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

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Outsmarting Yourself, Staying Adaptable, and Choosing More Empowering Self-Talk!

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

Idea #1

"Stop learning, die young.

Keep learning, stay young."

Idea #2

"One of the great gift of sports is learning how to fail in public.

People never go to the gym because they're scared of looking stupid, never share their writing because they're scared of judgment, never open their heart because they're scared of rejection.

Sports train you to face your fear."

Idea #3

"The mind is alive when it is flexible and adaptable. It can be updated, take new form, endure change.

The mind is dead when it is fixed and immovable. It cannot absorb new ideas or thoughts. It is stiff and brittle.

When we lose our ability to adapt, to move with the environment, to tolerate new beliefs and reshape our old ones, our mind is at risk of becoming outdated. The fixed mind becomes a relic."

Quote #1

Writer and former heavyweight boxer, Ed Latimore, on outsmarting yourself:

"Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves."

Source: Twitter

Quote #2

Wisława Szymborska, poet and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature:

"Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life."

Source: The Poet and the World

Question of the Week...

Without altering the facts of the situation I am facing and without ignoring the reality of what must be done, what is the most useful and empowering story I can tell myself about what is happening and what I need to do next?

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!

This Week's Challenge:  Tame Your Tech

Our devices can be the ultimate source of urgencies.

We might feel productive responding to every message, but mostly we're simply distracted.

Do one thing today to reduce distractions from technology:

- Turn off alerts

- Check social media only once a day

- Make a policy to never let your device interrupt a conversation

- Turn off your devices while working on your "Big Rocks"

Ask Yourself:  Am I using my technology at the expense of my most important goals and relationships?

"For all our efforts to manage our time, do more, be more, and achieve greater efficiency through the wonders of modern technology, why is it we often find ourselves in the "thick of thin things"?  - 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!

Happy Monday!

This Week's Challenge:  Take Time for Yourself

Renewal is a Quadrant 2 Activity (not urgent but important) however, we must be proactive to make it happen.

Give yourself permission to take thirty minutes just for yourself today.  Find a "stressbuster" and do it!

Ask Yourself:  Are urgencies crowding out my renewal time?

"This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life...investment in ourselves."   - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic check 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...Two Competing Truths, Acceptance, and Media Consumption Habits.  Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"Two competing truths:

- The more prepared person usually wins.

- You get credit for action, not preparation."

Idea #2

"What appears to be a rapid shift is often preceded by a gradual process. Our results gradually explode or vanish thanks to the small habits we repeat each day.

What radical changes are you slowly marching toward? An incremental explosion or an incremental vanishing?"

Idea #3

"One type of person approaches a situation with the mindset of, “How can I make this work?”

Another type seems to approach each circumstance with the mindset of, “What are all the reasons this wouldn’t work?”

Both people will be forced to deal with reality, but the first person will only have to solve problems that actually occur while the second person will often avoid taking action entirely because of the potential problems they have dreamt up before starting.

There will always be reasons to not do something. Be a problem solver, not a problem adder."

Quote #1

Poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman on life:

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well."

Source: Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much

Quote #2

Writer Wes Angelozzi on acceptance:

"Go and love someone exactly as they are. And then watch how quickly they transform into the greatest, truest version of themselves.

When one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, one is instantly empowered."

Source: Instagram

Question of the Week...

A (slightly modified) question from writer Nat Eliason on your consumption habits:

"What percentage of the media you consume on a daily basis was created in the last year?

What percentage of the best and most useful information was created in the last year?"

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!

This Week's Challenge:  Develop Your Heart

Our emotional life is primarily, but not exclusively, developed through our relationships with other people.

Choose one way to build your social/emotional capacity this week:

- Invite a friend to dinner

- Forgive someone

- Text or email a friend you haven't heard from lately

Ask Yourself:  Who can I connect with this week?

"To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground."

- 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!

This Week's Challenge:  Sharpen Your Mind

As soon as we leave school, many of us let our minds atrophy.

But learning is vital to mental renewal.

Choose one way to build your mental capacity this week:

- Keep a journal

- Read a classic

- Develop a hobby

Ask Yourself:  Do I begin the week mentally refreshed?

"There's no better way to inform and expand your mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature."  - 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!

This Week's Challenge:  Renew Your Spirit

Spirituality is a very private area of life and a supremely important one.

It draws on the sources that inspire and uplift you.

Choose one way to build your spirituality capacity this week:

- Refine your Personal Mission Statement

- Spend time in nature

- Listen to or create music

- Volunteer in your community

Ask Yourself:  Am I centered on my values?

"The spiritual dimension is your core, your center, your commitment to your value system."  - Stephen Covey

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

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

This Week's Challenge:  Strengthen Your Body

Physical renewal involves caring for your physical body...a healthy diet, sufficient rest, and regular exercise.

Choose one way to build your physical capacity this week:

- Set your alarm...for bedtime.

- Find a way to be active that challenges you.  Add a new component to your exercise routine:  endurance, flexibility, or strength.

Ask Yourself:  What's one way I could improve my strength and resilience?

"Most of us think we don't have enough time to exercise.  What a distorted paradigm!  We don't have time not to."  - 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!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Mental Toughness, The Connection Between Action and Satisfaction, and Mistakes!

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

Idea #1

"Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think.

Get started and don't worry about the clock."

Idea #2

"Formal education is not nearly as important as an unquenchable thirst to learn."

Idea #3

"Mental toughness is often portrayed as determination and persistence, but it can also be flexibility and adaptability.

- I can be happy anywhere.

- I can work with what I have.

- I can have a good day with anyone.

You are tough when your mood is not dependent on your conditions."

Quote #1

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the UK, on the connection between action and satisfaction:

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end.  It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it."

Source: Quoted in "As I Said to Denis: The Margaret Thatcher Book of Quotations"

Quote #2

Philosopher Alan Watts on mistakes:

"Regard yourself as a cloud, in the flesh, because you see, clouds never make mistakes. Did you ever see a cloud that was misshapen?

Did you ever see a badly designed wave? No, they always do the right thing.

But, if you will, treat yourself for a while as a cloud or a wave and realize that you can’t make a mistake whatever you do.

Because even if you do something that appears totally disastrous, it will all come out in the wash somehow or another.

Then through this capacity you will develop a kind of confidence. And through confidence you will be able to trust your own intuition."

Source: Taoism: Way Beyond Seeking

Question of the Week...

Think of the best coach, teacher, or leader you ever had. What can you learn from them?

Think of the worst coach, teacher, or leader you ever had. What can you learn from them?

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!

This Week's Challenge:  Achieve The Daily Private Victory

The Daily Private Victory...time spent each day in a routine way renewing body, mind, heart, and spirit...is the key to developing all of the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.

- Write your own routine for daily renewal.  Where can you improve?

- Block out time for renewal in your next weekly planning.

Ask Yourself:  Am I spending time each day renewing my body, mind, heart, and spirit?

"There's no other way you could spend an hour that would begin to compare with the Daily Private Victory.

It will affect every decision...every relationship.

It will greatly improve the quality, the effectiveness, of every other hour of the day."

- 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!