How to Motivate Yourself

Simple Ways To Motivate

We have all been there, sitting around trying to get motivated. Being motivated is not always easy but when you are involved with personal development it is essential. Motivation stems from not being lazy, but when you work a full-time job, and having a family to care for, motivating yourself can be very difficult. However, it is not impossible and there are several things you can do.

1. Always remind yourself of why you are trying to motivate yourself. Remember that you are doing this because you want to do something better for yourself. When you wonder why you should get up off the couch and go for a run, remember that you are trying to improve who you are and you will find that the motivation comes.

2. Start small with what you are doing and build at is as you continue to grow. The more you do something, the more motivated you will be to do it and that feeling will grow as time goes on.

3. Have a set list of goals in mind. It is hard to stay motivated when you don’t know where you are going with something. Hence, by knowing the next step and the end goal, you will be more motivated to keep on the path.

4. Determine what it is that keeps you from actually being motivated. If you want to run five miles a day to lose weight but can’t seem to get motivated, discover why. If it is because you live in a bad neighbourhood, then go to the gym. If you are feeling as though you can’t write that book you want to write, discover why and then fix the problem.

5. Get the things you need to stay motivated. If you are trying to learn a new language on the computer but the computer is too slow, then you should get a faster computer. If you want to read more books but your library is too small, then you should find ways to get more books elsewhere.

6. Don’t sweat the small stuff. c that will drive us to not do something. Yes, things may be difficult, and there will be roadblocks, but don’t sweat the small stuff. Just keep your eye on the prize.

7. Develop a system of statements that will keep you focused. If you are trying to lose weight, then you can keep saying to yourself ’20 more pounds’. When you lose ten pounds, you can keep saying ’10 more pounds’ and so on until you have been able to reach your goal.

8. Once you have a taste of success, you will want to keep building on that success and that will be what motivates you. If you get a story published and you learn a new language, build on that and remember how you felt reaching your accomplishment. That will continue to motivate you into the future as each new accomplishment adds to your motivation.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Nov 20, 2010

MEET YOUR AUTHOR A DAWN AT THE TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY

Canadian Financial Author Ahmed Dawn at the Toronto Reference Library

First Published: ADawnJournal.com : June 5, 2009

The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair will take place at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St. (Closest major intersection: Yonge Street and Bloor Street. Located one block north of Bloor Street on the east side of Yonge Street; Public Transit: TTC subway station: Yonge. Walk to library north on Yonge Street) Toronto, ON, M4W 2G8. From 9am-5pm on Sat, June 13, 2009.

I will be participating in this event. For the first time in Toronto Small Press 22-year history, the TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY has agreed to host the 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair. This is a great opportunity to meet Canadian authors under one roof. Just stop by to say Hi. Hope to see you there.

The Toronto Small Press Group meets twice a year, and I always participate in these fairs. I will be posting video clips and pictures of The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair later on. Don’t forget to check out The Toronto Small Press Group website.

How to Strengthen Your Willpower

Strengthen Your Willpower

Willpower is what keeps you disciplined. It is that voice in your head that tells you not to have that big dessert and instead to go for a walk. It is what tells you to get moving towards your goals and to stay away from things that may deter from bettering yourself. If you are going to venture on the road towards personal development, then you need to consider strengthening your willpower. No different than working your muscles, when you keep your willpower strong, it stays strong and the stronger your willpower is, the better off you will be to reach your personal development goals.

1. When your mind tells you that you don’t need to do something, do the exact opposite. Your mind is acting like a child so just use reverse psychology and do what you know is right for you.

2. Look at when your willpower is the strongest and then focus on using your willpower during that time of day. If you find your willpower is stronger in the morning, then focus on your goals during that time of day. Otherwise it could be an exercise in futility if you try to focus on your willpower at night.

3. Willpower has a lot to do with patience and delayed gratification. Instead of getting what you want now, you wait and hope that the outcome later is better. Well, you can strengthen your willpower by making yourself wait. If you bought yourself a video game, you will want to play it right away. Instead, put it next to the television where you can see it and do not play it for five hours. Then, once that time has passed you can play it. You can do the same with a piece of cake and a 15 minute egg timer.

4. One of the most important things you can do when you are building up your willpower is to step out of your comfort zone. Your comfort zone is where you want to stay because you like it, but to push yourself, you need to step out of your comfort zone. If you are shy, start talking to random people. If you are selfish, start lending a hand at charities. You will be surprised by how much this can help you when you are trying to build your willpower.

5. Remember the carrot and stick approach. Think about the goal you have in mind and how great it will be to reach that goal. Use the goal to fuel your willpower to stay on track and before you know it you will have reached your goal and strengthened your willpower at the same time.

Willpower is very important when you are trying to better yourself, and that is why you need to keep it strong by constantly working with it. If you do not work with it, you will not have strong willpower and you will not reach your goals. Do not underestimate the power of willpower in your quest for personal development.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Nov 5, 2010.

Canadian Financial Blogs

Financial Blogs In Canada

First Published: June 7, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

It is time to present a list of Canadian Financial Blogs for my readers. There are many (probably too many) blogs out there these days—not all of them worth mentioning. In search of blogs that can be mentioned here, I have set some standard criteria to follow. Each blog needs to go through these filters, thus providing you with only quality writing and a pleasant reading experience.

Here are the filters for the ADJ litmus test:

·   The blog must have its own domain name. Free hosted blogs are simply not professional and lose credibility. You can’t simply expect to be taken seriously if you are on a free hosted site.

·   The blog must be three months old.

·   The blog must not have too much time lags between posts.

·   The blog must present original, vibrant, timely and timeless content.

·   I am featuring only English language and family-friendly blogs.

·   Blogs with low Google PageRank may not be approved but will be given special consideration to be listed.

This post is going to be updated from time to time to add dynamic, promising new blogs. If you come across a blog that you would like me to add, send me an email via my contact page or write a comment underneath this post.

I will be using sites’ own descriptions to describe these sites. For example, A Dawn Journal would appear as: A Dawn Journal – A blog on Personal Finance, Investing, Entrepreneurship, and More. Sites will be listed in alphabetical order – this puts A Dawn Journal on the top spot. Let’s begin our list.

Canadian Financial Blogs – The List

A Dawn Journal – A blog on Personal Finance, Investing, Entrepreneurship, and More.

Canadian Capitalist – A personal finance blog to help Canadians navigate their way through the alphabet soup of financial acronyms: RRSPs, RESPs, TFSAs, mutual funds and ETFs

Canadian Personal Finance Blog – Personal Finances and Consumer Concerns, essays, stories, examples and how to articles with a distinctly Canadian Point of View

Canada Personal Finance Website – A personal finance website written in simple and understandable terms from a Canadian perspective.

Four Pillars – Investing and personal finance

The Dividend Guy – One Guy’s Journey to Passive Income Through Dividend Investing

The Financial Blogger – Got Money?

Thicken My Wallet – Everything to do with thickening your wallet

Million Dollar Journey – The Making of a Millionaire – A Canadian Personal Finance Blog. Daily topics include The Smith Manoeuvre, RRSP, Canadian discount brokerages, Questrade, early retirement and book reviews

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative – A mainly Canadian economics blog

Where Does All My Money Go – Where Does All My Money Go

NB – I will be adding more sites slowly

Hobbiton Movie Set: The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 5

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 1

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 2

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 3

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 4

The humongous and spectacular 1250-acre farmland outside Matamata is where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies’ filming took place. Producers discovered the Alexander farm in 1998 and set construction started in 1999.

To create 39 Hobbit Holes, materials such as timber, ply, and polystyrene were used. I was astonished when our tour guide told us that the oak tree that overlooks Bag End is actually an artificial tree. To make this happen, an oak tree was brought in from Matamata and artificial leaves from Taiwan were individually wired onto the tree.

Later on, the tree was rebuilt for the Hobbit Trilogy in 2009. The whole structure of the tree was artificial this time, made of steel and silicon. You can’t even tell the tree is not real if no one tells you.

The Mill and the double arch bridge were made using scaffolding, ply, and polystyrene. Rushes were cut to make the thatch for the roofs of the Green Dragon Inn and The Mill.

The whole movie set structures were made to become permanent and only require maintenance to keep them nice. It took 2 years to finish the full project.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy took 3 months to film starting December 1999. The Hobbit Trilogy took only 12 days starting October 2011. There were 400 people on site at its peak.

There are lots of frogs in the ponds. During filming, the frogs were so noisy that Peter Jackson instructed employees to catch and move them to the next farm. Somehow they kept coming back, so they had to be moved again and again. After filming was completed, all of them were brought back.