Do you ever feel like the world is closing in on you and you have no control over it?  You have your dreams and goals, just like everyone else. You feel like you are doing things the way you have been taught, like you have to be smarter than you feel, but the walls just keep getting closer and closer anyway.  Well, my friend you have fallen into the hole of depression.

Depression usually refers to feelings of  a lack of interest in activities that a person used to enjoy, changes in their weight and sleep habits, feeling tired all of the time, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, difficulty concentrating and thoughts of death and suicide.  If a person experiences a majority of these symptoms for longer than a two-week period, they may be diagnosed with major depression.

Although depression is often thought of as being in an extreme state of sadness, there is a vast difference between depression and sadness. Humans will experience sadness from time to time.  It  is a part of being human, a natural reaction to painful circumstances. Depression, however, is a physical illness.  There are more symptoms involved than being in an unhappy mood with no logical reason for this unhappiness. A person having a loss of interest in daily activities consistently for at least two weeks or more, representing a change from the their normal mood is depression – not sadness.  This loss will impair this person’s  ability to function in their daily life.

Having your friends and family tell you to “snap out of it” only causes more frustration because one can no more “snap out of it” than the diabetic can make his pancreas produce more insulin. Sadness is a feeling that passes as a person comes to term with his troubles and a sad person continues to cope with living. Depression can linger for weeks, months or even years and the person may feel overwhelmed and hopeless, unable to cope – thus contemplating ending their life.

Depression is characterized by the presence of five or more of the following symptoms most of the day, nearly every day:

• Feeling sad or empty, ready to cry at the drop of a hat
• Lack of interest or pleasure in daily activities
• Significant weight changes, decrease or increase in appetite
• Insomnia or sleeping too much
• Physical ailments due to emotional causes
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate, indecisiveness
• Recurring thoughts of death
• Thoughts of suicide without a specific plan
• A suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide

Depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters.  However, a variety of factors, including your genetic makeup, your environment, your physical condition and your psychological coping resources, work together to determine whether you will develop depression or not.

There are three basic molecules which are thought to play a role in mood regulation: norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine.  Norepinephrine has been thought to be the causative factor for depression.  Serotonin has been found to be another factor which, over the past two decades, has taken center stage thanks to Prozac, which selectively acts on this molecule. Newer antidepressants like Effexor are actually targeted at both serotonin and norepinephrine.  A third substance that may play a role in mood is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the reward that we get which causes us to continue participating in an activity.  It is also associated with addiction and its production is stimulated by drugs such as cocaine, opiates and alcohol, which may explain why depressed persons choose to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.

What is the effect of the stress hormone cortisol on serotonin levels and depression? Are cortisol and depression related?  When the body is under stress, the adrenal gland increases secretion of a hormone called cortisol. Short-term, this hormone can help aid in survival, for example by mobilizing energy reserves. Long-term elevation of cortisol, however, can have detrimental effects.

It is known that in normal people the level of cortisol in the bloodstream peaks in the morning, then decreases as the day progresses. In depressed people, however, cortisol peaks earlier in the morning and does not level off or decrease in the afternoon or evening. Although the exact mechanism that causes depression is uncertain, clinical studies suggest that chronically elevations of  cortisol may induce depression by somehow affecting central neurotransmission.

In many cases, depression actually is the result of habitual negative thoughts. When bad things happen, we begin chastising ourselves. We have thoughts such as:  I’m no good, I’m a total failure or Nothing ever goes my way.  Because our feelings follow what we are thinking, negative thoughts like these can send us spiraling down into depression.

This concept is the guiding principle behind cognitive therapy, a type of psychotherapy developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s. If we think something often enough, we begin to believe it’s true and our feelings usually match what we are thinking about ourselves. So if we have negative thoughts all the time, we will feel negative.  The solution is to learn a way of thinking more positive, thus feeling good instead.

Did you know that stress in your life can quite literally be expressed as pain and illness? When we hold in our emotions what will happen? If one of your body systems is weakened, this is where a stress-related illness is most likely to develop. If your weakest point physically is your neck, you’ll develop neck pains. Or back pain. Or ulcers. Or frequent colds and flu.  Any illness that has physical symptoms, but has the mind and emotions as its origin,  is called a psychosomatic illness. Although you may be told that it’s “all in your head”, these illnesses are quite real. The aches and pains are very real, but because your doctor is looking for an actual physical cause, they are very tricky to diagnose and treat. The key is to look for a source of stress in the person’s life that the person is not coping with. By treating the underlying stress and depression, it may be possible to heal the physical problems as well.

But how do you beat stress? The first step is learning to recognize when we are under extreme stress. Learn to recognize the signs of stress unique to you.  Once you know how to recognize when you are stressed, the next step is to learn how to cope with that stress. One very important way to do this is: don’t hold in your feelings.  You let off steam in a controlled way or you can let the stress find your weakest point to come exploding out. Controlled is safer and healthier for you.  Some controlled ways include:

• talking to someone you trust,
• joining a support group,
• relaxation techniques,
• taking a break from the situation you’re in,
• taking care of your health by eating right, exercising and not smoking,
• being honest with those around you,
• letting go of old grudges; doing something nice for others, or
• just taking some time for yourself.

The list is endless. Just learn a healthy way to vent.

We have to be willing to let go of our expectations about what we must do. We have to be willing to let go of old guilts and shoulds that are guiding our behavior. We have to allow ourselves to just be human. It’s okay for men to cry and be emotional. It’s okay for women to let someone else have a turn with the household chores. It’s okay to fall short of your goals if you’re doing the best that you can. Some of our biggest stressors actually come from within ourselves!

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Better yet, never put off ’til tomorrow what you can avoid altogether!

I don’t know who coined these phrases, but they must have been depressed. The symptoms that we face, such as fatigue and hopelessness, make it so easy to say to ourselves, “I’ll just put this off until tomorrow when I feel better”. Before we know it, that deadline is creeping up on us and we’re starting to panic. What’s the best way to deal with panic? Hide your head in the sand and hope it goes away! Not really, but procrastination is an easy habit to fall into and as the panic mounts, so does the depression. The more depressed we get, the more we avoid reality.

Why do we fall into the procrastination trap time after time? Because procrastination becomes a way  of coping with the emotions and physical symptoms that accompany depression. It may bring some temporary relief, but the next day the cycle starts all over again. Check out the following types of procrastination.

Self Doubt – This type of person fears failure. They second-guess themselves and delay taking action.

Discomfort Dodging – This type of person avoids activities that will cause them distress, discomfort or anxiety. This is ironic because the act of dodging the activity itself doesn’t make it go away and causes even more tension and stress.

Guilt-Driven – This type of  person feels guilty for not doing what needs to be done, but rather than do the task, continues to procrastinate in order to not face up to those feelings of guilt.

Habitual – This type of person has procrastinated so many times, it becomes ingrained into their mind. The person no longer thinks about why they do it, they feel it’s just a part of their life. It becomes an automatic response to say, “This is too hard”, “I’m too tired”, or “I don’t feel good”.

Once you recognize your style of procrastination, you can take steps to stop it.  One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to get organized. Do whatever works for you.  Break large projects up into smaller tasks.  Next time you catch yourself saying, “I will do this later”, just do it! The feeling you get when you finish will be so much better than any relief you get from putting it off.

Does the thought of performing a certain task fill you with anxiety?  When you feel this way breathe deeply and exhale. You will notice after each breath that your heart rate is actually slowing and you are feeling less tense. Now, do one of those tasks from the list you should have made and have been putting off, no matter how small that task. The very act of accomplishing something will ease your anxiety.

When you have accomplished a task, mark it out on your list with a pen. It gives you visual confirmation that you are getting somewhere and also gives you a psychological boost. Sometimes I feel as if I’m getting nothing done, but when I look over what’s marked out I see I’ve actually done quite a bit. I’m just constantly adding new tasks.

Remember, if something can go wrong, it will. Allow yourself more than adequate time to finish each task. If you do not need all the time you’ve allowed, you will be able to progress ahead of schedule. This will be a psychological boost to you also.  Don’t panic if you get behind schedule. If you’ve allowed yourself extra time each day, you will simply shift everything forward until you catch up. The key is to leave yourself room to be flexible.

What if you really don’t have time to finish everything? Get creative. Request extensions on deadlines, get help from friends and relatives, delegate tasks to others, drop non-essential items from your list or just hire outside help. I haven’t found a situation yet that couldn’t be solved somehow once I let my expectations change about how it should be.

Be sure to schedule time for yourself after you have accomplished the things that you need to get done.  Knowing that you have finished your tasks will also make it easier to relax and enjoy your leisure time.

Depression is a bad thing when you have it but if we work really hard  – it can be defeated.

If you don’t like who you are and where you are, don’t worry about it because you’re not stuck either with who you are or where you are. You can grow.  You can change.  You can be more than you are.

Zig Ziglar

If you liked this post  or have anything to say on the subject,  I would appreciate hearing it.  This has been a particular problem for me my whole life.  Sometimes it seems hopeless but I know it can be handled.  There are seldom, if ever, any hopeless situations, but there are many people who lose hope in the face of some situations.

Please, leave me a comment and let me know what you think on the subject.  Have a great day.

IMPORTANT: Registration Extended To May 5th Before Full Compression:

What this will mean to everyone that signs up prior to May 5th. Let me explain something about our original team. The Founder and CEO Clay Montgomery also launched another company last November called Global Assist Team (TVI GAT). TVI GAT is a company designed to move entire matrices into new companies that will increase the earning capabilities of all it’s members. AD-renaline Marketing is a sister company of TVI GAT that just launched last April 16, 2010.

Everyone that was in TVI GAT prior to March 16th automatically entered into AD-renaline before any advertising or any information was released to the general public. Now some of those people will unfortunately choose not to upgrade within the trial period, which has just been extended to May 5th.

So when a compression is done by the company at the end of the trial period, everyone already signed up throughout the whole matrix, will move directly up. Your advantage from this is that you could end up with many more people in your direct downline as well as probably making a substantial amount of extra instant income. It also makes sure that there are no vacancies within the matrix above you so anyone sponsored into the company from above will automatically fall into your downlines.

Good luck to everyone and be sure to sign into Global Assist Team (TVI GAT) for future company ventures as well. It is so great to be able to wake up and have an email saying that you had been transferred into a new company with all your downline and be at the very top of the company matrix.

Get signed up for both opportunities, AD-renaline Marketing and Global Assist Team now before the compression on May 5th.

AD-renaline Marketing

I am going to tell you about a new company called AD-renaline Marketing and it just launched April 16th.  If you want a way to earn money and market your business at the same time, then this company is for YOU.  You can also market your website, affiliates, or anything that you want. Not only is this company the place to advertise your company at a reasonable cost, but you can make a great income at the same time. Below is the company compensation plan. There are five income streams and three of those are passive, no sponsoring. A detail explanation of each type of income is explained below.

2×12 Personally Forced Matrix
This will be the hub of your monthly residual income. Members will be paid $1.00 per person, per level, for everyone who falls under them, whether it was from your efforts or someone else’s. There is no sponsoring required to earn this income. Therefore, there is a possible income of up to $8,190 per month.  This is whether you sponsor or not.

Performance-Based Matching Bonus on All Referrals’ Matrix
This income stream was designed to give the aggressive marketer the incentive needed to keep bringing more people into the company and provide as much spillover as possible to their downline.  By doing this they will also be building your income, because the more you make, the more they make.The more referrals you have, the higher the percentage your matching bonus is on ALL of your referrals. The matching bonus qualification levels are:

1-4 Personal Referrals = 20% Matching Bonus
5-9 Personal Referrals = 30% Matching Bonus
10-14 Personal Referrals = 40% Matching Bonus
15-19 Personal Referrals = 50% Matching Bonus
20-24 Personal Referrals = 60% Matching Bonus
25-29 Personal Referrals = 70% Matching Bonus
30-39 Personal Referrals = 80% Matching Bonus
40-49 Personal Referrals = 90% Matching Bonus
50+ Personal Referrals = 100% Matching Bonus

Revenue Injection Board (RIB)
The RIB is a revenue sharing, company forced 3×2 recycling matrix. Everyone falls into this matrix in the order they join or when they pay their  monthly fee, and it fills top to bottom, left to right. Because this is a company forced matrix there are no sponsoring requirements in order to earn from the RIB.  It has 3 positions on level one and 9 on level two. When these 12 people follow you into the RIB, you will cycle.  You will receive $60 and a new paid re-entry back in at the bottom of the RIB, allowing you to continue to cycle, again and again.

Revenue Sharing Pool (RSP)
The RSP is our biggest revenue sharing category.  When you upgrade, you will pay $70. This includes a $20 setup fee and a $10 RSP position. This Pool grows with every new member, every existing members’ fees coming in, each member product or ad credit purchases, and every retail product page sale. As the pool grows it forces your RSP position(s) out with a revenue return of 150% of its original value. For example, your monthly fee gives you a $10 position every month. When that position is forced out of the pool it will pay you $15. If you purchase $100 in Ad Credits, you will not only receive highly responsive and targeted advertising worth much more than $100, but that purchase will give you a $100 RSP position that will pay you back $150.

Any active member can participate in the RSP with no sponsoring requirements whatsoever. This is purely passive income and a benefit that only members receive. All you have to do is keep your account active.

(Please note that the Revenue Sharing Pool is just that, a company sharing its revenues with the members. We cannot guarantee an income from revenue sharing as it is 100% based on member participation and product sales. The more revenues the company has, the more revenues there are to share.)

Member Customizable Retail Products Sales Page
Every wholesale member receives, as an additional benefit, their own customizable retail products sales page. By default all the products we offer to wholesale members will appear on your personal sales page. Also by default, each product will already include a 25% markup. However, each member will have the capability of removing any products they do not wish to sell. Members can also change the markup amount in one of two ways. You can enter a markup percentage to apply to all products across the board, or you can select each product one at a time and mark them up as you see fit. There will be some built in restrictions on the markup. It must be a minimum of 15% and a maximum of 100%.

The difference in the marked up cost, what we refer to as the retail price, and the wholesale member cost minus a 10% company margin (to help alleviate transaction fees) is what you earn, instantly paid to your account balance, upon a retail sale from your sales page. Then a portion of what’s left is given to you as an RSP position that will earn up to 150% of its original value. This RSP positions’ value and the earnings percentage is based on several variables, such as the discount allotted by a 3rd party advertising company on their products that we are reselling for them.  Members will have the option of receiving ad credits rather than a new RSP position for each sale made on your personal sales page.

This is a powerful income stream solution for those who wish to use our advertising products but have a limited budget for ad credit purchases. You can promote your sales page directly for the highly targeted, highly responsive advertising that it is, and generate up front commissions and additional RSP earnings or Ad Credits with no out of pocket expense for you. You may also end up with several retail sales from marketing your affiliate link for the business opportunity and some people are not interested in the business opportunity but do want to take advantage of the quality, responsive advertising.

Click here now to lock in your spot: with AD-renaline Marketing

How do you start your day? I found by writing everything down the night before that I want to accomplish the next day gets my day off to a great start. It also seems to prompt my subconscious to work on my plans and goals while I sleep, thus being able to visualize my dreams.  Because every action has consequences, good or bad, I try to decide what’s most important for me to do and write them down in order of significance.

Putting your daily plans on paper will make your goals more concrete and give you a much greater assurance of completing them. Also, when you go to bed try visualizing yourself doing what you want to get done the next day. Visualization will help to train your subconscious to focus on completing the list. When you wake up, you will feel much more inclined to tackle the tasks you have written down.

The only thing standing between you and what you want to achieve is you! That is right, you are the bottleneck that determines how quickly you can reach your goal. Remember you want to succeed, and preparation will go a long way toward helping you to achieve that goal. So why not get started and do what you need to do the night before.

“It’s important to want to win, but it’s more important to prepare to win” By Daniel Graham

Why do we need goals?  Well not having goals is similar to sailing a ship across the ocean without a map. Goals, like maps, will help you get to your destination much faster than sailing through life aimlessly. Goals will give you direction in all areas of your life, personal, career, and spiritual. Goals will give you a purpose in life; a reason to get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night.  Goals will put drive and passion into your life.

So how do you set goals?  First you must dream! You need to dream like you did when you were a child, as if there are no limits, keeping in mind, the purpose of goals is to focus your attention on your future.  And remember, your present circumstances do not determine where you can go, they merely determine your starting place. Write your ideas down on paper and decide which ones are the most important. Also, your goals need to be grand enough to be challenging. Remembering to truly be successful, and reach your true potential, you must constantly push yourself and move outside of your “comfort zone”.

On a fresh piece of paper, write down one goal at a time and beside the goal, write down a deadline for achieving that goal. Be sure that the deadline is realistic. Write down all the reasons why you are committed to attaining your goal.  What  if you were to attain all your goals in a year? How would that make you feel?  Bring your goals to life, feel the emotion, passion and drive stir up inside of you! Do something right now that will help you to achieve your goals.  There is no time like the present to get the ball rolling.  Each step you take will bring you one step closer to the life you want.

“Your life’s direction and power to accomplish anything becomes a reality when you have a goal.”  By Daniel Graham

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Put Your Life On Track By Setting Goals

Everyone wants success and I hope to show you how to get there.  I think it is interesting that so many people talk about setting goals, but so few people ever seem to actually set them.  This is one of, if not the most, important part of setting your life on the right path. I used to be one of those people. It seems that I have read every book on goal setting that I have been told about or seen advertised.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about setting goals, but I just never set any. I knew that goals worked, but I just was never willing to put them into my schedule. Then one night as I was trying to get to sleep, I was dreaming about “the good life” I would have if only I could make my wishes come true.  You know, like in a fairy tale.  In a fairy tale you could always count on someone to be there to help, but this was the real world, and there was only me. That thought, however, stayed with me for a long time! What if I really could count on myself? That might not be so bad!  What if I could determine exactly what I wanted from life and then make it happen?  What if setting a goal was as easy as just making a wish?

Wishes are goals with some added glitter.  Goals provide the course of action that can take you to wherever you want to go, but not the motivation to get you there. Wishes are a little different,  they have a little more impact – like being in a thunderstorm instead of a small rain shower. Wishes let you dream, let you fly, and help to unleash a source of limitless opportunities that give you the power to accomplish what you might not have otherwise even imagined.

If you really want to make good things happen in your life, think of setting goals as making wishes. Wishing was that extra motivation I’d been looking for. I never had the urge to get out of  bed in the morning and say to myself, “Oh boy!! Today I’m going to work on my goals.” But when I would say to myself, “Today I’m going to make my wishes come true”, that  was a completely different story.  By thinking in this way I would feel like I could do anything.

This new way of thinking has changed my life drastically. It has made me feel like maybe I can have that success that other people have, not right away, but there is hope. The very instant I changed my behavior and my way of thinking, the world around me seemed like a place I wanted to get out of bed for – and start working on my goals. Things I wanted to happen began to happen. The kind of life I had always dreamed about started to come true – like in a fairy tale.  Just small things I wanted to happen but now I know the big things are on the way too.

My purpose with this post is to share with you the incredible power to make your wishes and goals come true. To help you get what you want out of life – regardless of your background, your age, or your present circumstances.  Many people think that luck or good fortune is what determines our fate but that is only slightly true. Luck contributes its part in what happens to you, but you have to do your part also. Luck essentially deals the cards but you have to play the hand that was dealt. While fate rules, it favors those who learn the tricks and the most important trick of all is cause and effect.

The Importance of Cause and Effect

Have you ever ran a red light and not been given a ticket? Luck was on your side; you got away with it. Take into consideration the law of cause and effect. For every effect, there must be a cause. That cause must always come before the effect. Simple and to the point, it’s the easiest natural law to remember and probably the easiest to forget.

How often have you heard someone say that from now on he will do only what he is paid to do – and nothing more – unless he gets a raise? I think I remember myself saying this when I had my JOB!  According to the cause and effect law, he’ll be waiting quite a while because he must first do more than he is being paid for in order to make himself worth more.   Then, and only then,  will he ever see that raise.

Have you ever seen a spouse who wanted more out of a relationship, but wasn’t ever willing to invest more in the relationship? Because of cause and effect, this kind of spouse will always be in for a rude awakening.  Things may never get better.  You must be willing to give more to get more.  Have you ever met someone who feels as if they are owed the rewards of success without first being willing to put forth the time and effort it takes to become successful?

According to the law of cause and effect, the investment must always come first, if the rewards are to follow. Life teaches us that we have to put wood in a fireplace before we get flames; we have to make a deposit before we can make a withdrawal; we have to plant seeds, water them, and nurture them before we can harvest the plant. Too often, unfortunately, we don’t apply this practical knowledge to the way we conduct our lives. If you yearn for a particular thing to happen in your life, you must first set in motion the cause of  effect. When you don’t get a desired effect, you can be sure that you have not set the appropriate cause into motion.  You can be sure that once you put the cause in motion, the effect you want will follow. The cause needs to come first. Once it does, the effect will follow.

When you decide to be a cause in your game of life, you get to call the shots and make all the plays. But when you choose to be an effect, you only get to watch the game on tv with no control over that game.   The difference between being a cause and being an effect is the difference between being a screwdriver and being a screw. One acts and  the other is acted upon.

The Process for Making Your Wishes Come True

I would like to show how to understand why you simply don’t need strong-minded discipline to succeed in life. You also don’t need to be extremely talented or gifted to make your wishes come true. You only need to follow these steps:

·         Make your wish

Determine what your wish is. Think of it as selecting the effect you wish to cause and then stick to it the way bees stick to honey.

·         Make a plan

Create a plan of action so that wish will come true.

·         Take action

Set into motion the causes that will make that wish come true.

·         Never Give Up

Finish what you start and stay persistent. Never give up. Just remember:  To get whatever you want from life –  set in motion the appropriate cause, the effect will take care of itself.

Make Your Wish

Imagine you are out for a walk one evening and you stumble upon a brass lamp.  You start rubbing it to see what it says on the side of the lamp and all of a sudden a genie pops out of it just like the story tells.  He looks at you with a gleam in his eye. And with a strong, powerful voice, he says, “I am the Genie of the lamp. What will you have me do , Master?” What would you ask the genie to do?

Believe it or not you already own such a lamp.  It is located behind your eyes and between your ears – your brain.  This is the most powerful lamp of all – it has invented everything from super computers to simple ice cream. And you own this brain, free and clear, equal to any other brain anywhere.  You are the only one that can bring forth its powers to grant your wishes.  You are your own genie with the God-like power of creation.

But you still haven’t said what you would ask the genie to do. First you must decide what to wish for.  When people don’t get what they want out of life it is usually because they don’t know what they really want.  They go through the days dreaming about the good life but rarely get a clear idea of what that “good life” should be.  This is because even though they are hardworking and able to make decisions, they lack purpose.

Anyone can do remarkable things  if they have remarkable things to do.  Once you decide what you want, the rest will fall into place.  You will wake up in the morning with a reason to get out bed, your days will be filled with meaningful work and you will be able to take advantage of those responsibilities because you have a purpose. So, go ahead, figure out what you really want, not what it is you are supposed to want or what someone else wants for you, but what YOU in your own heart wants.  Now, go after it.  Dream big because you will succeed if you follow these steps.

Make a Plan

Now you need to create a plan to put your wish in motion. The magic of your plan is not in the details, it’s in the freedom that those details give you. Freedom from the distraction of worrying about what to do next. Freedom to focus all your energy and attention on  knowing that every step you complete takes you that much closer to where you want to go. Freedom to try, because you know you’ll succeed.

A good plan sets your mind at ease and your body in motion. It removes confusion, uncertainty, and doubt so you can concentrate on getting the job done. You don’t have a plan until you have a deadline. The purpose of a deadline is to make you feel a sense of urgency.  It lets you know how serious you are about making your wish come true.  Set reasonable deadlines.  A deadline is designed to make you focus, not to make you panic. The advantage of setting a deadline is that you set your wish in stone.  You begin to plan your life around it, the same way you plan around any other important event. Your wish becomes real, like an appointment you’ve scheduled for next month. The more real your wish becomes; the more convinced you become that you can make your wish come true.

Once you’ve listed the steps you need to take to make your wish come true, and you’ve set milestones to keep you on track toward your deadline, you need to put it on your daily schedule.  Scheduling creates the difference between planning and doing.  You don’t have to schedule the entire plan all at once, just the next week or two. Then if a step takes longer than you expected, or your schedule is disrupted in some other way, you won’t have as much to reschedule.

Once you’ve listed the steps of your plan and scheduled them on your calendar or daily planner, you then need to schedule regular progress reports to see how you’re coming along.   A progress report is like looking out the window while you’re riding on a train.  By watching the things that you pass, you can tell whether or not the train is going in the right direction.  But if you aren’t paying attention, you can come to the end of the line and find yourself in the wrong city.

Ask these questions for your progress report and write down your answers:  have I met the milestones I planned to, do I need to change my plan to reach those milestones,  and do I need to change my milestones?  Circumstances change constantly.  Your plan may needs to change with those circumstances.  If you do need to make changes, make them. If you need to revise your plan, go ahead and revise it.  That’s what a progress report is for, after all.

Take Action

A plan gives your wish form and action gives it life.

When you act, you set causes in motion and are rewarded with effects.  When you take action, you make a giant leap from thinking your wish to living your wish.  You change yourself from a dreamer to a doer.

Think small.  Instead of trying to complete your wish in a single day, focus on a single step, the smallest step you can think of.  The moment you take action – any action – you are  on the right track. You will become a body in motion and will tend to stay in motion.  The most natural thing in the world will be for you to take the next step, and then the next, until you’ve completed your wish.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Your plan, no matter how simple or how complex, begins the same way.

The first action you take is the one that transforms you from a body at rest to a body in motion. Take that action and you have the momentum you need to carry you to the next action. That’s all you have to worry about. You don’t need enough momentum to complete your whole plan.  All you need is enough to complete your next action. Then that momentum will carry you to the next action, then the next, then the next after than, until you complete your wish.

The secret of that first action is to make it so simple that you give yourself no reason to resist it.  You can never finish what you never start. The easier you make it on yourself to take the first action, the greater your chances to make it to the last action, the one that completes your plan and makes your wish come true.

The easiest way to grant yourself a wish is to make it a habit. You can create new habits the same way you created all of your existing habits – through repetition until it becomes second nature.  To form a new habit, all you have to do is to apply the same principle.

Suppose you wish to take a walk each morning to work yourself into shape, but you’re having trouble giving up your morning routine -  your habit – of reading the newspaper. What is needed is a new habit to replace the old one. For thirty days, practice walking  instead of reading that paper. At first, it  may feel uncomfortable because the old habit still has hold.  But by the second or third week, walking will seem more natural than reading the paper.

You can turn almost anything into a habit if you implement the Thirty-Day Plan. All you have to do is to decide what new habit you want to acquire and then agree to practice that habit every day for just thirty days. If in thirty days you don’t like the results, quit.

Make sure you schedule practicing your new habit each day and then honor your schedule. Don’t let yourself skip days because of weekends, holidays, illness, or because you had to go out of town. Don’t accept any excuses for missing even a single day. If you do miss a day, start over.  The beauty of the thirty-day plan is that it minimizes your natural resistance to change. You aren’t asking yourself to give up anything, you’re just asking yourself to try something new.

Although we might hate to admit it, we all talk to ourselves and we listen. Psychologists call this affirmation. What that means is: if you tell yourself something often enough, you begin to believe it.

The first step in creating an affirmation is to make certain it supports your values. If you feel it’s unethical or undesirable, then it won’t work. The next step is to follow similar guidelines to those you used when you created a wish.  Be specific and affirm what you want instead of what you don’t want.  Use the present tense.  Give it intense emotional impact.

Never Give Up

How many times will a baby try to take its first step before it gives up?

A baby doesn’t know how to give up.  It doesn’t know the difference between success and failure, understand self-discipline, and it knows nothing about courage.  All a baby knows is what it wants, and it keeps going until it gets it.  What if you had the same approach to life?

Getting what you want boils down to a single word: persistence.  No matter how presentable your wish, how good your plan, how tireless your work, your success will ultimately depend on persistence.  Are you willing to go the distance?  Then you will succeed.   Are you willing to endure when others are ready to quit?  Then you will succeed.   Are you willing to keep at it  until you get it, however long it takes?  Then you will succeed.  Success belongs to those who refuse to settle for less.  Persist until you get what you want, and you will get it.

The most common reason we give up is that we don’t believe in what we’re doing anymore.  Either we don’t believe our effort can succeed or we don’t believe that success is worth our effort.  Either way, once we lose our belief, that’s it – the end.

Belief is the foundation of persistence.  Without belief, you have no reason to complete a task.  But if you have belief, then you have no reason to quit.   Whenever you find yourself tempted to give up on a wish, ask yourself these questions:  do I believe I can make my wish come true and  do I believe my  wish is worth the effort?   If either answer is no, then you need to work on your belief before you can effectively work on your wish. Belief is the cause of  persistence and persistence is the cause success.

Now that you know your own strength, now that you know how to make your own wishes come true, what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to make your wishes come true and start achieving your goals, or are you going to settle for something less? Are you going to take the strategies  I have talked to you about and turn them into a habit that can bring you literally anything you want for the rest of your life? Or are you going to let the next ten years pass the way the last ten did? There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t mind being in the same place ten years from now that you are today.

If you want to make your wishes come true, you have a decision to make. You have to decide whether you want to be a cause or an effect. You have to decide whether you want to be a screwdriver or a screw.

Just remember, only you can make that one choice that makes everything else possible.

By now, you’ve locked on to your wish; you’re taking the appropriate action; you’re managing your progress; and you’re ready to persist in your efforts until you make your wish come true.   So go get it.  Do not let anything or anyone get in your way.  You can and will succeed in getting all your wishes.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and maybe it has helped you just a little to be able to get those goals set.  Don’t be afraid to go after what you want.   If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment and let me know.  Also feel free to leave any ideas you may have.  I would love to connect with you, if you want please join my Google Friend Connect and retweet my post.  Thanks for reading and have a really great day. Make it count.

Stress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you are not aware of it.  In your mind, that headache, forgetting things more often, or not being able to do the things today that you used to be able to do are not necessarily due to getting older or illness.  Yes, stress symptoms can affect your body, your feelings, your thoughts and even your behavior.  If you recognize these common stress symptoms, you MUST take steps to manage them.

Other potentially serious health problems can be to blame for these stress symptoms too.  If you have taken steps to control this stress, but the symptoms still don’t go away, see your doctor right away.

Stress Management

Evaluating how you deal with stress is the first step in effective stress management.

No wonder you are stressed!  You have more things to do everyday and not enough help.  So what happens?  When you get home you take it out on your family.  You feel like crying all the time.  You don’t know how you will get through the day.  So how do you handle it?  Some people can take things in stride.  My husband is one of those people.  Nothing seems to bother him.  His favorite saying is “Let’s not rush into anything”.  Others get anxious at the first sign of trouble.  This is more like me.  I am somewhat of a perfectionist and if things don’t seem to go just right I lose my cool.  Other people may fall somewhere between these two ways of reacting to stress.  That is because they feel more confident and prepared to handle things that may come up in those day-to-day events.

Here are some coping behaviors – which one are you?

• Do you tense up?  Muscle tension, upset stomach, shortness of breath, headache or other physical symptom.
• Do you reach for something to eat?  Even when you aren’t hungry?
• Do you get impatient?  Do you pace the floor, twitch nervously, have trouble concentrating or falling asleep at nigh?
• Do you get angry?  Stress may be  the cause of a person having a short fuse, especially when you are under pressure.  You may find yourself arguing with a friend or loved one, sometimes with very little provocation.
• Are you reduced to tears?
• Do you give up?
• Do you have negative thoughts?  You automatically expect the worst and magnify the negative aspects of a situation?
• Have you started to smoke again, turned to alcohol or drugs?
• Do you rely on a single coping technique?  Crying, expressing your anger, exercising, confiding in someone – these are coping techniques.

Once you identify how you cope with stress symptoms, you can begin to think about alternative strategies.  Changes won’t happen overnight but you can learn to deal with those stress symptoms.

Thanks for joining me on my journey through stress.  I hope you have learned something from me and I would love to hear what you think.  Feel free to leave any ideas of your own or your way of dealing with stress.

I would love to share with you – feel free to subscribe to my weekly newsletter or connect with my optin offer.  Either way please comment, retweet and join my Google Friend Connect.  Have a great day.

As promised here is Part IV of my 5-part series on stress.  I hope you enjoy my post and will leave a comment with any other ideas or advice you may have.  Thank you and enjoy your day.

Have you ever walked into the next room to get something, and then wondered what you came to get? Or maybe you have forgotten a certain word you use all the time  -  you can picture it in your head, but you just can’t think of it.  Researchers and scientists are conducting studies that say this kind of memory loss, and even Alzheimer’s, is due  to poor nutrition.  Are you able to control the stress in your life, because this is so important to the health and well-being of your life.

As a person ages, a healthy level of antioxidants is essential to balance out the negative effects free radicals have on your body.  Free radicals increase in the body by exposure to things like pollution, household chemicals, cigarette smoke, and pesticides.  Stress is also a major cause of free radicals, along with having  an infection, and even when we exercise.

Stress and overeating are very close to each other.  When you are stressed you sometimes forget to eat or eat when you aren’t even hungry.  You eat all the wrong things not thinking about the consequences or even caring for that matter.

Managing Stress

Stress comes in many forms and affects people of all ages.  We can’t predict stress  in people.   It isn’t because you have a stressful job that you have stress in your workplace, just as a parent of one child may have more stress than a parent of more than one child. The degree of stress in our lives depends on individual things such as our physical health, the quality of our relationships, the number of commitments and responsibilities we have each day, the amount of other people’s  dependence upon us,  the amount of support and kind of support we receive from friends, family and co-workers.  It is also determined by the number of changes in our lives or traumatic events that have recently occurred.

Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best.  But when you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price, making it time to take action to bring your nervous system back into balance.  Your body doesn’t know the difference between physical and mental  threats. When you’re stressed out because of your  busy schedule, an argument you had with a friend or spouse, a traffic jam, or overdue bills, your body reacts to that specific thing and tells you it is time to take action.  Now!

What If We Don’t Take Care of Stress

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Some of the things that may happen from not taking care of these symptoms are high blood pressure, susceptibility to flu or colds, the increase of heart attack or stroke, and definitely the speeding up of the aging process. If  stress is not taken care of properly and as soon as possible, it can even lead to anxiety and depression.

Each of us needs to determine what causes stress for us and how we respond it.  Start a journal and write down when something makes you feel down, how you reacted to it and what you did to deal with it. Keeping a stress journal can help you find out how much stress you can handle and then you can take steps to reduce it and handle it better.

Stress can be hard to deal with by yourself and it is okay to seek help if you need it. Talk with your doctor about what you are feeling and how it is affecting you. There are specialists that can help you find ways to know what is happening with your feelings. Those persons can also help you think about ways to reduce stress in your life.  The important thing is to realize you have stress and deal with it as soon as you can.

If you liked this post I would love for you to retweet it or leave a comment and let me know what you think.   Stay tuned for part 5 coming soon.  Have a great day.

Hi this is Donna Brogan back with you, as promised with Part III of my series on stress.  I really hope you are receiving some meaningful help from these posts. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know any ideas you may have.

What Stress Means to You

Stress is something that is in everyone’s day-to-day life.  Dealing with it is the harder part of your day.  You can reduce stress by taking your day one step at a time, not making too much of the things that happen.  Relax, breathe deeply, smile – these are things that can make your problems seem less intense.

If not avoided, stress can lead to health risks and even mental illness.  It can affect your relationships with family and friends and can even create a risk to yourself.  It must be taken care of immediately. Thinking positive will reduce the risk of being stressed out. Worrying about things we can do nothing about is also a leading cause of stress.

Stress is preventable and manageable.  It  is the number one health problem for most people. Although stress itself is not a  cause of death, the side effects from it can be.  So many things cause stress in daily life.  It can appear in the body in many ways and in many forms.  Stress is brought on differently in every person and for some people it is a debilitating disease that can ruin an entire life.

Preventing Stress

Some of the reasons for stress can be work, family, a terrible or sudden loss of a loved one, an ended marriage or relationship or problems in health and diet.  Stress can come from anything and take over a person’s life very quickly.  It is important for people to learn to prevent stress in their life.

One way to do this is to follow a good diet.  You need to make sure that you are filling your body with healthy foods that will support your mental and physical health.  The more junk that you eat, the more weight you gain and the less energy you have.  This will not only make you feel bad about yourself, the way you feel and look, but may cause a person to become depressed because of these feelings.

Having a good exercise program is another important factor in relieving stress.  Exercise can make a person feel better, both about the way they look and feel about themselves.  You will be burning calories and helping your body becomes stronger and healthier.

There are medications that can be prescribed by a doctor along with vitamins that can be used to help a person deal with the things in their lives that are keeping them from fulfilling their greatest potentials.  These vitamins are going to help with the support of the mind and help people to maintain a better outlook.

One of the best things I can think of to take away those feelings of depression is a good motivational or personal development person.  There are so many CD’s and books on the subject.  Some really good authors are:  Joel Osteen (my personal favorite), John C. Maxwell (great for personal growth), Stephen Covey, and so many more.  Some very special people always ready to help with motivation and personal development are <a href=http://katiefreiling.com>Katie Freiling</a>, <a href=http://createwitheric.com>Eric Goldstein</a> and <a href=http://karyrogney.com>Kary Rogney</a>.

Most of all you need a great support system.  This means that you should have the help that you are going to need from your friends and family.  You will want to have someone to lean on when you are in need of  that support.  You will be able to manage your stress better and feel more confident in finding a way out of it.  All of these things can make you believe in yourself and feel better about yourself.  Soon you can be on your way to a new life

Therefore, as long as you try to keep a  positive attitude and seek help (if you can’t handle the situation yourself) you should be able to sit back, and enjoy a stress-free lifestyle.  Life can be so much fun, and enjoyable without stress.  So take these few tips and create those dreams and learn how to follow them.  Life can and will be good.

So thanks for being with me again and I will talk to you soon in Part IV.  Remember, I won’t mind a bit if you decide to retweet this or leave a comment.  I look forward to hearing what you think and having you share anything you can to help on this subject.   Have a great day.

I hope you enjoyed Part I of my 5 part series on stress.  Here is Part II.  Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.  I would love to know what stress you may be dealing with and how you handle it.

So many people have stress-related illnesses.  How can anyone not have stress with all that goes on in the world today.  We constantly are dealing with something, whether it be with our job, home or family member.

Worrying is one of the major causes of stress.  It is hard not to worry. If you have noticed, that is the first thing a person will say to you – don’t worry.  What do I say back? ” Easier said than done”.

People worry about their future a lot. We need to be focusing on the present, then there is no need for that worry.  You also need to let go of the past and concentrate on the good things that are in your life now.  Life is way too short to worry it away.  You can’t enjoy life if you worry or stress over things every day.

A good way to reduce stress with your children is to do things together as much as possible. Fun things. This will keep not only you, but your children from having health issues in the future.

The best way to reduce stress for yourself  is to go out with friends, have a good time, don’t think about things while your out and about. For awhile just relax.  Get involved in some type of exercise, meditation, reading a good book.  Anything that takes your mind off your troubles for awhile.

There are certain times in life where stress can’t be avoided.  Having a loved one in the hospital, losing a family member, etc.. Those types of things are unforeseen, but you usually have other things going on that need your attention too, so concentrate on those things and it will seem like, for the moment, that the stress is not so bad.

Whether you have a job away from home or you work at home you will have stress on the job.  Do the best you can at your own pace, things will get done.  Don’t worry about what other employees think about you.  Avoid conflict wherever and whenever possible. Focus on your job and let them focus on theirs. If you work with several other people, be nice and focus on the job at hand even though they may not have the best attitude.  Handle the situation the best you can and let it go.  No stress needs to be involved.

With the economy in the shape it is today, there are so many things to worry about.  Finding a job, making ends meet, putting food on the table – just relax, laugh a lot and pray a lot.  Things will be okay.  Put on your positive face and think good thoughts.  Things will turn around.

“Let’s fight for our happiness by following a program of cheerful and constructive thinking”

Dale Carnegie

So, let’s try setting some goals for ourselves.  For one day try to be happy – happiness comes from within ourselves.

• Think of only what today is not what you want it to be.

• Start taking care of  you – exercise, eat right, maybe even spoil yourself with a massage or soothing bath.

• Try to learn something new and useful today – no matter how small this knowledge may be.

• Help someone without letting anyone know about it.

• Be extra nice today.  Get dressed up, act courteously, praise only – no criticism today.

• Live for today only, not worrying about the future.

• Spend one-half hour for you, thinking about God and how he has created a good person who is capable of doing great things – that being YOU!

• Finally, do not be afraid to be happy and to see the beauty around you, and to believe that those you love also love you.

ACT HAPPY AND YOU WILL FEEL HAPPY!

Again, if you liked this feel free to comment below.  Any ideas you have will be greatly appreciated.  Have a great and happy day.

STRESS  that is!  Can you handle what comes your way or do you need to seek help?  I would like to share a 5-part study of stress with you.  I hope you will benefit from this series, either for yourself or maybe for a family member or friend.   Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think and how stress has affected you.

Exactly what is stress?

That is a very hard question to answer because there are so many kinds of stress and the entire body and mind can be affected  in so many different ways.

Stress is usually considered the buildup of anxiety and pressures.  There is only so much pressure that one person can handle and stress will  occur when the person has had their fill of it.  Now if you are a believer – this is where people will say “God won’t give you any more than you can handle”.  Well, how many people really believe this when they are the one going through the stressful situation?  I am here to tell you that I have personally been in this position and know, for a fact, that this is true.  At the time I wasn’t so sure that I would get through the stressful problem but I did.

Stress is not necessarily a dangerous thing.  It is only a problem when the person who is under a great deal of it can no longer function and is letting it get the best of them. It is very important that help be received immediately whether by counseling or medications.

Many people have stress because of their job.  Some people bring their work worries and troubles home with them.  This can mean that they are having a hard time dealing with pressure.  They may start to have mood swings or be depressed a lot.  Depression is one of the major symptoms of stress and can be a danger to the person themselves as well as hurting the people who are close to them.

Some people have too many problems at home.  It may be a bad relationship with a partner or child.  This can cause a person to lose sight of what they are doing, making them think they can’t manage one more thing in their lives – these people need to take time out for themselves and relax – even if it is just going for a short walk  to get away from things.  An example is:

I have a dear, dear father living with us.  He is 86 and I have learned so many things from him in the years he has been with us.  But he has been diagnosed with scoleosis and cannot walk or stand for long periods of time.  This makes it hard for him to do even little things – without going into all the details – I just want to say this can be an added stress to daily life  and when you have so many more things on your plate, well, let’s just say it can become very stressful.  The hours in the day are gone before you know it because you have spent your day changing DVD’s, getting lunch, giving medications, etc.  Believe me when I tell you this can be very stressful.  Not that I would change things and send him to a nursing home, but I have learned to handle this stress and so can you.

It is very normal for people to have some form of stress.  It is something that we all have had to deal with and we eventually get through it.  However, there are some that cannot work past it and this can lead to more problems that may become very serious for them later down the road.  This will include a person’s emotional and physical health.

When a person has too much stress, they must find help from a source that they can trust.  This can be a professional, a spouse (if they are not the cause of the stress), or a very dear friend.  It is important to get things under control as soon as possible so that the person will have a chance for a happy and healthy lifestyle.  There are ways to control stress and to get away from those stress-related problems.  But the first thing that must be done is to recognize when you are under too much stress and then get help immediately.

I hope this has given you some insight into how challenging stress can be and if you or someone you know has a problem, maybe it will allow you to understand how important it is to manage it as soon as possible.  It usually does not just go away by itself and I really believe that there is no cure for stress, only a way of managing it.

If you have any other ideas or just want to share please comment below.  I look forward to all comments.  If you haven’t already would you please join my google friend connect so we may all stay in touch.  I will be back with Part II soon.