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A Gem from the October 2008 Issue of Success Magazine

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The October 2008 issue of Success Magazine has a mini-article titled “Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise – Your Checklist.” The reader is given 6 small but powerful goals that’ll lead him or her down a path to better health, more wealth, and increased wisdom.

Sign me up for all three.

The first tip is “Add a small fitness goal to your routine each week.” The author suggests drinking one extra glass of water each day, running for one more mile a week, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I think I can swing the extra glass of water each day. But run? Only if I’m giving chase or being chased. As for the stairs, I’m all over that one. I have no great love for elevators, so stairs are fine by me.

My favorite tip of the six is this one: “Don’t use people as mirrors.” The reader is told to have a strong sense of who he/she is without letting other people influence how they feel. This can be a hard one, can’t it?

Some of us are more inclined than others to care too much about what other people think of us. A lot of times, our own opinion of ourselves is heightened or lessened by someone else’s words. We can be feeling pretty pleased with ourselves or with a particular accomplishment until someone criticizes us. Then we basically bottom out.

As the article points out, we should try very hard to keep a healthy sense of self, without allowing others to affect it. After all, there are some people who can only make themselves feel bigger by making others feel smaller. After years of practice, they’ve perfected the art.

The advice is positively golden – and the more I think about it, the more golden it is.

All 6 of the tips are golden. I’ve given away two of them, if you want the other 4, grab the issue! The issue’s packed with great stuff – including the last page: “Turning Knowledge into Power, 10 Actions You Can Take Right Now.”

You can find a lot more wonderful tips, hacks, and self improvement advice on Success Magazine‘s website.

~ Joi

Surprising Source of Motivation

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Leo the Lion

I can’t say that I totally believe in astrology – but I don’t let a day go by without reading my horoscope.

Before I go any further, I want to say that there are aspects to astrology that I do believe in, I just don’t personally think the stars hold our destiny.  That responsibility is ours.

That said, I love reading horoscopes like some people love reading comics!  They’re always entertaining and, every now and again, they’re downright motivation. Some of the best advice, inspiration, and motivation lies within these daily postings.

I guess you could say that I believe in their potency but not their prophecy.

Take, for example, part of my horoscope for today:  Someone may be prodding you to take action today, dear Leo. It may be best if you beat them to it and just motivate yourself.  I love it when my daily horoscope gives me a mini lecture.  This is one I needed, too.  I tend to be far too laid back – I got that from my dad, along with low blood pressure, outrageous allergies, a tendency to get  a sunburn – even in the shade, a green thumb, mad cooking skills, and a WILD addiction to coffee.

I try to work on this particular area because it irritates me  (the overly laid back bit, I embrace the coffee addiction). I just don’t seem capable of taking enough initiatives in life – I let far too many things just float by and then I wonder, “Why didn’t I do this…” or “Why didn’t I do that….”

Of course, being laid back has it’s perks. Again, like my dad, it takes a lot to make me mad. In a world where people get furious over having to stand in line for 5 minutes, it’s kind of cool to keep your cool.

It’s as though everyone’s psyche has its own persona.  Mine?  She’s somewhere between a beachcomber, a coffee-shop beatnik, and a Bohemian flower child.  I’m the one that if someone short-changes them a dollar, let’s it go and figures that life keeps score and I’ll find one down the road somewhere.

Anyway, for some reason, reading this horoscope today has given me new determination to try and become more self-motivated – to sort of “take it” to life rather than letting life “take it” to me.

I certainly wouldn’t have opened up those avenues of thought on my own.  My daily horoscope does that just about every day – gives me food for thought with a side order of motivation. Most of the time it’s just what I ordered, and sometimes (like today) it’s so good I hadn’t even had the sense TO order it.

Free advice and motivation?  Hard to beat.

 

How to Attract What You Want in Your Life

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"One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it."  ~ Sidney Howard
“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”  ~ Sidney Howard
As a Self Help diva, I’ve been thinking about the quote above all day.  Literally, the quote has been echoing in my mind since coffee cup number 1. There’s a great deal of truth in the words – truth that I’d never really thought of before.  If we want something that we don’t currently have, the odds are pretty good that we’ll have to give something up to get it.  Self improvement and self help are all about balance, after all.

  • If we want to lose weight, certain foods are going to have to get the kiss off.
  • If we want fitness, we have to give up a little (or a lot) couch time and internet surfing.
  • If we want more hours in the day, there are probably specific time-wasters we’ll have to send packing.
  • If we want to be more organized, clutter has to go.  Yeah, I know, I felt that one, too.
  • If we want better, deeper relationships, we have to abandon the concept of being out for number one.

Whatever it is we DON’T HAVE is missing for a reason.  And if we keep motoring along, as is, we’ll never have it.  After all, if we we’re drawing it to us with our present actions, wouldn’t we have it?

Around coffee cup #4, I sat myself down and had a little self help Q & A.  I brought up certain things in my life that I wish were a little different.  Let’s not get into the fact that my arms don’t remotely resemble Halle Berry’s (seriously, what does the woman do?).

I’ll get depressed if I think about my arms, so we’ll use time management as an example. It’s a pretty universal dilemma.  I, like most people, always find myself wishing I had more time.

I work at home, full time, as a web publisher. At any given time, I have between 14 and 20 websites/blogs that I write for, maintain, tweak, publicize, etc.  Now do you understand the coffee addiction?  

The number of times I draw up a daily schedule – only to have to draw up a new one is staggering. And depressing.  I recently sat down with pen and paper (along with the “regulars,” a cat nearby and a bottomless cup of coffee) and took myself to task. I realized that, like most people, I’d fallen into the trap of thinking that MORE was synonymous with BETTER.

If 5 websites are good, then 10 are better. Right?

Not so much.

I’ve realized after quite a few years (and even more crumpled up schedules scratched out on printer paper) that more isn’t always better. Sometimes LESS is actually better because then you have more of yourself to go around.  No one… and I mean no one… is at their absolute best when they’re spread out as thin as a layer of mayo on a ham sandwich.

Sometimes something has to give – no matter what area of life we’re talking about.  Truth is, sometimes its exit is what sets the stage for something better’s grand entrance.

If anything is in your way, the sooner you get rid of it – the sooner something better can come along.  Spend a little time thinking about the quote above and see what your subconscious comes up with.

It just may be the thing to open up a whole new world!