By Emily Jones of Grow A Leader

We tell ourselves the same lies. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start Monday. I’ll get around to it later.

Whether it’s losing weight, finishing a project, eating healthier, or making any significant change, we give ourselves a future date to fail. We say we’re going to start, but let’s be honest. How many times have you actually started? Or maybe you did start. You started and it lasted a few days or a couple of weeks until you stopped and made something else a priority.

The truth is that we set ourselves up for failure more often than success by making hollow promises that we’re going to do better, be better, try harder, and really make a change. We want things to be different, but we speak in generalities. How do you measure better? Working harder? These are vague statements that we make with good intentions that end up leaving us frustrated and in surrender.

To start we first need to assess where we are. To lose weight, measure yourself. To run a marathon, test how far you can go. Take a pre-test to specifically and analytically look at where you are as of today.

Next, set reasonable goals for yourself. Ensure that these are achievable and healthy for you both physically and mentally. Prepare yourself that the greatest achievements are won over time, not overnight. Set many small goals instead of one large one, and take into account setbacks. Cheat days, injuries, mistakes… these are not failures, but rather experiences and obstacles to learn and grow from.

After the goals are set, list out actionable next steps that should occur. Review each one to ensure that you are setting yourself up for success and as many quick wins as possible. Don’t set yourself up to fail or pretend that you will be able to do more than possible in the beginning.

Find an accountability partner. You don’t have to announce your plans to the world, but find one or two people to discuss your goals with. Make sure that these are people who will be your biggest supporters as well as your challenging coaches. Surround yourself with people who will push you to the next level and not accept excuses on making progress. These should be positive thinkers who believe in you, not negative downers. You will have enough negative voices in your head.

Remember that no day will be perfect. Don’t wait for the perfect weather, perfect time, perfect place, or perfect scenario. Just start. Even the smallest of actions is greater than none at all. Don’t wait for tomorrow, start now. Start as soon as you’re done reading this article. Start and encourage others to do the same.

Your goals and your biggest dreams will take time to accomplish. Time will pass whether or not you work towards them. A month, six months, or a year from now, where will you be? Still breaking promises to yourself or proud that you started and are continuing on this great journey? Be an inspiration to others. Show them what can be accomplished by just starting.

Most importantly, start by being honest with yourself.

Emily Jones is a Revenue Cycle leader within the Fort Smith, AR community. She launched the Grow a Leader blog with the intent of sharing leadership insight and advice for young and growing leaders. Her passion is working with others on personal and leadership development. She is married with four children, ages 3 – 12. She enjoys writing, reading fiction and leadership novels, and is venturing into entrepreneurship.

This year I want to “START” being more conscious about building up and supporting my blogger friends. Because a group is always stronger than one.

Paige lives in Northwest Arkansas where she love her job (marketing PR for a non-profit), her husband (especially when he makes her dinner), and her puppies (even though they make her sneeze).  
Blog: approachingjoy.com Twitter/ Instagram: @approaching_joy

The Start of Something Grand
Written by Miss January 2014, Whitney Sutherland

Sometimes I consider myself lucky to have some crazy friends and other times I’m surprised by the adventures that they talk me into. 2014 is going to be a Grand year thanks to two of my dear friends, Jon and Lori.
 Photo credit: Grand Canyon National Park Service

Jon and Lori are coordinating a group trip to run the Grand Canyon. Rim to Rim is what this is known as in the running community. It is a self-supported run done on the trails within Grand Canyon National Park. Most runners will leave from the South Rim of the Canyon and head to the North Rim via one of two common trail options. There are several water stations along the way and the famous Phantom Ranch at the bottom where there is a small canteen store.

Lori has been talking about this trip for months and finally she said the magic words that convinced me to explore it for my training this year…”No Drop.” This means no runner left behind. The group is making a commitment to not run for time rather to run for the experience and to stay together throughout the run.

This month I have spent plenty of time debating in my head the practicality of this trip. The run itself will be about 23 miles (my longest run so far is only 13.1 miles.) There will be lots of elevation change as we will run down into the canyon, across the Colorado River, and then up the other side. And lastly, the big challenge, it’s on trails!

As a runner, I have done almost all my running on the road. Every year I compete in one or two cross country races on groomed cross country trails but I rarely venture off road onto actual trails. That all changed today…today I began my Grand Canyon training with an 8 mile trail run with the group.

The Crystal Bridges Trails

Making our way onto The Urban Trail

We worked on elevation training on the infamous Presidential Bush Push Hill.

We worked on descent training with a few sections of trail stairs.

I hung towards the back so that I could take my time navigating the roots and rocks. I rolled my ankle and tripped a few times but managed to keep myself upright. The trails that we have are much rockier than what we will encounter in the Grand Canyon, thankfully!

Always time for a selfie!

In addition to incorporating trails into my training, I made a pre-commitment to the adventure by booking hotel reservations. We are looking at a mid-October trip date and reservations are starting to fill up at the more desirable hotel options. I’m 95% sold on the adventure and I must admit that I am terrified as much as I am excited for the trip! It’s such a big challenge and that is terrifying but if I believe in myself and put in the training I know that I can do it!

I’ll be sharing more of my training over the next months on my blog and I will definitely be incorporating more trail and off-road running into my routine! It’s going to be a Grand year in 2014!

A Kid Again—How we took a teen into our home and he took us into his heart…
Written by Katharine Trauger of Home’s Cool!

Sonny* called us boring.

Probably we are. A retired educator and her scientist/pastor husband, we submitted him to schedule, rules, actual food, bathing, vacuuming, and other marks of civilization that he deplored. However, if you consider all it meant for a sixteen-year-old boy to live within a family,instead of with a drugged mom, you’d call it a life-changing start for him.

His appetites for real food and for real entertainment matured slowly. Chess, dirt racing, walks in the woods, and great old movies competed with fresh smoothies, steaks, salads, and homemade pizzas for a chance at wooing him away from memories of life in what he called “a pigpen”.

Sonny had never had a dependable father-type and latched onto my husband like a puppy. The man could do no wrong, in Sonny’s eyes, and could drive home a serious lecture, if needed. Before long my husband had him bathing, submitting to haircuts, and wearing a belt!

How to use a washcloth, how to cut meat with a fork and knife, how to eat something that’s not sweet, how to use a ruler, tell time, multiply, or write cursive were among the many basic skills he lacked. Yet his reading level was high and his knowledge of history, beyond mine. He agreed to home schooling and we filled in gaps as we encountered them.

Before long, a crazy quilt of new ideas from history, biology, algebra, and even spelling, swirled around him, forcing his timidity to bloom into hundreds of questions. I became his sounding board. What a joy! What a test of my counselor training!

And what a kid! In spite his horrible past, Sonny was pure in thought and starved for truth. Weturned him loose in our library and he almost always had a book in the car after that, instead of pretending to sleep along the way.

Yes, we forced Sonny to attend church with us. He did not like it, except once a month, during church dinners. He actually desired learning to cook and created a delicious cherry pie to bring tohis first church dinner. The attention that brought him, from the sweet grandmas, was just what he needed. During the weekly drive home from church, he’d pelt us with amazing questions that proved he’d only been pretending to sleep during the sermon.

My husband, being Sonny’s alpha-male, required he attend a men’s retreat with him this Fall. While they were there, it seemed only natural that Sonny give his life over to the Lord. Radical changes immediately sprouted into his everyday routines. We cherish several quotables from this new-sparkle time in his life, the greatest of which, probably, is: “It is ridiculous to argue about putting God in a box. God IS the box. We are the ones in a box.”

I still get tears when I realize the depth of the core work God created in Sonny’s heart that week. As he grew and matured, his prickly personality relaxed into someone we could freely befriend. It became a time of great advancement for him, spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Sonny’s mom has reclaimed him, now. Says she’s well, now, after five months of rehab. It saddens us, but we realize we were not in charge, but only tools, chosen to give them both a new START in life.

We pray they take it.

*Not his name.

Katharine is a retired educator/counselor, living in the land of love
and Delight! She blogs at Home’s Cool! and at The Conquering Mom. When she is not busy furiously typing on a netbook by candlelight because of an ice storm and her laptop battery is weak, she enjoys poking more logs into
the fire and having another hot coffee/cocoa/tea. Her tenth grandchild
is due in March.”
 

A year from now you will wish you started today.

Whatever your goals are- There is no better time than to start today.

Amanda Farris is a wife to her super hero hunk of a husband and a mother to 3 little kiddos. Amanda is a teacher/coach who hung up her coaching whistle after she got promoted to motherhood. She is a runner who loves all things sports and outdoors. She loves early morning traveling, long coffee chats with her husband, and fresh flowers on her table. She is an adventurer at heart and has a great talent of unintentionally becoming over-busy (that’s a bad thing). So she is constantly reevaluating her life priorities which keeps her on her toes and helps her to live life passionately and deliberately. You can find her occasionally blogging at www.embracinggrace.org. Come Join the Adventure.

My Start in the Kitchen

Written by Miss January 2014, Whitney Sutherland

Here’s a throwback pic of me around the age of 12 cooking up some pancakes in the kitchen.  Fun fact…if you look closely you will see tons of chocolate chips in that pancake which is the only reason I would have been eating that pancake since I don’t actually like pancakes.  Also, you have to check out the 1990high fashion that I was rocking – oversize Rugby shirt and curled bangs.  

Back in the early 90’s I was just getting interested in cooking…really baking.  What can I say; I’ve always had a sweet tooth! Growing up we didn’t have cable TV so I would watch PBS cooking shows like Yan Can Cook and The Frugal Gourmet.  I had a very healthy imagination and would host my own cooking style show as I baked at home.  Total dork!

Below is one of the first recipes that I remember selecting out of one of my mom’s magazines.  I can’t believe that she saved the magazine clipping but she did.  My mom has a very extensive collection of recipes and a few years ago I just mentioned this cookie and she told me she still had the recipe.  Score!

The recipe is dated from the October 1991 Woman’s Day magazine.  Because it’s a photocopy of a magazine clipping it doesn’t photograph that well.  But here you go…it would be perfect to make for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day as long as they like chocolate as much as I do!