The Simple Life

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.“
~ Confucius

Don’t you just love the excitement you feel after coming home with a new TV? Driving home in a new car? Opening the box on a new pair of shoes?
I sure do. But, from watching the behavior of myself and my friends I’ve found that the new quickly becomes just another item. The excitement of novelty passes quickly.
As we become wealthier, people seem to be adding more and more things to our homes. We then use our homes, and our treasures, to justify that we have won the game of life.

Growing up in a family of pack-rats, I spent many years in my teens and early twenties accumulating stuff. During this time, much of my self-worth was unconsciously associated with the amount of stuff I owned; the brand names, and the latest trends. I spent a lot of money on clothes and stuff that made me feel ‘superior’. They gave me a sense of identity. If I just removed these things without awareness, my ego would have suffered. I had grown so attached to that definition of myself, that my loss would have been much deeper than just the cute sweater.

Not only did I not find myself in all this, I’ve also accumulated a lot of clutter in my living space and my inner space. Ironically, the piles of stuff actually held me back from understanding and inner peace with myself.
We are so eager to fill our homes, yet so disinterested in cleaning it out. As a result, we now require larger spaces, more storage space, and more clutter for the mind. Did you know that there are more self-storage facilities in North America than there are McDonald’s restaurants? We find it difficult to reduce the amount of stuff we own is due to our attachment to these things.Is Less Really More?

The joy and art of having less while enjoying more of  life can be summed up, as follows.
The Zen of Space – There is beauty in space, but we fail to recognize it because we can’t see through the stuff we own. When we open up physical space in our environment, a tremendous feeling of peace can dwell within us. This is the principle behind Japanese style homes. Beauty in small spaces is the appreciation of minimalism, where less truly is more. We need to understand that space is to be enjoyed, not filled.
Conserved Energy – Fewer belongings means we have fewer possessions to worry about.

I once knew a wealthy young man, who had anything he dreamt of. He had so many expensive things, and he was so afraid of losing them. Much of his energy was devoted to protecting his possessions and trophies.
Free Your Space – When we are reminded of something we own but never use, we can impose self-inflicted guilt for leaving it unused.
For example, my mother owns a several exercise machines which are rarely used. Each time she sees them, she forces herself to feel guilty. Her guilt eats away at her inner, mental space. Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. By cleaning out and simplifying our outer space, our inner space will open up like a flower.

Appreciation - The less we have, the more attention we can give those things we own and truly need on a regular basis. Appreciation is the seed for abundance; abundance of the mind and the soul. It’s pretty amazing how little we actually need. When we clear our homes and our lives down to the essentials, we are able to better enjoy that which we do have.
Nothing external to us can give us permanent and true happiness. We actually have all we need to be truly happy within us.

The art of having less but enjoying our lives more, involves a few simple changes in perspective. First, we must understand where our true values lie and focus on them. Then, we must take time to enjoy the simple things, and slow down and see what’s right in front of us.

Why You, Me Or Anyone Can Become A Millionaire

The Importance Of Learning About Success

• Anyone can learn the principles of success.
• The biggest barriers to success are in your mind!
• High Self Esteem is crucial in achieving success.

A Desire To Learn About Success

Did you know that in America someone becomes a millionaire every 10 minutes? 80% of these are self made millionaires, many of whom never went to college, came from a poor family or were non English speaking immigrants.
Studying successful people such as millionaires has taught me that success is a skill. It can be learnt by anyone, and is not necessarily constrained by an individuals level of education or social status.
It’s only requirement is perseverance and a desire to learn about success. This is the real secret to success.

Why Study Success?

For every skill we acquire in life we must first learn how to do it, success is no exception. For example, when you first learned how to drive what did you do?
You learned a new skill (driving) from someone who already possessed that skill and was successful at it. In short, you learned how to do something from someone who knew how.

But what do you think would happen if you decided to learn how to drive by yourself, without instruction? Chances are you would crash and have an accident.
The same is true in life. People who learn the principles of success get to their destination, those who do not, crash along the way.

The Barriers To Success Are In Your Mind!

A long time ago people believed the Earth was flat, and would not sail too far into the distance for fear of failing off the ends of the Earth.

However when it was finally accepted that the Earth was round, people soon set sail to explore new and distant lands.
The flat Earth story shows how beliefs can present us with either our biggest barrier or new horizons, and that in order to go somewhere we must first believe it is possible.

Low Self Esteem

Virtually all human failure comes down to low self esteem. These people believe they are not valuable or important, and limit themselves by becoming overly concerned with what others think of them.
They are afraid of failure and feel it will reflect badly upon them. As a result they prefer to take few risks.

Climb The Ladder Of Success

Successful people have high levels of confidence and self esteem, they believe they are valuable, worthwhile and important individuals.
This state of mind therefore enables them to focus on what they want to achieve, without fear of failure or concern for the approval of others.

As a result these people often soar to success, simply because they believe in themselves and are able to persist when things get tough.
So what we learn from these people is that success really begins in the mind. It is a skill that can be learnt and is greatly influenced by your beliefs.
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Verbal Communication Skill Secrets for Success at Work and at Home

To be able to communicate verbally, even if that "verbal" is with sign language for people who are hearing impaired, is vitally important. Without good verbal communication skill, getting by in life would be virtually impossible. Every day, in so many ways, we use those skills.

When you go into work, verbal skills are really needed. To talk on the phone with clients, to give orders to your subordinates, or to deal with your boss; you have to speak to them. And, just talking is not enough. If you are trying to get a raise from your boss, or to explain a mistake, you need to speak eloquently and convincingly. When dealing with your staff, sometime you have to give encouragement, and other times you have to give them a verbal kick to motivate them.

If you are trying to win a new client for the firm, you have to be able to show them what your company has to offer. Now, sometimes visual aids help, but what if you are on the phone? Then, it can be merely the strength of your voice and the power of your arguments that wins them over. Conversely, if you speak with a current client who is unhappy, then your voice, your tone, and your words are all that stands between them going or staying. Your verbal communication skill will really need to be at peak performance then.

In a crisis, often our words are all we have. If you should (perish the thought) find yourself on a wrecked train or plane, and people are screaming and upset; your words may be the only thing that can calm them enough for you all to escape. There is that old saying: "Freedom of speech does not mean you are free to scream 'Fire!' in a crowded theater". Well, think about it, even if the building really is on fire, should you scream that out? Carefully chosen words can help people to stay calm and get out safely.

Along those same lines, there are legal matters. Still today we have the tradition, coming down to us from the Middle Ages, of going to court for a hearing. We swear to tell the truth, and give testimony. If you should find yourself in court on a legal matter, whether it be a civil suit or a criminal trial, the power of your words alone will be all you have. Trying to convince a jury that you are innocent by merely screaming: "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!" over and over is not going to carry much weight. You must speak clearly and succinctly, and guide them to see the truth of your words. It was with good reason that public speaking and rhetoric were part of the classic education system.

In our personal lives, verbal communication skill is a vital means of sustaining relationships. You have to be able to talk to those you love and care about. Without that, your relationships will wither and die. How many times have you seen couple who seem to argue about everything: politics, religion, movies, you name it? Yet, they stay together. Agreeing on things is not the key to a strong relationship.

It is mutual respect and communication. So long as you can talk, so long as the lines of communication stay open, your relationship has a chance of staying alive. The same goes for family members. How many brothers / sisters / cousins etc. are you on good relations with? Odds are, it is the ones you talk to the most. Again, even if you do not agree on things, if you at least talk, the relationship will be all the stronger for it. You need good verbal communication skill for that.

In our everyday lives, we communicate all the time with the people we encounter. We talk to co-workers, we interact with our bosses and the people who hire us. We talk to our spouse and loved ones. So, it's no wonder that verbal communication skill is important to us.

How To Dramatically Improve Your Daily Communications?

Does this ever happen to you? Feeling shy or lacking self confidence to make conversation with strangers.
It can be a tough task for any one to make a better conversation with anyone, especially when you are quite strange to that particular person.

In addition to this, if you possess an introvert personality or lack in self confidence, then it becomes much more difficult for you to get along with people in certain special events like social gatherings or any parties.
So, it is very important for you to learn how to flourish well and also improve yourself to become more confident in conversing effectively.

Secret of assertive conversation!

The secret of communicating confidently and contentedly can be mainly enhanced with three easy principles. These fundamental principles mainly include:

• It would be much better for you to be more interested rather than being interesting.
• There can be nothing as flattering as attaining complete attention from other individual.
• Most of the people love to talk about their most wanted issue, which is about them only.

Try to keep these three important principles in your mind, which can help you greatly while you converse with a strange person.

Effective ways to converse!

Your ability to converse effectively with those you meet plays a vital role in your entire personal as well as professional relationships.
So, here are effective ways to start a great conversation with strange individuals.  Try to follow these simple things and enjoy the success of speaking effectively.

• To make an extraordinary conversation, first of all you must be interesting to others. So, try to keep yourself updated about genuine current issues and try to maintain a better mental list of all good topics of discussions, which can be helpful for you to break the ice.
• Despite of focusing on how comfortable you would feel, try to organize yourself with your utmost interested issues and which you would like to confer about that particular issue. This little preparation can take you a long way and enables you to converse easily.
• Try to be more patient and make an attempt to be a good listener, while initiating a conversation. After initiation, try to listen closely to other person’s reply. Alternatively, between talking and listening, try to respond appropriately and try to add genuine comments to their version of conversation.
• However, even if it is an extremely difficult task for you, try to greet every one those you come across with a warm smile and try to maintain a perfect eye contact with the people. You can find this as a tough task initially, but once if you are successful in developing self-confidence, it doesn’t matter for you.

Developing proper self-confidence plays a vital role while learning to communicate and to converse effectively with people.
So, try to learn how to start a better conversation with strangers. It is just a simple process of improving your social skills, until you become habituated for better start of conversing.

The Importance Of Being A Good Listener

In order to achieve good communication, one has to be a good listener as well.

There are several tried and tested methods that one can try if one wished to improve one’s listening skills.
Here are some tips

1. You must learn to focus on the speaker first. When you are able to achieve this, then you will automatically be able to focus on what he is saying as well, so that you are able to listen to him and comprehend the essence of what he is trying to say to you.

2. You must acknowledge the other person when he is talking to you. This may be a small nod, or an expression like ‘uh-huh’ at regular intervals through the conversation, so that the other person knows that you are actually listening to him, and also understanding what he is saying to you.

3. If you feel your attention wandering, you could bring yourself back down to earth by asking a relevant question at regular intervals.

You could ask the other person to clarify a point, or ask him to repeat a point. This will indicate to him your interest in his comments.

4. Try to improve your body language. You could start by learning to practice facing the person who is talking to you, and also maintaining regular eye contact with him.

Remember; even if you pretend to be the best listener on earth, your body language will definitely give you away.

5. Similarly, learn to study the other person’s body language. You could for a start try to put yourself into his shoes and think, “How would I feel if I were in his position?” This will automatically create an air of empathy about you, and people will automatically start to respond better to you.

6. Never take any one for granted, and never ever make the mistake of interrupting when someone is talking to you.

Try to think of yourself in the same position: how would you like it if someone were to cut you off mindlessly in mid sentence, even if you happened to be talking about something extremely important.

7. Avoid getting into an argument when the other person is still talking. Similarly, don’t offer advice when it is simply not needed.

Also, do not judge the other person. Simply listen to him, and you will be able to learn how to be an effective communicator in business as well as in your personal life.

How to Overcome Obstacles to Meeting Your Business Goals

The start of the new year is a wonderful to time to create your new goals for the year. Most likely your in-box is filled with a plethora of announcements of workshops, classes and help around goal setting. This is all good, and I am a strong supporter of strategic planning myself. However, I think the easy part is planning and writing down your goals.
It’s similar to planning a vacation. You know where you want to go and you can picture yourself laying on the beach in the sun and enjoying the rewards of getting there, feeling free and successful. All your planning helped make it happen.

But the hard part for me is overcoming the obstacles that keep me from getting there. I know exactly what I want to accomplish in my business this year, but just knowing that doesn’t make it happen. In fact, overcoming the obstacles becomes the real work and the real success.

I can write down my goals, see them on paper, create a picture of it in my mind and then it becomes a huge leap to get there. I have to face all kinds of inner demons; fears around money and self doubts, not knowing how, and on and on.

There are then only two choices. Either stay safely where I am or face the fears and go for it. Here are a few questions that will help to take the fear out of the process. Insight is always an excellent first step.

1. If you can imagine yourself and your business at the end of 2009, what do you want it to look like and where do you want it to be?
2. What needs to happen in order for that to happen?
3. What obstacles might be in the way of you reaching those goals?
4. What do you need to do to overcome those obstacles?
5. What support do you need to be successful in getting past the obstacles?
6. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to create the business you want?

How to Overcome Obstacles

Some people allow obstacles to stop them in their tracks. Some people permit obstacles to defeat them. But there are others who choose to use obstacles as stepping stones.

Life is not fair. Sometimes there are bumps in the road. Sometimes there are obstacles and roadblocks. Life is not without challenges for everyone. But, it is how we respond to the obstacles we face that determines where our lives go.

Perhaps you've heard someone say that obstacles are life's way of challenging you to improve your own life along the journey. But, honestly, hearing something like that, when you are in the midst of a challenge, doesn't help you or encourage you.

Here are three keys to overcoming obstacles. They are certainly not the only keys, but I really believe they are three of the most important keys in overcoming obstacles in your life.

The biggest key in overcoming any obstacle is to first get convinced that there must be a solution. You may not know what that solution is at the moment, but if you will take that course of thinking, in other words, being solution minded, you are on your way to overcoming the obstacle.

There is no greater recipe for discouragement than for a person to get convinced that there is no solution; no way out. Many times we face what appears at first to be insurmountable. If we accept that, instead of believing that there must be a solution, we will not overcome that obstacle.

The second is to refuse to feel sorry for yourself. Responses of self pity, like, "Why me?" and, "Why now?" do nothing to help you to find a solution. Self pity is a dangerous habit to get into. Constantly feeling sorry for yourself has some very negative effects.

John Gardner wrote, "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality."

Ask yourself if you honestly believe that you are the only one who has ever faced an obstacle, or two, or three. It is part of life. And, getting into the habit of overcoming obstacles will not only be very advantageous when facing new obstacles, but it will direct your life away from unnecessary obstacles.

Yes, there are those who quite literally do invite more obstacles into their lives. People who consistently voice, "Why me?" and, "I never get a break" and, "Why does this always happen to me," are actually inviting more obstacles into their lives. We truly do manifest on the outside what is happening on the inside.

If self pity and feeling sorry for yourself has become a habit, then you must make a conscious effort to stop that kind of thinking. Focusing on finding a solution will greatly help you to get rid of self pity.

The third key is simple. If you can't on your own figure out how to overcome the obstacle, then ask for help. Keep in mind that there is a big difference in asking for help and whining, complaining and looking for sympathy. Sympathy is not a solution.

If you are going to ask someone for help, then ask someone you trust and believe in. Ask someone who you know is not going to feel sorry for you, but rather will help you with some sound advice.

Praying is asking; look above to God for help and advice and asking Him to bring to you whatever it is you need to overcome the obstacle that you are facing today.

It sounds simple, and it really is. These three keys can help you to overcome any obstacle. Remember, there must be a solution, don't feel sorry for yourself, and if you need help, then ask for it.