Many people consider their mothers as the most important person in their lives. Mothers are there when their children are young to help them learn to read and get ready for their prom when they reach their teenage years. They are also there when their children have their first born and when their hearts get broken. It is important to find the perfect birthday present for mom because it’s a small way of showing our appreciation for her love for us.

If you are searching for a birthday present for mom, then it may be a good idea to base your gift ideas around things that she finds appealing. We make the mistake of choosing a birthday present for mom that is something we like too often. Of course, our mom will smile nicely and tell us how lovely it is. That’s just what our moms do. You should think about the things she really enjoys and then fashion a gift around that.

Many mothers love to have a day of beauty. They may not indulge in a manicure, pedicure or massage, although they will regularly go for a hair cut and style. An entire day at a spa would be a wonderful birthday present for mom. You can throw in a taxi ride to bring her there to make her day more relaxing and stress free. She’ll spend the day feeling like a Queen which is exactly what she deserves.

If your mom loves to stay in shape, then you can think of countless ideas for presents for her. If you give her a gym membership, she will have a chance to get out and work-out with others. Exercise clothing that will allow her to look great while she keeps her heart and body healthy will also be a nice birthday present for mom.

Purchasing twelve gift certificates is also a fun and thoughtful gift idea. Each gift certificate would come from a different local restaurant and she could use them once a month to have a lovely dinner out. I think that all mothers would think that this is an ideal gift. If you consider restaurant gift certificates as a birthday present for mom, then she’ll certainly love you for it.

You can pick out a birthday card once you’ve found the perfect gift. In my experience, homemade cards are always the best regardless of the age of the sender. The most treasured birthday present for mom might be a homemade card that tells her exactly how you feel about her. I preserved the cards that my children made years ago and I can guarantee that your mom will keep a homemade card you made forever.
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You’ve decided that you want to be more joyous, but don’t know what consistent actions to take to create this bliss. You didn’t lose touch with yourself overnight, so plan on taking the time needed to learn what makes you happy. Here are 5 steps to take to create more contentment in your life and set the stage for your personal comeback:

1. Take the time to figure out what is most important to you, personally. Although God and family are usually at the top of this list, this question is posed to get you thinking about what you need in order to be at your best. For me, I need to be centered. I have to have a balanced life! What one thing do you absolutely need to make your life more enjoyable? Focus on attaining this one item every day by taking small steps to craft your ideal existence.

2. Know that what you have to say is valuable and important. Make a habit of contributing in any situation that you find yourself, whether it’s a classroom setting, the PTA, your work environment, or in social situations. The more you speak up, the more you become confident in your voice. And you’ll begin to look for opportunities to be able to express your opinion. Overall, this will do wonders in boosting your self-esteem.

3. Function in your life as if you’re not a victim, because you’re not. Things sometimes happen in our lives that are beyond our control. We all have been victims in our lives, one time or another. The problem lies in us thinking that we’re always a victim in situations. We all choose our paths and circumstances. Don’t make the mistake of blaming others for what you’ve chosen. By placing the blame squarely on our own shoulders, we are truly empowering ourselves and getting back in the driver’s seat. If you find yourself blaming others when things go awry, say to yourself, “I am not a victim. I have a choice as to how I approach life.”

4. Choose happiness…no matter what! Situations may not be perfect, as life seldom is. But our happiness lies in our approach to life. Awake each day saying, “I am thankful and appreciative. I choose to be happy regardless of what happens today!”

5. Arrest self-sabotaging thoughts in their tracks. If you find yourself thinking self-defeating thoughts, do what exercise guru Richard Simmons suggests. Cancel every negative thought with two positive thoughts. In time, you’ll seldom have self-destructive feelings.

If you find that you’re having problems moving forward, then you may need additional help. At this point, you may want to consider hiring a life coach or joining/organizing a mastermind group. Another great option is to use meditation CDs to help in your personal growth.

By consistently practicing the above steps, you should accelerate your movement toward contentment. Once you feel content, you’ll want to look the part. Remember funky mamas are happy mamas and present their best selves!

 


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The importance of motivation is important for most people in everyday situations. Universities and organisations and schools always make sure that their students and employees are always motivated to carry out their work to the best of their ability. However, due to factors beyond their control more and more people are finding it hard to motivate themselves due to lots of factors. This article will explore the importance of motivation and how it as affected thousands and thousands of individuals.

One of the main importances of motivation is to increase morale of an individual. For example, if a sports team is constantly losing their matches then this will have a negative effect on the morale of the whole team as no one likes to lose. Furthermore, this loss can affect the behaviour of the individual. Therefore, on this basis the manager who coaches the team is responsible for motivating his players to help them stay focused on future matches. The manager is responsible for helping to motivate the players and help develop their confidence. On this basis, motivation is important because it can help a person forget about the past and move on.

Another importance of motivation is when a person might be going through personal domestic problems and therefore, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure the person is motivated to carry out their job without taking their problems to the workplace. Moreover, the employer will have to need to ensure that they motivate the individual in many ways to make sure the person is not emotionally affected by their problems. Sometimes some people can find it hard to adjust to their job when they have domestic personal problems and therefore, on that basis it is important that an individual is motivated and focused to carry out their tasks.
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Obesity plays a big role in our society today. Exercise and eating right are a way to fight obesity. But how do you motivate yourself to exercise? Let’s face it; it isn’t one of the most enjoyable things do to with our time.

And time is very important to us today. There never seems to be enough of it. So how do we get exercise motivation? Setting goals is the key to this process.

The first step in achieving exercise motivation is to decide what goals you want from yourself. Do you want to lose 10 pounds? 20 pounds? Or do you just want to tone your body?

The next question to ask yourself is what are you going to gain from these goals? If you like the answers you’re getting from these questions, then you are half way to exercise motivation!

When setting goals for exercise motivation, try not to set them to high. Don’t set a goal to lose 50 pounds, unless you can afford to lose 50 pounds! Don’t set a goal to run 5 miles a day, if you have never run a mile before.

Be realistic in your goal setting. This is so important in this process. The goals have to be both possible and realistic for you to be able to achieve them.

After the goals are set, write down what steps you are going to have to take to reach these goals. For instance, do you need to stop eating dessert every night after dinner? Do you need to give up that second cappuccino in the mornings? Can you walk to work or lunch, instead of driving? Once you come up with a plan to change the way you do things, it will be easier to lose weight.

The next step is to be creative with your exercise routine. Getting on a treadmill in a lonely room isn’t going to keep us motivated for very long. Maybe you need to put a television in the room with the treadmill. Or maybe find a route outdoors for your walk or run.

Commitment is the last and final stage to achieving exercise motivation. You have lost ten pounds and are starting to eat a healthier diet, now you have to commit to doing it. Make time every day and don’t let temptations get in the way. It is all in the will power.

That is not to say that you can’t reward yourself with a day off of exercise once in a while, or a piece of cake now and then. That is important also, but being consistent with your exercise routine is priority. It will soon become habitual to exercise. You have just replaced your bad habits with a good habit!
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There is an insightful story about a man who lost his legs and left arm in a tragic accident. After the accident, only a finger and thumb remained on his right hand.

However, this man was brilliant, creative, and educated. He had gained much experience while traveling throughout the world. Yet, he became very depressed after his accident. He was afraid that he would spend his life suffering and would no longer be able to use his life in a meaningful way.

One day, he remembered how he had always loved getting letters. He realized that he still had partial function of his right hand and could write with difficulty. Then, he had an idea. “Why not write to other people who need encouragement?”

He wondered where he could find other people who felt alone and could be encouraged if they read his letters. He thought of people in prisons. Many of these people had hope of regaining their freedom. Others would keep feeling dejected and remain locked away for the rest of their lives. He decided that he must try to reach them.

He wrote to a prison ministry about sending letters to the inmates. The prison minister replied that writing to the inmates would be acceptable. However, it would be against prison rules for the inmates to write back. The reply stated, “Unfortunately, your letters will not be answered.”

Filled with the intention of his idea, the man knew he had to write his letters. He began sending one-way messages of God’s love, hope, strength, and encouragement.

He wrote twice a week, testing his strength and ability to the limit. He poured his heart and soul into his words, sharing his experience, sense of humor, optimism, and faith.

It was difficult to write those letters, especially without hope of a reply. Frequently, he felt discouraged. He often wondered if anyone actually read his letters. However, this was his one remaining chance, a truly worthwhile purpose. He resolved to continue as long as God gave him the encouragement and strength to write.

One day he received a letter from the prison ministry. It was a short note from the officer who monitored and censored the prison mail.

The letter said, “Please write on the best paper you can afford. Your letters are passed from cell to cell until they literally fall to pieces!”

No matter what circumstances life may present, we all have unique experiences, abilities, and God-given talents. We can discover ways to reach others who desperately need messages of encouragement and strength. This discovery begins with a commitment to what our hearts tell us is a worthwhile purpose.

When we commit to a worthwhile purpose, we begin to fill needs, often in miraculous ways. Intention and commitment grow stronger when we have very important reasons to follow a dream.

Ask yourself these questions:

What has been my best response to challenging, unexpected situations?

What reasons would I need to make a commitment to my most cherished dream?

How could I use a skill or talent to bring life-changing encouragement to someone today?

William Arthur Ward wrote, “A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”

You can begin writing letters of encouragement and strength by thinking faith-filled thoughts. Then, act with faith in your ideas, talent, and purpose. Helping others receive encouragement will create self-encouragement and reveal the blessings that your unique purpose will bring to the world.
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Are you actively working to change some aspect of your personality — and absolutely can’t understand how someone else (perhaps the “significant other” in your life) doesn’t have a clue that anything is wrong with him or her or seems inexplicably unwilling to do anything about it?

Why, you ask, are you so willing to change and the other person is not? I’ve asked myself that many times, since I’m one of those who constantly scrutinizes my problems to see how I might be contributing to the situation. That doesn’t mean I’ve been completely successful in changing some of my more tenacious bad habits, but I do work at it (which can, paradoxically, also be a curse for those of us who are recovering perfectionists). Nevertheless, for many years I found it difficult to understand why others weren’t as introspective as I.

Over the years I’ve learned that basically the reason some people want to be the best they can be, while others only like to complain is because the latter type of person isn’t in touch with, or is able to deny the pressure of, what I call “pain, pull, or push forces.” Unless people experience one of them, they are pretty well stuck right where they are.

Pain Motivated Change First of all, most people change (or at least are willing to consider changing) if they are in pain. We’re all familiar with this dynamic. When there’s something in our life that makes us uncomfortable, we may initially hope it will go away. If it doesn’t, we start with small and relatively easy steps to change the situation. Finally, if those efforts are unsuccessful, we get to the point that we can’t stand it any more. “I’m sick of this!” we scream. That emotional or physical pain gives us the courage to take other steps that may be more difficult, but are more likely to solve the problem permanently.

The point at which this happens varies widely from person to person. We all experience pain in different ways, but some of us are very good in putting on blinders and ignoring a situation that would drive someone else up the wall. Yet we all have a breaking point. Exactly where and when we reach that point varies from person to person.

For example, take the case of a weight gain of ten to fifteen pounds by a woman who has reached menopause. If she had previously been in top physical condition, has a job that requires interaction with members of the fashion industry, and enjoys looking slim and attractive in her expensive clothes, she will likely be well motivated to take off the weight and keep it off. That weight is painful for her.

On the other hand, suppose she doesn’t work in a job that places emphasis on looks and has friends who are either quite a bit overweight or who have come to accept their weight as okay. There is no great pressure on her to change. So pain is not part of the change equation for this woman, even though her weight may be far from ideal.

Yes, pain is definitely an important ingredient in developing healthy habits. It provides the incentive to work toward the very behaviors that can relieve our pain. For example, it has long been recognized that an alcoholic seldom takes steps to stop drinking until he’s sick and tired of being sick and tired of all the problems alcohol has caused in his life. In fact, if he goes to a therapist who works to build up his “self-esteem” (on the theory that he will then have the courage to join AA or enter into a treatment program), his newfound self-esteem can be counterproductive. Why? Because alcohol and drugs are marvelous self-medicating techniques he can use to keep from looking clearly at the mess he’s made of his life. Having an “expert” tell him he’s “okay” is not as effective as reminding him of the pain he’s in.

However, as much as pain is a good motivation for many people, there are a few problems with focusing only on pain as an incentive to change.

Constantly reminding yourself that a given situation is painful keeps that situation at the forefront of your mind. Then, because change is seldom as rapid as we would like, we can be discouraged by the slow progress we’re making and, feeling as though the pain will never go away, may talk ourselves into adapting to difficult situations.An opposite problem occurs when change comes too quickly. It’s not uncommon for clients who enter therapy to deal with a difficult problem to experience a positive change in their situation after seeing a therapist for only a few sessions. Feeling good about this reversal of their lives and assuming change is easy, they convince themselves they no longer need outside assistance. There’s even a name for this phenomenon. It’s called a “flight to health.” So future sessions are cancelled, although there is still a lot of work to reinforce the minor changes that have been made.Pain can actually be viewed as positive by those “martyrs” who use it as a technique to punish and control others. (You may have one of these in your own family.) They unconsciously cling to their pain because they don’t see any other way of getting what they want.In these cases, a more effective motivation for change may involve an awareness of the forces that can pull us toward change.

Change Created by Being Pulled Toward New Behavior People change if they are acted upon by forces that can pull them toward modifying their behavior and shifting their perspective of the world, forces that arise in three areas.

The biological imperative to grow and enter the next phase of life Why does a baby learn to crawl and walk and run? It’s not because the parents want her to. Her body is hardwired to move through these stages. And remember those hormonal changes in adolescence when we began to see classmates of the opposite sex in a different light and weren’t sure what do with our new feelings? We couldn’t have ignored those changes if we’d wanted to. Even the physical and emotional changes created by increasingly frequent aches and pains of aging offer their own lessons.

Life-cycle stages Courtship, marriage, birth of children, the launching of grown children and the onset of old age each create different climates that allow for the evolution of personal growth and development. For example, a quest for deeper spiritual meaning often increases in later stages of life. In fact, the more we’re in touch with these naturally occurring “pulls” toward change, the easier it is to shift directions when old patterns no longer fit. As the scriptures note, “To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the sun. . . “

Response to information and inspiration Every day in school teachers struggle to instill learning and new ideas that will make a difference in their students’ lives. Thousands of sermons are preached every Sunday in the hope that the words spoken from the pulpit will resonate within the hearts and souls of the congregation and encourage at least a few people to live with renewed commitment to a set of high principles. If you think back on your life, there is sure to be a time when you were inspired by words of encouragement from parents or other relatives, by a teacher, by a friend, by a story you read in the paper, etc. Even more, you have probably been an inspiration to others, even though you may be unaware of it.

Change Forced by a Push from Someone Else or by Circumstances Now we come to the form of motivation that is the least effective method for creating permanent change, but one that is used by many a spouse and boss. That is the effort to push someone into a corner in order to get them to change as well as the consequence of circumstance that force a person to consider change as the only way out of a bad situation.

Yes, I know, you’d love to demand your significant other make the changes you think would be good for him (and that would sure make your life easier). I’ve tried it. It’s not easy and it seldom works.

When someone is being pushed by another person, the pushee will often make an initial, halfhearted attempt to change so the pusher will get off his back. The wife starts a different diet every week because her husband threatens to leave her if she doesn’t “do something” about her weight. So she satisfies the requirement to “do something,” but it’s not permanent and doesn’t get to the root of the problem, which may be the more serious matter of a demanding husband and passive-aggressive wife.

Bosses can be a bit more effective in pushing someone to change because they control the money angle, but the best supervisors know the most effective ways of applying pressure on their employees.

Although being told by someone that you have to change “or else” is seldom a strong enough incentive for permanent change, at least it can cause a person to get their body into a therapist’s office. Once there, if the therapist is perceptive, he or she can discuss why that person might want to change – regardless of whether someone else wants them to change. In fact, a good therapist can often use the fact that a person was “forced” to come in to see them as a springboard for how painful it must be to find themselves in that situation.

Incidentally, if you are in the position of feeling you “have to” do what someone else tells you to do, remember that you ALWAYS have a choice. Unless you are bound and dragged into the office of a therapist or doctor, if you are there, you chose to come, albeit without great enthusiasm. You may not like the choices offered if you didn’t go there, but you did – and that is the first step in acknowledging you ARE in control of your life to a much greater extent than you may want to believe or acknowledge.

When we look at the push of circumstances beyond our control, an excellent example is the change forced on people by the September 11th attacks. The lives of some of the people who were directly involved have had to change because their workplace and homes were destroyed or they have lost an important member of their family.

At the same time, there have been many people who were not directly connected with anyone in New York or Washington or on the planes who, nevertheless, realize they cannot count on the security of a terrorist-free country. The horrendous pictures of carnage on television have forced them to the conclusion that life has more meaning than Jerry Seinfeld and Sex in the City. The outlook and behavior of these people has shifted because someone else has pushed them to see the world from a new perspective. Hopefully many people will make significant changes in what they believe and how they behave. But for too many others, the changes will fade like New Year’s resolutions.

Why Do YOU Want to Change? In the end, your motivation to change something about yourself may come from a variety of sources, perhaps a little because of pain, a little because you’re inspired to be a better person, and a little because your spouse would like you to stop a habit that’s driving both of you crazy. Becoming aware of your primary motivation to change is the best source for setting off on a new path, a new direction in life.

But it’s not easy to leave the familiar. That’s why I have found it helpful to have clients reinforce their motivation to change by articulating the basic reason why they want to be different than they are. As you read the following examples, notice that some contain more than one of the three basic motivating factors:

“I will stop smoking because I am tired not having enough energy and breath to walk comfortably for a distance that my friends can do easily and I will be left out of the fun activities they plan if I can’t keep up.”

“I am determined to become more assertive because I am sure that unless I learn how to speak up for myself, I won’t get the promotion I really deserve.”

“I am going to work on being less critical of my son because I don’t like the physical tension that always seems to arise when we argue, and I’m afraid that if I don’t back off, I won’t be able see my grandchildren very often.”

“I am going to see a nutritionist and learn how to manage my weight because I know it is very important to my husband and I’d like to live with him for another twenty-eight years. Besides, I want to look better in my clothes.”

No matter who or what the circumstances, every person who is considering changing something about herself or himself has a reason, a motivation to change, that can reinforce and strengthen the resolve to change when change becomes difficult.

Putting These Ideas Into Practice Here are some ways you might use this article as motivation for change.

Make as accurate a statement about what it is you want to change as you can.Be aware of what motivates you to make that change.Write it down.Put the paper some place you will see it often.
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