Ever feel like your dreams are never going to become a reality?

It’s not like you’ve completely given up on your dreams. You occasionally think about how awesome it would be if you achieved them, but there are so many other things in the way.

Your job. Your boss. Your kids. Your parents. Your finances. Your mortgage.

All of these problems… I mean, responsibilities.

So you’re afraid of taking the leap of faith.

Afraid of what people will think if you quit your job.

Afraid of going bankrupt.

Afraid of falling behind in the rat race.

Afraid of not being able to provide for your family.

Afraid of not living up to the expectations of others.

Afraid of not living up to your own expectations.

Afraid of failing.

No one wants to be irresponsible, and everyone feels afraid sometimes. But does that mean it’s impossible to realize your dreams?

Of course not. The Michael Jordans, Steve Jobs’, Oprah Winfreys and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world show us that dreams can come true.

“But those people are so much more talented, so much more charismatic, so much luckier than me… I could never be like them,” you might be thinking.

It’s true—you might never be like them. Your dream might not be as big or impressive as theirs.

Your dream might just be to own a house. It might be to start a flower shop. It might be to write a novel. It might be to send your kids to college.

It’s not the size of your dream that matters. It’s the pursuit of your dream that turns your life into a thrilling adventure, an exhilarating story. That’s what really matters.

In this post, I’m not going to tell you about the huge changes you need to make in your life in order to achieve your dreams.

Instead, I’m going to share with you what you ought to stop doing. These are things we all do on occasion—things that quietly sabotage our dreams, sap our energy, and make us less alive.

Don’t do these things:

1. Say “I wish” or “I hope”: Whenever you do this, you put yourself in a mindset where the situation is beyond your control. What you can do as an alternative is turn your wishes and hopes into goals. For example, don’t say, “I wish my boss would give me flexible working hours.” Instead, set a goal that you’re going to have a conversation with your boss within the next three days about establishing flexible working hours. When you set goals, you choose to focus on what you can do to improve your circumstances, which is very empowering.
2. Complain: This is a favorite pastime for many people. There are always things to complain about: the weather, the economy, the healthcare system, the guy who sat next to you on the bus and hummed a really annoying song… but when you complain, you’re not making your circumstances any better. Instead of complaining, think about the many things you have to be grateful for. I recommend wearing a rubber band around your wrist. Whenever you’re about to complain, snap the rubber band as a reminder not to.
3. Blame others: If you want to achieve your dreams, you’re going to need to take full responsibility for your life. That means no blaming your parents, friends, relatives or bad luck for where you are in life. Recognize that some things are beyond your control, but take responsibility for the way every situation turns out.
4. Think of reasons why you shouldn’t take action: There will always be plenty of them. Think of all the positive things that might happen if you take action today.
5. Settle: Settling for second best is a sure way to prevent yourself from reaching your dreams. This applies to your relationships, finances, career and physical health. Decide that you’re going to create a masterpiece out of your life. Don’t give in to the allure of a comfortable but mediocre existence.
6. Procrastinate: You can probably think of at least one thing you can do immediately that will bring you closer to your dream. There’s never a perfect time to take action, so do what you can right now.
7. Hang out with toxic people: It’s been said that you’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. Hang out with negative, critical and judgmental people, and you’ll become just like them in no time. Those aren’t traits you associate with people who make their dreams come true.
8. Say “I should”: When you say you “should” learn a new language, start writing a book, or go for a public speaking course, it’s unlikely that you’ll actually do it. Say, “I choose to” instead. This makes you realize that everything in life is a choice. You really do have the power to choose, and to turn your dreams into reality.
9. Compare yourself to others: There will always be people out there who are better looking, smarter and more capable than you. But you’re not trying to achieve their dreams; you’re trying to achieve yours. Think about the characteristics that make you special and unique, and about how you can use them to accomplish your dream.
10. Watch so much TV: The same applies for going on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you’re not careful, these can become major time sucks. Most surveys show that the average American watches more than four hours of TV a day. I hope that statistic scares you. Imagine how much you closer you could get toward achieving your dream if you spent those four hours every day doing something more fruitful. I’m not suggesting that you go cold turkey, but set a daily limit for yourself and use a timer to make sure you stick to that limit.
11. Say “I don’t have time”: Do you make time to watch your favorite TV show? Do you make time to update your Facebook status? Do you make time to eat? We all make time for the things that are important to us. If you find yourself saying you “don’t have time” to do something you know you ought to, you need to reorder your priorities.
12. Say “yes” to everyone: Many people find it impossible to say “no” to requests and opportunities, even ones that aren’t in line with their values and goals. If you say “yes” to everyone, you’re effectively settling for good, when what you really want is great. The path of greatness is the path of intentional abandonment of everything good, in pursuit of only the best. Think carefully before agreeing to any request.
13. Try to be perfect: I’m not perfect, and neither are you. Accept yourself fully—achievements, strengths, weaknesses, failures, flaws and all. You don’t have to be perfect to realize your dreams, but you do need to be committed to personal growth. You can only begin that journey when you accept yourself completely for who you are
14. Try to please everyone: Like the saying goes, “You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Your dreams are personal. You’re not pursuing them to garner applause from the people around you or from society. Don’t make the mistake of trying to make everyone happy, because that’s impossible. So don’t even try.
15. Deprive yourself of sleep: When you don’t feel your best, you’re more likely to make impulsive decisions that aren’t in your long-term interests. If you want to achieve your dreams, you’ll definitely have to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain. If you’re sleep-deprived, you probably won’t have the willpower to make the right decision.

I haven’t achieved all of my dreams. Far from it, in fact.

I do know, however, that pursuing your dreams isn’t easy. Somewhere along the way, you’ll want to quit. You’ll want to run away. You’ll want to go back to your comfortable, familiar, boring life.

But I beg you not to. The world needs adventurers who are fully alive. Most people are barely surviving, barely making it through each day. Don’t be one of them.

Dream big. Start small. Act now—right now.

Images of dull, lazy people ran round my head, people who never get round to anything, people who have no sense of drive or ambition. Imagine. How awful.

This is not what I was expecting from this session and it certainly was not what I wanted to hear. Coaching sessions are about goal setting, surely. And this is the part of me I like, I thought, the best of part of me, the part that dreams big, the part that makes things happen. Why on earth would I want to let go of that?

Although at the back of my mind, I knew this is also the part of me that causes the stress: high expectations of myself, wanting everything done now and other lovely ‘Type A’ traits.

And I am a good student, so I forced myself to stay open-minded, to understand what letting go would actually mean – before I dismissed it as hippy nonsense.

‘It’s about not being attached to the outcome,’ Kelly continued. ‘It’s about being present and being happy whether you achieve your goals or not.’ My radar registered the word goals; I felt myself relax.

We wrapped up the session and off I went with my homework of letting go! Kelly had suggested watching The Peaceful Warrior as a starting point. At only £6 and 120 minutes, I decided I didn’t have much to lose. But I wasn’t expecting to gain much either. I love the world of personal development – I read loads of this stuff, as if this was going to throw up anything new (I know – the arrogance).

The Peaceful Warrior

I got myself comfy, looking forward to ticking done on my homework list. The film – based on the book Way of the Peaceful Warrior – is about a young, arrogant, talented gymnast, who gets good grades, all the hot girls and is training for the Olympics. But whilst on the outside Dan seems to have it all, inside this is not the case. He meets a mysterious stranger – who he refers to as Socrates – who ends up becoming his mentor, showing him a different way to live. This becomes even more challenging when Dan has a serious motor bike accident which threatens his whole way of life. But with the help of ‘Socrates’ he learns to let go of the person he thought he was and start living in a completely different way.

I got to the end of the film and wasn’t even sure if I’d got the key messages, surely they would be bigger I thought, surrounded by flashing comic book style lights or something, more obviously life changing.

Off I went thinking I’d enjoyed the afternoon and I would try to live in the moment a little more. Yada. Yada. Yada!

Oh how naive I was. I can’t believe how different life feels after what appears such a small and subtle change.

Living in the moment

I am making a conscious effort to live more in the moment, be present, enjoy the journey and not just focus on the destination, or whatever other personal development cliché you would like to throw into the mix.

And just like Dan continues to train as an Olympic athlete, I continue to work towards my goals: the relief, I haven’t turned into a lazy slob!

But I am definitely calmer and less stressed. If I feel worried about something in the future and I feel my mind starting to spiral, processing what ifs, running scenarios at an alarming pace, I bring myself back to the present moment; and I am more focused on enjoying the activity that I am doing, not just thinking about the result.

I have had some health challenges and been on a bumpy recovery journey in the last seven years (I am recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome); I am a ‘professional’ tester of therapies and techniques – physical, psychological and emotional. And I am always intrigued to see what works and what doesn’t. I’ll try anything (I even bought some crystals recently…) and sometimes it is the unexpected that has a huge impact. And I strongly believe that staying open to new ideas has been a fundamental part of my recovery.

Sometimes simple changes can have a huge impact

And as the wellness light shines brightly, beckoning me to leave the tunnel; as I continue to get stronger and enjoy the delicious feeling of being healthy, I am surprised something as simple as becoming – or at least moving towards being – a ‘Peaceful Warrior’ is one of the last pieces in my recovery jigsaw.

The biggest challenge for me is not being attached to the outcome of being 100% well, but rather to celebrate how far I have come and enjoy my life as it is now; it’s like the dieter who believes they will only be happy when they lose that last seven pounds. This isn’t about giving up the goals but about loving life anyway whether or not I achieve my goals.

I know it sounds simple writing it down and as with anything it takes work and practice. But if I as a self-confessed stress head can make headway on this, I am confident that anyone reading can.

So I leave you with this, my fellow personal development junkies: next time it is tempting to roll your eyes at a clichéd suggestion, take a step back and truly ask yourself whether there is anything there for you. When we are open, try something new, we just never know…and if that one isn’t for you maybe the next one is.

If you fancy joining me on my reinvention tour you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

My coaching sessions are with Kelly Oldershaw at Get Your Life Back from M.E.

Making an effort

Making a beginning is worthy of praise. If you are in the habit of striving for things you want, you have a lot more courage than than those who just dream. You are way more likely to succeed. But, praiseworthy though it is, making an effort does not guarantee success. It is just a beginning. When you start, there is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. As you move on this journey, the initial enthusiasm wears away and the effort becomes routine. Once this happens, the real test starts.

When the effort loses its novelty, it is not, in fact, a bad thing. I see this as nature’s way of helping us on our journey. We get to know whether we really want what we want? Past the initial enthusiasm, the only reason you can continue is if you genuinely want what you are after. If you don’t want it, there is really no point continuing. It was most probably a passing attraction, not something you want from your heart.

Are you ready for all the effort required?

There can be another reason for losing enthusiasm, maybe it is only now that you realize the amount of effort required and feel overwhelmed by it. If you leave because of overwhelm, that is OK too. Don’t beat yourself up for it. You probably are not ready for it yet. The time will come, have faith.

The above reasons apart, if you really want to have the object of your desire and are not intimidated by the effort, you will have to learn showing up on bad days. If you think you can give in once and then continue later, you are deceiving yourself. It will not be the same again. When you slip once, it opens the floodgates for more such instances. Your resolve and confidence crumble before your very eyes.

Learn to show up. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. It’s OK to not do your best every time. Success requires you to show up, not to give the same performance every time. We are humans, not machines. We have ups and downs in performance. It may be good to strive for consistency but obsessing over it can leave you with frequent feelings of guilt.

While there is a sense of achievement in planning for something and being successful at it, life is also an adventure in which we have to be ready to let go and take things as they are. Just show up every time, make your best effort and then let things be.

2. Shift focus. Make your bad day a ‘change day’. Shift your focus from achievement to enjoyment. Focus on enjoying what you are doing. It will be a pleasant change and it may also give you some new insights about the way you approach your work. You will see things from a different perspective. Sometimes, this helps people break a plateau in their performance and enthusiasm.

3. Allow yourself more frequent breaks. Try taking more frequent breaks. Usually, I work with Pomodoro blocks, that is 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest. On the days I am not in the mood, I start off without a clock and may do 10-15 minutes blocks with 20 minutes breaks between them. I do way less than my capacity but I don’t give in to the urge to leave either.

4. Once in a while, let go totally. Once in a while, I think it is good to leave your work totally for a day or few days. This is not the same as leaving because of lack of desire or overwhelm. Here you only let go temporarily to allow for replenishing of your energy reserves and enthusiasm. Such ‘total let gos’ add balance to life, they are the ‘yin’ to the ‘yang’ of hard work. When you work too hard on some days, it makes sense to go to the other end and allow yourself big surprise adventures once in a while.

*****

Show up, tire yourself out regularly. You will see the limit of your potential and can plan accordingly for optimal performance. Not only that, when you regularly push yourself to the limit, you start stretching your limits further, your potential starts growing!

High Achievers don’t do clutter

You may have an untidy desk or a bit of chaos in your wardrobe, but that’s not how a High Achiever lives. High Achievers have clear minds, clear thoughts and clear desks, ready to go. They haven’t got ‘Tidy my desktop’ on the top of their ‘to do’ list, they’ve got ‘Meet Mr. A regarding sales program’. What could you do to start getting rid of your clutter? How could you clear your mind to be ready for action? What would you achieve first once you were on the start line?

High Achievers don’t drift

When we think about success and the times we’ve been successful, we’re usually thinking about the goals we’ve set and completed and the things we’ve achieved. These goals can be large or small, it doesn’t matter. The success comes in having set and achieved them and, also importantly, noticing that you’ve achieved them. If you make a plan and follow it through, you are and feel successful. The next time you’ll set a bigger goal. I’ve had participants at Life Clubs workshops who feel lost in life and it’s because they haven’t taken the time to decide what they want to do next.

Knowing what you intend to do is the route of the High Achiever. They know that having a goal is essential, that the focus needed to achieve that goal feels good and that the discipline of achieving a goal boosts confidence. High Achievers aren’t afraid to break their goals down into small steps so they can get them done, and they aren’t afraid to plan well in advance.

High Achievers don’t sit on the couch

Unlike the rest of us, High Achievers don’t waste time procrastinating. It’s easy to get hung up on having to do something perfectly or be overwhelmed by the task in hand, but just get on with it. We may spend hours surfing the net, chatting on the phone, waiting for people and in general distracting ourselves from the task in hand, High Achievers will get on with things – if there’s a reason that they have to do them – or they’ll delegate. They don’t hang about waiting for life to happen, they make it happen. Ever heard a High Achiever say ‘I’ll do it in a minute’ or ‘I’ll do it in five months’ or even ‘I’ll do it in five years’. Stop putting off your life. Do it now.

High Achievers don’t focus on failure

How easy is it to focus on what’s gone wrong? Very. But High Achievers think about what’s going right and build on that. Even when things go ‘wrong’, learn from your mistakes. Like a High Achiever, focus on whether your failure is real or not. Maybe your painting didn’t sell at that gallery, but how many people get the chance to be in an exhibition. Maybe your cake didn’t rise as you wanted it to, but your friends had a great evening. You’re a High Achiever already. Focus on those achievements.

High Achievers also focus on how they’re going to think when they have reached the pinnacle of their career, when they’re feeling really successful. Every time they need to make a decision, they think about how they’d make it if they were already really successful. You’d be surprised at what decisions that High Achieving you will make.

High Achievers don’t slouch about in jogging pants

After I’d had my third child we moved from the rural suburbs into Central London. I was walking down my street one day, pushing my buggy and surrounded by children, when our refuse man came up to me and, with the best intentions, told me to ‘smarten up’. ‘You’re in London now’, he said, ‘You can’t walk around looking that casual’. It was a wake-up call. I’d felt a High Achieving mother, but suddenly realized that the rest of my life was going nowhere.

I started observing how other people looked and began to imitate them. I’d check out what outfits they were wearing and read lots of fashion magazines until I’d found my look. It may sound superficial thinking about dress and physique, but it’s vital. When did you last see a High Achiever with so much as a hair out of place? Our clothes, shoes and indeed our body say a lot about us. What do you think your appearance is saying about you right now?

High Achievers don’t beat themselves up

Working with a High Achiever the other day, he told me his name was James, but he asked everyone to call him ‘Jimmybiz’. He knew he was ‘the business’ and he wanted everyone else to give him the respect he felt he’d earned. High Achievers aren’t modest. They don’t hide their light, they let everyone know how good they are. On a big scale they enter themselves in competitions – just how many awards can I win? And on a small scale they pump themselves up by noticing every compliment they get, every small thing they achieve.

High Achievers don’t read autobiographies

It’s a real ‘No No’ to compare yourself to others. You may think it’s motivational to read Donald Trump’s autobiography to learn from him, but there’s learning and learning. If you’re learning about the characteristics you share with the Trump to boost your confidence, that’s one thing, but if you’re feeling ‘How come he’s successful and I’m not’, put the book down and start focusing on you and everything you’ve achieved. It’s so easy to blame ourselves when we compare and then we start feeling the very debilitating envy.

Another reason not to compare is that your values may be very different from the person you’re comparing yourself to. Someone at Life Clubs said she wanted to be fantastically wealthy and yet two of her main values, equality and charity were opposed to personal wealth. Would being wealthy make her feel successful? I don’t think so.

Instead flip it around. What can you do that they can’t? And, if you don’t know the answer to that, find out. Being a High Achiever is all about knowing your skills and appreciating and using them.

High Achievers don’t burn themselves out

It may look as if High Achievers sometimes forget to breathe as they rush around making things happen, but they relax as ‘hard’ as they work. And that’s what you’ll have to do to sustain a high energy performance. Eat healthily, remember to take days off work, keep super fit and learn to enjoy relaxing as much as you do working. Now you’re achieving!

1. Believe in your own success.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

If you DON’T believe in you own greatness, who will? If you think you can succeed then you can. Your belief in your own ability to achieve is essential and will motivate you to keep going.

You have to listen to the little voice in your head that whispers possibility. You have to look yourself in the mirror and say I can. You have to hold onto whatever belief system that is EMPOWERING and move forward.  You can’t allow negativity or procrastination to hold you down like a linebacker. You have to constantly surround yourself with your dreams. This consistency of mental pictures, words, affirmations, positive associations, and a whole jeep of things will drive you to believe in yourself. Once you believe, then it’s on and popping like popcorn.

So develop a belief in yourself! Learn to motivate yourself and pump yourself up. In the end, all you’ll ever have is yourself. Once you conquer the man or woman in the mirror that tells you, you CAN’T, then you have already won. The next thing you need is to PERSEVERE.

2. Never Give In.

“Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.”

Persistence may not make you smile from head to toe. It may not make you jump up and down or make you scream out, ” BIG DADDY! I’M HOME,” but persistence has the key that unlocks the door. Inside you will see the wonders of your success that you deserve to receive only after you have stayed on the path long enough to obtain them.

If you fail, what do you do? You dust yourself off and try again. The success you are looking for won’t come that quickly – a pretty likely scenario – then you has to persist.  Persistence TEACHES patience, faith, your ability to enjoy the moment and understand internally that your success will come when the time is right.

Success never comes when you want it to.  It comes when the time is right. So persist until your stars align and god opens the path for you.

3. Take Baby Steps

To get from point A to point B you have to take baby steps. You can’t expect to reach your goal of being an international star  in the next 6 hours. Imagine being on a bridge. On one side is your achievements and the other side is where you are. Getting from point A to point B will take time. You won’t make it in a day. But walk that bridge for a week and half; you’ll see that you’ll be further than where you are now if you just stayed in one place.

Here is what you can do

A. Set a deadline

A deadline prevents you from procrastinating. Many people are stuck in procrastination mode. They love to procrastinate and they love to procrastinate. Do yourself a solid favor and make a deadline for your achievement. A deadline will keep you motivated, prevent procrastination and move you towards your dreams much faster than not having one.

B. Mental Visualization

Athletes do this all the time. They see the result they want clearly and rehearse it over and over again. This shatters doubt, limiting beliefs and builds extreme confidence. Visualization builds a knowing that your success will occur. See what you want and put yourself in the picture.

C. Take 100% Responsibility

Once you take 100 percent responsibility for your life; you become empowered and less frustrated. Because, you’ve become the CEO of your life.

D. Focus on Important Tasks

Don’t focus on the things that DONT matter. Focus on the Things that DO! For example: if you’re a writer, the only thing that matters is the material you create. All the facebook chatting, twitter tweets or blog comments mean nothing if you don’t have GREAT material wrapped from your heart.  Focus on the important things. Remember, You’re too Blessed To Be Stressed.

College Graduate

Liquor drips from her lips and her tears meet the pavement at the same time.  Celebrations of success couldn’t have come any sooner. No longer forced to live with her parents, she is on the road to independence. The alcohol is just a symbol of leaving the past and living in her present moment of glory. Champagne bottle depletes and more pop out from the freezer. Hands of relatives and friends jump for joy over her success. She finally made it; college graduate with a Master’s in Psychology.

The ceremony was wonderful and her classmates were all dressed sharper than a thumb tack. Women wore dresses the color of rosemary gardens, blue tie dye denim, oatmeal mealiest meals, purple perplexing passion, grape grandeur graves, cinnamon toasted lunch, turquoise Power Ranger lasers and
orange banana peel nutmeg. Suits clasped around the necks of hefty young men who were all the more excited to embark the new world.

Relatives found close seating. When their sons’ names were called out, all you could hear were the roars of excitement that leaped from their tongues. Her mother snapped more pictures than a porn site and her father did the same. The family gathered at her home and forks never left her mouth. She stuffed her face with lasagna, salad, corn bread, honey ham, turkey, rice, peas, macaroni and cheese and a list of other food this author had to stop naming because he was getting hungry.

Her neighborhood is surrounded my men who spout liquor out into the streets for those deceased and women of all different shapes, colors, sizes. Her vision used to be smog infested but after her mother died of a heroin overdose she realized she had to set an example for her little brother; he was only five
years old. She realized life is what you make of it and she didn’t want to be a statistic, but an example. She never gave into her environment and she never gave up.

FIVE SIMPLE TIPS CONT…

4. Just do it.

Sitting around the house day like a bum does nothing. You can’t achieve anything on your bed, couch or carpet. You have to get to work and create. Whatever you have chosen to pursue in your life, JUST DO IT. Don’t over think your way to success. This does nothing. Shut off your brain, take shower, put on your clothes, brush your teeth and just do it!

Sometimes our thoughts keep us from achieving because we over think and over analyze every situation. We prevent ourselves from achieving by instilling fear, there for instilling doubt into our own hearts rather than courage.

No matter how much you think, you NEED to take action.  Developing a just do it mindset takes times. But can keep you from falling off the cliff of achievement in no time.  It will prevent you from wasting time and falling short in all aspect of you life!

Right now, take out a sheet of paper and write down a list of BENEFITS you will RECEIVE from taking action. Hold onto this paper and use it as Motivation when you don’t feel like doing anything. This helps alot!

5. Think good thoughts. Refuse to give attention to evil thoughts. Think GOOD Thoughts. Refuse to engage in masochistic ideologies and concepts of a murderous kind. These thoughts drain you and prevent you from moving forward with your life. It’s best to focus on the present moment, feel good, laugh, smile, work, giggle and bust ya derriere working hard! Too many focus on what thought they are thinking. Just FOCUS on feeling good and good thoughts will come to you. With good thoughts, you are motivated, excited and enthused. And no great task was achieve, no one cultivated GREATNESS
without ENTHUSIASM.  Be happy now my friends.

If you found this article helpful, please share it with someone else on Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon. Thank you very much! =)

What do you believe in? What are some of your dreams? Are you just doing it?

‘The world is governed by imagination.’ Napoleon Bonaparte

John Lennon challenged us to imagine. Walt Disney inspired us with his imagination that all began with a mouse. Monet forced us to see new visual interpretations as he splashed colour on to the canvas with his imagination. Beethoven filled us with awe as he scratched notes on to a manuscript with his imagination.

Great buildings were designed and constructed as a direct outpouring of someone’s imagination. Imagination created the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, and so much more. Our world is full of the manifestations of someone’s imagination.

So my question to you is this – how are you going to tap into the power of your own imagination to govern your world?

Don’t allow the imagination of others to rule your world. Take charge – for you have sufficient imagination to take full control of your own life.

‘Govern Your World’ Strategies

Here are few strategies that have helped me, and they might just inspire you.

Lock yourself away. That’s right. We live in such a distractive world fuelled by technology that no serious imagination can be tapped into if you are constantly interrupted by life’s noise.

There are a range of ways you can do this. Here are a few that have worked for me…

A. Hire a motel room for 3 days and take with you a personal development book that asks you lots of questions to spark a conversation in your brain. Also take with you a notebook and pen if you like to write, or a sketchbook if you like to draw. Maybe you would like to record your voice or even video yourself as you speak out your imaginary ideas.

A couple of books that I can highly recommend for this exercise are:

• The Magic Of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

• How to be Happy Though Rich By Peter Daniels

B. Take yourself to a quiet coffee shop for 1 to 2 hours each morning before you go to work and begin the process of designing your life by tapping into your imagination with the above tools at hand.

C. Spend time interacting with nature by taking long bush walks. Keep a notepad or your smart phone handy just in case and idea suddenly surfaces.

D. Read with purpose. Before starting to read a personal development book ask yourself the question: ‘What one idea in this book am I seeking to discover that will spark my imagination?’

E. Identify your passion and ask yourself, ‘If time and money weren’t an option how could I use my passion to make the world a far better place? What can be my contribution?’

F. Use this question when you start to imagine – ‘What if…?’

G. Read autobiographies about other imagin-eers and say, ‘If they could, then why not me?’

H. Interview those who are living the life you aspire to live and ask them to tell you their story – of where they were and how they got to where they are today.

Turn your imagination into imagin-action as soon as possible. Dreams are to be acted upon. Remember that ‘to begin is half done’, and as I read recently ‘the bad news is that time flies, but the good news is that you are the pilot’.

You are the governor of your world by tapping into your imagination.

Be the imagin-eer – the builder of your dreams and the creator of your extraordinary life.

Let me ask you a question: Imagine where you will be in 5 years. Where will that be?

Motivational Memo: To imagine is to conceive, and to believe is to give birth to great achievements.

Just imagine accomplishing one goal-oriented activity every day. Five activities every week. Twenty things done every month. You will be impacting your life and your career in a really meaningful way. Without even realizing it, you will be moving closer and closer to your goal. That’s the magical power of the Rule of One.

But… isn’t that just the way life is? There is always a “but.”  That but is – I’m so busy.  I have so many distractions.  I have so much to do. So many people need me, interrupt me, have expectations of me. I often can’t find the time to do anything for myself.

Well, stop your hemming and hawing and your shilly-shallying. No sympathy for complaining or making excuses. The Rule of One makes it so easy. It’s magical because it helps you gain control. It’s there to help you change your reality. It’s an approach that is used every day by the successful people around you. They’ve found the way to stop the wheel spinning and get back on the road to making things happen. Here is how to take back control of your life so you can start realizing the dreams you have for yourself, for your professional life and for those who depend on your personal success.

Try this. For a short period of time every single day, shut down your communication links.  Put your cell phone on mute. Minimize your e-mail. Don’t check twitter or text. Close your door. And simply eliminate any and all distractions. You can do this. We’re talking about time for you. And not a lot of time, say half an hour or an hour.

When I’ve suggested this during my seminars you’d think I was asking people to give up their first-born child. “That’s impossible!” they’d shout out. “I need to be accessible.” “My clients expect me to respond immediately.” “My boss would have my head.” “There could be an emergency!”

Let’s be honest, if there really was an emergency, believe me, you would be found. But the key concept here is that you have no choice. You must make time to focus on those things that really matter to you and move yourself closer, even by a fraction, to achieving your goals. This is about you. Why not be serious about getting yourself to where you really want to go? Why not?

This brings me to a story that I attribute to the infamous Dale Carnegie. There once were two woodchoppers working side by side. One woodchopper chopped wood diligently all day long. He started chopping early in the morning and took no breaks until lunch. He ate a quick lunch and got back to chopping wood all afternoon. The second woodchopper, however, started chopping wood early in the morning, but then stopped for a nice mid-morning break. He chopped wood until lunch and took a fine little nap before returning to work. At the end of the day both woodchoppers looked at their wood piles and they noticed that the second woodchopper’s pile was significantly bigger than the first.

“How could that be?” screamed the first. “How is it that your woodpile is bigger than mine when every time I turned around you were either taking a nap or taking a break?”

“Did you notice,” said the second woodchopper, “that every time I took a break I was sharpening my saw?” That’s what it’s all about.  Take some time to sharpen your saw, focus on your priority, do that one thing towards moving you closer to your goal … every single day.  If you don’t, you will be destined to spend your day and your life working on other people’s priorities.

Update: Please click on this link for more information about The new Mind Alchemy course. All the links to the downloads have now been removed. I would like to thank all 800+ readers who expressed an interest in this course and for everyone who completed the course the first time round, it is becasue of you I could make the course better.

Before we start

You can still join the course by Clicking here

A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:

Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy

Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters

Derek Breuning – Tech Life

Stephen – New Life Starts Here

Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition

Read the interview I have done with Sandi Faviell from DevaCoaching

Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy

Mind Alchemy Day 8

Welcome to day 8 of the course.

Today we’re going to be taking it a little easier after 7 days of intense work, however the exercise today is another powerful one.

Download today’s exercise sheet.

What we are doing is choosing 10 songs that really get us motivated, either by getting the old heart pumped up or with the words of the song which have a special meaning and lift our spirits up.

Now you might think this might take a few minutes of your time but if you’re anything like me you’ll really think about this and find songs from past and present. I was that sad, sorry dedicated, that I actually looked through the charts from the 1980s onwards to find a few gems that I had forgotten about.

Singing in our heads

Singing in our heads is something we naturally do. Have you ever had a tune in your head that you just can’t get rid of, well we’re going to be signing songs in our head for a reason and that’s to motivate us.

Steps of association

With each song we have chosen we are going to go through a series of steps to get a strong association with feeling good and feeling motivated.

Step 1:
Close your eyes and think, as vividly as you can, about some events in your life that have really made you excited and when you were really motivated. Think about the events as close up as possible, meaning that you are actually in the event and not looking at it from a distance. See everything you can, hear the sounds, really feel the excitement of the events.

Step2:
For each event you see yourself in, add in the theme songs of your choice. Only add the theme songs at the peak of your excitement and when you are in the middle of the scene in your mind

Step3:
Once you have completed linking your theme songs with all the events in your life you were excited about, add all the scenes together and run them as if you are watching a movie, in a movie theatre and feel the excitement all over again with all the songs added.

Step 4:
Periodically throughout day, for the next few days, re-run the movie inside your head from step 3 and feel the excitement again and again.

Step 5:
Download your theme songs onto your ipod, mp3 player, burn it to a disk or just download it to your computer, whichever way you are most comfortable listening to music. Periodically play these songs to give you a boost of energy and excitement. We don’t want to get fed up with the songs so don’t play them all day every day, the trick here is to associate good feelings with your theme songs as a way to keep you excited and motivated about life and it’s possibilities.

My theme songs

To give you an idea of what I am talking about here I have been collecting songs for a few years that inspire me or just get my heart pumping. Here are just a few of them:

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we will be looking at our beliefs and how to change them. Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists……..

Action follows a thought…

This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’

Your thoughts

As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and share your theme songs if you wish.

You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group

You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy

and of course leave a comment below.

Update: Please click on this link for more information about The new Mind Alchemy course. All the links to the downloads have now been removed. I would like to thank all 800+ readers who expressed an interest in this course and for everyone who completed the course the first time round, it is becasue of you I could make the course better.

Before we start

You can still join the course by Clicking here

A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:

Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy

Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters

Derek Breuning – Tech Life

Stephen – New Life Starts Here

Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition

Read the interview I have done with Sandi Faviell from DevaCoaching

Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy

Mind Alchemy Day 4

Okay, after yesterday’s mammoth exercise it’s time for something a little easier, just a little.

Today we are going to be looking at your personal vision statements.  These will added to your outcomes worksheet on day 5, and work to help keep you focused and motivated toward your outcomes in life.

What are personal vision statements

A personal vision statements is a statement of intent with regards to your outcomes in life.  It’s similar to a mission statement, but whilst a mission statement encompasses ALL that you stand for in life, a vision statement covers specific outcomes.

Look at some of these vision statements from some famous companies:

Macdonalds:

“McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.”

Nike:

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete*

in the world”

* If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Your vision statements are going to be personal to you and apply to each individual outcome you will achieve in life.  As mentioned before, an outcome is something you want to achieve in the future, and we’ll discuss this at length tomorrow.

For now I’d like you to go back to day 2′s exercise.  You should have written down 4 outcomes you wanted to achieve.  We are going to use these 4 outcomes to practice writing your vision statements.

Today’s exercise

Download today’s exercise sheet here

Vision statement guide

The aim of a vision statement, in this course, is to write a concise statement, 2-3 sentences long that will capture the essence of what you do to achieve your outcome and the feelings, and emotions you feel when have achieved your outcome.

The aim is not to be specific here, the aim is to capture the whole, rather than the pieces that make it up, in other words we are not concerned about how you are going to achieve the outcome we are concerned broadly with the feelings and emotions you have when you have achieved it.

Example vision statement

As an example I will share with you one of my vision statements:

Outcome: I feel amazing, have a deep sense of freedom, and satisfaction  as my business is generating, at least, £10,000 per month in profit, whilst helping others realise their dreams in life.

Vision statement: I provide high quality information products that are affordable, exciting, and help everyone who reads them, whilst building up genuine and amazing relationships with my readers and partners. I wake up every morning bursting with energy, excited, and grateful that I have  the ability, knowledge, and deep motivation to keep writing better products.

You’ll notice, in the example above, that the outcome is a little more specific, whilst the vision statement looks at the way I feel when the outcome has been achieved.

Purpose of vision statements

The purpose of a vision statement is to energise you, to stimulate your creativity, to motivate the hell out of you, you feel the outcome, see it, smell it, taste it and it gets your blood pumping.  The feeling is like Christmas morning; you’re all pumped up ready to run through to the living room to open your presents, you can see the presents in your mind, you can hear yourself ripping off the wrapping paper, you can feel the elation as you can see what you asked for from the big man in the red suit, it’s all too much, you feel overwhelmed, and almost burst like a water filled balloon.  That is the purpose of a vision statement. (sorry, got a bit carried away there )

Get outside your comfort zone

When I first started writing my outcomes (I used to call them goals) down and keeping them in a folder, in my money category I used to say things like ‘I am earning £1,500 per month doing something I love’ and do you know what, I am earning £1,500 per month doing something I love; an addiction worker.  However I was way inside my comfort zone.  Now I am a little more specific and think about what I could comfortably live on and realise all my dreams at the same time.  I don’t want to win the lottery, I want to do something I love doing and get paid well for it but still be my own boss, and take care of my family.  £10,000 per month is a figure I came up with, as I originally thought ‘it would be great to earn £5,000 per month’, then I doubled it and said ‘I am earning £10,000 per month’, then I took off all the overheads I would have to pay and added  ‘I am earning £10,000 per month, in profit’, so I got a little outside my comfort zone.

I once read a quote from a story:

“You don’t get million dollar ideas from a ten dollar vision”

Something amazing happens when you do something like this.  Originally I could see no way of earning £5,000 per month, however when I doubled it  and then made it a profit of £10,000 per month, the £5,000 per month did not seem that big an outcome to shoot for.  When we expand our level of expectation, we demand and expect more of ourselves and our minds begin to work for us in ways that we couldn’t have imagined.  Your mind wants a challenge, Give it one!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be another massive day for everyone.  This is when we will be working on our outcomes for 2011 and beyond.  I promise this is going to be amazing for you.  We will tie together everything we have learned over the last few days and wrap it up into something we can work on every day for the next lifetime.   Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists……..

Action follows a thought…

This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life.  Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day.  You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’

Your thoughts

As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.

You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group

You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy

Or of course you can leave a comment below.