From the Editor’s Desk

Each day we are given a choice - lament our failures or give thanks for the gifts we have been given. I hope the following story and our article on ‘Mistakes’ help you reframe both choices.

As always we have been working to evolve the StepOneVisionBoard.com site. In the next couple weeks we’ll be making fairly significant improvement.

Stay tuned for more. As always, if you have any suggestions for future articles please send them our way.

Live Courageously!

Susan Nicoll
Editor – Achieve!
snicoll@StepOneVisionBoards.com

P.S. If you know of someone who might benefit from the message please forward this note to them.

For Your Reflection
by Unknown

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Mistakes – The Secret Key to Success?
Part 1

What if the fastest way to achieving your goals was to reflect on your mistakes?

As unlikely as it may seem, focusing on mistakes is a trait shared between many high performance athletes, poker players and even chess masters. In the book entitled, ‘How We Decide’ Johan Lehrer covers in detail how our brain is hardwired to excel from mistakes. It’s a fascinating read and a book I predict will be talked about for years to come.

When I first starting reading about focusing on my errors, it turned my world a little sideways. Isn’t the process of reaching your goals best facilitated by picturing your end state and then working towards it every day?

Well yes, that is part of the process. In fact focusing on the end state is one of the big reasons we created StepOne Vision Boards. StepOne is tailor made to help people get really clear and energized about their goals. However, visualizing your goals is just part of the equation.

A word of warning.

If you are looking for the ‘Law of Attraction’ to get you to the promised land just by wishing for an outcome to happen, please stop reading. This article, along with the StepOne website, has been created to help those who are committed to making success happen in their life. Committed means being willing to invest time, energy and thoughtful determination to the endeavor of building a truly great life.

Still with me?

Ok, let me go back to the first moment the idea of ‘reviewing mistakes’ hit me between the eyes. I was reading another book called, ‘Made to Stick’ by the Heath brothers. Ironically it has little to do with Vision Boards and goal setting but it did have one little section about ‘mistakes’. The short story is that in a study conducted by UCLA students who reviewed how their actions held them back or got them closer to their goals far outperformed those students who did not conduct such self reflection.

I must admit I was somewhat surprised at the notion of thinking about my errors. It struck me as negative thinking. Wouldn’t I just end up beating myself up over yet another screw up? Frankly, I’m working hard at keeping that voice in my head as positive as possible. Introducing a bunch of thoughts about how I messed up just didn’t seem to compute.

When I finished ‘Made to Stick’ I filed the ‘review my mistakes’ idea away and went back to my life. Positive thinking is everything, and anything I did to stop that felt like a step in the wrong direction.

Then I stumbled upon ‘How We Decide’ and it fundamentally changed the way I view goal setting, Vision Boards and goal achievement.

End of Part 1.
For the balance of this article please see the May 5th edition of ‘Achieve!’.

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