Have you ever been in these negative types of states, where it has totally disempowered you? Has it caused you to not be at your best and fail to succeed at something important? Chances are that it has – it happens to all of us. So then, the value of being able to manage our states is very important. We can go from a negative state where failure is almost a certainty, to a totally empowered state where we can produce excellent results. How can we do this?

There are two main factors that control our state. First, is our mental focus or what we are paying attention to the most. When we focus on something that we don’t want or doesn’t correspond to our beliefs of how things should be, especially if there is a lot of negative emotion associated to those thoughts, chances are that this will instantly put us in a negative state. So one way to control our state is to control our mental focus. We can consciously control what we focus on. How do we control our mental focus? Choose to focus on the positives of a situation. That’s right, it’s a choice. If there is something negative you are focusing on, try to think of what you can do to improve that and begin to focus on what you can gain from it. After all, that’s what problems are meant to do in my opinion. They are meant to help us grow, learn and improve. So it is important to focus on what you want, not what you don’t want out of a situation.

The second way to change our state from low gear to high gear, if you will, is to move our body and change our breathing in a way that gets our blood moving. In other words, we need to have the physiology of someone that wants to take action. Move your body how you do when you feel unstoppable and powerful. Now, compare feeling physically unstoppable to this following description. Think about a time when you were at home for example and had nothing to do. You may have felt a little bored. You may have been slouched over with your face looking down. Your body movements will most likely have been a little lazy too.  Did you feel like doing much when you were in that state of boredom? The scary thing is, to feel better, you may have tried to do something really easy to get out of that state like eat or watch TV. The problem with this is that we will feel a little better, but only for a few moments. That’s a trap that can lead us into a cycle of misery. How can we empower ourselves to get out of these negative states, as well as stay out of the traps? The answer is to learn to consciously use powerful, physical movements to rapidly change our state from low energy to high energy. When you notice that you are bored, go for a brisk walk, call a friend and talk about something that normally gets you going. If you play sports, go shoot the ball around or roller blade. Or, if you don’t have the time to do any of those things, think about something that makes you feel great, and complement that with some quick physical movements like pumping your fist or looking up and smiling from ear to ear. Just try this and you’ll see what I mean. Your physical state will change and this better mood will put you in a better position to succeed.

In order to be effective at anything, we need to be able to control our states.  By knowing how significant a role our focus and physiology play in how we respond to any situation, is a start. Remember, the actions we take each moment of each day, determine the outcome of our lives. That’s some serious stuff – especially if you want to improve your life. By learning how to better manage your state of body and mind, you will start to create better control over your life, make better choices and allow yourself to act on correct disciplines. Remember, it’s as easy to do something as is not to do something. If we are in a poor state of body and mind, we tend to do what’s easiest, which means nothing. Doing nothing is a sure formula to total failure in life.  I think if we have a choice, we should choose the actions that help us create an excellent life – and that’s the value provided from this self improvement article on state management. Learn to control your state by knowing that our focus and physiology control our actions. Mastering this area of self improvement will help increase our chances of succeeding in our lives. Now, all that’s left to do, is to put the act of managing our state into practice – and as to old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

W. Beran Wolfe said, “If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator.” I believe that the latter part of this quote holds the key. It’s probably true that if you’re searching for happiness, your trying to hard. Why? I believe that happiness is right there inside of us – always. We do not need to search for it. Although some happenings do make us temporarily happy, happiness is not in the money we earn, or what we buy with it. It’s not in how well we do at work or in life that determines if we are happy or not – unless we set it up that way. I figured out, that in the past, this had always been my problem. In the past, I made it impossible to feel as happy as I do now, unless something turned out exactly the way I wanted it to. I am learning now, that happiness is a state of body and mind I can choose to experience, no matter what the surrounding circumstances.

Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Happiness exists readily in each of us. It is natural. Joy is within us all. Happiness is simple, but we have forgotten that we need not look for it. Happiness is always there if we allow it to be.

Don’t Wait – Be Happy Now

So why wait to be happy? Please don’t misunderstand. I know we can’t always be happy. There are times in life where it isn’t going to be possible in that moment. Obviously, when a loved one passes away or gets sick, we naturally feel sadness and grief. Sadness and grief have a part in life. However, we do need to be careful that we do not stay in those emotional states and dwell in the negative feelings more that we need to. That could form a bad habit that can lead to less happiness for us down the road.

So, changing our focus back to happiness now, what are we waiting for? Is looking for happiness outside of ourselves going to work? I looked inside myself and found, that I can choose to feel happiness whenever I want, because it’s inside, regardless of what is going on outside of me. I have learned that how we feel comes down to the meaning we attach to happenings.

So what if I didn’t impress my boss. Should I be miserable for days? So what if I missed the ball game I really wanted to attend? Should I take it out on my family? So what if I didn’t finish in first place. Should I feel like a loser for months? So what if I didn’t reach my goal this time. Should I feel worthless and quit on the goal? No – I have a choice! I can choose to try again, take the positives from any situation, know that I am learning and creating self improvement and enjoy the journey!

I hope you choose to enjoy your life’s journey.

Someone can want to have good health for example, but do they follow the disciplines of a person who seeks to have good health? If not, that persons philosophy needs to be changed in order for desired results to come about. After all, the old saying goes, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” right? It’s not a can of coke and a candy bar a day…no way! Who sold us on that plan for health? Obviously, the personal philosophy here in this example is at fault.

How do we develop an effective personal philosophy? This is a lot simpler than you may think. Take anything you want to improve in your life that you may not be producing desired results in. You already know what does not work. I would suggest that you no longer follow that pattern. What does work? If you are in trouble financially, you may be overspending. If you are overweight, you may be overeating. If your relationships are suffering, chances are that you are not giving them enough care. You see, by knowing what does not work, we can see what can work. Change your philosophy to include taking disciplined action daily to improve each area of your life. Spend less and save more.
Eat less and exercise more. Pick up the phone or take 15-20 minutes to write a friend or loved one a personal letter. This shift in your philosophy can make all the difference!

Focus on What You Want

Focusing on what you want is important in developing an effective personal philosophy. Why? Imagine wanting to achieve a promotion at your job, but never focusing on adding value to the business. In most cases, this type of philosophy will cause you to never achieve the promotion. Imagine wanting to achieve financial freedom, but constantly spending your time in front of a television watching programs that do not help you achieve that goal in any way. Imagine wanting to look thin for a party, but overeating and not exercising at all. We need to focus on what we want. Our personal philosophy will ultimately shape our destiny, so we want to create an effective personal philosophy by beginning to focus in on what we want and not the opposite.

Making a Change to Your Personal Philosophy

How can we change our personal philosophy? An effective way to change your personal philosophy is slowly. Do one discipline at a time. You want to avoid overwhelming yourself. If you are in financial trouble, you need to study your finances. You need to find the cause of the problem. You need to cut out some things that are not contributing to your overall financial success. Are you over budget each month? Are you spending money poorly? Are you saving any money from your income? Focus on what you want. Don’t say I don’t have any money or I don’t want to be in debt. Change your philosophy. Instead know that your current philosophy is not generating desired results. Focus on the results you want. I want to be saving 5% of my income each week. I will spend my money wisely and repay my debts at 3% bi-weekly. This is just an example of course, but I know you get the idea. Your personal philosophy of how you currently operate needs to change. If you fail to make any change and continue to run the same pattern of poor judgment how will it turn out in say, 3-6 years from now? It would be disaster. Don’t continue falling into the trap. It’s much easier to change your philosophy and avoid the pain.

Practice a basic fundamental or success principle in the areas of health, relationships, finances and career. What are these basic fundamental success principles? Many people know them, in fact most of us do—but we do not apply them regularly. Do some crunches instead of sitting on the couch all night or go for a walk. Make that a daily discipline. Keep what you have to gain in your focus and make the changes.

The are a lot of people out there that think that self improvement is of no importance, use or value. They believe that the self improvement industry itself is bogus; That all self improvement coaches are taking your money and results are never achieved. Everyone is entitled to their opinion for sure. However, the fact remains that if we want to make a positive change in our lives, self improvement is necessary. We can wish or just hope. This will not help us change for the better. Action is needed.

What am I Improving?

In order to create something in our lives, we need to go from point A to point B. Where I am now to where I want to be. For example, if we want to improve our relationships, how do we do this? There obviously is a way, right? We can think about it, but to obtain certainty of a method that would work to achieve our goal of improved relationships, we could simply go to the library (for free) and read books about the subject. So, what has occurred? We had a need to fulfill. We decided that we wanted to fulfill the need and, we sought a method for improving ourselves to obtain that result. The rest is all about applying the method and noticing if we are getting the desired results.

What if I Fail?

I have great news! We can only totally fail if we stop trying to get the result. We must keep trying until we get the result. Why do most people give up? From my experience and learning, we stop trying because we start to associate a lot of pain to not getting the result we wanted. Most people do this after the first or second attempt. I have a question for you: What if we associated more pain to the consequences of not getting the result we wanted? That would motivate us to keep trying, right? So failure comes only when we give up. Remember, just because you did not produce the result you wanted, does not mean you are not improving yourself and it does not mean that you are a failure. What it means is that you now know what does not work and you can move on to produce another result that can get you what you want. See - you are improving!

Constant Self Improvement is the Key

So what does self improvement do? From my experience, self improvement is about learning to conduct ourselves in a manner that helps us achieve our personal goals. These goals are in our health, relationships, spirituality, finances, career, communication, beliefs, contribution and leisure time. For example, if all I want to do is wake up in the morning, peek in on my kids and kiss my wife before I embark on an hour commute to work and then return back home after 10-11 hours - I am fully entitled to live this way, if I want to. I know this is a generalization, but if I wanted to improve this situation, I would need to change something. I would have to look at the beliefs I have that are driving my behavior. Is it fear of failure or loss that is driving me to live this way? Am I afraid that my boss will not give me a good raise if I leave work too early (based on his beliefs)? The question that I would ask is, what can I do to improve this situation? From my experience, improvement starts from within. Self improvement begins with changing our thinking. Our thoughts are causes that are put into effect by our actions, which yield the results in our lives and literally create our destiny! To improve our lives then, we must improve our way of thinking.

Final Thoughts

Self improvement is useful as you can see from the examples in this article. If you want something bad enough, you can only achieve it if you believe you can. Remember, if you believe that you cannot do something, you are absolutely right! Believing that you cannot do something will stop you dead in your tracks. You will not even attempt. Imagine if Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein or anyone for that matter believed that what they wanted was not possible. These people were not considered geniuses because they were born that way. They made distinctions through and through in their lives from facts! The facts are that everything that has come into existence on this earth has come from human thought and action. The pyramids, skyscrapers, space travel, cell phones, you name it. If there is a will, there is usually a way. Facts can never be refuted. The law of cause and effect is always working – we need to learn, evaluate and take action to improve our lives and it all starts within ourselves.

Today’s self improvement article is going to focus on the power of goal setting. Why is goal settingso important? Goal setting is a fundamental principle to creating life long success in our lives. The reason for this is that goals give us a direction—a road map for knowing what we want to have, be or do in life. I believe that without goals, we are leaving our lives up to chance. 

So the power of goal setting comes from knowing what we  want, but more specifically, exactly what we want. 

Isn’t this true? Most people have a general idea of what they want; a better job, a bigger house, better health, happiness and more money. Those terms aren’t exactly specific. We can say we want to have more money for example, but that is more of a wish. The power comes from being specific. For a personal income goal, we could say, “I will earn an average of $25,000 a month selling real estate by December 1, 2010. That’s specific and measurable.

Furthermore, writing down goals and reviewing them daily is an extremely powerful way to manifest them. When we write down a goal, something powerful has happened. The easiest way I can explain it, is that when we write things down, we are saying to ourselves that we want to remember them. This means that there is a great amount of significance attached to what we wrote, as well as emotion. We are committing to making the goal a reality!

Emotion is one of the key factors in manifesting what we want. Without emotion, there is nothing but uninspired thought or again, wishing. I want you to say two things to yourself 1) I wish I had a bigger home 2) I want a house with a swimming pool, a two car garage and a fireplace that I can relax in front of when I feel like it. Feel the difference between the two. Which one has more emotion?

Review Your Top Goals Daily

Reviewing your top goals daily is imperative! What is so important about reviewing your goals? When you look at your goals everyday, you will begin to focus on what you want.  The best time, I believe we should review our top goals, is right before we go to sleep at night.  While you are asleep, your mind will begin to think about how to make your goals become reality. This is our subconscious computer going to work – unlike us, it never sleeps!

Off course, just thinking about your goals is not enough! Action will be needed. You will need to create a plan for achieving your goals, and be able to adjust when you hit a road block and overcome the obstacles. So first, decide what you want, write it down and go to work on it. Most importantly, never give up!

Key Points:

• Goals must be specific and dated!
• Review and act towards achieving your top goals daily.
• Identify the obstacles in your way.
• Create an action step to overcome the obstacles – and take action!
• Oh yeah, and if you want to see your dreams become a reality, never give up!