4 Simple Ways to Find Instant Inspiration

Successful people seem to be born with magical skills. They get up every day with grit and determination and power through any obstacle in their way, seemingly without a bat of the eye. However, they are human, just like you. They don't have magical skills. They know how to find and where to look to get the inspiration they need to live their best life.

Go Outside

Not only is nature breathtaking and beautiful it has the nutrients your body needs to thrive and work at its best. A deficiency in the blood serum levels of Vitamin D can affect your mood and even affect your memory or brain function.

Exposing as much of your skin's surface to the sun as possible is the best way for your body to produce Vitamin D. Having more vitamin D in your blood will act as a quick energy boost. You will feel awake and well refreshed after a short 15-minute set or walk outside, giving you the energy and break you need to feel inspired.

Take A Real Break

If you can, walk away from it completely. Come back tomorrow or even a week from now. Breaks are healthy and good for your brain and body. Burnout can lead anyone down a path, constantly searching for inspiration when all the brain wants is an honest break.

If you can't produce new ideas or keep failing on your new exercise routine, you might just be overwhelmed. Breakaway and don't allow yourself to think about it for a while. When you come back, you will be rejuvenated and ready to tackle whatever is holding you back.

Search the Internet

The internet and other people's ideas are your friends. The best ideas come from other people's ideas. Look at what other people are making in similar niches and see how you can make it better. What is a common problem that people are the internet are saying? Can you fix that problem?

What are these people doing in their daily life that is different from yours? Read or watch as many videos as possible and blogs you can on the subject you are trying to find inspiration. The more knowledge you have and the different perspectives you gain provides the information your brain needs to get moving.

Look to A Role Model or Loved One

Different people have a way with words and are born to be an inspiration for others. Use the gift they want to share with the world. Loved ones are the best role models, as not only do they know and love you, but they are also realistic about what is in your world.

They don't display high or unrealistic expectations that influencers, singers, or actors usually do. They also understand parts of you that you may not even know about. Even a quick chat or facetime conversation about nothing can lead to inspiration as your brain releases endorphins making you feel happy and relaxed.

Overall, inspiration can be found just about anywhere. It's about breaking free from unrealistic expectations, giving your body the fuel that it needs to thrive, and having the determination to get what you want out of life. If you genuinely want to do it, you will find a way.

How Successful People Solve Problems

A crucial factor that stands in anyone's way of success is how they solve problems. No success comes without some form of obstacles or decisions to make. Therefore, it's crucial to understand just how different successful people solve their problems.

Here are four ways successful people solve their problems more efficiently:

Adapt and Willing to Learn

No one has all the answers, and that is okay. You're not going to have the answer right away. Instead, focus on what you need to do to learn it. Every situation you face will be different and require different approaches to solve it. You can't expect the same approach to work every time.

You must be willing to adapt and learn new ideas. Successful people stress the importance of adaptability because they wouldn't be as far as they are today without it. Just think about any business or organization. If they weren't open to learning new ideas, the business might fail.

Confident in Abilities and Welcome Challenges

No success comes without action, hard work, or obstacles. With every success story, there is something someone overcame to achieve their goals. You must welcome these challenges as an opportunity to grow and develop your skills.

Experience ensures that you will learn to trust your abilities over time, allowing you to solve problems quickly and creatively. When you believe in yourself, you no longer focus your mind and what you can't do but what you can do.

Focus on Finding Solutions

Focusing too much time on the problem rather than the solutions rarely helps. It only leads to more frustration, stress, and no action plan to tackle it. While you need to understand the problem to develop solutions, this shouldn't be your focus and should only occupy a short period of your time. The rest should be used in creating and testing possible solutions.

Stay Positive and Calm

Successful people have a different perspective when it comes to solving problems. While it can still be frustrating, they often see a silver lining. They see problems as new opportunities. Therefore, the next time you run into a problem, instead of putting a negative cast on it right away, turn it around.
What new opportunities or knowledge will you gain from this, and how will it help you achieve more goals? Changing your perspective and staying positive allows you to save energy and time to focus on what matters the most.

As you can see, most successful people gain skills through experience that allows them to look at problems differently. They don't shy away from it. They embrace it to achieve more. 

Stay Focused on the Present

When you’re in business, there are many different parts to it. There’s the startup, the continuation and striving toward the achievement of both short and long-term goals. Along the way, something will inevitably go wrong.

But focusing on what goes wrong in your business isn’t helpful. You don’t want your mind to be filled with the negative because that can create fear that something else might go wrong.

You don’t want to waste time worrying about the future. You don’t have the power to predict might happen. This is where many people get hung up. They worry about the past or the future.

At the core of this worry is the fear that they won’t be successful. You can’t change the past and you can’t alter a future that hasn’t even happened yet. So worrying about it is a huge waste of time.

Instead of giving your energy to that, work on whatever you’re doing now. Keep your focus on the goals and tasks at hand that are currently important to your business. Choose your present focus.

That means not allowing your mind to waste time on frivolous thoughts. If your thoughts veer toward any “what if” situations, that’s a frivolous thought. Getting stuck in “what if” land can derail any entrepreneur because the road out of there leads straight to worry and can paralyze your efforts.

You have to be proactive when it comes to your focus. Make every minute you have count for today. Choose what to think about or work on in regards to the things that matter for your business in the present.

Don’t focus on what needs to happen with the business in the days ahead. If you keep your focus on the present, you’ll find that you’re making every minute count. Don’t allow situations to occur that might steal your focus.

This might be something like hearing a rumor or seeing an article that your particular niche isn’t bringing in the kind of income you’ve hoped it would. Unless it’s already happened, things like that are just a prediction, not a guarantee - so you’re better off continuing to move forward rather than getting caught up and losing your focus.

Once you lose your focus, it can be easy to lose your momentum and you don’t want that to happen. A good way to stay focused on the present is to make sure you have a list of objectives or goals to accomplish for each day.

Concentrate on meeting those objectives and don’t let your attention wander to something else. Another way to stay focused on the present is to pay attention to the tasks at hand that are going to make money for your business today.

Stifle Self Doubt to Prevent Failure

Self doubt is something that causes you to question yourself and your decisions. It usually stems from not believing that you have the capability to achieve what you’d like to do.

If you’re an entrepreneur, self doubt usually happens because you start looking at all the success stories of others like you. You see everything that they’ve achieved. They’re doing well financially and they have a huge following.

You look at them, then back at yourself and compare the two. Then you begin to feel discouraged or terrible about where you are in life. You look at their business growth and feel like yours is insignificant in comparison.

You may even start to doubt that you could ever have the same kind of success that the other person has. What you have to do to stifle this kind of self doubt is to remind yourself that everyone had to start somewhere.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success and no one was born a successful entrepreneur. Everyone who achieved anything worthwhile had to work hard to accomplish it.

Many successful entrepreneurs got their start by launching a business with a small product. They started in their home or their garage. They didn’t have a lot of money and had to bootstrap their startup.

Maybe they began writing one article at time for a client or blog posts for others before they built a solid following as an expert in their niche. Don’t give in to the self doubt. You can do the same thing that any other successful person did.

Start with what you have. If you’re creating an online business selling things to customers, you don’t need to start with that big, expensive shopping cart software that everyone is raving about.

Just having a PayPal button on your website can be enough to get you started. If you have a lack of knowledge or skills and that’s contributing to your self doubt, then learn as you go along in your business.

You can find free tutorials if you can’t afford classes. You can also ask questions. Most entrepreneurs remember what it was like starting out and will answer if you ask a question.

Work on having confidence. Do this by creating a success mindset. If you’re telling yourself that you’re a failure, that you’re never going to succeed, then you’re going to bring that about.

You’ll end up buying into that belief and you’ll make it happen, whether you want to or not. Your thoughts have power. You don’t want to say stuff to yourself that obviously isn’t true, such as, “I’m a million dollar entrepreneur” when you have $2 in your bank account because your brain will reject that logic.

Instead, you say, “I am on my way to becoming”… and then fill in the blank with something like “a successful entrepreneur.” Cultivate confidence by continuing to grow. Make a commitment to learn new things. Have goals. Be positive and avoid negative thoughts and situations. Take risks and celebrate all your wins. Each small achievement builds your confidence.

Never Fear the Competition

There’s sometimes a mindset that if there’s competition in a field, it’s a bad thing and you should worry if there is. But this is a wrong mindset. Competition is good for you and it’s good for your business.

If you’re building a business, especially online, you should never fear the competition. When there’s competition in any niche, it only means that there’s an audience for that product or service.

It means there’s potential for your business to grow just like your competitor’s has. If there’s no competition, it means it’s either a new field or, it means there’s no market for it and past endeavors may have failed.

When there’s competition in an area you’re interested in, it means that someone else has opened the door for your business. An audience has already been introduced to a similar service or product.

This is considered a “warm customer” versus a “cold customer” which is someone who’s never had any introduction or experience to the service or product so they’re a harder sell.

Instead of fearing the competition, network with them. Doing this is a way for you to make more money and it can also help establish your business. You can promote each other and both of you win.

By joining hands with the competition, you’ll increase your knowledge by learning from their experience or methods. Don’t be afraid that they’re going to take all the customers. There are plenty of people who’ll want what you’re offering and will choose you over the competition – or buy from many of you.

 When you learn from or join with your competition, you create a kind of professional courtesy, and even if they’re selling the same product that you are, you’ll both still benefit from cross promoting and other ventures.

For example, you might decide to work together to create a product. Or you might offer something like two courses that complement each other. Sometimes working with the competition can open doors for you to have access to tools that you wouldn’t normally be able to use without their help.

Working with a competitor can increase your business opportunities rather than limiting them. Plus, in the process, you may be able to learn things from them that you decide to implement in your own business.

One thing that some entrepreneurs get caught up in is comparing themselves to the competition. They then fear that their business will fall short, and they’ll end up not doing as well financially or not being as successful.

But customers don’t always choose a business with the same criteria you’re using to compare yourself. Each person has a different preference and there will be plenty who’ll choose your business over the competitors’ - even if the product or service has no difference in quality or value.

Focus on Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

Without goals, you can end up wasting a lot of time in your business. Having goals not only gives you the drive to achieve what you want, but they help you stay focused on the end result.

You need both short and long-term goals. These work together to help guide you in the right direction. The reason that you need both is because long term goals are like a staircase, while short term goals are the individual steps that build it.

You can’t reach long term goals without first achieving some of your smaller goals. For example, if your goal is to have a successful business, you have to achieve things like setting up your website, or getting your content or products ready.

You have to create a buzz for your business or establish social media so that you can connect with potential customers. These are short term goals that will lead you to your long-term ones.

They help show you what to do next. By focusing on the short-term goals, you have a map to follow so that you don’t veer off course. Every time you complete a task, this helps keep you motivated so that you continue to drive forward toward the finish line.

Long term goals are what you want to see happen as a result of the hard work that you put in. These goals act as a finish line and are needed to not only help you build a business, but to help you improve your skills and knowledge, too.

These goals are your guide in that when they’re broken down, you know which short term goals you must have in place first. For example, if you want to create a business teaching people about fitness, you first must have the knowledge in addition to the desire to do so.

This may mean that some of your short-term goals would be to take fitness training courses or to take courses on nutrition. Each short-term goal needs to be a necessary part of your long-term goal.

You want these steps to count so that you don’t get sidetracked. If you wanted to start an online gardening business, you’d want to learn about horticulture, but it would be a waste of time to study anything unrelated to gardening.

If you planned to create your own website and run it in the startup phase, then it would be in line with your long-term goal to study how to do that. Each time you achieve a short-term goal, you take a step forward, but these goals must be defined.

In the beginning, you need to write down what your long-term goals are. Then, taking each of these goals, break them down into your short-term goals or the action steps that you need to take in order to achieve the long-term ones.

What many people find helpful is to decide what the long-term goals are, then break each of the short-term goals down by weeks, months and years. Write down what has to happen weekly, monthly or yearly in order to reach your end goal.

5 Ways to Win the Day and Feel Like a Success

Here’s something most people are unaware of - feeling like you’ve achieved something worthy during your day is usually enough to give you a sense of happiness and satisfaction.
It doesn’t mean that you need grand gestures or huge wins to accomplish ‘big things’. Forget the big wins and focus on the small wins daily.

Just completing the tasks you need to do instead of procrastinating will motivate you because you’ve stayed on course and did not drop the ball. Here are 5 techniques you can apply to achieve more daily.

1.Plan your tomorrow today

It’s an excellent habit to spend about 15 to 20 minutes every evening (or when you’re done with your daily work) planning what you’ll do the following day. Have a to-do list with 3-4 crucial tasks that MUST be completed.
This list will act as a roadmap for the next day. The moment you wake up, you can get started on your day productively, rather than spending time in planning mode.

2.Eat That Frog!

In his book, “Eat That Frog!”, Brian Tracy emphasizes a very useful technique to eliminate procrastination. He says that you should complete the most difficult tasks of the day - FIRST!
Very often, these are the tasks which you’ll be dreading and which will mean the most to your business.

The goal is to start work on them as soon as you can. Try not to think about it and just get started. Very often, thinking leads to indecision and your mind starts conjuring up excuses and very plausible reasons to avoid doing the activities you’re supposed to do.
So get started without thinking and finish up whatever you dread doing. Once you complete these tasks, you’ll immediately feel a sense of relief mixed with joy at having accomplished something worthy for that day.

3.Exercise daily

Exercise is crucial no matter what type of job or profession you’re in. One should never be too busy to spend at least 20 to 30 minutes a day exercising. Your body will release endorphins that make you feel happier.

Not only that, but exercise will boost your energy levels too. You’ll feel like your life is more balanced, and subconsciously you know that you’re living a more productive life.
Very often, feeling successful is about knowing that you’re doing the right things and progressing in life. While you do not need to spend hours at the gym like a professional bodybuilder, a 30-minute walk or swim will more than suffice to give your body the movement/activity it needs daily.

4.Challenge yourself every day

Motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, has a quote – “Progress equals happiness.”
He hit the nail on the head with this one. In order to progress in life, you must step outside the comfort zone and do a little bit more than you’re accustomed to. You don’t need to go overboard, but by pushing yourself just a little bit more each day, you’ll be forcing yourself to progress.

When you see that you’re gradually improving, you’ll be motivated to keep going and strive for greater heights. Success is a habit… and this is how you train yourself to seek success daily. Inch by inch, you’ll get better.
In a month or two, you’ll definitely see improvement. In 6 months, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come.

5.Accountability

You must hold yourself accountable every single day.
Did you do what you needed to? Were you distracted and wasted time along the way? Did you check off the tasks on your to-do list?
There’s a quote – “You either make yourself accountable or you will be made accountable by your circumstances.”

So, monitor your progress closely and be proactive about winning the day. If you can do that, your day will be productive and a success.

Initially, adopting these 5 techniques might be a challenge because they’re new to you. But as the days go by, you’ll discover that they are extremely helpful and actually help you to progress while reducing anxiety and freeing up more time for you to do what you love.

Apply these techniques daily and reap the rewards.

It’s Never Too Late To Be Creative

A lot of people believe that they have no creative talent whatsoever. They will tell you that you have either got it or you haven’t. In this article we will explain that this is not true at all. The truth is that it is never too late to develop your creativity.

You were Creative as a Child

Every human being is born with the skill to create. As a young child you had no inhibitions about expressing your creativity and you did this often. You made up things at will and you did those first drawings that your parents praised you for.
Kids tend to play a lot of games together and they find it easy to invent new games all of the time. It just comes easy to a young child to think of stories in their head and to invent whatever they want. A child will never be harshly judged for this.

Society Stifles Creativity

As a child gets older and starts to attend high school they are usually subjected to judgment from their peers and their teachers. Society expects them to think and act in a certain way and there is no place for creative ideas here.
It is indeed rare for a school, or even a college, to encourage a lot of creativity. If you have not chosen to study some form of art then you can leave your creative ideas behind. You can be lucky to land a job that encourages creativity but there are not too many of those to go around normally. Usually, you have had all of the creativity knocked out of you by this stage anyway.

You can Develop your Creative Skills

Always bear in mind that creativity is a skill that you have always had and always will. It doesn’t matter how much society has tried to stifle your creativity you can always return to it and develop it. You will need to change your perception on creativity and get back to basics but it is certainly possible to develop your creative skills.
At this point you may be struggling to come to terms with the fact that you did have creative talent and that it has been stifled over the years. Think back to when you were a child and remember some of the things that you did. What games did you play? Did you invent any stories or characters? How about those drawings you did as a kid?

If you are able to discuss this with your parents, brothers and sisters or childhood friends then do that. Your parents may have been partly responsible for stifling your creativity, but they will be delighted to tell you stories of the things that you did as a child. Brothers and sisters and childhood friends will also enjoy going down memory lane with you.

Believe in your Creative Talents

Do you ever find yourself looking at something creative and thinking to yourself “how did they do that?” or “I couldn’t do that”? If you are around creative people do you wonder where they got their ideas from?
The only thing stopping you doing the same thing is your belief. You are going to have a hard time developing your creativity if you do not believe that you can be creative. Creativity is in all of us so believe that you can bring it to the surface again.

Your Creative Mindset And Habits

If you want to develop your creativity then you need to start with a creative mindset. This is easier to do than you may think and, in this article, we will explain what you need to do. When you have a creative mindset, you will form new habits that will help you to boost your creative intelligence.
Our habits define who we are and what we do. If your current habits do not support creativity then you will find that being creative is very difficult for you. You are not going to become more creative overnight. There is no miracle solution for this.

Negativity is the Enemy of Creativity

Having a lot of negative thoughts swirling around in your head is going to totally stifle your creativity. You will not be able to focus on generating innovative ideas because your focus will be dominated by the negativity in your mind. You must learn to neutralize negative thoughts as they are the enemy of creativity.

Minimizing the amount of negativity in your life is your aim here. We all experience negative thoughts and whenever these occur in your head then you need to neutralize them with a positive thought. If you are finding it tough to solve a problem and a thought occurs like “you will never solve this” neutralize this with “I can solve any problem”.

With a bit of practice and effort you will find it increasingly easy to neutralize negative thoughts. No longer will they dominate your mind and block your creative thoughts. It will take a bit of time to get into the habit of doing this but it is essential that you do it and have a positive mindset rather than a negative one.

Be more Patient

Patience is a word that seems to be lost in today’s fast-paced world. Everybody is looking for instant answers and they are not prepared to wait for anything. You can blame a lot of this on the Internet and the ability to find most of the answers that you need in seconds.
The problem here is that you can never rush creativity. Even when you have developed your creative intelligence it can still take quite a while for the right creative idea to come along. You need to be patient enough to wait for this to happen.

If you do not have a lot of patience right now then you need to work on this. Forget about instant answers when it comes to creativity. It doesn’t matter that you can get factual answers to questions using Google in seconds. Creativity is very different.

Ambiguity is your Friend

Another mindset area that you need to develop is the embracing of ambiguity. Most people do not like ambiguity and prefer certainty. But the world is not like that. There are usually more ambiguous situations than certain ones.
Creative people like ambiguity because it provides them with the opportunity to come up with novel ideas. There are always going to be situations where you do not have all of the facts or are missing some important information. See this as an opportunity rather than a problem.

Set aside Time for Creativity

The more that you can practice your creativity the better you will get at it. In order to make this a reality, plan for creative time on a regular basis and make sure that you don’t miss any creative sessions. 

5 Ways to Overcome Business Failure

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. - Winston Churchill

Failure and all the repercussions that come with it such as financial loss, embarrassment, etc. can be an extremely bitter pill to swallow. Yet, failure is crucial to your success, because it’s not the opposite of success but an integral part of it.

Success and failure are 2 sides of the same coin.

How you cope with failure is the only thing that matters. In fact, the difference between those who win and those who don’t comes down to their ability to cope with failure and keep going.
It’s easy to get discouraged and quit. It takes everything to pick yourself up and keep going. That’s what moulds winners. They’re forged in the flames of failure and come out stronger and more experienced.

1.Be prepared

With any business venture, there will be risk involved. It’s crucial that you not risk your entire business by betting the farm. Always manage your risk.
Managing cash flow intelligently is crucial when you’re running a business. You don’t want a situation where you lose your business and your house at the same time. You must have contingency plans in place.You need to adopt a mindset where you expect the best, but you’re ready for the worst. All this preparation takes place before you risk anything. In the event you encounter failure, you’ll be better equipped to deal with it.

2.Self-reflect

No matter how bleak the situation may be, it’s important to assess your losses (if there are any). Ask yourself what you can do to salvage the situation. Throwing in the towel is NOT an option.
It’s helpful to keep a journal and record down what went wrong, how it could have been avoided and so on. While hindsight is 20/20, we mustn’t forget that we are now armed with this hindsight for the next attempt.
So, your future endeavors will be wiser and you’ll know what to avoid. This insight you’ll gain from self-reflection is priceless.

3.Don’t let inertia set in

While failure can send you reeling, you should never let it get you down for more than 2-3 days. If you keep replaying scenarios in your head about what you should have done or could have done and you take your failure personally, you’ll become depressed.
From there, it’s a dangerous and slippery slope down to quitting and despair.
Never take failure personally and ignore anyone who gloats or tries to tell you that they told you so.

Rest assured, there will be a few people who crawl out of the woodwork to console you while trying to hint that you should have been wiser. The truth is that it’s easy for a pencil to remain sharp and look good if it doesn’t do any writing.

You, however, are a winner and even after you’re blunt from the toll of work and failure, you’ll need to sharpen yourself and get back to winning.
The longer you stay in the doldrums, the harder it will be to come out of it. It’s immensely difficult to get started once inertia sets in.

Forget the self-help books and motivational talks. Get moving. Work on the next step in your business. Action will dispel fear and create change in your life.
That’s the best way to recover from failure.

4.Don’t let it all slide

Very often, when people are in sadness or grief, they stop exercising and doing the things they love. They let their feelings dictate their actions. This is a cardinal error.
Taking a break from what you do because you don’t feel like it will NOT make you feel better. It’ll make you feel worse because now your life has come to a standstill.

If you’ve failed in your business, don’t stop going to the gym or bringing your family out or doing any of the other things you do. Keep doing them.
You may not be in the mood, but do them ANYWAY. Go through the motions. As the days go by, you’ll feel better and the fire within you will return.

5.Try again

Once you disassociate yourself from failure, you’ll realize that it’s an event and not a person. With different variables, the outcome for the same event will be different. You just need to find out which variables need to be in place for success to be the outcome.

If you’ve kept moving, inertia would not have set in and you’ll still be ready to try again… and that’s what you must do.
Change your course of action, but don’t change the destination.

Ultimately, overcoming failure is all about managing your feelings and keeping them in check… while you grit your teeth and plod along on your way to success.
Like the Japanese proverb goes, “Fall down 7 times, get up 8.”

Keep going.