Sometimes, we get stuck in a rut and carry on with our lives when we are unhappy. The goals and dreams of childhood have been set aside. They do get worn down with the daily grind. Everyday falls into a routine and we do not even have time to sit and think, let alone plan or remember anything that we were supposed to be doing. This happens especially when you have a family. The everyday tasks of looking after their needs take over – and probably rightly, take priority in your life while your own hopes and ambitions lie forgotten.
But what if you yearn to break free? It may be that when you first started your job you had a very different role or different surroundings and now you have become bogged down with administrative tasks and the job is nothing like it was when you started. Or it could be that you have just lost interest in what was once a fascinating subject and now you have extreme problems dragging yourself out of bed in the morning to go and face the awfulness of the day ahead. Or, it could be that you want to break free and work for yourself. Maybe you have had an idea, or your skills have now developed enough and you think you can face it alone. You can no longer get yourself satisfied and don’t need to keep others happy all the time.
Whatever the cause, one very good way to accomplish this – let’s face it – terrifying decision is to cut off your means of retreat. There is a famous historical precedent in that Cortez, the famous conquistador, burned his ships upon landing in Mexico to make sure that his men fought as hard as they could and had no way of returning to Spain until they had either won or died trying. In the same way, once you have made that decision, if there is absolutely no way of going back then you will not have any choice but to keep moving forward.
This, by its very nature, can not be a spur of the moment impulsive decision. It must be done with careful planning and lots of forethought. You must ask yourself some serious questions before burning any ships! If you quit your job today, how will you pay your bills? How will you and your family eat? Will you still be able to have a roof over head? Can you cut back and still live the same life or will you all have to tighten your belts for a while? These are highly individual and personal decisions and only you and your family know the answers here. But, if it all falls into place, then the next step is to brace yourself and just do it!
There are so many ways that this is the best policy. If you have a bad habit for example, having the policy to ‘just do it’ can break you of that habit for good. Just stop! Don’t even think about it any more. Burn those ships! You may find that it is the best thing you ever did!
Posted in: Self Improvement
Under no circumstances must you be permanently glad in the mode of Pollyanna who was a dim wit. Permanent gladness is unnatural and foolhardy. Permanently glad people who are always looking on the bright side will not only one day be arrested, they will be caught off guard by people knifing them in the back and by the small print in loan documents.
Look on the bright side by all means, but look even longer and harder at the seamy side. There is positively no one to blame but yourself if schemes and dreams collapse owing to your own failure to take everything into account, I draw your attention to a troubling incident from my own life.
An incident from my own life
My first novel was about a girl who grew a penis and I wrote it during my third pregnancy. I don’t know why. Linda, a few blocks down the road with the daughter your age who moved to America, typed it up for me and she liked it. I didn’t know what to make of it. I was pregnant. But my agent at the time adored it. She said it was a work of genius and the find of her career. Maybe she was pregnant too.
The agent was so confident that she came round one evening to talk to your father and me about how we would deal with the success she was certain would hit us like a whirlwind. I couldn’t think of a title but she said it didn’t matter. It had everything going for it and she was going to auction it. So your father and I sat back and waited to be covered in glory.
She sent the book out to selected publishers and the selected publishers, appalled at her shamelessness, sent it back. It was a total wash-out. I immediately leaked rhesus negative blood into the baby’s rhesus positive blood and thought I’d never write again. But the baby survived and so did I.
What I learnt was correct thinking for dreams and schemes. Hope for everything but expect nothing. It is a balanced outlook that goes hand in hand with a sense of proportion.
Guest Post
Posted in: Self Improvement
If you are, or have been, diagnosed with cancer, chances are you will become scared, overwhelmed and perhaps angry. And those are all valid feelings to experience. No one would deny you those feelings either…but what good would it do for your psyche if you continued on a downward spiral of negative thinking? A few years back, my mom was diagnosed with cancer…and at first, she was understandably scared, shocked and confused. This type of thinking got her down and created a “desperate” feeling that she had to do anything to get rid of her cancer. That anything included trying an “experimental” drug that her doctor recommended. The problem with this scenario is that the medicine made her feel worse than the cancer did! It also made her so sick, that in the fall of 2008, she was hospitalized for about a month. Fortunately, she is not taking the medication now, and feels healthier than ever. While she still has the cancer, she doesn’t feel it. The shift, of course, happened when she realized that she had cancer, but the cancer didn’t have her.
Positive thinking seems so simple to many, but can be quite difficult to implement in reality. And no one seems to really understand the connection between body and mind, and how one can use this power to achieve health and well-being. There are many stories of people who were in terrible accidents and doctors did not expect them to live. But, through the miraculous power of the mind, they not only lived, but fully recovered! It is this level of positive thinking that will allow you, not only health and well-being, but wealth, wisdom and happiness.
This is not to say that all you have to do is think positive and all good things will come to you. No…you must put action behind your positive thoughts. When opportunities arise, you will be pulled powerfully into action. This means that if you are consistently creating positive thoughts, and then something comes up that correlates with your positive thoughts, taking action will be an automatic response. For example, if you are sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will land the job of your dreams, and a call comes to offer you that job, you will jump at the chance, right?
Thinking positive is way more powerful than you may realize…why not give it a go now?
Posted in: Featured, Self Improvement
October3
By: RirianProject
Procrastination can steal your dreams and curtail your life long goals and plans. Procrastination is the enemy of success and industry. Consistently and constantly putting things off “until another time” or until you feel like it will only result in missed opportunities and dreams that are never realized. Breaking the hold of procrastination can be extremely different. Unless you are absolutely ready to change, you will not. You won’t be able to simply grow out of procrastination. It won’t improve with time. No, you will have to make a concerted and serious effort if you want to stop being a procrastinator. Below are some tips that can be very effective, when followed, to stop procrastination.
a. Put Your Plans In Writing: Many times people who tend to procrastinate are not organized. They often forget the tasks that they are supposed to complete because they have not them written down. Writing down your plans will keep you from forgetting them and also from putting them off. It is much easier to procrastinate when your “to-do” list is in your head. If it is written down on paper, this helps to hold you accountable.
b. Check off Completed Tasks: There is great satisfaction in being able to check off completed tasks. Many people that procrastinate have difficulties in getting started on a task, but feel great and a real sense of accomplishment when they complete them. Creating a task list gives you the opportunity and the satisfaction of being able to check off the tasks that you have finished. This will help motivate you to complete your to-do lists.
c. Perform Hard Tasks First: Procrastinators are more likely to put off tasks because they are difficult. Because they fell intimidated by large or difficult tasks, they avoid them. By working on and finishing harder activities first, easier tasks become a cinch to complete.
d. Don’t Give Up: Procrastination can be like an addiction. You will undoubtedly slip back into old habits. When you do, don’t be too hard on yourself. Acknowledge that failures are going to be apart of the process. Forgive yourself and move on. You should not be looking for perfection but to have a decreased amount of procrastinating episodes. If you are improving, you are succeeding.
Procrastinating is a terrible habit. If not remedied, it will rob you of your dreams, plans and goals. Stopping procrastination is one of the easiest ways to improve your life. It is one life change that is completely free and up to you. The choice is yours. Stop putting off tasks and actions that could be done today. If you do not, you will look up to see that opportunity and life has passed you by and without you meeting many of the goals that you have set for yourself.
Posted in: Featured, Productivity
