Motivational Words: Whatever happens, you must stay motivated
Posted by Louise on Feb 16, 2010
This session of Motivational Words aims to re-motivate you should you start to waver. One of the toughest challenges is to stay on track, relentlessly hitting our chosen targets, even when internal or external circumstances are cause for distraction.
Let’s face it. It isn’t difficult to find reasons to take time out from our pressing goals – taking time to smell the roses, as my mother would call it. I choose to see these times as tests of character. How important is it to you to achieve your goal(s)? Most things that are genuinely worthwhile will take a whole lot of effort, energy, commitment and persistence to attain.
This Motivational Words quote is by Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961), a leading light in analytical psychology, one of Europe’s most influential thinkers:
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
This quotation strikes deep in my soul for my True Self knows this to be absolutely true. It is so tempting to ‘dream’ of how great life will be when we have finally achieved such and such a goal. But there is a yawning gap between ‘dreams’ and ‘reality’. Step into the dream for a moment and recognise a dream for the sham it is. A dream is a picture of what life could be like if you achieve those plans of yours. Remember: there are no short cuts. If we want to achieve important goals, worthwhile targets, the only certain way to achieve those goals is to take one step at a time until we reach them.
Carl Jung’s inspirational words are a wake up call for those on the path to personal success. Those who ‘dream’ indulge in self-delusion. The difference between a dream and a vision is the former is pure fiction while the latter, your vision, is a concrete image of your destiny. Dreams are illusions, visions are backed by utter conviction. Visions are unshakable.
Take these motivational words to heart. If you are wavering, take time to reconnect with your heart, the seat of your motivation. Listen to what your heart instructs you is the most direct path to achieving your highest potential. Awaken the vision within and then start taking consistent and persistent actions to attain that vision.
Creating my Ideal Life One Day at a Time
Posted by Louise on Feb 15, 2010
I’ve had a few emotionally draining days and today I’m back on track. Hurrah! Nothing beats feeling positive! My mentor usually ends his emails with the motivational words “Onwards and Upwards”. And really there is no other choice…… I am creating my Ideal Life, so my main focus has to be on taking steps in that direction.
I have been asked by a national newspaper to contribute two lead articles per month. I have yet to deliver on that. Part of me is concerned about adding yet another string to my bow – I know all about the importance of sharp focus as a means of hitting targets. Part of me is tempted to snap up the offer and take another step towards reaching my €15,000-per-month income goal.
This is a constant dilemma for those of us on the path to creating our Ideal Life. Do I take every opportunity to get closer to my financial goal and achieve financial freedom? Or do I listen to my intuition, and avoid taking on new projects, thus keeping my focus on important targets?
It is time for a good session with my BrainWave Entrainment (BWE) program. It puts me in the perfect meditative state to calm my mind and reach clarity. I know there is nothing worse than a chaotic mind. 20 minutes of BWE will generate the brainwave patterns conducive to attaining my most productive, creative and inspirational state.
These two inspirational phrases by Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961), influential Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, are worth reflecting on:
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
“The artful denial of a problem will not produce conviction: on the contrary, a wider and higher consciousness is required to give us the certainty and clarity we need.”
And these motivational words by Heywood Hale Broun point to the risk of using energy as a means of achieving a goal rather than gaining clarity first. Like time, my personal energy is a limited resource!
” They often made up in energy what they lacked in clarity [on baseball manager Leo Durocher's lectures]“
Now it’s time to focus on taking persistent action steps towards creating my Ideal Life.
Creating My Ideal Life: How to counteract negative self-talk
Posted by Louise on Feb 12, 2010
As a regular reader of Motivational Words, you already know that I am on a direct path to creating my Ideal Life. I know the ingredients needed to create the life of my dreams and I am weaving each element of this Ideal Life tapestry into place.
It is quite simple really. I know what I want, and all I need to do is keep my focus on creating each of my Ideal Life targets. On good days it is almost a box-ticking exercise: take a good look at my current target and take as many steps towards it as I can.
But what about the bad days? Yesterday was a bad day for me. My external world threw up so much chaos that I didn’t get time to progress my Ideal Life until late in the evening. When I finally settled down to achieve my next target, a ten minute task became exponentially complicated and took hours and hours. My inner voices started to undermine my motivation and damage my resolve: “If you continue at this rate, you’ll never finish”, “You’ve been struggling for hours now, there has to be a better way”.
To counteract the negative self-talk, I spent 20 minutes immersing myself in a Thomas A. Edison* mindset. For Edison progress always involved toil, labour, trial and error, persistence, massive effort, repeated and sustained effort.
Here are four of Thomas Edison’s famous inspirational quotes, motivational words aimed at making us recognise that achieving anything really worthwhile is also going to entail sustained effort.
“The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.’
“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.”
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.”
So, to anyone intent on creating your Ideal Life, let’s join forces. Here’s to creating my Ideal Life, and you creating your Ideal Life. Onward and Upwards!
* Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931.) American inventor (he held a world record 1,093 patents) and researcher (he created a 22 acre industrial research laboratory). Edison played a key role in advancing the era of electricity, including the incandescent light bulb, phonograph, advances in motion pictures. A hearing problem shaped and motivated his choice of inventions.
How to discover your Ideal Life (Part 2) – Getting in touch with your Inner Self
Posted by Louise on Feb 10, 2010
The aim of this installment (part 2) of Motivational Words is to encourage you to listen to all your inner voices. Usually we only listen to the dominant voices and this limits who and what we can be. An Ideal Life is truly without limitations.
Congratulations! You have taken the first step in the process of clarifying your Life’s Purpose. [And if you haven't yet written a list of dozens of things you want to achieve in the course of this lifetime, the crucial first step you need to take is to become aware of WHY you failed to take that first step into the journey of creating your Ideal Life. So........ reflect on what is holding you back from getting involved in the most exciting adventure......... discovering your True Purpose.]
Assuming you have already started writing your list of goals, things you want to experience, to learn, to achieve, to have, be and do in this lifetime, then the process is underway. Over the coming days you will notice subtle changes that alert you that the floodgates between the conscious and unconscious mind are opening.
* As you add to your goals list over the coming days you will observe different aspects of yourself beginning to express themselves through their goal suggestions. Perhaps the inner traveller will take command and inspire you to write of places you’d like to visit. That’s great. Just write them down.
* Perhaps you find that no more ideas surface. This, too, is excellent. Having no further superficial and obvious goals allows you to really dig around and explore. What if I…….? Would I like to…….? This pushes the boundaries. It challenges you to really open up to creative goals. For me, these moments of writer’s block heralded bursts of creative ideas that were hidden away deep inside me. It was at this point that my most meaningful goals emerged.
* Write down whatever comes. Don’t evaluate and don’t censure. True expression and genuine communication must be free and unchecked. You don’t have to act on every goal you generate, you just need to become aware of them. The bigger the picture at this point, the more inspiring your Life Purpose will be.
* Collect these ideas in an Inspiration Log. One thing I have learned through personal experience, if I don’t listen to my creative voice, I don’t get creative impulses. If I neglect my intuition, I lose contact with my intuitive self. If I ignore inner messages and suggestions, I cut myself off from my True Self. Give that creative genius free reign. Be sure to write it all down. It is fleeting and very precious. Listen to it and respect it. Ignore it and you silence your spirit, your soul.
* Be prepared to discover many voices within you. The vibrant artist. The helper. The wise soul. Your gentle, grounded soul-self. The romantic. And so on. Listen to all of these aspects of yourself. For only when you have the complete picture can you begin to plan a life that is wholesome, rewarding and complete.
This completes my motivational words for today. Be encouraged. Be inspired. Take the time to discover your Life’s Purpose – when you know it, you are on a path to personal fulfillment.
Motivational Words: How to Discover your Life’s Purpose (Part 1)
Posted by Louise on Feb 6, 2010
The purpose of this instalment of Motivational Words is to motivate and inspire you to discover your Life’s Purpose.
Last year I spent months discovering my Life’s Purpose. Knowing what I want from life has been a thrilling and inspiring journey. It is liberating and empowering to know what I want to be, do and have. As a result my life is speeding up. I know where I’m going, what I want and why. At last I have a plan.
I am a trained researcher and one of the benefits is knowing how to separate fact from fiction. While I worked on my Life Purpose, I learned a whole lot of highly useful information. Over the next Motivational Words sessions I will pass on the results of my research. I will show you some simple and effective techniques so you have a much clearer vision of what the precise mix of ingredients is to create a life that is optimal for you.
It’s your life. You alone are responsible for it. Are you ready to start discovering your Life Purpose?
First lets explode one myth. Finding your Life’s Purpose is a process, not a single step. While some people may have a clear calling, the majority of us aren’t automatically guided to one specific vocation to the exclusion of all else. That is why finding our Life Purpose, pinpointing the particular niche we hope will be the route to everything we want out of life, can be a challenge. But challenges can be great fun.
Here is your first challenge to put you in touch with your Life’s Purpose.
1) Get a notebook, a diary or some clean pages to brainstorm on.
2) Generate a list of your goals. Write down everything you would love to do.
3) Be absolutely open and write down everything that comes into your head. Don’t analyse or edit anything, just write down what comes. The idea is to harness your whole brain to generate ideas, and not permit those inner programs we all have to tell us what is sensible, reasonable or possible. To discover our Life’s Purpose we want to move beyond all limitations. For this exercise there are no limits, just possibilities.
4) The aim is to produce a list with dozens of goals or wishes. If you can only find a few goals, be patient. Carry the list with you and keep adding to it. The aim is to arrive at two hundred goals at least.
5) Last thing at night and first thing in the morning ask yourself what your goals are.
The aim of this motivational exercise is to set cognitive wheels in motion. It may take you a few brainstorming sessions to generate two hundred goals (or more). So be it. Start your personal voyage to discover your unique Life Purpose. It should be an inspirational process. Enjoy the journey!
In the next session learn what to do with the goals you have generated.
Famous Inspirational Quotes by Billie Jean King
Posted by Louise on Feb 3, 2010
For your pleasure and personal motivation, here is a selection of Billie Jean King’s famous inspirational quotes.
“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”
“I didn’t really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.”
“The trouble with being number one in the world – in anything- is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don’t relax and enjoy it.”
“My ego operates this way – every time you tell me I can’t do something, that ego tells me I not only can, but must.”
“The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.”
“No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win — and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.”
“I have a lot to say, and if I’m not No. 1, I can’t say it.”
“Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn’t allowed in a photo because I wasn’t wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport. Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life.”
“Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.”
“No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.”
“Any therapist will tell you that when you’re ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren’t ready.”
If the fierce determination and the single-minded focus on achieving ones’ fullest potential inspires you, then visit www.tennisquotes.com/quotes.htm by Paul Fein. You can find inspirational quotes and motivating words by 40 tennis champions past and present. Inspiring stuff and well worth bookmarking! If ever your flesh should turn weak, and you focus turn to mush, a few minutes spent on this site is like a shot of adrenalin in the arm.
Who is Billie Jean King?
In her time as legendary tennis champion, coach, business woman, Billie Jean King has produced some genuinely inspiring and motivational words. If you grew up in an environment where unshakable motivation, determination to succeed, and self-belief was not part of your culture or curriculum, then Billy Jean King is a perfect motivational role model. Learn the mindset of a champion.
Billie Jean Moffit was born on 22nd November 1943 in California. Her incredible success as a champion tennis player has only been matched by Martina Navratilova. Beginning in 1961 she won 20 Wimbledon titles, including singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles and nineteen other Grand Slam titles, 13 US titles (including four singles), four French titles (one singles), and two Australian titles (one singles).
Besides tennis excellence, Billie Jean pushed several other boundaries also, including the famous 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” in which she defeated tennis champion Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, in a televised match that was viewed by 50 million people. Understandably she campaigned for and won equal prize money for men and women players at the U.S. Open 1973.
She was married to Larry King from 1965 to 1987 and they founded World Team Tennis together. Her tradition-breaking streak continued and she became one of the first top athletes to admit to having had a gay relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Bennet.
Considered one of the most important 100 Americans of the 20th century, she continues to receive public recognition. In 2006 a major sports venue was named in her honour: the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre.
I borrowed this inspiring quotation from Billie Jean’s forward in Paul Fein’s book, “Ever since I first picked up a tennis racket as an eleven-year-old in Long Beach, California, I’ve crusaded to improve the sport I love. I battled country club elitism and snobbery, the reactionary establishment, “shamateurism,” racism, homophobia and sexism.” (visit http://www.tennisquotes.com/foreword.htm). She has been at the forefront of so much positive change since she was banned from playing in a tournament at Los Angeles Tennis Club in 1955 because she posed in tennis shorts rather than wear a tennis skirt.
For more information on this remarkable sportsperson visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Jean_King.
