Masamuru Ltd.

Success is a beautiful word and a powerful antidote for failure; it is a well known truth that success drives away failure and makes us happy and prosperous. Simply speaking, the word “success” is related to a positive mental attitude, while failure is genuinely connected to a negative mindset. The rate of success is so rare, while the failure is common among all walks of human life. Now, is it really possible that any work or task we do or undertake in our daily life culminates in a perfect, fairytale ending? Probably the answer is a positive NO! Because success eludes most of us, due to many reasons and factors. Most of the highly successful people attain such a level of success by applying many established keys to success.

It is always possible to attain success, so long as you understand the key factors that can create this condition. Whatever you do, in your field of work or the way, in which you work to attain your personal goals, there are some essential requirements, which need to be fulfilled to achieve a fair degree of success in your personal life. Also called KEYS TO SUCCESS, these principles are time tested and proved again and again in the past by many of the highly successful people.

Possibly the most important factor while achieving success is, how determined are you to achieve your ultimate goal. Are you motivated enough to achieve a fair degree of success in a stipulated time frame? What is the measure of your level of perseverance and determination to attain the cherished success? Your decision, determination, attention, and a burning desire to achieve the ultimate success are your important keys to your success. If you’re determined to achieve personal success, you’ll need to release your inner energy to focus on the ultimate goal. Your total commitment to the goal is based on knowledge and meaning of the requirements of the success act, and the mandatory role of both favorable and opposing factors.

The role of positive attitude in everything we do or perform can not be contested and a positive mind is a healthy mind, capable of achieving any success and objectives. One of the most important keys to success is a positive mind, with a right attitude. You may need to inculcate positive attitude or postures in your daily life, to make your life positive and beautiful. To be positive, you may need to drive away all negative attitudes, sentiments and feelings from your mind, so that your personality becomes equipped with a positive energy to achieve even the most impossible of all goals.

Whatever the attitude you have, it is worthless unless you have a solid action plan or a series of goals. These are probably the most difficult keys to your ultimate success. All great accomplishments and deeds in the past history are borne out of solid goals and action plans. Always attach a timeline tag to your goals and action plans. A clear-cut deadline will ensure personal success and this may not look as easy as you feel and believe. Goals are difficult to achieve, but not impossible! Feel the pain to gain! Be focused and attain your personal success.

Located in the heart of Rome, close to Termini Main Station, this comfortable Bed and Breakfast is ideal for an holiday in Rome.
Ideal for those who want to be right beside the most important monuments of Rome.

Bed Breakfast Rome, Incanto Romano is situated in the heart of Rome, in Via Cattaneo, only threehundred meters from the Termini Railway station. This area is full with tourist facilities; there are bars (to enjoy your breakfast) everywhere, restaurants, internetcafe’s, laundrettes. You can find inside the Termini station a newly-built mall, called "Forum", that offers shops of every kind. You find your supermarket there, banks, convenience stores, but also shops like Sergio Tacchini or Armani. Due to it’s vicinity to the Termini station, Bed and Breakfast incanto Romano is connected extremely well with the centre of Rome. Most tourist sites only a short walk away, while the central bus station of Rome is located right in front of the Termini, as well as the underground (Metro).

3 double room with private bath
Third bed available in
All rooms are equipped with TV, hair dryer and safe box
Daily roomcleaning
Linen and towels
Iron
Free Internet use
Air conditioning

Other suggestion for Rome? Charming accommodation in the centre of Rome: find an Hotel close to Tiburtina Station, or compare price for Rome hotels Vatican Museums, or make a reservation for a Rome Walking Tour

What is fear’s purpose? How do you handle it? While I am
working in my pest control business, I meet people on an
almost daily basis who are influenced by negative fear
thoughts regarding pests invading their premises. A good
size spider, rat, or unexpected insect can set someone off
pretty quickly, and literally immobilize them. It consumes
their thoughts to the point where they have trouble thinking
about anything else.

Thinking about why people do this, makes me wonder about the
purpose of Fear emotions. I really started wondering as to
how many people really do allow Fear, anxiety, worry, etc.
to freeze them into inaction in everyday life. They achieve
a very negative result, one which I have to think, is not
what they really want.

Fear – What is it’s purpose? Do you let fear immobilize you
or do you act in spite of it, safely, consciously aware of
why it is there?

Personally, I look upon fear as a positive emotion. I know
that uncontrolled this emotion can breed many negative
results. But when controlled, this emotion can spur you
into action like no other I know of. And I think that this
is truly the reason for fear. Think of it as your best
friend, preparing you for progress. Make friends with the
unknown.

We should acknowledge the fear we are experiencing. Allow
that it is a positive thing within us that warns us of some
impending danger or harm. And then, analyze it to see if it
is real or imagined, justified or not. When we recognize
it’s positive intent, it is no longer something to
immobilize us, but quite the reverse, we can jump into
action to remedy ‘why’ we are fearful.

I think that it is the inaction bred by over-analyzing, by
focusing on the fear, actually dwelling on it, imagining
the ‘what ifs’, that keeps us from taking the actions
necessary to move though it. We need to process it, not
dwell in it. I’m sure everyone has heard the old expression,
‘A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave person, only one.’
We do not want to hold the FEAR thought. That is not what it
is there for.

As long as we focus on the positive intent a fearful state
represents, rather on the fear itself, we can question
ourselves as to what this fear is trying to tell us to do,
and take the necessary actions to protect ourselves or
blast us though this perceived barrier.

All we have to know is, `What is really going on here?’
What do I need to do in order for me to feel better about
moving forward? Or do I really need to back off from this
course? Do I need to take another smaller action (baby
step) or do I just need to change my perception about what
is going on here?

Then, move forward in some direction no matter how small a
step it seems. Usually just taking action and the momentum
you gain and feel, will free you from the fearful,
concerned, worried feeling you had.

Do you have something bothering you, or something you have
been putting off, or dreading? Something you know you must
do, but just haven’t been able to face up to the task? Break
it down until there is something you can move forward with.
Take it in baby steps, take action. Do it and then
celebrate the victory! Feel your confidence grow!

Your mind can only hold one thought at a time. Make it an
action thought that empowers you.

This is only one person’s opinion, but I feel it is better
to believe in something beneficial that I can take control of,
rather than be at it’s mercy!.

Al Smith, Copyright 2005

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Al Smith writes for and publishes The
Realgoalgetter Blog, The Realgoalgetter Ezine and The
Realgoalgetter Website. His articles deal with goal setting,
self improvement, and motivation. Subscribe FREE to The
Realgoalgetter Ezine at: http://www.realgoalgetter.com/ezines/

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This article is available for reprint in your publication
free as long as it is kept intact and the resource box is
included with active links back to our website. Please send
a courtesy email and let us know where you have placed the
article. Thank you. Mail to: alsmith@realgoalgetter.com

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962).

When I came to live in England in 1996, I was shocked to discover that a crook had already hijacked my birth certificate and used it to collect my National Insurance card, credit card, and even opened a bank account. I also discovered I was purportedly married. Everywhere I went, I was told somebody was bearing my name. At a stage the authorities did not know who the real Dayo Olomu was. Fear hit me in the face and it nearly killed my dream. Though it took me two years to sort everything out but I resolved that fear will not kill my dream. Today the rest is history.

FEAR is an ancient topic in the history of human race. It is enough to make one sick. It causes some people a constant and gnawing pain in the pit of the stomach. Others drink more or smoke more because of fear. It has killed many dreams and ruined several careers than all other causes combined. The number one killer of our dreams at work and at home is fear.

The longer I live, the more I realize that fear is the worst enemy of the human species. And it’s been with us since the beginning. The Holy Bible, Torah and Koran spoke exhaustively about fear.

In fact, it seems the older we get the more prone we are to allowing fear to control our lives and destroy our dreams.

Stop and think about it. Most children are fearless unless an adult has already instilled fear in them. Teenagers and even young adults continue to display mostly courageous attitudes. But as we grow, we become more fearful. Perhaps we realise there is a lot at stake at that point. Any mistake could be life-changing. We should gradually become more fearless with age because wisdom, which usually comes with age, makes us more apt to see the truth in a situation.

That fear is a myth, a creation of a weak mind, is illustrated by this acronym: FEAR- False Evidence Appearing Real.

I have many friends who were once seemingly fearless super-achievers; however, having reached their middle ages they have become more fearful that the quality of their lives have significantly suffered. They have surrendered their dreams and, literally their life to some type of fear – fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of change, fear of success, fear of making decisions, fear of responsibility, and/or fear of commitment. It is fear, and all of its cousins (such as worry, anxiety, depression, and self-doubt), that will turn your dream of success into a chilling nightmare that haunts you into psychological paralysis.

Often people say to me, ‘I can’t afford to pursue my dream because I don’t have enough money.’ I ask them how much they need to pursue such dreams. Usually the answer is, ‘I don’t know, but I know I don’t have enough.’ The same with time. Are you complaining that you don’t have the time to pursue your dreams or that you are busy, while never actually scheduling an hour to see how you might break your dream into smaller projects? Jim Rohn, America’s foremost business Philosopher once said: “Don’t mistake movement for achievement. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: busy doing what?”

Reiterating his words, Vic Johnson, founder of AsAManThinketh.net said “Fear can be defeated because fear is a learned response in the first place. It’s said that we were only born with two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear you have was learned!”

One of the greatest ways to conquer fear and keep our dream alive is to use our faith. To use the words of Professor Tam David-West, Nigeria’s former Petroleum Minister in an interview he granted to Nigeria’s ThisDay Newspaper on July 20, 1997, “Be not afraid. Hold on to your Faith with the buoyant hope and divine assurance that all will be well.” Personally, I find solace in the scripture which says “God has not given us the spirit of fear but the spirit of love, power and a sound mind.” Moreover, the word ‘fear not’ is recorded 365 times in the Bible, which means that everyday, there is one to use.

I am a believer in the philosophy of the mountain climbers who say, “I will climb the mountain. They have told me it’s too high, it’s too far, it’s too steep, it’s too rocky, and it’s too difficult. But it’s my mountain. I will climb it. You’ll soon see me waving from the top or you’ll never see me, because unless I reach the peak, I’m not coming back.” Who can argue with such resolve? Jim Rohn once said: “When confronted with such iron-will determination, I can see time, fate and circumstances calling a hasty conference and deciding, ‘we might as well let him have his dream’. He’s said he’s going to get there or die trying.”

One thing you must never allow fear to do is to stop you from achieving your dream. Never stop until all your dreams come true. Remember, obstacles and fear are the things you see when your eyes are off the target.

Dayo Olomu is a UK-based Motivational Speaker, Writer, Business/Life Coach, Trainer, Media Entrepreneur and Competent Toastmaster. His core belief is that we are all endowed with seeds of greatness, and his mission is to help individuals and organisations achieve their full potentials. He is the author of best selling “4 Indispensable Strategies for Success” and the President of Croydon Communicators Toastmasters. Get his FREE monthly Rise to the Top ezine by sending a blank email to subscribe@dayoolomu.com or visit his website at: www.dayoolomu.com

Winners understand that success comes from a series of small steps that keep in mind their ultimate destination. We may have a dream and not the foggiest idea of how or where to begin. Stephen Covey summed it up best when he said, “Begin with the end in mind.” I find that if I map out how I will feel, think and act when I have reached my goal, I then begin to build an internal kinesthetic sense of success. Each small step I make will reveal the next step. A series of steps, each done with excellence and discernment, will lead us to our destination.

In 1979, I wanted to win first place at Y.B Choi’s US Open Karate Championships. I visualized myself winning with ease and fell asleep seeing executing techniques with precision and power. I did it with such conviction that my body began to operate at those levels.

More important, I spent time working out daily, practicing my technique in such a way that I supported my inner image. Many of us pride ourselves on our positive attitude. That’s great. What is more effective, I have found, is positive doing. I get up, put my images to work, and do what needs to be done now. In my case, it was to get to the gym daily and practice with my end in mind. I went on to win first place, and did so for the two years that I competed at that tournament.

I began my business in 1984, not knowing where my clients would come from. I didn’t have any formal sales training, nor did I know how to generate “leads.” What I did do, however, was trust my impulses and intuition. One day, I got an urge to go visit the head of Mullenburg Hospital’s emergency room with a friend. As this physician and I spoke, it became evident that I could assist him. I had a new client at the end of our conversation. He, in turn, introduced me to at least five other individuals who also worked with me to clarify their goals and identify their strengths. As I did what needed to be done, as it appeared in front of me, I found a series of synchronistic events leading me closer to my goal of a positive cash flow.

Life is uncertain. Revolutionary entrepreneurs leap through conventions into the unknown. The future is waiting to be discovered. That discovery reveals itself in each moment. Our challenge is simple: to focus on what needs to be done now and trust our next steps are enough.

Copyright 2005 Lin Morel. You are welcome to use this article online in electronic newsletters and e-zines as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info).

I am going to ask you to something very weird right now. First of all, I want you to listen to your thoughts. Now tell me, what thoughts fill your head? Would you label them as positive, or negative?

Now let’s say you are walking down the street with these thoughts. Do you think anyone who would meet you would be able to tell you what’s on your mind?

The answer to number one is up to you. But, the answer number two can be pretty generic. Although people will not be able to tell you exactly what you think, they will more or less have an idea of how you are feeling.

Here’s another question. When you enter a party filled with friends, do they all fall silent as if something terrible had happened? Or does everybody there perk up as if waiting for something exciting to happen?

You know what? The answer to all these depends on your frame of mind.

Thoughts are very powerful. They affect your general attitude. The attitude you carry reflects on your appearance, too – unless, of course, you are a great actor.

And it doesn’t end there. Your attitude can also affect people around you.

The type of attitude you carry depends on you. It can be either positive or negative.

Positive thoughts have a filling effect. They are admittedly invigorating. Plus, the people around the person carrying positive thoughts are usually energized by this type of attitude.

Negative thoughts on the other hand have a sapping effect on other people. Aside from making you look gloomy and sad, negative thoughts can turn a festive gathering into a funeral wake.

A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. People tend to shy away from those who carry a negative attitude.

We can also define attitude as the way of looking at the world. If you choose to focus on the negative things in the world, more or less you have a negative attitude brewing up. However, if you choose to focus on the positive things, you are more likely carry a positive attitude.

You have much to gain from a very positive attitude. For one, studies have shown that a positive attitude promotes better health. Those with this kind of attitude also have more friends. projecting a positive attitude also helps one to handle stress and problems better than those who have a negative attitude.

A positive attitude begins with a healthy self-image. If you will love the way you are and are satisfied, confident, and self-assured, you also make others are around feel the same way.

A negative attitude, on the other hand, has, of course, an opposite effect. So, carrying a negative attitude has a twofold drawback. You feel bad about yourself, and you make others feel the same way.

If you want to have a positive attitude, you have to feature healthy thoughts. This is probably very hard to do nowadays since, all around us, the media feeds us nothing but negative thoughts. A study shows that for every 14 things a parent says to his or her child, only one is positive. This is truly a saddening thought.

If you want a healthier outlook in life, you need to think happy thoughts, and you have to hear positive things as well. So, what can you do? Well, for starters, you could see a funny movie, you could play with children, spend some time telling jokes with friends. All these activities fill you with positive stimuli, which in turn promotes positive attitude.

Although it is impossible to keep ourselves from the negative things around us, you can still carry a positive attitude by focusing on the good things, the positive things in life.

And this positive attitude you now carry can be of benefit to other people. Sometimes when other people feel down, the thing people mostly do is try to give them advice. But sometimes, all they need is somebody to sit by them, and listen to them. If you have a positive attitude you may be able to cheer them up without even having to say anything.

If positive attitude is really great, why do people choose to adopt a negative attitude instead? One who carries a negative attitude may be actually sending a signal for attention. Before you get me wrong, feeling sad, angry, or gloomy is not wrong itself. But dwelling on these thoughts for far too long is not healthy either. There is a time to mourn.

As always, if you are beset by troubles, even in your darkest hour, focus on the good things in life, you will always have hope. Problems become something you can overcome.

You do not have much to lose by adopting a healthy, positive attitude. Studies show that such an attitude actually retards aging, makes you healthier, helps you develop a better stress coping mechanism, and has a very positive effect on all the people you meet every day. So, what’s not to like about a positive attitude? Adopt one today.

SUMMARY

This article shows you how to use your website to build a solid foundation and system for art sales that will leave you more freedom to actually be an artist! Lets get started…..

Step1. Showcase Your Work Professionally

More and more galleries are looking to the internet to review the work of emerging and mid-career artists because it is simpler than dealing with large volumes of paper-portfolios. So, what is important in a website? What do arts professionals look for?

Designers and curators know this from years of training and experience. Here are some points to consider when you are planning the visual design of your website.

- Keep the website simple and elegant with the focus on the art itself – Use neutral background colors that compliment the work. Good choices are black, charcoal, white, and off-white shades. Avoid bright colors. – Don’t overpower the look of the art or distract with a site that looks too “busy” and don’t have ads in your site – remember to let the art speak.

- We often recommend against having large numbers of art-works on your website. Choose your very best work, just as you would choose slides for a portfolio. When was the last time you went to a high-end gallery that had hundreds of pieces showing?

- Avoid effects such as flash movies unless they really compliment the art.

Your artist’s website is the foundation of your online-marketing strategy. Every marketing tool and program will seek to draw attention to your website gallery. It’s worth putting in the investment in time, thought, and money to make it great!

Step 2. Tell Collectors and Arts Professionals about your website

Now that you’ve expended all that brainpower and soul on getting your beautiful website gallery developed, it needs to be seen! Now’s the time to put on your marketing hat and start attracting traffic. The following techniques will get you started:

Search Engines: If your website was well developed it should be at least partially optimized for online search engines like Google, MSN Search, etc. Search Engine optimization means that your site should come up in the first few pages of results if a visitor does a search on your name or on the phrases that your site was optimized for.

Email promotion: If your website is setup with an email management system, you can collect the names and email addresses of visitors who sign up to receive updates about your work. When you have events or new art you can email them automatically!

Press Releases: Both online and hard-copy press releases are valuable tools for bringing publicity to your website and career. Whenever you have a significant opening or event, send a press release to local and art-industry publications, as well as online press release services.

Brochures & Inquiry Letters: Your website is a centrally located portfolio that anyone can access. Send an inquiry letter to galleries and invite them to review your work on your website. An even better solution is to include a beautifully crafted brochure or postcard with your letter and website invitation.

Step 3. Make it Easy to Buy

There are two different market segments for art sales on the internet: High-Value original works, and lower-cost art reproductions.

The high-value originals category is one where your collectors will probably want to get to know you and your art before they bring out their wallets. You should think of your website as a tool to help you close the sale and so it’s sufficient to have a very clearly marked “Contact” page so that collectors or dealers can call you or email you.

Lower cost reproductions, on the other hand, lend themselves well to direct sales from your website with ecommerce capability.

Step 4. Measure Your Results

As an artist and a business owner, one of the first foundations to success and growth is to measure your results. How do you do that?

The first and most obvious place to look is the bottom line – your sales. If you are selling handsomely, it’s a good sign that you are doing things well.

In the online-world, marketing results are measured with website statistics packages which track useful information such as:

- How many visitors you had, where they came from, & how they found you – What they looked at and how long they looked at it – How they clicked through your site & how many times they returned

Website statistics packages allow you to measure the results of your promotion and search engine optimization efforts. You can then make informed decisions about where to put your precious marketing dollars to get the best results.

Step 5. Keep Your Website Current

When you measure your results, you’ll find that visitors particularly enjoy some sections of your website. To make use of this information, you need to make changes to keep those sections updated. Visitors will eventually stop returning if they see the same information month after month.

To make these changes quickly and cost-effectively you need to have either: A cost-effective maintenance plan with your website designer, or, the ability to make the changes yourself. Be sure that your designer offers you one of these options.

Step 6. Put a System in place to constantly improve results

In the 21st century all businesses have to become much more productive to prosper. With 10,000 new artists graduating art schools every year in North America alone, you probably need to spend 100% of your time on marketing to have a chance at success. So where do you find time to be an artist?

The answer is to recognize that most marketing work is highly repetitive. Putting a schedule and a system in place to take care of these tasks will win you back that precious time to be an artist. The system is none other than the 5 steps we’ve outlined in this article. Here they are again:

Step 1: Showcase your work professionally Step 2: Tell Collectors and Arts Professionals about your website Step 3: Make it easy to buy Step 4: Measure your results Step 5: Keep your website current

Creating a system means to implement these steps as a cycle that you refine every month or two. The results of your sales, contacts from collectors and dealers, and your website statistics measurements should help you to make changes to your website and choose the best, most cost-effective ways to promote it.

If you follow this system, you’ll quickly start to see where to place more attention and how to achieve better results with your art. After a few months, you’ll find that the system has become second nature to you – just like learning to drive a car; and you’ll be happy to find that you are spending more time in the studio!

On August 8 2005, Macromedia announced it’s release of Macromedia Studio 8. This was an improvement of it’s already popular MX2004 Version.

I have been using the new Dreamweaver 8 for the last few weeks and have observed noticeable improvements that I will describe here.

The first improvement that i noticed was the new top and side rulers. This is very helpful in lining up table and layers accurately.

Also, If you like to work with the code, Dreamweaver has a new feature where you can compress a certain line of code and hide it on the left hand pane. This allows you to hide code that you are not working with, and open it up at anytime if you decide to play with it.

One of the best new features is actually something I had a small gripe with in MX2004. In the previous version, when updating your site with the server, you had to sit there and wait while it uploads all your files. The new version fixes this. In Version 8, you can upload your entire site, AND continue working while your files upload in the background. This is a great new feature.

A couple of other new features and improvements worth noting are:

1. The new CSS Panel – Improved editing and working with your .css styles.

2. The ability to zoom in and out of your webpage.

3. A new coding toolbar

If you haven’t already, I would recommend getting the new version of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. You won’t be disappointed. Dreamweaver comes with some great tutorials as well. If you’re not familiar with the program, I would suggest going through all the tutorials.

Jason Cooper aka The Rich Nice Guy has been involved with Internet Marketing for a number of years and is an emerging force in the area. Visit http://www.therichniceguy.com to find out more! You may use this article as content for your website or ezine as long as this tagline remains unchanged.

What would January be without personal commitments for change? It’s a chance for a fresh start! With the promise of a new year before us, we believe that anything is possible.

Yet, all too often February can bring a familiar refrain of resolutions not kept and promises broken.

What can you do this year to change this pattern and ensure your resolutions have staying power?

Here’s my list of 7 Sure-Fire Steps to take you from Resolutions to the Results you desire… 1. You’ve Got to Want to 2. See the Outcome as Real 3. Break it Down 4. Put Some Skin in the Game 5. Create Accountability 6. Have a Cheering Section 7. If You Fall Off. … Get Back On

Let’s have a closer look at each step.

1. You’ve Got to Want to

Resolutions that are going to take hold and bring you the results you are seeking need to be those that are truly important to you. Choosing a resolution because it’s something you think you “should do” or because someone else told you it was a great idea, has a minimal likelihood of lasting success.

This is the most critical step on which to spend some solid reflection time. Resolutions that bring results are those that touch a personal core value. In my coaching practice, I have seen that the people who are most likely to achieve lasting results are those that identify a “hook” for their resolution that is highly meaningful to them and spurs them on. It makes them truly hunger for the outcome.

For example, as entrepreneur and mother of a 5 and 7 year-old, it’s a lot easier for me to set aside exercise time in my busy day when I see that by putting myself first for one hour a day, I am able to be more fully present with my family and not resent my various responsibilities. For my children, I am also modelling the importance of putting a priority on health and self-respect.

In reframing my exercise time from being a self-focused indulgence to being an initiative that reinforces my family values, I am much more likely to stick to a regular program. It gives me a hook.

So, before you move onto Step #2 take some quiet time and have a hard look at your list. Which of your resolutions are genuinely YOURS, that you care deeply about and are committed to? What’s great about this change? Toss out the resolutions that feel like a burden from the get-go. None of us needs fodder to reprimand ourselves for what we didn’t accomplish come February.

2. See the Outcome as Real

As with many self-improvement strategies, visualization is a powerful way to help pull you toward your desired future. With resolutions, having a crystal clear image of what it will be like when your resolution has delivered results, is a key next step.

Since many resolutions are about goals for positive personal change, looking ahead to the outcome can take you out of a not-so-great present into the alluring future. If we are talking about weight loss, for example, rather than focusing on how you feel about yourself right now with the extra weight you are carrying, focus on the fantastic feeling you will have when you are carrying 10 to 20 less pounds (or whatever your goal might be). Picture yourself at this desired weight… perhaps in a new outfit, enjoying an energetic activity and feeling confident. The clearer you can be with your visualization, the stronger the impact of this step.

Try making your outcome real by writing it down, mind-mapping or sketching it out. Your resolution and desired outcome will then stare back at you and challenge you to bring it to life.

If you meditate, you might incorporate visualizing or experiencing the successful outcome into your meditation. My husband, for example, draws on all of his senses, and incorporates smells, tastes, sounds, images and touch, when focusing on future achievement of a goal.

3. Break it Down

Many resolutions involve significant behavioural change. This mountain of desired change can seem so large that it appears almost impossible to scale, which discourages many people from getting any traction. I’ve noticed that when people break their resolutions down into manageable pieces, and then literally put one foot in front of the other… they tend to have more long-term success.

What are the achievable steps for you? Over what time-frame?

To return to the weight loss example… rather than focusing on a goal of 20 pounds, breaking your target into 2 pounds a week for 10 weeks is a much more achievable way of ensuring you will reach your goal.

As another example, how could you break-down your resolution to “get organized” into bite-sized pieces? One of my clients decided to start by focusing on better management of her email. She learned how to set-up folders to stream her incoming emails and to use flags for follow-up items. The result? She was able to reduce her inbox from a regular level of over 500 emails to less than 30.

4. Put Some Skin in the Game

In creating New Year’s resolutions, many of us list several things that we want to change. Yet, even though we have a desire to achieve all of these things, if we don’t commit any energy or resources against them, they simply don’t come to fruition.

There’s something about the power of investing in the change that gets many people over their initial inertia and sets them up to create a return on their investment.

As a Coach, I’ve observed that people who are willing to commit financial resources to making change happen, for example, are more willing to dig in and do the work necessary to bring about their desired change. When they commit to invest in themselves, they practically guarantee that they will deliver the outcome.

A few years ago when I hired my own coach, she helped me through the initial investment by asking me how many clients I would need to attract to make the investment worthwhile and grow my business. Of course, it was then in my interest to make darn sure that I did attract this many clients and more.

Financial investment isn’t the only way to put “skin in the game”. For many people there is nothing more precious than time. When you deliberately carve out time in your calendar and book appointments related to your resolution, all the while choosing to make trade-offs, you are making an investment in the change. For example, people who want to become more organized who actually build organizing time into their day are choosing to make this resolution a priority.

5. Create Accountability

This is an important step for “getting real”. It’s one thing to have a private list of resolutions that we don’t share with anyone else. This way, no one needs to know if we don’t follow through. For many of us, it is easier to let ourselves down than someone else whose respect is important to us.

Research shows that when you declare your intention aloud to at least one other person, you are twice as likely to follow-through. Furthermore, studies show that when you declare your intention to accomplish something at work to your boss, specifically, you are seven times more likely to create this result. Powerful!

Have a look at each of your resolutions and determine who would be your optimal accountability partner?

Personal * Spouse/Significant Other? * Family Member? * Friend? * Life Coach? * Nutritionist? * Personal Trainer?

Professional * Boss? * Mentor? * Business or Leadership Coach? * Client? * Business Partner? * Peer? For others, writing it down might be all it takes to create accountability. For some highly results-focused entrepreneurs I know, as soon as they commit themselves to a written plan, particularly one with measurable outcomes, this document creates accountability for them.

How do you best create accountability for personal changes? Look at changes that have been successful for you in the past to discover your own formula for success.

6. Have a Cheering Section

We all need supporters to cheer us on. People who best encourage us may be very different from those with whom you create accountability. These are the people who pick you up when you are discouraged. They remind you of how great you are. They remind you of what you’ve done well already. A cheering section includes people in your life who simply say…”I’m here for you and I believe in you.”

For some people, a highly successful strategy is to leverage the power of groups to help with follow-through on resolutions. Finding a group of people who are committed to a similar resolution can be a great way of having a ready-made cheering section.

7. If You Fall Off… Get Back On

It’s my experience that change that lasts over the longer-term rarely takes place in one step. It’s often a dance of three steps forward and one back. I think of long-term change as happening in upward spiral over time. We are climbing ever higher; yet, we are not moving in a purely linear one-dimensional direction.

As children, when we learn to walk, we rarely walk from the first step. We try a couple steps, fall down, dust ourselves off and try again. Eventually our deliberate, awkward movements become more fluid and unconscious. And so it goes with resolutions for behavioural change.

When we falter, it’s a great opportunity to recalibrate our approach and look at what’s working and what’s not. Then, when we get back up, we are more sure-footed and we make more progress. After all, this is what growth is all about.

Have a great New Year!

Think user, usability!

Ever visited a website, which has the most dazzling flash graphics, that takes so much time to load that the aesthetic value of the graphics is just lost on you? Your tired 28.8 kbps dial-up connection at home takes up precious time to load the website, and you want to cause serious bodily harm to the person who did not think of the home user’s needs before designing the website.

This genre of websites lacks basic usability, which causes immense frustration to users who need to interact with websites like these, on a regular basis.

Incorporating basic fundamentals of usability and interactive design can increase traffic in an exponential manner to a website.

Relying on usability inspection to evaluate the user interface of a website, using evaluative feedback on specific elements of a user interface to improve it, and improving upon the ease of interaction for the end user, to eventually reducing the frequency and seriousness of user errors, will all result in a larger number of users visiting your website, thereby generating greater ROI (Return On Investment).

With a lot of research being done in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), many website designers have begun to sit up and take note of the surprising results some of the research has thrown up. Users are increasingly demanding an easier way to interact with a website, and the common sense approach to website designing is fast gaining ground. Early proponents of the common sense approach to website designing (which basically consists of a lot of usability and interactive design related ideas being consolidated, for application to website design) like Jakob Nielsen, Robert Mack, Steve Krug, and Lisa Price, are all working towards improving user experience while interacting with a website.

Practical techniques you should keep in mind before you design (or re-design) your website:
1. Don’t force your users to think. Keep user interface decisions simple enough, so that users can make their decisions, without having to draw workflow diagrams.

2. Integrate usability inspection into the website design lifecycle. If time and resources permit, integrate heuristic evaluation (an informal method, where you have usability specialists judge whether each user interface dialog element conforms to established usability principles), plurastic walkthrough (a scenario where developers, users, and human factor experts walk through a simulated user scenario, and deliberate upon user interface issues), and cognitive walkthrough (have people from different disciplines inspect an interface to see whether they walk through the user scenario the way you expect them to).

3. In the absence of specialized human factor expertise, integrate low cost usability inspection (which would involve you walking through the user scenario or having a few people test the user scenario, and comment upon their experience).

4. Always have people easily figure where they stand in the current scheme of things. Implementing this principle would be as easy as having a page name at the top of the page, or in the case of a website, with very deep branches, have a clearly explained path at the top of the page.

5. Keep the navigation in the same place on every page, so your users don’t have to go looking for it.

6. Try not to overwhelm users with options. If you have a lot of content, organize the options into logical groups to make it seem like there are fewer of them, when your users interact with the options.

7. Organize the site according to what your users are going to be looking for, not according to your corporate organization chart, or even according to your business priorities, unless they happen to coincide with your users’ interests.

Indigo Consulting is a web design, interactive digital marketing and website maintenance firm based in Mumbai, India. Indigo Consulting offers web designing & website maintenance services.