A Life Changing Procedure!

I promised that I would post Zig Ziglar's daily affirmations that I received at a conference a few years ago.  They are excellent.  I printed these and then taped them to my bathroom mirror so that I see them every day.  Have a great day!

A Life-Changing Procedure!  

by Zig Ziglar

The eyes are the windows of the soul.  So, to the person you are capable of becoming, each evening, just before you go to bed, stand in front of the mirror alone and in the first-person, present tense, look yourself in the eye and repeat with passion and enthusiasm the first four paragraphs.  Repeat this process every morning and every evening from this day forward.  Within one week you will notice remarkable changes in our life.  After 30 days, choose the one paragraph that you feel needs the most work and repeat that every day.  

“I __________, am an honest, intelligent, organized responsible, committed, teachable person who is sober, loyal, and clearly understands that regardless of who signs my paycheck I am self-employed.  I am an optimistic, punctual, enthusiastic, goal-setting, smart working self-starter who is a disciplined, focused, dependable, persistent positive thinker with great self-control, and am an energetic and diligent team player and a hard worker who appreciates the opportunity my company and the free enterprise system offer me.  I am thrifty with my resources and apply common sense to my daily tasks. I take honest pride in my competence, appearance and manners, and am motivated to be and do my best so that my healthy self-image will remain on sold ground.  There are the qualities which enable me to manage myself and help give me employment security in a no-job-security world.

I __________, am a compassionate, respectful encourager who is a considerate, generous, gentle, patient, caring, sensitive, personable, attentive, fun-loving person.  I am a supportive, giving and forgiving, clean, kind, unselfish, affectionate, loving, family-oriented human being and I am a sincere and open-minded good listener and a good-finder who is trustworthy.  These are the qualities which enable me to build good relationships with my associates, neighbors, mate and family.

I ___________, am a person of integrity, with the faith and the wisdom to know what I should do and the courage and convictions to follow through.  I have the vision to manage myself and to lead others.  I am authoritative, confident and humbly grateful for the opportunity life offers me.  I am fair, flexible, resourceful, creative, knowledgeable, decisive and an extra-miler with a servant’s attitude who communicates well with others.  I am a consistent, pragmatic teacher with character and a finely-tuned sense of humor.  I am an honorable person and am balanced in my personal, family and business life, and have a passion for being, doing and learning more today so I can be, do and have more tomorrow.  

These are the qualities of the winner that I was born to be and I am fully committed to developing these marvelous qualities with which I have been entrusted.  Tonight I am going to sleep wonderfully well.  I will dream powerful, positive dreams.  I will awaken energized and refreshed; tomorrow’s going to be magnificent and my future is unlimited.  Recognizing , claiming and developing these qualities which I already have gives me a legitimate chance to be happier, healthier, more prosperous, more secure, have more friends, greater peace of mind, better family relationships and legitimate hope that the future will be even better.”  

Who said school was just for kids?

Who said school was just for kids?

  I stopped a complete stranger to take this picture of me, oh my kids would be mortified - too bad.

Well, September is here and I'm back in school and not giving up.  The good news is that I'm not alone on this journey.  Here I am with long time friend, Theresa Hara, who is also finishing up her degree.  We have both been taking classes over the years at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas.  Now that we are both empty nesters we can focus more on our schooling.

New members of the Geek Squad.

If you have a full time student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota there is a program that might be of interest to you.  It is a program called "Parents on Campus" which allows parent(s) of full-time students to be eligible to take up to two courses (or eight credits) on a space available basis without tuition charge. 

As an older, non-traditional student, there are challenges I have that the younger generation doesn't even consider.  Some of these issues are - will I be the only one in class with reading glasses, will I be able to keep up with the new technology, will I be able to remember and retain the class materials, will my scheduled colonoscopy "prep" interfere with homework or will I get a "hot-flash" while I'm giving a presentation in front of the class? Well, some of these situations might come to fruition but I just keep reminding myself that you don't get anywhere in life if you play it safe.  

It is becoming more common than you think for people to go back to school.   Everyone has their own reason; whether it is to change careers, achieve a higher position in your company, now that your children are older you have more time to study or maybe you just want to sharpen your mind.  Remember, it is important to stimulate the brain no matter what your age.  

Whatever your reason is to decide to go back to school, stay focused on your goals and work at a pace that is best suited for you.  Take it one step at a time and you will succeed.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to life forever." - Mohandas Gandhi