Slash Your Stress Using Your Diet

By Isabel De Los Rios

What can bring down the strongest man down, but cannot be avoided? 

Stress. It's a silent but deadly killer. 

Stress can break your body down both mentally and physically; it can lower your immune system and can create inflammation in the body. 

However, it's not all gloom and doom - the good news is your body can repair itself when given the right materials. One of your body's best defenses against stress is food. If you're stressed out, a lack of a nutritious food will make a bad situation worse. 

Heather discovered this truth the hard way. She is a Managing Director at one of the world's biggest advertising firms. Heather was a serious workaholic and would spend hours sitting in the same position, hunched over her computer. The advertising world is extremely competitive, but Heather thrived off of this intense energy. Her daily diet consisted of vending machine treats, fast food and cola and she averaged about four hours sleep per night. 

Eventually, the stress of her job, lack of sleep and poor diet drained her mentally and physically. She felt physically weak and she picked up colds pretty easily. Despite her feeling "out of sorts", she chalked up her low energy to on-the-job stress. She decided to do some damage control. Over the next four weeks, she decided to take on fewer projects and delegated the rest to her team. She was sleeping better and noticed her stress levels going down, but she still felt hollow inside. 

Heather began to realize that she wouldn't be able to get rid of her sluggishness until she changed how she ate. And that was how she and I met; Heather reached out to me and made an appointment for a nutritional consultation. She and I rebuilt her diet from the ground up and I'm proud to say she's made a remarkable improvement. She still deals with lots of stress, but her diet helps to counteract it. She's still a work in progress, but who isn't? The point is, her diet helped to heal her body of stress related damage.

Today, I would like to share with you the key components of the stress fighting program I recommended for Heather. The nutrition plan is centered on healing the body, while simultaneously promoting calm. 

Healing Your Adrenals 

The adrenals are small glands that sit on top of the kidneys; they look like little top hats. At first glance, these tiny glands seem insignificant, but don't be fooled - they pack quite a punch. 

The adrenals are made up of two distinct parts: the medulla and the cortex. The medulla secrets adrenaline, which helps your body deal with high stress; the cortex releases cortisol which reduces inflammation within the body. The adrenals will try to keep your body balanced by producing the necessary hormones, however, if you've been under stress for a long time, you run the risk of adrenal fatigue. Many people suffer from adrenal fatigue without even knowing it; one of the tell-tale symptoms is a constant, tired feeling. 

The adrenals need specific nutrients to function well: protein, water, fat, salt, B vitamins and Vitamin C. Good examples of ideal, healthy fats are: Extra virgin olive oil, Omega 3 rich wild caught salmon, avocados walnuts, chia and flax seeds. Quality sources of protein include: Chicken, fish, red meat, eggs and nuts. Great sources of Vitamin C include: Berries, peppers, tomatoes, kiwi, guava, papaya and citrus fruits. The B vitamins present in the foods spinach, parsley, broccoli, beets, mustard greens and asparagus are great for promoting a healthy nervous system - an important component to managing stress. Salt. Yes the adrenals need salt. I know that a lot of people are fearful of sodium, but the salt that I am talking about is quality, unrefined sea salt, such as Celtic sea salt. This salt is rich in trace minerals, the adrenals need these minerals to function correctly. You can find Celtic Sea Salt online or in your local health food store. 

Stress causes inflammation and feeding your adrenals helps to keep inflammation low. Inflammation is responsible for causing pain and disease - two things that everyone can do without. 

Ante Up with Antioxidants 

Antioxidants help to protect cells from damage. Every day we are faced with toxins in our air, food and water that cause oxidative stress in the body; antioxidants act as tiny soldiers that fight back against these toxins. Think of oxidative stress as rust on a metal pipe - antioxidants help to prevent this rust from forming. If you are under serious internal stress and dealing with environmental stress, antioxidants should definitely be part of your diet. 

The most common antioxidants are Vitamins C and E. Foods rich in antioxidants are as delicious as they are powerful. Foods that contain antioxidants are: Berries, citrus fruits, avocadoes, spinach, sunflower seeds and almonds. Green tea also contains antioxidants, such as catechins. According to a 2004 Harvard health publication, catechins are even more powerful than vitamins C and E in preventive oxidative stress. Drinking green tea also reduces the risk for several cancers, including, skin, lung, breast, bladder and colon. 

Silence Stress with Serotonin 

Do you know the warm, tingling you feel when you're in a good mood? That's the rush of the hormone serotonin being released from your brain. Serotonin is the "feel good hormone" and is crucial to battling stress. Your serotonin levels are directly related to your mood. The higher your levels of serotonin, the better you'll be able to handle stress. 

Serotonin is produced from the amino acid, tryptophan. Tryptophan is found in a variety of foods; the foods with the highest levels are: 

• Shrimp
• Turkey
• Cod
• Tuna
• Chicken
• Halibut
• Calf Liver
• Spinach
• Venison
• Asparagus
• Salmon
• Mustard greens
• Cheese
• Kelp
• Eggs

Serotonin also is released when you exercise. This makes sense since a workout is one of the best stress relievers - yet another great reason to get out there and bust a sweat! 

There's nothing that you can do to avoid stress, but you can definitely take action to minimize it. That's how you can beat stress through good nutrition. 

Slow Down Your Life

Rushing thoughts and anxious feelings are invisible to you because each time they begin to race, you start to run with them. And after so many years of being carried along in this psychic slipstream, you've come to believe that either you are these surging inner currents, or that their power is yours. Neither case is true. You are not these waves of thought any more than a cresting tide is the entire ocean.

Now here's the solution in exercise form that will help you to slow down your life.

Beginning this very moment, intentionally separate yourself from any rushing inner condition by voluntarily stepping out of it. How can this be done? Purposefully slow yourself down by acting to consciously reduce your usual speed.

One practice I find particularly profitable, at home and in business, is to always pause a few seconds before I answer someone's question. This special conscious pause for self-awakening is invaluable because, as the old saying goes, "Only fools rush in!" Whatever the occasion may be, choose the time and place to slow down, and then practice stepping out of the rush.

Here's the secret behind how this unique exercise delivers new self-command. Slowing down helps you become aware of yourself in a new and higher way by creating contrast between your usual speed through life and your now selectively slower one.

This enhanced self-awareness empowers you to step out of the rush of your own surging thoughts and feelings by making you conscious of their flooding presence within you as being something that doesn't belong to you. Once this is clear, then you can choose your own direction in life. Step out of the rush by slowing down. Do it Now

Being Conservative

Growing up with little money has led me to be quite conservative with the money I have made so far today. Being conservative and frugal with your money is good, but can you go too far? Today, Mark Ford argues that being to fearful of losing your money can actually cause you to lose it in the long run.

Craig Ballantyne

Failure means you've stopped. So don't stop. Keep at it. The more you move in the right direction towards success, the better you'll feel. Every day work on making new positive habits second nature - make them automatic.

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Making Friends with Your Financial Fears

By Mark Ford

Recently I wrote an essay about protecting your wealth by using stop losses, diversification, legal strategies, and tax planning.

I thought it was a good essay. It covered, I thought, everything I knew on the subject. But I've been thinking about it since then and realized that there was one important idea I did not include. It is perhaps the most important idea.

You see, the essay was in response to a reader who was obviously afraid of losing the wealth he had. The fear of losing something you value is completely natural. And it is also healthy as long as the fear is not too great. But when fear is great - and I sensed that for this person it was - it can be destructive. Unbridled fear produces two negative responses: immobility and rashness.

When you fear too much, you won't take the positive actions you suspect you should. When opportunities are presented, you'll shun them for fear of the potential dangers and downsides.

Tim Mittelstaedt, a research analyst at The Palm Beach Letter, sent me the following note after he read the first draft of this essay:

I've wanted to buy rental real estate since high school more than 13 years ago, but fear has prevented me from doing it all of these years. And at times I've wanted to start a business, too, but fear got in the way. Do you have ideas on how I can overcome my fears?

Tim isn't alone. Years ago, when gold was trading at around $500 per ounce, fear was the reason why so many of my friends and colleagues were afraid to invest in gold despite my urging them to do so. It is the reason that many Palm Beach Letter readers are ignoring my advice to buy real estate now.

It's important to remember that the major media are almost always wrong about investing. When prices skyrocket, they write stories about people making money. When prices drop, they write stories about people losing money. Most readers have a hard time disbelieving the major media. They wonder, "How could all of these pundits on TV be wrong?" So they stay on the sidelines, waiting for positive confirmation from their favorite newspaper or television channel. But that never comes until it is too late.

Some investors who don't trust the major media are fearful, too. They are persuaded by what they read in the alternative press about government debt and worldwide economic collapse. So they put all of their money into gold or bury it in their backyards. And when gold soars, they are afraid to cash in and invest in the stock market. The end result is just as bad for them as for those who foolishly trust the mainstream media.

I see how fear impoverishes people in the world of business all the time. Smart, hard-working people who want desperately to quit the nine-to-five routine and start their own businesses fail to do so because they can't get the threat of failure out of their minds. I spent 10 years writing books and essays on entrepreneurship and taught hundreds of thousands of people the secrets to business success. But only one in 10 was actually successful. When I met them at conferences and got to know them, the reason was obvious. They were simply scared.

If you fear losing money too greatly, you will never implement the knowledge you gain. You may invest money in investment education - thousands and thousands of dollars over time - but you won't put the ideas you learn into action. Instead, you will do only the few things you are comfortable with. As a result, you will make no progress toward your wealth-building goals.

So that's what I want to talk about today: how to make friends with your fear of losing money.

This is how I did it.

I was 26 years old. I was halfway through a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher of English at the University of Chad. (Chad is in Africa.) My new wife and I were living in a three-room, plaster-coated mud house. We had no kitchen, and the bathroom was a latrine.

But we had a porch that overlooked a garden of Eden frequented by a family of monkeys and a dog that barked at them insanely when they hung over the roof, begging for food. We also had neighbors who became lifelong friends. On weekends, we had parties at which African friends and Peace Corps volunteers would drink copious amounts of Gala beer and dance madly until the sun rose.

I was sitting on that porch one afternoon, sipping whiskey, when it suddenly occurred to me that I would never have a nicer house or a nicer life than I had right then. I knew or I sensed that one day I'd be wealthy and live in a mansion and all that, but I knew that it would never be better than the plaster-coated mud house.

So I said to myself, very consciously, "Mark, life will never be better than this." I said that because I knew that when I started making big money, I would become afraid of losing it, and I somehow knew that the fear of losing what I didn't need could hurt me. I didn't want that kind of hurt.

My intuition was right. I came back to America and became a writer for a newsletter on Africa. Six years later, I was a multimillionaire. I bought a $170,000 house and then a $550,000 house and then a $5.5 million house. But I never forgot the truth I had discovered then. I have loved all of the houses I've owned since then, but none better than that first house, which I could have bought for $1,000.

That thought helped me a great deal over the years, and it still helps me today. Whenever the fear of losing wealth invaded my consciousness, I was able to remind myself of how little I really needed to be happy.

So now, when I get that fear - and I have it from time to time I simply remember how beautiful my life was when I was making $50 a week and living in a $1,000 mud house.

Warren Buffett seems to understand this, too. In fact, he's famous for still living in a house he bought 50 years ago for $31,500. He enjoys his wealth, but he doesn't fret over it. He makes better financial decisions because he doesn't let the fear of loss control him.

You may be thinking, "That's fine for you to say. You are rich. You can afford to lose money."

But that's exactly my point. Because I am not afraid to be poor, I don't make foolish mistakes born out of fear. I don't let good investments - investments that are sound and well-priced - pass me by. And I don't put all of my eggs in one basket. But I do take action.

That's what I forgot to tell this reader: The most important secret of wealth preservation is to make peace with your fear of becoming poor.

You can't control the economy. You can't control the forces that affect your business. But you can control your emotions. By making friends with fear, you will enjoy the wealth you have and make smart, wealth-building decisions.

You don't want to be forever on the sidelines, watching other people make money. And you don't want to put all of your money in gold, hoping for Armageddon.

To make friends with fear, you have to imagine yourself living a simple life, one that can be supported by a modest income, enjoying your work and the time you spend with your family and friends. Imagine that until you feel comfortable with it. What will happen is that your anxiety will disappear and, counter-intuitively, you will make better financial decisions.

If you are scared to start a business, imagine yourself failing. Then imagine feeling okay with it. (You will be okay financially if you have limited your investments as I recommended in the last essay.) Imagine yourself smiling to your spouse and saying, "Well, that didn't work out."

If you are scared to invest in the stocks we are recommending, imagine your portfolio dropping 25%. (It won't, but you must imagine it.) Imagine yourself thinking, "Okay, I've been stopped out. Now I will pick myself up and start over again."

If you are afraid of investing in real estate, imagine the worst thing that could happen. You sell the property and take a 10% to 15% loss. (This is highly, highly unlikely.) Imagine yourself being okay with that.

In other words, do everything I suggested in that essay. Use moving stop losses to protect your performance portfolio. Diversify your investments to include debt instruments, precious metals, and real estate. And take full advantage of legal structures and tax-minimization strategies. But don't live in fear. Life can very sweet and rich in pleasure - even if you do lose money, which will probably not happen if you aren't afraid. 

Improve and Grow

It is tempting for us - myself included - to remain in our comfort zones. But that is not where we grow, improve, and make the changes necessary to dramatically move ahead. So my challenge to you is to do the opposite. Look at what you are doing to stay in your comfort zone and think, "What is the opposite action of my instinct? And would this opposite action be the better solution?" Today you'll discover two simple rituals you can use to better your life.

Craig Ballantyne

Focus on replacing your bad habits and thought patterns, one-by-one, over time, with good habits and thought patterns. One step at a time, done over time, leads to powerful changes in your life.

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How to Turn Your Brain Off and Relax

By Craig Ballantyne

My coaching client, let's call her Jenny, had a dilemma. She was simultaneously the co-owner of a successful health publishing company and the mother of two boys under the age of three. Her company had experienced a meteoric rise from virtually no sales in 2008 to thousands of sales of her program per day by 2011, yet she was struggling to separate work and family life.

In our first coaching call we focused exclusively on setting up her weekly schedule to dedicate blocks of time to specific tasks. She went from having a daily to-do list that was longer than her organic grocery shopping list to a small set of important items that must be done on specific days of the week. For example, on Monday, she dedicated two three-hour blocks of time to content creation. In contrast, Tuesdays were dedicated to email and spending time in activities with her three year old son. We were off to a great start in making her more happy and productive.

But one obstacle remained on her dedicated work days. She struggled to find the "off button". Surely you can relate. It's 5pm - or whatever your quitting time might be - and you know it's time to leave work and go home to enjoy dinner with the family (or perhaps you have to run your children to one of their nightly activities). You want to be there, to be present for your children, but your mind continues to be "on the clock", thinking about particular work problems, tasks that didn't get done, or worse, items that need to get completed first thing in the morning.

Fortunately, there's a solution. We had Jenny implement this after our last coaching call and it's made a tremendous difference in her mindset. The technique also allowed her to better enjoy the time spent with her family, and just as importantly, to be present with less stress than she had in the past.

Increased happiness and less stress come from enjoying the present. As In his excellent book, "The Gap", Dan Sullivan lists 12 strategies for better living. Number four is, "Increase ability to be present on daily basis in ALL situations." And as Jim Rohn once said, "Wherever you are, be there." That's what you are aiming to do with following two step brain dump and work day transition.

Here's what you'll need to do to achieve this. It's a simple solution that takes little more than five minutes and requires nothing more than a blank piece of a paper and a pen. You're going to do an end of day brain dump, and it's an effective activity to do right after you've made your short list of priority tasks to accomplish the next day. It's also something that you can and should do after any activity that gives you a lot of good ideas, like exercising or having a shower. And it's a quick task that you should do before any important thinking when you need a clear mind.

Let's work through a specific example. Recently, my friend Mike Whitfield asked the following question on the ETR daily Success QnA. "Craig, what do you do to 'turn your brain off'? Even when I'm supposedly relaxing, ideas are running through my head and I seem to not shut down. In other words, I can't seem to find my 'off' button."

I replied by explaining the brain dump solution. "Mike, let's say you promise your wife and son that you'll be done working at 5:30pm tonight. In order to do that, you'll need to grab a blank piece of paper (or open a blank word document) at 5:25pm and write down everything going through your head. Write fast and furious. At 5:30pm, you're finished."

That will help clear your mind. Now there's one other easy step I recommend you take in order to make the transition from work to play, particularly if you work at home like Mike does.

As I explained, "Complete a 'mindset shift ritual' - perhaps pouring yourself a cold glass of unsweetened iced tea - that signals 'End of the work day!'. The brain dump plus the ritual will give you a relaxed mind that can best enjoy family time or to deal with the stress of a busy household and the myriad of activities, car rides, and conflicts that will need to be solved at home. You'll be a much more effective parent and/or partner if you can leave work at the office, even if you work at home.

You'll get the odd idea here and there, but you'll be much better at 'being present where you are' with this approach). Of course, don't feel bad if you can't completely turn off your brain. It happens to the best of us, literally. If it were easy to turn off your brain and to never be excited about your projects, that would be an even worse scenario. 

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

It is well researched that the group of people we surround ourselves with have the power to influence our thoughts feelings and actions; and ultimately, the results we create in life.

Our success is directly related to the amount of support that we create and accept in our lives. One strategy to create this kind of support, as used by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and many other great dream builders, is to form a Master Mind group.

I would invite you to be sure that you have a group of people in your life, that you choose to hang out with, who believe in you. Choose those people who believe in your possibilities, who stand for your greatness and help you remember who you are when you may forget.

Living Your Life

Did your parents want you to grow up and do something different than you are doing today? Did someone scoff when you shared your dreams? No matter. It's your life. And today, Jason Leister shows you the power of living your life, your way. It will make all the difference.

Craig Ballantyne

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." - Steve Jobs

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How to Get the Weight Off Your Shoulders

By Jason Leister

I've spent a lot of my life living out other people's dreams. I didn't do it on purpose. Instead, it's a habit I developed at an early age that got embedded very, very deeply.

Growing up, I was from the outside looking in, pretty much aperfect child.

I got straight A's, I never got into trouble, I followed the rules and I could always be counted on to "do the right thing."

Before you fire off a message criticizing the size of my ego, understand that I don't hold this "perfect child" distinction in very high regard. It's not a badge of honor, it's a major character flaw.

Living as a "perfect child" included behaviors like:

• Being very tolerant of others' opinions, even when they directly opposed my own.
• Submitting to the will of others and granting others the "right of way" without question.
• Being diplomatic and careful in my choice of words so as not to offend anyone or make anyone feel intimidated.
• Accepting fault as a way to avoid conflict.
• Going to extreme lengths to please others.

The list could go on, but I'll stop it there because I've made my point.

I learned very early on that being "perfect" produced accolades. It also was an effective way to avoid conflict and to gain approval.

What I didn't realize at the time, however, was that being "perfect" built an almost impenetrable prison wall preventing me from everbeing truly free.

And So the Weight Gain Began

So what happens to someone who consistently suppresses his own will in favor of submitting to someone else's will?

That someone gains weight.

You don't gain physical pounds, instead you gain the weight of choices, actions and commitments that are not your own.

Over time, this weight grows until the majority of your focus and effort each day is invested in pursuing the desires of others. Youthink they are your desires, but you are wrong. You just can't see that you are wrong because it has become your habit to ignore reality.

You think you are living your life, but in reality, you are too scared to live your life. Instead, you live what others would have for your life.

This is how I lived for a very long time.

I chose what others wanted for my life instead of developing the skill to discern and choose what I wanted for my life.

As you might imagine, this can cause a lot of damage in the life of a human being. And it is perhaps the most insidious form of self-betrayal I know.

The worst symptom of the damage, by far, was that I developed the habit of...

Saying "Yes," When I Wanted to Say "No"

We've all had times in our life when we've done something like this. A person asks us to do something and we agree to it when we really don't want to.

Nobody wants to be a jerk, after all. But last time I checked, being a jerk is a pretty subjective situation.

The fact of the matter is I didn't have the guts at the time to answer questions like this honestly. Instead, I was scared to death of the consequences of "rejecting" someone by asserting my will and saying, "No."

And so I said "Yes" when I should have said "No." And I did it over and over and over again.

And the weight piled on because of it.

Living like this blurs your focus of what you should be doing with your life and it fills your days with stuff you shouldn't be doing.

As Your Life Develops, Available Opportunity Shrinks

Success minded individuals often say things like, "Opportunity is everywhere." I made the mistake of believing that once, but these days I know better.

There might be limitless opportunities for someone to pursue, but there aren't limitless opportunities that are right for me to pursue.

There might be thousands of goals that are worthy of achievement for someone on this planet, but there aren't many that are worth investing a portion of my own short life to achieve.

As I grow and gain experience and wisdom, I realize that the list of opportunities deserving of my time is actually shrinking.

And that realization, quite frankly, is liberating. Because it replaces a feeling of overwhelm with a feeling of peace and calm.

It gives me the power to exercise discernment and control over the direction of my life. And to be extremely selective about how I invest each moment I'm alive.

Today Is the Day to Drop the Pounds

If you're carrying around extra weight like I've described, today is the day to drop it. ALL OF IT. It requires only a decision to be your real self and the courage to stand in that authenticity.

We are here for a reason and it's high time that we all start living that out.

Your choices require no one's approval and there's no need to provide an explanation. There is only a requirement to act.

My hunch is that there are things you are holding onto in your life and business that simply are no longer worthy of your time. Maybe they never even were.

It's just not a good use of your life to hang on. Think big, act big. Release what is not yours to carry. Don't be afraid to move on.

Give yourself permission to do this. Give yourself permission to "lighten up."

Because it is only when you lighten up that you will fly. 

The Truth About Productivity

Many people believe there is a fancy, complex answer for being productive. Alas, it's simply "just doing it" and staying focused. But multi-tasking is so much more fun. However, as Matt White explains today, slow and steady beats multi-tasking every time.

Craig Ballantyne

"Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." - Booker T. Washington

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Why Small Bites Trump Multi-Tasking

By Matt White

At a press conference early in his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower was asked for the name of his favorite author. "Harry Sinclair Drago," said Eisenhower.

The reporters looked puzzled. They obviously hadn't heard of Drago, even though he'd written several classics of western fiction, including Suzanna: A Romance of Early California andWhispering Sage.

So they asked Eisenhower for his second favorite. "Bliss Lomax," replied Eisenhower. If nothing else, this proved that Eisenhower was consistent, because that was a pen name used by, you guessed it, Harry Sinclair Drago.

Drago used at least eight additional pen names. He needed all those names because he wrote a lot. Over the course of his career, he wrote short stories, screenplays, articles, and more than a hundred novels. More than three full-length novels a year for 30 years.

When Syracuse University announced that it would be the custodian of Drago's papers, the thing that seemed to fascinate reporters the most was the amount he wrote. One of them asked him: "How did you write over a hundred books?"

"Four pages a day," replied Drago.

One Bite at a Time

Harry Sinclair Drago knew that, often, the secret of accomplishing big things is to break the big task into lots of small tasks. There's an old joke that illustrates the point.

Question: "How do you eat an elephant?"

Answer: "One bite at a time."

You can make it a big bite or a small one. I bet Drago didn't start out writing four pages a day. It might have been as little as one hundred words.

By breaking your big projects into little action steps and doing at least one step a day, you can accomplish great things. Just don't keep all your action steps in your head.

Get Out of Your Head

I've met people who get the "baby steps" concept, but they still don't get anywhere because they never get to the action part. They come up with action steps like "Think about the plot for the novel" or "Analyze marketing options."

Those sound like action steps, but they're not. They don't result in real action. Real action is something out in the physical world that others can witness.

Instead of "Think about the plot for the novel," try "Draft plot outline." Instead of "Analyze marketing options," try creating several specific action steps. They might include: "List three sources of information," "Contact source A," and "Prepare report on costs and benefits."

Make a call. Make a list. Send an e-mail. Write a report. Do something. If you make it visible, you won't fool yourself about whether you're making progress. And to keep things moving, define action steps that are small enough that you're sure to succeed.

Make It Small Enough to Get You Going

You're more likely to succeed at small, easy action steps. So when you're feeling overwhelmed by all the things, or the big thing, you have to do, make your action steps smaller and easier. One clue that you need to break your goal into smaller chunks is when you find yourself procrastinating.

Say that you know you need to get the house painted, but you're not doing anything about it. So make it smaller.

What's the first thing you need to do?

It could be: "Get some estimates."

If getting estimates is still blocking you, make your next action step even smaller. Try: "Call three painting companies."

If you're still procrastinating, choose a smaller step. How about: "Make a list of five painting companies to call?"

At some point, you'll be down to an action step that moves you forward but isn't so big it stops you in your tracks. That gets you moving and gives you momentum.

Savor the Small Wins

The principle of using small wins to build psychological momentum was presented in a Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford University in 1977. The theory: It works because it's a truly brain-friendly concept.

When someone praises you, you feel good because your brain produces a chemical called dopamine. When you praise yourself by checking off a completed action step, you get the same physiological result. As you achieve one small win after another, you find it easier and easier to take the action steps that generate the wins.

One way to keep things moving is to keep score.

At the end of every day, Ben Franklin would ask himself: "What good have I done this day?" You can ask the question: "What have I done today to move my life and career forward?"

Think about the action steps you took today. Think about how they helped you achieve your goals. Savor your victories.

Remember that success usually isn't a result of achieving great big things all at once. Eat the elephant of a big achievement one bite at a time.

Identify the next small step. Make it visible. Reward yourself for achievement. Then identify the next small action step.