Vices...

"How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Have your bad habits gotten the best of you? Have you given up on your lifestyle change (or New Year's resolution) because it became too difficult? Experts say that it takes 21 days to break a bad habit or form a good habit. I keep trying to pound this one truth home - falling off the wagon is not failure - failure is not even trying.

I have fallen time and time again, gone over in calories - refused to exercise or jog, and I have beaten myself up over it. Then I get right back onto the plan and start over again. Each day is a new day to start over. Why beat yourself up over past mistakes? Start with a clean slate and positive state of mind!

"It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations." - Walter Bagehot


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Hope

"You've gotta have hope. Without hope life is meaningless. Without hope life is meaning less and less." - Author Unknown

Hope. It all comes down to hope. Hope is one of the things that drives us. Drives our passions, drives our motivation, drives our being. If we have no hope, depression & gloominess, despair & lonliness invades our very soul.

Sure things come into our lives that cause pain and depression - but we should all have that hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a rope or ladder reaching down into the depths of our depression waiting to lift us out.

How is your hope today? Are you hoping for a better future? Set your eyes on the prize and Go For It!


"Hope is grief's best music." - Author Unknown

Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Nowhere...

"Gotta get away from the day-to-day, everybody knows this is nowhere..." - Neil Young


So, how's the new lifestyle change coming for 2008? First full week is behind us with another 51 weeks ahead. Are you going to be in that 20% that sticks with it, or the 80% that gives up by January 31st? Dan Miller often talks about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Are you in a rut? Make a change, any change, however small, to get yourself out of that day-to-day grind.

So, come on. Are you gonna make this year the best ever? Or are you going to flounder in your rut, wishing and hoping?

"It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to." - Annie Gottlier


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Self-Discovery...

"Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul." - Author Unknown


http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/index.php?ntid=263791

A neat story of self-discovery. A pastor in Ohio challenged his congregation with the parable of the talents from the book of Matthew. Adults were given $50 each, children were given $10 each and had 7 weeks to double the money in some way.

Elderly people rediscovered old talents like woodworking & knitting, little kids used their creativity of origami, others were inventive by offering motorcycle & plane rides, one lady may end up parlaying her creative talent into a business (she decorated flip-flops & sold them).
Not only is this a story revolving around a biblical story with a purpose - it can be grasped by the non-religious as well. Discovering what you can offer the world through your talents, that each person has something unique about them.

I may not be the most talented singer or painter, but I like to write and produce audio/visual material. Go on your own road to self-discovery. Find out what you have to offer the world. You may be surprised at what you find!


"Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it." - Buddha


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com