Find Your Groove and Stick with It!

Sometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

"Sensei," the boy finally said, "Shouldn't I be learning more moves?"

"This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll ever need to know," the sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

"No," the sensei insisted, "Let him continue."

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

"Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?"

"You won for two reasons," the sensei answered.

"First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm."

The boy's biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

(from)Bits & Pieces
August 15, 1996
Economic Press, Inc.

So What? Don't Give Up Now!

My quest for the body of Laila Ali has been in progress for a while. And this morning I felt the push, excitement, and anxiety of it all. After walking with weights for 40 minutes, I came into the house, got something to drink, and began participating in Total Body Sculpt with Gilad on FIT TV.

As I participated, it came to me that I had been here before! Literally and figuratively, two years prior I worked out daily; running 3 miles and 3 times per week I participated in spin classes. And now, I find myself at the same place again. What happened? I gave up. It got to be too much, instead of making it a part of my Life it was something else "to do". At the moment that came to me, I was on the floor doing crunches just as I had done before. My spirit, said to me "Don't you give up now!"


"Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison.
Often times, we spend our time looking at how far we have to go or what has to be done to get to the end of our vision or achieve a goal. When we do that we end up defeating ourselves. Sometimes it happens when we are within reach of the goal, yet we do not know it. Surely Thomas Edison did not know how close he was to creating the light bulb when he did it; he only has a feeling that it was close. When Charles Brooks was working on a new way to have streets swept, imagine what it would be like if he had given up before creating the street sweeping truck. Our world would be a different place if people simply gave up when they were close to reaching their goal. What drove them to continue, in spite of the challenges?


Challenges are not unique to anyone that is simply a fact of life. How challenges are dealt with happens to be unique to each person and it begins in the mind. Jack Canfield, one of the authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul, was featured in The Secret. He talked about how his Life was with family dysfunction, hard times, what he had been taught by parents about money, etc. all the things that make up our "hard luck" stories. The poignant moment in his appearance came when he stated all that "story" and stuff is "So What?". "So What?" your parents were divorced, "So What?" you failed last time, "So What?" they do not like you, "So What"? Every person has challenges to deal with in Life, challenges are not unique, it is your mindset about those challenges which determines how you will come out one the other side. There are four ways to be when going through Life which if taken on in all areas of Life, at all times, will guarantee that you will meet and overcome challenges.


1. Be Diligent: Never give up. Diligence is giving consistent effort to accomplish a goal. Take the stand that there are going to be challenges no matter what happens. And that challenges are neither good nor bad, they just are a part of Life. Be consistent and continue, NEVER GIVE UP!


2. Be Patient: Patient is "bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like". How is that for a definition? Know that things are going to happen and take them as a part of the journey. Being patient builds your ability to be calm and refrain from complaining. The phenomenon of attraction is true whether you like it or not. The more you complain about something the more get more of that something. Be patient, refrain from complaining. Be patient.


3. Be Faithful: Faith is not Belief! Faith is active, belief is passive. Put motion to what you want. Use your faith, step outside of the box and your comfort zone! Make each day a day to stretch closer to your goal. Have faith that what you are setting out to achieve will come to pass.


4. Be Focused: What are you focused on? Be focused on the things that you want to happen. Do not get overwhelmed by the things you cannot change. Take on the laser view of where you are headed. Focus takes knowing what you want and being attracted, paying attention, and taking action around it. What are you focused on? Line your focus up with what you want!


There is a way to "be" going through Life. The word "be" is defined as "to exist or live, to take place; to occupy a place or position". You are able to exist or live and occupy a particular place in whatever challenge you face. You determine what that is going to be. So, I'll be walking each day, eating fruits and vegetables, and hanging out with Gilad, until I see Laila Ali emerge in the mirror, once again!


I can't give up now! Don't You Give Up Now!

Sidney

There is a Limit!

As a coach I enjoy spending time talking about what is possible and how to achieve dreams. Manifesting what you want is a conversation that can get into hocus-pocus kind of stuff. Being on a Law of Attraction call today it occured to me that there are limits to what you can achieve. The limits exist in your mind, they exist in my mind.

T. Harv Eker worte a book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. There is a conversation about a "financial thermostat". Donald Trump is reported to have gone bankrupt to the tune of $975 million dollars in 1990, no whether or not he actually did is a source of many questions. The point is that whether or not he did be was in debt to the point it was even speculated! What Donald Trump knew was that he may have been down, but not out. Here we are in 2008, he has written a book called The Art of the Comeback (1997) for a reason, Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life (2004), and is now reportedly worth $3 billion. Trump has set his "financial thermostat" to BILLION, not million, or thousand, or hundred! He cannot be a thousandaire, his thermostat does not even register "THOUSAND", unless is being multiplied by "MILLION" or "BILLION".

Our thermostats can be reset, just like in a home. Most of us never think about our "thermostat", we often inherit ours. There are those that transend the setting. How do you reset it? Resting the thermostat begins within. We must reset our inner thought patterns and ways of Being first. Checking what we think, challenging what the things we have been told are true or false, and testing the waters of Life for self. A thermostat can be set on automatic, which is how we usually go through Life. Now, the reseting of the thermostat only happens when someone conscious of the internal temperature chooses to alter it! Who can alter it? YOU. The only limit that is set is YOURS.

Limits can become overcome by stating it. In my training it has been called declaring. Declarations are announcements made with authority with the express intention of manifesting and proclaming a choice. We do it everyday without thinking about it because it has been such a part our lives. Making a declaration usually involves other people. And most people resist letting other poeple in on the Life changing, thought altering things of Life for fear or resistance to being accountable. I, too, am guilty as charged. When we release limits in all areas of Life we begin to reset the thermostat of Life.

The last link to resetting the thermostat is two-fold using the words of Life and speaking with people who use words of Life. Words of Life are those words that speak encouragement, perseverance, accomplishment, accountability, and drive. These are things that forward what you are up to, they are words that push you closer to your goal, they leave no doubt that you are moving forward, and they keep you focused on what you want to accomplish. There are hurdles to every goal, however, it does matter what you say to yourself and what you allow to be said to you! Check to see what you say that limits you and who you listen to that limit you as well. Rest your thermostat with the words you say, hear, and those who surround you.

There are limits to everything, the limits that we set. Reset the thermostat!