You’re never given a wish without also being given the tools to make it come true.

Your wishes come from within, but they’re created by The Universe… and The Universe wants the best for you so It won’t let you wish for things you can’t have…

You’ll be given the tools… and the skills… and the power to turn your wishes into goals…

The achievement of those goals is assured the moment you commit yourself to them!

If you have the desire, you have the power to achieve anything you want and to make all your wishes come true.

Do you have the desire?

You can have anything you want in life if you’re prepared to make sacrifices along the way… but only sacrifice the things you don’t really want!

Your dreams can come true if you pursue them…

No… your dreams will come true… if you fully pursue them!

Thanks to ‘Gratitude By Design’ for inspiring today’s thoughts.

Make today a great day…

Keith L Jones
Life Improvement Coach

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur, Chemist and Microbiologist.

Have you ever given up on your dreams… because they just seemed impossible to achieve?

Have you ever given up on a task… because the solution didn’t come easy enough?

Have you ever turned around… because the traffic just seemed too heavy?

Have you ever…

Have you ever…

I’m sure the list goes on for you… as it does for me! But that was then… today’s another day!

Today’s the day you become tenacious!

Today’s the day you set your sights on your goals and focus on them with the pinpoint accuracy of a laser beam.

Start right now…

Focus on one of your goals…

What’s the next step you need to take to move closer to achieving it?

What can you do today to make it happen?

Write it down…

Do it!

When you’ve done that, move onto the next step…

When can you start?

Put it in your diary…

Do something every day to take you closer to achieving your goal… until you’ve achieved it!

Then move onto your next goal…

That’s tenacity!

Isn’t it easy?

Have a great day…
Have a great life…

Keith L Jones
Life Improvement Coach

This is the third in my series of posts to help you in overcoming procrastination…

Procrastination is often a symptom of a poor self-image.

You may well be thinking… “How can that be?”… or “What’s self-image got to do with procrastination?”.

The answer is simpler than you might think and isn’t difficult to understand…

You see, we often link performance to self-worth. Unless we achieve perfection in our efforts we consider ourselves to be a failure and, since perfection is incredibly difficult to achieve, there’s too much at stake to even start a project. We put too much pressure on ourselves, by ‘insisting’ that we achieve perfection. By procrastinating, we avoid having to make judgement… we avoid the possibility of failure.

Unfortunately, we also avoid the possibility of success!

So, how can we break out of this dilemma?

What’s the first step to Overcoming Procrastination?

The best way is to create a safety net for yourself. Look at your goal or task and ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen to me if I don’t achieve perfection?”

Maybe, you’ll get a little criticism… maybe you’ll have to rework some of your project… maybe you’ll feel a little embarrassed… maybe… maybe… maybe!

Now look at the positive reactions you’ll get for a job well done!

Praise from your peers and boss… appreciation for a great effort… maybe even a pay rise!

Simply remember self-worth does not equal performance!

As you start towards your goals, simply say to yourself, “Whatever happens, my self-worth will still be the same, I am safe and will remain safe, whatever the results of my efforts”.

When you provide a safety net like this for yourself, you’ll find you’re much calmer and much more likely to start your project.

Try it today!

Look out for my next post to help you with overcoming procrastination… coming soon!

Take care and have a great day.

Keith L Jones
Life Improvement Coach

This is the second in my series of posts to help you with overcoming procrastination…

Procrastination is one of the most damaging habits you can develop.

Did you notice the use of the word develop?

You weren’t born with procrastination built into you. You developed the habit of putting things off as you grew older and as society, your peers, your parents, teachers and many other people chipped away at your confidence and self-belief.

Now that’s a bold statement, if ever you heard one! Yes?

Take a look at any small child…

Do they hesitate when they see something they want? You bet they don’t!

Just about every young child is in a rush to walk, talk and create mayhem!

So what happens? Why do we develop this debilitating habit of procrastination?

For many of us, it’s a safety mechanism. A way of putting off trying something… so we can’t be seen as a failure. So we can’t be criticised for completing a task that’s not up to scratch.

Hey, if we wait long enough, someone else might just come along and finish things off for us!

Look at people around you. Do they put things off? Do they delay things they could easily attempt today… right now!

Change the way you view things.

Every ‘failure’ is a lesson learned. Every success takes you closer to your dreams and to the abundance you deserve.

Every success grows your business.

Make an effort to stop procrastinating… NO! Make a decision to stop procrastinating… right now!

Start every day by working on your major project, don’t procrastinate by checking your post or your emails… do that later. Otherwise, you may get diverted from your main project for the whole day. Now don’t tell me that’s never happened to you before! Of course it has! It’s happened to me as well!

So here’s the plan…

Start your working day by working for at least two hours on your major project… before you do anything else.

Then see how much difference it makes to your business, your confidence and to your happiness!

Look out for my third post to help you with overcoming procrastination… coming soon!

Take care and have a great day.

Keith L Jones
Life Improvement Coach

This is the first in a series of posts to help you with overcoming procrastination. I was going to post this last week, but put it off… Tee hee!

Sorry couldn’t resist that one!

To procrastinate, according to the Oxford Dictionary means to defer action. Put simply, procrastination is the art of putting things off!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can do today”. Well, a procrastinator changes that to, “Don’t do today, what you can put off until tomorrow!”

OK, that’s the fun over. Procrastination is serious. It holds most of us back at sometime or another and I consider it to be something of an addiction… in that it’s very difficult to give up!

Over the next few posts, I’ll be discussing, in detail, the signs of procrastination, the main reasons why people procrastinate and methods to help with the process of overcoming procrastination.

Procrastination not only prevents many people achieving their life goals, it helps create negative feelings of self-worth and destroys confidence. So, it’s something that needs to be tackled in a way that will bring about lasting change.

For that reason I’ll be telling giving you a practical techniques to put an end to procrastination for ever!

But more on that in the next post. For now, I’d like you to decide how much of a procrastinator you are.

Make a list of times you’ve put things off recently. How does it make you feel?

Where would you be now, if you hadn’t delayed important decisions or projects?

Don’t beat yourself up and don’t make judgements about yourself. That’s not the idea. It is important, however, as part of the process in overcoming procrastination, to accept you’re a procrastinator… if that’s the case, so we can work to provide a solution.

See you next time.

Have a great day!

Keith L Jones
Life Improvement Coach

Time To Take Stock

As the year draws to a close, it’s a good idea to look back and take stock… not because the past year will dictate your future, but because you can use last year’s successes, or the lessons learnt, to help set your goals for next year.

This is a good time to start thinking about what you want more of in 2008… so you can start the new year with a running start!

To help get you started here are a few questions – use them constructively and don’t make judgements about yourself if you’ve fallen short with anything… just make observations and use those observations to move yourself forward.  One way to do that is to imagine you’re helping a friend – would you criticise them mercilessly if they’d fallen short on something? Or would you build their confidence with praise and encouragement?

Hopefully, you’d choose the latter approach!

Please, tell me you would!

OK, let’s get going!

Use these questions to look back at 2007…

1. What’s your overall feeling about 2007? Good? Bad? OK?
2. What changed for the better during the last 12 months?
3. What changed for the worse?
4. What successes have you had?
5. What failures?
6. What are you happy with?
7. What has disappointed you?
8. What lessons have you learned?
9. What have you learned about yourself?
10. Is there anything you’ve put off?
11. Does you overall life goal still hold true?
12. Where did you concentrate most of your energy last year?
13. Did you move forward last year?
14. Did you  make the most of your gifts and talents?
15. Are your relationships stronger and better?
16. Is there anything else you want to comment on from last year?

As ever, write your answers down, that will help you fully assess your current situation and remember… Don’t Judge Yourself… just observe!

Putting yourself down or being over critical will simply destroy your confidence. the important thing is to move forward from now with confidence and focus.

OK, well done, now keep your list safe and come back in a day or two, when I’ll be helping you look forward to 2008 with excitement and anticipation.

Have a great day.

Keith L Jones.