Progressive Muscle Relaxation will teach you how to relax your muscles through a 2 step process. 

First, you tense particular muscle groups in your body, such as your neck and shoulders. 
Then, you release the tension and notice how your muscles feel when you relaxed. 

Studies have shown that progressive relaxation can lower overall stress levels and increase feelings of well-being. You can lower the level of stress you experience each day by spending 10 minutes tensing and relaxing your muscles.

People with anxiety are often so tense that they don’t even know what being relaxed feels like. Through practice you can learn to distinguish between a tensed muscle and a relaxed muscle. 
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Then, you can begin to “trigger” this relaxed state at the first sign of tension that accompanies your feelings of anxiety or stress.

A systematic review conducted in 2008 and published in the journal BMC Psychiatry showed the efficacy of relaxation training, including PMR, in the treatment of anxiety. 
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Therefore, if you are looking for evidence-based options to help treat your social anxiety, PMR may be a good choice.

Please note - Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation can be helpful to relief mild to moderate stress and social anxiety. However, if you have severe untreated social anxiety, it is important to consult with a doctor or mental health professional to obtain suitable treatment.

​Everything that happens to us happens in purpose. 
Sometimes, one thing leads to another. Instead of  staying in a cage of fear and crying over past failures and experiences, rather treat them as teachers and they may just become your tools in both self-improvement and success.

​Did you watch the film Patch Adams? Hunter “patch” Adams is a medical student who did not make it through the board exams. After months of suffering in melancholy and depression, he decided to voluntarily admitted himself in a psychiatric ward, seeking for medical attention. As he stayed in hospital for many months, he met different people.

He met a catatonic, a mentally retarded, a schizophrenic and so on. He found ways of treating his own problems and he realized that he needs to get back on track, that he still want to become a doctor. The positive attitude he carried himself with brought him self improvement and great success. 


Did he succeed? He became the best doctor his country has ever known.

Take these tips:
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•    Stop thinking and feeling as if you’re a failure, because you’re not. How can others accept you if YOU can’t accept YOU?

•    When you see hunks and models on TV, think more on self- improvement, not self pitying.

•    When people feel so down and low about themselves, help them move up. Don’t go down with them. They’ll pull you down further and both of you will end up feeling inferior.

•    The world is a large room for lessons, not mistakes. There’s always a next time. Make rooms for self-improvement.

•    Take things one at a time. There is no overnight pill. Self improvement takes time but eventually leads to success. Just take one day at a time.

•    Set meaningful and achievable goals. It hopes and aims to result to an improved and better YOU.

•    Little things mean BIG to other people. Just greeting someone with a pat on the back can mean so much to someone else.
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•    Remember there’s no such thing as ‘over night success

Better Yourself Master Your Life
Are you living the life you really want? Make your life one you actually want to live by learning how look inside yourself and not to the outside world for answers.
The detailed and flexible worksheets in this helpful guide will help you break out of your rut and learn the path to a better you through self-reflection and analysis. Now available on AMAZON.

Even though you are a self-sabotaging person, you can establish a success mindset. There are lots of useful things you might do to combat negative self-talk.

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​Even though you are a self-sabotaging philosopher, you can establish a success mindset. There are lots of useful things you might do to combat negative self-talk.

Tips for developing a successful mindset:

• Be grateful. Practice gratitude in different forms. This can include writing in a gratitude journal every day. This allows you to recognize what you have daily. Another way to focus on gratitude is to say what you are grateful for aloud. Try to find something new each day.

• Gain clarity on what you want to accomplish. Then commit to accomplishing this. For example, maybe you have a goal to write a book. Ask yourself why you are writing a book? Who is the book for? When you’ve answered those questions move on to actually writing the book.
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Follow our positivity board on Pinterest

• Take a leap of faith and start. Summon the courage to get started on what you want to achieve. Grand ideas or intentions don’t mean anything if you never take action on them. Action builds your confidence, driving you to do things you’ve avoided before.

 

• Don’t go for the quick fix or the shortest path. Be persistent and stick with it even when it gets hard. Write down the negative thoughts and doubts – why you can’t or shouldn’t. Then tear up the paper and throw it away. This releases you from all these thoughts, allowing the positive ones to take their place.

Also read The power of Self-Reflection ​​

• Be willing to fail. Part of success means learning how to fail. Developing a mindset for success requires you to step out of your comfort zone and adopt a can-do attitude. You will have challenges and setbacks but owning up to them and being willing to make a mistake keeps you growing.  

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• Don’t be afraid to seek help. It’s not a sign of weakness. When you get stuck, seek out others who can help you move forward.

​Also read: How To Encourage Positivity Around You 
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• Show up even when others don’t want to see you succeed. It’s your life. Drop the crappy excuses, remove your limitations, and take control of what you can. Take bold massive action.

 

• Have the desire to do things differently. Be willing to explore all options. Step out of the box and be adventurous in opening your mind to alternative ideas.

 

• Create a list of goals you want to accomplish. Then create a vision board of these dreams and goals. Put it somewhere you will see it every day.

The above CD can be purchased from Etsy HERE

• ​Don’t be afraid to seek help. It’s not a sign of weakness. When you get stuck, seek out others who can help you move forward.

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​Also read: How To Encourage Positivity Around You 
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• Show up even when others don’t want to see you succeed. It’s your life. Drop the crappy excuses, remove your limitations, and take control of what you can. Take bold massive action.

 ​  ​  

• Build a positive attitude. A success mindset means having a positive attitude towards everything, even your challenges. A positive attitude helps you respond calmly and with confidence. It does away with the victim mindset. Monitor your thoughts on a daily basis until it becomes second nature to think positively.​    ​

Also Read Step by step to love yourself

• Meditate daily to slow down an overactive mind. Meditation helps you gain control over your thoughts.

 

• Associate with inspiring people. Network online and in person with others who are successful and inspire you.

 

• Invest in a mentor. A mentor can be a valuable asset. They can help you get unstuck, hold you accountable, and help you eliminate your self-limiting beliefs.
  Acknowledge your need to change and take the steps to make changes to your mindset for success.​

​Also read How to love yourself

Also read 5 Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence questions

Whatever one go through in life is able to create a behaviour of preventing you to succeed. And even when things are going right, one might be worried. One may begin giving oneself self-sabotaging talks regarding just how one is going to fall short or mess things up.

• Don’t say “Can’t”. Every day you give yourself all sorts of reasons why you can’t do this or achieve that. Stop it. You have the ability to take the actions you needed to get closer to your goal of succeeding. Instead of saying I can’t, figure out what is causing you to think that way. Is it a fear of doing something? Are you unwilling to do what is necessary to make something happen? Find out why and then face that reality.  

Also read 5 Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence questions
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• Avoid telling yourself “someday”. Being afraid to take action often leads to procrastination and telling yourself that you will do it “someday”. But that someday often never comes. You never get to it. Instead, stop putting off what you want or need to do or learn to be successful.

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• Quit putting off taking action. Your brain will often convince you you’re not ready, you don’t know enough yet and you must do more research before you take action or make a decision. This analysis paralysis leads to mentally being unable to take action on anything. Time flies when you use excuses for not doing the work to follow your dreams. Start taking action and learn as you go.

 

• Stop saying you don’t have time to build success. Turn off the TV. Stay off Twitter and Facebook. Spend one less weekend partying. Instead, use that time to build your business. Prioritize your goals for success over these other activities.

The above digital download can be purchased on Etsy HERE

• ​   ​Get away from negative people. Misery loves company. If you want to be miserable and unsuccessful, hang out with your negative friends. It’s often hard for unhappy people to support others who are on the road to success. Distance yourself as much as possible from negative people as you go for your goals. Find and hang out with people who are positive and committed to creating their own success.

Also Read Step by step to love yourself
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• Forget justifying why you did or didn’t do something. Instead, watch yourself. Observe what you did and why you did it. Was it fear, control issues, or a need for attention? Once you know why you are doing something, you can begin to make changes to avoid repeating it.

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• Don’t just assume you know what success means. Visualize what true success will look like to you.

 

• Don’t be a perfectionist. If you mess up, don’t give up. Tell yourself we all make mistakes and mistakes can be fixed.

• Quit jumping all over the place. Learn to focus on what is most important to your success. For example, concentrate on one ways to make money at a time. Trying to balance multiple moneymaking projects at one time just leads to frustration. Successful people develop the ability to concentrate on what they need to succeed. 

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• Don’t try to please everyone all the time. Work hard and take risks. You can’t. When you see yourself doing this, take a step back and define who really matters and what you can do to please yourself and them.

 

• Falling into the self-sabotage trap keeps you from reaching for the success you desire. Recognizing when this happens and learning how to move away from those traps is key in growing a successful mindset.

Also read How to love yourself

Also read The power of Self-Reflection 

​Most of us have never seen the Himalayas, climbed in the Andes or stood next to Switzerland’s Matterhorn. But a majority of individuals and families have faced disaster, tragedy, debilitating illness, an accident or other trial, some personal mountain that at one point seemed insurmountable.

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​When Your Problem Feels Like Mt Everest
Author: Gary Sinclair

Most of us have never seen the Himalayas, climbed in the Andes or stood next to Switzerland’s Matterhorn. But a majority of individuals and families have faced disaster, tragedy, debilitating illness, an accident or other trial, some personal mountain that at one point seemed insurmountable.

People of course respond in a variety of ways. Some are immediately overwhelmed and give up. Rather than even start the climb, they give way to depression and despair uninterested in the help of friends, professionals or fellow-strugglers.

Others panic. They want to overcome but don’t know where to begin so they run from person to person, idea to idea, without a plan making little headway towards the summit.

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A third group gets angry. They spew their rage at life, God, friends, family or all of the above, furious that life has taken this precipitous turn.

While each of these responses is somewhat extreme, they are normal. They are emotions that erupt when we face a mountain that scares us because we don’t believe we have the resources to conquer it.

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​My wife Jackie and I encountered a Denali over a decade ago now when it was discovered she had stage three colon/rectal cancer. There was a tumor growing inside her and the devilish cancer cells had begun to spread. Ironically, she and I had climbed her first fourteen-thousand-foot peak in Colorado just three months before.

We now had a new mountain to climb. It took some weeks for us to figure it out, but we finally realized that we must climb her cancer mountain the same way we ascended those of granite. While climbs and climbers are unique, there remain principles that undergird any successful summit bid.

The same is true with personal mountains.

Let me discuss three of the key principles as they impacted our Mt. Cancer.

One, never climb alone. Most every experienced mountaineer will tell you that you are foolish to in high altitude by yourself. People do it, yes, but many of them die, some needlessly. During Jackie’s illness, we knew we must invite others to walk this trail with us, some being people who had faced a similar journey to ours. Others simply wanted to be there with us.

Two, climb one part of the trail at a time. Get through the next switchback before worrying about the next one. On a mountain trail, we would give each other candy once we reached the place on the mountain where we reached our next waypoint. In the same way, as we started her cancer journey, we focused on the next doctor visit, the chemo, surgery or radiation treatment rather than think about what might be down the road.

No, we couldn’t perfectly excise from our minds the possible future implications, but we became pretty good at keeping them at arm’s length until later. The mountain didn’t disappear but we could face it more and without unnecessary, unhelpful distractions

Three, be honest about your mountain. Some natural mountains have more snow and ice than others; some are steeper; some have false summits. In the same way our personal trails will vary from those others hike. We must face the difficulty of our mountain and not look the other way or try to make it seem easier than it is.​

The good news is that there is also hope for you to conquer personal mountain if you’ll learn from those who climb the big peaks. Your ascent can be a long and arduous one but remember: the view from the top is worth it!

​Bio: Gary Sinclair is an author, leadership coach, speaker and avid climber/hiker. He has summitted nine fourteen thousand foot mountains and hiked with his wife Jackie in beautiful places like Yosemite, Alaska, Colorado, the Canadian Rockies and the Alps. He has an ongoing passion to help those who are hurting face life challenges that seem beyond their ability to conquer. He and his wife currently live in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. His website is: http://www.neverquitclimbing.com and he has recently written a book entitled, "Never Quit Climbing," available at Amazon.com.

Why is being focused so important in today’s world? What results happen when you are focused? Does being focused make you less stress? Happier? If it’s so important, why don’t people focus more?
Being focused on one thing for a certain period of time allows you to do a better quality of work, more work gets done quicker, and your creative ideas flow easier. Being focused on one task at a time is less stressful on your mind. And being less stressed allows you be happier.

It’s difficult for people to remain focused on one task for a variety of reasons. For one, we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with TV, radio, cell phones, Internet social media, as well as a much larger population that lives closer together than ever before.

It’s difficult to get completely away from all these distractions. One way is to go to a room where you can shut your door and turn off your phone and email notifications.

• When you focus on a single task, avoiding distractions, your brain becomes focused on that task alone. This lets you complete that task much more quickly than if you are trying to complete two or more tasks at once. For instance, let’s say you need to write a blog post, do your bookkeeping for the week and research information for an upcoming speech. The best thing to do is to set aside all but one task. So, for this example, you want to give all your attention writing your blog post. That means turning off the TV, cell phones, social media pings, closing your door and putting all your attention on writing.

 

• By giving all your attention to the task without distraction, you can get it done much more quickly and with fewer mistakes. Your work will be higher quality as well. Another benefit to being focused is that your creativity will kick in too. You’ll come up with new ideas associated with the task at hand.

 

• Being constantly connected to others and having many distractions that take away your focus can affect your stress levels as well as your productivity. When you aren’t focused, you don’t get as much done as you could if you were truly focused on the task you’re doing.

 

• Focusing on one thing for a certain period of time helps you think better. Having your mind scattered over several tasks at once keeps you from thinking about what you are actually doing. You only have time to complete a task quickly before you must move on to the next one. All the while you are trying to remember everything that has to be done. When you focus, you are able to think about only one thing for that period of time.

 

• Focusing allows your subconscious to do the work. Think about when you learned to ride a bike or drive a car. It was difficult in the beginning, but when you began focusing on what you were doing, your subconscious took over and helped you learn. The same is true in your everyday tasks. Once you begin focusing solely on one task, your subconscious helps you do them quicker and easier.

 

• It’s important to focus on one task at a time to become more productive, do better quality work and be less stressed. Focusing can help you be more creative and have more happiness.
  Multitasking is Overrated

 

• If you’re like many people you spend most days multitasking. You’re probably so used to multitasking that you don’t even realize when you’re doing it. After all, it’s a skill many employers look for in their employees. Many people believe multitasking saves them time. There are many reasons why multitasking is bad. It’s better to focus instead though. Focusing lets you concentrate on one task or thought at a time, helping you create a better result for each task.
  Many people like to multitask because they become bored working on one task at a time.

Why is multitasking bad?

You have to switch from task to task. This takes time for your mind to change into the right mindset for the new task. You have to take the time to remember where you left off.

1. Multitasking leads to attention and memory loss. According to a study by Harvard Professor Clifford Nass, in findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, people who use online social media and other forms of electronic communications have trouble focusing their attention and have lower scores on memory tests.
2. Cognitive performance is diminished. A recent study by Zheng Wang, a professor at Ohio State University, showed that multitasking caused students to feel more productive, but showed they were actually reducing their cognitive skills abilities such as studying.
3. It turns people off when you are interacting with them. People who multitask often find themselves coming in contact with others. If you only half pay attention to them, answering texts and phone calls while talking to them, you will lose their respect.
4. Multitaskers lose productivity. Switching between tasks is counter-productive. You lose time and concentration every time you switch to a different task.
5. Multitaskers are less likely to finish one quality project. They may finish all their tasks for the day, but they will most likely be sub-par than if they had focused solely on one to completion.

Multitasking makes it difficult to focus entirely on each task you are doing. You are thinking about emails you have to respond to when writing a report and the phone calls you need to return even while you are thinking about the next task on your to-do list. This type of working environment doesn’t do anything but cause you stress. Instead of multitasking among several tasks, you should prioritize your tasks and break them up into workable time chunks.

Tips to Improve Focus.

Maybe you want to focus on a single task, but find yourself easily distracted. You find it difficult to focus on what you are doing because you find your mind wandering, you’re worrying about
everything or maybe you just have way too many things you need to do to make a choice of just one task to start with.

Here are some valuable tips on how to improve focus.

Listen.
Listen to music to help improve your focus. Really concentrate on the music. Try to focus on a single instrument.

Cut goals into small targets.
Having an end goal in mind while working on the tasks to achieve it can frustrate you because you target goal might be too big or difficult. Your results won’t be quick, and it may seem like you aren’t getting any closer to the end. Instead of working toward the ultimate end goal, break it down into smaller, more achievable goals you can reach within a few days. Then cross each smaller goal off your list as you achieve it.

Time clock.
Work within your body’s most comfortable time period. Maybe you work best early in the morning before sunrise. Or late at night. Work when you are most productive. For example many authors get up early to do their writing, while artists often do their best work late at night.

Light meals.
Have you ever eaten a big meal for lunch when working only to feel lethargic and weighed down all afternoon? Eating a heavy meal slows you down and makes you sleepy. If you need or want
to, you can go on a small juice fast on a regular basis. It will keep you alert and help keep your body in good physical condition.

Exercise
Exercise your mind and body every day. Do crossword puzzles. Engage in lively discussions. Build something that’s creative. A simple 30 minute walk every day is all you need to keep your body healthy.

Force yourself.
You may need to push yourself some when you’re feeling lazy. If you are hitting a mental roadblock, though, take some time away from the task. Do something else until you can regain your focus on the original task.

Learning to improve you focus will take time but it is worth it. Begin by implementing one or two of these tips into your day to begin changing how well you can become focused.

Strategies to Improve Focus
You’d be surprised by how many people lose track of where their time goes. They might think they are focused on a single task, but are they really? One way to find out is to keep track of how you spend your time for a week. You might find out you’ve been wasting time on little things like checking Facebook once an hour.

It’s never been harder to stay focused than at this time in history. We are distracted by technology and everything happening around us. You can regain focus though by doing different exercises that can help you build your concentration.

How to Deal with Focus Issues
You probably already know how hard it is to focus on something. Focus issues are often the result of different things like boredom, lack of interest or even fatigue. Concentration can often be attributed by how motivated and interested we are in the task.

There are ways to deal with focus issues.
Supplements can help you when you are having focus issues. Vitamins like the B complex group, Biotin or vitamin H and lecithin all help improve your memory.

Eating the right foods can help you better focus as well since you will be getting the supplements from the foods to help with brain health. Foods like lean meat, beans, oranges, peanut butter and oysters.

Consult with your physician if you find you can’t focus on any one thing for any length of time. Lack of focus can be a symptom of several different conditions, including depression. Get a thorough checkup to rule out any physical causes of your lack of focus issues.

When working on projects on your computer and online, make sure you only have tabs open that are relevant to what you are doing. This keeps you from getting distracted by all that fun information floating around the Internet.

Make your tasks routine. Set up a routine for tasks that you do every day. For example, check your email and social media at the same time every day. Just like you probably have a routine when you wake up, you should also have a routine when working.

Separate your day into a time for creating, time for work and communication, and time for yourself. Split the day up in whatever way works best for you.

Dealing with focus issues causes your productivity to drop. By learning how to take care of your focus issues through your diet, exercise and routines, you can be more productive.

Eat healthy and nutritious foods to keep your brain strong and able to concentrate. Exercise daily, meditate daily and take time to enjoy nature and your family.

 This is the first post in a new series - "Using Your Senses To Transform Your Life.” Most of us probably assume that we make use of all 5 our senses each and every day, but take another look. Do you think that you use them to their fullest potential?

Leonardo da Vinci, the great Renaissance painter and sculptor, said that the average person looks without seeing, listens without hearing, and talks without thinking. Doesn’t this describes most of us?
 
Follow these series if you would like to discover the full potential of your senses and how you can use them for powerful self improvement which will lead to happiness, healing, and greater life fulfilment. 
 
See how one may fine tune your senses  to make much more sense of the world. After all, you are the writer of your own story, and your perception creates your own world.

Do you know what your predominant sense is? 
​Download this free quiz below  determine your main sensory tendency.

For 5 weeks, we will focus on one sense each week. For instance, week one you could pay particular attention to everything you see that week. Do not then pay to much attention to your other four senses in your “sight” week. In a "touch week" focus on feeling various textures, and so on. 
 
Perform this exercise over the next 5 weeks, concentrating on a different sense each week.
 
Repeat this exercise from time to time to stay in touch with all of your senses so you can reap the very most benefits from all five of them. 

Week 1:  Your Sense Of Hearing

The Art of Listening
 
True listening has the power of transforming relationships on a majestic scale. It can make the difference between a failed and a successful career. How well you listen in the same way affects your relationships with your family members and friends. 
 
Try these tips to fine tune your listening skills:

• Look at the person speaking. Show your interest by attentively leaning forward. Make sure that you maintain eye contact and stop with whatever it is that your re doing listen to this person.
• Do not become distracted by your phone, the tv or anything else while you are listening.
• You have to show your interest from time to time by nodding or saying “really?” or “I see what you mean."  
• Do not plan what you are going to say next while the speaker is talking. Let him or her finish first before you consider your reply.
• Exhibit self-control and avoid being judgemental while the person is speaking. If what the person said makes you angry first count to ten and think about an objective response before saying a a thing.
• Make sure you understood what they said by summarising “so you are saying...”  and wait with your questions while the other person is speaking.

​Research has long shown that music enhance brain power, health, and a general sense of well-being. This phenomenon is known as “The Mozart Effect.”

Improve Creativity and Focus With the Music of Mozart

Mozart’s music, in particular the "Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major", has been shown to boost brain power.
 
Dr. Alfred Tomatis discovered the Mozart Effect in the late 1950's while he was experimenting with the effects of Mozart’s music on autistic children. By 1990, the method had been adopted worldwide. It was also found that Mozart’s music is also beneficial in reducing the negative effects of epilepsy.  
 
Classical music relieves stress and is shown to improve your body’s immune system. Mozart’s compositions and Baroque music like Bach that is 50 to 80 beats per minute also enhances a person’s focus by inducing the Alpha state brain waves which is ideal for learning and reading. ​

Also Read: Using your Senses To Transform Your Life
Also Read: ​Your Sense Of Touch - MUCH more Powerful Than you Realise
Also Read: Get in touch With Your Soul By Using your Sense Of Sight
Also Read: Free Workbook: Transform Your Life With The Power Of Your Senses
Also Read: 10 Incredible Facts About Your Sense Of Smell

1) Be SPECIFIC about what you wish to accomplish
Many people do not know what they want to do with their life. This is among the major reasons that many people live an ordinary life although there are numerous books and workshops on success readily available.

2) CREATE a strategy
Identify a goal or goals and write it down (even small goals are fine.)  After discovering a goal you truly want to accomplish, create a strategy, being as functional as possible. List the actions you need to take, like enrolling in a training program, reading a book, searching for a job, etc, that will get you closer to accomplishing your goal/s.

3) COMPLY wit your checklist
Do something about it and comply with the steps on your checklist. Do not wait on things to take place.

4) Create a BACK-UP plan
If a specific strategy does not work, search for an alternate one.

5) ANALYZE your goals routinely
Some goals may not be worth accomplishing. Situations and people change. Many goals lose their value. It is a great idea to re-examine your goals routinely and remove the meaningless ones.

6) AFFIRM and PICTURE your goals
Belief that your goal/s has been ACHIEVED already and envision yourself seeing, feeling and smelling your goal/s. make use of all your senses. If you do not nullify your affirmations with doubts and non-belief, your subconscious mind will take them in, and give you even more aspiration and drive.

7) ACT
Do not affirm and picture your goals without doing anything about it. Do whatever is needed to bring your goal/s into fulfillment. 
Trust your gut instinct, new ideas and possibilities that show themselves, and accept help from other individuals.

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