The New Year's Resolution...Fact or Fiction?
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Free Download - The New Year's Resolution...Fact or Fiction? By Paul Centrella
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Each year, we listen to the lofty, idealistic plans of friends, colleagues and family who identify areas of needed change in their lives. At the end of the year, if inventory was taken and honesty was spoken, most, nearly 96% of those surveyed, will have done little beyond the first month of the year. Positive change requires determination, patience, pain and perseverance. The membership to the gym, the new budget, or the commitmet to stop drinking all sound terrific during the planning phase, but the implementation phase means sacrifice, and one thing our society teaches each of us is that sacrifice hurts. Watch or listen to the mass media, and the common theme in any product promotion is that maximum gain with minimal pain is the secret of the product. So the product sells, because the buyer craves a magical cure to the problem he or she seeks to eliminate.
I have a seventeen-year-old daughter who is on the mend from a horrific crisis involving drugs, sex and alcohol. At the age of thirteen, she became disengaged from the healthier, more noble aspects of life. She withdrew from her friends, her mother, from me, from church and hinted in conversation that death offers a suitable alternative to her miserable life. Though I spent many nights crying for my baby as I watched the insidious destruction which descended upon her, I knew that recovery would involve great effort and sacrifice, not to mention mind numbing pain for everyone in my home. My marriage was shaken to its core and ended four years ago. I lost my job after the company fell into bankruptcy and liquidation. I ended up spending my retirement funds on a twelve-month treatment facility that promised the world with regard to the efficacy of their program. My daughter came home and within three months re-magnetized herself to drugs and alcohol. Three rehab facilities later, my girl is in her Junior year of high school, she attends AA meetings almost daily, she is surrounded by sober, healthy friends, she spends evenings at my side talking or watching a movie, she found a job for weekends, and she found her spirituality that she abandoned four years ago.
What occurred to me in witnessing the evolution of my child and her crisis is that nothing in her life is markedly different. There are still the same elements available to her. What changed is her commitment to change and the acceptance of the pain and hardship in the process of changing. No aspect of her life comes easily, but she embraces the pain knowing that the reward is extraordinary. Anyone who has endured addiction or alcoholism and is maintaining sobriety has my deepest, most profound respect, for their journey doesn't end; it happens, literally, day by day. The wake-up call I speak of came from my child. I realized that I, too, must make material changes in my way of living to provide a better lifestyle and future for my children.
After months of coming to terms with the limitations of my salaried job trading time for money, I decided to start a home based business and earn my living online through Internet marketing. This wasn't a New Year's resolution; rather, it was a life resolution. Daily, I wake and tell myself it is up to me to make the day productive and remain in the positive. My life isn't changing through overnight cures or New Age hyperbole designed to stoke momentary inspiration. My life is changing moment by moment, day by day, and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. You see, my home based business involves huge sacrifice, ongoing education, a financial commitment and perseverance knowing my decision to change is permanent and profound. There is no flexibility, no second guessing, for second guessing introduces an element of self doubt, and self doubt is the killer of positive change.
Take note of your life. Take an inventory and determine if you are living to the level you feel worthy of. Nearly everyone can identify areas of weakness or aspects in need of change. Once you've identified those areas, you, and you alone must decide of you have the emotional, intellectual, and physical fortitude to endure the pain for the gain. I promise you this, if you make a New Year's resolution, the odds are stacked heavily against your success in seeing its manifestation. What is necessary is a sweeping change of attitude and mindset. For if you continue to do what you've always done, you will continue to get what you've always gotten. Is it enough? Is it wholly satisfying? Do you feel fed on all levels? Close out 2009 with a personal commitment to work daily, incrementally, to build a richer future. Forget the ceremony of the New Year's resolution and embrace the permanence of your Life's Resolution! You, and you alone are worth it.
Have a blessed 2010!
The New Years ResolutionFact or Fiction - To learn more about this author, visit Paul Centrella's Website.
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Joe Evans
Joe Evans serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Method Frameworks.
Method Frameworks serves Commercial enterprises with strategic and operational
planning solutions using the firm’s proprietary Plan4 process. Visit Method Frameworks at www.methodframeworks.com.
Joe is a published author,
frequent speaker and recognized expert in corporate strategic planning
.
Want more corporate strategic planning insights? Read Joe's blog. Also, request to join the "Strategic Planning Xchange" now by following this link to the Strategic Planning Xchange. - Visit Joe Evans's Website |
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John Alexander
John has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy
; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center.
I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan). - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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