For many of us January is one month of the year when we reflect on what we would like to change in our life, set goals, start new projects, decide to let go of negative habits and improve our character. I honestly believe that if we all managed to keep the same level of motivation, excitement and determination as we have in January, for the rest year, we would not need to read books about overcoming procrastination or staying focused on our goals.

Unfortunately, February comes and our enthusiasm and commitment wears thin. We find ourselves slowly slipping back to our old habits and old lifestyle. And finally, after about a month-and-a-half we throw our hands up in the air and declare, “Forget about it! It is too hard”. Then, of course, we wait for the next year to try again.

This year can be different!

Here are ten top tips to help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions throughout the rest of the year:

1.    Have realistic expectations. In the best tradition of the  holiday season, when we decide to pursue a certain goal, we often overestimate our future level of motivation and productivity and underestimate possible implications that we might encounter on our way. Do not expect to see immediate results of your efforts. Miracles do happen, but only to people who are willing to wait for them! Keep that in mind when you set deadlines for your goals.

Solution: Imagine that my New Year’s resolution is very similar to yours. How long do you think it will take me to reach this goal, given that I have a full time job, two young children that I have to pick up after school and a Salsa Class on Wednesdays and Fridays? So what is your verdict? Most likely, this is the same deadline you should consider for yourself. It has been proven that we are a lot better at making estimations for other people than for ourselves.

2. Pick just one goal. I know that it might be tempting to go after one career-related goal, one personal life goal, one health goal, one self-improvement goal and top that all off with a three-week vacation, a great book that you are dying to write and Japanese language courses that you always wanted to take. Have you ever tried juggling with 3-7 tennis balls? Try it. I bet you, that you will drop at least two balls on your first try. Juggling with 3-7 goals is no different. You will give up on all of them before you know it.

Solution: Prioritize. Choose just one resolution that is the most important to you at the moment and fully concentrate your efforts on it. The rest of the resolutions on your list can wait.

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“Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.”- Georg C. Lichtenberg

Have you ever wondered why most genial ideas, breathtaking poems and break-through discoveries are written on dinner napkins, ticket stubs, paper scraps and the palms of the hand?

It seems that genius often appears in the least expected places and the most inappropriate times. Think of the last time you had a brilliant idea or found a spontaneous solution to a problem that you had been struggling with for a long time. Where were you at that moment? In the shower? Cooking? Going down the steps? Or talking to a friend about a completely different topic?

The latest neurological research has made a few very intriguing discoveries. First of all, scientists believe that breakthroughs, insights or “aha” moments happen when the right hemisphere of our brain (called also intuitive/creative brain) is activated.

Secondly, research also indicates that in most people   the left hemisphere is dominant which is responsible for analytical step-by-step thought. For example, if your right hand is dominant it would most likely mean that you rely on your rational brain more than on your creativity and lateral thinking. And while it may serve you well in some situations, you can benefit hugely from increasing your right brain activity.

Here are 9 easy-to-do activities that you can practice in order to boost your creativity and improve your learning skills:

1. Meditate. Recent studies have made a fascinating discovery – our intelligence depends directly on the efficiency of communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. What does it have to do with meditation? As it turns out meditation is one of the most effective ways to balance our rational and creative thinking and increase bilateral activity in the mind. Meditation also improves our learning ability and retention of information.

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Everyone has an idea of what writer’s block is. I am familiar with this problem first hand. You sit there… staring at a blank word document and it stares back at you. Your mind tells you – “Write something!”, “Anything!” So you write some banality that starts with “Everyone needs motivation in life”. And your brain screams, “No! Delete it before someone sees it! No one wants to read THIS.” So you are back where you started – a white void, where all great ideas die, before being born.

You might not have experienced writer’s block. But I am sure that at some point you have had to deal with imagination or thinking block. Do you know that feeling – a complete brain hiccup where all of a sudden you just cannot come up with a decent answer or solution to a problem, because your mind goes blank?

Following Murphy’s Law – great spontaneous solutions rarely come to us when we are thinking intensely about them. Quite the opposite, the harder we try the more feel confused and frustrated.

Why?

As it turns out, it all has to do with the way our brain works. It can either process information in an intuitive and spontaneous way, while looking at the whole picture or it can process the data in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. It all depends on which hemisphere of the brain is more engaged while thinking. After numerous experiments neurologists have found that the left hemisphere of our brain is responsible for logical thinking, while the right hemisphere is for creative and lateral thinking.

Most people use left-side thinking or think “rationally” a lot more than they use the right side of the brain. You might be wondering what is wrong with thinking rationally and relying on your analytical skills.

Nothing. Unless you over use them. Health care professionals report that left hemisphere strokes are a lot more common and more dangerous than right hemisphere strokes. It may be a signal that we work our rational mind into a blowout.

Sense versus Sensibility.

Contrary to what we would expect, relying heavily on our logical brain might not always be the best way to solve complicated problems or make the right decisions in our professional and personal life.

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I almost did not write this article today. I woke up later than usual and just felt like doing nothing. Do you ever get into a lazy mood, when you just do not feel like working, or jogging in the morning, or cooking dinner, or doing the laundry, or being a parent?

I think that we all have these days for various reasons:

1. our body can be exhausted because we pushed it too hard the day before;
2. our mind can be tired because we kept worrying about something that we had no control of;
3. or our emotions can reach their peak and then go into “I don’t care” mode for a while.

But whatever our reasons are, these days cost us 8 hours of unproductive work, fights with our family and friends and a temporary loss of control over our life. But the worst thing is that they often become catalysts for our failures.

Have you set a goal and failed to achieve it? Could you recall why? In my case it often started with a simple decision “I really don’t feel like doing it today. I will just do it tomorrow.” Guess what? In most cases I did not do it the next day… and I had a good reason not to do it the next day… and then after a week of “good reasons” I would finally realize how much I have fallen behind and accept my defeat.

The process of achieving your goals is just like walking on a treadmill. It is easy to set the machine in motion and choose a pace that you are comfortable with. Getting back on track after a long pause is similar to trying to jump onto a treadmill that keeps on moving. Not only do you need to worry about not falling flat on your face, you  also need to make an enormous effort to regain the speed.

Next time you get in the lazy mood do the following:

1. Admit to yourself that you are making excuses. Next time the appealing idea of postponing something until tomorrow crosses your mind – do not fight it! Instead ask yourself how realistic is it that you will do it tomorrow? Can you recall the last time you skipped a work-out and felt more inspired to do it the next day? Inspiration, just like good luck, or success is not something you can book in advance by making a simple phone call. It is something that comes to you AFTER you start doing the work.

Be honest with yourself! Accept excuses for what they are – logical explanations that your mind comes up with to justify your lack of desire to do something. When you stop looking for justification you will be able to make conscious decisions about what is best for you.

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Here’s my top five motivational classics from Youtube. I cry every time I watch them.

#1 Free Hugs Campaign

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Harold S. Kushner wrote a wonderful book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” as a reaction to personal tragedy – his son Aaron died prematurely. This book is dedicated to anyone “who has been hurt by life”, to help people find a faith that can aid them in getting through their troubles, rather than making things worse.

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to us?

I have. I can not say that I have figured out the answer to this question. I guess I am just not wise enough to understand God’s ways. But I am sure about one thing – every event, every situation, every problem or opportunity always has a cause.

In our case we always have two choices:

1. We can either believe that “things just happen to you” and attribute that cause to an external event (like bad economy, controlling parents, insensitive spouse, stupid boss and even a damn dog)

2. Or we can view ourselves as a cause of events and accept full responsibility for everything that happens in our life, no matter if it is good or bad.

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Hi! My name is Arina and I am a former speedaholic!

Being impatient by nature I love speed, instant gratification and ‘quick fixes’. I love modern technology for making my life easier and some tedious home chores much more tolerable. I enjoy high speed internet, fast cars, planes that can get me faster to my destination point and phone calls that are short and right to the point.  Because the more time I save, the more I can get done. A second here, a second there and you have got yourself a whole extra minute!

I am sure you know what I mean…

I was convinced that the fast way is the only way to go, because, let’s face it, life is short and time is money.

However, something really strange happened to me two weeks ago. I had a private Italian language lessons at 3:30 p.m. at a friend’s house. I was so busy writing that I completely lost track of time. When I left the house it was already 3:20 p.m. I walked as fast as I could the whole way, looking at my watch every 30 seconds and feeling very anxious, because I hate to make other people wait. I finally got to her house 15 minutes late, feeling out of breath, stressed out and guilty all at the same time.

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How many times have you started a new project and never finished it? How many new improvements in your life were you going to make, but never had enough willpower to stick to it? How many of us have exercise machines in our houses that are just standing there and collecting dust?

Starting something new is always very exciting, but after a couple of days when a project stops being new, the excitement slowly fades. As a result we move on to a new goal, never finishing what we’ve already started. This pattern of behavior slowly transforms itself into a habit. And we all know how hard it is to break a habit, especially when your willpower is not strong enough.

Today I’ll share with you one trick that has proven to be especially effective, because it doesn’t require you to have a steel willpower.

One Small Trick That Works Even If You Feel Especially Lazy

Let me tell you one more trick you can use when you feel especially lazy. For example, you’ve decided to go jogging today, but when the time has come, you really don’t feel like getting up from the couch and doing any form of exercise. I feel like that quite often.

In this case you should tell yourself:  “I am not going to jog today. I will just get up and put my jogging shoes on”.

It is a lot easier on your willpower to do a little, easy task, than a big one. In the most cases by the time you get up from the couch, put your shoes on, and get distracted from the TV show you were watching, you will probably decide to go jogging after all.

Just make yourself do the tiniest piece of the task. Like reading just one page from the textbook, or do just one set of ab-exercises, something that would take you only a couple of minutes. The funny thing is, once you start doing it you’ll most likely finish it all.