The Excelerated Life

April 20, 2016October 9, 2020

Boost Your Willpower

Automate decisions. The more decisions you can automate, the more will-power you save for situations where you need it. What decisions do you make every day that you could put on auto-pilot?

Today is the 111th day of 2016. A little over 100 days of this year are past and gone. It’s a good time for you and me to evaluate our progress toward our BIG goals. I confess I haven’t made as much progress as I would like but I continue to look for ways to devote more time to my goal, and I continue to work on the basics, the fundamentals, to become the person who can achieve the goals I set for myself.

April 13, 2016May 29, 2020

Go For It

“I just can’t seem to get started on my goal.” “I have a goal I want to achieve but I don’t have time to work on it right now.” Sound familiar? Are you using a similar excuse to postpone a worthwhile goal that you’d like to be moving toward? If this sounds like you, here are some things to consider.

Is your goal your goal? The first thing you need to decide is if this is your goal. Not your parents’, not your spouse’s, not society’s, not a “should” or an “ought to”. If it isn’t something you can feel a strong desire to achieve (you may not feel it now but you need to be able to create the desire) chances are it isn’t your goal and either (1) you won’t achieve it, or (2) it won’t mean that much if you do make it. Be sure your goal is your goal.

April 6, 2016April 10, 2020

Fixed Mindset Or Growth Mindset

Are you “smart” or are you a “hard worker”? Adopt a growth mindset and work smarter AND harder!

Events And Responses

Recently, I was reading through an e-book on setting aside one hour a day to work on your #1 goal and I came across this bit of advice:

E + R = O
Event + Response = Outcome
[Fábrega]

“Right now you may be telling yourself things such as the following:

I can’t find the time to work on my goals right now; I have a kid.
My boss is always asking me to stay after work and take on more job assignments.
I have such a long commute.
There’s just so much stuff coming at me.

March 23, 2016March 2, 2020

Why Be Happy?

Research in the field of positive psychology has shown that we have a “happiness setpoint”, a level of happiness around which each of us tends to hover. We may have intervals of bliss and intervals of deep sadness, but in general, we tend to move back to our happiness level. Research also shows that we have the ability to influence our happiness up to approximately 40%. That is, we can increase our levels of happiness to a sizable extent.

March 16, 2016February 28, 2020

An Uncluttered Life

“The more I examine the issue of clutter, the more effort I put into combating it, because it really does act as a weight.” ` Gretchen Rubin

Unclutter For An Energy Boost

Do you need an energy boost? Or do you want to attract something new (a relationship, a client, an opportunity, etc.) into your life? Do you want to strengthen your willpower as you build the habits you need to accomplish your BIG goal? Then you should seriously unclutter your life.

Piles of papers, overstuffed drawers, packed closets, broken tools and toys, too much to do — all clutter in various forms — drain energy from you. Clutter often consists of things you don’t really want that you must clean and maintain or those things that nag you to do something about them. Either way, you are expending energy that you could put to better use.

You must have space in order to think, to create, to breathe, and to receive. Clutter can be anything that is in your way, that isn’t useful (to you) or beautiful (to you).

March 9, 2016February 20, 2020

Life Cycles

“All my life’s a circle, sunrise and sundown.
The moon rolls through the nighttime, till the daybreak comes around.
All my life’s a circle but I can’t tell you why.
The season’s spinnin’ round again, the years keep rollin’ by.”
~ Harry Chapin “Circles”

All Our Life’s A Circle

We don’t live life in a straight line. Life is a series of cycles through which we are going and, hopefully, growing.

In LifeLaunch: A Passionate Guide to the Rest of Your Life, Frederic M. Hudson and Pamela D. McLean provide a plan and a model for moving through the varied chapters of adult life, redesigning one’s life at each juncture as we step into the next chapter.

They do this, in part, by providing a series of “maps” to lead the reader through the preparations. I’d like to share my thoughts on the 1st “map”, which Hudson and McLean call “The Renewal Cycle”.

March 2, 2016January 21, 2020

The Rules Of Time

Time management is a misnomer — you can’t really manage time. You can, however, manage yourself and the way you use time. Executive, teacher, doctor, student, stay-at-home mom (or dad), artist, builder, unemployed – all have the same number of hours in a day. It’s how they – and you and I – use these hours that makes a difference in our lives.

Although you can’t manage time, there are some rules of time you can use to better understand how you can use time to your advantage. These rules aren’t written down anywhere — in fact, I made them up. But they have been helpful to me in my own attempts to manage my life and time and I think they are worth sharing. Here they are in no particular order.

February 24, 2016January 26, 2020

Keep A Reserve

Got enough . . . really enough? Enough that you are no longer engaging in survival thinking? Surviving isn’t thriving.

Many years ago, I was in the bathroom at work when I heard someone enter the stall next to mine. After a few minutes, I heard my boss’s voice. “Got any extra paper?”

“No, I’m sorry,” I said. “There’s barely enough for me.”

There was a pause for a few seconds, then . . . “Got change for a $10?”

Clearly, we were in need of a reserve.

February 17, 2016December 6, 2019

“Up With Which I Will Not Put”

“When a memorandum passed round a certain Government department, one young pedant scribbled a postscript drawing attention to the fact that the sentence ended with a preposition, which caused the original writer to circulate another memorandum complaining that the anonymous postscript was ‘offensive impertinence, up with which I will not put.’ —The Strand Magazine.” From an article in The Wall Street Journal, 30 Sep 1942.

When You Don’t Deal With Annoyances

This witty quote – “offensive impertinence, up with which I will not put” – is frequently attributed to Sir Winston Churchill but there is no conclusive evidence that he actually wrote or said it. However, my purpose is not to conjecture who said it. Instead, I want to ask, what are the things up with which you are putting? You know, those little – and big – things that you are tolerating instead of dealing with.

“By ignoring the problem,” said Cheryl Richardson, author of Take Time For Your Life, “you raise your threshold for pain and make it easier to put up with more.” Soon, petty annoyances drop off your radar, minor annoyances become petty, and major annoyances become minor. Then your life falls apart or you get stuck in place because you aren’t dealing with your stuff.

February 10, 2016December 2, 2019

Cross The Bridge

You don’t have to take a GIANT step in the direction of your goal. It can be a tiny, baby step. But for it to be effective, you must take the step every day. You must cross the bridge.

Someday Isle

Imagine you live on an island. Call it Someday Isle. You know, someday I’ll start my diet. Someday I’ll look for a better job. Someday I’ll start saving for retirement. Someday I’ll write my book. Someday I’ll take better care of myself. Someday I’ll be happy. Someday Isle. Someday Isle. Someday Isle. [1]

As you see, there are lots of folks who live with you on Someday Isle. However, you know something many of them don’t know. You know that there is another island close by Someday Isle. It is Today Isle. And there is a bridge linking Someday Isle and Today Isle.