While reading through some of my past articles, I was struck by how much my perspective has changed over the past few years.  The same exact words have entirely different meaning to me now. I began to wish that I could have new conversations with you, coming from a place of fresh perspective over these old articles.  So, that is exactly what we’re going to do!  During the upcoming rounds of Digging Deeper, I may share updated, revised, or “Version 2.0” of some of my past eColumns so that we can use the original subject matter as the springboard for new conversations…all centered around Digging Deeper to create a life of excellence…a life that we truly love and are gratefully proud to live every single day.

To start us off, I can’t think of a better subject matter than this: Change.  It’s remarkable how one word can stand for so many things, and how it can mean so many different things to different people.  It’s also very ironic that we as individuals can be so adamantly for change in the world around us, and yet resist it so fiercely from within.  Think about this with me for a moment.  We’ve all heard the age-old adages involving change.  President John F. Kennedy said very famously, “Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”  Isaac Asimov is quoted saying, “The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change.”  If we know these things are true, and can accept them intellectually, then why can’t we seem to embrace the concept for ourselves?  Why?  Because we are creatures of habit.  Some experts say that 90% of what we do in any given day extends from habit.  How we brush our teeth, the order that we wash in the shower, our morning and evening routines, the way we approach our workday, where we park at the office, where we sit in church, the roles we play in our family dynamic, and just about every other thing we could possibly think off all boil down to habit.  But you may also be familiar with another truth involving change: if nothing changes, nothing changes.

If all of these things are true, why would we bother investing our energy in a discussion that seems to have no resolution?  Is it just to have a spirited debate involving a rhetorical topic?  Heavens, no!  I am of the opinion that flowery dialog without meat that matters isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.  So, why would I even bother to bring up a topic that seems so abstract…one that has been haunting well-intending men and women since the dawn of time?  One that seems only to keep us fixed in a fit of frustration?  Because I believe…truly believe…in my gut…with all of my heart…that we have the power to change within us.  But like any other bodily muscle, it must be exercised to become strong.  Most of us have never used our ‘change’ muscle enough to strengthen it.  We can’t rely on it when we need it, because we’ve never taken the time to develop it.  Like a baby learning to walk.  Like physical therapy after an injury.  Like an arm or leg after a cast has been removed.  We must believe that our ultimate desired result is possible, we must work at it every day with consistency of character, we must anticipate and resolve to overcome setbacks, and we must master the winning combination of patience mixed with persistence.  We are patient enough to let seeming eternities pass without giving up, yet we are persistent enough not to settle for anything less than total victory.

And you know what else?  I believe that God actually wants victory for us.  I believe that He wants us to achieve the abundant life He promises in His word.  I believe that He would never give us a dream without giving us the ability to attain that dream.  So, we can all be encouraged that there is more to life than what we have discovered and experienced so far.  If we had already fulfilled our purpose or missed it so grossly that we could never find our way back, then I believe He would either take us home or get us out of the way…ha!  But, He tells us in His Word that His mercies are new every morning, and He is literally handing us a brand new day every day to be used as a fresh clean slate.  So rather than feeling stuck, we should jump out of bed with excitement to embrace another opportunity to strengthen the muscle that will build the body which will literally carry us out of our current reality into the one we dream of.

The life you dream of may seem like a lifetime away.  It may seem so far out of reach that it’s impossible to even imagine.  But take comfort in this truth: right now you’re not responsible for changing the world.  Don’t even overwhelm yourself with trying to change your entire future.  Just focus on one teeny tiny change: the change in mindset from fear to faith.  I recently heard that the definition of “miracle” is just that – a change in mindset from fear to one of love.  Why?  Because God is Love.  And if we truly believe that we are beloved children of the King of the Universe, then what have we got to fear?  If we can let go of the guilt, self-loathing and worry for one minute and actively place our faith in God, the old verse about “the peace that passes all understanding” will actually come alive in our life.  But as we’ve heard many times, fear and faith cannot occupy the same space.  And fear and faith are simply different types of dark and light energy.  Dark energy working within us manifests itself in fear, worry, stress, anxiety, anger, bitterness, judgment, resentment, and sadness.  Light energy, on the other hand is joy, gratitude, love, peace, and happiness.  If we choose to make the on-purpose change from fear to faith, or being fueled by light energy instead of dark energy, everything use in our life will reflect that one powerful change.

What do you think would happen if that became the sole change we focused on today?  Could that one change make way for all the rest?  With every ounce of power that God has placed within you, choose that you will make today the day for that one change.  You have nothing to fear!! You are good enough to get the job done just as you are!!  Otherwise, God wouldn’t have given you that job!  Can we always strive for improvement?  Of course.  But don’t let your fear of needing to be better keep you from being your naturally amazing, bright and shining self today!  God already knows you’re amazing…He’s just waiting on YOU to believe it.  Why is it important to believe this about yourself?  Because you will never outperform your own beliefs.  Write yourself a note and stick it on your forehead if you have to!  Find a way to keep this one change in front of you at all times, because it’s amazing how just meditating on this awareness as you go throughout your day can impact your actions and decision making.

Remember, you will never change your life until you develop the discipline to change your thoughts.  So keep it SIMPLE.  Don’t worry about how you’re going to fix your whole life.  Just start with today.  And if you feel like you already royally screwed it up somehow this morning, just take a deep breath and start fresh with this very minute.  Minute, after minute, after minute.  Can you do that?  If so, the minutes take care of the hours, which build the days, which create the weeks, which turn into the months that drive the years that define your life.  But don’t go there!  Just focus on being gratefully happy, with a childlike excitement to embrace and attack today…just inhale excellence in this moment.  Be obedient to that one change for this one minute….and the rest will come.

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Before we go any further, I want to thank you from the bottom of my deeply humbled heart for your priceless words of overflowing love and support after my last edition of Digging Deeper in November.  I sat for hours and cried through each one, and for the first time in a reaaallllllly long time I actually felt OK – even good – about sitting down to have a nice cry!  Somehow your words of encouragement became like a big group hug to me at a time when I’ve never felt so alone in my life.  I also want to share my gratitude for your patience and loyalty over the past few months while I took a much-needed cocooning season.  Your “permission” allowed me to go off-grid for a little while without guilt or worry, and it gave me freedom to focus on a critical time of discovery, awareness, and healing.  I’m thrilled to say that I’m finally able to see the light on the other side.  I know I still have a long way to go, but this is quickly turning into the richest, albeit toughest adventure of my entire life.  But most importantly, I’m ready to call 2011 complete and invite you with me into the wild and crazy ride of a brand new beginning!  So, for this edition of Digging Deeper, out of fairness to you, I’d like to merely share what you can expect from me as we embark on 2012 together.

First, I must warn you: I may speak, sound, look, operate, and communicate differently than I have in the past.  That’s simply because I’m thinking, feeling, and behaving differently than I ever have before!  For several months, I seriously considered closing the doors of Digging Deeper and http://www.allisonlamarronline.com/. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to get motivated to jump back in and tackle it all again.  Then it finally dawned on me that I was no longer passionate about it because it represented an old, outdated version of me!  In order for me to truly embrace this platform and serve you with conviction, I must have the freedom to bring my message up to speed with who I am today instead of constantly replaying an old record of who I used to be.  I realized that I was living in fear of alienating some of our group members because they may no longer resonate with my message.  But guess what??  That’s OK!  I’d much rather us be a smaller, more tight-knit community of like-minded women than a sea of confused souls who have no clear, unified purpose and objective.  So, if our paths need to take different directions from this point forward, please know that I love you deeply, I will always treasure our time together, and I pray for life’s richest blessings on wherever your road may travel.  And for those of you who want to stick around…buckle up, cuz this is going be a fun trip!

Alright…enough of the warm, fuzzy stuff…let’s get down to business.  (By the way, how am I doing?!?  Many of you know that ‘warm & fuzzy’ is new for me, but I’ve been experimenting with it over the past few months, and I actually kinda like it…ha!)  Perhaps I should begin by sharing what I won’t be doing this year.  As of now, I have no plans to create new programs.  I spent the past 4 years creating the existing ones I have in place.  I’m very passionate about the unique message in each of them, I still believe in them fully, and they share everything I need to say about those areas of life.  (Sharpen Your Edge, Digging Deeper for Success Coaching Program, and the 90-Day Transformation all share different pieces of my story and pass along what I believe are critical elements to creating a life of personal and professional victories.)  My other CDs, DVDs, and online programs address specific skillsets and will continue to remain available for your use.

And, since I won’t be creating new programs in the foreseeable future, I will be pouring most of my energy into two areas: my Private Mentor Program and the Digging Deeper Community.  Both have been completely overhauled and revamped, and I’m thrilled to share both of them with you.  I will resume sending out this Digging Deeper eColumn twice per month as a free resource to you, and on the alternating weeks I’ll publish some other version of support.  In fact, earlier this week I held a “Clean Slate” Video Conference for the members of my Digging Deeper Community, and as a special New Year’s gift to you, I’m giving all readers of this column exclusive FREE access to that video for the next seven days!  Just click here for the video conference.

In addition to Allison LaMarr Online, I will be focused on one other business venture.  As I shared with you awhile back, I moved to Phoenix as part of a partnership with a brand new direct sales company.  Over the past several months, I spent almost 100% of my time in the field with different leaders and sales force members developing, testing, and honing systems to create long-term, sustainable and duplicatable success.  As I was working on these projects, a spirit of unrest began to rise within me.  Over a matter of time I gained full clarity and total peace of mind concerning what I had to do.  For me, the choice became a matter of personal integrity: if I really believe in this industry as much as I profess to, my message would only have a certain level of impact coming from the corporate office.  For me to accurately convey my passion and conviction of what this industry can do for every family in America and around the world, I must live it every single day.

So, on November 2, with the support and blessing of my partners, I officially transitioned from my position as President of Sales and Training.  Instead of supporting the field from our world headquarters, I joined the field as an independent distributor.  This is honestly and truly something I never thought I would do again…and I can’t believe how much fun I’m having!  But this time around, my goal is not to create my own success…this time my mission is to build an army of success stories from all walks of life.  I truly believe that ANYONE can learn to create abundance for your family through this industry if you believe in yourself, your company, and your leadership…and I aim to spread that message one new success story at a time.  But, you won’t hear much from me about my specific company, because I don’t think this is the appropriate forum for that.  I think we can all be passionate about our own companies & endeavors for our own reasons and still come together as iron that sharpens iron, learn from each other, do life together, and hold each other to a higher caliber of excellence.

Finally, just to give you a quick personal update, JD & I are learning to love life on a whole new level together as a dynamic duo in Phoenix.  He just started Montessori school two days per week, and he’s obsessed with learning to play ice hockey when he officially becomes a big kid next month.  (What makes one a “big kid” you ask?  Apparently your fourth birthday…at least according to JD!)  As for me, I’ve fallen in love with the desert climate…and if we could just find that ocean front property I might never leave this place.  I have a very simple and crystal clear mission in 2012…but I’ll save that for another edition.  Until then…I’m grateful and blessed beyond measure to count myself as partners with you on this ride.  Let’s get back to Digging Deeper!

Well, I’m finally in a place where I can share, and I feel like I owe you a couple things.  First, I want you to know how much I appreciate your patience.  I’ve received questions and requests from some of you, and many of you have sent notes to my office checking on things.  You have always been so loyal to me, and it’s extremely encouraging to know you care.  Because of your concern, your loyalty, and our commitment to each other, I would like to share an explanation of what’s been going on with me for the past few months.

This isn’t easy for me to share.  In fact, it’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.  This season has been one of the most challenging seasons of my entire life for many reasons, and having to go through it at all has been tough enough on its own, but mustering the courage and strength to share my valleys publicly has become another level of ‘character development’ that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.  If I could keep it all to myself for even longer and process it in my own time, I would be very tempted to do so.  But the blend of my personal life and professional life makes it almost impossible to keep them completely separate, and since you are being indirectly affected by my personal life, I want to share with you at least enough to help you understand why I’ve been quiet recently.

As much as it pains me to say it, I am currently in the middle of a divorce.  It should be complete by the end of next month.  This is something I thought I would never experience in my entire life.  Somewhere along the way, I internalized a belief that divorce is the one unforgivable sin…the one thing you just don’t do.  Divorce was always something that happened to other people, and I would feel sad for them from afar.  I could never understand how a marriage could get to the point where walking away is the best option.  So, as the reality of my situation began to settle in, I have had to battle all of these beliefs over the past several months.  I’ve been on a roller-coaster ride of emotion, bouncing between heartache, overwhelming sadness, anger, guilt, the shame of failure, frustration, humiliation, disbelief, numbness, and exhaustion.

I’m also fighting my own inner demons of feeling like a failure and a hypocrite.  No amount of gossip, scorn or criticism from anyone else could compare to the beating I’ve given myself.  At least 5 or 6 times per day I hear a voice in my head throw a dagger to my heart, saying “How can you dare coach other people to live a great life when yours is such a mess?” I’m not ready to talk about lessons learned.  I’m not ready to talk about the journey God is taking me on right now.  I’m not ready to talk about coming out on the other side better and stronger.  I’m still in the middle of all of it.  There are days when I think I can feel the hope of a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, and other days when I can barely breathe from the suffocation of pain.  I’m heartbroken over the sad end of a 14-year journey, I’m heartbroken when I think of all the memories and amazing times, and I’m heartbroken for my son…his life will be very different than the way I originally envisioned it.

But I’m also beginning to realize that while “different” can be terrifying, it can also be invigorating, freeing, and empowering.  It’s forcing me to rethink my entire future, reexamine every belief, and really decide who I am.  Not the person the world knows, not who my parents think I am, not what my career says I am, not what an online blog or some person who has never met me says about me online, not who my soon-to-be-ex-husband and his friends say I am, not who my old high school and college friends say I am, not who my colleagues and employees say I am, and certainly not the person I’ve settled for until now.

Who am I?  Who does God want me to be?  Who do I want to be when I grow up?  And what on earth do I want to do with the rest of my life? Those are the questions I’m working on right now.  Those are the questions that are consuming my thoughts at this season of my life.  Getting to know myself again is an interesting process…it’s amazing how lost we can become in our own life.  We can get so caught up playing different roles that we lose our own true identity.

So, this Thanksgiving season will be a brand new experience for me.  I’m thankful that God’s mercies are new every morning.  I’m thankful for fresh starts and new beginnings.  I’m thankful for my amazing family and support network.  I certainly have a fresh sense of appreciation for single moms.  I’m thankful that you are allowing me to be me.  And I’m grateful that the darkest seasons of life can dawn into our best day ever.

While I’m in the midst of this cocooning process, I’m going to take a little break from Digging Deeper and our network.  For the next couple of months, I won’t be offering new programs.  I’ll continue with the current ones and I’ll continue working with my private clients on their different direct sales businesses.  On a side note, let me quickly share how much I have loved working with these men and women over the past few months…you have helped me appreciate all over again the refreshing power of boundaries, and you have held me accountable to practice in my own life the lessons I’ve been preaching all this time.  On days when I haven’t wanted to do anything but mope around and feel sorry for myself, you have been my fuel to suck it up and pull it together.  You’ve reminded me that you really can negotiate with your body and mind to find more strength.  And you’ve reminded me that a champion is someone who gets up even when he can’t.  Thank you for holding me to a higher standard than I would have insisted on from myself.

I’ll stay in touch through Facebook, and I’ll come back after the New Year with an update on my plans for 2012.  I genuinely hope that we can once again partner on our journey of life together at that point.

A quick note to the members of our Digging Deeper Community: I’ll have a special update for you inside the Community later today, and I think you’ll be very excited about what I’ll share!

So, today I want to spend some time sharing just what it is that makes me so excited about the CCxC program and how you can still get plugged in to be part of this game-changing experience at the discounted price, just in time for my favorite time of year!

I’d like to address a topic that challenges almost every one of us: how to finish the year productively and victoriously while still enjoying everything this magical time of year has to offer.  When you stop and think about it, how on earth are we supposed to juggle everything on our plate during the hectic holiday season and get it all done without internally combusting in the process?

As we start to get busy with holiday preparation and all of the joys and frustrations that go along with it, it’s easy to let go and watch our good intentions for a strong business season balanced with precious family time and traditions slip out of place.  And then the beginning of a new year rolls around, and we find ourselves with little or no forward progress toward the life we are working to create, if not more in debt and frazzled than when we started.

But I wholeheartedly believe that you CAN be victorious in your business while still enjoying every aspect of this time of year, IF you are smart and prepared for the unique opportunities and atmosphere that IS the holiday season.  Here is where the CCxC program offers a brilliant solution!

First, let’s take a look at the objective of the CCxC program.

Class objective:

To equip ANYONE in direct sales to reach their income goals and earn a car … all while creating a stress-free, cash-rich holiday season!

You can have your cake and eat it, too!  You can have the time you crave with your family, while building a strong, profitable business.  My vision for this program is to equip each and every participant with the skills and tools to reach a clearly defined business and income goal over the next 12 weeks.

Next, let’s look at the program curriculum to give you an idea of how we’re going to do just that.  You can see that each week we will be working through the integral pieces to making this holiday season a success for you, your family, and your business!

Program curriculum:

o   Week 1: Identifying your holiday bull’s-eye (LISTEN to Session 1 below!)

o   Week 2: Strategically planning your holiday business success

o   Week 3: Time mastery & boundary management during the holiday season

o   Week 4: How to fully leverage the holiday selling season

o   Week 5: How to beat the odds of the holiday recruiting season

o   Week 6: Tracking finances for profit

o   Week 7: The IT factor, part 1 of 3: content mastery

o   Week 8: The IT factor, part 2 of 3: presentation mastery

o   Week 9: The IT factor, part 3 of 3: people mastery

o   Week 10: The fortune is in the follow up

o   Week 11: How to conduct an annual review

o   Week 12: How to make 2012 your best year ever!

We’ve already started this incredible journey, and you can listen to Session 1 in it’s entirety at the end of this post to find out exactly how we’re going to implement these topics and create the tangible results we want!

Finally, let’s review the program details you’ve seen before on our CCxC website:

CCxC Details:

• Program dates: October 4 – December 20 (12 sessions)
• Program COST: $250 PRICE EXTENDED!
• All CCxC classes will be held on Tuesdays at 12 pm CST and will last approx 40 minutes.
• Classes will be available via teleconference as well as video conference – see Allison LIVE every week as you go through the program!
• Each session will be recorded and available on the CCxC Resource Site within 48 hours.
• Topics include: holiday business strategy, boundary management, tracking finances for profit, strategic planning, mastering the unique selling and recruiting atmosphere during the holidays, and MUCH MUCH MORE!
• Practical application and homework included as applicable.
• Open Q&A online forum (as part of the CCxC Resource Site)!

…and all for LESS than a monthly car payment!!

As I stated before, my vision for this program is to equip each and every participant with the skills and tools to reach a clearly defined business and income goal over the next 12 weeks.  We have a strong community of support here with our Digging Deeper family, as you demonstrate again and again in your comments and Facebook posts.  We have the passion to succeed and the hunger to overcome obstacles.  We have a business vehicle to realize our dream life.  So now let’s add in the practical steps to utilize our strengths and take one real, tangible step forward in creating a life we love!

Please take a few minutes to listen through Session 1 of the CCxC program, and then click on the Register Now button to get started!

We’ll be back to our standard Digging Deeper format next time…thanks for joining me today!

CCxC Session 1

LISTEN:

Note: Please make sure your volume is turned on to listen.

Practical application assignments from Week 1:

Well, hello my friends!  We are smack in the middle of the very first week of our “Best Self” challenge.  You first heard about it earlier this month, you spent last week preparing, and we officially kicked off the program four days ago.

I want to spend today making sure everyone fully understands the game, and I also want to extend an invitation to join us for anyone who still wants to jump in – it’s not too late!  In addition to some very important updates and reminders I am sharing with you, I’ve included our initial “Your Best Self” video post with Digging Deeper this week to remind everyone how the challenge works.

So, today I want to be clear on 5 main points.  First of all, why is this different than anything we’ve ever done before?  Because this isn’t about training or learning new ideas.  This one is based solely on action.

Second, what is our objective?  We are going to spend the next 9 weeks becoming someone we are PROUD of – someone we can smile at when we look in the mirror, and someone who has the necessary confidence to live a life even bigger than we believe in right now.  But we’re going to do all of this in a very practical way.  Very simply, we’re going to eliminate 3 bad habits, and implement 3 good habits.  This is about busting through those patterns that keep us confined to a “self” that we’re not proud of…a “self” that makes us doubt our ability to become great…a “self” that keeps us suppressed in a life of mediocrity.  We are going to leave that self in the dust!  It’s time to decide we’re not really that person.  It’s time to create the person we want to be, the person God put us on this earth to be.  The one we’ve always dreamed of, but secretly doubted.  It’s time to unleash and unlock our BEST self.

Third reminder: keep it simple and specific.  You’ll pick the habits you want to focus on.  It can be anything – in any area of life.  Take a look at your 8 lanes and ask yourself what bugs you most about yourself?  I gave you several examples last week that you can go back and read about, and you can also scroll through my facebook page to see something that other participants have committed to focus on.  But the point is to be specific.  For example, don’t just commit to stop procrastinating, identify one specific element that you want to fix.

Whatever habits you pick, we’ll tackle them in three-week increments.  So, for the first three weeks we’ll work on developing one good habit and quitting one bad habit.  Then we’ll add on the next pair for the second three weeks, and we’ll tackle the final set in the last three weeks.  We’re adapting the rules from a fitness challenge called the Game On Diet, because it incorporates all of the components that we are personally passionate about, and I invite you to check out their website for fun, too.

Reminder #4 is the 5 cornerstones this game is built on:  Competition, integrity, community, candor, and fun.

Reminder #5 is game rules:

1. Bring your friends, colleagues, power partners to join you in the Challenge and make sure you all are connected to my facebook page*, because this is where the challenge will live.  We will send regular updates and use my page to post results weekly.  You MUST have at least one person with you in the Challenge because it is part of the effectiveness and accountability of the Challenge!

2.     Choose your habits! You will work on developing 3 NEW habits and eliminating 3 OLD habits over the course of the Challenge.  To get started, choose 1 new habit and 1 old habit to focus on for the first 3 weeks.  Make sure it is something you can manage daily.

3.     Print off the tracking sheet at the end of the blog.  We have created a way to make the Challenge visual for you and to help keep track of your progress.

4.     Track your scores daily! Everyday you earn points for 3 activities: working on your 1 new habit, eliminating 1 old habit, and communicating with your accountability partner/team.  Give yourself 10 points for each habit and 5 points for communication every day. So, if your new habit is drinking 8 cups of water, give yourself 10 points each day you complete your new habit.  If the old habit you are eliminating is biting your fingernails, you get 10 points for each day you do not bite your nails.  And to help you stay focused, motivated and supported, give yourself 5 points each day that you communicate with your partner/team.  If you have a whole team working together, you only need to contact one person each day.  Texting, Facebooking, calling, emailing, and face-to-face contact ALL COUNT!  So, if you have a perfect day with your habits and communication, you will earn a total of 25 points!

5.     Take a day off! You get one day off of each of your habits and of communication.  They don’t all have to be on the same day, and you just mark an ‘F’ for FREE in the box on the day you take off.  This gives you a chance to take a mental break and allows you to sustain your effort!

6.     Every Monday before midnight, report your TOTAL score for that week on Allison’s Facebook page.  You can have a total of 150 points, if you have a perfect week (60 points for your new habit (6 days for 10 points each plus a free day) + 60 points for your old habit + 30 points for communication = 150 total).  If you don’t have a perfect week, don’t beat yourself up – let your power partner know where you bombed out or struggled, and then get back on the horse.  The key to this game is integrity – with yourself and with your partner/team.  There are no shortcuts to true, lasting change, and no amount of points is worth sacrificing your own integrity.  YOU are worth the effort, and your commitment will pay off in the end as you work to become your best self!!

7.     Keep going! We will have the chance to work on 6 habits total, and we will let you know when to change to the next set of habits via Facebook.  We will be working on each set of habits for 3 weeks, since it takes 21 days to build/break a habit.

8.     Give back. We want you to engage with each other and to foster an environment of joy, power, encouragement, and excellence.  Use my Facebook page as a place to post encouragement to each other, to share motivating quotes, to share your victories, to brag on your partner/team.  When we are working together, there is literally no limit to what we can accomplish!

9.     At the end of the challenge, you’ll report your total score for the whole game.  Here’s where the tracking sheet will really help you!  You will have the chance to post your total score at the end of the game.  If you score 1,200 points or more (of 1,350 total possible points), you will be one of our WINNERS!  I have created a VERY special prize for everyone who crosses the finish line with 1,200 points or MORE!  I am creating a Virtual Grab Bag – a collection of motivation, inspiration and special training just for our winners from me, PLUS a recognition wall for all of our winners on my website!  I cannot wait to celebrate YOU!!

Additionally, I have some important Success Tips to share with you to make your Challenge experience exceptional:

• Each day is its own day – nothing carries over. Do it, be done with it, and move on.
• Stick with it – even if you bit off a little more than you can chew.  It’s only 3 weeks, and you can always choose something simpler or more focused with the next set of habits.  This is about learning the habit of follow through and consistency in small, manageable, daily choices.  You can do it!
• Stay tuned to Facebook – I will give any instructions, updates, and notifications there, so just be sure to stay plugged in.

And again, we’ve provided some helpful hints for you here at the bottom of this message.  So, let’s stop talking and start doing.  Let’s stop wishing and start winning.  Remember, life is a game, and we are playing to win!  Grab your power partners or your entire accountability team and come run with me!!

IMPORTANT HELFPUL HINTS:

*You don’t want to change your habit until it is time to work on the next set of habits.  Take some time to think about what you can handle in your schedule and in your life, so that you can remain committed throughout each 3-week period.  You incur a 40-point penalty if you change your habit before it’s time, so choose wisely!  This isn’t to punish you, but to help us all keep from hopping from one thing to the next before we are able to see lasting, real change in the area we have chosen.  Plus, change can be uncomfortable, so knowing that going in can help you push through the discomfort and friction when it comes.  And it will come…

*What if I join late, can I still participate??  You can participate anytime, just jump in wherever we are (with your partner/team), and we will help you calculate your final score to still be eligible for the prize!

*How do I find Allison’s Facebook page?  First, make sure you have a Facebook account (it’s free!), and then in the search bar, look for ‘Allison LaMarr’ under pages.  Click the ‘like’ icon, and you will be able to post and comment as part of the Challenge!  If you have additional questions about getting connected, please email my office at info@allisonlamarronline.com.

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It’s time to begin our next big challenge! But this one is going to be a little different than anything we’ve done before.  This one isn’t about training or more idea generating…you’ve had enough of that already.  This one is based solely on action, and it’s built on the following 5 cornerstones:

• Competition
• Integrity
• Community
• Candor
• Fun

I’ll elaborate on each of those in just a moment, but first let me give you an overview.  We are going to spend the next 9 weeks becoming someone we are PROUD of – someone we can smile at when we look in the mirror, and someone who has the necessary confidence to live a life even bigger than we believe in right now.  But we’re going to do all of this in a very practical way.  Very simply, we’re going to eliminate 3 bad habits, and implement 3 good habits.

You’ll pick the habits you want to focus on.  It can be anything – in any area of life.  Take a look at your 8 lanes and ask yourself what bugs you most about yourself?  Are you hungry to stop living in clutter, start eating better, or feeding your family more healthily?  Do you want to focus on your business, tackle your finances, quit smoking, or start exercising?  Perhaps you’re ready to quit snoozing for an hour after your alarm clock goes off, or you want to stop texting while you drive?  This is about busting through those patterns that keep us confined to a “self” that we’re not proud of…a “self” that makes us doubt our ability to become great…a “self” that keeps us suppressed in a life of mediocrity.  We are going to leave that self in the dust!  It’s time to decide we’re not really that person.  It’s time to create the person we want to be, the person God put us on this earth to be.  The one we’ve always dreamed of, but secretly doubted.  It’s time to unleash and unlock our BEST self.

Whatever habits you pick, we’ll tackle them in three-week increments.  So, for the first three weeks we’ll work on developing one good habit and quitting one bad habit.  Then we’ll add on the next pair for the second three weeks, and we’ll tackle the final set in the last three weeks.  We’re adapting the rules from a fitness challenge called the Game On Diet, because it incorporates all of the components that we are personally passionate about.

But before I tell you the “rules”, I want to tell you about the cornerstone principles we’re building this challenge on.  Here they are again, with details:

• Competition – Your BEST Self involves two types of competition: Friendly, healthy competition with your running buddies AND competition with yourself.  This is about reaching a point in life where you are tired of settling for your current circumstances and you are DONE with the old you.  You are hungry to prove that there’s more to you than what meets the eye, and you refuse to settle for the status quo.  In fact, there’s a fire growing in your belly, and you refuse to settle for anything less than full-out excellence.
• Integrity – This is about you learning to be honest with yourself and accountable to yourself.  There’s no one grading you or holding your hand or forcing you to take action.  This is you developing the strength of character to do the right thing for the right reasons and tapping into an inner strength that you never knew you had.
• Community – This is about becoming connected.  Plugging into the like-minded people around you and developing relationships that dig deeper than just surface level.  Isolation is easy.  It’s easy to live in your own bubble and protect yourself from the real world.  But a connected community of collaboration, love, and encouragement will help you become alive and engaged.  As the old saying goes, rising waters lift all boats.  So, this is about us making a commitment to grow together and lift each other along the way.
• Candor – This is about being real, being genuine, and being YOU.  This is about learning to be comfortable in your own skin.  This is about embracing the good, the bad, and the ugly, and not feeling that you have to paint a picture of perfection all the time.  This is about pulling out your sledgehammer and shattering the glass house.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we become “Debbie Downer” and become a perpetual publicly whining victim.  It still means that we have a high standard of expectation for ourselves – we’re just patient with the process and enjoy the beauty of imperfection in this world.
• Fun – Last but not least, this is about having fun!!  We’re learning to laugh at ourselves and not take everything so seriously.  We learn not to believe our own press – the good or the bad.  We learn to find the joy in every situation and remind ourselves to have a good, deep laugh every single day.  We resurrect the act of just being silly and goofy and seeing the beauty of each moment.  This is about choosing to enjoy the journey while we climb the mountain to victory!

So, now that we’ve got our cornerstones in place, let’s talk about the rules of the game:

1. Bring your friends, colleagues, power partners to join you in the Challenge and make sure you all are connected to my facebook page*, because this is where the challenge will live.  We will send regular updates and use my page to post results weekly.  You MUST have at least one person with you in the Challenge because it is part of the effectiveness and accountability of the Challenge!

2.     Choose your habits! You will work on developing 3 NEW habits and eliminating 3 OLD habits over the course of the Challenge.  To get started, choose 1 new habit and 1 old habit to focus on for the first 3 weeks.  Make sure it is something you can manage daily.

3.     Print off the tracking sheet HERE.  We have created a way to make the Challenge visual for you and to help keep track of your progress.

4.     Track your scores daily! Everyday you earn points for 3 activities: working on your 1 new habit, eliminating 1 old habit, and communicating with your accountability partner/team.  Give yourself 10 points for each habit and 5 points for communication every day.  So, if your new habit is drinking 8 cups of water, give yourself 10 points each day you complete your new habit.  If the old habit you are eliminating is biting your fingernails, you get 10 points for each day you do not bite your nails.  And to help you stay mutually focused, motivated and supported, give yourself 5 points each day that you communicate with your partner/team.  If you have a whole team working together, you only need to contact one person each day.  Texting, Facebooking, calling, emailing, and face-to-face contact ALL COUNT!  So, if you have a perfect day with your habits and communication, you will earn a total of 25 points!

5.     Take a day off! You get one day off of each of your habits and of communication.  They don’t all have to be on the same day, and you just mark an ‘F’ for FREE in the box on the day you take off.  This gives you a chance to take a mental break and allows you to sustain your effort!

6.     Every Monday before midnight, report your TOTAL score for that week on Allison’s Facebook page.  You can have a total of 150 points, if you have a perfect week (60 points for your new habit (6 days for 10 points each plus a free day) + 60 points for your old habit + 30 points for communication = 150 total).  If you don’t have a perfect week, don’t beat yourself up – let your power partner know where you bombed out or struggled, and then get back on the horse.  The key to this game is integrity – with yourself and with your partner/team.  There are no shortcuts to true, lasting change, and no amount of points is worth sacrificing your own integrity.  YOU are worth the effort, and your commitment will pay off in the end as you work to become your best self!!

7.     Keep going! We will have the chance to work on 6 habits total, and we will let you know when to change to the next set of habits via Facebook.  We will be working on each set of habits for 3 weeks, since it takes 21 days to build/break a habit.

8.     Give back. We want you to engage with each other and to foster an environment of joy, power, encouragement, and excellence.  Use my Facebook page as a place to post encouragement to each other, to share motivating quotes, to share your victories, to brag on your partner/team.  When we are working together, there is literally no limit to what we can accomplish!

9.     At the end of the challenge, you’ll report your total score for the whole game.  Here’s where the tracking sheet will really help you!  You will have the chance to post your total score at the end of the game.  If you score 1,200 points or more (of 1,350 total possible points), you will be one of our WINNERS!  I will have a VERY special prize for everyone who crosses the finish line with 1,200 points or MORE!  I can’t spill ALL of the beans just yet, but I promise it will be worth all of your hard work and well-deserved results!!  Look for more prize scoop next week on my Facebook page…

We have provided some helpful hints for you here at the bottom of this message, and they will be posted on my website as well.  So, let’s stop talking and start doing.  Let’s stop wishing and start winning.  Remember, life is a game, and we are playing to win!  Grab your power partners or your entire accountability team and come run with me!! Be ready  to post your goals when we KICK OFF the Challenge on Monday, September 19th!

IMPORTANT HELFPUL HINTS:

*You don’t want to change your habit until it is time to work on the next set of habits.  Take some time to think about what you can handle in your schedule and in your life, so that you can remain committed throughout each 3-week period.  You incur a 40-point penalty if you change your habit before it’s time, so choose wisely!  This isn’t to punish you, but to help us all keep from hopping from one thing to the next before we are able to see lasting, real change in the area we have chosen.  Plus, change can be uncomfortable, so knowing that going in can help you push through the discomfort and friction when it comes.  And it will come…

*What if I join late, can I still participate??  You can participate anytime, just jump in wherever we are (with your partner/team), and we will help you calculate your final score to still be eligible for the prize!

*How do I find Allison’s Facebook page?  First, make sure you have a Facebook account (it’s free!), and then in the search bar, look for ‘Allison LaMarr’ under pages.  Click the ‘like’ icon, and you will be able to post and comment as part of the Challenge!  If you have additional questions about getting connected, please email my office at info@allisonlamarronline.com.

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Can you believe it’s almost Labor Day?! As we wrap up August and head into September, Summer is winding down and I’m hoping we may finally get a break from the heat here in Phoenix. It’s hard to even imagine it right now with temperatures still over 100, but Labor Day is only a week away and September typically symbolizes a change of seasons. White shoes are out, school is back in, fall sports have begun, and time marches on. Summer travel schedules wind down and life settles back into a more structured routine, we’ll have a nice, long ninety-day stretch to really crank toward our goals before we hit the holiday hustle.

But as we all know, even though the fall season may be more structured, it certainly still comes with challenges of its own. In today’s rushed world where hectic schedules are the norm, I have yet to find a month where something doesn’t threaten to rob our rhythm and steal our success. In fact, the next time you are tempted to postpone your progress due to calendar conflicts, I encourage you to think of this: In September, sports are starting; October means homecoming and Halloween; November is Thanksgiving and December is Christmas. In January, we recover from the holidays and think about getting our New Year started; February typically is forgetting our New Year’s resolutions and celebrating our Valentine; March means Spring Break and April brings Easter. In May, the kids are finsihing school, in June they are out of school, and July slams us with Independence Day and family vacations. August is full of getting ready to put the kids back in school, and then we’re once again right back to September. We blink and another year passes, yet we’re no closer to our goal than we were a year ago. We didn’t mean for it to happen that way—we just got busy. You know, I read in a book recently that busy-ness is just another form of laziness, because it’s easier to remain in the rat race than to stop and redesign our lives. Ouch. The calendar will keep turning and time will keep marching, so we must stop putting our purpose on hold. In fact, Ecclesiastes tells us that if we wait for perfect conditions, we’ll never get anything done.

So, we’re all in agreement that we must seize the day! We’re going to embrace the idea of short-term superior performance for long-term gain. Statistics show that it takes about ninety days to build momentum, so if you really crank during this fall season and exercise true discipline and self-management, you can follow it up with your most enjoyable holiday season ever. You’ll be able to celebrate the true reason for the season and spend some well-earned time with your family without carrying the guilt of a job not done.

But, how do we break out of the old rut-of-best-intentions to actually create the life we’ve been wanting for so long? This is a hard lesson that I insisted on learning the hard way: You will not earn the promotion until you outgrow your current level of performance and your current level of character. And the real challenge is in which comes first. If you’re like most of us, you’re ready to take action. You want to DO something to get the ball rolling and see some results. We tend to jump right into the action—and wonder why we keep falling short of our desired results. Here is what I found: we must be willing to embrace the character development in conjunction with our activity, because as we begin to strengthen who we are and what we stand for on the inside, that drives the performance to create our results.

Of course, the biggest problem is that when we’re truly most in-need of a little character development, we fight it with every fiber of our beings. We’re either totally unaware that we’ve become our own lid, we “think” we know it all and have it all together, or we stubbornly refuse the growth and blame our current failure on external circumstances. So, how are we to know if we could use a little character development?

I once heard it put this way: when facing a major crossroads in life, “Your future happiness depends on how you respond to the following question: Which is stronger, your urge to grow? Or your resistance to change? If you want to grow, if you truly want to reach your fullest potential, then you have to step out and accept challenges, rather than rationalize all of the reasons you should stay rooted to ‘what I am’, instead of committing yourself to ‘what I could become’”. Or as Jon Bon Jovi put it, “Don’t get too comfortable with who you are at any given time; you may miss the opportunity to become who you want to be.”

So, how DO we change who we are from the inside out? How do we develop the character we need so that we are in a position to drive the performance we need that will finally create those results we truly want?

I think we all go through phases of life where we’re confronted with things we need to release, habits we need to break, or areas of bondage we need to break free from. But those are not easy changes to make! So often, instead of embracing the opportunities to change and grow, we hold onto those old anchors for dear life and become total brats about it to anyone who gets too close to the situation. So, If I may be bold enough to ask, what are you being a brat about right now? Are you ready to let go and move forward? I’ve got a couple areas of my own life that I know it’s time to tackle!

How would you feel about being power partners? Are you ready to team up for a little character development and personal growth to spur your activity to drive the results you desire? But maybe you’re not sure where to start? Well be sure and join me for the next edition of Digging Deeper right after Labor Day…we’ve got something fun coming, and we’re all going to have the chance to partner together on a very specific plan and path for personal growth…which will lead directly to our PERSONAL POWER!!

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Let’s talk about leadership today. It’s interesting how that one word can conjure up so many different responses in different people. I would venture to guess that some of you reading my words at this very moment are doing a quick scan of the contents before you hit the delete key, because you are tempted to think that the topic of leadership doesn’t apply to you. You may be tempted to think that you are not a leader. If you find yourself thinking that thought, then I implore you to keep reading, because I must tell you—with all the love in the world for you—that you are selling yourself short. How can I dare to say that, without even knowing you or anything about your situation? Here’s how.

John Maxwell says that leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less. So what exactly does influence mean? My online dictionary describes it as, “the power that someone has to affect other people’s thinking or actions”. I would say that pretty much sums it up. If leadership is influence, and influence is power over people’s thinking or actions, then one could make the connection that leadership refers to power that one has over the lives of others. Whoa.

Think about this: Do you have children? Do you have friends? Do you have coworkers? Do you serve on any sort of committee or invest your time in any type of organization? If so, then by the definition above, we are all either leading someone else—or being led by them—in every relationship we have. I’m not just talking about the power of persuasion here. Take a look at your relationships on the whole, and ask yourself this question: Who is following whom? As healthy individuals, we will probably each be called upon to adopt the roles of leader and follower in different situations. If left to our own devices, our personality types would probably send us naturally toward one end of the spectrum or the other. However, in living our life on-purpose, we want to make sure that we are assuming the right role in each respective situation, even if it means a venture out of our comfort zone. For instance, if you consider yourself to be a natural follower, stepping into a leadership position may be terrifying, challenging, and empowering all at once. And for a “natural” leader, assuming the role of a follower can be quite character-building, as poise, grace, and the ability to take direction are all very important life skills. But for today, let’s dig a little deeper into the leadership end of the spectrum as it relates to our families, ourselves, the people around us, and our careers…and make sure that we are embracing the call to step up to the plate of leadership whenever necessary.

First, let’s look at our families. Whether your mind jumps to your own children, your parents, your siblings, or some other relative, take a step back and evaluate the situation. In those relationships, which would be better…for you to be influencing them, or vice versa? As far as our kids are concerned, in today’s society, if we’re not careful, it would be very easy to slip into the trap of “accidental parenting”, as family experts call it. In other words, instead of starting with the end in mind, we slip into reactionary mode and our children actually wind up leading us…with schedules, activities, purchases, and other decisions that affect the entire household. On-purpose parenting, on the other hand, would involve us making proactive, premeditated, strategic decisions in relation to our children based on the overall outcome we want to create—which in the case of our kids would be grown adults as a finished product. So what kind of adult do you want to create as a contribution to society? If we start with that end in mind, then we may make different decisions in each moment, and not be as tempted to give into impulse and slip into the “follower” mode.

How about leading your own heart? Again, culture today dictates a principle that doesn’t necessarily produce the best results. Everything we hear today says, “follow your heart”. But think about it. If we follow our heart blindly, without any objectivity, we are making decisions solely based on feelings and emotions. Yikes. The book of Jeremiah tells us that the heart is deceitful above all else. So why would we listen to it?!? I learned from some of my mentors (and unfortunately my own personal experience) that activity must sometimes precede the warm fuzzy emotion in order for our lives to work the way they were designed to work. And when the emotion is missing, discipline is a great substitute. Just think where we would be if we allowed our emotions to single-handedly dictate our activity in the arenas of physical health, marriage, and business… we would never exercise, we’d all weigh 2000 pounds from emotional eating, we would all be divorced 5 times, and we would never get off the couch to make one business call! Would we “feel” good in the moment? Probably. But would we be better off because of our decision afterward? No!

Let’s look at our circle of influence. You may have heard that we become like the five people we spend the most time with. There are two kinds of people in life…energy givers and energy suckers. Which are you? And which are you spending your time with? I have found that energy suckers seem to have more force to their energy than energy givers, so it usually doesn’t bode well to think that we’ll just be the good influence on the negative circumstance. While we can certainly have the best intentions, what usually winds up happening is that we just get drug down to their level of mediocrity, complacency, justification, rationalization, and an overall poor-me-it’s-not-my-fault-mentality. Not good! The best thing you can do here is abort ship! The Bible instructs us to guard our tongues and guard our hearts. Guarding our tongues keeps us from being the negative influence, and guarding our hearts protects us from being negatively influenced. Again, we must accept the responsibility to rise above the moment and make the tough decisions based on our desired end result.

And finally, let’s evaluate our business. Many of you receiving this column are business owners. Are you leading your business, or is it leading you? Are you expecting great things, and then actually working as if you intend to create them? Or are you wishing, hoping, praying, and then waiting for the business to come to you? I’ve been on both sides of that fence, and I can assure you that one will lead to complete exhilaration…and the other will lead to implosion.

If you look at each opportunity for leadership we discussed today – your family, your heart, your circle of influence, and your business – what it all boils down to is leading your life. Do you know where you want to end up? Are you taking the daily actions to get you there? Or are you living life in the passenger seat? Being led by others around you who are exerting more influence? It’s time to take back the power—and use it to positively affect the world around you.

Have you heard about the Transformation Summit?

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Today is my thirty-third birthday. I haven’t decided exactly how I feel about that yet.  I do know that I’d love to live to at least 100, so based on that calculation my life is roughly 1/3 over, God-willing.  Many of you know that I have an annual birthday routine that includes some fairly intense introspection. As I do every year at this time, I’ve spent the past few weeks really contemplating my life on this planet thus far and what changes I’d like to implement moving forward.  One of the questions I make a point to ask myself during my birthday analysis is this: Are you really living life or merely surviving it?

Tim McGraw’s fantastic song, My Next Thirty Years, has been playing like a broken record in my head for a good month, and every time the words roll through my mind I have to stop and smile at how true that song rings for me right now. In addition to my birthday, several recent books I’ve read, stories I’ve heard, and movies I’ve watched have forced me to confront my own mortality. Now that is an entirely unpleasant thought, and I certainly don’t plan on kicking the bucket any time soon, but I have stopped to appreciate how precious and short life is.  We’re told in the Old Testament that our days on this Earth were predestined long before we ever arrived, and that God knit us in our mother’s womb for a very specific purpose.  As I’ve processed the mind-blowing implications of those two thoughts, I’ve developed a new hunger to be powerful in each day, in each moment for two reasons: First, if God included a specific purpose for me in His Master Plan before time began, I can only hope and believe that it would be an important contribution to His Work.  Not that He needs any of us to fulfill His Plan—but how awesome is it that we get to participate!?  And secondly, far be it from me to miss out on His multitude of blessings simply from sleepwalking through the journey instead of showing up for duty!

Now, before we jump off the theological deep end, I say all of that to communicate this point: if every single day of our life is accounted for, how many blessings and true joy have we missed out on so far just from being too busy to pay attention? And perhaps an even more important question is: how many more blessings are we going to let slip through our fingers, because we’re too caught up in the rat-race to accept and enjoy them? Am I saying that we should all quit our jobs, give up our businesses, and move to a commune to meditate on life? Of course not…although the thought of it does make me laugh! God didn’t put most of us here to live and operate in solidarity. In fact, He mentions numerous time in His Word how much he values hard work and laboring at the tasks before us while we function as contributing members of our community.

So, my guess is that truly living life to the fullest would put us somewhere between the extremes of sleepwalker and monk. But, how do we get there?? How do we shift gears from living on autopilot and going through the motions of life into truly living – fulfilling our God-given dreams and goals and achieving the life for our families that we know they deserve? How do we buck the system and break the mold that has confined us for so long? If only we could press the “pause” button on life to allow us to get caught up on a few things, then we could make time to focus on our list of goals and dreams, right? Well, I haven’t found the pause button yet, but I have found a solution that has made a tremendous difference in my own life.  I’ve mentioned it to you several times in the past, but I’d like to share it in detail today.

Back in May of 2008, when a group of my friends were jet-setting off to Australia for our annual vacation together, James and I had to cancel at the last minute due to the fact that I physically couldn’t make the trip there.  The tip of my tailbone was broken from when I gave birth to my son a few months before, and it wasn’t healing quickly, so it was very painful.  Needless to say a 20+ hour flight was not in the cards for me, so James and I decided to take advantage of the time we had already blocked out for the trip and create our own stay-cation.  We took JD to my parents’ house as originally planned, and then we were faced with the decision of exactly what to do with that week that was “off the books”.  While the thought of a week laying on the couch in front of the TV seemed relaxing, it seemed even more wasteful, so we knew that wasn’t the answer.  Almost in unison, we began to feel this strange sense of unrest, as if we were just no longer satisfied with the status quo we had allowed our life to become, and we decided to use this one week to shake off the funk of the rut we were stuck in.  Please understand me on this, it doesn’t matter what your title is, success is relative, and a rut is a rut.  James and I knew that we could be achieving so much more in our lives, and we agreed that we were tired of talking about all the things we wanted to do instead of actually doing them.  So, we decided to dedicate our vacation week to the following project: we were going to wage war on the mediocrity of our own life.  It has since become known in our house as “War Week”, and in the three years that have passed since then, everything is now referred to as either BW or AW…before or after War Week.  It is without question the single most valuable use of time we have ever invested as a couple.  Want to know how to do it yourself?

OK, here we go!  Remember, War Week was prompted by a feeling of unrest that James and I shared as we looked at different areas of our life where we had slipped into complacency.  Once we made the renewed commitment to step out of mediocrity and back into excellence in every area of our life, we needed two things: clear vision on exactly what excellence looked like to us, and a very specific plan for how to get there. Our entire week revolved around the creation of three simple lists. I’m going to share them with you and invite you to try this exercise yourself.

The first list we created was our “frustration list” —a list of everything in our life that bothered, frustrated, or disappointed us in any way. It included both personal and professional content and involved anything—great or small—that kept our life from operating the way we want it to. Some of our personal examples on this first list included things such as: my medical bills from when JD was born were not accurate, we were unhappy with our existing financial strategy, we wanted more time off for vacation and family, and James had some business ideas that he wanted to pursue, but we both felt too caught up in our existing schedules to make anything “new” happen. For your personal situation, it could include things like: the cluttered garage or closet stresses you out, your desk and files are unorganized, your will is outdated or doesn’t exist at all, you’re paying too much in monthly credit card interest, or you really wish you had stronger technical skills so that your results from each appointments would be higher. Get the idea? Our list included literally anything and everything that kept us from living at what we considered to be our ideal life.

The second list we created was our “goal poster life”—a list of exactly what our life would look like if we were living in our goal poster!  Ours included things like ideal weight, different types of hired help (new trainer, family chef, tax advisor, attorney, etc.), number of annual vacations, number of monthly work days, specific income, certain professional projects, and details on how we allocate our time. Some of you may be thinking of a “dreams” list, and that’s not exactly what this list was, so let me clarify the difference. A dreams list is literally a list of the dreams that you want to accomplish within a certain timeframe or before you die. While I do have a dreams list, my “goal poster life” list is different from that. My “goal poster life” details exactly what my life could look like right now if I were operating at full capacity—not what it might look like some day after all my dreams come true.  In other words, if we were to get our collective act together and fire from all cylinders, what would James and I be capable of achieving right now…in the very short term?  Think of it this way: Imagine that your life has a big huge engine room….like the engine room of a ship.  If you could walk into that engine room of your life right now, you would be surprised to find that a good number of the levers aren’t even activated at all…some areas of your life are completely dormant right now, because the levers have never been truned on.  So, if you could run into that room and flip all of the switches to the “on” mode…what would happen in your life?  All of a sudden, you would be operating at full capacity…your life would go from barely staying afloat to cruising full speed ahead in the destination of your dreams.  So, when you imagine what your life could look like in the very short term, that’s what I want you to envision.

The final list we created was our “action items” list—the list of everything that would be involved in moving us from the first list to the second list.  If the first list defines where you are and the second list defines where you want to be, then the third list becomes your project plan for how to get there! You may want to include action items such as negotiate new credit card rates, find better health insurance, research life insurance policies, start college savings plan, clean out the garage, save money for a family vacation… anything that will need to take place for you to move from your existing situation to your ideal life. You want to be as specific as possible with your list. And for all of you non-detail people out there, this is where you are really going to need to Dig Deep to stay with me and make this plan work, OK? Don’t let yourself shut down from the length or complexity of the list, just keep writing and brainstorming the solutions.

And here is the one final piece of information you need to be prepared for battle! I call it my “implementation schedule”. You must have this to win the war on mediocrity! Once I had created this final “action items” list, it was literally pages and pages long. After I spent a week designing my life and putting together a project plan to attain it, the list included more than a hundred action items…everything it would take to “fix” all of the existing problems plus all of the new projects I would need to tackle in order to create my ideal situation. However, this new list was so long and overwhelming that I thought I would hyperventilate just from looking at the list! But in refusing to settle for mediocrity in my life, I knew there had to be a solution. So, we took this third action items list and created an implementation schedule from it…one that allowed us to “eat the elephant” of our life goals one bite at a time!

See if you can carve out some time this week to work on your three lists. Then, for all of my community members, I’ll even post a sample of the “implementation schedule” so that you can create one for yourself and start your own war on mediocrity if you choose to do so!

Thanks for Digging Deeper with me! Knowing that there is so much more to life than just earning a paycheck motivates me to work as hard as I can to maximize that paycheck, so that I can use it to maximize my life! That’s what Digging Deeper is all about—maintaining a healthy perspective on why we do what we do and cultivating our passion to do it to the best of our ability!

Want more on War Week?

Check out Allison’s popular iTV episode that goes into great detail on this powerful weapon in your war against mediocrity!

Have you heard about the Transformation Summit?

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Today I’d like to talk about a recent personal experience of mine, and how it’s got me thinking about the bigger picture of our desired results.  Some of you are aware that my family just moved to Phoenix.  In the middle of the summer.  In the desert.  Now, don’t get me wrong…this place is gorgeous, and I’ve heard it’s one of the best places on earth to live about 10 months out of the year.  Several people have told me that if we can just survive these first couple of months then we will be in heaven after that.  I honestly didn’t think too much of it.  Being from Texas, I thought I was prepared for the heat…but I quickly learned that nothing can truly prepare you for 118 degree days.  The air is so hot and dry it’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket immediately when you step outside, while an invisible vacuum simultaneously sucks all of the air out of your body.  I got here a few weeks before James did, and I had to laugh at his Twitter post the first day he arrived.  It read, “Just got to Phoenix…let me know if you need anything from the surface of the sun.”

I was immediately reminded of the old saying, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  Of course, the proverbial kitchen is where all of the action takes place – it’s where the magic happens.  No one really wants to miss out on the excitement, but few people can hang with the heat long enough to experience the glorious payoff.

Why do kids quit music lessons or sports activities when they’re young?  Usually, it’s because they don’t want to invest the time in practicing.  In other words, they can’t take the heat.

Why as adults do we quit diet and exercise programs?  Because we don’t like the discipline, otherwise known as…we can’t take the heat.

Why do we finish less than half of the new projects we start?  Because the excitement wears off, and we lose our resolve to follow-through.  We can’t take the heat.

I’ve noticed the exact same phenomenon in my chosen industry.  As I’ve shared with you before, direct sales is like personal growth on steroids.  Lots of people come and go, but to really create long-term, sustainable success, your character development must precede the performance that drives the results you desire.  It’s a refining process that can absolutely transform you into the person you were born to be, but you must be willing to endure the melting heat of the furnace.  Refining does not come from listening to good speeches or reading great books. It comes from being exposed to difficult situations and enduring affliction.

Spouting theory won’t work – people will see right through it.  True, lasting growth only comes from standing in the mirror and being willing to do two things.  First, embrace ALL of yourself…the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Acknowledge who you are – the parts you do like and the parts you’re not so proud of.  Then second, we must take ownership of the refining process.  Be willing to submit to the furnace and stick out the heat so that your character can come out on the other side as pure gold.  Keep in mind, it’s much, much easier to turn and walk away from the mirror, quickly forgetting what you saw, than it is to humble yourself and step into the refiner’s fire.  That, my friends, is one hot kitchen.

Why is enduring the heat a necessary requirement for long-term success in the direct sales industry?  There are many reasons, but I’ll highlight a few of them here:

1.     You’re your own boss – There is no built-in accountability, so you must discipline yourself and have the hunger and initiative to drive and lead yourself with no externally imposed deadlines or checks and balances.

2.     You’re in the people business – It’s often said that people are the best and worst part of the business.  We must learn to work with personalities of all types, from all backgrounds, philosophies, and walks of life.

3.     Your biggest competition is life itself – People are busy.  We’re all slightly A.D.D. in today’s world.  I quickly learned that my competitors weren’t really another brand…I was competing with my prospect’s busy schedules and just fighting for a few minutes of the time they didn’t think they had, so I had to find creative, innovative ways to set myself apart, create demand, and add lasting value to their life.

4.     You’re leading a volunteer army – The people following you can pack up and leave anytime they want to.  If they don’t like you, they won’t do business with you.  They don’t have to – they can take their business elsewhere.  You must decide if you’re more concerned about being right or swallowing your pride to find a win-win solution that’s workable for everyone.

5.     “Winging it” won’t work – Just trying to skim by without mastering the necessary skills will leave you broke and desperate very quickly.  This isn’t an arena where you can fake your competency or charm your way to the top.  Charisma may get you so far, but to really have staying power, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work of developing your skills, learning your product or service, building a solid network, working through enough people to find the ones who truly want change, developing the quality of perseverance through enduring disappointments, rising above all drama and mediocrity, then empowering the people around you to do the same thing.

The truth is that these principles can apply to your life’s goals whether you’re in direct sales or not.  So, just remember…ALL great things in life require some sort of investment before the payoff comes.  Whether you’re trying to finish school, pass a test, earn a promotion, lose excess weight, get in shape, rebuild your financial situation, or just totally reinvent yourself, you’re stronger than you think you are.  You can handle the heat.  Yes, it’s gonna get hot.  Yes, you’re gonna sweat…A LOT.  Yes, you may even get burned.  But the fire will not consume you…it will melt away the impurities and transform you into the person God created you to be.  So, go ahead.  Walk into that kitchen and submit to the heat.  Your life is waiting on the other side!

Have you heard about the Transformation Summit?

Click here for all the juicy details!