Great Self Confidence

...to live the life you want

Archives for December 2007

Reflections on 2007

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Today is the last day of 2007. Many people are busy setting New Years Resolutions like “I will lose 20lbs”, “I will stop smoking”, “I will go to the gym twice a week”. The sort of resolutions/targets/goals – whatever you want to call them – that have often fizzled out by the end of January.

Two posts I wrote recently (Do you have passion or desire?, are goals necessary?) have highlighted my uncertainties about goal setting. Its something I have been studying – partly because I have seldom got it right myself. I’ll come back to this in the next posts. But there are two things I have always got right.

One, January 1st isn’t the only day you can start new goals. In many ways its a poor day. Many set goals, like those above, based on consuming less – be it food, smoke, alcohol, money. This reflects a holiday season of excess rather than any real motivation to change.

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A Christmas Carol

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On 19th December 1843 “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens was first published. Over the years the story has been retold many times on stage, television and film. The main character Scrooge has entered our language to depict meanness – I used it in my last post, Free Christmas Present.

Scrooge is depicted as a financially wealthy character – a successful businessman – but someone who is a total failure in all other aspects of his life.

“External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.”

Being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future he is able to see the impact of his life on others, and the fact that no one would mourn his passing. [Read more…]

Free Christmas present

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This is a quick post to let you know of a brilliant free gift – that someone else is giving away! I came across Thea Westra and her Forward Steps site through Personal Development Partners. Thea has created a great resource with Forward Steps and has put together a special Advent Calendar for Christmas. This has links to 24 videos by inspirational, motivational and creative speakers on various aspects of personal development.

The videos last from about 4 minutes to over 20 in length. Some speakers are well know (Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs, Jim Rohn), others I had never heard of. To date I have seen nine and they have all been excellent. As its linked to Christmas I’m not sure if the page will stay up indefinitely, so get your Advent Calendar now. Incidentally, each “day” has links to other gifts that Thea has put together. Makes me feel a real Scrooge!

Someone else who I have to admire for working really hard this Christmas on creating a new project is Mert Ekral. On his Search for Blogging blog he is creating a “Bloghology” – more of which in the New Year. But for this he has interview me, which now appears on Peopleized! So not exactly a Christmas present, but taste of something to come.

Do you have Passion or Desire?

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Over the last couple of weeks, it was impossible to listen to a news bulletin without hearing the phrase “road map” – often accompanied with the Talking Heads “Road to Nowhere”! The politicians then emerged with the “Bali Road Map” – basically agreeing to continue discussions for a further two years.

Politicians seem to like their Road Maps. Personally I have always like maps, and would go as far as saying I am very good at reading them. The difference is that politicians seem to use maps to describe plans (however vague), rather than something that basically shows all the possible places we can go.

As we head for a new year, many see it essential to start looking at new goals, “resolutions”, perhaps their own road map. I did raise the question a few weeks ago, are goals necessary? There was an excellent post by Michael Martine recently I have big hot burning desires, in which he dissected all the traditional arguments in favour of goal setting. As the title suggests, he feels burning desire is the driving force behind any achievement. My own philosophy uses the passion in a similar way. [Read more…]

How to develop will power

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Since starting this blog I have reread some of my own books on self confidence and personal development, and generally researched and followed up links on the topic. Some I have made reference to, or quoted. I have paid particular attention to any source that has given exercises to build self confidence.

My aim is to build a resource that will be useful, not just interesting or entertaining. Reading books on any aspect of personal development I always feel they have a major drawback – when the reader is presented with an exercise to carry out, its so, so easy to turn over the page (promising ourselves to return to it later!).

Personal development involves change, and you won’t change by just passing by. If you do try to follow some of the exercises you come across another problem – changing habits usually involves effort, some discomfort, and will power. Surprisingly, few books even mention will power, suggesting that just once someone has embarked on a new course of action keeping going is simple. [Read more…]