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Change your mind set, change your life

 

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

by Carol Dweck

From Publishers Weekly
Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone," says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn't be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford.

Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as... well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess?

Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome

“A good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. I have found Carol Dweck’s work on mindsets invaluable in my own life, and even life-changing in my attitudes toward the challenges that, over the years, become more demanding rather than less. This is a book that can change your life, as its ideas have changed mine.”
–Robert J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Education and Psychology at Yale University, director of the PACE Center of Yale University, and author of Successful Intelligence

 

 

Buy the book from Amazon or The Book Depository

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Setting Reachable Financial Goals

Creating a budget is a common need for everyone to tackle in order to put their money to work. However, before a budget is established, financial goals need to be set in order to provide a basis for the budget. The financial goals provide the long term motivation to stay with the budget.

These tips work for not only financial goals but any other goals that you make in life. Use them to help propel yourself towards your dreams.

http://bit.ly/9Xphgw

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Relax Your Way to Results

Earlier this year my husband Denis and I went out for a lovely dinner at a nearby restaurant. While we were dining, an inspired idea popped into my head. I tend to pay attention to inspired ideas as they come up and I decided to share this one with Denis.

I said "Honey, I'm thinking of selling the house I bought in Florida, what do you think?"
Well, knowing the real estate market was declining and sales were infrequent, he thought I had temporarily lost my mind. I continued to share with him some reasoning behind the inspired idea.

The house in Florida was one that we rarely used. The insurance company wouldn't insure the contents because we did not reside in the home. It can be a challenge taking care of a place when we live 1,600 miles away.

Denis agreed with all of those points. Plus, even though I bought the house and owned it outright, the monthly expenses were an unnecessary expense. We were not using the house as a rental property, nor did I want to. We simply had the home available in the event we decided to take a trip to a warmer climate.

Initially when I bought the house I thought we would be using the house more, but with my busy travel schedule, speaking engagements, conferences, etc. we rarely stayed in the home.

Later that evening, after returning home from the restaurant I called a Real Estate Agent in Florida. I asked, "Steve, how is the real estate market down there?"

He replied "Don't you get the news up there Peggy? It's terrible!"

"Well Steve, I'd like to sell my house. Are you interested in listing it for me?"
He responded: "How much are you thinking of selling it for?"

I gave Steve the price I had in mind and he said the house would be the most expensive house on the street. I wasn't really concerned with having a premium-listing price because the house was a unique home and it was beautifully decorated.

Steve was willing to list the house. He drafted up the appropriate papers and sent them to me via email. I signed the papers, sent them back, and a "For Sale" sign went on the lawn.

Because I teach and practice the law of attraction and believe it is far more effective to relax our way to wealth or relax our way to anything that we desire, I relaxed and gave thanks for the quick sale of my home.
In my gratitude journal I expressed my elation with the quick sale of the home and for a closing price that was very close to my listing price. I was also grateful for the quick closing that the new owner requested.
Every day I wrote in my gratitude journal expressing my gratitude for the sale. I also listened to my own relaxation audio meditation every evening, which allowed me to stay connected to the powerful emotions of gratitude, joy and faith.

Two weeks later my Real Estate Agent called me with the news that we had an interested buyer. He said: "There is only one problem Peggy - she wants a fast close - she wants to take possession in three weeks, are you okay with that?"

Well, of course I was fine with a quick close. A quick close date was precisely what I gave thanks for. Additionally, she paid close to the listing price for the house, and within three weeks, my husband and I were on a flight to pick up a check for the sale of the house.

As much as we hear about the powerful laws of attraction, not everyone practices them. One of the challenges is that we are conditioned emotional beings. If our previous conditioning is to stress over things, we will literally push away the very things we desire by being stressed. Switching to a state of relaxation opens up our creativity, engages the law of attraction and draws to us that which you desire (ideas, people, events, experiences).

It may seem like a backward way of thinking to relax when you deeply want something, but relaxing our way to wealth is a powerful concept.

After I took action and listed the home, I gave thanks every day for the sale of the home and stayed connected to positive emotions. I relaxed and every morning and evening used my own relaxation guided meditation. It is an absolute truth that positive emotions will produce positive results.

Deepak Chopra said: "Relaxation is the prerequisite for that inner expansion that allows a person to express the source of inspiration and joy within."

If there is something you desire, follow these 3 simple steps. #1. Decide what you want. #2. Decide what it will "feel" like when you have it (which involves the emotions of faith and relaxation); and #3. Go straight to feeling those emotions - and practice them on a consistent basis. And, when you do, you'll be amazed at the power of your own creative ability.

Peggy McColl
Peggy is a New York Times Best Selling Author, Consultant and Speaker. She has created many programs based on Wealth Creation. Her latest program can be found at: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3421506

Team Meetings – How to Transform Your Team Meetings

By Duncan Brodie

You might have heard the term "death by meetings". While it is true that meetings can be a huge drain on resources, they do have the potential to contribute to great results. So how can you transform your team meetings?

Get the team setting the agenda

As the leader of the team, there will always be things that you have in mind for the meetings. Trouble is in my experience, when all of the agenda and meeting content comes from the leader, there tends to be huge levels of passiveness and disengagement. If you want to have better meetings, get the bulk of the agenda coming from the team.

Keep them short

I have during my career in accountancy spent huge amounts of time in meetings. What I discovered is that the shorter the meetings are, the more effective they are. This is partly because people are more focussed. It is also due to the fact that most of us have a very short attention span. One thing that is particularly helpful in keeping meetings short and focussed is to do them by conference call or webinar rather than in person.

Give people a chance to speak

If you are leading the meeting, you should be speaking less and listening more. You also should aim to take care to ensure that all of the meeting attendees get a chance to speak. There will always be a few who, if you allow them, will dominate meetings and not always with great contributions.

Facilitate well

As a leader of a meeting, you are as much a facilitator as a person who is chairing. Facilitating essentially is about ensuring that the ideas are collected, built on and an agreed point is reached. Think of yourself as the conductor rather than the musician and you will go a long way towards effectively facilitating meetings.

Only record key actions

There are a few meetings that will require formal minuting. Most don't and simply require a record of the key actions and who is taking them forward.

Make sure you follow up on actions

It's vital that you have an effective process for following up on actions agreed at previous meetings. Why? The simple answer is that if you don't, people will see them as unimportant and not follow through. Without follow through, nothing happens.

The Bottom Line

Meetings can be a catalyst to great results or just a drain on resources. So what do you need to start to do differently to get better results from meetings?

Now I invite you to sign up for my free Weekly Leadership and Management Success Tips at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/?pid=26

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with accountants, health professionals, teams and organisations to develop their management and leadership capability. With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

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Why Most People Fail to Make a Living Doing What They Love

More people are waking up to the reality that they don’t follow the typical work template: college > corporate job: ladder climbing > retirement.

But waking up to the possibility isn’t enough, and unfortunately, a lot of people fail at making it happen. They know what they don’t want — a 9 to 5 soul-sucking job — but they don’t know how to escape. Some people come up with a plan, a business idea and attempt to follow an obscure path. And they often fail as well.

So why is that?

I’ve found that the answer usually has to do with one of these three things:

http://bit.ly/cGxCig

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"Semi-Productive" – How to stay productive and still take a break from "work"

Productive things to do online when you are bored and lazy

You don’t always have to work hard to be productive.  Productivity can simply be the side effect of doing the right things.

So here’s a list of 29 semi-productive things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’

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Seven Ways to Boost Your Mind Power

By Randy Hall

Intelligence is something most people wish they had more in abundance because it can open doors, create wealth and make it possible for you to do things easier. If you are one of these people the read on as the few steps may just be the key to the doorway of a better life.

Below you will find the seven steps that will help your brain work better and speed you on your quest for the things you want out of life.

1. One key to a healthy mind is a healthy body

By becoming fit your heart works better and pumps blood easier to supply oxygen to your brain. So it follows that a light exercise program will get you on your way to a fitter you. Stay active by walking or do some simple exercises in your home like deep knee bends or situps.

A simple work-out can trigger endorphins, which are responsible for making us feel happy. By feeling this way we have a more positive outlook which will have a positive effect on the brain.

2. Feeding your body the right foods also feeds your brain.

Adding natural supplements such as vitamins and minerals not only have a nutritional effect on your body, but on your mind as well. The results of course are better brain power! Natural supplements can be found in health food stores or for sale on the Internet.

3. Exercise your brain

We all know that exercise will keep your body fit and the same holds true for the brain. Use your brain everyday to think, memorize, even play word games like scrabble or crossword puzzles. Any activity that will make you use your brain will be beneficial. So read, talk with others, or meditate. All of these things will stimulate your brain.

4. Turn off the TV and write something

Let your imagination wander and write a fictional short story. Start a journal or read an article and expand on it. There are many things that you can write about that will help keep your brain active and alert.

5. Pick an educational hobby

There are many to choose from, like stamp collecting or start a coin collection. Find out which ones are valuable. I have a friend that paid off his 30 year mortgage in a year by finding valuable coins. Whatever you pick it should be something that you have to do some research on, so make sure it is a subject you are interested in pursuing. The purpose of this is to start using parts of your brain that aren't normally used or haven't been used before. Learning to play a musical instrument is a good way to use new parts of the brain.

6. Get plenty of sleep

When you sleep your body recharges and rebuilds itself. Sleeping is benefficial to your overall health and you should try to get six to eight hours every night. If at all possible take ten-minute power naps as well. Sleeping well will keep you energized so you'll be ready, willing and able to be active. Don't deprive yourself of sleep as it also allows the brain to function better by being more alert.

7. Find peaceful repose

Relax in a nice easy chair and let the worries and cares of the day fall away. Rid yourself of the anxiety and stress of work, family life and social activities. Try to let your mind be completely at rest for 15 to 30 minutes each day. This will give you inner peace and serenity. Become one with your surroundings. Listen to the gentle sounds of nature around you and bask in the glory of the world around.

Remember negative thoughts cause us to become tense. Happy, positive thoughts put us in a better frame of mind, where our minds will work more efficiently and effectively.

Once you find you have taken the seven steps as far as they can go in boosting your mind power you may want to increase your mind power even more. Unlocking your true mind power is not only possible, but the scope of it is incredible. There is a clinically proven method of doing just that. To learn more about this method just CLICK HERE!

Break time may improve memory

Taking a rest break—while awake—can help strengthen memories, a new   study suggests.

“Your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is important for memory and cognitive function,” Lila Davachi observes.

 “This is something we don’t appreciate much, especially when today’s information technologies keep us working round-the-clock.” (Courtesy: NYU)

 The findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuron, expand our understanding of how memories are boosted. Previous studies had shown this process occurs during sleep, but not during times of awake rest.

“Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned,” explains Lila Davachi, an assistant professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, in whose laboratory the study was conducted. “Your brain wants you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned.”

The study, whose lead author was Arielle Tambini, a doctoral candidate in NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, focused on memory consolidation—the period when a memory is stabilized after it is initially created, or encoded.

To determine if memory consolidation occurred during periods of awake rest, the researchers imaged the hippocampus, a brain structure known to play a significant role in memory, and cortical regions during periods of awake rest. Previous studies have demonstrated regions of the brain more active during periods of rest, but their function at these times had been unclear.

The experiment tested subjects’ associative memory by showing them pairs of images containing a human face and an object (e.g., a beach ball) or a human face and a scene (e.g., a beach) followed by periods of awake rest. Subjects were not informed their memory for these images would later be tested, but, rather, were instructed to rest and simply think about anything that they wanted, but to remain awake during the resting periods.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to gauge activity in the hippocampus and cortical regions during the task and during the ensuing rest period.

Researchers found that during rest after the study experience (after the visuals were shown), there was a significant correlation between brain activity in the subjects’ hippocampus and cortical regions that were active during the initial encoding of each stimulus pair. However, this boost in brain correlations was only seen following experiences that were later memorable suggesting these parts of the brain act in tandem for a purpose—to consolidate memories during rest.

Also, when examining each subject individually, researchers found that subjects who had greater resting correlations between the hippocampus and cortex, also exhibited better performance on a subsequent associative memory test and those whose brain correlations were weaker, had worse memory—in other words, the greater the activity in hippocampus and cortical regions, the stronger the memory.

“Your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is important for memory and cognitive function,” Davachi observes. “This is something we don’t appreciate much, especially when today’s information technologies keep us working round-the-clock.”

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and Dart Neuroscience.

Written by James Devitt-NYU , and published by Futurity.  Discover the future.  News from leading research universities in the u nited States, Canada and the United Kingdom

NYU news: www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/

 

 

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Using motions to keep meetings focussed

Use motions as a discipline to keep the chairman and the participants in the meeting focussed. If discussion has to be limited to the motion under consideration then it should stay focussed, and this is a great vehicle for the chairman to use, and for other participants to use to remind people who digress from the subject under discussion.

If they have a different suggestion for implementation, and it is too far from the motion under discussion for an amendment, suggest it be discussed as a different motion either at this meeting or at a more appropriate time.

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Turning Problems into Solutions

Rarely do I use the word genius...but I make an exception when it comes to Michael McMillan. You've probably heard me say it's not what you say, but how you say it that turns the switch from "off" to "on." Michael's mind works in amazing ways and his ability to tell a story in a way that you'll never forget is...second to none.

Pink Bat...Turning Problems into Solutions is a must-read for everyone who lives in the world of business, or is a part of any organization. In fact, I predict that once you read it, you'll want everyone in your company to do the same. Today, I'd like to share Michael's introduction to one of my favorite books...Pink Bat. Enjoy!

Excerpt from:
Pink Bat...Turning Problems into Solutions,
by Michael McMillan

Everywhere you look today there are problems. Turn on your TV or computer - pick up a magazine or paper - and what do you see? Problems!

Talk to your spouse, co-worker, family members or friends, and within minutes someone will bring up a problem...or two or three.

Problems permeate the workplace, too - new products, old products, customer service, health care, retirement plans, sales, marketing, budgets, IT, personnel - the list of problems we confront each day is vast.

If that's not enough, consider the global problems we are facing - hunger, war, terrorism, economy, jobs, pollution, global climate change, disease, energy, health care, education, government corruption, trade barriers, overpopulation, sanitation, water - the world's problems seem endless.

In short, we are experiencing a "problem pandemic" like never before. What's scarier yet, is many experts predict there is no end in sight. So what can YOU do about this threatening pandemic?

Embrace it! This may seem strange at first, but by the time you finish reading this book, you will realize many "problems" aren't problems at all. In fact, most problems are opportunities and many are actually Pink Bats - unseen solutions just waiting to be found.

Can you imagine waking up each morning faced with a "solution pandemic?"

Start imagining. Maybe you think this idea seems impossible, but you're about to discover: "Pink Bat Thinking" makes the impossible possible.

Today I'm pleased to make an introductory offer of only $12.00 for our newest release...Pink Bat. I predict you'll love it! For more information, or to look inside the book just click here.