New Year’s Resolutions

We all seem to get in the mood for life change as the final seconds tick away on the year. It’s funny how brief spurts of motivation can be brought on by the turning of the calendar page. And why does that motivation frequently only last 3 or 4 days, if even that?

So it seems that when we find ourselves in the darkest time of the year, with the shortest days, with too many pounds gained over the holidays, the bleak deadness of winter in the air, that we find ourselves longing for a spring in our lives so to speak. And so we scurry off to scribble notes and memos on scraps of paper that describe all of the wonderful changes we plan to make in the year ahead.

Some will focus on diet plans, others exercise, others stepping away from a bad habit or two. Some people be more focused on their career goals, updating that resume, or pushing the boss hard for that promotion. Others will renew their commitments to being good parents to their children: less yelling and fighting over the small things, and more meaningful talks with time to do fun things together. Some of us will overhaul our financial goals for the year, trying to undo the damage from the holidays while seeing if we can save something for retirement.

Nonetheless, far too many will see their hopes and dreams for another new year having been pushed aside after only a week. So how do you find the motivation to keep going with the things that you say you want to do, but never seem to really get around to? I’m taking ideas. And I think we all should be. Because no matter how productive you may or may not have been in the past year, life still seems to swing out of balance. Even when we are right on track in one area of our lives, something else seems to fall out of balance in another.

So let me put out a challenge to you, “I don’t think you can do it!” I don’t think all those grand ideas you’ve put together will amount to a hill of beans come the middle of next month. Now why do I say that? Am I dead set on your downfall? Do I get some sadistic sense of satisfaction from your failure? Quite the contrary actually. In fact, I have found that when someone else expresses their belief that I can’t accomplish something, that sometimes spurns me on to actually get something done that I wouldn’t of done otherwise. And if I can play some role of that nature for you, it will not only do you some good, I will also be living up to some of my New Year’s resolutions.

Now if that doesn’t do it for you and you still can’t quite seem to get your act together, I do have another option for you. If after two months of toughing it out on your own you find yourself unable to pull your goals together quite the way they looked on paper, the 40 Day LEAP will launch this coming February 29th, ‘Leap Day’. A date that only comes along once every 4 years. In my mind, I see it as an opportunity, a chance for me to implement some changes. And if you are game for it, I wish the same for you.

Free Stuff Comin’ up!

In preparation for the official launch of the 40 Day LEAP in January, 2012, we are releasing a few ‘Sneak Peak’ articles and worksheets to help your life more organized until then.

Feel free to join the mailing list and stay informed of the free reports as they are released leading up to the program launch on January 1st.


 

Look before you LEAP

Why Leave the Ground in the First Place?

I remember reading a book* years ago that compared the way we live life to being a bunch of turkeys aimlessly pecking around on the ground, when we had the capacity to become eagles soaring high above it all. Life can get pretty messy down on the ground with the other turkeys.

In working with hundreds of people as a mental health therapist, I daily encounter the side-effects of what being “grounded” does to people over the long-term. It all too often leads to depression, anxiety, compulsive habits, and broken relationships.

Fixing those problems is one thing, and if that is where you are at, you may need to start looking for a therapist of your own to help you dig out. But what can we do to avoid the trap of thinking we are stuck going through life at ground level? What is the preventative maintenance? How can we learn to soar, have peace, excitement, and fulfillment in life?

A Long Journey to the Cliff

My own struggle with learning how to soar began over 14 years ago, when I started taking 40 days of self-evaluation and reflection during the 6 weeks leading up to my birthday. Nearly every year since, I have spent those 40 days refining and perfecting a system for nudging my life to a gradually increasing altitude. Eventually, a few things began happening:

  1. The more people I told about my 40 day journey, the more people seemed hungry to know more about what I did, as well as slightly jealous that I had a working system for self-improvement that I was able to stick with.
  2. The more people I counseled with, the more I became aware that the root problems of many of their disorders was the compound and prolonged impact all of the different components of their lives being out of balance. I also noticed that those who coast through life without a definite course seemed to have a hard time arriving at any destination they could be truly happy with.
  3. At some point I came to realize that the things I had been doing to ensure my own stability and happiness, were some of the underlying missing foundational pieces my clients needed.

Others Want to Soar Too

In over a dozen years of providing professional counseling and marriage therapy one comes to understand what works to bring change into someone’s life, and what doesn’t.  Moreover, one comes to an understanding of why some people succeed, while others lose their motivation and stay with the crowd of turkeys. And that brings me to why I am launching the 40 Day LEAP program in 2012.

On the Edge of the Nest…

Before an eaglet takes it’s first flight, it stumbles tentatively up to the edge of the nest, and begins to spread its wings. As I spend the last few months of 2011 putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional Life Empowerment Action Plan (L.E.A.P.), I hope that a few intrigued ex-turkey/eaglets join me on the ledge for what promises to be an exciting flight; 40 days of flapping the wings hard, followed by a lifetime of soaring.

Stay Tuned…

Keep watching www.40dayLEAP.com evolve over the next few months, and consider being perched on the edge of the nest with me on January 1st, 2012. Or If that date has come and gone, I believe you have come across this page at this time because it is the right time for you to take a Leap of your own in your life.

Being airborne is fun! Hope to see you up there!

Alan

 

* “Living Above the Level of Mediocrity” by Charles R. Swindoll