Self Improvement Information

The very first thing you should do, every morning, is pray for Jesus to be right by your side. In the Bible, Jesus said that “without me ye can do nothing”.

If we are going to be successful in life, it is Jesus that we need. We need His light, His life, His Spirit–and we need it continually. We need Him every hour.

That’s why every morning, just as the sun peaks over the horizon and starts to shed the warmth of its light on the landscape, we must ask for the Sun of Righteousness to shine in the chambers of our minds and hearts, lighting our lives with the presence of Jesus. Even one moment without Jesus is one moment too much. The enemy is well aware when we try to fight life’s battles on our own, and he is there, ready to fill our minds with doubt and evil suggestions. The devil wants us to fall away from our steadfastness, but it is God’s desire that moment by moment, our hearts will abide in Him.

Jesus wants you to be filled with His goodness, so that you can be a representative to the world of the wonderful grace and character of God. He has the power to set you free from sin. He doesn’t want people to say they are Christians, and then not make use of the marvelous grace that can improve and perfect their characters. Jesus wants us to be set free from the bonds of sin. When we continue to wallow in bad habits, not taking advantage of the power so freely offered, we disappoint Heaven and grieve our divine Redeemer.

If you find yourself in such a condition–don’t give up! Prayer and faith can do for you what no power on earth can accomplish.

As you travel the journey of life, you will seldom be placed in the same position twice. There will always be new challenges, new trials to pass through, where past experience alone is not a sufficient guide. The only way to keep our feet on the straight and narrow path is to walk in the light of God’s presence. If you ask for His help, you can be sure that Jesus will always be by your side. But you must ask for His presence and companionship–and ask for it every morning. For it is part of God’s great plant to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, blessings that He would not give if we didn’t ask. Which is why you should be on your knees, praying first thing every morning.

By Dwight Hall, President of Remnant Publications. Adapted from the writings of the well-known 19th century Christian author remnantpublications.com/ Ellen G. White, My Life Today page 15.

Do you want to achieve your dreams in life and fulfill your life experience? Do you want to be successful in your endeavors, sports, career and family? Do you want more out of life? If so there is only one person you need to ask. So, I tell you what, go over to your mirror and look in it.

Now, look into the eyes of the image and say; I Can Make Your Dreams Come True, but You are not listening to me! Then shake your fist at the mirror and say; Listen! I can do this and then go out and get it done. Personally, you should not be allowed any more excuses or blame another soul. Dig deep, do what it takes and work to achieve your goals and dreams. Deal?

You know, I Can Make Your Dreams Come True, but You are not listening to me! Who is me? I am you. Listen to yourself and tell yourself that you can do it and promise yourself to continue the studies, workouts or training you need to achieve your dreams, aspirations and goals.

You see there is nothing you cannot do, once you put your mind to it and believe it. As they say you must believe to achieve and you know I am right on that. So, please consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Having trundled around this place we call earth for threescore plus years means I grew up in an era when men were not allowed to show any emotion. Men were to be tough, don’t cry, real men don’t cry, etc. Men are the strong the protectors, the breadwinner and warrior and the only emotion allowed is anger. Is it any wonder this world is messed up.

Now there is nothing wrong with being a strong protector, the breadwinner or even the warrior if you are protecting your loved ones. Being a strong shoulder to lean on is a good thing. Where did we ever get the idea that to be all of these things we couldn’t have emotions? If a man cried there must be something wrong with him, he was a sissy, (that was the term used in my youth) he was weak, and or he was effeminate. His peers would shun him.

So if a man cries is he weak? I don’t think so; I think he is just honest with himself. Maybe a better word would be he is strong enough. He is strong enough not to worry that someone will see him cry and yet open enough to let his emotions flow.

Crying can be for sorrow or for joy so why is it considered a weakness. Crying because some event just makes you happy, means your weak? I think we live in a warped world where reality has been pushed aside for something more programmed. That’s what all of these taboo’s are, just programmed responses that we have been taught, that we are suppose obey.

Whoever started this nonsense probably knew that if they could get us to accept this programming that we would never be able to find the spirit within us. That is the fear all controllers have, that we might wake up.

Lets go back to the original question, why is it wrong for a man to cry? I don’t consider a man whining about something to be in the category of crying. I mean for a man to cry because something makes him happy or sad. If we are not allowed to show our true emotions how can we ever know who we are?

I think that’s the real problem, a lot of us are afraid to find out who we really are. That is the first problem we have to overcome, until we decide we want to know ourselves and search for the truth, we’ll never find it. The truth can’t be found by going to some church, psychiatrist or any other guru. The real truth has to be found within yourself, when you start from there you might start to discover the truth. This is not to say that you should ignore the above mentioned, but most of them will be prejudice by their own beliefs. So the real truth has to be found with research on your own and an honest desire to find the truth. Be willing to open yourself up to things that might appear a little strange to you. Sometimes it might even go against all that you have believed in the past. That doesn’t mean you have to believe it, just have an open mind. A word of warning, you might just find yourself saying a little bit in the future, that is so real.

We have been programmed into fear. We fear we might be weak, might not have enough money, or we may lose our job. Fear is a terrible motivator but that is what most of us operate on. It’s like a big noose around our neck. As long as we don’t make any sudden or strange moves everything is ok. Start questioning the status quo and that noose gets a little tighter. Now here’s a novel idea, how about just taking that noose off. Lets start finding out who and what we are. We get back what we put out, so lets stop putting out the fear. Careful if you’re a male, you might find yourself crying, maybe just for the joy of it.

Charlie

Charlie Phillips has been in construction, everything from labor, carpenter, heavy equipment operator and contractor. Owned and operated his own truck over forty-eight states and three provinces in Canada. He doesn’t have much in the way of formal education in regards to writing just a lot of life experiences.

Have you ever wondered why some people who, despite being highly intelligent, keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Have you wondered why it seems when you end a relationship you seem to attract the same type of person to the next relationship resulting in the same negative result.

We learn through repetition so these patterns that repeat themselves in our lives reveal much more information about us than we can imagine. Merely understanding the “why” of things can effect positive changes. The intent of this information is to offer a spiritual perspective to the “whys” of repeated behavioral patterns.

Overlight is a spiritual psychology healing modality that recognizes that we are the creators of our own reality and therefore have the ability to heal ourselves. An Overlight facilitator examines the “whys” of events in your life and creates a space for you to feel comfortable enough to recognize these tendencies and to change your perspective on them from negative to positive. This change is the path to healing of not just your spirit, but your mind and most importantly your body.

Overlight is just one of many new healing modalities. More people are also looking at dis-ease from a different perspective. Healers are looking at things from a holistic overview, not just treating the result of the imbalances but getting to the inner root of the condition. It’s a belief that everything that happens to us is of our creation and is created for a higher purpose than what, on the surface it seems.

How many of us can look back at a time of chaos or dis-ease in our life and see some positive results that occur from them? ” Best thing that ever happened to me” is common to hear people say although rare to hear at the time the events were happening. There is a reason for all things that happen and Overlight just recognizes this and shines this “light over” the event to help people examine it in a different light.

The Overlight process is designed to look at dis-ease, be it mental or physical, from the knowledge that if one can attain a shift or change in the viewing of the so called “negative event” than from that new position healing can occur. Which will then ripple down through the whole being of your body, mind and spirit

Spiritual health is a broad term but one that I believe will be examined closer now and in the years to come. Balance of the body, mind and spirit is the key to sustained health. Overlight is a process that addresses the spiritual balance. Going to the source to get the answers to the questions of why it is happening and then changing the view, I believe, will unlock the door to enduring, long-lasting health in your life.

Seth Garrison is a certified Overlight Facilitator and creator of the energy healing system called “Back to Perfection”. Overlight is a spiritual psychology that is designed to identify the root source of their dis-ease, be it mental or physical, and create a space for them to feel comfortable enough to heal themselves. More topics from Seth can be found at thesourceishere.com thesourceishere.com

Creativity has a thousand different guises and expressions. Indeed, each of us who create may have any number of different ways of creating and communicating with the world through our creative abilities and works.

But how many of these are truly the things we WANT to create?

How much of our creative energy is invested in those projects we burn with passion for and yearn to produce, the projects that when we’re in the midst of creating feel rewarding, exciting and fulfilling like nothing else?

Often we may appear to be very productive on the surface and be churning out new work apparently effortlessly and without breaking a sweat.

So this makes us highly creative. Doesn’t it?

Well, yes in one sense.

If we measure how creative someone is by the volume of their output then someone who writes 6 novels a year or records an album every 3 months, is very creative.

But consider also the quality of this output.

And not even the quality as measured by the outside world, but the quality of the experience to the artist who created it, the value and benefit that creating these works gave them.

At one end of the spectrum there may be, for example, an artist who creates one new piece of work every 4 years, yet each day of those 4 years, each moment invested in their project, was rewarding, enjoyable and entirely necessary for the creator.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there may be an artist who creates something new every day, generating new work like a perpetual motion conveyer belt.

Regardless of the opinions of the wider world, their work may be equally as rewarding for them as the artist who produces something every 4 years. Or it may not.

Only the artists themselves know what drives them to create and who they’re really creating for.

Consider this example:

Imagine you wrote a novel that you found personally incredibly satisfying to write.

It then got picked up by a major publishing house, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and received great acclaim.

Fantastic.

Naturally, your publishers, and the fans of your work demand more, a sequel or follow up to the first novel.

You oblige and write the second book, though it was more difficult than the first and the pressure was completely different.

5 years and 5 novels down the road, the enjoyment you’re getting from writing is virtually non-existent. You feel highly stressed and under constant pressure to deliver.

The motivating and highly personal reasons that helped you write your first book have all but evaporated.

When you began you had dozens of ideas for books, each very different to one other, and each exciting and challenging for you to write. Now, instead, you find each novel you produce is a virtually photocopy of the previous one. The challenge, the thrill, the purpose and the point of writing, have all but disappeared.

Put simply, you’re not creating for yourself anymore.

It’s easy for us to lose sight of why we create, especially in the face of any commercial or critical success. We’re torn between wanting to pursue our successes - mining the potentially rich seam we’ve found - and trying to remain original, authentic and innovative enough to satisfy our natural need to evolve and grow as artists.

How does this relate to your creative life right now?

Ask yourself, what is most important to you - creating to satisfy your deepest artistic urges, fulfilling the need that nothing else can replace, or reproducing the type of work that you know has been successful in the past?

Be truthful in your answer, there’s no definitive right or wrong that works for everyone. We’re all individual and that’s just the point.

So what is the truth about your creativity. Who DO you create for?

Want to learn more about your own unique creativity and how you can

Just about everybody gets them…

I had them just recently…

Yup, I had a serious case of the “poor me’s”, those down-in-the-dumps, pitiful, worthless feelings of failure and scarcity. I mean, I threw a full-blown pity party.

My web host went down, so no one could see my web pages. I couldn’t get my email. I couldn’t even get into the control panel to make sure I had a current list of subscribers for this newsletter…

Then, just to make sure I was good and miserable, I threw in a few “what-ifs”.

What if the database is gone forever?

What if I never build it back?

What if my business fails and I have to go looking for a J.O.B.?

What if I can’t find one?

What if we lose the house…?

By the time those poor-me’s and what-if’s got going, in my mind we were living in a cardboard box and it was all my fault…

Oh, how a good night’s sleep can change things. I got up the next morning, and started on my normal routine. Part of that routine is spending at least 30 minutes reading something good. Something that will contribute to, and serve, my vision and my dreams.

In this particular instance, the book was “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting” by Lynn Grabhorn. The book talks about the Law of Attraction, that we get what we think and feel. And the Universe provided just the right cure.

Grabhorn outlined an exercise designed to make you feel good about money, and having it. If you can get the feeling of having plenty of money, you open yourself to attracting that money, and the money flows in. I’m going to give you the original exercise, and a variation I discovered.

Here’s the original…

Take a $100 bill (or the biggest bill you can afford– don’t skimp) and put it in your wallet.

Now go shopping. If you can handle a full day, do it. Even a lunch hour at the mall will work. Just go someplace with lots of different stores.

Now wander from store to store, picking out things you’d like to buy with your $100. Don’t start making a list and figuring what you can get, just pick up individual items and tell yourself that you’d like that item and since you have the money in your pocket, you could buy it. Feel what it’s like to see something you like and know that you can have it.

If you’re diligent, by the end of the day you may have picked up at least 1,000 things. In your mind, you could have spent around $100,000, and it feels good. You have to be pretty prosperous to spend that much on shopping and feel good about it, right?

Hang on to the feeling, nurture it and bring it out as often as you can. What you are doing is sending these feel-good money vibrations into the Universe and opening yourself up to receiving money.

Here’s my variation…

If you don’t have $100, or getting the bill is inconvenient, write yourself a $100 check and put it in your wallet. Then go shopping.

And if actually getting out to the stores is inconvenient, pick up a stack of catalogs or log onto the internet. I use catalogs because I still remember wearing out the “Wish Books” from Sears and Montgomery Wards at Christmas when I was a kid.

I page through the catalogs slowly, looking at the items and mentally “buy” anything that strikes my fancy that I could order with my hundred bucks.

I know this vibration stuff might sound kind of “airy-fairy”, and I’m not an airy-fairy kind of guy. I’m an engineer by education and training. One thing you learn as an engineer is that you do what it takes to get the job done, and this gets the job done.

Want an example? OK…

This summer I wanted to take a long road trip, and cash is pretty tight. We’re making some improvements on the house and paying cash for them. So where was the money going to come from?

I didn’t worry about that, just started planning the trip. What route would I take? How long would it take me? Where would I stop, and who would I see? How would it feel to do things exactly as I wanted to do them on the trip?

Well, a couple of weeks into that routine, and the money fell out of the sky. I mean it came down in chunks…

Earlier this spring, we attended to some family business out of town and didn’t have room to haul everything back with us. So we stored the extra stuff with relatives and went back a month or so later to get it.

While there, we got caught in a hail storm. Chunks of ice the size of golf balls were bouncing off our car. After the storm, we were left with a cracked windshield and several dings in the sheet metal.

Long story short, the insurance company totalled out the car. We decided to keep it and take the settlement, which is paying for my road trip. A side benefit is that, because the car is totalled on the insurance company’s books, we no longer pay for collision insurance, so our car insurance bill will go down for as long as we keep the car…

So just remember–

When the going gets tough, tough…

Go shopping!

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“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” - Henry Ford

“Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi

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“What’s in it for WE?” is a question we ask ourselves. It is not a question we ask of other people. It reflects a way of thinking that affects nearly all of our relationships and interactions with other people. In this article, I will briefly address three points that illustrate the importance of “What’s in it for WE?” thinking to leadership, teamwork, and collaboration.

1) Effective collaboration is one of the keys to your business/financial success.

I propose that few great things come from the efforts of only one person. Consider these great collaborations from the world of entertainment:

• Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

• Elton John and Bernie Taupin

• Paul McCartney and John Lennon

• Bud Abbot and Lou Costello.

How about these collaborations from the world of exploration:

• Capt Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

• Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

In business we can look to:

• Bill Gates and Paul Allen

• David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch

• James Smith McDonnell and Donald Wills Douglas

• William Proctor and James Gamble

• Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck.

Which of these people would have achieved the same level of success had they attempted to go it alone? I think few of them would have been as successful.

2) How you think determines how others react to you.

People know how you are thinking about them because your thinking impacts your word choice, your tone, and your body language. The better you get at focusing your thoughts on mutual benefit, the more your words, tone and body language will reflect that thinking. As your external behaviors reflect more “What’s in it for WE?” thinking, people will be more receptive to working collaboratively with you.

3) If you ask the wrong question, you’ll get the wrong answer.

This statement is the primary thought behind this article. I have heard this statement, or some variation of it, applied to sales training, conflict resolution, and communication training. In “QBQ!: The Question Behind The Question”, John Miller discusses this statement as it applies to personal accountability. I hope you will apply it to your thinking regarding all of your interactions with other people.

There are two basic types of questions you can ask yourself when you work with others. You can ask yourself “What’s in it for ME?” questions or “What’s in it for WE?” questions.

“What’s in it for ME?” questions focus on the benefit to you alone. They sound like:

• How can I get them to do business with me?

• How can I get people to refer other people to me?

• How can I sell them my product or service?

• Why don’t they understand me?

• Why don’t they listen to me?

• What’s wrong with them?

• How can I get my employees to do what I want them to do?

• How can I get them to work harder?

• Why don’t they get more done?

• Why aren’t they helping me?

“What’s in it for WE?” questions focus on mutual benefit. They sound like:

• How can I add value to this relationship?

• What can I do to help this person?

• Who do I know that can help this person?

• What can we do together that we can’t do separately?

• How do we complement each other?

• How can I communicate my ideas more clearly?

• How do I make myself the kind of person that people want to follow?

As I said in the opening paragraph, “What’s in it for WE?” is a question we ask ourselves that reflects a way of thinking about other people and our relationships with them. Learn to ask “What’s in it for WE?” questions, and you will demonstrate “What’s in it for WE?” behaviors. When you demonstrate “What’s in it for WE?” behaviors, you will form mutually beneficial, collaborative relationships. These relationships will then form the foundation for your success.

Remember to ask yourself - “What’s in it for WE?”

Copyright 2005, Guy Harris

About the Author:

Guy Harris is the Chief Relationship Officer with Principle Driven Consulting. He helps entrepreneurs, business managers, and other organizational leaders build trust, reduce conflict, and improve team performance. Learn more at principledriven.com principledriven.com

Guy co-authored “The Behavior Bucks System TM” to help parents reduce stress and conflict with their children. Learn more about this book at behaviorbucks.com behaviorbucks.com

It never ceases to amaze me how the Universe consistently delivers the exact message we need to hear and at the perfect moment. Recently I had been experiencing some stress over a business decision that I was unsure about. Feeling completely stumped, I asked a couple of people who had experienced what I was going through for some help. Although the suggestions they shared with me seemed viable, it just wasn’t compelling enough to get me to move forward and my frustration was building. For days all I could think of was, “Why on earth couldn’t I figure this out and why can’t I find anyone to come up with a solution that made sense to me?”

I needed to chill out about this so I picked up a magazine to help free my mind. While reading the magazine, it slipped out of my hands and fell face up on the floor. When I bent over to pick it up, right in front of me were huge, bold words that said, “The answers are all inside.” Well, I had to laugh, since my mantra, to my coaching clients, is exactly that. I may not always speak those words out loud but I always hold the intention that every one of my clients has the answers inside of them and we just need to sift through some of the clutter to find it. Obviously, I was being shown, in no uncertain terms, the time had come to follow my own belief.

You see, although I was reading this magazine, thinking I was distracting myself from the situation, I was actually still very focused on my dilemma and every other sentence I read was replaced with a thought about the issue I was dealing with. Once I was hit with that message I knew I had to let go of working so hard to figure out the answer with the information others had shared with me. Instead, it was time to honestly relax and trust my solution would show up from within easily and effortlessly and in the time frame I had.

I went for a walk in the woods with my dog, which always frees my mind and calms me immensely. By the time the walk was over I felt centered again and wanting to stay in a state of relaxation I went to see a movie. (After I took the dog home, of course) It was during the movie that I felt like a lightening bolt had struck me. I jumped up from my seat with a surge of excitement because out of the blue, I had my answer. There it was in all its glory seemingly so obvious once it exposed itself. I was so excited that I couldn’t sit through the rest of the movie and left. I implemented what I came up with and it was absolutely the best decision I could have come up with.

There are definitely times in life when no one but yourself can come up with the answers. It’s at those moments when you want to trust yourself enough to be able to do so. Now, if you’re thinking about all the other times you’ve made decisions, which ultimately weren’t the best ones, consider why that might have been. Perhaps you came up with the answer from a place of anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, worry or haste. When your mind is filled with these emotions it leaves no room for anything beneficial to show up, ultimately leaving you feeling unfulfilled.

I shared this story with you because it illustrates how a quiet mind can speak volumes for you. The key is to turn down the noise in your head and allow yourself to attain a peaceful state of mind, because when the mind is at peace, great ideas flow easily and naturally.

You need to create a vacuum and let the Universe fill that empty space up for you with the exact answer you need. The Universe abhors a vacuum and will always fill the space with something better.

So remember, when you find yourself in a state of indecision don’t work so hard at figuring it all out immediately. Take some time to have a little fun and relax. Do what you most enjoy doing. The sooner you can transcend your state of mind the sooner your answer will appear. The more tightly you hold on to getting an answer, the longer it will take to receive one.

Copyright 2005, Linda Salazar all rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety as long as all credits are included.

Linda Salazar
Certified Personal Life Coach, Author, Speaker
310-375-4800
Awaken The Genie Within®
Practical Strategies for Magical Results
awakenthegeniewithin.com www.awakenthegeniewithin.com
mailto:Linda@awakenthegeniewithin.com Linda@awakenthegeniewithin.com

We cover the topic of Locus of Control in our Leadership programs, so it is 2nd nature for me to take full ownership for whatever outcomes I am creating in my life. After all why teach it if I am not living it?

The past few weeks have seen some events seemingly “happen to me” which rocked my belief in my own control over the results I get. Before I get on with that part of the story a short discussion on what exactly is Locus of Control and how can we use it…

Julian Potter, a psychologist, developed the theory of Locus of Control in the 1950’s. Simply put: people with an internal Locus of Control tend to see themselves as being responsible for the outcomes of their actions and hence are responsible for their destiny. Whereas, at the other end of the continuum, people with an external Locus of Control see environmental factors (or luck) as being more responsible for the outcomes in their lives and for their ultimate destiny. (Where would the Lotteries be in a world full of people with an internal Locus of Control?)

The theory was provided with a basis in research, and became enshrined in modern psychology following the research by Martin Seligman in 1965 leading to the Learned Helplessness model. Back in the days when animals were the subject of Lab experiments, Seligman and his team found that research subjects (dogs) behaviour changed dramatically and unexpectedly when subjected to random feedback (pain). Some of the dogs learned to become helpless when their behaviours made no difference to the feedback they got – and they gave up! The outcomes of this research and its ramifications changed the face of psychology, and showed that the Locus of Control is largely learned, and importantly can be re-learned.

That’s the end of the history and psychology lesson. What does this have to do with your leadership, your career and my recent series of unfortunate events? Plenty in fact….. Given that I generally sit at the internal Locus of Control end of the continuum, (as do many people who run their own businesses) having external happenings dare to impact on my results came as an unpleasant shock.

The events seemed random, and my actions did not appear to make a difference to the results. Sound familiar? Some of you reading this are saying “Welcome to my world, Liz”

Looking at Seligman’s research – I would be a classic case for Learned Helplessness, had things continued unabated. I confess to retreating into my shell for a short period “turtle like”, and peeping out only to see if the storm had passed.

However, I know enough about the human mind and it’s workings to know that when an unhelpful pattern is settling in, then creating a break in the cycle can cause huge differences in attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and outcomes. Again, so what?

Separately, I had another pattern of lack of exercise in my life which has been affecting both my weight and shape. To break this cycle, I recently started weight-training with a multiple times Australian Body Building and Weightlifting champion.

If you are going to break a cycle – break it in a big way. In the midst of retreating into my shell, I had a training session. During this particularly brutal session, where I freely admit to having a lousy attitude, I stood looking at a deadlift bar, the weights on either end being beyond my previous experience or ability. I focussed completely on lifting the bar, visioned myself lifting it, felt the pain of it and had total certainty that I was going to lift it. (The rather loud positive reinforcement in my right ear helped too). I stepped forward and did a set of repetitions which I could not have attempted the week before. The only change was my mental approach – I was in total mental control and felt hugely elated and powerful as a person immediately afterwards. The actual weight on the bar was irrelevant (and frankly insignificant too) - what was important was the fact that I did it. I had taken my Locus of Control back internally and achieved what I set out to. Sharing my “discovery” with Damon that this Weight Training sport is not about muscles, it is about mental attitude, he agreed. When people come into the Gym with the attitude that they cannot lift the weights - they don’t!

Facing a difficult situation, when you take mental control back, you immediately make a difference to the outcome. Needless to say, having taken mental control back through breaking this cycle the next period has seen me in a different frame of mind. Action and outcome focussed with startlingly different - though not surprising – results, in the gymn as well as all other areas. Knowing about LoC theory and living it so dramatically in 2 different areas of my life at the same time has been a powerful experience for me.

Use a shift in one area of your life to create and apply changes in another. This was my recent journey of inadvertently exploring the Locus of Control in a particular set of events. How can you use it and apply it? The first step is to find out where your personal Locus of Control is try an online test. It’s important to note that internal vs. external is not good vs. bad. Each is useful in different ways at different times.

What is important is to look at how your Locus of Control is serving you. Are you getting the results you want – or not? If you are indeed getting the results you want then this article has been simply an interesting diversion. Read it and pass it on.

However, if you are not getting the results you want in your; life, career, business, relationship, team environment or health then re-evaluate where your Locus of Control is and if this is a factor affecting your results in an unhelpful way - it may be time for you to do some major cycle breaking!

Liz Cassidy, founder of Third Sigma International is an author, Speaker, Trainer and Executive Coach and is passionate about facilitating results in the businesses, professional and personal lives of her clients. For more information thirdsigma.com.au thirdsigma.com.au

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year? Are you successful in keeping your New Year’s resolutions or do you find your self struggling almost as soon as you have made them?
Making resolutions seem to cement the belief that a new year is full of promise. This time we will finally get it right. We will finally reach all those goals we having been struggling to get to. It doesn’t matter how many times in previous years we have made the same resolution, as each New Year dawns we make it again with renewed vigor.

It could be making a job change, getting out of a bad relationship, quitting smoking or finally losing those 15 extra pounds you have been carrying around.
You are convinced that this is THE YEAR when it is all going to turn around. That is until a few weeks pass by and you find your resolve slipping. Your goals once again seem more difficult to achieve than they did just before the dawn of this New Year. You are frustrated and disappointed with your efforts or lack of them. You begin to believe that New Year’s resolutions are ridiculous and wish you had never made one in the first place.

Before you give up on the idea of a New Years resolution all together perhaps you should ask yourself if you have set yourself up to fail? Before embarking on this year’s resolution did you take steps to be prepared?

1. Before setting your sights on achieving new goals in this upcoming year did you take some time to reflect upon what was not working in the past years? Did you identify the things that not only wasted your time but also brought no positive results? Where was the dead weight in the previous year? Have you identified time wasters and the activities and people that brought nothing of value into your life? It could be wasted hours chatting aimlessly on the phone or hours in front of the TV. It could also be a mailbox full of junk e-mail that you can’t seem to delete or a person that insists that you continually rescue them leaving you too sapped to take care of your own desires.

2. Did you take the time to identify where and when you gave up on the same resolution before? What got in your way and what challenges surrounding this particular resolution seemed insurmountable and ultimately caused you to abandon it? What could you do differently this time to help you push through when the going got tough? What are the support or accountability structures that you could put in place this time to help you succeed?

3. Did you take some time to completely identify why you wanted to make this resolution in the first place? Why is it important for this goal to be achieved? What will the results be when you actually achieve your goal? What will your life look like? Have you actually taken the time to write them down? If you do not know on a deep and personal level why this resolution is important it will be easy enough to abandon it when the going gets tough.

New Year’s resolutions can be a catalyst to some great change. They can get the ball rolling in a positive direction. Before you abandon your New Year‘s resolutions take a look at the previous steps and ask yourself honestly if this is something you want to achieve and why. When you have the answers to these questions you may very well feel a renewed sense of commitment to your New Year’s resolutions.

Maureen Staiano is a Life Coach specializing in working with midlife women and the unique challenges, opportunities and transitions we face in our lives. Please visit me: achieveyourdreamcoaching.com achieveyourdreamcoaching.com and also visit my blog mymidlifesafari.blogspot.com/ mymidlifesafari.blogspot.com/