Posts Tagged ‘Focus’

December5

5 Ways to Recharge Yourself

By: Ririan

Admit it or not, at some point you have suffered from the disease to please doing things for everybody and never saying “no.” The problem is you may be neglecting the one person who needs you the most — YOU!

Here are 5 ways to recharge yourself:

1. Lighten up the burden of imposing high standards on yourself. Most often than not, these self-imposed high standard makes us cringe with guilt whenever we commit a self-nurturing act.

We create high expectations that are too difficult to meet, and when things don’t work out the way we planned it, we blame ourselves in the end. The fact is no one is capable of doing everything. We need no one’s

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Posted in: Self Improvement3 comments

October19

Saving Money is a Discipline

By: Ririan

Saving money is discipline, pure and simple. It is a discipline like exercising on a daily basis is, or like sticking to a diet. There are no huge secrets to the art of saving money, no secrets that we will reveal that you have never heard before, no earth shattering new technique, just simple focus, mental conditioning and effort. I know many of you think that you just can’t save any money on what you are making, that you barely get by as is, and I am sure for many of you that may be true, but it probably isn’t. The good news is I’m not trying to sell anything here so I am not going to tell you everyone can save money. In this economy many people have lost their jobs, their cars and homes, for them their problems are more severe then simple tips on how to save money. But 90% of you still have jobs and have an income and for you there is more than hope to save money, there is a solution.

First lets do away with the obvious, “if I just made more money I could save more,” this is completely untrue. “I have done a budget and there is no where else I can cut.” Budgets are an outstanding and needed tool for financial health, but just because you have done a budget doesn’t mean there isn’t room to save more money. As stated earlier, saving money is a discipline and like most disciplines it requires dedication, repetition and certain drills. So, for our purposes I am going to suggest one simple drill to work on and perfect, and it won’t cut into your budget, won’t require you to make more money, and will not require you to give up anything significant in your life.

Let’s start with Day one, month one, you need to do one simple thing. Before you go to bed at night take one dollar from your wallet or purse and put it in a drawer. Everyone has a dollar in their pocket, take your loose change you have lying around if you have to, but find a dollar. Now, repeat this procedure every day for thirty days, one month. This is no problem for 99% of the people who are working, do it every day, remember it’s a discipline. At the end of the month, what do you have? Thirty dollars obviously, I know it doesn’t seem like much but you saved thirty dollars more than you did the previous month.

Next, day one, month two. At the end of the day you need to do one simple thing. Take two dollars from your wallet or purse and stick it in the drawer. If you had a dollar in your pocket last month then you will have two dollars in your pocket, no one even notices two dollars. Repeat this procedure for thirty days, do not deviate, at the end of two months you will have saved ninety dollars, I know, seems like a lot of effort for ninety dollars. But you are working towards a goal, developing a discipline, and saving money.
Next, month three day one, repeat the same procedure only with three dollars, if you did two you can do three. At the end of the month you will have saved one hundred and eighty dollars. Do you see where we are heading?

Now I am not saying this can go on forever, the next month is obviously four dollars. At some point to do this you may have to give up something. For me I gave up starbucks in the morning, I made my coffee at home. For a friend of mine to meet his goal he gave up sodas from the vending machine during his coffee break to make his goal of four dollars a day. But if you save four dollars a day for a year you are saving an additional $1500, and if you could save five dollars a day by just making sure you tuck it away in a drawer every night, you will save close to $2,000 a year. And some of you may be able to save even more than that everyday and that will translates into large savings. Most of us really don’t even think about four, five, six or even more dollars, we spend it without considering it no matter our financial situation. But if you instill this discipline, practice it, take it as far as you can without altering your life, you will find that you have acquired a discipline that can save you thousands of dollars a year. Almost every working person can afford to do this, give it a try and see the results. And remember saving money is a discipline, it takes focus and a goal.

Posted in: Money & Finance2 comments

October17

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it

By: RirianProject

I learned a valuable lesson from the life of a friend of mine, this story takes place about twelve years ago but I use his life as an example to me every day. At the time, he was in his early thirties, married, and extremely successful, at least by most people’s standards. But he wasn’t just married, he was married to an incredibly beautiful woman, an attorney who was top of her class at one of the country’s most prestigious law schools, she was brilliant. And it wasn’t that he was just successful, he was in a high profile business, dealing with celebrities and captains of industry, the people you read about in People magazine. He bought a big house, two Mercedes, and traveled the world. He was the envy of most everyone he knew, had set out with goals when he left college and for all intensive purposes met every single one of them by the time he was thirty three years old. And despite all he had achieved, he was an extremely unhappy person, the more this couple had the more they wanted, the more he made the more his wife spent to “keep up with the Jones’.” He felt on a daily basis that he was, for lack of a better term, emotionally out of breath, he was constantly chasing and never catching. It would be easy at this point to take you right to a cliffhanger, to say this person couldn’t take it anymore, that there is a tragic end, that he abused alcohol or drugs, that he hit rock bottom and turned his life around. But he was really no different than most people, and most people who are unhappy with their lot in life don’t commit suicide, and they don’t abuse alcohol or drugs, most people just continue on the path they are on, never make changes and remain unhappy.

One day my friend decided he didn’t want to be unhappy anymore. He didn’t just walk out on his business, but he knew he didn’t want to be in that business anymore, the pressure was to great, the stress was no longer worth it, so over the next two years he closed it down in an orderly fashion. He knew he was unhappy in his marriage but he just didn’t walk out. He talked to his wife about what didn’t work for him, she didn’t understand how he no longer liked their life, they tried therapy, and although he probably knew it was over from the beginning, he tried until he couldn’t try anymore.

At age thirty five he had given up life as he knew it, his work, his marriage, and set off on a new path, but this isn’t a fairytale. He was not instantly happy, he had spent thirteen years working and achieving everything he hoped for, achieved it all and was miserable, now he faced the hard part, he had to figure out why? Why he was so unhappy. Why his dream job and fairytale marriage did not make him a happy person. And how to move forward with his life.

It took years, but ten years later, he was remarried, still successful in an entirely new business and happy. It took him years to figure out what went wrong and how to try and put his life on the right path.He learned that his mistakes were the same that most people make, chasing things that don’t matter, going after material objects, being concerned what others think of you. He learned material objects are great, success is wonderful and an admirable goal, the respect and admiration and even envy of your peers is a wonderful thing to have, but if it defines who you are, if it is your life’s sole ambition, then unhappiness is sure to follow. Life is a constant journey of understanding who you are and what you need, and it constantly changes. If you are unhappy in your life or simply content, strive for more. Not all change needs to be radical like my friends, most often it is just simple adjustments in life, focusing on the things that are most important like family health, and knowing you are the best person you can be. Its about trying to live as stress free life as possible, and that the things are most important come from the inside.

Posted in: Productivity3 comments

October7

The Importance of Focusing on What You Want

By: Ririan

Have you noticed that if you buy a watch or a new car, you will suddenly see those things everywhere you go? There will be more ads on TV for those things, you will notice other people with them. Everywhere you go, in magazines, on billboards, and other people, will have the same things or the same make, etc. This is not because there is a little man following you around and placing specific adverts everywhere to get your attention. These ads were there all along, it is just that they were not the focus of your attention before.

People who are successful have this ability even without something being brought to their attention like this. They have their goals and objectives in mind all the time and focus on achieving them. Because of this positive mental attitude, they are ready for all the opportunities as they arise and they are prepared. Unsuccessful people probably would not notice the opportunity because they are not completely in tune with what they want. The opportunities just pass them by because they just do not even notice them.

Maintaining this level of focus all the time is very hard. It can take up a lot of mental energy and leave you feeling tired and exhausted. Some people have this ability naturally. They are more goal-oriented and their brain analyzes everything it comes across to see if it is an opportunity that they could possibly use. They even file away things in their brain and if the chance or need arises, they recall that there was a chance they could take. This is increasingly more difficult in today’s world. There are many things around to diffuse our focus and which clamor for our attention.

Focus is just not popular in popular culture today. We watch the news and instead of just the news, they also show the weather and three other bits of news in tickers across the bottom of the screen. We want to be working and playing and living all at the same time. So those people who can master the technique of staying in focus and having their goals constantly at the front of their minds are going to do the best.

These people who are dedicated and committed to their goals, are those who eat, sleep and think about not much besides. In every conversation they have with people, in every news story they read, they have one objective in mind, whether it is to make more money, or to discover something through research, or their art. And these are exactly the people who seem to be luckier than others because they suddenly find a rich sponsor, or just the right materials they need, or a mote of brilliance.

It is not that they are luckier. They are just more alert to opportunities and know that every new encounter is not a problem but a possible solution to something. Try it in your own life. Imagine that you have a highly important goal in life and look out for chances in your day to day life which could help you to achieve that goal. Explore things with an open mind and you might just get the luck to achieve your goals too.

Posted in: Self Improvement5 comments

September17

Busting Stress through Breathing Techniques and Meditation

By: Ririan

Busting Stress through Breathing Techniques and MeditationThe problem of stress has been around for as long as humanity’s existence and has been the culprit to most health issues – both minor and fatal. Incidentally, one very effective way to combat stress has always been around and handy, and this comes in the form of breathing.

Breathing techniques help calm both mind and body providing for total peace and relaxation, and these techniques make up the core of the stress-busting system we all know as meditation. Devoid of any religious or spiritual bias, meditation gets rid of both stress and fits of anxiety in a most natural manner and results in a perfectly balanced state of mind, body and spirit.

The initial step in going through the process of meditation is to make sure you get yourself a quiet place that is free from distractions. Next among your concerns will have to do with how you position yourself when meditating. Most practitioners have gotten used to the lotus position where you have your legs crossed while seated, with back straightened and shoulders even. If this works for you, then by all means use it.

Any alternative positions would be fine for as long as you keep your spine straight for the entire duration of your meditation. This way, internal circulation is made possible and deep and slow breathing comes easier. Relaxation is encouraged as a result.

As for getting to a relaxed state, you may tweak both your breathing and flow of thoughts to achieve this. For instance, while eyes closed you may focus on parts of your body one at a time, relaxing them until they feel totally limp before proceeding to the next body part. This method works even better when accompanied with slow, effortless deep breathing, at counts of four when you inhale and counts of eight when exhaling. Sticking to this rhythm helps facilitate getting to a relaxed, meditative state.

What’s good about meditation is that there’s no such thing as overdoing it. Because you wouldn’t need any gear, equipment or medicine for it, you can always meditate as often as you need or wish to. You can start handling your stress while not having to worry about side effects and similar things you could otherwise get when you pop pills. Stress and anxiety are usually gone with just 60 seconds of meditation, although going through it for about half an hour should be most beneficial.

Meditation as a potent and natural form of stress relief has been thoroughly studied and much have been documented about its effectiveness. It is not uncommon to hear of all those harmful biochemical byproducts of stress hitting low levels, if not altogether vanishing, through meditation. With brain waves getting fine-tuned to optimally relaxed levels, both heart rate and blood pressure are reduced and stabilized. No artificial stress-busting medication anywhere can produce positive results like meditation does without causing long-standing damage to the body.

Given all the favorable research results and testimonials on both breathing techniques and meditation, it is not surprising to hear of more and more people employing these methods to make their daily lives always relaxed and stress-free.

Posted in: Self Improvement3 comments

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