Time Management - Schedule Some Downtime For Yourself

I had a nice break earlier today. I watched the movie Independence Day with Will Smith. After being inspired (as this movie always does), I thought about how taking breaks make me more productive, even with the downtime.

It is important that you take time for yourself. Whether it's exercising, reading a book, or watching a movie you want to see. Studies even show that exercising each day can make you more productive and teach you how to manage your time better. After all,you probably have to fit that exercise in somewhere, right?

If you only can take a small portion of time, do it for yourself. Make sure you work your downtime for yourself in between pressing deadlines or major projects at work. We can get totally carried away sometimes.

In your life there are many different areas we all need to maintain balance with. You have health, financial, family, spiritual, social, professional, and intellect. You do not have to spend equal amounts of time at each day, but make sure each gets it's appropriate share of time.

Take care of each in it's own time. When one of these areas is neglected, it can cause difficulties in other parts of your life, and distract your focus from your real goals.

If you neglect your health, then you and your family can suffer. Neglecting your financial problems can make it difficult for you to concentrate in other areas.

Neglecting your time for yourself can prevent you from re-energizing. So stay balanced. Schedule time just for you, whatever personal acitivities that may include.

See your next time.

Time Management Productivity Musts

Time Management Tips - Deadlines And Priorities

These are two of the most important things to plan when setting goals. Setting Deadlines and Priorities enable you to achieve greater productivity. You wouldn't believe how many people miss this. Or . . . maybe you would. GRINS.

Whether you are trying to achieve a personal or work related goal, you will need to make a few decisions.

First, decide the beginning and finishing dates for each goal. In that time frame, you need to allow yourself planning and time management. Always take into consideration the end result and the time it will take you to achieve it.

If it's a large, long term project, plan accordingly. Set certain times to accomplish different portions or milestones of your goal. This will help you figure out how much more committed time is needed.

When there are several projects you need to get done, write them down and prioritize which ones are the most important, which ones need to be done first, so your plan runs smoothly to completion.

Stick to the plan and try not to fall back into old habits that didn't work for you previously. Do the most complicated or hardest ones first when you have the most energy. You will find that as the days go on, the smaller targets seem to complete faster because the jobs may seem easier.

So, two very important things that will determine how well your goal setting program progresses: Prioritize and Set Deadlines for yourself.

See you next time.

Are You A Positive Thinker? Test Yourself!

Self-Improvement - How to Tell If You Are a Positive Thinker? Take This Test! By B. K. Smith

Self-improvement requires adjusting your attitude and becoming a positive thinker. You've probably heard that statement a hundred times before. And it is true.

"If you are going to think: Think big." - Donald Trump

In fact, as you practice using positive thinking, you will find that things begin to change for you. Sometimes the change is so gradual you don't notice anything at all, until one day someone else points out that you seem different. They may ask if you've gotten a new outfit, changed your hair, lost weight, or started dating someone new?

Tapping into positive thinking not only makes you happier, it also makes you more attractive; the kind of person others want to be around. There are some common signs of positively charged people.

How to Tell if You Are a Positive Thinker?

Check out the following list to see if any of these sound familiar, and help gauge your progress and see what you have to look forward to.

You Know You're on the Right Track When:

1.) Your long drive to work flew by so fast, you questioned why it ever bothered you in the first place.

2.) You spent twenty-two minutes waiting in line at the bank, on your half hour lunch break, and your day wasn't ruined and your life didn't end.

3.) The gas station attendant gives you the wrong amount of change back; you point it out with a friendly smile and he happily corrects the mistake.

4.) The long awaited repair part for your vehicle finally arrived at the dealership after two weeks on back-order, only to discover it was the wrong size. You are so patient and understanding about the mistake, when the dealership calls, they give you a significant discount on the repair service.

5.) Throughout the day, when you catch a reflection of yourself in a mirror, you're smiling and you don't think you look like an ugly duckling.

6.) You don't hear the timer go off and dinner in the oven gets burnt to a crisp, yet somehow you quickly throw something together that turns out better than you originally planned.

7.) Unexpectedly you find yourself with generous free time on your hands, and lots of enjoyable things to do with it, including the energy needed to do them.

8.) You realize the last time you let yourself think "I can't" was while thinking: "I can't believe how blessed I am to have all these wonderful things happening to me!"

Well how did you do? Did you recognize yourself in any of these? Or are you looking forward to the day you do?

Regardless of your current level, a key to keep in mind is that the most positive, powerful, life changing thing you can meditate and think on is the Word of God. In Psalm chapter one it says that those who meditate and obey God's Word are blessed and whatever they do prospers.

Make no mistake about it; positive thinking has the power to change your life. As you continue to use this technique in your life, you will find you don't have to put much effort into achieving what you want. Positive thoughts put the law of attraction into motion and begin to manifest abundant success in your life.

May your thoughts be positive and your life full of growing prosperity!

And now, get a free life changing "How to Attract Prosperity" download. Plus enjoy Christian and self-improvement resources along with motivational videos. Check this out: http://www.GrowingProsperity.com

B.K. Smith seeks to provide resources to help you prosper in all areas of life - including your spirit, soul, body, finances, and relationships.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=B._K._Smith
------------------------------------------------------------------

We have a FREE Ebook version of "The Power Of Setting Goals" available among many other free reports on our Free Ebooks And Reports section of the RGG Ezines page. Just scroll down and download it FREE.

Some of our more popular posts are here:

• How To Get Motivated To Achieve Your Goals
  
• First The Mission Statement Then Goals That Align
  
• Goal Setting Practices Vary In The Details
  
• Build Your Self Motivation And Assure Your Success
  
• 6 Goal Setting Mistakes Not To Make In Your Planning

Goal Setting Tip - Do You Have A Solid Plan Of Action?

Goal Setting and Planning - Steps to Success
Guest Author - Kenneth Wallin

I was sitting around the home office this afternoon, and I got to thinking about goal setting. I wonder why more folks don't set goals? That was my internal question for the day. And some thoughts surfaced, and I wanted to share some of these thoughts with you. Plus, I will also take a few moments to write about a phenomenal goal setting technique that every leader ought to use.

Perhaps the reason most folks don't set goals is they just honestly don't know how. So, let's think about that for a bit. Setting goals is a step oriented process. (Yep, it really is a 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... process.) In fact we can reduce it to a few simple steps just to make it easy and something any leader can do right away.

Step one is the hardest step in the whole goal setting process. Whether you are a team leader, or you are just setting personal goals for your own life, you must have some idea of the outcome you seek. There is a common little ditty that describes this step, and it goes like this, "A fellow goes to the airport and gets in line at the ticket counter. He gets to the front of the line and says to the Agent, 'I want to buy a ticket.' The Agent asks, 'Where would you like to go, Sir?' The fellow replies, 'I don't know, I just want to buy a ticket.'"

Now, you ask, what does this mean? Simply put, you cannot buy a ticket (set a goal) until you have decided where you are going (an outcome).

So, first you figure out the outcome you desire to accomplish. It may be something like, start a business, or buy a car, or set up a Forex trading account. Whatever that final outcome you want to have happen is the first thing you must decide. (You're not done yet.) Having done that step you must get going on the next step.

Step two is a bit easier, but not simple. You must determine the timetable for reaching your goal. It is important to do this, so you can understand the level of effort you must commit to accomplishing the goal. (While we are thinking about it, you do understand the outcome goal is supported by both short term and intermediate term goals, don't you?

Short term goals are the activities you must accomplish right away either because they are foundational for your outcome goal, or they are easier and will establish progress for the team. Intermediate goals are those that require foundation to accomplish, or are probably going to take more time to accomplish.)

If you are thinking of trying to get a business started within the next quarter, you will need to think about a lot more time and resource investment to realize the outcome you seek. If you are thinking about a getting that business going by the end of next year, well, you can plan for less stress on your time and wallet as you set about the process. (It may amount to the same resource investment in the end, but will be less incrementally on your wallet if you have more time to accomplish the outcome.)

Step three is the committing of the process to writing. (You knew that was coming, didn't you?) You can do this by setting up a formal business plan, or just writing some of the activities you need to accomplish either in the short term, or later (those are intermediate goals) on a pad of paper (for now).

I am a big supporter of starting with a pad of paper and writing out with my pencil (not a pen) some of the things I need to do to get there. For purposes of discussion let's say you are opening a business, and here are some questions you might need to answer.

Is it a virtual (on the Internet), or is it a bricks & mortar (in the real world) business? What are your products, and where will they come from? Will there be a team of employees needed, or is this a one-person home-based business? As you can tell, this is not hard, it is however detailed. Just think through the "things" needed, and then prioritize them according to whether you need them now, or later.

Step four is pretty simple. Formalize the whole thing into a plan. I like to use Microsoft Project for this step as Microsoft Project has some really good templates you can use to build your plan.

Now, you do not have to use this application, but whatever tool you choose make sure you have these elements included; Initiation, Planning, Executing, Controlling, and Closing.

Initiating is, simply put, determining what the outcome is, whether a team is needed, and when the process will begin.

Planning is the critical step of figuring out all the short term, intermediate, and coordinating goals (activities) necessary to reach the outcome, and committing that whole set of activities to writing,

Executing is the step where you (and the team if you have one) go get the whole thing going.

Controlling is keeping track of what is getting done, and what is going not so well (and letting the team know, as necessary).

Closing is the step where you let everyone know the outcome has been reached (and make a written report, if required).

Here is the most important thing I can tell you ... and I want you to pay close attention to this ... PRESS GO when you get the plan developed.

What this means is simply this. When you have gotten your goal established and a plan of action developed to accomplish the goal ... start moving, execute, JUST DO IT.

So many of my clients have a weakness, they cannot just step out, and start work on getting going on a project. So, have a Kickoff Meeting (set a date for it, and put that date in your plan), then push the accelerator, and get going. If you don't start moving on your plan, you will never reach the goal. Do this one thing, and you will have so much more success.

In an upcoming article I will be discussing Stretch Goals, their construction, importance, and all about this neat "secret" to building really effective teams. I hope you will be looking for this article, it will be another valuable skill you can put to use. (It is not a big secret, it just seems a lot of leaders don't use it to full effect and I want to change that.)

Ken Wallin is a retired US Army Officer, and a Senior Project Management Professional. He has more than 35 years leading in both military and consulting positions. He currently is working on his PhD in Business Administration specializing in International Business at Northcentral University. Ken writes about management, leadership, and team building.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Wallin

From Famished To Famous - A Great Goals Success Story

Here's a great article submitted by The Fire Flies For The Heart
Organization. Enjoy

She's On Her Way!

Eilleen was born in the tiny town of Timmons, Ontario in Canada.
She grew up used to bitter cold and a gnawing stomach. There
were days on end when bread and milk was the entire diet for her
and her 3 younger siblings. She learned to hide her poverty and
hunger from friends at school but it didn't ease the suffering.

About the only thing that could do that was her music. When life
was more than she could handle she would retreat to her bedroom
with her guitar, singing and writing until her fingers ached. The
music fed her soul even while her stomach was growling.

Her talent was recognized early and this little tomboy was shuttled
all over to perform in clubs, bars, and anywhere else they could
get her booked to make some extra money. Yet Eilleen never
really thought music was her future.

When she could no longer stand the poverty she managed to
convince her mother to leave their father and head for Toronto.
The shelter they stayed in for a long time provided the first regular
meals she had ever experienced.

Eilleen got her first job when she was 14, working at a McDonalds.
Later, she spent summers working as the foreman of a dozen-man
reforestation crew in the Canadian bush, where she learned to
wield an axe and handle a chain saw as well as any man. She was
tough because she had to be tough.

Then things got tougher. Both parents were killed in an auto
wreck and suddenly she was the parent to her siblings. She
managed to survive by getting a job singing at a local resort. The
experience was invaluable - giving her exposure to every aspect of
theatrical performance. It prepared her for what was to come.
In 1990, her siblings were grown and 23 year old Eillen was on her
own. The first thing she did was change her first name to an
Ojibway Indian name meaning "I'm on my way".

Shania Twain was indeed on her way. She has turned the world of
Country/Pop music upside down, winning many awards along the
way. Unless you live on another planet, you have probably heard
of her!

One of her songs really sums it up. She has this to say about the
irresistible I'm Gonna Getcha Good! "There is a typical Shania
attitude in the lyric, a definite female confidence. It's all about a
girl who knows what she wants, she not only knows how to get it,
but she's going to get it good."

All of us make a choice everyday how we are going to live our
lives. No one would have been surprised if little Eilleen had simply
become another person sunk in poverty - trapped by the reality of
a hard life.

Shania Twain, however, saw her future differently. She was not
content to stay where she was - determined to pay whatever price
necessary to achieve her dreams. Each hard thing did nothing but
strengthen her resolve and determination, teaching her how to
press through to success!

She learned to do the hard things. She learned how to spot
opportunity in every situation. She learned how to ask for what
she wanted - and just keep asking until she got where she
wanted to be. She learned how to fail, then pick herself back up
and do it again.

As Shania has now shown you the way to success...and now as
you create your own success, remember that you will succeed if
you choose to keep on trying!
______________________________

Beyond their magical beauty fireflies have a great lesson for us. Does the energy you expend radiate through the world, lighting the way to all you want in life? Fireflies for the Heart was created to teach you how to glow like the Firefly.

Self Talk, Are Your Thoughts Normally Positive Or Negative?

Positive Self-Talk

One of the most powerful influences on your attitude and personality is what you say to yourself. It is not what happens to you, but how you respond internally to what happens to you, that determines your thoughts, feelings, and your actions. By controlling your inner dialogue, or your “self talk,” you can begin to assert control over every part of your life.

Your self-talk determines the majority of your emotional life. The words that you use to describe what is happening to you, and how you feel about external events, will trigger the emotions of happiness or unhappiness that you experience.

When you see things positively and you look for the good in every situation and in each person, you will become a very positive and optimistic person. Since the quality of your life is determined by how you feel moment to moment, you should make it a habit to only think and talk about what you want and keep your mind off of what you don’t want.

You are constantly faced with challenges, difficulties, and problems every day of your life. They are unavoidable and one of the inevitable parts of being human. But as you draw upon your resources to respond effectively to each challenge, you grow and become a stronger person.

When you look back over your life, you’ll see that you are the kind of person that you are because of all the difficulties and problems that you have had to overcome in your life. Without those setbacks, you could not have learned what you needed to know to developed the character and strength that you have at this point in your life.

Much of your ability to succeed comes from the way you deal with life. Having a positive mental attitude is indispensable for success and happiness. It is the key to success in business, and it is vital to building strong relationships with other people.

Everyone wants to be around a positive person with a cheerful attitude towards life. But no one wants to be around a negative person who is always pessimistic about everything. Your ability to develop and maintain a positive mental attitude, no matter what the situation may be, will play a critical role in any success you achieve.

One of the best ways to define a positive mental attitude is having “a constructive and positive response to adversity.” It is only when you are confronted with a setback or adversity that you really know if you have a positive attitude or not.

Anyone can be positive when things are going well. It is only when things are going against you, that you are able to demonstrate to yourself and others, that you have a positive character and personality.

One of the common characteristics of all high achieving men and women is that they recognize the inevitability of temporary setbacks and disappointments. They accept them as a normal and natural part of their life. They do everything possible to avoid problems, but when they come up, successful people learn from them and rise above them. They continue to move forward towards their goals.

Optimistic people develop the habit of talking to themselves in constructive ways. Whenever they experience adversity of any kind, they immediately describe it to themselves in a such a way that it looses its ability to trigger negative emotions. They are able to exert a sense of control by how they describe any event or situation to themselves.

There is a natural tendency in all of us to react emotionally when our expectations are frustrated in any way. When something we wanted and hoped for fails to materialize, we feel a temporary sense of disappointment and unhappiness. We feel hurt and disillusioned. We react just as though we had been punched in the “emotional solar plexus.”

A person who is positive and optimistic is resilient and bounces back fast when he or she encounters a problem or setback of any kind. He or she responds quickly to an adverse event and interprets it as being temporary and only external.

An optimistic person takes full control of his or her inner dialogue and counters any negative feelings by immediately reframing the event so that appears positive in some way.

Since your mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative, if you deliberately choose the positive thought to dwell upon, you keep your mind optimistic and your emotions positive.

Since your thoughts and feelings determine you actions, if you keep your words and thoughts positive, you will automatically be a more positive person and move more rapidly toward your goals.

It all comes down to the way you talk to yourself on a daily basis. When a problem or difficulty comes up you must learn to change your language from negative to positive. For example, you should learn to use the word situation instead of problem.

A problem is something you wrestle and struggle with. It represents a potential loss and difficultly. A situation, on the other hand, is just something that you deal with. The event is the same. But the way you interpret the event to yourself is what makes it sound and appear completely different.

An even better word to substitute for problem is the word challenge. When you are faced with a difficulty of any kind, instead of saying, “I have a problem,” you should say, “I have an interesting challenge facing me.”

The word challenge is inherently positive. It is something that you rise to and that makes you stronger. It is again the same situation, only the word that you are using to describe it is different. As a result, your emotional response will be different as well.

The best of all possible words for any event or situation is the word opportunity. When you are faced with a difficulty of any kind, instead of saying, “I have a problem,” you should say, “I am faced with an unexpected opportunity.”

Within ever difficulty or problem, there lies the seed of an equal or greater opportunity or benefit. If you focus your attention on finding out what the valuable lesson is, you will always find it.

You should start your day in front of a mirror saying affirmations, such as “I like myself,” “I am the best,“ and “I can do it.” These are personal and positive affirmations that will build your levels of self confidence and self-esteem. You should say these affirmations out loud in front of a mirror at least 50 times a day.

By doing this, you will be driving these new positive thoughts deep into your subconscious. At first when you do this, you’ll feel kind of funny doing it, only because your mind over many years has been programmed with so much negativity that it will take time to reprogram your mind with these new positive affirmations.

The hallmark of the truly successful and happy person is the ability to be objective and unemotional when caught up in the inevitable storms of daily life. The high achieving individual has the ability to continue talking to himself or herself in a positive and optimistic way no matter what the situation is.

They are always calm, clear, and completely under control. As a result, they are able to exert a far greater sense of control and influence over their environment, and are less likely to be angry, upset, or distracted by problems or difficulties.

The starting point of becoming a more positive person is to monitor and control your self-talk every minute of the day. Keep your thoughts and words positive and consistent with your goals. Keep your mind focused on what you want and on becoming the person you want to be.

Remember that it is impossible to learn, grow and become successful without adversity and difficulties. You must rise above them in order to become a better person. So, welcome each difficulty as a learning experience and look into the situation to find something good or beneficial in it.

Always, keep your thoughts on your future and on your goals. Constantly think about the person you want to become. When things go wrong temporarily, respond by saying to yourself, “I believe in the perfect outcome of every situation in my life.”

Resolve to be cheerful and pleasant in every situation. Resist every temptation to respond to a situation negatively. View disappointment as an opportunity to grow stronger, and talk to yourself and others about it in a positive and optimistic way.

When you practice positive self-talk, and keep your words and your mental pictures consistent with your goals, nothing can stop you from being the success you are meant to be.

Copyright© 2005 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. A former ad agency executive and marketing consultant, Joe’s work in personal development focuses on helping his clients identify hidden marketable assets that create windfall opportunities and profits, as well as sound personal happiness and peace.

Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com

Can We Be Happy, Healthy, And Rich?

Do you really need to read another emotional article about being sick and tired of not being rich? Yes, you do want to get rich. The inside of your head is waiting to explode, you want it so bad!

You want to get rich though NOW, right? . . . RIGHT?

You might even have read a million articles and advice columns all over the internet. “Live below your means” is something you read all the time. It’s absolutely true but that sucks, doesn’t it?

You don’t want people to ask you to create a budget and stick to it or start early or invest now and not touch it until retirement and more along these lines.

Get started NOW. Don’t just spend your lifetime in thinking and dreaming. Do something solid now. It may not be the super right thing to do, but do it nevertheless. Just get started.

Edison did not invent the bulb overnight. He just started. He perhaps found some 10,000 odd ways that will not result in a bulb as the end! But alas, he made his creation. He tells the story about how he had found all the ways it wouldn’t work, so that the next thing had to work!

Start off now. Mistakes are part of the process. You will learn how not to do it the next time. Take action, analyze the results and be flexible. Adjust when necessary.

Remember, it is OKAY to fail. Mistakes are bound to occur. You can’t afford to be too hard on yourself. Most times, success lies behind the last mistake you make, which might even be a 100th mistake you are making. Just don’t stop digging three feet short of the gold!

You want to be rich. You’re just on your way. Pump yourself up and move on. Get closer to your dream.

You have loads of energy in you. You’re sick of earning a pittance. You want to see real money come your way now. So here’s what you need to rightfully do:

First, decide what “rich” is. Are you referring to Bill Gates rich where you can afford just about anything? Maybe you don’t really want to work that hard. You want to work lesser but still be “rich”. So, the first rule of thumb is - be specific. Do you want to be rich in the billion dollar area, 100 million area or maybe just 10 million dollars would be rich enough.

Here’s a quick idea, don’t work! . . . At least, don't work for someone else. Be your own boss. Well, you can have a job, and also work for yourself can't you?.

Are you going to work to please your boss or yourself? Please yourself first; you will realize that everybody around you will be happier with you if you are first happy yourself.

So, make yourself absolutely happy first and then you can go about doing that for others. Primary importance is you and you only. Do not forget this. You must take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else.

Do what you love doing. Commercialize on what you love doing. It might initially seem like you can’t make any money out of it. But concentrate, meditate and THINK of all possible ways to make something work out for you. What you love doing should fetch you money somehow.

Now this doesn’t mean you can play golf all day and earn money. Not unless you’re Tiger Woods! Find some creative ways to make money with something you like doing. You just have to do this.

You can get rich. Just go out there now and do what you love doing. You have a wonderful brain. You just have to tap it and getting that lazy lost thing to start working. Think. Come up with a plan and plunge headlong into it.

Money is just a measure of the value you provide to others. Service to others should always be compensated for in some way. All you have to do is find enough of those people who can afford to pay for your services, and provide value and benefits they want or need, and are willing to pay for them.

Follow your passion and begin to strategize on how to monetize your efforts. Money will follow. Money will follow in great amounts as long as you keep persisting in locating strategies to earn compensation for your efforts. It will.

I apologize if this sounded more like a sermon than a post. After all, I needed a kick in the butt, and this helped me work things out in my own mind . . .

See you next time.

Al