In the past few years, I have noticed that those who have moved ahead in their career paths are the ones who understand “the game” and who actively “play the game.” Most times those who are stuck or seemingly stuck refuse to play the game. Some refuse to play the game because they are genuinely…
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Your writing success depends on you learning the correct lesson
We all make mistakes. Sometimes we make mistakes repeatedly in a cycle with no overall progress. We know we have to sit down to write that article or that book. So we write for a day or two, stop writing for a few weeks, then write a day or two again, and stop writing again…
Do not leave your future to chance
Have you ever made an intention to change and not do it? Do you tell yourself or your friends, “For now on I will be different. I will [substitute promise]?” Then, two days later you are crying to them “I blew it again. I don’t know why I keep doing [opposite of promise].” You make…
3 reasons why you need to learn from experts
Learning a new skill is hard. You not only have to learn how things work but you also have to put in the work to actually get the results you want. So most times we look to people who have gotten the results we want for advice, tips and tricks to either shorten or make…
2 reasons why learning from an expert is not right for you…at this point in time
The pervasive thinking that most people have when starting to develop new skills to achieve a big goal is to seek expert advice and implement exactly what experts have done to achieve expert results. The problem is that sometimes experts forget that their advice may not be relevant to a newbie. A newbie is better…
How to do an overdue and overwhelming task
You look at your task list over the past few weeks and there is this one task that keeps getting pushed from one week to the next. It is overdue by three weeks and you are feeling guilty for not making it a priority. You rationalize it is too big to deal with. But now…
Act on your goals for your future self
In a recent podcast session on Smart Passive Income, the host Pat Flynn, invited author Dr. Benjamin Hardy to talk about writing on Medium and Ben’s new book, Personality isn’t Permanent. One of the interesting things Dr. Hardy noted is that people don’t act for their future selves. We tend to undervalue the change (whether…
Why are you procrastinating on your dreams and goals?
We all have dreams and goals that we believe will make our lives blessed. But, we can be our own enemies by procrastinating on our dreams. Procrastination or putting off what can be done now in the future is common. When life holds so many pleasures like watching movies that you love and eating mouthwatering…
Obstacles to Happiness
At various times of my life, I found I was content with my work, with the husband, and with family and friends. I had no real strife with anyone. I was at peace with myself and happy. But, those peaceful and content times were interweaved with other times when I was stressed and unhappy. Pausing…
Ten myths about the lives of women in Marcus Buckingham’s “Find Your Strongest Life”
Are you a woman in a career, married and have kids? Learn about ten myths related to your life here.
Discover your life purpose: Use your passions
In the first day of this journey, you would have listed those things you are most passionate about. But, passions don’t necessarily have to be our life purpose. Passions that are life-long can become a life purpose. However, we tend to have different passions at different stages of our lives. Most passions are ethereal, lasting…
Discover your life purpose: It’s a journey
Are you experiencing a disconnect between the way you are living and the way you would like to be living? Have you been questioning what is your life purpose? Are you spending your days just checking off to-do lists and craving something more meaningful in your life? Do you want more direction in your life…
Align your dreams with your life purpose
How often have you pursued a dream and then stopped after the first phase? Your motivation waned, and you’re tired of putting out work for little in return. After a while, you start again and run into a wall with no immediate way around or over it. Before you give up, there is one question…
Prioritize your bucket list/life goals items
Most people often write their bucket list (life goals list) and don’t give a second thought to the order of the items on the list. So why do you need to prioritize items on your bucket list and how are you to know which items you should focus on? You have limited resources Don’t fool…
Create your bucket list of dreams
This week I digress from how to go after one dream to practising dreaming. Very often we regret the things we did not do or who we did not spend time with. We all want to live a life in which we express our full potential. People create life goals lists to remember what will…
Are you waking up without the motivation to walk on the path to your dream?
Very often, when we have decided to take action on our dreams, we choose a path to the dream and get started. But, after the initial excitement wears off, our motivation wanes too. You may no longer wake up with the excitement to take action towards the dream. You no longer care to push yourself to…
Clarify your dream: Review the vision statement of your dream
In a previous post, I explained how to clarify your dream by adding context. We took an example of a dream: making one million dollars from your writing. By considering the different paths to get to the same goal, you would have shortlisted paths most suitable to you. Also, you would have written a vision…
Clarify your dream before setting goals: Add context to your dream
Have you ever set goals to achieve a particular dream only to realize many months later that the dream you are chasing is not what you really want? I feel for you, the many hours of effort, the energy and late nights and the money you spent on the chase. There is one simple solution…
Create a nurturing environment for your dreams
Most of us are shells of our full potentials because of the nurture and care we had as children. Children who are nurtured are told that they can do whatever they wanted to do. Their thoughts were respected and they were loved for who they are. They were given tools and books they wanted or…
Who do you think you are having those dreams?
Sometimes on an off guard you may tell someone outside your inner support circle about the big dreams you have. A typical response to your declaration in so many words is, “Who do you think you are to have those dreams?” Who do you think you are to want to be a scientist like Albert…
You can handle your fear
Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the fear…and do it anyway, makes an observation about our fears: that whatever they are (fear of success, fear of failure), fears are rooted in our belief that we can’t handle the particular fear. The observation has a simple solution: develop more trust in your ability to handle whatever comes…
Welcome your desires into your life
The difficult thing about what you desire is that you can’t see it yet. And, when you can’t see it, it is difficult to welcome your desires into your life. You tend to start believing that your desires are out of your reach. I’m not asking you to believe you can get what you desire…
Fear and your dreams: feel it and use it
When you start rekindling your desires and dreams a feeling that was long buried will arise: fear. Because, when we bury our dreams we bury negative feelings associated with the dreams: terrified, not feeling confident, regret, guilt, anxiety, shame, sadness, confusion, helplessness and confusion, just to name some. Feeling terrified or feeling fear is normal…
Rekindle your heart’s desires
When last did you think of what you desired most from this life? Are you living the life you were meant to live? Then pause and rekindle your heart’s desires. Pull out a paper, take a pen to hand and write down your deepest dreams. At first, you may be afraid to write down what…
Goals are not set in stone
Have you set a goal and feel that you have to stick to it because everyone knows about it? Or because you always achieve every goal that you set? Maybe you are afraid to commit to the goals because you are afraid they are like life sentences, locking you in onto one path for months…
You can have it all
Life is meant to be lived and you were meant to have it all. No, don’t laugh, you were really meant to have it all. It’s just that you did not know “what it all” means to you. Your family may have told you to go to college, get a degree, get a job, set…
How to add more gratefulness in your life
In the past month, I have added more gratefulness in my life through a simple practice. Every morning, I wrote what three things I was grateful for, not in bullet points, but in full sentences. I would write, “I’m grateful for X because of Y.” This morning I flipped through my journal and noticed that…
Meaningful goals in 2020
Consider these four things when setting your goals Each year, many people set goals on January 1 and within three weeks they forget about the goals. Either life gets in the way or willpower has run out. I have been in this position and it is demoralizing. This year, 2020, take your time in setting…
Use low stakes writing to get started with writing
Are you a newbie writer looking for tips to get started with writing? Then look no further. Here are 4 tips to get started using low stakes writing.
Use rewards for getting started with writing
Getting started with writing is hard. We often have to face fears. But other times we don’t want to leave the more pleasurable things at hand to write. Netflix may have some new episodes of the series you were following. The icecream cake in your freezer could just melt in your mouth. So what do…
Celebrate small wins
Yesterday, I resubmitted a scientific article for a journal. This was only part of one of my goals for the rest of the year. I was tempted to move on and not celebrate. However, here are 3 benefits for pausing and celebrating the small wins in between. Pause and thank the people who support you…
Are my stressors in conflict with my goals?
Recently, I reviewed my annual goals and decided on 3 that I need to accomplish by the end of the year which is in two months time. In the past, I used to set the goals without accounting for what stresses I had at that period of my life. The outcome was that the stressors…
You can always have a new dream
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. Les Brown Two years ago, I gave a presentation on the stages of change that is required to accomplish a goal. The presentation was a part of a teaching exercise I had to do as part of my training to…
Simplify your life: tactics to make fewer bargain purchases
We accummulate things because we just cannot resist a good bargain. But bargain deals make you spend money on things you don’t need and the more bargain items you have the more storage space you need to keep them good for use in the future. Your space gets cluttered and you have to spend time…
Slowly simplify your life
There is no need to rush decluttering….take it slowly and address your underlying emotions.
Rules of the writing game
When I wrote about when to play the career game yesterday, I did not yet know that Robert Heinlein, an American science fiction author, had set forth 5 rules for writing. These rules are about the writing game and making a living from your writing. I could not find the original source (as yet), but…
The main reason why you’re stuck in life
Have you made no progress in your goals and dreams in recent months? Have opportunities for progress come your way but you did not seize them? Do you regret not taking those opportunities because you realize they are not coming again? Take a moment to think about why you let those opportunities to escape you….
Thinking of quitting? Here’s what to do.
Are you thinking of quitting a goal or dream? Don’t…not just yet. Sometimes we quit for the wrong reasons and become obstacles to our own success. Answer two questions…are you experimenting with new goals every one or two weeks? Are these new goals related to a bigger project? Do you find you need new goals…
