If you're an entrepreneur minded person watch this short video on the secrets to succeed in the year to come. 

The beginning of the week, the month, the quarter or the year are all great times to stop and reflect on your goals and your progress. Here's a couple tips I thought you'd find helpful.

Are you waiting for the perfect day to start or wondering what the best day is to start making some changes in your life? Here's a quick tip on how I approach this question. (Sign says" Holding her breathe she steps out to a whole new adventure")

Our first step towards better health, a better relationship and/or better career can often be the hardest. In this video I share my helpful hints on taking the leap.

Why focus on the past when the future holds so much more potential. Here's a quick look into your future if you're willing to look at things a little differently.

I was never a great student in high school and let's just say I didn't go to college to "play school" (I played football on a scholarship). Assignments/homework have never been my thing. I would always get them done at the last minute (or late) and my grades suffered and so did my opportunities because of my lack of timeliness. Completing them was not a matter of ability. I could do them but they just weren't a priority. I didn't see the value in them and I didn't have people in my life who were able to coach me on their importance because I wasn't listening.

In life you have regular assignments and opportunities to learn recommended every day that can help you prosper and succeed at achieving your goals. You may not always agree with them or see the value in them but the truth is success is not a mystery. Personal and professional growth works for those who "work" it. I've seen this first hand as I've learned the value of education and learning. I've learned the more you become the more you can achieve. If you grow 10% as a person/leader you can double the quality of your health, value in the marketplace and your income in 7.2 years or LESS (using the rule of 72)!

You're an adult now so you can choose to not do the work in a timely manner, turn it in late or ignore it altogether. Life is a self study program now. There is not a "No adult left behind program" for those who want a healthier, happier and more fulfilled life. The ball is in your court with optional coaching and mentorship. It's your life and opportunity. However, know this, your health and life success will be affected by your choices to grow, learn and act or your choices to stay the same and procrastinate. If you wish to be healthy, wealthy and wise, choose to learn, grow and act. Do the do even when it's not comfortable. I promise you that you will thank me for this reminder in a matter of days or months!

You are mastering healthy lifestyle habits in an unhealthy environment. You’re likely to slip up and fall backwards now and then and feel like you're losing the fight but don’t let your temporary lapse in judgement define you. You can still win the battle. Let your slip up refine you. Work through it and learn from it. Here are 7 tips to use that failure to move your forward towards success...  

1. Manage expectations.  It is unrealistic to expect a child to learn to walk without ever falling.  Falling is not a failure.  It is how the child learns to balance.  It is also unrealistic to expect a 20, 30, or 40 year old person to make healthy choices 100% of the time, after decades of practicing unhealthy choices.   If you will take the time to reflect and change your perspective on failure, success is within your grasp.  
   
   
2. Suspend judgment.  Thoughts like “I”ll never get this right!” Or even “I can’t believe I blew it again!” Convey a lack of confidence in our ability to succeed.  Positive or negative, we often live up to our expectations!  We would never think to belittle a child that falls when they are learning to walk.  We understand that building up their confidence is an important part of their process of eventually walking successfully. Our thoughts and words can either empower or crush our confidence, and ultimately our will to try again.  If we are to learn from our mistakes and pick up the courage to try again, we need to suspend judgment.
   
   
3. Review your performance. Top athletes often review film of their performances to identify what they did right and what they did wrong. The purpose of the review is to improve their performance.  Will you pursue the goal of achieving the optimal health with the same passion as an elite athlete who’s pursuing their life-long dreams and goals? Think of the last time you felt you failed.  Review the facts without judging them.  Ask yourself the following questions:  What happened?  What day did it happen?  What time of the day was it?  Where were you when it happened?  Who were you with?  Why did it happen?  Where you Bored, Lonely, Angry, Sad, Tired, Eager, Distressed or Something Else?
   
   
4. Identify the road blocks.  As you reviewed your performance, you identified some barriers to successful performance that are specific to you.  Maybe it was a birthday celebration, or the friends you were with.  Maybe you were hungry as you drove past a favorite fast food place.  Understanding which physical, mental, and financial barriers stand in the way of your successful performance can help you create a plan for success.  
   
   
5. Define the win.  The next time you are faced with a situation similar to the one you described above, what would make you feel successful?  What do you want to create? What do you want to be, do and have?
   
   
6. Remember why.  In the daily grind of life we can lose our motivation if we don’t remind ourselves about why we started this journey to begin with.  Remind yourself daily why you are willing to face the challenges and conquer the obstacles.
    
7. Create a map to success.  Write out your plan.  Include your goals, why they are important, a list of potential barriers, and the action steps you will take to get around the barriers.  Having a written plan that you implement and updating that plan as needed will eliminate detours and accelerate your progress to the summit of success.    

We can allow our failures to limit our potential, or we can use them as stepping stones on our climb to Extraordinary health.  How will you choose to use your mistakes?  

I hope you found this list helpful and wish you the best in success and optimal health in the days, weeks, months and year to come! 

The word “coach” comes from a town called Kocs in Hungary.  Back in 1556 the people of Kocs began to make large carriages that would take people from wherever they were to where they wanted to be.  This large carriage was the beginning of what we know as the stagecoach.  

A personal coach is similar to a stagecoach.  The primary aim of the coach is to help the leader get from where they are to wherever they want to be.  Helping the leader make this trip successfully is the only agenda of the coach and their success depends on their ability to close this gap.

Without a coach in one’s life, leaders can experience:

•         Lack of Accountability
•         Lack of Focus
•         Lack of Direction
•         Lack of Perspective
•         Lack of Systems
•         Lack of Balance

These symptoms can often lead to an ordinary life producing ordinary results in the life and work of a leader.  Complacency in a leader’s life can also set in after a certain level of success has been accomplished because of a general resistance to change.  This leads to the leader never breaking out of the successes of yesterday.

A coach can help challenge a leader to break out of this rut by bringing their dream(s) back to them and holding them in front of them.  Leaders are constantly challenged by the elements around them and it becomes tiring to continue to climb the mountain of success.  Extraordinary coaches understand this and know where to go to help the leader dig deep within to bring out the courage to continue to journey to excellence.

Often, we think of a coach as the person who works face-to-face to inspire an individual or team to win a championship. This is just one example of coaching. Coaching can come in a variety of forms, including:

o        A personal or professional growth book, DVD or audio program

o        Interactive websites, podcasts, blogs or other virtual resources

o        Live training courses or workshops

o        A mentor or accountability partner

o        A mastermind group of individuals who challenge one another

o        A personal coach who works with you one-on-one

To live an extraordinary life, we all need some form of coaching to go beyond what’s usual, regular and customary in our lives. Coaches give us the EXTRA edge we need to make our lives “exceptional to a marked extent.” Resolve to find a coach and/or the coaching resources that will take you to the next level!

Extraordinary athletes have coaches to help them get extraordinary results. Leaders who want to achieve their goals and go beyond what is usual, regular and customary in their lives also need coaches who can take them farther than they can take themselves.

Why is having a coach so important?  

Stephen Covey, a New York Times Best Selling Author says “Accountability breeds response-ability.”

A coach brings some critical pieces to the success puzzle you won’t find anywhere else:

• strategic perspective, insights and knowledge different from your own
• resources, tools and tactics to help one accomplish the mission in less time with less effort and mistakes
• accountability, motivation and encouragement to help us go beyond what is comfortable

Once someone has reached the peak of success with the help of a coach, you will find that person rarely takes on a major project, dream or mission without one ever again. Invest in your success. Find a coach and listen to them.

Looking for a personal health coach to help you take your game to the next level? Visit www.eHealthCoaching.com.

By taking time to reflect on our progress and accomplishments, we learn more about what we’re capable of achieving given our time, talents, skills, and abilities. It is important not to let another month, week, or day go by without measuring our progress toward our health goals.

Just as mountain climbers review their maps to make sure they are hitting their mark, so too must we review what we’re actually achieving. We need to know what’s working and ramp that up. In areas where we’re not making progress, we need to find out why in order to resolve the cause of the problem.

What to Measure

Our dreams or desired outcomes—are they clearly defined? Are they realistic or do they need to be revised?

• Our action plans—do we have a clear plan of action with attainable goals and specific action steps to take?
• Our progress—are we seeing measurable progress on the plans we’ve established? Are we headed in the right direction?
• Our use of time—are we squandering valuable time on activities that are unrelated to our goals and dreams?

How Often to Measure

• End of the day—did we do what we needed to do?
• End of the week—was our week productive?
• End of the month—were our monthly goals accomplished?
• End of the quarter—are there achievements to celebrate?
• End of the year—was the past year successful? Is there a reward?

By measuring our growth and development, we can re-energize, revitalize and re-focus ourselves on what matters most right now.

“What you measure is what you get. What you reward is what you get. By not aligning measurements and rewards, you often get what you’re not looking for.” —Jack Welch