During the holidays you took care of friends and family, possibly to the exclusion of you. Now’s the time to think of you and keep yourself in the equation of your life. A high self-esteem allows you to risk and the more you risk the more you get. So, read this article and get ideas on how to build your self-esteem so you can have the year you want and the life you deserve.

Loving Yourself – Learning And Practicing Behaviors Necessary To Build Your Self Esteem

This is your gentle reminder of your continuing work on your self-esteem, and positive self-image. You really have started on a path of “healing from your source”. Everyday we have opportunities to bring in positive thoughts and messages about ourselves and our lives; We just have to learn how to be conscious and aware of these opportunities.

The purpose of this message is to bring to you an affirmation/meditation that you can utilize throughout your day, and throughout the week so that your thoughts, your energy and ultimately, your feelings about yourself become more positive and your life will reflect these changes. Remember, you really are “Well Within”; you are simply accessing it consciously now.

This week we are focusing on Loving Yourself.

I am not talking about egotistical love. I am talking about the kind of love that is compassionate, understanding, and nonjudgmental. The kind of love we all look for in life; the kind of love we all wished for as children growing up; the kind of love we hope we’re giving to our children and people closest to us. I am talking about the kind of love that is unconditional; that feels warm and tender and safe and secure within our hearts and souls. So, what does it mean to love yourself this way? Loving yourself stems from the belief that “Who I am is enough”; that the qualities I possess as a person are worthwhile, special, and unique. This is the center of what it means to love yourself. The question everyone always asks is: “Yes, but how do I get there?!”

Allow yourself to take a slow deep breath, in through your nose, and release gently with a sigh through your mouth. — As you feel your body relax and become open to receiving a new message, I want you to picture yourself. Imagine that you are looking at yourself in the mirror. — Who do you see? — (Not what do you see?) Let your judgments pass by (you know the ones I mean: I’m too fat, or my hair needs washing, or I look tired, or old or I have too many wrinkles, or I need a hair cut.—) Just allow these judgments to pass by. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply— and look again at yourself in your mind’s eye. Now see who you really are. Focus on your inner qualities. Are you a good friend, a good listener, kind, understanding, compassionate and caring to others, sensitive, witty, fun to be with, someone who enjoys a good laugh, someone who is helpful, intelligent, a hard worker, reliable, etc. You know what I’m talking about.

Maybe it will help to think about your best friend, (or spouse, or close family member, or your spiritual leader, or colleague) and what you like and admire in him/her. What would this person say that they like about you? What makes you their best friend, &/or special in their lives? Stop for a moment and really allow yourself to ponder this thought. Take another deep breath and sit with what these qualities are. If you are struggling with this part, please, take a break from reading this and pick up the phone and call this person and ask him/her to tell you what they love about you. Let yourself hear what they have to say. Write down the qualities that they tell you. Look at the messages and allow yourself to breathe them into your body, your mind and your soul. You know the words are true because they feel so good. Please, admit it to yourself that way down deep inside you, you enjoy knowing these qualities that you possess feel good to you, because you know they are true. Let the good feelings flow through you and around you. Take a deep breath and picture yourself in the mirror once again, and allow yourself to REALLY see who you are! That’s it, breathe and stay with this warm, loving feeling. Take a deep breath and say: “I am lovable, capable, worthwhile and special and I deserve to be treated as such, by myself & others in my life!”

Take another deep breathe and really let the message sink in. Say this statement again allowing yourself to breathe in slowly and deeply and feel where it goes in your body. “I am lovable, capable, worthwhile and special and I deserve to be treated as such, by myself & others in my life!” Does it flow freely or does it get stuck. Just breathe— and repeat the statement again, out loud. Hear the words resonate in your room, not just in your head. This is a statement, along with “Who I am is enough!” that must repeated over and over again as you go through your days and your week. Finding your self-esteem and bringing it forth is what this work is all about, and we’ll journey together as you uncover and discover how lovable you really are!

Loren Gelberg-Goff loren@wellfromwithin.com journey to self-esteem and self-empowerment to live authentically self-esteem

For more information about our services and self-esteem products for your journey to self-esteem, visit http://www.WellfromWithin.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Loren_Gelberg-Goff

What You Think is What You Get

If…

A thought gives way to an action,
an action gives way to a habit,
a habit gives way to a character,
and a character gives way to a destiny.

What are you thinking? What You Think is What You Get will deliver tools you need to make sure you’re thoughts aren’t keeping you from the success you want. With the guidance and advice as to how we’re programmed and how to reprogram our thoughts you’ll be well on your way to creating the career, relationships, business, and life you want and deserve.

Only $9.95 for the book or $4.95 for the download.

Place your order now!

You are responsible for your thoughts, feelings, actions, and emotions. No one else can make you think something, feeling anything, do something, or express anything. No matter what you think! Once you get clear about this you’ll know that only you can be happy or not. Yes, even if something bad happens, you don’t have to let the situation determine how you feel, act, or think. When you’re not happy think of something that you enjoy. Mine is puppies: little, fuzzy, pink-bellied, fluffy, puppies. Now, who can say “puppy” and not smile and be happy? Read this article and get more tips about how to be happy.

Learn How to Be Happy

“He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.” ~ Saki, British author (1870 – 1916)

Happiness is not about what you own, who you married, or what you collect. Happiness is feeling good – not having your life look good – and it can only be felt right now, in this moment. It cannot be projected into the future or relived from the past. Interestingly, people don’t necessarily know how to be happy. We are busy. We know how to do stuff and get things done. Generally, there is a pervasive discontent in society as we struggle to keep up with our own expectations, society’s expectations, and our family’s expectations. And when we cannot meet the unrealistic expectations about who we should be and what we should be doing, we feel bad. Guilt, shame, fear, disappointment, self-doubt even self-loathing erupts in us resulting in constant movement because if we stop, we might have to actually feel these “bad” feelings and that’s too upsetting to consider!

Inevitably, reality hits us, usually with a series of events meant to smack us in the face so we have no other option but to face our reality. These can be an illness, the sudden death of someone you know, a cancer scare, a friend’s affair or divorce, or even turning a certain age. It can be your weight when you step on the scale. Whatever the event, suddenly your world is turned upside down and you can no longer deny that you are not happy living the way you are living.

Interestingly, it may not be what you are doing that’s making you unhappy. You may have a great life. However, how you think about your life and what you are doing may be your difficulty. In other words, your thoughts and your beliefs are what may be causing your angst and your discontent.

Your Emotional Message System

As humans, we are blessed to have such a wonderful emotional system to inform us of things that require our attention. Many of us, however, are completely ill-prepared to handle this system and have not learned how to use it to our benefit. So we fumble about doing the best we can. It’s not like we are born with an instruction manual on how to deal with our emotions. And if we as adults don’t do it well, we will not be able to teach our children how to be emotionally competent.

Mastering your emotions is part of your human experience. The learning starts when you are a child. You learn by watching your parents and how they deal with emotions. You also learn through instruction. What were some of the messages you learned growing up? What response or reaction did you receive when you expressed an emotion? How was anger handled in your home? What about sadness, disappointment, or frustration? How did your family mourn losses? Were people generally happy? Did they know how to enjoy themselves?

Being told, “Don’t cry,” when you were sad has made an impact on you and may have created a belief about how you are supposed to deal with sadness. If your parents screamed at each other all the time, then you learned something about how couples get along. If no one talked to one another for days on end when they were angry, then that has left its mark on you as well. Unearthing your hidden beliefs about emotions and learning to be at choice rather than at the mercy of these old, unhealthy patterns will help you to feel in control about your emotional state.

Emotions are inner messages. They provide you with information which you can use to guide your behavior. Emotions enrich the experience you have while you are in your human form; they permeate every aspect of being human. There are no “bad” emotions. Emotions just are. We judge them as “bad” because we may not like to feel them or we fear them because we don’t have the skills to manage these emotions when they show up.

But people have just as much trouble with the “good” emotions such as happiness and joy as they do with so-called “bad” emotions such as anger, grief, or depression. We find ourselves spending most of our time worrying, full of anxiety, in a state of fear, and full of self-doubt. And because this is what we are used to, we are habituated; it’s more comfortable and familiar than happiness, joy and love. In order for us to change, to learn to be happy, then we must create new habits, habits that support our ability to embrace and experience the “good” emotions.

The Path to Happiness

The path to happiness – to respect, to inner peace, to feeling good about yourself and to being confident – is by honoring yourself and doing the things that make you feel good or comfortable. And when something feels bad, don’t do it. Choose to spend time with people who you enjoy being around. And when someone does something that feels bad, then tell them about it and, if need be, instruct them on what would feel good for you. If they don’t want to oblige and continue to do things that are of no value to you or that hurt you, then instead of trying to get them to change, just stop spending time with that person.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? So, why is it so hard?

It’s hard because there are so many things that get in the way of eliminating what feels bad and moving toward what feels good. We get in our own way. Most of the time, our heads get in the way; we do a lot of second guessing and we don’t trust ourselves or our feelings. So we behave in ways that do not reflect what we truly want and, therefore, our results are not what we want. This makes us unhappy and we don’t know how to make it better.

In addition, other people have their own heads and thoughts to contend with. They don’t do or say what they really mean either and we spend a lot of time guessing and making assumptions about what they want from us. It makes communication really, really difficult. And we wonder why there are so many single people and the divorce rate is so high!

At the most basic level, the path to happiness is to identify and eliminate the things that feel bad and identify and include the things that feel good. Each day, you have the opportunity to discover new things that you like and don’t like. Practice by being on the lookout for how you feel. It will take time, but with each choice you make to be happy in that moment, it will become easier and eventually, it will become habit. Then you’ll start looking for things that feel good and add value to your life and you’ll actually repel things that don’t. You’ll become attractive to good things! It may be hard to imagine, depending upon how you feel today, but one day at a time, with focus and a desire for change, you will succeed at happiness.

Julie Fuimano, MBA, BSN, RN, CSAC is dedicated to helping you break through the barriers to your happiness and success. She is a masterful coach, a motivational speaker and world-renowned writer and author. For additional resources and to sign up for her inspiring e-newsletter, visit http://www.NurturingYourSuccess.com or email Julie@NurturingYourSuccess.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Fuimano

By Lorraine Hamilton

Although by the time you are reading this it may all be over for him, I have just watched Andy Murray complete an extraordinary comeback in his 4th round match at Wimbledon against Richard Gasquet. Two sets and a service break down in the third it looked all but over for Murray, yet he dug deep and came back to win the match. Not only did it provide me with some of the most exciting tennis I have seen in many years, but also I was utterly transfixed watching the ‘Inner Game’ of the two men. This was in many ways much more a psychological battle than a physical one.

And it got me thinking again!

How much attention do we pay to our own Inner Game of Business? We have within us the power to become our business’ greatest asset, or its downfall and it can be a simple case of how we talk to ourselves.

Our minds are incredibly powerful and ultimately obedient and once you understand how to feed and nurture them, great things grow. Wasn’t it Henry Ford who famously said, ‘Whether you believe you can or cannot, you are right.’

Your beliefs dictate your behaviour or action, and your behaviour or action dictates your success. Therefore what you believe about yourself and your business are directly related to your success.

So here are 5 ideas I want to share with you to Boost Your Inner Game:
Believe You Can, And You Will
You have a choice, you can either get your mind to work for you or against you. If you spend your time telling yourself why you won’t succeed you will feed your negative inner voice or the ‘devil on your shoulder’. Your negative inner voice is completely obedient and will agree with you wholeheartedly whilst bringing forward more evidence from your memory of reasons that you will not succeed. However, your positive inner voice or the ‘angel’ is equally as obedient and will generate the evidence to support your positive statements.

Give it a try! Tell yourself today is a rotten day – how does your negative inner voice react? Does it provide you with reasons that today will be rotten? It’s too hot/cold? Sales are going to be down? Working for yourself is an uphill struggle?

Now tell yourself this is a great day – watch how your angel springs into action to support your new decision with examples of why today is great and filled with opportunity.

Excuses Are Not An Option
Most of suffer, at one time or another, with ‘excusitis’. We can make excuses about our lack of success about pretty much anything – intelligence, health, upbringing, luck, age. The truth is that excusitis is, as coined by David J. Schwartz, the ‘failure disease’. Challenge your excuses by taking a step back and looking to see if your excuse really is an obstacle that cannot be overcome in some way.

Feel The Fear, And Do It Anyway
Following on from the last point, our excuses are often developed to protect us from something that we fear. Fear is an opportunity to learn something new and is almost always cured by – ACTION. The thought of the fear is generally a lot more frightening than the actual fear itself and acting on it will reduce the fear. Continuing to act on it will remove it completely.

Think BIG
Set yourself big goals and stay focused on them, don’t get bogged down in the petty details. Use positive language at every opportunity, to yourself, to your colleagues, your friends, customers, suppliers. Remember you are better than you think you are. Concentrate on your assets and victories. Practice ‘Big Picture Thinking’, stretch your vision as far as you can. It is possible. Remember to ask yourself, ‘What’s more important, X or Y?’ whenever you need to get a clear perspective on something.

Snatch Victory From The Jaws Of Defeat
How do you do it? Persistence. Tenacity. Never giving up. The difference between those who fall and those who keep getting up is their attitude to ‘failure’. Those who keep getting up recognise that they are in a learning process and take everything they can from every experience to learn and propel them forwards. Those who do not get up again believe they have failed.

Think about this. Have you succeeded in your ultimate goal yet? If not, then you are still learning how to achieve it. If you haven’t done it before, how are you going to get there unless you learn how? What if we lacked such persistence as babies? We would never walk.

Ask anyone who you deem to be a success and ask them if it has been plain-sailing. Most successful people have overcome many obstacles to get to where they are and it is their attitude towards these obstacles that makes them stronger each time.

Andy Murray certainly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat yesterday.

Going back to Andy Murray’s defeat of Richard Gasquet, he could easily have ’settled’ for going out in straight sets, that was certainly on the cards, however he chose to believe that he could do it and overcame every obstacle that his opponent put in his way to win. Some of the shots that both men returned would have been deemed impossible in normal circumstances, but with the mental attitude and self-belief that they were exhibiting, the impossible was possible.

And it can be for you too.

Lorraine Hamilton is a Client Attraction Coach and knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lorraine_Hamilton

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

By Bruno Logreco

Everyone procrastinates. It is a common fact, with more than 95% of the population freely admitting they will put off some task or challenge today that they feel they have time to complete tomorrow. The number of people who continually put off that exact same task for a second or even third day is a whopping 20%, making one-fifth of the population chronic procrastinators. If you are one of this large percentage, you probably have tons of good excuses why things can wait – whether it be how much time you actually have to how creative you feel, to how much motivation you can drum up. You put things off and you always have a good excuse.

Studies have been conducted for years on procrastination and the results of those individuals who repeatedly put off important tasks in their lives. Some studies go so far as to correlate procrastination to a person’s innate fear of success, using it as a coping mechanism to combat anxiety that comes with starting any new task.

What happens is that, when faced with a challenging task, a procrastinator will look at their skillset, their confidence in their skillset, and their general measurement of success in completing the task. Many times, they find they have little or no confidence that they can be successful in completing the task at hand and they then proceed to put the task off for a number of days. A prime example is the annual New Year’s Resolution – a challenging goal set by millions every year in an attempt to improve their quality of life. Subsequently, millions break their resolutions because they just can’t make themselves complete the task.

Many times, individuals will simply make decisions without thinking ahead. Procrastinators are not afraid of becoming involved – they want to be part of multiple tasks, proving to themselves and those around them that they can be successful. But, this impulse to constantly be involved more often than not only makes things worse as they start putting things off, building upon their fears and doubts and dealing blow after blow to their confidence.

At this point, it takes very little in the way of distractions to trigger a procrastinator’s innate response to a challenging task. Their anxiety continues to grow and they look for any excuse to put off their task and convince themselves it just isn’t time to complete it yet.

With all of this negative self-talk, fear of failure, and complete lack of confidence, many people lose inspiration and motivation to do much of anything. They hope that the next day will be a better day and that they will feel what they think they need to be successful then instead of today. All that happens is that the cycle picks back up again where it left off and procrastination continues.

Are you born with the procrastination gene or is procrastination a learned behavior?

There are multiple theories on why so many people become chronic procrastinators and the truth could go either way. Regardless of whether you grew up in an environment where you were constantly controlled and not allowed to develop necessary life skills, or whether your family just puts things off a lot, you must learn to overcome procrastination. Below you will find 6 key steps to doing just that:

6 Steps To Overcome Procrastination:
1. Write out all of the challenges and tasks you’ve been putting off – this might include everything from projects at work, to losing weight, or work around the house. Write them all down.
2. For everything you’re afraid to complete, ask yourself three quests: What am I afraid of? What outcome do I fear the most? What can I do to change the outcomes so that they will be in my favor?
3. Create a plan that will work – Break down all of the tasks you have to small chunks you can manage and then break them down even smaller into easily completable steps.
4. Think positively and ignore your negative self-talk.
5. Finish one task each day – Check off everything as you complete and don’t expect too much of yourself.
6. Monitor your progress and continue building on your plans – Look for three keys to success here: Motivation, Confidence, and Self-Esteem.

When you break down your procrastination and approach it one step at a time, you can start to overcome the factors that have been making your life that much harder for so many years.

Take the first step towards breaking your procrastination habit while you build confidence and self esteem. Visit http://www.brunologreco.com today to learn how Master Life Coach, Toronto (http://www.brunologreco.com )native Bruno LoGreco could hep you with your procrastination.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruno_Logreco

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.