Looks beautiful!

A number of years ago we built a new house on a wooded lot, a heavily wooded, previously un-cleared or ever mowed au-natural lot. This gave us a head start on that Florida landscape, that Sunken Gardens’ look that I love. It also gave us some interesting plants…like potato vine. If you are unsure what this is, think of driving on I-75 and those beautiful vines that fill the wooded sides of the road. That is what the back third of our lot looked like, with some beautiful native plants that we wanted to keep and some palmettos and palms…so we cleared this by hand.

This week working in my backyard, I realized that it is just like some of the other areas of my life. I may have been eating well, exercising, and taking my supplements or maybe I have been pursuing personal development by reading or maybe I have made a commitment to manage my finances more diligently and have been more careful in my spending. However, maintaining these habits is more than 21 days to a different life. 21 days is a start, but real lifelong development of behavior means periodically checking in to make sure that there are no little pieces of that old weedy behavior trying to rear its ugly head.

Looks can be deceiving...

I am still clearing by hand! Now it isn’t what it was. But I still have to be diligent, I still have to get out there and rescue the palmettos from this lovely, encroaching, invasive vine that would take over the world if there were not people like me. Although this vine has less of a hold on my yard year after year, like my life and the things that are important to me…auto pilot is not an option. Have you checked in lately to see how your garden is doing?

The New Year is here and the list of things that you are going to do and accomplish is formidable. I applaud you for thinking big. Yet, one of the most common causes for failure is trying to do it all now!

In goal setting with clients, we create a list of all we want to achieve…to experience…to share in the coming year. Then we take a simple one page overview of the year with only the titles of the months on it and divide the objectives from our yearly “to do list” under the titles. There is a desire to want to place most of the items in January…let’s get them done and get them done NOW!

However, most of us have heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” and know the answer is “One bite at a time!”

This last year has been challenging to most everyone. Whether business has been good or bad, everyone has had to make some changes of some sort. For many the list of changes to incorporate is long. Instead of focusing on how far and how much still needs to be down…talk about an elephant…what one thing could you do today? What one thing would be a good choice today to make the most difference in your life, in your business? And then tomorrow, choose one thing.

What makes the difference between those that become and those that don’t?

• They have a vision for something that is bigger than just them and extends beyond just today. It is a dream fueled by passion and connected to action.
• They deal with the uncomfortable, awkward and negative issues, situations and relationship challenges that arise. They know that simply waiting for it to go away could leave them waiting for the rest of their life and time is precious.
• They understand the power of consequence and so not make decisions solely on the comfort and convenience of today.
• They take action…EVERY DAY! They have accepted responsibility for the realization of their vision and move toward it step by step day by day. They don’t despise the small steps, but are thankful for even small increments of progress.
• They have not only defined what they like, BUT ALSO what they don’t like. They don’t focus on the “NO’s”. However by clearly defining what “NO” looks like, they are able to recognize what carries negative influences much sooner.
• They operate with grace. Because they choose to forgive, they are free to move forward in the NOW and are not tied to the past.
• They know what it is to be a part of a team. They know their own strengths and weaknesses and are not threatened by others whose strengths and weaknesses are different from their own.
• They are not afraid of change and they are not trying to make everyone happy. As they move forward there will be others who are not supportive and who do not agree with the choices and decisions that they make. They understand that old adage, “You can’t please everyone all the time.”

Choose to grow to to greatness!
Sara Hand

Bob, an uncle tells a story of laying pipe within a nuclear power plant. In their calculations, they would measure off of a pencil dot. As a supervisor, he spoke to the men of “centering” off that point. A younger worker insisted that they “were centered”…Bob let it go…sometimes your staff learns best by experience. Although it was only the outside edge of that point, several hundred yards later that equaled almost an inch…in a nuclear plant that is a lot!

”Vacation habits” like souvenirs of summer, love to “stow away” in my day to day activities. Unless I am vigilant and periodically take inventory…it could be Christmas before I notice. So every so often, I revisit my goals and action plans to see if I am still on track.

Hidden in my daily routine are the secrets to whether I am successful or not. Periodically, tune your instrument, calibrate the thermostat…take an inventory. When I am where I am not supposed to be, I am vulnerable to bad choices and quick fix solutions…the lotto is never the answer to “bad” money management habits, just as the vending machine is not a good answer to a missed meal.

Crises: figurative a point at which a change must come, either for better or worse; deciding event

In my life I identified a moment, when a change needed to happen. That change would take place in me, however initially I had no idea what this change would look like. I am still walking this process out, but day be day the components of this change become more evident. For many people I work with, this moment, this epiphany of “something has to give” is what they would call a crises.

 Crisis is not generally a conscious choice. However, once there, the very definition of crises indicates the necessity of choice. This “choice” is where the opportunity lies. Will I choose the easiest way, will that be the best choice for me? Or will I choose to do the hard things?

 Mothers Against Drunk Driving…The Amber Alert… The National Kidney Foundation… Easter Seals… Alcoholics Anonymous… Susan G. Komen for the Cure… Organ donors “leave a life that keeps on living.” Only a few of the choices made.

 Each one of us will face points in which change must come. Will our choices be mired in our own pain? Or can one person, one decision at a time make a difference?