No matter how busy you are, make sure to find some time over the next two weeks to reflect, think, give and plan.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is the ideal time for this. Try to slow things down. Spend time with the ones you love and care about. Take some time to talk with your spouse and kids about goals and dreams for the next year. Use this as a time to recharge your batteries (and not just by watching TV the entire time), and with excitement, think about a handful of changes or additions you want for your life in the New Year.

I believe you will find the act of reflecting, thinking, dreaming and planning (with your family) to be one of the most important exercises you can do that will positively impact the next 12 months.

And, remember, do not neglect to commit yourself to set this time aside, or you will find that the business of life can and will get in the way.

So, let’s all take a moment to gather up the past year of victories and defeats, growing as well as those times of stagnation, and use it to wipe a clean slate and thoughtfully design the next year the way we truly desire it to be.

- Jim Rohn

This is your LIFE! It’s time to STOP complaining, making excuses & looking for reasons. When you claim accountability for your life you are no longer a VICTIM, claiming ‘poor me.’ You are the CAPTAIN of your own ship. You can CHOOSE to buckle up & head in the direction of your dreams. CLAIM it; OWN it & MAKE things happen!

This is actually one of the few things I still remember from high school… “Carpe Diem”, meaning Seize The Day. We were reading a book in English class when someone said “Carpe Diem” and explained what it meant. For some reason it really stuck with me over the years. I have remembered this saying and what it means my whole life.

This is a great quote that I feel sums it up…

“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: NOW.” – Denis Waitley

Here is what Denis Waitley has to say about it…

What each of us is doing this minute is the most important event in history for us. We have decided to invest our resources in this opportunity rather than in any other. It is helpful to remember this when we consider the passage of time.

As the years pass, I am acutely aware that the bird of time is on the wing. At my fiftieth high school reunion, I saw old people who claimed to be my former classmates. We all had big name tags printed in capital letters so we wouldn’t have to squint with our reading glasses on trying to associate the name with each well-traveled face. It was only yesterday that I was really enjoying high school. What had happened to the five decades in between? Where had they flown?

To the side of the bandstand, where the big-band sound of the late 1940s and 50s blared our favorite top-ten hits, there was a poster with a printed verse for all of us to see. I read the words out loud:

“There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

“One of these days is Yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.

“The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise, and poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds; but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn. This leaves only one day: Today.

“Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities – Yesterday and Tomorrow – that we break down. It is not the experience of Today that drives us mad, it is remorse and bitterness for something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore, live this one full Today.”

Malcolm Forbes believed the important thing is never to say die until you’re dead, and he lived that example to the hilt. It is, as we realize when we suddenly attend our fiftieth high school reunion, a short journey. But it also is difficult to be depressed and active at the same time. So get active! And make today your best day ever!

-Dr. Denis Waitley

Steve Jobs delivering his commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005. He talks about getting fired from Apple in 1985, life, death, and that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made…

This short 2 minute video is by philosopher Alan Watts. He makes a great point about why we are supposed to sing or dance while music is being played… Live in the moment and enjoy the journey of your life!

Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action. And action is the ingredient that ensures results. Only action can cause a reaction; to take it one step further, only positive action can cause a positive reaction.

Action… The whole world loves to watch those who make things happen, and it rewards them for causing waves of productive enterprise.

I stress this because today I see many people who are really sold on affirmations. And yet there is a famous saying, “Faith without action serves no useful purpose.” How true!

Now I have nothing against good affirmations when used as a tool to create action. And it’s also true that when repeated, to reinforce a disciplined plan, affirmations can help create wonderful results.

But there is also a very thin line between faith and folly. You see affirmations without action can be the beginning of self-delusion. And for your well-being there is little worse than self-delusion…

The man dreams of wealth and yet walks daily toward certain financial disaster, or the woman who wishes for happiness and yet thinks thoughts and commits acts that lead her toward certain despair, are both victims of the false hope which affirmations without action can manufacture. Why? Because words soothe and, like a narcotic, they can lull us into a state of complacency. Always remember: To make progress you must first get started!

Now the key is to get started today… Whatever the project, start today! Start setting your first goal…today. Start listening to educational CDs…today. Start contacting two prospects a day…today. Start following-up with your prospects…today. Start putting a portion of your bonus check into your new “investment for my fortune” account…today.

Get some momentum going on your new commitment for the good life. See how many activities you can pile on your new commitment to build your better life. Go all out! Break away from the downward pull of gravity. Start your thrusters going. Prove to yourself that the waiting is over and the hoping is past; that faith, and knowledge, and action have now taken charge.

Today is your new day, and it can be the beginning of your new life! With discipline you will be amazed at how much progress you’ll be able to make. Besides what have you got to lose, except the guilt and fear of the past?

Now if you’re really ready to build a better life, here’s my personal challenge to you: See how many things you can start, and continue, today…the first day of your new beginning. Because to make progress you must first get started!

To Your Success,

Jim Rohn – “America’s Foremost Business Philosopher”

What a great article I just read from Henrik Edberg on PositivityBlog.com!

I don’t know about you but it seems like I sure do like to complicate things more than they need to be. I didn’t realize how bad I was at this but lately it is starting to become more apparent. Doing this has made my goals a lot harder to achieve than they really need to be and has added unnecessary stress.

So, WHY do I do it?

Amazingly this article is pretty on point with some of my issues.

He talks about 4 great tips to simplify your thoughts, plans, actions and life!

Check out the article and let me know what you think…

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2009/07/07/things-may-be-simpler-than-you-think/

Sometimes in this world people are self-serving, self-centered and lazy. We need to be reminded of our attitudes and being generous towards others. We need to be reminded that life just isnt about us, it is about giving. It is better to give than to receive. Living with honor and respecting others is what we need to get back to as a society.

Take just the next 3 minutes and watch this short video called, “Smile & Move”…

I first read “Father Forgets” many years ago while reading Dale Carnegie’s best seller “How to Win Friends & Influence People”.

It hit me pretty hard then, but now that I am a parent, it really sinks in.

This beautiful story casts light on a perspective we can often miss as parents.

Children don’t know what we know. It’s up to us to have the love, the patience, and the kindness to teach them all they need to learn, and remember that they do not know what we know.

Think of this story before you decide to criticize somebody, especially a child, even if you think you are right.

If you prefer to listen to the audio, click here.

Father Forgets:

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, ‘Goodbye, Daddy!’ and I frowned, and said in reply, ‘Hold your shoulders back!’

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive – and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. ‘What is it you want?’ I snapped.You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding – this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: ‘He is nothing but a boy – a little boy!’

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

- W. Livingston Larned

The latest issue of SUCCESS just hit the newsstand! This issue features Lance Armstrong on Winning the Race of Life.

Darren Hardy, publisher of Success Magazine just added a great blog post about this issue.  You can read it here: http://darrenhardy.success.com

Lance Armstrong is a world-famous athlete, seven-time Tour De France winner and cancer survivor. He is an inspiration to anyone who has ever battled the odds. Here’s what he learned along the way.

Know your purpose, and don’t give up. Armstrong eventually saw his cancer as something he was given for the good of others. When faced with obstacles, he wants people to “fight like hell, just like I did.”

Work on your mind. Coming back after cancer, Armstrong had to do more than get his body in shape. “Real healing meant getting my mind in shape. But it also meant getting my confidence and priorities in shape, too.”

See the good in every adverse situation. There was an unforeseen benefit to Armstrong’s cancer. The disease completely reshaped his 6-foot body and left his upper body smaller and leaner, which made him better suited for riding up mountains. Armstrong says he was leaner in body and, eventually, more balanced in spirit.

Stay in lock step with your passion. Armstrong developed a passion for the steep climb on his bike and off. Realizing his entire life was “meant for a long, hard climb,” he has used his newfound insights to dominate his sport.

Click here to read this month’s Success Magazine cover story about Lance Armstrong.

I love Success Magazine!