The Context Machine

Do you have the motivation to succeed
in the mortgage industry? Without the drive
to succeed you will surely fail.

Did you know you can create the
motivation you need?

I know that sounds odd, but it’s true.
You can consciously define, direct and
intensify your motivation to achieve any goal.

Motivation is key to success. After
all, motivation drives action. And action is
the only thing that will move your business
forward. All your plans, hopes, dreams and
intentions are useless without action.

The process of creating motivation is
actually very simple. There are two parts.
First you must write out your goal as clearly
and simply as you can. Specify when you’ll
have it and what you’re going to do for it.

Then read it out loud every day.
Memorize it and say it to yourself often.
Make yourself believe it.

Belief is important. Belief creates
the conditions necessary for you to achieve
what you desire.

Hard to believe? That’s why you have
to work every day to convince yourself to
believe in your success. You’re brainwashing
yourself into this belief through self-directed,
daily indoctrination.

The result will be a burning, driving
and consuming motivation to make the object of
your desire a reality.

To Your Prosperity,

David A. Wells, owner of http://www.Mortgage-Millions.com and author of The Millionaire Mortgage Broker’s Marketing Manual, is a mortgage marketing expert who helps mortgage brokers succeed. He can be reached at mortgage@mortgage-millions.com.

Yuck, it’s tax time again. One of these days, you’ll get your hands on the documents you need and you’ll fill out your return - on time this year! But not right now. That’s too much hassle.

You’ve been meaning to start that running program, but not tonight - you’re beat.

You’re at work and you’re sneak-surfing on the internet. Whenever anyone passes by, you alt-tab quickly back to a bogus spreadsheet. You know you need to get back to work and stop loafing, but you just can’t get focused.

Do any of these scenarios sound like you? Maybe it’s not taxes, exercise, and work that you’re putting off - maybe it’s a heart-to-heart conversation with your daughter, or maybe it’s cleaning out the junk drawer in the kitchen. Maybe it’s folding a basket of laundry. Clipping your toenails. Whatever it is, you just can’t seem to get motivated to do anything!

Sometimes it isn’t fear of failure that holds us back. Sometimes it’s just plain old lethargy! And if that’s the case, you probably won’t finish reading this article, because when you’re feeling lethargic, the last thing you want is to be motivated!

I don’t know about you, but often when I’m feeling lethargic but otherwise perfectly healthy, I have conflicting voices running in my head. One voice wants me to snap out of it and get things done that I promised myself or others would get done. The other voice whimpers, “Leave me alone.”

Here are two techniques that I use to snap myself out it and get moving on things again:

1. Movement creates movement. Once you make any move at all, you’ve begun creating momentum, so it’s easier to keep moving. Sometimes it seems to require the combined forces of the entire Universe just to launch that first little bit of movement. Sometimes you have to bargain ruthlessly with yourself. I promise myself some great reward for small effort. It’s ridiculous. “Just open the folder on the computer that has the report I need to work on. Then click on the report and it will open. THEN I can have a candy bar.” Once the report is open and I’m chomping on my candy bar, it’s easy to jump right in and get to work on it.

If you’re putting off shoveling the snow, promise yourself a reward for getting your coat, boot, hat and mittens on. If you’re putting off starting that running program, promise yourself a reward for setting your running clothes & running shoes out and for setting your alarm a half hour earlier. You get the idea. Just do what you need to do to get moving.

2. Placate the child. I adapted this from The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore. It’s the little child in you that doesn’t want to do what you, the adult, is asking yourself to do. Maybe the child is whining that you never let it have any fun, or it’s afraid that once you start working, it will be all work and no play, so the child reasons it’s best to just not start.

Prevailing wisdom is that you need to reward yourself AFTER a task has been completed, which is the theory behind the first strategy. This strategy is the other way around. Whatever it is that you’re doing that you don’t want to give up, negotiate a little more of it in exchange for starting whatever it is you’re putting off. For instance, if you’re watching TV but you need to shovel the walk, promise yourself that you can watch to the end of JUST THIS program. Or finish the chapter in the book you’re reading, or have that snack you’re fantasizing about. Or tell yourself you can surf on line for 10 more minutes, and then it’s back to work. Then make sure you do it!

If your lethargy is chronic or persistent or is accompanied by other symptoms, consider seeing a doctor. At the very least, consider some lifestyle changes, such as getting more sleep, getting more exercise, and improving your eating habits.

I have a little saying that I use on myself. “The less you feel like it, the more you need it.” Fit people often feel like exercising, but out-of-shape people rarely do. People who eat healthy diets often have a hankering for raw vegetables, but people who live on a diet of junk rarely do. Highly productive workers do take breaks, but they don’t let them interfere with their productivity - they take a short break, and then they get on with their work. And so on.

Are you putting something off right now because you just don’t feel like it? Before you click on another link, before you visit another site, or before you read another article, pick one of the two strategies and put them to work. Maybe you’ll even come to my website and email me to tell me if it worked or not! (Don’t do that until AFTER you’ve knocked that thing off your to do list, though!)

Holly Zenith is a career woman by day and a “netpreneur” by night. She’s also a wife, mother, writer, artist, and musician. Visit her site at http://www.hollyzenith.com

Survival is one of the most demanding and challenging issues
that we face as humans!

Survival challenges us through many different issues such as:
child abuse, sexual abuse, birth, death, job loss, health
problems, low self-esteem, relationship ups and downs,
parenting, deceptions, breakdowns, poverty, natural disasters,
education, addictions and even our own desires to be strong.

Survival comes in little packages and it comes in enormous
boxes. It appears when we least expect it, never letting us
prepare for the battle. It hides around corners, waiting to
pounce on us. It is constantly testing our inner powers and
strength.

To live is to survive and without survival you have no life.
Survival is a choice. If you choose to survive, you must fight
hard. If you choose to not survive, you will die. Simple!

Survival will change who you are many times. How you deal with
your challenge and how drastic the challenge is will determine
how much of yourself you manage to keep safe.

A couple of common phrases that we run into many times in our
day is, “Only the strong survive” and, “What does not kill us
will only make us stronger”. These are very good survival
attitudes to practice. We need to be strong to survive. It takes
pure GUTS to survive and move forward in any situation. It takes
having total control of your thoughts, which is one of your best
weapons in the battle of survival. It demands consistent
striving to reach your goals, stopping at nothing to meet your
destiny.

I emphasize the importance of strength, when battling the war of
survival.

To be strong is:

to be able to stand your ground and hold onto your inner
beliefs, which will be your best strategy to win the game. to be
born into the survival game without knowledge or understanding
of the rules, and still overcome all the obstacles. to be able
to clean the skeletons out of your closet that have been
haunting you from your past. to take control of your life and
deal with the monsters, whether it be through telling a story or
confronting the monster face to face. to be able to look back at
the reasons for your pain and suffering and wave at it as if it
were just a car going by. to be able to smile at a happy memory
of a loved one that was taken from you without reason. to be
able to say NO to drugs and misuse of alcohol. to be able to
forgive, forget and let the waters flow under the bridge. to
feel physical pain every minute you are awake, yet be able to
smile and ease that pain with positive thoughts. to look in the
mirror and know you are the best, and to believe who you are. to
let go of hate and resentment, when your heart has been deceived
or broken. to push forward when all the negative forces feel
like they are pushing you backwards. to continue tearing down
walls of negative thinking, and replace them with positive
openness. to open your heart to another after it was forced to
close. to keep searching for answers to a better you, even when
all you want to do is quit. to look to tomorrow for the
sunshine, when the rain refuses to stop. to give birth to a
child, and raise him/her with love and respect. to embrace
growing old and never regretting it. to study hard and achieve
all the knowledge that the world has to offer you. to not allow
the material world to confuse you as to what is really important
in life to be a hugger, not a judger. to smile when you want to
cry. to Live, Love and Laugh.
********************************************************

“We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and
belonging, power, freedom, and fun.”

William Glasser “Love and kindness are the very basis of
society. If we lose these feelings, society will face tremendous
difficulties; the survival of humanity will be endangered.”

Dalai Lama

We all are alone sometimes, but that does not mean feeling
lonely; we can be alone and be perfectly happy, so what is it
that makes us feel lonely and how can we make ourselves feel
good?

But also why do we feel lonely?

I have worked with many clients who have experienced abuse in
one form or the other in their lives and there is a common
factor, which is in fact the feeling of loneliness they
experience.

And I have worked with many expatriates who experience the same
feeling as well.

And also people unhappy in their relationships or families
experience the same.

So, what is this feeling of loneliness that so many people
experience?

Loneliness is a feeling of inner void and feeling of loss, loss
of someone and, in a way, loss of ourselves. It is a feeling of
being a victim or being betrayed, or not in control of our
lives.

And of course the feeling of loneliness comes out at particular
times, such as Christmas.

And there is a common pattern, which is that when we feel lonely
we tend to fill our lives with work and more work, or with
Charity work.

And we look forward that the Christmas holidays are over in
order to start the same routine again.

But between you and me, we know that this does not solve the
situation, don’t we?

It is important to look into the eyes of the feeling of
loneliness and the pain it causes and deal with it, otherwise it
will come back again and again.

Ok, what are the most important factors to feel good even if you
are alone, and not to feel lonely?

First of all you need to organize your life, you need to
establish a sort of structure.

It is a question of taking ownership and control of yourself and
your life and deciding who you want to be and how you want to
live your life.

Then self-esteem is a very important factor, because self-esteem
is what makes you feel good.

You need to start liking yourself, respecting yourself, putting
yourself first. Be yourself and give value to yourself.

Develop a belief that you can create anything you want in your
life, so if you want more friends, plan in advance for the kind
of friends you want, for the kind of people you want in your
life, and reach out for them.

And also a belief that it is ok to be alone, that you simply
organize your life.

And once you are in control of your life and you feel good about
yourself, you simply decide what you want to do.

Copyright Piercarla Garusi 2006. All rights reserved.

Do you find it hard to get your motor running? Do you feel like you’re running on low octane when you should be running on high octane? Do you find it hard to get motivated! Well let’s see what we can do about helping you get motivated!

What is motivation?

Motivation is a need, desire, goal, emotion, interest or belief that triggers you into action!

It would appear that all you need to do to get motivated is to find goals that propel you into action! Although that’s a necessary step, it may not be quite that simple. For example:

1.You may not be aware of what you hope to accomplish and can’t get motivated because there’s no clear-cut goal to focus on.

2.You may have two goals you desire, and can’t get motivated because you can’t decide which one you want to pursue first.

3.You may be ambivalent about a goal and can’t get motivated because there are things you equally like as well as dislike about it.

4.You may be lazy! You aren’t used to consistently pursuing a goal, because when the going gets tough, someone always bails you out!

5.You may have attempted to attain a goal, then gave up trying and have become indifferent about it, because of repeated failures.

6.You may not be motivated to attain a goal because that would bring you in conflict with someone you love or respect. (Example: If you attempt to attain a higher position than that attained by a domineering parent or spouse)

7.You may not be motivated to attain a goal because you believe you won’t be able to handle it if you did!

So how do you get motivated!

There are basically two ways to get motivated. One way is to become aware of all the things that stop you from being motivated. The other way is to focus on all the things that help you get motivated. We’ve focused on the first way. Now let’s focus on the second way.

1.If you’re not aware of what motivates you. Make a list of things that you want. After writing down as many things as you can think of. Create another list, rating those things on a scale from 1-10, in order of importance to you. This exercise helps you become more aware of what motivates you and gives you a list of goals to focus on pursuing.

2.If you can’t decide which one of two goals to pursue, make a list of their pros and cons. Rate them from 1-10. Alternately imagine how you’d feel if you had either one. Randomly pick one and pursue it. You may find that once you’ve done this, you become aware of the one you really want to pursue!

3.If you can’t get motivated to pursue a goal because the pros and cons seem of equal importance, imagine how you would feel if only the pros existed. Then how you would feel if only the cons existed. Stop focusing on the goal for a while. Come back to it at a later date. Sometimes it’s easier to make a decision once you done this.

4.If you aren’t used to working at attaining a goal, You can train yourself to do so. Create an action plan and a deadline to accomplish your goal by. Spend a specific amount of time on it each day. Start with what you can handle. Gradually increase it. Don’t allow anyone to bail you out! Keep at it!

5.If you’ve failed repeatedly trying to attain goals, It may be difficult for you to feel motivated, because based on past experience; you see no reason to try because you expect to fail again! But you’re different now! Review the attitudes and thoughts you had then. What can you learn from those experiences? Is the goal you want to attain now attainable? Are your expectations about it realistic? You’re not limited by past experiences. Every time you take new stab at it there’s another chance you’ll succeed this time around!

6.If you’re holding back self-advancement to avoid the disapproval of a significant person, decide if your advancement is worth more than that person’s displeasure! Decide whether you’re going to live for yourself or to maintain that person’s approval. Decide whether you deserve to advance in your career, regardless of who likes it or not!

7.If you’re resisting attaining a goal, because you’re not sure you can handle it. How will you know until you try to handle it! Research the goal. Find out everything you can about it. Talk to others who’ve done it. Pursue it! Once you’ve attained it, seek assistance from others involved in the field. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. There are No dumb questions! Hang in there!

Here’s one last thing you can do.

Use a chart, graph, or calendar, to keep track of where you are in relation to your goal. Track your progress, adjustments you can make and anything you can do to speed up the attainment of your goal.

For those of you who weren’t clear about it, hopefully this article helped clarify what motivation is, what you can do to get motivated and maybe even added a thing or two for those of you who already knew this.

Now that you’re aware of some of the things that can hinder you as well as help you get motivated. The next step is up to you!

But don’t stop here!

Let this article spur you to create your own creative ideas about how to get movtivated and to stay motivated!

Copyright 2000 EL Veasey Publishing

El-Veasey holds Ph.Ds in counseling, political critiques and psycho-social commentary from the University Of Hardknocks Ghetto Town, USA. http://el-veasey.blogspot.com/

Effective team structure is critical when managing creativity and creative output.

It appears that many individuals are effective alone - Einstein, Marco Polo etc - however, what is usually overlooked is that these people often collaborated regularly. Also, it is very difficult to separate the idea from its influences. In any case, individuals are prone to path dependency, parochialism and reduced insight through reduced intellectual cross-pollination.

The negatives of the individual are reduced somewhat by the addition of another individual. Pairs keep each other grounded and there are no core and peripheral information flows - there are only two people. However, parochialism and path dependency are still factors. The core aim of a pair should be to encourage diversity and novelty in each individual.

As groups get larger, the quality of results increases with intellectual cross-pollination. But group negatives prevent breakout:

a) Symptoms of group think increase

b) The percentage of individual performance declines

c) Groups of three to five elicit much more conformity than just one or two

d) Evaluation apprehension increases

e) Core and peripheral information flows exclude some people

f) Political strategies increase

In conclusion, a tactical combination of team structures increases creative output.

More information about this topic can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://www.managing-creativity.com

Settling is about not embracing what is best for you, and accepting what you really don’t want. When you settle, you accept less than you deserve. Settling becomes a habit and a way of life, but it doesn’t have to be. According to Maureen Dowd, “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for!”

People settle every day in every way. They settle for unsatisfying jobs, boring lives, and stale relationships. People settle in part because they don’t realize they can have better, or even that they deserve better. People also settle because of fear. Fear holds us back from embracing what we really want. According to Bo Bennett, “Every day, people settle for less than they deserve. They are only partially living, or at best living a partial life. Every human being has the potential for greatness.”

The only way to truly embrace your greatness is to stop settling. You have to stop settling for a job that isn’t challenging, a life that isn’t fulfilling, and relationships that are uninspiring. Life is way too short to settle.

How do you break the cycle of settling? Start small, start slow and start now! Begin with the small decisions you make and work your way up. Settling has become a habit and a way of life; so don’t expect to change the habit immediately. Begin by having only the objects in your life that you love. Don’t buy things just because they are on sale. Purchase only items that you love for your home and for yourself. I changed washing detergents because I thought I found a better deal, but when my clothes became dingy, I knew I had settled for a cheaper brand, not a better deal. I immediately switched back to my favorite. Those are the kinds of things you want to begin with. Notice where you settle for less, and where your life is looking dingy.

Coach Rachelle Disbennett-Lee, PhD, is a Certified Master Coach specializing in working with business owners and professionals in being more profitable and productive while staying sane and balanced. Coach Lee is the publisher of the award winning e-zine, 365 Days of Coaching. Her first book, 365 Days of Coaching - Because Life Happens Every Day (Universal Publisher, 2004) was named a finalist for Best Book 2004 by Publish.com and has a five star rating on Amazon.com.

Visit Coach Lee at her websites http://www.coachlee.com and http://www.365daysofcoaching.com

True Direction, Inc. Copyright

This article along with byline attached may be freely republished