100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Steve Chandler wrote a little book with a lot of great ideas. Actually, there are 100 great ideas in his book titled, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself. Change Your Life Forever.

If you've ever had difficulty getting motivated to do anything I suggest you go out to your local library or favorite bookstore and pick up a copy of this little gem that packs big ideas.

For instance, from pages 60-61 Steve recommends you Find Your Inner Einstein. I've never even imagined that I could have an inner Einstein. E=MC2. Do I have an inner Einstein? I don't think so.




But then I read Steve's pages. He says that Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Wait a minute! Wait just a minute. Maybe I do have an inner Einstien. I have imagination!


Steve goes on to tell us about a song for teenagers that Fred Knipe wrote so that teens could visualize themselves succeeding at what they wanted to do:
"That's you/in your wildest dreams/doing the wildest things/no one else can do. If you/just love and keep those dreams/the wildest dreams/you'll make yourself come true."

I LOVE THIS! It's motivating to me. Steve goes on to say,"But the greatest thing about active dreaming is not in the eventual reaching of the goal-- the greatest thing is what it does to the dreamer."

Are you making yourself come true? How? What are you doing? How do you stay motivated?



JUST IMAGINE.

Success and Such

I'm feeling successful!

I've been reading a lot of blog posts and books lately about success, what it is, or what we think it is or hope it is. I used to be one of those people that had a difficult time accepting a compliment. Chock it up to not hearing many compliments as I grew up. I don't even think I knew what I was missing until I got older. This effected my personal view of success.

I've learned to accept compliments and I'm happy for them whether it's about a new haircut, new outfit, or weight loss. But it's weird now for me to accept compliments about my writing. What's that about? Maybe it's because I only have one book out and it's still kind of surreal. Maybe because I don't know if I'll be able to keep doing what I'm doing and be any good at it. We writers are a weird lot in many ways. I think a lot of us suffer from self-confidence issues.

Rachelle Gardner's Blog Post It's Not Always About The Money speaks to success and money and how we perceive what we get in the way of an advance and/or royalties. The publishing business is changing and I don't think there are many writers out there who get huge royalty payments or huge advances, but I'm sure there are some that do. Read through the comments if you have the time.
 
Michael Hyatt says, "The bottom line is that you have more control over your success than you may think." Read 7 Ways Successful Creatives Think Differently Than Unsuccessful Ones This is a place where I believe that positive thinking makes a huge difference. If you can foster these 7 Ways into your creative life I really don't believe you can lose no matter what happens.

James Scott Bell's post entitled, A New Definition of Writing Success begins with the sad story of a school teacher named Edith Allonby who committed suicide because her story was rejected. Jim explores getting published with income and getting published with freedom.

 And Stephen Covey's, 7 Must Read Success Lessons from Stephen Covey is another must read thought provoking post. It's his #4 that reminded me to, "“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” 

And I would add to this for my own growth to give God the glory and seek his Word. Philippians 4:13 NIV, I can do all this through him who gives me strength, has always been powerful for me as I know it has for many others, as well as James 4:10 NIV, Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.

So what do you think about success? What does it mean to you personally?