Commitment despite conflicts

There are very few individuals who do not feel the conflict that comes from the number of different commitments that all of us have made. Those commitments include promises we have made to family, friends, work, school, activities, community and more. How do we deal with all of these commitments in a responsible manner and balance the different areas of our life? Someone said once, “Commitment in the face of conflict produces character.”

All of us need to decide what is important to us and review the promises we have made to ourselves and others in regard to value we place on them. The question really is in the words of Steven Covey, “What are our big rocks?”. Once we know what is really important and what we value then we can be sure that we make the time for those commitments first, with the smaller things of less importance fit in with the important ones.

So if we value family time, then we would want to schedule family time in our schedule, with specific time set aside for that “big rock”. If it is our health, set aside time for exercise and eating healthy. Keeping those commitments will make us feel better about all the other things we “have to do”. It may mean giving up something or doing less of something that we enjoy, but is not of importance or high on our list of values.

Everyday we can ask ourselves what we can do to stay committed to a goal we have, how can we raise the level of commitment. It is our choice and not one that we can leave up to others.

Read about Mr. Joe’s commitment to the Ultimate Black Belt Test that started in January 2009 and will be completed with the final test in February 2010. He recently committed to the “Live Like a Champion” journey that begins in January 2010. His journal is My Journey.

Continuing to learn

This morning I sit in a hotel room anxiously awaiting the start of this day. Today is the first day of a 4 day workshop / seminar with Anthony Robbins. When I first signed up for this I was happy that I had but not nearly as excited by the idea as I am now. Here is the reason.
In the month of February I took an 8 hour workshop on time management with the Franklin Quest facilitator. I thought going in I knew about time management – I thought I knew the Steven Covey message. Coming out of it though I realized that I did not know as much as I thought I did. in fact since that time I have become more productive. Not in the sense of how much I am getting done. No rather in the sense of how many important things I am getting done.
It has allowed me to have accomplishments and not feel stressed doing it. Now here I am at the threshold of a new workshop. I come into this one too, thinking I know a little about Tony Robbins message. Will I come away with a whole new picture? Will I be as renewed and reinvigorated as a white belt seeing this stuff for the first time?
I am approaching it as a white belt, with an empty cup, ready to be taught and ready to accept and practice what I learn. If any of you have ever thought about attending a seminar that you thought may impact you, I would encourage you to do so. The money spent doing it will no doubt be well worth it. It is also a great example to your students – that you are still working on yourself too. I will tell you about my experience as the days go by.

Living with Focus

I have made this post in My Journey blog also.  I feel like the resources mentioned here may be helpful to anyone who reads this:
One thing that has been on my mind recently is how so many of the things we learn are so related and support each other.    This past week I completed the one day Time management workshop with a Steven Covey facilitator.  The need to be certain of your values, roles and mission was emphasized throughout the workshop.  This is about Focus
This ties in so much with work I have been doing with goal setting using the Tony Robbins  material.  In his material he talks about using the RPM method.  What are the Results you want, Purpose- why do you want this, and then creating a Massive Action Plan.  This is about Focus.
This ties in so well with my desire to live my life as simply as is reasonable.  I have been thinking and practicing the mental exercise of asking myself is this something in my life that is essential – before I do it, buy it or take time for it.  Recently I began reading a book called The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta.  I have not read anything else this author has written, but his writing is all about Focus.
The quality of our life is determined by our focus.  So many have written about this.  Our living with focus will help us reach our goals that match our values, roles and mission if we are honest with ourselves.

If you want to work on focus or if you have a child or teen that needs to focus more, please feel free to come and lets work together on making that happen.  Simplified, focused living, creates happy children and families.