Creativity can save the world. Creativity can save your life. Yes it’s that powerful. It can make you a millionaire; enchant the lover of your dreams; take you around the world; or fill your days with joy and wonder. Creativity is one of the most in-demand skills required for the jobs of tomorrow. And yet we get almost no creativity training in school. It’s expected that you either have it, or you don’t. Read on to find a simple method to begin unleashing your own creative brilliance.

The Incredible Power of Creativity

First, let’s take a moment to look at the value of creativity. I consider creativity one of the biggest keys to living an extraordinary life.  Creativity is essentially the ability to think about things in a new way - to take the available resources and find new ways to use them. It can be used in a variety of artistic ways to create profound new experiences for you and your audience. And it can also be used to solve difficult problems - like how to design an amazing new product, how to get out of debt, how to cure malaria or how to arrange the most memorable, romantic date ever. Whenever you have a goal, creativity can help you figure out how to get from here to there faster, cheaper and easier.

If you think about it, there are really very few completely unbreakable laws in the universe. Strictly speaking there are a handful of things like gravity, the speed of light and so on. With so few real limitations, we really we have enormous freedom to use our skills, time and resources to accomplish amazing things. We just have to figure out how. And that’s where creativity comes in. In fact, I think if someone could figure out exactly the right things to do and say, they could even bring about world peace within 30 days. Think about it…

Everyone has enormous creative potential; they just haven’t learned how to unleash it. There is a simple process you can use that overcomes the 3 most common creativity mistakes so you can generate powerful ideas toward whatever goals you’re working on. So first let’s examine the 3 mistakes:

3 Common Creativity Mistakes

1. Lack of Focus: Some people generate lots of great ideas but because they’re not directed, they can’t be used to accomplish anything meaningful. At other times, people set out to generate ideas without being really clear about what they’re trying to achieve. For example, if you sit down to brainstorm “How can I make more money?” then “pan handling” would be a valid solution. Much better results would come from a focused question like, “How can I increase my income by 50% within 12 months?”

2. Lack of Time: Like any activity, creativity takes concentrated effort. Thinking takes time. But most people just don’t sit down and spend the time to actively brainstorm solutions to problems. In fact, this is a big difference between experts and amateurs for many different activities. The experts often spend more time on projects than amateurs. Don’t worry about not having the time to brainstorm. Brainstorming solutions to life’s problems pays for itself in more rapidly solved problems.

3. Lack of Subconscious Processing: It’s important to recognize that the mind continues to work on problems even when you think you’re doing something else. Many famous geniuses have written about this phenomenon and how they used it. It’s pretty common for amazing solutions to problems to just pop into someone’s mind hours or days later when they’re taking a walk, sleeping, showering or doing just about anything. But you have to “prime the pump” and give it time to work. Now let’s get to the process that allows you to do that.

The 3 Step Process for Unleashing Your Brilliance

1. Ask a Question: Grab a fresh sheet of paper or digital document, and write the specific question you’re trying to answer at the top. This deliberate start to brainstorming helps focus your mind, and lets you begin to get curious about the answer. Remember, be specific. For example, instead of “How can I build a better mouse trap?” ask “How can I build a mouse trap that catches twice as many mice, is easier to use, and people will gladly pay twice as much for?”

2. Brainstorm Solutions: Now just start writing down possible answers. Brainstorm! Don’t censor yourself at all. Write every idea down. You’ve got to work on impulse and don’t allow your inner critic, or rational side, to process the answers. At first you’ll likely write a lot of obvious answers that also have obvious flaws to them. They’re probably too risky, too expensive, too slow or flawed in some other way. But as you keep rapidly writing, you’ll start putting down zany ideas that are too crazy to work, like finding a magic lantern, or robbing a bank. When you keep at it, you’ll eventually start getting ideas that seem zany at first, but then reveal themselves to be really clever, unique solutions to that specific problem. You might solve your problem in the first brainstorm, but if not, go on to the next step.

3. Repeat Daily: This is where you unleash the power of your subconscious mind. Each day for the next few days, or week or month (whatever it takes), sit down and brainstorm for another 5 minutes. Again, just throw down as many crazy ideas as you can for answering the question you posed at the top of the page. Each day you that do this, you’ll benefit from the work your subconscious has done on the problem during the previous 24 hours. Even your sleep time is productive for creative problem solving. Very clever recent studies have shown how sleeping on a problem increases leaps of insight. Also, each day that you do this, you’re encouraging your subconscious to look into the problem further, and you increase the odds that a brilliant flash of insight will hit you sometime when you least expect it.

4. Bonus Strategy: If you’re really having trouble generating fresh ideas, it might be you’re just too stuck in repetitive thinking about this topic. One way to break out of your old patterns of thinking and generate new ideas is to take in very random stimulus and try to apply it to the solution. You might randomly open a dictionary (or any book), point your finger somewhere on the page and see if you can take that work or phrase and use it in the solution somehow. So what if it’s ridiculous! Write it down. It’s stretching your thinking and helping you transition into that really creative way of thinking. You can also do this by flipping channels, flipping pages of a magazine, finding ‘objects’ in clouds, or visiting a toy store or museum.

Take this process to the next level in conjunction with the concepts in my post “Do Something Extraordinary Before Breakfast Every Day”.

Now, what areas of your life do you need some creative breakthroughs in? Do you need more romance? A great product idea? New affordable social activities? New ways to trim your budget? A new look? The time to take action is now. Share the question you’re going to brainstorm in the comments!

If you’ve got any additional strategies for increasing your creativity, please share those with us in the comments.

About the author: Robin Krieglstein is the Founder and CEO of GoalTribe.com, the most advanced goal achievement social network on the planet. GoalTribe offers free, step-by-step guidance to plan your goals, get a support team, build motivation, track your progress and overcome all obstacles. GoalTribe is the culmination of Robin’s 20 year passion for accelerating self improvement through technology. On GoalTribe’s blog, Robin explores life changing ideas colored by stories from his around-the-world travels through 38 countries. GoalTribe also has an expert collection of weight loss articles, the most popular category of goals.

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How to Unleash Your Creative Brilliance

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”  ~ Sarah Caldwell

If you’re reading this article, I’m sure you readily accept the importance of continual learning. However, because modern life can be so busy you may find it challenging to find time to devote solely to learning, whether it be sitting down to read a book or attending an evening class. In this article I will give you 5 ways even the busiest of people -those who are always on the go - can find time to learn.

1. Audiobooks

I’m a huge fan of audiobooks. By listening to audiobooks in the car to and from work I have doubled, maybe even tripled, my “reading” rate. I also enjoy listening to audiobooks in the evening as they allow me to rest my eyes after a day of looking at a computer screen. Finally, I have found that I’m more of an auditory than a visual learner, meaning I retain more information from listening to, rather than reading, books.

Recommended: Audible.

2. Podcasts

If you’re unfamiliar with Podcasts, they are simply pre-recorded digital files (usually audio or video) that are available for download for playback on a computer or MP3 player. When I first became interested in personal development back in 2007 I would load up my iPod with podcasts by Steve Pavlina and Robin Sharma and listen to them on the train ride to work - it was a great way to fire myself up for the day ahead! These days there are many, many podcasts available. The best place to look is in iTunes (iTunes Store -> Podcasts).

Recommended: TED and Oprah’s Spirit Channel (links open in iTunes).

3. E-books

E-books can obviously be read on your computer, or you may like to print them off to take with you. Alternatively, you may decide to get an e-book reader such as the Kindle. While I haven’t got a Kindle (as previously mentioned I listen to audiobooks), I have a number of friends who are big fans of these little devices. Unlike a laptop or iPhone, the screen is not illuminated so there’s no glare, no eyestrain and no battery consumption. Also, if you live in the US the Kindle is always online (indoors, outdoors, far away from the nearest Wi-Fi hot spot) as Amazon pays the bill for continual wireless connection in the hope that you will spontaneously buy e-books.

Recommended: Kindle (Latest Generation) and The Definitive List of Free Personal Development E-Books.

4. Books

I know, I know…. this is an obvious one. My one big suggestion here is to join the local library. I find that when I go to the library I borrow a number of books that are of interest, but that I probably wouldn’t buy. I don’t end up reading all the books I have borrowed, but that’s ok as I haven’t wasted any money and the ones I do read have allowed me to read more broadly and outside my comfort zone.

Recommended: my recently updated recommended books list.

5. People

“A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study” ~ Chinese Proverb

Three of the methods in this article focus on how modern technology can help us learn on the go. But perhaps the best way to learn is from other people, whether it be friends, family, work colleagues or complete strangers. It may involve a conversation, or you may simply observe them doing something.

Recommended: Chris Guillebeau’s recent blog post Conversations is a wonderful account of the many interesting people we may come across in our lives.

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What are your favorite ways to learn on the go? Please share your suggestions and experiences in the comments below.

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5 Ways To Learn On The Go

Two words that get bandied about a lot in the personal development sphere are “change” and “growth”. You’ve probably noticed, for instance, that this blog is called “The Change Blog”, and that Peter describes in his personal mission statement a commitment to  maintaining a “personal growth blog”.

It’s tempting to use “change” and “growth” in a woolly sort of way, meaning “living a better life”, but in fact, they’re quite different concepts:

What’s Change?

Change Often Means a Turn-Around

When you talk about changing your life, you might mean going back to college, moving to a new city (or country), or starting a family.

Change Can Be A One-Off Event

Some changes happen suddenly, like losing your job. The effects will change the days, weeks and months to come … but the change itself is relatively sudden and self-contained.

Change Can Be Externally Imposed

Not all changes are ones you choose. In fact, many might come from the outside. Some of these will be negative changes (eg. the death of a relative), some might seem like negative changes but later become positive ones (eg. becoming a father). Either way, knowing how to manage change is important for making the best of these times.

What’s Growth?

Growth Takes Time

Whilst a change can happen overnight (whether it’s a paradigm shift in the way you think, or an external change like becoming a mother/father) … growth always takes time. You can’t become an expert in a day, or completely shed all your old bad habits in a week.

Growth Is An Incremental Process

When you’re growing, you’re moving steadily in one direction. This could mean gradually becoming a better parent; consistently working towards a promotion or career shift; getting a degree or other qualification.

Growth Needs Motivation

While changes can come from the outside, growth always comes from within you. Other people might support, help and encourage you – but ultimately, you have to want to grow. It takes energy and effort on a long-term basis … which means you need to keep up your motivation.

Do You Need Change or Growth?

At some times in our life, we may need to face up to big, radical changes. These can sometimes be painful to endure or even to contemplate … but on the other side lies a better life.

Other times, we’re pretty much on track – we just need to keep going onwards, rather than getting complacent. This is when growth is called for. It can be a big mistake to assume that whenever things aren’t perfect, you need to change … sometimes, you just need to keep on in the same direction?

So which situation are you in and how can you figure out whether you need change or growth? For me, the best way to distinguish between the two is to consider whether the situation you’re in could get better if you applied some thought and effort. If you feel that there’s no realistic hope for it ever improving, it might be time for a radical change. This is especially so if your current actions are making the situation worse.

Here’s an example that might have come up for you in the past (or which might arise in the future): you’re considering leaving your current job.

CHANGE might be required if:

• • You got the first job you could find out of college, and you’ve never felt passionate about it
  • Your health (mental or physical) is suffering because of your job
  • You’ve found a passion which, if only you’d known about it years ago, you’d have followed as a career.

GROWTH might be required if:

• • You know the work your company does is important, but your role is getting boring
  • You’re finding it hard to get on with your colleagues
  • You’d like to step up to the next level, within the same company

You can look at other situations in a similar way. Think about your finances: do you need to make radical changes (like cutting up your credit cards?) or do you simply need to grow (by learning more about financial topics, and by slowly increasing how much you save each month?) Or what about your relationship with your partner: if you’re having problems, is this because change is needed (such as a separation, or a complete turn-around in how you relate to one another) or do you need to grow (by gradually seeking to become more patient, loving and understanding)?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer in matters of personal development, and one person may need to change fundamentally where another just needs to grow in a particular area. What are the big changes that you’ve made in the past – or that you know you need to make now? Where have you seen steady and incremental growth in your life?

About the author: Ali is a postgraduate student and professional writer. She runs Alpha Student (grab the RSS feed), a blog which aims to help students get the most of their time at university.

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The Difference Between Change and Growth - And Knowing Which You Need

I write books (www.beyond-karma.com) for two reasons.

One, there is a simple and easy way to release depression, anxiety and the unease of being.

And, two, because awakening is simple.

And what is awakening? Awakening is awakening out of the world of fear and sadness. Leonard Jacobson says, “To awaken simply means to awaken out of the world of the thinking mind into the world of the present moment.”  Buddha said very simply: it is the end of suffering. It is finding the joy of being. It is a fundamental shift in consciousness which opens up the world. It is flow.

Some people take exception to using the word “simple” to describe the awakening process. I recognize that for most people who are trying to awaken, the process has not been easy, and I’m not trying to insult the people who are struggling with it.

If you look around at the resources available for awakening, you might get the idea that awakening is very difficult, or you have to meditate for decades, or you need specialized spiritual knowledge, or you need to understand theories of existence, and bliss and oneness, or you have to sign up with a tradition and ‘advance’ your way through the hierarchy or you need to understand the various “stages” of consciousness or solve zen koans, and so forth. You don’t have to do any of this, and from what I have seen, these can actually be obstacles to awakening for many.

Awakening is simple. It’s not simple for some only because of the effort they put into complicating it.

The Two Step Dance of Awakening - Awareness and Release

Here’s how you awaken:

First: Find a release technique which resonates with you. Try the Release technique I describe, or the Sedona Method, and EFT. Releasing helps free us of depression, anxiety, the past, and it’s an effective salve for awakening symptoms. (Some call these Kundalini symptoms).

Second: Find an awareness technique which resonates. All awareness techniques lead to Awareness Now. This is referred to with many different words: effortless meditation, being, natural being, being present, just as is, passive watchfulness, zazen, dyana, ch’an, zen, and many other Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Kaballah, Sufi, and Gnostic terms. Why complicate it? It is a passive watchfulness which is not of the mind but which can watch the mind and everything else.

It is utterly simple, here and now. When mind says, “is this all there is?”, that is it. In the utter ordinariness, the extraordinary will unfold.

Obstacles to Awakening

“The simplest cure is to feel free to block, so that one does not block at blocking. When one feels free to lock, the blocking [holding on] automatically eliminates itself….The principle here is, of course, the same as getting out of the contradiction of ‘trying to be spontaneous’ through accepting the ‘trying’ as spontaneous’ …” The Way of Zen, Allan Watts

The biggest obstacle is our own ideas. Awakening is waking up from the story of “me”; but it immediately merges into another story about advancing the “me” and then we are concerned about how successful we are at awakening. This resistance can show up in many ways. It shows up as the need to understand more before you can start, dismissal, ‘spiritualized’ ego, intellectual analysis and beliefs, or the clinging to particular concepts or techniques or traditions or disciplines like meditation or yoga or visualization or philosophizing or some new-age thing or enchantment with particular teachers or with the idea of awakening itself.

It can be the ego’s fear of awakening, which can show up as “My God, who will I be without emotions and desires?” or “How can I ever give up thinking?” or “I need to understand this fully” or “I am not ready for this” and so forth. It can show up as a clinging to every new fads, such as the Law of Attraction, or “masterminding” or visualizing…this is just stuff that we seek out desperately to change who we are.

All you have to do is to suss out obstacles is to notice them. Don’t think about them; don’t analyze them; don’t block—all of that is just more thinking. Perhaps this is why the Buddha warned not to believe anything anyone says, until it is experience.

The test for whether you are caught in an obstacle is very simple. Ask yourself how you feel compared to say three months ago. Do you feel more open, lighter, and joyful? This of course takes radical honesty to answer, and if you don’t think you can be radically honest with yourself, you’re in a good place. It’s a great start.

Your goal is not to experience some sort of big-bang transformation. Don’t worry about when enlightenment happens in linear time, or even if there really is such a thing. The goal is to get into the flow of awakening, so that it deepens on its own, effortlessly.

The Journey

“You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” –Morpheus to Neo in the movie The Matrix

If you start this you will discover many things on your own. You will see the nature of effort for what it is. You will put in some effort in the beginning, but once you get into the flow of awakening, it will work on its own. You will see that it is about the releasing of effort.

You may go through some emotional turmoil; don’t worry, the releasing will help you and heal you. You will understand why it’s important to rely only on direct experience, and not on what you read or hear, even if it is from your favorite “spiritual” guide. You will see and laugh at frivolities of your own revelations and beliefs, and you will recognize the voice in the head as just a voice in the head. You will see why spirituality itself is an obstacle. You will see that all that you believe is irrational, and you will see why we don’t perceive reality as it is. And, with great relief, you will find that when you are able to get out of the way, Awareness does the job of awakening all by itself, much better than you can.

My experience with depression and anxiety was not easy. But releasing the anxiety and depression, once I found a natural method, was as easy as opening a fisted hand. It was difficult for me but it doesn’t have to be difficult for you.

My awakening experiences in the beginning were also difficult. But I found that releasing helps with letting go of concepts I had built around awakening, and then it was easy to get into the effortless flow of awakening. “I” do absolutely nothing except get out of the way.

This is the two-step dance of Awareness and Release.

About the author: Kaushik writes books and articles on www.beyond-karma.com about: How do we free ourselves from the past, from depression and anxiety, from the unease of being which most of us experience? The joy of being is so utterly simple, right here and right now. Awareness and Release—the two-step dance of awakening–allow this natural ease which transforms all of living–-health, relationships, and well-being!

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Awakening with the Two-Step Dance of Awareness and Release

Preparation Is A Component Leading To Boldness

Now that this is shown to be the case, how can you become the person who makes decisions quickly and resolutely? The idea here is to see what slows you down, or stops you instantly, when decision-making time comes around. When you go to a store to buy apples, and then see the apples at the store, the decision to pick them up is nearly instant. On the other hand, if you see oranges you didn’t plan on buying, your decision of whether to buy them or not will be slower. The difference between the apples and oranges here is the preparation you made before going to the store in planning for what you would want to buy.

Preparation is a key factor in maintaining a bold persona. Lack of preparation, even if it wouldn’t actually affect your performance, weakens your decision-making ability because your mind assumes that you are missing something you would have gotten by preparing like an organized individual.

Don’t Let Others Expectations Weigh You Down

A huge part of becoming a bold decision-maker is understanding how to view others and their perceived expectations of you. If you are worried you are going to let certain people down by doing this or that, you already have a weight on your shoulders slowing down your decisions. You can’t make decisions boldly if you have to keep processing whether they will make person A or person B happy. Every second of delay when making a decision is a second you will be disappointed for losing later on.

Others Will Come And Go, But You Will Remain

This means that you have to make the choice to not let others affect your decision-making. The only guarantee you have is that you will still be communicating with yourself a few years later, which is more than can be said for the chances that you will be dealing with certain people who are currently in your life a few years down the road. You have to think about your future self, and he/she would want you to do more for yourself(which then passes on to others as well). Also, we often do things that we think pleases others, when in fact they look at us as weak for spending our time worrying about how we would be perceived.

Check To See If Others Are Really Helping You

One thing that is a definite deterrent to a bold mindset is the assumption that certain people that have helped you slightly have your best interests in mind. Government welfare is one of the best ways to reduce a person’s motivation to work, and in the same way, you may be currently chained to a person that you think is helping you, but that is blocking your bold decision-making anytime something of value is up for grabs. This is not helpful, and is keeping you from a state of progress.

Anyone who would actually want you to live propitiously would challenge you so that you would improve, and would support your own risk-taking and venture-making. If you have a person like this in your life, spending more time with them will help you maintain a bold mindset. Being around bold people will make you feel more foolish when you are not bold yourself, so you will adjust to an increased level of hardiness more quickly.

Take Note Of Your Own Weakening Factors

Although I would assume these to be the main issues keeping people from becoming definitive decision-makers, here is how you could find out what the other factors are that you should change to help the cause. The next few times you are making a decision, and become slowed down or cancel on making the decision, process what it is that slowed you down. It will probably be the case that the same concept or concepts come up repeatedly, and these should be the target of your energy and vitality; that same energy is not beneficial to use to attack yourself for procrastinating or backing down.

If you are not harsher(AKA more direct) with other people now, you will end up being even more vindictive toward them and yourself later on. The sooner you are resolute and definitive in your decision-making, the sooner you can build up a strong foundation that protects the integrity of your goals.

Author Bio: Armen Shirvanian writes for Timeless Information on topics including mindset development, social interaction, communication, and competition. He has also created a compilation eBook that contains thorough discussion about 11 valuable quotations. You can check out his articles and eBook at www.timelessinformation.com

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Switching to a Bold Mindset

Success is very simple. But it is not very easy for most people. In fact, success boils down to two simple steps.

1. Set goals – have an intention to do, have or be something
2. Keep acting in a way which is consistent with your goals

Just doing these two things will almost certainly bring you success. The trouble is that most people don’t do either of them. Most people drift along aimlessly, not really knowing where they are going and having no clear vision of the future. If you ask most people why the get out of bed in the morning, why they work, what is the purpose of their life, they won’t be able to tell you. The few people who actually set goals are way ahead of the crowd. And those who take the second step, and keep acting to support their goals make up the tiny minority of people who are successful in life. In fact, the second step flows naturally from this first. If you’re serious about your intention, then you cannot help but act in the direction of its fulfillment. The action is effortless.

Set Goals

The first key component of success is to set goals. In other words, have a vision of what the future is going to look like. So few people imagine what their world will look like in ten, twenty, thirty or fifty years time. They look in the mirror and think ‘where did time go? What happened to me?’ At the end of the year, they say ‘I can’t believe another year has passed!’

Most likely, your life will not work out exactly as you planned it, whatever you do – we are not fortune tellers, and life is full of surprises and odd twists and turns – but a goal (or intention) oriented life will be a successful life.

Honestly, I don’t think it matters much how you set goals. Just so long as you do it. Try to be as specific as you can when goal setting, but don’t  get too worried about detail. It’s also important to be flexible. Things change, life changes, so you need to adjust your goals accordingly. Not to say you should be constantly tinkering, but sometimes a goal just isn’t right any more – maybe you already achieved it, maybe it’s to do with a part of your life that has disappeared, or a new part of your life (maybe you changed jobs, for example).

The main thing is that your goal is something you know you are going to achieve. It shouldn’t be an option – it isn’t going to take strain or stress; in fact, it’s going to be easy. But action is, nonetheless, required. Which brings us to the next point.

Keep Acting in a Way Which Is Consistent With Your Goals

The second component of success is to keep acting to support your goals. This sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. And in fact, it’s unavoidable. And this is really the point I am trying to make here – your actions flow naturally from your intention. If one of your goals is to get fit, then you should start by really believing that you’re going to be fit, saying to yourself ‘I intend to be fit.’ If you really do intend this, then you can’t sit around, do no exercise, eat junk food, drive everywhere and so on. You have to change your habits, but this will be natural and easy if you really intend to achieve your goal. If you want to make money, you’re going to have to get into the habit of saving more, investing, studying money related matters, spending less, finding ways to make more, developing multiple income streams, and so on. But if all this is a chore, then you aren’t serious in your intention. If you don’t find something natural and easy, then it probably means you aren’t serious.

The small, natural and inevitable steps you take will almost certainly get you to where you want to be. A dripping tap will fill the bucket. To give a simple example, if you start at the age of 25 and invest $100 a month at 11% per annum until you are 65, you’ll end up with $760,000. You can fiddle with the numbers for yourself by clicking here.

The point is to keep going. Why do your New Year’s resolutions fail? They fail because you stop acting to support your goal. You hit one rough patch and you give up. And this suggests that you weren’t really serious. Winston Churchill said ‘Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.’ The enthusiasm comes from the seriousness of your intention. When you have a goal and your actions support it, you’ll find that things just seem to work out, often better and faster than you thought possible.

Why People Fail

People fail because they don’t realize the importance of thought. They don’t know how to use their mind to carve out the future, the way water carves a river through a landscape. They think they are the victim of circumstance and that their lives are down to chance. They fail because they don’t have a vision for the future.

People fail because they act like sheep. They don’t think for themselves, instead preferring to rely on gurus and teachers and the latest ‘big idea.’

People fail because they aren’t serious in their intentions. They’re lazy. They think they want to be rich, but they aren’t serious. They think they want to be successful, but they aren’t serious. Most people are too (mentally and physically) lazy to be rich and successful. They can’t be bothered to make goals and act to support them, even when they know that it could make all the difference in the world.

People fail because they give up. They settle for second best. They fall down and think, ‘well, it’s not too bad down here on the floor. At least I won’t get knocked down again if I stay here.’ And eventually, they get so used to being on the floor that they’ve forgotten they used to be standing up.

If you really intend something, then you can have it. Nothing can stop you. But are you really serious?

About the author: Michael Miles writes at effortlessabundance.com. You can download his new book, Thirty Days to Change Your Life, at the site.

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How to Succeed at Anything