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Attitude Makes All The Difference – By the Amazing Zig Ziglar

Attitude Makes All The Difference – By the Amazing Zig Ziglar

The amazing motivational speaker and thought leader, Zig Ziglar, passed away this week at 86 years of age. He taught millions about the fundamentals of sales, success and how attitude makes all the difference. He didn’t even begin his career as a motivational speaker until he was in his 40’s.

As a speaker, he encouraged others to believe in themselves. Ziglar emphasized that a positive attitude must be followed up by action before success could be achieved. To listen to his inspiring podcasts, visit http://zigziglar.libsyn.com/

In this video, he tells the story of a woman who complained about her job, changed her attitude about it, and changed her life.


Change Takes Time

Change Takes Time

Change is a part of life. But it doesn’t happen all at once. When you were in school, you learned a little at a time, and built on what you knew. The same is true of life. Discover how you can improve this process and speed up your ability to change.


Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Make The Effort To Change, Part 2

Make The Effort To Change, Part 2

by Linda-Ann Stewart

My friend Lily read lots of self-help books, listened to motivational CD’s and went to personal development workshops and then complained that her life didn’t improve. When I asked her if she’d practiced any of the exercises in the books or CD’s or workshops. “No,” she said. “That’s too much trouble.”

To change, you need to participate and use the tools you’ve found. It’s easy to fall back into old habits. They’re familiar and comfortable, but they won’t provide you with a new direction. They won’t improve your life. There’s an old saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Negative thinking is simply a habit. People aren’t born to be pessimists, they learn to be that way. It can be changed with time, attention, and energy. One of the complaints of negative people is that it takes effort to be positive. It always takes work to change a habit, no matter what that habit might be.

Are you going to continue to float along with your old ways of thinking and doing things? If so, your life isn’t going to improve much. What are you willing to do to make it different? Think of one thing that you could start doing, and then commit to practice it every day. It could be meditating, self-hypnosis, being mindful, an affirmation, journaling or one of any number of other techniques and exercises that you’ve found over the years.

By choosing to make one small, consistent difference in the course of your life, you’ll begin to break up the inertia that’s gripped you. Each day that you follow through with your choice will take you in a new direction. You have the power to change your life. You just need to work it.

Affirmation

I have the ability to change my life. All the power of the Universe is available to me to create new ways of thinking and new beliefs. I now decide to use the tools that I’ve been given to create new habits that are more beneficial for me. My life will only improve if I choose to change it. I take charge of my life and commit myself to my well being.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Make The Effort To Change, Part 1

Make The Effort To Change, Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

At a meeting, I was talking with a woman and mentioned Joseph Murphy and his best-selling book, “Power of the Subconscious Mind.” She asked, “In his book, did he explain why the subconscious doesn’t work for most people?”

That set me back. The subconscious mind is always working, and it responds according to the nature of your thoughts. But one thing can prevent the subconscious from making the changes a person wants. I responded, “Because they don’t work it.”

“Oh,” she replied. “I guess that’s true. Nothing changes if you aren’t willing to work on it.” I quietly sighed, thinking of all the people I knew who didn’t work on an issue, then complained when change didn’t happen.

Most people resist change and it takes effort to overcome that. Inertia can take over, causing you to drift and stalling your progress. It takes determination to pull out of it and move in a different direction. Change doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it happen without applying shifts in thinking and behaving. Your old ways of doing things are simply habits, and can be changed. But it takes attention to alter your course and initiative to put it into action.

Posting affirmation signs around the house won’t help if you don’t repeat the statement frequently. They work by modifying the things you automatically say to yourself. Passively glancing at them without noticing them won’t make much of an impression on your subconscious. You have to be pro-active in impressing the concepts on your inner mind.

Wanting to be more positive won’t work unless you pay attention and change your attitude when you find your thoughts straying into negative territory. Just as you have to turn the car around when you realize you’re going to the gas station when you meant to go to the store, you have to re-focus your attention when your thoughts go in the wrong direction.

Copyright 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Tools For Change

Tools For Change

Reading self-help and personal development books, and listening to CD’s of them, is helpful to expand the awareness of the possibilities for yourself. It also can uplift you and put you in a more constructive mindset. But if you don’t start using some of the tools that you learn about, the improvements won’t last long. You need to create your own foundation so that you can build a strong structure that can withstand the winds of storms.

Here are a few techniques for you to begin with, if you need to start somewhere.

  • Meditation – Studies show that meditation actually changes the structure of the brain. It establishes a sense of well being, allows us to think more quickly and make better decisions, along with a whole host of other positive results.
  • Mindfulness – This type of meditation means that you just remain aware of the present moment. As with meditation, it changes brain structure, reducing fear, improving memory and productivity.
  • Self-hypnosis – This is a process of communication with the inner mind that can change ideas at level where they were programmed. It can reduce stress and anxiety, help change habits, grow self-confidence and improve all sorts of physical issues.
  • Cognitive techniques – This technique instructs you how to become conscious of negative ideas and change them. It’s effective for improving depression, anxiety, and negative self-talk.
  • Journaling – Studies have shown that when you write about your feelings, your situations, or your life, this can improve the way you feel physically and mentally. It helps the mind to reprocess the information at a deep level and builds inner resources.
  • Affirmations/self-talk – When you change the way you talk to yourself, you change the way you believe and behave. It helps increase optimism and is a key to stress management.

Choose one of these to begin practicing consistently and you’ll notice an improvement in your life in a very short time. It will give you the tool you need to hold onto when life gets a little bumpy. You’ll get through the challenges much more smoothly when you have been making time for your personal development.

Book Review-An Easy Guide to Meditation

Book Review-An Easy Guide to Meditation

An Easy Guide to Meditation [Kindle Edition]
Roy Eugene Davis

Many recent studies have shown that meditation changes the brain in beneficial ways, and improves your quality of life. With that in mind, I was delighted to find this gem of a booklet free on Amazon. The author studied under Paramahansa Yogananda and is the founder of Center for Spiritual Awareness.

This booklet starts out by discussing the purpose of meditation, and then explains simple steps to begin to access the meditative state. Succinctly, clearly, this booklet describes how to get into meditation, how to avoid the pitfalls, and what to do when you’re there. It condenses the knowledge you’d find in a much longer book.

I own an old physical copy of an earlier version this booklet as well as a couple of this author’s books (which are unfortunately out of print) and treasure them all. This is a Kindle edition, and you can download a Kindle app for all kinds of devices or or read it in the cloud.

Take a Risk and Claim Your Authenticity, Part 2

Take a Risk and Claim Your Authenticity, Part 2

by Linda-Ann Stewart

As an art teacher and friend once said, “Give yourself permission to do it badly.” That’s one of the most freeing concepts for creativity. When you do this, you allow yourself to experiment and be spontaneous. And only with experimentation can you find new ways and techniques. Staying with the “same old, same old” will simply keep you in a rut.

Pick up a brush, lump of clay or camera and create something. Challenge some of the beliefs you have and say, “No” to something you don’t want to do. The sky is unlikely to fall, and you’ll feel stronger. Hold your ground when someone tries to bully you. Tell a friend how you feel when she’s always an hour late for lunch.

You’re more authentic when you risk. Stepping out of what’s secure and safe breaks down your inner barriers. You unblock yourself and let the Universe flow more fully through you. And even when things don’t work out, as sometimes happens, you have more resources to handle it philosophically. You can assure yourself, “At least I tried.” Giving yourself permission to try and fail can create a feeling of safety that allows you to try again.

I couldn’t sit silent and let the group be bullied into a course of action that would be unproductive. That would have made me feel like a victim. Because I risked going out of my comfort zone and speaking up, my beliefs were altered in a positive way. It gave me the courage to explore other areas and confront my fears.

When you risk, even if it doesn’t work out, it expands your horizons. You learn something valuable that you can use the next time. You’ve empowered yourself to stretch and be a victor. This establishes a pattern that can continue to reveal more of your authentic self.

Affirmation

When I try new things and experiment, I give myself permission to do it badly or fail. What matters is the attempt to move out of my comfort zone. As I risk new directions and activities, the Universe flows more smoothly through me into greater good. I empower myself explore new avenues and experiences. By allowing myself to risk, I open myself to be more authentic.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Take a Risk and Claim Your Authenticity, Part 1

Take a Risk and Claim Your Authenticity, Part 1

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Many years ago, I was a member of a group that promoted and encouraged creative writing in the community. We’d been working together for a couple of years when a new member joined us. She came in with a host of ideas, many of which we’d already tried, with no success. Even after we explained that, she insisted on our implementing them anyway.

No one challenged her and said, “No, that didn’t work the first time and we’re not going to do it again.” I decided someone had to draw the line, and although I expected censure from the rest of the group, I stood up to her and said, “No.” It got a little heated.

After the meeting, I was surprised and amazed when the other members thanked me for standing firm. “Someone had to do it,” they said. This was the opposite reaction that I’d learned to expect, based on my childhood experiences. In my youth, if I set a boundary or challenged someone, I was ostracized. The members’ appreciation rocked my worldview. It altered even more when the new member called me and kept trying to change my mind. And that, from then on, she respected me.

When you risk stepping out of your comfort zone, you find a deeper level of self-commitment and self-acceptance. By being true to yourself, you give yourself the message that your opinions and values are important. This buoys up your self-concept and increases your self-respect, which in turn gives you a greater feeling of confidence. It encourages you to open up and be more authentic.

I felt the new member had to be stopped from taking us down a fruitless path, so I acted on what I thought was right. By following my values, I fed my self-respect and felt like I’d accomplished something. When I stepped out of my comfort zone, I found approval when I expected displeasure.

The same thing can be said for trying new things. Making the choice to risk trying something you haven’t done before, whether you’re good at it or not, opens your mind to new experiences and possibilities. You don’t have to be good at it, you just have to try. And if you don’t explore new activities or pursuits, you won’t find hidden treasures that make your heart sing.

This is the way children learn. They try, fail, and try again. When they’re learning to walk, playing with building blocks, or making a sand castle, they don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work out initially. Exploring and experimentation allows them to expand their awareness and discover what works and what doesn’t. Children are persistent and keep trying, even it they don’t succeed the first time. They’re authentic and their confidence grows as they try again and achieve their goal.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

Meditation: How To Get Whatever You Want by Robert Anthony

Meditation: How To Get Whatever You Want by Robert Anthony

Dr. Robert Anthony is one of my favorite authors. He writes simply and directly about how to use your mind in a constructive way to get what you want. In this simple and fast guided meditation, he leads you to visualize what it is that you want. Pick the goal you wish to accomplish and allow your mind to follow the directions in the meditation. Done every day, this simple 12-minute mind programming technique will attract what you want. The only way this method will not work is if you stop using it. Learn more about Robert Anthony’s The Secret of Deliberate Creation.



Judgment Vs. Discernment, Part 2

Judgment Vs. Discernment, Part 2

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Whereas judgement assigns an emotional value on something, discernment is when you assess a situation or a person objectively and decide that you don’t want to participate. For instance, they don’t like apples, and decide not to eat one. There is no emotion attached to the decision. Just a simple “no thank you.”

Maybe an acquaintance keeps making disparaging remarks about Jill’s clothing as a way of teasing her. Jill has the right to decide that this isn’t a person she wants in her circle of friends. It doesn’t mean that she judges this person as “bad.” Just that the person’s actions makes her uncomfortable, and she doesn’t want to be around them.

Jill can accept the person as they are, knowing that they have the right to express themselves as they want. But also knowing that their self-expression isn’t compatible with hers. And if they really hurt her feelings, she can accept the individual, but not the way they act. If what they’re doing is inappropriate, then she can separate it from the person. Suppose a child leaves their bicycle behind her car, she doesn’t see it and runs over it. The child isn’t a bad person. They just did something irresponsible.

Being discerning means detaching from a situation, and letting go of any need to feel superior. It also means not avoiding making a decision for fear of being judgmental. Either of those issues has an emotional charge. Discernment is a spiritual quality, and one which we all need to develop for our spiritual evolution. We need to learn to say “no thank you” to that which is our lesser good, so we can say “yes” to our greater Good.
For if we can’t decide between turning left or right, how can we learn to follow the path of our Highest Good?

Copyright 2001, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved