Month: May 2016

Today is terrific, today is the best kind of day, today is the success I will make. Why? Because I want it to be. I choose it to be. Attitude defines my day and the best part is, I have control over it each and every day.

Leon Ho, founder of Lifehack said:

There are three types of people, those who do not ask enough questions, those who have a lot of questions but no intention to answer them and those who ask good questions and seek ways to answer them.

Society today says to settle for the ordinary and to go with what is the usual and what people know. Don’t get me wrong, sticking to what you know will work but sometimes stepping out and working until it is better than the norm, will work better.

Questions are an important part of life and as I noted yesterday, successful people are asking themselves questions all the time. Today again, I have some more striking questions to ask yourself to challenge and prompt your mind into success.

Whenever you are doing something, like a new gig or job or even a task… ask yourself:

1. Is this what I really want to do?
2. Will this provide me an avenue for growth?
3. What strategies will define my success at this?
4. Do I have the belief or mindset to accomplish this?
5. What are my greatest strengths?
6. Can I improve the lives others by doing this? Or how can I improve the lives around me by doing this?
7. What rules have to be broken to get this done?
8. Am I learning from my mistakes?
9. Will the people around me be supportive? Or destructive?
10. What bad habits do I need to stop that can alter my success?

“The most successful people in life are the ones who ask questions. They’re always learning. They’re always growing. They’re always pushing.” – Robert Kiyioski

Aside from these 10 Questions – another driving element of being successful, that I believe is CRUCIAL to success is your mindset.

Successful people – never give up!

Yes, this one sounds cliche-ish but the truth is that highly successful people never give up. While most people would give up on their third or fourth try, for the highly successful individual, failures are simply life lessons that get them one step closer to achieving the victory they seek.

By the end of the day ensure that there are no EXCUSES, no EXPLANATIONS and no REGRETS.

Here are 10 things you can evaluate at the end of the day (any day for that matter) to measure your success. These 10 things are usually evaluated over a longer period of time, however lets scale it back for today and see if you can relate.

10 Ways you can consider yourself as highly successful today:

1. Successful people don’t make excuses for themselves.

Ask yourself: What makes my dreams impossible? If I put in all 100% effort, would it still be unachievable?

2. Successful people are flexible when and if they need to be.

Ask yourself: Why is my plan not working currently? How could I improve my plan?

3. Successful people don’t quit.

Ask yourself: Do you have to quit or do you want to quit? If you quit now, is there a chance you will one day regret it?

4. Successful people are a business.

Ask yourself: Could I be more productive during the day? What do I want to achieve this week? What do I want to achieve this month?

5. Successful people have clear goals.

Ask yourself: What are my goals? How can I achieve them? How long will it take? Can I put all of my effort into this?

6. Successful people understand that sacrifice is important.

Ask yourself: Will this sacrifice help me to achieve my goals? Is it worth the risk? Am I willing to make this sacrifice?

7. Successful people are willing to jump in at the deep end.

Ask yourself: Do I think it is worth it? Do I want better results? Can I overcome my fears?

8. Successful people live in the moment and do not hold grudges.

Ask yourself: Am I still affected by this? Can I stop thinking about this? Does it affect my future?

9. Successful people can embrace change.

Ask yourself: Can I challenge my fear. Can I adapt to make a difference. Am I willing to grow?

10. Successful people are thankful.

Ask yourself: Who has helped me today? Have I thanked them?

Don’t limit yourself to what the world says you can and can not do. If you have a dream big or small and you believe in it, then fight for it and you work for it. Think big as the world is in need for big ideas like yours! Have you worked on you big idea lately? Do it today!

The only thing stopping you, is your drive to work harder, push longer and grow stronger. If you want it, how far are you willing to go? It is between you and your discipline, self-control and perseverance to get where you want to go! So what will you do? Will you make the effort today? 

Sometimes things happen for reasons that we don’t know why… I believe we have delays for a purpose… We are delayed because timing is everything, timing is sometimes short-term or long-term. Have patience and keep pushing forward and you will eventually find the finish line. Who knows,  maybe it will be closer than you thought… If it isn’t well the journey along the way will grow you even stronger!!

Worry less but plan more. When you fill your mind with worry, there is no room for your greatness, your ideas and your talents to reflect. When worry takes over, take a pen and some paper and jot down a plan to track back on target, to understand what needs to be done to release this worry and be back at productive capacity!

Fresh beginnings start every day! It is never too late to start your goals, dreams and aspirations! You cannot go back and change the past, the last time you started, or even starting earlier. What you can do is start today and make a new ending, a new tomorrow and chance at hitting those dreams! Today is your day, if you let it be!

You are the answer. You tread your own path. You will have ups and downs and you will either push on or give up! It all depends on you. So what will you do?

Motherhood is tough 24 hour job with no pay, no day’s off and resignation is impossible. – Unknown

Here are 17 things you should tell your Mum:

1. You Created a Human Being
Do you get how huge that is? You completed one of the most sacred and important tasks there is.

2. You Are a Good Mum
First things first, you ARE a good mum. Even when things are hard, remember that you’ve got this!

3. You Rock It Without Sleep
The Sleep Foundation recommends that adults (26-64 years) sleep 7-9 hours a night. Yet Mum’s seem to still rock it with less than this.

4. Your Friends and Family Have Never Appreciated You More
No one compares to the support and love of friends and family. These are the people you are always offering a supportive hand or listening ear.

5. You Don’t Have to Listen to Every Opinion
Know that even if opinions are given with the best of intentions, you don’t have to listen to them all. You’re navigating this motherhood thing instinctually, and with the advice of a few well-selected advisors.

6. You’ll Never Stop Worrying
You know the feeling you experienced right after the intense joy of delivering your baby? That feeling was worry and it’s never going away. Just learn to embrace and manage the worry and you’ll do just fine. You already are!

7. You Won’t Ruin Your Child’s Life
Making parenting mistakes is normal and expected. Stop stressing about being the perfect mother and remember that you’re doing your best.

8. Your Mummy Instincts Are Right on Track
Congrats mum, your instincts are right on point. You can read your kids like a book!

9. You Care More Than Anyone
That says it all.

10. You Are Allowed to Feel Overwhelmed
It’s normal to feel overwhelmed. Plus with everything you put up and with and do… I don’t blame you.

11. You Deserve a Break
You do a lot all day and all night long. You are always working hard, and for that reason, you deserve a break.

12. You Can’t Protect Them From Everything
Life is meant to be experienced and it’s impossible to protect your children from every form of adversity they are sure to face during their lives. But keep telling them otherwise.

13. You Are Powerful
The husband may be the head of the home, but the mum is the neck and she can turn it any way she wants to. You couldn’t do that if you weren’t a super hero. Even when you feel weak, know that you are as strong as it gets.

14. You Should Be Insanely Proud
You made a human being. One day that very someone may be someone who saves people’s lives or rules a nation. You never know…and you know what? It all started with you. If it wasn’t for you, your little baby wouldn’t be on this Earth right now. Good job mama!

15. You Are Doing Great
Sometimes you might feel like giving up on this whole motherhood thing. Don’t worry – all mums feel like this at one point or another. Just know that you’re giving your children love, a safe and happy home, and a caring family, and that’s more than enough.

16. Your Child Loves You
You know that almost unbearable love you feel for your child? You child loves you just as much. Loves you even when you ran the bath a little too cold, loves you even when you’re frustrated. So never worry about whether or not your children love you.

17. You’ll Figure it All Out
You might not get all of your parenting questions answered until the day before your last child leaves home, but you will get it all figured out. Parenting is a long and winding road with plenty of ridiculous twists and turns. And if you ask any mum, she’ll tell you it’s the only ride worth all the trouble.

You can get out there, each day and everyday for years on end and YES you will progress, but you may also not get as far as you had always planned. (that’s life). This doesn’t mean you give up. This doesn’t mean you settle. This doesn’t mean you give up on your dreams and your ambitions. It just means you need to keep waiting for what you deserve. But don’t wait around doing nothing. If you settle for nothing and expect it to land in your lap, you have another thing coming.

But this isn’t even what the blog is about. What it is really about is the outcome. To help you understand the benefits and enormity of waiting for what you deserve, I have a short video that will express this through a love between a husband and wife.

“When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.” – Joseph Campbell

Before I get to the video, let me first remind you that – waiting around for what you deserve wont only apply in your love life, but in all areas of your life. Like any part of your life, it requires your action to move forward, however getting to the place you want it to be is up to being patient, pushing on and waiting it out at the same time.

As noted before, this video is defines the love between a husband and wife and this is just how it should be.

It is true that love and marriage means sacrifice, when we love someone we become selfless, devoted and we learn to accept the one we love wholeheartedly. (that’s why waiting it out for the right one will be worth it) Marriage may go in waves of ups and downs. Through trials the love and commitment between partners are being tested, but how far would you go for the one you love?

See below the video which I hope will inspire and encourage you in more than one way.

With this all in mind I have a list of some quick mini habits you can pick up and apply to your life each and everyday. These have been sourced across the web and combined/consolidated for you:

• Floss before going to bed. 
• Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
• “Eat the frog”. Write down 1 task that you must absolutely perform in order for the day to be a success, and do it first when you get to work.
• Send 1 call/text/email to an old friend or colleague that you haven’t spoken with in a while.
• End the day with fewer emails in your inbox than you started with.
• Give away / donate one item in your household every single day. Repeat until you have an uncluttered, restful home.
• Walk to and from work, if possible. Exercise! Sunshine!
• Eat at least one fruit or vegetable each day.
• Express gratitude.
• Spend at least 20 minutes reading something that is completely unrelated to your career (or “personal development”).
• Get uncomfortable at least 1x per day (ideally 3x or 5x).

Remember: 

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

• Stand up every half hour or hour, and walk around, do air squats or push ups, meditate, breathe deeply and slowly or stretch.
• Call, message or email someone you love.
• If you’re tired, lie down for five minutes.
• Shower or wash your face to refresh.
• Hug someone you deeply care about for longer than they expect.
• Go outside and get some sun for five minutes.
• Laugh. Tell a joke or listen to one. Read something funny.
• Write everything you’re grateful for. If you can’t think of anything, appreciate being alive. Especially compared to the alternative.
• Listen to your favorite song. Better yet, hum, sing or dance to it.
• Brush with your left hand. Makes you connect to your right/creative brain.
• Breathe deeply at least once a day

These are just the tip of the ice-berg for when it comes to the little things you can add or change in your life to make it more productive, to learn something new or to simply challenge yourself.

To make it through a day you must go from start to finish – regardless of the end result. However, the journey through the day can be taken through multiple routes.

The people, the places and the experiences each day will test your decision and your sense of judgement. You will need to be snappy and make on the spot decisions. Other times you will have what feels likes all the time in the world to decide your next steps.

Regardless, you should be prepared for one, the other or even both. This is not a perfect world, there is the perfect world scenario, in which everything just seems to fall in to place when it needs to. But if this was to happen – how would we ever learn? How would we grow? How would beat our very own competition of the person we were yesterday?

Everything is hard before it is easy ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

So what does it really mean to Stay positive, work hard, make it happen. For me this is what it is:

• To stay positive you need to choose to be. You need to be willing to want to be. You need to make sure that you have the perspective and attitude to be positive. Even in the toughest, roughest and most sticky of all situations. Be the bright spark  and give a positive punch. Not only will this break your negative mindsets, but even lighten the mood of those around you.
• To make it through the rough the tough and the sticky, this will require hard work, but not work for the sake of it. You need to work smart, you need to accept that the task and the journey ahead is going to be hard and that it will take time… maybe too much time. But the fact is, if you know what needs to be done to get the job done, then only way to get there is right through the middle of it all. So toughen up and buckle up.  Soldier on and fight your way to the end.
• By now, you have (should have) remained positive, you have been through and seen it all. Your hard work is coming together and you are starting to see the end result. While remaining positive, you can take on the final stretch and beat any last bump in the road. You have come this far – why on earth would you want to back down or give up now? The grass is always greener on the side and you are about to enter that side. So put your chin up, look forward, see the end of the road sprint. MIH. Make it happen.

Still struggling?

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it. ~George Eliot

So what exactly did I look for in my childhood? Music.

The best way to remember and reminisce the past, is through music. Music itself has the ability open your mind into a deeper imagination, and into a deeper focus.

Through nostalgia, we’re reminded of the places we grew up, our families, the wondrous curiosity of our childhood, the joy of our favorite moments, past romances and the many places we have venture to.

As John Tierney puts it for the New York Times:

Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders.

Nostalgia does have its painful side, but the net effect is to make life seem more meaningful and death less frightening. When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future.

I have found that while utilizing the effects of nostalgia, I am becoming more and more empowered, motivated and even happier as this literally like reliving highlights of my childhood. So what has this done for me:

• It feels like a holiday in the mind
• It releases endorphin’s
• It creates a bounce or rush of happiness
• Wants me want to relive the experience even more
• Increases my focus and productivity
• Reminds me of when things were so much simpler
• I feel more optimistic
• Relaxes my mind
• Reminds me of just how far I have come
• Reopens lost dreams, ideas and personal interests

I encourage you to find your sweet spots of Nostalgia and to see what wonders it can do for you. You will be surprised of what it can do and you will be even more excited once it reopens some lost memories, some personal interests and hobbies you had forgotten all about.

Today I have 8 points for you to read and to take action with.

1. THIS IS YOUR LIFE! OWN IT!

If you continue to tell yourself that somehow, somewhere, life is going to take care of itself. Absolutely NOTHING is going to change for the better for you. Unless you take action to do so. Life is not a rehearsal, and no one owes you anything. It’s time to start owning your life and start making better quality choices, and that begins with thinking better quality thoughts. Own your circumstances and change them. As I posted just recently (Day #122: You & Yourself) only you can make the change.

2. FIGURE OUT EXACTLY WHAT IS BUGGING YOU!

The most comforting thing is finding someone or even better, several people who relate to your struggle. It is so easy to sit and complain with them about everything that is wrong. I suggest that you figure out what exactly the problem is and work on changing it for YOUR own good. 

Work to fix the problem. Maybe fix yourself to solve the problem. – Chris Furlong

3. TIME TO MAKE A PLAN!

It’s going to make you feel instantly better to take out a piece of paper and plan out how you are going to make a change that will be more fulfilling to you. Or if you have some goals, or want to change this or do that, then what you need is a Push Factor! Are you sick of where you are? Then use that as a burning motivator to DO something about your situation! Your cause has to be greater than your fears!

4. USE THE NIGHT BEFORE TO PLAN FOR THE NEXT DAY

Monday mornings are the most difficult and anxiety filled days of the week! However, this applies for any day really. Therefore, it does not help you to walk into any morning with no game plan! In fact, an unplanned day makes for an unplanned week. For example: I make sure that Sunday night I have my Monday ready and set to go. This includes my routines ready for action, food prepped, shirts ironed and of course I have already spent time in the gym. I am ready to own Monday because I want to. I choose to! You should be ready to own each day because you want to. You choose to!

5. REST AND SLEEP BEFORE

Sleep earlier so that you can wake up well rested. If you do not like the day ahead AT ALL then pamper yourself on that evening. I realize this is far easier said than done when you have children and a family but do your best to take care of yourself on night. However you do it – make sure you have a relaxing routine in the evening to get your head in a rest mode before your back into work mode.

6. KEEP YOUR SCHEDULE LIGHT (IF YOU CAN)

If it is possible, try not to heap too much on yourself on a single day. Plan for a few tasks, usually those that are of highest priority. No need to stress yourself too much! Kicking off each day can be quick and easy or tough and dirty. Regardless, you should apply the same determination, attitude and willpower to whatever task it may be.

7. TAKE BREAKS!

Take a walk, speak to a colleague, get a drink of water. Do something to just blow off some steam! Connecting with another human being always helps redirect certain internal energies, especially when talking to someone you like. Grab a coffee, read the paper, you could even do some stretches. Whatever it is (even if it is quick) do something for a moment to reboot your mind.

8. BE THANKFUL!

Be truly and sincerely thankful of what you have. Each day is a new opportunity and that in itself we should be thankful for. It is sad of just how quickly we forget! Remind yourself of the blessings in your life, over and over again if you must. It’s so easy to lose sight and focus of what really, truly matters. 

So will you EMBRACE today?