What Does It Take to Live Your Dreams?

by Jim Rohn

Each and every day, people are living their dreams. Millionaires are created. Families form and create tremendous relationships. Individuals get healthier day by day. Life-long learners grow intellectually and improve their lives daily. Let it be you!

The fact is, living the life of your dreams is possible. People prove that every day.

Related: Rohn: 5 Simple Steps to Plan Your Dream Life

Have you ever looked at someone who has money and wished that it could be you? People think about getting wealthy all of the time, when only a small percentage actually does. But any of the masses could. Someone is going to start a business. Someone is going to make a great investment. Why not let it be you?

Someone is going to decide to improve their relationships. Someone is going to enjoy love with their family. Someone is going to schedule some meaningful time with their friends. Why not let it be you?

Someone is going to become a life-long learner. Someone is going to go back to school. Someone is going to set a goal to read a book each week for the next year. Why not let it be you?

Someone is going to make the decision to become healthy. Someone will run their first marathon. Someone will join an aerobics class. Someone will start eating better. Why not let it be you?

You get the point. Everyday people are improving their lives. It is simply a matter of a decision being made. Let it be you!

But how? By following these very simple actions:

1. Commit to working on yourself.

Are you going to improve or stay the same? No matter what you have achieved, you are at a certain point right now. What you have achieved in the past is fine, but it doesn’t make a difference for the future. The decision about what you will become is made each day and every day.

Each day someone is making the decision to better him or herself. Let it be you.

2. Make a plan.

Once you have decided to become better, you will have to have a plan. It doesn’t have to be a long, intricate plan. It can be simple. Save a dollar a day. Walk a mile a day. Read an article a day. That is a simple plan with achievable goals.

Someone is going to develop a plan that will take them into the future of their dreams. Let it be you.

3. Begin to act.

All of the great ideas, without action, become stale and useless. The key to turning dreams into reality is action. People who have great ideas are a dime a dozen. People who act on their dreams and ideas are the select few, but they are the ones who gain the wealth, health and wisdom that is available.

Someone will act today. Let it be you.

Stop looking at others who live the good life, wishing that you were as well, and instead begin to commit to your improvement, develop a plan and act on it. Someone is going to. Let it be you!

Related: Do These 7 Things to Get (and Stay) Motivated

This post originally appeared on SUCCESS.com.

5 Tips to Be an Expert at Managing Your Time

Because successful people are organized people.

Brian Tracy

 

December 15, 2015

Do you have too much to do and too little time? Of course! The most common form of stress that professional people experience is the feeling of being overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time to do it in. It’s called “time poverty” and it’s the biggest single problem facing most people today. Things like budget limitations, staff cutbacks, competitive pressures force individuals to take on more and more work.

The key to becoming more efficient and relieving that stress is the ability to set priorities and the ability to focus on one task at a time. Here are five ways to get organized and get started:

1. Be open to new ideas.

The most foolish person of all is either the person who feels he has no time to learn about time management or, even worse, the person, while being overwhelmed with work, feels that she already knows all that’s needed to know on the subject.

2. Learn from the experts.

Success leaves tracks. A wise man, who had studied success for more than 50 years, once concluded that the greatest success principle of all was, learn from the experts. If you want to be a big success in any area, find out what other successful people in that area are doing—and do the same things until you get the same results. Study the interviews, speeches, biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women. You’ll find that they all had one quality in common: They were all described as being "extremely well organized."

There is probably no other skill that you can learn that will give you a "bigger bang for the buck" than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices. So read the books, the articles, listen to the audio, take the courses. Then, practice, practice, practice every day until you master those skills.

3. Develop a plan.

Successful men and women are both effective and efficient. They do the right things, and they do them in the right way. They are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality and quantity of their output. Develop a plan, Then decide what is the most important thing to do, and then decide how to do it.

4. Set priorities.

Since there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, you must continually set priorities on your activities. Perhaps the best question you can memorize and repeat is, What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

5. Focus on one task.

Start with your top tasks. The natural tendency is to major in minors and clear up small things first. After all, small things are easier and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of your time. However, the self-discipline of organizing your work and focusing on your highest-value tasks is the starting point of getting your time under control and lowering your stress levels.

The truth is, you can study time management and take time management courses for your entire career, and you will still never learn everything you need to know to get the most out of yourself while doing your job in the most efficient way. The key to efficiency is to continue learning and adapting to become your own expert.

Taken from Success.com - click here to read more great articles

Change your Career With our Ten Step Career Change Plan!

By Jonathan Lewis

So, you think it is time for a career change? Follow our nine step career change plan and you'll be well on the way to a more enriching life!

Many people are unhappy in their jobs, but you have made the big decision to change your career. So let's examine some of the reasons you might have decided that a career change is for you.

Perhaps you are looking for a career with a higher salary? Or looking for a career that allows for a better work life balance? You might have become bored with your current responsibilities, and be looking for a more exciting career? Perhaps a career with more travel? Or more opportunities to make a difference? Or you wish to combine your career with broader interests you have in life? Make sure, however, that it is a career change you are seeking, and not just a different employer in the same career.

Whatever the reason, you have made the biggest step of all, which is to decide to make your career change a reality!
So now what? Let's look at a nine point career change action plan for how you might attack your career change!

1) Choosing your new career

Assuming that you would like to use your career change, at least partly, to increase the enjoyment you get from the time you spend working, the first thing to do is to assess what you actually like doing!

2) Skills and experience for your career change

So now you know what you want to get out of your career change. Now you must assess whether you have the right skills and experience to get into your new career.

3) Training for your new career

If completing a career change we easy, all of us would be in our dream careers right now! So what is stopping us? Perhaps it is the additional skills which we need to build to be credible in our new career. Don't think that training, however, is restricted to job-related or academic courses. You can get the skills and experience you need for your career change in many other ways! 

4) Accepting a pay cut for your career change

Perhaps the main reason for your career change is to earn more money? If so, then that's great, but it's always wise to get as much information on your new career to ensure that you will actually earn more money doing it. If, however, your career change is not driven by wanting to achieve more money, you may need to accept a pay cut.

5) Financing your career change

Completing your career change may require a spell without paid employment. As well as tightening your belt, you should also do a thorough review of your financial position, including loans, mortgages and credit cards. By switching credit cards, you may find you can save money and get other benefits!

6) Relocating

Perhaps your main reason for your career change is to relocate to an area with a lower cost of living, or better schooling or a better climate. Even if it isn't, your career change might require a relocation - you won't find many opportunities to be a ski instructor in San Diego, for example!

7) Changing career without changing employer

Before you assume that you will need to leave your current employer to achieve your career change, have a look around and see if your career change goals can be satisfied where you are currently working.

8) Finding a new employer

There are a number of ways to find an employer which every job searcher knows - classified adverts, internet job-boards, employer directories etc. Many jobs, however, are never listed in classified adverts and on job-boards because they are filled as soon as they are announced!
To make sure that you are in with a chance, you must develop a strong network in the career you wish to change to.

9) Refreshing your job-hunting skills

The chances are, if you've been in your current position for a while, that your job-hunting skills could be quite rusty! So take the opportunity to brush up on these skills - you might only get one chance to make your career change successful!

10) Staying flexible to achieve your career change dreams

Finally, now that you've made the biggest step and chosen to pursue a career change, don't rush it! It may take a month or even a year to work out exactly what you want from your career change and to develop the skills, experience and network to get you into the right place within that career. Don't settle for something which is 'almost right' or you'll be going through the whole career change process again!

Jonathan Lewis is the founder and CEO of Careerfriend, a company committed to helping people succeed in their dream careers. His extensive experience of attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing exceptional people in management consulting and investment banking allows him to offer clear, actionable advice which has a great impact on people either looking for new jobs or looking to succeed further in their existing jobs.

The Careerfriend website (http://www.careerfriend.com) contains free career advice articles to help people succeed in securing dream careers, from career and employer selection, through resume and cover letter writing, to interviewing, salary negotiation and ongoing career development.

Jonathan was educated at Cambridge University, UK and has advised major national and international corporations, both in the public and private sectors, on issues of corporate strategy, corporate organization, labor relations, personnel development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jonathan_Lewis/6566