Why Choose Happy

What does this mean?

Are there areas where the efforts put forth are no longer producing the same results you were once getting? Are you getting everything you need to see evidence of progress in your life? Doing the same actions with fewer results means you have to make a change.

Before you start to defend why no change is necessary consider the following. How you view things plays a direct correlation to the results you are getting, you either change what you are doing or change what you think about the results.

By asking what has changed to bring in fewer results allows you to either realign your thinking of what is normal or change your actions. Anything less is denying the facts of the situation and can lead to inner turmoil and frustration.

So Going forward I can…

The Only way to affect results is to track and question the results. I previously read that scientists never make mistakes, they just get different results than what they were expecting. Never make mistakes, really? Penicillin,microwaves,scotch guard,post it notes, and  velcro is just a few of scientists different results that have changed the world we live in.

Do you have to observe everything in your life that you are doing? I would advise you to study the areas of your life where you are not getting the results you want. Choose to accept your missteps and direct your energy to make observations that lead to a more positive life instead of living at the point of your missteps.

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives. Tony Robbins

This post is the addendum to Will or Goal July to Dec and is the completion of Will or Goal part 1.

Monday, July 23, 2012. The day that would not end.

An early start was required and priority one was a stop to visit my dad who had finally made contact in February after a 20-year absence from our lives to say he had pancreatic cancer and he would like to give us some family mementos. The burly strong active man of my youth was replaced by a frail stooped shell that showed bruises of multiple recent falls.

The sadness of such a senselessly overdue exchange continued to cloud my thoughts as the clock approached 2 am Tuesday morning my pages for the day unread. The pages swam across my tired eyes and my body shook and swayed from physical and mental exhaustion from the day. The feeling of “this is just too hard go to bed” was buzzing around me like mosquitoes.

Continued action leads to better choices.

The movie Transformers has a line by Optimus Prime “Fate rarely comes calling at a moment of our choosing”.  Really? If you listen to your inner boy/girl scout and the motto of “Always be prepared” Because I had been flexing my discipline/ self-belief muscles all year I now stood at a point where I knew the path I would choose I would finish my 25 pages f0r the day.

Once you commit to a goal and continue to take the steps towards that goal there is a point where it becomes easier to continue than to quit. The challenge is that for every person the point of easier to continue versus quit is likely to be different than anyone else.

How do you know where your point is? Start something that is a stretch for you and just outside of your comfort zone. Do it consistently for a predetermined length ( pick a timeline a little outside your comfort zone) no matter how easy or hard it is complete the goal. Was the goal too easy double it, too hard cut it in half.

Completing is the objective here, you want to strengthen your goal setting muscles. Continue this process repeatedly and you will be astounded where it will lead your life. Choose growth and love the journey.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

Benjamin Disraeli

To recap a few years ago I decided to read 25 pages a day for one full year. ( Part 1 of Will or Goal) Along the way, I learned some very interesting things and saw many AHA moments of my actions and thoughts that were previously unnoticed.

The Journey continues as the books pile up.

For too long I had been obsessed with doing things perfectly and either discounting or “disallowing” myself the victory of completion based on how close to perfect I deemed the task at hand. As the year progressed I found myself coming to the conclusion that I am way too hard on myself and recognition of my accomplishments. (I am certain I am not alone in this matter.)

So during my year of reading did it matter that on a few of the days I read a book that had only 3-5 sentences on each page? You may recall the objective was reading 30 books a year NOT doing it perfectly every day at the same time in the same spot in my house or any other ridiculous conditions my past self could impose.

A touchdown record does not have a separate category for blown coverage or the defender fell down nor does hockey have a separate category for empty net goals. The accomplishment is the only measure that matters, not the how it was achieved.

The months blended into each other and Then Pow!

It hit me,  I had finally reached that point shared in all the success stories. The choice was mine, grow by moving toward goals I deemed worthy of my efforts OR make it so hard that I was incapable of reaching any goals I set. I had finally seen and accepted that it is always up to me alone to determine the rules of success for my life.

No one else can tell you what success looks like to you, it is your choice to decide that. Sure there are universal traits and structures in all stories shared but most (if not all) of the early victories must be self-determined and appreciated from within before the world hears from a 20-year journey to “overnight” success story…

December 31st (day 366) found me in bed before midnight determined to place book # 44 on my bookshelf before the new year. Remember you Choose what to focus on, your defeats or your progress. Which one is going to move you towards your goals? You do have your goals written down right???

You see, it’s never the environment; it’s never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events – how we interpret them – that shapes who we are today and who we’ll become tomorrow. Tony Robbins

Next post I will share the hardest day of the leap year reading challenge and more insights from it.

How do you decide which to use? Is there a difference?

Whether it is from books, magazines, newspapers (gasp old school) or ezines and even podcasts they all share a common thread of advice. The interviews feature successful people who invariably answer the question that they read 20 – 40 books per year to stay in the know. How much does this change or add to a person’s character and when did they start that habit  I wondered? I decided that I was going to take control of my life by  demonstrating I was capable of completing something previously unheard of .

The thought and the Math..

I reasoned that all of these folks found their way through challenges and roadblocks I am certain  I am not even aware of. Could I pick up some of the wisdom and peace of character these people demonstrated in their interviews by doing the same thing?

I hatched a plan that went like this, I would read over 30 books for the year and observe the results.  I had worked out this number by sampling of 5-7 books on my book case were on average 300 pages long so (300 x 30 = 9000 pages) then I took those 9000 pages divided by 366 days (I chose a leap year) and came up with the number of 24.59 pages per day. I began my plan to read 25 pages of a book every day of the year with high hopes on January 1st 2012.

January and February were not all that tough and I relied on “today is not the day I am going to quit” in moments of procrastination. Then March came in and the size of the task started to sink in the month went by slowly but still on task. At the end of March I could see real progress as I had amassed a total of 8 books read to date.

The Aha moments shooting into my psyche..

As April dragged along I started to see a pattern to the easy days of 25 pages and some insights into the harder days which were coming in with more regularity than I would have liked. Now the rubber was starting to hit the road as the cliche states.

While I could force myself to read the pages initially it become harder and heavier to push my will to accomplish the day’s pages if I left all 25 pages to the end of the day. The days that were easier were the ones I reminded myself several times to read 5-10 pages so as to be more prepared for the rush of the end of the day’s reading deadline. Interestingly the days that all 25 pages were left to the end  I observed a pattern that saw me doing more things that made me feel good first and stated objectives last. ie walk the dogs versus video games, clean the house versus talk to friends, take a nap versus reading my pages.

May turned into June and I unconsciously had started working my stated objectives first and goofed off afterwards only if there was time for it. I started noticing that my vocabulary had become deeper there were moments that my thoughts were much easier to sum up on shorter notice than previously enjoyed. My bookshelf now had 18 read books from the year’s effort to date.

Next post

Choose to return to my next post where I will finish the year with you and share all of the insights learned.

Meanwhile consider sharing your thoughts on this or any other post you may have read to date. I would love to hear how you conquered a goal you initially thought was too big to ever be done. Please leave your comments….

I will also share the day that was the hardest of the year that saw me close to quitting…