The best advice one can take is to work on manifesting one’s dreams one step at a time. Just as one goes on a journey, one step at a time.

What is the starting point? The starting point is where ever you are. Remember that you are exactly where you should be and need to be. Just move forward one step at a time. It does not matter how big the steps only that they are forward.

We know that you may occasionally have to take a step back. By doing so you will get a boarder view of the situation, then move forward. We may also have to take a sidestep, just keep your eye on the prize.

The first step or stage on the road to success is contemplation. This is the planning stage. This is the time to sit and decide what it is you want and to gain clarity of goal and purpose. There is no set time frame for this step. It will take as long as it takes.

It is important not to rush this step. This is a time for soul searching. The clarity will only come from self honesty and clear thought. Only when you are crystal clear and feel it in your heart are you ready, go on to the next step.

The next step is preparation. This is another step that should not be hurried. You will be preparing on several different levels, mental, emotional, and physical. Work on your vision so you can see your dream as it would be realized. Work on feeling what it would be like once you have achieved your goal. Also start to gather those things that will aid you on your quest.

Remember, your thought process is like a hourglass. It starts the process then narrows until you have your solution. This is the time to stop the process and go on to the next step. If you do not and continue to think about it, the process begins to broaden again and you become bogged down with indecision.

Once your heart tells you that you are ready then it is time to take action. This is usually the hardest step because with it comes fear. The natural fear of unknowing what will come. Confront the fear and take action. Start your plan and do not worry about whether it is the right thing to do.

If you take a wrong step you can step back, re-evaluate and move forward again. If you do not take action nothing will get done. The more you take action the smoother and easier the flow will become.

Once you have established your flow you only have to maintain it. This is done with continued planning and action. Remember that anything you can see in your mind you have what it takes to make it a reality.

TODAY:S TIP: Reinforce your determination daily with affirmations and visualizations.

What step are you on?

We have talked about the big four and now lets talk about some other tools that you may find helpful in manifesting your dreams. The more tools you have, as long as they are useful for the purpose you seek, the better you are.

The first tool I want to talk about is very helpful in strengthening your visualizations. That tool is a vision board. Find pictures to represent the things you want to accomplish. Place them on a cork board or other type of board and place the board somewhere that will be visible, like in an office or other room where you spend time.

If you do not have a space where you can put a vision board, or even if you do, place copies of those pictures around the house, like on the bathroom mirror and in your car. The more often you look at your pictures the better. When you look at them imagine how you will feel and act when you have them. This strengthens the desire which speeds up the process.

Another tool is to make a PowerPoint presentation of your pictures and create a shortcut to the file on your desktop. Every time you turn on your computer, run you presentation. Run your presentation several times during the day. Again the more the better.

Find yourself an accountability partner. It can be a spouse or friend. Keep them informed as to your plans and dreams. Meet with them at least once a week and go over your plans. Tell them what you will be accomplishing that week and at the next meeting let them know if you did or did not fulfill your plans.It would be helpful if that partner was on a similar quest. That way you could act as each others accountability partner.

Knowing that if you do not attain your weekly goals you will have to admit it to someone else gives you more incentive to keep on track. The closer this person is to you the better this works.

The last tool I want to talk about is Mastermind groups. Join a Mastermind Group that is dedicated to similar things as you are. If you cannot find such a group then start one. The value of Mastermind Groups cannot be overstated.

Not only will such groups help to keep you motivated and on track, but can offer suggestions as to how to enhance your progress. They can even help to give you more clarity and offer ways of achieving that you may not have thought of. The power of any group increases the power of each individual involved.

Your Mastermind group should meet regularly. Try to meet on the same day each week or every other week. You may not want to meet more often than weekly. Your group may become unproductive and dissolve.

TODAY’S TIP: Organize your activities and days to take advantage of as many of the tools presented as possible.

Do you keep your eye on the prize?

Have you heard the saying that you are your thoughts? Everyone hold a running conversation with themselves. It is only when you start talking out loud that you run into problems. What do you talk about?

Unfortunately most people’s conversations with themselves are, for the most part, negative. I suggest to my clients that they do a little experiment. I tell them to get a 3 x 5 notebook and take it with them at all times for two weeks. Then when ever they think about it to write down what they are thinking about at that time.

At the end of the two weeks they are to review their book. Most find that the great majority of their thoughts were non productive and negative. I then tell them to begin to make a conscious effort to direct their thoughts in a positive direction.

I recommend that you do the same thing. Keep a log of thoughts for two weeks and then begin to direct your thoughts in the direction you want them to go. One of the tools to do this is self talk.

We talked about Mohamed Ali talking to himself in front of the mirror as a young teen. He was engaged in using three of the tools we have talked about. He was using visualization because he saw himself in his mind. He was using affirmations because he repeated his phrases over and over. He was also using self talk because he talked to himself in front of the mirror and when he wasn’t in front of a mirror.

Affirmations are a form of self talk, but it is not all there is. You can go beyond affirmations by holding conversations with yourself to enforce and strengthen your future visions of where you want to go and be.

Tell yourself how much you love yourself. We are taught that self love is somehow wrong. It is not self love that is wrong, it is self conceit that is a problem. You must love yourself or you cannot love another.

Keep telling yourself how your life will be when you have achieved your dreams. The more you tell yourself, the more vivid your visualizations will become and the sooner your dreams will be achieved.

Spent as much time as possible holding these conversations with yourself. Just don’t start talking out loud in public. However speaking out loud when you are alone increases the effectiveness.

TODAY’S TIP: Don’t pass a mirror without looking into it and into your eyes and saying something nice about you.

What are you going to tell yourself?

The third major tool in your quest for realizing the the Ultimate Healthy Lifestyle is affirmations. This is another very powerful tool when used correctly.

Muhammad Ali is a perfect example of the power of affirmations. In his autobiography he tells of standing in front of the mirror when he was about 11 or 12 years old. He would tell himself how great he was and what he was going to accomplish in life. He did not know what he was doing but you can see the results. He did indeed become the greatest.

It is said that if you repeat something long enough you will believe it. This is one of the techniques of our society. We are told something so often that we will begin to believe it whether it is actually real or not. This is often the way public opinion is formed.

With faith and perseverance affirmations can be used to instill beliefs that we want to believe in our minds. With the discipline of affirmations we can gain control over our thoughts and destiny.When practiced with the other three disciplines of meditation, visualization, and positive self talk; there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

The wording of your affirmations is all important. Your affirmations must be in present tense. When you use phrases such as; I will or I want, you leave room for doubt. Your Universe will interpret your affirmations as something you will want sometime in the future and not act on them.

You want to use positive words as I am or I have. The universe then knows that you want it now and will begin to assist you in obtaining your desires.

Repetition is another very important factor. The more you repeat your affirmations the sooner they start to become a part of your reality. Some say that you must repeat your affirmations 36,000 times before they start to become effective.

This means that if you repeat them 1,000 times a day it will take you 36 days before you start to see changes. For this reason you want to repeat your affirmations as often as you can through out the day.

The most powerful times to go over your affirmations is first thing in the morning, preferably before you get out of bed, and the last thing at night. At night it is again preferable that you be in bed and ready for sleep.

The reason for this is that the mind is most receptive and clear when you first wake up in the morning. At night your mind is also open as you relax for sleep and you carry those thoughts into your dream state, where they can be worked on at a higher level.

TODAY’S TIP: Repeat your affirmations while you are walking or doing other tasks that will allow you to set up a rhythm. For instance, I repeat, I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am wise in time with my steps while I am running.

I AM, are you?

To truly enjoy the Ultimate Healthy Lifestyle you will have to come out of your comfort zone. You must risk and set your intention to enjoy life. As the saying goes, “if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.” This means you must change.

The Ultimate Healthy Lifestyle is a disciplined lifestyle. You must become a disciple of life and put forth the energy and discipline to make your life work for you. Discipline can be difficult at first but becomes easier as you maintain it.

Today we will discuss some of the tools you can use to make it easier. The most important ones are what I call the big four. They are meditation, visualization, affirmations, and positive self talk. With these four you not only establish a pattern of daily discipline, but you also establish a rhythm of progress towards the life of your dreams.

With meditation you gain control over your thoughts and body. Set aside time for meditation at least once, preferably twice, a day. Try to do it at the same time and same place each day. It does not matter what discipline of meditation you practice, only that you be consistent. Commit to six months practice because it will take several months before you feel that you are accomplishing anything. In six months you will begin to experience miracles in your life.

You can incorporate visualization into your meditation settings. However you do not want to spend all the time you have set aside for meditation for visualization. If you have set aside 30 minutes you may want to meditation for 20 minutes then visualize the last 10 minutes.

Use affirmations through out your day. Your affirmations should be in present tense as if they were already true. The most powerful beginning of any affirmation is, “I Am.” The most important times to repeat your affirmations is when you first get up in the morning and just before you go to bed. Repeat them as often as you can during the day.

Positive self talk is a very powerful way to change your reality by conditioning your mind to except the things you want for yourself. Talk to yourself about how you want to be as though you already were that way. Tell yourself you love you and appreciate you. You always talk to yourself so why not make it productive?

TODAY’S TIP: Meditate outdoors when possible, in as natural a setting as you can. Pine trees give off the most positive energy of all trees.

Does this help?

Ask yourself this question; Do you have some beliefs that do not serve you? The answer is probably yes. Most of us do have some beliefs that take away from our lives. Some people have beliefs that they are not worthy enough to enjoy the finer things of life. Others let guilt stop them from reaching their full potential because of something they did in the past that they believe was wrong.

To practice the ultimate healthy lifestyle it is necessary to get rid of those beliefs in order to move forward towards a more satisfying life. Can you change your beliefs? The answer is NO! You cannot change a belief. You must replace the belief.

You must replace the old non-serving belief with one that does serve. To do that you must first of all want to replace it. As hard as it is to believe, some people do not want to let go of the old belief because it serves a purpose.

I once had a client whose guilt manifested itself in sickness. In her mind she wanted to be healthy. In her heart she was punishing herself for things she had done in the past. The things she had done were not wrong or bad, they were simply the best that she could do at the time. She did not see it that way. She also had another advantage to being sick. Whenever she was faced with something she didn’t want to do; she would say, “I can’t do that, I’m sick.” One day, when she was miserable enough, she decided she had enough and started to make the changes in her mind that allowed her to improve her life.

Don’t wait until you just can’t take it any more. Start today to clean out the mental and emotional garbage and start building a future that you can be proud of. A future that will bring you joy and a realization of those dreams that have been floating around in the back of your mind.

How do you do that? You do it with affirmations and visualizations. Each day take at least 10 t0 20 minutes to sit quietly and see your life as you would like it to be. Write out a script of how you would act and talk when your dreams come true. Read your script as often as possible. As you read it, read it with feeling. Feel as you would feel and experience every aspect of the experience; the smells, tastes, thoughts and sights.

Also put together a statement that says what you want to be. For instance, if you want to believe that you are worthy of more out of life; you might say something like, “I am worthy of love and the finer things of life.” This is just an example, be creative. If you can, start with “I am” because that is the most powerful form of an affirmation. Write your statement on a 3×5 card and carry it with you. Read it when ever you think of it.

I will cover the subjects of affirmations and visualizations in future post but I encourage you not to wait. One of the things I hope to accomplish with this blog is to encourage people to become proactive and seek out the information and help that they need to improve the quality of their lives. Life is precious, you do not have time to lose. Once it passes you can’t get it back. The sooner you start making your life what you want it to be, the more joy and satisfaction you will experience.

TODAY’S TIP: If you drink bottled water, think about a good water filter for the home. Not only will it save you money but it is healthier water. By law bottled water is processed with a method called reverse osmosis which takes everything out of the water, even the good things like minerals. A quality filter will remove the harmful substances but leave in some of the minerals. There are several quality filters on the market that are reasonably priced.

Are you ready for change?

Today I present the thoughts of another on the subject of giving.

How You Can Feel Good Simply by Helping Others By Ronnie Nijmeh

It’s very easy to get caught up in our own to-do lists and never-ending activities, but one of the best things you can do is to help other people. This forces you to step outside yourself and see the world through another person’s eyes. Why is this important? When you help others you have the opportunity to learn new things, and you also have a chance to see just how see how blessed you are for everything in your life, even the not so good things.

By using positive affirmations, you can find the motivation to help others on a regular basis and experience that special feeling of fulfillment. When you are able to genuinely give a helping hand, it will be a very fulfilling experience. If you feel like you are too busy or that no one in your life needs your help, sorry to say it, but you’re clearly mistaken!

Give a Helping Hand and Feel Good About Yourself

We all have busy lives, but if we stopped and helped others a little more often, we would live a much more fulfilling life and build that sense of community that we have long lost.

Think about how many times you have driven by your neighbors house where the trashcans are still laying out after trash day, why not give your neighbor a helping hand? Wouldn’t you like that in return?

Or, consider things closer to home such as helping your spouse iron their clothes for work or helping out with other chores around the house. You have opportunities in your every day life to help people and feel good about yourself and positive affirmations can remind you of this.

Relationship affirmations are simply statements that summarize the type of behavior that you would like to exhibit. A simple affirmation in this circumstance may be, “A helpful friend is an indispensable and fulfilled friend. I am that person!” Sounds simple, right? It is! If you repeat the affirmations several times a day you will make it a reality in your thoughts and actions. Who doesn’t want to be considered indispensable and fulfilled?

Positive affirmations are easy to start using and they will cost you absolutely nothing. Free positive affirmations are widely available, including in the resource box at the end of this article. You can also make your own affirmations, so long as they are positive and in the present tense.

When you believe in affirmations you are giving yourself permission and the power to change your life. Instead of simply standing by and watching those in your life struggle with something, you can cut their burden in half and chip in and help get things done. After all, what good are your skills and talents if you hoard them all to yourself!

Helping doesn’t even mean that you have to go out of your way; it just means that when you have those opportunities that you seize them and make someone’s life easier.

We all pass up opportunities to help other people each day. How many times have you seen someone drop something and you just keep going? Or what about the person who is lost and unsure of directions? These are simple situations where you could help out and if you are missing that fulfillment in your life, you can begin by creating a positive state of mind through affirmations.

Through positive affirmations you can develop better relationships with the people around you and you’ll also feel fulfilled in a way that you may have never been before. Free positive affirmations give you the opportunity to enrich your life in new ways every day.

Ronnie Nijmeh is the president and founder of ACQYR.com, a motivational website with free wallpaper downloads, positive affirmations, motivational articles and much more. Visit now to read positive affirmations and personal reflections.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ronnie_Nijmeh

TODAY’S TIP: Get into the habit of helping those you come in contact with each day. Remember small things can mean a lot.

Have you helped someone today?

Everything begins in the mind. If you see it and believe it, you can make it happen. Here is infomation on using self hypnosis to enhance weight loss.

Loosing weight has never been so easy before self hypnosis for weight loss was introduced.

Think thin with self hypnosis for weight loss program and become lean. How many times have you heard,” what you think is what you are.” Seemingly miraculous powers of self-hypnosis heal you emotionally and physically. Food cravings are minimized and so is sweet craving which is a hurdle in weight loss activities. Many phobias and traumatic experiences have come to an end with hypnosis and regression so self hypnosis for weight loss is an effective way of treating weight.

To get started with self hypnosis weight loss program one must practice self hypnosis first. There are many people who believe hypnosis is done only by psychiatrists or magicians. Even normal office going people like you and me can practice self hypnosis but it takes some time. Will power has nothing to do with self hypnosis for weight loss. One cannot go into self hypnosis by trying hard but it just has to happen.

Ways for self hypnosis to weight loss

Find a peaceful place and time of the day when you are not disturbed. One must be in a relaxed state of mind.

Go into a deepening process i.e. a deeper way of relaxing where you are not disturbed by any noise whether outside or inside your head.

When you reach at the other end of deepening i.e. when you are in a trance state and your subconscious is functional. In order to practice self hypnosis for weight loss say these things to your self, “I am eating less and becoming more slender every day.” “Food is becoming less important to me every day and I am filling my time with more important and meaningful pursuits than eating. It is getting easier and easier to pass up desserts and other fattening foods . . .”

Self hypnosis for weight loss is not achieved in one day or a week. For some people it takes longer, longer than weeks or months. It all depends upon how well you are able to stop thinking and achieve deeper relaxation level. Self hypnosis for weight loss teaches not only to say to yourself you are thin but make your subconscious believe in that and you actually will be

TODAY’S TIP: Visualization and affirmations will help you emprove all areas of you your life. This is self hypnosis.

What do you see?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain ~

I received a comment on my blog post “Do you live in a dream world”. I think  the comment reflected a common theme among many people. That is, they do not have a dream.

Dreams are a part of the human experience. However, by the time we reach adulthood life will sometimes have caused us to forget our dreams. The traumas of childhood and growing up with feelings of low or no self worth or esteem can bury our dreams so deep that it will seem as if we don’t have any.

Think back on the dreams you had as a child. I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I would have rather played baseball than eat. When I was in my last year of high school, because of our financial situation, I had to go to work. My last year I went to school and worked full time. I no longer had time to play ball. I was so disappointed that I never picked up a baseball glove again, not to this day.

There was a time I wanted to be a policeman, but at that time they had weight and height requirements. I was tall enough but weighted less than the minimum weight requirement.

Those are only a couple of the dreams I had growing up. I can remember having an argument with my step father because I told him that I wanted a Cadillac car. He felt that I should not be dreaming such dreams, after all we were poor.

Luckily for me I did not stop dreaming. The dreams changed over the years but I am still dreaming and desiring more out of my life.

What were your dreams as you grew up? Did they fall by the wayside because of the pressures of living? Well if they did, it is now time to bring them back to life.

First of all take a look at your self and your life. Ask your self why is it that you do not have a dream. Don’t you feel that you are worth the best that life has to offer? Don’t make the mistake of looking to others and what they have to determine the best that life has to offer. The best in your life is for you only.

If you don’t believe you deserve a better life, why not? What is holding you back from wanting and desiring more for yourself and those around you?

Develop a process that will lead you in the direction of renewing your dreams. Use tools such as meditation, visualization, affirmations and positive self talk to enforce and reinforce the divine aspect of your humanity. Rediscover who you are.

You were created in the image and likeness of God. You are the creator of your reality. Start taking back your power and create the reality that you want.

Life is for living and the indicator of if you are living is how happy you are. Discover your joy.

TODAY’S TIP: Tell yourself daily that you love you and you deserve the best that life has to offer.

What do you think of yourself?

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” ~ Mark Victor Hansen ~

I think we all struggle with motivation. I am sometimes referred to as a “motivational speaker.” In reality lasting motivation comes from within. Here is an article that may help.

MOTIVATION, THE HEART OF SELF IMPROVEMENT

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negatives the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…

A – Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.

H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.

L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.

P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.

Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.

U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

TODAY’S TIP: Use positive self talk and affirmations to build and maintain motivation.

Are you ready for success?

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