I find it interesting that most people have big dreams, but so few are taking action to make them reality. Is it that we are all anchored firmly in the comfort zone of current existence? You may be content with your current existence (that is, you are satisfied with most aspects of your life – things are just fine), but are you living your dreams? For many people, change (no matter how awful things may be) is an uncomfortable process. This is natural, but do we really need to stay right where we are if we dream about something more?

There is a way out, a simple 5-Step process I’ll share with you now. In fact, I hope that you’ll share it with someone you know who is looking to achieve a goal that is inspiring to them. No matter how big or small, you can use this straight-forward process to set and achieve any goal you have. You can dream as large as you’d like, and I will show you how to live your dreams.

Before we start, though, it’s important to know that you need to decide this is for you. If you want to set goals and learn to reach them, read on. All that is required is desire and focus, and you can succeed.

One core principle is a what I call “The Napoleon Hill Formula” as C + B = A, or “what the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve” (Napoleon Hill). In those moments when you are having doubts, remember that if you can visualize your goal and believe in your heart that you can make that vision a reality, then you will find what it takes to achieve your goal. To help you do this more naturally, use the simple 5-step process for you to follow.

All the elements of the following process have been around for decades, with many people using some version of this process and finding wonderful success, but many people either don’t know about it or would rather stay in their comfort zone. I have learned this process from multiple audio tapes and books over the years and have applied it with great success in my life. I have summarized the process in my own words for you in these 5 basic steps.

Step 1 – Decide what you want out of life. This is your opportunity to decide (or to reconfirm) why you’re on the planet, and what you really want to accomplish. If you can figure out your higher-level purpose, then it becomes easy to set and achieve any goal that lines up with that purpose.

Step 2 – Think BIG – Build Inspiring Goals. If your goals are congruent with your guiding decision about what you want out of life, then they will naturally be inspiring. The bigger the better, as it takes the same amount of energy to define a big goal as a small one. Besides, you wouldn’t chase a goal that didn’t excite and inspire you, would you?

Goal Achievement Process Used by
“Highly Successful Individuals”

Step 3 – Program your brain to “ACT Now”. ACT stands for “Always Commit Tenaciously”. (Tenacious = persistent, determined, steadfast, firm.) If you’re committed, then you’ll achieve. If you don’t ACT, then your fate on achieving your goal will be the result of a random process (luck), and luck simply isn’t a good strategy. To mitigate luck and make achievement a certainty, program your brain by visualizing your goals as already achieved and repeat affirmation statements (sometimes called autosuggestions or self-motivators). You can program yourself to believe you are worthy of the visions you paint for yourself, as well as reinforcing the goal you are striving for. Remember: C + B = A.

Step 4 – Go Get It – Take Action. You must actually do something different if you want to make strides toward your goals. The path toward your goal may not be clear when you start, but your commitment to the goals and the visualization and affirmation exercises you do daily create the condition where the answer becomes clear. Your job is to recognize it and do it. Don’t let your old limiting beliefs get in the way – have faith and take the steps toward the goals you’ve decided are worth pursuing.

Step 5 – Celebrate. Success is fun, so reward yourself when you achieve the goals you set. This is like building “muscle memory” when you learn a new sport – if you use proper technique while practicing your golf swing, basketball shot, or S-turns down the ski slopes, they will soon become habits. Celebrating will ensure the process of achieving your goals is a habit, too.

When I was about 30 years old, I first used this process to achieve some fitness goals, including to “run 5 miles in 45 minutes before Thanksgiving” (so I could eat as much as I want as a reward!). Every day, I would visualize my route and me crossing the “finish line” in front of my house with 45:00 on my stopwatch. I had affirmations on 3 x 5 cards, including “I am energetically crossing the finish line of my 5-mile route in 45 minutes, ready to do it again”, and “my muscles are strong, I am powerful, I have endurance, I have speed”. I read the cards daily and repeated these statements while I was doing my training runs. I first had to build my distance from not running at all to 5 miles, and then had to build speed by interval running on a near-by track. Needless to say, I met the goal on my first timed attempt, weeks before Thanksgiving!

With this success under my belt, I began to use the same process for my income goals. (See how success breeds more success?) I now periodically re-set goals based on what I want to earn, and follow the process I described above. During the next ten years, I have more than tripled my income and my time off. Because I had programmed my brain, I was able to see opportunities as they came up. I had courage to make changes in my jobs, have started businesses, and have found ways to work from home. My family enjoys a nice house in a nice neighborhood and I enjoy freedom that would not be possible had I not taken these first steps with these processes years ago.

I now have goals that balance across all areas of my life – fitness, money, family, career, hobbies, etc. I encourage you to start with one area right now, gain momentum with your successes as you achieve your goals, and then have goals across multiple areas of your life. If they are all congruent with your higher-level purpose, you will certainly enjoy a satisfying life. Maybe you want to write a book. Run a marathon. Have a million dollars net worth. All of these are valid if you can visualize them and believe that you are worthy of achieving them.

Think about the possibilities for yourself. What are your dreams? What are you doing right now toward living your dreams? Have you set your goals, written them down, and do you visualize and affirm them daily? I encourage you to follow the process I describe in this report. Start now. If you need help, look into the resources on www.PeteWiniarski.com, including the expert interview “Special Collections” The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement, (www.i-saga.net). Find someone who has achieved the level of success you’re after and hear their stories and ask them questions – this will make your journey go more smoothly and accelerate your progress. Most importantly, make the commitment now, and just start. So, are you ready to apply the simple process I’ve shared with you?

Pete Winiarski is the founder and President of Win Enterprises LLC, a company that helps business leaders achieve and sustain transformational result through Strategic Goal Deployment™, project execution and cultural shifts.

Win Enterprises LLC has supported companies ranging from local businesses to 80 billion dollar corporations. Prior to forming Win Enterprises LLC, Pete gained valuable experience in line management and consulting roles at The Wiremold Company, McKinsey & Company, and Danaher.

Additionally, Pete is an expert in personal goal achievement, and coaches individuals to reach their potential. He believes there is useful overlap between the individual and company goal achievement processes, and is working on a book that integrates these processes to help accelerate improvement in organizations. He has made a short eBook available for you on this topic at www.WinEnterprisesLLC.com/ebook.

You can learn more about Pete Winiarski and Win Enterprises, LLC at www.WinEnterprisesLLC.com or at www.PeteWiniarski.com. Please click on “Contact Us” to e-mail comments or questions, including feedback or testimonials about this white paper.

Do you have a goal that you’ve set and reset these past few years, because year after year you simply didn’t make it? When you’re stuck like this but still want to achieve the goal you’ve set, it might require you change your strategy on how to get there. A new strategy will set into motion a new set of actions – different than you’ve put into place before. Remember, if you want different results you need to do things differently!

One goal I’ve had the past few years is to get down to 185 lbs. Somehow, I hovered at 190-195, even when I increased my exercise. This past year, I changed my strategy and was delighted at how easy it was to hit this goal!

As someone who has been physically active my whole life, my actual body weight has always been secondary to how I feel and what I’m able to do physically. If I feel energetic and can go for a run or bike ride (or skiing in the winter), then I was satisfied.

Over the past few years, however, I noticed my weight and waist size creeping up. This is largely a function of long hours working, eating on the go, shorting myself on sleep – not unlike many people I know who are highly driven toward their goals.

My past strategy was to stay active. I’d put a 5k race on the calendar as a way to get me out and run. Heck, ten years ago, I ran my first marathon and ran three more that year. I ran every weekend on a group run that ranged from ten to twenty six miles. As long as I had time to commit to the training, my weight and athletic frame was just fine.

My problem in the recent past was injury. I would ignore that I’d been idle, go out feeling great, and push beyond the little signals my body was sending me to slow down or stop. I’ve had sprained ankles, calf and hamstring pulls that have stopped me in my tracks. My past strategy wasn’t working, because I was impatient about the investment and wanted instant results.

I had been hearing more about nutrition. I had interviewed a nutrition expert who worked with JJ Virgin (the Nutritionist of the Stars) on my program, the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. I heard an interview with Dr. Mark Hyman and read one of his books. I learned about nutrition and cancer, which has a similar message to JJ and Dr. Mark. It had become clear that this was my next strategy – I was to completely alter my nutrition as a core part of my routine.

I started working with a nutrition coach on November 1, 2009 when I weighed 200 lbs. With just 2 months to go before the end of the year, was 185 lbs still a reasonable goal? I decided yes. I learned not only about what to and not to eat, but also about burst training and weight lifting, and how critical proper sleep and stress management is (or else you risk erasing the benefits from doing the other things well). I simply needed to be diligent following the actions my new strategy dictated to me.

To bolster these actions, I also incorporated a number of other goal achieving practices. I wrote my affirmations on a 3×5 card (“I am excitedly stepping on the scale to read 185 lbs” and “I am fit, healthy, and alive at 185!”). I wrote a Dear God Letter to describe the physique I wanted to have at 185 lbs. I visualized the results that I was creating, as if they were already true. I meditated more often and made sure to get more sleep.

My results were amazing! On November 1, I weighed 200 lbs. By December 1 I was at 189 (the lowest I’d been in several years), and on 12/31/09 (the goal date), I weighed in at 187 lbs – 2 pounds over my goal. Was I unhappy? NO! In fact, it was only a week later that I hit 185, and I continued to follow my nutritional habits and had steadily increased my fitness level over the coming months such that I now enjoy weighing 175 – ten pounds less than my original goal.

Here’s the amazing thing about my story. I now enjoy a weight and body shape that I last had shortly after my college days. I thought this was a thing of the past, and had set a goal that was a stretch based on my belief of what was possible for me. With a different strategy in place, I now have a new perspective of what is possible, and have blown away my old paradigm and enjoy results beyond what I was willing to believe.

* * *

If you have a goal that you can’t seem to make significant progress on, consider a new strategy. In my case, I researched other options once I recognized my existing strategy wasn’t working. I hired a coach to help me accelerate my learning and results, and I followed the basics and executed my new action plan well. I’m confident you can do the same in any area of your life!

Wishing you more Fun, Freedom, and Fulfillment,

Pete Winiarski
Founder
The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement

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Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

I’ve had the goal to complete my first triathlon each of these last three years. The two previous years I allowed a heavy travel schedule (at least I was in France a lot!) and nagging injuries from training too quickly throw me off track. Even this year, I was in physical therapy for muscle pulls in my calf and hamstring just a few months ago.

This race was a Sprint Triathlon, although a bit longer than some that are still considered sprints. A half-mile swim in the ocean, then a 16.1 mile bike ride, then a 3.1 mile run. I had it on the calendar as one of the few that I was going to be home for this Summer.

In the weeks leading up to race day, I tested myself by swimming in the pool at the YMCA, then hopping on the bike for a 16 or so mile ride, then if I had anything left (I didn’t have much), I went for a run as far as I could. One week before, I managed to complete the full distances and decided, “OK – I can do this”, and signed up before registration closed.

I’ve had a heavy travel schedule recently, so getting in more than the minimal amount of training was difficult. In fact, I arrived home about 3pm Saturday afternoon after a string of nights with less than a full night of sleep, and had to be up at 4am the next morning to pack the car, drive to the beach, and check in at 6am. I had fantastic fan support as my wife, Marie, and 2 boys also got up at 4am to join on my adventure. That and my excitement set me up for a great experience.

I was one of about 300 people dressed in black ready to jump into the 71 degree water. This was my first time wearing my new wet suit, never mind swimming in the ocean. I hit my first mental distraction about 10 strokes into the water when I was shoulder to shoulder with swimmers on the left and right of me. I soon found that I was not swimming with the technique that works so well for me in the pool with a breath every 4-6 strokes – I was huffing and puffing and gasping for breath with every stroke. Face in the water and swimming “downhill” as proper form dictates? – forget it! Then, maybe 100 yards off shore, I felt my wedding ring slip off my finger down into the depths of the sea. Man, this isn’t going well…

At that moment, I made a choice: give up, or finish this race. I decided I came to finish my first triathlon and that is exactly what was going to happen.
I broke my goal into smaller chunks. Get past the next buoy. Get out of the water with enough time to complete the bike and run before they shut down the course (which was really plenty of time, but I didn’t know it at the time). My friend and fellow triathlete gave me a bit of advice; “be willing to come in last.” I was completely OK with that.

As I left the ocean and ran across the sand toward the transition area I realized I just finished the hardest part. Time to hop on the bike and enjoy the ride.

I gobbled an energy gel, drank a ton of water and gateraide, got out of the wet suit and put on my bike shorts and running shoes. I decided to have fun from this point on. Now veteran triathletes wear the same thing under their wetsuit that they will on the bike and run. I had no idea about this so I wore my bathing suit and planned to change into my biking shorts. I was starting to get my spirit back to the point that as I dropped my bathing suit (with beach towel around my waist) I was tempted to yell, “Whoo hoo hoo! I’m naked!!!” I didn’t, but allowed the silliness and personal chuckle to carry me forward.
Feeling like I needed to make up ground, I pushed pretty hard on the bike. I got passed and passed others. My chain came off just once, so that felt like a win as I saw another rider changing a tire on the side of the road. There were a few moments after taking a drink that I was convinced I was about to puke, given the gurgling in my stomach and throat, but I pushed on.

Not knowing where I was sure helped me keep pushing. I was judging distance from my watch, and thought I had another 4-5 miles to ride when I turned into the beach parking lot and transition area. I had shaved about a half hour off my bike time versus the prior weekend. Two events down and one to go. Now time to dump the bike and start running.

There is something reinforcing about finishing each leg of the triathlon, because it’s like finishing a race three times. Each time is another little success. I used those successes to surge me forward with more momentum.

The run was more of a burden. At this point it was quite hot outside and I was increasingly more willing to take walk breaks. No matter – I was willing to come in last as long as I crossed the finish line in an upright position with a smile on my face. With a quarter mile to go, my right thigh started to cramp up. No way I’m stopping now! With 300 yards to go, the left leg cramped up too. I had experienced this at the tail end of the Chicago Marathon years earlier, so knew I could still make it. Crossing the finish line and hearing my name announced was awesome – I did it!

The full appreciation of what I accomplished hit me a few hours later. I had used the power of my confidence and resilience – full mental power – to pull me across the finish line. There were plenty of opportunities to quit the race, but I persevered because my goal was in sight and I could do it.

I am in such a zone right now in my life that everything is going just like this triathlon. I am super confident and my results reflect it. I love knowing that nothing can stop me as I go after my life purpose, my passions, and all my goals.

* * *

Reflect about a time when you were in a zone and everything was going your way. What was special about that time? Put yourself back in that moment and recreate your confidence…and watch your results follow!

Wishing you more Fun, Freedom, and Fulfillment,

Pete Winiarski
Founder
The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement

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Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

That was the situation I found myself in a few weeks ago. It was Friday afternoon and I had lots of catching up given I had been away the first 12 days of the month, had plans to go away for Father’s Day weekend with my dad, and then travel for the next two weeks.

I had a new team member just start, and she just learned she was going to hold down the fort alone the next two weeks. I wanted to give her more guidance, but was out of time.

Just then, a box arrived – it was the first five copies of my new children’s book fresh off the printer (see www.PicnicAtTheZoo.com). You would think I’d be popping a bottle of champagne – my first book! Nope, I barely had time to open the box before running to pack a bag and prepare for a client phone call.

That night as I settled into a strange bed in a room without air conditioning, I finally paused to relax and acknowledge the accomplishment. Wow – my book is here! I sent a few text messages out to family and friends to share my news. And then the reply messages came back strong!

Here I am, exhausted after a long day and anxious to get to sleep, and I found myself experiencing the most dramatic shift in my mood and excitement level. I was finally allowing myself to experience the pride of accomplishment that I deserved.

What’s the message I took away from this experience? Relax!! Be open to whatever might come your way, and allow the momentum to build!

* * *

Can you think of a time in your recent past when you were too busy to allow great experiences the space to flourish? What might you do next time?

Wishing you more Fun, Freedom, and Fulfillment,

Pete Winiarski
Founder
The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it:

Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

We all have an “Inner GPS” that also tells us how to get to our destination. It signals to us whether we are on course or off course. Using it is simple if you know how.

First, you have to have clarity where you’re headed – just like typing in the address. Then, you have to trust your feelings. If you’re feeling great about something, you’re on course. If you’re feeling uncomfortable, like that hesitation when you’re certain something’s not exactly right, then you’re probably off course.

Simple? Well, yes. The difficult thing may be following what our Inner GPS is suggesting, especially if it’s telling us we’re off course. The good news is that when we do follow it, it generally rewards us by becoming stronger and guiding us more loudly over time.

I have had times where I ignored my inner GPS only to later discover I should have “listened to my gut”. Other times, I took a deep breath and made the course corrections necessary until I felt comfortable again – it turned out doing so improved my results.

Now it’s time for you to notice what your personal inner GPS is suggesting you do…and follow the little voice that says, “turn left at the next intersection”!

* * *

I encourage you to begin paying attention to your Inner GPS and see if your results and personal satisfaction levels improve. Notice what happens when you ignore the suggestions, and what happens when you trust and follow.

Wishing you more Fun, Freedom, and Fulfillment,

Pete Winiarski
Founder
The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it:

Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit  www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

Follow the lead of successful entrepreneurs who use Twitter as part of their marketing strategy.

Let me start by saying that I’m definitely in learning mode on this one. With the speed of technology, I think we all are! As I’ve been researching the best ways to use Twitter and experimenting to see what works I want to talk about how to avoid the biggest mistake most people make.

Just like EVERYTHING on the web, valuable content is critical. This is true on your blog, your websites, and your posts on social media such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Make sure your “tweets” are delivering interesting, fun, and valuable tidbits.

The BIGGEST mistake many entrepreneurs make as they strive to grow their business is to go promotion crazy.

Lets face it, we’re all super busy. We might have recently added a Twitter account but haven’t yet figured out the best way to integrate it into our promotion and marketing efforts. We’ve got something coming up we want the world to know, so quickly and without thinking, we post something brief such as, “This is good for you. Don’t miss it: yourwebsite.com”

And it turns people off more than on. Why – don’t they love you right out of the gate?

This is like flirting, dating, getting engaged, and finally married. Except we’re asking people we have not yet met to jump in bed with us right out of the gate. Get why this is a big mistake? So, what is better? Here are two fundamental things to do.

1. Build a long-term, trusting relationship with your followers. This is about showing your personality, being interesting, being funny (sometimes), sharing great content (often), being helpful … have your tweets accomplish this on a regular basis
2. Lead up to your request. If you do want to share something of value on a website, your followers need to trust you in order to click on the link. If they have not been paying attention to you (among the hundreds of tweets and posts they get, you are sometimes missed), then build up to your tweet that has the request that they click the link you’re providing.

For example, to let people know about the interview I was broadcasting on the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement with “Positive Mental Attitude Expert” Maryanne Ross, I started with a few tweets about having a Positive Mental Attitude to build interest and interaction about the topic. I then tweeted information about where people could find the interview.

Notice what these looked like BEFORE I shared the link to listen to the interview on the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement.

• I love this concept from the latest i-saga guest, Maryanne Ross. About having a Positive Mental Attitude: you have a choice what… 1:15 PM Apr 26th

• Any examples when your positive mental attitude got you through a challenge? 9:15 AM Apr 27th

• Our latest interview with owner of Mental Apparel Maryanne Ross will help you to decide what “attitude” to wear today…. 11:15 AM Apr 27th

• Great leaders practice “Naked Thinking” in their mental apparel: eliminate negative thoughts & let go of their egos. http://www.i-saga.net 3:00 PM Apr 27th

• I’m grateful to Maryanne Ross for her interview about choosing a Positive Mental Attitude go to http://www.i-saga.net before it’s archived. 1:30 PM Apr 28th

See how there is now a context for someone to recognize the value of clicking the link to the interview?

Play around with these ideas and see if your twitter-based marketing has better impact. One bit of advice I received from one of my mastermind team members was to maintain a 4-1 ratio of tweets that were non business requests to business requests. I’m trying that now, and hope this helps my followers recognize the value of my guest interviews.

* * *

Experiment with your tweets. I’m a student about Twitter like you, and would love to know from you what seems to work the best.

To your highest success,

Pete Winiarski

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it:

Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

For some of us, we’ve been beaten down by other people saying that our dreams for not important to the point that we numbly go through live without remembering to dream any more. Ambition for something different and new is gone, excitement is gone, and the belief that anything is possible is gone. I genuinely hope this isn’t the case for you but if it is, please allow yourself to go through this exercise.

Pretend for a moment that you are granted a wish, and that this wish must be applied to your personally (meaning you can’t wish the Boston Red Sox win the next World Series, but you could wish that you get seats behind home plate to watch them play). Pretend this wish is guaranteed to come true…. Now imagine yourself enjoying this wish, right now. How does that feel? Are you smiling? Play this game periodically and allow yourself to dream.

When we do have dreams that we have clearly in our minds, we increase the chances of them coming true. When we declare to someone else what our dream is and receive in return a positive, supportive response to our dream, we suddenly find ourselves believing the possibility.

I ask you to commit to two things:

1. Do a dream exercise periodically, like the one above, to get in touch with your dreams- what you want to create in your life. Believe that any dream is worth it and is possible!
2. Respond positively when other people share their dreams with you. Rather than respond with reservation or criticism, encourage them to GO FOR IT!

Here are two quick examples of these two things in action.

For a dream exercise, each year I think about my goals for the year. In fact, we do this as a family. We start by having a dream discussion – what would you love to do if you could do anything? The answer to this question with 2 young sons has led us to take trips to Disney and to Amusement Parks, because that was part of their dream.

Here’s an example of positive encouragement for someone else’s dream. My older son had a passion and natural talent for piano. At 3, he began to figure out songs. He began to make up his own at 6, and started writing them on musical staff paper when he was 7. He has a dream about piano that my wife and I support unconditionally. “I’m going to be the best piano player ever!” I love him and his dream, and am helping and encouraging him every way we can.

We bought a piano (rather than the keyboard he started on). We have him in lessons with a teacher who can help take him to the next level. I’ve even begun piano lessons to help keep positive momentum about music and piano playing (it’s a great excuse for me – I’d love to play with him as I improve). And, I believe that he very well may become the greatest piano player in the world.

I encourage you to identify with your dreams and become inspired to pursue them with passion. You’ll find that life is fun, and it is possible to live your dreams.

* * *

Take a few minutes right now and do the above exercise. Pretend your wish will certainly come true, and describe it to yourself without reservation. Then, go live your dream!

To your highest success,

Pete Winiarski

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it:

Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.

Trusting this to be true may not always be easy. There are certainly times when things happen we may not immediately understand or like. If we choose the belief that things are happening as they are intended – that there are no accidents only lessons, then we can choose to be empowered by any change in our circumstances we may encounter.

Consider a person who is fired from a job they didn’t like – they can wallow in their job loss, or they can choose this belief, that it happened for a reason that will benefit them, and feel empowered by their good fortune (i-saga guest Kristi Staab calls this being “Promoted to Life”). They can then go on to find a new job or change career directions toward something that aligns with their purpose and passions. This is what I aspire to do with every challenging situation I encounter.

I’m being challenged now. My mom had beaten cancer in 2008 when a small malignant melanoma mole was removed. Subsequent quarterly scans assured her that she was cancer-free. When she began having struggles with her speech this past fall, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with the same cancer – it had metastasized in her brain. Eight weeks later, she was gone.

Despite wanting to move on and feeling ready for the new year, I do still have my moments when I miss my mom dearly. Yesterday was one, when I had a short visit to mom in the cemetery and then dinner with my dad. While I was driving home and heard Coldplay’s Warning Sign play on my CD, I suddenly experienced an unexpected welling up of tears as I unconsciously knew the upcoming lyrics which capture the sadness I was feeling without mom around.

It was timely that I read the book, The Shack, by William P. Young during the past few months. The lessons that the main character Mack learned which released him from the chains of his “Great Sadness” caused from his daughter’s death certainly can be applied here in my life, too. Reading this book gave me a sense of peace that all is okay; that mom is okay, and that those of us left on earth without her would be okay. I see how Mack let go of his “Great Sadness” and know that we can all do the same when faced with any challenge.

It was no accident that I picked up and read this book at the time that I did.

How should we handle a challenge of any magnitude? For starters, believe that it is supposed to happen this way, even if we don’t understand why. It’s not about looking back and second-guessing… it’s about looking forward and persevering. Search for the good in the situation and use it to move on.

For my mom’s passing, there is a lot of good to find in the situation. My whole family was brought together for the last three months of the year. We’re closer now than we’ve ever been. We are also now more aware about some of cancer’s causes and treatments and can perhaps save someone’s life in the future.  For me:

• I have completely shifted my diet toward organic and away from sugars (and things that become sugars in your body). This has contributed to my looking and feeling healthier at twenty pounds lighter than before I made this switch.
• I am investigating toxins in my home environment to see what can be changed.
• I know that should anyone close to me experience the scare of a cancer diagnosis, I will contact www.PeopleAgainstCancer.com right away – an amazing resource that includes the best cancer doctors in the world with cutting edge treatment insights that go beyond traditional chemo and radiation therapies.

I encourage you to look for the lessons in every challenging situation. Make appropriate changes based on your new insights, and persevere.

Mom, I know you’re with me every day. While I’m not second-guessing or trying to figure out why, it doesn’t mean it’s always easy to move on without you.

“When the truth is that I miss you.
Yeah, the truth is that I miss you so.”
~ from Coldplay’s Warning Sign

* * *

Be confident that there are no accidents, only lessons, and be ready to move forward in your life with a smile on your face.

To your highest success,

Pete Winiarski
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Pete Winiarski is a Results Coach and Consultant, and the founder of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. If you want to enable more Fun, Fulfillment, and Freedom in your life, then visit www.i-Saga.net or www.PeteWiniarski.com.