Motivaitonal Monday - February 13th

Welcome to yet another installment of Motivational Mondays.  I apologize for not providing your Wednesday installation of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits, last Wednesday was more than a little crazy...actually, when you come to think about it, all of last week was absolutely nuts.  Well, before we get too distracted and I wander off into a discourse of how crazy a week can get, lets work on our Motivational Monday topic.

Last week we talked about reviewing your past successes, learning from those successes but not reliving those same successes.  Today we are going to talk about dreaming.  Dreaming can be good for you and it can be bad.  We are going to cover both aspects of dreaming tonight...

Remember when we were much younger (only a few days ago for me...) and we had all these big dreams about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to be when we grew up?  Well, hopefully you all have not yet grown up.  You should continue to dream and to dream big.  If you dream about relatively simple achievements, you will never get motivated to go out and achieve those dreams.  If you dream big, you stand a much better chance of becoming motivated to start working toward that dream.

There is a practical aspect to dreaming big though.  Dreaming big is one thing, but you can't dream of becoming a runway model if you are 5' 1" and more than a little overweight.  There has to be a bit of a practicality to your dreams.  You know what dreams you have that you can achieve with a lot of work.  Some people may just talk about their dreams, but never put any effort into working toward them.

If your dreams are real enough to you, there is no reason in the world why you wouldn't be motivated to start working towards them.  Start a "dream board" where you begin putting pictures of what you want up on a cork-board or wall.  As you collect these pictures of your dreams, you should start becoming more motivated to obtain those same dreams.  Then, on the days, weeks or sometimes months where you feel you are lacking the motivation to do anything, you can look to that wall and remind yourself of why you are working so hard.

No doubt you have also dealt with those who are "dreamers".  These people may talk about all the great dreams they have, but they never, ever, seem to get anything done.  They only dream about what they could do or have, but they never make the effort to work towards that dream.  That type of behavior can be very de-motivational (is that really a word?).  Those are the types of people that you want to avoid because they could suck you into their dream, and keep you from doing what needs to get done to achieve your dreams. 

Your dreams should be your source of inspiration, something that drives you to get up every morning, and the same something that keeps you up late into the night.  They should get you excited about the future, they should drive you to plan and work to achieve those goals.  Powerful dreams can move you to heights you may never even believed you could achieve.  These dreams are what create greatness in man.

So, focus on your big dreams, develop your own "dream board" and start working on moving closer to achieving that huge dream you have always had.  Even creating a dream board is a lot of fun.  You may find that the more you build your dream board or wall, the more you want to continue to build it.  That board can become an awesome inspiration to you and your family to keep working towards your dreams.

Until Wednesday (really...I mean it...THIS Wednesday...)...

Motivational Monday - February 6

Happy Monday one and all!!!  Welcome to our second February installment of Motivational Monday.  Hopefully your Monday wasn't as bad as you may have imagined it would be over the weekend.  For those of you who watched the Superbowl yesterday, it was a fun game...  No matter who you may have rooted for, both teams played hard and well.  I don't have any fingernails left after the game yesterday, but I am happy I got to watch it. 

Watching these two awesome football teams battle it out for that ultimate prize, you have to wonder how they stayed motivated.   Both teams had huge motivation to win, yet we all know there was to be only one winner. (In my book, both teams were winners, they both played to the absolute best of their abilities).   I read in the news today that Tom Brady was utterly dejected after the loss to the Giants.  It has to hurt, to be so close to winning the Superbowl for the fourth time in his career.  Heck, the Patriots were leading until the last 4 minutes.

From this loss, you have to wonder, how does the team get motivated to play again?  The most obvious is that you know they have to look at their past successes.  They know they can win, they know they have the talent to win.  Now, to stay motivated, they will have to remember the successes, but they must also look at what they did wrong and learn from those mistakes or missed opportunities. 

What the New England Patriots are going through after yesterday's Superbowl is nothing different than what we all go through on a daily basis.  The only real difference is that a lot more people saw them fail, whereas we may only have a handful of people watching us fail.  In this economy, many people are looking for work and having one heck of a time landing a job.  They may be interviewing like mad, but never getting that job offer they hoped for.  It is difficult to continue day after day to remain motivated, when you feel like you are continuously failing and not landing that job.

You need to stay motivated, remember that you did land jobs in the past.  Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses, remember why you were so good at your job.   Focus on your successes to help keep you motivated.  As we discussed last Monday, you do not want to dwell on those successes, but if you feel that your resolve may be slipping, remember your prior success and strive to remember how good you felt when you did get that job, or win that big contract. 

Use your successes to motivate you to move forward.  Even though Tom Brady was very depressed and despondent yesterday, you know that in a day or so, he will start focusing on what they need to do to win the next Superbowl...  He brought his team 3 prior wins, he will build on that and motivate not only himself, but his team to focus on winning so they can take the Superbowl podium next year.

Until Wednesday....

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for February 2012

Welcome one and all to Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for February 2012.  Since today is the first day of the second month of the year 2012, I thought it would be fun to review trivial facts about the month of February.  February 2012 is special, not only is it the shortest month of the year, but for this year in particular, it is a leap year.  So, I feel sorry for anyone born on February 29th, they only celebrate their birthdays once every four years.

Did you know that February starts on the same day of the week as March and November (in non-leap years) and starts on the same day of the week as August this year (leap year).  In leap years, it is the only month that ends on the same weekday that it begins.

February was named after the Latin term februurm, which means purification (based on the purification ritual [Februa] held on February 15th in the old lunar Roman calendar).

The Anglo-Saxon's called February Solmonath, meaning mud month.

The Finnish people called February helmikuu, meaning month of the pearl (from the snow dripping off the trees).

February is the only month of the year that can occur without having a full moon (not this year, the full moon is scheduled for February 7th, 2012.

The second day of February is often referred to as Ground Hog's Day.  The superstition that surrounds Ground Hog's Day is that the ground hog comes out of it's burrow on February 2nd to look around.  If there is sunshine and he sees his shadow, then he goes back to sleep and there will be an additional 6 weeks of winter.  If there is cloud cover and the ground hog does not see his shadow, spring is right around the bend.

 The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where there is a celebration to see if Punxsutawney Phil (the ground hog) will see his shadow.

The Roman Catholic Church does not celebrate Ground Hog's day, but celebrates February 2nd as Candlemas Day (the festival of lights).  The candles used in the church during the rest of the year are blessed on this day.

The whole month of February is a celebration of Black History month in the USA and Canada.

Did you know that February is also National Condom Month???

Shrove (also known as Fat Tuesday) Tuesday is in February and it begins the 40 days before Easter (for this year, that would be February 21st).

Some not so well known dates in February:
February 4th is Independence Day in Sri Lanka,
February 6th is Waitangi Day in New Zealand,
February 12th is Paul Bunyan Day,
February 15th is Flag Day in Canada,
February 24th is Flag Day in Mexico, and
February 28th is National Tooth Fairy Day in the USA...

Now that you know too much about the month of February, have a wonderful rest of your week.

We will chat with you later this week, (I have some thoughts that I will post in a few days...)

Until then....