Archives for posts with tag: goals
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Imperfect Conclusions

December 31, 2015 //
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Ok so if we tally up your resolutions from last year you should:

  • Have the body of your dreams
  • Be financially independent
  • Do charity work 3 times a week
  • Have written that novel

No? Me either. But that’s ok. I’ll be honest, I’m going to add those resolutions right back on my list again this year. I’m not upset that things didn’t turn out perfectly last year. My ideal plan didn’t work out the way I thought it would. But why would I let an imperfect conclusion make me feel like a failure?

I worked at each of my resolutions. And any action is better than no action at all. I may have not come as far as other people, but I also know I have done more than others. But regardless of how other compare, I was writing my own story.  

Life is always a work in progress. Even if you do achieve your ideal body, will you maintain it? I fluctuate, because I like beer and wings, and football Sundays. I don’t beat myself up about it. I enjoy it, then I use my other time to lace up my running shoes and hit the streets. I am not a financial savant. I enjoy traveling, going to restaurants, and building on my hobbies. It’s ok!

Life happens. You are never “there.” You don’t reach any certain point and just stop. You should be always working at something, trying to improve, and be setting new goals. But it’s ok to pause momentarily (a day, a weekend, sometimes even a couple months), assess and regroup, then react. That’s not a major setback. Football teams huddle and regroup, race cars have to enter the pits and refuel, people need a day of rest.

So don’t kick yourself and tell yourself that last year was horrible. And don’t think that it was all be fixed in 2016. 2015 may have had its imperfect conclusions, but so will next year, and the year after that. Keep fighting, keep regrouping, keep using each year as one step to the next. 5, 10, maybe 20 years from now you will look back and see how far you have come.

Cheers to the next step!  

Happy New Years to all!

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Categories mindset, Values

There is no playbook for life

September 2, 2015 //
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It would be nice to know which decision you were supposed to make each step of the way as you move through life. But life is not that simple. We all get to have different experiences, different emotions, different goals, and different preferences, You always have to be true to your own heart and follow your own path.

Even those closest to you may question your decisions and not see what you see, but that’s ok, because it’s not their path. People get caught up trying to model the path they have seen others take, regardless if it seems like the best option. But people see a path that has already been forged easier than blazing their own.

Have you ever taken a vacation? Which is more fun, experiencing things on your own and finding hidden gems or following the path and suggestions that someone else has provided for you? Both may be fun, but in the latter you are riding on the heels of those before you. Don’t be afraid to to be your own explorer.

Life is your book to write. And it has to be written to your standards. Anything less will leave you displeased. This means you may have to make the unpopular decision at times, take the path least recommended, and go against peoples advice.

But remember, this is your story to tell. Be true to yourself.

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Categories Career, mindset, Relationships

What’s your excuse ? 

May 11, 2015 //
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“Where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways. Where it is unwilling, it will find a thousand excuses.”

~Arlen Price

 Liberiansoccer.com

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Categories mindset, quotes, social, sports

Where is your bar set? 

April 1, 2015 //
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Do you live your life in mediocrity, staying with what you know, remaining in your comfort zone because you know you already have that figured out, or do you push yourself to your limits, trying something new, risking possible failure, but always reaching for a little bit more? 

Everyone likes sucess. When you do something well it’s easy to smile and pat yourself on the back. So why do we get cozy and stagnant? Once we make the climb we reach the plateau, but then what? Do you stay there? I hope not!

How about basking in your glory for a moment and then setting up for the next challenge. You can continue to do well with what you know or push the limits and risk doing “just ok” while you embrace a new skill. Soon that too will become easy, and should again become part of your foundation for the next challenge. 

If your always doing well and are acing  the challenge, maybe your bar is set too low. 

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Categories Career, mindset, sports

Be your own architect 

March 4, 2015 //
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It always sucks to be the new guy – in any career field or job. It was especially hard for me because I’m so impatient by nature. I remember being mad that I wasn’t old enough to enter my field. And when I finally did, I was always in awe of my mentors stories, resumes, and accomplishments. 

Even people I knew who didn’t have formal educations had so much work experience, and life experience for that matter! That had real world expertise doing all the things I couldn’t wait to do – things that I dreamt of having the opportunity to do. 

Recently I was gathering some paperwork for some possible new ventures and had to gather my resume and transcripts. And I have to say it was a little ego boost. Not because I wanted to run through the streets bragging about anything but because I sat there and looked at classes I had taken, awards I had received, and it all led to different professional milestones in my life. 

After looking over everything I was very proud of myself for chasing my dream. I was the architect of my life. But not everything was perfect. I found “F’s” in some classes and old applications for jobs I didn’t get. But it made me smile to know that I tried and didn’t have to wonder what might have been. 

Don’t ever hesitate to chase your dreams. Go after what you want – because you want it. Don’t follow a path that someone else wants you to or deny yourself your dream because someone else thinks it won’t be good for you. You need to be the architect of your life, chase your dreams, and be able to look back and smile at all that you achieve. 

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Categories Career, mindset, Professional networks

2015 – 52 WEEK CHALLENGE

January 14, 2015 //
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So we are a couple weeks into the new year. You probably already had time to blow off some of your resolutions. Egh maybe next year .. No! Here is my challenge to you. (I wish I could take credit for this, but I owe it to a friend on Facebook.) Anyway, it very simple, it’s all you and and there is only one rule: try something new each week for a year. At the end of the year you will have 52 new experiences to reminisce about.

I have friends that are trying to visit a new place each week. I amended it slightly for my tastes by simply saying: do something new each week.

So for the first week, we spotted a coupon for a quirky rotating sushi bar in the area. We have probably driven by it a thousand times but picked a day and made it a point to go. It was pretty cool! Sure, I’ve had better sushi, but I had never been to a rotating sushi bar.

The second week we were feeling lazy and preparing for one of us to go out of town. So we picked a new recipe to cook. Nothing crazy, chicken Parmesan. But neither of us had ever made it from scratch. It’s actually pretty simple. And when my coworkers saw and smelled my lunch, they were pretty impressed.

So don’t over complicate it. Just do something new. Watch a foreign film, pick a direction and drive for a few hours, make a date of it or try to meet someone when you are on your adventure, just do something new to expand your world. You might find some new things to like. Or at least you’ll know for sure what you don’t like.

Break the routine, crawl out of that rut. Maybe you will be the world most interesting man!

One more thing: take pictures! Post your new experiences on social media. Think of the fun it will to look back at your year.!

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Categories social

What controls YOUR direction?

January 12, 2015 //
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“If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

-unknown

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Categories mindset, quotes

Who’s more prepared: you or your competition?

October 1, 2014 //
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When you don’t get what you want who’s fault is it? How often do you ever walk away from a failure second guessing yourself and not being able to find one area of improvement ? Most times there is something more you could have done. You could have started preparing earlier. You could have focused more. You could have pushed harder.

There are a lot of times I cut my workout short because I am ready to move on to the next item on my to-do list. Or I push a project to the back burner because something else grabs my interest. Even if we don’t vocalize it, we often prioritize things in our minds simply by our actions. And it will show in our end product. Other times, you will walk away knowing you did absolutely everything in your power to give it your best, you will knock it out of the park. You will know the feeling of true success when you feel the power of your hard work manifest itself in you reaching your goal.

If you know you had nothing more to give – you truly had no more energy to dedicate to your goal, not one more minute was available to work on that project, and you know you couldn’t have started preparing any earlier, and it still doesn’t work out – then know you gave it your best shot, and it just wasn’t meant to be.

Don’t dwell on failures – your competition for your next goal is already hard at work.

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Categories Career, mindset, sports

What are you willing to do?

September 29, 2014 //
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“Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.”

~Vince Lombardi

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Categories Career, health, mindset, quotes, sports

Be your own underdog

August 27, 2014 //
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How dedicated are you to your goals? Would you have pushed through and fought on or given up?

Shared from: http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com/sylvester-stallone-story.html

The Sylvester Stallone story is a true rags to riches tale. He rose from an almost impossible situation to the fame and fortune that he now enjoys.

I love to hear stories like this one, this story is rather inspirational. I aim to give a bit of a reminder to everyone that no matter what circumstances you may find yourself in, there is always a way to turn things around if you’re committed.

I will give a brief outline of the Sylvester Stallone story as best I can from what I have gathered through my reading about him.

The Sylvester Stallone story begins

Stallone attended school in suburban Philadelphia where he first started acting. He then spent two years instructing at the American college of Switzerland in Geneva. When he arrived back in the United States he became a drama major at the University of Miami where he also began to write.

He left college before graduation and moved to New York to pursue his acting career. He auditioned for almost every casting agent in town with no success. He decided to turn more towards writing and wrote many screenplays while waiting for his acting career to blossom.

In 1974 he got a break as one of the leads in “The Lords of Flatbush”. He also received his first writing credit for additional dialogue on this film.

Despite this small break he struggled to build momentum. He kept auditioning with one rejection after the next. He started writing more screenplays and received similar rejection.

Stallone had run out of money and was living in a desperate situation. He could barely even feed his family. Then one day he was walking through the streets of New York and he wandered into the library to keep warm. This became a regular habit for him during the colder months.

During his time at the library he began reading books from writers such as Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe. This gave him a bit of an extra edge in his writing endeavours and so he pursued this more and more.

By this stage he was desperate to get work but he wouldn’t take an average job, he knew his outcome, he wanted to be an actor and that was it.

He resorted to many regrettable things like hocking his wife’s jewellery. I mean seriously, there are some things you should never do, you could get killed for something like that.

Stallone had run out of money and was living in a desperate situation. He could barely even feed his family. Then one day he was walking through the streets of New York and he wandered into the library to keep warm. This became a regular habit for him during the colder months.

During his time at the library he began reading books from writers such as Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe. This gave him a bit of an extra edge in his writing endeavours and so he pursued this more and more.

By this stage he was desperate to get work but he wouldn’t take an average job, he knew his outcome, he wanted to be an actor and that was it.

He resorted to many regrettable things like hocking his wife’s jewellery. I mean seriously, there are some things you should never do, you could get killed for something like that.

The Sylvester Stallone story continues…

One day Stallone was sitting at home watching a fight between Weppner and Ali. Weppner was getting absolutely slaughtered but kept holding his ground and coming back for more. This underdog was really fighting for it despite the slim chance he would even get close to winning.

This inspired Stallone to begin writing based on his inspiration from this fighter. He wrote for over 24 hours straight and after this time he had written the entire script to Rocky.

He began trying to sell the screenplay to many producers with enormous numbers of rejections. This went on for months.

He was so poor by this time that he decided he had to sell his best friend, his dog. Stallone waited outside of a local liquor store asking people if they would buy his dog. Eventually someone bought the dog for around $50. He was devastated to have to do this.

He kept pursuing this story that he had written. Eventually someone loved it and they agreed to do the movie. He was wrapped and told them that he wanted to play the part of Rocky.

They declined and told him he was a writer not an actor. Stallone disagreed and told them he was an actor. He declined their offer of over $100 000 despite his current poverty.

A couple of weeks later they contacted him with an even higher offer and Stallone still insisted that he play Rocky. They once again declined. Was he nuts? I mean the man was poor, he could barely even eat.

The offer kept rising just so he would sell them the film without playing the part. The price eventually got to around $400 000 and still he declined. He was certain that he was actor and that was it, there was no compromise.

Eventually they offered Stallone a measly $25000 so they weren’t throwing their money away by having him as the lead role. He accepted. Then the first thing he did was go back to the liquor store to buy back his dog.

He waited 3 days for the guy to come by and finally there he was with his dog. He offered the guy $150 to buy back the dog, the man declined. The offer kept rising, but again, Stallone knew his outcome and kept pursuing his goal.

It ended up costing him $15000 and a part in the movie to buy back his dog. The guy and the dog are in Rocky.

Of course we all know what happened with the Rocky movie. It won the Academy Award for best picture in 1976. At the awards ceremony he read out all the rejection slips from those who said the film would be sappy, predictable and a film that no one would want to watch.

How’s that for a story of triumph? It shows that you have all the resources you need to overcome any obstacle and achieve any aim you have in life, no matter what your age, background, colour or gender is.

True persistence pays off every time in every circumstance. Persistence will fight off failure faster than skill or luck ever could. Just ask Sylvester Stallone, he persisted and knew his outcome and look where he is today, he is living his dream.

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Categories Career, mindset, Values
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