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Are Groundhog Days Holding You Back?

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Are Groundhog Days Holding You Back?

Some time ago, I blogged about the importance of persistence in the battle to achieve our goals.  One of the things that I mentioned in that blog was that I, like everyone else, often succumb to my old bad habits or old ways of doing things at the expense of maintaining my new good habits.  I will have seen progress whilst instigating these new good habits, but, for whatever reason, I fall off the wagon and slowly, or sometimes quickly, drift back to my old ways.

I also went on to tell you that these days, I am much better at getting back on the wagon sooner, so, even though there may have been some ‘damage’, this can be limited by my ability to get back to my new good habits sooner rather than later.

And this is where I found myself recently.  In the last few months I’ve fallen off the weight control/healthy eating wagon.  Consequently I’ve gained some weight, lost some (read ‘a lot of’) muscle tone and am generally feeling more lethargic.  My clothes are tighter.  It then dawned on me that it was time to face the situation and get back on that wagon.

So, in the last few days, I have re-subscribed to myFitnessPal, which is the app I use on my phone to keep track of my food and exercise calories.  I’ve also been out for a few long walks and have been careful about what food I’ve allowed to pass my lips.  Everything has been recorded in the app. [Read more…] about Are Groundhog Days Holding You Back?

Do You Invest In Yourself?

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lectureThis weekend has been very busy!  Not the usual type of busy weekend of socialising, hobbies and family catch-up, but three full-on days of investment in me.  Now if you’re imagining that I disappeared off to a spa, then, (sadly) that’s not correct.  No, I’ve actually spent the last three days investing in my future.  I’ve sat through three days of intensive training in an area of personal development that I believe will support my future aspirations.

Investing in our own self development is probably unusual for a lot of people.  There are doubtless hundreds of reasons why we might not invest in our own self development on a regular basis, but I don’t intend to delve into that here.  Instead I want to look at why it IS important that we undertake regular self development.

For those of us who are employed, our employers probably provide at least a minimal level of continuous professional development (CPD) so that we can maintain or enhance our skills base.  This makes good business sense for our employers, as a highly or suitably skilled workforce will enable the company to stay ahead of the competition.  It also makes good business sense for us on a personal level, as enhanced skills will clearly make us more valuable to our current and future employers. [Read more…] about Do You Invest In Yourself?

Don’t be afraid to start!

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Don't be afraid to start

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Don’t be afraid to start just because you don’t have the road map!

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to getting started on our goals is the need to know and understand how our goal will be achieved.  In other words, what are the steps that need to be taken in order to arrive at our destination?

It’s one of those needs that is linked to a subconscious fear of failure.  After all, if we don’t know what steps we need to take to achieve the success we desire, then the opposite may transpire and we will fail.  But, the given advice is counter-intuitive: we’re advised by all successful people to just go for it anyway, despite not knowing how we’ll get there.

But how on earth could we be expected to go for our goals if we don’t know all the steps?  After all, if we’ve never travelled that journey before we could end up anywhere!  Well the answer to this part of the success equation can be relatively straight forward, because someone, somewhere, has already done what we’re trying to do, so, the only thing we’re required to do is to find and follow the road map laid down by those people.  So don’t be afraid to start just because you’re not sure of the way!

So where’s the map I hear you ask!

Well, depending on your outlook, you could find this next response to be quite exciting or quite unhelpful, because the map won’t become visible until you start moving!  So, by its very nature, the map is only available to those who are willing to make the commitment to move forward with their lives and make changes.  But there’s more!  Even when the map is presented to you, it won’t be complete; there will be a very large area in the middle which is fuzzy and greyed out, and for some, even the beginning will be a little hazy.

And there’s a very good reason for this.  Everyone’s journey to their goals will be different in some manner to other peoples journeys.  This is because we are all different and because certain circumstances will require different actions.  The fuzzy areas of the map are areas where you will be required to find your own answers, but the beauty of it is that you don’t have to know those answers until such time as they are needed.  You definitely won’t need them at the outset! [Read more…] about Don’t be afraid to start!

Using My Emotions!

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boredmanAre you a slave to your emotions, or are you cool, calm and collected in all situations?  Do you react, or are you proactive?  Does life happen to you, or do you happen to life?

I’m guessing that, like me, you probably fall somewhere between the two extremes of each of these instances, with different stimuli causing varying degrees of reaction, some of which you comfortably control and others raising reactions which can even cause you to be surprised.

The dictionary definition of emotion is (taken from Oxford Dictionairies):

  • a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others
  • instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge

The first definition I think we can probably accept without argument, although I find the second definition slightly more challenging as it suggests that we are victims of our emotions with limited capacity to control them, and that’s a notion that I find difficult to accept.

Sometime ago I seemed to come across different versions of the following quotes almost on a daily basis:

“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but how we react to what happens..”   Wade Boggs,

and this one from Mia Hamm:

“Failure happens all the time.  It happens every day in practice.  What makes you better is how you react to it.” [Read more…] about Using My Emotions!

Be Careful What You Wish For!

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fernIn planning today’s blog post, two quotes kept coming to mind:

Wherever you go, there you are.  Unknown, and,

Eighty percent of success is showing up.  Woody Allen

It seems to me that whilst each of these quotes are intertwined, there can be some very negative consequences of not considering the impact each has on the other.

Taking Woody Allen’s quote, you may be wondering who should turn up?  And of course, the answer is ‘me’, but I wonder if that would really be worthwhile if ‘you are everywhere you go’, and that is what I want to explore in today’s blog post.

Wouldn’t it be great to achieve the success we want overnight?  To wake up one morning and all our money worries had gone, our relationships with our families and friends were perfect, our abs were perfectly toned and the sun was always shining!  Unfortunately this perfect world doesn’t exist, although an approximation is achievable provided we ‘show up’ and do the work.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

If we turn up at the door of a new relationship with all our baggage from previous unsuccessful relationships, what do you think the chances are of this new relationship lasting? [Read more…] about Be Careful What You Wish For!

5 Things You Should Do To Improve Your Success Rate

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believe

Check out this quick post to see what actions you should take to improve your success rate!

Take Personal Responsibility

Taking personal responsibility is THE number one requirement to achieving personal success.  The saying, “if it’s going to be, it has to be me” is right on point and its application or lack of, will make or break our success.

So what does taking personal responsibility mean?  I’m sure we all believe we take personal responsibility for our lives.  We go to work, pay the bills, get the children to school, arrange our social lives and even indulge in self development through courses at work and books etc, so what could be missing?

Well, we fail in the personal responsibility arena when we are guilty of blaming others and making excuses.  Using either of these tactics will look like defensiveness to others, which in itself is not a particularly endearing characteristic.  But more importantly, by shifting the blame onto others or the circumstances (deemed to be) outside our control, we are removing our ability to grow from the situation, and, if we don’t grow then we will be unable to demonstrate improved performance the next time we find ourselves in a similar situation. [Read more…] about 5 Things You Should Do To Improve Your Success Rate