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For many, it is often much more comfortable to remember the bad experiences in their lives, rather than the good. When unfortunate things happen to us, we tend to spend a significant amount of time and energy on thinking about what went wrong. By taking the time to increase our experience and depth of gratitude, we can start to balance out these negative thoughts. When we focus on the right thoughts, memories, and feelings from our lives, we can begin to gain numerous positive benefits and opportunities that further enrich our lives.

Genuinely feeling grateful in your heart, and choosing to articulate it through your words and your actions, you’ll be able to grow beyond your self-imposed limits and achieve a life of greatness and happiness. Being able to put your problems into perspective and find the good in every situation will help to keep you grounded and encourage you to nurture those in your life that you love.

Practicing gratitude can have numerous positive benefits, both physically and psychologically, so why do so many of us fail to practice gratitude in our daily lives? The most straightforward answer is that we are taught to be ambitious and are always striving to be better. However, when you practice an attitude of gratitude, you can open your life to more possibilities and achieve the greatness that you seek. Learn how to practice gratitude for a life of greatness and Happiness.

Step 1 – Understand Gratitude is a Choice

In the same way that you can choose to be optimistic or pessimistic, you can also choose whether or not you are going to be consciously grateful for your life. When you practice gratitude, you're actively choosing to have a more positive perspective on life. When you learn to focus on the things you have to be grateful for, you can gain greater happiness and experiencing a better quality of life. All it takes is you actively changing your outlook.

Choosing to be grateful is easier said than done. Not only will it require you to have a desire to be more thankful in your life, but you will also have to practice it on a regular basis. Just like with any other skill, developing a habit of gratitude takes time and practice. As you practice gratitude more and more, you'll notice that you'll find it easier to see the things that you are thankful for in your life. As you practice gratitude more and more, you'll start to feel more positive and happier overall. When times get tough, you'll be able to look at what you should be grateful for, which will affect your attitude and outlook.

You can actively begin to practice gratitude by participating in the following consciousness exercise.

Find a quiet place for ten minutes. Try to think of ten things that you are grateful for at that moment. They don’t have to be big, monumental things, they could be small things that happened to you during the day or even essential people in your life. Write down the ten items on a piece of paper or notebook. Take the time to look at each one and ask yourself why you are grateful for it.

Over the next 24 hours, try to stay conscious of your gratitude. Take note of the positive things that happen to you and the things that you are grateful for in your daily life. To help you begin to practice gratitude, you can start keeping a gratitude journal. When it comes to incorporating gratitude into your daily life, it can help to write down what you are grateful for in your life and refer back to it when you are stuck in a particularly tricky situation.

To start a gratitude journal, pick up a journal or notepad that you can use to write in every day. There are also many smartphone applications that are designed for this same purpose. One the first page of the journal, write down three things that you would like to achieve by practicing gratitude. Then, for the next four weeks or longer, start writing down three things that you are grateful for each day. While it's alright to repeat things from day to day, you'll get more out of the exercise when you can come up with specific things that you notice each day. As you write these things down, be sure to include why you are grateful for them.

Try to make a mental note of each thing that you are grateful for in the day to help you complete the exercise before you go to bed. Try to be conscious of the positive things you experience and kind actions you notice, throughout the week. Once a week, look back over your entries and take in the positive energy that you’ll get by revisiting all the things that you are grateful for in your life.

Step 2 – Learn to Counteract Negativity

When you begin to practice gratitude in your life, it can help you to cope with the negative emotions that you feel and the challenging situations that you face. As you worked through the consciousness exercise, you should have started to notice that you experienced a sense of increased positivity and contentment. This happens because when we think about the things that we are grateful for, we are actively choosing to focus on the positive emotion and good things in our lives. This positivity can be harnessed to help us through the more difficult and challenging times. By bringing positivity to stressful situations, you can shift your focus to a more positive response, which can lead to more energy and positivity to deal with the problematic situation.

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Introduction

Everyone, at one point in their life or another, have set goals they want to achieve. Unfortunately, more times than not, we seem to work endlessly toward our goals, but never quite accomplish them. Eventually, we may even begin to realize the great hurdle we're facing and give up on achieving our goals. This can lead to you feeling defeated, worthless, and like a monumental failure.

Everyone who has ever achieved success in their lives has done it through persistence. Persistence is at the very core achievement. Those who have managed to find success know that even if they fail, they have to get back up and carry on. They never give up. Unfortunately, for the majority of us, staying persistent can be extremely challenging. In the face of challenges, it can be hard to remain persistent.

Being able to imagine success vividly is a way to remain persistent on your path to success. And, since persistence has been shown to be at the heart of every successful person, it goes without saying, that your ability to clearly envision your dreams has a lot to do with your chances of success.

The Importance of Persistence

If you want to reach your goals, you have to harbor an unwavering resolution to see it through. Persistence is central to every goal that you have in life. Without this single

core tendency, it can be straightforward to give up when the going gets tough. Unfortunately, we live in a society where instant gratification rule. We've become used to having everything on-demand, and we've forgotten how necessary it is to have the patience to reach our goals. Patience is a skill that we have to develop over time, but there is a lot that works against us when we are learning to have patience.

The worst part about this happens when we experience failure. When we experience failure, we equate it to massive amounts of pain, and rather than suffer through that pain; we tend to take the easy way out and just quit. We all tend to have an intense fear when it comes with the potential for failure, that far outweighs our need to stay persistent in our quest to achieve success.

How do we overcome failure? Through persistence. As long as we can remain persistent, we can push through challenges and overcome failure.

#1: How to Embrace Unfailing Persistence

Much of persistence is grounded on the fundamental prerequisite of focus. When you focus on something, it has your undivided attention, which allows you to approach it persistently. However, it is when we lose our focus that we can lose our ability to remain persistent in our pursuit to achieve our goals. Becoming more focused is the pathway to remaining persistence on your path to success. While nothing in our lives, related to our long-term goals, can be categorized as direct or straightforward, there are some effective methods for staying focused and remaining persistent in your journey to accomplish your goals.

#2: Figuring Out What You Want

If you want to achieve a high level of focus, you have to figure out what you really want. You need to be precise and exact. For example, say you think that it might be good to move into a new house. What happens then? Do you say to yourself, "I wish I could move into a new house?" Of course not. When you want to move, you take the time to do research and figure out what kind of house you want to live in. You figure out if you're going to rent or buy.

As you start to figure out the exact kind of house you want to move into, your focus automatically increases. You begin to zero in on what you really want, shaping it and refining it in your mind until you have an exact picture of your dream. At this point, you start to search online for a match to your vision and maybe even begin to talk to realtors and touring available homes in person.

Similarly, with the rest of your goals, you need to determine precisely what it is that you want, right down to the very last detail. When you talk about abstract goals, like "I want to be rich," or "I want to lose weight," you're doing yourself an incredible disservice. When your goals are abstract like these, they are less and real, and you are less likely to achieve them.

After you've determined precisely what you want, write your goal down. Make sure that you are extremely precise in what you want, and be sure to include a due date for accomplishing the goal. The more detail you can add when writing down your goal, the higher your chances of achieving your goals. One study determined that you have a 42 percent higher chance of making your goals if they are written down.

#3: Continuously Remind Yourself Why You Want It

If you want to remain persistent on your path to accomplishing your goals and achieving success, you always have to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. If you want to achieve your goals, you have to have a strong reason to motivate you to remain persistent in your pursuit. If your reason for wanting to achieve a particular goal is superficial, then you can forget about ever achieving it. Your reason for setting the goal has to run deep.

One of the best ways to stay focused and persistent on your path is to have profound reasons for wanting to achieve your goals. Think about this for a minute. Think about a time in your life when you really wanted something, and you had a deep-rooted reason for wanting it, did you do just about anything in your power to achieve it? Think about a single mother who is working three jobs only to provide her children with a comfortable life. Why is she working herself so hard?

A single mother with no other alternatives has to do what she must to survive. While her goal might be survival, she might have a different purpose entirely. Take J.K. Rowling for instance. When she first set about writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, she was living on government assistance as a single mother. Clearly, she wasn't merely interested in survival but was interested in finding a way to thrive. She had a deep-rooted reason to do just that.

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If you are working on your career and it seems like you're not going anywhere, please understand that it may not be your intelligence. That's right. You maybe be the sharpest tool in the shed, but smarts alone may not take you where you wish to go. You maybe be very good-looking but sadly, looks can only go so far.

If you find yourself struggling in any area of your life, despite the amount of work and time you put into it, you may have issues with emotional intelligence. Either you're completely clueless about it, or you haven't fully refined it. Regardless, you are suffering because you are lacking in this department. Here are eight ways to know if your lack of emotional intelligence is holding you back.

Do you find it very hard to hold back your words to a loved one? You often say the wrong things at the wrong time with the people that matter most in your life.

Now, it's very easy to pass this all off as "being real” with them. You can say to them that you’re just being sincere and authentic, but unfortunately, such excuse will ring hallow. They can easily ask you a very question that will shut you down: “If you truly respect and love me, why do you choose those words to communicate?”

There are many ways to communicate the same idea. Unfortunately, if you are in an emotional state, it's too tempting and easy to say things in the worst way possible. Instead of simply communicating information, you may say things in such a way that they cut and demean the people you’re talking to.

People can only take so much of this until they start suspecting that you don’t respect them, much less, love them.

If you’re suffering from any of these, click here to get out from under the negative emotional habits that you may have developed over the years. Your problem can be fixed but you must first admit that it's a problem.

Do you feel that you’re always saying the wrong things to the people you love the most? Does it seem like your relationships can only go so far? Do you feel that you are somehow trapped in a negative range of emotions that no matter how hard you try and care about people around you, they just can’t seem to understand you?

It’s very tempting to look at that situation and assume the role of a victim. It’s very tempting to say that you were just “born that way". No you’re not. Everything about you, believe it or not, and like it or not, is a choice. Everything from your appearance, to the way you talk to the things that you choose to talk about, and how much money you have in the bank, all of those and many more are results of your choices.

Guess where else they come from? They are from inside your mind. Don’t for a moment think that your personality has somehow "doomed" you to a certain life. That’s an illusion. You’re not stuck. You’re definitely entitled to feeling frustrated, but you can make a choice because it is your life.

If you’re sick and tired of feeling stuck in a personality that you didn’t create, click here to learn the techniques that you need to reprogram yours for a better life.

Emotional intelligence is built on the solid foundation of self-awareness. When think that you are somehow stuck with a certain personality that produces negative results, you’re not.

Let me tell you, feeling like a victim is very attractive. It really is. In fact, it’s quite seductive. If you think that you’re bearing the weight of the world and that people are expecting all sorts of things from you, you can gain a tremendous sense of freedom by simply assuming the role of a victim.

When you’re the victim, you feel that you’re not going to be held accountable. After all you’re the person who already suffered. Why beat up on you some more, right?
When you’re the victim, you feel that whatever you do from that point on really doesn’t matter because the harm was already done to you.

It is no surprise that a lot of people who consider themselves victims, are in their own right victimizers of other people. They give themselves a pass. In fact in many cases, they feel that they have some sort of license to be mean, abusive or disrespectful to other people because they’re already victims.

When people get harmed in the past, they feel that their shame, humiliation, and frustration gives them a right to hurt others. If you feel like this, it’s because you chose not to exercise your emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligent people do not resort to victimhood. They know that it’s a dead end. When you are a victim, you are essentially saying to the world that you have no choice over your life. You’re the person that things happen to, instead of the person that makes things happen. You’re always looking for a break and the benefit of the doubt even though you did not earn it.

I’m telling you if you assume the role of the victim, you are going to be settling for the crumbs that life has left over. This is not exactly a winning position. Click here to get out from under victim mentality. It’s actually easier than you think. It all boils down to emotional intelligence.

People who suffer from low self-esteem often misread their emotions. They think that they’re just sad they think that the world can be reduced to black and white. The problem is that this is a case of interpretation.

Maybe you’re looking at the total picture of your life in the worst way possible. Maybe you are exaggerating other people’s achievements and putting yourself down. If you’re completely honest with yourself and practice emotional intelligence, you would see the big picture. More importantly, you would see things in the right perspective.

Given enough perspective, it often turns out that we’re not as bad as we think we are. We quickly discover that were really not at the bottom. No matter how ugly, dumb, poor, stupid, or unappealing you may think you are, when you look at your life with the right perspective, things aren’t that bad. In fact, if you are reading this book in the United States, you are in the top 10 % of the world’s population. Chances are you don’t have to worry about a roof over your head, food in your belly and clean water.

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Instagram is a traffic behemoth. There’s really no other way to describe this traffic platform. After all, it has more than one billion active users.

Just how active are these users? Well, we’re talking about five hundred million people interacting with their accounts every single day. That is huge.

Whether you’re viewing traffic in terms of page views, ad clicks, or what not, Instagram has a lot of potential. If you have not tapped into this amazing traffic resource, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

In fact, it’s worse than that. It’s only a matter of time before your competitors leave you completely in the dust. It doesn’t matter how solid your online store brand has become, it’s only a matter of time until your competitors destroy you thanks to their solid Instagram persona.

You need to get in there. You need to tap into Instagram so you can gain or maintain a competitive advantage. With that said, too many people who try to market on Instagram flat out fail. They really do.

They don’t get the results that they’re looking for and eventually, they quit. As we all know, the only way to lose at something is to quit. That’s the only way you can fail.

Unfortunately, if you don’t play the Instagram marketing game the right way or you have no idea, then the chances of you failing are quite high. Here are just ten of the many reasons why most Instagram marketing campaigns fail.

You can’t look at Instagram as some sort of one-time-big-time traffic source. You can’t just go in there with a big budget, buy up as many ads as possible, and just come in with both guns blazing. It doesn’t work that way.

For you to truly benefit on Instagram, you have to run a campaign. Optimize it. Then, run another campaign until you get the results you’re looking for.

The key here is to run free and paid campaigns on a slow and low basis. In other words, you’re just experimenting. You’re just trying to figure out what will work.

It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall. You keep throwing from different angles and in different ways until you find something that works. At that point, you then scale up. That’s when you spend real money.

Unfortunately, if you go in there with a one-time-big-time kind of mindset, things are probably not going to work out unless of course, you already know what kind of ad campaign would work well with Instagram.

Most companies don’t have this strategic advantage. They’re coming in completely blind. It is very dangerous to come in with too much money with a tremendous amount of impatience. You have to be patient. You have to attack this on a piecemeal basis.

I’m a very big Instagram marketer as well as a user. I love using Instagram. In fact, I’m one of those stereotypical Instagram users who check their IG updates every couple of hours.

From my perspective as a consumer, I can see why a lot of Instagram marketing campaigns fail. Many of these marketers would buy a good-looking ad on Instagram.
However, when you click on the link associated with that picture, it takes you to a page you know nothing about. A lot of these campaigns take you to a sales page.

This is a serious problem because people are thinking at the back of their heads, “What is this company about? How will I benefit from this company? How does this company and its products and services address my situation?”

There are lots of unanswered questions. People who clicked-through may not have been fully convinced yet, but unfortunately, they are dumped on a sales page.

They don’t know what to do. When consumers get confused, they can be relied on to click the back button or not do anything. In other words, they’re not going to buy. They’re not going to convert.

This is why promoting direct conversion links usually leads to failure. You have to qualify your prospect. You have to answer their questions. You have to build trust in their eyes.

This requires content. You can’t just dump them into a sales page or an email recruitment page. It doesn’t work that way.

A lot of accounts on Instagram get paid a lot of money. These are regular people like you and me who created Instagram accounts. Advertisers cannot give them enough money. Why?

They’ve developed very loyal fans. These accounts may post pictures of luxury watches. Who do you think would want to buy advertising space or ad mentions in their posts? That’s right. Luxury time-piece brands.

Regardless of the niche, there are sure to be influencers who command top dollar. Now, this may sound awesome and everything, but the problem is there are lots of unscrupulous business people out there making up fake influencer accounts.

These are accounts that are just intended to get advertising revenue. To make matters worse, they also have fake followers.

Let me tell you. If you were to spend $20 on a shoutout to these accounts, you might as well just take that $20 bill and burn it. You’ll get the exact same result. You’ll get a whole lot of nothing.

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Introduction

In recent months, blockchain technology has dominated the news. However, if you're like many, you may not be able to wrap your head around what is being said completely. In fact, according to the latest surveys, blockchain is one of the most complex emerging technologies out there today. While it is still a relatively new technology, blockchain is one that could dramatically shape the way businesses, and marketers work in the not-so-distant future.

The blockchain was first defined in the source code for Bitcoin and is the underlying foundation for all cryptocurrency transactions. Bitcoin was invented in October 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. The code for blockchain was released as open source in January 2009. Over the last decade, blockchain, the technology that runs Bitcoin, has developed into one of today’s most significant, ground-breaking technologies with the potential to have a tremendous impact on every industry from financial to educational, to manufacturing.

Currently, Bitcoin is just one of the several hundred applications that utilize blockchain technology. It has been an impressive decade of transformation for the technology with no signs of it slowing down in the next ten years. If you are interested in learning more about what blockchain is, here are five of the most asked questions about the technology answered.

What is Blockchain?

The blockchain is merely a digital method of economic transaction record-keeping, or in layman's terms, it's a digital ledger. The thing that differentiates it from any other digital record-keeping system is its security. While the data recorded in blockchain can be viewed openly by everyone within a given network, no one is able to edit or delete existing records. You can think of it as a giant, shared public spreadsheet that can only be updated by solving a complex math problem. If a new file needs to be added to the blockchain, a complex mathematical problem must be resolved.

To solve the encryption, computing power is used where a machine uses it capabilities to mine for the answer to the problem. If this concept sounds familiar, it might be due to the fact that you’ve heard the term “mining” before in a similar context.

Once the computer has discovered an answer to the encrypted problem, the solution is then verified by everyone on the network. If the answer is right, the new block, with all the transaction details and other new information is added to the ledger; a receipt is generated as proof, which is often in the form of a token or coin.

While there are various elements of blockchain technology that make it rather important, its two key capabilities are the recording of digital asset transfers that proves transactions took place and that ownership exists, and the inability to tamper with or overwrite its ledger.

Since the blockchain ledger is distributed to everyone within the network, even if one person manages to falsify a block, the technology keeps several copies of the correct version. This means that the technology can reject a false input like this because it recognizes that it doesn't match the other records in existence. This is what makes blockchain technology so unique. While it is entirely transparent, it is also kept altogether secure.

What’s more, the public distribution of blockchain lends itself to the decentralization of the digital ledger. This means that there’s not a core database that is vulnerable to attacks, which contributes to the technology’s somewhat tamper-proof nature.

How Does Blockchain Work?

Instead than having a primary administrator like a traditional database, a digital ledger has a network of replicated databases that are synchronized through the Internet and visible to anyone on the system. Blockchain networks can be public, like the Internet, where everyone in the world has access to it, or they can be private, where there is a restricted membership that is similar to an Intranet.

When a digital transaction is completed, it is grouped together with other transactions that have occurred within the last ten minutes. They are grouped into a cryptographically protected block that is then sent out to the entire network. Miners are members of the system with high levels of computing power that compete to validate the transactions in the block by solving complex coded problems. The first miner to correctly answer the challenge and confirm the block receives a reward, usually in the form of a coin or token.

After the block of transactions is validated, it is timestamped and added to the chain in linear, chronological order. New blocks that have been confirmed are then linked to the older blocks, forming a chain of blocks that show every recorded transaction made in the history of that particular blockchain. The entire chain is updated constantly so that all of the ledgers in the network is the same, giving each member of the blockchain network the ability to prove who owns what at any given time.

The decentralized, open, and cryptographic nature of blockchains allow members of the network to trust each other and make peer-to-peer transactions, effectively eliminating intermediaries. It also brings with it unprecedented security benefits.

Is Blockchain Technology Secure?

Through the use of hash functions and timestamps, blockchain has made it so that the data in the chain cannot be changed or tampered with once it has been verified. Since you can’t overwrite the data in a blockchain, manipulating the data is impractical, ultimately securing the data and eliminating the centralized points that hackers and cybercriminals often target.

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Let’s get one thing clear. ClickBank is an amazing affiliate program. It really is. In most cases, it covers most niches. Regardless of what kind of niche you are interested in, usually ClickBank would have a product that is either directly related or indirectly relevant to your target niche.

ClickBank also has a tried-and-proven tracking system. It is a battle-tested platform. People cannot say that this is some sort of scam affiliate system that is unproven. In fact, it's been around for several years and as long as you play by the rules and you know what you're doing, you can make good money with ClickBank.

With all that said, it is also a reality that the majority of people who try their hand at ClickBank marketing flat-out fail. Either they fail right out of the gate or they fail eventually. What gives? Why do most of these people fail to make money with ClickBank?

There are nine distinct reasons. Make sure none of these apply to you if you're serious about making serious bank with ClickBank.

Niches are subject matter categories. These are basically a set of problems and concerns as well as interests. Niches involve products that address those interests, problems or concerns.

A lot of marketers don't think in terms of niches. They don't even think in terms of audiences who would have these problems. Instead, they hear that there is this amazing program called ClickBank and that people make thousands of dollars on every single month .That’s all they need to hear so they sign up, get an account and they start throwing ClickBank links all over the place. These individuals crash and burn.

You have to understand what niche marketing is all about and get into the heads of people you are trying to reach. You have to understand that people are not going to give you their hard-earned dollars because they have nothing else better to do. They're not doing it out of the kindness of their heart.

They’re doing it because they have a problem to solve. This is how niche marketing works. You target certain niches because there are certain problems there that your products address.

To get the inside scoop on how to set up a niche marketing system using ClickBank, click here.

Many ClickBank marketers think that the more streams of traffic they get, the better off they will be. In theoretical terms, this makes all the sense in the world. After all, just like with real rivers and streams, when you have many small tributaries getting together, it turns into a bigger and bigger body of water until you have a raging river.

Unfortunately, on the Internet, things don't actually work this way. You have to specialize and master certain channels before you scale up to other channels. Sadly, too many people marketing all sorts of ClickBank products end up marketing on so many places that they never master any of these traffic sources. As the old saying goes, jack of all trades; master of none.

Don't commit this mistake. Instead, build a niche-specific self-reinforcing traffic system from the ground up by clicking here.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many people are impressed by Facebook traffic. Now, I wish I could tell you that they have such a favorable view of Facebook because of direct first-hand experience.

Unfortunately, most of these people are just repeating what they've heard before. People keep saying that Facebook Ads delivers solid results so they buy into the fantasy. Once they start putting their money where their mouths are, they find out, in the worst way possible, that a lot of this is hype.

I'm not saying that Facebook Ads will not convert. That's not my point. My point is if you are completely clueless regarding Facebook Ads, chances are your first, second and possibly even first hundred campaigns will fail or will at least yield disappointing results.

Make no mistake paid traffic can pay off, but there is a steep learning curve and it's also very expensive. This is why a lot of ClickBank marketers fail. They have a few thousand dollars lying around so they blow it all on Facebook Ads.

They don't have a system for filtering Facebook Ads or qualifying Facebook Ads. They don't even know how to post content-based ads. Let’s put it this way. They probably would have gotten the same results if they have taken those thousands of dollars in hundred-dollar bills and set them on fire.

Don’t use expensive paid traffic when you first begin your ClickBank marketing journey. Instead, click here to use this alternative system.

Please understand that even though you’re not paying with actual dollars, you can still be losing money with your traffic generation efforts. Time, after all, is money. Unfortunately, it's very easy to waste your time on different manual traffic methods.

You think you're making a lot of progress because people are clicking on your links. You might want to think again. Look at your conversions. Please understand that just because you put it in a lot of time, effort and energy to drum up traffic, this doesn’t necessarily mean that traffic will convert.

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Introduction

Time Management is the skill of using your time efficiently. It’s not about getting things done quickly but rather – making use of most of your time so that no single minute is wasted.

It’s important to note that time is a finite resource. You only have more or less 24 hours of each on any given day – but the things that need to get done may sometimes feel like you need more than that 24 hours each day.

Time Management is a way of fitting in all those ‘chores’ within the 24-hour period so that when taken together, you’ll be able to see a significant improvement in your overall goal.

In the example scenario, Time Management could have been practised by writing as little as 333 words per day in a month to get your 10,000 words. It can also be writing 2500 words every Sunday for 1 month or writing 1000 words per day for 10 days. It can, therefore, be approached on a piecemeal fashion so that you can (1) easily include it in your schedule while (2) ensuring that you can actually have it finished by the time it is needed.

Tip 1: Learn How to Prioritize

For busy workers and even busier bosses, prioritization is one of those things that serve to challenge even the most competent professionals. There are individuals, who specialize in managing projects, and there is software readily available for it, but scheduling priorities continue to depend on your skill in assessing situations and generating a concrete plan of action.

You cannot simply categorize every task as a top priority. It takes practice for one to do this right. Sadly, not everyone has the time - hours, days, and weeks - to spend on it. Here are some helpful tips in prioritization that will not only help you manage your team’s workload but your own professional deadlines as well.

Make a list of all the tasks your project involves.

A lot of people fail to recognize the importance of a taskmaster list. Plenty of people consider this a chore. What they don’t realize is that spending a couple of minutes planning things out actually helps reduce the time spent completing a project by reducing the stresses and distractions that hinder a project’s completion. It gives you the initial push, a clear direction, on how to begin your work.

Think about the project in full then break it down into processes. Collect these processes into a list. Do not start cutting things short at this point. Pull together everything that is required for the project. No need to place the tasks in order, just list them down. Surely, you will have a working deadline in play so collect these tasks and organize them based on what can and cannot be done in a day.

Assess these tasks according to gravity and value.

The next step is to assess all of these tasks and determine their value to the project. The thing about project management is that not all tasks being managed are important. Some can actually be cut saving you a lot of valuable time and effort. Look for the tasks that need the most attention, those that are of high importance to your output. Follow this by identifying which are of middle to low relevance. Always keep in mind that the more people have to be involved in a task, the higher its value usually is.

Organize these tasks into categories.

Now that you have assessed each task for gravity and value proceed with ordering. Arrange them based on the amount of effort required to accomplish a task. Also, provide an estimated time of completion for each one. It is suggested that you start working on tasks requiring the lengthiest amount of time to complete, but you can do the opposite if this suits your abilities better. Again, go with a process that works best for you and your team.

The focus is subjective. Some people find it easier to work on shorter tasks first. The end goal does not change even if you start ticking off easier tasks from the list. For as long as things are being done in the time that they need to be completed then you are good to go.

With every kind of project, you should be flexible and adaptable at all times. Things can change in an instant, and when this happens, you should be able to shift with the tide just as fast. Uncertainty will always be a given so be prepared for it before you even begin working on your project.

Determine which tasks to cut.

As you go through your master list, be aware of the tasks that have little to no value to the project. In some cases, these can be removed completely without compromising the outcome of the project. In other cases, it might be better to delegate the work to a different person or team. Do not fret if there is something you have to cut or delegate. This will give you more time to focus on the more important elements of your work.

As you move along and gain more knowledge with regard to proper prioritization, you will see how effective and productive you can be in the workplace given proper task scheduling and planning. Practice your skill with each project that comes your way and sooner than later, you will be a pro in handling your workplace demands, simple or complex.

A very important concept that you will learn with prioritization is another strategy that can help you better manage your time, and it is called time blocking.

Tip 2: Time Blocking

The lack of focus can easily alter one’s level of productivity. Instead of accomplishing tasks on time, you can waste hours procrastinating at your desk. An excellent strategy to help you manage your time better is called time blocking. The concept is simple. To make every workday as productive as possible, you should assign specific tasks to specific time blocks during the day.

Rigid as it may seem, scheduling tasks on fixed time blocks actually works quite effectively because doing so trains the mind to work with time limits per task. It is also a great way of keeping track of your work. By having distinct time allotments for your entire shift, you can do away with costly distractions and unproductive multitasking. Every minute has a purpose.

Although a number of people consider multitasking to be a special skill, it has been proven counter-intuitive to being productive. It removes distinct focus away from each of the tasks. Instead of tasks being completed, each one is left partially done.

With time blocking, you can ensure that you achieve certain levels of progress on specific tasks at the right time. By having a full-proof structure in place, you get to experience close to double the productivity that you are used to given your standard workweek. You will be surprised as to the number of tasks you get to accomplish a shift.

Like other time management strategies, to succeed at a time blocking, you need to engage yourself in serious and dedicated planning. It is very important that you give sufficient time for planning. By doing so, you can actually save more time during your workweek for other, more meaningful, activities. Your time spent planning will indeed be time well spent.

You can do this overnight, before heading for the sheets, or in the morning as you prepare for your upcoming shift. Start by writing out about three to five of your most important tasks for the day. Focus on tasks that need to be completed as soon as possible. Follow this list with another one this time to carry three to five secondary tasks, those that can be pushed to the next day if time doesn’t permit their completion.

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Introduction

Starting a membership site is a dream for everyone who believes that the professional services that they provide require a private access while making money through the paid memberships of their subscribers and the sale of their products. However, there are some times when people fail when choosing the tools to build their business. Once the decision is made to create a membership site, many struggle with the “how” of creating it. While this seems like it should be a relatively simple question to answer, the reality of how to create a membership site can be a bit of a minefield.

With so many different tools and plugins out there for starting a membership site, it can be extremely difficult to know which tool is right for you particular membership site plans. The first question that you need to ask yourself if whether you want to create your membership site with WordPress. The great thing about using WordPress to create your membership site is that it provides the most flexibility and customizability, which is why it has become the most popular product for membership sites.

If you’ve decided to use WordPress for your membership site, then you might have already done some research into the various membership plugins that are available, and you are probably aware that there are a lot of them. Trying to choose the right plugin for your site can be somewhat overwhelming, as there are over 50 WordPress membership plugins out there, not to mention all the non-WordPress plugins that you can choose from. To help you narrow your chooses down a bit, here are the top five tools that can help you get started with building your membership site.

MemberPress

When it comes to content protection, there isn’t much that you can’t protect with MemberPress (https://memberpress.com). You can protect your pages, posts, categories, tags, files and custom post types with their easy to use Access Rules. The way the access rules are set up also means that it is easy for the same content to be used with different membership products.

MemberPress also allows you to have unlimited membership levels, as well as unlimited members. If you are selling multiple course or have multiple membership products available, you can set it up to allow your members to have access to more than one product at a time, which is something that isn’t always possible with other membership plugins.

If you are going to offer multiple membership levels, MemberPress will allow you to group your products and use those groups to create paths to upgrade while auto creating pricing tables which you can insert directly onto your sales page.

When it comes to your content, you can drip content out starting on a fixed date, rather than based on the number of days since registration. This makes it an ideal plugin if you have courses that have a set start date but where you want members to be able to register as soon as they purchase. It will even allow you to set expiration dates for your content for when you want members to lose access to certain material.

Another feature of MemberPress that is worth noting is it will automatically pro-rate upgrades if you check the box to allow this. This means that if a member joins at a lower membership level, then decides to upgrade to silver, any existing payment is taken into account and the upgrade cost adjusts respectively.

PayPal

PayPal is one of the most convenient ways to process payments for all online users. It is the most popular and widely used payment networks for membership sites, product launches, and other donations. PayPal has two options for integrating payment processing into your membership site.

• One-time payment

• Subscription type payment

Both of these options have different procedures for integrating into WordPress sites. With the one-time payment option your members will receive full access to the product or service immediately after the payment has processed.

With the subscription type payment option you will need to go in and manually setup the recurring period and expiration time for the processing of the payments.

PayPal has an excellent record keeping system that will allow you to keep track of the transactions that happen on your membership site. It provides your members with a secure payment method, so that their credit card information isn’t visible to anyone, and accepting money through PayPal is easier than any of the other payment options out there.

With PayPal’s Payment Pro, you can process membership payments from your customers and it provides a number of benefits to both you as the site owner and your customers.

You don’t need a separate gateway to process the payments from your members and is relatively inexpensive at just $30 per month with no gateway fees. The toughest part of any payment processing sy stem in managing the separate merchant accounts, credit card processors, and payment gateways is fraud protection. When you integrate PayPal Pro with WordPress, you gain automatic fraud screening and address verification logs. The ability you gain to process recurring payments automatically makes PayPal Pro especially popular for membership sites.

OptimizePress

OptimizePress (https://optimizepress.com) allows you to create almost any kind of page for your business inside WordPress. It is ideal for building membership pages and landing pages when you add the OptimizeMember add-on to your purchase. The landing page functionality makes it quick and easy to capture members and quickly build your list. With easy to create opt-in forms, you can capture the data you want form your visitors, and their landing pages are tested and optimized to maximize your conversions.

This means that you will be able to turn more visitors into members.

OptimizePress makes it easy for you to customize everything on your pages, from copy to images to colors, and just about anything else you need to match with your brand and messaging. You can also integrate it with any of the leading email marketing programs and CRM systems so you can save your member data. The easy to use templates and integrated elements are perfect for whatever you’re selling, whether you are selling digital products, online courses, or consulting services.

With OptimizePress, you can build powerful membership portals and deliver digital products and training with their easy to setup order forms. The templates that are included with OptimizePress will allow you to create beautiful membership websites while keeping your content secure with OptimizeMember. The OptimizeMember software allows you to secure your premium content so that only buyers can access the content you’ve assigned to them. It can be integrated with PayPal to take payments setting you up to start selling your content immediately.

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40 Ways to Get Rid of or Prevent Stretch Marks

There are several myths surrounding stretch marks. They can happen to men and women, young and old. Stretch marks can happen anywhere on the body. There are many reasons stretch marks can develop, from physical changes to dietary changes to environmental factors. And for as many reasons that stretch marks are caused, they can be reduced in severity by several methods too.

Stretch marks occur when the skin loses its elasticity and collagen. When the elasticity is gone, the skin cannot “snap” back into place. Usually when it is pulled apart like that, the collagen is damaged too, which results in the difference in appearance of the stretch mark skin.

There are many things a person can do to prevent the development of stretch marks on their body. Some ways are by healthy living, other ways are by getting regular check ups from the doctor.

One major cause of stretch marks are from a pregnant body. The skin can only stretch so far without damaging. Thus, when baby stretches too far, the stretch marks are forever imprinted…or so you thought.

When pregnant:

1 - Cocoa Butter

Cocoa Butter hydrates and replenishes dry skin. There are many different quantities and qualities of cocoa butter creams in the store. Pick one brand and try it. If you like it and it seems to work, stick with it. Follow the package directions or rub once a day all over your tummy where stretch marks may develop. This is especially important when you reach the middle and last trimesters of your pregnancy. Cocoa butter can be used on any skin that is dry or flaky to rejuvenate it.

2 - Vitamin E

Vitamin E can be purchased by itself in a health food or supplements store. It is normally found in a gel or cream. It also hydrates the skin and gives it added elasticity. The added help to elasticity is what prevents future stretch marks from happening. Follow the directions on the package or use twice daily on your growing tummy.

3 - Control Weight Gain

Weight gain is important during pregnancy. However, how you gain the weight is the most important. Slow and steady growth, of one to two pounds per week is safest for you and the baby in the middle trimester. The weight gain should slow during the end. When the weight gain is rapid, the skin doesn’t have a chance to stretch naturally. Stretch marks occur from skin that is pulled too tight too quickly. If you can moderate your diet and exercise, it will go a long way to helping control any stretch mark outbreaks.

4 – Enriched Drinks

You can purchase a mix in the health food stores. It is called Calc Fluor 6X. It is safe for you and the baby and contains many vitamins and nutrients to hydrate your body. Follow the package directions. It is suggested to use three times a day every week in your early trimester. Then once you hit midway, alternate weeks of using it. It helps build and repair your skin from the inside out.

5 - Drink lots of Water

Even with all of the products designed to keep you and your skin hydrated, water is still the best option. It is free and available everywhere. Drink eight glasses a day to keep your system flushed of toxins and your skin moisturized.

Creams & Lotions

Scientists have created many creams and lotions full of ingredients to help your skin. These ingredients build collagen and help with elasticity. The same lotions that help with stretch marks have the same effect on wrinkles. Therefore, the skin care products are a billion dollar industry!

6 – Copper

Copper is one of the essential ingredients needed for firm skin. It is used in almost every skincare product available. Products are being created now where copper is the main ingredient. Buying and using copper fortified skin care products builds firmness of the skin and makes it look younger. Toned and fortified skin won’t stretch too fast, resulting in stretch marks. Rub all over where you may get (or want to get rid of) stretch marks: thighs, butt, hips, stomach and arms.

7 – Moisturizers

Moisturizers are available everywhere from dollar stores to luxury skin care chains. The price range is $ 1 all the way up to thousands of dollars per ounce. Do they work better? Not necessarily. The important part is you take care of dry skin. The cream, no matter what quality, will have some vitamins and hydrating ingredients that you will benefit from. Keeping the skin moisturized will increase your chances of preventing the dreaded stretch mark.

8 - Retin –A Cream

Retin A cream is a type of moisturizer that prevents wrinkles and stretch marks on the skin. The Retin A is a protein used to build collagen in the skin. The belief is that adding this on top of your skin builds the collagen even further. The more collagen you have, the more elasticity your skin has too. With more elasticity, you have less wrinkles and stretch marks. The Retin A cream can be used as a preventative tool and also to combat existing wrinkles and stretch marks. Retin A creams can be moderate to expensive in price.

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Introduction

Your personal power is all about having self-confidence and be able to be your true self in all aspects of your life. From the time we are born, we will be raised to be a version of ourselves that please others. Whether it comes from the way, you interact with your family or how you were taught in school. We learn to put a mask on and be an actor in our life.

Unfortunately, that behavior will not lead you to be happy and live a fulfilling life. With commitment, vulnerability, and curiosity, you will be able to be the best version of yourself and put away the mask that you’ve to wear for much too long. Are you ready to claim your power?

Then let’s start with this 5-step guide!

Step 1: Assess Yourself

Have you ever felt like your behavior and the way that you held yourself varied depending on who is around you and where you are?

We tend to play a different role when we are with individuals that we want to please or want to make sure that they like us. For example, you might behave in a completely different way if you are at work or with people you just met and want to be friends with them. We tend to be ourselves when we are at home or with childhood friends. That is when we let our guards down and become more vulnerable and less worried about how others might perceive us.

The following questions will help you identify which area of your life you are the best version of yourself. The answer is yes or no, pick the answer the closest to how you feel (mostly yes or mostly no).

Business, Career and Professional World

YES NO

Are you satisfied with your work?

Do you get along with your colleagues?

Do you know what you want to do for work?

TOTAL:

Love and Romantic Relationship

YES NO
Are you experiencing happiness in love?

Do you feel like you can be yourself in a love relationship?

TOTAL:

Family

YES NO

Do you feel like you have a connection with your family?

Can you be yourself around your family?

TOTAL:

Friends

YES NO

Do you trust your friends?

Would you say that the level of “give and take” in your friendship is balanced between you and them?

TOTAL:

Acquaintances and Neighbors

YES NO

Do you stay true to yourself when you meet new people?

(Meaning you don’t change your demeanor.)

Are you honest with yourself when you meet someone new that you don’t like? (Meaning you don’t try to convince yourself that you need to give them a chance.)

TOTAL:

Self

YES NO

Do you appreciate your physical body?

Would you say you have healthy self-talk?

TOTAL:

Compile all the “yes” and “no” from each section. TOTAL:

The more “yes” you have, the easier it is for you to be yourself. The goal is to be your true self in all spheres of your life. Based on that quick survey, which area of your life has more “NO”? Keep that in mind; we hope that by the end of reading this book, you are more comfortable being yourself in that area of your life.