You Can Do It!

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Jeannette

Make your ME time count towards a personal goal

The weather is starting to get nice outside… It is a great time to get out and restart your, “I will exercise at least 3 times a week” goal. Only this time, you will stick to it. I promise.

Start with scheduling a block of time in your calendar each week labeled “Me Time” or “Exercise Time,” whatever will remind you to get up and move. I find that if I do not properly schedule it, I will quickly forget and distract myself with other less important things. An even better plan may be to find an exercise partner. Someone who you know will motivate you to keep at your goal.

The easiest thing could be taking a walk right outside in your own neighborhood, whether itgirl jogging be at home or work. Start by exploring areas that you have never been to. Maybe you will see things that you never noticed before, and hopefully forget the fact that you may be out of breath and tired!

Pete Winiarski Author of Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days offered this piece of advice in his book, “Achieving your goals, no matter how challenging they are, is meant to be fun, exciting, and downright exhilarating!” This is so true!! Life is so short, and we often forget to enjoy ourselves! It’s ok to take a little time for yourself – to pursue your goals! So get out there and explore and clear your mind and maybe get a bit of exercise too!!

By employing the Act Now! methodology, using a log to track your intentions and progress, and having someone to help keep you focused, you’ll be able to reach your goals!

 

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Meditating…The Easy Way!

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Jeannette

The Importance of ME time

What motivates us to wake up in the morning… and start all over again after a long night of children waking up in the night? What motivates us to forget about all of the crying and whining and arguing to get out of bed only to possibly go through it all over again?

Maybe it is the sweet smile on your child’s face as they sleep peacefully in your bed. Or maybe it is the sound of your child calling out to you in their morning voice, “Mommy, I need you…” All of the frustration from the day, (or night) slips away, and you are ready to tackle whatever comes your way. And as you go through the day, you may have to stop  –  just breath — and remind yourself how lucky you are to have been blessed with children. It is so, so easy to take this for granted. We’ve all been there!

One way to help make the “hecticness” of life a bit smoother is to meditate. Now wait, before you yell out, “Who has time to mediate??” Remember that mediation can take on different forms. For some, taking a 15-20 minute walk with your iPod on will restore your balance.  For others, it may be reading a couple of pages from a book. Do you ever catch yourself caught in a daze where your mind is just wandering for a moment?  That’s a form of meditation. For others, petting the dog, preparing a favorite meal, exercising, or picking up the phone to call a friend can be a way of meditating. It can be whatever allows you to let go of the stress and get back to a state of balance.

meditating mom with borderIt does not have to be sitting in a dark room quietly chanting to yourself (although, some days a room to yourself might feel like heaven!). It can just be a time where you are able to clear your head, have some self reflection, and regain your strength. Pete Winiarski, author of Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days wrote, “A butterfly could land on your shoulder, and you’re not going to feel it. If it were to whisper something to you, you’re not going to hear it unless you’ve created an environment that can enable you to hear it.” This is so true, it is important to allow yourself some ME time!!

 

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I am a MOM, and I’m TIRED!

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Jeannette

You wake up in the morning to the sound of your youngest calling out to you. You pull yourself out of bed, comfort your child, get cozy only to now hear your oldest crying. Great, this is just how you wanted to start your day, isn’t it?

The best way to handle this kind of situation would be to take a moment, breath, meditate, exercise, whatever helps to calm your inner self. But who has time for that? The kids have to get to school, the kitchen needs to be tidied up, there’s a pile of laundry, you have a job that is waiting for you… (luckily you work at home!!). There just isn’t enough time.

bigstock-Exhausted-lady-6152642Everyone needs to get up and get dressed, eat breakfast, get their shoes and jackets on NOW!!

Kids are dropped off and now you are 10 minutes late for work. Ugh, is that the phone ringing and don’t forget to pick up the dog’s medicine…the list always seems to grow.

Hopefully not every day is like the one above. But when it is, there are things that we can do to get us in a state of calm and slowly but surely do what we need to get done.

Try… even though it can be hard when you already feel rushed and overwhelmed and you just want to dive right in because you are already so behind. Try to take 5 to 10 minutes to just meditate or listen to a favorite song, or just sit and stare. Whatever calms your mind. Then when you feel some level of peace, grab a notebook, napkin, computer, (whatever is handy) and just jot down whatever is on your mind.  Maybe it’s a list of some goals that you want to achieve today or everything that is overwhelming you at the moment.  Clear the clutter by getting it out of your head.  Then it will be easier to prioritize and you can tackle the important stuff.   But the key is in the writing of your goals. According to a study at Dominican University, writing your goals down will make you 42.1 percent more apt to achieve them than you were before you put them on paper.

Here’s to beautiful, calm, happy mornings!!

 

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Overcome That Overwhelmed Feeling

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Pete Winiarski

How getting back to basics can flush out the feelings of being stressed and overwhelmed and make room for goal achievement and fun!

When you’re overwhelmed, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, forget the important things, and slip into negative patterns.  Before you know it, you’re thinking, “I hate my life” because you’re stressed out and it seems that no matter how busy you are, your pile of work keeps growing.jennifer yane, several days attack

I know what you mean.  I have so much on my plate right now with multiple consulting clients, a book launch coming up (a “relaunch” of my latest book, Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days), an on-line product that aligns with the book, internal projects like revising my speakers kit, and what was that other thing?  Oh yeah – my family!  On top of that, with income taxes due there was the normal fire drill to get information to my accountant so his team can work their magic.

I actually found myself having physical signs of being overwhelmed and stressed as a pain in the center of my chest!  Chest pain?  (Yes, I had it checked and everything is fine, but still, to get to this point is a bit crazy!  I’m not one to give in easily, so I just work a little harder or sacrifice a little personal time to get one more thing done.  Smart?  NOT!)

It’s not true that I hate my life, but at times like this I do have to take pause.  If I’m not willing to relax my expectations, what can I do to at least become more productive, feel better about my daily accomplishments, and get rid of the feelings of being stressed and overwhelmed?

Getting Back to Basics and Following Proven Strategies

I had what I call a “back to basics” realization.  In this case, it’s the back to basics that I’ve outlined in my own book, Act Now!  The book is full of proven success strategies that can accelerate your results, yet I was not doing what I know would work.

I recognized that I wasn’t following my own process lately.  When I have followed the Act Now! methodology in the past, I was thrilled with my results and quality of life, so why not get back to what I know works?

To relieve my feeling stressed and overwhelmed, I went to the list of Daily Habits and made sure to meditate and exercise.  I also went through some beginner’s yoga to help me stretch and ease the sore back and legs (from running).

To climb on top of my endless to-do list, I went back to my action plans.  Yes, I actually have action plans created by either me or my team for the different goals we have, I just wasn’t referring to them!  If you were to audit my actions, I was quite busy but was responding to everyone else’s requests of me rather than having some specific concept of what I wanted to accomplish today.

With greater clarity about my action plans and the steps to take to achieve the goals I had for this 90 day period, I then made sure to log down the most important five Planned Actions for today.  Sure, I had many more things that would surface as important each day, but these most critical five aligned with my action plans and my goals.  By making sure I knocked these off my list enabled real headway, not just busyness.

After recommitting to the Daily Action process and writing down my progress on the Daily Log Sheets, magic started to happen.  Results.  Feeling less stressed and overwhelmed.  More fun.  Ah, yes.  I love my life.

Your turn to get back to basics

Here’s my challenge to you.  If you are feeling overwhelmed, take pause.  Decide what your most important goal(s) are, and draft an action plan for each goal.  Then, use the daily action process I describe in Act Now! to make meaningful progress on your goals each day.  The forms are there on www.DailyActionLog.com, gratis!  You, too, can then flush that “I hate my life” thinking right down the toilet and feel great about your results.

 

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The “Start Up,” “Start Up Again,” and “This Time I AM Going to Succeed” Goal

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Jeannette

I know you can relate. I know that you know what I’m talking about. We all do it. We all do it again and again.  We all have goals that have been hanging around for years that we just can’t seem to accomplish.

This time I am Going To SucceedIt is so easy to feel overwhelmed before you even start. It could be a simple goal like “clean out the junk drawer in the kitchen.”  Or maybe it’s time for a “life change” – something paramount like quitting smoking or losing weight.  Do you have a behavior that you’ve been trying to change for years now?

You are not alone!

And even better – help is on the way.

The good news is that there are many daily habits – simple things that you can do every day – that are proven to accelerate your goal achievement. Here are just a few:

  • Visualizing your goals and objectives as already achieved
  • Journaling (keeping a diary of your action plan and goal progress)
  • Exercising (it helps even if losing weight isn’t one of your goals!)

Listen, no one is perfect. We all stumble and fall. Do you have days when you say things like, “I hate my life.”  “How can I be successful?”  “How do “successful people” do it??”

The simple answer is baby steps.  Start small with daily action.  Create an action plan of simple things that you can do every day that will start to move you toward your goal.  They don’t have to be perfect – just start taking action!  Sean Gallagher, named one of Ireland’s top entrepreneurs in 2006 and 2011 candidate for president of Ireland, said this, “A man who waits for everything to be perfect before taking the next step will spend his entire life standing on one leg.”

Don’t wait!  Create an action plan.  Put that feeling of being overwhelmed aside for a moment and imagine how you’ll feel when you’ve achieved that life change (even if it’s just cleaning out that darn drawer).  Don’t wait for tomorrow. Do one thing right now!

 

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“Keeping the Daily Action Log Reinforces Focus” – Jim Pawlak, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Jen

Check out this book review by Jim Pawlak at Book Biz!!

“Keeping the Daily Action Log Reinforces Focus” – Jim Pawlak, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

open book with edges“Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days by Peter Winiarski (Win Publishing, $14.95). When we get caught up in the events of the workday, we forget there’s a huge difference between activity and progress. Winiarski reminds us that progress couples good habits, planned action and inspired action (i.e. an AHA! moment) with a daily review of results. He provides a Daily Action Log one can use to track what’s been done. It allows you to compare what happened with what could/should have been done.

What are good habits? Visualizing goals, staying on-point, not letting emotion cloud perspective, thinking, exercise, etc., keep us pointed toward progress. Reacting to every phone call and the ping of an incoming email are not good habits because they destroy focus.

Relative to daily “planned action”, Winiarski uses the “Rule of 5”. Provide focus to each day by listing five high-priority things on which you’ll focus. It makes sense; if you are able to devote one hour to each, you’ll make progress. Plan the next day after you’ve evaluated the current day’s results. On your way to work, think about how you’re going to execute that day’s five actions.

Inspired action evolves from good habits and planned action. When you make time to really think about what if, and how, you engage your creativity. Use the Daily Action Log to capture thoughts as they occur. Doing so ensures they don’t get lost when shifting from one activity to another.

Relative to long-term goals, he advises breaking them down into 90-day increments. If you execute your five planned actions each day, you’ll have time to plan ahead.

Winiarski reminds us that busyness and business are not synonymous. Keeping the Daily Action Log reinforces focus.”

Click here to see this review in the Hartford Business Journal

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Be a Kid Again!

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Pete Winiarski

It’s OK to Set Goals without Knowing How You’ll Get There (in fact, I recommend it!)

We set this goal in early January without a plan in place but here we are in February and it’s already achieved.

The best part about setting goals is you don’t need to have any idea how you’ll achieve it when you set it.  That part comes later.  When you set your goals for the year, or for the next 90-day period as we describe in Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days, leave all your restrictions and self-talk out of it.  Too often we adults let logic get in the way of our dreams.  Kids, however, rarely block their own dreams.

One of the goals that my son, Nicholas, set for this year was to go to Nassau in the Bahamas.  Of course, in order for him to achieve this goal, his parents would have to get involved, but that didn’t stop him from setting that goal.  The interesting thing is that we don’t know why he picked that location, but he did.

Fast forward just a few weeks from that goal-setting exercise when my wife and I were discussing what to do during the kids February vacation from school.  We were looking into options where the weather is warm enough for the beach but our research found mostly expensive trips until we began looking at cruises.  Long story short, the best combination of flights, cruise times, and cost was a ship that sailed into Nassau.

It was an easy decision to book that cruise, and now here we are not even March and that pretty big goal is already complete.  Sure, we eventually had to create a plan to get there.  But when that goal was set, this wasn’t on our radar at all.  When you set your goals, allow them to align with your dreams.  Once you’ve set them, THEN create a plan to follow.

Think like you did when you were a young kid, without the restrictive thinking of adult life.  Something you want?  Set a goal for it, follow the process described in Act Now! And have fun achieving it!

See the two short videos below that tell more about this story.

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I Was Punched in the Gut

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Pete Winiarski

How You Go Through the Process of Achieving Your Goals is Your Choice – A Lesson I Learned the Hard Way So You Don’t Have To

I was punched in the gut.  No, not with a fist, but with my son pointing out I was acting like a jerk.  And, no, that’s not what he said.  He had a well-spoken argument that made me realize it, though.  And it felt like a punch in the gut.

Here’s what happened.

Saturday was the annual Pinewood Derby.  The cub scouts race the cars that they create from a block of wood, theoretically with a little support from dad.  Except on the tough parts, where dad does more of the work.

Well, Saturday morning was the time to get the wheels onto the car and to align them so the car rolls straight.  If it turns, you make a few simple adjustments.  Well, those simple adjustments caused this dad to snap the wood.

Ugh! In my frustration you can imagine what might have come out of my mouth. No, worse than what you just thought.  There were elements of blaming, of wanting to give up, of saying, “This car will never win.” Or, “I can’t get the wheels straight.” etc.  Let’s just say I deserved a real punch in the stomach.

Now, with both boys upset, my older one hit me with the zinger, “Dad, how can you say that?  You teach people how to achieve goals, but you’re not doing what you teach right now!”

powOuch.  He was right.  And it hurt.  I had created this situation with a negative attitude rather than a positive one.

I had a choice, you see.  Looking back I wish I had stayed calm, made a game of the preparations, demonstrated how to succeed in the face of adversity while sharing tidbits of encouragement along the way.  But I didn’t.  I chose to allow my frustration to own me, rather than releasing it and staying calm.

As I look back, I could have practiced any of the “Letting go” methods I’ve described in Act Now!, and wish I had.  I wish I had made encouraging remarks.  I wish I had laughed when I broke the car.  I wish…  I wish…  I wish…

The point is, I can still learn from this experience and use it as a teaching opportunity for my boys.  Despite not being able to see any way it would happen, both boys had a fantastic time and Nathan’s car won third place.  Nick’s car (which ran in the family and friends race afterwards) put up fast times too, which meant it was a competitive car, as well.

Despite all the frustration, the last-minute efforts, and the negative tone I had set, the cars performed well and the boys had a good time.

I’ll end with this thought:  given the possibility that your results will be exactly what you want, why not enjoy the process of getting there?

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Fuel Your Passion

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Pete Winiarski

Let Your Goal-Setting Exercises Fuel Your Passion: You Know You’re There When You Jump Out of Bed Early to Achieve Your Goals

My eleven-year old son, Nicholas, has a gift.  He’s a musical genius who began to figure out songs and play the melody when he was three.  He can hear a song in the car and then play it when he gets in the house… in the correct key, with supporting chords.

Ok, I’m bragging.  But it’s true.

bigstock-Piano-497562He’s also been composing since he was about seven.  In fact, his piano teacher often gives him an assignment to compose a piece for piano, and then add other instruments.  I’ve noticed when it’s an assignment, he’s less excited about the project and might not try to finish it.  It’s more fun to play pop tunes on the keyboard.  I guess even piano homework feels like homework.

Recently, we did our family goal-setting exercise for the year.  One of Nick’s goals is to write out a song that he had composed in his head.  Another is to play at an open-mic venue.  As a parent, I’m thrilled to see him living his passion.

I was even more thrilled when I woke at 7:00 on a recent Saturday morning to find Nick at the computer, working on his most recent song.  He was up before me!  At breakfast, he told me that the goal-setting and the video we shot (http://dailyactionblog.com/annual-goal-setting-family-event/) talking about our goals had inspired him to actually write that song.

Amazing!  That’s theoretically how it’s supposed to work, and here it is in action!  I was proud of him for taking action and creating a great song.  I was also thrilled that the principles I teach in Act Now! had a positive effect.

Yes, this stuff really does work.  I hope that you can share a similar story about how you were motivated to take action and achieved one of your goals, too.

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Time Goes By…

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Kelly

How many times have you asked someone, “How are you?” and they reply, “So busy”.  How busy is busy? Is it that they don’t know how to manage their own schedule or they overload there schedule and haven’t learned to say “no?” Our schedule is one of the only things in our life we have the most control over.

It is your choice to make time for whatever it is you need to do.bigstock-Businesswoman-Clock-881042

We understand that between work, kids, sports, family and friends that this takes up most of our time. It’s up to you to decide how many kids you choose to have, how much work you wish to do to provide the lifestyle you want, how many activities you want to sign your children up for (or yourself), how many family events you want to attend and who you want to “hang” out with.

Wow- that’s a lot of choices we make on a daily basis and before you know it, where has the time gone?

Did you make time for yourself?

Many of us do not make time for ourselves and before you know it a month goes by and you think, “What about me?” It is up to you to make time for yourself, first – then everything else.

If it was only that easy!

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