To Have And Be

Each of us is given a different starting position in life. There are those born in abundance, those failing and those in the middle. This, for some, is the exact and simple reflection of the injustice of life. However, it is also true that from an economic statistics viewpoint, our starting conditions are only potentially important and numerically irrelevant. What really matters is what we do with what we have; therefore our ability to grow. A 100% profit is an equally deserving success, regardless of the initial availability of those who participate, which have in any case doubled.

This way of seeing things, which naturally applies to all levels of being and not just financially, gives us our current position, if we pause for a moment to analyze it, and the consequent future projection, if we continue to do what we are doing. When we evaluate our work and what we have achieved with this refined art of modeling our personality, comparing them to our initial possibilities, we know that the same economic statistics also apply to the life of every other human being. Evaluating the starting point is to lose sight of what really matters, which is our ability to grow.

To congratulate ourselves and our family, if we are born in abundance, or curse life if we are left to fail, or not knowing which way to go if we are born in the middle, is a waste of time and resources, when it lasts longer than necessary; that is to say, if it becomes the attitude or even the purpose of our life. Calculating then that we are a compound of different levels of awareness, even our qualities and talents are certainly differentiated; otherwise, we would all be the same. Here's why some of us have different propensities, destinies, and needs of the soul, which we could never measure, know and judge.

Our way of evaluating others should be the same with which we evaluate ourselves, considering progress and growth based on reciprocal starting positions. If we happen to have much, we must make good use of this, and if we happen to have little we must make good use of this all the same. The apparent difficulties are always related to the real ability to do the best possible with what we have, then to wisely administer our intrinsic wealth - whatever it is and always considered as our propensity of incarnation - and to realize our birth's individual possibility. The choice is clearly ours; stay seed or bloom, are the only two available options.

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Women's Intuition, More Than Just Folklore

Modern women are intelligent, up to date with the latest technical trends and financial markets. They know how to balance work with family and they have mastered the art of promoting business through what some males refer to as, 'women's gossip' or social media. They follow the financial trends and consumer buying habits and wait for a gap in the market to launch a new product or service. With all of this know-how, many still question their initial thoughts or give away their personal power by listening to the doom and gloom news. In the end, all of this leads to second guessing the missed opportunities. WHY?

For thousands of years, women have held families together, healed the sick, managed the budgets, made three meals a day and often with very little ingredients. Women are no doubt creative, intelligent and every bit alluring when it comes to being in power. So was there ever any doubt that one day they would want to run a successful business? Is there something that has been forgotten? Is there a key element that lays buried deep inside each and every woman, waiting to be fully utilised?

Think back to when you first decided to create a business. What was the first thought? Did you just wake up one morning and think, "I know, today I will establish a business". How did the idea become a reality or are you still wanting the reality.

Many of you have probably thought of a fantastic, unique idea only to let it go because you second guessed yourself? Months or years later the idea you had is now in the market and you are kicking yourself because the idea that now belongs to someone else, was yours.

Why does this happen? Our ego can get in the way of a great idea. The mental left brain logic and self-doubt kick in while the right brain creativity waits for action. After a while, collective consciousness plays a part and someone else picks up on the thought. Yes, that's right, your thoughts are in the ether for others to grab. A little like when you 'know' the phone is going to ring or the person you have thought about contacts you. Energy has weight and power.

Accessing intuition is as easy as thinking of a great idea. Maintaining intuition is a little harder because the ego needs to come second.

The ego is about letting go of control to allow the gut feelings and inner senses to rise through our consciousness. The more the ego learns to come second the clearer the mind becomes. Our thoughts begin to change as the little negative voice takes a back seat. You begin to feel lighter, creative and even happy.

You will start to manifest a successful business that is financially and personally stable and all by allowing the deep sensations that lie within to surface, your intuition. It will present itself through thoughts, feelings, knowing and visions such as imagination. Intuition also has answers and guidance to solutions on how to achieve our goals.

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Developing Your Extraordinary Mindset Opportunities

Just like artists who unleash their talent for being creative, you too can develop your own inspired creativity using the talents you have. Since your thoughts, attitudes, and expectations affect everything you do as a leader, you need to also look at your priorities as well as identify success factors for your company. Your critical goals and strategies to achieve these talents and successes are good places to begin. Experience new ways of thinking, not just about leadership, but about everything you do.

But business is business, and you want to get to the top and stay there. What do you do to make that happen? In paving your way toward becoming a better leader than you have been, the following tips are what I found for Developing an Extraordinary Mindset of Opportunities for those of you who want to become extraordinary leaders and those of you who are leaders and want to become even more
extraordinary leaders:

1. Develop Extraordinary Mindsets: Since your beliefs or the way you think produce the specific results you want, ask yourself, "Do I have a solid understanding of my game plan?" If so, begin to create attainable goals that will generate powerful results. If not, begin by writing down what you have already accomplished, and then add to that list what you want to accomplish as a business leader.

2. Develop Leadership Bench Strength: Be ready to strengthen your leadership capabilities. Tap into your natural strength areas of high performance management, articulating and implementing your vision, inspiring your people, having integrity, being accountable, as well as even more importantly, make things happen.

If you feel that some of your skills need a helping hand, build on them. Leading a team or a department is different from managing a team or a department. With that in mind, having a foundation of leadership skills on which to build gives you the opportunity to strengthen those skills when you use them and to gain other skills in the process. By integrating your new skills with the skills you already have, you are able to perform your job more effectively. It is vital that you acquire new skills that will enable you to perform effectively. Do not ignore any weaknesses you find either - work on improving them.

3. Focus your Mind: Evaluate your skills, knowledge, and competencies. Start by writing down a list of the things you have accomplished that were so exceptional that they gave you better results than what you expected. Manage your time according to your priorities. Also, when you make a decision, make sure you have both short- and long-term goals in mind. (Your legacy is also on the line here).

4. Take Control of Your Creativity: Do not analyze the reasons that something did not work to the exclusion of improving the situation so that it will work the next time. That is a waste of energy and time. At times you may need to go beyond traditional thinking when you are met with a challenge. Thinking more creatively by first brainstorming about how to solve a problem or in implementing a policy might be what is needed. Having an exchange of ideas with others can trigger the beginning of what you are looking for regarding a solution to a problem or even a new product or service that your company is looking to produce.

5. Exceptional People Skills: Have you ever wondered how some people can walk into a room full of strangers and leave with new friends and business acquaintances? This is where your interpersonal skills come into play as they are related to all of your other competencies. Look at how your skills are compared to those of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. (See Goleman's book entitled: Working with Emotional Intelligence as there are just too many to list here.)

6. View Obstacles as Opportunities: Do not think of the downside of what is holding you back or of how this is going to stop you from getting to where you want to go. Instead, think of obstacles as stepping stones and think of ways to get over what is stopping you. Learn to develop new ways of thinking about opportunities. You will be amazed of your improved communication skills, team-work, commitment to your work, as well as your increased organizational performance.

7. Forward Thinking: Knowing what to lead and aligning your skills with confidence and practical ideas to challenge issues with practical and creative solutions encourages the leader to think beyond the confines of traditional leadership. Since it provides you with different perspectives, your insights become unique for solving the issues at hand.

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Jim Rohn: The Secret To Self Control (Personal Development)

4 Steps to Becoming Free and Happy

Whenever someone tells you that your way is blocked by discouragement or confusion, check over these 4 Steps. It won't be long before you will find the barrier at your back and find yourself on the open highway once more.

1. A sincere desire for inner change

You must really want to be different. Your first desire should be for the truth itself, not for ideas that please you by backing up what you already believe. The earnest man dares to sail uncharted seas. When he finally reaches port, he finds that this new world, though strange at first, is what he really sought all along. You can change the thing that is wrong in your life. You just need to be prepared and ready to do it. Whenever you develop the desire, you can take away from your life what is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within.

2. Contact with workable principles

This means we must be in contact with some sort of genuine help. This can be a person who has already set himself at liberty, it can be a book, or it can be a matured way of thinking. You must be aware of counterfeit; you must not accept something as true merely because it appears so to you. You must make every offered idea prove itself to be a workable principle. You must personally verify everything. The road to happiness lies in simple principles: do what interests you and that you can do well, and put your whole soul into it every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.

3. Self honesty

Genuine courage consistent in being honest with yourself. What makes men free is for the most part is the truth which men prefer not to hear. The really heroic person is one who is willing to be wrong for the present in order to be right later on. But honesty does not mean that you change your viewpoints really for the sake of change; it means you explore your viewpoints in order to separate truth from falsity. Then truth dissolves falsity. There is nothing of more practical use than self honesty.

4. Persistence

You may be sincere, and you may have found a source of genuine help. And you may also have a full supply of self honesty. By adding one more thing, then you have all you need for swift strides forward; it is an old-fashioned and admirable quality called persistence. You must keep going. As the New Testament phrases it, he must not fall by the wayside. Persistence pays. Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure.

To be happy, rather than say "if only" substitute instead the words "next time". Success consists of getting up just one more time after you fall.

Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before realizing a final success. What sets the successful apart is amazing persistence. There are a lot of people out there who have good and marketable ideas, but pure entrepreneurial types almost never accept defeat.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man had thrown up his hands when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed like a hopeless failure may turn into glorious success

Becoming free and happy is what finding your True Self is all about. It is based upon an awareness that there is a better way to live and then eliminating all obstacles to realizing it. Visualize your destiny and make it a reality.

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Separating Failure From Success

What makes someone successful?

Many things help, there's no question. Seeing what other people don't. Being lucky. Having the courage to try things even when they're risky. Money. Connections. Specialised training and all the right certifications.

If you have all of these, you'll probably succeed. Then again, you might not. And if you have none of them? Well, you might just succeed anyway.

How do people do it? How does one person rise above the crowd? Is it really a matter of chance or some mysterious, undefinable X-factor?

Einstein didn't think so. He had a very clear idea on what allowed him to crack some of the greatest physics puzzles in history. And it certainly wasn't his intelligence.

It's resilience - the ability to stick with a problem. If you keep trying after everyone else gives up, you'll find the solution eventually. And when you do, people will call you a genius.

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." - Albert Einstein

I'm not saying anything new here. You already know the value of endurance. The athlete who can keep pushing a second longer will win the gold. A businessperson who can tolerate uncertainty a day longer will achieve miracles.

It's only failure when you quit. Everything else is a lesson.

How do you improve your resilience? You keep your body healthy, for a start. Light exercise and eating the right foods will fuel you and stave off illness. But your body is only half the picture. Resilience is as much a mental game.

Meditation is a great way to strengthen your mind. Metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation, is so effective that just ten minutes a day can slash your stress levels. This is why everyone from soldiers to students to healthcare professionals turn to meditation. Many people from these high stress groups swear by it to keep themselves functioning.

For people who struggle with meditation, self-hypnosis is another option. It achieves a similar mental state to meditation, only some people find it easier and more effective. I recommend it - it's done wonders for my health. A paper published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice showed that it reduces stress hormones in the body in just a few weeks.

How do athletes stay focused, even under pressure? Sports psychologists like to encourage visualisations to improve performance, stop stress and even heal from injury.

Even just simple things, like staying optimistic and socialising improve everything from your mood to your immune system and healing rate. And they decrease your risk of getting sick or injured in the first place.

Want to learn how to use these techniques? The March edition of Awakened Thought focuses on resilience. This is just a taste of the techniques you can start today that will improve your resilience. You'll be happier and healthier if you do.

As a side effect, you'll succeed the way Einstein did - by sticking with his problems longer.

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Creating Your Dream: 6 Easy Steps to Getting Clear About Your Dream

"I don't know what my dream is."

"I have too many dreams."

"I don't have the time to dream; I got bills to pay."

These are some typical responses I hear from my clients and workshop participants. Sound familiar?

Most of us get so bogged down by life's minutiae that dreams slip out of sight. The first thing you need to do is shake the dust off your dream. Getting clear on your dream is the first step to creating it.

• Ask yourself what your big dream is, the one you have to get done before you die. If you have two or three or four dreams, prioritize them. Choose the one that's most important to you.


• Why do you want this dream? If your dream is to start a bakery, is it only because you love chocolate cake made by you? Or, is your dream connected to something bigger, like, providing employment to disadvantaged women? Knowing your "why" will help you stay on track even on off days.


• Think specifics. Where will this bakery business be located? Do you plan to rent a physical space for it? Or will you run it from home and make it an online business? Give it a name. Come up with a product line. Is there an unexplored niche you can carve out like "all-natural" ingredients? DO you have a business plan?


• When do you plan to get this venture started? A dream is a goal with a timeline, as Dr.Phil likes to say. "Someday" dreams never get done. Set doable weekly, monthly and annual goals to meet your targets.

• Who will buy from you? This will determine your pricing strategy and branding. Are you looking at an elite market? Or, do you see yourself as the friendly neighborhood baker whose creations remind people of Grandma's home-made recipes and taste?


• How does the success of this dream look to you? Think from the end for a moment. Imagine the ideal scenario where this dream has come to fruition. Visualize all the details. Where will you be then? What does your life look like? How have people been served by your dream? When you get clear about this, every decision you make along the way will be guided by it.

I've used a bakery business as an example here, but these concepts can be used to flesh out any dream-whether it is writing a book, owning a home, going on a cruise, or even finding the love of your life.

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Busting the Myth of Multitasking

How to become more productive at work without burning out

Do you feel like you’re constantly busy at work? Do you spend all day completing tasks but still leave the office feeling that you haven’t accomplished anything? As Tony Robbins says, “Most people mistake movement for achievement.”

Instead of being obsessed with filling your calendar with activities, you must begin focusing on your desired outcomes at work and going after those goals in an effective, productive way. Adapt these dynamic solutions into your everyday routine, and you’ll accomplish more in the office and feel more fulfilled in your career.

Focus on what’s important

How many times each day are you interrupted at work? Some of these interruptions come from your own boredom — that’s why you’re browsing the Internet and checking your social media accounts. But there are other distractions that you have less control over, like responding to emails and attending meetings. One way to combat the seemingly endless stream of distractions you face at work is to focus each morning on what you can achieve that day. You can calculate your productivity by writing out what you did the previous day with an estimate on how long the task took. Include everything from when you woke up, what you did at work (including any distraction breaks) and what you did after work. This will give you a clear picture regarding what your day typically looks like. Look for items that carry into the next day, as well as any surprise items someone else asked you to do.

Once you realize which tasks needs to be done, think about why they need to be worked on, or what purpose they have in the overall scheme of things. You want to move ahead at your company. You also know you have a big presentation for a client coming up. What’s the outcome of delivering a great presentation? You’ll show your boss you are an ambitious, knowledgeable team member, and you’ll potentially win over a new client, which could ultimately lead to a promotion.

Then, cut down on the distractions you have control over. If you know you need to spend an hour working on your presentation, then you can’t spend 30 minutes browsing Facebook. Thinking about what drives your work will enable you to feel more focused on the things you need to accomplish.

Use effective time management solutions

There are productivity tools and resources that will enable you to become a master of your schedule.  Chunking is one effective method that can help you improve productivity. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the many tasks currently on your agenda, look at your schedule and see which items can be grouped together based on similar desired outcomes. Group together the items that will yield similar results. By sorting your activities into more actionable items, you minimize the length of your to-do list and makes the day ahead feel less overwhelming.

For instance, if you know you have to draft and respond to multiple emails to your colleagues and also set up a meeting with your manager via Outlook, chunk these items together. If there are things you need to handle after work, like picking up your dry cleaning, going to the grocery store, feeding your kids dinner and getting some exercise in, see if there’s a way you can put tasks together. Can you pick up a ready-to-eat dinner at the store while you get your groceries? Can you ride your bike to the dry cleaner in order to achieve your fitness goals? Categorizing tasks based on outcome and dealing with them all at once will make you feel more organized and help improve productivity.

Know when to say “no”

The most successful people in the world aren’t the ones who try to take on everything — they’re masters of time management who know what they should be investing their time in. You want to be viewed as helpful and productive at work, so you often say “Yes” to whatever’s asked of you. But over time, you’ll find you have too much on your plate. This creates stress and takes your focus away from the things you could be working on. Learn how to say “No” when a task doesn’t fit into your schedule.

Additionally, identify tasks that are necessary but aren’t helping you grow. Can you delegate these tasks to someone else at the office? By taking control of your time and dedicating it to essential items, you’ll learn how to cultivate productivity.

Build better habits

Lastly, it’s important to identify bad habits and work to build positive ones. If you know that you work better in the evenings, sleep longer in the mornings and stay at the office longer at night. Do you find that your brain functions better after exercising? Set your alarm early and hit the gym before heading into work. When you know what it takes for you to feel fulfilled and productive at work, try to cultivate the habits that allow you to feel that way. Identify the activities that make you feel powerful and productive, and allow yourself to do them as often as possible. Part of building good habits also includes taking breaks when needed. As much as you’d like to stay at the office all day, you can’t effectively work without regularly resting and recharging.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at work and stressed out by the sheer number of tasks on your plate, it’s time for a change. You can start by asking yourself the following question.

“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?”  
Then, assess which habits enable you to increase your output while not overloading your schedule and keep working toward your goals.

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Developing Your Extraordinary Mindset Opportunities

Just like artists who unleash their talent for being creative, you too can develop your own inspired creativity using the talents you have. Since your thoughts, attitudes, and expectations affect everything you do as a leader, you need to also look at your priorities as well as identify success factors for your company. Your critical goals and strategies to achieve these talents and successes are good places to begin. Experience new ways of thinking, not just about leadership, but about everything you do.

But business is business, and you want to get to the top and stay there. What do you do to make that happen? In paving your way toward becoming a better leader than you have been, the following tips are what I found for Developing an Extraordinary Mindset of Opportunities for those of you who want to become extraordinary leaders and those of you who are leaders and want to become even more
extraordinary leaders:

1. Develop Extraordinary Mindsets: Since your beliefs or the way you think produce the specific results you want, ask yourself, "Do I have a solid understanding of my game plan?" If so, begin to create attainable goals that will generate powerful results. If not, begin by writing down what you have already accomplished, and then add to that list what you want to accomplish as a business leader.

2. Develop Leadership Bench Strength: Be ready to strengthen your leadership capabilities. Tap into your natural strength areas of high performance management, articulating and implementing your vision, inspiring your people, having integrity, being accountable, as well as even more importantly, make things happen.

If you feel that some of your skills need a helping hand, build on them. Leading a team or a department is different from managing a team or a department. With that in mind, having a foundation of leadership skills on which to build gives you the opportunity to strengthen those skills when you use them and to gain other skills in the process. By integrating your new skills with the skills you already have, you are able to perform your job more effectively. It is vital that you acquire new skills that will enable you to perform effectively. Do not ignore any weaknesses you find either - work on improving them.

3. Focus your Mind: Evaluate your skills, knowledge, and competencies. Start by writing down a list of the things you have accomplished that were so exceptional that they gave you better results than what you expected. Manage your time according to your priorities. Also, when you make a decision, make sure you have both short- and long-term goals in mind. (Your legacy is also on the line here).

4. Take Control of Your Creativity: Do not analyze the reasons that something did not work to the exclusion of improving the situation so that it will work the next time. That is a waste of energy and time. At times you may need to go beyond traditional thinking when you are met with a challenge. Thinking more creatively by first brainstorming about how to solve a problem or in implementing a policy might be what is needed. Having an exchange of ideas with others can trigger the beginning of what you are looking for regarding a solution to a problem or even a new product or service that your company is looking to produce.

5. Exceptional People Skills: Have you ever wondered how some people can walk into a room full of strangers and leave with new friends and business acquaintances? This is where your interpersonal skills come into play as they are related to all of your other competencies. Look at how your skills are compared to those of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. (See Goleman's book entitled: Working with Emotional Intelligence as there are just too many to list here.)

6. View Obstacles as Opportunities: Do not think of the downside of what is holding you back or of how this is going to stop you from getting to where you want to go. Instead, think of obstacles as stepping stones and think of ways to get over what is stopping you. Learn to develop new ways of thinking about opportunities. You will be amazed of your improved communication skills, team-work, commitment to your work, as well as your increased organizational performance.

7. Forward Thinking: Knowing what to lead and aligning your skills with confidence and practical ideas to challenge issues with practical and creative solutions encourages the leader to think beyond the confines of traditional leadership. Since it provides you with different perspectives, your insights become unique for solving the issues at hand.

Source