The Awesome Power of Two Words
“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” – Senator Robert F. Kennedy
The working of the human mind naturally lends itself to metaphor as in: the playground of the mind, the battlefield of the mind, the mind as a prison. What all these allusions depend upon is framing – the mind’s natural process of capturing an idea and using it to define and focus your attention on whatever is within its scope.
Framing is the process that truly confirms the Biblical statement: “As a man thinketh in his heart [Hebrew for mind] so is he.” If you think of your mind as a playground for ideas – it will be. If you think of it as a prison – it will be.
For some people their thinking does seem to imprison them through the spiraling of their negative thoughts; it brings ceaseless unrest.
What they need is a way to break out of that cycle to create mental freedom.
So what can help? Enter the two words: “What…if…” Read the Rest of This Article »
How to Create and Live Out New Convictions
Traditionally, when we evaluate what direction to take our lives in we do a ‘values assessment’. This is a checklist of what you believe to be important to you. It might come out something like this (in a particular area):
Business/Career
- Serving customers
- Creating a great product that adds value
- Paying for my South American holidays
- Contributing to the world
- Helping people grow and develop their thinking skills
- Etc
Once you’ve ordered your list the standard advice is to seek a career that allows you to engage and live out your values. You can then feel that you are doing something that interests and compels you.
Read the Rest of This Article »
The 8 Steps of Goal Setting
Everyone has at least one goal in life; To be rich, to be happy, to have a family, to be a CEO, to have that car or that house.
But not many have set their goals in writing with a deadline, to be exact about 2% of all adults have set their goals in writing.
The interesting fact is that those 2% make as much money as the other 98% put together. If you want to succeed, setting goals firmly in writing isn’t an option, it is a requirement. Read the Rest of This Article »
Why You’re Not Reaching Your Goals (And What to Do About It)
What’s a million dollar idea worth? Not much. Unlike most things, the value of an idea is not inherent to the idea, but is a function of the owner of the idea. A cello in my hands is worth very little, but a cello in Yo-Yo Ma’s hands is worth millions. Why is that? You might remember from 7th grade science class that potential energy is an object’s built up or stored energy while an object’s kinetic energy is the energy it has as a result of its movement. Your idea, goal, wish, hope, or aspiration has potential energy. Your ability to convert an idea’s potential energy into kinetic energy determines its value. Your job is to convert your desire to start a business, lose weight, learn Japanese, make more money, or get a job into income producing, joy bringing, life affirming kinetic energy.
I want you to write this down and stick it to the fridge, on your dashboard, and in your bathroom. The formula for achieving anything is blindingly simple: Read the Rest of This Article »
20 Tips for a Positive New Year
1. Stay positive.
You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can know that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.
2. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement:
My purpose is_______________________.
3. Take a morning walk of gratitude.
I call it a “thank you walk.” It will create a fertile mind ready for success.
4. Instead of being disappointed about where you are…
…think optimistically about where you are going. Read the Rest of This Article »
Do You Need to Set Goals?
If you’ve been reading personal development blogs for any length of time, you’ll have come across plenty of posts about goals. We’re all expected to have them. We’re told that having goals means we’ll be happy high-achievers, storming through life as we check off yet another item on our to-do list.
And yes, setting goals for yourself can help you to stay focused on what you want from life. It can help to counter our bias towards short-term thinking and short-term results. But even if you’ve diligently written down your goals, if you’ve created your vision board or made check-lists galore, you might still have a nagging sense that’s something’s wrong.
Here’s why: Read the Rest of This Article »
7 Steps To Turn ‘Failure’ Into Success
"Glitch" courtesy of Luiza O.S @Flickr
Chances are you've got success on the brain if you're reading this article. You've set your goals, you're on your way to achieving your dreams. But they're not coming as fast as you would like. You're ready for it to all come true right now. You set a deadline to reach your goal, but it just didn't happen in that timeframe. And now you feel a little deflated. Maybe you've even allowed a little doubt to creep in, as you're not sure when (or if) it will ever happen.
You know what a missed deadline tells you?
It's just a feedback mechanism to tell you that your plans and execution of them weren't correct for the timeline you set. You're not a failure. You've just produced a result. It may not be the result you wanted, but don't fret, because sometimes our greatest lessons come from when we get what we didn't want. Maybe the deadline was too tight. Maybe your plans weren't sound. Read the Rest of This Article »
The Goals Shortcut: Getting What You Want—Right Now
As a coach, I often work with people on achieving goals. Starting a business. Changing careers. Getting in shape.
I’ve learned that under every goal, there is an equation the goal-seeker has made up: If I do x, I will feel y. If I run my own business, I’ll feel a greater sense of control over my life. If I find a job I enjoy, I’ll feel happier and more energetic. If I get into shape, I’ll feel more secure about my health and more attractive.
This hypothesis then guides our actions. As a next step, we spend a lot of time and effort on x goal, believing it will be a means to feeling y. Sometimes we are right in our hypothesis, and often not. Research shows that humans are actually quite bad at predicting what will bring us happiness.
The more I work with people on their goals, the more odd it seems to me that we focus our energy on a particular goal, when what we really want is the desired change in feeling. Why don’t we focus on the feeling?
When I work with clients to focus on the new feeling they want to create, they find a wealth of options for getting there, including many that are available right now.
This is what I call “The Goals Shortcut” and its awesome power is that it allows you to feel the way you want to feel right now – not way off in the distant future after a goal has been achieved.
It has five simple steps. Read the Rest of This Article »
What Animals Can Teach Us About Reaching Our Goals
You might think the reason I chose this title was to grab your attention but the truth is that several experiments* have been conducted on animals with the purpose of discovering how the brain works and how the results can be used to improve humans life – proving once more that animals are a lot more than just Man’s best friend.
Many animals have similar systems to the ones we have, and by applying the results of some of the experiments to human beings have uncovered several methods of improving human life.
The monkeys that learned fear:
Monkeys that don’t fear snakes were introduced to some snakes while being forced to listen to loud, scary noises. Some monkeys learned to fear snakes as a result of this experiment but what’s more astonishing is that when monkeys that didn’t fear snakes were allowed to see the fear response of monkeys that fear snakes they learned how to fear snakes too!!!
Conclusion: We learn to fear things when we associate them with another event, for example a child might fear darkness after associating it with the noisy sound that happened when his mother slammed the door of a dark room.
Moreover, if a child watched an adult reacting with fear to a certain situation the child will develop fear too!! Read the Rest of This Article »
The Danger of Setting Big Goals
Image courtesy of WriterInspired
I ran in a race over the weekend and re-learned a valuable lesson. During the middle of the run, I turned a corner and faced a long stretch — the kind that doesn’t seem to end. When I started the race, the thought of crossing the finish line motivated me. But when I was half-way through, out of breath and out of energy, visualizing the finish line didn’t provide me with any “umph.”
Instead of focusing on success and reaching my goal, I tried to forget all about the finish line and conquering the long stretch ahead. I dropped my head and looked about three steps in front of me. Every three steps became a new “finish line.” Forget about everything else, I told myself over and over. Focus on just those next three steps. Before I knew it, I had run the long stretch and was turning another corner. Read the Rest of This Article »
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