Where are You?

Two men were on a road trip when they went through a town with an unusual and some what difficult name to pronounce: Lajuanta Colorado.  As they passed a sign Tom said, “Look we are in LaJunta.”  Pronouncing it with the normal “J” sound.  Bob, said, “Dummy, that is LaHunta.”  He continued to explain to Tom, that the spanish pronounce a “J” with an “H” sound. He said, “This town must have been settled by the Spanish.  Tom continued to disagree. Finally, Bob who was driving pulled over and said let’s go inside and just ask someone.  They walked up to a lady who appeared to be a local and said, “Mam, could tell us very slowly and distinctly, where are we?”  She said, “D-A-I-R-Y-  Q-U-E-E-N”

There are two keys to any successful journey.

1. Deciding where you want to go.
2. Knowing where you are.

I know that seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious is profound.  Most journey begin by us know ing where we are. We start from home.  You plan your trip based on the knowledge of your starting point.

Did you realize the definition of “LOST” is not knowing where you are. Once you discover where you are your aren’t really lost.  You may be in the wrong place.  But you know where you are.  You can now successful navigate to your desired navigation.

Reaching our goals is no different.  We have to first know where we are.

Do you know anyone that refuses to pull over and ask for directions?  Refuses to admit they are lost?  Sometimes we do this because we don’t want to know how far off course we are. We don’t want to appear stupid.  We can’t admit we made a mistake. But refuses to find out where you are just makes the situation worse.

People do this with their life too. We don’t want to look at the scale and discover where we are.  We don’t want to dig through the bills and discover how deeply in debt we are. We don’t want to examine out life and discover the emotional pain inside that we need to deal with. It’s easier to keep driving down the road and just hope we are making progress.

So today if you want to take that trip, first discover where you are?   Go step on the scale, look in the mirror, examine your budget, look into your heart, analyze your business, evaluate your marriage.

Once you know where you are, you can decide which way to turn.

A Better Person

Keys to Motivation #3

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED

Is your New Year’s resolution slipping? Here is the way to keep your motivation, and reach that goal.

THREE QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF

QUESTION THREE: What is my plan of action?

Goals are great.  Most goals are worthy or they wouldn’t be set.

• I want to be a millionaire.
• I will lose weight.
• I want to travel the world.

A goal is a stated objective but it tells you nothing about how you plan to reach your goal.  Unless you come up with a plan, your goal is a wish.

Creating an action plan is the logical outcome of what you do while answering question #2.

Until we decide what we are going to do we can’t really believe that the goal is doable.  So what is a good action plan.

A good action plan is concrete. You have to set a clear goal.  You don’t want to lose weight, you want to lose a specific number of pounds in a specific amount of time.

A good action plan is realistic. You can’t lose all that weight by next week.  You have to set aside a reasonable amount of time. If you don’t you won’t believe in the g.oal. You will get discouraged. You will lose your motivation because you lied to yourself to begin with.

A good action plan has markers. Break your goal down into segments.  How much of the goal need to be meet each day, week, month.  Measure and adjust your work based on your progress. The more you chart both your progress, and your efforts, the faster you will reach your goal.

I know that for myself writing about goals is helping me to stay motivated.  So write out your plan of action and starting working to make those goals come true. Small changes help us stay motivated

Keys to Motivation #2

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED

Is your New Year’s resolution slipping? Here is the way to keep your motivation, and reach that goal.
THREE QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF

QUESTION TWO: DO I BELIEVE I CAN CHANGE?

This is the question of hope?  Do I believe that I can reach my goal? Do I think my effort will make a difference?  Is there hope?

Motivation is easy to get, but hard to keep.

Often the reason we don’t feel hope is the distance between our current reality and our envisioned goal.  We know that theoretically we can reach our goal, but as we look around we see a reality that is so far from our goal we begin to question our sanity.  Our mind begins to tell us the reason why we can’t.  It reminds of every failure, every obstacle, every temptation.

It is at this point we lose motivation.  We procrastinate, or worse just completely give up.

This why we must answer the question, “Can I change?”  Do I believer in myself?

To answer this question you have to count the cost.

• You have to ask your self what am I going to have to do to reach my goal?
• What will be the tough things I am asked to do?
• How will I react when I face some of the challenges that are in my path?

This part of the process is one a lot of people skip.  They declare victory prematurely.  In their enthusiasm they forget the obstacles and fail to adequately answer the question of motivation and decide that they are willing to pay the price to reach the goal.

It is only in anticipating the pitfalls, and the struggles that we can truly embrace the power within us to reach our goal.  Understanding the challenge we can declare, “I believe I can do this.”

Tomorrow Question # 3 “What is My Action Plan?

Keys to Motivation

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED

Is your New Year’s resolution slipping? Here is the way to keep your motivation, and reach that goal.

THREE QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF

QUESTION ONE: WHY?

The alarm rings. The sun is breaking. That exercise routine you planned is waiting but the bed is warm and soft. Here is where will meets want.  Your will says, exercise but your body wants to rest, stay warm, and catch a few more zzz’s.

Now our motivation, our vision, our determination comes into question.

This is when we have to look for our motivation.  The first question you must answer in regards to motivation, is the question of why?

Many things motivate us, but not all motivations last. We have all felt the sting from a broken new years resolution. Most last a couple of weeks and fade away. We have all been pumped up by a sales meeting, revival, or motivational seminar.  These motivators won’t last because they don’t adequately answer the question of , why.

• FEAR – Wether it is fear of our boss firing us, or changing our lifestyle due to fear of health concerns fear lasts as long as we stay afraid. Then we revert to our old habits.
• GUILT – Almost everyone feels guilty the first time they cross a moral boundary.  But our guilt grows weaker with each journey across the line.  Our promises to reform fade with them.
• EXPECTATIONS – We often change do to people nagging us.  We conform to meet others expectations. We must ask, “Am I doing this for myself?”

Unless your motivation is from within, your effort will be inconsistent.  Unless you make a decision that an action is harmful to yourself and people you love then guilt won’t work.  Until, we are motivated by an desire to do the right thing regardless of who is watching then fear will cause us to fail.

Think about your goals. Are they your goals?

Are your emotions driving your decision, or is your heart guided by your head?  Only you can chose your path, for you know the path your heart is leading you to travel.  Take some time to answer the question of, why.

Change, Don’t just Rearrange

Change was a popular word this past year.  It really always has been popular and unpopular.  Every time something changes somebody likes it, and somebody doesn’t.

A lot of time what people call change, isn’t. It is really just rearranging the same old stuff. Sometimes that is all it takes.  You have a few things out of place, and once you get things situated everything flows smoothly.

Sometimes there is a need for real change.

Do you realize the key to change, and the hardest thing to change is your mind.

When you believe you can’t, you are right 100% of the time.  If you believe you can’t, you won’t try. If you try, you will try half heartedly.  If you face an obstacle you will quit. When you fail, you’ll make an excuse.  Then you’ll confidently reassure yourself that you were right along, “It wouldn’t work.”

If you do the same thing over and over again, you will get the same results.   Change, don’t rearrange.

If your friends don’t believe in you, find new friends, Change, don’t rearrange.

If your life stinks. Change, don’t rearrange.

If your mind is filled with negative thoughts. Change, don’t rearrange.

IF YOU HAVE A “CHANGE, DON’T REARRANGE.” MANTRA TO ADD TO MY LIST, PLEASE ADD IT AS A COMMENT.

Small Changes

Drip…..Drip……..Drip……..Drip………

Ever had a dripping faucet or a leaky roof.  The first time that happened to me I put a small bowl under the drip thinking that would be sufficient for such a small drip.  It amazed me to come back and find how quickly that small drip filled up that bowl.  I put a larger receptacle under the drip, but that little drip filled it as well. Now, I needed to go to bed. Finally I had to use a large trash can.

That bowl of water was the cumulative effect of all those tiny drops of water falling.

That is really what this blog is all about encouraging people to make small changes and keep it up. To understand that lasting change comes in small drips.

One of my goals is organization.  To stop being disorganized and messy.  Now I am going through the process of cleaning up. However I can’t clean everything at once.  This week it is my office.  Next week it will hopefully be my home office.

But I need to mindful of drips.  Small habits that create that cumulative clutter.

The good news is the process can work in reverse too.

Don’t have time to tackle a major chore today?  Eat the elephant a bite at a time.  Do one small part of it today and plan to do the next part tomorrow.

Take the time to pick up messes as you go.  It takes so little time to just be aware of something out of place  and to pick it up and put it away as we go.

Don’t diet, just make good choices.  Deciding now not to eat the whole brownie, but limit yourself to half can make a big difference over a year.  If you lost 1/4 pound a week you would be 13 pounds lighter at the end of the year.

Remember the power of a drip.

A Better Person

You Can Have Whatever You Want.

You can have whatever you want.  Do you believe that?  I do.

First you have to decide what you want.

Do you want to lose weight?  Great you can have that.

Do you want chocolate cake?  You can have that.

However, you can’t have your cake and lose weight too.  You have to decide what you really want.  Which is more important?  Goals are not wishes.  The fairy-god-mother is dead and genie is stuck in the lamp.  So if you want to reach your goal. You have to decide what you want.

Goals have a cost. If you want a college diploma you will have to study. Do you want to be rich? It will take an extensive amount of work. You can retire but you will have to curb spending and save money. So make your goals, but count the cost.

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

But where do you start?  The trunk? The tail?  Certainly not the tusk.

What if we started by preparing the elephant: skin it, butcher it, cook it.

Sure the only way to conquer a big problem or task is in little steps.  It helps us to keep the problem in perspective. But never overlook the importance of preparation.

1. PREPARATION MAKES THE TASK EASIER - Take time to sharpen the saw.  Get some education.  Read a good ‘how to’ book on the appropriate topic.
2. PREPARATION SAVES TIME AND MONEY – If you make a list of materials, supplies, and tools needed it will save multiple trips to the store.  Man hours and costs will be less because there will be less time standing around waiting.
3. PREPARATION AVOIDS COSTLY MISTAKES - Fools rush in but a wise man takes the time to make sure of his action.  This planning is important preparation.

So if you have to eat an elephant eat it a bite one bite at a time.  But would you rather do it yourself, with just a knife and fork, or do you prefer to eat your elephant prepared by a gourmet chef.

Every Minute Counts

One thing we all struggle with is time management.  There are time wasters and time stealers when we waste hours and minutes only to later regret that time.

We all know every minute counts but how do we make the best of our time?  I am working to be more conscious of my time.

Every morning I cook my breakfast.   I have found that in the time my breakfast is cooking I can unload the dishwasher.  When I clean up my dishes I usually can find a few extra minutes to pick up other dishes that have collected and load them too.

This really takes almost no time. I was already using the time to cook breakfast.  I want you to consider the compounding affect of this action.

1. I save money on breakfast.
2. I get the kitchen cleaned up. I therefore don’t have to do this later or feel negative about the appearance of my house.
3. I get appreciation from my spouse.
4. I was motivated to do extra cleaning because I had started something good and wanted to finish it.
5. I get a little bost in my self-image.

What little tricks have you learned that help you make the best of your time?

A Better Person

Let the Journey Begin

Well today is the end of the first day of 2010.  I am getting ready for bed as I write these words on paper.  So this is my beginning of this journey. Perhaps you are wondering who I am.  It doesn’t matter. I want to remain purposefully anonymous.  I am you. I am young, and old.  I am all races.  I am a believer, an atheist, an agnostic, a spiritualist.  I could live anywhere, even in a distant land. I am just an average person.

I’m not personally addicted to drugs.  I’m not an A.A. Al-Anon, or any other twelve step group, but I could be. I’m not broke, but I have been. I’m not what people call a success, but I’m not a failure.  I don’t hate my life, in fact for the most part I love it. 

However, I do have some deep wounds caused by life.  I have most likely caused some pains too. 

So what is this blog all about.  It is about a journey of ME getting “Better Every Day.”  I hope you will join me. 

I am probably very much like most  of you in that I struggle with the same obstacles year after year. I struggle with the same old fears, failures, and frustrations.  I try to climb the same hills, but sometimes I don’t even climb.  I talk about it, read about it, dream about it.  I may make an attempt to climb some of them, but often I never reach the top.

This is the year I want to climb more hills.  I want us to climb together and help each other along the way.

I want this to be an interactive blog. I want to share my thoughts and insights ask you the readers questions.  Allow us to share our secrets to success and help each other along the way.

 I am not going to send this to my friends, or family members.  I hope to find a whole community of friends and family members along my journey. 

I have discovered ………. areas that are for me the key factors holding me back.

1. I am disorganized.  To call me a slob would be an insult but at times not far from the truth.   Disorganization leads me to waste time, but less productive, procrastinate, and to feel embarrassed at times at my surroundings.
2. I procrastinate.  I feel that lack of planning and execution is holding me back.  I am great at being flexible.  I could do wonders in a time crunch.  But I lack sufficient time in planning, time management, and discipline to follow through.
3. I am overweight.  I have done pretty good taking care of my health except for my weight.  I am blessed genetically but I know that if I don’t change my weight and start exercising that stress and physical limitations are going to hurt me as I age.
4. I am financially stressed. I really couldn’t find the right word.  So I choose stressed. I haven’t saved but a few dollars toward retirement and I lack good financial habits.

The goal is to get “Better Every Day.”  To do that I will make and set daily goals.  Chart my progress here and in my personal calendar.  I will work toward these goals daily.

Today is the first day of the year.  Today I set the goal of cleaning out my car.  I did it. I have to confess that I didn’t get it done on the outside and I have a few items to take to the  places they belong but I did get the inside cleaned up.  So in a small way I succeeded on day one.