Here's my list:

Life is too short for…

1. Spending more time coming up with excuses than coming up with a plan to change
2. Being controlled by others (financially, emotionally, physically…)
3. Making a living doing something you don't LOVE!
4. Giving your time to people who bring you down rather than help life you up
5. Not getting in touch with your true inner beliefs and emotions
6. Waiting for change to happen instead of making it happen
7. Being around other people who don't care about themselves
8. Holding grudges – move on
9. Hanging on to the past when it's gone
10. Staying in one place when there is so much to learn and experience

This is fun, but make sure you have your own list of "Life is too short for…" and review them daily such that they become principles you live by.  You can even turn each of these statements into affirmations and really ramp up the changes in your life.

See, personal growth really can be fun and powerful at the same time.

How can we expect to be productive, happy, and confident people if we lack a fundamental self respect? 

What are some examples where self respect is suffering?

1. Negative self-talk, where you demean or talk negatively about yourself.  You wouldn't think saying "You suck at…" would be respectful to someone else, so goes your self-respect if you say those sorts of things to yourself.  My son was at a baseball tryout today and did quite well, but missed a few ground balls, he came over to me and said "I suck at baseball".  I talked to him about self respect and how it would lead to self confidence, and ultimately better results (as there is a direct connection in the brain between how we THINK we are going to do at something and how we ACTUALLY do)

2. Giving in to someone else all the time.  I see this every day, people don't defend (or even express) their own point of view, but instead lack so much respect for themselves that they just stay silent and allow someone else to dominate.  It may seem to have no impact at the time, but each time you let this happen you lose more self respect, lose more self confidence and take a step back from living a full, on-purpose and happy life

3. Selling yourself short.  So many people underachieve compared to what is possible in their lives.  They may do this because of a negative past life experience, a fear, laziness – all of which leads to a low self respect and ultimately, others will think the same.  Would you rather be with someone who dreams big and reaches for the stars or someone who has chosen to live the safe, uneventful, boring life?  I don't mean you have to immediately become a risk taker, rock climber, race car driver, etc…it's not about becoming more Xtreme, but it IS about thinking big, not being afraid and constantly having enough self-respect to believe that anything is possible if you truly want it bad enough.

So how do you go about improving your self-respect?

1.  Start by thinking back in your life when you did have the most self-respect, when you felt like you were unstoppable, at the top of your game and proud of your achievements.  Can you remember how that felt?  Why did that situation make you feel that way?  You want to learn from those experiences so you can re-create that time in your life (albeit applied to the present, not the past)

2. Give yourself the freedom to think anything, but then edit those thoughts to adhere to the principles of self respect.  You don't want to pretend you don't have negative, conflicting thoughts – that would be unhealthy.  Instead, acknowledge those thoughts, but realize they are leading you down a path of low self-respect, so alter those thoughts to be more in line with what you want.  For example, someone you love tells you they want you to do something you would prefer not to do…acknowledge that at first your thought is to give in the avoid conflict, but then ask yourself – is that really what I want?  Wouldn't it be better if they knew my point of view?  Wouldn't anyone who really loved me respect me more if I showed my own self-respect? 

3. Put your emotions into perspective…this is where we use meditation as a mechanism to help put our thoughts, fears, emotions into more objective perspective.  No, we don't turn into unthinking, unfeeling robots, but we also take the edge off of negative emotions that tend to lower our self-respect

4. Choose those around you…only stay around those who will treat you with the respect that you now hold for yourself.  By choosing self respect, you have the strength and focus to pick quality friends, employees, jobs, lovers or other significant people with whom you will spend your time

Don't wait another minute, you must learn to improve your self-respect before any personal growth can occur in your life.  You can try positive thinking, affirmations, motivational training, time management or any other method of personal development, but if you lack self respect, it just won't take. 

What about you, how is your self-respect?

You know the feeling, when you get down in the dumps it's hard to think of anything other than negatives…how you have no true friends, you are behind on your bills, the weather is grey, your kids aren't calling you, you haven't had a date in three months, your job is going nowehere….

But, against that are a number of positives that can immediately counter those feelings of negativity, despair, frustration and boredom, the challenge is coming up with them when you are in one of these negative periods.

So, why not come up with a "Passion Inventory" right now. 

Go ahead, take 10-15 minutes to inventory things that make you happy.

How do you know what you are passionate about?

Use these criteria:

• Time flies when you are doing something you are passionate about
• You are most comfortable when you are doing something for which you have a passion
• You are typically attracted to people that share your passion so look at what you share with those you admire most around you
• You are often good at your passions
• Passions don't take effort…they feel like they come naturally to you

Here are some examples to get you thinking:

• music
• reading
• writing
• talking 1:1 with a best friend
• helping people solve problems
• learning new things
• seeing new places – traveling
• playing a sport like football, basketball or hockey
• selling or running a business
• a hobby such as woodworking, sewing or radio control airplanes

Of course, the potential list is much longer than this, you should be able to come up with at least 3-4 of your own (and perhaps many more).

Once you have your inventory, it is good to write a few sentences under each one about how those make you feel – so that you can actually place yourself in those situations nad describe how they make you feel, what you see and hear.

Next time you feel down, need an escape from something you don't like doing or are feeling depressed, pull out your passion inventory so you can break out of your rut quicker and live a happier, more productive and fulfilling life.

Consistency Leads To Excellence

Have you struggled to realize your goals?  More familiar with the term procrastination than achievement?  Can't seem to stick with something long enough to get results?

Wouldn't  it help to be more consistent?

You vow to eat better and for a few days, you do…but then someone invites you out to lunch and suddenly you find yourself in front of a big plate of cheese nachos or french fries…and then instead of getting back on track, you lose it completely and revert back to your old habits – but what if you could have been more consistent in your behavior?

Here are some tips to use to improve your consistency:

1. Back it with a big WHY! The reason we revert back to old behaviors is because they tend to be very well reinforced in our minds – often related to pleasant situations or avoiding pain.  So, when we strive for consistency of new behaviors, we must equally link them to a desired and pleasant outcome.  If you want to lose 10lbs by consistently eating better and exercising, then we must reinforce how we will look, what our friends and family will say and the outcome of having extra energy will bring to our lives each day.

2. Set aside a planned time for the activity.  Having several businesses on the internet that depend on regular writing, I make sure that the first hour (at least) each day is allocated to writing…that way if other important things come up during the day they don't derail my most important priority.

3. Set ambitious, but manageable goals. Understand that our minds can focus better for 10-15 increments, have a break and then again for 15-minutes.  Plan that into your schedule so you are not working against your mind

4. Check your attitudes toward discipline and consistency. Some people were brought up or taught that doing the same thing over and over is a negative – that it will make them boring and that they will never truly experience life that way.  I am all for creativity and changing things up, but for those BIG goals and objectives in your life, consistency gets results – period!

5. Get right back on that horse. When you learned to walk, ride a bike or ride a horse (for those that have), play any sport or achieve anything of significance in your life, you know there were setbacks – did you give up?  No, and so when you mess up your consistency don't let it impact the entire objective – instead, acknowledge that you slipped and then get back on track the next day.  There is no period too long between reinforcements when you truly believe in your goal.

Consistency leads to momentum, energy, confidence and in the end, results.  Identify those really important goals, objectives and related actions then commit to 30-days of consistency and watch your results soar.

In my experience, what motivates people is when they get so pissed off they are not going to take the current situation anymore and then gets them motivated to do something about it.

Agreed, this can take people in one of two directions:

• Decide to be angry and use that as justification for doing something bad, illegal or negative – OR…
• Decide to take responsibility and assert control turning things around in a positive direction

Obviously we are talking about the second option here.

But the bottom line is that the process of NOT settling for the current situation, of challenging the BS that you hear and decide to do something about it turns you from a passive blob into an active energy source that is vibrant and attracts other movement around you.

In that sense, channeling pent up frustration and even desperation into anger as a means to initiating change can be a very useful method to get unstuck in your life.

So many of the most successful entrepreneurs I know ONLY became successful after finally getting angry enough to kick themselves into action and find out about alternative business options,  no longer settling for having their professional and financial lives controlled by others.

Others who have made incredible changes in their lifestyle, health and relationships did so because they decided to get pissed off enough about the situation they were in to take control and change their life for the better.

So, next time you wonder what it takes to get motivated, ask yourself "Am I fed up enough with the current situation to actually get angry and propel myself into a new, improved situation?"

If you are NOT angry enough or desperate enough for change, it will not come.  So, on occasion I have racked my brain with vivid imagery of what life WILL be like in the future if I don't get motivated or take action now – in effect ratcheting up the anger level internally until action is the only option.

Give it a try…and watch how motivated you can really be.

Sometimes the cause is as small as one sentence their partner said to them on the way out the door, other times the challenges are much more serious, but in any case – can we turn more of our bad days into good day?

If you really think about it, 99% of your bad days come from allowing others to impact your thoughts or behaviors…not you yourself taking control and deciding to have a bad day – right?

So it stands to reason that you can intervene and not ALLOW those outside forces to impact you in a bad way…no matter what the situation.

I was helping a friend get over an issue where her boyfriend said some nasty things to her on the weekend.  Instead of either letting the comment roll off or confronting him on them letting him know they were not appropriate, she instead let it ruin 3-days (and counting) of her life.  She has been miserable, tough to get along with, receded into the background and is even not feeling physically very well. 

Clearly the comments were not appropriate and objectively (looking for the outside in) they should not have impacted her own thoughts for more than the few minutes it takes to decide how to respond, yet we let it fester and grow into something big.

Next time you think you are having a bad day or feel one coming on, try these tips:

1. Understand that you are still in control, you hold the keys to your own thoughts and behaviors so it doesn't matter what has happened, it's time to take charge not to back-up and give in
2. Write out what is bothering you 10-15 times – for most of us, getting that out in writing is a very powerful way to unload and not allow these negative thoughts to impact our emotions further
3. Decide on a course of action quickly – yes, give it some thought, but don't let it fester.  If someone says something you don't like, then decide right then if you will ignore it (chalk it up to their own limitations) or confront them and tell them how hurtful and inappropriate what they said is
4. Don't expect perfection – just because things don't go our way doesn't mean we should allow that to ruin days or weeks of our precious lives.  We face challenges every day – if  you experience a setback, know that a better day is just around the corner
5. Build your self-confidence so that you are stronger to face external challenges – in Attracting Greatness, there are several techniques outlined to strengthen your character, your self belief and self esteem so that you become bulletproof and can easily turn a bad day into a great one

In most cases, having a bad day is our response to something that has happened in our life…we are giving someone else the power to ruin our happiness, make us less productive, jeopardize our friendships and relationships and even impact our health.  Use these tips to help reduce the amount of control outside negative forces have on you and start have Great days instead of bad days.

Leave us a comment…how do you get over a bad day?

Now this is different than Positive Thinking…at least as we may have been originally taught.

The challenge with positive thinking is that we need to continually fight the negative thought cycle day-in and day-out with multiple positive thoughts – often contrived and not derived from actual experiences.

What would happen if you changed it up a little and did just one 60-second exercise each day to induce positive thoughts and attract more positivity into your life?

How about keeping a journal of 1 positive experience each day?

Give it a try, start today – list one positive experience or encounter today.  Something for which you have gratitude or just simply strikes you as being lucky, someone who is helpful or something you are grateful to have or to know.

Nobody else has to see your journal.

This should take you no more than 1-2 minutes each day – pick a time where you will consistently journal your positive encounter, then read it back to yourself that night before going to bed and again first thing in the morning.

Give it a try…we've been doing it for two weeks now and already I can feel the positive energy.

Remember…being grateful and seeding your mind with positive thoughts will pay you back many times more than you put in, so get started right now.  If you feel comfortable doing so, leave us a comment against this post of an example you can think of right now.

Especially this time of year, millions and millions of people are writing down goals for themselves – yet for many those goals will sit in a drawer, get thrown out with the trash or only stick around for a few weeks, by the end of the month you will be back in the same rut by the end of January

How do we make sure that doesn't happen?

The most common reason that goals do not become reality is that there is no associated daily action plan behind those goals. 

For instance…let's say one of your goals for this month is:

GOAL:  To lose 5 lbs taking me from 180lbs down to 175lbs

First, the goal is specific, realistic and measurable…any goal needs to follow these criteria.  For instance, it is not useful to just say 'I will lose weight this month' 

Writing the goal down and reviewing it each day is certainly a great start…but to really put hooks into goal and make sure it becomes real, you need a plan including a set of daily actions to take as part of the plan.

For example, to realize your goal of losing 5lbs in the month you would identify 2-3 areas that will help you lose that weight:

• diet
• exercise
• motivation

Next, you get more specific with the plan:

• diet: – replace toast before bed each day with a piece of fruit, substitute a salad for 3 lunches each week, replace morning cereal twice each week with yogurt and fruit, replace all juice and soft drinks with water
• exercise: – get up 45-minutes earlier Mon,Wed, Fri and do a power-walk/brisk walk; 2 sessions of resistance training each week (build muscle to help drive metabolism), one additional aerobic activity each week for 40-minutes (biking, jogging, swimming, etc…)
• motivation: – commit to 30-min of meditation 5-days each week

Now, that starts to look like a plan doesn't it?  Already you can begin to see the guidance on a daily basis in order to achieve (or even exceed) your goal

Finally, to really ramp this up and make yourself virtually unstoppable, turn this into a daily action guide that would look something like this…

1. Wakeup at 6:15 AM
2. Brisk walk until 7:00AM
3. Breakfast – yogurt (no added sugar)  and fruit with water
4. Lunch - salad with protein (cottage cheese, cheese, egg slices, seeds or nuts…)
5. Dinner – balanced meal of chicken, vegetables, lentils, etc…
6. 8:00PM – 30-minutes of meditation
7. 11:00PM – bed time with relaxing music (or other methods that help you get to sleep)

Think about how powerful having a detailed action plan like this is toward achieving your goals.  Suddenly, you don't have to wake up and wrestle with yourself each day on how you will work toward your goals, it is all there in black and white, you just have to follow the plan.

You also have a way to hold yourself accountable – each day you have a way of measuring your progress toward the goal.  If you miss one day, pick it up the next.  If you miss a few days, then re-visit your desire to achieve the goal, alter your plan and go back at it. 

If you are tired of setting goals that never get results, then try expanding those goals into actionable plans – it really does work. 

If you want a more comprehensive, powerful action plan for truly Attracting Massive Greatness into your life including health, emotional mastery, stress management, confidence building – they keys to overwhelming achievement and happiness, pick up your own Blueprint inside Attracting Greatness.

It's not so much that everything needs to be going perfectly, that doesn't happen for anyone in real life – in fact some of the happiest, most successful people have gone through challenges much bigger than you or I have gone through…yet they have managed to figure out what makes them happy and largely stick to that roadmap

You may be sitting, reading this thinking 'My life is a mess' or ' I really hate where my life is right now…' a combination of frustration, lack of hope and overall negative energy – so where do you turn? How do you get unstuck and dig yourself out of this rut that you seemed to have waded into?

While there are several factors involved in how happy you are and how your life is going at this moment, there are 3 factors that we have found to help the MOST when you are trying to transform your life from sucking to being much more enjoyable and productive:

1. Know what it is that makes you happy…sounds simple enough doesn't it – but oddly, we often get off track doing what we "think" or have been "told" or "taught" what will make us happy when in fact, we are not doing what truly makes us happy inside. We recently interviewed some of the happiest and most successful people across various walks of life and found that they know one thing extremely well…themselves!  They are unwavering about being true to how they feel.  Sometimes this comes across as being selfish, or self absorbed and to a degree this is true, but the ultimate outcome of being happy they are able to contribute to society instead of burden it with emotional and physical illness that comes from not being happy.

How do you know what makes you happy?  Meditation, reflection on past experiences, studying your strengths, asking those around you for feedback, testing different ideas – you'll find several techniques on discovering what truly makes you happy inside Attracting Greatness – A Blueprint For Self-Confidence And Happiness

2. Building your self-confidence so that you can overcome challenges and live consistently in tune with what makes you happy.  Often what makes you happen will not align with what other people will consider 'normal' – but overcoming fear and having a positive self-confidence will let you overcome those situations…get over that temporary bump and you will find that suddenly people will be even MORE attracted to you because yes, you are different, but you are also confident and energized…this is how followers emerge to be leaders

3. Recognize and replace negative influences with positive influences – people around you, mass media, your closest friends…by default you will find yourself surrounded by negativity that, no matter how hard you try, will impact your own journey and happiness.  Instead, proactively surround yourself with positive, supportive energy.  You may have noticed that happy and successful people often don't stick around long if there is negativity in the air – instead they train themselves to avoid these situations, control their thoughts keeping them as positive as they can and building a support system around them that helps support that positive thinking.

While there are other factors influencing happiness around stress management, discovery of purpose, cultivating an action oriented game plan and specific health factors…I have found these 3 to be among the most important factors to being more happy.  For a complete, highly effective Personal Success & Happiness Blueprint use Attracting Greatness and make 2011 finally the year that you get on the right track.

To help achieve a specific objective or state of being in your life you do need to go deeper than the conscious mind…that is true.

And yes, affirmations where you begin with "I am …" affirming a given state that you have achieved even though you are still working on it is one way that you can help to convince your sub-conscious mind that your quest is possible – even iminent, but it is only one way. 

So, affirmations do work, but there are other methods. 

It's funny, I never really focused on affirmations, but did write my objectives and had vivid images of having achieved my objectives – found that was extremely effective. 

One of my objectives was to travel to specific destinations, so I put up pictures of those destinations in my home office. 

Similarly, the goal of losing body fat was helped along by pictures of healthy people that looked like I wanted to look…each day I would study those pictures imaging myself already having achieved that state.

I even went to the extent of coming up with images from each of the five senses – assuming I had achieved the specific goals. 

Whatever your method, the idea is to convincingly put your mind in a place where you have already achieved your objectives…affirmations are one way to do it, but just using your imagination with vivid imagery is another. 

What is important is that you work your imagination in harmony with your objectives every day consistently. 

Do you have a special way you like to use to help visualize your goals?