Photo by ToniVC

This is a lovely article from the Guardian that I wanted to share with you.

Key to happiness? Be kind, exercise

Follow the seven steps to be clearer of mind and less burdened of body, writes Hannah Booth. Happiness is proving elusive for many and depression rates are growing in the West, prompting psychology researchers to try to pinpoint exactly what makes us happy. Here are some of their findings.

1. Be positive, says Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina ”Positivity makes you more attractive and resilient, with lower blood pressure, less pain, fewer colds, better sleep. Increase the number of positive emotions in your day, however fleeting. One can lead to another and so on, until we’re in an upward spiral of positivity. Take a moment to find the good in a situation. Don’t over-generalise (‘I can never hold down a relationship’), jump to conclusions (‘I’ll never finish this job’) or ruminate endlessly. Any healthy distraction – a run, a swim – that lifts your mood is good.”
2. Be brave, says Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University ”Studies show people regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did. Why? We can rationalise an excess of courage more easily than an excess of cowardice, because we can console ourselves by thinking of the things we learned from the experience. We hedge our bets when we should blunder forward. In fact, large-scale assaults on our happiness – a lost job or failed marriage – trigger our psychological defences (and hence promote our happiness) more than smaller annoyances. The paradoxical consequence is that it is sometimes easier to achieve a positive view of a very bad experience than a bad one. And yet we rarely choose action over inaction. Knowing we overestimate the impact of almost every life event makes me a bit braver and more relaxed because I know what I’m worrying about probably won’t matter as much as I think it will.”
3. Meditate, says Massachusetts psychologist and author Daniel Goleman ”Meditation helps us better manage our reactions to stress and recover more quickly from disturbing events. This is key to happiness. One study took people in high-stress jobs and taught them meditation for eight weeks: they felt happier after and even remembered why they liked their work. Before, they were too stressed to see it. Beginners can benefit from meditation but it takes practice to see real benefits. I recently spent an evening with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, the Tibetan lama dubbed ‘the happiest man in the world’. How did he get that way? Practice. Observing his behaviour, I noticed he recovered quickly from upsets and this is one way science measures a happy temperament. If you start to get upset, let go of the negative thought, deal with the problem – and then let go of that.”
4. Be kind to yourself, says Paul Gilbert, University of Derby, UK ”The way we relate to ourselves – kindly or critically – has a major influence on our wellbeing, contentment and ability to cope with setbacks. If you’re feeling self-critical, stop, take a few breaths, slow down and try to think of the ideal qualities you might have, such as kindness, warmth, gentleness. It doesn’t matter whether or not you actually have these qualities – like an actor taking on a part, feel yourself become them. In a journal, make a note of what happens to your self-criticism when you do this. Then turn your attention to what you’re about to do.”
5. Put your pessimism to work, says Julie Norem, Wellesley College, Massachusetts ”Defensive pessimists expect the worst and expend lots of energy mentally rehearsing how things might go wrong. But by doing this, they can improve the odds of achieving their goals. It’s a useful skill for everyone to learn. Imagine what might go wrong in a situation by focusing on specifics. If you’re terrified of public speaking, try to articulate whether you’re afraid of fumbling with your notes or tripping on your way to the podium. Then imagine what happens next: if you drop your notes, will someone laugh? By doing this you shift the attention from feelings to facts, so you can plan effectively to avoid (or at least deal with) negative outcomes.’
6. Find a calling, says Jonathan Haidt, University of Virginia ”Work less, earn less, accumulate less and ‘consume’ more family time, holidays and other enjoyable activities. Pursue goals but remember, it’s the journey, not the end result, that counts. If your work is not a calling, can you reframe it to see it as more than just a pay cheque? If not, try to find a noble purpose outside work – religion, teaching, political campaigning. Find activities that fully engage your attention and you’re good at: singing in a choir, painting, driving fast on a curvy country road. Happiness is not a shallow state of feeling chipper all the time, or something you can achieve directly. We need love, work and a connection to something larger. Get these conditions right, then wait.”
7. Act happy, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, University of California ”My research compares happy and unhappy people, and underpinning this is the 40 per cent solution: the degree of happiness it is within our power to change, through how we act and think. I’ve identified 12 happiness-enhancing activities – things happy people do naturally. They may sound corny but they’re scientifically proven. You don’t have to do them all – decide which fit you best. One, express gratitude. Two, cultivate optimism: visualise a future in which everything has turned out the way you want it, then write it down. Three, avoid obsessing over things or paying too much attention to what others are doing. Four, practise acts of kindness – more than you’re used to. Five, make time for friends; be supportive and loyal. Six, develop coping strategies: write down your feelings when you’re feeling upset and try to see that traumatic events often make us stronger. Seven, learn to forgive. Eight, immerse yourself in activities and be open to new ones. Nine, savour life’s joys – linger over a pastry rather than mindlessly consuming it. Ten, work towards meaningful goals. Eleven, practise religion and spirituality. And finally, exercise. You won’t see the results from these activities right away: like anything important, you have to work at it.”

Guardian News & Media

photo by ?ukasz Strachanowski

Who wouldn’t like more energy? Or are you one of the lucky ones that has tons of it? If so then please share your secrets below! For those of us that need a few more tips on how we can increase our energy levels read on.

Although I like to exercize, I am not someone who gets more energy from it. Instead it makes me tired. Of course it also destresses me, keeps me fit so it has a  lot of benefits but I’m always looking for ways to increase my energy levels. One book I came to consult is a book by Sandra Cabot which is called Boost your Energy. Here is what I have learned from this book and how it has helped me.

How is energy produced?

The mitochondria in our body turn food into cellular energy (which is a chemical called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) through a process called the Krebs cycle. The more ATP you can produce the more energy you will have. Various nutritional co-factors are required in the krebs cycle such as lipoic acid, B vitamins, L-carnitine, magnesium and others.  These co-factors can be obtained through diet or supplements. The Krebs cycle accounts for about 75% of our energy.

Another way for the cell to produce energy is acaerobic metabolism, which means that the cell converts sugar into lactose. This is a less effective way of producing energy.

If the mitochondria are not working properly the cell may be forced to rely too much on anaerobic metabolism and a build up of acidic waste products may occur which can lead to fatigue or sugar cravings. Therefore, it is essential to keep the mitochondria working properly.

How can we make sure that mitochondria are kept happy to do their important work?

The right diet

What you eat is more important than how much you eat. Make sure you listen to your body as we are all different. The key is not to overload the liver with too many saturated or processed fats, pesticides or artificial chemicals.

What can help:

• A good liver toxic powder (should contain herbs like dandelion, st mary’s thistle, globe artichoke and the animo acid turine)
• high energy foods: raw fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, spirulina, seafood, eggs (never fried) unprocessed grains, dried fruit, legumes, chicken, lean fresh meat
• Essential fatty acids: found in fish, fish oild, avocados, butternuts, corn oil, legumes, seed oils, raw nuts, raw seeds, olives, cold pressed oive oil, evening primrose oil and seaweed
• LSA: this a a powder that you can easily make and sprinkle over your breakfast or other meal. It’s a mixture of linseeds, Funflower seeds and almonds. (it can be found on page 72 of the book).
• Iron deficiency is one of the most common causes of chronic fatigue and can be helped with supplements of organic iron and spirulina.

Supplements

The right supplements can help give your energy a boost. Here are some of the supplements recommended in the book.

1. Vitamin C
2. Vitamin E
3. Essential fatty acids
4. Magnesium
5. Selenium
6. Beta Carotene
7. Calcium
8. Vitamin B complex
9. L-carnitine
10. Ginseng

Nurture your inner self

Mental and emotional stress can exert a chronic drain upon our energy and well-being. One of the greatest energy drainer are our own negative thoughts. Try to find ways to banish and reject these negative thoughs and memories from your mind. One way to do this is to connect with your own breath. I also find yoga very helpful to connect with my breath and positive inner self. Try to do a daily yoga class which is free on yogatoday.com.   

Prevent damage

The fatty membranes of the mitochondria can be damaged by virusses, toxins and free radicals or incorrect diet. Ways to prevent this is to have sufficient anti-oxidants (vitamins A, C, E, and selenium) and essential fatty acids)

Things to avoid:

• pesticides
• cigarette smoke
• artificial sweeteners
• unhealthy fats

Exericize

Although I sometimes feel that exericizes make me feel more tired, it is the art of doing it regularly that makes a real difference. Exercize will make you fitter and stronger and eventually will give you more energy. Try yoga or try to get your 10,000 steps a day.

Hormones

Inbalance in the production of hormones can lead to sluggish metabolism and fluctuating energy levels. You can do a blood test to see if your hormones are within the normal levels. Some of the things that will be tested are your t4 and t3 levels which indicates the activity of the thyroid. A bloodtest pointed out that my thyroid leaned towards being underactive which can lead to feeling excessively cold, fluid retention and fatigue. In the early stages of underactivity of the thyroid gland nutritional supplements like selenium, vitamin E, C, kelp and essential fatty acids can help to stimulate the thyroid.  

Other things that you can get tested for are DHEA, cortisol, progesterone, testosterone and oestrogen levels. Progesterone levels (the “happy hormone” as it makes women feel contented and relaxed) can be stimulated by plenty of vitamin E and essential fatty acids, vegetables and fruit, legumes, and raw nuts.

Conclusion

I have found this book quite helpful in understanding all the factors that can contibute to boost your energy. It explains all the various hormones that play a part, gives a list of nutrients to target and provides several recipes. Of course you will need to consult your doctor to devise a plan that is right for you.

Sandra Cabot has written many books on this topic so if you would like to read one of them, then please select from the list below. If you have your own boost your energy success story then please share it with us below!

photo by Pingu

Today I went to an interesting lecture by June Webb of Focus on Individual Learning Pte Ltd about what to do when your child is having difficulties at school. Too often they will be labeled with disorders like dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder ADD), or  Attention Deficit  Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and are prescribed medication. However,  according to June there may be other reasons for your child’s under performance which could be better helped by appropriate exercise and attention.

Possible reasons for difficulties

There may be physical issues in the following areas:

• Retained Primitive Reflexes
• Auditory processing
• Visual Processing

Retained Primitive Reflexes

This refers to the primitive reflexes we all learn as children, like crawling. Nobody teaches us how to do it, we simply do. Some of these reflexes are later discarded since we no longer need them. One example of this is the fist reflex or holding reflex (officially called the Palmar reflex). This was very important for our ancestors (apes) who had to have a good grip on the tree branches they moved around in. Nowadays we no longer need these skills and most people will lose this really firm grip.

You can do a small test. Make a fist and have a look at it. Where is your thumb? Is it inside or outside your fist? Most people  will have it outside the fist which is more productive for us. Those children that have retained that strong hold and still have their thumb inside the fist (like most babies will), have retained some of their primitive reflexes. Some of these children may find it hard to hold a pen. This in turn can lead to problems in writing which might delay them in their development. Below are some more examples of what may happen if a primitive reflex is retained.

Auditory Processing

Sometimes it can appear as though a child is not hearing properly. But when you take him / her to the doctor, their hearing appears to be just fine. However, standard tests do not test for HOW a person is hearing. His hearing may be unbalanced or they may hear in different frequencies. This may result in the child closing off in class or show ADD behaviour (he will appear to be dreaming or is drowsy). For another child it may result in ADHD (overactivity as he is constantly stimulated or disturbed by noise).

Visual processing

What we have discussed for auditory processing may also be the case for visual processing. There seem to be some issues with seeing but when tested the child has perfect 20 / 20 vision. Again, you will need to look at HOW the child is seeing. It needs to be determined whether the eyes are working as a team. Do they have a proper midline? Some children are bothered if there is no proper light in the room which can cause them to lack focus or can result in exhaustion.

For children that suffer from any of the above mentioned imbalances, reading and / or listening may be harder and there may be concentration problems.

So what can done?

There are things that you can do to assist with these extra challenges. If you have an issue with retained reflexes, vision or hearing, it can make life more challenging. I like the way June described this. “they carry some extra stones in their wheelbarrow. What you can do with therapy is make that load lighter, you get rid of some of the stones”.

Retained Primitive Reflexes

There are several exercises that you can do to improve or discard some of these retained primitive reflexes. One of the programs offered at Focus on Individual Learning is an INPP Movement programme to inhibit primitive reflexes and promote postural reflexes. It comprises a series of specific physical exercises based on the natural movements a child develops in their early years. The exercises help correct any delays in earlier development and retrrain formative reflexes that support progress.

Auditory Processing

If a child does not follow up an instruction in class it may not necessarily be that he is disobedient. Rather, he may not have registered the instruction and only heard half the message. If you are aware of this happening to a particular child you can repeat the message for him or check in with him to make sure that he understood the instruction. As a therapy, a Digital Auditory Aerobics program is offered to promote balanced reception of the sound frequencies involved in language.

Visual Processing

There are special vision therapists that work with the muscles around the eyes. They can teach a child to use these muscles in a better or correct way to get a more balanced vision.

So before prescribing your child drugs or accept that they have a ‘disorder’, go for a consultation to see if any of the above applies to your child. If you would like more information about the services of June and her team here in Singapore, then you can visit her website for more information. Share you own experiences below.

Yoga  refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism. In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices.

image by myyogaonline

The definition refers to the purest form of yoga where meditation plays an important part. However, many people today use yoga as a form of exercize and the meditation part is usually very short (if at all existing) in a lesson. Although this is a pity, it has also helped yoga become more popular and nowadays there are many yoga schools to be found everywhere.

I love doing yoga and feel that my body needs it. I find that it is incredibly good for stretching out your body and becoming more flexible. This helps to prevent (sport) injuries and I’m less prone to injuries in other (sport) activities. However, as I get busier with work, yoga usually suffers and I now don’t go nearly as often as would like or should do.

In order to still get my yoga practice in, I have now put a yoga mat on the floor of my office so I can do my stretches and poses every time I need to take a computer break. Let’s highlight the benefits of yoga to remind you and me of why we really should be practicing yoga on a regular basis.

Increase flexibility

Yoga’s various positions all work to increase the flexibility in your body. 

Internal massage and lubrication

You exercize, lubricate and massage your internal organs, joints, ligaments and tendons which helps to fight of desease and increase flexibility all over your body.

You will get healthier

You become aware of any inbalances quicker and yoga also helps to improve your immune system.

You detoxify

The stretching exercises help to clear toxins from your body, which in turn helps you to stay healthier  and more energetic.

You look better

By toning your muscles you will start to look stronger and more toned. Practicing yoga on a regular basis will also help to lose weight.

You will become stronger

Although you will build up slowly, many yoga positions require a lot of strength and therefore you will definitly get stronger and steady on your feet. You will also gain a better sense of balance.

You become more relaxed

Yoga will help to decrease your pulse rate, stabilise your nervous system and lower your blood pressure. You will also become more proficient in breathing.

Your energy level and endurance increases

Yoga is not as easy as you may think and you will build up stamina as you go into more challenging poses.

Reasons enough to step up that yoga regime!

Yoga retreats

However, if you do have trouble finding the time to schedule yoga in your week, why not consider going for a yoga holiday? There are some fantastic yoga retreats around the world and you will come home completely refreshed. I have already planned my yoga retreat for this year and  if you can afford it I would encourage you to do the same.

Here is a website of some wonderful yoga retreats around the world.

I’d like to know about your yoga experiences. Has it benefited you? Have you ever attended a yoga retreat?

Photo by Khya

It is that time of the month again. It’s the time when I lose all my friends, my husband avoids me and i’m getting myself completely stressed out. Yes, I’m a sufferer of Pre Menstrual Syndrome. I don’t get a lot of aches and pains but I get irritated really easily, everything just becomes too much to handle and I’m not in the mood for any socialization.

I’ve always kind of accepted it for what it is and just lived through those days. But I’m getting really tired of it and it really is affecting my life in a negative way. Those hormones have so much power! So I have done some research to see what can be done about PMS. Please be aware however that I am not an expert in this area. These are just general suggestions. If you have severe problems from PMS it is always advisable to see a doctor.

What is PMS?

Many women feel unwell in the period just before their period. This is referred to as Pre Menstrual Syndrome. Symptoms can include bloating, cramps, headaches, swelling, fluid retention, low back pain, depression, abdominal pressure, insomnia and sugar cravings.

What remedies are currently available to prevent or ease PMS?

Recommended vitamins

• 1200 mg of calcium daily
• 400 – 800 mg of Vitamin E daily (reduces cramps and breast tenderness)
• 500 – 1000 mg Magnesium (calms the nervous system, relieves anxiety, irritability, nervousness, and insomnia. It also helps with cramps and backpain and reduces your craving for sugar. It may also help reduce breast tenderness.)
• 200 – 400 mg of Vitamin B6 (muscle relaxant, reduces fluid retention, swelling and breast tenderness)
• 1500 mg of Primrose oil daily
• Gammalinolenic acid (GLA) helps to regulate neurological and hormnal functions. It can help with muscle spasms, cramping, sugar cravings, mood swings, depression, irritability and acne. GLA is found in evening primrose oil, borage oil and black currant oil. Borage oil contains the most GLA. One 1000 mg capsule of borage oil provides a daily dose of 240 mg GLA.
• Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) this oil is found in fish and flaxseed oil and helps to reduce breast tenderness.
• Multiple vitamin supplement: can help to balance the system.

Herbs

Lungtanxieganwan: this can alleviate anger.
Xiao Yao Wan: can help with depression, indigestion and bloating.

Exercize

Exercize can drastically reduce PMS. So not only is it good for your overall health and fitness it can also assist with reducing sugar cravings, reduce cramps and eliminate excess fluids.

Diet

Sugar, caffeine, and alcohol worsen the symptoms of PMS and should be avoided. A low-fat vegetarian diet, and a reduced  intake of refined sugar, salt, red meat, alcohol, and caffeine can also improve your symptoms. Reducing your sugar intake is also very beneficial for many other complaints like yeast infection so reducing sugar is always a smart idea. It will also help if you increase your consumption of complex carbohydrates, leafy green vegetables, fruit, cereals and whole grains.

Hormonal treatment

It is also suggested that Natural progesterone cream could help but will need to research this further.

Drugs

To relieve symptoms you may try ibuprofen, naproxen, and other drugs specifically made for relieving premenstrual symptoms. It is not advised that you take Aspirin during menstruation as this could incease your bleeding.

Oral contraceptive

These have also proven to be helpful, however using this will have many other negative side effects like increased yeast. So I would personally not advise to take this route unless your PMS is very severe.

I know this list is not complete and I will continue to look for ways that may help with PMS. On a personal level: I have already started drastically reducing my sugar intake (although I have weak moments) and am following many of the food recommendations mentioned above. I have also started taking the vitamins and do regular exercizes. I will come back to this in a future article to let you know how I go and give you a report on what I feel has been most effective.

Meanwhile if you know of any remedies that have worked for you, then let me know!

image by Gret@Lorenz

We all know it’s important to stay fit and healthy. Not only will you feel better and get more things done, you will also look better. Now you may have heard  that you will need to get 10,000 steps in every day in order to stay fit. But if you are like me and don’t like running or go to the fitness club what can you do to get those steps? 

First of all you may want to buy a pedometer that counts your steps. They are about $35. Or, if you have an iphone, you can buy an application that measures all your steps: http://www.edovia.com/steps/ Keep track of your steps for a few days and keep a record of it each day. Now if your daily average is too low you will need to do additional activities in order to make the 10,000. If you need to add a lot more extra steps start with a few more each day and then slowly add more.

These are some ideas for getting those steps in your weekly routine

1. Start you day off with a walk before doing anything else.
2. Instead of a tedious workout in the gym join a local sports club. I’m a great fan of tennis, but you could do soccer, hockey, hand ball, netball or even golf (just don’t get a buggy). Try to get your partner involved and play it together in the evenings and weekend.
3. Get a dog! A good excuse to go out a few times a day to walk the dog.
4. Play more with your kids outside if you have them. They will want to do races which will give you lots of steps.
5. Walk to the store instead of taking the car.
6. Get a house with lots of stairs and keep forgetting that wallet before going out that is in your office upstairs.
7. Don’t take the lift at work.
8. Take up dancing with your partner; it’s great fun and dancing salsa is a great and fun workout.
9. Start a garden and spend a lot of time in it.
10. Get some kids if you don’t have any. They will not let you sit still for one minute.
11. Get up earlier.
12. Install a break reminder on your computer. Not only will this stop you from getting repetitive strain injury (RSI) it will also remind to move away from your computer and do other things. Use the breaks as a reminder to walk around the block. RSI Guard is good, Workpace, or AntiRSI for MAC. 
13. Park a little further from the entrance whenever you go somewhere.
14. Make a weekly walking ‘date’ with a friend in a park you love.
15. Set a clear goal for this tasks and go through the exercise in the article ‘how to achieve your goals in 2009‘.

Of course if you prefer to do other exercises, like cycling, then do that. One mile of walking is equivalent (approximately) to burning 100 calories. If you exercise long enough to burn 100 calories, then that is like walking 2000 steps. To burn the equivalent of walking 10,000 steps, you would have to exercise long enough to burn 500 calories. Also remember that you don’t have to do 10,000 steps every day. Just try to get an average of 10,000 if you measure on a weekly basis.

Build up slowly and try turning walking into a habit. If you have any further ideas let me know. 

Good luck!

“How well have you learned to live, love and let you?”

photo by by Grant MacDonald

Often we are being told that in order to resolve all our problems we will need to see a psychiatrist and resolve all our issues from the past. A lot of our ’stuff’ has happened in our childhood and we will not get over this unless we really go into it and ‘work’ our way through it. I’m no longer sure if this holds true.

Although I believed in that once (although I never saw a psychiatrist by the way) I no longer believe that that is the key to leading a happy life. I believe that it is much more productive to cencentrate on the current moment and make little steps towards what you want to be or achieve in life.

Why dwelling on the past keeps you down

You keep reliving bad experiences from the past

What good would that do for you? It happened in the past; it does not happen now. There really is no benefit in reliving bad experiences over and over again. Ok, you might say, but those thoughts or experiences come to me without me wanting it? This doesn’t mean, however,  that you have to dwell on those thoughts. Instead be aware of them and then choose and try to put yourself in another state of mind. This will take practice but if you are aware of those thoughts and know that they come from a past experience, then you are able to reason with yourself that this is NOT your CURRENT experience. Right now you can make different choices.

You may start to pity yourself

A ‘poor me’ attitude never got anybody anywhere. If you keep saying to yourself things like “why me” or “why did this happen to me” it does not let you move forward. Instead try to accept that it happened and be thankful that it is not happening right now. That was in the past. Today you can make your own choices and if you accept the past for what it is and that it is a part of you, you can move on.

You apply emotions from the past on current situations

A lot of your current reactions and beliefs were installed in you before the age of 7 “Give me a child of 7 and I will show you the man” is the saying. Of course there is a lot of truth in that. As children we learn for example if people are reliable or not. If we had a lot of experience back then of the people closest to us not being very reliable,  we may feel that in general ‘people are not reliable’. Thus we apply that particular lesson to the rest of our lives and to everyone. As an adult you can reason with yourself that a lot of the beliefs that you may hold are not necessarily true. You know that many people ARE reliable. Think of the statements that you hold true and that you probalby learned when you were young. And try to see the other way. Things are not always the way that you thought they were when you were young. 

You don’t let go

The unwillingness of many to let you of the past is beautifully illustrated in the  story of the 2 monks Tanzan and Ekido that are walking along a very muddy road. They meet a woman who was trying to cross the road but the mud was so deep that she couldn’t cross it without ruining her beautiful silk kimono dress. One of the monks picked her up and carried her to the other side. The monks walked on in silence. 5 hours later Ekido could not restrain himself any longer and asked: “why did you carry that woman accross the road?; we monks are not suppossed to do things likde that!”. The other monk replied: “I put the girl down hours ago, are you still carrying her?”.

If you are a liitle bit Like Ekido how much ’stuff’ are you still holding on to? How heavy does that feel?

Instead see the past as a big box full of memories. And use those memories to learn from them. What went well, what didn’t go so well? Use all your experience to make the best choices. Realise that all that happened is in the past but you are living NOW.

Use your learning and experiences to make the right choices in the present and move forward.

Achieving your goals

The start of a new year is a good time to reflect and set your goals for the upcoming year. Now you may have done this before and you may have been disappointed that so few of these goals were actually achieved. So how can we set goals that can be accomplished? If you can try to answer the below questions for yourself you may be a lot more successful in achieving your goal.

1. Positively state your goal: What exactly do you want? State what you WANT and not what you don’t want.
   eg. “I want to lose weight.”
2. Prioritize: Which goal is the most important to achieve? Although you may have several, define which goal would have the largest influence in your life and make that a priority.
   eg. “If I can lose weight I will have more energy to do the things I love.”
3. Control: What will you do to achieve this goal? Make sure that you have full control over achieving your goal: there should be no room for you to blame others for not achieving it. Realise that only you are responsible for the outcome.   
   “I will adjust my diet to make sure I eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis.”
4. Evidence: How will you know that you have achieved your goal? Try to see, hear and feel what it would be like if you had already achieved this goal and try to describe that in your answer to this question. 
   “I know I will have achieved my goal if I can fit into my favorite dress again. I will feel good about the way I look and will have lots of energy to do sports. My tennis will improve and I may be able to win the championship.”
5. Context: When do you want to achieve this goal? Specifying a time frame will help to give you a deadline and gives you something to target.
   “I want to lose 10 kg by the end of this year.”
6. Blocks: What has prevented you from already achieving this goal? Knowing what usually stops you from achieving your goal helps you to take steps to overcome this.
   “I love sugar too much and keep procrastinating exercise.”
7. Resources: Which resources (skills, belief, support, behaviour) do you already have that can help you achieving this goal? And which ones would you need? This will help you realise that you may already have plenty of resources/ skills and can make you aware of what resources you will need, eg. additional training in some areas.
   “I already know a lot about eating healthy but will need to buy more healthy foods. I will need lots of healthy snacks at hand when I get any cravings. I will need some help from a personal trainer for my exercise.”
8. Ecology: What will you gain or lose in achieving this goal? It’s good to look at your whole life and look how succeeding with your goal may effect other goals or people.  
   “I will feel better about myself and will feel healthier. This will improve my relationships with others as I will have more energy for fun activities.“
9. Worthwhile: How is this goal worthwhile (what will achieving this goal get for you)? When you are clear about how your goal will fulfill you it will be easier to reach it.
   “I know that goal is worthwhile because it will give me the energy to do the things I want to achieve in life. It will make me feel more confident and energetic.”
10. Action: What is your next action in order to achieve your goal? Make sure that you break your goal down into smaller manageable steps. And focus on the NOW. Only the current moment and the actions you do in that moment can bring you closer to your goal, one step at the time.
    “I will no longer drink soft drinks as they contain a lot of sugar. Once I have eliminated these from my life I will stop buying and eating biscuits. I will also make a start with finding healthier recipes.”

If you answer all these questions for yourself and write the answers down, you will find that you are clearer about your goal and why you want to achieve it. This will keep you motivated.

Keep breaking the goal down into smaller steps and realise that all necessary work has to be done in the current moment. Doing this you are well under way to actually achieve that goal.

Good luck!