Don't Give Up

Is there something that you would really like to be good at or succeed in? I'm sure there is when you think about it? Maybe you've always wanted to play a musical instrument, or maybe a renowned artist, or are you wanting to become an author? We all have aspirations of what we would like to do or be good at, however, there always seems to be something that holds us back...ourselves. 

It can be very easy to say that you want to be an astronaut or want to become an artist, but like all things, you will need to put in the work and effort. Don't give up! It can be all to easy to stop when the going gets tough but remember without hard work how are you supposed to improve? It's like someone who goes to the gym and works-out. If that person doesn't put in the effort to making sure his/her muscles are working hard then there isn't going to be much improvement. 
Hard work can be tiring but is something that produces results when you keep it up, and that's what you need to keep in mind - to keep going and pushing yourself forward to your goal, your ambition!

Other people can also play a big part too. If you get people around you who are encouraging you then this will help your morale and aid you in driving onwards. On the reverse if you get people telling you that you are wasting your time and that you are never going to get anywhere with it, this can have a discouraging affect. Interestingly though when people are discouraging to you, this can also act as motivation to assist you, by wanting to prove your critics wrong and showing them that you can succeed. 

If you do find it tough and the road arduous then there will be no doubt that you will feel like quitting along the way, maybe only the once or maybe several times. When I was learning to play the piano there were many occasion that I wanted to give up but am glad now that I didn't, because now It's something that i couldn't imagine not being in my life - it's definitely a hobby that I'm grateful to have.

A thing that I do when working hard at something that has helped keep me going in many a situation is to think of who else I know is doing what I am doing. That person/or people then become my rival(s) in my head and aid in persisting with what I am doing. For example: I have recently started going to the gym, coming up to two months now, and I know a few other people who also go. I can tell you that it is hard work and sometimes I really don't feel like going, but thanks to thinking about the people I know going to the gym and working out, it unleashes my competitive side and drives me to work-out so that I can better them. I do this for a lot of things and it's something that helps me to carry on. 

In conclusion, yes if you are wanting to improve at something or be good a something or get the job of your dreams etc, you are going to have to apply yourself and work hard, just remember: don't give up. 
If you do find it hard with motivation then a trick that might interest you is this: Don't Break the Chain.

Why you Need a Goal

We all know about the act of having and setting a goal right. You focus on something that you want to achieve and accomplish, and then you go about trying to do just that.

I'm sure that the vast majority of you who are reading this, at some point or another in your life, have set yourself a goal. It may have only been a short-term goal, it may have been a long-term goal, but I'm sure that you're familiar with the process of goal-setting. 

Setting a goal is the first step you take to accomplishing that goal because without a goal there's nothing to accomplish in the first place. From here it's just going through the actions and steps that are needed to complete that goal.

There are some valid reasons why you should set yourself goals and not just on occasions but regularly, incorporating them into your daily life.

1. Causes Change

The biggest and most profound effect that a goal can have on your life is change. If you want to change your current position then you will need to set yourself a goal, without doing so will mean your situation will never change because you will have no motivation to do so. Every day that passes by is another opportunity to begin the process of change and set yourself a goal. Every day that goes by and a goal is not set is an opportunity missed.

Now there are some people who are more passive than others and are completely happy with their life and are not really bothered about change or goal-setting - and that's completely fine. However, for a lot of people, whilst change can be scary, it will need to happen if you want to achieve your goal(s).

2. Causes ambition

Having something tangible for you to strive for will allow for the creation of ambition. A personal goal is a representation of what you want, not the goal of somebody else, but your own goal. It's this personal goal that you have and that you want to see achieved is what will help drive you forward and create the ambition needed.

Without having a goal it is almost, if not fully, impossible to have ambition. Without ambition nothing will change or happen in the way that you want. So having a goal is definitely a part of ambition.

3. Keeps you to a high standard

A goal is not only a source of drive and change, but also a challenge for you to raise your standards. This is something that will naturally occur with goal-setting.

The purpose of setting a goal is to try and achieve something that you haven't done before or aren't yet at the standard to achieve. This is where to achieve your goal you must need to go through the process of growing and raising your game to the point where that goal becomes reachable and grab-able.

4. Less likely to be distracted

It's very easy to become distracted, probably in today's age more than ever, and can be very annoying for you when you're not wanting to be distracted. Having a goal will allow you to have a clear target and point of focus so that when distractions come up, you're still able to know where you are heading and why.

It's having a worthwhile goal that enables our minds to not become as easily distracted because you want to achieve your goal.

If you would like to read more about concentration, here's a previous post of mine: Concentration techniques.

5. Helps to boost productivity

Having a personal goal that you will need to work for to achieve will have a positive correlation with that of productivity and will help to ward off procrastinating behaviour. Motivating yourself to be productive and not letting yourself waste time can be a truly difficult thing to do, but having a goal to aspire for will help you to remain determined to keep being active in your goal-aspirations.

If you would like to read more on becoming more productive, here's an earlier post of mine: 21 ways to boost productivity.  

6. Boosts confidence

Now I'm not saying that having a goal will turn the shyest of people to become the most outgoing, overconfident of people - this isn't realistic, although I don't doubt that it could happen (if that was your goal). What I'm saying is by having a goal and seeing the improvements you are making as the process moves further forward it can lead to a self-satisfying experience and does help to naturally boost confidence in ones own abilities.

7. Sense of achievement

This benefit comes right at the end of the process of having a goal, and that's actually completing your goal. The sense of achievement that you will feel is great when you do this, especially if it was a particularly challenging aspiration.

It's when you've fulfilled your personal goal and seen the results, you can look back and say "you know what, that was worth the effort". Being able to look back and see the change from start to finish is definitely rewarding. It will also help motivate you to set more goals to achieve. 

Conclusion

I hope that through this post you can see why having a goal is an important and powerful tool at your disposal, and is something that you should consider placing into your own life regularly if you don't already. 

Analysis Paralysis

Analysis Paralysis refers to when an individual over-thinks a situation, so-much so that the individual never actually ends up making a decision. This effect is what is known as analysis paralysis.

A person who experiences analysis paralysis won't make a decision and then change it if a major obstacle of difficulty arises, like other people would, instead they want to make the optimal choice, the 'perfect solution'.

It seems when a this person tries to make a decision, they are overwhelmed with the amount of analysis they have to, or feel they have to do. Then the benefits of the outcome of the decision no longer out-way the effort that they feel is needed to analyse the decision-factors. So you are probably starting to see why a person who suffers with analysis paralysis will find it difficult to make a decision.

Sometimes the process of decision-making can be too tough for the decision-maker, and because of the amount of options that they are faced with, they are overwhelmed and are not capable of making a rational, logical decision. 

One of Aesop's fables touched upon analysis paralysis, even if it wasn't known as that back-then. 'The fox and the cat'. The fox boasted about the amount of escape routes he had, while the cat only had one sure way of escape in the event of danger. One day both the fox and the cat heard the hounds heading their way. The cat escaped up a tree, but the fox was busy deliberating about the best escape, in the act of doing so - was caught. The moral was; better to have one sure way, rather than a hundred ways you cannot be sure.

Analysis paralysis is something that can happen to anyone, but is more likely to happen to the more indecisive or reluctant people. It can happen to others though. I myself am not the most decisive person, but am trying to get better at it. However, I don't think I've experienced analysis paralysis, well, not on a regular basis anyway. :)

Analysis paralysis can border on O.C.D and can become an incredibly hard habit for a person to stop. A person who has analysis paralysis can't be reasoned to stop the habit, as they think in a different way, so to try to get them to stop being particularly over-analytical will seem un-rational to them. This person will normally be quite intellectual and therefore, will think quite intellectually. The more they do though, the more processes they may think-up to analyse, but the more processes there is, the more likely they are to become overwhelmed, ending-up not making a decision. 

You will need to try and stop them from planning and analysing decisions, which is what IS a logical thing to do and in other posts of mine, I have stressed why it is the right thing to do to think and analyse a decision before you make it, however, for a person who suffers from analysis paralysis, they need to avoid doing this to help them to get out of the habit.

Also an over-analyser might not even be aware that they experience analysis paralysis. To them, they just don't have the right decision to go with and so just don't go with one, thinking themselves to being optimal in their actions.

This post was meant to be about what analysis paralysis is, maybe in the future I will come back to this subject and write about some ways people can get around this particular problem. The closest related post I have written to that would be; how to become more decisive. 

I meant to post this two days ago, but because of hay-fever and a bit of a mild cold, I didn't feel like doing so. Got some medication for them though, so it's all good...or better than it was at least. :)

Thought Vs Action

Both thought and action are important for wanting to be productive, but which is more important, and how much time should you be spending on each of them?

It can be hard to juggle the two qualities together, with one being pushed to the sideline more than the other.

When it comes to thought vs action, a large majority of people will rely more heavily upon one than the other. One group of people will say that action is the best course to go down - because if you don't act then you'll never get anything done.

The second group of people will say, thought and planning is essential for wanting to take the most efficient, effective, and unproblematic route - "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

Whilst both of these schools of thoughts have merit in what they're saying, I tend to disagree with relying upon one more heavily than the other. This isn't to say that success in certain fields can't be achieved with reliance upon either action or thought and less on the other. However, it would make more sense to apply a 50/50 approach.

When I say 50/50, you may be thinking that you put more time into actually acting out a task, then that must mean that you're relying more on action. That's not technically the correct assumption to make. True, the action side to things does generally take longer, but I'm not referring to time-length, but to quality. As planning is essential to make sure you take the right actions - then it seems logical to me that you should put some qualitative thought into it. Henry Ford once stated: "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it".

So when I say 50/50, I am referring to the amount of effort that you put into each. The planning side may take 5 minutes, whilst the acting may take 2 hours (or vice-versa), the point is, if they're both done with intelligence and quality, then this would be a the 50/50 approach I'm meaning, when you tackle thought and action with the same thorough mindset.

Now that may have sounded like I am putting more importance on thought, but that is not the case. Thinking is an incredibly important thing to do and is a hard habit to get used to. Action though, is just as important. After having a brainstorming session, you will need to take action if you ever want to see results. It's through the planning that you can make the right actions, these actions become all the more productive and beneficial, linking the 'thinking' and the 'doing' together.

A lot of times, actions vs thought discussions often refer to the two as being separate. But we need to remember that they are both linked together and are meant to run harmoniously and in unison. They are both one side of a coin, so to take one side over another wouldn't be smart, and would in a sense be irrational.

I like the quote of Napoleon Bonaparte: “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”

Another quote that I think is appropriate is by an unknown author who said: "Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal". 

Benefits of Teamwork

 "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships"

Michael Jordan

Teamwork is an essential skill that will greatly benefit our lives. If you remember just over two week ago I published a post called: 8 Steps to Improve Teamwork Skills. I now think that it would be a good idea to write about the benefits that teamwork brings. These benefits are based off of a fully-functioning team that works well together, however, even dysfunctional teams can experience some of these benefits.

1. Efficiency and Productivity

The saying; "many hands make light work", is definitely a true one when it comes to teamwork. If you have a job that needs doing, having someone else there to give you a helping hand is obviously going to speed the process up - if you have a group of people, then the process will be quickened all the more.

Lets say that you have a job that if you were to attempt on your own would take you, lets say in the region of around 2 hours (for example). If you had one person helping you who didn't need assistance and worked at a similar speed to you, you could have the task done in an hour, 50% of the time. If you was to have three people helping you (four including yourself), you could have it done in half an hour, 25% of the time.

For larger tasks teamwork is essential, and it's through careful planning and team management that aids towards a healthy team, and where efficiency and productivity are relied heavily upon.

2. Support

When working in a larger team, support is going to naturally manifest itself. Support wont always go out to every team-member, but on the whole, when a job is needed to be completed, a team will naturally encourage one another to help keep morale high.

When people know that they have the support and backing of a team, it's amazing what that individual can accomplish within the team.

3. Satisfaction

When you complete a job that takes effort and time, you will experience a feeling of achievement and satisfaction. When working with a team, this feeling is only enhanced. This is as you have people to share your achievement and happiness with. You can have some of the greatest achievements in the world but if you have no one to share them with, will you feel as good as having the chance to share those same achievements with a team, who took the journey with you?

4. Communication

When working in a team, communication will need to be established. If a team can't communicate - it can't and won't work. 

In a team, there are lots of different individuals from different walks of life, being brought-up in different environments. The individuals of any team will have varying personalities, and so working in close proximity with these different characters will get you used to how to communicate with them. As I'm sure you know, what may be okay to say to one person may not be appropriate to say to another. Working in this environment will help to round-off and develop communication.

If you want, I have written a post called: 12 Ways to Communicate Effectively in which I gave some tips how you can improve upon your communication skills. 

5. Participation, involvement and confidence

Being part of a group where good team management is present will mean that tasks will be fairly and evenly distributed to all team members. When this is done, team members will feel like they are properly a member of the team, and when a team achieves what it sets out to achieve, then this feeling will only increase.

Also, by not being sidelined, there is a good chance that your confidence levels will increase as you are being treated equally alongside everybody-else in the group.

6. Innovation

When a team has gelled and is working effectively with one another, innovation will see an all-time high. It's not surprising to see a link between innovation and a good team. Two brains, or in a groups case, a group of brains are better than one - so take advantage of this.

Optimal Thinking

What is Optimal Thinking?

Optimal thinking is the process of making the best decision possible for the circumstance you are currently in. Often when we make decisions, it's decided in an instance, we don't generally spend half a minute or more debating with ourselves what we're going to do. As a result, we don't always make the right decisions, although for a lot of decisions it's a given what we should do. We have the power to either make an optimal decision or a suboptimal decision.
Making bad decisions is easily done, and I would go even to far as to say that we make at least


one bad decision every day. Let me explain what I mean by this before I carry on. When I'm discussing making a bad decision, I'm not only talking about decisions that have negative impact on us or others, but about good decisions as-well, to a certain extent. Now this may sound confusing, as surely a good decision is a good decision and not a bad decision. Well, this is both true and untrue. In general these decisions would be good, however when applying optimal thinking to ourselves, then they're not good. Optimal thinking is about making the best decision in your circumstance, not making a good one. So by making a good decision when there is a better one, now makes that first decision the wrong decision to go with, in turn making it a bad decision. Remember this is in the terms of optimal thinking. 


So when applying optimal thinking to our lives, you're really thinking as such: how can I make the best decision (x), to obtain the best possible outcome (y)? You may be thinking already that this is just common sense and that it's already something that applies to your life. But is it? Your first reaction will be yes as we all have some idea of what the outcome is going to be or how our decision will affect the outcome. 
This though, is when we confuse good decisions with the best decisions. Good decisions (which ironically are bad decisions) are things you can come to in an instance without too much effort put into it, the best decisions however, are not so easily thought of. I'm not saying that you can't make the best decision in an instance, but I am saying that it's easier to make that good decision in that time-frame rather than the best one. 
And whilst this may seem like an easy thing to do, you'll soon find with some decisions that it's not as easy as it first sounds. 

If you aren't a very decisive person though and are wanting to become more decisive so you can then better apply optimal thinking to yourself, then here's a previous post of mine: How to Become more Decisive.


What does optimal thinking apply to?

Optimal thinking isn't just something that pertains to decisions involving productivity or effectiveness around a task, but can apply to anything and everything. For example: interactions and communications with people, daily chores and jobs, career and work, life decisions etc.. 

Questions that should often be asked when trying to make an optimal decisions are; What is the best use of my time, what is the best thing I can say in response to this person, is there a better decision to make than the one that I'm about to make. There are more, but I'm sure that you get the idea to what optimal thinking involves and what it applies to.


Conclusion


The main point of optimal thinking is not to get you to spend more time thinking, but to get you to raise the bar in terms of decision-making. Yes raising the bar/standards will maybe cause you to take a longer time to make a decision, however it will be the best decision and so will be worth it, which is the overall purpose.

8 Steps to Improve Teamwork Skills

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

Helen Keller 

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."

Andrew Carnegie

"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side."

Margaret Carty 

Teamwork is a critical skill that you as a person will need to learn. Teamwork is a highly regarded ability by many people - especially by employers. 

If a person has good team working qualities it helps to build relationships with others. The funny thing is, some of these tips don't only have to be applied for when working in a team, but can also be used for when communicating with people on a day-to-day basis. 

Hope you enjoy. :)

1. Listening

Teamwork means working with others, so putting only your ideas forward and not listening to others, is not teamwork. You will need to take the time to listen to other people. Having other peoples input and not just your owns is important for making the best decisions, and for the team to respect each other. 

Other team-members may be able to spot flaws in your idea, which will mean improvements can be made. You can also discuss their ideas, looking at the pros and cons. Listening is an essential skill that you will HAVE to learn if you want to improve your teamwork skills.

2. Sharing

Whilst listening to other peoples thoughts and ideas is essential, if no one is willing to share their ideas with each other, the team wont get very far. 

People will have to be willing to share an idea, don't leave it to everybody else, make sure you have some input. It will not only give you more confidence within the team but can also help to encourage others to put forward their ideas. 

Don't hold back because you want the credit for yourself and you don't want others to steal the limelight, it's not the end of the world. Just be more laid back about it and care more about helping the team out, not just yourself.

3. Communication

For a team to work effectively and for team working skills to be made manifest, communication MUST take place, whether we like it or not. Not just communication, but effective communication. It's no good talking about the weather when you need to be dealing with the situation at hand, although it's good you have the confidence to talk. :)

Teams come up against problems and obstacles, but without effective communication how will a team overcome these? - it simply can't. So try to communicate. 

If you have trouble communicating effectively, then maybe you should read a previous post of mine: 12 ways to develop communication skills.

4. Don't let sore relationships affect your input

When working with others, it's not uncommon for people to not get along with each other. Maybe something outside of the team has happened between these people, maybe you just don't get along, however, don't let this put a downer on your input team. 

When you let sore relationships get in the way of making the correct decisions, or you refuse to help the team because of this, you're only hurting the team. Not only that but people will lose respect for you if you can't be mature enough to put it behind you.

Biased decisions can be made and mistakes which could have been avoided are instead, driven straight into. If you want, you can read a previous post of mine: How to make an unbiased decision.

5. Willingness to accept

A good team member will be able to have all of the other qualities on this list, as-well as having the willingness to accept team decisions and roads of development. 

It can be very easy to not run with an idea that was chosen over yours, but having the ability to do so will allow the group to make better progress. Believe it or not, it's also good for keeping team morale up, as things run a lot smoother when all team members are willing to accept and participate in an idea 100%. 

It's no good to have somebody on a team who hinders rather than helps.

6. Support

A good team that works together shouldn't just be a group of individuals working together, but should in a sense form an individual as a whole, made from all of the individual team members. 

Different individuals of the team will have different personalities and characteristics, meaning different levels of encouragement and support will be needed. Being able to recognise when somebody needs encouragement or support is a skill that will come over time, but is great for team morale. It also allows you to become closer to that person or people, showing that you care what is happening to them, further tightening the team together.  

7. Patience

As discussed in previous points, working in a team will require you to work with different individuals. Different individuals will have different personalities, some will be loud and boisterous, others will be quiet and timid. As a member of a team, patience will be needed on your behalf. If you were to lose your patience and become angry at other team members, that could affect team relationships and make it awkward for the group as a whole. 

Patience will be needed for working with everybody; it takes time for a group to find its footing and can take even longer for a team to work and gel together nicely.

8. Hard work

It's great if a team can listen to one another, it's great if a team can share ideas with each other, it's great if a team can communicate effectively, but without hard work - what's the point. 

Hard work is where the ideas presented are put into practice and are tackled head-on. Hard work is great for getting a team to gel together and great for encouraging other team members to do the same. 

I have written an earlier blog post about the benefits of hard work for you to read, if you're interested that is. :)

How to Become more Decisive

"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant." 

- Tony Robbins

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." 

- Tony Robbins

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided." 

- Tony Robbins

Life is essentially a big decision. We decide how we are going to live it and this shapes our future. No two lives are the same and it's these individual personal decisions that make up our life.

On a daily basis we are faced with decisions, in fact everything we do, we have to decide to do in the first place. 

Decisions are powerful things, and as pointed out by the quotes at the top of this post, they affect our whole lives. We can be on one course, and yet in an instant our whole lives can be changed because of a seemingly simple decision. 

For example, lets pretend that you didn't live where you did at the moment, that before you moved to your house, you decided to move somewhere else. If you take a moment to think about that, you'll realise how much of your life would have been affected. You would probably have different friends, would've gone to different schools or workplaces, maybe your career would have been completely different, maybe you would have been better-off, maybe worse-off, your personality could have been different, etc. 

It would have been from that one decision causing your whole life to have been changed, history rewritten in a sense. 

Now that I've hopefully shown what big things decisions are, I'm going to share with you how you can become more decisive. Life can be overwhelming sometimes, and can be daunting. Making decisions can become tough, but you need to have the clarity to make the right decisions for your own life. It's time you became more decisive. 

1. Every thing has an outcome

Like I mentioned before, every single thing that happens in our life has an outcome. Decisions can greatly alter and affect the outcome, but indecisiveness can also be a factor. There will be an ending result as a cause to indecisiveness, so instead of not deciding, make the decision so you can do the best you can to alter a more favourable outcome. 

2. Trust yourself

Don't always be so hard and negative on yourself. If you believe that you're always going to make a bad decision, then you'll become indecisive. Instead, trust in the decision you make and stick with it. If it is a bad decision, then just make the decision to move on from it, or to change the outcome of the choice. 

Everyone makes mistakes, it's having the ability to learn from them that helps you grow. 

3. Be quick

If you're a person that will make a decision, but takes a long time doing so, then start to speed up the time you make decisions in. A good guideline to go by, is allowing a maximum time limit of 1 minute. In that time, weigh up the pros and cons of the choices, and then decide. As soon as a minute has been reached, just force yourself to make a choice. 

Make sure that you stick with it, and like I mentioned in point#2; if it's a bad decision, just learn from it. 

Doing this simple technique will also allow you to make better decisions in the future, in a shorter amount of time.  

4. Try something new

Decide at the start of a day, that you're going to try and do something that you wouldn't normally do when faced with a choice. 

This may sound like a pointless exercise to help you to become decisive, but actually, trying new things will help you become more open to different things, helping you to not only become slightly more outgoing, but will also help you to become a better decision-maker.

5. Think of the outcome

In your mind plan forward to the expected outcome, granted life has many unexpected outcomes, but when you make a decision, there is a certain outcome you're expecting. 

Try to imagine yourself in that end scenario, thinking about the pros and cons of the choice you could make. Weigh up all the decisions, and go for the one you could see yourself benefiting from the most (unless if it's at the expense of others).

How to Stay Alert Throughout the Day

I'm sure we've all had those magical days when we feel like we're on top of the world. We seem alert, active, awake, energetic, chatty, throughout the course of the day we seem to have it all.

Then there is the opposite sort of day. The one where things seem dull, you're tired and are not really feeling up to doing anything. In fact, you couldn't be further from alert if you tried.

So why is this? Well, there can be some contributing factors that can effect how alert you may be throughout the day.

Now the most common answer to the question: "how can I stay alert throughout the day", would "drink coffee". Coffee may give you that rush you think your body needs, but it's not natural, and will end with a energy-low. Drinking too much coffee can have negative effects on your body. If you're a coffee addict and you're considering stopping drinking coffee altogether, then you can read this post; How to Give up Coffee.

Here's now my list of things you can do to do to stay alert throughout the day, without the use of caffeine.

1. Eat a Healthy Diet

Your diet is a huge factor to how your body functions, and treating it nice now, will enable it to have a better chance of staying healthy through to old age.

Fruit takes a relatively quick amount of time to digest (around 30 minutes), compared with that of denser foods. This makes them great for your diet, and there consistent energy boost is also great. 

If you want to read in more detail about the benefits of a healthy diet, then click the link.

2. Change your meals from 2-3, to 4-5 a day

Blood glucose levels plays an important role in bodily alertness, as it is directly linked to your energy levels. Digestion of food takes a lot of energy, and so by eating two or three meals a day, will cause your body to have large rises and falls of energy levels. 

This is why splitting up your meals into 4-5 smaller portions will make the process smoother. Eating smaller meals like these are also good for your metabolic rate.

3. Get Enough Sleep

Make sure your body is getting enough sleep. Your body needs this time to recharge and regroup. If you want to read in more detail about sleep, then I'll refer you to these posts: The functions of sleep and how much sleep do we need?

4. Exercise

Exercise is believed to be a good way of getting a steady energy boost and is something you should do if you're wanting to stay more alert. Even just a brisk 10 minute walk will do the trick. The reason why exercising will help keep you alert, is because it pumps oxygen through your veins, brain, and muscles. 

It's this that gives you that refreshed feeling after a nice walk or some hard exercise, and gives your energy levels a rise for a good couple of hours or more.

5. Drink Plenty of Water

Drinking lots of water is essential for your body to function properly and to help maintain it as it ages. Our bodies need at least 2 litres of water a day, but many of us don't consume nearly this amount, mostly due to the fact that we're not really that thirsty. However, whether we're thirsty or not, our bodies still need the fluid. 

A good guideline to go by is the colour of your urine. The darker and stronger smelling it is, the more dehydrated you are. The same is true for the opposite; the clearer your urine is, the more hydrated your body is. Just because your urine is clear though, doesn't mean you can stop drinking for a few hours, your body will need to keep consuming water to keep your urine clear. In the mornings, your urine will be typically darker as your body has been sleeping, not having anything to drink all through the night. 

If you find it difficult to have 2 litres a day, or are wondering what some of the benefits of drinking lots of water are, then here are two posts you may like: 11 tips to drinking more water, and 10 reasons for drinking water.

6. Avoid Afternoon Sugary Snacking

Snacking is a very easy thing to do and can be one key factor to why you may not be very alert. Roughly, by about 15:00, our bodies are low on blood sugar and so, is craving for some energy. This period of time is when a lot of people will snack on sugary treats and the like. While snacking will help make your body feel energetic, it won't last and you'll soon feel the rush fade. Instead, have a healthy snack of fruit or veg. 

If you have a hard time with snacking, then you can read a previous post of mine: How to Stop Snacking.

The Benefits of Hard Work

Work, for a lot of us is a drag, and the prospect of an early retirement or a change of career would be well accepted. 

There are a few lucky individuals who enjoy their work and are very happy with their career.

As so many people complain about work, I thought it would be a good idea to put a post together explaining the benefits of hard work, and why it's good for us, even if we believe that it's a horrible thing.

When I say that work is good for us, I mean hard work. Work is good as a whole, but to really see the benefits, working hard is required. Now just because it's hard work, it doesn't mean that it has to be unpleasant or uncomfortable, it's definitely doable for all of us.

If we want to see the 'fruits of our labour' as it were, then as the major key, learning to enjoy hard work, or at least being able to have a critical appreciative understanding of it is essential.

If we look to history and the things that have come about, we can see that a lot of hard work has been put in. For example: the inventions that came about through various people; Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Henry Ford, etc... All of these people had to put in a lot of hard work.

The point I'm trying to get across is that, if we want to achieve success and our goals, hard work will need to take place.

1. Sense of Achievement

After we've completed a session of hard work, not only is it rewarding to see the end result, but it also gives the sense of achievement, which really it is an achievement. 

It might not be an achievement on the same level as a Nobel prize, but an achievement is an achievement.   

2. It gives us goals and ambitions

When we have a purpose, a meaningful purpose, hard work must be applied no matter what. 

A meaningful purpose allows us to have the ambition and drive that we need to fuel our bodies for work. Having the ambition and drive gives us hope, and having hope can bring rewards. 

Not only can your meaningful purpose be fulfilled, but you'll notice that other goals will start to take shape as progress with working hard.

3. Improves your work ethic

Working hard makes you appreciate it more. You'll realise that things can't just get done on their own, and you can't always rely on other people to do it for you. Having an appreciation for work, and knowing that nothing would ever get done without it, is not only great for a work ethic, but is also good for your development as a person.

4. It teaches you to be responsible and independent 

Working hard will mean that we will inevitably make a mistake. A mistake, is not only a learning curve for our minds, but also a chance for you to be responsible and accountable for the mistake. Thus in turn making you more independent and (hopefully) more reliable in the future.

5. Teaches us about team work

If we're in a working environment where we're in close contact with other people, working hard and effectively is great for getting people to gel together, and become a team. 

It teaches us about different personalities, different habits, different egos. Getting used to this makes it easier for us to work in a group environment.

6. Keeps us productive

The main benefit of working hard is the productivity side of things. The bottom line is; the harder you work - the more you get done, the more you get done - the better you feel afterwards.

7. It gives our life some structure

If we always did what we wanted, not only would we get nothing done, but we wouldn't really have a structure to our life. Work, for the vast majority of people, consumes a large chunk of their weekly life. 

If we didn't have work though, although it would be nice at first, our lives wouldn't have a structure and wouldn't be very well coordinated.

In fact, not only would we not have a structure, but society as a whole would not have a structure and break-down.

8 Steps to Reduce T.V Watching

T.V is one of the biggest time wasters in the modern world. Now after saying that, I'm not saying that watching T.V is always bad, we all like to watch something, but as far as statistics are concerned, T.V is definitely a time killer. So wanting to reduce t.v watching can't be a bad thing.

After finishing a program, the first thing the majority of us do, is check what else is one. It's almost as if it's automatic, like its been programmed into us.

We just grab the remote and flick through the channels at leisure. 

I suppose with older t.v's you would at least have to get up and change the channel on the actual piece of equipment. Now in our carved out little seat in the sofa, we can just lounge about. 

Once the program you have been watching has finished, you move onto another one, and then another one, until your whole evening has been consumed.

I used to do this during the daytime right through until the evening, and that did not leave me with a satisfying feeling. I no longer do that and watch no-where near the amount of t.v as I used to do.

This is not a rare problem, it's a very common one. One main reason is that there is a part of us that wants to carry on watching it. If we have a job that needs doing or a commitment we need to fulfil but don't feel like doing it, it's so easy to escape into the t.v for a few hours.

Take a personal survey for a week in which you record the amount of t.v you watch and at what times. Also record what programs you watch. After the week, review what you've done and decide if this was time well spent. 

Look at where you could have done something else, how you could have otherwise spent that time. 

I know most of the stuff I watch I've forgotten about a week later, unless if it's something that really stands out.

Here are some tips to help reduce t.v watching.

1. Limit the time

Allocate an amount of time you can spend watching t.v a day, lets say an hour. This amount of time doesn't have to be at a specific time of the day, but can be at any time, with the rule of only watching it for an hour. 

This will force you to decide what you really want to watch and what you can do without. It will also help towards building your time management skills. 

The only bad thing about this is that you have to be strict with yourself to see an improvement. So a better way, may be to make sure someone else helps to limit the time as-well.  

2. Spend the time wisely

Try starting something you've always wanted to do, for example: start a blog. 

Now you may choose to completely go cold turkey on t.v and take on this blog for the amount of time you usually watch t.v. However, I think a much more manageable thing to do is to reduce your t.v time by 1/2 hour to an hour and spend that time on your new commitment. 

Just doing half an hour a day can help you to see big results, if you want you can read my post about the motivational trick 'don't break the chain'.

3. Cut-down

If you're finding it particularly difficult to stop, then cut down a set amount of time each week, slowly heading towards your goal. 

So for example: say you watch four hours of t.v a day. For the first week you would make sure you watch 3 and a half hours, then for the second week cut down by another 1/2 hour to 3 hours, and the next week by another half an hour etc. 

This is a more manageable approach for a lot of people, and you can reduce your t.v watching to an hour or less quite easily.

4. T.V-free days

Pick a day in the week, any day will be fine, but preferably a day when you watch t.v. Make that day a t.v-free day, so whenever that day comes around, whether it be rain of sunshine, it is a t.v no-go.

This doesn't have to be limited to just one day of the week, but for multiple days if you're feeling up to it. Maybe try a configuration of watching t.v only every other day of the week.

5. No t.v whilst having dinner

Try to not watch t.v whilst eating your dinner, this is a great time for talking. It can be hard though, if everyone else is insisting on watching it. :)

6. Limit time on certain days

This tip is very similar to tip #1, but revolves around allocating a set amount of t.v time for each day. So you could do something like 1/2 hour every week day and an hour for Saturday and Sunday.

7. Remove your Cable/digital/sky subscription

The amount of channels that are to choose from can mean we can just have an endless day of t.v.  

By unsubscribing to these t.v services, you will cut the amount of channels you have by a heck of an amount. 

This will mean not only will it make finding a program you like harder, but will make it easier to come away from the television set and do something else.

8. Throw your t.v out

The most drastic option and definitely the best if you're cutting the habit of addictive t.v watching, is to just throw the thing out all-together.

At the start you will feel lost, bored, and angry at yourself for making the decision to throw it out, but give it time and you'll most likely be very thankful you did.

How to Find Inspiration

Inspiration! When we have it, we feel on top of the world. So much can be done through inspiration and has served many individuals well over the course or history. 

Somehow it can just appear out of no-where and hit us straight on, helping us to further ourselves along the road.

Yet, as quickly as inspiration can come, it can vanish just as quickly. It's a horrible feeling, wanting to do something, but yet at the same time not really wanting to because of the fact that your uninspired, and so your drive has left you.

So is there a way we can get inspiration back into our lives?, not only obtain it, but hang on to it?

Well, I think that the answer is yes, and although the first reaction may be 'great', it isn't always successful and isn't always that easy to gain.

So here's a few tips that will hopefully allow you to get some inspiration, if none of these work, then maybe you need to come at it from a different angle, or maybe you're pursuing the wrong thing?

1. Friends or groups

A great way to find inspiration is by being around other individuals who also share your passion. It can be friends, or it can be a group that meet up just for this, whichever one you opt for, you are bound to find some level of inspiration. 

Wanting to share your experiences and knowledge with others is common, and so being around like-minded people will help to develop your love for what your doing, but also encourage you to continue with it, and maybe bring out a bit of competitiveness. (Competitiveness is also good for inspiration as it drives you forward).

2. Historical Examples

Another great way to find inspiration is by searching back through history (recent and not so recent), finding out about individuals who were in a similar situation to yours. 

You can see how they dealt with their situation, how they made correct or incorrect choices, and their end results. 

3. Success stories

You could really sort of include this in point#2, but yet not really.

Looking at other people's success stories, ones relating to what you're doing, can really aid in inspiring you to continue. This can be especially true when they've come from where you are (situation-wise not location-wise), or even from a worse-off place than you. 

See how they did it, look into what inspired them, and try to follow some of their examples.

4. Forums

Similar to point#1, except this won't be with human contact, yet you'll still be able to get other peoples ideas and suggestions. 

There are millions of people who use forums, and there are millions of forums catering to different topics. 

Find a forum that you would like to get involved in, sign up, then get stuck in. You could maybe use the 'don't break the chain' motivational technique to make sure you stick at it. 

After a while of forum posting, you will start to be recognised and others will start to respect what you have to say more.

5. Magazines, books, blogs.

A good magazine, book, or blog, will be filled with ideas, stories, and other things to help you crack on with what you want to achieve. 

Often magazines will let you send in letters and will feature the best ones. You are able to read others to see how they're getting on, and also send in some letters of your own. If you're lucky enough to get a letter featured, this will surely give you some more incentive to be spurred on. 

Many blogs will also allow you to participate, normally through commenting. You can read other peoples views and feedback on what you've just read. 

With so many blogs out there, I'm sure there will be one for you. 

I can think of many times I've lost inspiration for this blog, but reading other blogs out there and relating to some of the bloggers personal situations has helped me somehow continue, and find my 'mojo' as it were.

6. Quotes

As simple as it sounds, quotes can really help you to continue what you're doing. Find some quotes you're fond of and stick them where you know you're going to see them, post-its are good for this.

Quotes to do with motivation are good, and if you're interested, here's a post I wrote a while ago: 50 Motivational Quotes. 

7. Go for a walk

Often just allowing yourself to go for a walk alone in a peaceful environment, will allow you to really hear yourself think. I find when walking (or exercising in general), ideas seem to accumulate inside my head. Normally I don't have anything to write them down with, so I have to try and remember them, but its just easier and more convenient to have a pen and pad at hand.

I find one of the best times in the day is early morning. Everything is so still and peaceful it's brilliant. Although a problem with early morning walks I find living in England, are not the warmest, so don't be fooled by the sun.

8. Have a Journal/Notebook

A simple yet effective source of inspiration can be your own ideas and thoughts. Write down these in a plain notepad/journal, and then slowly develop them from there. 

I use one for blogging so I can write down future post suggestions and any changes I may want to make to the blog now or in the future. I also keep track of where I am with the blog now, and expand upon previous ideas.

It takes some getting used to, but after a while of using one - you'll see the benefits.