That means figuring out better ways to maximize your effectiveness on the job. You have to figure out your strengths and put them to use whenever and wherever possible. You need to get results in an efficient manner.

Stress Management

You also need to make sure that you practice stress management and keep and your mind clear, so you can think on your feet and stay sharp. This may seem like a tall order, but if you follow the tips set forth here, you’ll find you can increase your effectiveness before you know it.

Identify Strengths And Weaknesses

First and foremost, you need to identify your work-related strengths and weaknesses. These can be both big and small. Are you really good at coming up with new ideas to solve problems? Do you have a knack for making great visuals for presentations? Is there room for improvement when it comes to staying organized? Are you great with emails but tongue-tied on the phone?

Once you figure out what you’re good at, you can start brainstorming ways to utilize those skills wherever possible. You might be surprised to discover that there are other areas of your job that can benefit from your talents.

Likewise, if you understand your weaknesses, you can try to improve upon them. Seek out a coworker who is really good at something you need to improve in, and ask for their advice. Look to your boss or another trusted senior staffer as an example and mentor. If you flatter them by telling them you admire the way they do something, they’ll be happy to give you some tips.

Be More Productive

Once you’ve worked on your strengths and weaknesses, you need to figure out how to maximize your time and work more efficiently. Utilize email reminders and your calendar to keep you on track with meetings and deadlines. If your work load starts to get out of control, figure out what work can be delegated to reliable coworkers who have some extra time on their hands. Make sure to promise them that you’ll return the favor, and follow through with that promise.

Never underestimate the power of teamwork if a project is too big for you. Better to share part of the credit with another coworker on a successfully executed piece of work than to take full credit for a poorly done job because you got in over your head.

Another way to maximize your time is to figure out what parts of the day you are typically more productive. Do you do your best work first thing in the morning, or a couple of hours after lunch? Schedule your work to coincide with your particular power time, so that you work on the most intense, difficult projects during those hours when you’re at the top of your game.

Remember To Relax

Keeping yourself alert and on point is also important. Take brief breaks, in ten or fifteen minute chunks, every couple of hours. That will help your mind stay fresh and sharp, and keep your eyes from getting fatigued from staring at the computer screen for too long. Taking a walk around the block or to another part of the building will get your blood flowing and keep you energized. That will definitely help the quality of your work. It might even put you in a better mood, which your coworkers will certainly appreciate.

Combine a strong work ethic with smart, strategic planning and these tactics, and there just might be a promotion-related meeting with your boss in the not-so-distant future.

Finding the right organizational tools takes a lot of time and effort, but here are some great tools that can help you get started organizing your business, school tasks, home remodel or anything else in your life that needs organizing!

Click here to view the embedded video.

5pm

5pm is an excellent scheduling tool that by far surpasses the other scheduling tools available. 5pm is a low cost website that offers an interactive scheduling interface that you can share with others, allowing you to view and edit different tasks for yourself and anyone else you have working with you. You can access your 5pm schedule from anywhere - not just at home or work.

Other popular alternatives to 5pm, including Basecamp and Zoho Projects just didn’t measure up to what you can do with 5pm project management.

Google Calendar

The creative geniuses behind Google have created a free, online calendar that you can use and access from anywhere as well as share with others. You can have multiple calendars and multiple people working on the same calendar, so everyone knows what’s going on and when.

Google Docs

Another great inception from Google is their Google Docs application. Similar to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, you can create both documents and spreadsheets to share with others.  You can access your documents from anywhere, and you can even have multiple people viewing and editing the same document. There is also a chat box within the document that allows you to have a real time conversation with anyone who is viewing or editing the document.

Mozy

Mozy is an excellent tool to use if you have a lot of information on your computer that needs to be backed up on a daily basis. For just $5/mo per computer, you can have Mozy automatically back up your files each night on an offsite server, so you know your information is safe no matter what happens.

We checked out the popular alternatives, including Carbonite and Dropbox, but in the end the simplicity of Mozy for “brain-dead simple backups that just works” won us over. And after a few months we’ve very happy with our decision.

YouSendIt

Sending files to people via email can be difficult, especially if the files are quite large. Uploading it using a free email service such as Yahoo or Hotmail is even harder. YouSendIt is an inexpensive online application that allows you to send files to other people quickly and easily, no matter what the file size.

Earth Class Mail

Earth Class Mail is an online service, much like a P.O. box, that will take your physical paper mail, scan it in and let you access it electronically – with an interface that looks a lot like email. You never have to deal with letters, post cards or the like again. You can access your mail from anywhere, and for a fee they’ll even deposit checks directly to your bank. Earth Class Mail is an excellent option for doctors, lawyers, home business professionals or anyone that just wants to go paperless.

Even if you’re not looking to replace your mailbox with a digital alternative… if you have your own business and don’t necessarily want your home address available to everyone, consider using a service like Earth Class Mail for your public mailing address.

Pandora

With all of the organizing you’re doing, you might want to kick back and relax a bit with some tunes. Pandora is a great option for Internet radio, allowing you to build your own musical selection by choosing songs that you like while Pandora loads in musically similar songs. Feel free to let Pandora know if there’s a song you don’t like, and they won’t play it again. The more you listen to Pandora and interact with it, the more customized your own personal Internet radio station becomes.

However, many people do the exact opposite. Rather than focusing on how wonderful it is going to be once they have attained success, they instead think about how badly they don’t want what they already have. Let’s throw another proven success principle in here and see if that adds up:

What you focus on grows.

If you are going to grow whatever it is that you are focusing on, yet your entire success journey begins by you saying “I am so sick of {BLANK}…” then you are already on the wrong path. You are focusing on what you DON’T want, rather than what you do want.

On the other hand, by keeping a constant focus on creating a better life for yourself, your attitude towards success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The thoughts, feelings, and actions that make up your success-oriented lifestyle will all be centered around positive, empowering thoughts, rather than serving as constant reminders of the lifestyle that you are wanting to leave behind.

Relationship Success Principles

How many times have you heard someone say that they are so tired of being alone, and they can’t wait to find their Mr. or Mrs. Right? How many times has the incompatibility with one person been the very driving force that causes the search for a “new and improved” mate?

In both of those instances, the true desire is to have a happy or fulfilling relationship, yet the focus is instead on the loneliness, or the present mate who isn’t getting the job done.

If what we focus on grows, then all we will get from that type of attitude is more loneliness, or yet another mate that we are not 100% happy with.

On the other hand, if we start our relationship quest from a position of power, and focus utterly and completely on what we want the new relationship to be like, then that is exactly what will ultimately manifest into our lives.

Career Success Principles

How many times has your desire to get away from your present job been the rocket fuel that blasted you into a feverish search for a new employer? How many times have you dreamed of owning your own business because you were sick of the “rat race” that is an integral part of almost all corporate positions?

Again, the focus in those instances is totally on what is NOT wanted, rather than what is wanted.

The proof that what you focus on grows can be plainly demonstrated by the fact that most people still don’t like their jobs, even after escaping the negative situation with their previous employer. Sure, the circumstances have probably changed, but before you pull out the “I love my job” card, answer this question first:

Would you do it for FREE?

Health and Fitness Success Principles

Have you ever decided to go on a diet because you couldn’t fit into your favorite jeans anymore? Did you ever decide to start exercising because you couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded? Has some bad news at the doctor’s office ever been the catalyst for you to clean up your nutrition and/or exercise habits?

All of those instances are focusing on the same thing: what you DON’T want:

• You don’t want to feel fat and uncomfortable in clothes that you used to enjoy wearing.
• You don’t want to feel like you can’t perform basic human movements or activities.
• You don’t want your cholesterol score or your risk for a heart attack to climb even higher than they already are.

Negative. Negative. Negative. Focus on what you DO want, because whatever you focus on is exactly what is going to come about.

• Focus on looking lean and sexy.
• Focus on having plenty of energy and vitality.
• Focus on a healthy lifestyle where better marks at the doctor’s office are just a side effect, rather than the driving force for your activities.

In each of the above examples, and in any other circumstance that you can imagine, focusing on the negative will only bring about more negativity. Yes, you can modify the details by simply changing your scenery, but putting clean sheets on a dirty bed doesn’t make the bed any cleaner than it originally was!

If you want positive changes, then think, feel, and ACT in a positive manner, rather than just reacting to whatever negativity it is that you are wanting to be rid of.

Successful people create success. They don’t sit around waiting for their lives to be miserable first.

Well, not even touching on the fact that people are simply spending too much time working – hence the need for the productivity magic – let’s agree that an increase in productivity is something that many people can benefit from. That being the case, what happens when those attempts at legendary productivity get out of control?

The thing to realize when it comes to getting things done is that getting things done is the entire point of the exercise! Talking about it, writing about it, keeping records on it, etc., are all very effective ways to do one thing:

Waste the very time that you are supposed to be saving!

1) Overuse of Productivity Software

It doesn’t take the first hour or two of your day to ring all the bells and blow all the whistles on your ultra high-tech productivity software package. In fact, if you are using more than about 20 or 30 minutes of your day to just get ready for your day, that seems a bit counter-productive to me…

2) Talking about Your Goals too Much

Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. Tell people about your goals? Absolutely! Get excited and passionate about your goals? Yep! Spend an inordinate amount of time talking about how great it is all going to be when you should be out there taking action? No.

3) Making a To-Do List

For some reason people seem to think that writing down a massive list of things to get done every day is a good idea, even though they know there is a very real chance that they won’t get it all done. Doing so simply reinforces a lack of confidence in our ability to get the job done, and we end up worse off than we were before. Instead of making a “to-do” list, make a prioritized list of things that you would like to get done. Keep it realistic, and don’t move on to the second thing on your list until the first one is complete.

4) Doggedly Sticking to Your Plan

Here’s a shocker: Your life is not always going to go according to plan! When things end up unfolding in an unexpected way, you can either:

• Panic and accomplish very little (if not actually making the situation worse), or
• You can roll with the punches and find a way to get things done in spite of the unexpected circumstances.

One of those choices equals productivity, one of them equals frustration and stress.

5) Always Looking for a Better Way

How does that old saying go? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Just because some high-powered author, speaker, or productivity guru got you all jacked up about some new-fangled system of super-charging your life, you are under absolutely no obligation to actually use it. If your present system works, then keep it! Change is not always necessary.

6) Getting Too Much Sleep

According to pretty much anybody that you ask, getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep is recommended. Well, you know what? Not everyone needs 7 or 8 hours of sleep! You’ve been living with your body for how long now? You should know by now how much sleep you need to get in order to function at peak capacity. Get that much sleep, and do something else with the rest of those hours; it doesn’t matter what the so-called “experts” say.

7) Following Practices that You Really don’t Believe In

Just because Suzi’s brother knew a girl whose nephew had a friend with a sister that was married to a guy whose cousin knew a Zen Monk who swore by 4 hours of meditation per day does not mean that YOU should be doing it! Embrace productivity practices that resonate with you personally, and drop the rest.

8) Avoiding Email and Necessary Contacts

Anyone who has read the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris is jumping for joy because apparently it is okay for them to drastically limit their exposure to email or to other time-draining conversations with other people. Here’s a newsflash: If you have an Internet-based business, or your customers are very Internet-savvy, you are going to need to read your email frequently. Notice the word “frequent” and not the word “constant”. It’s a critical distinction, and a line that you may need to learn to walk.

9) Constantly Questioning Why

Many people – myself included – will tell you to take nothing at face value, and to question the very foundations of your existence, not to mention questioning the rules of society. However, that being said, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every single day. Some systems are in place for a reason, and some are a complete waste of time. Question the irrelevant or inappropriate systems, but don’t waste time undermining the stability of systems or philosophies that actually work.

10) Excessive Delegation of Responsibility

This is another one that you 4-Hour Workweek fans will recognize – delegating responsibility to other people in order to free up your time. It’s a superb idea, and I back up Tim Ferris 100% on the concept. However, don’t lose sight of the fact that your role in your company, your business, your home, etc., IS your role, at least right now. If you’re not careful, you could delegate yourself right out of being an important part of your own lifestyle!

I don't know about any of you, but I have a veritable PILE of great eBooks that I have collected over the past year or so, but I just can't bring myself to sit in front of my computer and read most of them. I spend my entire work day reading and writing on the Internet, and when it comes time to dive into a great book, the last thing that I want to do is spend some more time in front of my monitor.

Now, thanks to the wonderful folks at Merlin Software, none of us have to that anymore! They have created an incredibly easy to use software program that converts Adobe PDF files into pictures that can then be read on PDA's, including your iPod.

The software is free, very simple to use, you can completely customize the size and the resolution of the output that you want to send to your PDA or iPod, and you can even choose the font size and type so that it is as easy as possible for you to read the content on whichever portable device you have.

I have already converted 4 of the eBooks from my collection using this software, and the display on my iPod is crystal clear, and easy to read. Now I can curl up in a chair, lay down on the couch, hang out at Starbucks, or even lounge around at the pool or the beach, all the while using my time wisely by reading empowering, informative, and educational material.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think this is one of the most useful pieces of software to have come out in a long time, and I am chomping at the bit to sink my teeth into some great material that has been collecting dust on my computer for months, or even longer.

All of the products that I create are in Adobe PDF format, and most of the products from the Senior Though Leaders over at Personal Development Partners are in Adobe PDF format as well.

If you have been considering getting access to those products, or to some other eBook that you've had your eyes on for awhile, now you can have your cake and eat it, too!

Download the eBook to Images program for free right now and stop using that excuse about not wanting to be in front of your computer. Take your self improvement and personal development eBooks to your comfy spot in the world, and start enjoy the mountain of great information that is out there!  

The subject of the teleconference is going to be Raising Consciousness and Taking Responsibility for Your Own Shift, and will be the precursor to a very cool new program that is going to be launching on January 1, 2008 called The Power of Our Way.

I am one of the Thought Leaders for the group, so I will obviously be attending the call myself, and it promises to be time well spent. Click the link above for the details of the call and to get signed up for free. Be sure to list Today is that Day as your referrer on the sign up page so I can keep track of how many blog readers got to participate.

As far as the upcoming Power of Our Way program that kicks off on January 1st, I highly recommend that you give it some serious thought. The details of the program itself aside, the very concept of focusing on the very same thing over the course of any reasonable amount of time has proven to be a recipe for success over and over again.

If any of us were able to gain one dollar, lose one pound, or secure one beautiful relationship memory for every time we thought about gaining wealth, losing weight, or finding Mr. or Mrs. Right, we'd all be rich, buff, and emotionally ecstatic.

In the real world, however, we simply don't do that.

We think and take action for a few days or a few weeks about some type of self improvement or personal growth, but then our lives – the same lives we are trying to improve – get in the way and block our efforts. It's a nasty circle of cause and effect that is harder to snuff out than those magically relighting birthday candles!

The Power of our Way program that kicks off in January is meant to retard that entire process by both individual as well as group efforts towards whatever goals are set by the group participants.

The well-timed program begins on January 1st as people by the millions decide that the New Year is the perfect time for them to finally get their lives to the level of happiness and success that they have been dreaming of for so long.

You can get the full details on the program by clicking on through to the Power of Our Way page, and here is a partial list of the program benefits:

• A signed copy of the groundbreaking book, The Power of Our Way; A Path to a Collective Consciousness and the Power of Our Way Companion CD
• Private telephone numbers and pin codes for six weekly tele-groups open only to group members
• MP3 recordings of each group that will be posted on a private page within 48 hours of every call
• Over 15 additional bonuses, including several original songs, hypnotic meditations, audio recordings, and other downloads from Anita and Brent Law
• A downloadable copy of The Power of Our Way Medicine Wheel™, a tool for individual and global transformation
• A link to retrieve several hundred dollars worth of free bonus gifts from Thought Leaders, teachers, and authors who are joining you in support for a powerful 2008

For my part, I have agreed to donate a complimentary version of my most ambitious and well-received product, Energy Harmonics. I have been asked in the past to offer Energy Harmonics as part of a group effort such as this, but have not felt that the project was worthwhile enough until this point.

I obviously want my own work to be part of a successful endeavor, and Anita's Power of Our Way program promises to be a life-changing event for many, many people. I am certain that the success stories from the group will warrant me donating the book that I put all of my heart and soul into right about this same time last year as I was finishing it up.

Anyway, that's the scoop on the upcoming teleconference as well as the Power of Our Way program itself. I'm excited to be a part of such an ambitious endeavor, and I welcome anyone who takes part to contact me directly with their questions, comments, and thoughts!

Here’s the truth: A lot of people spend a lot of time in an environment or a state of mind that is far from conducive to their own success, then they sit around wondering why they aren’t successful!

Our lives are constantly throwing different types of circumstances at us that may or may not be to our liking, yet rather than changing the circumstances so that we are in a comfortable resonance, we simply put our head down, try to plow through undesirable situations, and then wonder why our results are less than stellar.

If you want to be successful in life, you need to stay in a state of mind that creates an emotional resonance with what you are doing.

There is a common misconception that simply working harder will allow you to achieve more results. However, even though a more concerted effort will net more results, you are still swimming against the current unless you can find a way to do your work in a manner that pleases you.

You will accomplish far more in an hour of hard work when you are “in the groove” than that same hour of hard work whenever you are unable enjoy your work or to stay focused on your tasks.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your environment, and make any changes necessary so that the answers to those questions will create an environment that allows you to work easily and effortlessly.

WHO: Who are you doing the work for?

If you are working for an employer, the obvious answer would be that you are doing the work for them. However, that is totally false.

You chose to work there, and you continue to choose to remain there day after day. You keep that job because it brings you something that you want, not something that your employer wants. By realizing that your job is something that you have for yourself, one of two things will happen:

• You will start to enjoy your work more because you realize that you go to that job every day because you choose to, or
• You will realize that you are unable to enjoy the fact that you are working for someone else, and you will find a way to make your own money.

WHAT: What are you doing?

Did you ever stop to think about that? Oh sure, there are plenty of tasks in front of you that need to be accomplished, but do you ever stop to think about what it is that you are actually working towards?

Do you even care about the big picture that is related to whatever it is that you are working towards? For that matter, do you even know what you are working towards, or are you just mindlessly doing the work without really thinking about what it is that you are trying to accomplish in the long-term?

If you are aware of and actually care about the results of your efforts, then you will resonate with the work that is required to attain those results. Whether the outcome in question is weight loss, child rearing, or corporate minutia, knowing what you are working towards gives you the opportunity to decide if you care enough about it to actually enjoy the work.

WHY: Once you know what it is that you are doing, now it is time to ask yourself why you are doing it to begin with.

This is the tricky part that trips a lot of people up.

Your “why” reasons are almost never what you think they are at first. Most “why” reasons go much deeper than the surface answers that come to mind when people ask themselves why they are doing any particular thing.

People who want to lose weight tend to cite reasons such as looking good in a bikini, being healthy, having more energy, etc. However, by digging deeper, reasons such as low self-esteem, lack of confidence, bad past experiences, etc., are usually the real “why” reasons.

Most people who are looking for financial success will cite reasons such wanting a nice house, a secure future for their family, a sense of accomplishment, etc. However, when it comes down to it, a lot of people are actually battling self-limiting beliefs about money, they are looking for the freedom that money can buy, they want to prove to themselves or others that they can do it, etc.

Trying to get a nice house, a nice car, or a large college fund for your children is not nearly as motivational as knowing why you truly want those things.

WHEN: This is Goal Setting 101: When do you want to accomplish your goal by?

Even if you work for someone else, you need to have a target date for whenever you want to accomplish some very specific goal. Maybe it is to reach a certain level in the company, maybe it is a certain sales goal, or maybe it is a salary level that you are after. Either way, if you leave the target date open to “some point in the future,” there will never be the sense of urgency that is needed in order to push yourself hard to accomplish your goal by that certain date.

If you own your own business or have some other self-employed status, when do you want to attain a certain level of security? When will your business be solid enough to allow you more time for yourself? When will you be able to start delegating work to others?

Again, the idea here is not to set up some mindless productivity calendar, but rather to motivate yourself to succeed by knowing when it is that you want to accomplish your goal. By working towards a goal that you have personally set for yourself, you will enjoy the work because you are doing it for you, not for someone else.

WHERE: Your work environment can play a huge role in the emotional state that you have whenever you are working on your tasks.

If you do not enjoy being in your work environment, it will be very difficult for you to remain mentally sharp, to enjoy your work, and to keep up a high level of productivity.

If you work for someone else, then do everything that you are allowed to do in order to make your environment an enjoyable place for you to spend a lot of your time. This could include any or all of the following: decorate your environment, put up motivational reminders where you will see them frequently, make the environment physically comfortable with proper furnishings and accessories, play music that helps you to focus on your work.

If you work for yourself at home or in an office, then use the freedom that self-employment brings and pull out all the stops in order to make your work environment exactly what you want to be. Also, if you work at home, be sure to keep your work environment separate from the rest of the house. That is your space – keep it free from the negative or stressful vibrations that sometimes permeate other areas of the house.

Also, if you work on a laptop computer, don’t be afraid to simply leave any environment that does not resonate with you. If you are more comfortable working in a local coffee shop, at the library, or outside on your deck, then go there! Don’t feel that in order to run a professional business that you must work in an office. Your professionalism will come from you working in your natural state of flow, not from sitting in an office that makes you uncomfortable.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line to maximizing your productivity is that you need to remain in an environment and a state of mind that you actually enjoy being in – your own personal circle of Light.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your working circumstances, and find answers that resonate with you. If you fail to do so, you’ll just keep swimming upstream, fighting the current rather than letting it carry you easily along.

The purpose is to revisit recent popular posts from right here on this site, as well as to give readers a chance to see the material that I have written across the blogosphere at other websites. Enjoy!

• 7 Ways to Become a Positive Person

• Watching Personal Growth through the Bus Window

Today is that Day Question and Answer Program

“I’ve been slowly developing myself over the last couple years and have hit a rut. I’ll decide to do something, and then, for what seems to be no reason, I won’t do it.

I’ve been looking for what the problem is, but I’ve been unable to figure it out. Suggestions on what to do?”

Click here to read this answer

“I normally spend alot of my time visualizing and feeling the feeling of attaining my goals. It seems like just about once a month, something REALLY disappointing occurs that I allow to make my deliberate visualizing decrease almost to a halt… Then about a day or two later, I’m right back at it. Is this normal, or am I being weak, and allowing disappointments to hamper me, and thus increasing the amount of time it will take to reach my goals?”

Click here to read this answer

• 6 Tips on How to Use the Internet to Lose Weight

• How to Exercise – Bent Knee Leg Raises

Have a blog that you would like me to write for? Shoot me an email and we’ll see if my skills match up with your audience!

The purpose is to revisit recent popular posts from right here on this site, as well as to give readers a chance to see the material that I have written across the blogosphere at other websites. Enjoy!

• 5 Ridiculous (but effective) Ways to Lose Weight
• Exercise of the Day – Elevated Push Up on Exercise Ball
• Free Tour of the Burn the Fat Inner Circle!

• 7 Ways to Radically Fail at Goal Attainment
• Doing it Differently Blog Carnival, 9th Edition
• 5 Secrets to Success using Video Content

Have a blog that you would like me to write for? Shoot me an email and we’ll see if my skills match up with your audience!

The purpose is to revisit recent popular posts from right here on this blog, as well as to give readers a chance to see the material that I have written across the blogosphere at other websites. Enjoy!

• How to Exercise like a Pro – even if you’re Not!

• Practicing Personal Development with Unlimited Power!
• Does your Personal Development Program involve Giving Something Up?
• The Powerful Problem with Positive Thinking

• How to Save Money on Exercise Equipment
• 5 Tips on How to Workout with Dumbbells
• Exercise of the Day – Close Grip Push Ups

• Church Apologizes to Sex Abuse Victims
• Michael Vick Indicted for not Living in the Moment

Have a blog that you would like me to write for? Shoot me an email and we’ll see if my skills match up with your audience!

The purpose is to revisit recent popular posts from right here on this blog, as well as to give readers a chance to see the material that I have written across the blogosphere at other websites. Enjoy!

• Self Improvement Plan: Write it Down – and READ IT!
• Vibrational Matchmaking with the Law of Attraction

• Exercise of the Day – Air Bicycles
• Best Weight Loss Program: Interval Training
• Exercise of the Day – The Ball Exchange

• Slice me, Dice me, Feed me more Pills! And Sugar!!

Have a blog that you would like me to write for? Shoot me an email and we’ll see if my skills match up with your audience!

I have a huge stack of post ideas that is growing larger by the day, and starting this week I will be whittling that list down by posting great content that will very much be worth your time to read.

However, in order to do that, I am going to have "bow out" of a few of the memes that I have been tagged for. I had originally planned to try to squeeze them all in, but between software reviews, new projects, and book reviews, I feel very strongly about getting back to doing what has made this site such a success – great content.

So, that being said, I do want to let Cardin Routh, Stephen Hopson, and Heather Flanagan know that I will still be doing the projects that you tagged me for, so look for those posts in the upcoming weeks.

For the rest of the projects that I was going to get involved with, however, I at least want to send a link love shout out to them, and encourage my own readers to go check out these memes if they hold an interest for you:

1) Jennifer McClean of the Big Book of You Blog tagged me for a project that asks the blogger to revisit an old post of theirs that they feel didn't get enough time in the limelight or didn't make enough of a splash the first time around. A great idea!

p.s. – On that note, underneath every post on this site there is both a "Random" as well as a "Related" posts section which I encourage you to check out frequently.

2) Hilda Carroll at Living Out Loud started a very cool project where people share songs that make their heart sing, and that is definitely a cool list to have access to, so be sure to get more info on that.

3) Shama Hyder of ShamaHyder.com included me in the One Dinner, Five Guests, Five Lessons game which basically asks people to say who – from the past or present – they would like to have dinner with, and why.

4) Edward Mills of Evolving Times tagged me to take part in a very cool project that asks for the "Faces behind the Blog". As much as I totally LOVE that concept, I will save the extra post by simply pointing you right here if you are interested in seeing my online photo album. The site hasn't been updated since March, but there are still plenty of pictures there of me, my friends, and my family. 

p.s. – My friends and I pride ourselves on being dorks, and we party like rock stars. You have been warned!

5) Grigor at Behind the Glasses included me in "Bloggy Tag" about how to write outstanding blog posts. My simple answer to that question is that I come across something that I think other people might be struggling with, and I write about good ways to handle it. There, now you know my secret formula! {grin}

Related Search

You will notice that there is presently a brand-new Releated Search functionality on the site. At this time the related search is at the bottom of every post, and also over in the sidebar.

Some of the related searches are based on site-wide keywords, while others are based on post-level keywords. The entire process is very cool and is powered by Ask.com. Please do take advantage of that new and valuable content resource.

Commenting on the Site

Although I do my best to thoroughly test any changes that I make to this site, it is still possible that something might slip through the cracks. 

It was recently brought to my attention that at least one person was having trouble with the comment form when using the Internet Explorer web browser. If anyone else is having issues with the comments (or anything else), please let me know.

Upcoming Goodies

Awhile ago I made a post about Personal Development Partners, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about it. In fact, I took a break from building that site in order to write this post.

The building process itself is somewhat complicated, but that is because I am adding in the ability to do SO many very cool things! I won't give a launch date just yet because there are still some technical variables that I am working through, but it will be soon, I promise!

Okay kids, that's it for now! As always, thanks for your continued readership, your community involvement via your comments & emails, and your continued inspiration that motivates me to make this one of the best personal development blogs on the Internet! 

Apparently there is another group writing project going around the blogosphere that actually has some value, and after having been tagged by the MomGadget herself, as well as by Dawud at HealthyWebDesign, I thought it was worth my time and yours, so I’ve agreed to share some insight!

The idea was originally started by Ben at the Instigator Blog and he called it The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. As good a name for a series about getting things done if ever there was one, and the concept is pretty basic.

Just list your best productivity habits, highlight your most effective one if you want to, and link back to Ben’s site, as well as to the people who tagged you for the project. In fact, if you email Ben after putting up your post, he’ll pop over 2 links back to your site. YAY – double the fun!

So, without further discussion, here we go with

In a word (or a phrase, in this case), I keep my eyes on the prize!

There are more websites and blog posts dedicated to productivity systems and concepts than you can shake a stick at. I regularly read Lifehack.org, The Ririan Project, and similar sites, however, in truth, I rarely implement most of those systems simply because I don’t believe that life should be systematized like that.

And yes, apparently systematized is a real word because my spell checker did not underline it in red just now when I typed it!

However, despite my “anti-systems” mentality, I am ALL about successful habits, and I believe that those habits start – and end – with remembering on a constant basis – why you are doing whatever it is that you are doing.

By keeping your eyes on the prize, you automatically stay focused on the “big picture” which keeps you from straying too far off the path of productivity.

For example, in my case, my long-term goal is complete time and financial freedom so that I can spend a ridiculous amount of time visiting my friends and family members. In order to accomplish that goal, I want to build up my Internet business to the point where most of my income is residual, and does not require me to work 12-hour days.

If I start to get off-track during the day by wanting to read less-than productive blogs or websites (even though they are fun!), or if I start to realize that I am not fully focused on my writing or my marketing efforts, all I have to do is remember that in order to accomplish my long-term goal, I have to work my butt off now so that I can play later.

Doing so always yanks me right back onto the path of productivity and focus!

So, keeping my eyes on the prize is the most important productivity secret that I have, although I do also have a close runner-up for 2nd place, and that is:

I always do the mission-critical tasks first!

My primary job is to write content – period. Yes, being a professional blogger also entails many marketing efforts such as reading and commenting on other people’s blogs, participating in community sites like MyBlogLog, Stumbleupon, Digg, and message boards, but Mission Task #1 every day is the writing.

Marketing does very little good if you are sending people to a site that has nothing for them when they get there!

So, my second most important productivity secret is to always do the most important things first.

Third, although I am not a big fan of multi-tasking, my personal computer and Internet set up at home is not as fast as I would like it to be, so I fill in potentially wasted time by doing “quick tasks” while waiting for web pages to load, large files to download, etc.

I keep my Google RSS reader open at all times in a Firefox Tab, and whenever I have 5 seconds to kill, I will pop over to that tab and skim a headline or two to see if I need to give that blog post more of my time later on.

When you subscribe to several hundred blogs like I do, skimming is the only way to even remotely stay up to date!

And finally, my last productivity secret is that I do work in “task blocks”. Several people have recommended the use of time blocks, which I also think is a good idea, but I have modified that concept to be what I call “task blocks”.

Since I am the most productive whenever I am 100% focused on any given task, I break down my entire day into task blocks. When I am working on any particular task block, that is ALL I am working on.

I can border on being supernaturally productive whenever I truly put my mind to something, so by doing my work in task blocks, I knock out the most possible amount of work in any given amount of time.

I do not limit the amount of time that I work on any task block because I feel that would stifle my creativity or my level of genuine interest in whatever I am doing. Rather than giving myself a time limit, I just refer back to my second productivity secret – doing mission-critical tasks first – and I simply prioritize which tasks are worthy of me spending my time on.

There are many potential things that a professional blogger needs to focus on, but here are the things that stand out the most in any given “work” day for me:

• Writing (and research, as needed)
• Reading & Commenting (done together)
• Email & Comment moderation
• Blog technical work (coding, graphics, advertisers, pulling my hair out)
• Personal time (exercise, meditation/nap, food breaks, etc.)
• Social Networking (Digg, Stumbleupon, message boards, etc.)

So, there you have it! Being the goal-oriented person that I am, I follow this pattern 5 solid days each week, most Saturdays, and also on Sunday when I don’t have actual social or family plans.

Does that make me a productivity junkie, a workaholic, or just a slightly insane person? Maybe.

However, when all is said and done I can:

• Visit my friend Gayla way out in the (sticks?)
• Spend a week in Key West with Andrea
• Camp out in Panama City with Michael and Lisa
• See the back hills of Texas with Craiger
• Get back to my roots in New York, and
• Honor my legacy in the Pacific Northwest

- all without affecting my paycheck – we’ll see who is crazy then, won’t we??? ~

OH – I almost forgot. TAG – you’re it! Everyone benefits from learning new and exciting (or insane) ways to be productive, so c’mon and share your ideas!

If you are reading this, you may consider yourself officially tagged to participate. Be sure to show the link love back to Ben , and include a linkback to this post as your inspiration, and then share your own productivity secrets with your readers.

C’mon – ya know you wanna!

Subscribers to my newsletter in December 2006 will recall how the eBook was pretty much all I could talk about while I was creating it, including a literal 30-hour straight writing marathon that I pulled off in order to get the book completed by it’s deadline.

It struck me the other day, however, that as much as I love the eBook, the traffic here on my blog has more than tripled since I completed the book on January 1st, 2007, yet I haven’t written about Energy Harmonics for my new audience.

Nonetheless, I also know that people don’t read my blog (or any blog that I am aware of) in order to have a sales pitch thrown at them. That being the case, I gave myself the challenge of finding a way to let people know about the value of Energy Harmonics without smacking anyone over the head and saying BUY MY BOOK!!

What I came up with is a win/win/win situation, and it goes a little something like this:

The standard price for the eBook is normally $37, and it is worth every penny, yet I offer it to my newsletter subscribers for only $22. Finish reading this post, however, to find out how you can get Energy Harmonics for just 2 bucks!

Despite the incredible value that everyone gets from reading the book, once the transaction is complete, the purchaser and myself are the only people who will have benefited from the transaction, and that is not good enough for me!

I wrote Energy Harmonics with the goal of helping MILLIONS of people, not one or two at a time, so I have come up with a way where you – dear reader – can get the powerful Energy Harmonics eBook for only $2, while at the same time expanding the reach of the product itself.

Step #1 -  Click here to download the Table of Contents, the Introduction to the book, and Chapter 1 absolutely free of charge.

Step #2 - Go to the product page (will open new window) to read the rest of the details about the eBook itself and to access the link to sign up for my SPAM FREE newsletter. While you are there, be sure to read the product testimonials.

Step #3 - Once you are signed up for the newsletter, you will be taken to the newsletter confirmation page where you can purchase Energy Harmonics at the subscriber price of only $22.

Step #4 - Once your purchase is complete click this link to Digg the product page, which will expand the reach of Energy Harmonics to include more than just my blog readers and website visitors.

Step #5 - Click here to send me an email letting me know that you “Dugg” the page, and what your Digg username is, and I will immediately send you a $20 refund.

VERY simple, VERY easy, you get a VERY powerful and life-changing eBook for only $2, while also helping the world at large by assisting in the process of expanding the awareness of Energy Harmonics!

On the other hand, if you have no interest in buying the eBook yourself, but want to help expand awareness for it, you can skip the entire process and simply click this link to Digg the product page.

Either way, I’ll thank you in advance for your continued support of Today is that Day, and I will look forward to continuing to provide you with sales-pitch free content!

MANY thanks to Shama over at ShamaHyder.com for going out of her way to call me on the phone to tell me about the problem. Shama, you totally rock, and I greatly appreciate your call!

I did not get access to the technical toys that I needed to fix the problem until today, April 2nd, around 9:30am EST, but my email is now back up and running.

If you sent me an email between Saturday, March 31st, and Monday, April 2, 2007, I DID NOT GET IT, so please resend your message.

That includes submissions for the new Doing it Differently Blog Carnival, since those submissions are sent directly to my email. Erek, Caroline, and Karen – I DO have your submissions. Anyone else who has submitted to the carnival, please resubmit your entries by clicking here.

Also, due to my time away, I am about 30 comments behind on both the Simply Successful Secrets program, as well as comments that need to be moderated/responded to here on the blog.

If you submitted a comment or wrote a blog post that was your entry in the Simply Successful Secrets project, I will be getting all comments moderated shortly, as well as swinging by your blog to give you a personal thanks and a virtual High Five for participating in the project.

I appreciate everyone’s patience as I tend to the recent technical difficulties, as well as relishing in the memories of the last few days that I spent with my wife and some of my closest friends on the Gulf Coast.

I will be back to my (ahem) workaholic tendencies soon, so keep an eye out for moderated comments, comments on the many blogs that I frequent as well as those who took part in the Simply Successful Secrets project, and I will also get a new blog post up here at Today is that Day.

The subject of the newest post is going to be Fear, and I will be looking at how it affects us in ways that are not very obvious. Stay tuned, and thanks again for your patience!

Since I just finished it at 2:00am here on the east coast of the U.S., I didn’t have time to beat the crap out of it to make 100% sure that everything is absolutely perfect, but I’m pretty sure that I worked out all of the kinks.

Edward over at Evolving Times was kind enough to let me know that there is a small glitch with the search functionality, and I did look into that.

The search is working, but when you click on the results, WordPress is tossing up some funky code that is beyond my present mental state to re-engineer. MANY thanks to Edward for letting me, however, and I promise to get it fixed soon.

However, on that note, I want to let everyone know that I will be out of the loop for the next few days while I take a family trip.

I will do my best to check in from the road, but if I don’t get the chance to do that, I will play catch up on email as well as comment moderation as soon as I get back.

In the meantime, please enjoy the new look, and also please let me know your thoughts!

Leave a comment or send me an email about what you like/don’t like, any glitches that you find, etc.

Also, if you are looking for a new design for your own blog, be sure to show the love to Bartleme Design who masterminded the shell that I used for this site, and to iLemoned, who converted it to a WordPress theme.

Okay, that’s it for me. Stay empowered and happy as I take a few days off, and thank you, as always, for being a reader of this blog.

If it weren’t for you, this site wouldn’t exist!

Happy Trails! 

For that matter, would you agree that there are problems much closer to home, such as your job, your friends, and even your own household?

Most people would answer “yes” to both of those questions, and most people would also back up that answer by pointing out that a whole pile of other people are either the cause of those problems, or that they keep the “problem engine” running by not cleaning up the way that they handle any given set of circumstances.

You will get no argument from me that there are plenty of problems that need to be solved, and I’ll even put my own “stuff” out there by saying that there are plenty of things in my own circle of influence that I would like to see happen differently than they do.

However, what if everything that happens around you is actually your fault? Which, by the way, is another point of view that I subscribe to, at least on a “local” level, if not worldwide.

Awhile ago I put up a post about the self improvement system known as Ho’oponopono. Although Ho’oponopono is based on healing imbalances with others, it is actually a system that is completely internal, and practitioners of that art claim to be able to solve issues with other people without even meeting or talking to them.

There is some very convincing evidence that we have the ability to influence others by working on our own inner-thoughts, and I will recommend that you grab a copy of Zero Limits by Joe Vitale as soon as it is released, and I will also refer you to this excellent post by Steve Pavlina where he gives some examples of how this concept has benefited his life.

For my part, I want to take it one step further, however, and explain a vicious circle that you can find yourself in that will keep replicating itself over and over until you find a way to break out of it.

In a nutshell, Ho’oponopono and similar beliefs state that our surroundings are powered by our own inner beliefs and perceptions of the way that we think things are, or should be.

To keep it “local”, I will stick with the example of your spouse or your significant other.

If you expect that your spouse is going to get mad at you because you spent too much money, or you stayed out too late with your friends, or because you shirked your responsibilities around the house, there is a very real chance that is exactly what you will get because you expect it.

However, the real truth of the matter is that the anger or disappointment that you expect to see in someone else’s eyes is merely a reflection of what you are already feeling.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that you won’t feel 100% happy with yourself if you allow yourself to succumb to a desire that you know for a fact is not in your best interest, or in the best interest of the people that you care about.

So, whenever it comes time to “face the music” with the person that you believe is going to be angry with you or disappointed, most of the time you will find that anger and disappointment waiting right there for you, just as you expected.

Then, to make matters worse, as you have already beaten yourself up (usually without even knowing it) because you know that you did something that wasn’t up to your own personal standards, your spouse or significant other reacts to you in a negative manner about what you did.

Does the term “rubbing salt in an open wound” mean anything to you at this point? Not only have you done something that you consider to be wrong, but then you have to face it out in the open, usually with people that you care about and whose opinions you respect.

It’s like stubbing your toe, and then falling over in pain only to hit your head on the wall on the way down!

Also, this concept is certainly not limited to when you have done something that you consider to be wrong. The same thing applies whenever you see things in other people that do not please you.

When you expect your children to not make enough of an effort in school, you are actually coming face to face with the fact that on some level you feel that your own education is not up to par.

When you expect your co-workers to find the most effective way to cause your job to be more difficult, you are actually choreographing their performance due to the fact that you feel your own work ethic is not high enough, or that you are unhappy about your career status.

When you expect your neighbors to be loud and obnoxious, what you are really coming face to face with is the fact that you have not achieved the level of success that will allow you to live in a big house on a private lot, or that you have self-limiting beliefs about money.

Fortunately, for every instance that you find your negative expectations of others to be 100% fulfilled, you are actually being given a wonderful opportunity. You can help them to be the kind of people that you want to be around, and help yourself at the same time.

All you have to do is start managing your expectations of yourself as well as the people around you in order to keep those expectations at a happier or more harmonious level.

It all starts with you being honest with yourself, and working on your inner beliefs.

The next time someone does something that you find displeasing, simply ask yourself why you find it displeasing. Dig deep and find the true answer, not the answer that you think is appropriate.

As is often the case with self-limiting beliefs, your reaction to the circumstances of your life can be colored by the self-limiting belief, simply because that is what you are used to.

However, by simply coming to terms with your own “inner demons” you will then start to project happiness, confidence, and prosperity to all who are in your immediate vicinity, not to mention the positive vibrations that you will be sending out into the universe as a whole.

So, the next time you get upset with someone, find out why you are actually upset with yourself. You will then have found the path to your own resolution, which will spill over onto every circumstance that is affected by your new level of understanding.

Think about how great it is to have control over every single moment of your life – even the circumstances that right now might seem hopeless!

As you learn more and more about the power of conscious creation, you also learn that you are the one who is solely responsible for the life that you lead – regardless of how good or bad you perceive that life to be.

It is likely that you are familiar with concepts such as positive thinking, visualization, affirmations, and the like. Each of those concepts has a place in your conscious creation efforts if those concepts have value to you.

However, the common mistake that a lot of people make is that they believe everything that they say or do is the “end all, be all” of their self development efforts. They believe that whenever something doesn’t go the way they expected it to, that their time was wasted, and that their self development efforts simply aren’t working.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

In fact, quite the opposite is true. Tony over at the Success from the Nest blog¹ points out a very important fact – that if you don’t take action whenever you are inspired to do so, that you may very well miss that opportunity, and also that the longer you wait to take that action, the harder it will become to actually do so.

When using the Law of Attraction to consciously create your life, Inspired Action is exactly what you are looking for! By focusing on your goals via the aforementioned visualizations, affirmations, positive thinking, etc., inspired action is the “reward” that you get. It is the Universe telling you that NOW – not later – is the time to take action towards your goals.

However, just because you are inspired to take action, that does not necessarily mean that the action you take will lead you directly to your goal, which is where most people falter.

Whenever they take their inspired action, they assume that the action was put in place for the sole purpose of leading them directly to their goal. Yes, the action is meant to lead you towards your goal, however, that does not rule out the fact that you may have to work through other avenues of approach during that process.

It is often the case that the Universe will take you to places where you will learn things that are critical for you to know in order for you to attain whatever you are trying to manifest.

For example, my primary goal is to achieve time and financial freedom via the products, services, and free information that I post in various places on the Internet. Although I have a lot of knowledge about search engine optimization, web development, social bookmarking, etc., I had never previously attempted to actually make a full-time living primarily over the Internet.

As I have focused on my goals and aspirations, I have been led to some incredibly powerful resources that have taught me more about providing value to others, while also monetizing the process.

Although my primary goal is to achieve time and financial freedom by helping others, I have been led to resources that consumed a lot of my time doing what are affectionately known as “non-income producing activities,” also known as “getting the proper education.”

Just last night I had blocked off several hours to blog here on the Today is that Day site, as well as to comment on blogs owned by other people in the self improvement arena. However, starting with one stray link that took me to an article about creating catchy headlines, the next thing I knew I had burned through my entire block of time, and in fact had used more time than I had originally allotted.

Here is the thing, though. The education that I received by following links such as all of those listed below in the CopyBlogger² footnotes, I now have knowledge that will literally serve me for the rest of my life, and will drastically improve my chances of achieving massive success with my online endeavors.

So, even though my primary goal is time and financial freedom, I burned through more time than I had allotted, and I certainly didn’t get paid a dime for the hours that I spent reading through those articles.

However, I listened when I was inspired to read through that information, and now I am not only armed with a wealth of information that I didn’t have before, but my confidence in my ability to achieve my goals is higher than ever.

So, as you go through the efforts of achieving your dreams, and you don’t meet with immediate success, do not give up!

If you are properly focused on what you want to achieve, there will be a very real reason behind every action that you are inspired to take.

Do yourself a favor and listen to your intuition by taking that action!

Footnotes:

1 – Success from the Nest

2 – CopyBlogger Links:

7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work

Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles

How to Write a Killer “How To” Article That Gets Attention

James Arthur Ray uses a phrase in many of his presentations: “It’s not what you do, it’s HOW you do it”, and he has several very entertaining examples of how he has witnessed that concept in his dealings with others.

In fact, he proves the concept beyond a shadow of a doubt by telling these stories in such a fun and interesting way that you want to watch him do it over and over again. It’s not so much the story that is entertaining as it is the WAY that he tells it.

Joe Hauckes over at the Working at Home on the Internet blog brings up a similar concept in his post about how and where your personality or your ego fit into your business dealings. My answer to that is that your personality IS your business, while your ego needs to check itself at the door.

There have been repeated examples of how people have either done business with or done repeated business with someone because of the way that the business owner treated them.

There are probably even more examples of how people have STOPPED doing business with people because of something that the business did wrong. An excellent and horrific example of this is the Bank of America fiasco that was posted over at Boing Boing and many other locations on the ‘net. To date, Bank of America has lost over $50 MILLION DOLLARS because they made a stupid mistake with one of their customers!

All of that being said, these concepts do not just apply to businesses. We have all known people that made us smile, laugh, or maybe just feel comfortable or at peace, and what happened? We wanted to see those people again!

On the flip side, we’ve all known people who “rubbed us the wrong way”, and not only do we not want to see them, but we will sometimes go out of our way NOT to see them!

The concept of handling your life with STYLE is one that I bring up because the majority of us are simply not doing it, and in many cases it is a large part of why we are meeting with limited success in life, both in business as well as in our personal lives.

Life throws so many different things at us that we spend most of our time just dodging bullets when what we really need to be doing is shooting off our own happy pills.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the Law of Attraction is working on our lives at all times – whether we want it to be or not. So, if we are running around just dodging bullets all the time and not taking any time to be happy and become deliberate creators of our lives, then we will simply attract more of doing exactly that.

However, if we proactively go out of our way to treat people well (customers as well as friends and family), if we do our very best to provide a great experience for the people that we interact with, and if we keep up a positive and upbeat demeanor, then guess what the Law of Attraction will bring us?

More of that positive energy!

We get out of life exactly what we put into it. If that is simply reacting to the negativity that surrounds us, then all we will have is a life full of reacting to negativity. I’m here to tell you that at least at this point in the game, there is plenty of that to go around already.

I’m not saying that in order to perpetuate the negativity, but to illustrate the fact that if you want to start deliberately creating a life that is abundant in every way, there is more than enough room for you to stretch your “positive wings” and make it happen!

I am very grateful to be witnessing the fact that our society as a whole is on the edge of a major breakthrough in enlightenment that will be akin to us crawling out of the Dark Ages. The thanks for that fact goes to countless individuals, not the least of which being the army of bloggers, forum posters, and article writers on the Internet who are out there every day spreading the good word.

For you Americans, this whole process works in a similar fashion to voting. It may seem like one vote won’t make a difference, but in the grand scheme of things, one vote can make ALL the difference!

That same thing applies to you interacting with the people in your life using some high-octane personality that will keep them coming back to interact with you again and again. If you impress even ONE person today with your attitude, and that person captures your magic and passes it on to one person, and then that person catches it and passes it on, and so on and so on it goes…

Someone once said that you could network with the entire world if you only knew the right 20 people.

I don’t know about you, but I sure know 20 people, and each one of them would say that I’ve usually got a smile on my face. Can you say the same?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great imagination, but being of the “fixer” mentality, I much prefer to come across some other bit of information, and then decide how to react to it.

My family and friends would probably disagree since I think that I hold the record for taking the longest time in history to respond to an email, but that is another story…

For THIS story, I want to give big props out to the folks over at Creating Passionate Users for supporting a concept that we should all take to heart, and that is one of putting the welfare of the people that we serve above our own interests.

Why is this relevant to the concepts of self improvement? Well, quite simply, because that is the RECIPE for self improvement!

There are as many “schools of thought” on this type of esoteric thinking as you care to take the time to research, but you would consistently find a similar message:

“It is only through helping others that we help ourselves.”

That may seem like rhetorical nonsense to some people, especially those “real men and women create their own luck” die-hards, but the truth of the matter is that helping other people is the shortest route to amazing and long-term success for YOU.

Is there a “cosmic” reason for this? Absolutely, although I will again defer you to doing your own research if you want to see which school of thought you want to believe causes this irrefutable effect.

At the top of the list would be concepts such as Karma and the Law of Attraction, both of which are schools of thought that engender the basic idea that we all create our realities by how we live our lives.

So, if you are a money-hungry, self-centered, arrogant jerk who works VERY hard at your profession, will you make money? Probably.

But you’ll pay it back in the long-run with some not-so-pleasant circumstances manifesting into your life sooner or later.

On the other hand, if you are a “I love the world and the world loves me” type, will you become an instant success? Probably not.

However, if you continue to follow the path of informed positive thoughts and actions, then yes, you will eventually get your just rewards.

I made the word “informed” bold for a reason. I want it to be clear that I am not talking about some blind obsession or belief that “everything is going to be okay as long as I sit here with a smile on my face”.

C’mon – fess up! We’ve all known someone who didn’t have a mean word to say about anyone, and they wouldn’t hurt a fly, but they were just kind of drifting by on a cloud of bliss. They blissfully didn’t realize that in today’s world, you have to take a more proactive – although positive – approach to your existence.

p.s. – If you are one of the people that I just described, please see me after class.

So, getting back to what any of this has to do with self improvement. Here is a question that you can ask yourself (again with props to the folks over at CPU):

In your day to day life – at work, or at home – what do you do for other people?

And before I alienate every stay at home parent, soccer mom, or professional cab driver, let me clarify:

What do you do above and beyond the responsibilities that you have created for yourself?

If you wanted a family, and you now have one, don’t think that feeding, clothing, and rearing the children is “above and beyond the call of duty”. You chose that path.

If you have a job that costs you 60-hours per week of your time, yet you chose that job – or you choose to stay there – that is, once again, a path that YOU have chosen.

The question that I am asking goes beyond all of that. What are you doing differently than everyone else in your same situation? How are you making a difference in the world by looking out for the needs of others? Do you go to sleep each night telling yourself that you did “just enough to get by”, or do you fall asleep content that you did “everything in your power to help others”?

I will sum this up by referring quickly back to Karma, the Law of Attraction, or whatever cosmic power gives you your personal “what comes around goes around” beliefs.

If you are in the crowd that falls asleep with the “just enough” mentality, there is a very real thing that the world is going to give you in return.

Yes, you’re right. The great gift that you are going to get from the world is….

Drum roll please….

Just enough.

Or, you could go to bed each night saying that you did “everything in your power” that day to help the world as a whole.

And wouldn’t it be nice to have the world as a whole giving you something nice to wake up to the next morning?

Something to think about…