Personal Development Articles

Have you ever driven a familiar route, only to arrive with no real recollection of how you got there? Scary when you think about it isn’t it? Yet when we were learning to drive, it took all our powers of concentration to coordinate our hands and feet, not to mention negotiate a busy junction. All the things we do on a daily basis without even thinking about are stored in the subconscious part of our minds. These include the way we brush our teeth, the way we tie our shoes, the way we drive and so on.

I’m writing this article on a Friday morning. A couple of years back, I did a breakfast seminar – a short discussion on effective personal development – for a large organization in Dublin.

Delegation is one of the most powerful tools for effective time management, and it's also the most psychologically loaded. Relying on others can bring up deep-seated issues of dependency and trust. Many people, from managers at work to adults at home with a family, often fall into the trap of ‘doing everything.' You may think that you can do the task better, or faster, than anyone else can. Or you may simply not want to impose on anyone by asking for help. You may even do everything yourself because you feel guilty if you're not busy all the time!

Today, more and more people in all the different parts of the world are looking for the right partner with whom they can “live happily ever after”. Many people succeed and many others find it difficult to find the right person. But who is the right person?

Where was God in Haiti? By Kris Timpert This quote in bold print "Where was God in Haiti?" took up an entire page of a newspaper I saw this morning. The article went on to discuss the suffering of the religious people in the world. All those people who have been waiting for a savior. “Where is the savior?” exclaimed the author. Here you have these poor people in Haiti, destitute, abandoned, hungry, injured and crying for help. Imagine the prayers rising up to the heavens. What do we expect to happen here on Earth when such a disaster happens?

There has been a lot of talk about inflation, depression and recession lately. There are only two ways to really “shield” yourself from the dire news that are flooding the media left and right; one is to move to a remote cave in the Himalayas. The second (and easier) option is... to transform your current “prosperity vibration”. And how do you know that you’re NOT vibrating in a negative frequency regarding money and prosperity? EASY. I have a quick quiz to all my personal coaching clients who face money challenges.

Worry is corrosive form of useless thought – that is all worry is. Yet, it turns mole hills into mountains, conjures up imaginary crises and transforms the small puddles that we have to inevitably step over in life into raging impassable rivers. Instead of looking at life’s little hand grenades for what they really are, our sad little minds turn them into weapons of mass self-destruction. Worry is not just a waste of your energy – worry, at best, is stifling the life out of you – at worst, it is the cancer that is eating you from the inside out.

You find you are in the middle of a dissatisfying life. You are consistently feeling betrayed. You are attracting chaos to yourself and cannot figure out why…. There are pieces of you that screaming for attention and to be healed. The messages are louder and louder and are showing up in the form of vast self sabotaging actions. These actions are reverberating out in to your relationships at the speed of light. One relationship after another is not working out. Life is lacking in passion. Embitterment is beginning to become a regular state of being.

Sensitivity and kindness go a long way to building strong relationships. For a leader, that means building relationships with suppliers, customers, team members and others in your organization. A leader who is all business and treats people in an impersonal, calculated way won't inspire much cooperation or commitment from others.

Whether it comes in the form of a pile of unpaid bills, a contentious argument with your spouse, a worrisome health problem, or a traffic jam, stress is a part of everyday life. While some stress is inevitable, when your body repeatedly encounters a set of physiological changes dubbed the stress response, trouble can brew. Stress may contribute to or exacerbate various health problems, including these: high blood pressure, suppression of the immune system, headaches, insomnia and depression. The good news is it is possible to dismantle negative stress cycles.

Mindfulness allows you to relate to and deal directly with whatever is happening in your life. Instead of struggling to escape, suppress or avoid distressing thoughts and feelings, mindfulness helps you approach whatever is going on in your life, in your thoughts, and with your emotions, without becoming overwhelmed. When you start being more mindful and start living in the present moment, you'll experience your life more fully, and become more in touch with yourself, who you

The vast majority of people raising children are ill equipped for the job. Now, we all know the general comments like “How come they don’t teach you about this at school?” or “Why is there no training to be a parent?” But that’s not what I’m talking about. Those of us who are parents know that nothing, but nothing, actually prepares you for the day you bring your first child home from the hospital. But that’s not even what I’m talking about – I’m talking about something a lot more fundamental – and something that is ruining the next generations’ lives. Decades

"When you repeatedly see an image in a way that activates a positive emotional charge, you become more likely to move towards it (even if it seems like a long shot). In action things happen. You talk to others, resources multiply, and your eyes open to opportunities. Suddenly you disce it was ...

If the path of one’s life is already predetermined and our choices cannot change the outcome, doesn’t that cause you to feel disempowered? I have to offer gratitude to my friend for asking me this very question. It is an excellent question. Can we really be disempowered to know that our destination has already been set? Is it disempowering to know that a highway exists betwee New Jersey and Califo ia and that driving your car west will eventually take you there?

1. All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible. This is something I often repeat, however I cannot stress highly enough the need to know what you want, and to define a singular, overriding goal for your life. We do not need to know how we will accomplish that, we just need to be mindful that the things we do, move forward this singular purpose. 2.

There are so many reasons to become a coach I hesitate to write about just seven. As a Coach and Coach Trainer I see dreams made real on a daily basis and this is just the start. Here are my top 7 reasons to become a coach: 1. Personal Development: Through the process of becoming a coach you have an opportunity to develop yourself beyond your wildest imagination. Many students graduate from coach training completely rejuvenated with a new zest for life. 2.

Whether you are feeling overextended, overcommitted and overwhelmed, or just ready to free more time for summer, the following tips can help you take the first steps toward conquering your time crunched lifestyle find more time for "off the clock" fun. "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." ~ Peter F. Drucker

By any standard, growing a small business is a balancing act. The clearer you are about your goals and the more organized you become with your marketing and sales efforts, the greater your chance for success. I hope this checklist will serve to inspire and support your efforts. 1) Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one marketing activity. 2) Keep an “inspiration” file where you can easily drop in clippings or ideas for later reference. 3) Carry business cards with you every day, ALL day. (They don’t any good in the box!)

I Googled "dating" this morning - Google came up with 268m results. Whether it's online dating, speed dating, lunch dating or singles holidays, events for singles... actually I Google gave me even more results for singles - 288m. Lots of people are looking for something that's missing in their lives - whether it's companionship, friendship or love. But there's a problem. Almost everyone who's out there "looking for love" is normal.

We’ve all learned from first hand experience that stepping into the unknown can be both exciting and scary at the same time. The human spirit is born to explore and discover, while our ego and subconscious may suggest we play it safe based on past events. So, how do we know when to act and when to pass? I’ll make this as easy and straight forward as I can. Don’t analyze the decision with your head, feel how it feels in your gut. Of course you want to do your research and homework but at the end of the day, how do you feel about your idea or plan?

"I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line." --Lucile Ball, 1911-1989, Comedienne and Actress We all heard the saying a million times before---“When you take care of yourself first, you will then be better able to take care of, and give your best to the people you care most about”. How many of us follow this prescription? For me, I am now becoming more conscious of this wonderful truth. I was always so busy worrying about everyone else’s needs first, that I put my needs and thoughts to the sideline.

Are you constantly feeling tired and lacking in energy? Do you feel drained at the thought of the things on your to do list? Are you looking for a way to overcome tiredness and loss of energy? What are your first thoughts of the day when the alarm goes off? Do you smile and bounce out of bed? Or do you groan and wish you could have a few more hours under the duvet? Do you feel so overwhelmed that its easier to slumping front of the TV instead of taking action ? How many times do you put something off until tomorrow and tomorrow never comes?

I've been thinking lately of how I could put together a list of success principles based on my travel achievements. I've lived a pretty adventurous, courageous and successful life travelling the globe. You don't do that unless you possess certain qualities and character traits. I wanted to put together something as to how anyone could apply these same principles to other aspects of their life and achieve the same success. Success principles work no matter what avenue you use them for. I sat down to think about it and put some ideas together when I reached a blank.

We all have times in our lives when we are feeling sad or down about something for one reason or another. One may walk around feeling totally drained, numb and basically not in tune with the best life has to offer.

When we are having difficulty in adult relationships it is often because we are approaching them from the perspective of the ‘hurt child.’ This is someone who is always looking for love and approval, and is hypersensitive to criticism. If a person comes from an environment of deep criticism, that person will develop a hyper intuitiveness, and a hypervigilance around other people… constantly wondering what others are thinking and feeling. Their tentacles are out “feeling” the situation, sensing the danger, or the OK to proceed. This can result in a deep lack of spontaneity.

Most life coach training courses encourage you to choose a niche such as Divorce Recovery Coaching or Career Coaching. Within each of these niches lie endless opportunities. As a Coach and Coach Trainer I know that most six-figure income coaches ultimately end up tapping into multiple streams of income. Here are 8 ideas for areas within which you might obtain coach training. Training in these areas is included in the programs at www.WorldCoachInstitute.com. 1.

In this hotly competitive marketplace, more companies are turning to image consultants as a cost-effective tool to differentiate their products and services from others in the marketplace.

Even though the effects of depression might be all too real in your life, depression is not real. If you’re suffering from depression, you’re only imagining it because depression is the direct result of your subconscious mind’s obsession with useless thoughts that were impressed upon it during your formative years. I know that this may seem completely unreasonable to anyone who is trapped in the dark by depression – or, indeed, to anyone whose life is deeply affected because a loved one or family member suffers from depression. But it is a psychological fact.

If you are considering life coach training, career coach training or any other type of coach training you probably have found a number of options out there and may be feeling overwhelmed. I understand. I was there once too! A good coach training program like the programs you will find at www.WorldCoachInstitute.com will encompass several key qualities: 1. Coach Training Hours.

Do positive self-affirmations actually work? The short answer is ‘No’ – unless you have a few years to spare and a heavy-duty supply of perseverance. The problem is that self-affirmation is directed at the conscious mind and, unfortunately, your conscious mind has absolutely nothing to do with the way you behave, how you react to people and in situations, how you view the world or, most importantly, the view that you take of yourself.

All of us carry wounds from the past. We may or may not be conscious of them. Either way, they inhibit our ability to embrace life. If we want more of life’s blessings, we need to heal our wounds – our repressed emotions and old patterns and limiting beliefs. How do we identify these wounds? We can dig deep into our memory banks in an effort to uncover the experiences that first brought us pain and trauma. Or we can address our pain when it surfaces in daily living.

The key to improving your memory is to exercise your imagination and get as many of your senses involved as possible while encoding the information that you want to remember. The better your imagination, the better your memory and your ability to memorize a list. The following exercise will help you to better understand what I mean. I want you to take no more than 60 seconds to memorize the following list in order: * juicern * cheesern * oatmealrn * muffinrn * sausagern * pud

We’re in our eighth great year living in the French Alps. When we upped and left Ireland in 2002, many friends and clients remarked that we were taking a courageous decision – after all, our children were thirteen, eleven and eight years old at the time and were establishing their own little lives. Similarly, I walked away from a big job in banking in 1996 to set up my practice as a consultant and mentor – what I’m still doing today. Once again, at the time, many people told me that I was brave and courageous to do that.

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to better yourself and being constantly beaten backwards. Embarking on the adventure of personal development can sometimes seem similar to trying to scale Mount Everest and finding that, every time you make a little progress, you suddenly start sliding down the mountain all the way back to base camp. You’ve done the training, got the right equipment and tools but you just don’t seem to be getting anywhere – and fast!

What is the secret formula to being happy? It seems most of us, no matter how hard we try are always coming up short. Why is it we work so hard at trying to be happy but find what actually comes our way is stressful, painful or disappointing? For me, I believe happiness is learning how to be a good Gardener. We are taught many things as small children but no one ever tells us how to be truly happy.

Spend a few moments glancing at the websites of any of the major international news services - it is little wonder that so many of my clients have been emailing me to tell me just how difficult it is to stay positive at present. And these are people that I've been working with for some time - sometimes for years - they should know better. Actually, they do know better - but with so much bad news around, they're finding that it takes less effort to simply follow the herd and slip into the same weird and "wonderful" world that most so-called normal people are drowning in at present.

Perhaps you’re stressed out – or you’ve had enough of your awful boss. Maybe you’re overweight and simply haven’t had the staying power to shed those pounds. Maybe you’re lonely – looking for friendship or a relationship but you freeze every time you’re in company. Perhaps you almost collapse every time you have to stand up in front of an audience to make a presentation – or are getting more and more frustrated by the way you shout at your children when you know that you don’t mean to.

Most people experience self-doubt on a regular basis and I am not immune. I have spent entirely too much of my life trying to accept myself as I am. While easy for me to see how wonderful and special you are, it was a challenge for many years to see myself in the same light. It’s no wonder that my first book focuses on “self-discovery and acceptance.” And it’s no wonder that my journey led me into psychiatric nursing and success coaching not only to work on my own personal development, but to assist others in their personal leadership development as well.

I have read the other day an article about judging the quality of a diamond and it remembered me about the goal of becoming a diamond in a very important network marketing company. How about this perspective about your goals? How about thinking about your goals as diamonds and rate them the same? First, let’s find out how you check a diamond's value. When it comes to judge a diamond’s value, everything it is reduced to 4 C’s:rn- Color - Clarity - Carat weight - Cutr

If you really want to get what you want in life you must stop using the law of attraction. That’s right. Stop using it. Right now! Instead, if you truly want to begin creating changes in your life you must learn to focus on those things that you really want. Make this shift in your mindset and you will immediately start seeing better results in your life. This isn’t because there is some sort of problem with the law of attraction, far from it! The law of attraction is one of the most powerful guiding forces in your life. That is not the problem.

Visioning Your Dreams Many people at the beginning of the year propose and declare resolutions or intentions for the upcoming year. There are many ways to vision your dreams for the upcoming year.

In chatting recently to a client who was on the brink of making a major upward career move, I was told that, whilst he was totally relaxed in almost a carefree way about everything that seemed to be just effortlessly happening around him, in his odd quiet moment he still heard a little voice inside him whisper “No you can’t!” We all have voices in our head, some that egg us on, some that put us down, some that put us under such pressure that we are paralysed when it comes to our moment to perform.

A number of years ago, a friend of mine asked me if I was happy. I replied that I was 100% happy at the time, to which she responded "Oh, that's very sad!" I went on to explain to her that one finds happiness within (where else would you expect to find it?) and that my being happy didn't mean that I didn't want to achieve more, that I didn't want more of all the good things that life has to offer. I used the word "want" but, in truth, what I meant was "prefer". You see, generally speaking, we haven't got a clue as to what we really want.

If you have decided to transition into a coaching career while still holding another job here are some tips for a smooth transition. 1. Obtain a coaching certification. There are many evening and daytime coach certification courses offered to suit any schedule. Choose one that offers a minimum of forty-eight hours of “live” training with an additional minimum of twelve hours of self-study so that if you decide to apply for an International Coach Federation (ICF) credential you will have enough coach training hours to do so.

Change life by taking action to get organized and energized! Inaction leads to anxiety. Action gets things done. The sooner you take action, the faster you feel great. Overwhelm is common. It does not make you any less of a person. It is all in how you deal with it that counts. Follow these 10 tips to get organized and energized, then begin! 1- Get your ‘to do’ list out of your head and into a system- Your brain is more efficient with less clutter just like a computer. Go through the areas of your home and jot down what needs to be done in each area.

You know the old expression - "They're a born leader!"? Is there any such thing - or can we all be leaders? Is there any secret that can be learned - that we can all learn? Or are some "leaders" and most of us "followers"? Well, first of all, let's get a few facts straight. Most people who find themselves in leadership positions, wouldn't be able to lead themselves out of a paper bag!

Surely we hit what might be described as the ‘peak performance zone’ when we are striving to achieve our goals. Goals, by their very nature, are things that we don't have at present – they are things that we are aiming for in the future. So why do so many personal development experts or ‘gurus’ place so much emphasis on the here and now? For example, the title of Ekhart Tolle’s book ‘The Power of Now’ says it all. What is the point of looking to the present moment if, at present, you find yourself in a place in your life that you want to get out of?

Have you ever woken in the midst of a beautiful night’s sleep and just been drifting off again when some inane silly little thought flits across your mind? And another linked thought comes to join in and soon you find yourself off on a train of thought that takes you to all the places that you really don’t want to go. So many people, myself included, talk of the ridiculous and outrageous thoughts that don’t only keep you awake at four o’clock in the morning – they scare the living daylights out of you.

“You cannot look at someone’s exterior and know what’s going on inside.” This quote from the book The Journey Called YOU is a very profound statement because what it means is that looks can be very deceiving; someone who seems to have it all together may in fact be living a life of lies.

My husband and I recently took a vacation to Kauai, Hawaii to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful time even though it was just one week.