Brain-Compatible Goal Setting - How and Why Goals Drive Motivation

Brain-Compatible Goal Setting - How and Why Goals Drive Motivation

By Brian Walsh

Tip! Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is important to write down your goals, since that action imprints them on your brain. Before writing your goals, identify what price you are willing to pay to achieve them. These may be material, emotional, or spiritual. At some point, expose your barriers and excuses; write them on a separate piece of paper. This list is not meant to be dwelled on; it is meant merely as acknowledgement - celebrate as you conquer each barrier or excuse.

Tip! Talk to get motivated. One of my favorite ways to create energy and motivation is to talk.

If you are finding it difficult to decide on what you want, you could consider what author Michael Losier advised in his book, The Law of Attraction.
He teaches a process of listing what you don't want as a prelude to making your definitive list of what you do want. Mark Victor Hansen co-author of Chicken Soup for The Soul said, "Once focused on the positive, you act as a magnet, to attract those things you hold in your mind."

You may have heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable/agreed on, relevant, and timely. My colleagues and I created an alternative formula. Here it is.

Your goal statement must always be succinctly worded in the present tense and in the positive. Use action and emotional words. Avoid negative words, future tenses, and comparisons (better, some). Let me explain why your goal statement must be positive and in the present tense. The powerhouse of enriched learning is the subconscious mind. It is highly literal, has no concept of time, and processes in images. If you use future tenses, such as "I will...," then the subconscious mind will not act on it since it only operates in the NOW. Since there is no picture for a negative word (not, never, won't), then it just ignores it. If you state, "I am not attracted to chocolate cake," the subconscious only processes, "chocolate cake." A better wording would be, "I love foods that contribute to my body's health and vitality."

Tip! INSPIRATION Inspiration is critical to getting and staying motivated. If you are not interested in your business, your motivation level will never be high and you won't be able to sustain interest for very long.

It must be realistic and a slight stretch. Push yourself just a bit.

It must be specific, yet your assessment of your success must be flexible. By specific, I mean avoid comparative words. If you state, "I will be more disciplined in my work assignments," that is far too vague. To the subconscious, the word more may be anywhere from .0000001 percent to 100 percent more. So be specific. Celebrate each of your accomplishments, even if it is not 100 percent of what you planned. In the book, The One-Minute Manager, the authors counsel that if you're off course, just do a course correction - don't jump ship! Use any slip-ups as opportunities to learn.

Tip! Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ~ Lou Holtz

Your goal must be measurable. If you can't gauge how well you're doing, how will you know that success is actually occurring? Ensure that you pick a target date. It must also be paced so that you can recognize your achievements at specific points along the way. This is the step where you take your overall goal and break it down into bite-sized modules. This chunking-down can be by subject, time, place, or resource.

Tip! Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Ryun

Once your mini-goals are established, create action plans for as many as you want. This is so important. Without an action plan, all you have is a wish-list.

Announce or share your goal with people who will be supportive. This emotional investment puts your reputation on the line.

The last element is In Your Face. Write out your goals, cut out magazine pictures, or draw them yourself. Paste and post the images all over your world, including your bathroom mirror. Keep it in your face and top-of-mind.

Most people don't set long-term goals, let alone write them down. Some fear failure and criticism if they are less than 100 percent successful. Others don't know how to set goals. The vast majority do not appreciate the value of setting goals. The benefits of written goals are simple. They provide direction, momentum, and motivation.

International speaker, Dr. Brian E. Walsh, is the bestselling author of Unleashing Your Brilliance. For much of his 30-year corporate career he was involved in human resources, specifically training.

While living in the arctic, Brian studied anthropology and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), which prepared him for working with other cultures. He was then transferred to China where he served as his company's GM.

Tip! REWARD YOURSELF Small business owners will always have to work hard, but all work and no play is a huge mistake. Your motivation will soon begin to fall if you never take any time away from the demands of running the business.

After his return to Canada, he elected early retirement to further his earlier interest in NLP and hypnotherapy. He returned to formal study, and within four years had achieved his Ph.D. His dissertation, which focused on accelerated learning techniques, inspired his passion and his book, "Unleashing Your Brilliance". Information is available at http://www.UnleashingBook.com

Dr. Walsh regularly conducts workshops on accelerated learning. He is a master practitioner of NLP, an acupuncture detoxification specialist, an EFT practitioner, and a clinical hypnotherapist.

Tip! Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out... ~ Robert Collier

Subscribe to his monthly eZine, "Enriched Learning" at http://www.UnleashingBook.com

Creativity Management: the Role of Motivation

Creativity Management: the Role of Motivation

By Kal Bishop

Tip! Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out... ~ Robert Collier

What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimisation.

That's what creativity managers do: they optimise the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimisation and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesise them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organisational culture, organisational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Tip! Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialisation.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

The role of motivation

An individual may be 'creative' but if s/he is not motivated then s/he will not produce to optimal levels.

There are two general types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is that where a task is completed for its own sake. Extrinsic motivation is where a task is completed for an ulterior motive (e.g. payment).

Tip! Listen to your motivational tapes/CDs. Your car does not have to be the only place you go to get motivated.

Extrinsic motivators can be subdivided into those that aid the endeavour (synergistic) and those that hinder it (non-synergistic). For example, payment may - up to a point - be a synergistic extrinsic motivator in that it will increase your motivation. On the other hand, a dictate from a boss may be a non-synergistic motivator as it will just make you feel controlled and manipulated.

The ultimate question is how do we maximise motivation. There are a variety of factors that can be applied including, a) closing the gap between the real and ideal self, b) feasibility, c) peer recognition, d) competency expansion, e) fun or enjoyability and f) reward.

Tip! Have energy. Caffeine will substitute for health for a while, but one way or another, you need some energy to have daily motivation.

Learn more�

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author's name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/

Coaching Skills and Positive Motivation

Coaching Skills and Positive Motivation

By Chris Stowell

Tip! Have energy. Caffeine will substitute for health for a while, but one way or another, you need some energy to have daily motivation.

There is one important point that is often missed in the discussion of Coaching Skills: Effective coaching is a great deal more than just problem solving. Many people misinterpret coaching as only a corrective process aimed at specific error and deficiencies of an individual. Actually, the use of coaching skills doesn't always have to be driven by problems. Challenges, opportunities, and obstacles that transcend any one member of the organization can be the motivating force. This type of coaching is very exciting to do. It is less personalized in nature and therefore not as stressful or tense. Although it does require certain skills, mindset, and approaches used in problem solving, it can be applied to positive coaching, which is designed to empower employees to go farther and contribute in new ways.

We have found it hard to motivate some leaders to take responsibility for positive coaching seriously. Many leaders tell us, "I don't have any problems with my employees. They are all good people, they work hard and pull their own weight, and frankly I can't think of a thing I would change or talk to them about."

Tip! INSPIRATION Inspiration is critical to getting and staying motivated. If you are not interested in your business, your motivation level will never be high and you won't be able to sustain interest for very long.

If I had a dollar for every time I have heard this comment, I would be basking in the sun on an exotic beach rather than writing this article. Managers think they are "off the hook" because they see nothing to change, correct, or improve upon. They couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, these fortunate leaders need to be as active in their coaching role as in the leader who is beset with enormous problems. In fact, wise leaders are extremely active when things are going well. They coach and confer with employee on how to maintain and sustain the current state of affairs or develop strategies on how to move closer to their visions and values. In short, good leaders are not satisfied with acceptable performance.

Tip! Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders cannot be silent. To achieve the full potential and maximize employee contributions, leaders need some restless dissatisfaction with the status quo, to encourage others to reach new heights. Whatever leaders and their units achieve will be the product of the behavior of those who work for them.

The fact of the matter is organizations are downsizing. There are fewer promotional opportunities and more career plateaus with increasing numbers of professional employees. Still many organizations have many good performers with no specific performance problems. These are all realities of modern organization life that contributes to the need for positive coaching skills. Since problem-solving coaching sessions produce a certain amount of stress, it is easy to think that most of the manager's time will be spent in this type of session. This is not necessarily the case at all.

To put the two types of session into proper perspective, we believe effective mangers will spend 75% of their coaching time in positives session. The reason we emphasize the problem-solving session in our writing and coaching skills workshop is because this area is more challenging, confronting, and will tax the leader's skills and patience heavily.

Tip! REWARD YOURSELF Small business owners will always have to work hard, but all work and no play is a huge mistake. Your motivation will soon begin to fall if you never take any time away from the demands of running the business.

Steven J. Stowell, PhD is the co-founder of the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness.

To learn more about the 25 years of research CMOE has conducted around coaching skills, or to learn more about our books and program, contact our Regional Manager at (801) 569-3444.

Constructs of the World Needed for Motivation and Change

Constructs of the World Needed for Motivation and Change

By Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin

Tip! Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn

Constructs? World is formed of such vastness that it is said in the movie Excalibur by Merlin to Arthur of the Dragon ".....if you would be able to see it and grasp it whole it would burn you alive!" So there is a natural need to limit and define the world for what is only called for by a person or society. Aldous Huxley mentions what he calls a reducing valve is what is needed in the brain for its survival of this influx of information. Imagine hearing the grass grow, every molecule split, all atoms spinning, every ones thoughts at once, or for that matter all sound. Like a chef, we follow recipes to put certain amounts of ingredients unto our food. For taste is dependent on the person and society. Nobody just throws every thing into the mix and expects it to be delectable or even healthy for you. Discernment happens so that certain goals are reached. This is what the reducing valve does.

Tip! Boost your energy. You need energy for self motivation.

Another point is that we adjust to the reality of other minds and not the world. The world is only the raw materials to construct the matrixes that society follows and believes as reality. We in the western world stomp a child's instinct to create imaginary friends, create other worlds, or fix themselves with magical powers they only see. In Hindu culture, adults take on the practice of making Tulpa's; imaginary friends. With constant thinking of these personalities, in time they and other people will see these beings. After they are created they become very resistant to being removed from reality.

Tip! Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. ~ Newt Gingrich

Then In the Movie Erik the Viking, when the longship is attacked by the serpent of the north sea, only the Christian monk does not see the serpent that the pagan Vikings do. He was of another world and its constructs. In Bali the initatory rites into adulthood consist of walking on fire that registers a thousand degrees. After some preparatory praying and fasting, most of the youths walk unscourged by the fire. A Baptist from the west tried to show his faith in his God was just as strong nearly burned his feet off. Why, these youths have been watching people walk on fire their whole lives. I always thought if a child was raised in a society in which every one flew, he would do so. Even if the rest of society hid the fact they were using jet packs. In the country of Senegal my friend was raised in a society that still had medicine men. One time one of his friends broke his arm, with a severe bent to it, playing soccer. He went unto the medicine man, who snapped a stick and laid the two pieces apart next to the broken arm and carefully merged the splinters back together again; the arm was healed. He had also had seen the God of the field who walked up to his crow tower three times assuming the size of a giant each time. His society was of a world of constructs that fostered these ideas since infancy, where we are like the Monk who can not see the serpent sinking the ship. People falling in a dream who see themselves hit the ground are thought to die in real life as well. In the movie Dreamscape, an assassin would kill people in their dreams. The constructs or reality were so strong that the people would die in real life.

Tip! INSPIRATION Inspiration is critical to getting and staying motivated. If you are not interested in your business, your motivation level will never be high and you won't be able to sustain interest for very long.

"You must give up your life to find greater."Jesus

But what does all this magical gobbly-gook have to do about bringing change into your life? Everything. In the world you want to bring change to; either it being leaving a spouse, a job, or quitting an addiction. You must change the constructs first. When one leaves prison he is advised not to see certain people or visit certain environments. Same with an addict, it would be harmful for him to enter a place of active users. People in the old world need you to justify their choice in society. No one wants to accept that their world has been a lie. They rather perpetuate their thinking forever if they could. Why because they are helpless to the fear and desire circle. Sometimes they are jealous. Parents scorn their children for their creative thinking that is not concrete. Either it be the magic and fun created by the imagination or doing those professions they did not have faith to try themselves. We force our children to verify our world and our views. But why are we so admiriant about it, because we know there is another way. Either we push our children to breaking point to bring us out of our reality, or hem them in so we do not have to change. First rule of control in Herbert's Dune series is; scorn all those who are different for they may see change is possible. Also a heretic is said to be one who sees with their own eyes open. The Indonesians believe the shadow cast by their puppets to be of the real world and ours but the true play. Shakespeare had said all the world is a play. When one consoles a friend when their father has died, he merely apologizes for his father playing dead. Life is what you make of it.

Tip! Talk to get motivated. One of my favorite ways to create energy and motivation is to talk.

That is why it is most important for your parents to justify and reassure your life goals. They either help you preserve your construct or break them down like a house of cards. They can be your strong stone and mortar to follow your dreams. Like Pavlov's dogs we respond to rewards and punishments to acquire our views of society that the whole agrees on. A child has greater needed to become part of a group than remain indifferent in its own world. Sometimes the group takes its constructs as holy and something that can not ever change. This leads to it strains and faults that are limited from repair within the system. But luckily the mind wanders away from this necessity whenever it can. It is for us not to scorn ourselves when it does. Nor should we let it get to far away from the group we intend to rejoin or even change.

Tip! Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Ryun

Right brained conservative thinking is that of group thinking. Alexie Sherman in one of his short stories about a basketball player looking for pick up games had this commentary about Republicans and democrats. He would either play one on one with democrats or four on one with republicans. The democrat being more autistic left brained thinking could act independently, but the republicans needed the group to give strength to their opine or talents. The democrats are of the western thinking of the importance of the individual in society and the republicans are of the thinking of the east that sees more importance in the whole. They find the individual as a threat. For their egos act on the third chakra of self acquisition and not the fourth, so they fear themselves. In the army young men are taken out of the world of the individual to become a member of a team and then thrown back into the world of the me, me, me without the appropriate retraining. Someone said the real fall of man was the split between the thinking of the individual and that of the group.

Tip! Have energy. Caffeine will substitute for health for a while, but one way or another, you need some energy to have daily motivation.

All right you might think this is getting you no where and you would of been better off watching that final episode of Friends once more that you had taped from before. But wait; you do want to know how to bring change to your life and see where you are making mistakes that limit this from happening. It is all in the constructs.

In Joseph Chilton Pearce's Crack in the Cosmic Egg, he describes Jesus as one who has seen the world not as a distinct mechanical unit, distinct from the mind of man. But a matrix for continual resynthesis which is an agreed and practiced upon construct in a continuum of possible worlds. In Quantum physics they have observed the Proton turn into a negative Phi meson, disappear, reappear as a Neutron, turn into a positive Phi meson, and back into a proton. They also have observed in their math that an atom has as any dimensions as it has electrons times by four. Only when one of the possible actions of the atom has been observed, is it limited to only four dimensions. But Pierce also says Christ perceived that no solitary reality can be communicable by others unless by agreement by the participant's of the world. Only under special circumstances and for special goals would Jesus break from the old constructs upon the agreed upon world. He was there to restructure a specific problem area in an ordinary reality. He was able to look outside the box. His nonordinary states become shared ones by the constant needs of others, not only on his ego and its selfish goals.

Tip! The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, I wish someone would come by and turn me on. What if they don't show up? You've got to have a better plan for your life than that. ~ Jim Rohn

To attain these non-ordinary realities it only takes three or four people to agree upon them. As an artist you need to do a couple of freebies that result in a printed medium or a piece that is hanged in a respected place for others to be willing to pay you. But it first starts by not saying you will be an artist, but by breathing as one as you say I am. For when you become your own ego it is like you becoming your own god. For Yahweh means, I am. But to share this reality you must agree that every one else is a god as well. But to do this, the only way of receiving our new worlds is by doing. Just do it, But the action comes through rigorous reality adjusting changes to your life. It could start by wearing new clothes, taking a new way to work, changing your hours, visiting new places, or changing some small habits. These things should be performed arbitrary with no set ideas of which ones to change. That will stimulate your left brained thinking. This will help you balance the art of your life with that that can only be felt with the concrete reality which can be touched and qualified. For no system is the last word to anything. So nothing should be held so sacred that it can not be brought to change.

Tip! Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ~ Lou Holtz

For Brahma created the all that is, was, and will be. It is for Vishnu to preserve what is helpful and Shiva to remove what is not. The universe is like a box of paints of all the colors of the visible and not visible spectrum before any painting is created. At this juncture, all paintings exist. Once the frame is put on, we are limited to that one only until the paint box is opened once more. Idolatry to Jesus is holding any product of reality as absolute. For him the process is the only truth. When a teen thinks he wants to be a guitar god, but realizes he prefers after all to tweak the knobs and levers on a sound board; should he be ashamed? No music was only the way to his truth.

Tip! Listen to your motivational tapes/CDs. Your car does not have to be the only place you go to get motivated.

But how do we get to bring change in our lives? It is in the gradual complete collapse of our certainty in every day life that will bring us into new realities as some ones new husband, a painter, a electrician, a plumber, or just as someone happy. This is the small death that William Blake calls for. It is the Ego Deaths, the Tower card, and Hagal's Aett. The components of our regular reality can be denied for its restructuring. Jesus said we must give up our lives so we may gain a new. Was this not what Peter and Simon did when they left behind their nets and boats to follow him? But then again did they, for did they not become fishers of men. This is the leap of faith and the walk on the swords edge. But he got thoroughly pissed if you believed he was the truth and not the way. Buddha felt he could not teach illumination either, but only the way. For it is for your own little god to grow up and to take it's place next to Christ at a large cosmos oriented round table with no center or head. Teachers want you always to surpass them. Pierce also says their is no being unless it is in the act of being.

Tip! Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly. ~ Stephen R. Covey

No w he also mentions the fact it was the poor and the handicapped who heard him the most. For the scholar, the Pharisee,and the rich man held much desire. For they gained allot and feared loosing what they established as their reality. What did the poor have to loose, but being poor. It was easier for them to give up something that did not work, for nothing seemed to work as of yet anyway. Jesus said that the holy spirit is the leavening that creates the spirit to enter the Kingdom. That God was not the judging condition of which way is right, but only the provider of infinite paths. God only responds. Man judges.

Tip! Life... It tends to respond to our outlook, to shape itself to meet our expectations. ~ Richard M. DeVos

Jesus did not break with logic, he just mentioned perfecting it in order to develop new constructs that bring new worlds of change. Change is a matter of choice and commitment. It is the person going back to the cave to tell the others about a world of light and what they fear is mere shadows of what is real.

In starting my career as a life coach, it was that of initiatory steps. It was no mere chance that my first client Kathryn was some one as well who was attempting to leave her career. For walking in the shoes of change, I would be able to pass them unto her to walk her path. This started by first making business cards. Then I proposed lectures to various churches so I could be accepted to speak in them. I then had brochures to be made for people to take home from the lecture. I hanged posters about the event. Adds were placed in local newspapers. Every one who read the posters, the adds in the paper or the people who had allowed me to lecture and place the adds; justified my being a Life Coach. I was in the process. It did not matter that no one showed for the first lecture and only four came to the second, for afterwards I made good money with my first client. I was being reassured and justified in what I am.

Tip! REWARD YOURSELF Small business owners will always have to work hard, but all work and no play is a huge mistake. Your motivation will soon begin to fall if you never take any time away from the demands of running the business.

The hardest piece was leaving the job I was in. It was paying the rent and delivering the food that the other did not start doing as yet. Well it was because I did not ask the other to be the source yet. I was still in the other world. That world had strict limitations and they were growing. My shadow was acting up more. I was getting angina and severe anxiety. It was a good world for what I needed to learn, but I had to give it up for better. Now the time had come. The door was opening and the river was flowing out of it. I took a week off and did not care about the bills or the money I was loosing. Then I knew there was another world without that one. I did not starve or get kicked out into the street. I was OK. But I had to go back to make the transition smoother. But this only created more anxiety. I was to leave for good in the next month, or else the shadow would create more and more anxiety because it knew that the old world was only bringing unhappiness. No longer was it an environment for learning, but a world asking for change, it needed someone to not only go out of the world of that Job and my world of little concrete worth; but to go without so I may find how to bring change to the wasteland. In the Hero's journey there is a calling, dissatisfaction with the old world, the entrance into the world of the mind, the challenge, the leap of faith ,giving up to something greater, the goal, and most important the return. Once I left the old world it was for me to interpret and justify other's desires for change and show them the path to aspiration. The longer we lie to ourselves, the more we hurt some part of the world. For one not to bring change is to hinder the rest of the universe. So as I change, like an atom splitting, I change the world. A butterfly flapping its wings can create a tidal wave across the world. May we all be in front of this next wave.

Tip! Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

But this only works in the spirit of all for one and one for all. To go to the seventh Chakra of the Holy Spirit and return to the fourth chakra where we find the self without opposition to others and the world. Only then will our universe grow. But what are other worlds, where is the goal? What are we leaving behind?

Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is proprietor of Docspond Life Coach Services providing Individual Counseling, Group facilitation, and key note addresses that speak to the heart of the mission while delivering the bottom line finacial growth. Helping millions find their bliss and return meaning to success! Guaranteed 20% improvement in your quality of life after the first meeting!

Tip! Be generous with your motivational ideas and words, �so perfect are the compensations of the universe�.

Also is the propietor and designer at Norgeforge Illumination Studios that will SEO illuminated design giving Aesthetics to traffic driven sales. So get out of the cold and get Norgeforged!

Motivation for Life: What Would You Do if You Could Have a Do Over?

By Jeff Herring

Tip! Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly. ~ Stephen R. Covey

"The only thing it takes 365 days to change is a year" - Hypnotherapist David Block

"If at any time you make a mistake and want to change your selection, press the star key on the telephone pad." - AMC 20 Movie Theater recording

Both of the above quotes imply a radical shift in popular thinking about change. They imply that changes can be made quickly, and don't have to take a long, long time.

I am constantly searching for the very best "change tools" I can find to help the people with whom I work. I look for tools that offer rapid and effective change, and meet at least three criteria:

Tip! Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ~ Lou Holtz

1) Simple - any one can use them

2) Profound - they work quickly and they last

3) Dependable - they work just about every time

Recently a friend shared with me a wonderful quote from professional speaker Brian Tracy that meets all these criteria and has the potential to be a very rapid and effective change tool. Here's the quote, in the form of a question:

"If you were starting over today, what would you do differently? Whatever your answer, start doing it now."

Tip! Listen to your motivational tapes/CDs. Your car does not have to be the only place you go to get motivated.

All of us would like to have a chance for a "do over" in some area of our lives. Well, maybe in many areas. Although we cannot change the past, this question offers great direction for making both the present and the future more like we would want it to be.

Let's look at several areas of our lives and some questions about what we might do over, and then start doing now.

In the area of relationships, would you:

Be closer to those around you?
Stay in touch with people?
Let those close to you know how much you value them?

In the area of family, would you:

Spend more time with them?
Go more places with them?
Throw out the ridiculous notion of quality time and replace it with quantify time?

In the area of marriage, would you:

Learn how to communicate more effectively?
Make sure, on a regular basis, that your spouse knows they are #1 with you?
Honor and cherish them. Remember those words?
Ask your self, what am I contributing to making this a cool place to be?

Tip! The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, I wish someone would come by and turn me on. What if they don't show up? You've got to have a better plan for your life than that. ~ Jim Rohn

In the area of education, would you:

Go back to school?
Find out about something you've always wanted to know?
Take a class you've always wanted to take?
Take the time to get really good at something?

Tip! Boost your energy. You need energy for self motivation.

In the area of health, would you:

Get in and stay in the best shape you can?
Get rid of some extra pounds? Remember, there's overweight people and there's old people, but there's not a whole lot of old overweight people.
Eat in a way that supports you?

In the area of finances, would you:

Design a life instead of just making a living?
Keep track of where the money goes?
Work and live within a budget?
Put away something for the future on a regular basis?

Tip! Talk to get motivated. One of my favorite ways to create energy and motivation is to talk.

In the area of attitude, would you:
Pay attention to yours?
Model an attitude you would want friends and family to model?
Find something positive in almost any situation?

I'm certain there are other areas of your life that you can apply this question. Remember folks, life is not a dress rehearsal, although most of us act like it is.

Here's the question again,

"If you were starting over today, what would you do differently? Whatever your answer, start doing it now."

Don't get caught up and stuck in "I wish I coulda-shoulda-woulda." Focus on what you can do now, and simply and profoundly, go do it.

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our f*r*e*e 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.

---------------------------------
There are virtually dozens of ways in which you can successfully create residual income online; however, according to AliB there are two things you must have: good ideas and the motivation to take action. While Ali doesn't claim she can give you the motivation to succeed, she can give you the good ideas and clear direction with an easy-to-follow, proven plan that anyone can follow. Visit her site to learn more: http://alib.ws

Money, Motivation, and Happiness

By Peter Vajda, Ph.D

Tip! Listen to your motivational tapes/CDs. Your car does not have to be the only place you go to get motivated.

The question of money as a motivator in the workplace is not new. Years of research, and countless books and articles on motivation include references to money. However, much of the focus on money and motivation points to superficial needs of people or points toward the immediate gratification that money seems to bring. The inquiry around money as a motivator must be explored more deeply if one is to truly understand the nature of the so-called relationship between money and motivation.

Tip! Be generous with your motivational ideas and words, �so perfect are the compensations of the universe�.

There are a number of perspectives relating to money and motivation. Some of these are:

1. "I'm not making as much money as I'd like (the "starving artist" concept), but I absolutely love my work, or the flexibility, or the control I have, or the opportunity for creativity, etc."

2. "I need to be in this salary range, make this much money, because I need to be seen as "somebody" as opposed to "nobody" in my circle of friends, acquaintances, family, etc. who view "money" as a merit badge of some kind."

Tip! Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. ~ Samuel Johnson

3. "It's not the money, per se, but what the money "gets" me....i.e., possessions, stuff, materialism, etc., pointing again, for some, to "being somebody" and being recognized, and gaining self-recognition, based on their material stuff."

4. "I need more and more money as I'll never have enough, reflecting the "your expenses always rise to meet your income" syndrome...as I said to an attorney client of mine, "If you feel you cannot live on 2 million dollars a year, what makes you think you can live on 3 million?"

Tip! Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. Unconsciously filling the psycho-emotional "hole" of lack and deficiency...which subsumes one or more of the above...and is the driver of the obsession with having money and needing more money, and what money "gets" one in order to feel (albeit fleetingly) whole and complete. The illusion that money provides a sense of self, or a sense of one's worth or value.

Tip! Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Ryun

At the end of the day, I, for one, subscribe to the intrinsic notion of motivation, that motivation is driven by one's values and so it's important to explore one's values and from where one's values emanate...from one's True and Real Self, one's Inner Core or from ego-driven needs for control, recognition and security...misguided values, the relentless pursuit of which, almost always leads to a living (certainly not a life) mired in the self-sabotaging thinking and behaviors reflecting frustration, resentment, anger, hate, rage, entitlement, misguided choices, and the feeling of never having or being enough.

Tip! Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ~ Lou Holtz

When one comes from one's core values, one's Inner Sense of what is important in life and living, then intrinsic, or self-motivation, is at the heart of a life well-lived, at work, at home and at play...and is at the heart of creativity, self-management, self-responsibility, healthy behavior (mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, financial). Money, in this sense, has a different emotional and psychological energy around it, a softer energy, not unlike the energy reflected in one who says, "I love my work and I can't believe I get paid for doing this."

Tip! Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn

Many folks, in the relentless pursuit of "money" actually lose sight of what it was in the first place that got their juices flowing...having the corner office occludes the initial love of the work, obtaining the title interferes with one's initial love of mentoring and supporting others...that the relentless pressure to make and have more money becomes more important than the joy one used to experience when one was focused on one's love of the work itself. Losing one's way along the way. The mid-life crisis...that now starts at 30.

Tip! Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out... ~ Robert Collier

Money as a driver then obscurates the clarity of one's choices and one often makes unfortunate and self-sabotaging choices when controlled by money. I, for one, see this all the time in my work with clients...some who have made self-defeating choices in their work life, social life and spiritual life because the lens with which they viewed their world and their place in the world had become "green."

Tip! Boost your energy. You need energy for self motivation.

For many of those who believe that "money" is the sign of success, or that money is what it takes to be "somebody", etc., long-term success is often unattainable; it's the "Sisyphean approach to living.

For many folks, it's when they have experienced enough anger, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, terror, and loneliness, that reflected their need for money, and more money, and more money, that they then have the real motivation to change and adapt a life and lifestyle that is true Values-based, values that emanate from their True and Real Self, where money is important, but not an obsession (conscious or unconscious).

Motivation from this place is much different. Motivation from this place is not bounded by internalized pressures to have more, by rigid inner structures or beliefs, by paralyzing self-criticism that one is not (fill in the blank) for lack of enough money (whatever that is). That one's true worth and value is not financially driven. That one's purpose in life and the meaning one derives from work is intrinsically driven from one's Inner Core Values.

Tip! Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly. ~ Stephen R. Covey

From this place, one comes to one's world of work or play from the perspective of a whole person, as one whose choices, volitions, motivations and intentions are driven by a freedom that was heretofore restricted and constricted by the "value" of money.

Finally, I have crossed paths with folks who feel that money allows them to be autonomous. Me, I see just the opposite. That money has forced many of these folks to live in an emotional and psychological prison whose bars are the self-defeating, self-sabotaging and controlling beliefs and behaviors driving these folks to do, be, and have in a way that forces them into a lifestyle (again, not a life) mimicking the lifestyles of the folks living in their prisons on either side of them...the illusion of autonomy, not the actions of one living from the place of one's True and Real self.

Tip! Talk to get motivated. One of my favorite ways to create energy and motivation is to talk.

From this Inner Self, the energy of "I am", "I can", "I will", "I have", "I choose", "I love", "I create" and "I enjoy", that is, motivation and intention, flows with a sense of purposefulness, ease, grace, settledness and grounding that does not have a "price tag."

(c) 2005, Peter G. Vajda, Ph.D. All rights in all media reserved.

Peter G. Vajda, Ph.D, is co-founder of SpiritHeart, an Atlanta,
GA firm specializing in coaching, counseling and facilitating.
Peter's expertise focuses on personal, business, and relationship
coaching. He is a professional speaker and published author. For
more information about his services, email Peter at
pvajda@spiritheart.net

--------------------

There are virtually dozens of ways in which you can successfully create residual income online; however, according to AliB there are two things you must have: good ideas and the motivation to take action. While Ali doesn't claim she can give you the motivation to succeed, she can give you the good ideas and clear direction with an easy-to-follow, proven plan that anyone can follow. Visit her site to learn more: http://alib.ws

Kaizen For Self Improvement

Kaizen For Self Improvement

By Steven Gillman

Tip! A journey of personal development is about learning to see the world about you, not in terms of black and white, but in full colour. Your journey should open your eyes to the infinite shades, hues and intensities of colour that make up the world in which we live: you'll take the shadow puppet theatre world and transform it into the digital cinema technology we have today.

What does Kaizen, a Japanese method of production excellence and industrial efficiency have to do with self improvement? Can it be adapted to self-work? What is it, anyhow?

It began with the "continuous improvement" theories of efficiency expert W. Edwards Deming in the 30s and 40s. After the war the ideas were picked up by the Japanese and developed into "Kaizen," a method for creating quality products efficiently through many small and continuous changes. This is perfect for self-improvement, as Robert Maurer explains in his book "One Small Step Change Your Life:"

Tip! Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn

"Your brain is programmed to resist change, but by taking small steps, you effectively rewire your nervous system so that is does the following:

* Unsticks you from a creative block.

* Bypasses the fight or flight response.

* Creates new connections between neurons so thet the brain entusiastically takes over the process of change and you progress rapidly towards your goal."

Kaizen is an alternative for those who have a hard time facing major changes, like quitting smoking all at once. For something like that, the kaizen way might be to stop smoking in your car, as the first small step. Then you could switch to a brand with less nicotine, stop smoking in the house, and so on.

Tip! You can be certain that little will ever be achieved without action � sustained, determined and committed action.

An important technique used in kaizen is asking "small questions." In factories this meant no more questions like "What are you going to do to improve the company profits this year?" That just elicits more fear than creative ideas. A better question might be, "What small change could we make in your department to reduce expenses (or improve quality)?" This approach was found to be far more productive.

For purposes of self improvement, this means asking small suggestive questions of yourself, like, "What could I do to free up five minutes for my meditation practice?" or "What small change could I make if I wanted to improve my relationships today?" Small questions tend to dispell the fear and intimidation that come with frontally facing the whole issue.

Tip! The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better. ~ Barbara Pletcher

Small questions, along with small, comfortable changes is the first important principle of kaizen. The second is to make the process a continual one. Just imagine where you'd be if you had consciously made one small change in your life each week for the last few years. Even better, imagine where you'll be a few years from now, if you start the process today.

Tip! The future depends on what we do in the present. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." - Lao Tzu

Steve Gillman writes on many topics including brainpower, weight loss, meditation, habits of mind, creative problem solving, generating luck and anything related to self improvement. Learn more and get FREE e-courses at http://www.SelfImprovementNow.com