The Power of Focus - Living On Purpose

You create conflict and uncertainty when your highest values and natural abilities conflict with the work you do and the actions you take. 

Your purpose is the big picture and your goals are the stepping stones. To fully capture the sensation of being alive and experience peace of mind you will need to to align your daily goals with a well defined purpose.

This brings us to the last strategy from the The Power of Focus, Living on Purpose. I have really enjoyed sharing this power book with you and I hope you've enjoyed this series as well. What I've shared has been a mix of my personal take-aways from The Power of Focus along with the strategies straight from the book.

Whether you want to develop success motivation habits, develop powerful positive thinking or create positive change it all starts with a journey. That journey is to learn and to continue to learn all lifelong. The single most important thing that successful people do is learn. You mind is your single greatest asset in your journey for personal happiness. 

Is this all there is?

Are you at a crossroads? Are you sensing a void in your work and a deeper hunger for something more out of life?

Everyone at various levels of life hunger for hunger for meaning in their lives. We all need to feel deeply that our lives matter at that we are making a difference.

At the center of your purpose the personal power to make a difference, the live according to what matters most to you and the ability to make the most of your every waking moment of your life.

When you are clear on the why for living you don't have to worry about how to live and what to live for - T. L. Pierce, Upgrade Your Mind

This is your task for the journey: To answer your "why" for living by establishing a clearly defined purpose. When you adopt a lifestyle that is driven but purpose you create opportunities to enrich others and make a difference. You purpose will always serve the greater good of others. Any purpose designed to serve yourself at the expense of others is not true purpose. Consider your purpose your true work in life.

What is your work?

Your natural talents and gifts are indicators of what you are created and designed to do. Your desires and passionate interests are glimmers of what is possible for your to pursue. I believe that there is not desire given to you that does not have accompanying it the power of see it realized.

Learning to Live on Purpose
Ultimately the law of sowing and reaping and the golden rule provide some inspiration for why you must pursue purpose for your life. You must exercise your gifts in the service others and service to others will in some way be found in your purpose. Your purpose is designed to naturally incorporate the Law of Sowing and Reaping because the more you give then the more you will receive. The way you treat others is the way you will ultimately be treated.

At the end of your gifts, calling and purpose is a life waiting to be changed - T. L. Pierce, Upgrade Your Mind

The best that life has to offer you will be found in the service of others. After all, isn't most wealth gained by providing a service to others? I'm not just talking financial wealth. I'm talking about wealth of health, relationships, peace, happiness and more.

Your purpose is a gaze into your future. It is a picture of what you are willing to pursue - T. L. Pierce, Upgrade Your Mind

What you see determines how you feel and what you desire. You must behold what inspires you.
What are doing with your life?
What is your life's work all about?
What will be your legacy when you life is over?

Here are 3 key points to activate your purpose:

1. Align your purpose with your natural ability. Discovering your natural abilities is part of your life's work. It is part of the game. Align your work or your purpose with your natural abilities and gifts. When your work and your abilities aren't in sync you create a crossroad of conflict. You can eliminate that through proper alignment.

2. Be determined. Don't get distracted or subject to the influence of other people. Stay on track and stay with it. Sometimes it will be lonely. Only when you give yourself to your work will your gift make room for you. Grab a hold of a singleness of mind and commit to doing whatever it takes to fulfill your purpose and your life's work.

3. Maintain a humbleness attitude. Don't allow and unhealthy ego over ride your good intentions. You don't have to be concerned with fame and fortune and you shouldn't be. Individuals who have the greatest and most positive impacts on society aren't concerned with fame and fortune. For every purpose and vision there is provision. Your needs will more than be met and abundance will follow your purpose in overwhelming amounts when you allow your calling to serve others.

Discovering Your Purpose

You need to spend the time necessary to discover your purpose. The first thing you must do is take time off to think about what you want to do with your life...literally. Step away from the noise of daily life and think about it. You cannot discover your purpose on the run. Take sanctuary or retreat for personal time and begin your work.
You have to work it out before your work gets out - T. L. Pierce, Upgrade Your Mind

You have to labor sight unseen. This is what I call the Principle of Obscurity (I'll share more on this in and upcoming article). You have to labor and toil uncelebrated and into the night when working on defining your purpose, refining your purpose and in ultimately realizing your purpose. You alone have to work it out before your work gets out.

Define your purpose and pursuit no matter what. Celebrate your journey, serve others and you will see your work get out to others. Your greatness will draw others who are great and compel them to help you. Your greatness will inspire others to be great. You will attract all the people and resources you need to see your work grow and you realize your dreams come true. But you have to work it out. Establish the "why" and the "how" and "what" will follow suit.

You are struggling because you are lacking a clearly defined purpose. Your purpose will overwrite any view of your life as a struggle. 

Here are some key considerations for discovering your purpose:
What do you do best?
What do you really enjoy doing?
Have you established your Priority Focus?

Are you in have-to mode or choose-to mode? Are choosing enthusiasm and empowerment?

Discovering your purpose begins with recognizing your special skills and talents. You don't have to work and live your life bored, stagnant and just going through the motions. Purposeful work begins with work that you care deeply about. You don't have to do work and you shouldn't do work that doesn't inspire you and challenges you.

When you live your life on purpose you feel you are making a difference and you don't have to seek fame. When you serve a purpose larger than yourself you level of commitment expands. As your purpose begins to unveil and unfold before you, you will approach life from your own unique philosophy to life and big picture viewpoint. 
Routine and mundane tasks become less important and your life work takes on new meaning. To realize your fullest potential you life goals must reflect your purpose and the pursuit of money will only result and a portion of life truly passing you by.  

Conclusion

The Power of Focus has change me life in so many and so many levels I am still realizing how positive this book has been for me. And it should be this way. The journey is lifelong and the discoveries continuous. 

I want to encourage you to take action on what you read here. The first action you take is bookmark this site. This blog is a passion. I enjoy writing and enjoy reading your feedback. Each article is and exercise in reflection and personal inspiration. May you be inspired to change your life now and upgrade your life by upgrading your mind.

You will do well to invest in yourself by purchasing your own copy of The Power of Focus. You will never be same. You will cultivate your own life lessons, insights and nuggets of wisdom that take your success motivation to the next level. 
Never stop learning. Embrace change. Develop the habit of changing your habits for continued success. You are one thought away from change, one idea away from breakthrough. Continue to reach for that next thought and idea for positive thinking and positive change that will fuel your potential, inspire ever increasing possibilities and bring you the personal success that you desire and deserve.

The Power of Focus - Taking Decisive Action!

Strategy number 9 from The Power of Focus is Taking Decisive Action. In this lesson you will learn how to take action and just get it done by getting it going.

Taking decisive action is what I like to call making the “command decision”. You have to take some type of action and create some type of motion in the direction of you success motivation goals. Being stuck and not knowing what to do or deciding that you either cannot make a decision or that you won’t make a decision is in fact a decision anyway.

Taking decisive action is the decision to move out and move up in life. To put away excuses and to reject whatever limitation may be facing you. You problems will not go away until you take decisive action to resolve them. You success will never come your way unless you make a decision to act in the pursuit of your success. 

What positive changes are you trying to realize for yourself at the moment? Do you need to put off limiting beliefs and bad attitudes? Have you decided to have a positive attitude about your success and motivation to see your goals realized?

Do you realize that ultimate life is about problems and solutions? The most successful people are those how chose the solve their most pressing problems and the most pressing problems of others as well. Problems are there for you to solve and your mind is the most complex organism and structure know to man science that is uniquely designed to solve complexity. That means you have all you need within you to start your journey for costive change, positive attitudes and lifelong success! 

You must take decisive action now. You are naturally brilliant and wonderfully gifted to reap the rewards of life. But life will challenge your dreams and test your resolve. Not because you are not worthy and don’t deserve. No. But because you need to prove your personal fortitude and character. You have to qualify yourself for success by being willing to take action and persist until you succeed. Getting to the end isn’t the real goal. It is in the growing along the way and the wonder of self-discovery that you acquire all you need for sustained success. 

Your talents and gifts can get you there but your character is what will keep you there in the long term. Inheritances is one thing but wisdom through experience is another. So don’t worry about what you don’t have. For every purpose and vision you will find provision…when you decide to act! 

No more excuse! No more laying down on the job. No more blaming your parents. No more blaming your circumstances and no more blaming yourself. Excuses and blame will only lead to regret and thoughts about what you could have done and what you should have done. What actions do you need to tack in your life right now to activate your success motivation and positive thinking changes? 

Here are six possible reasons why you make be “inactive” and “indecisive” when it comes to creating the positive life changes you desire.

1. You are bored. If you are bored recognize this and become self-aware of your feelings about you current state of boredom. Now do something different! Don’t just accept boredom. Go out and create the excitement and exhilaration you need to get momentum back into you life. Life is to be lived and not watched!

2. You are overwhelmed with work. You have work piling up and you are feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps something came along and the timing wasn’t right or you simply didn’t get it done. Now you have a stream of tasks before and you are simply postponing them as you try to figure out how to get over being overwhelmed. I’ll discuss handing this in a moment.

3. You confidence has slipped. Refer back to the focus strategy on creating confidence and stepping into your fears. Procrastination only adds to weaken your confidence. Getting things done and one thing done at a time is a great way to build confidence. It’s the little wins that build to bigger wins. Completing a simple task alone is a great energy booster. Choosing to take decisive action eliminates the pressures of not acting which results in loss of confidence and procrastination among other possible outcomes.

4. You have low self-worth. Boy do I understand this one. Sometimes you may not even realize how this affects. If you sit back and think about it. Some things to you take decisive action on simply because somewhere inside of you, you think you don’t deserve it. You cannot pursue something you don’t think you deserve. You will only put up a weak attempt at getting or sabotaging your own success. 

5. You are doing work you don’t like. We all have certain mundane tasks that aren’t exciting but are required to experience long term success. Success motivation realizes that the successful do things that the unsuccessful won’t do in order to be realize their goals. So certain boring and not so exciting tasks are a part of life. When you shift your thinking from have-to to choose-to, your going will be much more enjoyable. However if you are doing work or in a job that you simply don’t like that you must decide what you need to in order to expand your talents and experience more enjoyment. Don’t be like most people and hang on the security at the expense of live your best life now.

6. You are easily distracted or just lazy! I’ll quote here straight from The Power of Focus: If you avoid taking action because you’d rather put your feet up every night and watch movie reruns on TV, there’s little chance you’ll be enjoying the abundant lifestyle any time soon. The bottom line? Success takes effort and consistent, focused activity. Laziness is not apart of the equation. It’s a banned substance.

‘Nuff said.
At the root of procrastination is the lack of success motivation because it is easier to put something off than to take action. Be focused and on target with your goals and establishing the reasons for why you need to or better yet why you must act will provide guidance and clarity in identifying possible stuck states. 

Becoming unstuck and taking action is just a matter of thinking forward and acting with purpose. You must be compelled to action now. Yesterday is now gone and tomorrow never really comes. Don’t get caught in the trap of saying “tomorrow I…”. Friend, you only have NOW. 

What you dream of a better tomorrow you have to act in the NOW or you are really only chasing a fantasy. You will arrive at the end of your life…empty and full of regret.

But just as a magician uses the magic words “TA-DA!”. You can magically change your life and get it in gear right now. Here’s how.

The TA-DA Formula

Think. Take the time to reflect and consider you action. Consider you outcomes if you do act and consider you outcomes if you don’t act. Check yourself and check your activities. 

Ask. Gather the facts and get the information you need to act. Ask good focusing questions of yourself and those who are your support. Without getting caught up in the paralysis of analysis, get informed and prepare to get going.

Decide. Okay, you given thought about your actions and you’ve done some information gather. After you have and understanding of your outcomes for not acting and for taking and you have adequate information to act with you must 

Act. Do it now! Build you momentum. I won’t always be easy but it will be worth it. Coach yourself into taking consistent action now! Get and accountability partner or success motivation group that can help keep you on task and in action. Do it now!

That TA-DA formula applies to any task. This is a simple formula for getting unstuck and getting into the game. You have to play to win. By following the above formula and by doing further reading of The Power of Focus, you will become and active decision maker and your life will never be the same.

The Power of Focus - Consistent Persistence

Focus Strategy number 8 from our walk through of the book, The Power of Focus is Consistent Persistence. 

Consistent Persistence is the prelude to excellence and greatness. When stand for something and commit to doing it well you create remarkable results. You will in turn attract top people and rich rewards for your efforts.

In this lesson you will put and end to scatter brained action, random living and fuzzy vision. If you actions are pretty consistent and on task with your success motivation goals then congratulations and if you are troubled by a lack of focus and consistent actions I have the solution for you. Either way, consistent persistence will bump your activity up to the next level for positive change and achievement.
Your Greatest Power

Your greatest power is your ability to choose between "having to" and "wanting to". Here is a 2 part activity straight from The Power of Focus and this is very powerful. You have to finish this in order to realize the simplicity and liberating power of this strategy.

I want to write down 3 activities that have to get done within the next 3 months. Provide real tasks with real due dates of 3 months or less. It could be anything from goals to groceries. Just give a brief description for each. Next to each activity I want you write down your feelings about that activity. Be honest and make it a one word description of your how you feel. Here are some feeling words to help: upset, worried, excited, joyful, frustrated, happy, sad.

Here's an example of 3 Have-To's and associated Feelings.

1. Reorganize my office - Anxious

2. Pay Taxes - Excited

3. Give Presentation at work - Nervous

Great! You've completed this short activity. Now cross everything off the list! Here is where you get start get more powerful. The simplicity and power behind this exercise is that you don't have to do anything! Sure there are consequences and repercussions for not doing certain activities but you really don't have to do them. You may be happy if your activities are complete or someone else who is impacted by you not competing a certain may end unhappy as well but again and to be redundant...you don't have to do anything if you don't want to.

All this this is about to become clear. When looking back at your list what types of feelings did you associate with your activities? Positive or negative?
Okay lets move on to the next part of this exercise. Do the same exercise again but this time list 3 activities you would really look forward to completed within the next 3 months and associated a word feeling with each activity.

Okay, right now you have two short lists. One is a Have-To list and the other is the Want-To list. I'm guessing that the have-to list result in more negative feelings associated with each activity and the want-to list have positive feelings with most if not all the activities on that list. The point here is that negative feelings weigh you done and steal energy from your efforts whereas positive feelings generate energy and lift you up in completing your tasks. Now ideally this would be great but the world isn't perfect right?

So how do you create positive feelings about the things in life you simply have to do? In life there are things we simply have to do no matter how we feel about them right? If you answered yes, you are WRONG. 

absolutely everything in life is a choice

The simple truth is that all of life is about choice. Those living in mediocrity do so by choice. It isn't about what they have to do and what they want do. Rather, it is about what they think about the power to choose and the consistent choices that persistent in their lives. Do you understand how powerful this is? This is exciting! 

Libraries are filled with the books that document the stories and those have have turned their lives around profoundly through consistent persistence. The developed the habit of consistently positive actions. 

Your trigger point for change is realizing that you can choose a different future. It is your consistency of positive choices or the lack thereof that have provided you with the life you now live. When you realize this you will start to experience greater peace of mind. 

You will see statements like "he made me angry", "I'm stuck in this relationship" or "I'll never make enough money to be financially free" are not longer valid. The truth is that you choose to be angry, you choose not to leave a relationship or you consistently make choices that work against your financial freedom.

Consistent Persistence is learning how to choose wisely and make the right choices for your life and continually making the right choices for the right results.

So understanding that you have choice in any matter means that you don't have to live your life in have-to land. Living according to have-to's put you in a position of pressure and causes resentment and negative feelings that drain your life energy. When you live from a position of choose-to you live from a position of real power. Because you choose-to, you feel in control of your life.

Choose To Be Free

Consistent Persistence is choosing the play in the game and doing your best every time. It takes conscious effort to think about every task set before you on a daily basis but there is where the playing to win goes a long way for success motivation. For example, if you hate taking out the trash don't feel like you have to take out the trash. Instead, choose to take out the trash and to do a good job when you do it. Give yourself a positive reason why you are choosing to instead of feeling like you have to. 

Do feel the shift in power here? This is how you tackle the have-to activities in your life. You re-frame those tasks in your mind and consciously choose to do them. It is only from the power position that you can then work on creating the lifestyle you desire and that allows you to delegate any and all tasks that you don't like doing.

Make every activity you do from this day forward a conscious choice. Shift your focus from the negative have-to's and realize your power to choose-to. Consistent Persistence allows you to enjoy the power of freedom that consistent choosing adds to your life.

The Power of Focus - Ask For What You Want

Focus strategy number seven from The Power of Focus is "Ask For What You Want". The Power of Focus (book) goes into greater depth on how this principle is key to increasing and expanding your business but there is a significant benefit for personal success motivation and goal achieve as well. I will discuss them here.

Questions not only help you focus on what you want and what you need to do but questions also allow others to help you succeed as well. 

"If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask." --W. Clement Stone

Asking is a simple gift and a universal Truth. This Truth is summed up by the phrase "ask and you shall receive". This gift cannot be exercised any more excellently than in young children. When children ask for something, they sincerely believe that they can have it and that they deserve it. Children keep on asking also! I have two children and they are persistent and act in full faith on what you want and desire. When they want something they simply "ask". They don't make it difficult and create complex approaches. They just simply "ask". When they don't get something they ask again...again...again. :)

In order to move closer to what you desire you need to start asking. If you aren't getting what you desire then you probably aren't asking enough. The world responds to those who ask.

Asking isn't just about "getting what what you want". Asking is information gathering and increase in knowledge. In getting knowledge you get the power to get what you want when you use it. When you ask, you get all sorts of information, ideas, strategies, names of people who can help you and even money!

Here is a good acronym to remind you about the power of asking:
Always 
Seek 
Knowledge 

There are many reason why you should ask and why you need to ask but many people don't ask or don't know that the can ask. Why is that?

Here are 3 quick reasons:
1. They have a belief system that says that it's not right to ask. 
2. They lack confidence. 
3. They fear rejection. 
You previously learned from our walkthrough on the book The Power of Focus about building confidence. Asking plays a role in getting you want you want. You have to break barriers and do what you haven't done before in order to get what you've never had right? To overcome barriers to asking you simply act with confidence and ask.

So you may now be asking (Hey that's a good start right there!) ..."How do I ask?". Glad you asked! :)

In order to enjoy the results of asking here are 5 ways to ask effectively:

1. Ask Clearly. Focus and be precise. What do you want? Think clearly about your request, take time to prepare if you need to and create or phrase your questions with words designed to create the greatest impact for you. This is powerful for both yourself and questions you ask of others. 

2. Ask With Confidence. When you ask with confidence you ask with the power of conviction. This is detectable by those you ask and reinforces a postive internal belief system. When you act with confidence you certainly get more out of life. Well, when you "ask" with confidence you also get more out life. Avoid asking hesistantly and with uncertainty. If you need to, repeat item number 1. Knowing clearly what you want to ask will go a long way to helping you focus on your outcome and asking with confidence. Be daring in your deserving! Be bold but not brash. Exhibit a quiet strength and ask with confidence expecting a return!

3. Ask Consistently. This is very important. Ask the right questions the right way doesn't guarantee the right answer or success. You must not be discouraged and close up shop if your attempt at asking doesn't yield positive results. You must keep on asking! Ask persistently. Take on the "NO's" in order to get to your "YES's". Hearing a "no" before "yes" is a part of growth and success motivation. Don't shy away from this. Just keep on asking and you shall receive.

4. Ask Creatively. These are busy times we live in. Sometimes you have to be creative in your asking. You don't want to settle for a "no" and you also don't want to accepted the status quo in your asking. If email and phones calls aren't doing the job in your asking of others then find alternate ways to get your questions positioned for an answer. How about homing pigeons? Dancing bears? Sure it sounds wild but brainstorm and come up with alternate ways of getting your questions ask. Apply the same approach to asking yourself questions about what you really want out of life. Think of creative ways to phrase questions that will help you get greater clarity. Don't just ask yourself questions that don't create a reaction. Ask yourself questions that get you excited, mobilized and energized!

5. Ask Sincerely. Be real. When you really need help, others will respond. Being sincere means releasing any facades and it also means being willing to be vulnerable. Just be honest and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth about your need. Ask from the heart and keep it simple. When you have demonstrated that you've done all that you could to reach a goal and need that extra support you will certainly get it. Never ask for a free ride but do ask for help. Do your part but allow others to help you when really need it by simply"asking for help.

It is up to you to target your desires and generate success. The world is yours for the "asking". 

You can't be everyone one but you can be exactly what you want to be. You cannot have everything but you can have what you desire.

Ask for what you want or take what you get!

Start asking now. 

There are only 3 more strategies to go as we walk through The Power of Focus. They are:
Strategy Eight: Consistent Persistence
Strategy Nine: Taking Decisive Action
Strategy Ten: Living On Purpose

The Power of Focus - Confidence and Stepping Into Fear

Strategy number six from our series on The Power of Focus is "Building Confidence and Eliminating Fear". Fear is usually the result on our imaginations creating outcomes ahead of time that don't reflect the true "facts" of a situation. Unfinished business is also a confidence stealer and can create negative actions. Building confidence can only be accomplished through action. Eliminating unfinished business, learning to get something done and stepping into fear is the pathway to freedom for winning.

No one is born confident. Confidence is acquired through deliberate action and a commitment to continuous improvement. We all have FUD or fear, doubt and unbelief to deal with at various levels in our lives. Step into the fear and "do the thing".

You experience abundance and freedom you need to deal with the FUD in your life. Fear breeds uncertainty and doubt and can spiral into an unhealthy approach to dealing with your life challenges.

What challenges, weights or unfinished business is lingering in your life because of fear? The longer you allow this things to linger and grow the more negative momentum you may be building and the more overwhelmed you will feel. You move from denial and indifference to confrontation. That is, confrontation of issues before you and simply step into you fear.

You will discover that usually there is nothing to fear and that you simply need to reign in an imagination gone wild with negative outcomes and just take action. Many issues loom larger than they really are and your imagination can actively work overtime in blowing your situations out of proportion when compared to the facts.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Uncertain outcomes should not be the genesis of fear. Rather, it should be a cause to activate faith. Faith and belief in an expected outcome will empower you to step into your fear and faith bridges the gap between fear and confidence. 

The greatest way to build confidence is to act. Step-by-step you will build what I call a "series of wins" or history of achievement and accomplishment which boosts your confidence and trust in yourself. You will build confidence in the reality that you can get do whatever you need to do to succeed. Confidence is not a mystery. Confidence is acting with certainty.

Overcoming fear starts with simply asking yourself the question "what do I really fear?". Ask this of yourself routinely and address your answers with the follow up question of "what can I do to overcome this?" By doing this you are creating a strategic plan to attack your fears using self-knowledge as a key weapon.

Here are six confidence building strategies: 

1. Remind yourself of something you did well. Do something daily that will demonstrate an act of faith towards your goals and dreams and against fear is a confidence builder. Start small if you have to. Small victories lead to bigger ones. 

2. Read inspirational bios and autobiographies. This goes a long way to feeding your need to succeed. You can build a picture of inspiration and possibility in your mind that can get your imagination working for you and not against you. Replace images of fear with pictures of possibilities.

3. Be Thankful. Being thankful reminds you of what is right in your life and keeps your energy and focus on the good that is in you and around you no matter how challenging a situation you might be facing at the moment.

4. Build excellent support around you. Create a circle of people that will support you dreams and speak words that refresh you and remind you of your value, worth and potential. Team work makes the dream work. You need a support system for your success. No one is an island and success doesn't happen in vacuum. You cannot succeed alone. Build a dream team and start living your best life now!

5. Act now on your short-term goals. Tackle key unfinished business and objectives to accomplishment. Act on your goals. Getting things done is a great confidence builder. Do something daily that moves you closer to finishing a project, fulfilling a goal, expanding a relationship. You will begin it eliminate fear, failure and doubt. You will break free of guilt and break into confidence...one step at a time.

6. Do something for yourself weekly. This is big. Most people don't spend enough time celebrating themselves for the good they do and the tasks they get done. Be good to yourself and celebrate your weekly accomplishments. You deserve it! 

The road to confidence is paved with weekly victories and triumphs. Learn to applaud and celebrate your victories and your wins.

You will begin to build greater confidence by tackling unfinished business, stepping into your fear and creating those small victories. You don't have to do it all once. Take that first step to getting something done or finished and you will be well on your way to building unstoppable confidence that is focused for success and winning.

The Power of Focus - Say NO To Toxic People

Strategy number five from our series on The Power of Focus is "Saying No To Toxic People". You just have to get rid of the doom and gloomers that may be in your life. If the people around aren't helping achieve success then they are working against your efforts to achieve success. This could dampen your success motivation and slow you down if you aren't careful and discerning.

Yep. You know them. Those people that constantly complain how their lives are mess and that life just doesn't give them a break. Toxic people of those chronic whiners and complainers about all that is wrong around them and YOU. Toxic people will bring you down!

Do you know someone, anyone whose not so subtle cynicism takes everyone opportunity it has to rain your parade. You may be trying to celebrate the achievement of one of your success motivation goals or perhaps a positive thinking victory yet this person cannot celebrate or saying anything positive about your changes.

Toxic people are very dangerous and you need to evict them from your life if you have them. Even if you have that friend that you've know almost "forever" yet this friend is just a bundle of negativity. You may love them but in the end they may need to go. This is very, very important. You are not and should not be obligated to shoulder someone else's negative view of the world. You cannot allow yourself to carry the burden of someone else's unhappiness. 

There are surely people struggling with life and in need of helping hand and unconditional support. I'm not talking about that type of person. Toxic people have a unhealthy sense of satisfaction in seeing others pulled down to where they are living and how they are thinking.

Birds of a feather DO flock together and who you build relationships with DOES matter. You owe it to yourself to evaluate the quality of every relationship you have in your life.

Ask these three questions about the people in your life:
• Do I like them?
• Do I trust them?
• Do I respect them?

If you answer to any of these questions about someone is no, then they've got to go. Team works makes the dream work. You will not and cannot succeed alone. You need to strategically build a strong team of positive thinking individuals that will lift up your dream, support your efforts and encourage your gifts and talents. Success motivation requires that you continually feed your need to succeed. Your relationships play a big part in how you build and maintain your momentum for success and motivation.

Toxic people will only take from you and leave you as an empty shell. The are happiest when they can complain and dump their poison into your life in hopes that you will join. At a minimum that cannot support your efforts for change and success and their natural inclination is to convince you that it isn't worth the effort. See, any progress you make for positive thinking, positive change and success motivation will only highlight their lack of commitment to change and succeed for themselves.

You must demonstrate courage and self-determination by resolving to remove from your life all toxic relationships. You do yourself and disservice by trying to play life too small. Never hide or be discouraged from letting your light shine brightly because it may make someone else feel uncomfortable! If someone feels uncomfortable by your success then that is NOT your problem at all.

A surefire key to accelerated your change and create success in your life is to find mentors and also to build a success team around you that will respect your time, your mind and you all that you desire to do for personal success. You must only submit your dreams and goals to those who's minds and advice you trust. You need people who are certain to have your best interests at heart in all they say and do. You need a group of people that you can also give into as well. You need health two-way team building, dream building communication that encourages you to put for you best each day, to keep reaching for the dream and to always imagine the possibilities!

The Power of Focus - Balance of Power

The Power of Balance - Success Motivation.

Strategy number four for leveraging the power of focus in your life and for explosive success is learning about maintaining a system to create balance in your life. Developing a blueprint for balance is really simple but can be oh so hard to do consistently. One word: Workaholic. We all work to much, too long and to hard. Old thinking would say this is a good thing. Sure, we all have to put our time in and certainly working hard isn't bad. BUT Balance is ALWAYS good for you. Plus working isn't the only problem. There are way to many --holic's out there. 

There are "playaholics". These folks only know how to play. Thats it! Life all about play and no work. Then there's the Signaholics. This folks are similar to playaholics in that they both don't believe in working however the playaholic doesn't necessarily get a lot of free time throughout the day. The Signaholic prefers to stand on your street corner with a sign. Now some signaholics are down are their luck but you've heard the stories and seen the exposé's of people doing this because of the decent money that can be made. There are more holics without a doubt.

Then lastly there's me. I'm a learnaholic, infomationaholic or some similar sounding, nonsensical made up word such these poorly executed examples I've just give you. :) I'm obviously just having a little fun here.

This strategy of maintaining balance is one that I struggle with the regularly. My challenges are that I'm a sponge for information and glutton for activities that support all my learning interests. However all my learning interests aren't core to my current goal achievement objectives. This means that I have to establish and review learning objectives that support the advancement of my most important goals and that fuel my success motivation. Alternately I need to regularly plan other times to support learning that is enriching to me but doesn't directly or immediately advance me towards my targeted goals.

So much of my life revolves around consuming content and acting on that content to create successful outcomes. But isn't that true for most of us these days anyway? Most employment, not just Information Technology (IT) involves consuming information and using that information to create successful outcomes.

Lifelong learning is what I call it and if you are to be successful, a commitment to learning and acting on what your learning will be one of the best decisions you can make. Okay so I've given you a bit of my story and here is where it ties into the creating balance strategy. I recognized that while I had goals and discipline for learning I still needed a system that would help me easily establish reasonable balance for goal achievement.

"When you work, work and when you play, play. Don't get the two mixed up. --Jim Rohn"

There is a time and place for everything and surely having a multiple interests is a good thing. Learning is power when you act on your learning. But a inertia, loss of motivation and stagnation towards your success motivation goals can come as a result of having too many activities going. Too many activities and information overload are just two of a host of distractions plaguing our modern lifestyles these days in America that you can paralyze your momentum for goal achievement. Balancing your activities whether learning, working or playing is absolutely required for health and happiness. Too much of one thing and not enough of another can lead to loss of power in pursuing your success.

Success feeds on itself just like failure feeds on failure. What may appear to be unfair about this dynamic is hat you don't really have to do much to have failure grow and take root in your life but success will take effort and intervention and deliberate action. So what you need a simple plan to help you balance your success and motivation

Here is a really simple plan to build balance and powerful success as described in The Power of Focus.
1. Blueprint. Develop a plan that allows you to focus on what you do best. Focus on few activities the create the greatest results for your life. 

2. Action. What more can I say here? ACTION! We all need it and no one makes progress without it. The only single rule of action for ANYTHING you want to do is: ACT...THEN ACT AGAIN...AND AGAIN...AND..

3. Learning. In this day and age only the lazy person won't learn and doesn't learn. So much free information is around us that even if your flat broke you still don't have an excuse for not learning. While general access to the Internet isn't free, there are plenty of libraries and Internet café's around to provide you access if you can't afford it. Also, you can to a bookstore like Barnes and Nobles and pull as many books as you like off the shelves and read them all legally free and without having to pay for any them. Just remember to put the books back for before you leave. ;) 

Feed Your Need To Succeed by learning. Expand your mind and heart by reading inspirational stories, listen to success motivation audios, watch life changing videos or movies plus much more. Guard your heart and mind and learn how to be successful by building a positive vision inside of you first. Then it will translate to the outside. What goes in is what comes out as the saying goes. Learning and action provide a one-two punch for building a better tomorrow for yourself.

4. Exercise. What good is all the success and money in world if you can't get out of bed in the morning? Exercise, eat right and you will sleep well at night, enjoy clarity of mind and spirit and increase your level of energy to seize the day and your opportunities to succeed!

4. Relaxation. Give yourself a break. Relaxing is paramount to maintaining power and focus. You cannot maintain good health if you are high strung and stressed out continuously. There is nothing glamorous about being so busy with agents, schedules, meetings, etc. TV and Movie media want you see it as part of being a power player and being "ultimately important" but let me tell you that there comes a day when everyone just has to rest. If you don't take time the your body will take it for by shutting down as a result of fatigue, exhaustion or poor health. 

So if you are very busy and are challenged by a hectic schedule whether you think it's glamorous or not just know when to say "no" to a lot of activity and "yes" to yourself. You must place a priority on your "down time" so that you can recharge your batteries, get rested and recover. Taking regular breaks to re-energize is just as important to your success motivation as taking regular action towards your goals.

5. Think. Upgrade Your Mind by learning to think well. Take regular time to "think" about your life will help you create a strong finish for your life. You should reflect on your day and evaluate what is working and what us not working for you on a daily basis. Be objective and not judgmental. This is time to actually be wise and track what activities result in your personal success and what activities are not producing results according to your goals. 

This is not a time to be critical and convince yourself of what isn't working and why it isn't working. Unusual Clarity is a result of thinking regularly about your life. When was the last time you sat down and seriously focused on your life asked yourself questions about what is working and what isn't working? This is a powerful exercise in determining if you need goals in your life (and really...who doesn't need goals???) and also determining if you are staying on track with your goals. 

When what you do best and what you value most come together to create a truly compelling future through goal setting you owe it to yourself to target only your most productive activities to make your dreams happen. Most people don't pursue what they are "really" good at so don't take my saying that lightly. It takes effort, audacity, daring and vision to act on personal dreams. Isn't is funny how that happens where we may find ourselves not doing what we do best or not building something significant from something we have actually "become" significantly good at?

Well no longer! 

Do something different today to produce a different result for your tomorrow instead of just being the same as you were yesterday!" --T. L. Pierce

The Power of Focus - Developing Unusual Clarity

Hello again! Strategy number three from the Power of Focus is Developing Unusual Clarity. No discussion about the power of focus is complete without the discussion of clarity. 

Clarity is absolutly essential and critical to all success motivation and goal setting endeavors. To have an measure of success in your life and any measureable positive change, you have to envision your results and develop a clear picture of what you want.

Clarity is critical and it starts with spending time thinking for a change. Literally. Developing unusual clarity requires you the schedule time to think and create exciting pictures of your future. Scheduling time to think may sound a bit unusual but it will transform your power to succeed. 

Jim Rohn said:
"Discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs tons"

How powerful! Consider doing the "rocking chair test" and review your life backwards by projecting your life forward to a ripe old age of say 80 years old. Use your imagination. In looking back on your life what regrets do you not want? What legacy do you want to leave. How would like to have lived your life from having the ability to back from the age of 80 years? 

What is that you are desirous of achieving and without its accomplishment might perhaps lend itself to a bit of regret for you? What disciplines are you willing to practice now in order to avoid regret later on in life? I can assure that choose to disclipine yourself now will weigh in ounces compared to the regret weight of regret felt for not having followed dreams and taken chance opportunities to experience a rich and rewarding life experience.

How about reserving some time on one day per week to just think. Think about your life, your opportunities and all that you want to accomplish. Just remove the excess noice and clutter from your mind and shut out all other messages about who others may say you are and beging to just think about who YOU think you are and what you want to do, become and have.

From there you need to create and exciting picture of your future. This is goal setting 101. You have to have a picture of where you going and it must be exciting enough to ignite success motivation form within you and it should be challenging enough to keep you from slipping back into a lifestyle of mediocrity and average results. Developing unusual clarity requires the discipline of goal setting.

Goal setting for unusual clarity is thinking from the big picture and identifying the specific steps to achieving those goals. A goal is the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished.

Goal setting is the best way to measure progress and create unusual clarity. Instead of random generalities you create meaninful specifics in your life. You remove the drift and randomness factors from your life and accelerate your success!
Here is a Top 10 Goal Setting checklist from The Power of Focus that will help you create unusual clarity in your life:

1. Your most important goals must be yours.
2. Your goals must be meaningful.
3. Your must be specific and measurable.
4. Your goals must be flexible.
5. Your goals must be challenging and exciting.
6. Your goals must be in alignment with your core values.
7. Your goals must be well balanced.
8. Your goals must be realistic.
9. Your goals must include contribution.
10. Your goals need to be supported.

Goal setting creates the success habit of continuously visualizing, thinking, reflecting, and review your life's progress through a set of clearly defines objectives that create positive excitement and hope for a better future. Afterall, you have to see it before you can achieve it.
By doing this regularly you will have exceptially clarity...guaranteed! 

The Power of Focus - Discover Your Natural Brilliance!

Strategy number two from our lessons in The Power of Focus is on using your natural brilliance for breakthrough success motivation and positive change.

You must invest most of your time every week doing what you do best and let others do what they do best.

Natural Brilliance is strategy number two from The Power of Focus and is also called Priority Focus. Priority Focus is when you direct your time and energy on the things you are naturally brilliant at.

Natural Brilliance is exhibited in those activities that you do well in, excel in and allow you reap the greatest rewards from your investment of time and energy spent on those activities. Priority Focus means that you don't focus your time and energy on things you don't excel in. Instead, you delegate those things to the natural brilliance of someone else. 

When you focus on those things that you are naturally brilliant at, you will find that you are able to produce extraordinary result from your efforts. You begin to operate from a position of strength and energy. You will begin to find and create opportunities for change and breakthrough.

Here's the deal. A great way to eliminate frustration, drift and average results from your life is to focus on your unique talents, giftings and natural inclinations followed by a committment to refining them.

For example, an athlete will focus and refine his or her unique strengths by practicing continually to increase their level of performance. They don't waste time on unproductive activities like coaching or management, right?

What are you naturally brilliant at? Natural Brilliance is simply those things you are naturally good at. Are you wasting time focusing on and building up weaknesses instead of your strengths?

Let's explore this a little further. I would bet that you probably are focused on managing and strengthening more of your weaknesses than your strengths. That's okay! I've been there and have to continually watch this myself. :-) But here's why I would venture this conclusion about you.

Most of use were taught by our schooling to focus on improve on our weaker subjects and not spend as much time on the subjects we did well in.

This line of thinking seeks to drive home the idea of developing a broad level of competency in many subjects instead of establishing a priority focus on a few subjects that you excel at. The result of this approach is that you spend to much time focusing your time and energy on building up weaknesses. You ultimately end up having stronger weaknesses instead of stronger strengths!

Majoring in the minor things of life is a ticket to mediocrity and average results
Of course this doesn't mean you neglect weaker subjects in school or subjects you don't like. The point I'm making is about balance and understanding the power of Priority Focus for a competitive advantage in the real world. I agree with book, The Power of Focus on the fact that this should be taught in school. It is an invaluable discipline to develop for lifelong happiness, prosperity and success motivation.

Here are 4 questions to help you identify your natural brillance:

1. What do you do effortlessly and without a lot of preparation and study?
2. What do you do that other people find difficult? This would include things that cause others to marvel at you and things that others can't come close to matching you on.
3. What opportunities exist in todays marketplace for your natural brillance?
4. What can you create using your unique gifts and talents?

Your biggests rewards in life will result from the time you spend on your top rated skills and abilities.

You no doubt have range of talents and abilities that you are brilliant at, competent at and really aren't good at. Rate your abilities on scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being naturally brialliant of the highest order and focus on those 10 rated abilities.

You have God-given talent that are keys to your success motivation and positive change. Your success motivation goals should or in my opinion, must be planned and acted upon with the knowledge of your greatest strengths and how to use them to improve your performance. A portion of lifes struggles can be eliminated by simple matching your job or business endeavors with the right strengths.

Natural Brilliance is a reference to those activities you do effortlessly, that give you energy and that produce that greatest results and income for you.
Your level of brilliance is very instrumental in determining the size of your opportunities in life.

The Power of Focus - Habits Determine Your Future

Strategy number one from our lessons on the power of focus is habits determine your future.

Anatomy of a Habit

A habit is repeated behavior. It is something that you do so often that it becomes easy. It is behavior that is repeated enough that it becomes "automatic" behavior.
This is a powerful concept to understand. Your actions are product of how you think as all actions flow from your mind and from thought. Habits are those automatic behaviors that have their roots in your thought processes somewhere. Understanding the habits are a result of repeated behavior is powerful for you because therein lies your greatest hope and victory for positive change: Reprogram those automatic habits!
You Habits will Determine Your Future

If your automtic behaviors create lack of finances through poor money management then your future will include a life of financial struggle. If your repetitive actions involve eating unhealthy food than your future will include struggling with staying in shape and staying healthy.

The truth is life doesn't just happen and success is not an accident. Your life and success is a result of your daily habits. Successful people have successful habits. That is why your success is waiting right there for you! There isn't a mystery to it. You don't have to admire the success of others with the result of disappointment in your lack of ability to create success. No. You can admire others to be inspired!

You can study the habits of successful role models and emulate them. Did you know that 90% of normal behavior is based on habit? Wow. That is quite amazing when you think about it. You can reprogram any aspect of your life at anytime if you choose to do so. No one drifts to success. It is the result of clear choice and success habits today that create the tomorrow you desire.

Your Habits Determine Your Quality of Life

You habits will give you predictable results. If you want to improve the quality of your life you must embrace habits that product quality results. Quality is not an act, but a habit. Negative habits result in negative consequences, successful habits in your life will produce a steady stream of positive rewards.

The foundation of success motivation is positive actions and habits otherwise you cannot generate positive momentum for change. You will increase your power, positivity and pursuit as your build your series of wins in life. Your series of wins are those little victories that lead to bigger victories and success. This is the result of positive habits and actions.

Changing Habits Takes Time

You will turn your negatives into positives by changing your habits now. Change takes an instant to occur and time to mature. Your change goes into effect the moment you choose to change. That very instant. But it will take some time to see your changes mature to where you can enjoy the fruit of your improvements. Your change will take time because developing success habits takes time.
How much time does it actually take to change a habit? The most common response is 21 days. Studies have shown that if you practice a new habit for an average of 21 days or longer in some cases, it actually becomes easier to do the new habit then it is NOT to do the new habit.

This is just a baseline. For any habit you want to change you must ask yourself how long you've owned that habit. Some habits will take longer to change depending on how long and how often they have been practiced. Give yourself reasonable time to adopt new belief systems and new success habits. If you have been dealing with low self esteem for 15 years, it may take you longer than 21 days to change that belief system (yes, belief systems are habits also). On the other hand you could break the bad habit of thinking poorly about yourself in an instant and create your brand new life overnight. There aren't any limits but you must be fair and objective about your rate of change.

The important thing above all will be to remain committed to establishing new habits that build a better future and not falling back into old habits that will only produce the same unhappiness and failure that you may be trying to move away from.
A powerful quote says:
If you keep on doing what you've always done, then you will keep on getting what you've always got.

This is awesome! By systematically changing one behavior at time you can dramatically improve your overall lifestyle! Once your new habit becomes well developed, it becomes your new normal behavior.
Identify Bad Habits and Replace Them

Okay, so if success is based on successful habits you be asking, "How do I identify bad habits?". Bad habits on those actions that cause you to be unproductive and hold you back from realizing your best life now. Examine yourself and ask others about bad habits you have. Only ask people you respect and admire and know you well. You need to hear from people that are for you and not against you.

Your habits and beliefs systems are a product of your environment. Birds of a feather, flock together as the saying goes. This is true. You will pick up and practice those habits and beliefs that are common to your environment. But when you decide to change there is no stopping you. Reach out for and study the successful habits of those who've attained the success you desire. Practice what they do and elevate yourself. Read inspirations stories, watch documentaries on success and the successful. Practice and repeat.

Develop the habit of changing your habits. Change will be you always. Adapt and implement habits that will continually reward with the life you desire. If a habit no longer yields success motivation and positive change, replace with a new habit. Just with thoughts, habits cannot be dropped. Habits are displaced through replacement.

Here is the three step successful habits formula taken from "The Power of Focus":
1. Clearly identify your bad or unproductive habits. You at your behavior for now and in the future to get a realistic and objective understanding of how a habit may be unproductive or bad for you. Some habits have a slow burn effect and the results aren't realized until years later. Smoking is a classic example. If you looking at a smoking habit one day at a time, it may not seem as damaging as it actually is. If you view this habit over a lifetime then you can begin to appreciate the the consequences for choosing to change this habit or not change this habit.

2. Define your new successful habit. Identify your new habits and describe in vivid detail the "benetifs" of acquiring this new habit. You will boost your success motivation when you can clear envision the rewards for successful change. Remember that to obtain the success you desire you must be will to do things today that will create your desire changed for tomorrow. The clearer a vision you have of your rewards and benefits for change, the more likely you are to take action.

3. Create a 3 Part Action Plan. Decide on 3 immediate actions that you will take to replace your old habit and establish your new successful habit. Start with one habit and take action. You must know exactly what actions you will take to create your new success. It could be reading a book, establishing an accountability partner, going to a support group, or joining a coaching club.

The bottom line is that nothing will change in your life until you do. To learn more about the how you obtain successful habits that will create a successful future for your life I recommend reading The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt.