Motivation Spirit

by Yeo Teck Wei

"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult–once we truly understand and accept it–then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters." By M. Scott Peck, author of "The Road Less Traveled"
What’s wrong with being wrong?
When people make mistakes, they always seem to be agonizing over it. Why was I so stupid? How could i have overlooked it? Often, such questioning of your own abilities inflicts high damage on your self-confidence and work attitude, thus resulting in even more mistakes made. The cycle of suffering continues. But… it need not be this way. You have the ability to change your life, only if you want to. There is a positive side to making mistakes too.
Why having mistakes is a good sign
Making mistakes prevents you from developing a sense of complacency. When you know from the start you are prone to making mistakes, you will be cautious in whatever you do.
Many people have heard of the great basketball player Michael Jordan. Despite of his fame, this was his response: "I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
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by Garry Winter

I have put together 10 truly inspirational quotes, which I use to motivate myself during the tough times, when I feel down or that things aren’t going my way. These quotes help to keep my mind strong and they remind me no matter how tough things become I can find a way to overcome and deal with whatever situation life has thrown at me.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
William Wallace (Guardian of Scotland)
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor Roosevelt
We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
Albert Einstein
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein
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by Brian A Hunt

If somebody was to ask your age, you would probably say 62 years unless you were completely anal and said 62 years, 2 months, 10 days, 3 hours, 4 minutes, and 12 seconds.
My question to you is "What is it that is 62 years old?" because your body is comprised of atoms that were created in the big bang some 20 billion years ago. The laws of physics state quite categorically that no matter can be created or destroyed, only changed. This means that the material that comprises your body is actually some 20-billion years old!
On the other hand, when you look in the mirror and see your magnificent self the body you see today is not the body that was here last year this time. Once again those imbecilic scientists tell us that 99.9% of our body cells are replenished each year. Therefore, each year when you admire yourself in the mirror on your birthday you are looking at somebody that wasn’t here last year.
So, back to my question, "What is it that is 62 years old?"
The scientists are like a dog with a bone, and not leaving it at telling us we are 20-billion years old in one breath and less than a year old in the next breath, they also tell us that our DNA does far more than store the template that creates your body exactly as intended. They freely admit that they understand less than 1% of exactly what DNA does hold, but this does not stop them from theorizing and postulating further thoughts. Thoughts we ordinary mortals take as facts, because of their impeccable source.
The next pearl of wisdom they dispensed is that all our thoughts, actions, and experience gained from the moment of conception to this moment, are not stored in our brains at all. They are actually stored in the DNA of each and every cell of our body!
This last piece of information is wonderful, because it explains how the lunatic in Ward 6 of your local mental institution who thinks he’s Napoleon probably has part of his DNA intermingled with his own, and is as sane as you or I. Furthermore, I’m afraid that Shirley McLaine has not lived many different lives, but she simply has considerable DNA from her ancestors; together with a vivid imagination.
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by Larry Jameson

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. on April 10, 2008, my wife, Beth, was standing at the office coffeepot discussing the recent layoffs with a co-worker when an employee from Human Resources stopped in and asked her to join her for a moment. Sure, you know what comes next. Beth became the latest victim of corporate restructuring.
I could hear the fear and disappointment in her voice when she called a few minutes later and simply said, "I’ve been laid off." Life had thrown a big, round-house curve. Unexpected? You bet. Beth was a few months away from her twenty-fifth anniversary in that department. Twenty-five years!
April 10, 2008 will be known in our house as the day of the big Pity Party, because we certainly had one. Woe is me. What do we do now? Et cetera. Then came an email from our youngest son at 2:47 that afternoon, just hours into our new life of misery and despair.
"I was just browsing Monster. Tell Mom I’m putting her in contact with a girl I know up in Fayetteville who works for a company that designs and creates resumes catered to that person and what they are seeking. She can have her resume looking good. I will give Mom her number. This is just the first step. Remember the ongoing message of your book. ‘Never Give Up!’ This is nothing but an opportunity." Then came April 11. Not only were we more inclined to pay attention to that email, our son came took us out for dinner and told us about a book he’d recently read entitled, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. Now, we’ve both read it, and every person facing change in their life needs to know the story. Telling it will not lessen the value of the book because it’s the type of book you need to have with you at all times.
It’s a wonderful little story about accepting change. Four characters, two mice and two little people, were in a dark, scary maze searching for cheese. They found a huge supply of it.
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by Marc De Bruin

"Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them -Stephen Covey.
Have you seen the movie "the Secret"? Many people rave about it, and partly for very good reasons., look at current results you have created in your life or business, both positive and negative. Realise in all honesty that you have created these results by your values hierarchy. And if you think some of the results were outside your sphere of influence, then realise in all honesty that you have created the response to these results through your values hierarchy!: have a close look at how you would like your results to be. If some of your current achievements aren’t the way you want them, ask yourself: what DO I want?: what values would you need to have in that specific area to start creating the results you desire? More business nous? More family time? Looking after your health a bit more? Improving communication skills? Find the values and put them into a hierarchy.: start living according to your new values more than you do to your old ones. What will you do differently? What actions are more in line with your new hierarchy?
It’s a great movie if you want to get some insights into how our brains actually operate on a -let’s call it- creation level. It is sometimes said that "it’s all in our minds", and I believe that to be true. Reality = Perception of Reality, and perception makes reality subjective, makes it our creation. The Secret teaches us that we, within our own perceived reality, are able to create whatever it is we want, as long as we put attention, energy and focus on our desires.
The speakers in the Secret are right. Over the years, I have been teaching my clients similar fool- and fail-proof techniques on how to do it: create a life and/or a business which is their conscious choice. The techniques are easy and simple, just as life is easy and simple (trust me: the more you work with this "stuff", the more you realise that life really is easy and simple. It’s us that make it seem complicated…)
The Secret forgets to mention one thing, though: the fact that you are already perfectly and exactly creating the life and business you want. Right now!
But hang on a minute, you may say: there things that are absolutely not working in my life at the moment! How come you say I am creating "perfectly"? There’s nothing perfect about it!
Well, here is a statement for you to chew on: as far as value system is concerned, you ARE leading a life and/or running a business in perfect creation. You may not like all the results, though.
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by Jan Malloch

How many times have you or others resolved to live more healthy lives only to fail due to lack of willpower? Whether it is losing weight, or stopping smoking, a re-occurring excuse of why people abandon these attempts is because they lack willpower.
The person did not fail - the blame lies squarely on something called willpower. Some people have a lot of it, while others have very little. That is why some succeed while others fail.
Hold on a minute!! Is this really true? Do you really need a ton of willpower to lose weight?
No. You do not.
If you were on a desert island with only coconuts and bananas to eat, would you lose weight? Of course you would. Imagine having no McDonalds round the corner, and no temptations to destroy your good intentions! And guess what? No willpower to lose weight would be required.
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by Anth Quinn

Motivation requires motive, is a nice catchy little phrase, but are all motives equal?
Did you know that motives for change come in two broad categories, moving towards something you want, or away from something you don’t?
If you are someone who naturally is naturally goal orientated, then chances are that you have a clear idea of what you want and find setting clear goals and achieving them comes pretty easy to you.
If you are someone who has gotten used to moving away from what you don’t want, then chances are that you could easily tell me what you don’t want, or what you want to stop doing. But if I ask you what you want, you’ll struggle to answer.
"Away from" motivation is very powerful but makes a poor long term motivation strategy for a number of reasons.
How many of these have you experienced?
1. Away from motivation is directionless, if you hate where you are then jumping in any direction might be preferable - ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ could apply perfectly here.
2. Away from motivation is cyclical, meaning that while you’re in pain you will be very motivated to move, but once you move away and the pain begins to subside, your motivation will decrease too. A typical example could be losing weight, if you feel fat you may in so much ‘pain’ that you can stick to that diet. But as your weight drops your motivation drops too and pretty soon ‘one cake’ won’t hurt will it? And the weight starts to creep back etc.
3. Away from motivation can move you towards what you don’t want! You will tend to move towards what you think about, so setting an away from goal means you have to think about what you don’t want, in order to avoid it. This means that you will be unconsciously focusing on and moving towards what you don’t want! Bad move!
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by Jack Deal

Recently a start-up social marketing Silicon Valley executive was quoted as saying "If you are comfortable when you launch your site you waited too late."
In other words, if one felt comfortable then this secure, comfortable feeling was an indication that one had fallen behind the innovation curve, a detriment to success. The implication was that innovation is inherently a tenuous and uncertain thing and that making it into a ‘comfort’ thing is very bad strategy.
Theodore Roosevelt called the comfort zone the "the Gray Twilight" and those that dwelt there "poor spirits". They neither enjoyed much nor suffered much and in fact in his opinion they didn’t really live very much either.
If we look back to the origins of social psychology and evolutionary psychology we quickly learn that never were our ancestors in a so-called comfort zone. Life was tough and a daily struggle for survival. That doesn’t mean there was never time to relax and enjoy…just not much time.
The most recent human evolution theories speculate that human gene mutations occurred 50,000 and a million years ago. These mutations were important because they increased the size of the brain and cranial capacity.
The ‘purpose’ of these mutations was to give our human team the survival edge; being able to think has distinct evolutionary advantages.
The ability to think gave both the individual and the tribe the edge. When things got difficult the thinking brain could figure out ways to find a solution.
Our noble cousins the apes and chimpanzees could not do that or at least do it on our level. That’s why our monkey-looking ancestors are called hominid and those "other animals" are called apes.
The net result is one species is in the zoo and the other on the outside looking in.
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by Anna Watkins

Action expresses priorities. (Mohandas Gandhi)
Many of us could have graduate degrees in excuse making. We have developed it to such a fine art that we really should get an honorary doctorate. Now you may be thinking that it would be terrific to have people calling you, "Doctor." However, all that excuse making skill will not cut it in the real world if we want to achieve our dreams and have an enjoyable life.
Let’s try another approach. Take your personal example and put it through this exercise. Your current story begins, "I can’t because blah blah blah." Here are some examples:
I can’t get a new job or promotion because my computer skills are not strong enough.
I need more clients but I don’t have the time or money to work on my marketing.
I want to spend more time with my family (friends or hobby), but my work is too demanding.
Is that really true? Do you have so little control over your life that these things are beyond your reach? Ha! If you really really really want to make this happen, you can!
Your NEW story begins, "I could if."
Now start writing and list as many actions as you can think of - no matter how crazy some of them may appear. No judgment - just writing!
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by Jesse Wade

It would be a fairly safe bet that all of us have had an illusion or two, and a lot of fantasies in our lives — I sure have!
In my yesterdays, when I was merely a developing dude, I fantasized that I was superman, and was bound and determined to disentangle, fix, interpret, unlock, and unravel all of the "bad guys." — and then enrapture them with the awareness, intelligence, philosophy, and principles they needed to become "good guys."
Of course, through the forwarding years, I slowly became aware that my fantasy was not to be…it was an illusion, the daydream of a child.
As my personal essence converted from a piddling bag of organic DNA to an adult dude, the fantasies slowly faded into oblivion…and there I was, gazing in the mirror at this creature, who had finally migrated into maturity.
My fantasies and illusions were gone, driven into the land of never-more…where they incarnated themselves, avoiding me like a plague.
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