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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Start An Online Business - How To Cut Your Financial Pain, Depression, And Debt

By Marc-Eddie Drouinaud Jr. 

People all over the world are trying to find a stable source of income. If you want to cut your financial pain and depression, I would advise you to strongly take what I share in this article into consideration.

As of today, more people are starting online-based businesses. People are mastering new marketing techniques in order to drive more sales. If you are able to master new marketing techniques, like social media and blogging, you will be able to make good income in short time. Most people in the corporate world are tired of working for a living and they want to live a higher-quality lifestyle.

Starting an online-based business can be a lucrative business move, however I must tell you that a lot of people fail everyday when they try to launch their brand of the ground. In addition, I would recommend that you go to the Better Business Bureau's website to get an honest review on whether the online-based opportunity you choose is legit or not.

Here are three types of marketing techniques you can use to give you the best chances of having financial success, in my opinion.

Technique 1: Blogging

When you start an online-based business it is great to start a blog. In order to have success in blogging, you must provide quality content to your market. Everyday, people look for solutions to their problems and as a marketer, you must help them. However, before you try to sell your products and services to the masses, I would recommend that you go to services, like Google Trends, to see what types of keywords that you market is looking for.

Technique 2: Sending Emails

As of today, emails are still a great way to communicate what you have to offer to the masses. I would recommend that you start small before going on a big budget when it comes to using mass emailing services. You can purchase some email lists and practice sending different emails to see what works and what does not work. I would recommend that you do not send more than three emails per day for each lead you receive.

Technique 3: Get help from experts

When you are starting an online-based business, it is your responsibility to gather as much information as possible. I would recommend that you join some forums and talk with some people who have been in the arena before. Forums are a place where people come together on the internet to talk about different topics.

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How to Turn Life's Lemons Into Lemonade

By Pierre Pinkerton

This article is a shift in terms of focus. Although relevant for the fields of business development and growth, the theme of this article is on personal development before business development.

I've always been a huge fan of sales gurus and personal growth experts like Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, Norman Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie, etc. While initially thinking these guys were full of 'it' and irrelevant; now, with time and experience having matured me to a reasonable level (I hope), I've come to not only attest to truths that these guys and others live by and teach, but also their beliefs and wisdom are very relevant and timeless.

One of the core truths taught and deeply ingrained into my subconscious is the following: failures in life will either strengthen and motivate you to grow and develop or they have the very real ability to break you down.

What do I mean when I say failures in life? Well, quite simply, these are the moments in our lives that the results and outcomes come totally different and often more severe than we had anticipated. Whether it's a job loss, divorce, eviction, bankruptcy, failed job interview, a blown investment, or being defrauded by someone, we all face these challenges at one time in life or another.

The key that I've learned about these negative life events is that you have A CHOICE in how you respond. The thing that keeps most of us in 'ruts' of negativity, isolation, and hopelessness is that we allow ourselves to be motivated by fear in a wrong way. Rather than thinking about how worse and severe a negative life event can become, why not choose to be motivated by the fear of the situation to take hold of hope. Choose to take a strong hold of hope and never let go no matter how bad it hurts or feels.

Now here's another underlying truth in being motivated by the fear of negative life events: don't labor your mind or put a heavy burden on yourself for solving your problems overnight; instead, relax, rest, and remain positive. What I've learned and continue to grow in is that more than likely the answer needed to resolve the problem(s) is right under your nose or floating somewhere in your mind. How do these 'uh huh' moments happen? Truly in the most odd ways possible to be completely honest. There's no secret formula (or at least one that I've found that works) or secret sauce that induces these moments, but here's one way to put yourself in the state of mind to increasing their frequency: relax, live life, serve others well, listen more than you speak, forgive completely, and love sincerely.

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Here’s Why You Haven’t Achieved Your Goal Yet

By Brian Tracy

Simply put, successful people are goal-setters. Goal-setting applies to every area of our lives. We set goals for our careers, relationships, families, finances, etc. Our ultimate goals, however, set the course for our lives. The ultimate goals define the direction that we go in.

Unfortunately, some people never achieve their ultimate goals in life. They limit their self-confidence and they limit themselves.

Identify Your Limiting Step

One of the most valuable exercises you can engage in when setting long-term goals is to ask yourself, “What is my limiting step?”

What is the one factor that determines the speed at which I achieve my goal? Or can I achieve it at all throughout my personal development?

The ability to identify your limiting step is one of the best demonstrations of your intelligence. It is a huge step towards building self-confidence.

Your capacity to eliminate this limiting step is one of the best demonstrations of your overall competence.  You can achieve anything you want.

Self-Confidence Is The Critical Factor

In studying everything that has been written or said about personal development and success, I’ve come to a conclusion.  Your level of self-confidence is the critical factor in everything you accomplish. When you have enough self-confidence, you will try almost anything.

Because success is largely a matter of averages or probabilities, the more things you try, the more likely it is that you will achieve them.

The same is true for you. By setting goals, trying more things, and exploring more opportunities, your probabilities of success increase dramatically. The only real limiting step to success that you might have is your level of self-confidence.

When you reach the point at which you believe in yourself fully, the barriers that exist in your external world will not stop you.

Build Your Self-Confidence

The major obstacles to success always lie within the mind of the individual.

They are not contained in external circumstances, situations or people. By building self-confidence, you win the inner battle. The outer battle seems to take care of itself.

I have learned three important ideas for building self-confidence. First, accept complete responsibility for everything that you are and ever will be.

Second, accept that you can change your situation only by working on yourself. Learn what it takes to be better. Third, set goals with timelines for the things you want. Then, work every day to bring those goals into reality.

Practice Persistently

Our natural tendency is to work hard until we find a method or technique that works for us. Whether that be in life, work, or relationships. Then, for some perverse reason, we promptly abandon the technique and go back to behaving in our old ways.

Setting goals and thinking positively act as a mental program for our personal development. Just like an exercise program works on our physical development.

If you expect it to work for you, you have to practice it persistently and keep at it indefinitely.

Apply The Success Principles To Your Own Life

When I began to apply these proven success principles to my life, I was able to bring about almost miraculous changes in every area of my life.

Every successful man or woman that I have ever talked to or read about has come to pretty much the same conclusion. By every measure, you have more talent and ability than you could use in 100 lifetimes.

You, too, can step on the accelerator of your own potential and begin moving forward at a speed that will amaze you by setting goals.

What is one goal that you have always wanted to achieve, but been too afraid to go after?

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Secrets to Developing Emotional Mastery

If you master this skill, you can achieve anything! Great advice from Brendon Burchard:)

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.

Unforgettable Advice For Achieving Great Success

This really is unforgettable. Great advice for achieving anything. Enjoy

We Are Not Driven, We Are Propelled - How To Achieve Your Goals

By David Samuel

It is very common that we get a goal and have a desire, feeling driven to achieve. Yet we often just drop it and give up. For some people, this is such a common occurrence that their self-esteem deteriorates and they start to feel very discouraged.

This article will explain why we get heated up only to have a quick cool down and never finish the tasks we begin, or achieve our goals.

Desires do not draw us, we are propelled away from pain. The desire to move away from the cause of pain is far more powerful than inspiration can drive us towards something like a nice holiday.

When we have desires and goals, but cannot get motivated, the reason is that the goal is not real. It is what we think we want but not what we really want. Your goal is a distraction, an illusion.

What propels you is what matters.

Very few people are naturally driven.

The rest of us are propelled.

If you want to run your fastest, no matter how well you train for the race, how much you desire to win the gold medal, there is no way you will achieve your truly top speed in any way better than if a man eating tiger is chasing you. That will certainly draw out your absolute maximum and make sure you never give up.

When you move towards something, you are in fact moving away from something else. Missing this fact is why people start but do not finish things. They are moving away from something that is painful rather than towards what they think they want and so the assumed goal is not the real goal.

Many goals and desires are in fact something we think will end a pain or resolve something we fear. We are pushed by ending a pain rather than wanting the goal. This means that we do not really want what we think we want.

Since we are lost in an illusion rather than living in reality, it is totally understandable that you eventually give up on chasing a cloud.

Understanding this, and knowing what is actually propelling you, what your fear and pain really is, will keep you going in the right direction. You will never reach your destination if your road is not clear and you keep looking backwards checking for a phantom that you cannot see.

Why You Give Up

The reason we give up on a goal before we complete it, is that once we have moved far enough away from the cause of pain, it dilutes enough that it cannot propel us any more, so we stop pursuing the goal. Then we think that we gave up and failed.

In fact, we have succeeded in the real goal, that of no longer feeling the pain that we are moving away from.

Find what propels you, what pain you want to end, and focus on the pain more than the goal. You may find a new goal which will be more appropriate to ending your pain and you will have a better chance of success when you know the real reason you want it.

Sometimes, consciously looking at the negative is more powerful than shutting your eyes and mind and ignoring what your subconscious is deeply preoccupied with.

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The Role Your Subconscious Mind Plays In Your Everyday Life

By Bryan Tracy

The subconscious mind – something that has a huge effect on every action, but is constantly overlooked.

Instead, the focus is often on our conscious mind, which contains the critical thought function of our brains. The subconscious is the powerful layer underneath. It encompasses the awareness of all things the conscious mind cannot recognize.

Once the subconscious is tapped into, this remarkable part of the brain plays many different roles in your everyday life.

The Memory Bank

Your subconscious mind is like a huge memory bank. Its capacity is virtually unlimited. It permanently stores everything that ever happens to you.

By the time you reach the age of 21, you’ve already permanently stored more than one hundred times the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

Under hypnosis, older people can often remember, with perfect clarity, events from fifty years before. Your unconscious memory is virtually perfect. It is your conscious recall that is suspect.

The function of your subconscious mind is to store and retrieve data.

Its job is to ensure that you respond exactly the way you are programmed. Your subconscious mind makes everything you say and do fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept. This is your “Master Program.”

The Unquestioning Servant

Your subconscious mind is subjective. It does not think or reason independently. It merely obeys the commands it receives from your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind can be thought of as the gardener, planting seeds. Your subconscious mind can be thought of as the garden, or fertile soil, in which the seeds germinate and grow.

Your conscious mind commands and your subconscious mind obeys.

Your subconscious mind is an unquestioning servant. It works day and night to make your behavior fits a pattern consistent with your emotionalized thoughts, hopes, and desires.

Your subconscious mind grows either flowers or weeds in the garden of your life. Whichever you plant is based on the mental equivalents you create.

The Preserver Of Balance

Your subconscious mind has what is called a homeostatic impulse. It keeps your body temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It keeps you breathing regularly and keeps your heart beating at a certain rate.

Through your autonomic nervous system, it maintains a balance among the hundreds of chemicals in your billions of cells. Your entire physical machine functions in complete harmony most of the time.

Your subconscious mind also practices homeostasis in your mental realm. It keeps you thinking and acting in a manner consistent with what you have done and said in the past.

The Comfort Zone

All your habits of thinking and acting are stored in your subconscious mind. It has memorized all your comfort zones and it works to keep you in them.

Your subconscious mind causes you to feel emotionally and physically uncomfortable whenever you attempt to do anything new or different. It goes against changing any of your established patterns of behavior.

You can feel your subconscious pulling you back toward your comfort zone each time you try something new. Even thinking about doing something different from what you’re accustomed to will make you feel tense and uneasy.

One of the biggest habits of successful men and women is always stretching themselves or pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. They are very aware how quickly the comfort zone, in any area, becomes a rut. They know that complacency is the great enemy of creativity and future possibilities.

Tap Into Your Subconscious

Remember, for you to grow and get out of your comfort zone, you have to be willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable doing new things. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly until you get a feel for it. Keep trying until you develop a new comfort zone at a new, higher level of competence.

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Work Hard In Silence And Let Success Make The Noise

By Sergei VanBellinghen

To be successful, you have to be able to work hard in silence and let success make the noise. When people are putting forty hours work week, you need to put eighty to a hundred hours a week, which in turn improves your odds of success. It sounds crazy, but it pushes you to be extraordinary.

But what pushes some people to work so hard? How is it possible to have so much determination or even the discipline? Is it conceivable to achieve your goals in a shorter period of time?

The first thing that pushes certain individuals to work hard is hunger. Even if intelligence is a valuable tool, there are a lot of smart people out there that cannot fight their way out of a paper bag. But when someone has a hunger that does not go away, to be more, do more, get more, and never ends, it becomes a person who is the best at what they do.

I believe that everybody has that hunger, but for some people, it has been lifeless for a long time. The reason being is that they are afraid to try or to fail. It is human nature to protect yourself from the fear by lowering your expectation. But you get what you tolerate. While some people accept their fate, others decide that enough is enough.

Therefore, when you decide to make a change, it is the beginning of a breakthrough. You then create a different vision for yourself. Some of you are already doing it right now. More than ever, it is a time to begin working hard, in silence, and inoculate yourself with positive words.

When you work hard in silence, you create a different and new you which then become unstoppable. You have to replace the negative garbage which is polluting your mind and replace it with optimistic thoughts. If not, you will slowly die at age 25 and will not get buried until you are 75.

Get a Clear Vision and Work Hard 

If you are reading this article, it is because you are different from everyone else. To work hard, you need a clear vision of where you are going and what you want. You have to focus on you, and not try to convince people who do not believe in what you see the future to be.

When you go outside and look for pigeons, it is pretty easy, but if you are looking for eagles, it may take you a few minutes to find them. The fact is that when you reach the top and let success make the noise, it feels kind of lonely but you have to remember, you eat better.

There are times, and days such as certain mornings where it is better not to think, but to get up, work hard, and in silence. Do what you have to do. Then read or learn something new. But there are other times when you have to think and get really creative. You need to keep a clear vision of what you want and grind. Then make a dollar into two, invest it and grow your net worth.

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Work Hard 

The reality is that reading a book, going to a conference, having a great conversation where you get this golden information is fantastic. But what makes mastery is execution on the ideas. No concepts work unless you are willing to roll up your sleeves, do the practice, invest the time, put the effort, and work hard.

We have all observed a lot of people, who love reading the books, showing at the courses, doing all of the online training but nothing ever changes. And they do not know why it does not work, why their lives do not improve or why their thinking stills the same.

Well, it is because ideas do not work if you do not execute on them. You have to work hard. If you look at any great entrepreneur, leader or performer, there is one thing that makes them prodigious, and that is their grit. It is their hunger, determination, and perseverance to practice that makes them who they are. Successful people are willing to make all the sacrifices.

Work Hard with Passion and Shift Your Mindset 

And yes, they are passionate. So you also have to be obsessive. Do you know the root of the word passion? It is "suffering." Therefore you have to be willing to suffer and work hard for your vision. You got to feel the pain to reach the top and be one of the best in the world.

You have to be able to suffer the laughter and ridicule of your critics and cynics to get to a place called success. And as you get to that area, let victory speaks for itself. For all of it, you have to change your mindset. And in this shift, you must accept appreciation.

The truth is that often, everything is about getting, so what we focus on is somewhat what we do not have. Therefore, you have to shift your mindset from focusing on what you lack to the connection of the growth and goals you want to achieve. You have to work hard every day until you accomplish what you desire.

Work Hard by Practicing Repeatedly 

No matter what is going on in your life, I know that there will be things that knock you down, stuff that sucks or reasons to be unhappy but there is always a reason to bounce back. How do I know that? Well, I do also have them in my life; we all do. But it is how you deal with what is happening.

There is no magic button to build self-confidence. Hard work and repetition is the key to confidence. Let me remind you of the ten thousand hours rule. There is no secret formula other than practicing the same thing over and over until you master it.

The problem is that you cannot expect to have confidence or mastery tomorrow. But you can build confidence if you put yourself in a situation where the skill you have to learn is getting you under pressure, and you are pushed to work hard. It is your ability to practice and keep trying that makes you an expert.

Work Hard and Let Success Make the Noise 

Most people have a problem with repetition, and it is that a lot of them bail after a little bit of failure. Have you ever bailed after the first bit of adversity? At times I know I did. There is nothing to be ashamed of. We are all used to repeat something, but you just have to practice and work hard at your craft if you want to master it, and never accept failure.

Determination and persistence are great tools to use. So, you have to persist. All I care about and all that matter to you is what your mindset is like regarding today and your future. Keep your 'why' in your mind, work hard in silence and let success speak. You can, you will, and you must.

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High Performance Habits in 5 Minutes

There are habits and there are SUCCESS habits... Great support from Brendon once again!

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 Invest Your Way to a $70 Million Retirement Fund

Really interesting take from Tony Robbins on investing and methods for wealth building. Enjoy:)

Where To Begin On Your Fitness and Health Journey

By CA Flemming

Going back and forth with where to start on your new healthy adventure can be very frustrating and confusing to the point where a lot of people give up after a week of trying new and different things. My best advice while starting this new adventure is to get in the mind set that everything works differently for everyone! Not every diet will work the same for each person. For example my best friend can only have half the carbohydrates a day than I can because my body can process them faster and distribute it evenly throughout my body. So don't get frustrated from the beginning because everyone starts out in the same place you are now.

Here I have listed a checklist of things you should consider while starting off on your new adventure of being fit healthy and happy!

Throw out more than half of the junk food in your house, if not all of it. 

They are only temptations that we don't need. Yes you can eat them occasionally but having them linger around gives us more incentive to give into the temptations.

Write a list of your fitness goals. 

Start off with writing down your morning weight and date it. Then write down where you want to see yourselves and the time frame you are giving yourself.

Start thinking about meal prep. 

Meal prep is all about making meals for your week to get you started on a healthy week because the moment you open that fridge you can grab anything but if you know you already have meals that you prepared you are more willing to go for those and that is always the healthier option.

Go shopping for healthy food options. 

You can check out anywhere on the internet for recipes and grocery lists for healthy food options.

Get a gym membership 

I know not all of us have a lot of money to spend on expensive over the top gym memberships but there are some gyms like XSport or Planet Fitness that offer $10 memberships and the moment you know you are paying for something you will tend to use it way more often. If this really isn't a viable option then do at home workouts, take daily walks, start up running or biking riding as a new hobby. It is all about starting off with small changes.

Drink more water. 

Your daily water intake should be at least 8 glasses of water a day. This will help with your skin, hair, and overall hunger that we tend to get when we start a diet.

Think of this as a lifestyle change for the better. 

The moment we stop calling it a diet is the moment we keep trying for this end goal and we keep up with what we started off doing in the first place.

HAVE FUN!

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How to Make More Money (Meaningfully)

Provide some value through services and products and your character. Learn more than others and get out there and do it. Figure out how to offer more value than the next person. Fantastic advice from Brendon Burchard.

It's Never Too Late to Become a Millionaire | Jack Canfield

Great advice from Jack Canfield. It is NEVER too late!!

3 Enemies to Our Personal Growth

Assess the doubt and you'll find some faith, then confidence and belief, and then success!! Essential to face these reasons head on.

Your Key to Success, and How to Reach Your Goals

By Colin Summers

It is so easy to feel weighed down by concerns, worries, fears for the future, or sad because relationships are strained, uneasy, or you always seem to say the wrong thing.

To get out of this groove and way of thinking can take some effort.

Thought is energy and emanates out from us like radio waves, therefore feeling sad or negative doesn't help the situation. Turning your thoughts or attitude around, can send out positive vibrations which has the knock-on effect of improving conditions.

So, whatever can help to make you feel more relaxed and happy, sends out that thought energy, which you can also project into the future, influencing future situations or relationships for the better. Your health and well-being will improve.

Situations, or people, that have upset you in the past can be wearing you down now, and preventing you from enjoying the good things in life NOW.

You cannot alter the past, but you can learn to accept what has occurred, or whatever has been said to hurt you, and leave the past where it is, in the past! Use the situation to project you towards a better future.

Visualizations, or using positive imaginations, can be a really useful too visualizing positive future situations or relationships are a great help as it is promoting positive vibrations.

Positive visualization, or imagination can affect you memory, helping you to feel more peaceful and more in control of any hurt or anxiety, instead of IT controlling YOU!

"Think happy and you'll be happy" was a phrase used by Evadne Price many years ago and is still true today.

Therefore also, think successful and you'll be successful. Successful people believe in their abilities, with confidence, it is their key to success. Therefore thinking this way can be YOUR secret to success.

How many times have you lain awake at night with everything going around and around in your mind, which prevents you from sleeping? Getting a good nights sleep helps you to cope with all you need to do. So promoting a good nights sleep by learning to let go of worries and concerns enables your mind to be more peaceful, able to relax and drift off to sleep, waking refreshed for the next day.

Your body is able to heal whilst you are asleep, so sleep is essential. If you are lying awake and tense, your body is not able to renew itself. You need to be able to look after your body and your mind to be physically and mentally healthy, in order to be at your best. After good sleep, being active and eating well maintains your well-being.

Feeling rested, calm, healthy and positive is how to reach your goals. If you feel tired, lacking energy and hope, you will feel you can't achieve anything.

"You are what you eat" is another good phrase worthy of consideration.

Being anxious about money, as we all are at various times of our lives, isn't helpful, because being anxious tends to prevent us from seeing any opportunities that may be occurring in order for us to improve our wealth. Think of ways to increase your income, sell unwanted items, look how to make money on-line.

Wealth can come to you in various ways and forms. One small step or one small "something" can lead to another. Glass half empty or half full? Be positive about everything you actually have even a small amount of money, or something that makes you happy, however small, is valuable.

Human beings have creative minds, which are capable of creating in many ways, and we are all different. Find ways to tap into your own creativity to boost your self-esteem.

With a calm, clear, uncluttered mind, ideas can pop into your head that you can use. Maybe you may think that you can do something in a better way, or something can be improved on or be more efficient, by making an adjustment.

Do not doubt yourself or your abilities, do not criticise yourself or be envious of others. What is self-esteem? It is when you feel confidence in yourself, respect yourself and have pride in your own abilities, using your own unique qualities.

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How to Succeed: 5 Steps for Getting Ahead

Get ahead = Choose your thing - Show up - Be better than everyone else!! Fantastic advice from Brendon Burchard. Enjoy:)

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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