Have you ever had trouble staying positive and motivated?

Who hasn't? Right?

Well, the last couple weeks I've found staying positive and motivated tougher than usual. I'm sure you've been there.

Doing the simple daily tasks I usually do effortlessly have been tough. My productivity has been terrible, and I find myself heading to the local corner store to get a couple Crispy Crunch bars and watching video games online far more than exercising or working on my business.

So I had a little chat with myself to see what the problem was. What am I doing? Why do I feel so damn unmotivated the last couple weeks? What's been different? What's changed?

You might not believe this - but I traced it back to the moment my MP3 player broke!

Yup. My MP3 player was the root of the problem. Well, the fact that it was broken.

My MP3 player had become a major part of my daily routine. I don't listen to music all that often. But what I do listen to are tapes ( or should I say my audio files) of my favorite speakers.

Jim Rome, John Maxwell, Anthony Robbins, Robert Anthony, Jeffrey Coombs, Jeff Olsen, Steve Chandler. 1-2 hours a day - whenever I'm exercising, driving, writing, working - I'd be listening to positive, motivating talks on everything from Leadership, prospecting, to tips on growing my business.

I had NO IDEA this habit I'd developed, listening to these talks for hours every day while going about my usual business, had on my life...

...Until it stopped.

Of course I went out that evening and bought another MP3 player.

The lesson here is my MP3 player, or more accurately, the talks I listen to EVERY DAY on that MP3 player had a significant, measurable, positive effect on my staying positive and motivated - and i didn't even know it.

My MP3 player is, no joke, my Secret Weapon to Staying Positive and Motivated.

We are bombarded with 10 - 20 times more negative influences on a daily basis than positive ones. (Just watch the news for evidence of this) Most people have no idea the effect this has on them.

Studies have shown we earn incomes equal to the average of our five closest friends and influences. What if you spend time every day with a Tony Robbins, or a Jeffrey Combs, or a John Maxwell, or whoever you prefer? What would that do for your income?

Instead of listening to the radio while you go to work, what if you had Tony Robbins pumping you up for that half-hour to and from work every day? Would that repeated influence help you stay positive and motivated?

OF COURSE IT WOULD!

So, if you don't have an MP3 player, your next purchase is going to be one. You don't need to pay $200 for the latest IPod. I paid $50 for mine and it works great.

You don't need to know any technical mumbo jumbo either. MP3 players come with a cord that connects directly into your USB port on your computer and you just copy and paste right onto your MP3 player.

If you don't have any recordings of Rome/Robbins/Combs/Ziglar or whomever you prefer listening to, go to amazon or your local book store and buy some - but get the audio. Books are great and I read plenty but audio can be listened to hands free while you do other stuff. Most of these audio books cost about $20 or you can buy them used for even less.

The key is repeated daily listening. You have to listen to a recording 14 times to get the full benefit. Don't listen to them once and think you're going to get any benefit. It needs to become a daily habit. Start doing it with certain activities like driving or exercising or cooking dinner - and after a while it becomes routine.

Pretty soon you'll have a set of 3-4 audios that you love and listening to repeatedly and will keep you staying positive daily. In time your MP3 player will become more important than your Blackberry or I-Phone.

If your audios are on CD, transferring them to your MP3 player is easy.

Place your CD into the CD drive on your computer

Right click the start menu icon on your computers desktop and select explore

Open your "Computer" this will bring up your computers drives

From there you can select your CD-ROM drive and open the contents of the CD

Copy the audio files to a folder on your computer

They may be in a format that you can use on your MP3 player, if not, no problem.

There are lots of free software that converts video formats - I use "Any Video Converter" just Google it

Convert your audio files, place them on your MP3 Player and your GTG!

The consistent listening to these audios will have significant impact on your life in a short time, after a few weeks. In time it'll become your secret Weapon to staying positive and motivated just like it is for me.