Dont’ tell me what you’re gonna do..

My friends and former teammates from college know how to finish this sentence:

“Tell me what you did!”

What does that mean?  Well, this is the perfect time of year to explain.  A little more than one more day before 2011.  Another year gone by.  Another year to look forward to.  And alas those dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.  “I will lose ten pounds this year.”  “I’m going to stop smoking.” “I’m going to stop procrastinating and start working out.”  What’s yours?  More importantly, what was yours last year?  Do you remember it?

Well, try the approach that I adopted long ago.  Don’t tell people what you’re going to do.  Just do it.  (This sometimes gets me in trouble with my wife, but she’s come to understand that I like to surprise her with positive stuff ) Because quite frankly, they don’t want to hear you SAY you’re going to do it.  It’s likely, if you’re telling them, that you’ve told them before.  They want to see you actually DO it.  And what I’ve found is this:  If you have an internal promise, one you make to yourself, it will drive you and motivate you more than any external expression of that goal can.  Read more of this post

Life is Hard

Life is hard.  Work.  Deadlines.  Commutes.  Health.  Weight Gain.  (Attempted) Weight Loss.  Kids.  Bills.  Layoffs.  The Economy.  Death.  Relationships.  Life, we can all agree, has its share of challenges, its ups and its downs.  But, you should be thankful for that.  For one, it helps weed out those among us who really don’t want success, don’t want to go through the bumps and cracks that lie on any road to ultimate achievement.  But, as I will show you, the more important thing to remember is that Life is Hard because we who want to grow, who want to learn, who want to get the most out of life, need for it to be hard.

Don’t get me wrong.  Life doesn’t HAVE to be hard.  In fact, I read a book recently that explained just that.  A successful executive- we’ll call him John- had a mild heart attack and was ordered by his doctor to take three weeks vacation as far away from work as possible.  He decided to fly away to a small town in Mexico, right on the beach.  For the first several mornings, John sat on the beach and watched a man, very close in age to his own it appeared, go out in a small boat for a few hours, catch some fish, then return.  John watched in almost amazement as the man, day in and day out, brought his boat back to shore, unloaded the fish, then strolled off in the mid-day.  Occasionally, the man couldn’t wait to enjoy his catch and would grill some of the fish immediately on shore.  He appeared to be extremely happy, very content, as he ate and enjoyed the food, the ocean, the beach- his simple life.  Never did this whole process, even when stopping to eat, last more than four or five hours, almost always ending in the early afternoon.  Read more of this post