How To Get Customers To Buy From Your Website

By Jon Allo

Irrespective of your target market, every customer goes through a process when making a decision to

buy from your website. Understanding your customer's buying process will help you know what

information to give them and when.

You need to guide your audience with the acknowledgment of a problem that they need to solve and

how you are the one that can help them solve it.

Basically there are 3 stages a customer goes through before they buy from your website.

Discover The 4 Letter Word To Eliminate ‘Selling’ Completely And Still Get Rich

By T. Harv Eker

In my seminars, I frequently ask my audience how many of them don’t like the word “sell.” When I do, a lot of people raise their hands. In fact, I do too. I don’t like the word sell either. It has a really gross connotation to it, doesn’t it? Even though there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it’s got a bad rap. That’s why today I’m going to teach you some closing techniques that don’t feel like selling. Read on to learn more to discover this powerful technique.

A Simple Closing Technique That Doesn’t Feel “Salesy”

If you want to avoid the word ‘sell’ in your presentations, I have one simple trick. It may sound like it’s too easy to be effective, but I promise you that just by employing this tactic, you’ll see better results. Are you ready? Here it is: Don’t ever use the word “sell.” Instead, use “help.”

Why “Help” Is So Much Better

By making this swap, you emphasize an important distinction in your coaching ideology. I’m telling you that you shouldn’t use the word “sell” because I don’t just want you to sell people something. Instead, I actually want you to help people.

So how do you earn money helping people? By keeping in mind that most people search for solutions to their problems — not products. Therefore, to help people and also earn money, you need to solve a problem for someone. That’s the only reason people give you money.

People don’t give you money because you’re smart, unique, good-looking, or skilled. They give you money because you solve a pain point for them. If people can’t see how their problems could be solved by what you’re providing, you’re wasting your time and resources. Additionally, if the problem you are trying to solve isn’t strong enough, you have a really tough road ahead of you.

Helping With the Right Problem

With all this in mind, you have to do something that helps a lot of people while also staying within your niche. Show people how you can help them and address their specific pain points. That’s called your message, and it’s the best closing technique there is.

For example, let’s say you have a product that reverses hair loss. Don’t say, “Hey, I have a great hair loss program. I have a product that grows hair.”

That’s ok, but is that really attractive? Is that your message?

Instead, you could say…

“Are you tired of looking at your balding head in the mirror? Does it frustrate you?  Do you remember the days when you used to have a full head of hair?

“Every single day since then you’ve watched your hairline recede. How do you feel when people look at you, and the first thing you think they’re looking at is your lack of hair? How does that make you feel about yourself? 

“Would you like to grow it back and become confident about yourself again? Would you like to get up in the morning and run your hands through your thick hair? Wouldn’t that be great? Well, I have a product for you!”

There’s a difference, right? The key difference here is that you’re making an offer to people who are looking for your solution. This puts you in the position of helping, instead of needing to sell them.

Bottom line: When you know what problem you’re solving, you don’t have to “sell” anything.

Let’s Be Clear. Your Goal Is Still Sales…

There’s nothing wrong with the fact that you still want to get sales. After all, you’re making an offer for money because that’s what you’re in this for. However, those sales are still people you’re trying to help. 

Remember, just don’t think about it as selling. It’s all about how you frame it and what will make you feel best about delivering your products or services to the right audience.

This is just one of the many strategies for becoming a great marketer.

Well, it’s because marketing itself is the one part of your business that will make the difference between your success, mediocrity or failure. Unfortunately, most people are lousy marketers and that’s why most people continuously work too hard and earn too little.

The good news is marketing is not hard once you know what to do…

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The Challenges You Must Overcome to Turn Your Small Business Into a Big Business

By Pierre Jean-Claude

You might have a small business today, but you don't want that label for the life of your business. When entrepreneurs make endeavors, they are looking to create a business that will rule the world one day. However, every business has to face some struggles in the beginning that it must overcome to become a big business. The way you handle these challenges decides the fate of your small business. Today, you will read about these challenges and the solutions to them, so if you are a small business, you can set the foundation for its success.

Knowing the Target Market

One of the biggest issues with most small businesses is that they don't know their exact target market. Sometimes, they don't know how to narrow down to the target market. This is a huge issue because you could have a perfect product, but you might pitch it to the people who don't need it. Keep in mind that people who don't need your product won't buy it even if you try to give it to them for free. On the other hand, people who need your product will be willing to buy it even if it is priced high. For your business to survive, it needs to start selling as quickly as possible, and that's why it is important to find your target market before launching your product.

Solution

The first step of identifying your target market is to know your product well enough. You have to ask yourself some important questions about the product and write the answers down. For example, you have to ask yourself "what existing problem does my product solve?" You also have to know if there are any other solutions available in the market for the same problem. If yes then you have to see how your product is better than them or how you can make it better. Conduct surveys on the street and social media to know the personas of the best buyers of your product.

The Right Type of Marketing

Businesses, small and big, have huge parts of their budgets allocated only for marketing purposes. However, the modern technological advancements have proven that a big marketing budget does not translate to successful marketing. So, you might have done a great job in identifying your target market, but if you approach them in the wrong way or through the wrong channel, you will not be able to reap any benefits from even the most potential market for your product or service.

Solution

Identifying your target market should help you identify your marketing methods and channels too. For example, if your product is for people aged over 50, you would not want to make Instagram the prioritized marketing channel because only 18% of the users on Instagram are aged above 50. Similarly, any product that targets executives, marketing officers and professional people should be promoted on LinkedIn before any other platform. After knowing the buyer personas, you should also select the type of marketing that best suits your potential audience. If you are creating a hip-hop music video for marketing to retired individuals or an opera video for 18-year olds, you are doing it wrong. Use website analytical tools to know what appeals or does not appeal to your website, visitors. Base your digital marketing campaigns on data-this is the era of data-driven marketing.

The Funding Problem

If there were no funding problem, every person who thinks of a unique idea would have a business. In the real world, funding is always a problem, and it is exactly the point where the journey ends for many aspiring people in business. However, it is not always the lack of funds that kill many small businesses before they even start. In fact, the important part is how much dedication you show in arranging those funds. Sometimes, people have the options available, but they do not knock on all the doors.

Solution

First, you have to know all the options you have available for arranging the funds. If you are not okay with arranging funds through the bank or in the form of a loan, take a look around at your family and relatives. You will be surprised to know how many of the people in your circle will be ready not only to give you the investment you need but become a part of the endeavor. The crowdfunding options are also there. You don't even have to go to the investors personally today as you can visit a platform like funded.com and arrange funds online.

The Right Leadership

You can't make a business successful unless you have the right leader in place. It is not completely untrue that the attitude of the leader sets the attitude of the rest of the employees at a company. If you lack confidence in your leadership, you will end up hiring people who lack confidence in themselves. One of the biggest problems with most small business owners is that they can't convince themselves to delegate responsibilities. They believe in their skill so much that their mind never accepts that someone else can handle the responsibilities too. They end up taking the responsibility of everything on their shoulders and mismanaging things at the end of the day.

Solution

The first thing that needs to be fixed here is how you think. If you find it hard to delegate responsibilities, get rid of this habit as soon as possible. You can't handle everything as the business grows and so you have to create a team right from day one. Do not hire people just because they can do the job-hire people who share the same vision as you. Do not settle for good employees because finding the best ones is taking time. Do not try to take matters into your hands all the times. Listen to everyone that's part of the team and the decision making process. Have a great relationship with your employees.

Setting the Price

One of the most difficult decisions for a small business owner is to set the price of its service or product. When you are a small business, you can't afford to have a full-fledged marketing department. Of course, when you have a marketing department, they can set the price of your products, but when there is no marketing department, you are the one to take this decision. Price your solutions too low, and you might not make any profit at all. Price your solution too high, and customers might never buy your product.

Solution

It will be tremendously helpful in this scenario to take a look at your competitors and how they have priced their products. Secondly, you have to know a simple rule to set the prices of your products and services. You first set the price to cover your costs. Once you have started covering your costs, you set the price to cover the costs and make a profit. Once you have done that successfully, you start adding your "value" to the price. You should also know the buying power of your target market so you can keep the price within their comfort zone.

These points cover pretty much every big challenge that a small business comes across. Keep in mind that some of the challenges might be exclusive to your business and industry too, but if you can overcome these common challenges, you can cover the industry-specific difficulties as well.

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SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE

SO important to be around people that are hungry, and will allow you to grow and improve. Get yourself round winners!! Lose the negative influences.

How to Achieve Your Dreams (and Keep Going When It's Hard!)

This is SO important, such great advise from Brendon Burchard. It'll always get hard with whatever you are doing, just keep going, keep learning, keep growing.

How To Fail The Majority Of The Time And Still Get Rich

By T. Harv. Eker

Have you ever heard that old quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”?

This was said by ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and is a quote I always keep in mind. It’s a simple premise, but one that resonates with me to the core.

I recently stumbled across an email I wanted to share with you, which had a similar idea — although this time it was referencing basketball!

But the truth is, both Gretzky’s quote and what I’m about to tell you can — and absolutely should — be applied to your financial success.

The Email That Could Change Your Life

The premise of the email was this:

The author researched the top 10 starters for the Eastern and Western All-Star basketball teams to find out how much money they made this year — which came to a whopping $224 million. Not bad for 10 players.

But the interesting thing was what he discovered about their average field goal percentage. By the way, if you’re not into basketball, this is the number of shots taken that fall into the basket, versus those that don’t make it in. Basically, how often the player is making the shot.

So now you’ve got these 10 guys making tens of millions of dollars a year each, and you’re probably thinking that their percentages are somewhere near 100%, right? Or surely around 90% or 80% at the very least?

Nope — almost the opposite.

The author found that these 10 All-Star players were an average of 48.8% from the field.

Isn’t that crazy? That means that these 10 superstar athletes aren’t even making shots half the time. Compared to the 100% success rate the average Joe needs to achieve in his desk job, being an NBA ball player sure sounds like a breeze!

The Truth Behind All Epic Success Stories

But of course, it’s not quite this simple. And when you think about it, pretty quickly you can see why.

These high-level athletes — just as any CEO, entrepreneur or successful individual — spend their whole lives training to be the best. Not so they can have a perfect score percentage, but so they have the skills and experience to even get to play on that court.

See, although these athletes make their jobs look easy, it’s anything but. They’ve put in copious amounts of blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes to get to that point.

The years of training and commitment, missing out on parties, staying focused, and constantly honing their skills are why they’re at the level they’re at today — and this drive is priceless.

It’s the amount of time they spent improving themselves before the big game which commands their huge paychecks.

Now, ask yourself: what are you doing to improve yourself outside of your job?

Beyond the basic requirements you need to meet to get your paycheck… how are you going above and beyond?

What Does This Mean For You?

The truth is, success isn’t a one-hit wonder; it’s a slow burn.

Seemingly “overnight successes” are generally people who have been grinding for years before they made it big — even if it seems like it came easy.

So much of the success in the moment comes down to the hours, weeks, months, and years of dedication that have been put in before the first big paycheck.

On top of this, achieving the success you’re capable of relies on a thirst for growth, and the motivation to constantly better yourself.

And the rest is gravy!

As these big shot ball players show you, you don’t have to be perfect to get to where you want to be. In fact, you don’t even need to get half of the shots you take in.

But you do need to take a shot — and be ready for when your moment comes.

Your Next Steps

As I mentioned earlier, the success you’re capable of relies on a thirst for growth, and the motivation to constantly better yourself.

This boils down to two important steps:

1. Don't QUIT!

You WILL reach any dream you strive for as long as you focus on it and don’t quit.

How badly do you want to achieve your dream? A simple wish won’t cut it. You need to have a big enough goal that will motivate you to keep going, even during times when all you feel like doing is give up!

2. You Must Be Constantly Learning And Growing

The best kind of learning comes from real life experience. I hope you agree.

And when it comes to success, it’s no different: Experience is the best teacher.

The problem for most people is that their experience is full of struggle, frustration, dealing with one step forward and two steps back, and so on.

So you can either learn from your own experience and pray you’ll figure it out….

OR you can learn from someone who has been where you’re at and has found a formula to make millions and millions and millions of dollars.

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How Brendon Burchard Does Social Media

Brilliant insights from Brendon Burchard on Social Media.

Meditate to Achieve Your Goals

Post by John Assaraf

Your mind is like a mental muscle, and you want to start out working this muscle just as you would a bicep. By strengthening your ability to quiet your mind, you will increase your power of intent and focus. As you do so, elements of your personal and business success will start to take shape in your mind.

• Sit quietly and comfortably, in a chair or on the floor, hold your hands any way you like.
• Sit in a way that is relaxing for you.
• Close your eyes and focus on your breath going in and out.
• Take a slow deep breath in through your nose, and let it out through your mouth.
• Let your breath move freely in and out through your nose, focusing your attention on the base of your nostrils. Do this for six or seven minutes.
• You will find that your mind wanders off and becomes engaged in this thought or that thought. Don’t criticize yourself when this happens, just gently bring your attention back to a focus on the passage of your breath, slowly in and out.
• Continue sitting in that relaxed posture and watch your breath. You may have to repeatedly bring your mind back to focus on your breath, but that’s okay. Don’t let yourself think you are failing at this. You’re not.

It doesn’t matter how well you focus on your breath, what matters is that you do the exercise. Focus will become easier with time. Practice every day.

After about two weeks, extend your meditation time to 15 minutes. After another two weeks, try 30 minutes. Keep the consistency of practicing this regularly, every day. If you miss a day, treat it the same way you treat wandering focus—don’t chalk it up as failure. Resume your practice the following day.

Through meditation, you develop the ability to stay locked onto your goals like a laser—and when you do, you open the possibility for the quantum field to respond, resonate and supply all those elements you need for the fulfillment of those goals. If you practice meditation regularly, you will be amazed by how you can condition your brain and  achieve your goals faster.

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How to Add Stunning Value and Be More Influential

Adding value is the key folks. Brendon Burchard sets this out really well. Hope this is useful.

How to Choose A Social Media Platform, Plan a Content Schedule to Market Your Business Effectively

By Leon Edward

Social media appears at times to be a necessary evil when it concerns business services, specifically if you rely greatly on the Web to create warm leads. Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram have actually ended up being the popular social networking tools for millions of online marketing hopefuls. The concern is, how can you pick the most effective social media platform for your company?

Below are some ideas on how to pick the right social network platform for your company, followed by an outline of ways to produce a social media material schedule

Consider your primary objectives

Understanding exactly what you want to attain with your social media channel will assist you select the best platform. While the supreme objective of every company is to produce profits, various companies have various goals for their social networking strategy.

Know who your target market is

Individuals in between the ages of 18-34 hang out on brand-new social websites like Snapchat, while more fully grown individuals can be discovered on websites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you're not sure, look at where your competitors invest their time and where they get the a lot of engagement.

Discover exactly what your audience desires

Figure out exactly what get your audience most thrilled on social media. If you are uncertain, see exactly what other comparable organisations are doing and exactly what reaction they get from their audience.

Identify exactly what you have time for

If you just have an additional hour every day for social media, keep your reach restricted to one or 2 social networks that will make an effect. If you are brief on time and believe you have to be on several channels, think about outsourcing your social media management.

Develop a Social Media Content Plan For Your Service

With all the different social media applications offered, it can be a difficulty to handle them. When, that's where a social network schedule ends up being a convenient tool to prepare exactly what to share.

Here is a plan to effectively produce a social media material schedule:

1. Existing social media existence.

Examine exactly what accounts in social networking websites you currently have and exactly what material they have. Are there any social possessions that turned to be completely ineffective?

2. Material types

Comprehending exactly what material you are going to utilize to promote your company is a critical point of scheduling your efforts. Exceptional material ought to be appropriate and engaging to your services and items. Be practical about expenses you can enable content production.

3. Tracking tools

Analytics application is a required tool for any social network marketing project, permitting to determine the outcomes of your activity. Spend some time to research study what tracking tools suit your method best. It depends on you what platform you pick, simply bear in mind your organisation requirements.

4. Concern channels 

There is no need to accept all existing social networking websites. Evaluate the demographics you wish to reach and content types you can produce; this will assist to pick just a number of platforms for this product of your strategy. Set your sub-goals for each of them, the results you wish to get and metrics you are going to utilize to track results and define success.

5. Actions

Specify your future activity for each of the platforms chosen. In addition to publishing your material, social web platforms makes it possible to interact straight with your customers, expert neighborhoods, and innovators of your market. Response concerns, reveal your viewpoint, remark appropriate posts to show your competence and dependability.

6. Arrange

Prepare the frequency of your social activity, bearing in mind that a lot of posts often can irritate users. Arranging your actions, aim to keep users notified and not to be too interfering. Key is marketing posts need to alternate with helpful and amusing ones.

7. Time

Be reasonable; social marketing is lengthy. Attempting to perform your social website marketing project perfectly, you can discover yourself investing hours on social websites. If you set the number of hours a week for executing this strategy and keep it, you can prevent that. You might wish to consist of some turning points into your schedule. Monitoring your development, you'll have the ability to see what works great and exactly what you ought to enhance to make social media a much better marketing tool for your organisation. There you have it! Our ideas on the best ways to pick the very best social marketing channel for your organisation with a checklist on ways to plan it. Whatever your option, it's a smart idea to pick a platform that will assist you accomplish your company objectives and show your organisation's value.

Important to Remember Websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram have actually ended up being the popular social networking tools for millions of online marketing hopefuls. The concern is, how can you select the finest social media platform for your company? Below are a couple of suggestions on how to select the right social media platform for your service. If you just have an additional hour every day for social media, keep your reach restricted to one or 2 social networks that will make an effect. Attempting to perform your social marketing project perfectly, you can discover yourself investing hours on social websites.

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10 Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep

By Steve Lockwood

Whether you have a physically demanding job, lead a hectic lifestyle or spend all day anchored to a chair at an office desk, we all understand the importance of getting a good night's sleep. Rest replenishes our minds and our bodies and is necessary for healthy functioning. It helps to regulate our mood, improves our memory and strengthens our learning capabilities.

However, for a lot of us, getting a good night's sleep is often easier said than done, as our daily lifestyles don't always allow us the time needed to have an optimal rest. For this reason, we've developed a quick and easy guide to help everyone enjoy a more adequate bedtime slumber.

Delving into the science behind sleep reveals that it is largely controlled by biological rhythms, known as circadian rhythms, which play an important role in determining our sleep patterns. These rhythms are in turn governed by our body's master clock which is responsible for producing melatonin, a hormone that makes us feel drowsy and helps to lower our body temperature.

Understanding the mechanics behind sleep has enabled us to create a list of things we can all do on a daily basis to help encourage a more effective sleep:

1. Do some exercise at the beginning of your day - this helps to fortify your body's cortisol rhythm, which is greater during early mornings. Cortisol is an important hormone that activates the body's anti-stress and anti-inflammatory functions
2. Expose yourself to some sunlight - our skin contains photoreceptors that help balance the levels of serotonin and melatonin in our bodies
3. Adjust smartphone brightness levels - engage the night time settings on your smartphone which decrease screen brightness levels at night
4. Install the f.lux application f.lux application (https://justgetflux.com/) - the screens that are found in all modern day electronic devices such as televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones emit blue light, which creates melatonin deficiencies that inhibit your body's capacity for REM sleep (the stage in which we dream)
5. Food and alcohol consumption - before going to bed, stay away from all snacks and beverages that raise your blood glucose levels. This means no sugar and no alcohol
6. Have a regular nightly routine - if you have young children, you'll understand how crucial it is for them to have a set routine to help them get to sleep at night. Grown-ups are the same. If possible, be in bed by 10 o'clock. Put on some soothing music, read a novel, or indulge in some other relaxing activity that helps prepare you for nap time
7. Ensure your room isn't too hot or too cold - a room's temperature affects your ability to sleep. For most, an optimal bedroom temperature is between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius. Those who choose to set the temperature outside of these suggested limits using a thermostat, risk hindering their sleep, especially REM sleep
8. Use a foam roller or therapeutic pillow - foam rollers are a great way to massage your body before going to bed, while therapeutic pillows provide a host of benefits including increased comfort, enhanced breathing, circulation, improved spinal alignment and more
9. Use window blinds - aside from having a pleasant ambient temperature when you're about to nod off, your bedroom should also be suitably dark. Window blinds or even sleeping masks are a good idea, especially for those who work night shifts and need to sleep during the daytime
10. Sleep in the nude - going to sleep unclothed or with loose fitting sleepwear helps with lymphatic drainage, a process that can help to reduce headaches, swelling and soreness and can also promote healing in post-operative or post-injury body tissue. Additionally, lymphatic drainage also helps the body to relax

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Self Confidence: Learn How To Develop With The Law Of Attraction

By Brian Miller

When you are unhappy, one of the first questions that you need to ask yourself is what your overall opinion of yourself really are you satisfied with the way you live your life or are there certain areas that could use some improvement? For instance, if you do not like the person that is looking back at you whenever you look into the mirror, it is pretty clear that you need to do something about your self confidence. Maybe it is a weight loss issue.

Either way, it all changes if you stop criticizing yourself and everything you do and just take a step back. Look at the big picture and make some difficult decisions. Begin by loving every single inch of the person that you see whenever you look into the mirror. Nobody is perfect and every single one of the people you meet on a daily basis have similar doubts. Some of them allow these doubts to affect their self confidence, some prefer to work through them.

What you need to keep in mind is that you are the only one that has the power to change something. Regardless if we are talking about your view regarding your body image, about extra pounds, about your hair colour or the way you dress, you must learn to embrace it all.The weight loss process takes some time and it should involve smart lifestyle changes. Visualise yourself skinny, wearing those jeans that have never fit you and be ready to put in all the required work. You are just right, even though you are not at your ideal weight. This does not mean that you need to just allow yourself to pack even more extra pounds. Love yourself the way you are, but make changes to become a better version.

The undeniable truth is that weight loss will always help with self confidence, especially if you start getting compliments on a daily basis. The first person that should be making those compliments should be you! Look into the mirror and give yourself a pep talk each day. It does not have to be long or complicated. Look at the big picture and make some difficult decisions. Begin by loving every single inch of the person that you see whenever you look into the mirror. Nobody is perfect and every single one of the people you meet on a daily basis have similar doubts. Just acknowledge every single bit of progress that you see and push yourself a bit further each time. If weight loss is on your mind, opt for the healthiest solution.

Make sure that you remind yourself just how beautiful you are. Think healthy thoughts and do not expect to get rid of pounds in a matter of days. The weight loss process takes some time and it should involve smart lifestyle changes. Visualise yourself skinny, wearing those jeans that have never fit you and be ready to put in all the required work. Find motivation in the positive thoughts that you keep thinking every single time you are faced with making a healthy or an unhealthy eating choice. Your confidence level will definitely improve!

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Forget Excuses - Remember Self Motivation

By Darren Russell

The internet is a wonderful thing and since its introduction to the world it has created an abundance of money making opportunities for anyone looking to make an income from home.

A lot of individuals who have gone on to make substantial incomes from online businesses started with zero or limited knowledge of how to do so.

Today more than ever there are a good number of internet entrepreneurs and businesses offering genuine online business opportunities.

So with all these opportunities available why do only a handful of people succeed while the majority either give up or just move from opportunity to opportunity without ever getting close to success?

The reason most people fail is down to personal development, the need to identify and set goals, then be able to systemically carry them through to conclusion.

Add to this the ability to keep yourself motivated when things don't always go the way you planned and you find a cocktail of characteristics that the majority of us have to work hard to maintain.

Everyday when you wake, you have a very important choice to make...

You have to choose what to do with your time and the choice you make will determine whether by the end of the day you will be closer to where you want, or at the same point you where when you woke up that morning.

Too many people say they want to change their lives for the better, some even set goals and maybe have a small idea of what they need to do, but sadly the choice they make when they wake in the morning is the same one they have been making every day up to that point...

The point is your life will not change unless you take action...

None of your goals will be achieved unless you do something about them...

When I speak to people, I hear all kinds of excuses but the most common one by far is,..

I don't have the time!

I don't have the time... these five little words are by far the favourite excuse for many people to hide behind.

However, when I dig a little deeper and start asking some questions, I find that in the majority of cases a little lifestyle change here and there and a small sacrifice or two can free up the valuable hours you need to start making a difference to your lives.

It may come as no surprise that one of the biggest consumers of our time is television.

Latest stats tell us that the average Brit watches 24 hours of TV a week and the average American 30 hours a week!

24-30 hours A WEEK!

That's almost a full time job, even if you reduced your time watching TV by half that would free up 15 hours a week that could be better spent working on your goals and ambitions.

It's not just TV either plenty of time is wasted away on other activities, things like spending hours at the mall, going to pubs and bars, going to ball games/events, playing video games, reading newspapers/magazines, social media, procrastinating, browsing the internet for nothing in particular the list goes on.

None of the things on this list are vital to our everyday lives yet so many people are unwilling to give them up, even though they say they want to change their lives and their circumstances.

I'm not saying cut everything you enjoy out of your life...

I'm just saying if you really do want to make changes sometimes you have to make short term sacrifices in order to manage your time better and maybe even (for now) stop doing some of the things you would normally do in order to free up the time you need to make long term gains.

So lets assume you have decided to make some changes and you have managed to free up some extra hours during the week.

What do you do next?

After all you have just potentially given something up you really enjoy, something you have been doing for years.

How are you supposed to keep yourself moving forward and not revert back to the comfortable, TV watching procrastinator you were before we decided to make these changes?

Well the one thing you must have if you want to succeed is a daily shot of motivation, this is essential because if you are not motivated then it is very easy to slide back into the rut you have just pulled yourself out of.

It is especially important at the start that you get this daily shot until you build up the belief that what you are doing is working, until you can see everyday that you are getting closer to your goal and until the motivation comes without you having to search for it.

When you get to that point you will have a drive and determination that will be burning so deep inside you that you will not be able to ignore it, it will get to the stage where any obstacle that is put in your way will just be taken in your stride and you will feel like nothing can stop you from achieving what you set out to do.

So how do you get to that point? what do you need to do?

The first thing is have your goals written out in as much detail as possible and read these goals every morning as you wake and every evening before you retire, this will remind you of why you are making these changes to your life and instil some of the motivation you need to keep going.

The second thing is to make a mood board - A mood board is a visual representation of where you want to be in your life and is usually made up of images and text representing your ambitions and goals.

As with your goals make sure you look at this everyday and imagine yourself in as much detail as possible living the life your goals and mood board show.

The final thing is a daily affirmation, this is something you need to do by yourself.

Put aside 10 minutes during the day, turn off your mobile phone, the radio and the TV find yourself a quiet spot in a dimly lit or darkened room, sit down in a comfortable chair and relax.

Next repeat the following to yourself:

"I awake everyday feeling an insatiable drive and determination to succeed, I find it easy to motivate myself and I look forward with excitement to the things I will achieve during the coming day."

Close your eyes and clear your mind of any distracting thoughts, don't try to think of anything just let yourself relax for a minute or two, relax your body and let the tension drain away from your muscles.

It is not easy to do this at first so you may find it easier to concentrate on each individual body part, starting at your toes and working up until your whole body is relaxed.

With practice you will find this comes easier until you can almost do it without thinking.

Next start to count slowly in your head until you reach 20. When you do you should feel totally relaxed, almost trance-like. If any other distracting thoughts should pop into your head as you count, don't worry, clear your mind and start over.

When you are in this relaxed state concentrate on the statement you have just read, don't worry about knowing it all off by heart just repeat the key words to yourself.

Slowly return to your fully conscious state thinking as you do that you are feeling more relaxed more alert and more motivated than you were before.

The subconscious mind is a powerful thing and the whole point of this exercise is to instill these thoughts into your subconscious mind until they are accepted as fact and in doing so will become second nature to you.

You will notice that if you repeat this exercise on a regular daily basis you will start to see the results in no time at all. You will probably find that at first it is hard to get to the right level of deep relaxation but once you do start to master this consistently then the speed with which you achieve your desired effect will increase.

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