Steps for Persistence

I’ve got 5 steps to follow to be persistent and I’ll outline how each of those can be applied for maximum productivity.

Step 1: Direction

Being persistent is not enough. You need to be persistent at things that continues to steer you in the right direction. I love the analogy where a plane traveling from point A to point B is off course the majority of the time and just continually correcting that course to keep steering in the proper direction to get to the destination. If people would look at productivity the same way, they would realize they need to constantly be changing paths, using new tools, ideas and methods while always going in the right direction. You have to look past any one particular setback or failure, and continue to move forward regardless of that temporary setback. Knowing your direction and where you want to get with your productive tasks allows you to work in the right direction. That is the first step to being persistent with productivity.

Step 2:Plan

Once you know the direction, it’s important to make a plan to get there. It may be an elaborate plan or just a couple of simple steps, but as long as your plan moves you in the right direction, you make progress and can move to the next step. There are a number of ways to develop this plan and it is something you shouldn’t try to make perfect. Persistence relies on doing things over and over so the plan you start with can change and evolve over and over. Some of the ways you might want to consider building a plan are:

• Brainstorming ideas and just write down everything that comes to mind
• Think of things that have worked for you in the past
• Identify the people you could contact to get help from
• List new methods and techniques to try
• Research ways others have done the same things you want to do

Step 3:Prioritize

Once you have some plans or at least some possibilities, you need to look at prioritizing things. First you should prioritize your plans if you have a few ideas and look at which specific things you want to do. Make sure the plans make sense and that it is something you can work on. Do you have the resources to do it or do you need to find that still? Pick the things that you will be able to do or ensure your plan has steps that will get you what you need in order to then get started.

Step 4:Act

This step is simply doing what it takes to put your plan into action. While this often seems like it is making things sound easier then they are, that is not ever the case. Taking some action in your plan should not be difficult or elaborate. If you don’t know how to do something yet, then pick an action that will help you figure that out. Take an action to do some research or to learn more about the topic before you are ready to move ahead. There is always something you can do to make progress, even if it is small . That is the important part here in being productive and it will keep you from ever getting stuck for a long time.

Step 5:Repeat

The last step in to be persistent is to simply repeat these steps. Go back to step 1, to ensure you are still heading in the right direction. Keep your perspective in mind, your positive attitude and focus you’ve learned from my previous articles in this series and start these steps again. You can either reuse your plans, or adjust it as needed. Just keep repeating through these steps and you’re on the path to reaching your maximum productivity.

Repeat Your Successes

As you execute these steps and make a number of passes through them, you’ll learn some things that worked and some that didn’t. This is valuable to learn and use for continuing to improve your productivity. The things that work well for you are things you should look to repeat and enjoy the benefits of. Recognizing that progress definitely makes persistence a little easier and it will help to motivate you to keep working at it!

Don’t Make it Hard

Persistence is not something that will come quickly and it will certainly not come without a lot of mistakes along the way. Don’t make it hard for yourself by expecting too much too quickly and ensure you take your time to slowly learn this practice of persistence. You will have setbacks and sometimes the plans or actions you put in place won’t work or be productive. That’s OK. Just stop to learn from the mistake and go back to your steps and start again.

The Search for Life Purpose
Jay over at InnerNoodle has a great perspective and discussion on the search for Life Purpose and how it’s not as difficult as it’s often made. He elaborates on his journey in this and I figured I’d prefer to write a bit more then a short comment on the subject and here’s the result.

Searching for Purpose

I definitely agree with many of Jay’s points. I feel too many people spend (should I dare say waste) time searching for what they wish to find as a life purpose and they ignore for years some obvious known life purpose at that time. Some people spend years of their lives searching for a life purpose.

I think they find many things that could be purposeful along this path, but they either refuse to accept it or simply want to find something that attracts them more. Often people are so connected with their material world, the same notions bleed into their soul searching so the status and glamor of their purpose is highly important to them. This ultimately leaves them searching, taking little action and ultimately feeling lost and inadequate from not being connected to something with meaning in their lives.

Living Your Purpose

The point that people are always searching for something that has some, “cool factor” is a massive roadblock to people taking action and simply living what they know best at that time. If you were asked, “What is your purpose?” and you have no response, I can assure you that is because you are thinking you have no response because you’ve trained yourself to wait for a purpose that you want. Well, what if you purpose is something that you don’t know yet, or really don’t want? Is that still a purpose? Do you decide your own purpose or is it something you find by searching? Is it something that is revealed through experience, through others, through God? How do you live your purpose if you don’t fully know what it is.

My suggestion is this. Instead of thinking that you don’t know your purpose, break the habit and develop a new belief that you will only find your true purpose by taking action on what you feel could be your purpose at this point in your life. Act on what you feel, don’t analyze it too much or criticize it, just explore. Stop and let yourself examine those feelings and desires.

1. What are your strongest desires or feelings in your life right now?
2. What action can you take right now to explore that further?
3. With what you know right now, is it possible that this feeling ties to a purpose in your life?
4. Would it hurt anyone to follow your gut with this and see where it leads?
5. If this is your purpose, could you live it more fully right now?

This type of questioning can help you to explore new areas in safety by using just the imagination at first. Visualizing yourself take on new actions and living in a way driven more by purpose can enable you to avoid the seeking and start living for what you know at this point in time. It helps you open your mind to new possibilities of purpose and to discover new and more defined purpose than what you currently know. Getting out of that trap of trying to find a perfect, well defined purpose by living with what you know right now, will give you far more opportunities to know your life purpose, but to actually live it!

Purpose Does Change

I also believe you don’t have ONE set life purpose, your life purpose changes as does your life. No life is static, nor is any purpose. If you actually do something for what you feel in your gut at any point in your life instead of just thinking, dreaming, and hoping to discover something greater, then your life purpose will change as you do. It is something that grows with you and it is something you discover along your journey of life.

Purpose is connected deeply with your spiritual centers and most people seek out purpose to a point where they can find a morally accepted purpose. To me, this is driven entirely by your connection to God and your faith in that allows you to experience the joy of purpose, with hope for returns outside the worldly temporary things so many cherish in life. This is exactly why I think so many people struggle to find a purpose, they don’t have the faith or spiritual beliefs that let them connect to a moral purpose, separately from the material temptations.

So, I encourage you to let your heart and mind wander. If you follow your heart, believe in your ability to find happiness in purpose and accept the journey of discovery, it will lead directly to the purpose you have been seeking. Just make sure you get your mind out of your own way!

I heard a very interesting suggestion by a colleague at work recently about the value you suggest when selling a product or closing a deal. The suggestion was this:

Do not thank someone for their business when you close a sale, complete your service or sell some product. Instead congratulate them for their investment and thank them for their time they spent with you.

The reasoning behind this is that thanks often implies that you got the better end of the deal. When someone gives you a gift, you say thanks. When they left you go first and offer you something, you say thanks. Doing this with a sale can subconsciously imply you got the better end of the deal. You don’t a customer to think that so you are better off congratulating them for the investment they make. This transfers the idea that THEY got the better end of the deal and leaves them feeling they have something now more valuable than the money in exchange for it.

When I think back now to all the things I’ve purchased and how I felt when buying them, I actually do remember several people how congratulated me on my purchase instead of thanking me and I still remember them in my mind even years later. I never quite realized or registered why that might be so, and this simple suggestion has now brought that to light for me. I hope you get some value from it and may also be able to use it in your transactions you make with others. It’s a great attitude to have and really does portray more value is transferred than when you are thanked for the business.

True leadership is about taking people to a place that they would not go to by themselves. Good leaders provide that by delivering and demonstrating purpose, direction, goals and guidance that is well beyond a supervising role alone. These are the areas that I feel make direction vital to leadership.

Planning and Communication

Direction cannot be given if it is not known by the leader in the first place. And a leader cannot lead if they don’t give a direction for people to follow them. This creates a big requirement to do something about that by using techniques, tools and resources to provide and develop that direction.

• Vision and Mission
• Problem Analysis
• Brainstorming
• Big Picture Thinking
• Goal Setting
• Involving Others

A leader must take time to plan, think and figure out the direction to steer things. This is not something that is obvious and often the things that seem most obvious tend to be very short sighted with no long term advantages. There is much to consider by a leader for direction and this comes by all the tools listed above and a variety of resources. Direction is certainly not something that should be created by one person (although it can), it is better to use other people’s ideas, hopes and plans in developing a single direction that the leader can use for everyone involved. All of this data from brainstorming sessions, ideas from other individuals, through research, experience or simply grand hopes with visionary ideas needs to be assessed by a leader. Don’t rush this process and make sure that you consider many components of a planned direction.

Ask yourself questions to challenge the direction and make sure you cover all facets of it to everyone involved.

• Does this direction align with the values of those participating?
• What new skills and training will be required to take this route?
• Are there examples or case studies that can be used to model an approach in this direction?
• Are those involved able to accept the changes needed for this?
• Do you have the resources needed to achieve it?
• Is it something that everyone can believe in?
• How will you know that people are following this direction?
• Can you clearly indicate and describe this planned direction?
• Who will be the people most in favor and in doubt of this direction?
• What kind of contingency can you plan for in dealing with resistance or troubles?

These are just a few samples of the types of questions you need to ask yourself to ensure you evaluate as much of the situation as possible. You certainly don’t need to have answers for all of these when planning and setting a new direction, but you should understand what the most difficult areas and unknowns will be to help prepare any followers. That is where communication then plays a huge role.

Communicating during this planning stage with others is vital to ensure you consider their ideas and concerns within the plans and directions you decide on. Involve others as much as possible to keep them included and engaged with the decisions you make. Then once you do finally have the direction planned and decided on, it requires continual communication to ensure it is well understood and followed. Ask questions of others to ensure they understand the plans and the big picture of the contribution they can make individually. It is far easier to lead by ensuring others know your vision so communicate, communicate, communicate!

Course Correction

Leadership is not only about leading in a specific direction, it is also about correcting and steering things back on the right direction when they do get off track. I touched on this in my Persistence article in my Productivity Series that you are really continually steering things with minor adjustments back on track as a leader. However, there time when things have gotten so off course, it is no longer just a simple course correction. There are times to abandon a route altogether and choose an alternate path. A leader must recognize when an individual is heading down a path that is off course and not in the right direction. Running with ideas might seem like the right path but often it leads you further away or way of course from the direction that you have planned. When this occurs, whether is the leader themselves or someone working with that leader, it is the leader’s role to correctly steer things back on course. This can be difficult to do in a way that doesn’t break any respect or trust developed.

Search Out New Experiences

Inspiration comes about because of change or seeing the possibility of change. If you always do the same things, this will be either minimal or non-existent. You must search out and have new experiences in order to find inspiration. This works by seeing new places or people that can inspire you. There are many ways to find and the inspiring moments and things will different for everyone. They might include some of these which I often find inspirational:

• Nature and God’s creations
• Creative art and writing
• Stylish music and sound
• Innovation and brain science
• Life impact stories (Arswino always has great examples of that at his blog )
• Underdog stories. Check out Lance’s example here at Jungle of Life: So Much More Than A Football Game
• Overcoming crisis and trauma

These are just a few and everyone will have their own personal favorites that interest and inspire them. If you don’t go searching for this material to inspire you however, don’t expect it to simply come knocking on your door. You must search for it!

Keep An Open Mind

Once you do find new experiences, the unknown often drives fear or a defensive attitude towards it. The change that inspiration is generated from will only be held back by those initial worries or reactions so you must keep an open mind in these situations to see them from new perspectives. You want to let it shape you thoughts, change your initial response and give yourself some time to ponder the new things before denying any possible acceptance or further exploration of the subject. You never know what you could be missing if you close your mind to new ideas.

Watch Your Emotions

Emotions are often tied to that initial response but they also relate so closely to your past experiences they are often limiting or blinding what we dare to see or believe. A story that might be inspiring to one person can easily make another upset or angry based on how they relate their own experiences to that. Pay attention to your emotions, watch them carefully and try to control them. They can hide many subtle things that lead to inspiration at the wrong time or place. Keeping them under control and always trying to change the perspective you experience things in can help with getting past a negative emotional response.

Your emotions could just as easily be signals to find inspiration as often you feel deeply connected to something or you care a great deal about specific topics so you naturally gravitate and have interest their. Use this when it ties in well with the types of inspiration you want in your life.

Share the Experience

Finding inspiration comes a whole lot easier when you are actually talking about it doing that and talking with other people. This is where inspiration feeds inspiration in many cases as simply sharing one inspiring story with a friend or colleague can spark them to think of their own inspiring messages and it often waterfalls into a deeper relationship as you discuss important things between you. Each of those items shared also reveals something that has meaning to a person and knowing that thing is meaningful to them will automatically add importance to it in your life, especially if you already valued it.

Sharing stories of meaning and value are also a great way to discover new things and inspiration as well. The first step about searching for inspiration is made a whole lot simpler when other people bring those stories to you directly in conversation. Of course you will never feel the same hear about a story then experiencing it directly but often it inspires you enough to go make a similar experience yourself and get over your fears of leaving your comfort zone. Offering that same to others by sharing your experiences builds a stronger relationship where you can continue to share the inspiration and drive each other to find more of it.

Seek Out Solitude

While sharing your experience with others has it’s set of advantages and methods to find more inspiration, so does solitude at the opposite end of the spectrum. Solitude offers a way to focus your mind and body, which can allow you to tune in to your surroundings, your thoughts and your life. It lets you notice some of the things that inspire subtly and that you would have missed if stuck in a hectic noisy environment.

Solitude is also a place where we can find time for reflection and deep thinking. It helps a person link their actions and experiences to their thoughts, their hopes and their faith. Spending time in solitude can relax the mind and sharpen your senses which makes the impact of inspiration often more intense and lasting. Solitude will be different for different people, some may enjoy that time to think and study, others may meditate to relax the mind and body, and some may spend the time connecting spiritually through prayer and their internal connection to God. All these things help calm the emotions, alert the senses and help to make points of inspiration more obvious in your life, an important way to find more of the inspiration you are looking for.

Keep in Mind Your Role Models

Role models come about because they either inspire a person or make them jealous. Ask yourself what does your role model do that you like about them. Don’t look for what they have or can offer you, but only in what they do. Is it how they handle a situation, the steps they take to overcome hardship, their ability to lead and accomplish great things or perhaps it’s the methods they use to build and encourage strong relationship. Whatever it is, you can draw on that not only for seeing the inspiration but also to seek out more.

Do your role models align with the areas in your life you are passionate about? In other words, are they the source of inspiration that is most important to you? It’s worth looking at how your role models steer you as often people have role models that steer them away from the important areas of their life and do so more because of social influence than heartfelt inspiration. I’m not suggesting you carve out your role models only from what is important to you right now, as that would limit finding new inspiration, however, it is important to ensure your role models are truly impacting you with inspiration that matters to you and not just because of social influence.

Align Your Actions

While most of this step will be broken out in my next article about taking action on inspiration, I think some alignment of your actions with what inspires you will also help you find more inspiration. Taking action towards something reinforces in our minds that action and it can quickly build the neural connections in your brain to learn that new action and associated inspiration that led to it. This makes inspiration last and grow in value in your mind so putting attention to something that inspires you along with specific actions will only strengthen that. This stronger connection will drive you to seek out even more, as the value you have towards that grows stronger and stronger. If you continue to take action on new inspirations, they will develop easier, strengthen themselves and associations with other inspirations and lead to developing new beliefs and passions .

Follow Your Faith

Finding inspiration is not easy, especially in our hectic world with so many false social influences and media bombardment. Connecting what is really important to you with what you encounter is something that you must learn to do to separate the noise from the inspiration in your life. This comes as no small tasks and while the steps above might all help in that, it’s going to come down to you trusting yourself and your beliefs to actually recognize what is inspirational to you. You must learn to trust your own judgment here, no matter the source. That source of judgment is founded in the faith you have towards knowing what matters, knowing what is right and knowing you will recognize the differences as you encounter them. This faith, whether you consider it spiritual or not, is one to be followed when seeking out inspiration.

Research and Learn the Subject

Obviously I’m a big proponent to learning and so learning more about any subject or person that inspires you is a great starting point for activating your mind on the subject. Once you activate your mind by learning more about the subject and by thinking more about it, it will more easily lead into action in your life. If you can excite your mind and generate more and more interest in doing something, then the actions come much easier later on.

There is a definite balance here to maintain between too little time before action and too much. That point will not be equal for everyone and I think it needs experimentation to realize. If you spend all your time learning about a subject and don’t take any action, then the learning can be more of the inspiration than the action and when it does come time to take actions, then the learning component is greatly reduced. On the other hand, if you take action without knowing anything about the subject, it’s possible to cause more harm than good by either frustrating yourself or in some cases causing emotional, physical or relational pain because of the actions you took without understanding them well. Balance this by knowing at least enough about what new things you are getting into and find the right people to help or guide you and you can make the learning experience align with the actions you take keeping the inspiration that drives it satisfied and in balance.

Connect with Others

A great way to act on inspiration is to look to share and connect with others that have similar interests and activities. As I outlined in the finding inspiration article, this strengthens the inspiration and gives you people to talk with and share more experiences about the events that drive this.

These connections can easily develop into closer relationships and friendships and these will give you friends and colleagues to act out your inspiration with. You can use each other and work together to achieve the results you want in this related area.

Ask For and Accept Help

Connecting with others is great when perfectly aligned as your energy and synergy can be very motivating, but that is not enough with inspiration. Inspiration is about change and new things, so there are always areas you will face that will be a challenge to act on. This is where these connections come in as you now have people to ask for help when you need it. They can guide you in areas they are stronger at and they can encourage you to drive through challenge far more than you could tackle on your own. Don’t be afraid to ask for help already , and then be willing to accept it. Accepting it is the part that means action and there is no exception with that here.

Do the same for others by helping where you can you will continue to promote your inspiration not only in yourself, but also in those learning from you.

Take Action Soon

Don’t wait too long to take action towards something that inspires you. I already mentioned the item of learning and researching a subject, but there’s more than that. Often people are afraid to do something because it is so grand or noble or simply outside their comfort zone. It can be the simple things that as an action, shift from from a wisher on inspiration to an actor on inspiration.

Look at the things that inspire you from the first section on finding your inspiration and pick some action to do more of that or to begin implementing one of these items in this article to make it real. A small step today that gets you closer just lets you take a bigger one tomorrow and it will send you down the path towards the results you hope to achieve from whatever inspired you in the first place. If it is a person that inspires you, then contact them. You’d be surprised how easy this can be, even if they are busy people, famous or in some other way, hard to reach. People who inspire others, do so because of connections and they know this, so will generally be happy to talk to you, to help or to at least give you some direction to get you started.

The sooner you start doing something real with your inspirations the sooner you will gain the results hoped for. This enables you to then move on to new inspirations or to grow the original one with more intensity, more importance and dedication in your life.

Visualize Results

Action is definitely more important to take than this step, but this one can give you nearly all the same benefits when the action is simply not possible yet or because of where you are. The imagination of the mind is a wondrous thing, it simply doesn’t know the difference between what is imagined and what is real. This gives you a fantastic ability to experience achieving what you want from these inspirations even when you are not doing an real actions on them. There have been countless studies and brain research conducted about how the mind’s imagination can be used to become stronger, more creative, confident and even better at actions when they are finally performed for real either the first time or after many repetitions.

If you add visualizing your results into your steps for acting on inspiration, you will see the benefits without the practice. Beyond this, it also helps you to realize what your true desired outcomes are as you can imagine it before it happens. This visualized results can be a strong motivator to take even more action!

Be Persistent

I’ve touched on persistence before in my productivity series, and it is just as valuable here. Persistence is about being headed in the right direction , making progress in that direction and consistently steering your actions toward your goals. Since taking action on inspiration will always be in some way challenging, it’s important to accept setbacks and failures along the way. If you learn from those, get back up and be persistent by trying again, you will make great progress and eventually be where you want to be. You can’t let a setback stop you!

Set Goals

All of this is based on getting somewhere new with inspiration and so you can’t do that without some goals in mind. It may be some new ability to learn, material possessions, or a special talent or ability, no matter what it is, you won’t easily get their without setting some goals for guidance. Goals are a brilliant tool if used well and typically abysmal failures if not understood well or planned properly.

Your goals must connect to something with meaning in your life. Luckily this topic of inspiration largely addresses this as inspirational expectations are usually seated in something already important to a person.

Goals must also be measureable. This inherently makes them something you need to consider and be realistic with as you will have to have a way to measure it. Something to count, to see or specifically identify and recognize. Go ahead and set audacious goals but if you do, ensure you can easily recognize progress and keep driving forward. If you struggle with goals, be a little less aggressive and set easier goals to train yourself and gain some ground with accomplishment while acting on your inspirations.

Also, ensure your goals are time based with specific dates so that you can focus on them and know when they need to be checked, changed and rewritten. Don’t leave your goals to be static. Taking on a challenge with something that inspires you will be new, and so will the goals so you can’t expect to set them early and never need to adjust them along the way. Go ahead and drive towards them, work hard to reach them but don’t worry if they need to be adjusted along the way.

Be Enthusiastic

I just love this one! It is so powerful and yet so under used by people who want to act on something that inspires them. Even more of a crime is when people are inspired by another person, and that person is extremely enthusiastic yet that doesn’t seem obvious to the person looking to then act on that enthusiasm. Well, I can tell you, if you put more enthusiasm into your actions, you will make much faster progress. Enthusiasm will build confidence as well and it automatically attracts others and inspires them to find out more. Wouldn’t that be impressive to act on an inspiration and take it full circle, by inspiring someone else with the same thing! I think so!

Not only will enthusiasm drive even more inspiration but it will help to engrain deeper beliefs in your mind. Energy and excitement in the mind build stronger neural connections with new activities and things you learn so that enthusiasm can slowly turn into a deeper passion or conviction. This will ensure you lock in place the beliefs needed to act on that inspiration at any time. The passion will become stronger and in turn, that will continue to then be something you express, where once again you’ve come full circle as you begin to inspire others with it.

Goal Setting Pitfalls

In all of the self-help books and seminars out there, we are always taught how to set a goal. It needs to be measurable, it needs to have a due date, and it should make you stretch. But what happens if we start setting goals that don’t work for us? Could a bad set of goals throw you off course, or worse cause you to lose interest?

Setting the wrong goal can cause or reinforce a fear of failure and also drop your confidence in making progress toward your goals. The same is true when tiny accomplishments add no meaning, they feel empty and make you feel like an underachiever. The right goal is one that will energize you, rather than strike fear in your heart. The right goal will also pique your curiosity enough to get you moving, and it won’t feel like you could reach it without trying.

The best way to think about goal setting for your personal or professional life is to think of your body’s muscles.

If you use your muscles the same way all the time, they will never grow. On the other hand, if you suddenly overextend your muscles, you risk hurting yourself. But you really do need to challenge them enough to make them grow. The same is true about how you set your personal and professional goals.

Trying to Lose Weight Too Fast

For example: Jessica wants to lose weight, and she decides that setting a goal with a concrete number is the way to go. Concrete numbers really do work wonders. She decides that she wants to lose 100 pounds by the end of the month. Anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight, will realize that this is a very unrealistic goal.

Although most people probably don’t set extreme goals like that, there exist equally unrealistic goals that are considered acceptable. Jessica might have decided that she would eat only cabbage for two weeks. Or that she would exercise five hours a day for the next week. While these may appear to be milder than her original goal, they are both self-defeating.

Trying To Earn More Too Fast

In another example: John decided that he wanted to make $100,000 in the next six months. He’s not quite sure how he’s going to do it. Maybe he’ll use a little bit of law of attraction mojo, and hopefully get lucky at the lottery or on horse betting. Again, unrealistic.

Now Johnny’s goal itself is not an unreasonable one, assuming he has the background for it. Depending on his circumstances, and whether he currently has a form of income that he can leverage. If Johnny already had a $100,000 per-year business, he could try to double his business.

Taking a Reasonable Approach to Goal Setting

Both Jessica and Johnny would benefit from taking a more realistic look at their current lifestyles. One step in proper goal setting is to stop to take stock of where we are. Without truthfully taking a good look at ourselves, we cannot pick the goal that will really get us to grow. Certainly goals should allow you to stretch as a person and go outside your comfort zone. But goals should not be set so far away that you feel you cannot ever reach them.

The opposite situation could also take place. What if Jessica decided that she wanted to lose only 1 pound between now and next month? Or if Johnny decided that he wanted to make only one dollar between now and the next six months? It happens that we pick goals that are too easy for us. We think an increase of 10% over last year is all we should aim for. We take the easy way out, so we don’t have to feel bad if we don’t reach our targets. And at the same time, there isn’t enough satisfaction in that to keep the goal process motivating!

The trick is to be honest with ourselves, and to pick something that will challenge us, without destroying our motivation. You would never go to the gym and reach for the hundred pound weights on your first visit. Likewise, once a weight becomes too easy for you, you should move up to a heavier one.

Warning Signs To Watch Out For

The following is a list of warning signs that you should take note of when you reevaluate your goals.

— Resistance : Even though you chose this goal, you feel it’s not right for you. You don’t want to go through with it, and you feel overwhelmed or unhappy about it.

— Stress : Whenever you think about your goal, you get really stressed out. Maybe you can’t focus, or it feels like there is an annoying uneasy feeling at the back of your mind at all times.

— No action : You can’t get yourself to do anything towards your goal. You can’t even think about starting to take action, your goal just keeps you in this stuck frozen state.

— No belief : You don’t think it’s even possible to achieve your goal. Why bother if you’re not going to make any real progress?

— No motivation : If your goal is too hard or too easy, you might not feel like doing anything to get yourself moving towards it. You might get discouraged, or simply think that your goal is not important enough.

If you’ve ever set a goal that didn’t quite resonate with your current life experiences, you’ve probably recognized some of these warning signs showing up in your own life. Setting goals is just like anything else in life, it takes practice to pick the right goal to get you going.

Parting Words

Don’t be too hard on yourself if the goal that you made for your New Year’s resolutions didn’t work out. It’s always perfectly fine to reevaluate your goals, and there’s no better time than right now.

The Burden of the Self

There is a massive shift in today’s society in thinking that every individual has everything in them that they need to be successful, be happy and to achieve, no matter what they want in life. I certainly believe in each person having a great ability to accomplish things they desire and I also believe that that ability is not entirely driven by one self.

Societal Shift

Society in North America and other 1st world nations is all about enabling individual control, power and ability. This is further extended by continual shift that is marketed, publicized and encouraged for independence and individualism. People strive for this, believe in it and I believe at the cost of burdening themselves. There is less and less dependence on each other and even on systems that have long been depended on like community, family, agriculture, and especially, spirituality. This continual drive to control life and become everything you want on your own is obviously one that ties in heavily with personal development as well. I try to encourage that relationships, community, people and God are foundations for many of these things and I believe it’s important to keep those things real even among any desires to become the best person you can be. I think there is a need to realize the connections to each of those and how they are necessary.

Self Pressure of Failure

When a person spends a great deal of time on there own attempting to live up to some great expectation, there is often a great sense of pressure on that person. This is common for creative folks, artists and authors, especially ones who have create great works and have further works to produce. They have this continuous pressure to outdo and produce something at least as good and the creativity that might otherwise drive them to a new area can become a huge burden driving them into a pit of despair. (You may want to view this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert for her perspective on that topic, as it is what triggered me here).

The Creative Mind

Gilbert looks at how a person in this state of mind must separate themselves from the creative aspects and realize that the creativity will come and go and should not be expected. I like this perspective and think that creativity must be left on its own to surface as it is something that cannot simply be turned on and off. I’d consider myself a creative person and while there are always things I can do to help spark creativity, my best creative moments are still never controllable and I must allow that to be separated from me as a person hoping to be creative on demand.

Escaping the Burden of Self

So, I believe there is a way to escape this burden of self. It’s in looking at the source of our desires, our talents and our creative juices. Those things do not come from within, we are given our talents by God, our desires are triggered by actions and influences in our environments and we learn how creativity can be revealed in our lives through interests, mindsets and understandings of everything around us, whether that is the work of others or Nature itself.

We must allow ourselves to avoid the self pressures, self expectations and self love that can drive us to a world of disconnected independence and despair. Those are often led with a message of achievement and success at the expense of others. Escape those burdens by basing your achievements, your relationships, and your creativity on the One who empowered you with those abilities through His gentleness, kindness and love. Know that who you are and what you are capable of is not your own doing, but by the hand of God.

20 Ways to Save Your Brain

Do you feel like it is getting more difficult to focus your attention, or calculate numbers in you head? I hope you haven’t accepted the notion that a slowdown in mental acuity is an inevitable part of getting older. It’s not!

Many things can contribute to a decline in mental performance, and one of the major contributor is what I like to call the use it or lose it syndrome.

This article is a repost written by Jeff Nickles of My Super-Charged Life. His mission, and the focus of his blog, is to help people find success and meaning in their life. Jeff is an insightful writer and I encourage you to pay him a visit when you finish here.

Jeff compiled this great list to help us avoid the dreaded use it or lose it syndrome, and I am pleased to share it with you.

20 Ways To Train Your Brain For Peak Performance

In order to stay sharp, it is important that you exercise your brain. The less we use our minds, the duller they become. There is a lot of emphasis these days on staying physically healthy, but we should also be concerned for our mental well-being. Our brains continue to expand and adapt to the stimuli they receive throughout our lives. The more we take care of our brains, the better thinkers we become. Here are twenty ways that you can develop a training regimen for your brain!

1) Read a good book. Reading a book stimulates the imagination. Your brain can’t keep from drawing mental pictures when you read. Reading gets your mind off its butt and to work. I love to let a book carry me away. I always have a book that I’m reading and sometimes I have 3 or 4! I get most of my books from the library to avoid the cost of buying each one. This also allows me to try a wide variety of books without risk.

2) Big Brain Academy. Video games have a bad reputation for causing brain rot, but there are some that will actually help you strengthen your mind. I like Big Brain Academy for the Wii. It is a collection of brain teasers that tests your mental acuity. The tests are entertaining and addicting. You can even compete with others which makes for some great family fun.

3) Practice meditation. Don’t worry, I’m not going off the new age deep-end here. There are a lot of different forms of meditation. To me, in its most simple form, meditation is about spending a little time alone to relax and center your thoughts. It is amazingly therapeutic.

4) Get plenty of rest. A lack of sleep can interfere with your ability to assimilate new information. This means those all-nighters you pulled back in college were much less effective than you thought. Your brain needs rest to operate at its peak performance. This may be why things always seem clearer and brighter after a good night’s sleep.

5) Exercise regularly. You didn’t think you were going to get away without a little time on the treadmill did you? Cardiovascular exercise improves blood flow to the brain which improves brain functioning. One study found that physical exercise actually helped to increase the volume of the brain. So, if you want a bigger, better brain, then get to exercising!

6) Eat a good breakfast. It is not a myth. Eating a good breakfast does get you off to a better start. You should eat a breakfast high in protein and good carbohydrates. A couple of pieces of whole-grain toast with peanut butter will fit the bill. Eggs are also an excellent source of protein. Nuts, milk, and fresh fruit are also great ways to feed your brain.

7) Think positive thoughts. Encourage yourself. I am convinced that positive thinking increases the effectiveness of the brain and helps to avoid things like depression. I like to say that your brain works much like a computer, garbage-in, garbage-out. Find positive, encouraging people to hang around, read material that jazzes you up, do whatever it is that makes you feel good about yourself. These things will also help you be more mentally productive.

8) Be a continual learner. Never stop being curious about your world. Seek out new experiences, skills, and knowledge. Think of something that you’ve always wanted to learn to do and then get started. A now famous study, showed that certain areas of the brains of London cab drivers were more developed compared to the average citizen. This was due to their need to learn how to navigate the maze of downtown streets. We can use this technique of challenging our brains to improve our abilities.

9) Lay off the alcohol. Alcohol is of course a depressant. It slows down mental functions. The effects of alcohol on a person’s cognitive ability is well-documented. If you need peak mental performance, then stop drinking alcohol. In addition to its obvious effects, it also decreases the restfulness of one’s sleep which, as we have already discussed, impedes your ability to think clearly.

10) Get romantic (especially if you’re a woman). Studies have shown that there may be a link between regular sex and improved brain performance in women. Love-making increases a woman’s estrogen levels and higher estrogen levels are tied to better mental performance. Of course, the mental benefits probably do not outweigh the risks, unless you are in a faithful, monogamous relationship.

11) Break your routines. Drive a new way to work. Try writing with your less dominant hand. Mix things up a little. This perks up your brain because it requires you to think more. You aren’t just running on auto-pilot. Challenge your brain by getting out of your routines and it will respond. This is a great way to get your mental juices flowing.

12) Stop watching so much television. Researchers have found that too much television between the ages of 1 and 3 leads to attention problems later in childhood. Let’s face it, TV is mind-numbing. Get up off the couch and away from the television. Sure, there is some good educational stuff for children and adults, but the average American watches way too much TV. If you want peak mental performance, then turn off the boob tube.

13) Work with numbers. Do math problems in your head instead of on a calculator. For many of us, it is use it or lose it. We have become mentally lazy. We rely on our gadgets instead of thinking for ourselves. Working with and memorizing numbers is a great way to get your brain back in shape. This could pay off big dividends down the road!

14) Stop relying on your GPS to tell you where to go. Remember the cab drivers in #8 above? Using your brain to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B is good mental exercise. You have to use your brain’s ability to determine spatial relationships to effectively read a map and navigate a city. Traveling in an unfamiliar area is even better!

15) Recall old memories. Get out those old picture albums and start thumbing through them. This taps into your brains memory banks. Pictures will help you recall things that you thought you forgot. Dig deep to see just what all you remember. If you have other ways to stimulate your memory, like old letters or home movies, then by all means use those too.

16) Make beautiful music. Learning to play a musical instrument is a great way to super-charge your brain. It requires a number of different parts of your brain to work together to make the melodies that you desire. Of course, if you are already a musician, then learn a new piece. Push yourself to learn new techniques. Music is a great workout for the mind.

17) Speak a new tongue. Many people agree that learning to a speak a new language is a powerful way to give the mind a stretch. If you’ve ever tried to learn even a few new words, then you know this can be difficult. Of course, the harder something is for the brain, the better! You have so much more mental capacity than you might imagine. Give it a try!

18) Memorize a song. Many of us have lots of old songs stored in our heads, but why not expand your memory by learning a few new tunes? It may take awhile at first, but if you keep at it, you will find it gets easier. This is your brain getting back in shape.

19) Walk around the house blindfolded. It might seem like a strange activity, but your brain can handle it. Once you try it a few times, you will probably find it fun and challenging. Again, this one draws on your memory, motor skills, and reasoning abilities. What a workout!

20) Expand your vocabulary. Decide to learn one new word a day. There are several websites out there that can help you with this endeavor. You’ll not only be expanding your mind, but you’ll also be able to impress your friends and co-workers when you work one of your new words into a conversation.

Get started today and be smarter tomorrow!

There you have it! I have just given you 20 very practical ways to sharpen your mind. These suggestions will have your brain back in tip-top shape in no time. Why are you waiting? It is time to start exercising your mental muscles!

How do you keep your brain in perfect working order?
Do you have something to add?
The lines are open and there’s no waiting.

Emotional memories of traumatic life events are stored in a particularly robust way by your brain, making effective treatment very difficult. Researchers have now successfully tracked down the molecular bases of these strong, persistent memories.
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It has long been known that emotional memories of both a positive and a negative kind make strong impressions on your brain, and consequently have a very large effect on your behavior.
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A research group has shown that the enzyme calcineurin and the gene regulation factor Zif268 decisively determine the intensity of emotional memories. For the first time, this has enabled the regulatory processes at the synapse, which are important for emotional memories, to be linked to the processes in the cell nucleus.
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Researchers found that although traumatic memories can be overcome slowly through intensive training, they are not replaced. Negative memories, they say, need to be actively replaced by positive memories.
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While the research has no clinical applications at present, it could eventually lead to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying psychological traumas or brain diseases related to memory problems.

End Insomnia Effortlessly

Are you in touch with your fears, or have you hidden them in the dark recesses of your subconscious mind. We all harbor certain fears, and it can be an uncomfortable subject to pull out into the open.

Does it bother you to talk about your fears?

Do you ever feel like the only one with those feelings?

Everyone is afraid of something

At some point in time we have all allowed our fears to get the best of us. Lately, it seems that the economic uncertainty and it’s repercussions have become a breeding ground new feelings of fear and insecurity.

Because it is such a universal concern, I was thrilled to see this subject being addressed by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. In his latest blog post titled: Conquer the Fears Lurking in the Dark Corners of Your Mind Leo provides some helpful insights and suggestions from his own personal experience.

Here’s an excerpt where he shines some light on the problem and offers some practical advice. This quote if under the subheading:

Bring the Fear Into the Light

“Fears have power over us not because they’re so horrible — even if some of them might be kinda bad — but because we allow them to hide in the darkness and intimidate us. We are paralyzed by these fears. As a great man once said, we have nothing to fear … but fear itself.

The solution: shine some light on the fear.

The answer to the problem of darkness has always been light. Bring the fear into the daylight, and it won’t be so powerful.

Sure, the problem will still exist, and it may be a difficult problem. You’ll still have that debt to deal with — but it will simply be a matter of cutting back on some expenses so you can make bi-weekly payments on your debts, until they’re eliminated. That’s not so terrible when you think of it that way — a series of actions that needs to be taken. More on this in the next section.

So you have to start by shining some light on your fear — and do this by sitting down and thinking about the problem. Write it out. Make a list. If it’s debt, write down all your debts and get the amounts owed. If it’s health, write down exactly what your health problems are, in detail. It may seem silly to write down problems, but this is how you shine the light on them: by taking a look at them.

If you have problems even taking a look at the problem, ask yourself this question: what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Often it’s not that bad. If it’s debt, the worst is that you’d have a large debt to pay off, and it would take a long time. Or maybe that you’d have to file for bankruptcy — which isn’t as bad as you might think. I’ve had relatives that filed for bankruptcy, and — gasp — they are living normal lives right now.

If the worst-case scenario really is bad, seek help. Talk to someone about it — a friend or family member, or someone online even. This is another good way to shine some light on the problem — share it with someone else”

Don’t Let Fear Get In Your Way

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes, when left unchecked it can put a stranglehold on our lives and relationships. Clearly, leaving fear alone does not mean that it will leave you alone. Better to deal with it.

If you have found yourself experiencing increased fear and uncertainty, I want to encourage you to read the rest Leo’s insightful article.

You will also benefit from these related articles:

6 Keys to Overcome Fear and Doubt
Life Skills and The Fear Factor
Release the Fear to Get Motivated

Fear can have a paralyzing effect on your life, and it can surface when you least expect it. A life of true happiness and security is only possible if we have the courage to face our fears and overcome them. I hope this information has been helpful.

1) Recognize and acknowledge your doubt. You cannot overcome something until you first recognize and acknowledge its existence. If we give into the temptation to ignore or deny self-doubt, it will impose limits on our ability to act. Self-doubt can be a stealthy problem. If you suspect that it exists, you need to pull it into the light so it can be dealt with. The better you become at identifying hidden doubts, the easier it will be to overcome them.

2) Analyze your doubt. Spend some time drilling down and figure out what triggered it and why? When you analyze feelings, you make them vulnerable logic and reason. Normally, feelings override logic, but questioning the validity of feelings brings them within the reach of reason.

3) Identify the source. If you can figure out where these feelings originate, then you can hit them where they live. You don’t need to psychoanalyze yourself back to childhood or anything like that. Just try to get a handle on the area of your life that creates your sense of uncertainty so you can work on it.

4) Is there a pattern. Do you have a history of self-doubt in this area? Doubt tends to have favorite places to hang out. This raises the likelihood that we have probably experienced it in a similar situation before. Think back, have you been down this road before? Did you overcome your doubts? If so, what steps did you take? If not, what can you do differently this time around?

5) Design a plan. Sit down and plan out a strategy for defeating your doubt. Make an educated decision about what to do next. Choose a path that you think will lead to conquering your doubts. Next, put your plan down in writing.

6) Anticipate possible challenges. Now look at your plan and try to identify possible challenges along the way. Is there some area that you need help with? If so, ask someone close to you to give you some encouragement. Sometimes, some foresight and a little support is all it takes.

7) Take action. You have a plan, the next step is to put it to use by taking action. Stick to your plan and ask for help if you need it. In fact, encouragement is good even if you think you can go it alone.

For most people, self-doubt is just a temporary condition. Think of it like a speed bump on the road to success. Take the bump in stride, then put the pedal to the metal, and go for it. When your confidence is challenged, just follow these seven steps and you will get past it. In fact, I have no doubt about your ability to leave self-doubt in the dust.

Destroying doubt and unbelief - Conclusion

This concludes this topic. Tomorrow, we shall
start a very important topic. The topic is
titled "disgracing satan". For non-christian
readers, satan (or the devil) is the enemy of
God, man and all good.

He is at war with anything that is good on this
planet. We christians are the only people who
know his operations because God has revealed
them to us.

Tomorrow, we shall start this topic designed to
expose this animal and disgrace him. If you want
a good life, this is an animal you need to learn
about and to disgrace.

Out of Darkness

God tells us "Forget satan - he's no news and
he has absolutely no power to spoil any area
of a righteous person's life!!"

But Satan is able to destroy everything good in
a sinner's life. He destroys the sinner's
health through ungodliness and intemperance.

He destroys the sinner's wealth through careless
living, lack of moderation and self control. He
destroys the sinner's relationships through
careless living and talking plus selfishness.

He destroys the sinner's peace through ungodly
practices, evil conscience, various troubles
and anguish of mind. Let us make ourselves satan's
enemies today.

The perfect life
It is possible to have the perfect life.
Perfect health, perfect career, perfect
marriage, perfect finance, etc.

God already made provisions for this. The
moral law of God (the ten commandments)
represent the unchangeable perfections of
God's nature. The bible says God wants us
to share this nature.

To align our lives to God's moral law is to
have the perfect life more abundantly. Every
evil thing on this earth is simply the result
of man's failure to follow God's law.

Satan's main ministry is to try to get people
to compromise God's moral law so he can stop
them from reflecting God's perfect nature.
Beware of him.

BE A VICTOR

Every human being is either a victor
or a victim. A victor is one who is
a citizen of God's kingdom. A victim is
one who is a citizen of this world.

A victor is one who operates on the
level of creativity. A victim is one
who operates on the level of competition.

A victor is one who judges by TRUTH. A
victim is one who judges by appearance.

A victor is one whose choices are dictated
by DESTINY. A victim is one whose choices
are dictated by chance, environment and
speculation.

Be a victor.

A Successful Day

A successful day is one in which
no compromise was made with the agents
of moral disorder (satan & co).

A successful day is one in which God
was obeyed by faith, even one as little
as a mustard seed.

A successful day is one in which the tongue
was checked, tempers controlled and wrong
desires purified by holy thoughts.

A successful day is one in which we did not
allow what someone said or didn't say, what
someone did or didn't do to rob us of happiness.

Have a successful day!

What Tree?

Did you know that Adam means soil?
That means every human being is really
a piece of field to be cultivated.

If we eat from the tree of life (Jesus
Christ himself the Branch), we sow into
the Adam (soil, field) of our lives seeds
of peace, satisfaction, security and abundant
life.

But if we eat from the other tree, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil - pornography,
alcoholism, drugs, immorality etc (representing
satan, working through sin and resulting in
death), we sow into our lives seeds of perplexity,
complications and confusion. We allow satan to
gain firm possession of our minds and lives.

God's universe is very rational. Whatsoever one
sows into ones life, one reaps. Be wise today!