My Super-Charged Life

Get Organized to Work From Home and Be Productive

Jeff — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:09 +0000

Need to get some work done at home?

Working from home requires one to get organized. Homes aren’t generally that conducive to work life.

Our homes can be full of distractions because they are usually set up for relaxing, entertaining and resting, but not for work.

If you are planning to work from home, then you need to take a few moments to think things through. A little bit of organization can go a long way toward keeping you productive.

3 Quick Tips to Get Organized to Work From Home

I worked from home for about eight years before I started my present position. Therefore, I’m familiar with the pros and cons of the arrangement.

Fortunately, working from home is a lot more common than it used to be so there is a lot of great advice out there that can really help make it a good experience.

Here are 3 quick tips to get organized to help keep you productive:

1. Create a Specific Space to Call Your Office

You need a place to work that is comfortable, quiet and specifically setup for the work you need to do. You don’t need a lot of space and your home office doesn’t need to cost a fortune, but it needs to be your space. I really like The Ultimate Frugal Home Office that Jason over at FrugalDad set up. He could have spent $400 per month for an office outside his home, but instead he did the smart thing and improvised. Be creative and find yourself the perfect look nook to call your own!

2. Remember You Are Working

As I said earlier, we are used to doing other things at home like watching television, doing our household chores and generally living our personal lives. However, once you literally bring work home, you’ve got to really discipline yourself. I’m a firm believer in turning off the T.V. and home phone as Meredith suggests in her 5 Tips for Working at Home that appeared as a guest post over at Organizing Your Way. You’ve got to create a mental buffer in your mind between work hours and personal time to remain productive. Distractions are plentiful so be sure to watch yourself closely so you don’t stray too far off the work path!

3. Make a Specific Plan of What to Accomplish

Do you ever have those days when you were incredibly busy, but don’t feel like you accomplished a thing? In my experience, that can happen a lot working from home. The antidote is to have a specific plan for what you want to accomplish and to mark things off the list as you get them done. Ron at the Wisdom Journal offers some excellent advice in How To Plan Your Week In 20 Minutes. Having a specific plan always helped to keep me focused and organized.

Be Productive Working From Home

Just a little forethought can transform working from home from a boondoggle to a very pleasant, productive experience. These tips will help get you started in the right direction. As you gain some experience, you are sure to find even more ways to get organized. It takes a little time and effort, but for many, working from home is the ultimate arrangement!

How do you stay productive working at home? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Photo by blupics

Balance My Budget: 5 Simple Steps to Great Money Management

Jeff — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:46 +0000

Is your budget out of control?

A balanced budget is essential to great money management. It puts you back in the driver seat giving you control of where your money goes and what it gets spent on.

Wouldn’t it feel nice to be in control again? It will certainly lower your stress and help you sleep better at night.

You can get there! It really isn’t that hard or painful. Chances are you’ve developed some bad money habits over the years and just need a simple plan to get you back on track.

5 Simple Steps to Balance My Budget

Here are five simple steps to help you get your budget under control in no time at all:

1. Determine Your Exact Income

You need to know exactly what you have coming in to balance your budget. It is generally best to manage your money on a monthly basis. So, start making a list of the various sources of money that you have to determine your total monthly income. For some, this might be a very short list because you only have one source of income and that is your paycheck. For others, you might have several streams flowing in from things like freelancing, alimony, child support, dividend checks and business ventures.

Make sure you don’t miss any income source. Once you’ve got a complete list written down, then sum it up to determine your exact income. This is the size of the hammer you have to work with to balance your budget.

2. Track Your Spending

Okay, so now you know exactly how much money you have coming in each month, but where is it all going? You need to take a month to track every single penny you spend. You must determine where all your money is going. This is an eye-opening experience. You will likely be surprised and shocked at how much is being spent on things that don’t seem all that important. Tracking your spending is a little arduous and most people won’t do it, but that’s why they stay broke.

This is a big step toward putting yourself back in the driver seat with your money. You’ll be gathering the information you need to make smarter decisions about where you spend what you make. Don’t you work too hard for your income to simply let it slip through your fingers?

3. Determine Your Priorities

After tracking your spending for a month, compare your outflow of money to your total income. Are you spending more than you earn? It is likely that you are. This means that every month your are sinking deeper in debt and moving further away from a peaceful night’s sleep. You need to make some decisions to balance your budget. You have to set the right priorities for your spending.

What jumps out at you from your log of spending over the last month? What amount seems totally out of control? Resolve to cut way back in the areas that are unnecessary so you start spending less than you earn. This might seem impossible at first, but with just a little sacrifice it can be done. Take a look at this list of 20 ways to cut spending and these 50 ideas to legitimately increase your income for some inspiration that will help you balance your budget.

4. Develop a Clear Budget Plan

You’ll want to adjust your money habits on a monthly basis to conform to your new priorities. The best way to do this over the long-haul is to start a monthly budget. A budget is a plan you create at the beginning of the month that tells your money exactly what you want it to do for you over the next 30 days. It is a tool you can use to keep yourself on track. If you are married, then you both need to agree on the budget before the month begins for it to be successful.

Living on a budget is not as scary as it seems. In fact, it greatly simplifies your life and reduces your stress because it puts you back in control! Don’t resist budgeting any longer. Your budget will become your new best friend if you will let it.

5. Make Adjustments

You have to remain flexible because a rigid budget will die a quick death. Life is not always predictable and people are not always logical. Your budget needs to take both of these facts into account. You are going to make spending mistakes especially at first. It takes time to incorporate radical change into you life. Don’t make excuses for poor decisions, but don’t beat yourself up either. Resolve to do better next time. In a few months, if you stay flexible, you will have balanced your budget and you will be feeling much better about yourself.

Be willing to make the adjustments necessary to make your budget work. It may not be perfect in your eyes, but a slightly compromised budget that everyone agrees to is way better than no budget at all.

Great Money Management Is Within Your Reach

What small step are you going to take today to start getting your budget under control? Don’t delay another minute! You don’t have to swallow the whole pill in one sitting, but taking one little baby step right this instant will empower you and give you the confidence you need to change your life. You’ll thank yourself later!

Photo by penywise

List of Brain Food: 5 Things to Keep Your Mind Sharp

Jeff — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:01 +0000

Are you super-charging your mind with good brain food?

Our brains are the engines that power our lives. We get out of our minds what we put in. Do high-performance race cars run on the same fuel as a Volkswagen Bug? No way! They would never win.

If we want exceptional results in life, then we have to feed our brains a high-octane diet especially designed to keep our minds sharp and top-performing.

All that junk food is not only making us fat and lethargic, it is putting our brains to sleep as well!

5 Brain Foods to Keep Your Mind Sharp

I’ve been doing a little research and as far as I can tell there seems to be a consensus that the following list of brain food will help us keep our brains functioning at top efficiency. These are all items that are widely available so you can’t use the excuse that you couldn’t find these!

1. Blueberries

Blueberries seem to be one of the most powerful and agreed upon super foods. They almost seem too good to be true! One cup of blueberries a day will improve your motor and learning skills, protect your brain against the ill-effects of aging and reduce the likelihood of some common brain-related diseases. If you can’t find blueberries or just need a little variety, then you can always substitute cranberries or strawberries.

2. Nuts and Seeds

Many nuts and seeds are excellent sources of Vitamin E. Scientists have found that Vitamin E helps to protect against cognitive decline with its antioxidant properties. You can eat a handful a day of walnuts, sunflower seeds or almonds for a great brain treat. However, you want to avoid larger serving sizes because of the high calories this brain food carries.

3. Avocados

Avocados are packed with fat. Is that good?!? Well, it is if it is monounsaturated fat which actually promotes healthy blood flow. Good circulation is imperative to proper brain function. A quarter to a half of an avocado a day is plenty to reap the rewards without blimping up from the high calories. Avocados can also lower blood pressure which is good for cognitive ability.

4. Wild Salmon

Omega-3 fatty acids protect the brain with their anti-inflammatory elements. Wild Salmon is an especially good source of Omega-3. A four-ounce serving about three times per week will protect your brain from aging, improve your moods and reduce the risk of stroke. If you need a substitute, you might try sardines or herring.

5. Dark Chocolate

I love dark chocolate and it is loaded with antioxidants! Chocolates also stimulate the production of endorphins which improves moods. A small, one-ounce serving per day of good quality dark chocolate high in cacao will give you the maximum benefit.

This List of Brain Food Will Keep You Thinking Smart

Eat these brain foods on a daily basis and you will super-charge your mind! Think of all the wonderful things you will accomplish once your brain is fed all the super foods it loves. You’ll be living at peak performance and enjoying all the rewards!

What other brain foods should be on this list? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Photo by JohnMason

5 Powerful Habits That Will Change Your Life

Jeff — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:00:55 +0000

This is a guest post from Oscar Del Ben from FreestyleMind.com.

All of us have dreams, all of us have a list of things we want to do. Some of them are easy, some of them require something else to be done before. For example if you want to travel the world for one full year, you first need to have enough money for it or you need to have a location independent job.

Eventually, your ability to accomplish the list of your dreams is directly related to your ability to change and adapt to new situations. Being flexible and open to new opportunities is the basis of self development, and the starting point to achieve your dreams.

How to Form Powerful New Habits

Everything we do is the result of our habits, and habits are exactly what determine our flexibility and openness, so it makes sense to spend some time developing good habits.

The time you wake up in the morning, the specific hand you’ll use to brush your teeth in the morning, and how you approach a conversation with a new person, are all results of habits. You can change all of them if you want, although it’s not always necessary. But how can you change an habit if you really want to?

One of the most effective ways to change a habit, is through a 30 days habit challenge. In this challenge, you are committing yourself to reinforce and work in your habit each day. For example if you want to experience how it would feel to be a vegetarian, you can do a 30 day habit change where you’ll eat no meat for 30 days. After the 30 days have passed, you are free to return to your previous habit if you desire.

The reason I’m suggesting 30 days is because this way you are not committing yourself for the rest of your life. Indeed you can revert to your original habit on the 31st day if you want. Still, 30 days is usually enough time to go through the initial difficult phase to create the new habit.

The 5 Habits That Will Change Your Life

Below are five simple but effective habits you can implement. Each of those habits has the potential to dramatically change your life.

1. Wake up early.

Waking up early is a tremendous time management tip. When you wake up early in the morning, you have more time to do the stuff that you are always putting off in the evening. In the morning you are fresh and you can work without distractions, usually accomplishing 2-3 times more work than in the evening. Of course if you want to wake up early, you have to go to bed earlier in the evening. 7 to 8 hours per night is usually enough. How early you wake up is up to you. My advice is to start slowly and turn back your alarm clock 15 minutes every week until you reach your goal.

2. Eat healthy, and exercise.

Like it or not, for your brain to function properly, you have to regularly exercise and eat healthy. By eating healthy you’ll gain a lot of clearness and energy, and by exercising every day you’ll improve your ability to perform and concentrate on difficult tasks. 30 minutes of exercise every day is the standard amount of time recommended for most people.

3. Read a book a week.

Your education is essential if you want to move further in your career. Reading a book a week in your field will make you an expert within one year (assuming you practice what you learn). In order to read one book a week, I recommend starting with 45 minutes a day. With time, you’ll learn to read faster and in less time.

4. Work one hour every day.

I’m not referring to your day job, I’m talking about working on your goals. For example if you want to build a website, spend one hour each day working exclusively on it, preferably in the morning. You should spend this time doing only high value activities. One hour per day means that within one year you’ll have worked the equivalent of more than two months of 40 hour weeks.

5. Embrace simplicity.

There’s no need to live in a rush. If you identify those few things and tasks that provide the highest results and enjoyment in your life, you can work more on them and discard all the remaining stuff. The Pareto rule states that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. This is true in all areas of life, so always apply the Pareto rule when possible.

The Key Is to Begin a New Habit Today

You don’t have to implement all of these habits at once. One per month is enough, otherwise you would feel too overwhelmed. If one day you are unable to work on your habit, don’t give up. Start again the following day with more energy and motivation. After all, every successful person fails multiple times before succeeding. The secret is to keep going.

Oscar Del Ben writes about personal development and productivity. You can follow his blog at FreestyleMind.com and subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar

Enjoy Life to the Fullest: The Choice Is Yours to Make

Jeff — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:00:15 +0000

Are you choosing to enjoy your life to the fullest?

Joy, fulfillment and happiness don’t just grow on trees. You can quote me on that! I firmly believe we must pursue these states with intention.

You can either let your life and thoughts drift to wherever they may land including places like negativity, bitterness, depression, fear, discouragement and helplessness or you can take a stand.

I’ve consciously chosen to enjoy my life. Does this mean that I always get what I want? No way! I experience the same trials, obstacles and setbacks that you do. However, ~~after a brief period of moping~~, I shake it off, get up and move on to better ground.

When it rains, we can either let ourselves drowned or we can go out and splash in the puddles. Which is it going to be?

Are you choosing to enjoy your life to the fullest or are you allowing yourself to remain stuck in a bad place? Please make no mistake about it. It is a choice. One that we all have to make day-to-day and moment-by-moment.

The Ways I Willfully Choose to Enjoy Life to the Fullest

I won’t even pretend that you can simply follow what I suggest below like a recipe and expect it to work for you. It might or it might not. Enjoying life to the fullest is a very personal and individual thing. We are all unique. What makes me tick might not even strike a chord with you. However, by sharing what I do, I hope it will open your eyes to the possibilities in your life.

Here’s how I willfully choose to enjoy life to the fullest:

1. Practicing Active Gratitude

The quickest way I know to rejuvenate my joy is to start counting all the things I am grateful for in my life. It is very easy to take things for granted. Active gratitude is stopping for a few moments to mindfully and purposefully list mentally, verbally or on paper all the things we have to be thankful for. For me, this always humbles me and restores a sense of perspective. Here are a few of the things that regularly appear on my list:

My Wife – I am fortunate to have someone so loyal, caring and practical in my life. She keeps me grounded and provides reliable counsel. I am lucky to have her to celebrate the good times with and to split my burdens with. She is truly my best friend and partner.
My Daughters – They are beautiful! I treasure their smiles, energy and innocence. They warm my heart and open my eyes to so much of life that I would otherwise miss.
My Health – It only takes a minor sickness to remind me how precious my good health is to me. I am very grateful that I don’t have to struggle against a physical disability or disease on a daily basis.
My Job – I work with some great people and together form a fantastic organization. I’m truly blessed to be able to make a nice living doing something I enjoy.
My Possessions – I have every single thing a guy could ever need and then some. I’m spoiled. Most of us in America take our homes, our food and what we own for granted, but we shouldn’t.

Of course, the list above is not by any means all-inclusive, but just going through it right now I feel my spirits lifted. Give active gratitude a try yourself and see what it does for you.

2. Pursuing Accomplishment

I’m convinced that we all need a reason to get out of bed every morning. I know I need something that forces me to continue to grow and expand as a human being. The sense of accomplishment that comes from doing a job right is uplifting. It doesn’t matter if it is weeding the flowerbed or designing a new software system, I enjoy life a lot more when I’m off my butt getting something done.

I get stuck in mental quagmires from time to time. When I do, I often resist the idea of starting a new, challenging project. However, it never fails, if I force myself to do so, I feel so much better once I’ve done it. I stand back and admire my work drinking in the pride and happiness it produces.

3. Seeking Adventure

One of the traps that I fall into is getting into ruts. I’m very habitual and if I’m not careful I’ll find myself doing the same old things over and over even though my enjoyment of those things is waning. The best way I’ve found to jolt myself out of running on autopilot is to pursue some sort of adventure.

An adventure, by definition, contains risks and unknowns. These stimulate my mind and heart. They awaken my soul and make me feel alive! I feel like I become super aware of my surroundings. This heightened state of being stirs my creativity and helps me to recognize all kinds of new possibilities. A life without adventure isn’t really worth living!

Choose Right Now to Enjoy Life to the Fullest

Make your own choice to start enjoying your life to the fullest today! Again, exactly how you do this is a very personal and individual thing. You need ideas and inspiration. Hopefully, I’ve given you some, but I also invite you to check out Mandi’s thoughts and views about this in her article titled 31 Days of Organizing for a Better 2010 – Enjoy Life to the Fullest. You are likely to get a slightly different point of view that might clarify things even more for you. Enjoy!

How do you choose to enjoy your life to the fullest? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Photo by Todd Baker

Family Member Loan: Three Reasons I Would Reconsider

Jeff — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:58 +0000

This is a guest post from Adam at Money Relationship. At his site, he writes about his journey out of $150,000 in debt.

A little over 12 months ago, my dad approached me about my credit card debt. He wanted to help me get out of it by loaning me money.

The credit card debt totaled about $16,500 and I knew I had a rough patch coming up. I just happened to be graduating in one of the toughest job markets. Needless to say, I accepted the loan and paid off the credit card debt.

Looking back, I’m not sure if I would have made the same decision. Family loans are a tough thing to deal with mentally. One wrong move and a lifelong relationship can be destroyed.

Luckily, my wife and I are very responsible individuals and we want to pay this back in full. Even though the loan has no interest, we have placed it at the top of our debt snowball. It is just eating away at our conscience. So, I thought I would share with you some thoughts on why we wouldn’t do this deal again.

If you are planning on asking someone for a family loan or wanting to loan a family member money, be sure to think extra hard about that decision for these three reasons.

1. Things Aren’t the Same When Visiting

When we visit my dad, things feel more tense. Knowing that we owe him money just makes us more prone to avoid him.

We don’t want to share any information with my dad because we don’t want him to think we are living lavishly (we’re not) while we still owe him money.

Christmas isn’t the same either. My dad typically got us gifts every year. Now, we tell him not to get us anything because we would feel wrong accepting it.

2. Relationships Can Be Ruined

If we decided that we didn’t want to pay my dad back, the relationship we have with him would be strained if not non-existent. Thankfully, that’s not the case with us. However, many individuals borrow money from family and then decide not to pay them back and spend the money on other things.

One story that I read was about a mother who loaned her son $20,000 for a down payment on a house. The mother thought of it as a loan but the son thought of it as free money. Needless to say, their relationship is now at the point where they barely speak to each other.

If you are thinking of loaning money to a person in your family, think again. It’s tough to say no to a family member in need, but sometimes you need to put your own financial interests first. Are you really doing this person a favor or are you endangering the relationship?

3. It’s Stressful

Owing family members money is stressful. Just see the other reasons I mentioned.

It’s also stressful to our finances. Because we feel guilty about this loan, we placed it at the top of our debt snowball. That is hurting our finances because we are basically paying on an interest-free loan while the other debts accrue interest. That’s just adding more to our debt.

You may feel different about family loans than we do. Looking back, we wouldn’t do it again. Looking forward, we will never loan money to a family member. We feel that if you need to help out a family member, just make it a gift and not a loan.

What are your thoughts about family member loans? Would you do it?

Photo by Alvimann

The Most Valuable Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Jeff — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:41 +0000

This is a guest post by Marelisa Fábrega that writes Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.

Suppose you love baking pies and you’re really good at it. People are always saying that your pies are the best in town and that you should go into business for yourself.

One day you get bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and you decide to open a pie-baking business as a solo-entrepreneur. Once your small business is up and running you concentrate the bulk of your efforts on doing what you love: baking pies.

However, you let other vital aspects of your business fall by the wayside: soon, you’re having cash flow problems, you’re working around the clock baking pies since you don’t have any adequate systems in place, and you’re worried because you don’t have a solid marketing strategy. Despite all of your pie-baking skills and your hard work and sacrifice, your small business is fledging.

The scenario described above is what Michael E. Gerber, author of the bestseller The E-Myth Revisited, calls the entrepreneurial myth. The myth most new entrepreneurs buy into is that the way to beat the dismal odds of succeeding when you start a new business is simply through hard work and perseverance.

So, if it’s not just about skill and hard work, what does it take to make your small business succeed?

Build a Business, Not a Job

Gerber points out that most small businesses are started by “technicians”; a technician can be a plumber, a lawyer, a computer programmer, and so on. When these technicians decide to leave the company in which they work and strike out on their own, they have a tendency to continue concentrating on the work they’re skilled at and ignore the “business aspect” of their new enterprise.

That is, they basically create a job for themselves instead of really creating an actual small business.

The solution, says Gerber, is for business owners to balance their business personalities. That is, they have to wear three different hats: the entrepreneur hat, the manager hat, and the technician hat. The technician produces the product or service, the manager makes sure that operations and finances run smoothly, and the entrepreneur creates a compelling vision for the business, formulates goals, and steers the business toward the accomplishment of those goals.

Here’s how Gerber defines the entrepreneur:

“The entrepreneur is not really interested in doing the work; he is interested in creating the way the company operates. In that regard, the entrepreneur is an inventor. He or she loves to invent, but does not love to manufacture or sell or distribute what he or she invents.” ~ Michael E. Gerber

A business that is built and managed by someone who combines the approach of the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur—Gerber indicates–will have a far greater chance of future success than one guided by someone thinking like a technician alone.

Prepare to Sell a Franchise of Your Business

Another way to make sure that you’re working on your business instead of just working in it — is to create a plan or business model as if you were going to sell franchises of your business at some specific future date, even if you don’t intend to do so.

Franchises have procedures, clear operation manuals, a consistent sales approach, and so on. They’re set up so that practically anyone can walk up off the street and run the franchise. This is the goal that you should set for your small business: you want to create systems and then continually improve those systems.

Gerber advices that you get all of the following right while you’re still small:

Your sales system;
Your lead generation system;
Your lead conversion system;
Your system to convert buyers into repeat customers.

Some of the questions you should ask yourself while creating your systems are the following:

How can systems be put in place so that large numbers of customers can be served efficiently and consistently?
How can the business run efficiently without you having to be there constantly keeping an eye on things?
How can you maximize the time spent doing the things that you really enjoy doing?
How can you minimize the time spent doing the things you hate to do, but that have to get done

Conclusion

By making sure that you take on the roles of technician, manager, and entrepreneur, and by creating systems and an Operation Manual as if you were going to sell franchises of your business, you’ll make sure that you´re working on your business instead of just working in it. That is, you’ll be building a small business which will give you more financial independence and freedom, instead of creating a job that will enslave you.

Written by Marelisa Fábrega. Marelisa blogs about creativity, productivity, and simply getting the most out of life over at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. Marelisa is the author of the ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists”.

Photo by Lars Plougmann

Book Winner: Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Breaking Out On Your Own

Jeff — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:00:56 +0000

I want to congratulate Jessica as the winner of Robert Tuchman’s book called Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own!

I hope Jessica finds this guide useful in pursuing her intentions of becoming a self-employed entrepreneur. It certainly offers a lot of great advice to follow.

Jessica commented on my review of this book and was selected as the winner. I used the Random Integer Generator at Random.org to pick the lucky recipient of the free book.

I appreciate all your comments and look forward to giving away another book very soon so please stay tuned for your chance to win.

In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I’ll leave you with a few hand-selected articles on entrepreneurship that I know you’ll love. Enjoy!

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

Making Positive Choices: Ideas and Thoughts About Forming Good Habits for a Good Life

Jeff — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Are you making positive choices for yourself?

The choices we make and the habits we form determine the life we lead. Here is a quick reality check that you can use to gauge where you are in life.

Ask yourself these questions:

How happy am I?
Am I getting the results I want?
Is my life turning out like I imagined?
Do I feel good about myself?
Do I look forward to life like this dog does?
Am I passionate about life or just going through the motions?

If you answered negatively to more than one or two of these, then it is probably time for you to make some positive choices for yourself! You need to embrace some new habits.

We Need to Make Positive Choices and Form Good Habits

Sometimes the hardest part about making a positive change in your life is admitting that you need some new habits. If you are still reading this, you likely feel at least a twinge of conviction. Let me try to amplify that for you so you can move into action.

Here are some motivational ideas and thoughts about forming new habits for a good life:

1. You Have to Get Your Mind Out of Neutral

“Habit is something you can do without thinking, which is why most of us have so many of them.” ~ Frank Clark

If you aren’t experiencing the positive life that you want, then it is probably because you are on autopilot. It is time to yank back the controls and begin some new habits that will make your life soar! Why settle for a stagnate, boring life? The world is full of opportunity and adventure! You just need to shake things up a little with some new routines and habits to get back on track. Get yourself out of the rut right this minute by making a positive choice to pursue your dreams!

2. Creating New Habits Is the Path to a New Life

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”
~ Charles C. Noble

You have built the life you have by choosing to continue the habits you embrace. The only way to change your life for the better is to change your habits. You’ve got to make a commitment to change. Are you sick and tired of where you are at? Then get up and do something about it! Stir your heart and mind to act in different ways so that you can get some better results. It won’t all happen immediately, but new habits will transform your life faster than you think!

3. Choose the Right Habits to Get What You Want

“Successful people are simply those with success habits.”
~ Brian Tracy

Want to be successful? The best way to achieve success is to do the things that successful people do. Model their behavior and you will start to get their results. Find a role model in your field of interest that is enjoying a great deal of success and go interview them to find out what they are doing. Most successful people are very helpful and willing to share their experiences. This will zero you in on the exact habits you need to start forming and jumpstart your effort to change for the better!

4. Stop Bad Behavior That Is Robbing You of the Good Life

“Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.”
~ Proverb

While you are starting to pursue some positive new habits, be honest with yourself about your bad habits. These are draining you of your power and happiness. They produce fear, guilt, doubt, shame, inferiority, defensiveness and embarrassment. Of course, none of these will help you live a better life. You’ve got to patch the hole in the dam before you can refill the reservoir with water.

5. Words Are Not Enough — You’ve Got to Act

“Feeling sorry for yourself and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.” ~ Dale Carnegie

Words are cheap. Action is what will change your life. Resolve to start taking baby steps today and every day to fix your life for the better. Make a positive plan to do at least one little thing to improve your experience of life on a daily basis. This positive action will snowball on itself and before you know it, you will be living life large! Along the way, be sure to keep a gratitude journal. This will help you keep track of all of the progress you are about to enjoy!

Forge a Yourself a Good Life with Good Habits

Okay, now you should be ready to act! I highly suggest that you immediately go check out the incredible resource that Mandi has put together for starting new habits at 31 Days of Organizing for a Better 2010: Start a New Habit. She will provide you all the steps to take, tools to use and tips you’ll need to forge yourself a good life. I wish you the very best in your new commitment to make positive choices!

Photo by coral11

Living Life to the Fullest: Are You FULL of it?

Jeff — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:00:51 +0000

This is a guest post by Stephen Borgman at Personal Success Factors.

Are You FULL of it?!!

The ancient Greeks had a term called “zoe”, which was a term used to describe both temporal and eternal life. I like to think of it as “life at its fullest.”

So, what does it take to experience life at its fullest? I did some thinking, and came up with the ideas in this article.

They may not fully define a Super-Charged Life, but they will help you to start to paint the picture for yourself. I will provide some initial thoughts; I will ask you, the reader, to add to my list at the end with your comments.

“Two men looked out the same prison bars: one saw mud, and the other stars”
~ Frederick Langbridge

Focus

Living life in the fullest, to me, means that my Focus is in the right place. Every day, in every circumstance, I have the power to choose what I will focus on. Will I focus on my limitations, my failures, my fears? Will I focus on what I do not have, what I have not yet accomplished, on my weakness? Or will I choose to focus on what is going well in my life?

“Some men see things as they are, and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were, and say, ‘Why not?’ “ ~ George Bernard Shaw

One great tool that Anthony Robbins designed to help guide powerful focus is a set of what he calls power questions. I’ll share them with you now. These are taken from his book called Awaken the Giant Within.

He has a set of morning questions that he frequently asks himself, to get his focus on the right things:

What am I happy about in my life now?
What am I excited about in my life now?
What am I proud about in my life now?
What am I grateful about in my life now?
What am I enjoying most in my life right now?
What am I committed to in my life right now?
Who do I love? Who loves me?

He also has a set of evening power questions that help him realign his focus for sleep and for the next day:

What have I given today?
What did I learn today?
How has today added to the quality of my life, or how can I use today as an Investment in my future?

The list of questions can go on and on, but I think you get the idea: the right set of questions can give us the answers that help us live life to the fullest.

“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.”
~ E.E. Cummings

Understanding

A second quality that helps me live a FULL life is Understanding. For me, there needs to be accurate Understanding of God, of myself, and of others.

“I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.”
~Voltaire

I have to have an understanding that there is Something beyond me, and that alone life is not nearly as full as when I am working in unison with the Power that created the universe. It is the same power that many an alcoholic has found when s/he comes into a group and admits, for the first time, that s/he cannot live life on their own.

The AA Big Book, which is the handbook for Alcoholics Anonymous, talks about this understanding as being the same as the person who turns the light switch on in the room. They cannot see electricity, but they understand its effects, and they are willing to trust its effects for their benefit.

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.” ~ Billie Jean King, Considered to be one of the greatest female tennis players in history

Accurate self understanding is the essence of true humility, and it affords us the opportunity to live life to the fullest. When I have been too proud to admit my weaknesses and character faults, it has made life pretty miserable for my wife, my kids, my friends, and people in general. When I have been too fearful to acknowledge my strengths, my talents, my good characteristics, I have deprived myself and others of a unique gift: me! There is no other me!

This is why taking inventory of our strengths, our values, our weaknesses, our goals is so important. It’s like looking in the mirror in the morning to get ready for work, then walking outside with ketchup smears on our face and our hair uncombed. We need to be self aware to live life to the fullest.

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
~ Kahlil Gibran

Finally, we need to have the courage and emotional intelligence to be able to listen to and understand others. As Steven Covey writes in his bestseller book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood”. If I have an understanding of God and myself, I will have the security to listen without defensiveness to the other person’s point of view.

On the flip side of this, having an accurate understanding of myself means that I have the courage to assert myself, to stand up for my own thoughts, positions, ideas, feelings. To understand others does not mean I give myself up in the process. In seeking a win-win understanding with another person, I stick to what I believe, but I seek to reach an agreement that we can both live with.

Love

The third element of living a FULL life, for me, is to have the courage to Love.

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.”
~ Mother Teresa

Apart from love, life is pretty flat. In loving, I am fulfilling the heart of God. Mother Teresa worked her entire lifetime among the dying poor of Calcutta, India. When she gave a speech here in the West, she remarked that it is harder to fill the hunger for love than it is to fill physical hunger. She noted that there is a famine of love in the West.

I am speaking for those of us who are readers here in the United States and Canada (I cannot speak for those in other parts of the world). Is it not easy to get insulated, working at our jobs, going home, watching television, getting up, doing the same thing over and over again? We forget that there are neighbors, friends, and relatives who are starving on the inside for a kind word, a smile and an act of service.

One of my favorite passages on love is found in the Bible: I Corinthians 13: 1-13. If you aspire to love others, please read and reflect on the model of love found in this passage.

The interesting thing about love is that the Law of Indirect Effort comes into play here. The trick is that you must love without expecting in return. When you truly love, you are filled up on the inside of your soul.

As with everything else, forming the Habit of Love is not difficult, but it will take practice. You may have to learn to forgive injuries, take responsibility for your part in what went wrong in a relationship. My favorite prayer for learning to love comes from St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~ St. Francis of Assisi

Long Term Perspective and Lingering

Finally, I am going to cheat and include two L’s in the last part of the acrostic that I have used to describe a FULL life: and that will be Long Term Perspective coupled with Lingering. What?!! Let me explain.

Living with a Long Term Perspective is what separates achievers from the average. Anything worth doing will require time and effort. Think about saving for retirement. When a person is thinking only about the short-term gratification of spending all they have for the moment, they lose sight of the miracle of compound interest.

When a person has to have their own way in a marriage relationship, or when they cheat on their partner, they are giving up their Long Term Perspective.

When a doctor goes to medical school, she is living with the End in mind. Sure she is in school for 8+ years, amassing a lot of educational debt in school loans and time missed from other activities, but she is understanding that the prize is worth the price.

On the other hand, if a person only lives in the Future, they miss out on the gift that is called the Present.

There is a habit found in the research on positive psychology that is shown to increase happiness when practiced consistently. It’s called Savoring (which, for purposes of this article, I am calling Lingering). I would say that it’s closely linked to Gratitude.

With savoring, you may want to have a picture album, or you can use your Flickr account, to remember in detail your happiest and most meaningful memories. Or, during the day, you may just want to take time to notice the beauty of a sunset, the wonder of your pets, the curiosity of a child. By Living in the Moment, while having the understanding of a Long Term Perspective, you are truly living life to the fullest.

Are You FULL of Life?

In conclusion, I have shared with you my thoughts on living a FULL life:

F – Do you have the proper Focus?

U – Do you have an Understanding of God, yourself, and others?

L – Do you have a commitment to Love?

L – And, finally, are you living with Long Term Perspective while being committed to Lingering in the Present?

I welcome your thoughts and comments as to what constitutes a FULL life for you!

Stephen Borgman’s mission is to help others reach their full potential. He grew up in Brazil, South America, to parents whose legacy of serving and helping others he hopes to carry on. His blog, Personal Success Factors, is dedicated to helping your reach your next level of excellence.

Photo by ViaMoi