Dixon Judd/CEO/Performance Resource Group

In a world where busier is clearly not the answer, in fact it is one of the oldest lies. Anyone who slows down long enough to consider this will ultimately discover that the goal is to be more effective with the least expenditure of time, money, resources and energy. So why do we all rush around in an endless cycle of busier and busier? Did you know that stress is the #1 cause of premature serious health issues and death? There has been a lot written about managing stress, depression,anxiety,worry,strokes, heart attack. We are apparently not managing too well, are we?

Here are some powerful, yet simple concepts that WILL reduce the stress in your life. The friendly challenge here is to read and try these in your life for the next 21 days and then report back your experience. If it works, then pass it on to those you care a lot about and to a few people you don’t…

Letting Go
To Let Go doesn’t mean to stop caring; it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To Let Go is not to cut myself off; it’s the realization that I can’t control another.

To Let Go is not to enable; but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To Let Go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To Let Go is not to try to change or blame others, I can only change myself.

To Let Go is not to care for, but to care about.

To Let Go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To Let Go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To Let Go is to not be in the middle arranging outcomes, but to allow others to effect their own outcomes.

To Let Go is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.

To Let Go is not to deny, but to accept.

To let Go is not to nag, scold or argue, but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To Let Go is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment.

To Let Go is not to criticize and regulate another, but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To Let Go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

To Let Go is to fear less and LOVE more…

Choices

READ THIS. LET IT REALLY SINK IN. THEN CHOOSE.

John is the kind of guy you love to hate.

He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.

When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was their telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, “I don’t get it!

You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

He replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today.

You can choose to be in a good mood or … You can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.”

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of  life.

I choose the positive side of life.

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “Life is all about choices.

When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice.

You choose how you react to situations.

You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.”

I reflected on what he said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business.

We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins.  Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,” he replied.

“Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.

He continued, “..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine.

But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man.’

I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said John.

“She asked if I was allergic to anything. “Yes, I replied.”

The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.

I took a deep breath and yelled, “Gravity.” Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live.

Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude… I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.  After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

I think the above true story illustrates the fact that the choices you make, and the decision to take action, or not, on those decisions to a large extent determine what your life will look like.

You can see yourself as a victim of circumstance, or see it as an opportunity to learn from it.

Could your life be better?  No question about that, but it could also be a lot worse.

You can look at the positives in your life, or see all the things wrong with it.

Like the above story illustrates, it all comes down to a choice.

You can chose to be happy, or you can chose to be sad.

I have a motto that has stood the test of time for me so far, it reads:

“The impossible just takes a little longer”

So if you believe you will get better, you will find a way.

Good luck, and God bless.

http://depressionanxietydisorders.com/inspirationalstories.html