Stop Waiting for Life to Happen | Peter Sage | TED Talks

Life is precious.  Life is a mirror:  the outer world reflects the inner world.  
The only thing that matters is what we do with what happens to us.  We can live from our hearts, not our heads. 

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New year, new you? Forget it | Oliver Burkeman

Old You is the last person you ought to trust when it comes to designing a New You.

So here we are again: that time known to publishers as “New Year, New You”, partly because they want to sell life-makeover books and partly because, well… alliteration! I trust we’re all in agreement that “New Year, New You” is preposterous and bad. But it’s preposterous and bad, I’d argue, for some interesting reasons – reasons it’s worth grasping if you’d actually like to make a few lasting changes this year. These all result from one rarely mentioned truth: that by definition, the only person who could successfully bring this New You into being is that feckless, lazy, overcommitted, weak-willed, Twitter-addicted, crisps-munching good-for-nothing called Old You.

And Old You is the last person you ought to trust when it comes to designing a New You. Consider the facts. For a start, Old You doesn’t currently do any of the things he or she claims will make New You happy and fulfilled. (Would you trust a personal trainer who chain-smoked through your sessions and never worked out? Exactly.) Moreover, Old You doesn’t even seem to like himself or herself that much, otherwise a makeover wouldn’t be on the agenda. Clearly, Old You has some issues. Lastly, Old You probably has a long track record of trying and failing to implement change – and yet you’re going to trust this shifty character with your future? That’s like taking your car to a mechanic who botches the repair job almost every time.

Behind the seductive lure of “New Year, New You” lies another kind of mistake, too: the idea that what we require, in order finally to change, is one last push of willpower. (Presumably, the hope is that the “January feeling” of fresh starts and clean slates will provide it.) The assumption is that you’re a bit like a heavy rock, poised on a hill above the Valley of Achievement, Productivity and Clean Eating. All you need is a concerted push to get you rolling. But the real reason that transformation is hard – as Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey make clear in their book Immunity To Change – is that people (and organisations) have powerful “competing commitments”, or reasons not to change. To use weakness of will to explain why you take on too much, or overeat, or date disastrous people, is to neglect the fact that those habits make you feel indispensable, or assuage feelings of loneliness, or distract you from inner conflicts you’d rather not address. Technically, physics fans will note, something similar is true of the rock. There are countervailing forces that keep it stuck, beyond the mere absence of an impetus to move.

One useful way to shift perspective is to hand both Old You and New You their marching orders, and narrow your focus to Present You. Don’t resolve to become “the kind of person” who runs, meditates, or listens to your spouse. Instead, just do that thing, once, today. Preferably now. It’s tempting to add “and then do the same tomorrow, and every day, for ever” – except that would be to fall back into the New You trap. Lower your sights. Today is the first day of the rest of your week.

oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com

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Getting Rich is Easy | Jim Rohn

Getting rich is easy, but it's easy not to do what you know to do!  That is the difference between success and failure.  He did not neglect to do every day what he knew that he could do to make money.    

Jim Rohn outlines the simple factors that made it easy for him to accumulate massive wealth in 6 years!  Its very inspirational!  

"If you will change, everything will change for you!"  

Start by changing your philosophy, your mind, how you think.  

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Your January Action Plan: 10 Tips to Build Your Best Future | Cecilia Meis

This year, make your efforts count.

Your Action Plan is a monthly to-do list of tips straight from SUCCESS magazine—10 things you can do right now to improve yourself and your life.

This month, start fresh by leaving your old, unproductive habits in 2016. Make the new year about polishing your strengths, your bank account and anything that will bring you closer to having the best year of your life.

1. Live Courageously

Fear is a natural and necessary part of growth. Choose to embrace uncertainty by reminding yourself what you lose when you give in to your fears

Read: How Bad Do You Want the Life You Want?

2. Articulate Your Happiness

Write down your top five happiness goals. Be specific. For example, if you want to be more present and supportive in your relationships, list out each action step to get there.

Read: 4 Ways to Plan Your Happiness

3. Alter Your Mindset

Whenever you encounter a problem, make a list of the positive ways you could perceive it. Focus on those good thoughts and watch your happiness increase.

Read: Tony Robbins Is Not Your Guru

4. Practice Deliberately

Tonight, list your three biggest weaknesses. Select the one holding you back the most and make a plan to improve a little each day. Change doesn’t happen overnight; be patient but persistent.

Read: 5 Deliberate Steps to Master a Skill

5. Reflect

This week, make time to hike a new trail or visit a nature preserve. Leave technology at home and revel in the opportunity to reflect on your life free from distractions.

Read: How to Keep Your Ego From Getting the Best of You

6. Find Your Strengths

Analyze your greatest successes. Identify what you did to accomplish those goals and how it was different from the times you failed. Commit to implementing that skill every day.

Read: Answer 3 Questions to Identify Your Strengths

7. Choose Wisely

Struggling with making sound decisions? Gather as many facts as you can, and surround yourself with trusted peers before making your next big decision.

Read: John Addison: 5 Tips to Create Your Best Future

8. Impact Others

Money is a great tool to ensure a life of opportunities, but it can’t provide happiness. Focus your efforts on impacting the lives of those around you to create happiness in your life and theirs.

Read: John C. Maxwell: 3 Ways to Pursue a Lasting Legacy

9. New You

As you plan your New Year’s resolutions, list three levels of your goal: A, B and C. Dream big on A, but stay realistic with B and C. Don’t forget to celebrate your milestones, no matter how small.

Read: 6 Tips to Set and Achieve Your Biggest Goals

10. Be Accountable

Write down every dollar you spend to identify bad habits. Focus on reducing or eliminating one category. Store those savings for unexpected hardships.

Read: 10 Money Habits That Are Leaving You Broke

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Pretty amazing, huh?  So much valuable stuff in there!  Are you going to take on the challenge?  Please let me know below!

Find your dream job without ever looking at your resume | Laura Berman Fortgang

Great ideas and practical advice on how to find your dream job.

Laura has put in tens of thousands of hours over twenty years to help people make career transitions and improve their lives. Through her coaching company, books, corporate and civic speeches and her media appearances on such shows as The Oprah Winfrey show, CBS This Morning, GMA, The Today show and more, Laura has reached millions of people and showed them how to figure out what to do with their lives without ever looking at their resume.

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7 Secrets Of People Who Keep Their New Year's Resolutions | Kevin Kruse

I know you didn’t achieve your New Year’s resolutions in 2016.

I say that confidently, even though we’ve never met, because research shows only 8% of people actually achieve them. So statistically, I bet you didn’t.

How can you become one of those elite few, who actually achieve what they set out to do?Do you need more motivation? A special system? What are the secrets?

To find out, I interviewed one of the leading experts in behavior change, psychologist Paul Marciano. Dr. Marciano is the author of Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work and he specializes in the area of behavior modification and engagement. He offered seven keys to achieving your goals.

1. Make your goals specific. People proclaim, “I’m finally going to get in shape.” But what does that actually mean? Do you intend to reach a certain weight? Or body-fat percentage? Do you want to run three miles without rest? Maybe be able to do 10 pull-ups? Dr. Marciano is a fan of the classic goal system that makes goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART).
2. Measure progress.“If you can measure it, you can change it” is a fundamental principal of psychology. These feedback loops will be a source of motivation as you reflect on where you started and where you are. They will also help you to know when you are hitting a plateau or slipping backward, so you can adjust your efforts.
3. Be patient. Progress is seldom linear. Some people will see rapid gains only to hit resistance later in their efforts. For others, initial progress may be painfully slow but then they suddenly achieve rapid breakthroughs. Making lasting changes takes time.
4. Share your goals with friends and family. Social support is critical. Yes, it takes some personal courage and vulnerability to share something that you might actually fail at, but to dramatically increase your odds of success you’ll want support from those around you. One of the most effective things you can do is to get an “accountability partner”, someone who checks in with you daily or weekly. It’s easy to break a promise to yourself, but far harder to admit it to a friend.
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4. Schedule it. Have you ever said you can’t “find the time” to do something. Nobody finds time, we choose time. We all choose to spend our time the way we do—whether that’s eating junk food or going to a spin class. Make your new goals a priority and actually schedule them into your calendar. If you have a fitness goal schedule recurring time blocks for your daily workouts. Want to declutter? Schedule time to clean out your closet or garage on your calendar. Treat these New Year Resolution’s appointments just like they were scheduled doctor appointments. You rarely reschedule your doctor, you should treat this time the same way. That which is scheduled gets done.
6. Something is better than nothing. Are you guilty of “all or nothing” thinking? Do you ever think, “Well, I might as well get dessert since I already ate those French fries?” And then, “I blew my diet last night so I’ll just restart it next week.” Dr. Marciano says the difference between doing something rather than nothing is huge. If you don’t have a full hour to workout at the gym, just decide to make it the best 20-minutes you can. If you stumble out of bed and don’t want to do 20-minutes on the treadmill, lace up your sneakers and do five minutes (and you just might find you do another 15 minutes once the first five are out of the way). Dr. Marciano says, “Any effort towards your goal is better than no effort.”
7. Get up, when you slip up. Legendary coach Vince Lombardi said, “It isn’t whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” Resiliency is paramount. Don’t turn temporary failures into total meltdowns or excuses for giving up. Instead, just acknowledge the mistake and recommit to the path towards the goal.
Dr. Marciano says achieving your goals isn’t about willpower. It’s about developing the right skills, executing strategies, and having the patience that inevitably lead to success. Will 2017 be the year you join the elite 8%?

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How to Develop a Habit in 7 Steps | Brian Tracy

A seven step process to develop a new habit.  Remember "95% of  everything you do is the result of habits, either helpful or hurtful."

Why not give it a go, and let me know how you get on below?

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