Daily Boost — Motivation and Personal Growth

How To Make Change in 2025

As we get into the New Year, I've noticed that people are getting back to their old ways.

That's okay. It's a journey.

But what is that journey?

Winston Churchill said, "To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often." 

And it helps if you understand the stages of change:

1) Pre-Contemplation. You may intend to take action but are unaware that your behavior is the problem. 

2) Contemplation. You recognize the problem and start to debate the pros and cons of your actions.

3) Preparation. You intend to take action soon. You may even begin small steps.

4) Action. The process of making the specific changes required to create your new life begins.

5) Maintenance. Sustain your efforts for at least six months. You will likely achieve a life-long transformation.

6) Termination. You have zero temptation and are sure you will not return to your old unhealthy habits.

Winston Churchill said something else -

"For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else."

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Wouldn’t it be great to have a plan to help you get what you want?  

What you need is MAPSS. - a system that gets thinking out of the way and focuses on actions in four areas:

Motivation: Everything begins with motivation and knowing ‘WHY’ you set your goals. Stay motivated.

Accountability: Being accountable and accepting responsibility for your results will empower your success. Saying, ‘If it’s to be, it’s up to me,’ is a great way to get started.

Planning: Plan your work, work you plan. It’s simple. If you can’t plan it, you won’t be able to do it.

Systemization: The first steps of any worthy goal are difficult. As you get more comfortable with your process, lock in the actions and repeat them until you get what you want.

Sustainability: Everything takes longer than you think. Momentum is built in life by stacking your accomplishments sequentially. Make sure you set yourself up for the long haul.

The freedom you desire rests on a stable and repeatable foundation. Motivation, Accountability, Planning, Systemization, and Sustainability.  

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Creating a difference in your life is a non-stop process that requires simple actions to help you get what you want. And it is, after all, about getting what you want and keeping what you love.

You’ll always go through these steps:

1) Decide. Everything begins with your decision to head off in a new direction. While sometimes you may feel like you’ve made a decision, if you’re not moving, you haven’t.

2) Define. Aimless wandering is fun when that’s what you’ve decided to do. Otherwise, it’s frustrating, exhausting, and takes place more than you think. When you define your path, you get to walk your path.

3) Deploy. As dull as the advice may be, putting your plan into action is the only way for you to get what you want. If you don’t deploy, you don’t get it.

4) Defend. After working so hard to get what you want, you can guarantee that something or somebody will try to take away your results. That’s not good or bad. That’s life. When you find what you love, defend it so you never lose it.

Simple. I like simple. Simple works!

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I'm a big fan of setting big-ass goals. Dreaming BIG is my natural state - which is why S.M.A.R.T. goals are not all that smart.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.

While it may seem like a good plan, I can't wrap my head around not setting goals because they don't seem achievable or realistic.

Excuse me?

When did big goals seem achievable and realistic?  

If that were true, you would already be doing them. Anytime you are moving from dreaming into doing, you will be living in the land of crazy and scary.

If you hold yourself to what is achievable and realistic, you might as well keep doing what you're doing.

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Around this time every year, people begin to declare to me the WORD they have chosen to guide their lives for the following year. 

I like words - especially when combined with wisdom and a few wisecracks - but that might be just me. 

Still, I'm always amazed at how excited people get and how much they believe their WORD will guide them into the next year.

I'm jealous. I need a WORD, too - and that's where the trouble begins.

I can't imagine choosing a word to represent 365 days of getting after it. However, having a word is an emotional trigger that fires neurons in your brain to keep you moving, so why can’t my word be several words?

Just like magic - they arrived…

Simple. Sophisticated. Focused. Automated. Delegated. Deleted. Ritualistic. 

It's a little Stoic and a lot of Scott LOGIC - it works for me.

If you could use an emotional supercharger, choose a WORD… or WORDS for the year… and see how the next year ROCKS!

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In 300 BC, political life was driving people crazy. To calm the masses, several schools of philosophy popped up. Stoicism still resonates powerfully today.

1. Don't enslave yourself to annoying people.

2. Choose reasonable expectations.

3. Pre-meditate those expectations.

4. You are a mind that is operating a bag of chemicals you call a body.

5. Stop pretending you know that things are bad.

6. You were put here to reason, so use it already.

7. Life is NOT too short.

8. Feel your emotions like a Stoic would. They are your power.

9. Anger is a choice.

10. When it comes down to it, we are dogs tied to the back of a cart.

Sound wisdom never goes out of style.

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When will you get to do what you want to do? 

More people than you know lose sleep over that question. If that sounds like something you have experienced, you’re not alone. 

Almost everybody begins their journey when a thought pops into their mind. Then, day-to-day life keeps them busy, and they spend frustrating months fixin’ to get ready. You know, starting to prepare… so you can begin to do… so you can do… and say you did. 

If that doesn’t work, you summon your friend, Will Power. 

Will is not a person, but more like a kind of friend that you don’t know why you keep letting into your life.

They are a bit slacker, live rent-free in your mind, say they want to help, and never deliver on their promise. Will’s job description should read -- to force you to do things you say you want to do but can’t get yourself to do. When you give up, Will leaves.

The good news is, there’s no need to force yourself to do anything. Achieving your biggest goals in life has nothing to do with willpower. Instead, shift your mindset - 

“To act at your discretion without constraint.” 

That’s the definition of Free Will, Will Powers’ good cousin. 

Use your Free Will to harness your excitement and choose the path of least resistance. Start making the slightest changes in your life. Those steps will lead to big results sooner than you think.

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I’m not sure how you feel about the Universe and how things work in the world, but does the Universe speak to you?

I can’t tell you if the ‘Universe’ stands alone or if ‘God’ created the ‘Universe’ and runs the show. That’s above my pay grade. 

What I can say is this. 

We live and breathe every day in a world that is ganging up on us and trying to get our attention.

The question is, are you listening?

While there are many ways people seek to receive messages of guidance as we make life decisions, my favorite has always been events that occur in triplicate. If something happens three times, I pay attention.

Call me hard-headed, distracted, or set in my ways, but life has taught me that wisdom tends to come in whispers - usually when our thoughts are screaming in our heads and drowning out our dreams.

Now, let me be clear...

A friend calling three times to go out on the town doesn’t count in my book.

Snoozing your alarm clock three times isn’t a message from the Universe that you should sleep in more.

The grocery store being out of your favorite chips three times is not a sign that you should go on a diet. 

All that is what they call the “stuff that happens while you’re alive.”

So what counts? 

1) Seemingly random situations and people that happen in quick succession or at the same time. 

2) They are different in their approach and appearance, yet each delivers a similar message. At first, it may seem disconnected, but in relation to the other messages, you begin to notice.

3) The message you receive is likely something that has been on your mind, keeping you awake all night and speaking to you. Even though you may not immediately recognize its impact, you find yourself slightly redirected in your search for answers. Your path altered.

While this is undoubtedly only my description of how I know it when the Universe is ganging up on me, I have learned to allow space for a message to arrive. Whether I realize the impact or not, I have also learned that it always motivates my decisions, choices, and future actions. In other words, things change with little effort.

My journey is about breaking from the status quo, exploring the possibilities of life, and going with the flow. I bet the Universe is ganging up on you right now - if you’ll only pay attention.

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A few years ago, my friend Louis Gates taught me about the nine-year life cycle. It's an easy way to get what you want using the Law of Attraction. 

9-year cycles begin the day you are born and repeat throughout your life. Happiness is as simple as paying attention to your cycle - and asking for what you want.

In year 1, start asking for a new purpose in life. It will reveal itself in year 2. Your focus will tighten.

Things start moving in year 3. You'll enjoy the changes happening in your life. 

You accelerate in the direction of your purpose in year 4.

Years 5 and 6 are for evaluation. You decide to focus on only what is working in your life. 

Years 7 and 8 are about letting go. You begin to remove all clutter from your life. 

When 9 years roll around, your mind begins to ponder the next phase of your life. The process continues. 

Where are you in your life cycle?  

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I'm sure you have a lot to do today. You’re probably in for a busy day if you use a traditional To-Do list. If I may, I’d like to pass on some advice to make your days much more fun.

LOSE your "To-Do List." Replace it with a "Did I Do It List."  

Of course, a traditional To-Do list will get the job done. But it’s far too easy to focus entirely on your list of things to do instead of what you're supposed to be doing.

Don’t get me wrong, when you are inside any project, you may need a list. I can’t imagine myself in the kitchen without a recipe to follow. To-do lists have their place. For everything else, there’s something better.

You should be using a “Did I Do It List.” 

As simple as it sounds, instead of chasing and stressing about what you must do, you simply ensure you’ve done what is needed.

Yes, it’s a simple mindset change, but it will change everything about how you get things done — and you’ll have far less stress.

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