Push Button for a Better You

Morning!

Most people could be better. It doesn’t matter if it is weight, fitness, manners, penmanship, school or work performance. The problem is that it takes effort to be better and self-motivation is in short supply. Rather than try, some people like to say, “That’s just how I am,” as though “how they are” were written in stone and you had better just accept it because they certainly have.

I met with a personal trainer the other day to evaluate where I am right now. Even in that evaluation session, he would not accept my perception of where I was and what I could not do. He pushed me to do more and somehow I did.

I was shocked and really a bit annoyed, not with him but with me for believing and arguing for my limitations. No one knows better than me that HABITS ARE JUST LEARNED BEHAVIOR AND LIMITATIONS EXIST 90% IN THE MIND and yet somewhere along the line I started babying myself when it came to pushing myself physically.

It began a few years ago with a badly broken ankle. I fell down the attic steps in my house into a lotus-like position and beyond that, I’ll spare you the gory details. After dealing with mind-numbing pain, surgery that involved more plates and screws than in your front door, and a year of physical therapy, I became a bit gun shy when it comes to pushing myself, but after what I just learned, I think it’s high time I raised the bar for myself.

After all, you may think you can’t do something, but let Godzilla come after you and you’ll be amazed at what you can do. In fact, you will be leaping fences and running faster than an Olympic gold medal winner. You just need a little push.

Are you going to wait until you are chased, or are you going to start pushing yourself to be a better version of you now?

Lions and Tigers and Quotas Oh My!

Morning!

November is National Novel Writing Month. During this month, a contest called NaNoWriMo encourages fiction writers to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight, November 30th. Now I am not a fiction writer but I am writing a book and I feel inspired by this contest to not only write more but also, to write more often than I have up to now. In fact, I've given myself a minimum quota of 1000 words per day.

I can't tell you how much this quota has helped me. Now let me clarify that meeting such a quota does not mean you are necessarily writing anything of quality, but it is forcing you to write, to pull out all stops and the end result is that even if you have a bad manuscript, the bottom line is that you have something to edit. If you write nothing there is nothing to edit and your mind piles on even more excuses for not writing. I in fact had put my book on hold, but I am happy to say, I've pulled it out and am working diligently on it.

So I offer you a bit of advice that in some form, was handed down to me. If you want to get something done, create a quota. If it is writing, how many words did you write today? If it is to get a job, how many resumes went out today? If it is to lose weight, how many calories did you eat today? You get the picture. The days results must fit in a very small space. The numbers will tell the tale in the end and can even predict the future. There is no space for stories or excuses.

Set your quotas and watch how even after just a few days, your life begins to change and if you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo, visit www.nanowrimo.org.

To the Ladies: Your Power Awaits!

Morning!

Whenever I look up at the sky, I am totally blown away. I mean one minute I am walking along in my little world thinking that me and my problems are so big and my little band-aid solutions are all that is and I look up and BAM!

I am reminded. Here is the sun heating us from 93 million miles away with these clouds that hang in the sky like solid, immovable mountains and yet can dissipate like a puff of smoke. The moon, the stars and the alignment of the planets with no visible means of support, dynamic in themselves, but then they work with each other with a mathematical precision, and never fail in this precision, day after day since the beginning of time. The messages there are many and powerful—an endless wellspring of wisdom from a source much greater than ourselves.

I believe that we, as women, are more in touch with this sky show than anyone or anything on this earth. Our cycles are ruled by the moon. Our moods are affected by planetary alignments and we are as magical and mystical as the universe itself yet we don’t see it. As a result we don’t believe in ourselves--and I am no different than you.

I, a proclaimed writer, have words for everyone else; especially when I see someone is in pain. I dispense them like a salve or an invocation to soothe, heal and motivate. But what people don't know is that my words are messages to me as well. I believe they come from the same source as that interplanetary, mathematically correct design and spill into my head. And don’t look at me funny because I am not special in this—you’ve got it too—you just need to listen. It is how I started writing because I didn't really know what else to do with them. I too am amazed at their power especially when I see that someone is physically moved by them to feel or do something differently.

While looking for a document, I came across an old recording of an interview of me from the Valder Beebe Show (www.valderbeebe.com). Her tagline is "Changing the way we look at things so the things we look at will change." She is an amazing woman who is a source of light and positive thought in the world that interviews people who are doing things that she finds interesting. At the time, I was working my business and had put out a press release about a partnership I was forming with another entrepreneur, Charlene Turner. That seems so long ago right now, but I digress…

One of the things I talked about throughout the interview was my experience with women and their lack of belief in themselves, no matter how educated, skilled or accomplished they are. The last question in the interview was, "What do you know to be true in your heart?” My answer was, "What I know to be true is that if women realized the power they possess, right now, without doing anything else other than believing in who they are, and what they are, some very potent and powerful things would be accomplished in their lives and in the world." Whoa--this is something I needed to hear right now, and I am the one that said this!

I mean this is truly not a coincidence. I have been examining the word belief with a magnifying glass because I know that a lack of it will stop you cold just short of success every time. It is impossible to accomplish something unless you believe that there is even just a remote possibility that you can do it. It doesn’t matter whether it is to earn a certain amount of money, accomplish a task or start a business. Let’s break down the meaning of belief: “a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.” Now you can sit there and count up all the reasons why you can’t believe in yourself, or you can sit there and count up all the reasons why you should. Which case do you want to make?

Look up ladies! Your power awaits.