Tag Archives: Habit

Another day has passed

Another day has passed and it is late again. And yes, I did some useful things for Inspiration for Success lately, even today, as e.g. I changed the categories into tags in my personal blog. And I think last Saturday I added two sites to the page about top inspirational sites. And just now I added a paragraph about not so inspirational sites on that page, even though after writing it I realized it was kind of a negative paragraph and I try to avoid negative things.

But right now, with this post, with my daily post, I am still confused and a bit lost how to continue with it. As I want it to be inspirational and not some kind of complaining diary, even though while writing this that is kind of the origin of my daily writing of a post in this site. As I wanted to take you with me on my journey to success, so you would know how I got there, through all my struggles and doubts and such. I wanted you to find my site, my writing based on what I am going through, or was going through, as when you read this of course today and my current situation are past history.

So where do I stand with this, with my journey towards success? In my feeling not that good, as I still don’t have money, my business is still not doing well and my relationship could also still be better. But on the other hand, ‘only’ two years have passed since my deepest down in life, since I had the feeling I had nothing left, no relationship, no money, no friends, no place to stay, no nothing. But even though in a more material way I didn’t make any progress, in a spiritual way I did. As somehow my mindset changed and somehow I developed self confidence. And I am wore aware of my negativity, my negative thoughts and feelings, meaning I have developed awareness of those things and that means again that I can change them, control them. As indeed, the start with those things is awareness, as of course if you’re not aware of how negative your thoughts are and how negative (or positive) thoughts influence or even define your life, you can’t make changes.

So yes, I made quite some progress. But still, if I compare myself with Justin Bieber or Leonar DiCaprio or Steven Spielberg(?!) or many other people who became famous or rich at a relative young age, then I am far behind. Ah, and of course I forget people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. And I guess these people are exceptions, just being fortunate enough to be somehow priviliged being born at the right time, being at the right place at the right time with the right skills and meeting the right people and such.

And don’t get me wrong, this is not contrary to the Principles of Success I am writing about. As these principles say that you somehow can create your own break, meet your own right people and be in the right place at the right time. Except for the average person that may take a little longer than for those famous people who did something very fast or at very young age. It may take up to twenty or thirty years for the bigger kinds of dreams and successes and this figure is mentioned by Napoleon Hill himself, but also e.g. by Seth Godin.

So well, I guess there is hope, for you as well as for me, if you did not achieve the success you are looking for yet. Even though once I was taught ‘there is no hope’, which I guess is very true. Again, confirmed by Napoleon Hill and many, most or all successful people. As Napoleon Hill states that ‘there is no such thing like something for nothing’ and most famous and successful work or have worked very hard to get where they are. And no, I don’t believe in ‘hard work’. On the contrary, as there were periods in my life where I worked very hard and very long. And it did bring me money, quite a bit, but certainly no lasting success.

So right now I believe more in doing what you love and following your heart. And then the ‘work’ goes by itself.

So listen to your heart first, if you didn’t do that yet.

How to write an inspiring post

Leave a reply

Yes, it is still in my mind how to write an inspiring post. And I still don’t know how to do that, as it is quite late and I don’t feel like writing. But of course that is none of your business as an inspiring post should inspire you, and knowing about my current feeling or status is probably not that inspiring. Or is it?

As I just finished installing Caesar IV on the PC of a friend of mine. And over the day that started to worry me, as it was one of the few things on my planning list for today. And it was supposed to be a pretty straightforward thing as I had done it before on one of our own PC’s here. So I knew a bit what to expect, except the PC of my friend runs Windows 8 where our own PC I installed Caesar IV on runs Windows 7. But as the game, a pretty old game not made for newer versions of Windows, ran on Windows 7 without too many problems, I expected the installation a bit similar to the one before, not really straightforward, but doable within a few hours and without too much effort. How wrong I was, as the installation of .NET 3.X is quite different on Windows 8 compared to Windows 7. And it needed to download something, which didn’t work and that didn’t make much sense to me.

Anyhow, I did manage to install the game, and that is kind of the inspiring part of this post. As I used quite some of the Principles of Success to get this task done today. At first I used the principle of decision, as I decided quite a while ago that I will finish my daily to do list, no matter what. And I have become pretty good at that, as it is very rare that I fail to finish all the items on the list that I have marked as ‘definite’. So with this list I have developed the habit of planning things and finishing them at the time specified. And keep in mind that this is not particularly difficult, as when I started with this habit I started with just one little thing per day. So I was 99% sure I could finish that thing. And I did that for quite a while, weeks, if not months, to get started with this.

And still, recently I didn’t feel like doing a lot of things. And I have been on a short holiday. So for the last weeks, months, my daily planning has been pretty empty, like many days where I planned nothing. And over time I learned to specify things more specific, like adding the word ‘maybe’ or ‘probably’ or stating something like ‘if pushes through’. As I noticed that for some things you depend on other people and as I don’t think it is healthy to force other people to follow your planning I am very careful making statements about that (thanks Mike, for pointing out to me how this works).

So also today I thought I had a pretty simple list that could easily be finished. How wrong I was, as somewhere during the evening I really started to believe that this game installation might not work out today. However, for those things the principle of persistence comes in handy, together with the earlier mentioned decision. As those two things just made me push through where other people, or I myself before I learned all this, would stop, would declare defeat or failure. But I didn’t, as somehow I have developed to just go further, a lot further, than I used to before. And finally it did work out, although in this case it might not have worked out today. But it did.

And most important what I learned, what I can confirm also from what Napoleon Hill and many other famous ‘self help’ writers state, is that it doesn’t really take a lot of effort or energy. As it is just a habit I developed. It is just ‘something I do’.

So well, even though it is later than I wanted, expected, and even though I feel a bit tired and didn’t really feel to write a post, I think I managed to write something useful which even might be inspiring. So maybe I am also slowly developing the habit of writing, writing inspiring posts. How successful is that?

And what about you? Do you finish things? Have you developed habits that help you finish things? And yes, looking back it is all worth the effort. As with all these things I have changed, where the major change has been that I have an awful lot more self confidence, which I think is a big thing.

I need a break

Leave a reply

I need a break today.

What a day!

Leave a reply

Wow, what a day was today. And the day started very bad as i felt very bad when I woke up. And I was kind of scared, scared for the things that I had planned for today. And of course feeling bad made me stay in bed for a while, as usual, as I mostly wake up with a very bad feeling, feeling very bad. And of course that made it worse, made me feel guilty an more anxious, as I know part of the day the electricity is off, also in the city, so it might be off at the lawyer I needed for what I had planned for today. And I didn’t really know another lawyer to do what i wanted to be done, so it had to be this one, preferably. And of course my fear became reality, as the moment I arrived at the lawyer the electricity was off. So he couldn’t check and print the draft statement that I had made and wanted to have notarized.

But that was unimportant, looking back. And you may guess, again today i did all the things i had planned to do, including having this statement finished and notarized and sent. And looking back it wasn’t that bad, and somehow, even though I was late, I had built in quite some safety nets, but maybe more important, I was and am somehow determined to finish the things I am planning for a day. And yes, I am still careful how to plan and state those things, as I want to really make it a habit to finish the things i have planned for a day. And I’m becoming pretty good at it, as today proofs.

And somehow it’s the determination, the knowing that I am going to do something, the knowing that i am going to finish something, that makes it work. As today, despite my bad feeling and my feeling somehow not to want to do what I had planned to do, didn’t stop me. i left the house, yes late, but i left the house on the way to do the things I wanted to do, had planned to do. And no, I didn’t do them efficiently, as it took me part of the morning and most of the afternoon to just finish, print and send two letters. But i did it, and the weird thing was that when I was finished, when the second letter was on the way, I felt very satisfied. And another weird thing was that it hadn’t even taken as much time as I thought it would, even though there were many hurdles like the electricity not working at the lawyer when I arrived there the first time. An another weird thing was that I wasn’t affected that much when I arrived and my biggest fear had become reality. I just got the information and found another way to get done what i wanted to have done. And just continued on my quest on finishing what I wanted to finish, no matter what, like finishing my draft and printing the final product somewhere else. And when I came back the electricity was already back, earlier than expected. So I could have just stayed and have my document finished at the lawyer, which was my original plan. And that’s another weird thing I experienced today, as while being on the way to finish my letters and the document, I just kept thinking about alternatives, like finding another lawyer or finding another way to print, or getting the information I still needed to finish the document.

As I was just determined to finish what I wanted to finish, no matter what!

And yes, that also is still boosting my confidence, my self confidence. As with every day I finish what I planned to do, I feel stronger.

And remember, this is also something i believe you can learn if you want. As most of my life, looking back, I have not been a good planner and certainly not a good finisher. But now I am, even though it is still limited to not so many things on a day and not so risky things. But that’s exactly the point, as most of my life I think i wanted too many things, planned too many things. And that is not very encouraging, if you plan things and you don’t finish them. But now I do and I am proud of what i achieved today. And that is a very good feeling.

So what I want to emphasize is to start small, like I did almost two years ago with just planning to make the bed every day. And that’s a five minute job, but at the time even that was hard for me to finish. But that’s where i started and that’s also what i did, make the bed, every day. And slowly I added some other small things, like just buying something or finishing a small job, either work or private. And I just planned it for the day itself, or maybe the next day, but no further in the future. And i slowly extended that, and at first, when I didn’t manage things, when it was too much, I just planned less. But making the bed I did, every day. And that was what I held on to.

So start small, do only one little thing, one thing you know you can do yourself, one thing you have full control over, every day.

And it’s funny, as while writing this post the electricity went off, so I didn’t finish my things for today, or actually yesterday as it was around four thirty in the morning when the electricity came back. But yes, I guess also today I’ll make it, although it was close!

And the post was a bit longer as not everything was auto saved, but I guess the last paragraph that was there was enough:

Start small, do only one little thing, one thing you know you can do yourself, one thing you have full control over, every day. Or maybe just add to slowly extend this one thing you do, you finish every day. And just go back to the previous level if it’s not enough. Just be slow, start small..

Planning and habit

Leave a reply

It seems I really developed a habit, the habit of finishing the daily tasks I am planning for myself for the last few weeks. And indeed, habits are strong, as today, this afternoon, the end of the afternoon I felt very tired and I was very annoyed with something that had happened earlier today. But somehow I felt the urge, more urge than usual, to do the things I had planned to do today. So I did, even though I was very sleepy and didn’t really feel like doing it.

And I am still tired and also don’t really feel like writing here. Or even sending the daily quote. But somehow I programmed myself to write, so here I am, writing again.

But the next step is creating more useful habits. As I still don’t feel satisfied most of the time, even though I am becoming very successful in all kinds of things. And I keep telling myself that this is all a build up for the success I am really looking for. And of course that is also true. But as of now it still doesn’t feel like it and I guess that’s what it is all about in life in the end: feeling good.

And I have no real clue if what I am writing here now has any use to you, to others. I do know some people like my daily quotes. And I do know the site has some traffic. But until now hardly any comments, whether positive or negative. And no real contribution from the team. So I still feel quite alone, no matter what I do and no matter how successful I am doing things and achieving things.

Ah, maybe nice to tell and that is that I had planned some time today to work on what I call the IFS Tools. So I did and I am happy to tell you that very soon you will be able to log into the site and e.g. put your goal or goals or definite purpose in the site according to the Principles of Success of Napoleon Hill. And again, I feel a bit alone with it, as in the end I just built it all myself. But yes, as long as I make progress it’s of course okay.

Still, it would be nice to do it in a team or get some feedback from readers. But yes, while writing this I know it will come. As I am starting to believe more and more that most things in life are about being persistent.

And yes, looking back, what a journey I had the last one and a half year. And it all started with the deepest down in my life and a book. Imagine.