Reflect back on times when you were persistent. What did you do? How long and how often did you repeat the behavior you needed for success? Did you get the results you wanted? What did you learn from the experience?

One key to experiencing positive results from your persistence is to know when you must be persistent. Once you have a feel for determining when being persistent is most likely to help you get what you desire, you can practice strategies that help you develop greater persistence. As with many other activities, the more you practice the better you get!

Try these techniques to develop more persistence for greater success in your endeavors:

1. Accept that anyone can be persistent. If you’ve ever doubted you could hang in during a difficult situation until your goal is met, doubt no more. Everyone is capable of exhibiting perseverance.
2. Ask yourself, “How important is this issue?” Because being persistent requires quite a bit of mental energy – and in some cases, physical energy as well – you want to be sure that the issue or situation is important enough to you to put in the effort.
3. Be very clear about your goal. Know what you want. What do you hope to accomplish? Your focus on the desired end product or goal will propel you forward.
4. Faith is the fuel. Although being persistent doesn’t require any particular talent or skill, it does take some faith to keep you going. It’s important to truly believe that what you’re working toward will work out eventually. If you believe, you will persist.
5. Try different angles. If one approach doesn’t work, try another. Then repeat an approach you tried earlier but adjust it. Sometimes, persistence involves a certain amount of experimentation before you achieve your goal.
6. It’s okay to change what you want and tweak your goals. If you find that your situation has changed or the goal is no longer integral to your life, change directions with confidence. Create a new plan that will get you to your new goal.
7. Avoid giving up unless your goal changes or the importance of the issue has waned.
8. Be inspired by someone who persisted and succeeded. Stories of persistence leading to success are everywhere to inspire you. Writers, athletes, musicians, and people from other walks of life have their inspiring stories of persistence to tell.

• J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, claims to have submitted her first Potter novel to many publishers who rejected the manuscript numerous times before it was finally accepted for printing. Throughout those months of waiting, Rowling just kept writing about Harry and his crew. She persisted.
• ConsiderMichael Jordan, proclaimed as the best basketball player ever by many all over the world. Jordan says he didn’t make the varsity basketball team in his high school when he was a sophomore. And that fact only made him more determined. He was persistent and eventually achieved every goal imaginable in his field.
• Find your own hero who persisted and rose above the fray. Seek your own inspiration to compel you to be persistent.

Know the importance of the situation as well as your goal. Have faith, experiment, and adjust your goals if need be. Don’t give up unless it’s time. Finally, find your own hero who persisted and eventually achieved great things.

Being persistent is simple, yet requires courageous effort. The best part is… anyone can do it!

 photo credit: dtcchc

I have learned a lot over the years about how to live resourcefully, and I have many tools at my disposal. My creativity is an enormous asset to me in resolving any issues in my life. I am adept at finding new solutions and resources.

If I ever feel challenged in a given circumstance, I nourish myself so that I feel stronger and more capable. Whether I need rest, food, a listening ear, or even just a hug, I promptly see to meeting my needs.

If a situation should resolve in a way that I find less than desirable, I trust in my own ability to make the best of it.

Resilience is a characteristic that I strengthen by living through all kinds of things, and I continue to cultivate it by opting to face my challenges with a positive attitude.

Regardless of what happens in my life, I can always choose my response. Since positivity is a critical part of the life I want to live, I elect to face situations with a smile on my face. I stand strong and optimistic regardless of which way the wind blows.

Today, I am thankful for all of the blessings in my life. I cultivate resourcefulness and resilience. Each day, I commit to making the best of every situation that comes my way.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. What are some ways I can nourish myself today?

2. What are three major situations in my life that I have chosen to make the best of, and in which I feel good about my response?

3. How can I continue to increase my confidence in my ability to live with resourcefulness and resilience?

 What is a Vision Board?

A vision board is a craft project – a collage that includes pictures and words that reflect your life goals. The board can address your life in general or one or more specific areas you choose.

A vision board shows what you’re seeking in life. It prompts you to consider what you want. Before starting your board, ask yourself what your goals are. What do you want your life to be like?

Preparing to Construct Your Vision Board

Follow these preparation steps:

1. Gather supplies. Use a large square or rectangle of poster board or foam core board as the base of your vision board.

• You’ll need colored ink markers, magazines with plenty of words in headlines and pictures, scissors, and glue.

2. Ponder what you’ll include in your board. Decide the life area(s) you wish to address: all aspects, such as prosperity, relationships, family, sports, health, school, jobs, and careers or just 1-2 of your most-sought-after goals.

• You’ll use pictures and words about the things you desire, the place(s) you want to live, and anything else representative of the lifestyle you seek.

3. Plan time to start work on your vision board. Schedule a day and time to make your board when you’ll be uninterrupted. Allow yourself 3-4 hours. You might not complete it in one sitting. That’s okay. It’ll take some time to browse through magazines and select images to clip and use.

Vision Board Day!

It’s time to get started.

1. Reflect on your most important goals. Set a timer for 20 minutes and clarify to yourself what you want in life.

• Right now, what’s important to you? What do you want to pursue? It’s okay if you’re not sure. But give yourself time to think about it. When you emotionally connect with your goals, you’re more likely to achieve them.

2. Find the pictures you want to use. Browse through magazines and clip images that reflect your goals and dreams. Then, without gluing, arrange and re-arrange the pictures on the poster board until you love how it looks.

• Leave a space somewhere on the poster board to place a favorite picture of you.
• Once you have a pleasing arrangement, affix your collage with glue.

3. Include words to express goals and desires. Write words that connect you with the pictures. Express your thoughts and emotions using markers. You might choose to clip words from magazines (larger print is best) and glue them on your vision board.

4. Glue on a picture of yourself that you like and voila, you’ve just created your vision board!
5. Recognize it’s a process. You might start out making your vision board about your career and discover you’re really more interested in deepening friendships or making money from a job you’ve never tried. That’s okay; switch gears on this board or even construct another board later.
6. Display your vision board. Hang it in your den, bedroom, or somewhere you’ll see it every day. Stop and look at it, touch it, and say out loud, “I’m working for that!” Let yourself get excited about the prospect of achieving your goals.

Making a vision board keeps you oriented toward your life desires. Construct a new board later as you reach current goals and add new ones. Motivate yourself to attain your goals and dreams through making your own vision board.

 photo credit: RON SOMBILON MEDIA, ART and PHOTOGRAPHY

Laughter is free, fun, and good for your health. Here are some of the things laughter can do for you, and some ways to bring more joy into your life.

Benefits of Laughter

1. Boost your immune system. Research on the connection between laughter and physical health is still ongoing, but some benefits are clear. Laughing helps to fight stress and may enhance your immune response. This may make you more resistant to colds and other illnesses.
2. Diminish pain. Laughing is an effective way to decrease pain. Many individuals living with chronic pain report that humor helps make their experiences more bearable. Some hospitals even offer laughter therapy to complement conventional treatments for cancer and other conditions.
3. Get a little workout. Every time you chuckle, you boost your heart rate and increase your circulation, which burns more calories than just sitting still. You still need to exercise, but every little bit helps.
   

4. Improve your mood. Hilarity has a powerful effect on your emotional state. A good laugh instantly relaxes your whole body. Plus, those good feelings last, and may make you feel more positive for hours afterward.
   
5. Enhance resilience. Learning to see the humor in difficult events is an excellent coping mechanism. Having a flexible outlook will help you bounce back faster from disappointments.
   
6. Strengthen relationships. Taking pleasure in each other’s company draws people closer together. Laughing together helps us to connect, share happy memories, and appreciate the good things around us.
   
7. Spread joy to others. Laughing is almost as contagious as yawning. You’re bound to have a good effect on those around you if you use humor appropriately. Smiling and laughing also make you appear more approachable so you’ll get plenty of opportunities to cheer up others.
   

Ways to Laugh More in Your Daily Life

1. Smile.

It’s easier to break out laughing when you’re already smiling. Make a habit of relaxing your face into a subtle smile. You’ll boost your mood and start to notice more things to smile about naturally.

1. Watch funny movies and other media. It’s always good to learn from the experts. Watch great comedy films, read cartoons, or visit a comedy club.
   
2. Look for the humor in ordinary situations. Cultivate a jovial outlook. Observe your surroundings so that you notice the unexpected and incongruous events of daily life. Practice exaggerating a typical conversation so that it becomes funny.
   
3. Take yourself less seriously. You can be conscientious and light-hearted. Learn to poke fun at yourself and your idiosyncrasies. Keep minor setbacks in perspective.
4. Practice being silly. If you have children or pets, join in their games or make up silly stories to tell them. Put a whimsical decoration like a funny calendar or wind-up toy in your office or study to amuse you.
   
5. Share laughter with the people around you. Seek out people whom you find funny. Take a break at work to join in with people who are obviously having a good time. Tell your spouse a funny story from your day when you get home.
   
6. Apply humor to challenging situations. Humor is even more important on tough days. You can recognize a serious situation and act responsibly while considering how your circumstances might appear funny in the future or if it was happening in a movie.
   

Improve your quality of life by laughing more. Laughter is good for your health and easy to share with everyone around you.

 photo credit: Weird Beard

Consider these self-improvement ideas for tasks to keep you active in February :

1. Call an old friend. If you’ve had a relationship you cared about that ended years ago, have you ever thought about re-connecting with that friend? We all seek to have healthy and enduring friendships. If you think there’s a chance you can revive a relationship you’ve missed, go for it.

2. Spend a Saturday with a parent. When was the last time you spent a whole day with a parent? If you’re like most of us, you haven’t done this much since childhood.

* Maybe you can help your mom clean out her kitchen cabinets or just watch a great movie together. You could ask your dad to come over for a homemade dinner and to spend a day or an evening with you.

3. Learn from an elderly person. Ask them tell you about their life’s work or experiences. As people age, they gain an enormous amount of talent, skill and knowledge. Why not use February as a time to tap into some of that information? You’ll be amazed at what you learn. Plus you’ll bring joy to the person you approach with your questions.

4. Volunteer. Call a local assisted living facility and ask to read stories to or take short walks indoors with the residents during the month of February each year. Knowing that you’ve given of yourself can do your heart good, even if it’s just an hour a week for a month or two.

5. Do a special work project. If you live in a place where the weather’s frigid in February, consider completing a special work project at home. Maybe you’ve tabled some project that requires a lot of extra research that you don’t have time to do at the office. Perhaps it’s a task you’ve wanted to do on your own but isn’t a priority from your supervisor’s standpoint.

* At any rate, utilize a couple of hours each week to immerse yourself in a work project that you’re interested in completing. Finishing the project will help you feel more emotionally attached to your work and remind you why you do the job you do.

6. Take a personal physical inventory. Do you ever reflect on your physical condition and appearance? Taking a personal inventory of your health is worth the time and effort.

* First, ask yourself how you’ve been feeling physically. Then, consider your physical appearance. Are you comfortable with the way you look? Is there anything about yourself you’d like to change? Perhaps you’d like to try a new hairstyle or use teeth whiteners to spruce up your appearance. Maybe you just want to lose that last 10 pounds.

For some, February can be a trying month. However, if you take advantage of this time to do some self-improvement activities, March will be here before you know it. And when spring comes, you’ll feel like you’ve already accomplished some of your self-improvement goals for the year.

 photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Keep these ideas in mind to help you recover your optimism:

1. What does reality indicate? It’s easier to be most optimistic when a positive outcome is likely, but sometimes you need to know when to let go or to make a change.

* Taking positive action to produce a better outcome also boosts your optimism because you cease being a helpless victim of life’s circumstances.

2. Prioritize. Start by determining the most appropriate issues, situations and times to be optimistic about. Instead of chasing after many things, some of which may be unlikely, try focusing your energy on what’s most important.

3. None of us knows the future. How many times in your past has a situation yielded an unexpected outcome? Plenty of times! And many of those were probably positive experiences, too.

* Even if life seems full of situations that look less-than-promising, you never know what may actually end up happening. When you open your mind, you’re in a better emotional position to find optimism. And you’re wise to expect the best, because new possibilities lay around every corner.

4. Stay intent on your own passions. When we do what we love, we feel joy, and joy generates optimism.

* Whether you play a musical instrument, love working on cars, or enjoy pursuing any other activity, be sure to set aside time in your week for your hobby. If you can, enjoy some “me” time each day.

* Practicing your craft, hobby, or passion will help prevent you from hanging your hopes on another person, place, or thing. All the joy you need is within you and you’ll rediscover this moment by moment as you do what you love.

* Following your bliss also helps keep you in the present. The past has already passed. And the future hasn’t come yet. All you have this moment. Don’t you want to make the most of it? When you do, your future almost invariably turns out to be more to your liking also!

5. Open your mind to new possibilities. Maybe you were expecting a promotion that never came. Or perhaps you even lost your job. Now is a great time to explore other opportunities.

* Although you undoubtedly were looking forward to whatever didn’t happen, or were happy to avoid what did, the truth is that the future is in your hands.

* Maybe you always wanted to try freelancing, or making something with your hands for a living. Now is the time to run in that direction. Nothing is stopping you anymore, not even waiting around for a different dream to come to pass.

6. Remember, there’s always help. Whether you make use of your social network or see a licensed counselor, other people are there to support you as you move toward your next adventure.

* If you find yourself really feeling depressed, and nothing seems to work to banish it, you may want to check out professional counseling services. Therapists are trained to walk people through all sorts of life transitions and can definitely assist with yours.

Although Alexander Pope wrote, “Hope springs eternal,” you may also find it wise to recognize where to place your optimism and how to rediscover that feeling when you’re down.

If you open your mind to new possibilities and explore the tips above, you’ll be pleased to find that, once again, you’re looking toward the future with optimism and excitement!

 photo credit: gtall1

Follow this process to bring your dreams to fruition:

1. Turn your dream into a goal. When you have a goal, you have a true target. For a greater chance of success, your plan should have a deadline and it must be measureable.

* It has been said that dreams are goals without a deadline. Give yourself the gift of setting a deadline and things will start to happen.

* You want your goal to be measurable because, if you can’t measure it, how will you know when you’ve succeeded?

* For example, this goal is measurable and has a deadline: “On or before June 1, I will weigh 150 lbs. or less.”

* Make your goal as desirable as possible without being unrealistic. If you feel that your goal is unreasonable, it’s much more difficult to encourage yourself to actually pursue it.

2. Prioritize your goal daily. Read and write your goal each day.

* You give instructions to your brain thousands of times a day. Let your mind know that your goal is something more important than, “I feel like eating a ham sandwich,” or “I need to stop at the grocery store on the way home.”

3. Make a list of negative associations. You probably have negative associations with achieving your goal; otherwise you’d already have it. So make a list of all the negative stuff that pops into your mind when you think about achieving your goal.

* Examine that list and think of ways to work around those challenges.

* Each time you notice a new negative association with your goal, add it to your list. Things will tend to change over time, and new challenges will reveal themselves.

4. Make a list of all the positives about reaching your goal. How would it make you feel? How would it change your life? How would it change your perspective of the world and yourself? What would your next goal be?

* Make your goal as attractive as possible. Envision your life after achieving the goal. This will help to keep your motivation levels high.

5. What do you need to make your goal a reality? Do you need to special license? Do you need a laptop? Is there some knowledge you must acquire? Make a list of what you need and figure out how you’re going to get it.

6. Catalog your available resources. Who do you know that could be helpful? What expertise or items do you need that someone else might have?

* Achieving difficult goals can rarely be accomplished alone; you’re likely to need some help and guidance. Look at the list you made in step 5 and see what you already have in your life that could help you on your path.

7. Track your progress. Measure your progress each day.

* Tracking is critical to making continued progress. You can only adjust your approach if you know how you’re doing. Consider making a chart if that’s applicable to your goal.

In many ways, working toward a goal is like baking a cake: if you follow the recipe, you’ll always pull a perfect cake out of the oven. Likewise, if you follow the above steps, you’ll find it much easier to achieve your dreams.

photo credit: ?

Following a fashion trend occasionally refreshes your appearance and keeps you looking attractive in an updated style. Regardless of what change you make, a new style can boost your confidence. When you look good, you feel good and more ready to take on the world!

Consider these easy ways to boost your Self-Confidence by periodically making some changes with your style:

1. Get a new hairstyle or cut. Nothing rejuvenates your style and boosts your confidence like a totally different look with your hair.

• If you normally wear your hair long and straight, consider a short, curly style.
• On a related note, you might even consider making a switch in hair color.

2. Wearing clothing in the season’s most popular colors and prints. When you bring your look up to the present, it’s refreshing and serves to give your self-confidence a real lift.

• A new shirt or blouse in the season’s most comfortable fabric can give you that up-to-date look.
• Although it’s best to avoid buying an entire wardrobe every season, purchasing one or two carefully selected clothing items in the newest colors and prints can freshen up your appearance.

3. Accessorize to establish your style. Accessories tend to be less pricey than clothing, yet make a powerful statement in terms of your appearance. Be bold in your accessories and you’ll feel bolder as well.

• With a scarf in a trendy color, a necklace in the newest style, or earrings that glisten brand-new, your attitude and self-esteem will rise when you add these small updates to your overall style.
• For men, consider classic cufflinks and ties in the latest prints and colors to express your fashion sense with accessories.
• With accessories, you can take a basic wardrobe and bring some real character to it to show off your sparkling personality.

4. Take care of your complexion. Regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman, you stand to benefit greatly by taking care of your face and skin.

• Because your face is so integral to your appearance, your facial tone expresses one facet of your overall style.
• Consider getting a facial every 3 months to revive your face, tone up your complexion and refresh your overall style.
• In turn, you’ll experience a real increase in feeling good about yourself.

5. Polished shoes and ironed clothing are the best style accessories of all. Something as simple as polishing your shoes will bring a spring to your step. Taking a few extra minutes to iron your clothing brings crispness to your style that adds to your feelings of confidence.

• Details like this can earn you the accolades of being a “sharp-dressed” man or woman. Others take notice in a positive way and you earn respect simply with your sharp appearance.

Making some simple style changes in your appearance will rejuvenate your overall look. When your style is updated, you feel revived. Bring your look alive this season by trying some of these easy style updates. You’ll look better and your confidence will bloom.

photo credit: SweetOnVeg