2012 Resolution Success

What is the Vision for your resolution?

Do you want to lose weight, save money, get a new job; start your own business?

The possibilities are endless...

2013 can be the year to achieve even the biggest dreams! Or at least make headway towards the BIG DREAM.

Our New Year's resolutions are often times an attempt to remove the distractions in our lives that we know are preventing us from achieving our big dreams. We use the "point in time" as a marker for a fresh start. Often times we bolt out of the starting gate like a man on fire, with pure enthusiasm and intention. As time passes, the enthusiasm fades - and the good intentions fall to the wayside.

That's why it is so important to develop a plan of action, with target dates, milestones, and ways to measure success and progress. The plan creates a framework with enough flexibility to keep you on track and focused on the end goal even when unexpected events might otherwise totally derail your progress.

So... if your vision is to look like Janet Jackson after the Rhythm Nation tour - then sitting on the couch eating chocolates leftover from Christmas is not going to get you there. (Of course, I am speaking to myself.)

I’m fairly confident my big dreams do not require abs of steel, so instead, I am going to implement the changes that I know, based on experience, I need to make.

My action plan is to return to my pre-holiday habits of eating healthier, drinking more fluids, and getting more exercise, while enjoying this sunny southern California paradise I am blessed to call home.

The most important aspect of the plan is ownership. I need to own it, stick to it, and get back on the proverbial wagon when I fall off and find the occasional delicious red velvet cupcake smashed into my face.

Take ownership for your own success, have a plan of action - don't allow the events, people, and circumstances outside yourself prevent you from being successful.

Shiny things along the way get us off track and somehow we end up at the end of the new year in the same place or sometimes even further away from the dream.

This year, develop an action plan, so that next year instead of issuing the same old resolutions - you can replace them with new resolutions taking you even closer to the BIG DREAM!

Do you have an action plan for your resolutions?

2011 winding down... Did you achieve your goals?

January 1, 2012 is fast approaching... Where did the year go? Seems like yesterday (well maybe not yesterday, but you get the jist) that we were all talking and tweeting about the topic of 1-1-11, 1-11-11, 11-1-11, and 11-11-11.

In January (1-11), I made a decision to move to sunny southern California from snow-Hio (Ohio) before 11-1-11. I developed a plan of action, I took steps towards it's achievement, and as it turns out - I achieved my goal 2 months early, making the relocation happen on 9/1/11.

It's been a busy, whirlwind, but exciting year for me. As I reflect on the year, and all that was accomplished, I cannot help but go into the New Year with excitement and anticipation as to all the possibilities for the goals I am targeting to accomplish this year.

In 2012, I am going to set the mark higher - so that I have to stretch to achieve them on time! (A little pressure never hurt anyone, right?)

My relocation was a personal goal.

I had a vision for how it could happen, I developed an action plan on the steps that I believed were required to achieve it, and I achieved my goals, in a way that exceeded my own expectations.

The funny thing about my plan of action - the more I believed in the vision that I had for making the move effortlessly and with ease, the easier and more effortless the plan became to fulfill.

It's like the Universe just put the right people, places, and things in my path to get to the next step more quickly.

Do you have a goal to achieve in the coming year? Do you need help developing an action plan?

Let's chat!

Analyze --> Next Phase of Improvement

In my last blog: Improve Your Approach - Improve Your Life we explored the first two phases of the improvement process, and how to use the DMAIC approach to improve your life.

In this blog we move on to the most important phase in my opinion - Analyze.
"Where and When do "defects" occur." In this case, where do the choices and decisions in your life process breakdown?

In the process of our life, we must analyze why we make choices that do not support the attainment of the goals we set for ourselves. Often times, we are our own worst enemy towards goal attainment. We get distracted, make excuses, and rationalize why we must make choices that do not support our long term goals.

For whatever reason, we often start out on the path to our goals with a great deal of motivation and excitement, and as time passes, our desire and ambition fade away, along with the vision we are striving to achieve.

So, why do we do what we do? Because we do not hold ourselves accountable. We find a way to blame the circumstances, surroundings, or people around us for our lack of success.

For instance, in the case of weightloss - we blame the office potluck, lack of time, and sometimes the DNA of our parents on our inability to make good food choices for ourselves. When in reality, we have the ability to choose.

Here's where a life coach comes in handy. A life coach provides you with the tools and activities you need and works with you to analyze why you have breakdowns in your choices and how you can stay on track and remain accountable for your own success.

Do you need help improving your life process? Let's chat!

Whose Expectation is it Anyway?

Life is full of expectations. Our bosses, spouses, parents, teachers, children, friends and even perfect strangers all have expectations of us and we have expectations of our bosses, spouses, parents, teachers, children, friends and even perfect strangers as well.

Sounds fair enough.

You have expectations of me - and I have expectations of you. But how effective are we really at communicating our expectations?

Not very, based on all the anger, disappointments, and hurt there is in the world today. If you are asking, what does one have to do with the other, let me explain.

Why does someone get angry, disappointed, or hurt? Because their expectations are not met. They had an expectation of a particular outcome, and that outcome did not come to fruition, so they experience the anger, dissappointment, or hurt depending on the situation at hand.

In those instances where our expectations are met, we are able to allow ourselves to be happy, feel joy, love and be at peace.

In some cases, the "agent of the pain" is aware of the expectations, and in other cases we assume that they should automatically understand and agree to our unspoken or poorly communicated expectations.

In either case, the opportunity lies in recognizing that just because you have an expectation of somebody or something it does not necessarily mean that the something or somebody is willing or able to meet your expectations.

We live our best lives when we do not allow the outside circumstances or situations and missed expectations determine how we feel about our lives, about ourselves, and about the people and world around us and instead take ownership for our reaction to the situation or circumstance.

The best expectation is the one you place on yourself; that demands you have a positive outlook and attitude regardless of the situation or circumstance. When we can adequately and consistently meet this, our own expectation of ourselves, we will have satisfied ourselves - thus giving ourselves the permission to be happy.