A Guide to Setting Goals in 2010

With the New Year quickly approaching, many people may be gearing up for their New Year’s resolutions. The dawn of a new year allows people to reflect upon what has worked, and what they would like to accomplish moving forward. While everyone has probably spent some time setting goals, have you found that you either fall short of your goals or end up abandoning them after the resolution buzz has died down? Here are some tips to setting goals that you actually keep throughout the year.

First, sit down with a blank sheet of paper, lock yourself into a quiet room and make a list of everything you would like to achieve in your lifetime. It doesn’t matter if it is big, small, or even silly-sounding; just list it. You may find it difficult to begin, but just keep at it, avoiding the urge to succumb to distractions. Once you get over the initial hump, you will probably find that listing things you want to do comes easy, almost to the point where you can’t write fast enough.

As you are writing make a note of any items that you list that give you a special feeling when they come to mind. While you will just write most items down as they come to you, there will be a few items that give you a feeling of tranquility as you get them on the page.

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A Perfect Way to Start – Personal Development Tips

If you want to achieve something in life, you need to start with personal development. Personal development is anything you want to change in your life and your reactions to what happens to you. This is the pursuit of developing, honing and mastering the skills that help us become the best that we can, with all that we have. It is the reaching for and realizing of our full potentials as human beings. Here are some personal development tips you can start with.

Be inspired. Have something or someone who will inspire you. Be inspired to take steps towards a fulfilling life. It will all start with an inspiration to strive hard and eventually lead to fulfilling your lifelong dream. This will improve the overall quality of your life and you will understand how to consciously create the reality you desire to have.

Change negative statements to positive. One of the ways the subconscious mind gets programmed is by conscious repetition. What you say to yourself over and over again becomes a belief in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind projects those thoughts outward into behavior and feelings. For increased personal growth, catch those negative thoughts and turn them around. Instead of saying that you can’t do it and you can’t improve, say “I can do it better and I can improve.”

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A Perfect Way to Start – Personal Development Tips

If you want to achieve something in life, you need to start with personal development. Personal development is anything you want to change in your life and your reactions to what happens to you. This is the pursuit of developing, honing and mastering the skills that help us become the best that we can, with all that we have. It is the reaching for and realizing of our full potentials as human beings. Here are some personal development tips you can start with.

Be inspired. Have something or someone who will inspire you. Be inspired to take steps towards a fulfilling life. It will all start with an inspiration to strive hard and eventually lead to fulfilling your lifelong dream. This will improve the overall quality of your life and you will understand how to consciously create the reality you desire to have.

Change negative statements to positive. One of the ways the subconscious mind gets programmed is by conscious repetition. What you say to yourself over and over again becomes a belief in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind projects those thoughts outward into behavior and feelings. For increased personal growth, catch those negative thoughts and turn them around. Instead of saying that you can’t do it and you can’t improve, say “I can do it better and I can improve.”

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Creating the Right Impression with Body Language

While most of us work hard to make a positive impression on others, it’s important to know that certain types of body language send a negative message.  However, it isn’t always easy to control our gestures, as many of them are involuntary.  Many times, we are not even aware of our own body language; therefore, we don’t focus on controlling it.

Since body language movements tend to reinforce our feelings, we are responsible for minimizing any negative effects that our actions may produce.  While we may have control over the words we speak, we can’t always control the message our body language is conveying.  To begin with, it is important for us to be aware of what messages our facial expressions may be sending to others, as body language instead of words is frequently responsible for igniting a conflict.

First of all, if you hold objects in front of your body, others may see you as trying to separate yourself.  This translates into you being unapproachable.  On the other hand, you do not want to stand too close to a person.  If you do, some people may feel uncomfortable. You want to respect other people’s personal space.  A good rule of thumb is to allow 4 square feet of space surrounding them.

People tend to think you are being sarcastic if you look up toward the ceiling while they are talking.  They see it as a dismissive attitude, or that you are putting them down.  Rolling your eyes has about the same effect.  You don’t want to look down either.  Some people may take it as disinterest, but others will be even more insulted and label you as being arrogant.  Bobbing your head while someone is talking to you also sends the message that you have no interest in what they are saying.  No matter which of these behaviors you show, the other person is going to be hurt or insulted.

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Personal Development Plans – A 5 Step Guide

A personal development plan serves as a guide for you to achieve more and great things in life. It basically reflects where you are at the moment and where you want to go tomorrow.

So how do you really create a plan? You can actually create your own and be creative about it as long as the three important elements are there: skills to achieve your goals; the available resources; and the outcome.

Below is a great example of personal development plan. This plan is composed mainly of questions that you need to answer. Take time answering each question. Sharing and visualizing them with other people is not enough. Write the answers down and read them every single day. You should also review and update them as necessary.

1. Think of where you are now.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What kind of criticisms do you usually get from other people?
• What are the factors that affect your performance? An example of performance indicator is time wherein you tend to get stressed and pressured when you are tasked to finish a workload within a short amount of time so you sacrifice the quality of your output.

2. Think of what you want to become in the future.
• What are the things that you want to achieve in life?
• What are the reasons for you wanting these achievements?
• List down your short-term goals.
• List down your long-term goals.

3. Ponder on things that you need to do and accomplish for you to reach your dreams.
• What are the things, skills, talents, and behaviors that you need to improve on to reach your dreams?
• What are the resources easily available for you to do the things that you need to do?

4. Create a timeline for your dreams, with the start and end date for both short-term and long-term goals.
• When do you want to achieve your dreams?

5. List other things that are important and needed for you to reach your dreams.

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