Sometimes, when you’re young, you call for a “do-over”… an opportunity to go back and attempt the same thing over again.  It tends to happen the most in sports, such as basketball (especially when you’re playing H-O-R-S-E)… you take a shot, and something causes you to mess it up.  That may be outside interference, or just you stumbling, but the result is the same… you miss, and you want another chance. The desire for a [...]

Everyone has their own dreams… mine is to be supported by my writing.  Yours may be something completely different… it may be to travel the world, be a professional chef, or something else.  You probably even have more than one dream… I wouldn't mind traveling the world, too. There are a lot of individual steps to making your dream come true, of course, but those will vary depending upon what your specific dream happens to [...]

If you read many books or websites about self improvement in general, and success in particular, you will notice one theme, one concept, that appears more often than nearly any other:  setting goals.  I even recommend it myself, from time to time. Setting goals can help you to focus your energy and effort, making it far more likely that you will get something accomplished.  That, in general, is a good thing… I even set goals [...]

Different things are significant to different people, but this month marks something of significance to me:  I have now been blogging for six months. A lot has changed in that half of a year, for me… I've gone from 34 visitors my first month to over 50,000 in both October and November.  I have had my articles viewed over a quarter of a million times. More importantly, I've gotten to know myself better, and I [...]

When it comes to motivation, it can be broken down into two categories:  negative motivation and positive motivation.  Negative motivation is "push" motivation… you are trying to push something you don't like away from you.  Positive motivation is "pull" motivation… you are trying to bring something that you DO want closer to you. Each has an area where, generally speaking, it is more effective.  Negative motivation is good for getting you started, for getting that [...]

I need your help with something.  I set a goal, quite some time back, of reaching 100 subscribers.  As you can see if you look near the top left corner of this page, I've reached that goal.  I was talking about this fact with my wife last night, and she asked me what my next goal would be.  I had already thought about this, of course, so it didn't take me long to answer:  500 [...]

Ah yes, the joys of procrastination… putting off all the hard or unpleasant work that you need to get done until later.  Then, when it all piles up until it's over your head, you feel overwhelmed, wondering how you managed to end up so deep in a mess and how to escape. Some people seem to have a natural tendency toward procrastination, always putting off until tomorrow what could be done today.  Others don't seem [...]

There are an incredible number of books, articles, videos, and any other kind of media you can imagine selling you "the secret of success".  Most of these methods are questionable… after all, if it were easy, then everyone would be successful, and that's clearly not the case.  There is one thing, however, that IS critical to success… success in ANY field. That one thing is awareness.  There are many kinds of awareness, but there is [...]

When you are headed somewhere, whether in a car or in life, you have two potential statuses. You can be on your journey or at your destination. Which one is a better target upon which to focus your attention? When you set a goal, you are setting a destination. In order to reach that destination, you must begin a journey from your current location. This may be a long journey, with many intermediate places along [...]