Yes we CAN comeback! A new chapter

Saying it's been a while would be a huge understatement.

Our last post was in April 2010 - It's now March 2013!

Oops.

Although we had high hopes to do every principle step-by-step and report back it just didn't work out that way.

However the Principles work! We employed just some of them and not to the fullest and we've seen great success.

For example - as of the last few entries before we dropped from this blog- I had just took a 'crazy' leap to run a half marathon and made weight loss goals (based on J.C's principles).

And guess what? I ran that half marathon. Yes I did. VICTORY!! You can read about that half marathon that took place in May 2010 here.

But guess what else? I went on to run 8 more half marathons, a full 26.2 marathon and a 200 mile Ragnar Relay Race that I've filmed for a documentary!

Picture during the 200 mile Ragnar Relay Race with my before and after pic

Thanks to that one goal and following the Principles to get there I went on to run all those races, launch a successful running blog with hundreds of followers, become a health blogger for a few major projects that pay me a good salary, made dozens of new friends from across the country, have traveled to some really cool places for races, reach and maintain (for 3 years!) my ideal weight and gain confidence. Beginning to run also led me to come in 4th place for Progresso Soup's "Souper Me" contest, landed me in the pages of Health Magazine, featured on the blog, "Run Like a Mother," and countless other amazing experiences and a changed life.

Just one goal on the list - with a (pardon the expression) somewhat half-assed approach to the Principals and my life is amazingly changed and better.

And a bunch of other good things have happened too.

That's just my story. Amy has some great success to share too.

Because of our success we decided to get full back on Jack track and pick up this life-long adventure and journey.

We've been reading our Jack re-tooling our vision boards and cracking open our gratitude, victory and goal journals.

Watch out world.

Two morals of my story? As Jack teaches, you can do amazing things when you take the steps to get there.  I never thought that I could be happily maintaining my goal weight or would consider myself a runner but with three years of running under my belt - that's me!

Also - it's never too late to recommit to getting better. So we fell off the blogging band wagon and some of the Principles - we are back.

"You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one."

XO
Jen

The treadmill of success

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." -Thomas Edison

Helloooooooooo!!!  I'm back.


That is right after a far to long of a break I am back. Back on the Jack!


I am not going to dwell on the time I took away from the plan.  I would love to tell you I had some great reason or at least a halfway decent excuse.  I do not. I simply just fell of the plan.  


It is kind of like when you are following an exercise program, you are working out every day, feeling great, and look forward to your daily work out.  Then something happens life gets a little busy and you miss a workout, then you miss the next one and before you know it you haven't worked out for weeks then  months.  Now you have no desire to workout, yes it made you feel good but now it seems like work again. But you know that once you get back into the habit of working out again you will be feeling better and looking forward to your workouts soon enough.


Well, it is the same with the Success Principles.  I hit the treadmill of success today and will get back in the routine. 


AA
:0)

Dream Big and have Goals!

As many of you know, I've set a personal goal to lose 15 pounds AND run 13 miles on May 2nd 2010.

Both these goals were definitively set as a direct result of reading Canfield.  I always had vague ideas of wanting to lose weight or do something really physically challenging but reading the SP's book gives you suggestions on getting specific.

Deep down I always thought, "gee it would be cool to run a marathon, someday."  After reading some J-Can, it occurred to me that the thought "someday" really meant, "probably never."  I was never going to wake up one day and suddenly be in marathon-running shape.  That's something that takes work.

Which comes back to losing weight and running a marathon.  Jack says, you shouldn't just say, "I want to lose weight."  It's best to be as specific as possible:  "I'll weigh 150 pounds on June 3, 2010 at 10 AM."  Or, "I will run 13.1 miles on May 2, 2010."

The other thing that Jack suggests is to set goals high and a little out of your comfort zone.  This is where we really grow and change as people.

(Or in my case of running - really, really outside your comfort zone!)

Let me tell you first hand - these concepts while simple, when put into practice really seem to work.

By having the pressure of a ticking clock of a specific date for this marathon chasing me - it's truly forcing me to "change my ways" in order to accomplish this goal.  It's more than just believing in the possibility -it's hard work. It's knowing that, the run is going to happen, I'm signed up and I will be there.  I put this goal on my head and now I'm doing everything that I need to in order to get there.  I'm taking my nutrition and training seriously, no excuses.

I will admit, that many times I failed to set goals because I was afraid to fail.  Even with this marathon thing, there's no guarantee.  It could rain the day of, I could have a cold, I could be running with an injury - there's the possibility of outside obstacles that could prevent me from crossing the finish line in the time limit they've put out there... but, trust me, this experience is a winner no matter what happens.  Nothing about it is a failure - it's a far bigger failure to not try at all.

The book suggests that you write down all of your goals as specifically as possible.  Put them on 3x5 index  cards and read them 3x's a day.  I am yet to write them all out and do that - but I will.  I am setting the goal here!

I will write out at least 10 major life goals on index cards by 10:30 PM February 18th, 2010!

What are some of your goals?  Are there any you've been afraid to set because you're afraid of failing?  Consider pushing yourself outside of your own comfort zone and surprise yourself at what you are capable of or learn a little bit more about what you would need to grow to that next step.

xo
Jen

I don't believe it...

The whole believing in yourself is so important that I thought I'd part deux it.


Sometimes, you just don't believe in yourself, it's something that you've gotta constantly work at.  I struggle with it everyday.  I'm trying to really work on it.  


There's the mantra's, the affirmations, the victory logs - all kinds of tools to help you find the inner voice to find that belief but even sometimes those things aren't enough.


Jack says, "It's often easier to have someone else believe in you first."


I cannot tell you how many times and how many people have helped me by believing in me, even when I didn't believe in myself.  


I'm  a writer and I firmly believe that I'm still writing thanks to people like Amy and Angela.  When I thought to give up, or didn't think I was all that good - these were friends that would "out of the blue" compliment something I'd had written or ask my what I was working on or I'd overhear them praising my work to someone else.  It was like the universe conspiring to find a way to get me back on some sort of belief track.  And I'm not even sure they know how much that kind of belief in me means to me... it means a ton - I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be where I am now without a ton of people believing in me along the way.


So, I guess my last word on this is, if you are struggling with the whole belief thing - look around I bet you can find a whole lot of people who believe in you.  Maybe, just maybe, that's all you'll need to start to once again believe in yourself.


xo
Jen

I believe!

So in the Principles, I'm reading about the importance of believing in yourself.  This is probably one of the most important points that could be stressed.

Look, it's not the first time you or I have heard it.  "yeah, yeah... I believe in myself..."  "believe it and you can achieve it..." blah. blah. blah.

But seriously.  How many of us really, really truly believe in ourselves.  If you're like me, doubt, fear, a bitchy little negative voice often comes into play - urging, yelling, nagging - "no you can't."

Well, I have had that voice for too long and I'm really working at making it shut the F up.  I've always wanted to run a marathon but the doubt that I could do it has always plagued me.  But not any more.  I signed up for a 1/2 marathon yesterday and I have not one shred of doubt that I can do it, because I believe I can.  so I will.  And that's that.  I think that it might take a little work but with practice, that little inner voice of doubt can be replaced with a strong voice of belief.

I started another blog about that journey towards training for the marathon - as I've found that writing about these experiences are both motivating for me and supplies me with great accountability.

If you wanna read that, it's here:  www.seejerroerun.blogspot.com

I fully believe that both this emotional Canfield journey and my physical marathon journey goes hand in hand - I would've never chose to try to do that if it wasn't for reading this book.

I believe there's a great future ahead!

xo
Jen

PS:  For those wondering where Amy is at, she's currently in Vancouver and bringing her Style Studio to the Olympics!  She's got limited computer access and is working hard.  She'll be back soon!

I have a vision!!

So finally, I sat down and tackled the "Your Vision" section of The Principles. The vision, as Amy has demonstrated in an earlier set of blogs basically encompasses your biggest desires/goals in life - kind of like your dream everything, however, unlike most dreams, your vision should be something that you plan on making come true. A vision is: I'll direct and produce a Golden Globe/Oscar worthy screenplay... where as (for this purpose) a dream might be I'll win the lottery.

By the way, winning the lottery and doing the Golden Globe thing... both equally as tough :) but I will win a Golden Globe... oh yes. I will.

Anyway, I am not going to list my entire vision exercise as it's ridiculously long and probably pretty dull to anyone but me and Amy... Amy I'll send you a copy! ;) If you'd like to read the whole Vision, feel free to leave a comment and I'll email it to you.

Jack breaks down the exercise into seven parts. You are to vividly envision with as much detail as possible, your ideal home(s), relationships, career, spiritual/community realm, financial situation, what you are doing in your free time, how your health and weight is, etc... Jack says that when you visualize these things, write them down and look at these ideas daily, your internal "GPS" will guide you towards your vision.

This was an interesting exercise. First off, my ideal home is in Southern California. Tried as I might to envision a dream home here in Jersey, I kept coming back to orange trees and So Cal landscaping... also, most of my career highlights would take place there... luckily, my vision also included quite enough money to be able to freely travel to spend time with my East coast friends and family, so we are OK on that front.

Also, I discovered that really allowing yourself to "shoot for the stars" can be challenging. It's fun to dream big but somehow the realist keeps trying to "tone it down." Eh, I don't need to have a private jet or 10 million dollars, a nice car and a million bucks is enough... even when dreaming we (at least I) tend to limit myself. That's very un-jack. So I had to rethink it. In this section, there's a sub-section called, "High Achievers Have Bigger Visions." It's true.

There was also this quote from Michelangelo: "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it."

WOW! Right on Michelangelo! I have sooo many friends who have Ok'ish jobs that they kind of hate but they don't even know how to dream of anything bigger anymore. They have kids, they are late 30's, mid-40's and basically they are "content" with their 3 weeks vacation, modest homes and weekend dinners out. That's OK, no judgement on that... but how many of us, "aim too low?" I am surely guilty of this up to this very minute in my life.

From now on, I'm going to raise the bar - I'd rather miss something a little too high than reach something too low.

No more limits -- Private Jets, Golden Globes, Beverly Hills Mansions, perfect health - it all exists, someone is living that life - why not me?

Why not you?

XOXO

JEN

PS: After writing this blog, and rereading the section in the book, I decided to actually "up the ante" on my vision... I did add access to a private plane and a second home in Jersey... WHY NOT! :)

Make room for great!!

Hi world...

OK, so I'm not gonna lie, I've not been on top of my "Jack Canfield" reading lately. You know how it goes - work, commitments, GRAMMY awards to attend... ;) so much to do, so little time! Since I've decided that perseverance is going to be my theme this year, I'm posting even if I'm not entirely on point with the book and I'm checking in because I'm not giving up and I don't want you to think that I have!!

I have some good things going on right now - and from reading the Principles in the past, I know it all does come back to this theme of "following your dreams and making them a reality."

I am proud of myself, along with two partners, I launched Media Meld Studios less than a year ago and we've wrapped a feature length documentary and have a bunch of viable projects in the pike. My vision (when I get around to actually doing that exercise) definitely includes this company flourishing into a multi-million dollar, top entertainment company. I fully believe that we have the relationships, smarts, creativity and power to do it and even though we are yet to see our big pay day - I fully believe the day will come.

If I can just hang in there and not get enticed by other "good" opportunities.

Jack says, don't settle for good if it's going to stand in the way of great. It sounds so easy but it's easier said than done. This past year has tested me over and over. I've had a few "good" job opportunities come along. I've so far, managed to evade them because I know my "great" would be making the company I've been working on launching succeed -- in fact, when "good" opportunities come up, my stomach starts to hurt just a bit. My gut tells me to stick in their with the path I'm on even if my head is trying to convince myself to "take the steady pay, get the benefits, let someone else lead your destiny..." it's tough. Especially when you have family, friends and peers all with certain expectations of what you "should" be doing. Especially when your whole life you've been programmed with the notion that you take the sure thing, rather than the riskier path. However, there is the old saying, "no risk, no reward." And it's true.

It's riskier for me, emotionally, personally and financially to go this path I'm on. On the surface, it would be much easier to just "take a job." But I would be giving up my passion and a part of me would wither inside - I've sacrificed my gut way too much in my life and I really don't want to do that now.

So far so good. I pray that I can remain above water and strong in my desire to never settle for good when great is yet to be achieved.

So what is so good that your great is being blocked?

I will work on getting officially back on Jack track very soon.

xo

Jen