Tag: anniversary

CELEBRATE OUR ANNIVERSARY!🥳

Today we celebrate 10 years of this blog! I began this journey in 2012 with just a desire to share with others the tools and strategies that helped me positively impact my life. I never dreamed it would turn into what it is today. There are many things that I have learned in the past decade of sharing ideas with you. First of all, I am still learning and sharing. Self-improvement is very much like physical fitness. You are never ‘there’. There is always maintaining and learning to do. You will mess up. You will have bad days. Life will throw a whole lot at you and you will need to develop new ways to handle new problems. It is the learning and growing that develops from that which is so rewarding.

I also learned how similar we are. When I started I had…well…zero followers. That was never the goal. Still, my desire to share with and help as many people as I can, allowed this blog to now be followed in over 200 countries and by over 50,000 people. I learned a fellow in Italy and I not only like the same music, but are both dedicated to improving ourselves and have had some of the same influences.

Another thing we are celebrating today is Thanksgiving. It is no coincidence that I started this blog on this day. One primary secret to an amazing life is Gratitude. In my own life, it has done the most to positively transform my life. As I reflect on the last 10 years of my life, one thing I am most grateful for is my lovely lady. Margie has been pushing me outside my comfort zone for as long as I can remember. One of the first examples was putting flyers up for my first book signing. We were in the village of Greendale where I worked for the Post Office. The book signing was to be held at a local coffee shop. I had 2 businesses in mind to put flyers at. One of them being the coffee shop. Margie looked at me and simply said, “No, we are going to ask to put them up at every business in the village!” I was tempted to tell her that I thought she was on the brink of insanity, but she was so cute and so insistent. What I thought was going to be a five minute ordeal inside my comfort zone, ended up being a half a day where she would say, “I’ll go in with you.” Then she would push me towards the counter and disappear and make me promote myself. It made the book signing the success it was. Not much has changed two books later.

There is so much in my life to be grateful for. Just today I was recalling how my grandmother used to make pans of barbeque chicken. The whole family would come over and eat all of the delicious food she would make. These days I am grateful for walks in nature and trips to the gym with my mom and wonderful meals created by my beautiful Margie, who is an amazing cook. I think my Grandmother would have really loved her. I know I do. Come to think of it, that is another secret to an amazing life. Find someone who will love you, but push you outside of your comfort zone and make you develop into the best version of yourself. It doesn’t hurt if they are lovely like my lady.

Today, there is lots for me to feel grateful for. The ability to share with you for 10 years. The ability to reach over 50,000 people in over 200 countries. The fact that my partner also happens to be the most beautiful lady in the world and I get to see her on the pillow next to me every night! That fact that we have wonderful memories to reflect on and the possibility to create even more! Today, I would be so grateful if you would share this website with at least one other soul you think could benefit from learning secrets to an amazing life. Together we can reach many more souls. Maybe in the Congo? Maybe in Greenland? Maybe in the town next to yours. We are all one global family of 8 billion.

CANI

The title of this blog may seem like a mistake, but please allow me to explain. It actually stands for ‘Constant and never-ending improvement’. As you can see by the picture I have been writing this blog for 4 years now. It really does not seem that long, and I have to confess I enjoy every day that I do it. It is my sincerest hope that if you go back and read my blogs from years past my writing would sound more improved today.

The more we do something the better we get at it. That can’t really be avoided. We learn things we didn’t know before both about ourselves and our subject matter. This website is dedicated to helping all of us live a more amazing life. Not only do I hope it has helped some of you, but writing these thoughts down has helped me as well. Spending my times researching ways in which people improve their life has helped me with my own as well.

So as this year draws to a close and we look back on all we have done in the last 12 months we can often be left with feelings of failure and regret. I know there were several things I had personally hoped to accomplish that have not come into existence yet. We can use these feelings in several ways. First, feeling that pain of regret should motivate us to work harder in the future. Realize that what we are now feeling is in large part due to our own inaction, or lack of consistent action. This may not sound so inspiring, but if we are going to improve we need to be honest with ourselves. My goal was to have my latest book completed by the end of the year. It is nowhere near done and so in that sense I have failed. That being said, I am using this feeling to motivate myself to have a complete book by this time next year.

That leads us to our next action we can take. Use the final month of the year to set yourself up for victory in the coming year. Sit down with a pad of paper and a pen. List things you feel you did not succeed at this year. Now think of and write down actions you can take, plans you can put in place, or other things you can do to assure success next year. Use the final month of the year to make a commitment to yourself. Use it as a practice month for what you are going to do next year.

One final note going back to the beginning of this post. No matter what you feel you did not accomplish this year know one thing, just by going through what you did you are a more complete person that you were 12 months ago. You have made it through all of your trials and challenges and as New Years day approaches you should feel good about that. Do not let it dull your drive, but do know as long as you are still in the game victory is right around the corner.