4 Strategies to Attempt Something You Hate and Succeed

By Nancy Banfield Johnson

I hated crossword puzzles. The hints made no sense to me. I went through all the across and the down clues and could only fill in a few answers. With lots of spaces and no hope of completing the puzzle, I gave up. Without planning to, I recently learned how to overcome my hatred of crosswords. I have managed for the first time in my life to complete one. Here are lessons I learned that can help you if you want to try something you hate.

1. Find the motivation.

This summer a close family member had major surgery. We spent six to eight hours a day, day after day, sitting in a waiting room or at the bedside. I could have worked on my computer or read a book, but that felt selfish and unsocial. I was desperately bored. I completed all the other word games in the paper. So I decided to attempt the dreaded crossword puzzle.

2. Ask for help when you get stuck.

I told myself this would be different. If I just kept at it, I would get it. My hope sank as I skipped from one clue to the next with my pencil motionless in my hand. My niece heard me grumbling and started to help me. After that, every time I picked up a crossword, if I needed help, I asked for it or found answers in a dictionary, thesaurus or internet resource like "crossword heaven".

3. Keep an open mind.

My niece taught me that crossword clues can be misleading. What we thought was a verb turned out to be a noun. Some words we thought referred to one thing actually meant something else. I would be sure an answer was right, but when I could not make it work with the other answers, I was forced to reconsider. Over and over again, I found out what I originally was so sure of turned out to be wrong.

4. Make it fun to stick with it.

Before I was ready to give up soon after I started. As my niece and I sifted through the clues, we each came up with some funny answers. The rest of the family got involved. Soon we were all throwing out possible solutions and laughing at the most ridiculous ones.

Attempting to do something you hate is difficult. You may decide never to do this. (I certainly won't when it comes to cottage cheese. Who invented that rubbery, tasteless stuff, anyway?) If there is something you hate, but you would like to do, you now have some strategies to do it.

5 Simple Ways To Overcome Fear And Achieve Success

Fear can be a powerful motivator, giving you the strength to do things you never thought were possible. However, it can also have a crippling affect, leaving you incapable of performing the tasks necessary to achieve the success you deserve. You can overcome fear to achieve the success you seek, but it takes willingness and desire on your part to be able to reach past the fear and take action. Here are five ways you can start the process of overcoming fear to achieve the success you deserve:

1. Knowing what it takes to succeed

It's not enough to have a picture of the final destination in mind. You need to write down clear goals, break those goals down into manageable steps, and then move forward one step at a time. It's hard to be fearful of a single day's to-do list, but as you build achievement upon achievement one day at a time, you will achieve success.

2. Set realistic expectations

You might want to be able to pay off all your debt, quit your job, and make a million dollars within six months, but if you want to overcome fear, you need to start by having realistic goals in the first place. What is it that you truly want? Is waking up every morning and going to work at a dead-end job draining your spirit? Focus first on making a goal to replace the income from your job with enough income from your entrepreneurial activities so that you can escape the cubicle, then work on increasing your earnings to achieve your million-dollar goal.

3. Surround yourself with successful people

Associating with people who believe in your ability to succeed is one of the surest ways of overcoming fear to achieve success. If you are constantly surrounded by people who try to kill your dreams and want you to conform, you will lose faith in yourself and become fearful. By choosing to be around people who have achieved what you want to achieve, you can begin to believe in your own ability, vanquishing fear. You will achieve success.
4. Recognize that change takes time

Making changes takes time, and overcoming fear to achieve success is a continual process that requires you to keep pushing forward, reminding yourself of the small successes along the way, and being forgiving to yourself when the outcome is not exactly what you desired.
5. Believe in yourself

20 WORDS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Anthony Robbins Tony Robbins Motivational Speech Better Than Obama Inaug...

http://youtu.be/0Bcxwhzyh7c

The 4 Wives – Motivational Story

There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best.

He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He’s very proud of her and always wanted to show off her to his friends. However, the merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other men.

He too, loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person, always patient and in fact is the merchant’s confidante. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.

Now, the merchant’s 1st wife is a very loyal partner and has made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.

One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, “Now I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I’ll be alone. How lonely I’ll be!”

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, “I loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I’m dying, will you follow me and keep me company?” “No way!” replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word.

The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant’s heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, “I have loved you so much for all my life. Now that I’m dying, will you follow me and keep me company?” “No!” replied the 3rd wife. “Life is so good over here! I’m going to remarry when you die!” The merchant’s heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd wife, “I always turned to you for help and you’ve always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?” “I’m sorry, I can’t help you out this time!” replied the 2nd wife. “At the very most, I can only send you to your grave.”

The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.
Then a voice called out : “I’ll leave with you. I’ll follow you no matter where you go.” The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant said, “I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !”
Actually, we all have 4 wives in our lives
a. The 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it’ll leave us when we die.
b. Our 3rd wife ? Our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they all go to others.

c. The 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when we’re alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

d. The 1st wife is in fact our soul, often neglected in our pursuit of material, wealth and sensual pleasure.

Guess what? It is actually the only thing that follows us wherever we go. Perhaps it’s a good idea to cultivate and strengthen it now rather than to wait until we’re on our deathbed to lament.

Daily Motivations - Simple Ideas Yield Great Achievements

I want you to think about something. When your riding through town. What do you see? You see business. People constantly on the move. Businesses opening up and greeting new customers You witness life. Now take a closer look. Do you see anything that they all have in common? They are providing a service, a value, new products, new ideas, and the list goes on. What are these businesses. They are the typical fastfood chains, department stores, coffee shops, delis, bakeries. Now lets dive in a little bit deeper. Why were they built? Who built them? Where did they originate? Who founded them? When we answer we find some interesting answers. This goes back to what I was saying about seeing through the illusions. It all had to originate from an idea.

A simple idea. If we could travel back into time where these ideas originated we would find that the founder who is very successful was just a person like you and me who had a simple thought that came to mind. The founder of McDonalds ( Ray Croc) was not the founder of the original concept. That concept was derived from two brothers who had a burger stand. Back in the early fourties the nation seemed to be on its way out of war and jobs started booming. People were on the move again. The brothers thought that "what about if we catered to thier needs." They are constantly on the move. Why not have a quick meal. The brothers capitalized on this thought. They opened a burger stand that provided a quick meal( hamburger, frenchfries, and a cold drink) for the customers on the move. The customers loved it and thier sales skyrocketed. They soon generated enough revenue to expand. They opened some resturaunts and they were a success, but they never foreseen how much of a dynamic this business could be. That is where Ray Croc came into the story. He was a franchisee who had joined and opened up his own McDonalds and utilized the assemblyline concept(making go to order fresh food). He visioned many resturaunts utilizing this concept and the success that this would incour. He purchsed the business form the brothers and grew McDonalds into the dynamic it is today.All of this made possible from a simple idea,

Lets look at another resturaunt that is familiar. Taco Bell is found in almost every city and town. Many years ago there was a gentleman by the name of Glenn Bell who started a hotdog stand in San Bernadino California in 1946. He decided to open up a second stand and sell something a little different. He was selling tacos out of a side window. People had been a customed to the hotdog craize, but the tacos was something new and different.

This attracted many customers and started to bring in revenue.This allowed him to open up three taco stands and continue the growth of the business. Since his business was getting successful he partnered with a local resturateur. They named this franchise El Tacos. Glenn decided after a while to open his own franchise.He then sold all of his interest in the previous franchise and opened his own Taco Bell. He utilized his knowledge from years of working in the business. It took only two years to develope and he generated enough revenue to expand. After fourteen years his business was soo successful that he sold it to Pepsico which they merged with non-burger food chains. This all made possible from a simple idea. I want you to see the common denominators. I also want you to look at the money making units.

I want to give you a perspective . So many times do we just let life pass us by. So many things that have so much potential staring us straight in the eyes and we never see them for what they are. We are so busy with life that we don't stop to think and observe. The next time that your driving down the road turn off the radio, observe the environment around you and realize you can create and form complex business dynamics from simple concepts. Realize that you can be successful too. Here is another thought instead of getting up every morning and doing that same old routine(putting money into other peoples pockets) start to bring values to others and watch your life change.

An Olympic Attitude - How to Achieve Greatness in Your Life

Michael Phelps has done it again, and big. He now holds the record for the most golds won at a single Olympics- a whopping eight. Overall he has won an amazing sixteen Olympic medals.

Can you apply his Champion mind-set to your life? Certainly you can, with two steps:

1. Get a coach: We all need someone. You need someone there to encourage you, keep you disciplined and on track in the day-to-day challenges of life. Michael Phelps has a coach in Bob Bowman, but you can have a supportive spouse, best friend or even an actual coach.
2. Put some "Time" in each of your Banks: Time is money. Unfortunately most people do not make that connection. With each action of your day you are spending Time/Money on that activity. If the critical areas of your life are the physical, inner-peace, relational, financial and spiritual, then you need to deposit some "Time" in each of those Banks with each action you take. Start to look at the five critical areas of your life as Bank accounts that you deposit "Time" in.

Michael Phelps has obviously been putting an enormous amount of "Time" in his Physical Bank and he just cashed out with a few Gold medals. Being at the top certainly has its rewards and he increased all five of his Banks while at the Summer Olympics.

• Physical Bank: The Olympics are the ultimate test of someone in top Physical shape and Michael was just rewarded with eight medals. This certainly qualifies as having a huge Physical Bank account balance!
• Relational Bank: Michael's Mom and sisters were there supporting and loving him as evident by him climbing into the stands to give all three of them a kiss after winning his eighth medal. A supporting and loving family supports a strong Relational Bank.
• Inner-Peace Bank: Most certainly Michael's self-confidence must be at an all time high with this celebration. Inner-Peace is found in such amazing moments.
• Financial Bank: Endorsements and sponsors will be following this amazing achievement, thus increasing his Financial Bank for years to come.
• Spiritual Bank: I can only imagine how connected he felt to the world as a whole and how alive he must have felt. That feeling of connectedness and celebrating such human achievements is what draws us to the Olympics.

Bob Bowman, Michael's coach, understands how to push him.

"Bob has a saying, 'Putting money in the bank,' " Phelps said. "When we train every day, sometimes there are workouts you don't like, don't want to do. Bob says you're putting money in the bank. "I guess I put a lot of money in the bank over the last four years, and we withdrew pretty much every penny in the bank. After Bob and I both grab a little break, it'll be time to start depositing."

After pushing himself for so long Michael Phelps is ready to head back home to Baltimore. He is balancing out his Bank accounts. It seems to me that Michael and Bob understand how to use their Banks. Do you?