Hope

I love this word. It's probably one of the most powerful words in the English language. Why? Because you can take almost anything away from someone, their job, their home, their sense of security, even their family, and if somehow they are able to hold on to 'hope' they will survive. Witness the amazing people of Haiti in the past two weeks.

While the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th has taken nearly everything from that country's people, they still seem to be remaining hopeful. Amid the chaos, destruction and death of that area, the people who have survived go on. They are certainly not unaffected by what's happened and hope is by no means a cure for all that has gone on, but still they are able to put one foot in front of the other, get up each morning, and keep living. The Haitian people are giving us all a great lesson in the power of hope.

Of course the opposite is also true. Without hope, you can't do much. In fact you can have everything that we in North America consider critical to happiness like a house, a job, a family and money, but if you don't have hope, you'll feel empty.

So it is my hope (pun intended) that we learn something from the people of Haiti. That we learn to be hopeful always, in all circumstances. Because as long as we have hope, everything is possible!

Haiti, our thoughts and prayers are with you

I couldn't let today go by without acknowledging the horrible tragedy that has happened in Haiti. The tragic earthquake that recently devastated the poor Caribbean island nation has left our world shocked. For me it immediately brought back memories of the boxing day tsunami of 2004. Thankfully is seems that this time the death toll, though still very large and tragic, may not quite reach the level of the '04 tragedy, but I still felt the same nagging feelings. Sadness over the incredible loss of life, and to some degree, guilt, that I am so fortunate to not have to face it.

As I went about my day today trying to figure out what, if any, our reaction as North Americans should be, I've begun to come to a realization that for most of us we can do only this: give support. We can support the people of Haiti financially (there will be huge costs to rebuild the country and support people as the rebuild their lives) and support them with thoughts and prayers asking God to give them the strength to put their lives back together and move on.

If you're reading this, take action today and make a contribution of whatever you can to help those dealing with the destruction of their homes, their families and their lives. Let's help them put things back together. Go to: www.redcross.ca and make a donation.

Haiti, our prayers are with you!

Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions

I want to share a very important piece of wisdom with you: You will never accomplish anything… if you never start. There is great power in beginning. I don’t know many people who don’t have at least a few goals for themselves unfortunately; the number of those people who have actually done anything about those goals is far too small. Oh sure we think about working on our goals, we dream about achieving those goals, but we rarely do anything about them.

As New Year's 2010 starts to fade from memory, this week's article is about helping you to set and achieve some resolutions that will really make a difference in your life in the next 11 1/2 months. Over the next few weeks we'll address a few of the key steps needed to make your resolutions a reality. The first one is simply this: Get Started!

How often have you said to yourself, “I really should …”? Whether it was travel, work less, begin an exercise program, write a book, we’ve all had goals and then for one reason or another failed to achieve them. Often the reason we fail is that we can’t complete the most important step; start.

It sounds simple but in fact sometimes starting is the hardest part. It’s easy to get so overwhelmed and intimidated by the scope of what needs to be done, that you just don’t know what to do first. Another problem people encounter is that they make the mistake of thinking that action follows motivation, but there’s no reason that the opposite won’t work just as well.

The problem with waiting to be motivated before you start is sometimes you just can’t get motivated. Instead of waiting for the inspiration to start working on your goals, just start. If you get things going, motivation will follow

Action Item

First make a list of a few major goals you have for your life. Now, figure out what would be the first three steps that you’d have to take to accomplish each of these goals and write them down underneath the goal. For example, if your goal is to write a book, set aside an hour each day, to write. Take the phone off the hook, turn the TV off, and write.

Don’t get tripped up by trying to figure out what the perfect first step is. Just write something down (you can always change it if you need to). In this situation, the key isn’t what you do, just that you do something.

Goal 1

a)

b)

c)

Goal 2

a)

b)

c)

Goal 3

a)

b)

c)

What you’ve just done is create your TO DO list for your next year. You should now have nine things that you can DO today to start making your resolutions come true. Don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed by the whole project, just pick the first thing on the list and get started!