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ContacT JaN
SunDay - SaturDay
24 / 7
My sorry soul to save
My sorry soul to save.
Broken & bitter filled with rage.
And still the light won’t fade.
Resentful and casting blame.
Plotting revenge 4 the mistakes I’ve made.
My sorry soul 2 save.
My heart aches from all the darkness.
Up all night 2 chase it away.
And still the light won’t fade.
Tear drops fall and crumble.
I hit my knees and pray.
My sorry soul 2 save.
I stand up only 2 fail.
One step forward
2 steps back.
And still the light won’t fade.
Yet this fighter will keep fighting.
Life won’t stand in my way.
My sorry soul 2 save.
And still the light won’t fade.
Posted in Poetry Corner
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Motivation to Diet Positive affirmations
| Present Tense Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| I always stick to my diet | |
| I am highly motivated to eat healthy foods | |
| I am motivated to stay with my diet plan | |
| I only eat the foods allowed by my diet | |
| I am dedicated to eating healthy foods | |
| I am focused on succeeding with my diet | |
| I always choose to eat healthy food | |
| I have self discipline and can easily resist the temptation of unhealthy food | |
| I believe in my ability to follow my diet right to the end | |
| I am highly motivated to lose weight and get healthy |
| Future Tense Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| I will motivate myself and see my diet through to completion | |
| I will stick to my diet no matter what | |
| I will develop a strong willpower | |
| Eating healthy is becoming more normal for me | |
| I am transforming into someone who is naturally motivated to eat healthy | |
| I am finding it easier to resist the temptation of food | |
| I am becoming highly disciplined with my dieting | |
| I am changing into someone who is effortlessly motivated to diet | |
| I will always eat healthy and do what is best for my body | |
| It is becoming easier to eat healthy and follow my diet |
| Natural Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| I am naturally motivated to eat healthy | |
| I can easily resist temptations to break my diet | |
| I have a natural drive to achieve success with my diet | |
| I visualize the end result of my diet and this helps to motivate me | |
| I find it easy to stay motivated and stick to my diet | |
| Staying motivated comes naturally to me | |
| I enjoy dieting | |
| I love the feeling of successfully completing a diet | |
| Dieting comes naturally to me | |
| It is important to me that I can control my eating habits |
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Health Body Image Affirmations
| Present Tense Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| I am beautiful | |
| I love my body | |
| I have a healthy body image | |
| I accept myself completely | |
| I am thankful for my body | |
| I am building a positive body image | |
| My body is perfect just the way it is | |
| I am confident in the way I look | |
| I always feel comfortable in my own skin | |
| I appreciate my body |
| Future Tense Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| I will have a healthy body image | |
| I will always love my body no matter what | |
| I am beginning to accept myself more and more | |
| I am beginning to feel content with the way I look | |
| I am becoming happier with my body | |
| Each day I look and feel better | |
| I will always have gratitude for my body | |
| My self acceptance is beginning to change the way other people see me | |
| I am overcoming negativity and building a positive attitude towards myself | |
| I am finding it easier to feel confident in the way I look |
| Natural Affirmations | |
|---|---|
| Having a healthy body image comes naturally to me | |
| Feeling positive about my body is normal for me | |
| I naturally love and accept my body | |
| Whenever I look in the mirror I always see something positive | |
| Having a healthy body image improves the quality of my life | |
| I deserve to be confident and happy | |
| Self acceptance comes naturally to me | |
| I find it easy to think positively about my body | |
| People are drawn to me because I am confident in the way I look | |
| My body is beautiful and I respect it deeply |
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30 Powerful Questions to find your Passion
Only you can discover your passion.
If you’ve spent many years caught up in the daily grind, it might take awhile for you to figure out what lights you on fire. And that’s okay. Give
yourself the time and freedom to dream big. It’s
never too late to start living with passion.
Get the most out of this workbook:
• Set aside at least half a day to work on these questions
• Go somewhere quiet and peaceful, alone
• Get rid of distractions: turn off your phone and computer; completely unplug
• Give each question ample time and revisit questions later if needed
• Let your imagination run wild
• As you start truly thinking of living with passion, the fearful “common sense” side of you will kick into high gear with a million reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t dream big. Give yourself the freedom to dream big and think of a life full of possibilities. You deserve it.
IT’S TIME TO COME ALIVE AND SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.
1. When in your life have you felt the most alive?
2. What makes you happiest?
3. What do you get so into, that you lose track of time when you do it?
4. If you had unlimited resources and the ability to do anything you wanted with your time, what would you do?
5. What aspects about your personality do people compliment you on?
6. What angers you the most?
7. What scares you the most about the world?
8. Who inspires you? Why do you look up to them? Is there a common trait your mentors have?
9. Whose lifestyle do you wish was yours?
10. What comes naturally to you? Think about the times when something has ‘clicked’ for you that others struggle with.
11. What makes you incredibly excited?
12. If you had a free hour to browse your favorite bookstore, what section would you go to?
13. What is your favorite section in the newspaper?
14. What would you do if you knew you would not fail?
15. What would you like your priorities to be?
16. What is your ideal work day like? (What time do you get up? What do you wear? What is your schedule? Are you alone or surrounded by people?)
17. What makes you a good friend? (Are you a ridiculously good listener, encouraging, supportive, or handy?)
18. If you have free time, do you consistently daydream about something?
19. What is your dream vacation? What does your destination represent? (Hiking may indicate you love being active, vacationing with a group of friends may indicate you’re very social, traveling solo may indicate you value independence.)
20. What are 3 of your biggest strengths?
21. What type of conversations can you not help but eavesdrop on?
22. If you had the means to solve one big problem in the world, what would it be?
23. What do you want people to say about you at your funeral?
24. If you could conquer your fears, what would you do?
Your Streamlined Life
COME ALIVE & SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE
25. What do you like to learn about?
26. If you knew everyone in your life would be fine and your relationships would not suffer, what wild dream would you chase?
27. If you knew your interests could bring you financial abundance, what would you do?
28. What do you want to be known for?
29. If you could snap your fingers and have your dream job right now, what would you be doing?
30. How do you want to make the world better?
Now that you’ve answered the questions, look for patterns.
• Do the majority of your answers indicate that you seek freedom and adventure? Or, do you desire more structure? Your answers may provide insight about what kind of work day is ideal to you.
• Have you felt most alive, happy, and excited when you’ve cared for others in your life, indicating that a caregiving role is possibly something you’d love?
• Is there a social problem in the world that infuriates you beyond belief, and you’d love to solve it if you had the resources and could figure out how? Start studying people who have fought for social change.
• Are the majority of your role models entrepreneurs? Exploring the business you want to start may be a good idea.
BONUS MATERIAL
Now what?
4 Action Steps to Take This Week:
• Start spending 5 minutes per day on something that interests you. If you’re longing to write a book, write a couple sentences per day. If you crave working in the medical field, read a medical journal article online. Take baby steps toward living the life of your dreams. As you start spending tiny amounts of time devoted to your newfound interest, a couple things may happen: you will either love doing the activity, and your momentum will build and you’ll do more of it, or you’ll find out it’s not something you love to do, and you’ll ditch it. Either way, you’ll be one step closer to finding your true passion.
• Find an accountability partner. Tell someone what you’re passionate about and set a small initial goal toward living a passionate life. Share your goal with your accountability partner.
• Do something new. Sign up for a random class through community ed. Try a new activity. You never know what you might love! Taking action will help you find your passion.
• Email me at kerry@yourstreamlinedlife.com. Let me know what has kept you stuck in your life. I can help you get unstuck.
I’m here to help you come alive and spend your time doing what you love. Only you can discover your passion.
If you’ve spent many years caught up in the daily grind, it might take awhile for you to figure out what lights you on fire. And that’s okay. Give
yourself the time and freedom to dream big. It’s
never too late to start living with passion.
Get the most out of this workbook:
• Set aside at least half a day to work on these questions
• Go somewhere quiet and peaceful, alone
• Get rid of distractions: turn off your phone and computer; completely unplug
• Give each question ample time and revisit questions later if needed
• Let your imagination run wild
• As you start truly thinking of living with passion, the fearful “common sense” side of you will kick into high gear with a million reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t dream big. Give yourself the freedom to dream big and think of a life full of possibilities. You deserve it.
IT’S TIME TO COME ALIVE AND SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.
1. When in your life have you felt the most alive?
2. What makes you happiest?
3. What do you get so into, that you lose track of time when you do it?
4. If you had unlimited resources and the ability to do anything you wanted with your time, what would you do?
5. What aspects about your personality do people compliment you on?
6. What angers you the most?
7. What scares you the most about the world?
8. Who inspires you? Why do you look up to them? Is there a common trait your mentors have?
9. Whose lifestyle do you wish was yours?
10. What comes naturally to you? Think about the times when something has ‘clicked’ for you that others struggle with.
11. What makes you incredibly excited?
12. If you had a free hour to browse your favorite bookstore, what section would you go to?
13. What is your favorite section in the newspaper?
14. What would you do if you knew you would not fail?
15. What would you like your priorities to be?
16. What is your ideal work day like? (What time do you get up? What do you wear? What is your schedule? Are you alone or surrounded by people?)
17. What makes you a good friend? (Are you a ridiculously good listener, encouraging, supportive, or handy?)
18. If you have free time, do you consistently daydream about something?
19. What is your dream vacation? What does your destination represent? (Hiking may indicate you love being active, vacationing with a group of friends may indicate you’re very social, traveling solo may indicate you value independence.)
20. What are 3 of your biggest strengths?
21. What type of conversations can you not help but eavesdrop on?
22. If you had the means to solve one big problem in the world, what would it be?
23. What do you want people to say about you at your funeral?
24. If you could conquer your fears, what would you do?
Your Streamlined Life
COME ALIVE & SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE
25. What do you like to learn about?
26. If you knew everyone in your life would be fine and your relationships would not suffer, what wild dream would you chase?
27. If you knew your interests could bring you financial abundance, what would you do?
28. What do you want to be known for?
29. If you could snap your fingers and have your dream job right now, what would you be doing?
30. How do you want to make the world better?
Now that you’ve answered the questions, look for patterns.
• Do the majority of your answers indicate that you seek freedom and adventure? Or, do you desire more structure? Your answers may provide insight about what kind of work day is ideal to you.
• Have you felt most alive, happy, and excited when you’ve cared for others in your life, indicating that a caregiving role is possibly something you’d love?
• Is there a social problem in the world that infuriates you beyond belief, and you’d love to solve it if you had the resources and could figure out how? Start studying people who have fought for social change.
• Are the majority of your role models entrepreneurs? Exploring the business you want to start may be a good idea.
BONUS MATERIAL
Now what?
4 Action Steps to Take This Week:
• Start spending 5 minutes per day on something that interests you. If you’re longing to write a book, write a couple sentences per day. If you crave working in the medical field, read a medical journal article online. Take baby steps toward living the life of your dreams. As you start spending tiny amounts of time devoted to your newfound interest, a couple things may happen: you will either love doing the activity, and your momentum will build and you’ll do more of it, or you’ll find out it’s not something you love to do, and you’ll ditch it. Either way, you’ll be one step closer to finding your true passion.
• Find an accountability partner. Tell someone what you’re passionate about and set a small initial goal toward living a passionate life. Share your goal with your accountability partner.
• Do something new. Sign up for a random class through community ed. Try a new activity. You never know what you might love! Taking action will help you find your passion.
• Email me at kerry@yourstreamlinedlife.com. Let me know what has kept you stuck in your life. I can help you get unstuck.
I’m here to help you come alive and spend your time doing what you love.
Posted in Coping mechanisms
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How to use Emotion Regulation Coping SKills
How to Use Emotion Regulation Coping Skills

“The appearance of things change according to the emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.” – Kahlil Gibran
Emotion regulation is all about identifying, managing, and responding to emotions in a way that allows them to be useful and productive aspects of your internal experience. To “regulate” an emotion does not necessarily mean to make it disappear any more than it necessarily means to intensify the emotion. Depending upon the situation you are in and other contextual factors, it may be in your best interest to either calm an emotion or tap into an emotion more deeply.
Mindfulness enables you to become a more cognizant observer of your experience, allowing you to become more “tuned in” to what you are feeling inside. When emotions feel confusing, overwhelming, or paralyzing, they are not serving the healthy and productive function that those very same emotions are able to serve when used constructively.
It is important to understand that the emotion itself – be it anger, fear, sadness, or joy – is not the “enemy.” There is no such thing as a “bad emotion” anymore than there is a “good emotion.” Emotions can have theconsequence of making you feel good or bad, but it is often the interpretation of the emotion and the way that you respond to the emotion that creates this subjective experience.
For example, the emotion of anger can be experienced as “bad” when it results in lashing out inappropriately at other people or creating an internal state of feeling out of control. On the other hand, the same emotion of anger can be experienced as “good” when it is acting as a motivating force to urge you to stand up for yourself, protect yourself, or right a wrong.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Emotion Regulation
Consider integrating the following components of emotion regulation coping skills into your growing emotion regulation “toolkit:”
(1) Understand your emotions
Practice taking a step back from your emotional experiences and giving yourself the time and space to notice anddescribe what you are feeling. Choose not to immediately become swept away by your emotions, but rather mindfully take a pause and actually notice what you are experiencing. This might sound like a simple concept, but it is not easy. Reflect on the role that emotions have played in your life and make an honest self-appraisal of how well you have been able to truly understand your emotional experiences. Consider how your life might be changed for the better if you allowed yourself internal space to mindfully observe your emotions.
(2) Allow exposure to your feelings
The more that you choose (consciously or otherwise) to avoid your emotions, the more likely it may be that they will become persistent and simply wait around for you to acknowledge them and experience them. The idea is to carefully, mindfully, and gradually allow yourself to sit with uncomfortable feelings and truly experience them. When you create a story in your mind about your emotions being unacceptable or frightening, there is a natural tendency to avoid them at all costs. As you consider your willingness to experience your emotions, reflect on the following Robert Frost quote: “The best way out is always through.”
(3) Use counterconditioning procedures
The idea behind counterconditioning is that a response to a particular stimulus is replaced by a new response. This new response is intended to deter you from the stimulus. Systematic desensitization is one technique that falls under the counterconditioning umbrella. To use this technique, you basically learn to use relaxation and otherdistress tolerance techniques when faced with uncomfortable emotional experiences (e.g., fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, guilt, shame). Actively and deliberately practicing relaxation techniques directly in the face of distressing emotions allows you to reduce the sense of urgency that often accompanies painful emotions (i.e., urges to take immediate action).
(4) Increase positive experiences
Consider the saying “you are what you eat.” Try applying this same adage to your internal psychological experience: “you are what you think” or “you are what you do.” When your attention and conscious focus is consistently shifting toward negative, distressing, or unpleasant thoughts and behaviors, it is easy to see how your emotions might closely follow suit. Just as you are capable of creating an intense internal state of distress, you are equally capable of creating an internal state of peacefulness and calm. Actively direct your thought and deed toward positive and healthy endeavors. Choose to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and open your lived experience up to the light in the world, rather than the dark.
If you are struggling to consider how you might increase positive experiences, consider a few of the following suggestions:
- Talk with a friend or loved one.
- Take a walk or hike outside.
- Take a bubble bath.
- Listen to soothing or uplifting music.
- Writing in your gratitude journal.
(5) Increase mindfulness of your current experience
When you choose to make contact with the present moment, you are simultaneously letting go of your attachments to the past and future. Mindfulness enables you to fully step into this moment – right now. Quite often, worries about the past and future take us so fully away from the present moment that we can begin to feel disconnected from ourselves and our lives. Check back in with yourself and tap into this moment in time. Are you basically “okay” right now? No matter how intense or unpleasant emotions may be in the present moment, it is guaranteed that they will pass. Remember that emotional experiences are temporary. Allow yourself to become a mindful and curious observer of your experience and you will notice that it is possible to have a new relationship with your emotions. They have no magic power over you that you do not hand over to them.
(6) Increase competence in using coping skills
Learning to effectively regulate emotions is like learning any new skill… it takes practice. Remember that the ultimate outcome of feeling that you are the “captain of your own ship” is worth it. Your emotions don’t have to take over your life or interfere with your important relationships when you learn how to understand, manage, and respond to your emotions more effectively. Become mindful of your own personal tendencies and emotional triggers. Notice what situations tend to prompt emotional responses in you. When you increase self-knowledge in this way, you are better prepared to competently and confidently employ emotion regulation coping skills no matter what the situation.
When you make the decision that it is worth it to you to consistently and actively apply principles of emotion regulation skills to your daily life, your experience with your emotions with naturally evolve. Many parents don’t raise their children with an “emotional how-to” book that encourages them to teach their children how to effectively identify and manage their emotions. Often times, when these basic emotion regulation skills are not learned in childhood and adolescence, it can make for an adulthood rife with emotional confusion or distress. There is no time like the present to learn to use your emotions constructively, allowing them to work for you rather than against you.
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Marra, T. (2004). Depressed & anxious: The dialectical behavior therapy workbook for overcoming depression and anxiety. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Posted in Coping mechanisms
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Feeling is Believing
Your beliefs will guide you whether or not they are in your best interest. Maybe you believe that you are incapable of having a healthy intimate relationship, or that you aren’t attractive to others, or think you will not live a long life. Or perhaps you have a strong conviction that you are very lucky, or that people in general are basically good and trustworthy. Whatever the belief may be, you hold it as a truth and perceive that those who disagree with you are thinking irrationally since, when it comes to beliefs, there is often no common evidence upon which agreement can be reached. Nevertheless, your beliefs, whether they are within your conscious awareness or not, direct and influence your life.
It’s only in recent decades that we’ve recognized and validated that emotions are a powerful attention directing system—an amplification device—in our brain. They are responsible for creating the visceral responses regarded as feelings, that in turn are transformed into thoughts and the formation of beliefs to help us make sense of what we experience at the moment and to use for future reference. Even the most simple beliefs have emotional memory at their core, such as a certain food, person, or place that may no longer appeal to you following an experience that resulted in you having a disgust response.
Logic may inform you that life experiences dictate the conclusions we draw and form the cognitive constructions that lead us to believe what we do. However, it is not simply that past experiences determine how we view and approach the present based on beliefs we’ve created and hold. Instead, our present beliefs are governed by past experiences that are linked to unconscious emotional memories. In his book, Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self, Donald Nathanson (1992) writes, “Whatever resides in our memory is stored with its accompanying emotion; thus each of us has a highly personal ‘information bank’ of emotion-related data. This storehouse provides the coloration of an event—that which is personal for each of us” (p. 48). Thus, as far as our beliefs are concerned, emotional memories provide an unconscious lens through which we view our world. In addition, our unconscious affects are subject to various influences as they become the emotions we consciously experience. J. Samuel Bois reminds us that, “Apart from inherited variability, affects are made different in their manifestations and in their expected satisfactions by the culture in which we are brought up” (p. 260).
As noted in a previous blog, your emotional memory has accumulated a great amount of data that it uses to inform and protect you in the event that you encounter a similar situation in the future. How fortunate it is that the next time you encounter a situation—one that is similar to a previous event where an emotion was activated—your emotional memory will be able to recall what you experienced and respond accordingly. The ability of the human brain to compare current experiences to the stored representations of previous experience is referred to as “pattern matching” (Nathanson, 1992). But, at times, emotional memories that are based on your previous experiences may lead you to develop cognitive beliefs that may be contrary to your goals or interfere with them. For example, what you may want most is an intimate and loving relationship, but you believe that you are unlovable or flawed and so you avoid closeness with others. However, experiencing oneself as unlovable or flawed does not necessarily translate directly to emotional memories where one was made to believe so. Instead, the emotional foundation of such beliefs often has to do with experiences related to shame—perhaps a subject for a future blog. The point is that emotional memories, and their impact on our beliefs, are complex.
Since conscious and unconscious beliefs are closely connected to your affects they can play out in your present life in many maladaptive ways. The psychoanalyst, Joseph Weiss (1997), refers to such beliefs as “pathogenic” and developed his theory of psychopathology through empirical studies of guilt and shame—emotions that are central to the formation of the self and to one’s functioning in interpersonal relationships. Where Weiss refers to pathogenic beliefs, Silvan Tomkins (cited by Kelly, 2012), a psychologist and personality theorist, considers the formation of “scripts” as the learning or knowledge structure (belief-formation) that results from the experience of emotion. It is likely that many, if not most, theories of psychopathology and treatment have as their basis, overtly or not, an interface between emotions and beliefs.
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Given that the muscle of emotion forms the foundation of a belief, it is no wonder why humans adhere to their adaptive as well as maladaptive ones. Whether the belief has to do with food preferences, intimacy, religion, politics, or this blog, the beliefs that you “feel” can interfere with your relationships with others and your ability to learn about yourself. Testing what you believe can only be accomplished in relation to an other, preferably an other with whom you have a trusting relationship. Thus, here I must call upon the wisdom of J. Samuel Bois (1968/2003), a psychologist, semanticist, and epistemologist, who wrote in Communication As Creative Experience, “Do not evaluate critically the other person’s views against your own as the standard of truth and wisdom, but take his views as a tentative standard against which you re-examine and re-evaluate your own opinions and feelings”(p. 24).
For information regarding my books about emotions: http://www.marylamia.com
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3 Common Goal Setting Mistakes
Setting and achieving goals is one of the best surefire ways to improve the quality of our lives. We commonly use goals to improve our health, relationships, financial situation, career or business success, and even happiness. Sometimes goals are set for us, as in a work situation, but most of the time we determine our own goals.
SEE ALSO: How the Act of Daily Goal Setting Makes You Successful
Successfully achieving those goals is not only key to advancing our careers, but also to help us to grow as individuals. Unfortunately, when choosing our goals, we often unknowingly sabotage our success, by committing these three very common goal setting mistakes.
Thinking Too Narrowly
One of the biggest benefits of creating goals is that they force us to focus our time, attention, and energy on a specific objective, instead of scattering our focus and our resources among the broad range of possibilities vying for our attention. When we concentrate our efforts on a specific target, we’re more likely to accomplish our goals and less time.
That said, setting a goal that is too specific, while achievable, can lead to a goal setting mistake, by missing the true intention of our goal in the first place. We fall into this common trap by thinking too narrowly, and missing the bigger picture of what we’re really hoping to achieve. Unfortunately, this often leads, to wasted effort and frustration.
Setting a goal to lose 20 pounds for example, might be very valuable to a person who is otherwise healthy, but just carries a little bit of extra weight. For others, losing 20 pounds, while appealing, is misdirected effort, when the real goal is to achieve better health. When you look at the bigger picture, losing weight might not be the most effective goal. Perhaps quitting smoking would be more valuable. Lowering cholesterol and blood pressure or reversing heart disease might be better served by changes in diet or increased activity. Though losing weight might be a byproduct, it isn’t actually the true goal.
Another example of a too specific goal might be to increase the number of sales calls or project numbers, when the real goal is to advance our career, and a more valuable goal might be to attain an advanced certification or further our education to make us more valuable to an employer. Still another to specific goal might be to find the perfect mate, when the real goal is to be happier. Even if we find the perfect mate, we won’t necessarily be happier, because we have missed the true underlying need.
Quantity VS. Quality
In our zealousness for accomplishment, we unwittingly sabotage our forward movement by setting quantity goals rather than quality goals. Quantity goals may simply mean that we have set too many goals at one time rather than focusing our attention on a single, or a select few quality goals. But perhaps more important, is the distinction between a quality goal and a quantity goal.
Quantity goals usually deal with numbers while quality goals generally deal with an improvement in our overall quality of life and work. Unfortunately, quantity goals are easier and faster to achieve so they tend to draw our interest, but often quality goals have more impact on making important changes that address our most crucial needs.
When setting goals, focus on quality rather than quantity to avoid goal setting mistakes. Also, notice if you tend to automatically gravitate to “numbers” goals. Quantity, “numbers” goals are not inherently bad, and can be very useful as long as they are also quality goals that address the bigger picture.
Unrealistic expectations
We see this common mistake time and time again. If we set a goal of finding a new job or getting a promotion but only give ourselves one month to do so, we’re just setting ourselves up for failure. Writing your first book generally takes more than six weeks, six months is a more realistic goal. Also, be sure your goals are within your control.
Being offered a new job, might not be within your control, but revising your resume, hiring a career coach, or sending out resumes and checking job postings every week is within your control. Finding an agent or publisher in a specific timeframe probably isn’t within your control, but completing a book proposal, and contacting potential agents is within your control.
keep these common pitfalls in mind When determining goals. Set goals that impact the bigger picture and address your true objectives. Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking too narrowly and concentrate on quality over quantity. Make sure your goals are realistic, within your control and have a reasonable timeframe. While you’re at it, take a look at past goals that you weren’t able to achieve, see if you can revise them, and try again.
(Photo credit: Golf Bunker via Shutterstock)
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One of the Best Goal Setting Exercises
Someone very smart once said, “How we spend our days is how we spend our life”. Life doesn’t usually change overnight (as much as we would often hope it would). It changes, because we make little tweaks in our daily habits. Sometimes we do it intentionally. But a lot of times we just kind of start doing something differently, considering it to be insignificant minor change, but these small actions add up to huge life changes over time.
This partly explains why the goal setting exercise that we’ll talk more about in this post is so effective. But before we get to it, let me explain what I mean by “minor changes” leading to huge results.
Small steps matter
Nutritionists say that it’s enough to eat 250 calories less per day to lose 26 pounds a year. 250 calories are 2/3 of a Chocolate Chunk Cookie at Starbucks. This means that by not changing anything else in your daily routine except for eating 250 calories less a day will get you much bigger results than fad diets or irregular gym workouts.
The same is true for the finances. According to the Money Mag’s Millionaire Calculator there is no need to win a lottery in order to become a millionaire. It’s enough to save $5 a day for 40 years and you’ll hit a Millionaire status!
When you think about it, putting aside a tiny part of your salary a day or passing on a cookie is do-able. And it pays off in the long run. But for some weird reason very few people actually do it.
The way we pick, set and pursue our goals is largely to blame
When we decide on what is it that we want to achieve in life, we rarely think ‘small changes over the serious period of time’. Usually it’s the other way around – ‘massive action, over the next two weeks’ (usually followed by the long breaks of inactivity and procrastination).
However, there is one very simple, yet powerful exercise that helps us to shift focus from short term-gain to smooth and steady long-term results. And no, it’s not the usual – picture what your life will look in 5, 10 and 20 years visualization.
The goal setting exercise I’m about to share with you is much more realistic, effective and creative. It’s called…
The “Average Perfect Day”
The name gives the game away really. All you have to do is sit down, turn the soft lounge music on and ask yourself one question – What I want my Average Perfect Day look like?
Take a piece of paper or open a blank document on your computer and write down your perfect schedule for the day.
- What time do you wake up?
- What do you do once you are awake?
- Do you kiss your beautiful spouse?
- Do you open the windows and head to the beach to do your 20 minutes of Sun Salutations and 10-minute meditation?
- Do you say “Thank you” for all the blessings that you’ve been given?
- Then what do you do?
Write it down as detailed as possible, following your average perfect day step by step. Another key here is to focus on the word “average”. It shouldn’t be a day where you go on vacation, get married or bump into Johnny Depp while shopping at an antiques flea market.
It should be a day that you would re-live over and over again, without getting bored, exhausted or overwhelmed.
If you dig deeper, you’ll take away quite a few insights from this exercise. First, you’ll clearly see little habits that you can start instilling today to get yourself closer to your vision of Average Perfect day.
Some of the changes may seem bigger and more overwhelming. It’s okay. Just by having a clear goal of what you want your day to be like, will have your subconscious mind working to get you there. You’ll notice the opportunities that you haven’t seen before, you’ll do things a little differently and your set of circumstances will change, creating different, more positive outcomes.
Start with the smallest changes and work your way up
Pick something simple, that doesn’t require you to move to a foreign country or change your career. Begin by saying thank you for your blessings. Spend 10 minutes meditating. Read a bedtime story for your kids.
We all have enough time, motivation and determination to stick with one tiny habit for 30 days (that’s the time it takes to make it automatic). Then you can move on to the next little goal and so on.
Go ahead and do it right now! This is one of the most powerful goal setting exercises ever and it can be eye-opening in terms of setting the right priorities. Why? Because how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. It’s really as simple as that.
Set a goal for yourself
“I know it is achievable. I can work up to 50 push-ups by following a 30-day plan.”
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The Symptoms of Anxiety
There are common symptoms of anxiety that people experience in terms of feelings, behaviors, thoughts, and physical sensations. Nonetheless, it is important to remember that anxiety is a highly subjective experience. Not everyone will experience the same symptoms, nor will each person experience the same intensity of a symptom. Still, it is helpful to provide some examples of the common physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms of anxiety.
Physical symptoms of anxiety
The physical symptoms of anxiety refer to how we experience anxiety in our bodies. Examples include:
- A feeling of restlessness, feeling “keyed up,” or “on-edge;”
- Shortness of breath, or a feeling of choking;
- Sweaty palms;
- A racing heart;
- Chest pain or discomfort;
- Muscle tension, trembling, feeling shaky;
- Nausea and/or diarrhea;
- “Butterflies” in the stomach;
- Dizziness, or feeling faint;
- Hot flashes;
- Chills;
- Numbness, or tingling sensations;
- An exaggerated startle response; and,
- Sleep disturbance and fatigue.
These symptoms are caused by the physiological changes that occur in the body during a fight-or-flight response. Unfortunately, our bodies do not distinguish between a real and present danger in the environment (fear), and an imagined or anticipated danger in the future (anxiety). For more information about why these symptoms occur, please refer to section on Biological Explanations of Anxiety
For people who experience panic attacks, the above symptoms are all too familiar. However, as previously stated, a person does not need to develop a full-blown anxiety disorder to be able to relate to any of the above symptoms. For these symptoms to be considered a “disorder” they must reach a certain level of intensity, duration, and frequency such that the symptoms cause significant distress and interfere withsomeone’s functioning.
Behavioral symptoms of anxiety
The behavioral symptoms of anxiety refer to what people do (or don’t do) when they are anxious. Behavioral responses reflect attempts to cope with the unpleasant aspects of anxiety.
Typical behavioral responses to anxiety may include:
- Avoidance behaviors such as avoiding anxiety-producing situations (e.g., avoiding social situations) or places (e.g., using the stairs instead of an elevator).
- Escaping from an anxiety-producing situation (like a crowded lecture hall).
- Engaging in unhealthy, risky, or self-destructive behaviors (such as excessive drinking or drug use to deal with the anxiety).
- Feeling compelled to limit the amount and scope of one’s daily activities to reduce the overall level of anxiety (e.g., remaining in the safety of one’s home).
- Becoming overly attached to a safety object or person (e.g., refusing to go out, away from home, to school, or to work in order to avoid separation).
Ironically, these coping strategies often worsen and maintain an anxiety disorder. This is discussed in more detail in the section, Maintenance of anxiety disorders: Maladaptive coping strategies
Emotional symptoms of anxiety
As we mentioned earlier, anxiety in its most basic form is an emotion. However, this emotion produces a set of feelings. Common words used to describe the feelings of anxiety include:
- apprehension,
- distress,
- dread,
- nervousness,
- feeling overwhelmed,
- panic,
- uneasiness,
- worry,
- fear or terror,
- jumpiness or edginess.
Some individuals, especially children, may not even be able to describe their feelings and may at times simply answer, “I don’t know what I feel.” Interestingly, many people find the emotional component of anxiety most distressing. However, the other symptoms of anxiety, such as thoughts, behaviors, and physical responses cause the greatest disturbance in terms of their daily functioning.
Cognitive symptoms of anxiety
Finally, there are the cognitive symptoms of anxiety. Whether we realize it or not, it is often quite common to have thoughts running through our mind when we feel anxious. Even when we do not feel anxious, we have thousands of thoughts every day! The thoughts people experience when anxious are commonly referred to as worry (Bourne, 2000). Although the content of the thoughts may vary depending on the person and situation, common themes include:
- “What if _ happens?”
- “I must have certainty.”
- “I can’t possibly tolerate not knowing_.”
- “What do these physical symptoms mean?”
- “People will laugh at me.”
- “I won’t be able to escape.”
- “I am going crazy.”
- “Oh my God, what’s happening to me?”
Depending on the nature of the specific anxiety disorder, and a person’s own unique anxiety history, the possible worrisome thoughts may vary.
The psychological symptoms of anxiety may include:
- Problems with concentration, or difficulty with staying on task;
- Memory difficulties; and,
- Depressive symptoms such as hopelessness, lethargy, and poor appetite.
Notwithstanding, what is often found at the heart of pathological anxiety is an inaccurate cognitive appraisal of a situation. This usually means overestimating the amount of threat in a given situation, while at the same time underestimating one’s ability to cope with these threats. These concepts are discussed in more detail in the Psychological Explanations of Anxiety Disorders section.
The cost of anxiety
These physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional symptoms of anxiety can certainly take their toll.
The “cost” of unidentified and/or untreated anxiety can be quite high:
1. Lost social and professional opportunities because of excessive shyness or social anxiety;
2. Dysfunctional relationships because of a fear of asserting oneself;
3. Increased risk for cardio-vascular disease and suicide;
4. Other health-related problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, teeth grinding, and other jaw-related disorders;
5. Drug and alcohol problems; and,
6. High rates of absenteeism, reduced work performance, reduced productivity, unemployment, under-employment, and disability.
In more concrete terms, the cost of anxiety disorders in the United States is more than $46 billion a year. This represents nearly a third of the US’s mental health cost! Of note, less than one fourth of these costs, represent the cost of treatment (DuPont, et al. 1996). Clearly, the cost of untreated anxiety disorders is very high. This is particularly disturbing since there are highly effective treatments for anxiety disorders.
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Normal and Abnormal Anxiety
At the most basic level, anxiety is an emotion. Simply stated, an emotion is a subjective state of being. It is often associated with changes in feelings, behaviors, thoughts, and physiology. Anxiety, like all emotional states, can be experienced in varying degrees of intensity. For instance, we might say we are happy. A more intense expression of this same emotion might be an experience of joy. But unlike the emotion “happiness,” which has several different words to convey these differing levels of intensity (e.g., intensity ranging from happiness to joy), anxiety is a single word that represents a broad range of emotional intensity. At the low end of the intensity range, anxiety is normal and adaptive. At the high end of the intensity range, anxiety can become pathological and maladaptive. While everyone experiences anxiety, not everyone experiences the emotion of anxiety with the same intensity, frequency, or duration as someone who has an anxiety disorder. Let’s look more closely at some of the differences between the normal emotion of anxiety, and anxiety as a disorder.
The normal emotions of anxiety and fear
Anxiety, and its close cousin fear, are both considered emotions. While there is considerable overlap between these two terms, there are some important differences. Fear is generally considered a primary emotion. In contrast, anxiety is considered a secondary emotion that represents the avoidance of fear (including the avoidance of fear-producing stimuli). Primary emotions refer to emotions that are recognizable through facial expressions. Primary emotions can easily be interpreted by an observer and exist across different cultures. These primary emotions are: happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust. Secondary emotions, such as anxiety, are not readily recognizable to an outside observer. Secondary emotions are generally considered an internal, private experience.
The most important distinction between fear and anxiety is the timeframe. Fear is the response to a danger that is currently detected in the immediate, present moment of time. In contrast, anxiety refers to the anticipation of some potential threat that may, or may not, happen in the future. In other words, fear is a response to an immediate danger in the present moment of time, while anxiety is associated with a threat that is anticipated in a future moment of time. Anxiety reflects the anticipation of fear and represents anadaptive attempt to prevent the fear-provoking circumstance from occurring. In an anxious state, people are readying themselves and preparing themselves to cope with a future problem or dilemma that they anticipate will cause some kind of harm if not prevented from occurring. In this respect, anxiety is a normal, beneficial emotion.
Emotions are simply a normal part of the human experience. As such, they are neither good nor bad. What happens afterwards determines whether we experience a particular emotion as good or bad; i.e., the changes in our feelings, behaviors, thoughts, and physiology. At this point, you may be wondering, “What could possibly be good about fear and anxiety? Don’t these emotions just make people feel miserable?” Well, the answer may come as a quite a shock, but fear and anxiety are actually very important emotions. When it comes to human survival and achievement, anxiety and fear actually motivate us to take necessary action. For example, picture a young mother and her child are crossing the street. The mother suddenly realizes they are in the direct path of an oncoming car. Imagine what would happen if she did not feel the least bit afraid. Now imagine a law student preparing to take his bar exam so that he can become an attorney. What if he didn’t have any anxiety over whether he passed or failed his bar exam? Clearly, without fear and anxiety to prepare their minds and bodies for automatic action, these individuals would be at risk for some very serious, negative consequences. So, while the experience of fear or anxiety may at times be an unpleasant one, we can see that without these important emotions we’d actually be far worse off.
Fear and survival: The fight-or-flight response
When people speak of fear, they are often referring to the body’s physiological response to fear. This is known as the fight-or-flight response. More specifically, when we are in the presence of an immediate danger, our bodies will automatically begin to prepare us to either attack the threat (i.e., fight) or more often, to escape from the danger (i.e., flight). Clearly, the ability to perform these necessary actions ensures our survival. This ability is made possible by the fight or flight response. For example, when we are faced with danger our hearts begin to beat very fast. The reason behind this increased heart rate is that the emotion of fear signaled our body and mind to prepare for action. The nervous system responds to the signal of danger by attempting to increase blood flow throughout the body. This increased blood flow ensures extra oxygen is delivered to our muscles. This extra oxygen is needed for energy during a fight or an escape from danger (e.g., running really fast). This increased blood flow requires the heart to work harder, and beat faster. Similarly, because increased oxygen is beneficial when faced with danger, there is a natural tendency for people to begin breathing more rapidly and more deeply to meet the demand for extra oxygen. This extra oxygen enables the body to rise to the challenge of fight-or-flight. These physical responses are discussed in more detail in the section, Biological Explanations of Anxiety.
Like many adaptive mechanisms, the fight-or-flight response has evolved over time to help ensure our survival. In ancient times, our ancestors came into constant contact with many types of very real dangers in their environment (lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!). Over time, with repeated exposure to these threats, our ancestors’ nervous systems began to evolve in a manner that made the fight-or-flight response automatic and immediate. This adaptation was very beneficial. It ensured the necessary physical responses, (such as increased heart rate and respiration) would occur without wasted time (immediate) and without having to think about it (automatic). This adaptation makes sense because human beings would be at a significant disadvantage if they had to stop and rationally determine best course of action whenever they were in danger. Consider again the example of the mother and her child crossing the street when she realizes they are in the direct path of an oncoming car. Clearly, she does not have time to stop and weigh out all her options. Her response must be immediate.
In modern times, we may not encounter the same sorts of danger our ancestors had to face. Nonetheless, we still encounter threats in our daily lives that make the fight-or-flight response useful. Present day examples include physical threats (being attacked by a mugger); social threats (being ridiculed or embarrassed); and mental threats (“blanking-out” on a difficult exam). Unfortunately, a problem arises when the fear response is triggered but there is no actual threat in our environment. Thus, the response serves no useful purpose. This is called a false alarm. False alarms are discussed in more detail inanother section. For now, it is simply important to recognize that without a certain amount of fear in our lives, our survival becomes more difficult.
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