As the words for today’s Victory Letter start to ooze from my brain I keep thinking what it is that actually happens to get us past the expected mile. In a world that can throw so much at us in a given day, the one human strength we each possess that rises us up past the daily grind - it is willpower.

The ability to move past the adversity and downfalls of our lives with the needed belief and faith, even when the cards seem stacked against us we head towards what matters most.  I can think of so many examples in the last few weeks where I have seen willpower in action.

Life is short and we never really know when it’s going to be done.  Something recently happened in my life to give me another big wake up call and reminder about making the most of each given day.

I had gone to the Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce to give a workshop on email marketing and as has been my experience with this particular chamber the audience was very interactive and ready to learn.

In this particular workshop there was one gentleman who stood out from the rest even from the moment I walked in the door. His name was John Carrigan and he was the first one there - having arrived 20 minutes early. Throughout the workshop he was fully engaged and asked many questions.

A deadline is a time limit to get something done and acts as milestone in the accomplishment of an achievement you desire.  Without accountability to a given deadline it’s like adding more air to the wind. It really does not serve a purpose.

Without the measurement of when something must be done, it could take many years to get the things we want in our life accomplished.

Last week I traveled to my nieces wedding in Orlando, Florida.  If you ever want to see the stress caused by the fear of not meeting a deadline, just talk to a bride just a few days before her wedding.  For so many brides, their wedding day is the day they have dreamed of most of their life and doesn't really have the ability for a do-over.

Did you ever stop to notice that honesty takes a whole lot of courage? 

There is a growing concern I have been observing lately - the avoidance of sharing honest feedback.  It seems to be happening because of a fear in hurting the feelings of others or that maybe that others won’t like us anymore when we speak our truth.

People resist change. Most times people even resist talking about change! However, this element brings the potential for life altering transformation. What is your attitude and movement towards a current change you need to make in your life?

Why seek change?  Because change brings growth and opportunities. Even if it seems quite uncomfortable and unwelcomed at first, our life progresses towards a new direction. The truth is we can get too comfy and cozy in our lives and this time of year it’s always a good reminder to see where you are standing when it comes to creating change for yourself.

Have you been noticing all the birds flying around in massive flocks these last couple of weeks in your part of the world?   As the fall season gets into full swing here in Colorado I have watched the robins, geese and black birds hanging out with each other – sometimes literally hundreds together at a time.

Part of their gathering together is migration patterns as they begin to move to different climates.  Some of it as well is that they are foraging together to get the abundance of the fall harvest from seeds in my garden to the corn leftover in the nearby fields.

This time of year can be exhausting as we leave the quieter days of summer behind. The noise of our life can be distracting, including the “dirty feet” of others who pull us into their wants and needs as Gandhi shares in today’s quote.

Cuddling into my sweaters on these cold mornings brings a new essence which makes me look further into the changes within the inside world of my mind as well.

To honor the summer coming to a close I attended a yoga retreat with my daughter in a beautiful spot here in the mountains of Colorado.

Hopefully you have had time over the weekend to quiet your mind and are now ready to get back into action with all the tasks that need your attention. 

As you look at your week ahead, what are the absolute items that you must achieve in your life to make you feel satisfied? Perhaps it’s that big project that must be started, the content that needs to be created, or maybe those people you recently met that you want to follow-up with.   

It’s great to put together that list at the beginning of the week and feel motivated to get all those to-do item done, but as is true with my own life it seems that there are always a few things at the end of the week that even with 12-hour work days I just can’t seem to check off the list. 

In the Victory Letter last week I shared some thoughts around creating good habits to help us from our distractions. This week how about we talk about distractions that have become a bad habit?

First, let’s clarify what quantifies as a distraction. The dictionary states that it is, “A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else and creates extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.”

Last week I disconnected my home phone number, a landline that I have had since we moved into our home 24 years ago. What I had come to realize was that it had in fact for the most part become a distraction. Something I had been putting up with for a number of years.