This is your LIFE! It’s time to STOP complaining, making excuses & looking for reasons. When you claim accountability for your life you are no longer a VICTIM, claiming ‘poor me.’ You are the CAPTAIN of your own ship. You can CHOOSE to buckle up & head in the direction of your dreams. CLAIM it; OWN it & MAKE things happen!

Yes, I admit it, I’m a procrastinator! I mean just look at my last blog post before this one… it was from July 4th! (over 4 months ago!)

I’ve heard that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. For some reason, I procrastinate a lot. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I just do. So I am admitting it, right here to the world!

I currently work 12-14 hours a day and I have a family (amazing wife and 2 beautiful baby girls). I’m also trying to build my own business, so you can see how I might not have time to do everything on my “to-do list”. There is just not enough time in the day! Can you relate?

So, I am going to make a commitment starting today to become less of a procrastinator! And to get things started I found a great blog post I’m going to share with you below in case you too procrastinate sometimes.

Please leave a comment on this post if you ever procrastinate and/or can provide any tips for those of us that do. Thanks!!

How to Overcome Procrastination: 4 Classic and Essential Tips

(by Henrik Edberg – from positivityblog.com)

1. Break it down and just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you start to look too far into the future any task or project can seem close to impossible. And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment.

Then you just break down your project/task into smaller and practical steps and focus on taking the first step today. That is all you need to focus on, nothing else. By taking the first step you change your mental state from resistant to “hey, I’m doing this, cool”. You put yourself in state where you become more positive and open, a state where you may not be enthusiastic about taking the next step after this first one but you are at least accepting it. And so you can take the next step. And the next one after that.

The thing is, you can’t see the whole staircase anyway and it will shift and reveal itself along the way. That’s why the best of plans tend to fall apart at least a bit as you start to put it into action. You discover that your map of reality doesn’t look like reality.

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”
Olin Miller

”Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.”
George Claude Lorimer

By over thinking and putting things off you may not only be trying to protect yourself from the pain that can come if you take action and have to do hard work or if you fail. You also make mountains out of molehills. The quotes above are so true it isn’t even funny. The more hours and days you put something off the worse it grows in your mind.

Because you are dwelling on it. And so it expands in your mind. And since you are putting it off you are probably thinking about it in a negative way. This makes a little thing a big Godzilla, a horrible beast that is threatening to ruin your life.

So plan a little and then take action.

Often you don’t even have to plan, you have been there before and you know what needs to be done. So stop thinking and just do it no matter how you feel and what you think. How you feel right now changes as quickly as the weather so it’s not the perfect guidance system or anything. And you don’t have to obey what it says (it’s not chains made of iron). You can just do what you know is right anyway.

3. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish.

Whatever it may be, get it out of your way the first thing you do.

If you start your day this way you will feel relieved. You feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.

4. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”
William James

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you in a sort of negative funk. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone zapped your inner power.

If that is the case, go over tasks and projects that you are currently involved in. Is there something there you know you want to finish but haven’t yet? Try to get that finished as soon as you can and you will start to feel a whole lot better.

Just be careful. Don’t think you have to finish everything you started. If a book sucks, read something else. Using this as an excuse to quit something that feels hard or unfamiliar is not a good idea. But there is no law that says that everything has to be completed.

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The first half of 2010 is in the books. This is the perfect time to do a success checkup!

If you’re not on course for reaching your 2010 goals, or you’ve lost momentum or you never even got started, you’ve got to check this out!

The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan is one of the most comprehensive success courses ever created. The 12-month program, developed by the late personal-achievement legend, will empower you to grow and continually transform yourself while focusing on a new pillar of success each month—and you can jump right in no matter what time of the year it is!

You’ll receive regular encouragement to stay on track, take positive action and move ahead with the motivation to achieve the life of your dreams!

Click here now to view a short video from SUCCESS magazine publisher Darren Hardy talking about why he strongly endorses The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan.

Experience the power of The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan!

Watch this video here: http://tonyrobbinstraining.com

This is an amazing video with Tony Robbins and two Internet Marketing Millionaires!

If you want to break through to the next level of success, you really need to watch this video. Tony Robbins interviews two well known Internet marketing multi-millionaires, Frank Kern and John Reese.

They go to Tony with the problem of why many Internet marketers don’t follow through on what they learn and become successful. This leads to all kinds of lessons about human behavior, changing your state and conditioning yourself for success.

I guarantee that no matter who you are and what level you are at, you will get at least a couple gems and a lot of motivation out of watching this thought-provoking video.

From Tony…

In this interview I meet with two very successful students, Frank Kern and John Reese. Both of them are self-made multi millionaires who made their fortunes by selling products on the Internet. What’s particularly interesting about both of them is that neither had any “real” education. Neither one finished college and they both went from being broke to becoming wealthy.

And they still continue to thrive in today’s economy. So the purpose of this interview is to uncover the traits that successful people have in common. Specifically, the traits that cause them to take massive action and follow through. As you’ll see, the solution is really quite simple and available to us all.

In this video, you’ll discover:

• The “4-Square” System For Creating Massive Action TODAY.
• The number one thing that’s holding you back…and how you can banish it from your life forever.
• The subtle mental shift that millionaires use to get a financial jumpstart.
• A short exercise that destroys your nagging skepticism and builds your momentum to succeed.

Watch this video here: http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/

Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action. And action is the ingredient that ensures results. Only action can cause a reaction; to take it one step further, only positive action can cause a positive reaction.

Action… The whole world loves to watch those who make things happen, and it rewards them for causing waves of productive enterprise.

I stress this because today I see many people who are really sold on affirmations. And yet there is a famous saying, “Faith without action serves no useful purpose.” How true!

Now I have nothing against good affirmations when used as a tool to create action. And it’s also true that when repeated, to reinforce a disciplined plan, affirmations can help create wonderful results.

But there is also a very thin line between faith and folly. You see affirmations without action can be the beginning of self-delusion. And for your well-being there is little worse than self-delusion…

The man dreams of wealth and yet walks daily toward certain financial disaster, or the woman who wishes for happiness and yet thinks thoughts and commits acts that lead her toward certain despair, are both victims of the false hope which affirmations without action can manufacture. Why? Because words soothe and, like a narcotic, they can lull us into a state of complacency. Always remember: To make progress you must first get started!

Now the key is to get started today… Whatever the project, start today! Start setting your first goal…today. Start listening to educational CDs…today. Start contacting two prospects a day…today. Start following-up with your prospects…today. Start putting a portion of your bonus check into your new “investment for my fortune” account…today.

Get some momentum going on your new commitment for the good life. See how many activities you can pile on your new commitment to build your better life. Go all out! Break away from the downward pull of gravity. Start your thrusters going. Prove to yourself that the waiting is over and the hoping is past; that faith, and knowledge, and action have now taken charge.

Today is your new day, and it can be the beginning of your new life! With discipline you will be amazed at how much progress you’ll be able to make. Besides what have you got to lose, except the guilt and fear of the past?

Now if you’re really ready to build a better life, here’s my personal challenge to you: See how many things you can start, and continue, today…the first day of your new beginning. Because to make progress you must first get started!

To Your Success,

Jim Rohn – “America’s Foremost Business Philosopher”

I just read this article from one of my favorite success coaches, Jack Canfield and was amazed at how spot on this is with my life right now.  If you have been working hard to accomplish something but it just doesn’t seem like you are making any progress or success is just taking to long then you must read this article!

When Success is Slow, What Can You Do?
by Jack Canfield

Pop Quiz: Can success be sped up? Is there an antidote to slow outcomes despite arduous planning and actions taken? What’s the secret for seeing huge results right now?!

I get versions of these questions frequently from people who feel frustrated at sluggish progress in their success journey – despite all the know-how and principles they rigorously employ.

Let’s get one thing straight…

When we admire someone’s success, or even our own, we often focus on the end result and not so much on the effort (and time) that it took to get there. This can cultivate unrealistic expectations, especially the idea that overnight success can happen through careful strategy and an execution of sound advice.

The truth be told, success typically follows a series of little events and achievements that can seem to take an eternity, that include a few disappointments along the way, and that challenge everything about you to the core – your stamina, courage, integrity, and even your willingness to keep going.

If you focus on what’s not working, guess what: You’re likely coming from a place of aggravation as your mind wraps around all that is wrong.

You may even have negative thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” “It will never work,” or “Something must be wrong with me.”

What this mentally does is engender more of these counter-productive feelings. And given what we know about the Law of Attraction, you attract what you are feeling. So negative experiences, people, and results will beget more negative experience, people, and results. There’s not much success in that.

The key, then, is to focus on what IS working. To do so, I recommend two simple practices: journaling and meditation.

Maintaining a journal (I call it an Evidence Log, Results Journal, or Gratitude Journal) is a great way to steer your attention to the positive and continually renew your vision for yourself.

Start each day with reflections on what you are grateful for in your life (list them out!) and end each day with notes on what went right (again, write them down), however small they may seem.

Spend time each day in quiet contemplation, prayer or meditation.

Meditation can be powerful tool for arriving at solutions to problems and shifting your attitude so you can attract success sooner rather than later. The magic of meditation is its ability to essentially shut down the outer layer of your judgmental, highly-critical brain and allow your unconscious mind to take over. This is where you enter a deeper state of inner peace and joy, tapping into a higher level of creativity that will help usher in the results you want. (Don’t know how to meditate? Lots of books and materials are available to guide you this practice. It’s easier than you think. )

Let’s say you’re doing ALL these things, but you still aren’t happy with your results…

I’ll ask you then, are you taking real ACTION?

You may be taking the actions you are used to taking. But if you keep doing what you’ve already done, then you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. It’s a matter of practicing some new behaviors. Shake things up a bit and see if you can take new actions or modify existing ones.

Remember the Rule of 5.

Every day do five specific things that take you toward your goal. Change up the five actions regularly and be open to feedback so you know when you’re off course.

Lastly, I want to remind you about patience.

It’s natural to underestimate how long a certain goal can take, especially a profound one. When I set a goal to become a millionaire the year was 1983. How long did it take? Eleven years. It took time for Chicken Soup for the Soul to hit the bestseller lists. You could say our tenure on the New York Times list was more than a decade in the making. That’s a lot of patience for someone who initially wanted overnight success.

So, yes, patience is a virtue. But keep at it, and in no time, you’ll be only one week, or one day away from your ultimate success.

Remember… be grateful, reflect on what IS working and continue to take ACTION!

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

I just read this article about staying productive when you feel like giving up and wanted to share it with you!

How many times have you felt down about your job or a task at hand and just don’t have the motivation to get it done?

I don’t know about you but sometime I feel lazy, helpless, negative or have self doubt about a project I am working on.

This article was written for all the bloggers out there, but it has some great info that I know can help if you are feeling demotivated about something in your life.

Here it is:  http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/891/how-to-remain-productive-when-you-feel-like-giving-up/

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com (by Yaro Starak) has some of the best “Down-To-Earth Advice For Bloggers and Internet Marketers”.