January 1st brings in a new year and new hope and opportunity for many people. It has become the day to wipe off the old slate clean and start fresh and new. The sad fact is most “New Year’s Resolutions” are forgotten about within a few months after they were started. If you want proof of this, go into any health club during the second week of January and you will see the facility overcrowded with enthusiastic customers vowing to make this the year they make serious changes in their life as they exercise with determination of a healthier and brighter future. If you happen to visit the same health club every month afterwards, what you will notice (without fail) is that there will be significantly less customers within it’s walls as each month passes.

  Though these people have their hearts in the right place when they set their resolutions, they were never shown the proper way to set and achieve goals so it is no surprise that many goals or resolutions never get fulfilled. I have listed 7 key steps to help you put together your own system for making this upcoming year your best year yet…the year you see through and accomplish your goals.

Here Are The 7 Keys to Having Your Best Year Yet

1. Start planning for success today. Don’t put this step off for a later date. It is time to stop the excuses and begin planning now. As I write this article it is already December and by now you have a pretty good idea of what has worked for you so far this year this year and what adjustments are needed to make your goals successful. December is a perfect time to honestly review what you have accomplished this past year and where you see yourself at this time next year.
2. Make your goals clear and precise. Be very clear and detailed about your desired outcome. The more detailed you are about your goals the greater the possibility exists in achieving them. Remember, a vague vision will produce vague direction and weak action and poor results. Knowing exactly what you want will create a vivid picture in your mind of what you strive to accomplish which will increase your focus and desire. Also, always keep your goals positive in nature and choose goals which will stretch your abilities so in the process of achieving them you will grow as an individual.
3. Create goals for a balanced life. Set goals for all aspects of your life; in relationships, nutrition, finance, physical fitness, business or career..etc. You will find as you work towards improving every aspect of your life, the quality of your life will improve along with it. A balanced life reduces stress and increases joy and attracts success.
4. Write down your goals along with the action steps you will take to achieve them. Just as I stated in step 2, be very detailed in this step in both your goals and the action steps. Break each one of your goals down into workable detailed steps and this will become your blueprint for success. Chunking your goals down into detailed steps will reduce uncertainty and fear which will increase your self-confidence and help spring you into immediate action.
5. Review your goals daily. To maintain a strong focus and sense of direction, review your goals daily; in the morning, mid-day, and in the evening before going to bed. Read them out loud if you can! Also, make it point to post your goals in various locations so you can see and review them regularly such as on your bathroom mirror, on your office wall, on your car’s dashboard…etc.
6. Take immediate action – Strike while the fire is hot! Take action while your goals, desires and passions are fresh and hot in your mind and soul. If you put off implementing your plan into immediate action, the desire for achievement starts to cool down and you have a greater chance on never getting started at all. Remember this: “Your goals without action are nothing more than wishes.” Everyday and many times each day, say to yourself, “I will take action now.”
7. Keep track of your progress. When you write your goals and action steps down in step 4, set up mini goals or milestones along the way so you can keep track of your progress. Each level you complete will give you the encouragement and self-confidence you need to move forward towards your ultimate goal. Without keeping track of where you started and your levels of accomplishments it is easy to get discouraged when challenges and adversity arise. Children will play video games for hours and hours (sometimes for days) because their previous score or level is posted for them to see…this gives them something to shoot for. Shooting for your goals is no different.

 I believe people can achieve almost anything when they combine the right mindset along with the right tools or system and the right action. Make this coming year your most successful year yet by taking immediate action on your goals today.

Slawek Polinski

Overcoming The Fear Of Moving Forward

 
  When moving forward into the unknown many people panic because they let their imagination create the worst case scenarios. Can you relate to this feeling? Why is that? If you look back on your life you can clearly see that you have handled every new situation that came your way. It might not have been easy and yet you handled it. So why is it that now that you have a new opportunity and a new challenge, you discount all the right you have done in the past and expect the worst?

  I believe much of this mindset has to do with people’s fear of failure. We have been conditioned from an early age that failure is bad. You get punished and ridiculed for failing and all this feedback came from outside sources…people we looked up to like parents, teachers and friends. We looked to the outside for acceptance and over time we learned that it was less painful not to try something new than to risk failure and the disapproval that came with it.
  It takes time and effort to break out of old patterns and limiting beliefs and the effort required is well worth the results you will receive.

Here are 3 steps that will help you develop stronger self-confidence and more powerful mindset:

1) Journal every day and be sure to list your positive accomplishments for the day. Writing down your accomplishments – no matter how small – will reinforce into your subconscious that you are capable of handling the tasks you are pursuing.
2) If something did not go as planned, instead of being hard on yourself, write down what you learned from the experience. This will reinforce into your subconscious that failure is not negative and much can be learned from it to guide you to success.
3) Review your accomplishments – don’t hide them away -. Reviewing and focusing on your accomplishments will increase your self-confidence when beginning new projects and challenges in your life.

You were created for success and greatness. Many times the difference between the people who receive success and those who do not is what they choose to focus on.

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

Slawek Polinski

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You Get What You Focus On

  Human beings are very interesting creatures in that  many people are rarely satisfied with what they have and usually want what they don’t have. You may have heard the saying: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,” but is it really? Once you get on the other side of the fence to get a closer look, you realize that it is full of weeds and not as you expected. In the mean time, the lawn you left behind is not being tended to and is suffering as a result.

  Is it wrong to want more? Is it wrong to want what you don’t have? Not if it is part of your goal or vision towards success and you have a plan to achieve it. These types of desires are healthy and are the driving force behind many entrepreneurs of today. It becomes unhealthy when you consistently put your focus on what you don’t have or what you haven’t accomplished instead of acknowledging the positive things in your life.

 If you put the average person in a room of 100 people and 99 of them love him or her and 1 person despises and avoids this person, the typical thing that happens is this person will obsess over why the 1 person doesn’t like them. They will ignore the 99 in order to win over the 1 who does not like them. Instead of being happy and grateful for the wonderful people who adore them,instead they feel terrible because someone doesn’t like them. Does this sound silly? Well it happens every day.

  A good student who normally gets As and Bs and their tests and papers, gets a D and what happens? All their good grades are forgotten about and they focus on the one lousy grade they received. An entrepreneur or employee who has a whole list of successes to account for, might one day have a setback and all of a sudden they lose their self-confidence.

  I’m not quite sure how or when we got programmed to focusing on our setbacks or failures but I do know what becomes of it. FEAR! Putting the focus on the negative and lack in  life produces fear and paralyzes people in their tracks. They are afraid to move because all they are thinking about is failure and that obsessive thought of failing blocks out all the accomplishments that have been achieved.

How Can You Change Your Focus and Get Rid Of Fear?

 Journaling is a great way to bring the focus back onto the positive. Journaling is meant to be a positive assessment of the day and if you take the time to write down all the good things that are happening in your life, you are more likely to commit them to memory. Putting your focus on your accomplishments will increase your self-confidence and eliminate your fears and that is why it is vitally important to keep reminding yourself of them. For more information on journalling, read my article “5 Key Steps To Effective Journaling.”  Sure, we all have setbacks and obstacles to overcome so instead of getting down on yourself, write down what lesson you have learned from the experience and how can you improve. This type of approach towards obstacles and challenges will produce a plan so you can move forward. This is far better than getting stuck in your mind like it is the end of all time.

  Another way of changing your focus to the positive is by making a daily gratitude list. Every day write down all the events, people and things you are grateful for. There is so much to be thankful in your life that simply doesn’t get noticed or is easily forgotten. Making a gratitude list will put focus on all the good in your life and it won’t take you long to see that it far out weighs the bad.

Putting focus on the positive and on your accomplishments will re-affirm in your mind that you are more than capable of accomplishing what lies ahead.

Slawek Polinski

Why Is A Daily Routine Important For Your Personal Development?

Let’s face it, many of us live very busy lives so our days are filled with various activities and some of which can be stressful. We cannot always control what happens in the middle of our days, though we can control what happens when our day begins and how it ends. Having a set daily routine or “power routine” as I like to call it, helps us make sure we start our day off right and finish it right, no matter what chaos transpires in the middle. My personal, daily routine has been crucial in my personal development growth and is one of the subjects in my upcoming book, “From Stinking To Thinking.” Without a strong routine or system in your day, it is easy for your day to just slip away from you, leaving you no closer to your goals.

  The following is an example of my morning and evening routines:

 I usually have all the above done by 7 am and I’m ready to take on the day. My brain has been activated properly with positive, powerful thoughts and I have plenty of oxygen flowing through my body. I have to admit that because I do wake up quite early and sometimes I hit a low around 2 pm so what I do is take a 20 min. power nap ( no longer) and then I am ready to rock and roll to the end of the day and this is how I wind it down.

The evening routine is just as important as the morning because you want to take the time to wind things down properly before going to sleep. While asleep your subconscious mind keeps working and will digest the last things you feed it and that is why it is important to fill it with positive and powerful thoughts.

 What Happens If The Daily Routine Is Broken?

I’m bringing this point up because it has happened to me before and it just happened again today. Sometimes life just happens and our plans get thrown off. Today there was a task that needed to be completed early in the morning so I was not able to get my workout in. What happened was my day felt out of sorts, like things were just not fitting in. So what did I do? I decided to get a little mini workout in to get me back on track and it worked just beautifully. I went on with the rest of my day with the focus and energy of a typical day. What I found was when you have a good routine, it is a system for how your whole day operates. You disrupt your system, you disrupt your day. Many times all it takes is just a minor adjustment to get you back on track to move on with your day effectively.

  Let’s face it we all have good intentions and many of them fail when we don’t design a system of implementation for them. A system or a routine allows you to get into a certain rhythm in your day and once this turns into a habit you will find yourself achieving all that you intend to. People who establish a daily routine based on solid good habits will be much more successful in their life than those who do not.

Slawek Polinski

Goal Setting Basics

  Here we go, another article on goal setting. You may have heard some of these tips before:

  Now this is just a basic outline on setting and achieving goals which can definitely be broken down into greater detail. Many people know what needs to be done to successfully accomplish their goals and yet many people fall short on their goals.


Why?

1. They aren’t doing the basics.
2. Many people know what they should do and either aren’t doing it consistently or not at all.

  The above steps I have outlined are, as I stated, “the basics” in goal setting and to be effective in achieving goals you must do the basics…consistently and daily.


Here’s an example:

  All great athletes and ball players know in order to have the best chance in performing flawlessly they must be solid in their basics. If they are not it will open the door to errors and defeat. Just having knowledge of the basics is not good enough to succeed. They must be practiced daily and consistently to have the best chance of victory.

 The same applies to setting goals. Just knowing what to do is not enough, the basics of goal setting must be practiced to be successful. For many years I couldn’t see the benefit in writing my goals down. “I don’t have to write them down because I have a good memory,” I thought. Today it does not surprise me why my past goals were seldom accomplished.

 Goal Setting Review

So lets review:

  Tip:

The the first thing I do everyday when I sit down at my desk, is to write my daily action steps on post-it notes which I stick to the bottom of my computer monitor. I spend much of my time during the day writing, creating speeches and programs as well as updating my blog so these daily goals are in front of me a good portion of the day. As I complete a task I pull it down and throw it out. This routine has increased my productivity by a considerable amount. Find a place in your home or office where your goals or action steps can be in clear view for you to see. This will help keep life’s distractions from keeping you from your goals.


Slawek Polinski








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From The Couch Of Dreams

  There I was, in my favorite recliner, a beer in one hand, the remote in the other and I was watching a NASCAR race for over 4 hours! It was beautiful outside, the sun was shinning, the temperature was a perfect 85 degrees F. and there I was with my feet up in the air, in a dimly lit rec. room, watching cars go around in circles for 4 hours. The next week I was doing the same thing all over again. Who said practice doesn’t make perfect?

  There is nothing wrong with watching a sporting event or a little mindless television on occasion. For me, back then, it was every occasion. If it wasn’t racing, then it was baseball or basketball or football and do I dare admit I even watched a little Jerry Springer?? No, I can’t admit that (not yet anyway). Balance is the key to any life and I tipped the scales of my life heavily to one side (I also began tipping the bathroom scales) right into the crapper. My life stunk and I couldn’t even smell it. So there I was feet up in the air in my recliner, watching cars go around an around while my life was going nowhere. Yes my feet were blocking my vision so every now and then I would muster up enough energy to move my feet so I could clearly see the television hanging on the wall.

 …To A Life of Purpose

  I was in a job that did not challenge me and my life lacked passion. Like many people, I felt this is the life I made for myself and it is too late to change things. “It is what it is and that was that.” So one of my pleasures in life back then was sitting my but on the couch, turning on the TV and  having some ( actually many) ”cold ones.” “Yeah I got it made,” I thought.

  Eventually this routine became very old and no longer satisfied what was left of my soul. Next, frustration and depression started setting in and then so did the process of self destruction. I was so deep in my own crap that I could not see why my dreams for the future were not coming true for me. I could not see because my feet were blocking my vision. It was not until I did something very profound that cleared up my sight. It was not until I moved my feet to where they belonged (under me) and began moving them that I was able to see why success wasn’t  coming my way. Success wasn’t supposed to come my way, I have to move towards success and that requires movement.

 ” Your journey begins the moment you start moving from where you are to where you want to be – never before.”

Slawek Polinski








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 If You Can Dream It, Can You Do It?

  Chances are, if you have listened to some motivational speakers, listened to their recordings or read their books you most likely have heard this phrase.

“Dream Big and You Can Do Anything!”

  Is this true? Can you really do and have anything just by dreaming big? By now millions of people have either seen the movie or read the book, “The Secret” which makes it look that easy. Did you spend your money recklessly in the past and now you are buried under a mountain of debt? Don’t worry about it, just “dream big” of checks coming in the mail and people will start sending you money for no reason. They will be compelled by some force of nature, to write out a check in your name (this is cool because they don’t even know you) and send it to you. I am putting myself out on a limb by saying, “this is a bunch of crap!”  The sad thing is, this movie is so popular because so many people want to believe they can get something for nothing. They love the thought of sitting on their ass in their recliner and all their dreams coming true. Wake up people, your dreams will not come true unless you put some action behind those dreams. If you want checks to arrive in your mailbox, what actions are you going to take to make money? Yes you actually have to do something.

 If I Put Action Behind My Dreams…Now Can I Do It?

  I’m going to burst your bubble here and tell you, no you cannot do everything and anything, though you can do much more than you are doing now and much more than you thought you were capable of. The key word to setting goals is be realistic. For example, I love football and always was very passionate about the game and I know that no matter how big I dream and how much I work out, I will not be playing for the NFL. I am 47 and even if I hire the best trainers available, this dream will never be a reality…it is not realistic.

Action + Realistic Goals(Dreams) = Success

   As I said earlier, you are capable of achieving much more in your life than you are currently and I know you have it in you to really surprise yourself and others, so challenge yourself and stretch your comfort zone. Set some big goals for yourself that will really push you to your greatness. Now break that big goal down into smaller action steps. Each action step is a mini goal for you to accomplish and as you conquer each one your self-confidence will be elevated and your energy will be replenished to continue on to your final destination. Before you know it that big goal isn’t so big anymore and it is within reach, your dream has come true.

Slawek Polinski

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Life Is Changing, Are You Changing With It?

  One of the valuable life lessons I discovered through 28 years of marriage and 25 years of parenting is that life is constantly changing and the people in your life are constantly changing. Do you fight these changes or do you accept and nurture them? Fighting change is the same as fighting growth. In our 28 years together I can say that I have been married to at least six different versions of my wife and I’m sure she feels the same way about her life with me. I am very fortunate to be part of her evolution as a woman and individual.

 

 Change Is Not Always Easy

  Change brings uncertainty and uncertainty strikes fear in many. Keep in mind, through all the changes you have moved though, no matter how difficult they were, you have made it out on the other side just fine. You were capable of handling change then ( give yourself credit ) and you are just as capable now.

  So take a deep breath and acknowledge that this is just a process of life and you now embrace it fully. You are ready to change with life and you will not allow yourself to be stuck in life.

Slawek Polinski

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We all encounter adversity in life and it is the way we respond to adversity that determines the quality of life we live. Will you choose to be a victim of your circumstance or will you be a victor and overcome the obstacles that life presents you?

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Is Your Life a Familiar Routine?

Many people live lives that are very predictable,they practically do the same thing day-in and day-out and they can perform these tasks without even giving them much thought. It is almost as if their life is on auto-pilot or cruise control. They basically can go through their daily life with their eyes closed. Though this might seem to be convenient, it carries many dangers.

 Don’t Get In a Rut

 Is your life in a rut? Have you lost your passion for living? Do you know what your passions are any more?

 These are the dangers associated with living a life of routine. When you go through your life with your eyes closed you miss out on all the blessings and opportunities that come your way. You will miss your opportunities in life because you are incapable of seeing them.

Live an Inspired Life

  It is time to shake things up a bit and break the same boring daily routine. Life is not meant to be a spectator sport, it is meant to be participated in. You cannot be something in life if you do not do something in life. Happiness in life comes from taking action, in your life and in the lives of others.

Go out and Live!

Slawek Polinski

The International Man of Action

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