Every human being has desires. It’s the way we’re built. We want things. It’s easy for other animals that know what they want and just go for it. It gets much more complicated when humans are concerned. We constantly want new things and we tend to remember things. See, we were given the ability to think; we were given a brain.

As we grow up we go after certain things we want. Sometimes things don’t go so well. We either fail or are made fun of or we get scared or embarrassed. If we didn’t have a brain that remembered, then we would have simply picked ourselves and tried once more. Unfortunately, we do remember and so we don’t just try again. We try to come up with a different way to get what we want or we find a substitute for our desires or we convince ourselves that we don’t want that particular thing.

Another drawback of having a brain is that we attach ideas to people. Sometimes these are good ideas, but most of the time they are just ridiculous. We believe that a person is cool because he acts in a certain way. We think someone is better than us because she already has the things we want. We think that the people we look up to are infallible.

It gets worse. Once we get these ridiculous ideas into our heads, we try to emulate them. We try to act in certain ways and we try to be infallible. We deny ourselves the things we desire because they don’t fit in with an image in our head; an image that we created for ourselves.

In the end most of us are walking around in disguise, wearing masks. Pretending to be someone we are not. We are tied down by our fears and insecurities. I think it is time to unmask ourselves and take a good look at who we really are.

]]> http://www.theloacenter.com/unmask-yourself/feed 0 http://www.theloacenter.com/the-climb http://www.theloacenter.com/the-climb#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:13:24 +0000 loacenter http://www.theloacenter.com/?p=980

We all have goals in life. We want to be rich, we want to be successful, we want to be famous, we want, we want and we want some more. There are many ways to get what we want. Some people inherit their money, some get lucky and win the lottery and some work hard to earn every penny. At the end of the day the heiresses, the lottery winners and the hard workers, have all achieved their goal of being rich. As for being famous, you can be famous for a number of things, some good and some bad.

Life is not about being rich or being famous, life is about the things you do to become rich or famous. Life is about how you stay rich and/or famous. When you are standing at the peak of the mountain, it’s not about standing at the peak, it’s about the climb. The steps we take to get what we want are what matter. Because a goal is something you achieve at one particular point in your life but the things you do to achieve that goal, those are things that make up your everyday life.

If all you really wanted was to get to the peak, you could have your self flown up, but the point is to make the journey. The joy is in the hard work. The things you are going to remember are the thing that happened on the way. The stress, the relief when you round a dangerous bend, the fortitude it took to keep going even when all you wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep.

There will always be obstacles in your way. How you faced those obstacles, how you overcame them, those are the stories that make up a life. To quote Miley Cyrus, ‘It’s not about how fast I get there; it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side. It’s the climb.’

]]> http://www.theloacenter.com/the-climb/feed 0 http://www.theloacenter.com/achieving-goals-takes-perseverance http://www.theloacenter.com/achieving-goals-takes-perseverance#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:25:01 +0000 loacenter http://www.theloacenter.com/?p=43 Achieving goals takes perseverance. While some people may think all they have to do is click their heels and say “I believe” to get what they want in life, they’re in for a rude awakening. It takes more than just airy fairy thinking. There’s a lot of hard mental work involved in achieving your goals. You will face challenges along the way – not only challenges from situations and other people, but challenges from yourself.

Yes, sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We buy into the quick fix notions that if we just visualize what we want in a positive way, and then put it out into the universe, that our work is done. Not so. This isn’t a one way street. The universe isn’t a big vending machine in the sky; we have a responsibility to do our part. We must concentrate on what we want and focus on achieving our goals several times a day.

Achieving goals takes a lot of perseverance, which can be difficult to sustain. Keep your eyes on the prize, as they say, and that means not letting up. Keep believing, keep dreaming, keep positively affirming that your goals and desires are manifesting themselves. Persevere through the biggest challenge: negative thinking. You’ve probably lived a lifetime with the pattern of worry and negative thinking. You need to change that; when the least little negative thought crops into your mind, immediately stop and change it to positive thinking. Soon, with much perseverance, you’ll be able to change your negativity and doubt into positive thinking and the manifestation your goals. Work through the challenges your mind throws at you, in order to realize your dreams. Achieving goals takes perseverance. You can do it!

My favorite part and the most important in my opinion, is the close. The final statements made by both, the prosecuting and defending attorney. The closing statement is always worth hearing. It’s witty, clever and passionate. It is with this statement that both lawyers hope to make their case.

This got me thinking about a business case. Granted, drafting a business case can never be as entertaining as watching an episode of Judging Amy. Still, I firmly believe that a business case should be witty, clever and passionate. Just like a lawyer’s closing statement. When I mentioned this to a couple of friends, I was surprised to find that a lot of them did not even know what a business case was!

A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It can be a formal well structured document or it could be a verbal argument. For example you could justify a software-upgrade by saying that it would improve system performance, but the “business case” is that better performance would improve customer satisfaction.

Formal business cases are written to ensure;

•    That your investment has value and importance
•    That your project will be properly managed
•    That your firm will have the capability to deliver the benefits
•    That the firm’s dedicated resources are working on the highest value opportunities
•    That all projects with inter-dependencies are undertaken in the optimum sequence.

So take some time and evaluate. Make your case.

I open my eyes. I am an ordinary human capable of extraordinary things. I believe that I will build myself a sprawling empire. I believe that I will build a piercing tower, to be the centre of all my work. I believe that I will have everything I saw, when my eyes were closed.

I am an ordinary human who has accomplished extraordinary things. With the help of trusted colleagues, friends and simple logic, I built my empire. Today I sit in my glass tower and think of all that I have done and all that is left to be done. More than anything else, I am here because of my hard work. I am and will always be an ordinary human, living the extraordinary.

Visualization is so much more than just a motivational tool. Only when you visualize your objective, can you hope to achieve it. If you are not working towards something, any accomplishment you achieve will be an achievement that life gave to you. If you drive down a road, you will eventually reach somewhere. If you plan on going somewhere, you won’t just be driving down a road; you will take the best route. Inspire yourself to find the best route. Visualize your objective. See, Believe, Become.

Business Strategy, Business Planning, Marketing Guidelines, KPI’s; the list of plans is endless. Every business and businessman spends a significant amount of time planning for the different aspects of his business. Most people fall short on the step that comes after planning i.e. implementation.

So you have your plans, how are you going to go about executing them? Ironically you need a plan, for how you are going to implement your plans. Some people would consider this to be trivial. They would be wrong. It is very important that every entrepreneur know, how he/she is going to put their carefully devised plans into action.
There is a belief that a well devised plan would implement itself. This is like saying that a well made pie would eat itself. You need to cut it into slivers, decide what china you are going to use, who will be served the first piece and when exactly it would be served.

All plans may be good, but in my opinion what makes a plan great, is if it can be successfully implemented. After all, plans will only be plans until someone uses them. One way of successfully implementing a plan is breaking it into pieces. You can implement one piece at a time until it is in place. This would put less stress on the organization and would involve a lot less hassle. Another advantage is that if any piece is underperforming, necessary changes can be made to the future pieces.

The most important thing I’d like to say is, GET STARTED. You may have the best plan or strategy in the world but it is of no use if you don’t use it. Fine tune the plan as much as you can within reason. Once that is done, execute it. To quote Rihana, “Baby you’ve got the keys. Now Shut Up and Drive.”

You just got promoted. It’s time for that well deserved vacation. You travel to a beautiful, exotic land. You enjoy the scenery and the quirks of a foreign urban sprawl. You sample the delicacies. You’re having a fantastic time.

You wake up a few days later with a queasy stomach. You’re feeling slightly homesick. You decide to have some regular food that day, but it’s a foreign land, you don’t know the people and you don’t understand the language. You spend a few hours wandering from eatery to eatery looking for non-exotic familiar food. Just when you’re about to give up, you look across the street and see a sign with an arrow. The sign has a picture of two golden arches forming a giant ‘M’. You follow the sign.

You go up the road, take a left and then a right. Ah, a sight for sore eyes. How you cherish the sight of McDonalds, the smell of a big Mac and fries. You don’t need to know ten different languages to spot a McDonalds in ten different countries. The golden arches are so famous that they transcend the barriers of language.

Logos are a way for people to recognize an organization in just one look. It is important for every business to have a logo that represents what their organization stands for. This may seem trivial to small businesses, but don’t forget that all businesses start small. Who knew that a simple swoosh would become synonymous with sports gear?

Take some time to analyze exactly what your business stands for. Once you have done this, you need to try and visualize what your thoughts would look like. Think about the image that would best represent your business. What image describes your business in just one look?

While imagining your goal as coming true, go a step further: believe and feel that it really has happened. Through your confident expectancy, experience the emotions you’d feel while living your dream. It’s okay to indulge and revel in your happiness, contentment, and joy. You should! This lets your faith and visualizations permeate your mind and body. By doing so, you will become a force in the universe filled with positive energy. What you seek will become attracted to you as though you were a beacon filled with positive energy. You will attract your dreams like a magnet in this way.

Working the Law of Attraction takes more than putting a wish out into the universe and clicking your heels. Set aside time to practice and focus on your life’s dream. Focus to the exclusion of all else. Work that belief “muscle” and make it strong! Your life’s dream is worth working the Law of Attraction, don’t you think?

Ask yourself:
1. What is the one thing you want more than anything else?

That question may not be as easy as it seems. It seems easy to say, for instance, you want a relationship with a particular person, but what if that person isn’t as she or he appears? And, what of that person’s free will? Perhaps a better desire would be a loving relationship with your ideal partner. This isn’t as narrow and specific as the original request; by being more general about your desire, you are much more likely to get what you want. You’re being more open to all the goodness the universe has to offer you.

After you have figured out exactly what it is that you want, focus on it. You can’t focus on a few different things; you must focus on one thing at a time. Otherwise, your energy will be scattered, and you will not fully realize your desire. It’s kind of like souring the pot with too many things. Focus and believe. Then ask the universe (or God or whatever higher power you ascribe to) for your desire.

Getting what you want takes effort, so you will have to practice focusing on your desire every day, several times a day. Set aside a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Then, think positive thoughts about your desire and believe you will receive it.