Changing your thoughts to change your life

After years of thinking that I wasn’t worth the best in life and that I couldn’t be or have anything better in life, I realized that I was the one holding myself back.  Through the help of friends, family and a wonderful life coach, I worked on shifting my paradigm and stretched myself to new heights and unlimited opportunities.  And I am still a work in progress.  You can choose to view things in life as a chore or that you are in a rut with no way out, or you can choose to view the unlimited possibilities in front of you.  What happened in your life yesterday is a lesson to move you forward towards a better and bright tomorrow – if you make that choice.  Why not make the choice to have a happy and joyful life starting today?  After all, it’s a new year – you deserve a new you!

The Winter Success Summit, January 10- January 21, 2011

The Winter Success Summit, January 10- January 21, 2011

A New Year: A New YOU

Featuring Celebrated Transformational Expert Marci Shimoff

and Top Life Coaching Experts on this Free Telesummit Event

Discover, Create and Live Your OWN Path to Success

Be the Inspiration

 

• Discover What it Means to Love for No Reason
• Money in 2011: Profits, Peace, and JOY
• The Pain/Pleasure Principle: Are you the Master of Your Emotions?
• 4 Keys to Your Soul’s Success
• Grow Your Business Fast: 5 Secrets to Prosper Today 
• 4 Ways to Listen to Your Energy
• Living in Balance with Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology
• Put the POW back in your Power and the WOW back in your Work
• DeClutter Your Life
• Three Keys to Empower Your Success in 2011
• Change Your Thoughts: Change Your Life- Live Successfully and Joyfully Every Day No Matter What

 

Our Success Summit experts:  Marci Shimoff, Jeanna Gabellini, Michele Caron, Susan Liddy, Linda Hardenstein,  Michelle Casto, Crystal Miller, Stephanie Mojica, Susan Carstens, Amethyst Wyldfyre, and Janet Nestor.

Your event host is Life Coach and Author Sheri Kaye Hoff.

 The Your Path to Success Telesummit:  

• Gives you tools, techniques, and fresh ideas that you can use right away 
• Helps you discover, create and live Your OWN path to success.
• Creates the opportunity for you to learn from top experts in their fields as they share their knowledge, wisdom, and life experiences with you.  
• And inspires you to take a quantum leap forward in your life 

The calls are held Live at 1pm pst/4pm est Monday through Friday of the telesummit. Listen to the recordings for free for 48 hours after each presentation or you can upgrade to the VIP package and get the downloads.

The Call Schedule (all calls are live and at 1pm pst/4pm est unless otherwise noted):Jan 10 Jeanna Gabellini; Jan 11 Linda Hardenstein; Jan 12 Michele Caron; Jan 13 Marci Shimoff, Jan 14 Susan Carstens (note: prerecorded- this call is not live and will be posted on the recording page); Jan 15 Amethyst Wyldfyre (note: prerecorded- this call is not live and will be posted on the recording page); Jan 17 Stephanie Mojica, Jan 18 Michelle Casto, Jan 19 Janet Nestor, Jan 20 Crystal Miller, and Jan 21 Susan Liddy.

Sign up at:  http://www.lifeisjoyful.org/telesummit.html

Are you an Optimist?

People who are optimistic…

• See obstacles and bad events as temporary – challenges to be overcome
• Believe that they will succeed
• Apply their success belief to all that they do
• Operate from a place of success and not failure
• Are unfazed by defeat – they pick themselves up and brush themselves off and move forward
• Don’t see setbacks as personal flaws
• See success as a function of motivation and ability
• Do better at all that they do – life, school, at play, everything
• Enjoy better health

People who are not optimistic…

• Expect the worst
• Give up more easily
• Are prone to depression – which affects their health
• Feel helpless and listless
• Attribute success to luck
• Believe that bad events will last a long time
• Believe that misfortune is their fault

Tips on becoming an optimist…

• Be mindful of your self-talk
• Take a look at what your beliefs are about adversity and look for ways to change them
• Take note of your feelings about these beliefs
• “De-catastrophize” (term borrowed from Dr. Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism)

Do you act with Intention?

When you act with intention, you are acting and thinking “on purpose” – deliberately.  You know what it takes to control your own destiny and outcomes.

People with intentionality…

• Make decisions and take actions that are consistent with their goals and values
• Keep focused on their objectives by managing distractions
• Are clear about what they want to make happen in their life
• Act deliberately to achieve the outcomes they want
• Take consistent action to make the things they want happen

People without intentionality…

• Fail to set goals
• Don’t adhere to their goals if they set them
• Allow themselves to go with the flow of what is happening
• Fail to plan in order to achieve specific outcomes
• Are unclear about what they want
• Allow themselves to be easily distracted

Tips for developing intentionality…

• Ask yourself “What do I ideally want to have happen here?”
• Allow yourself to set an intention for what you what and go after it
• Don’t allow yourself to get distracted from your goals and intentions
• Know what you want and develop a plan to make it happen
• Ask for help and support when you need it in order to achieve your intention
• Adopt the belief that you are in control of your destiny

Managing Stress

Key to self-management is being able to work calmly under stress and pressure.

People who manage their stress…

• Are immediately aware of their feelings of rising stress
• Can calm themselves and deal with stress productively
• Are able to influence stressful events and act to improve the situation
• Maintain composure
• Control aggressive, hostile and irresponsible behavior
• Know when to push back and when to let go
• Have learned “not to sweat the small stuff”

People who cannot manage their stress…

• Don’t realize that stress is our reaction to an event
• Develop physical responses to stress – anxiety, tension, moodiness, irritability, etc.
• Are unable to concentrate
• Become forgetful
• Can’t think clearly
• Tend to worry about the future
• Act impulsively
• Have a low frustration level

Tips for developing stress management…

• Anticipate change
• Learn to anticipate and tolerate uncertainty
• Find relaxation techniques that work for you
• Seek the support of others
• Develop assertive behavior
• Become aware of your own reactions to stress – develop a healthier response
• Stop blaming yourself
• Learn to manage your time wisely
• Focus on the positive and the good
• Assume control only over what’s within your control

Drive for Achievement – Above and Beyond Expectations!

Achievement drive means having high personal and professional standards.  It means striving to improve and the meet new, higher standards of excellence.  It means being a life learner!

People who are driven to achieve…

• Are results-oriented
• Set “stretch goals”
• Have a high drive to meet objectives and standards
• Take moderate, calculated risks
• Learn how to improve their performance
• Pursue information – reduce uncertainty and find ways to do better

People without achievement drive…

• Work without regard to expectations
• Don’t push themselves
• Do the minimum to get by
• Don’t take goals seriously
• Tend to set easy goals
• Accept the status quo
• Don’t demonstrate an interest in working independently to an internal standard of excellence

Tips to develop achievement drive…

• Set goals and standards of excellence
• Make your goals “SMART”
• Keep a daily log of your achievements
• Take at least one step each day toward your goals
• Get in touch with the emotional pull of what you want to achieve and why

Bounce back – manage yourself with resiliency!

One of the more important self-management skills – especially for success – is being resilient.

When you are resilient you…

• Are willing and able to overcome obstacles in order to get what you want
• Know how to cope in the face of setbacks or in spite of barriers or limited resources
• Bounce back from setbacks – disappointments – adversity
• Are flexible and adaptable
• See that setbacks are temporary and failures are isolated and short term – both are learning opportunities

When you lack resiliency you…

• See failure as all consuming and permanent
• Are inflexible in your thinking
• Get “stuck” in the past and can’t let go in order to move forward
• Engaging in lots of negative self-talk

In order to develop resiliency, try the following tips…

• Practice a healthy lifestyle – get enough sleep, eat healthy, exercise – build in periods of rest and relaxation
• Challenge your negative self-talk
• See that setbacks are temporary and failures are isolated and short term – both are learning opportunities
• Seek support from those around you – remember “No man (or woman) is an island”

Take the Initiative and then Take Action!

Developing your self-management skills include being proactive and being persistent.  Taking the initiative and then taking action because you were ready to act when opportunity knock.

When you take initiative and are ready for action you…

• Are ready to seize the day – taking action when opportunities present themselves and if they don’t then you create them
• Pursue goals beyond what’s required – and what’s expected
• Bend the rules when needed to get the job done
• Take action before being forced into it
• Want more than just a paycheck – and you want more out of life
• Consistently striving for more – do more, experience more, and be more

For those who lack initiative and don’t take action they…

• Procrastinate and are always falling behind
• Have the “that’s not my job” mentality
• React to events – always operating in crisis mode
• Need direction to get things done
• Give up easily
• Don’t plan ahead
• Postpone decisions
• Miss opportunities
• Are unwilling to take risks
• Tend to be overly cautious and tentative

Tips to develop initiative and bias for action

• Chunk things down in order to overcome procrastination – then get started
• Become the victor and stop being the victim by focusing on how you can do something
• Identify what’s holding you back and deal with the root cause
• Do the worst part of a task first and get it out of the way
• Timebox – set the timer for 15 minutes work on a task for the set amount of time – you will be surprised how much you get done

Are you innovative and creative?

Innovation and creativity means that you are open to new ideas and are actively gathering novel ideas and approaches.

People who have innovation and creativity:

• Seek out new ideas from all sources – you never know where a good idea will come from
• Are open to new solutions to problems
• Ask a lot of questions to help spark creativity and innovative ideas
• Encourage brainstorming and out of the box thinking
• Question everything – don’t just do something because that is how it’s always been done
• Are curious
• Are flexible and adaptable

People who lack innovation and creativity:

• Become anxious and worry with change and shifting priorities
• Complain and disregard new situations
• Are inflexible in how they view the world
• Hesitant to take on new challenges – don’t like to shift outside their comfort zone
• Don’t adapt easily when circumstances change

Tips on developing innovation and creativity:

• Ask yourself “what if” questions
• Clear the clutter – make room for creativity
• Call on all your senses and thinking capacity for new ideas
• Brainstorm and generate lots of ideas, options, and possibilities – no matter how absurd it might seem
• Take time off – recharge those batteries
• Cultivate an attitude of curiosity for all things

Living with Integrity

Integrity is living your values – doing the right thing even when no one is looking!

 

People with integrity:

 

• Act ethically at all times
• Do the right thing even when no one is looking
• Build trust through reliability and authenticity
• Admit their mistakes
• Confront others when they act unethically
• Take a principled stand – even if it’s unpopular
• Keep their commitments, word and promises
• Are honest
• Provide true and accurate information
• Treat all people fairly – no matter what their lot in life may be

 

People without integrity:

 

• Haven’t sorted out what their opinions and feels are
• Do what is expedient rather than what it right
• Are easily influenced by others
• Are reactive to the needs of the moment
• Tend not to challenge the way things are done – even when they go against their values

 

Tips to develop Integrity:

 

• Know what your values and core beliefs are
• Write these down and review them everyday
• Figure out ways to tell your truth
• Journal about your behavior to ensure that you are acting in alignment with your values
• Ask yourself what you need to be doing differently to live more genuinely and with integrity towards your values and core beliefs
• Review your values often