By changing what we believe is possible, we open ourselves up to limitless growth.
✧ Recipient Of The Literary Titan Book Award ✧
Motion offers evidence-based, actionable strategies to help readers reach their goals.
Ample real-life resources are provided along with easy-to-follow instructions that help to demystify how people succeed and why.
In Motion you'll learn how to:
➡ Set goals and achieve them
➡ Eliminate negative self-talk to be more productive
➡ Trust yourself, stay motivated, and build self-confidence, even when surrounded by negativity
The path to success can be imperceptible, but the truth is that it's always there.
Motion offers simple yet effective tools and strategies to readers, helping them create their own paths and start their journeys toward their goals.
✧
"Once you implement the new, productive ideas in your mind to physical action, the real fun begins."
— Independent Book Review
✧
Aileen Sideris has devoted her life to studying goal-achievement strategies, positive psychology, & meditation. Motion is the culmination of 15+ years worth of education and experience.
______
"Read it and study it. What you are going to learn here will continue to be relevant for years to come."
— Readers' Favorite
✧
"This well-written book will be your ladder to success. More importantly, the author will help you find the right path in life and get you to make constructive life-changing decisions."
— Literary Titan
✧
"Motion is remarkably practical, providing a structured methodology for self-help that separates it from other books in the genre that may rely on vague pep talk, instead asking the reader to investigate themselves with sensible but difficult questions that could lead to tangible results."
— Self-Publishing Review
By changing what we believe is possible, we open ourselves up to limitless growth.
✧ Recipient Of The Literary Titan Book Award ✧
Motion offers evidence-based, actionable strategies to help readers reach their goals.
Ample real-life resources are provided along with easy-to-follow instructions that help to demystify how people succeed and why.
In Motion you'll learn how to:
➡ Set goals and achieve them
➡ Eliminate negative self-talk to be more productive
➡ Trust yourself, stay motivated, and build self-confidence, even when surrounded by negativity
The path to success can be imperceptible, but the truth is that it's always there.
Motion offers simple yet effective tools and strategies to readers, helping them create their own paths and start their journeys toward their goals.
✧
"Once you implement the new, productive ideas in your mind to physical action, the real fun begins."
— Independent Book Review
✧
Aileen Sideris has devoted her life to studying goal-achievement strategies, positive psychology, & meditation. Motion is the culmination of 15+ years worth of education and experience.
______
"Read it and study it. What you are going to learn here will continue to be relevant for years to come."
— Readers' Favorite
✧
"This well-written book will be your ladder to success. More importantly, the author will help you find the right path in life and get you to make constructive life-changing decisions."
— Literary Titan
✧
"Motion is remarkably practical, providing a structured methodology for self-help that separates it from other books in the genre that may rely on vague pep talk, instead asking the reader to investigate themselves with sensible but difficult questions that could lead to tangible results."
— Self-Publishing Review
What’s Motion?
Motion is a methodology and a simple, effective way of attaining your goals. It breaks goal-setting processes into realistic, actionable steps to help you succeed. You are the provider of the results.
Motion makes the path clear and gives you simple steps that make the seemingly impossible, possible, no matter how big or small your goals are.
By providing clear and understandable life management instructions and combining them with meditations and affirmations that anyone can practice daily, you’ll be able to advance at an accelerated pace toward your goals.
It doesn’t matter what your position is in life, how much money you have, where you live, or even how big or small your goals are. Motion is scalable and can be used by anybody, in any country, of any age to achieve any goal.
Motion in Action
Gaining Clarity. What do you truly want, and what has been standing in your way?
Research, Resources & Risks. Perform research, establish the resources you’ll need, and prepare for any potential roadblocks you may encounter on your path to success.
Paving the Way. Overcome obstacles using proven approaches that will make achieving your goals effortless.
Success from Humble Beginnings. Stay motivated on your journey by reading the life stories of individuals who had humble beginnings, yet saw unimaginable success.
Pass it On. By the end of this book, you’ll have the knowledge you need to accomplish your goals and an awakened faith in yourself and your capabilities. Now that you know how to succeed, help others do the same.
⬥
I used to see the pursuit of my goals as a hill that I had to climb when, in fact, it was more like a staircase. Each attempt would bring me one step closer, sometimes slowly, sometimes more quickly, but always closer.
By stopping on each step and looking back, analyzing what I had learned, I became well-informed on how to climb the stairs more quickly. Placing goals at the top of a staircase instead of a mountain will make it easier to reach the top.
You have to believe success is possible to succeed.
From a young age, I would listen to people when they told me I couldn’t do certain things or couldn’t live a certain kind of life. Feeling deflated at first, I’d soon gather the courage I needed to push past those judgments and create my own path to success.
I would think, “If other people can do it, then why can’t I?” I believe this line of thinking allowed me to make great strides in life.
Motion takes an interlacing approach, combining positive thinking with actionable steps that let you know you’re on track to achieving your goals.
Unimaginable Success, Attained
We later explore the lives of some of the world’s most talented and successful individuals. So, how did they become so successful?
Although greatness was achieved, for these individuals and many others, it didn’t come easily. It took hard work, determination, and an unwavering belief in their own abilities.
Sometimes all we see is the success people have, but it’s important to remember where they came from, what opportunities they had and didn’t have, and how they made their own luck.
Oprah Winfrey’s mother was a housemaid and her father was a barber. Even with a modest start in life, according to Forbes, her net worth is estimated to be $2.6B.[1]
Stephen King has, “...sold an estimated 350 million books.”[2] It’s almost inconceivable to think of him as a gas station attendant or to think of his wife as an employee of Dunkin’ Donuts, yet these job titles are part of their origin stories.
Actress Kate Winslet, who has been in over 50 feature films and has received over 90 awards to date, was working at a local sandwich shop when she got the news that she’d landed her first major role in the movie Heavenly Creatures. It would be this performance that would propel her into stardom after receiving countless rejections.
Barack Obama was a recipient of The Nobel Peace Prize. At one point, he was earning $13k per year at his first job out of college in Chicago. His then-girlfriend Michelle even recalls the giant hole on the passenger-side floor of the car he was driving when they first started dating.
How did these accomplished people achieve such grand successes despite their modest backgrounds? We explore their early lives and all of the events that, combined, turned them into the people they are today.
The Power of Believing in Yourself
Growing up, I was surrounded by loving parents, family members, friends, school teachers, and acquaintances. For the most part, the people in my life had my best interests at heart. They wanted to teach me how the world worked. Their goals were to better prepare me for the hurdles I might face one day.
Unfortunately, their perceptions of how the world worked were often limiting and disappointing. Those words of encouragement that I heard as a child, “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up,” faded away as I got older.
Words of encouragement were turned into dejections and appeals to be more realistic and to shoot for more attainable goals.
I don’t believe the people in my life carried any malicious intent. These were just their thoughts, most likely instilled in them as they were growing up. They may have been trying to save me time, money and heartache, but that advice only serves in ending dreams and not building them.
Many of the people I grew up with didn’t believe they were capable of achieving their own goals. That’s why they tried to discourage me from reaching my own. That distinction took me years to finally realize, but once I did, it changed my perspective forever.
Many friends and family members seemed to believe that dreams should be left for the dreamers, and unlike dreamers, they were realists. Ironically, we would have been on the same page if their reality were a more hopeful one.
But instead, their realities were stifling and only included possibilities they saw being achieved by people around them. As a result, anything outside of the norm became unrealistic.
Many people told me I couldn't achieve my dreams for one seemingly legitimate reason or another. So is it a coincidence that these same people hadn’t reached their own dreams?
I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I believe there’s a direct correlation between your mindset, what you believe to be possible, and what becomes your reality. If you don’t allow yourself to consider that something is in the realm of possibility, then how can any action take place?
Your dreams can either live or cease to exist, depending on whether you believe they’re within your reach.
It’s risky asking the people around you if they think it’s possible to reach specific goals if those same people have yet to reach their own. But, until they have, or someone close to them has, you might hear the same “words of wisdom” that I heard: "You have to be lucky... You need to be born rich...You need natural talent…Talent can't be learned…You won’t have the time…It’s like winning the lotto..."
Lies, lies, and more lies. Well-intended lies but lies nonetheless. Maybe this advice can help bring you closer to your goals, but only if you use it to fuel the fire that burns inside you. That’s really the only thing you should do with advice like this: burn it.
Without belief, there would be no concept of what that ideal life would look like, and if you don’t believe you can have something, how can you carry out actions to achieve that thing?
Without thoughts, there are no actions. Without actions, change is impossible.
What Does Success Mean to You?
To one person, success may mean finishing college, finding a good job, getting married, and having children. If that’s what success means to you, great! But, we’re all individuals, meaning “success” changes from person to person.
Essentially, you’ll have to define success based on what success means to you and you alone. And if you do that, you’ll stop letting others define it for you.
Become comfortable with the fact that you’ll never be what every single person wants you to be. If you want to be happy, you’ll have to accept yourself as a whole, even if key figures in your life don’t. The happiest version of yourself will be the one that’s been fully realized. The true you.
If you can let go of who other people think you should be, then you’ll be able to reach your fullest potential. Why not start today?
There will be people in your life who are close to you and will look at you curiously, to say the least. They might not understand or approve of your life choices, and they might even see you as a failure. You need to be okay with both.
You have one life to live, and you’re living it here and now. Do you want to spend your one precious life simply trying to gain the approval of others?
I have some sobering news. One reason these people may see you as a failure, even when you see yourself as a success, is because they may feel like failures within themselves. That feeling of defeat could be preventing them from being happy for you, and instead, judgments are made based on how you make them feel about themselves.
If they were comfortable with who they were and how they’ve spent their lives, then their only concern would be your health and happiness. That’s it.
They wouldn’t put pressure on you to be someone you’re not or to live a life you don’t want to live.
Another reason could be because they’re living in fear. Fear that you’ll end up chasing a pipe dream and end up with nothing to show for it.
Whatever their reasons might be, you need to be on the lookout, ready to recognize fear disguised as helpful advice.
We all want the people we care about to be happy and healthy. So, if you’re both of those things, shouldn’t your loved ones be happy for you, for achieving success as you’ve defined it? I believe they should be, and I hope they are.
Are you willing to live your life as a different person, spending your time in ways that don’t make you feel happy, just because you were trying to make judgmental people proud of you? I can think of few things more unreasonable than this. The ironic part?
You've let yourself down in your pursuit of pleasing people who judge you.
Maybe you have dreams, goals, and aspirations that fall out of social norms. Perhaps you want to be an author, a painter, a performance artist, an actor, or an actress. Maybe you want to start your own business or travel the world and won’t be satisfied until you have a stamp in your passport from every single country on the planet!
Don’t kid yourself. You might think, “Maybe if I finish my degree...Maybe if I give up music and show them, I’m serious...Maybe if I settle down and get a good job...Maybe then they’ll respect me. Maybe then they’ll look at me and see success!”
Wrong! These people don’t care about your success. Instead, they care about how you make them feel about themselves.
Turn the tables. Instead of trying to be someone else, inspire others to become the people they’ve always wanted to be.
Turning Ideas into Realities
If there’s a goal you’re pursuing that’s never been achieved before, then you can be the first person to achieve it. Is that hard to believe?
Well, think about this, if people throughout history didn’t even try to invent something new or come up with a new idea because they didn’t think they could, what would the world look like today? Which medicines would be available to us? What kinds of thoughts would we believe about the earth and the universe around us?
We’re truly standing on the shoulders of giants. It’s because of the individuals who have thought outside of the box and simply tried that we have progressed as much as we have as a people. Allow yourself to discover what you’re really capable of accomplishing by simply trying.
Everything that was ever invented or achieved was merely an idea before it became a reality.
Before we do anything, we think about doing it and believe it’s possible to achieve. This goes for every single action we take. If you didn’t think something was possible to do, you wouldn’t even try. Knowing that a goal is possible to achieve is always the first step towards reaching it.
⬥
Try this thought experiment: think of a goal, any goal. Now, assume that goal is nearly impossible to achieve. You don’t know anyone who has personally achieved this goal, so you believe achieving it is reserved for the lucky few.
What does the next step that you take look like on your path towards achieving that goal? Remember, you feel like it’s almost impossible to achieve. Your actions will be muted. They’ll be toned down. You won’t try as hard because, why should you? It’s probably not going to happen anyway, right?
Now think of that same goal, but attach a higher probability towards achieving it. Let’s pretend like you’ve heard of a few people attaining this goal. Maybe not your closest friends, but friends of friends. The goal feels way more possible to achieve. Now, what does your next step look like?
It’s not a mystery. It’s not a blind belief. It’s common sense. Your thoughts create your actions. More dreams are born and killed in the mind than by actually trying to achieve them. Choose your thoughts wisely!
This one shift in your line of thinking can literally rearrange every other aspect of your life, bringing you closer to your goals than ever before. It may even allow you to have goals you never thought possible to achieve.
When you truly love who you are, what you do, and how you spend your time, you become an inspiration to others who may feel hopeless in their own situation.
You have the power to change lives by changing your own.
What’s “Safe” and “Secure” Anyway?
Some people might tell you that getting and keeping a job until you retire is the safest and most secure route you can take.
If you love what you’re doing for a living and look forward to doing it, then your job isn’t a job, it’s a dream. It’s something that satiates you, that you take pride in.
However, if you don’t feel that way and are only working a job for the “safety and security” you’ve been taught it provides, then I recommend re-evaluating this approach.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell why we’re working at a particular job or in a specific career, if not just for the paycheck. So we make excuses, talk about the friends we have at work, or how we like the schedule. Now, that all may be true, but there’s one sure-fire way to find out if you’re really in love with your job or if you’re just trying to make the best of it.
Ask yourself, would you be working at this job if you were a billionaire? If you had all the money in the world and could do anything with your time, how would you be spending it? If the answer is no, you would not be working at this job every day if you were a billionaire, then perhaps the “safe” and “secure” road isn’t for you, and that’s ok!
If you do love your job and would do it even if you had all the money in the world, then bravo! I’m thrilled that you found something that you’re excited to do every day!
⬥
In this context, “safe” and “secure” are often defined as having job security, a steady source of income, and the knowledge that tomorrow will be similar to today. You’ll know how much each paycheck will be, and you’ll receive annual raises that might exceed the rate of inflation (if you’re lucky).
Your job might give you two weeks off each year. But, if you’re like so many other Americans, you probably won’t even use this small amount of vacation time.
According to an eye-opening article published by The Washington Post in 2019, “...55 percent of Americans did not use all of their paid vacation time,”[3] referring to the previous year, 2018.
What’s ironic about this “secure” route is that it’s really anything but. This life path is built on a few assumptions. It assumes that you will live to be in your 60s, and if you do, you will receive retirement benefits and will be able to live off those benefits for the rest of your life.
It assumes that you’ll always have enough money to pay for healthcare costs and that your job will always be there. Let's take a closer look at how these assumptions hold up in 2022.
The first assumption is that you will live to see your 60s. You probably will, but there’s no guarantee, and who knows what your life will look like by then. You may need to take care of a loved one, or you yourself may be too sick to actually enjoy your hard-earned retirement.
These are harsh realities that you need to face. If this is already hitting too close to home, then you definitely need to make a change. Remember, it’s never too late!
I’m not saying you shouldn’t plan for the future, because you absolutely should, but what I am saying is that you shouldn’t wait to start enjoying your life. There’s a middle ground, and you can achieve it in the here and now.
Another assumption is that you’ll be able to live solely on social security and retirement benefits. But, unfortunately, many individuals and families can’t live on these benefits alone. According to AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), “As of February 2019, more than 20 percent of adults over age 65 are either working or looking for work...”[4] If 1 in 5 (20%) people over the age of 65 still need to work, then what’s the point of spending your life working for a company if you still might not be able to support yourself by the end of your career?
You’ve spent the majority of your life working, you’ve taken the “safe and secure” route—you should be able to afford healthcare, right? Nope!
According to a survey from West Health and Gallup, “An estimated 7.5 million seniors are unable to pay for medicine prescribed to them because they don't have enough money. And to make the matter worse, seniors reported that 80% of the prescriptions they cannot afford are for a somewhat or very serious health condition.”[5]
The last risky assumption you’ll make when going down the “safe and secure” route is that your job will always be there, and you’ll always have a steady paycheck. Below is an excerpt from an article published by FreshBooks titled, “What Percentage of Businesses Fail in the First Year?”
“The small business failure rate will likely remain around 20 percent in 2020. This is the failure rate for businesses that are a year old. The failure rate will be about 30 percent in their second year, 50 percent in their fifth year and 70 percent in their tenth year.”[6]
This means that, out of 10 employees who stay at a company that’s been in business for 10 or more years, seven of them will need to find a new job. This is because businesses that are in their 10th year have a 70% failure rate. So much for job security.
If the “safe and secure” path is anything but, then why not live the life that will bring you the most happiness, today?
You can spend your whole life waking up early, feeling tired and unfulfilled, just to reach the light at the end of the tunnel—retirement. Once you get there, you may find out that you actually can’t afford to stop working. What a terrible outcome after a lifetime of hard work! This is unacceptable, but avoidable.
Some people take the aforementioned route out of fear of doing the things that they really want to do.
Others may take this route after experiencing pressure from society, family members, or friends, or because they don’t believe that any other path is possible. Why would we believe that we could break out of this cycle if no one we personally know has, right? This is why we believe the lies: because those lies are all so many of us have ever known or have been surrounded by.
You want a better life with every ounce of your being. So, how can it be yours? How can you wake up every single morning and decide how you will spend the day, and who you will spend your time with? Will you ever be able to put out that album, sell your own art, start your own company or travel the world? Will you ever be happy, and can you do the “impossible” by breaking the cycle of suffering and freeing yourself from a life of drudgery?
I’m here to tell you that you can live your dreams, but only by changing your thoughts and your actions. Start by believing you can. Then, clearly define your goal in order to achieve it.
[1] Forbes. “#12 Oprah Winfrey Entrepreneur, Personality, Philanthropist.”
[2] Heller. “Meet the writers.” The Washington Post.
[3] Sampson. “What does America have against vacation?” The Washington Post.
[4] Edleson “More Americans Working or Looking for Work After 65.” AARP.
[5] Stevens and Mallory. “US Seniors Pay Billions, yet Many Cannot Afford Healthcare.” Gallup News.
[6] “What Percentage of Businesses Fail in the First Year? FreshBooks.
MOVING: THE ART OF MOVING FORWARD AND CREATING CHANGE
Self-Published by Aileen Sideris, copyright 2021, launching October 2022
In this book, the author is reaching out to most anyone with dreams, goals,
and plans, especially those uncertain or uneasy about having them,
asserting that achieving them can be done by changing thoughts first and
then actions, which is the CHANGE referred to in the title. According to Ms.
Sideris, she has devoted her life “to studying goal achievement strategies,
positive psychology, and meditation. MOTION is the culmination of 15+
years’ worth of education and experience”. She has an academic
background in Marketing, UI/UX (User Experience with Technology), &
Strategic Leadership, with a focus on Change Management.
The author knows her stuff, and it shows. Advice and encouragement are
given Step-by-Step, with information on each step including background
research, and in a conversational tone. No academic jargon here, so to
speak, and no Ivory Tower detachment from Readers. Starting with getting
clear about desired Goals, and why they are desired, there are Thought
Experiments, methods to do Research, gather Resources, assess Risks,
and overcome Obstacles. Featuring Real Life Stories of individuals with
Humble Beginnings and who achieved success according to their own
definitions- as well as most of ours- further encourage Readers to do the
same.
By the end, Readers will have the basic knowledge they need to
accomplish their goals and help others to accomplish theirs. Steps given
are Evidence-Based, and laid out in End-of-Chapter Exercises. Research
references are given, and an extensive Bibliography is provided. There is
no Table of Contents nor an Index, which would have been helpful for
Readers, especially if they want to return to a particular topic without
extensive scrolling or page-turning to find what they are looking for.
I recommend this book, because it is optimistic and inspiring for readers
who may be floundering or stuck, and aren’t we all at some time or
another? Especially after the last few years of Pandemic Pandemonium
during which Covid upended our lives, it is good to have a clearly
communicated and evidence-based method for “moving forward by
creating change”. By the end of the book I was convinced that the methods
shared could work.