Have you ever found it difficult to keep moving forward because you were afraid of failure? Most people have! Let’s face it; no one likes to fail. None of us likes to feel that we’re ineffective, weak, or lacking in any way, and that’s exactly how failure makes us feel. Here’s a little secret that may help you to keep moving forward and to let go of the fear of failure. Did you know that failure doesn’t exist – until YOU say it does. In the dictionary, failure has several definitions: 1. A failing to do or perform 2. A state of inability to perform a normal function adequately 3. A fracturing or giving way under…
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Do You Need to Aim Higher to Reach Your Goals?
Are you struggling to stay motivated on your journey to success? Have your goals lost some of the shine they had when you first set them? If so, you might consider whether those goals are big enough to hold your interest. You may have thought so at one time, but if your goals are not what you really want deep down inside, you’re probably trying to force yourself to settle for what you think you can get rather than what you really want. Believe it or not, there may be a very simple, yet counterintuitive, solution to this problem! Here it is… Aim Higher to reach your goals! Start thinking about goals that are so big and impressive that it scares …
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How to Turn Stress Into Success
What if you could take stress and turn it into success. Wouldn’t that be a better way to use your energy? Sometimes a simple shift in the way we direct our energy and focus can radically alter the way we experience life. Often times, we don’t really need more time and energy. We just need to shift the way we are using what we already have. Let’s look at three specific ways that we can create a shift away from stress and toward success. Accept the fact that some things can’t be changed We can’t change the past, period. Worrying about it will only create unnecessary stress. One of the best things you …
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Personal Development – Is Your Ego Getting In the Way?
Without even being aware of it, our ego can become our greatest obstacle to personal development. You see, how we view the world around us depends a great deal on our ego. The role of ego in personal development Acting like a giant control panel, our ego can direct how we interpret everything that goes on in our daily experience. We know that our perception of any event…
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Be Your True Self – What Does that Mean?
I recently posted an article called, Designing a Personal Transformation, on Facebook. I was pleased that several people were motivated to comment on this article, but there was one comment in particular that got my attention. Here’s the comment, “change nothing, just be yourself and experience peace.” How do you feel about that statement? The more I thought about it, the more thought-provoking it …
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11 Simple Steps to Greater Happiness Now
What is the one thing every single person on the planet really wants out of life? Isn’t the answer simply to be happy? I mean, isn’t that the reason behind almost everything we do? The pursuit of happiness is a universal quest. No stone is left unturned in an effort to locate the seemingly illusive source of true and lasting happiness. How’s your happiness quest going? Where have you looked? Some of the more common places to search for happiness are: a…
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7 Ways to Beat the Boredom Blues
What challenges are you currently stressing over? Is it financial problems, weight issues, depression, or a lack of energy? Could it be self-esteem or relationship problems? Those are truly legitimate concerns, but did you ever consider that many of those issues may actually be symptoms of a less obvious or hidden problem? What hidden problem? …
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A key Ingredient of True Happiness
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to be kind and loving when you are in a happy mood and favorable surroundings? But, how many times have you reacted in a not so loving way when you were feeling stressed and something caught off guard? You know what I mean, a challenging day; too much of everything aimed straight at you. Then it happens, someone says or does the wrong thing at …
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20 Practical Time Management Tips
Time seems to be an issue for almost everyone. We all have a lot of things that we need to get done, but many of them have absolutely nothing to do with what is truly important in our lives. With so many demands on our time these days it’s easy to feel like we are losing control. Do you ever feel as if you are going through life without really…
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Maintaining Your Personal Identity in Changing Times
The only constant in life is change. Sounds like an oxymoron but it really is true. Here’s how it works: A trend starts, picks up momentum and blows right past the point of balance. What happens next? It turns around and does the same thing in the opposite direction. Like a pendulum swinging from side to side, life is always in a state of motion and changes direction frequently. So, how do we maintain our personal identity and avoid an identity crisis if everything is always changing? Can we achieve stability in motion? True stability is not the absence …
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Fear and Denial or Awareness and Survival?
During my life in the rainforests of Queensland, Australia, I learned that a smart person has to live in Survival Mode. But don’t think this means that I lived in a constant state of fear and denial, always awaiting the next deadly danger. That is how I initially lived, terrified of poisonous snakes, ticks, sea snakes, jellyfish, and dangerous crocodiles, sharks, stinging trees and more. I lived in a perpetual state of fear and denial until I educated myself about the creatures I lived with. I learned their territories, habits and needs. Once my awareness increased and I better understood them, I was able…
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Are Your Actions Being Hindered by Your Excuses?
If we see things in our life that we want to change, then what is it that is holding us back from doing it? Why don’t we just take the actions that will produce the desired changes? Questions like that can sure give birth to a huge list of excuses, can’t they? If someone says to us, why haven’t you lost the weight, or read those books, or made more money, or learned to control your temper? We …
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True Self – Focus on the Cause Not the Symptoms
Have you noticed the general tendency to focus on the symptoms of a problem rather than address the underlying cause? One good example of this approach is western medicine. The accepted modality is; if it hurts we have a drug for that. My mind works a little differently. If it hurts, I want to know why so I can eliminate the cause. Masking the pain without addressing the cause is what I call the ostrich approach. It’s like sticking your head in a hole so you can’t see the lion running…
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Is There Opportunity Outside the Comfort Zone?
In a previous article I talked about the challenges I faced overcoming a herniated disc and some related nerve damage. That article was called How to Avoid Insanity and Stay On Course. Today, I am going to share another episode from that same challenging period of time. Outside the comfort zone! While I was dealing with those issues, my wife was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff tendon. This wasn’t just a small tear. It was a 1-inch hole right in the middle of her rotator cuff tendon. We’re talking about some serious pain that was way outside her…
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7 Traits of Highly Confident People
Do you marvel at people who seem highly confident and self assured? Would you like to be one of those highly confident people? Achieving that may seem impossible if you are struggling with feelings of worthlessness, but believe me when I tell you that anyone can become more confident. Adopting new behaviors can effectively reprogram how you feel about your own abilities and personal worth. Usually, your behavior is a reflection of your beliefs about who you are and what you think you are capable of, but this process can also run in reverse. So, if you want to change those beliefs and become more confident, you…
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11 Ways to Decrease Relationship Stress
Stress has an insidious way of undermining every aspect of our health and happiness. Nowhere is this more obvious then in our closest and most valued relationships. Have the anxieties and pressures of daily life or a constricting economy begun to seep into your home life? When we are feeling the effects of stress, we need to feel that our home is a safe haven where we can find relief and comfort. A happy relationship can make all…
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Who Needs Approval?
There are certain core needs shared by every person on the planet. Some of these needs are physical such as food, water, and air. We also have emotional needs. Once our physical needs are met, filling our core emotional needs becomes our number one priority in life. The need for approval fits into this category. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, the desire for validation is one of the strongest motivating forces known to man. Whose validation do we want? Well, it all depends on whose opinion we value most. A child wants …
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3 Keys to Keeping the Joy in Your Relationship
How does a relationship that started out like a fairytale romance end up being a source of confusion and unhappiness? Is there anything you can do to safeguard that special bond that initially attracted you to one another? What is the quickest way to turn things around and rekindle those special feelings if they seem to …
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Everything Changes When You See Challenges as Blessings
Have you ever noticed how often the challenges we face also contains a blessing in disguise? If not, perhaps you haven’t been looking closely enough! Granted, life’s challenges usually seem like inconveniences when they interrupt our schedules, or get in the way of something we want to do. Isn’t that part of the reason we call them challenges? When we’re working toward an important…
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What is Your Goal Setting Mindset?
Here’s a fact: We all go through the process of goal setting several times during the course of a normal day. And we often do so without even thinking about it. For example, when you got up this morning, did you have something you wanted to accomplish, or did you just get up and wander around aimlessly? You had a goal or two, right? Maybe it didn’t seem like goal setting because it was something that you do almost every day. Even if it was just your normal routine, chances are you had a goal, or a whole bunch of goals to accomplish today. Did you …
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5 Goal Setting Skills to Assure Success
I’m sure that you already realize how important the relationship is between goal setting and achieving success. Many of our readers have told me that they set lots of goals. They like to set big goals, little goals, short-term and long-term goals. Is that true of you also? Are you a goal oriented person? If so, then you likely have a pretty good understanding of the basics of goal setting. You’ve probably learned to write down what you want to achieve, and the reasons why. You also know about …
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7 Roadblocks to Your Personal Growth
How many barriers are there to personal growth? Which ones have the greatest effect on your ability to create positive change in your life? Once you become aware of your personal roadblocks, you’ll be in an excellent position to overcome them. Let’s look at some possible contenders. 1. Loosely defined goals. Setting goals is such a fundamental part of personal growth and achievement. Sounds basic, I know, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that everyone already knows what they want. I’ve found over and over again that vague, undefined goals are the norm rather than the exception. There are several factors that …
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Why Multitasking is a Poor Approach to Productivity
Have you ever had a great idea pop into your head right before you got distracted by something? Did you find it difficult to recall your idea once you were able to shift your focus back again? This is actually quite common, and whether you’re aware of it or not, it’s one of the many consequences and frustrations of multitasking. And unfortunately, the disadvantages of multitasking go much deeper than the frustration of losing an occasional good idea. Multitasking is a source of stress As a reader of Advanced Life Skills, you probably already know that humans are inherently bad at multitasking and that it’s a poor strategy for productivity. What you might…
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Are You Building Trust into Your Relationship?
Everyone wants to be trusted and this is especially true in a close, personal relationship. But being viewed as trustworthy is not something that just happens by accident. Trust is something that you must build into a relationship and then it needs to be valued and maintained. Many couples are struggling with trust issues these days even when there is no tangible reason for mistrust. This is because trust involves a whole array of complex feelings like faith, belief, hope, conviction, confidence, expectation, dependence, and reliance. In other words, it is a huge emotional investment which, if abused, can increase you vulnerability to a lot of pain and heartache. Why is trust…