Hopefully you love surprises as well, because here is the first one:

I decided not to reach my goal of posting at least 50 times. The goal just doesn’t matter to me anymore. It did fulfill its purpose (my English really improved) but I’ll probably reduce my internet activities anyway.

Oh yeah, and that comes hand in hand with the second surprise:

I might stop posting on MuscularBrain.com. I might even sell it, depending on the offers I’ll get. So, if you’re interested in buying this website, you may contact me by writing a comment or by using the contact form.

Feels like some new kind of freedom cowboy! Anything’s possible now! Self development did a good job in creating a basis. Now I’m ready to go. Wherever my feet may take me.

The world’s waiting. Hello world! Show me what you got!

Almost all kinds of perfectionism include some definition of looking perfect and there are some different approaches to describe perfect looks. I’ll explain some of them to help you finding the definition you want to use for yourself. Take a look at these:

1. Comparison with other persons. This one is bad. And very common at the same time. A lot of people take the looks of a famous model or actor and start trying to look the same. Or wanting to look the same, as they don’t know how to come closer to this goal. The truth is that you are another person. And so you will always look different.
2. Others will tell you. You can also define looking perfect as getting the best feedback from other people. And that’s what you should do. … Not? Of course not! There are two major problems with this one: First, you can only guess what others will like, so you don’t really know which steps to take to come closer to this goal. Second, there is no perfect feedback at all. So you will never be completely satisfied with your own looks.
3. Having no flaws. Okay.. So you want to have no flaws? But in reality you got them? Your nose is too big or your fingers are crooked? Let’s see… There is plastic surgery so you could possibly fix them all! Great! Nah, I’m just kidding, You would probably end up as some kind of malformed barbie doll. Because you wouldn’t run out of faults. You won’t look like your ideal. … Wait! Ideal? Yes, or how do you define a flaw? Basically, this one brings you back to the previous points. Yeah, plastic surgery is okay in some extreme cases but really take some time to think before you do it. And of course, there are some things you can change without surgery. You can loose weight if you wish. But overweight is also a health issue so that might be another story..
4. Expressing yourself. I might need to explain what that’s supposed to mean. Well, it’s kinda hard to say. It means, that looking perfect is equal to looking like you truly are. Show who you are by your looks. Not trying to be someone else. Not being afraid of what society might think about your looks. It’s about looking in the mirror and seeing yourself. I know, it’s somehow hard to grasp but that’s a definition you can use. It’s still more of a challenge than you might think. It’s not that easy.

You see, the first three approaches (which are all very common) highly rely on external factors. They lead to unrealistic goals, goals that can not be reached. In the end they lead to aimless perfectionism. The fourth apporach is way better. It provides a reachable goal that probably still challenges you.

So hopefully, you rethink your own definition of looking perfect. And how you really come closer to that goal.

No matter it can be physically demanding to always keep your momentum but you reach your goals much faster if you do. Plus, it’s somewhat more pleasant to feel the fresh air pressing against you.

Unfortunately, there are neither mental pedals nor mental feet you could pedal with. So building mental momentum differs a little from building speed on a bike. But just a little.

Let’s see how building mental momentum actually works:

Preparation

If you start to ride completely unprepared you risk having to move back to your starting point. That’s not what you want to do, so consider applying the following tips:

• Goal awareness: Do you know your goals yet? Your movement is just not effective if you don’t. I mean, how would you even know you’re moving into the right direction? You don’t need to plan every stopover but you should at least have a vague idea about where the journey should lead you.
• Safety measures: Know that you will experience times of doubt and maybe even frustration. Set up the steady will of not giving up. Having a hard time moving usually just means that you are moving up a hill. So look forward to the downhill ride that is yet to come! I also recommend writing a little motivational text you can read when you’re feeling bad.

Starting to Move

Time to ride!

1. Set small goals. This is the mental equivalent to start driving in the first gear. I recommend daily goal setting for fastest results.
2. Speed up the process of reaching those goals. This doesn’t mean you need to do achieve an amazing number of small goals a day, just make sure you built enough mental momentum to reach those goals fast and with ease.

Shifting Gears

When going for your small goals starts to become less demanding and you feel that you possess some unused motivation, you might want to change up:

1. Set some bigger goals. They shouldn’t be too hard. Setting goals that are out of reach would considerably slow you down. It would be like changing up too early. You shouldn’t choose goals that are too easy to reach either, as you need to go to the next level in order to get extra momentum. You don’t want to stagnate, do you?
2. Again, speed up the process of reaching those goals. Use your collected momentum to reach these bigger goals. Everytime you complete a task, your speed will increase by some amount.
3. Then you might want to change up again.

Repeat this process until you grew beyond what you’ve thought to be possible. Believe me, this mental momentum is some kind of motivation that will help you to yield quite some amazing results.

One additional note: You don’t unlearn riding a bike. Think about it.

Wealth stands up. It steps forward and looks at me. Then it starts talking:

“You’re allowed to choose one of us. But only one of us. You should choose me! I’ll make you powerful and happy. Don’t waste your chance, don’t go for happiness. Don’t choose wisdom either. Wisdom is unnecessary once you’re rich and happy.”

I decide to think about it.

If wealth is telling the truth, then I really don’t need to choose happiness. But happiness doesn’t seem to like wealth all too much. So it would probably dislike me if I preferred wealth. That means I wouldn’t become happy choosing wealth. Wealth has to be a liar. Plus, it couldn’t give me any good reason for not choosing wisdom.

Happiness stands up. It turns towards me and starts speaking:

“Better choose me. There’s nothing more important than happiness. I’m the ultimate goal. And what’s life without happiness? … It’s nothing but pain!”

I decide to think about it.

The words of happiness seem to be reasonable. Without happiness, you can’t enjoy life. But happiness only talked about itself. What about wisdom? What would happen if I choosed wisdom? I didn’t listen to it yet.

So I finally turn my head to wisdom to listen to it. Silence. Then it looks at me. But still, it doesn’t say a word. Not even a sound, nothing.

I decide to think about it.

Why did it remain silent? Doesn’t it want to be chosen?

I think about the three goals. Wealth is a liar, happiness seems to be honest, wisdom didn’t say anything yet. Wealth and happiness tried to influence me, wisdom remained silent.

If I picked wealth, I’d get nothing but wealth. I’m not sure what I’d get if I picked happiness. And I absolutely don’t know what would happen if I picked wisdom…

I look at wisdom one more time. It returns my look and suddenly I understand. I already choosed wisdom. I made my decision the moment I decided to think.

I smile at wisdom and leave the room, reentering reality, being happy with my decision.

So if aimless travelling is not what this article is about, then what are you supposed to learn here? This article will tell you some powerful tips. Tips on how to increase your rate of success, how to stay motivated and how to maintain a sharp focus, tips ready for use. Here they are:

• Visualize your goals. Imagine how it would be to have achieved all of your goals. What would you feel? What would you see? What would you think? Try to go into details. Let your mind form a concrete picture of your success. I’m not talking about daydreaming, you have to believe that your visualization can come true. Try to imagine smaller steps if you don’t think you’re ready to jump. You don’t want to feel frustrated during your mental expedition, you want to feel a strong desire inside of you. Feel how your motivation increases. Visualization can also be helpful to remind yourself of your goals. Don’t underestimate its power!
• Keep your goals in steady focus. Remind yourself of what you want to reach. You could form a new habit to do that. For example, you could do some kind of everyday reflection before going to bed and mentally check your process. Maybe you want to combine that with visualization. Just do anything that will help you to stay focussed.
• Avoid persons who pull you down and look for those who motivate you. Try to get away from pessimistic people, they pull you down and can be a huge obstacle on your way. Their attitude influences your attitude. Their pessimism creates pessimism inside of you. Your surroundings affect your feelings to a large extent. That’s why you should surround yourself with ambitious and enthusiastic people, those who resonate with you, those who smile, those who laugh, those who are successful themselves. Let their success and enthusiasm spread to you.
• Read success stories. Other people’s success can really motivate you. You will be more likely to believe that you can be successful yourself if you know that others can be. Most of the time, success is just the result of hard work and the right inner attitude. You can do it too. Try to avoid becoming envious though. Envy would be a burden for you. Envy weakens you, it takes away enthusiasm and creativity. What you want to create is the feeling that you will succeed if you make some effort, that you will soon be able to write your own success story.
• Tell others about your goals. This brings about some extra pressure which works just nice to keep you motivated. It will also make it harder for you to give up. Just try it out. You could tell your friends about your ambitions, post your goals in forums or post them on your blog, just to mention a few possibilities.
• Hold on! Don’t give up too soon. Many people give up just before they would make the one deciding step. I’d like to quote Thomas Alva Edison (famous American inventor) to emphasize that point:
  “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
• Enjoy your life. You need to like your life and yourself, so don’t forget to enjoy the present moment. Having reached goals shouldn’t be the only pleasure in your life. Goals are great to give direction to your life and to create a better future. But after all, you’ll never be living in the future, you’re living now!

You might noticed that the whole process of reaching goals is strictly linked to your inner attitude. I want to emphasize this essential point one more time:

Trust yourself.

Believe in your qualities. There’s virtually nothing you can’t do. Most people have difficulties accepting that. They don’t really trust themselves. If you don’t trust yourself, you’re constantly manipulating yourself into failing and improvement becomes impossible. Sounds easy? Yeah, but it can require quite some practice.

Going for your goals might be a little stressful at the beginning, but stress comes and goes with your inner attitude. Don’t try to hard, but do your best.