One of the things that can grind us to a halt and make it feel like we are treading water instead of moving forward is a lack of focus and direction.

Focus and direction happen when we are clear about where we are headed.

Until we have clarity we’re almost always going to lose momentum because now we are just doing stuff for the sake of being busy rather than with any real intention or purpose.

So the first step in getting unstuck is to know your purpose and why you are doing what you are doing.

This doesn’t have to be some over-the-top life or world-changing epiphany either. It just has to be something that is important to you.

It could be to drop 5kg of weight, make an extra $50k over the next year, travel, find your soul mate, start a business, or whatever inspires you.

It just has to be something that matters to you no matter how big or small.

The next step then is to just keep moving forward until you reach your desired destination and this is where 95% of people fail.

Check out my short 2-minute video here that shows you how to move from stuck to unstoppable action and why failure is the #1 key to success.

I also dive into the understanding that no matter circumstances we find ourselves in their is 1 thing we can always to go from struggle to strength.

If you’re looking to gain an insight into just how powerful the mind is and how you can tap into it’s ability to give you more of what you really want out of life, then this is a must watch.

Want to uncover your life purpose? Here are some little know secrets that will help.

If you are confused by what it means to find your purpose, or even if there is such a thing, I can assure you that this will help you make a shift.

Live Your Life On Purpose

In 2001 I was working in a J.O.B that I hated and had no clue about what I wanted to do with my life that would give it more meaning and purpose. In fact, at that time I had no idea what the concept of my “life purpose” even meant.

All I knew was that it felt like something was missing from my life. Then I went to a seminar where the speaker talked about living your life by design, rather than by necessity. He mentioned that there was no greater sense of fulfilment than finding and living a purposeful life.

The challenge for me was that all the way through school and college I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, so I wandered from one career to another trying to find somewhere that I fitted into the workplace.

Well, that never happened. After trying 27 different career paths I finally settled into one that at least gave me the ability to travel the world but still didn’t fulfil me on the inside.

Discovering Your Purpose In Life

So why is it important to discover our purpose in life?

It’s really about living a happy and fulfilled life as opposed to just getting by for a living and doing what you ‘think’ you should do based on what you learnt at school or college, or what other people expected you to do.

For some people they are born with a strong drive to do what they love such as singing, dancing, acting, sport, or whatever their passion may be. For others though, it’s often not quite so simple as they wander through life trying to find deeper meaning and a connection to something significant in their lives.

Some try to find this connection or significance in their relationships, or even by having a family, while others look to find it in their work or hobbies. Regardless of where you look for it, it’s the search that makes the difference.

The below video dives into an area of thinking around how to find and live your life’s purpose that is rarely talked about. The fact that you are reading this right now means that you are ready to make a deeper connection with yourself and the world around you.

Just by watching the video below will change the way you think about how to find your purpose in life, so that you finally feel that you are living the highest qualities that life has to offer, and get the feeling of completion and contentment that comes with it.

Knowing Your Purpose Video

Well, how did you do? Did the video help you reframe the way you think about what your life’s purpose is, and how you can start connecting with it today? Life really is such an amazing journey of self-discovery and the more you enjoy the journey, the sooner your purpose will be revealed.

Did This Help You? If so, I would greatly appreciate it if you commented below and shared on Facebook

Michael Atma’s Blog
Skype: michaelatma
Email: Michael@MichaelAtma.com

“I Teach You how to live a Happier, Healthier and More Fulfilling Life in Just 5 Minutes a Day!”

PS: If You Aren’t Living on Purpose, Are Frustrated With Your Life (or not as happy as you could be), This is the Book you Should Get – Master Your Mindspace

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In case you ever wondered what it would take to live a life filled with happiness and joy despite what your life has been like up until now, how the day is tracking today, or what the future may hold, then look no further than your dog.

Let’s face it, we’ve all had days where we feel down in the dumps, lack motivation, or just wish that our lives were different because of the struggles that seem to clutter our lives. Granted, some people seem to experience these things more frequently than others but there’s a reason for that which we’ll get to later.

After thinking about what it means to be happy all the time and more importantly what it would take to enjoy more happiness in my life it struck me that my dog Harry seemed to have it down to a fine art. This nineteen-pound ball fuzzball is the most joyful creature I have ever seen. He lives in a constant state of playfulness and delight.

Not only that, it doesn’t matter whether I’m gone for five minutes, five hours, or five days, when I come back from being away his greeting is always one of sheer pleasure. Deducing that Harry obviously was onto something that I wasn’t privy to, I decided to study his attitudes and activities in the hope that I, too, might one day be as consistently happy as him.

Some Interesting Insights on Happiness

After observing Harry for several weeks it occurred to me that the key to his happy-go-lucky nature is that he lives entirely in the here and now. He has no sense of the past or future, and he is fully present with what is happening.

He may not always be jumping for joy happy, but even when he’s quiet you won’t find him wallowing in self-pity over one of his toys being destroyed by another dog, or the fact that it was raining all day and didn’t get to go for a walk.

Instead, Harry finds joy in the small things such as being cuddled and having chasing pretty much anything that you will throw for him (which by the way he never get’s tired of), going for a drive in the car, or even just chilling out in his bed while I’m working away on my computer.

One of the really cool things about Harry is that he doesn’t get upset if you get home late from somewhere, or carry a grudge if some deadline wasn’t met – unlike what happens in so many human relationships. He’s also always happy to eat what he’s given and never gets tired of walking to the same park in the afternoon.

What I realized about Harry really taking the time to watch and observe his behaviour is that he totally lives in the moment. His love for life and attitude of unconditional friendship is something that many people could learn a thing or two from, I know I certainly did.

Living in the moment is simple, we just need to give ourselves a little headspace every now and then from getting too caught up in the past or the future. When we allow the past to influence how we think and feel about ourselves or the world around us at any given moment, then we get caught up in reactive behaviour instead of staying responsive to the moment.

Living in the moment enables us to step back from our past conditioning around what we think and feel in reaction to external triggers and instead make a choice on how we want to think and feel. We can’t always be in control of what happens in our lives but we can certainly be in control of how we handle things.

Here’s How to be as Happy as Your Dog

By learning to train the mind to be more present focused and less reactive to the past or future, we can all be as happy as our dogs, or at least have the choice on how we want to respond to anything that happens in our lives.

In fact, you can try it out for yourself today.

• Start looking for the fun and joy in things and forget about what anyone else may think about what you’re doing.
• Greet everyone that comes through your front door as if it’s the best thing that’s happened to you all day.
• Stop complaining about people or things you can’t change and find happiness in the simple things in life such as waking up in the morning, going for a walk in the afternoon, eating a yummy meal, or catching up with friends.
• Drop being negative about anything, and instead look for the positive in everyone and everything.
• Find a way to keep your heart open no matter how much pain may have happened in the past and always be willing to go for what you want with all the gusto you can muster, no matter how big or small it may be.

Finally, spend ten minutes in the morning focusing on what you are grateful for in your life. This helps to develop an attitude of gratitude which puts out a mental and emotional energy to the world around you that you are thankful for your life – and just like Harry, when you love your life, life will send you plenty more to be happy about.

If you found value in this, feel free to share.

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Michael Atma’s Blog
Skype: michaelatma
Email: Michael@MichaelAtma.com

“I Teach You how to live a Happier, Healthier and More Fulfilling Life at Home, Work or Play!” 

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We all know that life can certainly get a little crazy from time to time. In fact, for some it’s worse than that as the stress and pressures of everyday life keep piling up until they feel like they are going to burst.

I used to think that there was no easy way to break free from the demands upon our mind, body, emotions and inner resources. That was until I discovered the art of doing nothing.

Now, that might sound a bit whacko if you think about it too much as what the heck do I mean the art of doing nothing!

Well, that’s the easy part. You see, we are hard wired to value doing stuff more than we are to value being still. These days there’s rarely a moment we get to ourselves because of technology making it so easy for us to be connected to.

The downside of this is that most people don’t have a real connection to who they are on the inside because most of their time and energy is spent focusing on the outer world.

This means that when they do have a spare moment, they are already searching for something else to do, which is nothing more than a distraction from being present in the moment.

Until we can be happy and content being in silence with ourselves and not feel pressured to have to ‘do’ something to get rid of boredom or feelings of unease, then we can never truly be at peace with our lives.

It’s taken me 17 years of studying mindfulness and meditation techniques to fully understand what it means to be free on the inside. Being free simply means to be able to be present in the moment and not have to get pulled away into the past or future if you don’t want to be.

There is such a tremendous relief that happens in your mind and body when you can sit silently with yourself and be happy. This happiness is the purest form of joy you will ever know because it comes from a natural place inside you of quiet and calm.

What’s even better is that the more you tap into this inner calm, the more it starts to move out into your everyday activities. Even meditation is not something you do. Meditation is a place of stillness that arises from doing nothing. The doing part is just a technique or device to help quiet he mind long enough for stillness to happen.

One Minute Mindfulness Technique

If you haven’t yet tried connecting with your inner stillness and enjoyed the calm, clarity and vitality that this brings then try this simple mindfulness technique.

Whenever you are feeling stressed, whatever you’re doing be it about to pick up a cup, walking down the street, brushing your teeth, engaged in any activity whatsoever – just stop and be still for one minute. No movement at all – as if you are frozen.

It’s so easy to lose ourselves in the activities of our day. The power of this technique is to help us to become present for just a moment and remember to be here now. If you do this technique spontaneously you’ll find that it propel you instantly to your center.

For just one minute be present with whatever is happening. How is your body? What are you thinking? How is your breathing? Where is your energy moving to or from? Just be aware of these things without judging them or trying to change them. Then start to move again.

Just by being as still as a rock for one minute and noticing whats happening for you, suddenly you’ll find a stillness washes over your mind and body giving you instant clarity and vitality.

Try not to think too much about it ahead of time. Simply stop suddenly, come into the present, and see what happens.

There is tremendous power for happiness, health and enjoyment of life from allowing just a few moments of doing nothing each day. Who knows, maybe if your mind is clear, the rest of your life may get easier.

We all have huge demands on our time, energy and focus. Without exception. But the biggest demand for our attention are the conflicting voices in our head. This is the reason why many people find it challenging to make a decision, stop procrastinating about things, or make changes in their life.

The most important conversation you have every day – is with yourself. It makes sense then that the less talk you have to listen to inside your head, the more productive and effective your life will be.

Look at it this way, it’s almost like we have a crowd inside our head that are vying for our attention. This crowd includes your doubts, fears, judgments, past memories, limiting beliefs, conditioned beliefs, and a host of additional ideas about what’s okay or not okay for you to be, do or have.

We really have two voices though that matter. There’s the inner critic, which fills your head with limiting and negative self-talk and there’s your inner self, which I call your sacred-self, which speaks to you with logic and reason.

The Voice of Judgment

The inner critic’s job is to second guess everything you want to be, do or have. This is the part of you that doesn’t believe that you deserve to be happy or fulfilled and that life is nothing more than struggle and pain. It also is the part of you that sabotage’s your happiness and success in life.

The inner critic evolves from self-limiting beliefs that are conditioned in your thoughts and behaviors as you grow up. These are beliefs about what you can’t do and what is not possible to achieve in your life. They are the ones that shatter your dreams and whisper in your ear that you’ll never amount to anything anyway.

As long as you continue to let the voice of doubt, limitation, or negativity rule your life you will always feel like either a fraud or a failure. No matter how successful you get, or how much others praise you, if your inner critic is in control, then it will fall on deaf ears.

Every time you doubt yourself – it’s not you doing the doubting. It’s a voice from the past who caused you to doubt yourself and it was easier to believe it than stand up for yourself at the time. That voice is a fraud.

These are the same voices in your head that say things to you like:

• ‘I’m not thin enough’
• ‘I’m not smart enough’
• ‘I’m not good looking enough’
• ‘I’m hopeless with money’
• ‘It’ll never work for me’
• ‘It’s too good to be true’
• ‘I’ll never be any good at this’
• ‘I suck at being a human being’
• ‘I never do anything right’
• ‘Why bother trying when I know I’m going to fail’

This negative self-talk is linked to voices that belong to your past that criticized or judged you and you believed in them. What this does is to crush your dreams, devours your confidence, and keeps you stuck in a cycle of fear and insecurity.

We can learn to turn the dial dial on our inner critic so that the sound of the crowd of naysayers gets lower and lower until finally they have no voice at all.  It won’t happen overnight but it will happen, you just need to learn how to turn the dial up on your sacred voice.

Let’s have a look at how you can start to take back your power from your inner critic.

The Voice of Power

Your sacred voice is always talking to you and all you need to do is listen. It is the voice that always knows what you want. It is the voice that always knows what to do. It is also the voice that is connected to your deepest dreams and purpose in life.

In short – it is your voice. Any other talk you hear is nonsense that has been borrowed from people or the world around you, and it’s time to put it back where it belongs – in the trash.

Next time you hear it – tell it to shut-up. That’s all you need to do.

Sure, it may keep trying to sabotage you from taking back your power by getting a bit louder at first but as long as you are not willing to buy what it’s trying to sell you, then it knows it’s playing a losing game.

It may sound like such a simple thing to do to break free from a lifetime of negative self-talk and yet it’s the simplicity of it that is the power and beauty of this technique. However, just like anything of value in life, you need to be consistent with it to get the best results. Just doing it once, won’t cut it.

The second part to making this work even faster is that once you have told your inner critic to ‘shut-up’, then you need to immediately do something to show your inner critic that you are now in control. The easiest way to do this is to do the opposite of what your negative self-talk would allow.

For example, if you want to lose weight and your inner critic is sabotaging you eating well and exercising regularly, then force yourself to make one change to your diet or exercise routine starting today. Then keep doing it daily for 30 days so that you lock it in as a new habit.

It doesn’t matter how big or small the change is – just do something. This teaches your inner critic that you are in charge. This is by far the fastest way to start to take away the power from your voice of doubt and fear. Then, at the same time you can start to turn up the dial and start taking more notice of what your sacred voice is saying.

Here’s Why You Want to Listen to Your Sacred Voice:

1. It never lies to you. Your inner voice is always connected to your deepest truth and what is aligned to for your highest good. It may not always be what feels comfortable for you to do but staying comfortable means to never change. To never change means your life will stay the same.

2. The more you listen to it and do what it says, the stronger you will get. Your power as a person is only limited to how much you believe in yourself. Things like doubt and self-sabotage hold you back from your greatness. True power comes from knowing who you are and what you really want out of life – and then making it happen.

3. It will give you more confidence. Your self-confidence grows as you listen to and trust yourself more. The only time we doubt ourselves is when we allow the voices or reason of others to make us second guess ourselves.

4. You will live a life of unstoppable passion. Passion comes from living what you love and being truly happy to be alive each day. When you let your inner voice lead the way in your life then you are opening the doorway to your inner-most passions and desires to be lived.

5. Your life will be on purpose. Living an authentic life is simply one that you live according to your own rules. It’s following your heart without hesitation and using your mind to make the right choices for what’s in alignment with your god-given talents and abilities.

6. It will make you a leader. Every one of us is unique to the world. None of us are exactly the same – this is the beauty of our lives. For us to fully live our uniqueness we need to be ready to stand out from the crowd and dare to be different from the rest of the sheep that settle for a second-hand life.

We get one chance at living an Authentic life in this lifetime and if we miss it, then we are really missing out on giving ourselves the best chance to let our light shine brightly into the world. Too many people have given up on their dreams already and live their lives in misery – we can show them another way if we just stay true to ourselves.

7. It will put an end to any suffering. The main struggle that most people have is the struggle they have within their own minds. Should they do this or that? What if this or that happens? Why isn’t their life the way they want it to be? Why do bad things keep happening to them?

These questions and the multitude of other distracting and conflicting thoughts that people have take up valuable real-estate in the mind. A busy mind that is not focused or even worse gets stuck focusing on negative things will eventually ruin any chance you have at having the best quality of life.

We all need a break from our own heads from time to time and without it, life tends to feel overwhelming, which leads to all sorts of mental, physical or emotional problems we then have to deal with. When you have only one voice to listen to then you can give yourself a break from your head anytime you like.

What Exactly Is Health?

This is a great question as many think of health as the absence of illness or injury, but really all that definition does is tell you what health isn’t.

My definition of health is a little different. I look at health as something that we naturally have when our body and mind is functioning from a place of balance and clarity. To me, your body knows what it needs to do to maintain good health and keep your natural energy levels high.

What gets in the way of this ‘natural’ efficiency is you. It’s the day-to-day choices you make and actions you take that interfere with your body’s natural regulatory processes.

The second part of health is mental well-being. When you mind is at peace and you are calm and relaxed most of the time, then this will give you the best quality of overall health and happiness. Obviously they are both connected and one can influence the other but it’s important to understand the parts they both play in overall heath and happiness.

Roadblocks To Health

Let’s look at some of the more obvious roadblocks to good health.

The biggest one that I have come across is stress. The World Health Organization has called stress “the health epidemic of the 21st century.” More to the point, ‘over-stress’ is what we are talking about here. A certain amount of stress is actually healthy for us as we need a certain amount of pressure to be productive.

Over time we can learn to handle more and more stress in our lives without it having a negative impact. It’s kind of like going to the gym and doing resistance training. As you increase the amount of resistance you work with over time your body adapts and you can handle more resistance with less effort.

The challenge with stress though is when you are consistently being subjected to higher levels of it than you are equipped to handle. This leads to over-stress, which makes you prone to physical and mental breakdown.

Then, of course there are the million and one ways that people try and cope with over-stress, which in themselves can lead to further physical and mental health challenges.

From excessive outbursts of anger to addictive behavior, overindulgence in alcohol to cigarette smoking, there are countless ways that people try to cope with stress that is doing more damage to their body than good.

Other roadblocks to health include social and environmental influences that contribute to physical or mental illness. Things like poor living or working conditions can cause health related issues. As can toxic peers, family members or co-workers.

How To Keep Your Health On Track

I’m going to share with you the top five things that have helped me to have phenomenal health, energy and happiness for over the past decade.

1. Make it A Priority

Now this may sound like common sense yet as a coach it never ceases to amaze me that while many of my clients say that health is important to them, their actions and behaviors tell a different story. By making health a priority I mean that it always comes first regardless of what you are doing.

That means that if you get a chance at an awesome job promotion but it means that you will be working longer hours, have substantially more pressure on you, and have less time to do the thing you love, then you wouldn’t do it.

It also means that you monitor what you eat, drink and do on a daily basis, so that you can maintain good physical and mental health… And that every decision you make and action you take is aligned to your number one core value in life of health.

2. Educate Yourself

If you want to be good at anything in life then you need to learn about it. With social media and the ease of access to health information that this has given us there’s a ton of great educational material available online (and offline) to anyone who wants to optimize their health and well being.

I have friends who have cured themselves from cancer naturally despite medical doctors telling them that they only help would come from the highly toxic poison called chemotherapy, which I wouldn’t give to a dead person, let alone a living human being. But, unless you know why you shouldn’t have it and what the alternatives are, then you at the mercy of whatever the medical system tells you to do.

Optimum health and energy levels are available to everyone and the more you educate yourself about what your body actually needs and in what quantities, the more fantastic you will feel.  Too many people get stuck on ‘fast food’ diets and convenience eating and drinking, yet if you knew this was going to eventually lead you down a path of never ending illness would you knowingly keep doing it?

Don’t let your good health and peace of mind be left to fate because your ultimate physical destiny is created by what you think and do right now that affects your mind and body.

The five areas that are best to educate yourself about are:

• Exercise
• Diet
• Fitness
• Relaxation
• Sleep

3. Learn Healthy Ways To Cope With Over-Stress

This one is super important as the better you get at getting rid of over-stress, or not getting there in the first place, the happier and healthier you will be. These days lifestyle and quality of life seems to be of more importance to the average person than getting a pay raise of having a bigger house or better job.

The reality is that if your in a constant state of stress and your body and mind is always wound up, then you are an accident waiting to happen.

By learning ways to effectively manage over-stress in your life you will become a calmer and more balanced person. This is when you will enjoy the best quality of life you will ever know.

4. Everything in Moderation

This is an old one but a good one. Do everything in moderation. You don’t have to give up every vice you love, although you can if you want to. What’s more important is that you are in control of them 100% of the time.

This means that you can still give yourself the occasional ‘treat’ that might not be so healthy for you but in the scheme of things it has minimal impact because it’s not something you do all the time.

5. Get A Good Nights Sleep Every Night

At the end of the day sleep is one of the most powerful natural gifts that we have been given to detoxify your mind and body. Getting a good night’s sleep plays a vital role in keeping your physical, emotional and mental health in balance, as well as giving your body the necessary rest it needs to recharge any depleted energy reserves.

Live Long and Prosper

Here’s a bonus step that I encourage you to take if you really want to get the best out of your health and happiness. That is set a goal for how long you want to live. Very few people do this but if you think about it – it makes perfect sense.

We set goals for all sorts of things in our lives, why not how long we want to live? The beauty o doing this is that like any goal, in order to achieve it we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to stay on track for it.

Think about it for a moment. If you decide that you want to live to be 100 years old and in awesome health and state of mind the entire time, then what kind of habits and lifestyle would you need to have to make this happen?

It’s really just a process of reverse engineering what your healthy habits look like at the age of 100. They may look something like this:

• Eat well
• Be calm
• Stress free
• Moderate exercise
• Do what you love
• Meditate
• Have fun
• Good relationships
• Be creative
• Have hobbies you are passionate about
• Laugh a lot
• Be happy
• Be reasonably prosperous
• Have peace of mind
• Have faith

If you are into goal setting, then you will see the power in setting a goal around living a long and healthy life. If not, then it might seem a bit redundant. In any case, if you make your long-term health a destination you have in mind and focus on it daily, then it’s far more likely to happen.

Above all, don’t forget to laugh a lot, love a lot, and have as much fun as you can take because life’s too short for anything less.

Many people get stuck. We all do at one time or another. perhaps you’re stuck right now and not sure which way to turn next.

What are the best ways to help get unstuck in your business or your life and break through to the next level of personal professional success.

I’ve spent the last 17 years looking at what elements consistently help people to keep moving forward and it always comes back to one thing – Motivation.

What Exactly Is Motivation and How Does it Work?

Motivation is more than whether we feel like doing something or not. In all my years studying human potential and what makes us tick I have discovered that Motivation boils down to a simple formula.

100% Motivation = 10% C___________ + 10% C____________ +80%  C_____________

Now let’s break this down.

As you can see from this formula there are three main elements to having 100% motivation in your life at any given point in time.

The first element which makes up 10% of motivation is confidence. I see so many people who appear to be confident people from the outside but when you have a look at their personal beliefs and habits in life, it can reveal a different story.

Some people get their confidence from their work, or having a sense of purpose or power in life. While others struggle to find their confidence at all and spend most of their time putting on a brave face while silently praying that they never get found out for the fraud they believe they are.

Being confident is about being really comfortable with who you are including the good bits, the bad bits and the ugly bits.

In other words it means that you are completely at peace with who you are in every moment whether you are happy or sad, quiet or loud, fearful or courageous, judgment or non-judgmental – none of it matters as it’s all you.

How this works in context to Motivation is that if part of your energy is being used to mask the fact that you are not a confident person, then this will lead you to make decisions in your life that help you to avoid feeling powerless or weak.

When you are confident in yourself then it is far easier for your motivation levels to be higher.

The second element which also makes up approximately 10% of motivation is competence. This means that you must have knowledge, skills and abilities in whatever you are wanting to succeed at.

You can’t fake competence. You either have it or if you don’t. If you don’t then it’s because you haven’t yet studied the areas or things you need to excel at to get ahead in your business or life.

When I was in my twenties I decided that I wanted to help inspire people to have have a better life through teaching, books and workshops. So I started reading books and attending every course, seminar or workshop I could get my hands on.

I’ve probably invested over $500,000 on self-education around how to use the power of your mind to change your life and how to help others enjoy better health, happiness, wealth, relationships and lifestyle. I’ve read hundreds of books, listened to hundreds of audios and trained with some of the world leaders in peak performance.

This was easy for me because I knew it was wanted to do, so it made sense that I needed to become competent at it in my life before i could ever hope to help inspire others to do the same.

The question here is what do you need to get competent at? What are the things you need to study and get really good at in order to take your success to the next level and beyond?

If you haven’t already thought about it then take a few minutes now to map out what those things are that you need to get good at for you to confidently move ahead. Competency comes from doing something over and over again. It’s this commitment to master your art that will massively boost your motivation levels.

Those people that don’t spend enough time studying and learning the things that they need to in order to be a success in what they are focusing on will inevitably either jump from one shiny object to the next hoping that it’ll all work out, or simply quite because it’s all too hard.

The reality is though the problem wasn’t what they knew – it was what they didn’t know or spent enough time getting competent with. I believe that no matter what you want to achieve, if you study it enough, one day it will come naturally for you.

The Most Powerful Motivator of All

This leads us to the last of the three elements. The “C” word that gives you approximately 80% of your motivation and that is clarity of vision.

So you can be a confident person who is competent in those areas you want to specialize in but if you don’t have a clear vision of where you are headed then where’s all your energy going to go?

Motivation is all about energy. It’s about waking up in the morning fired up to start your day because you are on track for something you are really passionate about and grudgingly falling asleep at night because you absolutely love what you are doing.

The master key here is that you have a vision of what you really want in life. Not something that someone else thinks is a good idea for you, or something you’ve always been good at, or something that pay’s the bills. What I’m talking about here is what makes your heart sing.

It’s something that you are truly inspired by that is something you may have always dreamed about but just didn’t know how to go about making a living from it. It’s something that feels like fun for you and it may even currently be or have been a favorite hobby.

Don’t worry about whether or not you can make a living from it in the beginning. In today’s digital world there’s a million and one ways to make that happen. I have a friend who does Yoga and she has over 1 million followers and has a movie star lifestyle – all thanks to the Internet.

More important than that is to know what you really want to do with your life and share with the world. Once you figure that out, then the rest will fall in place.

Motivation starts with having a clear vision of where you are headed and why you are going there. This gives you 80% of the energy you need to make it happen. The other 20% comes from the growth of your confidence and competence as you move forward towards your ultimate destiny.

So if you don’t have a clear vision of where you see yourself in 5 years time, then get to work on it right now. be sure to not limit your vision because the bigger you dream, the further you can go. We can grow into the person we need to become to fulfill any dream, as long as that dream is authentically true for you in mind, body and spirit.

If you already have a clear vision, then work on your confidence and competencies as they will help bring your motivational energy levels up to 100%. Once that happens, then there will be no stopping you.

Does that mean that there won’t be days that you feel down or disillusioned, not at all. It means that you will bounce back from them like a rubber ball hitting bouncing off the floor because every part of you is highly charged for success.

For some, this may mean that they haven’t achieved the career, business or financial goals they were expecting, while for others it could be more to do with not having the lifestyle, relationships, or peace of mind that they have always longed for.

Let’s face it, life for most of us these days is hard work. From the moment we wake up until we collapse in bed, it can be an on-going battle just to keep up with the daily grind. This is neither fun nor a good way to live as it simply robs you of your energy and happiness.

What Really Holds Me Back?

The reality is that however your life looks right now and whatever circumstances you find yourself in, it’s because of the decisions you’ve made in the past, and the actions or non-actions you took as a result of those decisions.

Some of the main forces in your life that shape the results you get whether they are the results you wanted or not include:

• Self-Doubt
• Lack of Motivation
• Lack of Follow Through
• Laziness
• Bad Attitude
• Feeling Powerless
• Fear
• Depression
• Sickness
• Anxiety
• Worry
• Negative Beliefs (i.e. “I’m not smart enough”, “I don’t have enough money”, “I can’t do it”, “It’s too hard”, “I don’t have enough money”, etc)

Have a look at this list for a moment and see if you can relate to any of these traits. Perhaps there is something else holding you back, like an over-bearing partner, the boss from heel, or even something as random as a string of bad luck.

The Great News

Regardless of what is holding you back it, just because it has been something that has affected you in the past, doesn’t mean that it needs to in the future. What I mean by that is that you can decide right now that… your past does not equal your future.

Say that out loud to yourself several times. Keep saying it until you believe it and it feels powerful when you say it. This is step one on your road to a bigger, brighter future starting now.

Success always begins with a decision and ends when you have taken enough steps towards your goal to see it to fruition. It’s only when you stop moving towards it, that it dies a natural death.

No matter what has held you back in the past, it doesn’t matter. It’s time to put all the excuses to bed and step forward with power, passion and purpose. There are a million and one reasons why people fail in life but there’s only one reason they succeed… and that’s because they never give up.

It’s so easy to quit. In fact, it takes no effort at all – you just stop trying. You give yourself permission to give up on your hopes and dreams for the sake of not having to change and become the person you need to be to do and have the things you really want.

Instead, you become the person that you never imagined you’d become when you were a wide-eyed innocent child with wonder in your mind and adventure in your heart. Where did this person go? How did they end up with their head in the sand praying that life will get better while it passes by them unnoticed.

The good news is that they didn’t go anywhere. You are right here. Even that innocent child filled with wonder who yearned for a life of fun and adventure is very much still alive in you.

The Secret Recipe For Lifelong Success

How do you re-ignite your passion for a life of fund and adventure again? It’s very simple. Just start making happiness and good health a MUST in your life. When you do, everything else will fall into place.

From living a happy and healthy life you will think and feel differently about yourself. Your mind will become quieter and more creative, while attracting things to you to bring even more happiness into your life.

And as your health becomes vibrant and you wake up each day feeling fully rested and recharged, you’ll have all the energy you need to handle anything life may throw at you, all the while working effortlessly on achieving your goals and dreams.

To have more happiness and good health in your life start studying it with the passion of someone that knows they are going to get something awesome very soon. Because the truth is if you do study it, learn it and become it, then you will win something magnificent – a better you!

There’s no short-cut to make it happen overnight but if you make it a must-have skill in your life skills tool-kit, then you’ll never look back. As you develop the skills of happiness and good health your life will start to change for the better immediately.

Not only will you find yourself having more energy than you ever dreamed of, you’ll also find that you have a calmer, clearer and more enjoyable life that is filled with wonder, inspired and overflows with youthful vitality.

But don’t just take my word for it… give it a go and find out for yourself.

In other words, it’s your beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, okay or not okay,or even what you should or shouldn’t have, be or do, that become your rules by which you live your life.

Now, this is all well and good while your rules help you to live a happy, healthy, wealthy and productive life. But the moment that they get in the way of you living your dreams, or taking risks to help you grow as a person and live your full potential, then they need to be broken.

When I first came across this knowledge I have to admit I got super excited. It had never dawned on me that I had been living by self-imposed rules which may have been holding me back in life but as I thought more about it I started to see some patterns in my behavior that suggested otherwise.

Look at it this way, your personal rules about life are like the ultimate judge and jury that govern how you think, feel and behave at any given moment. For example, if I were to ask you, “Do you love yourself?”, how would you respond to it? Your response would be based upon your rules of what’s required for you to be happy with who you are.

Now, this is just one example of hundreds, if not thousands of rules that we carry around with us that control how we feel and how we respond every moment you are alive.

Breaking The Rules

Think about the different areas of your life that your rules impact and what that might mean to you. From the way you view yourself and what is possible for you to be, do or have in the world, through to how you give and receive love, how rich or poor you are, how fit or unfit you are, how happy or miserable you are, how productive or complacent you are, how relaxed or stress you are, how much confidence or fear you have.

These areas, and many more like them are determined by the rules you live by inside your head and your emotions. The question that needs to be asked is, “Are your rules giving you a life of more of what you really want, or are they holding you back?”

For example, do you have rules about what you should or shouldn’t say to people for fear of retaliation or not being accepted? If you do, then this rule will be controlling your relationships in a negative way. It will enable others to think that they can easily manipulate you to their way of thinking or acting.

This is a recipe for disaster because what that means for you is that you will end up resenting anyone who tries to control you and not really know why. This can not only cause you to shut down in relationships but also cause your relationships to feel stifling and ultimately like your caged in a prison.

The key with any rule is to firstly identify those rules that are causing you to stay limited, or stuck in frustration or pain.on some level. Once, you have identified it, then it is time to decide what rule you want to put in it’s place.

Like anything in life that’s not working for you, as soon as you become aware of what it is you can change it. In the case of the example where the rule is that you have a limit around what you say to people for fear of being judged, then you need to break that rule and make a new one.

How To Make New Rules

Making new rules is a two step process. The first step is to think about what you want your new rule to be. The new rule must be something that is achievable and that makes it easy for you to feel good about yourself.

An example of a new rule for expressing yourself assertively in relationships would be, “I choose to feel confident and powerful when I express myself openly and honestly to others.” Or, “I experience courage anytime I express vulnerability, or allow myself to do and say what is true for me.”

Are these new rules achievable? You bet! Who’s in control? You are! At any moment in time, you can decide to be more confident or courageous when expressing yourself, and you now have permission to give yourself the feeling of power and courage.

The second step is to reinforce the new rule by practicing it with those that  you feel safe to rehearse it with. This may be with a close friend, or a family member, or anyone at all that is happy to help you strengthen your new rule. At first it will be like you are role-playing, but eventually what you’ll find is that the more you ‘rehearse’ it, the more ingrained it will become in your mind and emotions.

If you don’t feel confident enough to work with someone else on it, then work on it yourself. The best way to do that is to rehearse it in your mind for five minutes before you get out of bed in the morning and for five minutes just before you fall asleep at night. If you can allow yourself to feel the powerful positive emotions that come with your new rule as you rehearse it in your head.

The great thing about setting up new rules in your life is that they will always bring you closer to what you value most. If they don’t, then you haven’t set them up properly. It’s very much like giving yourself permission to shine brighter in your life and break free from those rules that were crushing your spirit.

Are all rules made to be broken? Not necessarily. There are some rules that are set that belong to your personal standards and by breaking them you don’t feel good about yourself. These should be left alone.

Some people simply have too many rules that they live by. I’ve found that the less rules you have about how things “should” be or “must” be, the less frustration and pain you will have in your life.

Making Fun of Rules

Make sure to take the time to have fun when breaking old rules and making new ones. It’s the fastest way I know to build a new life and become the person you always wanted to be.

To help accelerate any new rules you may want to have, make a list of the top ten rules you can think of that are holding you back from a happy, healthy, relaxed, prosperous and productive life. It doesn’t matter if you can’t come up with ten, even one will do, but see how many you can find.

To help with this process, look at the main rules that govern things like love in your life, happiness, having fun, handling stress and what needs to happen for you to feel confident about who you are no matter what’s going on.

Then, against each of those rules, write out your new ones. Your new rules need to give you more control of your life so that YOU determine how you feel in response to what happens around you. Set it up so that it’s really easy for you to feel good about yourself.

Then pick one of the new rules you’ve written down that you’d like to start with and start living it. Don’t forget to practice it with your “breaking free” buddy until you feel a little more confident with it.

If it’s something that can’t be easily practiced with someone you know, then just start applying it immediately in your life. Focus on the positive feelings that you will get from it and how much more empowered your life will be. You have nothing to lose except old rules that don’t serve you, and everything to gain. Otherwise, work on it internally each morning and night.

Always keep in mind that that you are in charge of your rules. All you need to do is acknowledge the old rule and then create whatever new rule you want to have replace it. Breaking free from rules can be as easy as doing something different than you’ve ever done before just to see what happens.

You might have a rule that you only eat chocolate ice-cream. So, next time you get an ice-cream, try a flavor you’ve never had before. At the very least you’ll have a new experience and at the most you’ll discover another ice-cream you love.

Play with your rules, have fun creating new ones and without a doubt the most empowering rule you can have is to love your life regardless of what happens.