Master the Art Of Being Mentored: How to Get the Most From Mentoring

Knowing just how to get the best from the time you spend with your mentor might seem a little daunting at first. But remember, mentoring is a two-way process. Once you understand that the difference between success and failure, it is very much down to you, the contribution and the commitment you’re prepared to make.

Mentoring is one of the most effective professional development tools on offer at the workplace by today’s go-ahead organisations and, apart from all the positive benefits you’ll gain (such as building self-confidence, increasing potential and receiving objective and honest feedback), you’ll find it will help underpin the success of your career.

Once you’ve selected the right mentor (usually someone who can act as a role model and isn’t too similar to you) there are some golden rules for mentees that will help you achieve the best results from your sessions.

 

The 5 golden rules for the “mentee”

1. Be open to new ideas and willing to explore your feelings

The more curious you are the better and the more likely you’ll be able to ask your mentor really insightful questions and get to see the bigger picture.

2. Be honest and prepared to share your thoughts and experiences

You need to trust your mentor as it’s important you tell them all about yourself – the good and the bad. It’s the only way you’ll be able to change and improve.

3. Take responsibility for your own development

It’s tempting to depend on your mentor to set goals. But it is you who is ultimately the one who must decide what it is you want to achieve; your mentor is there to provide guidance, encouragement and the support you need to take things forward.

4. Invest the necessary time to prepare for each meeting

Be willing to allocate sufficient time to do all you can to complete agreed actions points. Before you meet again, reflect and think about what you have achieved. Which things went well? Perhaps something got in the way of your plans? Make notes to bring with you – the more your mentor gets to know you, the better.

5. Your total personal commitment

Once you’ve agreed on an action plan in order to achieve your goals, your mentor needs to know you’re fully committed. “Yes”, must mean “Yes”. Be clear about the steps you intend to take, always ask yourself if they can be achieved in the time frame. Any doubts, then be honest with your mentor – understanding why you feel as you do will allow the relationship to continue to work at its best.

Growing And Sustaining A Virtual Team Takes Extra Effort

Ah, virtual teams. They’ve been around for quite some time, but are more common in this day and age when technology affords us the ability to work anywhere, any time of day. But it’s important to remember that virtual teams are made up up many different and diverse team members. And building that team into a cohesive unit can be a real chore. Here are some tactics you can implement to ensure your team is building in the right direction.

• Have regular team meetings. A weekly teleconference that everyone is required to attend goes a long way in bringing a virtual team together. Have a regular agenda and make sure you keep the meeting on track. You could alternate the meeting leadership to help every team member feel involved.

• Mix and match team members. As your company takes on new projects, don’t just keep the same old team members together to accomplish the new objectives. Look deep into your team and ensure you leverage the strengths of each and every team member. Give team members opportunities to work with people they’ve never met before.

• Stay in touch virtually. Send out a weekly email newsletters to let everyone on your team know what’s going on in the company. Conduct (at least) quarterly webinars to help team members stay in touch with the big picture of your company.

• Allow face-to-face interaction. Whenever possible and financially feasible for your company, get team members together face-to-face. There’s nothing that can cement a relationship faster and build a stronger team than pairing a face with a voice you’ve only known virtually.

10 Trust Secrets You Need To Practice In Business

By Martin Zwilling on November 19, 2014

 

One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. Just because you dream it and build it, doesn’t mean they will come – that encompasses not only customers, but also investors, partners, team members, and even your own family. They won’t come if they don’t trust you.

In my experience, trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control. I’ve seen many examples of this in my own business life, and yet I gained a whole new perspective on how it works from a recent book by successful entrepreneur August Turak, titled “Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks.”

Turak first visited the monks for spiritual guidance, but realized as he talked to them about their business, that many of their secrets crossed over all boundaries. I was particularly struck by the lessons he gleaned on how to get and maintain trust. The best entrepreneurs I know seem to have learned every one of these, so start on these now if you want to survive among the best:

1. Become trustworthy before you start a business. We are hard wired to seek out trustworthy people, and to test others to see who we can trust. But the first step is to be become trustworthy ourselves. Like attracts like, and if you invest early in becoming a person others can trust, business people who you can trust will be attracted to you.
   
   
2. Keep your promises to yourself and others. The surest mark of a trustworthy person is one who keeps promises to others and to oneself, no matter how small or seemingly trivial these may be. Keeping promises to yourself is closely correlated with will power and self-control, and these virtues are essential to being business trustworthy.
   
   
3. Under commit and over deliver. Make sure that you only make business commitments that you know you can keep. Many entrepreneurs over-commit because they are desperate to have business constituents like and respect them, yet the quickest way to lose respect is to fail to keep commitments.
   
   
4. Be willing to make commitments. One of the stratagems of notoriously unreliable people is refusing to make promises in the first place, thinking that making no commitments relieves them of any worry about breaking them. People see through this strategy quickly, and will tag you not reliable and indecisive, as well as not trustworthy.
   
   
5. Protect your personal brand. As a new startup, you the entrepreneur are the brand. Get in the habit of asking yourself, “How will this decision affect my personal brand?” Everything you do or don’t do affects your brand, and in the long run your trustworthiness is your most valuable asset.
   
   
6. Avoid fuzzy commitments. Nothing undermines trust faster than ambiguity or soft commitments, through phrases like “I’ll try” or “I’ll do my best.” These are heard as attempts to stay off the hook, and furnish plausible deniability for anticipated failure. Don’t be afraid to write down what you expect, and what you are willing to commit to.
   
   
7. Formalize business promise keeping. This simply means making it standard practice in your new startup of building a paper trail of contracts (no verbal contracts) between partners and vendors, customer transactions, and internal processes with team performance metrics.
   
   
8. Never make people ask. If you make people hound you about a commitment, you have already lost half of your credibility. Nothing builds trust better than anticipating your obligations and delivering on them without being asked. A debt repaid before it is asked for reaps a huge dividend in trust.
   
   
9. Communicate, communicate, communicate. No one can anticipate all risks and keep all their promises, but there is no excuse for a failure to communicate when contingencies arise, so there are no surprises. Lack of communication leads others to assume that you had no intention of keeping your promise, and were hoping no one would notice.
   
   
10. Aim past the target. It is impossible to be trustworthy in business if you are unreliable in the other aspects of your life. The monks teach that trust is not a business strategy or tactic; it is the natural by-product of living for a higher purpose. If you have no higher purpose as an entrepreneur than to make money, you will most likely fail in your efforts.
    

In business, as in your personal life, an entrepreneur must offer his own trust before reasonably hoping to have it reciprocated. Don’t try to “game the system,” and don’t expect blind faith to save you. The power of real trust is that if your constituents trust that you can change the world, you probably will. Isn’t that why you signed up for this lifestyle in the first place?

Marty Zwilling

This post was originally published on this site

Mengapa Ada Rasa Bimbang?

“Jika kita mampu bersyukur dengan apa yang ada, kita tidak perlu risau dengan apa yang bukan milik kita.”

Ramai orang memikirkan tentang masa lalu yang sudah berlaku, atau masa hadapan yang belum berlaku. Oleh sebab itu adanya panik, adanya kebimbangan kerana kita terperangkap dalam jangkaan.

Apa Itu FEAR (ketakutan)?

Antara sebab kita ada perasaan bimbing kerana kita ada perasaan takut (fear).

False

Evidence

Appeear

Real

Andai kita perasan, adakalanya kita berasa risau untuk perkara yang belum berlaku. Sehingga ia membuat kita sakit kepala, tertekan. Bukankah ia sebenarnya seperti menzalimi diri sendiri? Bimbang akan sesuatu, tidak akan menghasilkan perubahan. Itulah kata kuncinya. Penting kita manfaatkan kuasa pada masa kini (the power of now), kerana di situ letaknya tenaga kehidupan.

Cinta Memberi Ketenangan

Ramai orang, yang apabila mereka melakukan sesuatu yang mereka suka, mereka tidak memikirkan mereka sedang melakukannya. Kerana mereka begitu asyik melakukannya. Mereka begitu seronok dan menikmati apa yang mereka suka lakukan.

Apabila kita berfikir, kita berada pada tahap beta – yakni gelombang yang tidak tenang. Namun, apabila kita tidak berfikir ketika itu kita berasa tenang (tahap alpha). Oleh sebab itu, tidak hairan mengapa apabila kita lakukan apa yang kita suka, kita begitu asyik melakukannya.

Kerana saat itu kita tidak berfikir, yakni tidak berada pada tahap beta, sebaliknya berada pada tahap alpha iaitu tahap tenang. Alpha itu tempatnya kita akan khusyuk dengan apa yang kita lakukan. Ia berpunca daripada cinta yang kita rasa, pada apa yang kita suka lakukan.

Bagaimana Mengatasi Rasa Bimbang?

Berhenti berfikir dan mulakan tindakan. Rasa bimbang berpunca apabila kita terfikir tentang perkara negatif. Yang seterusnya ia memberi impak kepada perasaan kita.

Bermula daripada fikiran yang negatif menjadikan perasaan kita negatif. Seterusnya membuat kita rasa negatif. Akhirnya kita sendiri yang tertekan daripada membuat tekanan sendiri dengan berasa bimbang.

Jadi, cara cepat untuk selesaikan rasa bimbang adalah dengan mula bertindak selesaikan solusi kita. Lupakan masalah itu dengan cepat dan terus bertindak ke arah penyelesaian.

Fokus Perkara Positif

Energi tidak boleh dihapus. Ia boleh dipindahkan. Rasa bimbang juga termasuk dalam energi. Ia tidak boleh dihapuskan tetapi ia boleh dipindahkan dengan cara kita tukar fikiran negatif di minda kita kepada memikirkan sesuatu yang positif.

Yang akan mengubah apa yang kita rasa dan apa yang kita lihat tentang diri kita. Berterusan memikirkan perkara negatif akan membuat kita semakin tertekan dan berasa bimbang.

Sumber: MajalahNiaga.com

Personal Development: The Power To Succeed by Dr. Joe Rubino

Create a Structure For Personal Development: Evaluate Your Progress on a Regular Basis

As human beings, we are in a constant state of flux – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Life presents us with a never ending opportunity to put ourselves into personal  development.  What we do with each of these opportunities presented to us is entirely up to us. Daily, we are offered a choice. We can either respond to life’s challenges by resisting them or by embracing them. Taking on the course of personal growth and development means that we have put ourselves on the path of examining who we are today and who we choose to be tomorrow, all the while evaluating how we’re doing along the way. If we are not climbing the mountain of self-improvement, then we are sliding down the hill of  decay. There is no standing still.

The decision to make each day an opportunity to take on some area of personal development  means we have committed ourselves to the challenge of continual and never ending improvement in some aspect of our lives. In order to support our commitment to constant growth, it can be helpful to put into place a structure to focus on what’s going on in our world. Such a structure must involve a means to get feedback on what is working, what is not working and what needs to be put into place that is now missing in order to grow to the next level in any particular arena.

Some possible areas of personal development might involve working on any of the following qualities:

    Being calm and centered
    Not reacting
    Being organized and focused
    Being at peace
    Having genuine humility
    Choosing interpretations that support or empower you
    Having greater physical energy
    Working on your health and appearance
    Having integrity
    Exuding charisma
    Showing confidence
    Being an inspiration to yourself and others
    Allowing yourself  to be vulnerable
    Showing emotion
    Not showing emotion when it does not serve you
    Being sensitive
    Being consistent or persistent
    Being coachable or teachable
    Being happy
    Having a good self image
    Trusting your intuition
    Developing empathy
    Being self motivated
    Able to make and keep commitments
    Able to be told anything without reacting
    Being a good listener
    Able to make the most of any situation
    Able to have fun
    Coming across authentically to others
    Having discipline
    Willing to sacrifice for the future
    Speaking from the heart
    Living your vision
    Supporting others
    Championing others to greatness
    Exuding Enthusiasm
    Being Inspirational
    Being vulnerable
    Having Compassion
    Possessing a positive attitude
    Choosing to have positive expectations in life
    Communicating effectively

In addition, you might choose to develop the following qualities in yourself in relation to others:
    Listening for what it’s like to be in the other person’s situation
    Listening for how to contribute to or support others
    Listening for mutuality or common ground
    Listening for what others have to contribute to you
    Being Able to bond with others
    Possessing the ability to work well in partnership with others
    Being happy to serve
    Being willing to be of contribution
    Being interested in others
    Being interested in finding solutions that work for everyone
    Not interrupting
    Able to impact people positively
    Being a team player

In order to enhance your personal power, you will need to create some structure so as to develop whatever qualities you decide to take on.

Some possible structures include:

A- Hiring a mentor to coach you in putting into place whatever is missing around those qualities you seek to develop.

B- Rating yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 after each interaction you have with another person, regarding how successful  you were in implementing the quality you are working on. Look at what worked ,what was missing, and what you need to put into place next time to be more effective in the area you are developing.

C- Keeping a journal detailing your daily intended result in your chosen area of development. Again, record both what worked and what was missing.

D- Asking others for feedback. You might say something  like, “I am working on the quality of…becoming more charismatic,  a better listener, more powerful in my communication, developing an appreciation of what it’s like in the other person’s world…etc.. Could you give me some feedback on how I came across for you?”

Your commitment to put yourself in research around which qualities would most impact who you are in the world as well as your willingness to create a structure in supporting these commitments will do much toward increasing your personal power.

Creating A Structure To Support Your Development:

1) Make a list of all of the qualities you like about yourself.

2) Make a list of all of the qualities you dislike about yourself.

3) List at least 5 qualities that you would be willing to further develop in yourself.

4) Create a structure for developing these qualities.

At the end of each day, week, and month ask yourself the following questions to quantify how you did in the areas of your personal development:

1)What did you learn about yourself and about others?

2)In what ways were you effective in your interactions with others?

3)What was missing in your interactions that if put in place would make you more effective?



Dr. Joe Rubino is an internationally acclaimed trainer, author, success coach and the CEO of The Center For Personal Reinvention, an organization that provides personal and group coaching as well as productivity and leadership development courses. He was featured on the cover of Success Magazine and in the cover story, We Create Millionaires, because of his ability to champion others to succeed. Joe is the author of the best sellers, Secrets of Building a Million Dollar Network Marketing Organization from a Guy Who’s Been There, Done That and Shows You How To Do It Too, The Magic Lantern: A Fable about Leadership, Personal Excellence, and Empowerment, and, most recently, The Power To Succeed: 30 Principles For Maximizing Your Personal Effectiveness, Book I and The Power To Succeed: More Principles For Powerful Living, Book II. For information about The Center for Personal Reinvention and its services or to order any of Dr. Rubino’s books, visit Center For Personal Reinvention. To contact Dr. Joe about the possibility of hiring him as your personal success coach, email: DrJRubino@Email.com or call 800-999-9551 ext 870.

Some possible areas of personal development might involve working on any of the following qualities:

• Being calm and centered
• Not reacting
• Being organized and focused
• Being at peace
• Having genuine humility
• Choosing interpretations that support or empower you
• Having greater physical energy
• Working on your health and appearance
• Having integrity
• Exuding charisma
• Showing confidence
• Being an inspiration to yourself and others
• Allowing yourself  to be vulnerable
• Showing emotion
• Not showing emotion when it does not serve you
• Being sensitive
• Being consistent or persistent
• Being coachable or teachable
• Being happy
• Having a good self image
• Trusting your intuition
• Developing empathy
• Being self motivated
• Able to make and keep commitments
• Able to be told anything without reacting
• Being a good listener
• Able to make the most of any situation
• Able to have fun
• Coming across authentically to others
• Having discipline
• Willing to sacrifice for the future
• Speaking from the heart
• Living your vision
• Supporting others
• Championing others to greatness
• Exuding Enthusiasm
• Being Inspirational
• Being vulnerable
• Having Compassion
• Possessing a positive attitude
• Choosing to have positive expectations in life
• Communicating effectively

- See more at: http://www.evolutionezine.net/power-succeed-dr-joe-rubino/#sthash.CPEh3jwK.dpuf

Wake Up Call!!!

 

I've often heard it said, "How you do one thing is how you do everything." While I believe we can all change given the right stimulus, the spirit of this statement is true. And how you begin your day can set you up for feeling really good at the end of it.

Case in point...do you begin your day with a "to do" or "action" list filled with income producing activities or with administrative items that you think need to be done? It's easy to add those items to your list because they are a necessary part of running a business, but if you don't generate the income you really won't have to worry about the admin pieces, right?

So here are two strategies I want you to implement immediately, at the start of your day.

First, always begin your to do list with a bit of "think time." Ask yourself, "What is really important for you to do and if it's not important who else can do it?" Do a "brain dump" and make a list without deciding whether it's good or bad, necessary or evil. Don't prioritize or edit, just write until it's all out.

Next, using that "brain dump" list, segment it into TWO parts and always beginning in this way:

Part 1: What will bring income into the business faster?

Here are some ideas for you: promote a consultation, promote a product, offer an incentive or coupon to get the product now, speak, network, connect with former clients who you want to work with again, contact a colleague and do a cross promotion to each other's lists, sign up as an affiliate for a product you believe would be of genuine value to your list or clients, teach a webinar or live seminar and make an offer at the end.

Part 2: What are the admin areas that contribute to bringing income into the business faster and who can help me?

Notice what I did there. The admin pieces that contribute to bringing in income are the only areas that should have the "luxury of space" on your to do list. Everything else is a distraction. So for instance, cleaning out your email - while it energetically frees up space, it's not a priority for bringing in income - unless buried in there is a client or a sale that you've overlooked. And if that's they case, you've got another problem...

Some entrepreneurs haven't decided that they need help and still burn themselves out trying to do it all themselves. There are many assistants who offer blocks of hours for projects and many freelance sites like Odesk.com, Elance.com and fiverr.com. They provide support for the areas that you are not your core genius and take up more time than the return on your investment. So consider who can help you move faster with a little more help and support.

"Two-part to do lists..." from now on. That's what will impact your income faster because your time and energy will be focused in the areas that truly transform your business and your world.

That's your WAKE UP CALL for this week!

Chris Makell, author of A Smack Upside the Head, guides entrepreneurs who are "closet" introverts, to "be a voice not an echo" to attract more ideal clients who generate higher levels of income for your business. Get your free Next Level Breakthrough resources at http://chrismakell.com.

Develop Self-Confidence: 7 Lies You Need to Stop Telling Yourself!!!

By Farnoosh Brock

 

 

 Photo by Sadie Hernandez

“Be honest with yourself, and you will find the motivation to do what you advise others to do.” ~Vince Poscente

What if you could only tell—and more importantly, only believe—the truth? Not the half-truth, the white lies, or the other grey in between, but the pure, beautiful, and unadulterated truth. If I had to pick one super power, it would be to know the liars from the truth-tellers. I would walk around in public places, eavesdrop on conversations, and know immediately if someone is lying or being honest. 

I would go to social events and exercise my super power by posing my burning questions to friends and strangers alike. I would sit in the courtrooms of the world, and know instantly if the victim is lying or telling the truth. How fascinating, how disconcerting, how shocking it would all be!

Most of all, though, I would use my super power to listen to the voices that I hear in my own head, from the loud inner critic, the large ego full of opinions, and the years of social conditioning and upbringing; and I would be able to tell, without a shadow of a doubt, the lies from the truths. Oh yes!

I grew up in Tehran, and witnessed not only the horrible 1979 Iranian revolution but also the terrible war that ensued between Iran and Iraq. Even though I was very small, I remember the horror, the bombings, the sirens, and the oppression.

Mostly, I remember the way our teachers would brainwash our small little minds and fill it with the new regime’s lies. I remember that our families needed to play it safe while still helping us draw some faint distinction between those lies and the truth.

I moved to America when I was 15 years old, and today, even though I know the difference between a lie and the beautiful truth, some days the inner critic returns and insists on the lie. But I don’t think I am alone. We tell ourselves lies, half-truths, and anything but the pure truth every day.

We are paying for them, you know? They create new doubts in our mind and new fears out of thin air.

They make us a little blind to our own amazing opportunities. Most of all, they bruise our self-esteem, crush our self-confidence, and leave us looking for it everywhere except the very place that we will find it: within ourselves.

Your confidence lives inside you. It does not deplete itself or run away and desert you. It is a permanent part of who you are. But with enough lies, you can silence even the greatest force of confidence.

The solution: Stop lying to yourself and stop believing the lies that you hear.

The simplest and most powerful thing you can do to make that happen is believe in yourself.

Here are 7 lies you need to stop telling yourself:

Lie #1: You are not worthy of love.

Everyone in this world is worthy of love, and that includes you. The great thing about love is its abundance—it does not run out—and you can start with the first rule of confidence, which is to love thyself.

Self-love is totally in your control. It is a choice that you can make every day, as well as a shift in how you view love. If you can love yourself deeply and truly, you will generate plenty of love for the world around you, and you will start to see yourself as entirely worthy of love in return.

Lie #2: You are not enough.

Says who (other than you)? Maybe there were people who told you this lie at some point in your life. Maybe you started fabricating it on your own. Either way: it’s not true.

There is a difference between improving the person you are to be the best that you can be—a lifetime journey that we all share—and not being enough as a human being.

You are more than enough! You are good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, and then some. It starts with believing it before you can live it.

Lie #3: You do not deserve happiness.

This is the silliest lie of all. What have you done not to deserve this happiness that is your birthright? Who has dared implant such a falsehood in your head?

Yes, you deserve happiness in abundance, and the funny thing is you cannot have happiness while you hold on to the lie. Happiness flows to you when you fully expect it, not when you resist it. Stop resisting it. Start inviting it.

Lie #4: You are not unique or special.

This one still shocks me. Every human being—all seven billion of us—is born with unique fingerprints and unique voices. Does this gift form Mother Nature alone not shock you? It is the best perspective to instantly remember that you are oh so unique. There is not another one like you. There never will be. Know this. Exploit it. Enjoy it. Remember it.

Lie #5: Your dreams are too unrealistic or impractical.

It takes reading one inspirational biography or life story to switch you out of this mindset, so pick your favorite hero and go.

People achieve the impossible. They do it every day and in every age, every demographic, and every social condition. They rise up to the occasion and defy the norms. Nobody has to give them permission so they can live out their dreams and make waves in their own life and many around them. Why are you waiting for permission then?

Decide if your dream is practical or not, achievable or not. Then go make it happen.

Lie #6: Your circumstances dictate your success.

So many of us go through life carrying the shadows of our past and tainting our future. If we had great failure in the past, we let it define our identity and severely limit our potential for any future success.

Then we hear success stories of those who did not let any disadvantage dictate their success, those who blatantly ignored their shadows, shunned their current circumstances and defined their new future with brilliant colors!

How did they do it, we wonder? Can we too let go of these dark shadows? Can we walk into a new light, no matter what our past may have been and what our current circumstances suggest? I believe we can.

Lie #7: You are not worthy of wealth.

Wealth is personal. Some define it in the strength of their finances and some with the depth of their inner peace, and for some, one leads to the other.

How you define wealth is your business, just know that how you feel about it will affect your confidence. If you do not feel worthy of achieving your own state of wealth, ask yourself why? What self-limiting beliefs are you telling yourself that creates this condition? What better story can you believe so that you attract the wealth that you seek?

Telling yourself the truth can be the best habit you can develop, and asking questions and talking things through with yourself can be the easiest and quickest way to establish this habit.

You can kick start this habit by eradicating these seven lies first. Your reward is a renewed, strong and solid sense of confidence in yourself and your amazing abilities!

Positive Attitude

It's not always easy to have a positive attitude.... For example, losing your wallet, or car won't start, or your child came with bad grade, all are outside influences... Getting upset for a few moments is OK... however allowing outside influences to ruin your entire day is both sad and unproductive....

While sometimes it can be a challenge (and with some very bad situations, it may take some time), putting a positive spin on everyday things that go wrong will help you feel better AND will help you get on with your day....

The car won't start...again? Maybe it's time to trade it in for a new one, or maybe you'll chalk it up to helping the economy by getting your local mechanic to fix the problem....

Your child came home with a bad grade on her english test? See it as an opportunity to contribute to your child's education and self-esteem by working together with your child to help her improve her next grade...

A positive attitude will make all the difference in your day... Change your language, Change your choice of word, Change your thinking even feeling to it... Hey, it can even help you get organized!!!

Edited from Maria Gracia

Motivation Magic - 7 Days to Changing Your Life

In only seven days you will be motivated. You will have the will power and energy to not only reach for your dreams, but to grab on tightly and enjoy the ride. The Motivation Magic  system is simple and easy to implement, but can go a long way in helping you create your ideal life.

 

Begin the system on a Monday and wrap it up on Sunday. You can repeat as many times as you feel necessary, and I hope you feel it is necessary every week!

 

 

MONDAY - PLAN YOUR WEEK

Success always starts with a clear and specific plan. Most people wake up on Monday and have no idea what they will accomplish during the week, the month or even the entire year. This is why it's crowded at the bottom, and it's time for you to climb your way to the top.

 

What do you want to work on this week? What goals do you want to give attention to? What do you want to accomplish at work? Give each day a simple, yet specific plan of action. At the end of the week you will have progressed much farther than ever before, simply by knowing how you wanted to spend your most scarce resource, time.

 

 

TUESDAY - DREAMS

Dreams are important for many reasons. They give us something to look to, even when times are difficult. If you have a rough day at work, you can close your eyes and picture your dreams in your mind. You can rise above the short-term setbacks because you know you have long-term success to look forward to.

 

Not only do they help you deal with failure, but they also motivate you constantly. Even if you fall short of your ultimate goal for the time being, you will still advance forward.

 

Take some time after work to think about your dreams. This may be a totally new experience for you, and if so, enjoy yourself. Think big, and don't worry about how or if it will happen. Let the excitement of your dreams take over. Everyone needs to have a dream, and it's time that you create yours.

 

 

WEDNESDAY - 30 MINUTES TO SUCCESS

I am a huge fan of reading. I have witnessed first-hand how much of an impact reading can have in life. The more you learn, the more you want to learn. It's a wonderful cycle. As you understand more about the world around you, your own eagerness and motivation take over as you become curious and enthusiastic about really living your life.

 

Get up earlier in the morning, take a book to work with you for your lunch break, or read before you go to bed. Whatever your method, read! I cannot say enough about the importance of this tip. But you are reading this newsletter, so I'd say you are doing a great job so far!

 

 

THURSDAY - HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

Human beings are great creators of excuses. If something doesn't get done, you'll hear ten reasons why it wasn't their fault. Instead of crippling yourself with excuses, be honest with yourself and begin to make real progress in your life.

 

If you aren't reaching your goals, or are living a life that you don't want to live, throw away your excuses and take full responsibility for where you are. It is the choices you make every day that decide where you end up. If you want a different life, make different decisions. Nothing can change until you take an honest look at your life and your dreams.

 

 

FRIDAY - HAVE SOME FUN!

While planning, working, and keeping persistent are important to getting what you want in life, you must not forget the importance of fun!

 

All work and no play is unhealthy and can steal the very motivation you have been trying to develop. Take some time to let go of worry and concern and just have fun.

 

Go to a movie, spend time with your kids or simply relax your mind and body. You'll come back to your work with a renewed energy and vitality that will keep you going strong for days to come.

 

 

SATURDAY - YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL!

While working on improvement, don't overlook what you have already achieved. It is easy to get wrapped up in tomorrow without realizing how well today is going. The successes you have experienced in the past will help to motivate you in the future.

 

Think back to a time when you achieved a goal, when you felt great about yourself. These times can serve as a springboard to your future goals and dreams. Reading the success stories from others is a great way to increase confidence and get motivated, but a better method is to think about your own victories.

 

 

SUNDAY - RELAX AND REFLECT

It's been a long and eventful week. Now that it's over, let's examine what you did well, and what needs improvement. Make a mental or written list of things that you felt good about. It could be a meeting you had with your employees, or an evening with the family. What did you do that made this a success? What can you learn from that?

 

Now think about situations that could have been handled differently. What would you change? How could you have approached the problem differently? What can you learn from your mistakes?

 

This quick and easy program to motivation can help you take control of your life. It can give you the energy and drive you need to live the life you have always wanted to live. Because the tips are easy to use, you will have no trouble implementing them into your pattern.

 

Wishing you the very best...

10 Simple Ways to Wake Up With Self-Confidence

 

Note: This is a guest post by Davis Nguyen

BRAYNK! BRAYNK! BRAYNK! BRAYNK!

Your morning alarm just went off. What are you doing this morning?

Are you jumping out of bed ready to start your day or are you trying to squeeze in “5 more minutes” of sleep?

If you are like most people, you are still struggling to roll out of bed and inside your head, you’re thinking, “here we go again.”

Wouldn’t it be great if you could start every day full of energy and self-confidence?

You probably know people who seem to always be “on.” They are self-confident and wake up happy whether it’s to play golf on Sunday or to go to work on Wednesday.

Why is it some people seem to be bursting with energy in the morning while most of us can barely even wake up?

The reason we don’t just jump out of bed is because we very much prefer our sleep to anything else out there. Most of us view waking up and the morning routine as chore time. 

We have to dress the kids, pick our clothes, prepare the coffee, cook breakfast, commute to work, etc. It feels like bleary-eyed drudgery without much to look forward to.

Our mornings don’t remind us that we have a  life purpose, a compelling reason to begin our day with joy. To see the difference between beginning your morning with a purpose versus just getting up and mindlessly following your routine, think of the last time you were truly excited to wake up.

Why were you excited?

What were you doing?

Maybe you had plans to visit a close friend, you were working on an exciting project, or it was the day of your big presentation. You had your day planned out, and you had something to look forward to.

The good news is that anyone can begin the day with purpose and self-confidence.  It’s not a man or woman thing, or extrovert or introvert trait, or an age specific issue. It simply comes down to giving your morning purpose.

Here are 10 strategies you can begin tonight to make your tomorrow more purposeful and to add confidence and energy to your day.

1. Go to bed early

In our efforts to do more and more every day we have to cut something. Unfortunately, a lot of people choose to sacrifice sleep so they can answer that one last email or finish writing that one last check.

Sleep does a lot for your body. Besides reducing your risk for some cancers, relieving stress, and cutting weight, going to bed early makes you feel recharged in the morning and gives you more energy to jump out of bed feeling rested. That one email or bill payment can wait until the morning, because your body, mind, and well-being require a good night’s rest.

2. Wake up on time

When you go to be earlier, you’ll be able to wake up easier. And when you have more time in the morning, you don’t have to rush or feel pressured. You have time to eat mindfully, reflect on your day ahead, and spend time with your family. You begin your day in a state of calm confidence.

But if you are anything like me, it might not be that easy. As soon as my alarm went off, I hit snooze and crawled deeper into my covers and fell back asleep.

However, I found one technique that worked wonders for me. Before I go to bed, I  set my alarm and place it away from my nightstand and next to my door. This way, when the alarm goes off, I have to wake up, walk to the door, and turn it off.  Since I am near my door, I can tell myself to leave my room and not be seduced by my warm bed.

When you are trying to start your day off confidently, the worst thing you can do is go back to the bed. If you find a way to force yourself to get out of the bed and leave your bedroom, you’ll lessen the temptation to crawl back into your sheets.

3. Prepare for the day ahead

Take 10 minutes each morning (or before you go to bed) to plan your day and prepare for anything that is on your schedule. This will allow you to clear your mind, prepare for any important events or plans, and remove the unnecessary stress caused by those “Shoot! I forgot I had to do this” moments. You can confidently begin your day knowing you are on top of things.

4. Drink water

Second only to sleep (might even be the first), I make an effort to drink water in the morning to revitalize my body and refresh my mind. I incorporated drinking water in my morning routine so I can have a reason to leave my room when my alarm goes off. But beginning your day hydrated with make you feel better physically and will make you mentally alert.

5. Have something to look forward to 

When you have something to look forward to, you can’t wait to get started. It doesn’t have to be something massive, just enough to motivate you to get up on time and have a purpose in the morning.

My little routine is this: I get up and if I went to bed early and woke up on time, I reward myself with two mini-bagels with strawberry jam on top (I am addicted to these things!). On days when I don’t get up or I sleep late, I take don’t reward myself with my treat.

This might seem silly, but as long as I’m up and happy in the morning that’s all that matters to me. Remember that no one is judging you. Find something that feels like a reward or joyful activity — maybe sitting outside to drink your coffee or taking 10 minutes to read.

6. Do what you love

I won’t steal Barrie’s thunder on this since she is the master. There is no better way to begin the morning than to know the work you are doing is what lights you up and gives your day meaning and life purpose. If you don’t know what your life passion is, make it a priority to find out. Begin the process of uncovering your passion so that each morning, you wake up knowing your work will feel more like play.

7. Remember to Smile

Smile and you’ll just feel happier and more confident. It’s that simple. In fact, a number of research studies have shown the act of smiling, even if forced,  can actually produce feelings of happiness. When you wake up, look in the mirror and smile at yourself. Smile at your family and smile when you are driving to work. It might feel silly at first, but soon you’ll notice you’re smiling naturally because you’re happy.

8. Exercise

Along with sleep and drinking water, exercise is one of the most important activities for confidence and happiness. You don’t have go to the gym and lift weights for an hour. Anything that’s gets your body moving and endorphins engaged will make you feel more energized, happy, and confident.

The first time I ever stepped inside a gym was in 2012, and it transformed my life. I started with 30-minute workouts, and now I am up to 90 minutes.  I love every minute of it. If I can do it (I used to be 40 pounds overweight), you can do it too. Just start small — even a 5 minute jog outside your home is better than doing nothing.

9. Pick your clothes the night before

Instead of worrying about what you will wear in the morning, have your outfit picked out the night before. Choose something to wear that makes you feel good about how you look and how you present yourself to others. This will save you time and remove another chore from your morning routine.

10. Express gratitude

I thought this was silly (even more so than my bagel treat), but one of my professors challenged us one day to wake up, look in the mirror, and tell ourselves one thing we were grateful for.

It could be something as big as your internship or something as little as mint chocolate cookies. By counting your blessings and seeing anything that makes your life great, you’ll be ready to tackle the day with a positive outlook. What started with a silly assignment is now a part of my daily routine.

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With just a few simple shifts in your routine, you can dramatically change the way you begin your day. When you wake up feeling calm, rested, energized, and positive, your self-confidence will soar. You will feel in control of your outlook, your happiness, and your life.

What do you do to wake up each morning confidently?  Please comment below. I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestion.

Lessons to learned in reaching goals

Today I'd like to share with you a personal lesson that I have learned on reaching goals, especially those hard, stretching, and long-term goals.

By applying this lesson in my own life, I have achieved my goal of financial freedom in about two years. My definition of being financially free is simply that I have a stable income to cover all my expenses and live comfortably without actively working much(perhaps only 3-4 hours a week at most). This may not sound much to you, but it offers me the freedom of living my life the way I want and the free time to pursue hobbies or things that interest me.

The funny thing is, I may have known this lesson all along, but never put much faith in it. Only until one day I decided to give it a try, did I really begin to see the amazing results and its true power. The lesson is very simple, but I believe only very few people actually doing it, so the value of it is largely ignored by many people.

The lesson is: to reach a hard, difficult, long-term (>1-year) goal, you need to write it down daily.

There are two important parts to it: one is writing it down, the other is "daily". It doesn't matter if it's a piece of paper, or on your computer, or your iPhone, etc. You must write it out in some way, instead of just keeping it in your head. There are many science proven benefits of doing this, but I only believe what works for me personally. And so far, I can say for sure, it has worked wonders for me.

I think that many people actually have tried this before, but didn't get much result. See, that's the trick, that's where the second part comes in, which is probably even more important than the first part. You need to write it down DAILY. 

Find a time of day when you have a few minutes to yourself, and just write it down, don't think much about it, just let it out on paper, or your computer, or somewhere. Do this for a few days in a row, you may not feel and see much difference at first. Most people who tried this would stop here. I guess that's why it didn't work for them.

But stick to it, and give it some more time, maybe a month or two, I assure you that you will start to see some changes, some results in terms of ideas you start to have, people you start to know, things you begin to notice, which all pull you towards your goal.

My experience is that I started to see it working about 2 months after doing it on a daily basis. Then after another two months or so, when I wrote it down, the goal itself was no longer a wish, hope, or future possibility, but has become a sure thing. I started to truly see and know that I could do it. That's how powerful it is.

I could write more and more, trying to convince you that this works, but I think the best way is that you simply try it for yourself. Give it a test for a few months. I can't guarantee it will definitely work for you. But I know it has worked for me, and for many people I know, so I strongly feel that it will also work for you.

How to Reach Hard Goals?

1. Know your end result. 

2. Have clear step-by-step plans. 

3. Always see your progress. 

In order to help you do exactly these three things to accomplish your goals. GoalsOnTrack is designed to it. To learn and know more, Click Here.