It’s About Time
Ever find yourself wishing you had just a few more hours in the day to get it all done? Between work and family responsibilities alone, it can be challenging to juggle time for everything. Surely we were created for more than a life on a continuous treadmill where we never seem to catch up.
Futurists predicted that, in the 21st century, work would be done in virtual organizations and paperless offices. Some even said that the work week would drop to 35, or even 30 hours, and that too much leisure time could become a problem.
Has that been your experience? It's not what I see happening with the busy professionals I work with everyday. Over the past quarter-century, the number of hours spent working has continued to rise. The constant pressure to reduce costs and to do more with less often leaves employees in an unending cycle of overwork and overwhelm which ultimately leads to decreased productivity and efficiency in the organization. With the extra work and increased pace we strive to keep up with, we are quickly catapulted into a world of stress, exhaustion and even health problems if we don't make our self- care a top priority.
What is the solution? Time management can help. Or rather, more effective use of time can help. When you think about it, you don't really manage time, you manage yourself and how you choose to spend each 24 hour day you are given. By having tools and support available, you can better manage yourself and the choices you make.
Top 5 Tips for Managing Time
1. Stop using time as an excuse. We all have the same 24 hours in a day You choose how you use your 1,440 precious minutes each day. If someone - or something - else is determining how you use your minutes and hours, now may be an excellent time to look at changes you need to make.
2. Find out where you spend your time. It may sound odd to suggest taking time in an already busy schedule to assess how you are using time, but do know where you are spending your time? Try tracking your time for the next week and see just what you are doing with your 24 hours. This exercise will help you identify opportunities for changes to alleviate time pressures.
3. Simplify your life. Clear your schedule of time-consuming activities that are not essential. Over-volunteering, doing other people's work, relationships that are not working... these are a great place to start simplifying and reclaiming valuable time.
4. Be intentional about scheduling. If you want to accomplish a task, you must be intentional about scheduling it. For example, if you want to go to the gym to workout, you must put it on your calendar and plan for time to get there and back as well as for your workout. Insert it into your schedule, and then guard the time carefully to make sure nothing gets in the way of you getting it done.
5. Zap Time Wasters. Time wasted can never be regained. A few examples... browsing the Internet, email, chatting with co-workers, looking for things, and talking on the phone. Zap these time bandits by: scheduling a time to return phone calls and email, getting organized so that time is not wasted looking for tools and papers or using an Internet reminder service to keep track of important dates or events.
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." ~ H. Jackson Brown
By: Coach Pat Morgan
Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Pat Morgan, MBA and Executive Coach, helps clients maximize their potential in today’s fast-paced environment. Her unique coaching programs inspire clients to achieve goals they may never have thought possible. Her focus draws from the inside out – helping clients become the best version of themselves they can be. Get your free copy of my special report, GET RESULTS NOW! when you subscribe to my newsletter, Smooth Sailing Success. Visit www.SmoothSailingSuccess.com
Mental Self Help – The Secret Of Positive Self Talk
Your self talk, the conversation that you carry on with yourself almost continually, is a vital component of your mental state. If your self talk is predominantly negative – “I can’t do…”, “I’m unhappy” – you will be unhappy, have low motivation and low self esteem.
If you self talk is mainly positive, the opposite will be true. You can use mental self help to change your self talk from positive to negative…
You talk to yourself and lot. It has been estimated that up to 1500 words per minute pass through your mind expressing an enormous number of thoughts that shape your view of the world, determine your mental state and just sometimes are part of your thinking process!
Much of your self talk is the result of thoughts coming from your subconscious mind and is a result of your past conditioning, your memories and other factors that affect your subconscious thought processes. It feels as if much of your self talk is out of your conscious control. Yet your self talk exerts a tremendous influence on your conscious mind and the results that you are able to achieve in life.
The good news is that psychological studies have shown that, with a little persistence, you can make your self talk more positive. When you do this you will benefit from a more positive mental attitude. If you talk to yourself about the way that you want your life to be, the chances are greatly increased that it will turn out that way.
Talk to Yourself to Improve Your Self Talk
There are a number of routes to more positive self talk. You can undergo extensive programs of self analysis to eliminate past traumas, you can use will power to stop yourself and so on. All these methods can take a long time and be quite difficult to apply to yourself.
One of the most effective ways to improve your self talk is to use positive affirmations. This is a remarkably simple way to change your self talk - you talk to yourself in a positive way and with a bit of persistence, your subconscious mind changes it’s habits and your self talk becomes more positive!
You may even be doing it already. When you’re faced doing something that you find a bit daunting, you may already be using simple affirmations such as “I can do it” to encourage yourself. This simple technique can be extended to anything that you want to achieve – greater happiness, greater success in life, kicking negative habits…
Affirmations have been proven to work by many successful people. However to get them to work, you have to do them correctly. Your affirmations need to be positive statements of what you want. Negative statements of what you don’t want will just add to your negative self talk and condition your mind to achieve what you don’t want. Affirmations also have to be charged with emotion and used regularly to be effective.
Negative self talk leads to negative mental attitudes and poor results in your life. One of the most powerful mental self help techniques for overcoming negative self talk is positive affirmations. If carried out regularly and correctly, positive affirmations can make your self talk more positive and improve your results in life.
By: Kevin John
Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Find out more about how to do positive affirmations correctly. Visit my website for more resources, articles, and support materials about success and personal growth here. Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to achieve success.
Mental Self Help – 6 Steps To Making Better Decisions
Do you find making the right decisions very difficult? Do you feel inadequate because you don't make good decisions? Are you trapped in procrastination by your decision making ability? Take heart! Decision making can be quite easy provided you use a systematic approach to it. In fact you've already shown you're able to make decisions - you've decided to read this article...
We are all faced with thousands of decisions every day. Some decisions are quite easy like when to eat lunch, whether to take a coat in case it rains and so on. You probably make these decisions with very little difficulty or thought. Other decisions are much harder, often they have major implications for your finances and your life like: should I take that new job? Should I prioritise that special project the boss has given me? Which car should I buy?
Making bigger and more complex decisions about things that are going to have a significant effect on you is often very intimidating and you may be like many people who end up procrastinating rather than acting decisively. Procrastination in decision making is one of the main causes for poor results in life and can lead you to making a poor decision when you are faced with an urgent need to make a decision that you could have made in a more controlled and effective manner. You need to learn to make faster and better decisions.
Use a system to make decision
A systematic approach can help to ensure that you make your decisions in the best way possible in a reasonable period of time. It will enable you to collect all the information you need to make a decision and analyse it as thoroughly as possible before you have to commit. Here are the steps to take:
1. Before you start, get clear on what you want out of the decision. What is the best possible result going to be like? Will it line up with your overall goals and purpose? Write this down.
2. Start with a blank piece of paper and write down all the facts you know about this decision - write down everything in the order they occur to you. Now go back over your list and ask yourself are these all facts, or are some of them half truths or emotional judgements. If you find half truths or emotional judgements either correct them or cross them out.
3. Now you have a good knowledge of the circumstances of the decision, spend a few moments brainstorming options. You'll probably find that as you went through step 2 options that hadn't occurred to you suddenly popped out. Look over your list - do you need to get some more information to improve your list of options? By listing all the options you can conceive you can be assured that you are making the best decision possible.
4. Go through each option. Ask yourself three questions: Based on what I know, what are the benefits and consequences of this option? How do I feel about this option - does it excite me, does my heart tell me it feels right? How well does this option meet the objective I wrote down in step 1?
5. Rate the options. The top option is your decision. Now look at it again, if necessary take a short break, you've come a long way and what you're about to do is to commit yourself. Ask yourself: Does this make sense? Does it feel right to me? If your answer to these two questions is positive - congratulations you're done! If the answer is negative - do you need some more information to help you rate them differently? Did you miss anything in thinking it through the first time round?
You must remember that no decision is taken with absolutely perfect information, no decision is completely irreversible, balance any uncertainty you have against the need to make a decision.
6. COMMIT! Once you've reached your conclusion, you must commit wholeheartedly to implementing your decision. You can be reassured that you've done the absolute best you can.
The first time you try a systematic approach you may find it slow and difficult. Like every skill, you need to practice it to become proficient at it. As you get better, you will find decision making gets easier and faster. Persist and you will be able to overcome procrastination and time wasting.
By: Kevin John
Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Find out more about Mental self help . Download my latest e-book here Secrets of a Millionaire Mindset . Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to achieve success.
Improving Your Self Confidence
When you project self confidence you get further ahead. You feel better about yourself and people like to be around you. More opportunities open up for you naturally. Not everyone is “born” with self confidence but even if your confidence is low, there are some things you can do to improve on it.
The first thing you must do to gain self confidence is to accept and love yourself. Remember that no one is perfect so don’t beat yourself up over a few flaws. You must accept them and think about all your great qualities. Doing so will free your mind of a heavy baggage of unnecessary worries and you will instantly feel light and cheerful.
Another thing you must do is to participate in activities that you enjoy. When is that last time you enjoyed a walk outdoors or some activity you loved to do when you were young? This might seem like a little thing but these simple things have the power to add on to build great confidence and fulfillment. Take some time each day to do something you enjoy and reflect on your special abilities. Since you enjoy doing that activity, it means that you have all the aptitude and intelligence necessary to do the job effortlessly even though you may not realize it.
Setting and achieving your goals is another step in gaining self confidence but many people set unrealistic goals and when they fail to achieve them it undermines their self confidence. Even if you have a lofty goal, break it down into smaller steps. Then you can check off each completed step as a goal successfully reached and be that much closer to your ultimate “big” goal.
The people you associate with play an important role in your self confidence. If your loved ones are always criticizing you then this will do nothing for your self confidence. You need to stay away from people like this and gravitate towards those with a positive outlook that will support you. This will do wonders for your self confidence!
In addition to listening to what others have to say about you, you need to be aware of your own self talk. Do you think “I could never do that?” or “I didn’t do a good job” a lot? You must change this type of self talk to be more positive. How about ‘I did my best and it came out pretty good” instead? You need to realize that you are a unique individual with your own special place in the world and realize you can succeed at any reasonable task and can handle lifes daily tests. The key is to not become so over confident that you stop listening to others and think that you know everything. Taking in others perceptions, criticisms and praise and filtering it so that you only take in what will help make you better will help in your self confidence in the long run.
Your self picture is what feeds your self confidence and this needs constant monitoring and care. Don’t underestimate yourself and guard against letting feelings of inferiority in. Always shoot for your best and most reasonable goals and keep your strong points in mind.
A good practice is to write down some short term and long term plans. Where would you like to be 5 years from now? Break that down into smaller steps and go about executing your plan. Also write down all your strong points - what you do well and the things you usually receive compliments on. At the same time, write down a few things you would like to work on improving. Have a self image of yourself as confident and proceed to act this way even when you are not feeling confident, this will go a long way in adjusting your attitude. When negative feelings or feelings of inferiority creep in, simply push them away. If they insist on coming back, set them aside to think about at the end of the day and go on with your business using your confident attitude.
Taking responsibility for your thoughts and actions and practicing self confidence will go a long way toward improving your self confidence helping you reach your goals and enriching your life!
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:
Lee Dobbins writes for Better Self where you can learn more about self help and self improvement. Visit www.better-self.com for more on how to acheive better self confidence.
Achieving Goals Through Patience - Is Patience Out Of Date In The Modern World?
Patience, whether about achieving goals or anything else, is not a popular virtue in the modern world. How valuable is patience today?
A young woman in the UK has just been jailed for 20 years. She wanted to make three million pounds quickly by killing rich people.
As part of her plan, she conducted a trial murder by knifing a kindly neighbour 14 times. I am surprised that she had enough patience to conduct a test murder before moving on to her main targets.
A less exceptional example of impatience can be found in the world of cosmetic surgery where people are ready to suffer the surgeon's knife to lose fat quickly. They are not prepared for the long haul of eating less and exercising more.
On the internet you are promised that you can learn how to write a book in fourteen days or even seven days. The question of whether such a book would be worth reading is not closely analysed.
However, I think there is a place for such promises because they inspire people to get started and write something. Without such inspiration, many potential authors will never write anything. The writing can always be improved later on.
Some people wait patiently all their lives to achieve a goal and then die before they start! Maybe the idea of patience has been misunderstood in the modern world.
For example, patience has been described as the ability to "sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration."
This description could describe someone's experience on a toilet seat! There is no need to sit back and do nothing whether one is in a lavatory or somewhere else. However, action without anxiety, tension and frustration can only be a good thing.
One can work hard and with urgency on any project and still be so detached from the results that anxiety, tension and frustration are avoided.
Patience, then, does not mean sitting around and waiting for good things to happen; it means working hard but calmly and believing that results will eventually show up.
I just came across this quote which fits the above point exactly:
"The way to manifest (create the reality you want) effectively is to use patience and consistent action at the same time."
Incidentally, before we leave the topic of toilets or washrooms, the average time spent on the toilet over a life time is three years. A lot of reading can be done over three years - the same length of time it takes to achieve a university degree!
Geoff Thompson, the martial arts expert and author, wrote his first book on toilet paper in the washroom at the factory where he worked! He is now a successful author of books, plays and films.
Moving on from the fascinating topic of toilet action, my Taekwondo Instructor once offered a black belt to anyone who asked for it.
No one asked.
They realized the lesson he was trying to teach. If you do not have the patience to train step by step for your black belt over a period of years, you do not deserve to have a black belt and are unlikely to have developed the skills worthy of such an honour.
Most martial arts help their students to reach black belt by allowing them to achieve step by step colour belt grades which break up the goal of achieving black belt into smaller stages. Most people can muster up enough patience to aim for their next belt over a period of two or three months.
Mercifully, the need for patience about goals is also limited in other ways. We do not have to rely patiently on other people to achieve our goals for us. A huge benefit in life is that we can usually make things happen ourselves. We do not have to wait for other people to take action on our behalf. You can train as hard as you like on your own to achieve your black belt. You do not have to rely on a friend to train with you.
We have the wonderful gift of being able to take as much action as we wish in pursuit of our own goals. Nor do we have to depend on certificates to qualify us to achieve our goals. Earl Nightingale said that one hour per day of study could put you at the top of your field within three years
When I watched last year's world football cup competition, I had to remind myself that there was nothing I could do to win a match. I did buy English flags for my car but that was the extent of what I could achieve without moving to Germany and buying a ticket!
However, I can support my own goal achieving attempts one hundred per cent. We can work patiently in a stress free way on our own dreams and goals. We don't have to wait impatiently for others to work for us.
We can be urgent in our efforts and actions but patient about results.
Results take time. A tree does not grow overnight though a weed might well do so! Patience is needed especially when results seem like they will never come.
When we become impatient for results, we make mistakes. A few years ago, I was inspired by a seminar to make money quickly through buying shares. I eventually lost £27,000 pounds to a fraudulent company based in Buenos Aires.
Most road accidents are the result of impatience as people drive too fast or try to jump the traffic lights or overtake at the wrong place. A Chinese proverb sums things up:
"One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life."
Patience allows us to let go of our need for immediate results and immediate gratification. It allows us to wait long enough for someone to cook a tasty and healthy meal rather than a ready made but unhealthy one.
My brother visits once a week and cooks a great meal. He has the patience to first read the recipe and then buy the correct ingredients and then cook them according to instructions. He is the opposite to me and my dentist who says: "Life is too short for stuffing mushrooms!"
My dentist and I do not appreciate that stuffing mushrooms with healthy ingredients might well prolong life as we start to eat more healthy food. In fact stress, brought on by impatience and the relentless haste of the modern world, is now seen as the biggest danger to health there is. Patience can literally save lives.
Patience is also of enormous value in human relationships. No one likes working or living with an uptight and irritable person. People who show compassion and understanding for those who are less quick on the uptake or who do not know how to behave properly are worth their weight in gold.
A brief moment of impatience can ruin a relationship for years to come. Whenever I have exploded in anger and impatience, little good has come of it even if the anger was fully justified. Irritation can easily lead to long term resentment and even physical confrontation
We also need to have patience with ourselves. Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes do not mean the end of our goals and dreams. They can become the stepping stones to achieving our plans as we learn from them.
A whole book rather than just one article could be written about the value of patience but the following points are worth thinking about:
Patience does not mean waiting for things to happen. Urgent, swift action can be combined with patience about results. Patience also allows you to focus on your actions rather the results of your actions. You do not waste time watching the pot to see when it will boil.
If you lack patience, you can buy a black belt or university degree. But such honours mean nothing if you do not have the patience to put in the hours necessary to qualify for them.
It is a waste of time getting impatient about how your national team performs in a competition. There is nothing you can do about it. You can, however, take action on your own goals and projects. In addition, you do not need permission from anyone else to become an expert in the fields that interest you.
Patience can help you eat healthy food and avoid stress and the resulting stress related diseases. It can even save your life.
Patience can improve your relationships. It can help you avoid violent confrontations which could injure or kill you or put you in prison. Develop patience and you will have and retain many friends and even admirers.
The power of patience is not only necessary today. It is of crucial importance and is essential for the achievement of most worthwhile goals.
By: John D Watson
Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt. His website is atwww.motivationtoday.com
Guided Meditation To Make You Whole
Guided meditation is a form of stress relief that is conducive to relaxing the whole body, in part by finding a way of peaceful and calming relaxation from within the body. Guided meditation may utilize soothing photographs or scenarios to enhance the ability of the mind to relax and guide the body to a point of relaxation so that the person in meditation can find a true sense of inner peace. Quite often, guided meditation will be accompanied by soft music or sounds of nature.
One of the keys to successfully having a session of Guided meditation is finding an area where the one meditating will be free of distractions. Any outside interference will prevent proper concentration and make the attempts at guided meditation futile and perhaps even frustrating, further aggravating the problem seeking to be solved by the very use of guided meditation.
After finding a suitable location for guided meditation, other factors need to be taken into consideration. Some practitioners of guided meditation feel that visual stimuli can be used to help achieve a sense of inner peace and help to achieve true relaxation. Still other practitioners of guided meditation feel that any outside visual simulation will detract from the mind’s ability to properly focus on the body and the results of the guided meditation will be hindered or even reversed.
The same can be said for audio stimulation during sessions of guided meditation. While some individuals believe that soothing sound effects or even quiet music is conducive to the guided meditation, still others believe that it is only a hindrance and will do nothing more than create a harmful atmosphere for the practitioner of such guided meditation.
The basic concept of guided meditation is to relax. This is done by taking oneself on a guided tour of sorts through their own body. In the practice of guided meditation, it is normal to find a focus point in the body and begin there, someplace that is easy to relax. While staying focused on the body and in particular the muscles, the practitioner of guided meditation attempts to relax the muscles of the body. Allowing the body to completely relax allows the practitioner of guided meditation to next completely relax the mind.
When the mind and body are completely relaxed, the person can begin to concentrate on focusing his thoughts and ideas during the guided meditation. When using guided meditation, thoughts are usually thought to be transcendent and more in focus allowing the practitioner to perform better in all aspects of life. Whether or not guided meditation is right for a person is not only dependent on spiritual beliefs. Anyone contemplating the benefits of guided meditation must be seeking to improve themselves as a whole as well.
Source: http://www.free-article-bank.com
Free Self Improvement examines all aspects of self improvement: hypnosis, meditation, motivation, personal development, stress reduction.
7 Steps to Achieving Healthy Self-Esteem
The happiest people are those who do not judge others, live in kindness and love themselves. Do you ever see someone who is perpetually happy and wish you could be like them? You CAN achieve a healthy self-esteem…it takes time and effort. Following are seven steps to help you on your way to becoming a happier, healthier YOU.
1. IDENTIFY
One is not required to live by “I have to” or “I must” – everything we do is a result of a decision…a choice. Choices made in our younger years and choices made this morning when we woke up. Everything is a choice: to obey or disobey; to study or not study; to eat right or not eat right. When making these choices, we control everything about our lives including our future and our level of self-awareness. When you see a wise, confident, beautiful person – it’s not luck, it’s choice. Once you realize and accept this, only then can you begin to become who it is you want to be. All of us are given gifts…special gifts and talents. Through self-discovery, we are able to identify these gifts. If we pay attention to who we are and what makes us happy, we will make the right choices to set our own future.
2. EVALUATE
Who are you? Look at yourself and be honest. Write on a piece of paper the things you like (Pros) and don’t like (Cons) about you. If you are (and you should be) your own best friend, you should be able to take a look at the Cons and develop a plan to begin moving those negatives over to the positive side. Likewise, you should take a look at your Pros and develop a plan to make sure those positive attributes remain on the positive side and continue to grow on the inside AND the outside of you. As you work out a plan, try to find people with like personalities who share your same goals. These are the very people that will make great friends and help you stay on your set path.
3. CONFIRM
Talk to yourself! Still using your list of Pros, begin reinforcing the positive attributes of your personality. I AM…. “I am successful”, “I am pretty”, “I am fun!”... every positive thought should be repeated often – YOU are WHAT you THINK!!!
4. FORGIVE
Forgive yourself for screw ups! They happen to all of us! We are as imperfect as our bodies!! Give yourself a break – forgive and move on. You can’t change the past – but you can live in the present and affect the future!
5. REST
Treat yourself right. Be a friend, a good listener, a giver, not a taker – we feel the best about ourselves when we make someone else smile.
6. BE THANKFUL
Gratitude will get you everywhere. Give thanks to your creator. Be humble in all you have. Pray for those with cold hearts or sad lives. Really know what you have; all of the gifts, talents, and things you possess. Here today, gone tomorrow…if you live your life with gratitude and love, peace will always be in your presence.
7. ACCEPTANCE
Do not accept your fate dictated by others. Accept only the fate you give yourself. Through acts of kindness and focused determination, you can achieve all that is good in this life. When you believe in kindness and in yourself – you can achieve anything. At that point self-esteem is abundant and so is your life.
Know yourself. Like yourself. Live your life like everyone is only in their underwear!
Source: www.easyarticles.com
About the Author: Sandy Heinz is the co-founder and CEO of Good 2ba Girl. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three children. Sandy grew up in a large family (6 sisters, 1 brother) and learned to develop and nurture relationships at a very young age. She left Corporate America in 2002 to embark on a new career of providing insight, educating and helping people build strong relationships. Questions or comments can be directed to Sandy at sandy@good2bagirl.net or visit Gigi’s Community for more tips and information on relationships.
