Persistence Vs Perfection

Small decisions that you make on a daily basis are important factors that will determine your destiny.

Imagine this scenario: You wake up late for work. No time for exercise this morning. If you skip just one morning this will not hurt your fitness goals. It is just one morning! Come on.

There is also no time to eat breakfast. You rush out of the door. Hurry get the kids to school a little late. You are only 6 minutes late for work. There is a big deadline today! You type away at your keyboard all morning to get the reports in by 1:00 PM. No time for lunch; Just a Honeybun at your desk. You make the deadline by the skin of your teeth! A smoke break would sure take the edge off of your stress. Just one won't hurt. Five o'clock can not get here fast enough!

The rest of the afternoon involves house keeping tasks for your office; answering emails, returning calls, and working on expense reports. Oh no, at 4:00 you realize that you do not have any food at home to cook for dinner. Looks like it is drive through tonight! But, you were trying to cut back on spending on unnecessary items. Oh well, one time can't hurt. The kids are cranky when you pick them up. Homework time is stressful! Why do they need homework any way! It is only 6:30! Two more hours until everyone goes to bed. A glass or two of wine will help ease the rest of stress off of the evening. By the time it is time for bed, the kitchen is cleaned, homework is finished, everyone is sleeping; you are frazzled. Ambien take me away. Now, I know that this is a little exaggerated. We all can relate to some elements of this profile of a harried day.

Blame it on the Bad Luck Fairy! But, I can point out five or six times in this scenario where this mom could set herself up for success. Pay attention to the little things. Bad decisions are bad decisions. If your smoke everyday, you are a smoker. If you take drugs on a daily basis to function; you need drugs to function. If you overeat everyday because of your emotions, you will become over weight. If this women repeats this schedule everyday for a month she will have developed some pretty bad habits.

With all that you did today, you did not leave time to accomplish some of your long term goals. Goals which include: a healthy eating plan, fitness regime, quality time with your children, studying for the GRE, going out to lunch with friends, planning that birthday party for your second child.

Our thoughts are our reality. We sow our own thoughts. Have good ones. The happiness and peace you seek are inside of you. Listen to what your mind tells you. Your inner voice is yearning to be heard.

Have postitive affirmations that you keep on index cards. Memorize powerful statements that you can use to turn negative thinking around. The world will feed us junk if you let it. We have to feed ourselves nurturing thoughts. Here are some of my favorite affirmations:

"Dream big and will it to happen."

-Brian Souza

You are an eagle born to soar.

Motion equals emotion. So, start moving.

Stay strong and keep dreaming.

Easy Strategies For Goal Setting

Goal Setting Basics
Here we go, another article on goal setting. You may have heard some of these tips before:
Be very clear on your goals. Write them down. Break those goals into smaller goals or action steps. Take immediate action.

Now this is just a basic outline on setting and achieving goals which can definitely be broken down into greater detail. Many people know what needs to be done to successfully accomplish their goals and yet many people fall short on their goals.

Why?
They aren't doing the basics. Many people know what they should do and either aren't doing it consistently or not at all.

The above steps I have outlined are, as I stated, "the basics" in goal setting and to be effective in achieving goals you must do the basics...consistently and daily.

Here's an example:

All great athletes and ball players know in order to have the best chance in performing flawlessly they must be solid in their basics. If they are not it will open the door to errors and defeat. Just having knowledge of the basics is not good enough to succeed. They must be practiced daily and consistently to have the best chance of victory.

The same applies to setting goals. Just knowing what to do is not enough, the basics of goal setting must be practiced to be successful. For many years I couldn't see the benefit in writing my goals down. "I don't have to write them down because I have a good memory," I thought. Today it does not surprise me why my past goals were seldom accomplished.

Goal Setting Review
So lets review:
First be very clear and precise about your goal. Saying you want to be happy or successful is vague and needs to be defined. If success, then what does success mean to you? Is it a new job or business? Well then state what kind of job or business you want and by when. The clearer you are on your desired outcome, the better the odds are in your favor. IMPORTANT - Write them down! There have been studies done which prove what you write down you remember with greater clarity. Don't make the same mistake I made years ago by thinking you'll just remember it because you won't. You see there is an event called life that distracts us so unless it is written down, it is easily forgotten. Once you write them down keep them somewhere where you can regularly see and review them and don't just file them away. Have you ever gone grocery shopping and forgotten your shopping list at home? Chances are you did not buy everything you needed and that is why you need to see you goal list regularly. Break them down into smaller goals or action steps. What are the necessary steps you must now take to move you closer to your desired outcome or goal? By breaking your goals down into smaller steps the original goal will not feel out of reach and you will gain self-confidence as you complete each step. Take action! If you want to acquire success in your life and reach the goals you set for yourself, take immediate action. That means now, not later and not tomorrow.

Tip:

The the first thing I do everyday when I sit down at my desk, is to write my daily action steps on post-it notes which I stick to the bottom of my computer monitor. I spend much of my time during the day writing, creating speeches and programs as well as updating my blog so these daily goals are in front of me a good portion of the day. As I complete a task I pull it down and throw it out. This routine has increased my productivity by a considerable amount. Find a place in your home or office where your goals or action steps can be in clear view for you to see. This will help keep life's distractions from keeping you from your goals.

Slawek Polinski is a motivational and personal development speaker inspiring audiences to overcome their obstacles, challenges and limiting beliefs. Slawek motivates people to achieve, purpose, direction an passion in their lives and to reach for heights that were in the past out of reach.

Slawek is the author of "From Stinking To Thinking - The 7 Keys To Unlocking The Power Of Self-Confidence and Motivation."

"Slawek Polinski is amazingly open and vulnerable about his journey From Stinking to Thinking. He inspires you to make similar changes as he shares his blueprint for change combined with a detailed plan of action. Both are well thought out and based on his own experiences enhanced by wisdom from mentors and leaders in many fields." - Betty Powell, D.Min, LCSW - Transformational Coach, Writer, and Psychotherapist

Create Your Own Positive Parenting Program

One of the things that you can do to raise happy and better-disciplined children is to create your own positive parenting program. This would be especially helpful, if you have a child who is between the ages of 4 to 12 years old. However, any age group of children would benefit from having a parenting plan.

A positive parenting program would definitely be helpful in making your household more organized and structured. Children crave structure. This is obvious when you observe them get out of control in a non-structured environment, and complain but are following directions in a structured environment. Structure allows all the members of your family to establish better relationships with each other. Squabbles and other common family problems can be avoided with a parenting program you create to fit your family's needs.

Identify which of the following reasons discussed below might help your family to develop a positive parenting program for your household.

• First, your individualized parenting plan will help add to your parenting skills arsenal. Children usually go through all kinds of problems and challenges, which could cause you to be worried or anxious about your child's behavior. Depending on what type parenting tools you use, you could end up making your child feel more troubled than before you started. I believe the object is to correct unwanted behaviors all the while letting the child learn a lesson and feel comfortable afterward.

• Through having a positive parenting program in place, your child would feel more secure, and you would have a better idea on how you can deal with your child's problem behaviors. By setting family goals and behavioral limits in your positive parenting program, your children would know what they should expect from you and what you are expecting from them.

• How do you feel about misunderstandings? I cringe, when I think about it. Putting your parenting plan into effect will result in fewer incomplete chores, less conflict and less frustration for the whole family. Because the positive parenting program you set in place, members of your family understand each other better, have clearly defined expectations and standards, and you, your kids, and everyone in the family will be able to build and maintain happy and healthy relationships.

What do you think? Is a positive parenting program worth it? My experience tells me that we parents 'wing it' way too often. Setting parenting goals, learning to remain calm in the face of frustration, and creating lessons through consequences and rewards all function to mysteriously establish an atmosphere in which children can grow into healthy adults.

Life is full of challenges, and parenting is a big one. It is the most important challenge we face. There have been times that we parents have all experienced the frustrating behaviors of our children. Don't let this frustration cause you to lose sight of your personal goals for your family. Create your own positive parenting program with parenting coaching online parenting classes. There is value to increasing and improving each parenting skill and getting new ideas. Get new ideas; create your own parenting plan; learn about family harmony, and how to be the successful parent that I know you are with Parenting 101 Success

Smart Goal Setting Is The Smart Way Of Living

Don’t get intimidated. Smart means nothing but a logical way of goal setting by arranging things in a particular order so as to make them easier to follow. The proof of smart goal setting being simple and uncomplicated can be glimpsed from its name: smart.

The first letter of smart can be attributed with being SPECIFIC. In goal setting and general planning, specific can spell a difference between a lousy goal against a well thought one.

In actual planning or goal setting, the people involved, the places concerned, financial needs, reasons, objectives, and all other stuff needed in any planning should be specific. If, for example, a person is entrusted to carry out a particular job for the whole company, that person should be named, not only the department she or he represents.

The letter M in smart goal setting can mean MEASURABLE. If you’re specific with your objectives, it follows then that you need to be concrete.

The concreteness of your goal will be measured by how measurable it will become in terms of assessing the overall progress of your goal. Quantifiable is the word used by many expert.

From this, it is easy to remember that what we are talking about is something that has quantity, or something that can be counted on. “Twenty thousand dollars will be needed for the printing of this company annual report” is more helpful than just saying “several thousand will be needed”.

The third aspect of a smart goal setting has something to do with dreams. If your plan is complicated, you might get overwhelmed and the goal will be become a dream.

Dreaming, per se, is not bad; great inventions and ideas are usually propelled by a dream. But when it comes to smart planning, you will need attainable goals to realize your dream. If you’ll notice, ATTAINABLE is closely related with being specific and measurable. Any goal that is not measurable and specific can never be attained.

How would you know that your goals are attainable? Easy. If the financial component of your project, plan, or goal, is larger than the source of your finance, then there is problem.

Or perhaps the load of the work resulted in company planning you have just attended is too much with the present manpower in your company, then the goal you have set is not smart because it’s not attainable.

Perhaps the problem lies not in the lack of money or manpower. Perhaps the problem lies in the time constraint. You’re planning to organize a blessing for your house in a three months time, and yet six months at the very least, will be needed to finish your new home.

REALISM is the fourth letter of smart planning. To be realistic is to be honest with yourself, particularly in your ability to carry out the project, or some other goal.

Remember that any planning or goal setting entails much work, particularly on the part of execution. But remember to balance caution with boldness. If the goal or plan is way below to your capacity, your tendency is to be lax, and this will not develop your productivity.

The essence of planning and goal setting is to improve or elevate your performance. There’s no way that the elements in your plan will not help you improve for the better.

The fifth letter in smart goal setting stands for TANGIBLE. Tangibles are things that can be subjected to our five senses, your five senses. Tangible actually is closely related with being concrete. And your plan is concrete because it is measurable, specific, and thus, attainable.