"Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can't get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, your not setting big enough goals."

Bob Proctor

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Hope this year isall you want it to be.  I've heard of two great ideas to start the year off right that I wanted to share with all  of you on this first day of 2014.

1) Pick a word that will guide you for the year.  Think about what you most want this year to be...and let your imagination help you come up with the word that's perfect. Then put that word
everywhere - on your phone, computer, bathroom mirror.  I haven't completely decided on mine yet but I'm leaning towards "unstoppable". 

Here's some suggestions to help you get started:

- confidence
- commitment
- sparkle
- believe
- smile
- shine
- trust
- harmony
- fearless
- hope
- patience
- joy

What will your word be?

2) Do the 365 Gratitude challenge. Use your cell phone to take a picture a day of one think you're grateful for.  The act of looking and noticing gratitude will shift the way you live your life. I've got lots more of these that I will be sharing this Saturday as part of my Positively Saturday Winter Series in Warren, RI.  This week is all about how to make the resolutions you make today last past the typical January 17 or Valentine's Day. A year from now you'll be proud of yourself for making the changes you always wanted.

Looks like the weather will be good too...grateful for that...I think I'll take a picture of the plowed road for my 365! :)

More info at http://PositivelySaturday.com



Happy 2014!  Keep shining!

What We Can Learn from the 2013 Boston Red Sox

There are some great stories and lessons coming out of the recent Red Sox win of the World Series.  Full disclosure - I’m a long time Red Sox fan which is why I’m listening and reading about the team.  But I’m also someone who teaches success strategies and there are plenty here for all of us.

 I heard a former player say today that when they come up to the plate to bat, they’re to put all the other times they failed that day behind them.  It’s a new opportunity and that one at bat might be the one that wins the game.  That happened throughout the playoff series with a variety of players who had not at any hits at all.  If they had given up, if they had thought of themselves as failures, they would not have gotten the hits they got that ultimately won that game.  Goes back to my ‘pearl’ theory – that we’re only given this moment and we should treat it like the pearl it is.  It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, last week, last year – as long as the things you didn’t do well taught you something.  Move on – who knows what incredibly experience is right ahead.

We often think we have to be perfect in everything.  A good batter is over .300 which means they hit 3 out of every 10 times they’re at the plate.  Yet we’re so hard on ourselves when we make a mistake or mess something up.  Of course if you only pick your kids up 3 out of 10 times, that’s a problem but you understand the story.

I find this to be true when I’m going through a down time.  It seems like it will never end.  Then it does - because that’s how life evolves - some of my best times follow.  That was definitely true for the Red Sox who had a pitiful year last year.  But as they say now – from worst to first!  You don’t have to be a ball player to experience that.

The other point today was about team.  That former player was asked what he’d remember about the 2013 Red Sox years later.  They weren’t a bunch of big stars like the 2004 Red Sox – they were a true team that cared about the game (their job), their own place in it and each other.  When some were down, the others stepped up.  And they never quit – on themselves, with each other, with the city of Boston who needed the lift, and with the rest of their fans.  Some great lessons indeed.