9 Steps for Achieving Success
An Easy to Follow Guide for the New Year

It seems like yesterday we were celebrating the year 2000, and now we’re almost a decade into the 21st century. This past year has been especially trying for many, and may have even dampened your spirits, but that’s no reason to put your dreams and goals on hold. Often we grow stronger in adversity and we can use our problems or difficulties to strengthen our desire to achieve success.

A great influence in my life once told me, “Life without sacrifice is life without”. When I think back to my most treasured accomplishments, they all came with sacrifice. Whether it be time, labor or money, you will have to give up something to get what you want in life. Sure, some fortunate ones will seem to have it easy, but those who give their all will reap the rewards.

Regardless of your career or occupation, you can achieve your best at what you do. Even if it’s only you that knows that you gave your best, then you will appreciate the satisfaction of knowing that you gave your all. So, I’ve put together 9 steps for helping you achieve your best in 2009.

1. Acknowledge and Recognize Your Situation, Good and Bad – The only way to improve is by recognizing your current position by being completely honest with yourself. Take a personal inventory to determine where you are and where you want to be.

2. Be Proactive – You probably have a secret ambition that you’ve been holding back on. Whatever it is you’ve been wanting to do, just do it. Don’t rely or wait on someone else to motivate you, take initiative and be proactive. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll feel better knowing you tried.

3. Set Clearly Defined Goals – Too many people set a watered down New Year’s resolution (many times it’s the same one from the last 3 years), and forget about it before the month is over. The secret to achieving goals is setting realistic ones that can be broken down into small steps and visualized. You must be able to see yourself achieving the goal, understand exactly what it will take to do so, and follow through with the small steps until complete the overall task. You are the easiest one to break a promise to, so hold yourself accountable by telling your spouse and friends your goals.

4. Educate Yourself – Read often and regularly, and not just the newspaper and magazines. If you will spend 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes at night, reading a non-fiction book, you can read 6 books a year easily. This will keep you informed, inspired, and allow you to grow mentally.

5. Stay Positive – Turn off the bad news and watch or read something positive. Garbage in, garbage out. Associate with uplifting people and develop a positive mental attitude.

6. Be Healthy – Take time to exercise and make it fun. Go ride a bike, join a tennis league or go walking, but make it a habit. We’re all in a hurry these days and it’s easy to eat junk food, so you may have to make an effort to change your diet. Keep some fruit and granola bars handy to hold you over until meal time, and watch what you put into your body.

7. Volunteer or Donate Your Time – It may sound impossible in today’s busy world, but your outlook will change when you see the response from those you help. You can accomplish more by joining a local civic or service group like Rotary or Kiwanis.

8. Give to Charity or Your Church – Experience the joy of giving by sharing a portion of your earnings with others and your rewards will come back to you in abundance.

9. Spend Time with Your Family – Your family will grow stronger when you spend time together. This is the one thing that you can’t go back and do over, so do it now. If you think about it, you can involve your family in all of the suggestions above. When you do, you will truly experience success in life.

Achieve your goals and dreams this year by Going For It!
Barry Page

P.S. Learn more about achieving your goals at http://pma101.com/PMA/positivementalattitude.html

P.P.S. Zig Ziglar publishes a favorite exercise of mine called the wheel of life, you may do a search to find it. If you need help finding it, respond and I'll help. Use it to keep your personal inventory and set goals for the upcoming year. Keep your wheel in balance.

Barry Page publishes multiple websites, and newsletters. He can be reached at:
www.legacyinsurnaceagency.com
www.pma101.com
www.atbmx.com

Developing a Positive Mental Attitude

With PMA, dreams are realized, motivation is improved and greater confidence is created. Our goal is to provide our readers with positive input that will motivate them to achieve their goals.

Your vision of your world is created by your attitude. In other words your outlook on life is determined by how you approach things mentally. By programming your mind to think positive thoughts you can change the picture in your mind and increase your control over the outcome of your actions.

How can you program your mind to think positive thoughts? Over the years I have personally experimented with a multitude of ways to control my attitude, and some work better than others. You’ve no doubt experienced the uplifting feeling of being in a room full of people who are all chanting, yelling or singing; perhaps church or a pep rally. On the other hand you’ve probably been surrounded by negative people, complaining or arguing, leaving you feeling mentally drained.

Unfortunately, our minds are bombarded constantly with negative information. The television is just one example of this, but probably the best. Today’s programming is filled with news stations that run 24/7 broadcasts of the latest travesties. And, we eat it up even though we know that we shouldn’t. It’s like a drug that we can’t get enough of.

Curiosity can work for us in different ways, but often it encourages us to drag ourselves down. The rush of adrenalin you feel when you suddenly find yourself in a pressure situation is similar to the rush of endorphins that flood the mind when you think positive thoughts. Our decision to fill our minds and thoughts with positive, truthful information is a hard one. Partly because of peer pressure and partly because of the curiosity we have.

How many times have you been seduced today? It would be hard to know the answer because it is the job of advertisers to arouse you without your knowing. Today and every day that you turned on the TV and watched a commercial, picked up a magazine and saw a print ad or simply opened your email inbox, you have been assaulted by mind altering advertisements that your mind may not detect.

As adults we train ourselves to avoid these ads and to simply turn the channel, but they are becoming much more sophisticated. Advertisers purchase your demographics from sources that you thought were protected to send you targeted messages. Spammers use complex algorithms to fill your email box with sex and trash. Avoiding this negativity is becoming much harder to avoid.

We will delve deeper into ways to avoid the rubbish later, but for now let’s focus on the positive. Obviously not all advertising is bad, sometimes it’s just hard to interpret. For instance, you’ve probably been touched by ads from charitable organizations that urge you to donate, or insurance companies that encourage you to protect your family. Perhaps these types of ads will leave you with a feeling of hope or accomplishment, because they have touched you in a way that inspires you to do what you feel is good.

Throughout every day we have to decipher the good from the bad. In order to focus on the good it is important to avoid the clutter and pay close attention to our surroundings. Just as our parents warned us to watch who we were friends with, the same applies as adults. We as humans are likely to read, watch and use the same materials as our peers. So, what are the people you spend your time with doing? Is that congruent to what you want for yourself? If not, then you have some important decisions to make.

It’s easy to get caught up in every day life and avoid the things we know can improve our lives. You may want to ask yourself, what was the last book I read? Perhaps you already read motivational or inspirational books. Books and quotes are my favorite way to clear my mind and replenish it with positive thoughts. You may even listen to positive or educational tapes or cd’s in your car, if so you are on your way to a better life.

The Bible is a great source of inspiration and one that can provide hope and instill faith. Attending Church will allow you to surround yourself with others that also have a desire to improve their lives. Inspirational music can fill your heart with love and open your mind to hope. And prayer can provide you with strength in any situation. (NKJ) Psalm 28:1, “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.”

Keep reading and keep learning. Inspire hope and faith by surrounding yourself with positive and uplifting people. You have what it takes to be successful in whatever you choose. And until next time, whatever your dreams are,
Go For It!
Barry Page
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Written by Barry Page – President, PMA 101, LLC
© copyright 2005 www.pma101.com
Ocean Springs, MS