It’s amazing to me that no matter how much I think I’ve done in life that there is always more to experience (and learn). And, I have also learned that life stagnates because I allow it to. Even though we have brilliant resources inside each of us, we also may have habitual tendencies of the mind that play like endless tape loops, tendencies that cause us suffering of one kind or another. It can be a “snap” to get caught up in this play field, and begin a downward spiral into the vortex of latency, fear, and self pity. And each time it is allowed to happen, the climb out can be treacherous and exhausting. So, why do this to ourselves? What is going on? The answer I discovered for myself may surprise you. “I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop”. And what I have since discovered (and the reality) is; “There is no such thing as the other shoe unless I choose to participate and thus create it”. We sometimes become so accustomed to allowing our environment to “rain down” on us that every time we try to move forward we stop and wait for the “other shoe to drop”. This is not an uncommon feeling as many people remain so set in their situations that they fear what might occur if they move on with their lives. Many of us have made that choice on a myriad of occasions inadvertently creating that “other shoe”. Think back to different experiences in your life where you were saddled with fear. Most of the time, we eventually got what it was that we desired, but there was such a struggle. The root of the “other shoe” belief is our belief that in order to get what we need, we have to struggle for it. Many of us have a learned expectation to make things worse than they may need to be. We do this by focusing our attention, and the momentum it will build, upon what could go wrong. And the interesting thing is that the key to creating new solutions is completely dependent on where we decide to direct and focus our attention. It’s not how “challenge free” a life can be, but how those challenges are managed that makes a life fulfilling. In other words it is about tuning into our current visual expectations and no longer allow what’s been our reality to render us powerless. We all have habits of thought. These include things like: what we believe, what we’ve experienced and have come to believe as the only reality and the only way that things can happen. You already know that the performance of athletes improves dramatically with the power of visualization. It’s not rocket-science. You eventually become your what you focus on. – If you continue to smoke a lot you become a smoker. – If you continue to drink a lot you become a drinker. – If you only watch TV all the time you’ll be a TV “drone”. And…if you do something constructive, positive, and tangible in your life on a consistent basis you will be… Happy, successful (in your own unique way), and create a life you enjoy living! “What if Beethoven had never played again after he encountered his first piano?” and “What if I had never decided to move to Philadelphia after college, and instead moved back to my hometown because this is what felt comfortable. It isn’t however just the big things that we need to encounter and experiment with but the little details are equally important; things like finding the “perfect” pair of sandals or how many hours of sleep is just right for us. How easily we can assume that we are just a particular way or that we are sentenced to live a certain way forgetting that we can shuffle the deck, juggle the balls, or switch horses mid-course. How often do we give up on ourselves (or another human being) assuming we have tried “everything” when the next combination or new possibility is just waiting for us to notice it? Our “habits” can ensnare us in a straitjacket of comfort, reassuring us that we know what we like, and/or we know who we are. It isn’t that we just need to “stay open” or “try new things”. It is much more critical than that. We have an instinctive desire to keep discovering until the day we die all the possible ways to do and to be. So, instead of waiting or worrying that there will be nothing at the “end of the rainbow”, start making plans for your next dream so that you can achieve the life you desire. Don’t just hang around in hopes that something better will come along, go out and find that something better, and take it! Life is an enormous pu-pu platter, a giant offering of possibilities, and it is up to us to keep sampling the delicious tidbits until we find the ones that make us dance on the table with satisfaction and exultation.

We all experience various challenges in life. Maybe we have to figure out how make our next rent payment. You may be dealing with depression or anxiety. Perhaps you’re having relationship or job issues? A worst-case challenge might be dealing with the death of a loved one. The first step in dealing with any challenge is to recognize the issue. Recognizing a challenge isn’t so hard with some issues. For example, you don’t need to do a lot of soul searching to realize next month’s rent is due, and you don’t have the money for it in the checking account. Some issues do require recognizing the challenge. Alcoholism is a good example. Most alcoholics live in denial and don’t recognize the challenges they face. Many challenges have negative associations. Who wants to be labeled addicted or an alcoholic? Even though society seems to have become more accepting of such challenges, there’s still a personally felt stigma to avoid. Once you’ve recognized the challenge, there are additional steps you can take to overcome the challenge. One important step is to talk about your challenge with others. Discussing your issues with others has a number of benefits. First off, it helps define the problem and how it affects you. Open discussion can also help you relieve your own internal stress about the issue. Talking about the challenge with others allows you to get their insight into the issue and potential solutions to the challenge. If the challenge is a medical issue or mental health problem, you most definitely will want to talk to a medical professional. For addictions, organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous can help. Discussing the issues allows you to follow through with another step you can take to overcome the challenge – dealing with the emotions associated with the problem. For example, at the loss of a loved one, you need to allow yourself to grieve. Holding in emotions is destructive and can cause additional mental and even physical problems owing to the undue stress. Once you’ve recognized the challenge, discussed it with others, and allowed yourself time to deal with the emotions corresponding to the challenge, it’s time to look into solving the problem associated with the challenge. One way you can look at solutions is to research how others have dealt with similar challenges. Another way might be to ask for assistance with finding a solution through either discussing the issue with a professional (medical professional, clergy, mental health professional, etc.) or with someone who can give you insight into a solution. Often times, you’ll find that a person who is less involved with the challenge can give you a more apparent perspective on the issue because they’re not emotionally invested in the problem and can think more clearly on the topic. If the challenge is something where you can find a practical solution, then you should act on it. There are some issues you might not be able to solve immediately. For example, you can’t do anything about the death of a love. You can, however, look into additional ways to earn money for that overdue rent. Some issues may be solvable but difficult to solve. You might not be able to immediately stop an addictive behavior, but on the other hand, you can certainly begin the process with the appropriate guidance and behavior changes.

When you’re planning your business, setting goals is very important. In fact, it’s imperative. It will help you stay on track and will also help measure progress. When you meet a goal, you should feel good and be motivated to meet the next one. However, it’s still important to reward yourself when you achieve a certain thing you have set out to do. You don’t have to reward yourself by buying yourself a big fancy car for every big goal you achieve. You should gift yourself with something you’ve really been wanting and means something to you, so that you’ll be motivated to reach the next goal. Small Goals, Small Rewards: Big Goals, Big Rewards Reaching a small goal can be just as important as reaching a large one. In addition, because smaller goals are easier to reach, they keep us motivated to reach bigger ones. In fact, big goals can actually be broken down into smaller goals incrementally, so those big goals don’t seem so large after all. For example, if you want 60 new clients within six months, you can set a goal of attaining 10 new clients a month for that span of time. Nevertheless, no matter how you structure it, you should reward yourself every time you reach a goal, large or small. If you decide ahead of time what your reward will be for a particular goal, it will give you an extra incentive to keep going when the going gets tough. For example, a small reward can be simply treating yourself and a friend to dinner out, while a larger goal might get you that new motorcycle you’ve been wanting. Put a picture or description of the reward you’re working toward on your office wall, so that you can look at it and keep your focus. Reaching Big Goals Make sure you’ll be able to afford the reward you’ve decided for yourself once you’ve achieved that goal. For example, if you really have your heart set on that motorcycle, make sure you’ve got the means in place to buy it before hand. If for some reason you can’t afford it once you reach the goal, you’ll be disappointed. This disappointment may make it harder to stay motivated for your next big goal. Remember that you deserve to be rewarded for goals you’ve reached. Make this as much a priority as you do anything else. If the reward is not feasible at this time, then decide on something smaller that will nonetheless still satisfy you and keep you working toward a larger reward at a future date. You need to set goals in business in order to achieve success, but rewarding those goals is just as important, to keep momentum going. If you give yourself something to look forward to for every milestone you achieve, you’ll be able to aim even higher every time you reach one and set the next.

Depression is a horrible thing in life, it can make you feel as though there is nothing in the world for you to be happy about, it can affect many aspects of your daily life and just make you feel absolutely horrible in general. Although you may not think it, depression is actually a very common problem for many people around the world, it is something that a lot of people suffer from, it may not be as clear as you would think when someone is depressed and that makes it hard to recognize it sometimes. In this article, I will share some thoughts on how to overcome depression and start getting on the right track to change things for the better. One of the good things a person can do when they are depressed, in my opinion, is to identify what the things are in life that they are passionate about or interested in. Now, these don’t have to be things that are actually in your life at the moment or things that you think of “activities”, these can be anything that you have an interest in, for example, do you wish you were an expert in fitness training, do you like reading about ancient history a lot, are you interested in business concepts, just think of the things that you are interested in and make a list of them. Now, it’s pretty obvious that if you were doing more of the things that you are interested in and enjoyed doing/studying then you would enjoy life more, for example, if you are interested in learning martial arts, if you were training right now in martial arts then you would be a little happier. This is a very simple concept yet it can be very effective for making your life more enjoyable, simply do the things you enjoy doing more often. When you are working towards goals that you actually want to achieve, it can make things much easier to deal with, follow your passions and interests. This is not a “be all, end all” method for beating depression, it is simply a little way you can start to make your life more enjoyable and start working towards doing the things you like in life, it doesn’t have to be some great big goal that will change the world or something like that, just little things that you enjoy doing. So, if you like playing sports a lot then make a bit more time for sports, if you like learning about self-improvement then start reading more self-improvement books. The main point is to start doing more of the things you enjoy in life. One of the most important things you can do if you are feeling depressed is to get in touch with a doctor and tell them about your situation and how you are feeling, they are there to help you and it could be the best thing you do. Get yourself an appointment with a doctor and just talk to them about it, they will tell you what they think the best course of action to take is. Remember that you can change things, you can make your life better.

Acting confidently can go a long way to teach us how to feel and be more confident. If you practice acting confident for at least part of your day every day, you will notice a difference in a month. How does a confident person stand, sit, and walk? How do they look at a person? A confident person will look you directly in the eyes, won’t they? How do they speak? They don’t use a small voice, do they? A confident person is not afraid to ask for things, or to speak with strangers. If you have somewhere to go like a job interview or on a date, take a few minutes before you go to daydream how a confident person would do it. Do you have a role model? Perhaps there is someone in the movies or life that you wish you were more like. How would they handle the situation? Have fun in the privacy of your home play-acting. Sometimes you can rehearse situations with a friend to help you with your confidence. This is great for becoming comfortable with job interviews or dealing with customers. Practice and familiarity makes us feel confident. If you would like to become good at job interviews, you could also apply for many jobs, even ones you don’t want. At first you may feel nervous, but your purpose is not to get a job, it is to get more comfortable and better at impressing others favorably. The more interviews you do, the less they intimidate you and the more confident you will be. With practice, before long, you will be very successful at getting job offers. A great deal of how we appear to others consists of how we appear to ourselves. When we are nervous or not confident in ourselves, it often causes others to have less faith in us as well. If we believe we are beautiful, others will see our beauty. If we believe we are valuable to them, others will see our value. Always remind yourself of your qualities and the good you have to offer.