Recently in Goals Category

How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

John's video (proposing the questions)

Hank's video (responding)

Here are two Youtube videos of two brothers. One proposed the question, "what is your ultimate concern" the other replied. Just a heads up if you watch the video...they sort of talk about a lot of other things leading up to the excitement of "ultimate concerns", but all in all they are pretty decent videos.

What I took from the videos:
Just think for a minute: What would you die or kill for?  Is there really something in your life that is that important?  At what point in your life does something become that important?  John has a child and at this point in his life his new baby is his ultimate concern...making sure that his needs are met. (Well that sounds familiar doesn't it; babies have needs too, they just can't satisfy them by themselves!!)

A response from the brother, Hank, proposes some interesting questions in response to the initial questions.

What are you concerned with at all, don't limit it to just the ultimate concern.

What I think is neat is how he explains how there are boundaries (visually I imagined a circle) of things you would die for, things you would fight for, things you care at all about, and finally things you just don't care about. 

This then brings up that maybe something like maybe your own child is something you "would die for", but then the stranger-mom at Wal Mart has a child that is in the area of "things you don't care about".  They are both babies but there is something different about your baby that makes it so much more important to you than the stranger's. 

And for each person this will be different, so what is your ultimate concern? Or, what do you care about, or don't care about? 

When these are defined in our own life we may start to realize our motivations and maybe even goals.  We know from class that we all have physiological needs. Those are obviously of some concern to everyone, and they will be satisfied in much the same way. Then there are psychological needs and social needs and whatever our concerns in this world are will affect those needs. 

Take the concern you thought of from above and apply that to a psychological or social need and how that would have an impact on our behavior in order to satisfy that need.  

"Don't let the difficult climb persuade you to quit or from setting higher goals," the article states.  I completely agree with this statement because I often feel like a lot of us give up easily on things if we don't achieve them right away.  We feel discouraged when we fail at something even though we should take it as a learning experience and do better the next time.  The article also states, " Success comes to those who look for it," which I also agree with.  Those who persist in achieving their dreams and goals are usually the ones who will end up achieving them.  They show drive, positive attitudes, and passion when they chose not to give up.  Things to think about:
1. What are you passionate about?
2. Be specific when setting goals (as everyone should know by now)
3. Think big, yet realistic, don't set something you already know you won't achieve.
4. Make a plan.  Write down ideas and your plan of action towards achieving short-term goals.
5. Set values on your goals.  Goals must be valuable to you in order for you to fulfill them.
6. Reward your progress.  Celebrate your achievements, even the smaller ones!

In the textbook there is a section about learned helplessness. I'm sure many of us have heard about this term in other classes, it occurs when a person believes they have no control in a situation. This concept can be applied to being poor. In the article "Learned Helplessness: The Secret to Being Poor" it talks about how people living in lower economic statuses believe they are not able to improve their status no matter what they do or how hard they work. These people learn helplessness in this situation. The article goes on to give a few suggestions on how to create more control your life to help break the cycle of learned helplessness. The five suggestions are:

 

1. Embrace Change
2. Get perspective
3. Set goals
4. Achieve success
5. Consider a different viewpoint

 

I think that it is interesting that one suggestion is to set goals, like we talked about a few weeks ago. A person who sets goals and creates a plan will more likely complete their goal. Do you believe that these five suggestions would actually work to help improve a person's status and to break learned helplessness?

 

Article:

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/other-8-hours/the-secret-to-being-poor/1288/

 

The talk that we had in class this week about setting goals and following through with them, got me more interested in the topic.  I thought it may be good for myself to learn ways that may help me follow through with some of the goals that I set for myself, and maybe help others as well.

When searching the web, I found an article that gave a few tips to help you follow through with your goals for yourself, no matter which type.  http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/02/11-useful-tips-on-setting-goals-and.html

• Take firm action- Tell yourself you WILL follow through
• Get priorities in order- Know what's important to you NOW
• Write them down- Have them written where you can see them often
• Take a deep look- Realistic?
• Make an action plan- Which method works best for you?
• Track your progress- Know where you're at with accomplishing your goals
• Involve others- Allow advice and encouragement from others
• Welcome failures- You won't always be successful, you will fail at times, but it's ok
• Persist- Don't give up
• Celebrate- Be excited about accomplishing each step
• Don't lose sight- Stay focused, your goal can be achieved

I thought that all of these tips were very valuable.  I know that from experience I always am more likely to follow through with things when I write them down.  Whether it's a To Do list, a method for studying for a test, or goal setting, it is embedded into my head more when I write them down, and I am more likely to remember what I need to do and follow through.  I also think that it is important to make realistic goals.  So many times people throw out unrealistic goals for themselves and are disappointed later on when they realize they were unachievable.  You need to think about where you are right now and take steps/ make small goals, that may lead up to a larger goal later on. Overall, the article was short but to the point.  I feel like it gave good advice, though.

Does anyone else have any advice to give on goal setting that works for them??

It may be a cliche activity post, but what a perfect time to find a goal for yourself than right now when you are learning about them in class!  I am sure if you are like most people you would have come up with some New Year's resolution, well how is it going?  Mine is not....at all!! Which is discouraging, but I know why.

It wasn't specific, I didn't have something I was reaching for.  I just said, I want to shed a few pounds and eat healthier foods.  What I didn't do is write it out and figure out HOW I was going to get there.  In our book on page 216 it shows the summary of the goal process.  I started out fine: goal - to eat healthy and shed a few pounds.  It was a difficult goal (for me) but was NOT specific.  From there it has dwindled down to excuse after excuse.  Has this ever happened to you??

If it has, or even if it hasn't lets use some knowledge we are learning and set a goal. 
Post this back as a comment, or you are more comfortable just jot it down in a notebook for yourself. 

What is your goal?
Now think, is it difficult AND specific?
Is this a long term goal or a short term goal?
How will you get to that goal?

My goal: stop twirling my hair
Difficult: check...very much so
Specific: check...see the how portion
This is a long term goal. 

How: I have tried to do this in the past and for a while it worked mostly because I was reinforcing myself. It is 4:43 right now, I want to make it through this blog without twirling my hair.  From there I can watch the clock like crazy and test myself in 30 min. increments..."have a twirled my hair?"  If I haven't it is gratifying and reward enough to keep going.  I set mini goals like: I want to make it through the rest of this class period without twirling my hair.  Or I want to read this page in my book without twirling my hair.  I write it down and will post it in a spot I see every day, multiple times a day. I will keep increasing the increments until I make it to days...and then weeks...and then a month..and two months...until six months...until a year...then I'll kick the habit!
So within my "how" there are mini goals.  And if each are positively reinforced I might just stop twirling. 

Sounds obtainable (so far I haven't even touched my hair).  I have heard that with bad habits there is a three day hump for quitting.  That could be the case but from previous attempts I found that when I lost social support and stress levels increased I gave in to the urge.  Also my reward system wasn't as effective.  Its a real bummer, but I am ready to try again. From reading this it might not sound specific enough (but some details are just left out because I could probably write a whole book on how I could just stop this habit). 

Reeve (2009) states "Planning how to carry out a goal allows the performer to overcome the inevitable volitional problems associated with goal-directed behavior." Goals are an important part of life.  Maybe not enough to qualify as a need, but I think goals can really direct you through life.  And it will create challenges and obstacles while trying to attain whatever your goal may be.

5:00 PM = 17 minutes twirl free!

In class the other day we were talking about how making lists is a great way to achieve goals, yet this could easily get out of hand. I was thinking recently about how if you don't set your goals right, then you won't be able to achieve them, for example lets talk about those New Years Resolutions, like the one you set stating you were going to go to the gym everyday? It almost seems as though with New Years resolutions, the goals we set for the year are far-fetched and don't seem to be reasonable, according to Why Setting Goals Don't Work!. This article continues to state that with New Years Resolutions, no real thought or planning is involved when setting these goals, so it is hard to follow through with them. In order to set proper goals you will need to take into consideration your beliefs and your values. After you understand these, then you will need to make a detailed goal and have a specific outcome. The article states that just saying something vague like "I want to be rich" is not good enough to be an actual goal. The article states that you should build from that and say something like "I want to earn $10,000 passive income per month from my online internet affiliate programs"

It is easy to see the difference between those two statements of goals. How you get from the first statement to the second is to ask yourself questions like "who, what, when, where, why and how?" One advice the article gives is that you should "Set a goal with end in mind." It is important to determine the outcome in order to figure out how you will get to the outcome. if you don't have an outcome, then you don't have anything to work towards.

I find that these things are quite easy to understand, for me at least. I am a big planner, and I do have goals for myself. For instance, right now my goal is to get this done before the deadline. I do have goals for my future, as in opening my own private practice, however there is many steps before I achieve that goal.

Overall just keep in mind that if you want your goals to work, know who you are, make sure you set your goal with the end in mind, and also prepare yourself that there will be challenges that will come along, its just apart of the goal.

What kind of goals do you have set for yourself? What kind of obstacles or challenges have you had to face in reaching your goal? Do you set well-defined goals, or very simplistic ones such as the New Years Resolution example?

This time in my life is incredibly critical. I'm about to graduate college with a degree in Psychology, and I have only a slight idea of what I plan to do hereafter. Because it is so important to map out my future life, I need to adhere to a strict goal setting regime. If goals are simply "whatever an individual is striving to accomplish", according to the textbook, then I at least have some idea (I often discredit myself). Anyway, my basic goal(s) is (are) to graduate college and eventually apply to graduate school and obtain at least a Masters degree. That seems reasonable, right? However, the steps that proceed are where I need some sort of encouragement or helpful guidelines to set my goals processes in motion. After searching Google for "goal setting programs" I came across this website, managed by Mind Tools, which offers several free tips and tricks to help emower someone to begin and to eventually achieve his or her goals. This page on the website lays out many helpful tips of advice. A short video accompanies the website, and in it the CEO explains some basic criteria before planning a goal. The video only touches on the main points that are described in greater detail on the actual webpage.

For this blog I will quickly run through what the people in the video say. Here are some of the important criteria one should follow when planning a goal (not in order of importance):

1) Use positive language when wording your goals

2) Prioritize your goals - this makes them more manageable and realistic

3) Set precise goals to measure achievements (discussed a little in class)

4) Make goals related to performance, not outcomes.

5) WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS (kind of a no-brainer, right?)

6) Set realistic goals 

I think the most important one that I have never thought of is # 4. A lot of times you cannot control your outcomes. But if you set your goals to your performance, you are more likely to retain control over your situation, because performance is mostly based on your own controllability and management. Unfortunately, I suffer from forgetting to write things down. If I have trouble with that simple task, then I feel like I have a long road ahead of me. Nevertheless, I am confident and optimistic about what lies ahead. In addition to the abovementioned tips, the website offers a helpful mnemonic device by which to remember your goal planning: SMART

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bounded

Besides the tips I mentioned above, are there other ways that you effectively set and accomplish your goals?

http://www.2knowmyself.com/Persistence_definition/how_to_become_persistent

 

This article is very helpful for all of you people with the lack of motivation and persistence (we've all been there, myself included).   But is there something out there that you have always wanted to happen but you just can't quite make it there?  Maybe it has to do with exercising to feel healthy-- we all know we should but how many of us actually keep with a routine workout schedule?   This article defines persistence as "...not allowing anything to stop you from an activity once you start it unless it's something really severe."

Some helpful tips from the article included

1) Even if you feel like quitting, keep with it!

2)Keep your goal in sight

3)Don't ignore small situations-- be persistent with even the small tasks. 

4)Be flexible

5)Be confident in your ability to reach your goal

Reeve states in Chapter 8 (p 224) that when people are in the persuit of a goal, they may come across certian obstacles involving disctractions, demands of their time, or some other form of interruption.  THis article helps you focus on what is important in your persuit toward your goal.  Also, Reeve shows on page 221 that goals are to be more reachable if you know the process you will have to take to reach them.  This relates to number 3 from the article- Be persistent with the smaller tasks, because eventually those small tasks add up to the large goal in mind. 

The only question i had regarding this article, was how can you make someone want to be persistent with their goals?  Of course these are helpful steps, but they won't help much if the person is  someone with little motivation to set goals. 

I found this article title "Smart Goals + Motivation = Success".  This article was about different ways to help a person achieve their goals.  In the article the author has six things that must be followed in order to help people achieve their goals.  First, is to visualize your future success.  The author says one of the ways to get motivated about your goal is to think about what it would be like to have successfully finished your goal, and what perks could be part of the outcome to your goal.  Second, plan the work.  Most goals require a lot of work; this work can sometimes become overwhelming so one of the best things that will help you not become overwhelmed would be making a plan.  Third, accept mistakes.   You will probably make mistakes along the way to achieving your goal, and you should not view mistakes as negative but positive.  With mistakes a person can come up with new approaches that will help to succeeding.  Fourth, focus on mini goals.  One huge point of motivation is success, so if you break down your goal into mini goals that you are able to accomplish on the way to your ultimate goal, the more able you are to continue on the road to succeed.  Fifth, psych yourself up.   Some parts of your goal may take a lot more effort than others, so to accomplish them get yourself motivated before you try to accomplish that task.  Finally, don't let yourself quit.  It is hard sometimes to continue on to your goal when it may still be far away, but don't give up on your goal, sooner or later you will achieve it.

I think that all of those are great pieces of advice for succeeding in a goal.  Our book talks about a person being more likely to have greater performance when a goal is difficult and specific.  Our book also specifically talks about how strategic planning comes into play when you have a specific goal.  With planning it helps a person to focus their attention on the goal at hand and not other tasks.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/11/26/smart-goals-motivation-success/

My parents have always taught me, even from a pretty young age that setting goals and sticking to them will help to accomplish what you want to set out and do. I think it is important for goal setting behaviors to be taught to kids, because generally if we are in a habit of doing something then it stays with us. This article gives 4 tips on how to start goal setting behaviors in kids and to get them motivated to stick with a task once they start it. The first point is to talk with your kids. This could be about a specific thing they want to accomplish and how they want to do that. The second tip is to make it a game. Put up a board showing how well they are doing accomplishing their goal, this can help them develop long term goal setting skills and also gives them positive or negative feedback on how well they are doing. The third tip is to lead by example. Kids are going to follow the lead of their parents, so make sure to be setting goals yourself and persisting and following through with those goals. The last tip is to give them feedback. Feedback will give the child a sense of satisfaction with the goal and make them more likely to keep up with setting goals in the future.

 

http://www.brainy-child.com/article/motivational-ideas.html

When I was in high school, specifically my junior and senior year, our football program hadn't made it to the playoffs in years.  We weren't the best team, especially my junior year.  Therefore, our team set a long-term goal to make the playoffs that year.  Specifically, we had a goal of winning five games that year in conference, which would allow us to compete in the playoffs.  That was our hoped-for ideal state of mind that year, a future, higher goal than in the past.  As we discussed in class, people who set goals outperform those without goals.  I think this is often mistakes coaches make when leading their teams.  They don't make it clear what their target goal is and what they want to accomplish.  Within the present status of our team, however, there existed a discrepancy (discrepancy creation) which helped provide a motivational basis for our actions. 

This wasn't an impossible goal, but the goal difficulty was enough (moderately difficult) to energize and increase our performance.  Each game provided the necessary feedback for our success and failures, helping determine how close or far we were from making the playoffs. With this feedback, our efforts were arguably enhanced as these specific short-term goals of winning a game energized our efforts, our persistence, and by directing attention and strategy.  This feedback of victories and defeats, or knowledge of results, allowed  us to keep progress of our results.

In the end, we accepted this goal, set extrinsically by the coaches even though many of the players were already intrinsically motivated to achieve this goal.  This goal really worked because game-by-game we were rewarded (or punished) based on the result of the football game.  They provided us each week a short term goal which, when repeated successfully, provide committment boosting opportunities for reinforcement.

In the article below,

 http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

personal goal setting is expanded upon: 

 "Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set."

 

It also has an interesting section on achieving more with focus within personal goals as well as lifetime goals, which is something I may expand upon more in future blogs.

Lately I have noticed I'm having a serious case of senioritis and am procrastinating more than I would like.  My ideas to help me overcome procrastination have been failing, so I decided to find some suggestions online.  This problem has become the inspiration for my latest post.  I'm assuming many people are beginning to procrastinate more because the end of the school year is quickly approaching and the weather is beginning to, finally, get nice!  The website I found with suggestions to beat procrastination is....

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm

This website provides general steps and suggestions to overcome any procrastination issues you may have.  Professor Clarry Lay described procrastination as "a temporal gap between intended behavior and enacted behavior."  This discrepancy is not a new phenomenon and can be overcome by creating implementation intentions with specific goals.

The first step is Recognize That You're a Procrastinator.  You won't be able to overcome this problem, if you don't accept you are a procrastinator.  The website even offers a link to find out if you're a procrastinator, if you are unsure http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_99.htm.

The second step is Work Out WHY You're Procrastinating.  Reasons for procrastinating include the task is unpleasant, you are disorganized, you feel overwhelmed by the task, you are a perfectionist, and a major cause you have troubles making decisions.  I was surprised to see being a perfectionist as a reason because I feel being a perfectionist would push you to finish work.  However, sometimes being a perfectionist can hinder you because you do not want to make a mistake.

The third step is to Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies.  Some general tips to motivate yourself to get work finished include making your own rewards, having others check on you, etc.  Some suggestions to help you get organized include making a to-do list, prioritize your to-do list, setting a time-line for goals, and focusing on one task at a time.  If you find a task unpleasant, actually try the task before deciding it is not fun or enjoyable.

Overall, the article states in order to beat procrastination, one must develop good time-management, cultivate better organizational skills, and encourage effective habits.  One also must realize, procrastination is a difficult habit to break.  To overcome this habit, one must work hard to incorporate new approaches to work and habits to avoid procrastination.

After reading chapter 7 of our textbook, I came across this article on avoidance achievement motivation that I found to be not only interesting, but beneficial in explaining the difference between approach achievement and avoidance achievement. Elliot and Church purpose a hierarchical model to further study avoidance achievement motivation, and the current study was a basis for them to directly test the validity and generalizability of it. Instead of focusing primarily on a classical approach or a contemporary approach to achievement, researchers integrate both into one model where the conventional performance goal is divided into a independent approach and avoidance components and three achievement orientations. Specifically, competence expectancies on achievement are believed to influence achievement behavior indirectly due to their effect on goal adoption.

The authors hypothesize that those individuals who believed they could be competent in an achievement situation would sway towards success and take on approach achievement goals such as performance-approach and mastery, while those low in expectancies would sway towards the likelihood of failure and assume a performance-avoidance goal. In addition, motive dispositions and competence expectancies are posited to influence intrinsic motivation and graded performance circuitously by way of achievement goals effects. When achievement goal effects are controlled, these variables are predicted to have no effect. Operationally, motive dispositions account for the temperament of the individual and their tendency towards one of the three examined competence expectancy goals in achievement situations (mastery, performance-avoidance, or performance-approach).

The methodology utilized in this quasi-experiment included 204 undergraduate students with a mean age of 20.01 years. The course was set up in a standard lecture format and multiple-choice tests evaluated each student's progress in the course. Over the course of the semester, a series of sessions took place before class began in the instructor's absence as responses would remain confidential and would not impact their grade for the course. In these assessments, students' achievement motivation, fear of failure, competence expectancies, achievement goals, competence perceptions and intrinsic motivation were measured. Motive disposition and competence expectancy were measured during the first week of the semester while achievement motivation and fear of failure were assessed in the first class session. Competence expectancies were considered in the next session, and achievement goals were assessed during the second week of the course's meeting. Competence perceptions were measured before and after the midterm examination. Intrinsic motivation was measured at the conclusion of the semester.

The main findings of this study provide strong evidence for the purposed hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Mastery goals were found to be based in achievement motivation and high competence expectancies which, in turn, facilitated intrinsic motivation. Performance-avoidance goals derived from a fear of failure, low competence expectancies, and were found to be detrimental to intrinsic motivation and graded performance. Performance-approach goals rooted themselves in achievement motivation, fear of failure and high competence expectancies while enhancing grade performance overall. By integrating central elements of prominent approaches, researchers anticipate a more penetrating and comprehensive explanation of competence relevant affect, cognition, and behavior in the future.

Elliot, A. J., & Church, M. (1997). A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 218-232.

 

 

I figured there is no time better than the present to touch of the drive and story of an Olympic athlete. I think we all know by now, being an Olympian takes much more than an occasional practice. Being an Olympian takes commitment, determination, drive, and natural ability. These athletes practice for hours on end. Then, when they are done, they go to sleep and wake up to do it all over again. Training is nothing less that extreme. Anything other than being the best is not acceptable, because no one goes to the Olympic games with out the desire to bring home gold. Every athlete dreams of being an Olympian, and every Olympian dreams of being recognized as the best... to be positively reinforces with a gold circle draped from their neck. 

The recent down turn in the economy has placed a negative effect on many people's emotions, often causing anxiety and depression. Julie Cohen who is a licensed marriage and family therapist gives some helpful hints to overcome the some of the emotional problems that can arise due to the economy. Julie encourages you to think positively, remember the positive things in your life, thinking about what you value can be very comforting. She also realizes that just thinking positively is not always going to be enough to get you through these hard times. She also offers some small steps you can take to help ease the financial stress you may be feeling, such as clipping coupons, and she gives you a link to a coupon site, as well as just making more economically appreciate choices for the situation you are in. And last but not least she tells you to take an honest look at your own financial situation and to consider getting help or guidance if needed.

http://www.dailystrength.org/experts/julie-cohen/article/as-the-economy-suffers-so-do-our-emotions

 

http://tiny.cc/Z1L6O

This is a post from another blog but it caught my eye. When I hear about all of these easy ways to slim down, get rock hard abs, be healthy etc. it just makes me wonder why more people don't live healthier lifestyles.  Why don't I strive for that? I know personally I have created many excuses for not eating right and getting regular exercise.

Summed up, here are the 5 easy ways to stick to any exercise program out there:

1) Imagine your goal
2) Come up with a routine
3) Think of your past failures
4) Prepare yourself to feel like you are going no where
5) Change it up

So this will make you stick with any exercise program, do you think it will work with any person? (why or why not?)  What about these steps is going to make an exercise program stick?