“Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible!”  Epictetus

 Let’s work on building energy to succeed in life!

They take on projects almost effortlessly, they have excitement in everything they do, it seems like once they start there is no stopping them… who are these people you ask… they are people with boundless energy. It is just like with everything else in life, the area of acquiring energy has to be developed in your life. Boundless energy is no accident in your life… it is something that needs to be worked on. Some people are genetically better off, but everyone to some degree needs to work to maintain energy. As young people we are full of energy but as time goes on we need a plan to maintain it.

People with bounding energy are different than those without…they make better choices and are more proactive and inclined to be successful. There is a higher level of excitement around them and the people in their life seem drawn towards them in everything they do. It is almost like people want to tap into the energy that they have… what a gift it is to have boundless energy and to let your friends and loved ones tap into it.

If we find ourselves short on energy, in many ways we will find ourselves short on life. The amount of energy we have links directly to how healthy we are. I believe that when our Creator said, “…you shall have life and that life more abundantly”, that in many ways He is talking not only a spiritual but also a physical energy that we can have in our lives.

Green Bay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue does make cowards of us all!” How much in our lives are we afraid of just because of a lack of energy? It seems that the people who are in the best shape and energy are ready to take on most everything that life would have to offer. I am hoping that together we can take a better look at this. I don’t want to see any of you miss an opportunity just because you were not in condition to receive it. There are many times at work where I will be stretching, doing toe stands, walking in place and when my coworkers walk by, I tell them that I need to be prepared, for you never know when you might be called into the game.

Just having energy stored up is a prerequisite for your personal achievements, success and peace of mind. This is an area that we sometimes fail to realize as being important in our lives, It is an area that is gradually lost and gradually gained… just like other areas in our life, it is the little steps we take towards it or away from it that makes the difference. In New Life Strategies we don’t want to miss a trick when it come to being our best, and it is my strong belief that having boundless energy is a part needed for us to be the person we were designed to be.

Now I want to take a moment to throw a question at you… I have heard that many times we fall short in life because we don’t ask ourselves the right questions. My question is this… do you have written down how long you plan to live? Some of you might know where I am going with this… without a plan your ship will go where ever the tides of life take it and it usually is the easiest route and it is most times somewhere you don’t want to be.

Once you have a plan or should I say a life expectancy things will start to happen… you will start developing habits that will aid you in living to the time you have planned. I know of many people who do not plan to live long and you can see by their habits that they are helping themselves to fulfill that plan by their bad habits they have developed. Therefore you need a plan and you need to examine the habits developed in your life to support the plan… it is one day at a time and what you do with that day that counts.

Another area that has its links to what kind of boundless energy you have is what kind of attitude you choose to have. I say choose because it is your choice… the quality of your life is directly determined by the attitude that you choose to develop. A positive attitude will always give more excitement and energy in all that you are doing.

The more positive energy that you can build, the more you can do, the more you can do, the more you can achieve, the more you can achieve, the more you can bless and as you bless it will open up an avenue of more blessings coming to you. Again having positive energy doesn’t just happen… it is a choice we make to have it.

One of the greatest energy deflators is having negative stress in your life. By not handling stress in a positive way we allow it to become negative and by becoming negative it becomes dangerous. Having negative stress will allow you to complain, worry and have all sorts of anxiety working for you. This puts your life out of control and can sometimes lead to all sorts of issues like various kinds of disease and sickness.

It is crucial for us right now to choose the right attitude and to become mini experts on exercise and fitness. As we make a plan for our life, we must become accountable for our bodies and the need to tap into all the information needed to build the container that can house all the boundless energy we will ever need to reach our planned date for living. We don’t know exactly when our Lord will be calling us home, but we do know that we need to take care of the bodies He has given us and to exercise it building energy. Just like in many areas, we need to wake up and start doing it.

One area that I feel can greatly increase the energy in your life is aerobic exercise… some of the benefits are;

• It will build your self esteem
• It will improve your sleep
• Will help relieve negative stress
• Burns calories and fat
• Gives you a better attitude
• Strengthens your immune system

So what are we waiting for…? I hope this is clear for you… you are important… lets work together and see how much positive energy we can build in our lives and see if our lives can make the difference!!!

“Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habits allowed steadily gain in strength. At first it may be as a spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted, it soon binds us with chains of steel.” Tryon Edwards

There is a reason why some people have such a hard time achieving what they want in life. The reason is that there are two types of people in this world and your success will depend greatly as to which group you allow yourself to be placed in. Without knowing, people get themselves into a group that I like to call The Feelers… having a knowledge or some good direction in life will allow you to be in the other group, which I like to call The Doers.

The Feelers will only take action when they feel like it… if they don’t feel like doing something they won’t. This is a group that will have a hard time following any type of goals and dreams for the only way they can get themselves to follow their goals and dreams is if they feel like it. Therefore it is very difficult to have a Feeler working on a project and getting the project done, for when they don’t feel like doing something, they won’t.

When I need help in doing something, the Feeler will be the last person of choice unless I want to spend some time trying to motivate them into feeling like doing something. It is also hard to get any sort of sincere commitment out of Feelers for when they say they are committed, it only takes something else to enter their lives for them to feel like they are not committed anymore.

It is only when you can get a Feeler to get excited about what you are doing, that will allow you to count on them… when the excitement dwindles they are gone. The reason for this is that their decision making ability is hard wired to their short term emotional appetite.

My son had a bachelor party for himself a couple of years ago, where they planned to go to the Brewer Game after a morning of paintball. To get a bus lined up they needed to get a certain number of people who would be willing to commit to going to the game. He became so frustrated, because he had a hard time getting many of the people to commit… for they wanted to wait, in case something else came up that was more exciting. What I found here was an excellent example of how the Feeler operates and I also had an opportunity to explain to my son the differences in people. My son is very committed and falls into the category of a Doer… that is why it was hard for him to understand this.

Another area of issue here for a Feeler, is that his or her life is all about shallow thinking. In the ocean you need to go deep to the bottom, to find the treasure… it is the same thing in life. What a feeler will do is only look at the short term in life… they want instant satisfaction and don’t think much about any consequences.

A feeler will lack character, conviction and maturity… because of this and their desire of instant gratification, they will be in a position of having the majority of their focus on themselves. Because of this when things do not go their way, look out… they will get angry very quickly and because of this are hard to live with.

Being a Doer or a Feeler is all about the development of habits … for a Feeler it becomes a bad habit that will need to be broken for them to have the beautiful and productive life they want. But this will only happen when a person realizes the group he or she is in and decides to make some changes.

And now to talk about the Doer… this is an individual who is in some ways is just the opposite of the Feeler. He or she was either taught or somehow came to the understanding that you act or do your way into feeling like doing things. They will start projects just because they committed themselves or know that this must be done if they are to advance, knowing that the feeling part will just catch up with them.

The Doer is the best person to work with… they will always be there for you because they do not let feelings get in their way. They see what needs to be done and just start doing it. It is exciting to watch a Doer, for they will do things that they don’t necessarily like doing, just to train themselves and then will find themselves liking what they do.

Doers have character, conviction and maturity… they don’t let their emotions control them. They can easily set goals and follow dreams because they are committed to do them, and they will not let their feelings stop them.

If you find yourself leaning towards being a Feeler rather than being a Doer, don’t give up the ship… the first step is making the decision to become a Doer… and then the next step is to put things into practice until it becomes just who you are. Through the years I have seen many who have made instant changes in their lives just by resolving to put action in their lives until it became a habit for them.

So this is where we are at and the opportunity is yours if you are up for it… let’s start looking long term, find out what  needs to be done and start doing it… you will love yourself for it and possibly me for telling you.

Let’s become high achievers by being motivated as a doer!

“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” - Bertrand Russell

“No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“A mistake is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.” - Origin Unknown

“There is none so blind as those who will not listen.” - William Slater

“Do not walk behind me, I may not lead. Do not walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” - Albert Camus

“Difficulty is not an obstacle, it is merely an attribute”. - Wal Sakaluk

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” - Harry S Truman

“A person who graduated yesterday and stops studying today is uneducated tomorrow.” - Origin unknown

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” - Harvey Mackay

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” - Will Rogers

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” - Samuel Johnson

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” - Benjamin Franklin

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty” - Winstom Churchill

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success” - Hendry Ford

“Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of traveling” - Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change” - Jim Rohn

“Men willingly believe what they wish” - Julius Caesar

“Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others” - Buddha

“Strive for excellence, not perfection.” - H Jackson Brown Jr.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” - Allen Lakein

“Plan you work and work your plan.” - Napolean Hill

“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” - Lee Iacocca

“Make your vocation into vacation and you will not have to work a single day.” - Nicholas Lore

“The more you can dream the more you can do.” - Michael Korda

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.” - Napolean Hill

“We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it.” - Donald Curtis

“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.” - Anthony Robbins

“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” - Jonathan Swift

“Winners make it happen; Losers let it happen.” - Leonard Lavin

Please feel free to add comments and include your own inspirational quotes.

It’s the ‘You’ that’s able to accept challenges and stick to a plan that will bring great success in all you do. It’s the ‘You’ that can take care of your life without being controlled by circumstances, events, bosses or even plain old fear.

That ‘You’ is someone you already are and someone you can begin to experience immediately. You can experience this ‘You’ by developing the abilities that few know about and even fewer apply.

This is the ‘You’ that my self-appointed job is to help bring out of you. This ‘You’ is the champion that’s living in each one of us.

Many of you might be saying “Well, you can’t have it all in life,” but I’m saying you can. You can design and have a life full of accomplishments and I plan on being there to help you.

As we continue to work on learning the principles that allow us to find the ‘You’ within us, let’s not overlook this opportunity of a life time.

I’ve been working with people for a good number of years and I often see them get so excited that I wonder if they can even sleep at night. Some how they manage to lose their motivation and excitement. We’re never going to achieve what our creator planned for us, if we can’t find a way to stay motivated.

What if I drew a line and told you that simply stepping over that line would change your life? If you had the motivation you needed, would you take that step?

Certainly you would! If you knew taking that step would guarantee inner peace, riches, enlightenment and physical well-being, you wouldn’t hesitate for a second.

I’m going to give you the opportunity to take that step. As we continue to build on the motivation to make the first step and keep going, you’ll see that stepping across the line works.

Until you become committed, there’s always a hesitancy that’s lurking in the wings, looking for a way to stop you. It’s entirely up to you, whether or not you become committed.

It seems like our ideas, dreams and goals are just sitting there, waiting for the first ounce of commitment to be injected.

I have seen this time and time again. People get excited over something they’ve heard or saw, only to find themselves not doing what first got them excited.

Life only gives us so many opportunities and we must learn how to become committed, if we’re to take advantage of these opportunities. I see people struggling with various parts of their lives, because of lack of commitment.

You need to put together a plan, commit to doing it and not deviate from it. This takes discipline, but it’s the only way. There are areas in my life that are in the commitment zone and there’s no way I’ll be kept from doing these things.

We all need our commitment zones and I hope I can help you to find these in your life. If you can become committed enough to work with me, I’ll help you put your heart and soul into reaching your goals.

This is the point I hope all of us can reach. Scripting your life is such a valuable tool for structuring the direction you want to go.

When you write down your dreams and aspirations it’s much like hanging a up sign saying, “I’m Open For Business!”

It’s like declaring to yourself, “I’m In The Game.” There’s something in our mind that separates important from the unimportant. This is how we filter out noise, but remain alert to important sounds.

I’ve noticed this in Shirley. When we have our grandchildren over, there are noises such as cars, ice maker or water softener. She can sleep through all that, but the small cry of a baby will alert her, to wake up.

This is what happens when scripting your life. It wakes you up and keeps you alert to where you’re going and what you’re doing.

St. Frances of Assisi once put it this way, ”Start doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you’re doing the impossible!”

It all starts just where we are right now. We can’t conquer the world until we can take care of the things in our own back yard.

Our potential is our gift from God. What we do with it is our gift back to Him.

To find change in our life, we need to start by looking at the environment we have created for ourselves and see if it will allow us to change into the person we’re desiring to become.

One way to do this is to look at others who have become what we are longing for and look at the environment they set up for themselves. Many times we can, with small changes, create for ourselves an environment that’s just what we need to succeed!

There’s a catch to what I am saying. There’s a reason for struggling to stay on course or for not being able to start on course. There’s an element that must be present for this to happen.

Our whole purpose at the Better You, is to help people like you to discover the champion in them. It’s the element of a champion that will win the race you’re on.

So you ask, “What’s this element Don?” After looking at the conditions of many people’s lives, the answer is simply, “You Have To Know How To Fight For What You Want!”

The reason people are failing, is because they’re not discovering the champion in them. For the lack of better words, they simply can’t get themselves to fight for what they want in life.

I plan on discussing this hard and heavy for some time. It might irritate some people to hear this, because they want to be nice and not have to fight for what they want. They’ll never achieve the things that are important to them, if they don’t fight for it.

This is a time for shaking and not a time for falling asleep at the wheel. We all need to have the fight of a champion in us, to drive us to the levels of greatness in all we do.

Let’s fight like CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

We have just finished the series “Achieving Everything You Have Always Wanted” and in my books, it was one of the best. The response was great and for those who latched on to the ideas discussed, it will help them become a champion in life.

This is the time for self-improvement. To progress in our live, we need to be becoming superior to our previous self. A man by the name of George Knox once said, “When you cease to be better, you cease to be good.”

One way to self-improvement is to become teachable, to put yourself in a learning role whenever possible. Find ways to learn new things, each and every day. This will not only help you to become better and better, it will also help to make life more exciting for you.

Another thing you can do is to plan your progress. Put a plan together on the books you’re going to read and what area of your life do you want to improve. Make sure that a day doesn’t pass without experiencing some sort of improvement.

My question to you is this, “What specifically are you doing to continually get better?” With this in mind, we’re going to be looking for ways to jump start our lives. We want to get into position to make things happen!

Without goals people just seem to wander through life. There’s nothing that happens until a goal of some sort is established. Life seems to be a hazy ordeal until the moment a goal is established. That’s when things become perfectly clear.

In a world where people trying to be successful, goals are as important as the air we breath. No one lives without air and no one finds success without setting goals.

If you haven’t worked with goals in the past and want to see great changes in your life, I have good news for you. My plan is to help you put together the best plan for your life. I’ll teach you how to successfully implement your plan, through setting goals and working toward achieving them.

By doing this exercise, you’ll be seeing yourself growing into the person of great success and achievement.

The important thing right now isn’t where you’ve been or where you are, but where you intend to be in the future.

Next are the mediocre or normal people, who get knocked down, rise to their knees and crawl away. They run in the opposite direction, determined not get beaten again.

Finally are the people built for success, who react completely differently. When they get knocked down they bounce right back up, learn a lesson or two, forget they’ve been knocked down and keep on climbing.

People who are successful have a different way at looking at things than normal people. They look at hopeless situations and don’t allow negative issues cause them to lose heart. They continue to persist despite the fact people are splattering all around them.

I use to hate being around people like that. I used to ask myself, “What’s the matter with them, don’t they realize they might get hurt?” It took me a while to realize they were on to something. The only way to succeed is to walk this path. We need to be able to bounce back from any defeat and say to ourselves, “I don’t splatter, I bounce.”

This along with our creator’s direction, can be a born again experience in our lives, if we’re able to captivate this concept and do something with it. Too often, our lives are like a dead tree branch in the middle of the ocean of life, drifting where ever the currents of time take it.

You might be saying to yourself, “What in the world is Don talking about?” What I am talking about is a chance, your chance of a life time, to achieve everything you’ve always wanted.

Look, if it hasn’t happened yet, it most likely never will, unless you change the way you’re thinking. Plant some new seeds in that mind of yours. We’re not getting any younger, the time keeps ticking by like a time bomb and you need an explosion to make something happen in your life. This might possibly be the only way to get you on track, going where you’re destined to go. I want to help you have fighting chance to live and achieve all that’s meant for you.

We’re talking about Making Your Attitudes Your Allies, which is another key to help us step into our purpose in life. Our attitudes are the mirrors of our minds, they tell us just what’s going on in there.

Our mind is primary tool we use to make us the person we want to be. Change your thoughts, change your life. This is the fourth year “The Better You” has been meeting. We’ve seen tremendous results in many lives and have received countless testimonies of the achievements people are accomplishing. The reason for this is, we’re learning to think like successful people. When we think like successful people, we become successful people. It’s that simple.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results, just like bad thoughts and actions can’t produce good results. He who has conquered his thoughts, has conquered life. Our creator again has given us a wonderful opportunity to have the best that life has to offer, but it’s up to us to make sure we’re feeding the right thoughts.

It’s just like planting the right seeds to produce the right harvest. Our bodies are a servant to our minds. At the command of good positive thoughts, we truly can achieve all that we ever wanted. We truly are everything we think we are!

The prophet David said, “As one thinks in his heart so is he.” This isn’t an untested theory, or one man’s opinion, but a proven approach to life’s situations. If followed, it will allow a person to achieve the highest level of what life has to offer.

This week I would like to give you some insight on the number one destroyer of dreams and goals, our fear. Fear is real and it does exist. Fear is success enemy number one. It stops people from capitalizing on their dreams and opportunities. Our fears will wear us down physically, make us sick, shorten our lives and keep us from saying what needs to be said. Fear and lack of confidence explains why we still have economic recessions. This explains why millions of people accomplish little and find little enjoyment.

Fear is a powerful force that keeps people from getting what they want in life. I want to tell you how to overcome fear, but first I need to say, nobody is born fearful or lacks confidence. These are all learned emotions we’ve acquired from our experiences. The neat thing about this is, if fear is learned, it can be unlearned.

The cure for fear is action. You overcome fear by doing what you’re afraid of. This sounds too simple, I know, but it’s true. I have a fear of going to the top of a high ladder. This was caused by a fall back in 1997, breaking my heal and leaving me with eight screws in the heal. When I need to get up on a high ladder, it’s hard for me the first time up. After I put action behind my fear, a couple times later, I develop confidence and don’t even think about falling.

It’s true, ACTION is what’s needed to cure your fears!

CURE YOUR FEAR! Take Action Today!