5 Steps to Hit Your Fitness Goals

Steven Jonas has completed 217 multisport events. He’s written five books ontriathlon training. He’s a professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University in New York who has written extensively on “mobilizing motivation.” So he knows a few things about setting training goals for a new year and harnessing the motivation to bring those goals to reality. At 74, Jonas also recognizes that athletic goals must be adjusted with age. Jonas’ “Ordinary Mortals” program—a five-step pathway to mobilizing motivation—is especially applicable this time of year.

1. Assess Your Motivation

Take a moment and assess where you are as an athlete (and, yes, we’re all athletes). “What do you like about what you’re doing?” Jonas asks. “What would I like to change?” This is a simple exercise, but many people don’t take a moment to examine their motivations.

2. Define Success

Jonas has completed three Ironman triathlons, the last coming in 1996. He no longer defines success by finishing one of the most grueling endurance challenges in sports, focusing on shorter distance triathlons. “Let’s say you’ve reached a plateau,” Jonas says. “It could be that you’re bored or stuck or need to change your training. But it could be that your definition of success is unrealistic. I’m 74 and I want to stay in this sport as long as I can. So I’ve had to redefine success.” Success, Jonas says, has to be something that’s “reasonable, realistic and conceivably achievable for you given who you are as a person and what else is going on in your life.”

3. Set Goals

Once you’ve defined success, you can set goals for yourself that are related to the self assessment. It’s important to aim high, but they also should be rational and reasonable goals. Ask yourself questions. Why do I want to get there? What do I expect to get out of the change, should I achieve it? What do I think I can reasonably expect to do? What are the sacrifices and can I commit to them? (Do I really want to?) “Answering those questions provide the focus and concentration you must have in order to have the best chance of success,” Jonas says.

4. Establish Priorities

If you have set more than one goal, where do they rank? What’s the most important to achieve? Which is the least? What about priorities between your new goal(s) and other aspects of your life such as family and career? If juggling needs to be done, it will be very helpful to do some thinking about that. “Some people train 30 hours a week and their family life suffers,” Jonas says. “Keeping everything in balance is key.”

5. Take Control

This means putting yourself in charge of the whole process, adopting a can-do attitude and perspective, given that the first four steps have been followed, of not depending on anyone else but also not taking anyone else’s direction. Advice on both process and content (from coaches, trainers, mentors) is important, but avoid direction in the sense of “you must do this.” You’re solely responsible for success or failure. “Think of this as a five-step, continual feedback loop,” Jonas says. “The key is to be ready to explore your limits while recognizing limitations.”

5 Ways to Read More Books

Find a comfy nook and bring your favorite book… because these tips make it easy for you to start reading more right now.

You’ve probably said it to yourself 100 times before: I really need to start reading more. When you’re an out-of-the-habit adult with a full schedule, however, finding the time to pick up a book can be a challenge.

But this is a goal worth striving for. Science is beginning to back up what book-lovers already know: Reading offers far-reaching benefits for your life. The activity increases the blood flow to your brain and amps up cognitive functioning, according to a Stanford University study. And reading regularly can make you a calmer, more empathetic person.
The good news is, with a little bit of direction, you can absolutely start reading more. Here are five easy ways to get you reading more right now.

1. Set a specific book-reading goal.

How many books do you want to read? How fast do you want to read them? Picking out specific numbers will make it easier to track your progress and to celebrate your victories. Goodreads is a great tool to help you keep track of your book list and set up your reading goals for the year. This app also lets you rally your Facebook friends to join you on your journey and encourage progress.

2. Schedule a nonnegotiable time to read.

Carve out a block of time that can only be used for reading. Schedule it in your planner and make it as important as eating dinner or sleeping. Use an app such as Evernote—or even a simple alarm clock—to remind you that it’s time to pick up a book. Choose your time carefully though: Complicated material is easier to understand early in the morning when your mental clarity is at its peak.

3. Set up a space to read.

Pick a room free from loud distractions and set up your reading sanctuary. Find a comfy chair near a lamp and a small table. Most important, don’t file that book away in between reading sessions. Leave it out in the open to keep it top of mind.

4. Pick a format that you enjoy.

The debate of eBooks versus “treeBooks” will wage on, but here are some nuggets of information to help you decide. eBooks are instant, portable and, well, fun to play with. They can make it easier to locate hard-to-find titles and the text and page appearance are customizable, which is great if you have trouble reading small type. If you can’t fit another charger in your outlet, however, paper books are truly cordless, as well as being much easier to share. They can give your eyes a break from staring at a screen, but the biggest draw for paper books comes down to pure sentimentality: There’s just something about them. Truth be told, neither format is objectively better than the other. Just pick what works best for you.

5. Visit the library.

Perhaps it’s been a while since the last time you went to the library—maybe your third-grade teacher made you. But give it a shot; today’s library looks nothing like the dusty shelves you remember. Now they’re well-stocked with the latest titles in a variety of formats, including audiobooks, and since it’s free, it’s a risk-free way to try out topics you’re not usually into. If you’re an eBook reader, check out the Overdrive app. It lets you virtually check out eBooks and audiobooks from your local library for free with a library card.

Why Anti-Catholicism Will Rise

 
To think that God acts in history by the intermediary of the political actions of man, revolutionary or conservative, is the complete opposite of hope. — Jacques Ellul

When the future looks back on this pontificate, Pope Francis might well be credited with having wakened the sleeping bogey of anti-Catholicism. His staged assaults on the immigration policies of a sovereign United States are the tactics of yet another community organizer, this one with a global constituency.

Francis’ Marxoid rhetoric, advancement of deceptive climate change narratives, and cozy photo-ops with anti-democratic—even murderous—regimes, rekindle old suspicions that popery is the enemy of free institutions.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. called anti-Catholicism “the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people.” Few Catholics today remember the reality of it or the shapes it took either in politics or popular culture outside the bounds of entertainment. Were she still alive, my great-aunt Kitty would be happy to tell you.

She moved to Virginia, a predominantly Protestant state, early in 1942. America had just entered the war. She needed a job; conscripts were leaving theirs. Yet even then, popular anti-Catholic sentiment balked at filling vacancies with papists. Kitty never tired of telling of a common sign in shop windows: “No Catholics Need Apply.” It was the local variant of “No Irish Need Apply.” (Renting a room in a Protestant home, she had to pass as one of them. But that story can wait.)

A Sentiment as Old as America

Kitty faced the rippling effect of a bias fundamental to the culture of the nation. Carried as baggage from England’s anti-Catholic propaganda of the late 1500s and early 1600s, it depicted the Catholic Church as an alien presence poised to undermine the rights of free citizens. John Tracy Ellis chronicled this pattern of thought in his landmark “American Catholicism” (1956). He was blunt: “. . . universal anti-Catholic bias was brought to Jamestown in 1607 and vigorously cultivated in all the thirteen colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia.”

Anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia, June 7, 1844. Source Artres.

No better evidence of the longevity of that bias was the broad influence of Paul Blanshard’s “American Freedom and Catholic Power” (1949). Blanshard was the premier—if that is the word—anti-Catholic bigot of his day. Trained in both theology and law, he earned his anti-Catholic stripes in the 1950s as associate editor of the Nation. His animus was directed not at Catholic persons but at the clerical class. He saw the hierarchy as its own political machine within the larger—and extravagantly corrupt—machinery of municipal politics:

The most successful machines almost always have an inner group of dependable leaders who are Irish and Catholic. These leaders are not necessarily ‘good’ Catholics, but they must never be ‘bad’ Catholics, i.e., they must never be renegades or critics of clerical policy.

Blanshard charged that Irish Catholic voters could be counted on “to hold together and obey the orders of a boss.” During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism was a live issue. The candidate prepared for his address to the Houston Ministers Conference by studying “American Freedom and Catholic Power.” Its chapter “Church, State and Democracy” pivots on one question:

Is this a foreign power? Probably the apologists for the Vatican would say that . . . it is an international rather than a foreign power, drawing its authority from God and its sanction from Catholics of all nations, including the United States. This contention will not stand analysis. The ‘internationalism’ of the Church is quite specious, since the hierarchy does not represent the people . . . nor the government of any nation in the world. Its machinery is completely authoritarian, and the people of the United States do not have any more voting right in controlling it than the Catholic priests of the United States have.

Blanshard went on to ask:

To what extend are the bishops of the hierarchy in the United States agents of the Pope as the sovereign of the Vatican State? Their elaborate oath of allegiance is taken to the Pope; their political, sociological and religious reports are commingled and sent to the same central headquarters. Their instructions to oppose certain types of American legislation come to them in the same type of encyclicals that cover matters of mysticism and ritual. . . . And the money that they raise and send to the Vatican is used for both religious and political activities.

JFK was obligated to dissolve fears that his first allegiance was to his country, not to the pope. But that was a lifetime ago. With five Catholics on the Supreme Court (six, until Antonin Scalia died), and pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage Catholics at the highest levels throughout the political bureaucracy, who now questions the independence of Catholics in governmental decision-making?

Transcendence Descends Into the Muck of Politics

As Francis’ insinuates himself into geopolitics and seeks to influence America’s immigration policies, Blanshard’s long-dormant question—Is this a foreign power?— begins to stir. Catholics themselves recoil from his will to inflate the episcopal jurisdiction of the Chair of Peter into an imperial mandate to determine secular agendas. Catholics and non-Catholics alike wince at the spectacle of Francis grinning delightedly with Iran’s President Rouhani. They shrink from his embrace of Raúl Castro, wonder at his regard for major figures of liberation theology, and resent his effort to undermine American authority over its own borders.

Catholics themselves recoil from his will to inflate the episcopal jurisdiction of the Chair of Peter into an imperial mandate to determine secular agendas.

Francis’ populist demagoguery directed at capitalist systems (“slave drivers of our day”) is incendiary and, however couched in religious language, profane. In Chiapas, his homily to the indigenous congregation was intended to foment, not instruct: “Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them.” Tropes of a left-wing agitator, his comments remind us that Catholic organizations are prominent in the open borders/amnesty movement.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is in lock-step with the pope on the consequential issues of immigration and climate control. It is aggressive in promoting the papal stance on both issues, using them as levers for global welfare and for reshaping the nation in conformity with progressive intentions. (It was equally assertive in promoting the Affordable Care Act.)

With one voice, pope and bishops confuse the freedom to emigrate (a responsibility of nations of origin), and the right to immigrate. Nowhere does there exist a right to immigrate to wherever one chooses, whenever, or by whatever means. Mexico itself imposes high penalties on illegal immigrants and those who aid them. But let no shibboleth be violated by reality.

Lust for Power Subverts the Gospel

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the grant-making arm of the USCCB, was founded with help from Saul Alinsky in 1969. It remains true to its founding. Its domestic justice chairman, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, doubles as the president of Catholic Charities—one of only nine voluntary agencies operating in official agreement with the State Department to house, maintain, and place refugees. Working through HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, Catholic Charities helps secure job training, language instruction, and medical and financial services. It assists clients in gaining access to the kaleidoscope of ORR’s benefits, from help in establishing a business to matched savings accounts.

A Americans recognize in Francis an advance man for ‘world authority,’ affection for the man will not stay hostility toward the workings of his church.

It is worth noting that CCHD partly funded Barack Obama’s time as an Alinsky-style organizer on Chicago’s South Side, and that the USCCB was instrumental in delivering the Catholic vote for Obama in 2008.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), founded by the USCCB, is dedicated to sandbagging immigration law under the banner of “fair and generous immigration policies.” It assists illegal aliens by fighting deportations and promotes amnesty under the belief that “all goods of the earth belong to all people.” Browse CLINIC’s website for the range of projects espoused in the name of “the Gospel value of welcoming the stranger.”

Francis’ personal popularity is largely a function of public perception of him as a doctrinal liberal. But as Americans recognize in Francis an advance man for “world authority”—the concept of a mega-state cached in Vatican minds through recent pontificates—affection for the man will not stay hostility toward the workings of his church.

What has been called “the last respectable prejudice” is on track to gain enhanced respectability among Americans who blanch at what they see as a shakedown by the refugee resettlement industry. They are dismayed by a pope who would confuse “a nation under God” with a nation under the sway of his own bien pensant ambitions and those of clerical bureaucrats. Power lust, no matter the pious packaging, subverts the Gospel. It does not serve it.

Poised for a comeback, Blanshard’s specter of an alien presence takes on solidity with every act of Francis’ disregard for the ordained limits of papal authority.

Appeals court puts Bill Cosby's criminal case on hold

Bill Cosby's criminal sex-assault case was temporarily halted days before a key hearing while a Pennsylvania appeals court considers his effort to have the case thrown out before trial.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court granted Cosby a postponement Tuesday while the court decides whether to hear Cosby's pretrial appeal. His preliminary hearing had been set for next week.
Cosby, 78, is accused of drugging and molesting a Temple University employee in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
He said he had a promise from a former district attorney that he would never be charged over his encounter with Andrea Constand. However, a different district attorney reopened the case last year and filed charges in December, weeks before the statute of limitations expired.
The preliminary hearing to determine if probable cause exists to send the case to trial had been set for March 8. The hearing seemed likely to be postponed unless the Superior Court quickly decided to quash his appeal.
Prosecutors have argued that he does not have the right to a pretrial appeal and should instead file the usual post-trial appeal if he is convicted. A Montgomery County judge who heard two days of evidence on the issue agreed and refused to ask the appeals court to intervene. The judge, Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill, could end up with the case if it goes to trial.
O'Neill found no credible evidence of a binding agreement that Cosby would never be charged. The former district attorney, Bruce Castor, had testified for Cosby but acknowledged there was no written agreement forged.
Cosby is embroiled in civil litigation in several states, but the Pennsylvania case is the only one to lead to criminal charges. He has teams of lawyers for the case itself, for appellate issues and for a countersuit he filed last month against accuser Andrea Constand. He also is embroiled in defamation lawsuits with some of the dozens of women around the country who accuse him of molesting them.
Cosby has posted $1 million bail in the Pennsylvania case. He faces five to 10 years in prison if convicted of felony indecent assault.

With The $1.9 Million Lamborghini Centenario, Peak Supercar Arrives

 

Lamborghini Centenario

Calling a peak in any market or trend can be a fool’s errand, but in the Lamborghini Centenario, I feel confident in saying that if we’re not at peak supercar, we’re darn close to it.
Sold out upon its introduction at the Geneva Motor Show, the Centenario isn’t so much a car as an exclusive club for 40 people with $1.9 million to spend on an entry fee, similar to the Veneno of a few years ago. That money buys them an all-carbon fiber supercar with 760 hp, the ability to rocket to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and the ultimate bragging rights at any valet stand.
And the bragging rights matter as much, if not more, than the details of the Centenario’s engineering. Lamborghini made the car more than just a special Aventador SV, with a new four-wheel steering system, higher-revving V-12 powering all four wheels and bespoke touchscreen interior. The bodywork takes a few steps away from the Aventador, especially in the rear, where the diffusers look like an agricultural implement turned evil. In theory, the Centenario should be the fastest vehicle ever built by Sant’Agata, with a top speed in excess of 220 mph.
But most Centenarios, which will be split evenly between coupes and convertibles, will never approach such speeds. The price and rarity means the special Lambo carries too much risk to put on a racetrack or even an empty tarmac for a top-speed dash. Among this, the custom McLarens, Koenigsegg, the $1 million Aston Martins and a baker’s dozen of start-up supercar builders, you’re left wondering just how many such machines the world can absorb before there’s simply no more billionaires to sell to.
And for all of its engineering qualifications, the rare Lamborghini lacks many of the software innovations prevalent in everyday vehicles, let alone the self-driving tricks filtering through more common luxury cars. (It does sport Apple CarPlay, just like your new Accord.) Those kind of features are far harder for a small builder to pull off, even one like Lamborghini that’s backed by the Volkswagen conglomerate. Instead, the Centenario plays by the same strategy Lamborghini has followed since the Countach arrived four decades ago: a raucous V-12 with a radical exterior design, although there are far fewer places to push such a car to its limits. Maybe there’s more electric-powered, higher-tech performance yet to be had in the supercar world—but as wild as the Centenario looks, it seems as much from the past as it does the future, and that’s one way to define a pea

17 brilliant quotes that will change the way you think about life

When you read quotes about moving on, you are giving your brain positive messages. It will help the healing process and get you back to a good-feeling place. So be inspired by these amazing words!

 
 1. “While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou

 2. “No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved.” — Alice Sebold

 3. “Never stop just because you feel defeated. The journey to the other side is attainable only after great suffering.” — Santosh Kalwar

 4. “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.” — Madonna

 5. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey

 6. “in the chaotic rubble, she still remembered who she was.” — R. M. Drake

 7. “I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.” — Muhammad Ali

 8. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson

9. “There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” — Bernard Williams

 10. “Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” — Malcolm X

 11. “We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love.” — Laverne Cox

 12. “For a gallant spirit, there can never be defeat.” — Wallis Simpson

 13. “I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.” — Dalai Lama

 14. “A year from now, you may wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb

 15. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

 16. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J.K. Rowling

 17. “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.”

President Buhari eulogises Pastor Adeboye at 74

President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a congratulatory message to Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) as he clocks 74 on Wednesday, March 2.
 

 Buhari and Adeboye L-R: Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president; President Muhammadu Buhari and Pastor E A Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) during a recent visit. The president’s special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, who delivered the message, stated that the revered Christian leader has strong virtues of honesty, peace, patience, contentment, humility and diligence. Buhari also said of the man of God, who paid him a courtesy call at the Presidential Villa on February 16, 2016 and whom he had interacted with many times before, that his attributes are the trademarks of a good believer.

President Buhari also commended the relentless efforts, sacrifices and the grace of God upon the life of the General Overseer, who he says has over the years, propagated the gospel around the world, organized large gathering of Christian worshipers and consistently counseled world leaders and different citizens on how to live right before God.

 Also, Buhari hailed the social and humanitarian interventions of the RCCG leader in providing health and educational services to complement the efforts of governments and prayed that the Almighty God will grant Pastor Adeboye long life and more strength to carry on the good work.

Dangote drops, 19-yr-old joins world's richest billionaires

 
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has dropped in the yearly ranking of the world’s richest men as 19-year-old Norwegian, Alexandra Andresen joins the list of world’s billionaires. According to the latest ranking released by Forbes, world’s richest man, Bill Gates, still tops the list of world’s richest men for the third consecutive year as Africa’s only man initially on the top 50 list dropped to 51st after being 37th on the list.

 Dangote in private jet Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, in a private jet. The Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist amassed a wealth of $15.4 billion during the period under review as against the $25 billion he had last year to stand as the richest on the continent. The surprise addition to this year’s list of world’s billionaires is the 19-year-old professional dressage rider from Norway. According to Forbes, Miss Andresen is a scion of a family which made its fortune through tobacco.
 
Alexandra Andresen pictured with her horse Belamour Photo: Åse-Berit Jamne Alexandra Andresen pictured with her horse Belamour Photo: Åse-Berit Jamne In 1849 her great, great, great grandfather founded what was to become Norway’s leading cigarette producer but in 2005, the family sold the company for ethical reasons, netting $500 million. Andresen, is ranked 1,476 among the 1,810 people on the list while her sister, Katharina, 20, is the second youngest on the list.

The 10 best new movies and TV shows coming to Netflix in March

Netflix giveth and Netflix taketh away, but in March there’s a whole lot more that the streaming giant plans to giveth than it will taketh away. In fact, we would go as far as to say that March 2016 is the single best month for new Netflix additions that we’ve seen in a long, long time. For that reason, we decided to stop and take a moment to dig through the list of new content coming to Netflix in March and pick out the best Netflix has to offer this month.

UP NEXT: Apple’s most exciting new iPhone feature won’t be included in its next new iPhone

Each month, Netflix releases a giant list of all the movies and TV show seasons it plans to add in the following month. It also releases a giant list of content with licenses that are expiring, so it will no longer be available to stream. Because those lists are so huge, people generally give them a quick glance and then promptly forget everything they’ve just seen.

Well, we put together a list of 10 titles you won’t want to forget.

The following represents some of the best new movies and TV shows coming to Netflix in March, and they appear in the order in which they’ll be added to Netflix’s catalog. Today is March 1st and some of them have already been added to Netflix’s library, so we’ve included links on each of those titles that will take you directly to their Netflix pages so you can start streaming immediately or add them to your watch list.

• Good Burger (March 1)
• Groundhog Day (March 1)
• Scarface (March 1)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (March 1)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (March 1)
• House of Cards: Season 4 (March 4)
• Louie: Season 5 (March 4)
• Netflix Presents: The Characters: Season 1 (March 11)
• Marvel’s Daredevil: Season 2 (March 18)
• Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders (March 31)

Now that you’ve seen the best, be sure to take a look at the rest — here’s the full list of everything that will be added to Netflix’s catalog this month. And here’s the full list of everything that will be removed from Netflix in March.

Developing A Success Mindset: Goal-Setting, Simplified

Goal-setting is one of those things that seems like it should be very simple, but can often cause anguish and aggravation. Even worse, if it’s not done productively it can convince us that we’re doomed to failure and prompt us to give up on our dreams forever.

The number one mistake that most people make when goal-setting is reaching too high right from the get-go. There is nothing wrong with reaching high – in fact I encourage it. However, what most people fail to consider is the PROCESS of growth and development that must take place between where they begin and where they’d like to end up.

You wouldn’t expect an infant to set a goal to climb Mt. Everest, would you? Perhaps later when that infant has learned how to crawl and walk, and after he has grown into a man and strengthened his body and conditioned himself to deal with the harsh elements, and after he has tackled smaller and less dangerous mountains – yes. But not before the necessary growth, development and preparation have taken place.
Many people try to make a similar large leap when they set their goals. They want to transform themselves from a position of lack and fear to a position of power and success in a short period of time, and it’s just not likely. (Notice I didn’t say it was impossible! Stranger things have happened, but let’s just say it’s a rarity.)
The good news is that every large goal can be broken down into smaller, more manageable goals. If your goal is to climb Mt. Everest, you will first need to gain some experience mountain climbing, get into the best shape of your life, and so on. (I will assume that you are not an infant, so you have already mastered crawling, walking, and growing into an adult. ?)

Now, take another look at those smaller goals I listed above: gain mountain-climbing experience and get into great shape.
Even those steps can be broken down into smaller goals, such as buying some books or taking some classes to educate yourself on hiking and mountain climbing; joining a gym, starting a healthy eating plan, etc.
Successful goal-setting is as easy as learning how to identify the mini-goals that compose each larger goal, and focusing your efforts on THOSE FIRST. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep your larger goal in mind and keep pushing yourself to reach it. However, giving most of your attention to the smaller steps along the journey will result in less stress and much quicker progress.

Take another look at the vision you wrote for your life, and then ask yourself how this big achievement might be broken down into smaller steps. If you can come up with some reasonable action steps you can take immediately, you will gain confidence with each small achievement you make. As your confidence grows and you gain experience and knowledge, your action steps will automatically become bigger and bolder, and so will your results.

While you may be tempted to set a time frame for accomplishing your goals, I would advise caution. It’s okay to have an idea about when you will reach your goals because it can definitely keep you motivated and focused. But it can also backfire if you don’t see results quickly enough and make you give up out of sheer impatience.

What I said in the segment about expectations also applies here. Be reasonable and balanced about your goals. Just like you can’t expect to make a giant leap from “here” to “there”, you also can’t expect to accomplish everything overnight. There are two good ways to keep your goal-setting balanced:
Focus on the sense of accomplishment you get from every step you take. Rather than pinning your satisfaction only on the big goal you have in mind, allow yourself to feel good about the progress you’re making toward that goal. Feel proud about the great job you’re doing and really allow yourself to enjoy the journey.

Don’t worry about the time frame. This one is definitely more challenging, but it’s also very freeing! Instead of setting a time frame, simply commit to working steadily and enthusiastically on each small action step. Don’t buy into impatience if you don’t see results immediately – in fact, let the ACTIONS themselves be their own rewards. Feel good that you are strengthening your self-discipline and growing more completely into the person you were meant to be. Believe it or not, it’s very rewarding to take this type of attitude.

Again, do what you feel is best for YOU.