Simple Guide To Make Your Life The Best It Can Be!

An honest guide to help you make your life the best it can be!

1. Identify where you are stuck in your life. Take steps toward getting unstuck, even if it means pushing well beyond your comfort zone. Action is the only remedy for fear.

2. Develop your observing ego by stepping outside yourself and seeing who you are during the day. How do you come across to others? Do you like what you see? If you don't, modify your behavior.

3. Identify your biggest strengths and make sure you use those strengths in your profession. If you do, it's likely you have found your passion.

4. Scared to speak up? Preparation and practice can help you pull off the perfect speech. Oh, and don't forget to give yourself a positive pep talk. You can do it!

5. Get a good night's sleep. Not only will eight hours keep you mentally sharp, but a full night's rest can keep your appetite in check too. Experts recommend eight hours for everyone.

6. Is the Web site for your business representing your company in the best light possible? If not, spruce it up.

7. Set benchmarks for the progress of your business. Are you holding yourself accountable for meeting them? You should be.

8. Write to achieve. Write down your goals and dreams to declare yourself in the game. It's like holding up an "Open for Business" sign for your life.

9. Keep a notebook with you at all times. If you wake up at 3 a.m. with a brilliant idea, write it down. A blank notebook becomes a suggestion box for your brain, opening you up to new ideas.

10. Think of a favorite memory. When your mind is on overload, recalling a great memory can relax your mind. And it just might make you smile too.

11. Don't compromise when you feel strongly about something.

12. Develop a love for learning.

13. Write a handwritten note to the people in your life you want to connect with the most.

14. Round up your friends and family. Regularly inviting others to do something fun like ice skating, shopping or meeting for coffee can improve your relationships.

15. Become a student of your chosen career.

16. Commit to your dreams. Don't be afraid or too proud to make short-term sacrifices to achieve your goals.

17. Listen to mentors. Take advice from a trusted source in your industry.

18. Set deadlines. Define a specific time frame for your goals and take small action steps to meet them.

19. Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.

20. Visualize by beginning with the end in mind.

21. Wake up to music and not an alarm.

22. Throughout the day frequently ask yourself: Is this activity moving me forward to achieve my most important lifetime goals?

23. Limit your television viewing to a few hours per week.

24. Plan your day the day before and plan your week the week before.

25. Realize failures bring about success. Risk is all about trying, getting in the game. You can't succeed if you aren't in the game.

26. Have confidence. Decide you are confident and have a more playful, less serious attitude about life. Most successful people do.

27. Write your own mission statement.

28. Get your priorities straight. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, to your community and to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

29. Let yourself experience emotion. Know what love, grief and pain are.

30. Live every day like it's your last. Be prepared for the end. Ask yourself: Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?

Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with tools to help you excel in life. Work with a Business and Life Management Coach to achieve your full potential today! Book a complimentary session at www.denisedema.com

Source: Success Magazine

Replace Negative Thoughts With Positive Thinking

Positive and negative thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies: What we expect can often come true.  

If you start off thinking you will mess up a task, the chances are that you will: You may not try hard enough to succeed, you won't attract support from other people, and you may not perceive any results as good enough. Positive thinking, on the other hand, is often associated with positive actions and outcomes. You're drawn to, and you focus on, the positive aspects of a situation. You have hope and faith in yourself and others, and you work and invest hard to prove that your optimism is warranted. You'll enthuse others, and they may well "pitch in" to help you. This makes constructive outcomes all the more likely.  When it comes down to it, positive, optimistic people are happier and healthier, and enjoy more success than those who think negatively. The key difference between them is how they think about and interpret the events in their life.

So, how do you think about your successes and failures? Do you think you have a predictable thinking pattern?

The first step in changing negative thinking is to become aware of it. For many of us, negative thinking is a bad habit – and we may not even know we're doing it! 

Consider these examples of negative thought patterns: The guy on the subway who just made a face is surely directing his behavior at you. When the receptionist doesn't greet you in the morning, you must have done something to anger her. again! You go straight to the coffee machine, because it's Monday morning and you just know you'll be solving problems until lunchtime. When you finally get to your desk, your assistant is waiting for you. "Oh no," you think. "What has he done now? The first problem of the day.”

Imagine how it makes you feel to constantly surround yourself with negativity. Then ask yourself if this is the way you tend to think in your own life? Dr Martin Seligman, who has been described as America's most influential psychologist, has done extensive research on thought patterns. In particular, he looks at the impact of an optimistic versus pessimistic outlook on life and success. He uses three basic dimensions of Permanence, Pervasiveness and Personalization, with optimistic people on one end of the scale and pessimistic people on the other.

Permanence

Believing that something we are experiencing is either permanent or temporary. The pessimist statement implies that you think bad times will carry on forever. 

Pessimist: I lost my job and I'll never find one as good again. No point even looking!

Optimist: I lost my job. Thank goodness there are other opportunities I can explore!

Pervasiveness

Believing that situational factors cause an effect or that the effect is evidence of more universal factors at work. The pessimist statement shows that you tend to think that if you've experienced a problem in one place, you'll experience that problem wherever you go.

Pessimist: I lost my job. Companies are all the same; all they care about is money. I don't know why I bother putting in any effort at all.

Optimist: I lost my job. It's too bad our company has to reinvent itself to stay competitive. Thankfully I learned some great transferable skills!

Personalization

Believing that something about you influenced the outcome or that something external to you caused it.  The pessimist tends to blame himself for bad things, rather than attributing the cause to more general factors. 

Pessimist: I lost my job. If I had been a decent employee they would have found a new job for me.

Optimist: I lost my job. I gave it my all, however they just can't use my skill set right now.

Re-shape Your Thinking

The way you view what happens around you can show whether you have a positive or negative pattern of thinking when you become more aware of your thoughts - and the effect they have on your life. 

When you're more aware of the way you think, you can take action to use positive situations to your advantage, and re-shape the negative ones. The goal is to think positively, regardless of the situation, and make a conscious effort to see opportunities instead of obstacles.

So if we look at one of the examples listed above, if you immediately think the receptionist is mad at you because she didn't say hello, how rational is that? Now change that thought to more rational outcomes like, she have been busy or distracted when you walked by or did you say hello to her? Maybe she wasn't feeling well, or she was in a negative mood herself. These are all more rational reasons for her behavior than simply assuming that you did something wrong.  Persistent negative thinking can cause mental health problems, including depression. While these positive thinking techniques have been shown to have a positive effect, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they are experiencing persistent unhappiness.

Key Points

Becoming more positive is always a good thing. The more aware you are of your thoughts, the better you'll be able to change them to emphasize the positive.  Positive thinking usually attracts positive people, events, and outcomes. If you want to create an environment where you're successful and satisfied, you'll need the power of positive thinking on your side.  You may not be aware of all of your negative thoughts and the effect they have on your life, however, by taking some time to understand your own thought patterns, you can challenge those irrational, negative thoughts – and replace them with more positive, optimistic and empowering messages.

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world." - Buddha

Achieve your full potential! Book a complimentary session at Business and Life Management Coaching to get the support you need to excel in your professional and personal life.

Learn How To Stay Positive

Many studies illustrate the importance of a positive mind for physical health, mental health, creativity, productivity, focus, discipline, fulfillment, imagination, and dedication. All of these benefits have a direct impact on living more fulfilling lives and experiencing better results in business.

Brain scans show that a positive mind is much more active than a negative mind, and active in the areas critical for many of the benefits above. My focus here is on how to be more positive and if you are already in a positive state, how to enhance it further.

Below are a few approaches that may be helpful for you. Try them out and find what works for you.

Question the negative thought.
1. Ask yourself what it feels like to experience this thought?
2. How does it limit you?
3. What would be different for you and what becomes possible without this negative thought?
4. Flip the negative thought upside down to create a positive thought.
5. Consciously decide which thought feels better for you.

Acknowledge the negative thought.
1. Choose to separate yourself from the negative thought and view it as separate from your true self.
2. Become aware of  your negative self talk and look at what triggers these thoughts?
3. Determine if these thoughts are based on fact or are you just operating on unconscious reactions to things.
4. Consciously decide which way of thinking will create a better outcome.

Let go of thoughts that do not serve you.
1. Don't let excuses control your mindset, let them go and replace them with productive thoughts.
2. Then focus on what is most important to you and redirect your energy to better serve you.

Enhance your positive mind-set by asking these questions.
1. What is going well for me right now?
2. What keeps my energy going?
3. What values, natural gifts, or talents are present when I am feeling positive?
4. Who else can I count on to share positive energy with me?
5. Is there a place in my business or life, where I can tap into positive energy?
6. How would being more positive at this moment benefit me?
7. What changes can I make to put more focus on a positive mind-set?

By focusing on staying positive everyday in your professional and personal life, you will be able to achieve your full potential and enhance your life. Develop a positive mindset and be inspiring to others! Book a complimentary session today at http://www.denisedema.com/ 

Spread positive energy throughout the world. Please share this with others who may benefit from reading this.