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.

5 Daily Habits Of Remarkably Successful CEOs

From CEO.com

If you haven’t noticed there has recently been an onslaught of articles from various publications on how to be more productive, and all of them point to the same message: How you choose to spend your time is the difference between being a good leader and a remarkable one.

And if efficiency is about mastering your rituals, then we thought we’d take a look at which daily habits remarkably successful chief executives seem to have in common.

1. They wake up early.

Almost across the board, successful people wake up early—really early. Most of these CEOs wake up between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. And they never hit the snooze button.

There’s something about those quiet, meditative moments in the morning that help leaders identify what their priorities really are—not just for that day, but for the long term.

And as far as work-life balance goes, there is an important truth to remember: The more you get done when people are asleep, the more time you can spend with people when they are awake.

2. They exercise.

If you are getting up early, mornings are the perfect time to exercise. You don’t have to be one of those insanely fit CEOs who breeze through triathlons like the rest of us ride escalators. But you should do all you can to establish habits to maintain your physical health.

Aside from the primary purpose of better health, there are many unexpected benefits of exercise that will help you be a better business leader. Some of these include a sharper memory, a reduction in stress, improvement in self-confidence and greater overall productivity.
Remember, you can’t take care of others without first taking care of yourself.

3. They meditate. 

Setting aside an actual time to meditate, pray, or even just quietly reflect once or twice a day may not solve all your life’s problems, it certainly helps keep things in perspective.

Studies show people who meditate have lower stress levels, lower blood pressure and even longer lives. Maybe that’s why CEOs like Rupert Murdoch and Oprah Winfrey are such big fans of meditation.

4. They cut back on meetings.

You’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking this is out of your control, but is it really?

Most meetings are habitual and unnecessary. Before scheduling a meeting, consider if an email, a phone call, or some other form of communication would save more time. CEOs who are productive are CEOs who cut back on meetings.

If you absolutely have to have a meeting then stick to the allotted time. And only schedule in-person meetings when it’s necessary.

Perhaps Mark Cuban said it best:
“Meetings are a waste of time unless you are closing a deal. There are so many ways to communicate in real time or asynchronously that any meeting you actually sit for should have a duration and set outcome before you agree to go.”

5. They keep to-do lists.

This might be the most important habit for business leaders to establish. Our lives are much too complicated to not write anything down.

There are a myriad of productivity programs available, from bigger ones like Evernote to simpler ones like Trello. But whatever program you use, take Barbara Corcoran’s advice and rank items on your to-do list so that the most important items actually get done.

When it comes to focusing on what matters, remember that successful people have short to-do lists when it comes to the most important things they want to accomplish each day. The former CEO of Xerox rarely had no more than three daily objectives.

Above all, as you prioritize remember that people are more important than to-do lists. The best daily habit for any leader is doing what’s best for the individuals they lead.

DISC Accreditation: Become a DISC Certified Human Behaviour Consultant

A 2-Day High Impact that Accredited you as a 

‘Certified Human Behaviour Consultant’

DISC Accreditation

Become a DISC Certified Human Behaviour Consultant!

WORKSHOP DETAILS

DATE        : Thurs, 29^th to Fri, 30^th May 2014

VENUE     : Secita Building, 4A, Jalan SS5D/6, Kelana Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

TIME        : 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

INVESTMENT DETAILS

Normal Price: RM3,400

* Fee includes programme materials, lunch and refreshments for both days.

Last day of Registration is 15^th May 2014.

Call Wady to book a seat or fill in the form and email to:

Tel : + 6013 364 2037

Email : iswardy@globalknox.com

Application Form (Click to Download): DISC ACCREDITATION 

Facilitated by:

DANIEL TEO|Singapore

Received his MSc. in Organizational Psychology from The University of London and Master from Regent College, an affiliated member with The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada. He has been appointed the Asian Director and Principal Trainer by “The Leadership Institute of America” and “Consulting Tools” UK. Both organizations have provided consulting and assessment advice to America’s and UK's top companies including Walt Disney World, Motorola, AT&T, Acura, American Express, Toyota, etc. As the Principal Trainer to Asia, he has trained and accredited close to 600 Organizational Leaders, Heads of Departments, Human Resource Personnel, Trainers and Counselors in using and administering the ‘The Leadership Institute of America’ DISC Personality Profile System.

BRENDA KUA|Malaysia

The founder of Noesis Consulting Sdn Bhd brings with her many years’ worth of experience in the field of human resources and consulting.  She has worked for top companies like Canon, BASF and British American Tobacco.  She holds an MBA in General Management (Australia). She is a certified Coach in Certificate IV of Workplace and Business Coaching, the 1^st Australian Govt. Accredited coaching programme. Brenda is accredited in DISC & Facet5 (Big 5 Personality Model) and trained to conduct assessment centres to recruit talent for multinationals.  As a Certified Human Behavioural Consultant, she has conducted numerous DISC workshops for many companies.

AN EVENT ORGANIZED BY GLOBALKNOX SDN BHD & NOESIS CONSULTING SDN BHD

DISC provides an insight into an individual style that is more than adequate to predict the likely trends of people’s behaviour. It does this by evaluating four key dimensions in an individual. At its most basic level, DISC measures four factors of an individual’s behaviour. Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance.

The real power of DISC comes from its ability to interpret the relations between these dimensions. How a high ‘Influence’ person who has an equal high level of ‘Dominance’, will behave differently to an ‘Influence’ individual without that ‘Dominance’. Using this information, DISC can be used to describe a person’s general approach, including their motivations and dislikes, strengths and potential risks, and some of the basic assumptions they make about other people.

The instrument is internationally used in the areas of Human Resource management, consulting, coaching, mentoring and counselling. On completion, participants will be accredited as a ‘Certified Human Behaviour Consultant’.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES & LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Increased understanding of self and others

• Progress from a manager of people to a leader of people

• Increased influence and reduced staff turnover

• Increased work productivity and communication

• Build effective teams

• Resolve and minimize conflicts

• Gain commitment and cooperation

• Dealing with changes positively

The only thing worse than training good employees and losing them, is not training your employees and keeping them.

~ Zig Ziglar

WHO IS ATTENDING THIS TRAINING?
Directors, Senior Management, Functional Heads, Sales & Marketing Managers, HR Practitioners, Recruitment Managers, Organizational Development Practitioners,Team Leaders & Supervisors, Management Consultants, Coaches, Trainers, Counsellors, Social Workers and others who want to achieve personal development

APPLICATION
Leadership Development, Recruitment & Selection, Selling & Prospecting, Coaching, Mentoring, Counselling, Career Development & Management, Conflict Resolution, Team Building, Leading, Managing & Motivation, Communication & Dialogue, Parenting.

To effectively communicate, we must realize

that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.

~ Anthony Robbins, World’s #1 Success Coach

How to Influence Your Emotional State Using Body Language

So far you have seen that reading body language can help you understand others whilst also adjusting your own non-verbal signals will allow you to communicate better with others. Are there any other benefits to body language awareness?

It turns out that the relationship between your brain and body language is a two way street. Let’s see how this principle works with the following two cases.

Body Language of Smiling

It is well known that when you feel certain emotions such as happiness, a number of changes take place in your body such as changing heart rate, sweating, or the movement of your zygomatic major muscle leading to a smile.

What’s even more interesting is that the reverse is also true. When you change the state of certain facial muscles such as the zygomatic major, you start to feel the emotion associated with that expression; in this case happiness and joy. This is known as facial feedback hypothesis. One of the first people to suggest this was Charles Darwin indicating that a physiological change can have a direct impact on an emotion.

Testing the hypothesis however wasn’t easy as subjects had to adopt a particular expression without having the emotion and also not being able to guess what the experiment was all about. In 1988, a group of researchers carried out an ingenious study (Strack, et al. 1988). They told subjects that they were determining the difficulty people had when they used something without using their hands. The experiment was set up so that the subjects had to use their mouth to hold a pen in one of three ways:

• Lip position. The forced facial expression resulting in a frown.
• Teeth position. The forced facial expression resulting in a smile.
• Control group. Holding the pen in their non-dominant hand.

All groups were then instructed to fill in a questionnaire in that state, rating the difficulty of the move. The real test was however carried out at the end asking the subjects to rate the funniness of a cartoon shown to them. In this way, subjects did not have any specific emotional state prior to rating the cartoon and hence the experimenters could test the effect of the forced facial expressions while the subjects evaluated a cartoon. The results showed that the participants in the Teeth category reported a higher amusement rating than those in the Lip category. It seems that Darwin was right all along.

The conclusion is simple; keep smiling and the world will smile back at you. The smile will make you feel happy, it will make them feel happy and their smile will make you even happier.

 

Keep smiling and the world will smile back at you.

 

Body Language of Anger

Try the following exercise. Change your facial expression to one that shows anger or displeasure. You can do this by increasing the tension in the lower middle part of your forehead. The muscle, corrugator supercilii will pull your eyebrows down leading to a wrinkle in your forehead.

Avoid a furrowed brow; it will make you feel angry or too critical. 

Now, how do you feel while you are reading this? When you make a furrowed brow, your brain picks up the signals from your muscles and thinks that since the muscles are in this particular state, then “I must be upset and displeased”. In other words, by adopting a particular physical state, you have affected your emotional state.

Many studies have attempted to measure this effect, reaching some amazing results. For example, in one study, subjects were asked to look at a series of pictures of famous people while furrowing their brow (Strack and Neumann, 2000). The results showed that when their brows’ were furrowed, participants tended to be less impressed with the celebrities and rated them as less famous as when they were not furrowing their brows. The study suggests that facial expressions can influence non-emotional feelings which in turn can become the basis of judgment.

This gets even more interesting when you consider what is known as passive facial feedback hypothesis demonstrated by various studies. The question is what will happen if we artificially create a particular gesture or facial expression? In one study, an elastic bandage was placed on the forehead of participants to create an artificial furrow. They were then asked to rate their impression of a number of neutral targets. The results showed that having an artificial furrow reduces a person’s interest in those targets in comparison with a person that did not have a furrow (Mori & Mori, 2010). In another similar study, researchers placed artificial tears in the eyes of participants to see if the artificial tears alone could lead to feeling sadness. The result was that 53.8% of participants reported sadness while only 28.6% reported cheerfulness (Mori & Mori, 2007).

These studies suggest that holding a particular facial expression or gesture works both ways, even when it is created artificially. If you feel anxious, stressed and angry you furrow your brow and if you furrow your brow you are likely to feel angry and less interested which may also influence your judgment. This is when awareness of your own body language can significantly help you improve your quality of life, decision making and interpersonal skills. As soon as you realise you have adopted a particular physical state associated with a negative emotion, try to relax and return to a more neutral state or you risk making decisions while you are in a potentially negative emotional state.

Body Language of Confidence

In a recent study, a number of participants were asked to hold one of two postures during an experiment; sit in a slumped position or sit straight (Brinol et. al 2009). While holding the specific posture, each group had to complete a mock job application. They had to include their strengths and weaknesses relating to the job and record it in the application form. Participants then had to rate themselves whether they were good candidates for the job. The results showed that those who had a slumped posture were less confident in themselves. They also scored themselves as less suitable for the job they were applying for. This is yet another conformation of other studies mentioned above; your body can strongly influence your feelings, attitudes and subsequently your actions.

Everyday Applications of Using Your Body to Influence Your Mind

• You are doing yoga and feel the intensity of the moves in your hands, your body and your face. As a result, you automatically furrow your brow. Relax your facial muscles. Take a deep breath and return to a neutral state while stretching those critical leg muscles.
• You are about to enter a meeting. Just before entering through the door, smile. Keep the smile until you start to feel relaxed, energetic and proud to be here at this moment and in this location. Monitor your body language and enter the meeting room when you are feeling relaxed. You will feel and appear much more confident and you will notice this in people’s response to you.
• You are behind your computer. The font is small and hard to read. You squint and in the process activate corrugator supercilii. You continue to read in this state. Before long, you start to feel anxious. Your anxiety leads you to make a user error while using the computer. In turn, this leads to more computer problems. At this point you may start to blame your poor performance on the buggy, under-performing computer and continue blaming everyone and everything for your poor experience today. Remember, it all started with a squint. Detect your squint straight away, and address it. Relax those eye muscles and get back to productive work with a happy smile and a confident facial expression.
• You had a difficult day and feel tired. On your way home, you get stuck in a horrendous traffic. Your day has just got worst. What happens if you enter the house with a facial expression of looking stressed, unhappy and angry? Not only you are likely to remain in that state, but you are also likely to change the house’s mood, increasing the likelihood of further problems. Your day will become even more miserable. Instead, just before entering the house, relax your facial expressions and smile. You don’t have to feel happy straight away. All you want to achieve at this point is to adopt a happy facial expression; unfurrow your brows, relax your cheeks, hold your chin high, smile and be ready to make a nice-to-see-you eye contact. The rest will follow automatically. The side benefit is that your family will also see a happy face returning home and will subsequently feel better and happier. All problems are forgotten or will be seen as less significant.
• In a bright sunny day you are forced to squint which activates the same signals as of corrugator supercilii leading you to feel sad or upset. This is why sunglasses are such great tools, reversing the effect and thereby making you feel calmer while also making you look cool; two for the price of one.
• Focus on your breathing and make it steady and relaxed. Breathe through your chest while relaxing your belly and throat. The physical change will make you feel emotionally relaxed and calm, ready to face the challenges of the day.

References:

Briñol, P., Petty, R.E., & Wagner, B. (2009) “Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach”, European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1053-1064.

Mori, H., & Mori, K. (2007) “A test of the passive facial feedback hypothesis: we feel sorry because we cry”, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 105, 1242-1244.

Mori, K. & Mori, H. (2010) “Examination of the passive facial feedback hypothesis using an implicit measure: With a furrowed brow, neutral objects with pleasant primes look less appealing”, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 111, 785-789.

Strack, F., Martin, L.L., & Stepper, S. (1988) “Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: a nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 768-777.

Strack, F., Neumann, R. (2000) “Furrowing the brow may undermine perceived fame: the role of facial feedback in judgments of celebrity”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 762-768. 

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!

50 questions... To get to know each other!

These questions are from http://www.sparkpeople.com. You can copy them too so we can know I little more about you!
 
Have Fun!

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My Grandma

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Good question....I've had a few close ones over the last few weeks...but I really can't remember!

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Usually!

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Turkey!!

5. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I'd like to think so...

6. Do you have kids?
Nope

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM ALOT?
Oh my goodness.... all the time!!!!

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yep

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Totally!!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Multi Grain Cheerios

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nope

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Sometimes more than others!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Bunny Tracks Ice Cream....soooo bad for me too!!! :)

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Depends on the person

15. RED OR PINK?
Pink!!!

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My flab that doesn't want to go away!!! Grrrr!

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Right now....one of my former best friends, we had a giant falling out and I am starting to miss him!!

18. WHAT IS THE PAUL MCKENNA TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST?
No idea who that even is!

19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
I'm barefoot!!

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Homemade Chicken Salad

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Watching "I am Number Four"

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Probably Pink!

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Guys cologne, freshly mowed grass, Cilantro!!!

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My friend Tina

25. MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE?
Probably the mountains, since I go there all the time!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown, with blonde and red tints

28. EYE COLOR?
Baby Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Nope

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Cheese!

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Probably Happy Endings...I don't do scary movies by myself!

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
I Am Number Four

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Purple....it's becoming one of my new favorite colors to wear!

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
I am starting to become more of a summer kinda girl...comes with the body! :)

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Kisses...from the right person!

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Anything sweet!

37. STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO?
Strength...but I don't do it enough!!

38. COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?
Computer! I'm addicted!

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
I'm not...I read lots of kids books though!

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Don't have one...using the couch cushion as one!

42. FAVORITE SOUND?
Can't say that I have one...

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Beatles. Across the Universe is one of my favorite musicals!

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Europe!! It was amazing!! Barcelona, Spain was my favorite!

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
My fingers are double jointed...it really grosses people out! haha!

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Boring old Nebraska...

47. WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW?
Boring old Nebraska...

48. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR HOUSE?
My apt is made from bricks...

49. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR CAR?
Red

50. DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 50 QUESTIONS?
Yeah...that was fun! :)

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.

Life Transformation: The Secret To Creating Your Best Self

“You do something that you could never have imagined yourself doing, become something you could never have imagined yourself becoming, and, ultimately, live a life greater than you could have ever imagined yourself living.” ~Dr. Judith Wright

At the most fundamental level, every self-improvement blog post or self help book is about life transformation.

How can you transform from the person you are today to a person who is happier, healthier, more fulfilled, more productive, in better relationships, having more self-esteem, and feeling more self-confident?

Even the smallest positive life changes transform us in some way, pushing us forward on the personal evolutionary scale and fostering some level of self-awareness and growth.

But what if you could transform on a level that afforded so much more than incremental change? What if personal transformation propelled you from living a better life to living a spectacular life?

Recently, I had a guest expert speak to students in my Path to Passion course about the kind of transformation that leads to spectacular living. Dr. Judith Wright is an educator, renowned coach and speaker, lifestyles expert, and author (with her husband Bob) of Transformed!: The Science of Spectacular Living.

Dr. Wright was kind enough to speak with me about her book and the process of life transformation that leads to exponential, significant change and growth. Here’s what she had to say: