Why Am I Not Happy

Nobody on this earth can describe what happiness truly is, yet everybody claims to have experienced it.
Why do you think it’s like that? It’s because the majority of people on this planet don’t understand the psychology behind happiness.
People believe that happiness is acquired from gaining things and that happiness is directly correlated with what they do in their lives. They feel that happiness is just like the other cause and effects in this world, and that a certain thing that they acquire or gain will in effect bring them happiness.
They are so wrong.
Happiness is something which is not quantifiable. You can be the richest person on earth or the poorest yet your levels of happiness could be the same.
The reason why? Happiness is a mentality it isn’t something which can be bought or purchased, it’s something which must be learnt and cultured; it’s all in your head.
This takes us to the question of the article:
You are not happy in your life, only because you choose to be unhappy. It isn’t because of your failures or because of your losses, you are unhappy because of your perspective.
You are unhappy because you are looking at life with the wrong lens. You must grasp the concept that happiness is a mentality and that only you have control over whether you are happy or not.
So what now?
Well it’s time to bring a revolution in your life. You must prioritize and put happiness at the top of your list. You must realize that knowingly or unknowingly the thing that drives everybody in life is the pursuit for true happiness.
This is now your moment to take control of your life. Change your perception and look at life with a big perspective. Realize what makes you happy and pursue it.
Understand the phychology of happiness, understand your psychology and before you know it you will be happy again.
"All the happiness you ever find lies in you."

10 Ways to Realize Hidden Opportunities

"Great moments are born from great opportunities," said the late Herb Brooks, one of the world's most famous hockey coaches.

Brooks certainly seized opportunity during his career. He agreed to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that beat the "unbeatable" Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York during the famous "Miracle on Ice" game on the way to winning the gold medal. It was a modern-day "David vs. Goliath" matchup. Many coaches would refuse such an overwhelmingly difficult job. In fact, several did.

But Brooks saw opportunity in the monumental challenge of leading a bunch of young, amateur, college all-stars against the essentially professional players of the Soviet Union and other European hockey powers.

That opportunity paid off, to say the least.

Whether you're talking about sports, business or any other subject matter, seeking, finding and capitalizing on opportunity are among the most important things a professional must do.

There's one big problem with opportunity, however. It is often hard to find and even harder to harness.

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations," said Charles Swindoll, an American religious author.

I agree wholeheartedly with Swindoll's characterization. The best opportunities are often hidden. They are often located in places we least expect to find them and are presented by people we least expect to provide them.

That reminds me of the old story that sales managers like to share with their young trainees: "On his way back from a three-day fishing trip, a multi-millionaire visits the showroom of an upscale, luxury car dealer. The salespersons, seeing an unshaven, disheveled, poorly dressed man, essentially ignore him. Offended, the multi-millionaire buys a top-of-the-line model the next day from a direct competitor." There are a lot of ways to tell that classic missed-sales-opportunity story, but they all sound something like that.

If opportunity is so important to our success, and so difficult to find and recognize, we need to focus more of our energy on it. Unless you're naturally good at it, finding and capitalizing on opportunity needs to be a deliberate focus:

Open your eyes and ears - we can no longer afford to be indifferent, or even worse, oblivious to the world around us. Be on the lookout for ideas that could lead to new opportunities. Even more important than eyes and ears, keep your mind open too. Many of us miss opportunities, because they don't fit into our pre-existing paradigms.

Remember that all people count - sometimes we get so obsessed with the "right" people, we miss out on valuable opportunities from people, who on the surface, can do seemingly nothing for us.

Fight through the fear - one of the biggest reasons we miss out on extraordinary opportunities is because we are too afraid to leap. Herb Brooks wasn't too afraid to leap; we shouldn't be either.

Let your creative juices flow - the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgi once said, "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." The more creative you are, the more opportunity you will discover. See the world in a different way, and doing things like nobody else, and just watch the opportunities that manifest.

Take risks - As the old saying goes, "nothing risked, nothing gained." Unless you take a chance and do something new, you'll keep running into the same old opportunities.

Work really hard - "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work," said the great inventor Thomas Edison.

Set meaningful goals - make those goals specific too. The more you clarify what you really want, the quicker you will recognize it when it shows up.

Find quiet time - many people have found great opportunities, because they prayed for them or spent time meditating about them. Such activity creates focus in your mind, and a focused mind is a powerful mind.

Believe - visualize success and tell yourself that good things will come. A positive mind is more receptive to hidden opportunity.

Prepare - as the old Boy Scout motto says, "be prepared." You never know when the perfect opportunity will open up. If you're not prepared, you might not act on it quickly enough. In his autobiography, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he believes in "relentless preparation." He constantly prepares for crisis, so he will perform properly. Same thing applies to opportunity.

By Jeff Beals

The Key to Making Life Unique and Worthwhile

Now the key to make life really unique and worthwhile is to share.  Sharing has a certain unique magic of its own.  Here's what I learned about sharing ideas:


If you share an idea with ten different people, they get to hear it once, and you get to hear it ten times.  So here's part of self-interest for yourself-- getting you even better prepared for the future.  Share ideas.  Share with your family, share with the people around you, share with other employees, share with your colleagues.


When one person shares with another, two things happen.  The audience could be transformed, and so could the speaker.  If you share with someone else, they could be transformed.  You may have dropped in at the right time.  This may be their moment.  They've got three numbers dialed into the lock already, and if you say it well and say it right you'll be the fourth number that they can dial into the lock of their personal experience and the door will come open and there's opportunity they never saw before.  The person who hears could be transformed.


But here's what else is exciting.  The person who speaks could be transformed.  Guess what we're all looking for--transformation for our new life.  The new life tomorrow, the new life this month, the new life next year, the new life this year.

The caterpillar one day says, "I think I was made for more than this crawling on the ground."  So the caterpillar climbs the tree, attaches himself to a leaf and spins the cocoon.  Who knows what disciplined effort it takes to spin a cocoon.  But something inside the caterpillar says, "I was designed for something more than being just a caterpillar."


And then when the cocoon is ready and it opens up, out comes a butterfly that flies away, maybe singing, "I believe I can fly!  I believe I can touch the sky!  I used to be a caterpillar on the ground, now I fly."


I'm asking you to go through such a metamorphosis.  I'm asking you often to go through a period where you say, "New skills, new things are waiting for me," and part of this will come if you'll translate for other people what you feel in your heart and in your soul.  As awkward as your language might be at first, don't hesitate to do it.


Here's what sharing does--it makes room for more.  Key question, if this glass is full of water can it hold any more?  If the glass is full of water, can it hold any more?  And the answer is yes, yes, if you pour some out.  So jot that down.  If you want more, you've got to pour out what you've got, then you have the opportunity to receive more.


Now, unlike the glass that remains the same size when you pour some out; not so in consciousness human beings.  Your capacity will increase the more you share.  You'll get bigger and bigger and bigger.


Now why the self-interest wish to be bigger?  Here's why:  to hold more of the next experience.  Some people can't hold much happiness because they're too small, their thinking is too small, their activity is too small, they're too small in their ability to share, they're just too small.  Can't hold much, they're too small.


But the bigger you get, the more you will receive.  When happiness is poured out, you'll get more.  When joy is poured out on the nation, you'll get more.  When bounty is poured out from the economy, you will get more, if you share what you've got and become bigger and bigger and bigger.


Now some people are not only small, they have their glass turned upside down.  It's hard to get anything in.  But if you come to every situation with an open mind, an open consciousness, ready to receive, I promise you will find the people that will share with you, and that will accept what you share with them.


To Your Success,

100 Ways to Achieve Success

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle



 100 Ways to Achieve Success


In no particular order:
 1.Set Goals
 2.Take Risks
 3.Surround yourself with successful people
 4.Be Focused on your goals
 5.Imagine yourself being successful
 6.Make a Plan or Blueprint for Success
 7.Be Spontaneous
 8.Work with the flow
 9.Stay away from Distractions
 10.Get rid of False Beliefs
 11.Develop Self-Confidence
 12.Be open to new types of thinking
 13.Learn how properly to treat people
 14.Be Relevant
 15.Accept Failure
 16.Be Persistent
 17.Be Flexible to your environment
 18.Take care of yourself
 19.Exercise and maintain good physical health
 20.Get educated
 21.Be both book smart and street smart
 22.Visualize Success
 23.Speak the Truth
 24.Optimize Your Sleep
 25.Believe in Yourself
 26.Have a Routine
 27.Manage Your time
 28.Be more Patient
 29.Develop a goal oriented approach
 30.Have a strong desire to attain success
 31.Think Positive
 32.Don’t make excuses
 33.Be committed to your dreams
 34.Always be learning
 35.Dream Big
 36.Focus on Opportunities
 37.Never focus on obstacles
 38.Visualize Process
 39.Be willing to be different
 40.Become Proactive
 41.Create a Successful Mindset
 42.Play to your strengths
 43.Take the Leap: Just do it
 44.Learn from feedback
 45.Prioritize your time
 46.Be Mentally Active and Engaged
 47.Find Mental Peace
 48.Break down goals into smaller manageable chunks
 49.Monitor Your Progress
 50. Have an optimistic perspective
 51.Communicate well
 52.Share information
 53.Give generously
 54.Set time limits and restrictions on yourself
 55.Find the purpose of your life or goal
 56.Find the passion behind your goal
 57.Study successful people
 58.Accept Failure
 59.Remove Fear and doubt from your thinking
 60.Develop an inner locus of control
 61.Commit to your journey
 62.Take responsibility
 63.Don’t Procrastinate
 64.Work Hard
 65.Always be Time Bound
 66.Quit Negative Addictions
 67.Be as productive as possible
 68.Don’t Oversleep
 69.Play Sports and participate in other extracurricular activities
 70.Don’t waste time constantly checking your email
 71.Be Dedicated to the task at hand
 72.Never Quit
 73.Look at Failure as Feedback
 74.Develop an open perspective
 75.Persevere
 76.Organize your mind
 77.Learn to control your thoughts
 78.Improve Self-Esteem
 79.Shun Bad-Habits
 80.Use your resources wisely
 81.Become comfortable with yourself and your surroundings
 82.Learn how to make people like you
 83.Depend on your instincts
 84.Think things through
 85.Increase your ability to maneuver and change
 86.Be open to opinions
 87.Identify your weakness’s
 88.Solve Problems
 89.Don’t dwell on the negatives
 90.Be Altruistic
 91.Always be 100% there
 92.Overcome rejection
 93.Always be humble
 94.Make your goals public
 95.Find support in others
 96.Silence your inner critic
 97.Identify the tasks that are important and do them first
 98.Learn to defeat stress and anxiety
 99.Don’t be scared to take the leap
 100.Pray

Key to success in life

Everyone is always looking for that one thing that will help them solve all of life’s mysteries.

What if I told you there is one such thing, that if you follow it almost all of your problems will be made easier and you would automatically do the right thing in every situation?

The one fundamental key to success in life is Truth and Honesty.

As funny as it sounds it works.

If you speak the truth and are honest to everybody including yourself, you will reach great heights.

Now when I say truth and honesty I don’t mean your typical preschool morals, I mean religiously follow this one fact.

Here are some examples where you can utilize this key to success:

Say you do something and your “conscience” feels bad, don’t lie to yourself by justifying your actions. Be honest even to yourself.

Say you do something small as take someone’s pen, don’t lie about it

Say you get caught doing something your not don’t make excuses say the truth

These are just basic examples but what this means is that you always are honest and speak the truth. This way you never excuse yourself.

By knowing you will always speak the truth if asked, you will try to do the right things to satisfy others and yourself.

Automatically this change and responsibility for yourself will make you excel at whatever you do.

All in all you would become more respected and more liked and everything in your life would go the right way.

And if all that’s not enough for the basic man, you would by speaking the truth develop other positive characteristics like responsibility and punctuality by simply following the root of all goodness: Truth and Honesty.

So if you are still looking for something to devote your life to, this is a quite good objective.

Good luck in becoming truthful, pious, and successful people.

Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist  - Mary Kay Ash

15 Ways to Instantly Build Self Confidence

The root of success arises from self-confidence. If you can’t trust your abilities, qualities and judgements, nobody else will trust them either.  How you perceive yourself is how others will perceive you, so your perception of yourself is critical.
These 15 strategies will help you get that mental perception of yourself that will allow you to succeed in life.

1. Create a Goal
This is always the first step to anything. Make a commitment in your heart that you will believe in your abilities. That you will believe in your judgments. That you will become more self-confident.

2. Get to Know Yourself
Every self-help coach in the world will tell you this one tip and it is quite trite.  But the only way you can help yourself is if at first you understand who you are.
What triggers your fears? What makes you feel nervous? Why do you not trust yourself?
Once you figure out everything that makes you tick, you can start building on the areas where you need improvement.

3. Groom Yourself
Your appearance greatly affects your self-confidence. So even if this sounds very obvious, being clean and tidy can really stimulate your confidence. By simply taking a shower and cleaning up, you will feel a lot better about yourself.

4. Dress Good
Like the above point, your appearance greatly affects your self-confidence. So if you dress good in the sense that you like what you wear. You will feel a whole lot more confident about yourself.
Note: Dressing good doesn’t really mean conforming to others likes. The only way you will build self-confidence is if you are comfortable in your clothes.

5. Straight Posture
How a person hold himself greatly reflects how he feels. For example a person who is lying won’t stand straight and tall, he would probably hunch and have a closed posture.
So to build self-confidence, begin to practice good posture. Stand up straight, don’t hunch your shoulders, keep your head up and don’t fidget.  Just remember people who have good posture feel good about whom they are, and you want to be that type of person.

6. Think Positive (Perspective)
You need to learn how to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. This way your perspective on life will change and you will feel that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I find the best way to put a positive twist on life is to ask why not to all your problems.
“You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” – Ralph Marston

7. Play an active role
I think this is the most important step to build self-confidence. You need to stop sitting on the sidelines but actually get into the game. If you continue to sit on the sidelines of life you will never achieve anything.  So if this means organizing a function or involving yourself in an event, do it.
Just put in the effort, take calculated risks and begin to understand, that you have the capability to do anything.

8. Gratitude
If you continue to dwell on your shortcomings you will never be able to pick yourself up, and look forward to the future.  Give gratitude to yourself where it belongs and reminisce on your successes, triumphs and accomplishments.
You will find that this self-gratitude will greatly fuel for your self-confidence and that it will help you face challenges.

9. Do Things Faster
This might sound quite strange but it’s actually quite good. I noticed that when I started walking faster and doing things at a faster pace. I felt better about myself.
I figured out that this because when you do things faster, you feel busier and that makes you feel important. This feeling of importance builds self-confidence and resultantly makes you feel better.

10. Smile
This has become quite cliché but it is fundamentally the most effective. By smiling you create a sense of happiness and a sense of self. These two things together are what create confidence.
 Try to smile as much as possible :)

11. Put Emphasis on Solutions rather than Problems
Whenever you face a problem, don’t dwell on the problem itself. Look forward to solutions and put emphasis on solving the issue.

12. Work out (Exercise)
Along the same lines of appearance and self-confidence, exercise and fitness has a huge role on how confident you feel about yourself.
By exercising you will improve your physical appearance; you will become more energetic, and you will kill stress.  This will all add up, and you will improve your life greatly.

13. Complete small things
Taking a huge project or task can be quite overwhelming. But if break it down into chunks and complete it little by little. You will feel bursts of accomplishment when you finish those small tasks.
These feel good accomplishments will make you feel a lot better and a lot more self-confident.

14. Do something you have been procrastinating
Many times, we leave things and just don’t get time around to get to them.  Try to make some room and get some done. This will make you feel great.

15. Be Prepared
You only feel insecure and self-doubting if you’re not prepared. Imagine an exam and you didn’t study, you would probably feel unconfident about your abilities.
This same thing can apply to life. If you are not prepared for something you will feel unconfident about it until you get ready.
So try to be ready for anything in life and self-confidence will come automatically.

How to Get out of Your Own Way... Jim M. Allen

1.  Face Facts:  YOU may just be the bump in the road that's slowing you down.

Often the most difficult step in getting out of one's own way is recognizing that you are indeed, in it.  When you encounter problems in achieving your goals, carefully consider whether or not you are the source of those problems.

2.  You can do anything you want.  However, you may not be able to do everything you want.

Most of the time we get in our own ways by trying to do too much all at once.  By working hard at trying to do everything we end up accomplishing very little.  Concentrating on one or two projects at a time will actually increase your chances getting what you want.

3.  To get a clear picture, you've got to focus.

Once you know which project(s) you will tackle, you must focus on what it will take to really do those projects.   Create step-by-step plans for what you will do and when you will do them.

4.  If it's on paper, it's a plan.  If it's in your head, it's a dream.

Many are reluctant to actually put their plans down on paper.  Putting plans to paper is the first physical step to take towards achieving one's desires.  Without a written plan most people will start a project but soon be distracted by the many little things that pop up.

5.  Just because you're moving doesn't mean you're getting ahead.

A sure sign of a person getting in their own way is when they are working very hard, but not getting any closer to achieving their goals.  (This is also one of the most frequent effects of not having a written plan.)

To move forward you must take the proper actions at the proper times.

6.  Not choosing IS choosing.

Another roadblock we create is by over-thinking our options to the point of inactivity.  "I could do A, B, or C" we tell ourselves.  "I better think about it."  Then we proceed to ponder. . . but we never actually decide.  What we're really doing, though, is deciding to do nothing.

But guess what?

If you do nothing, you get nothing.

7.  Concentrate on what will work.

Some people are very good at finding all of the reasons why something won't work.  So good that they talk themselves out of even trying.

Don't compound potential negatives, compound the positives and concentrate on why things will work for you!

8.  If it's not working, STOP DOING IT!

One definition of insanity reads:  "Doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result each time."  I tend to think of that more as a definition of humanity.

Whether caused by determination, pride, or mere stubbornness, many have trouble recognizing and admitting that things aren't working.  If that's you, adopt a new motto:  "Just don't do it!"  When things stop working, stop doing them, readjust, and move on.

9.  When you just don't know, get help.

We can't know everything.  We can't always solve everything.  When that's the case, get help.  There are businesses, counselors, consultants, and coaches who can work with you on almost any trouble spot you may encounter.  Use them.

10.  If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.

Working towards your goals may not always be easy.  You may not have fun every moment as you wend your way but, overall, you should enjoy what you are doing because it's what you want to do.  If that's not true then you definitely need to re-evaluate your goals or how you are pursuing them.