for the day or month.

This week I’d like to share 9 habits that’ve helped me with that. I hope they will be useful for you too.

1. First, just accept how you feel.

When you’ve just failed it will most likely hurt. Sometimes a bit. Sometimes a lot.

That’s OK. Don’t try to push it away by distracting yourself or by trying to push the responsibility onto the rest of the world (if you deep down know that this one’s on you partly or fully). And don’t try to paint it over with a smile.

I’ve found that it works better to not let yourself be lead away by those options or impulses.

But to just be with what I’m thinking and feeling. To try to accept it, to let it in and to hurt for a while instead of trying to reject it all and to keep it away.

Because when you let it in and accept it then it will go faster and in the long run be less painful to process what has happened.

If you reject how you really feel then those emotions will pop up at unexpected times later on and can make you moody, pessimistic, angry or sad.

2. Remember: you’re not a failure just because you had a setback.

When you’ve had a setback it’s very easy to start thinking that you will always keep failing in this area of your life. It’s easy to start thinking that YOU are indeed a failure.

Don’t fall for such a destructive and sometimes seductive self-fulfilling prophecy.

Instead, remind yourself that:
Just because you failed today or yesterday doesn’t mean that you’ll fail the next time.
The truth is that this won’t last for the rest of your life if you keep moving forward, if you take action and you keep learning and it doesn’t label you as some kind of failure (except if you decide to create that label in your own head).

Seeing what’s negative as a temporary thing instead of something permanent is an essential key to an optimistic attitude and to keep going forward in life.

3. Be constructive and learn from this situation.

See it more as valuable feedback and something you can use to improve rather than only a big blow and setback.

I’ve found that the simplest and most helpful way to do that is to ask myself better questions (instead of the common ones that send you off into a negative spiral).

Questions like:
What’s one thing I can learn from this?
How can I adjust my course to avoid this trap/making the same mistake and likely do better next time?
What’s one thing I can differently the next time?

Take some time with these questions and be honest with yourself as you answer them. There’s no rush and while some of the answers may be immediate others might take an hour, day or even a week to pop up.

The important thing is to start thinking about the situation from this perspective and to be constructive about things instead of getting stuck in denial or negativity and apathy.

4. Remind yourself: anyone who wants to do things of value in life will fail.

We often mostly just hear about people’s successes. But the path to those milestones tends to have many setbacks. The story of someone’s success may seem only bright and fast-moving in what’s told in the media or we see in our minds.

But the reality – and the useful way to approach setbacks – is most often more like this quote by Michael Jordan:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

5. Let it out into the light.

Another powerful way to handle the emotional fallout and the thoughts that come from a failure is to not keep it all bottled up inside.

But to let it out into the light by talking it over with someone close to you.
By venting about it while the other person just listens you can sort things out for yourself, help yourself to accept what happened instead of pushing it away and release that inner pressure.
By having a conversation about the situation you can see it from another perspective and through someone else’s eyes. This person can help you to ground yourself in reality again, to encourage and to perhaps even to find a way forward.


6. Find inspiration and support from your world.

A conversation with someone close to you can be very helpful.

Another thing you can do is to learn from those who’ve gone where you want to go. Read about how they handled setbacks and low-points before or during their success in books, on websites or online forums.

Or you can simply tap into the enthusiasm or motivation of someone else by listening to a podcast or audio book for maybe 30-60 minutes. This may not be specifically about your current challenge but can help you to shift your mood and mindset back towards optimism again.

7. Move forward again, don’t get stuck in mulling this situation over for too long.

Processing the situation and accepting it is essential.

But I know from experience that it’s also easy to get stuck in the same thoughts going around and around for week or a month.

The habit that has helped me with this trap is to take what I learn from questions like the ones I shared in tip #3 and to make a small rough plan for how I want to move forward from here.

So I take some time to sit down and write that one out.

8. Take action on that plan right away after you’ve drawn it up.

The plan you come up with will just be a start. You can course-correct later on, along the way.

So you don’t have to make it perfect. Trying to do that can sometimes just be a way to procrastinate because you fear failing again or because it is hard to start moving after this rough and disorienting thing that happened to you.

Split your start of a plan up into small steps and then take action on just one of them.

If you still have a hard time to get going then go for a very small step, just 1-5 minutes of action forward. The important thing is to get started and moving forward again so make that easy on yourself.

9. Improve your self-esteem.

A last thing that has helped me in general to handle setbacks is to improve my self-esteem.
By doing so failures don’t become something that so easily drags me down and I recover more quickly from them.
It also makes it easier to see what happened with more clarity and to take responsibility when I am responsible but also to see when someone else is partly responsible or when I just had bad luck that I could honestly not have predicted. And that helps me to not think that everything that goes wrong in my life is 100% my fault.

But how do you improve your self-esteem?

A good start would be to use much of what you find in this article. Like remembering that YOU are not a failure, that everyone have setbacks, to be constructive in the face of adversity and so on.

By doing these things over and over and making them habits your self-esteem improves.

And over time a smaller setback may just bounce off of you and a larger one will not be the same blow as it used to and the shock and climb back up from what happened becomes easier and not something that is as paralyzing anymore.

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Investing In Yourself Is A Must For An Extraordinary Life

If you are not investing in your personal development, you are brutally limiting your true potential.

Personal development impacts your entire life, not just your work life, business life or your personal life.

It's shocking how many people don't try to improve themselves and sadly, these are the exact people who often complain how unfair life treats them and wonder why they are always dwelling in mediocrity.

In brief, here are some guidelines to follow when you embark your personal development journey:

#1 Imagine How You Want to Design Your Life

Without a vision, men perish.

You need a clear picture of where you want to go in order to determine what kind of life you want to live.

Success is change. You need to pre-determine the kinds of changes you must go through professionally and personally in order to arrive the Promised Land you've never reached.

What you practice in private will emanate in the public. Personal and professional lives always intertwine with each other.

For example, if you imagine yourself being more compassionate and forgiving to others, this trait will exude and impact both of your lives.

Also, if you wanted to develop your leadership skill for your local community, such improvement of skill will easily be transferrable to your professional career as well.

The key is to identify and imagine the kind of person you have to become in order to achieve your goals.

#2 Have A Reality Check

Before you resolve to any changes in your life, make sure you know where you are standing right now.

Discovering your current strengths and weaknesses will help you formulate a plan of action to make the necessary changes meaningful and effective.

#3 Set Ambitious Yet Realistic Goals

Once you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, create both long-term and short-term goals that you need to achieve in order to move towards your ultimate destination.

Never set goals without an action plan. You must set concrete, quantifiable, manageable milestones with clear deadlines so that you feel the urgency to take action and get things done.

#4 When Things Don't Work Out As Planned, Change

Change is the only constant in the Universe.

When plan A doesn't work out, you need to try plan B, plan C and so on until you succeed.

Planning doesn't guarantee success because no one can predict all the uncertainties that are shaping the future.

So don't be discouraged when your initial personal development plan fails. When you hit a roadblock, it simply means it's time for alternative solutions.

#5 Track & Evaluate How You Are Doing

When you have a small victory, have a look how you did against the plan of action steps.

This is critical because you always want to learn from any potential mistakes and subtle lessons along the way. Be brutally honest and truthful when you do your self-assessment.

Be okay if you suck at anything in the first few times. Mastery of anything takes years or even decades to develop.

Alternatively, have someone else perform this objective evaluation for you. It will definitely sound painful and ego-busting when you hear the brutal truth, but the benefits will well worth it.

Finally, remember to keep your personal development simple.

Don't overwhelm yourself with unobtainable goals that are setting yourself up for failure.

Sure, push yourself, expand your limit and keep going every day.

But always be aware of your current capabilities so that you are motivated enough to stay in the long game instead of giving up too early.

If you are committed to your daily tiny investment on yourself, you'll be assured to lead an extraordinary life very soon.

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Why Hardworking People Won’t Always Be Successful

You’ve probably heard it before; put in the hard work and you’ll eventually become successful…

They lied to you…

It takes a lot more than hard work in order to become successful in life. Yet most people assume that the harder they’re working, the better off they’ll be. Forgetting about all the other factors that are involved.


Why Hardworking People Won’t Always Be Successful

Hard work is necessary to achieve a goal, but it is not a defining factor. Here are several things to bear in mind as to why hardworking people aren’t always successful in life:

1. You Need to Work Smarter

In order to be successful, a person needs a great plan and well-balanced attack to execute the plan. None of that suggests working harder is helpful. It may actually work against someone. The key is to work smarter, not harder.

For instance, someone can work really hard to lose weight, but what matters more is understanding your body’s physiological capabilities.

You can’t just assume that you can go jogging for 30 minutes a day or stop eating carbs and magically shed pounds. That might not be what your body needs or how it reacts.

Runners understand the idea of efficiency. It takes a lot of endurance to make it through a marathon, half-marathon, even a 5K. Although, there is a lot more to running than just slogging through the miles.

In order to finish the race, you have to know where to hold back and reserve for the more critical moments. Technique and planning will make the run easier and more valuable of an experience.

2. Be Natural

Forbes published an article showing how hard work may not help, but actually hurt in a lot of cases. Passion will drive people to do more and more for what they love. However, that shouldn’t include people that are simply better at what they do.

There is something to be said for innate ability.

Some people were meant to be faster runners or longer distance runners. Some people were meant to be musical prodigies. Other people were meant to stock market wizards.

Not that naturally gifted people don’t have to work hard. But people in the wrong field end up working harder to compensate for not being a natural. Work in areas that you are naturally pre-disposed to do and success will come much easier.


Psychologist Elyn Saks wrote a book called ‘The Center Cannot Hold‘, which basically considered all the limitations that hold people back even with all of their best efforts.

Just because we work hard to overcome hurdles doesn’t mean we can hurdle the 1250 foot Empire State Building. Some things just aren’t going to happen and a smarter person will temper expectations and know where to best invest efforts.


3. Be Well-Positioned & Channel Inner Drive

A lot of people spend the best years of their careers with the assumption that hard work always pays off in the end. They put in long hours and pass on vacations to get ahead. Then expecting there will be some reward, such as a raise or promotion at the end.

In reality, the more a person volunteers to do things, the more of a mule they become, the less smart they appear. Meanwhile, the slacker that just shows up to please the boss and has great staff relations is the person that gets promoted and becomes successful in the company.

Some jobs just come with an inherent self-sacrifice role. Different jobs take much different levels of dedication and sacrifice.

The nonprofit sector has traditionally sent workers into an endless void of self-sacrifice, presumably for the amount of good the job does versus the amount of revenue available.

Somewhere along the line, people determined that’s not always best for a company’s mission. An organization can’t make much of a difference in an industry relying on haggered workers that never sleep and subsist off of energy drinks.


4. Consider the Value
Non-profits are starting to realize that what’s good for for-profits may help them too. When one worker does the work of two people, it undervalues the product or service. The net result will be underpayment.

Companies give and apply for grants, fund operations and staff employees based on labor data. So if they find something that worked for a budget last year, they will stick with it. It is important that the data show an accurate picture of what it takes to get a job done.

Customers and colleagues need to know what kind of service or product to expect. Where proper staffing creates a more valuable product, a good marketing plan highlights the product.

No matter what the business is, or how much work it takes, if no one knows about it, then the work is mostly for naught.

Staying on top of current trends like video marketing and trade-show interactionhelp highlight the effort and convert into deliverables. Or whatever measure will ultimately translate into success.


5. Develop More Finite Skills

Almost anyone vying for a position or a promotion works hard. Hard work is not a unique qualifier. Experience and capabilities, however, are unique qualifiers that need to be highlighted first and foremost.

Creativity and efficiency are also invaluable intangibles that may not show up in the resume, but will show up in the output. A person needs a versatile skill set of all the intangibles, hard work is only one of those intangibles.

A person needs to develop skills and then strengthen them through hard work in order to become successful. The hard work does not become the success by itself. By no means should the hard work be overdone.

The burnout factor is a huge obstacle for success. A person only eyeing the prize and not the process is not likely to be successful.


6. Take Luck When You Can Get It

As I used to tell my students when I was a teacher, winning takes 40% approach, 40% planning, 15% hard work and 5% luck. Sometimes despite all your best efforts, you just aren’t destined to win.

The 1981 Cincinnati Reds won the most games of any major league team that year, yet didn’t qualify for the playoffs. It was a weird situation, but sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. Luck certainly will help put you over the top.

Make the best of bad luck situations and re-channel energy into a better game plan and the odds will eventually work out in your favor. Former Boston Celtic, Von Wafer, is figuring this all out the hard way as he sends pleas into the Twitter-verse for another chance:


“WISH I HAD THIS MENTALITY AT A YOUNG AGE. I DON’T CARE HOW TALENTED YOU ARE. IF YOUR MIND IS NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE TALENT CAN ONLY GO SO FAR.”


Summary

Here’s a short breakdown of the points covered in this article:
Work smarter
Be natural
Be well-positioned & channel inner drive
Consider the value
Develop more finite skills
Take luck when you can get it
Have anything to add to why hardworking people won’t always be successful? Leave a comment below.

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5 Strategies to Keep Your Compliments and Build Your Confidence

5 Strategies to Keep Your Compliments and Build Your Confidence

How do you feel when someone pays you a sincere compliment? Great, right?


That compliment has more to offer than giving your spirits a momentary boost. You can put that simple compliment to work for you in ways you might never have thought of. Let's explore further.

1. Keep your compliments.

When someone compliments you, write it down. Value it and keep every single compliment that anyone ever pays you. Put it in a journal, a Compliments Catalog, if you will. Or keep a special file or folder online. Whatever method you use, record every compliment verbatim.

2. Embrace your fabulousness.
Positive feedback can be harder to accept than negative. Really make an effort in the moment to take the commendation in. It's a tribute to your skills, expertise, and effort. Accept it as the gift that it is.

The value of this feedback is more than making you feel good in the moment. When you're able to embrace it, you increase your confidence. Re-read it later, maybe at a time when you're feeling down or about to go into a big meeting or call. Any time you feel disconnected from yourself and need to be reminded.

Re-reading your compliments help you sustain your confidence level and your motivation. It's a lot easier to maintain than to build back up, so put your energy into maintenance.


3. Spread the joy.

Let people know the positive feedback about you or your business. To be respectful, check with the complimenter first, and if they're OK with it, share the joy. Social media or your website are great places to let people know what others have said. It's called, 'social proof.' Proof that others think you're exceptional. It'll raise your respect quotient and your online capital.

4. Amp up your bio.

Include recurring compliments in your online bio on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Or in the bio you provide to someone who is introducing you as a speaker.

You can take this even further in your marketing. Stories are valuable marketing currency we can all use to share our businesses with each other. Sharing stories of how you helped a client (or team member or supplier) allows for more and valuable connections with your audience. People will take notice if your bio is different and personal. Include a brief story behind a testimonial you received.

5. Pay compliments forward.

You can have an impact on other people's confidence too. When you have a great experience with them or their business, let them know. Then they can start their own compliments journal. You'll deepen your connections and expand your impact with some simple words of sincere praise. It's a valuable gift to others.

Value your compliments. You can use them in many ways to boost yourself and your business.

Here's one from me to you: I think you're brave and smart. Ready to embrace that?





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6 Simple Questions You Need To Ask Yourself When You Become Fearful

6 Simple Questions You Need To Ask Yourself When You Become Fearful

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do." Henry Ford

There isn't an individual who hasn't been afraid or faces difficult circumstances that caused them to be fearful at some point. Fear is one emotion that most of us dread, but all will have experienced during our lifetime.

What are you afraid of? What makes your heart stops when you think of it? What stresses you out more than anything else? What is it that worries you most?

Are you worried about your future like so many of us? Do you worry about the security of your job or the future for your children? There isn't a shortage of things to cause us fear. Life is unpredictable and because of the uncertainty and the unknown we develop a fear for the future.

If you are like most of us, you need to develop the right attitude to overcome your fears. Living in fear is never the answer. You need to face the fears you have and find solutions to avoid dealing with them over and over again.

Find the source of your fear and deal with it head-on. The great thing about confronting your fears is that once you have dealt with it, it will no longer cause you to fear. You will also become stronger and better able to deal with other uncertain issues in your life.

Here are six questions you should ask yourself when you are feeling fearful that will help to manage your fears.

1. Am I fearful for the right reasons?

Fear is a good thing as it helps to keep us safe. Use your fear in the right way and for the right reason. Do not spend your life being fearful of life. Use your fear to motivate you to go after your dream. Do not be consumed by the fear of the future but use those fears to work on making your future brighter. Face your fears by channeling them into areas that will give you the results you want.

2. Are my fears positive or negative?

What are the things you dread most? Are they positive or negative? Which type of fears do you tend to focus on? Rather than be fearful of the things you have no control of, channel your energies on to things that will make your life easier and less stressful. Take the time to focus on the positive and do not focus on negative things. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklyn Roosevelt

3. What meaning am I giving to challenges?

Think about it seriously, what are you focusing on? Are you giving these fears a life by constantly thinking about them? If so resist the urge to worry and reclaim your power and focus your attention on things you want to achieve. Focus on the things that will help you to become a better person.

4. Am I causing fear to rob me of my life?

If you spend your life in fear, you will never enjoy your life. There will always be something to fear. Why spend your time worrying about things that might not happen and you cannot control. To be happy, you must rid yourself of fear as fear robs you of your joy. You can never enjoy life being afraid.

5. Are my fears real or imagined?

Many times you cultivate fear when, in fact, there is nothing to fear. When a situation arises, you give it more power than you should? Quit giving your fear the power to grow. Remember things always seem worst than they truly are.

6. What can I learn from these fears?

Find out what lessons life is trying to teach you. Do not miss the opportunity to get the message you are being sent. Whenever you feel afraid, find out what it is that scares you the most and what you can do to reduce your fear.

Our fears will never go away, but you must be able to control your fears and not allow it to control you. Live your life in confidence expecting the best, and the best will happen. When you feel fearful find the cause of your fear and find a solution and if you can't stop worrying about it because there is nothing you can do about it.

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3 Simple Strategies For Massive Goal-Setting Success That Works Like Magic

The ability to set goals the correct way constitutes an essential skill that can make or break your personal and professional success in life. The manner in which you do so will determine the speed in which you can achieve your goals, or whether or not you can achieve them in the first place.

So if you often find yourself setting goals, but not achieving them at all, this article is for you. Here are 3 strategies that I use to massively improve my goal-setting success, to quadruple the rate of achievement of my desires in half the time.

Strategy #1: Write down your goals

Yes, you got it right! The first step to any goal-setting endeavour is to first write down your goals. It seems like a common sense and obvious thing to do. Unfortunately, many of us have the intention to achieve something (e.g. lose weight, get a promotion, earn more money) but did not crystallize it by writing it down. Your goal will thus merely exist as a thought, an intention, or a dream, and that is why they never become a reality!

Therefore, the first step in any goal-setting endeavour is to always first write down your goals. By doing so, you create the first action toward your desires, and transform your thought into a commitment that becomes more real to you.

Strategy #2: Revisit your goals every day

After writing your goals, it is useless if you only revisit your goal at the end of the year, and realized you have not achieved anything at all! Therefore, it is vital that you revisit your goals every single day. Write your goals on a piece of paper, look at it at least once every morning, and ask yourself what would you do today to bring you one step closer to your goals.

By revisiting your goals consistently, you can re-align your day towards the key objectives you will very much want to achieve.

Strategy #3: Announce your goals

The third strategy you can adopt is to simply announce your goals. Tell your family, friends, and colleagues about the goals you will want to achieve. Studies have shown that if you announce your goals, the probability of backing out on these goals decreases tremendously.

In addition, trusted friends and colleagues who are supportive of your endeavours can point you to valuable resources, advice and people who can help you achieve your goals in record time! They can also hold you accountable to your goals, further ensuring that you achieve your goals despite the excuses you might use to give up on your goals.

Unfortunately, many people are uncomfortable in announcing their goals to the supportive people around them. So get over the discomfort and start announcing them.

Conclusion

The three simple strategies presented in this article are relevant and applicable. You can use it immediately during your next goal-setting exercise. Apply these strategies the next time you set goals, and watch the magic unfold.

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5 Ways to Get Inspired by Yourself

It is not difficult to find out newer ways daily to fall in love with yourself, though people tend to forget the actual meaning of life and get depressed easily with what life comes through. But in all the depression nonsense you face daily, you should always find newer ways to get indulge with yourself or to simply what is said, ''fall in love'' with yourself. Here are 5 ways to get inspired by yourself and to know the how beautiful life is.

1. Appreciate Your Best Quality

The best way to get inspired by yourself is to find peace in whatever you are best at doing; for example, you think you can cook well? On a low day, cook for yourself or your family your favorite dish and get ready to achieve all the admiration and appreciation, this is probably the best way how one should start loving themselves, or you think you have any other talent, just give it a start because you can never disappoint the quality you are best at.

2. Challenge Your Limits

You think you cannot drive alone? Well this is when you should definitely be driving alone and gain confidence, nothing can stop you from challenging your limits therefore it is said that there is way beyond the skies, don't settle for less and don't let others things you have fail. Or your friends think you cannot cook? Show them what a terrific chef you can be, when you get the appreciation and admiration from people or from your inner self, that is when you find peace and get relaxed.

3. Come Out of Your Comfort Zone

Don't ever think that your limit is your comfort zone, after facing the challenges it's time now to come out of your comfort zone and try out the bigger challenges of life, not everyone is brave enough to do something which is not their strength and whatever they are perfect at but by doing such tasks you upgrade a level up in your own eyes.

4. Travel Alone

When you travel alone with only your own company & with just a phone in your hand and a small bag full of your goods, it is the best way out to explore yourself. travelling give you the sort of inspiration you always seek in others, when you roam around the unknown streets alone and discover the new ways of getting out of any trouble, that is when you become your own hero.

5. Help Someone in Need

What's more soothing than helping a person in need? Someone for whom you are the only angel and the helping hand, to become your own hero you have to be someone else's hero and prove how genuinely you wanted to offer this helping hand. Real maturity comes when you start thinking about others first and become a source of help and prosperity for someone. Just by giving food to the hungry, clothes to the naked and shelter to the homeless is enough to generate likelihood for you. At the end of the day you can sleep in respite that you made a difference today.

  

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10 Great Tips for Success in Both Life and Business

Sometimes what helps us to be successful in our professional lives is not such a great idea in our personal lives — competition is a quality that comes to mind. At the same time, we all have a limited amount of time each day to do the things that we want to do.

So for the sake of saving time and energy, I’m sharing a list of tips that will help you be successful in both life and in business.

1. Add Value

No matter what you do and where you go, you can’t go wrong with adding value. Simply put value is anything that people are willing to pay for. In your professional life, the more value you can offer the more money you can make. In your personal life, more value translates to closer relationships and strong personal growth. The best way to add value is to find the intersection between what people are willing to pay for and what service or product you can offer that is aligned with your values, strengths and goals.

How are you adding value to your employers and loved ones today? What can you do to increase your ability to add value?

2. Follow Your Passion

Reading numerous biographies on great people and from my own personal observations and encounters, I’ve realized that those who achieve greatness professional and personally follow their passion. The reason why great people are few and far in-between is because most people don’t even know what their passion is. For those that do figure out their passion, most of them don’t follow their passion consistently. This is one of the main reasons why people don’t reach their goals.

Do you know what your passion is? If not, what are you going to do to find out? If  you do know what you passion is, are you following it?

3. Be Extraordinary

If you do the same thing as everyone else, it’s hard to be successful. It is important to find the edge and then push past it. That is how you become noticed and get what you want. Whether it is money, meaningful relationships and/or a sense of personal accomplishment, the extraordinary person attracts them all.

How are you extraordinary?  If you feel just ordinary, what are you going to do to become extraordinary? For those who don’t know, you may want to check out articles on my blog and also How to go from Ordinary to Extraordinary.

4. Start Now

There are many factors that go into become a success in both your professional and personal life but the one factor that is required is taking action. Most people miss out on reaching their full potential because they never start. They are always preparing, planning and waiting for the best time to start. If I waited until I was ready, I would not have a coaching practice, a website, a blog, a workshop, etc. The stars rarely align and you will never be completely ready so just start now and adjust along the way.

Are you waiting for something before you start? What is your planning to doing ratio? What’s really the worse thing that can happen if you got started right now? If you are someone that’s just been waiting, stop reading this post and get started on what you have been wanting to do. This article will still be here when you get back.

5. Hunt for Good Mentors

People who “make it” usually credit their success to a mentor or a group of mentors who really helped guide them to get to where they are. Mentors have gone down the road that you want to travel and can guide you to get to your destination faster than if you went at it alone. If you want to be healthy, you would find a mentor who is already healthy. If you want to be rich, then you have to find someone who is already rich. What surprises me is how rarely people engage in mentoring relationships and those who do usually find mentors in only one aspect of their lives. If you want to be successful, be active about finding mentors that will help you achieve what you want. Jeff Goins has a nice short article on finding mentors.

Do you have a mentor in your life now? If not, ask yourself what barriers are preventing you from finding or establishing a mentoring relationship? If you do have a mentor, do you have one for the different aspects of your life (financial, health, professional, personal, spiritual, relationships, parenting etc.)?

6. Build a Support Group

While mentors serve as a guide with whom you review your past actions and plan your next steps, a support group are your companions that help you with during the actual execution of your plan. This may be in the form of a mastermind group or accountability partner where you keep each other accountable for your goals and to help each other deal with situations that may arise while you are on your journeys. It is extremely helpful to have someone you know that is willing to listen to your frustrations and self doubt and to encourage you and remind you of how far you’ve already come.

Who is in your support group?

Numbers scare a lot of people. Start talking about assets, 

7. Personally Know Your Finances

liabilities and net worth and people’s eyes just glaze over. If you are one of these people who run away from numbers, please stop running because you are hurting yourself. If you want to be financially independent, you need to know how to keep score. If you have your own business or want to successfully invest, finances tell you how well you are doing and reveal the health of a business. If you don’t understand finances, you have to learn. It’s easy once you get over the limiting belief that you are no good at numbers. For those interested in learning more, you may want to check out these personal finance resources.

Do you know you net worth? If you are bad at numbers, what specifically makes you believe that? How can you improve your financial intelligence?

8. Get Help

I have a tendency to try to do everything myself and in some ways it is good and in many ways it is bad. It is important to know and understand all aspects of your life and business but that does not mean having to do all the tasks involved in maximizing your potential in those areas. It is true that we can always learn new things and become competent in them but what is also true is that we are only given 24 hours each day and to live full lives, it is more effective to do what we do best and to outsource tasks that we’re not good at to people who excel at them. Delegating effectively takes trust and the ability to clearly communicate what you want. For those that want to outsource, Elance is a nice way to find some quality freelancers.

How are you spending your time? Is it doing things you are awesome at? If not, what are you doing that you can outsource or delegate so you can devote more time doing what you’re great at? What’s stopping you from outsourcing or delegating?

9. Learn Sales

Many people cringe when they hear the word sales. “I would never be in sales, that’s a sleazy job.” It is exactly this type of thinking that stops people from being their best. Sales is nothing more than persuading someone of something. When you are looking to get a date, you are selling. When you are interviewing for a job, you are selling. When you are trying to persuade your spouse or kids to go to Europe for your family vacation, you are selling. In a professional setting, sales is paramount and the lifeline for any business. If you want to get the most out of life and business, learn the skills for effective selling. I am beginning a series of blog posts on How to Sell on my blog and you can learn from other successful sales trainers by reading material from Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey and Og Mandino.

When you hear “sales”, what associations come to mind? Are they positive or negative? Do you know the how to sell effectively? If not, how do you plan to learn?

10. Be Resilient

Things rarely work out the way you planned and there will always be distractions and stumbling blocks that you have to deal with when you are on your road to success. The key point to remember is to persist and to develop the courage to move on even when everyone around you is telling you it is ok to give up. This does not mean stubbornly holding on to your original plan but rather continuing to pursue your goal as long as the reasons for doing so is still valid (Make sure you know the “Why” of what you want). When everything seems to be going wrong, keep in mind that “the road to success is paved with a thousand failures” so each failure actually brings you closer to where you want to be. If you have trouble being resilient, check out the 6 Effective Ways to Be Persistent.

How often to you quit because things got tough? Would you descrive yourself as an unshakeable optimist? Do you view problems as opportunities or warning signs? How do you view failure and are you making sure that you don’t make the one mistake people make when learning from their mistakes?

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does provide a good starting point. I would love to hear what tips you have found especially useful in both life and business in the comments section.

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