Addicted

Hello. My name is Sarah, and I'm a television addict.

Ok, it sounds totally ridiculous, but I have to tell you it's true. I've been feeling very blue about how I've been basing my life on what is on television. I knew I watched it a lot, but didn't realize how much of a real issue it was until my four year old son, Aidan started reciting my television "playlist". That was when I realized that I have it on all day long and my child expects it to be this way.

I have this list of goals that I want to achieve, and they will never be completed if I don't make some serious changes. For the month of February I will not watch television. My family has made a pact. No tv except for workout dvds and one movie a week. This will be very interesting.

Stay tuned!

What are we all afraid of?

Fear. It's truly an ugly four letter word. It's inside us all just waiting to spoil our plans. I had coffee with my friend and sometimes business partner, Tammy, last week. We were talking about our plans for our businesses, what was working and what wasn't. I had started to go through my list of gonnas with her. You know, "I'm going to...", and then "I'm going to do ...", when I was struck by the reason I hadn't done any of my gonnas yet, FEAR. I said it out loud for the first time without an excuse as to why I hadn't finished the things on my to-do list. "Tammy, I'm just scared." And it was the truth. Tammy told me about how she was scared to do some of the things on her to-do list as well. And I thought, "How can so many bright individuals be so scared. What are we all afraid of'"?

Someone once told me that fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real. We all have it and it's different for each of us. I look at my son and he is fearless. Even when we play hide and go seek and I jump out at him he doesn't even flinch. It seems that most of us are born with bright-eyed optimism ready to go after our dreams with gusto. After a little while trying to find our way in the world we shrink down to our sometimes very small circle of comfort. We often look at the ways others view us as the truth, when in reality it's not. And it's also none of our business what others think of us anyway. Even the most successful and famous people have just as many nay-sayers as they do fans. So what's really stopping us from reaching our dreams?

We all have our own battles that we fight within. What if we just did what we wanted to do? What if we just asked for what we want instead of hoping that it will come? What if we did one thing today to take us out of our comfort zone? We might say something stupid, or look foolish, but who cares that much anyway? Honestly, no one in this life is as hard on us as we are on ourselves. I don't see any shows like ESPN highlighting our shortcomings like a Monday morning quarterback. (unless your a celebrity and you've been featured on TMZ) I say this as someone struggling to get out of my comfort zone, which is getting smaller by the minute. I will not look at the "False Evidence" and believe that it's real. And I hope that you will do the same.

Off The Hook

I don't know about you, but I am often renegotiating all the promises I make to myself. I always keep a promise I make to others but rarely keep the ones I make to myself. I think there are millions of people out there just like me. I recently read that only one in four people are successful in achieving their resolutions each and every year. Just think about how many times you made a new years resolution. How many of those did you keep? I think it's sad how so many people, myself included, think "well, nobody keeps those anyway". Resolutions are promises we make to ourselves to try and make our lives better than the year before. Why is it acceptable to let ourselves down?

My four year old son often replies, "I don't like to do it," when we ask him to do something. Well, I have been saying the same thing to myself for a couple of days now. Applying this statement to exercise, stretching, preparing a healthy meal, cleaning, and even work. It started when a tremendous snow storm hit and schools were closed on Thursday, so I let myself take the day off. Then I continued to take Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Let's just say I had a loooong weekend.

After the boss in me noticed all the things I let go to pot, I gave myself a firm talking to. "Look Sarah, if you want to be lazy then be lazy, and if you want something better for yourself and family then do something about it." The truth is no one is going to just hand us a better body, life, insert your desires here. It takes work, commitment, and fulfilling those promises we make to ourselves.

I got back on track with cleaning my house, eating healthy meals, and exercising again. I even started to get caught up with all the work I let pile up. I don't know what it takes in general to keep a good momentum going. I do know that for me, my desire to check things off my list is what is getting me off the couch and away from my television. I refuse to let myself off the hook!

Getting Ready for 2010

Now that you know about the list I keep and what I've already completed in '09, I will let you in on what I'm beginning to work on for 2010.

Something very important to me is my health. It just seems that if you don't have your health you don't have much of anything. I have witnessed many people with illness in their family and it just seems to take over everything. My husband and I are very intentionally working daily on being in the best shape we can be. When I was pregnant with my son I gained 30 lbs. I managed to get within 2 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight the year he was born. Since then I have been steadily gaining weight. I am now 7 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight. So you may be reading this and think, " so what 7 lbs. is not that much." Well, it's a slippery slope and I don't want to ride it all the way to the bottom. I have been exercising daily to accomplish #39 Get into my best shape. My reasoning is not just vain but completing this goal will put me in line to be able to complete 5 other goals that I will publish later. I am also working on goal #81 Be able to do the splits (again). Yes, I once was flexible. I saw an 80 something year old woman on Oprah a few years ago do the splits. I know that I can get this flexibility back. It's not inevitable that we grow old and feeble. We can prevent this by taking care of ourselves now and that's exactly what I am learning to do.

Something else I am currently focused on is #1 Get back to DM. This is an industry term. I am an Arbonne Consultant and have been for 4 years. I had once earned this promotion and then slacked off and lost it. I just wasn't ready to lead myself or others when this happened. But with anything that you do, you have to decide when the time is right for you to proceed. I love Arbonne's products and I love the company. I finally believe in myself to get to the top of the company. I'm working on going to the first level of management again DM. My plan is to get there by February 2010. I'm very excited!

Anyway, these are the top 3 items I am working on for 2010. There will be more to come.
What do you want for the new year?

The Beginning

Ok, I cannot stress enough that I am not a writer. I am doing this for fun and to share my journey.

I started to keep a list of all the things I would like to accomplish in my life.I started my list after reading Jack Canfield's book 'Success Principles'. There is a chapter dedicated to creating a list. Deciding what you want to accomplish and what kind of experiences you want to have. Just to start living your own dreams for you and not anyone else. I had gotten into the habit of wishing my life away and doing the "as soon as." Only to find myself several years later not having done much of anything. In case you don't know that is when you say things like, "as soon as I (insert dream here) I will be (insert emotion here)." I found myself catching up with people I hadn't talked to in 10 years in only 10 minutes. I noticed that other than graduating college, getting married, and having a child, I hadn't done anything worth talking about. I just refused to let years of my life escape me.

I made out my list March '09. I could only come up with about 63 things I wanted at the time, but I continue to add to my list every time I think of something else I would like to be, do, have in my life. I write things down as I think of them. Remember my list is written in random order.

So far in 2009 I have completed:
#10 Run a 5K
#11 Run a 10K
#18 Get Baptized
#56 Join a Mastermind group
#60 Potty train Aidan
#62 Make it a habit to drink 36 ounces of water a day
#66 Start a design business
#84 Learn how to fold sheets properly
#85 Learn how to fold towels properly
#83 Start a blog

Not too bad for starting up in March. I will continue to make updates on what I'm striving for next. I am working on crossing around 23 items off my list in 2010. I fully expect 2010 to be an amazing year!