Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 26th

Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. - Les Brown

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. - Jimmy Dean

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell

We are halfway through 2018…WOW!  This is a great time to review goals, analyze progress, determine what changes need to be made and decide what needs to be said “no” to.  Mid-year reviews are an important activity because we are constantly changing, and our goals will often times need to change.  

Over the last couple of weeks, Terri’s Tuesday Tip of the Week has discussed various aspects of what occurs during a mid-year review.  Gigi Butler’s plan changed when her dream of being a country western singer ended and her dream became opening her own bakery.  Zersenay Tadese changed his normal routine of not drinking water while running to drinking water and slashed 4 minutes off his marathon time.  And then my personal story of simply saying “NO”.  

Here are steps to follow to conduct a mid-year review:

v  Read through your goals.

v  Analysis benchmarking data to determine progress.

v  Examine first half of 2018 to determine which goals still “fit” into your life and determine which goals you no longer need to continue working towards. 

v  Determine what “small” changes you need to make to help accomplish your remaining 2018 goals.

v  Discuss with accountability partner for feedback, suggestions, etc. 

CHALLENGE: Conduct your mid-year review.

https://muriellemarie.com/goals-that-matter/mid-year-goals-review-2016-part-1-2/

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 19th

Sometimes "No" is the kindest word. - Vironika Tugaleva

“NO” is a complete sentence. It does not require an explanation to follow. You can truly answer someone’s request with a simple No. - Sharon E. Rainey, The Best Part of My Day Healing Journal

When you say no to the wrong people, it opens up the space for the right people to come in. - Joe Calloway, Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business

Learn to say “no” to the good and the advantageous, in order to receive the best. - Sunday Adelaja

You can get a thousand no's from people, and only one "yes" from God. - Tyler Perry

NO…not always a fun word to hear, but a word that often needs to be said.  NO is a word that will often help people accomplish their dreams. 

As I have been working towards my goals, many people have made suggestions of books to read, podcasts to listen to, television shows to watch, etc.  At times, I have been overwhelmed by all of the recommendations.  Recently, I was considering a book a family member suggested to me.  Since reading is one of my favorite things to do, I rarely decline a suggestion.  However, I had a few other books I also needed to read.  Considering this book, I reviewed a few important things about what I planned for my life in 2018.  My word for the year is “history” and I determined earlier this year that I wanted to focus a majority of my learning on history.  Since the suggested book did not have anything to do with history, I told myself “NO”. 

Throughout this year, I have learned that if I lose my focus and do not stay the course of focusing on some aspect of “history” I feel I get off track for accomplishing my goals.  From these experiences, I decided that I wanted to focus on my goals and rarely stray from them.

As a side-note, I am not suggesting that an individual cannot do something in a year that is not working towards accomplishing their goals.  We all need to have fun and life does not always go as planned.  In those times, we need to be flexible.  However, to accomplish goals, I believe it is very important to stay focused and often that means saying “NO”.

CHALLENGE:  Next week will be the mid-year mark.  This is a great time to finish up any goals that have mid-year deadlines and complete any goals that are almost completed to help boost your confidence. 

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 12th

The ultimate way to change something is to change what is behind that something. Change what is behind something and something will change! - Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. - Carol Burnett

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. - Jimmy Dean

Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto set the world record in the marathon by running a time of 2:02:57 at the 2014 Berlin Marathon.   In 2017, Nike created a project for runners to break the 2-hour mark for running a marathon.  They selected three runners, which were Lelisa Desisa, Eliud Kipchoge and Zersenay Tadese.  To help these gentlemen break the 2-hour marathon barrier, Nike studied the runner’s strides, nutrition needs and even created new running shoes for them to wear.  

Zersenay Tadese is considered one of the best marathon runners of all times and holds the half-marathon record at 58:23 according to Sports Illustrated in May 2017.  He trains in Eritrea and his stride is beautiful, smooth and effortless.  Brett Kirby of Nike’s Sport Research Lab said about Tadese, “This guy is a stud.”

As Nike was assisting Tadese in slimming minutes off his marathon time, they asked many questions including how much water he drank while running.  In his two previous marathons, he said he did not drink any water during the race making his body greatly dehydrated.  Nike scientist encouraged him to drink more during training runs and they would make sure he was adequately hydrated during the actual event.  Tadese finished the marathon in 2:06:51, which was almost 4 minutes faster his personal best marathon of 2:10:41.

Nike credits many things for helping Tadese in slimming almost 4 minutes of his marathon time.  However, drinking more water during his marathon is considered one of the biggest factors.

CHALLENGE:  As you are reviewing your 2018 goals, think about what minor changes you can make to help accomplish your goals.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zersenay_Tadese

https://news.nike.com/news/how-to-watch-the-breaking2-documentary

www.si.com/edge/2017/05/06/eliud-kipchoge-two-hour-marathon-nike-breaking2-results

http://running.competitor.com/2017/05/news/breaking-2-nike-missed-goal_164272

https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a20846898/what-nikes-breaking2-team-learned-in-africa/

https://theaterchurch.com/media/reboot/back-to-basics

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - June 5th

I dream my painting and I paint my dream. ― Vincent van Gogh

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. ― Henry David Thoreau

Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others. ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Have you ever heard of Gigi’s Cupcakes?  Until recently, I had not; however, I think this story is inspiring and well worth the read.    

Gina “Gigi” Butler started her first company, Gigi’s Cleaning Company, at 15 because she did not want to work for anyone else.  Her real dream was to become a country singer/songwriter so she sold her cleaning business and followed her dream to Nashville, Tennessee.  After finding a few cleaning clients, she would clean during the day and at night wait tables and sing.  During this time, she worked at popular tourist night spots such as Tootsie’s and The Stage on Broadway.

At 30, she decided that she had spent enough late nights waiting tables and singing.  She decided that she would retire from the music industry.  Part of her felt like she was a failure because she had not accomplished her dream, but she knew that God healed all wounds.  After expanding her cleaning business and hiring new employees, she was content with life. 

One afternoon while cleaning, her brother, Steve, called her from New York.  He told her that he had just stood in line for 2 hours for a cupcake and he personally believed that the cupcakes she made with her mom were better than the one he was eating.  He encouraged her to start her own bakery in Nashville.  She took a “leap of faith” and decided to start the bakery. 

After many setbacks including financing issues and people not believing in her dream, she found a banker that helped her. On the day she opened the bakery, she had $33 in her checking account. Gigi’s Cupcakes now has more than 100 locations in 23 states.

Gigi’s advice for anyone interested in her story:

If I can convey just one idea to someone reading my story, it would be to believe in yourself, walk with integrity, work hard and trust in God. And maybe your life won’t turn out exactly how you were expecting or hoping it to be; but maybe, just maybe, it will be so much better than you could have ever imagined!

With God, all things are possible!

CHALLENGE:  Be encouraged to keeping pushing towards your dreams!

As we are approaching midyear, it is a great time to start preparing to conduct your midyear goal review.  If you are not tracking benchmark data for your 2018 goals, start gathering data to determine progress.

To Read the Full Story about Gigi’s Cupcakes:

https://gigibutler.com/about/

https://gigiscupcakesusa.com/about/gigis-story/