A Foolproof Formula for Finding Your Flow State

2022-04-20 ~ adminlife

According to the old saying, time flies when you’re having fun. The same thing happens when you’re in a state of flow.

That’s the term coined by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow describes an experience where you lose yourself in what you’re doing. You feel totally immersed and engaged.

There are even changes in your brain activity, like increased dopamine levels that are associated with enjoyment and motivation.

If you’ve experienced the exhilaration for yourself, you probably want more such moments. Try this foolproof formula for finding your sense of flow.

Benefits of a Flow State

There are many compelling reasons for trying to introduce more flow into your life.

Consider these important advantages:

Boost your mood. Sometimes you have to push yourself to do things that will eventually increase your well-being. However, flow feels a lot more pleasant than visiting the dentist, so you’ll be happier right away.

If you would like to listen to these types of articles, you can visit my podcasts atThese are short, usually under 5 minutes but they can enable you to listen to confidence and motivation advice and tips while driving or relaxing.

Manage stress. At the end of a busy day, you might want to sit down and relax. However, challenging yourself with something you find rewarding can sometimes be more effective than taking it easy. Try working on your hobbies instead of watching TV.
Build your confidence. Flow helps you to discover your strengths and maximize them. You start accomplishing more when you focus on activities that you love and excel at. Soon, you’ll find it easier to believe in yourself and your abilities.
Enhance your performance. Think about those moments when you’re at your peak. You’re more likely to excel when you’re working with passion and purpose.

Activities that Help Promote Flow

Depending on your approach, almost anything you do can give you feelings of flow.

These are a few of the most popular areas if you’re looking for where to begin:

Express your creativity. Earn a living making art or do it as a pastime. Choose a medium that you find exciting. You might write a novel or paint landscapes.
Play sports. Lead a more active life. Join the office softball team or sign up for a volleyball league with a community group. Train to compete at the Olympics or complete a 5K run for your favourite charity.
Pursue your education. Add to your knowledge and skills. Take business courses that you need for your job or study subjects just for the pleasure of learning. Teach what you know at a nearby senior centre or online academy.
Advance your career. Only 36% of U.S. employees feel engaged at work, according to a 2020 Gallup poll. Ensure that you’re one of them. Think about the meaning behind your tasks. Try to structure your job in a way that allows you to apply your strengths.

Other Tips for Creating a Flow State

Once you’ve established your priorities, experiment with different strategies. Flow is a skill you can develop with practice.

Try these techniques:

Seek balance. Flow usually happens when you’re doing something that’s challenging, but within reach. Having an accurate sense of your capabilities enables you to aim high without overwhelming yourself.
Set specific goals. You’re more likely to reach your targets if you make concrete plans and write them down. Be precise about details and dates.
Limit distractions. Focus on one thing at a time. Take a break from your phone and other devices for at least an hour each day.
Appreciate the journey. Cultivating flow does more than deliver positive results. Remember to savor the trip as much as the destination.

Spend more time on activities that bring you happiness and help you to use your personal strengths. Encouraging a state of flow will make your life more satisfying and enable you to achieve more.

To work together to develop your Flow in life and understand how being in Flow can benefit you, click on the blue button below to book a 15-minute, no obligation “Get to know you” call.Going alone on creating a better life is difficult. Find out how working with a Life Coach can make the journey to success and a better life easier.

Book the call now.

To your success

Michael

P.S. you know that living a life that is in balance is important. When you can balance your work, family, health, relationships, fitness and money, you feel better and can achieve your goals. You have the support of your family and friends which makes life worth living.

Check out my programs at Confidence and Life Coaching by clicking on the logo below:

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Stopping Self-Sabotage: How to Get Out of Your Own Way

2021-08-08 ~ adminlife

There’s a lot of truth to the quote, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We get in our own way far more than life, other people, or bad luck sabotage our success. We really are our own worst enemy. You’d be amazed by how much easier your life would be if you weren’t constantly sabotaging your success.

It boggles the mind why we stand in our own way, but we do. Understanding that fact is half the battle to overcoming it.

Try these techniques to stop sabotaging yourself:

Let go of the past. Mistakes from the past don’t mean that you’re doomed to failure in the future. The past should be used as educational material, not as a predictor of the future. Leave your past in the past and create the future you desire.
Avoid talking to yourself unless you’re going to say something nice. You spend too much time saying negative things to yourself. Eventually, you begin to believe them. Such negative input gives you an incorrect opinion of yourself and your capabilities. Ensure that your self-talk is supportive and positive.
Notice your habits that sabotage your success. Think about what you want to be successful at and notice your habits that stand in your way. For example, if you want to lose weight, but you eat a bag of chips every time you’re stressed, that habit is sabotaging your success.
- Make a list of all the habits that sabotage your success. Write down all the ways in which those habits inhibit your success. What is the cost of each of those habits? Being aware of the damage these habits cause can make it easier to change them.
Define your fear. All self-sabotage is rooted in fear. What exactly are you afraid of? Are you afraid of embarrassing yourself? Are you afraid of finding out that you’re not capable? Are you afraid of success? Are you afraid of how people will view you?
- Understand the basic fear that is causing you to sabotage yourself. Unless you can either get over that fear or remove it, you’ll continue to get in your own way.
Know your ceiling. Notice how far you can go before you begin sabotaging yourself. For example, perhaps you’re stuck at a particular income level. What income level do you get stuck at? If you’re trying to lose weight, at what point do you begin sabotaging yourself? We all have a ceiling for each part of our lives. Understand yours and seek to understand why.
Identify and change your beliefs. What are the beliefs that stand in your way? For example, do you believe that you’re naturally a chubby person that can never get below a certain weight? Do you believe that you can never be a successful writer because you failed high school English?
- Look at all of your beliefs related to the part of your life you want to be more successful in. Which of those beliefs are getting in your way?
Notice the people that get in your way. Sometimes, we allow people into our lives that don’t really want the best for us. You’ll find that few people are truly interested in seeing you live up to your full potential.
- Avoid believing that it’s acceptable to allow someone to get in your way. If they choose to be an obstacle, consider removing them from your life.

The good news is that easier to control yourself than it is to control others or circumstances outside of yourself. Since you are the source of your challenges, you also have the power to eliminate them. Never underestimate how much you’re standing in your own way!

Book a 15-minute “Get to know you” call by clicking on the blue button below

and we can talk about how getting rid of self-sabotage in your life moves you toward success

To your success

Michael

P.S. if you have always thought that you should have a Life Coach on your personal team to help you create the best year of your life but were put off by the cost and the time requirement, I have created a Self-paced course that covers what we would do when working together.

While not the same as working one-on-one with a Life Coach, this self-paced course can help you to understand your present situation, how you got there and how to set goals that will move you forwards to success.

Click on the logo below to find out more about the course

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Appreciating Small Things and the Law of Attraction

2018-12-232018-12-22 ~ adminlife

Appreciation is clearly a positive action. When you appreciate something or someone, you are sending positive energy into the universe. That can only benefit you with positive energy coming back to you. That is a foundation of the Law of Attraction (LOA).

Perhaps you aren’t a believer in such principles as LOA. You think it’s hokum, and that the universe doesn’t have a points system of sorts. However, it’s been shown time and again that when people put out positive energy, they receive that in kind. The same is true for negative energy.

Even if you aren’t a believer, what can it hurt to project positivity into the world? Your small circle of friends and your family will notice it. That is enough to justify staying positive and appreciate those smaller things in your life.

Negativity surrounds you, and this makes it easy to get swallowed up in it. The news reports seem to show nothing but bad news on every channel. It’s gotten worse with the proliferation of the internet. Someone can post a negative tweet, for instance, and hundreds of people see it. People then share the tweet and so the list of people seeing it grows into thousands.

Because the internet allows people to post comments anonymously, that makes matters worse. They would never say to someone’s face the negative stuff they write. But, have no trouble spewing garbage on the internet. LOA works on the internet as well. People who post negative messages will find them returned. They cannot hide in their anonymity either. The universe has a way of bringing it back to them.

If you are one to say or post negative messages, think about the impact that has on others. It’s hurtful, and it will affect them. Also, think about how wonderful those people would feel if you posted something nice about them. You shouldn’t make up these attributes. They should be true. But, you should be able to find something nice to say about others. There is an old saying that if you can’t find something nice to say about someone, don’t say anything. People should incorporate this saying and live by it, especially on the internet.

If you believe that the small items don’t make a difference concerning LOA, think about the number of people that are alive on the planet. There are over six billion people. If everyone projected his or her appreciation for one small item, that would be a massive surge of positive energy.

To your success

Michael W

P.S. If you are looking for a confidence program that can help you with your self development. Send me an email at michael@youaresuccesslifecoach.com to request a copy of my “Maximum Confidence Transformation Package”. Afterwards we can arrange a discovery telephone call to discuss the package and how you can benefit further from developing your confidence level.

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/glass-cognac-smoke-full-empty-300558/

Project into Your Future

2018-12-122018-12-10 ~ adminlife

Suppose you could use a crystal ball and know it worked. You gaze into the ball, and it starts to portray your life for the next twenty years. It is showing your future. How would your future look?

While there are no definite ways to peer into the future to date, you do have some control over the process. There are random events that will be beyond your control, and some of them not so pleasant, unfortunately. However, there is much you can do to shape your future.

The point of the exercise is to try and determine if you appreciate the small things in your life. In other words, looking into the crystal ball are you spending time with family or friends, or are you constantly working and not interacting with anyone?

If you choose to work and focus entirely on making money, you may look back on your time and wish you hadn’t. There is so much more to life than work. The company you work for is not going to care about you in the future. They will simply replace you with someone younger and less expensive. You aren’t as important to them as you make yourself out to be. Everyone is replaceable.

People do need to work. You have to be able to provide for your family. But, you need to determine a balance between working too much and spending precious time with your family and friends. Work and money is something you can always manage to find. Family and friends are irreplaceable as is the time you spend with them.

Another reason to spend time with people is they can also present you with opportunities. For instance, you may not like your career, but you stick with it because the money is good and it’s steady work. When you interact with other people, you may find opportunities for work that you’d much prefer. This kind of thing happens quite often. If you spent the majority of your time at your job, you would never discover these opportunities.

Of course, you don’t want to make friends just for the opportunities they may have for you. However, friendships often lead to forming new ventures. That is a natural part of the process. More importantly, the comradery of having friends can never be satisfied with a job. It is possible to make good friends at work, but more often these relationships are distant.

To your success

Michael W

Feature photo used under CCO and available at https://pixabay.com/en/psychics-crystal-ball-fortune-teller-1026092/

Believing in the Power of Your Subconscious Mind

2016-05-092016-05-08 ~ adminlife

“To shift your life in a desired direction, you must powerfully shift your subconscious.” ― Kevin Michel, Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams

Your Subconscious Mind’s Power

Whether you like it or not, your subconscious mind is the boss of you. Even when you make a conscious decision to go after something you want, it’s your subconscious that determines whether you’ll take consistent action to get it!

Once you understand how your subconscious works, you can be in touch with yourself on a deep level. You’ll have the keys to living an abundant, fulfilling life, and all you’ll need to do is unlock that door.

What is the Subconscious Mind?

Your mind is similar to an iceberg. The conscious mind is like the part of the iceberg that you can see above the surface. But the bulk of the mind – the subconscious – is below the surface where you can’t see.

There are certain thoughts and processes that go on inside your mind that you may not be aware of on a conscious level, such as beliefs, instincts, and memories. Everything you’ve ever seen or heard is sitting somewhere in your subconscious, affecting your current thoughts, decisions, and actions.

Communicating with the subconscious mind is a popular topic in the realms of self-help and psychoanalysis. This is because getting to the core of your beliefs by tapping into the subconscious is the fastest way to implement desired changes in your life.

The Power of Beliefs

Your subconscious mind contains a vast amount of information. It’s more than your conscious mind could ever handle. Sometimes you might just have a “feeling” about something and then find out that the “feeling” was right on target. In many cases, it’s your subconscious mind that sends you such signals.

Surely you’ve heard, “If you believe it, you can do it.” This truism is a fact because of the great power of your subconscious. A belief can light a fire under you and enable you to do things that you never consciously thought were possible.

This is why just believing in the power of the subconscious mind can allow you to better communicate with it.

The alternative is to continue following base instincts. Following your instincts can be a good thing, but what if one of your instincts is a fear of public places? It would be in your best interest to learn how to communicate with yourself.

Beyond Belief

Believing in the power of your subconscious is the first step to living the life you desire. When you do, you can move on with your self-help ventures and personal development plans. Surely you have talents you’d like to further develop, positive qualities you’d like to strengthen, and challenges you’d like to overcome. You can do all these things by tapping into your subconscious.

You can even use your communications with the subconscious mind to correct larger issues, like fears, or eliminate negative habits, like smoking or emotional eating. When you get to the core of an issue in your subconscious, you can change it. The possibilities are endless!

How Do You Communicate With Your Subconscious Mind?

There are several techniques you can use to effectively communicate with your subconscious mind and enable the changes you desire.

One popular method is the use of hypnosis. You can either employ the services of a counselor trained in hypnosis or use self-hypnosis techniques. You can even find CDs and videos that will guide you completely through a hypnosis session.

Under hypnosis, rather than being asleep, you’re in a state of heightened awareness. Many of the inhibitions of your conscious mind will subside while the subconscious comes to the forefront. When you’re in this state, you’re open to suggestions. If you give yourself positive suggestions, you’ll make positive progress.

You can also communicate with the subconscious by consistently reading, listening to recordings of positive mantras, and repeating affirmations. Not only can you use these positive statements to affirm and bring out the best in you, but you can also replace negative thinking and doubt with positive images and beliefs. Check your local bookstore and online for a plethora of affirmation resources.

Just remain aware of your innermost thoughts and you’ll be better able to keep in touch with your subconscious. Always be truthful with yourself, follow your heart, and most important of all, have a firm belief in yourself!

To your success

Michael W