Your Brain Can Help You Lose Weight... Or Make You Fat!

by: Tracy Lee

Have you done this before?

You have set your weight loss goals and mapped out your plan to lose all those excess pounds that you have been dying to get rid off.

In your mind, you have psyched yourself up -- this time you are going all the way out to lose all those pounds! "Nothing can stop me," you tell yourself.

Then, you rationalize that...

1) In order for you to succeed in your weight loss goals, you must follow a super-strict diet and exercise routine.

and/or

2) If you happen to go off track in your diet or exercise routine by eating your favorite high-calorie junk food and skipping your exercise session, this means you have totally blown off your plan altogether.

Sound familiar?

I sure hope not!

This train of thought can be very detrimental to your weight loss efforts, but it's all too easy to fall into this trap. And not only is it very harmful to your body, it actually lowers your self-esteem too.

Your brain can help you to lose weight, or it can make you fat.

If you want to lose weight successfully, you'll need to have the right thoughts in your brain. Conversely, holding on tight to the wrong concepts can (and will!) jeopardize your plans!

Here's what you should do instead...

1) Get rid of the word "DIET" from your thoughts

Firstly, you must shake off the idea that you absolutely have to follow an extremely restrictive diet in order to lose weight successfully.

In fact, most people who are able to lose their unwanted weight successfully DO NOT diet. What they do is simply change their lifestyle such as practicing portion control, moderation, cutting back on calories and curbing their emotional eating bouts.

It's time to change your focus from weight loss to weight management. It is not just losing weight, it is about changing your lifestyle so that you can maintain your weight loss.

And do you notice how most women like to use the word "diet" every time they want to lose weight? We "go on" and "go off" diets after every holiday season; we say "I start on Monday" only to go off it by the weekend. Nobody says "I start my new way of life on Monday." But that's exactly what we need to do. An effective diet isn't just for Christmas or just a very special occasion, it's for your whole life.

We need variety not only for our nutritional reasons. It is also to satisfy ourselves, and to take care of our "wants." So, you need to create your own healthy lifestyle... the lifestyle that you want, and one that's sustainable for the long term.

Be wary of any plan that restricts entire food groups, or if it relies on just 1 type of food (e.g. soup or salad) as its mainstay.

Believe me, I've been there and done that. If you go on a diet that requires you to eat all the food that you hate or totally omits your favorites, you are going to dread your meals and are bound to fail. Even if you manage to lose the weight, all your pounds (and probably more!) will creep back once you are off the diet.

2) Do NOT give up your favorite foods

Another thing that most women would do initially is severely limiting their food intake. Or they completely cut off their favorite foods.

This is one thing that you should never do.

"Why?"

Well, by doing that, it sets you up for binges and your temptation for these foods would definitely increase.

Instead, you should reduce your consumption slowly. For example, you always have desserts after dinner. Instead of cutting off totally, you start by reducing your portion size to half. Thus, the temptation becomes much less powerful when you have just the taste of something "bad" now and again instead of telling yourself that it is off limits for good.

After a while, you will find yourself accustomed to the new portion sizes, and you'll be able to satisfy your craving with just a small amount of your "super sinful" foods.

3) Forgive and move on...

So, you decide to keep your favorite foods in your weight loss plan. You allow yourself a chocolate cookie everyday. But, you could not resist the temptation and you finish half of the pack. Next day afternoon, you finish the remaining half of the chocolate cookies pack for your afternoon tea.

Gee, have you blown your weight loss plan again? Does that mean you should just give up the idea of losing those extra pounds and go back to my old eating habits?

Well, not allowing yourself to make mistakes is the worst mistake you can ever make. Seriously.

Having this all-or-nothing thinking is a way to let you off the hook. It is an escape route that you create for yourself. In your mind, you could be telling yourself, "Oh well. It is all gone. I guess I don't have to bother anymore. Give me my cookies."

There's an old saying that goes, "No matter how far along you are down the wrong path, it's never too late to turn back." So don't think just because you made bad choices today, you can't start over tomorrow.

Everyday is truly a new beginning. You do not have to wait until a new year, a new month or a Monday to start all over again.

You can't erase last night's binge, but you can aim for a much healthier today!

4) Create a lifestyle you want

Many times, when you want to lose weight, you will plan up a very strict diet and exercise routine for yourself. Well... there is a high chance that you would not be able to execute it successfully. To make things worse, you hate it.

Why not aim to create a healthy lifestyle you want so that you do not give up your favorite foods?

You must create a realistic and achievable weight loss plan. After all, you want to plan to SUCCEED, not to fail, right?

If you find difficulty in creating a good plan for yourself, or if you can't seem to discipline yourself to stay true to your plan, I suggest that you engage a personal trainer to help you.

5) Celebrate your small victories

Every time you achieve a small milestone, go ahead and reward yourself.

But do not over-indulge. For example, you can reward yourself a small ice-cream once you have managed to complete your first week of exercise routines. Or when you lose your first 3 pounds, you can treat yourself a slice of cheese cake.

Remember, it is alright to reward yourself for the small challenges you have overcome so that you won't give up so easily. Let it be something you look forward to every time you surmount a challenge.

If you set up your rewards properly, they'll motivate you on a daily basis and you'll find it easier to follow your weight loss plans!

Bonus: And here's one more extra tip... Don't stress yourself. Take it easy on yourself as you're learning how to be a new, improved and healthier you. After all, you're only human... a soon-to-be-much-lighter human!

Copyright 2006 Tracy Lee

The Truth About Persistence and Success

If you really want to be successful, you probably spend a lot of time reading motivational books and articles. You want to know what qualities are required for success.When we read about the tools required to achieve success, very often we are told that if we really want to be successful, we must have persistence.

Persistence is the quality of never giving up when we encounter challenges. Of holding on to our dream. Of refusing to be discouraged no matter what the odds, no matter what happens.

And when you read the life stories of very successful people, they will often tell you about all the hardships they encountered along the way. They will tell you about the discouragement they occasionally felt when they encountered failure, and about all the people who laughed at them along the way. And then they will often tell you that the reason they are successful today is because they were persistent. They perservered in chasing their dream, no matter what happened. So if you have been facing a bit of discouragement while you pursue your dream, reading these success gurus can give you the boost you need to keep on doing what you’ve been doing.

After all, persistence is the key to success.

Almost everyone says so.And all those people who encourage you to be persistent are wrong! Persistence can lead to certain failure if you do not apply persistence in the right way. Let me explain what these people are leaving out when they tell you to be persistent. Every day as I drive to work in the city where I live, I always see a middle-aged blonde woman who paces back and forth on the sidewalk in front of a big government building. She is always carrying a big protest sign. She smiles and waves at all the cars that pass. I’m not sure exactly what her sign says because the words don’t really make any sense.


There seems to be something about an injustice that happened to her when her husband’s pension was divided up during their divorce. And there’s a few comments about a government conspiracy to cover up the injustice that was done to her. I guess what she’s trying to accomplish with her protest is she’s trying to get this divorce decision changed.



Every day, no matter what the weather, this woman comes out to walk back and forth for two hours in front of this government building and wave at all the people. Her smile never fails.



After the first two hours of protesting are up, she goes to another place downtown. She spends another two hours walking back and forth, smiling and waving, in front of a different building a few blocks away. She has been doing this every day for at least seventeen years. She is certainly persistent. All that persistence and dedication for so many years does not seem to be having any effect, but she does not seem to notice.

If seventeen years of her walking back and forth carrying this sign hasn’t had any effect, I don’t think that one more day of walking with this sign is going to change the outcome of her divorce. But she is persistent in continuing her protest.

Probably every big city has a few people like this woman, people you can see standing on the sidewalk. People who spends years holding some sign that doesn’t make sense. These people can teach us all about the real value of perserverence and persistence. These people are certainly very persistent, but usually they are not successful. When success gurus tell us that persistence is an important quality on the road to success, they are often leaving out something important.

When successful people tell you that they got to where they are today because they were persistent, they are actually leaving out part of the story. A very important part of the story.

And the part that they are leaving out is this: They forget to tell you that before they were persistent, they had a goal, and they had a plan on how to get there. And all along the way, after every step they took, they stepped back to evaluate the results to see if the results they were getting were the results they wanted. And if they weren’t getting the results they wanted, then they would change the steps they took, and try something different, until they found a method that worked for them.



These successful people did have persistence, but they were only persistent about holding on to their vision. They were never persistent about the method they took to get to their goal.All along the way, they were prepared to be very flexible and experiment to see what techniques and strategies worked best to get where they wanted to go.

Why do so many successful people leave out this important detail when they tell us the secrets to their success? Why do they so often neglect to mention that if a strategy wasn’t working, they abandoned it quickly and moved on to another strategy?

I don’t think that successful people deliberately leave out this key information because they don’t want us to be successful.

I think that successful people often leave out this key detail because they assume it’s very obvious to everyone already. They assume that everyone already knows that you test each step of what you are doing to see whether it’s working or not. And if it’s not working, you change it. And you keep trying new approaches til you get something that works, something that gets you closer to the result you want.



People who admire persistence often use the example of Thomas Edison who kept trying to produce an electrical light bulb even after ten thousand failed attempts.But people often forget that while Thomas Edison was persistent in believing in his goal, he was not persistent in the way he tried to achieve it. Thomas Edison did not repeat the same experiment over and over again ten thousand times. Thomas Edison performed about ten thousand different experiments on his way to trying to find a practical electrical light bulb. Every time he tried an experiment to produce an electric light bulb, he then stepped back and took some time to evaluate the results. He figured out what was working and what wasn’t working. Then he would try something different the next time. And he would keep track of the results.



So, remember this crucial difference the next time someone tries to tell you that persistence is the key to success. Without taking some time to evaluate whether or not what you do is actually working, you can be persistent for years, and not achieve the goals you want. So, if you want to be successful, be sure to hold on to your dream, but remember to check frequently whether the actions you are taking are getting you closer to your goals.



This article is written by Royane Real, author of several self improvement books available at her website, including “How You Can Be Smarter – Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” If you would like to learn how to boost your brain power, download it today at
http://www.royanereal.com

Exercise Tips for People With 'No Time'

by: Sheri Zampelli

As our lives become more complex, we need creative time-management twists to juggle all the things we want to do. This article will give you tips on how to fit exercise into your busy schedule, even if you have a sedentary lifestyle.

The first step is to drop the all-or-nothing, perfectionistic thinking that says "It has to be at a gym. It doesn't count if you don't breathe hard. It doesn't count if you don't do it for at least 30 minutes non-stop etc. Any physical activity is more beneficial than NO physical activity. So open your mind and let's create new solutions.

We all get stuck from time to time sitting at our computers, waiting for one thing or another:

*Long print jobs

*Slow or large downloads

*Large files to open

*Inspiration on what to write or do next

*“Instant” messages

*iPod Updates

Here's how you can put that time to use:

1. Get a medicine ball and/or exercise band at your local sporting goods store or on-line.

2. Put these items near your computer in an easy to reach location.

3. Begin compiling a stack of exercise ideas from magazines or books which you will also keep near your computer (consider starting a three-ring binder so you can easily find the book and flip through it at will).

4. When you encounter a wait period (or just need a little break), do a set of arm or leg exercises. Here’s a list of ideas to get you started:

Chest Press: Strap an exercise tube around the back of your office chair and do occasional chest presses. Hold one handle in each hand and position your hands so they are at chest level. Sit up straight. Push forward and extend your arms straight in front of you or, for variation, cross your hands in front of you. Repeat 10-15 times or until you become fatigued.

Overhead Tricep Lifts: Hold a 3-5 pound medicine ball in both hands. Lift it over your head with arms extended. Bend at the elbows and slowly lower the ball so that it ends up behind your neck. Continue lifting the ball from behind your neck to over your head. Use slow, steady, controlled movements. Repeat 8-10 times or until you become fatigued.

Bicep Curls: Depending on your strength level, you can use one or both arms for this exercise. Hold the medicine ball in your hands in front of you as if you are offering a gift to someone or holding a large cup or bowl in your hands. Your arms should be in an “L” shaped position at your sides. Bring the ball up to your chest slowly and then back down slowly. If you are strong enough, you can also do one arm at a time lifting the ball from the “L” shaped position up to your shoulder and back down again. Repeat 12-15 times or until you become fatigued. Perform equal amounts of repetitions for each arm.

Leg Lifts: Stretch your legs out in front of you and put your ankles and feet together. Place the medicine ball in the cradle created by your ankles so that the ball is resting on the top of your foot and your lower leg at the same time. Depending on your strength level, you can do this exercise a variety of ways:

Lower Leg Lifts: Lift your legs from the floor until they are almost completely extended. Maintain a small bend in the knees, do not lock your knees. For more of a challenge, hold your legs in the lifted position until you begin to feel your muscles shake or burn, then lower. Repeat 10-15 times.

Full Leg Lifts: Scoot up in your chair so that your buttocks are almost at the edge of your seat. Put your hands on the armrest to support your body. Extend your legs in front of you with your knees slightly bent. Lift your legs as high as you can off the ground. For extra challenge, hold your legs in place before lowering. Be sure to continue sitting up straight as you do this exercise and hold in your abdominal muscles for support.

Copyright 2006 Sheri Zampelli

About The Author

Sheri O. Zampelli, M.S., CCH is a clinical hypnotherapist in private practice. She is the author of From Sabotage to Success – How to Overcome Self-Defeating Behavior and Reach Your True Potential. She helps people create liveable solutions for their weight and eating challenges. For more information, visit her website at http://www.donateyourweight.com.

Understanding Obesity

THE CAUSES OF EXCESSIVE WEIGHT

If you eat more nutrients containing energy than you need for your daily activities, for the internal processes of your body, and for the burning process that maintains the body temperature, the excessive nutrients can be transformed to fat and stored in the fat depots in your body. The causes of this occururing, and thus of overweight, are one or more of these factors:

1. Consuming too much fat: Fat is the most energy-rich nutrient, and over-consume will cause the eccessive fat consumed to be deposited in the body.

2. Consuming too much sugar, starch or other carbohydrates: Carbohydrats are also important energy sources. Over-consume of carbohydrates will cause the eccess to be converted to fat and stored in the body.

3 Consuming too much alchohol: Also this substance contains energy, and eccessive consume results in fat stored in your body.

4 Consuming too much of preprocessed products with added, and often hidden fat or sugar, like sweet beverages, cakes, ice-cream, fast food and snacks.

5. Eating too much alltogeather: Perhaps your food is not fat- or sugar-laden, but you simply eat too much alltogeather. Also protein will be converted to fat if it is overconsumed.

6. Irregular eating, like eating much at one time, little at another time, wait long between some meals, cunsuming huge doses of sugar at some times, no sugar at other times: If you eat irregularly, you can get an uncontrollable appetite, a swinging blood sugar level, and an abnormal physiology that makes you deposit fat in your body.

7. A still sitting life with little exercise so that you burn little fat and sugar.

8. Boredom in your daily life: If you do not have much hobbies, or leasure activities, or isolate yourself from other people, you may suffer form boredom, and eccessive eating may be your way of getting entertainment.

9. The body has some capacity of burning some extra amount of sugar or fat. This capacity may be decreased because of lack of vitamins and minerals, and because of an unsound diet.

10. An abnormal appetite that urges you to eat far more than you need: This abnormal appetite may originate from psychological causes, an onsound diet or lack of exercise.

AANALYZE YOUR OBESITY PROBLEMS

Before beginning your weight reduction program, go through every possible obesity causing factor listed above, to find out what factors contribute to your over-weight problem. Go down to details. For example: If you find you consume too much sugar, find out the exact food types contributing to your eccessive sugar consume. Write everything down.

MAKE A PLAN

With the performed analysis in hand, make a plan for your weigh reduction. Decide a goal for your weight. Decide one or more measures for each component contributing to your problem. Write down your plan.

HOW TO REDUCE WEIGHT

In order to successfully loose weight, you must attack every component you have found to be a causing factor of your obesity problem. Here are the concrete mesures you can use, and put into your plan:

1. Eat less fat

If you eat much fat, you must reduce the daily intake of fat, to do so:

* Choose fat poor fish, fat poor meat/beef, chicken, turkey, mushrooms and other food sources with law fat content as the main components for dishes.

* Cut away visible fat from meat or other food sources.

* Do not add much margarine, butter or oil to your food.

* When you fry something, try to use as little fatty smear in the pan as possible.

2. Eat less sugar

If you eat much sugar, reduce your daily inntake of free sugar, or bounded sugar as in flour, potatoes and the like:

* Do not add much sugar to your food.

* You may also need to consume less bread, potatoes, peas and beens, if you eat very much of it, but do not stop eating these kinds of food, since they contain valuable nutrients. However, use bread made of full corn.

3. Avoid eccessive alcohol consume

Alcohol contains energy, and will be transformed to fat, if you consume too much of it.

4. Avoid preprocessed food with added and often hidden fat or sugar

Some food contains a great amount of hidden fat or sugar, espesially fast food, snacks or preprocessed food.

* Therefore you should avoid eating much of products like: cakes, sweet drinks, snacks, choclate, icecream or fast-food.

* You should also buy all the food you use in a natural form, and make your dishes yourself. Then you achieve an absolute controle over the amount of fat and suger in your dishes.

5. Eat less alltogeather, but do not starve yourself

Having reduced the amount of sugar and fat from your diet, you may fall to the temptation of eating more than before, beacuse the new composition of your food does not satisfy your hunger. You should be aware of, and avoid this trap.

* When trying to loose weight, you should reduce the total amount of the food you eat.

* However, you should not starve yourself. To starve will only make you tired and sick, and then make you interrupt your efforts to get slim.

6. Eat regularly

Regular eating habits will give you a stable blood sugar level, help you control your appetite and normalize your fat burning physiology.

* You should eat three or four meals each day.

* Each meal should contain the same moderate amount of sugar and fat.

* Each meal should contain some protein sources like fish, meat, eggs, mushrooms or proteine-rich seeds, and in every means be as nutritionally complete as possible.

7. Increase your daily physical activity

Physical activity increases fat burning and will help you control your appetite.

* Do some daily exercises of a kind that increases energy consumption: Jogging, cycling, swimming, ball play, skiing, and so on.

* Do also som exercises to increase your muscular volume, since muscles will burn fat, for example weight lifting.

8. Find some new hobby or interest

If you find yourself some new hobby or leasure activity, you will avoid boredom and the temptation to over-eat because you are bored. Try also to do interesting activities together with other people. The new activities will also give you less time to only sit eating.

9. Eat healthy food to increase your fat burning capacity

It is not possible to loose weight without sticking to the above mentioned basic fat reduction principles, but you will also benefit from applying some measures that will increase your ability to passivly burn fat:

* Eat as natural food as possible, avoid food that has been heavily cooked, heavily fried or chemically processed. Natural food has its content of protein, vitamines minerals and anti-oxydants intact, and these are necessary for the fat burning abilities.

* Eat some raw fruit and vegatables to each meal, since these contain vitamins, minerals and anti-oxydants you need.

* You may benefit from supplements of vitamins, minerals, herbs, anti-oxydants, as these will make your body more capable of burning fat.

* The little fat you use in your diet, should come from sources like olive, peanuts, canola, fish, nuts, sun-flower, etc. Then you will get a good balance between mono-unsaturated fat (olive, canola, peanuts), poly-unsaturated fat of the omaga-3-type (fish) and poly-unsaturated fat of the omega-6-type (sunflower).

* Consume whole cereals or bread made from whole unrefined cereals.

* There are also natural products on the market you can use to increase your break down and burning of fat.

10. Bring your appetite under controle

Many of the measures allready listed, will also help you to controle your appetite. If this still is difficult, this problem may be attacked by specific means:

* You can use some medicines to reduce appetite for some time or to reduce the uptake of fat or carbohydrates in your inestines. There are both natural medicines based on herbs, vitamins and minerals and pharmachological products to achieve this.

* Daily meditation can help to relaxe your mind and gain controle.

* Psychological counseling may be necessary.

11. The ratio between fat and sugar in your diet

The total mount of fat and carbohydrates combined, is a key factor in causing obesity, not fat alone or carbohydrates alone. In some weight loosing regimes, one eats very little carbohydrates, and fairly much fat. In others one eats fairly much carbohydrates, and very little fat. The proponents of each type of regime claim that their approach helps the body to burn fat better.

Probably people are different, and react differently when trying to manipulate the diet in these ways. As a first approach, it is probably not wise to try such extreme approaches. However, if you have brought your eating habits under controle, and still not achieved a satisfactory result, you can try to manipulate the fat/carbohydrate ratio to see if this will help. But do not stop consuming fat alltogeather. You will allways need some essential fatty acids in your diet.

CARRYING OUT YOUR PLAN

Having made your plan for your weight reduction, the time has come to carry it out. After each week, go through the points in your plan, and evaluate how well you did. Also check your weight. Write down for every point in your plan how well you did.

Quieting the Mind Opening the Heart

To put it simply, the act of meditation involves quieting the mind so you can open the heart. That's it in a nutshell.

We often believe our hearts are open and we can feel much of what is going on in our lives. Yet to truly open the heart means we have to stop the thinking, the judging, the opinions, the analyzing, the questioning, the doubting, and just love. It's all that unconditional stuff. The act of doing this, takes practice and patience. Learning to meditate means learning to love. To love our self. To love all others. To love the oneness of all. To love more.

The connection you feel when you ‘plug in' to this oneness is the most irresistible state of love you will ever feel. Makes it sound like it's worth the effort doesn't it? Maybe you've had glimpses of this - moments when you felt it, and your heart expanded. The beauty of nature in a spectacular sunset or a magnificent rushing waterfall, a child's innocent embrace, a long awaited accomplishment, an exhilarating sport or excursion, being with the one you love.

These can make you 'feel' in the biggest sense of the word. And the feeling can be described as wonderfully peaceful, coupled with a glorious uplifting, a lightening up of the heart. What these experiences all have in common is an external factor. Something had to be there, something had to be seen, in order to involve our senses. These 'things' serve to trigger this feeling.

Meditation serves the same purpose. It teaches you to connect with this feeling all on your own, without any outside stimuli. The source of that loving feeling is always within you. But what happens most often is that you don't know how to access it on our own. You wait for the triggers, look for the triggers, and in fact even seek out the triggers, because you believe they are the source.

When you quiet your mind, you are closing down the outside stimuli. You are holding the mirror up to yourself, deep within yourself, and waiting to see/feel the love. It's there, but the practice is necessary to learn to wait quietly, build patience, and stroke and nurture your loving heart.

Most of us have shy hearts and loud minds, and meditation serves to reverse this so we can truly feel the bliss and the joy and the 'highs 'we so crave in our lives. Now, meditation can be made to be much more complicated than what I have described. There are countless books, tapes, courses and workshops that deal with the core principles of meditation, and then expand upon them. They go into many, many aspects, avenues, theories, understandings, types, etc. It can be quite overwhelming for the beginner. But it's perfect for the intermediate student of meditation.

When you are beginning, the less said the better. Keeping it simple is very important, because the process of meditation is so simple. If it's not working, or if you want to know more about it, or you are ready to know more about it, then by all means read, study, learn. It's like taking the same route to the supermarket every day and then finding out there are other ways of getting there, other roads that lead there, other journeys you can take.

Study and practice of meditation has the potential to open up many layers of your heart. Everything in your life therefore opens up with it. Relationships bloom, work purpose is found, vibrant health is allowed, because love affects your belief system, your attitudes, your choices. Anger dissolves before it ever manifests, frustration mellows out, the pit of sadness and depression are filled up like never before. These are the promises of meditation. These are the long-term rewards. But in the beginning, meditation is simply quieting your mind so you can open your heart.

Six Steps to Guarantee Your Business Success

Many of us slave away for years for one uninspiring company after another and dream of the day when we can sack the boss and go it alone.



If you're contemplating starting your own business then I'm here cheering you on from the sidelines because the best decision I ever made was to walk away from my well paid but oh so frustratingly boring job and start my own business from scratch.



I'd always believed in Bob Dylan's definition of success - a man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. And it was these words and this sentiment that drove me to seek out business success on my own.



While I was in the planning stages of things I read around a lot and discovered that there are six main steps that you can follow to give your business the best chance of survival and success. With hindsight I can confirm that these six steps do guarantee your business success, so here they are for you, use them as your guide:



1) Plan to Succeed

Action without planning is the cause of all failure. Action with planning is the cause of all success. - Brian Tracy.

You need to establish an intricate business plan that will guide you through the start-up hurdles and ongoing development of your business. Whether you're planning on establishing a global company that will eventually employ many individuals or you're intending to establish an on-line business from your bedroom that will employ only you, you must spend the necessary time and effort plotting out how exactly your company will be established, who your customers are, how you will reach them, how you will finance your ongoing operations and where exactly you're headed with your business.

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework. - Thomas Edison



Be a business genius, remember the planning stages are critical to the future success of your business - don't rush them.

2) Money Matters

Before you can really start setting financial goals, you need to determine where you stand financially. - David Bach

You need to look at your own personal financial situation and determine exactly how much money you will need to live on, how much money you have to invest in your business, how much money is required to start up and run your company and how exactly you're going to fund the future of your business. Get down to the financial nitty gritty before you get down to business and you will avoid the number one reason why businesses fail - namely, lack of capital.



Crunch those numbers and be realistic rather than fatalistic or optimistic! You can and will succeed, but first you must arm yourself with the boring facts and figures and then you can put in place the financing you need.


3) To Score Goals You Have To Set Goals



Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them. - Stephen Covey



Having mapped out your business journey intricately, having put in place the financing you will need to travel the path towards success you have to begin setting yourself business and personal goals. If you have nothing to aim for you will never achieve your target! Where do you want to be in one month�s time, where do you want your company to be in one year's time?



Set stage goals for you, your company, your employees, your finances and your success. Follow your progress closely, keep one eye on your goals and you will never fail to succeed.


4) Sure Up Support and Understanding

Getting things accomplished isn't nearly as important as taking time for love. - Janette Oke

No man is an island therefore your hopes, dreams, ambitions and goals should be shared with your loved ones and they need to give you the support and understanding required for success.



Starting a business is always challenging, it is at times stressful and it can take up a very large part of your life. If you explain what you're doing and why you�re doing it to your loved ones they will give you the time, love and support you need to succeed.



At the same time it is critical that you do not lose your perspective and fail to take the time necessary to love and care for your family. All too often you hear tired and stressed out businessmen and women complaining of a lack of spousal understanding, whining that they are working so hard directly for the benefit of said spouse - this creates disharmony and acrimony on both sides - what a waste of a great life!



Get everything in perspective and keep everything in perspective at all times, and bring your family and friends on board for guaranteed success.



5) Protect What's Important

Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power. - Seneca



To further deprive misfortune of its power you can put in place various insurance policies to protect yourself, your family, your current situation and your business from undue risk. Because there are no two ways about it, starting out on your own is a risky business - focus on the success of your business and follow these six steps and you will achieve all you want to. And in the interim protect what's important to you - for example, think long and hard before mortgaging your family home to fund your company! Get business and personal indemnity insurance in place, make sure health and life insurance policies are in place protecting you, your family and any key employees.



But - don't get hung up on this point because worrying unduly about risk will blinker your vision. Deal with this point and move on!



6) Face The Enemy - Deal Directly With Accountants & Lawyers

Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition. - George Clason

Every single business has to act within the laws of the countries it operates in and deals with and every single business has certain reporting and taxation requirements. These are definite hurdles designed to restrict the visionary, but they are necessary hurdles to protect a company's consumers, a business partners and a country's economy.



Take the time to establish a good working relationship with your company's accountant and lawyer. Make sure your company is properly structured from the start and that you fully understand and adhere to taxation and reporting deadlines and rules.



Know what is expected of you, understand why it's important to follow the rules and structures that have been put in place and have a system to deal with tax returns, pay runs, company disclosure and contract negotiations and remember:

Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil. - Michael Bloomberg

Use these six steps as the guide towards your business success and always strive to keep your vision alive because vision is perhaps our greatest strength - it has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries, it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown. - Li Ka Shing

Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today's World

The reality of today's world seems to leave little room for optimism. Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech. With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.

You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait! There is hope. Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling "intelligent optimism." Such optimism does not deny the reality of today's world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life's work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.

Consider these basic steps:

(1) Focus on what you can control.

Don't get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming but you can control your energy consumption. You can't stop the downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable skills.

(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim.

There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not "planned" to "get" me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.

(3) Think "enough".

When we concentrate on what we don't have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.

(4) Cultivate optimistic responses.

Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture. Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power. If we don't cultivate such intelligent optimism, be aware of reality and willing to find options, then we might do what Alexander Graham Bell warned. "Stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that is opening."

(5) Remember the power of generations.

Children of depressed parents are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to be optimists. What do you choose to pass along? Even if your parents were negative, you can break the cycle with stopping, freeze-framing a situation, listening to the negative self talk, and then literally giving yourself a different message. Yes, this takes practice but you can make it a habit if you work it over time.

Ultimately, intelligent optimists understand that change and chaos are given. They know that "this too shall pass". In the meantime, they CHOOSE to take whatever action they can within their own sphere of influence and then settle back. It is enough.

Breathing Can Make You Happier

The way in which we breathe can alter our lives rather dramatically and yet so many of us just seem to take it for granted that we are breathing fine. How about taking a bit more notice and noticing how when you change one of the most fundamental of autonomic behaviours; you can change your entire state of mind and physiology in many ways. Read more to learn how.

"When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire." – Quote from an 11-year-old’s science exam

Follow some or all of these exercises;

Firstly; When you are experiencing a powerful, positive state, allow yourself to become aware of your breathing rate. Pay particular attention to the timing and rhythm of your in-breath and out-breath.

Secondly; Next time you are in a neutral or negative state, start breathing at the rate and rhythm from exercise one, and within a minute or so, the positive state should begin to return.

Many gurus advise people to do breathing exercises regularly. I know Tony Robbins does in his marvellous book “Unlimited Power” he advises that you start each day with a breathing exercise of inhaling slowly and deeply, then holding it for twice as long as the inhalation and exhaling in twice the pace. It really is invigorating and a great way to get motivated at the start of the day, especially if you are looking to do some things with your day that require motivation.

Breathing is powerful, our life force and is a major factor influencing our state of mind (if you uncertain about this, hold your breath for two minutes and re-read this sentence) This being the case, please use your common sense when doing any of these exercises (if you have a respiratory condition, please check with your health advisor first.) I do not want any asthmatics complaining that they did themselves harm following these exercises!!

So, thirdly; Start breathing comfortably but deeply, in through your nose & out through your mouth. Imagine that you are breathing from that area of your abdomen just beneath your belly button. Make the in-breath last to a count of 5 and the out-breath to a count of 6. Continue for at least 2 minutes, and notice what happens.

This 5:6 ratio seems to be a simple yet powerful way you can induce a relaxed state at will. The art of Yogic breathing is called Pranayama. Pranayama offers many different approaches for cleansing the mind & body through breathing exercises. Here’s one of them (with thanks to RA Wilson):

Fourthly (this may seem a bit odd to do, I’d recommend not doing this in front of friends or at work!) ; Lie on your back and pant like a dog, breathing rapidly in andout through your mouth 20 times. Then, breathe slowly, deeply and gently in and out 20 times through your nose. Once again, do the mouth-panting 20 times, then resume gentle nose-breathing. Notice what happens.

This technique is referred to as the breath of fire, and typically results in a state of… well, you find out!

These techniques can be very powerfully utilised when wanting to get in control of your state if you are going through a period of change such as reducing your weight, stopping smoking or developing more confidence.

Please remember that most people don’t breathe nearly enough. Start to breathe more deeply and notice how much better you feel. Have lots of fun with this. Notice how good you can make your self feel when you breathe differently.