2 rules for progress toward your goals:

1. Again

2. For me

Again:

How long do you allow your child to try to walk before giving up? What advice do you give when learning a new skill? Go again. Try again. Again tomorrow. “Again” is a powerful idea. If we don't quit, if we go again, we'll be moving toward the goal.

What you seek seeks you. When we go again, we continually seek our goal and the goal gets closer to us. If we stop, we have no hope. “Again” is the secret to becoming someone new, someone better. “Again” will get what money can't buy. Money can't buy a 4-hour marathon or a 2-mile swim or a more active healthier lifestyle.

For Me:

How hard do you try? Les Brown answers the question about drinking alcohol like this, "You are a grown man. You want to drink? That's up to you, but where I'm going, I don't have time for it." I think Les Brown avoids drinking for himself. He isn't skipping out on a few beers because it's against a rule. He's doing the "For Me". I drink myself, but I can see where he’s coming from, and I like the idea.

I don't even like going to the gym, but when I'm there, for me. Why do I try one more rep when it's uncomfortable, "For Me". Why do I keep going a little more when I'm tired? "For Me". Who am I cheating when I back off? Is it the coach that loses? Does the gym miss out? No. It's only me, so I chant to myself "For Me".

These two rules, "Again" and "For Me", keep me going when I'm in the valley between the way I was and the way I want to be.