The Importance Of Being Fully Present

                                                    "If you chase two rabbits,
                                                                  BOTH will escape"

Don't allow anything to capture your attention unless it is in the best interest of the task at hand.

Concentration will keep out clutter, noise and other distraction that will keep you from completing your task.
Wherever you are... be there!

Learn to concentrate on what you are suppose to be doing for the moment. You can't be thinking of everything you need to be doing... all the time. 

It is exhausting and it will lead to burn out.

You must learn to concentrate on just one thing at a time. 

A project, a job... you must take it one task at a time until you complete it.

Can you imagine if you were a mountain climber and you lost your concentration for a second... you could fall and die. 

How about a tennis player... if you lost your concentration for a second or two.... you might loose the game.

There is no such thing as multi-tasking. 

It is called task-switching and it will only slow you down.
Your brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time. 

So do what you have set out to do. 

Keep your mind on that one task.

Why?
Because if you don't, you won't be able to accomplish anything.

It takes a lot of discipline to not answer the phone while you are in the middle of doing a task. Or checking your emails and social media. 

It will take a lot of discipline to keep the "do not disturb" sign up when you are working on a project.
Concentration takes a lot of discipline.

Concentrate on the work a hand and demand of yourself the discipline of staying focused.

Just remember when you are at work...WORK!

When you at home with family or with your friends... BE THERE!

"Learn to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important thing 

  that you can be doing at any time."

 - Brian Tracy 

                                                                www.karinglannstam.com

Activate Your Personal Power

                              Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: 

                                            the future can be better than the present, 

                                                   and I have the power to make it so.

The source of personal power starts with YOU.

When you are in better shape physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually you are more capable of negotiating more effectively. You make better decisions. Your creativity flows. You are a better manager when it comes to people around you. Your relationships improve.

Changing yourself is the first step in changing your relationships - both at work and your intimate relationships.
It starts with YOU.

Taking action is a way of building more personal power in your life.
Any muscle that you don't exercise on a daily basis will eventually get weaker. Same thing with taking action... it is also a muscle. Have you used it lately?
The way to build a muscle is to start small and then build daily.

Today I have a very simple exercise that you can do to immediately increase the quality of your life.  You will feel good and your self-esteem will soar... because you actually followed through.

Right now think of two actions that you have been putting off for a while.
Two things that you should do. Two things you need to do but you are constantly putting them off.

Maybe it's making a phone call or two
Starting a blog
Quit smoking or drinking
Saying NO
Re-connect with a friend or family-member
Losing weight
Limit certain foods in your diet
Asking for a raise
Change job
Saving money

Pick two actions that would immediately change the quality of your life.

What are those two action?
Decide and commit to follow through. This is it!!!

There is tremendous power in making a decision and then immediately follow through on your decision.

You can start with something small - then build.

- Write down the two decisions that you made.
- Take action on them immediately - RIGHT NOW!

Don't put it off another minute. Do whatever it takes. There is power in momentum. Don't wait or delay.

Decision - Commitment to follow through - This will create PERSONAL POWER.

Go For It!!!

If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

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Allow Your Light To Shine

                                            "The meaning of life is to find your gifts. 

                                                 The purpose of life is to give it away." 

                                                                    - Pablo Picasso

Most of us are terrible judges of our own work.

Not only are we terrible judges of our own work but really it isn't our job to judge our own work.
Don´t compare yourself to others and stop trying to figure out how valuable your work is.

Our job is to continue to create what we are good at.
If it is writing, music, singing, designing, dancing or painting. 

Nearly everyone is an artist in one way or the other and unfortunately every artist will judge their own work.

Your job is to share what you have to offer right now, with the world.
Continue to do what you are doing and don't stop because you don't think that you are good enough.
Unfortunately a lot of people will allow their own self-judgment to stop them from bringing their gifts and talents to the world.
Make sure that you allow your light to shine.
Give yourself a chance.

Your gifts and talents are needed. 

Someone out there is looking for exactly what you have got.
Share you knowledge, wisdom and your experiences. 

We are all teachers and we must share our experiences because they are valuable.

You are running your own race. 

Stop looking at other people. 

They are running a different race.

Your dream was given to you. Nobody needs to approve of your dream. 

If no one else can see it, it's because that dream was given to you and not them.
Hold it, cultivate it, nourish it and work it.

Start trusting and listening to yourself. Listen to the small voice within you.
Trust your ideas and your instincts.

Your job is to do the work and not to judge it.

Stay in your own race and share your talents with the world. 

Power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it.

                                                  www.karinglannstam.com

How To Build Habits That Stick

                                              "Your habits determine your future."

                                                              - Jack Canfield 

                             

                            

It doesn't matter if your goal is about health, wealth or creating better relationships. Unfortunately most people give up on their goals very quickly.

I am sure that you have heard this question before or even asked yourself this question...

How long does it take to establish a new habit?

Some people will say it takes 21 days, some people will say 60 days and others will say even a year.

In my own experience and what I also have heard from others is that it will take a while before a new habit becomes automatic.
I believe that 21 days is a very good start. You have definitely got a good start to your new habit.

I always feel that the first week is the most difficult. After that every day gets a little easier.
Of course you have to work hard at continuing your new habit and learn to control triggers that will send you back to doing what you used to do. 

                         "Successful people are simply those with successful habits." 

                                                                     - Brain Tracy 

Learn to control yourself and your own environment as much as possible is key. Stay busy.

If you are trying to loose weight, then get rid of all the unhealthy food in your pantry and in your refrigerator.
Stay away from eating out, so you won't be tempted to load up on unhealthy food.
Stay away from people and friends that like to overindulge in food and sweets.

Simple things to do, but sometimes not easy to do.
When you feel stressed, instead of going to the refrigerator for food, maybe you want to learn to meditate, listen to some relaxing music, call a friend or just go for a walk.

How long does it take to establish a new habit?

I believe that it will take around three months.
If you have been working on your new habit or been trying to get rid of a bad habit, three months is a great start and you will have created some great momentum.
After three months you are well on your way to a being able to kick your old habit and creating a new one.
Of course the longer you stay with this new habit the more likely you are to be successful. 

                                          "We become what we repeatedly do." 

                                                                 - Sean Covey 

Be mindful, learn to deal with stressors and appreciate yourself and your efforts every day.

You Can Do This! 

I Believe In You!

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Change Starts With YOU

                                            "Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. 

                                        Things fall apart so things can fall together." 

                                                                - Unknown

Why does change seem to be so scary and so painful?

Most people don't want to change.
They usually don't mind others changing or something around them to change, but when it comes to most people, they are not willing to change themselves.

Why are the majority of people this way?

There are three things or enemies that holds us back in life.
We all have these enemies in common, no matter where we live in the world.

Here They Are

The Comfort Zone
Most people love the comfort zone. They seldom want to leave it behind.

When we become comfortable doing a thing a certain way, and we are reluctant to change, we get stuck in the comfort zone.

People usually fall in love with a method of doing things. And even if it doesn't work, even if they are getting bad results and it makes them unhappy, they keep doing it.
People make little or no effort to learn new things or to upgrade their skills.

If you continue to live like this you will eventually get stuck or passed over.



The Path of Least Resistance 
Starting something new is the hardest thing of all.

We do everything possible to justify not changing. When you present a new idea to people, it will automatically trigger all the reasons why it won't work.

The path of least resistance is that human beings always seek the fastest and easiest way to get what they want. 

So people are always looking for easy ways or quick fixes.
If anyone suggest changing or to do something new and different, that's difficult for most people.

Most people find it hard to try and to do something new and they will fight you every step of the way.


The Fear of Failure
People are afraid that if they try something new, and it won't work... then what are they going to do?

They know that what they are doing right now is working, so why change it. You know what you got, but you don't know what you will get.

So... most people convince themselves that they are happy with what they got right now and where they are, when in fact they are not happy at all but they are fearful of failing so they remain in their comfort zone and then they deal with their unhappiness in a different and sometimes unhealthy way.

There is actually a 4th way to create change. 

This one is more drastic and a lot of times we don't choose it ourselves.

I call it a serious Wake-Up Call.
You are forced to wake up and examine the life that you are living because it's giving you so much pain at the moment and may have given you pain for many years and you know that you can't go on living like this anymore.

You are experiencing pain right now. Your past has been painful and when you look into the future you see nothing but pain... if you continue to live the way you are living right now.
This will eventually create a wake-up call or a breakdown.

A breakdown is a great word for it because the old ways of doing things is breaking down to open a door to a much better way of living and doing things in the future.
But in order for something new to move into your life you first have to be open to looking at the old ways of being and doing things. If you are not open to looking at yourself, your behavior and to new ideas, it will just slip on by you. But it won't disappear and will only show up later with even more force and pain.

But when you are finally in extreme pain, you are forced to slow down and open yourself to new thing and it is at this point a breakthrough and a transformation can happen.

Here is another name for a wake-up call... The Significant Emotional Experience.
Something happens that really gives people a jolt or a chock. It can be the death of a loved one, a serious illness, loss of a job, loss of a business, divorce or bankruptcy... just to name a few.

It gives you a huge smack in the face so that you will be able to see what is really going on and it opens you up to a new way of thinking.
It opens people up to that maybe there is another and better way to do things. 

                                                    "If you do what you've always done, 

                                                       you'll get what you've always got."

                                                                       - Henry Ford

How about you... do you spend a lot of time in the comfort zone?

Do you like to learn new things and develop new skills?

When was the last time you did something that you had never done before?

When we leave the comfort zone we will actually feel more alive.
Yes, everything is scary at first but soon we will get the hang of it.

Staying in the comfort zone will make us feel bored, unfulfilled and eventually it will suck the life out of our soul.

                                                          www.karinglannstam.com

You Are A Living Magnet

                                                        "You are a living magnet. 

                                                   What you attract into your life 

                                   is in harmony with your dominant thoughts."

                                                                    - Brain Tracy

Ever heard the expression... what you focus on, expands or what you give attention to, gets bigger?

You cannot harbor one kind of thought and experience a different kind of existence.

Thought is creative.
Thought held in mind produce after their kind. Like attracts like.

In other words... you can not constantly hold thoughts of anger, frustration or resentment and expect to live a happy and healthy life.

Your thoughts become your reality.
You do become what you think about most of the time.

Each person is in a continuous process of becoming, evolving or growing in life, in the direction of their dominant thoughts.
Our bodies are also in a state of becoming, at a normal rate of cell death and replenishment.

Of course our physical evolution is effected by the food that we put in our bodies. And our mental evolution and becoming is largely determined by the thoughts we allow into our mind.

Anything that we think about long and hard enough, eventually will become a part of our mental process, affecting our mental attitude, our behavior and also our health and overall wellbeing.

Thought - Feeling - Action 

Anything that you dwell upon will eventually grow in reality.
The more you dwell on the person that you want to be and the qualities that you would like to have, the more that thought is planted deeply in your subconscious mind and it will be part of your ongoing evolution.

Right now you are where you are and what you are because of the thoughts that you have allowed to enter and to pre-occupy your mind.

Whatever you are constantly dwelling upon over the months and the years, you now have become.
In a sense you are a self made man/woman.

Not only have you made yourself into what you are, but you are continuing the job of the construction with every thought you think.

All of life is from the inside out.
Your outer world will be a mirror reflection of your inner world.
What you see on the outside is merely a reflection of what is going on, on the inside.

The fact is that with very few exceptions, everything that a person is experiencing in their outer life, matches exactly something that is going on in their inner life.

So if you don't like the person that you have become or the life that you are experiencing right now... you have to go and check on the inside. 

                                             "You draw to you people and events 

                           which resonate with  the energy that you are radiating. 

                                           You attract what you are. So be your best"

What Can You Do Starting Today To Change Your Current Reality?

Take full, complete and purposeful control over the content of your conscious mind.
Discipline yourself to think consistently only on the things that you desire and to keep your mind off the things that you fear and what you don't want.

One thing that you do have control over in your life is your own thoughts.

                                                                    www.karinglannstam.com

Need Motivation? Find Your WHY

                                    "You can look for external sources of motivation 

                             and that can catalyze a change, but it won't sustain one.

                                            It has to be from an internal desire."

                                                          - Jillian Michaels

According to statistics this it about the time of the year when most people give up on their New Year's resolutions or the goals they set for themselves to change their ways in the new year. 

This doesn't have to happen. But first we got to realize a few things to be able to stay on track and accomplish our dream for this year and also for the future.

Having some kind of external stimulus isn't enough. Like a fun event that gives us energy and a burst of emotion, will unfortunately fade as time goes by.

Self-awareness alone isn't sufficient enough for us to get inspired and motivate ourselves to make the changes we truly desire and dream of.

I also believe that most of us can identify our self-defeating behaviors and then plan strategies for eliminating them.

It's easy to turn over a new leaf, but what isn't so easy is to sustain change for a long enough period of time, for our new behavior or habits to become part of who we are, just like the old habits were.

Most of us set goals and then we create a road-map on how will get to our desired result. We can all do this. But we all need more than goals and a road-map.

We got to develop self-discipline and also the power to persist and persevere to pursue a long-term goal without giving up until the goal is achieved

Self-discipline is a learned behavior... but what is the fuel to pursue a goal until it's completed, no matter what?

We must have FUEL. The fuel of internal motivation.

We all need fuel to sustain ourselves in our pursuit of our ultimate goals.

What is your fuel to continue on the road to want you truly want to create for yourself, no matter how many obstacles that you will encounter and no matter how many setbacks and storms that will knock you off track?

What is your WHY?

Reasons come first. And the more reason the better and the more likely you will be to be able to accomplish your VISION for your life.

What is the VISION for your life and WHY do you want it?

                               "Hard work and diligence are essential for success, 

                                         but they require an internal motivation. 

                                             The internal motivation is Vision."

                                                         - Myles Munroe

 

                                                       www.karinglannstam.com

Beliefs Create And Beliefs Destroy

                                                "If I have the belief that I can do it,

                                           I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it,

                                          even if I may not have it in the beginning."

                                                           - Mahatma Gandhi

What usually keeps most people from what they truly want in life is the story they tell themselves. Why it won't happen for them. Why they can't have what they want and why it hasn't happened yet.

Most of the time the story isn't true and it usually creates unnecessary suffering, anxiety and fear.

The story got to change. Change your story, change your life. Suffering, anxiety and fear doesn't come from what is actually happening or happened. Suffering is the perception of what happened or what is happening. 

What makes us continue to suffer is our own beliefs. Our own story that we are constantly telling ourselves.

Have you ever tried to accomplish an important goal? Did you succeed the first time you tried?

If you didn't succeed the first time, did you try again? And again? And again?

How many times did you attempted to accomplish the goal before you quit?

                               "The only limits you have are the limits you believe."

                                                           - Wayne Dyer

What sometimes will happen after trying to accomplish something that is important to us, we don't want to feel disappointed anymore so we start developing limiting beliefs about what happened. We are now allowing the limiting beliefs to destroy our dream instead of us destroying the limiting beliefs. We have been disappointed so many times that we finally start to believe that there is no way we will be able to accomplish our goal or have our dream

Here are a few things to remember. A problem is never permanent. Everything changes. When something ends, something new will begin. After winter comes spring. It always does and it always will. If you are in the middle of winter right now, spring is around the corner. There are seasons in nature and there are seasons in life.

Maybe one area in your life isn't working right now. But just because something happened in one area of your life doesn't mean that your whole life isn't working. Focus on what is working right now. Be grateful and remember that your life isn't over just because something happened. This too shall pass.

Stop taking everything so personal. Nothing is wrong with you. Stop telling yourself that you are not good enough, too old/young, not educated enough, not pretty enough, don't have what it takes to succeed, don't have the right connections, that you always mess up or that you are not smart enough. We can always find ways to justify these beliefs. Beliefs create and beliefs destroy.

                                               "Our beliefs determine our actions

                               and it's our consistent actions that will produce results."

                                                                - Billy Cox

Here is a few important questions to ask yourself... 

What is this belief costing me right now?

What has this belief cost me in the past?

What might happen in the future if I don't change this belief right now?

What is the opposite belief of my old one?

What is a new belief?

What is the truth?

Time to change your beliefs and your old story. 

Divorce the lies and marry the truth.

                                                         www.karinglannstam.com

The Power Of Words

                                                          Words are powerful.

                                            They can create or they can destroy.

                                                 So, choose your words wisely.

Change your vocabulary and you will change your life.

Our words shape the way we think and they also how we feel. If we want to make positive changes in our life we must take a closer look at the words that we use on a daily basis. 

Our words will make us feel a certain way and that will also determine what kind of action steps that we will take in our life. The action steps we take will determine what kind of results we will get.

Have you noticed how certain words will make you feel happy, joyful, excited, positive and unstoppable?

How about the words you use when you are angry, upset, frustrated, disappointed and fearful. Those are very different than when you are happy and excited.

If we consciously pay attention to the words we use and then change them, we can start having control over the way we feel, the actions we take, and then the results we get, simply by changing the words we use most of the time. 

We can stop using words that make us feel down and then replace them with words that make us feel up.

                                           The words that we say over and over again

                                    in our heads can either be our biggest cheer leader,

                                                          or our biggest enemy.

What are the words you use that will put you in a lower and negative state?

Become aware and then write them down.

What words do you use to put you in a positive state?

Pay attention to those. Write them down and start using them more often to put yourself in a more empowering state.

 What words MUST you eliminate in your life, right now?

                               Harsh words can hurt a person more than physical pain.

                                      Taste your own words before you spit them out.

                                         Words, hurt and scar more than you think.

                                                   So, think before you speak.

                                                     www.karinglannstam.com

Everyone Has A Purpose

                                                "Find your purpose and incorporate a mission. 

                                                   Your mission is the vehicle that drives you 

                                                        to fulfilling your purpose and vision."

                                                                         - Bob Choat

I have a great question for you today.


What exactly are you doing in this world?


Have you even thought about this question?


If not... why don't you take a few minutes right now, to ponder on this question.


You know, we all matter and what we do matters.


We are all unique individual. Everyone has been created with a gift or a talent. That gift/talent is unique to you. It's also up to you to utilize that gift/talent that has been given to you.

If you incorporate your gift/talent into your life and share it with the world it will give you happiness, success, purpose, meaning, passion and it will make you feel alive.

What do you want?

Figure out what is good for you and do more of that.


Realize the stupid things that you do that are probably going to prevent you from succeeding in life, and stop doing them.


Ask yourself... what am I doing right now that are not in my best interest?


Figure out what you value in life.
Set up some goals.
Put in some effort in life.

What inspires you and motivates you?

                                                "The greatest tragedy is not death, 

                                                        but life without purpose."

                                                               - Rick Warren 

You must have a valuable goal or you won't feel motivated and if you won't feel motivated, you won't take action.


We must have goals in our lives to be happy. Create a goal that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning, excited and ready for the day to begin.


Figure out a goal and then figure out a game plan how to get there.
Realize that with some effort from you, this goal can actually happen, and it will be worthwhile for you to pursue it.


Why should you do something?
Just sitting around and do nothing is easy. But will it give your life meaning?


Be determined to find a worthwhile goal so that you don't just sit around.


Who do you want to be?


Figure it out and then start building that person


Create a vision for your life. Something that gives you purpose.
Never allow the past to stop you from living a fulfilling life. Never allow the limitations of others to limit your own vision. Believe in yourself and you can achieve amazing things.


Are you doing something with your life?
Are you doing all that you need and can do?

Are you the person that you want to be? 

                                                          www.karinglannstam.com