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See How Easily you can Overcome Procrastination by Conquering These 5 Battles

Are you struggling to overcome procrastination?

Do you find yourself festering and stewing without getting anything done?

Procrastinators and Procrastination fit into 3 types:

• arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.
• avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
• decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

Which type are you? . . . whichever type you are, you can overcome procrastination if you conquer these 5 battles:

5 Battles to Overcome Procrastination

1. Chore versus Pleasure

A phrase I like to use when I've seen somebody for the first time in a long time that I've enjoyed is . . .

"Always a pleasure, never a chore"

This rings so true when it comes to overcoming procrastination. If you adopt the mindset that a task you're about to do is a "pleasure" for you, you'll be more likely to do something about it and get it done with passion and purpose.

2. Finishing versus Beginning

Many procrastinators find themselves overwhelmed with information that they find hard to process and simply see a task as being impossible. You don't have to finish tasks in one breath or stretch; if you start a task you're more likely to pick up the pace as you go along.

3. Perfectionist versus Productivist

One common trait of procrastinators is that they are perfectionists. If you look above this means they'll often fit into the 'avoiders' category. So many tasks that need to be done simply don't require perfection and should only be given the time and effort they deserve.

I might have made up a word here in 'productivist', it basically means someone who is productive and gets things done. They don't see too much importance in basic or minor tasks. If something isn't crucial then don't strive for perfection - aim to get things done. 

4. 'Time is my Master' versus 'Master of Time'

Don't be a slave to your watch. Don't feel constrained by time. A clear mind is essential when it comes to completing tasks. It's natural that your attention wanes after about an hour of solid concentration. Take a break! Have a coffee, a bath, a walk, anything that will clear your mind and let you refocus.

5. Eating a Whole Horse versus Bite-Sized-Pieces

As hungry as I get at times, the thought of eating a whole horse is quite daunting. If you've got a monster of a task or project don't try and tackle the beast in one go. If you divide the task into smaller bite-sized-pieces and goals they will be a lot easier to digest.

This method is a great means to an ends to pursue a task. In no time big tasks will not seem so overwhelming and you'll change your mindset to that of 'everything is possible'.

Are you a prolific procrastinator? Get the lowdown on everything you can imagine on procrastination with 10 Things You Need To Know About Procrastination

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How can you Make Relationships More Fulfilling? 

Are you searching for a way to make relationships more fulfilling? It doesn't matter whether you're thinking about sexual relationships, family matters, your friends or people you don't even know . . .you can make relationships more fulfilling by simply adopting the right mindset and living your life to the full.

So many people don't live their lives to the full extent and seem to be consumed with fear because they face the prospect of being hurt.

One saying that rings true in all aspects of life and especially powerful in relationships of all kinds is . . .

"A life lived in fear is a life half-lived"

Steve Pavlina in a great recent post illustrated this viewpoint excellently. He puts forward that the key to fulfilling relationships is to have empowered relationships without an ounce of fear.

Here's what he has to share.

The mindset of empowered relationships

by Steve Pavlina

So what is the mindset that makes it so much easier to relate to people?  Here it is in a nutshell:

Everyone you meet in your life — even total strangers — is already intimately connected to you.  The idea that we are all separate and distinct beings is nothing but an illusion.  We are all parts of a larger whole, like individual cells in a body.

Moreover, everyone and everything you see out there in your world are reflections of you.  Just as the cells in an organism carry the same DNA, other people are walking around with some part of you inside them.  When you look at other people, you’re really looking at yourself.  When you notice other people, it’s just like your eyes observing your hands.  We’re all parts of the same whole.

Here are some facets of this interconnected model of relationships:

• Oneness - Other people are not separate and distinct from you.  In fact, they are you.
• Connectedness - You don’t have to “build” relationships with others because you’re already connected.  You need only tune into the pre-existing connection that’s already there.
• No risk - Little or no courage is required to approach strangers.  You’re never actually building new connections from scratch.  You’re just recognizing what’s already there.
• Equality - You can feel just as close to total strangers as you do to your friends.
• Significance - All relationships are significant; none are irrelevant.  Even the strangers you pass on the street are important parts of you.
• Love without attachment - Letting go of harmful relationships is easier because you’re still unconditionally connected to everyone else.  As you release old relationships that no longer serve you, you’ll attract new ones that are compatible with you.

Initially I found this a totally alien mindset.  It was only in seeing the results first-hand that I became a convert.  Interestingly, I wasn’t into subjective reality when I first adopted this mindset, but this is in fact the subjective reality view of relationships in a nutshell.

One of the side effects of this mindset is that Erin and I are constantly meeting people through synchronicities… people we feel we were supposed to meet.  I first read about these kinds of encounters in The Celestine Prophecy.  When you have a certain mindset about relationships, you begin to attract the right people at the right times.  That’s precisely how Erin and I met as well.

For example, Erin and I recently spent several days in Sedona, Arizona.  This was the first time either of us had ever been to that city.  One day we walked into a shop we’d never been to before, picked up a strong vibe from a total stranger, started talking, and 30 minutes later we had become friends and said goodbye with hugs.  This woman also sent us a gift in the mail a week later to thank us for some guidance we gave her.  For Erin and me, this has become an increasingly common event.  And believe me — before I had this mindset I could never walk into some random store and expect to be hugging someone I’d never met only 30 minutes later.

I think the reason this mindset is so effective is that when you assume a pre-existing connection with another person, s/he will tend to respond in kind.  Usually the best way to break the ice with someone is to assume there never was any ice to begin with.

I also like that this is an easy way to identify highly conscious people.  The more conscious and self-aware someone is, the more easily and naturally they’ll respond to someone who relates to them as a real human being right off the bat.

Applying the empowering mindset

When you adopt the mindset that we’re all inherently connected, these are some of the actions and results that will come naturally to you:

• Easy rapport - You’ll connect with strangers almost as easily as you connect with your closest friends, sometimes more easily.  The difference between strangers and friends is intellectual familiarity, but you can tap into an intuitive familiarity even with someone you’ve never met.
• Fairness - You’ll begin to feel a kinship with everyone, regardless of familiarity.
• Attraction - Because you’re always open to connecting with people, you’ll begin attracting new relationships fairly easily.  Compatible people will be drawn to you.
• Synchronicity - You’ll experience a swell in synchronicities that lead to chance encounters, meeting people you feel very drawn to meet.
• Social courage - Have you ever seen someone at a distance you felt you were supposed to meet?  Have you ever run into the same stranger multiple times in the same day?  With the right belief system, you’ll feel confident beginning a conversation with such people, and you’ll find that your hunches were right on — you were supposed to meet.
• Deeper relationships - You’ll enjoy deeper, less superficial relationships, getting to know people at the level of soul.
• Energy - You’ll attract relationships that energize you rather than drain you.
• Reading people - Because we’re all connected, you can mentally connect with other people and literally share the same thoughts in a way that goes beyond words, voice, and body language.  You can even do it at a distance.  With practice you can get an accurate read on someone you’ve never met, picking up specific data about that person that you couldn’t have known in a purely objective sense.  Practice increases both your accuracy and your ability to trust the information you pick up.

These benefits aren’t either-or.  You gradually gain them as your awareness of our spiritual interconnectedness grows.

Fearless relationships

While you can get some of these benefits while still clinging to an objective model of relationships, I think it would be very difficult.  The real key is removing fear from the equation.  When you can relate to people without fear, which is a natural consequence of the belief that we’re all connected, then it becomes much easier to form deep connections with other human beings.

If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, you can probably guess that if you were to meet me in person, you wouldn’t have to begin a conversation with me by chatting about the weather.  We could just talk soul-to-soul about anything, and you needn’t be afraid of me judging you because my belief is that you’re an integral and inseparable part of me.  But that’s because you already know a lot about me and my mindset from reading my articles, so you already have some familiarity with me, and that reduces your social risk with me.  However, the truth is that you can achieve the same level of rapport with a total stranger when you get an intuitive read that s/he will be receptive.  Your social conditioning will cause you to focus on the fear of rejection, but with the mindset of interconnectedness, you’ll focus on the opportunities for connection instead.

My understanding is that the mindset of interconnectedness isn’t only more empowering than the objective mindset — it’s also more accurate.  Our fundamental interconnectedness was one of the most empowering realizations I ever had… and also one of the most humbling.  It keeps my ego in check to know that this Steve person I inhabit is just one cell in a much larger body.  We all are.  And the best we can do with our lives is to achieve the point of optimal balance whereby serving our own needs and serving the whole body are congruent.  A body does not survive by sacrificing the cells that serve it, and a cell does not survive by sacrificing the body that hosts it.

Interdependence is a higher level of consciousness than independence.  Fear serves the latter; fearlessness, the former.

Final Thought

I certainly echo Steve's sentiments - you can make relationships more fulfilling if you get into the right mindset and eliminate any fear.

Why not follow the advice of Mark Twain and:

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."

So adopt the mindset as soon as possible and make relationships more fulfilling in life!!

Read the full article from Steve on how to make relationships more fulfilling.

Anything is Possible in Old Age

Retired 71 year old teacher proves that anything is possible in old age by climbing Everest!

Katsusuke Yanagisawa's story of how he was inspired to climb the summit despite his old age is truly remarkable.

The key to how you lead your life in old age lies in ATTITUDE! Keep a positive attitude and you can still achieve dreams that you've had from your childhood despite your lofty age.

Attitude can also go a long way to achieving happiness in old age, recent studies have shown that attitude has more of an impact on happiness in old age than actual health itself.

Why not adapt an attitude like Katsusuke Yanagisawa?

Japanese 'oldest man on Everest'

A 71-year-old man from Japan has reportedly become the oldest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

Retired teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa scaled the 8,850m (29,035ft) Himalayan peak, breaking the record set by a 70-year-old Japanese man in May 2006.

"I was pretty much at ease mentally at the summit, like I could sing a song," he told a Japanese TV station.

Mr Yanagisawa said he climbed the Tibetan side of the peak with a team including New Zealanders and Japanese.

"I was glad to reach the summit because, after that, all that was left was to climb down," he told a Japanese newspaper, adding that he spent 30 minutes at the top.

'My next dream'

He was inspired to attempt the climb, after scaling Mount Cho Oyu, the world's sixth highest mountain, which lies about 20km west of Mount Everest.

He was inspired to climb Everest after glimpsing it from Mt Cho Oyu

"It was my dream to climb Cho Oyu, a peak which was higher than 8,000 metres, when I reached the age 70," Mr Yanagisawa told Associated Press news agency.

From the summit of Cho Oyu, he caught a glimpse of Everest.

"I found my next dream," 

Read the Full Story >>

This leads to the question . . .

What dream are you going to pursue in old age?

Read more on:

Happiness in Old Age >>

Are We Living The Fast Life or the Good Life? 

Just think how hectic modern life has become, the hustle and bustle of city life and the rat race has never been more chaotic. We are vastly living in a society that revolves around time and time's running out!

BUT . . . have you ever thought that this pace of life is damaging your health, relationships, love life and your recognition of the finer things in life?

I'm showcasing for you another great TED talk from Canadian journalist, Carl Honore who is a stern advocate of the slow movement.

"These days instant gratification now even takes too long" - Postcards from the Edge

Take Heed of this Great Video

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore >>

Carl Honore Bio >>

Turn strangers into friends and you never know what it might lead to . . .

Do you freeze up when talking to someone for the first time? Do you find yourself trying to hard to impress? If you like many others, find that being outlandish and off the wall, possibly even a bit kooky, is a good way to impress strangers I have news for you - 80% of the time it doesn't work. Granted, it might work some of the time but when push comes to shove your not playing the percentages.

I found a great article that outlines the best attitude to take to meeting strangers and getting them to like you. The simplicity of the methods pitched in this article is its striking feature. It stresses the need to pick neutral subjects and that the most essential thing is to make the other person feel comfortable and at ease in your company.

DON'T BE SHY!!

Turning Strangers Into Friends

by Royane Reel

Do you find it easy to make conversation with new people you’ve just met? Or does the thought of trying to make conversation with someone new make you break out in a cold sweat?

If you don’t feel comfortable making casual conversation with new people you have just met, you will find it harder to make new friends. You will also find it more difficult to fit in at your work place.

One of the most common reasons that people have difficulty making conversation with someone they don’t know very well is because they put too much pressure on themselves.

Many people think that whenever they meet someone new, they have to say something really interesting and brilliant, right from the beginning. Even before they know the other person very well. They think they have to really put up a great performance to impress the other person.

They don’t just let themselves just be ordinary, and talk about fairly ordinary things.

Here’s a very important lesson to learn about making conversation with people: Insisting to yourself that you have to be brilliant and dazzling in all your conversations will not win you new friends. It will not even improve your conversational performance.

When you think to yourself that you have to perform perfectly in all your conversations, you will actually make your performance worse! You will become too nervous and awkward, and you’ll be too focused on your own performance. You won’t be focused on getting to know the new person you’ve just met.

New people that you meet are not looking for brilliant conversation. What they are looking for is someone who will be comfortable to be with, and fun to talk to. But most of all they are looking for someone who seems interested in them!

For conversational success, it’s more important to be a good listener than to be a great talker.

When you are just starting out talking to a person, you can use your immediate surroundings or the weather as a basis for a few starting remarks.

If you want to know that person better, move on quickly to a slightly more personal level of discussion. Ask a few basic questions and offer a little bit of information about yourself, your likes or dislikes, or your opinion on some neutral topic. Notice whether the other person lights up with interest about any topics you mention.

This can give you new interesting areas for both of you to discuss.
Even if it seems somewhat difficult and awkward for you in the beginning, develop the habit of introducing yourself to others as soon as you meet them, or very early in the conversation. Otherwise you could spend hours talking and neither of you will have any idea of what your conversation partner’s name is.

Socially confident people introduce themselves to their conversation partners very early in the course of conversation. People who are shy or socially awkward tend to introduce themselves much later, or not at all. Shy people often wait until someone asks for their name, but they rarely volunteer to give it, and they rarely ask the other person what their name is.

Sometimes it is easier to ask the other person for their name first, and then offer your own. If you practice the new behavior enough times, it will eventually become second nature to you. With enough practice, it will no longer seem intimidating to take a more active role.

The important thing is simply to develop the habit of starting simple little conversations with lots more people. Look for the interests you have in common.

If you want to be more socially successful, take the initiative to introduce yourself to new people and to get the conversational ball rolling. Don’t hold back and let other people make all the first moves. If you have been holding back, waiting for other people to do all the work in the relationship, you are shirking your responsibility in making the relationship move forward.

See the full article here >>

 My Bill Hicks Tribute

Bill Hicks is one of, if not the greatest comedian who ever lived in my opinion. This is also an opinion held my many others (Spike Magazine).

His style of comedy was what set him apart from the rest, he wasn't afraid of speaking his mind and you could almost describe him as a preacher. This is maybe an extreme view but his style of the sophisticated rant was thought provoking to say the least. His observations about life are mindblowing and can be applied to all the modern failings in the world today.

Whatever your belief system is  it's a powerful message to follow.

He has a view on life that we should embrace, after all life is a ride . . . so Enjoy It!

"I was told when I grew up I could be anything I wanted: a fireman, a policeman, a doctor - even President, it seemed. And for the first time in the history of mankind, something new, called an astronaut. . .

But like so many kids brought up on a steady diet of Westerns, I always wanted to be the avenging cowboy hero—that lone voice in the wilderness, fighting corruption and evil wherever I found it, and standing for freedom, truth and justice. . .

 And in my heart of hearts I still track the remnants of that dream wherever I go, in my endless ride into the setting sun." - the great Bill Hicks

Read More Information on:

- Bill Hicks: Love All The People >>

You've all heard the phrase "Laughter is the Best Medicine" - it might be a common cliche but let's be honest it rings so true. My personal favourite that i also believe we should take on board is:

"You Gotta Laugh, Else you'd cry" 

Whenever I feel down I have many feel good factors and resources at my disposal that I can turn to to immediately put that smile back on my face. Films can be great resources for this - my favourites for a cure of the blues are American Beauty and Rain Man, maybe a bit of an odd choice ( American beauty I suppose is a bit of a dark movie) but see for yourself and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

Whatever your 'pick me up choice' is it really doesn't matter but everyone has them . . . if you don't have one of these then discover what your 'pick me up choice' is.

I found this great little pick me up clip on YouTube - it really goes to show that laughter is the best medicine. It's made millions of people laugh, almost 15 million people have viewed this clip and it certainly puts a smile on your face. . .

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

What things do you use as 'pick me ups'?

Here's Another great pick me up:

- 13 Million People Hug Strangers And Brighten Up Their Lives >>

Look to the Future

Life is constantly blossoming however one easy way to not live your life to the max is to get dwelled down in events that have happened in the past. Let's face it we all have a past and there's things in our past that don't bring back the fondest of memories.  In order to move on and to recover from these misfortunes or bad memories it's so important to look to the future and don't dwell on the past.

It's really easy to say something like this but believe me it's invaluable advice. From personal experience I know that time is a great healer - BUT whatever you do don't get frozen in time - recognize future opportunities and get on the road to fulfill them.

We all react differently to our mishaps in life - I found this great article which identifies how different people react. The author explains how it's not easy but it's the most sane way to live:

Focus on the opportunities of the future, not the tragedies of the past

Life isn't always easy. I'm sure I don't have to convince you of that. We all face tragedies and make mistakes. That's just part of existing on this planet.But at the same time, we're all provided with opportunities and good times. It's a mix of the bitter and the sweet.

Moving On

Part of being successful and happy in life, I believe, is to be able to move on from the tragedies of the past. And we all have them. Sure some of us get it worse than others, but you have to play with the cards life deals you.

If you've been dumped by your lover, been a victim of crime, failed in business, or lost a friend, then you're just one of the multitude. We all face such challenges and sometimes worse. It's the people who can pick themselves up, after an understandable period of mourning, and refocus themselves back on the future who are likely to find happiness. We are human, and need time to recover from setbacks, but it's a mistake to let them consume you.

Attitude

I've travelled extensively and met all sorts of people in my time. The difference between those who are happy and those who aren't is often not to do with circumstances, but with attitude. The ones who can shrug off life's difficulties and work towards something better in the future are the ones who are smiling. They feel a quiet confidence, that they can still find a little goodness and light.

Others I meet can let one negative event in their lives destroy any chance of happiness. They turn the bad things that happened to them over and over in their minds until the world appears dark and brutal. Perhaps they've been through a messy divorce or lost their lucrative career. Perhaps they've had a health problem, or suffered as a victim of crime. Whatever it is, they just don't seem to be able to move on. Their entire life is viewed through the lens of the problems from the past.

You can see this also at play in certain peoples. Those is some countries can't escape from ancient crimes they feel were perpetrated against them. They live their entire lives attempting to correct what should long have been forgotten. Meanwhile, those in other countries seem to do little else but focus on the opportunities of the future.

The Future

I'm sure you can find examples of each without having to think too hard. Focus on the opportunities of the future, not the tragedies of the past when living your own life. It's not always easy, but it's the most sane way to live. And, of course, it's your best hope of happiness.

Read More:

- Original Article

Putting You On The Road To Success!

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