By Marc M

Nobody has the ability to motivate themselves better then you can motivate yourself that is why it is called self-motivation. The main Self-motivation tip is the understanding that self motivation comes from the inside of us, not an external process. Self motivation starts from within us

Here are a few self motivation tips:

Self Motivation tips #1 Reflect on your goals and write them down on a piece of paper.   To get yourself motivated, you will need to know what you want to achieve. You will need to develop a short and long term plan. Which ever road you choose it will have to be achievable and realistic. If you set your goals to high that it can not be reached you will be doomed for failure and that is not very motivating. Once you know your goals write them down on a piece of paper and put it where it is visible to you at all times and read it at least 5 to 10 times a day. Always talk as if your goals are already attained and visualize what it will be like when all your goals are realized. Talk about your goals and dreams until you believe they are real.

Self Motivation tips #2 Stop Procrastinating:   Procrastination is a huge motivation killer. Put time limits on the project you are doing. Always be very specific with your time limits. The feeling that there is a time crunch will motivate you to get your project done. Use this self motivation tip on anything you need to get done, whether it is a small or large project. Be careful though and make your time frame realistic, it is not healthy to create unnecessary stress from a goal you set for yourself.

Self Motivation Tips #3 Reward Yourself:   Everybody likes to be rewarded when they accomplish something or a goal they have been working on, so reward yourself when you finish a project in the time frame you had given yourself so you have something to look forward to as a reward for finishing. Just do not wallow in your own pride forever. Always set new goals when one is accomplished. Successful people are always looking for new ways to improve themselves and their lives.

Self motivation Tips #4 Have some Fun:    Home based businesses can be incredibly hard work, so a sense of humor is a key ingredient in your success recipe. Try not to take yourself or your business too seriously. Learning to enjoy yourself while you work your home based business keeps you enthusiastic and motivated, and staying enthusiastic and motivated helps you keep your stress levels under control.

By Maurice Turmel PhD

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.” That was a familiar phrase back when I was learning to type and leads us to the following story:

Once upon a time there was a young man named Moe. He came into the World not knowing who he was or what his purpose was.

Moe struggled all his life to “get it”, but he kept falling down again and again, as he had so many times before, because he wanted to know it all and he couldn’t. This brought him to this juncture in Life to which you have just arrived. We are attempting to discover who we are and what our Life Purpose is.

Moe has been up and down this road many times and still has to learn that he is okay being just who he is. Who he is, in fact, is just perfect, thank you. He has a more to learn about that particular point.

So here we go again, traveling on this journey through time, trying to figure out who we are and looking for “it” out there, usually in our accomplishments and achievements.

If I said: “you are a person of great value,” who would you believe? Me, as the person saying it or, you, as the person in denial?

“Who defines us?” you ask. “Well, I do,” should be the answer. But clearly that is not the case.

For example, I define myself through my work? “Yes!” Through my accomplishments? “Yes!” And through my failures? “Why yes, that too!”

I define myself by how others see me and, I, myself adopt this external viewpoint. I validate certain experiences as good, and others as shameful, unworthy, unacceptable. Again, I use that same external reference point to determine who I am.

If I want to change who I am, I change the accomplishments column. I try on new things. I grow. I prosper. I may even thrive. But in the end I am still me, standing on the outside, looking at me from that external point of view.

How do I change this? I have to change my point of view. I need to adopt an internal viewpoint that describes me as I really am, through characteristics such as: kind, gentle, caring, open-minded, open-hearted, alert and giving. If these are my characteristics, then they define me better than any external circumstances could. Because I can change externals, new house, office, car or job. But I can’t really change internal characteristics, can I?

Oh Yes, You Can!

What I am about to share with you is a Secret handed down through the ages and what the Sages knew for a fact. I am a Being of Light. I come to this Earth for a purpose. I live that purpose on a day to day basis. And I endeavor to bring forth who I am, while aiming at I would like to become.

I want to change things for the better. So I have to tweak the knobs somehow. These are the knobs that are only accessible through the process of Self-Discovery, through uncovering inherent talents and abilities, and demonstrating a willingness to begin anew each day. Yes, we are talking about innate characteristics. As you can see, we return regularly to this very point.

As a Being of Light I can change things that are mine to change, but can I ever change my Being?

Not surprisingly, the answer is No. That state was given to us by the Great Creator. He/She decreed you and I to be Beings of Light. Can’t change that. I am what I am, and so are you!

So who am I then? God incarnate? Or am I something else altogether? Let’s just pause for a moment and consider those questions again: “Who am I? and Why am I here?”

Over and over, these questions continue to repeat themselves. Listen closely!

I am here for a purpose. Who’s purpose is it? Is the Creator’s purpose mine and mine alone? Do I define that purpose on my own, or do I ask: “Hey Lord, why am I here?”

“You are here for a reason,” He would say. “And that reason is what?” you counter. “You have to discover that for yourself.”

Be assured that you do have the answer.

There is a group of possibilities before you which you can activate. And those that are activated will determine who you are at this time.

We are here for a purpose.

Our God Self alleges that we can know that purpose, which has certain reference points that we can identify as our characteristics. As we move to the next stage of our evolution, we are required to express that Inner Self, which is our expression of The Great Creator within.

I have yet to find a loophole in any of this, try as I might. When our God Self says there is such a purpose – then it is so!

Discovering Who You Are is essentially that purpose.

That’s the end game, frustrating as it may seem. We are here for a purpose. We are alive with such purpose and that purpose expresses itself through our Being.

If we want to know that purpose, we need to pay attention to how we express characteristics, such as kindness, caring, curiosity, open-mindedness and determination. Otherwise, we miss uncovering who we are at this characteristic level.

By Tushar V Joshi

I was sitting in a Tea Stall which in slang is called a tapri. Sipping tea in a small glass cup, I was thinking about my failure. I had miserably failed in the last project I started. It had shifted me into a state of depression.

Rains have started and the climate was wet. This was adding to the intensity of my pain and frustration. I saw a poor man digging beside the tea stall. He was sort of erecting some wooden columns so as to add a roof on top of them.

I strolled there near him and asked with curiosity, “What are you doing?”

“I am building my hut back, saab”, said he not even looking towards me.

“Will you like to have some tea?” I asked but I didn’t waited for his answer, and ordered “laalaa! One cut chaai here please.”

Now he looked toward me with appreciation, as if he was thanking me with his eyes.

“What happened to your hut?” my question.

“Yesterday’s rains washed away my hut and I need to re-build this before night.”

I felt a connection between his situation and mine. Strange enough but he was also broke so as I. His hut was brought down not because of his fault just like my project failed not because of me. When you have to face failure from the situation where you are not responsible you always have a question “Why me?”

“Don’t you feel pain bhaiyya? This is such a sad thing that you have lost your hut yesterday. I can feel the pain you may have inside,” I tried to console him by showing my sympathy.

“Pain saab!, I cannot afford to be painful, I cannot afford to even think about the sorrow and why me stuff. I must work again and build this hut from the start as fast as possible so my wife and child can have some roof tonight to sleep.”

By Verena Edler

The Pursuit of Happiness

It’s a fundamental right in the USA. It is up to each one of us to claim it for ourselves!

It should be our mission to find more Joy in our lives. In little things and in the big ones. And one of the most powerful, and most overlooked tools to do this is hypnosis.

Hypnosis? You might ask?

Do you enjoy what you are doing, right now?

Or do you feel you have to ‘work hard’ to earn your rewards?

Too often people get all keyed up when they really need to get something done. That’s not always bad, as long as we stay in a ‘can do’ kind of attitude. Then it is total concentration. Good stress, versus the bad stress of struggling against heavy demands. A way to get into tat high performance zone is (self)hypnosis.

Hypnosis can help improve and change just about any aspect of our lives. It’s really straight forward. Got a mind? Might as well use it! All of it.

Most of the time we access only a small percentage of it. The rest,the subconscious part, uses us! All the experiences, teachings, habits that were instilled in us from little on, positive and negative, determine what we do Now and how we do it. It is a perfect storage system. Just imagine being able to sort through it and bring out what you need in this point of your life, sending back what you don’t want to be bothered with right now. How easy many things would become. Work could be a happy thing, achievement instead of hardship.

Think about it: Change always comes from within. We can only change ourselves, not somebody else. We can change how we see people and things, and that in turn changes Them, in our perspective at least.

Have you ever noticed the looks you get, if you tell somebody you had a great day, or that you enjoy your long hours, because you love what you’re doing? Try it out! It’s almost like you just told an obscene joke.

By Yinka Dixon

Travelling on the motorway, cars weave in and out of lanes like a game of “Catch me if you can”. Having done it myself, several times, I used to wonder who owns the space in front of the car I just occupied. It certainly didn’t belong to the driver now behind me, because I didn’t push her out. Have you noticed how when you overtake someone, they can get quite upset? Why, you often wonder, are they upset? If the space was not theirs before you got there, why should they be upset that you took it before they did? And if they had taken that space, it wouldn’t be the same space, because there would still be space in front of them. And so you wonder. Because the space you just occupied had always been meant for you, only you had not reached the point where you could have occupied it, until then.

My question is, “what do you see”? Or should I say, “what is in your vision”? One writer was describing what he saw in a valley of “very dry” bones. In the midst of absolutely dead dryness he saw an awesome power at work that determined that anything can be regenerated and enlivened. Step by step he described what he saw, vividly energised by the power in his vision. To avoid confusion, I checked the meanings of “dream” and “vision”. A “dream” is described, amongst other things, as “a series of pictures or events in the mind of a sleeping person”, “a state of mind without proper perception of reality”, while “Vision” is described as “the act or faculty of seeing – sight”, “a thing or idea perceived vividly in the imagination”. A dream is associated with sleep and unconsciousness, while a vision is related to sight, seeing, the eyes, and mental sagacity.

It should be, but is not always clear, that we cannot see the same things in the same way, because we don’t have other people’s eyes. One writer said “a people that know their God shall be strong; and they shall do exploits”. I wonder what challenges his prevailing surroundings posed, and what exact strengths and abilities he saw in himself when he made that declaration. Attempting to fill a space that you don’t see, in front of another car, will only cause an accident. But if you see space, no matter how small, and you believe the space you see is for you, you will take action in order to occupy. First you will accelerate, indicate your motive, and briskly make a clean, short and sharp manoeuvre. Sadly, many folks want to act other people’s visions, without seeing what those people see. They can’t see anything themselves. Blind as a bat, they are, having eyes but seeing nothing. They exist only to becloud the vision of those who see. Watch out, because only you can see what is in your vision. When others catch your vision, you will know. Keep your focus on your own vision.

One writer said “write down your vision, so that whoever wishes to run with it, might be energised by what you saw, which they can now see” (my translation). I remember watching a video of people running from behind a crowd. Those at the front, started running as well without knowing why. Why do you do what you do? What do you hope to achieve? Are you energised by what you do? Are you doing it because other people are doing it? Are you doing it to please other people? Are you making progress by doing this thing? These are personal questions nobody can answer for anybody. People may think they know the answers to your questions. The fact is they usually don’t. Answers may be similar, because personalities could be identical. To be identical means to look like” something/someone. Believe me, there is only one “original” and that is “you”. Ask questions. But be true to your own self.

So folks, be original. Sit yourself down; see your own vision (your mind’s eye) and apply it to your own life. Don’t spend time attempting to cast shadows on other people’s vision. It’s fruitless, because if that person has sight, and applies foresight, what they see will come to life. Spend your time, rather, developing what you see in your own vision. Write it down, believe in it, ask questions and make plans. One writer said “faith, or belief in something, is dead without corresponding action”. Be ready to action your plan, and when the time comes, as it surely will, things will go smoothly, and people will think you’re so clever. Yes, because your gift of sight and foresight gave you the advantage and the alertness, which you capitalised on. Clever you!!!

By Steve Wickham

The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt was famous not only for his 1901-09 Presidential tenure and the fact he was the first President who rode in an automobile and submarine, but also for his “credit belongs to man who is actually in the arena” quote. A man known for his vast range of interests and achievements[1] left us this tremendously motivating legacy… the full quote is:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”

Players are those who actually enter the arena. They boldly try, and fail. They succeed too, but only after much toil and often much failure. We shall see, ‘playing’ in life involves inherent risk; we don’t get results without risk. And we’ve all heard of the financial term, ‘risk versus return’ — what we don’t risk, we can’t possibly get a return on. The same principle holds in virtuous vs. vice continuum of life.

The main point is there are good players and bad players. It’s no good being a player if you’re playing for the wrong team. The good player is represented by the Roosevelt quote — the bad player is not. The good player is courageous in his or her risk taking, but not foolishly so. They take calculated risks, which uphold good values, not stupid ones that show disregard for people and situations. Good players have integrity and choose worthy causes to spend themselves on. They’re often not driven by achievement whereas the bad player is — they have to win for the sake of winning. The good player plays for the sport and winning is secondary. A battle lost (i.e. failure or momentary embarrassment) is worth it if the war (i.e. completing a life of integrity) is still up for grabs. The good player doesn’t mind a loss and they take it well — in fact, they can often turn a loss into something good. The bad player is more likely to break the law in his playing; the good player never generally would.

What is the game? What is the arena? It’s life. It’s no dress-rehearsal. Jesus told the story of the parable of the talents, where a man gave three of his servant’s ten talents, five talents, and one talent, respectively. The first two invested and were able to give their master a return with interest, whilst the servant having only one talent simply ‘hid the talent in the ground,’ as he was scared of his master. He was chastised for being a ‘wicked, lazy servant.’ Jesus’ moral is this: “For everyone who has [much] will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have [much], even what he has will be taken from him.”[2] There is a parallel here that only those who prove trustworthy with a little will be given more. This is a lesson in diligence based in the faithfulness of trust. The servants had a strict master; the last servant should have been hyper-aware of this (in fact, the Biblical record shows he was) and made sure he did what he could to please his master. Excuses are not acceptable.

We can’t expect to be given promotions and further opportunities if we’re not already diligently doing the job — ‘playing’ as planned and delivering innovative solutions to those of our ‘masters.’ And it’s only when we’ve proved ourselves faithful, and beyond, via our performance, attitudes, and abilities, that we stand to get those extra opportunities — and, in their right time.

Another way to look at this is via life’s rewards. Those who play well (I mean, faithfully) can easily become ‘inebriated’ in their loving relationships and earn good all their lives — that is, intoxicating joy. Countering this position is the player who plays unfaithfully — their ‘reward’ is also inebriation — but the kind that loses both the love of a partner (like in an affair) and wisdom. It’s the ‘falling-over-drunk-in-public’ kind of intoxication that generally leads to shame and disgrace.[3] A reputation gone in this way is not recovered quickly, and in some cases may never be reclaimed.