PCI Reloaded

You can’t believe they did it. Of all people, turning on you this way. You want to react in kind, drawing on the anger flowing through you to lash out. Make the other person hurt every bit as much as you do right now.

Wait a minute. You can’t. You’re not that person. You don’t want to BE that person. You’re better than this.

But how do you stop anger in its tracks before it gets the best of you?

Take a Walk

The physical act of walking will burn off some of the adrenaline while getting outside, giving you a distracting change in scenery. And it works even better if you’re walking away from the object of your anger. Sometimes all you need is some space.

Pay Attention to your Muscles

Like walking, exercise is good. Also, anger tends to tighten you up, so a good stretch, or even better practicing progressive muscle relaxation, will knock the tension out.

Say Something

Choose a pet phrase or mantra which calms you. Say it several times, slowly, and deliberately to put your focus elsewhere.

Visualization

Escape somewhere else. Remove yourself from the situation that has made you mad and find a quiet place where you can visualize something peaceful. Build in as much detail as you can to make it as real as possible. Stay in this vision until you feel yourself start to calm down.

Do Something Grand

Take your anger and turn it into activism. How can you use this to change the world? Sign (or start!) a petition. Volunteer. Get involved in the community and make the world a better place.

Write About It

Journaling can help you to work through your emotions in a way that might even help prevent you from getting mad the next time around. Understanding what it was about the event which triggered you will help reshape the trigger entirely.

Switch Perspective

It can be hard to use empathy when you’re upset. But if you can see things from their perspective, it might help you to calm your response. Many times anger comes from misunderstanding the situation.

Forgive

This technique falls under expert level of anger management. By being the bigger person and forgiving the other, you’ll find you no longer have reason to be mad at all.

The key to all of these is simple: don’t let anger take control. The last thing you need is for you to fall under the power of negative emotion. Use the anger to make a better place or let it go entirely. In the end, you’ll be happier you did.

Do you ever feel like you're stuck in a rut, doing the same things over and over again, without really enjoying them? Do you ever wonder if there's more to life than following the rules and expectations of others? If so, you might be ready to challenge the status quo and live a more fulfilling life.

The status quo is the way things are, the way things have always been done, the way things are supposed to be done. It's the norm, the standard, the accepted. But sometimes, the status quo can be limiting, boring, or even harmful. It can prevent you from exploring your true potential, expressing your authentic self, or pursuing your passions.

Challenging the status quo means questioning the assumptions and beliefs that underlie the current situation. It means daring to think differently, act differently, and be different. It means breaking free from the constraints of convention and conformity, and creating your own path.

But how do you challenge the status quo and live a more fulfilling life? Here are five ideas to get you started:

1. Define your own values and goals. Don't let society or others tell you what you should value or what you should aim for. Instead, reflect on what matters to you, what makes you happy, what gives you meaning. Then, align your actions with your values and goals, and pursue them with passion and purpose.

2. Seek new experiences and perspectives. Don't settle for the familiar and comfortable. Instead, expose yourself to new ideas, cultures, people, places, and activities. Learn new skills, try new hobbies, travel to new destinations. You'll discover new aspects of yourself and the world, and expand your horizons.

3. Challenge your own assumptions and biases. Don't accept everything you think or believe as true or right. Instead, examine your own thoughts and opinions critically, and be open to changing them when faced with new evidence or arguments. You'll develop a more nuanced and flexible mindset, and avoid falling into dogmatism or prejudice.

4. Speak up and stand up for what you believe in. Don't be afraid to express your opinions or preferences, even if they go against the grain or upset others. Instead, voice your views respectfully and confidently, and back them up with facts and logic. You'll assert your individuality and integrity, and inspire others to do the same.

5. Experiment and innovate. Don't stick to the tried and tested methods or solutions. Instead, explore different possibilities, test different hypotheses, invent different products or processes. You'll unleash your creativity and problem-solving skills, and make a positive impact on yourself and others.

Challenging the status quo is not easy or comfortable. It takes courage, curiosity, and commitment. But it can also be rewarding and fun. It can help you grow as a person, find your purpose in life, and make a difference in the world.

When you want to create a better day for yourself, you need to start out where you begin. This means having a morning routine at work as well as at home.

Think about this for a moment. A morning routine at home will set you up for success by getting you out of bed and ready to transition into wakefulness.

Likewise, a morning routine at work can get you settled into a mindset of getting work done and ready to face the work world. Think of it as a series of steps designed to transition you into productivity.

How can you do this?

Start with How You Get There

Don't arrive stressed out at the very last second. To set yourself up for success, it's important to arrive with time to spare after a relaxing commute. Strategize to make this happen by allowing enough time to get where you need to go. Also, consider your route. Heavy traffic or construction is always more stressful in the long run, so you might want to adapt your route to a quieter one to reduce unwanted stress.

Schedule Check

What do you have going on today? What work is expected from you by what time? Get a mental picture of the day by noting what needs to happen when.

Set-Up

What needs to happen so you can get your work done? Are you lacking supplies or resources? Are there things you might need to delegate? Taking a few minutes to track down these items will help the rest of your day run more smoothly.

Habit Check

What detractors are already pulling at you, trying to derail your day? If you're someone who checks your phone often or can get caught up socializing with coworkers, think about how you can limit these activities as part of your routine. For example, you might want to schedule email checks at certain times or limit socialization to break times.

Make a List

Jotting down the 3-to 4 big items you want to get done today will help give you a clearer view of what needs doing and set up your goals.

Get Comfortable

Before you buckle down to work, do you need coffee? A Bathroom break? Do these things now, so you don't have to break concentration later. Also, take a minute to stretch if you haven't yet.

Begin

Time to get going. Take the first item on your list and dive in, concentrating fully on what you’re doing.

Of course, adapt your routine to fit whatever you need to get started for the day. The key here is to be intentional in your actions, shift your mindset, and set yourself up for success. Do only what works for you.

Using Challenges to Develop More Discipline

One way you can develop more discipline is to use challenges. This makes it more like a game and less like a chore. Also there can be the element of competition with others and having others help hold you accountable which improves your odds of success. 

Challenges are very popular and you can find them in many places. Or you can make up your own and share it with a group of people. You also can make your own challenge or use one from someone else to just challenge yourself. However you end up doing it is up to you. 

When looking to see if a challenge will be useful to you, there are some factors to look for, so you can best benefit. Is the challenge realistic? You want to stretch yourself, but not to the point where you have no chance of success. For example you could challenge yourself to lose 30 pounds in 30 days, but that is not very realistic. You also want the challenge to not be too easy. You need to see if you have the time to devote to it. Be sure to include time for learning new things, For example if you challenge yourself to build a new blogging website in 30 days, remember that if you have never done one before, you will have to learn some things and that will be extra time above just writing the blog posts,  

If the challenge is a large one over a longer period of time, are there clear-cut milestones along the way to help you have a sense of accomplishment? If your challenge, for example, is losing 60 pounds in a year, you need to set up smaller weight goals along the way so you can keep up the momentum.  Milestones also help you see if you need to tweak the challenge, either lower or higher. If you lose 10 pounds in about 2 months, you are right on schedule, If you have only lost 5 pounds in that same time period, though, you may need to lower the amount you plan on losing in a year. Now if you lose 15 pounds in 2 months, you may want to raise the amount you plan on losing in a year, or cut the time down to say 10 months. 

When you do a group challenge, you have some added benefits. There is a sense of camaraderie when working together on a goal that you do not get just competing with yourself. Other people can give you ideas, too. For example if you are in a group losing weight, people can share healthy recipes and support. Just remember that the primary person you are in competition with is not the others, but yourself and you can really enjoy doing a group challenge. 

Using NLP To Handle Criticism

Before we get started, it's important for you to realize that there are two types of criticism. The first of these is constructive criticism which will assist you. You need to distinguish this from negative or bad criticism where the person criticizing is doing it with the intent of putting you down.

The world is full of people that will pass judgment on you. So you need to know how to deal with negative criticism effectively so that you maintain a positive state. People often negatively criticize because they are jealous of what someone has achieved or have.

Negative Criticism

Negative or destructive criticism is around us all of the time. The media and the newspapers make sure of that. These people are always hiding behind “the public interest” and if you were to ask them directly, they'll tell you that they're just doing their job.

Sometimes destructive criticism is warranted, but most of the time it isn’t. It not only occurs in the media but can happen at your place of work and in social situations. You may face direct negative criticism or indirect criticism by way of an innuendo. Whichever the method of delivery you need to be on your guard.

Negative Criticism Situations

Due to its competitive nature, there will always be competitors in business that will want to criticize you. Unscrupulous competitors are everywhere and they will do everything that they can to try and put you down.

Then there's the workplace. Some of your “colleagues” will want to negatively criticize you because you are seen in a more favorable light than they are. Maybe you just got a new promotion – you will need to watch out because the critics will be lining up to badmouth you and bring you down.

Not all bosses handle criticism well, and you may find yourself unjustly criticized for something that was not your fault. A lot of companies like to go on a “witch hunt” when something goes wrong, and then they need to find a scapegoat that they can lay the blame on.

Probably the hardest form of negative criticism to handle is when it happens in social situations. Many people have family members that will criticize them no matter what they do. This can be particularly demoralizing. In other social situations, friends will try and put you down to impress others – particularly members of the opposite sex. Criticism from a good friend can really be hard to take. When you have known someone for a long time and they suddenly criticize you, it can take you by

surprise.

Dealing with Negative Criticism

The secret to dealing with negative criticism is to be flattered! Most people will criticize you unfairly because they're envious of something you have or something you've done.

Be flattered that they are centering their attention and energy on you and continue to walk the moral high road. Just keep doing what you do best and don’t bite. Remember that this criticism is probably borne out of jealousy, so be true to yourself and maintain your normal stance.

If you do find yourself listening to negative criticism, then just brush it off as an opinion that isn’t right. They are entitled to their opinions just as you are, and when you dismiss them as inaccurate, your current state will remain intact.

Think about the Inadequacy of the criticizer

People often are thinking about their own inadequacies when they negatively criticize. It makes them feel better about themselves to hurl negativity towards others. Imagine the inadequacies that these people have, and feel pity for them rather than anger.

You can't control what other people say to you and when they say it. It may be a very unfair criticism, but you need to choose to not let it concern you. You can control the way that you respond to negative criticism, and this will help you maintain a positive state.

In this episode, we will debunk some of the most common myths and misconceptions about NLP, such as that it is manipulative, that it doesn’t work, or that it is the same as therapy.

Here are 5 simple things you can start doing today to manage your time.

The Benefits Of A Positive Mindset

You feed your physical body with "good food", you feed your car with "good fuel", so why not feed your mind with "good thoughts" as well. After research in the 1950s, it was concluded that having a positive mindset would help maintain good physical and mental health, increase longevity and promote success in personal and professional life.

See "the bright side"

Positive thinking is closely related to the concept of optimism. Someone who sees the world in a positive light and sees the "bright side" will feel healthier mentally and physically than someone who thinks negatively, anxious, or even depressed.

Positive thinking is not a new concept. It is a therapeutic method based on autosuggestion and which aims to make the subject adhere to positive ideas. By repeating positive messages twenty times a day, the individual is supposed to achieve well-being and achieve optimal health.

Better Health

Thought can act directly on the body. When you replace negative thoughts with calm, confidence, and peace, you feel good. Additionally, positive thinking can be helpful in overcoming sleep disturbances, muscle tension, anxiety, and fatigue. People who think negatively suffer more from depression and anxiety.

Prevent Stress

Many managers are already followers of positive thinking and integrate it into their businesses: well-being seminars, relaxation coaches, specialized psychologists, etc. The benefits are quite amazing, and one of the major benefits of a positive mindset is that it protects against the harmful effects of stress. 

It makes it possible to regulate the consequences and to find the right dosage at work, so as not to be overwhelmed. You learn to know yourself better, to better understand your resources and to concentrate on the tasks that you want to achieve. In short, we learn to be more efficient and above all, we know how to say stop when necessary.

A more favorable living environment

A positive attitude can also influence the way you conduct your life, which in turn has an effect on your health. If you are going through a particularly stressful time, you will be less likely to pay attention to your diet, exercise and sleep.

Instead, you will be more likely to compensate for the stress by drinking alcohol or snacking on junk food. These lifestyle elements are also risk factors for cancer and other diseases.

Longevity

Optimists live longer and healthier lives. Countless studies prove it. In the 1930s, psychologists at the University of Kentucky were able to determine that subjects identified as the most optimistic had lived, on average, ten years longer than the less positive, and they were in better health. Also, the power of positivity with healing is well documented.

Psychological Well-Being

Positive thinking has a positive effect on the survival of sick people as well as that of healthy people. However, having a positive mindset predisposes to exhibiting behavior that is also more "positive" in terms of health. Indeed, studies show that this frame of mind is accompanied by more virtuous behaviors. 

Of course, we don't get sick just because of stress, our emotions or our thoughts. But, we can now say that many symptoms and diseases are affected by our thoughts and behaviors. Thoughts are of great power. They have always shaped our life. Think positively, and expect favorable results. The situations and circumstances will change accordingly!

Here's part 3 for how to develop self-esteem through personal transformation.

Here's part 2 on how to develop self-esteem through personal transformation.