Feeling good about yourself is one of the key ways to be successful at what you do. Remember that only you are in charge of your emotions and empowering yourself is a great way to get ahead in life. This article lists three ways to boost your self esteem which can help you feel better about yourself and become a more confident person. Get your mind relaxed A relaxed mind is the source of great power. Like the tai-chi masters of old, a calm mind can bring about great mental strength that can allow you to become more confident in what you do on a daily basis. Things like hypnosis, tai-chi or meditation can help you develop this inner calm that will allow you to be composed in the most volatile situations. A calm mind in the face of adversity, is a source of strength. John for example is a busy executive who was really stressed out at work so in the weekends he decided to take up Tai-Chi and after that was able to maintain his calm during the week. As a result of that, his colleagues started consulting him when they had crisis and his self confidence went up. Do something that you are strong at Do something that you are good at and that reinforces in your mind that you are a person that is of value. Spend some time doing something that allows you to experience the feeling of winning. Chalking up the wins is something that will help boost your self confidence. There is much to illustrate in the area of the psychology of winning. There was an story of a father who let us son beat him at wrestling and after a while, this son started to consistently beat his other brother whom for the longest time had prevailed over him. Such is the power of the mindset of a winner. Do something for others Spend some time doing something for others and doing it well. The joy of achievement no matter how small will empower and light up your life. Remind yourself that in small things you are faithful, you will be able to handle larger and more complex things. Thereafter you will be able to be confident in your own abilities to handle more tasks. Self confidence is relative as well. Some people think that they have the worst life in the world, helping out the less fortune reminds us that we should be thankful and thereafter make the best of our own existence on earth as mundane as it may be. Thankfulness and self esteem have an impact on each other and a thankful mindset is the basis to attract more self confidence. In conclusion, are you feeling down and insecure? Try taking these three simple steps today and thereafter spend time at night reflecting on your own thoughts. Discard thoughts that drag your self-worth down and take active steps to nurture positive thoughts. There is wisdom in living a more confident life and it is one that you ought to live. Joel Teo 2007 All Rights Reserved

Hudson and Behring accomplished so much in their fishing-boats as to astonish Parry and Franklin, whose equipment exhausted the resources of science and art. Galileo, with an opera-glass, discovered a more splendid series of celestial phenomena than any one since. Columbus found the New World in an undecked boat. It is curious to see the periodical disuse and perishing of means and machinery which were introduced with loud laudation a few years or centuries before. The great genius returns to essential man. We reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science,and yet Napoleon conquered Europe by the bivouac,which consisted of falling back on naked valor and disencumbering it of all aids. The Emperor held it impossible to make a perfect army,says Las Cases, “without abolishing our arms,magazines, commissaries and carriages, until, in imitation of the Roman custom, the soldier should receive his supply of corn, grind it in his hand-mill, and bake his bread himself.” Society is a wave. The wave moves onward,but the water of which it is composed does not. The same particle does not rise from the valley to the ridge. Its unity is only phenomenal. The persons who make up a nation to-day, next year die, and their experience with them. And so the reliance on Property, including the relianceon governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance.Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has,and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has if he see that it is accidental,–came to him by inheritance,or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him,has no root in him and merely lies there because no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is, does always by necessity acquire,and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers,or mobs, or revolutions,or fire,or storm,or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes. “Thy lot or portion of life,”said the Caliph Ali,”is seeking after thee; therefore be at rest from seeking after it.” Our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions; the greater the concourse and with each new uproar of announcement, The delegation from Essex! The Democrats from New Hampshire! The Whigs of Maine! the young patriot feels himself stronger than before by a new thousand of eyes and arms.In like manner the reformers summon conventions and vote and resolve in multitude. Not so,O friends! will the God deign to enter and inhabit you, but by a method precisely the reverse. It is only as a man puts off all foreign support and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by every recruit to his banner.Is not a man better than a town? Ask nothing of men,and, in the endless mutation, thou only firm column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee. He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself,stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles;just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head. So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her,and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect,the chancellors of God. In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance,and shall sit hereafter out of fear from her rotations. A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick or the return of your absent friend,or some other favorable event raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Social anxiety disorder greatly reduces the quality of a person’s life. People who suffer from social anxiety miss out on so much that life has to offer. Opportunities are greatly limited, because the person who suffers from social anxiety cannot take advantage of any opportunity that might require social interaction – and most opportunities in life do require some sort of social interaction. Visualization has been proven to be a very effective tool for dealing with social anxiety. Visualization is used to treat many disorders, and it is even used for pain management. Visualization can work in two ways: You can visualize yourself somewhere else, doing something else when you are in a social situation that is causing you anxiety, or you can visualize how a social interaction or event will play out before it occurs to prepare your mind for it. The first method of visualization, where you visualize yourself in a different place from the one you are currently in is often used for pain management, or to calm down during anxious or stressful situations. The second method of visualization, where you visualize how a situation or event will play out, is the best visualization method for treating social anxiety disorder. Using the second method of visualization, the concept is fairly simple. The theory is that if you visualize the situation or event in a positive way, over and over, before the event occurs, not only are you more prepared to handle it mentally, but it has been proven that if you think in a positive way, and visualize in a positive way, you will get positive results. The second method prepares you for the event, but the first method is used during the event, in case you are feeling totally overwhelmed with the social situation that is going on around you. You simply remove yourself from the situation – mentally. People who suffer from social anxiety often use this method, but it should be considered a back-up plan, in case the first method fails to work once you are in the situation. Visualization can be done with or without the aid of visualization tapes. There are tapes that can be purchased, but in the case of social anxiety, it is better to make your own tapes, since each tape will need to pertain to a specific social situation or event that is coming up in the future. Visualization begins with some deep breathing exercises. Then, you close your eyes and begin to visualize the event. It is important that you visualize the event completely, starting from where you leave your house to go to the event. Make sure that you use all five senses to make it as real as possible in your mind. Be able to feel the clothes you are wearing, the smells that will be around you, the taste of the food that will be served, and the sound of people talking or music playing. Whatever the social situation will be, imagine it as clearly and realistically as possible. Do not allow negative images to come into your mind. In your visualization, you should be handling the social situation very well. There is no fear. Nobody is staring at you or judging you. You are saying all the right things at the right times, and it is all going very well. Keep it positive! Visualize a successful social interaction as many times as possible before the event, and make sure you do the visualization again right before the event. Also, prepare your backup visualization – the first method of visualization. You will need to practice the first method of visualization, where you can mentally remove yourself from an anxious situation, over and over again, until you are able to visualize yourself somewhere else that you consider safe and stress-free, without the use of visualization tapes. If both methods fail you, first realize that it may take quite a bit of practice until it stops failing you. Then, just tell yourself that the event will end soon, and picture yourself arriving back at your home, where it is safe and comfortable. See yourself kicking your shoes off and fixing a bowl of ice cream. The event will be over soon, and then you can practice for the next event. The important thing is to not stop trying. You will get it down eventually, and visualization will start to work for you, allowing you to do things that you never dreamed were possible! Gary Miller is the author of “Prisoners of Our Thoughts: How to break free from the grips of Social Anxiety and Fear.” To learn more about the book click here to go to the website at www.social-anxiety-cure.com.

In the terms of the layman, productivity refers to the amount of useful activity you complete in a given time. It is closely related to elegance – the ability to bring about the greatest results with the least amount of effort. It is the belief of the author of this article that productivity grows exponentially with the degree of elegance with which you perform tasks. So how do you increase your elegance and triple your productivity? Mamy authors write about the powers of the unconscious mind. This is the subconscious mind – that part of each person that takes care of the things we consciously take for granted – from the beating of the heart, the regulation of the blood composition, the thermostatic regulation of the body’s temperature by the hypothalamus part of the brain or such processes that were once conscious then become unconscious as one develops competence – e.g. driving, walking, being able to comfortably read the words of this article etc. Would it be fair to say that to the greater extent that you can take control of and allow the unconscious mind to get you what you want, the greater productivity and elegance with which you perform and complete tasks will be? Imagine for a moment…how often do you wake up and start the day on automatic – you get up, may be you stretch, you go prepare breakfast, clean you teeth, or if you’re smart and enthusiastic – perhaps you go straight for a run or do some other form of exercise… All those things are normal and fine, but if you examine this behavior it is a habit that you have formed. It happens on automatic – if it happens smoothly and you don’t really think and decide about what you’re doing, the chances are its ingrained as a habit and your unconscious mind is running the behavioral pattern. So, the rest of this article will show you how you can use this information to create more of what you want by taking control of your unconscious processes, teaching your mind who is boss and achieving bigger and better results, small step by small step. Try this for a week (7 days). Anyone who can do something for 7 days can do it for 21 days, and the experts say it takers only 21 days to learn a new habit. Do it for six months and the chances are you can keep it up for a lifetime it becomes so ingrained – if you choose to. To implement this simple step and triple your productivity in a week, you will need only a pen and paper plus a little willingness to take control and do somethings you’ve been putting off. Step 1: Write out a list of about 20 things each day that you know you need to do – this can include even the most basic of things such as “get up out of bed”, “make the bed”, “clean teeth”, “switch out the lights”, “wash up my breakfast bowl”, “kiss my spouse good morning,” etc. You get the picture, just make sure that you have a list of 20 different things that are really easy to achieve. Step 2: Decide to do the first thing on the list and then do it. Give yourself a tick with the pen and consciously tell your mind that this is a success. Your mind will be pleased with you and support you because you’ve decided to do something and then you have gone ahead an d done that thing – that’s a successful loop – it shows to your mind who is in control – no matter how big or small the task. Step 3: As you find yourself effortlessly doing this list, and rewarding yourself along the way by ticking off your “to do” list, you will find yourself feeling terrific about yourself. You will bring to the fore of your mind the things you’ve been dreading and putting off and actually create the burning desire to get them done well. You’re self belief will skyrocket. Step 4: You can test yourself by slightly increasing the difficulty of the tasks, perhaps add something you don’t yet know “how” to do – eg earn an extra couple of hundred in a week. By increasing your productivity like this and training your unconscious to just get on and support you to “do it” you may well find you achieve far more than you expected over the next week of doing this. You have it within you to triple your productivity in just 7 days. So go ahead, your instructions are above.

Many people anticipate boredom, misery and uselessness in retirement. In fact, many people are living this kind of retirement right now. These fears often weigh people down and actually stand in the way of enjoying a fulfilling and happy retirement. But you don’t have to be one of the people dreading retirement. You can take charge of your life right now and start moving toward the exciting life you dream about for your retirement years. If you deliberately take just five steps in the right direction, you can be on the path to making retirement the very best years of your life. I know some people say the best years of our lives are in our youth. But I am here to tell you – from personal experience – that the best time of your life can actually be those years in the prime of your life. Take these five steps to set yourself on the path to firing up your retirement: STEP #1: Find a new focus for your life. We simply are not a generation that will be content sitting in a rocking chair watching a cat sleep. We want more from life. So decide what makes you happy. Decide what gives you a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Choose what you want and make it happen. STEP #2: Expand your connections with others. Staying home alone in front of a TV is just not good for you. You need to be connected to other people. So, get off the couch or out of the chair and go find ways to spend time with people you know and build connections with people you don’t yet know. Join a group or a club or get involved in a sport or other activity. Go where the people are and make connections. STEP #3: Keep learning new things. Learning keeps us connected and vital. Learning keeps us young in spirit. Learning keeps the mind sharp and engaged with life. Think of something you have often wanted to learn more about, but never had time. Think of something you could learn and then use to benefit others. Go learn and, by learning, grow. STEP #4: Make a difference and give back. When you get involved in the community in some meaningful way you reap countless benefits. Not only will you help someone else, you will help yourself by engaging in purposeful and rewarding activity. You have knowledge and experience. You have causes that you care about passionately. You can make a difference. Get out there and change lives. STEP #5: Organize your life to achieve happiness. I’m not just talking about getting organized. I’m suggesting that when we organize our lives we get things in perspective and in balance. This allows us to keep our focus on the things that matter most to us and pursue our dreams. When we focus on what is most important to us, we don’t waste time chasing things that just fill time. When we pursue what matters most to us with focus, we find happiness. I promise you that when you take these five steps you will be on the path to a fired up retirement lifestyle. These steps can take you beyond your fears about retirement and give you the assurance that the second stage of your life will have purpose and pizzazz. by Dr. Cynthia Barnett