You Need Self Confidence

Dear loving people,

I received five good emails from some of you asking me to comment on Self Confidence. Thanks for those who made this request, Let me start by saying that Self Confidence is being at your best in the things you do all because you belief in who you are. For you to be at your best in the things you do, you’ve got to know what you truly want in life.

Get this from me, if a person has no idea at all of what they want in life; how self confident do you think they will be? Now imagine them by comparison to a person who is absolutely clear and has made well thought out decisions about what they want in life. Who has more self confidence?

It doesn’t matter how much you try to act confident or affirm to yourself that you are confident, if you do not take care of this area: “knowing yourself and what you really want in your life”, then you simply will not have excellent self confidence. This has been researched quite extensively in psychological studies and overwhelmingly conclusions have shown that people who have self clarity, a clear ‘self concept’ or ‘self identity’ have far greater self confidence than those who do not. Those who gain clarity about what they want, what their life purpose is and vision for their lives jump sometimes immeasurably in self confidence.

My message to you today is thus, simple but profound: Know What You Want. Do whatever it takes to really get in touch with your true, authentic self. That person, when you become fully aligned with them has all the confidence you ever need for anything you want to accomplish or do. Be the truest you and you will never feel the unconfident or insecure need to hide behind any behaviors or appearances.

Puff-Up Your Motivation Level

You need a high Motivation

Dear loving people, 

For how long has procrastination affected your life? If you find that you are procrastinating a lot on doing what you want in life, take time off to examine what is keeping you from doing what you need to do. Maybe you need to puff up your motivation level. You need to be motivated enough to push yourself to the finish. The shortest cut to overcoming obstacles is motivation.

For motivation to serve a purpose in your life, it must be backed by direction. Simply put, direction is having a daily strategy to your overarching goal. A lack of direction kills motivation because without an obvious next action we succumb to procrastination.

The key to finding direction is identifying the activities that lead to success. For every goal, there are activities that yield a result and those that don’t. Make a list of all your activities and arrange them based on results. Then make an action plan that focuses on the activities that lead to big returns.

Keeping track of your most important tasks will direct your energy towards success. Without a constant reminder, it’s easy to waste entire days on filler activities like email, and random web surfing.

Each time your motivation starts to diminish, you can regain direction by creating a plan that contains at least two positive actions. The first one should be a small task you’ve been meaning to do, while the second should be a long-term goal. For me, I immediately do the smaller task. This creates positive momentum. After that I take the first step towards achieving the long-term goal. Doing this periodically is great for getting out of a slump, creating positive reinforcement, and getting long-term plans moving.

It’s inevitable that you’ll encounter periods of low energy, bad luck, and even the occasional failure. If you don’t discipline your mind, these minor speed bumps can turn into mental monsters. Direction thus, enable you preserve your motivation and propel yourself to success.

There will come the time when those closest to you seem to be the most discouraging, remember that they have only seen you the way you have always been. They have no experience with the person you’re going to become. Fair or not, it is only human nature that we are judged and that we also judge others based on past experience rather than projections of their future potential. Some people may take these sentiments as unsupportive and extremely crushing to their confidence in proceeding.

If you fall into this category, you should have in mind the wise counsel of the Christian Bible in Matthew 7:6 "Never give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs. Otherwise, they will trample them with their feet and then turn around and attack you" (ISV). This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still pursue loving relationships with those around you, but you don’t have to constantly be laying everything out on the line for them to scrutinize, either.

Why make yourself vulnerable to those you know are not going to cheer you on? In this case, it is simply a matter of being careful and wise about whom you open up to. On the other hand, some people may find the obstructionist to be a serious motivator. Whatever works for you, go for it. Just make sure you keep the positive energy flowing.

Your Quest for Success Vs Salvation

Dear loving people,

Many of you have asked me what the connection between the quest for success and the quest for salvation could be. According to some, the quest for financial success is a kind of obstruction to the quest for salvation which seemingly is the most important in life.

 These are some of the issues we will be exploring deeper as we move along but then one thing is very clear and I must tell you. Riches are not and will never be bad; it is the usage of riches that could be bad. How you use your riches determines whether they are a blessing or a curse in your life. To you the Christian, do you know that Jesus Christ is the greatest Economist that ever lived? Who is an economist? Understand that as a human being, “you can’t think your way out”. Vernon Howard puts it beautifully below…

“You must face the absolute necessity of coming to the end of thought. Realize it is never going to do you any good at all to think your way out. If you will allow God to be your teacher instead of your thought, that is the prayer. No more trying to figure it out on the level of the intellect. You’re blocking the flow by trying to guide yourself. God will handle everything for me when there is no me to try to handle anything. Your pain is trying to tell you that you are wrong. Consent to inner transformation. Let go”.

If you don’t align your quest for success here on earth with your quest for salvation in the hereafter, it can be horrible on your side, the two go together. This might explain why Vernon Howard goes on to say you should not “…look to anyone else.”  He says that...

“Within you is a center that is not a part of this world. It’s real, permanent, but it is overwhelmed by your foolish desires to always be surrounded by people. It’s small and is bluffed and intimidated, and can’t grow. Be honest. Know that you can’t live without having a lot of other people around you, including friends and enemies in your own mind. You have to have that enemy. Everything you need is inside you. You don’t have to look to anyone else on earth.”

 

Hmmm… a little bit philosophical and confusing isn’t it? Especially as I talk of the notion of a Fulcrum Of Success. The Bible in Proverbs 16:1 - 3 (GNT) states very clearly that “We may make our plans, but God has the last word. You may think everything you do is right, but the Lord judges your motives. Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out.”

 

If your ACTIONS must have FAITH as underpinnings, that faith should center around your believe in God who must approve of what you plan to do on a daily basis to get successful.

4 Latent Success Habits in You. Develop Them!!

You need a FOS

Dear loving people,

I have observed the lives of successful people for a long time now, is it about Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Barack OBAMA, and you name them. They all have a few things in common. Reading through their stories, I kept wondering what makes them so different from others; I have tried to observe some of the winning habits that they have in common. Guess what, all of these four, are latent in you and you only need to develop them:

1.     They all have a goal at the center of their existence

I keep wondering how empty you can feel if you have no aim in life. In fact, you are lost if you do not have a particular destination to move towards. All the successful people I have observed have an objective, an end, a goal in mind. They know what they want out of this life and they commit themselves beyond imagination to achieve it. Guess what, they got it.

When you have a supreme goal in life, you have something to focus on. If you do not have a goal, you will be missing the target and lost in pathless woods. Having a definite objective to focus on, will guide you towards your final destination.

But, having a goal is not all that it takes. The journey towards your goal will be on a lengthy road paved with obstacles and so you need self-motivation. Most people, who started such a journey, gave up half way because they lacked self-motivation. Those who are highly motivated, have higher chances to break through those obstacles each time with revitalized energy.

You did basic mathematics not so? Here we go, always remember that Goal + Self-Motivation / Obstacles = SUCCESS.

This means that when you add your goal to your self-motivation and it is strong enough to overcome the obstacles you will certainly face, then you can be assured of success. The likelihood of giving up is drastically higher if your desire for success is not strong enough.

2.   They have a Fulcrum Of Success (FOS)

Your FOS could be made up of your family, friends, mentors, colleagues, or anyone who supports you and wants to see you succeed. It is easy to give up when you are alone on this journey. Form a FOS to help you along the way. Napoleon Hill calls it the Master Mind Group.

To form your FOS, select like-minded people who want to achieve similar goals. You need to choose your members carefully. Choose members who are positive, goal oriented and are pursuing similar goals to yours.

3.   Their time is everything

Time is one of our most precious resources. You can waste your money and still manage to earn it back but there isn’t any way for you to get back your time if you waste it away.

You have to be aware of how you spent your time. If you want to achieve your goals but you are spending 60% of your time watching TV and hanging-out (I learned this word the hard way) with friends, most likely you will miss-out on your goal.

Keep a time log. There are many mobile and web-based applications that can help you track where you are spending your time. I use Outlook to track my daily activities and how much time I spent on each activity and make the necessary adjustments when it calls for. If you are serious about changing your life and achieving your goal, spend more time on the essential tasks.

4.   They never give up

Except your life has an inbuilt computer precision (I doubt that) otherwise, it’s hard to hit the target with your first try. This is why successful people failed many times over and never gave up until they made it. There are many things that you don’t know how to do them and trial and error is one of the ways to help you pick up new techniques.

You can learn faster by trying faster and failing more times in a shorter period. You learn at a slower pace when you are too slow to take action. When you take timely action, you will learn at a faster rate and know what things work and what don’t. You can make the necessary adjustments along the way to make things right and move closer to your goal. If you are slow to take action, you jeopardize the whole process and slow down your progress.

You may face many frustrations during your learning process. However, Don’t Give Up. Keep on trying out new ideas that you had picked up. Keep doing those that work and kick away ideas that don’t work.

Now, do you want to make your dreams and goals come true in a simple, easier and faster way? Are you really serious to live the kind of lifestyle you desire and do you want to be more successful? With all these proven success steps that I provided, you will be able to achieve anything you want in your life...without sweat!