How to make IT better….

We all want stuff to be better, right?
We want to improve ourselves and our world.

We want things to be easier, more fun, we want to feel better about things, right?
How does that happen? What can we do?

Things can ‘happen to us’, sure, but more than that, we make things better by little steps and action, EACH and EVERY Day.

It isn’t sexy, sometimes it doesn’t seem like it would be fun, but if we take action, even small actions, EACH day, we can really make BIG leaps.

Jack Canfield has some great ideas about this.

I hope you enjoy!

FROM JACK CANFIELD…….

One of the basic first steps is to determine, write down and talk about what you do want, not what you don’t want. Be as specific as possible. Once you have clarified what you want, do the following each and every day.

1. Morning Intention, Visualization and Releasing

As soon as you wake up in the morning, take about 5 minutes to focus your mind on your desires, goals and intentions. Start by sitting in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and visualizing your desires and goals as already being fulfilled. Spend 30 seconds to a minute on each of your core desires and goals. You can also take a few moments to visualize your day going exactly as you would like it to.

When you do this, you will often find negative limiting beliefs that are the result of negative programming from your childhood will come up. You may hear thoughts like “I could never afford that,”“there’s no way I’ll ever get that,” or “who am I kidding?” coming up. If you do, use one of the many releasing techniques that are available (see the list below) to release the negative thought. Don’t fight or argue with the thought; just release it.

Remember to also spend several moments feeling the feelings you would feel if you had already manifested your desire in your life. The intensity of the feeling is what fuels the intensity of the attraction.

If you’re interested in learning a powerful releasing technique, check out my book Tapping Into Ultimate Success.

2. Use External Images to Keep you Focused on Your Desires and Goals

Keep yourself focused on what you want to manifest by surrounding yourself with visual images of the things and experiences you want to create in your life. There are many tools you can use for this, including creating a Vision Book from our Vision Board Collection.

Cut out pictures of the things you wish to own (like your ideal car or home) and pictures that represent the experiences you want to have (like the perfect relationship, your ideal job, perfect health, being at your ideal weight, more joy, inner peace or balance in your life) to remind yourself of how you want it to be. Put them somewhere where you will see them every day—on the mirror, the refrigerator, or in your Vision Book.

For even greater impact, combine your pictures with words that reflect your desired outcome, such as abundance, romance, fun, vitality, etc. I think you get the picture. When you look at any of these pictures, do what Bob Doyle, who is featured in The Secret teaches— think the thought, “THIS IS MINE NOW! THIS IS WHO I AM!”

3. Think a Better Feeling Thought

Start paying attention to the many times during the day that you have emotional responses (to other people, experiences, or your own thoughts) that are not in alignment with having or producing your desires. Pay special attention to when you feel disappointment, resentment, frustration or anger about your experiences and circumstances.

Remember, it’s your feelings (which are created by your thoughts, opinions, and beliefs) that are creating your current circumstances. You must make a shift by changing your thoughts to ones that make you feel better (i.e., raise your vibration). Remember that you must become a vibrational match for the things and experiences that you want to attract into your life.

It is especially important to focus your thoughts and behaviors on things that cause you to feel joy. Focus your thoughts on thoughts that bring you joy (your lover, your best friend, your grandchildren, your favorite vacation spot) and your actions on doing the things you love to do (pet your cat, work in your garden, listen to your favorite music).

4. Have an Attitude of Gratitude

It is critical to take time each and every day to focus on what you are grateful for! Some people do this in the morning before or after they visualize their desires; others prefer to do it in the evening. Focus on all of the things in your life (most of which you take for granted) that you are grateful for—your health, your children, your job, the nice weather, electricity, running water, a nice stereo system, your flower garden, your pets, your friends).

No matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for. The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more things and experiences you will attract to be grateful for. You may wish to carry a “gratitude rock” like the one Lee Brower talks about in “The Secret”, or log your findings in a Gratitude Journal.

5. Take Action

There are two kinds of actions you can take. Obvious actions are things like, if you want a better car, going to test drive all of the models you are interested in and choosing the exact car you want to have, and saving 10% of your income in a “car account.” If you want to be a doctor, apply to medical school.

There is also what I call “inspired actions.” Once you begin to do the things described above, the universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result. You are going to find that you have inspired ideas; you must act on them. You must follow those gentle proddings from the universe. Often these intuitive impulses will have no seeming connection to achieving your goal, but if you follow them, they will lead you down a path of wonderful fulfillment.

Here’s a quick way to know if the actions you’re taking are taking you closer to the fulfillment of your dreams and desires.

If you are feeling joy while you are doing them, then you are on the right path. Remember, joy is your internal guidance system, just like the GPS system in a car, telling you are taking the right actions. Follow your joy.

6. Acknowledge That it’s Working

If you start to see something change for the better, acknowledge that it is happening. Appreciate it. When you find the perfect parking space, acknowledge it. When you get the table you want in the restaurant, acknowledge it. When you receive unexpected income, acknowledge it. When you meet someone who can help you achieve your goal, acknowledge that Law of Attraction is working. The more you acknowledge that it’s working, the more it will work. It’s that simple.

If you are attracting things into your life that you don’t want, remember that the Law of Attraction is still working. Instead of thinking or saying, “It’s not working,” ask your self, “What am I focusing on, thinking about, talking about, feeling or doing that is bringing this into my life?”

If you want to know what you are thinking about, notice the results you are producing in your life. To change those results, you will first have to change your vibration by changing your thoughts and feelings.

When you make a commitment to take these actions each day, you’ll start to move forward, with confidence, in the direction of your dreams. Believe that they are not only possible, but that they are already in progress.

I’ll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see if you can discover ways to immediately implement what you discovered from today’s message into your life.

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 Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

Words To Live By: Decisions and Decisiveness

Anthony Robbins

‎“More than anything else, I believe it’s our decisions, not the conditions of our lives that determine our destiny. You and I both know that there are people who were born with advantages…  Yet you and I also know that we constantly meet, read and hear about people who against all odds have exploded beyond the limitations of their conditions by making new decisions about what to do with their lives.  They’ve become examples of the unlimited power of the human spirit.” — Awaken the Giant Within, page 33

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I believe making reasonably fast decisions are necessary for life, for business, and simple everyday things. So many times I see people struggle with a decision. Many times the decision is something so simple and easy, yet they don’t trust themselves, fear the unknown, fear change, or somehow just don’t want to pull the trigger.

I am the first to agree that making a decision can be important, life changing and one needs to think about the facts. It is true that we should not make a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction. However, too many of us put off decisions, or simply don’t make them at all. First of all, sometimes we don’t have time to go get more fact. Second, many times we have all the information that we need, it is our emotions that are holding us back.

Decision making has a lot to do with self confidence, self esteem, faith in ourselves and others, and simply the ability to make a decision and let go. We’ve all struggled with it.

I recall a former boss of mine. We’d be in a meeting and we’d discuss something and he had all the facts. It would come time to make a decision. He wanted to think about it. I would push him to decide there in the meeting – or at least talk about his reservations there. He almost always wanted to ‘think about it’. Often weeks went by and no action. We’d meet again and he’d say ‘I’m still thinking about it.’ Typically he’d eventually decide not to do it, and I believe that under it all he was a fearful guy. He is a talented, smart person but his personality and focus was on the negative, what could go wrong, bad things, etc. He’d look at a situation and instantly tell you 5 ways it could go wrong – and actually get you really scared about it. Meanwhile it was a new opportunity and presented lots of good things. I’d often have to ‘shake it off’ and look at it my way. We missed so many opportunities waiting for his decision process. I always tried to help him and point it out in a nice way, suggest a ‘due date’ for the decision, etc. I believe he just was scared, under it all. I did feel for him.

Executives, parents, adults need to have faith in themselves and make a decision. It doesn’t mean that they can’t change their mind later if new information comes up. It also doesn’t mean that we won’t make mistakes or fail. But a quick firm decision seems to go with nature and the flow of the world. We don’t see a lion contemplating if she should chase the antelope or not, or if she should wait until the next group comes, or if she should pick this one or that. She sees the opportunity, quickly weighs the factors, and goes for it. In the heat of it all, she may have to change her target from one to another, but so be it.

“The ability to make a decision, act on that decision and keep to it is fundamental for a business person to be successful.”   This was said by Andrew Carnegie, the great U.S. steel tycoon. In fact, he went further and said that any person that couldn’t make a decision in a timely manner when all the facts were evident was someone not to be trusted, since they wouldn’t have the strength of character to see through the commitments required by any decision.

When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. -Roy E. Disney

Here’s some thoughts from a website called www.actioncoach.com

Procrastination over decisions is fatal for a business owner as decisions come before actions and the right actions lead to the desired outcomes. Sometimes, though, the right decision isn’t all that obvious and how to get to that decision isn’t all that easy for some people. So it’s worth exploring a number of ways to help and below are a number of ways to approach decision making.

1. Basic Pros and Cons: This is the simplest method. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and on the right write down the reasons for doing something and on the left the reasons against. Sometimes just doing this adds clarity, especially if done with another person to brainstorm all the factors.

2. List outcomes from decision and rank importance: Draw a basic grid and down the left and write down the desired outcomes you’re looking to achieve from making a decision. Then rank them 1-5 on how much of an impact the decision is likely to have. This helps you see how much the decision will assist with your goals.

3. Comparison Matrix: Draw a grid. Across the top, write down the different decisions to make i.e. which product to make or which supplier to choose. On the left, list the different outcomes desired. Then against each write a score 1-5 against each column. Again this adds clarity to making choices between alternative decisions and it’s especially useful when there are trade-offs to be made. The use of this matrix method is very effective in marketing when looking at different products or markets to go to versus the companies list of core competencies.

 The key is that decisions have to be made on a constant basis.

 It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions. –Jim Rohn

The following is actually from the website www.sba.gov.

• Define, as specifically as possible, what the decision is that needs to be made. Is this really your decision or someone else’s? Do you really need to make a decision? (If you do not have at least two options, there is no decision to be made.) When does the decision need to be made? Why is this decision important to you?
• Brainstorm, and write down as many alternatives as you can think of. Be sure to use your resources (experienced friends and family, the Internet, etc.) to find out more about the implications of each option.
• Visualize the outcome of each alternative. Do you feel more satisfied with one outcome than with the others?
• Do a reality check. Cross off those alternatives that most likely will not occur.
• Once you have made your decision, get moving on it. Worrying or second-guessing yourself will only cause stress. You have done your very best. Remember, no decision is set in stone!

From the SBA website (above)

•  A lot of times I want to just tell people, ‘Calm down, take a breath. Stay relaxed and listen to yourself for a moment. Listen to your head, your heart, and your gut. You know your decision, just go with it.” Many times we get caught in the emotions, outside noise, other people’s opinions, media, society, etc. We need to just go to the quiet place inside us for a moment and listen. http://www.onewebstrategy.com

You can also reference a short blog I recently wrote about “How to Make Decisions” where I discuss using the Linear Model and a simple rating system and basic matrix. It is very easy and useable for almost any decision – buying a car/home, planning a vacation, deciding what to do this weekend, etc. You can read it here… https://onewebstrategy.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/how-to-make-a-…t-any-decision/

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt

 

Thanks.

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What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

Here is a great article from Fast Company!

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day -By Kevin Purdy, August 22, 2012

http://www.fastcompany.com/3000619/what-successful-people-do-first-hour-their-work-day

How much does the first hour of every day matter? As it turns out, a lot. It can be the hour you see everything clearly, get one real thing done, and focus on the human side of work rather than your task list.

Remember when you used to have a period at the beginning of every day to think about your schedule, catch up with friends, maybe knock out a few tasks? It was called home room, and it went away after high school. But many successful people schedule themselves a kind of grown-up home room every day. You should too.

The first hour of the workday goes a bit differently for Craig Newmark of Craigslist, David Karp of Tumblr, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, career writer (and Fast Company blogger) Brian Tracy, and others, and they’ll tell you it makes a big difference. Here are the first items on their daily to-do list.

Don’t Check Your Email for the First Hour. Seriously. Stop That.

Tumblr founder David Karp will “try hard” not to check his email until 9:30 or 10 a.m., according to an Inc. profile of him. “Reading e-mails at home never feels good or productive,” Karp said. “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.”

Not all of us can roll into the office whenever our Vespa happens to get us there, but most of us with jobs that don’t require constant on-call awareness can trade e-mail for organization and single-focus work. It’s an idea that serves as the title of Julie Morgenstern’s work management book Never Check Email In The Morning, and it’s a fine strategy for leaving the office with the feeling that, even on the most over-booked days, you got at least one real thing done.

If you need to make sure the most important messages from select people come through instantly, AwayFind can monitor your inbox and get your attention when something notable arrives. Otherwise, it’s a gradual but rewarding process of training interruptors and coworkers not to expect instantaneous morning response to anything they send in your off-hours.

Gain Awareness, Be Grateful

One smart, simple question on curated Q & A site Quora asked “How do the most successful people start their day?”. The most popular response came from a devotee of Tony Robbins, the self-help guru who pitched the power of mindful first-hour rituals long before we all had little computers next to our beds.

Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” Part of it involves light exercise, part of it involves motivational incantations, but the most accessible piece involves 10 minutes of thinking of everything you’re grateful for: in yourself, among your family and friends, in your career, and the like. After that, visualize “everything you want in your life as if you had it today.”

Robbins offers the “Hour of Power” segment of his Ultimate Edge series as a free audio stream (here’s the direct MP3 download). Blogger Mike McGrath also wrote a concise summary of the Hour of Power). You can be sure that at least some of the more driven people you’ve met in your career are working on Robbins’ plan.

Do the Big, Shoulder-Sagging Stuff First

Brian Tracy’s classic time-management book Eat That Frog gets its title from a Mark Twain saying that, if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you’ve got it behind you for the rest of the day, and nothing else looks so bad. Gina Trapani explained it well in a video for her Work Smart series). Combine that with the concept of getting one thing done before you wade into email, and you’ve got a day-to-day system in place. Here’s how to force yourself to stick to it:

Choose Your Frog

“Choose your frog, and write it down on a piece of paper that you’ll see when you arrive back at your desk in the morning, Tripani advises.“If you can, gather together the material you’ll need to get it done and have that out, too.”

One benefit to tackling that terrible, weighty thing you don’t want to do first thing in the morning is that you get some space from the other people involved in that thing–the people who often make the thing more complicated and frustrating. Without their literal or figurative eyes over your shoulder, the terrible thing often feels less complex, and you can get more done.

Ask Yourself If You’re Doing What You Want to Do

Feeling unfulfilled at work shouldn’t be something you realize months too late, or even years. Consider making an earnest attempt every morning at what the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs told a graduating class at Stanford to do:

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.

“Customer Service” (or Your Own Equivalent)

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark answered the first hour question succinctly: “Customer service.” He went on to explain (or expand) that he also worked on current projects, services for military families and veterans, and protecting voting rights. But customer service is what Newmark does every single day at Craigslist, responding to user complaints and smiting scammers and spammers. He almost certainly has bigger fish he could pitch in on every day, but Newmark says customers service “anchors me to reality.”

Your own version of customer service might be keeping in touch with contacts from year-ago projects, checking in with coworkers you don’t regularly interact with, asking questions of mentors, and just generally handling the human side of work that quickly gets lost between task list items. But do your customer service on the regular, and you’ll have a more reliable roster of helpers when the time comes.

What do you with the first hour of your workday to increase productivity and reduce stress? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Words to Live By: Responsibility

(This is one of a part of a series of WORDS TO LIVE BY. This series grew out of a workbook I first made for my young daughters and discussed at the dinner table. These Words include values, good ideas, and Words to aspire to….and learn from….enjoy!)

In my college years I thought that I was responsible….basically because I kept up a half decent GPA and didn’t get into trouble. Nothing really that great in retrospect. The first time I really knew what responsibility was started in May 1990. College was over for the summer. I decided that I needed to take a week off to ‘rest’ from my hard studies (was I serious?). So the next week I started working in my father’s sales agency for the summer. Soon after my father had his second heart attack.

Now my father later recovered and lived many more years. But he missed most of that summer. Young Jim (me) grew up fast. I’m glad it happened but it wasn’t fun at the time. I had to learn the business quickly – almost overnight. I had to learn what it meant to service clients, work with vendors, pay bills, logistics, etc. etc. My mother was out of town at the hospital with my father most of the week so I had the house to care for right away. Our well (water) went bad and I had to figure that out.

So I was responsible for the business and home. But through that process I also reflected on how ‘soft’ I was and how I was not being responsible nor was I taking any responsibility in my life. I was blaming others, blaming circumstances, angry at others, and I did not respond well to challenges. I was thinking like a victim instead of a leader or a winner. It is this latter definition of responsibility that I wish to discuss with you now.

Deepak Chopra says “responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for your situation. Having accepted this circumstance, this event, this problem, responsibility then means the ABILITY to have a creative RESPONSE to the situation as it is now.” Every crisis or problem also has an opportunity in it – this type of awareness allows you to take your situation and transform it to a better situation.

So in a moment of responsibility there is a level of Acceptance (Words To Live By: Acceptance. http://wp.me/p2mGFu-1n ). When someone or something comes into your life, confronts you, whatever – accept that the moment is as it should be. There is meaning in all events. There is opportunity and education. This all helps YOU evolve. When you blame, point the finger, or source out the responsibility, you’re ignoring the root, the problem and the opportunity and education. Without accepting responsibility we can’t move on either.

I think it is important to remember that responsibility is the “ability to respond.”

Stay in the Driver’s Seat by taking responsibility in all situations.  Many people tend to fall into a victim mindset when they are challenged in life. Acting as a victim – blaming other people or things – disable us and it’s as though we are trapped and cannot do anything to change.

Think about it…would you knowingly want to face the world with fear or in fear? Then why face it as a victim? Things ‘happen’ to a victim, and not in a good way.

When we take responsibility, we gain control and power over ourselves and the situation.

Similarly, take responsibility for your accomplishments, the good things. I know that I am someone who rarely looks back and appreciates the good things. I often focus on what I have not yet accomplished. Take a moment to see how you were able to respond to life recently, things that you’ve done or accomplished. Build some good references for the future. Don’t get hung up here because the past does not equal the future – but use the accomplishments and good stuff to gain momentum.

Responsibly yours,

http://www.onewebstrategy.com