The Aforementioned Article - Written Around Six Years Ago!

I'm back from school camp, and my muscles have recovered from various hiking, walking, running and beachy activities. I had serious aches for about 3 days afterwards due to the discovery of muscles I've obviously avoided using for about a decade! The kids all had heaps of fun and so did the staff!

So... back to the world of blogging!

Here's the article I mentioned in this post about my T.V. watching (or non-watching as the case may be) pledge. I wrote it quite a few years ago, around six I think, so it looks like I didn't listen to my own advice and 'step away from the T.V.', because I'm still faffing around about doing it now!

Time for some serious action me thinks!

If you watch the Dr Phil Show you’ll have heard his infamous saying "How’s that workin’ for ya?”

This is the question he asks people who are stuffing up their jobs, lives, relationships etc by doing something that’s obviously not working for them.

Except it’s not so obvious to them, and there-in lies the problem.

Another popular saying amongst motivational gurus also springs to mind...

‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten’.

Or, as Albert Einstein so beautifully put it…. 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results'.

So what are you doing that might be dragging you down and stopping you from forging ahead in leaps and bounds? What simple things could you change or remove to set you on a whole new path, or indeed make the one you’re on a whole lot easier?

Here’s a few little things that might be staring you in the face, yet flying beneath the radar.

The average person watches 3 to 4 hours of television a night. And the average person is not a monumental success. A coincidence - or not?

It’s not that TV itself is inherently bad, but the time it steals away from you is.

You could be doing so much more with that time… working on your business, spending quality time with your partner, exercising, reading, playing sport, learning a new skill, meditating, writing in your journal, planning a holiday, the list goes on.

Think of the TV shows you enjoy watching most. The characters always seem to lead exciting, thrilling, and dramatic lives. They’d rarely have time to fit watching television into their jam packed day. We’re fascinated by those whose lives are more adventurous than ours, we wish our own lives were more entertaining…. and yet there we sit in front of the TV, watching instead of doing.

So instead of automatically switching the TV on just for something to do, try picking 3 or 4 programs a week you really enjoy or find inspiring. Turn the TV on just before they start, and OFF when they're finished.

Email and procrastination. Two words that are intrinsically linked. Ever noticed how easy it is to get distracted for a whole afternoon by your email? Checking, reading, answering, checking, reading, answering, checking…. you get the message.

Yes your employer/customers/clients like emails answered quickly, but focusing obsessively on your email can seriously derail you from undertaking other productive activities.

Get a handle on the email monster and set aside specific times to tame it. Make your emails as brief as possible, and stop using it as an excuse for not taking care of those activities you’ve been putting off.

Preparation is recognised as one of the keys to success. But some people spend all their time preparing and never leave the gate. They read, research, make lists, draw up plans, create goals, read some more, talk to people, and go ’round and ’round in circles.

They gather all the gear they need to go swimming, but never dive into the pool. Half the time they’ve spent so long getting ready the pool’s dried up. Or, they dip a toe in, decide it’s not quite right, and more preparation ensues.

The folks at Nike have got it right.

It’s time to give up perpetually preparing.

Stop getting in the way of yourself, take a deep breath, and dive in. Every journey begins with the first step, and nothing begins until you begin it.

Just do it!

The road to success can be hard. Littering it with unnecessary roadblocks like television, email, procrastination, and over preparation is an easy (and often subconscious) way to avoid putting yourself on the line.

The average person rarely achieves excellence (hence why they are average), therefore if you seek greatness it makes no sense to do what the average person does.

So if what you’re doing isn’t working for you, do something else. Clearing your roadblocks to success could be as simple as thinking about what most ordinary people do, and then not doing it!

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Hope you liked it!

Now... back to seeing what I can do about mitigating my T.V. watching habits (effectively this time).

Linda. xox

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