Archive for July, 2009

The Confidence to Motivate Others

Monday, July 20th, 2009

What is leadership? Well I suppose, in a simple sense, it’s the ability to get others to do what you ask them to do. Sounds straight forward, but as we all know, we commonly get into situations where people just simply aren’t motivated by us. This sounds typical in the office, doesn’t it? Work attitude commonly hinges on motivation.

Let’s look at how confidence in ourselves leads to the motivation of others.
One of the biggest secrets to achieving success is to become a confident person. You have to let go of destructive thoughts, otherwise, you end up becoming that negative person that no one wants around. Of course, it’s perfectly normal to have doubts. But regularly assuming the worst is already a problem. You already set your mind to thinking that things will never work to your favor, and you subconsciously sabotage your chances for true happiness.

Being overly confident isn’t smart either. Thinking that it’s in your fate to do something great can make your forego all the efforts to truly achieve what you want. Don’t pin your hopes to only one thing and know that it is better to work hard to get what you want. People will respect you more when they see that you are working just as hard as they do. Yes, you may be a natural at something, but you never assume that your talents will work for you all the time even when you don’t try hard enough. When things backfire, you can really bruise your ego and hurt your self-esteem. You have to plan for your future and anticipate what could happen. There’s always something to worry about, and if you think that life is a bed of roses, you are gravely mistaken. Of course, this is also not to say that you become a pessimist. It simply means that you have to plan for every possibility but also know that you have to take risks if you ever want to achieve anything. Believe in yourself but don’t be boastful, trust in your abilities but never be complacent.

If you want to be that person who inspires others to follow in your footsteps, earn their respect. Should you find yourself managing people under you, never use fear to motivate them. People may follow your advice when they fear you, but they can also just as easily betray you. Why? Because they never liked you to begin with. Some people will actually jump at the chance to put you in your place once they know that they can gain power over you. To inspire others to be just as excellent, you have to give them a sense of purpose. Make them understand how valued they are and that the goal can only be achieved when everyone works together.

So when you feel that the energy is leaning towards the negative, take a step back and try to see the entire picture. Just as you are working towards achieving your dreams, so are the others. Ask help when needed and extend your services to the others as well. You become a more motivated person when you know that the others are rooting for you. Should you commit a mistake, these people will be there to immediately help you pick up the pieces. To get kindness, you have to give it. Be that person who cheers for their peers when they achieve success. Never be jealous of what others have because you also have unique talents of your own. Remember, certain accomplishments can be made when different talents are combined. As long you know that you have something to contribute, you’ll have people who’ll watch your back as well.

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Power of Visualization

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The human mind is an incredible thing. It can literally manifest the things we seek by our mere thoughts and clarity of desire. Let’s explore in this reflection the power of visualization.

Your subconscious mind is an exceptionally potent ally. What you tell yourself to be and how you want things to work can be controlled. All you need to do is learn the power of visualization. Basically, your mind is fully capable of working backwards, working from the end to the means. This is basically an act of working towards your goal even without knowing the steps to be taken. If you “program” only the desired outcome successfully within your “mental computer,” then your subconscious takes over and helps you find the information and means to carry out the actions necessary to achieve the things that you want. This is perhaps the best mental training technique available to people nowadays.

Many people are now familiarizing themselves with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to attain objectives. They are harnessing all their energy into giving instructions to their subconscious mind. In a way, affirmation and visualization are very much the same. When you speak or think about an affirmation, it triggers a mental image of your goals and dreams.

Visualization enables you to plant goals into your subconscious mind. The process of imagining yourself going through the motions of a complex performance activates brain areas to enhance and further your skills. Brain scans reveal a firm neurological basis. Scientists were able to use the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans as basis for their theory. The results revealed that the mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefrontal lobe of the brain. This area was responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor programs. This basically means that you can benefit when you use mental imagery.

Scientists have been able to establish the mind and body link. There’s also direct evidence in the way emotional stress can contribute to physical illnesses and difficulties. What people don’t realize is that the mind greatly influences the body and the circumstances outside it.

You could even use this technique in the middle of an exercise. When you want to lose all unwanted fat, all you need to do is imagine the burning process taking place. See the unwanted bulges melt away as you remove it from the areas in your body that you want smaller. You don’t need to be a scientist to know this. In fact, research enables you to create a picture on the entire process. For a fully successful workout, imagine the muscles building up and taking its place where the fat once occupied.

Even if you were not as educated with the internal structure and workings of the body, you could still use this method. The important thing to know here is that your body responds to mental imagery. It does not take heed of inaccuracies. What is more important is the process you want to happen. In field of hypnosis, the subconscious mind responds well to metaphor better than literal suggestions. Facts and logic belong to the conscious mind, while emotion and metaphor slips into the subconscious domain. If you frequently visualize what you want and set a schedule for the exercise, the mental images will be accepted by the subconscious. Then, your mind commands the will of the universe. This helps a lot with modifying and improving habits, behavior, and performance.

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Confronting Stress Head On

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

It’s all to easy to ignore stress. When the signs of stress appear, we first don’t even recognize it. When it dawns on us that we are getting stressed, our first reaction is to ignore it. Finally, we blow our cool in some way.

The way we deal with stress has to change. Let’s learn to tackle stress head on and rely on our inner strength to deal with stress properly.

We all have to deal with stress. As you work your way towards success, there will always be hindrances. When problems arise, retreating is not always the answer. Giving up is the coward’s way out, and people ruled with fear will never achieve anything or amount to much. Stress is a part of life, and when you allow things to get out of control, you only make the situation worse. When you leave things be and focus your attention elsewhere, you are allowing the situation to win. Your life will be about avoiding issues, and nothing will ever get better. You have to sooner or later deal with it, and when you put off your responsibilities, you may one day find yourself overburdened with problems that are too tough to handle.

Do you want to spend half your life running away from things you fear? If you do this, then you are not living your life to the fullest. You are merely surviving. You will deny yourself from the true pleasures of life simply because you are trying to avoid trials. You won’t go anywhere and instead stagnate. Then you see the people around you living their dreams, while you are still at the bottom of the ladder. When you experience difficult days, you turn your back away and see that the problems have never actually disappeared. In fact, you merely threw a cloak over it and hid it for awhile. But things will always have a way of coming out, and when this happens, you will no longer have a chance to run away from it. You may then try to deal with it, but has already blown way out of proportion that there is no way of getting around it.

You now really need to find an immediate solution to controlling the situation and improving your circumstances. Do it now before it controls you. Although many of you regard stress as the enemy, there are ways to making it your friend. Quiet time is, without exception, the best way to clear up your head. You also have to trust in your abilities. When you find yourself in a predicament, you have to see it as a chance to strategize and prove to yourself and the people around you that you are more than capable of many things. Your experiences also play a big part in how you believe in your talents and capabilities.

We all have this inner critic that never changes. This stops us from seeing our true strengths and abilities. The key to moving forward and overcoming insecurities is to bring awareness to what you want and what you have achieved at present. Reclaim your self esteem and courage. Harness enough energy so that you can live through day to day experiences with a new zest for life. There is nothing you can’t achieve if you simply put your mind to it. You simply have to get up every time you fall. You may find yourself bruised and battered, but if you strive forth, you’ll be able to conquer any trial and win over it with a mind filled with wisdom.

One of life’s goals is to teach you a lesson, let you learn as you go through each and every experience. Gain more knowledge from it and apply what you’ve learned. Practice makes perfect, and if you keep at it, you’ll see that it gets easier along the way.

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A Winning Office Attitude

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Office Attitude: Playing to Win

When we are out of step with the rest of the office, that’s when we get into trouble. What if we’re playing to win and the rest of the office is really laid back?

Most of us would like to succeed at every endeavor and be like the superhuman we all would want to be. Unfortunately, unlike those superheroes we know of, we bleed and get hurt every time we fail. So, instead of pursuing our goal, we back out and quit.  This is especially true at the office and in our careers.

Office life can be a game, and our goal may not have to be to win in every round. What should be important is we learn from the rules so that we really do get to triumph in the end.

In our professional lives, we would like to be with a team of winners, but to make this even remotely possible, we need to create a good relationship among the players. We need to constantly inspire ourselves to try even harder. We all need a sort of wake up call to realize that winning is rarely easy. It takes a lot of hard work, patience, and time.

We need to celebrate every single moment of that journey. Yes, we may make bad choices along the way, but so what? At least we know whether they work or not. Once we make that decision to bravely venture into the unknown, we need to take careful and deliberate steps. The faster we rise, the harder we fall, and we should know that when every step is planned and deliberated, mistakes won’t blow up at a monstrous proportion.

When we play the game of life, we also need to realize that in order to win, we must come up with innovative ideas. We need to let go of perceived notions and let our creative juices flow. If we become willing to test things out, we get to strategize even better. Yes, we may be unsuccessful, but the disappointment is not the entire point of the journey. The most accomplished individuals in today’s world have failed, but they let their thirst for victory guide them through the entire process. In the end, their failures were soon forgotten because what people ultimately remember is their courage to take risks. In fact, they have become icons that inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

We really need to think about what we want most out of life. Otherwise, all the effort will be futile if we really aren’t that satisfied in the end.  Playing to win requires inspiration, and what sets apart winners from the losers is their goal. They are out there in the field, giving it their best shot because they want to be the best that they can be. People who fail tend to play by giving it only a bit of an effort simply because they don’t want to lose. This negative attitude is what brings people down.

To succeed in life, we need to face each day with a kind of hope that gives us the strength to overcome hurdles and still smile after a sad and depressing day because we know that things can always get better. As long as we have the strength to wake up each morning and drag ourselves out of bed, we can still do something. Let us keep this thought always in our hearts because this is what will make a difference in our lives.

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Getting Out of a Rut

Monday, July 6th, 2009

There are many ways of winding up in a rut.  Whether, it’s because of a single tragic episode or a series of little things that add up to something over time, we wind up in a “bad place”.

There is one sure way out however. We have to embrace the power of positive thinking. I know it’s hard, but you have to do it.

Some of us live our lives filled with incredible anger, hurt, and negativity. Our experiences leave us jaded and cynical, oftentimes dragging others down with us along the way. Though we don’t want to be this dark and despondent person, we just can’t help it at times. The pain we’ve endured is just too unbearable to let go. Then we notice, nothing good ever happens to us. Our life worsens every single day and we’re caught in this lethal downward spiral that we can’t get out of.

The truth of the matter is that we can get out of this rut that we’re stuck in. The problem is, we sometimes get too caught up in our own misery that we don’t notice the little miracles happening around us. This dark, dank, and dreary place has blinded us from seeing the good that is happening right in front of us. Get out of this dungeon and open the door that leads outside where the sun lights the way to a positive perspective.

Once we get to this place where we can just leave all of the circumstances in our life and our affairs in the hands of our personal faith and of what opportunities can offer, we can rest assured that everything is going to be okay. We know deep within our hearts and souls that this has proven to be true in the past.

We must have the motivation to make our lives different. We must inspire ourselves to do something other than what repeatedly hasn’t worked in the past. It is an act of thinking that everything works out to make us a better person. Motivation sets forth a series of miracles if we get it in our heart’s core. We must apply all these factors in our lives to rid ourselves of poverty, tensions and scarcity.

There can be a number of ways to get success or to achieve goals, but achieving it is entirely up to us. Motivation can change a man’s mind, and by looking at it in a positive light can bring a kind of hope that changes circumstances for the better. We can change our lives in so many ways, and all we must do is believe in ourselves to make things better. When we thirst for success and happiness, we will be able to see how miracles can happen. What usually stops us is our being too calculated. We depend on science and logic so much that we discount the many things that just seem to happen for no apparent reason. We look for justifications and our logical side just stops us from expecting something out of the ordinary.

Logic has successfully explained numerous phenomena, but there are still aspects that go beyond reason. We have to accept the fact that things often happen for reasons that we simply can’t explain. Be it in our faith or in our ability to just let go, we need to realize that we also deserve the good things that others are experiencing.

My only suggestion is to try it, because it has proven to be right in a number of individuals. After all, what have you got to lose? Nothing! But you can gain everything from this wonderful experience.

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Find Self Confidence

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Finding self confidence can take a life time for some people. Others seem to be born with it. If you want to improve your self confidence, here are a few thoughts

Some believe that in order to get everything that you desire most in life, you need money. Though a lot of things in this world can be acquired with the help of some cash, there are other ways for you to achieve your dreams. Money is not the means to an end, it is merely a reward when you have self-confidence. If you have all the material possessions but don’t believe in your abilities, these things will be useless and worthless. Self confidence comes from knowing that you have the skills needed to achieve any goal you want. Even the most capable mind won’t amount to much without the self-confidence. It forms a base on which every structure rests, it is what keeps the things around you upright, and more importantly, it is what gives you the energy to move forward and pursue your dreams.

The good thing about self confidence is that it can get passed to the people you’ll encounter. A person who knows that he can do anything that he wants gets the respect of everyone around. He will also be the inspiration for others to follow in his footsteps because it seems as if the universe itself decided to shine on that man’s fate. In today’s competitive world, self confidence is a basis of survival. In turn, that man draws more energy from his surroundings. This energy makes you a better person. This is an upward spiral that only gets better by the moment!

One can never predict what happens in their future, and in order to overcome unexpected hurdles, you need to develop confidence in yourself. You should always see life as a chance to know what you need to work on so that you can become a better person. This takes a lot of practice. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. To become a more confident person, you need to keep practicing the following:

1. Stop worrying about the opinions of other people. Never allow others to make you feel like the lesser person. The opinion you should value the most is your own. Just keep your eye on your destination and hold your head up high as you see yourself slowly climbing up the ladder of success.

2. Learn from your mistakes and use life’s lessons as your weapon. You need to take responsibility for the choices that you’ve made and never fail to strategize based on your experience.

3. Have faith. This keeps you determined to keep on and put all your energy into achieving what you want most from life simply because you know that it will happen if you just never give up.

We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. We can all excel by sticking to our principles. We also have to know that we can’t always win in every game we play, but this shouldn’t stop us from our mission. The secret to success is to be brave enough to face the unknown. Trust in yourself and know that with self-confidence, you can overcome problems and go further than you’ve ever expected.

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Listening to What Your Body is Telling You

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Much of the time, we go through life without really listening. Or we claim that we listen but don’t really hear what is being said. When it comes to the signals coming from our bodies, however, I think we really better listen. We live in times of great stress and it takes its toll on our physical selves. We best listen to the little cues that our bodies give us. Don’t ignore those little aches and pains, lest they become bigger ones.

Listening to Your Body

Everyone who lives in today’s society knows what it is like to feel the pressure of  the demands placed on you. Sometimes these things just pile up and you can’t help but feel the tension radiating through every pore of your body. Then, your health suffers and you are forced to stay home. Nonetheless, you still try to insist that you can handle it for fear of having work pile up on you even more. When these things happen, you simply have to throw the trowel and give in to your health needs. You need to listen to your body before it completely gives up on you.

Very often you are so busy trying to catch up with life’s demands that you don’t notice the subtle messages your body is trying to send you. Fact is, our bodies are constantly trying to tell us something. We should know because we feel these things every time they happen. Do we listen to them? Admittedly, not all of the time. The reality is that we tend to ignore the hints until it is too late.

When we don’t get enough rest, we feel the repercussions in so many different ways. Some of us get the sniffles, others sore muscles, while the rest just get plain sick. When this happens, our bodies are telling us that it is high time to relax and rejuvenate. What do we do? We take a shot of Vitamin C or pop a pill. These aren’t necessarily enough to fully recuperate. Eventually, these subtle hints become cries for help. We end up either sick in bed for days, or worse, confined in the hospital. 

Our bodies know our needs better than our minds do. Sometimes, we choose to ignore reality. Though we may be weak to the bones, we convince ourselves that a night’s rest is just the remedy for it. If you abuse your body and ignore its needs, you eventually will have to pay the price. The cost may vary, but the statement of account will still come.

Leading a healthy life means that you have to put your body’s needs first. You need to be aware of each call so that you can answer before it’s too late. To avoid dire consequences, you also need to know the importance of living healthy. The right kind of diet and exercise can do wonders. In fact, these are two main components of your body’s needs.

If you live a very hectic life and have no time for exercise, you need to make sure that you make time. Twenty minutes of workout daily helps a lot. It’s not asking for much. Though you may have to juggle your schedule a bit just to squeeze in some exercise time, the benefits will far outweigh the hassle. Our body is our temple, and we are only given one temple in this lifetime. The best way to care for it and to nurture it is to be aware of what it needs. Hear its cries and heed its calls, otherwise it may be too late.

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