Daily Gratitude: I think if we can remember this, it helps the “blows” hurt a bit less. It means we’re acting on courage and trying to achieve our dreams. There isn’t anything much better than that – working on your goals. I know I enjoy the process of working toward my goals not just the achievement of them. In the past it was the end that mattered. Now I know it’s all about what we experience while heading that direction. Most successful people have taken blows and gotten back up to fight again. The only blows the folks on the sidelines take are the ones they give themselves. Those are the painful ones because they remind us of what we’re not doing. So be proud of the blows you get. They will fill you with more strength to keep on going!

Daily Gratitude: I have decided to adopt this as a life plan. I am so good with procrastination but I’m done with that. If we sit around deciding what we’re “going” to do when we’re ready, it may never come – there will always be some voice telling you “you’re not ready yet so go better not try this yet”. That infamous word “yet” is good and not so good. When you say “I am not good enough”, you should add “yet” letting your subconscious know that you’re not condemning yourself in general and that you are becoming better and continually working toward improvement. However, when you’re talking about starting something, do NOT say “I can’t do that because I’m not ready yet”. You’ll never feel ready. Just start. Even if what you end up doing is cruddy it doesn’t matter. You began. You started and that’s what’s important! Start now!

Daily Gratitude: I think learning to be calm in moments of chaos is the most important habit you can establish. I only started working on this over the last couple of years but it has helped me in so many ways. Two days before I was to leave for Tennessee (for Vol State) I went out to my “new” (to me) car and the dashboard had all these messages flashing that this and that feature needed to be checked and “call your dealer”. The windshield wipers came on and i couldn’t shut them off. For once I didn’t panic. In fact, I amazed myself that I was so calm. I had no clue what was wrong or what to do but I just did the things I could think of. None of my fallback systems worked (the people I relied on were out of town), the auto shop I use was closed for the holiday weekend, the dealer wasn’t open yet, etc. so I sent my dealer and the manager emails and went to autozone and then just went about my business knowing I could take my old vehicle if necessary even though I got this one for the trips. after a couple of hours the dealer called and said he was going to send a tow truck and they would try to get it done before I left. Turns out the tow truck guy worked his magic and got it going. But the entire time I remained calm and it felt wonderful. I never have experienced that before. So I highly recommend investigating whatever techniques you might be interested in to help you learn to be calm. I only wish I had learned this many years ago but that’s just the way things work out and I’m ok with that. After all, I can’t change any of it in the past so why obsess over it?