Fear of change,  Fear of Failure, Self Destructive or Just Plain Lazy?

Last Friday I spoke to a new friend of mine about some of her health challenges.  She has diabetes and it has gotten to be pretty serious.  Her blood sugar levels are consistently over 300….I had no idea if that was bad or good, but apparently that is very high.  She said that her doctor has told her on numerous occasions that she is going to die if she does not make drastic changes to her life and lifestyle.

She looked at me while were talking and she told me that she needed help – someone to work out with her so that she can get motivated and get consistent.  As she looked at me with her eyes welled up with tears and she told me in a clear loud voice, “If I don’t make these changes, I’m going to die“.

This whole conversation struck me deeply on a number of levels.  One because she is such an amazing and beautiful person and of course I am concerned about her health, but I was also quite fascinated about the fact that she had been told repeatedly that she needed to do something about her weight and eating habits but yet she was sipping on a Mountain Dew soda right before I walked up.

Why is it that we as people know we need to something, know that we should do something, know that our life hangs in the balance – but yet WE STILL DON’T DO IT!

People tend to get complacent about their lives and forget that they are the person who holds the key to the results that they get in life.  People tend to fail, because they believe that there is something else outside of them that is causing them to be a certain way.

“I’m overweight because it is hereditary in my family” – No you are overweight because you overeat and don’t work out.

“I am too busy to go back to school” – Well you are not too busy to watch television for a few hours a night and go to the club every weekend.

“I am late because traffic was so terrible getting down here”. – No, you were late because you woke up late and didn’t get out of the house on time.

You and only you have the ability to change your life.  If you have a situation in life and you don’t like what you see, you are the only person who can make the changes to revitalize your life. The first step to this is taking responsibility for what you do and don’t do.  Nothing just happens in life.  Everything is the result of some type of action – either conscious action or passive action  If you take conscious action, you control the results in your life.  If you take passive action you allow circumstances to happen and you choose to live by default.

My thought for the week is to take action!  Remember, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”- Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher.

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

I have recently re-dedicated myself to physically going to church on Sundays.  Don’t get me wrong…I am an avid church goer, but I happen to attend one of the ‘mega churches’ that has the live online stream of Sunday morning service.  For years I had made a conscientious effort not to become a member of  Bedside Baptist…but over the past several months I have unwittingly become a member of  Pajama Presbyterian.

But either way…for the past 2 weeks, I have been back on point.

Yesterday, my pastor gave an awesome message that I thought would be apropos for the Meditative Thought 4 The Week, and that was about Checking Your Attitude.  So many people wonder why things are not working in their life.  After all, they do all of the right things.  They work hard.  They show up early and leave late.  They take on projects that other people won’t….and they wonder why they have not progressed in their career.  They figure it must be sexism, racism, communism, any type of ‘ism’ to explain the reason why they are not getting the results that they want in their life.

But its not that. Not that at all.

What it boils down to is YOUR ATTITUDE.

How do you treat people?  Do you take on tasks enthusiastically?  Do you do things begrudgingly or because you truly want to make a difference?  Ever heard the saying that your ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE?  Well, nothing could be more accurate.

We live in a world where things manifest at the level of their vibratory frequency and for those who thought that was too deep; let’s just say- you get what you give.  You reap what you sow.

If you are not getting what you want to out of life, before you do anything else, check your own attitude.  Make sure that you are doing whatever you do from a place of genuine joy and gratitude and you will open up the flood gates to manifest those blessings in your life.

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

This weekend I went to an Atlanta Hawks game!  (Playoffs Baby!)

It was a great game and I enjoyed it tremendously!  But of course after a couple of hours and a few cheer heightening margaritas, we were VERY  hungry.  We ended up trekking it up to my side of town and ended up at Chili’s to grab a light and healthy bite to eat.

Anyway, when we sat down we were greeted (I guess?) by a young lady who seemed pretty unhappy with her life.  She came up to the table, didn’t smile, didn’t ask how our day was…just looked blankly at us and asked “do you want something to drink?” I was a bit thrown off by her demeanor in that I had just had a great afternoon at the game with some great company.  I thought maybe if I flashed her a smile she would smile back and it would enhance her demeanor.

No such luck.

The whole thing got my thinking about taking the time to separate how you feel from what you project.  You are not going to feel at 100% all of the time.  Sometimes you will not feel like being bothered.  Some days your cereal will be soggy, the newspaper will be wet from the sprinkler, and everyone will be on and around your nerves.  But guess what, life doesn’t care about that!  The show must go on!

The most successful people in life are those who know how to discipline themselves to have peak performance and do things regardless of how they feel.  Don’t use being in a bad mood as an excuse to be subpar.

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

A few months ago I was catching up with a friend of mine that I have known for about 15 years.  He asked me innocently what I had been up to, and I proceeded to tell him about my Network Marketing business, my Internet Marketing Consulting business where I assist business owners with marketing themselves online, and the fact that I still am involved in real estate.

He looked at me as if the the act of telling him all that I was up to had made him physically exhausted.  His response was “This is a recession,  Most people that I know are not starting businesses – they are looking for a J.O.B. (I’m sure you know all too well what that stands for) and more security.  Why put yourself at risk by starting a business, when the market is so unstable? ”

Suddenly I realized that his life perspective was totally different than mine.   His comment made me flash to the classic wealth building manual- Rich Dad Poor Dad,- where Robert Kiyosaki breaks down the fact that the idea of security in a J.O.B. is a myth.  In fact as Mr. Kiyosaki explained, a job leads to less security because whether you will be eating a steak or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner is all based on the actions of someone else.

I decided a  long time ago that I choose to eat steak (figuratively at least because I don’t eat beef …lol…).  Especially in these days and times that we are living in it is super important to have a plan B.  What would happen to you if your employer went out of business?  If you lost your job today, how long could you survive?  How would you pay your bills? How would you feed your family?

Being a risk taker means stepping outside of your comfort zone and doing something that you would not ordinarily do because there is some distinct advantage or payoff from taking that action.

It may not be in your comfort zone to take a job in sales – but it will give you skills that are applicable and marketable to any industry.

It may not be in your comfort zone to do public speaking, but it would be a great idea to join a toastmasters club so that you can develop those skills so that you feel comfortable presenting information and speaking in front of others.

It may not be in your comfort zone to jump out of a plane, but maybe you should do it – so that you can address fear directly and realize that there truly is nothing in life to be fearful of.

Most people don’t succeed in life because of their fear.  Fear of the unknown…fear of the “what if’s” of life.

Determine where you want to be five years from now and take action every day to make sure you get there.

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

Without a sense of urgency,dersire loses its value.
Jim Rohn

Have you ever started off really passionate and excited about something and then as time wore off your excitement and motivation slowly but surely faded away?  It’s kind of like when you make that yearly new years resolution to lose some weight.  You go to the gym for a few weeks, eat a couple of salads and then because of a lack of urgency in your task you stop and go back to your old habits.

Have you ever heard the saying that ‘Old Habits Die Hard?’ If that is indeed the case, how do you create a sense of urgency?  You create a sense of urgency by having specific goals that are specific, written down and have time lines.  Using your business as an example if you would like to make a certain amount of money this year, you could do this by breaking it down to how many sales that you need to get per day in order to achieve your goal.  When you monitor your goal on a daily basis, it will be much easier for you to determine if you are on track and also in turn make the necessary adjustments to make sure that you stay on track.

Now go out there and get busy!

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

-Aristotle

So many of us think that there is some magic potion that successful people drink that the rest of us aren’t have privy to.  We think that some how along the line, successful people had more advantage than us, are smarter than us, got lucky, or just magically appeared at the level that they are at.

Success is not magical.  It is the culmination of doing little things every day that bring you closer to your goal. That’s it.

If you truly want success in your life, look at the things that you are doing on a daily basis and analyze if they are leading you closer to your goals.

What are  your daily habits?

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!

Don’t be offended by the things that people say or do.

Remember that people do things for their own reasons be it personal insecurity, jealousy, personal pain, etc.

Remaining free from offense empowers you to prosper. When you are tempted to get offended, choose to walk in love.

“Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”-Luke 7:23

Life is Short.  DREAM BIG!