Promise yourself,
A promise as defined by Webster’s Dictionary is an assurance given that a specified action will or will not be taken. A reasonable ground for hope or expectation of future excellence, satisfaction. A pledge.
Each journey begins with a pledge to yourself. If you believe you can, you will. Earl Nightingale, said “A man is what he thinks about”. By making a pledge to promise yourself you are working at giving your every effort to make your promise come true. Think positively. Think of something else if negative thoughts begin to enter your head. Replace them with the commitment to be strong.
Promising yourself is a process. You will have bad days. The real test is how you react to a bad or difficult situation. Always move towards your pledge. I like reciting the Optimist Creed over and over in my mind. I have committed it to memory. A Buddhist Monk might repeat a mantra. A devout Catholic might use their rosary beads. A religious Jew may recite a daily prayer. For me it is the, commitment in the Optimist Creed to Promise Yourself, as a way of staying focused and being in a right frame of mind.
To be so strong that nothing disturbs your piece of mind.
An athlete works hard to get in strong physical and mental shape. It is essential for an athlete to attain peak performance. A few years ago I attended a sales meeting with a group of co-workers and my father whom I worked for at the time. Our facilitator asked us, “What was the most important aspect of our job, our profession, our lives.” Several of my co-workers yelled out things like family, money, making a difference. All noble answers. My father stated in his blunt way. “What matters most is my health. If I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of anything or anybody else.” He was right. Making sure you are in peak shape makes everything else flow.
My father knew that if he was not physically fit, nothing else mattered. At age 65 my father was determined to run the Los Angeles Marathon. He was in great shape. He always had worked out with weights and trained and trained to run this race. He ran the marathon in a rare, pounding, L.A. rain and completed it in a time of four hours and forty five minutes. An accomplishment at any age. I asked my father what kept him going. He said, “I kept telling myself I could finish the race. The more I ran, the stronger I felt.” Wow, more pearls of wisdom from my Dad. Talk to yourself. Promise yourself, you can do it.
I was inspired to run after that. Now, it wasn’t a marathon but I did enter the Boulder, Boulder, one of the largest races in the country. Never having run a race before, I trained and trained like my Dad. I had just finished reading a book by Brian Tracy called Focal Point. One quote in his book that helped me to finish this 6.2 mile run was, “Yard by Yard it’s Hard. Inch by inch it’s a Synch.” I repeated this line over and over. I finished the race and felt a huge sense of euphoria as I crossed the finish line in at Folsom Field at Colorado University at Boulder. Like my Father, I believe having a strong body is the beginning of keeping your mind fit.
I keep my mind fit in many ways. I am a news and weather junkie. I like to know what’s happening in the world. Often the news is negative and it can disturb your piece of mind. I will tell you now that I often fall back into a rant after listening to negative news. Or hear some critic or pundent spew their poison. Of course one solution is turn the stupid TV off. I often do. The other opportunity is to use it as a tool to strengthen your convictions and let it help you stay focused on your positive thoughts. Don’t let the bad news get under your skin. It can only get to you if you let it. Don’t.
Some things I do to keep my mind shape;
Read - My goal is a book a month.
Write – I attempt to write at least a page a day.
Listen - Buy or borrow books on Tape or CD’s. Listen in the car.
Speak – Join Toastmasters and learn to sharpen your speaking skills. www.toastmasters.org
Join – Volunteer your service to a group or club. Optimist Club www.optimist.org
Create – I started a masterMIND group with some friends from Toastmasters and we meet and discuss our business issues twice a month. Be a student of your business. Know it inside and out and be the best at it.
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