Simple tips anyone can use to exercise and stay fit even if you live a busy life.

Its the Christmas season once again and it means we’ll be moving on to another year.  New year always give us a hope, new goals, and a lot of reason to change.  We even make new year’s resolution for the whole year round.  But do we really accomplish these resolutions?  How many of these resolutions have you achieved?

Having new year’s resolutions can actually be considered a form of procrastination.  Why do we have to wait for a new year to make these goals and achieve them?  To start losing weight, stop smoking, stop procrastinating, save money, etc. can always be done anytime of the year.  The start of the year is just an excuse for us to procrastinate.  If your new year’s resolution is to start losing weight, wouldn’t it be better to start before the holidays?  That way, you can already control your diet when the holiday comes given that there would be more celebrations or get-togethers.

If we have something to change in ourselves, i.e. getting rid of bad habits, let’s not wait for the new year to come.  New year may be an opportunity for us to change but let us remember that it can also be a form of procrastination – which in essence is already a bad habit.

Even if we say that our new year’s resolution is to have these goals already achieved, the thing is that we’ll have an excuse to achieve these goals by the end of the year – just before the new year – although we can actually achieve it earlier.

There is nothing wrong with the new year’s resolution thing.  It could be fun actually.  But some of us make it a reason to procrastinate; to make an excuse not to achieve their goals.

As mentioned in this blog, one way to get motivated and stay motivated is to put your goals in a piece of paper and paste/hang it on your wall.  This will remind you of your goals and will motivate you to work on it.  Another thing is to post a motivating poster, picture, or painting in your wall or put it in a place where you can easily see it.  Something that would brighten up your day as you wake up, or make you smile when you feel sad, keep you calm when you are tensed, and motivate you not to quit when you feel like giving up.

Maybe you have seen some motivational posters in the internet already.  I just found a website, Bighugelabs.com, where you can create your own customized motivational poster.  All you have to do is prepare a nice photo, and motivational message.  Then upload your photo on their website and just fill up the form for your title and motivational message. Here is the layout of the poster:

Wouldn’t it be nice to put your photo, your loved one’s photo, maybe your pet, or anything that will motivate you?  Then write your own motivational message or quotes on it, and then it might just make your day.

Procrastination is most prevalent when we have a big deadline to beat.  We only become “more productive” when this deadline is approaching.  We’re lucky enough if we did a good job and finished it on time. But what happens most is not being able to finish our task.  Most of the times we may finish it but the quality of our work might be in question.

Though some people prefer to do their job a day or hours before the big deadline, it is still not safe to assume that it is better that way.  By doing that, you are taking a risk.  If that task is related to your work, then you are taking risk of your job.  If you are working with a team, you are not only taking risk for yourself but for your teammates as well.  That would also risk your working and professional relationship with them.

A good way to avoid procrastinating over your task is to set up your own series of mini-deadlines.  First, divide your tasks into smaller ones. Then for each part of your tasks, set a deadline.  By dividing your tasks, it will be easier for you to do each small part which will be more motivating to work on.  Doing smaller tasks will not lure you to procrastinate.  Instead, you’ll be able to finish your whole task just before the big deadline comes.

Just be sure to beat your mini-deadlines though.  There is no reason for you not to beat your mini-deadlines because your tasks have been divided into smaller parts already.  Then, always put an allowance in setting your mini-deadlines.  You should be able to finish the last part days before the big deadline.  With lesser chances of procrastination, you should be able to finish your task early, giving you an extra time to do other things even those that are not related to your work without any worries of some unfinished task.

How do you see yourself?

How you see yourself is called your self-image.  Self-image has in important role in building up your self-esteem, confidence, etc.  Self-image is not just about how you see yourself but self-image is also about:

• (how you see yourself, as mentioned)
• The kind of person that you think you are
• How you view your personality
• What you think others think of you
• How much you think others like you or how much you like yourself

Self-image affects our personality, self-esteem, courage, motivation, and most especially, it determines our success.  Having a negative self-image obviously won’t help anyone succeed.  You’ll have lower self-esteem and lack self-confidence.  If this is a way for us to succeed, then why not have a positive self-image?

Think of it this way, if you think that other people thinks that you’re a loser, how would you feel?  You will feel miserable, hopeless, and you might just lose trust in yourself.  But if you think that people thinks you’re good and that they believe in you, you will feel more inspired, confident, and determined to succeed.

See how important a cheering squad in a game is?  They remind the players that people believe in them.  Players get more energized and determined to win because they think that people believe in them.  Basically, you won’t need a cheering squad in your life, right?  But there are those people who support you, think of them.  Think that they believe in you and that you are really good at what you do.  If there are people whom you think doesn’t like you, don’t waste your time on them.  Think positive and go on your way to success.

In the process of reaching for your goals, a lot of things may happen. Not only difficulties, excitements or failures but boredom as well.  There may be a time when you feel that the things you do has become a routine.  This might lose your interest in achieving your goals.  You might even think of quitting since you may feel like nothing good is happening.  But actually, it is just part of achieving your goals.  Everyone goes passes on a different roads to success and only those who continue to move their feet forward can reach their destination.  If you keep on turning roads, you will never reach your goals, instead you’ll be on that same level at different roads.

One of the secrets to Goal Setting and Success is enthusiasm.  It is something infectious that the people around you will get infected and the enthusiasm will spread around you.  The sense of passion will be among you.  Being enthusiastic and having enthusiasm differ entirely.  It is good to be enthusiastic but having enthusiasm is better.  To love what you’re doing will be easier if you put enthusiasm on it. We know how important it is to love what we do in order for us to succeed in our goals or dreams in life.  But as explained above, a lot of things may happen.  To bring back your interest for your goals, have enthusiasm on what you do.

Enthusiasm, when properly applied, can get you to success or achievement of your goals.  Enthusiasm can keep you motivated with your work and continue walking to the path of your goals.  What we need sometimes is a little push to keep ourselves going. If we put enthusiasm on it, and somehow influence those around us, we’ll be more eager to do our jobs.

Preparing for a goal is one of the best things to do.  It is like preparing for a battle.  If you are not prepared, you are more likely to lose the battle or fail in your goal.  But waiting for everything to be perfect before you take onto it is another story. Let’s be realistic, perfection is far and is rarely achieved. A friend of mine has been planning of a business since more than a year ago.  But until now it hasn’t still materialized because she’s waiting for the perfect time.

We even almost forgot about it until I came across of a site that reminded me of her business plan.  I then asked her about it and told her that the perfect time would be now.  So the plan has been alive once again.  But this time, she’s more active. She is now preparing all the materials and the resources, unlike before that everything was just a plan.

Waiting for perfection is a form of procrastination.  It is like a painter who never finished his painting for trying to pursue perfection.  Surely we’ve all heard the cliche, “Nobody is perfect?” What we need to remember is that perfection is not a prerequisite for success.  If you want to know when you’re ready, why not start achieving your goal? Once you started it everything will go with the flow and you might just realized that you started at the perfect time.

Goal setting is a powerful practice that helps people in achieving their goals.  It gives them direction on how to accomplish it.  But when goal setting is practiced poorly, aside from failure, you will see that you have only wasted your time on that.

These are some of the things that one must avoid in setting goals:

• Setting unrealistice goals – this often happens if a person lacks crucial information and didn’t realize his resources and capabilities.  An example on this is when you set a goal of losing 20 pounds in 5 days.  Realistic goals are achievable goals.  So you have to set realistic ones to be able to achieve it.
• Too Many Goals – Most of the time, people would categorize their goals according to their priorities. They would set aside those that they think are not much of a priority to them.  What might happen here is that they do not know what to accomplish next.  There would also have some instances when they would “check” one of their goals off the list even before they have accomplished it.  Too many goals will tend to disorganize you.  Having one goal at a time will give you more focus in accomplishing it and even faster.
• Setting Goals to Impress Others – obviously, this won’t work because the real goal here is not the one you set but rather, the goal to impress others.  They may be impressed with your goals but the question is, is it really what you want to achieve?  Remember that people will be more impressed with your accomplishments rather than the goal you have set.

Goal setting is very helpful in reaching your dreams.  But if you fail on it, it might lead to even negative results.  So be careful when setting your goals.  The three things given above are just some of the causes on why you fail on your goal setting. But don’t let this discourage you.  Just be realistic and follow some guidelines in setting your goals.  Be sure also to be motivated and stay focused on your goals.

Have you ever felt tired or burned out in your life?  With all the stress and pressure that your job could have given you, its no wonder to feel tired and burned out.  We need to have a break at times for us to re-energize ourselves and get motivated once more with our jobs.  We need to enjoy life so that we won’t feel the burden that it gives us.  Isn’t childhood the most carefree, enjoying, and stress-free phase of our lives? We can learn a lot from our childhood days that would help us enjoy life and become worry-free.  Here are five things to learn from them:

• Children smile a lot and you can see the happiness in their faces with those smiles.
• Laughter is the best medicine as the saying goes.  Observe how children laugh.  They laugh heartily that even you would smile or even laugh as well when you see or hear their laughter.
• Children are open to learn things and are keen learners.
• Children are very creative.  You may sometimes be surprised on how and where they get some of their ideas.
• Failure is not an option for children.  They are eager to succeed or achieve in what they do.

We always say that we must be a good example or a model to children.  But children can serve as a model for us, adults, too.  Because of being so much of a work-a-holic, we sometimes need to be reminded that we should also smile often, laugh a little, and enjoy life once in a while.  Aside from getting a youthful glow, these simple things will also help us to relax ourselves amidst the stressful life we are in; help us energize ourselves from our life’s daily routine which includes our job.Another thing that we can get from those things mentioned above is that we can get ourselves motivated in doing our jobs and in accomplishing our dreams.  Children do not opt for failure so we should not opt for it, too.  These little children could serve as a stress-reliever for us, a model and an inspiration for us in achieving our goals.

One thing that keeps us from achieving our goals is the negative emotions.  It keeps on defeating us and makes us weak.  Some of the things that gives us negative emotions are criticisms against us, negative emotions, rejection, and many more.  But have you ever wonder why other people still manage to achieve with their goals? Simple.  They view these negative emotions as a feedback to themselves and use them to become a better person.

The criticisms, negative emotions, rejections, etc. can help you become a better person so why not choose that way instead of getting yourself miserable and/or hopeless with your dreams? If you think too much of these negative emotions and live with it, you’ll become miserable, depressed, and such.  Take it as a way to become a better person.  That’s what successful people do.  They accept these negative emotions and criticisms and analyse it.  That way, they will know which part of themselves they need to improve or change.

These successful people use negative emotions as a feedback in such a way that if what they are doing is not working, they stop it and think of an alternative that might just work for them.  Never expect that these negative emotions will just disappear sometime soon because they will not.  So view it in a different manner and become a better you – more motivated, determined, and confident to achieve your goals.  Take it from the high achievers.  They don’t let these negative emotions affect them negatively but they use it positively.