You Must Be Willing To Take A Chance In Order To Be Successful
01 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in Inspiration
People have always referred to me as being a ‘risk taker’. And I’ve always taken that as a compliment! In order to be successful, get whatever you want and wherever you want to be in life you must be willing to take risks. You must have faith and be willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means taking a chance at failing in order to get closer to succeeding.
There is a legend of a man who was lost in the desert, dying of thirst. He dragged himself on until he came to an abandoned house. Outside of the dilapidated, windowless, weather-beaten shack was a pump. “Water, at last!” he thought. He stumbled forward and began pumping furiously, but nothing came out of the well.
As his heart raced he noticed a small jug with a cork at the top and a note scribbled on the side: “you have to prime the pump with water, my friend. P.S. And fill the jug again before you leave.” He pulled out the cork and saw that the jug was full of water.
He weighed his options. Should he pour the water down the pump? What if it didn’t work? All of the water would be gone. If he drank the water from the jug, he could be sure he wouldn’t die of thirst. But to pour it down the rusty pump on the flimsy instructions written on the outside of the jug?
Sweating profusely, he listened to his heart and chose the risky decision. He proceeded to pour the entire jug of water down the rusty old pump and furiously pumped up and down. Sure enough, the water gushed out! He had all he needed to drink. With a thankful heart he turned his thoughts upward. He filled the jug again, corked it, and added his own testimony to the words on the bottle: Believe me, it really works. BUT YOU MUST HAVE FAITH!
The people who really succeed are those who dare to risk, who challenge the status quo and push themselves beyond their normal limits. No person ever fully discovers and develops all the potential within himself until he expresses his faith.
Most people fail to live their dreams, accomplish their goals or be their true authentic selves because they have a fear of taking chances. But some people have faith and take the risks necessary to get what they truly want out of life.
So, which group do you fall in? Are you taking risks in order to get closer to accomplish your goals?
To Your Best Life,
~Melissa
Lack of persistence is one of the major causes of failure
30 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
The next time you encounter failure, remember that every failure and adversity carries within it the seed of an equivalent benefit. Begin to recognize that seed, and plant it through action. You may discover that there is no such reality as failure until you accept it!
You may explore the secret of persistence by uncovering the ten most prevalent causes of failure:
- Lack of a definite purpose, goal or chief aim.
- Lack of ambition to move past mediocrity.
- A negative mental attitude.
- Lack of self-discipline.
- Lack of vision and imagination sufficient to recognize favorable opportunities.
- The use of race, sex, or circumstances as a reason for inactivity.
- Lack of belief in the existence of infinite intelligence.
- Ill health.
- Lack of persistence in carrying through to finish that which you start; unwillingness to go the extra mile or render a service; the habit of running away from unpleasant circumstances instead of mastering them.
- The desire to get something for nothing.
From birth to death life poses a constant challenge to those who master failure with persistence, and it rewards with riches the men and women who successfully meet those challenges. If you accept defeat as an inspiration to try again with renewed confidence and determination, the attainment of your success will be only a matter of time. If you accept defeat as a final blow and allow it to destroy your confidence, you might as well abandon any hope of success.
30 Day Fast: A Month of No Complaining
27 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Inspiration
Do you know someone who is a complainer? Or maybe it’s you…do you have a bad habit of complaining?
I really don’t think of myself as a complainer. But during the last couple weeks I’ve had some events take place that have really gotten me down. And even though I’ve tried to stay focused and not complain, I realized that I may be falling into this bad habit. Like today for instance…the weather was absolutely gorgeous for a Saturday. I got myself all together and looking forward to a nice day of driving around and enjoying the weather. But when I get outside my car doesn’t start. So, I came back inside and prepared to have a ‘pity party’. Then I caught myself and realized that I needed to re-focus, change my attitude and look at the situation in a more positive way. It’s really easy to complain about things if you let yourself fall into the habit. But complaining isn’t natural. It’s a bad habit that we can change.
So, I spent part of my day inside reading. And I found a really good article about complaining that changed my thinking and inspired me to write this post. Basically, our thinking leads to our speaking, and our speaking reveals what we’re going to attract into our lives. So, in other words when we complain about things like what another person has done that we don’t like or something happening that bothers us, we’re actually attracting more of what we don’t like or want into our universe. It’s all a part of the law of attraction, what you spend time focusing on is what you bring into your life.
I’ve decided to try this ’30 Fast’ of no complaining for an entire month. No matter how long it takes. Will Bowen has a new book out called Complaint Free Relationships. In his previous work he challenges people to stop complaining altogether by wearing a purple band on your wrist. I don’t have a purple band, but I do have a purple beaded bracelet that I really like. Whenever I catch myself voicing a complaint, I have to move the bracelet to my other hand. The goal is to go 30 days without speaking a complaint or moving my bracelet.
From what I’ve read, it takes most people about 6 months to go a total of 30 days straight without any complaining. Apparently it’s just that hard to stop complaining once you’ve gotten into the habit. I don’t really see myself as a complainer but I’m going to give this ’30 Fast’ a try. Since I really don’t believe in complaining this should help keep me focused on my goals and aware of my thoughts just in case the thought of complaining crosses my mind 
Wish me luck in doing this successfully for 30 days.
Do You Know How to Manage Stress? Or Do You Just Create More Stress?
04 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
in Inspiration, Nutrition Tags: obesity, stress, stress management
What’s your definition of stress? And how do you manage the stress in your life?
Everybody experiences stress. Stress is normal. There’s good and bad stress, right? Well, I attended a seminar today and gained some new insight about stress and stress management. The first thing that the facilitator shared (from his perspective) was that there was no good or bad stress. What’s important is how you respond to stress and how your body handles stress. Ok, this makes perfect sense to me.
I enjoy working out in the gym with weights. However, weight training causes stress on the body because you’re actually creating muscle tears in your body. Is this good or bad? Depends on how I handle my workouts. If I’m lifting properly, feeding my muscles with proper nutrition and protein along with rest then I think I’m handling this particular stress pretty well. But what if I attempt to workout and don’t know what I’m doing, lift too much or overdo it by not feeding and resting my muscles properly.
There have been many different definitions of what stress is depending on who is giving or using the definition. Maybe the one problem with a ‘single’ definition is that stress is made up of many things and different people identify with different definitions.
So, let’s look at stress and define as follows:
- Emotional/mental: anxiety, work, deadlines, demanding bosses, finances, family
- Physical: falling, injuries, surgery, poor posture, continuous sitting, spending too much time on the computer, bone fractures
- Chemical: substances that we are exposed to or put into our bodies that can cause stress, i.e., caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, sugar, drugs, eating fast food
When the combination of emotional, physical and chemical stressors is more than your body has capacity to handle, the body starts to break down. First of all, your immune system becomes compromised. Your body then becomes susceptible to break down by developing illness and disease. Most people develop illnesses and believe they are breaking down because they are aging. In reality they are breaking down because they have more stressors affecting their lives than their bodies have capacity to handle. Today we are experiencing records numbers of obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses. Many years ago we existed in this world without all the toxins, fattening and fast foods, computers and technology. People were active by doing more physical labor, ate wholesome foods, and spent more quality time with family and friends.
3 secrets to stress management:
- Manage the stressors coming into your body: identify all of the stressors that are affecting your life, i.e., alcohol, coffee, fast food, cigarettes
- Increase your capacity so you can better handle stress: by reducing or eliminating one of your stressors (not all), you will make room for your body to handle the other stressors that you did not eliminate or reduce, i.e., if you normally drink a 6 pack of beer eliminate 3.
- Choose your response to how you handle stress: choose to adopt a healthier lifestyle, improve your immune system, and build stamina so that you will have the ability to survive stressful situations. Follow steps 1 and 2 each week and eliminate stressors from your life for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks you will notice a significant and lasting effect about the way you feel about stress and how to handle it.
7 ways to increase your capacity for managing stress:
- Communication: listen to your gut and that inner knowing
- Rest: make the time to do absolutely nothing
- Fresh air: take full deep breaths of fresh air everyday
- Food & water: drink more water, and eat food that is pure and fresh for ‘your’ body
- Sunlight: get your vitamin D from healthy amounts of natural sunlight
- Physical & mental activity: choose a physical activity that you will actually do, and stimulate you mind by reading, playing games, etc.
- Conciousness: pay attention when you are doing other things, be aware of doing 1-6 on this list
Think about your stressors. Are you experiencing emotional and mental stress and managing that stress with chemical stress? If so, you may think you’re eliminating stress but you’re actually increasing the stress on your body. Many times we over eat or make bad food choices to manage stress. Poor nutrition leads to obesity and health problems. Your organs become overloaded and your stamina is reduced.
So, how do you manage your stress?
To Your Health ~
Melissa
Decide To Be Who You Are
04 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Inspiration
It was during a recent coaching session that my coach and I talked about accepting your life purpose and deciding to be who you are without waiting for permission.
Why do so many people limit their potential because they feel the need for a certification or a label from someone? If you love taking pictures and you take awesome pictures, then why wouldn’t you label yourself as a ‘Photographer’. If you have a special talent or have experience in a particular field why do you need to be labeled by someone else. Yes, of course there are things that may legally require a license or certification. However, many of us are holding ourselves back when a license or certification isn’t necessarily required to be who we are.
Think about the things that you do for free and use that experience to your advantage and be empowered to label yourself. What do you love to do? What would you do for free? What would you do if money wasn’t an issue? And what do you find yourself doing when you lose track of the time?
We were all put on this earth with a purpose and special gifts. Life is too short to not be your true authentic self. Decide to be who you are. You will be amazed at how much healthier you will be physically, mentally and emotionally.
~ Melissa Maze
Change Your Way of Thinking for a Healthier Life
02 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Exercise, Inspiration
Several years ago I spent about 6 months working for a popular health club while living in Atlanta. I was a ‘membership sales consultant’. It was a fun job and I met a lot of interesting people. I loved the opportunity of helping people get started on the road to being healthier. On top of that, I learned a lot about customer service, sales and marketing.
This j-o-b opportunity was during a time in my life after being laid off. I was spending about 3 hours a day in the gym while trying to figure out my next career move. Yes, I was in there for 3 hours because the club was awesome and there was so much to see and do! It was a huge club with a racquetball court, swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, basketball court, cardio room, an awesome weight room plus more. I was in heaven!
Well, since I was working out in the gym so much, after a while people started asking me if I was a personal trainer. It was a fabulous compliment! So, I figured why not get a job in this place and make some cash since I’m in here everyday.
I remember one day a man came in for membership information. It was a weekday, around lunch time. He was in his late 30′s, a little overweight, wearing a business suit and looked like he was mad at the world. I don’t remember his name, but let’s call him ‘Charles’.
Anyway, I was the only female on the sales team and none of the guys wanted to help Charles. I went up to greet him and proceeded to take him on a tour of our wonderful facility. I showed him around, told him about all our fabulous amenities and went over the benefits of working out on various machines.
Well, about three-quarters into the tour I stopped my presentation, with my hands on my hips, I said ”excuse me Charles…but I need to ask you a question” He looked a little startled and I asked him why was he here? I explained that it was obvious by his attitude and demeanor that he didn’t want to be here, he wasn’t hearing a word I was saying and looked pissed off at the world. His response was, “actually, no, I don’t want to be here! I just left my doctor’s office and he told me that I needed to start exercising or I would be looking at an early grave!”
How many people wait until they get a bad doctor’s report telling them to change their lifestyle or else? The problem is, we shouldn’t have to wait for a diagnosis to make healthier lifestyle choices. Obviously, Charles wasn’t in the mood to make any changes and wasn’t too happy about his doctor’s report. Honestly, I don’t think he liked being told ‘change your habits or else’.
The process of making healthier lifestyle changes will be much easier and more effective when you are NOT in denial. In my opinion, the first step towards making healthy lifestyle changes is to evaluate your current lifestyles habits and make a commitment to yourself to be your best and healthiest self. Accept the fact that you are in your situation because of your choices. Therefore, you can only make changes to yourself when you change your way of thinking and accept responsibility.
Remember diets don’t work and there is no magic pill.
~ Melissa Maze
Eat This Not That for 2010
30 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Inspiration, Nutrition, Weight Loss Tags: childhood obesity, David Zinczenko, diet, healthy lifestyle, morbidly obese, Nutrition, obesity, super obese, Weight Loss
Did you know:
· Choosing Prime Rib over Baby Back Ribs at Outback will save you more than 2,000 calories?
· You can save nearly 500 calories and more than 20 grams of fat just by ordering your banana split at Dairy Queen instead of Baskin-Robbins?
· A Stouffer’s White Meat Chicken Pot Pie has as much saturated fat as 6 scoops of ice cream?
Last night I watched the premiere of the new reality show ‘One Big Happy Family’ on TLC, featuring the Cole family. When I saw the preview for this show, my first thought was ‘what in the heck is becoming of television?? But after several preview commercials, I told myself that I’ve got to see this show! If not for entertainment purposes, it has to be an educational experience.
The Cole family includes four members, and each is morbidly obese, weighing between 300 – 400 pounds. The mother is 36 years old and weighs 380 pounds. The father is 41 and weighs 340. They have two teenage children, a son and daughter. The son is 14 and weighs 308. And the daughter is 16 and weighs 348. She is no longer morbidly obese, but considered to be super obese.
It was amazing to watch them eat and enjoy morsel after morsel of rich, fattening foods as if they were in heaven, which I’m pretty sure they were! But what really got me hooked was to see that despite the onlookers, snide comments and embarrassing moments they each had high self-esteem for themselves. Also, the love and support shared amongst this family was truly awesome. It was inspiring to watch them make a decision as a family to change their eating habits and lose the weight to improve their health. This is truly what it takes because they got there as a family. And the only way they could make the change was to commit as a family. So, I’m curious to watch future episodes to see their challenges and how well they do.
Obesity is a major issue in our world today, especially childhood obesity in America. If you did not get a chance to watch this program last night, you might want to catch next week’s show. With 2010 only two days away, many people are preparing for a new year and one of the most popular resolutions made is to lose weight.
Losing weight is always on my new year’s resolution list….year after year. I absolutely love food and love going out to eat! So, like many people, I struggle with making good food choices to make sure that I’m being healthy. Also, I want to enjoy what I’m eating!
This morning I ordered a copy of the book ‘Eat This Not That! 2010: The No Diet Weight Loss Solution’ by David Zinczenko to add to my healthy living library. Everybody knows that diets don’t work and that it’s all about educating yourself and knowing what you’re putting into your body to live a healthier lifestyle. I’m looking forward to receiving my book to learn more tips and the meal comparison for what’s good vs. what’s bad to eat.
Wishing You Love, Happiness and Health,
~Melissa
Hello world!
28 Dec 2009 2 Comments
in Inspiration
Well, I’ve been thinking about blogging for some time. Now it’s four days until Jan 1st and I’m in the process of setting goals, and preparing for a new year, a new decade. So, finally, I’ve decided that the time to blog was now! It’s time for me to use this opportunity to share and express my thoughts about my passions. I’m passionate about health living, aging gracefully, and being encouraged to live life with inspiration and passion.
So, my goal is to share myself and help others as I continue on my journey of living a fabulous and passionate life…
