How critical are you of yourself?

http://www.upworthy.com/2-people-described-the-same-person-to-a-forensic-artist-and-this-is-what-happene?g=2

Take a look at that link.   Just a 3 minute video.    The have a forensic sketch artist have people describe themselves.  Then, they have someone else describe that same person.  The images that are portrayed when talking about themselves is much “uglier” than when someone else describes them. 

Kind of odd how critical we can be of ourselves. 

If you want to start taking some steps toward talking to yourself in a kinder fashion please take a look here.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/7-steps-to-positive-self-talk/

Pretty basic stuff, sometimes the basics are the best.

Are you worthy?

Are you worthy of the best life you can have? 

Worthy - Deserving effort, attention, or respect.

Understand that “worthy” is different from “entitled”.

Entitled - Give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something.

If you think that you are entitled to something and you don’t have to work for it you sit around and wait for things like winning the lottery.   Or you think your life will be like a movie and some great thing will just fall into your lap.

If you think that you are worthy you put forth effort, attention and respect to your life, your relationship and the things that you think you are worthy of.  In my mind my worthiness is somewhat of an obligation.  It drives me to work even harder.  Because I believe I’m worthy of nice things.  I know that these things will rarely just fall out of the sky.    Yes, some people hit the lotto, win a car in a raffle or were just born with rich parents.   I, like most people, do not fall into that category.   So I get busy working.   If you believe you are worthy I highly encourage you to do the same. 

I use a lot of sports stories, because I know them.  Growing Walter Payton was one of my favorite players of all time.  “Sweetness” is what they called him.   At 5 ft 10 in tall and 210 pounds he certainly wasn’t the biggest guy on the field.  But that guy worked!   His off the field and off season workouts were legend….wait for it….dary.     Walter ran “the hill”.   The hill was a 924 foot extreme incline by his house, he would run it up to 20 times a day.    In the offseason he would run sprints in the sand.   He had Olympic sprinters come to work out with him and one thing happened every time someone came to work out with him.   He outlasted them.  Everyone.   He outworked everyone, every time.  Today Walter sits at the #2 spot on the NFL’s all-time leading rushers, he averaged just shy of 1400 yards per season for 14 years.  #1 is Emmit Smith who played 2 more seasons averaging a little over 1300 per season.

The NFL Network did a Top 100 players of all time.  Walter ended up #5 on that list.  Here’s that clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2Gp1UCp2E

The Human Brain

What ENERGIZES you?

One of the easiest and most relate-able examples I can give is anger.   Think of a time you've been angry.   Burst of energy right?   Also fear?    Heartbeat goes up, adrenaline starts pumping and you are ready to fight or flight.   This energy though is often not coming from a good place, it is also not productive.   Often it is a quick burst that fizzles out.  

To quote Yoda -  “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

You can also teach yourself to gain energy from your passions.   If you care enough to get angry, why not put that energy and care enough for those things that matter most in your life.  If you really embrace the power of your passion you will supercharge your life and motivate yourself to achieve more than you have in the past.   Allow that passion to push you toward positive things.   When you get riled up and the energy starts flowing try to stay in control of it and direct it at something that is useful to you.

Live in the NOW

Hey gang,

Hope is great.   Dreams are fantastic.   Goal planning and list making is terrific.    All of these things should provide you direction and set your priorities of how to live your life.

BUT – We should live in the NOW.   Because now, right now, is the only time we can control.    Now is here, whether you like it or not.   Right now is here and it is ready for you.  So what will you do with it.

In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. gave his most famous speech.   “I have a dream.”    If you’ve heard of it and maybe seen pieces but never the whole thing, you should check it out.  That speech is very motivating.   But it was just a speech.  Without all the marches and people fighting for their rights for the better part of a decade, small victories day by day that brought us from the times of segregation to now.   I use that as an example.   There are a ton of inspirational speeches, I’d venture to bet that any really great accomplishment started with a dream and some hope, and may be great speech.    The people that heard that speech went out the next day and they fought, and the next day they fought.   5 years later in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.   Yet his followers continued to fight.

Most of us aren’t fighting for something like civil rights in our day to day lives.  But our fight should be important to us, and we should live in the now.  Every single moment offers an opportunity for success OR disappointment.  Every single moment is a possibility.  It is a challenge and whether you like it or not you have to accept that challenge.  Because all those “nows” will come and they will go.   The question is what will you do with them?  

When you face each of those challenges, possibilities and opportunities and you fight for the now you will more than likely find yourself with 1 of 2 results.   1 – you will succeed.   2 – you will learn something.     They say in the fight game that you learn much more from a loss than you do from a win.   If you view any failures in that light and take something from it to better yourself it really isn’t even a loss.