Resist Multi-Tasking

Resist Multi-Tasking

Once you stop doing 10 things at once, you can be very purposeful about the one thing you NEED to be doing

Quiet Your Mind

A lot of times in yoga class, you will hear the instructor talk about meditation and mindfulness and quieting the mind, and that's exactly what you need to do to allow yourself to find your inner clarity.

Stay Engaged

Too much of our lives, we're on autopilot. You have got to stay focused and engaged with the world and the task at hand.

Highly Effective New Years Resolutions

1.   Know Your Why.   For a resolution to stick, it has to be aligned with your core values. We all want to look better or get richer, but your resolutions have to go beyond superficial desires and connect with what truly matters most to you. In other words, you have to "Know your why" and feel truly passionate about the goals you set for yourself. Connect your resolutions to those things that give you a deeper sense of purpose and align with your core values.   2.   Be Specific.   Resolutions to 'eat better, get fitter, be happier, relax more or have better life balance' are doomed for failure because they lack specificity. The more specific you are, the more likely you will be able to succeed.   Describe your goals and resolutions in ways that allow you to track your progress and measure your success.    3. Don't Just Think It, Ink it!    A Stanford University study found that when people wrote down their goal, it increased the probability of them achieving it by over 70%.   But don't just write down the specific goal, write down how you will feel when you've accomplished it.  When you have finished penning your desires, jot down on sticky pads the words that inspire you most about your goal and put them around your home/office to remind you of why you are committed to doing what it takes to bring your goal into reality.   4. Design Your Environment.    Never underestimate the power of your environment to support or sabotage your success.  Design your environment so that it's hard NOT to do what you resolved.  Create a progress chart, recruit a cheer squad among your family and friends, find someone to hold you accountable, hire a trainer, join a group, create a blog.  Likewise, if there are people or things in your life that pull you down or off track, address them directly and set whatever boundaries you know you will need up front.   5. Narrow Your Efforts.    Trying to do too many things at once can make you so unfocused that you just bounce around like Tigger on Red Bull, not quite sure which direction you are going. Set yourself up for success and start with JUST ONE MAJOR UNDERTAKING.   Then break that goal down into small bite size steps.  Small steps, strong start!   6. Focus On The Process.   It's easy to get caught up in an initial wave of enthusiasm, only to come crashing down when your initial efforts don't produce immediate and amazing results. So focus on the process itself, and develop greater competence of the actual activity, habit or skill you want to acquire.  PERSISTENCE ALWAYS PAYS OFF.   7.  Forgive Your Failures.   Your setbacks and failures will not define your success in the year ahead or any year. HOW YOU RESPOND WILL. If you happen to mess up, lose your resolve, press the snooze button or revert to a familiar well-practiced behavior, don't beat up on yourself. Okay, so you didn't get to the gym like you'd planned.  How about 5 minutes of stretching?  Don't let your mishaps, setbacks and failures mean more than they do. Reflect on the lessons they hold, make adjustments accordingly, then tap your inner self and get back in the saddle.   Life rewards those who work at it

Find Your Connection in 2013!!

This past Saturday night, my wife and I took our 4 kids out to dinner and a movie as our own personal "Year in Review".  After we tortured our kids by making put their phones and other electronic devices in the middle of the table, we actually had a nice discussion about everything that happened in 2012.  From birthdays to family trips to other milestones, it was nice to see how far we have come in the past year as we look forward to what 2013 has in store for us.

Since then, I have been thinking about the upcoming year and what I can do to make it even better.  If you have turned on a TV in the past couple weeks, you have undoubtedly seen many commercials giving you plenty of ideas on how to make 2013 a great year.  From weight loss to fitness to organization to productivity, there are endless number of ways for you to improve yourself and the world around you.  I have to admit that I am a sucker for this type of stuff and even bought an entire self improvement kit from the website http://www.kickstarttheyear.com/ (it's really good stuff, by the way).

My only suggestion to you on how to improve yourself in the upcoming year goes back to the original purpose of the Live As If Blog -- FIND A CONNECTION!!  Finding a connection could mean different things to different people.  It could mean finding a connection between you and a loved one, you and God or even you and yourself.  The only common them between all of these connections is YOU!

I am sure you will find something to improve yourself during the new year but try to go a little deeper than losing a few pounds or getting back in shape.  Make 2013 the year where you find the true you and improve the connection you have with the world around you.  I promise it will make you feel better than the lower number on the scale.

As always, please feel free to share any comments about how you improved yourself in 2013.  It's been a great and rewarding experience writing the Live As If Blog in 2012.  We hope you have found it interesting and helpful.

All the best to you and your family in 2013.

Regards,
Steven and Craig

You are what you think

By paying attention to the way you feel, and then choosing thoughts that feel the very best, you are managing your own vibration, which means you are controlling your own point of attraction — which means you are creating your own reality. It's such a wonderful thing to realize that you can create your own reality without sticking your nose in everybody else's, and that the less attention you give to everybody else's reality, the purer your vibration is going to be — and the more you are going to be pleased with what comes to you.

--- Abraham Hicks

The Newtown Tragedy - How do we move on?

This blog has always been about connection.  Connection to an energy, a God but most importantly, to each other.  Even if you don't have any personal connection to anybody effected by the senseless tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday, all of our hearts are a little broken because of it.  Since Friday, I can't stop thinking about the victims and their families.  I can't stop reading about those 20 beautiful children and thinking about the lives they would and should have lived.  I also can't stop this feeling of helplessness since there is absolutely nothing any of us can do to make things any better.  But then again, maybe there is...

During the past few days, I have listened to many interviews from people with different perspectives but the common theme is that they all say how they acted differently following the tragedy.  They hugged their loved ones a little more, they were a little nicer to people, one reporter from NBC even let his kids have ice cream for breakfast.

I think President Obama said it beautifully at the Newtown Vigil, "For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on, and make our country worthy of their memory."  The real question is what does "worthy" mean?  How do we use this connection we feel to the people of Newtown to better ourselves and in turn improve the world around us?  Whether it's to read an extra story to your kids at night, take a walk with a friend or loved one, donate some time this holiday season or just be a little kinder to complete strangers.  Do something to make a better version of yourself and dedicate it to the memory of those who lost their lives in Newtown.

Since we are always trying to make this blog about connecting ourselves, please share your thoughts and comments below and maybe we can help each other get through this difficult time.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to victims of last Friday's tragedy and as the Jewish prayer says, "Zikron l'vrach - May their memories be for a blessing."

Do you believe in Serendipity?

 

Do you ever feel like going to a meeting or an event is a waste of time only to be pleasantly surprised of something that happens there?  That in a nutshell is "Serendipity" (I also know it's a delicious ice cream restaurant in New York and Miami Beach but let's try to stay focused).  The official definition of "serendipity" by Dictionary.com is "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident."  If you think about it, this definition sounds just like the definition of "luck" except that the word "aptitude" makes it seem like it's an ability that one can possess.

This past week, I attended a conference in Baltimore called The General Assembly put on by The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).  The General Assembly's mission is to bring together all the organizations in the Jewish world that are helping take care of the needy in our communities, in Israel and around the world.  Although it was great to see friends and listen to great speakers, I often thought of why was I there and did I really need to be away from my family and business.

Then Serendipity happened.  I was walking around the Baltimore Inner Harbor trying to grab lunch where the Dolphins game would be on TV and I ran into some friends of mine who I ended up having lunch with.  I then was supposed to have dinner with a big group of friends but ended up only being 3 female friends and I.  My fear was that this would be a long dinner talking about shoes but it ended up being a very meaningful conversation about life and spirituality.  The next night, I went to a dinner with other participants from Miami and the only seat left was next to one of the Rabbis of our community which led to a great conversation about our day schools.  The next day, I went to a session on politics and ended up sitting next to two college students who I was able to help out with some contacts for a job in Washington.  I felt great that these moments kept happening so I started a mission to create those moments instead of just waiting for them. 

If you went into every conversation, meeting or meal believing that something good was going to come from it, you will be pleasantly surprised that something good will come but not because you are lucky or serendipitous, but because you made it happen.

This is what the Live As If blog is all about.  Live your life as though there is some connection or higher power guiding us and you will live a much more meaningful and fulfilling life.  Please comment below regarding serendipitous moments you have had.  Now let's go have Serendipity Ice Cream!

Editors Note:  Many people have commented that they enjoy reading our blog and that they would like to write a post.  This blog was meant to be a conversation so if you would like to write a post, please let Craig or I know.

Is Lance Armstrong is a liar and a fraud, or is he an inspiration to millions of people?

I love a great bike ride, just like the rest of you I'm sure. I get up insanely early just so I can ride with the least amount of traffic and to be home by 6:15am to wake the kids for school. I get dressed in the dark into my riding bib shorts and multi-colored cycling jersey with defeat socks and Specialized Pro road shoes. I put on my helmet and gloves and make sure the lights (two on the back and front are charged and working well). At this point I usually think to myself that I’m glad my wife is still sleeping so I do not have to hear her laughing at me again for the outfit I wear on my bike.

But I love to ride and like millions of people around the world, looked to Lance Armstrong as the American ambassador to the world of cycling. We denied the reports, said they’re just jealous that he won seven (count them…. seven) Tour De France victories. We supported him even though there were rumors of doping and rode along anyway.

Lance Armstrong became one of the two or three most transcendent American sports stars of our generation despite the fact that hardly anyone in America cares at all about cycling. The ratio of passionate Lance Armstrong fans to people who have ever actually watched Lance Armstrong race except for maybe a few minutes during the Tour de France is just crazily out of whack, but in America it's almost definitely the case that more people have seen Lance Armstrong commercials than have seen Lance Armstrong compete. Which is all just to state the obvious, that it was his story that made him a superstar: his comeback from near-fatal cancer, the hope he offered other cancer patients, his charitable work through the Livestrong Foundation, the yellow bracelets, the sense of larger purpose? Cycling wasn't the cause here so much as the arbitrary venue in which the cause could prove itself noteworthy. He could be broadcast as pure information, or whatever the emotional equivalent of information is. He was a hero of feeling, not a hero of sports.

I want to write: "I would rather be devastated by the truth than comforted by a lie" and be able to believe it. But that's easy to say when you're outside the drift of the regular world, writing away on our little blog as I wonder what the sports fanatic as well as the cancer survivors are saying.

Lance Armstrong may be a liar, and a fraud, and is an inspiration to millions of people, and the trees in the north have begun to change their leaves, and basketball season has just begun….

 How will situations like this effect or change your life? Or will it?