Influence - Who Do You Take Advice From?

Influence is probably one of the most important characteristics to every successful person I know. Never underestimate the power of influence. Are you familiar with the saying "its not what you know, but who you know." Article Source

I am sure each of you have evaluated the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are. If not, this should be high on your list. Give serious consideration to the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life.

Peer pressure is powerful. If you're around people who spend all they make, or borrow money between paydays, chances are you'll develop those habits. If you enjoy being around people who want to sit daily, in front of the TV with a drink, chances are you will develop those habits. If you are around people who don't read, chances are excellent that you won't read either.

Influences need to be studied carefully if we intend for our lives to turn out the way we've planned. So if you don't have the proper influence...then how or where do you find it?

Before I answer that question, take this simple test. The answers will help you take a serious look at your present influences and life choices.
Who am I around?
How are they affecting me?
What am I listening to?
What do I read?
What have they got me doing with my free time?
What do they have me thinking?
How have they got me feeling?
Which of these influences will help me achieve my dreams?
Who is a positive, energizing influence?
Who makes poor lifestyle choices?

You've got to evaluate how others are influencing you, both negatively and positively. Are we allowing ourselves to become what we wish to be? It's easy to let influence shape our lives, and determine our direction.

What if you suddenly found yourself with no job, no income, a ton of bills, and a family you couldn't feed. How would you and your family handle that? Would failure become your option? We do not fail overnight. Failure is nothing more than a few bad errors in judgment repeated every day.

Once you have built the proper foundation, you will be able to overcome any obstacle. The pressure or stress would not become overwhelming to you. Don't allow a little problem like negative influence stop you from creating the success you KNOW you are capable of achieving.

So here's the answer(s) to the question. Search the internet for the solution. Take massive action, find a mentor and a coach based on your philosophy. You want to find a mastermind group of like-minded people who want YOU to succeed.

Do you want to make million's of dollars? Mastermind with millionaires. If you want to make $20,000 a year, then mastermind with people who make $20,000 a year.

You will learn simple disciplines to be practiced daily. Experience positive results in a very short period of time. Have you ever noticed that when we change our diet, not only does our health improve, you may even notice the added bonus of weight loss during this process.

You will also find the internet is the easiest place to help you build your dreams. If you are interested in building a business, why on earth would you listen to people who've never done it?

You've got to evaluate who you take advice from. Do you want success? Then you'd better get your action plan from successful people.


Ida Wallace is a Internet Marketer dedicated to helping others succeed in Network Marketing no matter what your experience level may be. Discover exactly how you can begin to generate 20-30 Leads every single day. [http://themerrittgrp.info/tmg02/training]

P.S. I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this article, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

How to Design Your Life (My Process For Achieving Goals)

Resource:
Master The Day

P.S.I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this post, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!
 

Design Your Life by Beginning With the End in Mind

Reflect on the last 10 years of your life. Are you satisfied? Do you get thrilled when you look back? Unless you design your life plan for the next 10 years of your life, life will just happen and you will find the next decade will look pretty much the same as the last decade.Article Source

Incredible success does not simply happen. You design it.

The Sydney opera house did not simply happen. An architect designed it whilst first having a complete picture of the opera house in his mind. Once designed he build it according to a project plan. Why do we think our lives will just happen?

Every single top achiever in the world shares two common strengths: A commitment to learning and staying a lifelong student. Setting goals and objectives that are crystal clear, documented and visible and they have a strategic plan with all the steps how they will achieve their goals.

Mark McCormick discussed a ten-year Harvard study that was conducted between 1979 and 1989 in his book "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School". The 3% of the 1979 MBA graduate class, who had documented goals when they graduated, earned on average ten times more 10 years later than the 97% of their class who had no written goals when they graduated. The difference between the graduates was the clarity of their goals they had for themselves.

I am amazed that most people spend more time planning a one week holiday, than what they spend to plan a life for the next ten or twenty years. This is so foolish! Jim Rohn said "We all have two choices: We can get by making a living or we can design a fantastic life."

What is your "why"?

Part of planning your life is to get clarity on your why. Your why is your vision. To have clarity about what you want and why you want it.

A very good way to clarify your why is to evaluate the past decade. What worked for you and what did not? What were your failures, what were your achievements? Which were great decisions in the last 10 years and which were bad ones?

Think beyond some of the financial goals. Think about your life.

Goal setting tools can help you get clear on where you want to be and what you want to achieve with your life. An excellent exercise is to write your own obituary. Imagine you stand at your own funeral. What do you want people to say about you then? What success did you achieve? Whose lives did you improve? What contributions did you make? Whose lives did you change positively? What would your family have to say about your life?

Why is your "why" important?

When you plan your life, you draw up a strategic plan to achieve your life goals. As you live your life following your plan, you will have troubles. You will experience pressure. Adversity will arrive at your door. If you have a clear why, nothing will be able to push you off course and make you want to quit. You will find a way around, over, under and through any adversity because you will remember why you want to succeed.

The opposite is also true. With no clarity on your why, you will become despondent easily. You will want to quit when the going gets tough.

How do you plan a life?

Begin with the end in mind. You look 10 years into the future and decide where you want to be. What do you want to achieve? Envision all the areas of your life. Decide where you want to be financially in 10 years from now. What do you want to achieve in your business? Where do you want to be in your important relationships? What charities do you want to be involved in? Where do you want to be in your spiritual life? Do you want to be in-shape and healthy?

Write down the goals for all the different parts of your life. Write measurable goals. Then make a a plan of how you will achieve the individual goals. Divide each goal into smaller goals. Simply documenting the goals without having a blueprint to start working on, is like writing New Years resolutions down. A year later, no one remembers New Years resolutions.

Begin from a departure point of gratitude. If you want to create a life of abundance, then appreciate and acknowledge abundance. You cannot plan a life from a mindset of desperation and frustration. Write down all that you are thankful for in all the different areas of your life.

Sit down and start to plan your life...

Melanie Kok is a Lead Generation Coach and an Online Marketing Strategist. More articles on lead generation tips and how to Design Your Life [http://melaniekok.com/2010/01/design-your-life/] for online success is available on Melanie's Blog. To get access to free training to generate your own business leads, go to Online Lead Coach Training [http://www.onlineleadcoach.com].


P.S. I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this post, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

IMPOSSIBLE? - Best Motivational Video

When Fear Strikes

"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyways" - John Wayne

I don't know, at times I've wondered is it courage or insanity? I'm not entirely sure. I do know that great riders and fearlessness seem to be synonymous.Article Source

It's not a secret that horses are inherently dangerous. In fact that is the exact wording in the waivers we make each of our students sign. The same waivers we signed ourselves. It's not that we enjoy being bucked off, stepped on, kicked or bitten. Its more of a decision. We know what its like to eat dirt. It just happens that to most of us, it is worth it for that one perfect moment on the back of a horse. When everything comes together, and this powerful creature begins moving willingly and effortlessly beneath you at your slightest touch. Equestrian Ecstasy... like a drug we constantly crave from the first moment we feel it... trying to get the same fix from every horse we ride from that point on.

It's been about 2 years since I had the displeasure of winding up beneath the beloved, voluptuous school horse "Miss Kitty". It wasn't her fault or mine. It just happened. She had been on stall rest for a week and needed to be ridden. I was a graduate assistant, working to extend my education as long as possible, and riding all the school horses is one of the "perks"

In true Miss Kitty fashion, the microphone in the arena squealed and we were off. Then another squeal trying to turn it off and she did a spontaneous slam on the brakes. I tried to save it, losing my balance, and my foot got caught in the process. Bummer... I wound up caught beneath her, trying to pull my foot from the stirrup. She was frantic, and just as frightened as I was. As I tried to maneuver myself out from under her she actually appeared to be trying to tip toe off of me. At 1100 pounds she wasn't tip toeing anywhere. She took the closest path, running up my leg, with the majority of her weight landing on my knee.

I was lucky, I damaged my knee, but I was able to continue on to teach and train within 6 months. It didn't necessarily make me afraid to ride, but my confidence was shaken. I no longer felt invincible. When Horses are the way you make your living you can't afford to not be able to ride. Sustaining injuries while training isn't just possible its probable.

There is a hesitation that isn't easy to rid yourself of once your become concerned for your well being. In the process of trying to save ourselves we put ourselves more at risk. As a trainer you must be able to make the decision to ride through the problem in the instant it occurs or else it's pointless. In order to continue training effectively, I had to rehabilitate my confidence, as much, if not more than my physical wounds.

So what do we do when a horse gets the best of us? Maybe you took a bad spill, or sustained an injury, or perhaps you just rode a horse you've ridden before that for the first time just wouldn't stop. The most important lesson I ever learned as a trainer (and in life) is that control is an illusion. There is a moment of awareness that you are riding a thousand pound animal with a mind of its own.

Whether you are professional trainer or a backyard warrior you have inevitably experienced fear of some sort in your riding career. Fear, is a natural response intended to protect us from making errors of judgment. While anxiety is normal after a negative experience, not addressing the issue can make a bad situation much worse.

Don't be persuaded to "get over it" or "face your fears" alone. It is essential to find a qualified instructor to help you get back on track. Its important to work with someone who acknowledges your fear, with patience and understanding, while not catering to it. There is a difference. A good teacher knows when and how much to push. In riding the best way to conquer fear is to acquire skill. The stronger our foundation, the less likely you will be to repeat history. Don't have expectations for yourself that you wouldn't put on your horses. Learning takes place in the small space between what we know and what we don't. If a horse is not ready physically or mentally to perform a task, we take a step back, and focus on the basics.

There are extreme cases in which conventional methods of dealing with riding anxieties may not be enough. A new technique used to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

With a trained therapist, patients talk over the trauma while following a rapid movement of a light or moving object before their eyes. This allows the patient to release disturbing emotions through stimulated eye movements available in REM sleep. EMDR combines several therapeutic methods, psycho-dynamic, cognitive, behavioral, etc. with eye movements or other forms of rhythmical stimulation, such as hand taps or sounds. It involves recalling a stressful past event and reprogramming the memory in the light of a positive, self-chosen belief. While the effectiveness of EMDR remains controversial amongst medical professionals, many patients have experienced quick, long lasting results in as few as 3 sessions.

I also suggest reading Overcoming the Fear of Riding: Featuring Interviews with 12 Top Riders, a book by Theresa J. Jordan, Ph.D. and Peter De Michele, M.Ed. The book is full of advice from riding's greatest stars, who reveal their own histories of overcoming fears. The experts discuss fear of injury, embarrassment, failure, and performance anxiety. These interviews and the author's professional approach provide the insight you need to deal effectively with many different manifestations of fear that relate to riding.

Coping with fear is just another part of learning to ride. If you are facing this issue, there is hope and help available. Achieving our goals often requires a determined spirit, sweat, and energy well beyond what we think is possible. Be patient with yourself and acknowledge your successes along the way. It may not happen over night, but commitment combined with action will eventually achieve results. You just have to take the first step.

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." Les Brown

Certified riding instructor/ trainer and owner of Full Circle Farm. Find more this author's articles at http://www.everyrider.com


Personal note:
The great books to read are Feel The Fear And Do it Anyway and Emotional Gym (free download http://bit.ly/30wXfen) 


P.S.
I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

Michael Jordan's Top 10 Rules For Success

   

P.S. I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this article, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

The Success Secrets of Michael Jordan

I have been an NBA basketball fan since young. In the midst of the NBA legends, Michael Jordan is probably the only timeless superstar who inspire awe, admiration and respect for people around the world. Article source

Over the last twenty years, no single basketball player has achieved the kind of cult status like Michael Jordan. His ability to turn around critical situation in a game is simply mesmerizing. His superman image has created profound inspiration for millions of fans.

Michael Jordan epitomizes the character strength of tenacity and determination, which has had tremendous influence on the personality development of countless teenager fans since his time. Despite his quiet demeanor, Michael Jordan has an immense internal drive that never allow himself to be defeated. Deep inside, he was not one to challenge. His ability to rise up and strike down an opponent was simply awe-inspiring, to which he said: "Unless I'm challenged you don't see the mean streak in me."

The indomitable competitive spirit in Michael Jordan has made him the most feared and respected opponent for other NBA players. In the lyrics of "Don't Mess Around With Jim", Jim Crose described Michael Jordan most aptly: "You don't tug on superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, and you never pick against Michael Jordan." After losing to The Bulls in 1998, New Jersey Nets coach John Calipari said: "Playing against Michael is like playing blackjack against the dealer. He ain't losing." When Madonna was asked about her favorite player when she was at the Bulls game, she said:"M.J. is an amazing human. A god. If I could coma back as another person, it'd be as him."

It is interesting to know what had attributed to Michael Jordan's enormous drive to win. One argument has it that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and the devastating trauma of the event had given birth to an extremely competitive spirit that refuses to be beaten. This mentality has made him one of the world's greatest athletes ever.

In psychology terms, "drive" is synonymous to "arousal". It is an emotionally charged state that results from a competitive nature. The degree of arousal or drive, up to a certain level, is the key determinant of the quality of performance whether in sports or business. Beyond that optimal level of arousal, any extra drive will only cause performance to decline. This state of optimal performance only last for a short time, during which the mind, body and emotional system are closely aligned. It is a transcendental state where one is optimally situated between euphoria and depression, boredom and excitement, and relaxation and anxiety. In sports, athletes who are in such optimal state are known to be "in the zone".

It is the state of "flow" that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talked about in his book: "Flow". He said: "Flow is a highly focused state of relaxation concentration that obliterates all else out of consciousness. It is the state of self-actualization or transcendental behavior that is euphoric."

Michael Jordan's success lies not just in his extreme competitiveness, but also in his ability to swiftly and frequently enter the flow state, or to be "in the zone". When he is "in the zone", he can jump with amazing ease, float through the air in gravity-defying grace, and never miss a shot. It is the state of euphoria that is addictive. He knows it when he is there. When in the flow state, he simply becomes unstoppable. This is the same experience you probably may have had in the past when you find yourself doing everything with amazing ease, as if aided by some divine forces. It is indeed the divine force that is within you when you are in that optimal state of mind, body and emotional alignment.

How can we enter into such flow state?

Being competitive is important but it alone does not help, because competitive drive can only induce anxiety. Anxiety up to a certain level is key to achieving flow state, but any excess of it will not lead to optimal performance. There is a very fine line that exists between under-stressed and over-stressed. The secret of optimal performance is found somewhere in the middle. According to psychologist, a maximum potential for achievement is reached when a subject performs under moderately stressful situation.

In sports, optimal performance is seen when two opponents are closely matched. Any significant gap in the proficiency of opponent will not bring out the best in the other. To the elite sportsman, their closest rival has a special place in their personal pursuit of excellence. Their closest rival is that unique person who has the ability to push them to perform their best.

The key success factors of Michael Jordan provide valuable insights on what we all can do to create success in our life:

- Find something that you are truly passionate about;

- Committed to massive amount of hard work to perfect the core skill sets, and enjoying it in the process;

- Strengthen your mind power with determination and resilience;

- Learn to harness the state of relaxed but intense concentration by regular practice of meditation and creative visualization, which improves the alignment of your mind, body and emotion, and enhance your ability to enter the flow state.

If you can experience flow state regularly in the activities that you pursue, winning in itself is no longer important, although you will inevitably be performing at your best. It is the euphoria state of being in the flow that brings immense joy and fulfillment to life, in its moment-to-moment experience. This is the essence of successful living.


Jordan Cheng is the author of the Success Journal at [http://www.jordancheng.net] Find out the free resources [http://jordancheng.net/success-information] that can help you develop your Mind, Body & Soul to achieve Wealth, Success & Happiness. His is contactable at jordan.cheng181@yahoo.com.sg


P.S. I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this article, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!
Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

HOW to get more quality sleep | (Science of Sleep Pt 2)

     
Resource from the video:
Sleep Smarter

I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone!

I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start! Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

Getting a Good Nights Sleep Is Easy

I suffered from difficulties in getting to sleep and insomnia when I was younger (way younger now... ) and would have times when I would sleep maybe an hour a night for nights in a row, even during school time. As I got older I found it easier to get to sleep, but the quality of sleep was still poor and I found myself tired, irritable (what's new huh?) and plagued with niggling little injuries and illnesses that I couldn't shake. Since I started training and eating properly I've found that my sleep has improved no end, and in fact I find it very easy to get to sleep at night (and, to be honest, not that hard to sleep during the day... ).

It always amazes me how many people tell me that they have a hard time sleeping, and seem to accept it now as part of their lives. Last night I had a lousy nights sleep and served to remind me all the little factors that add up to a good nights sleep, and I thought I'd share them with you. Sleep is essential to well being and re cooperation, and so is a major part of any fitness goal you may be trying to achieve.

1. Routine.

This is THE most important part of getting off at night. Those of you with children know it, and many of us don't extend that to our own lives. It is ESSENTIAL that you establish a consistent and easy to repeat nighttime routine. Here's mine:

20:00 Last big meal of the day ( 125-150 g chicken, 200g sweet potato, 10 g butter, spinach, salad etc).

21:15-21:30 100g chicken, 100g oats, 250ml almond milk. 30ml fish oils, creatine (non training days) zinc (either 15mg or 30mg)

21:45 Cold shower, then in bed.

And this is EVERY NIGHT (maybe not Friday night) for as long as I can remember now. Once you establish a routine it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy: I start getting sleepy now about half eight every night, and by ten Im pretty much out. By the way, the TV doesn't count as bed time routine.

2. Your Bed

You spend a third of your life asleep (and presumably, a third of your life in your bed) and yet people baulk at the idea of spending more that a couple of hundred pounds on their bed (when the said same people will happily spend £thousands on their telly and sofa). It is so important that your bed is comfortable but supportive (and most of this comes from the mattress) and that you keep it clean and fresh. I'm also amazed at the size of peoples beds: Mrs. TailoredPT and I have a super king size (and it is a little like the Silent Night adverts). This isn't for showing off, there simply is not enough room for the two of us to be comfy in anything smaller. The moment you start having to tolerate outside influences when you're trying to sleep is when its all going to go awry. You may even have to admit the fact that you're better off in separate beds. I've met lots of clients that now sleep separately and are much happier thanks to a good nights sleep (after all, your only SLEEPING separately... ) Spend some cash on the most used piece of furniture you have.

3. Your Bedroom

You sleep at night time. At nighttime it's dark. Therefore your bedroom needs to be as dark as possible. Get some curtain liners if you have street lamp (or one of those stupid house security lights that pumps out 500w all night onto a driveway (no-one's trying to steal your roses, arsehole!)) outside your window and eliminate all sources of light inside too (like your LCD clock). Make sure its as quiet as possible. For some that may mean turning off the TV

It frightens me how many people sleep with their mobile phone either under the pillow or next to the bed. If you have to do this, please turn off the network connection.

Make sure its nice and cool. If possible, have the window opened a little bit. Make sure the heating has gone off an hour or so before. If you find that your bedroom is damp, get a dehumidifier (trust me on this one).

You may want to make sure that the colours in your bedroom are conducive to sleep (no black and white 'feature walls'). Having said that we've got bright rainbow stars (!) on our bedsheets at the moment.

4. No Alcohol

Many clients tell me that they could never give up their daily G+T or they have to have a glass or two of wine before bed. Then you have a drug habit. Simple as that. Give it up. Not only will it cut hundreds of calories off your daily intake, you'll be much better prepared for a good nights sleep (and indeed better for the morning as the quality of sleep will be better). Same goes for caffeine and other stimulants, none after about six in the evening (infact, none at all is better still).

5. Food (and water)

Many people that report bad nights sleep are going to bed (and trying to sleep) hungry. I always eat before I sleep and I always recommend to clients and friends they do the same.

Your body is going to expend a lot of energy repairing and maintaining itself while you sleep. You need to fuel that. However, don't take this as an opportunity to fill up on junk; stuff that will get you fat when you're awake will do the same when you're asleep. I'm quite happy going to bed on a belly full of chicken and porridge but then my calorie intake is higher than many people. Something high in protein and low in sugar is fine (much like any other time of day). If your timetable is such that your main meal of the day is right before bed make sure you do your best to flatten out the blood sugar load by eating all the expensive bits first and leave the carbs until last.

Also make sure you are hydrated. Try to avoid drinking all your water in one go before bed (you'll need a pee just when you get comfy).

6. Tryptophan

This is kinda included in food but I'd like to mention it separately. It is an essential amino acid that needs to be absorbed through the diet. There had been much research into whether an intake of tryptophan actually helps with sleep and most of it is inconclusive at best. Tryptophan is metabolised into seratonin and melatonin, both important for controlling mood. Although research doesn't really support the idea that consuming tryptophan leads to an increase in these metabolites it doesn't dismiss it either and I recommend at least trying foods high in tryptophan to see if it works (Wikipedia has a good list of foods high in tryptophan). For me I found tuna to be very useful, but my intake of tuna (and fish in general) is much lower now thanks to heavy metal poisoning. In any case you'll be establishing a routine and going to bed with a full stomach, which will help.

Almost ironically, a large intake of carbohydrates will also lead to an increase in seratonin and melatonin. I find it very difficult to sleep without a full belly and Mrs TailoredPT always goes to sleep after her night time porridge.

7. Zinc

Zinc is found in pretty much every cell and process in humans (much like magnesium). For guys its also essential for making the little swimmers. Ive found that 15mg-30mg zinc (for girls I'd stick with even less, 5mg) before bed really helps with falling asleep, and also sleep quality. A pleasant side effect of Zinc before bed is really vivid dreams.

8. Breakfast.

Eh? Get a good breakfast, high in protein (if its come out of a box, don't eat it). Unless you're not hungry. Dont confuse not eating breakfast with skipping breakfast, they are not the same thing. Breakfast is NOT essential to your daily routine, but skipping it through lack of time or effort is not the same as following an intermittent fasting protocol.

Getting breakfast right will set you up for the day, which will have a direct impact on how you feel when its bed time.

9. Exercise

Every time I raise the question of exercise before bed I get exactly 50/50 response either way. Personally I cant run around punch stuff and lift weights then fall asleep all night. Mrs TailoredPT does exactly that most nights. I think its more down to routine again then anything else. Try it for yourself and see.

So last night I didn't obey any of these and didn't get to sleep until past 1am. If this is a regular occurrence with you, try out some of the tips above and let me know how you get on.

Night night

JU


Written by John R Underdown, BSc, MSc, PGCE

I am a highly experienced and certified personal trainer and coach looking to help those who want it.

Come and find out more at [http://www.tailored-personal-training.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7492888


P.S.

I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone!

I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start! Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

How to build a business with purpose

Adam's book The Promise of A Pencil is one of the best reads I've had so far. It's a self-development guide in listening to your intuition to find your mission and purpose in life.

P.S. 
I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

How to Align Your Purpose With Your Business

Today's topic is about aligning your business with your life purpose. What I see every once in a while is a business owner who has had great results for a while and then begins to lose traction or begins to stay at the same level for a few months or a few years, without continuing to grow. Or perhaps it is a business owner - maybe even you - who has become bored with their business. Maybe you don't jump out of bed anymore to go and grow it.

When that's the case, it's usually a sign that perhaps it's time to incorporate more of your life purpose into your business. In my own business, a few years ago I found that I'd done well enough, but that everyone else seemed to be growing faster than I was and I felt like I was losing traction. And I also felt like I was losing interest.

I didn't know what was going on until a friend of mine pointed out that I was doing all of these other things in my life. I was doing a lot of personal growth and development. I was doing a lot of work on mindset and learning some of the spiritual/universal principles of attraction and how things work and about getting out of your own way.

After a while, all this new work I was doing started to really create some new results in my life and especially in my business and my income, but I hadn't shared it with my clients or in my marketing or with my students.It was a dichotomy. I was only showing one portion of what I was doing and not all of it. That is, until this friend said, "You really need to 'out yourself'. Let people know what you're really doing."

So, I did a teleclass that had nothing to do with marketing. It was about how to manifest clients into your life. I talked about personal growth and manifestation and law of attraction and all of that good stuff. The response was crazy. I'd never had a response like that on any of my previous calls. People started coming out of the woodwork to work with me.

The more I started weaving this stuff into my existing business the more clients I got. Then, I started teaching mindset and teaching about how to play a much bigger game and that's when my revenues shot past the seven-figure mark, have continued to increased since.

I have three passions - marketing, systems and mindset, which has a spiritual component to playing a bigger game and growing your business.When you align your passion with your business, all of a sudden the opportunities, the clients, the money, the meaning and fulfillment all come into your business. I believe that this is why my clients get so many great results.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

I want to see you get really clear about what your passion is in life. What is your life's purpose? What is it that stirs your soul and that you would do for free all day long and not be resentful for it?

When you figure out what your big "Why", start weaving it into your existing business. It could be something that you do on the side. As entrepreneurs we have the luxury of being able to marry our business with our passions. I guarantee you the more you do that, the more you are rewarded with the clients and the money and the meaning because that is why you're here on Earth. The minute you align your passion with your business, all of the opportunities show up.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time... guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit http://attractclients.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7334436


P.S.

I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

WEconomy with Richard Branson and Holly Branson

If you want to make profit for yourself and others, watch this video and buy a book WEconomy to learn how to incorporate purpose in the core of your business to solve a social problem while making profit for your company! Please read the book! 

P.S.
I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

Create A Job With Meaning and Purpose

Whenever I tell people that I own my own business, work out of my home, and set my own hours, I inevitably get some variation of "Must be nice!" as a response. Actually, it is, but I don't think what I find "nice" about my situation is what they mean when they say it.

This response comes from a mindset that is all too prevalent that work and jobs are drudgery and toil - something we have to do - not something we choose to do that is a part of who we are - an expression of our natural strengths and talents.

I feel sure that they see me sitting around drinking coffee with my feet up generally taking it easy. After all, the exclamation implies, that is what they would be doing if they were in my place.

The all to frequent "Must be nice!" response reflects the mentality of people who yearn for freedom and meaning but feel trapped in jobs they hate because they provide no sense of significance and do not serve them as individuals. They feel like cogs and gears in a machine that uses them as a resource and then replaces them when they wear out. No wonder 80% of people hate what they do!

When I use the phrase "cogs and gears in a machine" I do not mean to conjure up images of Fritz Lang' Metropolis or even the impersonal world of Orwell's 1984. I am not being apocalyptic or promoting conspiracy theories! What I do want to do is challenge a viewpoint that I rarely hear questioned.

Part of what led me to what I currently do was rebellion against the lockstep journey I was set on by my parents, and that I see so many in our culture caught up in unknowingly and unquestioningly. It is a journey designed to raise, educate, train, and focus us on earning a living rather than discovering how to live.

It ends with a job that earns a paycheck rather than a career that provides meaning and purpose, and puts them in a place where they spend a significant amount of time while they wish they were somewhere else doing something different.

I have a long time mentor who once told me, "The function of organizations is to serve people not the other way around, but that is not how they work today." For me, this epitomizes the problem. We are caught up serving a boss, an organization, the economy, doing things in which we have no interest or natural talent.

People choose employment based on labor statistics and future job market projections rather than on their own interests, skills, or innate giftedness. They complain about the work week, say TGIF, and look forward to retirement and their "Golden Years" when they will be "released" from their employment obligations and "allowed" to pursue what they want to.

While I know that I will slow down as I grow older, I don't think I will ever "retire" in the meaning of the word most people have. What I do is so much a part of who I am that I cannot imagine not continuing to do it until the end of my life.

I sadly realize that my constant chorus of "discover your natural talents and pursue something that allows you to use them and do more of what you do best" often falls on not deaf, but uncomprehending ears. It is as though I have said "jump 20 feet in the air". It is something that sounds impossible to those who hear me.

I know that it is not. Not only have I striven to build my life and work time on what I am naturally good at, I have helped many other people do the same. I know it can be done, but it takes commitment and courage and a refusal to accept setbacks as failure.

In an anthology of his speeches, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, John Taylor Gatto claims that following a lockstep path to "making a living" distracts you from building a life around the important things - family, community, and meaningful work. Building a life and career that is focused on Gatto's "important things" is full of trials, self-discipline, and self-discovery.

For me, the rewards of such a life and career far outweigh the difficulties involved in getting it. How about you?

Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 32 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology - Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For more free information on how to succeed in life and business doing more of what you love, visit http://www.YourTalentAdvantage.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7778766


P.S.

I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to someone! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

Also share the blog posts on your social media! If you like the blog, you can subscribe to our email list using the link http://bit.ly/30wXfen

Thank you for your time and participation!

Why Your Mindset Matters If You Want Health And Wealth

Mastering Mindsets for Maximum Learning

When people think about the factors that influence student achievement, a lot of things come to mind. These include a student's socio-economic status, the education level of the student's parents, the student's motivation, his or her attitude toward school, and of course, the student's cognitive abilities. One factor that has recently become a matter of intense research and is beginning to become a major focus of educators across the world is popularly called "mindset" and was first popularized by the publication of the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006) by the major researcher in the field, renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck. Dweck's research has shown that your students' mindsets are one of the most important factors impacting their achievement. As such, this is one factor that master teachers don't leave to chance.

First of all, for those of you who aren't very familiar with the mindsets research conducted by Dweck and others, here's a quick recap of the main findings. In her research, Dweck identified two basic "mindsets" that impact virtually everything we do (and not just in school). These two mindsets are (1) the fixed mindset and (2) the growth mindset.

People who have a fixed mindset hold a deep-seating belief that one's qualities--cognitive ability and personality traits both--are carved in stone and are thus virtually unchangeable. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset have a deep-seated belief that the hand you're dealt by genetics and your life situation is only a starting point and that your qualities are things you can cultivate through effort.

Why is this important for educators? Well, let's say you have a student who has a fixed mindset, and let's further say that he has been praised throughout his life for his intelligence. Such a student becomes invested in this persona of himself as "smart." Now, let's say you assign a challenging class project, and the student's work is not top-notch. Let's say he scores a C, or even a B. What will be his response?

Well, since in his mind, "smart" people make A's, this occurrence creates some real cognitive dissonance. In such cases, a student with a fixed mindset often falls back on excuses. He might blame the assignment or teacher, saying the assignment was "dumb." Or he may feign nonchalance and tell anyone who will listen that he just didn't try. After all, if he really did try and he did not receive an A, that might call into question how smart he is. Rather than change his view of himself (his mindset), he looks for an excuse. Does this sound familiar? Sure! We've all had such students and heard such excuses. But, if a teacher is not aware of how these excuses are arising from the student's fixed mindset, she will not be in a position to attack the problem at its source.

Even more damaging is the effect of such events when repeated over time. The student with a fixed mindset, when faced with repeated failure, will often generalize his excuses even more. Instead of one assignment being "dumb," now the whole class, or even the whole subject matter field becomes "dumb." Or he takes it out on a teacher. Instead of the teacher giving one "dumb" assignment, this often grows into "that teacher has it in for me." Or even worse, the student may keep a fixed mindset but begin to believe that he is not smart, or at least not smart in certain subjects.

Now, let's look at a student who has a growth mindset who finds herself in the same situation. She receives the challenging assignment, tries her best, and receives the same unsatisfactory score as the student with the fixed mindset discussed above. How does she react? Much differently! Rather than make excuses, she is much more likely to look at the event as feedback telling her that she needs to spend more time on such assignments, or work harder, or ask for feedback on her work prior to turning in the final project. In other words, since she sees herself as the kind of person who can change and get better (a growth mindset), she looks at the assignment as a growth opportunity.

We've all had these students before, too. And generally, they are a joy to have in class. They tend to enjoy challenges more, be more open to taking creative approaches to assignments, and they tend to grow over the course of time as students. What teacher wouldn't like to have a whole classroom full of such students?

Changing Mindsets

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that every class is a mixed bag of students with fixed and growth mindsets, and if we want the best for all of our students, we have the obligation to help those students with fixed mindsets to change. And the good news is that change is possible. As Dweck has written, "You have a choice. Mindsets are just beliefs. They're powerful beliefs, but they're just something in your mind, and you can change your mind." (16)

But let's not pretend that such change is easy. Earlier when I said that mindsets were "deep-seated," I meant that most people are completely unaware that they hold a certain set of beliefs. These beliefs are usually implicit unless someone else calls the person's attention to the fact. And in the case of students whose fixed mindsets are causing them to stagnate in their learning, it's the teacher's responsibility to be the one who makes the student's mindset explicit and teaches the student a new way to think about him- or herself.

Approaches for Changing Fixed Mindsets

So, what can we do to help students with fixed mindsets to change? Let me start by making two disclaimers:

(1) there's not room in this short article to cover all of the possible approaches you might take with a student, so I am just going to offer a few steps that you can do globally in your classroom to (hopefully) positively affect all of your fixed mindset students; and

(2) not all fixed mindsets are alike. When confronted with evidence of their limiting mindset, some students will be in denial. Others truly are cognitively gifted, and so they tend to breeze by in most classes without much effort. These students will be in for a rude awakening when more challenging work comes along (this may not happen until college) if they don't adjust their mindset now. Another group of fixed mindset students are just the opposite of the just-skate-by group. These students are the workaholics who knock themselves out studying because they fear that they might not always come out on top. Such students aren't learning for the joy of learning, they're working for the grade--and they are likely candidates for burn-out if they don't adjust their mindsets.

I suggest you read Dweck's book for more how-to advice (beyond what I give below) for working with individual students who are resistant to change. And now, with those caveats in place, here are three suggestions to get you started adjusting the mindsets of those fixed-mindset students in your classes.

1. Watch Your Language

The first thing a teacher can do globally is to become more aware of and, if necessary, change, his or her language when talking to students. For example, one of the worst things teachers can do is to praise students for being "smart." Calling students smart, or any synonym for smart, puts the emphasis on intelligence as a fixed quantity. When students do good work and you call them smart as a result, what happens when the same student doesn't do good work? Is he now "not smart"?

The better approach is to use our language with students to focus on the problem-solving strategies they used to come up with the answer, or on the effort they put in to achieve the result. Saying things like, "That was a great strategy you used there" or "Great work! You really must have put in the effort on this paper" go a long way toward focusing students on things they can control.

2. Value and Reward Creativity

One of the biggest handicaps of the fixed mindset arises out of the need to be proven right or smart all the time. As a result, many fixed mindset students "play it safe" by trying to figure out exactly what the teacher wants and what he will reward with the coveted A. You can tell these students because they are the ones who are always asking you to explain in excruciating detail exactly what you want done on any assignment.

Students with a growth mindset, on the other hand, won't nag you about exactly what you want. If they nag you about anything, they will nag you to open up the assignment a bit. They will ask you for more leeway to do something fun or creative.

If your goal is to move the fixed mindset students toward more of a focus on growth, one of the best things you can do is to offer more open-ended assignments or assignments with multiple options. Your growth mindset students will love it, and they will knock your socks off with their creative approaches. Many of them may have been waiting for just such an opportunity to spread their wings and try to do some things their own way.

On the other hand, the more you open assignments up, the more resistance you can expect from your hard-core fixed mindset students. You can explain to them that stretching themselves and taking hold of the opportunity to grow by expressing their creativity is good for them, but you can expect complaining and foot-dragging, anyway. In such situations, they are less sure about "what the teacher wants," so they become anxious.

That leads to another point. If you do, indeed, make your assignments more open-ended or offer multiple options on assignments, you have to be willing to follow through and give students credit for creativity. Sometimes the more creative approaches may lead to work that may not be technically as sound as more traditional work, and in such a case you must make sure that points lost due to lack of technical merit are made up for by points awarded for creativity. This shows the fixed mindset students that going out on a limb to stretch themselves will not backfire.

3. De-Value Grades and Value Reflection

Now, I know I'm getting into difficult territory here, but this must be said. One of the major contributors to the fixed mindset is the traditional grading system. When so much value is placed on a score, it is easy for the score to become the goal rather than the learning and growth you want your students to achieve as a result of their time with you.

So, if grades as traditionally done are one of the biggest sources of the problem, we need to do what we can to find a better system. Now, I know that many of you are locked into the traditional grading system and are not allowed to get too creative with it. However, if you are really going to establish a growth mindset for the students in your classroom, you need to do all you can to make growth the focus of your marking system. Here are a few ideas:

 Use a portfolio system and accumulate student work over the course of the school year. As each grading period approaches, go through the portfolios and look at improvement (or lack of same) over time. Make growth part of your scoring rubric for the overall grade for the marking period.

Build reflection and goal-setting into your regular classroom procedure. The test or paper or project should NEVER be the last thing in a unit of study. The last thing should ALWAYS be to have students reflect on what they have learned (or not) and on the quality of the work they have done during the unit and set goals for improvement in the next unit.

As much as possible, give initial grades on assignments like papers and projects, but leave the grade "in pencil" in your grading system for as long as possible. Treat the initial grade on the assignment as provisional, give students feedback, and allow them to circle back to previous projects when they have time to rework them in light of your feedback. Of course, there will always be a "drop-dead deadline" for all assignments to be done before the end of a grading period, but allow students to rework such assignments for an improved grade right up until that drop-dead deadline.


Such practices as these all send the message that what you really value in your class is that students do the best work they can, that they continue to work on improving their work over time, and that they become reflective about their growth in the subject area. Installing such grading procedures in your classroom shows that you aren't just paying lip service to such growth goals; you are actually rewarding growth behavior.

Focus on establishing such approaches early in the school year, especially the grading policies. This will allow you to really start looking at individual students in terms of mindset and having those one-on-one discussions with them about the impact of mindset and how they might go about making changes that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Good luck, and happy teaching!


Willy Wood is an educational consultant, publisher, and teaching and learning expert. For more information about Willy, check out his AboutMe page at https://about.me/willywood.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9163828