On Her Own...

I am proud to say…Stacy is on her own! Well, sort of…

I made a commitment to facilitate her personal development throughout the Leave 2010 with No Regrets Challenge, and she made a commitment to put in the work. She has been working, writing, thinking, and making things happen in her life! She will Leave 2010 with No Regrets for sure!

Stacy is now my maintenance program. Stacy’s goal is to start 2011 in full pursuit of her purpose and engaged in whole life development. In other words, she wanted to spend 2011 living focused, motivated, and with intention.

As part of the maintenance program, Stacy is required to complete a Weekly Mission Assessment. The assessment is simple. She sits down for 20 minutes, at the end of each week and does 3 things:

Read last week’s assessment. This is an opportunity to internalize achievements and celebrate small victories.

Make room for growth. List one thing that can be improved or taken to the next level.Create a

Must Do List for the next week. List at least 3 things that must be done by the end of the week.

Stacy emails me her assessments to me for accountability, but essentially she is doing her thing!

There is still 43 days left in 2010. You have time to leave 2010 with No Regrets! For those of you who have taken on a challenge of your own, you can perform your own Weekly Mission Assessments.

To Blog…Nakeia

I Am Not A Slacker!

It is 8:00pm , and I have just put the little one to bed.

As I sit in front of my computer and check my daily calender, I realize that I still have 5 things to do before I can bring an end to my work day. I also realize that I have not blogged in a week or so...and this is becoming a pattern.

I immediately say to myself, I am a slacker! Then I go to the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary to look up the meaning of the word slacker...cause you know me...I must know what I mean, when I say what I think I mean (too much?)

Slacker: a person who shirks work or obligation.

NOT ME.

In fact, not only am I NOT shirking (evading, avoiding),my work, I am doing WAy too much! I am working, thinking, developing, writing, and researching way too much. AND...I love it! I love what I do. The more I love it, the more I want to do it. I am taking on new personal projects, writing new songs, negotiating new deals for my husband, finalizing the plans for my new website, and whatever else I can squeeze into the day.

I have made apologies on this blog, by email, and instant message for not blogging lately. My wonderful followers (those I knew about and those I didn't know about until they sent me an email asking me about missing some days of blogging) have made me come to a temporary decision.

For now, I will be blogging once a week (unless I really have something to get off my mind).
Thursday will be the day.

So look for my blogs on Thursday; starting next week!

Before I go, consider this quote by James Allen:

See to it that you rise by steady climbing, and you will never fall.

To Blog...Nakeia

Decision Remorse

I do something at least once a day that I wish I can take back or just do over. When I wake up too late, I wish I could start the day over. When I send out an email, I wish I would have said one more or one less thing. When I order the chicken, I wish I would have ordered the steak.

I wish. I wish. I WISH!

Life is full of opportunities to do things over. If I don’t like the email that was sent, I can always send a subsequent clarification email. If I don’t like the chicken, I can pout until my husband agrees to share his steak with me (‘cause his food is always better than mine). I may not like the way I started my day, but I can always end strong. Some things are not ideal, but that is the reality of REALity.

On the other hand, there are those life choices that we just have to live with. There are words spoken that can never be un-spoken. There is time that passes, that can never be rewound. Most of the things we do can not be undone. Some things are not ideal, but that is the reality of REALity.

You can drastically reduce the number of choices that you make and end up regretting by implementing some decision making guidelines. The guidelines should be made custom to your lifestyle and thought process. No one person processes things alike. I, for one, am a quick thinker. The longer I wait to make a decision, the harder it is for me to make it. Others like to take their time.

Here are 2 general guidelines that everyone can follow:

Create your own personal decision making guidelines.

Guideline example: I will wait 24 hours before making a decision.

Only make intentional decisions. There should be a purpose attached to every decision you make. If you want to avoid decision remorse, put some thought into it. To make sure you are making an intentional decision, complete the following statement:

Making a decision to _________ will __________________________________in my life.

Those 2 guidelines are simple and effective. You can use them as a foundation for setting guidelines of your own.

To Blog…Nakeia

Just Get There

The road one takes to through life is not always a smooth ride. I am still not sure why that doesn’t go with out saying. If you have gotten into a car, and taken a ride to anywhere land, you should know exactly what I mean. You may travel the same route to work everyday, but on any given day, a bump, some litter, an animal, or a detour may surface…without warning. So what do you do? Do you stop, turn around, drive home, and get back into bed? Or do you go around it, through it, over it, or find another way to get you to where you need to be?

You may be thinking… how can you compare a daily commute to work, to a commute through this thing called life. Well, I will tell you how. Simply put it into perspective. Both are about getting from where you are, to where you need to be. How smooth the may or may not be along the way really doesn’t matter.

Just get there.

To Blog…Nakeia

Planning Made Easy

The more I try to convince people to create an action plan, the more I realize how intimidating creating an action plan can be for some. No matter how easy I say it is…there is always someone that just can’t get past the fear of committing their dreams to paper and following up with some action.

As with life, planning can be as simple or as complicated as one makes it. I, for one, spend most of my time making my life as simple as possible. So when it comes to planning, I have four simple guidelines that I follow.

Define the goal.
In statement form, I write down what I intend to accomplish.

Research the area of interest.
I begin a regime of organized study. I find out exactly what it will take for me to accomplish my goal.

Prepare to take action.
Once I know what I want to do and what it will take to do it, I prepare an action schedule. That schedule simply details what I will do, each day, to move closer to accomplishing my goal.

Begin with the end in mind.
With tunnel vision, I direct my attention and intention towards what I want to accomplish.
Mentally seeing myself accomplishing my goals motivates me to push forward toward an expected end.

Those guidelines are simple, yet effective! I use them to create an action plan for my personal and professional life and it works every time. If you have had difficulty creating your action plan, give these guidelines a try.

To Blog…Nakeia