5 Misconceptions That Discourage You and Why You Must Fix Them!

If you’re feeling discouraged, that’s good news.
You’re probably thinking, “Wait, what?!!”

Discouragement usually affects those who are unhappy with their situation and trying to improve their lives. It doesn’t affect the lazy, the unmotivated and those who are indifferent.
No… it usually affects the driven individuals who desire more in their lives. People feel discouraged when they encounter failure. Or if misconceptions which have been drilled into them from an early age rear their ugly heads.

So, if you’re feeling discouraged, you’re on the right track. When you’re down, you may feel like you’ve failed. You may feel like it’s not in your destiny to win. Or that you’re not good enough.
All these feelings are an illusion. Let’s squash the most common misconceptions which hold people back…

1.You need a college degree

This is one of the biggest misconceptions which discourages people. A lack of education will never be able to hold a driven individual down. If you stopped to think about it, formal education merely teaches you to memorize a ton of pointless facts that serve no real purpose in life.
As an entrepreneur, you can carve out your own place in the world. Forget the jobs which require paper qualifications. Work at any job that will hire you and then work on your business consistently when you have time.
Many of the richest and most successful people on the planet dropped out of school.

2.You need money

To some extent, this is true. To start a business, you’ll need money. But this money can be saved and if you hustle, you can find people who will invest in your business. As long as you persist, you can overcome this financial challenge.
Many of the most successful entrepreneurs started out from humble backgrounds and built their businesses from scratch. A lack of money should never discourage you.

3.The government is holding you back

The government can raise taxes, create more red tape and do a myriad of other inane things to disrupt most entrepreneurs’ lives. This has been going on for decades and it’ll never end.
But there will ALWAYS be options for you to beat the system. If you looked at the biggest companies in the world, they usually pay minimal taxes (legally), outsource labour to cheaper countries and so on.
And they make billions.

You may not have their funds or lobbying power, but know this – you are in control of your life and your business. There will be millionaires made regardless of which government is in power. If they can do it, so can you.

4.It’s going to take too much time

It will take time, but what else will you do anyway?
If it takes you 10 years to build a 7-figure business, that may seem like a long time. And it is. But what if you do not start because it’s going to take you a decade.
Well, 10 years from now, you’ll probably still be stuck at the same job you’re currently at, and your salary will probably be the same. Nothing would have changed.

The time will pass… and you might as well get started now and have something to show for it anyway. Winning takes time. You have to accept that and not be discouraged by it.

5.Everyone else is doing better than you

In his book, Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen used a term “conspicuous consumption”.
Never has there been a time when this has been more prevalent… and social media has encouraged it. Instagram is filled with pictures of people living their best lives.

They’re either in mansions, relaxing by poolside resorts, in front of fast cars, or working out at the gym and so on. Or they’re buying expensive watches, drinking pricey wine or engaged in other theatrical lifestyle fantasies.

There is an illusion of success that’s in your face constantly… and it can be extremely discouraging.
It’s almost as if everyone else has their life in order EXCEPT you who is struggling to build a business, manage your finances, keep your family together and you haven’t had a vacation in 2 years!

Here’s what you need to know – it’s all an illusion.
The pictures you see on social media is just a highlight reel. Many of them are broke, struggling and live vacuous dissatisfied lives.

In fact, this is generally the norm. People want others to think well of them. So, all the preening and posing for likes and engagement is an unrealistic ideal to live up to.
Real-life, especially when you’re in the trenches working towards your goals, is often dirty and grimy. You don’t have time to pose for photos or seek external validation. Focus on your goals and what truly matters.

The best way to overcome these misconceptions is to know in your heart that if you wish to succeed, NOTHING can stop you. Your desire for success should be greater than anything which might threaten to discourage you.

Once you get in touch with your innermost desires and you believe you can succeed, you’ll be impervious to the distractions and misconceptions which try to discourage you.
You’ll know deep in your heart that you have what it takes and you’ll keep going. It’s just a matter of time until you succeed.

5 Little-Known Ways to Fool Your Mind and Gear It Towards Success

As ironic as it seems, most people would succeed in their endeavors if they’d only get out of their own way.
Despite their desire for success, they usually engage in activities which detract them from their goals - because their mindset is not geared for success.

Old negative beliefs linger around and fester in their mind when they’re trying to progress. These detrimental thoughts play havoc with their moods and discourage them.
In this article, we’ll look at 5 ways to reframe your thoughts so that you don’t sabotage your success.

1.Telling yourself you deserve success

The brutal truth is that there are many people with less education and abilities than you who have gone on to accumulate immense wealth.

Yet, so many people falsely believe that they need a degree, capital, connections and an endless list of conditions to be in their favor before they have a fighting chance of success.
Tell yourself that you’re worthy of success. There’s no reason why you can’t succeed if you give it your best. Ignore all other excuses.

2.You have a choice

Work is tiring. There’s just no denying that.
In his book Deep Work, author Cal Newport said, “This is an economy that will reward people who are comfortable doing hard concentration on things that matter.”
You can’t get away from the fact that you’ll be required to work hard in order to succeed. Even if you work smart, you still have to diligently expend mental energy and effort working on your goals.

Most people will feel an aversion to the work because it’s boring and tiring. So what do they do?
They procrastinate. To avoid this problem, you must understand that you have a choice. Tell yourself, “I get to do this work because my goals matter!”

When you realize that you are choosing to do the work, you overcome the mental hurdle where you feel like your arm is being twisted and you NEED to work. It’s a simple way to reframe your thoughts, but it makes a world of difference.

3.“It’s just 5 minutes!”

Another useful technique to overcome procrastination is to trick your mind into thinking that you’re not going to be tortured. Procrastination is actually a sign of your mind protecting you.
It views the work you need to do as uncomfortable and energy-consuming. Your mind is right… and it will conjure up very convincing excuses to get you to procrastinate the work so you spare yourself the ‘pain’.

One easy way to overcome this problem is to tell yourself that you’ll just do the work for 5 minutes. This is a short enough duration for it not to be laborious. Your mind will be less likely to resist.

What’s amazing is that once you start working, all resistance will disappear. You always face the most opposition from your mind BEFORE you begin the task… but once you start and get into the flow of things, generally, you’ll keep going.

4.Aim big

Set huge goals that you have no idea how to achieve. You must think big to win big.
Like former racing car driver, Mario Andretti, once said, “If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough.”
Forget about being realistic. Even you don’t know what’s possible or what you’re capable of. So don’t hold back.

If your goals don’t scare you a little, they aren’t big enough. Don’t panic and clutch your pearls trying to figure out how you’ll achieve them. Just set big goals for now.
Once that is done, you can chunk down the big goals into smaller goals until you have manageable targets to meet. Then it’s just a matter of hitting one target after another and another until you reach your big goal.

It will take you time and effort no doubt, but you’ll get there. What’s most important is that you gave yourself the chance to set a lofty goal that you can ultimately reach.

5.It’s all a game

Winners in life always treat the process as a game. While failure is bitter, they don’t use it to judge themselves. They understand that you may win today and lose tomorrow.
What matters is that you play the game… and if you keep at it long enough, you’ll get better at it and eventually win. Even teenage boys know that when you repeatedly play the same video game, you’ll get better at it and finally beat the ‘big boss’ in the end.

In the same vein, when you don’t internalize failure or allow yourself to get too attached to the outcome, you’ll dare to do more and challenge yourself.

Failure and success will both serve as feedback for you. Treat the process likes a game where you just want to keep going and winning, no matter how many times you lose. With this mindset and approach, the sky is the limit and you’ll achieve unimaginable success in time to come.

9 Deep Questions to Ask Yourself if You Want to Be Successful

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

As an entrepreneur, there will be countless times when you question your own sanity. Starting a business is the easy part. Making it work is the excruciatingly hard part.
With all the naysayers telling you that your plans were myopic, you might wonder if they are right. You can have faith in yourself and take action to make your dreams a reality… BUT the journey can be long, and it usually is.

During this time, your faith and the reasons why you started may seem tenuous at best. You’re now in a conundrum. You started with the best intentions, but now you’re wondering if you’ll even be successful.
The best remedy to this problem will be to know yourself. There is immeasurable power to be had when you truly know what you want… and what you’re working towards.
That’s what it means when they say, “To thine ownself be true.”
But how do you discover yourself?

Simple. You ask yourself a few questions and dig deep within yourself to find the emotional answers that matter the most to you. You must answer the questions below from your heart. No logic necessary. This is 100% an emotional exercise.

1.Do you like your life right now?

This question will tell you why you’re making changes in your life. It will remind you of why you started building a business in the first place.
Most entrepreneurs who make it big were not content to live in their current circumstances. They wanted more, they wanted better and they weren’t willing to settle.

If you’re not satisfied with your life currently, ask yourself why. Then see if your actions are helping you to transform your life. Always remember that the oyster without the irritation is not the oyster that produces the pearl.

2.Would you have regrets if you didn’t pursue your goals?

If the answer is yes, then all the struggle is worth it. You must pay the price to receive the reward.

3.What are your biggest fears?

Financial loss? Failure? Embarrassment if you fail? What are your fears?
Write them down and ask yourself… “So what? What’s the worst that could happen?”
All these worst-case scenarios might never materialize. Are you going to let them hold you back from greatness? Of course not!

4.What is your definition of success?

Do you want a business that makes 6 or 7 figures or more? What will you need in your life to feel successful?
There are no right or wrong answers. Wanting to live in a big house with a circular driveway is not ostentatious or covetous if that’s what you desire. As long as you work for it and earn it legally, you deserve your reward.

The haters and bottom-feeders in society will be quick to tell you that you should donate your money and help the poor. They’ll try to make you feel guilty for succeeding while they themselves will not work to achieve success… and will not donate to anyone either.

If your definition of success is not clear, you’ll be swayed by emotions and guilt. Millions of people feel that they’re unworthy of success. What they first need to do is decide what success means for them… then they can ask themselves if they deserve it. And of course, they do.

5.What do you enjoy doing?

Generally, you’ll find that the most successful people focus on getting better at what they’re naturally already good at. They strive to be the best at what they do. In most cases, they love what they do. It’s their passion that drives them to succeed.

You must know what you love to do. Don’t chase the money. Instead look at what you enjoy doing and what you’re good at. Then figure out a way to charge others for your services.

6.What skills/talent do you have?

This ties in with the earlier point. What skills can you monetize?
David Copperfield made millions as an illusionist. Michael Jordan made his pile with basketball. J.K.Rowling made billions writing Harry Potter books.

Each of them had their own talent and skills, and they used them to make a fortune. You must know what you’re good at to succeed at it.

7.What 3 things are you most grateful for?

Write down what you’re grateful for. No one can feel poor or unsuccessful when they can count their blessings.

8.How would you feel if you achieved your goals?

Write it down. Imagine having already achieved your goals and dreams. What would you do? How would you feel? What would change in your life?
Once you can see the promise, you’ll achieve clarity. You can see the reward in your mind’s eye. Now you’ll be more willing to endure the struggle and keep going even when every bone in you feels like quitting.

With time you’ll achieve success and whatever you wrote down will be a reality.

9.Do you think your life is meaningful?

This is the deepest question of the lot.
What will you need in your life for you to feel like it’s meaningful? Children? A happy family? Generational wealth? Fame?

You must know what you really want in life. So often people chase dreams that aren’t really theirs. They let society dictate what defines success. As a result, there are many people who seem to have achieved lots of success in their lives, but deep down, they’re empty and miserable.

They may not show it, but it’s there. All because they worked towards goals that held no meaning for them. If you want to achieve REAL success in life, you must know what means the most to you. Then pursue goals that will bring meaning to your life.

When you achieve success in these endeavors, you’ll be able to sit back, kick up your feet and smile. You’ll rest in the glow of winning and satisfaction from knowing that you got what you wanted and you did it your way. This is true success.

3 Negative Beliefs That Hold Entrepreneurs Back

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” - J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Our lives are a reflection of our beliefs. Most of us know this, and yet, we cling on to old negative beliefs - even when they hold us back.
Discarding them and creating new beliefs seems to be a Herculean task.
These beliefs (which are usually assumptions and misconceptions) color our world views and justify our actions.

Yet, if we stopped to think about it and ask ourselves, “Where did we get these beliefs from?” … we’d realize that most of them were ingrained in us by our parents, teachers and other ‘well-meaning and sensible’ adults when we were young.

In most cases, these self-limiting and defeatist beliefs will impede your progress when you decide to become an entrepreneur. You’ll be setting yourself up for failure from the get-go.
Let’s look at some of the most common beliefs that are injurious to your goals…

1.Money makes money

This is probably the biggest fallacy of the lot. This misconception creates a catch-22 situation. You want to get into business to improve your financial standing… but you need money to get into business - and that’s money you don’t currently have.
So you’re doomed.

But is this reasoning valid? Do you really need money to start?
A quick look at some of the biggest business successes on the planet will show you that most of them invariably began from humble beginnings. They started off small and slowly built their way up.

In the same vein, nothing is stopping you from starting off small and climbing the ladder of business success. It’s resourcefulness and not resources that you need.
Do not count yourself out just because you lack the finances. Rest assured that enthusiasm, confidence, passion and hard work will help you find the resources you need and you’ll be able to employ them to forward your business.

2.Following instead of leading

The world loves a winner and tends to put them up on pedestals. The media gives them coverage. Books are written about them and so on.
Parents, teachers, etc. often tell us to model successful people and read biographies. The goal is to be like these larger than life people who define the epitome of success.
Millions of people dream of being the next Michael Jordan or the next Elon Musk. Or the next pop star… and so on.
And yet, if you asked Michael Jordan who he wanted to be, he’d most probably say that he wanted to be Michael Jordan.

Herein lies a contradiction – the leaders of the world (whichever field they may be in) are almost always trailblazers who march to the beat of their own drum. They’re so focused on being the best they can be that they don’t have time to try and be like someone else.
Using a role model to inspire you is a start… but if you want to truly see success, you’ll need to lead rather than follow. You’ll need to put yourself in the limelight and be willing to be seen by the masses, rather than quietly skulking in the shadows.
You’ll get the accolades and recognition, but you’ll also get brickbats and hate. This is par for the course. Just remember, leaders lead. You must lead if you want massive success.

3.Expecting overnight success

A lack of patience has sounded the death knell on more goals/dreams than any other cause.
The current society we live in encourages impatience.
Instant notifications, text messaging, microwaves, instant meals, entire 22-episode seasons of Netflix shows presented all at once, etc. have made us believe that anything can be gotten fast.

We want results and we want them now. Preferably yesterday.
Life, however, has quite a different set up. Any worthy goal will take you time to achieve. Usually, it will take you longer than you believe.
Like Jeff Bezos said, “All overnight success takes about 10 years.”
You can’t shrink the journey to fit into a 90-minute Hollywood movie. There is no rousing soundtrack to inspire you. Success is an ugly, dirty fight where you’ll have to claw your way to the top.

It has ALWAYS been that way.

So, if you start on an entrepreneurial journey and are expecting overnight riches without struggle, you’ll be in for a rude shock. It’s just a matter of time before you discover pitfalls, hurdles, pain, struggles and a myriad of other problems that you’ll need to constantly overcome.

You may wonder, “Why is this happening to me? Why is it so hard?”
The truth is that it doesn’t just happen to you. It happens to every entrepreneur who wishes to level up. This is the turbulence you need to get past until you reach cruising altitude.
And it will take you time. So, if you lack patience, it’s time to tell yourself that you’re in for the long haul.
Now that you’re aware of these 3 negative beliefs, you can take steps to fix them and be on your way to success.

Simple Ways To Boost Your Creativity

When you want to give your creative intelligence a boost it is a mistake to just dive in and use advanced creativity techniques as your brain has not had to come up with creative ideas for a long time. It is better to do some of the simpler things first.

If you try to do too much when you are just starting out with developing your creativity then you are likely to find the going very tough and this can really test your staying power. Having got really excited about the prospect of being more creative, you do not want to give up in the early stages because you have approached things in the wrong way.

With this in mind, we will share with you some of the simplest things that you can do to get started on your journey to developing your creativity. There is nothing difficult about any of these things and you can implement them easily.

See your Creativity as a Muscle

The development of your creativity will happen a lot faster if you take consistent action on a regular basis. It is a good idea to see your creativity as a muscle that you need to exercise on a regular basis to make it fit and strong.

Research has shown that people who did not believe that they had any creativity were able to come up with some creative ideas when they tried to do this. The moral of this story is that the more you use your creativity the better that you will become at it.

You have connections in your brain between various cells and when you learn new things and generate new ideas it is likely that you will create new connections. By using your creativity, you will also strengthen the existing connections that you have.

Change up your Surroundings

If you always go to the same place for your creative sessions then this can hamper your chances of generating creative ideas. Sitting at the same office at work or in the same room at home means that you will be looking at the same things all of the time which is not good.
Make some small changes to your surroundings so that you see something different when you are being creative. Move your furniture around or just reorganize your office desk. Using a different room in your home is also a good idea to bring fresh inspiration.

Learn New Things

There are a lot of good reasons why you should focus on a subject and become an expert in it. We also recommend that you learn new things as well. When you have knowledge of additional subjects you are going to give your creative intelligence a boost.
It doesn’t matter what subjects you choose to learn about. Just believe that this will help to develop your creativity and get on with it. With the Internet, there is no excuse for not learning new things. Trust that this works because it does.

Give yourself New Challenges

If you keep doing the same things all of the time then you are not going to help your creativity. Find new challenges that you can participate in that will test your creative powers. A good example of this is a game where you need to solve puzzles to move forward. There are plenty of these available online.

7 Mistakes Beginner Entrepreneurs Make

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” - Meister Eckhart

It’s time to face the hard truth – you’re going to make mistakes.
No matter how smart you are or how strong you are, or how experienced you are, when you’re pursuing a new goal that you’re not familiar with, you WILL make mistakes.
We ALL will. It’s just part and parcel of the learning experience. Below, you’ll find 7 common mistakes that beginner entrepreneurs make. These mistakes MUST be fixed because they’re the cornerstones for building a solid, thriving business – in any niche/field.

1.No goals

You MUST have a goal… and you must know why you’re starting a business. What is motivating you to become an entrepreneur?
It’s imperative to know what you wish to achieve and why you want to achieve it. Many people decide to start a business for all the wrong reasons.

Maybe they see a friend or neighbor with a successful business and decide to ‘give it a try too’. Invariably, they find out real soon that the entrepreneurial journey is not a cake walk… and they quit.
They never really wanted to become an entrepreneur. It just seemed like a ‘cool idea’. Well, it doesn’t work that way.
You must have a goal, a strong why and a burning desire. Without these 3, you’ll not make it. You just won’t. Period.

2.No clarity

Once you have a goal, you’ll need clarity. How will you measure your success? For example, you may have a goal to start your own successful toy website.
That’s good… but do you know how much you want to earn? Do you know what toys you’ll sell? Will you be the vendor or will you be an affiliate?
So many questions – and you need to know the answers. The more answers you have, the more clarity you’ll have and that will help you when pursuing your targets, goals, etc.

3.No plan

Now that you have a goal and clarity, you need a plan. Like Dale Carnegie said, “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.”
You’ll need to know how you’ll get started and what you need to do to grow your business. There is a plethora of scenarios here because of the sheer variety of business models.

However, the fundamental truth remains – you must have a plan of action. Even if you’re unsure of where things may lead, having a plan helps. You can always make changes to the plan later as more details become available.
But when you’re starting out, you need a roadmap.

4.No milestones

Experienced mountaineers will tell you that you climb a mountain one step at a time.
The goal is to always put one foot in front of the other and keep your eyes on a target a short distance away. Because if you looked at the peak and how much further you had to go, you’d lose heart and feel like quitting.

In the same vein, building a successful business is like scaling a mountain. Success is at the peak, and it’s a slow climb up.
If you keep looking at the one big goal of making 6 or 7 figures a month, it’s easy to get discouraged. But if you focus on improving your current performance constantly, you’ll ultimately reach your goal.

Having milestones that you can aim for will help to keep you focused and motivated. For example, if your current monthly profits are around 10k, your next milestone may be 25k… and after that, 50k. Then 75k, 100k… and so on.
All these milestones will lead to your ultimate goal of a million dollars a month in profit, if that’s your goal.
So break down your large goals into less intimidating milestones and focus on hitting those constantly.

5.No routine

Author John Maxwell has a quote, “The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
He’s absolutely right. Too many beginner entrepreneurs try to wing it. Routine and discipline are anathema to them and they feel like such practices restrict them.

In reality, a good routine actually helps prevent stress and gives you more free time. You must have structure and a daily winning routine to follow. This will establish positive habits in your life which are conducive to winning and success.

Analyze your daily activities and understand that time and energy are like currency, and you must use them wisely. Everything you do should be taking you towards your goals. Eliminate time-wasting activities, energy sapping people and unnecessary distractions.
Create a routine that works well for you and follow it daily.

6.Not tracking

It’s easy to go off course if you don’t constantly check your bearings. That’s why pilots constantly check their coordinates even if the plane is on autopilot.
You need to do that too. Keep a journal or use an app to track your progress. Are you getting your tasks done on time?

Are your profits rising or dipping? Are there any areas in your business you can improve?
By tracking your time, tasks, and progress, you’ll have your finger constantly on the pulse of your business. You won’t veer off course, and you’ll always know where you currently stand and where you need to go.

7.Quitting too soon

Last but not least, NEVER ever quit. The journey to entrepreneurial success is NOT linear. It’s more of a roller coaster ride with wonderful highs and miserable lows.
That’s just the way it is. The price you pay for enduring the ride will be the success that’s ultimately yours. This is a journey that will demand everything from you.
It’s an exacting mistress who demands a price and insists that you pay it. It doesn’t tolerate fools and has no empathy for quitters.

But if you stay the course, she’ll smile on you and you’ll see the success your heart desires. So, never quit.
Change your route, change your approach, change your tactics – but don’t change your destination. Keep going.

Avoid these 7 mistakes and you’ll build a thriving business with bedrock certainty.

The Benefits Of Developing Your Creativity

There are several benefits to boosting your creative intelligence and making a commitment to be more creative. In this article, we will cover some of the most important benefits to inspire you to take action. Developing your creativity will take time and effort and you need to be consistent to get the best results.

Set yourself Free with more Creativity

You are not subject to any rules when you use your creativity. One of the things that holds people back the most when they want to give their creativity a boost is that they are quick to judge themselves. This can be particularly difficult to overcome especially when you are just starting out.
Society wants us to think in a certain way and is usually quick to judge and challenge new creative ideas. When you were a child, you just did one creative thing after another because you were free to do that. Becoming more creative will help you to get back this freedom.

You will increasingly Trust your Instincts

Everyone has instincts that tell them that something is right or wrong from time to time. As you grow older you tend to trust your instincts less because they have been criticized in the past by others or even yourself.
Being told that your instincts are wrong over and over again will wear you down and the mainstream does this a lot. Suppressing your instincts is the end result and when you are more creative you will rebuild your trust with your instincts.

Combat Stress with Creativity

The modern world brings a lot of stress with it and when you are in a creative frame of mind you can significantly reduce your stress levels. When you are being creative this is a fun time for you and you are focused on generating innovative ideas. This is like meditating and it will calm you down and reduce your stress.

Enhance your Skills to solve problems

As you develop your creativity you will find that it becomes easier for you to solve the different problems that you face. Some people find solving difficult problems overwhelming and this causes them a lot of anxiety.
By increasing your creativity skills, you will have rock solid belief in your ability to tackle any problem no matter how complex it may seem. You will have the inner resources available to call upon to assist in the generation of creative solutions to problems.

Self-Awareness improves with Creativity

A lot of people suffer from low self-esteem and low levels of confidence. They struggle with their self-awareness and becoming more creative can improve this considerably. When you are being creative it will give you a much more positive sense about who you are.
Generating creative ideas shows that you have a lot of respect for your intuition and your inner-self as a whole. You gradually lose any inhibitions to express the ideas that you have and this raises your self-esteem and makes you more confident.

You will find Positives from Failure

For most people, failing is something that they would rather forget. As a person with high creative intelligence, you accept that we all make mistakes and that there are usually always positives to be learned from any failures.

10 Success Habits to Adopt

“Habits are not a finish line to be crossed. They are a lifestyle to be lived.” – James Clear

Your habits will make or break you (and your business). One of the best things you could do is read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. It’s essential reading for any entrepreneur who wants to up his game.

Your daily habits will determine not only how far you progress, but how fast you do too. Some people who seem like super-achievers just have better habits that the masses don’t.
Your habits will carry you long after the initial burst of motivation has left you. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, you may be raring to go when you just get started. You decide to walk for an hour a day.

Now, if you’re 30 pounds overweight, it may take you 15-20 weeks to lose all the excess pounds. But here’s what usually happens – you’ll lose motivation and interest by the 4th week or so.
You may have expected to lose all the weight in a month. An unrealistic expectation, but people often underestimate just how long it takes to achieve goals. Most people will quit after the first month because the motivation has left them.

The results aren’t anything to write home about. The juice just doesn’t seem worth the squeeze… so they quit.
However, if you had the habit of walking daily, you’d still walk for 60 minutes every single day regardless of what number showed up on the weighing scale. In about 5 months, you’d have reached your ideal weight.

All because you stuck to the habit no matter what your results were. That’s how powerful a good habit can be.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll need to establish several good habits in your daily routine. It takes time to establish good habits. So you might want to create a habit stack that’s part of your daily routine. By executing this habit stack daily, you’ll inculcate these habits in your life.
Now let’s look at a few positive habits you can begin with…

1.Follow a fixed sleeping routine. Go to bed and wake up at the same time daily. This is a fantastic habit that will serve you well.

2.Exercise daily. The benefits of exercise are immense. You’re never too busy to exercise. Don’t sacrifice your health for your business. Aim for 30 minutes of activity daily.

3.Eliminate distractions. Avoid squandering your precious time and energy on social media and watching the wretched news which is mostly negative.

4.Visualize your goals daily and see yourself achieving them.

5.Challenge yourself daily. Increase your effort and output. Be more productive. Pain leads to growth.

6.Start a gratitude journal. By being thankful for what you have, you’ll feel happier and attract better things in your life. Having a positive mindset is crucial to success.

7.Plan your day the night before. Spend 15 minutes at the end of every day planning what you’ll do the next day.

8.Network more. Be proactive about meeting or interacting with other like-minded entrepreneurs. Good business relationships will open up tons of opportunities for you.

9.Learn to say no. Say no to unnecessary demands, countless irrelevant commitments, and the myriad of other distractions which crop up often. If they don’t serve you or your business, cut them out.

10.Meditate daily. Retreating into the silence for just 10 minutes a day will help to calm your mind. Many high performers swear by meditation as a very effective tool to calm their mind and thoughts.

Do your best to practice these 10 habits daily so that they become second nature to you.
You don’t need to adopt them all at once. Just aim to master 3 at a time, and once you have a grasp of those, you can move on to the next 3 and so on.

Another facet to improving yourself will be shedding bad habits. These are hard to break, but break them you can. Adopt a gradual approach and slowly wean yourself off your bad habits one day at a time.

Time is your ally here and once you shed the bad habits and replace them with good ones, you will transform your life.
“Successful people are simply those with successful habits.” – Brian Tracy

What Really Is Creative Intelligence?

You may have heard the term “creative intelligence” before and never really knew what it meant. Well, in this article we will answer this and tell you about the 5 most common traits that people with creative intelligence have.

Creative Intelligence Definition

The truth is that there are a number of definitions about creative intelligence. It is vital that you understand that it is really about the mindset that you have and it is not some kind of method that you employ. When a person has creative intelligence, they see things in a different way to others.
Creative people are able to come up with new ideas and new ways of thinking. They are not constrained to mainstream thinking as most of the population are. A creative person will look at a situation and interpret it in a different way.

Creativity is not just Imagination

While it is true to say that people with creative intelligence have a more powerful imagination than those that don’t, it is not all about being imaginative. A creative individual will have a different perception on things and will trust their intuition to come up with solutions to problems.
A creative person is always more curious than other people and they use their curiosity to innovate. They have resources at the subconscious level that they can call upon when they want to generate creative ideas and be innovative.

Most people that have a high level of creative intelligence have the following five traits:

They Look beyond the Norm

Society tries to mold us into thinking in a certain way. A person that is creative refuses to be drawn in to this kind of thinking and will look for alternatives. They are not satisfied with the answers provided by the “status quo” and prefer to generate more diverse ideas.
Being more creative means moving away from the norm and this can be difficult as other people find this difficult to accept. You must get past this if you want to be more creative and learn to go your own way.

They Look beyond their own Knowledge

If someone has been doing something the same way for years it doesn’t mean that this is the only way, or indeed the best way, to do it. Creative individuals are prepared to look beyond the knowledge that they have and use their powers of curiosity here. They will never accept the adage of if something is not broken it doesn’t need fixing.

They Thrive on Ambiguity

Most people will do all that they can to avoid an ambiguous situation because it can be very stressful for them. The creative person deliberately looks for ambiguity because they know that it will provide them with a chance to be innovative. They are comfortable dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity.

They are willing to Experiment

Not every new creative idea is going to stack up so the person with high creative intelligence is willing to take more risks and experiment. Their intuition tells them that an idea is good but they will still test it through experimentation.

They are prepared to Mix it Up

Creative people know that they can generate the best ideas when they are not faced with the same routines all of the time. They are very willing to immerse themselves in situations which they are not at all familiar with.

Always Look for the Opportunity to Grow

All your efforts have finally paid off and you’ve achieved your dreams. Your business is now successful. You should be happy, but don’t stand still. A business should never stop growing.

Once it does, it becomes stagnant, and your success can become a failure. A stagnant business eventually has to shutter its doors. Think about all the retail stores that don’t exist any longer.

Or the businesses that didn’t keep up with changing trends or technology (hello, Blockbuster) and ended up having to declare bankruptcy before every store had to close.

If you want your business to remain successful, you have to always look for the opportunity to grow. That means that you need to automate things when it’s needed. How you began your business, such as doing everything by hand, won’t be effective once you see some success.

In order to stay relevant and keep on top of demand, you’ll have to automate. That may mean bringing in machines to a job. It may mean that instead of sending out emails or notices yourself, you sign up for automated software that will do it for you.

As your business grows, you can’t afford to be a one man show. You may need to bring in new people and create a team to help you with your tasks or to implement your business strategy.

If you insist on being too hands-on with your business, even as it grows to the point you find yourself struggling to keep up, you’ll start being unable to meet deadlines. Or you’ll end up sacrificing the quality of the service or product you provide.

You continually grow a business by taking care of the customers you already have while at the same time striving to bring in new ones. That means you should always look for opportunities to grow your customer service endeavors.

Look for ways that you can give value to your audience. This may mean something such as offering special incentives to repeat customers. Or when there’s a problem, you fix it with the mindset of taking the opportunity to learn how to salvage the relationship between the customer and your business.

Businesses who care about their customers’ needs and show it, are the ones that stay operational in tough times. Grow your business by engaging with customers. Build a relationship through the use of social media to solidify that relationship.

You can send out surveys, garner feedback and more. Look for opportunities to grow by doing things such as seeking out networking friends. When you network with others, you can find people to add to your team or to partner with, but you can also discover those who want to learn more about your business and may also turn into customers.

When it comes to growing your business, this means that you should grow on a personal level as well. Never stop learning new things in your niche. Stay up to date on the latest developments in your field and take part in growth activities in your area or online, such as creating a joint venture with someone else.

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