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