Motivated Daily 123: Focus On What You Want

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.”

~ Ben Stein.

         Right now many people are facing many challenges as the economy keeps sinking into the dumps and more uncertainty abounds. At these wonky times our instincts tell us to panic, to look for an escape route or a place to bury our heads from the challenges that we face. We start thinking about the things we don’t want to happen. I don’t want to lose my job, my mortgage, my car and so on it goes. It seems like all of a sudden our minds do a major shift from thinking about where we want to go and focusing on what we don’t want. The more we dwell on the negatives the more we see them everywhere; this is not to say that these challenges are not real.

         One of the success principles that Jack Canfield teaches in his book ‘Success Principles’ is that we should be very clear about what we want. So, for a moment put away all the things you don’t want from your mind. Ask yourself the following questions to get clarity. What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to experience? What do I want to acquire?

In The Journey From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be, You Have To Decide Where You Want To Be.    

         The reason that so many people never get what they desire in life is that they never take the time to decide what they really want. You need to define in clear detail what it is that you want out of your life. This may be difficult if you have been told and have now believed that wanting the best for you is selfish. This is your life, not a dress rehearsal and you have to decide what you want and where you want to go. Stop settling for less than you want. Decide now and keep your focus on it even when it seems like the clouds overhead are more than what you can bear. Those who have something to live for can bear almost anything because they know what they are aiming for.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 122: Don’t Settle For Status Quo

 “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

~ George Bernard Shaw.

         It so much easier to accept things as they are, to go with the flow but there is a danger in that. When we fail to challenge the status quo we do not bring the much needed change in our lives and our world. If we want our lives to make a difference we have to be willing to be uncomfortable and to make others uncomfortable. You cannot change the world without shaking things up.

         To progress in your life, to move forward, you need to step out of your comfort zone and dare great things that will cost you. You have to be willing to step out and step up. This means different things to different people. It might not mean that you challenge the great powers and governments of this world but it might mean facing your own fears about talking to your boss about something that is unfair. It might mean taking back your community from negative influences or even fighting modern day human trafficking and slavery. Don’t settle for less than what you know you deserve and do what you can to turn things around.

Change Happens When Certain Individuals Decide To Go Against The Status Quo. If You Settle For Less Than You Deserve You Will Never Realise What You Can Become.

         Be relentless in your pursuit for a better world and a better future. In what areas are you settling instead of battling? Get your battle on and decide to become unreasonable so that you can create a future you can be proud of.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 121: The Power Of Self-Discipline

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going forward, backwards, or sideways.”

~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

         The lack of discipline can have a significant impact on the results you produce even if you have massive talent and excellent skills. Disciplined people can achieve much more than those without a disciplined approach to their careers and life even if they have limited skills. Discipline gives you focus and direction. If you want to experience the power of discipline in your life there are a few things you can do.

         Sort out your priorities. Can you list the most important things or areas at any given point in your life? If you cannot name your priorities then you clearly have not sorted them out yet. Take the time to get clarity.

“The Pain Of Discipline Is Always Much Less Than The Pain Of Regret” Nido Qubain

         Get Rid Of Excuses. We all have excuses for why we can’t work on what we need to be focusing on. Take time to list the excuses that you are currently making, be honest with yourself. After listing these excuses go through them and look at their validity. Are any of these reasons real enough or can you identify ones that are just excuses. Start making steps to eliminate these excuses from your thoughts and vocabulary.

         Choosing to remain focused is just that, a choice, not an easy choice but one that requires you exercise your self-discipline.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 120: Setting Goals For Your Growth

“People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. It’s as simple as that.”

~ Earl Nightingale

          The greatest achievers in life are those people who set goals for themselves and then work hard to reach them. What we get by reaching the goals is not nearly as important as what we become by reaching them. Setting goals is an essential part of your growth. If you are to become all that you can become, then you need to be actively involved in determining where you want to be. Are you clear about what you are striving for in the next twelve months? Do you have a clear idea about what areas you want to improve in your personal and professional life? If not, then take a look at the advice from John C. Maxwell on how to set your goals:

 Clearly State Your Goals:When goals have no clear focus, neither will your actions be in trying to achieve them. Write your goals down.

Make Your Goals Attainable:Always start with low fences, easily achievable goals and work your way up.

Make Your Goals Measurable:The power of your goal is in you being able to check it off once it’s done. Be specific as in ‘I want to complete this course in six months.’

Set The Bar Higher For Yourself, Decide To Reach For Something More And Then Commit Yourself To Getting It Done. Without Goals There Is No Winning.

Make Your Goals Bold: Be willing to stretch yourself as you set your goals, make your goals inspiring and bold.

Make Aligned And Appropriate Goals: Your goals must be aligned and appropriate to your skills-set and strengths. There is no point in attempting something you are neither passionate about nor suited for.

         Ben Franklin used to set aside time every day to review two questions. In the morning he asked himself, “What good shall I do today?” In the evening he asked, “What good have I done today?” As you set goals for your growth you will look forward to what is ahead rather than regretting what hasn’t been.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 119: Power Of Great Thinking

“Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and all achievement.”

~ Claude M. Bristol

         What value do you put on good thinking? Is it a priority in your life or you just let it happen. Developing the quality of your thinking can make a difference between being the best and being average. Thinking is a decision and a discipline that needs to be practised daily. In today’s world we have developed so many means to stop ourselves from having to think deeply, we engage ourselves with mind numbing activities aimed at distracting our minds rather than engaging them.

         This is what I know, it doesn’t matter what profession you pursue; thinking precedes achievement. Success doesn’t come by accident. People don’t just stumble into success and then figure out afterwards how they did it. Your level of success will dramatically increase if you place a higher value on thinking. The greater your thinking, the greater your potential will be.

Choose To Take Time To Think Great Thoughts That Lead To Ideas And Possibility. You Will Soon Find This To Be Your Greatest Investment.

         Victor Hugo once said, “A small man is made up of small thoughts.” It’s true, the greatest minds of our time have dedicated themselves to different forms of thinking such as Creative, Reflective, Strategic, Focused and Possibility Thinking and as a result they have changed our world. As you devote time and energy to great thinking you will find that ideas are born that can transform yours and many other lives. Our world is in desperate need of thinkers and thought leaders in government, business, faith and society. What will you do today to become a great thinker? Start by setting time aside to think and ask questions.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 118: Mastering Your Thoughts

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

~ Unknown

         Thoughts are very powerful in shaping our lives and our destiny. That which you think about affects how you feel and how you feel affects how you act in return. People who understand the power of their thoughts are very careful to watch what their minds dwell upon. Negative thoughts lead to negative feelings and those feelings ultimately affect our attitudes and then we start acting out what we are feeling inside. I am sure you have seen this happen in your own life when you harbor thoughts of defeat they start to affect you negatively. It starts with you thinking ‘I can never make it, I might as well give up.’ And as this thought takes root you then start feeling weak and even depressed and as a result your thought becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because you stop trying.

The Real Power That Determines Your Success Lies Not In Your Body Muscles But In Your Ability To Control Your Thoughts. Master Your Thoughts And You Will Master Your Actions And Results.       

         This does not replace faith in your life but I have seen too many people praying then getting up and continue having ‘stinking thinking’ and they wonder why things don’t change in their lives. Even St. Paul says these words; “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable; if anything is excellent or praiseworthy; think about such things.”

         So then be careful what you think. Watch the thoughts that dominate your waking hours and choose rather to focus on thoughts that build you and take you somewhere you want to go. Remember, ‘You are not what you think you are, but what you think … you are.’

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 117: Faith Gives You Perspective

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

~ Teihard De Chardin

         There are a lot of things in life that are difficult to understand. Faith allows the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see. Or to put it another way, as Author Phillip Yancey says, “Faith is trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.” In this fast-paced achievement driven world it is much easier for us to ignore the importance of faith and spirituality in our lives. We often say to ourselves “I don’t have to for spiritual things, I am dealing with practical things right now.” But often the practical things only make sense when we look at them through spiritual eyes. Faith allows us to believe beyond what only we can physically achieve but takes us to where the super meets the natural and amazing things happen.

Faith Gives Us Perspective Beyond That Which Easily Conceived. Faith Allows Us To Reach For And Attempt What Seems Impossible.    

         When you believe in something you have something to live for beyond just the day-to-day existence. And that keeps you going, even under extremely difficult circumstances. Mother Teresa summed it up best, “faith keeps the person who keeps the faith.” Where are you now in your journey of faith? Have you lost yours? If you want to gain perspective allow yourself to believe beyond what you can do and the wonder will return into your day-to-day life.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 116: Keep Your Eye On The Prize

“It’s easy to be negative and unmotivated, but it takes some work to be positive and motivated. While there’s no off button for those relentless “tapes,” there are things that you can do to turn down the volume and shift your focus from the negative to the positive.”

~ Donna Cardillo

       Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them. They are constantly proactive in the pursuit of their chosen objective. This does not mean that they don’t have their moments of doubt, frustration and even depression when they face difficult circumstance, the difference is that they go through all of that and choose to remain focused on their chosen future destination for their lives.

Knowing Where You Are Going Will Keep You Going Even When The Going Gets Tough.

         There are many challenges and obstacles on our journey to a life of meaning and significance. There is hardly ever a quick fix or short cut to our destination, we have to wade through the good times and the bad times and make choices along the way. Keeping our eyes focused on the destination helps us to overcome temporary detours and potholes. So today renew your commitment, pull out your plans and goals and get back on that horse. You can make it just keep going.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 115: Take Care Of The Little Things

“Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.”

~ Lawrence D. Bell

       Isn’t amazing how the little things hold big things together? If little things – such as screws in heavy machinery- are not in place they can cause big things to collapse. Big electronic machines usually depend on very tiny microchips without which they cannot function. All around us we see big things and we admire them and seldom do we think about the little things that make them work. Often we tend to do the same - we are always trying to develop the “big things”; things others can see and admire. As a result we fail to recognise the great potential in our lives because we lack the evidence of the “big things” that we think are so important.

          Many of us spend years running after “the big things” in our lives. We run after university degrees, bigger appointments and bigger accomplishments when we have not taken care of smaller things like building strong relationships with people, clarifying our values and working on our attitudes. The big things are important but it is the little things that give the big things their significance in our lives. You can have a master’s degree and yet have no one who wants to work with you because of your stinky attitude. On the outside you may look all together but on a closer look you may be full of cracks and leaks.

Take Care Of The Little Things In Your Life And The Big Things Will Fall Into Place, If You Are Faithful With Little You Will Be Entrusted With Much More.

         If you are to become all that you can be, you’ve got to develop the little things already at your disposal. You don’t have to look at what the next person has that you do not have. You can never reach success in your life using someone else’s gifts and strengths. You have to look at what has been granted to you, it may be small but it’s what you’ve got to work with. So take care of the little things.

(Reference: Young and Able -Activating Your God Given Potential by Buhle Dlamini)

Motivated Daily 114: Getting Over Fear Of Failure

“A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

       Failure can be very painful – sometimes physically but more often emotionally. Failing can hurt at the deepest part of who you are and can cause you to question your own abilities and even worthiness. When we have experienced this pain it can cause us to be overwhelmed by the fear of failure that we stop attempting much. But failure happens to all and the biggest mistake we make when we fail is to personalise it.

The fear of failing can paralyse us and as a result we don’t attempt anything. This fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because if we don’t attempt anything we achieve nothing with our lives. To overcome the fear of failure you need to first realise that failing does not make you a failure. Many people who have gone on to achieve incredible things in their fields failed many times on their journey but they never saw their mistakes as the end of the road.

It Is Not Failing That Makes Us Losers Everybody Fails Now And Then. It Is Putting Down A Tent And Dwelling In The Place Where We Fell That Makes Us Losers.

To overcome fear and break the cycle, you have to be willing to recognise that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “He who makes no mistakes makes no progress.” You can overcome the paralysing fear-of-failure by choosing to fail forward. This is about doing your best, trying even when it’s not going to be easy and expecting mistakes along the way, but not allowing the times when you fall to keep you down. So ask yourself, where have you allowed previous failure and mistakes to keep you down? Choose today to get up and try again and this time it might work, but you will never know unless you try.

(Reference: Motivational Bites by Buhle Dlamini)