The way to turn your work into play–and have the motivation to take the action necessary in order to succeed–is to mix enthusiasm with your work.

Napoleon Hill—author of “Think and Grow Rich”, as well as other success classics– once said the following:

“Enthusiasm is a state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand . . . Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive – it is the vital moving force that impels action.”

In addition, Earl Prevette––a master salesman and the author of “How to Turn Your Ability Into Cash“–argued that enthusiasm is your soul in action. Here’s a quote from his book:

“Enthusiasm is one of your greatest assets. It is better than money, power or influence–with enthusiasm you become the master of these. Combine enthusiasm with faith and initiative, and you can move mountains and achieve results unheard of.”

Whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish, whether it’s writing a novel, getting your start-up off the ground, getting a promotion at work, and so on, enthusiasm will give you the energy that you’ll need to keep running all the way to the finish line.

Below you’ll discover 14 ways to harness the power of enthusiasm. Apply these strategies and you’ll have so much energy, you’ll be unstoppable.

1. Follow your bliss. There is no better way to generate enthusiasm than to be engaged in an activity that you enjoy and to do work that you’re passionate about.

If your current situation is such that you cannot be engaged in the work which you like best, decide what it is that you want to be doing and focus on the fact that you’ll be engaged in that particular work at some point in the future. Even if you’re not currently standing where you would like to be, you can generate enthusiasm by facing the direction in which you want to go.

2. Think of the things that you want to attain. Here’s a quote from Hill’s “The Law of Success”:

“The home you intend to own, the money you intend to earn and place in the bank, the trip you intend to take when you can afford it, the position in life you intend to fill when you have prepared yourself, and the preparation itself—these are the things that produce happiness.”

Become enthusiastic about these things, regardless of your current station in life. Keep thinking of the time when you’ll be ready to turn these things into reality.

3. Have a plan. Creating a plan will fill you with enthusiasm to get up each day and follow through on your plan. Driving around without a map–that is, trying to achieve a goal without having a plan–can soon use up all of your motivation.

However, when you know where you want to go–see point “1” above–and you have a map that shows you how to get there–you’ll be pressing down on the gas pedal and moving ahead at full speed.

4. Get out of victim-mode. Nothing zaps enthusiasm faster than seeing yourself as a victim. Look at the following two scenarios:

• You’re constantly thinking: “There’s nothing I can do to get the promotion that I want because my boss hates me.”
• You’re saying the following to yourself: “I’ll never be able to raise the capital that I need for my start-up because banks just won’t lend money to people like me.”

If your thinking is in line with the two scenarios above–that is, if you’re thinking like a victim–, how can you possibly generate enthusiasm?

In order to generate enthusiasm, you need to see yourself as a creator. That is, recognize that you can continually take the steps that you need to take in order to get what you want, regardless of what other people, or even life itself, throw at you.

You can read the first chapter of my ebook, “How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List”, which is all about how to become a creator, by clicking here.

5. Surround yourself with people who are enthusiastic and optimistic. Befriend people who will encourage you and challenge you to achieve your goals. Enthusiasm is contagious; when you’re around people who are enthusiastic about their lives and about their work, their enthusiasm will rub off on you.

If you can’t find people who are enthusiastic, surround yourself with videos and audio programs of people who are enthusiastic. Steve Pavlina–owner of the blog “Personal Development for Smart People”–finished college in three semesters. He writes that going through college this quickly meant having eight-hour days of classes.

In order to keep a positive can-do attitude, despite his heavy workload, whenever Pavlina had a break between classes he would listen to audio programs by Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar and others. Pavlina explains that this kept him enthusiastic and on top of his studies.

6. Stimulate yourself into a state of high enthusiasm. Hill explains that everyone has something that arouses their enthusiasm—it could be something like the following:

• Going to museums to admire fine paintings;
• Listening to music;
• Spending time in nature;
• Wearing clothes that make you “look the part”;
• Reading books by authors that you admire; and so on.

He adds that all people of outstanding achievement have discovered ways and means of stimulating themselves into a state of high enthusiasm. Identify activities or situations that energize you, and engage in them as often as you can.

7. Ask questions. Earl Prevette explains that one of the best ways to generate enthusiasm in yourself is by asking yourself questions about your abilities, your ideas, and your progress. Likewise, if you want to generate enthusiasm in others, ask them questions. Prevette says the following:

“Ask enough questions and you will find the answer. Asking questions starts an endless chain of ideas, each one suggesting several others. Most inventions and improvements are the result of questions. Someone wanted to know the answer.”

Questions stir up ideas, arouse response, stimulate interest, and create desire. That is, they generate enthusiasm. Here are some questions you can use in order to begin generating enthusiasm:

• 100 Questions to Help You Generate More Income
• 99 Powerful Questions to Ask to Turbocharge Your Life

8. Develop the right attitude. Another method which Prevette recommends in order to generate enthusiasm is to have the right attitude. Attitude is getting the right slant on the thing you are doing.

Prevette explains that when he became a salesman he adopted the attitude that he was creating and developing ideas to help others. This perspective gave him the spirit to sell; he was eager to find ways to fill the needs of others, and to fill those needs well. Here’s a quote from Prevette:

“The right attitude toward your job taps a hidden reservoir of knowledge and experience, and puts to work every available force to aid you in the accomplishment of your goal.”

9. Give all of your attention to what you’re doing. Still another way to generate enthusiasm is by giving your full attention to what you’re doing. Prevette explains that doing any job well requires concentration of thought. Integrate your mental attributes completely, pull together, and pay strict attention to what you’re doing. Here’s what Prevette says:

“It is not putting in hours, but putting yourself into the hours that wins promotion, earns more money, precipitates an increase in salary and gets you ahead.”

Whatever it is that you’re doing, look for ways to pull your attention together and place it fully on the activity that you’re carrying out. It’s very difficult to generate enthusiasm when half of your mind is on one thing, and the other half is thinking of something else.

10. Get your energy level up. It’s hard to generate enthusiasm when you feel tired. Make sure that you have the physical energy to be able to generate lots of enthusiasm by getting enough sleep, eating healthy food, and getting regular exercise.

11. Lower your levels of “bad” stress. Stress isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, if you want to achieve anything noteworthy in life, some tension is necessary. Look at the following:

• To achieve great things you need to learn and grow; that is, you need to step outside of your comfort zone on a regular basis.
• To get things done, you need to set deadlines.

Challenging yourself to try new things and striving to meet deadlines is stressful. However, setting deadlines that you can keep and striving to meet challenges that you can achieve by making some effort, creates good stress.

Bad stress is when you’re pushing yourself too hard, and you begin to feel overwhelmed and that you’re losing control. Bad stress will zap away at your energy and make your enthusiasm plummet. There are many things you can do to lower your stress levels, such as taking up yoga or meditation, decluttering your mind and your space, prioritizing, and simplifying.

12. Use your physiology. If you’re trying to generate enthusiasm, use the body posture and the tone of voice that you use when you’re talking about something that fills you with excitement. Move and talk as if you’re full of enthusiasm, and your emotions will soon follow suit.

13. Apply your strengths. Whatever it is that you’re working on, you can become enthusiastic about it by applying your strengths. For example, if you’re an artist but you’re currently doing office work, look for ways to add visual elements to your work. As a second illustration, I had a friend in law school who loved to sing. He applied this strength to the task of studying for classes by turning the law school lectures into songs.

14. Begin. Whatever you want to do, begin it. As Prevette explains, the law of nature is the following: “Do the thing, and you shall have the power.” Start learning about the topic at hand; the more you know about something that more likely you are to become enthusiastic about it. In addition, set small goals for yourself and begin to achieve them. These small achievements will help you to generate the enthusiasm that you’ll need to keep going.

Conclusion

Follow the 14 strategies described above in order to kindle the fire of enthusiasm and keep it burning until you’ve achieved everything that you want. If you think of each of your goals as a seed that you’re planting, enthusiasm is the fertilizer that helps the seed to grow.

Related Posts:

1. 21 Ways to Keep Your Motivation Flying High
2. Motivate Yourself by Appealing to Your Intrinsic Motivation
3. 7 Ways to Supercharge Your Motivation
4. 32 Bits of Wisdom from William Clement Stone

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Edit your life — declutter and organize your space.

My last post addressed the subject of decluttering your mind. This post will show you how to declutter and organize your space.

Clutter and disorganization waste time, energy, and space.  By decluttering and organizing your space you’ll be doing the following:

• Decluttering means examining your life, going through all of your possessions, deciding what’s important to you, and discarding the rest.  It means letting go of the things that no longer serve a purpose in your life so that you can make room for what’s most important to you.
• Organizing means that everything has a home so that it can be easily found, accessed, used, and put back.

The time that you invest in decluttering and organizing will be returned to you, with dividends, once you’ve created a space that contains only what you really need–or truly brings you joy–and everything can be easily found and accessed.

Here’s the 8-step process I recommend you use to declutter and organize your space:

Step One: Schedule It 

The first thing that you need to do is to schedule time for decluttering and organizing your space. There are many different scheduling approaches that you can choose from, such as the following:

• You can declutter and organize in micro-movements. This is a term coined by the author SARK which consists of taking tiny baby steps forward. Micro-movements can consist of very short sessions that last from one to five minutes each.
• You can declutter and organize in fifteen minute sessions.
• You can set aside one-hour-a-day to declutter.
• You can have a decluttering and organizing marathon that lasts three or four days.
• You can even create a schedule for decluttering and organizing in 365-days by doing a little bit each day, every day of the year.

How you choose to do it depends on what works best for your personality and your schedule. Simply decide how much time you’ll spend organizing per session, and pencil it into your agenda. Scheduling your decluttering time is key!

Step Two: Designate a Purpose for Each Room

Walk around your home and decide what activities you would like to carry out in each room, as well as the mood you would like each room to convey. Here are six examples for your home:

• The den can be designated as a place for the family to gather and watch television, play boardgames, bond, and have fun. The mood you may want to foster here is comfort and connectivity.
• You might want to create a spa-like environment in your bathroom so that it serves as a luxurious retreat.
• The purpose of the laundry room could be to wash, dry, fold, iron, and hang clothes and linens with minimal pileup.
• You can define the kitchen as a place to prepare fresh, healthy food and snacks, and where each meal is a celebration.
• Maybe you want the master bedroom to be a romantic retreat.
• Your living room could be a place to entertain guests in an ambiance that is simple yet elegant, as well as serene and functional.

You’re going to organize according to the function you want each room to serve, and how you want each room to “feel”.

Step Three: Identify Zones

A room can have several different purposes. You need to identify the different activities that take place within each room and divide each room into zones.  These zones will become the center for specific items related to the designated activity. Set up your space so that everything that you need to accomplish a particular activity is close at hand.

For example, you can create a library area in your living room and place most of the books in your home in this area. Add a comfortable chair, make sure that there’s adequate lighting, and include a side table to place coffee mugs and reading snacks.  You can also place a basket next to the chair in which you can keep magazines and newspapers.

Step Four: Decide Where to Start

Many people are tempted to begin their decluttering and organizational efforts by starting with drawers, the cabinet underneath the bathroom sink, the hallway-closet, and so on. However, you’ll be much more effective if you begin with things that are visible.

First of all, you should start with the room that you use most often. Begin clearing off the visible clutter, such as putting away anything on desktops, tabletops, and countertops that doesn’t belong there, and anything that’s on the floor.  In addition, think of what furniture you can eliminate without sacrificing comfort and livability.

After you’ve cleared off the visible clutter, you’re ready to move on to drawers, shelves, cupboards, cabinets, the linen closet, and so on.  Start at the door and work clockwise around the room.

Once you’re done with the room that you use most often, go on to the second-most-often-used room, then the third, and so on. Remember to concentrate on one room at a time.

Step Five: Declutter and Organize

You’re going to go through all of your possessions, one by one. For each item you’re going to ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the item serve a key function in your daily life?
• Does it bring you joy?
• Do you have another one that is better?
• Have you used this item in the past six months?
• Does it have sentimental value?
• Would the person that you’re trying to become own this item?

Create six categories and assign a cardboard box for each category. The categories are as follows:

1. This belongs in another room.
2. This needs to be fixed or cleaned.
3. This will be given away, sold, or donated.
4. This will be thrown out.
5. This is not mine and needs to be returned to its owner.
6. This is a “maybe”. If you can’t bear to toss something out because you might need it later, put it in the “maybe” box.

If you’re decluttering a drawer, cabinet, or shelf, take everything out and put it in front of you where you can see everything.  Sort through the pile and put related items together.  Don’t get bogged down in specific, precise categories, just create simple groups so that it’s easier to get everything organized.

Once you have everything in a group go through each group and decide what to do with each item.  Here are some groups of items you can consider:

• Declutter receipts.
• Declutter bills.
• Declutter magazines.
• Declutter cosmetics.
• Declutter hair products.
• Declutter books.
• Declutter medicines and vitamins.
• Declutter office supplies.
• Declutter DVD’s and CD’s.
• Declutter your dishes, cups, and glasses.
• Declutter papers you’ve filed.

As you go through each category decide whether it’s something that will be put back, or if it’s going into one of the six boxes. Then put back the things that you’ve decided to keep, in an orderly manner.  Remember that items which you use frequently should be easily accessible.

Also remember that you need to store items where they are used.  If you frequently use a pair of scissors in your family room, keep it in a drawer nearby, not in the kitchen or in your office at the other side of the house.

While you’re decluttering it’s very important that you refrain from trying to work on unfinished projects.  Two examples are the following:

• If you come across a book you haven’t finished reading, don’t sit down to read it.
• If you come across a craft project that needs a few more stitches, now is not the time to finish it.

In addition, keep a notebook with you so that you can jot down any repairs that need to be made or add incomplete projects to your to-do list.

Step Six: Go Shopping for Containers

Once you’ve decided what items you’re going to keep, go shopping for containers so that everything remains organized.  Make sure they’re containers you love and that they’re a proper fit for the number of items you will be storing without overcrowding.

In addition, measure the space where each container will be stored and take this information to the store with you to make sure that the containers will fit in the space.   You can consider getting towel baskets, filing cabinets, drawer dividers, and so on.

Step Seven: Take Action With the Boxes

Once you’re done with your organizational efforts, take action with the boxes.

• Put the “give away/donate” box in the trunk of your car and drop it off the next time you go out to run errands.
• Throw away the garbage.
• Go around the house and put all of the things in the “this belongs in another room” box away.
• Give back anything that doesn’t belong to you.
• Repair or clean everything in the “this needs to be fixed or cleaned” box.  If you haven’t had these things cleaned or repaired within three months, throw them out.
• Tape up the “maybe” box, label it, and store it out of sight.  Pull it out three months later and go through it. If you haven’t missed any of the items in the box during those three months, throw them out or give them away.

You have to take action with the boxes right away or these things will simply become clutter again.

Step Eight: Ongoing Effort and Maintenance

Once you’ve established a base-line level of organization you can begin incorporating tips you read or hear about into your organizational scheme in order to make it even better. For example, you can do as Martha Stewart suggests and purchase little sake cups arranged on a nice tray to organize your earrings; you can organize cables in your workstation with Velcro cable ties; and so on.

As part of your ongoing effort to keep your space decluttered and organized, each time that you’re about to leave a room spend two minutes picking up after yourself. In addition, you should consider decluttering every six months or so to make sure clutter doesn’t creep back in.

Lastly, follow these four rules to keep your space in order:

1. If you take it out, put it back.
2. If you open it, close it.
3. If you throw it down, pick it up.
4. If you take it off, hang it up.

Conclusion

Decluttering and organizing your living and work space is an important part of living your best life. Follow the 8-step process explained above, and start creating order and harmony in your surroundings right away.

 

Related Posts:

• 17 Ways to Be Kind to Yourself
• 21 Ways to Create and Maintain a Positive Attitude
• Four Strategies For Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
• 24 Surefire Ways to Get Your Mojo Back
• 37 Happiness Tips and Snidbits

Most of us have a mind full of clutter.

There’s something a lot worse than having a cluttered home or work space, and that’s having a cluttered mind. A cluttered mind is restless and unfocused. It tries to move in many different directions at once and the result is that very little gets done.

Mental clutter can include all of the following: worrying about the future; ruminating about the past; keeping a mental to-do list; complaints; and so on. Fortunately, there are strategies and techniques you can use to clean out some space in your head.

Below you’ll find ten ways to declutter your mind so you can stop feeling so overwhelmed, get more done, and gain more clarity.

1. Declutter Your Physical Environment.

Physical clutter leads to mental clutter. First of all, clutter bombards the mind with excessive stimuli, which forces the brain to work overtime. Secondly, physical clutter signals to the brain that there’s always something else that needs to be done, which is mentally exhausting. As you declutter your physical space you’ll discover that your mind is also decluttered.

2. Write It Down.

You don’t need to keep everything stored in your brain. Choose a tool—it can be an online tool, an app, or even a pad of paper—and think of it as a storage device for all those bits and pieces of information that you need to remember. This can include appointments, phone numbers, ideas for future projects, and so on.

3. Keep a Journal.

Keeping a journal is similar to the previous point, “write it down”, but with more depth. A journal allows you to download the inner chatter that’s constantly interrupting your thought process when you’re trying to get important things done. For example, you can write in your journal about the following:

• Things that you’re worried about;
• Plans for achieving an important goal;
• Concerns about a relationship that’s draining your energy; and so on.

4.  Let Go of the Past.

Mind clutter is often related to the past. Most people keep a large cabinet of mental drawers stored in the back of their minds. These drawers are filled with mistakes they’ve made, opportunities they’ve missed, people they’ve hurt, past grievances, and so on.

Take the time to go through those mental drawers and discard memories of the past that are not serving you well and are just cluttering up your current life.

5. Stop Multi-Tasking.

If your house is a mess and you need to organize and declutter it, how would you begin? You would probably start by choosing one important area—for example, the kitchen table—and clearing it of all clutter.

The mental equivalent of clearing off the kitchen table is to choose a certain amount of time which you’re going to devote exclusively to one important task. During that time push all mental clutter to the side and focus all of your attention on the task at hand.

Visualize a table that is clear of all items, except for the one task which you’re going to be working on.  Make sure that the table stays clear of all other items during the entire chunk of time that you’ve devoted to this task. If anything else tries to work its way onto the table, mentally push it off.

6. Limit the Amount of Information Coming In.

Too much information can clog up the brain. This includes the information that you take in each day by reading newspapers, blogs, and magazines; watching TV; participating in social media; surfing the web on your smart phone; and so on.

Limit the amount of information that comes into your life—and create space in your brain–by doing the following:

• Set a limit on the amount of time that you’re going to spend on social media sites or browsing the internet.
• Unsubscribe from any blogs and cancel any magazine subscriptions that are not contributing to your quality of life or your well-being.
• Make sure that the opinions that you pay attention to come from well-regarded individuals with relevant credentials.
• Decide what information is relevant to you and disregard everything else.

7. Be Decisive.

If your in-box is filled with documents, but you fail to make decisions on what to do with each one, what will happen? Soon, your in-box will be overflowing with letters, bills, requests from prospective clients, and so on. The way to clear your in-box is by making a decision about what to do with each piece of paper that’s in there.

The same thing applies to your brain. If you put off making decisions, your brain will soon be overflowing with all of the decisions that you need to make. The solution is to be decisive.

For simple decisions, follow an approach such as the one recommended by Benjamin Franklin: create a pros-and-cons list. When you need to make more important and complex decisions, apply a more thorough approach, such as the WRAP Method recommended by the Heath brothers in their book, “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work”.

8. Put Routine Decisions on Auto-Pilot.

Small, routine tasks can occupy a lot of brain space. This can include things such as the following:

• Deciding what to have for breakfast each morning;
• Deciding what you’re going to wear each day;
• Making a decision on what to eat for lunch; and so on.

You can reduce the amount of brain space that’s taken up by these routine tasks by putting them on auto-pilot. As an illustration, there’s a popular TV sitcom called “The Big Bang Theory” in which the four main characters are highly intelligent scientists. One of them, Sheldon Cooper, loves routines and has one for just about everything.

Here are some examples:

• He has a specific pair of underwear and a specific t-shirt that he wears for each day of the week.
• The food that Sheldon eats for breakfast and for dinner follows a routine (for example, every Tuesday night he eats with his friends at The Cheesecake Factory).
• Sheldon sets routines for many other activities, such as doing the laundry every Saturday night at 8:15 p.m.

Of course, Sheldon takes things a bit overboard, but you get the picture. Get as many small, routine tasks as you can out of your head by setting them on automatic.

9. Prioritize.

Nothing creates as much brain clutter as an endless to-do list. Accept that you can’t do it all, and choose to focus on the things which are most important to you. Make a short list of your top priorities, and make sure that the bulk of your brain space is devoted to the things on that list.

10. Learn to Meditate.

In essence, meditation is learning to focus the mind completely on the present moment. When you learn how to place all of your attention on one thing—such as your breath–, all other thoughts disappear. It’s almost the equivalent of taking your mind through a car wash, and having useless and unnecessary thoughts washed away.

Conclusion

Mental clutter leads to congestion in our inner world. It gets in the way of being able to think clearly, and to focus on what really matters. This year, live your best life by decluttering your mind. You can get started by following the 10 ways to declutter your mind explained above.

 

Related Posts:

• 21 Ways to Create and Maintain a Positive Attitude
• 10 Ways to Tame Your Monkey Mind and Stop Mental Chatter
• How to Manage Worry – 8 Healthy Ways to Deal With Worry
• 10 Ways to Reboot Your Life and Get a Fresh Start

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As 2012 was coming to an end, I recommended that you launch a 365 Day Project for 2013. This year I’m going to encourage you to create a bucket list for 2014 and fill it with items that will make you feel happy to be alive.

Below you’ll find 30  ideas taken from my eBook, “Idea Book: 10,000 Ideas for Your Bucket List“.

Sports/Fitness Bucket List

1. Ski at Whistler

Ski at Whistler Blackcomb located 125 km north of Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada. Whistler has 8,100 acres (3,277 hectares) of skiable terrain, which is 50 per cent more terrain than any other resort in North America. However, Whistler is not just skiing and snowboarding. There’s also tubing, zip lining through an ancient rainforest, dog sledding, and horse-drawn sleigh rides.

2.Play Bossaball

Play bossaball; it mixes soccer, volleyball, gymnastics and capoeira, and is played on a big bouncy trampoline-like surface. Teams have between 3 and 5 players, and it works like volleyball: the ball is hit back and forth between the two teams. You’re allowed to use your hands, but flipping backward and scissor-kicking the ball is even cooler. Music is a must.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

 Adventures Bucket List

3.Edge Walk at Toronto’s CN Tower

The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, is the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. And now, you can walk around the circumference of the roof, from the outside. The EdgeWalk platform—from which you’ll be dangling– is 1,168 feet/356m high.

4. Dive Bahama’s Blue Holes

Dive Bahamas’ blue holes. Blue holes are roughly circular, steep-walled depressions, and so named for the dramatic contrast between the dark blue, deep waters of their depths and the lighter blue of the shallows around them. The deepest blue hole in the world—at 202 meters (663 ft)—is Dean’s Blue Hole, located in a bay west of Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas.

5. Milk a Cow

As long as you’re going to be drinking cow milk, you should experience milking a cow at least once in your lifetime. Sit on a stool and place a bucket underneath the cow’s udder. Wrap your hands around two of the four teats and squeeze down to push out the milk.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

Places to Visit Bucket List

6. Visit Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria

Visit Neuschwanstein Castle in southwest Bavaria, Germany. It’s a19th-century Romanesque Revival palace set up on a hill. It was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat, as his romantic interpretation of the Middle Ages, and as homage to the composer Richard Wagner.

7. Go to La Tomatina

La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the town of Buñol in Valencia, Spain, in which participants—about 40,000 of them—pelt each other with tomatoes. It’s held the last Wednesdayof August. This festival began in 1945; theories of how it got started include anti-Franco protestors, a fight between friends that escalated, and rough-play that erupted during a parade. Everyone ends up covered from head to foot in red mush.

8. Ride a Cable Car in San Francisco

The cable cars are an icon of San Francisco, California. The San Francisco cable car system is the last manually operated cable car system in the world. Currently there are three different cable car lines, the Powell-Mason line, the Powell-Hyde line, and the California Street line. The first two pass by Fisherman’s Wharf–a popular tourist attraction–while the third is mostly used by commuters getting to and from work.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

Leisure Bucket List

9. Become a Collector

A hobby you can get started on right away is becoming a collector. Simply choose something that interests you–it can be anything–and start collecting it. The good news is that you can start with just one item and work up from there. You can collect anything from McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys to stamps, and from baseball cards to beanie babies.

10. Go to the Winter Olympics

Attend the XXII Olympic Winter Games which are scheduled to take place from the 6th to 23rd of February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Ninety-eight events in fifteen winter sports will be held. The Sochi Olympics will be the first Olympics held in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

Personal Development Bucket List

11. Acquire Conflict Resolution Skills

Conflict is a part of life; after all, people can’t be expected to agree on everything. The question is whether conflict–when it arises–will be resolved effectively or lead to discord. Having the ability to resolve disagreements rationally and settle disputes amicably will make you happier and more successful.

12. Release the Past

Most of us are haunted by the ghosts of our past: that opportunity that we let slip by; those kids who bullied us in the playground; that love interest who treated us badly; that professor who graded us unfairly; and so on. In order to be happy in the present, we each need to release the ghosts of the past.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

Education Bucket List

13. Get a PhD

Get a PhD and master a specific subject thoroughly. By getting a PhD you’ll be joining the intellectual elite. At the same time, you’ll become more critically sophisticated in your area of expertise.

14. Memorize the Periodic Table of Elements

The periodic table is a table of the 118 chemical elements in which the elements are arranged by order of atomic number. The standard form of the table consists of a grid of elements laid out in 18 columns and 7 rows, with a double row of elements below that.

Click Here for 10,000 Bucket List Ideas

Financial Bucket List

15. Invest in Gold

Invest part of your portfolio in gold. Traditionally, investing in gold has been used as a hedge against inflation. There are many different ways to invest in gold. One option is to buy bullion or gold coins. Other options include investing in gold mining stock or in a gold mutual fund.

16. Prepare a Will

A last will and testament is a legal document that dictates what happens to your estate once you pass away. Having one ensures that your assets will be distributed according to your wishes when you die. You should get this done as soon as possible since the reality is that you never know when you’re going to need it.

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Relationships Bucket List

17. Go on a Romantic Picnic

Take a large thermos and fill it with cold lemonade; pack some fried chicken and crispy churros coated in cinnamon in a picnic basket. Then head out to the beach or to the lake with your significant other and have a romantic picnic at the water’s edge. Or, you can just have a picnic at the park or in your backyard.

18. Create a Family Crest

Create a coat of arms for your family that reflects your family identity and your values. The visual representation of your family values can serve as a constant reminder to family members of what your family stands for. In addition, it can foster family unity and a feeling of belonging.

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Lifestyle Bucket List

19. Live In a Converted Barn

Many people love old barns, and dream of renovating and living in one. The interior living spaces of a barn are big and spacious, with high wood ceilings. It’s the perfect place to enjoy a simple country life.

20. Go Shopping in Rodeo Drive

Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills California is a four block stretch of road known for its luxury-goods stores, including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, Prada, and Versace. If you’re not in the mood for buying anything you can just go window shopping and people-watch. Lots of Hollywood stars shop here, so you just might run into a celebrity as you stroll down Rodeo Drive.

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Spiritual Bucket List

21. Live In a State of Gratitude

Living in a state of gratitude means that you live your life from a perspective of being grateful for everything that is. At every moment we have the choice to either focus on what is missing from our lives, or to focus on everything that we have. Learn to live in a state of appreciation, wonder and deep gratitude.

22. Achieve Inner Peace

We gain inner peace not by trying to control the outer world, but by gaining control of our inner world. When our thoughts reflect peace, those thoughts will extend outward, and a peaceful perception of the world will arise.

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Contributions Bucket List

23. Create a Christmas Jar

A Christmas Jar, or an Anonymous Money Jar, is a jar in which you place your spare change throughout the year. Once the change is in the jar, don’t touch it. Just let it accumulate throughout the year. Then, at Christmas time, find a family in need and give them the jar anonymously.

24. Make a Kiva Loan

Kiva allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs around the world. For example, you can choose to donate $25 so that Pedro–a farmer in Bolivia–can buy a tractor for his coffee growing business. Once 100 people have each donated $25 to Pedro, he can buy the tractor and make his business grow. Then, he can pay back the loans.

That is, you get your $25 back. You can choose to re-donate your $25 through Kiva to someone else who needs a loan, or you can choose to withdraw your money.

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Vocation Bucket List

25. Find a Job You Love

Studies show that about 80 percent of workers don’t like their jobs. Find a job in an area that you’re both passionately curious about and talented at. At the same time, the salary has to be enough to meet your needs and have some money left over to save and invest.

26. Work From Home

Many people dream of working from home to be closer to family members, cut out their commuting time, or simply to have the freedom of setting their own hours. In order to work from home you need to either convince your employer to allow you to do so, or start your own business.

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Possessions Bucket List

27. Own the Perfect Little Black Dress

Little black dresses are a wardrobe staple for every stylish woman. From a black lace cocktail dress, to a black sequin dress, every woman needs to own a perfect little black dress that flatters her body type . It’s a worry-free way to get dressed for almost any occasion.

28. Own the Perfect Black Suit

A black suit is the male equivalent of the little black dress. Find a black suit that fits you well and wear it with confidence.

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Fun Bucket List

29. Have Chocolate Fondue

Find a great chocolate fondue recipe online, take out your fondue set, and choose your dippables. Almost anything can be dipped in chocolate. You can try dipping pound cake, fresh fruit, marshmallows, pretzels and biscotti.

30. Attend a Murder Mystery Dinner

Murder Mystery is a popular theme for parties. Each guest is assigned a role, or character. During the dinner all the guests ask each other questions to learn more about the characters each one is playing. At some point during the evening the person who was assigned the role of victim will be found “dead”, and everyone else has to try and guess who the murderer is.

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“Idea Book – 10,000 Ideas For Your Bucket List” has ideas to cover every aspect of your life. Inside you’ll find the following:

• 10,000 Bucket List Ideas
• Divided Into 14 Main Categories
• Further Divided Into 650 Subcategories
• 1,130 Page PDF
• 2,500 Images
• Practical Descriptions
• Over 250,000 Words
• Over 7,500 Links to Videos and Helpful Websites

You can read more about “Idea Book -10,000 Ideas For Your Bucket List” here.

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• How to Take Back Control of Your Life
• How to Keep a Journal: Two Methods You Should Try
• 14 Ways to Be More Resilient So You Can Bounce Back From Adversity
• Just For Today

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If you want to get things done, you need mojo.

“Mojo” refers to your self-confidence, self-esteem, self-efficacy, or even sex appeal. Dr. Evil–Austin Powers’ nemesis in the Austin Powers film series–defines mojo as follows: “The libido, the life force, the essence, the right stuff, what the French call a certain, ‘I don’t know what’”.

If you’ve lost your mojo, follow the 24 surefire ways listed below to get your mojo back. Vavavaboom!

1. Stop whining. If there’s something in your life that you don’t like, either try to fix it or move away from it. While it’s fine to vent occasionally, endless rumination on the negative is a surefire way to kill your mojo.

2. Do something daring. Go on a mini-vacation by yourself, go bungee-jumping, or do something else that makes you step outside of your comfort zone.

3. Wear something flattering. Looking good will help you to feel good. Also, spritz on some perfume or cologne.

4. Engage in an activity you enjoy. The positive spirit you feel toward what you’re doing will radiate to the outside.

5. Do something you’re good at. The self-assurance you feel while doing something you’re good at will translate to the next task you take on.

6. Practice positive self-talk. Say something positive to yourself and take your mistakes in stride.  Repeat the following to yourself: “When it comes to dreams one might falter, but the only way to fail is to abandon them.”

7. Get physical. Engage in a physical activity you enjoy. You can go out for a bike ride, challenge someone to a friendly game of tennis, or go for a long hike. Just like water that doesn’t circulate tends to become stagnant, lack of movement can make you feel sluggish and depleted.

8. Set yourself up to have frequent, small wins. Instead of setting huge goals and telling yourself that you’ll succeed once you achieve them, break your goals down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Each day that you achieve the daily tasks which will move you closer to your long-term goals, give yourself a pat on the back and allow yourself to feel satisfaction for what you’ve accomplished. Recognize your small wins.

9. Keep your head up. Even if you’ve failed miserably at something, stay strong. To quote Elizabethtown: “So you failed. You wanna be really great? Have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you’re still smiling.”

10. Be true to yourself.  Nothing will kill your mojo faster than looking outside of yourself for guidance. Look at the following:

• Are you doing what you really want to do, or are you trying to fulfill the expectations of others?
• Are you following conventional wisdom instead of listening to your gut?
• Are you letting others make decisions for you?

Only you know what’s best for you. Trust your inner voice. Paying attention to your authentic needs and listening to your inner wisdom is one of the best ways to get your mojo back.

11. Reflect on your wins. Take a moment to look back at your successes. If your mojo is down because you haven’t had any successes in a while, try to reconnect with the feeling of success you’ve had in the past and bring that feeling into the present.

12. Use body language. Stride purposefully, shoulders back, pelvis out. Think of the Bee Gee’s song “Stayin’ Alive” and use your walk.

13. Move on. If your mojo is down due to a failed relationship, forgive and forget. You can’t undo what happened, but you can stop dragging it around with you by refusing to think about it.

14. Accept the facts. Marshall Goldsmith, author of “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It”, recommends that you stop waiting for the facts to change, which is just wishful thinking. If you’ve suffered a setback, you might decide to do nothing until a more comfortable set of facts present themselves.

Goldsmith helpfully advises the following:

“When the facts are not to your liking, ask yourself, ‘What path would I take if I knew that the situation would not get better?’ Then get ready to do that.”

15. Be curious. Learn something new. Find new interests. Pick up a hobby.

16. Show gratitude. Be grateful for what you have instead of focusing on what you lack. Counting your blessings is mojo enhancing, while thinking of what you don’t have is mojo depleting.

17. Stay in your own life. Stop comparing yourself to others, and don’t stray from your path because you’re trying to copy what somebody else is doing. You do you.

18. Keep mojo props in sight. Hang any awards or certificates that you have in a place where you’ll be able to see them often. Surround yourself with your accomplishments.  You can also place photos of yourself having fun with your friends and family in key places, so that you’re reminded of the people who care about you.

19. Find a mojo master. Watch someone who exudes lots of self-confidence and model their behavior.

20. Help someone. There’s no better way to feel good about yourself and raise your mojo than by being of service to others.

21. Get some sun. Sunlight is vital to your body’s ability to produce Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin, but a steroid hormone which is important for many things, including sustaining your energy levels. Open the windows and get some mojo-activating sunlight.

22. Keep dancing. If your mojo is low because you’re having trouble reaching an important goal, and you’re about to give up, think of the story of the village that was famous for miles around because its rainmakers were successful in making it rain 100% of the time.

The surrounding villages were all amazed at this remarkable success rate, so they each sent a representative to find out what this one village was doing differently than they were. It turns out that the reason for their perfect track-record was simple: their rainmakers wouldn’t stop dancing until it rained.

Follow their lead: whatever your most important goal is, refuse to stop dancing–that is, taking the necessary action to achieve your goal–until you’ve succeeded.

23. Feed your soul. Go to a museum, listen to Bach, or buy hyacinths and put them in a vase next to the window. Give yourself a mojo boost by bringing more beauty into your life.

24. Think, world domination. Take a cue from “Pinky and The Brain”, an animated cartoon series starring two genetically enhanced laboratory mice. Every episode featured one of Brain’s attempts at world domination. And, every episode, Brain failed.

However, nothing would discourage Brain. The opening song for the cartoon is preceded by the following dialogue:

Pinky: “Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”

The Brain: “The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!”

Keep your mojo strong by never giving up on your plans to take over the world. Yeah, baby!

 

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• 16 Ways to Create a Life That Rocks
• How to Be More Daring, Bold, and Audacious
• Seven Ways to Overcome Inertia and Get Yourself Unstuck
• How to Get Gumption And Go After What You Want In Life

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It’s Christmas time! Here are 50 glorious Christmas traditions to get your Holidays off to a great start (for kids from 1 to 92).

1. Make a list of your ten favorite holiday songs, find a great version of these songs on YouTube, and look for the lyrics online.  Play them over and over again and sing along. Here are my favorites:

• “O Holy Night” by Celtic Woman
• “Believe” – by Josh Groban
• “The Christmas Song” sung by Nat King Cole.
• “All I Want For Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey
• “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams
• So This is Christmas by Celine Dion
• Do You Hear What I Hear? by Carrie Underwood
• Carol of the Bells by Pentatonix
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra
• Let It Snow by Dean Martin

As Buddy from the 2003 movie “Elf” explains, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

2. Go to the tree farm to pick the perfect tree.

3. Pile into the car at night and drive around looking at all of the Holiday lights and decorations.

4. Since 1989, every resident on the 700 block of Baltimore’s 34th street has put up Christmas lights. This is known as “The Miracle on 34th Street.” Follow suit: get your neighbors together and start a tradition of being the most Christmassy street in your city.

5. Look for a Coca Cola Christmas truck. Then, watch these Coca Cola holiday commercials on YouTube:

• Snow Globes Coca Cola 2010 Christmas
• Coca Cola Christmas Song

6. Have some hot cocoa, Elf Judy style: “Not too hot. Extra chocolate. Shaken, not stirred.” (Elf Judy is one of Santa’s elves in the movie “The Santa Clause”.  It took her 1200 years to perfect her hot cocoa recipe.)

7. Set up a Nativity Scene. Better yet, get creative: make a Lego Nativity Scene or make one of these.

8. Put a Santa Sack under the Christmas tree and have each of your kids place any toys that they no longer play with–but that are still in good condition–in the sack. On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus takes the old toys and replaces them with new ones. The old toys are then donated.

9. Start the tradition of having a special breakfast on Christmas Day. For example, have Eggnog French Toast  or eggnog pancakes.

10. Help your kids write a letter to Santa (here are some templates you can use).

11. Write a letter from Santa addressed to each of your kids letting them know they’ve been added to the top of the “nice list”.  You can also highlight any special accomplishments they’ve had that year in the letter, so that they know how proud Santa is of them.

12. Start a tradition of having Santa bring each of your kids three gifts, one for each of the wise men. Have the gifts be something to read, something to wear, and something they really want.

13. Make photocopies of your children’s letters to Santa each year and keep them. They can read them years from now and remember back to when what they wanted most in the world was an Elmo doll.

14.  Watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Charlie Brown complains to Lucy about the overwhelming materialism that he sees everywhere during the Christmas season, and how the holiday has become completely commercial. Lucy tells him that he can get into the holiday spirit by directing the school Christmas pageant. Charlie Brown accepts.

The pageant turns out to be a frustrating struggle. Charlie Brown attempts to restore the proper spirit with a forlorn little fir Christmas tree, but he just seems to make thing worse. Luckily, Linus explains what the real meaning of Christmas is and the joy of the season is restored. Here’s what Linus said:

15. Make a Gingerbread House. In the alternative, you can make a Graham Cracker House.

16. Get a special mug you use for the entire month of December. Make sure it has a Christmas theme, such as Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, a Christmas tree, and so on. Here’s mine:

17. Bake Christmas Sugar Cookies.  Here’s a YouTube video that will show you how step-by-step: How-to Make Sugar Cookies. You can also use Martha Stewart’s Sugar Cookie Recipe.

18.  Get matching Christmas pajamas for everyone in the family to wear on Christmas Eve (some people wrap the pj’s and everyone unwraps them on Christmas Eve). You can also get the book “The Pajama Elves“, which explains that on Christmas Eve kids are given special pajamas made by elves which magically make them sleepy so that Santa can deliver toys without getting caught.

19.  Get an advent calendar to help you countdown to Christmas. Day by day, starting on December 1st, the windows are opened until December 25th. Another alternative is to make a list of 24 Christmas activities and complete one each day starting on the first of December; that can be your countdown to Christmas.

Also, you can get an advent candle: a candle marked with the days of December from the first of the month until Christmas Eve. Each day in December the candle is burnt down a little more, to the mark for the day, to show the passing of the days leading up to Christmas. Typically the candle is burned during family dinner each day.

20. Find an ornament for each family member that commemorates a special memory for that year. It can be an ornament of a baby bottle for the birth of a child, a ballet slipper for a first dance class, and so on.

21. Another idea is to put a new ornament in your child’s stocking each year, and have them hang their ornament from the tree.  You can even make a special box for them to keep their ornaments in. Then, when they turn 18 and leave home, they can take their box of ornaments with them for their own tree.

22.  Watch your favorite Holiday movies. You can even host a Holiday-movie marathon. Here are some of my favorite Christmas movies:

• “It’s a Wonderful Life”
• “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”
• “A Christmas Story”
• “The Santa Clause”
• “Miracle on 34th Street”

23.  Read Christmas themed books, in particular, “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore, or “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg.

You can also download Christmas stories from the internet, or get a book with 24 Christmas stories, and read one each night from the first of December until Christmas Eve.

24.  Make a list of all the people who have touched you in a positive way during the year and send them Christmas cards.

25.  Make a string of popcorn and cranberries for some old-fashioned decorations for your tree.

26. Make sure your house smells like Christmas. Here’s one way to do it:

Place 4 to 6 cups of water in a pot on the stove. Add orange peels (from 1 or 2 oranges), 3 to 4 cinnamon sticks, 1 tablespoon of whole cloves and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. If you want to get fancy you can add cranberries and some ginger. Bring the contents to a boil and then reduce the heat so it is left to simmer.

Better yet, make oranges with cloves.

27. Remember the less fortunate this Christmas. Does your local mall have an “Angels Tree” with the names of children you can get Christmas gifts for? Another idea is to put together a shoebox filled with gifts for a needy child.

28. Play Christmas games at the family holiday party. For example, you can play Christmas Movie trivia and come up with questions for your favorite holiday movies. Here are some examples:

• In the film “Miracle on 34th Street”, as the film opens, Kris informs a shop owner that he’s mistaken in his arrangement of what in a storefront display? (The answer is reindeer).
• What state does the film “A Christmas Story” take place in? (The answer is Indiana).
• In “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, when catching snow flakes on his tongue, Linus thought the flakes needed something. What? (The answer is sugar).

You can also sing a line from a Christmas song and have all the others try to guess what song it is, or play Christmas Bingo.

29.  Once your tree is all decked out, turn off the light and sit on the couch, just admiring the tree.

30. Leave out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Don’t forget the reindeer: make a wreath of ice with carrot pieces frozen inside, and hang the wreath from a tree. When the ice melts, the reindeer can eat the carrots.

31. Get poinsettias; they’re known as Flores de Noche Buena in Mexico (Spanish for “flowers of the holy night”).

32. Go to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” ballet. Many families make an annual pilgrimage to the theatre to see it (or, at least, they watch on it TV).

33. Stick to the Holiday recipes that your family knows and loves.  If you’re not sure what to make for Christmas, Gooseberry Patch has several fabulous Holiday recipe books.

34. Have a Christmas toast with home-made eggnog. As radio psychologist Dr. Frasier Crane would say, “The first mistake in eggnog preparation is failing to garnish it properly with a dash of nutmeg.”

35.  Hang a wreath on your door to welcome in the Holiday, as well as visitors.

36. Hang up the Christmas Stockings.  Make sure each stocking is personalized with the owner’s name. Fill them with simple stocking stuffers. Here are some ideas:

• Do they collect anything?
• Is there a movie they love? As an illustration, here are some great stocking stuffers for Harry Potter fans.
• What are their hobbies?
• How about gag gifts?
• Get Holiday candy.
• Pens and pencils.
• Socks.
• A book they’ve been wanting to read.
• Gift cards.
• Lottery tickets.
• Nuts and fruits.

37.  Put together a Christmas Village — a decorative, miniature-scale village often set up during the Christmas season. Add a new house or shop each year.

38.  Hang up the Mistletoe.

39. Throw a holiday party for a good cause. You can charge an entrance fee or have a box where people can donate whatever they want.

40. Read the Christmas Story from the Bible at Christmas dinner (Luke 2:1-20). You can take turns and have each person sitting around the dinner table read a small part.

41. On Christmas Day, give the family a fun new board game. Then, play it that afternoon!

42. If you know a family that’s fallen on economic hard times, give them a helping hand this Christmas. This Hub Page explains what to give for Christmas to families that are struggling financially. Here are some ideas:

• Help them stock up on something they use a lot, such as diapers, ink cartridges, and so on.
• Give them gift cards to help them cover spending they need to do (such as gift cards from Target or Home Depot).
• Get their car serviced for them.

43. Make a list of your favorite Christmas quotes and post them up all around the house, or set aside a specific bulletin board for your quotes.

44. Record your favorite Christmas traditions for future generations of your family to follow. Take out your camera, start snapping pictures, and place them in a scrap book. Make sure to add notes.

45. Create a new holiday tradition. One idea is to research what people from other countries do and adopt a foreign holiday tradition!

Before opening gifts on Christmas Day, the Danish join hands with their family members and they form a chain around the Christmas tree. Then, they walk around the tree in a ring, singing Christmas songs. Isn’t that a fantastic tradition? You could consider adopting it.

In addition, I discovered this year that the British have something called Christmas Crackers. A cracker is a small cardboard tube wrapped in decorative paper. Inside there’s a small gift–like a plastic ring, some marbles, or a whistle–, a paper party hat, and a paper with Christmas jokes written on it.

Here’s what to do:

• Two people pull on the cracker, one from each end.
• Then, there’s a popping noise and the cracker tears open to reveal the surprise gifts inside.
• Everyone has to wear their crown and read the joke out loud.

The crackers can be placed next to each plate for Christmas dinner. They can also be placed in stockings, or they can even be used to decorate the Christmas tree. (I’m thinking of getting some Christmas crackers this year.)

46. Leave the kids’ Christmas stockings at the foot of their bed so that they have something to entertain themselves with on Christmas morning before the grown-ups wake up (this should buy you about ten more minutes of sleep).

47. Make Christmas ornaments with your family and hang them up on your tree. Even if you’re not crafty, there are lots of easy things you can make. Here’s a reindeer made from clothespins that anyone can make (and I do mean, anyone).

48. Do something kind for an elderly neighbor, such as taking them Christmas shopping or helping them to hang up their Christmas lights. After all, as Charles Schulz was fond of saying, “Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”

49. A couple of years ago, in Springfield, Illinois, someone started a “Pay-It-Forward” chain at a Starbucks  drive-through window by paying for the coffee for the car behind them. The chain continued for hours. It started at 7:30 a.m. and continued until 2:30 p.m., with a total of 172 drivers paying for the car behind them. Start the ball rolling on a “Pay-It-Forward” chain to help spread some holiday cheer.

50. On December 24th, track Santa as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world with NORAD. NORAD has placed Santa cams, high-speed digital cameras, at several locations around the world in order to capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world.

Read Next: Holiday Gifts for Self-Improvement Enthusiasts

Related Posts:

• • 10 Ways to Have a Peaceful Christmas
  • Eight Ways to Beat the Holiday Blues
  • 48 Joyous Christmas Quotes to Brighten the Season
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  • 19 Christmas Stories and Poems by Famous Authors

Just for today, December 2nd (Cyber Monday 2013), all of my eBooks are 75% off. Midnight on Monday the sale is over, so hurry. If you’re asked for a discount code, write “Holidays” (without the quotations).

Here are my eBooks:

 

The legendary Jim Rohn once said, “Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day.” That is, success depends on adopting the habits that will allow us to achieve our goals. Some of these habits may include the following:

• Becoming an early riser;
• Exercising on a regular basis;
• Saving 10% of each paycheck;
• Eating a live frog first thing each morning (completing an important task which you dread); and so on.

However, building positive habits can be difficult. For one thing, creating a positive habit requires self-control, and self-control is often in short supply. Fortunately, there are many tools out there which can help us to acquire new habits. We can call these tools “commitment devices”. One of these commitment devices is temptation bundling.

You’ll discover a definition of temptation bundling, as well as examples and an explanation of how you can apply this commitment device in your own life, below.

Temptation Bundling – Defined

“Temptation bundling” is a term coined by Wharton operations and information management professor Katherine Milkman. A few years ago, Milkman was having trouble going to the gym on a regular basis. At the same time, one of Milkman’s guilty pleasures is listening to Audio books of fiction novels like “The Hunger Games”. Therefore, she hit upon the following idea: she would only allow herself to listen to these low-brow audiobooks when she was at the gym.

Milkman discovered that by following this approach, her gym attendance rose dramatically.

Temptation bundling achieves two goals at once:

• First, it reduces the amount of time that you devote to temptations. After all, you’re limiting the situations in which you’ll allow yourself to engage in the temptation.
• Second, it increases the likelihood that you’ll engage in desired behavior. That is, it makes it easier for you to adopt positive habits.

Examples of Temptation Bundling

The concept of temptation bundling is intuitive. It’s likely that, at least at some point, you’ve already applied this device. I remember that when I was in college, many years ago, I created a mixed-tape of my favorite songs. Sometimes I would listen to the tape when I was supposed to be studying. In addition, I wanted to create the habit of going for a walk every day.

What I did was the following: I told myself that I could only listen to the tape on my Walkman as I went for a walk. That way, I killed two birds with one stone:

• During my study time I would work on my assignments instead of listening to the mixed-tape.
• I would go for a walk every day since I loved listening to the mixed-tape, and my walking sessions were the only time during which I allowed myself to indulge in this activity.

Some other possible applications of temptation bundling include the following:

• If you enjoying having $5 lattes at the coffee shop around the corner, only allow yourself to do so if you work on a tedious assignment while you’re there.
• If you love watching shows like “Person of Interest” and “Homeland”, but you hate ironing, only allow yourself to watch these shows while you iron.

Temptation Bundling – Creating A Game Plan

So, how can you begin applying temptation bundling in your own life? Begin by creating a list of temptations. That is, things you love to do, eat, or experience, but which you realize you need to limit. This can include watching TV, eating certain types of foods, reading addictive fiction novels, and so on. This is “List A”.

Then, create a list of “should” behaviors. That is, things you should be doing in order to achieve your goals, but which you tend to procrastinate on. This can include things such as studying, working on important but dull reports, exercising, and so on. This is “List B”.

Lastly, bundle items from “List A” with items from “List B”.

Conclusion

As I stated at the very top of this post, in order to succeed you need to take the action that is necessary for you to achieve your goals on a consistent basis. That is, you need to create habits. Commitment devices, such as temptation bundling, can help you to acquire these habits.

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2. The Key To Goal Success: Setting Implementation Intentions
3. What a Masked Vigilante Can Teach You About Goal Achievement – The Zorro Circle
4. Five Scientifically-Proven Ways to Strengthen Your Self-Control

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The 32 bits of wisdom which you’ll discover in this post were culled from the book “The Success System that Never Fails”, written by businessman, philanthropist and author William Clement Stone.

When Stone was three years old his father died, leaving his family impoverished due to his gambling debts. Stone’s mother began working as a dressmaker, and at the age of six Stone started hawking newspapers on Chicago’s rough South Side. By the age of 13 Stone had his own newspaper stand.

Later on, when his mother started an insurance agency, Stone went to work for her as an insurance salesman. He was 16 at the time.

Stone devoured the Horatio Alger stories from a young age. These were rags to riches stories of poor boys who overcame adversity and made it big. By following the principles taught by Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich”, and by modeling the boys from the Alger stories, Stone became a multimillionaire.

Almost since the very start of his career as an insurance salesman, Stone began putting together a system which would help him to succeed. Here are 32 bits of wisdom from Stone’s success system:

1. “Selling is merely persuading another person to accept your service, your product, or your idea. In this sense, everyone is a salesman.”

2. “Reduce to a formula, preferably in writing, the principles you learn from your successful experiences and your failures, in whatever activities you may be interested in.”

3. “Success is achieved by those who try.”

4. “Learn the value of establishing the right habits.”

5. Continuously use the self-starter “Do it now!”

6. “Emotions are not immediately subject to reason, but they are subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion—action will.”

7. “Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.”

8. “I wanted to say the right thing, in the right way, to get the right reaction. And this took practice.”

9. Develop know-how. Know-how is “the particular techniques and skills that consistently get results for you. Know-how is the proper application of knowledge. Know-how is doing something the right way, with skill and effectiveness, and with minimum expenditure of time and effort.” You acquire know-how by doing.

10. “Knowledge is learned and know-how is acquired through experience.” Determine what you need to know, find a way to acquire that knowledge, and then apply that knowledge through action until you’ve developed know-how.

11. “I learned from experience what to say and how to say it—what to do and how to do it—to sell in tremendous volume.”

12. “Like a scientist, I learned from trial and error—trial and success.”

13. “Avoid situations, acquaintances, and associates who tend to hold you back.”

14.  “There is more to success than reading self-help books and extracting the philosophy contained in them, and that is action. The true value of a self-help book is not what the writer puts into the book, but what you, the reader, take out of the book and put into your life.”

15. “Check your habits of thought and action, for these have brought you to where you are now.”

16. Ask yourself: “Are you on the right course to get from where you are now to where you really want to be?”

17. “A Positive Mental Attitude is the right mental attitude. What is the right mental attitude? It is most often comprised of the ‘plus’ characteristics symbolized by such words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact, kindliness and good common sense. A person with positive mental attitude aims for high goals and constantly strives to achieve them.”

18. “When you do something, put your heart into it. Give it everything you’ve got—then relax! Concentrated attention and effort, then relaxing, became a habit with me. ”

19. “I knew what I was looking for. I wanted to develop a system that never fails. Therefore, I tried to recognize the principles involved in each selling experience, good or bad. I set out to use those that were helpful and eliminate those that were harmful.”

20.   “Select the right thoughts, engage in the proper activity, and choose the proper environment.”

21. To develop go-power, the inner urge that drives you to success, every night for ten days repeat at least 50 times: “What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

22. People succeed because they start for a specific destination and keep going until they reach it.

23. “It takes more energy to overcome inertia in getting started from a standstill than to continue the momentum of a moving body when it is once in motion.”

24.  “One way to make a fortune is to sell a necessity that is low in cost and repeats. The fortune is made in the repeat business.”

25. “The first step is to know exactly what your problem, goal or desire is. If you’re not clear about this, then write it down, and then rewrite it until the words express precisely what you are after.”

26.  “Every disadvantage has an equivalent advantage, if you’ll take the trouble to find it.”

27. Ask yourself: “Are the things around you helping you toward success, or are they holding you back?”

28. “The reason why you don’t do the right thing when you should is because you haven’t established the right habits.”

29.   “Wealth is created through the positive mental attitude, education, labor, knowledge, know-how, and moral character of people, under a government that guarantees freedom of private enterprise and respects and protects the life and property rights of each individual.”

30. “Intelligence is the power of meeting any situation, specially a novel situation, successfully by proper behavior adjustments.” Do you adapt yourself satisfactorily to your environment? Can you learn to adjust better to persons, places, situations, and things?

31. “Intelligence depends upon knowledge, but it is using knowledge rather than merely having it.”

32.  “Constantly strive to make the world a better place for yourself and for others.”

Conclusion

Live your best life by following the 32 bits of wisdom from William Clement Stone set forth above.

Related Posts:

1. 32 Timeless Success Principles from Napoleon Hill
2. 72 of the Best Success Quotes
3. 5 Lessons From Motivation Mega-Star Jim Rohn
4. 49 Snippets of Wisdom on How to Succeed

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