Are you a person of ACTION?

Hard to believe we are saying goodbye to 2011 this week! This will be my last blog this year! Don’t worry I will be back in 2012 for more interesting reading. Do you just read my blogs or do you think of ways to implement changes in your life? I have noticed when I read great material it sticks with me longer if I employ them in my life. It becomes a habit when I take ACTION!

That brings me to a great point of my third action on living the life I want to live. “I am a person of ACTION! I choose to seize the moment and I choose NOW!” What do you want to get out of 2012? Do you want a new job? Do you want new career? Do you want to raise a family? What are you setting as your goals for 2012? Well, action is what will propels us to achieve these goals. When we want something in life we have to realize that the HABITS will be the guide we need to seize the opportunity. I have realized that the positive habits I create for my life will get me the success I am looking for. As many of you know I am a student and believer of the Franklin Covey “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” You may be familiar with or use the system also. I have implemented these 7 habits into my daily life. These 7 habits are a basis of the action I have created for my life.

1. Be Proactive- Choose your response to every situation.


2. Begin with the End in Mind- Start every project with a road map of what it will look like when done.


3. Put First Things First- What is the most important task to be done first. (today, for me it was this blog since I am on vacation skiing next week when this will be posted)


4. Think Win-Win- When everyone wins you get a better solution than compromising.


5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood- Are you listening to what the other person is really saying? Or do you think you know what they are saying?


6. Synergize- Real growth happens when everyone is working for the same goal.


7. Sharpen the Saw- Renew yourself regularly of mind, body and spirit. (Yes, that is what I am doing in the mountains this week)

Remember nobody does all these things every day but the people that make a Habit of improving themselves everyday are taking ACTION for their own lives. Set some goals for yourself in 2012 in some of these areas: Business, Financial, Health, Mental, Family, Spiritual, Lifestyle and Relationships. Take the time to write down your goals. Do you realize if you write your goals down you are better than 97% of the population? Only a meager 3% of all people have written down goals. So the question I ask each of you? What are you waiting for? If you want to achieve something you must start today! Action only happens when you make it happen! Are you ready to do something NOW?

“I am a person of Action! I choose to seize the moment and I choose NOW!”

Happy New Year!

Have a GREAT year!

Gary Wilbers

The Present

Since it is Christmas week I thought I would change the Blog this week and give each of you a present!

“The Present” is a book I read several years ago written by Spencer Johnson who also wrote “Who moved my Cheese? First, I would like to share with you a few messages from this book; then I have a special video message to each of you, just click on the link at the bottom to view.

My wish for you this Christmas season is that you live in the PRESENT! What I mean is enjoy the time you spend with your family and friends! Realize the real meaning of Christmas was the birth of Jesus Christ. As we attend Christmas functions make a point to enjoy the company of your family and friends.

THE PRESENT


Three Ways To Use Your Present Moments To Enjoy Your Work And Life, NOW!

BE IN THE PRESENT

When you want to be happier and more successful

FOCUS ON WHAT IS RIGHT NOW.

RESPOND TO WHAT IS IMPORTANT NOW.

LEARN FROM THE PAST

When you want to make the present better than the past

LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST.

LEARN SOMETHING VALUABLE FROM IT.

DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY IN THE PRESENT

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

When you want to make the future better than the present

SEE WHAT A WONDERFUL FUTURE WOULD LOOK LIKE.

MAKE PLANS TO HELP IT HAPPEN.

PUT YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION IN THE PRESENT.

Please view the following link for video message from me: http://youtu.be/F25u-SgEucA

Merry Christmas!
Gary Wilbers

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE

As we continue on our journey of discovering my Ten Daily Actions to Live By, I want to express my appreciation for all of your emails on how this affects your life. Take the information in the blog, apply what fits and see what changes you want to make; starting 2012 off to being the success you want to create.

Remember, it first takes a plan. Then your plan takes a commitment and this is how my second action fits in: “I take responsibility for who I am; I am responsible for my past and my future.”

This action is realizing YOU are the ONE responsible for your life. Your life is not dependent on your childhood, family, parents or even your past events. Think about it. Everything in your life exists because you first made a CHOICE about something.

Choices are the root of your results. Each choice starts a behavior that over time becomes a habit. Choose poorly and you might just find yourself at the drawing board, forced to make new and even harder choices. You make choices, and then your choices make you. Every decision, no matter how small alters the trajectory of your life . . . kind of like “The Domino Effect.”

As we realize, our choices either benefit us or create consequences in our life. The challenge is what we do with the choices we make. The idea of personal responsibility can completely change your life. The question I ask you today is? “What percentage of responsibility do you have in making any relationship in your life work?”

A. 50/50
B. 51/49
C. 80/20
D. None of the above

How many of you said “D”? If you did you are correct. The correct answer is 100/0. You have to be willing to give 100 percent with zero expectation of receiving anything in return! WOW! Now make sure you understand this is NOT easy! I admit it is challenging but anything worthwhile has a price! When you are willing to take 100% responsibility for making the relationship work, will it work? I know each of you think you take personal responsibility for your life. But, you and I both know some people operate in the world of finger pointing (I always say if you point a finger at someone else, 3 are pointed back at you), victimhood, blaming or expecting someone else to solve their problems. When you realize, “I am 100 percent in control of me”, you will hit the jackpot of unlimited power to control your destiny. This is an empowering mindset to change your life!

I coined a quote a few years back that speaks to this issue:

“It’s your life, why not live, the life you want to live?”

Remember the second daily action is “I take responsibility for who I am. I am responsible for my past and future.”

Responsibility is the key to your success. Are you willing to be responsible, to create the success you want in life? I know God gives us all the power to achieve what we believe we can attain.

Start your journey today!

Make it a GREAT day!

Gary Wilbers

“My life is a message. I will make it what I want it to be.”

Welcome to our second edition of my Blog post for the month of December. As I continue my blog post, I told you last week we would start discussing what I have developed over the years as my personal “Ten Daily Actions to Live By.” These actions help me to live my life the way I want to live it. We all need to have a goal and a plan or we will end up just living. I heard a saying before where the speaker asks the audience how many of you have a life insurance policy. Most of the room raises their hand, and then the speaker asks how many of you have a mission statement? Very few in the audience raise their hand. The speaker makes the comment, “We are more prepared in life to die than to live!” Well, I don’t want you to be that person so maybe these next several blogs will help you find your mission in life. Now, I want to be the first to tell you that I do NOT succeed every day but I make an effort to live by these actions.

My first action is: “My life is a message. I will make it what I want it to be.” I strongly believe you get in life what you create. What do you expect? You expect whatever you are thinking about. Your thought process, the conversation in your head, is at the base of the results you create in life. What influences your thoughts and actions? If you write out your goals and plans you are more likely to accomplish them. Your mind is like this empty glass. It will hold anything you put into it. The brain has a conscious and sub-conscious part that is very powerful. Do you feed your mind with the positive or negative talk? Remember if you put in the negative, what actions do you think you will take on a daily basis? Remember garbage in garbage out!

What are you going to allow your thinking process to be? Being proactive in your words and actions are not by accident. It is by design because of the choices you make daily. Our mind is like a garden the more we water and fertilize it with positive soils the more we will reap come harvest time. The books we read, listening to CD’s on motivation, and attending training sessions to engage our mind and heart drives our behavior. Remember your thinking process will drive your expectations…which will drive the message of your LIFE!

Sam Walton once said, “High Expectations are the key to everything.” So, why not have a high expectation for your life? Remember the first daily action, “My life is a message. I will make it what I want it to be.” YOU are in the driver’s seat of your life. Make your plan today to make the life you want. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring so why wait. If you are waiting for someone else, remember it is only up to YOU!

Make it a GREAT week!

Gary Wilbers

The Compound Effect

Today I start my weekly blog post for the month of December. As you remember my punishment for missing one of my blogs was that I would write a blog every week in December. I am excited about this opportunity because I plan on making this a series; each blog building on the next blog. My hope is that you will enjoy each and every post. I appreciate some of the great feedback last week on my Thanksgiving post. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday!

This week I am going to reflect on a book I read about a year ago this time. The name of the book was “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. This book gave me some practical steps to put into my life. The key is that small habits built daily create a long lasting effect. In essence, the compound effect! The old adage of whatever you put in your life you are going to get back in life. The author spoke of the choices, behavior and habits that are always working. He says, “You can choose to make it work for you, or you can ignore it and experience the negative effects of this powerful principle.”

The daily choices we make will determine the outcomes we will get in life. He talked about a formula for getting Lucky:

Preparation (Personal Growth) + Attitude (Belief/Mindset) + Opportunity (A good thing coming your way) + Action (Doing something about it) = LUCK

He mentioned the area I feel I have that been trapped in and what I would term complacency, living in the past. By creating and using a tracking form, it helped me move from complacency to a GOAL. This also helped to create new habits, propelling me forward with MOMENTUM, like when you ride a merry go round. Momentum propels you forward to achieve your goal.

Another area that struck me was in the area of influences. The positive influences we put in our lives help us get more in return. The material we put in our mind influences what we get out of our mind. The people we associate with either bring us positive influences or negative ones. I have tried to make my vehicle a rolling library instead of just playing music or listening to talk radio. The more positive we put in, the more we will portray this to others and bring us the acceleration to complete the goals we have for ourselves. As we progress in life, we need to understand when we get stuck in the tracks, the habits, choices, attitude, goals and influences will be the MOMENTUM to keep us moving forward to reach the destination we are seeking. It’s about always being in motion to achieve the life you want. Darren Hardy ended with a profound statement: “Giving a little more time, energy, or thought to your efforts won’t just improve your results; it will multiply them. It only takes a little extra to be EXTRAordinary.“

As we progress through these next several weeks I am going to share with you my, “Ten Daily Actions to Live By.” These are 10 actions I strive to live by on a daily basis that may help you find yours. My purpose is to give you the momentum to create the life you are working towards. As the saying goes, “Life is not a destination but a journey.”

Make it a GREAT week!

Gary

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we are getting ready to celebrate a special Holiday this week, I decided to write a blog in recognition of Thanksgiving. As I started this blog post, I reviewed past entries in my Thanksgiving Journal, a practice I started several years ago each Thanksgiving Day. So, this blog is a combination of thoughts from this year and previous years.

As I looked back I realized; I am always thankful for: Dana, my wife, my children: Chris, Adam and Elle; family, friends and our team members, leaders, businesses and my health.

But, today I am most Thankful for the love my God provides me every day. God gives me gifts and talents he expects me to share with others. He gave me the gift of business acumen, to use as a vehicle for improving the financial and leadership development of others, enabling them to provide a living for their families. God has given me a motivational spirit, helping others find their passion and gifts in life.

As I reflect on these blessings, I ask God to remind me daily that all my gifts and talents come from him. The true reflection of a person comes not from what he is, but what he becomes every day.

This Thanksgiving, my blessing for each of you is to be thankful for your gifts and talents.

A special quote about Gratitude:

“The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have,
the more things you will have to express gratitude for.”
- Zig Ziglar

Enjoy this special Thanksgiving weekend!

Gary Wilbers

EXCELLENCE

As I write my blog post today, I have discovered not only do we need to have discipline to accomplish our goals; we also need to create EXCELLENCE in our lives. This word will give us the energy needed as we progress toward achieving what we want. As I look at this word today I am going to break the word down and give you some points on how you can make EXCELLENCE a daily thought to create energy for yourself.

Excellence- Excellence is what we do every day to make it the best day by giving 110% effort.
Xtra- What xtra can we do to make someone’s day better. (Sometimes you have to use incorrect spelling to make this work for the writer, so please excuse my misspelling of the word)
Care- Care for your people
Excited- Show you’re excited about life and have passion for what you are doing.
Love- Love your people.
Like- Like change and embrace change it is part of the life cycle.
Engage- Engage in your life and others lives to make the world a better place.
Never-Never give up. Persistence is the key. Pick yourself and others up every day.
Cooperate- Cooperate with others. There is no I in team. Show your team that cooperation creates a win-win for everyone.
Expect- Expect to make a difference in your life but also others you come in contact with. Remember to live your life with this thought? If I died today, what would others say my greatest contribution was to the lives I touched? Make your legacy daily! Why not start today?

How does your life show EXCELLENCE?

WOW! I had a great response for what my punishment should be for not blogging as I had promised. I appreciate the comments. I have decided I will combine multiple suggestions and for the month of December you will see a weekly blog post. Below I have included some great feedback by Jim Bohannon on Self-Discipline. Thanks Jim for your information. I love the quote by Vince Lombardi. For Jim’s submission he will earn a $25 gift certificate to Madison’s Café. Thanks for sharing!

Have a GREAT day!
Gary Wilbers

Jim’s feedback:
Don't put yourself down for being undisciplined.
Think about why you want to discipline yourself.
Create an action plan form.
Action
Time to Begin
Possible Problems
Strategies to overcome The Problems
Progress Report
Implement the plan.
Review the plan.

Don't give up.

Hope this helps, if not I learned some things about self-discipline, so thank you for that opportunity. Have a great day.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,
not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

- Vince Lombardi

Do you have discipline?

As I write to you today, I want to explore the word Discipline. Discipline defined as a noun states: the practice of training people to obey rules or code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Wow! That really hits home, because I promised on October 4th to write this blog twice a month. As you can see, it has been a month since my first edition. I admit; I have not had the discipline to take the time to write my next blog post. I failed to follow my own rules or code of behavior. I will ask each of you to respond on what my punishment should be to correct the disobedience. Please send me an e-mail on what I should do to correct this behavior. The behavior I choose will win a prize that will be announced on the next blog post.

Now, on to the subject;

The word discipline can be used in both a negative and positive situation. Our lord had the discipline in his life in teaching his disciples to follow the right paths. It is through his teachings that we see he wants us to be disciplined in our lives, also. To me, discipline makes the difference between a person who is successful or who fails. Let's look at an example in my life. In the area of health, when I became disciplined in exercise and my eating habits, I lost 75 pounds because of my diet and exercise. Discipline can influence better decisions and choices every day. It is not easy to be disciplined, though.

What areas in your life do you want to make changes in 2012? My belief is if you set goals and discipline yourself to adhere to those goals, you will accomplish them.

Discipline is the key to success or failure, because it is the driver of our lives. Discipline takes our conscious to our subconscious mind.

I ask that I have the discipline to continue writing this blog twice a month. I think I just committed -- I guess you will see if I have the discipline to achieve this.

Make it a great day.
Gary Wilbers

Welcome to the First Edition

As I made myself a commitment this year to start a blog, I asked myself the question, what should I share with my readers? After thinking about this for months! (Really, I was procrastinating) I decided to share with you some thoughts and insights that have helped me over the years to become the person I am working on becoming. I believe life is a journey where we learn and grow from each day to make the next day better. As we progress through life, the more we learn who we want to become the more we become who we want to be.

My goal is not to tell you how you do it, but instead give you some tips on ways you can make changes in your life. We create all things twice. We first have to mentally create in our minds, the belief we can achieve it! This is our mental power or our subconscious saying, yes, I can accomplish it. The second part is the physical creation where we start creating a habit to accomplish the goal. This is where your conscious mind puts into action your thoughts and beliefs.

Let me give you an example. Late last year, I started thinking about running a half marathon. I will tell you this was a big stretch for me because I had never been a big runner. I made a commitment to myself when writing my goals for 2011 that I would run a half marathon. My subconscious went to work when I put pen to paper and committed to the goal. I became even more committed on December 31, 2010, when five other friends committed to running the Nashville half marathon on April 30, 2011. I don't want you to understimate the power of writing your goals down on paper. This is one of the secrets to reaching goals you set for yourself. After researching what training program I would follow and committing again, by registering for the race, I now had to start on the conscious mind (physical creation) and start training. This is where your mind has to overcome all negative thoughts that come into your head.

This is where you have to visualize how you will feel when you accomplish the goal. This is where I visualized myself crossing the finish line. As I worked on my training program, that was my daily thought.

On April 30 I finished a half marathon in one hour, 55 minutes and 51 seconds. My goal was to complete the half marathon in less than two hours. As you can see from the picture below, the finish line was my reward.

Take the time right now to write a goal you want to achieve for yourself. Remember:

"You can achieve anything you want in life if you first believe you can accomplish it."

Have a Great Day!
Gary