Focus is the key to success - Don't look down just hold on...

  

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

 “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight Eisenhower

”Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” 
 Alan Lakein

“One reason so few of us achieves what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” – Tony Robbins

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” 

Zig Ziglar

Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome... Going Beyond Life's Challenges

 

Good Morning,

Don't we all feel like were climbing a huge mountain sometimes.   I know I sure do when things don't seem to be going my way or unannounced challenges enter my life.  The big question for both you and me how should we respond during these times?

As some of you may have read on this site, I spent some time in the military with a good bunch of guys.  They were leathernecks, devil dogs, some may even call them jarheads, but they were resilient men who proudly held the title of United States Marines.  My experience with that organization formed much of my thinking about success and failure.  The Marine Corps had a motto that we lived by that was a commentary on how Marines are expected to deal with failure and challenges, "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome".

One of my many stories that illustrate this concept was when we hiked into the mountains of Northern California.  In a matter of three days we covered more than 15 miles, and ascended from 2,000 to more than 8,000 feet with a ton of gear on our backs.  It was a grueling hike that took its toll on many.  A friend of friend of mine became one of the many who emulated our motto on that trip.
It started a few weeks prior to this exercise when he had purchased some new boots.  Much like each of us who were with the infantry he tried to find a pair of boots that were comfortable and would hold up to the rigors of the field.  During those weeks prior to the trip he ran in the boots, bathed them in mud while on field ops, and generally did everything he could to ensure these boots would protect and sustain his feet.

Sadly, this wasn't the case on our winter wonderland hike.  His boots became cold, and lacked pliability.  His boots began to start creating little hot spots all over his feet that turned into horrible blisters.  When we were half-way through the hike he came and got me to check his feet because he was in a ton of pain.  We quickly pulled his boots off, and all I saw were blood soaked socks.  The entire bottoms of his feet were covered with open blisters.  I quickly dressed his wounds, and was going to put him in the hummer when he stood up and starting walking away.  This trip was a rite of passage for him, a chance to prove to himself he could overcome obstacles and deal with painful challenges.  It was his opportunity to live the Corp's motto and be successful.

I'm surely not condoning abusing our bodies, but making the point that in life you and I sometimes face seemingly unbearable challenges.  Like my friend, we too can "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome" when we believe in our cause and in ourselves.  Thank you for letting me share, and ramble a bit.

So, how are you going to "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome" in your life today?  Whatever it may be, you can do it by believing in yourself, and figuring out how to beat that challenge.
 
Here are a couple quotes for your day:

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

 

“if you set your goals ridiculously high and its a failure, you will fail above everyone else success”
― James Cameron

Have a great Day!

Midlife Crisis Ahead - 7 ways to prevent a crisis through positive action...

So what is a mid-life crisis, and how can we avoid the perils it may cause in our lives to derail us from the goals and happiness we want.  Recently I've been focusing on ten thoughts in my life that are holding this crisis at bay, and are generating positive action in my life.

According to Wikipedia the following is true about a midlife crisis,

Midlife crisis is a term first coined by Elliott Jaques referring to a critical phase in human development during the forties to early sixties, based on the character of change points, or periods of transition. The period is said to vary among individuals and between men and women.^[1] Despite popular perception of this phenomenon, empirical research has failed to show that the midlife crisis is a universal experience, or even a real condition at all.^[2]

According to psychologist and writer Oliver Robinson, a life crisis is defined as a period characterized by unstable mental and emotional health, altering the course of their lives and affecting them for a year or longer. Life crises usually have similar characteristics for each age group. Those in the early midlife stage are more likely to experience the deaths of loved ones, while declines in physical strength and vitality and impending death or work stoppage are more likely to affect people in late midlife. Effects of crises vary from being beneficial to some and life altering in a negative way for others. About half the people studied found results of their crises to be positive.^[3]

Midlife is also significant as a time adults come to realize their own mortality.^[4] A mid-life crisis is experienced by some people as they realize they have reached a midpoint in their lifespan and experience conflicts or dissatisfaction within themselves because of unrealized goals, self-perceptions or physical changes as a result of aging or health issues.^[5] Sometimes, a crisis can be triggered by transitions such as andropause or menopause, the death of parents or other causes of grief, unemployment or underemployment, realizing that a job or career is hated but not knowing how else to earn an equivalent living, or children leaving home. Additionally, when experiencing a mid-life crisis, people may reassess their achievements in terms of their dreams. The result may be a desire to make significant changes in areas such as career, work-life balance, marriage, romantic relationships, finances, or physical appearance.

I'm 45, so I'm right in that perfect window to experience that famous midlife crisis.  I suppose it's only natural to look at your life because when you enter the middle portion of life there are numerous changes that occur.  I'm starting to recognize changes in my parents that make me realize that time is passing quickly, my body doesn't look like it did when I was running with a bunch of Marines in my twenties, hair is growing where hair shouldn't be growing, I've realized that I'm not that dumb young kid anymore that doesn't know anything because I know at least one thing, and for those of us with kids they're becoming independent as they ration their hugs and kisses.  At least some of your kids are becoming independent.  My three year old daughter thinks she is more each day, but I'm just contemplating how much Geritol I'll need to keep up with her as she grows. :)   Therefore, our lives are often referred to as races because we run through various stages, experience the highs and lows, and must possess both the right mindset and perseverance to finish the race with a sense of pride and satisfaction.

I'm not sure where you are in the age spectrum, but here are 7 ways that has helped me to continue running successfully through the middle stage of my life's race.

• Stay Positive - Remember it's just a phase on life on your journey to a successful lasting legacy.  When you allow your mind to look at your current circumstances with a positive perspective, new opportunities can be realized that will propel your success into the next decades of your life.

• Evaluate Your Successes - Everyone can immediately remember the times that they've failed in life, and sadly those events usually sit in the forefront of our minds.  To avoid succumbing to the challenge of a midlife crisis focus on your successes both big and small.  These events should help you remember the amazing journey you've had that has resulted in a number of achievements that should make you swell with pride.

• Remember You're Important - This may sound strange, but think about the reasons why a midlife crisis may occur for someone.  What's the catalyst?  When we truly look at the cause it stems from a feeling of inadequacy.  Not just tied to your successes and failures, but sometimes a sense that you don't matter.  That's a bunch of @#$%!  Think about all the people in your life that love you.  Not because of what you've done, but purely because of the special person you are that brings joy to their life.  Focusing on how important you are will keep the crisis at bay, and should help you look in the mirror with a smile. 

• Rediscover an Interest or Talent -  When life gets busy, as it does when you enter the middle stages of life, things you enjoyed doing sometimes fall by the wayside.  I remember as a kid my Dad would come to our sporting events, work in the yard, go to work, volunteer to be a part of a committee.  What I don't remember is my Dad getting to take many chances to play golf or go fishing.  Now that I'm at this point in my life I fully understand why because he was sacrificing those interests for the family he loved.  I'm sure we're all doing that, but we also need to remember what it's like to go back to that thing we once loved.  Taking time to sit a the piano, take out the sketch pad, play a sport you enjoy, or spend time in the outdoors may be some of the lost joys that need to be rekindled in our lives.  Preventing a midlife crisis can happen when we make time create the balance the play and work in our lives. 

• Manage Your Stress - That seems to be a constant theme these days with the increased demands people are experiencing in their personal and professional lives.  Each of is very unique, and respond to the stress in our lives very differently.  The key is to find a healthy mechanism that fits your needs, and works to minimize the negative stress that is impacting your life.  Here is link to a couple of things that may be beneficial to you 4 ways using your mind can reduce your stress  and The story behind stress

• Make a Difference - We all need to feel life our life means something.  That's the whole reason for the midlife crisis in the first place.  We get to a point in our lives where we question what we've done for others, for our community, and to make ourselves better people.  During the stage of life when these feelings and questions arise it's easy to dismiss any negativity if you're actively involved in making a difference.  That can be by being the most nurturing person you can to those important in your life, seeking out a cause that drives positive change, or work on your own personal development.  By becoming better people the other two actions will naturally occur.

• Make a Plan -  It's like training for that 5k you want to successfully complete to prove you haven't become some tired old fart.  It will never happen if you don't figure out the time and effort it will take to realize your goal or dream.  Therefore, we need to make a plan of how we will navigate our race through the middle section of our life to avoid that looming midlife crisis.  Start thinking about the things that are important to you in your life or the changes that you haven't quite achieved.  List out these goals or dreams with a specific action of how you can make them a reality as you continue running your race.  Have fun, and start filling that bucket.  Races are much like life, there's a lot of anticipation and preparation that occurs for something that seems to happen so quickly if you're just sitting in the stands.  Let's hop on the track and make this a race to remember.

Here's some of the things that I jotted down after pondering how I've been running my race.

1. I want to tell the important people in my life how much I love them everyday.
2. I want to let my daughter know why making choices in life is so important to our futures.
3. I want my daughter to know she will always have our love no matter what she does.
4. I want to share with my daughter what I believe is true about hope, love, and faith.
5. I want to challenge myself everyday to look for ways to impact the world positively.
6. I want to show another person kindness everyday.
7. I want my wife to know she is the glue that holds my world and heart together.
8. I want to take risks even when those around me can't understand my hopes and dreams.
9. I want to provide a positive interaction with every person that crosses my path.
10. I want to write down my story, so my daughter will see the amazing joy we can have in life.

Minimize the Clutter in Your Life - 5 ways to achieve success through organization...

Does your life ever feel like its spinning out of control because you have numerous demands from your work, your family, and the other unplanned events that impact your life daily?  It often feels similar to having a cluttered garage, and feeling overwhelmed by the piled up projects staring you in the face.  To be productive in life we all to make time to enjoy the things that bring us happiness, and the only way this can occur is by creating a system that ensure organization in our lives.  

Here are 5 easy ways to achieve success by organizing your life:

• A place for everything:  How many mornings can you remember needing to rush out of the house to get to work when you realized you can't find your keys?  You retrace your steps in a mad panic, so you won't be late to work that morning.  Thankfully in the midst of your anxiety, a helpful hand comes around the corner dangling your car keys.  Part of the reason this occurs is because that there needs to be a place for everything in your life.  When you dedicate a specific location to put things in place in your life, the chaos of the missing keys quickly subsides.

• A time for everything - Why were you chasing those keys in the first place?  Most likely because you have a challenging schedule where you have to make time to work, eat, sleep, spend time with those you love, stay healthy, and maybe have a minute to mentally digest it all.  Sadly there are only 24 hours in the day, and these necessities in life make it difficult to keep a grip on things in your life.  I recently read Steve Harvey's newest book where he gives the details on his daily schedule.  The guy wakes up a 3am and proceeds to work-out, meditate, do conference calls, conduct business meetings, host 1 radio and 2 TV shows, and finally gets home at 8 pm to act as a father and husband to his family.  He said he's only successful because each event on his life has a scheduled time.  If we want to be successful in our lives we also need to organize our time by creating a events that fit into the moments of our day.

• A note for everything - I don't know about you, but sometimes the thing resting on my shoulders (my head) fails me.  Therefore, creating a list of my tasks helps me track my progress.  I write down everything.  Even those amazing inventions that are yet to be unleashed on the world.  Writing down the things that impact our schedules creates the organization we need to see how well were managing our time, and creates opportunities for improved success. 

• A deadline for everything - That was due yesterday?  That can be a typical response for the unorganized person who hasn't written down what they need to do or when it needs to be done.  Without time lines for the tasks in our lives, we become like a rudderless boat adrift in the chaos of a busy schedule.  Start creating more organization by adding time lines to that to do list, and continue to re prioritize the demands as they're met or rescheduled.  Knowing your time lines will reduce your stress, let people know you're dependable, and create success by achieving the goals and tasks in your life.

• A purpose for everything - Creating the opportunity for success in our lives requires that we move forward with a sense of purpose in our lives.  We must develop a mindset that is supported by a drive to make a difference in our own lives and others.  Our actions and motives must be tied to the reason for developing a pattern of organization in our lives.  Therefore, when your life feels like it's spinning out of control we have to take control by intervening with the actions to create organization.   By having a place for everything, scheduling the time we need to accomplish our tasks, writing down the things we need to accomplish, understanding that we need to meet deadlines, and focusing on the purpose for developing organization we can achieve the success we desire in life.

“Organization isn't about perfection; it's about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money and improving your overall quality of life.”
― Christina Scalise, Organize Your Life and More 

Are You Getting the Sleep You Need? By Dr. Wayne Anderson

Don’t Underestimate the Value of Sleep.  Sleep is one of the cornerstones of optimal health, but its importance is often underestimated.  For many, late nights bleed into early mornings over and over again to the point that a good night’s sleep is nothing but an unachievable dream. A new study published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society has brought the importance of sleep back to the top of medical conversation. The study linked a lack of sleep and an overabundance of sleep to memory problem in older women.  In a press release connected to the study, study leader Elizabeth Devore said, “Our findings suggest that getting an ‘average’ amount of sleep, seven hours per day, may help maintain memory in later life and that clinical interventions based on sleep therapy should be examined for the prevention of [mental] impairment.”  In fact, the study goes as far as to suggest that undersleepers and oversleepers, when compared to women of the same age that got seven to eight hours of sleep each night, were mentally two years older.  These findings are not yet definitive, but they add to an already large body of knowledge that supports the idea that getting the recommended amount of sleep is critical to your health.

The Chief Medical Editor of the Harvard Health Blog, in his analysis of Devore’s sleep study, summarizes some of the key consequences of lost sleep:  “Previous research has linked poor sleep with higher risks of heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and depression. How might sleep affect memory? People who are persistently sleep deprived are more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, and narrowed blood vessels. Each of these can decrease blood flow inside the brain. Brain cells need a lot of oxygen and sugar, so blood flow problems could affect their ability to work properly.”

Though we are still learning about the far-reaching importance of sleep, we already know that a lack of restorative sleep leads us into a non-sick state prematurely and, like unhealthy eating and a lack of movement, degrades our health.  Sleep is your body’s way of restoring organ function, stabilizing chemical imbalance, refreshing areas of the brain that control mood and behavior, and improving performance. During sleep, your brain replenishes spent nutrients and repairs circuitry, rearranging your experiences much like a computer rearranges data.
To assess the quality of your sleep at a glance, consider the following questions:
Do you…

Wake up tired in the morning?
Need a nap in the afternoon?
Fall asleep watching television?
Find yourself sleepy after lunch?
Have difficulty falling asleep?
Have difficulty staying asleep?
Drink several cups of coffee or energy drinks to stay awake?

If you answered “yes” to many of these questions, don’t worry. You are not alone. In 2006, an
Institute of Medicine report found that between 50 and 70 million people in the U.S. are not getting enough sleep. To help you escape this statistic, here are some quick tips to incorporate into your daily life (reference page 217 of Dr. A’s Habits of Health for a complete guide to revamping your sleep):

Get out of bed when your alarm goes off and limit your in-bed activities to train your mind to always associate sleep with your bed.
Limit your caffeine intake, especially late in the day and within hours of your bedtime.
Decrease stimulation from electronics and other sources of bright light at least 30 minutes prior to trying to fall asleep.
Avoid exercising within two hours of your bed time to help your body’s natural process for releasing the chemicals that induce sleep.
Set a sleep schedule and stick to it all week, including on weekends.

Sleep tight!
About Dr. Wayne Andersen
Dr. Wayne Andersen is a NY Times Bestselling Author, Speaker and Leader in creating Optimal Health.To learn more about this topic or how you can work with Dr. Andersen to create optimal health in your life, email