Self Improvement – Why Bother?

If You Value Your Time – Take Time for What You Value

Does the question ever cross your mind as you run through your very busy days, “How could I possibly bother spending the time trying to improve myself when I’ve got so much to do?”

Does it seem as if your life is so full of just trying to get things done that the ideas of acquiring [tag-tec]self help skills[/tag-tec], enhancing your [tag-tec]spiritual growth[/tag-tec], or implementing a new [tag-tec]personal development plan[/tag-tec] seems almost impossible? And yet, is there also a gnawing question that lingers in your mind, “Is this all there is?” “Am I missing out on something even with all these things on my to-do list?”

If any of this sounds familiar, then the next time you’re confronted with the hectic pace of daily life, take a moment and find the time to “bother” with your [tag-tec]personal development[/tag-tec]. Gaining a clearer understanding of ourselves always adds value to our lives and can also increase our sense of significance and purpose in those daily activities.

Finding meaning in our lives starts when we begin investigating who we are and what is going on around us. We are the only one that can say for certain what is deeply important to us, so if we get so very busy that we don’t take the time to stop and look at our life, it may fill up with things that don’t give us the kinds of joy and meaning we truly want.

Is Your Cup Overflowing?

Here’s an old [tag-tec]Zen story[/tag-tec] that speaks to the truth of this:

A university teacher visited Nan-in, a Japanese master. The professor was interested in learning about the Zen philosophy. Nan-in served the professor tea. He poured tea in the professor’s cup until it was full. But he kept on pouring.

The professor watched the tea overflow his cup until he could no longer stop himself. “My cup is overflowing,” he said, “no more will go in!”

“Like this tea cup,” Nan-in replied, “you are full of your own ideas and opinions. How can you learn about Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

To learn anything new, you need some room for it in what you already know. With life’s crazy pace, every once and awhile it’s important to invest the time, energy and attention to let in new ideas and awareness.

That was Zen – This is Now

You can begin emptying your cup by examining what you believe and what you value.

  • Do some things just seem “right or wrong”, “good or bad”, or “appropriate or inappropriate”?
  • Are your [tag-tec]beliefs[/tag-tec] broader than the set of [tag-tec]cultural beliefs[/tag-tec] permeating our lives on an unconscious level?
  • Are you easily able to recognize which [tag-tec]beliefs[/tag-tec] are motivating your actions?
  • Do you know the values that are reflected in your [tag-tec]beliefs[/tag-tec]?
  • Are you able to recognize when your [tag-tec]beliefs[/tag-tec] are not accurately reflecting your [tag-tec]core values[/tag-tec]?

Unless you occasionally take the time to consciously empty your cup of beliefs that do not fit with your [tag-tec]core values[/tag-tec], it will fill up with various cultural beliefs that come to you from the outside, which become the unconscious motivations influencing the choices you make and how you live your life.

As you empty your cup, you begin to make room in your life for the question, “Are the beliefs I hold as the truth really my own beliefs?”

Another question to ask is, “Did I knowingly choose these beliefs as my own or did I simply take them on without question?”

You answer these questions by exploring whether your beliefs support what you really value, or if they are just beliefs you learned simply because they have been part of our culture for hundreds or thousands of years.

Bother to Be – Continue to Ask – and Be Willing to Listen

To understand more about how [tag-tec]cultural beliefs[/tag-tec] might be influencing you, look at the principles you live by and rules you follow. Or consider all those little adages you were told growing up such as, life is hard, it’s a dog eat dog world, only the strong survive, etc.

Explore these for yourself. Ask, “Do I truly believe these?”  Do these principles, rules or sayings really support me in living the life I desire, one that is a reflection of what I truly value?

Here are a set of questions you can ask yourself as you go through your day that will help you figure this out for yourself:

  • What do I really desire in this area of my life?
  • What would I like to experience right here and right now?
  • What motivates the action I’m about to take?
  • Is what I’m about to do going to get me the results I really want?
  • Is what I’m doing now really what want to do?

Take pause and remember that in the process of questioning, there are no hard and fast rules, no good or bad answer, no right or wrong beliefs. The purpose is to begin taking time for your [tag-tec]self-improvement[/tag-tec] and [tag-tec]spiritual development[/tag-tec], to experience the fact that this is worth “bothering” with.

An Empty Cup Allows Room to Grow

We trust that as you uncover your own [tag-tec]personal values[/tag-tec], start developing empowering new beliefs that reflect those values, and begin taking actions that are in alignment with them, your discomfort or dissatisfaction with the hectic pace of life with begin to diminish.

You’ll start clearly recognizing which of your daily activities reflect what you value and experience an increased sense of significance and purpose in these. You’ll also start easily pruning away the clutter in your life as you get more clarity about what is important you and what is not.

As your life becomes more meaningful, taking the time for [tag-tec]self-improvement[/tag-tec] will not only be worth bothering with, you will welcome it because you know you have plenty of room for it in your cup!

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Electrify Your Life

Tag: Personal Growth,Self Help MotivationBeth and Neill

Where Do You Focus Your Attention?

Do you have a habit of looking at everything and thinking things such as, “Is this situation safe?”, “Is this [tag-tec]relationship[/tag-tec] good for me?”, “Is it comfortable?”,  “Is this experience worthwhile?”, “Is it important?” “Is this object valuable?”… If so,

Have you ever thought of approaching every person, object or experience as if it were there just for you to appreciate?

And if you couldn’t find immediate appreciation for the value of this person, this object or this experience, what if you didn’t just stop there, but you go on to ask the ‘next question’,

“Why is it that I cannot find value in this person, object, situation or experience?”

Embark On Your Own Experience Quest

Going to the ‘next question’ commits you to a life where, as Caroline Myss says “You have to pause in your perception, observe, and consciously appreciate what you are seeing, doing, hearing, thinking, and speaking… Every moment of your life has value.”

To ‘be with’ an experience, feel the sensations of an experience, and allow the wisdom of an experience to come forth or to gain knowledge from an experience…. to really experience an experience, you need to embark each day on your own experience quest.

Be willing to ask the ‘next question’ and by doing so you’ll electrify all your moment to moment experiences and then that energy can’t help but power up your life!


Pollyanna or Truth You Decide

Believe It or Not?

According to one dictionary, the definition of Pollyanna is a person who is unreasonably or illogically optimistic.

We’ve all heard sayings like, look for the silver lining, turn lemons into lemonade, if at first you don’t succeed, and many many others, but how did these sayings get started? Was it unreasonable or illogical [tag-tec]optimism[/tag-tec], or did they arise out of universal truths.

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An Inspirational Video – 12 Things to Remember

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If it isn’t clear to you whether to put faith in such statements, one way to decide is to ask yourself, “which feels better?”

Would it feel better to focus your attention on hope and possibility, or not. Would you have more [tag-tec self help motivation]motivation[/tag-tec] to help yourself and those around you, or not.

Believe it or not, it’s up to you. What do you think?

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Self Help Tips to Keep Your Motivation High


What’s new in the area motivation?

Daniel Pink on the Surprising Science of Motivation

www.ted.com Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t — Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for some illuminating examples.

Self Help Motivation Challenges

Self [tag-tec]motivation[/tag-tec] can sometimes be challenging. Here are a few posts and a great picture we found surfing around the web.  We hope they’ll support you to stay motivated and create the life you truly want.

Motivational Self Improvement | Self Help to Calm Yourself and Be less Stressed

Being calm in life, and having mental and emotional calmness when you make important decisions, is a basic self help skill that we all need to master.

Spiritual Thinking & Tapping — Faster EFT

ETF to help you to live your dreams life.  Whether you’re looking for financial freedom, personal freedom,  self-esteem or •[tag-tec] self-help motivation[/tag-tec] tapping can help.

Don’t Miss These 7 Self Help Motivation – Personal Success Factors

Feed Your Brain! Success Factors for Self-Help Motivation and Personal Growth Development.

A Little Push

“The only person that can really push you that little bit further in life is yourself.”

Author: stephaniedan

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Mission Possible! Your job, if you choose to accept it. . .

[tag-tec]Success[/tag-tec] is an Inside Job

Have you ever heard thoughts rattling around in your head such as these?

  • “I’m not good enough to ____”
  • “They don’t really care about me”
  • “I just don’t have what it takes.”

This kind of thinking feeds on the belief that success in the world is measured by who’s doing what or getting what, and how we’re not measuring up. This thinking vibrates with an underlying sense of fear and unworthiness.

What if, every time you heard yourself thinking something like this, you asked yourself a question that radiated joy? Benjamin Zander describes these kinds of questions in his book, The Art of Possibility. They include questions like: “How can I contribute today?” and “What can I do in this situation to make a difference?”

Would You like to Make a Difference?

Try this on for a day. Instead of [tag-tec]judging yourself[/tag-tec] by what you believe to be other people’s standards, start your day believing that you are a gift just the way you are.

Now you might be asking yourself, “How could I make a difference? What could I do to contribute?”

If you find yourself entertaining these doubts, this story–also from The Art of Possibility–may speak well to them.

Strolling along the edge of the sea, a man catches sight of a young woman who appears to be engaged in a ritual dance. Drawing closer, he sees that the beach around her is littered with starfish cast up by a storm from the previous night. She is throwing them one by one back into the sea.

He lightly mocks her: “There are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. What difference can saving a few of them possibly make?”

Smiling, she bends down and once again picks up another starfish to toss back into the surf, saying serenely, “It certainly makes a difference to this one.”

Seeing the World through [tag-tec]Contribution[/tag-tec]-Colored Glasses

In a world seen through the lens of lack, limitation and fear, thoughts might easily focus on, “too many starfish, not good enough, not enough time, what did they ever do for me?” etc.

But as the story reveals, it’s not a matter of the “success or failure” of the rescue mission, or what proportion of the starfish survived or perished. Absent also are the familiar concerns with fairness, progress, or ability.

Instead, life is revealed as a place where you have something to contribute. Where there is always some small good you have to offer.

Listed under the category of Contribution on our Core Values List we include: Assist. Facilitate, Serve, Provide, Strengthen, and Improve.

Impossible to I’m Possible

Your Mission Possible, if you choose to accept it, is to define your success in terms of contribution, and to use that same lens to witness the actions of others, looking also for the contribution they are attempting to make through their actions. By doing so you redefine the meaning of success, and with this change will come a renewed sense of personal power.

This week start each day with the following questions:

How will I contribute today?

What form will my contribution take?

How can I recognize the contribution other people in my life make to me?

And remember, the shortest path to a happy life is found through conscious choice.

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