Enjoy your enemies

Turning a negative into a positive can be life changing.

An enemy can be a crucial thing in your life.  To me a friend reassures us of where we are in life yet an enemy can help you achieve the meaning of the quote:

"The best revenge is success"

Many years ago I made a comment while watching a television show on "The fear of flying" about how much I enjoyed flying, I explained in detail what I loved about it.  I had maybe been on 2-3 planes at that time, and when I made my "expert" comments on flying, this person said to me:
"Ooohhh! You're such an expert on flying", implying I hadn't been on very many flights.  They were right I hadn't been in the sky that often.
Yet in that moment I made a decision out of anger, I was going to prove them wrong and I was going to get my revenge.
Since then, I have been on many flights and even given this same person advice on what to do in the face of anxiety when it comes to flying.  In the future as part of my goal list I have put down lots of travel all because of their comment that night.

When an enemy angers you, copy down their words on paper, and use what they said every time you feel down and out and want to stop trying. Get your revenge in non malicious ways and use "eye rolls" and their laughter at you to become better.

I have so many little quotes that people have told me in an attempt to embarrass me, and they didn't even realizee it at the time that they are only giving me fuel to climb the ladder of success.  I want you to listen to what an enemy tells you, write down the words and present it to them when you reach the top.

Stay motivated
Shane C

Gifts

Today, tomorrow and the next day you have a choice to make. Will you be a victim or someone who enjoys what life has to offer?
Life is filled with millions of tiny gifts, yet those tiny gifts are often hidden behind your thinking that life is horrible.  It all comes down to focus, would you rather gifts (lots of them that you deserve) or hide behind sadness and a victim mentality?  Make that choice starting right now.

Action steps:
Practice gratitude
Start by writing out 10 things in your life your grateful for.  It can even be the air you breath or your teeth that help you eat food.  There are literally a million things, you just need to start thinking and using your brain.

Do something for someone
When I say something for someone I mean, someone you don't do something on a daily basis. I'm talking about helping an elderly person with a door or carrying their groceries.

Smile at someone
Simply smile!

Sometimes the biggest gift is simply knowing you can change someones day.

Stay motivated
Shane C

What I decided

What you fear most in this world can keep you from fame and fortune. When you face your fear you overcome it very quickly.

I recently attended Toastmasters (a public speakers group) for the first time and I felt a little intimidated.  Fear wasn't the factor but more how I would be judged on my mistakes from people who had more experience than I did.  The more I sat in on the class and participated, the more I heard from people who had a paralysing fear of speaking yet they were doing it anyway.  Toastmasters is a very positive group of people who support each other in speaking, so it's a great organization to join.

As I left that night I made a decision, and that was to do what others did but much faster and better by using more focus.  Instead of taking 2 years to do my required "speeches" I'm deciding I will become the best and do it all in a shorter amount of time.

This sounds cocky and arrogant of me, yet it's a decision I have to make with myself so I can attain that goal.  I am prepared to mess up and look like a total idiot but I'm also prepared to win competitions in public speaking too, and I will do whatever it takes to become one of the best.

This is an attitude you will need to develop to get over your fears.  I speak a lot about fears that hold you back in life, because we never want to be held back.  We should never let those simple things hold us back anymore.  Pick your fear and resolve to become the absolute BEST at what you were once afraid of, dream big and face that fear. 

Stay motivated
Shane C

The truth

I'm going to let you in on something that's quit upsetting to some. It's something many people may disagree with but it's a cold hard fact. 

People will never change, all the nagging and advice that you give someone will never make them change, accept it.
This is not a made up thing, it's psychology.  Whatever your basic personality is, you are stuck with it and nothing will change that.  In the short term, changes may be noticed but when people are left to behave in their own ways, they always resort to their old personalities.  If they are lazy, they remain lazy.  If they are charismatic, they will always have charisma and this goes for all personality traits that have been chiseled since childhood.
This seems very self defeating when you read this, but there is hope. 

How to change someone

There is only one way to change someone, and that is to start by changing yourself.  Remember, you can't change your personality but you can change your thinking, skills and habits, this is key!  By beginning to change yourself for the better you become a role model to others, and motivation is what gets people to change not nagging or wishing.
Everybody has an "Ideal self" they want to achieve in their minds and they will do anything to reach that, but they must see it's possible, this is where you must show them.  Become your "ideal self" through learning new skills and make the necessary changes to become "Fantastic" you notice others around you asking you for advice, it's up to them to follow your advice. You become a mentor and no longer a nag. 

People have developed into who they are from many thousands of days of being exposed to different things that life has brought them.  This is why you are unable to change people.  Accept who they are, and become the best you can be...This is how to change people.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

Top 6 YOUTUBE videos

Sometimes we fall on something that motivates us to the core.  In today's blog I add some of my personal favorite YOUTUBE videos that truly help motivate me as a speaker and as a blogger.  Hopefully they affect you to do something powerful with different aspects in your life. 

The first video is the amazing story of how Sylveste Stallone came to create Rocky.  I had no idea the struggle behind this movie and truly is a story of determination.

The man in the next video is regarded as the BIGGEST guru of personal development.  Jim Rohn has taught me and so many more how to become better, watch my favorite speaker talk about the day that can truly change your life.

The third video is truly powerful due to the raw emotion and transformation performed in front of an audience.  Whether you watch the following and focus on the relationship or the transformation it truly is an emotional video.

Here is the legendary Steve Jobs giving his legendary speech at Stanford.  Can you imagine being there watching live, this man has changed the world...So worth watching

 

 

Mr. Les Brown is a man who overcame the beliefs that often hold us back.  He shows you how to do the same, persistence pays off.

 

And here we are at my all time favorite video by Nick Vujicic.   Ask yourself, why are you giving excuses once you watch this.

Don't be ashamed if you shed a tear or two.  These videos are amazing and I hope they affected you to take action right now.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

Thank you

I want to take this time to thank all of you for the personal emails on your success!

I just recently started a fanpage on FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Shanes-motivational-Daily-blog/262200067152376

I'd like you to become a FAN by clicking "LIKE" at the top of the page.  Also, take the time to become interactive by answering questions and posting all the success you've achieved.  We all love to read about success on SHANE'S DAILY MOTIVATOR

Stay motivated
Shane C.

Behind fear is something great

"If only I had done that, my life would be so different!"

How many times have you told yourself that?  How many times have you complained that if you had taken advantage of a certain opportunity, your life would be totally different?
You could have a totally different life if you had taken advantage of an opportunity that you avoided due to fear, and that my friends is a sobering thought.
I'm here to tell you it's not to late to change your life dramatically.  Face a fear and do what scares you, I'm not talking about skydiving (although that may apply), I'm talking about the small things that you believe you don't deserve to go for in life, the "things" you're afraid to try.

The things you look at with fear, thousands of others look at with excitement.  It's all about "how" you look at things.  Start looking for opportunity in fearful situations you are faced with.  Public speaking, flying and networking with others are just some things that we tend to fear that can hold us back from life changing moments.  Everything you choose to try has some kind of opportunity in it, it's all a matter of finding out what the opportunity is.

Next time you feel a fear of doing something, embrace that fear (as difficult as it seems) looking at fear as a guide taking you towards something great.  Once you conquer a fear, you will be hooked on conquering another fear.

Today's exercise:

1. In your journal write down 10 things you fear.
2. Choose 3 fears that you will overcome in the next 6 months.
3. Overcome them!  Face them, unless your fear is tigers, realize the fears don't bite :-)

An easy way to figure out which fear to overcome, is to write down all the opportunities you can have by conquering the fears on your list.  This will be a huge motivator.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

P.S.- If you asking why I haven't given you the rest of the steps on overcoming the 10 fears, it's simply because I want you to make the simple step of  beating 3 fears before proceeding.

Choices

The choices you make determine your destiny.

Every minutes of everyday you have choices to make about everything to do. How you react to a situation to what you will eat and even more difficult decisions like financial planning are all part of decision making.
Every decision made will affect you long term towards shaping the rest of your life.  Every single tiny choice you make affects your long term success or failures. 
To effectively narrow down your choices in life you must ask yourself two simple questions.

1.  What am I trying to accomplish?
2.  What is the best use of my time?

This really can get you to the right answer for some of the following decisions:

-People you associate with.
-How you handle your health.
-What you choose to learn.
-Career.
-What to buy.
-Fiances.
And any other day-to-day questions you ask yourself.

Something as simple as associating with a person who guides you in a self destructing path may make you feel great in the short term, yet down the road you will live to regret the choice you made if you don't ask yourself those two important questions:

What am I trying to accomplish?
What is the best use of my time?

Have fun making those decisions, they affect everything!

Stay motivated
Shane C.

You are smarter than a fly

It's not how many you win.  It's how many you show up for.

Allowing circumstances in your life to prevent you from achieving what you want may be a sign you're giving up to soon.  How many times have you tried to achieve something, only to quit at the first sign of difficulty?  Life is filled with obstacles, they are meant to be hard so we can strengthen while trying to get what we want.

When a fly gets stuck in your house, he keeps trying to get outside by bumping into the window repeatly. Have you ever opened the window and attempted to guide the fly towards the opening only to have the fly ignore you? We act exactly like flies sometimes, the belief that if we just keep doing something the same way over and over again will lead us to success drives us mad.

If you were to stop for a second and assess your situations and goals, you will be more likely to think logically of newer and better ways to try and achieve your goals as oppose to doing the same thing over and over.  There is always a way to get what you want, it's up to you to keep trying new ways.

Stop being like a dumb fly, and think more intelligently next time.  This is not the time to give up on what you want so badly.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

Look at your life for a second.

Does it feel like there are to many small things in your life to cope with all the big things?

That's because your putting  all the small things in life ahead of the big things in life.
How do you distinguish the difference between the big things and the small things?  The small things are usually wants the BIG things are usually needs. 

Example-
Want- Something you can live without.  When you get a want you often regret it down the road of life, it always gets in the way of a need.

Need- Something you require.  When you get a need you feel as if your regretting it because it comes in the way of your wants.  Yet you never regret getting your need down the road of life.

Here is a prospective of how to look at your life.

Put your BIG things before your small things.  Soon enough, you won't have as much time for the small things in life once you start to be grateful for all the BIG things your life has to offer.

The exercise in the following video will explain this more clearly.  Once you watch it, the time will come to review your life's priorities:

 

Stay motivated

Shane C.

The easy trick you've forgotten

What's your destination?

I haven't covered goal setting in a little while and I wanted to touch base in case you've forgotten.  What is it your working towards?  If you can't answer that question clearly, you better sit down with a pen and a piece of paper. Goals must be written down and looked at often. I would even go as far to say once upon waking and again right before bed.  The more you look at what you are working towards the better your focus will be towards what you want to achieve.

I'm sure you have worked with a group of people at work, in your community or even organizing a party.  Most of the time everybody has there own agendas and ideas, emotions tend to get all mixed up and the goal is totally forgotten about. This is simply because people are not on the same page nobody knows what the main goal is that they should be working towards. Trying to achieve your own goals can be the same, if you don't know which direction to go, your thoughts and emotions will have you all over the place.

Sit down and write out your goal, memorize it so you can say it clearly enough a child in kindergarten could understand.  If you haven't been working on this simple task you won't be able to get where you want to go.  You must take step 1 before you can get to step 2.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

New day, new start!

Welcome to a brand new day!

Whether you are reading this first thing in the morning or late in the day, feel confident everyday is a brand new exciting start. Things are very simple first thing in the morning, turn the alarm off and sit up, it's that simple.
Soon, thoughts will start to flood your mind about the day ahead.

You are given a choice everyday, good thinking or negative thoughts.  You have total control to decide if you run your mind or if your mind will control you.  The first thing I want you to do is get excited about something as simple as the smell of coffee.  You need to find something to get you out of bed every single day.
Start your day off right, it sets the tone for the day.  As you put your feet on the floor and take your first step out of bed decide the next step you take will take you to a great place.

Does the following sound familiar?
You wake up at the very last minute then you rush around angry?   Please train yourself to get up a little earlier, you can start off by waking up 15 minutes before your present time. Sure it will be difficult in the beginning but it gives you 15 extra minutes to slow down and enjoy your morning routine to get a better start to your day.

New days are a chance to start over.  We can sometimes take mornings for granted but if we get excited about a new start it changes the whole prospective on morning time.
Stay motivated
Shane C.

Investment in yourself

Everyday this blog is written, it is written with a purpose.  The main purpose is to inspire YOU to be great, the other reason is I must practice.  I must practice the art of writing daily if I want to excel at it. This is an easy way to get my ideas down and communication skills up for the books I plan to write.

This brings me to today's topic.  The topic I am discussing is being an investment in life.  You can choose to become an investment to others or simply be an expense, costing time and money to people and companies in your future. 
Becoming an investment needs to begin with an intense desire to want something in life.  Know what you want to become, then everyday work at it.  Learn, practice and use creative thinking before it is asked of you, that way when you are asked to preform in life you already know how from the learning you've developed.

Let me use "career" as an example.  If you want a career in politics and you presently work in a pizza restaurant use your free time to learn as much as you can about ever aspect of politics there is to know. Learning is so crucial for your future it gets you an advantage that cannot be achieved by luck or easy breaks.  Invest in yourself so a company will be pleased to invest in you in your future.

Career is just an easy example I've used.  The world is your oyster and there is so much knowledge for you to absorb.  Walk into a bookstore sometime and look around it's filled with knowledge.  Google a subject the Internet it's filled with knowledge.  YouTube a seminar or instructional video, that too is filled with knowledge.  It's up to you to take that "free time" to listen, watch and read this valuable information.

So ask yourself,
"Am I investing in my future, so someone will invest in me?"

Stay motivated
Shane C.

I got a dare for you.

"Never say anything about yourself you don't want to come true."- Brian Tracy


We gravitate towards what we think about, so why not try this;

For one day start the habit of only thinking and speaking about what you want.  This will be the most difficult thing you will ever do, so I will add a small punishment if you think negatively.

Wear an elastic band around your wrist and anytime you think or speak about what you don't want, pull the elastic and let go.  This small shock of pain will associate pain with a negative frame of mind.

We often don't realize how often we think about want we don't want, and the first step to correcting this way of thinking is associating the pain we inflict on our self by holding back our potential. This could take a week or more to correct the problem of "stinkin' thinkin'", you just gotta stick with it.  Your whole way of thinking will change and you will feel amazing and be willing to do more with your life.  Warning- The first few days will hurt....

Are you ready?  Go get the elastic

Stay motivated
Shane C

A new beginning

It's funny where I get inspiration for some blogs I write.  Today's blog came from looking at a bottle of body wash in the shower.  You see, I really like the smell of this body wash and every time it's used the end gets closer and that makes me a little sad, pathetic isn't it? Then I started to think and got excited.  

"I get to go buy a brand new bottle!!"

There are two ways you can look at things, you either look at it as an ending or a brand new beginning.  When we have something we really enjoy it's not fun when it's gone but we must know that if we had fun and enjoyment with something, we are capable of feeling that all over again.  This goes for BIG things in your life and also the small things like my bottle of body wash.

Think of some simple things in life that bring you down when they come to an end:

-The weekend
-Your favorite song on the radio
-When your best friend has to leave
-Your bag of chips in the pantry
-The gas in the gas tank of your car

These are all simple things in life that always work themselves out but at the moment they end it can feel like the end of the world doesn't it?

New beginnings, should be something to get totally excited about.  If your sad about a vacation or the weekend being over know that fun times are not that far away.   Every week the weekend comes back and so does the anticipation for the weekend...That's exciting!

So start looking at beginnings as oppose to sad endings, sure things end but things always begin too.  Which is more exciting?
Beginnings or endings....

Stay motivated
Shane C.

ps- Super excited to go buy more body wash ;-)

Do you have a personailty that hurts you?

What you believe are positive traits about yourself, could be holding you back.  A good example are silly statements you make to people such as:

-"Oh! I'm a very outspoken person"
-"I don't really care what they think"
-"I never listen, they don't know what it's like"

There's a fantastic book written by Dale Carnegie called HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. The book has sold over 15 million copies and was written in 1936. The title of the book says it all and I've learned so much about how my personality affects people around me.  After reading this book and studying my behaviors along with other peoples personality types I have come to realize to is best to avoid these traits if you want to get anywhere with people in life.

Being stubborn
This type of personality seems to be not open to change. It's a "don't care what they think" personality,  this person chooses only to do what's been done over and over again. Does any of this sound familiar?

Outspoken
This type of personality is very interesting to me. Always having an opinion that seems to shock everybody around. The persons vocabulary is loaded with the first thing that pops in their head and they are not afraid to let others know. You'll also notice this persons friends speaking about them when they are not around, saying the following: "Oh! (insert name) is very outspoken, she doesn't care who's around".  How is this a positive thing?

Pessimist
Always seeing the negative in EVERYTHING. Name the topic, this persons personality can find anything wrong with anything. Nothing seems to be right, nothing in life works and the want you to know.

These 3 personality types along with any other negative ones can turn your personality into a toxic environment.  You risk pushing important people away in your life and are avoiding building good personal and professional relationships with others due to their snap judgements of what they see and hear you say.  There is one way these personalities can work for you and that is to know when to use them. 
So the basic moral of the story is, know when to use a negative personality, if you classify yourself as a pessimist, outspoken or stubborn person you could be putting up a wall around yourself that can prevent greatness from entering your life.

Key points.

-Have your own thoughts, yet know how to use them with people.
-Stick to your morals, yet know when to cooperate.
-Even if you are a positive person, you must still know negative aspects of things.  You just don't live in the negative.

Answer this question:
Is changing your personality for the better going to hold you back? And if so how?

Yes, there is such a thing as being yourself, I'm not saying change everything about yourself. It's a matter of improving yourself.

Stay motivated
Shane C.