goal achievement Archives

11/12/2018 by Lisa McDonald Leave a Comment

Christmas Stories – How Oprah’s Worst Christmas Became Her Best

Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. It can touch many people, from children through to adults, throughout the years. Consequently it can be the source of many memories. Each story of an event is affected by the way you see, think and feel about about what happened. For some the memories are happy and positive, while for others they are unpleasant or painful.

Whatever you experience in life, you have the ability to shape your own story. In today’s post, I share Oprah Winfrey’s story about how her worst Christmas became her best. And, some of the ways in which that story affected her.

Oprah’s Story

It was Christmas Eve and Oprah was 12 years old. Her mother took her aside and told her that they wouldn’t be having Christmas that year. Oprah’s initial response was to asked about Santa. Her mother responded by telling her that there was not Santa. There wasn’t going to be any gifts for her or her young sisters.

Her Worst Christmas Story

In truth, Oprah had already started to become aware that there was no Santa. However, this was her first realisation that they were poor. Her initial reaction was of guilt and shame. Then, she began thinking about the story she would share with others. Normally on Christmas morning all the kids would play out doors with their new toys, and show their neighbours what they had received. Knowing that she wouldn’t have any new toys to show, Oprah considered whether she would hide out in their house or say she was sick the next morning. It was going to be her worst Christmas ever.

A New Christmas Story

Late that night, some nuns came to the house with food, and toys for her and her young sisters. Oprah was very touched and grateful – someone had noticed them! Additionally, this wonderful act of kindness had gifted her with a new story to tell. Oprah had recognised that it transformed her story, from her worst Christmas into her best .

The Power of Oprah’s Story

Oprah never forgot that earlier experience and how she felt. Years later she was building a house which was not going to be ready for Christmas. She asked herself, “what would be the next best way to spend Christmas?” She reflected back on her childhood experience. The answer that came to her was to give other children that same experience, of being noticed. She decided to go to South Africa and to give food, clothes, toys, and soccer balls to some of the poorer villages. Oprah re-framed her story, which enabled her to experience the joy of giving to these kids.

Your Christmas Stories

If your life has been touched by Christmas then it is likely that you have your own stories to share. Aside from Christmas (which many people in the world don’t celebrate), your life has been impacted by many things. Take a few minutes now to reflect on some of your best and worst stories from your life, and how they have impacted you.

Here are three powerful questions to ask yourself:

What experiences you are grateful for?
Do you have any stories that you need to transform into more positive and empowering ones?
How could you share that same experience with someone else?

Empower Yourself And Others

As a 12 year old, Oprah had a powerful experience. She could have chosen to focus on negative aspects of her story, or she could focus on the positive aspects of her story. By choosing to focus on the positive, she got to feel grateful and empowered. You have choices too.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, your experiences can be powerful. Your stories of these events are flavoured by how you think and feel. Consequently your stories shape your life. They also have a ripple effect, flowing on and impacting others. Carrying around negative stories increases stress and conflict. It also reduces your self-belief, drains your energy and keeps you stuck in the past.

Instead, learn how to re-frame your stories into more positive ones. If you’re finding it difficult to re-frame your story, and would like some help, please click here to book in a free chat with me.

Remember, your stories and choices shape your life. Just like Oprah Winfrey, you can re-frame your stories to support you and the life you want to live.

17/07/2018 by Lisa McDonald

Anthony Robbins: Getting Caught In A Mental Trap

Today’s wise words on getting caught in a mental trap comes from American Tony Robbins (born 1960). Tony Robbins is an author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach. He has touched many people’s lives – including my own through his health, wealth and peak performance books and seminars. He has also worked with many high profile people on an individual basis including: Bill Clinton, Serena William, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana and Hugh Jackman. Read more about my story in a moment.

Here’s today’s wise quote from Tony Robbins;

“Often we are caught in a mental trap of seeing enormously successful people and thinking they are where they are because they have some special gift. Yet a closer look shows that the greatest gift that extraordinarily successful people have over the average person is their ability to get themselves to take action.”
– Anthony Robbins.

The Mental Trap

My first experience with Tony Robbins was in about 2002. It was at one of his seminars when I attended his Unleash The Power Within. At this event he coached thousands of ordinary people to walk across hot coals. The purpose of the fire walk is for participants to experience a new level of what’s possible. He has been teaching since 1983.

In order to get people to do the fire walk he had to train them out of the mental traps. Walking through hot goals is something that most people would perceive as life threatening, and would not even attempt. The wrong mindset significantly increases the risk of burning your feet on the hot coals. It also makes people quit and not even doing the activity. The right mindset gets a person thinking and doing the right things to safely cross the hot coals. So Tony had to prepare and train our minds away from mental traps which may prevent success.

It was a powerful lesson. Not everybody did the activity – but it certainly was an amazing experience for those of us that did the activity! It definitely showed what our mind is capable of when we focus our mind and take action (or avoid it). When ordinary people get out of the mental trap they CAN achieve extraordinary things!

Breakthrough The Mental Traps

Whether your goal is to walk across hot coals or achieve some other important goal, it’s essential to break through any mental traps blocking you. By doing so you’ll be better able to focus your mind and take actions. Otherwise you’ll never achieve the goals and results you want to achieve.

For more information on some of the common blocks that you may need to breakthrough to achieve different results, visit my blog “3 Blocks That Sabotage Your Success And What To Do About It” . You’ll learn – 3 ways you may be sabotaging your success, how these block keep you stuck and some exercises you can implement today to get unblocked.

Another way you can breakthrough is by working with a coach who can assist you with identifying where you’re getting stuck, creating a roadmap for breaking through, and supporting you to take the necessary actions to succeed To see how I can help you click here to book a time with me and we’ll go over the options.

Your Biggest Mental Trap

I’d love to hear what your biggest mental trap is. Please share your thoughts below or send me a message

With warm regards

Lisa

PS Remember -to take at least one action step today to progress your most important goals.

22/04/2018 by Lisa McDonald Leave a Comment

Habits That Hold Your Development Back

Habits are something that affect all of us. They can support our development or they can hold us back. And that’s the focus of today’s blog post “Habits That Hold Back Your Development”

Lessons From A Dummy

Recently we’ve gone through the process of weaning Charlie from his “dummy” (or “pacifier”) habit. In the early days it was used as an occasional strategy, when he was in a heightened state of upset.

Concerned about the frequency some family members popped it into his mouth, I spoke to the pediatrician about it at a consultation on another matter. He said it was better for Charlie to use the dummy than his finger as that habit created dental problems. He also pointed out that fingers are always there and instantly accessible, while a dummy is much easier to remove at some point.

After weaning him off breast feeding he wanted it more. I saw that it was a partial replacement for what was no longer available to him. Then a few months later I was travelling with a friend and Charlie was in unfamiliar territory, so I let Charlie have it more as a form of comfort and familiarity. On returning home he started asking for it more and more and some family members obliged.

We then started making conscious effort to reduce access to the dummy because he was getting too attached to the habit. When we went out we’d get him to leave it in the car (he liked having it in the car). But at home he was insistent about having it a lot of the time. We then started putting it out of reach (he was able to get it himself off lower surfaces) periodically during the day.

New Awareness

Recently I took him to the dentist for his first checkup. I was told that his bite had become crooked because of his dummy habit, particularly on one side(because he sucked the dummy more on that side). She said that it was still developing, and that it would take around 12 months to correct. Or longer, if he continued using the dummy. She encouraged me to get him off the habit as soon as possible. And, reinforced the message by saying that, if it wasn’t done before his next lot of teeth came through, that jaw surgery would be the only way to correct it. Yikes! OK so that was a big incentive, and became the catalyst for speeding up the process!

Accelerating Withdrawal

The first step was to withdraw it during the day, and only for sleeping. Of course he didn’t take to kindly to the change. It took a full on 3 days of howling for him to settle down. He oscillated between being cross and pulling back from me and being really clingy. It was wearing but giving in would have made the problem worse.

The next week I withdrew it for his day sleep. He asked for it but only made a small amount of fuss.
One night, about a week later before heading away for a week, I encouraged him to try going to sleep without it in the evening. He obliged without much fuss at all. I repeated it for the next few nights including while away. Yay!

He still asks for it most days somewhere along the way. More often when he’s tired or feeling unsettled – naturally, it had been a form of comfort to him.

If a two year old, with a relatively short habit takes that amount of time to adjust, you can understand why it takes us adults so long to adapt to change and ween off our addictions. We’ve usually had our habit, addiction or pattern for a lengthy period of time …

Attachments Become Habit Forming

Reflecting on this story of weaning my son off his dummy habit, got me thinking about how we attach comfort to people, things and situations. And the more we repeat our use and reliance on them, the more the attachment and habit forming they become.

Habits Shape Your World

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your habits are shaping your world. They are creating everything that’s in your life and the results you are experiencing.

To change the shape of your world and to achieve more of your goals, you need to work on your habits. You need to identify the habits which are limiting your capacity to achieve results, and replace them with habits that will will assist you in being successful.

Habits Hold Back Your Development

Over time the costs and benefits of continuing a habit may change. A habit that starts out as a reasonable solution, may turn out to be detrimental down the track.

We may be oblivious to the changes. Or we might be aware because symptoms are starting to appear or get worse. For example in you may start seeing changes in your health, relationships, business or finances. It may be simply that you’ve hit a ceiling and are struggling to make in inroads or progress with your goals. Or it could be that someone has pointed it out to you – like the dentist pointed out Charlie’s crooked bite problem.

Take a few moments now to reflect on your important goals and your habits.

What habits do you have that are :

Interfering with your growth and development – whether that be physical, mental spiritual or emotional?
Diminishing your confidence and courage?
Reducing your progress and goal success?

Reshaping Your Habits for Success

Having reflected on the habits which are holding you back (see above), take some time now to create a plan for how you will reshape your habits. Then empower yourself by starting to implement your plan.

Reshaping your habits is an essential part of achieving your goals. So take at least one action step today to start reshaping your habits for success

Warm regards
Lisa

PS Want some help to reshape your habits so you can achieve more of your goals and dreams? If so, please contact me and we’ll chat about the next step – I’d love to support you.

07/02/2018 by Lisa McDonald Leave a Comment

Are You One of The 36% or 64% of People?

Are you one of the 36% OR one of the 64% of people? That’ the question I want you to ask yourself today.

It’s February already! And to state the obvious – that’s one month gone of 2018.

That means there’s less than 11 months remaining to achieve any new years resolutions or goals you resolved to achieve in 2018. Have you converted them into written goals that you’ve started implementing?

Are You One of 36% or 64% of People

If you’re still focused and taking action on your new year’s resolutions, then well done, because that means [Read more…]

24/01/2018 by Lisa McDonald Leave a Comment

Pablo Picasso Wisdom: There Is No Other Route To Success

No Other Route to Success

Today’s wisdom is about the route to success, and comes from well Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). He was considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Picasso was best known as the co-founder of cubism – (a work of art is considered cubist when the artist opts to break up objects and re-assemble them in abstract and geometric form). And, he was a co-inventor of collage.

A talented man, Picasso was also a sculptor, print-maker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France.

Here’s today’s quote on the route to success by Picasso ;

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
~ Pablo Picasso“

The 3 Essential Elements To Success

Do you have important goals you want to achieve this year?

If so, then apply the 3 essential elements which Picasso’s reveals in this quote:

The vehicle of A Plan – create the steps you’ll need to take and the timelines required to achieve your goals
Fervent Belief – you must believe that it is possible otherwise you’re unlikely to take action
Vigorous Action – you must take act to implement your plan and do what’s required to succeed.

As Picasso says … there is no other route to success other than these three elements.

Four Other Interesting Fact About Pablo Picasso

Here are four interesting facts you may not know about Pablo Picasso.

He was baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso … The Ruiz y Picasso are after his mother and father as per Spanish law. The remainder of the names honouried various saints and relatives.
Picasso had to burn his paintings to keep himself warm as a young artist
He was the first living artist to have an exhibition at the Louvre – at age 90!
Picasso maintained several mistresses throughout his life in addition to his wife or primary partner. Picasso married twice and had four children to three different women.

4 Strategic Questions on Creating Your Route To Success

You can create your route to success – by applying the above three elements to your goals. Consider these four strategic questions for you to consider:

Are your goals written down for this year? For the longer term future?
Do you have a plan written down for the key actions you’re going to take to achieve your goals?
Do you believe you can achieve your goal?
Have you started taking action to achieve your goals?

Answered YES to ALL these questions?? If so, GREAT!

Answered NO to ANY of these question?? Then you must get serious about your goals – NOW is the time to get commit and get it done!

Traditional goal setting doesn’t work. To create your route to success start by writing your goals using my FREE SMARTIES Checklist . You can get it by clicking over here.

Get Some Assistance To Create Your Route To Success

Working with a coach can assist you to create your route to success. This includes assisting you to write you goals, create your roadmap, develop supportive beliefs and take the actions required to succeed. Book a time to chat with me about how I can best assist you. You can contact me by clicking here.

Take at least one action step today towards progressing your goals.