Staying Motivated No Matter What!

Do you have the motivation you need to get up and face the day with a smile?

If you’re lacking motivation you’ll be happy to discover that you don’t have to go through life bored, tired, or down. You actually can manifest your motivation!

There are many things you can do to harness and use motivation in any situation and at any time. After all, being motivated will help you enjoy your life in so many ways!

How You Can Stay Motivated

Staying motivated has much to do with how much energy you have working for you. You’ll be more motivated to get things done when you’re putting your energy to good use.

* Be sure to eat a balanced diet and get enough rest; this will ensure that your energy level and your motivation are always at their peak.

Another way to stay motivated is to remember your past accomplishments. This feeling can pick you up and remind you that you are strong and fully capable. Focusing on your past successes will help you lower your head and push forward even when you don’t want to.

Ask yourself: What would life be like if you never pushed yourself to do things you don’t want to do? You would probably never take out the trash, you might never get up for work in the morning, and you probably wouldn’t even get dinner on the table. But then, what’s the point of life?

Life wouldn’t be as comfortable or enjoyable without pushing yourself through roadblocks, barriers, or uninteresting tasks. Without motivation, life can be messy, boring, or more complicated than it should be. That’s not what you want, right?

Utilizing the Power of Motivational Affirmations

You can use motivational affirmations for those days when you simply want to stay in bed with the covers over your head.

Search for motivational affirmations that speak to you. Whether you write them yourself or use others that have already been created, find statements that touch your life. Think about your goals that make you want to be a better person, and then turn these thoughts into positive statements.

* Affirmations always focus on the positive and the present so you can inspire personal growth in your life.

Affirmations are easy to use and can help keep you motivated in any situation, best of all, they are simple to use throughout your day. The key is to repeat the affirmations several times until you notice a positive change in your mood.

Examples of Motivational Affirmations

Some examples of motivating affirmations are:

* “I welcome positive energy and I use that feeling to accomplish more.”
* “I use my energy to live my life to the fullest.”

These are simple statements that encapsulate the way you would like to think or respond in difficult situations.

* Instead of talking yourself out of tackling a task, you can use affirmations to get you motivated to complete the task in record time!

Getting enough sleep, eating nutritious foods, remembering pleasant memories of past tasks completed, and using motivational affirmations can help you to get – and stay – motivated. Once you find what works for you, you’ll notice how much more you’re enjoying your life and work, so get started today!

Stepping Into The Heart Of Christ

What if for just one day Jesus were to become you? What if, for 24 hours, your boss becomes His boss, your mother becomes His mother? Nothing changes, everything stays the same except for one exception. For one day, you have the heart of Christ.

What if, for 24 hours, your actions became His actions, your thoughts became His thoughts? What would be different? Would the people around you notice a difference? What would it be like?

In Philippians 2:5 it says “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” We have all heard the saying, “what would Jesus do”, but how many people actually follow their own advice? How many let the heart of Jesus rule their lives?

When people read about the scandals of the various churches and spiritual leaders, it is no wonder that they want nothing to do with Christianity. What kind of example is that?

If you are a Christian, you have probably encountered others who have attacked you and your faith. The natural response would be to fight back. But you have to remember that Jesus stayed on the cross for this person. The least you can do is to remain seated.

You do not know what events have influences their opinions of religion. Many people only know what they have seen or read. What they need to see is the difference between religion, as defined in the world, and Christianity, as defined in God’s word.

What people need to see in this world is Christ in you…The hope of glory. Because a world without Christ is a world without hope.

In Eph 4:23-24, it says, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”. God wants you to have a whole new heart.

The beauty is even without a new heart, God loves you anyway, but refuses to leave you that way. Your heart is no different from a broken leg. Without Christ, there is pain.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (JN 12:32). We do not call out to people to join a church, we call out to people to become part of Christ and He will add them to His church.

If you call out to people to join a church, it will not be long before they are disappointed, because people are not perfect.

Jesus’ heart is pure and not affected by His environment. Let the heart of Jesus live within you and your heart will live within Him.

Steps To Control Your Thoughts

Why should you want to control your thoughts? As the old adage goes, you are what you think. If you cannot control your thoughts, your thoughts will control you.

When other people say things that bring a negative thought into your head, you need to control whether you let it stay there. If you don’t have that control, your brain will start to build other thoughts off of that initial thought; whether it was true or not.

How do you start controlling your thoughts? First of all you need to know that it is possible. Next, if you have a thought that you should not keep, do not talk about that thought. Proverbs 30:32 says, “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.” Saying something about that thought only reinforces it.

You need to rebuke the thought and tell it to go away. That’s easier said than done, especially if you are not in the habit of doing it.

The bible calls this casting down our thoughts. 2Co 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”. God would not tell us to do something that we could not do. We need to ask Him for help when it comes to doing this. We also need to be persistent. At the beginning we may need to do this many times.

After casting down those thoughts we need to replace them with correct thoughts. In Php 4:8 it says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

When someone has said something against you that has made you mad, you need to pray for them. This will get your focus off of yourself and onto what God wants you to do.

Once you have successfully controlled your thoughts for a while, it will become easier. You will be able to look back on past victories and that will help you through your current situation.

Don’t give in to your negative thoughts. They will destroy you. Cast them out. Replace them with what God wants you to think about. Make this a habit and your life will definitely improve.

What Does God Really Sound Like?

Does God really speak, and if He does, what does He sound like?

God is always speaking. There are many recorded instances of God speaking from the beginning of time until the present day. Yet hearing God is something that most people struggle with from time to time.

When you pray, it can seem as though you’re just talking to yourself. Yet God does hear you when you pray, even if you can’t hear Him, so even though it might seem as though you’re talking to yourself, God does hear you.

How can I be sure that God hears me?

If you follow God, then God’s Spirit lives within you.

“I will ask the Father and He will give you another counselor , who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads you into all truth…you know and recognize Him because He lives within you.” John 14:16-17

So, if you follow God, the Spirit of God lives within you and speaks with you.

How do I hear God?

Most people don’t usually hear an audible voice; they generally hear God through their thoughts. The question then is, “How do I know it’s God’s thoughts rather than mine?”

The easiest way of knowing whether what you hear is likely to be from God is to check that what you sense in your spirit lines up with God’s word and His character. To be able to do that, you need to be familiar with what the Bible says.

What does the voice of God sound like?

The voice of God in your spirit is kind and peaceful. It is warm and loving. Sometimes you will just know that you know because you have a quiet assurance. While God may convince you of wrong doing, He will never condemn you, so reject any condemning thoughts, they do not originate with God.

Wisdom and hearing God come from The Spirit of God within you.

Usually, when you make a decision based on hearing God you will have a sense of peace rather than unrest. Confusion and inner turmoil are not from God. When the Spirit of God speaks to you, He prompts you, gives you a nudge or plants an idea that is a good answer to a question, or gives you direction or understanding.

God is a God of love. If what you hear contradicts God’s character, it probably isn’t from God. Here’s what Corinthians says about love:

Love never gives up
Love cares more about other people than self
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have
Doesn’t have a swelled head
Doesn’t force itself in others
Isn’t always “me first”
Doesn’t fly off the handle
Doesn’t keep score of people’s wrongs
Trusts God always
Always looks for the best
Never looks back
Keeps going to the end

If you’re hearing something that contradicts what love would do, you’re probably not hearing from God. God is speaking all the time, it’s just a matter of learning how to tune into His thoughts and recognize His voice.

10 Tips For Making Your Next Public Speech Presentation A Hit

If you find yourself in a position where you have to give a public presentation, you may be racked with nerves at the thought of standing in front of a group. It’s normal to be scared. After all, probably most people in your audience would be just as nervous in front of a crowd too!

Here are some public speaking tips for conquering your fear and being a successful speaker:

1. Practice makes perfect. Make your speech in front of a mirror or a friend so you can accurately time your speech and get into a rhythm. Practice speaking out loud, especially if there are hard to pronounce words or names.

2. You’re the expert, so speak with conviction. Even if you don’t know everything about the topic, you should know enough about it to make it through your speech.

3. Project your voice. Even though you’ll likely use a microphone, if you speak too softly your audience members in the back of the room might not hear you well.

* Projecting your voice conveys confidence to your audience.

4. Maintain eye contact. Periodically glance around the room and use the 3-second rule while looking directly into someone’s eyes. Doing so will make your audience will feel more involved.

* The 3-second rule means you take your eyes off your notes and look around the room. Focus on a face for 3 seconds and then continue scanning the room.

5. Use humor in your speech. Even if you’re speaking about a dry topic, draw something funny into your speech. Not all of us are born comedians, so don’t go overboard on this if it isn’t natural.

6. Pause periodically. This gives your audience time to reflect and think about what you have said. This will also give you a breather so you can speak without feeling out of breath. It also paces what you say.

7. Use note cards. Note cards will remind you of the important points you want to make in your speech. Avoid writing out your entire speech and then reading it, however. This shows that you haven’t really practiced what you’re going to say and it can affect your speech if you start to fumble around for your place.

* Short note cards with an outline of your topic or short facts can be helpful in keeping you on topic.

8. Don’t worry if you make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. If this happens to you, just go on with what you were saying. If you need to take a moment to re-align your thoughts, feel free to take it.

* You’re in command of the stage when you’re the speaker. Most audiences are quite forgiving, so just keep moving forward if you make a mistake.

9. Speak to your audience. Be aware of your audience’s reactions to what you’re saying. If what you’ve said is not being understood, find a way to restate it.

10. Keep your speech within the time parameters. Stop when your time is up. When you practice ahead of time, you’ll get good at keeping within the time limits.

Every good speaker has had to learn how to give a good speech through trial and error, so the more speeches you give, the better you’ll become!

Many speakers say that stage fright never really stops, but being prepared can definitely decrease the level of fear. Planning your speech ahead of time and talking about something you’re passionate about can be an amazing experience.

Top 10 Powerful Words to Keep You Motivated

No matter where you are on your life journey, setbacks can cause disappointment and a loss of momentum.

Whether it’s a new career you’re working towards or an overall appreciation of life, every step towards fulfillment can seem financially, emotionally, or psychologically draining from time to time.

To boost your confidence, here’s a list of the top 10 power words and tips to keep you motivated and passionate, no matter what life throws your way:

1. Purpose. Whenever you’re feeling discouraged or disappointed, always remember your original purpose. Reminding yourself of the original reason for venturing down your path in the first place will help refresh your mind when things go awry.

2. Planning. Though you may think that you’ve done enough planning towards the fulfillment of your goal, thinking it through again will help eliminate aspects of your plan of action that may be causing you setbacks. Put all your thoughts down on paper, from the smallest details to the larger movements.

* Being able to see the timeline of your mission will help you focus on taking one step at a time to reach your goals.

3. Acceptance. Accepting that you’re a human being who’s bound to have ups and downs is absolutely crucial to your success. Without this self-acceptance, you’ll be subject to a foggy mind that’s unable to think positively, clearly, and innovatively.

* Acceptance of what hasn’t worked in the past helps you gain a better knowledge of what will work in the future.

4. Reward. When your motivation starts to wean, it’s crucial to give yourself rewards along the way. This is one of the best ways to stay motivated on your path to success.

By giving yourself a taste of what you’re working for – whether it’s financial freedom, career responsibility, or your dream lifestyle – you won’t feel like you’re working so hard for nothing. This refreshes your mind and helps you work more productively.

5. Health. You know what this entails: moderate exercise, a healthy diet, and 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Feeling worn-down will make it almost impossible to pursue your goals and vision with the same clarity and vigor you had when you first set out.

* Take care of your basic needs first, and you’ll be strong enough to pursue your dreams.

6. Motivation. Research motivational books, CDs, and seminars. Sometimes hearing motivational tips from a different perspective can greatly motivate you to act and succeed.

* Find a source or two that touches you in some way and keep them close for those moments when you feel discouraged. After all, we all get discouraged at one time or another.

7. Organization. Ever feel depressed and worn out, and then you clean your surroundings and instantly feel more focused and motivated? The same applies to your goal. Organize and clean house when it comes to the operation of your goal.

* Organizing yourself gives you a fresh start and a feeling of clarity. In doing so, you’ll be able to attack your short and long-term goals more vigorously and effectively.

8. Refresh. Refresh your plan with something new. It could be a different tactic, setting, or career. Whatever it is, break out of the pattern you’re in and try something new. Even if this new tactic doesn’t yield positive results immediately, at the very least it will make you aware of the availability of your options.

9. Networking. Reach out to people in your industry or those who share your life goal. You can do this a number of ways: check out local clubs, find a plethora people online, or talk to existing contacts that may have already succeeded in your goal.

* Having someone to voice your struggles, questions, and experience to will invigorate you to keep moving forward.

10. Action. Taking action, despite doubts and setbacks, will further your progress. By moving on, despite any pessimistic thoughts, you will motivate yourself by the sheer momentum of doing something proactive to change your circumstances.

Whenever you feel like your progress has stalled, or you simply want some quick inspiration, look to these 10 powerful words and strategies to spur you on. You’re sure to find something to get you back on track toward success!

9 Tips For Resolving Frustration in Your Life

We all get frustrated from time to time, but we need to express it constructively and effectively, otherwise we may hurt those we love the most.

Frustration is a normal reaction to being hurt, threatened, or unable to fulfill current needs. It’s how we express our frustration that can cause additional stress in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Most often, the way we deal with frustration is formed at a very young age. For example, we may mirror our parent’s reaction, or we may respond in the way we were conditioned because of our life experiences.

If the typical way you handle frustration causes problems in your life, then it’s time to change how you think and react to frustrating situations.

* Unhealthy methods of processing frustration can lead to health problems and even inhibit our relationships with others.

How to Deal with Frustration Effectively

Many people respond to frustration by getting angry, giving up, or indulging in other self-destructive behaviors such as abuse of food, alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. Expressing and dealing with frustration constructively requires several key components.

These ideas can help reduce the frustration in your day-to-day life as well as help you react patiently and peacefully:

1. Establish mutual respect. You should have a mutual respect for all people involved, even those with differing opinions than your own. Everyone is entitled to his or her own voice and you’ll waste precious time if you’re frustrated by every differing opinion.

2. Have a clear awareness of your own needs, thoughts, and feelings. Discover who you are as a person rather than mimicking someone else’s opinions and thoughts.

3. Learn the difference between surface and primary needs. In other words, is this frustration about one of your basic needs not being met, or is it merely due to a less significant, secondary need? What’s preventing you from meeting this need?

4. Be aware of what you can and cannot control. Some causes of frustration are beyond your control and therefore there’s no purpose in wasting energy on them. Instead, use that energy to cope with the situation and move on.

5. Communicate constructively. Be able to communicate your own personal boundaries and needs calmly and respectfully without guilt or shame. This should not involve raising your voice or swearing. Rather, learn to speak up so your personal needs are met.

6. Avoid feeling responsible for the behavior of others. Everyone has his or her own free will and you can’t force someone to do something. They make their own decisions and a reasonable adult will take responsibility for their own actions. Remember: only you can control your actions and no one can make you do something against your will.

7. Determine the cause. By identifying the cause of your hurt or frustration without placing blame, you’ll loosen the grips of frustration.

8. Realize that frustration isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes frustration can serve as a motivator to change if certain problems in your life are keeping you from reaching your goals.

* Regularly evaluate if you’re on track to meet your life goals. Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? Sometimes you need to create a new goal and make some life changes to reduce your frustration and make your goal become a reality.

9. Accept reality. When frustration is aimed at a circumstance beyond our control, it’s time to learn to accept the realities of life.

* Learning to take things in stride will make you a happier and more content person. When the frustrating situation is something you can’t control, such as getting stuck in traffic, practicing relaxation and deep-breathing techniques can be effective.

Frustration can turn a normally peaceful person into an irrational, angry one. If you allow it, frustration can hinder your progress and immobilize you. The goals you’re trying to attain will all of a sudden be out of reach. Remember that, while you can’t completely eliminate frustration from your life, you can manage how you let it affect you.

Keys For Creating A Healthy Mindset

Do you feel you could use a healthier attitude toward life? Would you like to approach things in a different way? Is a healthier lifestyle attainable?

* The stress of modern life can sometimes make it difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle. However, you can start living healthy, today, by adopting a healthy mindset.

Even if you find yourself leaning toward a pessimistic attitude, you can still achieve a healthy mindset. You just need to go about it in the right way.

How You Can Have a Healthier Mindset

Many people sit back, look at their lives, and wish they could view things in a more positive manner. Then they beat themselves up for being negative or not having the attitude and responses they wish they had. This typical response doesn’t do anybody any good.

* Instead of feeling angry with yourself for responding to life the way you normally do, think positively about your desire to have a healthier mindset.

Building a Healthy and Safe Support Network

One of the most effective paths to a healthier mindset is to find ways to deal with the stress in your life. For some people, this is as simple as writing in a journal or blog every day. Other people find that talking with friends or joining a support group is a rewarding experience.

* It’s important to give voice to your thoughts and emotions. How you do this is up to you.

Eating Healthy = Feeling Healthy

Another way to achieve a healthier mindset is to eat the right foods and get enough rest. When you feed your body healthy, nutritious foods and get the rest you need, you feel better all over. Your attitude, as well as your body, feels refreshed.

Food and rest will not change the way you respond to things if you tend to respond negatively, but it will be a great start. You don’t have to give up all junk food and your late night activities, but try swapping carrot sticks for French fries and an hour of sleep for Leno.

You’ll find that you’ll be able to acquire a healthier mindset when you take active steps to deal with your stress and treat your body with the tender loving care it deserves. Suddenly the world becomes a much more positive place when you pair these things with positive thinking.

* Positive thinking begins when you affirm the positives in your life. You can use the power of positive affirmations to reprogram your mind so you can think in a healthier and more positive way.

For example, each morning you could say, “I make positive choices for the best of my body, mind, and soul.” You can use positive affirmations in moments of weakness when you are tempted to fill up on junk food, respond negatively to something, or trade sleep for something less important.

When you create a healthy mindset by making good choices about food, rest, and positive thinking, you’ll enjoy the new ways you think, feel, and live. You’ll discover that your happier, healthier lifestyle has arrived!

How To Make Decisions You Can Live With

Making decisions in our lives – whether it’s what to eat for lunch or where to find your next job – can seem overwhelming. Each decision carries with it a result and a chain of events that may dictate the course of our lives.

For those of us who consider every decision as life or death, day-to-day decisions can seem impossible!

To help you discover the finer points of decision-making, here are some valuable tips on how you can make decisions that you can live with every day:

1. Map out your decision. Start by evaluating the decision to be made. What are the details? By mapping out exactly what your decision will entail as far as consequences and results, you’ll be on your way to making an informed decision that you can live with.

2. Weigh pros and cons. This process is tried and true. Make a list and evaluate the pros in one column against the cons in another. Include short and long term consequences as well as positives and negatives.

Seeing the pros and cons before you on paper will make the matter at hand seem all the more evident as far as how you should make your decision. In your evaluation, give more weight to the pros and cons that carry more weight in your life.

* The quantity of pros or cons does not equal the quality.

For example, if one of your main priorities in life is to make more money, listing “make more money” on your pros column should count for more than one of the cons in the other column.

3. Become informed. Find out all of the related information you need to make your decision. Being better informed through research or talking to others will help you make a decision you can live with.

4. Consider your motives. While evaluating your list of pros and cons, consider what motives may be contributing to the points you added in both columns. Revise or weigh accordingly. For example, can the con on your list be attributed to your lifelong fear or is it merely situational?

* In the case of fears, perhaps facing your fears should be part of the decision. Facing the fear may be a pro as opposed to the fear being a con.

5. Give yourself a deadline. When faced with an important decision, we tend to delay making the ultimate choice. By giving yourself a deadline, you will have no other choice than to decide one way or another.

6. Look at the decision as part of the bigger picture. Is this a small or large decision in the course of your life? Decide which and evaluate accordingly. If it’s small, perhaps you’re spending too much time and consideration on it. If it’s larger, how will it fit in with the rest of your life goals?

* By examining the decision for what it is in the short and long-term, you will better understand how the decision affects the bigger picture.

7. Recognize the relativity. Many tough decisions can carry with them irrevocable consequences, but more often than not, there is always more time and more opportunity to make the decision again. Worrying needlessly about one decision is futile.

* Most decisions only determine your short-term circumstances in the relative present. In most cases your decision can be altered in the future when circumstances are different or you’re in a different stage of your life.

Following these tips can transform decision-making from a stressful process into a process that gives you more confidence and control in your life.

Embrace decisions as the good thing that it is, and the result will be a happier, more confident you!

How To Adjust To New Changes In Your Life

If you speak to any grouping of people concerning change, usually 9 out of 10 of them will tell you that they do not enjoy having to reconstruct things in their lives. Change is not easy for most of us an humans because we are by nature, creatures of habit.

You want to continue living in a certain routine once you have conditioned your body and mind to function in that way. This makes you feel comfortable with your surroundings and decisions.

Even if you don’t like change, there are ways to make healthy lifestyle changes easier. There are also tools you can use to welcome change into your life, even when you’re entering new uncharted territory.

Here are 3 ways to make lifestyle changes easier for you:

1. Determine Pros and Cons. If you know you need to make changes in your life and you aren’t looking forward to doing so, you can do a simple exercise that will make the change easier to handle.

Take a sheet of paper, and on one side write “Pros,” and on the other write, “Cons.” On the corresponding side you will write the pros and the cons of the change so you can see what the benefits and drawbacks might be.

* You may realize as you complete this exercise that the very thing holding you back is the fear of change itself.

Seeing the pros and cons will help you realize how it will benefit you to make the change. This allows you to warm up to the thought that change actually might actually be a good idea!

2. Incorporate the Change Gradually. Another way to make lifestyle changes easier is to work up to them.

For instance, if the healthy lifestyle changes that you need to make center around ceasing your habit of smoking and drinking you may not want to quit cold turkey; instead you can work up to it. Stop drinking every night with dinner, and then stop drinking for a few days at a time. You can do the same thing with smoking so that you aren’t fighting the lifestyle change.

* Preparing yourself both physically and mentally helps you to ease the change into your daily routine.

3. Use Affirmations. Another way to help make lifestyle changes easier is to use positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are statements that encapsulate the way you would ideally think or behave.

You can either create your own affirmations or look for statements that others have created. The key is that you find an affirmation that speaks to you.

* Words are powerful and, when you repeat the same words over time, they continue to resonate through your mind. When the words are positive you’ll find that you can tap into the positive thought anytime or anywhere.

If you’re worried about making a healthy lifestyle change, you don’t have to be. Instead, you can remind yourself why you want to change by saying something like, “Change is healthy. I do not get stuck in the same routines.” When you repeat this often enough, it becomes your response to the anxiety you feel. This makes changes easier for you to handle.

Some lifestyle changes are harder than others to become accustomed to even when we desire to make the changes. Many times just one of these tips will help you to implement the change, while other times you may need to use a variety of methods to feel at ease about the change.

Use the “pro and con” method to see the benefits. Then bring the change in gradually while you accept it through your affirmations. These techniques will help you feel confident so you can enjoy the benefits of your new lifestyle.

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