Tag Archives for " motivation "

14 Life Fulfillment Reality Check

Part two of our reality check exercises includes examining the following 11 categories in your life.  Rate yourself from 1 – 10 in each of the categories listed on the chart below.  1 is low – it couldn’t be any worse than this.  10 is high – it couldn’t get any better than this.  Don’t overanalyze your response.  The right score is what pops into your head first.  Next, choose a higher number for a 6-month goal.  If you choose a “10” it may be a sign that you are in denial.  It’s difficult for anything to be perfect.  Big goals are good, but they must be based in reality.

My Overall Satisfaction.  What does satisfaction mean?  Do you enjoy getting up in the morning?  Do you enjoy your life?  Do you feel satisfied?  Do you think you deserve to be happy?

My Energy Level.  Are you naturally energetic?  Do you get enough sleep at night?  Do you stay up too late or all night then drink coffee, soda pop, or energy drinks to stay awake?  Do you get high to get through the day?

My Spiritual Connection.  Do you feel connected to a higher power in whatever way you define it (God, Universe, Trusted Source, Spirit)?  Do you have activities in your life that help you stay connected?  What do you do to nurture this connection — hike, spend time in nature, meditate, participate in religious activities, and so on?

My Health.  Are you healthy in mind, body, and spirit or are you ignoring your health?  Do you see a doctor and a dentist when you need to?  And what about your mental health?  Are you feeling good or are you depressed?  Are you angry all of the time?  Do you ask for help when you are feeling depressed or angry or do you just suffer?

My Nutrition.  Do you eat healthy foods or do you stop at the gas station to get junk food?  Do you drink lots of soda pop and eat at fast food restaurants or do you eat real food like meat, vegetables, and fruits?

My Exercise.  Do you take the time to exercise on a regular basis or are you more of a couch potato gaming, watching TV, or texting your friends all day and/or all night long?

My Connection to Family.  What is your relationship with your family?  Do you feel connected to them?  Do you love your family?  Do you feel that your family loves you?

My Connection to Friends.  Do you feel connected to your friends?  Do you love and respect your friends?  Do you feel that your friends love and respect you?

My Integrity.  Integrity means you follow through with what you say you will do with others and with yourself.  Do you keep your agreements with yourself and with others or do you make commitments and not follow through?

My Finances.  Do you save your money and spend it wisely or do you buy things on a whim?  Do you waste money on things you don’t need?  Do you have a bank account?  If you have a bank account, do you know how to manage it?

My Contribution to the World.  Are you helping others or are you only out for yourself?

Directions:   For each category in the “My Life Fulfillment Reality Check”    chart, rate each category on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “I really need to improve a lot.” and 10 being “I’m doing fantastic!”  Total the columns and answer the questions below.

Now, add up the scores for your current reality and your 6-month goal to get a clear picture of how much work you have to do.  Having a realistic picture of what your life is like and how you feel about it can be very empowering if you use the knowledge gained to make some positive changes.

Did anything about this exercise surprise you?

Can you identify any areas that you can begin making improvements in right now?

What steps are you willing to take to make these improvements?

23 Become An Inspiring Leader

Can you explain to people WHY you do what you do? What moved you to start your business? What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

Author Simon Sinek describes what he calls the Golden Circle of Communication. According to Sinek, communicating the why first is communicating from the inside out and “people don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.”

He presents this key to becoming an inspiring leader in a Ted Talk which you should listen to, it’s brilliant.

Sinek explains that your best customers and clients buy from you or hire you because they believe what you believe. He reminds us that Martin Luther King didn’t give an “I have a plan speech,” he gave an “I have a dream speech” and within that speech he talked about what he believed.

People didn’t necessarily connect with Martin Luther King the man, they connected with what he believed because it was the same thing that they believed. He believed that people should be treated equally under the law and that was his why.

The why that drives me forward is that I believe that all teens and young adults should have the opportunity to have the life of their dreams regardless of their life experience or current circumstances, and in light of the current economic situation, I believe we need to help them find alternatives to jobs.

Why do you do what you do?

0 20 Entrepreneurship Proverbs: Ancient Thoughts on Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Welcome to day 29 of the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series. I ran across these 20 ancient quotes from several different cultures that I believe are worth pondering. They are all related to the entrepreneurial mindset and include thoughts about integrity, responsibility, failure, attitude and more.

Which one speaks to you the most? Is there one over all the others that you needed to be reminded of right now? Or one that you find inspirational or motivational?

1. “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese Proverb

2. “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese Proverb

3. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” Chinese Proverb

4. “A bad workman blames his tools.” Chinese Proverb

5. “A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.” Chinese Proverb

6. “Defeat isn’t bitter if you don’t swallow it.” Chinese Proverb

7. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.” Chinese Proverb

8. “A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.” Chinese Proverb

9. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Chinese Proverb

10. “The loftiest towers rise from the ground.” Chinese Proverb

11. “Building a castle is difficult. Defending and maintaining it is harder still.” Asian Proverb

12. “A person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.” Chinese Proverb

13. “All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws.” Chinese Proverb

14. “Don’t stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net.” Chinese Proverb

15. “Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.” Hasidic Proverb

16. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Chinese Proverb

17. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Chinese Proverb

18. “Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.” Chinese Proverb

19. “Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.” Chinese Proverb

20. “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Confucius

8 Get Moving: Think Change – Lesson 17 in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series

According to management consultant John Murphy, “motivation means movement.”  It means reaching inside of ourselves to find the power that we all have to move forward, to make a difference, to advance ourselves and the people around us.

Motivation means going places, doing things and not standing still.  By putting our attention on change, growth, improvement, education, experimentation, adventure and discovery, we energize and enrich ourselves.  We are creating the momentum we need to power confidence and self-esteem.

When we do the opposite by staying the same or maintaining a fixed position, we lose energy and find ourselves mired in the same place, being stagnant and outdated.  This opens the door to fear, doubt and overwhelm with the world around us that is changing.

It doesn’t take a miracle to change.  It starts with a decision.  Decide to make a change.  Make a commitment to try something new.  Make an effort to expand your horizons and learn new things.  Open your mind and broaden your scope.  It seems like the decision should be a no brainer – adapt and thrive or fall behind.

Remember what Albert Einstein said, “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity.”

If what you are doing isn’t working, for goodness sake, change what you are doing.

4 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Find Motivation

Today’s lesson is an exercise in finding motivation to move forward to create your dream life by building a business based on your passions.

The benefits of a lifestyle are many.  Let’s take a look at nine of them and see if you can come up with any others.

The greatest benefit of having a lifestyle is that it gives you the freedom to do several things.

#1:  focus on what is most important to you. Typically, people with a workstyle have jumbled lives.  A jumbled life leads to self-abuse and lots of stress.  People with cluttered lives normally have disorganized minds.   Chaos in thinking leads to burnout and eventually can lead to self-destruction and illness.  Who do you know that has a cluttered life?  Is it you?  Someone in your family?

Your goal is to create a simple lifestyle.  The acronym KISS can help you remember.  It stands for Keep It Simply Simple.  A simple life gives you:

#2:  freedom of time.  Look back at the pie charts you did where figured out how much time you actually spend on things and compare it to the time you want to spend on things.  Can you find a way to simplify the things you do to create more time?

Simplicity leads to:

#3:  more energy.  A simple life gives you the time to focus on your purpose, gain clarity, and to get the results you desire.

A simple life also leads to

#4:  balance and harmony.  It gives you the time not only to create financial freedom, which is the fifth benefit of a lifestyle.

#5:  financial freedom provides the opportunity to focus on the sixth benefit which is:

#6:  happiness and health.   If you have money, you can focus on having fun, eating in great restaurants, having the equipment and tools you need related to any sport, hobby or recreation you love and so much more.

A simple life allows you to focus on:

#7:  fulfilling work.  Doing work that you love that also helps others benefits us in ways that speaks to our heart and soul and makes us very happy and satisfied.  It also gives you time to create the eighth benefit:

#8:  positive habits which include eating well, exercising, and having more fun.  It also gives you the time and resources for:

#9:  giving back to your family, friends, community, and the world.  Can you imagine starting a successful business that creates enough wealth to be able to hire family members, friends, neighbors and others to help them have a better life?  You can become one of the real job creators.  You can donate money to your favorite charity or help your community improve..

As you think of all of these benefits of simplifying your life so you can live a lifestyle, can you think of any other advantages you would like to add to the list?  Let your imagination free here.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.