Life Is Too Short! Get What You Want!

If you have read my blog, this may seem repetitive, but it deserves repeating--what do you want out of life?  What do you really desire to do with your time on earth?

What you are about to read is nothing new.  You can find a lot of authors who teach this.  It took me a long time to listen to any of them, but after I read "Think and Grow Rich" and I applied these principles, my life changed in a big way! Goals became a reality.

Have you discovered your WHY?  Still pondering

Do you have a plan in place to achieve your goal?  Have you written down your goal?  I'm going to be very straight with you.  If you don't write down your goal(s) or affirmations, you will not achieve it.  An alternative is to create a dream board, that contains images of what you dream of, but you must have a visual aid.  You MUST read or visualize your goal(s) every day, morning and evening.  It must be constantly in front of you to keep you focused.

Here's the real important part--It doesn't have to seem possible today.  It may seem unreachable, but if you focus on it and work towards that goal, it can become a reality.  You may not even know how you are going to attain it.  You don't have to have a specific plan in place, but you must be focusing on your dream!  Your goal statement must be written in the Present Tense, specific as to date and goal.  And, you must read it DAILY! 

It is very easy to let the stresses of life depress you.  Life can become overwhelming IF YOU LET IT!  You have a choice of letting yourself dwell on the negative or focusing on the positive.  I choose to focus on the positive.  What good does negativity have?  NONE!!!

I know that some people don't believe that writing goals is necessary.  They don't see the value in it.  I was there myself for many years.  You say, "I want a positive change in my life," but do you really mean it?  Are you willing to take the steps necessary to make that change a reality.

Let me ask you this--How is your current plan working?  Is it producing the results you are looking for?  If your answer is an emphatic NO! then why don't you change it?  What can you lose?  The current plan isn't getting you what you want.

Step out of your comfort zone and do something right away that you fear.  That may be going and talking to a stranger.  It may be buying clothes that are little on the wild side for you.  A new hairstyle?  It will grow back if you don't like it!  Sign up for a 5K run or a 10K run--something you never thought you could do.

If you know what you want, then what are you waiting for?  Quit letting fear stand in your way.  Don't let people who DON'T have what you want, tell you that you can't have it.  Place yourself near people who have what you desire.

Life Happens -- Stay Positive Through All!

Our business partners have experienced a lot of trying times recently, but they always seem to be very upbeat and inspiring.  It is so important that you look for the positive blessings out of every road block in your life.

One person recently lost their job, so we received a call, asking if we could still get specially priced tickets for convention and if we knew of someone that they could share hotel expenses with.  Instead of saying, I don't have a job, so there is no way that I can spend money on gas, event passes, food and hotel for 4 days, they were ready to learn how to build the business.  That's exciting!

Another partner has had a lot of serious health challenges and didn't know until the last week if they could attend the USANA International Convention, but then we received the call that said "I'm coming."  Wow!  We had decided that it would in their best interest to not come, because of health challenges, but that didn't stop them.

Another associate had just received a preliminary diagnosis that the doctor was pretty certain they had cancer and surgery was scheduled immediately following convention.  Did that stop them?  Absolutely not.  In fact, they were updating their names list so they could start building their business soon after they got home.  They scheduled multiple appointments for the next week. 

If you keep yourself focused on moving forward in life, you have a lot less time to worry about the negative possibilities.   You can learn a lot from the drive and positive vibes that you receive from these people.  If they didn't tell you what was going on, you would have no clue that they were facing some major obstacles that life had thrown at them. 

Maintaining a 'positive energy' at all times is the best possible thing you can do in trying times.  It may be that your business leader is doing a lot of stuff that is very frustrating and it's easy to let that get you down, but it can't keep you down.  You must not let anyone stop you from moving your life forward in the your desired direction. 

Are you going to let someone else stand between you and your goal?  You shouldn't.  Ignore the negative and stay positive!

What Drives You?

People are motivated by different things.  What's "your thing?"

No matter what we are doing in life, we need to have a purpose.  That may be one long-term goal, or that may be several different goals along the way.  It's important that you identify what is most important for YOU.  You can't live your whole life doing what others expect of you and find gratification in doing so.  Unless your life-long desire is to make others happy, a people-pleaser, then you need to stop and explore, "What do I really want to do some day?"

Does this approach sound selfish?  It's really not.  Everyone around you (except maybe your boss) wants you to be happy, everyone that truly cares for you any way.  What would be satisfying to you?  We don't let ourselves explore this thought process often enough.  Everyone needs "me time".  We need to focus on self from time-to-time.  If you are a Mom, then you are likely to be focused on the family, and children in particular.  If that's you, more power to you.  We need great parents to develop our children.  As parents, we devoted endless hours to our children when they were in grade school.  I coached every sport in which they were involved prior to school sports, and we never missed one of their games during school activities.  When they wanted to participate in talent shows, my wife would stay up all night to get their costumes or props ready, if necessary.  She read to them every night before they went to bed.  I was often still at work.  Owning my own traditional business, a software company, was one of those dreams that didn't turn out as expected--it owned me for 7 years.

So, what is it that you would love to be doing?
Writing a book?  Children's books?  Novel?
Riding horses?
Traveling the world?
Founding and working your own charitable foundation?
New car every year?
Volunteering at Hospice or other organizations?
New home?  Second home?  Lake home?
Missionary work?

Whatever it is that you would love to be doing, you need to identify it.  That will give you a purpose and reason, to develop a plan to attain that goal or dream.

If you never develop the plan (the goals) to achieve what you want, you will never attain them.  Define and set goals.  Work to achieve those goals.  Be focused and never quit.  Applying these principles in your pursuit of happiness is critical.

Have a great day!

Do You Write Goals?

For years, I told people that I didn't need to write goals down.  I was successful climbing the Corporate ladder and receiving promotions.  How dumb was I?  But, I have changed!

I changed and things started happening for me.  I was never taught during my school years that it was necessary to write goals.  Sure, people told me that you need to have goals, but I was never told that you need to write specific goals down and read them daily.  I am still working on making this an every day routine.  It hasn't become a habit yet, but I'm a lot better at it than I used to be.

There are multiple ways to do this.

• Writing a specific goal and posting it in a prominent place that you look at daily
• Write a movie script that describes what a perfect day for you would be like--smells, sites, people around you, the location, etc.
• Write affirmations on a 3"x5" card that are positive statements to get you thinking positively

No matter how you do it, there are a few key points that are important in everyone of these!

1. You must write or speak in the present tense, not future
2. You must be as specific as possible with exact amounts of money or whatever the exact goal is, and the exact day on which you expect to achieve the goal
3. You must read your statement(s) daily
4. They must be achievable

Another way to have a visual motivation is to create a Vision Board or Dream Board.  This poster will have pictures of things that represent what you want most in life, whether that is a specific car, travel to certain countries, vacation with the family, a new home, a new television, or whatever.

The important thing is that you must do one or more of things on a daily basis so that you will always remember why you are living life and what you are working to gain!  If we have nothing to gain, we lose motivation very quickly.

Education Stifles Creativity

When I started teaching this concept in a dream building workshop, I had no idea how many websites supported this concept.

Studies show that by the age of 5, children use 80% of their creative capacity!  Yes, 80%!  By the age of 12, young people use 2%!  Not much creativity, huh?  Most people live the rest of their lives only using 2% of their creative capacity. 

So what happened between age 5 and age 12?  Education!

Education is necessary for everyone to succeed in life.  At the same time, we must not let education destroy our ability to be imaginative and spontaneous!  Our education system teaches us how to be conformists!  We are taught that we must speak or act a certain way to be acceptable in society.

If you are taught what to do and how to do it, how creative can you be?  There is not much room for expressing your personality in that plan.

I totally bought into this whole process when I was young.  I was class president my junior and senior years in high school.  I was also Student Council President and Salutatorian.  I graduated from Oklahoma State University in 3.5 years with a double-major in Business Management and Business Administration.  I climbed the corporate ladder over a 30-year career.  I have been happily married for over 36 years, with 3 children, the typical middle class, American family.

But then I became part of the #1 Company in network marketing.  I started seeing many young couples who taught dream building workshops and how we need to write goals and read them daily.  Their success spoke for itself.  They were living the life they were promoting, so I finally told my analytical self, "Shut up and listen!"  I started writing goals, even a movie script, and reading them daily, and it has been totally life changing.  Below is a picture of my work truck today.

Now I am the non-conformist in my neighborhood!

I'm not afraid to be different.  My wife has always had a promoter personality, but it has been a transformation for me.  But, I was able to leave Corporate America at age 53, so it has been so worth it!

You must take action to make your dreams a reality!

Most People Love Fridays!

It's the day you've been waiting for--Friday.  At 5:00 p.m. the weekend starts!  Do you have some big plans?  Gwen and I are heading to Houston on Saturday morning.  We will be with our kids.  That's what is important to us. 

My first, long-term goal after diagnosis was to live long enough to see all of my kids graduate high school.  Well, they have all graduated college now, so my goal has been far exceeded. 

Set goals for yourself!  Maybe you want to 'fire your boss' some day.  Whatever your goal is, write it done and read it twice a day-morning and evening.  Keep it constantly in front of you.  The great part about having built a solid, residual income with USANA is that Mondays are just like Fridays or Saturdays.  We enjoy the 'time freedom' to sleep in; set our own schedules and to help others succeed.

Have a great weekend!  I'll post again on Monday!