Path to Your Destiny

When Saturday rolls around and people take a detailed look at their past week, they often showcase a variety of emotions. On one hand, people are elated that they made solid progress towards their dreams; on the other hand, people are saddened by the fact they’re not sure where or how much progress was actually made. Across the board, these people vow “Next week I’ll have a sharper focus and get more accomplished.”

9 times out of 10, this type of weekly review fails you. Why? Because it’s flimsy, it doesn’t hold you accountable for what you’ve done (or didn’t do). Your memory is inherently biased; you don’t think in terms of specifics, you think in terms of visuals. When you try to objectively look back at your past week, what comes out is a mess of “I did this… sort of did that… didn’t do that at all… ah, oh well, next week will be better!”

An easy way to circumvent this disastrous problem is to keep a simple track of all of your accomplishments during the course of a day - what I like to call your “daily success log”. When you meet a daily quota for a goal that you set - say, 30 minutes of exercise - write it down on a running file on your computer or a page in a notebook (divided up by days, of course). You can choose to track a certain area that needs desperate improvement (such as health and fitness) or an overall “improve my life” spectrum that covers everything.

I’ve been using a daily success log to track the various advertising and marketing aspects of my blog - blog carnival submissions, forum posts, blog comments, emailing other bloggers, the list goes on and on. I have to say, from first hand experience, keeping a log of everything I’ve done really helps me keep focus. When I’m having a lackluster day and nothing seems to be going in my favor, I just look back at the accomplishments I’ve made so far. That propels me to go even farther and try even harder to get something done; my motivation returns!

You can use a daily success log to track a variety of things in your life:

• Health and Fitness - max amount of time you want to exercise / watch TV / sleep / stay online, max amount of cups of coffee you want to drink, calories eaten, % of calories coming from fat
• Career - # of leads followed up on, hours spent researching / formatting / completing a project, # of applications sent in to various employers
• Hobby and Free Time - amount of time practicing a musical instrument, # of posts you made in your blog

If you wanted, you could break everything down into even greater detail. For example, if you were logging how much you practiced a musical instrument, you could elaborate with what time you practiced at, what pieces you practiced, musical problems you fixed, and technical difficulties you want to solve in future practice sessions.

All in all, a daily success log holds you accountable for all of your actions. You can’t elaborate or escape cold, hard facts - you either did action that moved you towards your goals, or you skipped out and didn’t do anything. Your log will say it all!

Try out the log for a couple of weeks. What aspects of your life can you begin to keep tabs on? What improvements can you make to the basic outline I presented here?

Wouldn’t it be so amazing if you could fake your personality and be instantly liked by anybody, anytime? Of course it would! Who wouldn’t want to have a charming personality 24/7 - that kind of thing would come in handy in life! But being a bit more realistic, sometimes we are forced to go into situations where having a better personality would immensely pay off. Sometimes we need to add a little smoke and mirrors to make ourselves appear great, even if we don’t feel that way.

There are five easy, simple ways to fake your personality:

1. Dress comfortably for you.
2. Be prepped and prepared for what you’re going into.
3. Smile!
4. Pretend you are interested and observant to everybody.
5. Look fully relaxed and at ease with yourself.

And now, getting into greater detail:

1. Dress comfortably for you.

Forget about “dressing for success”! Most people feel uncomfortable when they step up their wardrobe, because dressing to the nines feels unnatural to them. And if dressing up feels unnatural to you, you’re not going to be comfortable and at ease with yourself - no matter how hard you try. The best advice is to dress slightly above what you consider “normal”, but not so decked out that you feel out of your league. You should look fabulous, of course, but not like you are about to walk down the red carpet. Dressing up comfortably can naturally make you feel a step above the rest - and if you feel great about yourself, your personality will shine!

2. Be prepped and prepared for what you are going into.

You may be all smiles and have this totally fake, charismatic air going on, but that house of cards is going to collapse if you don’t have a clue how to talk the talk. If you’re going to a party, research a bit on the guests and what their interests are, for the purpose of small talk. If you’re going to join a club, find out all you can about the organization’s topic. If you’re giving a presentation, learn all you can about the subject and go all out! Present yourself as an expert, and people will think you are amazingly witty and knowledgeable!

3. Smile!

This one should be obvious, but a lot of people don’t smile. How many times have you ever walked in any store - say, the supermarket - and said to yourself “Wow, everybody looks so… sad today…”? When you smile yourself, you automatically boost up your mood (try it right now!) And smiles are contagious, as well - we all know when one person starts smiling, we all start smiling, even if we have no idea what that one person is smiling about. We automatically think of smiling, carefree people as having bubbly, effervescent personalities; on the opposite hand, we also automatically think of frowning, sad people as having sullen, upset personalities. Turn that frown upside down, and fake that smile!

4. Pretend you are interested and observant to everybody.

Not interested in what somebody is telling you? Fake it all the way. Nod your head when they say something that sounds profound, open up your eyes as if you’re thinking “Wow, that’s so fascinating!”, and use hand motions when it’s your turn to talk. People with personality are naturally interested in what everybody else is doing, thinking, and saying. If you want to fake having the personality of a social butterfly, you have to be able to give the impression that you actually care what’s going on around you. Other people love to blather on about their lives, hobbies, whatever, even if it’s the most boring topic on Earth. Look interested in what everybody else is saying, and you’ll appear to have a wonderful personality!

5. Look fully relaxed and at ease with yourself.

People who are the most affable are people who constantly look fully relaxed and at ease with themselves. No matter how many people they talk to in a given day, socializing appears to be a natural part of them. If you want to fake having a great personality, you must make your movements, your voice, and your movements seem very natural and fluid, not choppy, and mechanical. Nothing says “fake personality!” more than having the social grace of a robot. This tip might take some practice, but it’ll pay off in the long run.

So what are you waiting for? Start faking your golden personality today!