Yesterday, my friend who is an executive of a reputable company told me that he needed to go to the US since he had to make a presentation there. He said he didn’t want to go. When he is asked why, he told me that his presentation was only 15 minutes and he had to travel almost 18 hours all the way just for this. That is why he feels bad. I encouraged him that the weather now in the US is very nice and he should enjoy the moments there.

When I was alone, I reckoned on his reaction on to this trip and I thought it was an interesting way that he thinks. Firstly, many people will be willing to die for having a trip to US.  In my country, Thailand, I think that most people haven’t even been on the plane. Going to US even only a few days will be their dream. But he dislikes that. I respect his feeling but I just found it interesting.

That reminds me of what I have learned from one of Tony Robbins’ tape. I don’t remember which one since I have got many. People can control only two things in life. The rest of the elements are not controllable. Here are the two things:

1 What you feel:

You can control what you feel. By giving the right reason, you can feel good or bad. That is why some people are always happy no matter what happens to them. They condition themselves to be that way. Some of them know it by applying some thinking techniques. Some just do this by their nature.

2 What you do:

You can do according to what you want. Although, there are something that you can not do but there are certainly some reasons behind them. And you are the one who gives the reasons or condition.  Surprisingly, people just don’t do things that they should. Instead, they choose not to do things and blame it on others or circumstances.

Once you know these two items, you should be able to lead your life between controllable and uncontrollable factors. You can choose to be happy and effective or you can choose to be sad and helpless. Remember, feel bad about something that you can not control is not helping. Unfortunately, that is the world many people live in.

Jim Somchai

When it comes to personal development and science of success, there is one of principles that you will have to learn and master. That is how you can win your own fear. Fear can deter you from doing the things you have to do and keep you doing what is useless. It is a barrier that prevents you from reaching your goals. In addition, it gives you stress. And stress is bad for your health. Are you ready to get rid of your fear now? If so, keep on reading.

We all know what fear is. The dictionary can give simple definitions of fear. They are
1 a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

2 a specific instance of or propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights.

3 concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone’s safety

As you can see from the definitions, fear can be caused by either real circumstance or what is imagined. Most of the fear that comes to human mind comes from their thinking. They are afraid of something is going to happen to them. They don’t know if it will happen but they are afraid of it.

Many people have fear for something that they don’t know. For example, some people are afraid of ghost. Whether it exists is still doubtful to them but they choose to be afraid. So, the trick to win the fear is to change the unknown to the known. If you don’t know whether this method will fail, you will need to find out. Get more knowledge on it and your fear will reduce. Some time, the trial of new ways or methods can cause something to you but that will make you learn. If you keep on doing that, finally, you will have no time to fear. You will focus on finding out more about various things and you will win more.

Fear Can Cause You Opportunity

The simple technique has been used for centuries. Ignorance can cause fear. You will need to eliminate it and you will do alright. Learn more and do more on things and you will have less and less fear.

Some success classes use fear eliminating techniques like fire walking, climbing high pole or using chest to break an arrow etc. Those are good examples that make people know that something that they thought are harmful to them can be done if they know how. Once they know it, they will have less fear or no fear at all.

What is your fear at the moment? May be you have many of the things that you are afraid of. Why don’t you list out all of them? Then you write down why that fear is bothering you. What are the end results that you are afraid of? May be that will or will not happen. Find out more about what you fear. Like we have said before, if you know enough, you will not have fear. Sometimes you can not find out enough information on it, you will then have to learn by experience. Do it and you will know. If you can turn the unknown into the known, you will then not have to fear. Instead, you will learn how to prepare for the bad consequence if that is going to happen. With knowledge, you will have no fear.

Do you know Brian Tracy? Yes, he is one of the top speakers in the self improvement field. Today, I listened to his CD in my car. Actually, I have heard this for a few times. But since I was driving the car, my concentration was not so good. I didn’t catch the whole message. Today, I got my mind quite clear and I listened to his lecture. I now got the gist of his speech. It is about being an optimist.

Brian said that being optimistic is one of the qualities of successful person. He said that he have met many successful people in many fields. He found that all of them are optimistic. That is why many of them can do the unbelievable things. The point is whether they are born with it or they develop this character later on in their lives.

Let’s see how Brian sees this. He said that the people who are optimistic have the following characters.

1 They think about what they want and how to get it all the time. Everybody wants good things, right? When you think of what you want, you think only about your good stuff. You develop an optimistic quality out of this. On the contrary, most people,-who are not so successful- think about what they don’t want all the time. They complain, they gossip, they think about the bad things that happen to them in the past. This may be one of the reasons why they are in their position now.

2 Successful people see that there is some good aspect from everything that happens. No matter how bad it is, they believe that there is something good about it. It is amazing that when you think that way, you will finally find the good point in everything.

3 They do not complain about problems. Actually, successful people know that problem is a part of their success equation. They do not concentrate with the problem itself but look for the great experience from it.

4 They only engage themselves to the good and positive information. They mingle with the positive and optimistic people. They read good magazines and news. They receive continual message of good stuff. This makes their optimistic quality stronger like having mind vitamins.

With the four qualities of the optimists that we list here, do you think whether they can be developed or they are naturally implanted? Whatever you think they are, they are.
Click here for your Free CD of 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires

Today, when I was looking for some information on the net, I found something interesting about the New year resolution. I think a lot of people have this or use to have this. This is how you can make life more interesting. This is a form of goal setting. We will be talking about top ten things that people want to be in their New Year resolution. Here is the list including:

New Year Resolution

1. Spending more time with family and friends

We know that time is important. Most people in modern world do not know how to spend their time properly. As a result, they lack time and this is why they want more time to spend with their family and friends. This may be on the top of every list that is available to see.

1. Be more fit in health

Health is the issue that a lot of people are concerned about. Some people have problems in health and some may not. However, all of them want good health. They know that they need to do something in order to get that. That is how this choice becomes one of the top ten things that people want.

1. Lose weight

66 % of the Americans are overweight. So is the big percentage of the world population. Therefore, it is not surprising that people have this one as their New year resolution.

1. Quit smoking

Smoking is one of the bad habits which are very difficult to be taken care. A lot of people want to get rid of it and therefore put it into the list.

1. Be more fun in life

Happiness is what people long for. They want to enjoy their life more and be happier. Whatever they do, they want to have fun. And it can happen if they try hard enough.

1. Stop drinking

Drinking can bring a lot of problems in all areas of life. You can damage your health, relationship, financial and other areas by this thing alone.

1. Get out of debt

Economic problem can be one of the headaches especially in this economic situation. So, you can expect that a lot of people want to be out of debt.

1. Learn something new

We all want to be proud of ourselves. One of the methods is to achieve something that you have never done before. This is why a lot of people want to learn something new.

1. Help other people

Helping others can be the rewarding process and it helps people to grow spiritually. Therefore, some people set this up as their goal in New year.

1. Be more organized

Unorganized life is not appreciated and a lot of people want to correct it.

Does anything on the list match your new year resolution?

If you want to read the whole list in details, you can read the whole article about top ten new year resolution here.

There are times that we need some encouragement. Because a person’s action is directed by his thought, you can see that you get different result when you think differently. This is why we need to have good attitude at all time. It makes difference especially in some field like in sport. Only a short period of competition will determine if your years of training mean something. This is how the inspirational speech before the match comes into play.

If you have ever been in sport, you would have heard some of the good speech from your coach or manager before the game. That was because some good coach knows that the right state of mind is crucial for the success in game. Speaking the right thing encourages the team to move forward and may even make the team win.

Let me give you some of the example of the good speech before the game. This is an extraordinary act of Al Pacino from Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday“. The movie is about American Football. It was made in 1999 so it is a little bit old. However, what is said in the inspirational speech made by the character of Al Pacino can not be discounted because of the time.

I am not going to review this movie since I have watched it many years back and I will need to watch it again if I want to review it. I only remember some part of the movie and remember that it is quite a good movie. One day, I accidentally found the YouTube video on the scene that I like so I am going to post it here.

Enjoy watching this inspirational speech and then think what you can do today after watching the video in order to move toward what you plan for in your life.

The other day, I drove to the gym. On the way to there, I listened to my CD. That day, it played the lecture of Denis Waitley. Denis is a inspirational speaker who trained American Olympic athletes. I don’t know if he still doing that now. But that is not the point we are going to talk about today. Today, we are going to talk about how you move in small steps is important to your success.

Dr Denis Waitley

There is a proverb. Inch by inch, it’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s hard! That was what Denis discusses on this lecture. He gave the example of training Olympic athletes. For this level, everybody has a similar ability and talents. What they will have to compete is their mind power. How to do that? They will be trained to have more confidence. Here are what Denis taught.

The bar to train the athlete will not be set at the golden medal level. Instead, it will be set at the level that each individual athlete can achieve. Why do they have to do that? They do that to increase the level of confidence of the athlete. Once they are comfortable, the bar will be increased step by step until they reach the gold medal level.

This is how to have small steps to be the pathway to success. We can apply this to our life also. If we want to have a million dollars in our bank account, we need to accumulate from the first penny and move forward. It doesn’t matter how big jump we can have. But it matters that we move. Remember, inch by inch, it’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s hard!

The other day, I talk with one of my friends about the concept of religion. I told him that normally every body knows about the principles of most religions. We understand the concepts easily and we do not really need to learn from the leader of each religion. My friend said that we understand it because we heard about it before. It is similar to the tricks of magicians.

When you go to a circus and watch the magician’s show. You normally were amazed by the tricks he did. On the contrary, if you have known the secret of that trick before, you will not only be not-so-excited about the trick but also think that the trick is so easy to be solved. But if you will have to create a trick by yourself, you will know how difficult it is. It takes education until you are good at something. No matter if it is about religion or magic trick.

key to success

I therefore think further by focusing on the mind of creator. It can be the creator of a trick or a religion. It takes the same path. It is the path that is filled with uncertainty to succeed. When we see someone succeed, we always think that the person is such and such, so it is very easy to succeed. Do you see the correlation here?

Actually, the person who is going to succeed know nothing about the certainty that the achievement will be made. He may have that on his mind but on the outside, he is no better than others. He has no edge over others except what is in his mind. Others may think that they understand the success process. That can be true. However, only the person who really practices that process which leads him to succeed is the one who know the success process.

So, learn to deal with uncertainty in your life. Success will come out if you know how to handle it properly. The uncertainty on the outside world can be overcome with good plan and determination. You can do and be the same with other successful individuals by applying the same principle

Jim Somchai,

December 22  2008

When things go wrong. When you wake up at the wrong side of the bed. You feel bad since morning. Everything seems to be wrong afterward. Your car may break down on the way to work. You go to the office several hours late. You have a phone from your wife that she forgets to bring along her purse and she needs you to send her some money for her lunch. You get scold from your boss since one of your task has been messed up by your secretary. You don’t have time for lunch since the meeting drag over the time and there is a major task wait for you in the afternoon. You check your mail and find out that the credit card company wrongly charges your membership fee. You have to run late for your work. You are starving and exhausted. You went to pick up your wife and drive home and find out that the house doesn’t have electricity. It was cut out because you forgot to pay the bill since two weeks.

What do you think you should feel after all these things? I am sure that most people will say that the feeling should not be very positive. The reason is simply that the circumstances are suck and we all leave under the influence of the outside circumstances. One thing that I learn along the way from the top personal development people is that ” oustside circumstances does not really control your feeling. Instead, your inner mind is the one that controls how you fell during a particular period of time.

I just finished a studied questionaire on marketing behavior. Surprisingly, the same people answer the same type of questions differently if it is asked by different ways. This is due to the way the questions are structured and perceived in that person’s mind.

If you believe this theory, you have to understand that your inner mind has enough power to overcome the influence of other outside factors. No matter how bad the situation is, you always can find the way to feel good. This character is like other skill that people need to make. You need to practice in order to be able to master your feeling. Some of the simple techniques can be:

- Feel grateful of what you are already having. You have to practice to find that your life is great and find good things. Feeling of gratitude is very important for your advancement in every areas of life.
- Love and respect yourself. Find an anchor phrase like ” I like myself” or ” I am the best”. All these phrases can boosted up your self-esteem and good feeling.
- Be positive. Look for good points of everything. As mentioned in a great book, if you seek, you will find.
- Smile, walk faster, be enthusiastic,laugh easily. Physical movement can affect your feeling. Learn how to put the gesture that will boost up your good feeling. this will enhance your feeling regardless of situation.

Although, most people got depressed when the circumstances turn against them. The successful people know how to master their feeling by controlling their inner mind. This article gives you the tips on how to practice your mind to your positive feeling.

Jim Somchai
Feb 22  2008

The basics of setting a goal is an open secret known by top-caliber athletes, successful businessmen and businesswomen and all types of achievers in all the different fields. The basics of setting goals give you short-term and long-term motivation and focus. They help you set focus on the acquisition of required knowledge and help you to plan and organize your resources and your time so that you can get the best out of your life.

Setting clearly defined short term and long term goals will enable you to measure your progress and achieve personal satisfaction once you have successfully met your goals. Charting your progress will also enable you to actually see the stages of completion leading to the actual realization of your goals. This eliminates the feeling of a long and pointless grind towards achieving your goal. Your self-confidence and level of competence will also improve as you will be more aware of your capabilities as you complete or achieve your goals.

The basics of goal settings will involve deciding what you really want to do with your personal life and what short term and long term goals you need to achieve it. Then you have to break down goals into the smaller and manageable targets that you must complete in your way to achieving your lifetime targets. Once you have your list waste no time in tackling your goals.

A good way to have a manageable list is to have a daily and weekly set of goals. By doing this you will be always in the position of going towards you life plan goals. Everyday will give you the opportunity to fulfill a certain goal giving you the feeling of accomplishment.

Here are some pointers that should be taken into consideration in setting goals and achieving them.

Attitude plays a very big role in setting and achieving your goals. You must ask yourself if any part of you or your mind holding you back towards completing your simplest goals? If there are any part of your behavior that is being a hindrance or puts your plans into disarray? If you do have problems in these areas then the immediate thing to do is to address this problem. Solutions may include a visit to a doctor or psychiatrist to control your emotions.

Careers are made by good time management practice. Failing in a career is often attributed to bad time management. Careers require a lot from an individual which often makes the career the life of the individual. Plan how far do you want to go into your career.

Education is key in achieving your goals. If your goals require you to have a certain kind of degree or require a certain specialization or demand a certain skill to be developed, make plans in getting the appropriate education.

Your family should never be left out of your plans. If you are just starting out then you have to decide if you want to be a parent or when you want to be a parent. You also have to know if you really would be a good parent and how well would you relate to extended family members

Personal financial situations also play a major role in achieving your goals. Have a realistic goal on how much you really want to earn. You also must be able to create plans or stages by which you will be able to reach your earning potential.

Physically gifted individuals may be able to achieve sports related goals like being in the National Basketball association or National Football League. Determining your physical capabilities should be one of your priorities. Physical limitations could however be conquered with proper planning.

As the saying goes -’All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, or something to that effect, is by all means true down to the last the letter. Giving yourself a little pleasure: should be included into your plans.

To start achieving your lifetime goals, set a quarter of a century plan, then break it down to 5 year plans then break it down again to 1 year plans, then 6 month plans then monthly plans, then weekly, then daily.

Then create a things-to-do list for the day.

Always review your plans and prepare for contingencies.

The basics of goal settings should not be so difficult once you get to be familiar with them.
Jim Somchai

Jan 9  2008

Do you like the movie “Back to the future”? If so, you will love this movie. It is not easy to find a good family movie with the inspiring content like this one. Normally, the family movie is either rather weak in the method of proposing the meaning or somewhat too childish. This is the reason that many people ignore to see the PG movie despite the good nature of it. This movie has a lot to do with the inspiration in life. Come and let’s explore what I get from the movie.

A boy was left out in front of an orphanage house by a lady who we believe that she is his mother. That boy was brought up as an orphan who loves invention. He obsesses into doing that and nobody seems to come and adopt him until the age of twelve. Until he later wants to invent what can make him meet his mother. And the day he completes his invention, he changes his life forever. The story line is simple but subtle in some manner. For some hard core movie goers, it is not difficult to predict how the movie is going to end but it is very amusing to follow what we can predict. The animation is well drawn in Disney’s style and of course no bad language in it. As smooth as it is, we can learn several ideas and be inspired by it including:1. Failure should not be looked as bad thing. Instead, it should be admired.

Meet the Robinsons

Why do we have to admire when a person fail to do something? Because it means the person does something. There is a scene in the movie that the boy did mistake on fixing one instrument, the Robinsons family celebrate it with joy and encourage him to move forward. “Keep on moving” can be the motto in the movie. We can use this too in our lives. Don’t be afraid to fall since it is the path to our growth and achievement.2. People should be given the second chance.
When the antagonist finally accepts his mistake, our hero does not only take him back but also help him to get back in shape. Normally, when we meet the enemy, especially in this world nowadays, we want him to be destroyed. We should have mercy to everybody. Brian Tracy said in his book, the way that makes us resolve to be psychologically mature is that we forgive everybody including, and especially, ourselves. This is a good lesson to learn from the movie.

3. Do not give up on your future and on your self.
Although the movie is about the time traveling and about the certainty in the future, it also implies that the future really depends on our actions. Nobody can write our future except us ourselves. When we understand this, we will not complain why we end up where we are at the moment. We are where we are because we decide that it is our place now nothing else has stronger influence than this.

This is one of the good and inspiring movies we should watch this year. We can learn a lot from the movie and can be entertaining at the same time.

Jim Somchai
Oct 11  2007