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!

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Make every second count! Time waits for no one!!!

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. And every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you fail to use during that day. What would you do?

Draw out every cent.

Each one of us has such a bank. It’s called TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. And every night it writes off as lost whatever you have failed to invest wisely. It carries no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours…

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow. You must live in the present. On today’s deposit. Invest it in every opportunity. The clock is running. You’ve got to make the most of today.

Right Here. Right Now.

Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift. THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED THE PRESENT!

TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE!

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Did you know that the primary difference between the 5 percent of people who are wealthy and those who are not is that the 95 percent focus their attention and extra time on entertainment, while the wealthy 5 percent invest their extra time in education.

I don’t know about you but I want to be in the 5% group of wealthy people in the world. This is why I do my very best to focus any extra time that I have on education and building my own business.

I watch one football game per year… the Super Bowl.  (and mostly for the commercials)

The only time I watch TV is with my wife maybe once a week and we do rent 1-2 movies a week as well.

Click on the below link to read the rest of this post from Darren Hardy’s blog. It’s awesome!  You can become part of the 5% group!

Think about it: What if the time you spend…

• reading the sports page, you read a self-improvement book?
• listening to sports talk radio, you listen to an instructional CD?
• watching ESPN or Sports Center, you watch a seminar DVD or read a book?
• talking about sports scores and players, you talk about your goals and plans to achieve them?
• playing fantasy sports, you role-play your key skills training?

How would the trade of that time investment change your life scores and statistics? I’m certain it would make YOU victorious… and far happier.

Oh, and let’s not leave out the non-sports fans. What if the time you spend…

• reading People magazine and other gossip rags, you read SUCCESS magazine?
• watching E! Entertainment, TMZ or Access Hollywood, you watched a seminar DVD or read a book?
• watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The Real Housewives, or Jersey Shore, you read a book about YOUR reality?
• talking (or gossiping) about other people’s lives and foibles, you talked about your lessons learned in life and plans for growth?

How would the trade of that time investment change your life scores and statistics? I’m certain it would make you victorious, and far happier.

Am I saying that anytime spent on any of the above for entertainment value is a bad thing? Of course not. What I am suggesting you look at, however, is the balance between the time you spend watching other people live out their dreams and the time you spend on making yours come true.

Last tip: Practice, train, develop, focus, and work as hard at your skills and career as the people you watch and admire do at theirs. Imagine that!

(Read entire post from Darren Hardy’s blog here: http://darrenhardy.success.com/2011/02/get-in-the-game/)

Yes, I admit it, I’m a procrastinator! I mean just look at my last blog post before this one… it was from July 4th! (over 4 months ago!)

I’ve heard that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. For some reason, I procrastinate a lot. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I just do. So I am admitting it, right here to the world!

I currently work 12-14 hours a day and I have a family (amazing wife and 2 beautiful baby girls). I’m also trying to build my own business, so you can see how I might not have time to do everything on my “to-do list”. There is just not enough time in the day! Can you relate?

So, I am going to make a commitment starting today to become less of a procrastinator! And to get things started I found a great blog post I’m going to share with you below in case you too procrastinate sometimes.

Please leave a comment on this post if you ever procrastinate and/or can provide any tips for those of us that do. Thanks!!

How to Overcome Procrastination: 4 Classic and Essential Tips

(by Henrik Edberg – from positivityblog.com)

1. Break it down and just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you start to look too far into the future any task or project can seem close to impossible. And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment.

Then you just break down your project/task into smaller and practical steps and focus on taking the first step today. That is all you need to focus on, nothing else. By taking the first step you change your mental state from resistant to “hey, I’m doing this, cool”. You put yourself in state where you become more positive and open, a state where you may not be enthusiastic about taking the next step after this first one but you are at least accepting it. And so you can take the next step. And the next one after that.

The thing is, you can’t see the whole staircase anyway and it will shift and reveal itself along the way. That’s why the best of plans tend to fall apart at least a bit as you start to put it into action. You discover that your map of reality doesn’t look like reality.

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”
Olin Miller

”Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.”
George Claude Lorimer

By over thinking and putting things off you may not only be trying to protect yourself from the pain that can come if you take action and have to do hard work or if you fail. You also make mountains out of molehills. The quotes above are so true it isn’t even funny. The more hours and days you put something off the worse it grows in your mind.

Because you are dwelling on it. And so it expands in your mind. And since you are putting it off you are probably thinking about it in a negative way. This makes a little thing a big Godzilla, a horrible beast that is threatening to ruin your life.

So plan a little and then take action.

Often you don’t even have to plan, you have been there before and you know what needs to be done. So stop thinking and just do it no matter how you feel and what you think. How you feel right now changes as quickly as the weather so it’s not the perfect guidance system or anything. And you don’t have to obey what it says (it’s not chains made of iron). You can just do what you know is right anyway.

3. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish.

Whatever it may be, get it out of your way the first thing you do.

If you start your day this way you will feel relieved. You feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.

4. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”
William James

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you in a sort of negative funk. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone zapped your inner power.

If that is the case, go over tasks and projects that you are currently involved in. Is there something there you know you want to finish but haven’t yet? Try to get that finished as soon as you can and you will start to feel a whole lot better.

Just be careful. Don’t think you have to finish everything you started. If a book sucks, read something else. Using this as an excuse to quit something that feels hard or unfamiliar is not a good idea. But there is no law that says that everything has to be completed.

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WOW, it’s been 6 months since my last blog post…   how time flys!

About 4 months ago we moved from my home town in Florida to Cathy’s home town in Indiana.  You are probably wondering WHY I would leave beautiful Flordia for Indiana?

Well, I have one word for you… BABY!   We wanted to be here by Cathy’s family to have our 2nd baby girl, Claire Marie.  So here we are!

Baby Claire was born on March 31, 2010… 8.6 lbs!  She was happy, healthy, and beautiful!  What more could we ever ask for!  We are so blessed to have two amazing daughters!

She is now almost 8 weeks old already and it’s definitely time for me to get back to blogging!

I have a new found commitment and desire to build a successful online business and my blog is a very important part of that.

So… I’m back and ready to start providing amazing content for all of my readers and subscribers!

Lets do this!

Aron Parker

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

Most of my TV watching is with Cathy when we watch IDOL or So You Think You Can Dance.  Sometimes we will watch Seinfeld or another show while eating dinner, but really that’s just cause Cathy wants to.  It is very rare that I watch TV just to watch TV.  It is such a wast of time to me.  OK, I do watch UFC on Spike about once a week, but that’s it.  The only other time I watch TV is if I’m watching a movie with Cathy, but I don’t put that in the same category as regular TV.

Ok, so how much TV do you watch?  Come on, leave a comment and let me know…

Here are some Startling TV Facts! (from SparkPeople)

If you find it hard to escape the sights and sounds of the tube, or if watching your favorite show turns into more wasted hours than you planned, you’re not alone. Americans watch TV for an average of 4 hours every day; even when we’re not watching, the television is on- for almost 8 hours a day in the average home. Have you ever realized how much TV has become a part of our lives? Here are some more startling facts, from the non-profit organization, TV-Turnoff Network:

By age 65, the average American has seen 2 million TV commercials. Many of the commercials we see show appetizing foods-fast food, junk food, soda, alcohol, sugary cereals, and candy. Think “out of sight, out of mind.”

The average American youth spends about 900 hours per year in school, and over 1,000 hours per year watching TV. While you can’t place all the blame on TV, soaring rates of childhood obesity are a result of both poor nutrition and an inactive lifestyle. Limit the amount of time your kids (and yourself, leading by example) watch TV and encourage more physical activity like walking the dog, helping with yard work, playing sports, or other active hobbies.

Think it would impossible to turn off your TV for an entire week? Imagine how much more free time you would have if you didn’t spend time watching TV! There are lots of fun (and healthy) things you could do with your newfound time. Here are some examples:

• Start a vegetable garden or plant flowers
• Take a class–drawing, woodworking, sewing–whatever interests you
• Take a trip to the grocery store. Without the usual rush, take the time to compare labels, find new foods, and stock up on fresh fruits, veggies and healthy snacks.
• Write a letter to someone you haven’t seen in awhile
• Spend more time with your pet!
• Go for a walk or play a game of Frisbee.
• Prepare healthy bag lunches for the family.

Learn even more…

http://www.TrashYourTV.com

http://www.TurnOffYourTV.com

I am so blessed that I don’t have to fight traffic every day. I feel the pain of those who have long commutes to and from work each day. Especially in a major city. I experienced this pain for a year living in San Diego and it was not fun!

But working from home doesn’t seem to give me more time like you think it would. Between phone calls, emails, my blackberry buzzing, and my 9 month old daughter begging for my attention, my time quickly disappears. Leaving me with more emails and calls and play time to tend to at the end of the day! An endless cycle.

In these days of multi-tasking and endless work, it seems like we have less time to accomplish it all. As Denis Waitley says “Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day.”  We all have 24 hours and they go quick, but what do you do with them is the question.

I just read an excellent post by John C. Maxwell, an internationally recognized speaker, author of over 60 books and leadership expert, on how to work more “efficiently”. We all want that!

I have been reading Maxwell’s books since I was 18 and his tips have helped me develop my leadership skills through the years.

In this post gives some great tips on how to develop better time management:

• Keep a detailed time log of your work.
• Identify your major time wasters and work to eliminate them.
• Identify the activities you value.
• Use planning to gain time.
• Create systems to simplify.
• Become results-oriented.

You can allow each day to slip away from you, or you can use it to make things happen. The choice is yours.

Here is a direct link to the entire post on John Maxwell’s blog:  http://JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com

Whether it’s driving while talking on my cell phone, sending e-mails while on the phone or the 10+ windows I always have open on my two computer screens, it seems multitasking has become a way of life. I am always doing more than one thing at a time to get more stuff done in less time and I am not the only one. These days most people are trying to get more done in less time. So, does multitasking really make you more efficient? Can it be detrimental, or even dangerous?

Here is a quick exercise to prove that point…

Rotate your foot in a clockwise direction and rotate your pointer finger in the other direction at the same time!!! Go ahead and try it! If I go very very slow and concentrate hard, I can do it, but no way doing it fast.

Our brain works hard to fool us into thinking it can do more than one thing at a time. It can’t. Recent MRI studies at Vanderbilt prove that the brain is not built for good multi-tasking. When trying to do two things at once, the brain temporarily shuts down one task while trying to do the other.

Can you relate with this funny video?

But if multitasking is bad, then how do we, in our fast paced society get more things done?  Alex Mandossian posted a great article: Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity. He talks about “Stacking” which is a productive use of time doing multiple things because only ONE of the tasks your doing requires mental effort. Stacking helps you to get more done, faster, better and with less mental effort.

Here are some other great articles on multitasking:

• Article in the NYTimes – While multitasking may seem to be saving time, psychologists, neuroscientists and others are finding that it can put us under a great deal of stress and actually make us less efficient.
• Article on ABCNews.com – The Grand Seduction of Multitasking – Put Away the BlackBerry, Stash the iPod: Our Brains Aren’t Built to Multitask.
• Sparp Brains – The Brain Fitness Authority attributes some Memory Problems to Multi-tasking.
• From an article on NPR.org – Don’t believe the multitasking hype, scientists say. New research shows that we humans aren’t as good as we think we are at doing several things at once.
• The American Psychological Association says that new scientific studies reveal the hidden costs of multitasking.

Also check out “Brain Rules” by John Medina and “The Myth of Multitasking” by Author, speaker and time management expert Dave Crenshaw.

Ask yourself this “How is my procutivity when I am multitasking?”.