Discovering your child’s natural learning strategy and expanding on it is probably the shortest short cut possible to a successful teaching/learning experience with your child. If you have been so daring as to set for yourself the Herculean task of home schooling or when you are helping your kids with their homework or giving them powerful tips on how to do better in school generally, this Photographic Memory Technique is fabulous.

I imagine that if you want everyone involved to have the most fulfilling and least stressful studying experience possible, try this to help your children (and yourself?) gain a new resource for the memorization part of learning. In other words, to borrow a metaphor, “teaching them to fish” better.

This is an astonishingly simple memorization technique that was observed in champion spellers and then developed into an easily followed technique developed by Robert Dilts, while he was studying with Dr John Grinder, ( John has often been described as one of the greatest thinkers of our lifetime for his innovations in patterns of human excellence), and Dr Milton H Erickson, a celebrated psychiatrist whose work is revered and studied the world over (google the Milton H. Erickson society if the subjects interest you).

To learn how your child learns best, the first thing you have to do is find out where s/he stores his visual memory, or, where she stores the picture of the information that s/he is “looking” to remember. To do this, identify where the person’s visual memory storage is located by watching their eyes as you ask a couple of visual memory questions like:
“What color were you wearing last Sunday?”, “What did the couch you had when you were a child look like?”, “What color was your first car?” “What do you see when you look outside your kitchen window?”. You get the idea.

To find out where your child visually constructs new concepts and information, ask questions like: “What go you want to be when you grow up?” “What do you imagine a timberland pro pit boss steel toe work boot (or anything that s/he has probably never seen) looks like”, “What kind of car do you want?” Or ask anything about any future event.

Watch where their eyes move to find the information: They will look up either towards the left (more common for memory) or up towards the right (more common when imagining or creating something new). Asking both kinds of visual questions and observing where their eyes go to either retrieve or create the information, you will know where s/he stores her visual memory, or where their photographic (visual) memory is located. John Grinder and Richard Bandler, in their process of developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming, realized that as a general rule, emotional memories (as opposed to Visual Memories) are stored *down in feelings*, so the eyes will go up when looking for pictures (where the best spellers store their words) and they will look down when “looking for” feelings.

So, we will use spelling as an example for teaching the photographic memory technique.

Ask your child to do the following:

“Look at the correct spelling of a word.” (e.g. the word might be “assistance”)
“Close your eyes and remember a time when you were very relaxed and perfectly comfortable. Feel the feelings that you have when you are very comfortable and relax…..”
(While you are certainly not inducing a full trance, you are looking to get them into a nice, relaxed state of mind and body.)
“Open your eyes and move them up and to the left.” (or to the right, depending on which side you have found his visual memory to be located).
“Picture the correctly spelled word (take a photograph) in your mind.”
“Look up at your mental picture of the word and read off the letters that you see.” [Write the letters down and check against the correct spelling. They are most likely to be the same.]

Further helpful hints:

Break the word into groups of three and build the picture three letters at a time.
Make any unclear letters stand out by making them look bigger or somehow different.
Picture the word in your favorite color.
Put the letters on a familiar background.
Watch and feel yourself tracing the letters in the air or on the table with your finger.

(Revised from a spelling strategy developed by Robert Dilts)

Linda Smith (moi) is a somewhat retired Neuro-Linguistic seminar designer. Back when I enjoyed traveling, I taught health care professionals throughout North America and Europe. Now I enjoy “the boonies” with modern amenities, beautiful lake view and hubby in his trusty Timberland pro work boots. We are building websites that are useful to others and still enjoy a nice road trip with our dogs.

In future, I hope to post more comprehensive articles about accessing positive states of mind for use use in developing even more positive and useful personal resources.

Questions guide you in all that you do. Some questions you ask yourself; some you ask others. You walk into a room and think or ask, “What’s going on here?” You hear the telephone ring and wonder, “Who’s that?” You see a friend and ask, usually quite automatically, “How are you?”

Not every question has a question mark at the end. For example, “I wonder if I’ll have trouble falling to sleep tonight.” Or, “Let’s see if there are any fresh vegetables that look good at the supermarket today.” These are examples of rather neutral questions, that is, those that aren’t empowering or disempowering. They simply guide you in your observations.

Questions You Ask Naturally

You may want to take a few moments to consider how you ask questions that lead you through a day. What do you ask when you awaken in the morning? ……when you see a friend? …….when you get into your car? …….when you hear the door bell? …….when you pick up your mail? ……..when you fall asleep at night?

Internal Messages

Questions and other internal messages guide your observations. Questions transform your future. Some of these messages may be easy to hear because they’re audible and part of your conscious awareness. Others may be conscious but still inaudible. Still others may be inaudible and unconscious.

Your questions and inner messages accumulate at various levels of your consciousness. Some are deeply embedded and insidious. Many are disempowering. Some may have been empowering at a particular stage of your development, but now are disempowering or have no impact. As you ask questions about your questions, you become more aware of their impact and enhance your personal development and growth.

Your internal messages have many possible sources. They can originate in childhood, first heard said by an adult. They can be embedded from a perception of an early experience, even a rather non-dramatic experience. Internal messages are beliefs you hold about yourself and the outer world, regardless of the original influence. It’s important not to slow yourself down by being overly preoccupied with the formation of your guidance, only to recognize that there are many influences.

Since some internal messages are inaudible or unconscious, they can be tricky to uncover. It’s important to bring to the surface the ones that operate your life so that you can decide what to do with them. If the internal messages are empowering, energize them. If they’re disempowering, neutralize them and/or replace them.

What is the Question? Is it an Empowering Question?

Individuals in pain or confusion often ask, “What have I done wrong?” Many years ago, I stepped into a trap by answering this disempowering question when a client asked me. Now I know that all that’s wrong is the question!

The question “What have I done wrong?” returns disempowering responses. Even answering “Nothing” is unsatisfactory. If you’re tempted to ask questions like this, stop and ask another. If someone asks you this question, you can help the person more by suggesting he or she ask an empowering question rather than answering this disempowering one.

Alternative questions lead to more useful insights. The question “What is the question?” is often the perfect question! Alternatives are, “What is the most empowering question I can ask right now?” Or, “What question can I ask to move us (me, you) to or toward where we (I, you) desire to be?”

Ask Questions that are Empowering in or for a Mess

Here are empowering questions you can ask when you find yourself in a mess. Or vary the questions to assist others in asking for more meaningful information:

What conditions allowed this situation?And then:

Such questions as these are far more uplifting and encouraging than “Who did what?” Or, “How did I get into this mess?” Or, “Why did this happen?” Of course, there may be times you must ask questions and answer questions such as these, but they tend to blame rather than empower. It’s helpful to distinguish between empowering and disempowering questions. Either can assist your personal development, but — trust me — the empowering ones are more fun.

Everyday Empowering Questions to Ask

Here are some of my favorite empowering questions that exemplify the power of questions. Many of these can aid in transforming disempowering situations. You may want to select the ones that resonate for you and write them on a card for your wallet or mirror or car or top desk drawer.

Your Favorite Empowering Question

What is your favorite empowering question? Perhaps you have several favorite questions. Or favorites for certain situations. Allow yourself to be more aware of the questions you’re asking, and make them as empowering as possible.

Since first writing this article, I’ve received many comments from readers telling me that they ask questions from this list which have helped them instantly; one man told me that one question on this list totally transformed a long-term rift between his father and himself; several have told me that they’ve printed the questions for their bulletin boards or to carry the questions with them always. It can be life-changing to ask questions that are empowering.

Copyright © 1991, 2008 Marshall House, http://www.mhmail.com Jeanie Marshall, Empowerment Consultant and Coach with Marshall House writes extensively on subjects related to personal development, growth, and empowerment at http://www.empowering-personal-development.com

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: You may save this article, send it to a friend, or use it in your online publications, provided the above attribution paragraph remains with the article with both active links and you make no changes to the article.

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What do you think the world is made of? If we go by the latest findings of physics, we find that if break things down far enough -molecules to atoms, to subatomic particles… – all there is at the “end of the line” is energy. There comes a point when there is simply no solidity, and everything is made of energy. This includes everything in our physical world -rocks, plants, animals, our own bodies. The implications of this are quite astounding.

How does this aspect of physics relate to the idea of creating your own reality, or the Law of Attraction? It relates in a very fundamental way. Think about what it takes to have a thought, a desire or a belief. What are these made of? There is certainly no solid substance that makes up your thoughts or emotions. So these can only be energy. The same energy that makes up everything else in the universe. So this means that your thoughts, emotions and beliefs are made of the same “substance” (which isn’t really a substance at all, but pure energy) as all of the “things” in your environment. This makes the idea that you can create your own reality a little more plausible, doesn’t it?

The belief in a solid universe may seem comforting, but it’s also limiting. For it seems hard to believe that our thoughts, which cannot be touched, felt or measured, can have much influence on solid matter. Yet if we remember that matter itself is simply a certain pattern of energy, then we may be able to get our minds around the notion that our thoughts can indeed influence the world around us.

Just as the physical objects around us are made of energy, so are the concepts and structures of our society. This includes that seemingly powerful thing that so many of us are obsessed with -money. What is money but energy? Its value certainly does not come from the paper, or even precious metals that money may be made of. Using American dollars as an example, a One Dollar bill has the same amount of paper as a One Hundred Dollar bill. It is only a belief system that makes the latter one hundred times more valuable than the former.

The value of any money comes entirely from beliefs. This is actually becoming more obvious in recent years, as money is becoming less and less tangible and more something that gets transferred electronically from one account to another. You can feel abundant or poor based entirely on sums of money you can’t even see. Does this make it a little easier to believe that by feeling more abundant you can actually attract more money?

Your mind can be thought of as an energy broadcasting station that attracts similar energies from the world around it. Since everything is made of the same energy, the only differences that exist are between different kinds, or patterns of energy. So if you want to change the “things” in your life, you really only have to change the kind of energy you are broadcasting.

Manifesting Reality Isn’t Hard Work After All

Get your free report on manifesting using the Law of Attraction right now.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1368790

When you look at anyone who has created amazing results in their field we can be mistaken for assuming they were all born gifted and talented. When you do a detailed research study of these individuals that excel beyond all others you will find there is only one key difference:
The truth about success is, they spent on average 14 hours more per week on their trade than anyone else in their field.

This is, in fact, the only difference.

So success does not come from ‘magic’, it comes from focus and compounding interest over time. Albert Einstein once said;

“Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world” -Albert Einstein

So be honest with yourself and have realistic goals. I do not believe that in five months from now you will have achieved every single one of your dreams – that is just insanity.

If you focus today by absolutely commit to only one goal and every day you do something directly related to that goal for 3 months I absolutely guarantee you will have created something substantial at the end.

You only need to things to succeed in a goal:

1. Consistency
2. Momentum

When people transform over night you must look at their thinking and actions for the last 5 years in order to see how this transformation compounded. When you ask them about their thoughts and actions for the last 5 years generally they will say, “Oh, every night I went to sleep I thought about my goal”, and “I always made sure I did some type of action directly related to the goal every day” hence compounding was in effect.

It is of critical importance therefore that you love what you do. Why? because if you don’t love what you do, you will not stick with it long enough for the compounding to take place and will therefore never get a result. If you don’t think about it daily, then it’s never going to get the momentum to build to be something big. So your work and life must ultimately be one and the same because it is difficult to separate the two.

For more information on how to take action in your life, set goals that you achieve and plan your year so it is the best year yet be sure to come along to check out www.authenticeducation.com.au

Have you noticed that the power of positive thinking has gone out of fashion? It’s been dismissed as poppycock in some quarters because too many people slammed it for turning us all into Pollyanna’s and daydreamers who’d all lost touch with “reality.” (Whatever that is!)

So I’d like to put the record straight.

Positive thinking is not about denying what is happening by deliberately thinking the opposite. In other words, if you’re broke it really isn’t going to change much if you run a litany through your brain that goes, “I’m wealthy, I’m wealthy …” In fact, that would be classed as downright deluded! And anyway, it’s pointless. Money will not magically appear in your bank account because you performed this ritual.

It isn’t positive thinking because even as you would say that to yourself you would know that it simply didn’t feel true. If your name is Harry and you kept on repeating in your mind, “My name is Jane” you would feel just as daft. Telling yourself lies just because they are couched in positive language was never intended to be the positive thinking instruction – but it’s what many people came to believe it was.

You need to feel good and you have no choice but to start from where you are, right? Now, if we can find a thought – or several – that meet those criteria you will have hit on the true power of positive thinking. Let’s stick with our example of an empty bank account and start again.

In that situation, maybe your habitual response would be to say to yourself or even out loud, “Oh, mother, I’m busted! What am I going to do?” (Or words to that effect). Those words would come from a place of fear and worry – even panic – would you agree?

The key to effective positive thinking is to identify that state of mind first and then to ask yourself what a better feeling state might be. Let’s try “confident.” What might a confident person say on discovering an empty bank account?

How about, “I’ll find a way through this – I always do.”

Hmmm. Does that feel a little better? Puts you back in control to some degree, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t solve the problem in the moment, but that’s not the goal. Positive thinking makes you feel better than before. From that slightly uplifted state new thoughts will spontaneously bubble to the surface. Your next thought might well be: “Yeah, I found a way to fix my car/pay my mortgage/help my son/you-name-the-situation…last time I was in trouble.” So now you’ve found an example of your resourceful self and you’ve climbed one more rung on the ladder out of your hole.

Allow me to give you a couple of pointers so that you can do this for yourself in any situation. First, stop, take a step back and remember that you’ve survived everything that’s happened so far in your life! Just allow that thought and if the “inner critic” wants to jump in with anything that begins with, “Yeah, but…” just slap its little wrist. It’s going to listen to YOU for a change!

You have survived – and so you can truthfully tell yourself that you have always found a way through all difficulties and adversity.

Second, if you really feel a situation is hopeless or beyond your control in any way, check that thought and ask yourself this: “Is that really, really true?” Your brain will want to say yes to begin with, but hold on just a moment. Can you prove, with a hundred percent certainty, that your evaluation is absolutely true?

Of course you can’t! Someone will always have found a way out of a tighter spot so there must be a way for you too! So now you can say to yourself that if it isn’t true that there’s no way out, then it must be true that there IS a way – and all you have to do is find it, or wait for it to show up.

The second thought is just as impossible to prove as the first one, but that one disempowered you, whilst the thought that there must be a way is empowering. Since you can choose what to think you might as well think the better thought!

If you’re still stuck, you have another resource available to you: prayer. No, I’m not suggesting that you put your hands together beseeching the Lord to put cash in your hand or to show you the winning lottery numbers for next week. What you do is simply send up a silent and heartfelt request which is simply this:

“I feel stuck/hopeless/helpless/(whatever). Please give me the resources I need to cope and get through this.”

That’s it. You don’t need to believe in God or be religious. Just ask unseen source energy or whatever concept you have of an invisible power. I have never known or experienced a time when this was not answered – often immediately and with some power too. Just be open to what shows up or pops into your mind.

Positive thinking is not poppycock. It is a powerful step towards self empowerment and taking charge of your life. I hope I’ve inspired you to give it a second chance – or maybe to try it out for the first time.

Trevor Emdon trained in psychiatry and psychotherapy, studied Eastern philosophies and metaphysics, went to the U.S. to attend Anthony Robbins’ “Mastery University” and one day discovered that he not only had been happy for a good while, but that he was pretty good at passing his wisdom onto others – and it was changing lives.

He is in his 50s, happily married, lives in a gorgeous rural English village, has great health, and makes some of his income from his self help books online amongst other success coaching activities. His free book, “The Wellspring of Success” which contains many more self improvement tips can be downloaded here.

How do you establish and maintain harmony and balance in yourself? Lack of harmony and balance, in my experience, is mainly caused by the imbalance between your inner and your outer.

Let me explain:

We all have a unique inner nature that we express unconsciously all the time. Let’s take a person who has a fiery, dynamic nature and this person is dressed in black. Others would find this person pushy and have arguments with them or avoid them altogether. But if this person were dressed in such a way that their clothes and hairstyle reflected their fiery, dynamic nature, others would understand them, recognise their nature and probably enlist their help with something that needs to get done swiftly.

Not only that: most people are aware of having a vague sense of constant unease. When your outer looks are not congruent with our inner nature, there is no harmony or balance between the inner and the outer. This often leads to doing things that compensate for this feeling of unease, not knowing that it is simply the imbalance between the inner and the outer that gives you this feeling of unease.

Here is where you can learn how to create harmony and balance between the inner and outer.

This course is, firstly, about discovering your true inner nature and secondly, about learning how to reflect this magnificent one-of-kind YOU on the outside.

This course is not about your changing your image. Why would you want to do that?

The beauty of this course is that nobody tells you that you are this type or that type. You, yourself, discover your true inner self. You will recognise your unique gifts and talents and then feel good about yourself.

Many women have a wardrobe filled with clothes that they don’t feel comfortable in. They wear the same few outfits all the time and the rest just hangs there. Consider, however, that every woman is naturally beautiful and every man is naturally handsome. But often we don’t appear that way because we become slaves to the fashion trends.

Once you have done the Transformation Inside Out course, you will know exactly which clothes to buy and your wardrobe will be filled with winner outfits. What’s more, clothes shopping will be a cinch.

Once your clothes and hairstyle reflect your true self, your inner and outer will be in harmony and balance and you will be able to maintain this harmony and balance. You will then embrace and accept yourself just as you are and you feel good about yourself.

One of the most interesting benefits of the Transformation Inside Out course is that many people lose weight. A woman from England wrote on my website that she had lost 4 stone in one year. That’s 56 lbs. or 25 kg. I too have lost weight – 13 kg since I discovered my true self and dressed to reflect the true me.

All her life Hedy Kalker has been observing people, trying to find out what made them tick and how they could be true to themselves. This search led Hedy to study psychology, sociology and anthropology. Since Hedy is also creative and artistically inclined, she studied fashion design and painting. She learned a lot about colours and finally put together a life-changing course called Transformation Inside Out (www.transformation-inside-out.com) which guides people to discover their true inner nature and teaches them how to reflect their magnificent true self on the outside in their clothes, hairstyle, etc.

Whether you want to reduce stress in your life and find more balance or you want to gain insight on behaviors or goals, meditation can help. Regular meditation practice can give you greater clarity about issues that are troubling you, can help you determine your priorities and set goals, and can help you become more focused and feel less frenzied.

Basic Practice

There are several types of basic meditation practice from which to choose. Choose the form that works best for your lifestyle and your personality.

Deep breathing. This meditation forces you to concentrate on the rhythm of your breathing. You can do this lying down, sitting, or even standing up – whatever feels most comfortable and natural for you. You can close your eyes or let them rest on a focal point. Breathe in deeply through your nose to the count of five. Your abdomen should rise, rather than your chest. Hold the breath for another count of five, then exhale through your mouth for another count of five. Continue this cycle for 10 to 20 minutes. If you are having a particularly stressful day, you can use this meditation for as little as five minutes to help you feel more centered.
This kind of meditation is called “mindfulness” meditation because it forces you to focus on the present. You should clear your mind and only focus on your breath. If thoughts arise, simply acknowledge them without judgment and clear them from your mind.

Walking meditation. This is another form of mindfulness meditation – only done in motion. While walking, you should take note of the way your body is feeling. Begin with your feet and move up through your shins, thighs, hips, belly, and so on. Notice how each part of your body is feeling. Pay attention to the movement of your body. Note your thoughts and your mood. Are you happy? Are you bored? As you walk, the key is to learn how to be present and to focus on your body and your mind in the moment.

Mantra meditation. This form of meditation relies on the repetition of a particular mantra to create mindfulness. Many use a mantra from Buddhism for their meditation, but you can easily create your own mantra for your practice. Simply repeat the mantra while closing your eyes and maintaining awareness of your words and your body. Clear your thoughts and practice mindfulness and being in the moment.

How Often to Practice

Opinions vary on how often you should practice meditation. Some suggest 25 minutes twice a day. The most important thing is to find what works for you. If you can only squeeze in five minutes a day – or even every other day – you will reap some benefits from the practice and will learn to become more mindful.

Benefits

Meditation can help you learn to better manage stress and to have a greater understanding of your self. You can learn to focus on the present and not dwell on past harms or worry about future problems. You can also cultivate greater positivity and loving kindness.

Some experts note that regular meditation can also have physical benefits, as well as helping with a number of conditions, such as depression, sleep problems, and addiction. It has also been shown to help treat fatigue, heart disease, pain, high blood pressure, and much more.

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching various online degree programs and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

As an emotion, faith is among the strongest and is a state of mind that most effects the subconscious mind. This is important when it comes to putting your thoughts into action in everyday life. If you set yourself a task but are lacking the faith in yourself to complete it then subconsciously you are accepting defeat as inevitable. However, if you are able to convince yourself subconsciously that you can achieve what you set out to do then your efforts will be boosted and the results will reaffirm your self belief and strengthen your faith.

It is difficult for people to strengthen faith if they are lacking it. However, it is achievable and is done by a process which involves encouraging positive thoughts and emotions in the subconscious mind rather than negative ones. This can be more clearly understood if you take a moment to think about how people fall into negative habits such as alcoholism. When a drinker remembers their first ever drink they will more than likely say they did not enjoy it. After becoming accustomed to drinking regularly and enduring the bad side effects they eventually start to embrace alcohol and eventually begin to rely on it. This example suggests that if thought impulses of any kind are repeated and encouraged then that person will seek to express those thoughts through their actions. If the thoughts are positive and result in constructive actions then faith may be strengthened.

If thoughts are backed by strong emotions such as faith and love then they have more chance of being expressed through actions. Therefore your actions can be affected by any strong emotion whether it is positive and productive or negative and destructive. If you are to become successful in whatever goals you have set yourself in life then you need to avoid negative emotions and encourage positive ones. As a consequence you will acquire a subconscious mind that will start to act upon all the positive emotions including faith.

One of the most common causes of a lack of faith is low self confidence. This can be over come through a similar process to the one just mentioned. If you take the time to write down all your positive experiences and attributes and then read these to yourself daily, you will find that the repeated positive affirmations will reassure you of your accomplishments subconsciously and restore faith. The following few principles outline methods to help with faith and self confidence.

Firstly you need to realize that you have the ability to meet your main objectives in life. This means you need to be persistent at all times in chasing your aims even when there are signs of initial failure.
Secondly you must spend some time in the day just thinking positively about yourself and where you want to go in life. A mind dominated by positive thoughts will eventually express desirable physical actions

Thirdly you should have your ultimate dream goal written down and you must promise yourself that you will never give up trying to achieve that goal even if you are not, at that time, confident enough, you will be eventually.
Fourthly you should take advantage of others to achieve your goals. You will be able to succeed by putting the hard work in yourself which will make the rewards all the more sweeter. A negative attitude to people will not bring success. However, by making others believe in your ability you will reaffirm your self belief.

Repeat these principles and you will find that you are able to increasingly influence your subconscious mind. This process of positive thinking has been called auto-suggestion and is a key to the success of many. In short if you think that you will fail then it is likely that you will, but if you convince yourself that you will succeed then you have more chance of doing so. The people that win in today’s world are the ones that know they can.

If you enjoyed this article you can visit Wealth Success Library where you will find a free five day e-course and an introductory video which explains not only the principles in this article in more detail, but more methods of finding success. Please click the link above right now to find out how you can achieve future success.

Take the time to live
By Robyn M Speed

How often do we sit with our diary, on January 1 and wonder what we could fill those pages with? And how often do we look at that diary after a few months and look at what we have filled the pages with?

Are we living consciously? Or are we frittering away the days? Is the diary filled with such things as: did the groceries; washed the windows; visited Abby; Judy popped round; paid the bills; make a cake; don’t forget to pick up the dry-cleaning; rotten day at work; bosses are driving me nuts?

So often, we get so caught up in getting through the day that we don’t notice what is in the day. With all our modern technology at our fingertips we have not gained more time, we have lost it. Now we feel we have to be on the computer keeping up with friends, writing blogs, reading blogs, and playing games. We feel we have to watch the big television we bought and also all the programs we recorded. We feel we have to text our friends and respond to their texts, in fact we spend more time texting that we do talking.

What we have done is speed life up, wind it tight, coil it, and then race from moment to moment doing all we feel we should be doing.

Is this really what we wanted? Does this make us happy?

Thinking back to that diary, what do we want to fill it with? What goals do we have? What accomplishments do we desire to achieve? Is there a better way to spend our time?

If we have a big goal, break it down into achievable steps. If it is to write, or learn a musical instrument, let’s do so and write in that diary ‘wrote 100 words today’ or ‘spent 20 minutes practising the guitar’. The 100 words might be the minimum we choose to write, and the 20 minutes might be the minimum we spend practising. Make sure we choose a minimum that we can easily manage, because if we make it too much we won’t manage and then we’ll give up. We need the diary to be motivating, not disappointing.

If we want to get into gardening this year and be as self sufficient as possible, we can look at what we need to do. When should we prune? What month should we add fertilisers etc? When did we turn the compost over? What month will the compost be ready to go into the garden? When should we buy seeds and start our seedling trays? Will we stagger the seeding? When will we plant out the bean seeds and will we stagger them too? All of these things can be written in the diary so we know what we are up to, and we know that come harvest time we will have done all the preparation necessary. We will have a bountiful harvest because of all our careful planning.

If we are interested in baking more, note down what recipes to try. We could even pop them inside the diary page. Record the results. Note down what we made, difficulty factor, taste, and if the family enjoyed it.

If we are a poet, see if we can write even one new line of poetry every day. It may take us a week to write a seven line poem, but so what. Every day we can write down that we did that one line.

We will find two outcomes from the processes we are talking about.

One is that our diary is going to show we have done something of value with our time. We have pages filled with what we have been doing. We have pages yet to fill that are already marked with what we need to do on that day – and that can be really motivating.

The other outcome is that we will be excelling at what we devoted some daily time to, be it learning a musical instrument, writing, poetry, martial arts, self sufficiency in the garden! We will look back and see how we kept on track, kept working.

One shows that we are doing something with our days and the other shows the results of that.

Let’s make the most of our daily time, not fritter it away. Let’s live each day. Let’s get out there and rake up the autumn leaves and add them to our compost. Let’s sit out under the sun and enjoy the stillness and the peace.

Let’s make technology work to free us, not enslave us.

Robyn M Speed embraces her gift as a writer, combining over two decades of intensive spiritual evolution with her lifelong passion for writing. Robyn has entered her manuscript ‘Dimension’s Doorway’ into the Next Top Spiritual Author Competition. This novel is both story and a guidebook for the spiritual traveller. Visit her profile and if you see merit in her work, vote.

Robyn M Speed – Writer
www.robynmspeed.com

I heard that line – dream beyond the common order of things – in an advertisement for tea, of all places. Yet the words jumped out at me like a vivid memory. I know that I have had many times in my life when I have created things bigger than I thought I knew how to achieve, and personally produced results that even left me in a state of bewilderment about what was possible for my life.

Have you ever experienced those moments? They are well worth revisiting and building on. They are your key to producing such results again, if you still have some more big dreams to accomplish. If you have achieved something in your past, it means that you can achieve it (or something similar), again in the future. You now have the tools you need, and cellular memory of what it takes to create anything outside of yourself.

This article lists a few of the thoughts that came up for me as I recalled a few monumental achievements in my own life, and I write them here with the intention of making a difference to the life of somebody else, who may read these words.

These pointers, about living out your dreams, are not in any particular priority order. They are simply a collection of random thoughts that I know to be true, about accomplishing large goals.

If you have a massive goal and you are continually procrastinating, perhaps this is indicative of a misalignment somewhere in your life. Is there something that is not in integrity with who you believe yourself to be, or is there something for which you haven’t forgiven yourself. Those are the areas that must first be cleared up, to enable forward movement.

At some stage, when you notice that the goal you have created is not for you, then at very least do it for others. Create a purpose outside of yourself, if your own is not yet strong enough. You will build the muscles you need as you step forward. Collect all the crutches you can until you have generated some personal momentum. Soon the goal will again be yours and will no longer feel foreign to you.

Build in structures and systems that keep the dream alive over extended periods of time. Add props like quotes, images and posters in your daily surrounds. Have pop up messages on your computer, use the screensaver area on your screens, and add material to inspire you. Include supportive friends who know about your intentions, so they will ask you about it each time you speak. Ask for lots and lots of help with all the things about which you do not yet have enough knowledge. Hear the voices of experience around you.

Dreams need wheels, foundations, and time lines. Begin incorporating daily actions and habits to move you forward. Set up files, folders, calendars and other structures for being able to immediately collect material and information that you need for your projects. Set short and long-term timelines for specific phases, and for specific completion points. Then live your days toward those dates of completion, and targets that are easily measured.

Have big reasons for wanting to achieve the results you declare. Make these reasons large enough and truly heartfelt, so that they ignite passion and strong emotion behind your dreams. You need to always be able to instantly get in touch with wonderfully powerful feelings about your dream goals. Those emotions will inspire consistent action and will inspire others around you. You will need those inspired friends on the days you feel a bit too flat for taking action.

Reach for those stars, there is no mud up there. Keep your eyes focused on the end prize, in fact, a little way beyond where you say you want to be by a particular time. If you shoot a bit beyond the desired end result, then you are sure to arrive at your intended destination.

Decisions must be made. A real decision is measured by the fact that you have taken a new action. If there is no action, then you really have not decided. Check in with yourself. Have you honestly made a decision regarding your dream? If not, then make one. Either completely drop the goal or get on ahead full-steam with it.

Never use time as your excuse. Wedge dream projects into your current lifestyle, and commitments. Even if you crawl forward at ten minutes each day, do something every day toward that end goal. When you go to sleep each day, rest yourself in the knowledge that you have done something that day, to move you closer to your dream. At some time during every day, put one foot in front of the other toward that dream. Slow is better than never.

Build on positive results, and create some wins for yourself. Each time you win a little victory over yourself, you create impetus for moving forward even more. It helps you to grow, and become the person you must become for having that dream live for you. There will be changes, this is inevitable when working toward a big dream and when growing into the person who is to fit such a large dream. Allow, accept and actively encourage that level of personal growth.

All the points listed above are by no means a comprehensive collection, or a complete formula for success. They are purely a few things to consider and check in with, if you are up to some big things in your life. Throughout them all is the common thread of managing yourself. Watch the language you use, and how you speak with yourself. Live with awareness and recognize the many faces of fear. Continue to build harmony in your every day living. Never lose touch with the miracle and dream life that you already live. Inhale gratitude with every breath. You have today as a gift, now go spend it!

© Thea Westra lives in Perth, Australia. She publishes a wealth of material for increased life power, self improvement, inspiration, personal success, online business, and internet know-how. Enjoy her many self-improvement resources at www.myforwardsteps.com and her latest book at www.timeformylife.com