LifetoSuccess.com

This is a very important question… How do you feel about yourself?

The picture that we have of ourselves is often shaped by what the opinion of others has been about us. We have had opinions leveled about us from the minute we took our first breaths. Some of them have been good, some of them have been bad. Some of them have been bad but weren’t intended to be good.

Your no good…

Your lazy…

Your fat…

Your too skinny… (This one got me for many years. I’ll explain later in the post.)

Your a bad girl…

Your a bad boy…

Your no good for nothing…

You eat too much…

Do any of these sound familiar?

Until we take personal responsibility for how we feel about ourselves, we will continue to live by the limiting thoughts that others have labeled us with.

The best way to combat the negative image we have about ourselves is to become very conscious of the thoughts that are rolling around in our heads. Let me give you an example.

For most of my adult life, I have fluctuated from 180 to 240 pounds for about the last 25 years. I have gone on diets got down to the weight that I liked but not too long from there I would end up back to being heavy and out of shape again. People always found this very fascinating and I found it very frustrating.

Recently after both of my parents experienced some medical issues at the age of 65, I knew it was time for me to get back on the road to health again. After all I don’t want to have those experiences when I get older.

So I started out again and I found myself getting good results. One morning I was looking in the mirror and I was impressed by the results that I have accomplished to this point and this voice came into my head and said, “Be careful, you don’t want to get to skinny.”

I was fortunate enough to catch that little comment in my head. I started to think to myself, why would that thought even enter into my head.

And then I remembered back to when I was a kid and my grandmother and aunts used to tease me about being skinny. This used to aggravate the crap out of me.

This all happened when I was between 8 to 10 years old. And I didn’t let them down for most of my adult life.

I actually let their thoughts of me define me. I let an opinion of theirs turn into a habitual thought that has been in my head cautioning me not to “get too skinny”.

What is even more amazing about this is that, this thought came to me exactly at the weight that I would always lose steam and start to gain the weight back.

It was a yo-yo weight loss cycle that I had developed based on the opinions of others but if I had not been conscious of the thoughts that were going on in my head I would have been set to repeat the cycle.

I learned this technique of consciously listening to my subconscious thoughts in Lee Milteer’s Habit Busting System.

I know now that I will not be going back to that unhealthy weight after discovering that and other thoughts that I discovered using the techniques in Lee Milteer’s Habit Busting System.

I am grateful for that!

So how do you feel about yourself?

What thoughts or opinions of others have you let control any part of your life?

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

John Clark

Enjoy and Share:

I can’t believe it, it’s August 23rd and the summer is almost over…

In some states in the US, the kids are already back to school. I remember when I was a kid, it was always this time of the year that I would start to get a little anxious to get back to school. I mean the summer was great but I always seemed to be very bored towards the end of the summer.

I talk to my kids and ask them if they are looking forward to going back to school and the answer comes back a resounding… “YES!!!”

Then I started to think about that, “Why are the kids so thrilled about going back to school?”

The conclusion that I came to was that… when they go back to school, they will have more structure back in their lives. They will have new goals and objectives put forth by the new classes they will be taking.

Now don’t get me wrong, it won’t be long before they are looking forward to summer again but until then I am happy that they are looking forward to going back to school.

This is no different for us as adults…

When we have structure in our lives, we tend to be a little more motivated. When we are going for goals that we have set for ourselves, we tend to be a little more focused and feel a little better about ourselves.

September has always been a month of getting new things started for me but this year has been a little different for me.

Earlier this year, I set some pretty aggressive goals for myself in a time that I don’t normally set goals for myself. It was a real shock to my system.

But I realized this year that there is no good time to set goals.

The best time to set a goal is when that goal jumps into your mind. While the idea is hot in your mind.

When you set that goal and take action on it immediately, you increase your chances of making that goal a reality. And you build an unstoppable momentum.

Another thing that I realized is that working with your habits is huge when it comes to reaching your goals. If you don’t seriously look at and adjust your habitual nature the chances of your reaching your goals, go down in a dramatic fashion.

The habitual thoughts and actions that you have now, HAVE to change in order for you to reach these goals. In order for you become someone you have not been before requires you to become someone you have never been before.

The program that I have been using to make this happen for me is Lee Milteer’s Habit Busting System. This program has done wonders for me and I haven’t slowed down one bit in this last session of goal setting.

The only change that I have made this time around is paying close attention to the habits that I have created in my life that have held me back from reaching these goals that I have set for myself and then changing my thinking and actions to become congruent with the goals that I desire.

So I am well on my way to reaching these goals and I have back up goals ready to go when I make these goals a reality and I am already working to change the habitual thinking and actions that I am going to need to have to reach the next set of goals.

I will keep you posted on the progress.

I hope you have found this post useful!

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

John Clark

Enjoy and Share:

When it comes to true success, you will find that in order to become successful will require that you have to work with people in a lot of different ways.

You will have to deal with customers, co-workers, suppliers, trainers, educators and the list goes on and on.

At some point if you end up running your own business, you may be coordinating the efforts of all these people in a manner to move your business forward in a harmonious manner.

This will require that you develop a level of influence.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines influence as “to effect the actions of humans”.

Influence is the ability to get others to take action.

This can be a positive thing but also a very negative thing depending  on what type of influence you exert.

We are going to concentrate on the positives of influence, the ability to influence others in a manner that benefits everyone involved.

Here are a few ideas to consider when working your influence:

1. People will be influenced more by people who practice what they are trying influence – Let’s say for example you sell cars and you are selling Ford’s. Your customer will be far more likely to believe that you believe in your product if you yourself are driving a Ford. Doesn’t that make sense.

If you are going to buy a car, ask the car sales person what kind of car they are driving. If they are not driving the product they sell, find a sales person who is.

2. Unless you are dealing with a child, do not try to force someone to your way of thinking because you know that it is GOOD for them unless it is a matter of life or death – When you try to bend someones will to your way of thinking, this is the use of the will that should only be left to God.

Read this chapter of The Science of Getting Rich, it explains this very clearly http://the-science-of-getting-rich-blog.com/chapter-9-how-to-use-the-will

“A person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still.”

3. The best way to influence anyone is “walk the walk” – If you are trying to convince someone that they need to straighten out their lives financially and you are living pay check to pay check, you message will fall on deaf ears.

If you are trying to influence someone to get into better shape but your 50 pounds over weight, it is going to be a tough sell.

Being a person of influence is important in the success of everyone, you ability to influence others to take positive action will be paramount in your search for success.

Speaking of Influence, make sure to check out this site on influence, http://fcinf.com/v/cwwx and then sign up and see how influential you are. This is a very interesting project!

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

John Clark

Enjoy and Share: