Problem: Article: Your thoughts are an integral part of who you are. They often guide how you feel as well as your attitude and perceptions of situations. Monitor your thoughts and recognize the content. Are your thoughts negative? Do you put yourself down, or always think something will go wrong? Which areas of your life are you most hard on yourself? Do this in every aspect of your life. You want to make sure you think about your thoughts every day and during all different kinds of activities. To help you keep track of your thoughts everyday, start a journal and write about your day, your struggles, your goals, and your dreams. Analyze your journal entries and take note of their quality. Are the hopeful or bleak? Do you feel stuck or powerful? Continue to analyze your thoughts to become more aware of who you are. Sometimes our perceptions of situations lead us to make faulty conclusions about what happened or what we saw. For example, if you perceived that your friend was mad at you after lunch, you may be confused and automatically think that because her mood was low, you did something wrong. Becoming aware of your perception of her mood can help you to analyze why you jumped to the conclusion she was mad at you. When you have a situation like this, take time to analyze your actions and beliefs about what occurred. Write down what you saw, heard, or felt that made you interpret the situation in the way that you did. Ask yourself if there could be other causes for your friends mood or if there are outside factors that you are unaware of. Your feelings can also give you clues into who you are and why you react to certain situations or people in the way that you do. Analyze your feelings by becoming aware of your reactions to topics of conversations, tones of voices, facial expressions, and body language. Identify what you are feeling and ask yourself why you had this type of emotional response. What were you responding to? What about it made you feel the way you do? You can also use physical cues to tune you into how you are feeling. For example, if you notice you are breathing heavier or faster, so may be stressed, mad, or afraid. If you can't figure out exactly how you feel at first, keep writing down your reactions and thoughts about certain situations. You may need time and distance from a situation to recognize how you feel. You also can ask a trusted friend or family member to help go over your thoughts and reactions to help you figure out exactly what you feel. It may be hard for you to distance yourself enough from the ideas to truly know how you feel or what these things mean about you.
Summary: Notice your thoughts. Write a journal. Become aware of your perceptions. Recognize your feelings.

In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: If you want to achieve something, it's important to make the goals concrete. Take some time to reflect on what exactly you want to accomplish in your life and what steps you need to take to get there. Make sure your goals are things that you can accomplish on your own. Do not, for example, focus your goals around getting married. As you are setting goals for yourself, be sure they are things that you believe will genuinely help you feel fulfilled, not things that you feel are expected of you. Don't be afraid to change your plan along the way, as long as you're not giving up on something you still want. Aspirations change over time and that's perfectly fine. Remind yourself of your goals when times get tough. Focusing on your end-goal can help you persevere. People often get stuck in life because they get too comfortable. If you want to keep reaching for your dreams, you have to find new challenges for yourself to overcome. This will not only help you achieve more, but it will also keep you more mentally stimulated and fulfilled. This may sometimes require making a difficult or "less safe" choice, but remind yourself that you need to step outside of your comfort zone at times in order to achieve your goals. It's important to be your own cheerleader and to never stop being proud of yourself for everything you accomplish. Rewarding yourself will help you feel satisfied about what you have already done and stay motivated to do even more. Try setting small, very attainable goals for yourself and celebrating each time you meet one. Your reward can be anything you enjoy, from a day at the beach to a party with friends. When you achieve a larger goal, give yourself a bigger reward, like a great vacation. Focusing too much on goals can cause people to lose sight of life's little pleasures. While it's great to be have dreams, it's also important to slow down and enjoy what is happening in your life at the moment. If you find that you are so wrapped up in work that you are not enjoying life, you need to take a step back and reevaluate your priorities. Working to achieve your goals should increase your happiness, not decrease it.
Summary:
Visualize your future and set goals. Constantly challenge yourself. Celebrate your victories. Don't forget to live in the moment.