Making choices or living on automatic?

It is that time of the year again when we take a moment to look at our life, where we are and what direction we are headed.  When we make conscious choices that reflect what our goals and vision for our life is, we are taking charge of our life and thinking about the  affect of our choices on our future. 

But when we forget about our deepest desires, we may find ourselves running our life from an automatic mode that generally will find us following the patterns of the past.  This trance we find ourselves in takes no effort, it is very familiar to us.  We just go about our days doing the same thing we always do, without consciously considering the  long term vision we have for our lives. 

What about this year 2010?  What if we were to begin choosing our path?  What if we wrote down our real goals –  ones from the heart – and then consciously made choices that brought us closer to those goals?  The other choice is to spend another year asleep at the wheel, allowing our past way of doing things and our fears  to limit our future and take away our dreams.

That is what Live Like a Champion is about.  Taking one year that we choose how we are going to live and reach our goals.  A year that we gather around ourselves a team of others who want to do the same and that encourage each other to do so.  When we choose the direction we are going it always helps to have others around to support our efforts.  Join me this year in Live Like a Champion.

Courage: Definition

CourageSeptember word of the month at Balanced Life Skills is Courage.  Courage does not mean that you never are scared.  Everyone gets scared or has fears.  This month we will explore this even more, to find ways to try new things, meet new people, stand up for what is right and make good decisions.   Our students will learn the role that determination plays in facing our challenges.

Young students:

Courage means: I feel brave!

Older students:

Courage means: The willingness to face fears and challenges with determination.


There will be more discussions on this site of this word to help everyone discuss it with their own children and to look at it more deeply with themselves in the coming month. Check back with us or you may join our community for even more information.

 

Keeping our commitments – a personal story

It is very interesting that when I talk to our students about subjects dealing with character, it always make me stop and think about myself. We have been talking about why it is easy to keep our promises to ourselves and others and why it can be hard sometimes too.

It is always easy when it is fun, or we are good at something or if we just love doing it or being around the people we are involved with. On the other hand it is a lot harder when it is something that we do not understand or is boring to us. There really are 3 things that get in our way of keeping a commitment.

I read recently that they are considerations, fears and roadblocks. I have noticed with myself that many times that all three of them get in the way many times all together.

First you have the negative talk, considerations, that happen and you can quickly come up with all the reasons you cannot do something. That many times can lead to fear which are feelings. They may include fear of failure or rejection (two that I battle all of the time). Then of course as soon as the first road block comes up your fears are realized and you are sure that your original considerations were true and so you get frozen.

Now back to promises. The promises we make to ourselves are very important. I have promised to complete the Ultimate Black Belt Test the best way I know how or better than I know how at this moment. I must learn how to overcome the considerations, fear and roadblocks to keep this promise. No matter what comes up I must overcome the negative voice, the fears, and those roadblocks that are bound to get in the way.