Life is substantially improved when I forgive others promptly and seek forgiveness for my wrongs. I also need to make reparations for all harm done.

I need to be constantly improving my communication skills by verbally expressing my needs, seeking to understand others and by becoming an active listener.

Restoration comes from faith in a power greater than myself.

Name:  Clint Eastwood

Occupation: Actor, Director, Producer

Major Failure: Clint Eastwood was fired by Universal studios after his first two movies for talking too slowly.

Famous Quote: “Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.”

Do you think Clint Eastwood is a failure?

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”- Winston Churchill

Everyone who is trying to live a successful life experiences setbacks from time to time. The secret is to not let these setbacks or “failures” cause you to quit or give up. At Family Coaching Central we are experts at helping you maintain your motivation level and focus on achieving life-long success even through your biggest setbacks. Contact us today to learn how we can help you.

Life has become increasingly unmanageable. I am becoming increasingly powerless over people, places and situations in my life.

Name: R. H. Macy

Occupation: American businessman

Major Failure: R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on.

Famous Quote: No quotes found

Do you think R. H. Macy is a failure?

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”- Winston Churchill

Everyone who is trying to live a successful life experiences setbacks from time to time. The secret is to not let these setbacks or “failures” cause you to quit or give up. At Family Coaching Central we are experts at helping you maintain your motivation level and focus on achieving life-long success even through your biggest setbacks. Contact us today to learn how we can help you.

²¹ Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity^[a] and honor.- Proverbs 21:21

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.- Winston Churchill

This weeks challenge consists of 10 items. Before proceeding on this challenge, be sure to go back and read this weeks post, Suggestions For Ongoing Success.

Once you have read it, write down one thing that you can do for each of the ten suggestions. Be sure to do this even if you are not currently experiencing difficulties in this particular area. If done correctly, you will begin formulating a plan for when this particular difficulty is encountered.

Here are the 10 suggestions:

1. Stay Motivated
2. Be specific
3. Write It Down and Review It
4. Break It Down
5. Use Mentors, Coaches, Etc
6. Don’t Allow Setbacks To Turn Into Failures
7. Reward Yourself
8. Be Persistent
9. Get Back On Track
10. Create A Habit

The best and most effective way to complete this challenge is to select a current area of your life that is not what you want it to be. You may select a broad area, such as your career, spiritual life, health, etc or you may be thinking of an important objective that is very specific. Something that you may have stopped making progress on.

Once you have written down one thing you can do, for each of the suggestions, you know what to do. Take action!

With so many different obligations competing for our attention these days, it is easy to lose track of our objectives once in a while, or worse too forget them all together. Who hasn’t begun working on an objective, staying up all night working out the details and getting excited only to have your vision fade and to forget about it a short time later? When this happens to you, and it will, even if you are the most disciplined person in the world, the key is to pick up again right were you left off. If you have found it difficult to keep on track in the past then here are some suggestions that I think can improve your focus and keep you on the road to personal and professional achievement, happiness and success.

1. Stay Motivated: There is nothing worse than spending time getting excited about your objectives and vision, writing everything out and coming up with a concrete plan for their attainment only to loose your motivation a short time later. In order to stay motivated find books, movies or music that encourage you and lift your spirit. It doesn’t matter what it is, just find what motivates you and use it! I use little printed quotes. I hang them everywhere!
2. Be specific: Tell a friend you’ll exercise together some day and you probably will never get to it. Tell him that you will meet him at the gym on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at 3:00 pm and you are more likely to follow through. Assigning specifics such as times, dates and other relevant numbers moves your objective from wishes to reality. It helps you put it in positive, concrete terms that you can track and measure.
3. Write It Down and Review It: Hoping for an objective is great, but unless it is written out and looked at on a regular basis, you will never achieve it. Rather than simply saying that you want to retire in 15 years, write down why you want to achieve this, why you know you can and what will happen if you don’t. Once it written down make sure that you review it regularly. This will help you to maintain your focus on the things you want to achieve even when you may feel tired or distracted.
4. Break It Down: Don’t allow yourself to become overwhelmed when looking at a large objective. Many people who would otherwise be great become anxious when their mind presents themselves with an extremely challenging objective. The key is to develop small, manageable steps that will allow you to be successful at each interval. If you want to increase your company’s revenue over the course of the year, break it into a weekly target. If you want to spend more time with your husband, start with an extra 5 minutes a day.
5. Use Mentors, Coaches, Etc: Find someone who did what you want to do, and did it successfully. Learn from them. Learn about their successes, their failures and the shortcuts that they have found along the way. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, unless, of course that is your objective. Most people who have achieved what you want to would be more than happy to help.
6. Don’t Allow Setbacks To Turn Into Failures: Not getting the desired result from a specific activity is only an outcome, not a failure. There are many different ways to accomplish the same task. Your job is to find the most efficient and practical way of accomplishing your objectives. If something that you tried didn’t work, try something else. Remember: “Failure isn’t the falling down, it’s the staying down.”
7. Reward Yourself: Make sure that you take the time to give yourself credit for a job well done. When you reach certain stages in accomplishing your objectives, buy yourself something nice or do something exciting and fun; making sure that the reward is appropriate for the achievement. In other words, don’t buy yourself a new car for cleaning out the bedroom closet. On the other hand, if you double your yearly income, then a new car is more than justified.
8. Be Persistent: Persistence is a necessary quality for anyone who wishes to rise above and stay above the mediocrity that plagues our world. It’s simple, when you know what you want, pursue it until you achieve it. No matter what you encounter! Thomas Edison tried over three thousand times before finally succeeding in creating an electric light bulb. Sometimes that’s what it takes to achieve an objective.
9. Get Back On Track: Don’t allow setbacks to give you an excuse to quit. When you sense that you are slipping from achieving your objectives, read and review them until you are once again motivated. You may need to develop new “why’s” for your objectives if your life has changed significantly. If you’ve wandered far from the path, create small tasks to get you back to where you were. Be very specific with these “re-focusing” steps.
10. Create A Habit: Help to make the achievement of your objectives as effortless as possible. Most psychologists agree that it takes approximately 21 days to develop a habit. Force yourself into an objective reaching activity daily for this period of time and your new behaviors become much easier. If you are skeptical, try it for a small easy objective and when you see the power of developing a habit you can apply the principle to one of your major objectives.

Following these suggestions should help keep you motivated and focused no matter what obstacles you encounter in the pursuit of your objectives and visions. Remember though that no matter what happens along the way, you are more than the objectives that you are striving for. Most of all enjoy the journey. The journey is what makes us who we are and who we will become. The end result is very important but the challenges and struggles, as well as the successes and triumphs will determine the true test of your character. Have fun and never stop achieving your objectives!

What is success and how do you get it?