Ideas: For a Successful, Less Complicated Life!

Minimalism’s logical extension: Break free from goals!

"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning." - Lao Tzu

One of the unshakable tenets of success and productivity literature is that you need to have goals in order to be successful (see Seth Godin on this - he's someone I respect, btw).

And from this tenet comes all sorts of other beliefs:

• You need to set goals the right way (such as the SMART method).
• You need to break goals down into actionable tasks.
• You need to have deadlines and timeframes.
• You need to make goals the focus of your day.

I know this, because I've believed it and lived it and written about it, for a long time.

Until recently.

Until recently, I'd always set goals for myself -- short-term and long-term ones, with action lists. I've made progress on each one, and accomplished a lot of goals (read My Story for more). And from this traditional viewpoint, I've been successful. So no argument there: goals work, and you can be successful using goals.

But are they the only way?

More recently I've moved away from goals, broken free of the shackles of goals. I've liberated myself because goals are not ideal, in my way of thinking:

• They are artificial -- you aren't working because you love it, you're working because you've set goals.
• They're constraining -- what if you want to work on something not in line with your goals? Shouldn't we have that freedom?
• They put pressure on us to achieve, to get certain things done. Pressure is stressful, and not always in a good way.
• When we fail (and we always do), it's discouraging.
• We're always thinking about the future (goals) instead of the present. I prefer to live in the present.

But most of all, here's the thing with goals: you're never satisfied. Goals are a way of saying, "When I've accomplished this goal (or all these goals), I will be happy then. I'm not happy now, because I haven't achieved my goals." This is never said out loud, but it's what goals really mean. The problem is, when we achieve the goals, we don't achieve happiness. We set new goals, strive for something new.

And while many people will say that striving for something new is a good thing, that we should always be striving, unfortunately it means we're never satisfied. We never find contentment. I think that's sad -- we should learn how to be content now, with what we have. It's what minimalism is all about, really.

And if minimalism is being happy now, with enough, with the present, then how are goals consistent with this? It's something I've tried to reconcile over the last few years, with limited success.

So what would a true minimalist do instead? If we are content now, and we abandon goals, does that mean we do nothing? Sit around or sleep all day?

Not at all. I certainly don't do that. We should do what makes us happy, follow our passions, do things that make us excited. For me and many people, that's creating, building new things, expressing ourselves, making something useful or new or beautiful or inspiring.

So here's what I do, instead of setting and achieving goals:

I do what excites me. Each day. I wake up, and work on things that I'm passionate about, create things that I love creating.

How to Change How You Feel Right Now: 5 Simple Tips

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

”Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” ~
Leo Buscaglia

Some days you fall into a negative funk. You don’t feel like doing anything much and are just going through the motions. Or you don’t seem to get anything done.

Maybe today is such a day for you. If so, remember that the day isn’t over yet. You can still make something good out of it. And you can do so by changing your mental and emotional state.

Here are five of my favourite ways for doing just that in a matter of minutes.

1. Appreciate away.

A very effective way to become a more positive person and to enjoy your life more is simply to develop a habit of appreciating more.

If you want a few suggestions, here are a few of the things that I like to appreciate:

• My food.
• The weather and sunshine we are having today.
• My health.
• Friends and family.
• This blog and the opportunity to write about what I want.
• You, the reader.

The funny thing is that if you just start appreciating something you can very quickly start jumping around with your attention and appreciate just about anything around you. You may start with the food you are eating right now. Then move your attention to the phone and appreciate that you can contact anyone – and be contacted by anyone – you’d like. You might then move your attention outside, through the window and see the wonderful sunshine, then the kids having fun with a football and then a really attractive person walking by. And so on.

Try doing that for two or three minutes. Try to come up with all the things in yourself and your world that you can appreciate. Move your attention around from appreciation-point to appreciation-point like when you are jumping from stone to stone while crossing a stream.

2. Change your physiology.

If you change how you move and use your body your mood will change. If you for instance want to feel happier, force a smile for about 60 seconds. You’ll feel happier. If you want to feel confident stand up and walk around for few minutes in a confident way. You’ll feel more confident.

One key to better use of this technique is to focus on your body and changing your movements but to then turn the focus outward, into the world around you. Doing so has given me more dependable and consistent results than when I focused inward.
If you focus outward you don’t become that self-conscious. If you on the other hand keep your focus inward – on what you are doing – while you are moving around with a changed physiology you become self-conscious. And that self-analyzing and nervous self-consciousness counteracts much of the positive emotional effect that you can create by changing how you move and use your body.

Crack Some Eggs!

On September 28th, 2009, I found this thought provoking article posted on: The Naked Soul  (Blog).

If I was to give you an egg and I told you that you had to be very careful with the egg, that you were to never break the egg or damage it in any way and you followed my instructions and you cradled the egg in your hands, and you arranged your life in a way to prevent anything from happening to the egg and you placed the egg on a shelf I would suggest that you would be very underwhelmed with the egg. It would just be an egg, nothing much to look at, nothing much to do with it, heck it doesn’t even make a good paper weight or door stop. Your experience with the egg at best would be a mediocre experience.

Ah, but if you were permitted to crack the egg open and use it, you would be able to experience scrambled eggs, omelets, eggs Benedict, poached eggs, egg nog, French toast,  cakes, etc. You would be very impressed with the experience that you would have with the egg.

If you were able to buy or someone gave you a Lamborghini and you only kept in the garage, and all you did was wash and wax it and maybe on the rare sunny day, when there was little to no traffic on the road you took it out for a spin around the block you would never truly experience the speed and handling of a 1.6 million US Dollar car. You would have this powerful machine, yet you would never fully enjoy the experience of having it out of fear that you might damage it or that you might get a speeding ticket. Yet, if you were to get out, put the top down and punch the accelerator to the floor then you would have an unbelievable experience of truly owning a Lamborghini!

Many people view living a spiritual life as one that is void of experience. Some people view being spiritual as sitting around in a loin cloth contemplating your naval while others view spirituality as having no fun, taking no risks, living quietly and demurely without passion or drive.

To live without passion, to lock yourself away from the world to avoid what you may call temptation, to avoid anything that may upset your world is not in alignment with spirituality, this kind of living is not aligned with your purpose.  Our purpose is to experience life, not to avoid life, not to live a mediocre existence. We are spiritual beings here to have a human experience. Having a human experience means that we must be willing to truly live, to put ourselves out there, to ride the highs and know the lows. We are here to live passionate and full lives and yes that means that sometimes we will be hurt, sometimes we will hit rock bottom and that sometimes we will come to a point where we doubt if there is truly any purpose for our existence!

Living from spirit does not mean that we don’t live to experience. We must experience all that we can for this is a great part of the reason we are here. It is through our experiences that we learn and grow, it is through our experiences that we are able to return home to our source and know unbridled joy!

I recently spoke of going to a bookstore and finding peace and renewing my energy. Most of us have places we go to find peace and renew our energy, some like me may find that in bookstore, others in a place of worship or communing with nature.  When we are in this place of peace and positive energy it is very tempting to say, “Ah, I wish I could stay here forever and know this peace and replenishment of energy”, however this is a wish we do not really want to come true for if it did, we would miss out on the experiences of this world. We would not truly be living; we would not know the heights of laughter or the depths of our tears. We would not know the ecstasy of sex, nor the aching of being alone. If we were not able to experience these things and all that is out there to experience than our places of peace and rejuvenation would lose their luster and we would stagnate in our spiritual growth.

We are here to live, we are here to experience! We are here to live from spirit and experience from spirit and we are here to experience with passion!

You need not deny yourself of experience, you simply must strive to live and experience from spirit rather than ego. Love life and all of its variables for that is what you are here to do. Be the love that you are and crack some eggs, push past the limits, take risks! Live not a mediocre existence, live and love with passion!

Experience Life to the Fullest!

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Bad Habits – Your Free Ticket to Failure!

There were several self help texts and books around many years ago, but these were hidden deep within obscure libraries and unless you had already heard of the author, you really had no chance of finding them on your own.

Nowadays, there is the internet with its millions of websites, discussion forums and mailing lists that with literally one click of a search engine, you can have millions of websites brought before your eyes without you even having to leave your chair. You can find information about the psychology of self help, about the process of self help. You can see stories of individuals who have achieved success through self help techniques and guides – anything you want is there for you to see. So, let me ask you, my friend, what is stopping you from achieving the success you want?

There are some people in life who succeed no matter how many obstacles and hindrances they have in their way. Their house can burn down, they will get another one. Their business may collapse and they can go completely bankrupt, they will get up and start another business. They can lose a leg, they will sign up to run a marathon.

Then there are some people who will fail no matter how many wonderful opportunities they have. The goose that lays the golden eggs could land in their lap and they would cook it and eat it. Why is this? There are many reasons to do with motivation and the ability to spot opportunities and seize them when they come. But another reason is that people who fail have BAD habits. They do not put themselves in the way of success because they have bad habits ingrained into everything that they do.

If you come home every evening and slump in front of the television with a drink instead of doing something energetic like going for a run, or going out to meet friends, then what will you gain? It is very likely that you will not gain much except weight. An important point to note is that those happy, successful people you see on television spend hardly any time sitting watching TV themselves!

If you create an atmosphere of success around you then chances are high that you will attract more success to you. This can be achieved by adopting successful habits and ditching all those bad habits completely. Make a habit of looking after your appearance. If you look like a successful person, then you will feel like one and you will BE one!

Make a habit of doing things which are aimed at success. Learn more about your field by reading for half an hour everyday rather than watching TV. Those little tips you pick up by reading about your subject or reading trade journals could really help you when you least expect it.

Think about your life and how you can stop those bad habits which waste your time and achieve nothing and try to introduce one or two good habits into your life. Read more, or walk more. Take up a hobby which will keep you interested and interesting to others around you. You never know, it could just be the path to success that you are looking for.

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This guest post was written by: Ririan, creator of the Ririan Project   (Blog).

The Secret To Spending Less And Having More!

I was walking the dogs this evening, thinking about my wife, Liz, and my son, Tyson, both of whom are visiting my mother-in-law for the weekend.  As I walked I was picturing Tyson, who is just a hair over 4 months of age, wearing his blue pajamas, hat and slippers.  This was the outfit I saw him in this morning, just before heading to the office.  He looked so cute, baby pimples and all.  He gave me a big smile and made both Liz and I smile with a joy that never seems to lose its luster, no matter how many times he cracks the same silly grin.

So I’m walking my dogs, picturing my cute little son, my beautiful wife and the tangible happiness that they bring to my life.  I guess you could say that I had found a moment of true appreciation for what I’d been blessed with.  Yet the funny thing is that in those moments (and I’m sure you can relate to this) I had not a single thought of a purchased item.  Not my Macbook Pro or iPhone, not my car or house or my TV or bike or…you get the point.  OK, maybe I thought about my Macbook, but only for a second and then it was back to my wife and son.

It’s just that in these moments we seem to recognize what truly matters in life.  The rest of the time we find ourselves worrying about money, obsessing over something we want to purchase or trying to convince ourselves and/or those around us that our lives would be much better off if we could just have that one item that’s missing from our ‘collection’.

Our Return Is Always Equal To Our Investment

When you invest your time, money and/or attention into something you will inevitably receive a return that is equal to that investment (this is not always entirely true, but just work with me here).  So let’s say you spend $50 on a nice dinner out.  You’ll receive an enjoyable, short lived bit of satisfaction and then you’ll forget all about it.  Now let’s say you spend $500 on a new grill.  This item has the capacity to provide you with many occasions of enjoyment and satisfying cuisine.  It cost you more money and took you more time to save up for, but you knew this was an investment into your grilling enjoyment.

OK, so forget about the horrible analogy above and think about this.  What has the greatest value in your life?  Got it?  OK, now what area of your life takes the most work to maintain?  I don’t know about you, but my family means the world to me and yet my marriage, for example, has required more effort to maintain than most anything else.

You know the saying, “You get what you pay for.”?  Well, when it comes to having true joy in your life you find that hard work is most certainly involved.  My point is that trying to buy our happiness is the easy way out and yet the least satisfying option.  We are so easily convinced that somehow there is a price tag dangling from happiness and it’s just a matter of making enough money to purchase it.  But the fact is, this is a BIG FAT LIE!

The last 7 years of marriage to Liz have been a roller coaster ride, to say the least, but it’s only in that effort that I’ve gained a priceless friendship that will last a lifetime.  And now we get to share that love with our son and enjoy even more value for our efforts.

Let me end with this…

If you have a spouse, or a sibling or a parent or a friend or anyone in your life who brings you joy, always see the true value of that investment.  These are the things that matter, not the ’stuff’ in your life.

The secret to spending less and having more is to take the time and energy that you would have spent on:

• …working to make the money for a purchase
• …making the purchase
• …making space for the product
• …and then maintaining it…

and put that effort into nurturing your relationships.  Do this and I promise you’ll find your greater efforts will always be matched with MUCH greater reward.

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This guest post was written by: Eric Hamm,  the creator of: Motivate Thyself  (Blog).

You Can Do It, You Just Don’t Know It!

Look at the kid, shouting he hates tomatoes! Even though he’s never tried them…

Kids have a reason to be picky about food. Unless they’ve been introduced to a food early on, they’ll avoid it until they get old enough to make their own decisions about food. It’s a survival trait.

But adults behaving the same way? Uh-oh. And I’m not talking about food, either. Too many adults claim they can’t do something, even if they’ve never tried it!

Learning takes practice

Think back to when you had your first child (if you haven’t yet, just imagine it). When they were first learning to walk, and fell over, what was your reaction? Did you have a good laugh about it, and tell them to keep trying?

Or did you say: “Oh well Johnny, I guess you’ll never be a walker. I don’t think you’ll ever get the hang of this.”

Well… duh!

And yet adults treat themselves the second way again and again! They try something once or twice, and then conclude they can’t do it, and will never be able to.

If you haven’t learned something yet, that can only mean one of two things:

• you haven’t put in enough time
• you’re using wrong learning methods

And don’t go around telling me about your “natural limitations” or “inherent lack of talent”. Unless you’re a professional athlete or a world-class chess player, you’re going to quit LONG before reaching any kind of natural talent barrier!

And if you don’t want to learn because you’re afraid you’ll look dumb… don’t worry. No one cares how bad you are the first time you start learning something.

No one cares how much you shake and stutter the first time you try public speaking.

No one cares how much you fall when you’re first learning to ski.

Most people are either too busy thinking of themselves… or very kind and supportive! When you start learning something, you warm other people’s hearts by reminding them of their own humble beginnings. They’ll be more than happy to give you tips and encouragement.

If you don’t WANT to learn something because you … well… don’t want to, that’s fine. Just make sure it’s really your wants that are guiding you, not your fears.

Ask yourself:

What is more important? Your fears, or your desires?

And then live your life unrestricted.

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This guest post was written by: Vlad Dolezal, the creator of: Fun Life Development  (Blog).

Places of Peace and Energy That Rejuvinates!

The other day I had meetings out of the office in different towns; I spent a good portion of the day traveling from one meeting to another. Normally most of my meetings are conducted via conference bridge however on this particular day my meetings were local and I had the opportunity to see people in person which for me is always the preferred experience. None the less, this made my day that much busier because I was running around quite a bit. On the way back to my office I called ahead to one of my favorite eateries and ordered lunch to go, noticing that I would have a few minutes before my food would be ready I decided to stop in a local Barnes & Noble Bookstore to browse for a few minutes. I had no intention on buying anything as my pile of books to read is sufficient for now and I don’t need to add anything to the pile for a while. I simply wanted to stop and see what was new on the shelves.

There was an underlying motive that I did not consider at the moment. I love going into a book store, there is energy in a bookstore that is calming to me and at the same time invigorating. A bookstore is filled with positive energy, much of which comes from all of the knowledge that is housed there and from the people who patron book stores. Walking into a book store is like waking into a condensed world of possibilities, as I said this invigorates me! The smell of coffee coming from the café, the people browsing and discussing what they have found over coffee fills the air with amazing vibrations that quickly bring me to a peaceful place and also recharges my batteries. I wasn’t there more than a few minutes, however it was well worth the stop, I left feeling good, my mind swirling with thoughts and I was ready to go back to my office refreshed and ready for the second half of my day.

We all need to have places where we can de-stress, where we can find peace, where we can soak in the positive energy of the place and the people. Much of our day is spent putting out fires, taking care of business, doing the mundane daily tasks that keep our life going and in doing so we can drain our energy, we can lose focus … This is why it is important to have retreats that we can access when needed. These retreats can be as simple as a bookstore or a local coffee shop, they can be a park bench where you watch children play, it could be a place of worship, a synagogue, a church, a mosque, it could be a favorite place in your home; heck, it could be your own backyard where you can observe the butterflies flitter among your flowers or the squirrels as they gather their winter store.

The key is that whatever the place is, you find the energy of peace and rejuvenation there. You may find this energy in solitude or you may find it in a group of people. Wherever you find this energy, make time in your day, your week to be there. You may say that you know of this place and would love to go there, however you are simply too busy and can’t find the time. I say this to you, busy is not always efficient, often times we equate busy to getting things done, however the truth is often times we are busy because we are at a point where we are not being as effective as we could be and this is because we have not taken the time to soak in the energy of peace, we have not taken the time to really reenergize ourselves. When we do this, we get to a point of diminishing returns and we feel as though we are running in place, do much but not getting much done.

Do yourself a favor and consider the places that you find positive energy, the places that reenergize you and then go there. Make time to visit these places even if it is only for a few minutes, the dividends will be great.

Note, I believe it is also important to point out that some people do go places to relax, to unwind that are not places of positive energy. Sometimes people mistake certain types of perceived relaxation and entertainment as rejuvenation; however the reality is that they are putting themselves in places of negativity and stress. They trade one stress for another kind of stress and they fool themselves into believing that they are doing good for themselves. Consider this as you go into the weekend, are you simply trading one type of negativity and stress for another type of negativity and stress or are you truly bringing yourself to a place of peaceful and re-energizing energy?

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This guest post was written by: Brian Kim

The Slow Secret: How to Make Lasting Changes in Your Life

How many times have you rushed into making changes in your life — a habit change, learning a new skill — only to have it flop?

It’s not just the New Year’s Resolution Syndrome — it happens too often at all times of the year, that we run out of steam or get discouraged and give up.

But here’s the secret, and I won’t charge you $29.95 for it: go slowly.

This little change has more power than most people realize. It will help to learn any skill, from martial arts to art to computer activities. It will help form habits that are long-lasting. Slowing down will help you become more effective and ironically, help reach goals faster.

If you’ve ever tried T’ai Chi (or Taijiquan), famous for its series of slow movements and poses, you’ve felt the power of slow. The slower you go in T’ai Chi, the better, for many reasons. One effect of this slowness is that you perfect the movements. And your body adapts, forming muscle memories that will last when (and if) you decide to speed up the movements.

It’s as if your body and mind are forming a groove through continual repetition of the movements. If you move quickly, you’ll be erratic, and the groove will be much more difficult to form. If you move slowly, you can learn to move in exactly the same pattern, in a more precise way, and a groove will form. Once the groove is formed, it becomes easier. It’s now habit, unconscious memory, and automatic.

This is habit formation, and usually it’s done without thought. When we drive home and our minds are on something else, but we make the right motions to get home anyway … this is habit, this is our minds and bodies going in a groove we’ve formed by doing these actions so many times before.

The groove is best formed by going slow, at first.

This applies to anything: exercise, eating healthy, creating art, becoming a patient parent, carpentry, reading. Slow is the secret to making it last. And no, that’s not meant to be dirty.

Some of the reasons slow works, besides forming a groove:

1. Mindfulness. When you do something slowly, you can pay more attention to what you’re doing. I highly recommend that when you make changes, you do them mindfully, with full concentration. This increased awareness is necessary in the beginning, when you’re still forming the groove. Later, it’ll become automatic, but at first it’s anything but. You need to pay attention, and you can do this better when you do it slower.

2. You hold yourself back. Holding ourselves back is often considered a bad thing, but it’s not. It’s the best thing we can do, if we want changes to last. When we start a new change, often we are full of enthusiasm. But then we go all out and use up all of that enthusiasm, and run out of motivation or energy or get distracted by something else. But when you hold yourself back, you build up enthusiasm and keep it going for much longer — through that dreaded 2-3 week barrier when people often quit. So even if you want to run 3 miles at first, start with walking and then run-walking (in intervals), and only do a mile or so. You’ll want to do more, but stop yourself. Save that enthusiasm for next time.

3. You learn it right. Doing something slowly means you can learn to do it correctly, without being erratic, and later as it becomes second nature you’ll do it the right way. The importance is obvious in something like martial arts, but it’s also true in any physical activity. And every activity is physical (and mental).

4. Increased focus. When you do something slowly, you tend to do just one thing. It’s hard to multi-task and do something slowly — they don’t mix well. When you single-task, you can focus, instead of always being distracted. This leads to increased effectiveness.

5. Calm. Slow is calmer. Fast is hectic. Go slow to get rid of the chaos, and find peace.

“Slow down, everyone. You’re moving too fast.” - Jack Johnson

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This guest post was written by: Leo Babauta, the creator of: Zen Habits.net  (Blog).

Cutting the Irrelevant Stuff Out of Your Life!

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” ~Anthony Robbins

“The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way” ~ African Proverb

Asking yourself questions is a great way to keep yourself on track in day to day life. Cutting out and letting go of irrelevant stuff can help you to simplify and relaxify your life. It can help you to find more time for the things that are fun and really important to you.

So combining these two things can be very helpful. Here are three quick questions that can help you to cut irrelevant stuff out of your life.

As you use the questions more and more they tend to start to pop up almost automatically at useful points in your everyday life.

1. Who cares?

A very simple but a very powerful question. Whenever you feel like delving into some nitpicking or some pettiness ask yourself this question. Or whenever you feel an overwhelming need to be right in some discussion.

Yes, nitpicking or having to be right can give you sort of high. You feel good. But it’s a dirty high. It never lasts for long. And you just create a lot of negativity within yourself and outside of yourself in the long run.

Asking yourself “who cares?” is a way to lighten up, to not take every little thing so seriously. It’s way be more open and relaxed with yourself and the people around you. It’s simply a way to be cool about stuff.

2. What is the most important thing I can do right now?

If you are lost in what to do next in your day, week or life, ask yourself this question. The answer might not always be what you want to hear because the most important thing is often one of the harder things you want to do too. But it can help you to check your priorities and stop you from getting lost in busy work – or Facebook or checking some inboxes/blog statistics etc. over and over during the day – and instead start tackling the big stuff.

3. Will this matter in 5 years?

This one can really puts things into perspective. It can make just about any difficulty that you are having right now seem a bit trivial and not as important and heavy as you had imagined the last few days, weeks and months. You may discover that you had expanded a problem and made it a lot more terrifying than it actually is. And that you can actually solve it more easily than you thought you while you were in a somewhat panicked state of mind.

It’s a bit similar to the first question, so try them both when faced with a appropriate situation and find out what works best for you.

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This guest post was written by: Henrik Edberg, the creator of: The Positivity Blog.

Creating Space for the New!

The scarcity (Scare City) conversation going on in your head causes you to hang onto those old clothes in the wardrobe or the three outdated cameras that collect dust in the cupboard. Perhaps you do not yet see that connection however, trust me, they are directly linked.

It is now time to make a little more room to allow for all those wonderful things that you desire.

Get a bigger bookshelf if you want new books, or purge some of those old titles that no longer fit with your new abundance mindset. Weed that garden, you know that every time you drive the car into the drive it drops your energy to see those weeds taking over. Pay your bills on time, every time, and each time you do this, give thanks that you can live a lifestyle that incurs such expenses. Empty those rubbish bins around the house regularly and…yes…have a bin in every room then empty them regularly. Go ahead, unclutter your world…it's wonderful for the Feng Shui (a scientific discipline based on the analysis of energy)!

How can anything great come into your physical, spiritual or mind space when you keep filling the spaces with all those unnecessary extras? Including, worry, drama, procrastination, physical clutter and negative conversation.

Where else can you make some room for the "good things" about which you dream? Take a look around, make a list and work your way through it. Set a timer each day for ten minutes if it helps. Pick a sock drawer or a cupboard shelf to "attack" in those ten minutes. Make that phone call or write that email that you've been putting off. Really feel that feeling of having it done and look forward to that reward.

I have two very handy tools at my website that give you plenty of areas on which to go to work to raise the energy that you transmit.

One of these is the CleanSweep and the other is a list of Tolerations. Download these for free from ForwardSteps.com.au and get into action. (Hint: they are under the heading 'Coaching Tools')

When you even get three-quarters of the way through one of those lists, you'll be ready to create again. You'll be like a drainpipe that has just been unblocked. Things will start flowing toward you and through you once more. That dark little rain cloud that used to follow you overhead each day will magically disappear. Goodness, you might even notice all those opportunities for advancement that have been whizzing by you each day!

That little extra bounce in your step and that lovely clear, clean feeling of everything being right in your world cannot help but attract people and the energy of the universe's power toward you and you'll be ready to give again. You may even have a little breakthrough in self-worth and we all know its immense value in manifestation of success and abundance!

"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into our mind, but how to get the old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it." ~Dee Hock

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This guest post was written by: Thea Westra, as was posted on: The Wealthy Attitude Blog.