6) Just get it over with. One of my all time favorite quotes about getting past your inner blocks was written by Stuart Wilde in his book The Quickening, "Cut shit and do thing." Yeah it's a bit rough, but we all know those stoic tough people who simply roll up their sleeves and dive in know matter how much they may hate task before them. Take on a soldier's mindset and just get to work doing ugly parts so you can move on to more rewarding parts of making your dreams a reality.

7) Get training or education. Quite often, we don't like doing something because deep down we don't think we know how or that we are talented enough. So, get education, do research, learn necessary skills, or whatever else it is that you need to do to get ready for taking that next step. Once you've properly trained yourself, then you might even be enthusiastic about taking that next step.

8) Take a running start at it. Think of riding your bike uphill. It doesn't take kids very long to figure out that best way to get that bicycle to top of steep hill is to build up a lot of speed before you even get to base of hill. You then let that momentum help to propel you most of way up. Heck, with enough of a running start you can sometimes make it all way up without any major struggles. If there is a way to pace yourself and reschedule not so fun parts of accomplishing your goals until after you've completed a bunch of cool parts, then do so. The highs of your mini successes will help inspire you to push past parts that you are avoiding.

9) Figure out a different way to do it. This is supreme way to avoid doing task all together. Be creative, be smart, think outside box. Is there any way to make your dream come true without having to actually do specific duty that you're wanting to avoid? Sometimes you can find another way. Other times, just knowing that there is definitely no other path to your dreams other than one before you is enough to motivate you to just buck up and get through it.

What's most important is not how you keep yourself motivated but that you keep long-term benefits of your goals in mind. If you focus too much on avoiding uncomfortable parts of accomplishing your goals, then you won't accomplish much. Find a way to keep going and remember that all things come with a price. Pay price so you can get on with enjoying dream.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge

And so back to our original question. Are you rich?

When you look at your life do you expect things to work out? Do you focus all your energy on things working out? Or do you sit back and hope that somehow they will? If your answer to last question is, “Yes,” then I’d be willing to bet your answer to first is, “No.” It’s simple—if all you focus on is how “poor” you are, no matter how great things may be, you will find a way to feel “poor.”

Sarah Ban Breathnach, best-selling author of Simple Abundance and Something More, suggests keeping a gratitude journal where every day you write down five things for which you are grateful. This is an excellent way to force your mind to focus on answering a resounding, “Yes!” to “Are you rich?” Take a moment, right now, and list ten things in your life for which you would not take a million dollars.

Having trouble thinking of something? Then start with your health—that’s an asset most of us take for granted. “But I have a bad back and migraine headaches and PMS,” you say. Maybe, but I have an uncle who is stricken with MS, and he literally cannot reliably move any muscle in his entire body. Not only is he in a wheelchair, he must be strapped to that wheelchair so he won’t fall out. He cannot feed himself, dress himself, or go to bathroom by himself. He cannot drive, hold a pencil, type, or even roll over in bed at night under his own power.

Now, how thankful are you for your health? More importantly, are you rich?

In book Princess, by Jean Sasson, a Saudi Arabian princess who on outside lives a life of luxury and opulence that most of us could only dream about, describes life for women that closely resembles absolute hell. Women locked in lightless rooms for years on end because they brought “dishonor” to family. Women drowned by their fathers in their family’s swimming pool while their mothers and sisters look on helplessly. Young girls sold by their parents, stripped naked, and then bought at auctions by men who want to increase their harems.

And we complain about a bad hair day.

Think about opportunities and options you have stretched before you. Yes, you may be in a dead end job or in a dead end relationship, but you don’t have to stay there. You can get out. So ask yourself right now, what do you want to do with your life? What is your dream? If you could be anywhere in this life, where would you be? Picture that place in detail. What does it look like? Breathe. Close your eyes, and see it.

If you believe you are rich; if in your soul your answer is a solid, no-questions-asked, resounding “Yes!”, then you can achieve that dream and any other dream you focus on. Nothing can stop you.

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “But I’m not rich. Look at all these bad things that have happened to me.” Then I say, start a grateful journal today—this very minute. You don’t have a second to waste.

Motivational speaker, Marianne Williamson says, “There is nothing holy about poverty.” God, maker of all things, has given you greatest gift of all—life, but what do most of us do? Sit around complaining about every little thing that has ever gone wrong and whining about how hard this life is.

Let this be your warning: Do not tell your brain you are poor, for when you do, no amount of riches—monetary or otherwise—will ever be enough to make you rich. Believe you are rich, feel you are rich, focus on how you are rich every single moment of every single day. For when you feel you are rich and believe you are rich, more riches will be granted to you.

So, now, let me ask you once more, are you rich? Be careful. The answer is shaping more than you think!