Having a dream or a goal worth failing for is a sure reason for not quitting. Let me give you a powerful example then I’ll follow it up with more examples and finally a personal experience of my own.

Milt Campbell was an Olympic athlete. In 1952, in Helsinki, Finland he won a silver medal in the decathlon, a grueling series of events. But a silver medal was still one place short of where Milt wanted to be.

In 1956, Milt Campbell came to Melbourne, Australia. For four long years he was the reigning silver medallist - second best in the world. But he wanted to be the best. History tells that he achieved just that. In Melbourne, Milt won the gold medal. Here is a fantastic revelation that he made:

"Many of the athletes against whom I competed in high school were far superior to me, but they quit."

How powerful is that statement given the knowledge that you now have about this amazing man? What does it tell you?

Others have displayed similar persistence in the pursuit of their dreams. Colonel Harland Sanders was rejected by hundreds of restaurant owners before he came up with the concept of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Thomas Edison said he didn’t fail 10,000 times to produce an electric light globe. He said he had merely found 10,000 ways not to make one.

If you know what you want and that goal is so powerful to you then there is a simple formula for success - don’t quit. Winners never quit and quitters never win. In the words of the immortal Winston Churchill: "Never, never, never, never give up."

Are you prepared never to quit, never to give up and never to surrender in the pursuit of your life goal? Let me tell you - I am not. Allow me a few paragraphs now to tell you a little bit about one of my own experiences.

All my life I have wanted to write. It has been a constant theme right through everything else I have ever done. I am a compulsive writer. I have written so many magazine articles, a dozen books, hundreds of Editorial Letters and countless short stories.

One of my short stories "The Power of Choice" is now in e-book format. This story has been sent from my various websites to thousands of people in dozens and dozens of countries all over the world. It has received remarkable accolades from so many people from as far as the UK to Iceland to Canada to the USA. I have pages and pages of emails from people telling me how the story affected them in such a positive manner.

Many have credited my fifteen-minute story with turning their lives around. When I receive these comments it is very humbling for me to know that something I have penned has so deeply affected the way other people view their lives from that point on.

Why am I telling you this? To pat myself on the back? To "big note" myself? No. None of that. I’m sharing this with you here to let you know that I have intimate personal experience with the subject I am writing about. You see, I could so easily have thrown my story into a drawer for it never to be shared with anyone. But I didn’t. I believed in it. I persisted with it. Boy oh boy, did I persist with it!

Before making Power of Choice available directly from my website I originally wanted it to be published traditionally - paper and ink. So many times I would eagerly await an envelope from a prospective publisher only to be confronted with one rejection slip after another. Heh… I could wallpaper a room with them all.

I could have quit dozens of times over. But I didn’t. Now, instead, I receive weekly emails full of compliments. Do you think that I am still concerned about all those rejection slips? Nah! Now, I wear them like a badge of honor. I have had the last say. I have triumphed.

Now that I have given you several examples, including one of my own, my thoughts turn to you. Your goal must be pursued with relentlessness. Are you willing to keep on failing your way to success? I hope so - because that is what it takes.

What goal is so big and so important in your life that you are prepared to fail over and over again in your pursuit of it? Let me tell you - when you find such a goal nothing will stop you from succeeding. Nothing! You can do it. Milt Campbell did it. Colonel Sanders did it. Thomas Edison did it. Tens of thousands of others have done it. I have done it. And if I can do it then so can you!

This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

About the author: Gary Simpson is the author of eight books covering a diverse range of subjects such as self esteem, affirmations, self defense, finance and much more. His articles appear all over the web. Gary’s email address is budo@iinet.net.au. Click here to go to his Motivation & Self Esteem for Success website where you can receive his "Zenspirational Thoughts" plus an immediate FREE copy of his highly acclaimed, life-changing e-book "The Power of Choice."

The Fear of Change has many negative consequences on one’s life. These include all of the following:

1. Perpetuates unfulfilling relationships,

2. Enslaves one in endless self destructive habits,

3. Suffocates one’s creative potential,

4. Leaves one feeling helpless to the whims and expectations of others,

5. Keeps one imprisoned in work that tortures the heart and the soul,

6. Stifles one’s passion for life,

7. Leads to frustration, hopelessness and depression, and last but not least,

8. Leads one to give up on life itself.

Interestingly however how many times have you heard yourself or others say something like, the fear of change protects me from the unknown and thereby keeps me safe and secure? Well if this were true then it would follow that if you are carrying something "on board" that is protecting you in this way, you should not only feel free to try out new things, situations, behaviors, etc but that this would ultimately make you feel confident, carefree and able to fully expand your life in any way you desired.

This however isn’t the case is it? If it was, you wouldn’t have been drawn to this article because it would have absolutely no relevance for you, would it? The fact that you are reading this suggests that you already know that the fear of change is destroying your life. You are probably also becoming aware that the "rationalizations" (see the previous paragraph) you have been buying into do not in any way support the truth about what the fear of change is doing to your life.

There is now a new process called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) which can help you become free of the fear of change once and for all. Yes, you read that correctly! If you want such an experience then please visit the web link below.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called "Spirituality And Science" (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of "Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation" (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

Business URL #1: http://www.telecoaching4u.com

Personal URL: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/Spirituality_And_Science.htm

Feeling miserable can drain you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I know. I’ve been there. Not just once either.

Looking back upon those times I can pinpoint why. And you will be no different. You see, if you are listless, feel drained of energy, have little vitality and don’t want to spring out of bed in the morning you are suffering from a lack of something. You lack a goal.

Having a goal will rejuvenate you. All of a sudden you have something to look forward to, something to occupy your time. The day will go faster because your mind will be absorbed thinking up ways and methods to achieve your goal.

Often you will feel miserable after having achieved a significant goal. Yes, you will be euphoric for a little while but then you realize that there is a void. You have gone from something back to nothing.

That is why I recommend that you structure your goals in the following way:

1. a big goal that requires significant time and effort to bring to fruition
2. a medium sized goal that you can switch to when you need a rest from your main goal
3. a small goal that can be achieved reasonably quickly.

Having long, medium and short-term goals will allow you to have variation. Whenever one goal is exhausting you it is easy to switch your focus onto something else to freshen up. Small goals are excellent because they get you into what I call "the achievement routine."

Keep a journal of your goals and write it up whenever significant timelines or guideposts are passed. Get a nice looking journal and write neatly into it. Spend a bit of money on it and put a nice cover on it headed "GOALS."

Upon achieving a goal enter a paragraph or two into your journal about how it made you feel and what benefits you derived from the experience. Whenever you feel like you "just can’t be bothered" - and, hey, we all get like that sometimes - get out your goals journal. Read your comments. That will inspire you. Soon you will have your energy back.

I will close by addressing those folk who feel as though they are perpetually miserable. Hear this - "GET A GOAL!" Make it your goal to get a goal.

This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

About the author: Gary Simpson is the author of eight books covering a diverse range of subjects such as self esteem, affirmations, self defense, finance and much more. His articles appear all over the web. Click here to go to his Motivation & Self Esteem for Success website where you can receive his "Zenspirational Thoughts" plus an immediate FREE copy of his highly acclaimed, life-changing e-book "The Power of Choice." But go here if you want to find out how you can get a goal worth spending your time on.

Many people choose a goal, a plan, and pump themselves up enough to take action … for a while. But most people find that their focus varies from day to day and circumstance to circumstance. In fact, most people eventually lose their focus altogether and fall right off the horse.

Remember the last time you fell off the horse? What did you do? If you were able to muster up enough focus you got back on the horse, no big deal. Being on the horse and getting on the horse require focus; that’s the point of having the horse!

So how do you get focus and keep it?

One way is to remind yourself not only of what your goal is, but why, exactly, you have the goal. Your goal should be written down somewhere you’ll see it every morning and every night. But don’t stop there! Loss of focus isn’t likely to happen in the middle of the night or while you’re getting ready for work. Keep a “goal card.” This is a note card with your goal written on it. Keep it in your pocket and read it throughout the day. Through experience I’ve found that my focus was lost during certain circumstances. If my goal was to lose weight, it was difficult to pass on the invitation to have lunch with friends at a restaurant I knew wouldn’t serve me anything on my diet. This was an important time to take a “goal break” in the restroom (for privacy) and read my goal card. Why is it that I want to pass on this invitation? Oh right, it’s because I want to lose weight because I want to look and feel better. And exactly how is that going to feel? This is the time to shut your eyes – remember, you’re in a private place, like the restroom – and imagine how you’ll feel when you’ve lost that weight … or whatever your goal may be.

Side note: I need to clarify something. If you’ve agreed to do something (i.e., lunch) and then gone on your secret goal break and decided against your agreement, it IS okay to come back out and tell people you’ve changed your mind. Maybe you’re not feeling well or you remembered you have to run to the bank for lunch, etc. Or maybe you’re not bashful about your goal and you don’t mind telling them point-blank that you’re not going because you’re on a diet.

Repeated Exposure

Your number one tool for maintaining focus is repeated exposure to the feelings you expect to experience when your goal is accomplished. Read your goal morning and night, keep a goal card on you at all times, and don’t hesitate to read it at various times throughout the day.

Experience your goal!

When you read your goal card, morning, night, and in between, don’t just read it – experience it! Think about how it’s going to feel when you accomplish this goal. Saying, “It’s going to feel great when I have a million dollars,” just doesn’t quite capture the moment of your future accomplishment. Close your eyes and really experience the goal.

Support from others

Enlisting the support of other people is a great way to keep you on track and improve your confidence in your ability to accomplish the goal (I call this Goal Confidence). Tell a friend about your goal and ask them to say something to you every day that uses the phrase “… when you achieve [state your goal here].” For example, if you want to have a million dollars, your friend needs to say something to you like, “It’s going to be great when you have that million dollars!” Instruct them to be serious about this and not get cute with their phrases. This is a very effective tool for goal accomplishment.

Support groups are another great resource. If you believe one exists, look for a group of people who want to accomplish the same goal as you. The members of this group should encourage each other as well as help each other come up with new creative ways to accomplish the goal or overcome obstacles to the goal. If you’re unable to find a support group for your goal, consider looking for a group at MyGoalGroups.com.

Mark your calendar!

Marking your calendar with important dates such as milestones, obstacles, or other goal related events will keep you focused on the big picture. If you have a support group, consider sharing your important dates with the other members.

Fall off the horse?

Everyone falls off sometime. Remember: It’s just a horse. Climb back on and use those spurs!

Micah Morris is the founder of http://www.MyGoalGroups.com. At one point in his life Micah was homeless and pennyless. He has used goal setting goal planning and imagination to completely rebuild his life. He now wishes to share with others the techniques he used to create his own success. Because of the deeply personal nature of his goal setting experiences Micah is very passionate about the process of achievement.

In The One Minute Millionaire, authors Hansen and Allen state that in order for success to be achieved one must establish congruence. Congruence is when things come into alignment, but not just arbitrary things, three very specific things. First, your desire…you have to want it. Second, your belief…you have to believe (have faith) that you can get it. Lastly, self-acceptance… you have to know and feel that you deserve to have it.

They sound simple, and it’s easy to understand the reasoning behind them, but this is why so much self-sabotage occurs. One thinks that they’re in alignment, while suppressing a tiny niggling fear or question of doubt. Just one such doubt or a wishy-washy thought on one of any of the three key areas is enough to de-rail your success.

So how does one overcome the doubts and defeat self-sabotage?

When Desire is Your Nemesis

Explore if you’ve really bought-in to your goal. Is it your goal or someone else’s? Will it make you happy, or are you trying to fulfill an obligation, taking an easy way out, or just not feeling 100% about it? A classic example of this is when a son or daughter follows a career path to please a parent, even though they’d prefer to do something different. Make sure your goal is truly your heart’s desire.

Do you really believe that?

Wanting a goal and believing that you can actually achieve the goal are as different as night and day. Many people want success, but how many really believe that they can become the next Donald Trump or Bill Gates? It’s not lack of desire, but lack of belief. Perhaps they are not sure how to proceed with the goal, or are unable to see how to afford the education to get started, or think they don’t know the right people to contact. Whichever the case, these scenarios all work to weaken the belief system. Work on confidence building and add tools to your arsenal to combat limiting beliefs. If you approach your goal from what you DO have instead of what you think you don’t have a positive shift will occur.

But am I Really Worthy?

Do you ask yourself if you’re worthy to succeed? Many people compare themselves to the previous generation. "My parents had a very small home and only one car. My spouse and I have a 3,000 sq. ft. home, two cars, 1 or 2 incomes, and a boat, so we should be happy." Why? Should you be happy with less than you could achieve simply because it is more than others have? Only you can answer that question for yourself. Perhaps there is an underlying belief that wealth is the equivalent to greed? If you don’t believe that you deserve to have success and everything that comes with it, success will remain elusive.

Congruence

Congruence is the key to reaching all of your goals successfully, whether they are goals of career, personal growth, or love. Triumph stems from your inner perceptions. Getting to know yourself honestly and wholly can unlock the doors to the happiness and success that until now, you’ve only dreamed about.

Eva Gregory is the author of The Feel Good Guide to Prosperity. All rights reserved.

Growing up, I was always told that I should not accept second best in life. We only have one shot at life, as far as we know at present, therefore you need to make the most of it. This article talks about this subject.

At the age of around twelve, I was bought a five foot snooker table for my birthday. This was something I had wanted for quite a long time and I have to say, it is probably the best present I was ever bought and I quickly became hooked on playing the game.

I would play snooker, either with friends or on my own, I did not care. My dream was to be the next Steve Davis, however I was aware that the chances of this happening were extremely slight.

Around six months later, I joined a local snooker hall with three of my friends, this is where we could play on full size tables. The sheer size of the tables came as quite a shock and at the start it was difficult to pot even what should have been the simple shots. The table was twelve foot by six foot which was more than twice the size of my table at home.

We started to play every week. We were very impressed with the club and found out that it offered free coaching for children under the age of sixteen on a Saturday morning. The coach who was called Glen and who was aged around thirty at the time asked us if we would like to attend. He was a larger than life character and a very good snooker player. We all decided to turn up on the next Saturday, it was free after all. There were snooker tournaments every month as well as coaching and they gave us free drinks and toast.

The first aim of all of the people who played on the Saturday morning was to score a twenty break as not one of us had ever had a twenty break. I was extremely determined that it would be me and listened carefully to what I was being taught and tried hard to implement it into my game.

My progress was quite rapid and to my amazement I was the first person to score that elusive twenty break. People around the snooker table I was playing on started to applaud and I was walking around with a beaming smile on my face. I felt on top of the world.

Glen who was on the other side of the room wondered over to find out what all of the noise was about. I thought he would be so proud of me and happy at my achievement, however he stated that if I could score twenty, I could score thirty. He told me to stop messing about and smiling, and to re-concentrate on the job in hand.

I had been brought straight back down to earth and was a bit gutted to say the least. This lesson was a very good one for me to learn at such an early age and I eventually went on to have breaks of over one hundred.

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

http://www.natural-health-cure.co.uk
http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk
http://www.stress-management-game.co.uk

How many times have you started a diet or health plan only to quit after a few weeks? Maybe more often that you’d like to admit! How can you set yourself up for success and limit the temptation to quit? Plan well!

Once you have decided on your goals or what it is you’re trying to achieve there are some tips that can help you succeed.

Work on one goal at a time. Don’t cause yourself stress trying to make too many changes at the same time. Possibly some of the things you are trying to change are die-hard habits that need to be tackled slowly and consistently for the desired changes to become the new habit.

Break down your goals into smaller pieces. For example, focus on the half a kilo you want to lose this week compared to the 20 kilos all up.

Tackle only one piece at a time. Have you ever heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” (One piece at a time!!) Biting off more than you can chew will only set you up to quit. To succeed, work on one small piece of your goal and only move on to the next step when the first step is complete.

Prepare and plan for obstacles. What will you do WHEN (not if) you get offered a slice of chocolate cake while on your diet? What will you do when it’s raining outside and you were planning to go for a walk? By planning ahead you won’t be put off or tempted to quit when obstacles arise.

Don’t give up if you slip up. So you don’t lose your half a kilo this week, don’t quit, just start from where you left off and learn from the slip up. Why did this happen? What will you do to prevent it happening again?

Celebrate every success. Every step towards your goal is a success. Reminding yourself of that and celebrating every success will help you stay in action and leave you feeling proud of what you’ve achieved. Reward yourself with every weekly step you accomplish. Go to the Day Spa, visit a friend, buy a small treat, whatever will reward you for your accomplishment.

Get support. You’ve heard it said that two heads are better than one so share your goals with others. Being accountable to others curbs the temptation to quit. Who can support you? Friends, can you find a diet buddy? Join a support group (diet group/health club etc). Or get the help of a professional such as a Dietician, Counsellor or Life Coach.

This week set up a plan of success. Work out what obstacles will get in your way of succeeding and how you will combat these. Above all set yourself up for success and limit the temptation to quit!

"Lisa Branigan is a certified Life Coach helping successful women create a less pressured, more enjoyable lifestyle." She is a speaker, writer, new coach mentor, regular guest on ABC radio and contributor to magazines and newspapers. Lisa enjoys coaching women to improve their health and life in personal phone sessions, working with leaders in acquiring coaching skills for professional use and helping new coaches feel the fear and do it anyway!

Contact Lisa for a "FREE" 30-minute phone coaching session and get started on achieving your goals today!

Email: lisa@quantumcoaching.com.au
Website: http://www.quantumcoaching.com.au/

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else” said Benjamin Franklin. There is a lot of truth in this quote. Those, whom tend to be successful in life, do not get there by making negative excuses to themselves about how they can’t get there. In fact they do the opposite.

If you want to do something in life, there is no doubt that you will find a way. If on the other hand you don’t want to do something, you will always find an excuse. At times you want to achieve something in life, but are cluttered by your own negative excuses telling you why you cannot achieve what you are after.

I have two rules concerning excuses that I use to help me gain what I look for in life. First rule is:

1. Instead of making excuses why you cannot do something, make excuses telling yourself why and how you can do something.

This is a very important guideline or law if you like, that you must adopt into your lifestyle. Now picture for instance that you had this particular goal:

“I want to lose weight”

There are an unlimited amount of excuses out there that one can apply on themselves such as:

“It’s too hard for me, I work 9-5”

or “I cannot afford it”

or “I have a family and it requires strict dedication, my life is already busy as it is”

Now with this rule your excuses are the exact opposite. Hence, in order to lose weight and achieve your goal, you must learn to turn those excuses around to assist you. Make excuses stating how you can lose weight. Make sure to constantly remind your self of all the great rewards you will gain when you achieve your desired goal. Very importantly, inform yourself of the great significance of this goal how you can not go on without achieving it.

Remember, for just about anything in this world, there’s an excuse or a negative spin you can put on it. All it really takes is a shift in attitude, and the change it makes in your life is worth more than anything in the world. Therefore, change the way you think about your excuses. Instead of looking for excuses to avoid exercise, start looking for excuses TO exercise.

The second rule of mine was actually adopted from the world’s undisputed Light Welterweight boxing champion Kostya Tszyu, where he said:

2. “Never ever make excuses”

This is a strict and concise rule that requires much more practice to master. When you have a goal in mind, never ever use excuses. Just go out there and do what has to be done, keep consistent and disciplined in order to accomplish what you desire.

“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.” - Don Wilder

One of the most difficult aspect of all this, is being self aware of the times you are actually making these excuses to your self. Many people go on through life utilizing excuses to stop themselves from achieving greatness without even noticing. Consequently, you must be self aware of all excuses used at all times in order to adapt one of the 2 rules discussed above.

IMPORTANT: Instead of being a master of excuses, you must learn to master your excuses.

Mark Machaalani is the co-founder of the best online Self Help website http://www.accomplishlife.com. Mark has an ardent interest in Self Help and Personal Development and aids people all over the globe through personal and private self help coaching at no cost at all. Mark can be contacted via email at mark@accomplishlife.com

Why is it that 95% of people who set themselves goals fail to reach them? In one word: impatience.

The most important and difficult stage of goal-building is the immediate stage after you set your goals. In the first stage, there’s a brief blip of euphoria. But this soon passes and then you hit the arid plateau of learning. It’s in this phase that most people lose their way and give up.

But this is the phase when you have to hang in there despite appearances. Otherwise, it’s like digging up the seeds a week after sowing them. So, here, for those who need a roadmap through the arid plains of goal-building, is a 6-step guide to managing your impatience and keeping your plans on track.

1. Have Plenty of Motivation Reminders. One of the cruel tricks that life plays on us is to make goal-setting easy and goal-building hard. This is no more true than in the opening phases of working towards a new goal. When we choose a new goal that seems within our reach, we are full of excitement and anticipation. It’s like the start of a marathon when everyone cheers us over the start line. But the cheers soon become a distant memory when we move into the second phase, the hard slog. It’s in this phase that we need to have a ready supply of motivation reminders to keep us going. Here’s one I often use. It’s from Ray Kroc, founder of the global restaurant chain McDonald’s. Kroc was an amazing entrepreneur. He says that it is in the early stages of working towards a new goal that you learn the most: “When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot.”

2. Be A Fly, Not A Bee. The chief problem with the early stages of goal-building is that you can never be sure of the right way forward, particularly if you are breaking new ground. You try something and it doesn’t work. You try again and it doesn’t work again. And again. And again. That’s tough. But it’s essential. Because you’re learning. Karl Weick says that in this situation it is much better to be a fly than a bee. When you place a fly and a bee in an upturned jam jar, the bee will head straight for the light and repeatedly buzz against the bottom of the glass. The fly on the other hand will dive frantically around the jar exploring every corner until he finds a way out. That’s the example to follow when you want to succeed: be a fly, not a bee.

3. Accept The Struggle. Those who are eager to succeed often treat the second phase of goal-building as an unnecessary waste of time. They would prefer to skip it and jump to the next phase of success. But this is to misunderstand the whole point of the second phase. It’s there to toughen you up. You may have heard the story of “The Man and the Butterfly” about the man who saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. To help it out, the man cut a bigger hole in the cocoon and pulled the butterfly through. However, instead of flying away, the butterfly was unable to fly. Its body was too swollen. What the man did not understand was that the butterfly’s struggle to emerge through the hole forces fluid from its body to its wings and thus makes them strong and ready to carry its weight. Like the butterfly, we need to struggle to succeed.

4. Be Objective. In stage two of goal-building, it’s valuable to stand back and distance ourselves from what’s going on. We need to be tripeds not bipeds. Bipeds are people who see only themselves and others. Risk-taking is a do-or-die undertaking. Progress is either a triumph or disaster. Life is black and white, winning or losing. Tripeds, on the other hand, can distance themselves from their situation by finding a third position where they can observe things with objectivity. Life isn’t either-or any more. It has depth, colour, and many angles.

5. Don’t Judge Yourself. Our win-lose culture puts great pressure on us to consider ourselves at any moment in life as either winners or losers. This means that failure is a bad thing and winning is everything. One of the most quoted expressions in our modern culture is: “Failure is not an option”. But this is to misunderstand the real nature of success. We need to fail in order to succeed. And we need to fail big-time in order to succeed big-time. Practically every successful entrepreneur, from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, experienced failure many times over. But they didn’t judge themselves. They interpreted failure as “not succeeding yet” and saw it as just one more step on the road to success.

6. Manage Your Morale. Of course, it’s not always much fun to be stuck in the hard slog phase of goal-building. Nobody’s cheering any more. You have nothing to show for your efforts. And the dream still feels as far away as ever. That’s when you have to manage your morale. That means managing your stress, keeping things light, and working on the things you can’t see: your thinking patterns, your emotions, and your spirit. And, like the fluid in the butterfly, these may just be the things that will make you fly. “I can say: “I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won’t do it.” Or I could say: “Get used to being uncomfortable.” It is uncomfortable doing something risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?” (Barbra Streisand)

We human beings are very similar to the plant world. We grow best when we work with Nature and time. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to achieve your goals. If you hold on with faith, certainty, and determination, you’ll get there in due course when the time is right.

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

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Everybody has bad habits. Everybody. Now granted, some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them. What is great is that we don’t have to!

Imagine a life where you couldn’t change? What kind of life would that be? But we can, so let’s!

There are two kinds of bad habits: Those you know you have that others may or may not know about, and those you don’t know you have but everybody else knows you have!

For the sake of everybody involved we ought to get rid of them all, right?

Well Chris, how can I get rid of a bad habit if I don’t know I have it? Simple, but hard. Ask somebody to be brutally honest with you! You might think, "Yeah, but I’ll be embarrassed." Would you rather everyone talk behind your back? Get up the courage and ask. Ask somebody who loves you and has your best interest in mind. Be gracious and don’t defend your self. Just accept it and work on it.

What about the ones we know about - which are all of them once your good friend tells you the ones you were missing? Those are the tough ones. How do I know they are tough? They must be tough if you know about them and yet you still have them! If they weren’t tough, they would be FORMER bad habits! Got me? Good!

So how do you break a bad habit? How do you give it the boot out of your life? Here are a few things that must be a part of the plan in order to see that stuff gone forever!

1. You must want them to go. That’s right, some people want them to stick around. I have seen dads choose alcohol over their grandchildren. I have seen smokers continue smoking while watching their parents die of emphysema. They don’t want them to go. The first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, "Do I really want to give this up?"

2. You do? Good. Step two: Make up a list of all of the reasons you want to quit your bad habits. Make them positive. Make the list long! Start with the really powerful and dramatic if you need to. Now memorize them. Put them in your mind. You are making connections between stopping the bad behavior with what good things you will get from doing so. If you want to lose weight, then picture yourself slim and looking good in those skinny people clothes! If you want to stop smoking, picture your wife actually kissing you rather than sending you to the bathroom to brush your teeth!

3. Choose. That is right. Once you have the information, this comes down to one thing: It is an act of the will. Choose to do it. Say to yourself throughout the day, "I am choosing to…" Eisenhower rightly said, "The history of free men is written not by chance but by choice, their choice." It is your choice. You can write your history.

4. Take action! Point four is tricky because there are two philosophies about this. One theory is that you must take massive action. You must go all or nothing. Using the weight loss example, this person would go spend $500 to join a gym, rework their schedule and hit the treadmill everyday for a year. They will get rid of all fat in the house. They go all out! That works for some. Others would burn out on that, feel like failures and be worse off than before. They should start out slow, taking baby steps, but working diligently toward a planned goal. This person would decide to start walking three days a week. They would decide to limit dessert to two nights a week, down from seven. See how this works? Either way is okay as long as you get to the goal eventually. Which one am I? The first two people to email me with the correct guess will win a "Best Test" CD.

5. Tell somebody. This is your accountability partner. Tell them your goal and tell them your plan. Write it down for them and have them ask you on regular intervals about your progress. This will prove invaluable!

6. Recover from failure. Inevitably most people will have setbacks. The key is to have them be setbacks and not turnbacks! Pick yourself up and get going again. Some people may want to lose 30 pounds and after losing fifteen they eat a gallon of ice cream. Then they feel bad and give up. Don’t! Reset your goal for another two weeks and get going again. Chalk it off to experience! Say to yourself, "Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn."

7. Reward yourself. That’s right. You should regularly congratulate yourself by rewarding yourself with some gift to yourself. Start small with small victories and plan a big one when you are finally and for sure over the habit.

Is it that simple? Most of the time, no. Habits are hard to break. There are so many intangibles that it would be hard to cover them all. But this is a simple and workable plan that will help you make great strides if you apply the principles.

Get going! Give those bad habits a boot! Good luck!

About The Author:

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams.

To see Chris "live" at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on the subject of Secrets of Influence go to http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.