If you’re not overwhelmed with enthusiasm for the goal, make it bigger. Make it so big and so compelling that you cannot avoid thinking about it and working on it day after day.

If you find yourself complaining that it’s too difficult, the real problem could be that it’s not meaningful enough. You can change that.

Everything you do requires effort and some level of commitment. So make that effort and commitment count for something that’s truly important to you.

Set your sights on an objective that will positively pull you toward it. Choose something that will keep you excited and enthusiastic and focused on achievement.

Give your life and your efforts a clear, solid, meaningful direction. Give yourself a compelling reason to persist through every challenge.

Envision a goal so valuable and desirable that you cannot help but work toward it every day. And be truly amazed at what you can achieve.

** Have a great day **

On this day, we remember one of the greatest leaders in human history.  What he was able to accomplish in his all-too-short time on Earth was astounding.  It’s often said the true definition of a leader is someone who has the ability to get people to do what they wouldn’t do on their own had that person not been there.  And Martin Luther King, Jr did just that, getting over a million people to march peacefully to Washington D.C. for a worthy cause.

In honor of him today, watch these video clips, take them in and think about how you can apply pieces of his timeless messages still today.  In whatever your worthy endeavors, keep on pursuing them, and never quit…In the words of another great mentor, Mr. Michael Humes, “It’s impossible to stop a man or woman who will not quit.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech (1963)

“In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort but where he stands at times of challenge and discovery.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“A lie cannot live.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “Strength to Love” (1963)

“Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”
- Martin Luther King Jr. “Strength To Love” (1963)

“Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “The Measures of Man” (1959)

“I am aware that there are many who wince at a distinction between property and persons–who hold both sacrosanct. My views are not so rigid. A life is sacred. Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on; it is not man.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “The Trumpet of Conscience” (1967)

“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values–that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

“Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “Strength to Love” (1963)

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” (1967)

“As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s an interesting, and very entertaining, 20 minute video of a guest speaker at the TED talks that you’ve likely seen so many videos shared from. Ken Robinson discusses some interesting issues, and makes some valid points about how our education systems work (worldwide).

Well friends, 2009 is over and done, and a new year is here.  It’s really just another day like any other, but serves as a great landmark in time for us to step back, observe what has happened over the last year, learn from that, and determine how to make that better in the next year.

I believe you can make the most out of 2010 by starting with getting your mindset correct.  We can learn a lot from a familiar story in the Old Testament of the Bible.  The story of the promised land.  Read this passage from Deuteronomy 1:6-8:

⁶ The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”

You see, God told them, “you have stayed here long enough…break camp and advance.”  We’ve been where we are at now for long enough.  God has given us the promised land, it’s just up to us to take a step of faith and make it happen.  But here’s another part of the deal, we need to act with some urgency, trusting God all along the way…the trip from where they started to the promised land was an 11 days trip, but took the Israelites 40 years to reach there.

When the 12 went to Canaan and came back reporting what they saw, 10 saw only the hardships, the negatives, the giants, imagining how hard it would be to overtake them (not counting on the power of God to provide their every need) and therefore determined there was no way they could enter the promised land.  The other 2 returned reporting the endless bounty, the positives, and how great everything there was.

The same goes for us today…do you see the positives or the negatives in life? Those 2 who came back reporting the good news were the ones that ended up prospering later on…and the so the same goes for you!

I think we can directly apply the story of David and Goliath to our lives.  Goliath was an incredibly large man; he didn’t even carry his own armor. And David: well, he was just a youngster and a shepherd.  They told David, “All you’ve got is a sling and a stone. You can’t kill Goliath.”  And David said, “He’s so big, I can’t miss him!”

You see, it comes down to our mentality and philosophies in life…The Law of Expectation: You get what you expect!

…Keep David’s mindset with you everywhere you go; when others are telling you there’s no way you can slay that giant, you say, “He’s so big, there’s no way I can miss!”

Have you been in a rut during the last year?  Now’s the time to start fresh and get out of it.  After all, you may have heard the phrase, “A rut is just a grave with the two ends kicked out.”

So, friends, you’re going to get exactly what you expect out of 2010, whether good or bad. Opportunities are endless, you can find them everywhere you go.  Here’s something I keep on my mind all the time now, “I wake up every morning with the certainty that something great will happen and the uncertainty of where it will come from.”

I’ve got a feeling that 2010 is going to be your year! That you’ll be happier than you’ve ever been, laughing harder, smiling wider, standing taller, walking lighter, living grander, and loving louder.

…And I’m here to help make that happen for you!

To Your Success,