It's Persistence, Not Luck, That Leads to Success

By Lisa Ryan

"When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck." Estee Lauder

Do you know what you want out of your life? Can you see your future clearly in your mind's eye and do you know down to the very core of your being that you're working towards your life's purpose? If so, congratulations! If you're not quite there yet, take a few moments and imagine what your life would be life if you were living on purpose. How wide is the gap between what you want to be doing and what you're currently engaged in?

Sometimes we get "stuck" in a situation that is clearly not where we want to be. Maybe it's because of financial considerations, family expectations, or self-imposed limitations. If you dread going to work every day, it may be time to reconsider the track you're on and look for ways you can progress towards what you want out of life.

It's easy to advance towards your goals when things are going well, when you're "in the flow." You feel great, you're on a "high," and things couldn't be better. Because of your positive momentum, when challenges first happen, you turn on your inner turbo-boosters and plow forward.

However, when it seems nothing is going right, challenges are abounding, and you're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, you may start questioning your sanity, your motivations, and whether you should be continuing down this crazy path.

Here are some tips to keep you on track so you can reach the pinnacle of your personal and professional pursuits, whatever they are:

1. Acknowledge yourself for each and every little victory. So often we are looking for what is going wrong, what has gone wrong or what could go wrong that we don't see how many things are going well. At the end of each day, write down your list of "wins" and take a moment to celebrate your accomplishments.

2. Learn from your lessons. It's been said that a lesson is repeated until the lesson is learned. When something goes wrong, take a moment and assess exactly what happened. Then try something different, even a slight shift can make a big impact. This may take you out of your comfort zone, but doing things in a different way will lead to different - and probably better - results.

3. Be grateful. Get into the practice of looking for people, events and circumstances for which you can be thankful. You don't have to wait until something really "big" happens. When you wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, think of three things that you appreciate about your life. Then think of three more things that you can be grateful for in advance of them happening during the day. In this way, you'll set a positive expectancy for your day and chances are that your day will turn out as good, or even better, than you originally imagined.

Think of your challenges as just another part of your story. Every delay, mistake, and denial is part of what it takes to make your victory stronger and more satisfying than if it happened easily and without trials and tribulations. You are on your way, and your efforts will pay off in ways you may not have imagined. Go for it!

PS - Persistence pays. Slow and steady wins the race - it's all just a matter of time.

Lisa Ryan is the Chief Appreciation Strategist with Grategy. She is a keynote speaker, gratitude expert, and author of five books including "The Upside of Down Times: Discovering the Power of Gratitude" and she is featured in two documentaries: "The Keeper of the Keys" with Jack Canfield and "The Gratitude Experiment.".

Learn more about Lisa Ryan at http://www.grategy.com

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Are Your Goals Aligned With Your Passions? by Michele Willmott

You may have heard about the importance of writing down and setting your goals for the future. And as the famous quote says, “if you fail to plan you plan to fail!”
Consider the following questions however:
Are your goals aligned with what you are truly passionate about?
Are your goals just based on what you think you should do or should have or should be?
How much do you really care if you achieve your goals or not?
It might seem like a nice idea to own a gigantic yacht, have it moored at Cannes marina, wear designer clothes, drink copious bottles of champagne an party all night, because that’s what the celebrities do! But if this isn’t really your thing and you would rather have a romantic night in with a DVD and a takeaway curry then chances are that you won’t be bothered whether you achieve the goal or not!

When setting your goals for the up and coming year, 5 years or 10 years it is a great idea to start from the standpoint of your passions. It is then that you will feel really, dare I say it, “passionate” about achieving them. Your goals will also be closely aligned with your values or guiding principles. Your values are the things that are so important to you that you wouldn’t want to live your life without them.

When your goals have been created from this starting point and you achieve or experience them, you will feel a whole host of positive emotions. How about feeling a sense of aliveness, freedom, joy, pampering, excitement, confidence, recognition, or success to name but a few!? This also has numerous connotations for helping us to lead a life free from stress.

So, what things do you love to do, what excites you and which of those things would you really not want to do without in your life?
Make a list of 10 things and write down the answer to these questions “Why, do I love doing that” or “why, is that important to me”.

To give you an example; when I was trying to whittle down my list of passions to just 5, I realised that if I could connect with the feelings and qualities that I love to have in my life, then I am more likely to set goals which come from the heart. Goals that would feel truly satisfying and fulfilling, once I had achieved them. So for me, the feelings I love to experience are: joy; aliveness; a sense of being connected to others and the universe; a sense of luxury or being pampered; vitality & energy; feeling successful; confidence, honesty and intimacy, amongst others.

The next step was to ask myself “What things do I really love to do which help me to get in touch with these feelings?” Some of my answers were: travelling to new and exciting places; meditating & practising yoga; dancing (salsa); giving personal or wellness coaching to others; having the opportunity to attend workshops where I can learn more about myself and grow as a person; enjoying great food (but definitely not cooking it myself!) being in nature; enjoying open and honest communication.
In order for me to be able to experience and recreate the feelings that mean so much to me (as it is then that I feel like I am really living my life fully!) it makes sense for me to set my goals around the achievement of such feelings.
Following on from this, some of my goals (in a very general form) are:
1)To be a great Life Coach and continue to expand my business.
2)To continue my Meditation & Yoga practice – as this is where I feel abundant and connected and peaceful.
3)To travel to new places and attend workshops where I can learn more about myself & meet like-minded people.
4)To Dance (with my husband) as often as I can.
5)To work on having honest, open and authentic relationships.
Once you have worked out what you really want from your life, how you would like to feel and what you love doing, you are then in a great place to set your goals.

The following step would then be to be more specific about the goal itself and give it a time frame. Make it a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time specific) or in the coaching world replace the R with Resonant (does it get you excited?) and the T with Thrilling (does it sound thrilling to you?).
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I am passionate about helping people to feel good about themselves and their lives. I love that coaching enables me to see people at their most amazing selves,! I am a qualified Life Coach, Yoga and Meditation teacher. I enjoy working with a number of UK Television personalities and coach individuals from all walks of life. ways to reduce stress

Tips on How to Use Mantras to Accomplish Your Goals Author: Dion Daly

A lot of people think of mantras as just verbal things, which they are not. So what are they? Well, they are a personal ritual. An action that a person can initiate to achieve something they want. This action could be a physical action, a sound, a syllable, word or group of words, mental or even spiritual. Mantras are believed to be capable of producing a significant change in a person because they can be used as a powerful driving force to aid a person realizes a certain purpose.

Basically they are a life style that helps in personal development. Personal verbal mantras involve repeating your goal and what you are going to do to achieve it over and over again. What this repetition does is remind your brain of how important your goal is to you. A physical mantra would be moving: like, repeating a physical movement over and over again until it becomes ingrained in the brain. A spiritual one would be continuous prayer for an outcome that you want. A mental one would be taking on a different way of thinking about things. It is up to you to choose what way would be best for you to practice.

But, the good thing is, you can use them for anything that you want to achieve in life: things like attaining personal goals, producing a significant transformation in your life style or even developing your psychic capabilities.

So how do you utilize mantras to attain your goals? Here are a few simple steps you can use:

First: make a list of your goals.
The thing is you must make clear your goals. What is it that you want to accomplish? You need to be specific about what you want to accomplish. Could it be succeeding in getting your first half a million dollar by the age of 28, or is it you want to own your first house six years after you begin working.

Second: write down the purpose for wanting to achieve your goals.
Why do you want to have half a million by the age of 28? Is it because you want to realize a sense of financial well-being? So you must find out the commitment that will aid drive you. This commitment will be your incentive to work harder towards attaining your goals.

Third:put your list somewhere you can see it every-day.
So you need to put your list somewhere noticeable. This could be the mirror on your dressing table, wallet or purse.

Fourth: repeat your mantra.
Repeat it 20 times out loud in the morning, afternoon and before going to bed. And every time an obstacle comes in your way. Your mantra will work if you have listed strong enough motives that will force you to get back up and start working towards your goal again.

You must make the whole of your life your own personal mantra. Remember to be tenacious in supporting your mantra by taking action: meaning do any little thing you can every-day that will take you nearer to your goal and great rewards are sure to follow.

One thing to remember is that for best results try to create your own mantra because it will then be personal which means that your unconscious mind will work even that much better towards achieving your gaols.

A few samples of a verbal mantra to say out loud:

I have all the energy I need to accomplish my goals.
My life is a success-story.
I am a winner-I win often, and I win big!
My imagination is now creating all the financial abundance that I desire.
I let go of worry. I enjoy the natural flow of this day; whatever it may bring.
I want to open my mind, body, sprit to become ______ and understand why.
I will do my best to take note of my true self.
I can be who-ever I want to be.
As you can see they are easy to construct, so you can come up with your own ones Good Luck!

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About the Author

Dion Daly is a certified trainer in hypnosis, a master practitioner in NLP and TLT. He also has a degree in metaphysics.

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