Welcome To Self Improvement

Time Management is like a baby’s toy – a small pyramid on a stick. Time-management is a stick around which all our life turns as wheels and is strung on our time. We can talk a lot about how to put things in order on your table or how to properly file documents. But all this is only marks on our wheels. We always want to put them in the proper order: the biggest at the bottom, the smallest on the top. We sense that it is necessary to go more deeply to feel the values and beliefs that actually lead us through life.

So, what are actually our real values in life? Let’s not mix up them with jewelry or money. The real values are those that we believe in, those that we protect, those that we trust in. If we believe in the victory of validity – this is our value. If you believe that everybody around are your enemies and they want to harm you. Think what kind of values you have and maybe this is the time to change them.

Many values we have from our childhood. Sometimes we don’t think about our values and beliefs. We accept them as is. If we will analyze our values, we will find that some of them we picked by accident just like a cold.

What to do? If you don’t like your values and beliefs – change them. How? Try to review them and find those that for some reason you don’t feel anymore. Is it safe to do that? Yes, it is safe but you have to start this procedure very carefully. Think first what for what you used to have those values and beliefs and can you change them to others that will work better for you and help improve your life.

Let’s play a small game.

Think of something that would be important for you to have. For example, you dream about a nice vacation, want have a high-paying job, or learn some foreign language. Right down to the beliefs that you have. For example: “I don’t deserve to have a vacation on Hawaii”, “I don’t have time and money for that”. Do you feel the difference between your wish and those statements? Try to recollect the voice with which those statements that have been made in your mind. Perhaps, you heard those statements from somebody once and they got stuck in your head. You recognize that they lead your thoughts all your life. Do you want to get rid of them? First of all decide if you need that dream. Maybe if your dream comes through it will hurt somebody important to you and you will feel sorry afterwards. Would it be better for you to select another belief? Do that and examine it again.

Here is a common list of values and belief. Check it and see if some of them help you to achieve your goals.

1. Achievement of the specified result is a step to current success and self-development.

2. The person possessing a specified ability deserves equal compensation.

3. The specified result is possible to achieve because there are people who have reached it

4. The specified result is possible because I can accomplish some goals more quickly than other people.

5. You can develop your ability higher than the people that are initially talented.

6. The result can be reached independently (I have all the necessary resources).

7. The more effort you put in the beginning, the easier it will be and the more quickly you will reach the result at the end.

8. If you have reached even a part of the result it is possible to reach the entire result

9. There are well known people that begin small.

10. If your chosen way is a dead-end, leave it and take another one.

11. You can learn a lot from other people.

12. Persistence helps to move ahead.

13. Achievement of the given result influences my uniqueness and supports it.

Choose 5 - 7 beliefs that are suitable to you. If you think about some more beliefs add them to you list and use it.

Write down the beliefs on sheets of paper and spread them out on the floor in the form of a circle.
Go from sheet to sheet; try to remember where and when you thought about that belief. If you can’t remember then try to imagine what you will think if it will become your belief.
When you finish a circle pass on it once again, thinking about the purpose and passing it through those words which are written down on a sheet of a paper. Stop for a minute and look now at the sheets in another angle. What will be, if you will take to yourself these beliefs?

Are you satisfied with those beliefs? Do you need to modify or change anything?
If it is necessary, change and pass on a circle once again. Repeat this procedure until all beliefs satisfy you.

When you will be completely satisfied with all your beliefs check the circle once more and try to come up with some metaphor. It could be, for example, that a yellow autumn leaf fly in air or it can be some line from your lovely song, etc.

Congratulations! You just learned how to change your beliefs.  Of course they don’t work that easily, we must really want to achieve the desirable and to put efforts for its achievement, but it is the next story …

Also, there is another source that can help you to straighten up your beliefs and make your dream come truth.  The Goal Realization Made Easy e-book: Your Guidebook to Lasting Happiness will help you focus on clear goals and will teach you how to actualize them by using the proper mindset and behavior.

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A necessity to be a good entrepreneur is having a system of plans: for the whole life, for five years, for a year, for a month, for each day. And the obligatory control of their execution. A good entrepreneur must be an excellent strategic planner.
Strategic planning allows the person to find enough time to build businesses that interest him. Without strategic planning, both the goal and the plans will stay just a naïve dream. We have 24 hours a day; A person spends 9-12 hours for sleep, meals, and other needs. That means we have about 12-15 hours for creation. This is the maximum time that a person can spend to promote his business daily.
No, this is not fanaticism; this is uniquely reasonable style of behavior if aspiration to the goal is not just a pose for you, your relatives, and close friends. It’s a fact that we do not accuse a person of fanaticism only because he breathes all 24 hours a day. A real entrepreneur needs creative work as much as air. He misses interesting projects the same as air. This is actually the perfect analogy.
Each person lives for the sake of something. Somebody is for the family, somebody for the business, and somebody just to have fun. There happen situations when life asks you to make a choice: if you will continue to try to reach your goal you will lose everything else, maybe even your life but if you forget about your dream then you will be OK and have a life like many other people.
The person who prefers to lose everything, even his life, over the chosen goal, his wonderful dream, is named a fanatic. For many of us the word ‘fanatic’ has a negative shade. The concept of fanaticism is associated for us with some level of limitation, with something that pushes us away, inhuman, more mechanical type, controllable from outside, some force that is capable and going only to destruction. It’s designed to destroy.
Fanaticism is not creative force. That is a common opinion in society today.
But is a person guilty if he gets an opportunity of a life-time to achieve the desirable goal even if he will lose his freedom. Accept the challenge and you are the man, refuse it and your life will be easy. Only you will still be who you were before. But this is also a common mistake. You will never be the same person. The person that loses his goal, his dream ceases to be the same as before. If a person continues to disagree with his faith and believe in his dream, his goal, that person is a fanatic.
People condemn him. But the problem is in the surrounding environment, in the circumstances that offer an evil alternative and force him to make the choice.
So fanaticism is more likely to appear in the negative characteristics of a society, a historical period which generate fanatics. The opposite of fanaticism is conformism. Conformism is also in the same unattractive shade. And though they seem to have opposite value, both these concepts are two sites of the same coin.
There are only 24 hours in a day. A person has the right to chose how to use them. We always have to remember that there are two extreme styles of life: fanatical and conformist. The first ennobles the person, glorifies him, the second belittles him.
The glorification is because of loyalty to the significant and worthy goal benefits not just you but all mankind. And conformism belittles because the compromise is a way to ruthlessness, away from you, instead of to you. The compromise creates bureaucrats, compromisers, slaves. But a person is born to be free. Slavish existence is opposite to his nature.
Want to Creatively Change Your Life? Check out the Unleash The Creative New You! e-book This e-book is all you’ll ever need to start bringing out that creative person and that imaginative soul that’s inside of you.

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Generally at the beginning, your goals in life are so unclear that to create a specific life plan for them is very difficult. For example: a goal to visit the North Pole. Right away we start asking many questions: How? When? What do I need? Because you can reach the North Pole on a plane, blimp, sled, dogs, elk, ship, submarine (if you admit that the pole is under water), etc. That is why after you chose the goal you have to define the search direction and create a plan to achieve the goal. Based on these criteria you build your life plans.

Life plans consist of standard blocks. Like a set of colorful blocks for children; just take them and build a destiny.

The item (block) number 1, of course, is to get the education, as wide and deep as possible. You may ask why a person with a very specific goal needs a wide education.
First of all, because the person can change his mind and chose another goal. You are free to chose and change any goal. For example, the goal can be transformed into small part of the original goal or passed to general scientific aspects of your goal, having expanded it to most global problems of knowledge.

Secondly, moving toward a goal is not a one-stage action in which everything happens in order. Knowledge is a life-long process.
Unpredicted events and hasty turns in life sometimes require you to have knowledge in a variety of fields. Good education is the key to human knowledge accumulated over centuries. Without a wide education to use this huge heritage is impossible. Besides, that education will give you a style which is necessary to properly achieve goals.

The second item is to receive direct information about your goal and the surrounding areas. Even if there is no analogue of your goal, general knowledge is a mandatory stage.
There is no useless knowledge and you will be able to use it any time.

Friedrich Zander (pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight. He designed the first liquid-fuelled rocket to be launched and made many important theoretical contributions on the road to space), for example there was no place to study spaceflight but fundamental mathematics that he acquired in youth has allowed him to create an engine for rockets later on.

Different goals require different specialized knowledge. Something that is to someone could be a subject just for fun, for another, this is the tool to reach their goal. Goal development is a never-ending process and the stages of knowledge accumulation repeat again and again.

A person can’t fill himself once so that there is enough for the rest of his life.

The information is important not just by itself. It builds the foundation for future instruments that help to accomplish your goals. At the same time, learning the fundamental laws is also knowledge. It is possible only if you have a lot of statistical material and the knowledge of how to classify the information. That is why the next standard block is learning how to organize the accumulated information (stored in the database). The database is the direct way of processing the received information. For example: Jules Verne (a French author and a pioneer of the science-fiction genre) left a file cabinet with 20,000 cards. Every card was size of a student’s notebook.

Building the information fund and its analysis are two different tasks. There is only one way: to find the relevant information during the information accumulation process and correct during updating the already existing information. This is in case the fund does not exist yet.

The next required element of your plans are physical exercises.
You have to be healthy to be able to reach your goals. I am not talking about new sports records, but about general exercises that help you stay in a good physical condition and have high working capacity. A thoughtful day schedule allows accomplishing a lot and staying in good condition for the rest of your life.

Here is another typical block for many of us, learning languages.
This is necessary for documentation on a needed subject. It usually takes some time for new materials to get translated to your language. Therefore it is often necessary to study materials in the language in which they are written and not wait while in decades, perhaps, they will be translated.

A very important element of plans is the success control, the control of completed steps of goals.
It is hard to achieve positive results continuously without systematic self control.
It is necessary to track the hours spent on business, hours that have been wasted, why they have been wasted, and what to do to fix this problem. The control of accomplishments show what parts of the plan are completed and on what parts you need to work to illuminate the wasted time.

When we buy clothes, we chose the style and size that fits us. When we choose the goal, it does not always “fit us,” if we have enough knowledge, abilities, and experience. Clothes in this kind of situation you just alter. Basically you can do the same with yourself, change yourself, so that you can achieve the goal and the plan that helps you is the tool.

Roald Amundsen (a Norwegian explorer of polar regions) established a goal to become a polar explorer in 15 years. He didn’t have the necessary knowledge and not good enough health. He started playing football (though he did not love this sport) and skiing. At home all year long he slept with opened windows so to get used to the cold.

Based on his theory many sea expeditions failed because the chief of the expedition wasn’t a captain of the ship, there wasn’t a single qualified manager and no proper team work.

He started as a sailor, then navigator, and only after that became the captain. He became captain and doctor so as to be able to achieve his goal. He went to the best European professors to study science. This is all only to prepare for his own expedition! He completely changed himself and his destiny.

To learn more about how to achieve your goals I suggest reading the Goal Realization Made Easy: Your Guidebook to Lasting Happiness e-book. This book will help you focus on clear goals and will teach you how to actualize them by using the proper mindset and behavior.

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Do you know in advance with what kinds of things you will be involved in tomorrow, next week, or within a month?
– No.
– Not always.
- Vaguely.

When a person doesn’t have a clear picture of the things that he must take care of, then all those things look like a huge, chaotic pile of big and small tasks and problems. As a result his brain has to constantly consider plenty of things (take out the garbage, buy something for dinner, record a show, prepare for the test, buy pills, etc.) Sometimes it is difficult for the person to understand what is important and what is not important, what is urgent and what can wait a little. Many things are simply forgotten or stay unnoticed. Thing get taken care of in a chaotic order depending on the unpredictable external reminders. For example: a phone ring can remind him that he forgot to pay the phone bill which his spouse asked him to do three days ago.

It is no wonder that such a person will be under constant pressure and practically without mental rest. If this kind of condition lasts long, then it can lead to serious nervous breakdowns. Tiredness accumulates, losing self confidence, and happiness disappears.

What to do?
There is only one solution – time management. Learn how to organize things in time.
Here are the some tips:

1. Make a list of tasks.
Take a sheet of paper and write down all things that need to be done, for example within a week.

2. Order those tasks and events in the list.
Review the list, you will find there are some complicated and some simple tasks. The complicated tasks divide into smaller pieces. For example: you are invited to a birthday party on Sunday. This event you have to break into three parts: buy a gift, prepare the clothes, and attend the party. As a result of this order the list looks more accurate and tasks are not that stressful.

3. Divide the list into two parts: the list of regular tasks and the list of other tasks.
What kind of tasks do we consider as regular?
Those are the tasks that you have to repeat everyday or the ones that you have to do every day, every week, or every month. For example: To walk the dog is necessary every day, cleaning the house – once a week, pay the bills – once a month.
Decide what tasks in your list are regular and mark them. Other tasks are the tasks that you don’t have to do right away and they appear seldom. For example: repair a TV or purchase printer ink. They will be included into the list of other tasks.

4. Transformation of irregular tasks into a regular.
Let’s see our list of other tasks. They are the ones that create unexpected difficulties. However you can find some tasks that you can move to a list with the regular tasks. For example: usually you can have a haircut when you don’t like the way you look. But you can change that and have a haircut always in a first week of every month. So, that way you can move tasks to a regular tasks list.
Also to a regular tasks list you can move such tasks as reading magazines, visiting theatres, shopping, and many other things. It will allow you to save time, to be prepared for tasks in advance, and stay with the schedule.

5. Split tasks between the ones fixed in time and ones that have a time frame. Different tasks have different time frequencies.
Do laundry, you can do once a week, for example, on Saturday. Go to the library – once in two weeks. Those are regular tasks that have a time frame. Across them you have to put the particular day, for example, on Saturday, on each second Monday, etc. But in your list there are also tasks that are not only regular but also strictly fixed in time, for example, yoga classes that are two times a week on Tuesdays and Fridays from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. Check what else on your list are rigidly fixed time tasks and mark them.

6. Convert the regular tasks into ones strictly fixed in time and strap the particular time to them.
Many regular tasks that have a time frame you can strictly fixed in time. It will facilitate their accomplishment. Let’s assume that you decided to go to a library every second Monday after work from 6.00pm to 7.00pm. Is there any other of your tasks that you can establish a specific time? Move from conditional regulation of your time to a fixed, increases how many tasks you can accomplish. The tasks that are fixed in time turn into ‘must’ type tasks so it becomes difficult to avoid them.

7. Define the level of urgency of irregular tasks.
For each irregular task you have to define the level of urgency and specify the exact time when you want this task to be done. There are the most important tasks in the irregular tasks, for example, you find that you are out of salt which means you have to buy it today. That’s why the purchase of salt will be considered as a primary task. There are not very urgent tasks but if you keep them on the side for a long time they can turn into urgent ones. For example, if you won’t pay your telephone bill, then the phone company turns off your phone. Because of that, instead of a half an hour task you will spend many stressful hours fighting with the Phone Company to get your service back. It is better to avoid those kinds of things. Therefore among irregular tasks on your list find those that can become urgent. Mark them and specify the time in which you can finish them.

There are many books about time management and its rules that I recommend you to get acquainted with the Super Tactics of Time Management Experts e-book. The time management rules in this book are presented in a simple and universal format. With their help it is possible to easily learn how to plan your tasks for the days, weeks, and months.

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