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…I realised that I really created my own obstacles in life, and
if I just got out of the way of myself and
let my mind not hold me back,
I could do things I never thought I could.”
(Hilary Swank, as reported in the Sunday Times)

Hilary Swank puts her breathtaking performance in Million Dollar Baby down to the way Clint Eastwood was able to get her to relax and stop her interfering with her natural ability to create such an awesome character.

What about you? How do you interfere with your natural ability. How do you stop yourself from progressing? What do you say to yourself that ensures you stay within a safe arena? In Hilary Swank’s words what is your “obstacle” to success in your life.

For most of us our obstacle is the same as Hilary Swank’s. It is our mind. The way we were raised. The area we lived in. The schools we went to. The education we received or not as the case may be. The first jobs we had. The people we idolised in our youth and in later life. All give us a way of being.

Think for a moment. What do you now do that can be traced back to your past. Have you ever said anything and a sibling or member of your family immediately responded “You sound just like……….”? If you have then you have just met an “obstacle” That thought was not a new thought. It is not even one of your thoughts. It is a response to a stimulus. It is a learned behaviour. A behaviour that isn’t yours it is someone else’s and you copied it. It is well and truly an “obstacle”

This is a small example but one that can be identified quickly. How many, other hidden behaviours do you have that are a carbon copy of someone else. All these “obstacles” ensure that you are “kept in your place”.

Have you ever thought to yourself;” I would like to do that” and quickly another thought enters your mind, “but I don’t think so”. The thought that comes says, “It is embarrassing” or “my (mother) wouldn’t like it”…or whatever your excuse is. It is this that Hilary Swank is talking about. Your mind is holding you back.

How do you progress?

Kathy Sierra, the well known author of bestseller Head First books, says you just need to overcome your brains “Crap Filter”. That area of your brain that stops you moving forward.

How do you do it.?

Simple.
Do exactly as Hilary Swank says Stop Thinking.
Exploit what your mind thinks is important…….. Your Feelings.

Instead of following a path that is run by your head and what you think you ought to do. Go with your feelings. Do what you feel is right. Don’t let your mind hold you back. Awaken your feelings. The stronger your feelings towards a particular action the more you overcome the filter on your brain and now you have overcome your obstacle.

How do you know you have the right feeling? How do you know you are on the right path?

Simple.

When you are on the correct path and doing what is right for you. You feel great.
Everything appears to be in synch. You may be doing something for hours and it feels like minutes. Your face is all aglow. You are really enjoying yourself. In a nutshell you stop evaluating what you are doing and have started to do things you never thought were possible. You are performing naturally, everything is “right”.

Don’t just accept what we say. Try it. Imagine for a moment that you are Hilary Swank. You have been given this great opportunity. You have the knowledge, you have done the research. Everything that can be prepared has been prepared. Now let go of your learned thinking and let your natural talent emerge. Go on you’ve got nothing to lose.

You now know how to overcome your obstacle.

Good Luck.

Graham and Julie
http://www.desktop-meditation.com

If you want to improve and enhance the quality of your life go to:
http://www.desktop-meditation.com It’s free.

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Surprisingly few people regularly make lists of their goals and even fewer put their lists where they can see them. This article suggests that it is worth doing both. It also takes a look at the life goals of Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan.

A lot of money was once paid for the following famous goal setting advice given to a rich businessman:

Each night make a list of 6 things you need to do tomorrow and list the 6 tasks in order of priority. When tomorrow arrives, start on the first task and complete it. Then move on to the second task. If you don’t finish all your tasks add the unfinished ones to your list for the next day.

Goals could be listed for each day, each week, each month, each year and for life. You could even make lists for each project you are working on.

Recently, Minnie Driver, the singer was asked: “What drives you?” She gave a thoughtful reply:

• To live fully - to pursue every gift I’ve been given.

• To think what am I going to bring to this day as opposed to what I am going to get from it.

• I want to have kids and live by the sea and write records, have a great partnership with someone and maybe do some teaching.

Very few people could have come straight out with such a clear life mission statement. Minnie is going to make the most of her singing talent and give rather than get. She wants kids and wants to live by the seaside and so on.

Ask yourself what the main goals of your life are? Could you come up with a great list like Minnie Driver’s if someone put you on the spot? Do you plan:

• To become all that you can become?

• To help others become all that they can become?

• To live an extraordinary life?

• To help humans, animals and even insects?

• To see the wonders of the world?

• To love your neighbour as yourself? etc. etc.

It is worth making a list and revising it regularly. You can always change your mission statement or list of life goals whenever you wish to. In the mean time life goals will give you a guiding light for much if not all of your life.

However, goals are soon forgotten unless you look at them and revise them regularly. Some people put their list of goals on post it notes and stick them on their computers. Some buy computer software that will parade their goals across their computer screen.

I put my goals on the wardrobe to my right where I can look at it all day. This reminds both my conscious and subconscious minds to focus on the goals. They are thus much more likely to be completed. They will also be finished with much less conscious effort.

Try sticking your goals list somewhere prominent where you have a bit of space. My walls are already covered with A4 sheets of things I need to remember so my wardrobe is the only space left.

One of my goals on the wardrobe list for today is to finish this article. I now have the satisfaction of crossing it off my list and moving on to my next goal which is to prepare for a class I am teaching this evening.

We all need to get a move on with our goals before our time runs out. Genghis Khan’s life goal was to conquer the whole world. In the end he conquered a huge space twice the size of the Roman Empire but he died too soon to fulfil his life mission. At the age of 65 on his death bed he said:

“I have conquered for you a large empire but my life was too short to take the whole world. That I leave to you.”

Even after death, the power of his goal lived on.

His sons doubled the size of his empire. They invaded Russia, Poland and Hungary but as the Mongol armies approached Vienna in 1242, Ogodei Khan, the son of Genghis died and all his armies went back to Mongolia for his funeral. They did not return to Europe.

A century later his empire began to crumble. However, genetic studies suggest that 1 in every 200 men on the planet today are genetically related to Genghis. Some goals will never die!

What do Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan have in common? They both set themselves clear life goals. The resemblance stops there. Minnie Driver’s goals are much, much greater than the goals of the Universal Ruler - Genghis Khan.

About the author

John Watson is an award winning teacher and martial arts instructor. He has recently written two books about achieving your goals and dreams.

They can both be found on his website http://www.motivationtoday.com along with a daily motivational message.

The title of the first book is “36 Laws To Ignite Your Inner Power And Realize Your Dreams Now! - Acronyms, Stories, Pictures And Quotes…Easy To Remember And Use Everyday To Grab Your Life And Soar With The Eagles”

The book can be found at this URL: http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php

The book uses acronyms, stories, pictures and quotations to help readers remember 36 laws that can gradually transform your life if you apply them.

Ezine editors / Site owners

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include the resource box as listed above.

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SMH - Simply Must Have: The first step is to choose a goal that you simply must have. Throw out anything that you would “like” to accomplish or that would be “nice” to have. Pick a goal that you simply must have this year, whatever it takes.

BER - Big Enough Reasons: Once you have chosen your goal, identify several “big enough reasons” for why you must achieve this goal. What will you be able to do that you cannot do now after you achieve this goal? Make sure your reasons are big and compelling.

WID - Write It Down: It never fails - the weakest ink is always stronger than the best memory. Write down what you want. In this way, it becomes a document that you can see, and not just a nice idea floating around in your already full brain.

MIS - Make It Specific: If you want to get rid of weight, how much? If you want to get out of debt, do you mean everything but the house, or something else? If you want to save money, how much? If you want to get in better shape, how do you want to look? Getting specific narrows your focus to what you really want.

KIC - Keep It Close: Now that you have written your goal and made it specific, keep it close to you. Put a copy on the bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, in your purse or wallet, on your computer wallpaper, etc. You get the picture. You want to keep it close to keep you reminded.

Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

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The new year is almost upon us and just like every year some people are excited about what next year has to offer and many more are not sure what life will throw at them and are just willing to let the chips fall where they may.

There is a better way.

The way I start each year is by looking back, looking at where I am today and finally looking at where I want to be tomorrow and then creating a plan to make a better tomorrow happen.

With goal setting most people just look at what they want and then create a plan to get there. My method of life planning is much better as it does not just look at myself as a superman and allow me to collapse as soon as any problem gets in the way of my goal.

To start you must have a notebook and realize that this notebook will be your companion for the next year. Give yourself an hour to get started and know that you will likely be sitting down a few times over the next few days, if New Years Day comes and goes while you are in the midst of this process do not worry. Even though we always look at new years day as the switch that begins a new year remember that you are creating a map and a route that is much more important and long lasting than the flip of a calendar, the end of a day, or a fuzzy idea in the middle of the night whose idea of importance is reflected only by the thoughts and actions of a very few minutes.

To do this life planning correctly you must begin by looking back at the last year. Sit down and ask yourself the following questions.

What did I plan to do this year? Write this list by writing down one at a time with a couple lines between them. Look back and see all of the things that seemed important for a short or long time and write them down in a big list. Did you include health and exercise, spiritual goals, financial and career goals, holiday plans, leisure plans?

What happened to these ideas and plans? Did you complete one or more of these things on the list? With the one that were completed, great. For the ones that you didn’t complete, great as well. This exercise will allow you to see from a bit of distance what was important and what was not important apparently.

Now for each of the items in the list that you completed look at the obstacles that you had and how you over came them. You will probably find that for your accomplishments you were in one way or another motivated to really complete and not just “wishing” to finish. Also go to the things that did not work out. What was the level of priority and what kind of obstacles stopped you? Are these long term plans that can’t be finished? Were you just hoping to get these to work? Write out some detail on each of these things on the list and reflect on how you felt about the idea of each of these one year ago today.

Remember that every goal should be a S.M.A.R.T. goal. That is that every goal must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Bound.

Now you have a nice basis for building on what you have now and what will be the highest priority plans for next year. You are going to find a few common threads from the last year. Maybe you procrastinate. Perhaps you are unrealistic with your time and resources. Likely you wanted certain things that were not that important to you at this time in your life. For the things that you did accomplish you are going to see that you needed to complete them either for your job, your ego or for people that rely on you. You may know now how I will have you look at the next year.

Create goals for what is really important and do not just put lofty goals that are not critically important to you. The real reason that most people fail with their new years resolutions is that they are not important enough for them and they are really just goals that sound good at the time. You probably see from your accomplishments over the last year that the things that you did right were not planned on new years eve but instead in March or June or even November, so if you want to succeed then you will need to find those things that would make enough of a difference in your life that you will not let any of the obstacles that get in your way to stop you.

Now for planning for next year!

Look at you list of things that you did not accomplish this year. Are any of them really important? Are there any that you can accomplish right now for a quick win to start the year with? More importantly get the ones that you did not complete and are not important enough and just put a line through them in your list. Many of us hold on to goals that we are not going to ever complete as they may be lofty but are never really that important to us and just take some of our waking time. Some scientists say that almost all of our thoughts today are just thoughts recycled from yesterday, if these thoughts are not going to do us any good then dump them so that you can free up some space in your head for more things that are really important instead. After you have gone through your list look at the following list and see if there are anymore things that fall into what should and will be done.

Spiritual Goals

Health and Fitness Goals

Monetary Goals

Career Goals

Family Goals

Entertainment and Leisure Goals

I find that most people that try to make goals or that come up with systems tend to be very narrow focused. What would be wrong with goals to eat the food from 10 different countries? If you need a little help to really see the big picture I have found a site called www.43things.com this site has list of what people would like to do from all walks of life and many of the ideas are sure to surprise you.

Now that you have a list do not worry about how big it is, I have heard people say no more than three goals should ever be on your list and another that says that you should have 101 goals. Your list is yours and you now have to go to your list and figure out the following.

How long will it take to complete this goal/outcome?

How important is this goal to me to complete?

What will happen if I do not achieve this goal?

What are the roadblocks that I can expect to have crop up because of my weaknesses in the past?

What will I get if I complete this, what is the reward?

Are there any goals that I should achieve first to get this one done?

These are big questions and are the questions that never get asked when we just jump at making a new years resolution. Answer these questions for each of your goals and don’t really belabor the questions or you will never get them done.

Let’s say now that you have 10 things that you want to complete by the end of January, 30 things that you want to complete by the end of the year and another 10 for the end of next year. Now you have to have some kind of action plan to get it all completed. Most of getting a goal completed is to get your head aligned with what you want to get, to do this make sure that you have a roadmap to completing each of your items and then your mind can really believe these things possible. After you have done this pull out your daytimer or at least some kind of sheet of paper and list down each goal and when a certain part of it is due so that all of those things in life that get in the way won’t stop you for these.

Celebrate your accomplishments, share your dreams, and always make this day the day that will make tomorrow even better.

Bill Nadraszky is a fitness enthusiast with a number of websites and opinions. You can read his weblog at http://www.nadraszky.com/fitness or read his news site at diet.calputer.com

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