1. Get The Work/Life Balance Right To Boost Your Confidence

    March 19, 2013

    life-work balance

    Getting the work/life balance correct is often seen as the best way of having a happy and healthy existence but sometimes it’s difficult to cut down on one so you can really enjoy the other. It can be stressful having to juggle too many things and often, as a result, we forget that our own personal happiness has been left on the shelf as we try to please as many people as possible.

    Confidence comes from within and if we’re not able to get the correct balance of who we are and what we do then feeling great about ourselves can often be something of an alien emotion. It is important to value who we are as well as being there for other people and by making just some minor tweaks to your lifestyle you can begin to feel confident and also look amazing.

    Below are five top tips for increasing your confidence levels with the minimum of time constraints and if you’re feeling blue or you feel like you’re slightly unbalanced then read on and see what can work for you.

    Fitness

    Keeping healthy through physical exercise is a tried and tested means of feeding your confidence levels. If you have a shower at work then why not use your lunch break to go for a run? Better yet, hit the local gym or swimming pool for 40 minutes per day and soon you’ll be toned up and blossoming with positivity. There are plenty of ways to get fit before, during and after office hours and just a few minutes each day can make all the difference to your confidence.

    Diet

    The old adage: we are what we eat, is completely correct but sometimes, when we’re chained to a desk or sandwich trolley, it can be tricky to find the right ingredients. With a little bit of time and will-power you can ensure your whole day can be catered for to increase your confidence and lessen your waistline. Stick to nuts, fruit and raw vegetables for snacks and avoid eating late at night. Give yourself a target but don’t be too harsh if you don’t succeed just try and try again.

    Living space

    From tidying up clothes from the floor to doing the washing-up, making sure we live in somewhere that is clean and tidy will work wonders for our confidence levels. Make sure you have a great vacuum cleaner and set aside an hour a week to clean your house or flat from top to bottom. You don’t have to spend the earth to ensure your living space is a representation of yourself but just throw those curtains wide and make the most of what you’ve got.

    Clothing

    What you wear says everything about who you are and how you’re feeling. Try brightening up your wardrobe and purchasing a few special items that make you feel exactly the way you want. Designer jeans, silky vintage lingerie, and that all-important pair of killer heels or boots are exactly what you should consider to help your confidence to flourish. Once you’ve found the right look for you then walk with your head held high and wait for the barrow-loads of compliments.

    Free time

    Lunch breaks, weekends, mornings and evenings, there are so many points in the day that should be reserved just for you. Fill your time with books, culture, physical activities and nature and before long you’ll be feeling great and espousing the values of life to anyone who cares to listen. Find a hobby, join a club or simply enjoy every moment because as soon as you start to get the work/life balance right then the sky’s literally the limit for your confidence levels.

     

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  2. Finding Motivation to get back in Shape

    March 9, 2013

    finding motivation to get fit

    by Ann-Marie Stephens

    Whether you are trying to lose weight or simply trying to stay in shape, finding motivation to do it is often easier said than done. This article will not only show you how to stay motivated long enough to achieve your goals, but how to find motivation for all your future goals and ambitions.

    Pre-Requisites to finding motivation

    Finding motivation to achieve any goal in life is like finding that all elusive secret. After all, motivation is the key ingredient to success. Have it, and you can achieve anything. Without motivation, even the most mundane tasks seem impossible. However, motivation itself requires two key ingredients; the will to adopt new approaches (having an open mind), and the need to succeed.

    Step one to finding motivation – replay!

    Most of us feel the need to get back in shape because someone important enough has taunted us a few times about our current shape or we have read some article about the effects of being out of shape.

    If it was a taunt, replay it in your mind again and again until you feel the anger growing within you and the need to do something about it. If it was some article you’ve read, think about the effects of being out of shape that were mentioned in the article.

    The very fact that you are on this page means you already have a reason to get back in shape – focus on it.

    Step two to finding motivation – get past the first week!

    Depending on how out of shape you are, your physical capacity and lung capacity might be severely limited. But know this: the body is very good at adapting. The second day is easier than the first and the third easier than the second. Day after day you will notice your capacity increasing. To begin with, concentrate on doing your exercises daily for one week. Start small and each day increase it by just a bit. By the end of the week you will be seven times better than when you started!

    Step three to finding motivation – Forget the past, start small

    Motivation often falters when we miss our initial targets. For example, when you last exercised, you might have been able to do 10 laps of the pool with only a mild sense of exhaustion. After a long break, start with one lap of the pool. The next day do two and the day after, do three laps and so on. You may think you can do three laps on the first day itself but don’t go for it.

    Step four to finding motivation – Pace yourself

    Remember to increment your exercise routine by tiny amounts. It may take you a tad longer to reach your goal but that is infinitely better than dealing with failure mid-way.

    Step five – Know where the peak lies

    In the example above, I wrote about increasing the exercise volume by a bit on a daily basis. Once you reach (say) five laps of the pool, continue doing only five laps for the rest of the week and then ask yourself how you feel.  Do you feel confident you can add one more lap and sustain it?

    Too many failures result from over-reaching ourselves. On a good day we might be able to do 7 or even 10 laps but that does not mean we can sustain it over a period of time. Knowing your limits is not only the key to staying motivated, it is the key to preventing injuries.

    Step six to finding motivation – Methodology

    Achieving a goal usually requires more than one step. Getting back in shape usually requires us to exercise and replace foods that contribute to the flab with foods that don’t. Measure your success by the completeness of your achievement.

    Step seven – Reward Yourself!

    Achieving all your targets for the first week is a major achievement. See that you give yourself a small reward.  The reward will make you feel good and also remind you of your success.

    Step eight – Sustain your activity

    Successfully achieving all your goals for the first week makes it much easier to continue because you now have the ‘know-how’ to achieve your goals. Remember, tiny increments or if you have reached your target, innovate and make your exercise routine more interesting. Reward yourself at the end of each successfully completed week or month.

    Ultimately motivation comes from the mind and our mind is extraordinarily powerful.  To stay motivated, you must want your target bad enough.

    Some readers had written to me previously saying that they do not think about the exercise while exercising. Instead, they concentrate on thinking about solutions to problems at office and before they know it, they have reached the end of the exercise routine for the day. Experiment around; discover what works best and helps sustain your activity.

    Author Bio:

    Ann-Marie Stephens is a co-founder of the Precise Portions, a dietitian-designed portion control dinnerware system that makes it easy to eat well. Taking the guesswork out of healthier eating; retraining you to eat the right amounts of the right foods, in the right proportion; improving chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease. You can find healthy eating information & practical tips on Precise Portions blog.

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  3. When Motivation Counts

    February 8, 2013

    Beautiful SkyHave you stopped to think just how short life really is? Do you realize that every day you spend worrying or feeling bad about yourself is one more day that you are putting off being happy? If you are ever to get the most out of life, now is the time to start. Is there a dream, purpose, or accomplishment you have desired for a long time? Then now is the time that motivation counts!

    What are the components of a life worth living? Many people would say that their relationship with their spouse and their children are an important part of what makes their life worthwhile. Do keep this in mind, though. Family life and marriage are not always easy. It requires that you put time in with those special people. It requires you to learn to be patient and keep your cool, too. Right now is the time to get motivated and start taking that weekly date with your spouse. Right now is the time to start having dinner with your kids and talking about their day. Now is the time motivation counts!

    If you’re single, you don’t have to give up hope. You can know that fulfillment, too. The person you eventually attract will depend a lot on the person you are. A good rule of thumb is to be the person you desire to make your mate. In other words, do you want someone who is patient and loyal? Honest and humble? Virtuous and hard-working? Then be those things yourself. Then get out there and meet people. Or go online. With today’s internet options, there is no reason everyone can’t find Mr. or Ms. Right. But now is the time to get motivated and work toward that dream. Motivation counts now!

    Another thing that makes life worth living is having the ability to have fun. This can mean having enough money to take vacations and the like, and with motivation, you might be able to have the money you want. However, if you don’t learn to relax and enjoy what you have, the money itself might never really bring you the fun you crave. An easy-going, up-beat, contented attitude goes farther than money when it comes to having fun. If you don’t have this type of outlook, then now is the time to get motivated and become more positive. Now is when motivation counts!

    Almost everyone is required to work in order to have food on the table and a roof over their head. If your job makes you miserable, then even with a great family and lots of fun, you’re going to be putting in forty hours a week of misery. How can you improve this picture? Do you need to look for a job in a different line of work? Or would a successful work-at-home business be perfect for you? If your income or work tasks are unsatisfactory to you, then it’s time to push yourself a little to make a change. Motivation counts now!

    So when does motivation count? Maybe a better question would be, when doesn’t it count?

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  4. 10 Grateful Steps to Happiness

    February 6, 2013

    Reprinted from PsyBlog at http://www.spring.org.uk

    Gratitude

    PsyBlog has gone gratitude-mad this week, what with reporting experimental evidence that practicing gratitude can increase happiness by 25% and reviewing ‘thanks’ , the book by the study’s author. To round it off here are Dr Robert Emmons’ top 10 tips for actually becoming more grateful, and consequently more happy.

    1. Keep a gratitude journal

    Sit down, daily, and write about the things for which you are grateful. Start with whatever springs to mind and work from there. Try not to write the same thing every day but explore your gratefulness.

    2. Remember the bad
    The way things are now may seem better in the light of bad memories. Don’t forget the bad things that have happened, the contrast may encourage gratefulness.

    3. Ask yourself three questions
    Choose someone you know, then first consider what you have received from them, second what you have given to them and thirdly what trouble you have caused them. This may lead to discovering you owe others more than you thought.

    4. Pray
    Whether you are Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist, a ritualised form of giving thanks may help increase gratitude.

    5. Use your senses
    80% of people say they are thankful for their health. If so, then get back in touch with the simple human fact of being able to sense what is out there: use your vision, touch, taste and smell to experience the world, and be thankful you can.

    6. Use visual reminders
    Two big obstacles to being grateful are simply forgetting and failing to be mindful. So leave a note of some kind reminding you to be grateful. It could be a post-it, an object in your home or another person to nudge you occasionally.

    7. Swear an oath to be more grateful
    Promise on whatever you hold holy that you’ll be more grateful. Sounds crazy? There’s a study to show it works.

    8. Think grateful thoughts
    Called ‘automatic thoughts’ or self-talk in cognitive therapy, these are the habitual things we say to ourselves all day long. What if you said to yourself: “My life is a gift” all day long? Too cheesy? OK, what about: “Every day is a surprise”.

    9. Acting grateful is being grateful
    Say thank you, become more grateful. It’s that simple.

    10. Be grateful to your enemies?
    It’ll take a big creative leap to be thankful to the people who you most despise. But big creative leaps are just the kind of things likely to set off a change in yourself. Give it a try.

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  5. Motivation – What Works For You?

    February 5, 2013

    Motivation

    Harvey Mackay, who wrote in a syndicated column for United Features stated, “People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be”.

    Those words ring so true for the Internet Marketer. As we battle daily the desire to create the lives of our dreams; writing ads, articles, blogs, press releases, etc. to convince others that the opportunity we present is wonderful. But in the early phases where generating traffic to these campaigns seems bleak, we wane in our confidence necessary to keep going.

    So I ask again, Motivation – What Works For You?

    Your motivation must be well defined, available immediately for review and mental action, so as not to be tripped up by missteps. Each task we accomplish does not necessarily reduce the horizon behind us. These however can provide education for later steps. To learn and understand the process helps to increase our future success. Not all of us will have the ‘luck’ that some do with their ad campaigns. The chance that our words are acted on right away and a sale is made is only a promise of all the ‘gurus’ out their selling the next “best system on the internet today”.

    For the vast majority, these numbers come along slowly. Potential purchasers on the web are out their. It is just not every day that they visit our scribblings. Constantly trying combinations of words in these campaigns that will eventually bring them our way is an arduous task. Those not getting sales may have given up too soon, or just never had the deep desire. Most information seekers ( these are what I believe are on the net ) are not “Wowed” the instant your campaigns are seen. However, there can be an attitude within your writing; combining words in ways that can be remembered.

    In the book ‘Positive Thinking Every Day’ written by Norman Vincent Peale, he stated, “In every difficult situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it.”  The value of the thought, to beginning each morning with the idea that today’s actions will be the ones that work, must not leave your mind. Just as stated earlier, you really must believe that you will be successful while you are working to be. We are told many times to see our ultimate dream; see it daily to remind our minds why. Without it, what path should be taken when several choices are presented, becomes arduous to choose? And no action is then taken.

    So I ask again, Motivation – What Works For You?

    Define them, what ever they may be, and make them a habit. You will see over time, those habits become natural, without thought, and your creative side will come forth. For no person was the best immediately. Your actions will define you. I will leave you with this final quote from Steven Covey from his book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

    “Between stimulus and response, one has the freedom to choose.”

    It is yours to choose, yours to embrace, yours to overcome. Success happens out there, not from behind the windows.

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  6. Quotes on Happiness

    January 31, 2013

    – There is no way to happiness, happiness is the wayBuddha

    – You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection

    – Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule

    by Buddha

    Dalai Lama– Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

    – Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

    – Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

    – My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

    by Dalai Lama

    95e39/huch/1887/3

    Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

    by Mahatma Gandhi

     

     

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