Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will empower your everyday living.


THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:

"What truly improves my life?"


THE PROMISE

Ask yourself this question and you will fast-track your path to success and happiness.


THE TIPS

The New Year always brings with it many hopes for new directions to take, old dreams to pursue and overall improvements to make.

If you are looking to make improvements to your life the first question to ask yourself is "What truly improves my life?"

If you feel down on your luck, with no energy to motivate yourself and improve your life than you are normal.

In fact, when it comes to people there is something that over 70% of the population has in common, that being, the propensity to settle for less than they deserve.

In Canada and America for example, nearly 7 out of 10 people work 9-5 jobs just to pay the bills!

But if you work just for the money, you may be rewarded by the ability for physical fulfillment, that meaning the access to physical goods and tangible services.

However without passion behind your payroll, your chosen work occupation will not provide any spiritual, emotional, or mental satisfaction.

Said differently, people are spending 1/3 of their lives doing something that provides them with 1/4 the fulfillment in their lives.

To make matters worse, the 1/4 that money can provide doesn't always work out to be the case, many people go to work full-time, or have two jobs and cannot still meet their expenses and commitments.

If this is the case, then you could look at it in the way that people are spending 33% of their time in an area that produces less than 25% of their happiness.

This is a major problem since we seek to experience fulfillment on all four of these levels in order to feel balanced, in harmony and successful.

When it comes to improving your life you must consider all four levels to lived a balanced life no matter what category you are trying to improve.

How can you be more emotionally, spiritually and mentally involved with your work to help balance out the equation?

When you are finished finding and testing ways to improve your results in one area then it is time to move on to another "category" of improvement.

Some common categories that people choose for improvement include: Health, Wealth, Relationships, Personal, Career, etc..

Asking yourself "What truly improves my life?" will help you brainstorm a more balanced approach in existing areas and also improve the overall categories that contribute to your success and happiness.


THE SECRET

Improving your life is really about being able to get better results in the existing areas of your life.

There are many ways to improve your life, but they all start with a choice to do better in order to get better results.

You must empower yourself to make better choices by understanding the power of your attitude towards any improvements you wish to make.

If you believe the change(s) will be hard, long and difficult then guess what, you are right!

Alternatively, if you choose to believe that the change(s) will be easy, fast and effortless then guess what type of experience you will attract.

As Henry Ford once said "Whether you think you can or think you cannot, either way you are right."

The question "What truly improves my life?" will help you brainstorm areas that will truly make a difference.

If you come up with lots of different areas for improvement than you will want to stick to just one or two at a time.

The best way to focus your time and attention is to ask yourself: "What area of my life, if changed for the better, would make the biggest impact to improve the quality of my life?"

Once you have determined a good area to focus your efforts and before you go to work to change it, consider the following questions:

"How does this improve my life?"

"What will this improvement add to my life that is missing now?"

"If the proposed idea doesn't work, how can I tweak it to still make improvements?"

Asking yourself these questions will give you a little bit of insight as to whether or not this improvement will work out as good as you imagine it would.

There are two things that have consistently improved the quality of life for people throughout the ages.

One of those things is "technology", and it's ability to allow us to do things more effectively and more efficiently.

Technology is a car that enables you to get from point A to point B faster. Technology is an e-mail that you can use to communicate with others in the comfort of your own home.

Technology will continue to improve life if implemented with care and consideration. What is the purpose of the technology? What is the technology enabling for you?

With the right research technology is something that has the potential to improve lives.

The second thing that has improve the quality of life for people throughout the ages was once described in a Beatles song.

The title was "All You Need Is Love" and it is a fitting title for the universal secret for improving lives for everyone involved.

When you do some thing out of love then the rest of your life will tend to fall into place as well.

An example of this is the famous artists, musicians, actors and athletes that make massive amounts of money doing what they love.

Passion or a love for what you do is only equalled by the purpose for which you do it.

Doing something you enjoy for yourself is good. Doing something you enjoy for yourself that benefits others is even better.

Your purpose in life is to find some place, some thing or some one that you are passionate about.

In order to zero in on your passion, ask yourself the question "What truly improves my life?".

Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will discover the secret of how to create more happiness whenever, wherever no matter whatever happens.


THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:
"Will I cherish the memories I am creating in this moment?"


THE PROMISE

Ask yourself this question and you will be able to live with less regret and more peace of mind.


THE TIPS

Most of us talk to ourselves a lot, in fact we do it day-in and day-out.

We talk ourselves into doing things and we talk ourselves out of doing things.

The problem is that we often get these two mixed up, that is, we talk our-self out of growth opportunities in order to spend our time doing things that keep us playing small.

We justify doing this for various reasons such as fear, lack and keeping within our comfort zone, etc.. but the bottom line is that giving up on dreams doesn't feel good.

One way to challenge your mental chatter, is to ask yourself the question "How can I find a way to cherish the memories I am creating in this moment?".

If you cherish the moments as you create them in the moment then they will become cherished memories in the future.

Yet how many times do we use the moment instead to think about all sorts of personal robbing and confidence stealing scenarios?

One such confidence stealer is worry.

It makes no sense to choose to spend your time in the moment worrying about some memory that has yet to happen.

Will your worrying produce a cherished memory that you will look back on in time and say "yeah, that was time well-spent?"

The answer is probably not because 99% of the time our worries never manifest, at least in the horrendous way that we fore-casted.

Another personal power robber is judgement.

Have you ever wondered where bad ideas and stupid mistakes come from?

There is no thing as a "bad" idea as long as we learn from the experience.

These are just labels in judgement, unflattering descriptions of the events that unfolded.

They all come from our imagination, merely fictions that we create.

What time teaches us is that often what we thought was the worst thing to happen to us was really a blessing in disguise.

Asking yourself "How can I find a way to cherish the memories I am creating in this moment?" will help you see the blessing faster.


THE SECRET

How often do you have to ask yourself the question "How can I find a way to cherish the memories I am creating in this moment?"

The answer is only as often as there are moments, only as consistent as you want to be empowered in those moments.

There is a moment every second, there are 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours in a day, 30 days in a month, 12 months in a year.

The standard measurement of these unique moments are what's known as experiences.

What type of experiences and unique moments did you cherish this year?

Our experiences accumulate as memories, which ultimately shape and influence our future experiences and memories.

How can you use the cherished memories of last year to influence the memories that you want to create this year.

The moments that make up the existence of our reality pass by for everyone equally at the rate of one second per second, what we do with those moments is what separates us all.

If you are 30 years old today, then since you were born you would have accumulated 3,153,600 hours worth of potential memories, how have you used them so far?

Many people feel that they are forced to accept people, places and situations, basically that they have no choice.

Thinking that you never have a choice is always an illusion because you always have a choice.

We may not like our choices and in some cases we may even be restrained from "physical" action in a situation.

However the choice that always remains is your attitude about the present moment.

You have a choice to decide if your attitude resists the moment or goes with the flow.

The biggest skill you can teach yourself is allowing the present moment to unfold in a symbiotic and loving way?

When you learn to adjust the attitude on the fly, your life will begin to become easier, lighter, less stressful.

"When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" is a popular song originally recorded by Billy Ocean in 1985.

It is also an over-popularized cliché quoted by mentors, managers and motivators.

Basically it means that when situations in life become difficult, strong people show their strength by rising to the occasion.

The next time you are caught in a situation that you would rather not be in, before you take action ask yourself "How can I find a way to cherish the memories I am creating in this moment?" and then "get going"!

Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will help you weld the power of your mind.


THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:

"What is the value of my attitude right now?"


THE PROMISE

Asking yourself this question as many times as possible will inevitably increase the value of your attitude.

THE TIPS

Ask yourself this question "What is the value of my attitude right now?" immediately when you wake up tomorrow morning.

Take time to reflect what the value of your thinking will produce at the end of the day.

The value of the seeds you plant now is the potential quality of the harvest you'll reap later.

The thoughts that you allow now will lead to the feelings that you have later.

The feelings that you have later will govern your future actions.

Your actions are the bridge between your results, meaning if you want anything you are going to have to do something to get it.

Therefore if you want to be of value, produce value and have a valuable day it all starts with your attitude.

Ask yourself "What is the value of my attitude right now?" to ponder the compensation you might get for your thoughts at this moment.

Do your thoughts make you feel like a winner or more like a loser?

Does your attitude make you more confident in the long run or ultimately more insecure over time?

A good healthy attitude is one that you can question time after time because your true motivations will be mapped within your spirit.

Only your higher-self knows the path to happiness and joy and you can only follow that path by listening to your higher-self.

The biggest challenge is that your higher self speaks very softly and often not at all.

Your lower-self, your ego, knows how to say the right things at the right time to manipulate you.

Ask yourself "What is the value of my attitude right now?" to see if your thoughts are coming from your higher or lower self.

The answer that you get back will be in the form of your feelings.

Thoughts from your lower-self will leave you feeling less worthy and deserving.

On the other-hand, thoughts from your higher-self will make you feel like taking inspired action!

Always be aware that both possibilities and potentials exist inside of you at all times.

Through the power of choice we decide whether to adopt an attitude with increasing or decreasing value.

Ask yourself "What is the value of my attitude right now?" to ensure you are exploring the situation in a way that will truly benefit you.


THE SECRET

The best way to determine whether or not something is beneficial is with a question, and that is:

"What is the value of this attitude in the future?"

What will continuing to think this way do over time?

If you have an attitude that makes you feel small and insignificant how will that effect you in a month from now?

If you have an attitude of lack that keeps you financially challenged how will that effect you in a year from now?

If you have an attitude that produces a continual feeling of guilt, shame, of anger what would that attract back to you?

The human body is like one giant magnet, and we also know that when it comes to magnets, like attracts like.

The mechanics behind this phenomenon is what's widely known now as the Law of Attraction.

Many people are starting to realize that the truth is that you do attract the incessant thoughts and dominant feelings held within yourself.

The Law of Attraction will attract back to you the value of the attitude that you are choosing right now.

In the future you will be living the circumstances in which you attracted previously, so think wisely.

Ask yourself "What is the value of this attitude in the future?" as a starting place for positive results.

If you could look back a month ahead from this point today, what would you say about the value of your attitude about things were?

With your conscious choice you have the ability to increase the value of something just by paying attention to it.

Paying attention to something with the intention of adding or increasing value is referred to as "appreciation".

The focus of your attention should be on appreciation, coincidentally the most valuable use of your time in the moment.

These moments of appreciation will naturally begin to compound together and over-time this will become "momentum".

When you focus your attention on appreciating the moment you set the next moment for more to be appreciative about.

Momentum is simply the feeling that your past efforts were made with the intention finding appreciation for every moment.

Ask yourself "What is the value of this attitude in the future?" to see if you are setting yourself of future failure or success.

With continual practice you will begin to hear the soft whispers of your higher-self more clearly and more often.

Use the new voice in your head, the true navigation system to lead you to the promise land of your highest intentions.

Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will help you live guilt and regret free.


THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:

"Will being offended solve my problem?"


THE PROMISE

Ask this question at every minor and major case you find yourself offended and you will be able to better respond to those situations in the future.


THE TIPS

The next time something or someone rubs you the wrong way, and before you give it too much of your energy and attention, stop and ask yourself:

"Will being offended solve my problem?"

The universal answer to that question is... Never!

Ask yourself "How many times has being offended solved anything in my life?"

And the universal answer to that question is still... Never!

Yet being offended, passing judgement and criticizing situations is something that we all do, many of us on a daily basis.

Being offended does nothing to satisfy the situation, and it certainly doesn't benefit the person or thing that offended you.

It is good to detach yourself from these situations because many times the offender doesn't even know they committed the crime.

Asking "Will being offended solve my problem?" is the first step in effective problem solving.

Instead of focusing on the reasons to be offended, or justifying your revenge, take a look at what is really bothering you here.

Becoming and staying offended cannot help you, but challenging yourself to look at the reason why you were offended in the first place can help you tremendously.

Anytime you are "overly opinionated" about anything it is reason for you to explore deeper.

There is no shame, guilt or regret involved with getting to know what offends you.

In fact there is nothing wrong with being offended, the problem becomes when we don't know or don't care why.

To know why you are offended is a chance for you to get familiar with your values.

Everybody must strive to put our values and motives under the microscope of truth.

Why not? After all we expect to keep our Government and Elected Officials in-check.

Why shouldn't we take the same approach of scrutiny and standards to the main motivator behind our own behaviour?

Ignoring the reasons why you are offended will not shed any insight whatsoever into what to do about it, or how to get over it.

Whenever you feel emotion about something or someone it is more a reflection of yourself than of what you think caused the feelings.

You are responsible for self-governing your feelings and asking yourself "Will being offended solve my problem?" will help you put your thoughts, feelings and behaviour into clearer perspective.


THE SECRET

Asking yourself "Will being offended solve my problem?" helps remind you that being offended is not at all productive.

If you want to be productive one of the first questions to ask yourself whenever you feel offended is "what does this situation say about me?"

What do the thoughts and feelings that you have towards this situation say about you?

Being offended in a situation only shows people the way in which you judge others.

Continuing to remind others of how and why you are offended can only bring you more of being offended.

This can be summed up by the saying "you get out what you put in". Putting in complaints doesn't grow roses.

If you had a banana and you continued to cut it up into pieces, no matter what at the end of the day you would still have a banana.

You would never cut up a banana and expect to have orange slices right?

Being able to see why you were offended and what that insight reveals about what you are made up of on this inside is priceless.

With humility and practice you will develop the ability to respond better and offer a more balanced perspective.

A well-balanced perspective comes from being able to ponder yourself in the equation, both as the problem and as the solution.

This detached state of being is called introspection, or reflection and is generally accomplished through meditation.

With gentle introspection you will see reflections of both the conscious and subconscious programs that operate your world.

Yet for some strange reason many people fear stillness and shy away from taking a serious look inward.

Maybe because unless you grew up with a Yogi next door we were not taught how to meditate or exposed to the value of it.

Whatever the reason, it is an illusion that we can some go through life and avoid getting to know our self.

It is in our best interest to get to know the person we are stuck with no matter what.

No matter where you go, there you are, so the faster you get to know all aspects of your self the better.

Keeping the above metaphor of a self-government in mind, wouldn't you like to know if your elected "body" was doing a good job?

If you wanted to keep things accountable you would definitely require studies and analysis.

Don't be afraid to study your self, your motives, your behaviours, your thoughts and your habits.

Be your own best friend, become tag team partners with your self and together you will wrestle the challenges of life.

The better your relationship with your self, the better results that you will get.

When you are not getting the results that you are looking for, or find yourself emotionally attached to something, ask yourself "Will being offended solve my problem?" to move forward faster.

Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will turn you into a lean mean achievement machine.

THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:

"Am I happy with what I have procrastinated?"

THE PROMISE

Asking this question at the beginning and end of your day and you will begin to organize your life around your highest priorities.


THE TIPS

Do you procrastinate? Do you feel that procrastination is a bad thing to do?

Is procrastination a dirty little secret that you keep from your high performing peers and partners?

How do you feel about procrastination? Is this something that you have been struggling with for a while?

What if you were told that procrastination was not only needed, but should be welcomed and encouraged?

The reality is that procrastination happens in life just like change happens.

Avoiding change is not natural, and doing so will keep you playing small, struggling to adapt and coping poorly with life.

Just like we must learn to deal with change, if we want to be successful under any standard we must first learn how to properly deal with procrastination.

Procrastination is something that people use as a tool to succeed, and it is also something that people who struggle with use to beat them self up.

How do you view and use procrastination?

Do you feel that procrastination is a bad thing to do? If so, consider this...

There are simply not enough hours in each day to accomplish all the tasks that we need done.

This is not a bad thing, think about this for a minute and realize if you only had one task to complete all year it would be pretty boring and uneventful.

Generally speaking each of us has more packed onto our plate than we could ever hope to handle in one sitting.

As a result we choose to procrastinate something when we decide to do another thing.

The root of the word "decide" is from the Latin word "decidere", which translates "to cut off."

When we accept to act upon a particular course of action, we have decided to cut off the alternative, even if just temporarily.

Human beings can only focus their energy and attention on one thing at a time, especially if they expect that something to grow.

Procrastination is not only needed but it is a valuable tool that allows us to direct and discriminate our decisions.

The true problem with procrastination is when we procrastinate the critical and important stuff.

For example if we want our career in life to take off, we tend to focus on it above anything else, including our families.

Sometimes we have to temporarily sacrifice in order to produce the desired long-term benefits, like being able to retire early and spend time with your loved ones.

Asking yourself "Am I happy with what I have procrastinated?" will help ensure that you are committing your time and attention in the right areas.


THE SECRET

Ask yourself "Am I happy with what I have procrastinated?" at the end of your day to get a snapshot of your daily success.

Ask yourself "What is the benefit of my procrastination" is a great follow up question to gauge your intentions.

Do you feel like you were able to move forward directly due to the actions that you have decided to take today?

If you fell short of your goal and spent time on the usual attention eaters, relax and try not to be too hard on yourself.

If you do not feel good about what you have procrastinated write it down and record your thoughts.

Keep track of your priorities as well as how you spent your time.

Time management is really how well you can manage the priorities of your life.

The fact is that everyone would be living the life of their dreams if fear wasn't such a cunning adversary.

Fear works in mysterious ways that cause people to focus on perceived problems and potential barriers.

This become a big problem because we constantly attract into our lives that upon which we focus on.

So by focusing on potential problems they soon turn into actual problems that hold us back from our goals.

The best way to combat procrastination is by taking the time necessary to figure out two important things:

1. First you need to really figure out what you really, really, really, want.

What do you want to manifest in your life, what type of people do you truly want to connect with, what type of experiences would you most enjoy?

The big tip here is to avoid forming desires and dreams that fall into the "must-be-nice" or "wishful thinking".

2. Second, once you have figured out what you really, really, really want, your next task is to figure out why.

Why do you want what you really, really, really want? What would having or accomplishing your dream or desire give you?

The big tip here is to keep asking yourself the question "why" and drilling deeper until you have uncovered a value.

A value is something that is core to your being, an expression of the energy and life that is within you.

Imagine how allowing the expression of your core being would feel like for you.

When you align yourself up with your values, you can more easily express yourself.

Asking yourself "why" you want something connects you with your thoughts aund feelings, the automatic guidance system that will reveal the answers.

When you know what you want to express in yourself and why you want to express it, the answer of "how" to express it will also show up.

This is important because many people try and figure out "how" they will accomplish their dreams first, rather than after figuring out what those dreams will truly provide them.

Obstacles arrive when people try and figure out how to get something rather than determine why they want it.

When we don't have the why built behind our behaviour, the logic of how and fear of change tend to trump our ability to move forward.

The bigger the why, the smaller the how.

When you take the time to figure out what you want and why you truly want it, you will quickly witness yourself doing everything and anything to make it possible.

Ask yourself "Am I happy with what I have procrastinated?" to see how on track your time management skills are.

Balancing your procrastination away from the urgent and towards the critically important is the key to life management.

Monday Motivating Mindset

THE HYPE

This weeks Motivating Mindset will pump up your problem-solving muscles.

THE CHALLENGE

Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:

"What don't I already know about this?"

THE PROMISE

Ask yourself this question whenever you come across a road block and you will solve your problems faster and more easily.


THE TIPS

Whenever the path before you appears blocked, or you come across a mental block, try asking yourself "What don't I already know about this?".

This will help you shift from seeing the problem in the same old ways and tap into the power of your creativity.

The next time you reach an apparent dead-end you must first realize that you have reached this block even though you know what you know.

Therefore, even though you know what you know, what you need to know is what you don't know already.

The best information in a solving a problem that has been plaguing you is by approaching it from a completely different angle.

Asking yourself the question "What don't I already know about this?" will help you uncover some strategic solutions.

Often we make the mistake of believing that we have all the information necessary to deal with a situation, or form an opinion, when we haven't taken the time to dig deeper.

When this happens we tend to make assumptions that eventually hinder our growth and keep us feeling frustrated.

An example is if you have struggled with something like weight management throughout your life.

What you already know about the situation is the gamut of diets, programs, exercises and training systems that you've gone through that don't work.

What you also likely already know is how many months and years you have been trying to lose those last pounds.

The problem with knowing what you already know is that by studying the things above, it won't move you closer to a solution.

Instead, chances are likely that studying what you know has probably lead you to ask yourself something along the lines of "What's wrong with me, how come I just can't get past this?"

You might be tempted to compare your result to others and wonder why "Tae Bo" or the "Atkin's Diet" worked for your best friend but not for you.

Instead of asking yourself a question based on a problem, your challenge is to shift gears by asking yourself a question based on a solution.

By asking yourself "What don't I already know about this?" you will find out new areas and angles to approach your weight management.

Repeatedly asking yourself this question will automatically enlist the help of your creativity in order to try and solve the problem.

You might discover that what you don't know already about your weight management is why you want to manage the weight to begin with.

You might uncover that what you don't know already is how your personality plays a role in your weight management.

You might find out that what you don't know already is why you have chosen to approach the problem in the way that you have.

The more that you ask yourself "What don't I already know about this?" the more easily that you will be able to come up with new empowering answers.


THE SECRET

To really turbo charge your results, when you sit down to ask yourself "What don't I already know about this?", write down your ideas on paper.

You might want to start with listing all the things that you already know about the problem you are trying to solve.

The more you can understand your problem and the better you are able to formulate the question, the better answers you will come up with.

It has been said that a problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.

The best way to solve a problem that has been challenging to you for a while is to make a "creative map", "concept map" or "mind map".

A concept/creative/mind map is a diagram used for linking words and ideas to a central key word or idea.

It is used to visualize, classify, structure, and generate ideas, as well as an aid in study, problem solving, and decision making.

A concept map is a great way to come up with ideas that you may not have otherwise thought of.

Use your creative map in conjunction with the question "What don't I already know about this?" for a very powerful problem-solving combination.

However, you can apply this question and creative-map technique to many other areas of your life, not just problem-solving.

Some areas that are great to apply this question to are your Judgements, Justifications and Tolerations.

When it comes to judging people, places or things, asking yourself that question that might prove helpful before making any false assumptions.

For example, you might be tempted to form an opinion about someone because of something that recently happened.

Before you cast judgement on another, put yourself in their shoe's and ask yourself "What don't I already know about them?" to better understand where they may be coming from.

When it comes to justifying thoughts, feelings and behaviours, asking "What don't I already know about why I do them?" might provide some critical insight.

When it comes to areas in your life that have been continually tolerated, such as a bad relationship, poor organization, work stress, etc, asking yourself "What don't I already know?" might help change your mind about why you are doing it and what you can do about it.

The key is to use the information that you discover to help you re-frame the situation in a more beneficial and positive light.

After you have discovered what you don't know, ask yourself "how can I use this new knowledge to get better results?".

If you are still drawing a blank or feel blocked then keep in mind that you can always ask a friend to be an objective mirror for you.

As long as you are open and willing you can stand on the shoulders of giants, mentors, coaches, heroes and sheroes to overcome your problems.

The more you practice asking yourself the hard questions in life, the more easy your life will become.