1. Identify where you are stuck in your life. Take steps toward getting unstuck, even if it means pushing well beyond your comfort zone. Action is the only remedy for fear.
Related: 13 Ways to Improve Your Life
2. Develop your observing ego by stepping outside yourself and seeing who you are during the day. How do you come across to others? Do you like what you see? If you don’t, modify your behavior.
3. Identify your biggest strengths and make sure you use those strengths in your profession. If you do, it’s likely you have found your passion.
Don’t forget to give yourself a positive pep talk.
4. Scared to speak up? Preparation and practice can help you pull off the perfect speech. Oh, and don’t forget to give yourself a positive pep talk. You can do it!
5. Get a good night’s sleep. Not only will eight hours keep you mentally sharp, but a full night’s rest can keep your appetite in check too. Experts recommend eight hours for everyone.
6. Is the Web site for your business representing your company in the best light possible? If not, spruce it up.
7. Set benchmarks for the progress of your business. Are you holding yourself accountable for meeting them? You should be.
Write down your goals and dreams to declare yourself in the game.
8. Write to achieve. Write down your goals and dreams to declare yourself in the game. It’s like holding up an “Open for Business” sign for your life.
9. Keep a notebook with you at all times. If you wake up at 3 a.m. with a brilliant idea, write it down. A blank notebook becomes a suggestion box for your brain, opening you up to new ideas.
10. Think of a favorite memory. When your mind is on overload, recalling a great memory can relax your mind. And it just might make you smile too.
11. Don’t compromise when you feel strongly about something.
12. Develop a love for learning.
13. Write a handwritten note to the people in your life you want to connect with the most.
14. Round up your friends and family. Regularly inviting others to do something fun like ice skating, shopping or meeting for coffee can improve your relationships.
15. Become a student of your chosen career.
Don’t be afraid or too proud to make short-term sacrifices to achieve your goals.
16. Commit to your dreams. Don’t be afraid or too proud to make short-term sacrifices to achieve your goals.
17. Listen to mentors. Take advice from a trusted source in your industry.
18. Set deadlines. Define a specific timeframe for your goals and take small action steps to meet them.
19. Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.
20. Visualize by beginning with the end in mind.
21. Wake up to music and not an alarm.
22. Throughout the day frequently ask yourself: Is this activity moving me forward to achieve my most important lifetime goals?
23. Limit your television viewing to a few hours per week.
24. Plan your day the day before and plan your week the week before.
You can’t succeed if you aren’t in the game.
25. Realize failures bring about success. Risk is all about trying, getting in the game. You can’t succeed if you aren’t in the game.
26. Have confidence. Decide you are confident and have a more playful, less serious attitude about life. Most successful people do.
27. Write your own mission statement.
28. Get your priorities straight. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, to your community and to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
29. Let yourself experience emotion. Know what love, grief and pain are.
30. Live every day like it’s your last. Be prepared for the end. Ask yourself: Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2008 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy and comprehensiveness.
