Sarah Tan – Personal Development

Many choices in life involve a trade-off or a balance. When there is not enough time, money or energy to accomplish everything you want to do, you will have to choose your priorities carefully, knowing that each pursuit leaves you less time and fewer resources for another goal or interest. However, in the midst of life’s difficult choices, one decision is very simple from an analytical perspective. Whereas many activities have both positive and negative aspects, procrastination is one activity that consumes your time and energy while contributing nothing to your ultimate quality of life. For this reason, even a small amount of consideration should convince you to eliminate procrastination from your life. Yet this habit is not always easy to break, and even the best intentions to stop procrastinating may not be successful. A few tips, and a small bit of effort, can help discontinue the habit of procrastination, allowing you to spend your time on some worthwhile pursuits.

One of the skills that can be extremely helpful in ending procrastination is the ability to prioritize. Not all activities are equally significant, and it is conceivable to dissipate time whilst actually seeming to get things done. In order to avoid procrastinating on your most important tasks, it may be helpful to make a list of all the things you want to accomplish this week. Without making any distinctions between important and insignificant tasks, brainstorm a list of a week’s worth of goals. Once you think you have everything you want written down, either number the items in place of importance from most crucial to least required, or group the items into high-, medium- and low-priority sections. Try to identify your three most important tasks for the week and list on your calendar the things you will need to do in order to successfully complete them. Then you are able to center on these most important undertakings, saving the less significant ones for the time that is left over. Once you have got into the habit of prioritizing your week, move on to prioritizing by month and then by periods of three months.

Another important step in overcoming procrastination is to make sure that you see your ultimate goals in terms of the small steps that you will need to take. By breaking down complicated tasks into manageable stages, each with its own mini-deadline, you will prevent yourself from procrastinating in the belief that your goal is impossible regardless of what you do. In addition, the shorter amounts of time between deadlines will prevent you from procrastinating because a deadline seems so distant that you have all the time in the world. You may find that you are no longer tempted to procrastinate with your important goals when you know what you’ll need to do to accomplish them and exactly how long it will take. Once you have taken these steps to end procrastination, you may find yourself easily accomplishing tasks that once seemed almost impossible.

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About Conversational Hypnosis

Hypnosis is an art, and to become a master in this form of art you must go beyond being an average Conversational Hypnotist and create a masterpiece that is to be called your own. Once you have accomplished this feat you will truly be a part of the Hypnosis world and holding your own and being thoroughly knowledgeable about Conversational Hypnosis.

Conversational Hypnosis has unique aspects that make it different from other forms of Hypnosis. Your goal will be to gather all your knowledge about Conversational Hypnosis and refine it into the art.

It is quite important to master the fine points of the language you will use as well as the hypnotic themes that you will utilize to get your subject into a trance. There is also a need for you to perfect the type of atmosphere you will want to create for your subject. You must also master ways to create tension using authority strategies in order to put the unconscious mind into a functional state.

Now these should need and refined until it becomes the fine art that is about Conversational Hypnosis. Step one in this area of refinement will be to introduce the hypnotic gaze induction. This is one of the main skills that you will use to put a purpose behind the entire hypnosis process. One of the main things you should remember about Conversational Hypnosis and hypnotic gaze induction is that these are very powerful and you would do well to keep that in mind.

The power of the hypnotic gaze induction is under your control and for you to use at your own discretion, it would do you well to remember how powerful this is. To add structure to your hypnosis try adding the hypnosis gaze induction and the 4 stage protocol. To command some sort of action from your listener you should evoke an unconscious response by being able to absorb their attention. Before moving on your aim is to make sure that your subject has completed all four stages in using the hypnosis gaze induction.

The sixty second hypnotist and hypnotic gaze induction techniques should only be attemted once you have mastered conversational hypnosis and the 4 stage protocol techniques. Combining techniques is a sure fire way to make your very own technique, a masterpiece. Keep it simple, start by using rapport techniques and as you use your language with the hypnotic gaze induction you will start to see results.

In the hypnotic gaze induction you are going to want to focus in on several things. First, you will need to remember that in achieving a successful hypnosis gaze induction holding the subject’s gaze is key. It is quite important that you are able to maintain a level, clear and calm gaze. Never must you allow the subject to see, feel or discern that you are uncomfortable with the situation.

This basically tells you everything about Conversational Hypnosis and the techniques you can combine with the basic steps. Each hypnotist develops his own style in performing the art of hypnosis. Now that you have learned the basics about Conversational Hypnosis it is your turn to create your own hypnotic masterpiece.

Colin Henderson runs the popular website Covert Hypnosis Guide. Do you want to Discover more ways to use Covert Hypnosis to benefit your Life? Find out more about these secret techniques and get your “free six part mini course” at Conversational Hypnosis

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When faced with an unpleasant or daunting task, either in personal or professional activities, many people can be tempted to procrastinate. Some procrastination takes the form of dismissing the unpleasant task as something to be done later and then putting it out of mind. At other times, procrastination occurs by wasting one’s time with meaningless pursuits, games and amusements. To complicate matters, not every form of procrastination can be easily dismissed as purely wasted time. For business people and office workers who handle a variety of related tasks every day, certain types of work can actually function as a tool for procrastination. In some cases, tasks that are smaller, simpler, or that might easily be delegated to an intern are used as a diversion from important, complicated, intimidating tasks.

Implications For Time-Management and Prioritizing Skills

In order to work effectively, people need the ability to budget their time. In the typical professional environment, people are given more work than they can realistically handle within normal working hours. Even people with a reasonable workload could improve their business prospects by taking on additional tasks or taking time to make aspects of their work more efficient. For all of these reasons, it is extremely important to be able to manage one’s time successfully. Efficient time management involves the power to weigh the amount of time available versus the tasks that need to be carried out and to choose on a schedule for completing the tasks. Unfortunately, procrastination interferes with the ability to budget time by inflating the amount of time needed to reach a certain milestone or level of completion. For this reason, repeated procrastination can be seen as a sign that an individual lacks the ability to set his or her own time management goals or lacks the discipline to adhere to those goals.

In situations where multitasking is required, procrastination could also be a sign of failure to properly organize priorities. Allowing trivial tasks to take time and energy away from more important goals indicates either an inability to recognize the most important tasks or a lack of concern about whether the most important goals are accomplished in a timely fashion. However, a failure to prioritize might not be entirely the procrastinator’s fault. An employee who does not have enough information to form an overall picture of his or her employer’s goals might not have the perspective to prioritize effectively and might therefore end up wasting time on trivial goals believing that they are important.

It should be remembered that, while occasional procrastination might signal some sort of underlying problem, it is not necessarily a sign of a character flaw or skill deficit. For example, a lack of motivation due to a real or perceived shortcoming in the reward for good time management could be at the root of procrastination.  One example of this might be a work environment in which an employee receives the same compensation regardless of whether his or her deadlines are met. This could result from a poor performer realizing that procrastination is routinely tolerated, but it could also result from a high performer perceiving that outstanding time management is never rewarded. In a work environment, instances of procrastination can reveal overall communication and employee relations issues as well as the underlying issues of individual employees.

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At work and at home, people form relationships in which they depend on one another. Family life can be rocky or smooth depending on the ability of spouses and family members to divide the necessary home duties and follow through on their individual responsibilities. Relationships between co-workers also involve a level of trust that each member of the business team will contribute an adequate amount of work to a given assignment. In both of these circumstances, one person’s failure to do a fair share of the work can be devastating to the effectiveness of the family or work group and can also hinder people from trusting one another. Therefore, when procrastination becomes a significant influence in a person’s habits, both the practical and the emotional sides of the person’s family and work relationships will suffer.

In family relationships, there is always a large amount of work that needs to be accomplished in order for the home to run smoothly. Periodic tasks might include maintenance on a home or on appliances, work in the yard, laundry, cleaning, washing dishes, cooking, keeping a vehicle or vehicles in working order, and child care. If any of these chores are left out for a significant amount of time, the household will be unable to operate effectively. In cases where one family member gets behind in chores, especially due to a reasonable situation like an illness or the need to work extra hours at a job, other family members will probably be happy to work around the slowdown and even pick up the excess chores temporarily. However, once a family member habitually procrastinates for extended periods of time and leaves his or her part of house work unfinished, other family members might begin to resent the chores being left unfinished and being loaded down with the additional work. The situation can be especially tense if the procrastinator uses entertainment or games as a procrastination device, watching television or playing computer games while the other members of the household struggle with more than their share of chores. Regardless of whether the procrastinator is a spouse, parent, child, sibling or in-law, only an end to the procrastination and a responsible amount of work will remedy the strain that procrastinating can cause in a family.

In a business environment, procrastination can be similarly destructive. People who work full-time spend a majority of their time during the day with their co-workers, and the relationships between business team members are an important part of the social lives of professionals. When one member of a business team is a chronic procrastinator, the other team members often need to shoulder the procrastinator’s share of work to meet deadlines. And when members of the team each have a specific field of work, one person’s procrastination may leave the others unable to get the information they need to complete their own assignments. Resentments, distrust and hostility may result, particularly in cases where the entire team misses out on a bonus or other reward due to one member’s procrastination habits. And as in the event of procrastination at home, the only dependable method to better the situation is for the procrastinator to adopt whatever organizational and time management steps are requisite to accomplish a sensible amount of work.

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The difficulty of certain projects often provokes a desire to delay or otherwise waste time before getting down to business. This urge to procrastinate can affect people’s lives as an occasional temptation or as a nearly irresistible habit, hinging upon the temperament of the individual.

In three particular fields of activity, namely college, business and home life, procrastination can cause an especially detrimental effect. A closer look at the underlying factors for procrastination in each of these settings can help illuminate some of the influences in the decision to procrastinate.

For many students, procrastination emerges as a significant problem during the first years of college. The college procrastinator is frequently an individual who, for one of several possible reasons, did not learn effective time management strategies during high school. Often accustomed to high school assignments that are purely short term or that have been broken down into a series of littler assignments by the high school teachers, the college procrastinator is at a loss to correct to college’s long term assignments. In some examples, the college procrastinator underestimates the difficulty of a term report or end-of-semester project because the professor does not perpetually remind the class about the forthcoming deadline.

For this reason, the difficulties faced by the college procrastinator can be seen as a failure to adjust from a structured, regulated learning environment into an environment where independent time management skills are necessary. Once the need for discipline and organization has been recognized, a few elementary tools, such as a day planner, can help the college procrastinator organize a self-structured series of goals and deadlines for long-term assignments.

Whereas the college procrastinator might evade a difficult assignment by playing computer games or socializing, the business procrastinator is oft more subtle in his or her strategy. Rather than engaging in meaningless amusements, which might be punished if discovered, the business procrastinator often wastes time on activities that are in fact part or his or her job description but that are not the most important tasks at the moment.

In some cases, a lack of confidence in the ability to successfully complete difficult assignments compels the business procrastinator to pursue easy, straightforward minor tasks. In other situations, an inability to recognise high- and low-priority assignments causes the business procrastinator to perceive that the simple jobs are just as crucial as the complicated ones, leaving the business procrastinator no cause to pursue the more Herculean tasks.

To remedy this circumstance, the business procrastinator first must learn to recognize which tasks have the most potential to impact the success of the business itself and to affect the course of business in the long term. Once this has been achieved, the business procrastinator can analyze long-term, complicated tasks into a series of manageable deadlines so that it's not quite so intense.

Instead of being unable to face a deadline, the home-life procrastinator is often ill at ease with the never-ending nature of daily home-related chores. Yard work, home repairs, cleaning and meal preparation can all assume the uninspiring role of routine inconveniences in a person’s life. As incomplete chores accumulate over time, the home-life postponer begins to feel the pressure of house work invading the joys of routine life.

To counter this situation, a specific time should be set aside each week to schedule a reasonable number of weekly chores. By naming which tasks should be accomplished on which day, the home-life procrastinator can gain control over the amount of work. And by fixing certain tasks to certain days, the procrastinator could stop feeling blameworthy about any unfinished chores provided that he or she has attained the chores earmark for the present day.

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by Kim Allarie

You might have read the hype about speed reading being able to transform your life by enabling you to take in information considerably more quickly than usual, thereby enhancing your skills as well as upping your value as an employee.

For a number of people, increasing their reading speed is the main objective, while for others, it is more essential that they develop their ability to comprehend and retain what they read. A high-quality speed reading program can do both, and consequently amp up both your personal and professional life.

The typical reading speed is around two words a second with standard comprehension. For ordinary reading this is probably sufficient, but with the help of a good speed reading program the average rate could be boosted to four or six words a second with similar comprehension.

But there are those who have very particular reading requirements and wish to improve their reading speed to ten-plus words per second with better than normal understanding. A comprehensive speed reading program with lots of practice and testing can help them reach their objective.

Many speed reading programs train students to rapidly search through the text to ignore irrelevant information and pick out the pertinent parts. The idea is to be able to gather the essence of the material through reading entire sentences or phrases as a block, instead of just individual words.

Improve Speed, But Don’t Lose Comprehension

Sometimes individuals who undertake to learn speed reading encounter difficulties with the practice of sub-vocalization. This is the tendency to mentally sound out each word while they read. In speed reading, a primary focus is on developing the ability to not sub-vocalize while you read. In its place, you are taught to concentrate only on the words that have significance to the general context. You will become skilled at intentional reading and will therefore increase understanding at the same time as speed.

There are various ways of teaching speed reading, as well as different ways that each individual learns. One method might work better for some students than another. Basically, speed reading endeavors to guide the brain to distinguish only important words without sounding them out mentally. If you have difficulty with one approach, find another speed reading course that teaches these skills in a way that will assist you to progress more efficiently.

Just like learning any new activity, you need to continuously practice your speed reading techniques in order to master the art.

Learn more about the time management skill of speed reading at The Speed Reading Site.

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Saw Jeanette’s blog about Top Ten Great Pleasures on things that make you happy, and I came up with a list. I did my own list when I gave a writing assignment some time ago, but I’ll type them out here. I got greedy and came up with 30 things.

1. Seeing a beautiful rainbow in the urban area. (just saw one recently and everyone was crowding to see it)

2. Buying new books. (my job allows me to buy hundreds of books, so I also love the process of choosing them!)

3. Receiving magazines I like in the mail. (love 8 Days for the latest TV show synopsis and gossips, Time and Economist for their current affairs, and Fortune for money)

4. Reaching home on time to catch my favourite drama serials. (I’m a TV addict.)

5. Chatting on the phone with my husband. (Sometimes we chat for an hour before I go to bed)

6. Finishing an entire drama series within 3 days. (TV junkie alert – Desperate Housewives, Jumong, The Legend, and this year alone)

7. Surfing the net. (Especially excited when I check out the deals, and the tips and everything else)

8. Reading a book lying down. (Bad for eyesight, but I love reading)

9. Getting the resident stray cat’s attention. (I’m a closet Cat Lady. Only I don’t feed them. I like to tease the cats by making some sounds, and it’s cute when they turn their heads to look at me.)

10. Getting great response from the people I work with. (Sometimes I have great ideas, and I try them out at work, and they enjoy the sessions.)

11. Laughing at jokes. (Some of my friends are very interesting people.)

12. Helping my friends analyse and visualize their dates. (I get so excited doing this.)

13. Eating cheesecake, warm chocolate cake or chocolate soufflé. (Yum, yum.)

14. Seeing my face or my article in the newspapers. (twice this year already. The next I want to see is my own book published. And lots more!)

15. Seeing my favourite car – Daihatsu Copen. (even if it’s not a good idea to own it)

16. Working out at the gym. (get to exercise)

17. Chatting with my brother and coming up with funny and cool suggestions. (too bad we seldom see each other even though we live in the same house)

18. Watching people’s pets on the Internet. (I used to sit in front of the computer and watch people’s pets on webcam. I don’t own any pets, so I compensate by looking at others’. Plus I even made a video about a friend’s Schnauzer playing.)

19. Reading my favourite blogs. (Quite a lot of favourite blogs such as Beverly, Karen Cheng, Valska, Jeanette among many others)

20. Listening, playing or doing something with music. (I want to write music. Maybe when I get my own work studio when my new house is ready. I’m a lazy singer who only sings once a week at my teacher’s place)

21. Travelling to beautiful places by aeroplane. (I like taking the plane, since I was a kid.)

22. Listening to waves lazing at the beach. (been to Bintan, Redang, Tioman, Hua Hin and Sibu, resorts in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand)

23. Having a massage. (lots of money spent on these.)

24. Discovering something interesting or new. (From internet, or my books. Love self-improvement books)

25. Getting room service at the hotel. (Coz I don’t have to tidy up. And I like eating in the room, plus I like having food delivered to my doorstep. I like staying at good hotels)

26. Checking my bank accounts, investments and other streams of income. (I love money! And having money to spend!)

27. Chasing celebrities from different fields from Asia. (My favourite is Ryu Si Won, Korean actor, I even appeared in some Korean entertainment show because I went to his fan club gathering. And another thou shalt not be named Asian Champion in some sports.)

28. Getting flowers from my husband! (When he has time, he will get them for me from the nursery.)

29. Getting a parking lot in a crowded place. (How can I forget this? 95% of the time I get the lots I want quickly and near to the place I’m heading.)

30. Working on my blogs. (I love blogging. Check out my main blogs at Singapore Profit, Wedding-Breeze and a few others.)

Tell me about your great pleasures, and leave a trackback to your blog! What makes you happy? What are the little things in life that cheer you up?

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There are several reasons why people should seek out hypnotherapy training. Aside from being able to help other people, you get to help yourself as well. The reasons of doing self hypnosis training are actually great. Being of service to others as you are for yourself is a very great thing to do theses days. Although hypnosis may have been thought of as a form of witch craft, you would rather prove yourselves disappointing as hypnosis is a science and art that is meant to provide an array of medical benefits to your mind and to your health as well.

A hypnotherapy training in and of itself provides you with nothing more than the ability to help other people do what they really want to do. By unlocking the subconscious part of the mind, one would be able to find out the root factors of stress and other health related ailments. And by motivating that part of your brain, you get back to your normal daily functions again. The hypnotherapy training is of great help not only to self applications but to group ordeals as well. However, it is essential to remember that hypnosis only works if the subject has the desire to last long in the therapy and if the person himself is willing to undergo change. If not, the hypnosis training could grow to be unfruitful for you.

Hypnotherapy Training: Health Benefits

Hypnotherapy training has been tried by many people because of the major changes it brings to one’s health. If you are a smoker or an alcoholic, engaging on a hypnotherapy training can help you reduce or eliminate the urge on these harmful habits. Again, it may take some time before you can actually control yourself; but the wait is definitely all worth it because of the positive changes it brings to your life.

Hypnotherapy Training: Career Benefits

Hypnotherapy training is also proven to be very beneficial to one’s career. Because you are able to focus on your goals, you are able to do well in your career as well. Hypnosis provides the best way of knowing how your mind runs through unlocking the doors to your subconscious. If you are able to control this part of your brain, you would surely find out the things that motivate you. You can use these motivation factors to help you gain steps higher in your career.

Hypnotherapy training is indeed very beneficial to people. Some may have doubted the capabilities of this therapy; but once you have tried it for yourself, you will experience how soothing the treatment can be both for your mind and body.

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There are so many tools that show you how to relieve stress and it is no wonder. There is so much stress in the world today. Generally people are so busy they have little time for anything.

We are victims of a world gone mad. Think about it. We chase around hour after hour every day and we end up without any time. Money, success, careers and family are what drives us to keep going day in and day out and as a result we have become ‘stressed out’; ticking time bombs ready to blow at any minute.

Disease, chronics illness, hypertension and even heart attacks are just some of the symptoms of stress. Most of us don’t even realize the kind of stress we put ourselves under. We have built in mechanisms in our bodies that help us when we are confronted with stressful situations. We were not however supposed deal with stress all the time.

So, what do you do to relieve stress and the effect it can have on your body? In a moment you will get a chance to read 5 tips to effective stress relief but before you do there are two things that you should be doing on a daily basis to help you deal with stress.

The first thing is to get off adrenaline. One of the best tips on how to relieve stress is to plan better. Life happens and there are always going to be surprises you can’t avoid but it doesn’t have to be like this all of the time. A little planning can be the best thing you can do to keep your stress levels down. Your health and well-being could be at stake.

The second thing is to drink less caffeine and if you are a smoker to cut back, or better yet, quit smoking. Nicotine and caffeine can cause harmful stress to the body. Try to limit your intake where possible.

Ok so let’s take a look at 5 things you can do to help your body and mind better deal with stress.

1. Get regular exercise
It doesn’t really matter what you consider exercise. It could be jogging or taking a long brisk walk or even doing a workout at the gym. Regular exercise is what is important and so is making sure you are relaxed while doing it. There is no point in exercising if you hate every minute while you are doing it.

2. Relaxation and meditation
I know it sounds easy to say just relax or chill out but most people don’t know how to. You don’t have to know the art of meditation in order to just get a little uninterrupted time for yourself on a consistent basis.

3. Go out and spoil yourself
This doesn’t mean you go out and start shopping ladies. It does mean doing something for yourself. What you could do is go to a spa and enjoy a relaxing massage or you could sit down to a good book and a little alone time.

4. Video and board games
Games can be excellent stress relievers. You may want to choose careful the people you play the game with so as to avoid tension because of competitiveness. There are some great free software games you can download off the internet that are great to help relieve stress

5. Get some decent sleep
Make sure you get enough rest. When you interrupt your sleeping patterns you put unnecessary and potentially harmful stress on your body. If you are constantly thinking you are not resting. It may not sound possible but you can turn off thoughts about worry simply by not reacting to them.

You do not need to do all of the above right away but you should start with one, get in the habit of doing it regularly and then start the next one. Relaxing is what is important not what you do. Start today.

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People with full schedules and busy lifestyles tend to get more prone to a higher rate of stress. Stress and its nature vary from simple to complicated. For instance, taking care of your children can cause stress while facing debts and financial commitments can do the same thing as well. Because the various stressful matters differ slightly than one another, almost everyone wishes to stray away from any stress-generating source. Stress management teaches you how to get your stress lessened to the minimum while dealing well with it.

Basic Methods

When it comes to stress management, a lot of us tend to imagine aromatherapy, Yoga or any other type of spiritual therapy. However, stress management brings about a much deeper meaning. Stress management methodology offers you a wide variety of choices to pick from. This can easily get you to do without Yoga. You should know that some of these ways are simple while others require more perseverance. Read on to check some of the simple various stress management routines.

Stay organized and try to avoid doing everything at the last moment. Stress management starts at something as simple as getting the clothes you are going to wear next morning ready just one night earlier. Also, you can always make use of an organizer to remind you of important meetings and events. Organizing your day shall set your head clear and get you to avoid more stress as you would not be very concerned about your weak memory anymore. The most effective element in such a stress management method is that it allows you to get every single step well organized on your mind leaving you almost nothing to be stressed about.

Furthermore, try some brain exercises and you would notice how that would positively affect your stressed out head. You should know that even little stress could have the worst impact on you. Hence, via stress management related exercises, both your brain and body would learn how to naturally unwind and calm down. Being extremely stressed out has a negative impact on your body’s muscles and in turn it affects your overall performance. There are a great number of exercises from which you can pick the best and the most enjoyable for you. All sports and workouts can be effective stress management methods. So, enjoying your time while coping with stress at the same time would become much easier now.

Both organizing your day and exercising are considered part of the stress management program that allows you to deal with stress and get the control over it. Organizing your time and tasks should minimize the level of stress and over pressure that you are dealing with in your everyday life. On the other hand, Resorting to exercising calms you down both; physically and mentally. Stress is a common problem affecting us all, yet you can always rely on the different stress management routines.

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