More on New Years resolutions

Let's have a moment of truth.  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has been talking a lot lately about the importance of holding ourselves accountable for our actions.  Or inactions.

She explains that just setting a goal isn't enough.  We need to see it through, even when it seems impossible.  We need to set milestones to see if we are on the right track and on time.

Even though 2017 is only 6 days old - have you allowed yourself to slide just a little?  Maybe you wanted to lose some weight, but figured that one cookie wasn't going to make a difference?  Maybe you wanted to work out every other day, but figured missing one work out wouldn't be so bad?

And if you want to give up because you were already veering off course so soon after, well, don't! See what Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has to say about that.  Are you ready?

"Part of our fear of mistakes is pure laziness.  What's the worst thing that will happen if you make a mistake?  You will have to abandon that course of action and take another, which means, in short, a lot of work.  What does that mean?  That means you will have to think of another course of action.  You may have to be creative.  You may have to expend energy in thinking, evaluating, planning.  You may have to resist emotions, such as despair, futility, rejection, and fear.

If you are mentally lazy, making mistakes will be one of the best excuses you have for giving up, for deciding that maybe your goals isn't so important after all.  What a senseless waste that would be!  Why expect so little out of life?"

So, let's get back on track and stick to our goals!  It's a wonderful life!

How to overcome feelings of guilt

It's so easy to get depressed over mistakes we make, and stay discouraged.  It's easy to let yourself get dragged down by guilt and bad feelings.  Either we feel it's expected of us to wallow in our mental mud, or maybe we like the compassion that we might get for being down.

Well, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim will have none of that.  She has a way of motivating me and making me feel great.  I absolutely love this excerpt from her book "The Silent Master."  It's from page 48.

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says:

"You need to realize that you don't need to feel guilty forever.  Guilt has its purpose for a little while.  It makes you realize you need to change.  But once you take action to create change, guilt is no longer purposeful.  In fact, at that point it's obstructive.  So if you are ready to make a change, right now, first let go of the guilt.  Realize that your guilt is a feeling about something that's over.  whatever the "fault" or whatever the mistake, it isn't a part of the true you now.  It's over.  It's gone.  Begin the process of healing with feelings of joy instead."

So let's have a life full of joy!

Facing Strengths and Weaknesses

This is the thing about being human.  Every person in the world has strengths and weaknesses.  I am not sure when or where us humans decided we had to hide our weaknesses and only show our strengths, or in other extremes, have to punish ourselves for our weaknesses.

We seem to have managed to screw things up a bit here, but Dr. Tae Yun Kim gives me very simple ways to not only realize I have both strengths and weaknesses, but also how to deal with this.

"To really put your best face forward, you must be willing to look as hard at your weaknesses as you do your strengths and say, "I am a mixture of both."  Why?  So you can eliminate the weaknesses.  How? By looking carefully at yourself and getting to know yourself.  Take a piece of paper and pencil and actually list your strengths and weaknesses.  Listen ten of each.  See how easy or difficult this task is.  See how well you really know yourself.

So, look clinically at your strengths and weaknesses.  You don't need to make value judgments on yourself.  When ou find your strengths, decide to keep them, but do not become overly confident or egotistical.  When you find your weaknesses, determine to eliminate them, but do not fall in a mire of depression, dejection, or self-condemnation."

I love how Dr. Tae Yun Kim puts it.  So simple and so true, no emotions messing up the picture!
Let's do this!  :)

Goals for 2017

I used to think, I just have to set some goals and then I am done.  Right?  I was excited about them, and had them in the back of my mind, and the first weeks of the year I actually worked on them.

But then they slowly faded into the background.  What happened?

Dr. Tae Yun Kim is the Master of setting goals, "future memories" as she calls them, and then achieving them.  To her, its a matter of life and death. If a goal is worthy of being set, it is worthy your every effort to make it happen.

It's so easy to say, "I can't do it because of this or because of that."

With the sharpness of a sword Dr. Tae Yun Kim sees through my mental fog and asks this crucial question:

Your really can't?
Isn't it more like you won't?

If you really think about it, how many time have you said you can't when it was actually an I won't?
I know I am guilty of this!

But here is another nugget from Dr. Kim:

Remind yourself each and every day of your goal.  Every day!
And set goals every day what you will accomplish that day, to make sure you reach the year goals!

Ready?  Let's go!

HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!

Welcome 2017

Hello Everyone,

I wish you all a most Happy 2017 - can you feel change in the air?  I love every New Year because it gives me the opportunity to do better than the year before, to set new goals and a new chance it life!
My teacher, mentor and master, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, always encourages me to reflect back on the past year, check my goals and review them.

What did I accomplish?  What percentage of each goal did I get done?
Well this is embarrassing, but last year I did not do even three quarters of what I had written down as goals.

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has this to say about mistakes in her book "Seven Steps to Inner Power."

"How did we humans get the idea that to be perfect we couldn't make mistakes?  Never making a mistake does not make us perfect.  Never repeating a mistake (after we learn from it) is as perfect as we need to be."  (page 26)

So rather than being depressed and having a pity party, I will take charge, and every day use the tool Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has given me:

look at your list of goals every day.  Work on them every day, and report to yourself.  You will be amazed at how much you will get done!

HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!

Thoughts while in a Forest

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim is an amazing teacher.  Rather than telling me what to do, she simply will ask me to take a walk in the garden.

One time, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim had me sit down in the forest, meditating.  She didn't give any other directions.  Just meditate.  Be one with the trees and ferns and flowers.

All of a sudden I realized:  when God created this world, and all beings in it, He only had to tell them once what to do.  "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."

And ever since, that is what all the plants and animals have been doing.
They don't ever need a special reminder.  They don't need a to do list.  They simply do what they were born to do.

What about me?  Am I doing what I am supposed to do, without having to be reminded?
Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim encourages us to set goals, make a list, and make myself accountable.  That's how I can do it too!

HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!

It's never too late!

Today, as every day, I have a lot of reasons to celebrate.

 Number one, I am alive and well!

 Number two, it is my Birthday, and I am 58 years young. I feel better than I did at half my age. Why? Because of my training with Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim.

 People used to tell me I couldn't do things because I was too young and now they are starting to tell me I am too old, or too this, or too that. In her first book, "Seven Steps to Inner Power," Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim really hits the spot. She says,

" There is always only now. "True awareness means being right where you are, right now, without fear or worry or obsession about the future or past. I have to plan, you may say. I have to think about what I am going to do ten minutes from now, or tomorrow, or it won't happen. Yes, you should make plans in the present moment. You don't ever stop thinking, but be watchful to keep yourself open to new incoming ideas that may change what you plans. The point is to e aware every moment of what you are thinking, because whatever is going on now is on the way to manifesting. How important it is, then to keep everything you dOn't want out of your moment to moment consciousness. How can you do that if you are not focused on here, now? WHEN YOU CAN SEIZE CONTROL OF THE NOW MOMENT, YOU TAKE INTELLIGENT CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE." (Seven Steps to Inner Power, page 54) And that is one of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's greatest gifts to me, this paragraph that there is always only now.

 HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!