The Three Fundamental Factors

The goal of this article is to make you think of your surroundings. What surroundings I am referring to? I am talking about Friends, Family and Media. Stay till the end to expand your awareness about these three fundamental factors. All people want to improve their lives but they are stuck in the same habits.

1) They have friends that they don't challenge them at any level

2) They are massively stimulated by television and mainstream reality shows.

3) They continuously blame their family about their negative results.

Let's look a little deeper in the essential part of those three fundamental categories.

Friends

The first and foremost aspect of your success in any field, is the people you are hanging out with, your friends. We are the average of the six people who surround us. I am sure you can understand the magnitude of this statement. How many friends of yours help you align with your goals?

The basic characteristic you need is honesty. People who can be straightforward with you,, who speak without filters, when the time comes to ask for their opinion about a current situation you face. Let me point out that the honesty principle is a two way street. It's irrational to want from your friends to express themselves freely but simultaneously your ego gets heart every time they point out your vulnerabilities. The rest of the traits you are looking for is personal and suited to your needs and wants.

Someone might say "Does that mean that I have to abandon my old friends who don't help me achieve success?"

The answer is twofold. First of all, lets not be paranoid. You don't want all of your friends to challenge you every second and push you to become better. You also need friends whom you just have FUN with. It's extremely healthy and awesome. On the other hand, in many occasions there are signs you neglect. Friends that not only don't help you improve but drag you away from your goals. As always is your choice whether to keep them or not.

Media

Media is my favorite, because is completely manageable. Media can lift you higher and simultaneously have the means and persuasion skills to convince you to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't care about.. The effect that they have on you depends on you as well. You make decisions on a daily basis about your exposure to them. In order to avoid a possible misunderstanding, with the word "media" I am not only talking about television. I also include Facebook, Instagram, subscription to e-mail lists like the one you are right now, YouTube etc. Do they help you acquire knowledge and move forward in life?

Family

This one is the toughest... I can only speak objectively because my parents are extremely supportive and easy to talk to. You can't choose your family. (By the way there is a reincarnation ideology, which supports that we are souls passing through bodies and before we been born we choose our parents. I know... I can't believe it either, I just wanted to share it with you). What you can do if you can't choose your family? Well you can lead them by example. Most people choose the verbal way. Though it is efficient it is not enough. For example, most of us are not congruent with our family, we want to be understood by our parents but if someone asks us about their worries we can't answer specifically. We make assumptions and start to build anger from a numerous insubstantial hypotheses. We neglect just to shut up and listen!

I am getting off topic... My main question is "Does your family in general, motivate and support you to become a better version of yourself?"

What I want you to do is grade these three factors, in a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being "brilliant".

Friends (your answer) / 10

Media (your answer) / 10

Family (your answer) / 10

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Three-Fundamental-Factors&id=9398366

The 3 Personal Development Goals Successful People Pursue Habitually

If you Google “daily habits of successful people” you’ll find almost every business-focused media outlet represented in the results. But if you’re looking for a guaranteed roadmap to success, don’t get excited just yet. If you read all of those articles, or even a few of them, you'll soon realize that successful people have a wide range of daily habits.

Some say you have to rise early, some sleep until noon then work from their bed for another hour. Some say to get the toughest thing out of the way first, some start their day in an easy flow of reading over coffee and don’t “eat the frog” until later. Some plan out their day the night before, some start their day by devising a plan. Some hit the jogging trail first thing, some barely take time for a stretch before hitting social media and email.

So how are any of us supposed to figure out which daily habits are critical to success, and which are personal preference and idiosyncrasy?

If you take a look at all the different lists of habits, routines, principles and priorities among successful entrepreneurs from Ben Franklin to Mark Cuban you’ll find these three universal success factors.

They spend time getting to know themselves.

If you know who they are, chances are they devote a lot of their daily practice to knowing themselves better than you can even imagine. Successful people are self-aware on multiple levels.

They know their energy patterns, so they know how much sleep is optimal. They know when they get their best rest they are at their best when they are awake. They know what fuel their body needs, and what kind of exercise it takes to feel the way they want to feel. They know what environments they need to be creative and productive, and they know the difference between those two states.

They know their priorities, too, and they know that all of their decisions must start with the highest level of their vision, mission or purpose. Benjamin Franklin’s documented daily schedule starts each day with a question; “What good shall I do this day?” Steve Jobs said in his commencement address at Stanford in 2005 that he spent 33 years asking the same question every morning; “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

Bottom line, no matter how many articles, interviews or opinions you read, you’ll find that successful people are always tuned in to the one most critical success factor in their business -- themselves.

They spend time improving themselves.

Speaking of being tuned in to themselves, successful people know that to increase their net worth they must increase their personal worth. They’ve mastered the personal SWOTT analysis and they consistently invest in themselves.

It’s no secret that successful people read. They read story books, they read how-to books, they read news, they read industry articles. They read to improve their knowledge, their mind-set, even their mood.

But they do more than read. Successful people study. They study trends in their industry and outside of their industry, they study things that interest them and, most of all, they study people.

They spend time sharing themselves.

Many super successful people are generous with their money and time. I personally believe that trait builds both financial success and personal satisfaction, but it isn’t what I’m referencing here and I didn’t find it to be 100 percent consistent in all of the “daily habits” lists I read.

What I did find to be consistent is that every person referenced or interviewed had a personal message and a method for sharing it. Their audience might be primarily internal, but it’s not just, “Here’s what the company has to do to achieve success,” or it might be aimed at the general public, but it’s not just, “Here’s why you should buy what I’m selling.”

Successful people have a personal philosophy that permeates everything they say and do. They write, they speak, they mentor, they give interviews and in all of those circumstances they show up fully and completely, sharing not only their message, but the very essence of themselves.

If you want to be successful, I suggest you read those “daily habits” lists the way you’d look at a blueprint for a house you will live in. Make change orders where necessary. Your daily habits need to support your life and your success, don’t try to live by someone else’s blueprint. Just be sure you’re dedicating significant quality time to getting to truly know yourself, improving yourself and sharing yourself.  Because youare the single most important factor in your success, and the only one you can control.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241836

5 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR MONEY GROW

It pays to adopt these smart financial rules - literally.

The key to building a bigger bank balance isn’t simply crossing your fingers and hoping to score a windfall or win the lottery. It’s about adopting simple, savvy financial habits that are easy to follow (and remember).

“If you understand the whys, you’re more likely to stick by these rules because they make so much sense,” says Jean Chatzky, whose book, Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security, is packed with bite-sized wealth-boosting tips.

Here are five simple money mantras to start fattening up your wallet today...

RULE 1: FIGURE OUT YOUR HOURLY EARNINGS

“Here’s a quick and crafty way to compute your hourly rate,’ says Chatzky. Remove the last three zeros from your annual salary and divide the remaining number in half. For example, if you earn £30,000, that gives you an hourly rate of £15, assuming you work a 40-hour week. “Use this handy formula, in combination with your enjoyment or hatred of the task at hand, to decide when it’s OK to hire someone and which tasks aren’t worth doing at all.” Could you hire someone to weed your garden for £15 an hour, say? If you hate it and earn more then hire away. If you love it and earn more, do it yourself. “And if you earn less, roll up your sleeves and start digging!”

RULE 2: NAME YOUR PRICE ON THE OPEN MARKET

Are you worth more than you’re earning? Or, dare we suggest it, less? “If you’re under-earning, you’re losing money every single day,” says Chatzky. “But if you’re over-earning then you’re ripe for the chopping block and you’d better update your skills or improve productivity.” Compare the size of your wage packet to your peers’ at salary checker sitepaywizard.co.uk. Those figures could be handy as a negotiating tool if you decide to start angling for a pay rise too.

RULE 3: DON'T CLASH OVER SHARED CASH

According to a study by the University of Michigan’s Early Years of Marriage Project, the leading cause of arguments in the first ten years of marriage is, you guessed it, money. “When we talk about compromise and cooperation, it can be abstract,” says financial therapist (yes, that’s a real job nowadays) Amanda Clayman. “But money gives us a quantifiable tool.” To help keep your cool (and your relationship), schedule a monthly check-in meeting where you pay all the bills and tally up the month’s spending. Do it somewhere public, so there’s no raised voices – and, ideally, somewhere nice so it feels like a treat. Just make sure it doesn’t cost too much as that kind of defeats the purpose.

RULE 4: NEGOTIATE ON EVERYTHING

Walk into a retailer with a fistful of ads from competitors such as Amazon, to remind the sales person you can get the same product elsewhere. Then “dive in with your price,” says Terry Bacon, author of Elements of Influence. “Try 20% below the lowest price you’ve seen elsewhere as a starting point for negotiation.” As for that awkward opening gambit, try: ‘I like this but what can we do about the price?” This makes it seem like you’re working together, says Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D and author of The Silent Language of Leaders. And always offer to pay in cash. It will save the store the cut it has to give the credit card company, which can be up to 7% of the item’s price, adds Bacon.

RULE 5: NET FREEBIES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

“Many brands and retailers use Facebook and Twitter to post special deals or previews of sales,’ says Melissa Littler from discount fashion e-tailer Brand Alley. “So make sure you ‘friend’ your favourite brands on Facebook. Twitter, meanwhile, is a great source of completely free stuff, with brands giving away goodies in return for your tweets. Or use a hashtag (the # symbol) to hunt down giveaways. Just type ‘# freebies’ or ‘# free stuff’ into the search box to pull up all freebie-related topics. Kerching!

http://www.womenshealthmag.co.uk/life-skills/money/241/trap-your-money/