Sound hokey, I thought so too until I learned from my experience and coaches.

A Vision Board is just putting your goals and dreams on paper and looking at it every day. Your dreams and on paper are key.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always set professional goals. Less often personal goals. These goals were sometime imposed by bosses, never hand written and never did I allow myself to listen to my body and dream.

Our business introduced Della and I to Vision Boards. 2018 will be the second year we’ve held a session in our home.

Lessons Learned:

1. It’s important to set aside time to dream. Your dreams are what you should put on your vision board. Don’t let your intellect tell you what’s possible,  let your dreams tell you what will make you happy.
2. Conversely, it’s always good to record what scares you too. The thing about that is not to record your fears but the opposite. For me, I have been worried about paying month end bills. My fear had been that I wouldn’t be able to provide the lifestyle my wife and I enjoy throughout our retirement. My goal for this year will be financial abundance. It’s always necessary to state your goal in the positive manner. Why, well no matter your beliefs, I’ve experienced that what you think, affects your actions and becomes your outcome. Stated another way, whatever you put out to the Universe you get back. Yet a third way, if it’s God’s plan.
3. Focus on the goal not the obstacles. No matter the size of the goal, focus on it. Don’t focus on the lack that you think may stand in your way. If you focus on the goal, you’ll find a way to overcome each obstacle. That leads to the next point.
4. Focussed energy creates powerful results. Your goals must be in front of you every day. You have to see them, remind yourself of what’s important to you to avoid the thousands of distractions you will encounter.
5. You have to be aware of conflicting beliefs. If you have a goal of financial abundance and spending more time with your family those goals may conflict. You”ll need to negotiate with your family or customers to achieve both.
6. Visualization is great for reinforcing that your goals are attainable. I understand that if you visualize an event that your mind is effected just as if you were at that event.
7. I’ve learned from our coach Eddie LeMoine that our thoughts create our actions, our actions create our outcomes.
8. Another lesson from Eddie:
   • Imagine the outcome in the present tense. For example if you have a weight loss goal, imagine yourself at your target weight and what you’ll have to become to be at that weight. Think about how good you’ll feel, how you’ll look, what clothes you’ll need to buy, what exercise you’ll be doing, how you’ll eat.
   • Another weight loss tip. Don’t set a specific weight goal, set a goal of the number of kilograms your going to lose. If you set a goal of losing 5 kgs you’ll likely gain then lose those 5 kgs ending up where you started. If you set a goal of reaching 50 kgs weight, your mind will cooperate and your goal is attainable.
9. Your goals must be hand written and on paper. It seems your mind connects when you write them out first then create a Vision Board. I used a computer program last year, not this year. My vision board will be on paper although I will likely take a photo and put that as my computer desktop.

10. Another coach tells us that we must limit our goals to 3. She believes that keeps you on point and avoids distraction. I’m behind her on focus but the number concerns me. I’m suggesting you set attainable, meaningful, reasonable goals. I think more than 10 is too much, 3 may be to little.

11. Finally, you have to become receptive. You do deserve to achieve your goals. You do deserve compliments on how you look. You deserve what you desire. Put the work in and be receptive to the results.

— end —

I can’t count how many diets I’ve tried in my life. I’ve been successful at some. I remember a shake diet I was on for a month or so. I lost 10 kgs. I also remember how hard it was to drink that shake and how much I craved a burger and fries.

Well guess what, I put those kilos back on and a few more for good measure. The one consistent item from all those diets was as soon as I stopped dieting, the weight came back.

What did I learn from those diets?

1. that I’ll always have a weight problem.
2. that I’ll have health issues in retirement
3. that diets don’t work.
4. that I don’t have the right genes

Notice a trend, all negative thoughts.

Then we I reached my fifties and Della and I started to think about retirement; I started to have health issues. I already had an episode of cardiomyopathy, I gained a lot of weight, I had high blood pressure, I had joint issues, and I was worried about my memory which was failing; a lot. My Doctor prescribed medication and got me into the local clinic where took a year long course on health and nutrition. For getting us into the clinic, we are forever grateful. We learned about portion control, using smaller plates, serving from the stove to trick yourself into not taking a second portion, exercise, the danger of sugar. All these things helped and started us along our journey to better health.

I retired but Della kept at work for a year or so. One of her co-workers suggested a product that she thought would help. Della was ready but I wasn’t. Our friend mentioned it from time to time and offered to explain further. Not for me, I know better until one day I couldn’t take the joint pain any longer and agreed. We started on the smallest amount of product that I thought we could. I was not interested in the business as I’m not a salesman and didn’t want to pester my family and friends. I’m sure Della felt the same.

I had been walking with a cane but within 4 months the joint pain was substantially gone and so was the cane. That made me think; hey wait a minute; could I be wrong? I was dead wrong and it was only the first of the lessons I was about to learn.

Diets are not the answer. Being Skinny is not the answer. Being healthy should be the goal. As this product began to heal my system; I had more energy, slept longer and deeper, my joint pain subsided, and inflammation began to dissipate.

We increased our product order so that we could take full doses every day. We also became distributors because we knew good nutrition would benefit everyone we know. That has become our why and no longer feel uncomfortable recommending this product. Why should we, people recommend books, restaurants and movies all the time. Why should we feel uncomfortable recommending good nutrition.

We started to attend health seminars. I learned that the shake product in our line is good for knee issues. Well, I had that problem every time I climbed the stairs in our 2 storey home. Again, within the first 4 months my knee pain is substantially gone. This shake product does not taste chalky like the ones I’d tried earlier.

At these seminars we noticed how happy and healthy the attendees were. Why not, they are entrepreneurs who are helping people improve their health and their finances. As a former Deputy Chief in an Emergency Services department who was missing the sense of service I had experienced in my working life, that was another lesson.  As much as I loved helping my community in Emergency Services, I now experience that same level of satisfaction.

Along the way, we learned about Shred10. Its a program to teach you what your eating that effects your health. You also focus on exercise, getting 7-8 hours of sleep, staying hydrated and eating real, whole foods.

I saw something in a supermarket the other day that really brought it home for me about what we put in our bodies. Some broccoli fell on the floor of the supermarket. It laid on a carpet for at least 5 minutes. I thought about returning it but that didn’t feel right. After all, the 5 second rule had long expired. Eventually an employee picked it up and put it back where it came from. That made it clear to me how much our produce is handled, what could be put on it, where its grown and when did it ripen. This is our answer to eating real food. Our garden grows indoors in our kitchen all winter long. It easily provides fresh greens for both of us.

— End —