Empowering Your Mind – Page 22 – Mindset, Motivation and Empowerment

Actions Favor a Prepared Mind

October 4, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

By Linda-Ann Stewart

Trish was an amazing and talented interior designer. When she finished a job, her clients loved the results. Unfortunately, her talent couldn’t overcome the other deficits in her business. She wasn’t consistent when she worked with clients. She’d set appointments, but wouldn’t show up. As a result, she rarely completed a job on time. She undermined herself, not only because she didn’t have business skills, but also because she didn’t have a professional mindset to support her business.

Needing the right mindset isn’t just necessary for business. It’s true for any short or long term goal. If you want to lose weight, get healthier, get a promotion or finish a painting, then you have to have a clear direction and your beliefs have to support it. Without those, your actions will be scattered or lose momentum, which leads to disappointing results for everyone involved.

Planting the Garden of Your Life

Your actions have to be focused and nurtured by your mindset to help them thrive. It would be like being a gardener who didn’t take the time to prepare a plot for their seeds. Imagine that your actions are seeds and your mindset is the soil.

If you scatter your seeds (actions) in all directions, because you don’t have a clear vision of where they should go, most of them will be lost. The wind will take some, and others will land on rocky ground, where they don’t have the nourishment to sprout. A few will be more fortunate and fall on a more fertile area and will germinate.

The few actions that fall on rich soil will produce moderate success, if you’re able to support them with follow up and follow through. Trish didn’t. Even though she was a talented designer, she lost her reputation and referrals because she wasn’t consistent. The same is true for any goal you have.

How Your Actions Affect Your Life

Suppose you want to market your business, and you go to networking events, but don’t follow up with your contacts. You advertise every once in a while, but not enough for people to recognize your business. Every so often, you post on social media, but because you’re not consistent, you don’t gather many followers. You’re taking the scattergun approach, hoping that you’ll hit something, but you usually don’t.

Maybe you want to begin an exercise program. You choose a gym and pay for membership, but only go once in a while. Because you haven’t changed what’s important in your life, to make it a priority, you eventually give up.

Preparation Is Key

If you want to be successful, in any area of life, you have to make sure all is ready for your actions to flourish. You have to prepare the soil (your mindset) by tilling it to loosen it so a seed can take root and germinate. Any weeds, or conflicting beliefs, need to be eliminated so they don’t crowd out your new plant. You need to apply the fertilizer of positive and supportive attitudes to enrich the soil.

Unless you know where to sow your seeds, and have prepared the ground, you’re going to waste a lot of energy. Only a very small percentage of your actions will germinate and very few of those will bloom. Actions need to be targeted, supporting the vision, nourished by your mindset. People can have a bunch of goals, thinking those goals are taking them in the direction they want to go. But they’re just in motion, without any definite purpose.

Trish treated her business more as a hobby. Instead of respecting her agreements, she figured that since she was the boss, she could complete the job whenever it was convenient for her. She didn’t understand that her clients were her employers and that she needed to keep her promises. Trish lacked business skills, but more than that, she didn’t have a businessperson’s mindset.

Louis Pasteur said, “Fortune favors a prepared mind.” When you’ve prepared your plot, knowing what you want to plant and where (your vision) and having fertile soil (your mindset), the seeds you sow in the area will sprout. Not all of them will, but if they’re watered and cared for, most of them will. Take care of your vision and mindset, and your actions will be successful, bringing you the results you desire.

Affirmation:

The Universe supports all of my endeavors. It wants me to be successful. Any idea that might sabotage my vision and goals are now erased from my consciousness. They don’t serve me. I now open my mind to creating a grand and glorious future. As I take care of my mindset, focusing on what I want, my actions lead to success.

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Sparks of Insight

October 1, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

“A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” William James

You view your life through a filter, made up of your thoughts about the matter. That filter then colors what you perceive in the situation. Whether it’s true or not, you then act on that perception. Your life is made up of the actions you’ve taken or not taken, based on your perceptions at the time. Every moment, you have multiple choices of how to view your world and how to respond to it. Consider what kind of life do you want, and then decide on the thoughts you need to have to bring it about.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Guided Meditation to Find Powerful Motivation to Achieve Your Goals

September 14, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

When you’re pursuing a goal, you have to have some sort of motivation to either jumpstart your action or keep you going. There are two basic kinds of motivation, and each has their place. But there’s one kind of motivation that will inspire you in the tough times. Learn what that motivation is, and use this guided meditation to uncover the motivation that will see you through.

Transcript:

When you are working towards some goal, you’re motivating yourself in one of two ways: either by external or internal rewards. External motivation is what’s been called the carrot and stick model, or pleasure/pain principle. You’ve heard of that, right?

In essence, you hold something pleasant in front of you to keep going, the carrot, or you remind yourself of something painful that could happen if you stop, the stick. Have you ever done either of those? External motivation works to get you started on a project or goal, but it doesn’t really keep you committed.

However, internal motivation keeps you going through the tough times, because it comes from within you. You’re like an energizer bunny. Internal motivation brings you more satisfaction, fulfillment, and greater productivity. So how do you find your internal motivation to pursue a goal? I’d like to share a short meditation to help you discover it.

If you want, close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

Think about a goal you have, or something you want to change in your life. Ask yourself these questions:

Why is it you want your goal or change?
What is your reward or how will you feel when accomplishing your goal or achieving the change? When external reasons come to mind, such as money or approval, go beyond them, dig deeper. Find what truly inspires you.
What will encourage you to keep going, even if you have setbacks?

Open your eyes. Just asking yourself these questions will begin to stir up your internal motivation. Pick one of these questions and ask it once or twice a day. You may be surprised to find an answer will pop into your mind when you least expect it. Then use it to keep you on course to your goals.

To achieve your goals with confidence and ease in 4 powerful steps, watch my FREE training video, Set Your Course to Success. Register for the video and accompanying action planning guide at www.SetYourCourseGuide.com. One of the steps has to do with finding and using your motivation. Find the motivation that will keep you committed, and you’ll persist until you achieve your goal.

5 Secrets to Improve Your Chances of Success

September 13, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

When you want to achieve a goal, you focus on that desire. You can create a focus or vision board about it, formulate a list of the steps, and take action to put it into motion. But if the overall tendency of your thoughts isn’t optimistic, even if you’re generally positive about your goal, then you’ll have a hard time bringing it into reality.

When working with the Law of Attraction, practitioners state what they want. They visualize and affirm its fulfillment. But they neglect to address their supporting consciousness. For a seed to sprout, it needs to be planted in fertile soil. If it drops onto parched dirt, there’s no way it can germinate.

For instance, suppose you want to start a new business. You get all the paperwork in order, market your product or service, and have some limited success. The quality of your success depends not only on your belief that you’ll achieve it, but on whether you have a pessimistic or optimistic outlook. If your thoughts are predominantly negative, you’ll have an uphill battle.

Although focusing on the specific outcome you want is necessary to achieve the desired result, that’s not the complete picture. The subconscious acts on the average of your thoughts. If your negative thoughts outweigh your positive ones, then achieving success is going to be like dragging an anvil uphill over a rocky path.

Focusing only on your goal and its plan is like exercising to improve one single area of your body. If you only work on strengthening your stomach muscles, you’ll get mediocre abs and the rest of your body will be in poor shape. But if you exercise the rest of your body too, you’ll find that it increases the response of your abdomen to its workout. This is because the condition of your whole body is now balanced and can support the other muscles that help the abs. Whole body training is much more effective than spot training.

When you improve your overall attitude towards life, to become more optimistic, you’ll find that success comes to you much easier and more quickly. Your subconscious is instructed by your belief that change is possible and good things can happen in an instant. By addressing your supporting consciousness, more energy can be channeled into fulfilling your goal. As a result, you may bump into a contact who can open doors for you, or have opportunities drop into your lap.

Here are 5 ways to improve your overall consciousness of good and increase your chance for success:

State what you’re grateful for. Every night, write down 3 things you’re grateful for. In doing so, you’re directing your subconscious to find more to appreciate. Studies show that doing this can improve your positive attitude for months and increase your productive energy.

Put yourself on a criticism diet. When you criticize anything in your life, you’re focusing on the negative. And that instructs the subconscious to bring more to criticize into your life. Criticism contracts and destroys. Praise expands and builds. That’s why gratitude is so important.

Look for the good in everything. Whenever you seek to find the gold in a seemingly unhappy situation, you’re instructing your creative mind to find a benefit from it. If this exercise is a stretch for you, then focus on the small joys of life. Pay attention to whatever good happens during the day, no matter how tiny or insignificant it might be. Dwell on the delight.

Remember your successes. Bring to mind how you’ve met and overcome challenges, even if they’re small. Linger over them, impressing their positive images and emotions on your mind. Remind yourself that if you could do it once, you can build on it and do it again in a bigger way.

Take time to meditate. Not only does meditation reduce stress, it builds resources for you to draw on in challenging times. To begin with, you can simply observe your breath going in and out for 2 minutes. This trains your mind to quiet down. As you get comfortable with that length, you can extend the session a minute at a time.

Build a well of optimism for yourself, and when you set a goal, you’ll have all of that positive energy that can be used to focus on it. Only by increasing and improving the overall quality of your thoughts will you be able to achieve the success you desire and deserve.

Affirmation:

I know the Universe wants the best for me. When I become aware that I’m being critical, I stop and find something to praise in the situation. Gratitude instructs my creative mind to find more to appreciate, therefore the good in my life expands. I delight in the small and large joys of life. As I do, I open the channel for more Universal good to flow into my life.

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Succeed from the Inside Out

September 9, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Everyone has two ways of being motivated to achieve a goal. You’re either internally or externally motivated. Internal motivation includes desiring to be of service, a leader, or improving yourself, while external motives could be making more money, receiving approval or developing prestige. Most people focus on external rewards to drive them toward a goal, thinking that’s the key. But oddly enough, paying attention to your internal motivation is more likely to bring you success.

You might think that having both a strong internal and external motive would increase your chances of succeeding. But that’s not the case. Instead, the two motives compete and cancel each other out. As a result, a person is less likely to meet their goals than when they have one type of motivation. And the best way to succeed is to work with your internal motives. Success flows from the inside out.

When you elevate your internal motivation, you’re connecting with your Higher Self and allowing it to express in your life. This allows you to be in the flow of the Universe, and expand your influence and awareness.

The Elements of Internal Motivation

Your internal motive is your why, or the purpose, you’re seeking with your goal. Without a strong reason, you’ll run out of gas on your way to your objective and sputter to a stop. When you have your “why” figured out, it empowers and encourages you to continue when the going gets tough. Your “why” also energizes the Law of Attraction to draw what you want to you. Do you want to be healthier or feel better? Does your goal support or allow you to express your values? Figure out your “why” and keep it in mind as you move forward.

If your beliefs aren’t aligned with your goals, then you may come close to or even achieve your goal, only to backslide. You’ll find a way to sabotage yourself to stay in agreement with your belief. If your beliefs don’t sustain your goal, that gives the Law of Attraction conflicting directions, and will deliver only a partial result. Do you have trouble believing that your goal is possible? Or do you feel unworthy of achieving your goal? Uncover the unproductive beliefs you have about your goal and find a way to turn them around so they support your aspiration.

Having clarity about your vision is vital to accomplish your goal. Your vision establishes where you want to end up with your goal. Unless you have a vision, you may accomplish a goal, but it won’t take you anywhere. You’ll spin your wheels or run in circles, without fulfilling the purpose for the goal. A vision gives the Law of Attraction a definite pattern of what you want. The Law can then fill that pattern more easily. Once you have a vision, create a plan of how to get to your destination. Then determine the goals, or steps, you need to bring your plan into reality.

Succeed from the Inside Out

Probably 90% of the time, your internal motivation will bring you to success. All of your strategies and tactics should rest on the foundation of your inner motives. Whether you have a goal to change a habit or build a business, pay more attention to your internal motivation. This is what will drive your external strategies, steps and actions so that you stay focused on your vision. You’ll experience more meaning, purpose and fulfillment when you plan to succeed from the inside out.

Affirmation:

The Universe supports my goals, vision and aspirations. It wants the best for me. I determine what my inner motivation is to propel me towards my desire. That motivation inspires and sets my intention to take the actions necessary to fulfill my vision. My motivation is one that is good for me and for everyone concerned.

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Why do I attract negative people?

August 30, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

Question: Why do I attract negative people?

Answer: Are you an upbeat or downbeat personality? If you tend to be more negative, then you’re attracting people who are similar to you. You’ve heard of like attracts like? Where people who are similar tend to drift together? You could be drawing people to you who are reflecting that aspect back to you.

On the other hand, if you’re more optimistic, there’s also a principle of opposites attracting. Negative, as well as positive people, are attracted to those with a positive personality. The upbeat person is stronger, more optimistic, inspirational, and tends to uplift those around them. People like to bathe in the warmth and radiance. A negative person may want to be more positive, and therefore be attracted to the characteristic they want.

But there are also those people who want to tear down those whom they see as more gifted, optimistic, and happy. It’s not personal. Remember, “Misery loves company.” If they’re dismal, they want everyone to join them there. It’s not so much that you’ve attracted them, as that they’ve been attracted to you and your warmth. If you’re beginning to feel depleted by the negative people, gently send them on their way. You aren’t obligated to heal them.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Sparks of Insight

August 26, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

Whenever you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, practice being in the now. Don’t worry about the future, just deal with the one thing you have to do in this minute. Studies show that people who practice mindfulness have more mental, physical and emotional resources. When your mind is constantly darting around, trying to solve problems while you’re working on a project, it’s exhausting and counter-productive. Being in the moment can give your busy mind a rest and allow you to focus all your energies on what you have to do right now. When you’re done with that, you can go on to the next thing. Studies show that this can also improve your mood, memory and well-being.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

How to Approach Change

August 18, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

Most people don’t like change. It triggers our fight-or-flight response and we resist it. This prevents us from being able to move forward or make good decisions. There’s one way you can shift from being a victim into taking control. This opens the door to new opportunities for you.

Transcript:

Most people don’t like to have change thrust on them. Change triggers our fight or flight response, because we feel like we’re going to lose something we value by moving forward. And sometimes, that’s true. And sometimes, that thing we value isn’t working for as well as it could.

When we’re in fight or flight, we resist the change, trying to keep our old, familiar ways. All of this prevents us from thinking clearly, and making good decisions that are for our benefit.

I’m Linda-Ann Stewart, a vision strategist coach. In over 30 years as a hypnotherapist, I’ve helped scores of people embrace change. I’d like to suggest a way to help you get out of the fight or flight response, become proactive and respond better to change. In other words, a better way to approach change.

Look for any positives that could come from the change. This may seem too simplistic or airy-fairy, but it’s effective. When you shift your attitude and reframe how you approach a situation, the outcome of the situation changes. You open doors for your subconscious mind to seek out, and find, opportunities for you. It may be a cliché, but look for the silver lining.

By adjusting your attitude to accepting the change and looking for advantages, you stop being a victim or feeling helpless. Instead of being in a boat being tossed about by the waves, you’ve set your sails to use the winds of change. Once you’ve taken control of your attitude, you can then make wise decisions and take positive action.

If this has been helpful, please like this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more tips to reach your goals and improve your life.

Thank you for watching. What positive can you find in the change you are dealing with?

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

If you’d like to achieve your goals with confidence and ease in 4 powerful steps, register for a FREE training video and accompanying action planning guide, Set Your Course to Success.

How to Cope with the Inevitability of Change

August 5, 2021 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

The world is changing all the time. Sometimes, it sedately plods along, but other times, change explodes and disrupts the status quo in a major way. When this happens, it’s normal to resist change, especially because it’s imposed on you.

Whether your choice or not, change is threatening and scary. Nothing will ever be exactly the same as it was. You don’t know what you may lose, and no one likes to leave their comfort zone or feel out of control. But there are times when massive change happens whether you like it or not.

How Change Affects You

For instance, a deadly pandemic creates a major upheaval in everyone’s life. As a result, you could have to find another job, or you need to move to a new location, or a loved one may become chronically ill. Unwelcome and unexpected change brings uncertainty, which leads to stress and ultimately to anxiety.

The Universe often nudges you out of your comfort zone with unwelcome conditions. If you don’t take the hint, it pushes more forcefully. The Universe wants you to keep expanding and evolving, and you can’t do that by staying in your old habits. You’ll have to let go of what no longer serves you to flow with the Universe and adjust to the new situation.

When change is sudden and affects your personal life, your normal response is to go into shock. Shock gives you time to process the reality of what’s happened. When you begin to emerge from the numbness, you may get anxious because you don’t know what to do. Or you do know what to do, and it’s overwhelming.

How to Handle the Uncertainty

When you find ways to handle the uncertainty, you feel more in control. Here are four steps you can do to take charge of your life.

1. Accept the change. The more you resist or deny the change, the less energy, resourcefulness or time you have to adjust to it. If you can’t accept the change yet, acknowledge that it has affected you. This is your first step to coping with it and moving forward.

2. Grieve the loss. For every change, something has to be left behind. There can also be opportunities, but often they come later in the process. At this point, if you have a sense of loss of what you valued, allow yourself the space to mourn. Only after grieving can you seek how to extract some good from the situation.

3. Deal with the anxiety. What can you do in the moment to reduce your anxiety? Maybe it’s to learn a new skill, do some research, or go to a caregiving support group. Or maybe all you can do in the moment is take some deep breaths to ground yourself.

4. Make a plan. No matter how small the steps might be, or even one tiny step, make a plan. This will bring you a sense of control, lower your stress, and allow you to think more clearly. When you take one step, figure out what the next two might be, and take them. Keep doing this until you build up momentum.

When you become proactive, you take charge and begin to adjust to the change that’s affecting your life. As you chart your course through the troubled waters, you can find a way to survive and thrive with the changes that have happened.

Affirmation:

I acknowledge that change has altered the course of my life. The Universe will guide me in my direction and give me definite insight into what to do next. I take the actions I know to take, and the next step now appears. Everything is in Divine Order and works out in my best interests.

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