However, there is one key area of your life that stops you from progressing in a fast and effective manner towards your desires, dreams and goals. I will now highlight this obstacle and show you how to effectively remove it forever so that you can create the life you want!

One of the worst things you can do when you need to motivate yourself to reach your long held goals and dreams is to criticize yourself. This is a pattern that has been taught to you since you were very young with school tests, grading, placement in your class and class evaluations. Teachers, parents and peers constantly compared you to others as if that was a way of gauging your true worth. This kind of personal evaluation probably continues to this day with employment superiors over-viewing your work, progress and most likely conducting some form of personal evaluation.

This view of assessing your strengths and weaknesses, although probably well-intentioned, has set a pattern within your own mind for self-criticism and self-doubt. Are you in a perpetual state of comparison? Do you find yourslef comparing how you perform to the performance of other people? Do you beat yourself up for not having attained the same level of success as those around you or those you view from afar? Are you disappointed in yourself when you fail to achieve exactly what you set out to achieve in the time you gave yourself?

Being self-critical can cause untold damage in your life. Criticism, regardless of what area of yourself or your life you have focused it, has a ripple effect that damages all other areas. By believing you are less than you should be you are sending a very strong message to your subconscious mind that you are just not good enough. Such a belief halts your progress towards your desires. It leaves you feeling frustrated and extremely unhappy. If you are really and truly not good enough then how could you ever change anything? If you are not good enough then there can be no way for you to change yourself, your circumstances or your life.

The first step to overcoming this self-defeating pattern of thinking and feeling is to become aware that it is there. Look carefully at yourself and how you interact with yourself internally. Notice when you have a tendency to berate yourself. When you notice yourself comparing your behaviour, talents, abilities or results to those of someone else immediately stop. Only judge your own performance. If you must compare yourself to anyone then compare yourself with yourself. Look for how you have improved. If you give a task everything you’ve got and do your best then you are already a success regardless of the outcome. You have stretched yourself and your personal self-imposed boundaries.

Keep a journal of all your goals and list the success you have already created. When you can look back at where you once were and see the improvement that you have made personally then your confidence will be increased and your self-esteem will rocket. If you compare yourself to someone else then bare in mind that you do not know the other person’s circumstances. You do not know what advantages they had when they began, so comparing yourself to them is a futile exercise. Even if these people did overcome serious adversity to achieve the same things that you now want take it as a positive sign. If they did it then so can you!

Try to encourage yourself when you are faced with a challenge. The difference between internal criticism and internal encouragement can mean the difference between a life of fear, dread, discouragement, pain, frustration and a life filled with abundance, joy, peace and harmony.

Giving yourself approval takes practise, so start right now. If you look at what you are doing when you criticize yourself it is really a form of self-disapproval. Approving and disapproving are just choices. You make them internally and you can re-make them in a different way. Approving of yourself and dispproving of yourself is merely a choice you make!

Right now begin to give yourself some approval just for the heck of it. Many times we disapprove of ourselves and others for little or no reason so turn that around. Begin to give yourself approval just because you are you. Can you imagine how differently you will view the world through the eyes of self-approval? Can you guess what kind of strides forward you can make in your life with an internal voice of encouragement? Do you think you, your family, friends and work colleges would benefit from you taking this new radical approach to how you view yourself?

By taking this approach and viewing yourself in a much more positive way the progress you make will astound you and the speed at which you start to move in the life direction that you have chosen will be amazing. You will gain more peace, happiness and harmony as a by-product and live a life filled with much more contentment, satisfaction and joy. Your personal development is assured!

It is possible to improve your life in any area you can think of. Millions of people have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve their dreams and so can you.

However, in order to create change in the outer world you must first be willing to make the necessary internal changes. You can restructure the world of form and materiality only when you alter and realign your internal world of thought and emotion!

The first step to creating a better life is to know what you want. You must be clear on your intent. Your mind is the most powerful tool you have and your thoughts are the most powerful force for change that you will ever encounter in your own life. By getting clear on your intentions you will immediately set in motion the necessary energy needed to accomplish the change you desire.

Through your mind you can formulate new positive thoughts that are in alignment with your wishes. These thoughts will regulate your actions, reactions and ultimately your results. You should not underestimate the power that your thoughts and emotions play in creating the changes you desire. Decide now what it is that you want. Be clear and concise on your goal. Then form a menal image of yourself as though your were already in possesion of it right now. Dwell on that picture at different times throughout your day and recall the positive emotions assosiated with it.

Next you must cultivate the belief that you are capable of making these changes. Many times people will set goals and even formulate plans to attain their desires but they are unwilling to release their own self-doubt. As strange as it may sound holding on to false beliefs of inadequacy or the thoughts that certain things are impossible gives many of us a sense of safety. You must begin to challenge your own self-doubt and build your self-belief. If the human race has learned anything from its time on this planet it is this – Man can achieve anything physically that he can first create in his imagination. You were born with the same basic mental equipment as everyone else and what one person can overcome to reach their goals another can overcome also.

Do something everyday that will move you closer to your goal. No matter how small the action may be, do something. The Chinese say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you take small steps everyday you will eventually walk a thousand miles! Taking small action steps everyday will just as surely mean you eventually reach your goal! Take these small action steps in the knowledge that, regardless of how small or insignificant they may now seem, they are moving you in the direction of your desire.

Begin to act as though you were already in possession of your goal – “fake it till you make it”, is a saying that springs to mind. This means if your goal is to create better relationships start to plan how you will spend your time together. Doing this forces the mind to focus on your desired outcome and as the mind only thinks in pictures it will be unconsciously visualizing your desire. Leave space in your bedroom for your future partner’s belongings or park your car so there is enough room for your partner’s vehicle – or anything that is meaningful to you and sends out the message that you are making room for your partner to appear! If your goal is a financial one mentally begin to spend your money and see your bank account grow. A word of caution though – do not spend money you do not have! Spend it mentally, in your mind’s eye.

Prepare for your new found fortune. Build the plans for your changed life in your mind first. Then the material manifestation will follow!

Do things differently. The famous quote “If you always do what you’ve always done then you will always get what you’ve always gotten”, sums this up. There is a Chinese proverb that describes insanity which encapsulates the very idea that I am now presenting to you. The Chinese definition of insanity is as follows; Doing the same things in the same way and expecting a different result! Be prepared and willing to change yourself before you see changes in your world.

Reward yourself for your successes. If you acknowledge even the smallest gain you make you will be building up your self esteem and reinforceing your confidence. Never berate yourself! Use your mistakes as learning experiences. There is no such thing as failure only giving up. When Edison failed 9,999 times in his attempts to create the electric light-bulb he did not give up. When quized about his failures he said, “I have not failed, I have just found 9,999 ways that don’t work!”. By uses your mistakes as learning experiences and viewing them as merely gained knowledge you will increase your understanding and know what does not work. Sooner or later you will find a way that does work and your success will follow.

Cultivate an understanding of other people. Use their knowledge and experience to your advantage. There is no point trying to do things in a way that has not succeeded for anyone else. Look closely at those people who already have what you want and try to ascertain how they got to where they are from where they started. You do not need to go through countless trial and error exercises to reach your goal if someone else has already found a way that would work perfectly for you.

However, be prepared for set-backs. It seems that life naturally throws obstacles and learning experiences in our path so that we can grow and become better human beings as a result of them. It is only through our rejection and resistence to these obstacles that cause us pain and suffering. If everything came to you effortlessly would you enjoy the triumph of success as much as you would if you had overcome some obstacles along the way?

Be open to opportunities and allow life to show you the way. By remaining flexible in your approach to your goal-attainment you leave your path open to allow for unexpected windfalls of good fortune.

Strive to remove as much of your negative mental programming as you can. Your unconscious thoughts have a greater effect on your life than you currently realize and should be eliminated at their root. This clears your mental processes and ensures when you have a thought it is not battling with opposing thoughts and feelings. A focused thought is powerful enough to create any change and to create it quickly.

Start right now to form a picture in your mind’s eye of how you want your life to be. Visualize your desired outcome as though it were already a part of your life. Feel the joyous positive emotions that this vision evokes. Everyday take some action that will lead you closer to your goal. Eliminate the negative unconscious thoughts that are in direct conflict with your desires to ensure your thoughts are strong and powerful. If you diligently put into practice the steps I have shared with you your life will be transformed and within one year you will be astonished at what you have achieved.

Once you release your emotional attachment to your past you are free to enjoy the present. From this powerful place of being happy and content with where you are you can then begin to create the future of your dreams.

Although you cannot change anything that has happened in the past you can change how your past experiences affect your future. The first step to releasing the past is to accept that it happened. No matter how traumatic the experience or how distasteful the memory is you must acknowledge here and now that it occurred. This is what we call entering a state of Acceptance. There is no point fighting with your past and wishing it was different. You cannot change it so accept it!

After acceptance you can enter a state of peace when you realise that the past, all of it, good and bad experiences alike have helped to form and mould the person you are today. All the knowledge, desire and love that are in you right now are a direct result of the past experiences that make up your life.

Next realise that the past has some powerful lessons to teach you. Look for the positive learning experience that the past has taught you? Use your past as a learning tool. See where you went wrong and make the changes you need to make today so that your future becomes a bright and welcoming place. Never use your past as an excuse to stay the way you are or to tolerate circumstances and situations with which you are currently unhappy! Realise that the past has been and gone. All you have is this moment and that is all you need to make changes.

There are literally millions of people who have overcome major adversity to reach their goals so why should you be any different from them. These people refused to accept what life had handed them. They never moaned about their past nor allowed it to interfere with their present and thus they created their future the way they wanted it to be.

You should never use the past an excuse for staying stuck in your life. Your power is always in the present moment. Use your past negative experiences as a motivational tool to spur you on. It is all about your perception! The truth about this universe is that you always get more of what you focus on. If you chose to focus on the mistakes and hardships of your past then that is what you will experience more of.

But if you decide to put the past where it belongs, in the past, and fully embrace the present moment and where you are you will find yourself in a powerful creative place. Only revisit the past to learn from it not as an emotional trip. Although much of your current mental conditioning originates from childhood and early life experiences it can be changed. By making the decision now and holding the intention now that the past will no longer affect you, you can free yourself from your own self-imposed bondage.

From this place of freedom you can make decisions based upon current situations and circumstances instead of being the slave to reactive emotional thinking and acting. The evidence is everywhere that people with painful, damaging pasts have overcame them and gone on to achieve high levels of success. Look at the business world, sports, creative arts etc. There are rags to riches stories everywhere you care to look.

You may encounter past experiences that are very difficult for you to realease. At these times you should seek professional help in whatever form you feel appropriate, even if it is just a subliminal or hypnosis recording. Do something now to release your past – make the decision that it will no longer rule over your current life. Set the intention that, even though you may not currently know how, you will release all your emotional attachment to the past. Do this and you will start to live more content in the present while you await your glorious future.

There are people from every walk of life who are performing miracles everyday. You may have heard the stories of a woman lifting the full weight of a car to save her child or a man walking again after years in a wheelchair. Perhaps you have heard of the British man who’s body miraculously cured itself of AIDS or the men and women around the world who have found their cancer dissolve. You may even have heard of stranger things happening in places like India and Tibet.

However, you may be unaware of the miracles that ordinary people, just like you and me, are performing all over the planet. Miracles like, turning financial ruin into avalanches of wealth and abundance, finding soulmates and healing illness. Miracles are happening right now where men and women are; rekindling failing or failed relationships; healing old emotional wounds that have been carried for decades; finally reaching all there long cherished goals.

Would you like to be one of them?

The power of miracles does not lie in some long and almost forgotten past of avatars and saints. Nor does it lie in some distant mystical land or with metaphysical warriors who had studied ancient hidden arts for decades. The power of miracles lies right here in the present. Your power is in the NOW!

The reason why so many people fail to gain results from tried-and-tested techniques such as visualization, affirmations, hypnosis, subliminal programming etc., is because they are constantly living in the past. They allow hurts from the past to impinge upon the present. Every negative thought or feeling that you have is based in the past. It is experiences that you had in your past that lead you to form that way of thinking and feeling. You must learn to release these hurts.

The secret to performing miracles in your life is to get clear on what you want. You really do not need to do anything else. If you would only think of the things you want then that is all you would ever get. However, when you think of something that you desire you immediately allow your mind to wander to thoughts connected with a past experience. You may think that because you have never achieved any goal you set that there is no point in trying again. You may have been hurt in relationships and thus you allow these episodes in your life to stop you from trusting and committing. You know yourself what pains you have endured in the past. Do you want to continue recreating them or would you rather break free?

The truth is your thoughts create your reality. Quantum physics has already told us that matter cannot exist without consciousness. This new science is now telling us that it is consciousness itself that is the very driving force behind the physical universe and everything that is in it. It goes further by stating that consciousness, through thought, actually collapses the quantum field of possibilities into just one reality – in other words your thoughts and beliefs make things real! You create your own world!

Therefore the first step to creating miracles in your life is to take full responsibility for everything that you have created so far – bad relationships, terrible jobs, unfilled potential or good relationships, great jobs and goal achievements etc. By taking responsibility you regain your power because if you did it then you can undo it or redo the same way or in a way that is more pleasing to you.

Look at how you were thinking in regards to the good things in your life – the things that you are happy with. I bet you do not have much negative thoughts and feelings around them. Now look at all the things in your life that are not how you want them to be. I bet you think in negative terms about those a lot. Also look at the things you do not have. Are you in a state of wanting to have them? Are you lusting after them or grabbing at them? If so, then you are affirming to yourself and your subconscious mind that you do not have them!

Begin to dissect your thinking by reviewing how you feel about things in your life. Your emotions are a great guide to what you are currently creating. When you are in a state of happiness and your emotions are postive you will find that it is because you are mentally focused upon the things that you want in life. When you are feeling bad about something then this is an indication that your thoughts are focused upon the things that you do not want. When you find yourself in this state you can quickly change it if you start to direct your thinking towards the things that you do want. Once you do this you will feel your mood lightening and if you are persistent you will enter a happy state. This lets you know that you are back on track and thus attracting and creating the things that you do want in life.

Seek out ways to eliminate all the hidden negative thoughts and feelings that you are currently afraid to look at. We all have them! It is strange but things that are clearly apparent to other people about ourselves are hidden from us because we refuse to acknowledge them. I am sure you know of a person that has some undesirable qualities and yet they are the first to point out those qualities in another. They just cannot see that they are like that themselves. We are all guilty of doing this!

Once you begin to eliminate your hidden negatives you will find that your thinking becomes much more positive without any conscious effort. You will find your life begins to change in magical ways. And you will surely see many miracles taking place in your life as you embrace the life you always wanted and deserve!

There is one simple personal development technique that can keep you motivated and ensure that you will keep moving forward toward you goal. Let me share it with you.

Do you recall when you were a child and had all the wonderment that only a child has? Do you remember any of your replies when adults asked you, as a child, what you wanted to be when you grew up? If you were like most people your answers would have changed from week to week depending on what interested you at that particular time. Never once did it enter your head that you could not be what you wanted. You held the strong conviction that anything was possible. You had the belief that you could be, do or have anything you wanted.

When you grew from childhood to adulthood these positive beliefs were replaced by limiting beliefs as you listened to other people around you. You have allowed your mind to become conditioned with negative beliefs. You have been brain-washed into believing that you cannot achieve your dreams because it is just not possible to do it. This mindset leads to the biggest pitfalls of setting and achieving goals – procrastination and giving-up!

When you were a child you were not afraid to dream big dreams. You gave no thought to how you were going to be an astronaut or how you could possibly learn to fly a multi-million dollar fighter jet – you just knew you could do it and knew it was going to happen! You were not afraid to think big. As you grew older and the world grew smaller for you, your view of your position in life and what was possible for you grew smaller also. Your dreams and aspirations became subdued to practicalities and what you believed was possible for you.

Now that you have reached adulthood you have bought into all the negative programming offered by others, the media and the education system and also formed some damaging negative views of your own based on some negative life experiences that you now think are common place. You have forgotten that you have the capability of thinking big.

Back in ancient times when Rome and Carthage were the two strongest powers in the world a Carthaginian leader called Hannibal told his generals he wanted to take his army and 80 elephants across the Alps to fight the Romans in their own terrority. His generals told him there was no way this could be done as in many places along the route even a solitary man would find it difficult to pass. Hannibal responded confidently, “We will find a way or we will make one!”. Hannibal’s response was swift and to the point, “We will find a way, or we will make one!”

Hannibal had a big dream. He wanted to defeat Rome and make his city of Carthage the strongest and only super-power of the ancient world. He had a big goal and a big dream. He wasn’t about to let some mountains stop him!

In order to achieve your goals you must re-learn to think big!

Having a big dream that offers big rewards and life changing results when it is achieved is the only way to stay motivated enough to tackle any challenge or obstacle that stands in your way. When you have a big dream that offers you big pay-offs you will be much less likely to allow fear to get in your way and thus you will develop persistence.

There is no such things as failure only giving-up. All you can gain is experience. When he was asked what it felt like to fail 9,999 times when trying to invent the electric light-bulb Edison replied,” I haven’t failed 9,999 times. I have just found 9,999 ways that don’t work!”

Stop setting your goals based on practicality or what you think is expected of you. Dream big! With a big dream you will take big action and you will experience big results!

Have you recieved the results that you were promised from the personal development tool syou used.? Did you get the full benefit of the self improvement programs you diligently followed? If not take heart for I am going to share with you the reasons why and the solutions!

The great majority of personal development programs, CDs, techniques, books and seminars teach very valuable and life changing information. The methods they promote do work. It is unfortunate though that they are missing a very vital and essential truth. It is this missing information that is the key to achieving unparalleled success with these programs. This key is not only the launching pad for success and a guaranteed method which will allow you to gain anything you desire if it is put into practise but it is also the reason behind your failure because you have not known nor applied it before now!

Have you ever noticed that there are certain things in your life that seem to be on auto-repeat? You keep getting jobs that are unsatisfactory; have bad bosses; irritating co-workers; financial problems; painful relationships, etc?

Have you tried hard to change certain situations in your life just to have the same outcome every time no matter what actions you take?

The reason behind this phenomenon lies in your mind.

Anyone who has studied self improvement or personal development and even those of you who have merely touched on the subject will know that everything begins in the mind. Without the right mental attitude you can achieve nothing worthwhile in life. Nothing of major importance has ever been achieved without the achiever having had a clear mental image of the outcome already in mind before success ever came. This is where many people go wrong. They think that if they create a positive mental picture of what they want and then take actions to get it, everything will fall into place easily – they are missing the key!

The only reason people fail to achieve their goals is because of negative mental beliefs. Most times these beliefs are hidden deep in the subconscious mind. In order to achieve the success you desire it is necessary to evaluate your belief system; resurface these beliefs and then eliminate them!

By holding a strong image in your mind of what you want and backing that image with clear and purposeful action you begin to set in motion some very powerful universal forces that work to aid you in making that mental image solid in the real world. However, many times these mental images are hindered by the negative beliefs that you hold which are contrary to what you actually want. These beliefs are always active and running like computer programs in your subconscious mind ‘ sending out the opposite mental images to that of your desire.

It is imperative to your success to find and eliminate these negative programs. This is the whole point of personal development.

There are many great methods for eliminating negative programming. However, I have found that the hardest thing to do is not removing these negative beliefs but finding them in the first place. So this should be your first goal ‘ to seek out your negative programming. Before beginning this bare in mind that it doesn’t matter how you got these beliefs, or who gave them to you. All you want to do is find them and remove them. Leave blame out of it!

Begin by creating a goal. Write it down as though it has already happened. Read this statement aloud and then close your eyes. Create as much positive emotion around this mental picture as you can. Now just enjoy this imaginary scene until you begin to have doubts that it is real. Take a blank piece of paper and on it begin to scribble down all the negative thoughts that enter your head. Don’t judge them, suppress them or get annoyed at them, just let them flow.

Now once you have a list of all the negative thoughts connected to your goal you can begin to remove them.

Look over your list and analyse all the statements you produced. Really think about them. Are they true? Is there any basis for them? Evaluate each one in turn and think of ways to overcome each belief. There are hundreds of great self improvement tools designed to help you do this but here is a simple one to get you started.

Take one negative statement and think about what that means to you. Identify the underlying belief behind that thought. Is it a lack of self-worth, low self-confidence, insecurity, feeling not-good-enough or just a lame belief you picked-up from someone else that you have never given any real thought to?

Challenge the belief. Ask yourself questions every time you recall that belief. Question the authenticity of the belief. Identify the emotion that you feel when you think about that belief. Allow that feeling to fully surface. When you allow this to happen you will find that the negative emotions you are feeling get very strong just before they leave. When you allow the negative emotion, which is driving the negative belief, to fully express itself and dissipate you will find yourself much more positive and without the negative thoughts you had previously.

So everyday speak aloud your goal statement in the morning and visualize it as being reality. Evoke strong positive emotion around this image. Then, at night, repeat this procedure but use a blank piece of paper and write down all the negative thoughts that surface. Then take each one in turn and give it some real thought. Feel the negative emotions related to it and allow them to surface fully ‘ do not try to suppress them. Then allow them to fully express themselves in your mind and body and they will dissipate. This can be hard to do as we have been taught to suppress our emotions and have probably been doing it for many years. When you begin to feel the emotions getting stronger you will have a strong urge to suppress them but don’t! When the negative emotions behind your beliefs are allowed to fully surface and express themselves they naturally dissipate. As they dissipate so do the thoughts and beliefs behind them.

You will find that you become much more positive in a very short time and find it much easier to achieve your goals.

Success is difficult to achieve for many due to one simple cause – self-doubt! In order to experience more success in any endeavour you must first eliminate this success-killer and re-build your self-confidence.

Unfortunately it seems to be a natural state on planet Earth to steer towards the negative. I am sure that you find yourself thinking negative thoughts throughout your day. Are you are truly aware of just how damaging these thoughts are to your life? Negativity is a state of mind that is cultivated in our society which, when embraced, gradually strips away your self confidence and erodes your self-esteem.

The only real alternative to negative thinking is positive thinking. Keeping an open mind about subjects tends to leave you in a sort of no-man’s land where it is all too easy to get sucked back into a negative mindset. Now by positive thinking I do not mean magical thinking where you believe everything will just magically work itself out. Neither am I referring to unrealistic thought processes. I do not mean that you hold on to the unrealistic view that regardless of your actions, or lack of action, you will reach your goal. Your choices and actions are an integral part of any goal-achievement program or plan. I am talking about a positive mental attitude!

You must begin to look for the positive in every situation. The old adage “every cloud has a silver lining” should become your motto. Did you know that some of the most successful people on the planet hold the same belief that “everything happens for a reason”?

Please be aware that wherever you are in life, no matter how good or how bad you think it is, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Let me illustrate this concept a little better for you.

On the morning of 9/11 a terrible tragedy occurred when, many innocent people needlessly lost their lives. However, there were those who escaped the terror that was experienced by far too many others. Did you know that one woman soiled her work clothes with food and had to remain at home longer than usual to get changed? Another woman slept in because her alarm never went off! There was one person who could not get a taxi and another’s car would not start. Now normally these incidents would make you feel annoyed, irritated or even angry however, how many of those people do you think were annoyed, irritated or angry that day?

If you hold a vision of where you want to be in life and take small steps towards it everyday, then you should know that everyday is bringing you closer to your dream. And, if you are getting closer to your dream then you are exactly where you are meant to be at this moment, doing exactly what you are meant to be doing, with the exact right people you should be doing it with.

If your current situation is in anyway distasteful to you, take heart. Keep in mind that this is just a stage, a stepping-stone, from where you are to where you are going to be. Here are some key tips to follow to eliminate self-doubt and achieve your goals.

1. Stay in the present moment at all times and be grateful for what you already have in your life. Practise gratitude and never moan or complain about where you currently are!

2. Decide what you want to be, do or have and make it a goal. Make it an affirmation of fact! In other words, state your intention as though it were already an established reality. Read this statement to yourself every morning and every night.

3. Visualize your ideal scene. Picture yourself already in possession of your goal. Make it real and see it through your own eyes! Create strong emotion with the picture ? this is vitally important!

4. Look for the positive in every situation, circumstance and person. By focusing on what is good about a thing you will attract more of that into your life.

Follow this simple advice and you will eliminate self-doubt and begin to build the life of your dreams.

A great many people try to improve these areas of their lives but fail time and time again. Are you one of them? The truth is this – you cannot achieve any goal or objective if you don’t believe that you can do it. You must improve your own self-image and increase your self esteem if you wish to improve your life!

I’m sure you know of someone who sells themselves short in a relationship. There are many people who put up with unloving relationships and relationships that neither support nor encourage them. Most people keep their dreams hidden from the world and even those closest to them. They will not set goals to achieve them due to fear and apathy. What these people lack is a basic belief in themselves and their abilities.

Is there something you would like to achieve in your life or improve but you lack the belief that it is possible for you? Do you see other people succeed and believe that others can do but you can’t?

We all suffer from some form of self-doubt. This is a necessary part of the human condition. Self-doubt can keep us safe. It is designed to keep us safe. You have a great deal of doubt that you could walk on water and therefore do not drown. You doubt that you are capable of walking on fire and therefore do not get burned. However, many of our doubts are unfounded and have their roots in the soil of low self-esteem!

If one human has achieved something great then other human beings can achieve it also. If you have dreams and desires rejoice. Ask yourself if you believe God would have given you such dreams and desires if you were incapble of achieving them? Do you think the Creator would be so cruel? You must realise that you would not have these dreams if you were not capable of achieving them!

However, you must learn the skills you need to learn to achieve your goals and make your action worthwhile. But, before you acquire the necessary knowledge and skill to complete the task of achieving your goals it is of major importance that you first believe that you are capable of achieving them.

To build faith and the belief that your goal will be accomplished you must first build faith and belief in yourself. You must build your confidence in your abilities and strengthen your self esteem. This will radically alter your self-image and you will start to view yourself as a winner and someone who can achieve his goals.

Here are four easy to follow steps to building your self esteem and changing your self-image.

1. The first step to high self esteem is to stop berating yourself. We all criticise ourselves. Some do it constantly. This is one of the most damaging things you can do with your thought processes. Be compassionate with yourself when you make mistakes, we all make them. Give yourself congratulations for the very fact that you have overcome your past adversity and lived to fight another day. No matter what painful experiences you have had in the past rejoice in the fact that they have helped to make you the person you are today – wiser and more capable.

When you find yourself berating yourself then stop and reverse it. Look for the things that you did right in the situation. If you hadn’t have dealt with the situation in the way you did might it have turned out worse?

2. Start to give yourself forgiveness for your previous short-comings. Forgive yourself for any past mistakes you may have made. Write them down if you want and read over them. Then rip up the paper and throw it away. This is symbolic of you releasing the past and moving on.

3. Give yourself some approval. Look for the things you have done correctly. Review all the things in life that you have achieved both recently and in the long past. Allow yourself to accept that you have done things right. Give yourself compliments when you achieve even the smallest of objectives. When you complete a goal or obtain an objective reward yourself.

4. Learn to love yourself. Each day for 5 or 10 minutes stand in front of a mirror. Look into your own eyes and say out loud “I love and accept you just as you are.” In the beginning this simple exercise can be extremely hard to do. Many people have become so accustomed to beating themselves up that they have forgotten how to nurture themselves. When you do this exercise you will find thoughts and feelings arising that contradict what you are saying. This is the perfect opportunity to release these past negative, false beliefs.

When such thoughts arise do not try to suppress them. Instead allow them to surface and allow yourself to fully feel the emotions that are attached to them. This is vitally important. Suppressing an emotion will keep it active and the thoughts that are linked to it. By allowing the feeling to be fully expressed in your body it will naturally dissipate. If you find some stubborn feelings and thoughts persisting then stop for a moment and give them some real thought. Is that really true about you? Is it possible that the belief you now hold could be incorrect?

When you follow these simple exercises you will build your self esteem to heights unimagined. You will find that many parts of your life start working without any effort from you and also find achieving your goals is much easier. A by-product of this increased self esteem will be better relationships. Your closest interpersonal relationships will benifit greatly from the work you are doing and it will all happen naturally and efortlessly. It is by loving yourself that you truly learn to love other people. When you have respect for yourself other people are tuned into this and it sends them a clear unconcious message about how you want to be treated. Treat yourself with respect,, love, compassion and kindness and others will treat you that way also.

If you have a recurring problem in your life you should take a very close look at your attitude towards it. Do you complain about it? Do you resign yourself to it? Do you EXPECT it to keep occurring? The following personal development technique can help.

Take a close look at the things in your life that are not working. Are these not the very things that you complain about? Are these not the things that you expect to be not working. When you focus on the problem and direct your mental efforts towards it you are in fact re-creating the problem and maybe even creating more problems. Without even going into the universal law of attraction, from a very practical viewpoint you are projecting to others what you expect from them and life. People tend to respond to this, albeit unconsciously, and give you what you expect!

Asking yourself appropriate questions is the fastest and easiest way to completely transform your life and attitude. When you encounter a recurring problem you will find that you make statements such as “not again!”, or “this always happens to me”, or “I just knew that would happen!” You also find that the questions you ask yourself also reflect the problem itself and not the solution. You may ask questions such as “why does this always happen to me”, “when is this going to stop happening”, or “how long do I need to keep going through this”, or “why can’t I get past this”, or “why can’t I find a decent partner (job, home, career etc.).

These questions focus your mind on the problem and your mind is forced to answer the questions in a negative way. You may then have thoughts such as “because it’s my bad luck”, then your mind goes into a spin and recalls all the bad luck you have had. You may answer “there are no good men/women left” so your mind goes into a spin recalling just how many good people are married and how many “bad” people are left. The subconcious part of your mind then looks for things that will reinforce your beliefs and statements. When it finds them, which it always does, it immediately alerts your conscious thinking mind to them.

The key to reversing this downward negative cycle lies in the way you speak to yourself and others. Turn your outlook on its head by creating statements that are more positive about the situation. Don’t make statements that reinforce the situation as it is but make them so they reflect how you would like it to be or that it is changing in that direction. Tell yourself “things are getting better” no matter how unrealistic this seems at first just keep telling yourself this. Instead of saying things such as “this always happens to me”, or “I just knew that would happen!” tell yourself “everything happens for a reason” or “I will learn from this and move forward”.

Do not say things like “this will never happen again” or “I am through with this problem” because you are still focused on the problem! Keep your focus always on the solution!

Ask yourself questions in a positive way that supports the outcome you want and not the problem itself. This is a very powerful yet extremely easy thing to do that will dramatically transform your attitude and your life!

Try asking positive questions that require a constrctive positive answer such as “do I need to learn something from this experience and if so what is it?”, or “what is the very best way for me to overcome this and create the results that I want to experience?”, or “where should I look and what should I do to attract the right partner for me?”

Asking yourself the right questions will change how you view the situation and force your mind to search for answers. If your subconscious mind finds that it cannot supply you with the correct answers then it will diligently and tirelessly look for those answers through your life experiences, people you meet and siruations you encounter until it can answer what has been asked of it. Making statements that things are getting better forces the subconscious to look for things that reinforce that belief and alert you to them.

Believe it or not this approach will alter your entire perception of the world and your role in it. Before long you will find yourself becoming a much more positive person. You will gain insight into situations that in the past where perplexing and a constant irritation.

Try it and see!

You may not now know how to proceed. So what type of personal development goals should you set? How do you start to develop self improvement goals that will lead you to freedom, a deeper feeling of happiness, help you achieve a better lifestyle and ultimately create more success in your life? This question is not simple to answer because success means different things to different people. Therefore, if you want to become successful you must first have a clear understanding of what success means to you!

A fantastic way to get a clear on what success means for you is to ask yourself the question, “what would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?” Let your mind roam freely and immerse yourself in your inner vision. This vision will give you the clue that you need to unravel the mystery of success.

From the moment a person is born he/she has a natural ability to know what it is they want and a belief that they can have it. We develop dreams and ambitions at a very early age. However as we grow older we are conditioned to believe that these dreams are not possible or are mere fantasies of our imagination. You are directed to get a good education so that you can find a good job that will allow you to get a mortgage, get married, have kids and live a ‘normal’ life. By the time most people reach their mid twenties they have all but given up on their dreams or even forgotten what those dreams are. They have become conditioned into believing that they are incapable of achieving what they want in life. This fundamental belief forms the foundation of their self image and the rest of their mental attitudes are build upon it!

It is the role of personal development and self improvement to remove these conditioned mental attitudes from your inner mind and free you to pursue the life course that you chose for yourself. BY using self improvement methods and personal development tools it is possible to begin removing today the negative mental programming you recieved from well-meaning peers, family, friends and teachers. In addition you will also be directed to remove all those negative mental attitudes that have been given to you by not so well-meaning people and those you have developed yourself through negative life experiences. Although this is not always an easy or pleasurable journey to take the rewards that you will experience from taking it are immeasurable and make it truly worthwhile.

The freedom that you can experience from removing just one negative mental and negative emotional pattern is akin to the feeling of rest and tranquillity you feel after extreme physical exercise. Removing numerous negative mental attitudes and emotional stress from your mind and body is a feeling and experience that is truly hard to describe to someone who has never experienced it themselves.

Jesus Christ said, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”: Matthew 6:33. By removing the negative mental and emotional attitudes from your mind you free yourself to reach your goals. Let me explain.

Let us say you decide to set a goal to be financially free. There are thousands of different ways to achieve this goal. There are thousands of methods you could follow and plans you could set in motion that would bring you closer to this goal. Millions of people have gone from rags to riches. So, why does following a plan work for one person and the same plan will not work for another?

It is due entirely to the difference in attitude and mental conditioning!

There are at your disposal numerous personal development and self improvement methods that are designed to help you achieve this goal. Now these tools and methods are not designed to show you the way to become financially free but instead are designed to free you from your own inner resistance to being financially free. Many people think this is a waste of time and would prefer to be given step by step instructions to build financial wealth and I was once one of them. However, it didn’t matter how much effort I used or how many ‘guaranteed’ formulas I followed my financial situations did not improve and many times actually grew worse.

Why was this? Were the plans I was following just not good enough to create wealth? Were the people peddling these rags to riches methods merely conning me out of my money? Was gaining wealth just pure luck like winning the lottery?

The answer to all of the above questions is no!

The plans I followed had worked for thousands and made them rich! The people selling me the products and methods had all made their fortunes using the very same techniques they were trying to teach me! It was only after a great deal of hradship and many learning lessons that I discovered the truth – gaining wealth has nothing to do with being lucky!

It wasn’t that these things were not good enough to produce the wealth I craved it was that I THOUGHT I wasn’t good enough. When you hold a negative self image and have a negative view of yourself and your abilities it is very difficuly to achieve success no matter how much effort you put into it! This is why it is of paramount importance to first remove the negative conditioning that is holding you back in life.

Your attitude, which is only composed of thoughts and feelings, is responsible for your actions. Thought is the creator of action! Every action you perform, no matter how small or big, first begins in your mind as a thought. Each thought begins as a feeling. Think of when you met your last partner. You first felt the attraction. This developed into a thought or series of thoughts about meeting the person. Then you performed some action to make that happen. Think of the last time you went out socializing. You had the feeling that you would like to have some fun, or be with your friends, were feeling lonely etc. Then you had the thought. Then you performed the action.

If your actions are motivated by your thoughts and feelings and your attitude is composed of thoughts and feelings do you think you could succeed at a given task if you hold a negative mental attitude about it or your ability to succeed at it?

Once you embrace personal development and begin to use any of the myriad of self improvement tools to remove your negative mental attitudes you will naturally find yourself becoming more successful in life. You actions will be more positive and you will unconsciously perform the correct actions that will lead you to success. I am sure you can know see how important it is to set some personal development goals. Not only will you see improvement in your self, you will also see many symptoms of success added unto you!