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Beat Temptation and Achieve Your Goals!

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beat temptation

I absolutely adore chocolate, which as anyone who knows me will know is an understatement!  It’s my biggest temptation, the one thing that can see me tumble from the diet/healthy eating wagon if I’m feeling even just a little bit wobbly.  So you could say for me that chocolate poses a major temptation to achieving my health goals.

I know for certain that I’m not alone in feeling this way, we all have our pet temptations, things that will tempt us away from the unfamiliar or challenging goal path we are trying to negotiate.  But, as we know, overcoming our temptations can be a difficult task.  However, keeping on the straight and narrow will have the effect of strengthening our resolve to continue, whereas slipping away from our planned path tends to make us feel guilty and sometimes also a bit devil-may-care, resulting in us giving up on our goals altogether.

We think of temptation as something observable: that (delicious) bar of chocolate; that extra half an hour in bed so it’s too late for our morning jog; that extra cigarette, but, it’s the less tangible things that can really mess up our attempts to improve our lives. [Read more…] about Beat Temptation and Achieve Your Goals!

What’s the Problem?

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globeI think it’s fair to say that we often feel that our lives are beset with problems; those of our own making and those which turn up unexpectedly due to a series of events outside of our control which result in an undesired outcome.  It’s also fair to say that some people view even trivial or routine “must dos” as problems simply because they don’t want to take the action required in order to alleviate the ‘problem’.  Of course, the dilemma with this attitude is that the problem grows –sometimes for real, because without attention the issue gets worse, sometimes just within our minds, or sometimes both.

But despite all the negative connotations associated with problems, it was very difficult to find a string of quotes that maintained this negative stance!  The nearest quote I found which could be interpreted as negative was this quote by Abraham Maslow:

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

But even this quote from Maslow says more about our attitude to problems rather than the problem itself.

And it’s our attitude to our problems that really makes the difference, rather than the problem itself.  As I’ve already mentioned in the opening paragraph, sometimes we treat even trivial or routine and expected tasks as problems.  For example:

  • Cutting the lawn
  • Completing our tax return
  • Planning what to cook for the family evening meal
  • Redecorating the bedroom

[Read more…] about What’s the Problem?

Finding My Purpose!

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directionFrom a very early age, I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher.  I even knew that I wanted to teach English.  I would often “play” school with my younger brother and sister, me the teacher, them the students.  I’d give them work to do, chivvy them along if they nattered instead of doing the allotted task, and then mark their efforts with a red pen.  I really was a School Ma’am!  They were golden days for me.  Days when I was doing something that naturally appealed to me (even if it didn’t to my siblings), something at which I felt gifted.

Later, when my siblings no longer indulged my love of school, my attention turned to the joy of reading.  I always had my nose deeply buried in a book, I remember the days of Enid Blyton and The Famous Five (I always saw myself as George), then growing up and discovering Daphne Du Maurier and Thomas Hardy.  I would become part of the story – to this day, I can still feel what it was like to be Tess of the D’Ubervilles.

So how come I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life as an Accountant?  The traditional view of these two professions just seems so far apart.  The teacher, front of class, commanding the attention of children or young adults, joining in with the painting or sand play, directing learning through lectures, role play and exercises.  By contrast, the traditional view of the Accountant is someone who may be somewhat introverted, a back office type, quietly sifting through the numbers, conservatively saying no to all developments that cost money! [Read more…] about Finding My Purpose!

5 Things You Should Do To Improve Your Success Rate

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believe

Check out this quick post to see what actions you should take to improve your success rate!

Take Personal Responsibility

Taking personal responsibility is THE number one requirement to achieving personal success.  The saying, “if it’s going to be, it has to be me” is right on point and its application or lack of, will make or break our success.

So what does taking personal responsibility mean?  I’m sure we all believe we take personal responsibility for our lives.  We go to work, pay the bills, get the children to school, arrange our social lives and even indulge in self development through courses at work and books etc, so what could be missing?

Well, we fail in the personal responsibility arena when we are guilty of blaming others and making excuses.  Using either of these tactics will look like defensiveness to others, which in itself is not a particularly endearing characteristic.  But more importantly, by shifting the blame onto others or the circumstances (deemed to be) outside our control, we are removing our ability to grow from the situation, and, if we don’t grow then we will be unable to demonstrate improved performance the next time we find ourselves in a similar situation. [Read more…] about 5 Things You Should Do To Improve Your Success Rate