Will you Finish Strong?

"Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it."

- Irving Berlin

The "Finish Strong" philosophy was adopted by the New Orleans Saints in the spring of 2009. Each team member received the "Finish Strong" book by Dan Green and it became a mantra for the team. The book is full of stories about people overcoming adversity with courage.

"We recognized that if we could indeed finish strong in everything we did, we could achieve the lofty goals we had set for ourselves," Drew Brees.

The Saints went on to win the Super Bowl for the first time in their 43-year history.

The first quarter of 2010 is almost over. Will you finish it strong?

Watch this short movie based on the book that inspired the New Orleans Saints......

http://www.finishstrongmovie.com/

Here's to continuing the Journey.... making the choice to keep on keeping on - no matter what.... making the decision to Finish Strong!

-Becky

Fast Way to Get Out of Overwhelm

Overwhelm is one of my favorite self-sabotage techniques. And I can get there pretty quickly.

It happens most often when I get side-tracked - as I discovered again this morning!

I woke up this morning with a brilliant idea for a product tumbling around in my head. While having coffee I mapped out plans for it, then went back to my office to get started.

About 15 or so minutes into it I wanted to incorporate some ideas I'd written out from a teleclass I'd listened to a few days before... but I couldn't find my notes about it. (Yeah... I know, that organization thing... it needs work too!)

So... I thought I'd just look quickly online to see if I could find something similar....

An hour and a half later, making myself close the web-brower...... I was completely overwhelmed and the drive to get this project done had dissipated.

It didn't seem important now. And actually NOTHING seemed important.

But, luckily, I still had at least some wits about me.... Instead of taking a regroup nap (after all, it was only 7:30 in the morning!)... I decided to take a shower and regroup.

That helped me get some perspective and got me out of the overwhelm mindset/feeling - (it's the old actions-change-feelings "trick").

After the shower I wrote down the answers to this question: "What's most important for moving forward today?" (And yes, writing a blog post was on the list :) - also interestingly, the product idea did not make the "A" list for today.)

What DID make the "A" list were things I'd been putting off that really needed to get done and had deadlines this week. (Okay, yes, I admit.... getting organized was on the "A" list. I've been putting it off a long time.... and now things are getting backlogged because of it.)

So - long story short - the fastest way I know to get out of overwhelm is to do that thing you've been putting off that really needs to be done!

Usually the putting-off-of-it is much more time and effort consuming than the doing-of-it!

AND you feel so relieved and have a much lightened energy about your when it's over.

At least it did for me. :)

How about you?

Here's to continuing the Journey.... getting overwhelmed..... and learning to get out and back on track quickly....

-Becky

Practice doesn't make perfect...

... It makes confident!

"I have more self-confidence now. Starting out I was very nervous. My heart would be going very fast. I get a lot of practice in front of the television cameras and I'm more comfortable doing shows now."

- Mike Pascual

The more you do something, the more comfortable and better you get at it.

For instance, we all "sucked" at walking the first time we tried it. But we kept trying, kept "practicing" it till we got confident enough to let go of mom or dad's hand (or whatever support we were holding on to) and DO IT ourselves. Then there was no stopping us!

Do you still have that kind of determination to succeed now?

Make a list of things that you want to do or achieve. With each item ask yourself:

• How confident do I feel right now doing/achieving this? 
• What would I need to feel more confident?

I can confidently guarantee that the bottom line answer to feeling more confident in each of those things you listed is..... getting more experience doing it. 

Experience.... "practice" .... makes confidence. 

And that confidence - or lack of it - determines your beliefs.... which determine your actions... which become your experience.... 

... Which can either turn into a vicious downward cycle or a happy empowering consequence. 

The choice is yours. 

Here's to continuing the Journey.... practicing.... and growing confidence.... daily. 

-Becky