Ten Excellent Ways To Reshape Your Life

1. Discover your Strengths (If you don't know what they are you need to find out)! What are you doing when you are at your best? 

This question is deceptively simple but incredibly powerful. The most successful people in the world have discovered the things they are best at and build their working lives around those strengths. 

If you don't know what your strengths are you can purchase a book that offers the test, it called STRENGTHS FINDERS. 

2. Do a time diary - How do you (really) spend your time? 

For one day, write down what you want to accomplish and then use any one of the online tools to keep a record of everything you do. Do some research to find one that is right for you. At the end of the day compare your goals with what actually happened. You can also do this without the expense of spending any funds if you are disciplined enough to do it. 

This is an amazingly revealing exercise because it shows you how much time you waste on random, useless activities. How much time do you spend checking email? How much time on Facebook? How much time endlessly browsing the news, feeling productive but not actually accomplishing anything? 

As an exercise, see if you can identify the 20% of your time that produced 80% of your results. What can you do to have more highly productive time like this? 

3. Set Weekly Goals and Review Progress 

What is your #1 goal this week? Setting goals is necessary. They help keep you focused. You waste lesstime and less money. 

This personal investment strategy is similar to time management, but it lasts for an entire week. Oftentimes, we get so caught up in the day to day rush that we fail to step back and look at the things that are most critical. 

It's the old urgent-versus-important problem. We spend our time dealing with small, urgent issues, when we should be focusing on important (but non-urgent) tasks. This week, fight back against the chaos by setting one main goal that you want to have accomplished in seven days. You can also pick two secondary goals if you're feeling ambitions, but no more than that. 

Look back on how you did at the end of the week. Did setting goals help you work more purposefully and effectively? If you had done nothing but work on your three main goals, what would have happened? 

4. Get a Mentor 

This is a harder challenge, but the benefits are worth it.

You need to find a mentor. 

Make a list of everyone you know who has a lot of experience in your line of business. If you don't know anyone who meets this criterion, broaden the search to people you know who were very successful in another field or with whom you particularly resonate. 

Then, rank order your list of potential mentors by preference and start contacting them! Try to set up a regular meeting time and overarching goals for the relationship when you first get together. I'd also recommend establishing a task to work on in between each of your meetings, so you can get feedback and support from your mentor. 

Mentoring relationships are a powerful source of knowledge, inspiration and connections - don't miss out! 

5. Read a Great Book 

Great books are like pre-packaged boxes of ideas, painstakingly put together by a brilliant author for you to assimilate. Why not take advantage of this amazing resource? 

Here are a few of my favourite business books. I challenge you to read at least one of them over the next month: 

Twenty Steps to a More Glorious You 

Rich Dad Poor Dad- Robert Kiyosaki 

Cha- Ching - Jeffrey Gitomer 

Become Rich on Main Street - Rick Pierce 

Each of these books transformed the way I thought about business. Reading these books is like hiring a business coach for just a fraction of the cost!!! 

6. Start a Habit that will cause you to "stretch" 

What is one thing you wish you did every day? 

Here are some ideas: 

• Write a blog post 
• Learn something 
• Exercise 
• Reach out to an influencer 
• Brainstorm ideas 
• (think of a productive habit that you would like to do) 
• Guest post 

Either take one of the above ideas or come up with your own. You're about to make the chosen activity into a habit that you perform each and every day, using one simple truth. 

You can do anything for 21 days. Make it be something that you want to incorporate in your life.

7. Build Your Personal Brand 

What does your online presence look like? What happens when someone Google's your name? 

The topic of personal branding is too big to cover right here, so I'll limit myself to one actionable suggestion. 

Challenge: Create an "Info-graphic Resume." 

An info-graphic resume is a small, visually appealing webpage/rack card that provides your bio, contact information, accomplishments and skills. 

Next time you need to introduce yourself to someone online, just direct them to your resume page (that wasn't so hard!). 

8. Be Thankful 

Being thankful is surprisingly powerful. 

As Shawn Achor explains in his TED talk, taking five minutes each day to list three things you're thankful for trains your mind to look for the positive. Amazingly, maintaining a positive mindset makes you more productive and effective in your work (as well as happier in general!).

Who knew? 

As an aside, I started doing this a few months ago. Within a week of adopting this habit, I had a string of absolutely incredible brainstorming sessions that gave me a vision for Viibrant's development over the next year. 

That week was one of the most productive and creative periods in my life... and I wonder if it had anything to do with my new "thankfulness" habit. It may have just been a coincidence, but we'll never know for sure. 

9. Find Your Why 

Purpose is a powerful thing. It gets you up in the morning and keeps you awake at night. Anyone who accomplished anything great was driven by a strong, deeply-held belief of what is wrong with the world and how it can be made right. 

What is your purpose? Why do you work? 

Take an hour today to sit quietly by yourself and reflect on what you care about most deeply. What types of "bigger than yourself" activities really get you fired up or make you feel most fulfilled? 

Don't skip this challenge. The benefits of knowing your purpose will last a lifetime. 

10. The Biggest Danger Is Inaction 

Change is always scary, and you may be reluctant to implement these suggestions for fear of what might happen to your business. But experimenting with these ideas will likely go unnoticed by most of your customers, especially those new to your business. If the changes aren't beneficial, you can always revert back to your old policies and pricing. 

Without taking action, you'll never know how much money could be added to your bottom line. 

Conclusion: Are you ready to get started with these challenges? 

No one will do this work for you. How important 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr_Marci_Bryant/1059886 

Good Habits Support Good Results

Are you perhaps feeling that now's the time to improve your health and your life? Good habits are often crucial to achieving good results and a positive outcome.

You may be looking to lose weight, become fitter, more successful, are motivated to do well at work or feel it's time to extend your circle of friends; all require sustained effort to continue beyond the first few enthusiastic days.

Let good habits support good results

- The first thing to appreciate about good habits is that they must have a real resonance for you. If you're not especially bothered about being slimmer, fitter or more successful, then that lack of enthusiasm won't sustain you through cold dark evenings or on the tough days when your will power starts to waver. Having friends or family who are pushing you to 'improve' only increases your stress levels, resentment and maybe even feelings of low self-esteem. Pick good habits that feel right for you.

- Small steps are a positive way to move towards your bigger goals. Stepping-stones can help to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed at having to tackle everything all at once. Recognise each milestone you achieve; give yourself credit for enrolling in that class, not eating that cake, declining that alcoholic drink. Each decision takes you nearer to those good results.

- Stay focused, but also appreciate that sometimes other options may appear which can add value to your life. Don't allow yourself to become too distracted from your agreed good habits but equally be ready for great opportunities that may come along. Ring-fence the time, money or mental energy you expend on distractions. Allow yourself to make the most of them and enjoy what they bring to your life, but don't let them take you away from the big picture and your ultimate goal.

- Being accountable to others can be a great motivator. Having to check in regularly and report on your progress ensures that you keep your eye on each stage of the journey. Knowing that you've a regular date in the diary can quickly push temptations out of your mind.

- Joining a group and working together on shared goals can provide a good support network. Exchanging tips, advice and motivational stories can give a real boost on those tired, unenthusiastic days. And if we know our attendance is important to the group's survival it can inspire us to continue going. Being a group member, even when it's online, can encourage us to stick with our good habits. The downside though is that if one or two members lose their enthusiasm it can demotivate the rest.

- Sometimes paying upfront to join a club or gym pushes people to go regularly, whilst others lose interest and go only a couple of times even after paying out all that money. For me, I've committed to a weekly delivery of locally grown organic vegetables. It's inspired me to eat at least one item from the box every day and it's good to cook from scratch, eat fresh organic meals, shop local and sometimes try new things that I've never cooked before. Having it arrive every week means there's no excuse to slack off from eating this healthy veg, and it's a habit I'm pleased to maintain.

- Be aware of your vulnerable areas and put steps in place to mitigate them. So, for example, if you know that you find reasons to justify stopping at the petrol station, off licence or supermarket every day, where you then 'accidentally' buy chocolates, wine, cigarettes or scratch cards, intercept those times and don't go. Instead, shop online or make a list and shop once a week. Don't put yourself in temptation's way.

- Using the services of a professional coach or therapist may be worth considering if you feel there are specific issues which are holding you back and which need to be addressed. Regular sessions could help you move on, introduce a positive mindset, manage stress and determine to treat yourself better.

Be gentle with yourself. It can take 2-6 months for a new habit to become your automatic default. If you experience slip ups, bad days and 'can't be bothered's be kind to yourself and let them go. Remind yourself of all the good reasons you have to persist and start again, knowing that by sticking with your good habits you'll ultimately support good results and outcomes.

Susan Leigh, counsellor, hypnotherapist, relationship counsellor, writer & media contributor offers help with relationship issues, stress management, assertiveness and confidence. She works with individual clients, couples and provides corporate workshops and support.

She's author of 3 books, 'Dealing with Stress, Managing its Impact', '101 Days of Inspiration #tipoftheday' and 'Dealing with Death, Coping with the Pain', all on Amazon & with easy to read sections, tips and ideas. To order a copy or for more information, help and free articles visit http://www.lifestyletherapy.net

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Leigh/399535