Successful Blog

Motivation on a Moment’s Notice

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By Elaine Love

How do you keep yourself motivated when inspiration seems to be hiding under the Oriental rug in your office?

A few weeks ago, Tiffany Matthews detailed suggestions to “Beat Writer’s Block with These Simple Tips.” Absolutely trips and exercise change the perspective and refresh the spirit. What if you have a pressing deadline and you need an immediate energy infusion?

Perhaps these suggestions will release your frozen fingers from the keyboard and allow the words to flow again.

Pictures of Loved Ones

When I am in word deficit and needing a quick burst of inspiration, all it takes is one glance up at the top of my roll top desk and smile at the pictures of my blond curly headed grandsons. One peek at their innocent impish grins and it is easier remember the purpose of writing is to inspire, empower and improve the lives of the readers.

Think about the fun moments with them and the lessons you both learned from your shared adventures. There is always a glimmer of inspiration in memories. It may be the brain boost you need to refresh your spirit and thus your keystrokes.

Music

Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking, listens to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” and the epitome of testosterone, “The Theme from Rocky” before he delivers a major keynote speech. Music gives him energy to give his very best to the audience. Isn’t that what we do as writers, give our very best to our audiences? Many network marketers put on rousing tunes to accelerate their adrenaline before picking up the phone for morning calls.

What music frees your mind, engages your energy, and opens the door to creativity? For me it is Josh Groban or Andrea Bocelli; there is something magical about a romantic Italian with a beautiful voice.

Success CD

When my eyes open of a morning it is time to pull on the exercise tights and a sweatshirt, grab a quart of Smart water and head for the treadmill. The exercise invigorates my body. The CD player on the stand by the treadmill contains the latest CD from Success magazine or the newest Success book summary CD. There is always a wealth of inspiration packed in those audio discs.

Keep a notepad handy. Hit pause on the treadmill and jot a fast note to yourself. You may be coordinated enough to write while walking or running on the treadmill. Either my handwriting would not be legible or I would fall off the machine; jumping off to write seems to work better.

Step outside

One deep breath of fresh Colorado mountain air clears the mental cobwebs and relaxes the mind. Watching a doe with a tiny spotted fawn having lunch on my neighbor’s perfectly trimmed shrubbery can cause a smile to cross my face.

Sometimes all it takes is a tiny mental break to refresh the spirit and free the mind.

Author’s Bio: At home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Elaine Love writes about small business and the mindset for success so essential for an entrepreneur. She is the author of Emotional Ice Water. Find her on Twitter: @elainelove44 or Elaine4Success.com.

What Motivates You?

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motivation sign
NewRichStrategies: Motivation

What Motivates Me?

Whether you go into an office on a daily basis, work from your home or travel the country and maybe even the world to do business, what motivates you?

It is a question that should be relatively easy to answer, yet many people probably scratch their heads when it comes to answering it. Really, folks, it should not be that hard to answer.

Although I am certainly not a motivational speaker by trade, I know what motivates me when I get up in the morning. Among the things:

  • Wanting to be productive;
  • Wanting to do more than I did the previous day;
  • Wanting to further my career opportunities;
  • Wanting to contribute in some means no matter how small to society;
  • Wanting to make sure that I take advantage of each and every day.

Now that I mentioned what motivates me, do any of those sentiments resonate with you?

What Motivates You?

In all honesty, all of us have days where we feel like we have to trudge through the day just to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some days our motivation level is about as small as it can be. In those cases, how do you make it a productive day?

While this may sound a little corny to some folks, I always remind myself of how life could be so different, albeit not in a good way.

As I watch the fires on TV this week in Colorado, my heart goes out to those residents. I survived a pair of fires in the last decade here in Southern California, so I know very well what they are going through.

One woman being interviewed on TV was asked how she and her family are getting through this, wondering if they will have a home to go back to. Her simple response was that they had each other and their animals, so
they could rebuild their personal lives and their business if necessary. As she put, you have to keep going and appreciate each and every moment you have.

As you sit at work today or are traveling for a business meeting, keep in mind what this woman and tons of other people go through on a daily basis.

Everyone is tested in life, sometimes on what seems like an almost regular basis.

The key to succeeding is finding the motivation to overcome adversity, be it in your professional or personal life.

I’ll ask again…. what motivates you?

Author’s Bio:
Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. You’ll find Dave at BeeMoreSocial

The Top 7 Ways to Motivate Yourself Even on Mondays!

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How to Own Every Day

I used to not like mornings. Monday mornings were the worst. I liked them so little that I thought of Sunday as the impending doom … that made my weekends even shorter.

One day it dawned on me that if I lived to be 70 holding on to this feeling about Mondays, I’d have discounted 10 whole years of my life. Ten years — 520 Mondays lost, crashed, and burned — due to a bad attitude. I had to find a way to get and stay motivated. I had to get back my Mondays. I was pretty sure that I didn’t have enough future left to be throwing away 10 years like a fool.

Monday mornings made feel like a giraffe — all gawky and spotted, all sleepy eyed and too tired to chew my food. I needed motivation. But I wasn’t sure I knew how to do it. It would take some experimentation. I got down to it.

Who wants to sleepwalk through life? I had things that needed doing.

The Top 7 Ways to Motivate Yourself Even on Mondays!

Motivation, without it, we move slower. We’re susceptible to distraction and procrastination. Inside a company or working from home, what fuels our success is motivation — that reason, that determination to make something good happen.

I figured out early that it wasn’t such fun to be unmotivated. In fact, it was both stressful and boring. I didn’t like myself much and maybe that is what struck that match that got the home fires burning. Once I made it a quest to motivate myself, the rest was mostly easy. Here are 7 ways I found to motivate yourself even on Mondays!

  1. Feel all of your senses with amazing experiences. Give yourself the luxury of time to enjoy your shower. Wear clothes that feel good on your skin. Drink delicious coffee. Eat lovely food that smells good while you’re fixing it. Look at fabulous colors. Listen to amazing music. It’s hard not to feel alive when you put your whole body into the experience. Don’t just bring your head into the day show up with every cell of you. Let your DNA have a chance to be part of what you’re doing.

    It’s no accident nature puts on such a great show at sunrise – it inspires, invigorates, and motivates human beings. Try to see it. Don’t just look at walls, windshields, and buildings.

  2. Live every day as a quest. Work is work, but a quest is valiant and noble. Don’t just brainstorm, conspire. Let your fingers dance on the keyboard as you type. Smile while you think. Enjoy your food. Don’t just walk, stride — feel the ground beneath your feet. When you stop for a break look at the sky. Dare yourself to find everything easier, faster, more fun, and more meaningful.
  3. Work at your best learning level — your challenge sweet spot. Beak down your challenges to meet your skills set. Challenges that are too easy are boring. Challenges that are too hard cause anxiety. Neither state moves to action. Challenges that fall equally between anxiety and boredom inspire us. They catch our attention and feed our need to grow.
  4. Know that almost any work can be motivating. Whether you’re copying documents or cleaning up after a party, devise a way to put the task in your challenge zone. Time it. Measure it. Set a standard for your personal performance. Turn the work itself into art form. Make it a game.
  5. Get curious and confident. It’s hard to think of a knot as a problem when you curious about what holds it together and confident that you’ll find the way to unravel it. Be alert. Be aware. Notice things. People who notice things know more than people who don’t. Then choose the things you notice energize you. Let them fuel your day. Ask new questions. Rather than asking, “What will I do to fix this problem?” try “How can this situation be a strength?” “How can go with it and end up with a better than what I had in mind?”
  6. Stop listening to the voices in your head. Those voices undermine determination and focus. Tell them you might have needed them once, but you know what you’re doing today. Lock them away and get on with being productive. You know how.
  7. Appreciate your ability to choose to be in a good mood AND appreciate the people who respond to that good mood in good ways! You’ll get energy from doing both. Let it fill you up. Be liberal with your smiles and your thank yous. Give a few extra smiles and thank yous to the folks who try to steal energy from you. Be confident that they’ll enjoy their bad moods even more if you leave them alone.

The trick to motivation is knowing that every bit of it is in our control. Even if we start to go off track, we can go back to number 7 and choose again to be in a good mood. Then start all over at Number 1 … No day is lost until we give it up.

It’s your day. It’s your life. You’ve got 7 ways to own every day.
Why would you spend a minute in unmotivated and boring?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Images & Words: Are You Ready to Make Opportunity and Change the World?

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insideout logo

When I started blogging in summer 2005, I wanted to keep the writer’s discipline of writing every day. No one could have predicted, that it would lead me to several blogs, a fabulous business partner, a conference and consulting business, and place in a fabulous community. When I started photographing the sunrise in spring 2011, I wanted to keep a writer’s discipline of remembering to look out my window every day. The photos are starting to write stories with me. Now I’m starting to wonder where that will lead …

How to Make Opportunity and Change the World

Our businesses and our lives are in a constant state of change. We can try to tie things down, keep things where they are. It’s a battle that we’ll never win. On the other hand, they say some things never change. And the more they change the more they stay the same.

Change is like the rain. It’s not good or bad. How we see it is what makes us think that.
Do you see change as a problem or an opportunity?

See the opportunities.

Do you live in the sun or the shadow?

It’s your choice you know.

Do you see the clouds on the horizon …
or the color beyond them?

Maybe it’s time to move your focus.

Sunrise looks empty without the clouds

Notice how everything contributes.

Sunrise – sometimes it’s where you look for it.

Find and define new ways of seeing things.

Carry a sunrise in your heart today!

Shed light on the good things that you can make happen.

Problems and opportunities are the same things seen with a different attitude.
The minute we quit fighting a problem it becomes an opportunity.

To make opportunity, we need to trust enough to see what we’re not yet imagining.
To change the world, we probably should change how we see what’s wrong with it.

Are you ready to make opportunity and change the world?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

You are not nuts and other important stuff

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about things I don’t say enough to other people.

Someone today reminded me of a note I wrote in my newsletter not long ago.

I’ve been going through the email replies I’ve sent to people who’ve asked for help over the past 5 years. I’m not surprised to find that, although the people seem of every age, size, background, ability and economic class, the problems they bring to me seem to be the same kind — problems of connecting the space between our heads and our hearts, problems of believing in what we know about ourselves.

And I find some lines repeating. So I share them with you for when you might need them.

You are not nuts.
God is in heaven.
Angels are everywhere.
People are made of the same stuff as stars.
We’re not supposed to have the answers.
Love will draw a circle around you.

You don’t need to worry about drowning tonight.
You can sleep.
We’ll still eat tomorrow.
I love you.

Be you.
You are already irresistible.
Keep your head wired to your heart.

Liz's Signature

How Will You Change the World By Noticing Someone Else?

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Change the World by Noticing Someone Else

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On Easter Sunday, we think about raising ourselves up to where we belong.

Today we remember Jesus a holy man who was about others. He made his way by saying “You’re as good as I am.” He believed in the good things that we all have to offer and challenged us to bring them to each other. He spoke of a world where faith, hope, and charity — love for others — were the cornerstone. That to live to a better purpose would bring great returns. It wasn’t easy then. Never has been.

That’s the sign of a leader — someone filled with passion fin service to a great vision who communicates how together we can build something better together than we ever can alone. You could say that was his brand.

And folks followed him, because he reached out to people who might see as he did. He supported them, told people about what they did, sent them off to tell their own stories and live their own versions of that same purpose. As great leaders do he had the long lasting effect that generations of those he touched are still talking about what he said and the vision he saw.

He made meaning that changed people lives.

We can do that same thing. We can offer our service by aligning our goals with good people and sharing their goodness with others.

Go out an raise up the people who are doing good things. Add meaning to the meaning they make. Find a way to be more than one by raising up someone else. Say thank you for their work and service. It will raise you up too.

How will you change the world by noticing someone else?

We can change the world just like that.
ME “Liz” Strauss