Stories/Inspiration

Focus and Concentrate

An ancient Indian sage was teaching his disciples the art of archery. He put a wooden bird as the target and asked them to aim at the eye of the bird. The first disciple was asked to describe what he saw. He said, "I see the trees, the branches, the leaves, the sky, the bird and its eye.." The sage asked this disciple to wait. Then he asked the second disciple the same question and he replied, "I only see the eye of the bird." The sage said, "Very good, then shoot." The arrow went straight and hit the eye of the bird.

What is the moral of the story?

Unless we focus, we cannot achieve our goal. It is hard to focus and concentrate, but it is a skill that can be learned.

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What's On The Inside

There was a man who made living selling balloons at a fair. He had all colors of balloons Including red, yellow, green. Whenever business was slow, he would release a helium filled balloons into the air and when the children saw it go up, they all wanted to buy one. They would come up to him, buy a balloon and his sales would go up again. He continues this process all day. One day, he felt something tugging his jacket. He turned around and saw a little boy who asked,” If you release a black balloon, would that also fly?” Moved by the boy’s concern, the man replied with empathy.” Son, it is not the Color of the balloon, it is what inside that makes it go up.”

The same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that counts. The thing inside of us that makes is go up is our attitude.

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Attitude plays a huge role in everything we do. Everybody has woken up on the "wrong" side of the bed before. Not only does the day start off pretty bad, but it usually ends up spiraling into an overall terrible day. If you just take a second to collect yourself and change your overall thoughts and attitude, the day will only get better. It's not about what happens to you, but how you react that makes all the difference. Be happy. Be Positive.

On a side note...wouldn't it be cool if you bought some balloons, wrote some letters (or even just a few words of encouragement), tied them to the balloons, and released them? Who knows where it will end up and whose day it will make! Add your email and you might have a new pen pal. I'm definitely going to try that.

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What Does Starfish Have To Do With It?

There was a man taking a morning walk at or the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die. The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."

What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we?

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Sure sometimes you decide not to go workout and you say in your head, "Ehhh it's only one day. What difference does it make?" I'll admit I've done it countless times. Reading this story makes me realize that one day does not only affect that day, but who knows what it will lead to in the future! Going that day you almost didn't can snowball into a steady workout week. On the other side, not going one day can lead to a poor workout week.

If you start getting that "I don't feel like going today" thought in your head, come back to this and read the story. I actually used it today and it worked! Remember...even the littlest of work will always have a greater impact than none.

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SMART Goals

If you ask most people what is their one major objective in life, they would probably give you a vague answer, such as, "I want to be successful, be happy, make a good living," and that is it. They are all wishes and none of them are clear goals.

Goals must be SMART:

1. S--specific. For example, "I want to lose weight." This is wishful thinking. It becomes a goal when I pin myself down to "I will lose 10 pounds in 90 days."

2. M--must be measurable. If we cannot measure it, we cannot accomplish it. Measurement is a way of monitoring our progress.

3. A--must be achievable. Achievable means that it should be out of reach enough to be challenging but it should not be out of sight, otherwise it becomes disheartening.

4. R--realistic. A person who wants to lose 50 pounds in~30 days is being unrealistic.

5. T--time-bound. There should be a starting date and a finishing date.

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This is the TRUTH. These steps will definitely help to reach a specific goal. The best part is that it's very universal and doesn't have to be used with just working out. What do you think? ___________________________________________________________________________________

What Motivates You?

Every now and then, when I'm at the gym, I'm going to ask someone what motivates them. I'll quote them and post it here. I recommend that you do it too. You never know what you'll discover (new motivation, a new workout buddy, or even a new friend). I'll be updating this in short time.

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