When you made them they seemed so easy to adhere to. You were going to go to the gym three times a week. That was an easy goal to set. You were going to drink and smoke less, maybe even give up smoking. Seemed reasonable at the time.

Arriving at work on time every day was definitely possible until they started those road works of course and all traffic ground to a halt in the morning. After all that couldn’t be your fault then could it. Phoning your parents once a week was on that list, so was signing up for a new course to help your career along.

By February those New Year’s resolutions had evaporated and you felt guilty that they didn’t at least last until mid-year. It seemed that every year those goals set at the beginning of January have a shorter shelf-life.

What stops you from keeping those promises you make to yourself? What stops you from making those changes that could enrich your life? Why do you hang onto those old habits for dear life, never wanting to let go?

Setting goals and sticking to them is one of the most difficult things to do. Countless self-help books are available in shops and online stores. The proliferation of eBooks on the topic shows that there are many people who want to learn the secret to goal setting.

The biggest secret and one that is seldom discussed is that goals need to be packaged into small achievable steps. It is the idea of one enormous goal that often puts people off and stops them from trying. It’s like planning to climb Mt Everest but you haven’t tried to climb the local hill.

As long as you keep your eye on the goal or your final outcome you will manage to get there by using small steps.

An interesting story was told by a woman entrepreneur who started a very successful weight loss club in competition to the more famous Weight Watchers. She set up her office in the garage of her home. That’s where she tested and assembled her product line of diet foods and supplements and planned her marketing strategy.

Her weight loss club grew into a huge organisation with the additional income of product sales in supermarkets. During an interview for a program on successful women she said that if she had known how big her organisation would become, she wouldn’t have had the courage to start it.

That’s how our goal setting fails us. We set our goals to be so large we fail at them because we lose courage. We need to lose weight? We don’t set a realistic goal, we want to immediately get rid of all the excess weight. The fact that it might have taken ten years to creep up on us is forgotten. We want to get rid of it in a month. When that doesn’t happen we give up.

We want to go back to University to get a degree to help with our career and we give up after a few months. It wasn’t supposed to take that long and be so much work.

Break up your goals into small bite size pieces. Make them smaller and easier to achieve. Being able to easily attain many small successes will more easily encourage you to keep going to reach the bigger goal at the end of the road.

If you want to run a marathon you do not join a book club. You don’t join a walking club either. You join a long distance running club. You do this so that you can learn from experienced runners, listen to talks by nutritionists, hear advice on training programmes from running experts and for the encouragement you get from all involved.

If you want to get on in your work environment you join up with the staff members who are enthusiastic, who are constantly learning new things and are prepared to share with you, who are prepared to work long hours and who encourage you to do the same.

Would it make any sense to socialise with staff members who constantly complain about their boss, their colleagues, the tea, the equipment or the work environment in general? Is this the kind of person who will encourage you to work harder and to better yourself? Not likely.

In every situation of your life you have a choice to keep company with people who don’t want to get better or those who are driven to improve themselves. Your choice.

If you are happily married and you socialise with your single friends what does this do to your relationship? If your single friends constantly tell you how much fun they are having going out on their own, being able to come and go as they wish and in general have loads of fun, do you think this makes you appreciate your partner?

Have a look at your life and see where you have people encouraging you and where you are surrounded by people who are miserable with their lives and want to make sure everybody around them is just as miserable.

It might be an idea to change company. If you want to stay happily married, then don’t go out every week with your single friends. If you want to get fit, don’t spend all your time with people who think exercise means lifting a drink to their lips.

This principle applies to every part of your development. As a youngster in high school you want to share your time with young people who have the same thinking as you. This is quite difficult at times.

School times are dominated by your thoughts of wanting to belong to the right crowd. Regrettably the ‘in crowd’ or ‘trendy’ people are the ones who spend more time on looking gorgeous and having the right partners, than on actually studying and improving themselves.

This means that at an early age we tend to think that following somebody is the most important part of our existence and we spend our time running after people who we think will allow us to belong. What does this do to our lives? It certainly doesn’t get us anywhere, except behind somebody else.

So enjoy this fine selection of articles! More to come only again in 2010.

The first one is asking the question of afterlife. What happens when you die, how you cross over, have your life review, and are greeted by family and other loved ones. But then what? Erin Pavlina presents What Happens After the Afterlife? posted at Erin Pavlina – Spiritual Wisdom for Conscious People.

Taking the road less traveled is an incredible journey. gp presents The Roads Less Traveled « Musings from Montana posted at Manely Montana.

Scientific Living presents Fearlessness posted at Scientific Living.

Greg Frost presents Gearing Your Subliminal Perception Towards Success posted at ChargedAudio Subliminal Success | Self Improvement.

Wally Bock presents Follow your bliss, but maybe not to work posted at Momentor.

Cure for child-care summer-time blues. Ella Moss presents MY KINDER UNIVERSE « Zodiac Times posted at Zodiac Times.

Mindi Lyons presents How to be Proactive Versus Reactive posted at Mindi Lyons Life Makeover Blog.

Greg Frost presents 4 Common Causes Of Memory Loss posted at Photographic Memory | Memory Loss | Memory Techniques.

Jessica Nagel presents Dairy What? Got What? posted at Sustainable Halo.

Emotions are funny things. So here are some practical tricks to make you feel good right now. You’ll be walking on sunshine by the time you’ve read this… Alex @UnleashReality presents Emotional Sleight of Hand: 5 Practical Tricks to Feel Good Right Now posted at Unleash Reality.

Greg Frost presents Children and Self Esteem – What is the Correlation? posted at Building Self Confidence | Confidence Tips | Build Self Esteem.

Regular training and development programmes increase job satisfaction and morale among managers and of course employees. Great Management Tips presents Benefits to Management Development Programmes posted at Great Management Tips.

Every job seeker wants to land an interview that leads to a job.A unique cover letter can make that happen.Here’s how: Job And Career Advice presents Say Goodbye to Your BORING Cover Letter! posted at Job And Career Advice.

Article about why apathy is present, how you control it, and how to overcome it for good. Jonathan Beebe presents Perception of Life, or Creation in Mind? posted at Develop Minds Blog.

Greg Frost presents Achieving the Optimum Brainwave State for Everything That You Do posted at Deep Brain Stimulation | Mind Control Techniques | Mind Power.

It’s not every day that a person with an eating disorder crosses the path of another individual. Health Fitness How To presents Help for Eating Disorders posted at Health and Fitness Articles.

Commonalities between the US and Michael Jackson. Britannica Blog presents What the U.S. & Michael Jackson Have in Common posted at Britannica Blog.

Deb White presents Divorce Daily Dollop 4: A mind once expanded… posted at Divorce: Coping…Surviving…Support.

Jon presents Stop Waiting for a Handout- Design Your Own Bailout! posted at The Wandering Generalist.

Alvina Lopez presents 50 Useful Mind-Mapping Tools for College Students posted at Associate Degree – Facts and Information.

Kendall Kipp presents Top 5 Open Courseware Classes for Health Professionals posted at Online Medical Billing Training.

Quandra presents Gay Marriage and The Christian Church posted at Improvement of Self.

You might have thought of happiness as being a result of things that happen to you, but research is now showing it can actually be a cause of things too. Here’s a quick review of how it works. Warren Davies presents Six Success-Enhancing Behaviours that Good Moods Bring You posted at GenerallyThinking.com.

Excellent free illustrated guide to teach you how to meditate. Complete with detailed pictures and step by step instructions on how to master this profound art. Anmol Mehta presents How to Meditate posted at Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.

What makes some entrepreneurs solution magnets while others get caught in their struggles? Tulshi Sen, author of Ancient Secrets of Success For Today’s World, shows us the key to success thinking. Aditi Walsh presents Entrepreneur Mastery Through Ancient Secrets of Success posted at Web Marketing Rebel.

When it comes to setting and achieving goals, maybe we dwell on the past, and at times maybe we live for the future. The truth is, there is only now. Now is the time for change. Enjoy this free inspirational movie. Taylor Coburn presents Time for Change Movie posted at Motivia

Jason Cooper presents The Truth is the Power of God is in you! posted at Knowledge Reform.com.

Richard Shelmerdine presents Taoism 30 day experiment posted at Richard Shelmerdine.

Some really simple steps to increase and build your self confidence. Alex presents How to Increase Your Self Confidence posted at Home Life Weekly.

A major public policy concern is the well known fact that many minority students under-achieve scholastically. Brain Blogger presents The Psychology of Minority Students posted at Brain Blogger.

We must crush our insecurities’ ability to interfere in our lives. We must learn to deal with our “flaws” and turn them into strengths. John Anyasor presents Love the Skin You’re In In 5 Easy Steps posted at HiLife2B.

Ben presents Want to Get the Best Solution to Your Problem? Use Intuition posted at Self Help Gold.

Learn how to switch on your Empowerment Mentality for mind blowing success! Dwight Anthonty presents The Empowerment Mentality posted at Financially Elite Blog.

Short article about allowing joy into our experience. Michael Miles presents Turning the ship around posted at Effortless Abundance.

The fact is, it is in the moment by moment choices we make we either create our success or create our failure. Simple as that. Cake or vision. Television or walk. Sleep in or fundraise. It’s the same with business. Kathleen Gage presents Participating in a marathon is like growing a business posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions.

You’re working on something and suddenly you’re visited by an unexpected thought Karl Raats presents 5 ways of dealing with your inner critic posted at Pinching the Ostrich.

Every individual who is in a profession should have career goals and some objectives that are over and above their day to day objectives of earning and working. nissim ziv presents How to Reach your Career Goals and Objectives posted at Job Interview Guide.

Toni presents Make Plans for No Plans posted at Happy Nest.

Surbhi Bhatia presents The Power of Being Selfish posted at The Viewspaper.

Barbara Williams presents 25 Great Thinkers Every College Student Should Read posted at Learn-gasm

Christopher X. Gerber presents Be Realistic, Build Happiness With Proper Tools posted at Experiment: Gerbus.

Finding purpose in life gives you direction and guidance. It channels inner forces and energy to overcome outer circumstances and conditions. Stephen Martile presents 4 Ways to Finding Purpose in Life posted at FreedomEducation.ca by Stephen Martile.

Janet Erickson presents Energy Healing To Remove Negative Experiences posted at Spiritual Healing and Energy Healing to Remove Negative Thoughts and Experiences.

Effortless Abundance presents Life coaches and being alone posted at Effortless Wealth and Abundance.

How to motivate yourself through a “sense of urgency.” Drew Tarvin presents Creating a Sense of Urgency posted at Humor That Works.

I invite you to take a few minutes from your busy day to join me in this meditation that will relax, center and refresh you. Catherine VanWetter presents To the Heart of the Matter – A Seven Minute Break posted at To The Heart of the Matter.

Stop Whining is an article that discusses exactly that, the key components needed to stop whining. More importantly though, it discusses how to adjust to whiners around us and what makes them the way they are. Travis presents Stop Whining posted at personalwebguide.com.

axel presents What’s It Like When The Mind Is Really Calm? posted at axel g.

steve presents METAPHYSICAL MIND » 2009 » August » 03 posted at METAPHYSICAL MIND.

Shashi Kumar presents Dozen secrets of happiness posted at Dream Consciously.

Arswino Sonata presents 85 Ways to Motivate Yourself posted at Inspiration & Motivation Blog.

Jody Fransch presents A Life-Changing Procedure | jody fransch posted at jody fransch.

Several steps toward a life without the autopilot, a life lived deliberately and on purpose. Glowing Face Man presents How to Take Control of Life posted at Glowing Face Man.

If you’re feeling stuck in your life, do these 3 simple steps to “unstuck” yourself! Remember that actions are always better than inactions. Ken Siew presents How to “Unstuck” Your Life posted at Think Big & Think Money – Guide to Success & Wealth.

A fundamental understanding of what makes up a good rapport between two people will help you to create the type of deepened relationships you require as a hypnotist. Rapport will build trust and comfort between you and your clients. Covert Hypnotist presents How Rapport Can Help You in Hypnosis | Conversational & Covert Hypnosis Blog posted at Conversational & Covert Hypnosis Blog.

Arthur presents Do the Impossible posted at World Domination with Arthur Pledger.

Donald presents How to Be a Better Person Day by Day posted at Life Optimizer.

Randy Powell presents Can God Hear Me? posted at Communicating with God Effectively.

Ever in a rut? Here’s how to get out. MoneyNing presents How to Get Out of a Rut and Out of a Slump posted at Money Ning.

MBB presents How I Pursued My Dream Of Blogging From Home posted at Money Blue Book Blog.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Business 101: Teaching Myself Entrepreneurship posted at The Digerati Life.

The Smarter Wallet presents How To Be A Millionaire: Secrets To Success posted at The Smarter Wallet.

The same applies to scientific breakthroughs, to political achievements, to financial success or to sporting championship wins. The more you try the more chances you have of succeeding.

This principle applies to everything we do. A new young rugby player in South Africa has just been breaking the records in scoring points. He puts his success down to the fact that he practices his kicking three hundred times a week.

The same applies to David Beckham who spends more time than many other professional footballers practicing his famous free kicks. The training regime that Michael Phelps attacks every day is enormous. That’s what made him the most successful athlete at an Olympics in 2008.

It took Anita Roddick many many interviews with different bank managers and funding organisations before she was successful in getting her first loan for her first Body Shop outlet in Brighton. J Paul Getty, one of the more successful oil men around, spent much time and money prospecting for oil in Saudi Arabia and eventually found it where nobody thought there was any.

The Wright brothers flew their first flight in December 1903 and were accredited with being the first to fly an aircraft with controls that made fixed wing flights possible. They maintained businesses in other fields while working on their flying machines part time. It took years for them to succeed. But with all numbers games, eventually they got there.

You might think that these were all exceptional people and that their successes have nothing to do with you. There is one thing that you could end up having in common and that is going with the numbers game.

What have you tried in the past that you gave up on before achieving your goal? What sporting effort, career goal, business vision did you give up after some tries? Could you have gotten there if you had carried on trying?

What distinguishes you from these highly successful people is not so much raw talent but the ability and wish to continue playing the numbers game. Carry on trying even though you are not successful initially.

The Wright brothers crashed many of their flying machines. They were laughed at and ridiculed by many people. It was common knowledge in those days that flying was an impossible task for mankind to achieve. In fact some church minister even thundered against it saying it was against the teachings of the bible.

Michael Phelps swam for the US team during the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics and came 5th in the 200m butterfly event. In the 2004 Olympics he won 6 Golds and 2 Bronzes and topped this achievement in the 2008 Olympics with 8 Golds and 7 World Records. This after only a 5th place the first Olympics he competed in.

In most cases the ones that win are not necessarily more gifted than their competitors. They have just played the numbers games. Practice, try, ask for more help, push more and finally get those numbers to fall in your favour.

The second call to action is trying to encourage folk out there to do something, to take action, to go for it. And this is where the whole problem lies right now. It’s the general inactivity of folk. That reluctance to do it.

What made me think of the Nike slogan was a friend’s brand new course for new or not so new internet marketers who might want to consider the affiliate marketing model as their online business.

One of the main reasons why one should consider his course, and this is the interesting part, is that he has a module to his course which is specifically designed to ensure that students of his course: Just do It!

There are many courses available for the internet marketer. Yet very few internet marketers actually make a huge living, or any living at all. And the most basic problem to that non performance is because they Just don’t do It.

The main reason for that inaction is the fact that they lack self-confidence to start on a course of action in affiliate marketing that they feel could be considered intrusive on the other person. It might even be aggressive.

They don’t want to appear to be pushing their product. They can’t set up a sales page because nobody would want to buy or read or sign up. This is the mind talk that is happening all the time.

They feel too shy, too nervous, too lacking in sales experience! Too too too. The list goes on. By the time they have thought through all the reasons why somebody wouldn’t want to buy from them, they have lost all enthusiasm for affiliate or any type of marketing.

And they freeze up. They are unable to act. All good intentions of building that huge empire, making all that passive income and having huge amounts of money drop into their inbox while they sit on the beach are lost the moment they need to do something.

So finding a course where your tutor pushes you into taking that first step, just doing it, making that first sale – that course could be worth buying, couldn’t it. Something that gets you past the frozen to the spot stage and into the Just doing It way of life.

What we have here, and it’s team work with Andrew Rondeau and myself, is a product that offers a whole range of different learning opportunities. For those who prefer to read, there’s a comprehensive book. For the more visual people the videos will be of special interest. And then you do it yourself!

Why would we put so much effort into an eCourse that teaches you how to write articles? It’s because the written word is back with a vengeance. You can do nothing online unless you can string some words together into compelling copy.

That applies to whatever you want to do. Write an article for your blog? Definitely. Post an article to an article directory to promote your blog and products you are trying to sell? Of course.

What about commenting on other blogs and on forums, setting up a page on Facebook? Yes, most definitely. Presentations? LinkedIn profiles? Twitter tweets, quick comments on social bookmarked sites such as Digg? Yes, yes, yes!

You need to be able to write. What the telephone killed for a while, that skill of writing beautiful letters, has come back with the online world demanding you write to express yourself and to communicate with people.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a blog, are an internet marketer selling products, building a profile online to help your offline career prospects or just having fun with your friends on Facebook or MySpace. You have to be able to write.

Does it always have to be an article? Of course not. But the same principles apply to whatever format you will be writing in. This eCourse presents 21 chapters that cover a wide variety of topics dealing with the written word. And 16 videos show you visually how to go about it.

Why not try 6 chapters to see what it’s about? Sign up for the free Extract. There’s also a bonus waiting for you if you do this now. So go for it. It’s not going to cost you anything, and you will most definitely learn something.

We start with:

Easy Way Diets presents See yourself succeed posted at Easy Way Diets.

The 10 commandments of country living – gp presents The 10 Commandments of Country Life « Musings from Montana posted at Manely Montana.

Lucky Balaraman presents Finding Unshakable Happiness: The 5 Pristine Pillars posted at Calm and Cool | A Guide to Being Peaceful.

To know what a manager is, it is of primary importance to know what a manager does. Great Management tips presents What is Management and what do Managers do? posted at Great Management tips.

CHERYLCLP presents What is the Language of Love? posted at Cheryl Maloney.

Adam presents How I Gave Up TV posted at Adam Pedley.

Buddhist Butchers. That thought alone is reason enough to read this article about changing who you are and improving your life. …but it’s also about an adventure. Alex @UnleashReality presents Buddhist Butchers and Adventures of Change posted at Unleash Reality.

Excellent yoga set for total body workout. Strengthen and tone your upper body, arms, abs, things, hips and buttocks. A comprehensive yoga workout for fitness. Anmol Mehta presents Yoga for Full Body Fitness posted at Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.

With outsourcing, downsizing and plant shutdowns increasing, more and more people are finding themselves competing with youthful college graduates. Job and Career Advice presents The Only Steps You Need To Get Your Dream Job posted at Job and Career Advice.

LBJirel presents Reviewing the day positively posted at Positive and Successful Lifestyle tips.

Last week my husband and kids got a stomach virus all at the same time. I was the only one who was well. Paula Kawal presents The Pendant Speaks posted at Journey Inward | Your Highest Path and Purpose is NOW!.

There’s really not many overnight success. Work hard and take it one step at a time! MoneyNing presents Side Hustle, Self Employed, Entrepreneurship posted at Money Ning.

Sean Hubbard presents Your brain, use it or lose it? posted at ICANIQ.COM – Positive Attitude and building minds.

We are all born into a family that has a collective conscience, or soul. Catherine VanWetter presents To the Heart of the Matter – Orders of Love within Family Systems posted at To The Heart of the Matter.

Greg Frost presents How Subliminal MP3 Technology Can Change Your Life posted at ChargedAudio Subliminal Success | Self Improvement.

Becoming cleverer puts you in an advantageous position in life. Relax presents How to become clever posted at The Wise Curve.

When I was a kid I used to get really jealous whenever one of my friends had something really exciting happen to them. Erin Pavlina presents How to Stop Being Jealous posted at Erin Pavlina’s Blog.

Greg Frost presents Does Hypnosis Work And Should I Avoid It? posted at Deep Brain Stimulation | Mind Control Techniques | Mind Power.

Shauna Heathman presents That to-do list? It can wait ? posted at Mackenzie’s Blog.

Greg Frost presents Foods that improve Memory posted at Photographic Memory | Memory Loss | Memory Techniques.

Bruno Vigneault presents What the bleep do we know? posted at How To Make A Miracle Happen.

Are you worried about being overweight? Have you tried various remedies without any success? Health Fitness How To presents Treating Obesity and Binge Eating Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy posted at Health and Fitness Articles.

Jessica writes about using her Baby Joggers on the island she now inhabits. Jessica Nagel presents Baby Jogger + Coronado = Euphoria posted at Sustainable Halo.

Brooklyn White presents 20 Body Language Tricks That Let You Control Conversations posted at Physical Therapy Assistant Schools.

Very happy to learn about this carnival. Love your theme in today’s world where it takes something to access and own your own authentic wisdom and power. Christopher Foster presents Experts have their place — but ultimately you’re responsible posted at thehappyseeker.com.

Wally Bock presents A Pinch of Routine posted at Momentor.

Interviews are short, crisp, and very important part of your lifetime. nissim ziv presents What to say in an interview & What not to say in an interview posted at Job Interview Guide.

I think goal setting is one of the more important elements of personal growth. Stephen Martile presents How To Set The Right Goals posted at FreedomEducation.ca by Stephen Martile.

Shashi Kumar presents How to find your strengths? posted at Dream Consciously.

Children and adolescents of depressed parents are four to six times more likely to develop depressive symptoms themselves than children of non-depressed parents. Brain Blogger presents Prevention of Adolescent Depression posted at Brain Blogger.

Lissa Jannini presents Let Go And Soar posted at Break Your Shackles.

Richard Shelmerdine presents Your True Nature posted at Richard Shelmerdine.

Britannica Blog presents The Curse of the Talking Heads: Where?s Humility and a Sense of Fallibility? posted at Britannica Blog.

Here is an effective approach to creating a powerful time management system. Use these time management tools to increase your own productivity. Douglas Manning presents Need A Time Management System? Use These Tools For Effective Time Management posted at SuccessHound.com.

Overcoming fear by non-resistance, conscious presence, and re-awakening to innocence. Zero Kazama presents Fearless Presence posted at Z.K.’s blog.

Understanding the motivation behind wants and desires is key to Entrepreneur Success Secrets. Aditi Walsh presents Entrepreneur Success Secrets – Wants Vs Desires posted at Web Marketing Rebel

A few simple, practical tips that help us relax at work. Ram Raghavan presents How to relax at work posted at ramraghav.com.

More tips and techniques to improve the way you use the Law of Attraction. Ross – Tolemac presents Law of Attraction – Methods and Techniques: Part 2 posted at Tolemac’s Metaphysical Blog.

Martin Russell presents “Conspiracy of the Rich”- A Review posted at Word of Mouth Marketing.

The five most important aspects of manifesting your intentions quickly and effectively. Jonathan Beebe presents Manifesting Intentions Quickly posted at Develop Minds Blog.

A member of the ooffoo community captures and shares seven pieces of ageless wisdom passed onto her over the years by her Grandmother. 00FF00 presents Ageless Wisdom posted at ooffoo.

Anne Simone presents 100 Motivational Blog Posts for the Unemployed posted at Psychology Degrees.

What is life? Is life a game? A movie? A dream? Here are some possible answers. Glowing Face Man presents 10 Metaphors For Life posted at Glowing Face Man.

People should value their time because it’s obviously limited. However, valuing time at the expense of quality can be detrimental to the life you live. John Anyasor presents Why You Should Eliminate Your “Fast-Food Mindset” posted at HiLife2B.

Rick Schiano presents Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Be a Christian posted at Ricks Victory Blog.

Steven presents Hypnosis Explained (Debunking The Myths) posted at The Emotion Machine.

Jesse Meijers presents The Art of Question Asking posted at Jesse Meijers.

Anne Simone presents 100 Motivational Blog Posts for Disgruntled Grads posted at Online Colleges.

Alvina Lopez presents 100 Inspirational Blog Posts for Personal Change posted at Online Bible College Degrees – Online Bible Colleges.

Travis presents Living Your Life posted at Personal Web Guide.

Suzanne presents Happiness in 7 steps: Step 1 – I am OK as I am posted at Without Dash.

Mike King presents Appreciative Inquiry – Tools and Methods posted at Learn This.

Justin C Hall presents What Defines a Man? posted at Justin Hall.

Some readers of How To Have Tourette’s have asked to see some of my tics, rather than just read about them. Josh Hanagarne presents How To Have Tourette’s Part 5 – The Power Of A Carrot posted at World’s Strongest Librarian.

Kristen presents When You Are Almost to the Finish Line Be Careful! posted at Law of Attraction Key.

Donald presents Achieve Exponential Growth with The Power of Leverage posted at Life Optimizer.

Do you feel like life’s boring, tedious or a struggle? Ali Hale presents Life: Choose Your Own Adventure posted at Aliventures.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How To Be A Millionaire? Start Thinking Like One! posted at The Digerati Life.

The Smarter Wallet presents Stop Procrastination By Knowing How Much It Can Cost You posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Jon Chambers presents Sanity: Interpersonal vs. Intrapersonal (Article) posted at The Mind Of Jon.

Sara Melone presents Successful Practice of the Law of Attraction posted at LifeAdviceSite.com.

What are the kinds of excuses and hurdles we place in our own way so that we don’t stand a chance of succeeding? In fact some of these hurdles are so high, we don’t even try out for them. We give up before we start.

Probably the more common limiting belief we dredge up is the fact that we don’t have enough money. We don’t have money for the college education we need, the capital for the business venture, the money for the wedding, or the back-up fund for going on our own. And so much more.

Then there are the ones where we find very innovative reasons why we shouldn’t try to reach a new goal. You want to learn a new language so you decide on Mandarin. Then you see the alphabet involved and you give up because you can’t draw.

What about playing an instrument? Piano is a lovely one to try out. You look at your hands and decide they are too small. You’ll never be able to play like a concert pianist with such small hands. You wouldn’t be able to reach the cords. So put that dream to bed.

Then there are the arbitrary external factors that we find to use as an excuse why a particular goal is not actually a good idea to try for. You see a great job advertised and one that you could do well and it also looks as if it could be a great advancement for you. Oh, but you can’t apply for that. It’s far too far away. There are no buses never mind trains and you would spend far too much time traveling. No go. Let’s not even apply.

You want to run your first competitive race? You have been training, more or less. But every race that comes up it rains. Oh dear. Can’t run in the rain. You might trip and fall. Injuries are bad. And so the story goes on in your head.

Sound familiar?

What makes us sabotage ourselves? Mostly it boils down to the fact that we have no self-confidence in our own abilities. Our fear of failure and of making a fool of ourselves stop us from trying new things.

Our internal voice talks us out of trying. We find many reasons and excuses why we will never achieve our goals. And we allow that voice to talk us out of trying because it seems so much easier to give up than to try something new. Especially if we already anticipate that we will fail at it.

Never a truer saying: We are our own worst enemies! You know what I mean?

Then we don’t make it and we give up. Where in the manual of life does it say that everything has to be perfect. We have to be the perfect employee, partner, parent, home maker, team player, friend and the list goes on.

Why can’t we be happy with life. What about just exploring and moving towards a general direction. Give up on perfection and look forward to living. Enjoy what you have rather than be unhappy because it’s not enough.

Try the middle path. Give up on feeling lost and try a little bit of exploring. Explore your life and see what is happening. In fact why not allow it to happen a little and see where it takes you.

But then that little voice pipes up again and says that you can’t just allow life to happen. You have to do. You have to deliver. You need to perform. Who says? Where does this come from. This constant wanting to achieve something.

Is this where our discontentment in life comes from? We know, somehow, that we have to achieve. We just don’t know what. And yet there is nobody in our lives, or at least when we reach adulthood, who is telling us what we need to achieve. Except for one voice. And that voice belongs to you.

So why not put that voice to bed for a while. Let it have some rest. You can do without it reminding you constantly that you are failing at something. Because you are not. And you certainly are not failing if you don’t know exactly where you are wanting to go.

Allow yourself to amble along a little. Imagine yourself to be walking in a meadow or along a hill. You sort of know where home is so you don’t need to worry about getting lost. But you are also not sure where you want to go. Everything is beautiful and every corner brings you another lovely vista.

Instead of creating some kind of challenge to walk up to the nearest hill in some record time, why not just walk. Enjoy the feel of nature. Listen to the birds and bees and any other noise drifting your way and just amble.

As it takes you along enjoy the vista as it unfolds. Don’t have any expectations, just know it’s going to be lovely. Experience it as it happens. Explore. Allow it to surprise you and do not be disappointed. Nothing in nature can disappoint. All has some beauty.

Why not take your life in the same way. Allow it to surprise you. Explore a little and look forward to what is around the next corner. You are not lost because you know where home is. You are exploring the way rather than following a strict plan. At the least it will provide less disappointment and more likely you will have a lot more fun and unexpected pleasures.

The findings on the Young People’s Development Programme (YPDP) were quite surprising. A comparison between the group where the government had spent £2 500 on each participant and a group where no funding had been provided gave a strange result. The funded group had a 16% pregnancy rate to the non funded group’s 6%.

It seems that sex and drugs education and in some cases a free distribution of condoms had no effect, and seemed to increase the rate of pregnancies rather than reduce or stop them.

So it’s not about sex then is it?

Sex is going to happen regardless of what the happy clappers and morals police have to say about it. Sex is going to happen regardless of the age of the participants.

Why would some young people want to ignore birth control measures. They know about them, they are aware of the consequences in fact the funded group in the above YPDP case study even seemed to have less sexual activity.

It seems that having a baby has nothing to do with accidents and unprotected sex. Or at least not to a large extent. It’s more likely to be about the pregnancy and the baby.

Just as an observation, and I’m no psychologist or social worker, would it be more about the girl in question wanting the attention and admiration of others because she is achieving something? She’s having a baby?

In a life where a young person might think they are worthless, that they have achieved nothing and that the chances of their ever achieving anything significant is remote, a pregnancy might do the trick and make them feel more worthy.

Having a baby could give them a sense of achievement lacking anywhere else. It also gives them a moment in the spotlight. It’s a time where they are somebody. They have an important function to fulfill.

Whatever the reason for teenage pregnancies, one of these days the authorities might just make the connection that it’s not actually about sex at all. It’s more about the girl not concerned whether she is pregnant or not. A pregnancy could just be something to make her day, or year, or her life.