Goals :: Personal Growth Princess

Archive for Goals

The 5 Best Self-Help iPhone Apps

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (2)

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

If you’re an iPhone user, you’ll want to know about these top self-help apps. They provide additional tools and shortcuts for helping you track and maintain your personal growth. They aren’t magic and won’t create instant transformation, but like most useful tools, they are simple and straightforward. That means they are also fun and easy to use, and especially useful for the electronically-minded.

I first read about some of these at Mashable, and then researched further to find out what real people thought of them. Here they are in no particular order:

HappyTapper has 3 self-help apps:

Gratitude Journal – this works like an electronic pad. Everyday (or however often you want) you write/text in the top 5 things you’re grateful for. You can also add photos to your entries – to to spice up the bulleted list – add inspirational quotes, and even rate your day. Plus you can password protect your list, email it to yourself, and search previous entries. Price: $0.99

app gratitude 172x300 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps

**************************************************************

Little Buddha - Just rub Buddha’s belly to access over 39,000 inspirational quotes. You can search the quotes by keyword, add your own quotes, and share them with your friends via twitter, facebook, and email.
Price $0.99

app buddha1 168x300 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps app buddha2 172x300 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps

**************************************************************

Vision Board – the authors describe it as a “sacred place in which you define your hopes, goals, and dreams.”
You can pick from the 7 different board themes/styles and then start adding your inspirational photos, quotes, etc. It comes with sticky notes, star labels, torn white paper, and a few other graphics to give it pizzaz. It looks pretty cool. (I’m more of a “create it with my hands” kind of gal, but I can definitely see the appeal of having it right on your phone.)
Price $0.99

app visionboard 181x300 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps

**************************************************************

Live Happy - Live Happy is a positive psychology iPhone app developed by Signal Patterns’ SP Labs research team together with Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of the book The How of Happiness and professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. It’s a whole mobile happiness boosting program based on principles of positive psychology – including evaluating goals based on her system, keeping track of happy days, and a way to remember random acts of kindness. It also includes a personality analysis and science of happiness information.

Price $0.99

app livehappy 300x194 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps

And just to make you feel even better about it, they are donating a portion of every app sale to the Live Your Life Well program, a public education campaign (launched by the non-profit Mental Health America) dedicated to helping people combat stress and promote well being.

**************************************************************

My Thoughts – If we become what we think about all day long (Earl Nightingale), then it’s a good idea to monitor your thoughts. When you change your thoughts, you change your destiny. Use MyThoughts+ to focus your thoughts on what you most desire.

This app includes 0ver a thousand affirmations, multiple categories of thoughts, plus lots of customizable features, such as 9 different background images (or use your own), the ability to change font, text size and color, as well as adding your own music, just to make it a multi-sensory experience.
Price: $0.99, or free version with limited options.

app mythoughts1 172x300 The 5 Best Self Help iPhone Apps

**************************************************************

That’s just a few of the many, many self-help apps. And, of course, they are just for the iPhone. We Droid users will have to wait a bit for the library of apps to grow.

Do you have a favorite self-help app you use? If so, let us know – leave a comment below and tell us what it is and how you use it.

Categories : Goals, Positive Thinking, Recommended Resources

Comments (2)

What the Dynamic Opportunity Model has to do with the Science of Making Things Happen

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Last week I posted an article about the Dynamic Opportunity Model (used with permission from CoachVille).
This is a powerful model for transforming a “problem” into an “opportunity”. It is simple, though not necessarily easy, but only because most of us are not very practiced at it.

What’s particularly intriguing is how this model ties in with the featured book summary for May, The Science of Making Things Happen by Kim Marcille Romaner.

One of the key elements in the Dynamic Opportunity Model is learning to be an observer. Sometimes we try to hard to figure something out, focusing on what’s not working and why it’s not working, that we neglect to see what is really there.

Likewise, the role of observer is key to the science of making things happen. Kim talks about how the act of observing directly affects what happens to the thing or person being observed, the actual activity of the observed. She talks about it in scientific terms, using experiments with berylium ions (subatomic particles), and then relates it to daily life at the human level. This is called the Zeno Effect. (Members, see pages 10-11 of your book summary for the full explanation).

What Romaner found is that when you measure the wrong benchmarks, Read More→

Categories : 5-Minute Book Reviews, Choice, Goals, Mindfulness

Comments (0)

How to turn a problem into an opportunity

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Since you are a personal growth enthusiast, I suspect you are often looking for ways to turn problems into opportunities. That seems to be wired into the DNA of people who are into self-help, personal development, self-improvement, etc.

Of course, being in the midst of the problem is often the hardest time to even get your mind to shift to thinking about the opportunity inherent in it. I have a friend who always asks me “What’s great about this?” when I bring up something that is frustrating me. Usually this helps me shift, but every now and then I want to bop her on the head for it. Wink Every cloud has a silver lining, but when it’s cloudy, sometimes it just feels cloudy.

As with anything, practice and use increases your skill at not just finding the opportunity, but to remember to do so in the first place. It’s easiest to practice new “ways of being” before the problem arises. Once you’re in the throws of it it’s harder to do, unless you’ve been practicing it so that has become automatic for you, or almost automatic.

One model you can use to help yourself re-think problems is called the Dynamic Opportunity Model.

The Dynamic Opportunity Model was created by Thomas Leonard, founder of CoachVille – one of the largest and most innovative coach training programs ever. (Thomas is no longer among us, but Dave Buck, who inherited the company, has graciously given me permission to share this model with you.)

The diagram shows Read More→

Categories : Goals, Mindfulness, Recommended Resources

Comments (0)

Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier [video] [Book Review]

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Find Your Great Work, has written another book – Do More Great Work. As you would expect, he has a way of capturing exactly what you and your clients are thinking about busy work and great work.

His message is: Stop The Busywork!

We’ve all been there, right? You’re up to your eyeballs answering email, returning phone calls, attending meetings, scrambling to get things done. But when did being busy become a measure of success?

Here’s a video he created to share a little about the new book.
(Secretly I have video-envy when it comes to Michael’s videos. They are truly great!)

You can see this and the rest of Michael’s Possibility Virus resources on his website.

Let me know what you think of the video – and the books – in your comments below. I’m especially curious to know how you might use this in your own work.

Categories : 5-Minute Book Reviews, Audio-Video Programs, Goals

Comments (0)

Taking Action – Do Deadlines Really Work?

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

All of us, even with the best of intentions, fail to take action on things, even when we’ve said it is really really important. Why is that?

In an ideal world, our behavior would be based on our values – what we say is important to us. But that’s not always how it works, is it? I can really value and want a clean house, but that doesn’t mean I’ll actually get out the broom and Windex.

What does get me to clean my house?

Company.

Sound familiar? Company is coming over for dinner, and boy can I go into a whirlwind of cleaning, straightening, and cramming things in the closet so they’ll be out of sight. runninghorses Taking Action Do Deadlines Really Work? moz screenshot Taking Action Do Deadlines Really Work?

But WHY do we clean our house at that point in time when we could have cleaned it last weekend rather than snuggling up with the latest romance novel? Because all of a sudden it has become URGENT!

Human behavior almost always depends on urgency. That doesn’t have to mean urgency of a dire or catastrophic nature. It can be the simple urgency of friends coming over to visit in 20 minutes…and you with a messy house.

Knowing that urgency has a significant affect on our behavior, and that implicit in reading this post, there is something about yourself or your behavior you would like to change, you can design your environment to support you.

One way to do that is to manufacture urgency…in the form of Deadlines.

The D word.

Why do deadlines work so well – even when it is outside the work situation?
Read More→

Categories : Goals, Integrity

Comments (0)

New Year Calls for New…What?

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

This time of year personal growth professionals, bosses, friends, family, even Nancy Neighbor down the street, will ask you what your New Year’s Resolutions are and how you’re going to keep them. Implicit in this are 3 things:

You should have New Year’s Resolutions.
You should have more than one.
And that you should keep them.

I wonder…could this all be much ado about nothing?
Do you really need to have New Year’s Resolutions? If it’s a requirement, it must be because they are effective. Hmmm…. I suspect it’s more that it has become habit.

And who said you had to have more than one. Goodness knows we have enough on our plates as it is!

How resolved are people to keep their resolutions? At first, to a great deal, but it generally wanes – as anyone who has lamented about the parking difficulty at the gym in the month of January, only to be elated when it’s easy again half way through February.

I quit making resolutions a long time ago. It turns out I was just resurrecting the same old resolutions, and obviously getting nowhere. A great mechanism if your goal is “how can I make myself feel even worse this year”

Of course, this time of year is a good one for planning. In the northern hemisphere, Winter with its pending Spring brings forth all kinds of growthful thoughts. In the southern hemisphere, the turn of the new year, the slow movement from the fullness of Summer to the harvest of Fall has you thinking of what you have sown – is it enough, do I need to do more/better/different next year in order to reap more?

So, given it is a natural time for planning, I humbly suggest we think in terms of EVOLUTIONS rather than resolutions.

After all, we are changing and evolving all the time. (And, of course, that’s what Personal Growth Princess is all about.) It’s important to honor that it goes on all year. It’s a way of validating who we are, what we’ve learned, and how we’re using it today.

One of the things I am evolving this year are my beliefs and my rituals, which according to neuro-scientists, are closely linked.
To the outside world I look like I’ve got it all, that life is great, and I’m a huge success. While some of that is true – more at some times than others – it’s also true that I put up with quite a bit that bugs me. Like the rear windshield wiper in my car that works when it wants to, which is generally not when it’s raining.

I’m developing a worksheet to help princesses, me included, to start doing less of this, and having more of what we want. In the meantime, I’m developing some new beliefs, and have a handy ritual to help reinforce it.

One of my new beliefs is that “There is always a way to have it the way I want it.” haveit New Year Calls for New...What?

The picture at the right is a quick graphic I created to help me remember just that. There IS always a way to have it the way I want it.

The graphic actually comes from an inspirational video I created for myself. I shared it in an earlier post, but haven’t been using it as I planned.

So that’s the new ritual…to watch the video every morning as part of my morning ritual. Just so you know, I created this specifically for me, so it has pictures of me and uses my own handwriting. My guess is you’ll want to create one for yourself. One the page with the video is a link to the person who taught me how to do this. (If you have powerpoint or something similar, it’s really pretty easy.)

So…think Evolution, not resolution.
What evolved for you in 2009, and what are you evolving in 2010? Comment below and let me know.

Happy Evolution!

Categories : Goals

Comments (0)

Personal Growth Princess on Blog Talk Radio

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Monday, December 14th, 2009

On Tuesday, December 15th, PersonalGrowthPrincess.com will be featured on the Blog Talk Radio show “I’m Ready 4 Me” hosted by Yvonne McCoy. The show airs at 2pm eastern time.

Join host, Yvonne McCoy, as she interviews Nina East, founder of Personal Growth Princess about the most common BTRYvonne Personal Growth Princess on Blog Talk Radio mistakes people make when they “do” personal development, and how most personal growth books and seminars actually set you up to feel WORSE about yourself.

This is the 3rd part in a series addressing successful follow-through and making decisions that stick. Information, alone, isn’t enough. You need Activation, Motivation, and Evaluation to be successful.

Think you need more than a New Year’s Resolution? A Life Resolution will carry you farther. In Part 1 & 2, we talked about how you want to be and how you can make changes. This week, guest Nina East will be sharing information on how to ensure successful follow-through.

Nina is a personal growth expert, published author, and the founder of PersonalGrowthPrincess.com – a site providing self-help book summaries for smart, busy women.

Categories : Announcements, Goals

Comments (0)

Being a Personal Growth Master

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Friday, November 20th, 2009

What does it take to master something?

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell studied what it takes to become masterful – at anything. What is surprising is how little talent and luck have to do with whether someone becomes a world class expert – regardless of the field they are in.

You may not be interested in becoming known as an expert in something, but there are things you would like to be able to do extremely well. There are areas you would like to master. My guess is that “personal growth” falls into this category somewhere. Not that anyone can really become a master at personal growth (I don’t even know what they might mean), but you can become an expert on yourself…and on who you are becoming. In fact, part of the reason you have been drawn to this site, or become a member, is that you want to find ways to gain knowledge, experience, and insights that are meaningful.

While natural talent or affinity affects whether you end up being drawn to a particular field – such as, if you have a natural talent for playing the piano or speaking in public, you may have been drawn to fields that require those skills without thinking about it – but talent or affinity will not determine whether you are a “success” at either. And though opportunity and luck play a role in who you get exposed to as you make your way toward mastery, even people with the same talent and same opportunity don’t achieve the same level of mastery. Talent and luck are not enough.

The key distinction, according to Gladwell, Read More→

Categories : Confidence, Goals

Comments (0)

Are you a Doer or a Dabbler?

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

What’s the difference between doing and dabbling?

Seems a bit silly to ask that, doesn’t it? After all, everybody knows the difference, right?
Well, perhaps not so much…

Dabblers are people who “try” something out. They think about it, maybe take a teensy bit of action, but always have a reason they don’t fully commit. They don’t have time, they don’t have money, they aren’t sure, they aren’t sure if it will work…

Doers, on the other hand, well…Do. They make a decision and then take action. They may not get exactly what they want, but by DOING, they are at least moving in the direction they want, and can make course corrections along the way.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of places where it makes sense to dabble to your heart’s content – hobbies, entertainment, maybe even gardening (depending on your penchant for beautiful flowers or healthy vegetables), etc. I’m sure you can think of many places in your life where it makes sense to dabble.

But the question is, are you dabbling where you ought to be doing?
If you don’t like the word “ought”, ask yourself if you are getting the results you want in a particular area. If not, are you dabbling there, or have you truly committed, past the “trying” stage? Are you taking consistent action toward what you want?

For me, the distinction between doer and dabbler was a mind-altering one. Read More→

Categories : Choice, Goals

Comments (0)

Tony Robbins: How Your Decisions and Your Needs Shape Your Destiny

Posted by: Nina East | Comments (0)

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

What shapes you? What drives you? What is it that REALLY gets you to do things?

We’d probably all like to say that we do things for honorable reasons. That our self motivation is what really keeps us going. That we are motivated by serving others and by doing the “right thing”. If you said that to Tony Robbins at one of his seminars, he’d probably respond, “well, yes and no”.

There are lots of motivation quotes from Tony Robbins about contribution, doing things because it serves others. We are most definitely motivated to action by serving others, but, according to Tony there are 5 other critical human needs that determine what we do and don’t do.

If you’ve ever attended a Tony Robbins seminar, you know what it it takes to really develop self awareness – to get in touch with what is really inside you. If you haven’t attended one of his seminars, this video is a quick way to experience a bit of Tony and think about what his words might mean for you.

In this video Tony is talking about how Decisions and Destiny are intricately linked together, and that no matter what we SAY motivates us, it is really the 6 Human Needs(TM).

We make three kinds of decisions:

Categories : Audio-Video Programs, Goals

Comments (0)

first name:
primary email:

Archive for Goals

What does it take to master something?

What’s the difference between doing and dabbling?

Get your free Gift Book Summary!

Categories