Category: Motivation

What Do Your Fears Cost?

Throughout our lives we experience success and failure. Events that shape us, and slowly create the bars of our cell. We build a cell based on our own success and failure. It is a comfort zone within which we live. Bar by bar, we build it.

The funny thing is we don’t realize we are caged. We enjoy our cell.

It is our fear that keeps us in the cell. We all have fears. People that say they don’t… well let’s just say they are afraid to admit their fears! Our fears are designed to keep us safe. But they can also keep us trapped, if we are not willing to test our limits.

As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

If you let fear control the size of your cell, your success will be limited. I like to ask myself, what is my fear costing me today? What am I missing when I fail to stretch beyond my comfort zone?

After some reflection this week, I have created a plan to step out of my comfort zone next week. The tasks I defined will not be easy. If I want to achieve my goals, I need to push myself to step out of my own cell.

Do you have a fear that is limiting you? Are you ready to step beyond your cell? Join me in creating a plan to break through next week.

Are You Negatively Affecting Others?

When I feel overwhelmed and overworked, I recognize that my attitude is affecting everyone that I encounter. Hiding a negative attitude is difficult.

I tell myself that being frustrated is selfish, and I try to let go of my frustration as quickly as possible. But there are times that I get overwhelmed with my commitments for day or the week. My attitude becomes negative.

For me, I think the worst days are when I struggle giving my time to others. Some days I need to give my full attention to my deadlines. Then when things don’t go according to plan, my attitude really begins to suffer.

I guess we all have days like that. Here are some thoughts on how to fix those days.

1. Talk with someone. Sharing my burdens helps me get things in perspective. My self-imposed deadlines are usually not as important as I thought. Sharing frustrations is a great method to clear your mind and move forward.

2. Share your calendar and to-do list. Sharing schedules and tasks with your team, your co-workers, and your family can open the door for shared responsibilities. On days when you have time, you can help others with their schedule and tasks. On days when you need help, maybe others will come to your rescue. Creating and sharing goals creates this opportunity. It can work great in all facets of life… work, home, community.

3. Find help. Find your needed resources and enlist their help. This is best as a long term solution. It is difficult to recruit help when you have no time. But if you can strategically develop resources that can help you at critical times, this approach can pay dividends for a long time.

4. Find a win to celebrate. Celebrating a small win is just what you need to alter your attitude from negative to positive. Sometimes all you need is a small push to overcome those negative feelings. I find that I have to seek these opportunities.

Next time you are frustrated and overwhelmed, put a smile on your face, and give these ideas a try.

Contentment or Driving Change?

I, like most people, want a better future. if you have a sense of optimism, you believe that the future will be better than the present. Unfortunately that means to have a better future, you have to change.

Keeping the status quo will not give you the future you desire.

But who likes change? We enjoy being content. Contentment feels good.

It is a daily battle. Charging forward with change and progress, or taking time to enjoy the life we have created for ourselves.

E.B White said it best. “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

I think it would be a great idea to do both. I could start by asking myself these two questions every day.

1. What can I do to improve my world today?

2. What can I do to enjoy my world today?

The answers are different for each of us. That is why I used the reference to “my world”. How would you answer those key questions for today?

For those that really want to have a better future, we have to fight through those moments of doubt, the fear of change, and the challenges. We can stuck on the enjoyment, and on our routines.

 

Preparing for Tomorrow May Be the Most Important Thing You Do Today

When you are out of shape, exercising is not fun. It hurts. It is hard. Out of shape people try to avoid it. However, when you are in shape, exercise is completely different. A fit person loves to exercise. They get a lift from the workout.

What is the difference? Preparation. Their body is prepared for the workout. It is ready, trained, and it performs well.

Isn’t that the way with everything in life? If we are prepared, we do well. We have opportunity. We are not afraid to jump in.

There is a great correlation between preparation and success. Do you agree? Then today, on your agenda, schedule time to prepare yourself for what you want to achieve tomorrow. And also time for what you want to achieve next week, next month, and next year.

Really? We are already busy. We already can’t get everything done. So what do we do?

It is your choice. You control your calendar. You can either continue to achieve your best day by day, or you invest some of your time preparing for a better tomorrow.