Intentions differ from desires, and consciously focusing on your intentions can go a long ways toward achieving success. Simply put, intentions are goals. Another way to look at intentions is as thoughts that help us fill a need. The need can be such things as money, property, love, or relationships. The main purpose of our goals or intentions, though, is to eventually be happy or fulfilled.

In contrast, desire is the act of attaching feelings to a goal. We may desire something without ever achieving it. An important step towards fulfilling your goals is to realize that desire is passive, while intentions imply action. Once you can separate your intentions from your desires, there are a few things you need to do to make those intentions work for you: Read Post

You may not have heard the term before, but it is almost certain you have dealt with at least one emotional vampire in your life. These people are deceptively charming, beautiful and seductive, yet emotionally exhausting.

Emotional vampires are egotistical, manipulative, jealous, demanding, and self-serving. They are able to gain your friendship very quickly, then exploit it in every way they can to rob you of your own emotional energy. This person will take advantage of anyone in order to feed his or her own emotional needs. They will focus on the negative aspects of any situation, rather than enjoy the positive ones.

Any self-improvement program discusses the importance of de-cluttering your life to reduce your stress level. This includes ridding yourself of unhealthy relationships as well. Learn to protect your own happiness and emotional well being by being able to recognize these emotional predators so you can remove their negative influences from your life. Even though emotional vampires pretend to be your best friend in the world, they are parasites that feed on your well-being and happiness, robbing you of your vitality and enthusiasm for life.

1. Types of Vampires Read Post

How many times have you heard one person speaking about another, only to say, “She (or he) has baggage.” Things happen to us in our lives that we tend to carry around with us. Sometimes we carry the experience for years, sometimes for a lifetime.

Experiences are good things. They are what shape our personalities and ultimately determine who we are. Our experiences make us unique. They give us something to share with others. They shape our perspectives, and when we are really lucky, allow us the insight to change our perspectives.

The trouble with some experiences, though, is that they can get in the way. They can cause interference in our lives that prevents us from achieving happiness. They keep us from reaching our goals. Those experiences that should free us, instead act as bonds, preventing us from achieving personal growth.

As we make our way through this mad adventure we call life, we must learn to take our experiences as they come to us, learn from them, then move on. This is not to say you cast them aside on the pathway of life, but rather you tuck them in and put them to bed. They are still with you, but they are quiet. Read Post

It wasn’t too long ago that I was close to hitting the breaking point in my own life - but I had no sense of this at the time. You see, when you’re flying high on success, you don’t always recognize the warning signs of an impending crash. What ends up happening is that the pressure to be everything to everyone slowly begins to erode the quality of your experiences and relationships. It’s only when you’re about to self-destruct that you suddenly wake up and realize what you could have done better and what you shouldn’t be doing at all.

Here are some signs from SlowDownFast.com that it may be time to hit the brakes and learn to cruise life in the slow lane: Read Post

One of the biggest causes of marital strife is finances. So many couples who end up either in counseling or divorce court say financial issues caused excessive stress in the relationship, taking it to the breaking point.

Financial troubles can impact your personal happiness and health as well. Stress over money issues may lead you to work long hours of overtime to try to keep up, reducing your time with your family as well as your ability to get proper rest. Constant worry takes a toll on the body, too, and can lower the immune system’s resistance to disease.

If you find yourself spending sleepless nights worrying over money, or if you are fighting with your spouse over excessive debt or your long hours at the office, try these simple tricks to cut back on your spending and free you from debt’s evil clenches: Read Post

Thanks to Jenny Marland of WBAY in Green Bay for asking my opinions about Why Favre Can’t Retire.

The power of praise has been scientifically documented to help children achieve more than they had believed, providing motivation for them to reach their goals when they thought the task impossible. With children, it is imperative to praise the effort to encourage them to try harder.

Praise is equally important in adults, but the use of praise to motivate others becomes more complicated. Catherine the Great said, “I praise loudly, I blame softly.” She was a wise woman who understood much about the human spirit, but, as with many things, there are also exceptions to the rule.

In some cases, praise has its greatest effect when it is delivered by a highly critical person. When someone has a predisposition to criticize and is difficult to please, praise can seem like an unattainable goal.

On the other hand, those who deliver praise vocally and regularly often can provide the greatest motivation by withholding it. In instances such as these, the silence screams volumes. Read Post

From my guest article 10 Tips to Turn Stress to Success at Effortless Abundance:

“If you know someone who doesn’t experience stress, they’re probably not human. We stress over our finances, relationships, health, and careers or businesses. We get stressed when things don’t go our way and we are not getting the results we want. We experience stress when we feel rushed and we run out of time to do all that we want to do. What causes you to feel stressed?

Of course, there’s good stress and bad stress. Good stress is when you’re stretching beyond your comfort zone and taking risks. You feel discomfort, while also feeling good about doing new things and taking new paths. Bad stress causes anguish, negative emotions, and oftentimes physical problems like pain, headaches, ulcers, and worse.

What I’ve noticed, however, is that some people can have the same experiences and not feel as stressed as others. So I wonder: Is stress an automatic reaction or can it be a conscious choice? Think about that as you consider some of these 10 tips to turn stress to success:”

Read the rest of 10 Tips to Turn Stress to Success.

Thanks to Tip Diva for including this article in the Carnival of Tips.

Goal setting is a great way to increase motivation and improve your success. Developing goals is also an integral part of any time management program. Many people do not realize, though, that within the realm of goal setting that there are various types of goals. We can utilize these more specific types of goals in furtherance of our desire to accomplish a larger, overarching goal.

Generally, our goals tend to be “outcome goals,” such as having a certain amount of money in our retirement accounts. The steps we take to get there, such as transferring $100 each week into the retirement account, are classified as performance goals. Our best chances for success come when we blend both types of goals, giving us a larger desired outcome accomplished by taking smaller, measurable steps.

1. Outcome Goals Read Post

For those who have come to understand that the rat race is not all it has been cracked up to be, and have finally made the decision to slow down and get some enjoyment out of life, there also comes with it the realization that certain planning needs to take place in order to be able to realize your goals of greater happiness and fulfillment.

Planning is especially important if you have a family to consider. You cannot just chuck your high-stress career for a life of leisure – or at least you should not. Prior to giving your boss his walking papers, you must take steps to ensure the ongoing comfort and survival of your family. Otherwise, your efforts to slow down and enjoy life will all be for naught.

As you envision your more rewarding and fulfilling life, be sure to account for those little luxuries your corporate job provides, which you must now provide for yourself. Read Post