You Can Do Anything That You Want To Do

                                 "Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn´t  be able to fly,
                            but the bumble bee doesn´t know it so it goes on flying anyway."
                                                               - Mary kay Ash


Did you know that that according to the known laws of physics, the bumble bee shouldn´t be able to fly?

The bumble bee´s weight and wing area would not allow the bee to lift off the ground. The bee is to heavy and the wings are too light.

The good thing is that no one told the bumble bee that it can´t fly. So it keeps on flying

Often in life we will allow the world to define who we are.
We are told by our parents, siblings, teachers, friends, spouses, bosses and co-workers what we can do and what we can do.
Who we are, and who we are not. What we should do, and should not do.

If you have listened to the same thing over and over again..... that you are.....
too old/young to do something unique with your life, you don´t have the right education or no education, you are born in the wrong country or town, you don´t have enough money to start a business, you are a woman/man, you have no experience, you won´t amount to anything.....it is no wonder that we feel like our own wings won´t allow us to fly.
And we finally throw our hands up in the air and say.....I Can´t!

A lot of people feel like they are in a hopeless situation and that challenges have left them feeling that there is little hope for them to ever accomplish anything in life.

Don´t let the world or anyone convince you of who you are.
Sometimes we also allow too many voices from our past and also from our present to interfere with our dreams and our plans. Don´t allow these old recording to continue to play in your head. Create a few new recordings and start playing them in your mind.

You are the only person who knows who you truly are and what you are capable of doing and not doing. What works of you and what doesn´t work for you. What you want and don´t want.
Don´t allow other people´s limitations to limit you. Allow you own light to shine. Dare to be yourself. Dare to be different. Show the world the real you.
You are good enough and you can do it.

Take a chance on life.

You can fly.....just like the bumble bee can. Even thought you might sometimes feel like your wings are not strong enough to carry you.....you can fly.
Practice every day and your wings will get stronger. Fight for what you want. It won´t be given to you. You have to fight for it every day..... but it will be well worth it.

It is never too late to be who you were suppose to be.

It might not be easy at first, but anything important to you is worth fighting for.

Create a dream and a vision. Get a plan together and take action.

Live a life that you are proud of.

If you feel like you are not living the life that you want, I hope that you have the strength to start over again.

Ultimately we are responsible for what we are and what we want to become.

You can do anything that you want to do..... if you put your heart, mind and soul to it.

                                          Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                        www..karinglannstam.com

The World Is Changing - Are You?

                                     "A mind that has been stretched by a new experience
                                                can never go back to it´s old dimensions."
                                                     - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The more you are doing the same thing.....the more you will get..... of what you have already got.

In today´s world everything is changing so fast.

Are you also changing or are you doing the same thing over and over again?

Are you open for new ideas?

When was the last time you tried something new?

If you haven´t tried anything new lately? If the answer is no..... how can you know that there isn´t a better way of doing what you are doing right? You just haven´t found it yet.

Have you ever run into people that will say to you......."This have worked in the past, it is working now and we will continue to do it this way. We have always done it this way and we are not going to change now."
In other words they are not open for anything new.
It´s like doing the same thing over and over again.....expecting a different result.
If you are living with that attitude..... you will be left behind.

I remember back in 2013 when I was telling people that I was coaching my clients via phone or Skype, they looked at me and funny and said......"But how can you do that? Are you telling me that you don´t have an office?"

I told them how it worked and they had a hard time understanding, that it would work. No office to go to. No office for the clients to come to. They looked at me like I was a little on the crazy side.

Fast forward to today 2017....I think most people have gotten used to the idea, and they don´t think it is that strange anymore. You can talk to all kinds of professionals online and on the phone to get advice and tips.

We must learn to be more open to new ideas.  Don´t get me wrong.....I don´t think all new ideas are good. Some should be tossed straight into the garbage. But we must try to open our minds a little more often to ideas that might help us better our lives and to move us into the future more prepared.

One thing that I have notice with a lot of people is that they seldom ask any questions. I don´t understand why....because that is how you find out new things. I am so curious myself that I don´t get it when people don´t have any questions.

One theory is that people don´t want to ask question because they don´t want to appear stupid. We have to get over that. We can´t know everything and besides that asking questions is perfect for finding out.

I also believe that a lot of people are not curious. They are so wrapped up in their own little world and they only care about themselves.

So what can you do about this?

First is to become curious. Be curious about other people and what they do, their experiences and what they know. A lot of people are like treasure chests..... filled with years of wisdom, insight, knowledge and experiences.

Second is to ask. Don´t be shy.....ask questions. And a lot of them. People usually love to tell you about their lives and share what they know.

Third is to flood your mind. Read books, articles in the paper and online. Listen to seminars live or online. Join a new group.

Fourth is to be flexible. Have a mind that is open to new ideas, new ways of doing things. Try some new and different experiences. Shake things up a little. Get out of your comfort zone.

If you change nothing - Nothing will ever change

                                          Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach                 
                                                      www.karinglannstam.com

See Problems As Opportunities For Growth

                                                      "Complaining about a problem,
                                           without posing a solution is called whining."
                                                             - Theodore Roosevelt

When you encounter a problem, setback or obstacle in your life.....do you have a tendency to focus on the problem or do you quickly shift your focus onto trying to find a solution to the problem or obstacle?

I run into so many people that have had the same problem for months and sometimes years and they continue to focus on the problem without even trying to find a solution. They are stuck on complaining and discussing their problem day in and day out.

Why do so may people continue to behave this way?

I believe a lot of people like the attention they get when they are complaining and griping. Because complaining is infectious. They will attract like-minded people who also like to complain about similar things. Now ....you have a small group of people that are complaining together. Than after a while as they continue to talk, meet regularly and in between meetings, send text-messages to fuel their misery ...they will eventually attract an even larger group. Then to top it off, some people will even take to social media with their complaining, whining and their problems.....and now you have a large group of people following them.
Yes....a lot of people seek attention and the want followers on FB , Twitter and Instagram....but is this the kind of following you are looking for?
Will this solve any of your problems?

It doesn´t matter if you are complaining about your spouse, your children, your boss, the weather, politics or the economy....you will never find the solution by complaining and venting your frustrations on social media or anywhere.
So my next question is....do you really want to solve the problem? or do you just like to complain?

I have come to realize that change is very difficult. Most of us really hate change. And the change we hate the most is..... trying to change ourselves for the better.
Complaining and focusing on your problems without trying to find a solution is really just a bad habit that you formed years ago.
And as we know any habit can be broken.....but YOU have to be willing to do the work yourself.

And here is where the biggest problem comes in. We don´t mind things "out there" to change. We gladly want our spouse to change, or the boss or the economy. But when it comes to changing ourselves.....most people are not interested.
They want other people to change. They are often not willing to change themselves and they are not interested in trying to look for a solution. Simply they have become so used to complaining all the time that they don´t even notice it anymore.

Maybe if you are having problems with you spouse you might need to start a conversation with him/her to let them know that you are unhappy and see if there is something that you both can work on. If the other person isn´t willing to do the work, then maybe it is time to call it quits because you have outgrown the relationship and you don´t have anything in common any longer. You both have changed. But spending your time talking bad about your spouse will not solve anything. All you do is wasting your valuable time.
You can never make someone else change....but you can change yourself.

A lot of people complain about their job and about their boss. What are you trying to solve with constantly focusing on the problem and discussing it with everyone that is willing to listen? You will not accomplishing anything but feeling bad about your situation. Maybe you have outgrown your current job and you are bored out of your mind? Maybe it is a new job opportunity that you are looking for? but instead of going out of your comfort zone trying to find a new job....you settle for complaining and griping. Think how much time you are wasting on focusing on the problem instead of trying to find a solution.....or maybe a new job?

I truly believe that we all want to grow. We want to learn new things but sometimes we are too scared to act on anything new. So instead we remain stuck where we are and we find some people that also are feeling stuck and unhappy to complain with. Because you would never find a growth oriented, busy and happy person hanging out with a lot of complainers. They simply don´t have the time because they are busy producing, living their lives, growing, learning and expanding.

I also believe that every problem or obstacle that we encounter is an opportunity for growth. I think it has a message within it. It is here to wake us up and to move things and people out of our way that don´t belong in our lives any longer and that are not part of our destiny.

Stop fighting these things. The Universe is trying to move things out of the way that are blocking your happiness and purpose....But you keep hanging on to it. WHY?

How can you go to the next level when you are hanging on to old stuff? Let it go and start moving.
You can not be taken forward by leaving everything the way it is.

But first you have to make a commitment to yourself to stop complaining and start looking around for the solution. It will come to you.....if you are willing to look and if you are willing to change when you discover the solution to your problem, obstacle or setback.

                                               
                                             Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                            www.karinglannstam.com

Why Going To Sleep With The TV On....Is a Bad Idea

                                                         "Your mind is a garden.
                                                       Your thoughts are the seeds.
                                         You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds."
                                                                    - Ritu Ghatourey

The other day I was scrolling through the feed on FB and I came across a question that someone had posted for anyone to leave a comment on.
The question was.....
Do you allow a TV in the bedroom and do you leave it on while you go to sleep?

Some people answered that they always leave the TV on while they go to sleep. Some said that they set a timer so if they fell asleep the TV would go off by itself. Someone said that they won´t allow a TV in their bedroom.

Today I want to write about why it is a really bad idea to leave your TV on after you fall asleep.

I believe most of you know that we have a conscious and a subconscious mind. They are responsible for totally different things.

The conscious mind is the part of the mind that is thinking, planning, calculating and it is responsible for the reasoning. The conscious mind can accept and reject anything. If you don´t like something or disagree with something..... it will simply reject it.
On the other hand it can accept anything that you like and that aligns with what you feel and believe is true.

Think of the conscious mind as the gate-keeper of the subconscious mind. Before you are going to allow anything to enter the subconscious mind, it has to get passed the gate-keeper.

The subconscious mind has a perfect memory. It will remember anything that you have ever smelled, heard, seen, tasted, touched, thought and felt. All this information has been stored in your subconscious mind. Think of  the subconscious mind like a giant filing-cabinet. Information will always be there for you to refer back to.
When something happens you can just go back to the filing-cabinet and pull the information back out.

The subconscious mind is always awake and responsive. 24 hours per day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. It never sleeps. It accepts without question anything. Good or bad.....it goes to the subconscious to be filed forever. The subconscious accepts a command or instruction without analyzing it and it doesn´t reject it either. It has unlimited power potential and it also has unlimited storage capacity.
The subconscious mind is estimated to be about 30 000 times more powerful than the conscious mind.

Since the subconscious mind will accept anything and everything that we feed it and it has a perfect memory it becomes extremely important that we feed it the right stuff. We must stand guard (be the gate-keeper) at the door of our own mind.
If we allow our minds to be wide open to everything it can be very detrimental to us.

This is the reason why we should not leave the TV or radio on after we have fallen asleep.
Anything that is being said can slip right on by the conscious mind and the sleeping gate-keeper and it will go strait back to the subconscious to be filed. The thing is..... you don´t even know what information and ideas that just slipped by.....do you?
If you had been awake you might have rejected them, but since you are now sleeping and the gate-keeper is also sleeping..... anything and everything will pass through the gate.

You are asleep together with the gate-keeper..... but your subconscious mind is wide awake and ready to take in anything that you are feeding it from a TV or a radio.

Do you know what kind of information and ideas that is being given to you by the TV or radio while you are sleeping?
Remember..... good or bad..... the subconscious mind will accept it as true and it will file it away for later references.

It isn´t smart to turn our minds over to just anyone or anything.
Don´t let anyone just dump a lot of ideas and information into your mind, because you are the one that gets to live with the consequences of it.

Guard your mind. Be the gate-keeper.
And when you are tired and sleeping..... make sure that it is quiet around you

                                       Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                    www.karinglannstam.com
                                                  

Time To Re-Charge My Batteries

It is time to take a break for a few week to re-charge my batteries.
During my break I will not be writing any new blogs and I will be spending limited time on social media.
I will return again on May 22nd.

Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

www.karinglannstam.com

What Is Self-Esteem? What is Self-Confidence?

                                          "Low self-esteem is like driving through life
                                                      with you hand-break on."
                                                           - Maxwell Maltz

We hear the word self-esteem a lot and also the word self-confidence.....but do you know that they actually mean and what the difference is between the two?

Self-esteem is how we generally feel about ourselves. How much we like or love ourselves. It is also the overall image that we have about ourselves. Positive or negative it doesn´t matter.
Our self-esteem is shaped my our parents, siblings, teachers, friends, our experiences and also our environment that we grew up in and also our community.
Self-esteem is to truly feel comfortable in you own skin and if everyone doesn´t like you, it is OK with you.

A couple of tips!

Get to know yourself. Understand what you like and what you don´t like and why.
Set goals and achieve what you want.
Don´t be afraid to ask for help.
Stand up for your beliefs and your values.
Take responsibility for your own actions.
Take good care of yourself.

How would your life improve if your self-esteem improved?



                                "When you have self-confidence, you have a lot of fun.
                                  And when you have fun you can do amazing things."
                                                             - Joe Namath

Self-confidence is how we show up in the world. How we feel about our abilities and also how capable we see ourselves of doing certain things.
It is also how we feel that we can handle different situations.

A great tip!

One of the best ways to gain confidence is to do something you are afraid to do.
Get a record of successful experience behind you. Start stacking one success on top of the other.

It is not who you are that will hold you back. It is who you think you are not.

If you don´t see how great you are, how can you expect anyone else to see it?

                                       Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

                                                   www.karinglannstam.com

Your Destiny Is Not Determined By Your Critics

                                         "There is only one way to avoid criticism:
                                                              do nothing
                                                              say nothing
                                                          and be nothing."
                                                             - Aristotle

Everyone will encounter criticism sometime in their lives. Sometimes we will be criticized fairly but most often unfairly. Certainly constructive criticism can be helpful.

Unwanted criticism is most often based on jealousy and we must always remember that such criticism is more a reflection of the critic than of the person being criticized.
Instead of being happy for you some people will criticize you because you have something that they want. What they don´t realize is that they can also have what you have got.
A lot of times criticism comes from a competitive spirit. Some people try to cover up their own insecurities by being critical or cynical towards others.
Unfortunately not everybody will celebrate your victories with you and the more successful you become, the more criticism you will encounter.

Here are a couple of tips on how to handle criticism.

Never take it personally.
It is never about you. If the critic is not tearing you apart they will try to tear someone else apart. That is just simply what they do. There is something on the inside of the critic that will make them lash out, and unless they deal with it, it will prevent them from rising higher.
Haters will always hate.

Don´t start thinking that you will get even.
Don´t try to pay them back for spreading untruths about you. Never dwell on what the critics are saying about you and don´t let it upset you and never become revengeful. Never sink down to their level and don´t become defensive and try to prove that you are right and that your critic is wrong. Don´t allow them to stress you out.
Just shake it of and keep on moving forward.

Stay focused on your dream and your goals.
You don´t have time to sit around and talk about all the people that don´t like you. Time is valuable and don´t waste it trying to please everybody. You don´t have time to explain yourself and your dream, and you can´t win over your critics. Not everyone will be excited about your dream and not everybody will understand
Stay focused on your goals and don´t waste your precious energy on others. People will judge you no matter what you are doing.
It is not your job to convince others to change their mind.
Your gift and your purpose is to inspire, motivate, encourage and challenge people.

If you are making a difference in the world you will always have you share of critics.
Just remember that the higher you go, the more visible of a target you will be and the more critics will want to take a shot at you.
Don´t allow some narrow minded people discourage you from taking it all the way to the top.
Don´t change yourself or your dream. Move forward and shake it off.

Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

www.karinglannstam.com

Life Is Defined By The Choices You Make

                                         "I am NOT a product of my circumstances.
                                                 I am a product of my decisions."
                                                           - Stephen Covey


At any given moment of your life you have two choices.
You can either step into growth and expansion, or you can step back into safety and status quo.

If you want to understand what you are doing on a daily basis I suggest that you start paying attention to your own behavior.
Become aware of the decisions that you make in every moment of your life.

Did you follow through on your promise today to go walking or running (growth)? or did you just say "heck with it, I´ll do it tomorrow instead (back into safety)."

Did you decide to save 100 dollars per month (growth)? or did you decide to blow the money on a new pair of jeans? (safety).

The decisions that you make every day are very important.
Are you going to continue with the same old pattern that will make you remain in the comfort zone? Or start to make some new decisions that will empower you and make you stretch and expand?
It is totally up to you.

Do you want to be a slave to you past or a pioneer of the future?

First you have to become aware.
Become conscious of who you are, the decisions you make, how you are presenting yourself, how you are expressing yourself and what you are actually doing.

Your destiny and your future is shaped by the decisions that you are making today.
Make sure that you are making empowering decisions that will lead to growth.

Choose wisely. Choose to step forward.

                                

                                     

                                               Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                             www.karinglannstam.com

Does Achieving Your Goals Make You Happy.....Or Not?

                             "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important
                                     as who you become by achieving your goals."
                                                            - Zig Ziglar


Do you feel happy after you have reached your goals?

What kind of goals are you choosing to pursue?

Studies show that pursuing wealth, power, popularity, fame or validation (extrinsic goals) only leads to fleeting happiness..... if you succeed.
Unfortunately when you pursue these kind of goals you are always going to want more and more and more and you will never end up feeling happy or filled up.
This is exactly why so many "rich" or "famous" people look and are miserable.

Instead choose goals that will create connection with others. Goals that will make you grow, learn and expand. Doing things that feels authentic to you.
Goals that represent who you truly are deep inside..... are the kind of goals that will make you feel and experience lasting happiness.
Actually you will feel it on the journey to reaching your goal too.

It is not reaching your goals that will make you happy. It is the person you become in the process of reaching your dream.

                                           Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

                                                       www.karinglannstam.com

Out With The Old - Make Room For The New

                               That broken thing you keep trying to put back together
                   can´t even compare with the beautiful thing that´s waiting to be built.

Have you allowed stagnation to take over your life? Maybe it is time to de-clutter your life?

Stagnation can take many forms and in order to eliminate it from our lives we must be firm and efficient about it.
This can sometimes be challenging because we may have an emotional attachement to it.

Lets take physical clutter a example. You might have attachement to some of your things or some of your clutter. By getting rid of some of your clutter you are clearing out the old to make room for something new and better. Donate old clothing and possessions that you are no longer using. Let someone else enjoy your used things. Clean and organize your surroundings as much as possible. Put things away after using them.
Do you have a lot of physical clutter in your home, work place or your car?

Sometimes it might also be time to de-clutter your personal/business relationships. Are you clinging to relationships that you outgrew years ago? Are people around you being negative, always complaining, gossiping and in general just griping about their lives? Maybe it is time to stop spending as much time with these people?
Remember you are trying to create some room for something better to show up.

How about your finances, are they out of balance? Are you credit cards maxed out? Do you have a lot of past-due bills tucked away in a drawer somewhere?
Time to take charge of your financial situation. It might seem overwhelming in the beginning but start by creating a plan. Set up payment plans with creditors, start a savings account, create a budget and stick to it.
These small steps are going to give you peace of mind and greater prosperity.

Are you stuck in self-defeating habits and activities? Start by creating a plan to resolve anything that makes you feel unhappy, dissatisfies, frustrated or empty on the inside.

If you have clutter in your life, it will block you from creating what you really want. It can also result in clouded thinking, negativity, loss of energy and depression.

And the really sad thing is that clutter and disharmony will block prosperity from entering your life.

Start today by removing anything that is blocking the flow of prosperity into your life.
Release the old to make way for the new.

                                     Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

                                                       www.karinglannstam.com

You Can Have Anything In Life - If You Do This!

                                    "Big achievements come one small advantage at a time,
                                                          one step at a time,
                                                      ONE DAY AT A TIME."


Today I want to share a big secret with you.
It is the secret to be able to accomplish anything in your life worth doing.

Most people have run into this secret many times, and I believe you have as well. But a lot of people don´t know that they have encountered this secret because they don´t recognize it.
Most of the time they have been looking for something bigger and something more flashy.

I have also missed this secret many times. I didn´t recognize that it was a truly fantastic thing. The secret was always available to me....all the time, but I just didn´t recognize how important it was.
But I do now.

So what is this secret that I am talking about?
Small daily habits. Or another word for these habits might be "Investments Habits."

The only way to get the life you want is to make small investments in your dream on a daily base.
It doesn´t matter what you are trying to accomplish. If it is a new career, losing weight, financial freedom or a wonderful relationship.....to get it..... you must invest each and every day towards it.

Your future is not determined by luck, flashes of brilliance or who you know. It is determined by YOU. In other words it is determined by your willingness to create small habits and then actually following these habits on a daily base until you accomplish your dream. No one can perform these habits for you. You have to actually do them yourself.

Most people won´t recognize your new habits and most of the time you will never be rewarded for them. Never develop these habits for anyone but yourself. If you don´t develop them for yourself , they will never stick around.

Nothing much will happen in the beginning. Not in the first weeks and maybe not even in the first months. Sometimes it can take years. But eventually you will wake up one day and discover that your life has been transformed.
Most people are not interested in hearing about this secret, but that doesn´t matter. What matters is that you know about this secret and how powerful it is.

Question number one.....What do you want?
So first you must decide what you want. Once you know what you want then is gets a lot easier to decide what to do next.
Humans are hardwired to go after what they want but unfortunately most people don´t know what they want.

Question number two.....Will the habits that you have today support your journey in reaching your dream.....or do you need to create a few daily habits to be able to accomplish your dream?

If you really want what you say that you want....the habits are not going to be an issue. Small daily and usually pretty simple habits will usually get you there.
Small investments habits, performed daily and over a long enough period of time, can accomplish anything.

If you don´t think that these small habits have any power I suggest you check it out for yourself. I am here to tell you that there are more power in these habits than it appears.

If you want to become the best version of yourself.....then you have to do what most people are not willing to do. Commit to small daily habits.....until you get to where you want to go.

Do it for YOU and do it because you want your DREAM.

                                     Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                  www.karinglannstam.com

Your Focus Determines Your Reality

                                        "When things feel like they're not working out,
                                                   focus on what is working right."
                                                          - Karen Salmansohn

Do you feel like the world is out of control?

Do you feel like everywhere you look there is always something to make you upset, worried and anxious?

Are a lot of the people around you always complaining, gossiping, arguing and talking about what is wrong and what isn't working?

What is wrong in this world is always available .....but so is what is right and what is working in this world.

It comes down to what you decide to focus on at the moment. What is wrong or what is right.

I also feel worried about all the things going on in the world right now. But at the same time, if I allow it consume me, I will feel like my life is out of control all the time and that there is nothing I can do to change it. Not a good way to live.

So what can we do on a daily base to feel better about everything..... including ourselves?

First we can start with what we choose to focus on most of them time.
This is something that is under your control.

Do we need to constantly watch the news? No we don't. You can choose to disconnect from the news. Do we need to hang out with negative friends, family-members and co-workers that are always complaining, griping and looking for reasons to remain unhappy? No we don't.

Here are three things that you can control

1. What you decide to focus on most of the time.
Learn to focus on what you can control in your life instead of what you can't. You can't control what is going on in the world. You can't control other people and what they say. But what you can control is how you react. You can also control who you spend your time with, and what you spend your time doing. Are you taking any type of action or do you remain on the couch?
Choose to focus most of you time on positive things, and what is working right now.

2. Focus on what you already have in your life.
A lot of people are constantly focusing on what is missing and what they don't have. And only when they get IT, only then will they be happy.
Be grateful for what you do have and what is already working in your life. By shifting your focus..... more things to be grateful for will eventually show up in your life.

3. Start to focus more on the present and the future.
Most people live their lives stuck in the past. We must learn from our past, but we should never live there. He/she did this to me! My parents neglected me or abused me! My teachers didn't care!
You have no control over the past. What is done..... is done.
Learn to move on.

Ask Yourself.....

What can I control?
What is possible for me?
What is in the future?
What can I do today to make things happen?

 

Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

www.karinglannstam.com

Everyone Has A Purpose In Life

                                          "Everyone has a purpose in life.....
                               a unique gift or special talent to give to others."
                                                      - Deepak Chopra


Discover your own uniqueness and then discipline yourself to develop it.

You are blessed with a unique set of skills and talents.

Prioritize time to cultivate your talents on a regular base.

The only limitations on your dreams and your gifts are those you impose on yourself.

You have gifts and talents that the world need you to express.

Find your unique gifts, refine them and then let them carry you toward success.

                                            Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                      www.karinglannstam.com

8 Tactics To Tame Your Stress

                                             "A man of calm is like a shade tree.
                                            People who need shelter come to it."
                                                             - Toba Beta


We all know that stress can wreak havoc in our lives. It will take its toll on our physical as well as our mental health. Moderate levels of stress is harmless but when stress is prolonged it will start to damage our health and our wellbeing. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain's ability to develop new cells. So it is very important to be able to keep stress under control.

As the human brain has evolved we have also developed the ability to worry and we also end up rehashing events over and over in our minds, which will create frequent experiences of prolonged stress. It has also increased the risk of heart disease, depression, anxiety and obesity. Stress will also decrease our cognitive performance.
The good thing is that most of our stress is under our control.

Here are a few coping strategies that you can use under stressful situations.

1. Learn to breathe.
One of the easiest ways to reduce stress is to breathe. When you feel stressed take a few minutes to focus entirely on your breathing. Put away distractions and just sit and breathe. The goal is to be able to spend time focusing only on your breathing while you are trying to prevent your mind from wandering. This will take a little practice in the beginning. But after a while you will be able to breathe and be in the moment.

2. Appreciate what you have.
Take time to recognize and reflect on what you are grateful for in your life. Being grateful for what you already have improves your mood. People who work daily to cultivate and "attitude of gratitude" experience improved mood, energy and physical wellbeing. Maybe it is time to start a "gratitude journal?"

3. Get Support.
Sometimes the best and the easiest thing is to talk to a trusted friend, mentor or coach. These people are not part of the problem and they can see a new perspective and a solution to the situation. But first you must recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it.

4. Stay positive.
Having positive thoughts will help you managing your stress. And yes....we are in control of our thoughts. It might be something that you haven't worked on in while but we can train ourselves to have more positive thoughts. It is easy to have good thoughts when things go well. But when things go poorly and your mind is flooded with negativity it might be a little more difficult to control our thoughts. Think about something positive that happened yesterday or last week. Or maybe think about an event in the future that you are looking forward to. Spend time on creating some new exciting goals and then spend time thinking about how to accomplish them.

5. Get enough sleep.
When you sleep your brain recharges and it shuffles through the day's memories and stores and discards them, so that you can wake up clear headed, and ready to go the next morning. Our attention, self-control and memory are all reduced when we don't get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation also raises stress hormones on its own without a stressor present. Making sure that you are getting a good night's sleep is one of the best things you can do for your body and your health.

6. Disconnect.
When you make yourself available 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant stream of stressors. Try to disconnect. Stay off-line and turn off your phone sometimes will give your body a break from a constant source of stress. Staying in constant contact will increase your stress levels. It is very difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email or a phone call will change your thought and get you thinking about work. Try to choose blocks of time to go off-line. Maybe in the evenings or if that is not possible you can try the weekends. These breaks will make you feel mentally refreshed and it will reduce your stress.

7. Stop asking why? and what if?
These questions will only fuel your worry and your stress. Stop worrying about all the things that can go wrong and start to focus on what is possible and what will work. Then take action on what the solutions are. Learn to focus on the solutions instead of focusing on the problems.

8. Stop negative self-talk.
Stop negative thoughts and self-talk dead in its tracks. The more you focus on your negative thoughts the more energy and power you give them. Our own thoughts can make us feel good but our thoughts can also make ourselves feel really crappy. We have around 50 000 thought per day and most of them are negative. But most of our thoughts are just thoughts and not facts and the truth. Try to identify your thoughts. Write them down on a piece of paper and then go over them. Identify and then separate the negative thoughts from the facts, will help you escape your "inner critic" and cope with your stress.

Some of these strategies seem simple and obvious.
But the challenge is to actually use them when you are starting to feel overwhelmed and stressed.

                                      Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                    www.karinglannstam.com

Never Leave Your House Without Wearing This!

Do you know what the prettiest thing is that you can wear?

You can actually wear it every day.

You are never fully dressed without it.

All people have it and it looks great on everyone.

A lot of people seldom wear it and some people have unfortunately forgotten how to wear it.

It makes you happy when you wear it and it also makes other people around you happy when you wear it.

It costs nothing. It's FREE

Still don't know what it is?

Your smile.

Your smile is the pretties thing that you can ever wear.

                                  "A smile is happiness you'll find right under your nose."
                                                           - Tom Wilson

Our facial muscles are most unemployed muscles of our entire body. Unfortunately a lot of people have flabby smile-muscles. They need a good workout.

Smiling is also infectious - you can catch it the same way you catch a cold.

The effect of a smile - A  general feeling of wellbeing. It triggers happy emotions within you and it makes the people around you feel better two.

Never underestimate the value a smile brings. It is a universal language and it is standard equipment for all people.

Make sure you never leave your house in the morning without a smile. And make sure that you also bring some home with you.

I hope that you will always find a reason to smile.

                                         Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                     www.karinglannstam.com

We Must Pay The Price For Life's Rewards

                                      "It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards
                                         without being willing to pay the true price.
                                           It is always our choice whether or not
                                        we wish to pay the price for life's rewards."
                                                               - Epictetus


As human beings we all have the power of choice in our lives. We can control our future, months, weeks, days, to take the right action every day that will move us one step closer to our goals.

One important thing though.....we must make the right choices that will move us along on our path to success. We can never allow anyone else to choose for us.
You and I must decide for ourselves.

The sooner you realize that your success is your own personal responsibility and to rely mostly on yourself, the sooner you will be free.
Remember .....you can change anything right now in your life, that you don't like.

No one is going to things for us. We choose our behaviors, our values, our habits, our friends, our reference group and our attitudes. We can choose the easy way out.....or the hard way in.

Your life is your choice.

Are you doing the best you can with your given gifts?

Are you creating the life and the legacy that you have the potential to do?

Are you listening to the right voices? And reading the right books?

Are you choosing safety, security and mediocrity instead of venturing out in the unknown and discover what you are actually capable of doing?

Have you accepted the status quo?

Are you choosing the right friends and reference group?

Will you go through life accepting that you can't change anything and being part of the masses striving for living in their comfort zones?

Are you asking enough questions? You will learn by asking new questions.

Starting today it is time to choose yourself.

Choose to discover the truth.

Choose yourself over others.

Choose personal responsibility.

Choose to always do your best.

Choose to do more. To try more new things.

Choose to overcome the obstacles in your life instead of allowing them to stop you dead in your track.

Choose to start.....right now.

Choose to take action.

Because it is up you.....and you alone.....to do the work.

We must all pay the price for life's rewards.

 

Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

www.karinglannstam.com

Never Settle In A Setback - Keep On Going!

                                                             "Never settle.
                                 Fight for Life, the Career, the Dreams, the Love
                                                           that you deserve."
                                                             - Mandy Hale


When we are kids or a little younger we believe that anything is possible.
There were never any limits to what we thought we could do or who we wanted to be. Back then we would always dream big dreams.
Then something happens to us. Life takes over and we forget about our dreams, who we wanted to become and all the things that we wanted to accomplish.

Life almost happen for us. Our dream almost happened for us. We almost lost the weight, We almost got our dream job, We almost married the man/woman of our dreams. We have now gotten stuck in an "almost life" and a lot of times..... a very small world. The problem is that we were never created or meant to live a small life or an "almost life." There is not a ceiling on how far we can go. There are never any ceilings in life.

Back to being a kid. Kids are by nature very curious. They can ask a thousand questions. And when they are through asking those thousand questions they have another thousand to ask. Kids are curious and the spend their time in a discovery zone. Very different than a comfort zone, where most of us spend our adult lives. I bet when you were a kid you were very curious and you constantly wanted to learn and discover new things? What happened?

Challenges and problems started coming. They just keep on coming like giant waves of the ocean. If a problem only shoved up maybe every five years.....we would be OK. But not every year and not all the time. It seems like challenges and problems show up all the time. One after another one shows up. It is like being hit by one giant wave and then another and then yet another and then finally the wind is completely knocked out of you. Ever been thru this?

I guess most of you know my own story by now?  In 2012 this is exactly what happened to me. First my mom died - big wave and I barely got up. Then three months later I left an abuse relationship - another big wave. I barely got up. Then two days later I moved back to Sweden after living 25 years in the US - another big wave. All of these waves coming so close together finally knocked me down. I was hit over and over again to the point that I could no longer stand up. I felt like I had been in a severe car-wreck and then I was living on life-support for several months. Time Out!!!
Finally I got back up and here I am stranding five years later.

Disappointments, setbacks and problems can make you feel heartbroken and discouraged and it feels like the wind has been knocked out of you. You feel sick to your heart and that is not good, because happiness, love, joy and peace also comes from the heart.

A lot of people will have setbacks in their lives. It can be a death of a loved one, job loss, financial loss, divorce or a physical setback like an illness. When most people experience a setback it is a natural thing to take a step back. A setback and then a step back. But after a few setbacks and stepping back too many times you will find yourself so far away from the real you and you might decide to sit and stay in your setback.

It is OK to step back for a week, month or a year. But five years? or even ten years?
Unfortunately some people will settle in their setback. "You don't know the hell I have been through!".....Come On.....we all have been through hell at some point or another in our lives. Setbacks and problems happens to all of us. If you are going through hell right now.....keep on going. Don't stay there and don't start living there. Don't sit and Don't settle.

Sometimes life will knock the sh*t out of you and then a lot of people will settle and feel sorry for themselves. You nurse your wounds and then you tell everybody you know about your wounds and sometimes you will even tell people on the street (people that you don't know)..... you sad story. In other words you have made a habit of rehearsing your story constantly.

You can't stay stuck. You must keep on moving. Make yourself feel alive again - even if you are not always in the mood. You must get you groove back. Some people have cemented themselves in a setback. Constantly telling everyone their sad story. "I would have had a good life if it hadn't been for my terrible childhood" or I would have had a great life it would not have been for my first husband who constantly put me down." Stop sitting, stop settling and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Knowing that while you are feeling the pain of your setback..... the Universe as already planning and preparing your comeback. Believe that your comeback is on its way. Remember that a comeback is never a goback. You can never go back and try to fix things. That is already in the past and you must forget about it. You learn from it but you must never dwell on it. You can never go back and try to fix people and situations. Let it go so you can open yourself to all the new things that are planned and that are about to happen for you. Get inspired about your life..... it is about to become incredible!

If you have ever had surgery or maybe been in an accident you will end up in the hospital. When the crisis is over they will move you to the recovery room. Same thing in life. You had a setback and it feels a little like being in a car wreck. It takes a little while for your head to clear. After your head has cleared you will be moved to recovery. The thing is.....you can't stay in recovery for the rest of your life. Recovery is only when we are being healed from something. As we are healing from something we must also be in the discovery zone. If you are being healed from an illness you must learn everything about it so it won't happen again. Or if you are recovering from a financial setback, study and learn, so it won't happen again. It doesn't matter what your setback is.....as you recover you must at the same time discover. Even though you are being healed you must learn to live a life fully present, fully feeling and also fully alive.

I remember back in 2012 I was learning a lot about narcissistic abuse. I wanted to learn as much as possible so I did not have to ever experience that kind of pain ever in my life again. At the same time I wanted to learn about myself and how my brain works and why we do the things we do as human beings. I have been studying psychology, myself and personal development ever since.
If we are feeling sorry for ourselves we cannot be a change agent for someone else.

Why did I become a life coach?..... Why do I now write books?..... Why do I write weekly newsletters and blogs?..... and why do I care?
Because I have been through my own hell, my own pain and confusion and I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I went through. I can't leave people in their hell and their pain and their confusion.
We all go through stuff in our lives but the good thing is that what I have been through has not left me bitter - It left me better.

Never settle in a setback - Keep on Going. It is time to pump up the volume of your life.
Get ready for your comeback!

 

Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach

www.karinglannstam.com