But how do managers determine what motivational strategies to use? They start by viewing “motivation” from a holistic perspective. Low performers are not ONLY motivated by paychecks, bonuses, or promotions. Those things are important, but so are other things like less stress, greater cooperation, and different tasks.

So when you talk to employees about doing a better job, you want to give a “reason” they can relate to. This means that you have to know how performance improvement will benefit each of your low performers. Here are 24 benefits to consider:

ASK: How might “this employee benefit” from improved performance?

1. Less stress that comes from having to make corrections

2. Less oversight and monitoring of assignments from you, the manager

3. More autonomy in handling individual assignments

4. Fewer complaints from customers and clients

5. More compliments from customers and clients

6. Less time spent having to offer explanations about incomplete work

7. Less time spent having to offer explanations about incorrect work

8. Fewer requests from coworkers or other employees asking for status reports

9. More opportunities to perform different types of “desirable” tasks

10. More opportunities to work with different or “interesting” employees

11. Increased opportunity for improved performance rating

12. Increased opportunity to receive bonus or some type of monetary recognition

13. Increased opportunity to receive recognition or some type of non-monetary acknowledgement

14. Less mandatory overtime required to complete overdue assignments

15. More opportunities to work overtime that is based on good performance

16. Less time spent redoing and reworking assignments

17. Less time spent having to correct mistakes and errors

18. More time off as a direct reward for good performance

19. Reduction in personal backlogs or workloads

20. Increase in personal accuracy and quality

21. Greater cooperation from managers, coworkers, or other employees

22. More opportunities to participate in different types of “employee development programs”

23. More opportunities to participate in different types of high-profile projects

24. More opportunities to work with people who can positively influence career

Remember, Different Things Motivate Different Employees

Motivation is personal and individual. So it’s not enough to say, “If you do a better job, you will receive a bonus.” And even if this approach works once, it might not work every time. Or you might not always be able to promise a bonus for performance. You need a variety of ways to keep your low performers motivated. And the approach you choose depends on the employee. You might have to cite several “personal benefits” to motivate some employees, but only one or two for others. This list gives you 24 to choose from. Try a few the next time you have to talk to a low performer.

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Three Ways We Learn

People learn in three basic ways:

1. Visual - seeing

2. Auditory - listening/hearing

3. Kinesthetic - feeling/moving

Make your affirmations even more effective by involving more than one sensory system. The best way to install a new positive thought is to make sure you’re receiving the information in all three ways.

Seeing:

Print your affirmations on cards and place them where you’ll see them often; in your car, on the fridge, on the bathroom mirror, on your desk and near the telephone. You can even “illustrate” the cards with inspiring photos clipped from magazines. Carry your affirmations on cards and take them out to read several times a day.

Hearing:

It helps to say your affirmations out loud. When you read them, you engage the visual learning system, but when you read them out loud, you engage both the visual and auditory systems. At first, you may wish to repeat your affirmations aloud to yourself when you’re alone. As you become more comfortable with affirmations, I encourage you to begin sprinkling them into your conversations. Not only will your words inspire you, they may inspire others too. People may even begin to quote you!

Feeling/Moving:

Writing your affirmations out on paper engages your kinesthetic learning system, allowing your subconscious to learn them physically through your body as well as your mind. I strongly encourage you to hand write each of your affirmations on paper several times. This is especially useful whenever you start working with a new affirmation. I like to keep a notebook specifically for this purpose.

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Albert Einstein had just administered an examination to an advanced class of Physics students.

As he left the building, he was followed out by one of his teaching assistants.

�??Excuse me, sir,�?? said the shy assistant, not quite sure how to tell the great man about his blunder.

�??Yes?�?? said Einstein.

�??Um, eh, it’s about the test you just handed out.�??

Einstein waited patiently.

�??I’m not sure that you realize it, but this is the same test you gave out last year. In fact, it’s identical.�??

Einstein paused to think for a moment, then said, �??Hmm, yes, it is the same test.�??

The teaching assistant was now very agitated. �??What should we do, sir?�??

A slow smile spread over Einstein’s face. �??I don’t think we need do anything. The answers have changed.�??

And just as the answers in Physics change, so, too, do the answers to your problems change.

While to all appearances you may have the same tests given to you by life, the same recurring problem, consider the possibility that the person contemplating the problem has changed.

Time has passed; you’ve learned many things along the way.

Rather than keep on trying to force the same old solutions which didn’t work before, it might be time to try something else, something that emerges from the new person that you’ve become.

The tests may be the same, but the answers have changed.

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Do you ever feel like you can’t achieve the goals you make for yourself? Often when we dream, we want to lose weight, become wealthy, win the person of our dreams, and so on. Just a slight shift in the way you approach your dreams can bring you much greater success and the knowledge you can count on yourself to achieve.

The trick is to state your short term goals in terms of things you can do yourself, rather than about what life or others might give you, or those things with uncertain outcome. Your short term goals must be in harmony with the vision for your life and your greatest dreams. Do this and you will see your achievement change from being uncertain to reliable and your dreams will come true, it’s only a matter of time.

Start by phrasing your goals so that success or failure of what you state is virtually 100% in your hands. In other words, break down your dreams into action-focused goals you will take to lead you to success. For example, rather than wishing only for a new job, you can say, “I will apply for 100 jobs this month that pay 15% more than my current salary.” Instead of, “I will lose five pounds this month,” try, “I will walk for 45 minutes every day this month.” If you do these actions, you will achieve your goals as you stated them, and your dreams will follow in short order.

Setting goals in this way does two things. It places the responsibility of achieving the goal up to you, but it also makes it so that you have little chance of failing. If your goals are your efforts, then success will eventually follow. We most often fail our goals when we leave things up to chance. We want to lose weight and get healthy, but may not have a clear understanding what we need to do for success. Or we may wish something to happen, but it is up to others to give it to us. The more we commit our own actions to our success, the more our power to succeed comes to us.

“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow and act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

By CD Mohatta�? 

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Breathing from the diaphragm (the long band of muscle that lies beneath your lungs) allows for the fullest expansion possible of your ribcage. This means that more air can get into your lungs and into your bloodstream.

Singers use diaphragm breathing to be able to perform their songs with greater power and control, and learning the technique of diaphragm breathing will also improve your chances of relaxing into deep sleep.

This is a good exercise to start with, and can easily be used as a “cleansing” warm-up before doing any other form of exercise.

1. Ideally, lie on your back on a flat surface, or in bed, with your arms at your sides. If lying down isn���?�t possible then try to find a reclining position so that the ribcage is slightly extended.

2. As you breathe in through your nose, imagine that your abdomen and chest contain an empty vessel, like a wine carafe. The opening of the carafe is your nose or mouth and the neck of the carafe is your own neck. Where the neck of the carafe opens into the basin, picture this area as your lungs and then picture the main basin of the carafe as your abdomen.

3. Breathe in and feel the air pouring into your lungs. You should slowly expand your belly first, as if the air is literally filling up your body like wine would fill the carafe. Next fill and expand your upper abdomen, then your chest, throat and mouth. You can place your hand on your upper abdomen if you need help breathing this way. Your hand should rise as you breathe in.

4. When your “vessel” is full, begin to “pour” the air out through your mouth. This time, the air will empty in the opposite direction. First from your mouth, then your throat, chest and finally your stomach. Slightly contract your stomach muscles as if youâ�?��?�re trying to squeeze the last “drops” out.

5. Relax and breathe in again through your nose.

6. Repeat this process at least half a dozen times. Each time, try to pull in and pour out slightly more air.

If you prefer, you can imagine your stomach as a balloon - but it is important to keep the “order” in which the air fills your body. This exercise is teaching you not just to breathe deeply, but to notice and control your breathing. These skills form an important part of later meditation practices.

To continue practicing these skills, try this exercise. It may seem strange, but it will help you to expand your lung capacity and increase your sense of control over your breathing.

1. Get into a comfortable position, either lying down or sitting. Close your eyes and place the little finger of each hand on each side of your nose. Relax your other fingers against your cheeks or in a loose fist against your chin.

2. Use the left little finger to close the left nostril. Breathe in deeply through the right nostril only.

3. Now close the right nostril with the right little finger and release the left nostril. Exhale strongly through the left nostril.

4. Without moving your hands at all, breathe back in through the left nostril. Then close your left nostril and exhale through your right nostril only.

5. Repeat with each nostril as the “inhaling” nostril at least 3 times.

If you find it difficult to use both hands, try using the thumb and forefinger of one hand.

Because you are limiting the “pathways” for air to enter your lungs, you are making the lungs work harder to inhale and exhale. Over time, just as when you exercise a muscle, your lungs will get stronger and their capacity will increase, enabling you to breathe more deeply.

This exercise will get you some interesting looks if you try it in public, so just be forewarned!

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Meditation is healthy, safe and affordable. In fact itâ�?��?�s free. The only expense youâ�?��?�ll have is a meditation mat, which isnâ�?��?�t especially necessary-at least from my experience. Meditation has been around for 5,000 years, and was originally a spiritual component of yoga. Through the years non-yogis adopted it, intuitively sensing and connecting the practice with greater peace of mind. Personally, I canâ�?��?�t say enough good things about meditation. Its use has rewarded me with less worry and much more energy. But Iâ�?��?�ve never been one for anecdotal evidence. Letâ�?��?�s get to the scienceâ�?�¦

Transcendental Meditation

Recently, there���?�s an incredible amount of science tied into the benefits of meditation. The studies are endless and cover a variety of meditative practices. On Transcendental Meditation alone (mantra repetition) there are over 500 studies. Some are more noteworthy that others. A study in the Japanese Journal of Public Health found that through Transcendental Meditation, industrial workers sleep improved and their smoking decreased. Another study conducted at the MERU Research Institute, in Buckinghamshire, England found that the length of time practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program correlated with younger biological age and younger functional age.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation, which asks us to focus on our breath to facilitate awareness of the present moment, is another widely studied meditation technique. After studying the effects of 8-weeks of mindfulness meditation on participants, a 2003 report in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine concluded: ���?A short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function.���? Impressive, but fairly vague. To get a more committed response to the benefits of meditation we have to turn to Taiwan. In 2002 their journal Chang Gung Medicine reported that ���?training in MM may be a medically superior and cost-effective alternative to pain medication for the control of headaches with no underlying organic causes in highly motivated patients.���?

Stress Reduction and Meditation

What causes these positive physical changes? To answer this, other research has looked at the specifics of what happens in the body during meditation. . Researchers at the Maharishi School of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, found that meditation has an enormous impact on stress reduction. When they examined a group who had meditated for four months they saw that they produced less of the stress hormone cortisol. They were therefore better able to adapt to stress in their lives, no matter what their circumstances were.

Having balanced cortisol levels is essential to mental and emotional health. Notice I say balanced rather than none. We don���?�t want to completely eliminate cortisol. If we did we���?�d be dead. Even low cortisol levels can be dangerous. Not enough cortisol is the identifying trait of Addison���?�s disease. John F. Kennedy had this condition, which he denied passionately during his presidency. Yet during his term he regulated his levels through hydrocortisone (synthetic cortisol). The reverse of JFK���?�s condition is called Cushings Syndrome.

The five most common and noticeable changes of this condition include; red face and puffy cheeks; excess fat surrounding the collar bones, muscle weakness, and hypertension. But we don���?�t have to have Cushing���?�s Syndrome to be damaged by extra cortisol. The changes we experience may be subtle variations of these. Plus, the changes caused by excess cortisol are age dependent. Young people may stop growing and teenagers can develop acne. The mature among us aren���?�t safe either. Since excess cortisol damages bone-tissue those over age 60 may develop fractures related to osteoporosis. So it���?�s evident that if we can regulate cortisol, especially through a natural process, we owe it to ourselves to try.

Other Benefits of Meditation

Regina Drueding, MD, is a meditation instructor at Life Circles in Utah, USA. She quotes the benefits of meditation as follows: ���?more energy, improved quality of sleep, decreased anxiety, lessened chronological aging, improved concentration, improved visual acuity, increased alertness and heightened immunity.���? She writes: ���?Besides the benefits mentioned earlier, meditation results in improvement of hypertension, sleep disorders, headaches, heartrhythm disturbances, chronic pain ���?? pain due to cancer, infertility and irritable bowel syndrome. Following meditation, mental and physical refreshment result ���?? and benefits are cumulative with regular practice.���?

How to Meditate

Meditation is both simple and complex. Itâ�?��?�s like defining the color orange: When you see it you know it. Similarly, the experience of meditation is best, wellâ�?�¦experienced. In an article in New View magazine, Shippensburg Universityâ�?��?�s Dr. C. George Boeree describes the basics of Buddhist meditation. In summary, the beginnerâ�?��?�s technique is as follows:

1. Sit or kneel comfortably.

2. The hands are loose and open with the palms up, one atop the other and thumbs lightly touching.

3. Head is upright. Eyes may be closed or open. If open they should focus on your hands or a spot nearby.

4. Beginning meditators should count upwards to ten on each exhale. Breathe in a relaxed and natural way. Then begin again at one and repeat. Continue to breathe naturally.

5. Continue for 15 minutes.

In my personal experience, I don���?�t find that the specific length of time is as important as repetition and persistence. To paraphrase, 10 minutes daily beats 15 minutes once a week. This brings me to another point: We all have different personalities and as such, different meditation approaches suit some more than others. Thankfully there are many varieties of meditation. Some varieties have sub-varieties.

Mindfulness meditation is one of these versatile practices. Perhaps it���?�s because its essence-awareness of the present moment-is so versatile. Mindfulness in our daily life can be practiced by slowing down and attending to our surroundings. What are our 5 senses telling us? We can use mindfulness in the middle of a hectic day, such as paying attention to our breathing when stopped at a traffic light. We can also use other everyday events as triggers for mindfulness. Buckling your seatbelt? Make this a reminder to return to the present. Really think about what you���?�re doing and the details of the experience.

The more traditional may benefit from a more formal mindfulness practice. You may sit in the identical form as in traditional Buddhist meditation- on a chair or kneeling. However, you may also sit with your legs crossed. Your eyes are closed and your posture is both straight and relaxed while your head remains upright. Focus on your breath and allow mental chatter to float by without regard. Thoughts, emotions and sensations will come, but don���?�t be influenced by them. Keep focused on your breath. If you are getting involved with your thoughts don���?�t worry-your efforts aren���?�t destroyed. The key thing is to bring your attention back to breathing and continue. This can go on for 5 minutes to 5 hours. It���?�s up to you.

Transcendental Meditation is another popular form of meditation. Generally, this type is practiced twice daily for a period of 15-20 minutes. Again, this technique involves sitting comfortably. Yet in contrast to basic Buddhist the eyes stay closed. Each student is given a mantra and is instructed to induce relaxation through use of this mantra. Since many of either canâ�?��?�t or wonâ�?��?�t go to a formal TM class, a no-fail mantra I recommend is the classic OM. In The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V Desikachar writes that repetition of “OM” enables us to maintain mental and emotional calmness, overcome obstacles and enable understanding. It is the shortest of the mantras, and is said to be suggestive of God. If youâ�?��?�re uncomfortable with the religious aspects of OM I suggest a word that has positive meaning for you, such as love, calm or peace. Calm is an ideal substitute, since vocally it resembles OM.

Final Word

You may never, ever choose to meditate. Yet if this is your choice it may be valuable to question why. For a long time I was reluctant because of images of the dropout hippie 60���?�s. Yet when I tried it the experience overcame my reservations. If you try it the same may happen to you. If it doesn���?�t you haven���?�t lost any money, and you���?�ve gained a new experience.

Resources:

Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact with God Through Meditation (Hay House Inc., 2003)

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (Beacon Press, 1975)

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I hadn’t thought much about luck until a few days ago, I was at a coffee shop with a buddy of mine. Sitting deep in an overstuffed blue chair, I listened to him talk about how lucky my life is. I never really thought about it before, but he was right. I put down my cinnamon scented coffee and nested back into my chair, taking in and trying to digest his compliments.

Later when I mentioned that I need to find a topic for my newsletter this month, he immediately said, “Why don’t you write about how to be a lucky person!” I chuckled to myself, because I would have never thought about that in a million years, but it intuitively felt so right. I knew that the Universe had just winked at me with a confirmation.

He said, “goodbye”, gave me a hug and left his empty ceramic cup still dripping with foam next to my chair. All around me, the coffee shop conversations were mumbling in my ears. I quietly sank deeper into my chair and started to type. I must have been in a trance, because with only one refill the article poured out of my Soul and onto my laptop. I wrote the first draft in less than two hours.

Whether you believe you are lucky or not, most people think that luck is not real or at best a random activity that can’t be chosen or developed. You might think that people stumble into good things by accident. How then do you explain when a friend calls you at the last minute with free tickets to a sold out show you’ve been dying to see? Or when you turn around to quickly drive back home, because you “forgot something” and a long lost friend is standing at your door, but had no way to contact you except to stop by and hope you’d be home. Is this coincidence or something much more magical?

I believe becoming a lucky person is easy when you understand the characteristics of these blessed people. Imagine for a moment that luck isn’t random after all! There is an attitudinal structure underlying every fortunate human being. And anyone who is wiling to change their mental-emotional habits can increase their good fortune and become lucky. Years ago, I read an article about some University research from England. The studied showed what naturally lucky individuals have in common with each other. They discovered a set of four qualities that set them apart from the “unlucky”. The cool thing is that people who developed these attitudinal qualities started to increase their own good fortune very quickly!

Four Qualities of Lucky People

1. Lucky people are mindful and present. They pay attention to the present moment and aren’t preoccupied thinking about the past (disappointment) or fearing the future (worry). They naturally choose to live in the present moment. This allows them to notice and seize new opportunities, instead of being distracted, confused or simply unaware.

2. They value their “intuition” as much as “logic and reason”. They tend to look at both the “bigger picture” and also the details of the “little picture” in their lives. They’re open to an intuitive sense of possibilities (bigger picture) and how it can fit into their current situation (little picture). They are neither stuck in the details nor dreaming about the future. Instead, they simultaneously bring these two perceptions (awareness of the big and little picture) the possibilities and on the one hand, the actuality of their lives, on the other, together. This offers them a way to set goals and make a plan that works.

3. Lucky people have a positive relationship with the future. They are hopeful about the unknown (future) instead of being fearful. Even though they don’t have all the answers, they’re naturally optimistic and open. They refuse to fantasize about what could go wrong and instead focus on “what can go right”. They feel positive even when things appear to be negative. Simply putâ�?�¦ they don’t let negativity get in the way of their plans and dreams.

4. They are self empowered and take responsibility. They refuse to hang out in feelings of powerlessness, apathy or self-pity. They don’t believe that life happens to them nor are they a victim of circumstances. They know that what they think and feel about themselves and the future matters. They believe that opportunities are a direct result of their attitude, thoughts, feelings and actions. Simply put, they embrace their inner power and choose to live their lives with responsibility.

The study also revealed that most lucky people had fairly large social circles. They make friends easily and are socially connected to their community. They’re naturally outgoing because they really enjoy people and tend to be non-judgmental. They get involved with their community. They believe that people are inherently good, beautiful and caring, which tends to make them popular individuals.

Four Secrets to Increase Your Luck and Good Fortune:

1) Embrace and accept yourself and your life, just the way it is. The good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly-accept everything that is happening in your life, warts and all. Stop fighting yourself and make a decision instead to accept things the way they are instead of longing for it to be different. Acceptance creates the space for change and healing to occur. You’ll feel more comfortable when you accept yourself and begin to naturally relax in social situations. A quick method to do this is to choose to believe that the world is a friendly place. It is here to support you and your dreams. Unlucky people believe the world is “out to get them.” Which world is true? Whatever world you choose to believe in will be true for you! Both worlds are possible but only one will become your reality. Choose wisely.

2) Listen to your intuition and open your heart to feel greater intimacy. There is much more happening around you than you can ever grasp in your conscious mind. Your mind filters out over 50% of the experiences happening to you right now. However, beneath your conscious awareness your subconscious is continuously picking up clues about your future and the possibilities that are there. This is called your intuition. When you blend intuition with intimacy, you will experience a deeper connection with yourself and others. You’ll know what decisions to make and why. You’ll be more wise and understanding. Opening your heart will improve your intuition and deepen your sense of purpose. This naturally leads toward increasing your opportunities for luck and expanding good fortune.

3 Avoid feeling sorry for your self. Admit the truth- you are powerful. Embrace a resilient positive attitude about your self and your life. You know this and have done it before. Lemons can be made into lemonade when you change your attitude. You can learn something about yourself from the worst disaster. If you’ll begin looking for the silver lining in the dark clouds of your life, your luck will improve rapidly. What you focus on expands. So focus on being powerful and seek the good in all situations.

4. Meditate regularly. If there is one activity I had to choose that I believed cultivated good fortune and luck, it would have to be meditation. Looking back on my life, I now realize that learning to meditate as a teenager was a major turning point in my life. It changed everything dramatically. My good fortune accelerated once I learned to relax and meditate on a regular basis. I fully believe that meditation opens the door to a fortunate and lucky life.

In most studies, I’ve read on psychological well being, those who meditate regularly (at least three times weekly) are less nervous, anxious, depressed, and much less irritable, controlling, or inhibited. They are, overall, more sociable and self-confident, and felt positive about themselves and the future. They tend to be emotionally stable and self-reliant individuals, when compared to the non-meditators in the study.

I hope you’ll re-read this article many times and let the truth contained within it, sink deep into your subconscious mind. This will help change your attitude and attract more opportunities and greater good fortune in your life.

Copyright (c) 2008 Circle of Light Publishing

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When it comes to success, a person needs to be able to achieve personal motivation. Personal motivation is what drives us internally and externally to succeed in what ever we want to succeed in.

Without personal motivation, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything. Personal motivation can be motivation to do just about anything. It can be motivation to lose weight, or to complete a task at the workplace, or to do something that you have put on the back burner for a while. A person can also be motivated to stop doing things such as using drugs, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

So how do we gain personal motivation? The first thing we need to do is set goals for ourselves. These goals have to be realistic goals and they have to be a possible gain.

We tend to set our goals too high and then fail. This is just a step backward in the personal motivation search. Goals are of utmost importance in gaining personal motivation. They give us the push we need to get the job done.

It is a good idea to write down your goals. This makes it easier to see them on a daily basis and be reminded of what you are reaching for.

Another great strategy is to write up a contract between you and yourself and state the goals in it. Then sign and date the contract. You might even put a deadline for the goals to be met. It is just another way of pushing ourselves into doing something we want.

We also need to look at the objectives. The objectives are going to be what it will take to get us to our goals. Be specific with your objectives. It is a good idea to have your objectives measure what and when the goals need to be done. For instance, an objective might be like this: I will lose 10 pounds in 1 months time.

After our goals have been set and we know exactly what our expectations of ourselves are, then it is time to go to the next step. The next phase to personal motivation is making a commitment to keep after these goals until they are met. Keep pushing on, and then maybe even raising our standards higher.

Never look back on past failures. This really does nothing for our self-esteem. It will only set you back to dwell on the mistakes you have made in the past. Now then, you can learn from your mistakes, just don’t keep looking back at them.

Rewarding ourselves when we do meet our goals is very important in this process, as well. We need a pat on the back for hard work and effort. Personal motivation can be achieved if goals and objectives are set and a commitment is made to keep them.

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