Time To Be

To discover and understand your purpose and to organize your life around it requires time . . . time to think about how you’ll manifest your purpose and time to reflect on your performance. Organize your time and your calendar to explicitly schedule in these activities.

A Tale Of Two Workers

This is a tale of two workers. Call them Tom and Tim.

Tom works hard. He’s busy all day. Here is a typical day for Tom. When he wakes up, Tom immediately reaches for his phone to check for messages and e-mails. Before he gets out of bed, his mind is already teeming with thoughts of what he has to do today. He gets up and rushes through showering and dressing for work. He skips breakfast — who has time? He’ll grab a fast food sandwich and a cup of coffee on the way to the office.

Once at the office, Tom checks his e-mail again, then his calendar. He has several back-to-back meetings scheduled. He also has a major project that is due by the end of the week but he hasn’t had time to work on it yet. Maybe he can get to it today. And oh yeah, there was that upset customer that called yesterday . . . he still needs to call her back.

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Getting By Is Not Enough

Having reserves is a state of being. Having a reserve is a state of mind. Both are required to free us up to pursue the Excelerated Life™.

Building A Financial Foundation

Most Thursday mornings, you can find me at United Ministries, an agency in downtown Greenville dedicated to “serve, transform, and empower those in need toward achieving self-sufficiency.” [1] United Ministries offers a number of different services to assist the homeless, the unemployed, and those mired in poverty.

I volunteer in the Employment Readiness program. Those enrolled in this program are unemployed or under-employed. They go through a week-long training related to the job search and, after successfully completing the program, they work with an employment counselor.

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Don’t Be Good

Moral licensing gives you “permission” to do something “bad” after or because you’ve done something “good”. So don’t think of your actions as being “good” or “bad”. Instead, see yourself as being committed to your goal or to your self-improvement.

Good? or Bad?

Suppose you decide to exercise more. You plan to get up every morning and hit the gym. For three days, you’re there when the doors open. On the fourth day, you decide you need a rest and so you sleep in. Do you think that you’ve been “good” on the days you exercised and “bad” when you didn’t? Or suppose you intend to start eating a healthier diet. On Monday, you have a salad for lunch. On Tuesday, you have a salad for lunch. On Wednesday, someone brings doughnuts and you decide you deserve a treat for being “good” the last two days. So you eat a doughnut . . . maybe two. At lunch, you decide you’ve already blown your diet for the day so you order a double cheeseburger and fries.

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What’s Holding You Back?

“Show me someone who keeps getting in your way, and I’ll show you someone who keeps making excuses.” ~ Note From The Universe — Mike Dooley

What Is Holding You Back?

What’s holding you back? What is keeping you from reaching your goal, fulfilling your purpose, and creating your best life? Given the opening quote, you probably suspect that this is a loaded question and you may be reluctant to trot out your usual litany of excuses, er, umm, I mean “reasons”.

Don’t get me wrong. Nobody that I’m aware of follows a straight, open, easy path to success. (If they do, then they’ve set their sights too low. They should aim higher.) All of us encounter obstacles, bumps and potholes, detours, blocked roads and locked doors. That’s part of why we are here and one of the big reasons for having goals in the first place. It’s called “Learning”.

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Maintenance Required

Your body is the vehicle you use to traverse Life. Every vehicle performs more smoothly and over a longer period of time when it is well maintained. Small, consistent actions, repeated over time, lead to remarkable results.

Neglect

My first car was a 1962 Ford Fairlane; blue, with bucket seats. I don’t remember how much it cost – I paid for it working part time as a bag boy at Winn Dixie. I loved that car but I drove it hard — teenage driver. And I never did anything to maintain it. Never changed the oil. Never checked belts or hoses. Rarely checked the air in the tires . . . unless one got really low. I did not take care of the car and it didn’t last very long.

It required several years and getting stuck with broken down cars for me to learn the importance of maintenance – doing the small but important tasks to keep the car running smoothly. But I eventually got the lesson. Every machine performs better longer when it is properly maintained and cared for. And this includes you and me.

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An Orderly Life

“As within, so without.” Our external world is a reflection of our internal world. If your external world is peaceful and ordered, then your inner life is peaceful and ordered. If your inner life is chaotic, your external world is likely to be a mess.

An Experiment In Decluttering

A number of years ago, I devised an experiment. In an effort to remove clutter and begin living an orderly life, I decided to get rid of — toss, give away, or recycle — two items every day. And for 60 days, that’s what I did.

I kept a record of what I cleared out, which I still have on my computer. Analyzing it, I see that about 40 percent of the items – 47 – went to Goodwill and 41 items were tossed in the garbage. The rest were recycled. The most items I discarded were books (22) and clothes (19). Other items were memorabilia of various sorts, old medications, and just plain trash – broken things, old receipts, outdated product manuals, and some papers I could no longer identify.

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Why You Need A Reserve

To reach the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy (self-actualization), you must first get the basic needs met. After you build and keep a reserve in these areas, then you are able to focus on achieving your full potential.

Out Of Gas

A few months after I got my driver’s license, I drove to a neighboring town to apply for a summer job. On my way back to school, the car quit running, slowed down and came to a stop on the side of the road. It was out of gas.

I had seen that the gas was low but foolishly thought I could drive till I made it back home. Now I was stuck.

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Willpower Offense

Those who use willpower wisely don’t use it to fight temptation, they use willpower to avoid temptation. Instead of willpower defense, they play willpower offense.(1)

Choose Once

When I stepped on the scale and it hit 265, I decided it was time to do something about my weight. So I joined Weight Watchers.

The Wednesday evening sessions I attended had two leaders, Paul and Marlon, both of whom had successfully lost many pounds. Both were engaging and funny. And they both understood the ups and downs of weight loss. Marlon once told about going on a cruise and gaining 15 pounds in one week. And he was a Weight Watcher leader at the time!

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Simplifying Simplicity

“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Searching for the next Big Idea

I am in love with ideas. I am intrigued and fascinated by them. One of my Signature Strengths his Love Of Learning. I like to learn new things and new ways to do old things. I am constantly searching for shiny new ideas and new twists on old concepts.

One reason is that I, like many people, am basically lazy. I want to have and do and be various things — and I want to have and do and be them NOW with the least amount of effort. So I am regularly on the look out for the newest big idea that will get me what I want. I flit from this book to that audio CD seminar to the latest program of something or other.

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How To Get The Golden Eggs? (Take care of the goose.)

“An empty lantern provides no light. Self-care is the fuel that allows your light to shine brightly.” ~ Source Unknown

“The Goose And The Golden Egg”

Once a poor farmer possessed a goose. One morning when he went to her nest, he discovered a glittering golden egg. He took the egg to the market and sold it for a good price.

The next morning, the farmer discovered another golden egg. Again, he sold it at the market for a good sum.

Each day, the farmer found another golden egg that the goose had laid. Soon, he became wealthy. Continue reading “How To Get The Golden Eggs? (Take care of the goose.)”