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	<title>Practical Self Help &#187; goals</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/tag/goals/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com</link>
	<description>Empower Yourself</description>
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		<title>How To Use The Law of Vacuum to Acheive Your Dreams</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2011/02/how-to-use-the-law-of-vacuum-to-acheive-your-dreams/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2011/02/how-to-use-the-law-of-vacuum-to-acheive-your-dreams/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Universe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law of vacuum]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=748</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The law of vacuum is a powerful Universal law that you can use to help achieve your goals and dreams.
The Universe abhors a vacuum.
Try digging up some grass and watch how quickly that space fills back in with new plants. Take a cup of water out of a pool and ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The law of vacuum is a powerful Universal law that you can use to help achieve your goals and dreams.</p>
<p><strong>The Universe abhors a vacuum.</strong></p>
<p>Try digging up some grass and watch how quickly that space fills back in with new plants. Take a cup of water out of a pool and watch how quickly the rest of the water moves in to fill it&#8217;s place.</p>
<p>Whenever a space is cleared, the Universe rushes to fill that space.</p>
<p>You can probably even see this law at work in your own life. If you clear out all the junk and clutter from your home, do you find that new stuff quickly seems to fill it up again?</p>
<p>This is that law of vacuum at work! Clear some space physically, or even mentally/emotionally, and the Universe will quickly fill that space again.</p>
<p>Use this law to your advantage. If your trying to attract something into your life, make sure that you&#8217;ve made room for it&#8217;s arrival.</p>
<ul>
<li>Looking to get a new wardrobe? Trying clearing all of your old clothes out of the closet.</li>
<li>Trying to attract a mate into your life, make room in your home like you&#8217;re expecting someone to move in.</li>
<li>Would you like to get a new vehicle? Clear out space in your garage so you have a place to park it.</li>
<li>Want a new rug or curtains? Get rid of the old ones now.</li>
</ul>
<p>Make room in your life for the things you desire and watch how quickly they come to fill that space!
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Live the Life of Your Dreams</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/04/how-to-live-the-life-of-your-dreams/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/04/how-to-live-the-life-of-your-dreams/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:36:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[e-book]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law of attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Live the Life of Your Dreams]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=666</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, the day has finally come! My first e-book &#8220;How to Live The Life of Your Dreams&#8221; has just been launched.
This book was literally years in the making. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, it didn&#8217;t take years to write it, but it did require years of research and practical application testing ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="How to Live the Life of Your Dreams" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/live-the-life-of-your-dreams.html" target="_self"><img class="alignright" title="How to Live the Life of Your Dreams" src="http://www.positive-attitude-tips.com/images/live-the-life-of-your-dreams.jpg" alt="How to Live the Life of Your Dreams" width="261" height="317" /></a>Well, the day has finally come! My first e-book &#8220;<a title="How to Live The Life of Your Dreams" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/live-the-life-of-your-dreams.html" target="_self">How to Live The Life of Your Dreams</a>&#8221; has just been launched.</p>
<p>This book was literally years in the making. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, it didn&#8217;t take years to write it, but it did require years of research and practical application testing before I could develop a sure fire formula for creating anything you want in life.</p>
<p>How to Live the Life of Your Dreams outlines a ten step process that includes teaching you how to determine what you really want in life, and then shows you step-by-step how to go about making it a reality.</p>
<p>Here are just a few of the things you&#8217;ll learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>How and why you ended up where you are now.</li>
<li>How to quickly discover what you really want, and how to get it.</li>
<li>The ten steps to making what you want a reality.</li>
<li>Simple action items for each step that make it easy to implement the process.</li>
<li>The perfect way to formulate your goals.</li>
<li>How to get your subconscious mind to help you succeed.</li>
<li>Simple techniques that will activate the law of attraction to bring your dreams to you.</li>
<li>The right way to visualize for maximum effectiveness.</li>
<li>How to use the power of your mind to put your success on virtual autopilot.</li>
<li>How to discover and easily clear your mental blocks to success.</li>
<li>How to easily tap into your intuition to learn exactly what steps will make your dream a reality in the quickest, and easiest, way possible.</li>
<li>How to expect success, and get it.</li>
<li>How to utilize the little known “law of vacuum” to literally pull your dreams into reality.</li>
<li>How to allow your dreams to easily unfold in your life.</li>
<li>How to stay motivated and increase your confidence in your own creative abilities.</li>
<li>How to have fun doing the whole process.</li>
</ul>
<p>You really can create the life you want. Stop struggling and learn the ten steps you need to take to make your dreams come true.</p>
<p>This e-book is guaranteed to help you. If it doesn&#8217;t, you can ask me for a full refund (within 60 days) and I&#8217;ll give it to you, no questions asked. Plus, you can keep the e-book and bonuses as my gift to you.</p>
<p><a title="How To Live the Life of Your Dreams" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/live-the-life-of-your-dreams.html" target="_self">Click here to learn more about &#8220;How to Live the Life of Your Dreams&#8221; and the bonus gifts I&#8217;ve included.</a></p>
<h4>READERS OF MY BLOG CAN SAVE 50% FOR A LIMITED TIME</h4>
<p>As a special gift to my blog readers, you can USE THIS SPECIAL LINK TO GET IT FOR 50% OFF! (<em>sorry &#8211; the sale is over &#8211; link removed</em>). You won&#8217;t find this special savings link anywhere else. Act quickly though, I will be removing this link in a few days.
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/9de98039-0c94-4505-b5d9-887928aba908/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border: medium none; float: right;" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9de98039-0c94-4505-b5d9-887928aba908" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-info pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span></div>
<div class="simpletags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/success" rel="tag">success</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/law+of+attraction" rel="tag"> law of attraction</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/goals" rel="tag"> goals</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/dreams" rel="tag"> dreams</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/law+of+vacuum" rel="tag"> law of vacuum</a></div>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How Ignoring One Piece of Advice Can Help You Succeed</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/02/how-ignoring-one-piece-of-advice-can-help-you-succeed/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/02/how-ignoring-one-piece-of-advice-can-help-you-succeed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:56:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[naysayers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=626</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



Image by striatic via Flickr



&#8220;Quit now, you&#8217;ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you&#8217;ll be halfway there.&#8221; &#8211; David Zucker
We&#8217;ve all seen somebody cover their ears and start singing &#8220;La-la-la-la-la, I&#8217;m not listening!&#8221;. If not, I hope you at least know what I&#8217;m talking about. At any rate, ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34427466731@N01/2191408271"><img title="/lalala" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2121/2191408271_2a93b4299c_m.jpg" alt="/lalala" width="240" height="180" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34427466731@N01/2191408271">striatic</a> via Flickr</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p><em>&#8220;Quit now, you&#8217;ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you&#8217;ll be halfway there.&#8221;</em> &#8211; David Zucker</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve all seen somebody cover their ears and start singing &#8220;La-la-la-la-la, I&#8217;m not listening!&#8221;. If not, I hope you at least know what I&#8217;m talking about. At any rate, I&#8217;m here to tell you that this is a completely acceptable way to handle things when somebody tells you to give up pursuing your dreams.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been pursuing your dreams, or even talking about it, you&#8217;ve probably also had the unpleasant experience of someone telling you to give up or not even bother trying. When someone tells you to give up, it can be tempting to take their advice. After all, giving up is easy and painless right? It might especially seem that way when things don&#8217;t seem to be working out for us.</p>
<p>The problem is that giving up on your goals and dreams isn&#8217;t painless. Sure, you could learn to be content with the way things are, but I can promise you that your dreams will continue to gnaw away at you for your entire life. You&#8217;ll never be completely happy, something will always feel like it&#8217;s missing or incomplete, until finally one day you&#8217;re on your deathbed, full of regret, and wondering what your life could have been had you not given up.</p>
<p>Okay, so maybe that&#8217;s a pretty bleak picture to paint, but in many ways it&#8217;s true. Close your eyes for a moment and get your imagination going. Fast forward your life and imagine you&#8217;re in your final years on this planet. Do you think you will be glad that you spent your life playing it safe and taking the easy route? Do you think you&#8217;ll be glad you stayed in career you hated instead of pursuing your dreams? Do you think you&#8217;ll be glad you decided to take the easy way out and watched television every night instead of taking some small daily actions to make your dream a reality?</p>
<p>Giving up on your goals and dreams is not painless, and it won&#8217;t make your life any easier or better in the long run. But if that&#8217;s true, why would people tell you to give up?</p>
<h4>The Two Types of Naysayers and How To Handle Them</h4>
<p>Why in the world would somebody tell you to give up on your goals and dreams? There are two main reasons why someone might give you this flawed piece of advice.</p>
<ol>
<li>They genuinely care about you and don&#8217;t want to see you suffer failure.</li>
<li>They aren&#8217;t currently pursuing their dreams, and the fact that you are is making them feel threatened by you.</li>
</ol>
<h5>1. The People Who Genuinely Care About You</h5>
<p>If someone that genuinely cares about you tells you to give up on your goals, it&#8217;s probably because they don&#8217;t want to see you end up being hurt or disappointed. They worry that things won&#8217;t work out for you, and it can be hard for loved ones to watch us go through difficult times.</p>
<p>The way to handle this type of situation is to gently thank these people for caring enough to try to protect you from suffering. But you also need to let them know that you will also suffer pain and regret if you don&#8217;t try to succeed, and that you would appreciate it if they could try to encourage and support you instead. If they really do care about you, they will respect your wishes.</p>
<h5>2. The People That Are Threatened By You</h5>
<p>The other type of person that will try to discourage you are the ones that feels threatened by your ambitions. They might feel threatened for a couple of reasons, and both of them are very selfish ones!</p>
<ol>
<li>When they see you going after their dreams, it reminds them of how they have given up and settled in life. This reminder can be painful. So instead of being inspired by you and following your example, they instead try to get you to give up so that they don&#8217;t have to suffer being reminded anymore. To deal with these types of people, feel entirely free to use the hand over your ears method and ignore them.</li>
<li>The second type of threatened person is worried that you&#8217;re going to leave them behind. They worry that as you move on, you&#8217;ll forget about them, or won&#8217;t have time for them anymore. To deal with situations like this, gently remind the person that they are being selfish and that if your relationship with them is truly important, you will both make time for each other no matter how much your life changes.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>Stay strong, don&#8217;t give up, stay true to yourself and your dreams. Listen to the wise advice of David Zucker&#8230;</p>
<p><em>&#8220;Quit now, you&#8217;ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you&#8217;ll be halfway there.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>And feel free to throw in a quick cover of your ears and a &#8220;La-la-la-la-la, I&#8217;m not listening!&#8221; just for fun. <img src='http://www.practical-self-help.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />
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<div class="simpletags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/self-help" rel="tag">self-help</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/success" rel="tag"> success</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/personal-development" rel="tag"> personal-development</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/goals" rel="tag"> goals</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/dreams" rel="tag"> dreams</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/advice" rel="tag"> advice</a></div>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Self Improvement Getting You Down?</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/is-self-improvement-getting-you-down/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/is-self-improvement-getting-you-down/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Self-esteem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self-improvment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=462</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



Image by Mel B. via Flickr



There&#8217;s a dark side to the self-improvement industry. If you&#8217;re into any form of self-improvement (self-help, personal-development, personal-empowerment, etc.), there&#8217;s a good chance that you&#8217;ve been affected by it.
What is it?
Working on improving yourself can actually affect your self-esteem in a negative way. You see, ...]]></description>
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<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93587218@N00/1878611309"><img title="Sad clown" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/1878611309_906621bc0e_m.jpg" alt="Sad clown" width="240" height="160" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93587218@N00/1878611309">Mel B.</a> via Flickr</dd>
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<p>There&#8217;s a dark side to the self-improvement industry. If you&#8217;re into any form of self-improvement (self-help, personal-development, personal-empowerment, etc.), there&#8217;s a good chance that you&#8217;ve been affected by it.</p>
<p>What is it?</p>
<p>Working on improving yourself can actually affect your self-esteem in a negative way. You see, when you decide that you want to improve something, you can get caught up in focusing on what&#8217;s wrong with you.</p>
<p>In order to decide you want to change something, you first need to acknowledge that there&#8217;s something in your life that you don&#8217;t like. This acknowledgment is important, but it&#8217;s easy to end up keeping your focus there. Keeping your focus on your problems is a guaranteed recipe for getting yourself down.</p>
<p>Does this mean you shouldn&#8217;t work on improving yourself and your life? Of course not, wanting to improve is a worthy endeavor.</p>
<p>So, how do you endeavor to improve your life without ending up feeling bad about yourself?<strong> Remember why you want to improve</strong> your life and also <strong>acknowledge what is already going well</strong>.</p>
<h4>Remember Why Do You Want To Improve?</h4>
<p>You have the power to choose where you put your focus. If you want to change something, first acknowledge that there&#8217;s a problem, then decide how you would like to change it.</p>
<p>Once you know where your want to go, keep your focus there instead of the problem itself.</p>
<h4>Remember to Acknowledge What&#8217;s Already Going Well</h4>
<p>Take some time to look at yourself and your life and acknowledge what&#8217;s already good about them. If there are areas of your life that are going well, appreciate yourself for doing such a good job.</p>
<p>Taking time to do this regularly will help you remember that you are a capable person and deserve to congratulate yourself. Really, go ahead and do it now, you deserve it!</p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>Improving yourself is a worthy goal, but don&#8217;t get caught up in focusing on the problems in your life. Avoid any potential blows to your self esteem. Keep your focus on your goals and remember to regularly spend time acknowledging what&#8217;s already going well.</p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How To Change Your Life: Part 5 &#8211; Putting It All Together</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-5-putting-it-all-together/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-5-putting-it-all-together/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:23:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change your life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=440</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



Image by svenwerk via Flickr



I hope you&#8217;ve enjoyed this series of posts on how to change your life!
We&#8217;ve covered a lot of ground over the last few days, so I thought it might be a good idea to summarize everything for you into a step by step guide.
Step 1 &#8211; ...]]></description>
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<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 188px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11864250@N00/369136782"><img title="5" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/369136782_35c1fd8b8e_m.jpg" alt="5" width="178" height="240" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11864250@N00/369136782">svenwerk</a> via Flickr</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>I hope you&#8217;ve enjoyed this series of posts on how to change your life!</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve covered a lot of ground over the last few days, so I thought it might be a good idea to summarize everything for you into a step by step guide.</p>
<h4>Step 1 &#8211; Become Clear</h4>
<p>If you want to change your life, you first need to become clear about what it is you want.</p>
<p>Deciding exactly what you want will give your life direction and purpose.</p>
<p>Without having a clear goal in mind, you have nothing to move toward. It will be impossible to develop a plan to change your life if you don&#8217;t know where you want to go.</p>
<p>Imagine that you want to take a trip. If you have don&#8217;t know where you want to go, how can you make any sort of plan on how to get there?</p>
<p>Your life is no different. You need a goal, a destination in mind so that you can plan and live your so that you are constantly moving in that direction.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re not clear about what you want in life, you&#8217;ll end up moving around aimlessly in a life that goes nowhere.</p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1 - Become Clear" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self"><em>Read more about Becoming Clear&#8230;</em></a></p>
<h4>Step 2 &#8211; Align Your Thoughts and Feelings</h4>
<p>Once you&#8217;re clear about what you want, you need to align your thoughts and feelings with that desire.</p>
<p>What does this mean? Well, it means that you keep your mind focused on the thoughts and images of achieving your goal. You spend time everyday imagining what it would feel like emotionally and physically if your goal were achieved.</p>
<p>Why do this?</p>
<p>First, you need to keep your desire strong and believe that it&#8217;s possible for you to achieve your goal. By focusing on it daily, you will strengthen and reinforce your will to succeed.</p>
<p>Second, repeatedly thinking about your goal as if it were already achieved helps to reprogram your subconscious mind. If you keep bombarding your subconscious with thoughts and feelings of achieving your goal, it will eventually start helping you to make it a reality. New ideas and inspirations that can help you succeed will start popping into your head and your belief in yourself and your abilities will begin to increase.</p>
<p>Third, these thoughts and feelings will activate the law of attraction in your favor. Basically, the law of attraction says that like attracts like. So as you think about your goal as if it were already achieved. And as you imagine what it would feel like if your goal were already acheived, the law of attraction states that the Universe will start working to make those mental images a reality for you.</p>
<p><em><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 2 - Align Your Thoughts And Feelings" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">Read more about how to align your thoughts and feelings&#8230;</a></em></p>
<h4>Step 3 &#8211; Learn What You Need to Know</h4>
<p>In order to move towards your goals and dreams, you need to take action. The problem is that sometimes we don&#8217;t know enough to make the right moves. That&#8217;s where learning comes in.</p>
<p>When you have the the right knowledge, the actions you take will be a lot more effective and efficient and you will move towards your goals a lot faster.</p>
<p>There are many ways that you can aquire the skills and knowledge you need.</p>
<ul>
<li>Go to school</li>
<li>Take a night course</li>
<li>Read books on the subject</li>
<li>Get a mentor</li>
<li>Read magazines and online articles related to your goals</li>
<li>You can even learn from your mistakes. At least you&#8217;ll know what not to do on your next try.</li>
</ul>
<p><em><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 3 - Learn What You Need To Know" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-3-%E2%80%93-learn-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_self">Read more about how to change your life by learning&#8230;</a></em></p>
<h4>Step 4 &#8211; Take Action</h4>
<p>Now that you have the knowledge you need, you&#8217;re ready to start taking action.</p>
<p>Action is necessary to achieve any goal. Read any good book on success, or any autobiography of a successful person, and they will tell you that you need to work to achieve your dreams.</p>
<p>Schedule time to take action towards your goals every week, or even better, every day. If changing your life is important, then you need to make it a priority to take the actions that will make it happen for you.</p>
<p>Making excuses isn&#8217;t going to change anything. A basic principle of physics explains this very well &#8211; &#8220;Nothing happens until something moves&#8221;. So get moving!</p>
<p><em><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 4 - Taking Action" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-4-%E2%80%93-taking-action/" target="_self">Learn more about how to change your life by taking action&#8230;</a></em></p>
<h4>This Concludes The &#8220;How To Change Your Life&#8221; Series</h4>
<p>I sincerely hope that you&#8217;ve found this series of posts on how to change your life to be helpful. I strongly encourage you to apply them in your own life. If you&#8217;re not already moving towards your own goals and dreams, don&#8217;t waste any more of your life. Get started today!</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re already working on changing your life, why not share what&#8217;s working well for you by leaving a comment below?</p>
<h5>Other Posts In The Series: How To Change Your Life</h5>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1" href="../2010/01/2010/01/2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings" href="../2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 3 – Learn What You Need to Know" href="../2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-3-%e2%80%93-learn-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 3 – Learn What You Need to Know</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 4 - Taking Action" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-4-%E2%80%93-taking-action/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 4 – Taking Action</a></p>
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		<title>How To Change Your Life: Part 4 – Taking Action</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-4-%e2%80%93-taking-action/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-4-%e2%80%93-taking-action/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:43:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change your life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law of attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[taking action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Universe]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=427</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



Image by SuperFantastic via Flickr



This is the fourth post in a series on how to change your life. If you want to start at the beginning of the series, head on over to: How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear.
Before we talk about taking action, lets quickly ...]]></description>
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35423169@N00/78536547"><img title="Four leaf clover" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/78536547_62c9f3f131_m.jpg" alt="Four leaf clover" width="185" height="240" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35423169@N00/78536547">SuperFantastic</a> via Flickr</dd>
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<p>This is the fourth post in a series on how to change your life. If you want to start at the beginning of the series, head on over to: <a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1" href="../2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear</a>.</p>
<p>Before we talk about taking action, lets quickly recap what steps you should take before you move on with this one:</p>
<ol>
<li><a title="How To Change Your Life Part 1 - Become Clear" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">Become clear about what you want in your life.</a></li>
<li><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 2 - Align Your Thoughts And Feelings" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">Align your thoughts and feelings with what you decided in step one.</a></li>
<li><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 3 - Learn What You Need to Know" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-3-%E2%80%93-learn-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_self">Learn what you need to know in order to create the life you desire.</a></li>
</ol>
<p>If you&#8217;ve taken care of the first three steps, you&#8217;re ready to begin taking action!</p>
<h4>Why is <span class="zem_slink">Taking Action</span> Required?</h4>
<p>Over the years I&#8217;ve come across many books and articles that say that if you want to change your life, you only need to become clear about what you want and then align your thoughts and feelings with your desire. Once you do that, supposedly the law of attraction will magically bring whatever you desire into your life.</p>
<p>I completely disagree with this! Every story I&#8217;ve ever read about a successful person who achieved what they wanted in life, involved them taking action to get where they wanted to go.</p>
<p>Now, I&#8217;m not saying that I don&#8217;t believe in the law of attraction. My personal belief is that the Universe will bring you what you want through the actions you take. It might drop what you want in your lap, but you&#8217;ll have a better chance of succeeding if you start <a title="Taking Action Book (opens in new window)" href="http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Action-Samuel-Blankson/dp/1411627350%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddevelopinet-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1411627350" target="_blank">taking action</a>.</p>
<p>If all you did was sit around visualizing all day, people in overalls will eventually show up at your home and start repossessing all your stuff.</p>
<h4>So How Does Taking Action Work With The Law of Attraction?</h4>
<p>If you first align your thoughts and feelings with your goals, then take action, three things will occur:</p>
<ol>
<li>You will notice a lot more opportunities showing up in your life.</li>
<li>You will notice that your actions are easier and more effective.</li>
<li>You will start having more ideas on how to get what you want.</li>
</ol>
<p>This is the Universe working the law of attraction in your favor. By helping you move toward your goals instead of just giving them to you.</p>
<h4>Why Won&#8217;t The Universe Just Give Me What I Want?</h4>
<p>I believe that the reason that action is almost always required is that it accomplishes three things:</p>
<ul>
<li>First, you will have a much bigger sense of accomplishment and boost to your self-esteem if you had to work to get what you want.</li>
<li>Second, you tend to appreciate what you&#8217;ve achieved more when you had to work for it. And gratitude is a wonderful feeling!</li>
<li>Third, when you take action, you often encounter problems and difficulties that will force you to grow and become a better person. Growing as a person allows you to become the type of person who is capable and responsible enough to have what you desire.</li>
</ul>
<h4>How To Begin Taking Action</h4>
<p>The first thing you need to consider is that if you truly want something, you can&#8217;t make excuses as to why you can&#8217;t go and get it.</p>
<p>If you think you&#8217;re to busy, what can you give up doing that really isn&#8217;t as important as your goals and dreams? Learn to prioritize where you give your time and energy so that they go to things that are truly important to you. Make sure devote time every week, or (better yet) every day, to doing things that will help you achieve your goals.</p>
<p>Once you&#8217;ve allocated the time to take action, the simplest way to decide what actions to take is to ask yourself this question:</p>
<blockquote><p>What one thing can I do today that will move me at least one small step closer to my goal?</p></blockquote>
<p>If your goal seems way to big to know what you can do to move closer to it, <a title="How to acheive big goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-achieve-goals-even-big-goals/" target="_blank">break it down into smaller sub-goals</a>.</p>
<h4>Keep The Momentum Going</h4>
<p>Getting started is the hardest part. Once you begin taking action, you will find that it&#8217;s easier to keep going. Use this to your advantage and make sure that you regularly schedule time to work toward you goals. After a while, you will find that it starts to become a habit.</p>
<h4>Don&#8217;t Waste Any More Of Your Life</h4>
<p>Stop settling for the life you have if you desire something more. Remember, time is going to pass by anyways, so you might as well be moving toward what your goals.</p>
<p>This concludes the taking action step. Make sure to join me in the next post where we&#8217;ll be putting together all the steps of how to change your life.</p>
<p>For more information on the action step of how to change your life, check out the book <a title="Taking Action Book (opens in new window)" href="http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Action-Samuel-Blankson/dp/1411627350%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddevelopinet-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1411627350" target="_blank">Taking Action</a>!</p>
<h5>Other Posts In The Series: How To Change Your Life</h5>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1" href="../2010/01/2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings" href="../2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 3 – Learn What You Need to Know" href="../2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-3-%e2%80%93-learn-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 3 – Learn What You Need to Know</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 5 - Putting it all Together" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-5-putting-it-all-together/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 5 &#8211; Putting it all Together</a></p>
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		<title>How To Change Your Life: Part 3 – Learn What You Need to Know</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-3-%e2%80%93-learn-what-you-need-to-know/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:26:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change your life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[knowledge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[learning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=418</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[



Image via Wikipedia



This is the third post in a series on how to change your life. If you want to start at the beginning of the series, head on over to: How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear.
If you followed the instructions in the last post in ...]]></description>
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SteacieLibrary.jpg"><img title="Steacie Science and Engineering Library at Yor..." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/SteacieLibrary.jpg/300px-SteacieLibrary.jpg" alt="Steacie Science and Engineering Library at Yor..." width="300" height="225" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SteacieLibrary.jpg">Wikipedia</a></dd>
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<p>This is the third post in a series on how to change your life. If you want to start at the beginning of the series, head on over to: <a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1" href="../2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear</a>.</p>
<p>If you followed the instructions in the <a title="how to change your life - part 2" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">last post in this series</a>, you have your thoughts and feelings aligned with the <a title="how to change your life - become clear" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">goals you clarified in step one</a>. Now you’re ready for the next step…</p>
<p>Learn what you need to know &#8211; the skills, knowledge, and experience you need in order to achieve your goals.</p>
<h4>Why Learning Is Important</h4>
<p>Taking action is important to reach your goals, but sometimes you don&#8217;t have the knowledge, skills, or experience you need to take smart action.</p>
<p>Taking smart action means doing things effectively and efficiently. In order to do that you need to know the best ways of getting things done.</p>
<p>The more knowledge you have about how to achieve your goals, the faster, and easier it will be to achieve them.</p>
<p>So how can you acquire the knowledge, skills, and experience you need? Read on&#8230;</p>
<h4>The Different Ways You Can Learn</h4>
<h5>Use Jobs For Experience</h5>
<p>If you&#8217;re looking to start your own business, a great way to learn what you need to know is to work for another business in the same industry. I&#8217;ve heard of many people who successfully used this approach.</p>
<p>So if you want to open a bake shop, work for a baker. If you want to open a restaurant, work for another restaurant&#8230; You get the idea. <img src='http://www.practical-self-help.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>While you&#8217;re working, you can learn how things are done, what suppliers and products are available, what prices to charge, and how the business is run. It&#8217;s an excellent way to prepare yourself for opening your own business.</p>
<h5>A Mentor</h5>
<p>Another excellent way to aquire the knowledge you need to succeed is to find someone else who has either already achieved what you would like to achieve. Or their are at least well on their way to doing it.</p>
<p>These people can offer excellent advice and guidance to help you do the same. Often they are more than happy to offer advice to people just starting out. All you need to do is ask. Otherwise, it&#8217; might be a good idea to offer to help them out in whatever way you can in exchange for their help in return. That way, both parties benefit.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t already know someone who would make a good mentor, try looking for them wherever you think they might be hanging out. Industry conferences and business meet-up groups are a great place to start.</p>
<h5>Reading</h5>
<p>Books, magazines, and the internet are also fantastic resources to learn what you need to know. If you can&#8217;t afford to buy your own books, your local library can be an invaluable resource.</p>
<h5>School and Courses</h5>
<p>Consider taking a course, or getting a diploma or degree in your desired field. Many local colleges offer correspondence or night classes if you can&#8217;t go to school full-time.</p>
<h5>Learn From Your Mistakes and Problems</h5>
<p>Don&#8217;t let the learning phase of changing your life hold you back from taking action. You can actually learn a lot as you go along.</p>
<p>When you take action toward your goals, and things don&#8217;t turn out as planned, there&#8217;s always a lesson to be learned.</p>
<p>Start analyzing why things didn&#8217;t work out. What happened? Why did it happen?</p>
<p>Once you know the cause of the problem, start brainstorming ways that you can prevent it from happening again.</p>
<h4>Don&#8217;t Wait Until You Know Everything</h4>
<p>Learning is important, but you shouldn&#8217;t let it stop you from taking action right now using what you already know. If you know just enough to take even one small step toward your goal, go ahead and get started. You don&#8217;t need to wait to start changing your life. You can continue to learn while you take action.</p>
<p>Are you ready for the next stage of learning how to change your life? Excellent! Join me in my next post where I&#8217;ll be discussing more about taking action toward your goals.</p>
<h5>Other Posts In The Series: How To Change Your Life</h5>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life - Part 1" href="../2010/01/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-1-become-clear/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 1 – Become Clear</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-2-%E2%80%93-align-your-thoughts-and-feelings/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 2 – Align Your Thoughts And Feelings</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 4 - Taking Action" href="../2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-4-%E2%80%93-taking-action/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 4 &#8211; Taking Action</a></p>
<p><a title="How To Change Your Life: Part 5 - Putting it all Together" href="../2010/01/how-to-change-your-life-part-5-putting-it-all-together/" target="_self">How To Change Your Life: Part 5 – Putting it all Together</a></p>
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		<title>Are You Living Your Life With Passion?</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/12/are-you-living-your-life-with-passion/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/12/are-you-living-your-life-with-passion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:04:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[passion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regret]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you want to live a life that has meaning to you, one that you can be proud of when you come to your final days on this earth, you need to live your life with passion.
Living your life with passion is not as impossible as it might seem. All ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you want to live a life that has meaning to you, one that you can be proud of when you come to your final days on this earth, <strong>you need to live your life with passion</strong>.</p>
<p>Living your life with passion is not as impossible as it might seem. All you need to do is to live your life in pursuit of <a title="Your Life Purpose" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/are-you-pursuing-your-life-purpose/" target="_self">your goals and dreams</a>.</p>
<h4>Life Without Passion</h4>
<p>If you don&#8217;t actively pursue your dreams, you end up getting tossed around by the currents of life. You become distracted by what&#8217;s going on around you, and there is no central purpose to your life. You only react to what happens to you instead of working to create what you want to happen.</p>
<p>You might achieve a few things and you might acquire some nice stuff over time, but most of it will feel empty and meaningless. You will feel like something is missing, like there must be more to life.</p>
<p>Eventually, if you continue down this path, you will end up in the final years of your life filled with regret. Regret that you ignored what really mattered the most to you. Regret that you ignored your goals and dreams.</p>
<p>Even if you had tried and failed to achieve your dreams, you would still feel much more satisfaction with your life than if you had never tried at all.</p>
<h4>Life Lived Passionately</h4>
<p>A life lived passionately is a life lived in the pursuit of your dreams. Your dreams become the central guiding point on how your life is lived.</p>
<p>The work you do, the things you study, almost everything you do has a deeper meaning. You are careful to choose what you do with your time because those choices will either move you closer to, or further away from what you want out of life.</p>
<p>Every day has meaning. When you get out of bed in the morning, you know that you will be pursuing <a title="how to discover your life purpose" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/12/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose/" target="_self">your life purpose</a> as you move through your day.</p>
<p>Life still happens. But the difference is that you no longer let life control you. You are no longer simply reacting to it. You have a plan, you have a dream, and you are doing everything you can to make it a reality.</p>
<p>And when you finally get to your final days of this life, you can look back and feel pleased with how you used it. Even if you didn&#8217;t achieve your goals, you know that you tried your best. And as long as you tried your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You will not be filled with regret for ignoring what was really important to you.</p>
<h4>Don&#8217;t Waste Any More Of Your Precious Life</h4>
<p>Take advantage of the gift of life. Don&#8217;t squander it on meaningless pursuits and by wasting time doing meaningless activities that will have no future value.</p>
<p>You are not meant to hide away from your dreams. Pull them out, dust them off, and start doing whatever it takes to start making them a reality. Start living your life with passion again.
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		<title>How To Achieve Goals &#8211; Even Big Goals</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-achieve-goals-even-big-goals/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-achieve-goals-even-big-goals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Goal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motivation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=201</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[OK, we&#8217;ve covered the benefits of setting goals, and how to set goals. So now we&#8217;re going to talk about how to achieve goals &#8211; even big goals.
There are three main things you need to do&#8230;
1. Take One Step At a Time
Imagine you had a giant pancake sitting in front ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>OK, we&#8217;ve covered the <a title="benefits of setting goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/6-benefits-of-setting-goals/" target="_self">benefits of setting goals</a>, and <a title="how to set goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-set-goals-5-things-you-need-to-know/">how to set goals</a>. So now we&#8217;re going to talk about how to achieve goals &#8211; even big goals.</p>
<p>There are three main things you need to do&#8230;</p>
<h4>1. Take One Step At a Time</h4>
<p>Imagine you had a giant pancake sitting in front of you and you had to eat it. How would you do it?</p>
<p>Think about it for a minute, it&#8217;s OK, I&#8217;ll wait&#8230;</p>
<p>Got your answer? Great!</p>
<p>Now here&#8217;s how I would do it. I would eat it one bite at a time.</p>
<p>Goals are no different than the giant pancake. You achieve them by moving toward them one step at a time.</p>
<p>Take each goal that you have written down and break them down into smaller steps. Smaller steps seem less intimidating to complete than a bigger goal that seems way out there.</p>
<p>This approach works especially well for big goals. Just break them down into a series of smaller goals.</p>
<p>For example, let&#8217;s say you want to be earning $10,000 a month 4 years from today. And suppose that right now you&#8217;re earning $4,000 a month. At first glance, that seems like a pretty lofty goal.</p>
<p>You can make that goal feel more achievable if your break it down into smaller pieces. Instead, try saying that you will increase your income by $125 each month for the next 4 yours. The numbers still work out the same, but doesn&#8217;t it feel more achievable when you put it this way?</p>
<h4>2. Take Action</h4>
<p>Unless you are somehow going to inherit, win, or receive your goals as gifts, you&#8217;re going to need to do some work.</p>
<p>It helps if you&#8217;ve already broken your goals down into smaller steps. Just look at what your next step is and do a little bit each day to complete it.</p>
<p>By doing at least a little bit each day, you&#8217;ll constantly be moving yourself in the right direction. You&#8217;ll be able to see yourself progressing over time which will increase both your confidence and your motivation to keep going.</p>
<h4>3. Visualize</h4>
<p>Take 10-20 minutes every day just to close your eyes and imagine that today was the day your goals became a reality. See it as if you were experiencing everything first hand.</p>
<p>What would it look like? Who would be there? Are there any sounds or smells? How do you feel? Imagine your family and friends congratulating you. Make the imagined experience as real as possible.</p>
<p>By doing this every day, you are actually training your brain to help you succeed.</p>
<p>Right now your subconscious brain is used to your current reality and it doesn&#8217;t like things to change. It might even go so far as to sabotage any efforts you make to change your life.</p>
<p>But by visualizing a new reality for yourself, you are training your subconscious mind to accept this new reality as truth. Once it does, it will actually start helping you in your quest. You will start to have new creative ideas come to you, and you&#8217;ll start noticing things around you that can help you that you never noticed before.</p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>Let&#8217;s just do a quick recap on how to achieve goals &#8211; even big goals.</p>
<ol>
<li>Break them down into smaller, more manageable steps.</li>
<li>Take action daily.</li>
<li>Spend time daily visualizing what it would be like if you achieved your goals.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you consistently do these three things, you&#8217;ll be accomplishing your goals in no time.</p>
<p>Is there anything special that you do to achieve your goals? If so, please share it by leaving a comment below.
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		<title>How To Set Goals &#8211; 5 Things You Need To Know</title>
		<link>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-set-goals-5-things-you-need-to-know/</link>
		<comments>http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-set-goals-5-things-you-need-to-know/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:55:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to set goals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.practical-self-help.com/?p=190</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday I talked about some of the benefits of setting goals. So today, I want to continue to discuss the topic of goals with you. Specifically, I want to share with you how to set goals.
If you want to know how to set goals that will motivate, inspire, and keep ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yesterday I talked about some of the <a title="benefits of setting goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/6-benefits-of-setting-goals/" target="_blank">benefits of setting goals</a>. So today, I want to continue to discuss the topic of goals with you. Specifically, I want to share with you <strong>how to set goals</strong>.</p>
<p>If you want to know how to set goals that will motivate, inspire, and keep you on track, there are five key things that you need to know.</p>
<h4>1. Make Your Goal Something That is Meaningful To You</h4>
<p>Your goals need to be meaningful to <strong>you</strong>.</p>
<p>Setting goals to do things that other people want you to do is usually not inspiring or motivating. Sure, it&#8217;s really nice of you to set a goal to quit smoking, or to lose weight, because somebody else wants you to. But are you really going to be inspired and committed to achieve those goals if it&#8217;s not something that you want to do for yourself?</p>
<h4>2. Phrase Your Goal Positively</h4>
<p>Your brain responds much better to goals that are phrased positively.</p>
<p>If I say the word &#8220;debt&#8221; to you, what immediately pops into your mind? Probably images like piles of bills and feelings of scarcity and fear.</p>
<p>Keep this in mind when you are phrasing your goal. Don&#8217;t say things like &#8220;I will no longer be&#8221;. It&#8217;s better to say &#8220;I will be&#8221;.</p>
<p>By keeping it positive, you keep your brain focused on positive images and feelings which are much more motivating.</p>
<h4>3. Make Your Goal Specific, But Not Restricting</h4>
<p>You need to be able to know when you have achieved your goal. In order to do that, you need to make sure that you are specific about what you want.</p>
<p>If you want to be rich, you need to define what being rich means to you. How much money do you want to be earning each month? Is that amount before, or after taxes? Figure out as many details as possible.</p>
<p>Not only does this help you measure your success, but it also helps you develop a clear mental picture of what it would be like if you achieve your goal. Then, you can use that mental picture to inspire and motivate you to reach your goal.</p>
<h4>4. Set a Time Frame On Achieving Your Goal</h4>
<p>Putting a time frame on achieving your goal does two things for you.</p>
<p>First, it helps make your goal more measurable. If you have a time and date in mind for achieving your goal, you can measure how much you need to accomplish each day or week in order to reach your goal.</p>
<p>Second, it makes you more accountable. If the deadline to reach your goal is approaching and you haven&#8217;t done much to achieve it, you will start to feel a sense of urgency to get yourself moving.</p>
<h4>5. Make Sure Your Goal is Believable and Achievable</h4>
<p>You need to believe you can achieve the goal you set for yourself. Why would you bother working toward a goal that you don&#8217;t really believe you can succeed at?</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you make your goals to easy, there is little satisfaction in achieving them.</p>
<p>A good goal is one that will make you stretch your beliefs, but not exceed them. These &#8220;stretch goals&#8221; will do three things for you.</p>
<ul>
<li>Provide a challenge that will help you grow as a person.</li>
<li>Give you more satisfaction when you succeed than an easy goal ever will.</li>
<li>Grow your self-confidence because of the challenge you were able to overcome.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>Now that you know how to set goals, don&#8217;t wait to start <a title="benefits of setting goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/6-benefits-of-setting-goals/">enjoying the benefits of them</a>.</p>
<p>Remember, life can either control you, or you can control it. If you would prefer to be in control, setting goals is a great way to start.</p>
<p><em>PS &#8211; be sure to check out the next post in this goal setting series titled: <a title="how to achieve goals" href="http://www.practical-self-help.com/2009/11/how-to-achieve-goals-even-big-goals/">how to achieve goals</a>.</em>
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