10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal
There are a number of factors that contribute to overall happiness and one is the development of habits. The very best and most useful habit is that of daily journaling. Back in the day, it used to be called a diary and started with the words “Dear Diary”. Today, it is used to record one’s self improvement and journey towards enlightenment or that place where one is at their very best. A daily journal can be a great tool to use on the path to achieve success.
A daily entry to your journal can be a simple account of the events that have had an impact or it can be a complex entry of self-discovery. To help you get started, if you have not already done so, try the following tips:-
- Record 6 things for which you are grateful, appreciative or thankful that are occurring right now.
- Record another 6 that are coming to you in the future.
- Keep a daily list of the prosperity or abundance in your life. This might be a simple as having a friend shout you a coffee or another driver graciously letting you change lanes. Keep tabs on them all and let your abundance grow before your eyes.
- Write about what you have done over the day, action that you have taken towards your life goal.
- List what you intend to do the next day, week or month and check back later to see how you went.
- Spend some time writing what you believe are your strengths and weaknesses and then write about how you intend to grow your strengths to outweigh your weaknesses.
- Record the occasions during the day when you have successfully shifted your feelings from not so good to better by recognising your not so good feelings and changing your thoughts at that time.
- Work out a set of questions that will help you to challenge yourself around your limiting beliefs. For example – “What am I doing when I find myself having an argument with my partner?” “How do I get into the argument in the first place?” “How can I avoid it?” This is just an example; you can use anything that you like. Just make sure that you do not let yourself off the hook.
- Use your journal to help you to visualise where you intend to be in life, in the next year, next five years, next ten years. Write in detail about how your life will be, how that will benefit you and the community and why you need to have this life. Regularly check back to see how you are going on your journey.
- List the random acts of kindness that you intend to perform in the next 24 hours and then check back each day to see if you did them.
Above all, have fun with this wonderful daily habit.
Act Or React – Decide For Yourself
The Global Financial Crisis is just one of a plethora of challenges to come along and put pressure on how people plan their lives and careers. There have been many such events including Swine Flu, Bird Flu, droughts and climate change and if you dropped your bundle with each of these your life would be wrecked. What I am getting to is about acting with intent to succeed rather than reacting each time just in case you are affected.
I am not suggesting that anyone should completely discount world events that cross our paths but we do all know that such things are likely to occur. When considering your life path, it is possible to take into account that major world events will occur and decide how you will cope with them. If you have a business that can be impacted, have some idea what you need to take into account. If your work takes you around the world or through airports, have something in mind for how you will manage that.
The thing is that reacting all of the time is not good in many ways. It is not good for your health and well-being; it is stressful and unpleasant for all around you. It is not good for business and it is not good for the whole Universe. Take the GFC in particular. Much has been said about how bad it is for businesses, how businesses are likely to go under and not recover, how high unemployment is and so on.
Now all of this is true for those affected but it is not true for everyone and all business. In fact, I am hearing from more and more business people that they have had the best turnover in this year to date that they have ever had! If those same people had listened to all of the doom and gloom, reacted to it and done things differently they may have had a very different outcome. It all comes back to making your own decisions about what you will so and when you will do it. Decide for yourself how you will engage with the information that comes via the media.
Act or react; it is up to you. Keep your eye on what it is that you want in your life and put your attention there rather than on any number of things that will occur regardless.
Can Entrepreneurs Learn From Confucius?
The teachings of Confucius have endured for centuries and remain influential in the thought and lives of many Asian people and other cultures around the world. Confucius was a philosopher who emphasised personal and government morality, justice, sincerity and virtuousness. I wonder what relevance the words of Confucius have to entrepreneurs in today’s world of immediate gratification, liberal morals and values and access to endless streams of information? Here is some of what Confucius had to say.
1. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop”. We live in a world of speed and instant access, yet it is common for entrepreneurs to have minimal business success, on average 17 times, before they reach the pinnacle of success. It really does not matter how long it takes, what matters is getting there in the end.
2. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do”. These words have been repeated by leaders throughout time, recently with a little variation by Sir Winston Churchill who said “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Hmmm, the power of great philosophy is that it never changes. Such good advice for any entrepreneur.
3. “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.” Looking inside yourself to find the strength and conviction necessary to achieve anything that you want is the foundation of modern personal development programs. Today, this philosophy is couched in such terms as “lead from the front” or “be the change that you want to see” and “the only person that you can motivate is yourself”.
4. “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” Today’s philosophers and guru’s talk about finding your passion, having a burning desire or 100% commitment, they could just as easily say “go for it, with all of your heart”.
5. “They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” And the baby boomers have thought that they had the premium on change with frequent comments that they are change weary or have endured too much change in their lives. Linking change to happiness and wisdom is a concept not often heard; yet any entrepreneur is likely to be living this reality. Others might choose to live a life with less fulfillment rather than face the change required to do something different. The idea of seeking wisdom and happiness through change is exciting and one of Confucius’ philosophies to be embraced.
6. “Things that are done, it is needless to speak about…things that are past, it is needless to blame.” You attract what you focus on and if you focus on past hurts or injustices then you will get more of the same. Blame is a negative emotion and if you focus on blame you will attract negativity. Instead, use what you do not want to get focused on what you do want for your future and speak about that.
7. “Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.” If you want to be successful, be in the acquaintance of successful people. If you want to be a millionaire associate with millionaires. You will learn much in the company of others and even more if you carefully select your role models.
Thousands of years ago or 2009? It seems that the philosophical teachings remain the same and entrepreneurs can continue to look to the Masters of every generation to learn and develop their own unique way of viewing the world and achieve success.
How do you embrace change and maintain 100% commitment to your business, even when the going is tough?
How are you using the present moment to prepare for your future?
Meditation Made Easy
People frequently tell me that they can not meditate, they have tried, can not do it and have given up. So they miss out on all of the benefits that meditation can bring. Learning to meditate is like learning to do anything else; you begin knowing little or nothing and practice until you can do it without thinking. Start right now, find out why meditation is worth doing and follow these five steps that will make meditation easy.
Recently I was working with a young woman who told me that she was extremely stressed and unhappy with her work. She said that she had no time to herself, no time to think and her mind raced constantly. In an average day she had information overload from the time that she woke until she went to sleep. She would rise in the morning to the television, took her iPod when she went for a walk, listened to the radio to and from work – you get the picture. Sound familiar?
To start, we found some time during the day when she had zero information flow. The TV was turned off in the morning and no radio in the car to and from work. Just quiet time to contemplate. We then moved to meditation. “Well”, she said, “I have tried that. I can’t meditate and I hate it.” Turned out she had launched into an hour long session, could only last a short while and decided it was not for her. An all too common a story.
What is meditation and why bother? Meditation is a process or technique that you use to clear and calm your mind. You can use meditation just for that purpose or you can focus your meditation on something that you desire such as prosperity or well being. Meditation has been scientifically shown to be a powerful healing tool and a self help tool for achieving stress reduction and better sleep. Many people enjoy the personal development, self awareness, inner peace and freedom that results from meditation. Successful entrepreneurs often claim that meditation creates clarity of mind which in turn effects their success.
So how do you meditate? The following five steps will help you to get started:-
1. Learn something about meditation, just as you would with any new pursuit. There is an unlimited supply of books, web sites, free classes and resources available. Start at the beginning and get to know a little.
2. Be very patient with yourself and release any expectations that put you under pressure to perform. In meditation you are quieting and clearing the mind but the mind may want to keep right on thinking. Be patient and just keep drawing your mind back to focus upon the meditation.
3. Start with a short time, try five minutes, and increase the length of time over a few weeks. Even a few minutes will make a difference so see step one and just be patient.
4. Before you begin to focus on meditation, I highly recommend the use of a relaxation audio program. You can download podcasts and other resources free, from meditation sites on the internet. Start with some of these and learn to relax and then lead into meditation. When you become adept with your meditations you will continue to commence every meditation with a short relaxation.
5. Try this simple meditation, starting with a short time. Get into a comfortable position; sit on a chair with your feet flat on the ground, try sitting cross legged on the floor or lie on your back well supported wherever you need it. Close your eyes and feel your body relax. Take several deep breaths and release your breath with a deep sigh. Relax more and feel the tension float away with every sigh. Now imagine that your body is a vessel full of water and feel the water draining from the top of your head down through your body to the soles of your feet. Just slowly, let it drain downwards and then feel it moving slowly from the soles of your feet to fill up your body, up to the top of your head. Feel this happening, imagine it happening and let it happen naturally. Should your mind wander off, just bring it back to the water and gently move back into the meditation. Do this for as long as it takes for your mind to give up and just be empty or for as long as you like. Each time, see if you can do it for longer until eventually you find your mind calms and stops thinking. At that time you will find that you can feel every part of your body at the one time. You should just feel that feeling for as long as it lasts or as long as you like.
Keep it simple! This is a great principle when learning relaxation and meditation. Be patient with your self and move to higher forms of meditation when you are comfortable to do so. You are your best teacher when it comes to meditation which is a great way to learn about yourself. Have fun, create yourself a little head space achieve success with meditation.
Five Success Strategies For Positive Thinking
Read any self help or personal development book and you will find advice to maintain a positive attitude and approach to what you are doing in life. However, the world that we live in abounds with negativity of one kind or another. Bad news stories apparently sell well and anyone is more likely to tell you about what is going wrong than what is going right in their lives. How do you become and stay positive and optimistic? It is possible; try these five tips for positive thinking.
1. Provide yourself with a weekly inspirational fix from a positive, self development source. You could consider subscribing to a journal of excellence such as “Success Magazine” or an online site such as Napoleon Hill’s Mastermind. You could spend some time on inspirational blog sites or buy/borrow books from such authors as Brian Tracy, Zig Zigglar or Jim Rohn. These great investments into yourself will help you to work with the only person over whom you have direct motivation – yourself. Invest in yourself to stay positive.
2. Commence a prosperity journal. Join those who keep a daily journal or diary and create the opportunity to look back over where you have been and how far you have come. This is a delightful way to track your progress and give yourself your own positivity fix. For this particular exercise, you do not even need much by way of equipment, expense or time, just a little discipline until you have created the habit. Get yourself a notebook and each day, at a time that suits you, make entries about the good things that happened to you over the preceding period of time. It can be as simple as having been shouted a coffee or someone let you into the line of traffic. If it was nice, then write it down, regularly read back over your lists and savor those moments. Soon they will become very common for you.
3. Move outside of yourself and do something for another person; a random act of kindness. Such acts will give you a feeling of well-being and satisfaction and it is hard to hold a negative thought while feeling this way. Do this as often as you possibly can and watch your positivity and optimism grow.
4. Play, have fun and enjoy yourself lots and often. Use as much creativity in this pursuit as you can muster up. Building your enjoyment in life and developing your creativity is a great thing even if you are not concentrating on becoming and staying positive and optimistic. It is just fun and I beg of you, try to be negative while having fun.
5. Seek out the positive in every facet of your life, but most importantly, mix with like minded people. If you are on the path to positivity it is much easier when you are with positive people. That may mean that you create a bit of space away from your negative friends and associates for a while until you are well and truly in your positive mind set. Once you are confident in holding your positive stance you will likely be a great influence on them and others around you. Being influential is great, go right ahead and enjoy it.
There are many, many other actions that you can take to gain and maintain a positive attitude and these five are great to start with. There is no need to overload yourself; if this is all that you ever do, you will find that it works. The trick of course is to be committed and consistent until you have embedded these as daily habits. Above all, enjoy the journey to positivity and have fun with these five tips.
