Staying Motivated, Do You Employ Game Time Strategy?

Here's How Tiger, Oprah, And Spielberg Stay Motivated
by Mike Litman

I want to share with you a powerful principle that I've used to change my life and that you can use to unleash your greatness.

Tiger Woods knows this.

Bruce Springsteen knows this.

Oprah Winfrey knows this.

Name someone great and you can bet dollars to donuts they know this as well.

Before I share this insight with you, I want you to know you don't always have to be on your 'game' and great.

"Mike, did you just say I don't always need to be 'great'?" Yes I did and let me explain.

I want to share with you the principle of what I call GAME TIME.

Let's look at the world class golfer Tiger Woods.

If you ever watched Tiger Woods play golf in a tournament, you saw an intense, fierce, focused athlete who is concentrating very intently on winning.

For those 3 or 4 hours of the tournament that day, Tiger Woods is 'someone else' and here's what I mean.

If you saw Tiger Woods 5 hours after the match with this wife at the movies, do you think he'd be so intense, so focused, so determined?

The answer is no way, he'd be relaxed, laughing, having fun.

Why this change in Tiger Woods from focused to laughing?

Because he understands the POWER OF GAME TIME. He understands that he only has to be GREAT and 'on' during the moments the game is on. Here's an example.

Let's say you're in sales and you prospect 4 hours a day or even 30 minutes a day. That's your ‘game time.’

You need to be focused, organized, have a plan and prepare. Have you ever seen a rock star on stage and they’re so energetic, running around and the crowd is going wild?

Check them out 4 hours after the concert - are they acting like that? No chance, they're acting their normal self.

Here's what you need to do.

You need to ISOLATE the times during the day that you need to be at your best. Maybe time with your clients, with prospects, working on a project at work.

For Tiger Woods, his game time is his gold match.

For Bruce Springsteen, it's when he's on stage at a concert.

For a great chef, it's when he's preparing a meal.

Isolate that time and then ask yourself this question:

If I was going to be powerful, focused and ready to win during game time, what actions would I take today, how focused would I be, and what would my next 2 action steps be?

It's funny, you don't need to be 'on' 24 hrs a day; find the 20% of your day that's GAME TIME.

When Steven Spielberg is directing a film, he changes into this focused, intense director. When is your GAME TIME today? Isolate it. Turn up your ENERGY and enthusiasm. And then give it your all.

Discovering your game time moments and maximizing them will bring you immense and quick rewards.

You can be as great as Tiger, Oprah, Spielberg, Michael Dell and the rest.

Talk to you soon.

Mike Litman is the co-author of the #1 Best-selling book Conversations with Millionaires. Over the last 3 years, Mike has unleashed the greatness of tens of thousands of people worldwide. Networking Times Magazine called Mike Litman ‘a modern day Napoleon Hill’ and at the age of 30 he’s already shared the stage with well-known speakers such as Mark Victor Hansen and Bob Proctor.
www.mikelitman.com

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Self Esteem And Confidence, Do You Have Full Portions?

See that ceiling? It’s all glass. “Don’t think you are, KNOW you are”. That’s what Morpheus said to Neo in the famous movie Matrix.

Indeed, how many times have we backed out from pursuing our goals just because we thought we are not capable enough to do it? Be it the professional arena, or personal lives- the number of lost chances are just numerous for almost all of us.

However, if we just relax back and ponder over those lost chances we will realize that the fine line that differentiated between a blockbuster success and an utter failure is not resources, but is it sheer willpower, or lack of that.

Ask any anthropologist, and she will say that there are a whole lot of factors that differentiates human beings from about 100 million other species that populate our Mother Earth. However, the only one single factor that makes us truly different from other species is our ability to dream.

Dream Big, so said the achievers. In short, the world is becoming flat, and we are limited only by the greatness of our dreams. Now, how do we get that power that lets us dream big? It is not a secret formula. It is not rocket science either.

Try the following 3 rules of thumb and perhaps you will start enjoying the habit of dreaming and pursuing your dreams to fruition.

· Have a positive attitude: It’s easier said that done, but having a positive attitude to life is perhaps the most important key that can lead you to success. You know you are good, and you know you can do it. So what exactly is stopping you from taking that plunge?

Love the person in the mirror; admire that person. Someone may call you a narcissist, but you will love the feeling of loving yourself. Start believing in yourself and take the 1st baby steps. Rest assured, with your abilities and diligence, your dreams will see fruition.

· Stay happy: Have you ever wondered how infectious is a bright and warm smile? Physicists are wrong when they say that it is only heat that radiates. Its human warmth that radiates too. Smile, be happy and enjoy the small pleasures of life.

You will see how this positively energizes the small world around you. And once you have your own world full of positive energy, taking on the harsh world will become an oh-so-easy activity.

· Take the 1st step, and take it firmly. It required more than a hundred years for an army of workers to complete The Great Wall of China that spanned over four thousand miles. But there was a shovel work that marked the starting of the grand dream.

Do not get bogged down by the apparent enormity of any dream. Take the first step, and take it firmly. The foot-space for other steps will automatically follow. Project Apollo took mankind to the moon, but it all started from the first stroke of the pencil in a blank drawing board.

As Brian Tracy says, Don't get bogged down in whether you can do a thing, ask how it can be done! Over and over if you have to but keep asking until you get the right answer.

So go for it, you can do it!

Al

Have The Courage To Say Yes!

In a culture full of reasons to say "no", it takes a lot of courage to find ways to say "yes".

We're taught to say "no" from a very young age, after all. For most of us, our first word was "no'', and it quickly became our favorite word. As toddlers and teenagers, we used "no'' to differentiate ourselves from our parents, peers, and surroundings.

It's how we began to control what was happening around us, or at least, how we tried to control that. It helped us over those early developmental hurdles, and gave us our earliest sense of our personal boundaries -- and that's a lot of significance bound up in such a tiny word!

The problem isn't that "no" in and of itself is somehow bad; indeed, giving yourself permission to say "no" as an adult can keep you out of an awful lot of trouble.

The problem is that "No" begins to take on a life of its own. Too often, that life is yours.

Life is change, and "no" becomes a way of slowing down that change, or trying to stop it altogether. It is a shield we use to protect ourselves from having to experience anything new or different.

Rather than riding the wave of change into a life full of exhilarating possibilities, we use "no" as a tether to keep us safely confined to the kiddie pool.

Using "no" to protect ourselves from change is like a kitten poking its head under covers assuming it's completely hidden.

Change is going to happen, whether you say "no" to it or not. And, just like that kitten, assuming that "no" protects you from change is one sure way to have it pounce on you and bite your tail.

Let's be honest here: We usually say "no'' out of fear, and some fears are entirely reasonable. It's sensible to say "no'' to jumping off a bridge or "no'' to cake if you are diabetic. These "no's'' aren't the ones that keep us from living lives of incredible satisfaction and happiness.

It's those silly, neurotic fears like fearing rejection, or of looking stupid, or being wrong. It's the fear of commitment, the fear of speaking out, and the fear of facing our truest, deepest desires.

The list is nauseatingly long, and we've all bought into some of these at least once. These fears have shaped our lives, often to our detriment and sometimes to the detriment of those around us.

So the next time you're faced with something new and exciting and all those little neurotic fears start rioting inside you, what does it take to fight down a "no" and say "yes" instead?

In a word: Courage.

Like the Cowardly Lion (an archetype for the fear-ridden) we need to find our courage. Unlike him, we know that we have to face our fears, and find our courage within.

Inside each of us beats a brave, fiercely courageous heart, willing to take on a challenge if it means that life afterward will be more authentic, happier, and free.

What better challenges to tackle than the fears that keep us chained to our tiny, boring, closeted little lives?

Do yourself a favor: Right now, identify and tackle at least one of those inner fears. Find a reason to say "yes" today, and every day. You've only your inner coward to lose!

by Rev. Dr. Alesia Matson

Rev. Dr. Alesia Matson is co-founder of Reasons to Say Yes! a community of like-minded souls who are determined not to allow internal fears to limit or inhibit the broad range of joyous experiences available to them in this life. She teaches and writes articles on meditation and self-improvement, and is the author of 7 Mysteries: Contemplative Arts for the Modern Mystic. Contact her at alesia@reasons2sayyes.com.

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Procrastination Buster - Set Your Goals Small And Daily

Overcoming Procrastination - You Should Be Setting Daily Goals

If you feel like you're losing the battle against procrastination, one of the most effective strategies for taking charge of your life is to get in the habit of setting and accomplishing smaller daily goals.

The surest way to really know that you can do something is to have done it before. When you set daily goals for yourself, you develop the habit of getting things done.

So when the procrastination demon appears, you already know how to force yourself to push ahead because you've done it before, even as recent as yesterday.

Set a goal every day, and achieve it.

It's easy to get discouraged when your projects don't seem to be going anywhere. We all need a long-term vision to guide our day-to-day efforts, but many people with high goals develop a negative attitude when they think they're not making progress.

That's why it's important to set achievable goals every day that align within your bigger vision. Also the more goals you achieve, the more positive your attitude will be. Small goals or not, start to achieve them and see how good you feel.

Set weekly and monthly goals. Your short-term goals are milestones that keep you moving toward long-term goals. They help you know if you're going in the right direction.

When a long-term goal seems far away, it's easy to feel discouraged. Breaking down a large project into smaller segments makes it easier to stay focused. Congratulate yourself when you achieve daily and weekly goals, and give yourself a special reward when you achieve a monthly goal.

It's important to experience the satisfaction and rewards of successfully completing jobs. When you force yourself to keep moving until you finish a project, it's easier to get started on the next one.

Don't be surprised if you feel yourself grappling with the drift toward procrastination now and then - it may never go away completely. We all feel this way at times. All successful people learn how to identify the procrastination monster, and they know what to do about it when it threatens:

1. Successful people learn to use their time well. When an urgent task threatens to pull them away from what they're doing, they don't rush into it just because it seems urgent. They always ask: Which of these two things is higher on my list of priorities?

2. They turn off the phone from time to time. Can you get more done by leaving a voice message and turning the phone off during certain periods of the day? The telephone is one of the most insidious thieves of our time. It's urgent but rarely important. It shoves out the less urgent but more important things.

3. From time to time they keep a log of how they use their time. If they miss a deadline, they plan how to finish the remainder of their work and estimate as accurately as possible when it will be done.

4. They develop a habitual routine to get things done. They set an objective to accomplish every morning and every afternoon.

5. They leave time in their daily schedule for contingencies.

6. This last one is key. They always think twice before postponing a task. Successful people know that pushing themselves to accomplish daily goals makes them more likely to achieve their long-term goals. They love the feeling they get when they get things done effectively and on time.

Try following some these suggestions. You will soon find that you love getting things done too.

See you later.

Al

Positude Attitude Is Everything, You Better Believe It!

I received this little story in my mail box this morning and I'll bet it has been around the internet for a few times.

I wanted to share it here for those who may not have seen it.

I wish I knew who originally wrote this. Whoever wrote this had it right on . . .

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John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it!

You can't be a positive person all of the time How do you do it?'

He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good mood.'

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.

'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.'

'You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins..Wanna see my scars?'

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.'

'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked

He continued, '..the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'

'What did you do?' I asked.

'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled--Gravity!'

Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You have two choices now:

01. Delete this

02. Forward it to the people you care about.

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You know the choice I made.

Al Smith

Just How Are You Going To Reach Those Tough Goals?

Two quotes I ran across this morning made me wonder if I was doing all I could to reach my goals and enhance my future . . . and I decided that I could do more.

Are you following all the success steps you can to get what you want? I mean really?

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"Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile. "
-- Gary Ryan Blair, Author and Motivational Speaker

"The size of the future you actually experience will largely be determined by one factor: the people you choose to connect with. When you invite people who are truly committed to growth into every aspect of your life, your own potential for growth becomes truly unlimited."
-- Dan Sullivan: Speaker and coach to entrepreneurs

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Are you doing more than your job, business or relationship requires? Are you going the extra mile?

Are you associating with the people who are following the same path as you and may be a few steps ahead of you?

If you answered these questions in the negative then . . . are you really commited to doing whatever it takes?

Just think about it . . .

Al

Getting Negative? Try This!

I want to share this article by Anna Watkins with you today. Talk about turning the negative into the positive.

Substitute the solution "I Could If . . .", whenever you feel like "I Can't Because . . ." whenever you feel a negative self talk coming on.

Here is Anna:

I Could If . . .

Action expresses priorities. (Mohandas Gandhi)

Many of us could have graduate degrees in excuse making. We have developed it to such a fine art that we really should get an honorary doctorate.

Now you may be thinking that it would be terrific to have people calling you, "Doctor." However, all that excuse making skill will not cut it in the real world if we want to achieve our dreams and have an enjoyable life.

Let's try another approach.

Take your personal example and put it through this exercise.

Your current story begins, "I can't because blah blah blah."

Here are some examples:

I can't get a new job or promotion because my computer skills are not strong enough.

I need more clients but I don't have the time or money to work on my marketing.

I want to spend more time with my family (friends or hobby), but my work is too demanding.

Is that really true? Do you have so little control over your life that these things are beyond your reach? Ha! If you really really really want to make this happen, you can!

Your NEW story begins, "I could if."

Now start writing and list as many actions as you can think of - no matter how crazy some of them may appear. No judgment - just writing!

I could if I:

Spend 20 minutes a day using the Help function of the computer application I am using

Read the user manual

Take a class

Ask someone with more skills to help me

I could if I:

Attend one more network gathering each month

Follow up with current or former clients to see how they are doing and how I may be of assistance

Give prospective customers something of value - an article, free newsletter, etc.

Listen to my customers to learn how I can add more value for them

I could if I:

Schedule and keep an appointment for time with my spouse, my kids, my golf clubs, bird watching, painting

Look for events we can enjoy and mark them on the calendar or post them on a bulletin board

Buy tickets and commit to attending an activity together

Volunteer, making a commitment to support a cause that we can enjoy together

OK. Your turn!

What ever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now! (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

by Anna Watkins

Anna Watkins is a Career Coach with a special interest in group coaching and Master Mind Groups, networks of like minded people who support and help each other stay on track with their life goals.You can learn more about the resources she offers through her website: http://www.one-e-anna.com

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