Blog for Self Improvement

You want to change your life and be more successful but you’re living in a world where you are immersed in negativity. Your friends are negative about your desires to succeed and don’t support you. You need to find ways to spend more time with positive people who will help you to achieve your goals. Here are a few personal development tips to do just that…

The people you associate with will influence your thoughts and decisions to a great extent. Your future is created in your mind through the decisions you are taking today. Your level of success, your level of income in the future is directly related to the people you mix with today.

If you mix with mainly negative people, or people who pour cold water on your ideas for changing and improving your life, your motivation and drive to make those changes will suffer.

If you want to be more successful then you need to spend more time with supportive people who have already achieved what you want and less time with the naysayers that are already in your life. Try these personal development tips in your life:

1. Stop associating with negative people. There are probably several people in your life who are very negative. If you carry on associating with these people all you are going to get is more negativity every time you meet them. Stop meeting with them.

2. Minimise the impact of people you have to live with. It may not be possible to stop meeting everyone in your life – you may have a very negative boss or a negative life partner for instance. Find ways to minimise the impact of these people.

3. Choose your friends carefully. Look for positive people who have some of the characteristics that you want to acquire. Spend as much time as you can with them, learning how they do what they do, why they do it, what’s important to them and how they decide to do what they do.

4. Find a support group that you can join. For example the world of weight loss has many such support groups. Do some research, is there a group that can help you with your goals? A good support group is very effective at immersing you in a positive environment with like minded people.

5. Find a mentor or coach who can become an “unreasonable friend”. Someone who will challenge you and keep you on track for your goals and who will always be there with a positive attitude for you.

6. Read books, listen to tapes and watch videos by successful people. You can turn your car into a haven of positive thinking as you drive around by listening to tapes from positive thinkers.

7. Use your imagination. Napoleon Hill, one of the great success experts imagined that he was sitting at a table with 9 wise figures from history – his “invisible councillors”. He did this every night, drawing on their knowledge to develop his own.

With these 7 tips you can choose to change the company that you keep. You can start associating with positive people who are going to help you with your personal development and success. Remember the quote from Zig Ziglar: “You can’t fly with the eagles, if you continue to scratch with the turkeys”.

By: Kevin John

Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Would you like some more personal development tips? Download my latest e-book here Secrets of a Millionaire Mindset . Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to achieve success.

The world is made up simply of energy. That is right … what causes the beats in our heart, what makes our minds work, what gives us those feelings is simply energy. Buddha talks about enlightenment and Buddhist Monks will spend this and the next life time learning how to become enlightened or more importantly how to ascend our spiritual body into the next.

So, what is death?

I have seen many people die around me, both family and friends. I watched the transition of my own grandfather from being a strong fit man to one that literally withered before my eyes. Yet within the pain comes a reality that as we become closer to death we also have the chance to make the transition from this form to another. Whether it is a form that lives within us or one that occurs on the moment we die, none of us know till the day it happens.

You know the really cool part about all of this. All of the critics no matter who they are and what they think they know can say with 100% certainty as to what happens not just when we die but when we meet the point of enlightenment and ascension.

It amazes me that as every person gets older, regardless of their beliefs, regardless of how hard nose they are or whether they believed in God or not, they all search for that point of knowing that there is something out there greater. Our own mortality and I guess our own arrogance wants to know we are going to go some where greater and that what we have done will continue on. Every single person I have seen or met believe as they get older, in that greater being or at least the hope there is something greater out there and that this is not the beginning and the end. I have even seen some of the most powerful men in this world, mellow as their own frailty hits them they search out for that spiritual being to help them in their transition.

I have heard many critics across the planet criticize the Buddhist monks who have dedicated their lives to path of enlightenment. I have even heard those same critics on the death bed of monks sit and laugh at them saying how foolish they were to have dedicated their lives to such foolish conquests. That there lives have been nothing but a waster of time. But have they …

This is a question that only you and I will be able to answer the day we reach enlightenment but what a journey it will be…

So, what is the starting point in the path to enlightenment …

The path to enlightenment is an exploration of yourself and who you are. Most Buddhists will start this path through prayer and meditation. In fact, regardless of what you call it, prayers or praying, it is all a form of meditation. This meditation (or prayers) are designed to take you to that state in which you get in touch which your feelings and belief with something greater. It is designed to break you away from your state of being.

Many people recommend, including many of the Buddhist Monk leaders, that we should meditate for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, preferably longer to help relax but as you begin to study what meditation is all about and the forms of meditation, you will find that this length of time will be know where near enough. You will find that meditation is about that search for enlightenment and the path towards this thing we call ascension. You will feel sensations and experiences you never expected, it will also open up your ability to change your own life.

Meditation is the facilitator in helping you reach inside of you. See without meditation you can not reach to your inner soul to explore your inner self. Essentially, to break the bounds we have with the physical world.

All right, so this is getting spooky or the things hippies talk about. Let us try this …

Think of a song you really really like that gives you goose pimples, where it uplifts you and you feel the energy surging through your body, that you feel happy, search for those emotions … got one … well one of the songs that does that for me is “A Groovy Kind of Love” by Phil Collins. Now start off by putting your song on and listening to it. Sit on the ground, cross your legs, breath slowly and listen to that song in its entirety. Block out all the other noise around you, simply focuses on the words as your mind clears.

What do you feel …

Let go of the words … do not focus on them … focus on your inner self. Can you still feel the goose pimples, can you feel the energy surging around your body. Okay, so now imagine this, being anywhere in the world, simply stopping, without any music or tools, meditating, searching within your inner self and feeling those exact feelings. Being able to create and control those feelings on your command. That is right; using meditation will help you on that path. How cool would that be?

Being able to do just this simple task is the first step you will take in your path to enlightenment. It is about being able to control you inner self, letting go and eventually being able to break the bounds of the physical world. That takes practice, study but more so, a lot of experimenting. There is nothing anyone but you who can do this. This path is within you.

A word of warning … the path to enlightenment will take a lifetime to master … and probably a few after. Look at the Dalai Lama, he is still on his path to enlightenment, and many lifetimes on. But hey, what a journey it will be. Imagine what you can do … imagine what lies on your path to life, your future, your eternity.

About the Author: Looking for other resources to help you with your meditation, we have Meditation Music (Baroque Music), Meditation MP3 and Simple Meditation Exercises

Source: http://www.easyarticles.com

Some of the barriers to successfully learning a new skill are: understanding that it takes time and being aware of just how your learning is progressing. Knowing the four stages of learning can help you to better understand how you are progressing with developing your new skill or knowledge.

Sometimes you have to put aside some time to learn a new skill to help you on your journey to success. If you don’t understand how long it might take, you might end up losing motivation because of the your apparent lack of progress. Recognising that there is a process you are going to have to go through and planning enough time to get through it will help you to stay motivated all the way to your goal.

There are four main steps to the learning process. You will need to go through at least some of them and probably all of them on your way to mastering your next big challenge.

If you are learning something completely new that you have never tried before then most likely you will start at the level of Unconscious Incompetence. What this means is that you know nothing about the new skill you are trying to learn and you can’t do it anyway. This is the most frustrating stage.

If you have ever learned to drive a car this is the stage where you sit in the driver’s seat for the first time and everything seems unfamiliar and strange to you. Suddenly learning to drive looks much more daunting.

Don’t give up at the stage of Unconscious Incompetence, with a bit of effort you can through this stage to…

Conscious Incompetence Now you’re trying the new skill and you know you’re not very good at it! Like driving a car on the road for the first time, it can seem very overwhelming. There’s so much to remember – accelerator, brake, mirror and there’s all the obstacles to avoid as well. You’re going to need some practice before you move to…

Conscious Competence You’ve mastered the basics, you know what your doing and how you’re going to do it, provided you pay attention to what you are doing you are competent in the new skill.

In our car driving analogy, you are now a new driver who can go out onto the road solo for the first time. That’s a great achievement, but don’t stop here, keep practising, there’s one more vital stage…

Unconscious Competence You’re a true master of the skill. You can do it effortlessly and easily any time, any where. It has been estimated that you will need between 1000 and 5000 hours of practice to get to this stage so it’s a big investment in time, but it’s worth it!

An Unconsciously Competent car driver can drive their car, manage the accelerator, brake, avoid the person who cut them up and at the same time, hold a conversation, drink coffee, do their makeup…

You’ve read about the four stages of learning: unconscious incompetent, conscious incompetent, conscious competent and then unconscious competent. Remember, these four stages apply to anything that you are trying to learn – a new manual skill, new knowledge, changing mental habits. Know and understand them and assess how many of them you are going to have to go through before you start your next round of learning.

IF you take the time to plan your learning you will find you will be able to learn more quickly and be more likely to maintain your motivation through the learning process.

By: Kevin John

Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Would you like some more personal development tips? Visit my website for more resources, articles, and support materials about success and personal growth here. Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to achieve success.

Learning effectively and efficiently requires some basic learning skills. In other words, we need to learn how to learn. Here are some ways to develop those skills.

1. Identify what is essential. This is one of the most important learning skills to develop. If you are learning to drive a car, getting used to the steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal are essential, right? All the rest can come later.

Knowing the essentials helps you make sense of all the rest. If you are studying economics, for example, you need to understand supply and demand. Then it is easier to understand how good weather can depress commodity prices, or how government spending can drive prices up.

How do you identify what is most essential? A simple way is to ask, "What is important here?" We often forget to do this. Ask yourself this question, but ask others too, if they are teaching you. In textbooks, the key points are often listed after a chapter. Read these first, and again after reading the chapter.

2. Relate new material to what you already know. Suppose you are a doctor, for example, and you are reading an article about car maintenance. Finding parallels between the two, like the concept of dirty oil and a blood toxins, will help you remember what you learn. Do this enough and you'll train yourself to automatically look for connections between things. You'll think more creatively, and improve your memory, because having more connections makes it easier to recall things.

3. Compare and contrast. Think to yourself "That's like this," or "How is that different from this?" This process categorizes and arranges facts and ideas in your mind, making them easier to access later. It is like using a mental filing cabinet instead of just piling things up on a mental desk.

4. Expose your mind to new material before you feel "ready," or have time to study. This first part of learning is where you look at new ideas and say, "huh?" Do it quickly, reviewing everything for a few minutes, and your unconscious mind will start "incubating" the new concepts, and finding some way to organize them.

5. Get curiosity and anticipation working for you. How do you create this state of mind? Try to leave each learning session with a question or two clearly in your mind. It will help create a sense of anticipation and curiosity that will help you the next time you approach the material.

6. Study as a teacher. This can totally change your perspective and make your learning more efficient. Keep the idea in mind that you will be teaching what you're learning. Imagine how you will teach it, even hearing the words you'll use. This is one of the more powerful learning skills.

7. Take breaks. Research shows that we remember best what we study first and last in a given session. Taking breaks creates more "sessions," and so increases the number of firsts and lasts. Fifteen or twenty minute sessions followed by two or three minute breaks works well for some, but experiment.

8. Imagine the uses for what you are learning. Of all the information you will be exposed to, so little of it is the "important stuff." However, by imagining how you'll use the new information, or at least how it could be used, you will tend to automatically focus on the things you really need to know.

9. Carry a list of the above tips and refer to it until these learning skills have become an automatic part of your study routines.

About the Author: Copyright Steve Gillman. For more on Learning Skills, and to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts, visit:
http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com

Source: http://www.easyarticles.com