Feng Shui is quite a complicated art, and in order to understand it we first need to clarify a few principals that come into play.

First of all we need to know about Chi. Basic definition of Chi (or Ki) is that it is a universal energy (an energy that is present in all objects at all time). Some scientific explanation for such energy lies in the unified field theory of quantum physics. I am not going to try to explain that, but if you need a further info you can refer to that term in your research.

So in Feng Shui, placement of objects either impedes or promotes the flow of this energy. So in other words, if Chi flows freely in our environment, this also will mean that our life will be happier, healthier and more successful. If the Chi is blocked, we will experience all sorts of difficulties in our life.

How would any lay person benefit from this ancient art? One of the basic tenets of Feng Shui is that we need to balance our life in anyway that we can. A simple way to do that from the Feng Shui point of view would be to un-clutter your life from both objects and emotional clutter.

According to Feng Shui clutter stagnates our life. In stead of flowing smoothly and easily, the Chi that surrounds us and the objects we use in our daily life is obstructed. So when we have a lot of clutter in our life, it will feel as if we are stuck in some or all areas of the daily living. We also might have bad “luck” in our career. Our relationships might feel like they are not going anywhere. This concept can also be applied to the emotional baggage in our life. Too much of it can significantly impede the way our life flows.

What can we do about the clutter in our life? It is very simple. Do a Feng Shui cleanse! Follow these simple guide lines to free your self of clutter:

1. If you haven’t used it in a year you don’t need it.

2. When you are getting rid of clutter, you are in fact making more space to receive new objects - so learn how to let go of things (and emotions)

3. Do it. Don’t put it off. Act and don’t give it a second thought.

Once you uncluttered your self, you will gain a brand new outlook on life. Things will seem fresher. It will almost feel like a weight has been lifted from your chest. And you just might also feel the difference in other areas of your life as well.

Try it, it’s going to be well worth the effort.

So why is it that it is so hard for us to both set goals and stick to them until we accomplish them? A couple of the biggest reasons are the way we set goals and the way we think about them. This can fall into two categories: we might be setting goals that are unrealistic, or we start thinking of goals as set in stone. Either way, when we do not accomplish them right away we get disappointed and end up abandoning them all together.

To help us make goals that are both realistic and easy to achieve here are a few tips:

- We need to be specific about the goal that we are setting. So “I want to loose 30 pounds” is better then “I want to loose weight”.
- Second, we need to know the time frame of our goal. So if it is something like “I want to develop a successful consulting business”, and we know that this will not happen right away, we should put it in the long term goal category.
- If our goal is big like the developing a successful business example, we also need to break it down into smaller, shorter term goals that you will accomplish first before getting to the final destination. Like “I want to make a business plan for my new venture” or “I want to find partners that will help me accomplish what I set out to do”.
- We also need to know when we will achieve this goal. So if we look at the business example, it can be something like “I will have a successful business when I will be able to cover all my living expenses from the profits of the business, while working only 30 hours per week” It is something very precise that will signal to us that we have achieved a desired goal.
- Here are also other questions we should ask our selves when setting a goal. Is your goal achievable and realistic? Is the time frame for achieving your goal acceptable to you? Are the costs and consequences of achieving your goal acceptable? Do you have all the resources you need to achieve your goal and do you know where to get them if you do not?

Another very important point about goal setting is that goals are meant to be constantly adjusted! If you think of goals as a guideline that highly depends on the circumstances surrounding it, you are on the right track. Situations in our lives change all the time. This is the primary reason why we need to constantly adjust our goal to make them fit into the new situations life presents to us. All we really have to do is monitor how we are doing with our goals from time to time. Make sure that these goals still correspond to our desires, and if they no longer do, adjust them or set new ones.

Here is the recipe on how to get rich:
Find something you love to do. Find a system of making money with it. Do it until you will be successful.

Sounds over simplistic? It is. Knowing HOW to get rich is easy, it is doing everything you need to do to get rich that’s hard. There is a chapter in Donald Trumps book “How to Get Rich” where we follow Trump with his 24/7 schedule for one week. You think you work hard to earn a living? Try being “on” all the time like most business people are.

Let’s look at some of the areas where people make a lot of money.

Business

You can definitely make your self rich by developing a successful business. Relatively speaking that method can be very quick. Ultimately whatever way of getting rich you would choose, be it real estate investing or online trading or marketing, it will boil down to developing a business. All successful businesses have systems that they follow to make money, and those systems are the key behind their success.

There is two ways of developing a business system. One you can do it your self. This way is long and painful most of the time and is the reason why 3 out of 4 businesses fail in the first 3 years of operation. Two you can buy a system from someone who “cracked the code” for you. In other words get someone who is already successful to teach you what they know. This way is faster and increases you chances of success dramatically. To put it simply, you will not be able to succeed unless you educate your self.

Investing

Just like in business, in the area of investing most people loose money. The reason most investing is so risky is as simple as lack of knowledge and sophistication on the part of the investor. There is definitely a way to make it big in investing. The success just like in business depends on the systems you employ in your investment strategy. And here again you can either develop the systems your self, or find someone who is already successful and get them to teach you what they know. The difference between investing and business is that you can’t build a successful investment strategy with sweat equity like in business. You can loose a lot of money in learning how to invest, so I suggest the “leaning from someone who knows what they are doing” route.

Winning a lottery

You can. But let’s face it, what’s a bigger chance – you winning a lottery or building a successful business with hard work?

Working hard for someone else

… is not a way to become financially wealthy. People might disagree. But to become truly wealthy, where all your financial needs are met for the rest of your and your children’s life, is pretty much impossible while working for someone else. This method of saving pennies has to be combined with some form of investing or business to attain true wealth.

So should we forget about getting rich quick? No not at all, as long as we also keep in mind that becoming a millionaire is a process, unless of course, you are born a Paris Hilton. Most of us, however, do not have that privilege and have to make sacrifices on the road to success. Hard work and education are two keys that will ensure success in both finances and personal development.

According to a busy Chinese surgeon in ShangHai, people come to her, more and more, to change the shape of their eyes, get rid of wrinkles and other popular procedures. Plastic surgery seems so popular that there is even an artificial beauty pageant that’s held in one of the major cities in China.

I found that report interesting. I also find very interesting how identical people are all around the world. Here we have a 2000+ year old culture that given a chance is susceptible to the very same patterns of behavior western culture is often stereotyped for. Race doesn’t matter, economical structure doesn’t matter - at the core we are all the same and want the same basic things in life, good or bad.

I am by no means a psychologist or a therapist of any sorts, by in my efforts of personal development I have picked up a couple of psychological “tricks” that helped me tremendously. Give them a try and see if it will make a difference for you.

1. Get your feelings out. Sit down, get a piece of paper and write about how you feel right now. If you feel sad, write “I feel sad about …” Go in as much detail as possible in describing how you feel. Get it all out on paper. Describe why you think, you feel that way, make a guess about what you can do to fix the situation. Have a conversation with your self on paper.

2. A variation on that technique can be this: - write down how you feel now. All the negatively charged feelings (anger, sadness, jealousy etc.) - now write down the way you want to feel instead. “I feel sad about …” Then “I want to feel happy and fulfilled!”

Journaling can be a great tool to get your feelings out and release them, so you can be free from those emotions. Try these techniques and let me know if they helped you to get over a difficult emotional time in your life.

After having moved to Canada, I realized something - the only limitations we put on our selves are the ones that we put on our selves. I wasn’t exposed to all of the available possibilities when I was in Estonia; my point of view was narrow. I felt like I was stuck with one path in life. At some point after I moved to Canada, my point of view changed. I saw all the different opportunities this life has to offer, and not only saw them, but also understood that if I wanted to, I could take advantage of those opportunities. I became an artist. Instead of concentrating on what I was lacking in academic foundations, I looked at how I could use my creativity to become successful.

The limitations that we put on our selves plague us in all areas of our life. We do not see that the only real limitation that we have in our life is time, and even that can be managed. This is why it is so important to constantly work on shedding any and all beliefs that limit our potential. If I would trace the progress of my life, I could say with definite certainty that my progress accelerated about 300% as soon as I realized that I could do absolutely anything I wanted to, provided I am passionate about it. As soon as I made my first steps on the road of self improvement, my outlook on life changed. The limitations that I set for my self slowly disappeared.

People often think that they do not need someone else telling them how to improve their life. In many instances that might be true. It is however always beneficial to look at the an issue from a different perspective. My “point of view”, I was talking about earlier, changed because someone else showed me a different, better way of being. And because I wanted that “better way” I changed the way I looked at the world.

Education is a powerful tool. I am not talking about academic education. I am talking about something I call Life School. Things we all need to learn in order to succeed in life, to have a limitless outlook on life, to have happiness and fulfillment in everything we do. My Life School started when I first began to take self improvement courses and educate my self in all of the areas that my academic education did not. I feel very strongly about the necessity of this kind of education, because the success in all areas of my life I attribute solely to that fact that I took upon myself to improve my life through education. Self help and self improvement got me the confidence I needed to find a perfect relationship, to find out what I was passionate about and give me the tools to be able to bring my dreams into reality. I am now on a mission to help other people better their life by educating them selves. I hope that you will also reap as much benefit from this kind of education as I have. The best investment we can make is in our selves.