Building A Better You

Weekly Challenge # 123: Love

Do you really want to know THE sure-fire way to challenge yourself to a better you, surpass your own goals, and impress and inspire others beyond belief?

Love them and yourself.

Love God and the world we live in.

Love WHO you are---your craziness and specialness

and Love everyone else in the same way.

It's almost certain you'll be a better professional, a better friend, a better spouse, a better boss, a better owner, a better....everything.

I almost made this challenge too simple.  I thought I would just title it "love" and then have that simply be the message too.

But then I remembered: we forget too easily to do what we know to be good and true and right for us.

So....during the holidays...a time when we really do have choices about what to do and how to act:

I challenge you to take yourself to the ultimate creative edge and to be a leader in your family, at your workplace, in your neighborhood: Love

Bottom Line: Love. It's the ultimate way to transform yourself and y(our) world.

 

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. How can I prepare to love in situations that try my patience this month?
2. Who is a good role model for me in this area?
3. What are some simple ways I can love those around me?

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Weekly Challenge # 122: Celebrate Your Success This Year

[This is an updated re-run of Weekly Challenge # 63.  I need to hear it again.  How about you?]

Set aside special time and effort to celebrate your specific triumphs, milestones and and successes from the past year.  You will then be more likely to continue to build a better you (and a better world) next year too.

As a kind of follow-up to Challenge #68: REMEMBER HOW FAR YOU'VE COME, this challenge is important because...

Even though there are lots of parties and social events and "celebrations this time of year," WE SPEND VERY LITTLE TIME  REMEMBERING AND HONORING WHAT WE'VE SPECIFICALLY DONE OVER THE PAST YEAR.

And the opportunity to really celebrate the past year can get lost amidst all the other traditional year-end festivities.

Did you...graduate, meet someone special, have a baby, complete a major project, start a new job, end a piece of work, move your home or family, get promoted, write a book, make a profit, make a friend, help a little one learn to walk, receive an award, take a journey, lower your cholesterol, organize your closet, make a well-recieved presentation, get in shape, build a website, renovate a part of your house, landscape your yard, simplify your life, get married, etc. etc. etc.

Then, like most of us, you have a string of little and big things to celebrate.

So figure out a way to do that before year's end.

Five Quick and Easy Ways to Celebrate What You've Done and Become Over The Past Year:

1. Have a celebration dinner with your significant other or close friend.  Have the focus be reflection on and appreciation of the past  year.
2. Buy yourself a present.  How about something symbolic of what you have done or how you are being?
3. Pour yourself a glass of wine or cup of coffee.  Sit down, and make a list of your successes from the past year in your journal.  Drink a
toast to yourself after reading the list.
4. Light a candle.  When friends ask about the lit candle, take the opportunity to explain you're honoring the past year.
5. Do something really fun (for you)...and explain to the other participants, "it's because some great things have happened over this
past year."

Bottom Line: When you celebrate what you have, you'll give more...and more will be coming to you.  Here's to 2008.

 

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. What, about the last year would I like to celebrate?
2. What would be a really cool way to honor the past year's accomplishments?
3. When is the best time to celebrate between now and the end of the year?

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Weekly Challenge # 121: Reduce Your Obligations

Radically reduce or eliminate the number of obligations you have in your life which aren't critical to your responsibilities or directly related to what you're especially on this earth to do / be. 

If you find yourself complaining about something you have to do, even though you don't care to or need to, you're on the path to fulfilling an unnecessary (and expensive) obligation.

THE HOLIDAY OBLIGATION TEST

Of course, you already know whether you're going to pass or fail this one.  Trust your instincts!  Do you feel like you have to send holiday cards this year?  Do you have to send them to everyone who sent you one last year? 

Do you have to attend every party to which you've been invited?  Do you have to host that party again?  Do you have to give everyone on your list a gift...with a similar value to the one they gave you? 

Do you have to get together with the family, meeting everyone else's expectations just like you have for the past few decades?  Do you have to bring the same jello-ring or cream-cheese appetizer?  Do you have to be exhausted by the end of the holiday season?

Now the context:  There are great reasons to do any and all of the things listed above.  The real test though, is if they aren't exactly your responsibilities and you feel like you HAVE to do them instead of want to. 

Wouldn't you prefer to get a gift from someone who wanted to give it to you, instead of had to?  Wouldn't you like to spend time with others who really want to be there with you?  You get the point.

LESS IS MORE

Haven't you been secretly yearning for more meaning in your life...to be able to spend more time, effort and energy on the things which matter most for you?  One of the keys is to free up yourself (and your family) from obligations by being bold enough to say "no" to those things which don't make your own high priority list. 

BOTTOM LINE: I can think of no better way to add to the spirit of this season than to reduce and eliminate obligations that, in effect, rob us of our love, joy, hope and peace.

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. Where am I on autopilot with my obligations?
2. What could I gracefully bow out of this year?
3. What is really important to me that I could spend time on instead?
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