Many people go through their lives without understanding why they make the same mistakes, follow the same patterns, and live in the same ruts. They aren’t happy with their present situation, but they seem to be unable to make any lasting changes. Are you one of these people?

Perhaps you’ve attend seminars, read books, and taken courses, but, in the end, fallen back into the same dysfunctional patterns you’ve always followed! Why does it always turn out this way?

We struggle to make permanent changes in our lives because we input information only into our conscious mind. Here’s the problem: your conscious mind is not what directs your behaviors and belief system.

To change your behaviors, you must first reprogram the hard-wired center of your mind: the subconscious mind.

How Does Your Subconscious Mind Work?

The subconscious is the largest part of our mind. It contains all the messages we’ve received throughout our lives. It holds millions and millions of thoughts grouped into clusters that form beliefs, mindsets and character traits.

The relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds is like an iceberg. The conscious mind is represented by the visible tip of the iceberg, while the subconscious is represented by the gigantic lower portion of the iceberg hidden from view.

You can’t see the subconscious in action, but it certainly has a major impact on the voyage you take in your life.

The subconscious is the place where all of your learned behaviors reside. Once you learn to walk, you don’t need to consider how to lift and place each foot to take the next step, do you? Of course not! Your subconscious mind automatically controls your steps.

Your subconscious learns behavior through repetition and practice. Just as it learned to control your footsteps when you learned to walk, it also controls your footsteps in your life’s journey based on what you’ve reinforced throughout your life.

The good news is you can reprogram your subconscious mind by inputting and reinforcing new thoughts and actions! There are several different techniques you can use to tap into the subconscious mind and reprogram how it works.

Here are some strategies you can use to change your mind and change your life:

1. Affirmations. Affirmations work to change your subconscious mind by using positive, personal, present tense statements to override the embedded negative thinking. By repeating these positive thoughts, you can create new pathways in your subconscious, giving it new attitudes.


Then your subconscious causes you to act in new ways that agree with these new attitudes. For example, repeating: “I choose healthy foods at each meal” can change your mindset about what you eat and why!


2. Visualization. Visualization is the act of creating detailed mental pictures that depict a desired outcome so you can see success for yourself. These images stimulate the subconscious into accepting them as reality, which then directs behavior accordingly. Top athletes around the world use this technique during game-time.


3. Hypnosis. Some types of therapy work with the subconscious mind, including hypnosis. Hypnosis works by easing you into a state of extreme relaxation. Once you’re in this state, the conscious mind releases its grip, and the subconscious mind is easier to access.

While under hypnosis, it’s much easier to reprogram the subconscious into accepting new thoughts as reality.


4. Subliminal Audios. You can use subliminal audios while you sleep. The conscious mind listens to music or someone speaking on one level, but the subconscious mind hears another layer of information recorded underneath the audible portion.


When awake, the conscious mind is distracted with the audible portion of the audio, making it harder to tap into the subconscious mind.


Using techniques like these can help you reprogram your subconscious mind and remove the burden of the negative thoughts buried there. Imagine the freedom of living your life without the automatic dysfunctional behaviors you’ve had driving you for years!


When you transform your negative outlook into a positive one, you can accomplish so much more. In doing so, your mind will be released from negative programming, allowing you to excel and succeed throughout your life.

Raising your own personal expectations can enable you to accomplish more than you ever thought possible. The trick is to learn how to push yourself to greater heights without pushing yourself over the edge.

Why Raise Your Expectations?

If you’re perfectly happy with your current situation in life, you might be wondering why you’d want to raise your expectations. Well, when you expect more, you’ll drive yourself to achieve that much more.

Think about a time when you’ve expected nothing out of a situation. Chances are you weren’t unhappy with the results because you didn’t really care, but at the same time you probably weren’t driven and fulfilled either.

While having greater expectations opens you up and make you more vulnerable to failure, there are also big rewards too. It’s worth it in the end because a negative experience is still an experience that you can learn from. A positive experience may provide you with one of those life-defining moments that make you happy to be alive.

Here are some excellent ways to raise your expectations of yourself:

1. Do difficult things. Pushing your limits can only be achieved by doing difficult things. You might not find success right away, but when you do, it can be the starting place for doing even bigger and better things in the future.

2. Expand your comfort zone. Staying comfortable is another way of continually playing it safe. When you expand your comfort zone, you open yourself up to new and exciting things. You’ll then come to expect more from yourself just because you’re comfortable with more.

3. Challenge yourself. Set yourself up with a specific challenge or make a dare with yourself. If you’re dared to do something, you pretty much have to do it!

4. Take a survival course. Taking a survival course can show you how to get back to the basics. These courses are not just about basic survival, they can also teach you about yourself. You can learn more about your abilities and strengths, and then continue to challenge yourself in the future.

5. Learn new things. Work on being a more open and adaptable person. When you do, you may find that new experiences and situations simply fall into your lap. It’s an easy way of broadening your horizons, and with new knowledge and skills under your belt, you’ll be able to raise the expectations of what you can do.

Higher expectations for yourself also raise your self-esteem. What you think you can achieve is very important because it decides what you will achieve. When you raise the bar, you enable yourself to do more and be more than before.

Remember that your thoughts are very powerful. When you make the effort to raise your expectations, you’re also strengthening your self-worth and abilities. You’ll see yourself in a positive light and be better able to achieve your ultimate goals.

Try these strategies to help you raise your expectations of yourself and enjoy the pride and fulfillment that come with doing great things!

You can achieve great things through meditation. But what exactly are these things? The truth is that you get to create the definition. If you’re after success, meditation can help get you there.

Meditation has been around for ages and it’s a great, relaxing activity to engage in everyday. Also, it’s available to everyone in every moment. Plus, it’s completely free!

Ultimately, there are no excuses for not being able to meditate. Some will say that they simply don’t have enough time. But are you not worth a few minutes a day? Of course you are! You should be able to allot yourself at least 15 minutes per day, just to focus on your own success.

How Meditation Can Help

Meditation is an art that has many opinions associated with it and there are also many ways to meditate. A consensus remains around the fact that it’s about clearing your mind and remaining in the present moment. With regular practice you’ll gain the necessary clarity and discover truths about your life.

Meditation is a great way for you to discover something you may already know deep down. You operate on many levels and you already know how to achieve the success you desire. Problems arise when you spend too much time dealing with day-to-day activities and too little time exploring your depth.

Feel Your Emotions

Getting in touch with your emotions is an important thing. It’s not only reserved for females, nor is it something that will make you vulnerable. It’s an important step on your way to discovering success.

When you meditate and really feel your emotions on any subject, you’ll begin to tap into the truth. What is it that you’re really after? What is your true definition of success?

You’ll often hear of the actor that achieves fame but still doesn’t feel fulfilled. You may have also heard about the successful business mogul who reaches career and financial success but still feels incomplete at the end of the day. These people haven’t truly determined their own definition of success and, instead, have chased someone else’s dreams.

Enjoy the Process

You must stay present and enjoy the process. An actor will remain happy with his or her success if they truly love the art of acting. If they were only after fame and later discovered that it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, then they may have followed the wrong path and should reevaluate their path to success.

If you spent too much time on your business plans, make sure you take a step back and remember where you’re going. In this case, you can practice “walking meditation,” which is when you go through the steps of your day-to-day life completely aware of what you’re doing in each moment. This may sound easy, but it can be difficult to master!

Your Focus Can Shift

Once you’ve decided where you’d truly like your life to go, you can take the steps to get yourself there. However, remember that you can’t get back lost time. There’s always a life lesson to be learned by the path you’ve chosen.

Remember that each moment brings incredible transformations. You need to allow this to happen and resist the urge to fight change. This also means that your life goals may change, as well. And that’s okay! It helps to go with the flow and be willing to adapt as you go.

Practice Affirmations

Affirmations are excellent statements to meditate on while you’re achieving your focus. If you remind yourself that you’ve already achieved success, you’ll get there.

Really spend some time envisioning your success. Think about what it feels like to achieve. In the same way that you would picture yourself in a safe place when you’re scared, picture yourself in a successful place when you have doubts.

When you believe in the power of meditation, you believe in your true self, and then success will be yours!

Do you have days when you know it’s better to be upbeat and positive, but you just don’t feel like it? When you face challenges or feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, it can be difficult to maintain a positive attitude.

Try these techniques to improve your mood and experience the inner peace you deserve:

1. Start your day with something positive. Decide each morning that you’ll start the day headed in the right direction. Instead of waking up on the wrong side of the bed and setting the stage for a grouchy day, resolve to experience something positive first thing in the morning.

* Develop a morning routine that you can repeat daily to ease into your day’s responsibilities. Determine what activities help improve your mood and put you on the path to positive thinking. Find two or three things you can do each morning that’ll set the stage for a successful day. As these become habit, add to the routine little by little.

* A routine will help your body and mind settle in and focus on what you need to accomplish. Instead of rushing around or forgetting important details, your plan will guide you through a peaceful set of steps that calm your mind and create unstoppable momentum.

2. Set exciting goals. If you wake up each morning with nothing to look forward to, your mind may quickly latch onto negative feelings that can last throughout the day. Give your life focus by setting goals that motivate and excite you. Write those goals down and review them every day. Each day, take some small action that brings you closer to attaining your goal.

* Set aside a few minutes this week to write down all the reasons why each goal is important to you. How will you feel when you reach the goal you’ve set? How will your loved ones be affected? How will your quality of life improve?


* Spend a few minutes each day reading through this list. A big enough “why” can help you to overcome obstacles that are in your way.

3. Surround yourself with positive people. If you want to feel better about your life, hang around people that encourage you and bring out the best in you. Spend more time with people that make you feel good about yourself and less time with those that complain about everything.

* Every cloud has a silver lining and it’s easier to find that silver lining when you hang around people that help you to see it.

4. Remember that bad days happen. When you have a bad day, don’t beat yourself up or dwell on it. Remember that tomorrow is a new day with exciting possibilities and challenges. Your next victory is right around the corner if you resolve to start with a fresh perspective.

These suggestions will only help if you put them into practice. Pick one or more of them and decide that your happiness is worth small changes that lead to a big payoff. Begin to experience the happiness you deserve by taking positive steps today that will lead to a bright future.

Wandering around aimlessly from day to day provides absolutely no benefit to you or those around you. An unspecified purpose leaves you frustrated and lacking direction with everything you do.

If you don’t already know your purpose in life, take some time to reflect on what it may be. Then make sure everything you do lines up with this purpose.

Discover Your Purpose

In order to find your purpose, look at the things you love to do and what makes you tick. The trick is to figure out where you draw your internal energy from and where your gifts and talents are best used.

What do you do to recharge your batteries? What do you absolutely love to do? Take a little time to figure this out and then focus on it.

Choose Activities That Fulfill Your Purpose

Once you identify your purpose, look at the things you do on a day-to-day basis. Do these activities add to your purpose or take away from it? Everything you say, do, think and act on should complement your purpose and help fulfill you.

If it isn’t doing this, either drop the activity or delegate it to someone else.

An example of a purpose you might have is to provide a healthy and comfortable life for your partner and children. What types of activities do you think fall in line with this purpose? Let’s look at a few and see how they line up with your personal life purpose.

* Cooking. Cooking your own food allows you to be the top chef. You get to choose the ingredients in your food, rather than relying on some other person or company.

You can take out the salt, add flavor with herbs and spices, and reduce your portions to create something that fits within your family’s healthy lifestyle. Plus you’re saving money, which can be used for your children’s education or a family retreat.

* Cleaning. Keeping a clean house fulfills both the healthy and comfortable parts of your purpose. By doing things like dusting, washing dishes, and taking out the garbage, you’re staying healthy. Removing the clutter creates a more comfortable environment.

* Exercise. Exercising, along with activities like yoga and meditation, help keep your mind and body healthy and comfortable. These activities keep your weight down and make you feel better inside and out, which will also keep you strong for your family.

As you can see, each one of these activities adds to your purpose. Things that distract you from your purpose might include eating out excessively, living beyond your means, and even sitting around doing nothing all day.

Negative or unfulfilling activities can be exchanged for the ones that supercharge both you and your life purpose.

Live With Purpose at Work, Too

For your professional purpose, you might have a passion to plan social events for you and your coworkers.

You can accomplish this by volunteering for your company’s activities committee or being on a board that plans events and meetings. You can also start your own activity group and get things together for employee birthday parties in the office.

You can see how these ideas and actions fall directly in line with your passion and purpose. Obviously you still have to get your job done, but you can certainly use your free time to fulfill your purpose.

Once you’ve identified your purpose, I challenge you to live your life with intensity toward that purpose. Do everything you can to focus on your calling with the things you say, think and do. If it isn’t necessary or doesn’t align with your goals, let it go.

Living your life with intense purpose renews your passion for life and enables you to be the best you can be. It strengthens your self-confidence and, best of all, brings self-fulfillment. Find your purpose today, and give it all you’ve got!