Chime School

Posts Tagged ‘Goals’

Challenge Your Anxieties

We all dream, and most of us dream about financial security for ourselves and for our families.

If you’re like me, you’ve tried a lot of things in the past that simply didn’t work, and that tends to instill a sense of hesitancy and even fear in our hearts.  Fear of failure keeps many people from becoming successful internet marketers.

Constant change in the internet marketing industry makes it very difficult to stay current.  So how do we find the wisdom and the courage to take the next step on our journey to making our dreams come true?

Attitude Is Important

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Success is measured by your ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures.”

Every day my inbox is filled with advertisements for newer and better ways to perform internet marketing.  But distinguishing the good ones from the bad ones?  There’s no substitute for actually trying the product you’re considering.

Success Personality

One Gallup organization in-depth study of the “success personality” explored the attitudes and traits of 1500 randomly selected individuals from Who’s Who in America. The three most significant traits they found were:

1) Common Sense – the ability to simplify a complex subject by getting to the core of what matters

2) Knowing One’s Field – first-hand knowledge as well as support from experienced coaches, and

3) Self-Reliance

Noted author, Brian Tracy, has stated, “All successful men and women are big dreamers. Winners visualize their possible future, ideal in every respect, and then they work their hearts out to realize that vision.”

Success Formula

If you want to achieve your dreams, apply the following success formula:

1) Determine your desired outcome(s)

2) Be proactive – meaning, do something!

3) Notice and feedback results

4) If the results are not what you want, change your strategy

For internet marketers, the ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures (or more likely, between massive sales) will, indeed, separate the successful ones from the unsuccessful ones.

And one of the best ways to maintain your enthusiasm is to associate yourself with successful people – teachers, mentors and other gurus who’ve “been there and done that” and are already successful.

One excellent starting place for obtaining all the knowledge about internet marketing that you’ll need is to join the Online Success for Beginners program.

Goal Setting Video

There is a subtle mystery in the concept of being grateful. Those who are truly successful and live lives of lasting richness understand this mystery and apply it every day. In turn, they carry with them an overflowing heart and a feeling of deep, abiding happiness.

The path of gratitude is available to everyone that takes the time to find it. But what is gratitude?

Gratitude is defined as, ‘the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful’. Perhaps though, Melodie Beattie describes it best in her words below:

‘Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, confusion into clarity and chaos into order…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.’

To be truly grateful is a fundamental part of creating an amazing life. Everything in the world can begin and end with being thankful. It is a mindset that, when adopted, will keep your heart filled with happiness and your ‘cup half full’. There is a cost however to being grateful and that is the cost of your time.

Making time every day to reflect on the gifts in your life is the quickest way to create an abundance mindset.

The trick is to find something for which you truly feel grateful and then to revisit that feeling of gratitude every day. This in turn will give you the strength and confidence you need to overcome the obstacles between you and your goals.

For example, you may have a goal to fit into a certain size of pants or dress. A typical challenge around losing weight is negative self talk. You can use gratitude to combat negative self talk by first recognizing that you have been blessed with a body that despite the extra weight, is still keeping you strong.

Your body is just waiting for you to emotionally and mentally shift into a higher level of health and fitness. When you are ready, it will respond to your new commands and transform itself into the new image you hold for it. So, when you next start playing the ‘negative self talk’ tape see if you can replace it with words and feelings that reflect the deep sense of gratitude you have for your body.

As the challenges and realities of life take hold, gratitude can be a virtue to cling to in those moments of deepest sorrow. Everyone will inevitably at some time experience death, illness or divorce.

It’s how we choose to handle these difficult circumstances that will determine our ability to move through them.

Some consideration and thought concerning Vision Boards will help you achieve some incredible changes in a short period of time.

Take divorce for example. Approximately 50% of the population will go through a divorce.Think about someone you know who is divorced or is trying to make a decision about leaving their partner.

Now think about how that person is choosing to handle the divorce. Are they bitter and angry? Are they lashing out at their spouse?

Or, have they taken the high road and are quietly going about their business, advocating for themselves without hurting anyone around them. Have they chosen to be grateful for the time they were happy?Perhaps they have discovered the ability to be grateful for the children that came from the marriage. They may be grateful for the experience of learning more about themselves and for discovering what’s most important to them.

If you take the time to look deeply into something, you can usually discover one or two areas for which to be grateful. Clearly, finding gratitude isn’t always easy but it is a worthwhile endeavor.

At the most basic level, you can start with listing just two or three things every day for which you are grateful. Need help getting started?

How about:
1. Being able to take a deep breath
2. Being able to see the sun rise and set
2. Being able to learn and to make different choices

It takes only a moment of reflection to experience gratitude for things like the ability to hear, to touch, to give and receive hugs, a warm house, a safe home, a full stomach, pets, family and friends.

Just imagine how you’d feel if you didn’t have these blessings in your life!

Even on your most difficult days take just a few minutes to give thanks for the gifts in your life. In giving thanks you will be strengthening your sense of abundance.

This in turn will allow you to see more options for happiness and give you the awareness to make different choices.

A spirit of Gratitude is an often overlooked part of creating a life of happiness and greatness. Apply the mystery of Gratitude and you’ll find it turns the everyday aspects of life into experiences of richness and joy.

How To Make A Vision Board Video

While much has been written about goals little has been drafted about the courage required to set goals in the first place.

It doesn’t take much digging to see many people are living with fear, frustration and doubt.  Who among us can say we haven’t had a restless night worrying about what disaster could befall us the next day?

The more I read about the science of thought (“The Field” by Lynne McTaggart for example) the more I am convinced thoughts are things.Our thoughts can serve up dark images of despair or they can paint pictures of joy, laughter and deep fulfilling happiness.

It is the way we think, rather than our surroundings, which determines our happiness level.  Hold a thought and you will create an emotion.  That emotion drives a behavior which in turn creates an event.To change your events you first must alter your thoughts.

For those of us who have spent any time reading Self Improvement literature ‘positive thinking’ is not a new idea.  In fact it’s almost tempting to read the ‘thoughts are things’ message and dismiss it as a cliche?.

The challenge, for most of us, is to move away from the well worn path of pessimistic thinking to a place where your thoughts create feelings of hope and happiness.  So how do you do it?

First know that thoughts and emotions don’t have to rule your life.  They can in fact be harnessed to further your goals.   The more you practice becoming conscious of your thoughts and emotions, the greater your ability to shape and control them. Thus encouraging only those thoughts that produce empowering emotions.

Think about the person you want to become.  Picture that person going through their normal day.  What are they wearing?  Where are they going?  How do they get there?  Who do they spend time with and what kind of conversations do they have with others?  What kind of contribution is this person, this “future you”, making?
Get clear on these images.

Now imagine how this person feels.  What emotions do they carry with them?  When you look at them at their very best, what words come to mind?

What kind of thoughts go through their mind?  What thoughts would this person simply not give energy to?  Need some help defining some of the positive beliefs and thoughts your future self will carry?  Check out the StepOne Affirmation Library.  It’s well organized and filled with great quotes, beliefs and positive thoughts.

Once you’ve got clarity on your future thinking, take a moment and write the thoughts down.  Capture both the positive thoughts your future self will carry and the negative thoughts you have today that your future self will discount.

You’ve just taken a significant step forward.What you’ve just done (or maybe are just about to do) lays the foundation on which all your other work will stand.  So what’s next?

If you are building a StepOne Vision Board enter these thoughts in the Affirmations section of the ‘My Profile’ page.  If you’re not yet a StepOne member, print out your Positive Thoughts List on a piece of paper and your Negative Thoughts List on another sheet.

Know that we attract to us that on which our thoughts dwell.  If our thoughts are about things we don’t want we will attract those things to us; if our thoughts are about those things we do want, we will attract those things to us just as easily.  So, think about what you want!

Post your Positive Thoughts List in a place where you’ll be able to read them every day.  As for your Negative Thoughts List, print that out too.  Hold the Negative Thoughts List in front of you.Now promise yourself to leave no place in your mind for these thoughts any longer.

The thoughts may pass through your mind again but they will not be allowed to stay.  Ideally, say this to yourself in the mirror as if you were making a solemn promise to your best friend.  Now take that Negative Thoughts List and destroy it.   What do I mean by destroy it?  Crumple it up, cut it up, shred it or burn it over the sink.  

Want to make this experience really powerful?  As you’re writing down your lists put on your favorite motivational music. Crank the volume!  Building your Positive Thoughts List works best when you’re on an emotional high and there’s nothing like great music to get you there.

So you have got some clarity on your future self.You’ve defined the thoughts your future self will carry and those it will leave behind.

The next step is to apply all of this and change your day to day thinking….I know this is easier said then done.

Here’s the good news, if you can catch yourself holding a negative thought early enough you can usually stop it from turning into an emotional reaction.  So how do you lift yourself out of negative thinking patterns?Try the Rubber Band technique.

Get a rubber band that fits snuggly on your wrist.  Each time you find yourself holding onto a thought that doesn’t serve you, snap the rubber band.And not just a tiny little snap.  You’re looking for a big, ‘SNAP!’.  The kind of snap that makes you wince.  This is where the normal Rubber Band technique ends.

The StepOne version of the exercise takes it…well…a step further (forgive the pun).  As soon as you’ve stopped reeling from the wicked snapping you’ve put on yourself repeat the positive thought you want to carry instead.If you can repeat it 3 times out loud (ideally you’re not amongst friends while your doing this as you’ll get some weird looks) then you’re hitting the sweet spot of mental reprogramming.

For example let’s say you are working hard to reach and then maintain a certain weight.You have identified a negative thought you often repeat that goes something like ‘Just have whatever you want, you will never lose the weight anyway.  After giving yourself a proper snapping you quickly say ‘I only eat food that strengthens and replenishes my body’.  You repeat this three times.

You’ll find that in no time at all you will change your thinking around reaching a given goal.

Never forget that it’s actually possible to benefit by using vision boards to get all you want out of life. Live Courageously!