Lisa recently ran across this.  Although the author is unknown, it’s still something to think about.   As you read this does it resonate with you?  Are you flapping your wings so hard, hitting your head against the wall and going nowhere?  Read on.  Your answer. your resolution, your breakthrough is sooooo simple!

Buzzard
If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

BAT
The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

BUMBLEBEE
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

PEOPLE
In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. They are struggling about with all their problems and frustrations, not ever realizing that all they have to do is look up.

Wow!  Do you remember the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!  Look around, look up … get outside your box. Get outside your comfort zone. Only YOU are blocking your success.  You won’t find your solution staying right where you are.  You have to move.  What does it take to move?  Change.  Change your point of view.  Change what you are doing.  Change how you are thinking.  Your breakthrough is yours for the taking!    So take it!

I was on a call tonight with Christopher Guerriero and he shared these 30 simple rules anyone can live by to live life as it was intended.  Check off how many you’re currently doing — and underline the ones you’ll start doing TODAY!

How To Have A Great Day According To Christopher Guerriero

1. Smile more
2. Write out your top 5 most important goals for the coming day, before going to bed
3. Get a great night’s sleep every night
4. Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for others
5. Eat your vegetables
6. Always focus on self improvement
7. Read more
8. Live in the moment
9. Exercise hard
10. Be grateful
11. Learn to breath properly
12. Take your vitamins
13. Tell a joke
14. Don’t put things off
15. Avoid negative people
16. Visualize yourself having already achieved your goal
17. Listen to a child laugh
18. Make a child laugh
19. Drink at least 8 ounces of plain, fresh water, for every 20 pounds of bodyweight you currently carry around
20. Be there for others
21. Stretch daily
22. Don’t blame others
23. Give more than you promise
24. Keep it simple
25. Be someone’s hero
26. Learn from every mistake
27. Forgive others
28. Forgive yourself
29. Dance
30. Never give up

Here’s a great reason to pause and reflect on the value of time and how important it is that you create priorities.

One of the basic tenets of goal setting is that we choose, in advance, how we’re going to allocate our time. This helps to ensure that we use it in the best way….watch this short movie and you’ll understand why.

This is a great insight on the power of big goals by my friend Michael Angier:

Big goals are not only more fun and exciting; they carry more weight than small ones. Ambitious, serious, “weighty goals” have attraction power. They attract others into the process and magnetize ideas and resources. Big goals pull you along. They pull you through the difficult times and help you remain diligent. They inspire you to greater innovation and effective action.

I’m not a scientist, but from what I understand, the bigger the mass, the greater the gravity. Larger planets like Jupiter have more gravitational pull than Earth because of their greater mass.

And so it is with our goals and dreams. The bigger they are, the more they tend to attract what’s needed for their fulfillment.

And it’s not just the SIZE of the goal that matters. It’s how important it is—how badly you want it. Your passion and your desire infuse your goals with magnetism.

An inspiring goal that benefits many will grow in size and weight. And the greater the good, the bigger the goal.

Let’s say you have a goal to improve your credit rating. It’s not that big of a goal, but it’s a worthy one. Your credit report impacts your ability to obtain loans—even your job opportunities. But when you realize that a higher credit rating could save tens of thousands of dollars because of lower mortgage rates, it becomes a much more important goal. It gains weight because you see how it affects the livelihood of you and your family. It’s emotionally charged.

What about starting a business? You’ve always wanted to own your own enterprise. Another good goal.

But when you have a VISION for your business, when you write a business plan and launch the enterprise, your goal becomes serious. Everything and everybody pays attention to it. It begins to draw to it all that’s needed to bring it to fruition.

We are unlimited in what we can choose to achieve. But our time IS limited. We must think carefully about what we really want and why we want it. This way, we can choose wisely and invest our time and energy in goals worthy of our best efforts.

When we do this, we become aligned with our goals. By choosing and working toward weighty, worthy goals, we allow their magnetism to work in our favor. They’re easier and more fun to achieve. There’s less frustration and faster progress.

Make sure your goals have gravity.

Michael Angier is the founder of SuccessNet, which is celebrating ten years of helping people empower themselves to be their best.

How would you respond if the day before a really big day at work your spouse, who is hundreds of miles away, is unexpectedly taken off to jail…and you’ve got young children at home…and you just can’t walk away from your commitment?

Would you be a little distracted?

That scenario actually happened to PGA Golfer John Daly several days ago. How did he respond? He went out and shot a 69 (if you’re not a golfer, that’s very good!) on a very tough course. He was, as Fox Sports described him, “seemingly without a care in the world.”

Did the incident bother Daly? Sure it did — he’s human like the rest of us. But when Daly, who has had his share of personal problems over the years, is on his game, he’s one of the very best golfers in the world. He knew at the moment that he couldn’t change his wife’s situation but he could change his own situation at hand. He FOCUSED on his game despite an incredible distraction. “Asked how he put his personal life aside, Daly offered a wry grin. “You don’t,” he said. “I’m just out here.”

What distraction in your life is beyond your ability to change it? Why not put it aside for the moment and FOCUS on what you can change.

Read the Fox Sports story here…

So how do we stay on track? How do we remain motivated and focused toward our highest and best?

Allow me to share with you a few things that have worked for me. Perhaps they can help you stay on track.

Three Most Important Goals
I have many goals. I always have a few dozen I’m working toward. But I keep three first and foremost in my mind. Every day, I know I must do something that will help me make progress toward their achievement. I look at these goals every day. They’re rarely out of my consciousness. And I usually do take action every day on each of these three goals.

What’s Next?
Martin Sheen’s character in the hit TV series “The West Wing” is President Jeb Bartlett. His way of saying that he’s done with something and ready to move on is to ask the question, “What’s next?”

It’s a good question to ask ourselves. Not only what’s next, but what’s the most important thing we can do today to move us closer to our most important objectives.

Keep Your Goals in Front of You
Put pictures of your goals up so you see them often. Review them regularly. And most importantly, review the REASONS why you want to accomplish these goals. It’s the reasons that will make the difference.

Talk About Your Goals with Supportive People
Having a mastermind group is ideal, but even if you don’t have one, you can still share your goals with people who will encourage and support you. And you can do the same for them.

By talking about your goals, you make them more real. You’ll also get ideas from others on how you can better achieve them. People can’t help you if they don’t know what you want.

Forgive Yourself and Move On
Way too much emotional energy and thinking is wasted because we keep reviewing past behaviors. The past is gone. Today is all we have. Don’t squander time and energy thinking about what you should have done, could have done, what you did or might have done.

Today is a new day. Move on. The point of power is in the present.

Affirmation and Visualization
Affirmative statements and visualizing the achievement of our goals help us to “feel” our way to success. Anything we can do to elevate our emotional connection with our objectives will help us stay on track.

It’s well worth developing strategies that work to keep us consistently moving toward our goals. As we do so we build a track record of success, and setting and achieving bigger goals becomes even easier.

Michael Angier is the founder of SuccessNet, which is celebrating ten years of helping people empower themselves to be their best.

Money Magazine’s January issue has an interesting survey of American’s goals for 2006. They noted that traditional goals for health and money are taking a back seat this year to the desire to spend more time with the people we love.

Top Overall Goal
30% Spend more time with family and friends
19% Get healthier
18% Manage money better
17% Pursue enjoyable activities
12% Improve career.

Just as revealing, the top financial goal chosen by 33% was to save more money this year. Here’s a tip that Loral Langemeier, the Wealth Diva, shared during one of our tele-seminars: Open an Orange Savings Account and set up an automatic investment every week (or every month) to be taken out of your checking account. Start with a modest amount and gradually increase it. You’re not likely to miss the money and you’ll have the beginnings of a real investment account.

How important is visualizing your goal or dream? Heisman Trophy Winner Reggie Bush said it was a key to him. Interviewed after his landslide selection as college football’s best player in 2005, Bush said he had envisioned winning the Heisman since he was nine-years-old. He said his mother had taught him that what you vision is what you get.

Bush has often credited visualization with helping him reach his goals. In fact, his hometown newspaper included this in an article after his senior year in high school: “There are nights when Reggie Bush is asleep, but not really sleeping. He’s thinking, dreaming, visualizing . . . whatever it’s called when a young athlete can’t keep his mind from wandering.

“I like to visualize me running down the field, scoring touchdowns,” Bush said recently. “I feel like I have to see it before I do it.”

Hmmm….sounds like he’s a pretty wise dude in addition to being a great athlete. Is it time to dust off YOUR vision?

While you’re dreaming big dreams and setting big goals, you should also be creating some big dreams and goals for your physical health. Use the life expectancy calculator at MSN to see how your current habits are affecting your longevity. It’s amazing that just one or two lifestyle changes can add years to your life.

If you’re not happy with what you find, check out the real life stories at Fit Over 40.

…find your life expectancy here

“As you’re setting your goals for 2006, ask yourself where you are focusing your mental energy. If you only have 100 mental energy units per day to use, how many are you investing and how many are you squandering? The middle class wastes most of their mental energy on the trivial matters of the moment. The world class invests their mental energy moving toward their ultimate vision. Is it any wonder the world class is living their dreams while the middle class struggles to survive?”

–Steve Siebold, author,
177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class