Following on from my post on Life after 60, I realised that I did not include urgency or motivation.

Urgency because unlike how we felt in our 20’s or 30’s when we had our whole lives stretching infinitely in front of us, at 60 there is a gnawing certainty that we have used up between two thirds and three quarters of our lives.

Certainly for me, there is a growing realisation that each day is a precious gift to be used wisely and fully. I can not afford to take a 30 year view of my future, can not put off things I need to do.

So from the enhanced sense of urgency comes huge motivation to get moving, build my business, meet new people, learn new skills, visit more places.

For many Baby Boomers, there is the sudden realisation that looming retirement is going to drastically affect incomes and lifestyles. The current economic climate has removed many of the options for part time employment that previous generations enjoyed. One of the few solutions for many of us is to start a business from home.

With the advantages our generation has, Network and Internet Marketing can be the best solution for us to maintain our lifestyles, and build financial security.

Lastly, for me, there is also the motivation to take better care of my body, to make it last as long as possible and to function as well as it should.

I have found a product that helps maintain good health improve the effect of anti-oxidants, enhance the immune system and increase performance.

Whether you are an athlete or sports person looking for better performance, or just want to give your body all the help it needs, check out this website. Asea

I am a distributor for Asea so I do get a commission on product sales, contact me if you would like to find out how Asea can help you.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

Bobbie Walker kindly pointed me to her blog with links to 50 great motivational speeches on youtube.

There are some good ones in the list.

Here’s the link 50 Motivational Speeches

Enjoy them.

Sue went off to England for 2 weeks in early July, she got back on Monday and life is returning to normal again. I had planned to go with her, but between making arrangements for the care of our animals, keeping the business going and the farm, it was just too complicated so I stayed behind.

Last Sunday, I set myself a long list of tasks that needed doing before Sue got home. Included in this list were; mowing the lawn, laundry, vacuuming the house, grocery shopping, (all normally handled efficently by Sue) wood cutting and splitting, mowing the horse pasture, barn work and several others.

Instead of enjoying an extra hour of sleep on Sunday as we normally do, I got up at 6: 00 am, got started with the first load of laundry, had breakfast, saddled up one of the horses and went for a ride around the field. I was back in the house to do the second load of laundry and hang the first on the line before 8:30.

Then I tackled the next task and kept at it until the list was completed.

The most important lesson I learned on Sunday was that it’s not just making a plan for the day and doing each task that gets things done, it’s what you do in between each task that makes the difference between accomplishing everything on your list or only getting part of it done.

To elaborate, because I only work on my business in the evening on Sundays, I tend to adopt a more relaxed approach to the non-business tasks during the day. I will often take a few minutes between each activity to have a cup of coffee, spend a few minutes with the newspaper or get distracted by something that is not on my list.

Last Sunday was a revelation in how much can be accomplished by using those “between” minutes constructively.

It made me realise that although I believe that I do have a more disciplined approach to my business than my “chores”, I do sometimes waste time between tasks and projects, particularly after working on projects that require a high level of concentration.

I am not suggesting that we should not take breaks during the day, breaks and a change of pace are important. Sunday’s results showed me how much time can be wasted between tasks if we let those breaks take us off track.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

In a conversation the other day, the subject of why people quit Network Marketing or any other business, sport or personal journey came up.

Some people make a decision to quit and do just that. Many others just stop taking action, not conciously quitting but just stopping “doing”. So when I was asked if I had ever been tempted to quit, I realised that I had at many times in my life.

How did I resist the urge to give up?

The times when I had the strongest urge to quit were during the period when I got the running bug. I was not good at, or interested in, track or field sports at school. I was more interested in equine sports. In Rhodesia school sport was compulsory, cricket and rugby for boys, netball, tennis and hockey (field) for girls. Attendance at qualification trials for the annual athletics competition was mandatory. My poor performance generally resulted in my not being selected for any of these.

In my late 30’s I took up running at the urging of my 2 sons who were enthused by the new phenomenon of “fun runs” as a way to raise money for charities. I remember struggling through a 5 km run thinking that I would never make the finish line but too ashamed to let my boys down.

After a few of these short runs, I started enjoying myself and found that I could actually run all of the 5 ks. A friend was the president of a running club, he suggested that I join the club and train with them. I did and progressed through 10km, 15km and eventually a 21 km half marathon. I was getting fitter and my times were coming down. I also noticed that the longer the race, the higher up the finishing order I came.

In South Africa, where I was living, one of the biggest ultra marathons at the time, the 85km Comrades Marathon was run every year. It was the goal of every serious runner to complete at least 1 Comrades within the 11 hour cut off and achieve the coveted bronze medal.

So having go the bug, I had to go for a Comrades Bronze. To complete a race of this distance takes a year of preparation. Because of the length and difficulty of the Comrades course, every runner must qualify by completing a standard 42.2 km marathon in under 4 1/2 hours.

My first attempt at a standard marathon was on a fairly flat course at sea level in mid summer with temperatures around 30 C. I went out too fast, had a terrible race and finished 5 minutes outside the qualifying time. I subsequently qualified, completed 4 Comrades and many other ultra’s, standard marathons and shorter races. Over a 6 year period, I never again failed to finish within the time limit, and I never quit during a race.

In any long distance race, physical reserves become depleted at around 32 – 35 km, muscles become painful, dehydration can become serious and the urge to quit becomes stronger with each step. Especially in hot weather, the mind games start, it is so easy to justify quitting. The further into the race you get, the more you see other runners giving up and getting into the rescue vehicles.

So how did I resist the urge?

If I was really struggling, had stomach cramps, or on a down hill stretch, leg muscles that felt as if they were on fire, I would slow down, walk for a while if necessary. But on no account stop. While focusing on the goal of finishing the race, picturing running under the finish line banner, I would also break the race down into intermediate goals, run to the next telephone pole, the next tree, or if things were really tough, just run 5 more paces then another 5.

Invariably, no matter how bad I felt, just achieving one of those small goals was enough to keep me going to the next small goal and the next.

For a person of average height, an 85 km race is 85 000 paces. Feeling tired at the half way mark and focusing on another 42 500 paces is a formidable challenge but focusing on the next 5 or 10 is manageable.

So that’s my safeguard against quitting, just take the next step, then the next. Keep doing that and it’s amazing what you can accomplish.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

I must thank a fellow student on John Milton Fogg’s 90 day challenge, a delightful young woman who I will just refer to as “K” for the inspiration for this post. We were discussing goals, conditions of satisfaction and I mentioned the thoughts and conclusions described here, she suggested I write about it. If you find it valuable, it’s thanks to “K”.

Readers who have read my story on my “About me” page will know that Sue and I came to Canada in 2004 with very little after losing everything in the violent farm takeovers in Zimbabwe.

Despite a background in management, running our own businesses and farming, as newcomers, we found it difficult to get well paid jobs and had no capital to start a business. To survive, I started working with a large vegetable farming business, looking after greenhouses and irrigation. Sue worked on a horse stud farm. Long hours and hard work, especially after running our own farm in Zimbabwe with a large work force of 180 people.

Being in our mid 50’s and with no assets, investments or retirement funds, we were driven to develop other sources of income, that is what led us to Network marketing and Internet marketing. With no “warm market” family or friends to sell to, we found it difficult, but we made progress.

The Internet seemed to be the way to go for us, both as an additional revenue stream and to generate leads for our Network Marketing business. We could also use the late night hours when it was too late to call people.

The owners of the farming business had been very good to us when we arrived here, for this we owe them an eternal debt of gratitude. Each summer they ask me if I can continue to help out with their greenhouses and setting up their irrigation systems.

Since starting our own business, I find I am torn between my commitment to them and my commitment to our own business and our long term financial survival. Although the income from the farm is useful, it is not a good return on time invested.

This spring, I was ready to terminate my contract with them and concentrate on our own business, however they were depending on me and I agreed to work with them for one more summer.

This decision caused me a great deal of stress, it honours my values of duty, commitment, gratitude, but impacts severely on the time I have for my own business, relaxation, my horses and personal development.

After thinking about it for a while, I realised that between the farm commitments and my own business over the last 3 years, I had not been giving myself time to enjoy life. So I decided that this summer I would get some balance into my life and accept that I will not be able to accomplish everything I want to in my business. It has made me focus on the important parts of the business and cut out those that fell into the “busy work” category. I have also set a goal of riding my horses 3 times a week instead of once a week or once every 2 weeks last year.

The most important benefit is that I am no longer resentful of the time I spend on the farm, I cherish the time I spend checking out the plants in the greenhouses, the crops growing in the field, watching the incredible cycle of growth and development. Watching the marvel of technology delivering just the right amount of water to those young plants.

Enjoying the fact that the business is large enough to employ a considerable number of migrant workers, men who come from impoverished parts of their own countries to work hard and then go home to their families at the end of the season with enough money to make a huge difference in their, their families and their communities lives. They also take with them experience and knowledge gained here that enables many of them to start their own businesses after a few years.

I also savour the rides around the farms on a dirt bike or farm truck, watching deer, turkeys and other wild life.

Best of all are the times Sue and I get on our horses and ride around the fields or do some training with them.

So after 6 years of working incredibly long hours, this is the year we have said we will get some balance into our life, if the business doesn’t grow quite as fast as we had planned, so be it. If it takes another year or two to reach some of our financial goals, that’s also fine.

I recently did an exercise online that said given my current age, diet, exercise and life style habits, I could expect to live to 86. That’s another 26 years, I am determined that those are going to be a balanced 26 years.

How about you? Have you achieved balance in your life?

Wishing you well in all your endeavours.

p.s. I have added some pages under “Peter Recommends” and “Work with our winning team” There are links to tools and programmes that I find very useful, have a look.

How difficult do you think it is to change a habit?

Many experts in the field of personal development suggest that it takes 28 days to change a habit, be it a thought pattern or the way we do a set of actions – like which sock or shoe do we put on first?

Habits can be extremely difficult to change, most of them have been with us all our lives. So difficult that the same experts generally advise us to develop new habits to replace the old that no longer serve us.

I recently had an urgent and real need to change a habit, it was an interesting exercise.

As I am right handed, when putting on a shirt, coat or jacket, I have always inserted my right arm into the sleeve first, followed by the left. I have been doing it this way for over 50 years.

Last year as a result of an active life with horses, cattle, motor bikes, rugby and an accumulation of knocks and bumps, I developed a problem in my left shoulder which drastically reduced the mobility in that joint. It also made lifting my arm above my shoulder or moving it behind my back extremely painful, to the extent that putting on a coat became very uncomfortable.

Weather conditions in a Canadian winter require that a coat and frequently a sweater or another item of warm clothing must be put on and taken off several times a day.

My old habit of right arm first was no longer serving me, I had to start the process with my left arm.

At first, this felt completely awkward and unnatural. I could get the left arm into the sleeve, but found it dificult to find the right sleeve which would be flopping about, out of sight, behind my back.

I had a huge incentive to persevere, because, although difficult at first, this new way allowed me to avoid the pain I had been experiencing.

Gradually the exercise bacame easier, after a month it was almost automatic and after 5 weeks it has become the way I naturally do it over 95% of the time.

So, I have developed a new habit to replace the old which was preventing me from doing a simple task and causing me pain.

What is the lesson here?

For me three things:

Firstly, a real motivation to develop the new habit – in my case to avoid pain.

Secondly, a commitment to take the new action at every opportunity

Third, belief that it would get both easier and achieve the desired result. My goal was to be able to put a coat on smoothly, comfortably without pain.

What is your experience with developing new habits?

Leave a comment and share your experiences.

One of the experts I follow to learn more about beliefs and personal development is John Milton Fogg, I have benefited hugely from his 90 Day Challenge. He is starting another one at the end of April, if you need to improve your listening skills, goal setting and understand more about how to get your life on a roll, this is one of the best investments in yourself you can make.

While you are about it check out his Conversations website, he provides an amazing selection of resources through recorded conversations with masters in the field of personal development.

No I don’t earn a commission if you sign up for John’s work, I recommend him because he is good and I have seen great benefits from working with him.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

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Wishing you success in all your endeavours

I am grateful that I am a positive person most of the time. Perhaps it comes from having survived some difficult times and recognising that only I am in control of my response to circumstances.

Choosing to judge things that happen as good or bad is entirely up to me.

I found the following article “Why Positive Thinking is bad for you” by Dr. Srikumar Rao in Tuesday’s edition of Early to Rise, an excellent daily newsletter that is one of my favourites.

In the article, Dr. Rao argues that the conventional wisdom on Positive Thinking does not always serve us well. It’s well worth reading.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

With the Olympics out of the way, I had no excuses for getting behind on finding interesting subjects to write about, but I hit a lean period and 2 weeks have flown by.

That got me thinking that other bloggers may have the same problem, so here is a useful blog post on 100 ways to find inspiration for finding subjects to write about. 100 Sources of Blogging Inspiration

Then I wondered why it seems that we just don’t seem to get enough “quiet time” in our modern lives to think and reflect, I came across a good article by Jim McDonald on how “noise” pervades our lives, it’s worth reading So much noise.

So with 100 sources of Blogging Inspiration as a resource, I’ll be back to my regular schedule.

Wishing you success with all your endeavours.

For me, life is too short to spend hours watching TV, so I catch the news in the evening, and occasionally watch a movie. That’s been the pattern for years until coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver started.

There is something much more fascinating and compelling about sport at the Olympic level than at other major events. Is it because the athletes are striving for not only their personal glory, but also their country’s honour?

Is it because for many athletes it is the culmination of 4 or more years of dedication to a relentless training schedule, fighting injury and pain and often putting the rest of their lives on hold?

Or is it because of the publicity and media saturation? Or the sheer number of different events in a short space of time?

Whatever the reason, watching the events provides many valuable lessons for entrepreneurs.

Firstly the dedication and commitment to hours of training over a long period, for most of that time, with no certainty that they will qualify for their national team.

Without a clear goal and a vision of winning a medal, how many people will maintain that degree of commitment for years?

Contrast this with so many would-be Network and Internet Marketers who are unable to maintain that level of commitment to their business for even a few weeks or months.

Secondly, focus. Focusing during years of training, on only what is critical to achieveing the level of fitness and skill to put in a world class performance. Ignoring distractions.

At the start and during the event, being able to focus 100% on winning that medal, ignoring pain, the weather or fear of failure. Even to the extent of competing with 4 broken ribs as was the case with an athlete in the 15km ski event.

Thirdly, not relaxing for even a blink of an eye until that goal is achieved, how many races were won by a few hundredths of a second?
The difference between Gold medal and 5th place in the womens skeleton race was inches.

Many countries award cash bonuses to their medal winners, so a five hundredths of a second gap between Gold and Silver could cost the second place finisher up to $5000 depending on their National Olympic organisation’s generosity.

That works out to $6 million dollars a minute!

Of course, we understand that Olympians are competing for the achievement and honour, not the cash.

Just for a moment, look at that in terms of our businesses, if a few minutes of extra effort, or a few ounces of extra energy every hour could generate even a small fraction of that sort of return, would we make that extra phone call, spend more time improving our sales copy or perhaps write an extra blog post each week?

Makes you think doesn’t it?

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.