The achievement of mastery or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties.  It’s the fancy and formal way to say YOU can do it!

Victory is YOURS!

Sitting here today … right now …. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have everything you need to accomplish!  You don’t need anything else – it really is all you and the magic that is you!  Go for it!

As you work towards your goals and dreams, there will be different times when you have to consider others.  Step into their shoes and see things from their perspective.

Understand someone else’s point of view.  

The more you understand them, their needs and their motivation the more quickly you can help them get their dreams too.

Success very seldom happens in a vacuum and most likely your road to success will require the involvement of other people.  Partnering with people requires that you understand what makes them tick, what they are working towards and how they define success.

To understand others – start with curiosity.  Explore the wonder of who they are and how God wired them.  Each and every person is different and will have different though processes, behaviors and fears.  Be curious about all of their quirkiness.  Their hobbies, their down time, their love language, their wants, their needs, their desires, their goals, their vision for their life and their dreams.  The more you know about them, the more your can support them in their accomplishment and their success.

To discover these things about others grow your skills of asking deep probing questions with no preconceived notions.  So often we assume and fill in the blanks in areas that we don’t really know.  Tear down the walls that are built on your assumptions that may be completely off or feel very close to the truth.  And because we are all so different, we are often wrong and our past and our thoughts are influencing our perception of what is real.  Allow conversation to take place in judgment free zones!  When we are curious, we ask different questions because we really want to know about them. If you want blanks filled in – ask the questions.

Asking questions also provides an opportunity for growth, insight and change.  Questions can be used to gather data, gain clarity, make statements, communicate passion, seek feedback or create an opportunity for soul searching.  Be willing to sit in the silence and let them find their truth.

And finally listen to learn instead of listening to respond. Your ability to ask questions and listen gets better and more natural the more you are invested in the other person than you are in the outcome. Understanding is all about loving others and seeking genuine relationships with them.  Your will not be besties with everyone you are on the journey with, but I promise you – your ability to love all of them no matter what will directly impact your success.

To move forward, we have to have the mental and moral strength to resist opposition and keep gong when it gets hard.  This is tenacity.

The determination to get where you want to go!

Ponder your resolve to complete what you set out to do in the face of extreme difficulty.  Some might say it is the baby born from the love between passion and perseverance and is closely linked with grit. Grit is a trait that gives us the guts to overcome obstacles or challenges that we encounter on the path to accomplishment and serves as a driving force in realizing our dreams …. Grit is what keeps us going no matter what and our tenacity is where we get our how!

Tenacity has a built in flexibility and adaptability that combines things like perseverance, resilience, longing, grace, self control with a desire to accomplish. The flexibility and adaptability is our willingness to change when new information is received.  Its not head down and keep moving as your force your way to your goal; it is the willingness to get back up, dust ourselves off, consider what happened, then tweak your approach as you start again.  Tenacity requires a willingness to grow and personally develop.

Perseverance is the continuous “moving towards” something in spite of every obstacle, discouragement, disappointment or distraction. It is an internal strength to keep focused on where we are going regardless of what things look like right now!

Resilience is the strength we develop, born in adversity.  It is a muscle that is grown when we overcome major trauma or significant changes in life.  In a simple form, it is our ability to bounce back and eventually recover quicker.

Longing is the desire and determination to achieve whatever goals we have before us … It is yearning for something God has stirred in your heart.  What dreams and desires does He have you working on?

Grace is the ability to work towards that God given desire knowing that we will stumble, falter and fail.  It is acting on our faith, over fear, trusting that God will be with us and will help us back up.  Grace is accepting the forgiveness God offers and having a clear understanding of our own limitations as we grow, learn and become who He calls us to be.  Grace is the power He gives us to live in the Spirit.

Self-control is a fruit of the spirit that gives us the ability to be more than who we are!  It is self control that lets us do what is right instead of what we want in the moment.  It is how we pause and temper impulsive behavior.  It is our ability to cherish and move forward when facing delayed vs instant gratification.

All of these elements determine our success … at some level we all have a need to achieve, to accomplish, and leave our mark on this world.  With tenacity, anything is possible!

Sacrifice. To get to the finish line, some things may need to be sacrificed along the way. They may be temporary or permanent, but it is up to you to decide what is best for you short and long term!  

Sacrifice means giving up something you want now to have what you want later!

This can look very different for different journeys during different seasons in your life. Some different things that I sacrificed along the way:

In this season of striving towards health, I sacrificed sugar, soda and processed foods.

In the season of starting our business, we sacrificed live TV and limited “screen time”.

In a season of growing closer to God, I sacrificed sleep for adding in daily quiet time first thing in the morning.

Your sacrifice will be yours regardless of what someone else does and you can not compare nor judge your choices versus someone elses.  You may get ideas from others, though you need to determine what is required of you.  You KNOW what you want to accomplish and you KNOW what it will take for you to get it.

I remember asking God, “How do I know?”  It is the quiet voice inside that we rebel against … and it can often be something we have a death grip on.  When God gives us a goal, dream or vision that seems to overtake our  every thought, we begin the mental game of “How do I make this happen?”  This ever present thought has happened a few times in my life – completing a triathlon, starting our business, and relying on God after Thad’s accident.

Three completely different unrelated items all took the same transformation journey:

1. I became aware of the idea acknowledging it was something I had to do
2. I expanded the vision to understand where I was going and why
3. I made uncomfortable changes and stepped into the unknown in FAITH
4. I shared my journey with others for accountability
5. I did the necessary work

Steps 4 and 5 have both happened though, in my experience, their order isn’t important.  There are times when doing the work came before sharing and others where I couldn’t seem to start the work without sharing.  You will know what happens for you.

There will be obstacles; there will be moments of wanting to give up; there will be resistance by you and others; there will most likely be pain involved and yet you will not be able to let it go.  Remember to take consistent deliberate steps towards your calling … keep your steps sustainable … This is your commitment for this season and you will KNOW when it is time to re-evaluate and adjust.  Trust yourself, sacrifice, and go for it!

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it. ~ Oswald Chambers

Picture a field of wildflowers.Put people on opposite sides of the field.  Cue up sappy music. They make eye contact.  They know what they want ~ and then starting in slow motion, they run towards each other. When 

Run Hard; Run Smart; Run Fast; Run Steady!

Running was always tricky for me.  I had all sorts of opinions about running, the need for it, the benefit of it, my running style … you name it!  If it had anything to do with running, I had an opinion and it probably wasn’t good. BUT, I knew I wanted to run!  That is when it hit me that I was attempting to run like others. I was comparing myself to them in every detail,  and that never ends well for anyone!  Run YOUR race!  You know what you want – so go for it!

When working towards success, getting started and building momentum is always the most challenging.  More energy is spent getting the ball rolling than keeping it rolling.  This is when you need to Run Hard.  Daily focused commitment is absolutely necessary at your pace!  Some people have hours a day and others minutes.  Pick your time and commit to that daily.

Now that you know how much you are doing daily – I want you to Run Smart.  This is all about doing the activities that will actually get you where you want to go – no fluff – simply the down and dirty actions.  Do the actions at the level of your capability and with practice you will make progress and progress is perfection.   To grow my business requires that new people join my business either as customers or team members.  Period!  There is nothing fluffy about that.  This breaks down easy: I meet new people. I build relationships. I share the gifts of my company. I invite them to join me. I help them reach their physical and financial goals. I love them well.  That is what it takes to get me where I want to go. If my time commitment is 15 minutes – I do my thing for 15 minutes!

As momentum builds and results start happening – I choose to Run Fast.  I see what I have done with 15 minutes and I like those results, so I up the ante.  I find other nooks and crannies to fit in more activity.  Maybe I’m now at 30 minutes a day or even an hour.  Remembering the principles of Quickly – Running Fast becomes easier – Know the activities and get it done!

As you get into your groove, perhaps the most challenging aspect of running is the mental game … Run Steady!  You have your time set – honor it, stick to it, do it!

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! ~Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message

Keep YOUR next finish line in front of you … every journey has mile markers along the way …. know where you are going.  Run to get there. Take a minute to breathe and celebrate the accomplishment – then repeat …. Run Hard. Run Smart. Run Fast. Run Steady, You will get to where you are going – one foot in front of the other.  Practicing what I preach – know that my journey currently has me Running for Ruby!  See you at the next finish line!

Effort on your part is always part of the success equation. Some of the effort may feel “hard” while other parts feel “effortless”. I love the analogy of driving a convertible – you may be sitting in traffic smelling the exhaust or you may be flying down the highway with the wind in your hair … regardless of your season – know that it is more fun going fast!  

Quickly refers to the power of pace. 

This is an invitation to choose self discipline with focused time blocks. We are each given 24 hours in a day and it is the only resource that we can’t ever get back – once it is gone, it is gone.  The move from available to memory is a permanent thing. All of the billions of dollars in the world will never ever be able to buy the opportunity to relive yesterday.

Parkinson’s law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.  When you give yourself a week for a 2 hour task – the task builds in complexity to fill the time.  And don’t forget to include the emotional investment and mind space that it occupies.  I can be quite guilty of this. Let’s keep it easy since we all want to live in a clean house.  I used to have 2 hours allotted every week to clean our under 900 sq ft condo, and it took the full time and possibly then some every week.  Then something happened to shift my perspective – over breakfast, my inlaws announced an unexpected visit with a 35ish minute arrival.

Yes, that changed my motivation and my speed.  My basic home blessing was completed 28 minutes after they called.  I even had time to be still to mentally prepare for the visit – lol.  Did the tasks change? no. Did the quality of my effort change? no. Did the end result change? maybe a little in my eyes but not to anyone else! That 30 minute window turned my schedule upside down and inside out!

It’s time to focus your genius on what needs to be done at what level!  At our house we play games and turn it into a competition!

Set clear intentional goals: know what you ultimately want to accomplish and then break it into bite sized manageable pieces.  Break it down to the daily activities that need to happen!  And EVERY goal breaks down into daily actions!

Determine your done enough: how often do we add fluff to make something pretty? think about what you are holding onto or what scares you about finishing!

Use timers: we really do not have any idea of how long tasks take. Take any task and create a deadline for yourself – I manage my life in 15 minute increments as my electronic calendar doesn’t like smaller time blocks. Stay focused and keep moving.  My weekly home blessing is now scheduled for 45 minutes.  I got back an hour and 15 minutes a week on that one simple change that is now on autopilot!

Challenge yourself:  I was encouraged to set my timer for half of the time I had alloted.  Sometimes it took was less and other times I wasn’t even close to done enough.  And that is OK!  This is a learning process.  I learned how long certain activities take and I also learned how to break big tasks into smaller chunks! I got the idea by inviting others in for perspective.

Build in rewards: I am building the life of my dreams in the nooks and crannies of my day and the extra time I have renews my energy.  There are daily activities to complete to build my Plexus business, to run my household, to take care of my hubby, to invest in friendships.  And they all happen one minute at a time. I take my rewards weekly as time for renewal – choose your activity – reading, napping, sewing, hammock time just staring off … it works!

Set your goals.  Stay focused.  Act quickly. Accomplish.  Finish. Renew. Repeat!

Do what you like and like what you do is the best way to live your life.  Sounds easy enough, but how many people actually get to live this out every day! 

Passion is the internal drive to make it happen!

Who you are, what you love, what you enjoy, what fills your tank, what you are gifted in all come together to form your passion.  No two people are identical and no one brings you to the table but you! God gifted you and gave you your life and experiences for you to accomplish great things.

There are so many examples where someone knew what they were meant to do and they decided nothing would stop them from doing it!  And most every major accomplishment in my life combines my passion and my purpose: from my last corporate role as an Internal Strategy Communications Manager to becoming a Life Coach to serving on the directional team at Shelter to being a Senior Gold Plexus ambassador … and beyond! No matter what is required, I can feel energized after investing hours into a project when I work in my sweet spot. I pray you will get to know yourself and then find out how to live out your passion every single day!

My passion is helping people – I am blessed with a servant’s heart and I LOVE seeing others succeed!

My purpose is to be an instrument of change physically, financially and spiritually in the lives of others!

My power comes from the Holy Spirit who lives in me.

God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours! ~ 1Peter 1:2 The Message

Opportunity is officially defined as a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.  The fact is

Opportunities are everywhere!  

The key is to learn how to recognize them.  This is something I learned at a young age.  If I was first up on a Saturday then I got to pick the channel for the TV.  And yes this was a big deal as my only sibling is my 6 years younger brother … needless to say our cartoon tastes were not the same.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this is a classic example of preparation and opportunity meeting and success following.  What was my preparation?  It was everything from KNOWING what I wanted (or didn’t want), OBSERVING others, PLANNING activities, taking ACTION and BELIEVING anything is possible.

It all started because I knew I did not want to watch He-Man or GI Joe any more.  So I studied our TV Guide that we got in the mail once a week to see what was on.  Remember – this is the late 70s – before remote controls and cable tv.  I found all kinds of fun things I wanted to watch from cartoons to the Disney nature shows to geeky science shows.

Next I watched how my family did things.  Everybody stayed up late on Friday and slept in on Saturday. I learned that if I went to bed close to my normal time, I’d wake up close to my normal time which meant way ahead of everyone else. So I made the decision to go to bed after Dukes of Hazard so I could do my thing on Saturday morning and to this day, I still have no idea what came on after Tom and Luke Duke did their thing in the General Lee.

As a 9 year old, I was definitely going against the norm to wake up early on a Saturday morning.  I didn’t go along with everyone else and I believed there was value in what I wanted.  I made decisions and took actions believing it was possible to have what I wanted. The habit stuck and has served me well over the decades … my quiet Friday nights even shaped my first date with my hubby of 23 years but that is a whole other story.

Something to ponder – success is not possible without preparation.  To be successful you need to seize the opportunity.  So was my Saturday morning takeover simply preparation or was that creating an opportunity? Think about it …. when you prepare for things through study, practice, exploration, or invitation, how often does opportunity seem to show up?  Take the chance.  Prepare for what you want. Walk through the doors of opportunity that show up!

At a training I heard the words “Progress is Perfection!” Oh did that resonate deep in my soul … how many times do people quit just moments before a big breakthrough? When have you quit on yourself before you reached the finish line?

Never ever give up

Yes you you are worth it and

Yes your dream is really is possible.

When I did triathlons, the course was mapped out, there was a starting area, transition areas, water stations and a finish line. I trained to finish. I gave it my best and stayed focused on my next action to get closer to the finish line. I often had time goals set for each of the disciplines, and sometimes I hit my goal times, and sometimes I didn’t. The ultimate goal was always to finish!

We all have races to run in our lives … When God lays a goal on your heart, he wants you to run hard after it … it’s part of his good, pleasing and perfect plan for your life.

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. ~Philippians 3:14

Chances are, it’s not going to be easy; it’s not going to be comfortable; and it’s going to require you to grow. And when we are walking the path God has for us, we have an enemy that wants to stop us. John 10:10 says he comes to kill, steal and destroy BUT GOD says I come so that you have an abundant life.

Part of my purpose in life is to be an instrument of spiritual, physical and financial transformation in the lives of others.  One tool he has given me to help others is Plexus. Our first big dream goal is to reach the jewel level – it’s the 7th promotion you earn. Never quitting means knowing you will hit your goal – no matter what!

On day one, our goal date was 2 years – May 2017. We didn’t make it. Life happened. Thad’s accident happened. Personal growth was required. We still have other goals to hit before we reach it – in February we achieved our 4th promotion. The dream goal is still very present in our lives; we adjusted the deadline not the dream. Progress is perfection! Never Quit!