New Year’s Credo

Anyone plan to make New Year’s Resolutions? We have all tried our hand at them, and watched more than a few not quite work out the way we had hoped.

This year we challenge you to write a New Year’s Credo. The idea came to us from Robert Fulghum (he is a writer of many books, including “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”).  The concept is to NOT dwell on what is wrong, or what may need to be fixed. Rather, concentrate on your own hopes, dreams and wishes for 2010.

So, take a few minutes and sit down in front of the computer or with a good old fashioned pad of paper and write your credo for the New Year. Have some foresight and put yourself to December 31, 2010. Now look back and think about the type of life you hope to live this next year. It can be about things you want to accomplish or just ways to live your life day to day. Have fun and be creative.

Our wish for you this next year comes from a favorite toast of ours: “May the best of 2009 be the worst of 2010!”

The Gurus of Get It!

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Weekend Challenge: Plan

We’ve talked a lot in the last year about the need to change your life and move forward in a way that moves you towards your passions and innate abilities, and away from the ruts and mindless routines that mark most peoples’ lives.  With the dawn of the new year in a few days, this is an ideal moment to start to assert your Perfect Life in front of your everyday life.

Make a list of what you want to accomplish in 2010 that will move you towards your Vision of your Perfect Life.  At the top of the list, just so you don’t lose sight of it, put in big, bold writing one or two words that represent your Vision; then start drawing lines and labeling the lines showing how your list of goals for 2010 will move you towards your vision.

Putting it on paper is scary–it makes you accountable!  But it is also absolutely necessary if you want to stop dreaming and start doing.

The Gurus of Get It!

Change and Resolutions

Two nights ago was the shortest night of the year–it’s nature’s way of resetting the world and allowing nature to be still and go in a new direction.

It’s not a coincidence that the ancient Church chose the time of the solstice for the beginning of the New Year.  And with it, we have added the tradition of making “Resolutions”–things we intend to change about ourselves in the New Year.  Renew the calendar, renew ourselves.

First of all, for the record, we love change and renewal, and would encourage you to engage in it whenever you feel the need.  To save such efforts for January 1 every year seems arbitrary–growth should be a constant all year long.

But secondly, much of what we think of as “Resolutions” involve losing bad habits.  Bad habits are hard to lose . . . but losing them is not as hard as replacing them.  So if you focus on a bad habit, try to refocus yourself on a good habit to replace it with.  If you need some ideas, think about a person or fictional character you admire, and try to be more like them.  Resolve in a forward direction!

You have a week to think about it.    

The Gurus of Get It

Weekend Challenge: Play

One of the most important attributes you can aspire to in your life is Balance.  While it may be impressive (and good fodder for TV sitcoms) to juggle too much and barely keep all the balls in the air, it hardly leads to a healthy life.  Unfortunately, that sort of life is becoming more and more the rule, and less the exception.

So it becomes even more important to take what few opportunities are afforded you to strike a Balance.  If you must work hard (and who is not in that boat these days) then you should also strive to play hard. 

The beauty of play is that it does not have to put a strain on any other aspect of your life.  Playing football in the park with your buddies doesn’t cost a dime; getting together with friends for coffee talk doesn’t need to take up a whole day; and a good hike in the mountains will get your heart rate up, your lungs clear, and provide you with wonderful perspective all without a contract or any expectation.

So this weekend, find an excuse to make yourself relax, laugh, and be dead serious about FUN!

The Gurus of Get It!!

It’s All About Attitude

Sometimes you can’t control the hand that Life deals you.  It’s simply the way things are.  And sometimes Life deals you a garbage hand.

But immediately two classic thoughts jump to mind, one by Neitzche and one of God (when was the last time you saw those two grouped together?): first, “That which does not destroy me makes me strong;” and second, “If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.”  Both of which are saying that the obstacles that face you are never insurmountable, no matter how painful or how daunting they look at the time.

One way to help you deal with such obstacles was brought to our attention recently by a smart friend, and it seems very wise.  When Life deals you garbage, there is a tendency to think “why me?”  It’s natural, but it’s also a victimhood mentality–and it’s not going to help you move forward.  So when you’re tempted to think in that vein, try to discipline yourself to ask instead “What for?”  Then you start to assert purpose and meaning, which helps you refocus on YOUR purpose, which helps you remain moving towards your Vision.

The Gurus of Get It!

Appreciating your Abundance

It is human nature to dwell on the bad or challenging things in your life.  We have all seen it.  A friend or family member calls and very seldom do they talk about their great day, but rather it is about what this person did to them, or what happened to them (which is usually negative), etc.  This than becomes a negative focal point, that takes over a part of their life.

 There is a simple exercise that you can do to really appreciate what you have and where you are in your life.  Make a list; it could be in your head or on a piece of paper.  On one side list all the good things and abundance in your life.  On the other side list the things you consider to be bad or “challenging”.  Our guess is that the list of good far outweighs the list of challenges.  Unfortunately, those few challenges seem to take up the majority of your time and energy worrying about them.

 This is purely an exercise in focus.  Our hope is that you will start focusing on what matters and not give more energy than is necessary to the challenging parts of your life.

The Gurus of Get It!

Weekend Challenge: Be Bold!

Being careful is overrated.  Certainly there are times and placeswhere prudence is valuable and advisable, especially when you are dealing with other people.  However, when you are considering your Perfect Life, to tread too lightly might just get the door shut in your face.

So this weekend your challenge is to do one thing with the courage and confidence of your Best Self in pursuit of your Perfect Life.  Whether that’s on the job front by doing something like introducing yourself to the boss’s boss out of the blue, or on the personal front by doing something like walking across the room and introducing yourself to the attractive person in the middle of their “people.”  It can be any number of things; we just want you to see what happens when you act as if everything is going to be just fine.

Besides, you always get 100% of what you don’t ask for.  So why not form the habit of actually going after what you want?  You never know–you might just like the results.

The Gurus of Get It!

Train Your Instincts

It is said that The United States Marine Corps builds Marines.  They don’t all come in as Marines, but they all leave boot camp as Marines.  And one of the amazing things about that process is that the number of times that a young Marine does the same action in training makes it not only possible but likely that, when faced with actual combat, the Marine will act exactly as he is supposed to.  It is learned instinct.

In your life you can learn instincts, too.  We advise you repeatedly to trust your instincts, but it sure would be useful, wouldn’t it, if you could train them to be better?  Well, you can.  Get in the habit of making small decisions (e.g. what to have for lunch) quickly based on first feelings and impressions; then get in the habit of evaluating those decisions after the fact.  We want you to be decisive in action, but self-aware in reflection.  In that way, you can start to notice your thought processes and whether or not your “gut” leads you to good choices.  As you get in the habit of doing that, you can learn to evaluate your “instincts” on the fly and get better at making decisions. 

The Gurus of Get It!

Enjoy the Journey

There is an essay that was written by Robert J. Hastings that is called The Station, http://www.thestationessay.com/ . First, we would encourage you to follow the link and give it a read, it is very powerful.

The essence of the essay is telling us all to enjoy the day (and journey) and to not put as much pressure in regards on reaching a certain “station” (getting that new car or promotion, etc). As Mr. Hastings so eloquently puts it, “The journey is the joy”.

 As we work through life, it is still important to have visions and goals. This is important to keep us on track to achieve the things that we deem important. The difference is that when you have succeeded in reaching your vision, life is not over; it is just time to work on the next journey to enjoy.

The last bit of advice in the essay is to enjoy the little things (sunsets, simple joys, staying in the moment, etc). As he points out, we want to live life day to day free of the pressures to reach your own “stations”. So just for today, concentrate on enjoying the journey.

The Gurus of Get It!

Weekend Challenge: Get Smarter!

The whole purpose of the book and the program is to get young people to start seeing their lives in different terms so that they can GET SMARTER SOONER.  Unfortunately, getting smarter often involves being “taught” by the school of hard knocks.

That’s a pretty painful means to an end.  And besides that, there is no way that any one person can make all the mistakes there are to make–there’s not enough time!  So we advise our audience to Get Smarter Sooner by learning from the mistakes of others.  In fact, there is a prime example in the news right now of a person who is making a mistake of galactic proportions.  And there are lessons in his situation for all of us!

So this weekend think a little bit about  the kind of lives the people around you lead. Think long and hard about mistakes that they have fallen in to, persnally or professionally.  Then, write down where they went wrong, and MOST IMPORTANTLY write down some of the things that they could have done (if they were you!) to either avoid the mistake  or to control the damage. 

In short,  take their experience and turn it around to be smarter.

The Gurus of Get It!