Friday, January 25, 2013

Loyalty

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you had a great week!

News
No new updates for this week.

Instead of sharing a quote and my thoughts this week, I wanted to share something I read recently on Paulo Coelho's blog.

Loyalty
By Paulo Coelho

Loyalty can be compared to a shop selling exquisite porcelain vases, a shop to which Love has given us the key.
Each of those vases is beautiful because it is different, as is every person, every drop of rain, every rock sleeping on the mountainside.

Sometimes, due to age or some unsuspected defect, a shelf collapses and falls. And the shop-owner says to himself:
‘I invested years of my time and my love on this collection, but the vases have betrayed me and broken.’
The man sells his shop and leaves. He becomes a solitary, embittered individual, believing that he will never trust anyone again.

It’s true that some vases do break – a promise of loyalty broken. In that case, it’s best to sweep up the pieces and throw them away, because what was broken will never be the same again.

But sometimes the reasons why a shelf collapses and falls go beyond mere human intentions: it could be an earthquake, an enemy invasion, clumsiness on the part of someone who enters the shop without looking where he is going.

Men and women blame each other for the disaster. They say: ‘Someone should have foreseen what was going to happen.’ Or: ‘If I had been in charge, these problems could have been avoided.’
Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all prisoners of the sands of time, and we have no control over them.

Time passes and the shelf that fell gets mended.

Other vases fighting for their place in the world are put there. The new shop-owner, who understands that nothing lasts, smiles and says to himself: ‘That tragedy opened up an opportunity for me and I will try to make the most of it. I will discover works of art I never even knew existed.’


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Resolutions

News
No new updates for this week.

Quote
"Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever."
-Mark Twain

My Thoughts
We are now almost two weeks into the new year. Are you making progress on your resolutions? Most people will give up on their resolutions within the first week or two of the new year. Almost all will give up by the end of the month.

Why does this happen?

I had the opportunity to be on the radio on New Year's day for an interview. The main topic was, of course, about resolutions. The host asked me my thoughts on resolutions and my response was quite simple. Don't set them. That's right, stop setting resolutions.

Why?

The main reason is that you are establishing a pattern of failure. You are sending a signal to your subconscious mind which states that "I don't follow through on what I say I will do.". This is not a good pattern to develop because it can spread to other areas of your life and as you get older you may find that you don't finish things that you say you will or it may take you much longer to accomplish things.

I think the other main reason for giving up on resolutions is people usually put down things that they don't feel like doing.
Think about it for a minute: Lose weight, Quit smoking/drinking, Learn something, etc...

None of them sound exciting and they are vague (not to mention that the first two are negatively worded).

So what's my recommendation?

Set one to three things that you really want to accomplish this year. These things should get you excited and scared at the same time. What is it that you would really like to do this year? Think big.

Let's look at losing weight. You set a resolution to lose weight. First problem is the word lose, second problem is it's vague, and the third problem is it's not very exciting.

How could you change it?

Be specific, make it positive, and think big. It also helps to write it down in the present tense. Ex: I am so happy and grateful now that I am at (enter ideal weight here). Put a date on it and start taking action. For the exciting part, that's up to you but you could find images of the type of body you'd like to have and use those images to help you visualize.

You may be wondering what my goal is for this year....or maybe you're not but I'll tell you anyway :)

I (and two other business partners) will be starting a gym. Not just any gym, but a gym that will completely change the fitness industry in Korea.
This is something that I initially started in 2008 but due to many factors I was not able to fully make it happen until now. 

I encourage all of you to look at what you'd like to accomplish this year.

I wish you all the best.