As always the new year’s resolutions will be much talked about. Will you be resetting the same ones you set last year? Improved health and fitness will no doubt be way up there along with the desire for wealth and happiness.

Let’s look at the fitness aspect, because I believe it is directly related to health and happiness, and our ability to do everything else. Let’s take a look at what it takes to stick to your goals, and why you sometimes talk yourself out of them. Let’s look at the fundamentals of achievement.

Firstly, do you believe you can succeed this time? It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to get fit, jogging and running are probably the cheapest ways; you need something to wear and a pair of running shoes.

“Yes, but I can’t run,” I hear you say. Well, of course you can, let me show you how I help people just like you to succeed! You do believe you can succeed don’t you?
There is no doubt that belief is a fundamental, self-belief is a solid foundation on which success is built, so how do we form our beliefs? Well, we develop belief from gaining knowledge.
“But where do we get knowledge from?” I hear you ask. Stick with me… we get knowledge from two sources: wisdom and experience.
I know… “But where do we get…?” yeah yeah!… I’m ahead of you!

Experience is what we learn from what we do, good old fashioned “trial & error”. The actions we take, good or bad, our actions create our results and they become our experiences.
Wisdom is what we learn from others, the information that they share with us, as a result of what they have learned from developing their experiences. They share it in conversation, or written word, or in showing us by setting an example.

So how do we get our heads around our goals, getting fit, running, improving our health and whether we think we can succeed or not?

Henry Ford was famous for a statement that he gave, it’s one that I have adopted as a mantra every time I face a new challenge, and it is part of my belief mechanism:
“Whether you think you can do a thing…or you think you cannot, you are probably right.”

Now this for me is more a part of self-talk, and visualisation, which I will cover in another post. The importance in this statement however is the word think. How do you think? Positive or negative?

Well, that depends on your beliefs! If you are inspired by the coverage of last year’s Flora Marathon to run a marathon, but your self-belief tells you that you won’t succeed because you have never run further than the bus stop, your thought process will be focused on all the negative reasons why you can’t do it. You will only ever take enough action to support your belief level, so what will happen?

However, when you watch all the first-time competitors achieving their goals, fulfilling their dream and crossing the finish line, and you see someone who looks in worse shape than you, you begin to think…if they can do it, surely I can do it. Your mind will then start to look for positive evidence and or experience that you can draw on, this starts to germinate the seed of belief that you too could succeed, and guess what? You begin to think positively and search for information and sources of advice that confirm you could do it.

In summary, the secret to achievement can be found by analysing your beliefs.

Your beliefs determine your
Thoughts… your thoughts determine your
Attitude… your attitude (positive or negative, in direct relation to your thoughts) has an impact on your
Actions… which in turn will determine your
Results… and your results will form your

Experience and the basis of what you believe about you and your ability to achieve the goal or dream you are chasing!

You know what?… you can do it! Whatever your dream or goal is, you can do it! You just need to build your belief level, by finding evidence that proves you can. Then you make it a goal, plan a way to make it happen and then take action towards making it happen.

A word of advice if I may. We all have well-intentioned friends and family who want to protect us from feeling the hurt of failure, but unless they have done what it is you want to do, they can’t give you the wisdom or lend you the experience you need to reach your goal or dream.

There are only two sources to take advice from… those who have achieved what you want to achieve… and those that have paid the price in effort and dedication that you are willing to pay!

Stay strong, stay positive, go chase your dream… and make it happen!

With all the usual festive television repeats and reviews following New Years Eve, I stumbled across another viewing of the film Pretty Woman, only this time, just before surfing for another programme I heard something that I had missed on all the previous times I had enjoyed watching the film, it was buried in the opening credits.

Picture the film’s opening scene, it’s a busy Hollywood street, people going about their business and a street dude is shouting;

”Welcome to Hollywood… everybody who comes to Hollywood… gotta dream! What’s your Dream…what’s your Dream? Hey Mister… what’s your Dream?

So what do you think? Let me ask you… What’s your Dream for the year ahead or the next 2-5 years?

I’ve enjoyed catching up with friends over the festive season. Many of them have exciting plans and goals for their year ahead and their futures. They have already booked holidays, and are excitedly planning how they will enjoy their time on holiday. For them, their holiday is a well deserved, planned and budgeted for break from very stressful positions in their businesses or occupations. It’s a time to recharge their batteries, and to relax and enjoy quality time with their loved ones, time to relfect and time to re-focus and prepare to re-engage when they return to their vocations. You just know they are people who are going to look back on the year with a smile.

For others it’s about escapism, and short-termism, getting away from the frustration and pressures of everyday life, on the slimmest of budgets, (even though they have been complaining about lack of money and fears over job security in the current climate) just for a change of scenery and to leave their worries at home for a short time. But… guess what awaits them when they return… same old same old! They are good people, but they admit they feel they are not in control of their futures, or so they think!

Okay, so let’s take a look at how easy it is to book a holiday vs. plan the journey towards your success and your dream of what you want the future to hold. “What’s your Dream… everybody gotta a dream!”

When you visit a travel agent, or go online to book your next holiday, what questions will you need to answer…

• What kind of holiday are you looking for?
• Where do you want to go?
• How many people in your party?
• How long do you want to stay?
• What kind of accommodation are you looking for?
• When do you want to go?

Then they will hit you with the price!!

Well, the thought occurred to me… most people will spend more time planning a 2 week holiday than they will planning their future. Shouldn’t mapping out your life be a little like planning an exciting adventure holiday? Okay, let’s look at the next year or 2-5 years, you can choose! You know… you always have had the power to choose!

Let’s factor in the Dream, what’s your dream, or your driving passion for your business, your lifestyle, or what’s that personal goal you dream of? What will make you smile whenever you think about the end result, because you’re chasing your dream!

Factor in a start point. When do you want to start taking action and building the rest of your life?… Why not now?

Factor in your relationships, do you have to make amends with someone, or invest in quality time with someone? Who’s important in your life? Have you told them lately? Why not share with them how you are looking forward to sharing the future with them.

Factor in the lifestyle picture… the healthy lifestyle, the financial security, the great friendships, the house, the car, the holidays that will all be part of the picture.

Factor in the investment of time and effort that it will take to create it all. Don’t see it as a price to pay! See it as an investment!

Don’t pay a price for building your future… Enjoy investing time in creating the Dream, enjoy the journey towards it, enjoy the detours, enjoy the struggles, enjoy the lessons you will have to learn, and enjoy the sense of achievement in making it slowly become your reality. Enjoy the view from where ever you will be at any point on the trip, it will be the one you planned!
You are going to spend the rest of your life in your future. Invest in making it what you want it to be! You know it makes sense.

Stay Strong, stay positive… go chase your Dream… Make it Happen!

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain

- Unknown

I love quotes like this. There is just something about them that fires our imagination, stirs our spirit, and makes us think.

They stir our optimism, make us want to take on the world, strive for the positive, and challenge us to question the negatives that are all too easy to point out.

Deep down we all want to believe the possibility that exists out there for us to succeed, against all the odds we seem to be facing. Even though it’s raining… can we learn to dance?

Many of the greatest quotes came from great people, from stories that originated in a protest against adversity. They were forged in a furnace of defiance… where the alternatives to success would never be accepted. They were born of the do or die spirit that has always preceded victory. Many of their legacies still have a positive impact on our lives today. Let’s look at two of them.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space; this panicked America with fears that as a nation they were being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union.

43 days later on May 25, 1961, President John F Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo space program as part of a special address to a joint session of Congress. Here’s what he said in his stirring address to congress;

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important in the long range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

- John F Kennedy

It was a decision prompted out of fear, the fear that America would be left behind in the space race. He challenged America to “learn to dance in the rain” in the face of adversity. All of our modern communications are only possible as a result of NASA conquering the dream of space flight.

Two years later in August 1963 another Dream was verbalized that would also challenge and change the world. Deep in the middle of the crisis that was “The March to Washington for Jobs and Freedom” there was a defining moment in the American Civil Rights movement. On the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC, Dr Martin Luther King spoke from the heart to 250,000 people in the civil rights movement. His “I have a Dream” speech still has power today;

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”
“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together.

- Dr Martin Luther King

He also challenged America to “learn to dance in the rain” in the face of adversity. Barack Obama holds the office of President of America as a result of the changes brought about by one man having the courage to “dance in the rain”.

So my friends, what will the year ahead hold for us? Will we still face adversity from the economic fall out of last year… I think so!
Will we still continue to see reductions in government spending and increases in taxes as they try to fix the mess they allowed to happen… I think so!

But that’s not really the question…is it?

The question is… Even though we may miss a beat or two… even though we may miss a step or two… Who wants to learn to dance in the rain?… c’mon it’ll be fun!

Grab a coffee and relax, breath deep and enjoy, and my wish for you today is that you smile all day after reading this.

Remember When…

Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this.

Go back in time…

Before the Internet or the Apple Mac and Google. Before semi-automatic weapons were on the streets, joy-riders and crack cocaine.Before Game Cubes, X-Box or Ipods.

We’re going way back… you and me… back when kids were kids…

I’m talking about… remember playing Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Fingerbobs. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly.

Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams. The warmth of the sun and the smell of fresh cut grass on long summer days. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune – Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball.

Wait…Watching Saturday morning cartoons…short commercials, The Double Deckers, Road Runner, The Whacky Races, Tom and Jerry, The Harlem Globe Trotters, Scooby Doo, He-Man, Zeebedee, Tiswas or Swapshop?, Why Don’t You? – or staying up for Doctor Who.

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.

Climbing trees. Building dens in the bushes and igloos out of snow banks in the winter. Walking to school, no matter what the weather.

Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping up and down on your bed and having pillow fights.

When spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles, and the worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters. It wasn’t odd to have two or three ‘best’ friends. You didn’t sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.

I’m not finished just yet…Eating raw jelly and orange squash ice-pops. Remember when… There were two types of trainers – girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash – and eventually Gola’s and Adidas Samba’s, and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E.

Then there was Harrington Jackets and Oxford Bags and High Waisters. Wedges and Platform Shoes!

When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When 25p was decent pocket money. When you’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly every-one’s mum was at home when the kids got there. It was magic when dad would ‘remove’ his thumb.

When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. You knew everyone in your street – and so did your parents. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head masters office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! – and some of us are still afraid of them!

Didn’t that feel good? Just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that!”

Remember when…Decisions were made by going “Ip Dip Dog S**t “, and the ‘Race issue’ meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly. The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one of them in class!

It was unbelievable that ‘British Bulldog 123′ wasn’t an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.

Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors…

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

Stay Strong, Stay positive, and play “like a kid” with the kids again, when you get home.

Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?

That was the strap line of a book that I picked up in a book shop recently when I was seeking some inspiration.

Did I buy the book you might be asking, you bet I did, because there have been many times in my life in the past when I have let myself down because my attitude was negative.

Conversely, I can look back over my successes in life with pride and pinpoint the cause and effect of each success, and each time when you really analyse the cause, it came down to selecting the right attitude in every situation that lead to success. You can do that too if you think about it, but If you don’t know how or why you succeeded it was luck!

Our attitudes after all, influence our actions, and if we act in a negative way towards others we tend not to get the results we are looking for. Others will react to our actions driven by our negative attitudes and the end result is that we actually defeat ourselves by our own attitude. We see it happen in others all the time.

Our attitudes are the mental filters through which we choose to view our world.

Remember that everyday is your day. You have complete control over how you decide to view what is happening in your day. Make it the way you want it to be. Make your days fun, energising, happy and enjoyable.

Sure, other people may have bad attitudes and that may well have an effect on the atmosphere you find yourself in at work or at home, but you have the ability to select your filter and view your world from your positive stand point rather than their negative one. Look for what’s good in every situation.

Some people can brighten up a room when the walk into it…others have the same effect when they walk out of a room!

I like to think about our choice of attitude in these kinds of situation in this way; when you are confronted by a negative situation, or a crisis that is in full flow, stop…think…and remember, you have a choice to make and your choice of attitude and resulting actions will determine the outcome.

You always have the power to choose your results by selecting the right attitude and actions. You can choose to react (negative) or you can choose to respond (positive).

A doctor would report that…“The patient responded well to the course of treatment and has made a full recovery”

They may also report that…“The patient unfortunately reacted badly to the course of treatment and it didn’t have the desired effect, the outcome was not good and…” well you know how that ends up.

So focus on developing an attitude of gratitude, look at yourself in the mirror every morning and decide that for this whole day ahead, you will look to share the positive side of every situation.

Welcome the challenges as opportunities to test your positive attitude.

A young chick is protected form external harm as it develops by its egg shell, as you develop yourself in pursuit of your dreams and goals a positive attitude becomes your “Neg-shell” it protects you from the negatives and helps you to grow.

Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you choose to deal with what happens in your life.

As John Lennon said; “Life is what happens to you while you are planning other things!”

Attitudes are contagious let yours be a positive energizing one that everyone wants to catch.