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How
To Be In Perfect Balance
by Dave
Lindbeck (c)2004 All Rights Reserved
Perfect balance. Someone once told me that he had tripped over
that, as he was heading from one extreme to the other.
When you lack balance, you can fall too far in one direction for
too long, and at the same time lose what you have, and fail to
get what you want. In this state of imbalance, you flounder,
waste time, experience stress and feel drained of energy.
When you have many responsibilities, things to do and goals to
achieve, it's more likely for things to be out of balance. Why?
Because it's easy to focus on one thing like work, while
foregoing things like having fun or getting enough exercise.
Perfect balance occurs when you act on the most important
priorities that you have set for yourself in life. In doing so,
you experience a sense of harmony and satisfaction with the
results, and how you're rewarded.
To achieve perfect balance requires discipline and structure. This means motivation
and consistent action, and a plan.
Here are some tips to help you create your
perfect balance:
1. Write down your most important priorities in life. To help,
general categories can include family, community, work and personal.
2. Define
for yourself what "perfect balance" would look like in your life. What would
you act on, and what would be your reward?
3. Take an inventory of what you're
doing now to be in perfect balance, and what you know you need to do more of
to get there.
4. Set some goals for those activities that you will do more often,
and those that you will do less.
5. Create a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly
perfect balance "to do" list. Include the actions you will take in the "do more" category
as well as the "do less".
6. Make a commitment each day to do the things on the
list that support your priorities. Examples may include exercise, spend more
time with family and leave work earlier.
7. Now do those things you need to do
to experience perfect balance.
Participate in activities that support your most
important priorities, and you too will experience a sense of harmony and satisfaction
as you create your perfect balance. You'll be rewarded with less stress, and
more peace of mind, time and
energy.
=============================================================================
Dave Lindbeck, Professional Business Coach
InStep Coaching - "Your partner in small business success" Helping entrepreneurs
and small business owners succeed in the start-up and growth of their business http://www.instepcoaching.comTo
receive
the complimentary e-letter "The InStep Journal", e-mail dave@instepcoaching.com P.O.
Box 7221, Phoenix, Arizona 85011 602-277-5170
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Before
You Think That Next Thought!
By Harald
Anderson Copyright
2004
Every
thought we think is creating our future. - Louise L. Hay
Researchers
have discovered that the average person thinks anywhere between
50,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day. Since the majority of us
spend anywhere from 16-18 hours awake each day, we think a
thought on average about every 1.1 seconds. That’s a whole
lot of thinking going on. With this much thinking taking place
there is nothing more important than to focus that energy on
a meaningful goal that targets your objective. Whether you
are an individual or business manager looking to improve your
own condition, the GOAL is the instrument that puts order and
purpose into all of this thought energy. Your thoughts lead
to action. Your actions create habits. And the habits of your
life will determine your ultimate destiny.
The principal premise
of the personal development movement is that thoughts become
things and that we get whatever we focus upon most. The questions
that I think are worth asking are:
a) If thoughts are our currency
for acquiring what we want, then what is it that you are spending
your currency on?
b) Are you getting a good deal?
c) Are you
experiencing the life you deserve?
I have yet to meet someone who claims to like setting goals.
Most of us have tried goal setting at some point in our life
and failed and just decided it was too much of a hassle. When
we come to realize that the goal is comparable to a canvas
for an artist we then begin to recognize the importance of
goals in channeling our energy towards a desired purpose. The
60,000 thoughts are going to be there day in and day out. It
would make good sense to focus those thoughts to an area that
would result in a marked improvement of your life.
We are all
familiar with the retail buying experience. We walk into a
store. Locate the merchandise we want. Pay for it. Take it
home. I submit that we engage in this exact same experience
in designing our lives. Problem is that when our lives are
not going the way we want we are unwilling to admit that we
created that condition. It takes a great deal of courage to
admit that our belief system might need some rewiring if we
are not leading the lives we want. Look around you right now
at your surroundings. Everything that you own is a product
of your thoughts. Likewise,
everything that you don’t own is a product of your thoughts. Some quality thoughts
are considered “too
expensive” to even consider contemplating so we never even entertain them. When
is the last time that you reminded
yourself how “awesome” you are in spite of whatever problems are lurking in your
life? So we often spend our time with the thoughts that are most real to us and
the thoughts that we know we can afford. Funny thing is that we have a budget
of 60,000 thoughts each day to create whatever we want. In spite of that possibility
so much of humanity traps itself in the “closeout thoughts aisle” and then wonders
why life has become a battle for basic survival.
Here are a few of the more famous
closeout aisle thought
patterns:
“It’s just the way I am. I can’t help it.”
”I can’t control what I
think.”
“They are just thoughts for Gods sake! That doesn’t
matter!”
”I just feel that way and there is nothing I can do about
it.”
The reality is that we CAN help it. There is no more important skill in life
than learning to control the focus of our mind. In so doing, we can literally
change our destiny. Every decision you make stems for the viewpoint of what you
think you are and the value you place upon yourself. In the blink of an eye you
can change your beliefs of what is possible and recognize that those limitations
you encounter are all part of a flawed belief system.
I spent about thirty minutes
trying to log my thoughts.
Within minutes I discovered that my focus was literally “all over the universe.” Hundreds
of disjointed thoughts entered and left my consciousness in a matter of minutes.
Trying to keep track of them all was an exercise in futility. What this simple
exercise taught me though was to understand the importance of goals. A goal certainly
adds a focus and structure to thinking. The more ambitious the goal the more
it forces us out of the “closeout aisle” and into the realization that the biggest
obstacle in our
lives is usually ‘us.’ The one thing I can guarantee you is that you will spend
your thought budget every single day. Consciously or unconsciously you will think
one thought every 1.1 seconds. With this being the case don’t you think it might
be a good idea to make a concerted effort to focus your attention on the things
that you want to create? Isn’t that the entire purpose behind having goals? Isn’t
that the entire purpose to happy living?
A good friend of mine is working diligently
on expanding his business. The one thing he is focused on is understanding that
his growth in the past was a direct result of his thinking. Now as he confronts
the future he recognizes that his thinking has become the obstacle to getting
to the next level. Interesting dilemma isn’t it? You want to grow but you have
to be willing to change your thoughts to do so.
Sounds real easy until you have
to confront this issue
yourself.
The one question that he reiterates to me every time we
speak is… “What would a person have to believe and think about regularly to experience
this?”
I have no doubt that within this question lies all the wisdom that an
individual or organization would ever need to be able to achieve whatever they
wanted.
“What would a person have to believe and think about regularly to experience
this?”
As I started asking myself that question I began to uncover counterproductive
illusions about beliefs, ideas and thoughts that I nurture without even realizing
it. Maybe you can relate? It reminds of the comment Mark Twain once made when
he said, “I have been through some really terrible stressful things in my life..........some
of them
which actually happened.”
The secret of business success is ridiculously simple. So much so that we often
dismiss it. What thoughts have you planted that are creating your current experience?
What illusions do you regularly entertain that prevent you from being responsible
for every area of your life? You can blame others for the unhappiness you feel,
or you can take responsibility for your life. But you cannot do both. You must
make a choice.
The 'divinity that shapes your destiny' is you!
Every day for
the rest of your life you will think roughly 60,000 thoughts. Unless you focus
that energy into some meaningful purpose you are doing yourself a huge disservice.
Set ambitious goals for yourself and you will be well on your way to choosing
the best thoughts energy can buy! The focus that this will create in your life
will speak volumes. A question that will assist you in this regard whenever you
experience a setback is:
“What would a person have to believe and think about
regularly to experience this?”
Think about what you think about, before you think
that
next thought!
Be careful with what you agree with!
=============================================================================
Harald Anderson is the co-founder of Artinspires.com a
leading online gallery of motivational posters and
inspirational prints.“When Art Inspires, Dreams Become Realities. His goal in
life is to become the kind of person that his dog already thinks he is. http://www.artinspires.com/
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