LESSONS FROM ABROAD

This is the first Monday of 2015.  The day most of us actually start our resolutions.  On Jan. 1st I told you I would walk you through my resolutions so here it goes!!  

For the past 2 weeks I was traveling in Brazil.  Wow what a magical country!  The culture, the food, the sky!  It was truly beautiful and delicious!  I am so grateful to have gone on this trip for many reasons.  The adventure, the relaxation, the quality time with my husband, but the biggest and most powerful thing I took away from this trip was a new sense of clarity. 

I read something once that said, “Actions speak louder than intentions.”  And further down it said something to the effect of (and I’m paraphrasing): “Until we have clarity in our vision and mission then our actions are just tasks and we aren’t progressing our lives.”  Clarity.  

In 2014 I asked myself “what are my intentions, my vision, my mission?”  This trip gave me the quite moments of pause and reflection that allowed me to explore these questions and do the digging necessary to find the answers.

Being so far from LA without wifi, TV, media, ENGLISH, and the distractions of home I was able to secure in myself the drive to tackle the challenges that lie ahead in this year.  I’m not kidding myself - I know there will be major road blocks as I work towards my major goals.  But that’s exciting and fires me up!  

I ask you to take a few moments as we start the new year and ask yourself the same questions.  What are your intentions, your vision, your mission?  And then I challenge you to dig deep and truly define and clarify the action steps you’re going to take to make YOUR impact on this world.  This year can be anything you make of it.  

Welcome to 2015 - Lets make it an incredible year!  

xo

Becky

When I think of New Year’s Resolutions I think of these GRAND ideas, dreams, goals that will change my life!  Getting a house, making a certain income, losing “x” amount of weight, etc.  Sometimes these goals are so huge and I put so much pressure on them that I set myself up for failure.  

Have you ever felt like that?  You put so much pressure on achieving the goal right away that when it doesn’t happen by February you just say “ah well - I guess that wasn’t meant to be.”  Or you say “well someday it will happen.”  We give all of our power away to “someday” within a few short weeks.  The problem with that is we didn’t even give it a chance to succeed.  We didn’t work at it long enough to feel the beneficial swing of momentum help us along.  

So what now?  Have I totally depressed you and made you want to give up on your resolutions already?  I hope not!  I told you that because I wanted to open your eyes to one of the most common patterns when it comes to resolutions.  We all know about this so why does it keep happening?  The whole reason we create resolutions in the first place is to better ourselves, right?  But with betterment comes change, and with change comes process, and with process comes time… so you get the gist… we fear the process and make excuses for our inability to commit.  I recently heard someone say that an excuse is just a very well crafted lie.  That kind of took me by surprise!  Sounds harsh right?  Well it is!  But honestly what better way to get us off our butts than a little harsh reality check.  The choice is yours this year - do you want to keep running in the hamster wheel of resolution failure or do you want to chart a different course - one with growth, renewal and success?

Hopefully you’re still reading this which means you choose door number 2 and want to meet your resolutions head on and fight to achieve them!  To that I say welcome aboard and it’s going to be a fun ride!  

Let me pause for a second to introduce myself and my mission for this year.  My name is Becky Jennings - I’m a wife, fitness fanatic, foodie, personal trainer, nutrition coach, and online fitness coach.  I’m also a dreamer, a planner, a doer, and someone with a lot of heart who just wants to help!  I attempted blogging last year and I loved it.  I got great feedback and it felt great to be vulnerable and journal my experiences.  But like many activities that better a person, it took time and I found excuses not to do it.  But not this year!  This year I will walk you through my journey to reach my resolutions.  I’m sure many of mine are similar to yours and so I hope you’ll find some nuggets of wisdom here.  

I’m here to help you create a NEW pattern so that our dreams and goals DO become our reality.  I read something recently from Brendon Burcahrd who said “Reality is bendable to our will.”  Let me say that again in a different way.  Whatever we want our lives to be - our reality to be - we can create it.  It is up to us and no one else to create our own reality!  

So right this minute we’ve given ourselves back the power to create our future.  Here is how I plan on shaping my 2015 to match my desired reality.   Now here is the fun part (well I’m calling it fun because scary doesn’t sound as motivating and I’m taking steps to  create my reality)!  I’m going to share my resolutions with you and how I plan on making them my reality! 

1. This year I want to double my income.  I say that EVERY year.  Being my own boss it’s up to me to generate my leads, customers, and revenue.  So every year I say to myself “This year I’m going to double my income!”  And each year I am within $5-10K of exactly where I was the last year.  But not THIS year!  This year I plan on doubling it!  How am I going to do that?  I’m going to get rid of the bad habits and replace them with good habits.  On my off time I’m not going to run useless errands, scroll the internet, or watch TV.  On my off time I’m going to build my online fitness business.  I’m going to devote my time outside of the gym to reaching anyone and everyone who wants nutrition and fitness guidance.  My reach can be national and I’m going to make sure it is!   
2. I’m going to take back my day!  Yup you heard me!  No more hijacked days where I end up doing everything everyone else needs before getting to what I need.  It might sound selfish but I can’t be good to anyone unless I am good to myself.  So I am going to organize my day and execute the tasks during that block of time and then move on to the next.  When I’m in the role of personal trainer I’m going to focus my attention strictly on personal training.  When I’m with my husband I am going to solely focus on being with my husband.  This year I plan on ridding myself of distractions so I can be present in the moments of my life.
3. I will set myself up for financial success!  This year I saved 10% of everything I made.   In 2015 I have set a goal of saving 30% of everything that I bring in!  It sounds big but I didn’t miss that 10% at all.  It became a habit of taking that money out of my checks and putting it into savings.  So why not take it up a notch?  This year 30% of everything I make will be put into  savings and investments.  I want to know my future is being build as I build my current reality!  
4. And lastly I want to abolish negative thought.  This one is wide spread!  From the negative thoughts in my own head to what people are saying about themselves or others to what I hear on the news.  This year is about putting positivity out in the world and moving away from negative thoughts.  It’s SO easy to get caught up in the tragedy and stress of this world.  But being absorbed in this world brings absolutely no benefit to the body or soul.  Instead of listening to the news in the car I’ll listen to a great book or music that pumps me up!  When someone mentions all the bad that’s going on I’ll ask them to find something good (my dad did this to me ALL the time when I was an angst ridden teenager).  And when I say something negative about myself or get down on myself I will change the course of my thoughts and give myself a compliment.  When I get in a fight with my husband I will do everything in my power to stop myself and tell him why I love him.  

It is my hope and purpose this year to better myself.  And throughout this year I will share how I’m doing that!  It could be a workout or recipe that fuels the body and revs up my metabolism; a book that brought me great joy; a trip or destination that filled me back up and relaxed my mind; or simply a quote I picked up that made me stop and reflect on if I’m living my best life.  

I leave you with this on my first post!  Happy New Year, what a wonderful year this will be. Now let’s go out there and better ourselves. Because a better us makes a better world. 

xo

Becky