Doggone It! You're Good Enough!

Saturday Night Live is one of my all-time favorite shows. Last year's Sarah Palin spoofs were hiliarious! The thing about SNL is sometimes you can even learn something if you pay close attention.

For example, remember Al Franken's character, Stuart Smalley, looking into a mirror affirming, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me!" So many people pooh-pooh the idea of affirmations; however, I've learned that what you say to yourself matters more than what others say to you. Why? Because your voice and your opinion carry the greatest weight in your subconscious mind.

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “The most influential person who will talk to you all day is you, so you should be very careful about what you say to you.” Wow! What are you saying to yourself all day? Most of us cannot answer that question. I know I couldn't until I started to pay attention. Imagine my horror to hear myself saying things like, "stupid me!" or "I'm so crazy."

To those of you who're saying, "Dr. A, I'm just playing. I don't mean those things. Girlfriend, you just need to lighten up!", did you know that Proverbs 26:18-19 says, "Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says, 'Iwas only joking."' Think about this: if a lie to a friend is a deadly weapon, what about the lies you speak to yourself in the form of negative self-talk? So here's a three step process I learned from one of my mentors, Jack Canfield, that I want to share with you to help you monitor your negative self-talk:

1. Identify your negative self-talk
2. Cancel that negative self-talk
3. Replace the negative self-talk with positive self-talk (that's where affirmations come into play)

I teach this in some of my seminars when we talk about self-confidence and self-esteem. You see, it's important what we say about ourselves and think about ourselves. Yet, most of us are going around in a negative self-created cloud unable to realize our goals and dreams because we are in our own way.

To anchor this behavior, I've put together a quick little video from one of my seminars to show you how to do this. Have fun with this. (It's not the best video quality. It was jerky, but you can still get the essence of it).

And remember ... You're good enough. You're smart enough, and doggone it, people like ya!

"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"
Dr. A
http://www.lifeonpurposellc.com/

Five Steps to Overcoming Overcommitment

I teach people how to manage their time, and one of the biggest culprits to mismanaged time is overextending or overcommitting.

This is the definition: Trying to get more done than there are hours in a day to do. Here's my simple test to help you determine if you are overcommitted: "no" does not exist in your vocabulary! If that's you, help has arrived as long as you will commit to following these five simple steps:

1. Write down everything you have committed to, both personal and professional.
2. Write down everything you should be doing, but -- because of overcommittment -- cannot do.
3. Go over your first list realistically and decide, based on your available time and your priorities, what should you really be doing.
4. Come up with a way to get out of all the things you identified in step #3.
5. Commit to a specific time to begin each of the items you identified in step #2.

Remember this: "Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing."

Two great resources to help you manage your time:

• Prioritize, Organize - The Art of Getting It Done by National Seminars Group (National Press Publications.
• Work Less, Do More - The 14-Day Productivity Makeover by Dr. Jan Yager

The key to managing your time begins with a decision to do just that!

Until next blog,

Dr. Angela

"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"