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?

Here are some ideas on how to break or overcome the barriers that make personal change so difficult.

Breaking Through the Barriers – 6 Steps to Personal Change By Len Strickler

Change is one of those things we all have to live with. “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future,” Irving Janus.

I grew up as the oldest of eight in Philadelphia. My mother and grandmother raised me, and I remember early on my grandmother introducing me to reading. Two books that made a difference in my life were “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen, in which I learned man had dominion over all other creation and the power of thought, reasoning and choice, and “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill; from this one I learned “every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.” You see it is not the circumstances that matter, but how we react to the circumstances. It all starts with one thought which is totally our choice.

The following are six steps to personal change. They all start in the mind with positive choices and we must take responsibility for our thoughts and actions.

1. You must re-program your thinking to change your beliefs. This can be done with positive
affirmations and visualization.

2. Re-Program your beliefs you change your expectations. Positive expectations bring:
Excitement
Conviction
Desire
Confidence
Commitment
Energy

3. Renew your expectations and change your attitude. “Change your attitude you change your altitude,” Zig Ziglar.

4. Renew your attitude and change your behavior. It is all about action and results.

5. Change your behavior and change your performance. The right action and the right results.

6. Change your performance and you change your life. Now you have a habit after 21 days of positive affirmations

Change is the one thing we all can count on. All of us as individuals and leaders must learn to welcome and manage change. If there is no change needed in an individual, then we stagnate and move backwards. In an organization if there are no barriers there is no need for leaders, as they are hired to be change agents. In other words, no barriers, no opportunities. Therefore change is personal, possible and profitable.

For all of us it starts with our thinking and we must strive to stay positive with affirmations and visualization, have a clear plan, believe we can be successful, have faith and take action. Remember when we welcome and manage change we grow, we have confidence and add value to others. What is holding you back: fear of failure, fear of success, procrastination, family, economy? Only you can make the choice to break through. Are you ready to break through your barriers?

Len Strickler is best described as a motivational coach, teacher and speaker who is unquestionably passionate about building, training, and leading remarkably successful sales teams that deliver fast-to-market results. As a sales executive, he has spent more than 25 years helping high-tech, global companies capture revenue to support product innovation activities, seize a competitive advantage, and generate profit fast. He thrives on the challenges and adventures of working in a global environment. He integrates a powerful mix of visionary leadership, collaborative team approaches, innovative thinking, and sales team mentoring and training to deliver enviable sales results for companies interested in shattering sales performance records.

Are you ready to take your company to the next level? Let Len help your company or team “Break Through The Barriers!” Book him today to speak at your next event!

e-mail:lenstrickler@comcast.net

Web site: http://www.lenstrickler.com

Phone: 239-405-3434

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

TODAY’S TIP: Get a copy of “As A Man Thinketh” and read it periodically. You can go to http://www.asamanthinketh.net and download a copy for free or purchase a copy of “Day by Day with James Allen” by Vic Johnson. Day by Day has the complete text of As A Man Thinketh plus some insightful thoughts by Vic Johnson.

Have you read As A Man Thinketh?

Sometimes we allow what others think of us limit the self confidence we feel. Here are some thoughts on that subject.

Increase Your Self Confidence And Stop Caring What Others Think By Lee Tuan James

One of the hardest things to get past is worrying about what other people think of us. Now to totally stop caring what others think about us wouldn’t be right. If one didn’t care at all what others thought, one would be more prone to doing things that would hurt others or be morally wrong. But often we worry more about what others think than we should. A big reason we worry about what others think is because we base our identity on how others see us.

In order to stop caring what others think we need to put things in to perspective somewhat. We only live our lives once, so is it really worth it to spend most of it worrying about what others are thinking about us? As long as we are behaving in a legal and moral way, then what others think about what we are doing is nothing more than their opinion. Opinions are just that, opinions. They are neither right, nor wrong. They are simply one persons thoughts on a subject.

One way to work towards learning how to stop caring what others think is to become more confident in our own choices, decisions and actions. When you become more confident in what yourself and your decisions, then what others think begins to not matter near as much to you. You start to see it for what it is, their opinion. If someone doesn’t like something you wear, or how you cut your hair, that is their opinion. It doesn’t mean you were wrong for wearing the outfit or cutting your hair.

While there are several different methods and ways of learning to stop caring what others think the best one is to simply work on increasing your self confidence. When you are confident in who you are and in the choices you make, then others opinions and what they think cease to concern you. It can be hard sometimes to get that self confidence, but it is one of the best ways to overcome worrying about what other people are thinking. And when you are no longer worried, you are truly free to be the real you.

For those who want to increase self confidence and stop caring about what others think, professional subliminal messages or hypnosis downloads can help one to stop worrying, overcome social anxiety and start enjoying life – quickly and easily.

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

TODAY’S TIP: Self hypnosis can be a powerful tool to help raise the level of your self confidence.

Do you care what other people think of you?

Here are some tips on how to build your self confidence.

3 Tips on Building Self Confidence By Jonathan Kim

How does one build self confidence is a question that most of us keep asking ourselves. The answers are not too hard to find which is why it is time for you to stop being short on confidence and instead you should learn to make use of the best tips on building self confidence.

Hold Your Head Up

Self confidence is all about holding your head up and looking the world straight in the face. It is also about being courageous and learning to be master of one’s own destiny. Fortunately, there are more than a handful of useful tips on building self confidence available to help you build your self confidence. Let’s take a look at a few of them. First of all, it is necessary to set yourself a target and then you must strive to do everything in your power to achieve that target. You have to be willing to bear costs of building your confidence such as distastefulness of the task and tedium involved. Accomplishing your targets is the best way of increasing confidence in yourself.

Take Action

Remember also that inaction is only going to breed fears and doubts. Action will help you breed courage and confidence and instead of pondering upon how to achieve targets, simply set out to complete whatever task you have to do. Action is the key to building confidence in yourself and even if this is not easy you must make an effort to take action.

Fear

Fear is another major stumbling block and is something that is going to cut your self confidence down. Therefore, you need to follow those tips on building self confidence that deal with facing up to your fears. In other words, you have to learn to do the very things that make you afraid. By doing this, you will succeed in gaining courage and strength as well as confidence.

You can face up to your fears in simple but effective ways. You could, for example, begin by being curious. Instead of dealing with fears by building barriers you should be curious about what makes you afraid and then you should take steps to overcome your fears. Remember also that fear is mostly based on wrong interpretations. So, do not take all of your thoughts too seriously because these thoughts could be wrong and misleading.

Among other things, it will also pay for you to follow simple yet effective tips on building self confidence which include learning to understand that events always happen in a certain order. To build your confidence, it is therefore important that you learn about the order in which things happen. There are other useful tips on building self confidence that you should learn about. One such tip is that of learning to be well prepared for events and tasks. If you are not sure about what you are to do, your mind is going to be filled with doubts and fears. On the other hand, knowing what has to be done will build up your self confidence and help you accomplish your task in a more desirable manner.

Now you know why high self confidence is beneficial, it is time to learn how you can become confident now!

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

TODAY’S TIP: Use positive self talk to raise your level of self confidence.

Do you think you can do it?

Many of us are unable to see who we really are. We have a self-image that has been formed by the conditioning of our society, our family and friends. With this conditioning comes a distorted view of who we are.

Many of us spend our lives trying to discover, “our true selves.”  Or at least that is what we tell ourselves we are doing. However I think that we all know who we are on some level and that what we are seeking is not our true selves but the courage to live our true selves.

In our society we have so much pressure to fit in that it is very hard to live as we were meant to live because by doing so we become outsiders, and face the contempt of our fellow citizens.

But, first lets answer the question of who we are in relationship to each other. For me, I am a child of God and a citizen of the Universe. This is how we all start out.

Then we are presented with differences. For instance, I am a man and that brings certain things that will influence how I live my life. I am Black and that  brings other considerations on how I will live my life.

What I am trying to say is that we all have certain conditions brought upon us by the physical characteristics  of our being. These conditions may present certain challenges in life.

We are born into differing environments. Some born with rich parents, some with poor. Some born in China, others in Britain. These differences go on and on.

All of this comes together to form our self-image. Little thought is given to this as we grow up. As adults our self-image is deeply ingrained.

That is the bad news, especially if you have a weak self-image, but the good news is that you can change it. If you choose to do so it will take some effort and discipline but it can be done if you are persistent.

Ask yourself what and who you see when you look in the mirror. If that image is not to your liking, decide to change it for the better.

Decide who you want to be. Let that decision come from your heart, not your head. Have a soul searching honest inter-change with yourself. Ask yourself, What am I here to do? What is the most important thing that I could do to feel fulfilled? Let you heart give you the answers.

After you have decided what image you want to see set your intentions on seeing that person as you. Use all the tools available to you. Last week we talked about self-talk, this is a powerful tool to use in effecting the change. Also there is meditation and visualization.

Your image changes everyday so all you have to do is direct the change in the direction you want it to go.

TODAY’S TIP: If you are not happy with your life, know that you were meant to be happy and change it.

Are you ready to change your self-image?

It is not how the world see us but how we see our self. Here are some tips on how to boost your self esteem with self talk>

Using Positive Self-Talk to Boost Your Self-Esteem By Kenneth Friedberg

When a person such as yourself communicates in written forms or verbally is self-talk. Brainstorming explores your mind to search for new ideas for financial problems, social problems, typically any type of problem that you want solved. A good suggestion is to write down goals you wish to accomplish so you can and will benefit using positive thinking through self talk.

Speaking with yourself will assist in discovering unnecessary stress that you can laugh about later on. A terrific example that most people stress about and this includes you are situations that we all have no control, such as a television program missed. Today most programs are shown again at a later date or can be found on the internet. See, as I said, no need to worry.

Many years ago, way back in the 1960′s people wrote in a stream of consciousness. They let the ideas flow onto the paper and that was self talk. You could say that this was a form of to unravel the problems. You are taking a look see inside.

With setting your goals is actually starting to find your intentions. Searching for the conflicts in your life and to see why there is resistance causing you to be unhappy. Remember it is positive thinking that will release you of the stress.

Take valuable time to gather information about yourself. By doing this, will help straighten you on the right path to discovering any misunderstandings in your life and provide some reasoning to correct. Any misconceptions in running your life should start to clear up. Building a positive relationship with one self is excellent.

This is where you need to recognize that your goals are achievable. This is the point to restore morale and boost your confidence.

Finding relief from stress using self talk will allow you to express those unhappy emotions freely. It is now safe to communicate with yourself and others. It is now you become your own best friend.

Over 40 years of my life has been dedicated to improving my lifestyle, relieving stress and becoming a happier person. We all need to live happier stress free lives. My ebooks will guide you to that higher plane of life. http://www.happyselftalk.net and http://www.beoptimisticnow.com

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

TODAY’S TIP: Keep telling yourself how great and creative your are. If you don’t believe it now, you will.

How high is your self esteem?

Our self talk can either help us or hinder us. Here are some thoughts on how to stop sabotaging ourselves with self talk.

Stop Self Sabotage Instantly By Keith Akesson

Self-sabotage is your number one enemy when it comes to improving your life. You can go to seminars, learn skills and techniques or even be mentored by the best in any given field. But if your inner self-talk tells you, “I’ll never be good at this” or something similar, then somehow your subconscious mind will find a way to sabotage you. Fortunately though, there is a way to put a stop to self-sabotage immediately and permanently. By understanding the marvelous computer-like brain that you possess, you can discover how to do just that.

Better than a super computer

Your incredible brain is far superior to any man-made super computer.  In fact, even a bird’s brain outperforms our best computer.  Can you imagine a computer teaching itself to fly or learn all by itself how to build a nest?

From the moment you were born (maybe even before), your brain started taking in millions of bytes of information every second.  It decided which to ignore and what to keep.  It saved anything that was important to your physical, emotional and intellectual survival.  From that data it made programs and feeds you the appropriate program in the form of inner self-talk as needed.  And it does this all by itself…AMAZING!

What kind of programs?

First, your brain created programs for your physical survival which included how to get food, shelter and stay safe.  Then it started creating programs for your emotional survival.  It took in data that related to your identity, your place in the family, your security, your needs for love, your desire to be happy and your need for purpose.

The problem with the programs

The problem is that these programs were created from a lot of faulty data.  Take for instance when your daddy, in a moment of frustration, said, “Can’t you get anything right?”.  Your brain recorded, “I can’t get anything right” and made that a part of your identity program.  Over the years you heard this inner self-talk so often that you got used to it and you became comfortable with it.  This identity became your comfort zone.

Enter self-sabotage

Today when you take on a new task, and consciously want to do well at it, your subconscious starts up the program again.  You start thinking, “I can’t do anything right. I will probably fail at this too”.  Since your mind is divided against itself, sooner or later you mess up the job and you return to your comfort zone.

Do you understand?  Your subconscious is not your enemy, it is your friend.  It’s job is to protect your identity using the program it has created.  It’s job is also to keep you in your comfort zone.  The problem is that it does not know the program is based on faulty data.  Your subconscious does not know it is working against you. It’s only doing it’s job.

How do we change the program?

Many mental health professionals recommend repeating positive self-talk to reprogram the subconscious self-talk.  It never worked for me, maybe because I have a lot to do during the day and forget to talk positive to myself. This method of reprogramming can be very tedious and difficult.

Thankfully though, like a computer, the brain’s subconscious program can be instantly deleted and just as quickly loaded with a new program without using hypnosis.  This brings your brain into full harmony with itself. The result is that the sabotaging thinking and behavior instantly stops  and your sub-conscious will actually assist you in pursuing your goals to their successful conclusion.

Keith Akesson, researcher, author, entrepreneur, traveler, energy medicine practitioner and personal counselor is the founder of this amazing technique. If you would like to learn more about how to instantly reprogram your negative inner self-talk that keeps sabotaging your efforts to be the best you can be, please visit http://SuddenTransformation.vpweb.com

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

TODAY’S TIP: Start each day with positive self talk. Look in the mirror and talk to yourself.

Have you stopped sabotaging yourself with negative self talk?