Self Improvement Information

One of the great things about self improvement is in the quest of discovering ourselves.  I believe that is why self improvement has gotten to be a popular endeavor.  Many of us are curious about ourselves and how we think.  Why do we think the way we do?  Many of us have come to the realization that our thoughts create our world.  Is it possible to change our mental habits of thoughts to create the life we want?

In the animal world instinct plays an important role in how each species lives.  Certain things are passed down from generation to generation as instinctive behavior.  This is how those species survive.

In human beings, we use a different process to move our species forward.  It is our belief systems.  We run on our belief system, or programming, which starts when we are children.  It is an automated system that saves us time and effort. Can you imagine, if every experience we encountered we had to stop and relearn what to do?  It would make for a very cumbersome existence.  Because we have set up belief systems or mental codes we can run many programs on automatic pilot.  We believe because it worked in the past it will work again and again.  Even if it didn’t work in the past, we still use that programming.  This may have helped with the evolution of our species, but it can hinder us if we continue to go back to mental programming that is faulty.

I found this very informative 8 minute video for you from Dr. Michael J. Druckett.  He explains our mental codes and shows us how to get in touch with what is holding us back in life.  If you enjoy it, pass it on!

We, humans, are amazing creatures.  We can choose how to experience our lives.  Life will happen to us.  Every life has joy and pain.  There are no exceptions to that rule.  It is our belief system, who like the Great Wizard of Oz, sits behind the black curtain  running our individual programs of what choose to see on our life screen.

Every day, we have decisions to make about how we choose to live our lives.  What we decide is driven by our  own individual vision for our lives.  We have opportunities to live our lives small and stay in our own little fiefdoms of influence.  Or, we can choose to live large, beyond the scope of our individual lives and to be a benefit to all man kind.  No one will fault you for your choice.

We don’t get a choice on whether we will experience pain in our lives.  That comes in the package called living.  What we do have a choice of is how we will see that pain.  Will it be something that is a burden to be endured?  Is it possible to see it as a gift?  I know in my own life, the times of greatest pain have become my biggest blessings.  As Sean Stephenson says, “find the purpose to your pain and you will find the drive to go through it to the other side.”

Many of you know Sean Stephenson.  He is an amazing, insightful man.  Many people introduce him as the “3 foot giant”.  He is not only unique in the size of his human body, but in the size of the experiences his vision has chosen for his life.  Because of the vision for his life, he has had the opportunity to mentor with people like Tony Robbins and President Clinton.  He is an author and motivational speaker.  He has written a book called, Get Off Your “But”, which has earned a 5 star rating on Amazon.  He writes an insightful blog called Living at Cause.  He has participated and been voted one of the best speakers at the Engage Today 2009 Event where he shared the stage with the Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Dr. Stephen Covey to name a few.

I have a 7 minute video from a speech he gave at Purdue University.  He has some great insights into living a life with vision.

In today’s culture the word “goal” has become a buzzword.  Many people say, “my goals is to ___”.  That is good, in the respect, they are stating what they want.  In that statement, they have substituted the word “goal” for what might, more appropriately, be called an “intention”.  If it has become such a buzzword, why is it that only 2% of the population have written, specific goals?

When I coach and work with people in business, I am always surprised that people find setting goals so hard to do.  They talk as if they will sit down and write their goals, but unless they have a business coach, who will keep them accountable, they tend to stick it in the section of their minds labeled “I will do this tomorrow”.  Why do people struggle with setting goals?

I believe, one reason is, they really don’t know how to set goals.  After gathering the information on how to set effective goals, some will still not do it.  The reason could be that many people are afraid of success.  When people hear that, they tell me they aren’t afraid of success, they are afraid of failure.  Let’s look at that statement a little closer.

As we progress through life we stumble, fall, and fail at many things.  We start this process off, early, as infants learning to walk, feed ourselves, and how to explore our environment.  When our parents tell us “no”, or we fall down, that is failing.  We all learn coping skills for the dreaded failure scenario.  Would it be safe to say most of us have a tool in our toolbox of life called “dealing with failure”?  Don’t misunderstand me, failure can be devastating if you perceive it that way, or it can be a tremendous learning experience.  It is all in perception.

Success, on the other hand, is a bit more frightening for most people.  They really don’t have a clear concise mental picture of what it would look like to succeed.  Our quest for success is often the place were we find most of our limiting beliefs.  Limited beliefs are what stops us from going where we want to go.  Limited beliefs are dis-concerning because, most often, we have no idea what those limited beliefs are until we get a mentor or a coach that can help us uncover them and hold us accountable.

Another area that trips up the goal setting individual is not taking responsibility for the people they hang around.  We are all products of our environment.  Our incomes will, often times, be very similar to the 5 people we associate out with the most.  Think about that for a moment.  Picture in your mind the 5 people that you are in contact with the most.  Are you all in the same economic bracket?

The last thing I want to propose to you is that most people are not in tune with their values.  They haven’t thought, consciously, about what they value the most or the least in their lives.  When we don’t know what our values are, it is easy to set a goal that is in direct conflict with a value we weren’t aware of.  For instances, if a person’s top value is their family and the time they spend with them, setting a goal for the next promotion or starting a business might be in direct conflict due to the increased time it will take to accomplish it.  Can you see the friction in obtaining that goal?

I have found the product called “Mind Movies” to be very helpful in developing a conscious mental picture of what you want.  Their workbook is exceptional in helping to pinpoint what we want and what we value most.  The Mind Movie is an excellent visualization tool for accomplishing the goals we have set.

I have for you, today, a 6 minute video entitled “12 Goal Setting Mistakes in 5 Minutes or Less”.  It has some very good information for you.  As Huxley said, “There is only one corner of the Universe that we can change and that is our self.”  If you gleaned some information that you feel others could use, feel free to pass it on!