January 2009

9 hacks on how to be successful in life

by admin on January 29, 2009

Many times people are looking for recipes for success and happiness outside of themselves and complain about their fate and the conditions they live in. This behavior makes them dissatisfied and unhappy. How to be successful in life is a process with a lot of obstacles and problems, but in most cases the way you treat your life is that which determines the degree of success, happiness and satisfaction.

When sometimes things are getting difficult most people give up and abandon the effort. We know that success takes time, energy, needs focus and patience. While one person hesitates because he feels disadvantaged, someone else is busy with making mistakes and thus taking the responsibility for life success. Too many people do not demand anything from their life, they require little, and take the minimum and are happy with the minimum. If you want to be successful in your life you need to do a plan and visualize your success. Below you can find 15 ways to help you achieve your goals and be successful in life.

1. Be active and not passive

People have the desire to be active in their lives and control their environment (family, other people, work, etc.) and not being controlled by it. Self confidence and the strength to take the right decision for your self (and not do what will please others) are important parameters that can help you overcome stress, beat passiveness and be successful in your life. Take your decisions and stop feeling sorry for your self. If you need to mourn for a loss or a bad situation do it, but do not to be consumed by it. Accepting the real facts and doing a realistic assessment is the starting point to set targets and to change your life.

2. Set your goals

The ability of personal leadership begins by setting specific goals for your self. Usually people have broad and vague desires, but they do not develop a specific plan or strategy to achieve what they want. It is very important to start by setting specific targets and learning to focus on your goals, avoiding and bypassing any destruction. This enables better concentration, productivity that will eventually lead to success. This personal success will help you overcome your fears of failure and enable you to take the big step to change your life and meet your goals.

3. Set priorities

There is a need to become a manager for yourself, which means that you must learn to organize and implement your activities so as to align with your objectives. It is important to set priorities, because normally you cannot manage everything at once. Evaluate your goals and decide what is truly important to spend time and effort to achieve them.
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4. Positive thinking

Think and visualize your personal victory. This is the best way to face every situation i.e. as a personal victory, not defeat. Instead of thinking that everything in life is like a cake and whoever takes a piece this will make the remaining pieces smaller for others, think that in life there is plenty for everyone. Rather then start thinking that you will not succeed or that there are insurmountable obstacles, adopt a realistic attitude and believe that you can accomplish your goals, even if you have to experience some difficulties.

5. Come closer to other people – cooperate

First understand others and then try to understand what is the best recipe for your personal and professional relationships. What others think and what they want, what they fear and how you can reach them better? These questions should guide your behavior in order to free from the fear that «others cannot understand me» and to develop functional, successful relationships.

One can achieve more through cooperation. You need to take care when you select the people to co-operate with, but also you need to set the strategy you will follow to handle the cooperation and relationship with other people. However, this is better than to hide it in your shell and believe that you will make it all alone, without any cooperation or help from others.

6. Renew your self

Your self has many dimensions: emotional, social, intellectual, physical and mental. It is necessary to try and improve your self in all those dimensions and to cultivate the potential in each of these areas. You need to find your personal pleasures and not to always follow what others do or want. This means that everybody should put their fears aside and be renewed, giving personal meaning in life.

7. Be Persistent

If you refuse to abandon the effort every time and at any cost, if you continue to be persistent but not intolerant, if you keep your eyes up and not around then your can be successful in your life and your name can be added to the endless list of successful people. Those people who refused to quit in the first hitch. There are many cases of people who did not give up despite the difficulties and failures.

Did you know that:

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a very harsh prison. Once released, he was elected president of South Africa and received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Michael Jordan was excluded from the basketball team of his school.

Conrad Hilton had bought some hotels, but lost all of them during economic recession. His accountants advised him to declare bankruptcy. He refused and with perseverance and determination has become one of the largest hotel chain owners, bearing his name and worth several million dollars.

There are many people who refused to abandon the effort even when they were faced with unbeatable difficulties. The list is endless, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey, Aristotle Onasis, … If you want your name to be entered in this list of people then your persistence should set aside your weaknesses and help you achieve your goals. Unfortunately, few are those who continue despite the difficulties, most people when they encounter a minor setback they give up and fail.

8. Understand that failure is a temporary situation

There are no exceptions to this rule. Some people know this due to the experience they have with persistence. You should not accept any defeat as something other than a temporary situation. Your desires and objectives have to be persistent so as to convert the temporary defeat eventually into victory. You should become one of those people who stand on the edge of life and watch other people give in to defeat and not ever rise again. Those who understand that failure is a temporary situation.

The society recognizes the genius and talented but it compensates economically and socially those who refuse to stop the effort. It recognizes and compensates perseverance.

9. Keep trying until you finally win

Perseverance is nothing but a mental situation, and like all other mental states can thus be cultivated. Life can give everyone a plate of dinner and a glass of wine. It requires persistence, however, for those who seek much higher goals and want to be successful. So set your price and move on with your life. The basis of persistent is the basis of desire and occurs as a result of defined goals. To achieve that you should:

Determine your purpose. After setting the goal of your life you must define the purpose of that goal, this knowledge will help you overcome all the obstacles you will face in the way, and is a very powerful incentive.

Do not ever doubt for yourself. There is no room for self-uncertainty in your intention to become successful. Keep your courage high; do not to return to your old limiting beliefs with the first difficulty.

Persistence. It is easy to obtain and maintain perseverance for your goals if you can create feelings of passion and desire for that goal. Do not give up, be open to amazing opportunities and always look for a miracle. Even better you should become this miracle.

Be honest with yourself and clearly define on what needs to change. The change may be necessary and safe to bring success, so be flexible, open and honest.

When something is not working, get rid of it and renew your decision to move on. Do not focus on what goes wrong, concentrate on how to do it well.

Do not interpret your mistakes as failures. The failure is a source of invaluable education. When you see what is not working properly you can see what works well and should move in this direction and closer to your dreams.

Live with gratitude. Acknowledge and celebrate for all that you have this moment in your life. The sense of the unfulfilled extents and multiplies, so look carefully around you and be happy and grateful.

Habit. Perseverance is the direct result of habit, repetition and courage. Take risks, do something new, different and challenging. Get rid of your fears and risks. Really believe that the best way to live your life is out of the ordinary.

The willingness to insist will keep you on track in difficult times. What you usually say to yourself  “Thing of big dreams, but be realistic” is not correct. Always have big dreams and big ambitions, and invest time, effort and flexibility to realize these dreams. Be persistent, but still relaxed, focused sighted but flexible – both in terms of your goals and your plans.

image source: pde.state.pa.us

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How to hack the stress in your life

by admin on January 28, 2009

Who is your worst enemy? Perhaps the psychological and mental stress – that probably inadvertently-create to your self? Stress is a normal reaction of ourselves in difficult or irregular situations where we feel that our capabilities are not sufficient to deal with an obstacle or an encountered difficulty.

However, how you react to stress may be either normal, so the effects of stress are minimum, or very intense, leading to various psychological and mental problems.

Everyone has the experience to have lost patience with someone else, be annoyed because of traffic, yelling to someone who was not to blame or give rise to misunderstandings, irritation and mental stress because the pressure he/she feels affects the judgment.

Some people create such situations occasionally in their life, while others make this self-sabotage a lifestyle, constantly creating psychological and mental stress, without realizing that they are the major cause of stress in their life and not the facts or other people.

There are many ways to cause stress to your self without understanding it. The most important are:

It is a matter of personality

People with personality type «A» are having a particular pattern of behaviour: they are always in a hurry, they are constantly «moving»-literally and figuratively – they are aggressive, nervous and always tensed. These characteristics of type «A» cause severe emotional stress in their relationships because of their aggressive attitude. These persons are not only unhappy in their relationships, but they also often fail to see the obvious solutions to various problems because they are always in a hurry and they do not give attention to details. The result is that they create even greater problems. People with this personality usually encounter continuous health problems, especially cardiovascular and stress for them is one of the major causes of heart disease.

Negative Thinking

Another way in which people often create stress to themselves is through negative thinking. The way we talk to ourselves, which usually develops in childhood, can follow us throughout our life and colour our experiences, either as a sunbeam or a black cloud that surrounds us and prevent our vision. People with negative thinking usually see problems around them, they believe that others have always negative incentives and intentions, they interpret positive events as negative, they find only problems and lose the important benefits and positive things in life, and this is only due to their constant persistence in negative thinking. People who are thinking negative believe that they do not have the abilities to meet the various difficult situations and to deal with stress, thus creating even more unresolved stress in their lives.
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Aggressiveness

Are you sometimes aggressive towards others when you could handle the same situation in a positive way? Do you always start a conversation by saying «why you did not…” rather than asking directly, i.e. without the negative «not», «did you…”. Or maybe you have a passive attitude and you let others take advantage of you because you do not know how to say no and set your limits? Confrontation and disagreements with others are a part of life, as well as the issues to be resolved. The way in which you deal with the various conflicts can strengthen or weaken your relationships creating excess psychological and mental stress for all concerned, ultimately creating even greater conflicts and problems.

Many people who are aggressive and not handling the various conflicts in a positive way, they do not realize their aggressive behavior and do not realize that they sabotage not only themselves but also their relations. Usually these people do not know other ways to handle situations.

Pessimism

If you are a pessimistic person, you tend to see things worse than they are, and you cannot see the opportunities presented, you believe that everything will have a negative outcome, you see only the problems and disadvantages, and not the opportunities and advantages, so the lack of self confidence and self esteem creates mental and emotional stress. The pessimism is more than to see the glass as half-empty: it is how you vision the world and life, it is the undermining of self-confidence, which makes you unable to believe in your capabilities, which creates doubts and creates additional health problems.

Too many responsibilities

Do you have a very heavy schedule, many responsibilities and tasks with intense stress? Many people create intense stress in their lives because they do not handle their time and obligations with priority for themselves. This is because either they are personality type «A» or because they do not know how to say no. All these create them chronic stress and the main reason is because they are undertaking more tasks than they can handle.

Inability to change your life

To change one of these negative habits, you must first identify and realize how you sabotage your self. You need to have the courage and strength to identify why you are causing stress to your life and find those ways to get rid of it. This will require you to take the big step and change your life. You need to be ready both physiologically and mentally. Ways to prepare your life for a change are relaxation, positive thinking, optimistic attitude to life and proper organization and planning.

Simple Hacks to on how to get rid of stress quickly

Healthy Diet

Eating healthy is one of the best methods to set a foundation for a de stress and better life.

  • Limit the maximum amount of caffeine to five cups a day (also tea, chocolate and cola drinks, because they also contain caffeine).
  • Eating regular meals.
  • Minimize the use of salt (especially for people with hypertension or family history of hypertension).
  • Avoid the over consumption of alcohol. It is scientifically proven that consuming large quantities of alcohol will increase stress and cause sleep disorders.
  • Stop smoking. Many people have the misconception that smoking contributes to relaxation. In reality smoking actually increases stress levels.
  • Eat foods rich in protein (fish, eggs, poultry). The proteins are broken into amino acid during the process of digestion. A particular amino acid, the tyrosine, contributes to the increase of chemicals dopamine and epinephrine, which have the ability to give the body more energy.
  • Eat foods rich in carbohydrates (cereal, pasta, fruits and vegetables). Carbohydrates, during the digestion process create serotonin, a substance that causes a sense of relaxation and makes you calm.

Physical Exercise

The reaction to stress is a way that nature prepares the body for action. However, the normal physical reaction is often not useful to address the stress of modern life. Including regular exercise in your daily program will help you release the tension and will also satisfy the needs of your body for activity. Any physical activity is beneficial, such as:

  • Walking
  • Swimming
  • Running
  • Team sports
  • Gardening

How does the exercise can helps you get rid of stress in your life?

Exercise can help you feel good, it makes you relaxed, and enables creativity. Raises the basic level of physical health and helps you handle the daily requirements and crisis. However, before you start exercising, you need first to consult with your doctor in case you have health problems, or you are overweight or if you are concerned about pain in the joints (back, knees, hips).

Relaxation

Relaxation is a way to create a relaxed body and a calm spirit. This physical and mental defuse is called relaxation and is contrary to the stress reaction. People who live in high intensity are more likely to experience problems when their stress levels increases. These people can lower the general level of stress with regular relaxing exercises and thus protect their body and mind from excessive stress. In doing so, they can tolerate more worries without creating more stress problems. Relaxation is a useful tool, whether used alone or together with other strategies to get rid of stress.
The only things you need to relax are:

  • An environment free from noises and interruptions
  • Free time
  • A body position that can help you get rid of the muscle tension
  • A good night sleep. To have a good night sleep you need to select the proper pillow. Pillow health is very important if you want to have a relaxing sleep.

Relaxation can also mean:

  • Massage
  • Light exercise – some types of light exercise or loose rhythmic motion can play a role for enhancing relaxation with the release of physical tension.
  • Listening to music
  • Walking your pet.
  • Taking a nap
  • Reading a good book.

Some other quick and easy ways to get rid of stress are:

  • To use a quiet and pleasant sound alarm to a wake you up
  • Having a good breakfast
  • Every time you watch the clock, take a deep inhalation
  • Reducing the speed with which you eat, talk, or move
  • Do not arrange to do many things one immediately after the other or at the same time.
  • Take a break from work, to walk, relax or enjoy the moment.
  • Give yourself time to do things that give you pleasure.
  • Learn to say NO, but certainly not in all cases. People who can say NO often say YES and feel happy about it.
  • Control and lower your anger against others – tolerance and acceptance are good to your health.

image source:chitrasudar

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How to change your life and overcome your fears

by admin on January 26, 2009

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and change. Among the three, most people face the first two with more success than the third. However, we have good news. There is a way on how to change your life that will even be for your benefit. The concept of making changes to life is not the same for all, seems easy to some and frightening for others. The familiarity with the familiar and the already known is always safer and it safeguards from the fear of change, the threat of new and the terror against the unknown.

Taking the decision to make a change in your life, to make a fresh start, regardless if it is a small or large change, has the power to diminish you. A change does not always solve the problems you have with your self and others. The decision for change is good to be the result of an internal process and a clear understanding of what is actually you want to achieve with a change in your life. The believe that you can suddenly stop everything and make a fresh start is utopian: regardless how much you want to leave the past behind you. The best way to make a change is to face your past and plan for the future. Two key questions you will first have to set your self and respond with sincerity and responsibility are:

Why you want this change, what you expect to change?
The change is enough to make you feel satisfied?

Why you may need to make a change in your life?

The most common reasons that may make you to take the decision to make changes in your life are:

  • You may want to make a change to your life so as to stay committed in an old dream, which you do not want to abandon or replace it with something else.
  • Changes in life maybe the only way to escape from the deadlock you live in and correct the situation.
  • The need to prove to others and your self that you are able to carry out a change in your life and move forward.
  • We may have tried a lot of solutions and various ways to improve your live without success and you see change as the unique opportunity to solve your problems.
  • A combination of all the factors, i.e. To pursue an old dream, an old desire that looks like the only way to get you out of the impasse and make you feel and prove that you are able to achieve something beyond the ordinary.

Why you fear a change in your life?

The denial to change stems from the fear of loss. When you have doubts about a change in your life, ask yourself what is that you are afraid to lose? Is it about control? Is it self-respect, freedom, familiarity, income, or comfort? Discover the root of fear and try to get over it.

Accept that the discomfort, doubt and uncertainty are by-products of change. The more familiar you are with these feelings, the more you will be able to distinguish the real effects of change.

Acknowledge the disadvantages of not making any changes to your life. Imagine how boring life would be if you did not had to solve some problems or if you could not appreciate the hidden opportunities. It is like staying in a boring relationship, because you do want to bother into getting to know new people.

Acknowledge the benefits of change. Do not let your stubbornness hide the benefits of moving to a new situation.

If the reason you need to change is not clear you need to be patient. Do not hurry to make conclusions about its value. Give yourself time to prepare emotionally and psychologically.

Write in a piece of paper five advantages of a change in your life before allowing yourself to deal with the disadvantages. Do not hurry to condemn and to see only the negative side of things.
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Realise how many advantages those who are willing to make changes in their lives enjoy. For example:

  • Their life rewards them.
  • The learn new things with the life challenges
  • The problems and drawbacks are a natural consequence of progress.
  • Change offers them opportunities for further development.

How to correctly approach a change in your life?

Accept your life’s reality

Try for a moment seeing your life in the eyes and accepting your own reality, whatever that might be. The life acceptance process will help you to identify the real difficulties and conflicts so that you will be able to resolve them. Bearing in mind that reality is always fluid and depends on how you approach it. It is not a given, consolidated entity. The acceptance of the liquidity is a painful process of curing.

Create a hierarchy of what is you want to change

Financial difficulties? Professional disappointment? Relationship problems? Communication problems? Unable to enjoy what you have? The belief that the difficulties are so complicated and that you will fail to handle them creates anxiety, stress, anger and frustration. Instead, the proper hierarchy of problems will make them tangible and give you a sense of control over them. Having in mind that this ranking should be based only on your own subjective judgment and not on what others believe. The subjectivity defines hierarchy. You should accept this without being frightened. That is you should trust your arbitrary subjectivity.

Get the opinion of people that you trust

To avoid sharing your thoughts and problems with others, often makes you feel trapped and isolated towards your difficulties, which inevitably are magnified in your thoughts. In contrast, the sharing of thoughts and difficulties with other people close to you, will help to minimize their significance, and will give you another perspective and possibly a real solution. Having in mind again that the others will give their own perspectives and views about your problems. It does not necessarily mean that you have to follow their advice. You have to listen carefully and consider their views when taking your decisions.

Plan for a smooth transition

Finding alternative solutions to the pressing situations around you, the abandonment of the absolute (with blindfolds) thinking and the ability to offer space and time to yourself to adapt to the new realities, are very valuable conditions. Equally necessary is the acceptance of your own pace and the balance between the things that you «must do» and the things that you would like to do.

As a final thought keep in your mind that the Chinese ideogram for the word “change” consists of the ideogram of the word “threat” and “opportunity”.

image source: yukonblizzard

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10 healthy habits that can change your life

January 23, 2009

Do you want to change your life making great promises and setting goals is not actually “your type” and you forget them easily. Start with small daily habits that can really make a difference. Follow the 10 healthy habits below and very soon you will notice a change in your life.

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13 time management hacks that can change your life

January 22, 2009

If you want to make a real change in your life you should first start by learning how to efficiently manage your time. Anyone who knows how to manage time also knows how to manage life. Good time management means proper prioritization, and therefore proper management of your live. The quality of your life depends on the intelligent management of your time and not by the amount of energy you consume on what you do.

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16 simple hacks to help you change your life by improving your memory

January 21, 2009

Improving your memory can change your life. Do you remember when was the last time you forgot a birthday – and made someone upset? Have you missed an important business appointment simply because you forgot about it – and this had a negative impact on your career? Or are you the type of person who constantly forgets things and has the ability to memorize complex chemical formulas? Memory is important for our daily activities, our past and present, our career and our relationships. If you want to change your life you have to improve your memory. The good news is that there are easy to follow daily hacks that can help you improve your memory performance.

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20 quick ways to change your life

January 20, 2009

Change your life today and start making changes because tomorrow may be too late. If you think something is not going good in your life, that something is wrong but you do not know what, then you are likely to lose control and perhaps it is a good time to change your life. There are a lot of things to do in this process and for sure the list below is by no means complete. Start with small daily habits that can make you life more interesting. Your goal should be to move systematically to a new life, which will improve your health, pleasure, creativity, self-esteem and mood.

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Change your life with 9 simple steps

January 18, 2009

Changing your life is not an easy thing to do. It needs courage, strength, patience and willingness. To change your life you need first to know what you really want to do with your life. What are your dreams for the present and the future? Do you reject your dream because you think it is impossible to achieve? Is it because the circumstances of your life or the people around you have managed to convince you that the dreams in life are a luxury and that should settle with the «small» and «secure» instead of chasing things that you want to do. Life to be beautiful needs a risk.

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