How to Motivate Yourself for Exercise

Exercise is one of the most essential requirements of the human body, perhaps just as essential as air and food. Without exercise, our bodies are going to wither away eventually. But it is saddening to see that a lot of people are making excuses to stay away from exercise. They mask their indolence with excuses such as too much work, no good company, too expensive, etc. However, should we not wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late?

 

If you find yourself making such excuses to keep away from exercising as well, then here are a few ways in which you can motivate yourself.

 

1.  Get educated on health and fitness. Speak to your doctor about the ill-effects of too much weight. Find out the sicknesses that can occur and the various things you cannot accomplish, things that a fitter person could accomplish quite easily. For many people, just knowing of the perils of lack of exercise could be a significant motivating factor.

 

2.  Seek your partner’s support. There is nothing better than a supportive partner in a weight loss campaign. They will do everything needed to motivate and encourage you to keep up with your desire of shedding weight. Just try opening out to them.

 

3.  Look at your pictures when you were younger. You were probably much slimmer then. Try getting into your old jeans if you still have them. Think of the things you were doing in those times that you cannot do today. Or, maybe, go visit an old school friend who you have not visited for ages. When they tell you how much you have put on, you will realize the difference. All these things will keep egging you on to do something about your weight.

 

4.  Think about the result that you can achieve if you lose weight. You will become a more attractive person and look years younger. More importantly, you will be healthier. You will be able to do things that you cannot do now. Life itself will have a new meaning for you.

 

5.  When you are into the program, make a weight loss chart for yourself and pin it up where you can see it every day. On this chart, mention your weight loss program. Write everything quite precisely, down to the last milligram. When you see weight is steadily getting shed off your body, you will feel encouraged to go on till the last ounce of needless body weight is removed.

 

These motivators can help you with your weight loss efforts. If you stay focused and think about the ways in which your life will be enhanced, you will probably need no other motivator for your weight loss program. 

 

How to Ensure Your Day Is Positive

Life has been metaphorically compared to be like a rollercoaster. It is high sometimes and low at other times. When the life’s rollercoaster is at its summit, everything is going the way it should and we are full of happiness and good cheer. We have everything that we want at such times. But then, we have to be prepared for the plunges that life will inadvertently take as well. These ebbs are going to happen, but we have to do all we can to ensure that we are not thrown off the track.

 

Is it in our hands to make our days positive? To convert those ebbs into surges? Yes, if we tried. We could take our life in a whole new direction altogether. We would have to take things one at a time.

 

Plan Out Your Day

 

When you get up each morning, after you say a little prayer to the powers that you believe in, start planning out your day. You do not have to spend a lot of time on this. In fact, you can do this even as you are washing yourself or getting dressed for the day. You simply have to create a bare outline of what you will be doing throughout the day. This helps you anticipate the things that might happen and, in fact, just because you are planning your day out, there are fewer chances of any mishaps happening.

 

Do Not Have High Expectations about Anything

 

One likely way to jeopardize your day is by anticipating too much. You have to take it easy. Things will happen as they will. You do not need to think much about what is going to come your way. Do not expect high. That saves you from heartbreak if things do not go the way you expected them to.

 

Set Your Priorities Right

 

More often than not, we get worked up by the small things in life, the things that should not really matter much. If we want our days to be positive, then this is not the way to think. We have to make sure we know what we want the most. We have to think about things like our health, our family, our friends, etc. These are things that we do not prioritize and that are what leads to problems later on. Problems at work can be sorted out soon; problems with family and self take eons to solve.

 

Do Something That Gives You Joy… Every Day

 

Every day, unfailingly, do something that makes you happy. It could be a very small thing such as just browsing through a magazine that has your favorite pictures, but it should be something. When you do something for yourself, regardless of how quickly, you become happy. You get a sense of satisfaction. Try it out… this can help make your day better.

 

Try these things out. Though unexpected things will happen, you could ward off potential setbacks by not expecting too much and being optimistic. That is the way to have a brighter day. 

 

3 Most Essential Ingredients You Need for Personal Development

If you are trying to bring about a positive change to your personality, then you just cannot afford to miss the three vital factors that can play a key role in your personality development. Here, we speak about these three important aspects.

 

Build Your Self-Esteem

 

You cannot impress anyone unless you can impress yourself first. You need to have a significant amount of confidence within yourself. You should know what you are talking about and what you are doing. You should know the effects of your actions. That does not mean you should not have apprehensions at all. You can have, but it is important that you know what your shortcomings are and strive to improve upon them.

 

A confident person is not a person who knows everything. On the contrary, a confident person is one who knows about his or her particular niche and knows it well. Your self-esteem builds when you are the master of your subject. Hence, you need to keep educating yourself and keeping yourself aware of your subject of expertise if you want to build a powerful personality.

 

Determination

 

Another aspect of personality development is determination. This is your staunchness to perform a particular task that you have taken up. Your determination speaks about your achievement capacity too. If you are more dedicated towards achieving your goals, you are likelier to make efforts for fulfilling them.

 

When you are determined about something, your focus and concentration for it also increases. You are able to single-mindedly think about your goals and achieve them. This makes you a successful person and your success improves your self-esteem. Hence, learning to be determined to accomplish your goals can have far-reaching effects on your personality enhancement.

 

Empathy

 

Empathy is another quality that you should develop within yourself. Being empathetic means being sensitive to the people around you. You have to build these qualities of compassion and sensitivity towards everyone you meet. When you treat other people as human, you come across as a much better person yourself.

 

This involves being considerate to the people around you. Understand that they have their limitations and potentials too, and accept them as they are. Not placing yourself superiorly or inferiorly in comparison to other people is also an important aspect of being empathetic.

 

If you are trying to hone your personality, you are not going to go very far if you do not work within you these three fundamental principles. However, if you make these three factors your allies, you could go a long way in developing yourself as a person. 

 

5 Tips to Make You a More Patient Person

Patience is often called a virtue and that is quite correct. Not everyone can be called patient. When we are patient, we know how to wait. We know how to give something enough time to reach its conclusion. Sometimes, we wait longer than needed. However, that is because we are patient. We allow things their little liberties and concessions; we do not mind if we have to spend a little more time waiting for it to happen.

 

History reveals that people who are patient have eventually obtained their success. Now, do not take the wrong meaning. Patience does not mean inaction or lack of action. In fact, it means quite the opposite. It means you are doing your best and waiting for things to happen their own way. Remember that if you do not put in the right efforts, you are not going to get results, whether you are patient or not.

 

Here are some tips that can help you to become a more patient individual.

 

1.  Do not raise the expectations bar too high. If you expect too much, you may also want the results to occur sooner than they are due. Actually, this could be a big peril. When you are rushing things in this manner, it is possible that even expected results do not happen.

 

2.  Do not think much about your contribution into a particular task. When you think you have contributed a lot, it is likely that you want to see some results soon. That is because you are involved in it. You should take up tasks, fulfill them and move on to another. This helps you shift your focus to the next task and you do not become too impatient about the previous one.

 

3.  Be practical about it. Say to yourself that everything has to take its due course of time. There are a few things that cannot be rushed, but these few things influence almost everything that we do. For instance, we cannot make days rush by. They will take their course. When you realize this one important fact, you are more at peace with yourself and become more patient.

 

4.  Tell yourself that if you rush things, it could actually spoil the result. Think about what can happen if you want things to be done sooner than their natural course of time. Visualize these results whenever you start getting impatient.

 

5.  Think about all the different ways in which your impatience can hamper your productivity. You can lose the focus on your work, and you may develop a negative personality trait. That way, you will not be able to achieve success in future. This is something that should definitely tell you to stop and be patient.

 

Try these tips out the next time you feel like you want something immediately. See how your patience can bring in better results then. 

 

How Working from Home Can Affect Your Personality

You are consistently striving to improve your personality; after all, who isn’t? Now, you have started thinking about the work at home concept a bit seriously. However, you are worried. You are worried that this kind of life could affect your outgoing personality. You fear you may become an introvert, and scared of mingling with other people in society. You think you will lose your confidence and self-esteem as well. How far is this true? Can working at home have such negative repercussions on your personality?

 

The truth is, actually, exactly the opposite. While you are busy getting skeptical about what might home if you switch over to a work at home life, the truth is that you might just regain your lost confidence. When you are working outside, you are working under someone else’s directions, and someone else constantly monitors you. Though you have accepted this kind of life so far, you are tired of it now. You want to be your own person. That is the reason why you are considering a work at home opportunity in the first place.

 

When you look into the affairs of your little work at home business yourself, and earn money for things that you have created from scratch, the fulfillment is beyond description. You gain a supreme level of confidence. You know that you are able to do things. In fact, you might find within yourself abilities and capabilities that you were never sure you had before.

 

While you surge ahead with more conviction, you also gain a large amount of creative fulfillment. Here you have managed everything related to the business. In fact, you have created something out of your own hands. You have nurtured it and it grows in front of your eyes. You see it taking shape. This gives you a sense of satisfaction.

 

This inner confidence and sense of fulfillment that wells up within you spills out as well. When you move out with other people, they are likely to see this exuberance within you. They know that you have the satisfaction of being self-made, and it definitely rubs off on your personality. Also, when you are able to generate money instead of just earn it; the pride that you develop in yourself cannot be expressed in words.

 

Therefore, do not have qualms about whether or not you should quit your job and start working from home. Even if it means that you have to slog it out a bit at the start, this is a worthy effort. Among other things, you get a dazzling personality that you will captivate everyone you know with. 

 

How to Enhance Your Productivity When You Are Working from Home

People who are working from home have many benefits. They can work as per their preferred timings, they can be with their family most of the time, they can take breaks whenever they want, they do not have to worry what they would do if they fell sick or simply felt too tired and so on. But, while there are many advantages of working from home, there are also some pitfalls. It is possible that you start taking things lightly and find later on that your productivity is hampered. Since, you are responsible to yourself when you are working from home, this should not happen. You need to monitor yourself. Here are some tips that can help you.

 

1.  Set daily goals for yourself. There will be a main goal you are trying to focus on, but, all the same, you should try to have mini goals along the way as well. Sit down and think what you will try to achieve today. This is your goal for the day. It helps you keep focus. It helps you keep going. However, of course, you have to try your best not to deviate from it… you have to achieve what you have set for yourself for the day.

 

2.  Work according to a schedule. You might find this difficult at first, but slowly it becomes a habit. When you get up each morning, plan your day. Think what you will accomplish by midmorning, by noon and by dusk. Make sure to keep some ‘me-time’ and some ‘family-time’ as well. You need them to keep going.

 

3.  Analyze your peak time. Everyone has a peak time somewhere during the day where they can do work that is more productive. For some people, this time in the early morning; for others it is the afternoon. Some other people feel more rejuvenated to work in the evening. Everyone has their peak times that they need to work according to, if they want to be more productive. See where your peak time lies.

 

4.  Eliminate the distractions. Try allocating a work area for yourself within the home, and let everyone else know this is your ‘office’. If you give everyone at home enough time, they are likelier to give you your ‘work time’ as well. When you are working in your home office, ensure that you only work and do not waste time doing nonproductive things on your computer. Having a special work area in your home helps you to achieve that.

 

These are some tips that can help you become more productive. Implement them and start a new lease of a more successful ‘work-at-home’ life. 

 

How to Project Yourself Positively to a Listener

When you are talking with someone, you may sometimes consciously try to create a favorable impression on the listener. This is more likely to happen when you are speaking with the person for the first time, or if you have some kind of interest in the person. It becomes highly important to you to come across as a good person at such times. Here are some tips that might help you to achieve that.

 

1.  When in conversation, make a conscious attempt to not just say what you want but also to listen to what the other person is saying. Not just that, you also have to make sure that you pay attention, ask relevant questions, and put in the right kind of expressions. You need to make the other person feel important, and it does not cost you anything. Making people feel important is a good way of impressing them.

 

2.  When you are speaking of your positive points, you should never do so openly. Do not be too elaborate about your achievements. Say them, but say them in a matter of fact way. Do not make a big deal out of them.

 

3.  When they are speaking about a positive trait of theirs, do not completely ignore what they say. Hear it out and then decide on its merit how you would want to react. Does it sound like bragging? If it does, you can probably ignore it completely. Is it something that deserves to be praised? If yes, then go ahead and give a small compliment, but do not fuss about it.

 

4.  It is a good idea sometimes to speak about your shortcomings as well. It makes you seem more human and the other person may appreciate you for being a frank and upfront person. There is also the fact that they feel they are not alone; there are other people with limitations as well. However, be sure not to go overboard here. If you give the impression that you have many failings, then people are bound to get a very low impression of you.

 

5.  It is also important to have the right stance when you are listening. Try to look at the other person in the eye as often as you can, because that gives the impression that you are paying attention to them. Do not do things with your fingers or hair that makes you seem distracted. Give the right reactions when needed. Everyone likes an attentive audience.

 

Keep these things in mind when trying to create a favorable impression on someone who is listening to you. Implement them in your next conversation and see how they can help you in impressing them.

 

How to Make the Most of Communication

Wherever we go, we are inundated with communication. By the spoken word, we communicate with the people we meet, the people we speak with on the phone and even the people on the radio, the television and the movies. But that is just a very small part of the communication we are faced with on a daily basis. We are also constantly communicating with people in the written medium. Whatever we read—in books, newspapers, magazines and even on the labels of the products that we buy—is communication. And, don’t even get us started with the humongous amount of communication possibilities that exist on the Internet!

 

However, studies reveal that not all people respond to communication in the same manner. There are people who are more responsive to communication, and these people are those that eventually become better-informed and even more successful, while there are people who ignore most of the communication that comes their way. These are the people who miss out on a great and free way of personal development.

 

If you are planning to make the most of it, the one thing you have to bear in mind is to be receptive. Whatever form anyone is trying to communicate with you in, you have to be able to receive that input. If someone is speaking with you, open your ears wide to listen. If you are reading something, open your eyes wide. Most importantly, keep your brain open at all times. Receive all the information that you get and try to store as much of it as you can.

 

You can do this effectively by enhancing your input channels and downplaying the output ones. In spoken conversations, the simplest way to do this is to listen more and speak less. When you listen more, you are inputting information into your brain, and you are not spending more energy by talking, which is a form of output of information. When you are reading, however, the bulk of your communication is input. That is the reason why reading is such an important part of a child’s education—it is an almost 100% form of knowledge and information input, quite unlike other forms of communication that prevail.

 

This is one of the most essential things that you have to bear in mind if you are trying to make the most of communication. Communication is a two-sided affair, but there are ways in which you can make it work better to your advantage. 

 

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

Good communication stems from this adage—Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you take care of it in your conversation, you will find that you become a better speaker and eventually people start viewing you as a better person.

 

There are two aspects of this adage. Maybe you don’t quite understand how this line is relevant on the whole, but when you break it down into its two distinct parts, then you are better able to understand the message that it is trying to convey.

 

Saying What You Mean

 

For a person aspiring to be a good conversationalist, this is of utmost importance. You have to always say things that you truly mean. Using words just for the sake of them is something you should never indulge in. It is quite all right to be a person of a few words, but you have to make sure that you mean these words well. By extrapolation, you have to make sure that you don’t say anything that you don’t mean. Don’t say anything that you will regret later. Remember that most of the hurt in the world has come from ill-used words; wrong words that were used in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Before saying something important, it is quite all right to take a little breather and think over what you want to say. Don’t blurt things out. It is always wise to do a little thinking first. If you have time, you could think how to properly word a particular thing so that it has a better effect. This is an art, and our English language is so vast that there is a word for almost everything that doesn’t sound impolite or rude.

 

Keep in mind that you will always be held accountable for what you say. So that you don’t have to eat humble pie later, it is better to say only things that you truly mean, things that you will stand testimony for at any point in future.

 

Meaning What You Say

 

This is the more difficult part of the conversation. This is the part where you are supposed to take action. When you have said something, you need to stand by it. You have to put it into action if you have said it. That’s what this part refers to.

 

A person’s real worth is seen in how they are able to stand for their words. Indeed, spoken words hold no real value unless and until they are implemented. And that is the reason why people want you to mean what you say. You are not allowed to just say things without being aware of the repercussions. On the other hand, if you say something and then are able to stand by it, you gain everyone’s respect. 

 

What to Remember When in Conversation

When we are deep in conversation with someone, it is so easy to forget how to behave! True, when we are totally engrossed in something, we don’t realize that there are a few things that need to be kept in mind. Conversation etiquette is a very important aspect of personality development. Perhaps the person speaking with you—the other end of the conversation—may not realize your demeanor, but if there is someone else listening in on the conversation, they are likely to make a judgment.

 

So, what is conversation etiquette? What are the things that you need to keep in mind, though it is very difficult to do that during a conversation? Here they are…

 

Listen More Than You Talk

 

One of the chief aspects of conversation etiquette is that you have to listen more than you talk. Give the other person a chance to say what they want to say. Hear it out completely. Don’t interrupt in between unless you need some elaboration on something.

 

Don’t Shoot Off Your Own Trajectory

 

A very irritating habit during conversation is when people start telling their own tales right in the middle of something someone else is telling them. You say something to your friend, and then your friend starts giving an example from their own life! You should make a definite effort not to do this. Your own life is colorful to you, but at the moment someone else is sharing something with you. Hear them out completely and give them valuable inputs where needed. Your own story can wait.

 

Remember Details

 

It is very important to be attentive when talking with someone. You cannot afford to miss out on the details. When they are saying something, it is very impolite to ask them what they are talking about! Though human memory is what it is, you cannot cite your poor memory as a reason all the time.

 

React According to Situation

 

Be ready with the right reactions… surprise, disgust, happiness, anger, etc. Every story that someone tells you needs a reaction. Don’t be too reticent about expressing your emotions. People want reassurance in the form of your emotions. 

 

Don’t Start Patronizing or Advising

 

Unless called upon to do so, you should never dole out advice during a conversation. When someone tells you something, most times they just want a pair of ears. That gives them enough liberation. But if you start dishing out advice, it might be taken in the wrong way. Give advice only when someone asks you for it.

 

These are the basic rules you have to remember when you are in conversation with someone. Basically, be a decent, attentive person who shows their expressions when someone is talking with them. That’s what’s expected of a listener anyway.