As I strive to live my own life to the best of my ability and enjoy family and hobbies time becomes a key factor. My intention is to keep the blog running with two or three high quality posts per week.

Regular posts should resume late this week or early next week.

photo credit: law_keven

You see I know change
I see change I embody change
All we do is change Yeah, I know change

We are born to change
We sometimes regard it as a metaphor
That reflects the way things ought to be

In fact change takes time
It exceeds expectations
It requires both now and then
See although the players change
The song remains the same
And the truth is
You gotta have the balls to change

- Vinnie Jones

What does change mean to you?

I actually read your blog, and I’m waiting for your next post!

Btw, I think you are doing a great job, it has actually inspired me to get off my lazy butt and get started on my own blog.

Take care!

This Email got me thinking. I’ve given consideration to my readers, I try to write what I think will inspire and help people. Over the past few weeks, posts have been slow and then I stopped. I honestly needed a break. However, I didn’t take my readers into consideration when I took the break.

All of this led me to question who I was accountable to. Over the past few days I’ve given that some thought and here is that list.

Myself

First and foremost I am accountable to me. I need to ensure that I am happy and that I have balance in my life. If I’m not happy with what I’m doing it really does beg the question what’s the point? Fortunately I am happy, I’ve just required some time to refocus.

My Family

One of the reasons I established this blog was to be a better father and husband. I’m accountable to my family, they are most important to me. They are my light and my inspiration.

My Friends

A wise man once said that the truly fortunate can count their closest friends on one hand.  I’m fortunate to say that I fall into this category and that I have known many of those friends for over twenty years.

My Employer

In these difficult times I’m fortunate to be employed. I’m accountable to my employer to work to the best of my ability.

My Readers

Finally I’m accountable to you the people who come to Be 4 Success and read what I have to say. I have a debt of thanks to you for your support and  I am accountable to you.

Who are you accountable in your life? How do you view and treat your responsibility? I’d love to hear from you!

I’m a big fan of The Bold Life and Tess’ writing. She always manages to find a way to challenge and inspire me. Her ebook Flying By The Seat Of My Soul is an informative read. I don’t mean informative as in Tess is going to provide the meaning of life to you.

The book is informative in that it will cause you to question yourself. Not in that doubting, or did I lock the front door way. Rather Tess asks that you take an honest look at aspects of you life.

In one section on Soul Stretching Tess writes,

Fill in the blanks. When I spend time with ______I feel drained
of life energy. When I spend time with ________I feel alive and
I know I am a better person because of their company. I know
my friendship with __________ isn’t good for me. What I need
to do in order to release this relationship is ________________.

See what I mean about being challenging. How often have you asked yourself that question? My thought is you haven’t done it often enough.

One of the things I like about Tess and her writing is she includes many personal stories to demonstrate her point. I’ve always felt that if you are going to coach people on how to live a better, bolder life you need to have walked the walk. That’s Tess in a nut shell, she’s been there and she’s not afraid to talk about it. She writes about leading a positive life and living that life to the fullest. She finds no use for negativity and will challenge you to vision for the future.

I encourage you to visit The Bold Life and follow along with Tess. You’ll find that it is well worth your while.

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The strategy is really, really simple. In fact do you remember the old slogan K.I.S.S? Keep It Simple Stupid, that’s what you need to do. There is nothing wrong with having large year long goals, however it’s easy to loose focus this way. It helps to break the large goal down into smaller tasks. It helps with getting things done.

The key to accomplishing your resolutions and ensuring your goals are met is to plan weekly. Every Monday morning set your goals for the week. Rinse and repeat every week. By breaking down the larger goal this way you increase your chances of success. The New Year’s Resolution that you make now has a higher chance of success.

If your goal is weight loss, pick a target amount of pounds you want to shed each week. If the goal is increased productivity creating weekly targets will assist with keeping you on track.

As you consider what you want to accomplish on life, break the target down to weekly, manageable units.

I’m fortunate that I’ve been given the opportunity to test out GTD Agenda. Over the next few weeks I’ll be using GTD Agenda to keep me on track and to increase my productivity.

Too often when it comes to planning for various goals we don’t write them down or we get distracted in developing a system to track our progress. I’m hoping that GTD Agenda will help me overcome these obstacles.

I’ll report back in a few weeks.

What’s that, you’re not surprised? Neither am I. Oh, that’s why you don’t bother making resolutions, because you always fail at them. That’s too bad, because you my friend are what we call a quitter. Yes, you read me correctly, all those who don’t bother with resolutions because they never happen as planned you are quitters. Sorry, just calling it like I see it.

You see the reason most people fail when it comes to their resolutions is because they forget to plan. That’s right, they develop some abstract resolution for the year decide they’re going to see it through, but they don’t plan for how they’ll accomplish the goal. That is why they fail. To all of you who are quitters (you know who you are) you probably didn’t plan either.

It really is a shame.

So many people could loose weight, save money, travel more, love deeper if they planned on how they wanted to accomplish those tasks.

Intrigued? You should be. You could be making a difference in your life. You could be doing more with your life. You could finally get yourself out of that rut and accomplish the things that are truly important to you.

Don’t tell me you have no time. I don’t want to hear the same excuses that you’ve been telling yourself for years. I’m not interested. What I am interested in is people making a difference in their lives and in others.

How do you do that?

Simple. To use that old Boy Scout motto “Be prepared.” That’s right the fundamentals we learned as children apply throughout life. Who knew? So are you prepared, are you planning ahead? Are you going to accomplish your goals? Do you have a plan?

You need help? No problem, I don’t mind helping. Read this article on SMART Goal Setting it will start you off on the right direction.

If you want help with saving during the read I recommend this article on Making Saving Automatic.

If your concern is weight loss, read this article from my affiliate partner Tom Venuto on A Year With No Results.

If you have questions please leave them in the comments section. If you have additional advice, please leave it for others to read.

A final word, take yourself and the commitments you make to yourself seriously. There are no great secrets about leading a better, healthier life. You just need to decide to do it and then stick with your plan!

So here they are Be 4 Successes final batch of 2009 predictions:

• I predict that if you take 15 minutes a day to relax that you will find life less stressful.
• I predict that if you build the habit of exercising regularly you will live a healthier, stress free life.
• I predict that if you focus on the 20% of things that you are really good at and forget the rest you will find you are properly motivated. Thanks to Brett @ 6 Weeks for this one.
• I predict that if you embrace your passions life will have more meaning.
• I predict that if you live a less complicated life you will live a fuller more enjoyable life.
• I predict that if you elect to get things done, then you will.
• I predict that if you stop multi-tasking and start focusing on what is really important you will get things done.
• I predict that if you use SMART Goal Setting you will achieve your objectives.
• I predict that 2009 will be a year of love and compassion, if you want it to be!

I hope you enjoy the list. Cheers, to a great 2009.

photo credit: jan_et_

Christmas is upon us and with it comes all those family meals that we love so much. With that of course comes the danger of over eating, though perhaps you just wear your comfy pants or undo your pant button.

The Christmas season is the one time of year when I’m very aware of all the extra goodies that I’m eating. However, it’s also the time of year that I worry about it the least. The last thing I want to be doing is counting calories during a turkey dinner!

What about you? Is Christmas a time when you knowingly over indulge or do you keep your portions modest?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

photo credit: MCS_flickr

As I write this the snow is pouring down. There’s a winter storm watch on as we’re expected to get 30 – 50 cm of the wonderful white stuff!

I love Winter for this reason. There is something magical about everything being coated in a blanket of white.

For me time seems to slow down and I find myself taking a moment to reflect.

The Christmas season is a great time for reflection. As the year wraps up I’m able to review achievements and disappointments.

I also, look forward to the New Year and all the hope and possibility that it brings.

The blanket of snow the falls wipes the slate clean as I move onto new endeavours and challenges.

Yet, the true joy that I reflect on at this time of year is birth of the Christ. I believe that this is the greatest hope that we have and focusing on this event reminds me of the potential for peace and love that exists for one another.

As you travel this Christmas season be mindful of those around you. Remember, they have family they are visiting as well. Smile to everyone you meet and extend the love and peace that exists to all.