Mornings can be easy

One of the most difficult things you will have to do on your way towards your goal is getting into a new routine.  There is one part of routine that is the most difficult to tackle, I'm even tackling this as I write this.  It's called "The Morning". 
First thing when you wake up in the morning, you barely want to think let alone change your routine.  I'm here to let you know how to make the transition into a new morning habits.

The key is preparation, first and foremost write out the new routine you would like for the morning.  Next, get everything that could possibly get in your way ready the day before.  If you look what takes the most time in the morning, you many notice it can be prepared the day before. 
Many years ago, I was interested in becoming a bodybuilder, and my biggest obstacle was missing breakfast, or not having enough time to make my 5-6 meals for the day (yes, I ate a lot).  Whenever I would run out of time and not be able to get something done, I was irritable all day long.  Until I discovered that making my meals a few days in advance was key to my success and having more time in the morning.
Once you prepare yourself physically for your new morning routine, the next step is mental preparation.  Before sleeping write out your morning routine, that way your subconscious mind will start to working as you sleep to get you ready for the morning. 

Learning to actually prepare yourself mentally and physically is much more effective then simply telling yourself you will go to the gym, mediate or even read for 30 minutes first thing when you wake up.  Once you have had a successful easy morning this opens up your day to more freedom and positivity.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

You scared?

We all need to face a fear to grow, you see when you face a fear you are no longer making excuses for not improving.  Does something at work, school or in your free time scare the crap out of you?  Do you get really quiet when the subject comes up that you fear because even thinking about the fearful things makes you sweat?  If so know it's totally normal, everybody is afraid of something. 

As some of you may know I've joined Toastmasters, a group of people who get together to practice and improve the art of public speaking.  In the middle of the meeting comes "TABLE TOPICS", it's about 20 minutes where you get the chance to talk about a subject you have no time to prepare for.
This my friends scares the crap out of me, I am not necessarily fearful of public speaking, I am afraid of looking like a complete moron by not knowing the subject I'll be talking about.

For 5 weeks I sat in fear that I would be called upon to speak in Table Topics and this week I faced that fear, and I failed.
I babbled, I didn't speak long enough and to tell you the truth my nervousness was so great I cannot even remember the words I spoke.
With all that fear, I'm glad I did it though, I no longer have to sit in fear hoping I won't be called upon.  Sure I looked like a fool but I'm glad I stood up and did it.  Will I try it again?.......If I want to get better I guess I will need to, so the answer is of course I will.

When you face a fear, a weight is lifted and a new found freedom comes over you, so I encourage you to do what you are scared of.
What can you face, as small or big as it may be to help you improve in life?  Find out one tiny little thing you can do that conquers a small fear and it gets the wheels going for total self improvement.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

My thoughts....

You may not understand where I'm going with this, yet if you do it may help you get right back on track.  Today's blog could be life changing if you apply what you learn.
My belief is we are put on this earth with all the tools we need to be great, we simply need to stay focused and work on our talents and strengths and blossom from there.  I also have a belief that people are put in our lives that we need and some that are been introduced as temptation. 

I use the word temptation not only as sexual but as a way that they temp us to be lazy, crazy and getting us off course.  You can tell who these people are by the way they are introduced in life.  Often they appear randomly, once you see or interact with these people you feel an almost immediate need to put life's' focus towards them.

They are people who bump into you that you think may lead you to a more interesting way of life.  Once they wiggle their way in your life, your world gets filled with distractions such as constant texting,  phone calls and thoughts about this person, a  need for attention is seeked.  You start to try and impress these people by spending money and wasting time trying to lure them in closer, all while the world you spent years creating begins to crumble.
Often while you do this running around after temptation, the people that have been put in your life (the ones you need) have a feeling of loneliness and confusion, yes unfortunately you've caused people who love you to suffer.  While you chase temptation, the young and old that have been put in your life begin to think they have done something wrong.  This is a hard pill to swallow once you realize what you've done.

Warnings!
I also have this belief that people are put into our lives that we are meant to criticize, they are called "warnings".  These are people who live crazy unacceptable lives according to our morals and values, and we are meant to judge them because their lives don't fit a normal acceptable model according to the morals and values in which we believe.

How many times have you judged someones
-cheating on their spouse?
-financial situation?
-who just seems to have gone crazy and left everything behind?
-divorce?
-hobbies?
-intelligence?
-way they earns an income?
-physical appearance?
And the list goes on......

If you are not careful one day you will be put through that test.  It will be the test that you turn into the person which you once judged.  And I'm sure when others judge, you will make a the claim that no one understands your situation in life.
The test life will have thrown at you may not have even been realized till 10-30 years to late if you do not analyse your life.

Know what your morals and core values are.  Look at them often, because once you have a path outlined and you know exactly where you want to go, temptation will seem less appealing.  Drastic changes in your life don't always need to be made, you simply need to sharpen and work on the skills, people and talents you have been given.  It's a slow boring process to build up an ideal world in which you can be proud of, yet once you have what you've worked towards it's a better feeling that the alternative.

You must understand outside temptations are only there to test you, not to live in.  Try not to ever have the thought of "the one that got away......"  or "I could have had it all......".  Stay focused, there are obstacles, and shortcuts will only lead to disaster.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

Have you been worrying?

How good is it to breath that sigh of relief when what you worried about turned out to not even happen?

I will be the first to admit that I worry about things.  Whenever the possibility of something going wrong could maybe happen, my mind races and comes up with scenarios that I'm sure will happen.  With that comes all kinds of negative emotions, scared, panic and the worst is anger.

In the book THE POWER OF NOW, Eckhart Tolle talks about "Mind Movies".  They are stories we make up in our mind of the worst case scenarios and we unfortunately get caught up in them.
One reason this happens is our subconscious mind cannot tell the different between what is real and what is unreal.  It simply goes by whatever you tell it, and if you mix emotion with what you tell it you truly start to believe it.

The lesson I've learned

The number one thing I have learned about Mind Movies is to stop trying to control people because I believe that they are doing something wrong.  I don't want to get into what recently happen to me but I almost got so angry at someone because I believed the were doing something so wrong that it could have effected their career and lifestyle.  A day passed and everything I had worried about turned out to not even happen.  I wasted so much time in a fantasy, what a waste.

Sometimes we need to put our minds on trial and really question the things we are worrying about.  The majority of the time the worst case scenarios never even happen.  We waste valuable time being angry and worried and this only stresses us out.

An exercise

Next time you are worried about something write it down.  Then, write down the absolute worst thing that could happen if it comes to see the light of day.
Next, I want you to force yourself to write out 3 things that could happen that would be a positive if the worry were to ever actually happen.
We do this little exercise to get our mind out of a negative state, always try to think a positives when you are worried it gets your thoughts out of the dungeons of negativity.

What I want you to come away with today is, know that your mind believes what you tell it over and over again.  Make sure you tell it what you want and not what you don't want.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

This week

As we begin a brand new week, I want you to know you have within you all the abilities and strengths to get where you need to go. 
Your weakness' and flaws are not you, they are only what you label yourself as.  So look towards where you want to go this week.  Where is that, write it out and look at it often.

Is your boss holding you down or is it your way to toughen up and learn to take criticism? It's all how you look at things in life. If the boss gets on your back, look at it as a way to prove to yourself that you can overcome little obstacles.  You can do it, your a champion and tell yourself that all week.  Turning a tiny obstacle into something that it is not will only get in your way.

This is your week make it a new start. Grab the world in your hands to mold it to whatever shape YOU want it to look like, you have that power.  Imperfection will always be there but you focus only on your strengths.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

A few key points to remember

We all need to be reminded sometimes.  Today, I remind you.

When having negative thoughts:

-Write them down and then write down some solutions.
-Avoid talking about negativity with people it brings you down as you vocalize them.
-Speak to yourself with affirmations stated in the positive.
-The more you tell yourself something the more your subconscious believes it.  So speak positive when feeling negative.
-Speak about what you want.

When having positive thoughts:

-Talk about your thoughts with people you trust.  Speaking to negative people will get you in a negative state very quickly.
-Write down some possibilities, when you are in a good state of mind your ideas flow.
-Talk about what you want to do, avoid speaking about what you dread.
-Do something really great for someone to pass on a positive feeling.

Stay motivated
Shane C

Make it fun

Do you always feel that someone or something is always letting down?

I'm going to teach you a process that allows your let downs to become exciting.  Sound weird, read on....
There was a time in my life when someone was constantly letting down, to the point I couldn't sleep and felt anxiety,t hen I discovered this awesome thing to do.

When you are being let down time and time again you come to expect it from people.  You walk with your head down just waiting for that moment to happen again.  One day I was sitting around kind of expecting it to happen again and I said to myself:

"Well at least I'll be able to watch Pulp Fiction if I can't......."
And you know what, I got to watch it and I enjoyed it (I always do it's my favorite movie of all time).  This person let me down another time and I found something else to do, and this continued on for a very long time till my anxiety and sleepless nights disappeared.

What did you do?

I've created an emergency list, this list is filled with things I really like to do but only allow myself to do them if things go totally wrong. 
Having a list filled with guilty pleasures that you can fill your time with is a great feeling when your let down.  You truly need to make it personal with things you enjoy.

It can be anything like:

Watching a movie or sitcom
Eating a snack
Drawing
Writing
Putting on sweat pants
Exercise
Taking a bath
etc.......

This list could on on forever, fill it with things that make you feel at ease and comfortable.  This takes your mind off the negativity and puts it in a positive frame of mind.  If at all possible reserve some of the activities only for when you are feeling a little low, then it feels like a total treat when you get to do these things from your list.

Stay motivated
Shane C.

This one is short and sweet!

If I don't write it down and let you know I'm going to do I never will.  This year, by July 2012 this will be turnining into a video blog....other knowen as a VLOG.
Yes, you will get the chance to look at my beautiful face and that should be a huge motivator.....lmao :-P

Stay motivated
Shane C

How to keep your resolution.

Happy New Year!

I'm sure you've made your New Year's resolution by now.  I wish I owned a gym at this point in my life, memberships will increase over the next couple of weeks and gyms will be packed with people that have purpose.  The energy will be great, and results will be seen.
Fast forward to March, and the gyms will still be making money from memberships even though people have stop going.  New years resolutions get forgotten later in the year and soon people will have put what they wanted so badly in January on hold till the following January.  It's a vicious circle.

How can I ensure this doesn't happen to me?

Over the last couple of weeks I've been studying a great program called "Living your best year ever" by Darren Hardy and he has reminded me that to make goals stick you need a "why" for what you are trying to achieve.
If your goal is getting in shape starting tomorrow, know why you are trying to get in shape. If you just want to get in shape to look better it's not a good enough "why", you will get bored with that.  Give yourself a better why, like:

I am in shape so I can fit in size______ for next years office party that will happen on December____.

Really define your goal, give yourself a date and get really personal as to how you will do it.  Then day-by-day work on that goal.

If you want this year to be your year while the rest of your friends forget what their resolutions were by February 11th, start to come up with a plan of action and a true "why" you want to achieve success this year!

Stay motivated
Shane C.