Places to see Beautiful Christmas Lights in South Florida

I wanted to share a list of places to see beautiful Christmas Lights in South Florida. You can catch a few in some short videos on my youtube channel too to get a preview of my two favorites; the Callahan house and the Hyatt house. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

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The Hyatt house, 11201 NW 14th St., Plantation Acres. 165,000 lights, inflatable displays....

The Callahan house, 11480 NW 26th St. Plantation. 250,000 LED lights synchronized to music, 85 inflatable displays.

1921 SW 56th Ave., Plantation.

5330 SW 14th St., Plantation. First House in the Neighborhood Prize.

9640 NW 32nd Manor, Sunrise. More than 22,000 lights that dance to musical sequences.

The Macek house, 2700 SE Sixth St., Pompano Beach. 150,000 lights.

100 NE 57th St., Fort Lauderdale. 20,000 lights, projector that shows Christmas cartoons and movies.

950 Pina Del Rio, Fort Lauderdale.

10600 NW 32nd St., Fort Lauderdale. 38,000 lights, computerized display.

3056 NE 15th Terrace, Oakland Park. 30,000 lights set to music.

9904 W. Tree Tops Court, Davie. Thousands of lights, Santas, Frostys, trains, elves.

350 SW 32nd Terrace, Deerfield Beach. 40,000 lights.

598 NW 38th Ave., Deerfield Beach. All blue Christmas lights.

7708 NW 40th Court, Coral Springs. 20,000 lights, figurines.

9222 NW 43rd Court, Coral Springs. 40,000 lights.

673 NW 111th Way, Coral Springs. Computer-controlled lights synchronized to music.

1351 NW 63rd Ave., Margate. 10,000 lights, blow ups, 9-foot menorah, reindeer.

7706 NW 25th St., Margate. 60,000 synchronized lights and music.

6984 NW Seventh Court, Margate. Plenty of lights, inflatable figures and music.

4455 Banyan Trails Drive, Coconut Creek. 20,000 lights, 30 inflatables, 42-foot grinch.

8710 NW 46th St., Lauderhill. 12,000 lights set to music, inflatables, animated deer.

NW 113th Ave. and NW 112th Terrace, Pembroke Pines. Cinderella, Sponge Bob and Santa in a hot air balloon.

5200 Thomas St., Hollywood. A show every half hour, lights synchronized to music.

9510 Sun Pointe Drive, Boynton Beach. Realistic reindeer and sleigh on snow; after 7 p.m. get your family pictures in the sleigh for free. You'll need an e-mail address where they can be sent.

3852 Satin Leaf Court, Delray Beach, Both Christmas and Hanukkah are featured in this extravagant display.

Snug Harbor Drive, Palm Beach Gardens. An elf in Santa's workshop using a conveyor belt all made of lights.

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Participate in a Wonderful Charity for Children - Operation Santa Claus

Christmas is a very special time of year filled with laughter, joy and anticipation. Friends and family gather from near and far to share the warmth of the season. The aroma of roasting turkey fills the house, and children’s faces are aglow with wonder and delight.

However, many needy children do not have the same anticipatory glow. Many of these children exhibit a touching belief in the goodness and charity of the Christmas season that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. Their “Dear Santa” letters arrive by the thousands in every Post Office in our country.

Each year kind hearted people bring Operation Santa Claus to life by answering “Dear Santa” letters from needy children who would otherwise have no Christmas at all.

Operation Santa Claus is changing with the times and growing which means that this wonderful volunteer program may now be available at your local post office. Please note that “Dear Santa” letters will no longer sent out by mail from the New York Post Office, so if you would like to participate in this wonderful program, simply call your local post office to see if they offer “Operation Santa Claus”. Please see our “USPS Operation Santa Claus“ information page for more information on how to locate a post office in your area.

Please read the “Operation Santa Claus” articles that inspired this organization. It is our sincere and fervent hope that after reading both stories, that parents, teachers, scouting and civic organizations will band together to form a local chapter of Operation Santa Claus in each and every town in this land.

God Bless and Marry Christmas from Just Ask D!

Simple Tools to Counter the Stress of Negative Thinking

While dealing with all the challenges that are before us each day, it is easy to feel stressful. Quite often, our experience of stress comes from our perception of the situation which can send us into a downward spiral of unhappiness and negative thinking, and can cause us to be unfair or aggressive with others.

A popular definition of stress is, "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.”

In becoming stressed, people must make two main judgments:  First, they must feel threatened by the situation, and second, they must judge whether their capabilities and resources are sufficient to meet the threat. How stressed someone feels depends on how much damage they think the situation can do them, and how closely their resources meet the demands of the situation.

Perception is the key to this as most situations are not stressful in their own right. Rather it is our interpretation of the situation that drives the level of stress that we feel.

Sometimes we are right in what we say to ourselves. Some situations may actually be dangerous, may threaten us physically, socially or in our career. Here, emotions are part of the early warning system that alerts us to the threat from these situations. Very often, however, we are overly harsh and unjust to ourselves in a way that we would never be with friends or co-workers. This, along with other negative thinking, can cause intense stress and unhappiness and can severely undermine self-confidence.

Thought Awareness, Rational Thinking, and Positive Thinking are simple tools that help you to change this negative thinking.  They will help you manage and counter the stress of negative thinking.

Thought Awareness helps you to understand the negative thinking, unpleasant memories and misinterpretation of situations that may interfere with your performance and damage your self-confidence.

Rational Thinking is the technique that helps you to challenge these negative thoughts and either learn from them or refute them as incorrect.

Positive thinking is then used to create positive affirmations that you can use to counter negative thoughts. These affirmations neutralize negative thoughts and build your self-confidence. It is also used to find the opportunities that are almost always present to some degree in a difficult situation.

Thought Awareness

You are thinking negatively when you fear the future, put yourself down, criticize yourself for errors, doubt your abilities, or expect failure. Negative thinking damages confidence, harms performance and paralyzes mental skills.

A major problem with this is that negative thoughts tend to fit into our consciousness, do their damage and flit back out again with their significance, having barely been noticed. Since we do not challenge them, they can be completely incorrect and wrong. Yet, this does not diminish their harmful effect.

Thought Awareness is the process by which you observe your thoughts and become aware of what is going through your head.

One approach to it is to observe your stream of consciousness as you think about a stressful situation. Do not suppress any thoughts: Instead, you just let them run their course while you watch them, and write them down on paper as they occur.

Another more general approach to Thought Awareness comes with logging stress in a Stress Diary. One of the benefits of using a Stress Diary is that, for one or two weeks, you log all of the unpleasant things in your life that cause you stress. This will include negative thoughts and anxieties, and can also include difficult or unpleasant memories and situations that you perceive as negative. By logging your negative thoughts for a reasonable period of time, you can quickly see patterns in your negative thinking. When you analyze your diary at the end of the period, you should be able to see the most common and the most damaging thoughts. Tackle these as a priority.

Thought awareness is the first step in the process of managing negative thoughts, as you cannot manage thoughts that you are unaware of.

Rational Thinking

The next step in dealing with negative thinking is to challenge the negative thoughts that you identified using the Thought Awareness technique.  Look at every thought you wrote down and rationally challenge it.  Ask yourself whether the thought is reasonable: Does it stand up to fair scrutiny?

As an example, by analyzing your Stress Diary you might identify that you have frequently had the following negative thoughts:

•Feelings of inadequacy.
•Worries that your performance in your job will not be good enough.
•An anxiety that things outside your control will undermine your efforts.
•Worries about other people's reactions to your work.

Starting with these, you might challenge negative thoughts in the ways shown:

Feelings of inadequacy: Have you trained and educated yourself as well as you reasonably should to do the job? Do you have the experience and resources you need to do it? Have you planned, prepared and rehearsed appropriately? If you have done all of these, are you setting yourself unattainably high standards for doing the job?

Worries about performance: Do you have the training that a reasonable person would think is needed to do a good job? Have you planned appropriately? Do you have the information and resources you need? Have you cleared the time you need and cued up your support team appropriately? Have you prepared appropriately? If you have not, then you need to do these things quickly. If you have, then you are well positioned to give the best performance that you can.

Problems with issues outside your control: Have you conducted appropriate contingency planning? Have you thought through and managed all likely risks and contingencies appropriately? If so, you will be well prepared to handle potential problems.

Worry about other people's reactions: If you have put in good preparation, and you do the best you can, then that is all that you need to know. If you perform as well as you reasonably can, then fair people are likely to respond well. If people are not fair, then this is something outside your control.

A few things to remember:

Don't make the mistake of generalizing a single incident. OK, you made a mistake at work, but that doesn't mean you're bad at your job.

Similarly, make sure you take the long view about incidents that you're finding stressful. Just because you're finding that new system, or new responsibilities stressful now, doesn't mean that they will always be so for you in the future.

Often, the best thing to do is to rise above unfair comments. Write your rational response to each negative thought on paper.

If you find it difficult to look at your negative thoughts objectively, imagine that you are your best friend or a respected coach or mentor. Look at the list of negative thoughts and imagine the negative thoughts were written by someone you were giving objective advice to, and think how you would challenge these thoughts.

When you challenge negative thoughts rationally, you should be able to see quickly whether the thoughts are wrong or whether they have some substance to them. Where there is some substance, take appropriate action as this may be an early warning system showing where you need to direct your attention.

Positive Thinking and Opportunity Seeking

Where you have used Rational Thinking to identify incorrect negative thinking, it can often be useful to prepare rational positive thoughts and affirmations to counter them. It can also be useful to look at the situation and see if there are any useful opportunities that are offered by it.

Affirmations help you to build self-confidence. By basing your affirmations on the clear, rational assessments of facts that you made using Rational Thinking, you can use them to undo the damage that negative thinking may have done to your self-confidence. Your affirmations will be strongest if they are specific, are expressed in the present tense and have strong emotional content.

Continuing the examples above, positive affirmations for these feelings might be:

Feelings of inadequacy: "I am well trained for this. I have the experience, the tools and the resources I need. I have thought through and prepared for all possible issues. I can do a superb job."

Worries about performance: "I have researched and planned well for this, and I thoroughly understand the problem. I have the time, resources and help I need. I am well prepared to do an excellent job."

Problems issues outside your control: "We have thought through everything that might reasonably happen and have planned how we can handle all likely contingencies. Everyone is ready to help where necessary. We are very well placed to react flexibly and effectively to unusual events."

Worry about other people's reaction: "I am well-prepared and am doing the best I can. Fair people will respect this. I will rise above any unfair criticism in a mature and professional way."

If appropriate, write these affirmations down on paper so that you can use them when you need them.

As well as allowing you to structure useful affirmations, part of Positive Thinking is to look at opportunities that the situation might offer to you. In the examples above, successfully overcoming the situations causing the original negative thinking will open up opportunities. You will acquire new skills, you will be seen as someone who can handle difficult challenges, and you may open up new career opportunities.

Make sure that identifying these opportunities and focusing on them is part of your positive thinking. In the past, people have advocated positive thinking almost recklessly as if it is a solution to everything. Positive thinking should be used with common sense. First, decide rationally what goals you can realistically attain with hard work, and then use positive thinking to reinforce these.

Get the tools you need to excel in your life by working with Denise Dema, a Business and Life Management Coach who has over 20 years experience empowering individuals, executives and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional & personal lives. Denise’s passion for personal development is at the core of her business and life philosophy and she is committed to helping others achieve their full potential in order to live richer, more fulfilling lives. To learn more book a complimentary session at http://www.denisedema.com to discuss your current objectives and goals. On-site, phone, e-mail coaching available.

Are You A 'Social' Business?

Looking at all the ways companies have been marketing their products and services in the past, we now know based on current statistics that a new direction and strategy is critical in capturing new clients and business. Social media has been the number one activity on the web and brands are following the crowd by going ‘social’ and joining millions of people online.

Many companies have set up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, listed their products/services on web based directories that provide interactive customer reviews and use Google+ and LinkedIn to make professional and personal connections. Some also start blogs and create YouTube channels to share information through videos that now appeals to the masses.

Even so, many businesses are still trying to integrate social media into their old ‘marketing mix’ rather than understanding the whole purpose of social media. This traditional, one-way marketing doesn’t work anymore. Consumers are already bombarded with thousands of marketing messages on a daily basis but the majority of them are ignored. Newspaper circulations are down, television commercials are easily skipped, nearly half of all direct mail is never opened and there are over 200 million Americans on the ‘Do Not Call’ list which prevents any outbound telesales calls. Even the best banner ads are only getting about 1% click through rates now. So what else can you do to get your business out there?

Today, we are all connected and smart companies make business personal by becoming a 'social business' rather than applying the same old marketing techniques to the new medium. They realize that ‘social’ isn’t a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of doing business and they use an analytics culture to shape and adjust their strategy on the go. This is quite different from the traditional ways of brand building in the past.

Companies that get it right by becoming social see great success. Nearly two thirds of businesses have acquired a customer through their blog and a quarter of B2B firms have gained a client through Facebook. Company websites that have a blog get more visitors than those who don’t. Web visitors from social sites often have higher conversion rates than those who aren’t communicating directly with their customers.

It’s not just about going social it’s about becoming a social business. Creating the right presence, exposure with a Call To Action on the web is critical in branding your company to gain new business. It’s realizing that marketing doesn’t work like it used to and today, successful companies have to become social ones. Diversifying your web exposure and keeping your online presence filled with new and interesting content is the key. Just by having a website, blog and web profiles will not produce business unless you drive traffic to them and encourage engagement.

Living in this socially connected, real-time and mobile-enabled world, creating a compelling web based presence is critical for success. Even if you are a small company or entrepreneur with limited finances, cost effective marketing strategies can be implemented to help you achieve a social media presence.

Achieve your full potential and get the tools you need to excel in your business. Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years experience empowering individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional and personal lives. Book a complimentary session today to discuss your goals and objectives at http://www.denisedema.com

Being Thankful....

There is no better way to receive more than to be thankful for all that you already have. Thanksgiving opens the windows of opportunity that allow you to experience the fullness of your life. When we are grateful for the good we already have we attract more good into our life............

Live in the Now!

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past or to worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. Embrace your passions and honor yourself and those around you. Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the "Now" the primary focus of your life. Learn how at http://www.denisedema.com

How to Get Organized

Creating productive habits will help you get organized, simplify your life and get everything under control so you can get things done. Look at all the improvements you can make to your daily routine and pick one at a time to incrementally change the way you do things so you can improve your life. Once one habit is changed then move on to the next one until you have a revamped your way of life to stay organized in everything you do. Its’ not that difficult if you take one thing at a time and put some action into it!

Collect information wherever you go. If you carry a capture tool with you whether it’s a small notebook, smart phone or anything else that works for you it will allow you to write down tasks, ideas, projects, phone numbers or anything else that pops into your head each day. I like to start my day by writing a physical list in the morning and use it to check things off as the day progresses. I also put certain reminders in my phone to make sure I address tasks that are very important.

The key elements of the capture habit are: take your capture tool with you wherever you go, write everything down before you forget, and empty your notes of what still needs to be done into your future to-do list when you get back to your home or office.

Process all information that comes to your inbox and create an action to follow. An inbox is any place where you check your messages or read incoming information. The first thing you have to do is minimize your inboxes. List all the ways in which you receive information, evaluate each to see if it gives you value, and find ways to combine or eliminate inboxes.

Make sure that all the papers, letters, bills etc. that come into your home get placed in the one inbox so you can address all of them at the same time preferably at the end of your day or week.  If you use a smart phone make sure you get all your messages together in one area whether they are in different email accounts, text messages or voicemails. Once you scroll through them you can then decide what to do at that moment.

Start with the top item on your inbox and work your way down, making immediate decisions as you go along, delete or trash it, delegate or save  it. If it’s something you can deal with in two minutes or less, do it immediately. File it if it’s something you need for reference. Add it to your to-do list or calendar to do at another time. Work your way down through each item until the inbox is empty. Leave nothing in the inboxes.

Plan at the beginning of each week the larger tasks that you want to accomplish and schedule them first on your list. Prioritize your tasks to get the most important ones done in the morning each day to ensure that they get done. Planning gives purpose to your week because you’re not just checking items off of a to-do list, you’re doing what’s important to you and what will take you closer to achieving your goals.

Do One Thing at a Time without distractions and select a task and decide that you’re going to work on it either until it’s done, or for a set amount of time. Before you get started de-clutter your desk and eliminate all distractions, shut off your e-mail and cell phone, get off the internet if it isn’t part of your work, and so on. Focus on the task you’ve selected to the exclusion of everything else during the time that you’ve allotted to that task. If you get interrupted or think of something else that needs to be done while you’re focusing on a task, write it down for later and get back to the task until completed.

Use an Easy System instead of getting caught up fiddling with tools and making things too complicated. Concentrate on “doing” and not on the tools. What will work for you is what is best, so think about what is the easiest to implement and start. I create a paper list each morning that I carry with me to add and cross off things as the day progresses. I use my Blackberry to complement my schedule with reminders and put future tasks into my calendar as they come to play. This works for me but you can also separate your tasks in each area for everything work related, all your personal tasks, for calls you can make from anywhere, your list of errands, things you need to follow up on and a list of stuff you don’t want to or can’t do right now, but want to check on later.

Keep lists simple so you can stay focused. All you really need is one list to work off of daily and a master list that you review and update weekly/monthly. I use Outlook as my master list and sink it with my Blackberry. You can also add the small less important tasks as well and whatever doesn’t get done you should put on the following day’s list. If it’s still there at the end of the week then take it off your list because it doesn’t seem to be worth your time…lol

Everything Has Its Place and your life can be completely organized by following two rules: everything you own should have a home, and when you’re done using any item, put it back where it belongs. Create a simple filing system so that you can keep things organized and quickly file any papers that have been finalized or that you’re going to need for future reference.  Putting things where they belong, immediately, is a good productive habit. Treat it like any other habit and focus on it for a month to turn it into something automatic.

Set and Keep Routines. It’s important to create productive routines and eliminate the habits that you have that no longer serve you. You should make sure that you are mentally and physically doing what is in your best interest each day. Find routines that work for you so they are within your comfort zone. It’s important to create structure so your routine will work within your home and work life. Following a routine that is flexible as well reduces stress and leads to living an organized, focused life. Knowing what you will be doing each day creates a sense of calm internally.

Do a Weekly Review so you can see the progress you have made with each task completed. It is important to focus and look at your accomplishments so you see improvements to your life and acknowledge the steps that were taken to bring you closer to your goals whether they are daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Focus on what is important and make sure that your projects/tasks lineup with your goals concentrating on what matters the most. A plan for the future is great but you must live in the now to make each day productive, organized and purposeful.

Tap Into Your Passion and do those things that bring joy to your world. Embracing something that you feel passionate about will replenish your soul and give you the energy and focus to stay on track. If you’re passionate about your work, your family or your home, then your task list will almost seem like a list of rewards.

Get Organized and Achieve Your Full Potential! Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years experience empowering individuals, executives and business owners to attain self-defined success in their professional and personal lives. Book a complimentary session at http://www.denisedema.com to get started in reaching your goals today.

Your Children

One of my favorite books by Khalil Gibran has brought so much wisdom to my life since I was a teenager. In this chapter he speaks to parents about their children......

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with his might that his arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with the parenting tools you need to stay on the right path with your children. Book a free session today at  http://www.denisedema.com

Walking Your Way to Inner Peace

We all strive to live with inner peace, embracing a calm mindset throughout each day. Once we have the condition of peace in us, we can afford to be in any situation. Even in times when extreme challenges invade our life, we are able to contribute our peace and serenity to the situation.

Sometimes that sense of peace disappears because something enters our mind and our thoughts and feelings start to weigh heavy, creating anxiety, expectation and stress. Becoming overwhelmed by this can take us into a non-productive state, both physically and mentally. Just spending time to quiet our mind again, reconnecting with our inner peace, will put us back on the right path. One way to do this is to take a special kind of walk designed to help the journey, called a “Labyrinth Walk.”

What is a Labyrinth?
Labyrinth is a metaphor for our own spiritual path, and it touches our joys and sorrows, our memories and present issues. It is a safe place to simply experience ‘being.’ The Labyrinth is an ancient sacred walking path, and its pattern and derivatives were placed in Gothic cathedrals in France in the 13th century. In the past decade, it has been reintroduced to the United States as a tool to connect with the Divine Spirit. The path, having historical significance in its geometric and numerical design, is one winding continuous flow to the center and back that can be imprinted on portable canvas, permanent stone flooring, or part of a garden landscape. Labyrinth design offers a way of finding peace and clarity through movement. It has a singular, well-defined path that leads to the center and back out again. Many use this space for prayer, meditation, and introspection, nourishing their connectedness to self and spiritual renewal. Any insight or transformations are possible in this sacred space if the walker can let go of ‘expectation’ and simply experience its treasures.

Walking a Labyrinth
People of all faiths have found peace through labyrinth walking because they are considered non-denominational. The labyrinth has only one path to the center. There are no dead ends or wrong turns. Everything on the path is a metaphor for life’s journey. It symbolizes the path to be followed, in daily and seasonal cycles, in life, death and in rebirth.

There are three stages of the walk:

Purgation (Releasing) ~ As you start the walk you are releasing, a letting go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and distractions and a time to open the heart and quiet the mind.

Illumination (Receiving) ~ When you reach the center, stand, sit or lie down and stay there as long as you like. It is a place of meditation, reflection and prayer. Receive what is there for you to receive.

Union (Returning) ~ As you leave, following the same path out of the center as you came in, you enter the third stage, which is symbolic of joining the healing forces at work in the world and symbolic of how you walk in your life with what you have received. Each time you walk the labyrinth, you become more empowered to find and do the work you feel your soul reaching for.

Benefits 
A labyrinth presents an opportunity for thought, peace and awareness. Because there are no decisions to be made, the walker can let go of the outside world and worries while following the path, circling toward the center. A labyrinth can be a transformational tool that creates a mind-body-spirit connection and a feeling of wholeness. Many people find labyrinth walking to be a calming, centering experience which embraces peaceful reflection. Some people find themselves overcome with powerful emotions as they journey inward. People often respond to the labyrinth without actually knowing why. They simply like how they feel in its embrace. It gives people a chance to charge their batteries again before going back into the fray.

In general, labyrinth walking is used to promote relaxation and relieve stress. Anyone looking for some peace and quiet can benefit from taking the journey to the center of a labyrinth. It has come to represent the inner pilgrimage we make to the center of our being. Walking the labyrinth is not about escaping into the center and leaving the world, it is about experiencing the spirit in the center so that you can live in the world in a more blessed way.

Most of all, labyrinths have healing qualities on many levels, emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual. This comes at a time when we greatly need healing. Healing must be an inside job, which is exactly how labyrinths function. Labyrinths are undergoing a great revival because at times of spiritual crisis they help restore the balance and the inner awareness that the world lacks. We, too, are the world, so eventually; the world itself changes as a reflection of our personal change.

Labyrinths have a long association as elements in gardens and other places of a spiritual, religious or medicinal nature precisely because the point of a labyrinth is to help the person who chooses to walk it with intention to find mental and emotional peace and in turn to carry that peace out into the world.

Locations
Labyrinths are more common in the modern world than you might think. Many people have built private labyrinths on their own property so they can walk at their leisure to feel the peaceful affects it brings to their life, but there are many beautiful public places to start your walk as well. There are thousands of permanent labyrinths in use today in the United States alone and can be found in many churches, parks, hospitals, colleges, gardens, community centers, retreat centers and even airports.

The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator http://labyrinthlocator.com provides a directory of labyrinths throughout the world. See if you can find one close to your work or home and start “Walking Your Way to Inner Peace!”

Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with the tools you need to excel in your life! Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years experience, empowering people to attain self-defined success in their professional & personal lives. Book a free session at http://www.densiedema.com to start your journey to fully experience the richness of any given moment.

Self Leadership Will Help You Achieve Your Goals

In business and in your life, the importance of "self leadership" taking ownership of your current circumstance, and taking the necessary steps to move forward toward a positive and more rewarding outcome is critical to your success. We should all have personal, professional, relationship, and even recreational goals. Goals are benchmarks to work towards. They are tangible evidence of our hard work and dedication. 

We spend our lives achieving, and often failing to achieve, our goals, whether we know it, or not. Walt Disney said, “A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” 

That quote is so true because without setting some measurable point to work towards, we spend our days, and our lives, meandering from one circumstance to another, not knowing whether we are progressing or retreating.

It's important to provide some clear and concise steps on how to systematically get from point A to point B. Regardless of your situation, adopting a "self leadership" approach, will prove highly beneficial as you work to achieve your goals. Upfront planning and breaking things down into clear, concise, and easy to understand steps will insure your success.

Improve Your Life One Step At A Time:

Determine The Outcome - In order to get to where you want to go, you need to have a clear vision of what the ultimate outcome is that you desire. Otherwise, how will you ever be able to measure your success? Take time to be alone with your thoughts for the sole purpose of deciding what it is that you truly want. Once you have the outcome determined clearly in your mind - write it down. Be sure to keep your written goal in a place where you will see it and be reminded of it on a regular basis. The written goal should be stated in the present tense for your desired outcome.

 

Broad Outline - Once you know your outcome, it's time to create a broad outline of what it's going to take to achieve your goal. Whether the goal is small or large, it will most likely require you to take action in more than one area. The outline may end up becoming similar to a table of Contents if the outcome was to write a book. Before even writing the first word, we can think through the various chapters of the book that we plan to write. By pre-planning in an outline format, you are in effect creating a skeleton road map to success. The details to you plan will come soon, but for now we just need a broad outline. Keep in mind that you can edit the outline as you go progress. Fine-tuning along the way is important as you learn more about what will be required to achieve your final outcome. Be flexible on this point and watch your road map evolve!

 

Identify Projects - With a basic outline in hand, the next step requires you to break down each bullet point, or chapter, into projects. Depending on the complexity of your outcome, you may have several projects to complete. For instance, in writing a book, projects might include researching sources; preparing questions; conducting interviews; traveling for background data; research on the topics of marketing, publishing, scheduling time each day to write, etc. Be prepared to add projects to your list as you progress. While it may time longer to achieve your goal than you originally intended, the main point to remember is that you are moving closer to the end result. Keep pressing forward.

 

List Tasks - This next step is critical. Listing specific tasks required in order to complete each project can be time consuming, but it is well worth your time and effort. Each task will take you one step closer to realizing your ultimate outcome. Your list of tasks will likely be long. Some will be easy to complete, others more difficult. Don't let the size of your list overwhelm you. You will not be attempting to complete all tasks at once. You will, however, need to complete the tasks one by one, taking one step after another. Before you know it the list of tasks will be achieved and every related project will be accomplished!

Add Time-Lines - Depending on your situation, you may need to attach specific time-lines to each project and associated task. If your desired outcome must occur by a specific date, then you must ensure your success by adding specific time-lines to each task and project. If you do not have a specific end date by which you much complete your goal, adding time-lines may not be necessary. The choice is yours.

Take Action Daily - At the very least you are encouraged to do "something" each day (take at least one simple action) toward the realization of your goal. Over time, one year for example, you will be amazed at how much progress you will have made toward achieving your ultimate outcome. Consistent little steps lead to big results!

 

Stay On Task - At times you may get discouraged because you've become sidetracked. Perhaps a family emergency, work related responsibilities or other personal issues have taken priority and you've not made the progress you intended. Let's face it, LIFE HAPPENS! Here is where you simply say to yourself - "So What!" Don't let it get you down. Instead, just pick back up where you left off. No harm, no foul. Just begin working your task list. Continue to work toward the completion of your projects. Don't waste time beating yourself up over any delays. Re-engage and keep pushing forward.

 

Look Back to See Forward - From time to time, take a minute to review the progress you've made. Take time out to celebrate the little wins achieved along the way! Remind yourself of where you would be if you had not taken any action at all toward your goal - then compare it to where you are now. Perhaps you have not yet fully realized your goal, but you are no doubt well on your way to victory. Give yourself a well deserved pat on the back for a job well done. Get going on those tasks and projects, and don't stop putting one step in front of the other until you have achieving your ultimate outcome.

Out of all the above steps, the single most important step is Taking Action Daily! By taking action today toward your goals, you could be on your way to creating the roadmap to the life you want. You can accomplish things you once thought were impossible.

 

"Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps."
- Helmut Schmidt

 

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