Let’s face it, times are tough for a lot of people in this economy. People are losing their jobs, homes and families in in some cases. Most people have the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel in bad situations, however this economy has even the more optimistic people feeling as if they were beat down to their knees. As your looking down the tunnel for a glimpse of hope you see a sign that says “The light has been temporarily turned off for failure to pay the electric bill”. Not only is the economy having an impact on peoples finances but the stress, in many cases, is carrying over and having an negative impact on individuals families and relationships. As the weight of the world is pressing on individuals shoulders I am seeing more and more people get the “why bother any more attitude.”

Well I have got news for everyone. You are definitely not in it alone, we will pull through this with time, things will eventually turn around and your life will eventually get back on track if you start taking action now. By action I mean taking the steps necessary mentally and physically to stay in the game. In these challenging times we always have to be focused on taking some chances, making some changes and always doing our personal best even when we feel as if it is not leading to progress. If we start getting that “what’s the point attitude”, which we all do from time to time, we need to stay true  to staying positive and snapping ourselves  out of  that destructive attitudes and feelings. Your happiness, success and quality of life is all directly correlated to well you can stay focused on continuously doing your personal best and pushing forward.

The time to be more diligent about always doing your personal best is when you start feeling a sense of hopelessness and an overiding sense that things aren’t going to pay off in the end for you. Trust me when I tell you, if you stay focused on your personal best, so much so that it becomes hard wired into your mind even when things seem tough great things will be in store for you. . More and more opportunities will start presenting themselves it’s just a matter of time.

In addition, when I speak of personal best I am not just referring to career or finance matters. I truly am speaking to everything that we do life. Most importantly we need to ensure we stay focused on our families and relationships. Keep in mind the amount of happiness and fulfillment that we receive in life is directly proportionate to the quality of  the relationships that we have in life.

Attached is a video / story  that I put together on an Olympic athlete that always focused on doing his personal best, regardless of the situation. Even when he could of played it safe and coasted he still pushed forward full throttle.

Stay positive, takes chances and get the life you deserve.

Right now Fast Company Magazine, one of the most well respected start up mags out there, is doing a feature on influential people. And they are going to post everyone’s photo in the magazine who registers (the size depends on how much influence you have.

Regardless of where you rank you will always be able to say you were in Fast Company magazine under the “Most Influential People”.

Go Here And Register (It Takes About 2 Minutes)

Presentation skills are extremely important in many aspects of your life. Some people think that these skills are only needed by sales and other people that are required to get up in front of people on a regular basis. Reality is that communication is key to a happy and successful life. The words that we use are not always the most important piece of that communication process, but rather how way say and conduct ourselves while saying them. Whether you like it or not we are all in sales and have to sell ourselves everyday. Spend some time developing your presentation skills and you will be amazed by how much further you get in life.

Understand:

1. What areas are you weak at when it comes to presentations?
2. Why do you feel it is important that you develop your presentation skills?
3. What benefits will come to you personally if you develop your presentation skills?
4. If you do not develop your presentation skills what will be the consequences over time?

Learn:

Prescribe:

1. What is the most important take away that you gained from the video?
2. How will you use that take away to improve your presentation skills?
3. Present on a topic and record yourself on video as if you were giving that presentation to your target audience. Watch the video, critique it, and if there are any flaws start the process over again until have given a presentation that you would deem to be a killer presentation based on the concepts above.

“I did everything right for someone that does everything wrong” ~ Elliott Smith

If you were offered that ideal job right now, today — would you be able to accept it? Would you be able to handle the responsibilities? Would you have the necessary skills, the knowledge, the contacts, the insight to succeed?

Would you be able to say yes to the opportunity of a lifetime, if it came along today? Opportunity, to be realized, takes more than willingness. It takes preparation. When you’re prepared for opportunity, it comes to you in abundance.

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And there’s certainly nothing to be gained from a solution that merely masks or delays the problem without addressing the underlying cause. When there’s a problem in your life, get to work rooting out the core of that problem.

Facing a challenge requires effort, and yet that effort is necessary only for a relatively short time. Running from the challenge requires ever-increasing effort that has no end.

The sooner you start working through a problem, the more quickly you’ll have that problem behind you. The earlier you deal with the root cause of the problem, the more effective your efforts will be.

Truly eliminating the cause of the problem does indeed take more work than quickly fixing the symptoms. Yet once the difficult work is done to remove the problem, it’s gone for good.

Do the work to root out each problem at its core. And your efforts will bring lasting rewards.