Whenever you have a goal to achieve, big or small, it often requires resources. You need time, money or knowledge. Or, more abstract, you need support, encouragement or love. In this post, I’d like to share some common but nevertheless powerful knowledge with you about the resources you need to to succeed in achieving your goals.

Almost every successfully achieved goal consists of three crucial elements:

1. Defining the crystal clear goal. I wrote several posts about defining goals in your life, and finding purpose. Core of the matter: Whatever goal you want to achieve, describe it in detail. What does it look like? How does it feel? What does the world look like once you have achieved your goal?

2. Obtaining the resources you need. Before taking action, most people already decided for themselves that they simply do not have the right resources. But that is not what it’s about. It’s not about not having the money, time, knowledge, skills, etc. It’s about your current inability to obtain them. Stop and think about this for a moment. Is there really no money? There is plenty of it, and it’s out there! Do you really not have the time? You have the same amount of time every day as Einstein, Shakespeare and Edison; 24 hours! Don’t have the skills? There are other people out there with the skills, and they managed to obtain them. If you lack the skills yourself, find people who have them and find out how they did it. Looking at resources in this way can give you the radical new insights you need to achieve your goal!

3. The absolute desire and motivation to achieve it. I am sorry not to remember where, but recently I read this amazing quote: “No man was ever taking a walk in the mountains and suddenly found himself at the top of Mount Everest.” It’s very true, and applies to nearly every big goal. If you don’t clearly define the exact ‘location’ you want to arrive at, you won’t get there.

Even the cure to incurable disease is out there – we just haven’t found the cure yet. Despite the fact that we are still struggling, as a people, with the spread of HIV and aids, and that some other diseases can still not be cured, we managed to cure almost every major disease or found ways to reduce the chance of becoming sick to a minimum, because we have an absolute desire to cure these diseases. And it is because that desire that we already found a cure to most diseases. The only exception I can think of is time in this matter; A person with an incurable disease might not have the time to wait for a cure. But thankfully, this urgency also encourages the medical masterminds of this world to keep up on their good work.

The only real challenge is to obtain love. Because despite the fact that there are people out there who you can love, and who can love you, the place where those emotions are being given and received is not out there. It’s inside of you. And whether you would like to give someone the unconditional love he or she deserves, or receive it from someone, it requires you to be at ease with yourself. You really have to love yourself before you can love someone else.

Whatever you need to achieve your goal, ask yourself: Is it out there?

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Einstein once defined insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Whenever you want to see a different result, a positive change, an improvement in your performance or realization of your goals… you have to do something different from whatever you are currently doing!

A lot of people complain about their situation, whether it’s about work, their relationship or achieving a goal. Think about a goal which you have been wanting to achieve, while you experienced no or limited success. Then, answer the following questions by writing them down on a piece of paper:

1. What is your goal? Try to describe it in one sentence for the sake of clarity towards yourself.
2. What have you been doing to achieve this goal so far?
3. Why do you feel or think you haven’t been able to reach your goal?
4. How can you revise your strategy? What can you do differently moving forward? For example, look at the people who have been successful in achieving the same goal. What did they do? Often, the same actions lead to the same results! Can you put more effort in your existing steps? Any new things you can try out?
5. Carry out this new strategy you have designed.
6. Review it a few weeks or months from now to measure its effectiveness. If the changes in results are limited, then repeat steps 1-5 as you review your strategy. If you haven’t been able to get the results you want, it just means that the strategy you have been adopting is not on-point. Keep changing it until you finally achieve the results you want!

Part of my job is to run the highly popular website of the Eurovision Song Contest, which attracts millions of people every year. By frequently looking into the site’s statistics, actively ask for feedback and look at other successful websites, we continuously try to improve the website. Sometimes that requires very small changes, such as a different font or a slightly different color. Sometimes, it requires to adapt our strategy. But every small and big change helps us to reach more people and to strengthen the brand! Life is not much different!

Photo by zoostory, blog inspired by Celestine Chua

Sometimes, you just end up in a situation you don’t know how to get out of. You have no idea how to solve a problem. Not a clue what to choose from the available options. What to decide? Where to go? The five questions below can help you to get to a better picture of the situation and often lead to a clue on where to go, helping you to avoid freaking out. Working through these questions can actually ease your mind in a ‘therapeutical’ way.

What am I doing? Ask yourself what it really is you are doing. Take a step back and try to describe for an outsider what your problem is, or what the decision is you are trying to make your mind up. Start by writing “I am currently…”

Why am I doing it? Ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing? Why do you feel bad? Why are you unable to make up your mind? Why are you eager to take a certain step? Try to explain yourself, again as a third person, why you are doing the things you do.

How do I feel about it? It happens to me at a regular basis, and it happens to many people very often. You are facing a certain situation or decision to take, and you instantly have a certain emotion. You feel bad, for example. When asked why, you simply don’t know. Your unconscious mind often already knows the answer and puts you in the corresponding emotional state. Considering that more than 90 percent of your thoughts runs through your unconscious mind, you might want to stick great value to the outcome of that process!

What is the worst that can happen to me? Very often, people are being lead by fear. They are afraid of a gazillion things, while most of these fears are either unrealistic or the odds of those fears becoming reality are small. Did you know that over 90 to 95 percent of an average person’s fear will never become reality? Never in their entire life! In your particular situation, what is the worst that can logically happen to you? And is it really thát bad? There are some good exceptions, but in most situations the worst consequences are often not as bad as you initially believed.

What is the best I can get out of this? This is where a bit of will and creativity comes around the corner. In almost everything you can find a positive dimension. Illness can lead to a more conscious and healthy lifestyle. The loss of a loved one can lead to better awareness and appreciation for life. A lot of happy and successful people came up with their best ideas at times of ultimate despair. If you know in detail what’s the best you can get out of a certain situation, it’s much easier to actually reach out for that!

Note: A friend of me wanted to add two interesting questions. ‘Where am I?’ and ‘Who are all those people?’ Interesting questions, and I might just feature them in a future blog post. Do you have any other questions that help you in virtually any kind of situation? Drop a response right below this blog post!

Photo by zizzy0104

Since a year or so, I am part of an online community called Under30CEO.com, bringing together young entrepreneurs, sharing ideas, challenges, practical business practice and lifestyle stories. Out of their article 50 Best Success Quotes Of All Time I selected my 12 favorite ones:

1. “Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.”
Tony Robbins

2. “The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”
Socrates

3. ” If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Jim Rohn

4. “When your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you’ve got plenty to watch.”
Anonymous

5. “The more you loose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.”
Norman Vincent Peale

6. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Zig Ziglar

7.“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Les Brown

8. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
Donald Trump

9. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
Napoleon Hill

10. “Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.”
Vinnie Rege

11. “A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.”
John D. Rockefeller

12. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert Einstein

What is your favorite success quote? Please leave yours in the response field below!

From, practically, the day we are born until the day we die, we are often told and taught that dreams are by definition unrealistic, unachievable flashes of the imaginary world that only exists in our heads. The almighty Wikipedia describes a dream as “images, thoughts and feelings experienced while asleep, particularly strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep,” and continues to explain that “the contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood.” Dreams are those things we have at night, and those who make their dreams come true are just lucky – in a way we will never be. Or…?

In this HowToLiveWow.com blog post, I’d like to look at the big ideas we have about our lives, to which we also refer as dreams. Think of the things you really want to do, have, feel, give and achieve. Very often, people never turn their dreams into reality. The key reason is often the solid believe that he or she cannot make those dreams come true. One who is sure he or she cannot make a dream come true, either

• is crazy for trying something he or she believes is not possible and then does not make the dream come true;
• is crazy for trying something he or she believes is not possible and does make the dream come true anyway, and thus has little self-confidence, is unrealistically modest or just has bad judgment over his or her capabilities.

We often don’t even start trying to make our dreams come true, because we fear trying and failing. None of the great leaders, successful scientists and brilliant business figures has ever achieved anything great without being confident he or she could do it.

To help yourself making your dreams coming true, you can follow these six steps.

1. Allow yourself to dream. The more clear the picture in your mind is, the easier it is to translate it to the outside world and make your dream come true;
2. Make a decision about your dream. In order to do this you must decide that you are willing to invest in your dream and let go of certain security security and fear;
3. Get into action. Write down what it requires to get from where you are now, to fully realizing your dream. You won’t get anywhere without knowing your starting point, your end destination and the dots you need to connect in between. Which steps do you need to take? Define them. Then take them. Don’t forget – many small steps are easier to take than a few giant leaps;
4. Expect delay and difficulty. You might have not learned what you need to know, or have not grown where you need to grow. Be patient (not to be confused with quitting or giving up) and work on the difficulties meanwhile. Delay is not denial, unless you decide so;
5. Expect to hit a dead end. When you think you hit dead end, you might actually hit the last barrier before reaching your goal. It’s where everyone else stops. Consciously decide that you are not going to let yourself to be stopped by this last barrier. It is the key difference between you and your competitors so far;
6. Recognize the deliverance. It is not the final destination or your goal that has brought you to where you are. It is your desire, and that what you have learned along the way, and the person you have become that has allowed your goal to become reality.

Photo by johnnyberg, post inspired by TimelessLessons.com

Related posts! If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to read;

• How To Pass The Elephant?
• Why Not Now?
• 101 Things I Want To Do In Life

Every day, we have our moments of insecurity. Giving a presentation to the board, asking a relative for a big favor, expressing your concern towards a friend or admitting a mistake… These are just a few examples of the – literally – thousands of reasons we can feel insecure. If you need an instant, quick fix for this problem, this post might be of help.

To a certain extend, insecurity is one of life’s valuable self-protection mechanisms. However, in most cases, insecurity is nothing but a burden that limits you in achieving your highest potential. Luckily, there are many ways to grow your confidence and (partly) get rid of insecurity. There are countless books written about self-confidence, thousands of coaches making a living out of dealing with other people’s insecurity and if the lack of confidence really has an overwhelming impact on your life, a psychologist might be able to help out.

However, I’d like to share with you a more instant and easy-to-adopt way to grow your confidence. I used this method myself in the past and shared it with several people around me who all feel more confident following this strategy:

1. First of all, make obvious to yourself what you are insecure about. For this occasion, let’s say you are about to leave home for a job interview and you would really, really, really like to get that job
2. Clearly describe the desired result for yourself in your mind. In this example, that would be: “I am going to get that job!”
3. Say it out loud: “I am going to get that job!”
4. Now, move to a mirror, preferably one that shows your entire body, but the top half of your body is enough to make this work. Look at yourself. Look yourself in the eyes
5. Create a fist with both of your hands. Then, put your thumbs on your pointing fingers, as if you are handing someone a bank note or use a remote control. Symmetrically point at yourself in the mirror with both hands, look yourself in the eyes and say, as if it was the only option possible and as many times as you like: “I am going to get that job!” Concentrate!

Then, while you are at your job interview, again create a fist with both of your hands and put your thumbs on your pointing fingers, just like you did before (watch out, don’t start saying “I am going to get that job” during a job interview, but think it). Most likely, you will feel that same confidence as when you said it over and over again in front of the mirror.

This process is called anchoring and changes the wiring of your brain as you do it more often. After using this gesture over a period of time, you will discover that you can pull out that ‘confidence card’ at any time, at any place and under any circumstance.

Do you have any experiences with this way of growing your confidence? Please leave a response below!

photo by nickolatte

There are probably many rules that can help you to make your life work, or simply help you to make it better. To make things easier, I gathered ten rules that could help you to make things work in your life. They helped me to get things done, and they also painfully remind me about those times where I failed because of not following these rules. If you have good experience with these rules, or bad ones caused by not following them, please do not hesitate to share your comment with other readers.

1. Feel good, feel good about yourself and the things you do. If you cannot make yourself feel good about something, drop it! To be able to do so, in your mind, your body must be in the right and healthy state to be able to do so.

2. Know what you are doing, why you are doing it and believe in it. A lot of people either have no idea what they are doing, don’t know why they do what they do or don’t believe their acts contribute anything to the goals they set for themselves, if any.

3. Take risk. Many great things achieved in history were achieved by men and women taking extraordinary risks. But even by taking a little bit of risk you can already achieve a lot. Taking risk also means you have to accept it, so that you can anticipate on it.

4. Turn clear vision into a clear mission. A lot of people have great ideas, but didn’t think them through and didn’t make it their purpose to do anything with it. Imagine that everyone on earth would make a mission of bringing his or her best idea into practise. We would live in a much nicer worls.

5. Share your goal with people. Be with your team and empower them, so they get excited. One can achieve great goals alone, but they are not worth much when they are not contributing to anyone else’s life than yours.

6. Say things in a powerful way. Powerful does not mean angry, nor that you should scream at the top of your lungs when you try to make a point. By standing firmly for what you believe and seriously making it clear thought powerful expression, you can achieve more.

7. Smile. Some people forget to smile. Put a smile in everything you do. Even if you make a damn serious point about something negative, try to create a point where you talk about the positive and smile.

8. Listen.

9. Don’t move under pressure. A lot of people panic when the slightest pressure is being put on them. If you strongly believe in what you stand for, if you have thought through what you want to achieve and how you are going to do that, there is no need to panic.

10. Begin with the end in mind. Don’t go with the flow. Don’t wait to see what life has in mind for you. Nothing will come. No one who ever achieved great things did so by sitting and waiting for whatever would come. If you want to win the lottery, you have to buy a ticket! Know where you are going, and you will get there.

Photo by gute