• New Year’s Resolutions for 2013 – Tips

    What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2013?  A resolution is a resolve or determination to do something. To me, that means if I’m not going to take it seriously, it’s better to not call it a resolution (call it a wish or a dream).  Do you take your resolutions seriously? I believe that people are inherently good and that they want to improve their own lives and the lives of others. I want you to be resolved to achieve your goals in 2013, just like I want the same for myself. I am a firm believer that life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. Many of you will find that the greatest joys you will find come from spending time with those you love, learning, growing and serving …

  • Motivational Quotes

    Have you ever gotten really excited about a goal or project, such as speaking a new language, just to realize a few weeks or even only a few days later that your excitement and motivation have failed? I have. It’s always such a bummer…and it’s frustrating. We’re ambitious people! We want to be successful and progressive! We should be able to accomplish these extremely reachable goals! Well, one of the best ways I’ve found to overcome this tendency to burn out like a shooting star is to frequently read/say motivational quotes and then do something right away to implement those quotes. There are thousands of motivational quotes out there. My suggestion is to start with a simple search on Google. I have collected a few over the years, and here are some of my …

  • How to Turn Motivation into Celebration

    What gets you motivated? What gets you super-pumped and excited? What events cause celebration in your life? Take a moment and really think about those questions. It may even be helpful to write down your answers. I’d like to take a moment and answer those question for myself, and together I hope we can learn how to turn motivation into celebration. What gets you motivated? For me, the answer to that question depends on what the goal is. In my life, I usually see or experience something that motivates me and gives me the desire to set a goal and achieve it. For example, I have seen a healthy transformation in my father. For years, he could not sleep in a bed because he would get heartburn every night due …

  • Habit Psychology

    We’ve all heard it before: 21 days to make a habit.  21 days.  It sounds easy.  It sounds short.  It sounds simple. But is it? 21 Days.  3 Weeks.  504 Hours.  30,240 Minutes.  1,814,400 Seconds. It turns out that 21 days really is a long time, but we can get around that.  Believe it or not, we are constantly going through the full 21 day-cycle to start new habits – The only problem is that these habits aren’t always the ones that we want to be starting.  It seems that bad habits are easy to start and easy to feed, but the good habits are hard to grow (just like flowers & vegetables take a herculean effort and grandmotherly patience, but weeds grow for free…). After scouring the web for legitimate advice on …

  • Why You Aren’t Learning a New Language

    Learning a new language is definitely an admirable goal just like many other goals that you might have in your life. I have spent a considerable amount of time reading about goals and motivation as it relates to language-learning. There are millions of people everyday who do nothing to feed their desire to learn a new language. I found the following reasons: Lack of time. Everyone is busy. No matter the stage of life you find yourself in, there are many great and noble things you can do to fill your time. One thing I have learned in life is that if you really want to do something, then you will usually make time for it. You don’t need to spend hours each day learning your new language of choice. …