Motivation or lack of can be the single most deterrent to following and achieving a person's goals and dreams. Here are five tips for adding motivation to your well to keep your eyes on the prize.
Setting Deadlines – By using deadlines you have a concrete date to focus on. Knowing that the clock is ticking can help you to get started working toward your goals everyday. This also gives you a guideline to set a schedule that can hold you accountable. Very effective for those that are unorganized.
Regrets – Think about your life five years or more into the future, and how you will feel if you have not completed that goal. Will you have regrets? Will you hate yourself? Will your life still be the same as it is presently?
Incentives – Determine what are some things that you enjoy in life. Not necessarily the day to day pleasures but things that you may only get once in awhile, a vacation, shopping spree, a day to the spa. Promise yourself that if you reach a specific milestone in the attainment of your goal you will treat yourself to that ------!
Set short term goals – How do you eat an elephant? It doesn't matter as long as you take one bite at a time. Our goals are usually the size of an elephant and requires that you cut it into small pieces. You can use this to increase your motivation by the completion of the smaller goals. Each time you complete a smaller goal you can see the progress you've made and this will in turn motivate you to keep going.
Find a coach - Finding a person that you can trust and hold you accountable is a great way to stay motivated. When the chips are down and your feeling lazy a coach can push you to reach your full potential.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Find the way to make it possible.
My son expressed his goal to play professional hockey the other day. As cool as I thought it was I couldn't sleep the following night. I was thinking about the reality of it. We live in Denver and he's nine years old and just started ice skating a month ago. The chances of him even playing semi-pro at this rate is, almost impossible. I lie awake thinking and wondering how I could help him go after his dream even if impossible. Then I started focusing on the possible instead of the impossible. I asked myself what is the main skill required in hockey. Skating. He has rollerblades so he can skate everyday (barring weather). So I got out of bed and started a plan.
1. We have to improve his skating. So I decided to schedule him to skate 40 minutes everyday. 20 minutes in the morning before school and 20-40 minutes after school. This will increase his skating skill level as well as see if he really wants to work for it.
2. We have to improve his hockey skills. I felt that skating was more important now but he can watch games and videos now to see the proper way to do things so when he can practice hockey skills he will have a visual reference.
3. Lay down the rules and expectations. I'm an avid hockey fan and would love nothing more than to see my son play pro hockey. However, I let him know the rules. He is in charge no matter what. When it comes to playing hockey he could never let me down and that I was a friend and not daddy. I wanted him to remember to have fun and not do it to impress me.
All of this happened last Sunday. So this week we hit the park every morning at 7:00 am for 20 minutes. After five days I see dramatic improvement and the hard work and dedication he has gained during it. He has taken my instruction, and the videos and really improved.
Seeing him work hard this week before and after school has really inspired me. The point I'm trying to make is that many times we want to achieve something that could be impossible. Our goal and duty to ourselves is to first determine how to make it possible, and then find a support system to help us make it happen and go after it with all we have.
Only time will tell if he makes it to the pros. Regardless this week has taught him that whatever he wants in life can be achieved by setting a goal and going for it.
1. We have to improve his skating. So I decided to schedule him to skate 40 minutes everyday. 20 minutes in the morning before school and 20-40 minutes after school. This will increase his skating skill level as well as see if he really wants to work for it.
2. We have to improve his hockey skills. I felt that skating was more important now but he can watch games and videos now to see the proper way to do things so when he can practice hockey skills he will have a visual reference.
3. Lay down the rules and expectations. I'm an avid hockey fan and would love nothing more than to see my son play pro hockey. However, I let him know the rules. He is in charge no matter what. When it comes to playing hockey he could never let me down and that I was a friend and not daddy. I wanted him to remember to have fun and not do it to impress me.
All of this happened last Sunday. So this week we hit the park every morning at 7:00 am for 20 minutes. After five days I see dramatic improvement and the hard work and dedication he has gained during it. He has taken my instruction, and the videos and really improved.
Seeing him work hard this week before and after school has really inspired me. The point I'm trying to make is that many times we want to achieve something that could be impossible. Our goal and duty to ourselves is to first determine how to make it possible, and then find a support system to help us make it happen and go after it with all we have.
Only time will tell if he makes it to the pros. Regardless this week has taught him that whatever he wants in life can be achieved by setting a goal and going for it.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Slow progress is not failure!
Don't mistake slow progress for failure!
I started this blog with the purpose of inspiring and motivating action while helping people to live life to the fullest each and every moment we are given the opportunity. Born from a twice failed magazine by the same name, I will write Grow To Be with the intention of providing a voice and source of inspiration from a point of view of understanding the difficulty in following ones dreams on a daily basis. Know that I to will be on the same beautiful struggle to reaching my potential minute by minute, hour by hour that you face daily.
After failing to reach my goal of starting a magazine twice I will accomplish what I set out to do with this blog. My goal was, and after failure, remains simple to inspire. I believe that we all were put here for a purpose and once we determine what our destiny is we have to "Grow to be" that person. The journey will be filled with many success and failures but the key is to never stop. With this blog I will feature interviews, stories, quotes, feature guest writers Monday through Friday. I want to showcase information of success as well as failure and how we use both to reach our potential to grow and be.
I believe that my purpose for being here is to use my talents of writing, art and speaking to motivate. With Grow To Be I will provide a daily spark that can be used anyway necessary to assist you with continuing your daily routine, getting started, or the support of someone else who works daily to achieve life's purpose.
With that said please enjoy the blog and your feedback and ideas are appreciated!
I started this blog with the purpose of inspiring and motivating action while helping people to live life to the fullest each and every moment we are given the opportunity. Born from a twice failed magazine by the same name, I will write Grow To Be with the intention of providing a voice and source of inspiration from a point of view of understanding the difficulty in following ones dreams on a daily basis. Know that I to will be on the same beautiful struggle to reaching my potential minute by minute, hour by hour that you face daily.
After failing to reach my goal of starting a magazine twice I will accomplish what I set out to do with this blog. My goal was, and after failure, remains simple to inspire. I believe that we all were put here for a purpose and once we determine what our destiny is we have to "Grow to be" that person. The journey will be filled with many success and failures but the key is to never stop. With this blog I will feature interviews, stories, quotes, feature guest writers Monday through Friday. I want to showcase information of success as well as failure and how we use both to reach our potential to grow and be.
I believe that my purpose for being here is to use my talents of writing, art and speaking to motivate. With Grow To Be I will provide a daily spark that can be used anyway necessary to assist you with continuing your daily routine, getting started, or the support of someone else who works daily to achieve life's purpose.
With that said please enjoy the blog and your feedback and ideas are appreciated!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Homeless
My family and i was recently evicted from our payment due to non payment. Everyone around me family and society has suddenly deemed me an outcast and deadbeat. Whats interesting is I got evicted because i took a chance at achieving my goal of starting Grow To Be magazine (written to inspire people to achieve their dreams) Which by the way will launch Nov 15th. I pushed to sell ad space to produce a hard copy 20k and pay the bills. Obviously i came up short. Okay really short.
But as we exited our asbestos filled apartment i started to realize several things. The first being that we shouldnt have moved into those damn buildings in the first place. But most importantly that i was finally on the path to believing in myself and my ideas. Although i failed at achieving my financial goal for the magazine and our living I did accomplish pulling together a group of writers, photographers, and editors to create the first issue. Which means i can do it again. The most important lesson is that now that ive hit the bottom i can only go up. Which has given me such a postitive attitude and tremendous amount of confidence that i know our situation will change in a matter of days.
My path lead me to downtown denver the other day to promote my magazine and i was asking people did they Grow to be what they wanted. And it was interesting to see the pain in their answers. I mean Im homeless and positive and happy in creating my magazine and the majority of people who treated me as a human and stopped complained. They had regrets, and some even envyied me. They had "safe jobs" making money and living in their own places and envyied me for following my dreams. It was this day that helped me and reaffirmed my belief in my goals and dreams!!!! Ultimately i have learned that SLOW PROGRESS SHOULDN'T BE MISTAKEN FOR FAILURE!!!
But as we exited our asbestos filled apartment i started to realize several things. The first being that we shouldnt have moved into those damn buildings in the first place. But most importantly that i was finally on the path to believing in myself and my ideas. Although i failed at achieving my financial goal for the magazine and our living I did accomplish pulling together a group of writers, photographers, and editors to create the first issue. Which means i can do it again. The most important lesson is that now that ive hit the bottom i can only go up. Which has given me such a postitive attitude and tremendous amount of confidence that i know our situation will change in a matter of days.
My path lead me to downtown denver the other day to promote my magazine and i was asking people did they Grow to be what they wanted. And it was interesting to see the pain in their answers. I mean Im homeless and positive and happy in creating my magazine and the majority of people who treated me as a human and stopped complained. They had regrets, and some even envyied me. They had "safe jobs" making money and living in their own places and envyied me for following my dreams. It was this day that helped me and reaffirmed my belief in my goals and dreams!!!! Ultimately i have learned that SLOW PROGRESS SHOULDN'T BE MISTAKEN FOR FAILURE!!!
Friday, June 15, 2007
I threw away the winning lottery ticket!
I threw away the winning lottery ticket!
The realtiy of a self-employed bum
Have you ever had the winning lottery ticket and didn't cash it in? Have you ever had the ability to make something positive happen in your life but chose to not act. This is something that we all experience. I personally have a business idea that can not only put food on the table, keep my family and i from being evicted, but propel us into a higher tax bracket. Unfortunately it wasn't the right path, why am I reading this guys post he's an idiot you may be thinking to yourself. Well I have to agree with you to a certain extent. However let me finish my point. I could also easily go get a corporate gig and do the same thing, but would i be happy? Hell no. So the idea I had, I did work it and actually made money. One phone call made me $1200. But my heart wasn't in it and I begin to hate the situation. More importantly this idea was not finish being created in my mind. I saw the dollar signs and jumped in to fast. And after grinding my wheels in this unfinished goldmine I had to swallow my pride and haul it all in. This my seem easy to stop a business but I actually had to return checks. All the while hungry. But I quickly understood that it was the right idea just wrong focus.
"To be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top!" M Garvey
I came across that quote last night while reading and it immediately reminded me of the many times I have failed in business, life, and love. And how each time it hurt or embarrassed me and caused me to second guess myself. But through it all I haven't given up my goals and dreams. Something that I can honestly say I didn't realize until reading this quote. During my quest to start an independent entertainment and promotions company I have made several bad decisions, that failed and caused me to lose money. But through it all I always found a way to dust myself off and fight back. And through it all I have refined my idea to where it was supposed to be to make me happy and content with life and allow me to make the impact I was put here to make.
Read the quote and write down the greatest comeback you have had after a failure. And I challenge you to honestly look at your life and determine if you are on the correct path and if your happy with what you grew to be.
The realtiy of a self-employed bum
Have you ever had the winning lottery ticket and didn't cash it in? Have you ever had the ability to make something positive happen in your life but chose to not act. This is something that we all experience. I personally have a business idea that can not only put food on the table, keep my family and i from being evicted, but propel us into a higher tax bracket. Unfortunately it wasn't the right path, why am I reading this guys post he's an idiot you may be thinking to yourself. Well I have to agree with you to a certain extent. However let me finish my point. I could also easily go get a corporate gig and do the same thing, but would i be happy? Hell no. So the idea I had, I did work it and actually made money. One phone call made me $1200. But my heart wasn't in it and I begin to hate the situation. More importantly this idea was not finish being created in my mind. I saw the dollar signs and jumped in to fast. And after grinding my wheels in this unfinished goldmine I had to swallow my pride and haul it all in. This my seem easy to stop a business but I actually had to return checks. All the while hungry. But I quickly understood that it was the right idea just wrong focus.
"To be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top!" M Garvey
I came across that quote last night while reading and it immediately reminded me of the many times I have failed in business, life, and love. And how each time it hurt or embarrassed me and caused me to second guess myself. But through it all I haven't given up my goals and dreams. Something that I can honestly say I didn't realize until reading this quote. During my quest to start an independent entertainment and promotions company I have made several bad decisions, that failed and caused me to lose money. But through it all I always found a way to dust myself off and fight back. And through it all I have refined my idea to where it was supposed to be to make me happy and content with life and allow me to make the impact I was put here to make.
Read the quote and write down the greatest comeback you have had after a failure. And I challenge you to honestly look at your life and determine if you are on the correct path and if your happy with what you grew to be.
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