Ok, let me explain. You have written down your goals. Now you need to find a great way to keep on top of them. You absolutely need to FOLLOW UP!

You are all psyched to lose weight, save money or have less stress in your life.

Here is what you need to do. Find a good friend that will ask you a set of 5-10 questions each night that are relevant to your goals. Then have them phone you every night and ask you the questions. They in a sense become a great life coach for you. To make it fair, do the same thing for them. An example of questions might be.

Did you at eat foods filled with sugar today?

How long did you walk today?

How much time did you spend writing today?

How many minutes did you waste today on something that adds 0 value to your life?

How much money did you spend on stuff you really don’t need today?

If you get sick and tired of the questions then GREAT! That means you will want to make a change. Once you begin changing the questions get much easier to answer.

So think about. The main cause that we fail at our goals is lack of follow up. Right? Right.

Now go find that friend (or coach) that will follow up with you. It’s a simple solution to the biggest reason why we fail at our goals.

I’ve decided to give myself a serious attitude adjustment by understanding my daily habits and finding out how they REALLY make me feel. Do they motivate me? Inspire me? Make me content? Am I learning? Do I find meaning in what I do? This weekend I’ve visited my Dad, slept in a bit, read a few books, downloaded some new music, and wrote this article. Here is what I’m looking for.

Contentment. We usually refer to this as happiness, but I like the word contentment. It’s that fuzzy warm feeling, like a warm blanket wrapped around you on a cold day while reading a good book.

Meaning. Is what I’m doing providing me meaning? Will it benefit me long term?

Knowledge. Am I learning from this activity? Is it opening my eyes to new things?

Pride. Am I proud of what I’m doing? Do I feel accomplishment?  Is it making me better as person?

Inspire. Am I being inspired and motivated by my actions and behaviours?

Love. Am I becoming a more loving person?

Now I’ll list a few things I’ve done this weekend and rate them from a scale of 1-10.

Visiting my Dad.  Love -10. Pride -8,

Writing this article. Meaning -10. Pride- 10,  Inpsire- 10, Meainng -10

Sleeping in.  Pride 3, meaning 2,

Hmm, I did not work out, slept in and procrastinated on a few household tasks I was supposed to do.

As you can see certain activities are high and provide me with what I really want out of life. Some are showing that I’m wasting my time.

I challenge you to take a good look at your life and begin to see what daily habits are benefiting you the most both short and long term. List out these values and rate yourself. You may get your ass off the couch and begin to start building the life you really want.

I’m going to build a work sheet in the future for all of you to use.  I think it’s a fabulous idea.

Please retweet this article to all your good buddies  : )  Thanks!!

Excuses , self doubts, rationalizations all creep into our heads to try and stop us from achieving our goals.

I’ll get to it tomorrow.

It wasn’t a great idea anyways.

It’s not THAT important, I’ll get tested next year.

You are stronger than your mind. You are smarter than your mind. Don’t listen to it and just do it.

Lace up your running shoes. Throw that extra money into savings. Don’t buy the sweets. Leave the office at a regular hour. Call up your friend.

Ignore it, don’t argue, just do it. You’ll see it makes all the difference in the world.

It’s not enough to just set goals. Your goals must be aligned with your personal values. And these values that you cherish should drive you to better and bigger things every day. Whether your value is freedom, love, wealth, health or peace these values should evoke a feeling deep down in your core that drives you live the life you believe you deserve.  So wake up every day with your value behind every action you take.

My 2011 was a pretty good year.  I became more disciplined with my money, had good health, visited Disney World, finished my Dale Carnegie course, was invited to speak at a conference in Florida and bonded with my Dad.

For 2012 I look forward to better health as in deeper sleep and less weight. I would love to become a spiritual teacher (meditation, mindfulness, peace) and will work towards this. I will clear out a bunch of junk and simplify my life. I’ll continue with elliptical running machine and begin to weight train again. I will spend more time listening to sounds of nature and less time in the artificial world of computers, smart phones and the Internet.  I will cut down on information overload.

I hope you have all taken some thought as to what your 2012 will look like and would love if you used the tracker to write your vales and goals down.  Welcome to this site and I wish you all the best in 2012 and beyond.

Best Always

Terry

The amount of electronic devices that deliver information to us grows at an incredible rate. We have smart phones, tablets and don’t forget the lowly personal computer. Many people own all three devices. Billions of websites and hundreds of thousands of apps offer every imaginable type of information at the touch of our fingertips.

We text and Facebook our friends at an astonishing rate , spreading ourselves thin while losing those deep personal friendships that face to face camaraderie creates.

And don’t get me started about business productivity. We all know we are meant to produce at a high rate while the bulk of us don’t receive a raise near the rate of inflation.

Humans are meant to connect with nature. We need to find time to disconnect from the smart phones, take a walk in the woods, breath and clear our minds. I take a walk at lunch every day to get out of the office and see the horizon of the sky expand before me. I always come back in refreshed. I try to walk the dog as much as possible in the woods near my house.  Slowing down the information being thrown at us and reconnecting with nature is a simple change, yet is surprising how it puts a smile on your face and lifts a weary heart.

Seek true friends you can be honest and genuine with. I’m not sure if Facebook or texting is the best way to forge a deep friendship. Having heart to heart talks and opening up to someone, as well as having a shoulder to lean on, is essential to being a happy and well adjusted human being. Without close friends life is that much tougher and uncertain. Deep friendships allow us to express our fears, share laughs and celebrate victories. So the next time you think about texting or Facebooking how about meeting up for supper instead?

Less stress, more joy. It just takes a small effort every day.

If 80% of our time leads to only 20% of our most happy times, what can we do to better use our time?

I want you to really think about this now.

What activities bring you the greatest happiness? Why aren’t you focusing on these activities? Is watching television really bringing you happiness? What activities can you cut out?

Think about it. Start doing the things that truly make you happy right now.

List them out and make them lifetime habits.

Make sure you are passionate AND have the talent for something. You probably have a basic idea in your head of what your dream career is. And you probably know you aren’t going to be a movie star or pro basketball player.  You have an idea what your talents are. Now think about your passions. What are you talented AND passionate about? Once you figure THAT out you’ve discovered your dream career.

Research what it takes to start your dream career. You can’t just walk into a dream career and start right away.  Take some time to find out if you need training. Will it involve travel? Are you prepared to travel? Or maybe you have to relocate. These are all vital questions to research.

Make a list of what drives you crazy at your current job. In order to avoid falling in the same trap as you are in now, list everything that annoys you. If being stuck in a cubicle all day drives you batty write it down. If you staring at a computer screen all day gives you a nervous tick write that down too.  Will your dream career change these things? If yes….excellent!

Be prepared to sacrifice pay for happiness. Being happy in your new career is more important than the amount of money you will make.  If you think making more money is the key to happiness then you might severely limit your new career choices.  You usually don’t start at the top of your new career. You work your way up. But it should always be a happy journey.

Talk to your family and friends about your dream career. You need the support of your family to change careers. You need the advice of your close friends.  The people closest to you know you best. But in the end the decision is yours. Follow your heart.  Make the leap

…and fly

Reconnect with your humanness. Sitting quietly by the window at night allowed me to slow down and really connect with the world. Find your quiet time and learn to love it every day.

Remember to enjoy the journey. You are a human living in a world of many simple pleasures. I’ve been so focused on what this presentation might bring me in the future, I’ve forgotten to just enjoy the journey. It should be fun and creative not a worry for me.

Soft moments can bring a pure joy. When we slow down and breathe, when we just watch the world unfold, when we just BE , those can be the most precious moments in life. It isn’t always about others, it can be just about YOU. Discover your humanity, discover peace, and discover beauty. It’s all around you. We just bec0me too busy to notice.

Meditate. Find peace in the present moment. Learn to still your chattering mind.  There are so many ways to meditate these days. There is the traditional method of sitting still and paying attention to your outer breath.  Or download an app for your smart phone. I recently downloaded “ Meditation 4 Inner Wisdom” and loved its relaxing flow.

Don’t worry about stuff you can’t change. Work is incredibly demanding these days. Greece is falling apart. Winter is coming. I can either let these stressors roll around in my head like a mouse on a flywheel or pay attention to what I CAN change. What can you change in your life? Write it down and start making those changes. Let the rest of it go. Are you worrying about stuff you cannot change?  Let it go today and change what you have control over.

Exercise. I’ve been trying to lose 20 pounds with no results. I eat well but haven’t been eating fewer calories. Simple math. If I wish to continue to eat the same amount of calories I HAVE to exercise more. Today I got back on the elliptical running machine and did some weights. AND!!  And what? And exercise is one of the very best ways to reduce stress. It’s a double win! Let’s start an exercise routine today! One of the very best decisions you will have made, at any stage in your life.

Write your goals down. We constantly dream and plan in our heads. We stand around the water cooler and talk about living in a warmer climate, having more money or working in a dream career. Get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper! Make them concrete. Take the next step towards making them into reality. What is your biggest dream? What is the very next action you need to take to make your dream a reality? What is stopping you? Write it down today and write down the next step you need to take. Now you are on your way!!

One what?

One life change at a time.

Pick the one life change that will have the greatest impact to your life.

The bonus is that this one life change will positively impact other key areas of your life.

If you lose weight, you become healthier and more attractive.

If you reduce your debt you also reduce your stress.

If you become happier you will become more successful and improve your social life.

Don’t ever try to lose weight, reduce your debt, become happier AND learn to play the piano. Ever.

Pick one life change and write down a few mini goals to support that one change.

If you are using the My Life Changes Tracker, define who you are, define your most important core value and then define one major goal with a deadline. Then define the mini goals that will support that one major goal.

If your core personal value is Health then decide to lose 20 pounds by January 1st 2012.

Then make it a goal to not keep sweets in the house.

Then make it a goal to plan healthy meals every Sunday.

Then make it a goal to bring fruit to work as a snack.

Turn those mini goals into habits and you are on your way.

One life change at a time. Attack the one area of your life that will have the greatest impact.

Go ahead. I’m sure you already know what it is.

Now attack it with a laser like focus.