Words to Live by

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility comes from being superior to your former self.”― Ernest Hemingway

Showing posts with label Personal Development Plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Development Plan. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 May 2015

5 More Things Successful People Do Before 8 AM

Rise and shine… again! My recent article 5 Things Super Successful People Do Before 8 AM explored five things successful people do in the morning – exercise, plan their day, eat a healthy breakfast, visualize, and complete their most dreaded tasks first. But what else do early risers do that makes them so successful? Here are five more things that will help you be the best that you can be from the second you open your eyes. 

1. Avoid The Snooze. 
Most mornings we’d do anything to get an extra 5 minutes of sleep in the morning. Or 10. Or 15. The snooze button may feel like your best friend, but beware. Snoozing often leads to a rushed morning routine. First you’re sacrificing ironing your shirt to get some more shut-eye, then your breakfast, then your shower. It’s a slippery slope that leads to a disgruntled and flustered start to your work day. Instead of snoozing indefinitely, train yourself to get up right when your alarm goes off. If you have a hard time waking up, set your alarm 10 minutes earlier than usual, and spend that time waking up over a cup of coffee in the kitchen or on your porch. Snoozing may feeling great in the moment, but the sooner you’re up and at ‘em, the more time you have to relax into your day.
5 More Things Successful People Do Before 8 AM
(Photo credit: John Christian Fjellestad)

2. Get Your Daily Dose of News. 
Whether via paper, internet, TV, or radio, the morning is an excellent time to catch up on current events. Even if you merely skim a few articles over your bowl of oatmeal, it’s important to get your news in before your work tasks and errands suck up your extra time. Disney CEO Bob Iger gets up at 4:30 AM to read the paper. General Electric GE +0.29% CEO Jeff Immelt gets up at 5:30 to watch CNBC. Use your morning time to stay up-to-date and informed.

3. Clean Your Workspace. 
At the end of the work day, the last thing you want to do is straighten up. This often means sitting down to a cluttered, dirty desk come 8 AM the next morning. Before starting in on your emails, take a minute to clear your space (and your mind). Throw out old papers, throw away yesterday’s lunch wrappers, file documents you don’t need right away. Keep only the necessities on your desk, and keep them as orderly as possible. A clean desk will help you to focus better and see your tasks more clearly. It will also make you look more put together and professional. After all, it’s your workplace, not your bedroom.

4. Shower. 
While it may seem fairly straight forward, showering in the morning is key to a productive day. Yes, a nice hot shower can relax you before hitting the hay, but a morning time shower can have several benefits. For starters, a shower is the perfect way to wake yourself quickly. Instead of floundering about rubbing your eyes, a shower can energize you instantly so that you have more pre-work time for other things. Washing in the morning can help you at work, as well. Being freshly groomed helps you to feel prepared and ready for the day, and allows you to focus more easily on tasks at hand. Oh, and it might even impress your boss.

 5. Practice Gratitude. 
Waking up can be a particularly negative time for some. It’s easy to dwell on your tiredness or the busy day ahead of you. Instead of starting out your day on a pessimistic note, try practicing gratitude first thing after opening your eyes. The quietness and peacefulness of the morning lend themselves well to this activity. Take a minute to list five things you are grateful for. It can be little things like a sunny day, or something bigger like the love of your partner or children. While you get ready for your day, reflect on the things on your list. It will boost your mood, while allowing you to think about something besides your to-do list.

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Use Mistakes to Achieve Success


No matter what you do in life, you will make mistakes in your quest for success. Whether your path is entrepreneurship, athletics, or another pursuit, it is important that you embrace these mistakes as the perfect learning opportunity to achieve success.

Often looked down upon in modern society, mistakes are simply unavoidable on any path in life. It is time we changed how we view making mistakes and their role in promoting success.

Mistakes Are Rarely the End of the World
Even if each mistake that you make seems like the end of the world, there are people with far worse stories. In some cases, mistakes can lead to death, loss of property, or relationships, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot recover in order to be successful with whichever endeavor you would like. After all of these mistakes are made, you can either complain, feel emotionally drained, or take a learning approach to your situation.

At the moment, the pain might be very real. Many of these scars will even last you a lifetime, but this will prevent you from ever making the same mistake again. For anyone trying to be successful, avoiding the same mistake more than once is key.

Victory From Mistakes
Whether you believe it or not, many of the top leaders in world history made tremendous mistakes earlier in their lives. Some of them even led to the death of friends and comrades, but each man learned from the mistakes in order to be successful.

George Washington – well known as the founder of the USA, Washington started his military career in the French and Indian War as a Corporal in the Colonial Militia. In one skirmish, Washington made a blunder that cost the lives of almost all of his men. Learning from his mistake, Washington was able to outmaneuver the British army, which was the strongest of the time.

Thomas Edison – once quoted as saying “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!” Edison is the perfect example of making mistakes. After thousands of his own mistakes, Edison learned all of the things he had done wrong in order to create the light bulb correctly. Had he quit, we would all be in a very different place.

Abraham Lincoln – while known for his two Presidential terms in the USA and his role in the Civil War, Lincoln’s political past is largely forgotten. In the years before the Presidential election in 1860, Lincoln had lost 8 out of 10 elections. Only two years prior, Lincoln had lost a U.S. Senate race. Learning from his mistakes, he was able to win the election and change the course of American history.

Learning From Your Mistakes
Even though the histories of these great men might resonate with you, sometimes it is better to have a tangible practice to help you learn from your mistakes. Here are a few of the things that you can do in order to learn from your mistakes more efficiently.

Meditation / Relaxation – initially, you cannot learn from your mistakes without relaxing. If you are stressed, your mind will think differently, you will take the wrong lessons, and ultimately you will learn nothing. You must compose yourself through either meditation or just through some time of relaxation where you can become more composed.

Write mistakes down – you need to visualize your mistakes and even diagram them to see at what level things started to fall apart. When you write it down, it will have a much deeper impact on you.
Be realistic / remove emotions – you have to be realistic with yourself when it comes to your mistakes. Do not be too harsh, do not be too easy on yourself. Just look at the event subjectively and see what you can learn.


Ask friends and family – you need more than your own perspective. Get the help from friends and family that you trust to see where you went wrong and how to correct things
Once you transition your brain to embrace mistakes in order to learn from them, you will find that you are far more free from outcome and able to utilize lessons better.

Source

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

How to read a book in 10 minutes


It takes a bit of getting used to but it really does work, with practice you can get what you need from the book and move on.

You can always come back to it later

Thursday, 7 May 2015

It’s All About You – 7 Areas Of Personal Development

Is the phrase ‘personal development’ clear to you? If your answer is ‘No’, you’re not alone. On the one hand, you say a lot with a statement like, “I’m into personal development,” because you’re saying that you’ve made a commitment to living more than a mediocre life. On the other hand, the phrase is pretty vague. That’s why we decided to make a list of the 7 most common areas of personal development.

1. Your Spirit:

How do you want to grow spiritually? Do you want to meditate more often? Do you want to have a deeper sense of purpose, participate more actively in your church, synagogue or spiritual community? Would you like to build your intuitive skills or simply trust the wisdom and guidance of your higher self? Getting clear on your spiritual goals and what you plan to do to achieve them is foundational to overall personal development.

2. Your Creative Genius:

What do you want to be, do and have in the realm of your creative self expression? Maybe you love painting, writing, dance or underwater basket-weaving … It doesn’t really matter what. What matters is developing your creative genius in ways that challenge and stretch you.

3. Your Relationships:

Spouse, kids, parents, siblings, neighbors and close friends all come under the category of relationships. How do you want these relationships to look. What do you value most about your friendships? What do you want to have more or less of? What are your goals for love, friendship and family relationships? If you’re single: what are the qualities of your ideal mate? What are the qualities you want to develop in order to draw that mate?

4. Your Money and Career:

What are your career and money benchmarks for the year? What are your financial goals for 3, 5 and 10 years? What steps do you plan to reach these goals? These are the kind of questions you want to ask yourself when it comes to financial personal development.

5. Your Fitness and Health:

Have you thought about your diet and exercise habits lately? Are there areas where you can improve them? Is there a sport you’ve always wanted to learn? Are you ready to give up potato chips or smoking? Come up with a list of 3, 6 and 12 month goals for your fitness and health development.

6. Your Stuff:

Are there things you want to have – a home, a new car, better furnishings, an upgraded computer. You can take a little time each day to imagine enjoying the overall improvement in your life as if the thing or stuff is already there.

7. Your Community:

This area of personal development has to do with your give-back goals. It could be giving back to your local or global community. Personal development goals for your community can include all sorts of things from donating time, money, stuff or knowledge.

Your Turn!

We want to know what your top 2 areas of personal development are this year. Maybe it’s your health and fitness. Maybe relations, money or stuff. Leave a comment below and let us know what’s most important to you for 2015.


AND … We know there’s more than 7 areas of personal development, so if we missed one of your favorites, leave a comment and let us know.

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Why Your Purpose Is Not to Have a Destination

 Article by Janice B Gordon
In my thirties, I was on a quest to find my purpose. I read much self-development books and ask myself many questions like:
  • Is this it?
  • What is my purpose?
  • What is the point of me being here?
  • What am I here to do?
I realised in my forties that my purpose is not a destination, but it is the experience, it is the journey. It is the entire impact I have on the world, with my relationships, my experience and the impact of my actions.
When I was looking for my purpose I was looking outside of myself, then I started to look inside myself, I discovered that other people do not have the answer, the answer is within me. The answer is unique to my experience and is unique to me, no one answer is given it forms, and it evolves with my unique experiences and insights gained.
I thought that not everyone was going to be a Nelson Mandela or a Steve Jobs, but this does not mean their value is less in the world. When I watch 'Pride of Britain' I am amazed by the things people are compelled to do, even children, they do what they think is necessary, often with little thought for themselves.
  • Is saving a life worth less in value than saving a business?
  • Is inspiring a young person to go to university less in value than inspiring an adult to lose weight and get fit?
Both might be lifesaving; the young person could have got into drugs, the adult could have had a heart attack. You do not always see the impact of your actions, until much later, if at all. I am always amazed how small actions can have an enormous impact.
The little things you do can have a massive impact.
Purpose it not a big bang event, it is what you learn from a big bang event and then what YOU do about what you learnt from the experience. We tend to focus on the event rather than the consequence of the experience. Two people can have the same experience, but their reactions may be very different. Your reactions and your actions account for something; it is unique to you. Events in life are to cause a reaction; the reaction is the test the challenge, the lesson and the learning are your unique perspective, as is your experience and subsequent actions.
I think it is wonderful that we all have a different perspective because we all see things and react to things differently on purpose. This is your purpose: to understand the meaning through our perspective. You must use what you have gained to share and to improve, you are then compelled to do what only you can do. This is your impact!
If you are still not clear about your purpose, bear in mind it is:
  • Not something you have to work hard at and gain.
  • Something you have in abundance.
  • Who you are now and whom your will become.
  • What you already have that is uniquely yours.
  • Your perspective and the effect of your actions.
  • The untold impact you have now and then.
You may feel your purpose is not worthy unless it is big. If your purpose is your journey, then how can you anticipate the conclusion of your journey and the impact you will have in the world? Do not worry about the result or destination, if you were to predict it, it would probably be smaller than the true possibility that is unless you can predict the future. Your imagination is tired to your perceptions that form from your past experiences. You must be open to having new experiences beyond the limits of your current imagination. These new experiences will bring new insights and new challenges that will enable you to learn new possibilities and effect more in new ways. This is your purpose evolving to help you to reach new levels of understanding.
How can you do what you do to have maximum impact?
Your purpose is to live your life on purpose, with purpose.
  1. Do the right thing always.
  2. Do what feels right to you.
  3. Be authentically you.
  4. Act with integrity.
  5. Be open to new insights, challenges and lessons.
  6. Rather than ask for your purpose ask 'how can I be better?'
This is the beauty of Purpose. Live it - do not limit it!
Source

Monday, 2 March 2015

The Importance of Having A Personal Development Plan

A personal development plan provides a framework that will make individuals identify the areas of their strengths and weaknesses and come up with a guide that will optimize and capitalize on their existing skills and capabilities.

Development is a progressive process in one’s life time. It should not stop as long as there is a desire for it, and the need for it. Many individuals hold the principle that only when they cease to exist can make them stop working for their self-growth. Personal development may include procurement of new skills and knowledge depending on your goals.

When you make your own personal development plan, it can provide you with a self-reflection. One of the objectives of this endeavor is the assessment of your assets including your knowledge, skills, capabilities and other qualifications. You may touch the areas of strengths, weaknesses, and new sets of strengths. This self-evaluation gives you a clear awareness about your being.

It can set your path straight in terms of career. When you know which areas you would like to develop and have taken steps to enhance your assets or increase them, you may have clearer picture of where you are heading in the next 5 to 15 years. You will know which decision is the best for you and your future.

In fact, a personal development plan is geared toward progress in your personality and career. It will enhance your self-esteem and add up to your qualifications when you vie for higher position.

Several people experience personality crises. Some thought that they are lost and uncertain of where to go. By having goals in life, you are setting your direction. You will know what to do to follow such direction.

In planning and organizing your personal development, you will use your thinking faculty in making the decisions. By the time you have completed the personal development plan and achieved some of your targets, your ability to make wise decisions will be enhanced as well. As you gain more skills and knowledge, your decision-making ability becomes quicker and sharper.

There are also people who achieve a sense of balance in life by having the development plan. They are able to balance properly their time for work and play. Others who are family-oriented have managed to devote a portion of their time to their children and partner as well as to their career. It also saved them their marriage.

After completing the development plan, most people realized that they have become more responsible and have more positive perspectives in life. Regardless of their goals, they learned to appreciate more their life and have put more value to it than before.

Having a personal development plan is a wise investment in terms of money and time. No matter which angle you will analyze it, self-growth does not have liabilities. Should there be any, they are minor compared to the benefits you will gain from it. In today’s competitive time, having a development plan is a step recommended to everyone. It allows you to gain an edge in life.