Have you ever created a post in WordPress and then noticed a question mark in your tweetmeme retweet button? To make matters worse, it’s not on all you posts just one or maybe two.

It’s a pain I know because it happened to me but there is an easy fix. In the video below I will show you how to fix this issue.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What determines whether someone will succeed or not? If you said mindset then you are exactly right. The way you think determines your future and affects your life in every way…how you make decisions, how you see circumstances and react to them.

The way you think determines what you will have in life. If you think that you aren’t going to achieve anything in life then you won’t because your actions reflect your attitude. If you think that you will be successful and achieve your goals then you will because you will do what it takes to make it happen. For example, those people who think that they can spend $2 and become a millionaire playing the lottery have a lottery mindset. They are searching for a way to get more by doing less. Only one out of a trillion people does this really happen.

The whole concept of the lottery mindset is a fantasy and every fantasy like this comes with a poverty mentality. This is the mentality of believing that you can not make money or be successful because your poor, your circumstances won’t allow, its to hard, or whatever excuse that can be given to avoid taking responsibility for your life. People with this mentality like to throw pity parties for themselves which ultimately keeps them from progressing.

When you choose to have the success mentality your life will take on a different shape. This mentality will have you asking yourself, “How can I make it happen?” anytime you encounter a roadblock. This mentality won’t allow you to quit. If you can’t go over the problem then you will try going under. If you can’t go under then you will try going around and so on. With the right mindset no problem is too big to overcome.

You determine the difference between success and failure. What will you choose?

Do you remember the dreams you had for your life when you were young? Do you remember what those dreams looked like? Maybe it was to be a lawyer, doctor, singer, or actor. Maybe it was to have a fast car, a big house, or take lavish vacations. Do you remember?

What happened to those dreams? Why didn’t they come to fruition? Did your vision die? Were you discouraged from going after your dreams?

In order to achieve your goals, you must first have a vision because without vision, we perish. Vision gives us the window to the future that we desire and the goals that we want to achieve. The great thing about vision is that it doesn’t matter if it starts out purely monetary and selfish. I remember when I first started dreaming about what I wanted for my life. It was all about having a nice car, a nice house, taking great vacations, spending money, etc. It was very selfish. But as time went on, my true vision became clearer and more selfless. I still want to be able to enjoy the monetary things but I have a bigger purpose for my vision. Like me, your vision will also become clearer. If you are looking to do something great with your life then it is inevitable.

Basically, what I am saying to you is that you have to start with a vision first. You have to ask yourself, “What do I want to do with my life? Where do I want to go? Who do I want to be?” If you don’t know what you want than no one will be able to help you get it. You also have to be specific about your desires. You can’t expect to earn $30k when your goal is to just make a lot of money. Be specific! If you want to earn $30K, then set that as your goal because nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific.

So here is what you need to do to get started. First, pull out some paper and a pen and write down a few things you want to do. Basically, design the life you want to have on your paper. What does your life look like? How do you want to live? With whom do you want there with you? List three, five, or maybe even thirty things you want to do with your life. Once you have everything written down, you will need to start living your life to achieve the design you have on paper. It is time to stop living by default!

You were born to succeed. Don’t worry about failing. You can only fail if you stop trying.

I am currently on a flight to Austin, TX to visit my sister and I must say I am very excited. During the year I usually only see her during Christmas but this will be the third time in four months. That makes me believe that there is change going on in my life which gets me even more excited about the future.

Anyway, let me get back to the flight.  So I am sitting in the middle seat with two gentlemen on each side of me. One is an older friendly man (well older than me) that greeted me with a smile as I sat down. The other man is around my age or maybe a little younger who I’m going to assume is not a morning person because he was relatively rude. He was sitting in the isle seat when I approached him with a smile asking if anyone was sitting in the middle seat. He practically ignored and continued to play his game as if I didn’t just asked a question. I wanted to tell that jerk to get out of my way so I could sit down but I didn’t want to create a hostile environment. Besides, doing that would only ruin my day and I wasn’t about to give that to him. So instead I kindly asked could I get by. After a few more seconds of playing that ridiculous game he stood up.

The point of this story is this…do not allow someone to dictate how your day will go. If I would have allowed my self to be sucked into his rude little world then my day wouldn’t have been as pleasant.

I have learned over the years that you have to be careful with your reaction to situations because it only takes a small window for negative influences to sneak in. Besides, it was not my problem that he had an attitude. It is his.

With this being said I’m giving you a challenge. The challenge is simple, effective, and surprising. Here it is…JUST SMILE! That’s it. When you go into a grocery store, the mall, or any place you’re around people just smile. Don’t be alarmed when people look at you crazy because I guarantee they will. On the flip side though, you will also get people that will smile back, say hi, or have a conversation.

Smiling will make your feel better. It’s hard to have a bad day when you are smiling. Smiling also makes you more approachable. People won’t be afraid to talk to you or look your way thinking you might attack them. It gives people comfort to know you are a nice person.

Smiling also opens you up to receive opportunities. Opportunities will flow more because you are become approachable which in turn makes it easier to network. You really have no idea what kind of connections people have until you start talking to them and FORMing (getting people to speak about themselves) them.

My dad does this very well. I remember being in a store with him when he started a conversation with a man that lasted about 20 minutes. He joked; he laughed, found out the man’s career and even got his phone number. After he was done talking I asked him if he knew the guy. To my surprise he said NO! I was astonished. I couldn’t understand why spend that much time with someone he didn’t know. It was years later before I understood. He made a connection just by being approachable which allowed him to learn more about this person.

So again my challenge for you is to smile today and see where it can take you. I would love to hear your story.

This is the first installment of an ever going series that I have created. The series is basically tips that I will be sharing with you on entrepreneuship, time management, mindset, techniques, and much more. The first installment today is about Hootsuite. I hope you enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have seen this one time to many. I go to a blog and I am reading an article in which I am referred to a link. Ok this is normal, people link off their articles all the time. However, the issue I have is what happens when I click on the link. I am directed straight to the page. I know…your thinking what the heck is she talking about that is what links are supposes to do but let me explain. I do not like having to backspace back to the blog I am visiting. I would rather the link open up in a new window and when I am done I can go back to my reading. 

Now you may not believe that this is an issue. But I want you to imagine for just a moment that you have clicked on a link within someone’s article that takes you to another site. Ok, are you there? Alright, great! So now you’re looking around this new site clicking around. Before you know it you have clicked on at least 10 different links within that site. Then you hit backspace and you are still on the same site. Do you think that you are going to backspace until you get back to the original blog? Yeah, I don’t think so.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want people to desert my blog just because I didn’t make it easy for them to get back to it.  Instead if my link opens in a new window they can go and click around another site and still be able come right back to my blog article without any hassle.

It is so easy to create these types of links. I can’t understand why people don’t do it. Nevertheless, I am going to show you how. 

WordPress 3.0 and above makes it super easy to link to external sites and internal posts. The internal attachment has added such a cool little feature, I kind of got excited when I seen it. Hehehehe. Anyway let’s move forward.

Opening links into separate windows

The images I will use are going to show you how to do this on a self-hosted WordPress blog. However, I will also show you how to do it manually. 

Ok, first go to the post of your choice and highlight the word you want to link

Next you will click on the chain link image in the tool bar area and you will get a popup.

Here is where you will add your url. Now right under the url area there is a box that says ‘open in new window’…click it and then save. That’s it. Easy right?

Let’s say you wanted to link to another post instead. You would follow the same process except you will not type the link. All you have to do is scroll down and find the post or page you want to link too and click it. The url and title will pre-fill.

For internal links, it’s not as big of deal to have a page open up in a new window because they are still on your blog. However, if you have a long post with multiple links directing to different posts within your blog I would suggest opening them in new windows. This makes it easy for your visitor to read the full post and your linked posts without going through “hell and high water” (a saying my grandmother used to say :)) to get back to the original post.

If you are not using WordPress and have to input it manually then you would need to input this code: <a href=http://www.yourdomain.com”target=”_blank”>The attachment word</a>. Be sure to replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain and ‘the attachment word’ with the word that you want to be link to your page.

Facebook has done it again! Facebook has partnered with Skype to create live video chat. It gives users the ability to call friends by just clicking on the call button at the top of your friend’s profile or chat window.

The video chat is currently just one-on-one but it could be opened up to group chat capabilities.

This new feature is now live and does not require Skype to be downloaded to your computer. There is a plugin used within Facebook which will add the feature within 20-30 secs. It can be found by visiting Facebooks video calling page.

Take a look at the press conference

Many people chase happiness day after day and year after year because they are not really sure what makes them happy. Part of it is because they are falling into happiness traps without realizing it. There are 3 common traps  to happiness that keeps people from experiencing true happiness.

Trap 1 - Postponing happiness

This is the idea that happiness will come when you…make more money, get that promotion, accomplish that goal, get that house, go on vacation, etc. The reality is that happiness is not a destination. It is not a ‘wait until I’ emotion. Happiness is something that is within and it begins with who you are right NOW. If you can’t find happiness now then you sure won’t be TRULY happy later.

Many times people are under the assumption that something like winning the lottery will take care of their problems. That is a façade. When you are not happy before money, you will be just as unhappy with money because it will only enhance the issues.

Trap 2 – Making other people happy

I used to do this not realizing the effects. I spent way too much time trying to make other people happy that didn’t could careless about me. In turn, I was absolutely miserable. I call these types of people takers. They will drain the life out of you if you let them. I am a giving person in nature but I must be careful to insure that my giving does not affect my joy.  

Another example is when parents program their children on the type of career they should pursue. I would imagine many of these children pursue these careers without little thought thinking that it will make them happy. What they may not realize is that the career is their parents idea of happiness not their own. So they find themselves unhappy in a career that they don’t enjoy. You may be experiencing that reality right now but you still have a choice. 

I challenge you to think about what makes you happy. Here are few questions to get your mind moving…Imagine your location is a deserted island.

1. What would you do if you had no one to take care of and no one to impress? How would you spend your day? What then would make you happy?

2. If you could only invite 3 people who would they be and what would you do all day?

 Answering these two questions can get you started in determining what truly makes you happy.

Trap 3 – Contrast

For the most part, happiness is really an elusion. You make up the idea of whether you are happy or not. In which many times is determined by comparing yourself to other people. For example, you can be having a terrible day but meet someone whose day and situation is far worse. All of a sudden, by contrast, you start feeling better about your own situation and life. You may also have the opposite experience in which you are feeling great about your life and then visited someone else’s big beautiful home or looked at someone’s fabulous vacation. All of a sudden the feeling you had about your great life is not the same.

 These traps are a problem with trying to define happiness as an external reality and not an internal reality. Happiness is not derived from the outside. It is starts from within. It is a state of mind and you can continuously choose to be happy.

 The best way to live in happiness is to live in gratitude. When you focus on all that you have and all that you are right now that is when happiness is born. Once it is born you are able to nurture it and discover other experiences that bring you increased joy.

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.” Anthony Robbins

Staying focused can be a difficult task these days. Our lives our so busy that sometimes it is hard to keep track of whether your coming or going. Unfortunately, this usual results in multiple projects or activities that need be done but there is no time to do them. And well, when you have multiple tasks to handle it is hard to stay focused on just one.

There are many ways to keep your focus but visible reminders are some of the basic ways to keep you on track. Here are a few:

Dress the part

You may not realize it but your clothes play a role in your focus for your day. Clothes have a way of reflecting your mood and how your view yourself. If you feel bad, more than likely, your focus will be poor.

To give you an example, imagine you had a full work load today but instead of putting on clothes that give you a sense of confidence and accomplishment you leave on your pajamas. Well I don’t know about you but pajamas put me in relax mode. In other words, your focus is likely to be bleak. So take a look at your clothes and determine your feeling when you wear them. Do you feel focused and confident? Do you feel lazy and tired? How do you feel? Of course when you are aware of what clothes make you feel confident, then you know what to wear on a regular basis.

Create written notes

This is a very simple technique that I love to use because it is easy and very effective. It can be used to stay focused on daily tasks as well as personal development and almost anything else  that can be improved by visual assistance.

In order to implement this technique, you will need to get some note cards, or post-its, or you can use regular paper. I prefer note cards. They seem to be easiest for me.  Nevertheless, on these cards you will write down focus driven quotes, scriptures, daily tasks, empowerment statements, etc.  Basically, you will include anything that you feel is going to benefit you as an individual and in you life.  

After you have filled out the cards you will want to place them around the house (all except your daily task cards). You will need to put them in places they can be seen. For example, you can put them around your mirror, on your night stand (for you to read first thing in the morning), in your car, wherever they are visual to you.

The daily task cards are a little different. These cards you will create on a daily basis because they are specific to what your focus is for the day. These cards will be put in your pocket, purse/wallet, or workspace. Pick a place where you can be reminded about what you are doing for the day but only focus on one task at a time. Multitasking may seem like the right thing to do but I promise it is not. It is just a sure way of creating more stress and tension.

Reduce the clutter

I don’t just mean around the house either; I mean in your like as a whole. Clutter inside and outside of the house is a sure distraction that keeps you from getting things done. Whether it is that pile of papers in your workspace or people around you filling your head with negatives thoughts, it has to be removed to be efficient.

So keep your home and workspace free of excess crap and your mind free of excess chatter.

Using and managing my time effectively plays a huge role in implementing and finishing projects.  I would imagine that you feel the same way. I mean everyone has had an experience where they wished that there was more time in the day to get things done. If you haven’t, just live a little longer…I promise your day will come.

Unfortunately for me it took many days of ineffectively managing my time for me to realize that I had to do something. That is how I came up with the following 3 quick steps. These 3 steps will assist you in being more efficient throughout the day.

Step 1 – Write down your every move. 

This step was created to determine where you are wasting time within your day. You will need to take 30 minutes to an hour and write down what you do from the time you wakeup to the time you go to sleep. For example, do you wash your face; brush your teeth, shower, etc after you wake up? Do you have to get children ready for school? Do you have a job? Do you have daily chores? I think you get my point.

Once you have written down your daily activities, try to determine an approximate timeframe for each activity. It is important not to leave anything out because you will need this information in step 3.

Step 2- Highlight the time wasters

In this step you will view your activities and determine where you are wasting your time. Are you watching too much TV? Do you take to much time make trips to the grocery store (instead of planning and buying everything you need in one visit)? Whatever it is you will need to either make adjustments to reduce the time wasted or remove it completely.

Watching TV, for example, will probably the ‘top dog’ of time wasters. In the US alone (according to Nielsen), Americans spent 143 hours a month watching TV in 2010. That breaks down to 4.7 hours a day. That is an incredible amount of time being wasted watching TV. Now I know we all have our favorite shows to watch. However, your time can still be reduced in this area.

If you are watching 3 hours of TV a day and you reduce it to 1.5 hours then you have gained an additional 45hours a month in time. This is time that you can spend with your family, on your business, etc.

Step 3 – Creating a timeline

Now that you have determined your activities and highlighted the ones that can be removed or reduced you will create a timeline. In your timeline you will break down every single activity that you do throughout the day and put a time beside it.  For example:

This is an old timeline that I used. It gives you an idea of where you can go with it. You can add or decrease to your liking. The main objective is to lay out your activities and allot time slots for them so that you can create more efficiency within your day.

Another thing you can do is create a time slot within a slot. For example, during my office time I would decide on what tasks I was going to work on within that time frame. If it was a task that was going to take a few days to finish, I would set a time limit of an hour and then move on to something else. This would keep me focused on one project at a time instead allowing my mind to multitask. In which usually results in multiple open projects without a finish date.

These steps are effective if used properly. If you have any questions or want to add any additions to how we can use our time more efficiently, please share with us in the comment area.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to your additions