Get your Life back on Track with 101 Free Success Tips

When you move outside your Comfort Zone you move into a place with no rules. Your opportunity for success will:-

• – Appear totally unexpectedly
• – From a source you least expected (the Keyhole)
• – At a time you least expected
• – Not be exactly what you expected
• – Perhaps be rather an “Ugly Duckling”

Of course you have to examine all angles and be cautious but you must not Rationalise Doing Nothing!! Real opportunities are precious and rare and you will have to display some courage, but this is the price you must pay!

When you are about to abandon a task because you’ve had enough or feel you aren’t getting any where or are just bored then try applying the “5 minute Rule”. Say to yourself I will stick at it for just 5 minutes more and then I can give up or take a break.

At the worst you get 5 minutes work done and at the best you will have found a second wind, got focused and become productive. Of course what you are aiming for is to move into The Zone when suddenly work becomes effortless, the words just flow, the paperwork gets dealt with, you make that call you’ve been dreading, nothing seems a problem. But imagine if you hadn’t applied the five-minute trick you might have never got there you might have gone and switched the television on and watched a replay of the ball-game!

You can use the the 5-minute-more trick in the Gym as well or when doing jobs in the house. I actually hear my lazy inner-self thinking up excellent reasons why I should abandon my endeavour, you’ve had a long day, mustn’t tire myself out for tomorrow, it’s too cold or hot or windy and the most crafty one shouldn’t you be doing another task altogether.

Remember the other 5 minute rule that we often want to give up a task after just 5 minutes, 5 minutes into writing an essay or starting a run that’s the danger time before we’ve warmed to the task before we see any progress, you can use the five-minute rule to help you through this discouraging phase.

Go on do five minutes more…

1. use a kitchen timer (or see below) to track your time
2. work in iterations of 25 minutes with 5 minute breaks (one pomodoro)
3. every four pomodoros, take a 25-30 min break
4. once you start a pomodoro, you must finish it –CRITICAL–
5. plan out your day and what you want to accomplish
6. estimate how many pomodoros each task will take
7. minimize interruptions

I use Action Enforcer as a Timer instead as somehow I don’t respect a Mechanical Timer. It also keeps record of my Pomodoros. I have never failed to complete a task that I’ve setup as a timer in Action Enforcer . In fact I’ve noticed that my procrastinating inner-self tries to stop me using it at all!

It sure is easy to recognize when you aren’t in the zone, but how to recognize when you are?

1) You open a letter, deal with it and file it all in one go.

2) You complete one of the “hangers” on your to-do list

3) You need a document that’s stored in the loft, no problem you go off to get it.

4) You see a problem you fix it, your internal procrastinator doesn’t get a look in.

5) The more jobs you tick off the more energized you feel

6) Work doesn’t feel like work any more

Definition of in the flow

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

No-one cannot force himself or herself to enter flow or even predict when he or she is going to enter flow. It just happens. A flow state can be entered while performing any activity, although it is most likely to occur when one is wholeheartedly performing a task or activity for intrinsic purposes.

Catch22, I have to succeed at something to enter the zone, complete a difficult task, understand some inspirational, find a remarkable solution

I recently attended a talk by Success-Theoretician Tom Butler Bowdon where he discussed the writings of Machiavelli and his Success Laws. Machiavelli for instance recommends modeling the best characteristics of successful people. Machiavelli says that an effective leader strives by is actions to inspire a sense of his greatness and goodness, he carefully chooses his heroes and incorporates their best features. Is careful of flatterers and has a handful of close friends and advisors who may speak their mind without fear, but even though he consults widely finally makes up his own mind. He is ready to backup his actions to make sure they succeed.

I first discovered Anthony Robbins and then the earlier Napoleon Hill and now Machiavelli; so there’s nothing new under the sun (and that comes from the Bible)

When a writer has writer’s block the only solution, as strange as it seems, is to write. So he must start writing anything a letter to a friend or relation, a shopping list, just anything. As soon as he writes a good phrase or sentence his enthusiasm and self-confidence will rise almost without him realizing it.

When I’m in a low energy and lethargic state I know I have to get any thing done, organized or sorted out. I have to pick tasks which are easily achievable. As soon as I see a bit of my desk reappear I get my first boost of Serotonin . I can then venture to get something else done, get some phone calls out of the way, write a few brief letters, pay a few bills. I call this bootstrapping. Many of the jobs we are dreading turn out to be less difficult than we thought but getting them out of the way is a real pleasure. Of course ONE DAY I will start on my most important task and get a massive boost from knowing that I’ve finally mastered myself but that’s some time away!

I’ve always known that it’s best if important things have their own place, passports, tools and so on. What I’ve only recently realised is that really everything should have an exact place, I mean not just on a particular shelf but a precise spot on that shelf. It may seem rather boorish to be so clinical but the alternative is wasted time searching with attendant frustration. I have probably wasted months of my life looking for keys, erasers, flashlights, sports equipment, worse I have probably abandoned projects or ventures simply because I couldn’t find a vital document.

Can you pass the following test? Can you get up now and find your keys, wallet, camera, flashlight and passport with your eyes SHUT?

The other advantage of things having their own exact place is that you will realize much more quickly that an item has gone missing.

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How many people are going into next year with no plan at all? Perhaps the majority , New Year’s Resolutions are a first step but try and make sure you pick ones which will motivate you and that you are likely to keep. Get some great tips by clicking here.

New Year’s Resolutions should be part of your Year’s Plan. It’s never too early to choose your resolutions.

Get your year off to a great start with the right New Year’s Resolutions. Like many I formerly made resolutions at the last minute if at all and had probably forgotten them by the end of January. But shouldn’t we head into the New Year with a plan rather than be like ships without a rudder? The following lens discusses how to choose realistic new year’s resolutions and how to stick to them. There are will also be Funny New Year’s Resolutions and examples of New Year’s Resolutions and more.

Learn more about choosing and keeping your resolutions here