“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.” ~D. Wilder, B. Rechin I was looking over the list of goals I wrote out twelve months ago. The list is of twenty-eight goals to reach within eighteen months. Some reality based and some are not so much, given the time they were written. For example, last December when writing them I wrote I wanted to run a half marathon. Having never run before this was a ‘reach’ kind of goal. On August 1, 2010 I ran a half marathon in Chicago. Was it hard, yep. Was it a commitment, yep. Were there a thousand and one excuses I could have used to justify not doing it, absolutely. But the first excuse would have been the first step towards failure. And the second excuse would have made it easier to come up and present a third excuse, and so on and so on. Were there days that I had to sacrifice something to go run? Sure, plenty of them. But isn’t that what goals are about? If you are not willing to sacrifice for a goal, do not make it a goal. That would be wasting your time and the time of anyone else involved. A goal equals a priority. So ask yourself whether or not your goal is your priority. If money is your priority then chances are you will always sacrifice fitness, friends, etc. for work. If friends are your priority, that is great, but make sure your goals can be incorporated. As long as you are comfortable and happy with your priorities it is all good. However, if you are not, then you need to realign your priorities prior to setting and committing to goals. Otherwise you will end up with nothing but excuses at day’s end.
Busy Christmas? Who Is Christmas For?
“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?”~Henry David Thoreau Ahh, the holiday season in full swing. Want to see people at their best and worse this is the time. All you need to do is go to the mall or go retail shopping. Hello, Christmas spirit I’m not seeing you in that ultra crabby woman yelling at both her child and the clerk-way to multi-task lady. Hello, Christmas spirit, I’m not seeing you in the man that just cut me off for a parking space. Way to save yourself thirty seconds of walking buddy. Christmas spirit, I believe, gets lost in the madness of being ‘busy’. Not so much being productive, but being busy. And busy doing what? Buying stuff you don’t need for people who you feel obligated (not moved) to do so? How is that working out? If you are a religious person, during this season do you really believe God is going to be disappointed in you if you do not buy everyone gifts and give the gift of yourself and/or your time instead? Do you think God will be pleased as punch with you reflecting on some of the crap behavior and/or attitudes you may have inflicted upon strangers and/or family while stressed out of your mind trying to get everything you feel needs to be done during the Christmas season. I don’t remember reading anything about egg nog, entertaining, the mall, shopping, etc. in The Bible. Maybe I missed that part. What are you celebrating Christmas for…your God or something/someone else? Who should you be celebrating this season for…? You make a difference, year round, make sure it is a positive one. Let your behavior and spirit be a spark of hope for someone else. A simple smile and kind word can change someone’s day, week, life. Share your gratitude. Remember, Isaiah 40:31 ” but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Are you hoping in the Lord? My favorite Christmas gift this season has been and will continue to be my friend Jen inviting me to go to church with her and her family on Christmas Eve. Why? Because truly and deeply, that is what it is all about. My other favorite gift is feeling honored that another friend asked me to help her get healthy throughout the upcoming year. The best holiday season is one that is authentically lived and shared/given by you. Your example and light will be so much more for others, than anything you could ever buy them! Don’t get me wrong though..I’m still a BIG fan of Santa too 🙂
Holiday Clutter
“At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.” ~Dame Rose Macaulay
Me vs Cookies
Maybe it is part of my Finnish heritage. Afterall my generational neighbors do have the quote, “Cookies are made of butter and love.” ~Norwegian Proverb. So I am going to say it, I love cookies. I love cookies in the way the Cookie Monster (old school version) loves cookies. I love cookies like the Trix Rabbit loves that cereal, like Wile Coyote loves to chase the Road Runner. And like the Trix Rabbit and Wile, it never ends well. All that is to say my love for cookies is a great and enduring love, that has no end. Because life without cookies, well, what kind of life would that be?! But, my love for cookies has recently been balanced with love of self. And I’ll warn you, if you are big on healthy eating and/or nutritionally driven, you may want to stop reading here. Cookies are a whole lot of happy. Eating a cookie the size of my head has kept me going on many a long afternoon. But the balance came with the realization of eating cookies and chasing them with a Coke for breakfast might not be the best way to support my productivity (let alone immune system) level throughout the day. It always ends with me, like Wile Coyote, following off the cliff and landing in a ‘poof’ and the bottom. So will I always eat cookies? Absolutely! However, I will enjoy them more now as I will not unfairly be leaning on them to sustain me. I am not depriving myself by not eating them in the morning or under stress, I am rewarding myself by eating nutritionally and letting the cookies be what they’ve always wanted to be, a food of leisure. I’ve made cookies my work horse in the past, when all they’ve ever wanted to be is a show pony. To cookies everywhere, I apologize.
Book On Abundance
Give to Live; The Real Secret to Manifesting Life’s Rewards. You can download it for free at http://www.lulu.com/content/5438664 Send others to http://www.givetolivebook.com if you feel they can benefit too!
Motivational Videos!
Loving the blog that pulled these together in one place! Enjoy! http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2007/08/15/22-of-the-best-motivational-videos-online-free/
Kindness
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~Plato A friend had mentioned how deeply unkind someone had been to her at work. It reminded me of the simplicity of kindness and the need for it on all fronts, work and home. But it also reminded me the first step in kindness is being kind to oneself. Why is being kind to ourselves so hard? We tend to put ourselves last on the list so often. Our ‘to do’ list grows, our time shrinks and the unrealistic goals and tasks laying before us we use to berate ourselves and tell ourselves we should be doing more. Well that is just ridiculous. Stop doing that to yourself. Being kind to yourself helps others in ways we do not always see or think of. First, it helps us stay in the present moment and when we give, we then give freely and authentically. People will feel the shift in how you give and they will know the sincerity of it. It also gives others permission to take care of themselves through our example. What better gift could there be during the holiday season than that! Argh, it exhaust me to see people trying to keep up appearances for each other and impress each other in a way that feeds nobody’s soul, only drains energy. And if it exhaust me to see it, I know it exhaust those doing it. So, this holiday season, and beyond, give yourself the gift of kindness. Once you do, you will find you automatically pass the gift on to others.
Taking Care Of Yourself
So I am moving tomorrow-two days earlier than planned, after travelling earlier this week and as an added bonus they say a snow storm is on its way. So here I am trying to pack everything up in under 48 hours, work some, not flip out and stay in happy mode. And I’m cruising around, hustling over to sign my lease and drop off a deposit and rent when I get a great offer to go see the symphony tonight. Impulsively I say ‘yes’ and keep moving. Around noon I see all that needs to be done and have a conversation with myself about over extending and over committing. Ahh, the realization, that even pleasant things can create an unmanageable situation. A text has been sent with a decline on the symphony and freeing up two additional hours of work and packing time. All this is to say what Buddha said so much better, “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” Be good to yourself. And sometimes being good to yourself means saying no to something that seems like a great idea, but perhaps may just be piling on a little too much and may result in unnecessary madness.