You can drag yourself up the same way you can drag yourself down. It is a choice you have to make every, single day. Whenever you are faced with this conflict of choices, bring with you these tiny nuggets of wisdom on motivation.

Never mind that you’re not this or that. It all begins with little excuses like ‘I don’t feel good’, ‘I am not that smart’, ‘I don’t have enough faith in myself’. Then you start believing in these things like they are written in stone, then these negative beliefs become a part of your system, a part of who you are.

Don’t give a second’s worth of recognition on these negative self-talks. Whenever you hear that part of your brain tell you things that can pull you down, shut it out and listen to that less powerful, but oftentimes ignored voice that says ‘you can!’.

Be very careful when choosing your side. You can either talk yourself into doing the task or not, which means you can either be a part of success that one part of your head says you can be, or take part in the downfall the other side of your head tries to go to. Always take that side of your brain that believes in you, that cares about your well-being, and pushes you to be the person you are trying to be.

Try to win the debate with yourself every time.Remember that sometimes, the act of doing something is not really difficult. It’s the few minutes of mental chatter leading up to doing the act.

Hold on to that something that matters to you.

There is nothing more meaningful in life than that something that we dearly hold on to. Some people call it their passion, others call it their cause. What do you call yours?

Cause, passion, or whatever it is that propels your inner drive to accomplish something is a very powerful source of motivation. It never runs dry. It flows so long as you hold on to that thing you care about. Sometimes, it is what makes people do the impossible in the face of difficulties. And it is that thing that gives them the courage to face and get through the biggest difficulties life throws at them.

Dream big.
Big dreams inspire. It makes people work harder, with even more passion. What would happen to people if they have nothing to shoot for? Nothing. If there are no Olympic medals and several hundred Olympians to compete against, the champions will never exist. If Mount Everest is not the highest mountain, there will be no mountaineers and hikers who struggle everyday to reach the peak.

If you don’t dream big, you would stay forever in that nook of the world where everything is mediocre, where sense of achievement is an abstract concept, and where success is all but inexistent.

Compete with yourself.
Competing with others is good, but oftentimes it is sure-fire way to demotivate yourself because you will start to compare yourself with others each and every time. Run your own, personal race. How many times have you heard the saying, ‘you are your worst enemy’?

After reading this section, the employer will be compelled to read more!

Writing this section, you will use many colorful and descriptive words. If one of your best talents is sales, write that you are a gifted salesman, able to close the deal in record time! If your talent is hairdressing, write that your creations have been featured at XYZ hair show and that your technique is now copied in Salons throughout the Mid-West! You get the idea. This section will only contain information about you that is commendable and that will set you apart from the crowd. Using the right kind of descriptive, complimentary words, you achieve this handsomely. Your summary will show your prospective employer that you alone will be the best fit for the position needed to be filled.

Tailor your Summary to your Prospective Employer’s Needs

Before writing your resume, you wrote notes on what makes you the best candidate for your intended position. You will have looked at the many characteristics and qualities that you believe your prospective employer will be looking for in the ideal candidate. Now is the time to tailor your Summary section to matching those specific needs. Every statement made in your Summary section will be targeted to show the employer that you have what it takes to fill that position.

Work on writing positive and affirming statements that exemplify your unique abilities and talents to be most affective in the intended position. Practice using descriptive words. If you want to write that you are a good leader, write instead that you are “proven leader” with initiative and motivational skills that cause others to act! Describe why you are good at what you do and leave no room for interpretation. Using words like “good” and “competent” speaks in general terms. Describe how you possess these attributes and you will have done your job well!

Below, you will find a variety of suggestions for composing your Summary section. You can select those that best suit your skill-set. Experiment a bit, first, and then zero in on those that best reflect what you have to offer a perspective employer. Remember, your Summary section is critical to your resumes success.

Few people will use all of the suggestions. Doing this might be seen as over-kill. You are encouraged to say the most, while writing the least.

Start with a concise phrase that describes your profession.
Next, another concise phrase showing your broad or specialized experience.
Make a few more concise statements to show the following:
The full extent of your skill-set
The variety of your skills
Diversity in your experience
An accomplishment worth noting
Anything remarkable about your accomplishments.

Optional

Professional achievements
Personal Characteristics worth noting
Concise statement to highlight professional objective.

You will hit the bull’s eye when you define your precise career direction and put that down on paper. When your prospective employer reads it, they should have no doubt that you are seeking the exact job that they need filled. After starting your resume with your contact information, your next section will clearly start with your job objective. Once your prospective employer can see that what you bring to the table is what they want, they will continue to scan for more.

Employers separate the wheat from the chaff very quickly. They look for objectives that meet with their own expectations. They know there are many prospects out there that really don’t know what they want. Employers are not looking for these types. Your objective will convey that your objective proves you will make the kind of contributions to the company that they need and want.Keep in mind, too, that an employer is looking for a candidate who will meet their own needs, and not for one who is looking to meet his or her own goals and agenda.

Your goal can be to offer this company your unique skill set and experience, but, the key is in putting that across in a way that proves you are their to service them and not the other way around. Your resume must grab them within the first few seconds, so, your objective must be dynamite! Clearly state the job title you are going for and then add a few key phrases to show you will meet their exact needs…more on this later.

You want to be sure that you are the right candidate for the job. You want to be sure you know everything there is to know about this company. You want to understand exactly, which qualities are needed to be the right candidate for this job. You want to be sure you are not a good candidate for this job, but, that you are the best candidate for this job.

Time to start writing
This is the time to put pen to paper and to lay out clearly what your prospective employer is looking for in an ideal candidate. You need to be able to solidify what it is that you bring to the table, even before you begin. Jot down every fine point about your training and experience, your unique characteristics, special talents, even your attitude — everything that shows you most qualified for the job you seek. If you are new to the job market, be creative and draw on your upbringing, life exposure and anything that can account for your unique experience and qualities. You will begin to be able to connect the dots during this process. Simple statements will turn into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. Keep this information in a safe place. You will use it later to be incorporated into your finished product.

Elements of a Resume that will impress
The primary element of an ideal resume contains powerful and assertive statements about your talents, characteristics and accomplishments. No need to be shy. You are going for the gold so sell yourself with all that is in you!
The secondary element of an ideal resume will show “you know your stuff” and know it well! This will be proven by education, experience, work history and any other relevant affiliations that shows the prospective employer that you are a person of substance and not only of design.

Keep in mind that the more standard resume will simply be a chronological account of a very boring life and most people will not give it a second glance. Write your resume to be interesting and even impressive and watch as your phone rings for that important interview! You will write a resume that does much more than just inform; you will write a resume that compels to action! Your resume will become as a good bargaining tool! Your prospective employer will be interested and will stand up and take notice! This is exactly what you want.

Be bold about your assertive statements, but, not too bold. Leave them wanting for more. Tease a bit with nuggets of information and let them be interested to know more.

Your resume will contain:

Your contact information, i.e. name, address, phone, email address, website address.

A defined job objective.

A work history.

Educational history.

Affiliations.

References.

Resume Presentation is the Key
Your resume will be written using professional grade printing and paper. An employer can have hundreds of boring resumes to pour through. This means when something catches the eye, it must really pop out! Your resume must impress within the first important seconds or it will not impress at all. Employers will quickly scan all resumes and then grab for those that catch their eye best.

To write a really effective resume, you will use powerful statements that will impress. This is very important, but, you do not want to oversell! There is a very fine line here and you will learn all about it.
Above all, you will make honest statements about yourself. They will be strong statements and 100% true, or they will not be effective at all. Just as you would sell any product that you believe strongly in, you will learn to sell the product that is you! Once you have learned to do this, you will find that you will get a better response from a prospective employer than other prospects do and even those with better credentials. It is all in how you market your product!

Amazingly all of these processes depend upon memory.

When a person memorizes a phone number that they dial and promptly forget they are using working memory. This type of memory is fragile and unless you commit the data to long-term memory the information is quickly gone. Researchers believe that you have the ability to easily remember 7 bits of data quickly but more than that is difficult. This is why you can remember the telephone number but need the credit card in front of you when you order online.

Long-term memory happens when you attach a new memory to another that has already been committed to memory. For instance the cell phone number of your neighbor is ‘attached’ to the memory of the face of your neighbor.

There are ways of improving your short-term memory ability by using games. One game to improve your memory is storytelling. Storytelling is a way to remember the information you need committed to long-term memory. The story connects the ideas and facts making them easier to recall. It also a way to increase participation which increases memory – as opposed to the use of a laundry list of items.

For instance, when you are storytelling you make up images of what is happening. This is also a very powerful technique to achieve your goals. Set your goal, tell it in a story of your life and ‘see’ yourself in the story. Use that story each day to commit this memory to long-term memory and increase the possibility that it will happen.

This can be a fun game to improve your memory when done with a group. Practice by laying out a group of items on the table and try to remember them. Each member takes a turn adding the object to the story. Once the objects are included in the story the objects are taken away and everyone sees who can remember the most objects.

Go Fish is another game to improve your memory that is fun to play alone or with friends. Use a standard deck of playing cards and remove 2 of the 4 suits. Leave yourself with 2 of each number and picture card. Now, with the 24 cards (making sure all have a match), place them face down on the floor or table. Move them around so you don’t know where each is located. One at a time pick up a card and then another trying to find the match. If there is no match put them back where they were and try again. This helps to improve your short-term memory. Time yourself to see how much faster you can do it each time.

Another inexpensive game to improve your memory is using a puzzle – but put it together without referring back to the picture on the box. Look at the picture first, giving yourself a couple of minutes; mix up the pieces and work on putting them back together.

In March 2007 Reuters news bureau reported that using computer games that are designed to help memory and cognitive function may be better than classic games at delaying age-related mental decline. There is a new group of games designed for older adults from Nintendo and Mattel, based on studies that show older people can improve their brains.

In a study at the University of California researchers studied 45 patients who had diagnosed mild cognitive impairment using either the Posit Science Brain Fitness program by Mattel or comparable computer-based tasks. The group using the Posit program had a significant improvement in visual spatial memory and a trend toward short-term and long-term memory improvement.

More research is showing that our cognitive abilities are not stagnant and that like a muscle if we don’t use it we lose it. Exercise your brain power and play some games to improve your memory!

It will be to your advantage if you will not drink too much alcoholic beverage. This can still be done but keep it at a moderate level. You must also refrain from trying prohibited drugs because these may cause damage to your brain as you age. You may not feel the bad effects of these vices at first. But eventually, you will notice how these are causing health risks as well as negative effects on how you remember things.

To help improve your memory, you must also engage in activities such as exercise to keep a good supply of oxygen on your brain. It is also favorable to get enough rest and sleep.

Understanding Memory at a Deeper Level

Memory is defined in psychology as the organism’s mental capability to absorb, keep and recall information. The study about this field started as part of philosophy. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the studies about memory are placed in the paradigms of what is known as cognitive psychology. In recent years, it has become part of cognitive neuroscience.

How the brain works is simple yet magnificent. This all starts when the brain receives information and it registers into your memory. After it has received and processed what came in, it will store the encoded information. When you need to use any of the information that has been absorbed by the brain, it will try to recall and retrieve such data to that you can utilize it on the spot.

If you will not take good care of your brain, these are the possible disorders that you may develop. Amnesia can occur as an outcome of an accident. It will vary depending on the impact of the scene and how healthy your brain is when such incident happened. Alzheimer’s disease affects not only your memory but your ability to recognize. This is usually being experienced by older people. There is also an organic brain disease such as the Korsakoff’s syndrome that gravely affects your memory.

Card Games to Help You Improve Memory

There are things that you can do to enjoy while you are exercising your brain in order to improve your memory. By engaging in activities that require your brain to react in certain ways, you are helping it to stay healthy. You may want to start learning a few card games that can help you achieve this goal.

A good sample of this is when you aim to improve your concentration. You may want to try card games like Pairs. You must be alert to retain the location of the pairs of the cards that you are holding. There are online versions of the game if you want to start learning and applying various techniques as you play it more often. While you are at it, you may also start your research about other types of card games that can help better your memory. You can choose to gather family or friends to play with you or you can also opt to play the games online.