Personal Development | LawrenSmith.com

The Secret To Confidence Is Preparation

Posted on 25. May, 2010 by admin.

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With practice you’ll come to a point of competence.

You’ll find yourself accomplishing your goals gracefully and confidently.

It’s then that you’ll do things that you never dreamed you could do.

You’ll discover powers you never knew existed.

If you’re prepared, you’re able to feel confident.

There can be no great courage when there is no confidence or assurance.

Half the battle is in the conviction that you can accomplish what you undertake.

Confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of constant work and dedication.

Lawren Smith

Your Success Is Closer Than You Think

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by admin.

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Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. But you have to act on them if you’re going to be successful.

Distant pastures always look greener than those close at hand, but real opportunities are right where you are.

You must simply take advantage of them when they appear. You can start where you are at any time.

Success is all around you. It’s not in your environment, it’s not in luck or chance, or in the help of others.

Success is in yourself alone.

You don’t need more strength or more ability or greater opportunity. What you need is to use what you have.

Learn to seize good fortune, for it is always around you.

You must go to success, it doesn’t come to you.

Open your own doors to opportunity.

Each Failure Is A Step Closer To Success

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by admin.

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People who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.

Experiencing failure is inevitable on your journey to be successful. Each defeat is merely an installment to victory.

You’ll find that the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you fail and keep trying.

You won’t be judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed.

Failure is nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.

You can’t be a winner and be afraid to lose.

Opportunity Knocks All The Time

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by admin.

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The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, for time and chance happen to everyone.

Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking.Opportunity is around you all the time, but you have to be ready for it.

When your chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.When you’re prepared for opportunity, your chance for success is sure to come. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.

The tide of opportunity comes to everyone. Even to you.

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Each Failure Is A Step Closer To Success

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by admin.

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People who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.

Experiencing failure is inevitable on your journey to be successful. Each defeat is merely an installment to victory.

You’ll find that the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you fail and keep trying.

You won’t be judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed.

Failure is nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.

You can’t be a winner and be afraid to lose.

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Be A Disciplined Work At Home Business Owner

Posted on 09. May, 2010 by admin.

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Leaving the corporate world for a home business is exciting. Being a business owner and making one’s own decision is a great feeling. However, one still needs to have discipline to be effective at being a work at home boss.

In my work at home business, I have found at least two things that one must be persistently disciplined in order to achieve success.

First is the work schedule. A work from home business is like any business. It requires work and often a lot of work. While it is true that you do not have to get up at daybreak and put on a suit and tie to drive to work, one does need to set a work schedule and stick to it. I have set my schedule to work 10:00 to 6:00 Monday through Friday. I take an hour lunch. I require that I work a minimum of 20 hours for my home business and more when necessary.

When I first started my home business, it was very easy to get distracted by things that need to be done around the house; laundry, dirty dishes, mowing the yard, etc. It is very important to treat your home business like a business. Be a disciplined home business owner but don’t be a slave to your business. The great thing about having a home business is the freedom you will have to do what you want, but not at the expense of your work at home business.

The second is in regards to interruptions. I have found it absolutely amazing that family and friends seem to think that just because you stay home during the day, that you have nothing else to do. When I first started working at home, I was surprised at the many requests my family had on my time. My best advice, which was given to me by another home business owner, is, “If they are not on fire or if they are not bleeding, the do not need your attention.” Now, don’t take the statement literally, but what it basically means is, unless it is a real emergency, do not let your family and friends interrupt your work schedule.

For those of you who already have a home business, you are aware of the many requests that family and friends will make. If you are not already assertive, learn to be and learn quickly. Fortunately, I have had the assertiveness to say, “No”.

If you spend time being the “go-for” for your family and friends, you business will fail. You are not at home to be at the beck and call for your family and friends regardless of what they think. Let them know that. I stubbornly refuse to assist family and friends with tasks during the hours of 10:00 and 6:00, Monday through Friday.

Being a disciplined work from home business owner a giant leap towards creating and maintaining a successful home business. Remember that your business is a real business. Your business is your livelihood.

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What It Takes For Home Business Success

Posted on 08. May, 2010 by admin.

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People are attempting to build a real home business on the internet.

The question that should not be about winning because “everyone wants to win”, but one should focus on the question of “How do I get to where I want to be so that I consider myself a success in my home business?”

It is apparent that the majority of the people that are considered financially secure have some common qualities that they each possess; such as, almost all of the individuals that are financially secure appear to be self-motivated and willing to commit.

Now, the reason the this is important is it relates to each person attempting to build a home business on the internet because without a doubt, most people join programs to make money, and improve their financial standing, at least in their eyes.

The problem is that most people are not motivated enough from within to really commit to making the personal sacrifices needed to truly build a real online business and thus, never accomplish earning the money and living the lifestyle they desire.

I believe that there are a number of reasons why this situation exits.

I believe that the majority of us, no matter whether we admit it or not, are limited in our ability to see ourselves at the level in life that we personally would consider successful. In most cases, we see ourselves as not being capable of reaching the leave of success that we truly would like to reach because of the mental picture we have of ourselves.

I tend to believe that this is the result of our having to achieve smaller goals in our lives at some point and having failed to reach those goals, for whatever reason, whether we admit it outwardly or not.

If you talk to most people, they will tell you that “I could be this or do that if I could get a break” or “if I had just a little luck”, or “if I could just get a helping hand”

This is not true…

Getting a “break” or “a helping hand” in business is not about “luck”.

“Breaks” in business are a matter of persistence and perseverance.

The number of people who actually make a substantial amount of money from a home business is not large. This is due to the majority of people who have the self-motivation, commitment, and discipline that is required to reach the level of making big money is small in number.

To demonstrate this fact, let’s examine the statistics of a program I have been doing some research on.

1. Currently , only 17% of the total group has completed the basic requirements for understanding the program.

This program requires no commitment other than reading.

2. Of all the members in the group, only 7% are qualified to earn all available means of income from the program.

This 7% represents 100% of the income and activity that is being produced within the group at the time of this article.

As a business owner, you should always set an example of how well your business products or services are by using them yourself.

3. Last month, 68% of the income and activity produced by the group was produced by group members that have been members less than two months.

This occurs because these members still believe that they are capable of “making it happen!”

There are members of this group that have been on board less than two months and have earned more money than other members for over a year or more that haven’t earned a cent.

Those members making money believe in themselves and therefore are motivated to take the initial actions to achieve and each achievement provides reinforcement that they can achieve the next step thus creating a perpetual belief that they can achieve whatever their goal might be in a step-by-step goal-oriented manner.

On the other hand, for those who are not making money, it is because they have deep-seated doubt, and this is reflected in their business results. Lack of belief in one’s abilities leads nowhere.

The failure to take even the first step demonstrate a lack of self-motivation.

As a result, the opposite affect is instilled and the perpetual doubt is reinforced each time that a desire to go forward is not followed-up by action that results in even a small amount of positive reinforcement that leads the individual to believe that they are capable of reaching the desired goal.

business success

Success starts with an individual ‘s perception of himself or herself.

Action is a result of the motivation within all of us.

Self motivation is the key that must be turned on in order to start the engine of success.

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Learn Self Confidence

Posted on 06. May, 2010 by admin.

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Confidence is very important. Confidence in yourself will influence how other people see you, and the extent to which they trust you both as an individual and as part of a team. If you can put aside self doubt, and mistrust, and stop thinking that you “can’t do this or can’t do that” you will be on your way to self confidence and success.

Some people are born oozing with self confidence, and others develop it as they grow up and develop specific skills and abilities and establish their life path.

For others, it’s an uphill battle that needs to be worked on. This may be due to they have too often been told that they are useless, incapable, etc. They may have been unfortunate enough to have overbearing parents or older siblings, or maybe been bullied in school or by others in the neighborhood.

It can be hard to unlearn those views of yourself that have probably been internalized over many years. However, it is always worth shedding self doubt and re-learning about your self worth.

There are lots of ways that you can achieve this. Self hypnosis, using affirmations and and other techniques are all possible to learning self confidence.

For all of them, however, you first need to understand that we, as humans, are programmed. Our brain and our conscious and sub-conscious minds operate very effectively. If you pile in to the brain statements about how useless we are, then the brain will effectively fill our data bank with this detail. If we ensure that our brain is told that, we are able to learn and achieve. This will then be reflected in our data bank.

If we then ask of ourselves, “what sort of person am I?’, it is the data bank full of positive information that will give positive answers.

Opening the channel to the subconscious is the key to internalizing the data. Try playing a tape or CD of affirmations when you are just about ready to go to bed. Your brain has told your conscious mind that its time to sleep, which is an example of self hypnosis. So your conscious mind switches off, and you subconscious mind is receptive.

This is the technique used to hypnotize people. When a hypnotist tells you that you are feeling sleepy and your eyes are closing, you will listen to what is being said. This is exactly what you will do.

Your subconscious mind will accept the information it receives and any instructions it receives. So, you can be hypnotized into believing that you are a mouse, a dog, a horse, etc. Equally, you can be convinced that you are sensible, capable, able and confident.

Self hypnosis is really about learning how to open the door to your sub-conscious mind and to transmit the information that you want. The same way that someone else would do. Using tapes or CD’s is a good way of receiving the information you want.

Using affirmations is effective and can be done anywhere and any time.

First thing in the morning, while you are getting ready in the bathroom, look at yourself in the mirror and repeat affirmations. For example:

I am a confident and capable person.

I am an achiever, and I will be successful.

I work hard and deserve to succeed.

When there are problems, I find solutions

I am goal oriented and successful.

Repeating affirmations, whatever they are, has to be done on a regular basis, and with belief in what you are saying.

Self confidence is the key to learning new skills, progressing in our work and home life, and the foundation of all self development.

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Positive Attitude Exposed

Posted on 30. Apr, 2010 by admin.

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I am going to ask you to something very strange right now. First of all, I want you to listen to your thoughts. Tell me, what thoughts fill your head? Would you label them as positive, or negative?

Now let’s say you are walking down the street with these thoughts. Do you think anyone who would meet you would be able to tell you what’s on your mind?

The answer to number one is up to you. But, the answer to number two can be pretty generic. Although people will not be able to tell you exactly what you think, they will more or less have an idea of how you are feeling.

Here’s another question. When you enter a party filled with friends, do they all fall silent as if something terrible had happened? Or does everybody there perk up as if waiting for something exciting to happen?

You know what? The answer to all these depends on your frame of mind.

Thoughts are very powerful. They affect your general attitude. The attitude you carry reflects on your appearance, too – unless, of course, you are a great actor.

And it doesn’t end there. Your attitude can also affect people around you.

The type of attitude you carry depends on you. It can be either positive or negative.

Positive thoughts have a filling effect. They are admittedly invigorating. Plus, the people around the person carrying positive thoughts are usually energized by this type of attitude.

Negative thoughts on the other hand have a sapping effect on other people. Aside from making you look gloomy and sad, negative thoughts can turn a festive gathering into a funeral wake.

A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. People tend to shy away from those who carry a negative attitude.

We can also define attitude as the way of looking at the world. If you choose to focus on the negative things in the world, more or less you have a negative attitude brewing up. However, if you choose to focus on the positive things, you are more likely carry a positive attitude.

You have much to gain from a very positive attitude. For one, studies have shown that a positive attitude promotes better health. Those with this kind of attitude also have more friends. projecting a positive attitude also helps one to handle stress and problems better than those who have a negative attitude.

A positive attitude begins with a healthy self-image. If you will love the way you are and are satisfied, confident, and self-assured, you also make others are around feel the same way.

A negative attitude, on the other hand, has, of course, an opposite effect. So, carrying a negative attitude has a twofold drawback. You feel bad about yourself, and you make others feel the same way.

If you want to have a positive attitude, you must have healthy thoughts. This is probably very hard to do nowadays since, all around us, the media feeds us nothing but negative thoughts. A study shows that for every 14 things a parent says to his or her child, only one is positive. This is truly a saddening thought.

If you want a healthier outlook in life, you need to think happy thoughts, and you have to hear positive things as well. So, what can you do? Well, for starters, you could see a funny movie, you could play with children, spend some time telling jokes with friends. All these activities fill you with positive stimuli, which in turn promotes positive attitude.

Although it is impossible to keep ourselves from the negative things around us, you can still carry a positive attitude by focusing on the good things, the positive things in life.

And this positive attitude you now carry can be of benefit to other people. Sometimes when other people feel down, the thing people mostly do is try to give them advice. But sometimes, all they need is somebody to sit by them, and listen to them. If you have a positive attitude you may be able to cheer them up without even having to say anything.

If positive attitude is really great, why do people choose to adopt a negative attitude instead? One who carries a negative attitude may be actually sending a signal for attention. Before you get me wrong, feeling sad, angry, or gloomy is not wrong itself. But dwelling on these thoughts for far too long is not healthy either. There is a time to mourn.

As always, if you are overwhelmed by troubles, even in your darkest hour, focus on the good things in life, you will always have hope. Problems become something you can overcome.

You do not have much to lose by adopting a healthy, positive attitude. Studies show that such an attitude actually retards aging, makes you healthier, helps you develop a better stress coping mechanism, and has a very positive effect on all the people you meet every day. So, what’s not to like about a positive attitude? Adopt one today.

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Impossible Is Just A Word

Posted on 14. Mar, 2010 by admin.

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Everyone, at some point in his or her life, has dreamed of being somebody special, somebody big. Who hasn’t fantasized about being the one who hits the game-winning homer? Who hasn’t dreamed of being the homecoming queen? An how many times have you dreamed of being rich, or successful, or happy with our relationships.

Often, we dream big dreams and have great aspirations. Unfortunately, our dreams remain just that – dreams. And our aspirations easily collect dust in the attic.

This is a sad turn of events in our life. Instead of experiencing exciting adventures in self actualization, we get caught up in the humdrum of living from day-to-day just barely existing.

But, you know what? Life could be much better, if only we learned to aim higher.

The most common problem to setting goals is the word impossible. Most people get hung up thinking, I can’t do this. It’s too hard. It’s too impossible. No one can do this.

However, if everyone thought that, there would be no inventions, no innovations, and no breakthroughs in human accomplishment.

Remember, that scientist are baffled when they took a look at the humble bumblebee. Theoretically, they said, it is impossible for the bumblebee to fly. Unfortunately for the humble, bee, no one told it so. So, it flies.

On the other hand, some people suffer from dreaming totally outrageous dreams and not acting on them. The result? Broken dreams, and tattered aspirations.

I you limit yourself with self-doubt, and self-limiting assumptions, you will never be able to break past what you deem impossible. If you reach too far out into the sky without working towards a goal, you will find yourself clinging on to the impossible dream.

Try this exercise. Take a piece of paper and write down some goals in your life. Under one header, list down things “you know you can do”. Under another header, write the things “you might be able to do.” And under one more, list the things that are “impossible for you to do.”

Now look at all the headers strive every day to accomplish the goals that are under things “you know you can do”. Check them off when you are able to accomplish them. As you slowly are able to check the goals under the headings, try accomplishing the goals under the other header- the one that reads “you might be able to do”.

As of the items you had written under, “Things I could do”, are accomplished, you can now move the goals that are under things that are “Impossible for you to do” to the list of things “You might be able to do.”

As you iterate through this process, you will find out that the goals you though were impossible become easier to accomplish. And the impossible begins to seem possible after all.

You see, the technique here is not to limit your imagination. It is to aim high, and start working towards that goal little by little. However, it also is unwise to set a goal that is truly unrealistic.

Those who just dream towards a goal without working hard, end up disappointed and disillusioned.

On the other hand, if you are told by someone a hundred years ago, that it was possible for man to be on the moon, they would laugh at you. If you had told them that you could send mail from here to the other side of the world in a few seconds, they would say you were out of your mind. But, through sheer desire and perseverance, these impossible dreams are now realities.

Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Nothing could be truer. For one to accomplish his or her dreams, there has to be hard work and discipline. But take note that 1% has to be a think-big dream, and not some easily accomplished one.

Ask any gym rat and he or she will tell you that there can be no gains unless you are put out of our comfort zone. Remember the saying, “No pain, no gain?” That is as true as it can be.

So, dream on, ,my friend! Don’t get caught up with your perceived limitations. Think big and work hard to attain those dreams. As you step up the ladder of progress, you will just about find out, that the impossible has just become a little bit more possible.