Today Is "Someday," What Will You Do With It?

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AppId is over the quota

We've all said it at one time or another. "Someday I'll..." or "One of these days, I'll..."

Someday I'll... start writing my book; ask her to marry me; go on a diet; begin my new business; go back to school; find a new job; start saving for our future.

What is your "Someday "I'll"

Well, my friend, let me be the first to inform you that today is that someday you've been waiting for.

There was a popular quotation that appeared in the 1960's that reminded us that, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." It could be seen on tee shirts, poster and signs everywhere. I'm not sure who actually started it. It's been attributed to Bob Dylan.

There will never be a better time to begin whatever it is you've been wanting to begin.

The reason is simple. Now is the only time there is and the only time there will ever be. As title of my second book reminds us, "This is Your Life, Not a Dress Rehearsal." What are you waiting for?

We all have a tendency to use the "Someday I'll" excuse as a way to seduce ourselves into thinking we're actually doing something when, in fact, all we're doing is procrastinating.

We delude ourselves into believing that we will, one day soon, do whatever it is we really want to do but haven't yet begun, probably because of our fear of not succeeding.

So how do you change this?

Something I learned over twenty years ago is that we do things for basically one of two reasons. We either want to gain pleasure or avoid pain. That's it folks. Everything we do breaks down to one or, more likely a combination of both these emotional states.

The simple way to motivate yourself to do what it is you've been wanting to do is quite simple. Take control of the "carrot and the stick" of the perceived pain and pleasure connected to your action.

Let's say, for example, that you want to write and publish a book. This happens to be something near and dear to me, having done it and experienced the immense pleasure of becoming a successful author and touching the lives of people all over the world. I can't even describe how it feels to have had a positive effect on so many people. Beyond the financial success or the notoriety it is this feeling that drives me to continue to write.

Of course, when I was starting out, I didn't have this to inspire me. I had to create it in my imagination. I had to imagine how great it would feel to be living the life I now enjoy. I had to imagine people all over the world benefiting from reading my books.

This was the "carrot," the pleasure motivator.

On the other side of the equation, and because I feel they're both useful at different times, was the "stick" or pain motivator. For me, this was imagining what I would be missing out on if I didn't do it.

Paying attention to my health and fitness was even easier to get leverage on. One morning I sat quietly, eyes closed, and projected out twenty years. I then imagined what my life would be like if I continued my unhealthy food choices and continued to ignore physical exercise.

Believe me when I tell you that what I saw scared me. I realized that if I didn't change my habits, I was looking at a depressing future.

I then projected how I would feel, not only twenty years out, but in the immediate future as well... if I took action immediately.

I remember that day like it was yesterday, even though it was, now, more than twenty years ago. After taking a few minutes to write in my journal the result of my "carrot and stick" exercise so I could continue to refer to it to stay motivated, I got up, put on a pair of sneakers and started an exercise program and I've stayed with it pretty much since.

Sure I may slack off, hey I'm human too, but I am always aware of my health and exercise choices and have remained committed to my health sine that day.

Whatever it is you want to do "someday," begin it today.

Take a few minutes and write out your desire(s). Sit quietly and imagine you took action and it's now ten or twenty years into the future. What are all the benefits you've enjoyed because you acted today? What have you been able to do because of this action? What has it meant to your family and community?

Write it in your journal.

Next, do the reverse. What has it cost you because you didn't take action? What is it already costing you now? Chances are, not doing something has some unpleasant consequence in the present as well.

Write that in your journal.

I think you can guess the next step.

Begin!

For, as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'

Jim Donovan is the author of several international best-selling books and an inspiring motivational speaker. For a no cost subscription to his classic, Jim's Jems ezine, a bonus audio and special report, visit http://www.jimdonovan.com/

Think and Grow Rich: A Review of a Timeless Classic Book on Success

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AppId is over the quota

Back in 1937, Napoleon Hill came out with a book called Think and Grow Rich. Since then, it has sold approximately 70 million copies worldwide in a number of languages. It was revised in 1960 and then later by others with more modern meanings. Still, the original, intact one has some deeper meanings that can be applied into today's world. This makes even more sense because when Hill wrote it, the United States was in the middle of The Great Depression.

"The 'depression' was a blessing in disguise. It reduced the whole world to a new starting point that gives everyone a new opportunity." -Napoleon Hill

Prior to Think & Grow Rich (TGR), Hill had a set of books that came out in 1928 called The Law of Success. This was in 8 volumes and comprised 16 lessons. What he did was to distill that down to what became Think and Grow Rich. It gives the best of his teachings in a simple, yet effective manner that anyone can understand.

After being issued a challenge by Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill set out to interview 500 of the most successful men of his time period over a 20 year time span. He was able to accumulate this wisdom on success and achievement to be able to put it first in The Law of Success and later in TGR. Imagine having the wisdom of Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison at your fingertips to apply into your own life.

I was surprised by the sheer number of people who have credited this classic to their success in life. For example, according to sports writer Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times, the fighter Ken Norton, Sr. read TGR prior to defeating Muhammed Ali in 1973. A great many motivational speakers credit their careers because of the influence of Napoleon Hill and his work.

I still remember when I picked up my first copy in paperback decades ago. It was a revised copy which I earmarked, underlined, wrote on the edges and highlighted. Since then, I was able to acquire a first edition, first printing of Think & Grow Rich as part of my book collection. I still see what words of wisdom that I can apply into my own life every day.

What most people forget when taking in any information and not just this book, is that they have to find ideas within it and apply to their own life. That means to take action. You can't just read and expect miracles to happen. That's plain, dumb thinking. I've seen too many people get caught up the The Law of Attraction stuff that the movie, The Secret, espoused. They falsely believed if all they did was to wish it, that it will come true. Nothing happens without action. Consistent and progressive movement towards a goal is a key to success. Napoleon Hill calls this being persistent.

"There is no substitute for persistence! It cannot be supplanted by any other quality!" -Napoleon Hill

Will this book make you successful? That's up to you. It may not. You may not become a millionaire. Your definition of success will be different than mine or someone else's. Whatever you do in life is simply up to you. Think and Grow Rich is simply a tool box of ideas that will only work when you use them in your life. Not just let them sit around gathering dust. You need to take persistent action to make it happen.

Check out Optimal Life Seminars today! Just go to optimallifeseminars.com for learning and more... Watch for upcoming events and seminars...

Bob Choat works as a Peak Performance Coach & Trainer and is focused on people in every industry reach a higher level in their lives.

Call 818-620-2494 for coaching/training

bobchoat.com

Brain Rules: How to Increase Brain Power

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AppId is over the quota

Brain Rules is the New York Times Bestseller book written by John Medina. This book will help you to understand how your brain works. Most of us have no idea what is really going inside our brains. How do we learn? Does exercise boost our brain powers? Why we feel tired and want to take a nap at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon? Why multi-tasking does not work? How can we increase our memory?

Some of the interesting things that I learned from this book are following:-

Health Exercise

According to a research, exercise increases brain power. People who have weak mental abilities started doing health exercise. Just after 4 weeks, their brain power have improved. So now the question is what type of exercise must you do, and how much of it must be done to increase your brain power?

After years of study, they found out that aerobic exercise, 30 minutes per day, two or three times per week is beneficial immediately and over the long term. In one study done on 10,000 British civil servants between the ages of 35 and 55, people who do less physical activities have poor cognitive skills. Their problem solving skills were particularly weak.

Why Health Exercise is useful to the brain?

Your brain needs oxygen and food to function properly. It may surprise you to know that your brain represents only about the 2% of your body weight but it accounts for about 20% of the body's total energy usage. In other words, your brain uses a large part (20%) of whatever you eat to function properly and generates a lot of toxic waste. Health exercise helps your brain to remove this toxic waste. The more toxic waste you can remove, the better your brain will function.

The benefits of exercise seem nearly endless. Exercise makes your bones and muscles stronger. It improves your strength. It helps regulate your appetite and reduces the risk for more than a dozen types of deadly diseases. In a study done on students, they found out that when children exercised twice per week, their brains worked better, they got better marks in their exams because exercise helped increasing the oxygen supply to their brain.

Survival

The author says that DNA evidence has been helpful to confirm that we came from Africa somewhere between 7 million and 10 million years ago. The human brain seems to be designed to solve problem and find new ways to survive in different conditions. Humans have been able to survive for so many years on this planet despite many environmental changes. We had two ways to beat the cruelty of the environment: we could have become stronger or we could have become smarter. We chose the second one. We didn't become stronger; we became smarter.

The author says to beat the cruelty of environment, human learned to walk on two legs rather than walking on four legs like animals. It freed our hands and it was also energy-efficient. it used fewer calories than walking on four legs. Our ancestors uses this energy surplus not to pump their body power but to pump up their brain power. Human learned to live and work with others as a team. We learned to cooperate.

Brain Wiring

Every human brain is wired differently. Nobel prize winner scientist Eric Kandel figured out that when people learn something new, the wiring in their brains change. Their brains make new connections. The study found out that the brain of violin players were wired differently when compared with non-violin players. Here is a good news - the brain acts like a muscle: the more activity you do; the larger and more active it can become.

The study found out that you can learn anything you want. You just need to spend enough hours to practicing that thing. What you do in your daily life determines how your brain looks like. You can wire and rewire your brain by making some simple choices daily. You can learn any musical instrument or sport. It may surprise you to know that your brain stores different information in different areas of your brain, for example bilingual people don't even store their Spanish and their English in similar places.

Attention and Memory

Do you want to improve your memory? Then you should read this chapter carefully. According to the author, the more attention the brain pays to a given stimulus, the more elaborately the information will be stored and retained. In other words, we can remember things more efficiently on which we give most of our attention. We generally pay a lot of attentions on the things like emotions, threats and sex. It is hard to forget when someone threatens you or when someone talks about having sex with you.

Different memories have different life spans, some memories hang around for a few minutes and then vanish. Some memories persist for days or months even for a lifetime. According to a study, people forget 90% of what they learn in a class within 30 day. The majority of this forgetting occurs within the first few hours of the class. The study shows that one could increase the life span of a memory simply by repeating the information. The more you repeat an information, the longer it will persist in your brain.

According to another study, the group of students that processes the meaning of the words always remember two or three time more words than the group that do not know the meaning of that words. It means the more you can focus on the meaning of an information, the longer you would be able to remember that information. So when you are trying to encode some information into your brain's memory system, make sure you understand exactly what the information means. The another way - thinking or talking about the events that has just occurred, can enhance your memory for that event.

The Brain Cannot Multitask

If you want your brain to function efficiently you should not multitask. For example, one person says that while working on Ms-word, he loves to listen music as it helps him to concentrate on his work. He types one sentence and then tap out a Face book message, then he sees who has sent him message. He responds to the message and then return to his work. In this case, he is not working efficiently, he is just wasting a lot of time and energy.

Because when he is working on Ms-word, he is using information from a different area of his brain and when he responds to the message from his girl friend, his brain must disengage from his work and takes information from a different area of his brain. It is time consuming. Studies shows that a person who is interrupted take 50% longer to accomplish a task. Not only time, but he also makes up to 50% more errors. Here is another example, you cannot drive while talking on cell phone. Perhaps you don't realize but it is very dangerous. Cell-phone talkers are half-second slower to hit the brake. It is like driving drunk. Your brain cannot perform these two activities simultaneously.

Sleep well, Think well

Perhaps you know it already that when you are sleeping, your brain is not resting at all, in fact it is more active than while you are awake. In one study, they found out that your brain takes rest for a very short period while you are in a deep sleep. Your body needs sleep after about 16 hours of active consciousness. The research shows that one night's loss of sleep results in about 30% loss in overall cognitive skills, with a subsequent drop in performance.

Sleep is also a great friend to learning. We need to sleep so that we can learn. A healthy sleep of 7-8 hours per day can boost your learning skills significantly. According to author, sleep loss = brain loss. In a study they found out that the animal's brain replays what it learned while it sleeps. The same was true for humans. Humans appear to repeat certain daily learning experiences at night.

Final thoughts on this book

The 12 brain rules described in this book should be taught in every school and college. There are very few books written so well on the subject of how the human brain works. This book is one of them. If you want to learn how your brain works and how you can increase your brain power then you should buy and read this book. This is one of the best books I've read this year and I highly recommend it to you.

About the Author

Lakhvir invites you to read more similar articles at http://www.readtoawake.com/ where he publishes short summaries of Best-selling books. So visit his blog because you can Read a Best-seller Book in only 10 minutes and you can also download Free E-books.