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Everything is a test in life. Defining moments like graduation, job, marriage, house, relationships, failures, and pain are daunting moments. Our conscious mind dwells on living up to expectations that society pushes on us.
Fear carries a great source of growth; a doorway to discover more about you. However approaching such tests with a negative attitude will have a detrimental effect on your health. The driving force to overcome fear is your ability to respond when it surfaces. To keep it at bay, live with passion and positive energy so you can prove to yourself that it was worth overcoming.
Here are seven ways of overcoming your fears:
1. Decode your fear
The first step is setting aside time to reflect on your fear and embracing it. It can be a dark and lonely place and thrown around are a whirlwind of doubts and emotions. If you want to make it out, stare it dead in the eye and decide whether to accept your situation or do something about it in a world that is moving so fast.
Self-reflection and meditation is a remedy to initiate the “the I HAVE TO DO THIS” moment. Write down what has been holding you back, elaborate on the steps that led you to develop this fear, talk to somebody that has gone through the same process. Face your fears face and it will start to lose its power, don’t face them and they become your limits.
2. Remember to relive
Look past to remember your previous successes. This will surge positivity into your life, strengthening your confidence and provide building blocks in overcoming fear. Fear is waiting whilst you prepare your onslaught of positivity so next time something bad happens it won’t hurt as much. Accept that going through rough patches is just a learning experience.
You will realise that you’re more powerful than you think because many people are hit hard in life so don’t lose focus if you don’t hit your mark. I can provide many examples of famous individuals who constantly hit rock bottom but they never lost sight of their dreams. Relive because you are special and destined for success.
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
3. Your actions define you
Fear exists as an imagination in your mind to prevent you from moving forward so you will worry about the outcome before you have taken action. Be patient because it feels rewarding when you evolve from not trying anything at all to putting in the hours of blood, sweat and tears. Sometimes the adrenaline rush gives an amazing sensation of a HIGH that you get after taking action.
Use this to develop courage and belief in yourself that you can handle fear. It is in our actions that we grow as humans and where our abilities are not only tested but doors of opportunities are opened and new skills are created. I treat actions as experiments, slowly but surely creating a new you that learns from mistakes, failures, and setbacks. Let go of fear if you want change.
4. Train for a healthy life
The mind and body is your temple and what you take in affects how you feel. Regular physical activity is important because it improves several body functions. Hit the gym and use exercise to refresh and renew the mind, body and soul. With every repetition say positive affirmations and make it your mantra.
Fear can be built up inside and needs to be extinguished from the body so pay attention to your balance. Many other factors also play into part such as eating healthy and sleeping well. Developing your body forms a great barrier to fear because you become more resilient by learning to push harder and fight through the pain. The key to success is to focus the conscious mind on the things we desire not on the things we fear.
5. Ask for help
There is always that one person in life that you can go to and talk to about anything especially in times of hardship. Develop the courage to speak up and don’t fear embarrassment or rejection because you are not the only one.
Therefore stay conscious of asking for help so that you gain momentum in climbing those hurdles and gain some perspective and guidance in achieving your dreams. Find a heart that will love you at your worst and arms that will hold you at your weakest.
6. Live with passion
Learn to dwell on positivity and appreciate life. Don’t pay attention to negative media, voices, distractions, illusions, and the doubts that fear presents. Work hard in silence and let success make all the noise, breathe in; and run towards your fear and fear itself will start running away. Fear is just false evidence appearing real. You will be victorious.
“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
7. Purpose and belief
We go through fears because there is a special meaning behind them. All the events that happen in life are connected and the significance of them is the timing at which they happen. You will look back to see that each lesson came with a much needed message to prepare you for the future. The future is unpredictable and yes we do fear the unknown so learn to release being over paranoid and believe in yourself.
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It’s at this moment when you should double down and work even harder. Writing all of these articles about success has made by brain become like a sponge, and the habits and strategies of success are being planted deeper within my own brain.
“Success only comes when you cross that threshold of pain and rack up the hours required to master your skill”
Last week, a few people commented that I had posted a new, in-depth, blog post every single day. Their observation was spot on. I don’t just write this advice; I live it as well. I have realised that the harder I work, the closer I will get to my dream of inspiring the world through entrepreneurship and personal development.
I posted every day last week because I give a damn about what I’m doing. I don’t do anything else. I have nothing else. This is everything I have right here. Are you hungry enough?
Below are eight reasons why you should get off your butt and work harder:
1. Your dream is not work so it shouldn’t feel like hard work
If this is not true for you, then pick a new dream, start again, and repeat the process. Working hard at something you love should be a walk in the park. When someone tells you to work twice as hard, it should come naturally, and you should be able to find the time in your schedule without hesitation.
The harder you grind away at your dream, the better you should feel. If any sort of resistance starts to form while you increase your workload by five times, then ask yourself what’s holding you back?
Maybe your dream is not what you thought it was, and that’s why you can’t increase the intensity without having a whinge. Do you really want this or not? If you do, then get back to work!
2. Inspiring others is infectious
You can inspire the world by being you. The more you inspire people, the greater your level of fulfillment becomes. Once you hit a certain threshold of success, it becomes easier to up your game. As the inspirational work you do starts to have an effect, you get this infectious energy in return.
This energy can then be used to compound your work effort and reach the extraordinary level of those who receive a standing ovation when they walk into the room. You have to put the work in though early on if you want to reach the threshold.
For a while, it will seem like you are working your butt off and getting nothing in return until you cross that threshold line.
3. Achieving your goal takes more than you think
You will never accomplish big goals unless you work hard. The reason is that there are always going to be people competing for the same dream as you. Look at the sport of basketball. If you want to play in the NBA and train one hour a week, you are guaranteed to fail.
Again, the reason for this is that your competitors will outwork you and their skills, knowledge and agility will increase as a result. You can’t compete with that when you only put in an hour a week.
From the outside, your goals might look easy especially when compared to the successful idols you look up to.
“Don’t be fooled though; success often looks amazingly simple from the outside. It’s only when you get under the covers and work out what strategies and tools you need to duplicate the same results, that you realise how damn hard it is”
This is why you need to work five times harder, to get past these deceiving goal posts that you thought were only a meter away that are in fact one hundred miles away.
4. The 10,000-hour rule
Malcolm Gladwell’s recipe book for success “The Outliers” shows quite clearly that achieving your goals is largely dependant on how much time you spend on them.
He worked out through his research that if you spent 10,000 hours on your passion, you would reach a level of mastery in your field. That’s a lot of hours, so it’s even more incentive to get started right now and work five times harder!
5. All the rewards come at the end
We live in a society that seeks instant gratification the moment we do some small piece of work on our dream. The reality is that you won’t get any benefits from your hard work until you are a long way down the road.
This is why you need to be self-motivated to a point because there is going to be very little external validation for what you’re doing early on. According to Tony Robbins, the average person has to see a brand or company sixteen times before they will remember them or even consider using their products.
If your dream is to start a business, then this statistic should shock you and clarify the reasons why you have to work even harder in the modern world, to get traction, and create results. If you think one measly advertisement on Facebook with a few likes is going to make your dreams come true, then you are sadly mistaken.
The only secret to achieving your goals is to work five times harder than you’re currently working. You need to put the pedal to the metal and crank up some mileage on your dream.
6. Your audience wants to see you work before they commit to your vision
Whatever your mission is, there are going to be an audience of people that you will need to support you. Whether that’s to buy your products or services or to validate your idea, you’re going to need as many people as you can find.
The thing about building an audience is that they want to see you work your ass off before they commit their time and their eyeballs to give a damn about your dream. Getting someone to commit and sign up to join you in battle is harder than you think.
Your audience wants to know that you have put blood sweat and tears into what you’re doing and that you’re not going to give up as soon as they join you because it all gets too hard. There are plenty of people in your field of expertise for these same audience members to mix with, so they don’t need you.
You need them, and you have to show them that you need them, by working five times harder than you currently are. You’ll need to avoid the rest of the zombies and wake up at 4am. That’s how you’ll have enough time to put in the real work.
7. You don’t already have what you want
If you’re reading this advice, then there is a good chance you don’t already have what you want. So when I tell you to double the amount of phone calls you are making to your prospects, you should do it. Because you don’t have what you want, you can never make too many phone calls in the current state you’re in.
Up your game and work harder. When you start to achieve your goals, then you can think about decreasing the number of calls you are making.
8. The naysayers will tear you down if you don’t
There will be a queue of naysayers ready to line up and put you down when you try to achieve your goal. Directly next to them, will be the fans that adore you for what you have done. There will always be two sides. Don’t let the naysayer’s broken dreams gather together and create the strength to knock you off your feet like a boulder out of the Nintendo Game Mario.
Choose to forget the naysayers and visualise what it will be like to hang out with your fans and know that you’re inspiring people with your craft. The only way to push through the negativity that others project onto you is to work harder than you are right now.
When you work harder, you don’t have time to think about the losers who verbally beat you up with their words. Double your results! Work five times harder!
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We’ve all been there at some point. There is a task ahead of us, we need to get to it and complete it, but we just don’t feel like it. We need to get off the bed, pick up the phone, and ring our doctor for an appointment. There’s a social event coming up and there are a million other things we’d rather be doing, such as shoveling in ice-cream and watching reruns of Friends.
It’s all okay. It’s all understandable. There are too many factors that can contribute to a lack of motivation or willingness to do something for us to avoid all of them. Now and then, it’s established that this is something that happens, more or less, to all of us. One question prevails, though: How can we overcome this general lack of motivation?
Here are 10 practical tips for taking action when you don’t feel like it:
1. Localize the problem
A good starting point is to uncover what it is exactly that’s making you avoid doing a certain something. In most cases, it’s because the task at hand is unpleasant or because we dread going to it. In other instances, it could be because the initial excitement has washed away and you’re stuck in the most difficult part – the middle.
“Life is in different stages. Every stage of life is the foundation for the next stage of life. Every stage of life must be fully-lived” – Lailah Gifty Akita
2. Set up the stage
Now that you found the catalyst, work towards combating it by making your task impossible to avoid. Clean out your entire schedule, do everything else you could possibly do first, and then you’ll end up stuck with this one thing and nothing else.
3. Keep the end result in mind
If we’re talking about something like making an unwanted call or going to an unpleasant meeting, thinking about the long game greatly helps. Just think about how short a phone call is and how it won’t matter at all a few minutes later. If you can’t get yourself motivated or to genuinely want to do this thing, just look forward to it ending instead.
4. Find motivation
Not in the literal sense. If we were able to get motivated on cue then we wouldn’t have a problem that needs to be solved by the tips in this article, right? Real motivation is finding this little spark that might trigger your desire to take the action. Set your eyes on someone that inspires you and use this admiration as a starting point. Pick out the positives from a task and focus on them to build excitement.
5. Show commitment
The keyword here is show commitment. If you’re a person that values the opinions and views of others, your biggest advantage might be putting your goal out there for the world to see. If you want to lose weight, for example, publish a post announcing your intention on social media. Saying it to someone’s face works too, but having it posted online is a lot more effective. After all, what’s on the Internet stays on the Internet forever.
6. Make Notes
Aside from commitment with the help of others, you can also do it all by yourself. Make some notes constantly reminding you of your goal and leave them in a place you know you’ll read them. Don’t lose sight of the goal and think about it on a daily basis. This technique will gradually lessen the weight of your task and it will make it seem more achievable.
7. Start small
Failures are a part of life just like successes. Don’t expect a huge result right off the bat. Start off small and gradually increase difficulty. If you want to work out, start with a short 10-minute routine. If you have to write a paper, tell yourself that you’ll write 200 words today, 300 words tomorrow, and keep increasing the number.
8. Find Joy
Find joy in these small successes. Go into the task with minimal expectations. When you manage to get those 10 minutes of exercise done, see it as a positive thing. In turn, it will boost motivation and it will make you realize that your goal is within reach.
9. Accept the fickleness
Another important thing is to realize the fact that, no matter how many tips and motivational exercises you will undergo, this is still a task that doesn’t exactly fill you with joy. If, after a few days of good work, you find yourself lack in motivation again, this is not the end. Motivation is like a rollercoaster. Take a break, repeat the previous steps, press the reboot button, and start over again.
“Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
10. Reach for help
Don’t steer away from the support of others. You might actually need it, especially if you have difficulties picking yourself up again. The people who know about your goal will very likely be there to help you rather than to judge you.
The best advice I can give is to constantly keep your eyes on the benefits, to swap negative thoughts for positive ones. Find some sort of reward at the end of the task’s completion. If you can’t, follow these tips and accept the fact that you can’t be 100% committed to this particular goal, but that it can be done regardless.
Research & Reports
Even if you pursue your dream with the most passionate intent, at times you’re going to lose motivation. Things don’t come together as fast as you’d like, projects stall, you’re working crazy hard not knowing if what you’re doing is laying the foundation for success or paving the path towards your own destruction.
It’s when moving forward becomes a slog and you’d rather go lie on a lounge chair on a beach that these four mind shifts can help keep you motivated:
1. Remember your bigger why
Every big dream starts with a why. You started making your dream into a reality because it serves a bigger purpose. Was bringing this dream to life going to give you a greater sense of freedom, allow you to travel more, let you help people achieve their dreams or live healthier?
So much is thrown at us as we build our dreams: business and personal opportunities, logistical setbacks, feeling buried in the details. Whenever you’re overwhelmed by any of these, it’s important to step back and remember your bigger why.
Then ask yourself: is what I’m struggling with ultimately going to allow me to achieve my greater why? The answer in most all cases should be a resounding yes, and that yes can be the thing that keeps you going in tough times.
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
2. Let your values drive you
Many times people give up on something because they realize what they were after wasn’t really their dream, it was someone else’s. In conjunction with your why, you have to get in touch with your needs, which aren’t necessarily the same as your wants.
Paying attention to what you value in your inner life (peace, contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment, etc.) helps lead you to making those values real in your outer life (lifestyle, relationships, financial success, etc.) Your needs are a reflection of your deeply held values and taking time to understand how your values align with your greater why is important in making sure your dream is truly yours.
3. Think about what you want
How often do you meet someone who can tell you what they don’t want instead of what they do want? You may know you don’t want x, y, and z but instead of dwelling on the negative, take time to figure out how to explain things in terms of what you do want. Focusing on what you don’t want has a way of making those exact things show up in your life.
So it’s important to shift your mindset into a more positive state and understand what you do want instead. Knowing what you want also helps you create a clearer vision in your mind. Once you have that vision you can talk about it to friends, family, and even potential investors with passion, confidence, and excitement, all of which will keep your forward momentum going.
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude” – Oprah Winfrey
4. Learn to switch gears
On the road to building and living your big dream, it’s important to learn when you’re running a sprint race vs. a marathon. Thinking you need to work insane hours all day every day is a recipe for burnout, discouragement, and apathy.
Not only must you learn that stepping back and evaluating the big picture is a valuable skill you must also learn how to use that skill to tell you when to switch between going full our and easing off the gas. Your dream doesn’t do anyone, including yourself, any good if you’re too sick, exhausted, or depressing to bring it to life, even if it takes a long time to reach the finish line.
Staying in the game for the long haul takes a perseverance, patience, faith, and a deep understanding of why you’re trying to bring your dream to life. Your ability to stay motivated, even in the midst of resistance and discouragement, is crucial for you to make your dream a reality.
