Burn the Ships

One of the keys to reaching your goals is to eliminate any escape routes. It is tempting to retreat to safety and comfort when challenges and difficulties arise. To avoid turning around and abandoning your goals, you must make going forward more compelling then going back.


When striving towards a goal, you must focus on what you want to obtain and avoid the impulse to go back to what you know and to what is comfortable. When Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico, one of his first orders to his men was to burn the ships. Cortez was committed to his mission and did not want to allow himself or his men the option of going back to Spain. By removing this option, Cortez and his men were forced to focus on how they could make the mission successful.


Eliminating an escape route creates a compelling reason to focus on the goal and to keep moving forward. However, it is important to keep in mind that although Cortez had his men burn the ships, he did not have them burn the food and supplies. Cutting off an escape route to increase motivation and create the desire to press on where you might otherwise give up is totally different from throwing caution to the wind and taking undue risks. Reaching your goals still requires prudent planning and managing. All goals contain a certain degree of risk, but it isn't necessary to create undue risk and stress by not properly planning and thus lacking the necessary tools and supplies to achieve your goal. Take risks, but don't be careless or foolish and simply hope that everything will be okay.
Before you decide to burn your ships, make sure you have the supplies and tools necessary to achieve the goal. Something like quitting your job might sound like a good way to close the escape route, but it might also be a fast way to bankruptcy if you don't have resources to carry you through. Creating a savings account balance or having a journey job (a job that is a stepping stone to what you really want) allows you to take the risk of leaving your current job without creating undue risk. I once took a six-month leave of absence from a job while I was deciding if I wanted to move to a different state. Although it was difficult making the transition as I was very homesick, once I found a job in my new location, I resigned from the job I had waiting for me because I knew it would be too tempting to go back.


Close off the escape routes and make sure that you have a compelling reason to move forward. However, at the same time, make sure that you plan for the risk and have the tools, supplies and resources you need to achieve your goals. You can't eliminate risk but you can plan for it. Don't just jump in without thinking through the process and having a solid plan for moving forward. 

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Learn how to motivate yourself

"Motivation will almost always beat mere talent."
~ Norman Augustine

I truly believe Augustine's words are true and if you look at history you know it is true. There are many people in the world with amazing talents who realize only a small percentage of their potential. We all know people who live this truth.

We also know those epic stories, those modern-day legends surrounding the early failures of such supremely successful folks as Michael Jordan and Bill Gates. We can look a bit further back in time to Albert Einstein or even further back to Abraham Lincoln. What made each of these people so successful? Motivation.

We know this in our gut, but what can we do about it? How can we motivate ourselves? One of the most difficult aspects of achieving success is staying motivated over the long haul.

Motivation is not an accident or something that someone else can give you -- you are the only one with the power to motivate you. Motivation cannot be an external force, it must come from within as the natural product of your desire to achieve something and your belief that you are capable to succeed at your goal.

Positive pleasure-oriented goals are much more powerfulmotivators than negative fear-based ones. Although each is successful separately, the right combination of both is the most powerful motivational force known to humankind.

Here are some tips and methods for motivating yourself:

~ Use a past defeat as a motivator. Remind yourself you have nowhere to go except up as you have already been at the bottom.

~ Give yourself the power of responsibility. Remind yourself the only thing stopping you is yourself.

~ Make a list of your achievements toward your long-term goal and remind yourself that intentions don't count, only action's.

~ Do it today. Remind yourself of someone you know who died suddenly and the fact that there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come.

~ Let success motivate you. Find a picture of what epitomizes success to you and then pull it out when you are in need of motivation.

Reflect and experiment until you find the right combination of motivators for your personality and your personal goals. I'll leave you with this final motivating quote:

"What drives me? The thing that drives me most is the desire to find my limits--and extend them." ~ RichardMarcinko

Now go push your own limits and succeed! 

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What's Your Excuse for Not Being Successful in Life?

Excuses! Excuses! When we fail to do something we are expected to do, we almost always have an excuse for it. However, if we analyze it closely, an excuse is a self-destructive alibi for having failed to do something, especially when it involves attaining a goal. Instead of trying to persevere in finding ways to continue achieving a goal, some of us resort to excuses.

Even a handicap cannot be used as an excuse. Many handicapped but determined people have become achievers and champions. Instead of using a handicap as an excuse, let us turn it into an asset. Let us explore this further.

A handicap need not be a reason for failure. On the contrary, a handicap can be a reason for success. People with a handicap always have an offsetting strength that allows them to overcome problems better than others.

A person with a handicap has one obsession - to lead a normal life. Depending on the handicap, a person would prefer to be as independent as possible. So he struggles and finds ways to overcome his impediment. When he is able to achieve his goal, this raises his self-esteem. In turn, he inspires others.

Everybody has handicaps in varying forms and degree. That is why; it requires effort and determination to overcome them. Handicaps can either be physical, financial, or emotional. And they can either be real or imagined.

Whenever we look at a handicap, we almost always look on the negative side only. It's about time we take a look at the positive side of it. The positive side may be the difficult side, but it's the one worth looking into. It's the side that is going to lead us to excel in life.

If you think your handicap is physical, like having a weak body, you can counteract this through proper diet and training exercises. As long as the physical parts of your body are intact and mobile, there's no reason why you cannot make it strong and useful. Why? Even those without a leg (for example) can be made to walk or run normally. With the advancement of science, artificial legs can help a handicap function with great mobility.


It your handicap is financial, then the more reason you have to rise above your present status. And if your financial status limits your educational attainment to improve your life, the school is not the only place to learn. Certainly, there are help centers to get you started even from zero level. Once you are initially warmed up with the basics of an education, the rest is up to you. Make use of libraries. Once you are educationally equipped, use your brain and come up with creative ideas to improve your life.

If you are emotionally disturbed with negative thoughts, it is like you are sitting on a chair with wobbling legs. Try sitting on a chair with sturdy legs; meaning, look at the bright, positive side of life. Put aside negativity and start thinking positively. The only one who can stop you is yourself.

If your handicap is a combination of any of the physical, financial, or emotional type, congratulations. You should strive more to overcome them, because a double layer of perseverance results to more than double the achievement. Where the odds are greater, the prize gets much bigger. After all the efforts you have exerted, the prize of success shall be a well-deserved one.

So what's your excuse for not being successful? 

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Employees - Money Is Not The Only Inspiration

How to inspire employees to perform better and continue retaining their loyalty with the company? Ask this question around and the first option may be given as to raise the pay. Is raising the salary the only method of inspiring employees? Let us look at some others that can make a difference.

The first thought of money and inspiration means that we subconsciously compare our employees to machines. Add more fuel, maintain and it will perform better but that is for machines. Humans are certainly not machines. If money was the main motivating factor, you would not find people working forhumanitarian and non profit causes without any money in return.

So when we think about motivating employees, we have to first look at them as thinking emotional beings with aspirations, their personality contradictions, and all the pluses and minuses of a human being. How does a thank you change the mood, especially when it was not expected? Thanking can change the mood totally, because by thanking we are acknowledging the goodwork done by some one. That acknowledgment is a big reward. I appreciate the good work being done by you and I thank for all the help that you have been to me and the organization. Send such a note once a month or so and watch the performance sky rocket.<
Sorry. Yes I agree that this is a advice repeated umpteen times in as many articles. But I am still writing this because we forget about it. Many times, in our frustration and anger, we tend to forget that our anger is being released on a third party. The worst part is that we forget to say sorry. Sometimes, rather than a plain sorry, we should call the employee and discuss about the problems we were facing that gave rise to our anger. Make him/her a partner in your agony and say sorry. You will get not only a satisfied employee but sometimes a goodfriend for life.

Employees are as human as bosses are. Once employees realize that bosses are people of high character they would automatically get motivated to work with the company and for the company. Motivating them becomes difficult when we are ourselves lacking in some appreciable human quality. The golden rule should be to make yourself worthy of respect and you will not only get co-operation but a team that works for you to achieve a common goal. Good Luck. 

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Motivation as a Result of Feedback

A common challenge leaders and managers face in today's work place is the question of; "How do I keep my team motivated?" Over the past seventy years motivation has been the topic of much research. From Maslow's needs-hierarchy to Skinner's reinforcement theory, the question has remained the same. "How do we as leaders create a feeling of interest, a reason for doing something or behaving in a certain way?"

Many factors have been taken into consideration when looking at motivation theory. However, the general conclusion has been, motivating factors vary from one person to the other. Something that highly motivates one individual may be of no concern to another individual. None-the-less, I have chosen to discuss one motivating factor that seems to be fairly uniform in the work place. This factor is feedback.

In most facets of life people seek to feel valued, and it should come as no surprise that the work place is not an exception to this phenomenon. Thus, leaders must know how to properly bestow feelings of value in their employees through the use of feedback. In order for feedback to be effective the message must be relevant, specific, timely, valuable, and accurate. To provide a basic example, have you ever tried to train a puppy? If so then these five aspects of effective feedback should not seem foreign to you. When the dog performs the desired behavior, reward or feedback must be specific, relevant, accurate, and timely to insure that Fido is still aware of why he is being rewarded. We also want the reward or feedback to be valuable, meaning the feedback is something that Fido finds gratifying. Due to our effective use of feedback, the next time we tell Fido to sit, he is going to be much more motivated to repeat the action. Let's not get confused; human beings are much more complex creatures than animals. However, very similar principles apply when it comes to using effective feedback with people Let's now look at an example in the work place. Jane Smith is a valuable asset to your team. She is always on time, exteriorly creative, gives exceptional customer service, and has great employee relation skills. You, as Jane's manager, recognize Jane's exceptional work and determine she should receive a "pat on the back". How do you insure that this "pat on the back" is indeed effective feedback? First identify exactly which area of Jane's exceptional work you are going to commend. A statement such as, "Jane, you are doing a great job" is not nearly as motivating as "Jane, you really set the bar with your customer service. You received six compliments from customers this week!" Next, provide the feedback soon after Jane has acted in a commendable manner. Finally, provide the feedback in a genuine style that you have determined to be valuable specifically to Jane. Jane has now received relevant, specific, timely, valuable, and accurate feedback. She can now return to work feeling appreciated, motivated, and prepared to continue working at a commendable level.

In short, feedback can be a very powerful motivator as long as it is administered effectively. Although each industry is going to be different it is still beneficial for employees to know their work is noticed and appreciated. When feedback is used motivation should increase thus, so will productivity. 

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The True Price of Success

Standing in the gale-force winds, the kid was looking queasy. We could all see the storm was growing more intense.

The rain had already plastered his hair to his forehead and his new black suit was starting to cling to him in ways Mr. Armani never intended.

A typhoon was coming -- the seventh this summer to hit Japan -- and the kid's job, as newest employee, was to stand in front of a TV camera while the weather buffeted him about for the nation to watch. Sort of a talking weather vane. 

I take my exercise along that stretch of beach every day, and today one of the most powerful typhoons on record would soon be upon us. I knew I couldn't stay too long, or I'd be caught in the wind and the torrential downpour. I'd make my walk extra-brief this day.

But the television crew had a different assignment.

They, and many other crews like them, are dispatched in satellite equipped trucks to many well-known sites all over Japan. These crews provide live reports on the progress of the storms as they rip their way up the Japanese archipelago. 

And the kid in the black suit was their sacrificial lamb today. It was his job to get out there, once the storm reached its peak, and do a show and tell. That's what the people huddled at home want to see, and sponsors will pay well to bring them exactly what they expect. 

If you've watched a lot of news over the years, you'll know that the greater the devastation, the higher the viewer ratings. That's the way it works -- more destruction means more interest.

In fact, you may recall that Dan Rather got his big break into national news by doing exactly what this kid was doing -- standing stubbornly in a raging hurricane and giving moment-by-moment reports to the viewers at home.

The networks find it's profitable programming to report on all the destruction, disruption and deaths.

But before we get off on an "Ain't-It-Awful" tangent, let me say right here that this scene I've just described carries one of the richest lessons you'll ever gain. 

Typhoons and hurricanes cause huge disruptions. Your humanitarian heart empathizes with those caught up in the tragedies; aches for them; wants to reach out with succor and aid. 

And I do applaud that urge to give comfort and help to those that life dumps on. The feelings are normal and proper. 

But I suggest that sympathy alone, no matter how heartfelt, is a one-dimensional (even a poverty-ridden) way to respond to the world. 

Sympathy can be a good thing, but often it's only a cheap imitation of caring. If it doesn't lead to action, it's basically worthless for anything but show.

However, it's possible to add a second layer of responses, a layer that involves going out and interacting with that world you're so empathic with. 

Furthermore, since you've been seeking some way to gain wealth, let me say this. You've just found it. 

It's called action.

Action -- appropriate action in response to the problems and tragedies you see around you can make you not only a better person, but a very rich one as well. It can allow you to provide far greater aid to those in need than you could ever accomplish with an aching heart alone. 

And the profits from your actions will help you stay in business long-term so you can continue helping your fellowman. 

Now, you may already be running a business. If so, you're providing people with some kind of solution to their problems. Are you being well paid for your solutions? 

If so, that's good. 

But if you're not being well rewarded for your efforts, there are only three possible reasons. 

1. You're not telling enough people about yourself.

2. You're not very convincing because you don't believe you're very good at what you do.

3. You may not be solving problems that are big or urgent enough. This is probably the most common limit.

The biggest need today is for people who will do what you and I can't (or won't) do for ourselves. This includes people who make us feel better.

Consider the relative public value of a heart surgeon versus a sales clerk. A captivating entertainer or sports figure versus an office cleaner. A brilliant attorney versus a typist.

It's not my intention to demean anybody who is fulfilling any useful role in society. But the smaller paydays almost always go to the person who is more easily replaced. If nearly anybody can be quickly trained to do the job, there's lots of competition for that slot, and so the price goes down.

And the high-profile jobs like brain surgeon, trial lawyer, pro ball player, or CEO of a multinational -- well, most people won't ever try for those spots, meaning there's less competition. So the people who do try for these jobs can charge whatever the traffic will bear.

This is basic economics, right? We already know all of this. But if we already know it, why do we so seldom apply it to our own life? Why aren't we qualifying ourselves for the absolute top spot in our respective industries?

In many cases, it's because we unthinkingly shy away from "responsibility." We're scared of a bigger role... a higher profile. We keep ourselves small because... well... we just do, that's all. For example, can you tell me exactly why you're not the top authority in your industry? Can I tell why I'm not?

We do know the answer to that, though, don't we?

It's basically cowardice. We're scared spitless of making ourselves uncomfortable through doing things that we're not sure we can do perfectly. If we tried something big and super-ambitious, oh my goodness, what if we didn't do it very well?

We don't like to take chances. Don't enjoy big measures of ambiguity in the things we do. So instead, we plod along like cows coming in from the pasture at evening, regular as clockwork, utterly predictable -- and dependant upon whomever feeds us at the end of the day.

Cows don't take big chances. Neither do sheep. They stay close to the same territory day after day, year after year, clustered together, acting just alike, grazing placidly, never having any grand adventures. There are few opportunities in the fenced-in pasture. Just eat and sleep and grow old.

Ah, but the venturing soul slips through the fence, goes into unknown territory, and seeks out new things to do. Among us humans, we admire most the men and women who push past the barriers to new territory. Record-setting athletes. Inventive new artists and writers. Bold leaders who set new directions and escort the rest of us into new fields. Explorers in medicine, literature, flight, business, sports.

People who go out seeking new places to find, new levels to achieve, new problems to solve.

If you want your income and your life to expand, you're going to have to explore. Go out there past the edge of what you already know, past the comfortable, to a place where you're unsure what your outcome is going to be.

You, in a very real sense, become a gambler. But you will be gambling on the only thing in the universe that's worth the action -- yourself.

It has been said that the real reason for becoming rich and successful is not the money or the fame. It's the joy of being the person you have to become in order to achieve those goals of yours.

Know this: You'll never achieve those goals as you are now.

You really must become a whole different person. A bigger person. A stronger, more capable person.

And how do you do that? You stretch yourself. You make yourself uncomfortable, and you stay that way until you grow into it.

That's the true (and only) price of success.

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Helen Keller: A Teller and a Seller

What are the odds of someone doing extraordinary things if that person lost their sight, hearing and speech at nineteen months of age? Helen Keller overcame enormous disadvantages to influence the world. Although her teacher and mentor, Anne Sullivan, achieved great results with her, ultimately, Keller's success was up to Keller.

How many of you feel sorry for yourselves because you can't do something? Keller had so many reasons to wallow in self-pity. She was born in the late nineteenth century and did not have the technical advantages that physically-challenged people now have. Keller made the most out of her situation.

Here are a couple of examples of how Keller succeeded:

1. As a little girl, Keller said, "Someday, I shall go to college."

Keller received her Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1904 from Radcliffe College. How many of you have been persistent enough to earn a bachelor's degree? Congratulations to those who have earned a Bachelor's degree, like Keller did. If you earned your degree, you could have given plenty of reasons to have given up on earning your degree. What was Keller's excuse? She didn't have an excuse! Keller, blind and deaf, graduated cum laude.

2. Keller wrote about a dozen books

Some of Keller's published works include The World I Live In; The Song of the Stone Wall; Out of the Dark; My Religion; Midstream--My Later Life; Peace at Eventide; Helen Keller in Scotland; Helen Keller's Journal; Let Us Have Faith; Teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy; and The Open Door.

There are many current and aspiring writers who are struggling to finish just one book. Keller's works inspired many people because of her major disabilities. How many people can you inspire through your written works? Every one of you has a unique story to tell and it's waiting to be read.

Most of your five senses are operational. Keller only had three operational senses. She learned to speak at age nine with help from Anne Sullivan. Keller's determination to avoid major obstacles to deter her is one of the most inspiring things about her. The next time we are having it rough, think about how rough a deal Keller had and all of the accomplishments she had. 

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Success Steps For Your Personal Or Business Life

Fact: Success is something of which we all want more.

Fact: Most people believe that success is difficult.

Fact: They're wrong - it's not!

Success isn't really that difficult. There is a significant portion of the population here in North America, that actually want and need success to be hard! Why? So they then have a built-in excuse when things don't go their way! Pretty sad situation, to say the least.

For those of you who are serious about having more, doing more, giving more and being more, success is achievable with some understanding of what to do, some discipline around planning and execution of those plans and belief that you can achieveyour desires.

The Truth About Success

The first thing to remember about success is that it is a process – nothing more, nothing less. There is really no magic to it and it's not reserved only for a select few people. As such, success really has nothing to do with luck, coincidence or fate. It really comes down to understanding the steps in the process and then executing on those steps.

There are basically six key areas to higher achievement. Some people will tell you there are four while others may tell you there are eight. One thing for certain though, is that irrespective of the number of steps the experts talk about, they all originatefrom the same roots.

From my perspective then, here are the six key steps:

1. Making the decision

2. Clarity - developing the Vision

3. Focus – having a plan

4. Commitment – understanding the price and having the willingness to pay that price

5. Belief – believing in yourself and those around you

6. Taking action – practice Ready, Fire, Aim…

Making the Decision

If success is a process with a number of defined steps, then it is just like any other process. So, what is the first step in any process?

Making a decision to do something – this is the first step. We all know that nothing moves until someone makes a decision. The first action is always in making the decision to proceed. This is a fundamental step, which most people overlook.

So, make the decision to move forward. Commit your decision to paper, just to bring it into focus. Then, go for it!

Clarity

Having clarity of purpose and a clear picture of what you desire, is probably the single most important factor in achievement. Why is Clarity so important?

Without clarity, you send a very garbled message out to the Universe. We know that the Law of Attraction says that we will attract what we focus on, so if we don't have clarity, we will attract confusion.

Consider the following analogy:

You are going on a cruise, but when the ship sets sail, you discover it has no rudder. What happens? One of 3 things will occur:

1. You will sail along until you collide with an immovable object, after which you will sink to the bottom

2. You will run aground and become hopelessly stuck in the mud

3. You will drift aimlessly until you arrive back at the original dock

Trying to go through life without clarity is similar to sailing a rudder-less ship – no good thing can or will happen!

The sad thing is the majority of people have no clue about what they truly want. They have no clarity. When asked the question, responses will be superficial at best, and at worst, will be what someone else wants for them.

So how do we get clarity? Simply by asking ourselves lots of questions: What do I really want? What does success look like to me? Why do I want a particular thing? How will this achievement change my life? How can I use this success to make a difference for others?

Introspection is the trick. Understand what you want, why you want it and what it will do for you. This is a critical factor, and as such, is probably the most difficult step. For this reason, most people never complete this aspect – then wonder why life is so difficult!

Once you have a clear understanding of what you want, it is critical that you engage in goal setting – specificallysetting SMART goals.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Sensitive - S-M-A-R-T. Knowing what you want and setting SMART goals as mileposts on your quest cannot help but give you clarity!

Focus

Focus is having the unwavering attention to complete what you set out to do. There are a million distractions in every facet of our lives. Telephones and e-mail, clients and managers, spouses and kids, TV, newspapers and radio – the distractions are everywhere and endless. Everyone wants a piece of us and the result can be totally overwhelming So, how can we stay on course with all the distractions in our lives? Willpower is a good start, but it's very difficultto stay on track simply through willpower.

The best way is to develop and follow a plan. Start with your goals in mind and then work backwards to develop the plan. What steps are required to get you to the goals? Make the plan as detailed as possible. Try to visualize and then plan for, every possible setback. Commit the plan to paper and then keep it with you at all times. Review it regularly and ensure that every step takes you closer to your Vision and Goals. If the plan doesn't support the vision then change it!

Along with your plans, you should consider developing an action orientation that will keep you motivated to move forward at all times. This requires a little self-discipline, but is a crucial component to achievement of any kind. Before starting any new activity, ask yourself if that activity will move you closer to your goals. If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider doing it at that time.

I coach my clients to practice the 3 D's – Defer, Delegate or Delete. Can the particular activity be done later? Defer it! Can it be done by someone else? Delegate it! Does it need to be done at all? If not, consider deleting it! Posing these questions will help to keep you focused on what is truly important!

Commitment

Commitment is something that comes from understanding that everything has its price and then having the willingness to pay that price. This is important because nobody wants to put significant effort into something, only to find out after the fact that the price was too high.

The price is something not necessarily defined as financial. It could be time, effort, sacrifice, money or perhaps, something else. The point is that we must be fully aware of the price and be willing to pay it, if we want to have success.

Belief

This is perhaps the single biggest obstacle that all of us must overcome in order to be successful.

We all carry a lot of baggage, thanks to our upbringing. The majority of people carry with them, an entire series of self-limiting beliefs that will absolutely stop, and hold them back from, success. Things like "I'm not good enough", "I'm not smart enough", "I'm not lucky enough", and the worst, "I'm not worthy" are but a few of the self-limiting beliefs I have encountered. We carry them with us like rocks in a knapsack, and then use them to sabotage our success. So, how twisted is that?!?!

The old expression is absolutely true – whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!

One of the main areas that I work on with my clients is shedding these non-supportive beliefs and replacing them with beliefs that will help them to accomplish their desires.

It is truly amazing the damage that we, as parents, can inflict on our children. So why do we do it? For the most part, we don't do it intentionally or with malice. In the majority of cases, the cause is a well-meaning but unskilled or un-thinking parent, who says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and the message sticks – as simple as that!

And it's not just parents that are the cause - teachers, friends, clergy members or anyone else that has influence in a child's life can be a contributor to these self-limiting beliefs!

The bottom line is that we must shed the bad and replace with good beliefs.

Taking Action

"Nothing changes until something moves" – this is the battle cry of author and journalist Robert Ringer. And he is absolutely correct. Not all of the decision-making, clarity, planning, focus and belief in the world, will get you to where you want to be, without taking action!

Action – putting your plans into play – that is what will get you to the destination. Don't get caught in the paralysis of analysis, or in the conundrum of Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim…

Get the oars in the water and start rowing. Execution is the single biggest factor in achievement, so the faster and better your execution, the quicker you will get to the goals!

Conclusion

So, there you have it; the six steps that will help you to the fabled land of achievement and success! You now have the opportunity to push ahead and reach your potential. No more excuses - make the commitment to take action TODAY!

Figure out what you want, put a plan together to achieve it, understand the cost, believe in yourself then go and get it! 

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Motivate Your Motivation

This week you finally did it. You brought the gym bag out of storage and joined a spinning class. Or, you finally decided to quit smoking. Or, you bought that juicer and have vowed to start eating healthy. Whatever the goal is, you finally have what it takes – motivation. 

And so you plunge ahead. Until…

Until that point in time when the big motivation train starts losing its steam. When you're just too tired to go to the gym after work. When you decide "just one" cigarette wouldn't hurt. When you look at that juicer and that mound of carrots and kale and decide it's easier just to have a glass of milk

If only you had it like the good old days. You remember the good old days, don't you? The days good old Mom used to nag you to do your homework, nag you to write your term paper, nag you to go to soccer practice, nag you to stop biting your nails. Ah, Mom, the original Life Coach. 

You now find yourself faced with two options – give up like you've done so many times in the past, or give your motivation a kick in the butt with the "Magic 30 Minutes." 

Don't let the name fool you. The "Magic 30 Minutes" doesn't require you to purchase either a rabbit or a hat. Although it's so simple you'll feel like you've pulled a rabbit out of a hat. The "Magic 30 Minutes" is that 30-minute period between waking and falling asleep, where your mind begins to shift from a waking state, through a light trance state, to a sleeping state. That's right; you actually go into a light state of hypnosis before going to sleep.


Used effectively, such as reading a pleasant story to children before they sleep, the mind is filled with positive images, which helps promote positive thinking. And, since you're already in a light state of hypnosis, your subconscious is most suggestible to positive and negative suggestions. Unfortunately, most people use the "Magic 30 Minutes" ineffectively, watching the news before retiring, thus filling their minds with crime, tragedy and fear - very negative suggestions indeed.

So, how can the "Magic 30 Minutes" help motivate your motivation? Simple. Thirty minutes before falling asleep write out positive affirmations to yourself about whatever goal you'd like to achieve, such as "I love my body and will treat it well, like going to the gym or drinking a glass of fresh vegetable juice." Repeating one's positive affirmations are good, but since the act of writing involves using many different senses – touch, sight, thought – writing out your affirmations sends an even stronger message to the subconscious, resulting in quicker positive changes.

Utilizing the "Magic 30 Minutes" can work with motivation for any goal, can boost confidence and self-esteem ("every day in every way my confidence grows"), and can even be used to attract prosperity to one's life ("I am open and receptive to a more prosperous life"). You have no more excuses. Just five minutes of writing affirmations before going to bed can change your life.

Of course, if you'd prefer to move back in with Mom… I didn't think so. 

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