Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mompreneurs Going It Alone: Three Ways To Keep A Positive Frame Of Mind For Business Success

I've always been a bit of a loner. This statement may surprise some people who know me, as I am generally seen to be the life and soul of the party, always surrounded by people and always up to something new. But yet, I'm also a total control freak and I have to work very hard to overcome my desire to control every situation and allow people to make their own decisions and mistakes. Can anyone relate or am I out here on my own?

Often it feels like I'm steering this ship alone.

Although I have great people who work for and with me, I haven't yet found someone who truly shares my values enough to hop on board and steer this entrepreneurial vessel through rough waters. Sometimes I just would love someone to sit down with and bounce ideas off. Someone who gets what I am about and cares as passionately as I do. Not a business partner as such, but someone who is treading a path similar to mine and can relate to my struggles.

But years of experience has taught me that the bad feelings pass and my motivation returns. Now when I'm feeling alone and unmotivated, I use these three steps:

Step 1: Recognise that one of the hardest things about starting your own business is the loneliness that ensues when you are doing all of the hard work to get it off the ground.

We women are naturally herders. We congregate en masse to share and relate. We feel safe and happy when we have someone to listen to our ideas and understand. When you're still sitting at your desk at 11.30pm, the house is quiet and even your husband has gone to bed, it can be easy to give in to your tired body feeling and question if it's all worth it.

Step 2: Know that you're never alone.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Live Like You Were Dying to Experience Life at Its Best

Life is all about being able to handle the stress of achieving something. People set goals everyday; some achieve it while some don't. But it's often observed that people who have a short time to do something often end up achieving a lot more than those who have all the time in the world. Why does this happen? And what is the reason for the success that these people achieve? Using a simple psychological logic, it means that these people live like they were dying. When you live like you were dying your subconscious automatically responds to it and treats every situation like you had nothing to lose.

This behavior is often exhibited by people who are stuck in crunch situations. The brain responds to a stimulus called fight or flight. This is what makes some people perform under pressure whereas it's exactly the same thing that makes others crumble under pressure. You might have experienced this at some point in your life. When you live like you were dying your subconscious automatically wants to fight rather than flight. This is something phenomenal and only people who live like they have nothing to lose would experience it. There are a whole lot of benefits of living life in this way.

One of the famous personalities that advocated the live like you were dying ideology was Steve Jobs. This man introduced several technologies in the world of computing with the help of the Mac. But most of his life achievements only began after he realized that he was about to die from pancreatic cancer. He knew he was losing a battle to cancer but that didn't stop him. Instead he changed the world by focusing all his attention on what's important and gave the world some of the best computing products. Though he is no more his ideas still survive in the products he designed.

The live like you were dying ideology has also been advocated in popular media such as movies and novels. This is probably one of the oldest reverse psychology fundamentals that have become popular again. Some individuals double their efforts to live life once they know that they are about to die. Making a bucket list is one way to enjoy the time that you have left. You can do all the things that you wished to do in life but couldn't due to some unavoidable reasons.

A few bucket list ideas include skydiving over Mt. Everest, bungee jumping or something that has scared you to death. Living like you had nothing to lose can be a blessing in disguise because it will help you achieve a lot more in a short span of time. Life is a privilege and it must be lived in order to understand what it's all about. If you've been losing interest in life lately, open up and adopt the 'live like you were about to die' attitude. Life could be better if we learn to live like we are about to die.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7196658

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Three Things We Need As We Get Older

As we get older we notice we need to take care of three things: the body, the mind, and our finances. The body and the mind both function better with exercise. While exercise for the body may be walking, or a trip to the gym, exercise for the brain is to engage in something challenging or something new. While staying physically and mentally healthy, we also need a healthy income. A small business or part time job may be just the thing to generate an income, exercise the brain, and leave time to go for a walk or to the gym for physical exercise.

When a woman I worked with developed a little bursitis in her arm, she stopped using it because it hurt when she moved it. By the end of the year, she had lost total use of the arm. That's the way our bodies are and that's why we need regular exercise. For the body to keep functioning as well as possible, we need to find something that we can do on a regular basis. If you like tennis, play tennis. If you enjoy a nice walk, then walk every day you possibly can. Do something to keep the body moving because the old saying, "Use or lose it," is true.

Have you ever re-met someone you knew a long time ago and discovered, after they have sat on a couch watching television for a decade or two, they no longer have a vibrant rapport, to put it nicely. On the other hand, someone who has been engaged in community service and held a job for the past decade or so, still has the ability to discuss many topics intelligently, plan, and provide solutions to problems. Keeping the brain actively engaged may keep the brain functioning well. Becoming a "couch potato" will lead to a stagnant brain.

If you no longer have a job because you've been laid off, or given "early retirement", do not give up on finding something to do. Working on a crossword puzzle or sudoku may be a bit of a mental challenge but it won't help fill any financial gaps you may have, so, find something mentally challenging to do that also offers a payment. Check out businesses on line, available part time jobs or anything new that will stimulate the brain cells. Like the body, the brain must also be exercised.

Now, delivering pizza could possibly give you at least some exercise, financial gain, and some brain work in finding various locations. If delivering pizza is just not for you, there are alternatives. Never give up. Take care of your body by finding something you like to do, at least a little, so you'll keep doing it. Find a job or other new endeavor that will stimulate both your mind and your pocket book. Take care of the three things and contentment is yours for many more years to come.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7181022

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Find Out The Truth About The World and How to Escape The Global Craziness

You may believe that your world is 'somehow balanced', even though you know that some people are suffering, there is no justice on Earth, poverty is unbearable and it kills the biggest part of the world population, and there are many wars, crimes, and numerous horrors where you are.

You are misled by so many misconceptions and lies that I cannot show you in only a few words how absurd your world really is. You have only a vague idea about the world absurdity based on what you read on newspapers and watch on TV. The truth is totally different from what you may imagine, even if you are very intelligent and you know many things. The knowledge of your historical time is very far from the truth.

Besides this fact, nobody cares about finding out the truth on Earth. Everybody likes to believe in illusions. Everybody cares about making money and living well, while trying to ignore the absurd contradictions that mark our existence.

Only because we try to ignore all the horrors of our world and live well in parallel with terror, we are absurd. How can we ignore what is killing us?

You follow the absurdity of your historical time without any criticism, while believing that you are a normal person. However, nobody is 'normal' in our world.

For example, in order to be a balanced person, you must suffer whenever you see a child suffering, and do everything you can to save this child, the same way you do everything you can for your own child. This is the behavior you should have if you want to be a mentally healthy individual.

You believe that your indifference to the human pain is a neutral attitude. You don't understand that nothing is neutral.

If you are cold and insensitive, this means that you are absurd and cruel. If you were sensitive and sensible, you would care about the human suffering and do everything you could so that everyone around you would have the chance to be happy. Your indifference to what is happening in the world is not a 'normal' reaction.

You probably agree with the fact that 'we need' an army, the police, and prisons. However, an army represents the dictatorship of terrorism on Earth. Wars are violent and cruel explosions that come from our anti-conscience. The anti-conscience is our wild conscience, which didn't evolve like our human conscience. Only demons can be so cruel and kill innocent people, besides killing soldiers, who are human beings the same way.

Our wars prove that we are very violent creatures. The army of each country proves that we are barbarous monsters because this army is ready to kill human beings without compassion.

The police should be totally different. Those who are controlled by their anti-conscience and commit crimes should follow a psychological treatment in good conditions instead of going to prison. Prisons prove that our world is a living hell, along with poverty, immorality, terror, and violence.

However, everybody simply tries to forget what is bad and live happily 'besides' all horrors, paying attention only to their personal lives.

If you want to escape the global craziness, you must learn how to translate the meaning of your dreams according to the scientific method of dream interpretation, so that you may be enlightened by the divine wisdom.

This way, your personality will be transformed, and you'll be different. You won't follow the behavioral patterns of violence like everyone else, while believing that you are a 'pacifist'. You'll abandon the hypocrisy of the cruel world. You'll learn how to find balance based on real goodness, sincerity, humbleness, generosity, forgiveness, and compassion.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7198043

Thursday, June 21, 2012

How Will You Know When You Are Successful?

We all want to be successful.

We want to be successful in our relationships.

We want to be successful in our careers.

We want to be successful in our lives... period!

The problem is... what does "success" actually mean to you?

To just you?

If you don't know what "success" means to you then how do you expect to know when you've become successful?

Crazy question, isn't it?

Have you ever thought about it?

People who have clear definitions about what success means to them usually always end up succeeding.

People who simply "want to succeed", but have no definitions about what success means to them... well, they always seemed trapped in the "trying to be successful" phase of everything.

Aren't you tired of trying to so hard, and still not being successful?

Here's what you need to do:

Take out a piece of paper.

Make columns and list the areas of your life that are important to you. Career, relationships with specific people, personal, spiritual... whatever categories are important to you. Be as specific as you want to be. Break your life down into as many columns as you can think of that are important to you.

Now sit and think a moment on each column. Define what success will look like in each of these areas when you attain it.

For example, in 'Career', perhaps you write down, "Become a manager by the time I'm 30".

Or in 'Relationship With Significant Other' you might write down, "Communicate well, show affection for one another, date night once a week."

Just sit there for a bit and think about what success will look like for you when you achieve it.

Maybe in 'Personal' you write down, "Own a 4 bedroom house. Own a black Mercedes. Go on a yearly vacation."

I don't know what you need to write down. You need to think about each thing and you need to decide what success will look like.

Remember you can't really become successful until you have defined what success actually is for you.

So take the time to actually do this exercise. You might be surprised to find out that things you thought you were far from being successful with you are actually already successful with it.

Or you might discover that the things you "thought" you wanted success in you don't actually care much about.

Whichever way it goes, spend some time with yourself and be honest. Remember too that this list can change over time. Things tend to happen in life that makes you need to update this list every so often. Don't be afraid to change the game plan.

Don't be afraid to succeed!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7191336

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Helping Teenagers Discover Their Passion for Life

Do you have teenaged children who seem uninspired? When you try to chat them up, do you feel they possess a passion for life or a sense of detachment? Do they enjoy school and life in general or does it strike you that they are still struggling to find out what they want?

The teenage years can be quite challenging and some young people feel at a loss when it comes to finding their niche, setting goals, establishing their identities and choosing whom to trust. If you think your own kids could stand to use some much needed guidance, here are ways you can help get them on the right track.

1. Encourage them to read a wide variety of books. Start stocking up your home library or eBook readers with a plethora of books, with a focus on biographical, inspirational, motivational and similar self-help books. The biographies should be of people who made a difference (stay away from the sensational stuff) or made their mark in their respective niches borne out of a passion for life and their true calling. Reading about different people and significant events can help your youngster in discovering his own calling and setting goals that will lead to his carving his own niche.

2. Show them valuable resources online. The Internet can be a bane or boon to modern life. Teenagers are known to waste hours online playing games, "socializing" with both real life friends and strangers, indulging in gossip and other activities that don't help with their personal growth. You can't stop your kids from using the Internet, but you certainly can point them in the right direction. Look up helpful websites that give great tips and ideas about hobbies, potential careers, exploring one's hidden talents, discovering a passion for life, and the sort. Bookmark those sites and then share them with your kids. They could very well find their "lightbulb" moments when they peruse the pages of their sites and before you know it, they'll be setting goals and sharing with you their new dreams and ambitions.

3. Encourage them to spend less time online and to mingle with more people in real life. It's hard to discover one's passion for life if personal interaction is so limited. A great number of kids tend to spend so much time on the Internet that they lose out on the benefits of real life relationships - one of them being able to get ideas and support from people who can help you with determining your true calling and setting goals. So get your kids to log out every now and then and have them invite friends over for real interaction. Take them to visit relatives and meet other people to boost their social skills and open up to opportunities they might miss if they stayed indoors.

4. Have them take up a new hobby. They might be bored with their old hobby that they don't even bother anymore to do it. Young people's interests change over time, and every now and then they're setting goals only to dump them for new ones. If your teenager appears to be disinterested in her usual activities, get her to start a new hobby that can help her reignite a passion for life. For example, if she used to sew her own clothes as a hobby, maybe she can switch to learning how to apply makeup professionally or make her own natural, organic skincare products.

5. Travel with them. Don't stay put! There's so much potential in travel - you learn about new places and new cultures that may very well spark your passion for life and help you discover something new about yourself. For example, going to exotic places that have a lot of ancient digs may help you realize a new love for history, archeology, and even paleontology. Visiting a foreign country may make you want to become an expert in that country's language and inspire you to take lessons when you get back home. Expose your teenager to all sorts of new and inspirational things. And don't worry about busting the budget; there are so many travel sites offering great tours at very affordable prices. You just need to know where to look.

Look at your teenagers as not just your children but also as soon-to-be-adults who will eventually come to their own. It can be tempting to succumb to the "helicopter mode" of parenting but you need to respect their own need for space and their own tastes. Let them find their comfort zones and passion for life at their own pace, with you cheering and supporting them on in the background. Let them remember you as a great parent and not a control freak, and the more they will thank you for it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7198995

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Avoid for Disappointment

At some point in time or another we have all experienced disappointment. I am sure we are all well aware of some of the feelings that go along with disappointment: anger, fear, sadness, grief or even apathy. Sometimes, these feelings can be overwhelming. What can we do to make a disappointing situation a little easier to deal with?

Recently I have been the victim of disappointment myself. Although it didn't put me in a tailspin, it did make me question what kind of steps should be involved with recovering from a disappointing situation. Here is what I came up with.

Realize that you are disappointed and acknowledge your feelings. You wanted one thing, got another and now you feel the disappointment. Did it make you feel angry, fearful, sad, grievous, or are you feeling nothing at all? Do you want to scream, plot your revenge or give up? Scream out loud or in a pillow. Play it out in your mind. Write it down on paper (if you are plotting revenge, make sure you don't actually follow through with your plans). Ask yourself why you are feeling the way you are, why you are listening to this part of you (anger, fear, sadness, etc.), and how you can be with your pain for the moment, then how you can begin to move away from that pain. What steps will it take? Just make sure you are able to explore how it made you feel.
Talk it out. Once you have expressed your disappointment to yourself, it's time to talk it over with someone you trust. Sometimes it is just helpful to talk out all the emotions you are feeling to someone who will not judge you or tell you you are crazy.
Get perspective. Perhaps you have misinterpreted the situation altogether. Or maybe you have missed the lesson. A neutral person could help you to determine just what may have happened and point you in a more appropriate direction.
Discover the good. Discovering what good things came from your situation can be quite empowering and lead you to better outcomes in the future. If you are having trouble coming up with good things that could come from your experience, then start a gratitude list. List all the things you are grateful for in your life and read them everyday until you can add the good things that have come from the experience. Not only will you have found the good, your whole frame of mind will have changed with this valuable exercise.
Move past dwelling on the disappointment. It's time to take action by moving ahead. Take those lessons and all that gratitude and put them into the next experience you have. Having trouble with this? Then just start by writing the next steps you will take. You can also get out and do some fun things that will help you let go. Get together with friends who will help you get out of yourself and have fun. When the time comes to try that experience again you will have a great frame of mind and a whole list of possible avenues to take. "Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on."--Eckhart Tolle

In the end, it is important to remember that life is about living to the fullest. If you spend your time drowning in disappointment, then you are not living. Try the steps above to move beyond the disappointment and begin living the incredible life that is waiting for you.

Jennifer M. Clark is the owner of Nurturing Wellbeing and creator of YOUR Body Reset. She is a certified Health Coach and is certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners as a Holistic Health Practitioner.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7193682