Keep tabs on my motorcycle safety column here.

that this site has become a spammer’s delight. Just nuked several hundred marketing and p-o-r-n comments and links. To bad. I’m going stop posting for a while. Any suggestions on how to prevent this pollution is welcome!!!

Since we talked about bad habits yesterday, it only makes sense to follow this up with an article on self-discipline! Self-discipline is a powerful attribute to have, yet challenging to obtain.

Self-discipline is the ability to do whatever it takes to overcome obstacles and reach your goals, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. It may involve saying: “no” to things you want or saying: “yes” to things you hate, but with the power of self-discipline, it becomes easier to stand up for yourself.

Most individuals would love to be more self-disciplined, yet very few people actually take action to acquire it.

Perhaps you start your day with good intentions, but veer off as the day progresses due to challenging issues, stresses, or distractions. Thankfully, there are some strategies you can incorporate into your daily life so you can become a master of self-discipline and stay on task.

Follow these techniques to strengthen your self-discipline:

1. Be committed to the cause. Are you truly unhappy being undisciplined? Is this something that you’re committed to improving? Many times people claim they want to be more self- disciplined, but the truth is, they honestly don’t mind being the way they are.

• Be honest with yourself. If this is something that you definitely want to improve in your life, it may take a bit of time and effort, but it can be done.
• The only way you’ll succeed is by staying committed to the cause.

2. Write it down. The process of writing your ideas and goals helps you clarify the thoughts in your mind so you can come up with an action plan that you can stick to.

• Write down all the areas that you wish to improve – your finances, relationships, career, or anything in between. Include what changes you would like to see and how you believe will be the best way to make it happen.

3. Enlist the help of others. It’s absolutely wonderful that you’ve committed to make a positive change in your life, but don’t keep it under wraps. Tell others that you want to make a change and boost your self-discipline.

• Don’t be ashamed that you weren’t more self-disciplined from the beginning. The important thing is that you’re now taking positive action! Those who love you will be there to support you and help you celebrate your successes.
• Your support group can also help you get through the bad days and put you back on track to achieve your goals.

4. Believe in yourself. Have faith in yourself and know that if you can master your self-discipline, you can do anything! There will be both good and bad days, but as long as you remain focused and committed, you’ll be successful in strengthening your self-discipline.

• Remember to focus on the big picture and concentrate on how your body, mind, and energy will change for the better when you stay committed.

Many people admire those who are self-disciplined. These people can stay on a schedule and never seem to lose focus on what they need to accomplish. They make more wise decisions, take action when they need to, and achieve their goals with relative ease.

Implement these strategies into your daily life and they’ll soon become habits. Self-discipline can become your way of life – if you want it!

Do you perceive “Critical thinking” as necessarily scientific or analytical?

Actually, the bottom line on critical thinking is that it is a way of thinking that will help you form more knowledgeable opinions and make better business and personal-life decisions.

That certainly seems like a beneficial skill to have, but how do you develop the ability to think critically? Critical thinking doesn’t equal higher intelligence. In layman’s terms, it’s just a more logical way to think about solutions from all angles.

Some of us may have stronger critical thinking skills than others, but we can all learn how to improve and develop our mind.

Here are some suggestions that can help you strengthen your critical thinking skills:

1. Clarify. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve. You won’t be able to reasonably analyze a situation and locate a solution if you’re not completely clear on what you’re trying to accomplish!

• It’s also important that you place your own feelings about the situation aside. You cannot get a clear understanding of the issue if you have prejudiced opinions and biases about it.

2. Attempt to find a solution. Take some time with a pen and paper to define all possibilities. At this time you’ll also want to map out how you’ll be able to reach each of these solutions.

• Include the benefits and challenges of each solution. To learn how to improve and develop your critical thinking skills, you must be open to new ideas, so try and incorporate as much as you can into your list.

3. Information. Next, gather as much information as possible to support all the solutions you’re considering, as well as information you need to refute them.

• Considering your solutions from all angles will keep you from making a haphazard decision, which would not be classified in the realm of critical thinking.

4. Learn how to analyze. Now you have a problem, a list of solutions, and all the information you need to support or refute each of those decisions. So what do you do with it all?

• You’ll need time to analyze everything. Take everything into consideration and don’t assume anything. Make sure you have irrefutable evidence to back everything up. The more you practice this, the better you’ll ultimately get at it, so keep plugging away.

5. Conclude. Make an intelligent conclusion to your original problem. Make sure you have the documentation to back up and prove your decision. Always make sure this is a reasonable conclusion that is relatively simple to put into action.

• If you’ve put the time and effort into analyzing the problem and gathering the information, your conclusion should be able to support itself.

Final Thoughts on Critical Thinking

By following the steps explained here, you have just used your critical thinking skills! Though it may seem unnatural at first, as with everything, as you continue to practice these strategies, your critical thinking skills will continue to improve and develop.

Thinking critically can help you with many aspects in your life. Keep practicing these skills on a regular basis and soon you’ll enjoy the benefits of better decisions and superior choices!

Do you live a stressful and hectic life? Is balancing your home and business life the equivalent of burning a candle at both ends?

You’re not alone on feeling that way.

It seems that we’re busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and never have enough time to accomplish what we need to. Whether it’s your boss demanding overtime, your children needing your constant focus, or your spouse requesting your attention, every day seems like a whirlwind.

You love your family and need your job, but chances are, you tend to neglect yourself in the interim. It’s extremely important that you don’t let this happen. Put aside some time each and every day to make YOU a priority.

With a bit of creative thinking and time management, there are ways to find peace in your daily chaos. When you turn off the outside chaos, it gives you a chance to revel in all that is good and right with your world. And when you do this, you emerge with renewed energy and a fresh new attitude!

Follow these tips to enjoy more peace in your life:

1. Read a good book. If you’re one of many who enjoy reading, this may be just what you need. You can spend some time immersed in a different place or time, which will help you regain your calm. If you have a hard time focusing for long periods of time, try an audio book instead.

2. Listen to uplifting music. Music has always had wonderful and mysterious powers. It’s used to calm children, the elderly, and even animals during times of stress and angst. Play music that appeals to you. Dance, sing along, or just sit back and listen to its beautiful melody.

3. Reflect and meditate. Focus on everything that’s good and right with your life. Think of those you love and what you hope for them in the future. Think about your own future as well and what you hope to achieve in your lifetime.

• Close your eyes, sit in a comfortable chair, or lie down on your bed. Block out all sources of stress and think only positive thoughts. I’m currently practicing a very simple form of meditation, where you breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, and focus ONLY on the breath moving past the base of your nose.

4. Enjoy some family time. Spending time with those you love is often a great stress reliever. Choose a fun activity that you can all enjoy. You may want to play a board game or pop some popcorn and watch a movie together.

• It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you can have some fun and relax together.

5. Get some assistance from the experts. Many noted authors have written invaluable books on the topics of de-stressing and de-cluttering your life. You can even purchase these books in an audio format and listen to them during your commute.

• When you’re stuck in traffic, rather than getting upset, why not put in an audio book and learn while you wait? My car is now a travelling university, and that’s pretty well all I do when I’m driving (unless I have my daughter with me, and then it’s either Hannah Montana or The Backyardigans).

6. Slow down. Take your time, stop and smell the roses, and listen to the birds chirp. Everything you need so desperately to accomplish will still be there waiting for you five minutes later. It’s a beautiful world out there! Do everything you can to make sure you enjoy every minute of it.

Use these tips every day to help you discover all the beautiful and wondrous things in your life and you’ll also find peace in your chaos!

What you focus on expands. Ideally, you want to focus on moving your business forward. Losing focus is all too easy.

We all have a tendency to become side tracked. We may want to complete an important task, yet many distractions poke and prod us away from our goals. How can we keep our focus on the task as hand?

Distractions may be hard to ignore, especially when it’s a chatty coworker, a ringing phone, a demanding spouse (not all that common I’m sure–grin), or many other things. Thankfully, there are some tried and true strategies we can use to put the distractions on hold and place an intense focus on our task.

Try these techniques to develop an intense focus:

1. Remove distractions. You can’t focus if you’re constantly checking your email, Facebook, or other time-stealers! You’ll get more done if you allow your mind to get in the groove with some peace and quiet.

• Turn off your email, close your web browsers, shut off your phone off or forward it to voicemail, and put on headphones to avoid loud noises. You’ll be glad you did!

2. Remain committed. You know that you have something you should finish, but are you one hundred percent committed to seeing it through to completion? This is where you need to be honest with yourself.

• If you’re not fully committed to your task, you’re more likely to allow distractions to overtake your mind. More often than not, you’ll use distractions to create excuses and exceptions that try to justify your lack of focus.
• If you are committed, it will be easier to ignore distractions and keep your focus. This is something only you can decide.

3. Set a time limit. Even if the task itself doesn’t have a time limit, assign one anyway. If you have a deadline, you’ll be more apt to complete your task in a timely manner.

• Rather than giving in to the surrounding distractions, you’ll be competing against the clock to get things done on time.

4. Take frequent breaks. This may sound contradictory, but it actually makes a world of difference for the workaholic. If we work too long at one time, not only do we become physically tired, but our minds tire as well. This makes us more susceptible to distractions and shatters our concentration.

• Work intently for an hour and then allow yourself a 10-minute break. When you return from the break, you’ll be more focused, your mind will be clearer, and you’ll be more likely to work for another hour without losing focus.
• This strategy allows you to get more work done in a shorter time.

5. Use a list. Lists are wonderful tools that help you accomplish your work quicker and easier. Before beginning, write down everything you need to accomplish and then cross out each task as you complete it.

• The process of crossing things off your list is a great motivator to keep you working without distractions, plus it helps to build the momentum to get everything done.

6. Reward yourself for a job well done. When you’re able to stay focused on an important task, reward yourself! Just keep thinking about the big picture and your reward once you’re finished with the task at hand.

• This will keep you on target and you’ll finish as quickly as you possibly can. Everyone loves a treat for a job well done!

Remember, you’re human, too. Losing your focus is easy in an existence that’s filled with daily distractions and annoyances. However, you’ll find that you can keep an intense focus on something if you practice these techniques. Make them a habit and enjoy your rewards!

Have you watched TV lately? Flipped through a magazine? Gazed upon a billboard? It seems that every where you look these days almost everyone is focused on physical beauty. Someone’s intelligence, personality, or status is all perceived by their outward appearance. So where does inner beauty fit in?

We all have inner beauty, however, whether or not we’re aware of it or utilize it is up to us. Inner beauty is something that’s profoundly more important than physical beauty. It’s something that you must nurture and cherish.

When you develop your inner beauty, your physical beauty seems to miraculously improve as well!

Here are some strategies that can help you discover and develop your inner beauty:

1. Make an “I Love Me” list. This is a powerful tool to help you discover your inner beauty. Write down all of your good qualities that don’t relate to something physical. Are you sweet? Sincere? Love animals and children? All these attributes and a host of others relate to your inner beauty.

• The process of writing out your strengths gives you tangible evidence of your great inner qualities that you might not have even been aware of.

2. Surround yourself with those whose inner qualities you admire. Of course, they may also have physical beauty, but the reason you’re drawn to them is because they’re caring, loving, gentle, or otherwise admirable because of their inner qualities.

• When you surround yourself with these kinds of people, your own inner beauty tends to shine through also. They may even point out your inner beauty to you. People like this look beyond the outer shell and focus on what’s important inside.

3. Practice and cultivate your inner beauty. Most of us know how to take care of our physical beauty: we get our nails and hair done, we stay in shape, buy new clothes, and so on.

• Remember, when you discover and improve your inner beauty, physical beauty follows. Surely you’ve met someone and weren’t attracted to their physical beauty at first glance, but once you got to know them and saw their inner beauty, they began to be more physically attractive as well.
• What can you do to bring out your inner beauty? It’s simple: Be you! Show beautiful qualities like compassion, love, and patience, and practice them daily.

4. Avoid negative talk. Gossip and negative comments about others breeds more negativity within you. Instead, focus on the good in people. Rather than saying an off-color comment about someone’s appearance, put a positive spin and focus on a point of his or her inner beauty.

• This will help you cultivate and develop your own inner beauty, too. Focusing on the positive qualities of others brings out the best in you, too! You’ll also find that you’ll attract people because they enjoy being around you. Attracting loving and caring friends is just icing on the cake!

Final Thoughts on Your Inner Beauty

Your inner beauty is unique to you. Unfortunately though, many of us don’t know how to celebrate and honor it. Unleash your inner beauty to the world! Don’t be afraid of it.

Use these tips to show everyone your inner beauty and you’ll gain an amazing and unshakeable self-confidence!

Is “Doormat” your first name? Well, okay, maybe not YOU, not TODAY, but have you ever had the feeling that other people were take advantage of you or your business on a somewhat frequent basis? And, are you allowing this to happen? (And yes, it ultimately boils down to what YOU allow to happen!)

Respect is something you earn. No one deserves to be taken advantage of, and it’s possible for YOU  to change how others treat you!

Implement these simple tips and tricks and you’ll receive the respect you deserve in no time:

1. Live by the Golden Rule. Most of us are familiar with the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would want done to you” is a wonderful philosophy when attempting to garner respect. Always treat others as you expect to be treated. People will tend to reciprocate and treat you the same way. If they don’t, then you can ease your way out of the relationships over time, if possible.

2. Put yourself first. An example of this would be telling your friend that you cannot babysit her 4-year old so she can get her nails done because you’re busy with your own personal appointments and schedule.

• You have to make yourself a priority. If people see that you respect yourself, then you’ll ultimately be respected, too.

3. Use strong body language. When speaking face to face with others, portray the fact that you’re strong and important. Stand straight, look people in the eye, and speak forcefully but not overwhelmingly so.

• If your body language shouts, “I am important and I respect myself,” you’ll surely gain the respect of others.
• Those people who stare at the floor when speaking, avoid eye contact, and whisper their words are telling others that they don’t believe they deserve respect and attention. Always remember to stand tall and proud; you’re important and you deserve to be recognized!

4. Speak positively. In addition to having strong body language, the words you use to express yourself are also extremely important when trying to earn the respect of others. Learn to speak in positively and authoritatively. Don’t be boastful, but don’t demean or belittle yourself either.

• Leave the impression that you’re intelligent, well spoken and confident. If you portray yourself in this manner others will treat you the same way.

5. Surround yourself with the right people. Let’s face it: there are people in this world who are disrespectful to everyone and everything. No matter what you do to command respect, nothing may work!

• You may need to take some time and rethink those you’re spending time with. They may not be the kind of people who have your best interests at heart.

6. Stand up for yourself. If people are disrespectful to you, how do you respond? Do you say something to the offending person or do you just go on with life? People treat us in the way we allow ourselves to be treated.

• If you confront the person and voice your opinion and unhappiness, chances are good that person won’t treat you that same way in the future. It’s not about being confrontational, but a simple “I don’t appreciate how you’re speaking to me” can go a long way.

We all have a desire and need to be respected. By making some small changes, you’ll be able to open yourself to receiving the respect of others, while learning how to also express your respect. Use these techniques in all interactions every day to gain the respect you deserve.

Did you know that you can build confidence with daily declarations?

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I subscribe to the power of positive thinking. Positive thinking will open doors; negative thinking slams them shut.

Focusing on phrases such as: “That was stupid,” “I am so fat,” “No one loves me,” and a host of other negative statements can easily zap the happiness right out of your life.

Positive declarations (also known as affirmations, though there is a slight difference in nuance) can turn your negativity around. Declarations are simply statements or phrases, which focus on the positive rather than the negative.

These mantras can actually reprogram your subconscious thinking and bring you a plethora of good benefits that you’ll enjoy for years to come!

Here are some easy ways to incorporate positive declarations into your life:

1. Declarations should always be in the present tense. Begin your statements with “I can” “I have” or “I am,” instead of a phrase like “I will” or “I may.”

• Examples of this would be “I have a beautiful body” and “I am so intelligent,” instead of “I will never be so stupid again.”
• Choose statements that focus on the positive attributes you want to encourage, saying them as if you already exhibit that behavior.

2. Address yourself by name when expressing your affirmations. Believe it or not, this does make a big difference. When you say: “I, Jane Doe, am a beautiful person both inside and out,” it makes your affirmation more powerful because you hear the lovely sound of your own name!

• Using your name in the declarations allows your subconscious to process the words even quicker.

3. Focus on one or two declarations to start with. Although you possess many positive attributes, it’s best to focus only on one or two when you’re first starting out. If you start with twenty positive declarations, your subconscious may be overwhelmed or dismiss the deeper meaning.

• For example, if you meet someone who goes on and on about how great and beautiful you are, what’s your reaction? Usually after the second or third compliment, you tend to wonder if this person is actually being sincere! The same principal applies to practicing many declarations at once.
• Focus on one or two, and when they’re firmly planted into your subconscious, you can move on to more.

4. Practice your declarations as often as possible. Our subconscious mind is more open to suggestions when we first open our eyes in the morning and then again when we’re ready to fall asleep at night.

• The more often you recite your declarations, the faster you’ll experience lasting changes.

5. Don’t fret if you’re having trouble writing your affirmations. There are many books and self-improvement websites that include hundreds of good, daily declarations. You can then pick out one or two that you’d like to focus on and get started.

• Don’t let something as insignificant as not being able to compose a positive mantra hold you back from making changes and incorporating happiness into your life!

You can boost your confidence and self-esteem with daily declarations and experience the joy of life you’ve been missing. Try it and you’ll love it!

Hello folks:

Today I have a really special treat for you! An exclusive interview with Sheila Tourond, an entrepreneur and publisher of the very successful RVTimes.

It’s an MP3 (and I recommend you right-click and save as, as it might be a bit long in loading if you opt to listen to it online).

Knock yourself out! She’s an amazing woman!

All my best,

Britt

PS the Britt of I’m Allowed.com is me wearing my business name.