SELF IMPROVEMENT AND SUCCESS

Everything that happens to us happens in purpose. And sometimes, one thing leads to another. Instead of locking yourself up in your cage of fears and crying over past heartaches, embarrassment and failures, treat them as your teachers and they will become your tools in both self improvement and success.

I remember watching Patch Adams – its my favorite movie, actually. Its one great film that will help you improve yourself. Hunter “patch” Adams is a medical student who failed to make it through the board exams. After months of suffering in melancholy, depression and suicidal attempts – he decided to seek for medical attention and voluntarily admitted himself in a psychiatric ward.  His months of stay in the hospital led him to meeting different kinds of people. Sick people in that matter. He met a catatonic, a mentally retarded, a schizophrenic and so on. Patch found ways of treating his own ailment and finally realized he has to get back on track. He woke up one morning realizing that after all the failure and pains he has gone through, he still want to become the a doctor. He carries with himself a positive attitude that brought him self improvement and success. He didn’t only improved himself, but also the life of the people around him and the quality of life. Did he succeed? Needless to say, he became the best damn doctor his country has ever known.

So, when does self improvement become synonymous with success? Where do we start? Take these tips, friends…
*Stop thinking and feeling as if you’re a failure, because you’re not. How can others accept you if YOU can’t accept YOU?

*When you see hunks and models on TV, think more on self improvement, not self pitying. Self acceptance is not just about having nice slender legs, or great abs. Concentrate on inner beauty.

*When people feel so down and low about themselves, help them move up. Don’t go down with them. They’ll pull you down further and both of you will end up feeling inferior.

*The world is a large room for lessons, not mistakes. Don’t feel stupid and doomed forever just because you failed on a science quiz. There’s always a next time. Make rooms for self improvement.

*Take things one at a time. You don’t  expect black sheep’s to be goody-two-shoes in just a snap of a finger. Self improvement is a one day at a time process.

*Self improvement results to inner stability, personality development and dig this …. SUCCESS. It comes from self confidence, self appreciation and self esteem.

* Set meaningful and achievable goals. Self improvement doesn’t turn you to be the exact replica of Cameron Diaz or Ralph Fiennes. It hopes and aims to result to an improved and better YOU.

*Little things mean BIG to other people. Sometimes, we don’t realize that the little things that we do like a pat on the back, saying “hi” or “hello”, greeting someone “good day” or telling Mr. Smith something like “hey, I love your tie!” are simple things that mean so much to other people. When we’re being appreciative about beautiful things around us and other people, we also become beautiful to them.

*When you’re willing to accept change and go through the process of self improvement, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is. The world is a place where people of different values and attitude hang out. Sometimes, even if you think you and your best friend always like to do the same thing together at the same time, she would most likely decline an invitation for self improvement.

We should always remember that there’s no such thing as ‘over night success’. Its always a wonderful feeling to hold on to the things that you already have now, realizing that those are just one of the things you once wished for. A very nice quote says that “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”  We are all here to learn our lessons. Our parents, school teachers, friends, colleagues, officemates, neighbors… they are our teachers. When we open our doors for self improvement, we increase our chances to head to the road of success.

Rememer Live Your Life By Choice Not By Chance.

5 Ways to Focus and Get Back on Task

Each day, there are dozens of tasks that are calling your name, both at work and in your personal life. With life being so busy it’s easy to lose focus on the big picture.

How many times have you gone to bed wondering what you actually accomplished that day? Or have you ever felt like your day was somehow wasted?

To avoid these feelings, you can try a few different methods to get yourself back on track. Rather than bemoaning your wasted time, resolve to regain your focus and get back on task.

Confucius Says…

There’s a famous quote about focus by the great philosopher Confucius: “If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.” True, there might be people who are able to multitask and do it relatively well; but more often than not, people who split their attention between two different tasks have a more difficult time completing both tasks well.

Here are five ways to regain your focus and get back on task:

1.      Eliminate the distractions. Get rid of the barriers that are causing you to avoid getting things done – it’s that simple! Forget about checking email every five minutes; those emails will still be there when you complete your task. Make a list of distractions and eliminate!

·        Turn off the phone and let the voice mail take over.

·        Close the blinds in your office.

·        Turn off the music if you find yourself singing more than working.

·        Simply closing the door to your office can give you more privacy and more focus.

2.      Prioritize your work. Rather than working on projects simultaneously, take one thing at a time, focus on it, and worry about all the other projects later. Ultimately, you’ll get a lot more done and you’ll finish it more quickly. You’ll also be recognized by the high quality that you deliver when you’re free from distractions.

·        Find a way to prioritize that works best for you. Choose either the project that has the earliest deadline or the one with the least components so you can finish it quickly and get it out of the way. There are pros and cons to both systems so tackle it whichever way works for you.

3.      Tell everyone to respect your time. There are many nice and respectful ways to tell people to back off. If you’re finding yourself in a time crunch and can’t seem to get away from others, consider letting them know that you need time to finish some important tasks. There are a lot of different ways to do it – just make sure you do!

·        Set times that you’ll accept phone calls and even visitors. Tell them to contact you by email and then set a regular time to check your email.

·        Set business hours during which people can expect you to return their calls or emails.

4.      Set some limitations with your internet access. The internet is wonderful but it can be a huge time waster, especially if you work at a computer all day long. Regain your focus with some self-imposed rules.

·        First, close all those windows you’re not using. Avoid MySpace or Facebook, quit searching on eBay, and leave messenger alone!

·        Establish certain times each day to use these fun things and just focus on what you have to do. You’ll quickly accomplish more!

5.      Have confidence in your abilities. This may seem like a really small thing when it comes to focusing and getting back on task, but believing that you can get everything done that you set out to do puts you in a positive frame of mind and you’ll be less distracted with stress and worry.

·        Have confidence that you can complete each task with ease and believe in your ability to deliver. If you’ll just have the confidence, you’re sure to have the focus!

Now that you’ve been introduced to five ways to focus and get back on task, it’s up to you to take action and learn how to focus your thoughts. If you’ve got to get stuff done, follow these steps so you can put yourself – and your goals – first!

Make your life a journey to remember!

Leadership and Commitment: A hand-in-hand Journey towards Success

“Leaders are not born, they are made”. You may have probably heard of this catchy line a couple of times in your entire existence, mostly from speeches. And yes, it is so predictable. But have you ever thought about the real deal behind one man’s success in leadership?

Before getting into the core and putting down incomprehensible facts and systematize ways to be a good leader, you have to fully understand the basics. Being a leader is sometimes mistakenly thought as merely being the first or the most capable. However, beyond having the loudest voice for your constituents to follow your orders is a more profound depiction that entails all varied aspects of leadership.

Part of your being a leader is giving out orders. This is the easy part. Getting your subordinates to follow your every order and efficiently deliver their fair share of work is the hardest part. It is not only enough to mandate someone to do his work. Leadership is about influencing people and motivating them to do their part of the work with minimal or no supervision as possible.

Every man is different. Every man works differently and every man pulls motivation from different things. Before one can manifest great leadership, he has to have greater passion and from passion comes a lifetime commitment. Leadership and commitment is like bread and butter or perhaps spoon and fork, wherein one cannot efficiently function without the other.

Commitment is the single most important aspect of success, more so in leadership. After all, you wouldn’t be where you are right now without your undying commitment for the company. If you show commitment and have been a living proof that commitment is what got your where you are, you will not only influence your people to live out your principles, but you are also unconsciously giving them career paths for their future’s sake.

Along with demonstrating commitment to your company is commitment to yourself as a leader. In fact, it is the second-most crucial aspect of success. An effective leader has astounding self-confidence, integrity, and a feasible sense of personal candor. If you have grown in a perfect setting with the perfect parents who taught you perfect values, then possessing the above-mentioned standards is just as easy as 1, 2, 3. However, this is not always the case. There are no perfect parents because there is also no perfect child. In simpler words, if you are not naturally given these values, your commitment to leadership will serve as your drive to learn them.

And lastly but equally important is your commitment to your people. The basis of the team’s commitment to their work is chiefly influenced by the leader’s commitment to each of them. Building a lasting relationship between you and your immediate staff is surrounded by principles like courtesy, giving constructive feedback, and respect.

Leadership is not just about having the necessary skills to direct and guide a group into the right way. The biggest fraction of good leadership is commitment. If you have demonstrated everything the right way, your subordinate’s work will be a verification of your success as a leader.

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Leadership & Vision: A Great Tandem for Success

People admire leaders, especially good and effective leaders. Without these kinds of leaders, a company, organization, institution or even a country won’t be successful.

However, tragic as it may seem, there are lots of leaders in position right now who are not actually capable of being a leader. They are what we may refer to as pseudo-leaders. You know, the ones who seem to look like leaders, who seem to act like leaders, but behind closed doors, when they are all alone, they do not have an idea how to manage the issues which entails the wit and sense of a true and effective leader!

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This now leads us to ask a vital question - what then, makes a good leader? Well, there isn’t really an exact definition, requirements or standards as to what a good leader is. However, one thing is for sure - having a clear vision is one great quality of a good leader. By having a concrete prospect on what needs to be accomplished, a leader can be able to make wise decisions as well as make back-up plans should there be an instance that his plans would backfire.

Being prepared for failure is also a trait that a good leader must possess. You see, realistically, even though how good a leader is, there might be chances that his decisions would backfire. That is why, an effective leader must have a back-up plan so that he and his subordinates can quickly recover and compensate for any failures or errors.

A leader should also be able to exude an aura of assurance, confidence and credibility. If he has none of these qualities, his subordinates would not follow him. You see, the subordinates look at the leader as someone who has the biggest responsibility in attaining the goals of the group. Without the leader’s initiative, the group would more or less end up with little or no accomplishment at all.

It is a leader’s prerogative as to how he would lay down his instructions and how he would distribute the work load to his subordinates. What’s important is that all the steps and measures that a leader is going to take is for the fulfillment of the group’s goals.

A leader must also take note of the individual differences of his subordinates. By keeping in mind that his subordinates possess different strengths and weaknesses, he can be able to have an idea as to what kind of tasks he will give to each individual.

As long as a leader has a clear vision on what he and his subordinates need to accomplish, it will be easy for him to organize and plan activities which would make them successful in whatever endeavor they have to take.

Empowering Yourself to Become Successful

Success is defined as the complete attainment of the goals that a person has long planned, like a journey where a person starts taking one single step at a time before he finally achieves his tasks. With hard work, discipline, and careful planning, being successful can easily be attained.

Accomplishment starts from within; that is, how you perceive things and how you drive yourself to get to where you want. Below are some simple yet very practical everyday habits to help you empower yourself to be successful.

• Have enough rest- Even if you are bent on pushing hard to become successful, always find time to rest; either you spend it with your family or do other non-work related activities.

• Read Daily- Even for just thirty minutes to an hour, reading daily is one way to increase knowledge and self-confidence – two things that are very important to carry with you on your way to success.

• Expose Yourself to Motivational Content- Becoming successful needs a lot of motivation and encouragement. To help you sustain your drive, get exposed to motivational and empowering content, like can-do videos, inspirational books, and seminars.

• Get out of bed early- This is one way to show great discipline over your self. Getting up early means you are aware of the importance of time and would like to make full use of it.

• Visualize- Before you go to sleep, visualize your dreams happening thru meditation. Try to squeeze in some more affirmations and visualizations during the day.

• Blog- Did you know that blogging is not only a form of writing but a helpful way to keep you focused? When you blog, your content might help you discover what it is that you need to improve on to be successful. Also, reading blogs by other people opens your mind to similar experiences and learnings.

• Seek advice- People whom you are closely attached to will be more than willing to give you the right advice so you can become successful. Do not be afraid to ask for insights from family and friends.

• Always have strong determination- Most people fail not because of circumstance but because of choice. Determination is important in empowering yourself to become successful. Your willingness to find your own niche is something that you must have. Remember your ability is not only the thing that matters, but also your passion.

• Take Consequences as Challenges- Along the way, you may encounter consequences that will somehow put your determination on hold. Instead of seeing them as hindrances towards achieving your goals, take them as challenges and seek ways to overcome them.

Becoming successful starts by empowering yourself. Learn from these simple yet efficient tips and take them to heart, so you can someday become a successful ‘somebody’.

Follow the above it will really help you….

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See You at the Top!!!

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Universal Principles of Success

Success is not reserved only for a chosen few. Everyone has the capacity to be successful in every area of his or her life. Success results from cultivating certain habits and sticking to them.

Consistency is a must. Successful persons have a certain type of personality. Successful person thinks in a particular way, talks in a particular way and acts in a particular way. Would you like to be a successful person too? Here are a few principles of success that is bound to help you if you follow these strategies:

1. Develop a clear vision of what exactly you want to achieve in your life. Carry this vision in your mind at all times. This is the starting point to success.

2. Believe without any doubt that you would achieve your dreams. Believe in a higher power that has been giving you whatever you needed so far.

3. Stay away from negative influences such as negative people, books, articles, etc. Surround yourself with things that boost your belief that you would succeed.

4. Take responsibility for your future. Do not depend on anybody and take responsibility for your life without doubting success.

5. Make a habit of repeating positive affirmations. Speak out your affirmations in present tense as opposed to future tense. Writing down affirmations is more effective. This helps your mind to stay fixed and focused on your goal. This is also a good way to build your self-confidence and deepen your belief.

6. Make a firm commitment to action. Once you decide to take action stay committed and never give up. Once you deter from commitment your belief becomes shaky and unstable. If you do that then your efforts would just fall off like a deck of cards. You would have wasted all your time and energy you had invested on your efforts. So stay committed.

7. Set a specific goal. If you know what you really want to achieve you need to define it by making it a goal. Set specific goals. Your goals should be precise, measurable, realistic and timed.

8. Work out a plan of action. Break down your plan into smaller tasks or units. Do your task in smaller steps. Take one step or two each day while reminding yourself that each step is taking you closer to your goal. Your actions should be filled with faith, determination and purpose. Consistency is vital to reach your goal.

9. Never give up until you have achieved what you desire. Persistence is key to success. Treat every failure as a learning opportunity. But push yourself towards your goal with stronger faith.

10. Maintain an attitude of gratitude, realizing that your dream is becoming a reality. Look around you and be grateful for things that you already have such as a home, loving family, etc. Just stay grateful.

11. Be a giver- give your time, money and service to others. Be kind and generous to all.

Now you know the principles of success. Act on it with faith and persistence.

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Four Necessary Qualities That Spells Success in Your Life

Everybody wants success in life. A certain level of personal development, personal growth and self-improvement helps you to attain goals and achieve success in your life. These factors enrich your relationships, career prospects, professional success and life in general. Personal development, personal growth and self-improvement techniques are inter-related and help you to improve your personal and professional management techniques.

Here are some of the important skills that help you to succeed in life:

1. Effective communication - Communication is the key to accomplish your goals in personal and professional life. You should be able to express your ideas clearly and effectively so that others understand exactly what you want and what you are trying to convey to them. Your communication skill should include the following to be an effective one – a good vocabulary, a proper tone, proper voice modulation and the right approach. You should also develop writing skills using the same factors mentioned above. It is good to develop these - your language, speaking and writing skills, sharp listening skills and proper telephone communication.

2. Self–confidence - Self-confidence means believing in oneself. A small boost in self-confidence allows you to take long strides towards achieving your goals in life. A lack of self-confidence hinders personal growth. If you are one with low esteem and low self-confidence you should take steps to build your self-confidence before it is too late. People who lack self-confidence tend to have self-doubt, fear, inferiority complex, etc. If you want to be successful in life you need to overcome all these negative traits.

3. Stress management - Stress challenges everyone in life. If you buckle down under stress you would not be able to achieve anything in life. If you let stress overrule you completing even simplest tasks would pose a great challenge. There are many stress relieving techniques you could learn to overcome stress and meet life’s challenges in order to meet your goals.

4. Positive attitude - A negative attitude stands as a stumbling block in anything and everything you do in life. It zaps the much-needed energy associated with attaining your goals. Positive attitude on the other hand keeps your creative ideas flowing and makes you feel energetic to move forward towards your goals.
If you are seriously seeking improvement in these areas there are plenty of avenues to consider. Seminars and self-improvement publications, library, online resources, CDs etc. are all rich resources that help many people on their journey through personal development, personal growth and self-improvement.
Develop these 4 qualities and see a sea of change in your life. These are the most important traits that could help you achieve success in all the spheres of your life.

Remember Live the life you want by Choice not by Chance.

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Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin: Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior highschool student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.

Entrepreneur Business Opportunity and Market Demand

It’s now quite easy to conduct any form of research and people owe it all to the internet. Aspiring and even full-pledged entrepreneurs get a lot of business opportunities online. If you’re looking for an entrepreneur business opportunity, make sure that youstart your hunt online.

Building a business requires some ideas. You may be planning to offer a certain product or even a service. But before anything else, you need to determine if the service or product that you plan to offer is marketable and in-demand.

When an entrepreneur introduces a new service or product to the market, there should always be a demand for it. Otherwise, you will not be able to make a sale. Even if you think that you’ve found the best business opportunity, probably the most innovative and useful service/product, it will mean nothing if you have no market or people willing to purchase them. You will not be able to earn huge profits without market demand.

Putting up a business may seem very easy to some people. Well, it is especially if you do it online. However, you do need to exert enough effort to make it a success. As mentioned a bit earlier, you first need to determine the demand for your business idea. How will you go about it? Read on and you will find out.

1. You must choose the appropriate market for your business idea. After that, you need to determine if your business idea, whether a service or a product, we have found Success University offers similar or the same benefits like those existing services/products.

2. If you plan to put up an online business, Success University has tools to make sure that your business idea can generate enough traffic. It should always be among the top searches in any given search engine.

3. Businesses, both online and offline are dealing with real people. In the case of online businesses, you will often find unethical practices or scams all throughout the net. Make sure that your business idea is not similar to them. Is your product/service easy, lazy, vanity, or trick-like? You must answer this question before you put your business plans into action.

4. Is your chosen market full of disposable income?

These are some things that you need to answer and discover to determine if your business opportunity can compete in the market. Putting up a business will require money and a lot of your time as an entrepreneur. So before you start anything, you must take a hard, good, and long look at your business ideas.

This is true to both products and services. As an entrepreneur, you only want to make money and as much as possible, you want to stay away from business loss. Sell only the things that the market demands.

Studying the market demand is very important in determining if your chosen entrepreneur business opportunity is viable or not. Choosing the right business opportunity will always come side by side with market demand analysis. Check out what Success University has to offer

Entrepreneurs are well known risk takers in the field of business but before taking any risk, they calculate everything first and see if the risk is worth taking. Putting up a business is a serious undertaking and so even upon the start of choosing the entrepreneur business opportunity, one should already put his heart and mind to it.

Remember you are in charge of your future.