Chart Your Course

Image Courtesy Of AlicePopKorn

If you are long time follower of mine you’ll recall that this blog started out at another domain a couple of years ago.

That first blog started out as a personal blog on which I also shared many principles of success.  Some time ago I decided to do away with that blog and create one on the principles of Wealth, Wisdom and Success and the power of dreaming, acting, planning, and believing.

Lately however I’ve had long time followers tell me that my story should be shared. That said they found it inspiring and that it gave people hope.

Their opinion was that my story has a place on this blog. At the same time, my intuition was also telling me that it was important to share my story.  Something I always intended to do again some day and in some way.

You see, I have lived a great life, but I like many others have experienced a past full of trauma, depression, illness, panic attacks, and plenty of failures.  A doctor once told me I had experienced more trauma at a young age than most people will in a life-time.

Thankfully I’ve experienced great success and recovery as well.  And those experiences have given insight to things I would have not known any other way.

So please journey with me as I continue on the road to success and continual recovery.

The journey into my past will begin shortly…

Will Smith’s recent films have turned me into somewhat of a fan.  However, the video clip I share with you below made a much bigger fan out of me.  You see, Will seems to really have an understanding on what it has to achieve true success and there is no doubt that Will Smith has learned how to live a Life Without Limits.

Perhaps some of you are thinking “anyone who has achieved the status in life that Will Smith has really has to understand it. “  Yes, that is true, to some extent. Certain thought processes need to come into play to achieve the same level of success.  But I would bet that few of those actors and/or actresses have taken the time to really study the laws of success like Will has.  And how many of them have the same goals that Will Smith has?

He said…

“I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here. ” ~ Will Smith

“I don’t want to be an icon. I want to be an idea.  I want to represent an idea.  I want to represent possibilities.  I want to represent magic.” ~ Will Smith

Take a few moments to watch the video and you’ll see it is obvious that Will has spent a great deal of time studying the laws of success, and has developed a strong work ethic.

I particularly enjoyed his commentary about being realistic.

Some of my favorite Will Smith quotes I made note of  from this video are:

“You can’t be scared to die for truth. Truth is the only thing that is constant.”

“Make a choice.  Just decide what it is going to be, who you are going to be, and how you are going to do it.”

“You don’t try to build a wall.  You don’t set out to build a wall”  “You say, I am going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.  And you do that every single day and soon you have a wall.”

“Being realistic is the most common road to mediocrity.”

Click here to find an archive of the Life Without Limits stories.

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.” ~ Richard Bach

Here’s some of the success related content I enjoyed reading this week.  Likely you will too!.  I encourage you to visit these blogs and take a look.

Tips to Increase Your Motivation Level

In Motivation, The Heart of Self Improvement James and Elena outline one self-improvement tip  for each letter of the alphabet. All of them are tips to help increase your motivation level.   One example for the letter “D” is: “Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.” Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been known to  organizationally challenged. It’s not that I don’t know how to be organized – I do. In fact, people have said that I am the most organized person they know. They attached that label to me because of my vast ability to get things done, even large projects that no one wants.  And I usually do them single-handed (Yes delegation is something I am working on).  My ability to get it all done boils down to my gift to hyperfocus.

Intense focus does have it’s advantages.  The ability to focus on things for hours on end can get lots of big projects done.  But in my case, at least, the big projects  get done and the little ones tend to remain on my to do list for a long, long time.

It’s a common symptom for someone with Attention Deficient Disorder, or ADD. And a ADHD symptom in both children and adults.

Once I get started on a project I go at it for days, or even weeks, literally stopping briefly to sleep, and even forgetting to eat. The dishes stack up in the sink, no one in the family will have a clean thing to wear, but my filing system will be in top shape by the end of the week – just because that is what I am focusing on.

Then I’m on to the next big project. The filing gets neglected again for months and months, or even perhaps years. Based on the number of boxes of papers that I had to go through recently I would say it is closer to a year.

It’s a vicious cycle. It can lead to lots of different things all partially done and it can lead to resentment from family members. And admittedly it drives me just a little crazy.

With a mind that is always thinking about a thousand things at once (at least it seems that way) those unfinished or neglected items are always there in the back of my mind. It gets tiring just thinking about it. I once read that Attention Deficit Disorder should be called Inconsistent Attention Disorder and I totally agree. I’m not lacking anything in the attention department, it’s just that generally my attention is focused on too many things.

Let’s say I have just one hour to focus on house cleaning. Normally I would start in one room and concentrate all my efforts on the room, and most likely one thing on that room – perhaps the closet. That leaves the other rooms untouched and the remainder of the room looking just as messy as before.

A Method That Works For Me

The good news is that some time ago I figured out a method that works wonders for me – at least when I use it. Plus it takes advantage of my ability to hyper focus.

It takes just one tool. A small timer, one that can go with you from room to room. I got mine at the dollar store and it can clip on to the waistband of my pants.

Here’s what I do when I clean the house:

I set the timer for 15 minutes. Then I concentrate fully on the bathroom for those fifteen minutes. I concentrate on the things that will make the most noticeable difference the room.  Once the fifteen minutes are up I drop what I am doing and move on to the kitchen. After another fifteen minutes I’d move to the living room, and then to the bedroom.  Sure each room may not get 100% done in a day.  But this works for me and when done consistently none of the rooms then get totally out of control and many of them stay very, very clean.

Why this works:

The alarm is a signal to stop hyper-focusing on that project.
Fifteen minutes at a time doesn’t seem like an overwhelming amount of time.

Here’s how I handle business tasks:

I always got several large projects going.  Projects that can take an average of six months to get it ready to the launch stage.  Hyper-focusing on a single project simply wouldn’t work.  So I set a time limit for that particular project.

If it’s a business branding project for a client I set the timer and work on it for the time allotted.  Then I move on to the next project doing the same thing.  One thing I’ve finally learned is to not to try to take on to many projects and to many clients.

If I’m working on some social networking and I dedicate a set amount of  time to commenting on blogs or forums. But  I also set myself a limit of usually five comments.  So I keep a scratch piece of paper next to me and I find a blog post I want to comment on.  I make a comment on that blog post and make a hash mark on a piece of paper.  Make another comment and make another hash mark.  Once I reach five comments I’m done. Even if I have time remaining.  That time remaining can then be dedicated to something else.  Maybe a walk.  What happens if I run out of my allotted time and haven’t made the five allowed comments?  I walk away anyway.

Using Hyperfocus To Your Advantage

The ultimate ability to get things done rests in the fact that I don’t try to fight the desire to hyperfocus.  But rather, I use it to my advantage.

How do you focus your efforts on a project?
What tips do you have that help your concentration levels?

Now…

Where did I put that timer?

Neuro Linguistic Programming involves specific techniques designed to influence people.   NLP was primarily designed to help people heal from physical ailments and emotional trauma but is naturally used in the sales cycle.   This video really demonstrates the  use of anchoring.

If you know nothing about NLP or anchoring let me give you a little background…

NLP uses a series of anchors to create certain emotions in people and then translate that emotion back to a specific desired result.  Anchoring can change the way you feel about something by creating a favorable emotional state and then transferring those feelings to something else.

It is stimulus that is linked to a specific emotional reaction and therefore can evoke a specific response.   Anchors produce internal reactions thousands of times a day without you realizing it.  Certain smells and sounds put us in emotional state, and our bodies, and our emotions react to that state without us doing anything consciously.    So at it’s core these anchors put you in a specific frame of mind.

So with that definition here is the video that first aired in the 2010 Superbowl.  After you watch please share with us which  anchors (emotional stimuli) you saw in this advertisement?

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The tagline Old Spice added to the video says it all:  “We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.”

What emotions are they trying to anchor to Old Spice?

Do you believe this was a successful advertisement?