Tag: Freedom lifestyle

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Write Down 3 Things You’re Grateful for Each Day

One of the very first habits it’s important to incorporate into your daily life if you want to be happy and feel successful is the habit of gratitude. Being grateful is more than looking on the bright side. It’s actually about being realistic about what is good in your life.

I am Grateful

To record your gratitude, use whatever method works best for you, whether it’s to email yourself, using a paper diary, or some other method. The important thing is that you acknowledge in a way that can be tracked at least three things you’re grateful for so that you can look back on it and measure how far you’ve come.

Tips to Help You Practice Positive Thinking

Plus, there are many benefits to appreciation outside of a good mindset.

 

  • You’ll Feel Happier – The saying about what you focus on grows is very true, especially when your focus is on something positive about your life. When you can see the good in your life as it’s happening, you’ll be much more likely to be able to do it again.

 

  • You’ll Be More Satisfied with Your Life – It’s so easy to focus on things when they go wrong. You missed your alarm clock, you got caught in the rain, you spilled food on your new shirt – all seem like bad things until you realize oversleeping enabled you to cuddle with your spouse longer, the rain cooled you down after lunch, and you only spilled the food because you were laughing with your best friend.

 

  • You’ll Become Less Materialistic – When you focus on the positive, it becomes clear that it’s not things that make you happy or successful – it’s experiences. As you realize that your life becomes so much richer and then, of course, you feel more comfortable and experience your life as successful.

 

  • You’ll Be Less Likely to Suffer from Burnout – If you’re aware of yourself and stay mindful, you can avoid experiencing burnout in the first place. Taking the time to record your gratitude lets you concentrate on the good parts, which can calm you down and let you place your focus where it belongs.

 

  • You’ll Experience Better Physical Health – People who can turn their focus to what’s good in their life are more likely to exercise, eat right, and stay mindful about their health.

 

  • You’ll Sleep Better Every Night – Getting everything out on paper before bed is a great time to focus on gratitude. You’ll fall asleep faster as your good mood will result in reduced anxiety.

 

  • You’ll Feel Less Fatigue – When you sleep better at night due to less anxiety, you’re naturally going to feel more well-rested and sharp during the day.

 

  • You’ll Feel Healthier Due to Suffering from Less Inflammation – Sleeping better and being less anxious has great effects in a positive direction on body-wide information thought to be one of the driving factors in disease.

 

  • You’ll Be More Mentally Resilient – Not having your mind clouded with all the negativity of the day is going to help you bounce back when things do go wrong. When you can turn your brain toward what’s good about something, you can usually get back on the path faster.

 

  • You’ll Be More Patient – Not being on edge due to anxiety and bad thoughts will also increase your patients with others and yourself too. After all, there is often something good you can take from almost everything, eventually.

 

  • You’ll Have Better and More Solid Relationships – People like being around those who are more positive than they do people who are always on edge and anxious. If you really want to build strong relationships, focus on the positive more.

 

As you can see, being grateful carries many benefits that will make your entire life better. No one is asking you to be thankful for a bad situation, especially something beyond your control, but you need to look at what is working in your life, analyze why that is working, and then do more of that. The best way to do that is to look for things to be grateful for each and every day.

 

 

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Are You Really Being Accountable?

If you want to achieve your business goals or live a happier life, you must learn how to be more accountable. Accountability means that you take ownership and responsibility for yourself—no matter what challenges and things get in your way.

Are You Really Being Accountable?

It’s excluding excuses from your way of life and harnessing values that increase your productivity. When you better understand how your actions or lack of activities affect everyone around you, you can better control what needs to be done or improved to accomplish your goals.

 

The following are a few ways that can help you become more accountable to achieve more quarterly and daily goals:

 

Honesty Is the Best Policy

Be honest with the mistakes you have made or situations you experience. If you find yourself making excuses or blaming others, then it’s likely you are not accountable for your actions and responses.

 

Understand Expectations Clearly

Take responsibility and learn your expectations inside and out. Don’t wait for others to provide the information for you or use the excuse you didn’t know. Ask as many questions as possible so that you can find resources that build you up.

 

Celebrate Wins and Quickly Forgive Faults

While it is crucial to track your strengths and weaknesses to be more accountable, you should also forgive yourself and quickly move on. You don’t want the process to be about self-doubt and abuse.

 

You want to recognize it for what it is, then figure out what you need to improve and forgive yourself. Owning your mistakes does not mean you should dwell on them. In fact, that only keeps you behind longer. It is okay to make mistakes. You are only human, but not owning up to them or evaluating where you need to improve only harms you in the long run.

 

Value Your Time

When you don’t take accountability, you are using up time no matter if it’s obvious or not. While it can be hard to own up to mistakes, it is even worse to repeat them repeatedly until it’s too late.

 

Have Weekly Check-Ins

Have weekly check-ins with an accountability partner, mentor, or perform self-assessments. Partners and self-assessment tests are valuable as they can ensure and guide you on the right path. They can give you the tough love and recognition you need to take responsibility for yourself and do the work required.

 

As you can see, accountability is a crucial skill needed to increase your productivity and success of your business. It’s about being honest with yourself and what you want from life and evaluating your actions and processes to get there.  If you don’t take accountability, you can be sure you won’t realize your fullest potential.

 

 

 

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Harness the Power of Consistency

Consistency is a skill that is about doing the same habits and routines regularly or repeatedly. It’s about committing to move forward and act no matter what obstacle lies in your way.

 

In other words, consistency is the repetition of the movements that get you closer to your goals. With consistency, you improve your weaknesses, perfect your strengths, empower yourself to accomplish more, and increase your productivity.

If You Don’t Set Hard Deadlines, Plan to Fail

To fully harness the power of consistency, you need to be more accountable, focused, and mindful of your actions. If you don’t, your business will suffer in many different ways.

 

Here are a few ways your lack of consistency is affecting your business and how to improve it:

 

Delays Action and Wastes Valuable Time

Without consistency, you only waste your time and other valuable resources. Your performance suffers, and so does your work.

 

Stalls Momentum

Routines build up the momentum you need to keep going with ease and comfort each day. When you don’t stay consistent, it’s much harder to get your days going as you plan your day unorganized. Consistency gives you a clearer understanding of what you want to do so you can keep going easily.

 

Stalls Personal Growth and Improvement

Consistency allows you to practice, which in turn improves your skills and makes you better. When you don’t take the time to improve or take care of yourself, your business will suffer too as you continue to make poor decisions.

 

Creates Unhealthy Expectations

No success happens overnight. If you don’t think you need consistency to be successful, then you are likely on the wrong path. It takes repeated actions each day over a set amount of time to get there.

 

Unlock Your Resistance

If you want to harness the power of consistency, you must figure out what holds you back. Lack of desire or clearly understanding the direction you want to go in life will create resistance to action. For many, it’s due to fear of success or wanting instant gratification and having an “all or nothing mindset.” Whatever it may be, you need to look deep within yourself and be honest to find the cure and get back on track.

 

Chance Your Perspective and Attitude

Some days, you will not feel the best, and some days, others will get in your way. However, it does not matter what life throws at you. There is always a way to see it more positively and objectively to push forward and get what you want. You only have now, so don’t waste it any longer.

 

Start Small

Find one task or activity that you know you can do every day without a second thought. Then add another step until that action becomes second nature. Test and repeat until you have a full and consistent workflow that works for your needs.

 

Remember, the more consistent you are, the happier you and your customers will be. Over time, the work will become easier, saving you time and energy to create more and be the next leading innovator within your industry.

 

 

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Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps

Focus shows you have the drive and desire to want to achieve something. It’s about putting all your energy into one thing and getting it down with grit and determination. It ingrains your goals and keeps you on the path of success. However, it’s hard to maintain and easily affects your business if you don’t.

 

Here are five steps to improve your focus and prevent self-sabotage from destroying your success:

 

Step 1: Find Your Mantra

Everyone has something unique to them that drives them to keep going—for example, putting on music while you work or giving yourself words of encouragement. Whatever it may be, find what resonates with you and repeat it every day before you get to work. If you are not sure, try giving yourself a pep talk in the mirror first thing in the morning and see just how much more productive and positive your day becomes.

 

Step 2: Commit to Healthy Routines

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and exercise routine is one of the best ways to ensure you get the right nutrients your body needs to function optimally. Poor concentration and memory problems are direct messages from your body that it is missing essential nutrients to work correctly. Learn to listen to it and always strive to provide it what it needs.

 Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

Step 3: Eliminate Distractions

Put your distractions like cell phones in a different room or turn on your StayFocused chrome browser extension to block YouTube or other sites you always lose track of time on. Create the right working environment that inspires you to work at your best and quickly. Throw out clutter and things that don’t provide value to your work.

 

Step 4: Commit to Mindfulness

To be more focused, you have to commit to do so and be mindful of your actions and surroundings. You can’t expect others to provide that information for you, nor will their perspective be automatically valuable. As only you know what you need and want from life, no one else. Only you know if music distracts you or if your set goals don’t actually align, for example.

 

Step 5: Plan More Effectively

Find the right time of day to do your work. All humans have a set number of productive hours and times of day that work best for them. Test and experiment with various schedules to see what works best for you. Just because everyone else works a 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t mean you have to, too.

 

Don’t let your lack of focus get in your way any longer. Determine what you really want in life, create an action plan, take responsibility, and control your own life.

Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps

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Always Plan First and Last

The thing that marks a good business is planning. A business plan for where they hope to bring their business and daily plans to guide their actions to achieve it.

 

You’ve likely heard the famous quote “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” many times before, and that is because it is so powerful and accurate. There is no other way to put it. Just because you don’t plan doesn’t mean you don’t know the direction it will go. As statistics prove over again, you are more likely to go down than up.

Business Plan Resources You Can Use

Here are a few tips and tricks to apply for better planning your day and business:

 

Plan First and Last

An often-used productivity hack by many businesses and entrepreneurs includes creating a to-do list at the beginning and end of their workday. This strategy improves your business overall by increasing your time management skills, consistency, and accountability.

 

When you start and end with a to-do list, you allow flexibility and ensure you are always working on your top priorities and staying on topic—enabling you to cut out unnecessary or mundane tasks that only keep you away from your main objective.

 

Not only that, but it can also be a great reminder and motivational factor. Lists enable you to be ready to go and can give you the push to get started sooner.

 

Make It Simple and Fun

Planning doesn’t have to be complicated, and business isn’t always dull. Use colorful pens or fun phone applications to write down your goals. Add fun and small rewards when you accomplish each step. Remember to keep it simple, and to the point, so it doesn’t overwhelm you.

 

Think Small, Medium, and Large

Think about three objectives you want to accomplish for that day but organize them into three separate categories:

 

  • One Large – The task you want to do right away as it’s the hardest to do and makes the most significant impact on your main objective for that month.
  • One Medium – This is the bulk of your day that isn’t too hard to do but likely to use more of your time—for example, a group meeting or coffee with a client.
  • One Small – This is the task you can focus on at the end of your day and relax. Ideally, you want this task to be easy and pretty mindless.

 

This method aims to give you a starting point and organize your day where you are not running out of energy and momentum.

 

Don’t let your days get away from you anymore with these planning tips. Remember, a business without a plan is one that will likely fail. Don’t let that be you when you have the power and control to make it happen with the right strategy and commitment to daily action.

 

How to Be Realistic About Time

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Essential Elements of The Realistic Optimist

If you want to be more productive, striving to be more of a realistic optimist might be the strategy for you. If you ask a successful entrepreneur what values or attitudes you should project, realism and optimism will likely be high on their list. An optimistic mindset should always be filtered with realism to see success. You can be a positive person all day long, but that doesn’t mean you will get what you want if you don’t act.

 

Here are a few tips to help you become a realistic optimist:

 

Unrealistic Vs. Realistic Optimist: Understand the Difference

One of the best methods to learning how to do something is to discover what not to do first. Being positive is great and has many benefits but doesn’t do anyone favors if it’s unrealistic. Toxic positivity only keeps you back and focused on the wrong things.

 

The distinction between a realistic optimist and an unrealistic one is their actions and their perspective on the world. Unrealistic optimists believe they will have success no matter what, even if they don’t work on it. They deserve and are owed success and the path to it won’t be complicated or challenging.

 

Realistic optimists are the exact opposite. While they too believe their life will be successful, they understand it is still up to them to realize that they have to seek knowledge and education, recognize mistakes, improve skills, and go after their dreams. They don’t wait around for it to come. They are proactive and always take on new challenges because they see them grow and gain more.

Changing Your Mindset: Attitude is Everything

Keep It Positive but Relevant and Attainable

An optimist is someone who is hopeful and confident about their life and the direction it will go. They believe that the world is ultimately good, and that evil will never prevail. While it sounds great, it’s not very practical on its own.

 

The world may be ultimately good, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be hard or challenging, which is why you need realism to balance it out. Realism makes sure that the plan you are taking is relevant to your ultimate dreams and ultimately attainable.

 

Only Focus on What You Can Control

One of the main objectives of a realistic optimist is to only focus on and control what you can. There is no point in ruminating or overthinking something that you have no ability to change.

 

You can’t change the weather; you can’t control people’s emotions, but you can control how you respond and which actions you take or don’t to get around it. You know the weather can change at a moment’s notice, so always have a plan B, for example.

 

Use these tips to be more positive and realistic to achieve maximum productivity, happiness and never miss any opportunity.

 

Changing Your Mindset: Attitude is Everything

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Your Lack of Realism Is Stalling Your Success

Realism allows you to manage your time better to plan more efficiently with improved confidence, clarity, and focus on tackling your goals. Realism ensures positivity and actions that result in creating attainable and relevant pursuits. Realistic people are said to be more independent and practical with their time.

Managing Your Mental State (When Times Are Tough) or (Through Adversity)

They use education, knowledge, and mindfulness to their advantage to make the right decisions. You will rarely see them go with the flow or not take a moment to recognize it for what it truly is. Without realism, you are likely down a rocky path of confusion and low self-confidence as you continue to accomplish goals that don’t lead to happiness or try to go after ones that don’t make sense and are out of reach.

This is a Great Jim Rohn Video that highlights the Steps to setting Realistic Goals. Pure Gold!

 

The following are a few tips to help you be more realistic to improve your business and life:

 

Always Stop to Think and Evaluate

Your parents might have told you this already, but it’s important to reiterate and harder than one might think. However, it’s the first step you should take to being more realistic. If you don’t stop and thoroughly analyze the situation, it could lead to more problems down the road. Miscommunication often stems from reacting right away rather than fully listening and being aware in that moment. It only takes a few minutes to evaluate your situation to be sure the information you are receiving and dissecting is accurate or not.

 

Develop More Awareness

Realism develops through experiences and education. Taking the time to learn about other people and the challenges or different things they go through in life allows you to see a different perspective and really see things for what they are. When you know all sides of the equation, you won’t be shocked at the result.  Join local events, industry conferences and surround yourself with more people that have similar interests and goals.

Ask for Feedback and Advice

Don’t shy away from constructive feedback, advice, or different point of view. The purpose is to provide you more insight and information you can’t see for yourself. Even if their opinions may not be true in the end, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t value you in some way. Now you know what not to do, for example.

 

Take Responsibility

Commit to being more mindful and responsible for your actions and inactions. This means being proactive with your life and gaining the knowledge required to form the success you want. Recognize your mistakes and find ways to improve, and always strive to be and do better.

 

Remember, the key to realism is to slow down, experience more, take in as much information as possible to create the right action steps to achieve your dreams and aspirations.

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Stop Doing Everything and Hire Help

Being a business owner or entrepreneur doesn’t mean you must do all the work to see results or need to stay busy all the time. Having these kinds of high expectations keeps you and your business back from seeing the success it deserves. Low self-esteem and energy are not healthy for business or your overall health and mental clarity.

 

Here are five tips designed to help you let go of control and hire more help so you can better manage your time to lead a more productive business:

 

Highlight Your Weak Points and Other Stress Areas

The best place to start is the business areas that you are not too comfortable doing or lack enough education to do well. Accounting and customer service are by far the most common areas people outsource. Accounting takes years to understand, and customer service can often be tedious and stressful.

 

Develop A Clear and Direct Job Description

To gain actual value from having employees or contractors, you need to find the right person for the job. Create a clear and direct job description listing all your expectations and requirements for the job. Don’t skip on the little things or hold back on anything. In fact, always share the points of the job that you find the most challenging right away. The point is to be sure that those who try to apply for the job are the best for the position.

 

Utilize A Virtual Assistant

Let your virtual assistant take over the tedious and time-consuming tasks, including customer service or scheduling and setting up important meetings and other similar and repeatable tasks.

 

Hire Expert Freelancers

Hire freelancers that specialize in specific areas such as social media marketing or content creation. Expert freelancers can better set up your social media pages, add campaigns, and more to increase your engagement to maximize results and profits better. This is because they have the dedicated time and resources to become an expert in their field. When you can focus on one subject, you can master the processes and techniques to get it done faster.

 

Use Smart Phone Applications to Find Hires

There are so many different applications and companies designed for hiring help for many other business areas in a matter of seconds. Some popular choices include:

 

  • TaskRabbit – Find any repair person from your fingertips the same day. From moving trucks to cleaning services, contact deliveries, and more. TaskRabbit allows you to create tasks, send messages and pictures to a certified tasker easily and professionally.
  • Fancy Hands – The most popular US-based service to find your next virtual assistant all on the same day.
  • Fiverr – On this platform, you can find just about any freelancer or service required for business and more, starting at just five dollars a project.

8 Things You Should Outsource in Your Business

You don’t need to do everything to be successful. Use these tips and tools and get more help today.

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It’s Not the Deadlines; It’s Your Lack of Discipline

Deadlines are not the problem, nor are other people and the long list of excuses you have made for yourself. It’s your lack of discipline and willpower. Discipline is about regulating or training your brain to do what is right even if you don’t feel like it or want to.

 

It’s about taking responsibility to overcome your weaknesses and to fight off temptations. It’s about acting and going forward to achieve your goals and aspirations. Without it, you’ll let your procrastination ruin and run your life forever.

 

To better your self-discipline, try these five ideas:

 

Change Your Perspective and Mindset

Instead of saying “I should do this,” say “I must do this” and then provide a solid and apparent reason. We do things for pleasure, and we avoid pain. Don’t allow for excuses, and it won’t always feel right, nor will the stars be aligned perfectly every day.

 

Fight Off Distractions and Temptations

Set up your environment to avoid temptations, don’t have junk food in the house, and avoid the junk food aisles at stores.

 

Reward Yourself and Take A Break

Forgive yourself, take days off and build a healthy reward system for your goals and to-do lists. Good results don’t happen consistently if you are constantly running on empty or jumping from deadline to deadline with no opportunity to reward yourself and be proud of your accomplishments.

 

Define Your Consequences

If you don’t make your deadline or never realize your dreams and aspirations, what are the consequences? Record them and put them somewhere you are reminded of to give you the push you need to keep going.

 

If you don’t have any consequences, make them, and find an accountability partner to provide the punishment. Most deadlines are purposeful but hardly motiving due to the lack of consequences. Especially if you are sitting around waiting for the world to make you successful.

 

Commit to Self-Awareness and Reflect

Perform a self-evaluation routinely to dissect your weaknesses and strengths inside and out. List any resources or things you believe have contributed to your growth or current problems. Then voice them aloud to yourself and recognized your truths. The more you do this, the better you can understand where to practice and better develop your skills.

 

Remember, the path to improving your self-discipline won’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual process combined with the proper steps consistently each day to do better. Practice will make it easier, and one day you won’t even have to try anymore.

Perseverance Requires Persistence

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Organization Is A Daily Requirement

Did you know that around 91% of employees have reported that they believe they could be more productive if only their work and jobs organized better? It’s obvious, without organization, you may as well throw your business plan and daily to-do lists out the window. Even outside of business, your personal life thrives more on organization. It helps you achieve consistency and focus and provides the flexibility you need to be successful and in control of your life and business.

Be More Proactive and Less Reactive to Achieve Higher Success

From organizing your to-do lists, your office, or other workspaces, setting up the right business structure for your company, maximizing the best routes from your house to the grocery store, and other tasks and back. The organization makes it easier to handle many tasks throughout your day to be more productive and waste less time fumbling between functions or other objects in your way. In other words, if you want to achieve more goals easily and as stress-free as possible, you need to adopt the right organizational habits.

 

The following are a few tips to help you be more organized in life and business:

 

Create the Right Habits and Repeatable Routines

Being organized is about finding the routines and habits that keep the momentum going. Keep the process simple, and don’t overthink it. Stick to your schedule and commitments, don’t hit snooze, and find systems that make sense for the activities you are doing that are easy to accomplish.

 

Understand Your Priorities and Efforts

Organization takes effort and consistent action to be successful. Be mindful of your priorities and what is expected of you daily to ensure you adopt the right habits for you and your business.

 

Establish A Healthy Work-Life Balance

Set boundaries, expectations, and limits for work and your personal life to ensure they don’t overlap and run smoothly together. If you know your expectations for your personal life may interfere, you can better plan for challenges that lay ahead. However, if you commit to finding the right work-life balance for your personality and business, you will have fewer challenges to overcome and will more easily stay on your path.

 

Declutter and Categorize

Keep distractions out of the workplace, and don’t allow other items to come into that space. Develop dedicated areas for physical and digital things and always put them back before leaving for the day. For example, if you always forget your passwords, then make a dedicated password folder.

 

As you can see, all it takes is one repeatable movement with consistent action and the commitment to stay on track each day to be organized. The hardest part is getting started, but you will gain the momentum and drive to thrive once you get going.