A Simple Process to Transform Your Life‏

Changing your life is possible. It only requires a few key ingredients: a plan, patience, and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone. If you've really struggled with life, it can be helpful to start small. Achieving a few small successes will give you the confidence to move forward with larger changes.


Follow this process to transform your life into the one you truly want to live:


1. Choose the thing that will have the greatest impact. Examine your life and think about every change you would like to make. Then put the list in order from the most desirable change to least.


- Now, start at the top and look down the list; stop at the first thing you can change in a relatively short period. 



2. Set a goal. What could you achieve in 8-12 weeks around the topic you identified in step #1? Be bold; you're far more capable than you think!


- Write out specifically what you intend to accomplish, such as,"On or before July 15th, I will have increased my income to $6,000 a month by finding a part-time job."



3. Reflect on what has stopped you. Something has stopped you so far; figure out what that something is. Is it a lack of knowledge of how to do it? Is it fear? Capability is rarely the problem; most likely, you'll find that fear or doubt is at the root of what has prevented you from aggressively taking action. 



4.Address the issues in Step #3. Whatever has been stopping you up

to this point isn't going to go away on its own. Come up with a plan to eliminate the challenge. Including simple tools like meditation can boost your success in overcoming these challenges.


- A good test is to think about what you'll have to go through to achieve your goal; if you feel anything but positive and excited,you have some work to do. This is feedback from your unconscious,so don't ignore it - use it. It's a gift.


5. Review your goal daily (at least). Continuing to reinforce your goal will maintain its priority in your mind. Look at it every day and read it aloud. Imagine accomplishing your goal. The tougher the goal, the more frequently you should reinforce it.



6. Have a course of action. A basic plan divided into a list of small steps, or daily activities to accomplish, can be your road map to your goal. Big goals usually require a lot of action steps,but you can achieve them by following your map, one step at a time.Make a plan and work the plan.


7. Track your progress. It's important to measure how you're doing.For example, if you have a money-related goal, how much have you made so far? How much time is left until your deadline? Are you behind or ahead of schedule? Always know where you stand relative to the achievement of your goal.



8. Don't stop. If you don't quit, you can't fail.

Transforming your life is a noble pursuit and one of the most meaningful things you can do for yourself. But it's not for the faint of heart. Be patient - you're not going to change everything overnight. Knock off a few of the easier items first. The confidence you gain will guide you through the tougher challenges.

7 Easy Ways to Increase Your Mental Fitness‏

Have you ever noticed you don't feel quite as mentally sharp when

you do the same mundane things day in and day out? This is actually

physically true. If you use your brain for new tasks, it gets sharper.



Our brains have an ability to actually change structure and physiology in response to new stimuli and challenges. To give your mind this kind of food for growth, try some of the suggestions below. 



1. Play mental games. Crosswords, brain teasers, mazes, Sudoku, and

other puzzles are all effective ways to challenge your mind. So try something new and really give your brain a workout. Even the occasional video game has something to offer.



- These are especially good if they're new experiences for you.

Someone just beginning crossword puzzles is going to experience

more improvement in mental fitness than someone that has been doing

them for years. 



2. Exercise regularly. Moving your body during exercise accomplishes many things:



- The brain is forced to send stronger impulses to your muscles when moving vigorously or against resistance.



- The coordination required and the use of muscles not normally used both challenge the brain.



- The flow of blood and nutrients through the brain is increased.



3. Play music. Learning a new musical instrument is a great way to challenge your mental fitness. This is particularly true for someone who has never played a musical instrument. 



- Learning musical theory is like learning a new language. Not only is music an enjoyable way to spend free time, but it's also great for your brain. Now might be the perfect time to pull out the phone book and look into piano or violin lessons.



4. Meditate your way to mental fitness. Meditation challenges your brain by creating a new mental state. It's relaxing, plus it teaches your mind the ability to focus, which is a huge task for many of us. Meditation is a great way to improve mental fitness.



5. Read something new every day. Reading is a complicated mental process that requires processing information quickly. Try reading something new that interests you. You'll get the added benefit of novelty, enhance your brain function, and learn something as well.



6. Challenge your memory. Each day, take a minute and try to remember the previous day. What did you have for lunch? What happened at work? Try to remember what you did last weekend. What happened last Christmas?



- Make a list of 10 items and then see if you can remember them without cheating! Part of the memory loss sometimes associated with aging is due to not using our powers of recollection on a regular basis.



7. Watch less television. You'll be amazed how much better you feel in every way if you watch less TV. You can do so many things to improve your mind and body that you'll never get around to if you're watching too much TV. They don't call it the idiot box for nothing.



Your mental fitness doesn't have to decline dramatically as you age. The key is to expose yourself to new and challenging experiences on a regular basis. So break up your routine and try something new. 



Doing something new that makes you really think is even better. Turn off the TV and work on a crossword puzzle. Take up the guitar. Try a physical activity that's new to you. There are lots of ways to improve your mental fitness. You can get started today!

Three Steps To Eliminate The Noise Factor

by:  Alissa is a Professional Life Coach, motivational speaker, and author of “Living in Your Top 1%: Nine Essential Rituals to Achieve Your Ultimate Life Goals” 

 

 

 “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are usually right.”—Henry Ford

 

A few years ago I read a book, The Inner Game of Tennis, to help me control the constant stream of thoughts running through my head on the tennis court. I had played competitive tennis at the University of California, Berkeley, and on the Professional Tennis Tour for several years. To perform in the zone and reach your greatest potential, you need to quiet your mind. I realized my ability to concentrate on any given task was completely dependent on my success in minimizing the interference on and off the tennis court. This idea applies to everyone who is focused on sharing his or her greatest potential with the world whether you are an entrepreneur, photographer, college student, parent, musician, or CEO. It’s something I continue to work on and have improved with practice and awareness over the years.
I learned many formulas over the years (and forgot most of them) but am thankful for the following simple equation that has positively impacted my life:
Performance = Potential – Interference
Let me explain: the results we enjoy (aka our performance) on any given day are equal to what we are capable of achieving (aka our potential) less our ability to eliminate distractions (aka interference).  So whether you are preparing for an important presentation, changing careers, or planning you next fabulous vacation, the results you enjoy depend on your ability to reduce unwanted noise, both in your mind and your life.

Here are three steps to reduce the interference or noise factor:

1. AWARENESS OF YOUR THOUGHTS

The first step in quieting the mind is to start hearing the words you use throughout the day. The focus in this phase is to listen and thoroughly assess the melody in your head. Do you prefer to tell yourself, “your life is a mess” or “you are talented and creative”?
Recently, I gave a talk at the LA Business Journal lunch to honor Women Making a Difference. There were over 500 people at the event and I had a lot of ideas racing through my head. Before I approached the stage for my talk, I gave myself five minutes of quiet time to regain my focus and purpose for the talk. Whenever you do something that’s important to you, crazy thoughts come into your mind – will the audience resonate with your message, what will people think of your outfit, will you remember your speech? These thoughts come in and out of your mind but you have to make an effort not to give credibility to any of these thoughts. I take a few deep breaths and picture the ideal outcome for the talk and when I see that clear picture, I know I am ready. This is a process that takes time.
Gradually with practice, the random thoughts are reduced and you are left with a quiet mind to guide you forward.

2. PRACTICE CONDITIONING YOUR MIND

Many of us want results without putting in the effort. People want to lose weight without working out or get promoted without working the extra hours. So if you want to improve as a cook, you can take cooking classes, read a cookbook, and practice cooking new dishes. If you want to improve as a speaker, you can listen to ten TED.com talks a day to develop your style. If you want to have a stronger serve on the tennis court, you can go out and serve five buckets of balls everyday. The more you practice, the better the results you will enjoy.  This concept of practice applies to how we condition our mind as well. If you want to have a positive and powerful mindset you must practice the thoughts you want to rule your life.
Here are several tips clients find useful: identify negative thought patterns, avoid giving more weight to negative thoughts, and stop a negative conversation rather than let it go on and on. My favorite way to quiet my mind is to hike in the Santa Monica Mountains and be surrounded by nature and the feeling of total expansiveness and potential.

The process of conditioning our mind for success is no different than achieving other results – it just feels less tangible.

3. PRIORITIZE WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU

Your role as the CEO of YOU INC. is to prioritize your day and decide what gets added to your schedule. If you want to condition your mind then make it a ritual in your day to regularly assess your words and substitute empowering thoughts for those that are filled with self-doubt.
We all have busy schedules and could use an extra hour in the day. It’s an a-ha moment for many of my clients to realize that they have the opportunity to make the most of these hours just like every other successful person who redefines what’s possible and removes the “im” from impossible. If you sleep until 10am vs. 8am. vs 6am, it’s a choice. If you invest in yourself for one hour and exercise that’s a choice too. We find a way to do anything when it is both important and a priority in our life.

Developing our best mindset needs to be at the top of the list!


TOP 1% BOTTOM LINE: Life is a series of choices. You make the choice to allow positive thoughts to rule your mind and to give negative thoughts no additional weight. What becomes a can or can’t is highly dependent on the words you use and reinforce in your mind. The practice of quieting your mind and eliminating negative or destructive thoughts is a process that can be learned. The sooner you start the process, the sooner you will become a master. It starts with greater awareness and the desire to improve.

HOW TO LIVE LIFE - A Tribute to Steve Jobs

As we all know by now, Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. Words can't express how much he'll 
be missed, how much he'll be remembered, and how drastically he's changed the world.

Below is the text of his commencement address to the Stanford Universty graduates in 2005.

When it comes to inspiration, no one does it better...

" I am honored to be with you today at your commencement
from one of the finest universities in the world. I never
graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest
I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to
tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big
deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,
but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months
or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a
young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to
put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I
should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was
all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his
wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the
last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents,
who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of
the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you
want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother
later found out that my mother had never graduated from
college and that my father had never graduated from high
school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She
only relented a few months later when my parents promised
that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively
chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,
and all of my working-class parents' savings were being
spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't
see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do
with my life and no idea how college was going to help me
figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my
parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop
out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty
scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best
decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could
stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me,
and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I
slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke
bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would
walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one
good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it.
And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity
and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me
give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best
calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the
campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was
beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out
and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to
take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I
learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying
the amount of space between different letter combinations,
about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful,
historical, artistically subtle in a way that science
can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application
in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing
the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And
we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer
with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on
that single course in college, the Mac would have never
had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And
since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no
personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped
out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy
class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful
typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to
connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years
later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can
only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust
that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You
have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life,
karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and
it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky -- I found what I loved to do early in life.
Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was
20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from
just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company
with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest
creation -- the Macintosh -- a year earlier, and I had just
turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired
from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired
someone who I thought was very talented to run the company
with me, and for the first year or so things went well.
But then our visions of the future began to diverge and
eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of
Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very
publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult
life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt
that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs
down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed
to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to
apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public
failure, and I even thought about running away from the
valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me -- I still
loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not
changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still
in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired
from Apple was the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was
replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less
sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the
most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named
NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with
an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on
to create the worlds first computer animated feature film,
Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio
in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought
NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed
at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance.
And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I
hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting
medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes
life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was
that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love.
And that is as true for your work as it is for your
lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your
life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what
you believe is great work. And the only way to do great
work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet,
keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the
heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great
relationship, it just gets better and better as the years
roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like:
"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday
you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on
me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked
in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today
were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am
about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No"
for too many days in a row, I know I need to change
something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important
tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices
in life. Because almost everything -- all external
expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or
failure - these things just fall away in the face of
death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering
that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid
the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are
already naked. There is no reason not to follow your
heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan
at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on
my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The
doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer
that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no
longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to
go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's
code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids
everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to
tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure
everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as
possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I
had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my
throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a
needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the
tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me
that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the
doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very
rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with
surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope
it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having
lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit
more certainty than when death was a useful but purely
intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven
don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the
destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And
that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the
single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent.
It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now
the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you
will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry
to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone
else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living
with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the
noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart
and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly
want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called
The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my
generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand
not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life
with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before
personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all
made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It
was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before
Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with
neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole
Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they
put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was
your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a
photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you
might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so
adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay
Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed
off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished
that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I
wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much. "

-----------
 
You'll be missed, Steve, by a world you helped to create.

Need to Succeed

Chinkee Tan talk about success.. Watch now and find your purpose in life..

20 WORDS TO LIVE BY and CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Nick Vujicic, No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!

LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE AND WHAT HE DON'T

BUT HE IS HAPPY!

WATCH THE VIDEOS BELOW AND BE INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED

Nick Vujicic's Inspirational Talk - Life Without Limbs

Be Inspired , Be Motivated , Watch Videos Below

MY FAVORITE MOTIVATOR - NICHOLAS VUJICIC

Imagine being born without arms. No arms to wrap around a friend ; no hands to hold the ones you love; no fingers to experience touch ; no way to lift or carry things. How much more difficult would life be if you were living without arms and hands? Or what about legs? Imagine if instead of no arms, you had no legs. No ability to dance, walk, run, or even stand. Now put both of those scenarios together… no arms and no legs. What would you do? How would that affect your everyday life?

“If just one more person finds eternal life in Jesus Christ….it is all worth it”.  You can help me spread this message today!

Meet Nick Vujicic, pronounced ‘Vooy-cheech’. Born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia, without any medical explanation or warning, Nicholas Vujicic came into the world with neither arms nor legs. Imagine the shock his parents felt when they saw their first-born brand new baby boy for the first time, only to find he was what the world would consider imperfect and abnormal. A limbless son was not what nurse Dushka Vujicic, and her husband Pastor Boris Vujicic had been expecting. How would their son live a normal happy life? What could he ever do or become when living with such a massive disability? Little did they or anyone else know that this beautiful limbless baby would one day be someone who would inspire and motivate people from all walks of life. God uses Nick to touch lives and bring the hope of Jesus Christ to people across the globe.

Throughout his childhood, Nick dealt not only with the typical challenges of school and adolescence such as bullying and self-esteem issues; but also struggled with depression and loneliness.  He constantly questioned why he was different than all the other kids surrounding him; why he was the one born without arms and legs. He wondered what the purpose behind his life was, or if he even had a purpose. According to Nick, the victory over his struggles throughout his journey, as well as the strength and passion he has for life can be credited to his faith in God. His family, friends and the many people he has encountered along the way have also encouraged him.

After school, Nick went on with further study and obtained a double Bachelor’s degree, majoring in Accounting and Financial Planning from Griffith University in Logan, Australia. By the age of 19, Nick started to fulfill his dream of being able to encourage other people and bring them the gospel of Jesus through motivational speaking and sharing his testimony about how God changed his life and gave him a future and a hope. “I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance. There’s a purpose for why you’re in the fire.” Nick wholeheartedly believes that there is a purpose in each of the struggles we each encounter in our lives, and that our attitude towards those struggles, along with our faith and trust in the Lord can be the keys to overcoming the challenges we face.

Now at 28 years old, this limbless young man has accomplished more than most people accomplish in a lifetime. Nick recently made the massive move from Brisbane, Australia to California, USA, where he is the President of an international 501c3 non-profit organization; Life Without Limbs. Since his first speaking engagement back when he was 19, Nick has traveled around the world, sharing his story with millions of people, speaking to a range of different groups such as students, teachers, youth, businessmen and women, entrepreneurs, and church congregations of all sizes.  He has also told his story and been interviewed on various televised programs worldwide. “If God can use a man without arms and legs to be His hands and feet, then He will certainly use any willing heart!” 

WATCH FOR MY NEXT POST , NICK'S INSPIRATIONAL TALK!!!

-Nick Vujicic's Inspirational Talk-Life Without Limbs

-Nick Vujicic, No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!

How To Develop Motivation in Your Everyday Life

Personal development, maximizing your potential, goals setting, motivating yourself for the better – these are some of the inter-related things that you need to work on as an individual. Here, we will set our sights on the many ways that you can develop motivation in life.

The Importance of Finding Out what Motivates You

First, let’s find out what the importance of motivation exactly is. Simply put, motivation is that driving force which allows you to achieve your goals and go after what you want in life. If you want to change your personality for the better, get a promotion at work, start a new habit, be a better person who is part of the community, become a better parent for your kid – all of these things would be easier accomplished if you are properly motivated.
As long as you have a strong personal motivation, you can achieve almost anything that you want from life. However, remember not to fall into the trap of looking for short-cuts to achieve your goals. It’s perfectly fine if you have to take a long and winding road to achieve your goal. It will be an even sweeter victory when you finally achieve your goal, knowing that you have had to go through several hurdles to attain it.

Developing Motivation in Life

So how can you develop motivation in life? If you wish to accomplish a goal – be it short-term or long-term in nature – how can you find it in you to be properly motivated? Here are a few things that you should keep in mind:

1. Focus on one goal at a time.

This should be partnered with the fact that you should make sure that your short-term goals all help in achieving your long-term goals. One of the best ways for you to focus on one goal at a time is to make a diary of your goals – yes, write it down – so that you will have a visual representation of the things that you want to achieve rather than letting it all get lost in your head.

2. Get rid of all the distractions which might prevent you from achieving your goal.

Let’s say that you are a writer who wants to finish a book. How can you type away on your keyboard one chapter after another if there are many distractions surrounding you like television, friends chattering away or the lure of aimlessly browsing through the Internet. In order for you to stay properly motivated, make sure to steer clear of any distractions.

3. Completely block out any negative influences.

Finally, make sure that you are completely blocking out any negative influences in your life. If you feel that you are being distracted from your goal by a problem which does not seem to go away, ask yourself what you can do to eliminate such a challenge and distraction in your life. Maybe you are being sidetracked by negative thoughts and feelings because you have no faith in yourself. Addressing the root of the problem, completely blocking out any negative distractions and thinking purely positive thoughts is the best way for you to develop motivation in your everyday life.

Constantly Work At Motivating Yourself

A goal doesn’t do you much good unless you are constantly thinking about, and working towards it. Write down your goal and place it somewhere that you will see it at least 1-2 times a day. If you have a weight loss goal, place your written goal beside the refrigerator. If your goal is to get physically stronger, place your written goal near your weight bench so you can see it when you are working out. This provides the extra motivation you need for those tough days.

A great way to motivate yourself with business goals is to put up a motivational quote beside your desk. Do a Google search for motivational quotes, then print off one and put it inside of a picture frame. Keep it there and read it occasionally throughout the day. Whenever you find yourself not looking at the quote anymore, or it no longer provides the inspiration that it once did, it’s time to change the quote. It’s perfectly OK to change this quote every 1-2 weeks for maximum motivation.

Some people make a habit of reading their goals either when they first wake up or right before they go to bed. When you read your goals upon arising, you may begin to notice that you find yourself doing more each day to help you reach your goals. Similarly, when you read your goals right before bed, you may notice that you wake up with good ideas that you never thought of before.

Final Thoughts

It’s important to have motivation in your life. Motivation is the fuel that you need to continue striving for your goals. Soak up motivating things in your life on a daily basis. Read great books that will inspire you. Read great blogs that are both positive and informative.
It’s human nature to have days were you aren’t very motivated. However, if you continue to surround yourself with positive and motivational things, those days will be few and far between.

What is Motivation?

At one time or another, many of us will ask ourselves the questions: What is motivation? And how can we cultivate it and utilize it to our advantage? While the answers to these questions may be slightly different for each person, the general philosophy behind motivation is the same.

If you were to boil down the definition of motivation to its most important factors, you would be left with two equal parts of desire and determination. In this sense, motivation can be seen as a strong desire to achieve a certain goal accompanied with the appropriate energy and determination to make it a reality. In other words, simply hoping for an achievement or desired outcome will not necessarily bring that goal to life. You will need to identify and take the steps necessary to achieve your goal in order to succeed. Having the patience and motivation to move closer to your goal one step at a time is what will eventually lead to success.

As you move through life, you will also encounter many different forms of motivation. So, answering the question — what is motivation? — is actually more complicated than it orginially seemed. First, the variety of motivators in life occur because the forces and objects that motivate us are often very distinct and numerous.

For instance, you may exhibit one type of behavior in order to acquire money or a related reward while exhibiting a completely different type of behavior in other circumstances.

According to today’s top motivational theories, the subject of motivation can be broken up into two main principles, which include intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Generally, intrinsic motivation involves one’s own personal interests and factors which they believe they can control. Alternatively, extrinsic motivation involves motivation that is generated from outside an individual person. Perhaps the most popular and powerful extrinsic motivator is money and the need to procure it. As you can see so far, the potential answers to our central question — What is motivation? — are seemingly limitless.

What is Motivation and Why is it Important?

When examining the theories of motivation, it’s also worth noting that motivation can be either positive or negative. For instance, positive motivation includes goals or rewards that you will enjoy or feel proud of. So, working a few extra hours to earn money so your family can go on a great vacation is a form of positive motivation. Negative motivation is said to occur when you undertake a task out of fear or a desire to avoid a given outcome. For instance, you may attend classes and study hard out of fear of failing a given course rather than a desire to succeed in the course. It’s also important to keep in mind that neither positive motivation nor negative motivation is inherently bad or good. These dual poles simply point to two classifications which can help us to answer the question: What is motivation? Also, it’s likely that you will experience both negative and positive motivating factors throughout the course of your life. Also, at one time or another, you will likely encounter a loss of motivation as well. Luckily, there are steps you can take to improve your motivation and take action on your goals.

Now that you know the answer to the question what is motivation, you will need to set a clear and powerful goal so you can strengthen your motivation. This goal can involve just about anything as long as it’s important to you. Also, you need to believe that achieving this goal is possible. Next, you should brainstorm a list of steps you can take to achieve your goal. Keep in mind that these do not have to be monumental leaps and you really shouldn’t try to do everything at once. Instead, break your goal down into actionable items that you can work towards on a daily basis. As you begin acting on your goals, your sense of happiness and enthusiasm is likely to expand as well.

Moving forward, it’s also extremely important that you make a commitment not to give up on your goals. As your motivation rises and falls, try to keep the end goal in mind and never waver from your desire to make it a reality. Finally, you should try to surround yourself with positive people that support and encourage your growth. And don’t be afraid to venture into unknown territory since fear and vulnerability can often be gateways to growth. Because, after all, the answer to the question — What is motivation? — is an answer you will have to find for yourself in the end.