Reclaiming Your Personal Power
Reclaiming Your Personal Power When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness. — DALE CARNEGIE Giving other people the power to control how you think, feel, and behave makes it impossible to be happy and successful. Do any of the points below sound familiar? You feel deeply offended by any criticism or negative feedback you receive, regardless of the source. Other people have the ability to make you feel so angry that you say and do things you later regret. You’ve changed your goals based on what other people have told you that you should be doing with your life. The type of day you’re going to have depends on how other people behave. When other people try to guilt you into doing something, you reluctantly do it, even if you don’t want to You work hard to ensure other people see you in a positive light because much of your self-worth depends on how others perceive you. You spend a lot of time complaining about people and circumstances that you don’t like. You often complain about all the things you “have to” do in life. You go to great lengths to avoid uncomfortable emotions, like embarrassment or sadness. You have difficulty setting boundaries, but then feel resentful toward people who take up your time and energy. You hold a grudge when someone offends you or hurts you. Can you see yourself in any of the above examples? Retaining your power is about being confident in who you are and the choices you make, despite the people around you and the circumstances you’re in. Why We Give Away Our Power Anytime you don’t set healthy emotional and physical boundaries for yourself, you risk giving away your power to other people. Perhaps you don’t dare say no when your neighbour asks for a favour. Or maybe you dread receiving a phone call from a friend who constantly complains, but you continue to pick up on the first ring. Each time you avoid saying no to something you really don’t want, you give away your power. If you don’t make any attempt to get your needs met, you’ll give people permission to take things away from you. A lack of emotional boundaries can be equally problematic. If you don’t like the way someone treats you, yet you don’t stand up for yourself, you give that person power over your life. The Problem With Giving Away Your Power There are many problems with giving away your power: 1. You depend on others to regulate your feelingsWhen you give away your power, you become completely dependent upon other people and external circumstances to regulate your emotions. Life often becomes like a roller coaster—when things are going well, you’ll feel good; but when your circumstances change, your thoughts, feelings, and behaviour will shift. 2. You let other people define your self-worthIf you give others the power to determine your self-worth, you’ll never feel worthy enough. You’ll only be as good as someone else’s opinion of you and you will never be able to receive enough praise or positive feedback to meet your needs if you depend on others to feel good about yourself. 3. You avoid addressing the real problemGiving away your power lends itself to helplessness. Rather than focus on what you can do to improve the situation, you’ll find an excuse to justify your problems. 4. You become a victim of your circumstancesYou’ll become a passenger in your own life rather than a driver. You’ll say other people make you feel bad or force you to behave in a manner you don’t like. You’ll blame others instead of accepting responsibility for your choices. 5. You become highly sensitive to criticismYou’ll lack the ability to evaluate criticism. Instead, you’ll take anything anyone says to heart. You’ll give much more power to other people’s words than those words deserve. 6. You lose sight of your goalsYou won’t be able to build the kind of life you want when you allow other people to be in control of your goals. You can’t work toward your goals successfully when you give other people the power to get in your way and interfere with your progress. 7. You ruin relationshipsIf you don’t speak up when people hurt your feelings or you allow them to infringe on your life in an unwelcomed manner, you’ll likely grow resentful toward them. Reclaim Your Power Without confidence in who you are, your entire self-worth may depend on how others feel about you. What if you offend people? What if they don’t like you anymore? If you choose to put uphealthy boundaries, you may receive some backlash. But if you have a strong enough sense of self-worth, you’ll learn that you can tolerate the repercussions. Identify People Who Have Taken Your Power Choosing to forgive someone who has hurt you, either emotionally or physically, doesn’t mean you have to excuse the other person’s behaviour, but letting go of your anger frees you to focus your energy on a more worthwhile cause. If you’ve spent most of your life feeling like a victim of your circumstances, it takes hard work to recognize that you have the power to choose your own path in life. The first step is to develop self-awareness by identifying when you blame external circumstances and other people for how you think, feel, and behave. Take a close look at the people you are devoting your time and energy toward. Are they the people you want to receive it? If not, you may be giving them more power than you think they deserve. Each second you spend commiserating with co-workers about how unfair your boss is, you are giving your boss more power. Every time you tell your friends how controlling your mother-in-law is, you give her a little more power over you. Resolve to stop giving people your time and energy
Change: Taking A Real Decision
Change: Taking A Real Decision It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t . . . It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not. — JAMES GORDON Although it’s often easy to say you want to change, successfully making a change is hard. Our thoughts and emotions often prevent us from creating behavioural change, even when it will improve our lives. Many people shy away from making changes that can drastically improve their lives. See if any of the following apply to you: You tend to justify a bad habit by convincing yourself what you’re doing isn’t “that bad.” You experience a lot of anxiety about changes to your routine. Even when you’re in a bad situation, you worry that making a change might make things worse. Whenever you attempt to make a change, you struggle to stick with it. When your boss, family, or friends make changes that affect you, it’s difficult for you to adapt. You think a lot about making changes but put off doing anything different until later. You worry that any changes you make aren’t likely to last. The thought of stepping outside your comfort zone just seems too scary. You lack the motivation to create positive change because it’s too hard. You make excuses for why you can’t change, like “I’d like to exercise more, but my spouse doesn’t want to go with me.” You have difficulty recalling the last time you purposely tried to challenge yourself to become better. You hesitate to do anything new because it just seems like too big of a commitment. Do any of the above examples sound familiar? Although circumstances can change quickly, humans often change at a much slower pace. Choosing to do something different requires you to adapt your thinking and your behaviour, which will likely bring up some uncomfortable emotions. But that doesn’t mean you should shy away from change. Many people shy away from change because they think that doing something different is too risky or uncomfortable. Types Of Change We can experience different types of change, some you might find easier than others: 1. All-or-nothing changeSome changes are incremental while others are basically all or nothing. Deciding to have a child, for example, isn’t something you can do in steps. Once you have that baby, your life has irrevocably changed. 2. Habit changeYou can choose to either get rid of bad habits, like sleeping too late, or you can choose to create good habits, like exercising five times a week. Most habit changes allow you to try something new for a little while, but you can always revert back to your old habits. 3. Trying-something-new changeChange sometimes involves trying something new or mixing up your daily routine, like volunteering at a hospital or taking violin lessons. 4. Behavioural changeSometimes there are behavioural changes that don’t necessarily constitute a habit. For example, maybe you want to commit to going to all of your child’s sports games or maybe you want to behave friendlier. 5. Emotional changeNot all change is tangible. Sometimes it’s emotional. For example, if you want to feel less irritable all the time, you’ll need to examine the thoughts and behaviours that contribute to your irritability. 6. Cognitive changeThere may be ways in which you want to change your thinking as well. Perhaps you want to think less about the past or maybe decrease worrisome thoughts. Readiness For Change New Year’s resolutions are commonly broken, because we try to make changes based on a date and not because we’re really ready. And if you aren’t ready to create change, you likely won’t be successful at maintaining it. Even changing one small habit, like deciding you’ll floss your teeth every day or giving up your bedtime snack, requires a certain level of commitment. The Five Stages Of Change 1. Precontemplation – When people are precontemplative, they don’t yet identify any need to change. 2. Contemplation – People who are actively contemplative are considering the pros and cons of making a change.3. Preparation – This is the stage where people prepare to make a change. They establish a plan with concrete steps that identify what they are going to do differently.4. Action – This is where the concrete behavioural change takes place.5. Maintenance – This often overlooked step is essential. You need to plan ahead so that you can maintain your lifestyle changes even when your are facing obstacles. Why We Shy Away From Change 1. FearMany people worry that doing something different may make things even worse. Maybe you don’t like the house you’re living in, but you worry that a new home could have even bigger problems. Or maybe you worry about ending a relationship because you are afraid you won’t ever find anyone better. So you convince yourself to keep things the same, even if you’re not happy. 2. Avoiding DiscomfortMany people associate change with discomfort. And often, they underestimate their ability to tolerate the discomfort that accompanies a behavioural change. 3. GriefDoing something different means giving something up. And there’s often a grief associated with leaving something behind. To spare ourselves this grief, we can convince ourselves not to change. The Problem With Shying Away From Change Shying away from change can have serious consequences. Avoiding change and remaining stagnant can interfere with personal growth in all areas of your life. 1. Staying the same often equals getting stuck in a rutLife can get pretty boring if you don’t do anything differently. A person who simply decides to keep things as mundane and low-key as possible isn’t likely to experience a rich, full life and might become depressed. 2. You won’t learn new thingsThe world will change with or without you. Don’t think that your choice not to change will prevent anyone else from embracing change. You’ll risk being left in the dust if you choose to keep doing everything the same for the rest of your life. 3. Your life may
Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier And More Productive
Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier And More Productive Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears. Through it, in particular, we think, see, hear and distinguish the ugly from the beautiful, the bad from the good, the pleasant from theunpleasant. It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires us with fear, brings sleeplessness and aimless anxieties. . . . In these ways I hold that the brain is the most powerful organ in the human body. –HIPPOCRATES YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT Our industrially ravaged diets supply cheap and plentiful calories with poor nutrient content and toxic additives. Our careers shoehorn us into doing the same tasks over and over again, while our brains thrive with change and stimulation. We are saddled with stress, a lack of connection to nature, unnatural sleep patterns, and overexposure to news and tragedy, and our social networks have been replaced by The Social Network—all of which lead ultimately to premature aging and decay. We’ve created a world so far removed from the one in which our brains evolved that they are now struggling to survive. Nowadays, even well-educated people are confused when it comes to nutrition. One day we’re told to avoid whole milk, the next that we may as well drink it. On a Monday we hear that physical activity is the best way to lose weight, only to learn by Friday that its impact on our waistline ismarginal compared to diet. We are told over and over again that whole grains are the key to a healthy heart, but is heart disease really caused by a deficiency of morning oatmeal? Blogs and traditional news media alike attempt to cover new science, but their coverage (and sensational headlines) often seems more intent on driving hits to their websites than informing the public. In this article we’ll use diet to reset your brain to its “factory settings,” leaving you feeling and performing your very best. Up next, as you begin to reclaim your cognitive legacy, you’re going to learn about the nutrient that your brain is desperate for. May the odds be ever in your favour. 1. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Place some extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) in a spoon, and then slowly slurp it up like you’re eating soup and being particularly rude about it. (Yes, I’m telling you to drink oil, but you’ll see why in a second.) You should in short order notice a spicy feeling in the back of your throat: that’s a compound called oleocanthal. Oleocanthal is a type of phenol—plant compounds that powerfully stimulate our bodies’ own repair mechanisms when we consume them (phenols are usually found linked together in the form of polyphenols). Oleocanthal possesses anti-inflammatory effects so powerful that it is comparable to taking a small dose of ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drug, but without any of the potential side effects. Inflammation can strongly negate neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change throughout life) and even produce feelings of depression Extra-virgin olive oil is a staple food in the Mediterranean diet, and people who consume these kinds of diets display lower incidence of senile dementia. Oleocanthal may play a role here as well, having demonstrated the potential to help the brain clear itself of the amyloid plaque, the sticky protein that aggregates to toxic levels in senile dementia. It does this by increasing the activity of enzymes that degrade the plaque. It has been shown in large, long-term trials to protect the brain against decline (and even improve cognitive function) when consumed at volumes of up to a litre per week. And if protecting your brain wasn’t enough, EVOO has been shown to block an enzyme in fatty tissue called fatty acid synthase, which creates fat out of excess dietary carbohydrates. Aside from oleocanthal, EVOO is also a rich source of monounsaturated fat, which is a healthy fat that helps maintain the health of your blood vessels and your liver, and can even help you lose weight. One tablespoon also contains 10 percent of the recommended intake of vitamin E per day. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects fatty structures in your body—such as your brain—from the wear and tear of aging. About finding the right olive oil, colour has no bearing on the quality of the oil. The single best way to assess an oil is to taste it. Good extra-virgin olive oils should taste grassy, never greasy. Because oleocanthal is responsible for virgin oil’s peppery taste, it can in fact be used as a measure of how much oleocanthal is present in the oil. Stronger oils can be so spicy that you may find yourself coughing from the heat—which is actually a classification of oil quality! Next time you find yourself consuming “three-cough” oil, you’ll know you’ve found a keeper and your brain will thank you for it. How to use: Extra-virgin olive oil should be the main oil in your diet, to be used liberally on salads, eggs, and as a sauce. Ensure that the oil is kept in a bottle that shields it from light (dark glass or tin is fine) and store in a cool, dry place. 2. Avocados Avocados are an all-in-one Genius Food—the perfect food to protect and enhance your brain. To start, they have the highest total fat-protecting capacity of any fruit or vegetable. This is good news for your brain, which is not only the fattiest organ in your body, but also a magnet for oxidativestress (a major driver of aging)—a consequence of the fact that 25 percent of the oxygen you breathe goes to create energy in your brain! Avocados are also rich in different types of vitamin E (a characteristic not many supplements can claim), and they are a potent repository for the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These pigments can boost your brain’s processing speed, but they
Capitalizing On Your Strengths To Achieve Success
Capitalizing On Your Strengths To Achieve Success I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed. —Booker T. Washington You are extraordinary! The odds are more than 50 billion to 1 against there ever being anyone with the unique combination of talents, skills, and abilities that you bring to your life and to your world. The incredible things that you can do and be, no one knows, not even you. However, the one thing we do know is that virtually everything noteworthy that you will ever achieve will come from your ability to identify your areas of greatest strength and then to capitalize on them in every situation. Your Area of Excellence Each person has one or more “areas of excellence” that, if properly exploited, would enable them to be, have, and do, almost anything they could possibly want. Each person, as the result of years of education and experience, has developed possibilities that make him or her different from all other people. The men and women who achieve the most, in every field, are invariably those who have taken the time to identify their areas of greatest strengths and then to capitalize on them continuously. Life is the study of attention. Where your attention goes, there will your heart be, too. The people, things, and events that hold your attention are indicative of your entire mental makeup. The things you are interested in are an indication of what you should be doing more of. Choose the Right Field In one longitudinal study examining 1,500 men and women who started out eager and ambitious at the beginning of their careers, they found that only 83 of them, over the course of 20 years, became millionaires.When they went back and studied the attitudes and decisions of these people, as they had evolved over the 20 years, they found that all millionaires had one thing in common. They had all chosen fields they enjoyed and then become totally absorbed in what they were doing. They had gone to work in an area of endeavour in which they were extremely interested and which held their entire attention. They had then thrown their whole hearts into becoming very good in that area, developing the strengths necessary to succeed in that field. They had then capitalized on those strengths by becoming better and better progressively over time. The conclusion of the study was that success, wealth, and happiness seemed to occur when a person was completely pre-occupied doing something else. The wealthy people in this study never set out to make a lot of money. Instead, they set out to find fields that they really enjoyed, and then theydevoted themselves to them. The money came as an afterthought. Happiness and Satisfaction The flip side of this equation is that you will never really be happy or satisfied until you have found a way to apply your unique human capabilities to your life and to your career. In the book, Working, by Studs Terkel (Pantheon Books, 1974), he reports that more than 80 percent of peopledo not feel that their full potential is being utilized in their work. They may be busy and they may be reasonably satisfied, but, way down deep, they feel that there is far more that they could do if given the right situation and the right opportunity. You probably feel this way yourself, from time to time. This is called the feeling of divine discontent. It is a feeling of uneasiness and dissatisfaction that arises whenever you are not fully challenged by what you are doing. To enjoy high levels of happiness and success, you must be working at the outer edge of your envelope. You must be stretching your capabilities continually. You must have a feeling that you are growing, day by day, with the challenges that your work is putting on you. Without that feeling of challenge and growth, you will experience a nagging discontent, and this is a good sign. Discontent and dissatisfaction almost always precede a constructive change that forces you to change and starts you growing, once more. Living Congruently Men and women with clear values, who are living their lives consistent with their highest aspirations, are those who have a deep sense of self-confidence and well-being. The most important value you can have is the value of integrity. Integrity is the value that guarantees all the others. Having integrity means that you will not compromise on what you believe to be right, in any area. Integrity is absolutely essential if you want to capitalize on your strengths. It means, more than anything, looking at yourself honestly and making your decisions based on the fact that you are an extraordinary human being. Your feelings are very valuable clues to your choices and behaviour. Your peace of mind and personal satisfaction is perhaps the most accurate guide you will ever have to doing what is right for you. Courage Is Essential In combination with integrity, courage is the most important quality you can have if you want to be happy and successful. If integrity means being honest with yourself, then courage means having the strength of mind to follow where your heart leads you. Courage means having the ability to push aside all other considerations in order to remain true to the very best that is in you. Winston Churchill said, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.” You know by now that fear is the greatest single enemy of success and self-fulfilment. It is not that people don’t know what to do; it is usually that they are afraid to do what their hearts tell them to do. However, when you build up your courage, act by act, you gradually overcome your fears.With courage, your whole world opens up before you. Your self-confidence increases. You
Achieving Competence And Personal Mastery
Achieving Competence And Personal Mastery The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, no matter what their chosen field.—Vince Lombardi You will only be happy, satisfied, and capable of enjoying high levels of self-confidence when you know that you are absolutely excellent at doing something that is important to yourself and others. What is it? What could it be? These are two of the great questions of life. Fortunately, you and every other person has the inborn ability to become excellent at what you do, and to achieve peak performance in your life and in your chosen field. You have the capacity to function in the “exceptional” range and to achieve mastery in any area that is important to you. The Edge of the Envelope In the world of test pilots and prototype aircraft, as described in the book and the movie The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979), they refer continually to what is called the “envelope.” This “envelope” consists of an upper and lower edge. The upper edge marks the height and speed that any previous aircraft or jet has flown, up to the time of the most current test run. This upper edge of the “envelope” is the maximum height and speed deemed possible for a new aircraft before it theoretically comes apart in the air or malfunctions or self-destructs. The goal of the test pilot is to expand the edge of the envelope. His job is to fly ever faster and higher in order to discover the outer limits of speed, height, and endurance that a particular aircraft is capable of achieving. The test pilot continually takes the aircraft higher and faster until he feels that the plane has reached its absolute outer limits. This is where and when he pulls back to avoid destroying the aircraft, and even fatally crashing. This is called the “outer edge of the envelope” and it then becomes the “lower edge of the envelope” for the next aircraft and the next round of testing. Every aircraft, no matter how well made, has an outer limit on its capabilities. It can fly only so fast and so high, and no further. Very little can be done to expand the mechanical ability of something made of metal by the hands of man. Expand Your Envelope The major difference between you and an aircraft is that there is no “outer edge” to your personal envelope. As Emerson said, “The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” Maxwell Maltz, the author of “Psycho-Cybernetics,” said, “Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. And this power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs.” In other words, the outer limit of your envelope, or the outer limit of your potential, is not fixed in time or space, like that of an aircraft. Your limits are determined solely by your own beliefs and by your own confidence in what you think is possible for you. Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem Your self-confidence is closely connected to your self-esteem, and to “how much you like yourself.” Dr. Nathaniel Brandon calls self-esteem “your reputation with yourself.” It is how you feel about yourself and your abilities, in relation to any situation, that determines how much you like yourself and consider yourself to be a valuable and worthwhile person. The more you likeyourself, the better you do. The flip side of self-esteem is what psychologists call “self-efficacy.” Self-efficacy is a measure of how effective and competent you feel you are to perform a particular task or to achieve your goals. This is called “performance-based self-esteem.” What this means is that if your self-confidence and your belief in yourself are determined by your self-esteem or how much you like yourself, then your self-esteem is determined by how capable you feel you are in any given set of circumstances. For example, if a problem comes up at work or home and you are so familiar with it that you can solve it quickly and correctly, your self-efficacy and your self-esteem goes up. You feel more capable and confident and more willing to take on other challenges and difficulties. You feel more positive and optimistic. You feel like an excellent person. If, on the other hand, a problem or difficulty came up and you were unable to do anything to solve it, and you felt frustrated or ineffective, your self-esteem would suffer and your self-confidence would go down. You would feel negative about yourself and your abilities. You might even become angry or depressed. You would feel powerless rather than powerful. That’s why they say, in playing poker, “The winners laugh and tell jokes while the losers say, ‘shut up and deal.’ ” Build Your Own Self-Confidence The law of cause and effect applies to everything you are today and to everything that you become. If the effect that you desire is high and unshakable levels of self-confidence, then it is necessary that you engage in the same behaviours practiced by others who enjoy high and unshakable levels of self-confidence, and you will soon experience high levels of self-confidence yourself. Studies conducted on thousands of men and women who have moved from ordinary to extraordinary performance, and who have moved from feelings of inadequacy to feeling great about themselves, show that there is a direct cause-effect relationship between competence and mastery on the one hand, and self-confidence on the other. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Chicago wrote an excellent book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008). Peak experience is a form of “natural high” that causes you to feel absolutely terrific about yourself, and
Critical Thinking: A Tool To Solve Everyday Problems
Critical Thinking: A Tool To Solve Everyday Problems What is Critical Thinking? Before you start to look at the true meaning of critical thinking, it is helpful to first have a look at how the dictionary defines the term.“The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment” As is apparent from the definition, the meaning of the word is pretty clear cut. It stands for the in depth analysis of a problem in order to arrive at the best possible solution in order to solve it. So it is safe to assume that critical thinking is meant to be used as a tool to solve everyday problems, regardless of their size and nature. Here is another definition, to help you understand the concept better. This definition is courtesy of The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking:“intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” This definition goes a step further and explains, in detail, the various steps that are involved in critical thinking. It speaks of the various elements of consideration, in terms of the number of things that you must consider, before arriving at a decision. So, to put it simply, critical thinking refers to a person observing a situation, identifying the problem, analyzing it through the lens of experience and arriving at a conclusive decision to solve it rationally. It will allow the individual to arrive at clear cut solutions to tackle these everyday problems head on and to solve them. A critical thinker will have a data bank of the various problems and will only have to think a little to retrieve the data, which will help tackle problem posed by the current situation. Critical Thinking and Intelligence Critical thinking and intelligence are believed to go hand in hand. Unfortunately, that is one of the biggest misconceptions in regard to the subject. Intelligence refers to a person being extremely capable of solving difficult problems, just with maximum use of his/her brain. Critical thinking, on the other hand, refers to people critically analyzing a situation and arriving at feasible solution, which may not necessarily be prompted by intelligence. So the two thought processes can differ in many ways and are not interdependent. An intelligent person might have lots of memories, data and information stored up, which he/she can immediately access in order to arrive at a solution. A critical thinker might not have such data readily available and will have to thoroughly analyze the situation and spend a little time in thinking of a solution. Both aspects can be critical in helping a person attain an applicable solution to the problem in question and it is just the process of getting there might differ. For example, when presented with similar problems, an intelligent person might think for just a few minutes and devise a plan to tackle the problem. A critical thinker, on the other hand, might have faced a similar problem in the past and will immediately put into action a pre-set solution to the problem. ASPECTS OF CRITICAL THINKING There are many elements that are part of the critical thinking process. Each of them is explained below: ArgumentsThe most important aspect of critical thinking is coming up with feasible arguments. Arguments are nothing but premises and conclusions. Although this is seen as being the last step, it is also one of the most important. A critical thinker is required to set up arguments and draw logical conclusions from it. Analyzing argumentsOnce the various arguments are finalized, a person must identify the vague and incoherent arguments. In order to do so, the thinker must view the argument through the lens of suspicion and identify the solutions that are most vague. Safeguarding the factsThe next step for a critical thinker involves identifying all the facts and making sure that nothing has been left out. It will be important to safeguard the facts so as to avoid losing any crucial data and also not allowing it to get mixed with illogical arguments. Once all the facts have been established, the thinker can safely move to the next step. EvaluationCritical thinkers are required to analyze if the existing premises point toward conclusions. That is to say, if the premises hold any truth to them, then so should the conclusions. They need to be interdependent and, more or less, extremely similar in nature. If they are too vague, then that might cause problems during the implementation of the solution. ImplementationOnce all the solutions have been arrived at through critical evaluation, viz. evidence collection, argument formation, fact differentiation etc. they need to be applied practically. This is one of the main steps, as no problem can be solved without practical application of feasible solutions. Arguments against critical thinkingMany people argue that critical thinking will diminish a person’s creativity as he/she will always apply a pre-set or predefined solution. That will, in turn, not allow him/her to think laterally, thereby not promoting creativity. That is not true. No critical thinker will apply the pre-set solutions as is. They will have to modify it to suit the current situation. There can never be a proper and pre-set solution that will be readily available and only an outline or a skeleton will be present. It will be the thinker’s duty to fill in the muscles and the organs. There is also the argument that states how critical thinking might throw a person off course and cause him/her to complicate a situation rather than to solve it. That statement, however, is also completely false. The very concept of critical thinking is to help a person deduce the most feasible solution and not waste time with unwanted ones. The process of critical thinking will allow a person to go through all types of solutions and only implement the best one. These arguments cannot possibly diminish the value
Rich Thinking To Become Wealthy
Rich Thinking To Become Wealthy Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. —CLAUDE M. BRISTOL There have never been more opportunities for you to become wealthy, and more different ways to achieve it, than exist today. More people are starting more businesses in more different industries than ever before. More knowledge, information, and technology are creating more products andservices that people want, need, and are willing to pay for. One new idea is all you need to start a fortune. As Within, So Without The Law of Correspondence works for everyone at all times under all circumstances. This law says that your outer world will be a reflection of your inner world. Everything moves from within to without. You cannot accomplish something on the outside until you first accomplish it on theinside. To be wealthy on the outside, you must think like a rich person on the inside. There is no other way. Poor people think like poor people. They have self-limiting beliefs that hold them back and stop them from even trying. In a study completed a few years ago entitled One Hundred Million Millionaires, the authors demonstrated that if you simply saved Ksh10,000 per month throughout your working lifetime, invested it, and let it grow with compound interest, it would amount toKsh100 million by the time you retired. Why doesn’t everyone do this? Poor thinking! Tony Robbins, in his 2014 book, Money: Master the Game, emphasizes what Einstein said: “Compounding is the most powerful force in the universe.” After extensive interviews with fifty of the richest people in the world, Robbins concluded that almost anyone can start small, save and invest regularly, use the miracle of compound interest, and eventually become financially independent, if not wealthy. This simple method has worked foralmost everyone at all times throughout history. And it can work for you. Reprogram Your Thinking In this article, I am going to share with you a series of simple ideas that you can learn and apply, based on extensive research into the lives and habits of thousands of wealthy people. By the Law of Cause and Effect, if you think and do the same things that wealthy people do, you will soon get the same results that they do.There are no secrets of success. There are simply timeless truths and universal principles that have been discovered and rediscovered throughout human history. All you have to do is to learn and practice them to enjoy all the success that you could desire. REASONS PEOPLE DON’T BECOME WEALTHY There are seven reasons why people don’t become wealthy. Let us deal with each of them in turn. 1. It Never Occurs To ThemIt never occurs to them that they can become wealthy. Because of their upbringing and early conditioning, perhaps coming from a home where no one had ever been wealthy, and associating with poor people, they never thought that they too could become wealthy, just as millions of others have done before them. 2. They Never Decide To Do ItMany people wish, hope, dream, and fantasize about how their lives would be different if they had a lot of money. They admire and envy people around them who are doing better than they are. They worry about money all the time. But they never make a firm, do-or-die decision to become wealthy. As a result, they never even take the first step. They don’t learn wealth-creation techniques. They don’t upgrade their knowledge and skills so that they become more valuable at their work. They make excuses and rationalize their situations by saying that success is simply a matter of “luck” and they didn’t get any. 3. They ProcrastinateIf it does occur to them, and they decide to become wealthy, they never get started. They procrastinate. They move to that wonderful fantasy place called “Someday I’ll.” “Someday I’ll save my money rather than spending it all.” “Someday I’ll upgrade my knowledge and skills.” “Someday I’ll work harder and make myself more valuable.” “Someday I’ll get out of debt.” They end up living on “Someday I’ll” for most of their lives. One of the great secrets of success is for you to “vote yourself off the island!” Stop making excuses and start making progress. 4. They Fear FailureBecause of destructive criticism in early childhood and mistakes they have made as adults, they are paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake, of losing their time or money. Even if they are presented with an opportunity, they go into a form of paralysis. Their fear of failure causes them to create all kinds of reasons not to take action. They don’t have the time. They can’t make the minimum investment. They don’t have the necessary knowledge and skills. Like a deer caught in the headlights, they are paralyzed by the idea of failure, which causes them to never take any action at all. As it happens, most fortunes were started by the sale of personal services. The people had no money, but they had the ability to work hard, to upgrade their skills, and to become more and more valuable. As a result, more and more doors of opportunity opened up for them. 5. They Fear Criticism And DisapprovalMany people think that if they set a goal to better themselves financially, the people around them will ridicule them and criticize them. They’re afraid that those people will watch over their shoulders and gleefully point out all the mistakes they make. Because they fear the disapproval of others so much, they often attempt nothing at all. Here’s the solution. When you decide to become wealthy, don’t tell anyone. Keep it a secret. Go to work on your goal privately, and only tell people when they see your life improving and ask you how you did it. 6. They Stop Learning And GrowingTo achieve something you’ve never achieved before, you must learn and practice something that you’ve
Affirmations For Meditation And Reflection Week Three
Affirmations For Meditation And Reflection (Week Three) 1. SEE WHAT YOU WANT, GET WHAT YOU SEE Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.—ALBERT EINSTEIN Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics Visualization is the technique of closing your eyes and picturing yourself enjoying life as if your goals had already been achieved—in rich, vivid, colourful detail. It’s seeing in your mind’s eye the places you would be, the sounds you would hear, the emotions you’d be feeling, and the actionsyou would be taking.Visualization is one of the most effective tools you can use to reach your goals because itaccelerates your success immensely. It allows your brain’s reticular activating system to “let through” ideas, observations, people, and opportunities from amongst the millions of images it processes for you every day. Through The Law of Attraction, visualization attracts to you the people and opportunities that will benefit you. When meditating on your affirmations, repeat them aloud and visualize them in vivid Technicolor so they produce clear images in your mind. Be very specific on the details so that your affirmations release the creative powers that fuel success. Each night before retiring I am confidently reading my list of goals out loud and creating images of the completed goals in my mind. Make the most out of visualizing your affirmations by applying these same principles: Add sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings to your images. What does it sound like at your home on the beach? How does the ocean smell? What feelings would you be experiencing? Use emotions to add fuel to your vision. When confronted with intense emotions, an image or scene can stay locked in our memory forever. Use this phenomenon to its fullest benefit by infusing your visions with emotion and energy! Most of us don’t see things in bright three-dimensional images when we close our eyes; actually, we don’t really see an image as much as we think it. To help you truly see and focus on your goals, find pictures of your dream vacation, you at your perfect weight, a black Lexus LX600, and then glue them to a small poster board. Then display it where you can see it every day. You can also write your personal affirmations on index cards using colour felt markers, then draw illustrations of your dream house or perfect job. By adding sounds, smells, and feelings to my internal pictures, I am multiplying the benefits many times over. Your brain operates very differently from your physical body. To your brain, there is no difference between visualizing something and actually doing it. Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, body builder, film producer, and former governor of California, once said, “Create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.” I’d say that strategy worked pretty well for him.You may not be aware of it, but when you visualize your goals as having already been achieved, your subconscious mind will find a way to turn your current situation into the new vision that you have been feeding it. If you feed your mind pictures of a beautiful home, a loving relationship, and an exciting career, it will work on achieving those things. On the other hand, if you are constantly feeding it negative pictures, like a stressful job, an impossible feat, or a failing relationship—guess what?—it will work to achieve those, too.Set aside time each and every day to visualize every one of your goals as already complete. This is one of the most vital things you can do to make your dreams come true. Some psychologists say that an hour of visualization is equal to seven hours of physical effort. That’s a pretty big claim, but still, imagine what would happen to your life if you did that every day! I am heightening the impact of my affirmations by focusing and clearly visualizing them. 2. ACT AS IF Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.—CHARLES F. KETTERING Engineer, businessman, and inventor with over 186 patents One of the greatest strategies for success is to act as if you are already where you want to be. That requires you to think, talk, act, dress, and feel like you have already achieved your goals. Acting “as if” projects to the world a sense of confidence and achievement, sending powerful messages to your subconscious mind, which is designed to find unique ways to solve problems. It also programs your brain’s reticular activating system—the function that allows into your awareness useful information from the millions of pieces of information you process every day—to make you aware of hidden resources that may help you. What’s more, when you act as if, The Law of Attraction comes into play, since acting “as if” sends strong vibrations to the Universe that you are committed to achieving your goal—and that you are open to accepting and applying anything it sends your way. In the book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach writes, “To fly as fast as thought, to be anywhere there is, you must first begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” Pretty sound advice and one of life’s greatest lessons. I am believing and acting as if I am already where I want to be. You can begin right now to act as if you’ve already achieved the goals you set for yourself. Once you start acting successful, that outer experience will create the inner experience—the feelings, emotions, confidence, and thoughts—that will lead you to the fulfilment of your goal. How would you act if you were already a straight-A student, a bestselling author, an Olympic athlete, a top salesperson, a celebrated musician, or a successful entrepreneur? How would you think, talk, carry yourself, dress, treat other people, handle money, and so forth? There are a couple of very important lessons we can learn from the behaviour of successful people: they exude self-confidence, they’ve learned the power of asking for what they
The Qualities Of Skillful Leadership
The Qualities of Skillful Leadership “Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars.” “Part of the task of leadership is learning to spend eighty percent of your time with the twenty percent of the people who are doing eighty percent of the work.” “We can’t win everyone’s dedication and belief at once. What we can do is work on ourselves, refine our philosophies, and trust that the believers will be there.” “If you share a good idea often enough, it will fall on good people.” The Great Challenge of Life If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life. What is important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics: Learn to be strong but not impolite. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute. Next, learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness is not weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion. Next, learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you have to walk in front of your group. You have to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. I think we all agree that farming is not an easy job.Farmers must face the weeds and the rains and the pests straight on. Likewise, if you want any rewards at harvest time, you have to be bold. You have to seize the moment. Here is the next step. You have to learn to be humble, but not timid. You can not get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease. It is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we are part of the stars. Here is a good tip: learn to be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. Do you know the worst kind of arrogance? Arrogance from ignorance. It’s intolerable. And it can be expensive. A young newlywed couple gets some money from their parents to buy a new set of outdoor furniture. The young couple goes to the supermarket and picks out the perfect set. Whenthey go to pay though the cashier counter, the clerk scans the UPC barcode. The couple says, “Hey, there are four chairs in this container. You’re only charging us for one.” “I know my job!” the clerk responds arrogantly. “I scanned the container. Don’t you think I know what I’m doing?” Well, the young couple tries to explain that she is wrong. The clerk won’t listen. So the young couple gets four beautiful outdoor chairs for the price of one. Do you think the supermarket clerk will change her arrogant attitude when it’s time to close out her cash drawer? Probably so. Ignorant arrogance is the worst kind. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take. The next step is learning to develop humour without folly. That’s important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it’s okay to be witty, but not silly; fun, but not foolish. Next, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it tragic, but I’d like to think it’s unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating. Life is unique. Leadership is unique. The skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home. Building a Successful Team Once you’ve set a goal for yourself as a leader—whether it is to create your own enterprise, energize your organization, build a church, or excel in sports—the challenge is to find good people to help you accomplish that goal. Gathering a successful team of people is not only helpful, it’s necessary. So to guide you in this daunting task of picking the right people, I’m going to share with you a four-part checklist. Number one: check each candidate’s history. Seek out available information regarding the individual’s qualifications to do the job. That’s the most obvious step. Number two: check the person’s interest level. If he is interested, he’s probably a good prospect. Sometimes people can fake their interest, but if you’ve been a leader for a while, you will be a capable judge of whether somebody is merely pretending. Arrange face-to-face conversation, andtry to gauge his or her sincerity to the
Affirmations For Meditation And Reflection Week Two
Affirmations For Meditation And Reflection (Week Two) 1. LEVERAGE THE LAW OF ATTRACTION What you radiate outward in your thoughts, feelings, mental pictures, and words, you attract into your life.—CATHERINE PONDER Author of The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity Have you ever tried to turn gravity on or off? Probably not because you realize that it can’t be done. Well, there’s another powerful force in the Universe that—just like gravity—surrounds us and affects us. It’s called The Law of Attraction, and maybe we can’t turn it on or off, but we can harness its tremendous benefits. To be successful, you must learn how to use The Law of Attraction to create the life you really want. If you’re already working on implementing the principles in your life, think of this as a fresh opportunity to brush up on your skills and check your progress. It takes time and consistent effort to train ourselves to behave, think, and speak in only positive ways, but the Universe rewards us exponentially with abundance, joy, and unlimited benefits. Basically, we reap what we sow, and we can freely choose to sow seeds of positivity! I am aware that positive actions and emotions attract positive outcomes; I am choosing to radiate positive energy into the Universe and reaping the bounty it reflects back to me. Basic chemistry tells us that a physical object, such as a house or a dog or your phone, is made up of billions of individual atoms—tiny parcels of energy—that bond together into different forms such as water, metal, and plastic. Similarly, our thoughts are also a form of energy—easily detected as brain waves by standard medical equipment—that can interact with our physical world just like any other form of energy does. When we understand this basic science, we realize that our thoughts can actually interact with the physical world and help bring about what we want to happen. The core tenet of The Law of Attraction says: What you think about, talk about, believe strongly about, and feel intensely about, you will bring about. Once you know that, by using your thoughts, you can help bring about the opportunities, resources, and people who can help you accomplish your goals, you’ll start paying greater attention to the direction of your thoughts and what you focus on throughout the day. I am constantly aware of the power of positive thinking and I am supported by the Universe as it brings me endless opportunities for growth. Everything—including you—is vibrating at a specific and unique frequency. That means you can learn to use the power of deliberate thought to stay in a state of higher vibration and attract what you want in life. Here’s how: Step One: Ask for what you want. Decide what you really want and use words that focus on that goal. Replace negative images and thoughts with positive ones. Consistently ask for what you want and then let the Universe worry about how you’ll get it. Step Two: Believe you’ll get what you want, then take action. Believing means being confident that you’ve put your future in the hands of a greater power and that your goals can be accomplished. Taking action is another form of belief—after all, we would only take action on goals we believe are possible to begin with. Step Three: Receive what you want. One of the best ways to bring yourself into vibrational alignment with what you want is to use affirmations—statements of your goals and desires already achieved in present time. Repeat them regularly so that your subconscious mind maintains a vibrational match to what you want. I am asking for what I want several times a day, believing that I will receive it. 2. SET GOALS THAT INSPIRE YOU If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.—ANDREW CARNEGIE American steel industrialist and one of the richest people in history. Success is not only an attitude and belief system, it’s also a science. Experts on the science of success know that the brain is a goal-seeking organism, and when you give it a specific goal, it will work overtime to achieve it. Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University conducted a study proving that people who write down their goals, then create action steps to achieve them—and make regular progress reports to a friend—have nearly double the success rate at achieving what they want! Think about it: by taking a few extra steps, you can be twice as successful as those people who merely think about their goals. It may surprise you to also learn that the small percentage of people who write down their goalsand regularly review them earn nine times more over the course of their lifetimes than those whodon’t. This alone should motivate you to write down your goals! I am clear about what my goals are and I know that I will accomplish them. If you have no criteria for measuring the successful completion of a goal, you don’t have a true goal—you simply have a good idea. An actual goal that inspires action and unleashes the power of your subconscious mind must include how much (a measurable quantity) and by when (a specific time and date for completion). One of the best ways to get clarity on your goals is to write them out in detail. When you write it all down, your subconscious will know specifically what to work on, including which opportunities to focus on to bring about success. Reread your goals three times a day—close your eyes and picture each one as if it were already accomplished and imagine how it feels to actually be living with that achievement. Most of our goals represent incremental improvements in our life—get new car insurance, organise my house, finish the project presentation. But, what if you could work toward accomplishing a breakthrough goal—something that substantially improves life as you know it, such as buying your