Dreamers are thinkers. Achievers are thinkers and doers. If you want to accomplish great things in your life, then you must decide what you want, and then take action.

Here are 7 tips to help you achieve what you want in life, and to convert your dreams into reality.

1) To begin the process, you must imagine what you want in your future. How far into the future do you want to see? Is it next week, or twenty years from now? Let your thoughts flow and visit your future world. Be the writer of your own life story.

2) Write down the specific details of your newly designed future. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? How do you feel, and how do you look?

3) Now consider what changes you will need to make in your current life to live in your future world. Remember that your future is a wonderful destination that you have not yet visited. You have the power to make that destination a place so different from where you are now.

4) Plan your future as you would a holiday. This is crucial to ensure that you achieve what you want in life. Where will you go? How will you get there? What activities do you want to pursue? Remember, it is your decision to plan and arrange your trip of a lifetime!

5) Once you have decided on your itinerary, you must plan your trip in detail. Write down details of the various stages that you will need to complete your journey.

6) As with any holiday, there may well be delays and problems that you will encounter. But use your resourcefulness to overcome these. Remain determined and persistent to ensure that you reach your destination!

7) Completing each stage of your journey will give you such a wonderful sense of achievement. As you continue to accomplish more and more, your sense of achievement will soar. This will go a very long way in ensuring that your motivation levels remain high, and that you will reach your destination and enjoy it to the full!

Start planning your trip now. Your future is waiting for you, and I know that you will achieve what you set out to do!

I do not recall being motivated to do anything in particular as a young child. I do not think I was any different from most other children in that respect. There was, of course, always the motivation to “be good”, so that you gained a reward of some description. Whether it was a candy bar, or presents from Santa, it did not take long to learn that if you were good, then you got something good in return.

Setting goals as a young child was not on my agenda. All of my basic requirements were being provided by my parents. Before the age of ten, I did not need to set my sights on anything. I went to school and played with friends as young children are expected to do.

When I was ten, I experienced a major turning point. From then on, goal-setting and achievement began to play a significant role in my life.

My best friend lived across the road, and we had been friends since we were six. She was one of those academically- and musically-gifted people. She always did brilliantly at school, and she seemed to know every bit of general knowledge in existence. In reality, she probably knew very little, but she was a walking encyclopedia as far as I was concerned.

As if this wasn’t enough, my friend was very competent at playing the piano, the violin, the clarinet, and the guitar. It seemed that anytime I came to her house, she was either doing school work or practicing music. She certainly would not be found slumped in front of the TV idling her time away. My friend was also accomplished at school sports. Indeed, I wondered if there was anything she could not do!

My grades at school were what could only be termed as below average. I did not play any musical instruments, and I was no use at sports. It was perhaps rather surprising that we were best friends at all. I do not think I envied her, she was my best friend after all. She was she and I was me.

There was however one thing that my best friend had that I wanted. My friend had shown me how to play a couple of chords on her guitar, and I wanted to learn more. She was more than happy to teach me the basics. But I also wanted a guitar of my own.

In fact, I wanted a guitar above everything else in the entire world. So how does a ten year-old school kid get a guitar? Easy! You ask your mother to buy you one.

This was not going to go as I had planned however. My mother had just received my report card and she was not exactly brimming with pride. My 9 grades were either a poor C or an even poorer D. I was not exactly in the genius-class, and my mother had no doubts that I was a hopeless case academically.

I summoned up the courage to ask her for the guitar. I was expecting a straight-forward no. What she did say however was going to change my life. My mother said that if my next report card was all A grades, then she would buy me the guitar.

I knew what I had to do. As I was so determined to have the guitar, I was more than happy to take on the challenge. It was going to be four months or so before my next report card was due, so I had time to get my school work up to scratch.

Without realizing it, my mother had set me a SMART goal. Her goal was for me to do better at school. She was not concerned about the guitar, yet this was what provided me with the motivation to succeed. I knew exactly what I had to do to get what I wanted, and I had to start concentrating on my school work immediately to achieve it.

I got straight As on my report card. My mother bought me my guitar that weekend. Although I did not get very far with my guitar playing, I learned about setting and achieving goals. I learned about being motivated and being persistent. I learned that if I worked hard at something, then success would follow. This soon became a habit, and I have continued to set and achieve goals throughout my life.

Incidentally, the guitar cost my mother $10. I will be forever grateful to her for teaching me the steps to achieve what you desire in life.

To be really happy in life, you must appreciate yourself for who you are. If you are able to love yourself, you will be very much more confident, and be much more aware of your own abilities. You will be more positive, and you will be better prepared to accept the challenges that life presents.

Here are 7 tips to help you love yourself!

1) Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Recall your life achievements and write them down. What successes did you have at school? What accomplishments have you had during your working life? What have you achieved as a parent? I am confident that you will end up creating a very long list!

2) Read through your list, and recall how good you felt when you accomplished each of these. Remember how hard you worked to achieve the desired results. Congratulate yourself for each and every one of these achievements!

3) Now that you have a written record of your accomplishments, read through the list every day and acknowledge these achievements. This will imprint all of these wonderful thoughts and feelings in your mind.

4) Choose a day of the week to take stock of what you have done over the previous 7 days. It doesn’t matter if it is a Friday, Tuesday, or whatever, but make it a regular event. Write down everything that you have accomplished that week. They don’t have to be major achievements – cleaning the oven is definitely an achievement that you should acknowledge!

5) You should now see a pattern emerging. The things that you have achieved indicate the talents and strengths that you have. Write down the particular strengths that you would have needed to be successful in reaching your goals.

6) Appreciate yourself for who you are. Acknowledge the strengths and talents that you have. You are a unique individual who has achieved much in your life, and acknowledge that you will continue to accomplish more and more.

7) With your list of your strengths and talents, think of new ways to use these. Using your skills in different ways will help you reinforce that you are capable of achieving so much.

These exercises will help you appreciate yourself so much more. It really makes such a difference if you spend some time with you, and take stock of all of the wonderful things that you have done in your life. Writing your achievements down and rereading the lists regularly will ensure that these positive events are permanently implanted in your mind!

If you find yourself thinking negatively, you really must do what you can to change your thoughts! Negative thinking will place you on a downwards spiral, and it will most certainly rub off on other people.

Here are 7 of my tips to help you think more positively!

1) Stop what you are doing and sit down. Grab a piece of paper and write down what is causing you to think negatively. Be specific and put your thoughts down in detail.

2) Is it a particular situation or person that is causing the problem? Think about it in depth. Is it really your fault that you find yourself in this predicament? Often bad situations are caused by events outwith your control.

3) Try to identify other causes for the problem. Don’t blame yourself! If you spend time thinking about it, you are bound to discover outside influences that contributed to the situation.

4) Once you are able to confirm that these events have occurred due to something outwith your control, you are then able to stand back and stop pointing the finger of blame at yourself. This will be a major breakthrough as far as your thinking is concerned.

5) Review your circumstances again. Identify the positive aspects of the situation. There will be at least one. List every positive aspect you can think of. You should now be thinking of your situation much more positively.

6) What problems still exist with your situation? Work out ways in which you will solve that problem. And of course, ensure that you take action!

7) By addressing these remaining issues, you should be able to turn what was once a negative event into a much more positive experience. You will have learned a great deal from it, and add it to your life experiences!

When you find yourself thinking negatively, identify the causes that were outwith your control. Then take control of the situation by finding a solution to the problem. Nothing in life is truly insurmountable – you just need to take time to look at it more closely and find a solution!

It is of real benefit to you and others to be an optimist these days. All we hear about is doom and gloom about the economic climate. If that isn’t enough, we still have to hear about the apocalyptic global warming threat. So what makes an optimist? What makes some people have a positive attitude, while others wallow in their misery? Follow these tips to guarantee a feeling of optimism!

1) When something good happens to you, acknowledge that it was you who made it happen! I believe that there is no such thing as luck. Imagine that you secured a job that had several other applicants – all with great qualifications. You get the job. Congratulate yourself on your own abilities, qualities, and efforts that have ensured that you got the position. Never think that you were in the right place at the right time and that you were simply lucky with the interview questions. You passed the interview and got the job because of the qualities you have. These were evident at the interview, so take credit for all your hard work!

2) When good things happen, good things will continue to happen. Believe that when a positive event occurs, that other positive events will occur. If you are positive, then you will see your life in a positive light, and your outlook on life will become much more positive.

3) Acknowledge that positive events will affect all parts of your life. Once you are on that road, then you know that you will be successful in everything you do!

4) Of course, by positive, I don’t mean that all will turn out just as you want all the time. The importance of positive thinking is that you know that you will be able to find a solution to your problems and turn them around from being negative events into positive experiences. Whether you experience a negative or positive event, write the details down in a journal and reflect on the various aspects that contributed to that outcome. Congratulate yourself on your achievements and how you found solutions to your problems!

5) If you do experience a negative event, do not blame yourself for it! As an example, what if you missed your train? Reflect on what things were happening before you got to the station. Was the traffic really heavy, or did someone phone you just before you left the house? If you really look into the reasons for the negative event, you will be able to find that this was caused by an external factor out with your control. Think about it, and then forget it!

6) If you do experience a negative event, optimists know that this is a one-off event and is very unlikely to occur again. Pessimists on the other hand believe that negative events in their lives are normal, and if something good happens, then this is a purely a fluke or down to luck.

Change your outlook about events in your life and you will become much more of an optimist. Negative things do happen to everyone, but how you perceive them and how you handle them makes all the difference to how you deal with life’s challenges.

Don’t take life too seriously, and enjoy yourself!

Our ultimate mission in life is to achieve happiness. People seek it, but it eludes many of us. Perhaps it is because we cannot decide on what the definition of true happiness actually is!

I guess that happiness is essentially the absence of pain and sorrow. But that description only elevates you to a neutral position. What do you need to do to bring your emotions higher, and place yourself on a level of being very content with your life? The important phrase is “What do you need to do?” You must take action to achieve what you want.

Here are some steps to take stock to help you bring more fulfillment and happiness into your life.

1) Carry out an inventory of what you already have in your life. Make a long list of all of the good things you have. As well as material possessions, your list should include the names of friends and family, and the talents and strengths that you have.

2) Look through your list, and be so very grateful for what you have. If you are grateful for the wonderful relationships with your friends and family, tell them. When looking through your list of talents and strengths, are you using these to benefit yourself and others? If not, write down ways in which you can utilise these to their full advantage.

3) Reflect on your life, and write down your major achievements. This is a wonderful way to boost your self-esteem and confidence in yourself. By writing your accomplishments down, you can then acknowledge and fully appreciate what you have done in your life. Congratulate yourself on these achievements.

4) Now that you have your list of what you have and what you have achieved, write down a list of things that you don’t have and don’t want in your life. This is probably a list that you have never, ever compiled before! Here, you should write down the things that you are grateful for not having in your life. Examples may be that you are grateful for not having a particular life threatening disease, or that you are not homeless.

Take stock of what you have in your life, and show gratitude for these. Reflect on your achievements. These steps will help you appreciate your life so much more, and you will have started on your journey to happiness.

No matter what you achieve in life, you will have gained at least 2 positive outcomes. The first is that you will have accomplished the desired result, and secondly, you will feel such a wonderful sense of achievement!

So what are the benefits of the feel good factor?

1) This is such a marvellous bonus. I’m sure that God invented this feeling just to motivate us to reach our full potential! How wonderful it is to say to yourself “Wow, I achieved this, and I feel so good about it!”

2) Having such a feeling will motivate you continue to accomplish more and more in your life. As humans, we seek pleasure and do everything to avoid pain. What better pleasure than to know that you have done something really worthwhile to help you learn and grow?

3) Setting yourself challenges will allow you to stride ahead. Make sure that the goals you set yourself will stretch you. If a goal is too easy, then the reward will be small. The more you have to do to accomplish your goal, then the greater the sense of achievement and the greater the feel good factor.

4) The feel good factor is guaranteed to increase your self-confidence and your self-esteem. You will soon appreciate what you are capable of achieving.

5) The better you feel about yourself, the better your health will be. And the better your health, the more you will be able to accomplish!

6) Achieve things in your life that will help both you and others. Encourage and teach those people around you to achieve more and more. By helping others, you will certainly gain a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction.

7) Write down every one of your achievements as you complete them. Review your list at least every month to imprint these on your mind and to maintain your confidence levels.

The beauty of the feel good factor is that the more you achieve, the more you will want to achieve!

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 McDonald’s around the corner, and no temptations to destroy your good intentions! And guess what? No willpower to lose weight would be required.

In the real world, the successful dieters are those who do not rely on their own willpower to determine whether they succeed or fail. To succeed, you need to believe that willpower does not exist. Forget all about willpower. Remember that the secret of success is to believe in your own abilities.

You will succeed because you know that you can do it.

Tell the world (and his dog) that you are living a more healthy life. Avoid situations where you might be tempted to deviate from your good intentions.

If you find that these cannot be avoided, then stay focused on your goal. Go over the benefits in your head of what you will gain by losing weight. Keep telling yourself that you can do it.

Do not let an inanimate object like a hamburger dictate whether you live healthily or not.