a2b4me...The Podcast! Keeping YOU Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge: Banish Reactive Language

Reactive language is a sure sign that you see yourself as a victim of circumstances, instead of as a proactive, self-reliant person.

Try going an entire day without using any reactive language like "I can't" or "I have to" or "You make me so mad."

Ask Yourself: Are my words making me a victim?

"A serious problem with reactive language is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

People...feel victimized and out of control, not in charge of their life or their destiny.

They blame outside forces, other people, circumstances, even the starts for their own situation."  - Stephen R. Covey

For more on this topic, I encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Healthy Self-Esteem, How to Build an Exercise Habit, and Improving by 1%!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"You'll feel better once you get started."

Idea #2

"Do one thing per day that compounds."

Idea #3

"The ability to love yourself improves your ability to be loved.

We are unlikely to accept a relationship that is worse than the one we have with ourselves, and thus the person who is happy and comfortable with themselves is in a great position.

The person with healthy self-esteem doesn't have to jump into any relationship because they already have a great one wherever they go."

Quote #1

Philosopher and professor Marshall McLuhan on adapting and evolving:

"Resenting a new technology will not halt its progress."

Source: The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan

Quote #2

Writer Sarah Perry on how to build an exercise habit you actually enjoy (or any habit, really):

"Unfortunately, most on-ramps to exercise are at an intensity too high for previously-sedentary people to find them pleasurable.

If people go to a fitness class, or focus on running a particular distance at a particular speed, they’ll likely miss the pleasure zone entirely.

Refocusing on exercising only for one’s own individual pleasure, as slowly as one prefers, and only at intensities that are pleasurable, is more likely to motivate repeat and habitual exercising.

At that point, the enjoyment of exercise pleasure can build on itself, motivating longer and longer intervals of experiencing the pleasure."

Source: Body Pleasure

Question of the Week...

What can I do today to improve by 1%?

For more on this topic, I encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge:  Become A Transition Person

A Transition person breaks unhealthy, abusive, or ineffective behavior and passes on habits that strengthen and build others.

- Think through the negative patterns that might have been passed on to you; a bad habit, negative attitude, etc.

- How are those things affecting you?

- Do something today to break the pattern

Ask Yourself:

- Who has been a Transition Person for me?

- What influence did they have on my life?

"You are influenced by your genes, by your upbringing, and by your environment, but you are not determined by them."  - Stephen R. Covey

For more on this reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This week we discuss...Focusing On What You CAN Control, The Value of Small Contributions, and Daily Habits!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"The more time you spend complaining about what you deserve, the less time you have to focus on what you can create...Focus on what you can control."

Idea #2

"If you never question things, your life ends up being limited by other people's imaginations.

Take the time to think and dream, to question and reconsider.

It is better to be limited by what you can dream for yourself than by where you fit in someone else's dream."

Idea #3

"The edge is in the inputs.

The person who consumes from better sources, gets better thoughts.

The person who asks better questions, gets better answers.

The person who builds better habits, gets better results.

It's not the outcomes. It's the inputs."

Quote #1

The poet Mary Oliver on the value of small contributions:

"May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful."

Source: Upstream

Quote #2

Author and poet Maya Angelou on how libraries changed her life:

"All information belongs to everybody all the time. It should be available. It should be accessible to the child, to the woman, to the man, to the old person, to the semiliterate, to the presidents of universities, to everyone. It should be open...

Information helps you to see that you’re not alone. That there’s somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who’ve all longed and lost, who’ve all been happy.

So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you’re not really any different from everyone else. There may be details that are different, but a human being is a human being."

Source: Interview: Maya Angelou with The New York Public Library

Question of the Week...

Are the results I am expecting aligned with the habits I am following each day?

For more on this topic, eel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge:  Pause Between Stimulus....and Response

When people are reactive, they allow outside influences to control their response.

When people are proactive, they pause to allow themselves to choose their response based on principles and desired results.

- Think about the day ahead of you and anticipate one thing that might push your reactive buttons.

- Decide now what you can do to be proactive

Ask Yourself:  How could I respond proactively the next time I face a highly charged situation?

"Between what happens to us and our response is a space, and the key to our growth and happiness is how we use that space."  - Stephen R. Covey

For more on this topic check out my podcast on anchor.fm or reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...A Better Measure of Success, Creating Change, and Resilience!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"Your calendar is a better measure of success than your bank account."

Idea #2

"If you want to create something but feel it has already been done 1000 times, remember: There is always room for quality."

Idea #3

"Deconstruct the cool things you see.

If you'd like to become a better musician and you see an amazing performance, start paying attention to how they do it.

How did they promote the event?

What happens in the first ten seconds of each song?

How frequently are they engaging directly with the audience?

Is there a progression of energy throughout the show?

When something fascinates you, pay attention to the details.

The person who thinks, "That was cool" is a consumer.

The person who thinks, "How did they make something that cool?" is on the path to being a creator.

Don't just taste the recipe, look for the ingredients."

Quote #1

Philosopher and author Albert Camus on resilience:

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Source: Lyrical and Critical Essays

Quote #2

Architect, writer, and inventor Buckminster Fuller on creating change:

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

Source: As quoted in Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure

Question of the Week...

What is your relationship with self-discipline?

What is your relationship with self-forgiveness?

For more on this topic check, feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge:  "Check Your Paradigms"...Check My What?

par·a·digm (perəˌdīm) noun meaning a typical example or pattern of something; a model.

Paradigms are the way we see, understand, and interpret the world...our mental map.

- List five words that describe how you feel about an important aspect of your life.

- What do these words tell you about your paradigm?

- Identify how your paradigm needs to change to achieve your goals.

Ask yourself:  How accurate are my paradigms?

"If you want to make minor changes in your life, work on your behavior.  But if you want to make significant, quantum breakthroughs, work on your paradigms."

- Stephen Covey

For more on this topic check, feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Inspiration, Getting Started, and The Power of Cumulative Action!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"You have to show up before inspiration will."

Idea #2

"Just start.

Start slow if you have to. Start small if you have to. Start privately if you have to.

Just start."

Idea #3

A reminder from Atomic Habits as we start the new year:

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity."

Quote #1

Author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury on the power of cumulative action:

"Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today.

It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad...you did it.

At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation.

At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year."

Source: Ray Bradbury, The Art of Fiction No. 203

Quote #2

Steve Jobs on the intersection of thinking and doing:

"My observation is that the doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person.

And if we really go back and we examine, you know, did Leonardo have a guy off to the side that was thinking five years out in the future what he would paint or the technology he would use to paint it?

Of course not. Leonardo was the artist, but he also mixed all his own paints. He also was a fairly good chemist. He knew about pigments, knew about human anatomy.

And combining all of those skills together, the art and the science, the thinking and the doing, was what resulted in the exceptional result.

And there is no difference in our industry. The people that have really made the contributions have been the thinkers and the doers."

Source: 1990 Interview

Question of the Week...

Imagine all your responsibilities and obligations vanish overnight.

What would you miss doing? What would you choose to add back to your life?

If you're searching for more time this year, start with a clean slate and choose what to add to your days rather than starting with a full schedule and trying to figure out what to eliminate.

For more on this topic, feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge:  Model Good Character

Like the top of a tree, our personality is what people see first.  Although appearance, techniques, and skills can influence our success, the real source of lasting effectiveness lies in a strong character...the roots.

- Think of a person with excellent character.

- Define some of the principles they live by.

- Which of those principles would you like to implement?

- Do something today to act on those principles.

Ask Yourself:  Have I focused on quick fixes at the expense of my character?

"People who live by the character ethic have strong roots...deep roots.  They withstand the stresses of life, and they keep growing and progressing."   - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic, reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Welcome to The Weekly Challenge!

Over the next 52-weeks, each Monday, we will be reviewing a key principle of effectiveness from Stephen Covey's international best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

I invite you to move out of your comfort zone, shift your paradigms, improve and repair relationships, and to generally become a more effective person, personally and professionally.

The best way to gain control of your life is to make a promise to yourself and then keep it.  As you follow this simple 52-week process and begin making and keeping promises to yourself and others, you will increase your capacity to overcome challenges at work and at home.

Never forget that out of small things, big things are achieved so look for these challenges each week, reach out to me if you need assistance and always, always, always...Keep Moving in The Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge:  Define Effectiveness

When you shift your focus, you shift your impact.

Put a spotlight on what matters in your life and list the next steps toward making a positive change happen in those areas.

List some things you would like to change to become more effective.  Keep this list handy as you work through our weekly challenges.

Ask Yourself:  What matters most to me in my work and personal life?

"If you apply even one of the 7 Habits (of Highly Effective People) today, you can see immediate results; but it's a lifetime adventure...a lifetime promise."  - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!