Curious about Resolve: What Does It Mean to You? And Do You Have and Use It?

Definition of Resolve: To separate the component parts of; to reduce to the constituent elements; said of compound substances; hence, sometimes, to melt, or dissolve. To be settled in opinion; to be convinced.

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” - Helen Keller, American author

I chose “resolve” for this week’s theme, because I was so inspired by Dan Kennedy’s excellent article in his monthly, marketing letter.

To quote him, “For most, the legitimacy of resolve is an unwelcome idea. Whether or not you take a midnight utterance at a party seriously isn’t important, but to what extent you subscribe to the legitimacy of resolve is vital. The sports cliché is that big games tend to be won by the team that wants it most and refused not to win. Yes, talent matters, but less than resolve. Personally, I think I have little if any talent, but I’ve had a whole lot of resolve throughout my life.”

I started to think about the power of the word resolve as I was finding so many great quotations. Don’t you feel that you would be more likely to achieve your goals and intentions if you stated, “I resolve to accomplish this?”

Let me share some of the quotations I found:

• “To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.” - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat
• “Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.” – Homer, Greek poet
• “Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.” - Horace Mann, American educator
• “The function of a genius is not to give new answers, but to pose new questions which time and mediocrity can resolve.” - Hugh Trevor-Roper, English historian
• “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American writer
• “Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” – Rene Descartes, French mathematician
• “Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.” - Denis Waitley, American writer

And a few more:

• “I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.” - Winston Churchill, British statesman
• “This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.” - Barack Obama, American President
• “There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.” - Wayne Dyer, American psychologist
• “However, lifestyle intervention requires discipline with a tangible end result that is within reach. It requires personal resolve, a lifelong commitment.” - Tim Holden, American politician
• “I just think that there are those people that their resolve is strengthened by what it is that's keeping them down, and there are some people that will buckle under it. You never know which one is which until you get into the eighth or ninth round of the fight.” - Ron Perlman, American actor
• “If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer.” - Clement Freud, British writer
• “In life there are no problems, that is, objective and external choices; there is only the life which we do not resolve as a problem but which we live as an experience, whatever the final result may be.” - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist

And I do love two more for you to think about this week:

“Resolve and thou art free.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet

“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” - Samuel Johnson, English author

What do you resolve to achieve? I would love to read your feedback.

Curious about TRANSFORMATION: What Creates It? And Is It Worthwhile in Our Lives and Careers?

Definition of TRANSFORMATION: (1)The act of transforming, or the state of being transformed; change of form or condition. (2) Change of one form of material into another, as in assimilation; metabolism; metamorphosis. (3) A change in disposition, heart, character, or the like; conversion.

“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then tr of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” - Napoleon Hill, American writer

Even though I used it previously, I chose “TRANSFORMATION” for this week’s theme because, for me, 2011 will be a year of TRANSFORMATION. In less than a month, I will be moving into a different apartment. It is on the lake and closer to the two YMCAs where I teach my 12 fitness classes a week. However, the move is only the start.

I am also updating my marketing direction. This past year I joined a cutting edge marketing group and also an Internet Skills and Mastermind group. The great news is that the leader shares a plethora of information and holds several pure learning webinars a week. He also assigns challenges for us to complete.

Notice that each of the parts of the definition above use the word, “change.” We all know how difficult it is to change. And, yet, we have heard again and again that if we don’t change we will continue to have the same results over and over. If we are happy with our results, we should continue doing what we have always done. However, most of the people I know would be thrilled with a change for the better, but are afraid to try.

Have you experienced or started to work on a transformation? It may consist of different areas of your life: physical, financial, educational, family, and emotional. The great news is that if one works on transforming one of these areas, transformation will occur in other areas, too. I have witnessed this so often at the gym. When a student of mine works on losing weight and achieving a high level of fitness, the benefits color other areas.

What do the experts have to say about transformation:

• “Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.” - Marianne Williamson, American author
• “History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes.” - Paul Eldridge, American educator
• “Transformation in the world happens when people are healed and start investing in other people.” - Michael W. Smith, American musician
• “Transformation literally means going beyond your form.” - Wayne Dyer, American psychologist
• “It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.” - Edgar Degas, French artist
• I especially like American actress, Judith Light’s quotation, “The message of transformation and how we all can live from our heart, not just from our head, was a very important message for me to learn in my own life.”

And a few more quotations to chew upon:

• “I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.” - Fernando Flores, Chilean politician
• “When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” - Joseph Campbell, American author
• “Art is magic... But how is it magic? In its metaphysical development? Or does some final transformation culminate in a magic reality? In truth, the latter is impossible without the former. If creation is not magic, the outcome cannot be magic.” - Hans Hofmann, German artist

Let me hear about your work on transformation and what started it. Change isn’t always easy, but it is exciting!

Curious about Calendar and Calendars: How Much Effect Do They Have on You and Your Life?

“My wife's jealousy is getting ridiculous. The other day she looked at my calendar and wanted to know who May was.” - Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian

“No other date on the calendar more potently symbolizes all that our nation stands for than the Fourth of July.” - Mac Thornberry, American politician

You are curious, I am sure, about my choosing “Calendar” for this blog’s theme. I have several reasons. First of all, I love calendars – the monthly change of the main image, the variety in subjects featured in calendars, and the wonderful messages sported by many.

The other main reasons are that for years, I have been following my tradition of purchasing a calendar for each of my five children as one of their Christmas gifts. I know it may sound odd, but I thoroughly enjoy taking the time to see and consider all of the variety of themes that will fit taste and personalities.

While I am picking out the gift calendars, I also am choosing my calendars. I actually have five places I hang them plus a one-a-day box calendar that sits next to my computer. Then, the first of January is always a delight, because it is the day that I unpackage my calendars and place them in their new homes.

This year I even had requests for certain theme calendars which made the whole process even more fun and rewarding.

There wasn’t a plethora of calendar quotations, but I think that you will find the ones I chose to be quite interesting and in some cases, humorous. Here goes:

• “I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.” - Robert Brault, Software writer and poet
• “I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.” - Marilyn Monroe, American actress
• “I've found a formula for avoiding these exaggerated fears of age; you take care of every day - let the calendar take care of the years.” - Ed Wynn, American entertainer
• “Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.” - Charles Richards, Canadian politician
• “Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.” –
  David Herbert Lawrence, English writer
• “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.” - Charles Kettering, American inventor

And, a few more:

• “I've never been one of those who wanted to fill my calendar up 90 percent of the time.” - Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian
• “If we carry on filling up the calendar, we keep on pushing the athlete, we shorten the athletes longevity. The risk is to shorten a career that could have lasted 10 years because the athlete is burnt out.” - Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
• “My 2005 calendar we actually did a shoot in Lake Las Vegas. Since I had requests do some swimwear and athletic shots we tried them and they came out good so we inserted them into the new calendar.” - Natalie Gulbis, American athlete
• “The main thing is healthy eating, exercise, which I do for special events, like if it's Sports Illustrated, or the swim suit catalogue for Victoria's Secret, or my own calendar that I did for the year 2000.” - Heidi Klum, German model
• “Tomorrow is only found in the calendar of fools.” - Og Mandino, American author
• “You are right that I don't have a lot of spare time because I love to stay busy and keep my calendar full.” - Kiana Tom, American model
• “You have to calendar time for yourself even if you have no idea what you're going to do with it.” - Susie Bright, American writer

So, how about you? Do you use and/or enjoy your calendars. I would love to read your Feedback.