Effective Self Motivation Techniques
March 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
Copyright © Gooi Mong Ling
Everyone goes through ups and downs in life. When we are faced with adversities in life, it is important to know how to keep ourselves motivated so that we do not give up easily during those trying times. Here are a few methods on how to motivate yourself.
1. Read inspirational books
Some people think that inspirational and motivational literatures are for losers only. This thinking is extremely wrong and is like “poison” to our mental well-being. By reading inspirational books, you will feel encouraged by the success stories which will give you the extra push to continue the journey towards your goal. You can also learn from the experiences of the writers which provide valuable insights to help you reach your target. Inspirational reading is like food for our mind because it helps improve our way of thinking so that we remain positive and have the right mindset to succeed in what we set out to do.
2. Make your goal visual
Whatever that you are striving for, your goals and aspirations, try to make it visual. It may be a beautiful house that you have always dreamed of staying or the holiday trip that you have been looking forward to. Cut out pictures of your dreams and post them at home or at you work place where you can easily see them. Whenever you feel disheartened or discouraged, look at the pictures so that you can be reminded of your goals and dreams. This will help you remain focus and on track to achieving them.
3. Write down your goals
People who write down things that they intend to do or their goals are more likely to accomplish them compared to those who just note them down in their head. This is because putting something down in writing makes it more powerful psychologically. Also, when you look at your written goals, it serves as a reminder for you to work hard to achieve them.
4. Reward yourself
This is also an important element in self motivation. Everyone likes to be rewarded and encouraged for a job well done. The reward may vary. Sometimes a simple pat on the shoulder and telling yourself “well done” or “good job” can give you enough encouragement to push yourself to the next level. This is important because most people do not give themselves encouragement. We have to realize that giving ourselves a pat on the back is as important as getting compliments from others. Certain times you may want to pamper yourself with some material rewards when a major task is successfully completed. Go ahead and celebrate because you deserve to be rewarded for all the hard work you have put in and the success that you have achieved. Always remember to give credit to yourself when credit is due.
5. Avoid negative people and environment
Negative people such as unhelpful, abusive or pessimistic people will only bring you down and lower your self-esteem. If you always mix with these people or are constantly in a negative environment, sooner or later you will end up being negative as well. It is important to surround yourself with people who are positive in nature or people with positive outlook in life. Their optimism will rub on to you and in no time, you will find yourself feeling happier, more positive and confident. When you are optimistic, you will be more focused in achieving your goals because you are able to clearly see what needs to be done in order to be successful. Always remember that positive natured people are good examples to emulate. If you find that the people you mix with or the environment you are in is negative, the most effective way is to change your friends or the environment. Even though this may sound drastic at the beginning, it is actually an effective long term solution.
6. Take action and be proactive
Sometimes you may find that you somehow lack the drive to work towards attaining your goal. In such instances, you just have to push yourself to take action and just do it! If you merely wait for things to happen, one thing is for sure, nothing will happen! So, force yourself to kick start the engine. Gradually the momentum will increase and before you realize it, you are almost at the finishing line! If your goal seems to be too big to handle, break it down into smaller and more attainable targets. That way the smaller targets will be less daunting and as you meet those targets, these interim results will boost your confidence level and soon you will realize that the goal is actually achievable.
About the Author:
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Mong Ling has experienced the power of personal development which has transformed her life, so now she is eager to share her experience with others so that everyone can live a more fulfilled life. For more information please visit PersonalDevelopment4All.com
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Appreciating Real Assets In Life
March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Copyright © Gooi Mong Ling
When we talk about “assets”, many people will think about cash, real estates, shares, cars etc. These are the typical tangible items that most of us today considered as assets. There are also a lot of seminars and courses available these days to teach us how to manage these assets which many would probably have attended. However, have you ever taken time to think about what your real assets are in life? In today’s busy and highly competitive society, we are often too engrossed in making more and more money that we have completely forgotten about the things that are most important to us, such as our health, our family, our happiness and contentment. These are actually the real assets in our lives!
Nowadays, we often see that a lot of the seemingly successful people do not have nor enjoy the real assets in their lives. No doubt, they drive big luxurious cars and live in houses that some people can only dream about living in. But what is the use of all these luxury in life when they suffer from poor health or may even be terminally ill? Some may be so caught up in chasing after financial success that they neglected their family and love ones. In the end, when they achieve their so called success, there is no longer a family for them to return to.
If you are a person who is always on the move to chase after financial successes, it is important for you to slow down and think through before you sacrifice your health, family or love ones to achieve these goals. To help you do so, there are a few things that you have to realize.
Firstly, you have to realize that only you can manage your own well-being because you are in full control of your thoughts, actions and feelings. Yes, no one else but you!
Secondly, it is important to understand that you have to let go of past failures in order to progress and improve. Otherwise, the past failures will haunt you because it will only make you suffer in vain. So always remember, “If you keep focusing on the past, you can’t see the future…”
Lastly, bear in mind that you may lose interest in life one day, if you concentrate too much on things that don’t really matter much. This is because one day you may just wake up and find that life becomes meaningless. Those things that matter most may no longer be with you…
Through it all, it is of utmost importance to know who you really are. This will enable you to look at yourself properly so that you know what are the things that can really make you feel happy and contented. This is not to say that money is not important because it is. But you have to ask yourself this important question. To what extent are you prepared to sacrifice to have more money?
You also need to examine yourself and ask are you going to allow stress from work to stop you from having joy in life? Often in real life, we don’t realize that in pursuing our work and career, we repeatedly neglect our body and subject ourselves to continuous stress… Another key question to ask yourself is will you continue to spend time doing something that will not significantly improve your way of life? We only have 24 hours in a day so manage your time wisely so that you allocate your time to do something fruitful.
All these questions will help you find out if you are indeed living a life that is worth living. Aim to live a meaningful life…
About the Author:
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Helping Everyone To Succeed In Life, Love and Finances
Personal Development For Home Based Business
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Budgeting
March 5, 2008 | 1 Comment
Copyright © Lau C Hun
To start a business, one must understand the importance of budgeting. Putting together a budget will require some thought and anticipation for the future. However, without any financial background on the business itself may make budgeting a guesswork, but one must understand that it has significant effect on a business.
We can separate the budget into two major categories, income and expenses. Where income means all their expenses that you receive for the products or services that you sell or provide, under the expenses you can actually split it to two categories, which is controllable or uncontrollable.
Many business owners thought that they can control all the expenses for the company. However, there are a few items which may not be easy to control as it is subject to changes time to time. Items such as utility cost, rental and other so-called fixed costs can, and do change, with the owner having no control.
Other expenses which are controllable may include items such as payroll, insurance and advertising that can be subjected to budget. These cost may be reduced should a business is facing some difficulty and vice versa. Another strategy may include laying off employees and cutting back on advertising. However, it is important that the business will continue to live by a budget to ensure or maintain profitability.
Regardless of what would happen in the future, it is always better to bite the financial bullet on employee wages and still provide good customer service to the remaining customers until business recover. You will quickly burn out if you are trying to do everything yourself, and the next question will be who is taking care of the customers, it will not take long until there are no more customers to care for.
You can have two ways to actually budget your business money by either in dollar amount and/or percentage of income. Most of the businesses will normally budget their controllable expenses by the dollar and non-controllable by percentage of income. Obviously, we should be looking at how to bring money into the business rather than wasting time in this area. How much we spend on controllable expenses will be in direct relation to income.
For example, a company earning $30,000 a month in income has budgeted five percent for payroll, providing $1,500 for payroll. If the income level rises to $60,000 the budgeted payroll percent does not change but the dollars available for payroll climbs to $3,000. With an obvious increase in business to create the additional income, the owner will probably need the extra help to take care of business.
Many other items in the business may fall into payroll account, these includes worker’s compensation charges, Social Security tax paid by the employer and paid vacation time or other perks determined by the employer. Although it may be difficult to establish a budget for a new business, but setting up budget remain one of the most important steps in building a new business.
About the Author:
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Helping Everyone To Succeed In Life, Love and Finances
Personal Development For Home Based Business
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Note: You may re-print the article in its entirety which includes the author resource box.
