| By Kerry Daigle
Kerry Daigle is a contributing writer for
Bonnes Nouvelles publication. You can read more about the good
people and news at Bonnes Nouvelles @ their website www.ilovegoodnews.com.
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| Kerry Daigle and George Foreman |
I RESOLVE TO …
It’s time for us to think about New Year’s resolutions. New
Years is the time of the year when we reflect on the past and make plans
for the future. Now, lets look at what New Year’s resolutions really
are. They are nothing more than dreams and goals for a new beginning to making
positive changes in your lives. Am I not right?
Sadly, lets face the facts: The truth is that approximately 95 percent
of all traditional New Year’s resolutions aren’t kept. Why is that?
It really is a simple answer. Most resolutions that are made are really short-term
goals with no real desire to reach them. There is no commitment on the part
of the person making them. Is that usually their fault? No, its not … because
most people do not know how to essentially make goals work for themselves.
Everyone has good intentions, but rarely do these intentions result in successfully
reaching goals. Isn’t it a terrible feeling when you ultimately realize
that you didn’t succeed in reaching your goals, especially when you
tell all your family and friends about your new desires in life?
Where do you usually miss out and falter towards your New Year’s
resolutions? Why do you quit? Why is it the other 5 percent succeed? What
is their secret?
It really is simple. You see, some people go through life and “make” things
happen. Others go through life “watching things happen,” and
then there are the large numbers who “wonder what happened?” The
ones that are making things happen are working hard on developing themselves
personally, not through a formal education or working extra hours at their
job, but through personal development and positive thinking programs. I strongly
believe every person seeking success in life and wanting to make changes
in their lives for the best – be it with their families, relationships,
friends, business, or financial gains – must work on themselves first.
So here is tip number one: Spend 2 percent minimum to 5 percent of
your monthly income on personal development material. In other words,
if you
earn $2,000
monthly, 2 percent would be $40. I would hope that you would consider
yourself worth that! The only way you can tell if you are ready for
these changes
is by looking at yourself seriously and your accomplishments thus far
and see if you are happy with what has happened in your life so far.
If not,
then you know what to do! Changes must be made! The on personal development
material I am refer to are items such as books and tapes on motivation,
positive-thinking, inspirational topics, goal seeking material, public
relations, sales material,
and how-to books and tapes. These might cover how to speak in public,
how to write, how to meet people, how to start conversations, etc.
In other
words, these are any kinds of material that will teach you how to be
a better, more
productive person.
When I think of these books, many authors come to mind, such as Les
Brown, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, David McNally, Ken Kragen,
Norman
Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Ridgely Goldsborough
and Tony Robbins.
I could go on for hours there are so many in this category. These
authors have personal development books and tapes that are really easy to
find
at any bookstore and on the Internet.
Why is this so important? Think about this for a minute … you are enthusiastic
and anxious to start your new life and make changes. Your first obstacle
is making changes, which is the most difficult thing a person can do. We
are so caught up in our daily habits that change is difficult. We get up
at a specific time every morning, drink that special morning drink, eat that
special breakfast and nutritional or non-nutritional snack, go to lunch usually
at the same time, and go home every day at the same time. We watch the same
shows on television we watched last week … we live our lives in the
rat race with no personal development improvements. This keeps us living
as a creature of habit, doing the same thing day-in and day-out. Sounds pretty
boring to me and as soon as something new comes along to upset these daily
habits of non-productivity, we are confronted with the question “Why
am I making these changes?”
Change is difficult. To conquer change in our lives we must prepare
ourselves mentally every day by listening to positive and uplifting
messages. That
way we can conquer the non-productive, habitual things we do that
keep us from achieving our goals in life.
Another thing that is really important is, if we do not train ourselves
to think positive and to get rid of all the “stinking thinking” in
our lives, moving away from all the negative people that bring us down. If
we do not, then the challenge of succeeding in our quest for new and better
things becomes null and void. Sure, we start off with enthusiasm and excitement,
but we need to be more prepared on how to deliver our new found enthusiasm.
Jim Rohn, the motivational speaker, says it best, “It is good to be
excited and enthusiastic … but, unless you are educating yourself with
positive personal development material, then you’ll just be an excited
and enthusiastic idiot hanging around your negative friends, not knowing
where to go next with no plans! You want to have that burning desire, however,
you want to prepare yourself mentally with positive affirmations to handle
your roadblocks ahead ... if you last that long”
Here is tip number two: Your new plans and dreams in making your
changes are exactly that … only plans and dreams. They become “goals” only
when you have made a decision to write them down so you can review
them morning and night and actually see yourself taking these steps
toward a better life.
Post these goals on your sun visor in your car, your refrigerator
and your bathroom mirror.
Goals will give you a new purpose in life and can be very fulfilling
mentally and emotionally once you have achieved them. It gives
you an opportunity
to challenge life every day. You were one of the lucky few that
woke up this morning to and can read this book. Many people didn’t have that opportunity.
Many people didn’t wake up this morning. That is a cold hard
fact.
Isn’t it sad to see someone without goals in life? They are easy to
pick out of the crowd. It is so obvious that they have no purpose. You can
see it in their eyes and body language. They walk around in neutral all day,
slouching in their chairs, yawning through most of the day, and there is
no bright light in their eyes. Their eyes look dull. Their conversations
bounce around with no purpose. They call you on the phone and say, “What
are you doing? I just wanted to see what you were doing. I wasn’t doing
anything. I’m bored.” I’m certain you’ve
received those calls before!
You see, these people don’t have a life. Heck, why are they calling you?
You’ve got things to do, goals to reach and a family to spend time with
don’t you? So, if you are working on a New Year’s resolution ask
yourself these questions:
What are your personal goals this year? Career, financial, business, family,
spiritual, relationships, etc. Have you written them down? Have you prepared
yourself mentally so you can reach your goals or resolutions by educating
yourself with personal development material?
Tip number three: I believe there are three types of people in this world … those
that make things happen, those that watch things happen and lastly, those
that wonder “what happened?”
People that constantly are working on improving themselves personally write
their goals down and pursue them, and are persistent and challenge what
life has to offer them every day. We all know that things are going to be
tough
for us as we change our lives, so you must prepare yourself for those challenging
days and be persistent, so you can handle these obstacles and find solutions
for them.
Life is like a boxing match, you have to prepare yourself for the fight.
Get into the ring, put on your boxing gloves, listen to the introductions
and then the bell rings. No matter how hard you trained and despite your
fight plans (or goals), you are eventually going to get hit, you might
even get knocked down or even knocked out. How persistent are you going
to be?
Getting up and starting over immediately is important, so you can reach
your final goal and level of accomplishment to move your life forward.
Remember the story of George Foreman, the man everyone called too old,
overweight, and slow, who made a comeback in his mid 40’s to become the Heavyweight
Champion of the World? Everyone discouraged him, all the sports publications,
electronic media, sports and boxing experts, and yes, even his friends and
former colleagues. He was too old, too slow, too fat, according to the boxing
observers. The difference was George was preparing himself mentally to get
rid of all that “stinking thinking” and was surrounding himself
with people who had the same belief system he had. And at the age of 45,
against a young Michael Moorer who had just defeated Evander Holyfield for
the undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World, he entered the ring
a long shot and huge underdog to all the press and experts but not to himself!
Sure, George had lost to Evander Holyfield earlier in his career, and Michael
Moorer defeated Holyfield and the odds were against him.
What was George thinking? As Michael Moorer pounded George around the
ring every round, George would return to his corner and would not sit
down,
he would stand up in between rounds and keep himself motivated by thinking
positive.
Then as Michael Moorer was soundly thrashing George, George threw a
right hand that was heard throughout the world! Michael Moorer went
down and
didn’t
get up! George knew what would happen … he envisioned it! He convinced
himself first, and then he prepared un-relentlessly against all odds. He
became the oldest man in the history of boxing to become the heavyweight
champion of the world. A great story of positive thinking. Even when the
boxing experts spoke negatively about George, he ignored them and continued
thinking positive thoughts, picturing his accomplishment of becoming heavyweight
champion again. Big George prepared himself mentally and then physically.
No one was going to be more persistent or more prepared mentally. By setting
his goals down on paper “I am going to be Heavyweight Champion of the
World again” George had the last laugh.
The moral of this story is, it may be a while before you reach that
level of accomplishment again where you are at a comfortable level.
It all
happens with persistence. It is during these rocky times that you
need to reach
out within yourself and tell yourself, “I can make these changes,” and
find those deep sources of motivation of why you made those particular goals
in the first place such as:
- You want to own your own life, instead of life owning you
- You want to do
more for your family and your children
- You want to be healthier and live
life to the fullest
- You want to have some freedom time and retire with a
smile on your face ... not in poverty, wondering what you did wrong
Life has many unexpected challenges, and yet it is so precious. Have you
the intestinal fortitude to say that you don’t want to continue in
the rat race, but instead step out of your comfort zone and do what is necessary
to reach your fullest potential?
Let me end this message with something I picked up at the Learning Skills
Center at the University of Texas in Austin:
- Respect and value the opinion of others but realize that ultimately
you must respect and satisfy your self.
- Don’t worry about or dwell on
things that go wrong. Concentrate on your successes. Remember that
little successes build up just as quickly as
little failures.
- Give yourself time to change. Forgive yourself for backsliding
and making mistakes.
- Be willing to risk failure for something you really
care about.
- Completed goals keep interest and motivation at a high level.
Try to complete a goal, even a very small one, before quitting for
the day.
And last but not least, always, always, KEEP PUNCHING!
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