Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts

Start Choosing the Best Environment for Success


Success in any area of life never happens in a complete vacuum. Often it is just as much dependent on an individual’s will-power and intelligence as it is on their environment and outside circumstances.


To find happiness and success, you therefore need to pay attention and take some control over the type of environments you are surrounding yourself in on a daily basis; even the strongest and brightest of minds will find it difficult to achieve their goals if they are in a completely wrong environment for them. This is because every aspect of your external life has some influence over your internal thoughts and behaviors, especially the people you surround yourself with on a daily basis, and the type of places where you spend most of your time.


Time to look at the people you surround yourself with…..

The first main aspect of our environment that influences our success is the people we surround ourselves with on a daily basis. 


For example, a recent study published in a 2013 issue of Psychological Science found that surrounding yourself with friends who are more self-disciplined can also help you become more self-disciplined. This is just one of many examples of how our social network can have an influence over our own behavior and goal-seeking.


It fits well with other research that shows if you hang around people who are obese and unhealthy, it’s more likely you will become obese and unhealthy. And if you hang around with people who are lazy and don’t study for class, it’s likely you’ll end up with similar grades as them too. More and more scientific evidence is beginning to show that we become a reflection of the types of people we hang out with the most. This social influence affects every area of our lives: at home, at work, at school, at a party, or wherever.


So take a moment to think about some of your own personal goals and values. Are there any people in your life who are currently holding you back from achieving them? Be honest. Instead of spending time with people who make you hate life and make you want to give up, spend time with people who make you love life and motivate you to improve yourself for the better. 


That to me is one of the most important characteristics in a healthy relationship. It’s also essential to achieving success. If you have the right people in your life, it’ll be easy to find that extra boost of support when you really need it.


Think about the places you spend your time at……

The second main aspect of our environment that influences our success is the places we spend most of our time at.


For example, one important factor that has shown to increase productivity and happiness is giving people some freedom to design their own workplace. Taking ownership over where you spend your time allows you to choose an environment that motivates and inspires you. A good environment for success should keep your senses stimulated and awake while you work on your goals, while not being too distracting. 


For example, one specific thing you could do is put plants or a fish tank in your office, gym, or workplace to surround yourself with nature more. There have been countless studies showing how exposing ourselves to nature can improve focus, minimize stress, and boost cognitive ability.


Another thing you can do is decorate your workspace with motivational posters and quotes. These can be great resources to have around the office when you need something to lift your mood. Find images that are visually appealing to you, with designs and colors that make you feel good and set the right tone for you and your goals.


Often when working for large organizations we can lose a sense of our personal identity. Your office is usually the one place you have some freedom to express yourself, so create a work environment that works for you – something that reflects some of your own values and interests, and something that motivates and inspires you.


Try changing your workspace around every few months or so to keep it fresh and interesting. On the surface it may not seem like a big deal, but remember this is the place you work at everyday, so it’s going to have an influence on your success and inspiration whether you realize it or not. You might as well make it as positive as possible.


It’s about choosing an environment that brings out the best in you……..

At the end of the day, you can’t meet your full potential for success unless you find an environment that brings out the very best in you. Try to become more aware of the people and places you interact with on a daily basis. Are they encouraging your success or discouraging it? How can you make some changes to your environment so that it better serves you and your goals?


Achieve your full potential and work with a Business and Life Management Coach who has over 20 years’ experience empowering individuals, executives and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional & personal lives. Book a complimentary session at http://www.denisedema.com

Boost Your Creativity - Take a Break!


At times the healthiest thing we can do to help our creativity is to just walk away from a project for a little while.
The most creative discoveries usually don’t happen when trying to tackle a project directly through logic or reason or planning. We can’t force creativity to happen.
Instead, creativity often comes serendipitously. The best we can do is give ourselves the right environment and the right space to experience those insights and “aha!” moments.
Sometimes the more time we spend thinking about creativity and planning for it, the more difficult it is to have a genuine creative discovery. That’s why taking breaks can be so important to our work.
Psychologists have done a lot of research into how creativity works in our minds. Here are the main reasons why taking breaks can be so beneficial.

It replenishes your mental resources.
Being creative takes energy and hard work. We can’t expect to do it for hours upon hours and not get fatigued.
At the very least this is one good reason why we need to take a break from creativity every now and then. It gives our mind a chance to replenish its resources.
Breaks keep our mind sharp and help to restore stamina. If you keep trying to work while tired, you’re mind isn’t going to be working at it’s full capacity. This is going to lead to less-than-your-best quality work.
Therefore, when you notice yourself getting tired, then go for a walk, take a nap, play a video game, or take part in some other stress relievers to give your mind a rest.

It gives your unconscious a chance to do some work.
Giving our minds a break allows our ideas to go through an incubation period. This is when we don’t try to be creative consciously, but instead allow our unconscious to do some work.
When we take our mind off of our work, that doesn’t necessarily mean these ideas aren’t being processed behind the scenes.
Dreams are one manifestation of unconscious ideas. Keeping a dream diary is a great way to keep track of what your mind is doing while it’s running wild.
Another great thing to do is to do “boring” but restful activities that elicit daydreaming, which has also shown to improve creativity and problem-solving.

It frees up time to expose you to new things.
Spending less time focused on your creative work also gives you more time to expose yourself to new things.
This is good for creativity because it gives you a chance to be inspired by other things in your environment that you otherwise wouldn’t have the time for.
It gives you an opportunity to go to new places, try new things, and have new experiences. You can then integrate these experiences into your creative projects.

Actively seeking new things gives us a way to escape the curse of familiarity.

Creative people are able to take inspiration from anything, even when they aren’t focused on their work directly.

A photographer can get inspiration while listening to music. A musician can get inspiration while watching a movie. And a filmmaker can get inspiration while reading a book. A writer can get inspiration while walking.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of ways we can get inspired when we spend our time doing things we don’t normally do.

Source: Emotion Machine