Create Your Mind - If you won't...WE WILL!

Improve your life – Snooze you Lose!

GMagas — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:11:02 +0000

It’s true. I may have mentioned it in another article, but if you hit that Snooze Button on your alarm, you lose 5-10 minute a day!

Think about that! If this is a site to offer motivation techniques and how to improve your life lets start with one step you can do every single morning. Don’t hit the snooze button!

The common snooze is about 10 minutes. If you hit snooze twice a day, 7 days a week, for a whole year, you lose 122 hours a year! That’s 5×24hr days you completely lose from your life EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

It might not seem that much – but your INTENT was to wake up at a ’set’ time, but you sleep an extra 20 minutes ‘just because’. Believe me, if you get your internal clock used to getting up at your set time, the habit will be ingrained in your grain and body and you will never have to hit snooze again.

So if you hit snooze – please check out this poll here: “How many times do you hit Snooze?“

Stop making excuses about NOT having enough time if you hit the Snooze Button! I just gave you a way to get 122 hours of your life back – just by getting up when your alarm goes off!

Other great programs to personal effectiveness:
Goal Setting Template – what are goals?
How to change your life – Six Minutes to Success
Achieve Success – Kick Excuses Goodbye!

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Developing Good Habits – Teamwork

GMagas — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:49:37 +0000

The Maxwell Daily Reader’s topic for August 31st is “Becoming More Selfless”. This is an important concept when developing good habits at it pertains to teamwork. “If you want to be a contributing member of a successful team, you have to put others on the team ahead of yourself.”

The question is: How are you when it comes to taking a backseat to others?

I was watching the show, “The Big Bang Theory” and one character (Leonard) admitted to NOT having leadership skills but suggested a way to do something more efficient. Instead of trying to work on something in freezing temperature, why not work on it inside, then bring it out when its ready? The self-proclaimed team leader (Sheldon) pondered the suggestion and replied, “I hadn’t thought of that.” And they all grouped up their things and left the cold test environment.

My point is: Sometimes a great leader may not be in the forefront – but still lead from the middle – as in Maxwell’s book “The 360 degree Leader”. Being a great team leader may not mean speaking your mind, but speaking your mind if the time and the situation is right. In other words – take a backseat.

If someone else gets credit for the work you do – does it bother you? I know several people who ‘want the credit’.

The other day I watched someone demonstrate something I could do better (in my opinion). But he was so happy demonstrating, people were enjoying it, so I sat back and enjoyed the moment and kept my mouth shut. I’ve learned sometimes when you ask for credit, it leads to more responsibility that you may not want or enjoy. Know that you do something well, despite the lack of credit, and move on.

Always promote someone other than yourself.

I have recently gotten into ’sales’ for an exclusive and private health club. As I was making a ’sales pitch’ to a customer about the classes and the trainers, which includes myself, one of the trainers walked up and I immediately turned the attention on that person. “This is one of our boxing trainers and she was the Canadian Golden Gloves Champion in 2010″. The guy’s mouth opened up and was like – wow. Would tooting my own horn help ’sell’ what I wanted to sell? Probably not – the customer could care less about me – but was more interested of someone else I was promoting!

She didn’t have to say a word – just stand there and she was of celebrity status. The customer didn’t ask questions directed to her to try and discredit her because I put her on a pedestal. Try promoting yourself – the customer will probably ask questions (subconsciously trying to discredit your expertise) but promote someone else, they just accept it and feel priveledged to meet them.

Find positive things to say about people’s actions and qualities! That’s key in team work!

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Dealing With Stress

Orlando — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:32:01 +0000

Dealing With Stress

What is your style of Stress?

Read on for 3 Aproaches To Dealing With Stress!

Thank you for reading this article,

Dealing with stress is an inevitable feature of contemporary life. Schools would be well advised to integrate into the curriculum since it is so pervasive. Recent studies found that one-third of all teenagers in America are stressed out daily; two-thirds face high stress once a week.

Stress isn’t just emotionally uncomfortable, it has a significant impact on our physical health, lowering our immune system and increasing our risk of heart disease and stroke among other illnesses.

Information abounds on dealing with stress; gardening, exercise, hypnosis are among the activities frequently listed. What if these approaches don’t work for you? Have you given up searching for an effective way of dealing with stress and reconciled yourself to being a Type A personality?

Don’t throw in the towel. Instead, take a look at your personality and characteristics to determine which of the following three approaches will help you combat stress.

Are you task-oriented? If so, you need to analyze the situation that is causing the stress and take action.
Are you emotion-oriented? Then you need to address the feelings that are causing the stress and seek social support.
Finally, are you distraction-oriented? In this case, you are best served by seeking activities that engage you and take your mind off whatever is causing stress in your life.

As you can see, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with stress. Your friend can de-stress by sipping a cup of green tea and writing in her journal; you may need to take a kick boxing class or throw yourself into a new project at work.

Following are some ideas on dealing with stress effectively. Experiment until you find something that works for you. According to various studies, the sooner you can nip stress in the bud, the better your chances of avoiding stress-related ailments. Besides, you’ll enjoy life more.

Stress relief for task-oriented people:

Read some of the classic literature on stress.
Take a free stress management course online.
Meet with a friend for a brainstorming session; try to come up with a solution to the problem.
Explore the situation and potential solutions in your journal.
Come up with a plan for dealing with stress. Use a system like SMART in which you identify goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible.

Stress relief for emotion-oriented people

Explore the situation and your feelings about it in your journal.
Join a support group or seek counseling.
Try hypnosis, meditation, yoga or any other relaxation technique.
Reach out to good friends and family members.
Connect with your partner or another significant person in your life; this can help put the issue that is causing you stress into perspective.
If you don’t already have one, get a pet or volunteer as a dog walker with the SPCA.

Stress relief for distraction-oriented people

Channel your negative energy into a physical activity like running or a long bike ride.
Lose yourself in an absorbing activity like gardening, house cleaning or work.
Laughter is potent medicine and has been proven to counteract the physical and emotional effects of stress. Play with a child or rent a favorite comedy.
Plan a dinner party for friends.
Read a good book.
Focus on an area of your life that is going well or something you can look forward to like an upcoming vacation.

For more ideas on how to deal with Stress read our articele on the Worry Buster!

Thanks again for reading

Orlando Ramos on Behalf of Glenn Magas and The CreateYourMinddotcom Team.

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Improve your life – Never Give Up in Life

GMagas — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:10:37 +0000

Have you been down and out? Have you thought about giving up on things you start after feeling so enthusiastic, positive and motivated only to be faced with obstacles that you weren’t prepared for? Failure is an option – but so is success – regardless of how hard and difficult it may be. The finish line is ahead, and even if you limp to it, get to it and finish.

This article isn’t really meant to inspire you, but the following video will lift you up and keep you going. It definitely does it for me. Please watch, accept, and then think of all the things that you have decided to walk away from because you faced an obstacle.

Believe me – you haven’t faced what Derek Redmond faced – a once in a lifetime opportunity and the worst thing that can happen happened.

Use this as inspiration to get off your coach, or out of your bed, or out of the rut you are in and achieve what you passionately WANTED to achieve. This is it – lift yourself up and “Just do it!”

Thank you for reading!

Glenn Magas on behalf of Orlando Ramos and the Createyourmind.com Achievement Specialist Team

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Charismatic Leadership

Orlando — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:12:19 +0000

What can we learn from charismatic leadership?

Fidel Castro and Winston Churchill.

Jesus and Mohammed.

All exemplify charismatic leadership, one of the three forms of leadership classified by sociologist Max Weber.

At the heart of Weber’s classification is a belief in the “exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual”. More significantly, it is a neutral term, implying neither good nor evil. Hitler (evil), for example, was a charismatic leader as was Mohandas Ghandi (good).

One of the most fascinating attributes of charismatic leadership is that followers are drawn to the individual because of their personality or charisma. Like Ghandi, they do not have to hold a position of authority in order to inspire or lead people.

Instead, followers may see the leader as a parental figure who will nurture and guide them or as a prophet who can reveal higher truths. The leader may also be heralded as a hero based on previous triumphs or as a person of integrity, regarded for living by strong principles.

In recent years, charismatic leadership has fallen out of favor. Yet, it still plays a role in our society. When a Fortune 500 company needs a CEO to turn the tide of failing fortunes or a lackluster political party wants to boost its popularity in the polls, a charismatic leader can be relied upon to inspire renewed faith and optimism among the ranks.

Despite the naysayers, charismatic leadership can benefit society in multiple ways.

* Vision: these leaders express a compelling view of the future.
* Passion: they embody their belief.
* Energy: they commit boundless energy to realizing their goals.
* Creativity: they develop solutions to the problems that bog others down.
* Inspiration: they arouse confidence, faith and belief in their followers.

Given such positive associations, why would anyone question the role of charismatic leadership in our society today? The answer lies in how easily faith can be misplaced. When we consider a cult like that of the notorious Jim Jones, we can see how blindly following a leader can bring about pain, suffering and death.

Even in the service of a worthy cause, there are negative aspects to charismatic leadership. Heroic self-sacrifice, for example, can jeopardize family relationships and physical or financial health.

As history reveals, however, charismatic leadership can also be a positive and beneficial practice. The key lies in whether or not it is carried out ethically. In the best of all possible worlds, leaders act in the interests of their followers. Furthermore, they encourage their followers to take responsibility for their actions and ultimately become leaders themselves.

This is radically different from a situation like that created by Jim Jones or other cult leaders, where followers are required to accept the leader’s demands without question, regardless of how it affects them.

Too often, the latter is the situation that comes to mind when we think about charismatic leadership. Yet, when we look at the contributions of some exemplary leaders we can see how greatly it has benefited our world in the past and how much we continue to reap from it today.

For more leadership please read Servant Leadership.

Thank you for reading

Orlando Ramos on behalf of Glenn Magas and the Createyourmind.com Team

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Life Coach – Successful Life

GMagas — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:15:31 +0000

Life Coaching leads to a successful life. The whole philosophy is based on being positive and achieving your goals. But don’t be fooled – there are obstacles and failures along the way to having a successful life. Just like there are wins and losses in a little league baseball game. You need to come off the field and your coach has to point out the positive things that happen in order for you to, and pardon the cliche, ‘grow from it’. With every failure there is an experience that you learn from. A life coach, whether you have one or you are your own life coach, means you are on the path to a successful life.

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” — Titus Livius

Have you noticed people in or around your life that seem to have problems on a daily basis? They tend to fail every time they try something and they complain about not having any luck and ask, ‘why does this always happen to me?’.

I am my own life coach right now. After reading a ton of success oriented books, books on leadership, books on positive thinking, and most importantly, keep relationships that are positive and always about self improvement, my life has changed.

I’ll be honest with you- I was always the one asking, ‘why does this always happen to me?’. Well, it was happening because of my attitude. There is an incredible force in the world called the law of attraction. Some have given their explanation, and some say its unexplainable. Does it have to be? No. You just have to believe in it!

If everyone you associate with is negative, your life will be filled with negativity. And you will eventually ask, ‘why does this always happen to me?’

My example is this:

Whenever I purchased something, an electronic gadget, a computer, DVD player, electric shaver, etc… something would inevitably be wrong with the whole ordeal: a missing piece, it doesn’t work, it is broken – and I’d have to return it and it would turn out to be an incredible hassle. I swear – this always happened and I would expect it happen. I would say out loud, “yep – i knew it!” Because I did know it!

When I decided to do a “90 Day Challenge” to self improvement and a better life, things immediately changed. Eventually – everything changed.

I always find parking on the holiday shopping days. Always. I always end up succeeding in whatever I set out to do! I always get those electronic products with no problems – none! Is this an exaggeration? Nope. It’s an attitude.

Here is the oddest thing of all – sometimes I catch myself thinking – here we go again…

I got a new Xbox 360 for my son a few months ago because his burned out – a common problem with this system. When we got it, the power switch wasn’t working and the cord included in this newer and updated version was not compatible with our entertainment system.

If I was negative, and believe me, my thought process started to go that way, it could have been a horrible experience. So my personal life coaching skills kicked in – even with this trivial aspect of life.

It started when the Xbox 360 burned out with the red ring of death. I did not want to spend $200 or more dollars on a new system. The game was out of warranty (3+ years) so Sony would not fix it for free. Instead of whining, I called Costco, where we bought it. They said we could bring it in for a full refund!

You are kidding me! I packed it up and brought it in.

Instead of being negative, I stayed positive, became proactive and I took action. Note the three key words there to a successful life:

-positive
-proactive
-action

We got our full refund, which was a reward in itself because it was a Holiday Bundle we had bought which was more money than expected. And it was enough to cover the new Holiday Bundle that Costco offered.

Well, when I set it up, the audio cord was different that the last one – this is a hassle because all the cords are embedded behind the wall and I needed to replace it. And I wasn’t about to do that! I relaxed and thought it out and made a temporary solution that is permanent as of today!

Now, the power button didn’t seem to work and I was banging my head trying to figure it out. I was beginning to get to the red zone of frustration when I thought backwards… Power Button needs power. So I reset the power strip. Nothing. I took it out and plugged it into another outlet and nothing. I tested the outlet – it worked. Well, guess what – the power strip didn’t work – it was not the Xbox 360. I got out my spare and sure enough – problem solved.

Frustration leads to ‘giving up’. Negativity leads to failure. At any point in my ‘previous’ life these would have led to quitting. I would have packed it up and brought it back without giving myself a chance to ‘make it work’.

Life Coaching is like this. You make things work that you never made work before because obstacles that you encounter are those that always make you quit. It could be a small obstacle or large – but what it does is it triggers the emotional thought process that gets you to the red zone – and you are done. Like the Red Ring of Death on the Xbox 360. It is over.

The thing with life is that unlike the Xbox 360 warranty, your warranty is for life. You can fix whatever you want if you want to. By changing your thought process and being positive, proactive, and taking action, you can have a successful life – guaranteed!

Having a life coach is as simple as looking in the mirror and doing what so many people have a hard time doing: reflect, say self improvement affirmations, and start your day in a positive manner. Try it. It works.

Other great programs to a successful life:
Goal Setting Template – what are goals?
How to change your life – Six Minutes to Success
Achieve Success – Kick Excuses Goodbye!

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Martial Arts Practitioners – Check Your Ego at the Door

GMagas — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:44:16 +0000

I’m a martial arts instructor. I taught Okinawa Te Karate for many years before taking a different path in my life. The one thing that I loathed about martial arts was the egos – and the ‘my dad is better than your dad’ arguments of martial art style.

There is a philosophy in martial arts: The “Trinity of Martial Arts” – Mind, Body, Spirit.

That being said, there are so many ego driven martial artists in a world where the philosophy is completely opposite. If you are being of Mind, Body, and Spirit, then it does not matter what style you practice, or what style I practice, what matters is that you work on your mind, body, and spirit to be a well balanced person.

If you teach your students these key philosophies, you are guiding them in the right path. If, for some reason, they walk out of your class believing that what they are learning is the ‘best’ art, or that ‘their art is better than someone elses’, well, you are missing the point.

CreateYourMind caters to those striving for success. But ‘our’ philosophies are also those that can be impressed upon students in the Martial Art’s World.

In Leadership, many say, “Your Success is hidden in your Daily Habits”. From Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, and others…

Bruce Lee says, “As you think, so shall you become.” Bruce Lee

Why is it then, those ego driven Martial Artists continue to think close minded, and not open minded? Its their ego that prevents them from developing their Mind, Body, and Spirit.

All that to get to my point – in order to succeed in life, you need to get past yourself. It could be your ego – or your self limiting beliefs.

As a person seeking a change, leadership, or success, think as a Martial Artist is supposed to think. First, check your ego at the door, accept what life coaches and achievement specialists like we offer, let go of self-limiting beliefs – and develop your mind, body, and spirit! Keep an open mind, and as Bruce Lee says, “As you think, so shall you become.”

Thanks for reading.

Other related Motivational Sports Quotes Articles:
“You miss every shot you don’t take”
“There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.“

Oh, and check out these great programs to success:
“Goal Setting Template – what are goals?”
“How to change your life – Six Minutes to Success”
“Achieve Success – Kick Excuses Goodbye!“

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Leadership Motivation

GMagas — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:46:05 +0000

Last week the Phoenix Suns played the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the 2010 Western Conference Finals. They had no chance in Game 1, and Game 2 they were down by half time. And during the locker room speech, the Suns’ coach, Alvin Gentry tried to get his team motivated with a little Leadership Motivation.

We, as viewers got a chance to hear a few of his ‘choice’ words and after he said them, I knew there was no way that the Suns would win game 2.

I’m trying to remember it verbatim, but I can’t. But I do remember when I watched and heard I was shocked at the words that came out of his mouth. It was all for good intentions and meant to motivate the team.

He said something like this:

“If we are going to go down, lets go down fighting.” Paraphrased Alvin Gentry Quote

This is far from a motivational sports quote! They still had a half a game to go. Their potential to win was HALF FULL and not half empty. Yet – Alvin Gentry had already resorted to a loss, and that being said, told them to go ‘down’ fighting.

I’ve had similar experiences as an assistant Little League coach. The Head Coach, as innocent as it may be, has signed in for a loss as soon as the first inning mumbling – “We’ve lost this game already” on numerous occasions.

Now, the kids don’t usually hear this statement, but coaches do. And just by inheriting this attitude of negativity where does it go? In some way it will always be impressed upon everyone around him – the coaches and the kids – even if they did not hear him.

Here’s a lesson to be learned: Never go into a game with any feeling that you will lose. From beginning to end. From team sports to a video game you play with friends.

It doesn’t stop there. Leadership Motivation is within all of us. We are all leaders in some way – we just need to discover it. That being the case, your leadership begins with you in every aspect of life. Not just sports.

So it starts and ends with everything you say, do, touch, see or believe. Sports is a great example of leadership because there are so many great athletes who lead by example. Apply that in your every day life – that’s how to achieve success – that’s how to become a leader.

How to change your life – Cherish your dreams

GMagas — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:29:14 +0000

About 15 years ago I worked for a large company. It was my first ‘real’ job out of college and I was getting paid the most money I’ve ever gotten paid. Guess what – it wasn’t awesome. For years following, I would get paid more and more and guess what – it wasn’t awesome. Why? Because, although I cherished my dreams, I didn’t own them and I realized, just recently, the only way how to change your life is to yes, cherish your dreams, but more importantly – to own them! That’s how to have a successful life!

Back at that first job out of college I had a small frame at my desk with a picture and a quote:

“Cherish your visions and you dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” Napoleon Hill

I was in my early 20s and I was always thinking about cherishing my visions and my dreams. But I never really knew what it meant till about a year or so ago. I had no idea about a successful life or how to change your life in order to achieve success – The problem that I have is what everyone else has… as you pursue those cherished dreams, obstacles make it hard to achieve them. And as more obstacles pile up, the more ‘we’ are prone to quit what we started to never fulfill or own the dream we so very cherished.

Here’s my advice to you – if there is a saying that makes sense and motivates you, really think about it. Really understand what it takes to use that saying or quote to motivate you today. Not next week, or ‘when you have time’, do something about it every day.

One of my ‘new goals’ is not to just do something every day as my commitment to achieving my vision and my dreams, its to do something one day, and do a little bit more the next day. And so on, and so on.

Join me on my journey!

Thanks for reading.

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Success in Life – Parents – How do you start your day?

GMagas — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:07:14 +0000

Success in Life

Parents – How do you start your day?

Your success is hidden in your daily habits. And those habits tend to result in the same old routine. Parents, that same routine is the one routine you want to get right. I am not a perfect father of three (19, 10, and 7). But I am a father who strives to do things right – even when I so often do things wrong for my kids. I always like to say, you only have one chance with you kids – and that chance is now. If your success in life is hidden in your daily habits, and you want to be a successful parent, make sure you start your kid’s day off right.

“Start your child’s day with love and encouragement and end the day the same way.” Zig Ziglar

Yesterday, my son didn’t feel well and we kept him home from school. Well, his 7 year old sister came up with every excuse in the book to also stay home from school. She was miserable as I drove her to school on a Monday morning because she didn’t have a valid excuse except, “It’s not fair!”. She had a horrible attitude, and was blaming her misery on having to go to school.

Well, I tried to turn the situation around. I asked: “Do you know what today is?”

There was a miserable, “No.” from the back seat.

“Today is a Monday. It’s the first day of the week. It’s a new week and a new day and every week starts off with Monday morning. This is why Monday morning is the best day of the week!”

Now, most adults have decided that Monday is the worst day of the week. And Friday is the best day of the week. Well, what a way to live a miserable life! After quitting my job 3 months ago I have realized otherwise. I have come to the wonderful conclusion that I don’t thank God its Friday, I thank God I have days left before Friday. Friday to me is a reminder that a great week has ended – and I hate it when good things come to an end!

Yes, to me, Monday is the best part of the week and I wish Monday’s would never ever end. I never have enough time on a Monday and once Tuesday begins I always ask, What happened to Monday?

Back to my daughter…

She didn’t buy it. So I used different things as an example.

“It’s always great when you start things! You are always excited when something begins! The first day of school, a movie, a party – do you like it when you have to go home from a party or when a good movie ends? Don’t you have a hard time going to sleep at night because that’s the end of the day? The bast part of the day is when you start the day and get to do new things right?”

She listened intently.

“So Monday is the best part of the week! Get it?” I excitedly tried to get her to buy into my concept!

There was a brief moment of silence from the backseat. Then, with innocent curiosity to what I was saying in our 2 mile ride to school she asked…

“Why again”?

“Monday is the start of the week. Starting something is always better than ending something right?” I replied.

“Yeah we are supposed to watch a movies today! We have two of them! And Mr. Williams said we can watch them on the day after Sunday.”

And what’s today?

“The day after Sunday!” She exclaimed

“It’s Monday! The first day of the week! See? It’s always the best day of the week right?” I tried to encourage her excitement.

Just at that time we drove up to the school’s drop off zone and she made her way out of the car.

“Have a great Monday!”

“K”

“You have tutoring at 3:30.”

“K”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

The door slammed shut before I could say another word.

Don’t just start off your child’s day with encouragement, start off everyday (especially those dreaded Monday mornings before school) with love and encouragement! You have one chance to do that for your child. Don’t wait till Friday. Or next year. Success in life for you and for your kids means starting every day off right. Build these good habits into your routine. Someday, your child will do the same for theirs.

Oh, after I picked her up from school, I asked her as we drove home, “Did you have a great day?”

There was an enthusiastic “Yes, I did!” from the back seat.

“See – I told you Monday’s were the best days!”

I’m writing this article on a Tuesday. I wish it was Monday. Remember – Success in Life - start your child’s day off right!

Thanks for reading!

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