6 Beliefs You Need to Abandon to Unlock your Professional Blessings
We’ve all done the negative self-talk at some point in our lives. Sadly, we’ve held onto self- defeating beliefs without knowing it. The SLA team has put together the 6 most defeating beliefs, that if adopted would keep you at the top of your career and yield business success. Your old belief: Only one person can win New belief: We can all win! Your old belief: everyone’s trajectory for success is the same New belief: You have the opportunity to create your own path Your old belief: I am a victim of my circumstances New belief: Your crown has already been paid for Your old belief: I don’t have my own brand of greatness New belief: Being yourself is great enough Your old belief: I need to do everything New belief: I only need to focus on one or two things and do them exceptionally well Your old belief: I have to prove myself to everyone New belief: I only need to prove that I can do it to myself. So which of these self defeating beliefs did you have in 2015? Which ones are you dropping in 2016, and new ones are you adopting in 2016? Share this article with a friend to help keep you on track this year.
According to science, don’t make new year resolutions, do this instead!
With 2016 finally here, we see many Facebook & Whatsapp “New Year, New Me”. A new year is a fresh start, and a chance to set a new goals, which is why so many people make New Year resolutions. Still… Most people find New Year’s resolutions difficult to keep Local gyms are most crowded early January when people are most committed to their resolutions. But by February, people start dropping out that by December, they are either back to where they started before the resolution or are worse off. Psychologist, Peter Herman and his colleagues looked into the success rates of New Year resolutions, and it turns out that most people fail at sticking to their New Year’s resolutions. They found out that people underestimated the difficulty of their goals and selected tasks that were overly ambitious. They named the habit of making self-improvement goals but failing to fulfill them the “False Hope Syndrome.” Essentially, we try to do tasks that are too hard, too quickly when it comes to New Year Resolutions. Do the pre-work the goal demands Successfully sticking to resolutions that are easy to make but hard to maintain, researchers say, requires taking actionable steps to change a behavior, rather than making drastic changes. In a study that looked at the success rates of 200 people trying to stick to their resolutions, another psychologist, John Norcross, found that those who prepared for the lifestyle changes they wanted to make were successful at accomplishing their goals. For example, if losing weight is your New Year resolution this year, develop a meal plan with a trainer, participate in a bootcamp, or walk more. Do not set drastic goals, like running a marathon, and do not look for shortcuts. Liking Instagram pictures on a fitness page or buying the latest “detox tea” is not going to cut it either. Learn from failure How you react to failure along the way is another key part of being successful with your New Year’s resolutions this year. Alan Marlatt, a former Psychology Professor at University of Washington DC, found that those who do not turn setbacks into full relapses are more likely to succeed with their resolutions. Those who want to quit smoking, for example, might end up smoking a cigarette or two in their cessation journey. If they continue with their progress and do not see this moment of weakness as a complete failure, they have a better chance of quitting smoking. How to win this year Here’s a recap of steps to prevent the “false hope syndrome”. Break your big goals into smaller, attainable ones. Tackle one goal at a time. Ask for help and talk about your goals with friends. Celebrate small wins. Don’t wait another year to make goals. Nothing is stopping you from making those changes now.
5 life lessons for women from Iyanla Vanzant
I attended Radio One Detroit’s 2nd Annual Women’s Empowerment Expo held at the Cobo Center in Detroit on August 15, 2015. The event drew a great crowd of women looking to empower themselves and receive words of wisdom from event keynote speaker Iyanla Vanzant. The expo also featured seminars ranging from “How to Successfully Promote Your Business” to “Keeping the Relate in Your Relationship.” Iyanla Vanzant dropped valuable gems on us and lit up the stage with her presence. SLA shares with you what we’ve learned! 1. Beauty is subjective Iyanla explained that being a dark-skinned woman with kinky hair was not part of accepted societal beauty standards. As a result she compared herself to everyone else. She had to make a conscious decision to love and accept who she was and to find beauty in that. Had she not found beauty in herself, she would not be the successful speaker she is today. 2. Every stage of life has a purpose The purpose in life of a 20-year-old is vastly different from that of a 50-year-old. That is OK. Embracing your life in stages allows you to understand your purpose through your experiences. Allow your wrinkles to set in, love the rolls around your belly and embrace your stretch marks. Forgive. Understand that your life is like constructing a house. Everything starts with a plan —floor plans, lighting plans, plumbing plans— before the first brick is laid on cement. If you do not plan for your life or your business you will become bitter from failure, and there’s nothing successful about being bitter. 3. You matter Women matter. Until you comprehend the power in your value, you will never become conscious of the fact that you matter. When you don’t believe that you matter, you tend to do things that prove what you think is accurate [that you do not matter]. You may not realize it in the present, but when you look back at your life and see your behavior and choices, it will show whether you believed that you matter. This can manifest in relationships, business and even finance. Your choices will not reflect growth or change for the better unless you believe you matter enough to change them. 4. Understand your personal journey Comparison is the number one killer of achievement. Comparing yourself to other women only allows you to look down on what they have and not to look up at what you want to be. If you are solely focused on your own achievements you will not lose sight of your vision and the path to realizing it. 5. Pause Life happens – for better and sometimes for worse. If you go through your 20s to 80s without a pause, you will end up angry and confused about the happenings of your life. Every stage in your life requires a pause to find clarity and to learn the lessons. You cannot carry the burdens and mistakes from each stage in your life to the next one and expect to achieve anything.