This time you can!!!

So why do we fail to fulfill our New Year's Resolutions. There are a couple of reasons:

1. We tend to make our resolutions rashly. An hour before midnight someone hands us a slip of paper and we right down next year's resolutions. I am going to quit smoking, lose weight, increase my income. All worthy goals, but they are empty promises we make to ourselves. Mary Kay Ash (MaryKay Cosmetics) says "A goal is a dream with a deadline."
2. We lack focus! We can make a laundry list of all things we hope to do, or we can choose one or two very specific items that we are determined to accomplish. I have a good friend who looks over his business at the end of every year and implements a very simple, but effective plan. First, he cuts the 20% of things he is doing that are the most unproductive and uses that energy to apply towards new projects he wants to purse.

So here is my simple approach to succeeding this year and using that success as a springboard for a more productive life.

• Identify the single most important thing you want to accomplish this year. Attack it with reckless abandon and don't rest till it is done. If you want to lose 20 lbs. make it a priority in everything you do. If you can't resist buttered popcorn at the movies - don't go to the movies till you lose the 20 lbs. A single-minded approach will help us to avoid the detours and justifications that keep us from reaching our goals.
• Remind yourself of the impact that attaining that one goal will have. Success breeds success. Achieve that goal and you will be ready to tackle the next one with the same fire in your belly. When you feel like giving up - remember your approach to this one thing will affect every avenue of your life. If you succeed, you will be ready for the next challenge, if you surrender - you will be less motivated for future goals.

The only thing that can stop you from succeeding is you. Whether it is food, finances, or professional goals - you are in control. You have to take the wheel and make things happen. Don't fall into the blame game, don't look for a scapegoat, take responsibility and make it happen.

Start executing your plan today.

"A good plan violently executed is better than a perfect plan executed next week." George S. Patton

I can't recall how many times I have said, "Things will be better when . . .," or I have heard someone else say, "I could be happy if . . ." The real question is what are you waiting for? You want a happy life! You want a fulfilled life! You want less stress, a better job, more freedom, real change begins in your mind. Abraham Lincoln, with all the stress and heartache he endured reminds us, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their mind to be."

You want a different life, an untethered life, the life you dreamed of - start taking some action. The people who have accomplished great things aren't really any smarter, competent, or talented than you are - but they do tend to have two very important characteristics that set them apart.

• They are people of action. They don't wait for the world to hand them their dreams on silver platters - they execute their plans violently. They don't allow naysayers, or negative people to hinder them from fulfilling their dreams - they act on them.
• They are not easily discouraged. Most successful people have endured monumental failure. They fail greatly and they succeed greatly. Consider these words by Teddy Roosevelt delivered on April 23, 1910.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

So, what are you waiting for?

The Attitude of Winners

"If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologize." Muhammad Ali


There were a lot of people who didn't like the arrogance of Muhammad Ali. That same statement could be made about General George Patton, Jimmy Connors, Ty Cobb, Richard Branson and scores of other individuals who lived confident, unapologetic lives; but the bottom line is they are winners.

I am not suggesting that we have to embrace every behavior, but a strong sense of self, the ability to believe in our dreams when others laugh, the power to move confidently in the direction of our greatest ambition when the world calls us fools - these are the characteristics that set winners apart from the rest of the masses of bright, intelligent, talented individuals who lack that little something extra.

I remember reading a story about a young man who asked a successful mentor what it takes to get ahead. The answer was very telling - "and then some." Do the best you feel you can do, "and then some." Give your employer all that he asks for, "and then some." Work as hard as anyone else you know, "and then some."

Winners know there is something deep inside them that makes them winners. We should not be offended because they bask in their own excellence - we should be challenged by it.

Remove the chains

It was an eerie and troubling feeling as I stood in the ancient slave markets of Nigeria. Standing on the same trading blockes where human flesh was traded like corn, rice or some other commodity.

Badagry is a coastal village about an hour from Lagos, Nigeria near the border of Benin. The city dates back to 1425 A.D. and is one of the oldest slaving ports in all of Africa. Over 500,000 were reported to have been shipped out of Badagry prior to the abolishment of slavery thanks to the efforts of men like Abraham Lincoln and William Wilburforce.

As I walked down the streets of the city it felt as if little had changed; rice, corn and fish were still traded in small thatch shanties in the streets. I asked a local what life was like in Badagry and he responded, "pagan, corrupt and poor." It didn't take long to realize the people of that village were still enslaved. Enslaved to poverty, enslaved to a culture of corruption, enslaved to pagan rituals.

The people of Badagry don't have many options when it comes to raising their economic standard, seeking an advanced education, or freeing themselves from the poverty and want  they have been experiencing for generations. While this is a tragic situation, how about those of us who walk around in chains every day. The self-imposed bondage of fear, doubt and disbelief. Those chains are just as real, the consequences just as stark and in many cases the outcomes more tragic.

I don't mean to diminish the tragic conditions many in the world face each day. We have a moral obligation to help those who can't help themselves, but the loss of human potential is also tragic. We live in a land of opportunity, freedom and free enterprise. There is no limit to what we can accomplish. How tragic when we blame our circumstances on things we have control over. Live the life of your dreams! Begin to pursue your hearts desires. Remove the chains!

Living without a Net

In the last few weeks I have attended several funerals of people I love. The only common denominator is that they are now gone. Some were very young, others had lived a full and rewarding life. Time is an indescriminate taskmaster. The days and hours tick away the same for each of us, but the end often comes unexpectedly. Death never asks if we have fulfilled our dreams, lived our lives to the fullest, or contributed anything of value to society.

So why not live life without a net? There may be a lot to be said for security, stability and cautious living, but the truth is we are all going to die in the end. Who is it that we most often admire in this world - its the risktakers. We long to be the cowboys in the untamed west, we revel in the achievements of those who tempt death to reach the peak of Mt. Everest or overcome the most adverse circumstances to succeed against all odds.

Untethered is defined as "unbound, without limits, to be freed from bondage." What is it in your life that holds you back from living your dreams? What obstacles, tethers or chains are confining you? I am convicned the greatest obstacles to living an untethered life are the contraints we place on ourselves. When I hear someone say, "I could never go whitewater rafting, or parachute out of plane," I simply ask, "Why?" Beyond the limitations in our own psyche - what's stopping you?

The Price of Freedom

William Paca - Maryland, Josiah Barlett - New Hampshire, Ceasar Rodney - Delaware, and Francis Hopkinson - New Jersey were just a few of the brave men we find who "pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor" to a Declaration of Independence from the oppression, taxation and the depravation of their mother country.


Most of us remember the names of John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or John Adams, but there are 56 names that appear on the Declaration of Independence. We often forget that these men signed this document knowing the price they might have to pay. The British fleet was already anchored in New York harbor, John Hancock had a bounty of $500 on his head and Franklin stated clearly, "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." In most cases these were men of substantial means who understood the declaration to pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor were more than glowing words on fresh parchment - they were a pledge to die for their country, their freedom and their colonies.

What was the price these men paid for freedom from tyranny? Richard Morris a merchant from Philadelphia met General Washington's needs over and over depleting his personal fortune and losing a 150 merchant ships at sea in funding the revolution. William Ellery saw his home and property burned to the ground. Thomas Nelson ordered the revolutionary armies to fire on his own home and plantation to drive Cornwallis' headquarters from his estate. When he raised and pledged 2 million dollars to the cause, the newly formed government defaulted on his loans and he forfieted his personal wealth and died impoverished at age 50.

Of those 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All at one time or another were the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned to the ground. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is still intact.

The question for us today is - what price do we put on our freedom? What sacrifices will we make to defend our country and our sacred honor? Do we have the courage, the resolve, that sense of sacred honor essential in defending our freedom. I believe those words penned centuries ago are relevant to us today, "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"

Liberty can never be taken from you.

All of the fumbling that is going on in Washington reminds of a great statement by Eugene McCarthy. "The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." And for those who complain about gridlock - I see gridlock the way a doctor sees his Hypocratic Oath. "First do no harm..."  Wouldn't that be a novel approach to passing new legislation - apply the Hypocratic Oath to the Healthcare debate.

I do admit to taking a certain twisted delight in the misadventures of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, the continued babbling of Al Gore, and the inability to gain consensus on any real issues beyond Hillary promising to throw more money down a black hole.

We stand at risk of continuing to lose certain freedoms in this country, but my resolve is boolstered and optimism is rising because there are a growing number of Americans who refuse to surrender their liberty. We are fed up with tyrants who live by double standards. We are through allowing our elected officials to infringe on our freedoms, rob us of our hard earned money and threaten to restrict more and more of the rights guaranteed to us under the constitution.

That is the beauty of liberty. You may take my money, lock up my guns and try to silence me in a cold, dark prison somewhere, but you will never take from me my liberty. That is what makes the words of Patrick Henry so powerful, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."