Personal Goal Setting: The Only True Path To Success By Darian Jones

If you want to go anywhere in your life, you must first decide where you want to go! Without a plan in mind, you will lack all but the most general direction, and moving forward will be difficult if not impossible.

There are many reasons why setting goals will do a lot towards helping you achieve your final ends. With a goal in mind, you'll have a sense of motivation and a place to start off from.

At the beginning, setting goals means that you are in a place to reckon how far you've come and how far you still need to go. When you set goals, you can better understand your achievements and how far your self-improvements have brought you.

One way to handle your endeavors is to set a series of goals at a time. In terms of both personal development and professional affairs, you will realize that there is a lot you can do in order to take on your ambitions in stages.

For instance, when trying to get a better position in your company, it does you very little good to say that you want to be head of Network Operations. Instead, you need to carefully assess what will put you in the right situation to be eligible for this position.

For instance, what classes do you need? What projects do you need to get through to show that you have the drive and the knowledge to be eligible for this position?

When you have answered those questions, think about what you need to do in order to achieve them. This might involve volunteering for more projects, or taking classes at the community college in order to move forward with your qualifications. No matter how difficult they might be, you will at least have them in order and the be able to assess them correctly.

Of course, your goals might not be so tangible. Take the time to figure where you are personally. How is your time management? Do you procrastinate or do you get things done right away? The question you are trying to answer here is where you really are in terms of self-improvement.

There may be aspects towards reaching your goal that you can't control; you might not be able to get into the class you want, or the opportunity to display your knowledge hasn't come around yet. Self-improvement, however, is definitely one aspect that you can control. You can take it to every aspect of your life, and you'll find your life improving immeasurably.

Small goals make up big ones and when you start small, everything seems a lot more attainable. Think of your small goals as a ladder to reach and realize your ultimate ambition. Keep in mind that when you set goals, you are already taking a big step towards your dream!

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=181787&ca=Self

The World Needs You Now By Richard Blackstone

Thank you for showing up to read this article. Now is the right and perfect time for you to read this material because the content of what you are about to read was designed specifically for you. It was co-created by you to fulfill the intention of what you are choosing to be right now.

The world needs you right now! You are an essential spoke in the cosmic wheel that is turning another chapter in the evolution of the planet we inhabit known as Earth. You are a huge player in what is going on here. The direction that you choose for your life after reading this article may determine if there will even be a planet worth inhabiting in the near future.

There is a revolution in the making and the human form, as we know it, lies in the balance. These words are not meant to scare you, they are meant to wake you up! Even though your soul brought you to the material you are reading for the sole purpose of waking you up, some of you will continue to be sleepwalkers. It is entirely your choice. Reading these words has a profound effect on the universe. There is an old maxim that states, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” The universe must respond. It has no choice.

You are ready and the teacher is here. It is up to you to choose whether reading this article will wake you up, and in so doing, change the course of your life, which in turn will change the course of mankind. Such a promise may sound a little dramatic but we are at a crossroads in this venture here upon this planet. The world needs you to be awake and aware of what is going on so that you can make conscious choices about the direction that you, and mankind, make about the viability of our continued existence in human form on this planet we call Earth (and home).

An important point you will come to understand throughout this narrative is that we, as spiritual beings, never really die. When we leave our human body, we change form and go onto our next creation. For now, just be aware that it is important for you to be awake (consciously aware) in order to save our planet. If we, in our collective consciousness, choose to continue on the same path, then we put our planet at risk of not being able to sustain the human life form. As spirits, we will live on, but we may not be able to live and occupy this planet until nature cleans it up and makes it fit for human habitation again.

If you choose for the material in this short article to wake you up, you will be a willing participant in the revolution that is forming to end the suffering and misery that has become our way of life. You will choose to end the evil that we do to each other, and you will help to end the suffering inflicted upon the planet needed to sustain us in this human form. Individually and collectively we sleepwalk into the unintended consequences of our unconscious choices. This is why we keep saying things just happen to us. We don't see the connection between how we think and what shows up in our lives. This is the lament of the sleepwalker.

We need to wake up and be aware of the natural consequences of our conscious choices. With conscious choice we can direct and create what we want in alignment with our conscious desires and intentions. By waking up to what our thoughts are, and being conscious about which thoughts we wish to pursue, we develop an awareness, both individually and collectively.

Our unconscious choices still create our desires and intentions but, because we are sleepwalking, we are unaware of what our desires and intentions actually are. Therefore we are surprised by what shows up as the consequence of those creations.

Why do you need to be awakened? Because you are unconscious. Not all of us are unconscious. Some of us are aware of what's going on, but even those who are aware need to be shaken up now and then to keep reminding us who we, as human beings, really are.

It is all explained very succinctly by the French Philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin when he said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” That is who you really are. You are a SPIRITUAL BEING. You are not a Human Being. You are a SPIRITUAL BEING having a Human experience.

Try living the next few days from that perspective and see if the world starts looking different to you. From a spiritual standpoint you can see very clearly how important you are to the world right now.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=182360&ca=Self

The World Needs You Now By Richard Blackstone

Thank you for showing up to read this article. Now is the right and perfect time for you to read this material because the content of what you are about to read was designed specifically for you. It was co-created by you to fulfill the intention of what you are choosing to be right now.

The world needs you right now! You are an essential spoke in the cosmic wheel that is turning another chapter in the evolution of the planet we inhabit known as Earth. You are a huge player in what is going on here. The direction that you choose for your life after reading this article may determine if there will even be a planet worth inhabiting in the near future.

There is a revolution in the making and the human form, as we know it, lies in the balance. These words are not meant to scare you, they are meant to wake you up! Even though your soul brought you to the material you are reading for the sole purpose of waking you up, some of you will continue to be sleepwalkers. It is entirely your choice. Reading these words has a profound effect on the universe. There is an old maxim that states, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” The universe must respond. It has no choice.

You are ready and the teacher is here. It is up to you to choose whether reading this article will wake you up, and in so doing, change the course of your life, which in turn will change the course of mankind. Such a promise may sound a little dramatic but we are at a crossroads in this venture here upon this planet. The world needs you to be awake and aware of what is going on so that you can make conscious choices about the direction that you, and mankind, make about the viability of our continued existence in human form on this planet we call Earth (and home).

An important point you will come to understand throughout this narrative is that we, as spiritual beings, never really die. When we leave our human body, we change form and go onto our next creation. For now, just be aware that it is important for you to be awake (consciously aware) in order to save our planet. If we, in our collective consciousness, choose to continue on the same path, then we put our planet at risk of not being able to sustain the human life form. As spirits, we will live on, but we may not be able to live and occupy this planet until nature cleans it up and makes it fit for human habitation again.

If you choose for the material in this short article to wake you up, you will be a willing participant in the revolution that is forming to end the suffering and misery that has become our way of life. You will choose to end the evil that we do to each other, and you will help to end the suffering inflicted upon the planet needed to sustain us in this human form. Individually and collectively we sleepwalk into the unintended consequences of our unconscious choices. This is why we keep saying things just happen to us. We don't see the connection between how we think and what shows up in our lives. This is the lament of the sleepwalker.

We need to wake up and be aware of the natural consequences of our conscious choices. With conscious choice we can direct and create what we want in alignment with our conscious desires and intentions. By waking up to what our thoughts are, and being conscious about which thoughts we wish to pursue, we develop an awareness, both individually and collectively.

Our unconscious choices still create our desires and intentions but, because we are sleepwalking, we are unaware of what our desires and intentions actually are. Therefore we are surprised by what shows up as the consequence of those creations.

Why do you need to be awakened? Because you are unconscious. Not all of us are unconscious. Some of us are aware of what's going on, but even those who are aware need to be shaken up now and then to keep reminding us who we, as human beings, really are.

It is all explained very succinctly by the French Philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin when he said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” That is who you really are. You are a SPIRITUAL BEING. You are not a Human Being. You are a SPIRITUAL BEING having a Human experience.

Try living the next few days from that perspective and see if the world starts looking different to you. From a spiritual standpoint you can see very clearly how important you are to the world right now.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=182360&ca=Self

Velcro Vs. Teflon By Marci Shimoff

In prehistoric days, when cavemen Ugh and his wife, Mrs. Ugh were trying to survive long enough to raise the baby Ughs, they had to pay more attention to potential threats than positive events to avoid dangers like being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger.

This selective attention to negativity is what allowed Mr. and Mrs. Ugh and all the baby Ughs to survive. If you wanted to live a long life, it was better to react to every single thing that might be life-threatening, even if it turned out to be harmless, than to ignore something truly lethal. Our ancestors were the 'Nervous Nellies' and 'Fearful Franks' of the tribe; the people who were more 'relaxed' about these possibly dangerous situations usually weren't around long enough to have kids and pass on their genes!

Today, even though we don't have to be on the lookout for tigers anymore — well, at least not in my neighborhood — we're still hard-wired the same way. For my book on unconditional happiness called Happy for No Reason, I interviewed psychologist and brain researcher Dr. Rick Hanson, who explained this phenomenon. He told me that our brains are 'Velcro for negativity and Teflon for positivity.' Our negative experiences 'stick' to us like Velcro, while our positive experiences slide right off of us like Teflon.

I'm sure you've noticed this yourself. If you receive ten compliments and one insult, which do you remember? If you're like most people, you'll make yourself miserable by stewing on the insult for hours, overlooking the larger number of positive messages. Psychologists call this tendency to respond more intensely to disturbing thoughts and experiences, our 'negativity bias.'

To reverse this bias, start registering your happy experiences more deeply. Have the intention to notice everything good that happens to you: any positive thought you have, anything you see, feel, taste, hear or smell that brings you pleasure, a 'win' you experience, a breakthrough in your understanding about something, an expression of your creativity — the list goes on and on. This intention activates the reticular activating system (RAS), a group of cells at the base of your brain stem responsible for sorting through the massive amounts of incoming information and bringing anything important to your attention. Have you ever bought a car and then suddenly starting noticing the same make of car everywhere? It's the RAS at work. Now you can use it to be happier. When you decide to look for the positive, your RAS makes sure that's what you see.

Once you notice something positive, take a moment to savor it consciously. Take the good experience in deeply and feel it; make it more than just a mental observation. If possible, spend around 30 seconds, soaking up the happiness you feel. If you want to accelerate your progress, take time every day to write down a few of your wins, breakthroughs, and things you appreciate about others — and about yourself. This simple but powerful 'Happiness Habit' will shift the balance of power in your mind — tilting the Velcro/Teflon ratio in your brain toward happiness. This is one of the keys to becoming Happy for No Reason.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=262880&ca=Self

Helping Heal Your Relationships By Lori Klauser

There is hope that recovering codependents can have healthy fulfilling relationships. Once you accept your codependency and start work on your own life and yourself, you can begin building or rebuilding relationships with others.

Never feel stuck in a relationship. Don’t stay stuck because of fear, guilt, shame or inferiority. Have the confidence to realize that you are worthy of good things and better conditions. Don’t surrender your power to another. When you surrender your power, you surrender your true self. You then become a victim of your circumstances. Look deep within you and find your own inner answers.

You must nurture both your relationships and yourself. You can gain insight from past relationships. You can grow and not make the same mistakes again. You can learn to respect, accept and have patience within your relationships. You can learn to forgive and learn tolerance. You can learn that nobody is perfect, not others and not yourself.

Elements within a relationship can change over time. There will be both positive and negative energy. As you grow, we will learn to accept both others and yourself. You can learn not to control, but to ask. You can learn that you cannot get all you need from another. You must look within yourself too. Instead of working on the other person, you can learn to work on yourself.

If there are relationships that did not work out in your life, look at them as a learning experience. Looking back, what can you say you learned from that experience? If you do not learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it in some way. The only person you have control over to change is yourself. And if you do learn the lesson, the next relationship is usually an improvement.

Your past should never be considered mistakes. You went through them for a reason. There was some lesson that needed to be learned. They are a means to grow from. Don’t beat yourself up because of the choices you made. Next time make better choices. You are where you need to be right now. Life always guides you along. And if you make a bad decision, it will still guide you to where you need to be. Just become aware of your choices and your place in life right now.

Life, as well as having a relationship, is a process you go through. That process begins with you. Things may have recently changed within your life or you think something has to change to ensure your happiness. Take everything slowly and think it through. Remember, there are no wrong choices, just lessons to be learned. You always have a choice and you will always have a second chance to get it right.

Take responsibility for your choices, your actions and your life. It may be a struggle, but with time you will get better at it. You will begin to see what will be a right or wrong choice in your life. Allow yourself to get close to others while giving your relationships attention and energy. Your relationships are a reflection of how healthy you are. Give yourself the attention and energy you deserve too.

© 2007 Lori Klauser

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=181565&ca=Self

Post Traumatic Headaches: Life After the Car Accident By Mary Betz

Many times after a car accident people will have initial neck pain, are seen in the emergency room and treated. If the injuries are not life threatening they are sent home with some medication and told to rest. Unfortunately, many will start to have headaches, even if they have never had headaches before. Those with a history of headaches will find their headaches are getting worse. Most of the time the headache will dissipate over a week or two and everything will be fine.

But what if the headaches don’t go away? What happens and what do people do if the headache gets worse? Post traumatic headaches that get better in four to six weeks are considered acute headaches, but those that stay at the same pain level, start to get worse, or go beyond six weeks are more concerning. The headaches may be all over the head and moderate in pain with breakthrough stabbing, throbbing pain on one side. This more severe form of headache is associated with migraine symptoms and indeed is a migraine.

At this point most people will reach for the over the counter medications such as Excedrin or Tylenol. Failing that, they may try the medication the doctor in the emergency room gave them and most of the time these treatments are quite successful. However, there is a certain percentage of people who will not respond to this treatment and as a result will start taking more and more medication. The headaches will begin to get worse for two reasons.

First of all, the medication will start enhancing the headaches and cause a condition known as analgesic rebound headache syndrome. In this case, the headache pain goes up and the person grabs the Excedrin which brings the headache down a bit. But, as the medication wears off, the headache starts getting bad again. More medication, more bouncing up and down in pain levels. Eventually, the medication stops working but the person still keeps taking it in desperation because they don’t know what else to do. They might got to their doctor and get stronger drugs, such as Lortab but this only makes the situation worse.

Secondly, the medication used at this point is all wrong. Post traumatic headaches respond best to low doses of tri-cyclic anti-depressants such as Elavil or Pamelor. Elavil is generally accepted as being the best medication, but most doctors make the mistake of using migraine doses (10-50mg). Unfortunately, post-traumatic headaches do not respond to this dose but most people do respond when the dose is slowly titrated up to 75-150 mg. Fortunately, this medication is also excellent for any associated neck pain and spasms!

The breakthrough migraines are treated just like that..like migraines. A small dose of an anti-seizure drug may also be necessary with triptans (Imitrex or Maxalt) for when the pain is bad.

Don’t forget, like all other headache syndromes, lifestyle is very important. Regular sleep cycles, good diet and exercise as tolerated will all help the headaches get better. In this particular case, however, the vitamins and herbs used to successfully treat migraines do not have much of an effect on post traumatic headaches. None the less, many people do want to try them to help the migraine component.

The key to post traumatic headache syndrome is to find a headache specialist and be patient. If the headaches are severe, chances are that it will take several months for any one treatment to have an effect. Most people are not aware of this fact in headache treatment, so they tend to start and stop treatments after a few days or weeks and become discouraged. The longer the brain has the treatments on board, the greater the chance it will heal.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=262936&ca=Self