The Power Of Personal Development

Learn how to Love Yourself

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Loving yourself allows you to see the beauty in others. It opens your senses to the vividness of divine light, to the sweetness of your own life experience and to the power of your focused incarnation. Loving yourself allows your consciousness to believe the shape of love, which makes you at once loving and lovable. But most of us are very mean with the love we tender ourselves.

Be kind and patient and gentle: Be kind to yourself. Be patient with yourself as you discover the new ways of thinking. Be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself as you would someone you really loved.

Be loving to your negatives: Acknowledge that you made them to fulfill a need. Now you are finding new, positive ways to complete those needs. So, lovingly release the old negative patterns.

Be kind to your mind: Self-hatred is only hating your own ideas. Don’t hate yourself for having the thoughts. Gently change the ideas.

Don’t scare yourself: Stop frightening yourself with your ideas. It’s a terrible way to live. Find a mental image that gives you happiness and immediately switch your scary thought to a pleasure thought.

Mirror work: Look into your own eyes often. Express this growing sense of love you have for yourself. Forgive yourself looking into the mirror. Talk to your parents looking into the mirror. Forgive them, too. At least everyday, say: “I love you, I really love you!”

Praise yourself: Criticism breaks the inner spirit. Praise builds it up. Praise yourself as much as you can. Tell yourself how well you are doing with every small thing.

Stop all criticism: Criticism never transforms a thing. Decline to criticize yourself. Accept yourself precisely as you are. Everybody changes. When you criticize yourself, your changes are depressing. When you agree of yourself, your changes are positive.

Support yourself: Find ways to support yourself. Reach out to your friends, and allow them to help you. It is being strong to ask for help when you need it.

As you open to loving yourself in this way, you also develop your ability to love others exponentially. As you love others with more genuineness, you shine love’s light everywhere you go.

Tags: love yourself, Personal Development, Personalities
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

How to control your Emotions

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

control-your-emotions

Millions of individuals suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, etc. Many of these persons however do suffer because they engage their mind with those emotional objects causing fear, anxiety, depression, etc.

If you want to vary your emotional approach – if you want to balance and heal your emotional life, then you need to focus on happiness, joy, love, you need to focus all your attention on the sunny side of life to attract joyful emotional energies within yourself. You are becoming what you feed yourself with.

Being able to manage your emotions is a massive step towards limitless happiness. For little things in your life, you will be able to use the following method to immediately change your thoughts and viewpoints. For bigger matters it might take more time.

Identify the emotions you need to control. If you are prone to angry break outs, then find coping systems that work for you. Focus on your breathing. Breathe slowly and deeply to help decrease your heart rate and take more oxygen to your brain. When you focus on your breathing, you change your ideas from the emotions you’re feeling, removing them from the forefront of your mind.

Use visualization imagine soothing circumstances or colors you find relaxing. This technique is a very effective way to control your emotions during stressful or high-anxiety times or if something has made you very angry. Concentrate on an item in the distance for several minutes. This focal point will put your energy on something other than the emotions you’re feeling.

Recognize the emotion you were feeling at the time when you couldn’t effectively express it. Usually emotions that you don’t want to let somebody see are negative and you need to acknowledge these negative feelings in order to deal with them. Ask yourself why you were mad or what strained you out about the situation.

Emotions are our ringing bell. When we are in a bad mood, it means we are experiencing bad emotions. When we are in a good mood, it means we’re experiencing good emotions.
This means what you do (your behavior) feeds back what you believe in. It’s a circle. It’s a vicious circle when emotions are bad and a virtuous circle when emotions are good.

When you live out your emotions thru behavior, you won’t be living out emotions, but rather confirming your unhappy thinking pattern. Instead of getting rid of the emotion, you’ll be feeding it. It will grow in you.

Tags: emotion, emotional approach, emotions, Personal Development, Personalities, personality
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Tips for Getting Organized

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Organize, clean and purge your desk

Update your files and change all torn files. Purchase new files in different colors, and organize them by color: purple for clients, green for financial papers and so on. Be sure to label all the files, and then sort out them alphabetically within each color scheme.

Use only one calendar

Pick the one that works best for you: one on your computer, or a paper one on your desk. Then get rid of all your other datebooks and use just the one to record and keep track of everything. If you’re maintaining more than one person’s timetable, like your children, use different colored inks to record information for each family member.

Make a note in your calendar, one week ahead of any occasion or event, about what you need to do for that event

Do you need to send flowers for your mother’s birthday? Do you need to buy cake to bring to a housewarming party? Whatever it is, make a note of it in advance so you can stay of top of your tasks.

Make a list of your goals

Write down at least 10 objectives you want to achieve in your lifetime. Be definite. Then put the list away and update it again next year.

Choose one or two objectives you want to achieve this year with your business

Maybe it’s to land more clients or to make more money. How will you achieve that goal? What amount of money will you formulate this year? How will you do it? Type that information out in a clear sentence, put by your bedside, and read it every morning and every night to help inspire you to reach your goals.

Get rid any workplace supplies you haven’t used in the past year

Donate them to your favorite charity or return them to the store for credit. The less clutter there is in your workplace, the more happiness there’ll be in your life. If you buy a new printer, donate the old one.

Update your rolodex

Clean-up all the cards of people you never contacted last year. If a year goes by and you haven’t called them, chances are, you’ll never call them. If you feel you need to keep the information, put all the “I’ll call them one of these days” cards in a file and label it that.

Tags: getting organized, Goal Setting, Goals, Personal Development
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Steps to Boost Your Creativity

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Think about it – being creative is described as “having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness.” Who wouldn’t want that quality?

Here are some of the secrets to help you get started.

Adopt a “the more the merrier” attitude

While we are in school, we are guided that there is only one right answer to test questions. And we implement that same approach to everything else in life. In order to improve our creativity, we have to consider that there is often more than one right answer. So, don’t just stop after you have one answer, sustain and see how many other ones you can come up with. Make it a challenge. It doesn’t matter how outrageous it is. The most important inventions seemed completely preposterous at the time they were first considered. Don’t start judging when you are in the brainstorming stage. That can come later.

Exercise your creative muscle regularly

There have been many studies on the human brain and evidence shows that our brains works very much like a muscle, which means that the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. In order to improve your creative muscle, start using it every break you get, especially when it is just for fun.

- Pick up some brain teaser puzzles and work on those

- Play games that engage the mind such as mah jong or chess

- Approach things differently – instead of writing down a list of words, try using pictures or symbols

- Instead of searching something or reading from a book, pick a toy from your children’s collection and make up a story about it at bedtime

Identify your Creative Environments and Schedule Time There

Do you know where you do your most excellent thinking? For most of us, it is not sitting at our desks. There is something about the seclusion and the relaxed state while engaging in some activities that allow your mind to come up with solutions to problems. So your assignment is to work out where your best creative environments are and schedule yourself to spend time there.

A word of caution though – once you have identified what these environments are, don’t spoil it for yourself by expecting that you will be doing creative thinking every time you are there. Look for it as a special bonus, like a reward you get when you open up the right bottle of Coke. If I went for a walk particularly because I need some creativeness, it doesn’t come as easily. But if I just let my mind amble to whatever it wants to think about, the ideas start to come. Learn to relax into your creativity.

Tags: artistic, creativity, Living, Personal Development
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Reasons to Stay Positive

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

How to maintain a positive attitude is a subject for different articles as there are many methods to achieve it. However, choosing you want to do this is a key first step, and can lead you towards pursuing methods which work for you. A good second step is to begin to basically identify when you are not feeling positive, and pause to reflect on whether you want to choose to feel that way or not. Obtaining your mind out of autopilot puts you back into control, which is essential to changing your attitude.

Maintaining a positive attitude may lead to higher production, whether in your career or personal life. When you are negative, you have a tendency to give up more easily, get easily distracted, get frustrated, and drag your feet. A basic thing such as how you think can make a world of difference.

Who wants to be around a negative person? Do you? Do you want to attract negative people, or positive people? When you are negative, you are sending out signals to others to stay away from you, unless perhaps they are also negative and seek a similar mindset.

Ancient practitioners and medical providers have thought that your attitude can affect your health. Your body takes lines from your mind, and negative thoughts can be disruptive to your internal body processes. Handling stress is a challenge for us, to keep away from stress-induced illnesses. The overturn is also true that having good health will contribute towards a positive attitude, so take care of your body. A holistic approach is to focus on your body and mind together, ensuring you are eating well and getting exercise.

Happiness is perhaps one of the most significant things of all, what good are the other things above if you aren’t happy? Financial success doesn’t necessarily associate to happiness, many wealthy people are quite miserable. Happiness is really a mental state, and we have complete control of our own minds. Unluckily, many leave their emotions and thoughts on “autopilot”, never deciding for themselves how they want to think. Upholding a positive attitude connects to a decision to be happy, it’s your choice.

If you apply a religious belief, then you may also consider that remaining positive is a component of a spiritual growth path. Many religions teach this basic principle that we should stay positive and trust in our creator no matter how bad things may seem. Even if you don’t have spiritual beliefs, maybe you feel something inside your conscience that urges you to be positive, and thus have a positive impact on others in your life. Being positive makes others feel excellent, which is rewarding in itself.

Tags: attitude, Personal Development, Personalities, positive
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Part-Time Versus Full-Time Entrepreneur Part 2 – Goal Setting

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Goal Setting – Manage Yourself, Not Your Time

In my last article I spoke of the importance of managing yourself and the value in having an accountability coach. Some individuals are focused and do not need direction or motivation if you will. However, most individuals can use that little bit of guidance and direction.

In this article, I want to talk to you about the topic of goal setting and all that it entails from my point of view. Now I am confident that you the reader understand the definition of a goal.

Just to be certain…..”A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. (Wikipedia)

So, we have already established that you cannot manage time, only manage yourself. How do we set goals? Do we set goes on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or a life time basis?

Now there is an acronym that I use which sums it up very well and the acronym is S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely). Let’s take a look at each category a little closer.

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. If I say I want to lose weight versus I want to join a health club and exercise 5 times a week. I think you can see which is general and which one is specific.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? What will be your success criteria?

A goal becomes attainable not because it is easily achieved but as a result of you changing your skill set, attitudes and beliefs in yourself. The goals don’t become smaller, you simply begin to grow.

Realistic goals can be of a high and challenging nature because you likely are both willing and able to work towards that goal. If it is too easy to achieve, you may struggle with it due to the fact that the motivation behind achieving it is so low. Bottom line, a goal is realistic if, and only if, you truly believe that you can meet it.

Finally, a goal must be timely. There has to be a deadline so that there is a sense of urgency.

If you want to lose 15 pounds, you have to say I want to lose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving.

Although, you may gain it all back shortly there after…smile.

Saying “someday” simply won’t cut it.

Now that we have established what a goal should look like, I want to close with something that works for me when it comes to setting my goals.

I like taking my Sunday evenings when the household is quiet, and laying out my goals for the week. I can also take a glance at my monthly goals to keep on track with them and more importantly, my end goals. I try to keep it simple and readjust them on a daily basis. I also try to keep it to 3 things. If I accomplish my 3 assigned tasks then I will obviously look ahead to other projects that I can get started on.

Tags: Daily Goals, Goal Setting, Planning, SMART, Time Management
Posted in Part-Time Versus Full-Time Entrepreneur - The Series, The Power Of Personal Development | 2 Comments »

Be Your Own Success Coach

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Coaching is an important part of personal development. If you can’t hire a certified coach, you can coach yourself. There are many things that people can do to grow themselves personally, and they don’t always entail an outlay of cash.

Identify your values, and ally your life around those values.

Many individual’s lives are not familiar around their values, and they are frustrated trying to determine why they aren’t happy, or aren’t reaching their goals. When you are expressing your importance, you are being true to yourself. Pursuing goals that are not in line with your values leads to frustrations. Living in alignment with your values leads to fulfillment.

Develop the habit of extreme self-care.

Treat your body as a sanctuary, and it will carry you in producing extraordinary results in every other area of your life. Exercise frequently, in the form of power training as well as cardiovascular exercises. Drink lots of water. We know half of our body weight in ounces sounds too much, but it isn’t. Finally, give yourself the gift of privacy. Enjoy quiet time every day.

Attend courses, workshops and seminars regularly.

The design of such materials needs hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of hours to create. When you attend a workshop, you benefit from someone else’s efforts to distill the most important information on that subject. Although some occasions can be very expensive, many are also quite reasonable.

Plan your ideal life.

If life is perfect, what will it look like? What will you do, be and have if you could wave a magic wand, and make it so? What will you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? Your ideal life is contained within your answers to these questions. Start today to paint the picture of what this ideal life would look like.

Just do it.

At some point, you will need to jump. It will not always be relaxed doing so. However it is only when you move outside your comfort zone that breakthroughs can happen. This is where fear frequently steps in, and puts up that big wall in front of you. So go around it, dig under it, climb over it, or knock it down. If you maintain to take action in the direction of your best life, your fears will eventually go away.

Tags: Coach, Personal Development, Personalities
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Part-Time Versus Full-Time Entrepreneur – Part 2 – Goal Setting

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

SMART Goal Setting – Manage Yourself, Not Your Time

In this article, I want to talk to you about the topic of goal setting and all that it entails from my point of view. Now I am confident that you the reader understand the definition of a goal. Just to be certain…..”A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. (Wikipedia)
So, we have already established that you cannot manage time, only manage yourself. How do we set goals? Do we set goes on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or a life time basis? Now there is an acronym that I use which sums it up very well and the acronym is S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely). Let’s take a look at each category a little closer.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? What will be your success criteria?

Realistic goals can be of a high and challenging nature because you likely are both willing and able to work towards that goal. If it is too easy to achieve, you may struggle with it due to the fact that the motivation behind achieving it is so low. Bottom line, a goal is realistic if, and only if, you truly believe that you can meet it.

Finally, a goal must be timely. There has to be a deadline so that there is a sense of urgency.
If you want to lose 15 pounds, you have to say I want to lose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving.
Although, you may gain it all back shortly there after…smile. Saying “someday” simply won’t cut it.

Now that we have established what a goal should look like, I want to close with something that works for me when it comes to setting my goals. I like taking my Sunday evenings when the household is quiet, and laying out my goals for the week. I can also take a glance at my monthly goals to keep on track with them and more importantly, my end goals. I try to keep it simple and readjust them on a daily basis. I also try to keep it to 3 things. If I accomplish my 3 assigned tasks then I will obviously look ahead to other projects that I can get started on.

Tags: Entrepreneur, Full Time, Goal Setting, Goals, Part-Time, SMART
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Delivering The Difficult Messages At Work

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Feedback is necessary to the personal or professional development process. As you progress professionally, you will be placed in more circumstances in which you will need to give feedback to others. Letting your through reports know how well they are doing is generally the pleasing part of feedback loop. It’s when a complicated message has to be given that many managers and leaders stumble. Whether the information needs to be distributed with an individual, a group or an entire organization, these instances can truly become an opportunity for all parties involved. Opportunity arises when the result of the interaction leads to greater motivation, learning, awareness, support and creativity as well as a call to action.

Faced with this dispute-cum-opportunity, how do you really do it?

Be timely – Although it is easy to defer on challenging tasks, this is one that is best done sooner than later for you and the person receiving the message. If the reaction is tied to a detailed incident, it’s best that both parties have it freshly in their mind. If it is more general, the sooner the feedback is given, the faster action can be taken to develop the situation. Never ‘save’ complicated messages for future annual reviews. It will decrease the significance of the original message since it was delayed and a ‘negative’ surprise in a review can significantly impair morale and motivation.

Be ready – Know the message that you want to send and the results you expect. Recognize and accept the painful feelings that you may have in taking on this role. If fear or anxiety is holding you back, change on the reason of this interaction and the value that will be provided to all parties involved, including yourself. For most, this is a chance to widen your communication skills.

Be concise – Once the discussion starts, allow it to finish quickly. If the recipient is having an emotional reaction, he/she may want time to reform as soon as possible. Save other business things for a time when they will be heard.

Be genuine – It’s okay to share how you’re feeling regarding the process and to acknowledge the other party’s feelings. A primary goal of this process is to develop and maintain the working relationship. Considering the whole person allows you to move outside this meeting.

Be compassionate and concerned, but don’t ‘step on eggshells’ – By using compassion and considering how the receiver may feel during this meeting, you can express your message so it will be heard and will uphold the self-respect of the receiver. Make sure the message comes across, though, and is not understood in niceties. And, focus the conversation on the work, not the person.

This process will also allow for faster action and resolution as well as more effective maintenance of the professional relationship. Difficult messages need not end professional relationships. When done with credibility, care and completeness, the outcome can lead to a more engaged colleague who feels supported and valued.

Tags: deliver, messages, Personal Development, Personalities, work
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »

Boost Your Self-Esteem

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Low self-esteem can cause people to develop unhappiness, depression, insecurity and a poor confidence level. When you have low self-esteem every little mistake that takes place in your life is taken to heart. When people criticized you, when you make mistakes, a joke directed toward you and it will cause you to run away from every opportunity that comes your way and every challenge will seem impossible to accomplish. This will cause you to feel dormant and lose meaning and direction in your life.

Building self esteem is a step towards a healthy, productive and happy life. Yet having low self-esteem is maybe the most common mistake of our humankind. Having self-esteem will help build your self-confidence. If you have confidence, you will experience a self-worth and respect yourself as a person. If you respect yourself you can respect others, develop your life by improving your relationships with your love ones, friends and co-workers. You will be able to achieve your goals in life and attain true happiness in your life.

You can develop high self-esteem, just like learning to dance or read. Secondly, people do not comprehend the importance of having high self-esteem. I cannot even start to stress the importance of having high self-esteem; it is the key to having spiritual, physical and mental strength.

You need to love yourself by accepting all your mistakes and lying the past behind you, but if, you focus on your faults than you will only experience an unhappy life. You need to think optimistically and focus on your achievements.

To live with a happy condition of mind, you must have to have high self-esteem. You need to feel that you are no different from anybody else and that you can be the person you set in your mind to be. You need to reconstruct your life. You need to put yourself in a way of life that will make you happy and bring you as little stress as possible.

Once you accept yourself, you can manage with the world around you and accept the fact that you can do everything you expected to do in life. However, to accept yourself you first have to love who you are and be proud of the person you have become. There are lots of things in life you are capable of doing, but you must develop the motivation and the will to get out there and just do them.

Tags: Personal Development, Personalities, self-esteem
Posted in The Power Of Personal Development | No Comments »