Posts Tagged ‘success’

Motivation Can Be Fun or Not!!!

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

What motivates you really? When was the last time you were motivated – truly motivated?  When you think back to the time when you were really motivated what was your thought just before you were motivated? Now that you are able to look back at this time when you were able to feel totally motivated notice what this motivation was as if it was happening right now again and again. Are you able to recreate that event, time, and motivation and now that you are thinking about that motivation is it a good feeling that you would want to experience over and over again?

Sometimes our motivation is something that we look forward to. There are also times where our motivation comes from a point in our life where we are willing to do anything and change anything to stop something from happening as well. Both motivations are helpful but the experience is so different that  even the act of being motivating can be a challenge. The difference is the focus and the direction of the motivation itself.

Have you ever met someone that seems to live their life in a constant marry-go-round? They start to do well and then they seem to go right back where they were and then start the whole trip over and over again?  One type of motivation strategy that we can and do develop is a strategy to get away from something that is bothering or harming us. This happens when whatever it is that is focused on causing us so much discomfort that we will do anything to get away from it. While we are experiencing the feeling of the motivating factor we start to change. We will do anything to rid ourselves of this feeling or issue and as long as that issue or feeling is there we continue moving.

An away from motivator can be very productive. The challenge that some people can have is that once that feeling or issue has been removed our motivation itself has also been removed. So to stay motivated we must bring that thorn or feeling with us on the journey. You will be able to spot away from motivation in yourself and others quickly by the language that is used.  If a negative is used like NOT or WON’T then in 99.99% of the time the motivation is to prevent or stop something from happening. You can only go so far with an away from motivator without losing your motivation.

The opposite is to look forward to the benefits of where you want to go. To motivate yourself toward a goal or benefit. The more you can experience the  rewards and benefits the more you look forward to the trip. My personal favorite for motivation is a toward or forward motivation because the closer I get to the goal the more motivated I become and it keeps changing and getting better and better building self confidence and success.

There can be a challenge with a motivation strategy that is toward something as well. Remember that we are basing our forward motivation on benefits that we want to experience. This means that we do not already have them all. If we are really good at creating the benefits as if we have them already then we will not experience the motivation enough to actually start moving to get them. Remember that there is always a fine line with motivation and the secret is to really understand your motivation so you can tap into that source anytime you want to change .

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Institute of Natural Medicine

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By the Stars

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

July 26th 1948 a very successful businessman T Russ Hill wrote:

{General Omar Bradley, Chief of Staff, made a speech in the little town of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Though the speech was short and quietly spoken, it was truly a great utterance delivered beside the funeral caisson of a Congressional Medal of Honor winner whose body had been brought home for burial. His talk contained this potent paragraph:

“If we are to scamper from crisis to crisis, fixing principles and policies to the change of each day, we shall place ourselves supinely and helplessly at the mercy of any aggressor who might play on our public opinion and decimate our forces at will…. It is time we steered by the stars, not by the lights of each passing ship.”

Read that again, please. Let it soak in. Then turn your thoughts from a nation’s ship listing under uncertain and therefore unsteady leadership to yourself – your business.

What kind of steering  is your life, your territory getting? Do daily irritations cause you to turn this way and that? Does opposition or criticism cause you to look for excuses and then to experiment with this and that?  Or, do you steer by the stars and stick to the chartered course come storm or fair skies?

General Bradley points out that the nation not steered by they stars will go to pieces under the aggressor, the opposition. So will men and the businesses the run.}

Sometimes in our lives we tend to get so wrapped up in the day to day events that we take our eyes off from the stars, the bigger picture, and the things that mean most to us in life. Take time every day to look beyond that day to day picture and reach for your stars no matter where they are.

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Institute of Natural Medicine

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Unlock your Self Improvement Power Today!

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

When we look at a certain object, a painting for example – we won’t be able to appreciate what’s in it, what is painted and what else goes with it  if the painting is just an inch away from our face. But if we try to take a look at it a little further away, we’ll have a clearer vision of the whole art work.

We reach a point in our life when we are ready for change and and the ability to embrace a whole bunch of information that will help us unlock our self improvement power. Until then, something can be staring at us right under our nose but we don’t see it.  The only time we think of unlocking our self improvement power is when everything has gotten worse. Take the frog principle for example –

Try placing Frog A in a pot of boiling water. What happens? He twerps! He jumps off! Why? Because he is not able to tolerate the sudden change in his environment – the water’s temperature.

Then try Frog B: place him in a luke warm water, then turn the gas stove on. Wait til the water reaches a certain boiling point. Frog B then thinks “Ooh… it’s a bit warm in here”.

People are like Frog B in general. Today, Anna thinks Carl hates her. Tomorrow, Patrick walks up to her and tells her he hates her. Anna stays the same and doesn’t mind what her friends says. The next day, she learned that Kim and John also abhors her. Anna doesn’t realize at once the importance and the need for self improvement until the entire community hates her.

We learn our lessons when we experience pain. We finally see the warning signs and signals when things get rough and tough.

When do we realize that we need to change diets? When none of our jeans and shirts would fit us.

When do we stop eating candies and chocolates? When all of our teeth has fallen off.

When do we realize that we need to stop smoking? When our lungs have gone bad.

When do we pray and ask for help? When we realize that we’re gonna die tomorrow.

The only time most of us ever learn about unlocking our self improvement power is when the whole world is crashing and falling apart. We think and feel this way because it is not easy to change. But change becomes more painful when we ignore it.

Change will happen, like it or hate it. At one point or another, we are all going to experience different turning points in our life – and we are all going to eventually unlock our self improvement power not because the world says so, not because our friends are nagging us, but because we realized its for our own good.

Happy people don’t just accept change, they embrace it. Now, you don’t have to feel a tremendous heat before realizing the need for self improvement.  Unlocking your self improvement power means unlocking yourself the cage of thought that is “its just the way I am”. It is such a poor excuse for people who fear and resist change. Most of us program our minds like computers.

Jenny repeatedly tells everyone that she doesn’t have the guts to be around groups of people. She heard her mom, her dad, her sister, her teacher tell the same things about her to other people. Over the years, that is what Jen believes. She believes its her story. And what happens? Every time a great crowd would develop over their house, in school, and in the community – she tends to step back, shy away and lock herself up in a room. Jenny didn’t only believe in her story, she lived it.

Jenny has to realize that she is not what she is in her story. Instead of having her story continually pushed in her face for everyone to remember, she has to have the spirit and show people “I am an important person and I should be treated accordingly!”

Self improvement may not be everybody’s favorite word, but if we look at things with a different point of view, we might have greater chances of enjoying the whole process instead of counting the days until we change. Three sessions in a week at the gym would result to a healthier life, reading books instead of looking at movies will shape up a more profound knowledge, going out with friends and peers will help you take a step back from work and unwind.  And just when you are enjoying the whole process of unlocking your self improvement power, you’ll realize that you’re beginning to take things light and become happy.  After a while you won’t even be able to remember what it was like to be the way you were before no matter how hard you try.

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Institute of Natural Medicine

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Concentration Finds the Way

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Everyone has two natures. One wants us to advance and the other wants to pull us back. The one that we cultivate and concentrate on decides what we are at the end. Both natures are trying to gain control.

The will alone decides the issue. A man/woman by one supreme effort of the will may change his/her whole career and almost accomplish miracles. You may be that man/woman. You can be if you Will it to be, for Will can find a way or make one.

I could easily fill a book, of cases where men/women plodding along in a matter-of-fact way, were all at once aroused and as if awakening from a slumber they developed the possibilities within them and from that time on were different people.

You alone can decide when the turning point will come.

It is a matter of choice whether we allow our diviner self to control us or whether we will be controlled by the brute within us. No man/woman has to do anything he/she does not want to do. We are therefore the director of our life if we will it to be. What we are to do, is the result of our training and natural super powers. We are like putty, and can be completely controlled by our will power.

Habit is a matter of acquirement. You hear people say: “He/she is a natural, a chip off the old block,” meaning that he/she is only doing what his/her parents did. This is quite often the case, but there is no reason for it, for a person can break a habit just the moment he/she masters the “I will.”

A man/woman may have been a “good-for-nothing” all their life up to this very minute, but from this time on they begin to amount to something. Even seniors have suddenly changed and accomplished wonders. “I lost my opportunity,” says one. That may be true, but by sheer force of will, we can find a way to bring us another opportunity. For life itself presents us with opportunities each day.

There is no truth in the saying that opportunity knocks at our door but once in a lifetime. The fact is, opportunity never seeks us; we must seek it by opening ourselves up to what is around us. What usually turns out to be one person’s opportunity, was another person’s loss.

It is often the quickness of brain action that determines the result. One man/woman thinks “I will do it,” but while he/she procrastinates the other goes ahead and does the work. They both have the same opportunity. The one will complain of his/her lost chance. But it should teach them a lesson, and it will, if they are seeking the path that leads to success.

Many persons read good books, but say they do not get much good out of them. They do not realize that all any book or any lesson course can do is to awaken them to their possibilities; to stimulate them to use their will power. You may teach a person from now until doom’s day, but that person will only know what he/she learns himself. “You can lead him to the fountain, but you can’t make him drink.”

One of the most beneficial practices I know of is that of looking for the good in everyone and everything, for there is good in all things. We encourage a person by seeing their good qualities and we also help ourselves by looking for them. We gain their good wishes, a most valuable asset sometimes.

We get back what we give out.

The time comes when most all of us need encouragement; need buoying up. So form the habit of encouraging others, and you will find it a wonderful tonic for both those encouraged and yourself, for you will get back encouraging and uplifting thoughts. In order to express something to someone else you must create it in yourself first. This is another reason why it is important to focus on the positive around you.

Life furnishes us the opportunity to improve. But whether we do it or not depends upon how near we live up to what is expected of us by ourselves at times. The first of each month, a person should sit down and examine the progress they have made. If they are not come up to “expectations” they should discover the reason, and by extra exertion measure up to what is demanded next time.

Every time that we fall behind what we planned to do, we lose just so much for that time is gone forever. We may find a reason for not doing it, but most excuses are poor substitutes for action. Most things are possible.

Ours may be a hard task, but the harder the task, the greater the reward. It is the difficult things that really develop us, anything that requires only a small effort, utilizes very few of our faculties, and yields a scanty harvest of achievement.

So do not shy away from a hard task, for to accomplish one of these will often bring you more good than a dozen lesser triumphs in the end.

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Institute of Natural Medicine

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You Can concentrate, But Will You?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

You have the ability to concentrate, but will you? You can,but whether you will or not depends on you. It is one thing to be able to do something, and another thing to do it.

There is far more ability not used than is used. Why do not more people of ability make something of themselves? There are comparatively few successful people but many ambitious ones. Why do not more get along?

Cases may differ, but the fault is usually their own. They have had chances, perhaps better ones than some others that have made good.

What would you like to do, that you are not doing? If you think you should be “getting on” better, why don’t you? Study yourself carefully. Learn your shortcomings. Sometimes only a mere trifle keeps one from branching out and becoming a success.

Discover why you have not been making good – the cause of your failure. Have you been expecting someone to lead you, or to make a way for you? If you have, concentrate on a new line of thought.

There are two things absolutely necessary for success – energy and the will to succeed. Nothing can take the place of either of these. Most of us will not have an easy path to follow so don’t expect to find one.

The hard knocks develop our courage and moral stamina. The persons that live in an indolent and slipshod way never have any. They have never faced conditions and therefore don’t know how. The world is no better for their living.

We must make favorable conditions and not expect them to shape themselves. It is not the man that says, “It can’t be done,” but the man that goes ahead in spite of adverse advice, and shows that “it can be done” that “gets there” today. “The Lord helps those that help themselves,” is a true saying.

We climb the road to success by overcoming obstacles.Stumbling blocks are but stepping stones for the man that says, “I can and I Will.” When we see cripples, the deaf and dumb, the blind and those with other handicaps amounting to something in the world, the able-bodied man should feel ashamed of himself if he does not make good.

There is nothing that can resist the force of perseverance. The way ahead of all of us is not clear sailing, but all hard passages can be bridged, if you just think they can and concentrate on how to do it. But if you think the obstacles are unsurmountable, you will not of course try, and even if you do, it will be in only a half-hearted way–a way that accomplishes nothing.

Many people will not begin an undertaking unless they feel sure they will succeed in it. What a mistake! This would be right, if we were sure of what we could and could not do. But who knows? There may be an obstruction there now that might not be there next week. There may not be an obstruction there now that will be there next week.

The trouble with most persons is that just as soon as they see their way blocked they lose courage. They forget that usually there is a way around the difficulty. It’s up to you to find it. If you tackle something with little effort, when the conditions call for a big effort, you will of course not win.

Tackle everything with a feeling that you will utilize all the power within you to make it a success. This is the kind of concentrated effort that succeeds.

Most people are beaten before they start. They think they are going to encounter obstacles, and they look for them instead of for means to overcome them. The result is that they increase their obstacles instead of diminishing them. Have you ever undertaken something that you thought would be hard, but afterwards found it to be easy? That is the way a great many times. The things that look difficult in advance turn out to be easy of conquest when once encountered.

So start out on your journey with the idea that the road is going to be clear for you, and that if it is not you will clear the way. Everyone that have amounted to anything have cleared their way and they did not have the assistance that you will have today.

The one great keynote of success is to do whatever you have decided on. Don’t be turned from your path, but resolve that you are going to accomplish what you set out to do. Don’t be frightened at a few rebuffs, for they cannot stop the person that is determined – the person that knows in their heart that success is only bought by tremendous resolution, by concentrated and whole-hearted effort.

“He who has a firm will,” says Goethe, “molds the world to himself.”

“People do not lack strength,” says Victor Hugo; “they lack Will.”

It is not so much skill that wins victories as it is activity and great determination There is no such thing as failure for the person that does their best.

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Insitute of Natural Medicine

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Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin:  Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior highschool student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.

Mystically yours,

Michael Holt, Ph.D.
Magi Institute of Natural Medicine

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