Personal Development Community

Anyone who has read a personal development book or attended a seminar will always feel afterwards that they could do with some help and advice to keep going. As Anthony Robbins always says, "You need to keep the momentum going." and this is where most people struggle.

When you leave a personal development seminar you are hyped up and ready to change your life. Within a few days, life has taken back control and you are back in the rut you were in before the seminar.

The people who are most successful at changing their lives after a seminar (or even a book) are those that engage with a personal development community and get support in changing their lives.

Not everyone can take part in a personal development community for all sorts of reasons. If you can find an online personal development community such as www.TalkAboutPersonalDevelopment.com then you can gain all the benefits of a community and meet people with similar goals and ambitions and really transform your life.

Soft Skills Matter Too

It’s time for soft skills - Malaysia Star

Many executives and companies ignore soft skills in the pursuit of technical or business knowledge.

However, if you want to get ahead, then it's important that you spend time developing this other areas of yourself, in order to be the success you desire.

It’s time for soft skills Malaysia Star, Malaysia - 21 hours ago ... of the 962 undergraduates who had gone through the Personal Development Course since 2001 found it highly beneficial, for both personal growth and enhancing ...

technorati tags:soft, skills, business

Where Has All The Time Gone?

We live in a busy society. We may have demanding jobs, children, families and many other “important” things that hoover up all of our time, and before we know it, Christmas is looming once more and we’re muttering about another year just passing us by.

How many times do you say, “I’ll read that book later when I have more time” or “I’ll finish listening to that audio program when I have more time” or something very similar?

You may want to create the life of your dreams, but it just seems so very difficult with so many other things that just have to be dealt with. You may not have the time to spend an hour a day meditating and an hour a day working on your personal development and an hour a day working on your business. In fact, for some of us, we’re lucky if we can even find time to sleep!

However, the key is not the spend time “doing” personal development work, but to just do it!

This means live it; make it a part of your life; something that you do every moment of every day in everything that you do with everyone that you meet.

You can sit on the bus or train to work, close your eyes and work on releasing emotional blocks. You can become aware of what people are reflecting back to you about yourself in your conversations and interactions. Being aware of your problems brings you much closer to changing them.

You may want to find more time to listen to audio programs or some of my hypnosis CD’s. My hypnosis CD’s you can put on when you go to bed to listen to. You don’t need to use headphones to listen to them, nor do you have to be awake. The subliminal versions can be listened to anytime, even when you are working and doing other things; so you can still get the benefit of the programs.

For spoken word programs, what about listening to them on your commute to work? Or if you spend your evening sat in front of the television, turn it off and put one of these programs on instead.

Look at how you are using your time. How much of what you are doing is constructive and something you absolutely must do right now? Are there times you are not doing constructive things? Could you combine activities, for example, watch the television whilst doing something else working towards your future?

Everyone promotes their own time management system. Have a look at a few of them, try them and find something that works for you. This could even be a combination of different systems. It doesn’t matter so long as it saves you times, keeps your organised and helps you to get things done.

At the end of the day, you need to decide what is most important in your life.

Is it more important to do the ironing right now and make sure you don’t miss the latest episode of your soap opera?

Or is it more important to sit down and spend some time planning and working towards creating the life of your dreams?

Working on changing your life can appear to be very daunting, particularly if you are not in the best of places to start with. You look at everything that you want to change and want to deal with and wonder where on earth you are going to start.

In these cases it is best to “chunk” down the tasks and the goals you have in mind. This means break the big goal into smaller chunks, or take baby steps. Take it one step at a time, and before you know it, you will be where you want to be.

How many people get to their old age and say, “I wish I had spent more time at work” or ironing, or watching soap operas, or …

So what can you do to find more time

Look at what activities you are engaged in and decide which you can cut out for the sake of creating the future of your dreams Combine some activities so you are doing more than one thing at a time

Focus on what is important to you. Is half hour in front of a soap opera more important than a half hour working towards your future?

Prioritise creating the life of your dreams

Right now, stop saying, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll sort that out when I have time” or “I’ll deal with that later”. It’s never going to happen; never going to work. Just do it and make it happen right now.

The perfect situation for change will never happen. You will always find distractions, excuses and reasons not to make the changes or take the action. You can spend many miserable years waiting for that perfect situation and you know what? There’s never going to be a perfect situation, only the now.

As the advert for the trainers say, “Just do it”. That’s what you need to do too. Stop planning, putting off and thinking you’ll do something when you have more time. Just do it today

“We are all born with the same amount of time. Nobody will ever get any more than 24 hours in a day; nobody will get more than 365 days in a year. It’s your choice whether you will use this time to create an amazing life or fritter it away uselessly. It is this choice that makes the achievers stand head and shoulders above everyone else. What’s your choice? Jason E. Johns

“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan” Margaret Thatcher

“Look to this day … for yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.” Sanskrit

Confident Public Speaking

A survey of America revealed that people are more frightened of speaking in public than of dying!

How incredible is that? To be more frightened of talking to a few people than of having your life ended.

It’s particularly surprising when you realise just how easily you can overcome your fear of public speaking. Using a program such as Unlimited Confidence can teach you tools to overcome this fear and be able to speak out when you need to.

When you talk about public speaking, people instantly think of standing on a stage in front of a huge audience presenting a lecture. However, public speaking is much more than just that. It could giving a speech at a wedding, doing a presentation at work, speaking out in a meeting, or for a club or society you belong to.

Being able to speak in public will help you to feel better about yourself and can help you get ahead in your career too. If you think about it, as you get higher up the ladder in your career, so you find you have to talk to more people and present; so this level of confidence becomes even more important.

This fear manifests physically before having to speak. It starts off as an anxiety, and then becomes a dry mouth, trembling muscles, rapid breathing, and a need to run to the bathroom. In worst cases it can involve sheer panic and the desire to run away.

So how can you get rid of this fear and feel more comfortable with speaking in front of people?

Firstly, you can practise. The more you do something the more confidence and comfortable you become doing it. You can join a group such as Toastmasters International which allows you to develop your communication and leadership skills. You can also volunteer to speak in front of any group of people too.

The Unlimited Confidence course teaches you some valuable tools to help you become more confident not only speaking in public, but in any situation. You will learn how to

* Instantly boost your confidence in seconds without anyone knowing what you are doing

* Learn how to use body language to convey confidence

* Discover how you can attach confidence to absolutely anything

* And many more practical and effective techniques

You will also learn in this course how to use mental rehearsal to program yourself for more confidence, and this can be applied very easily to public speaking. You probably currently run a mental movie of you falling on your face and embarrassing yourself when you speak in front of a group. If instead of running that movie you saw yourself speaking really well, the audience enjoying it and you get applauded at the end, what do you think would happen?

Of course, I am sure you could think of a number of different areas of your life you could apply this technique to, couldn’t you?

Speaking in front of people is actually extremely easy with just a few small changes to the way you think – and you never know, you might even enjoy it!

Personal Development is about more than the mind!

“Aging Gracefully” With Yoga - The Chronicle

When many people set out on a personal development path, they work hard on improving their mind not realising that there are three key components to personal growth.

There is the body, the mind, and the spirit.

Think of them as an equilateral triangle.  If you neglect any one of the three, then they all come crashing down.

To work on improving yourself, you need to work on all three areas - improve your mind and your spirit, but also work on the body as well.

Yoga is an excellent tool for working on your body because it helps the mind too.  It's a great way to release stress and relax, allowing you to focus more on what you need to do.

The Chronicle

“Aging Gracefully” With Yoga The Chronicle, CT - 6 hours ago ... The class, appropriately named “Aging Gracefully,” is geared toward creating a feeling of safety, well-being and personal growth. ...

technorati tags:yoga, personal, development

Building Your Success Team

Think about anyone you know who is incredibly successful.

Do these people do everything themselves? Do they do it all themselves?

Think of J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. She writes the books, but does she do all the legal work, all the marketing, distribution, printing, advertising and public relations?

No of course she does not.

She has a “success team” around her.

These are people who are experts in their chosen fields. They are probably amongst the best in the world. They are people she trusts implicitly to do the job, with her best interests at heart.

Whilst she may trust these people, she doesn’t just leave them running her empire. She checks in on them, works with them, and keeps an eye on their running of her business.

Any successful person you can think of will have a success team around them.

You too need to form your own success team in whatever venture you choose. Whether it is lawyers, accountants, advisors, mentors or experts, it is vital that you have this team around you.

Quite simply, you can’t do everything yourself. There is no way you can have the level of expertise you need to succeed in all the areas you need.

J.K. Rowling spends her time focusing on what makes her money and what she loves, writing. She leaves all the accountancy, legalities, advertising and everything else to her team of advisors. This leaves her time to do what she is best at, i.e. writing books.

How long would it take her to become an expert accountant and to keep up with the tax laws?

How long would it take her to become an expert lawyer and keep up with the changes in legislation?

By picking a team of advisors to help you and guide you, you give yourself the time to focus on your area of speciality.

So what should you look for in your success team? Someone who

• You feel a connection to and comfortable with
• Is dedicated to keeping up to date with their professional education
• Has an excellent track record in their field
• Has excellent references that you can check up
• Integrates well with the rest of your success team

Where would you find your success team?

The best way is to find them from personal recommendation. Look at other successful people in your field and who is advising them.

Look through the Yellow Pages, call people up and interview them. That’s right, you interview them to see if they are good enough to work with you and of the right stuff. Before you see them, create a list of questions you want to ask them. See how you get on with them and check up on the references they give you.

A success team isn’t just lawyers and accountants, it could also be your “cheerleading” squad. This is friends, family and colleagues who support you and believe in what you are doing. It’s much better to have them around you than naysayers who will drag you down and try to stop you succeeding. Discard them and get your own set of cheerleaders.

Surrounding yourself with a success team will give you the opportunity to focus on what you do best for yourself and your business. Your success team can focus on what they do best, freeing up your time and efforts to become even more successful.

Self-esteem giveaway

Self-esteem giveaway - Frederick News Post (subscription)

I found this article very interesting.  It's quite true - society tends to reward mediocracy these days rather than rewarding excellence?

Why?

Because society doesn't like people who succeed.  Look at the media - anyone who gets into their spotlight is an open target to be shot down by whatever means necessary.

Rewarding people for mediocracy may well make them feel better, but the long term damage from this to themselves and to society is immeasurable.

Self-esteem giveaway Frederick News Post (subscription), MD - 4 hours ago We need some self-esteem police. People should not be allowed to walk around with self-esteem they haven't earned. It can be dangerous ...

technorati tags:self-esteem, confidence

Talk Your Self To Success

There are many things that drive people to success, and a key factor is what is known as ‘internal dialogue’. This is the dialogue that is constantly playing inside your head. It’s the voice that starts talking as soon as you do something, meet someone, or think about anything.

In many cases, this voice can be destructive and knock you down, though it is possible to quite easily harness his internal dialogue and use it to propel you to the success you desire and deserve.

You may notice that on occasion the voice is negative in what it says. For example, you see something you really want to buy and it says, “You can’t afford that.” Or you see someone you are really attracted to and the voice says, “They’re way out of your league, they’ll never go for someone like you.”

Quite obviously, this does nothing to make you life any better. Therefore, why not change the content of the voice? When it says something negative, counter it with a positive suggestion. For example, when the voice says, “You can’t afford that.” Respond mentally in a firm and positive voice with something like, “How can I afford it?” A question that empowers you and propels you into positive action.

This may take some time, and you may notice initially you do not always catch the voice and correct it. However, keep it up and before you know it, you will have changed the negative dialogue into a positive, empowering one.

You can also change the tone of the voice. What would happen if instead of the usual tone of voice saying, “I can’t afford it” you hear the voice of Homer Simpson, or Donald Duck, or any comic character saying it? You certainly wouldn’t listen to the voice and take it seriously, you would laugh at it and it’s power over you would be broken.

This technique can be extended to helping you motivate yourself to do something. When faced with the washing up, what do you hear in your head? Do you hear a whiney voice saying something like, “You really ought to do the washing up or you’ll get into trouble” or a commanding and scary voice saying, “Wash up NOW!”?

What would happen if the voice were a soft and really seductive voice speaking in your head? The sort of voice that gives you shivers down your back. What if it said something like, “Let’s do the washing up big boy.”? How would that motivate you?

Stephen King, the author, uses this technique with his writing. When he has to write he hears this very loud and powerful voice shouting at him as if through a megaphone saying something like, “WRITE NOW!!!!!” It almost scares him in to writing.

However, you don’t need to scare yourself into action. You can change your internal dialogue to be anything you want; whatever works best for you to motivate you and help you to get where you want to be.

Listen to your internal dialogue and play with changing the tonality, volume and tempo to find the type of voice that works best for you. Create a number of different types of voices, one for motivation, one to stop you doing things, one to make you feel loved, one to make you feel happy and so on.

Mastering your internal dialogue is a major key in mastering your life.

Toastmaster Your Way To Success!

The toastmasters way - Express Outlook

As a long standing member of Toastmasters I cannot sing their praises enough to you.

Toastmasters is an outstanding organisation to help you learn and grow.  Many people seem them as a place to learn to speak, but what they offer is so much more than this.

My own experience is that Toastmasters has given me the confidence to run my seminars.  It has given me the tools to be able to do this in an excellent way.  Toastmasters has given my a platform to practise my seminar techniques and refine them.

More than this though, Toastmasters has given me the chance to grow personally.  Currently I have the Education Vice President, and I am learning about how committee's are run.  I'm also learning organisational and leadership skills from this too.  My confidence levels have increased to a stage where now I will talk to anyone about anything, and trust me, I used to be the shyest person you can imagine.

If you visit www.toastmasters.org you can find your local club and I strongly recommend you go along if you want to grow and improve your confidence.  Every club will be very open and welcoming to you as a guest and you can see what they are - and before you ask, Toastmasters International has nothing to do with red-coats!  They are probably the most affordable and best self-help program on the planet!

Express Outlook

The toastmasters way Express Outlook, Mauritius - 31 minutes ago ... they advance. A positive learning environment fostering self-confidence and personal growth leads to better job performance. This ...

technorati tags:toastmasters, self-confidence, confidence