Completing Cycles

I’m a bit of a positive newsletter junkie and Jack Canfield is one of my favourites.  One thing I’ll be writing about in the future is how anxiety disorders and other emotional problems are nothing more than incomplete emotional cycles we need to complete in order to heal.

It’s not mentioned here but Mr Canfield does an excellent line in journal management skills – journaling can be an effective element of your cycle-completion-system as it helps both in releasing emotional energy and in transferring the ‘data’ involved in an emotional release so it ends up making sense in our logical minds.

I’ll be writing much more about ‘cycle completion’ in the future, in the mean time I hope you enjoy his article:

The Cycle of Completion: Making Way for Success
by Jack Canfield

Do you live in a state of mental and physical clutter? Do you have a bunch of unfinished business lurking around every corner?

Incomplete projects, unfinished business, and piles of cluttered messes can weigh you down and take away from the energy you have to move forward toward your goals.

When you don't complete tasks, you can't be fully prepared to move into the present, let alone your new future.

When your brain is keeping track of all the unfinished business you still have at hand, you simply can't be effective in embracing new tasks that are in line with your vision.

Old incompletes can show up in your life in lots of different ways...  like not having clarity, procrastination, emotional energy blocks and even illness. Blocked energy is wasted, and a build up of that energy can really leave you stymied.

Throw-out all the clutter and FEEL how much easier it is to think!

Make a list of areas in your life (both personal and professional) where you have incompletes and messes, then develop a plan to deal with them once and for all. Fix and organize the things that annoy you.

Take your final steps in bringing closure to outstanding projects.

Make that difficult phone call. Delegate time-wasting tasks that you've let build up.  Some incompletions come from simply not having adequate systems, knowledge, or expertise for handling these tasks. Other incompletions pile up because of bad work habits.

Get into completion consciousness by continually asking yourself...What does it take to actually get this task completed?

Only then can you begin to consciously take that next step of filing completed documents, mailing in the forms required, or reporting back to your boss that the project has been completed.

The truth is that 20 things completed have more power than 50 things that are half-way completed.

Finishing writing a book, for instance, that can go out and influence the world is better than 13 books you’re in the process of writing.

When you free yourself from the mental burden of incompletes and messes, you'll be AMAZED at how quickly the things you do want in life arrive.

Another area where you'll find incompletes in your life is in your emotions. Are you holding on to old hurts, resentments, and pain? Just like the physical clutter and incompletes, your energy is being drained by holding on to and reliving past pain and anger.

Remember, you'll attract whatever feelings you're experiencing. So, if you're stuck in revengeful thinking and angered in muck, you can't possibly be directing energy toward a positive future. You need to let go of the past in order to embrace the future. Letting go involves forgiveness and moving on.

By forgiving you aren't releasing the other person from their transgression as much as you're freeing yourself from their transgression. You don't have to condone their behavior, trust them, or even maintain a relationship with them. However, you DO have to free yourself from the anger, from the pain, and from the resentment once and for all!

When learning to forgive, make sure to complete the cycle.

Acknowledge your anger, your pain, and your fear. But also own up to any part you've played in allowing it to happen or continue. Make sure to express whatever it was that you wanted from that person, and then see the whole event from the other's point of view. Allow yourself to wonder what that person was going through and what kind of needs he/she was trying to fulfill at the time.

Finally, let go and move on. Every time you go through this process you're learning how to avoid letting it happen again!

I'll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see if you can discover ways to immediately implement what you learned from today's message.

(For more insight on this subject, read Chapter 28 titled
Clean Up Your Messes and Incompletes in The Success Principles)

© 2010 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

Michael Neill Post - Practicing Your Life

They say it takes 1000 hours of practice before you achieve competence in a new skill.

It took me 72 weeks at 3 hours a day for 5 days a week to become a good touch-typist and about the same time to get to a point I could do shorthand at 100 words per minute (I can't do that now, by the way).

It took me 3 years of daily practice, 7 days a week, to get rid of multiple obsessions; panic attacks; phobias and depression (using the same exposure therapy approach for all of them in order to retrain my unconscious) and that was after spending several years figuring out what didn't work for me as opposed to what might.  I say 'might' because every time I came to deal with the next trapped emotional response I wasn't sure I could succeed at getting rid of it.  Every single response was new - and by the end of the process I'd removed about 43 of them.  That's a lot of practice.  Step by step I would keep taking 'practice risks' and step by step I would find I could do it if I was willing to work on it day after day.  It was boring; it was painful; but unfortunately it was the only thing that worked and I really wanted it to work.

I didn't practice these things for this period of time and then suddenly acquire the skills involved in one sudden burst - I got better in tiny daily increments.  These increments were so small I had to have a long term counsellor point them out to me - which is one reason I recommend keeping a journal to mindmap in when it comes to emotional stuff; it's too easy to think 'I still don't feel right!' when really you need to be remembering how you used to feel and relate to the difference.  You need to pat yourself on the back for every small step.

No matter what we choose to do with our lives this is how it is so we'd better make sure we start by choosing something we really need to do and for the right reasons.  This may sound like common sense but how often do we take a shortcut to something and discover we're in a place we can't cope with because we didn't take a look at the nuts and bolts of a thing before we just went for the goal?  We haven't developed the underlying skills required to keep us where we are and we know it.

Confidence comes from knowing you can have bad times but you have the ability to get back up there - and this comes from being willing to endure the long journey of 'practice'. Hope you enjoy the post from Michael below:

Practicing Your Life

Momma always said, 'Stupid is as stupid does. - Tom Hanks, in Forrest Gump

Nothing hampers our spiritual growth more than the supposition that if we haven't already attained our goals for our hearts, minds, and bodies, we will need a giant leap to reach them. Practice, on the other hand, is very democratic: It works for any of us, no matter where we start. Incremental transformation is the most reliable, lasting, and discrimination-free way we've found of attaining any level of enlightenment.

If 'stupid is as stupid does', then wisdom is as wisdom does. And "practicing your life" is as simple as taking a little bit of time each day to practice. Remaining calm in the most stressful situation may be out of your reach today, but spending five minutes in calm silence before throwing yourself into the fray is not. Loving kindness is an exacting virtue to embody all at once, but like our friend the edible elephant, it's easily integrated one loving thought at a time.

Sages like the Dalai Lama and Krishnamurti seemingly came into this lifetime to be enlightened teachers. Some others, like Eckhart Tolle, have apparently attained self-realization through an instantaneous moment of ego-dissolution. For the rest of us, mere mortals and housholders as we are, daily practice is our best bet for attaining the peace, joy, and higher awareness that are available in every moment.

As it happens, both Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa put themselves in this third category. Gandhi actually said:

"I claim to be no more than an average man with below average capabilities.
I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have
if he or she would put forth the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith."

To put it simply, whatever we do, we get better at. Therefore, the most important actions we can take for our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being are simple, daily practices, from brushing your teeth to random acts of love and senseless kindness.

Would a month in the Himalayas at the feet of a master or a year serving soup to refugees do you a world of good? We have no doubt it would. But until then, start where you are!

Today's Experiment:

1. Choose a quality or trait you would like to cultivate in your own life.

Examples:
love, peace, patience, focus, balance, faith, hope, etc.

2. What could you do each day (even if it's just for a few minutes a day) to begin real-izing (making real) that quality or trait in your own life?

Examples:
Loving kindness - I could start (and/or end) my day with a heart meditation, perform 5 deliberate acts of random kindness each day, make a point of telling each member of my family I love them at least once a day, etc.

Focus - I could practice counting up in my mind from 1 (2, 3, etc.) and notice how high I get before I get distracted, then return to 1 and begin again

Confidence - I could spend a few minutes each day remembering times I've felt confident and 'stepping back in to them' so I see what I saw, hear what I heard, and feel what I felt. I could take 5 minutes a day to 'act as if' I was a confident person, standing the way I would stand, moving the way I would move, and speaking the way I would speak if I was already confident.

Bonus Tip -
There are two simple tests to check if your practice is going to make a real difference in your life or is going to remain in the category of "just another good idea".

1. At any moment during the day, a friend could ask you if you'd done it yet and you could answer with an unequivocal 'yes' or 'no'.

2. If you get to the end of the day and haven't done it yet, you still could (not that you necessarily always will... :-)

Have fun, learn heaps, and make your life your practice!

Michael

To get more daily tips from Michael please click this link: http://www.supercoach.com/

Regards - Carl

Mindmapping to Balance the Left and Right Brain

Mindmapping is an approach that helps in exploring new ideas; recording your life experiences and working through emotional issues. As often as I can I swing open my A4 journal to draw an A3 sized mindmap across two pages. I start with a central point (such as the date) and then link off from it on everything I've done that day.

At the bottom of this post there a video on iMindmap from Tony Buzan (I've never used this software but would love to); to the left there's a sample mindmap I produced using Inspiration 8; these are paid software packages but you can get free, if not quite so colourful, mindmapping software. I've put a link to a list of free software at the bottom of the post.



My approach to mapping is to write one word or a short sentence (or a quick sketch) and then revisit the map putting in little 'tick boxes' to tick when an action has to be performed.

I record feelings, images, scenarios, actions.  The initial steps use my right brain and then I move over to left brain activities.

I transfer the actions to a small notebook and tick off completed actions through the working day - this is a left brain process.

If you're right brain dominant (which I am) leading a left-brain life can leave you feeling unfulfilled and on a treadmill of to-do's - but those to-do's still need to be done!

You can increase your Mind Power using mindmapping to bring your left and right brain thinking together. Mindmapping is particularly useful when you want to record the outcomes and insights achieved during intense emotional work (exposure therapy, for example, produces overwhelming sensations that 'hijack' the thinking brain - mindmapping allows you to record what you learn experientially without asking you to 'pull yourself together' in order to engage the left/logical mind).

Hope you enjoy the following article from Dr. Vj Mariaraj:

How to Increase Your Mind Power by being a Whole-brain Thinker Using the Technique of Mind Mapping
By Vj Mariara

The term ‘ambidexterity’ means being adept in using both right and left hand. It is a rare inborn trait but it can be learned. The versatility displayed in the use of each hand determines a person’s ambidexterity. Michelangelo, Leonardo Vinci, Einstein, Fleming, Harry Truman, etc., were all ambidextrous. In modern times, you will find many, who were originally left-handed but in the course of their childhood, acquired right-handed habits (at school or home) and thus became ambidextrous.

Along the same lines, we could say we are being ambidextrous when we are multi-tasking – talking over the phone and taking notes or riding a bike, etc. The difference being that instead of our hands, we are using both our right and left hemispheres to successfully juggle our tasks. We have all heard about some people being ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’. In essence it means that the person displays more ‘right-brain’ or ‘left-brain’ oriented skills, although we are all the time integrating both hemispheres in our daily activities.

‘Right’ brain qualities involve imagination, risk taking, artistic abilities, highly philosophical, creative, etc. ‘Left’ brain qualities, on the other hand, are practical, conformist, seek order, have good comprehension skills, etc. Thus ‘right-brain’ people are said to think subjectively, holistically and have strong intuition, while ‘left-brain’ people tend to be more logical, analytical and highly rational. It is found that more often, left-brain thinkers are engineers and scientists, while right-brain thinkers end up being artists and poets.

How and why is it that some people are more adept at certain kind of thought patterns than others? The fact is that while we may inherit certain mental traits and capacities, how we use our mind is what determines our mental prowess. As children we are innately right-brained, displaying great creativity, imagination, spontaneity, open-mindedness and enthusiasm but ironically, as we grow, social, cultural and racial influences constrain these natural traits.

The most comforting thought however is that we can greatly improve our mental abilities by choosing to change our thoughts and applying our mind in a particular direction. Thus if a person is a known conformist, who always walks down the beaten path, he could deliberately try new things, learn to take risks and think imaginatively.

When we combine the power of the two hemispheres, we will be working at our full potential. Ambidextrous mind or whole brain thinking - as it is also known - enhances our brain functions and injects a heightened level of awareness. To foster an ambidextrous mindset, we can work on right-brain learning activities by including patterning, metaphors, analogies, role-playing, visuals, and movement into reading, calculation, and analytical activities. Conscious effort to incorporate left and right brain activities, human consciousness studies, reflective thinking and meditation are excellent means to achieve an ambidextrous mind.

One easy technique that helps in such whole-brain thinking process is Mind Mapping. It aligns the mind to the diffusion of thought and paves way for streaming thoughts and linking new associations. Association essentially is finding the links in logic and ideas, and when these are explored in full, it leads to insight, imagination and creativity.

If we look at great discoveries, we will find the application or association of principle (s) to another. Pertinently, colors, pictures, symbols, etc., highly enhance our learning process as they invoke vividness, clarity of perception and easy dissemination. Mind Mapping technique employs all these aspects and therein lies its power and dynamism. When learning and understanding is done using the Mind Map technique, it naturally becomes a highly effective and powerful way of gaining knowledge. It sure is an ideal way for fostering an ambidextrous or whole brain thinking culture.

Dr. Vj Mariaraj is a Mind Map enthusiast and has been using Mind Maps for the past twelve years. He has created over 5650 Mind Maps. To learn more about mind mapping and to download a free Mind map of a Business Book, send an email to freemindmap@aweber.com

Article Source: Vj Mariara
How to Increase Your Mind Power by being a Whole Brain Thinker Using the Technique of Mind Mapping

My favourite mindmapping software is Inspiration 8, which I've used to produce some of the work on this blog. The main site is here but you can buy Inspiration relatively cheaply on both Amazon and Ebay (just type 'Inspiration software' into the search boxes on the right). I started with version 6 and just kept buying the next upgrade off these sites.

There are also some very good free mindmapping software programmes; here's a list from Wikipedia.

Tony Buzan's iMindMap Mind Mapping Software

Whilst many products have claimed to allow you to Mind Map on a computer, none have managed to fully duplicate Tony's world renown process. Until now that is! iMindMap™ gives you the infinite visual variety, portability, freedom, brain friendliness and effectiveness of traditional highly proven Mind Mapping techniques. Watch our free videos on computer based mind mapping to find out more.

How do you use mindmapping? Please leave a comment.

Regards - Carl

Tim Kitchen poem - Song for the Redundant Man

A Better Way (Song for The Redundant Man)

Now they don’t want me, now they don’t care
Might just as well go back to bed, up those wooden stairs.
They took it all away from me, everything I knew
Now it’s all gone and there’s nothing I can do.
I wondered if it would happen, ever happen to me
And now that it has, the future’s hard to see.
There has to be a reason, why it’s me this time,
Don’t think I want to know; just want to save my mind.
Maybe there’s a better way, a better way to be,
Maybe it’s out there waiting, waiting there for me.
Got to try to find it, got to take the time,
See if I can find a way, to make the future mine.

Life is very different now, with no place to go
Some days I’m fine, other times I’m low.
My thoughts remind me, of what I left behind
On a sad and lonely day, which often comes to mind.
But I must take a look, at what’s before me now
To see if I can try, to start again somehow.
Maybe follow a dream, is something I should do
And find somewhere else to be, where I can see it through.
Maybe there’s a better way, a better way to be
Maybe it’s out there waiting, waiting there for me.
Got to try to find it, got to take the time
See if I can find a way, to make the future mine.

Tim Kitchen (Tim's just self-published a book of poetry you can buy from Lulu here)

Jack Canfield tells you to Appreciate Yourself

I recently listened to two free mp3 recordings from Jack Canfield on how to keep a journal and lo and behold I'm now keeping a journal (and receiving more good free stuff and offers from Jack Canfield).   Just got the article on 'appreciating yourself' below from him.  What I like about Jack's stuff is the why he teaches you to focus on the small stuff - I know we had that 'don't sweat the small stuff' approach - which is useful for some issues - but I have to say I get richer and better experiences when I stop and explore the events of the day and week when I follow Jack Canfield's advice.

Hope you enjoy his article - appreciate yourself!

Acknowledge and Appreciate Yourself by Jack Canfield

Pop Quiz: When was the last time you acknowledged and appreciated yourself?

That’s right: YOU. Not your spouse, not your children, not your boss, co-workers or friends. Just YOU!

Seriously, think about it!

And if it’s been too long since your last pat on the back, then I want you to take the time right now to acknowledge and appreciate yourself for everything you've accomplished today, throughout the year, and in life.

Ask yourself: How many times have you succeeded in the past month? The past year? The past 10 years? Are you able to recall your successes as easily as your failures and missteps?

This is not a selfish or egotistical act in the least. By taking the time to stop and appreciate who you are and what you’ve achieved—and perhaps learned through a few mistakes, stumbles and losses—you actually can enhance everything about you!

Self-acknowledgment and appreciation are what give you the insights and awareness to move forward toward higher goals and accomplishments.

In working with top leaders and thought philosophers of our time, I will tell you that among their secrets of success is a regular practice of acknowledging and appreciating what they have.It can offer an oracle into the future because it not only tells you where you are but it also helps clarify where you want to go in life. Whatever that might be. The road then becomes easier to navigate—easier to see from the distance and walk confidently step by step.

Don’t forget to think about both big and little accomplishments. Many people under-appreciate the minor things they do successfully every day . And yet they can recall in detail all the times they have failed or made mistakes. That's because the brain remembers events more easily when they are accompanied by strong emotions.

For example, you might vividly recall a graduation, losing 10 pounds, having a child, winning an award, or landing a highly sought after position. But see if you can identify just as many minor, more subtle successes, such as your intimate conversation with your spouse last night, the re-connection you established with an estranged friend last month, the quality time you were able to spend with your children today, how you checked off all your list of To-Dos for the weekend, how you learned a new task at work, or got your kid to school on time.

These may seem like minor acts in the grand scheme of life, but they are what make us feel whole, happy, and accomplished along the journey toward those larger, and much more deeply satisfying moments.

Acknowledging your mistakes also has it pluses, but we often don’t have trouble recalling or mulling over those.

The point is, if you don't acknowledge your successes the same way you acknowledge your mistakes, you're sure to have a memory full of blunders. And a mind stuffed with negative chatter about the gaffes of life won’t fuel your energy, nor your confidence, creativity, and motivation to keep going.

Consider this, too: if you only remember the mistakes and failures, you won't be as ready to take risks that will lead to your successes. Build your self-esteem by recalling all the ways you have succeeded and your brain will be filled with images of you making your achievements happen again and again.

Give yourself permission to toot your own horn and don’t wait for anyone to praise you. Here are two suggestions:

1.) Record Your Personal History. Take time to write your achievements down. Start when you were very young and think of all your achievements since then. Don't just pick the major milestones; write down all the things you take for granted.

For example, if you list your college degree, write your appreciation for having the opportunity to go to college and forge friendships that will last a lifetime.

You can also create a log of success every day and review it when you are faced with a new challenge. By writing it all down daily, you're securing it in your long-term memory and it will become a part of what makes you tick. It can even become a source of positive reminders and affirmations for when you’re feeling down, as well as a personal record of you that becomes your legacy.

2.) Celebrate Yourself with Mementos. Surround yourself with reminders of your successes. Put up pictures, articles, trophies, awards and other pieces that bring your attention to your success. Make your environment speak to you about your achievements. Be proud of them!

By the way, showing appreciation for yourself and accomplishments has many rewards that go far beyond boosting your own self-confidence.

Appreciating yourself creates a cascading affect—your heightened confidence will spill over into other aspects of your life. Watch what happens when you gain that special trust in yourself. You’ll attract opportunities, experience more fulfilling relationships, and have no trouble reaching loftier goals.

Remember, people like to be around those who have a healthy self-esteem and who are achieving their goals. Commit to acknowledging your achievements and your brain will begin to tell you the truth: that you can do anything!

© 2009 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

I've put Jack's web address exactly as it should be but when I tried to go to his site I got a message saying 'the site is too busy' (well there's a surprise, eh?).  Let me know if you have any problems.

Do you have problems appreciating yourself in the way Jack suggests?  Leave a comment below and we'll chat about it.

Regards - Carl

Michael Neill on Pushing Birds Out of Nests

How wide have you spread your wings this week?  Prepare for flight.

Michael Neill On Catching Birds and Flying Free

Click the banner below to go to Michael's site.  Don't worry; I don't think he really pushes people off things - I think he shows you how to throw yourself off and scream 'wheee' at the same time.

Afflink

Seth does an exposure therapy session and talks about setbacks

Seth goes through his daily exposure therapy routine here (which involves challenging himself to drive further and further away from home).

There are several things to notice:

Acting Like an Expert

No-one is as expert in an anxiety disorder as the person who has it - if you have one you have to start to realise that.  Do you notice how Seth reports on his experience as though he's sitting on the outside of it rather than as a subjective victim?  This is the objective viewpoint at work and he is using his camera to enhance the affect.

If you want to achieve something in life you have to start acting and behaving as though you already have.  This perspective changes the way you function at an unconscious level.  Nothing improves the motivation to learn something better than wanting to teach it to help others; even if you haven't quite learned the lessons fully yourself yet.

Seth has a really good grasp of the process - he's just got to get through it is all.  With lot's of positive self-talk and fierce disciplined determination he will do.



Something else Seth spoke about was 'anticipatory anxiety'.  There are three main types of anxiety involved in this work:

• anticipatory


• actual response


• after-shocks (this stage of the response tends to be accompanied by a sense of helplessness and despondency).

There is a way of seeing all three of these as just one stream of energy which helps you stop thinking about 'which type of fear is it?'  Imagine you have a river of negative energy stored in your body related to the situation you fear; as you approach the situation to which the energy is connected you start opening up and allowing the river through; in direct exposure mode you're letting the full flowing river go by without trying to halt in; in after-shock there's still a period where the emotional energy dregs are still seeping through.  If you picture yourself as releasing a portion of the store of trapped energy every time you do this it helps to make it a more positive experience.

In the next video Seth talks about another experience that all recovering anxiety sufferers go through: setbacks

Dealing with and overcoming anxiety 53 - A setback

Please leave any thoughts, arguments or advice below.

Regards - Carl

Overcome the Naysayer's

'They'll never change' is one of the most untrue statements we can make about other people - the truth is 'they'll' change (and so will we) whether they want to or not because those who don't change under their own steam get changed by life events around them regardless.

People sometimes say this to others in a bid to keep them 'categorised and controlled'; at other times it's simply a cynic who sees a half-glass-empty world (cynics are not necessarily always a bad thing to have around, to be honest, I'll talk about why in a later post) - but more often than not it's because we don't want someone else to change because we don't want to be changed by them (or shown up to be the kind of person who doesn't cope well with change).

So when you start bouncing around with energy in regard to a new idea prepare to get negative feedback on that enthusiasm - and it'll be usually labelled as 'common sense'.

Here's a nice article about what to do when this starts from Jason and Rebecca Osborn:

Success - How To Overcome The Naysayer’s

By Jason Osborn

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

Sometimes the closest people to you are the ones that stop you form achieving greatness in your life. You go to them, full of excitement, to tell them all the great things that you want to do in life. Instead of hearing the support and encouragement from your friends and family, you hear words of doubt and fear.

They may not be saying these things to purposely hurt or discourage you, but they don’t want you to fail or get hurt. So, to stop you from getting hurt down the road they try to stop you at the beginning.

Still, others may try to tell you why it can’t be done and how there are many obstacles in the way that can’t be moved. They look at who you are currently and don’t see the greatness that’s hidden on the inside.

Don’t let these people stop you from reaching your greatness. Here are 4 ways to overcome the naysayer’s.

1. Protect Your Dream.

Whenever you have a burning desire to do something great in life, it’s very hard to not tell everyone you know. You just assume that everyone will be just as excited about it as you are. Minimize the amount of naysayer’s in your life by not telling everyone. You will probably still have people who are negative, but a few naysayers’ are better than a ton of them.

2. Surround Yourself With Greatness.

If you want to do great things in life you need to be around others that have done great things. I’m sure you have heard the saying ‘Success breeds success’. If you are always around people who have never accomplished anything, and never want to accomplish anything great, it will be hard for you to do it yourself. Successful people will help you understand how to overcome the obstacles that you will face. Which leads me to the next point.

3. Get A Coach Or A Mentor.

If a professional sports team wants to be the best, they hire a coach to help get them there. If they don’t have a coach that can encourage them, train them, guide them, and give them a good kick in the backside when needed, they will never become a great team. Find someone that has done something similar to what you want to do and have them mentor you. Keep this in mind, they are probably very busy and may not have any interest in coaching or training anyone. Don’t let that stop you. If they can’t or won’t, keep looking until you find someone who will. Also, bring something to the table for them as well. You need to give to get.

4. Your Past Doesn’t Dictate Your Future.

You may not have a successful life but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful future. Naysayer’s will always try to remind you of your past failures or inadequacies. Keep improving yourself and keep growing. Learn from your past but don’t let it stop you from having a great future. If there is something that you need to change in your life in order to achieve success, then change it. You are the deciding factor on how great your life is going to be. DON’T let your past dictate your future.

If you want to do something great with your life, there will always be someone there to tell you that it can’t be done. Practice these four keys and you will be able to overcome the naysayer’s.

Source: www.isnare.com

Have you got a technique for dealing with the naysayers? Please leave a comment below for others to read.  Here's a link to one of my favourite books for folks who are 'stuck in place' by all that negativity glue around them: