Present Outlook: Inspiration & Motivation To Improve Your Life

Can You Handle The Truth?

Jack Nicholson was right – some people just can’t handle the truth. In fact most of us have some truth or other that we can’t handle – or choose not to handle – whether it’s about a relationship, your job, your weaknesses, your strengths, your finances, your character, your values, your spirituality… But the truth…

When To Give Up And When To Carry On

How do you know which is which? You don’t. The only real way to answer this question is in hindsight. And when you’re making your decision you don’t have that unfortunately. The question you should be asking yourself is how badly do you want it? If you really want it then you’ll work much harder…

Better To Have Loved And Lost Than Never To Have Loved At All

Don’t you think so? So you lost out on something. But didn’t you enjoy it while it lasted? Anything worthwhile in life involves risk – the risk of failure. Sometimes that risk is too great for people to contemplate. But their lives are surely less if they fail to do so. By falling in love…

The Number 1 Thing That Is Holding You Back

Laziness. Yep, it’s true. It’s as simple as that. You know it deep down even if you don’t like to admit it. If you lined up the 1000 most successful people in the world and asked them what the key to their success was, most of them would say it was hard work (aka the…

Are You Losing Perspective?

Image: kwerfeldein Ever woken up one day and realised that you weren’t doing what you wanted to be doing? That somehow you’d ended up doing something that you had no intention of doing and you’re not really sure how it happened? Life can be like that. Distractions can be subtle and insidious. We can start…

39 Ways To Uplift Yourself

1. Get out in nature. Just as the people you surround yourself with effect you, so does your physical environment. If you don’t believe me then go for a walk on a beautiful beach on a sunny day and try and feel miserable. You can change the way you feel simply by changing the environment…

This Too Shall Pass

How true this statement is: this too shall pass! Where did this quote come from? There are two popular stories for the origin of this statement. One is from the Jewish tradition and one is from the ancient East. Here’s a quote from Abraham Lincoln who spoke of the Eastern version in 1859: It is…

What Would The ‘8 Year Old You’ Think Of The ‘Now You’?

Would they like what they see? Would they be pleased with what you’ve become? Would they approve of the decisions you’ve made along the way? Is there anything you’d be embarrassed about? Would you have some explaining to do? Would they respect you now? Would they admire you? The 8 year old you was probably…

How To Control How Much TV You Watch

Television, the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation. – Michael Franti, Spearhead The other night I was lying on the couch watching TV. There was nothing on so I would watch something for a bit then move on to something else, watch that for a short while and then move on again.…

How To Get What You Want In Life

I thought carefully about posting an article with a title like this. Is it really that easy? Can you really sum up how to get what you want in life in a blog post? Surely it’s way more complex than that? But the more I thought about it the more I realised that it really…

6 Steps To Creating A Powerful Morning Routine

Image: Wolfgang Staudt I have developed a solid morning routine that I follow regardless of what else is going on in my life. It has become so entrenched that it often feels like it happens automatically. It is almost as though the routine takes on a life of it’s own. Even on bad days or…

Richard Branson Is A Failure

Richard Branson has lost far more money that most people earn in their entire lives, and yet he is one of the richest people on earth. I recently read his autobiography ‘Losing My Virginity’ and in it he is not shy about talking about his failures, in fact you get the impression he enjoys it.…

Assorted Missing Limbs: 4 Inspiring Stories

The 4 people mentioned below have had to overcome more than most in their lives. Yet the way they have succeeded in spite of this is quite remarkable. They’ve done far more than most people! The thing that really stands out to me after learning about them is their lack of self pity. None of…

What Would You Die For?

Is there anything or anyone you feel is worthy of that sort of sacrifice? Do you have a passion that you’d go that far for? Recently rising young Rugby League star Sonny Fai was swimming at a New Zealand beach with family and friends. He was a fit, healthy, strong young man and an able…

Make The World A Better Place And You’ll Live Longer

This blog could be tagged with words like self-improvement, quotes, inspiration and motivation. There are a lot of blogs, books, DVDs and so on out there with a similar theme. Naturally their focus is generally on the self, and how to improve it. You could say they are inward looking. They examine the self and…

How To Sleep Better

It’s hard to have a positive outlook on life when you’re completely wrecked. I’m a terrible sleeper. Over the years I have employed almost every imaginable technique. I even participated in some research undertaken by Dr Tony Fernando, a psychiatrist and lecturer at the University of Auckland. He estimates that at least 10 per cent…

This Post Will NOT Change Your Life

The only thing that can change it is you. You have to make change happen yourself. You are the Director of your life. You are the Producer. You are the Lead Actor. You are the Choreographer and Makeup Artist. You write the soundtrack. Your name is next to every title on the credits at the…

6 Things I Learnt About Life From Running A Marathon

A couple of years ago I was fed up with being out of shape and not exercising so I decided to do something about it. I went for a run around a small lake near my home. I decided to run all the way around this lake even if it killed me (about 6 kms).…

What I Learnt About Fear From Throwing People Off A Building

I didn’t really throw them, they jumped. It’s 192 metres (630ft) to the ground from the jumping platform on Auckland’s Skytower where Skyjump operates. They were attached to a wire which allowed them to travel to the ground in a matter of seconds. During my time working there I was based at the top making…

Excellence is a habit

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle Put 100% into EVERYTHING you do – this is what the ancient yogis believed was the key to success. If you want to be good at football then you should not only apply yourself to your football training…

Save Money and Survive the Global Economic Meltdown

“Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” – Henry Wheeler Shaw With all the hype surrounding the state of the world economy at the moment it can be easy to get swept up in the frenzy of it all. But of course money isn’t everything.…

9 Tips To Create An Extra Hour In Your Day

“Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin Wouldn’t it be great if you could magically create an extra hour in the day? I believe that everyone can do this, in fact most people can probably create way more than an hour.…

12 Ways To Fight The Procrastination Monster

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James Ever had a big essay due but somehow found yourself obsessively cleaning the house? Do you find yourself looking up people you used to know on Facebook when there is work to do? Procrastination, annoyingly, is a part of…

8 Tricks to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. – Plato I think the average length of time someone goes to the gym for is about 3 months. Three months! I guess that is enough time to see some results, lose some…

First Jobs of 51 Successful People

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu Everybody started somewhere! In fact, almost everyone who has achieved fame and fortune often had very small beginnings (and many of them are actually famous failures!) Check out the first jobs of these famous names: 1. Sir Alex Ferguson – He…

20 Famous Failures

The famous failures below are now well known and their names are synonymous with success, but it wasn’t always this way. At one point the idea of these people reaching the heights they have reached would have seemed absurd – toally impossible – and yet they did it. Many of them didn’t just fail, they…

A Tetraplegic Farmer?

“I’ve learnt a lot of things about life that I wouldn’t have learnt if I hadn’t broken my neck.” – Grant Calder. You’d think being a tetraplegic would stop you from being a farmer on a large sheep station in the rugged South Island of New Zealand wouldn’t you? Well not for this guy. Despite…

7 Simple Ways to Improve Relationships with Friends and Family

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” – Abraham Lincoln Relationships are a massive part of our lives, we can’t live without them. Of course sometimes it is very hard to live with them, but in the long run they are one of the most important things in life, and yet also…

Opportunities Are Where You Find Them

Image: MikeLove Making the most of opportunities has been the key to the success of many people. There are countless quotes from successful people that come to mind when writing about them. But what is an opportunity? How will you know when you are presented with one? Dictionary.com says an opportunity is an “appropriate or…