What to Do When Things Don't Seem to Be Going Well - by Dawn Goldberg Shuler

Posted by John Lee of YourBestYouEver.net

If there’s one thing you can guarantee, it’s that life will jump up and bite you in the butt every now and then.

What’s worse, it usually happens when everything’s going pretty well and you’re feeling really positive. So when it happens, how YOU react?  

You CAN turn it around (pic by freedigitalphotos.net)

Do you brush off whatever problem arises and carry on regardless? Or do you soon start to worry? After all, ‘trouble always comes in threes’, doesn't it?!

Whatever your response, you could probably use some extra tools and strategies...

... which is exactly what author, business consultant and coach Dawn Goldberg Shuler has to offer in the excellent article below. Take a look...

WE all have those times when we are in the zone, when it's all going well. We score the big client. We fill our programs.

We get amazing feedback from an article we wrote that tells us we're on the right path. The kids are good, the team won, the tea shop has your favorite tea in, and all the traffic lights are green.

Life is damn good.

And then there are the days where it doesn't go quite so well.

You get letters from the IRS regarding an issue that you've been corresponding with them for months, and when you call, their system is down. (And this is after waiting on hold for 30 minutes.)

Your kid is sick. The thunderstorm caused the electricity to go out, and you lost all your changes.

The marketing call you make falls flat. The hot ‘Yes’ for your program suddenly changes his mind, and no sale.

Life seems to suck.

Unfortunately, those sucky days are a part of life. Yes, in general, for most of us, life is pretty awesome.

But those bad days are called ‘sucky’ for a reason; these situations suck the energy and life out of us, so that all we feel is that situation... that that situation is all there is.

The reality is the situation in front of you (good or bad) is NOT all there is. There is so much more.

But how do you pull yourself out of the miasma of the situation suck?

Here are 6 ways I use and recommend to my clients. And they work!

1. Remember your bigger purpose. What is it that you are here on this earth to do? What is your deep, ‘soul’ purpose?

More than likely, that soul purpose weaves throughout your business, too. At any time, tap into your big, deep, soul purpose.

2. What are you genius at? A la Gay Hendricks in The Big Leap. He talks about your ‘Zone of Genius’, ‘Zone of Excellence’, ‘Zone of Competency’ and ‘Zone of Incompetency’.

(I highly recommend this book - one of my top 3 self-help books.)

Forget about what you're good at... what are you GENIUS at? Write it down. Refer to it. Remind yourself how you are amazing.

3. What are your goals? Three-month, six-month, 12-month goals - for life and business. Write these down. Create goal cards. Design a life map. Play with a goal movie.

What are your goals? What are you moving toward?

4. What are you grateful for? I can get a bit snarky here with myself on really bad days.

Insert sarcastic tone of voice: "I'm grateful for air. I'm grateful I'm alive. I'm grateful I have air conditioning/heat... "

But, after a while, the sarcastic voice goes away and you really do start to remember that you have a lot to be grateful for.

5. What grounds and centers you? Often when I'm having a bad day, I find I'm un-grounded and un-centered, either as the root cause of the bad day or the effect of said day.

I have a list of what grounds and centers me. It's things like a particular playlist on iTunes, incense, an essential oil I can diffuse, going outside, reading, etc.

What’s on your grounding and centering list?

6. Reach out to your girlfriend, spouse/partner, business coach, accountability partner, or mastermind group - or all of the above!

Life is about connection and I believe we are stronger when we're authentic, and even vulnerable. Reach out. Tell someone about your sucky day. Ask for help.

You'll be surprised at how much people are willing to enfold you. (Make sure you have a solid support team!)

Pull in these six tools to turn around a sucky day and realize that life is really damn good.

Want to create powerful content that meets your market's needs? Of course, you do!

Because when you write from your soul, you connect more deeply and successfully with potential clients and your community.

Download your free Writing From Your Soul system at http://www.WritingFromYourSoul.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9159364

6 Ways to Get Back on Track – with Stephanie O'Brien

Posted by John Lee of YourBestYouEver.net

Why do so many people fail to achieve their goals? Have they not formulated them correctly? Are they not sufficiently committed? Maybe their belief is just not strong enough?

Or could it simply that they get ‘knocked off track’ by the many demands of everyday life, such that they lose sight of where they’re headed.  

Picture courtesy of quotesgram.com

 I would guess that the latter is the main issue for most ‘goal-setters’ rather than anything more complicated or difficult to handle.

Which is why I wanted to share the article below, by US author Stephanie O’Brien.

It’s a refreshing down-to-earth and ‘stripped-back’ look at goals and – as the title suggests – how to get back on track.

So over to Stephanie....

ONCE you have a better idea on how you got off track it's time to steer yourself back on track.

(1.) Start with Why

1. Why do you want to accomplish this goal?

2. Why is this important?

3. Who will you impact?

4. How will your life improve?

5. How will other's lives improve?

6. What's at stake if you don't accomplish this goal?

(2.) Slow Down

When we are conquering chaos and regaining focus and control of our goals (and life in general) it is important to remember to slow down.

Take a breather. To get more done, we often go harder and try more. That is actually counterproductive.

It's just as counterproductive as doing a hard workout without eating. To get the most effective workout and have optimal performance you need fuel, aka ‘food’.

To actually accomplish more what you actually need to do is slow down. You could do this by giving yourself a detox day.

(3.) Relish what you have accomplished

We can easily get distracted or beat ourselves up for losing focus. To help you get motivated you need to relish what you have accomplished.

Celebrate the small wins. Don't put off celebrating until you completed your goal 100%. Take time to celebrate accomplishments daily.

(4.) Reassess

This is the time to revisit your goals you wrote in the beginning of the year (or whenever you wrote them down). Review and reassess your goals.

Where did you get off track?

Where did you stay focused?

Is there anything that needs to change?

(5.) Adjust

This goes hand in hand with re-assessing your goals. There may be some things you need to change about your goals.

Do you need to change a deadline?

Do some things not matter anymore because your life or business direction changed?

Is there a goal you would still like to meet, but one that may have to wait?

(6.) Set new goals for the New Year

Successful people start their goals for the next year now. They do not wait until New Year's Eve to set resolutions.

They strategically review, re-assess, and adjust goals to finish the year. They also think of new goals and strategies for next year.

Is there a project you want finished by the end of the year? What will need to change in your current schedule to see that through?

Do you want to take any vacations or go to any conferences next year? What will you do to have the time and money to go?

What needs to be in place to accomplish this?

If you need help gaining clarity on your goals, regaining focus, and getting back on track with your career, life or business goals contact me for a clarity session or check out my coaching packages!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9144607

Don’t Fall to your Stress (or Death!)

By Darren Hardy of ‘Success’ magazine

YOU look down. Below you is a thin tightrope wire, a mere 2 inches thick.

One thousand three hundred and sixty-two feet below that is the unforgiving pavement of the streets of New York City.  

Philippe Petit during his epic tightrope walk

You see them; busy people rushing off to work, school, home wherever they are heading - as you take your first step across the sky.

At first, no one notices you.

“Maybe that’s for the better,” you think. “It’d only add to the pressure.”

But you thought too soon.

A man stops. He looks up and sees you, a speck against the clouds. Your heart rate rises.

This is getting real.

As a crowd gathers, the breeze picks up. It’s colder up here, frigid actually. And more unpredictable.

Instead of blowing from one direction, the gusts come from all around - zig-zagging across your face, tugging at the long bar you carry for balance.

You sway back and forth 110 storeys above the ground, suspended only by the two inches of rope under your feet. “Breathe,” you think. “In. Out. In. Out.”

By now, thousands of people stand below you.

Watching. Stunned, admiring, or waiting… like those who watch a NASCAR race.

Their hearts pound in unison with each step you take - moving across your precarious perch in the sky.

Every step you take brings you an inch closer to your destination, to your dream, but with every step and movement you also face death.

This walk will make you. Or it will end you. And the choice is yours; you get to decide your fate. It all depends on how you handle the stress of the situation.

The onlookers may be cheering or screaming for you to turn around, but you hear none of it. On top of one of the loudest cities in the world and you hear nothing.

Everything is silent as you take the walk of your life.

Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the famous World Trade center towers of New York City.

Philippe Petit was that man.

If you were to rank the most stressful events in your life, it is likely that none of them would come even close to the death-defying walk of Petit.

Petit was never daunted by the challenge of walking between the twin towers in New York City. In fact, the height and magnitude of the towers and the challenge they presented inspired him.

If walking the wire between the towers weren’t stressful enough, the addition of the feat being a secret, and then being pursued by the New York Police as his death-defying walk began certainly added to the stress.

But for Petit, the stress wasn’t a negative thing. It wasn’t an obstacle to overcome; it wasn’t a hindrance; it wasn’t something that could or would prevent him from accomplishing his goal.

In fact, stress was actually on his team. Stress helped build his strength; it kept his composure, heighten his senses and kept him focused on the task at hand.

Stress can be defined as the brain’s response to any demand - any one of them. Of the many, many demands placed on us daily, stress is a possible response.

This means almost anything can trigger a stress response. The question is, does that mean it is bad?

Think about it, when people make demands of you, are they always bad?

They might be unexpected, they might be expected - the brain can respond with stress in either case.

The demands might be daunting, or they might be thrilling. No matter what the demand, it is going to evoke a reaction. How you react, how you handle the demand is the key.

Petit took the demand of walking the high wire above the streets of New York and transformed it into an awe inspiring thing.

As a result of the stress he felt, he accomplished something no one had ever done before or would ever do again.

That is the power of stress. The power to bring you and your performance to new heights.

Maybe not literally like for Petit, but at least figuratively.

Increasingly, researchers are exploring the positive side of stress.

Some believe short-term boosts of it can strengthen the immune system and protect against some diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s by keeping the brain cells working at peak capacity.

People who experience moderate levels of stress before surgery have a better recovery than those with high or low levels, another study showed.

Recently, a study suggested that stress could help prevent breast cancer because it suppresses the production of estrogen.

Next week I will show you how you too can thrive on what you once considered stress (*See links below for ‘Conquer Your Stress', Parts 1 & 2).

We are going to reframe your thinking to harness stress as a tool you can utilize to grow and learn so that you are a top tier performer in every aspect of your life...

...even if you don’t plan to tightrope walk between buildings thousands of feet above the streets of New York City.

P.S. I share more inspiring stories, as well as success insights and tips in my free daily mentoring program. Check it out here: www.DarrenDaily.com

Article source: http://tiny.cc/32tr2x

* Conquer Your Stress, Part 1: http://tiny.cc/b9tr2x

* Conquer Your Stress, Part 2: http://tiny.cc/2cur2x

3 Steps to Peaceful Living – with Barb Schmidt

By John Lee of YourBestYouEver.net

THERE are literally dozens of ways to meditate, from the more traditional methods, like ‘Transcendental’ to the more recent ‘Mindfulness’.

Unfortunately, the stark truth for most people is finding the time to learn, practice and master meditation is a major challenge.  

Barb Schmidt on 'The Inspiration Show'

As a result, the hectic nature of leading a busy and pressured life tends to take over and we grasp at whatever precious moments of peace we can, amid all the hustle.

So it’s always a pleasure to discover techniques that combine simplicity, practicality and economy of time.

Best-selling author, entrepreneur and spiritual teacher, Barb Schmidt, has just such a method – embodied in her book, ‘The Practice’.

And she reveals all in the video interview you can access below, conducted by Natalie Ledwell of the highly successful Mind Movies ‘Vision Board’ software.

During the interview, Barb talks about her own struggles to escape the pressures of an incredibly busy corporate life that earned her four McDonald’s franchises before the age of 30.

She also talks openly about her problems with bulimia and how she came to develop her system of ‘meditation’.

Best of all, she outlines the wonderfully straightforward steps involved, which she uses every day to achieve the kind of ‘peaceful living’ we all crave.

The video’s just 15 minutes long and well worth a look. Click on the link below now to be taken to the original recording:

http://tiny.cc/zx0b2x