NAC, or Neuro Associative Conditioning, is based on the pain and pleasure principle. Basically, this technique requires you to associate pain with the things you want to avoid and pleasure with the things you want. As a result, the unconscious mind takes over and conditions you for success.

You can either allow pain and pleasure to control you, or you can use them as tools with which to control your life. The way you react to pain and pleasure determine your actions.

So how do you use this technique? Here’s an example: You can replace the pain of eating soy beans with the pleasure of being healthier. You can do this by visualizing yourself as fitter and healthier whenever you eat soy beans.

Your beliefs have plenty to do with your motivation. If you believe that being overweight is in your genes, you can’t hope to lose weight even if you exercise. If you believe in your capabilities, you can be a hero. If you believe you’re a failure, you’ll fail.

You can use the pain and pleasure principle to change your negative beliefs:

1. Look deep within to discover the unconscious beliefs you harbor. Perhaps you believe that all marriages are destined to fail, automobile accidents are waiting to happen, or the efforts of just one individual can’t make a significant difference to the world. These types of beliefs are negative and can severely limit your commitment to the success you deserve.
2. Think of the effect that your negative beliefs have on you. Is it an obstacle to the life you want? Feel the pain. Then replace it with a positive belief that will help you succeed. Visualize and feel this success.
3. Replace your negative beliefs with positive ones by questioning and re-examining your belief structure, thus building up evidence to support your new positive beliefs. For instance, you can think of individuals who have made a difference to the world without help from anyone else.

For example, when Mother Teresa decided to leave the convent and go out into the slums to help the poor, she was alone. But not for long. Her commitment to positive action influenced not only those she helped, but eventually, people all over the world.

The Three Decisions That Will Shape Your Life

1. Decide what your primary focus is for each moment of your life. This will influence your feelings, thoughts, and actions.
2. Decide how your situations affect you. Cut through the chaos and pause to answer this question: How does this situation affect my present and future?
3. Decide what you should do now. This is a most important decision. Don’t be bothered by what others are doing and don’t be carried away by what’s happening around you. If you do, you’re allowing your environment to direct your decision.

Daily Stress-Busting Techniques

Preventing, reducing, and eliminating stress (or redirecting its energy into positive ways) are all important. When you take daily action to create a peaceful, harmonious life, you’ll find that things more often go your way and outcomes are in sync with what you desire.

Make a habit of doing these things every day to create harmony in your life:

1. Start your day stress-free. Each day is a new fresh start. It’s like they say: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Use these tips to enjoy the beginning of the day and let one good thing lead to another.

• Throw out your alarm clock if it has a harsh sound. Loud alarms cause immediate stress the very moment you awaken. Accustom yourself to waking up to beautiful music or the sounds of nature. The idea is to be coaxed out of your sleep rather than hounded out of bed.
• Give thanks for the new day. Remind yourself of what you have to be thankful for, rather than jumping into stressful thoughts immediately.
• Sing a happy tune. Having a happy tune in your head puts you in a good mood. Here’s a perfect song to start your day: “It’s a Good Day” by Perry Como. This song is in the soundtrack for the movie Blast from the Past.

Here’s how it starts out:
“Oh! It’s a good day, for singin’ a song,
An’ it’s a good day for movin’ along,
Yes, it’s a good day, how could anything go wrong?
A good day from mornin’ ’till night!”
An attitude like this automatically helps you overcome the challenges of the day with less stress!

2. Pray or meditate. Take time each day to visualize living the life you desire and give thanks for it. Imagine everything as if it has already happened. Vivid, real, and positive are the key concepts which will help you achieve this life.

• Take in everything with all your senses, feel the emotions, and actually see yourself living your stress-free life.
• Feel your stress melt away and fully enjoy where you are.
• Prayer and meditation can both relax you and bring you energy. You can use the power of prayer or meditation to prepare for the day ahead and end your day on an uplifting note.

Best of all, your positive energy will attract more good things to feel good about in your life.

3. Make your self-talk positive. You talk to yourself constantly inside your mind. But did you know that what you say to yourself affects your mood, stress level, attitudes, beliefs, self-concept, decisions, and behavior? Believe it or not, you’re quite convincing, no matter what you’re saying! So why not say something you want to hear?

• Encourage yourself. Congratulate yourself every time you do something right. Every success – even a small one – deserves to be celebrated. Tell yourself how it’s perfectly like you to do things the way you do.
• When you make a mistake, beware of stress-causing and confidence-deflating negative talk. Rather than telling yourself what a loser you are, or how stupid it was to mess that up, turn those thoughts into something positive instead.
• Ask yourself what you can learn from your mistakes so you can bring yourself closer to your goal. Practice immediately laughing, as you say something like, “Oops, I know I won’t be doing that again! What can I learn from this?”
• Realize that everyone makes mistakes. If you never made one, then you wouldn’t be human! It’s not a big deal. Admit it, learn from it, correct what you can, and confidently move on.

4. Use affirmations. Affirmations can also reduce your stress and redirect your thoughts and feelings to something positive. They affirm the qualities in you that you want to encourage, while thwarting negative thoughts at the same time.

Once you get in the habit of using affirmations every time a negative thought or bad habit presents itself, they automatically redirect you to positive actions, feelings, and decisions.

• Affirmations should follow the 3 Ps: Positive, Personal (use the words “I”, “me”, or “my”), and Present Tense (as if you already exhibit this quality).
• Here are some example affirmations to reduce stress:
• I am confident that I can handle any challenge effectively.
• I make good decisions.
• I look for the silver lining in every difficulty.
• I can solve any problem.
• I act without delay when I make a decision. I let go of the “what-ifs.”
• For the best effect, repeat your affirmations several times each day, and also whenever you encounter a negative thought
• Affirmations are effective in many situations. They can help you conquer specific stressors, too, so we’ll also give you some more examples in the different sections of this lesson to help you deal with specific situations.

5. Simplify your life. We encounter a lot of stress every day just because of our cluttered lifestyles. Between running from one errand to another, skipping meals, and taking care of everyone but ourselves, everything contributes to our stress levels. But when you eliminate the clutter, you can eliminate this stress!

• Learn to say ‘no’. This one thing can add hours to your day! Make a decision to only do what you feel is absolutely important. If someone asks you to do something you know you can’t fit in, politely say no.
• Skip some of the parties. For our own sanity, we need to socialize sometimes. However, accepting every invitation that comes along can become overwhelming. Cut down on your social commitments to give you some added peace and quiet.
• Make decisions according to your priorities. When you clarify your priorities and use them to help you make decisions, decision-making becomes virtually stress-free. When you choose the option that most closely aligns with your priorities, you’ll be more confident that you’ve made the right decision.
• De-clutter your house and office. Getting rid of everything you don’t want or need will reduce stress and contribute to a simpler lifestyle. You’ll notice that things are easier to find, there’s less to clean, and you’ll feel free from some of the limiting trappings of life.

6. Exercise. Exercising is one of the best ways to eliminate stress. It gives you a positive outlet for pent-up energy and frustrations.

• Exercise re-energizes you by sending a fresh supply of oxygen throughout every cell of your body. This also clarifies your thinking.
• Best of all, it produces endorphins – the feel good hormones – that de-stress you and put you in a good mood! When you feel good, it’s easier to fight stress and overcome challenging situations.

7. Make time for yourself. You can do anything you want during this time – reflect, pursue a hobby, shop, take a relaxing bath with soft music and candles, or just lie down and stare at the ceiling in the peace and quiet if that makes you feel good!

• The time you reserve for yourself allows you to relax and replenish.
• You’ll find that you have more energy and patience in your life if you take time for yourself. Rather than being selfish, you’re actually allowing yourself to become the best you can be.

8. Look for the silver lining. There’s always good things to be discovered and enjoyed in your life. When you focus your energies on searching for and acting on the good in a situation, you spend less energy and time on worrying and other negative stresses.

• “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” You’ll reduce your stress and you’ll enjoy the eventual outcome.

9. Live in the moment.When you focus on the now, you leave yesterday behind and let go of worry for the future. Those stressors are not in your picture, instead, you enjoy each moment to its fullest.

• Rejoice in the simple things: a cool breeze in the summer, the aroma of the coffee brewing, or the beauty of the dawn. Enjoy what your senses bring to you and fully experience it in the moment.
• Laugh! When something’s funny, don’t just deliver a reserved chuckle. Allow yourself the pleasure of a full belly-laugh. This immediately releases stress and makes you feel good at the same time. Laughing is spontaneous, instantaneous, and makes it impossible to harbor a negative feeling.
• Living in the moment brings you a sense of peace and calm. Yet, it also enables you to hurtle forward toward your goals with a focus like no other!

10. Breathe. When those stressful moments appear, take a few minutes to pause and breathe slowly and deeply. It relaxes your muscles and delivers fresh oxygen to your brain to counter the fight or flight response to help you think clearly.

These techniques help you deal with all kinds of stress, regardless of the underlying cause. In the next few sections, we’ll look at additional ways to reduce or redirect different kinds of stress based on specific issues.

The change you seek could be behavioral or attitudinal and requires some amount of re-programming, but as Mark Twain said: “There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals into good. It can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones. It can lift men to angelship.”

Robbins points out that change happens in an instant. What takes time is getting to this point. For change to happen, you need to believe that you can change this very instant, and that you are the one responsible for your own transformation. You can’t expect others to change you, nor can you blame them if you fail to change.

Here are the steps Robbins suggests:

1. Decide what you really want to change in your life. Ask yourself what’s preventing you from change.

Remember not to focus on what you don’t want, but on what you do want. Also, ensure you’re not linking pain to making the change, as this can lead to failure since your subconscious mind will want to avoid pain, keeping you from succeeding in the change.

2. Your desire to change should be urgent. Associate pain with not changing now and pleasure with changing now.

3. Questions That Induce Pain. Feel the pain when you answer these questions:

• What will this cost me if I don’t change?
• What has it already cost me physically, spiritually, mentally, career-wise, and in my relationships?
• How has it affected my family and friends?

4. Pleasure Associating Questions. Feel the pleasure intensely as you answer these questions:

• If I transform myself, how will it make me feel about myself?
• What will this change help me accomplish?
• How will this change make my family and friends feel?

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
–Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third U.S. President, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, and a leader. In this quote, Jefferson focused on the importance of one’s mindset to achieving success. Jefferson expressed that as long as a person has a positive “mental attitude,” he’ll continue to strive toward and achieve his goals.

Jefferson believed there’s power in one’s own mind and that being positive is the best way to release that power and benefit from it.

On the other hand, Jefferson acknowledged that a person who lacks a good mental attitude will be thwarted in his efforts to accomplish goals. No matter how hard he tries, if he’s not in a positive frame of mind, success will elude him.

How to Apply Thomas Jefferson’s Tip to Your Life

These strategies will help you maintain a positive mindset:

1. Use positive self-talk. You engage in a running dialog with yourself all day long. Take advantage of this natural tendency and encourage yourself by saying things you like to hear. Praise yourself for your accomplishments and say good things to yourself all day long. Soon, you’ll notice a positive change in your everyday thoughts as well.

2. Repeat affirmations. Reading and repeating affirmations will help you strengthen the qualities you wish to develop and even assist you in adopting new habits and qualities. If negative thoughts are a challenge for you, positive affirmations will help steer you away from them and replace them with positivity.

3. Practice meditation. Meditating will help you reduce the stress in your life, focus on moving forward toward your goals, and bring you serenity – all helpful steps for developing and maintaining a positive mindset.

4. Seek the silver lining. Even when things don’t go as planned, find something good in every situation. After a while, this technique will become a habit as you discover your new positivity.

Thinking positive not only makes life a lot more pleasant, it sets up an atmosphere around you that’s upbeat and encouraging to others and draws others toward you.

When you think positively, you take the mental approach of, “I can achieve whatever I set my mind to.” This attitude sets you up for success!

 “Action is the foundational key to all success.”
–Pablo Picasso

Known world-wide for his paintings and sculptures, the Spanish artist, Pablo

Picasso, was also a co-creator of a popular movement in art known as “cubism.” Picasso’s quote reflects that he knew what it would take to be successful. He believed that the most basic tenet to achieving goals is to take action.

Even when people didn’t seem interested in his art, Picasso just kept painting, sculpting and creating, no matter what. He put into practice what he believed: if a person takes action, he’ll succeed.

The essence of Picasso’s quote is, “do something” to make success happen.

How to Apply Pablo Picasso’s Tip to Your Life

You must do something related to your goals if you want to achieve them.

The most basic key to accomplishing something is to simply take action.

• Focus less on the details
• Don’t be concerned about doing something wrong
• Just get started
• Continue to do whatever it is you’ve chosen and the actions you take will lead you to success

For your big goals, divide them into small, achievable steps that will lead you ever forward until you’ve accomplished your biggest desires.

It’s much easier to take action when you only have a small mini-goal to work on. However, achieving these small goals one by one will bring great success.

For example, if you have a goal to lose 30 pounds, you can do this in 30 weeks by losing a pound a week.

Each week, focus only on losing 1 pound. This is a goal you can achieve.

Each week, determine what you can do to lose that 1 pound – whether it’s cutting back on sodas, sweets, or chips, going for evening walks, or taking the stairs at work – and follow through with whatever action it takes to get it done.

All of us have dreams of a better life, but somewhere along our journey, these dreams can get buried.

When the chaos of everyday life takes over, we may even begin to believe that we’re not capable of achieving our goals! Nothing could be further from the truth.

This little book will show you how to use the power of your mind to motivate yourself to pursue your goals to fulfillment, regardless of the challenges life throws your way. It will also give you expert advice on staying motivated throughout your life.

Many of the techniques and suggestions are based on those taught by Anthony Robbins, who rose from the status of janitor to become one of the most successful self-help and inspirational authors in the world.

One day he was sitting in his bachelor pad, overweight and aimless, and a year later, he was living in his own castle!

What turned Mr. Robbins’ life around? Read on to discover these techniques and how you, too, can take advantage of these same principles and more to gain the motivation to attain the life you desire.

What Makes People Self-Motivated?
Self-motivated people are passionate about their interests and beliefs. For instance, they could be health enthusiasts who understand why health is crucial to their success. Because they believe this, they do everything they can to be healthy.

Those who are self-motivated are also advocates of discipline. Without this mind set, it’s not possible to follow a regular routine of exercise, a healthy diet, or do anything else which requires daily effort, like working toward the achievement of your goals.

Lack of Energy or Self-Motivation?
It’s possible to mistake a lack of energy for an absence of self-motivation. If you feel too fatigued to act in a motivated way, you may be experiencing challenges that go deeper than self-motivation.

You might be fighting feelings of excess stress, depression, or low self-esteem. These mental challenges compromise your desire to accomplish your goals. You might have a physical reason for your lack of motivation – low energy caused by poor nutrition, lack of exercise, or even not enough sleep.

Adding nutritious foods and vitamin supplements to your diet, exercising, and acquiring good sleep habits can go a long way towards increasing your energy. Daily meditation can reduce stress, promote feelings of well being, raise your self-esteem, and increase your energy.

If you find yourself seriously lacking the energy to work towards the fulfillment of your dreams, check with your doctor or other health professional for a regimen that can increase your energy.

1. Do your research. Finding out more about your subject will generate interest and motivation. For example, if you want to learn how to play the guitar, subscribe to a good magazine on the subject.

For example, look at Frank’s story: Frank didn’t know how interesting gardening could be until he bought himself a beautiful book on gardening. Now it’s hard to tear him away from his flowers.

2. Reward yourself as you progress. Celebrate your little successes on the way. This will also bring you motivation to continue succeeding.

For instance, if you make the “true decision” to lose weight, you will naturally act on it by pushing the plate away. You’ll be able to do this by associating the action with the pleasure of being fitter and healthier. Each time you push the plate away, reward yourself with a non-edible treat like a telephone call to a supportive friend.

3. Join a community. Working together with others who share your goals and ideals will allow you to learn from their mistakes and successes. It can keep the fires burning and get you back on track if you go astray.

4. Befriend motivated people. Our friends are a powerful influence on our lives. Therefore, we must choose them with care. Make friends with those you admire and look up to. They’ll support you and encourage you on your quest for a better life. Plus, they’re likely to have the good habits of motivated people. Together you could move mountains!

5. Seek feedback. If you blog about your big and little successes, you’ll probably get lots of encouragement. Just writing the blog will help to keep you going. It will inspire others and, in turn, motivate you.

6. Relive past successes. If you study high achievers, you’ll notice that they have a positive self image. They focus on their past successes in order to make them happen again. You, too, can remember and visualize how good a past success made you feel. Do this every morning. Your brain will create new neural pathways and help you replicate this state of success.

7. Keep your target in sight. Keeping your target firmly in your mind will reflect in your body language. Focus on the pleasures and rewards in store and you’ll get more of what you focus on.

8. Be tenacious. Act towards the attainment of your target every day. Don’t let a day go by without taking action, even in a small way, to reach your goal.

9. Read inspirational material. Read inspirational stories about others who have achieved their goals against all odds. These could be well known people or ordinary people who have, as Robbins would put it, “awakened the giant within.” If you can’t manage the time to read, you could listen to motivational recordings while driving to work.

10. Visualize the outcomes repeatedly. Although this technique takes a bit of practice, it’s one of the most powerful ways to stay motivated. Visualize the outcome of your goals.

How does visualization work? The brain cannot tell something vividly imagined from reality. If you feed a vivid picture into your brain repeatedly, it will begin to manifest it as reality.

11. Have a goal. Motivation doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s always tied to a goal. Ensure you have clear goals.

12. Write down your goals. According to research, people who write down their goals are far more likely to remain motivated and achieve their goals than those who merely make mental lists. To ensure that you always remember your goals, you could write them down where you can readily see them.

For example, Melanie, whose goal is enlightenment, has written on the wall above her desk where she spends a large part of her day the four attitudes that will help her to get there: “Stillness, Cheerfulness, Humility, and Innocence.” She checks herself throughout the day against these criteria.

13. Give yourself a spiritual goal or noble cause. Give yourself a worthy cause such as donating money for cancer research or helping others better their lives. Seeing how you affect the lives of those less fortunate will keep you motivated. Your faith in your spiritual path will motivate you to act in the most positive ways to bring about your desired life.

For example, Melanie’s spiritual goal of enlightenment leads her to these positive actions:

• She’ll stay healthy so she can assist her spiritual mentors and community.
• Even in her profession as a writer, she will invariably spread the message of oneness and compassion.
• She is vegetarian because she does not want to cause suffering.
• She has given up cigarettes because she believes it will destroy not just her health, but also her wisdom.
• The generosity and unselfishness she portrays to her spiritual community reflects in her dealings with the world.

14. Be health conscious. Energy and good health help you stay motivated all day and every day. You should get enough sleep, eat healthily, and exercise regularly. Then taking action towards your goals every day will be much easier.

15. Know your “peak hours.” All of us have certain times of the day when we feel most energetic and creative. Find out your “peak hours.” Are you a morning, afternoon, or evening person? Once you know your most productive time, you can do the tasks that require the most energy during these periods.

16. Don’t look for perfection. Many a perfectionist gives up on a task before he’s even begun, because he’s afraid of not being able to do a perfect job. This can lead to procrastination. A good writer, for instance, accepts the fact that he will probably write several drafts before he perfects a piece of writing and he enjoys it as part of the writing process.

17. Do the harder task first. This can work really well. For example, if you have a bunch of articles to write, tackle the toughest first. After that, writing the rest will be easier and you can keep the motivation going.

18. Practice spiritual awareness. When you’re spiritually aware, you’ll do every little task with love and complete awareness, focusing on the task at hand. There will be nothing else in the world for you at the time. Just you and the task. There will be no future, no past, only the present. You’ll dwell completely in the moment.

So how will this awareness come about? It’ll be easy if you realize that every trivial task you do is meant for your spiritual evolution. You’ve encountered the task because it’s necessary for your growth. You can do the task with acceptance and appreciation. This positive belief is worth nurturing.

For instance, when Rita goes for her early morning walk, she’s intensely aware of the changes in her body and mind.

She notices the trees and flowers, the sky, and the houses she walks by. She isn’t thinking about what to cook for lunch or her new dress.

19. Use self-affirmation techniques. Self-affirmation, also known as auto-suggestion, is a technique for creating positive changes. It’s based on the belief that if you tell yourself something long enough, you’ll eventually believe it. Self-affirmations can help you create a new reality, attract the things you want, relax you, and make you healthier.

When you keep saying something to yourself, you declare it to your brain and the universe. Your brain thinks it’s real and the universe works to manifest it. This is a tried and tested NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique.

One popular, effective affirmation is “Everyday in every way I’m getting better and better.” This affirmation has even helped people heal from physical ailments. Note how it’s positive (focuses on what you do want rather than what you don’t want), personal (uses the word “I”), and in the present tense.

According to Anthony Robbins, our destiny is shaped in the very moment of decision making. A “true decision,” says Robbins, “entails a commitment to achievement.” He advises that no matter what happens, you should stick by these decisions and learn from them whether they work or not. If they don’t work, change your approach until they do. Be flexible and look for alternate routes.

Follow these strategies to make effective decisions that give you the commitment to take positive action toward the life you seek:

• Avoid making excuses. Excuses for not making decisions or not being able to reach your goals lets you blame your lethargy and aimlessness on the challenges you face in life. Too many others blame past events in their lives for their misery. Don’t let this be you!

• Seek ways to overcome your challenges and those de-motivating blame games will become a thing of the past. Taking action to overcome challenges gives you a new way to continue moving forward toward what’s important to you and it’s extremely motivating!

• Be clear about your decisions. For example, saying that you’d like to quit drinking alcohol is not a “true decision” because it doesn’t entail a commitment to achievement. When you make a true decision, you’ll decide that you’ll never drink alcohol again.

• A clear decision with a commitment to achievement makes you feel empowered and relieved.

How do you know that you’ve made a “true decision?” If action flows from your decision, you can be sure you’ve made a true decision. If it doesn’t, you haven’t really decided. Once you act on your decision, you’ll set into motion a new cause and effect cycle that will create your new life.

Make quick decisions and make many. Avoid spending ages agonizing over your decision. Instead, decide quickly or the fire in your belly will go out.

Keep making decisions and enjoy making them. You’ll be filled with energy and your life will be exciting.

Remember, every little decision you make can change the direction of your life the very moment you decide.

Affirmations are a great way to start your day. Closely related to self-affirmations are inspirational quotes. Someone else’s idea may resonate with your beliefs and inspire you to keep going, even when the chips are down. Sometimes these sayings can remind you of an important concept that motivates you to take action.

Here’s an inspiring quotation for every day of the week:

1. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

Chances are you know people who keep talking about the wonderful things they want to do, but never get around to doing. They’re just not motivated. It’s not enough to plan and dream. We must begin with action, even the smallest of actions. This will set the ball rolling and will eventually lead to that big goal. Woody Allen himself is so self-motivated that he finds the concept of awards “silly.” He says “I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don’t.” Winning the Oscar for Annie Hall didn’t mean anything to him.

2. “We will either find a way, or make one.” – Hannibal

These are the words of a highly self-motivated man feared by Rome for his military genius. And it all began when Hannibal was only nine years old. His father asked him to swear that he would fight their enemy, Rome, when he grew up. Hannibal remembered the promise he made his father and became one of the most brilliant military generals the world has ever seen.

What motivated Hannibal? Love for his father and love for his land, Carthage. Making a promise to someone is definitely one way to stay motivated!

3. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 700 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison had very little formal education and was a great believer in self-improvement. Whatever he knew was taught to him by his mother and his own efforts. When his first patented invention, an electric vote recorder, proved a commercial failure, he didn’t give up.

You could say that his mother was his motivator. Of her, he said in later years: “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint.

When he was twelve, he lost almost all his hearing, but rather than perceive it as a drawback, he felt it helped him to concentrate on his experiments. Then came the tin foil phonograph, which brought him international fame, followed by the incandescent light bulb which had taken him one and a half years to perfect.

When Edison was asked in an interview how it felt to fail 700 times in his attempts to create the light bulb, he answered: “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I’ll find the way that will.”

You too can learn from your mistakes. They’re not a waste of time as long as you use them to avoid further mistakes. Success comes by trial and error. Keep a journal of your progress. Write down what you did towards realizing your goal every day, even if it’s something small. Writing things down will bring clarity to your efforts.

4. “We are what we think. All that we are arises. With our thoughts, we make our world.” – The Buddha

You probably know that The Buddha is the ultimate example of self-motivation. As Prince Siddhartha Gautama, he spent the first 30 years of his life coddled and spoiled by his father. He was shielded from all negativity and saw only the beautiful. But he soon tired of pleasures and ventured out of the palace.

The suffering he encountered – old age, sickness and death, made him renounce everything. His goal was to find solutions to these inevitabilities of human existence. Imagine how tough life alone and impoverished would have been for one who had known no hardship! Yet he found what he was looking for and his insights continue to illuminate the minds and hearts of spiritual seekers across the world.

Every action is preceded by a thought. If it’s positive, it creates a positive reality; if negative, misfortune.

Every action creates a reaction. It’s up to you to create the reactions you desire. If you tell yourself you’re no good, or that you can’t achieve your goals, you’re not going to be a success. However, telling yourself how good you are and having faith in yourself can make you a hero.

5. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Sir Winston Churchill

As a child, Churchill was neglected by his parents and demeaned by other kids. The only affection he had came from his nurse, Mrs. Everest. This is the background which made him want to prove his worth to the world, and as a statesman, orator and journalist, he lives on.

As a successful person, you know that there’s always another hill to climb. Never rest on your laurels or get discouraged when obstacles turn up, for when you climb that hill, you discover rewards at the top.

6. “God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” – Mother Teresa

The suffering and poverty Mother Teresa encountered outside the walls of her convent in Calcutta prompted her to leave that secure place to work in the slums. She had no funds, but she had love and a fierce determination. So moving was her compassion, many people joined her in her efforts and the funds