Are You Improving Your Who or Trying to Be Who You Aren't?

By Jaime Willis

Like many of you, I really enjoy the New Year. I love reflecting on everything I've been able to accomplish in the previous year, thinking about the stuff that didn't work out as planned, and mapping out my vision for the upcoming year.

I enjoy goals -- the bigger, the loftier the better.

This year's New Year's Resolutions started out simply and tritely enough. Lose weight. Exercise More. Same old, same old, right? My cousin is getting married in June and has asked me to be in her wedding, which was a great (additional) motivation for my health goals.

As I started thinking about how I would incorporate health into my life, I was strongly considering signing up for bootcamp classes. Bootcamps are typically women-only, group "personal" training that focus on both cardio and strength training. Lots of great things about bootcamps -- camaraderie & accountability, someone pressing you beyond your physical comfort zone, less expensive than a personal trainer, etc.

Why was I hesitating? The 6:00 am start. Which means a 5:00am wake up call, 3 days a week. Anyone who knows me well knows that the only time I am up at 5:00am is when I'm still awake from the night before. I am NOT a morning person.

After asking a bunch of friends, I still was having trouble making the decision -- I really wanted to commit to the bootcamp, but I really didn't want to get up at 6:00am. I decided to pose the question to my coach - what should I do?

What happened next is probably one of the most profound insights of my life.

My coach very quickly helped me identify that the 6am wake-up call was not aligned with WHO I am and so I shouldn't sign up.

Then she asked, "doesn't it feel great to make a decision that honors your true Who?"

"No!" I quickly retorted.

It didn't feel great. It felt lame, like I was this defective person that had a get-up early handicap. Just like I can't keep my house clean. Just like I can't seem to grocery shop & cook on a regular basis. Just like I have trouble figuring out what to wear every morning. The next words out of my mouth shocked even me.

"I feel like I would make an excellent man, but I am a crappy woman." (And no, this isn't some big reveal about how I need a sex change operation -- I'm talking about the "roles" of women and men have in our culture.)

By Mary Engelbreit

You see, growing up, all my female role models -- my mother, my grandmothers, my aunts, my friend's moms, the ladies at church, etc., were all of a type. And, because many of these women read this blog, I want to be clear -- I am not trying to judge these women, or say one is better than the other. I love these women dearly and think they are phenomenal.

The type of women I grew up with as role models were so amazingly domestic. My mother is probably the best hostess on the planet. Seriously! She gives coupons for visits to her home as gifts and people practically punch each other to get the coupon. She's that good.

No one is asking for a coupon to come to my house. I'm either deflecting visitors from coming over to view my piles of "to be sorted" this or that, or begging a friend to come "work" on decluttering my house -- a far cry from my mom's hostessing prowess.

In the "womenly arts," my family of women have collected all the merit badges. They are awesome.
And next to them, I truly can't compare.

Albert Einstein probably said it best: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Here's the thing though -- sometimes it isn't *other* people judging us that hurts us. It's us judging ourselves! I may not be the hostess my mother is, but I can talk to a room of 1,000 people with no planning. I may not being the snappy dresser my best friends and aunts are, but I can fix almost any computer problem you have. I may never cook an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, but I can organize a week of travel for 20 people.

Rather than focus on what I am *not*, I want to focus on WHO I really am. I'm not going beat myself up for not being a tree-climber. I'm going to be excited to be the best darn fish I can be.

I won't be signing up for the 6am bootcamp. But I know that I will find a "Jaime" way to get more fit this year. Awesomely, I have a much better chance of being successful at my goals when they are aligned to my true self.

I want 2012 to be the year that I honor my true Who in all that I do.


How are you honoring your true Who?

Now you can hear more about this post from my on YouTube!  Check out my video below.

Flagging Yourself for Success

-By Jaime Willis

I recently read an article about a great student intervention plan a teacher implemented in her classroom last year called "Flagged for Success."

As an 11th grade English teacher, I used to get frustrated at interim time because I would go through my grade book, calculate the grades, and realize for the first time that a student was struggling. By then, five weeks into the nine-week marking period, it was almost too late for me to intervene. The students who struggled spectacularly were easy to spot, but it always distressed me to realize that other students were also slipping through the cracks.
 ...
So I looked at how I tracked student progress to see how I could sift through all the information and turn it into early warning signals that would enable me to intervene in time. I wanted various objective flags that would enable me to consistently give all my students the support they needed. For example, I decided that any student who earned less than 75 percent or missed more than one-fourth of the questions on a quiz would need additional support. Once a student triggered a red flag, he or she would immediately go into the intervention cycle and receive progressively more intensive interventions until he or she moved above my mastery thresholds. Once a student was back on the path, that student could exit the intervention cycle.

What I love about Robyn's plan is that she picked a target to flag students far before they were failing her class and had a series of interventions in place to immediately begin working with her students to ensure they stayed about her 'red flag' line.

If you read the entire article linked above, you'll read how her intervention system worked on three different students in her classroom that year -- very cool results!

Robyn gives some tips for establishing red flags:

Red flags should be unambiguous.  You don't want to have to make a 'game time' decision of what a red flag is -- you want to be able to decide quickly when a red flag has been triggered.


Red flags should be hard to ignore. Established a sign that is hard to miss.


Red flags should trigger action. Once you see a red flag, you should not have to figure out what steps you are going to take next, but have interventions already in mind to get back on track.

For any goal we are working on, wouldn't it be great to have already defined some "red flags" for success?  Although this is a GREAT system for the classroom, I can see it used in all kinds of goals.

For example, what would a Red Flag of Success be for your weight loss goal?

One red flag for me is when I start wearing the "fat" jeans -- the jeans I go to when my regular jeans start to get snug.  Wearing the "fat" jeans is a clear signal to me that I am off track on my weight loss goals.  My intervention could be something like eating a go-to "good" meal for my next meal or fitting in 30 minutes of exercise that day, or starting up my food journal again.

How could you Red Flag your own goals for success? 

Goal Update: Health Edition

-By Jaime Willis

I have 3 major health-related goals for 2011 -- let's check in and see how I am doing.  Thanks to Sean "Positivity" Powell for nudging me to update.

1) Running 50 10k 'races' by the end of the year.

2) Completing a sprint triathlon on August 14, two days before my big "6th anniversary of my 29th Birthday" (Yes, it is up to you to do the math on that one).

3) Continuing to lose weight and reach my goal. 

I've made progress on all three fronts.

As of now, I've run/walked/ellipticaled through 23 10ks.  That's over 138 miles in the last seven months.  To reach my goal, I need to run another 27 10ks in the next 22 weeks.  This is totally achievable!  I'll have to start doubling up on 10ks (2 per week).  Since I've done that in the past, I know I can do it again.  I've committed to running a 10k this weekend, and 1-2 more before my birthday.  After the triathlon is over, I'll really get back to my 'normal' routine and I should be able to knock these out and be back on track.

10k Milestone Goals (to help keep me accountable throughout the rest of the year):

End of August:  Have 27 10ks under my belt
End of September: Have 33 completed
End of October: Have 41 completed
End of November: Have 47 completed
End of December: Have run all 50 10ks.

As for the triathlon, I have done the full biathlon distance (biking, then running) twice already.  I've also swam the full distance several times.  I'm not fast, and it's not pretty to watch, but I'm confident that I'll be able to finish the race, barring injury.  I will be training hard this weekend and next, and in two weeks, I'll be reporting back with a medal in my hand.

The losing weight front has been a back and forth struggle -- the weigh-in yesterday after two weeks of "tourist" eating with my visiting sister wasn't pretty.  That said, I am committed to continuing to work on healthy eating and exercise, and I know I'll get myself back on track.  I know when I get busy, my diet is one of the first things I "let go."  With 22 weeks left in the year, I'd like to end 2011 22 pounds lighter than I am now.  This means making my health a priority!  I know I can do it and I'm glad to have all of you keeping me accountable!

TGIF: Becky Roemen and Chelsea Dennison

TGIF:

This Goal Is Finished

Good morning achievers! Hope you've had a wonderful week!

If this is your first time on our website, welcome. Velocity is about helping you find and achieve your passion through personal goal setting. You can find out more about us by clicking on any of these links.

You can sign up for our weekly inspirational newsletter by clicking the button to the right.

This week we're doing something a little different -- we have two friends who set and achieved TWO awesome goals together.

The Achievers

Becky & Chelsea
This picture was taken before they each lost 25 pounds!

My name is Becky Roemen and I live in Alexandria, VA. I am originally from the Midwest but have been in the DC area for the past 12 years.

My name is Chelsea Dennison and I live in Arlington, VA. I’m originally from New Jersey but moved to DC for a job about 3 years ago!

We both work together in Alexandria at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

The Goal

The goal was to lose weight and get physically healthy, which included running our first race.

Why This Goal?

Becky: I knew that I needed to set a goal to stay motivated with my exercise and diet. I chose to do the Race for the Cure because I could join a team of friends that were all running to honor a friend’s mother that is a breast cancer survivor. It was important to me to set a goal not only to keep me motivated, but that was meaningful.

Chelsea: I was finally in a place in my life where I was mentally ready to commit to getting healthy. Although I never considered myself an athlete, I knew that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to and was determined to become a runner. By training for a race, it helped my goal to lose weight along the way.

The First Step

The first step was actually getting out of the house and onto the treadmill. We researched a variety of plans and both opted to try the couch to 5k. I’m not sure either of us completed the training program as it was laid out, but it got us out and moving for the first month.

Challenges

Becky: The first obstacle I faced was a mental one. I needed to overcome any doubts I had about being able to accomplish my goals. For me these were not easy to overcome but there are a few things that helped. The first was the encouragement from those who knew about my goal(s) and would check in on my progress. People believing in me was inspiring. The second was celebrating the small wins and sharing them. As I recognized each small victory, I gained confidence that I could make it to the next milestone.

The other obstacle I faced was travel. How would I continue to work out and eat healthy while I was away from home, especially when I was in another country? For this obstacle, I was surprised by the outpouring of good advice from everyone I asked regarding this challenge. I was clearly not the only one facing this dilemma. My lesson learned here was to share my fears and concerns because you may get more solutions than you ever expected.

Chelsea: I have always had issues with tight hamstrings and calf muscles, so running has never been the easiest for me. I am prone to shin splints and these tend to sideline me for quite some time. As I expected, I experienced a few bouts of the beginnings of shin splints and needed to step back and figure out a way to work through this obstacle. I did a lot of research and talked to friends about how they had overcome the problem of shin splints and then invested in compression sleeves for my shins as well as remembering to ice and stretch after every run. I also know that in building up my running, I can’t run more than 2-3 times a week to give my legs time to recover.

Staying Motivated

Chelsea & Becky on race day

Becky: I stayed motivated by reading blogs and magazines that were stories of people doing similar things or that had advice on how to accomplish my goal. It also helped to talk about what I was doing.

Chelsea: I read a lot of healthy living and fitness blogs and reading through other people’s goals, struggles and successes really helped to motivate me and inspire me to continue on my journey. I also kept a log of all my workouts to see how I was progressing towards my goal.

For our weight loss, we stayed motivated by sharing recipes, trying new things, cooking some of our meals together. We were also having a 15 week Biggest Loser competition in the office and that ignited both of our competitive spirits.

Who Helped?

We leaned a lot on each other in this process. If one of us was going to give up, the other would have too. This put the pressure on to keep going because suddenly we were responsible for more than our own success, we were responsible for the success of the other.

Becky: For me I also started taking classes at FitOne Studio. I signed up for their circuit training class to improve my overall strength and knew that having a trainer run those classes would help motivate me and encourage me to push myself.

Chelsea: Since I struggle with getting shin splints from running, I knew that cross-training was going to be extremely important in building my running base. I found that wearing compression sleeves on my calves was so instrumental to my recovery during and after a run. Since I consider myself a cyclist, I found that continuing my cycling workouts really helped improve my overall fitness.

TGIF – Celebrate!

Set a new one and registered for a 10k this fall! We also treated ourselves to some new clothes now that we are both over 25lbs lighter!

Chelsea, Right, and Becky, Left
Down 25 pounds!

Advice

Tell your friends what you are doing and find someone to keep you accountable. You will be surprised by the amount of support you receive. Also, celebrate the wins and small milestones during the journey.

What’s Next?

After our 10k to End Women’s Cancer in November, we have our sights set on a half marathon. Perhaps the Disney one in January. We will keep you posted!

TGIF: Karly Davis

TGIF:

This Goal Is Finished

Good morning achievers! Hope you've had a wonderful week!

If this is your first time on our website, welcome. Velocity is about helping you find and achieve your passion through personal goal setting. You can find out more about us by clicking on any of these links.

You can sign up for our weekly inspirational newsletter by filling in your email address in the toolbar to the right.

If you are inspired by reading our achiever interview below and want to get on the achievement bandwagon, sign up for our next Goal Setting Workshop on June 4, 2011 in Washington, DC.

Today’s TGIF achiever is Karly Davis. We are very proud of Karly for achieving a number of great things in 2011 and it’s only April! Karly attended our Velocity Workshop back in December and had a lot of BIG goals to tackle in 2011. As you can see below, she’s doing quite well!

The Achiever

My name is Karly Davis. I’m 29 years old and live (now) in Springfield, VA. I am originally from Harrisburg, PA and am a proud Penn State graduate! I work for an awesome association called the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)—at EO, we work to provide our members (leading entrepreneurs) with the tools, resources and expert connections they need to grow their businesses.

The Goal

I have 3 goals for the year. The goal I am highlighting today was to purchase my first home. I defined my goal in early December 2010. I indicated that I wanted to work closely with my realtor throughout the year (or however long it took!), search MLS listings, and continually educate myself on the home-buying process. I did not define success on this goal by ending 2011 as a homeowner, but instead wanted to be sure I found the right home and not “settle” just to say I accomplished the goal.

Why This Goal?

Purchasing a home has been in the back of my mind for a long time, I frequently thought about it, but the time never seemed “right” until now. Although it wasn’t a goal at the time, I had been building a savings account for this very purpose since I graduated college in 2004. I always said, someday…someday I’ll actually use that money for MY first house. The timing was right, my life situation was right and the money was in place, so this was the year I was ready to make it a reality. At almost 30 years old, I decided it was the time to put down real roots in the DC area and purchase a home!

The First Step

The first step I took was to connect with a real estate agent. My parents have bought and sold many of their own homes in Pennsylvania, so their realtor, Patrick, was my first contact. He gave me a brief overview of the industry and process then referred me to my realtor, Brenda, a very experienced agent here in DC/Northern VA. She and I talked on the phone about what I was looking for, what areas I was interested in, what was a “must” and a “definitely not,” and of course, my price range. She signed me up for the MLS email alerts based on my criteria and I began my search for my first home.

Challenges

One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome was my own fear of the process. Being a first time home buyer, I felt very overwhelmed several times and even thought, “this is just too much, I don’t have time, or I have a great apartment—I’ll just forget this and keep renting.” It was hard to regroup after those overwhelming days but I had the right support in place to keep my goal alive. My parents, boyfriend and real estate agent helped me keep things in perspective.

Staying Motivated

I stayed motivated toward my goal by continually telling myself that people do this every day…If everyone else can do it, why can’t I? It’s overwhelming, yes, but there were plenty of resources and tools to help me learn and feel more comfortable with continuing to move forward.

Who Helped?

My real estate agent, and my parents were the essential mentors I needed to help me “trust the process.” They helped me learn about financing, interest rates, types of sales, inspections, contracts… the whole nine yards! I had a young, fun, creative agent on my side and the contract process was clearly her forte. Also, my lender, John, was a critical element to helping me understand all the financials with purchasing a home.

TGIF – Celebrate!

I was so excited! I put in my offer on the house on Friday March 11^th and after only 1 counter offer, we finalized everything that same night. It was fast! I almost didn’t believe it. I started mapping out everything I wanted to do in the house, where my furniture would go, and how I’d decorate to make it “mine!” My boyfriend and I went to dinner the following night to celebrate!

Karly and Supporters at the signing!

Advice

Make sure you have the proper support in place, and educate yourself on the process. Ask questions of people you trust (friends, co-workers) and be aware that there are many different ways to achieve the goal of purchasing a home. There are different types of sales (regular sales, foreclosures, etc.) and many different types of loans (conventional, FHA, VA, etc.). There are also lots of different routes, financially, so don’t let ‘lack of money’ hold you back. Be aware that as a first timer, it will be overwhelming at times, but continue to tell yourself that you can do it. Also, be sure to pick an agent that fits your personality and is willing to fight for you, you may need that during the contract process. And lastly, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions, even if they seem silly. Your agent and lender will expect lots of questions and they’ll gladly answer them - that’s their job!

What’s Next?

Next up is getting settled in the house and personalizing it! Closing was on April 14^th and thankfully, my boyfriend and I now have all our furniture and belongings moved in. We’re getting comfortable and making minor upgrades. A few larger upgrades will come with time (new windows!), but everything is great. The house was a “flip” so most items are new (kitchen, carpet, paint, bathrooms, HVAC, heat pump, etc.).

I am also working on another goal of losing 40 lbs by September 2011. I am halfway to that goal, which I am also very proud of. I began this process in early December 2010. To date, I have lost 21.8 lbs and I feel great. I achieved this goal through Weight Watchers online, regular exercise, and an EO office competition called… The Biggest Loser! I organized the competition and it was a huge success! We had 13 participants and I ended the competition in 4^th place. Here’s to losing 20 more lbs!

Anchoring & Achievement

-by Jaime Willis

So, this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down...

(I'll wait while you finish rapping the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel Air - you're welcome!)

Before I tell you my story, a short psychology lesson. Anchoring is a cognitive bias whereby a specific trigger event or object causes you to have a certain reaction. The most well-known example of anchoring is Pavlov's dog. You ring a bell, then feed the dog. After repeating the 'trigger' - ringing the bell - the dog reacts - begins to salivate - regardless if food is there or not.

Anchoring is also used as a behavioral therapy technique to help induce change or evoke a certain emotional response. Say, for example, you are sad but want to feel happier. Have you ever played a song that reminded you of a happy memory? Or looked at a photo that made you smile? That was anchoring.

Anchoring is really useful tool for achievement. When you are slogging through the day to day, let's face it, WORK, of achieving a goal, you may feel like you are never going to get there. But, if you can remind yourself of a time when you DID achieve a big goal, you can use that memory as an 'anchor' for your current goal.

As you know, I am working on a few pretty big fitness goals this year, the most public of which is my goal to run FIFTY 10k races in 2011. Wednesday, I ran my 13th 10k. Even though each 10k is an accomplishment in itself, it can sometimes be daunting to think that I have done all this work and I'm not even half-way to my goal. In fact, I'm barely 1/4th of the way there. This is the *prime* time for anchoring.

Last night, I needed to anchor myself, so I went back through some old photos to remind myself of how far I've come in the past six years. In 2005, I was enormous! I honestly cannot tell you how much I weighed because my scale at home didn't go past 330, but the arrow on the scale did when I stepped on. I had reached the end of the size line in even plus size clothing stores. My next clothing stop was literally going to be the aptly named Moo-Moo. I couldn't walk without wheezing, my legs and feet were constantly swollen, and I was miserable.

Left Image: 2005 Right Image: 2011

With my 30th birthday looming a year away, I made the decision to stop WISHING I would lose weight and to start MAKING IT HAPPEN. I chose to use gastric bypass surgery and behavioral group therapy as my primary tools to achieve my weight loss. Within 18 months of my surgery, I had lost 160+ pounds.

Left: Caribbean Cruise, 2004; Right: Santorini Greece, 2010

To be honest, I have struggled and continue to struggle to keep my weight off. By 2009, I had gained back about 60 pounds. Last year, after setting a goal of getting back to my 'fighting' weight, I re-lost around 40 pounds and I am not finished yet.

But when I start to get discouraged, or wonder if I will ever be able to put a check mark next to the "Reach my Goal Weight" goal, I anchor. I remind myself of how far I've come and how close I am to the finish line.

Six years ago, I couldn't properly tie my shoes because I had trouble reaching my shoelaces. I used the elevators for everything. I would avoid doing something that required me to run across the room to fetch something as 'too much work.' I would never have considered walking, let alone running 6.2 miles, and I promise you the only exercise I would consider doing 50 times in a row involved lifting a fork into my mouth.

Left: Me and My Brother, 2003; Right: Me and My Brother, 2008

Today, I am fit, healthy, and active. I can run into just about any clothing store and pick out something to wear. I can run. I do run. More than once a week even! Being morbidly obese was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced. If I have come this far, I know I can make it.

Anchor your way to success! See ya at the finish line!

TGIF: Amanda Vega

Good morning, Achievers! It's Friday, which means it's time for another episode of This Goal Is Finished. Today, we are excited to introduce you to Amanda Vega, who is an extremely talented social media maven. Although we could discuss any number of great successes she's had in her professional career, she has graciously opened up about a personal goal she's recently accomplished. Read on and get inspired!

I am Amanda Vega, the CEO of Amanda Vega Consulting, a firm that has been around for 11 years specializing in PR, social media, compliance, and web related services. I began my career over 20 years ago as the 22nd employee of AOL where I was a chat moderator. This is my second company (sold the first one to Ogilvy before the age of 24) and I now have offices in NYC, Phoenix, Dallas, and Shanghai and staff all over the world. I’ve written a book "PR in a Jar" and also contributed to "The Social Media Bible."

Usually I don’t get asked about personal goals, so this is a nice change. I adopted the concept of vision board building about 4 years ago and every New Years actually host a vision board party. In 2010, the main set of goals visually represented were related to becoming healthy. Not to be mistaken for weight-loss (though that was part of it,) the goal was to get my body into as good of shape that my lifestyle and likes would allow in order to hopefully successfully get pregnant with my first child.
I have been working on my career since I was 15. My life has been full of crazy hours and stress, and adventure that is enviable to most. But as I neared 35 I realized that I now had a strong marriage and wanted to explore the next part of my life, which was family: something I had never prioritized before at all.

I felt that if I were going to go down the road of bringing a child into the world, I was going to approach it with the same tactical and focused/informed mind that I do my business projects. And everything I read and saw pointed to the fact that (a) getting pregnant, (b) having a healthy pregnancy, and (c) having the healthiest child possible was all related to a healthier lifestyle (exercise, clean food intake, relaxation, flexibility, limited alcohol and no smoking) than I was living. So the goal was imperative.

The first step was committing my mind to the process without feeling that I was somehow giving something up. I had to focus on the positive rather than the “look what I have to sacrifice” point of view.
It’s the same for everyone I suppose. I attend a lot of parties and host a lot of parties. I truly enjoy decadent food and truly hate doing cardio. I found obstacles on every plane ride and business trip (either bad food choices, or my complete lack of discipline when it comes to fine dining.)

I had to embrace the fact that I have a certain lifestyle and work within it. With the help of my trainer, we set up a pretty standard list of foods that I like and that I pretty much eat 5 days per week. Food goals became make every MEAL count, instead of every DAY count. That way, if you can have 4 of your 6 meals per day be healthy, you are doing much better than the average person.

I found that I really enjoy doing weights, boxing, etc. So I vowed to never miss the weighted workouts with my trainer. But the cardio is where I have peaks and valleys. The goal really became then moving for 30 minutes per day.

Midyear I invested in a BodyBugg and took it totally seriously. Okay, I was obsessive. And it really did work. Having something obnoxious on your arm that hinders your outfit choices and stares at you like a reminder to do the right thing really helped me.

Weighing myself everyday motivated me. New clothes did as well. Feeling better and more energized was good.

Brian Peitz at Fuzion Fitness in Phoenix – a trainer that isn’t a meathead and that listened to MY lifestyle and worked around it. (No wine isn’t a possibility for me.)

The BodyBugg.

My husband getting on board helped as well.

My friends knowing to keep telling me it was working.

Well, we certainly celebrated. When I found out I was pregnant my doctors first reaction was that the original 30 pound weightloss was certainly what made it possible. Then it became a game to keep on track and keep losing while pregnant – something they said was impossible.
My advice is this: you are a different person than everyone else. You have to find what’s right for you and it’s seriously the most simple formula ever: calories in/calories out. Carbs, proteins, times of days to eat, etc. are merely tools to help REFINE weight loss, not requirements to lose. Take it slow -- plan on losing just 1-2 pounds per week. And don’t remove things you enjoy. You can have cake (or wine) – you just have to make sure you offset the intake by moving.
Well, the next goal will be to continue on the journey when the baby comes in February. I still had 20-30 pounds to go toward my goals and have lost another percent of body fat while pregnant. So it will be fun to work with a new set of challenges and also keep going.

New Year, New You?

- by Jaime Willis

"When you are finished changing, you're finished." - Benjamin Franklin

I was browsing through my facebook feed the other day and one of my friends had written this as her status update, "No New Year's Resolutions for me - I like me just the way I am."

First, I applaud my friend for her healthy self image - that's a huge accomplishment that many of us struggle our whole lives with. But, I think she may have missed the point of New Year's resolutions. Resolutions don't have to be about dissatisfaction with your life, although a lot of common resolutions certainly are: losing weight, quitting smoking, etc.

Resolutions can also be goals that help you continue to grow and learn. In 2011, I am resolving to visit two countries and two U.S. States I've never been to before. That goal is not about any deficiency in my life, it's about experiencing new things and seeing the world, one of my own personal core values.

The New Year is a great time to reflect on both what you don't want in your life (extra weight) and where you do want to go in your life (e.g. travel, school, promotion, family, etc.)

I hope you take the time in the coming days to reflect on both! And, if you want help in creating or executing your goals, sign up for our New Year's Resolution Workshop Extravaganza on January 8th in downtown DC for just $20. Sign up now!

Giving Thanks

- by Jaime Willis

"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get." Frank A. Clark, former Democratic Congressman for the State of Pennsylvania

This week is all about gratitude.

When you are nose-to-the-grindstone, working, working, working on getting your goals accomplished, it is sometimes difficult to gain perspective on how far you have come especially if you aren't near the finish line. It's hard to be grateful for what you have right now, when your eye is on what you want to have.

At the beginning of the year, I set a health goal for myself. I wanted to lose 60 pounds. I decided to employ a personal trainer to assist me, and I thought I would go boot camp style --working out seven days a week and dieting in order to get the weight off as quickly as possible -- I was aiming for 3 months (20 pounds a month) to reach my goal.

As I am sure you may have already guessed, that didn't happen. It's now the end of November and I still haven't reached my goal. I could tell you all about my setbacks -- when I stopped eating right, when I stopped obsessively going to the gym, when my attitude about this goal was grim. But I won't.

I will tell you that 11 months later, I am down 45 pounds! I am not at the finish line yet, but I am much, much closer than I was when I first made this goal last January. Imagine if I hadn't set this goal for myself? Not only would I not be this close to achieving it, but I could have spent the last 11 months going in the opposite direction and gained more weight.

So this week, I am thankful that my hard work and dedication to my goals are paying dividends. I am grateful that it has taken me this long to lose the weight because slow weight loss is more likely to be long-term weight loss. I am thankful that I can continue to work hard and know that I will reach my goal soon.

A friend of mine recently watched a marathon in which a runner collapsed literally 100 meters from the finish line and was carted away by paramedics. (You can watch the footage here). The runner in question saw my friend's video and contacted him. Although he was initially embarrassed to see his moment of weakness immortalized, the runner realized that he had done the best he could that day, and running 26.1 miles is still a huge accomplishment.

What can you be thankful for right now without waiting to reach your goal? Let us know in the comments.