Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. Og Mandino 1923 – 1966 No doubt you’ve heard of the ‘shelf life’ of a product — a term typically applied to food. Most food products come with a ‘use by’ date; after that date, the product is no longer at its peak and may not be fit for consumption. I’d like to introduce a different sort of shelf life: that of motivation. When we decide to change a behavior, start a new project, or pursue some other goal, the drive to follow through has a limited …
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Tag Archives: goals
If you let yourself be distracted by minor considerations, nothing important will ever get finished. Confucius 551 – 479 BC One of the rituals at our house is to go through the Sunday newspaper and pull out the manufacturer’s coupons for items we normally use; the coupons offer a discount if you buy a specific product by a certain date. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, and paper towels are just a few of the coupons we tear out each Sunday. Most of them aren’t going to be used immediately, so they go into a folder or a kitchen drawer. One other ritual we …
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Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. Seneca 4 B.C – 65 A.D. A few years back, Dr. Gerald Bell, a business school professor at the University of North Carolina, conducted a study of 4,000 retired executives. The average age of this group was 70. He asked them just one question: “If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?” Before you read the responses, take a moment to think about this question: when you’re past the …
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