You know how sometimes things can just stick in your mind? Even things you’ve heard before? It reminds me of that old adage, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.” It’s as though you just weren’t ready for the deeper meaning of something to sink in until this moment.

Something like that happened to me over vacation. Although I’ve heard it before, this time it just stuck. And the phrase was: “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.”

It’s so simple. And I realized for the first time, (like I could kick myself for not thinking of this before!), that in some areas of my life, what I’ve always done is think the same thoughts. Or the same style of thoughts. So I come to the same old conclusions, with the same underlying beliefs and the same doubts and fears, and guess what? Same old results.

So I resolved to train my brain. Before you can get different results you gotta think different thoughts. And you’ve got to cultivate certainty. I’m hot on this one in my seminars. Elimination of doubt and cultivation of certainty about anything … and sure as eggs is eggs you’ll get what you’re certain of.

Do it with feeling. Real emotion. Get excited, anticipate a miracle. E-motion = energy in motion. Energy in motion is life!

So it’s best to be sure that you’re not certain that it doesn’t work – if you catch my drift.

To get what you truly desire, expect it with all your heart!

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It’s easy to feel cut off from the rest of the world and to even feel a little out of sync from those around you. You work hard but maybe don’t feel like you are achieving all that you should. It might be that you haven’t defined your goals clearly in your own mind before starting out. Think about it, if you had to go on a long journey, would you do so in a haphazard way with no idea of how to get there? It’s unlikely, so why set out goals that are going to impact your life but that haven’t been thought through properly?

Goal setting is powerful and it’s vital if you wish to have a successful future. It might sound old hat, but you need to create stepping stones towards your end goals as otherwise it’s an almighty leap to get to where you wish to be.

The problem of living without defined goals is that there will be too many distractions en-route and you will end up wasting time if you let distractions interfere with your designated journey.

Anyone who is successful in life would have had very clear goals set out either by them or in the first instance perhaps by an employer or someone who is a source of inspiration.

If you wish to create your own, you need to create your own visual picture of where you need to be. These can be long or short term projections but if you set several goals do make sure that they have to be realistic and achievable, otherwise you will only end up feeling de-motivated and cheated.

Remember, that your end goal is to be able to change your life and to live the lifestyle that you have always dreamed. Don’t sell yourself short by not going full out for your ambitions.

Think:

Career – How far do you wish to go in your chosen field?

Finances – How much do you wish to earn at each stepping stone point?

Knowledge – Is there any specific that you need to know before you start?

Of course, your own goals may be much more personal than simply career orientated but you should still set them out in the same way.

You know me, always trying to get your attention away from the down side of life and focus on the positives. Of course, life has its ups and downs – if it didn’t we’d all be bored beyond belief.

One way to get yourself into positive mode is to ask yourself good questions, but here’s one that may highlight how you sometimes get in your own way of having a good time. Ask yourself, “How good can I stand it today?”

Realize you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you believe you deserve. Could you allow yourself to receive a standing ovation just for being you? If not, why not? What would you need to believe about yourself in order to allow that to happen? Remember all those times you’ve given – your time, energy, wisdom, money and love … all those times you achieved something of value – learning a new skill, whether it be swimming, typing, riding a bicycle or playing a Mozart concerto – there’s only one you, and the world would be poorer without you.

Hark! Is that a ripple of applause I hear?

Smile. It’s beginning.

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One of the most difficult things to master in life is your own mind. Every one of us has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of thought patterns that repeat themselves over and over in our head.

Some of these thoughts are supportive of our goals and self esteem but many of them actually hurt us or hold us back.

Taking control of your mind and directing your thoughts towards the things you want in life can be a huge challenge. But when you are able to overcome the challenges and focus on the things you intend to create in your life, the results can be amazing and exciting.

Let’s say, for example, that you have had a lifelong dream of traveling the world for a year. You know that this would be a life changing experience that you would remember forever.

But then you look at your current circumstances and you see a laundry list of reasons why this dream could never come true: a good job you can’t leave, a lack of funding, commitments to family, friends, teams and organizations, etc…

Your mind immediately says, “this trip is not possible until you clear all of those obstacles out of the way.” You then realize that removing all of those limitations is next to impossible and even if you are able to remove them, new obligations/limitations will replace the existing ones.

At the same time, you could look at other areas of your life where you are able to make things happen that seem impossible: you meet a crazy deadline at work, you brave the snowy roads and somehow make 3 family events for Christmas, you get the kids to school and yourself to work despite a huge traffic jam and car problems. The point is, you are achieving things in your life, on a regular basis, that seem difficult or impossible when you analyze them. Yet you seem to pull them off over and over again because you had no other choice… you had to get these things done.

When you realize that you have this ability to make things happen and figure things out “on the fly”, you gain a new confidence that you can apply to even the biggest goals in your life.

So if your dream is to travel the world but there are a mountain of excuses stopping you, the real solution is to treat the dream as inevitable and start acting as though it is inevitable. It could start with a small action like doing research on places to stay in your dream locations or it could start with a huge action like buying plane ticket to the first country on your dream list. This first action will lead to another and like every other time in your life, you will figure it out as you go along only this time, instead of getting the kids to school or finishing that project at work, you will be fulfilling a lifelong dream!

Nowadays, everything’s being upgraded. No sooner have you got the latest gizmo, but the next one’s on the market. You load the swishest software out onto your trusty PC, and next thing you know, they’re emailing you with the latest upgrade.

It occurs to me that we hardly ever do that to ourselves, at least not unless we’re in crisis or something.

This weekend, why not email all your buddies, and tell them about improvements to the latest version of you? Still recognizable as the cuddly self they’re all used to, but with modifications now that technology’s improved.

Here’s some of mine:

1. The new me ponders longer than previous versions, coming up with deeper insights than before.

2. He smiles more often.

3. This latest upgrade refuses to worry. Instead, he regards everything as a challenge, a curiosity, or a weave in life’s rich tapestry.

4. He is less judgmental. He now sees others as reflections of himself, and if those reflections make him squirm, he adjusts himself, not the mirror.

If you take a look at your life and feel that it is somehow spiralling out of control and that despite working hard, your life is becoming an uphill struggle and any sense of recognition is sadly missing, then it’s time to re-evaluate.

Or perhaps the opposite is true, and nothing of any importance seems to happen. You are just ticking over, trudging along doing the same old thing day in and day out and getting nowhere, either way, you have to consider whether you wish to carry on in this constant treadmill of nothingness or plan to do something about it.

Life doesn’t hand out golden nuggets on a plate. Nor does it give you the recognition that you deserve or the promotion that you might have worked so hard for, and you may have noticed that life isn’t fair. Instead life is a myriad of twists and turns and if you had a well-thought out pathway, it could quickly lead you into a muddy quagmire and suddenly you are facing situations that you are just not prepared for.

If we are not careful, life can control us. We allow circumstances to dictate to us, we accept our lot because sometimes we don’t know any different. We don’t realize that we can actually make significant changes in our lives and carve out our own way in the world, because we are taught that we have to simply cope. Face those challenges and put on a brave face when things go wrong. But what if we wish to excel in our lives? What if we wish to be someone?

If you are experiencing a sense of frustration, of unfulfilled longing, a feeling of discontentment, don’t you owe it to yourself to make some changes?

If yes, then it’s time to take a good look at where you are at and where you wish to be. Grab every opportunity as it presents itself and give your life the massive shake-up that it deserves.