finding yourself

Think right.

2012-10-27T03:35:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I’ve posted, and for those of you who read and follow me, I apologise. This has been by far one of my busiest years in terms of study and work things colliding and I’ve done my best to make time to post now and then. So yet again, sorry.

I'm reaching out to you this post, because I want you to think. And that's about it. Now it might seem like I’m saying something relatively insignificant, but the truth is that thought is the precursor to what essentially shapes yours and my world. Unconsciously or not.

Now thought is a great and mighty thing, BUT over thinking sucks. And you all know this because you do it all the time. You complicate and riddle your-self with self determined theories of what could happen long before you ever have an opportunity come anywhere near the real outcome, and it's a dream killer.

So what I want you to do if you’re reading this. Sit down, take some time out, and think. Think about an idea, it could be anything, but something to do with your life that might otherwise normally limit you. Now here's the but, and it's a big but. You’re not allowed to put a negative predetermined outcome into your thought. So for example.

If I where to think about finding myself a new house. If I’m predetermining things negatively, straight away I might think something along the lines of “Aw man, I’ll never find a house in this market. Times are just too tough for people and everyone's asking too much...”

That’s a negative pre-determined outcome. And it sets you up to fail. Instead you're going do exactly to opposite. Sit. Develop your thought about whatever your situation may be. But instead of pre-determining things negatively. Make it positive, and then follow the thought for as far as it can carry you. For example, using the same house hunting problem, I may think something along the lines of. “The housing market's ideal right now for me to find a place. I might even be able to snatch up a good deal..." then follow the thought. e.g. “If my new place has a spare room maybe I can use it as an office to start up a home business and build a nest egg. Or maybe I can rent it out to someone" Keep going. Develop your thought as far as they can go and see where they can take you. Perhaps it'll be to greater places.

my homestead story

2012-08-07T04:34:00.001-07:00

It's been quite sometime since i've posted anything. so today i'm sharing some of my little tips and tricks that i've come across over the last few months in my own personal development that you can implement in a similar way.

Recently as a recognition of todays changing economical climate i decided to start my own organically sustainable garden. Since then, it's grown larger and larger and brings me more and more joy to see how well it's going. My garden, like many things, started from humble beginnings, years ago me and my family planted, a mango tree, eventually we planted a mandarin tree too, then mulberries,then lemons, and so on and so forth until we had a small range of fruit tree's in the front of our garden. this was all just haphazard planting for the convience and fun of having a few nice fruit to tend to. but as things continued along i realised that it would be really quite easy to start a sustainable garden, on a budget, with a good mix of fruit and veg, which in the end, taste great and save me some cash.

I'm not saying you have to plant a garden, what i am trying to say though is pick something you have always wanted to do, start small and go from there.

START NOW! it's easier than you think to pick up something you've wanted to now and turn it into something you love doing. Emotion is a elixir of life and youthfulness, pick something that sparks it up, and stick at it, not because you have to or need to, but because you want to.

My garden started with one mango tree, now it has over 28 different fruit and vegetables, 5 custom built plantar boxes, a bird house,a organic composting system, a bee box, an underground watering system that i'm in the process of connecting up to a greywater tank, and will soon be joined by a bokashi style composter and small green house, and incase your thinking of doing something similar and don't have alot of space, neither did i but you'll be surprised what you can do when you put some thought into planning out your garden.

get into it, you'll surprise yourself.

Everyday improvements for everyday greatness

2012-03-29T03:17:00.002-07:00

So it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been pretty busy with my uni studies and haven’t had an opportunity to post. So today i wanted to post on a few of the things I’ve been working on or learnt that I think might help some of you out there.

First of all, is what i like to call my “daily change mechanism”. Which is basically as simple as this: Each day you choose to do something that is going to better yourself in some way. This doesn’t mean things like cleaning the house so you don’t feel stressed, although it’s a good idea. What the idea is, is to implement an activity that will result in changing YOU. My main example, (because this is one I’ve been using frequently with a lot of success) is writing with your non-dominant hand. Now this may seem like a simple “pffft” type of thing but studies show that using your non-dominant hand for writing or drawing tasks activates more neural path ways. Why should you care? Well not only does opening up those new neural pathways allow you the opportunity to use them in developing richer and more dense grey matter which will have a carry on effects in everything else you do, but in the interest of motor control it allows you to progressively develop better hand co-ordination and non-dominant hand skills. Since I started this exercise I’ve greatly improved my non-dominant hand skills to the point of nearly being ambidextrous in the space of less than a month. Defiantly something useful! Not only that, I feel sharper, which made me decide my next “daily change mechanism” was going to take advantage of this improved cognitive ability and learn to speed read. As you can see, the idea behind a daily change mechanism is in constantly improving your skills and yourself into becoming the greatest possible version of you!

So here’s a small one to get the ball rolling:

●Start off writing 5 easy sentences a day e.g. “the cat sat on the mat”

● after you’ve developed that to where it starts becoming easy, move on to writing out the alphabet in lower and upper case

●Once you’ve mastered that, try writing small fluent paragraphs, whatever comes to mind, i recommend using it to document how you feel you are improving

●Next move on to drawing 2- 3 small pictures

● finally try to use your new found skill as frequently as you can during your day so that it feels natural .e.g. writing a shopping list or making notes.

There is a technique in the muscular rehabilitation world known as CIMT, which stands for Constraint Imposed Muscular Therapy. Which works on a very similar basis of supplementing your good limb for using your bad one to try and develop motor control, and is proven to be very effective.

The idea is, pick something you think is going to improve yourself and implement it into your everyday life. Develop the idea that you can always make yourself greater than you are and soon you will find that your goals that used to seem so far away have been well exceeded.

Leave a comment below on methods or idea’s you might have ore have used to improve yourself every day.

Think about this

2011-12-13T04:01:00.000-08:00

This is an exercise, so dont't just read it, then flick to the next page and forget it.

Think about the quote below, decipher it, break it down so it applies to you personally, and think of how it might effect your own character. It's short and sweet so why not try it.

"There can be no greater independance thank knowing yourself, your abilities and your unending potential."

what does this mean to you?

Find out what you where made for

2011-11-15T07:00:00.001-08:00

Finding your place in the world career wise is without a doubt one of the hardest things to do in your life. You're basically choosing what you plan on doing for the next few decades, which is no small commitment. It's a very daunting prospect, one i suffered with just like most people. But here's the thing,if you choose something that you don't love or isn't going to pay the bills, it's harder.

So how, with all the vocations out there, do you decide what you want to do.

Here are two simple solutions, i felt worked for me, and will hopefully work for you too.

Number 1: follow your passion

It's a no brainer, if you follow your passions and do something you love,not only is the likelihood of your productivity being high excellent, but your work/ life balance and overall satisfaction will usually be on the positive end of the spectrum too. Don't get talked out of following your dreams, make a decision to live them

Number 2: Help others

Helping others is a powerful thing. It's something I'm truly passionate about and therefore thats why i write these blogs( I'm not getting paid, i only earn small amounts in advertisement). There is nothing more rewarding than knowing you have positively influenced someone. Besides which it is one of the reasons we where put on this planet. Helping others pays for itself morally, and reminds us, that as humans, we share equality when it comes to they way we care and react. So help others, aspire to lead, and perhaps soon others will follow.

Manifesting your desire, the truth behind the law of attraction

2011-11-15T01:36:00.000-08:00

Due to an influx of popular new thought style books focusing on the law of attraction and other ideas, people seem to have the perception that you can simply materialize things with your thoughts. Now this isn't necessarily true, however the whole idea of thoughts becoming things is not necessarily a lie either.

When we create a thought of something we desire, no matter what it is, we are putting our intent out there that this is what we desire. Now although the whole concept behind the law of attraction and other similar ideas is that the universe will bring your intended desire to you, it is a bit misleading. In reality, you think a thought, put your intent out there, and then by putting your thought out there you become more consciously aware of resolutions for solving how to manifest your desire. For example, let’s say you want to become healthier. You put your desire out there by thinking about how healthy you want to be, once you have done that, your intent is there. You are consciously aware that you want to be healthier, so the next time a situation arises that you might have an opportunity to get healthier, you will be more inclined to jump on the situation. This could be something like walking through a shopping centre and seeing a special on to join a gym and deciding to join because it fits with your new intended desire, or meeting someone who is a personal trainer or doctor and deciding to ask them how you might go about getting healthier. You may think that this is the universe bringing in opportunities to grant your desires, but in reality, the work is all up to you. You plant your own intentions in your mind and subconsciously remind yourself to take steps to fulfil those desires whenever possible.
This may be disheartening if you have a strong belief that the universe is what is really going to bring you your success, but this the reality. Your brain has the power to grant you your deepest desires, by you funnelling in idea’s and it spitting out solutions to your subconscious, that’s empowering stuff, so celebrate the power of your brain and go out and start creating your success.

The power of words

2011-11-12T05:53:00.001-08:00

Never underestimate the power of words. Words can transform your ideas into realities, your enemies into allies and your image into one of greatness. There is nothing greater for gaining a following and developing power. If your idea is strong and your words reflect your passion, your potential is unlimited. Strive to speak to truth of your ideas with passion and high moral status and you my friend, can do anything.

break your cycle

2011-11-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

Life's best road only welcomes those willing to trek further off the beaten track. If you want to live a rich life, full of fun, adventure and constant improvement, learn to live through experiences.Sitting back and watching things happen will never get you the satisfaction of doing something yourself. live today, go hunting for experiences in beauty and adventure. that's the way life should be.

A piece of sound advice from a great man

2011-10-31T05:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while now since the great Steve Jobs passed away, leaving the world with so many great and innovative signs of his legacy, I won’t be writing about any of that. The number of people who have written and expressed their feelings about his legacy and the great loss that the world has had can be summed up simply by the masses who still express their mourning throughout the many vast forms of media. Instead I just want to leave you with a quote from the big man that not only touched me, but hundreds, if not thousands of people as he made his address to a number of Stanford university graduates sometime during 2005. To keep it short and sweet it went something like this:
“I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today where the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today. And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Strong words and sound advice. Try asking yourself the same thing.

Live up to your dream self

2011-10-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Most of us have a solid image or dream of exactly how we’d like to be. In other words our ideal self. It gives us something to work towards and aspire to; however also for most of us it is just a fantasy. As much as you might desire to become or look like James Bond or Coco Chanel, it isn’t going to happen. But as upsetting as that may be to the avid dreamer, it’s also a great thing. Following the image and principles of someone you aspire to be like is nice, sure, but it’s even better when you can put your own personal spin on it. Sure you might want to look like Bond, he’s got a sharp look and suave demeanour, but you probably don’t want to have to carry a gun around as a dog of the government. So mix it up to meet your own standards. Be the suave stylish gentleman, or in Coco’s case, stylish and unique independent women. Start living up to your dream, but on your own terms. The point is not to aspire to be like others, but to follow your own path, learning from others what you can to reach your desired goals. It’s easy to forget what we are capable of achieving because often we have no need to step outside our comfort zone. Make a decision to break that safety bubble and live up to becoming your ideal self. Following your dreams, whether career wise or lifestyle orientated is the only true way to obtain the happiness you seek and feel like a free individual.

Let your actions speak for you

2011-10-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write this post because of a number of things. Firstly, I’ve hit this fantastic point in my own life where things have become clear for me and therefore I’m trying to share what I’ve come to realise with others. Since i was young I’ve always wanted to be successful beyond measure. I always had an idea in my head of who I wanted to be, how I wanted to act and how i wanted to live, and slowly but surely my desire has been coming true, but only through persistence, which brings me to my first point. One of the first things I came to realise( and it's not rocket science, you probably realised it too) is that i couldn't truly become the person i wanted to be without fulfilling the traits I dreamed my ideal self would have, i would have to start acting like the person i want to be ( duh, right?) . The thing is, you can't always live up to your desired traits without sticking your neck out into a new and often daunting experience. So i dedicated myself to developing myself.

Sure that may sound a little selfish to some, but the truth is if you can't master yourself, how can you expect to master your environment, and that means everything from learning to respect other people to having others respect you as a leader. So i decided i would make it my goal to acquiring as many skills as possible and subject myself to as many experiences as possible, and the truth is i have never felt so accomplished, balanced and happy, and that is passing over into everything i do, and it can for you too, once you come to terms with sticking your neck out and developing yourself.

Since I began my journey I’ve done many things I’d have never even considered before, and now I can gladly say that they are beginning to shape who I am. I started Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai and furthered that by moving into mixed martial arts. I began learning more about sports performance, health and the human body, I started to learn mandarin, how to wire circuitry and build far more than I ever could before. The list goes on and on, but the points remain’s the same, to develop experience in as much as possible and ultimately start living the life I truly desired. It's a journey that will never end if you truly have the desire to better yourself, and that’s why you need to do it. After all, what is life except for a number of experiences’s that start from the day we're born to the day we die. We can either sit back and hope for the best, or we can go out, take control of our destiny and start letting our actions speak for us. Make your choice the right one.

P.s. leave a comment of a new skill you’d like to learn, you might inspire a passion in someone else and in return find one yourself.

leave something behind

2011-10-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

If i where to die today life would go on without a stutter. life is but a fleeting moment. choose to make an impression with yours

wise words to live by

Why affirmations and self talk work

2011-09-25T04:51:00.000-07:00

Self talk and positive self motivation are nothing new; they've been used for years in the elite sporting, science and medical community for everything for improving game day performance to helping people to quit smoking. So why doesn't everyone use these techniques? You may look at that athlete at the gym who's mumbling under his breath or getting very vocal and think that he's making a fool of himself, but the truth is, there's a science behind what he's doing and it’s a science that works.
Henry Ford (founder of Ford automotive) once said “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t. You’re right.”
Fitting words, even today, 64 years after Ford’s death, they still ring true. That’s because they are. Ford recognised that the way that people think influences the outcome of what they do. That’s exactly the same reason that athlete talking to himself over at the gym and pumping himself up to make a big lift is going to be more successful than you if you’re not equally mentally determined. It’s all about committing to sharpening your mental strength
If you can continually convince yourself that you have the ability to achieve that great dream of yours or make that big change in your life, then taking steps towards doing it is going to be the next logical step. Your mental success will drive your physical success. It’s all about being mentally aware of your thought patterns and altering them to suit your needs. You can be happy, healthy, wealthy or loved; it’s all a matter of making yourself aware that you are and taking appropriate steps. Be aware. Make your mind your greatest tool, and most importantly, be consistent.

How to acheive success

2011-09-24T03:24:00.000-07:00

Setting yourself up for success is as easy or as hard as you decide to make it.One of the main problems people come across when planning for success is that they over simplify their goals. They think that simply by stating their intention they will somehow come up with a means of reaching that goal. For example, if my goal where to lose weight, just implying that I want to lose weight is not going to give me a solid plan in achieving it. However, if I rethink my goal and say to myself, okay maybe I want to lose 5kg in 3 weeks as part of my overall goal of losing 20kg, I have already set a minor goal that is going to help me in progressing to my main goal.

The reason this works better than setting up your larger goals is because you are limiting yourself to a set time period in which you have to achieve those goals, this puts more pressure on you to work at achieving your goals. So what’s going on behind the scenes? It’s a well studied fact that humans are much more influenced by instant gratification than future gains, that’s the reason why we’ll often end up splurging some of that hard saved cash on something that is going to make us feel good now, opposed to something of future benefit. So if all your brain wants is instant gratification, even though it knows that the future benefits may outweigh the instant pleasure, how do you use that to your advantage?

This is where we start to break down our goals even more. So we look at the same example as before and say to our self well I’m starting with 5kg in 3 weeks, what am I going to do? Well I could start by calculating my daily macronutrient intake (that’s proteins carbohydrates and fats) for losing a certain amount of weight per day, so if my goal is 5kg and I have 21 days to do it, I’m going to need to lose just over 230g per day (that sounds reasonable right!), so I Google macronutrient calculators and workout exactly how many of each of those three categories I need to eat to lose that amount each day. Let’s just say I want to be extra certain I’m going to keep it off and decide to start working out three times a week for 30 minutes doing high intensity interval training because I know that it’s an efficient way to burn fat, all of a sudden that fat is disappearing because I’m burning more than I’m consuming and my diet is solid. Soon my goal of losing 5kgs in 3weeks is starting to look too easy.

This is just an example of how good planning can help you gain the upper hand in creating your success. This isn’t limited to weight loss alone; you can apply the same principle to any goal you have in 4 steps.

1. Define the overall goal.

2. Break it down to a shortened period (no longer than a month)

3. Break it down even more (daily, weekly, whatever it takes)

4. Re-access as you progress (important if you want to keep progressing)

Remember to keep your goals timely, if you start setting goals that take too long( in excess of a month) it can be hard to stick too them because your brain just wants that instant gratification.

Most of all its important to remember that you control the outcome, if things aren’t going your way, switch it up. You control your success. Be your own person and claim it through simple planning today.

Defeat procrastination

2011-09-12T19:19:00.001-07:00

I'm down and out of the action at the moment while I wait and recover from having my wisdom teeth removed, it's a blessing in disguise, i have all this free time to do things but in having so much free time it also means a lot of time to procrastinate. So today I'm I'm focusing of that mighty little devil procrastination.

Often it seems like such a luxury to simply have the time to sit and procrastinate, yet so many of us do it everyday, but no matter what we're avoiding it's important to remember that procrastination isn't going to aid you in a positive way. Time wasting is the successful persons pet peeve, it frustrates them and destroys their game plan. Anything less than forward motion towards their goals is wasted time. That is why procrastination is the top of their list of hates. For that same reason it should be the top of yours too. If you really want to achieve and move forward in creating your ideal vision of your life then waste no time in doing the best with yours.

Declare war on mediocrity

2011-09-01T07:14:00.001-07:00

Life is a game of ups and downs, yet sometimes it is when we are at our worst that we discover our path to achieving our greatest ambitions. It is only through discovering the depths of the lows that plague us that we can uncover the obstacles that restrain us and therefore devise a plan to defeat them. It's just like a comparison to the movie star character that at his lowest most vulnerable state drives through adversity to defeat evil. But the truth of the matter is it doesn't just happen, the only way to strike back at adversity and defeat the obstacles that stand in your way is to ask yourself a few very important questions.

Why? Well the men (or women) who learn to ask questions of them are directing their actions towards making improvement towards their goals.
By learning the right questions they learn the right answers that will drive them forward. Give it a try, when you’re feeling low or simply want to move forward ask yourself:

What is limiting me and how can I overcome it?

How can I set myself apart from others or my competition?

What can I do that will help me improve my situation today?

If I could set apart an hour today towards my goals what would I do? (aim to do it )

Who do I really want to be?

What can I do to get closer to being who I want to be?

These are just a few examples of how you can direct yourself to creating a better you and a better life, the real power is left in your hands, ask your own questions and live up to acquiring your desires

Living is experience

2011-08-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

As I'm writing this I'm sitting in the departures terminal of Brisbane airport, it's 9.56am and my flights been delayed by 25 minutes, I'm on my way to Canberra via a connecting flight from Sydney, the reason I'm filling you in on all this is to illustrate my next point; experience. That amazing little word is accountable for the majority of how and why we go on to live the lives we do. The truth is without experience you probably wouldn't be living the life you are now, imagine if no-one had to opportunity in life to instil confidence or principles in you, you would struggle through life afraid to speak up or unaware of where you stand. So you can begin to see why experience plays a heavy role in our lives. Not that I needed to tell any of you people out there, you’re smart and probably worked that out yourself, but a reminder of where we all stand never hurts. I know a trip through the airport is not the best example but it’s still an experience in learning independence, self reliance and humility, and often it can be more, for example on my way through security I was met by a very polite security officer who asked to swab my bag for explosives, something I was not expecting and yet another experience that I can say I have engaged in and look back and laugh at. What I'm trying to say is, don't ignore or avoid life's experiences, go out and experience as much as you can!

(EDIT: reception was lousy so this post ended up only going up today, five days after i wrote it)

A place for everything, and everything but disgrace

2011-08-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

What is your ambition? Is it something small? Or something huge? Does it require a lot of skill? Or is it simply a state of consciousness? Whatever it is, wouldn't it be helpful if you had a collective of knowledge that you could refer to whenever you needed it?

What if you wanted to start a business and needed a little more info that perhaps a student doing their MBA might be able to help you with. Maybe you want to learn another language and you manage to get a hold on a linguistic nationalist whose be willing to help you out, wouldn’t that be fantastic?

Knowledge is a beautiful thing; it gifts us with creativity and new insights constantly. Sometimes it can even be life changing, so why not share the gift? I’m hereby dedicating this space to anyone who is looking to expand their knowledge or willing to share their own.

Human beings are incredible creatures and I feel gifted everyday in knowing that I have such unending potential simply because I am one, and so should you! So if you have a special skill or possess something you think could aid someone, share it! Let it be known that even when the world is in such a state of constant chaos, you stood above adversity, shared your gifts and talents and proved that the human spirit is undying in even the worst of times.
Leave a comment below and share your knowledge with someone else!

J.D

Turning your bad day into your best

2011-08-19T01:53:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we can feel slowed by the weight of life’s stresses, we get bogged down by the expectations of others and of ourselves and don’t know what to do. From time to time we all have a day when we feel lost, drifting meaninglessly and don’t know what to do. Even the careful planners often get caught up eventually.

Therein lays a problem. If you already know that your lost and don’t know what to do, how do you counteract it? Often trying to solve the problem leaves you only more frustrated. Well let’s get straight to it, often your worst days can turn into your best if you know just how to turn them around. So how do you turn them around?

The first step to turning things around is just to start. Often we make the mistake of thinking the first step should be some critical decision that will alter the outcome of the entire day, the truth is that the first step should be one of your smallest, it’s your baby step that puts your foot in the door. By starting small you have less chance of failure and therefore your chances of accomplishment are higher, once you achieve your task you feel motivated, you’ve come this far why not step it up?

The point I’m trying to make is that once you’ve made your first step it gets easy from then on in, you want to achieve more and so you take larger and larger steps to try and make a bad day become fulfilling. Soon before you know it, you’re having a highly productive day and your ambitions seem to be coming to life. Think of it like this, your day seems sour so you want to turn it around, you start small by sending an email, or making a phone call you need to get done, or even just doing the washing up, from then on in try to escalate each challenge, eventually who knows, you’ll find yourself making video conference calls with the chairmen of entire companies, or even redecorating your whole house, your limitations are up to you. But only if you decide to place them upon yourself.

J.D

Create your own confidence

2011-08-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

Having the confidence to take steps forward in life can be a daunting thing for some people. So today I’m going to delve into a bit about creating the type of confidence you want and deserve. First let’s debunk a myth; no one is simple born confident, confidence is built entirely through environmental preconditioning and mentality. What does that mean? Simply that anyone who is walking around with a large degree of healthy confidence has developed it through environmental interactions and their beliefs; a common environmental factor is succeeding in a sporting or academic background. The more a person feels their capabilities are superior or likely to be recognised positively, the more confident they are in performing them, this same confidence carries over to a small degree in everyday activity but is not the sole contributor. You see, confidence can be broken down into a number of categories, one being situational confidence, and another our wider day to day confidence.

To simplify things, think of it like this; you happen to be the best basketball player on your team and everyone knows it, you’re more likely to have the confidence to play those harder shots or make those drive’s to the basket, this is an example of situational confidence. Now chances are that you’re going to have reasonably well developed level of day to day confidence if you’re out there putting on a show on court right? Well this can go either way. Often individuals who feel they have an underlying imbalance will still tend to be less confident, because although they are good at basketball, they fall down when it comes to something else, like perhaps making conversation, and this makes them feel that their worth is less.

The key to developing confidence in a day to day situation comes down to your self-perceived worth. If you feel like what you have to say is not worth someone’s time, you’re not going to have to confidence to say it. Wow, sounds like a simple problem huh? Well it is, the problem is, people often talk themselves into believing it’s not, that perhaps they personally have a problem, and that maybe things are just hard for them because they are awkward. That’s not the case, the only problem is that you allow yourself to believe your worth is less than someone else’s, and nothing could be further from the truth, we are all individuals with unique and amazing qualities’. The problem is we forget we need to actually believe it. Where do you think all those corny “just believe in yourself” quotes came from? The reason they are there is because it is true. If you believe whole heartedly in what you do and who you are, then being confident becomes easy. So the next time your pondering whether to ask that girl out and wondering whether she’ll say yes, or your sitting thinking about if that guy you like and if he likes you back, remember, you define your own worth, your mind and your body will react to what you tell it to do, so start telling it that you are important and have a lot to offer the world. Because the truth is you are, you play a major role, no one can replace you. And there is something very gratifying in being 100% happy with whom you are. So why not start today?

Stay motivated, no matter the weather

2011-08-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

Motivation is an amazing thing; it allows us the capability to achieve far beyond expectations. It is an important part of every single aspect of our lives and furthermore, it is the ultimate tool for driving your desire.

I wrote previously about desire and its ability to drive you towards your goals. And it's true; desire is the measure by which you construct your dream life. However you cannot achieve your desires without first being motivated. A lot of you who read my article on desire probably walked away feeling highly motivated to start taking steps towards making your desires a reality, but probably after a couple of days, that original motivation will start to wear away and you'll be stuck in the same rut you began in. This is where motivation comes in. Now motivation is two parts mental and one part physical, meaning that you’re going to have to really work on the mental side of things to get good and constantly turning that motivation physical. Why? Well there are two psychologically recognized forms of motivation. The first is called intrinsic motivation, meaning an internal motivation, and the second is called extrinsic motivation meaning an external motivation. Now it's important to note that both are good, but entirely for their own reasons. Intrinsic motivation is internally driven, it comes from your own mindset and is entirely dependent on you feeding it with your desires and ensuring that you keep it positively driven. Extrinsic motivation is entirely external and is motivated from outside influence, this is things like someone offering you money or reward to do or achieve something at a certain level, or someone positively encouraging you to do something.

So how do you utilize these forms motivation as tools to aid you in creating your success? Well if your motivation is feeding your ability to manifest your desires then you need to constantly be using positive motivation to always stay ahead, if your motivation wavers, so does the level of likeliness that you’re going to be able to obtain your desires. This all sounds very straightforward but how do you put it into action?

The first step in defining your own motivational plan is determining what forms of motivation work best for you. If you find yourself to be less internally motivated and perhaps you speak negatively to yourself, extrinsic motivation may help but it’s not going to remedy the problem. The key is to use a healthy dose of internal and external to promote and optimum environment for you to stay motivated. Even the best of us get down some days, and that’s an prime opportunity to use extrinsic motivation as a pick me up, or perhaps you just need to give yourself that really solid pep talk before you commit to whatever the situation may be. Observation is a big part of this, the more you observe how you feel; the better you can diagnose yourself a motivational counter attack.

It’s important to remember that you can craft the life you desire, it’s all a matter of deciding how, what, when and where, and for you that time is now.

The design behind desire

2011-08-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Desire is a very controversial topic to some; they were brought up on that thought that desire is bad, gluttonous and controlling. On the other end of the spectrum is desire’s group of strong supporters of various types, the groups that have to have the latest material possessions or status symbols, and the people who use desire as a tool for driving their ambitions. Now none of these groups are overly bad, they all live according to their own beliefs, and as a fellow human being with my own strong beliefs, I welcome them to maintain them if they so choose to. However if I had to pick a group out of the three, I’d choose to be the ambition driven group. Simply put, desire is not something that deserves a social stigmatism; it is a necessary and useful device for driving success, rewarding progress and part of living a balanced lifestyle. Imagine a life without reward, where all your hard work and progress goes completely over looked! It doesn’t sound very appealing does it? Agreed? Well read on.

So how do you put desire to work? Well a lot of people seem to think they have a strong desire for something, and will try to work towards a goal driven by that desire, but in reality, their efforts are as flimsy as a piece of tissue paper in the wind. What really set’s the winners apart from the losers is how deeply embedded their desire is. You might aspire to be the world’s greatest basketball player, but if you’re not out there every day, eight hours a day, busting your ass and hitting those three’s, you can be damn sure someone else is, and that’s why their desire is going to take them further than yours. The point is, desire is about how hard you’re willing to work. That may sound bad to a lot of people who’d rather take an easier path, but the truth is that there is no easier path. You can be guaranteed that anyone in any place of power or status worked damn hard to get there. But in the end, all the hard work and effort was worth it. The destination was worth the journey, and the path to get there only strengthened their character. So decide to yourself, right now, is the destination worth it? If so then you need to take your desire and turn it into a mental ferocity that is going to get you there. There’s a reason people make reference to ‘staring into the eyes of a warrior’, as describing someone with an iron will. It’s because their desire and mental strength goes unmatched. So maybe it’s time you became your own mental warrior, and take what you deserve.

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Shape your life

2011-08-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

It may seem obvious to some, but you are solely responsible for shaping your life. Often people seem to think that some outside experience, person or object is going to come along and reshape their life, but the truth is, the only way to make things happen for yourself is to take responsibility for your own life. Becoming self reliant is a powerful thing, and it drives success. Not only will you become empowered, but by being empowered you will learn to manage all aspects of your life better. Remember, no –one can make you feel bad without you allowing it, and likewise you can’t allow yourself to progress without first allowing it through consciously taking action.

Gaining grace through gratitude

2011-08-04T05:20:00.000-07:00

In the pursuit of happiness we can often lose our way, rather than search for the affection’s of others through status and social progression, seek happiness internally, sharpen your mindset, so that each blade of grass, each caress of the wind and each sunrise is like an eternal bliss.

It may sound Zen, but achieving happiness through appreciating the finer details, doubles over when appreciating life’s finer things. Amazing comforts, great company and an extraordinary lifestyle.

Take a look at the beauty a single photo can capture, it is the essence of our creative selves that allows us to blossom.

photo ©Jared Dodgson 2011 (but your welcome to use it if you ask nicely)

Cope like a pro

2011-08-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

Often, things can seem too much, too overpowering or too stressful. It can make you want to scream. You feel congested and irritated and downright low.

Time to take a step back. Your mentality towards anything determines whether you’ll make it or not. If you’re over thinking or catastrophising a situation then the only real outlook is that you feel you can’t cope with the situation and are therefore becoming stressed, stop right there. Instead empower yourself, think as though you know all the answers or have all the coping mechanisms.

A study came out a while ago that illustrated mental role-playing works to help lower stress levels. So the next time your dinner catches fire, you should play it down as if you where a fire fighter and this was just another days work. Sounds easy right? Well why not try it in everyday life then. The next time someone’s arguing with you why not play the role of the cool calm negotiator or the sly politician. The sky’s the limit. So go out there and start role-playing.