I think it’s finally spring time in the Rockies; and that’s not just because the Colorado Rockies had their home opener last Friday.  Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I went for a bike ride.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to exercise outdoors

As a career success coach, I advise my clients to live a healthy lifestyle.  This means eating right and exercising.  You don’t have to become a tri-athlete; every little bit of exercise helps.

Dan Robey is a friend of mine.  He is the author of The Power of Positive Habits.  I am one of his subscribers.  Yesterday, I received a great e mail from Dan on brisk walking as a positive habit.  Dan is a generous guy and he always lets me repost his posts here. 

Check out what he has to say about the power of brisk walking…

Make “Brisk Walking” A Positive Habit

“Not running, not jogging, but walking is your most efficient exercise and the only one you can safely follow all the years of your life.”

- Executive Health Organization

Walking as a daily exercise habit can truly be a life-changing positive habit and is one of the most powerful habits for reaching your goal of a healthy trim and fit body. Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of studies that have proven the benefits of brisk walking.

Thousands upon thousands of people have improved their health and lost weight by the diligent habit of walking. If you think that walking does not provide the same benefits as other more vigorous exercises, think again.

A study published by the New England Journal Of Medicine showed that postmenopausal women who walked regularly lowered their risk for heart disease just as much as women who did more vigorous
exercise, such as playing sports or running.

This study suggests that walking is just as good for your heart as heavy exercise. I spoke with study author Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, Chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital,
Professor of Medicine, at Harvard Medical School.  She said, “The study provides compelling evidence that walking and vigorous exercise provide similar heart benefits, about a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease with 30 minutes per day of either activity.”

I also asked her about the benefits of making brisk walking a positive habit, and she responded, “They could surely walk away from heart disease and several other chronic diseases. We have also found that brisk walking for at least 3 hours a week can lower the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer.

No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable. Even though the study consisted solely of women, it is likely that men
would experience similar benefits from the positive habit of brisk walking.
 

Here are additional benefits you will receive from your habit of brisk walking:

Walking burns calories and helps you lose weight and burn excess body fat.

Walking can help to improve your posture.

Walking requires no special equipment or gyms.

Walking can help lower blood pressure and help prevent circulatory and heart disorders.

Brisk, aerobic walking will give you the benefits of other exercises, such as jogging and cycling, but without the risk of injuries.

Walking at night can help promote better sleep.

Dan makes some great points about the benefits of developing a positive habit of brisk walking.  Personally, I prefer to bicycle in the summer, and walk in the winter. 

A lot of the people who I coach say that they know they should exercise, but often can’t seem to “get around to it.”  I have come up with the answer this problem.  I have printed several thousand stickers that are round and say “TUIT” in big capital letters.  Whenever someone tells me that they know they should do something but can’t seem to get around to it, I give them one of these stickers.  It is a round TUIT.  I tell them that now they can never say that they can’t get a around to it anymore, because they have a round TUIT.  I have a round TUIT sticker on my computer.  I have another one on my bike.  They are constant reminders to me to keep up good work and exercise habits.

Would you like a round TUIT?  If so, please send me your snail mail address, and I’ll put up to five round TUITs in the mail to you – free of charge.  Use them for yourself, or give them to your friends who are procrastinators.  Just make sure that you get around to living a healthy lifestyle.  Brisk walking is a great way to start.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers are lifelong learners; they manage their time and life well; and they live a healthy lifestyle.  My friend Dan Robey, author of The Power of Positive Habits says that brisk walking is one of the most healthy habits you can adopt.  I agree, almost everybody can walk.  The more you walk, the healthier you’ll be.  Dan points out that “No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable.  So, like the Nike ads say, Just Do It!  Or as this career success coach says, “Get around to it.”

That’s my take on developing positive habits that will keep you healthy and on top of your game.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Earlier this week I did a post about clarity of purpose and direction.  I began it with a story about Jim Collins from the April 2010 issue of SUCCESS Magazine.  This post is also based on something I found in SUCCESS.

W. Clement Stone was the publisher of an earlier version of SUCCESS Magazine.  He became a millionaire selling insurance during the great depression.  Along with Napoleon Hill and Paul J. Meyer, he is one of the best known pioneers of the modern success industry.  He was known as Mr. Positive Mental Attitude. 

As a career success coach, I believe in the power of having a positive mental attitude.  That’s why I am such a big fan of the Optimist Creed.  If you want a copy of the Optimist Creed to frame and hang in your office, just go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist. 

However, positive attitude isn’t what caught my eye in the current issue of SUCCESS.  On page 88, the “Turning Your Knowledge into POWER column says…

Big Doors Swing on Little Hinges.  W. Clement Stone says you are what your habits make you, but you can choose to change.  Write down two habits you should keep doing and two habits you need to eliminate, then get started.

That is great common sense career success advice.

Here are two habits I will keep doing…

1. Writing and publishing a blog five days a week.  This helps me deepen my understanding of what it takes to become a career success.  As a career success coach, I need to have as deep an understanding of the subject as possible.
2.  Beginning every day with a prayer asking for help in beeing a loving husband, good friend, productive member of society, and a positive influence on other people’s lives.  If I do all of these things, I will be not only an effective career success coach, I will be a good person, one who is worthy of the trust others put in me.

Here are two habits I will eliminate…

1. Giving myself permission to eat poorly and slack off on exercise when I travel.  I need to be as physically fit as possible to be effective as a career success coach.
2. Procrastinating on attempting to do things in which I might fail.  This includes things like regular podcasting, commenting on others’ blogs and video blog creation.

I have stated these publically.  That’s the first step in maintaining positive habits and in ridding myself of negative, unproductive ones.  I’m asking you to hold me to these commitments.  And I will help you do the same.

I have created a forum to help us all stick to our positive habits and change our not so positive ones.  Just go to http://www.BudBilanich.com/positivehabits and register for the forum.  Once you’ve done so, you can post the positive habits you want to keep and the negative habits you want to eliminate.  We can use this forum to help each other build positive career success habits.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their career success.  One way of demonstrating personal responsibility for your career success is by publicly committing to building on your good habits and breaking your bad habits.  I am creating an on line habit mastermind group.  In this group, we will help one another build on positive habits and break negative ones.  If you want to participate, join my new positive habits forum.  Go to http://www.BudBilanich.com/positivehabits.  Share the two habits you want to reinforce and the two you need to break.  I’ve set up this forum so we can help one another.

That’s my take on the power of positive habits and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  By the way, my friend, Dan Robey has written a book called The Power of Positive Habits.  You can get it at www.thepowerofpositivehabits.com.  If you’re interested in building on your positive habits and breaking your negative ones, you need to read this book.  Tell Dan that I sent you.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

Positive habits are an important key to outstanding performance.  Healthy lifestyle habits will give you the stamina to become an outstanding performer.  Habits are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they get.  Today, I’d like to discuss an important positive habits –proactively managing your stress.

When I was a kid about a million years ago, there was a popular song.  I believe it was a show tune.  A couple of the lines went like this…

You’ve got to ac – cen – tu – ate the positive, and
e — lim — in –  ate the negative

I don’t know the show.  If you do, please leave a comment letting us know.  I’ll give a free copy of one of my eBooks to everybody who knows the name of the show and shares it in a comment.

Anyway, I was thinking about that song yesterday because I came across a new book on stress management by Evelyn Brooks and called Forget Your Troubles: Enjoy Your Life Today.

Evelyn suggests that you get S.M.A.R.T. about managing stress…

• S    Smash the negative.
• M  Maximize the positive.
• A   Act.
• R   Relax.
• T   Target your next action.

As they say, “there’s nothing new under the sun.”  And, more importantly, I agree.  It doesn’t matter if you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative or smash the negative and maximize the positive, you’ll be on your way to managing your stress.

Stuff happens as you go through life; positive stuff, negative stuff, happy stuff, sad stuff, frustrating stuff.  The important thing is not what happens, but how you react to it.  In other words, smash the negative.  Don’t dwell on it, use it as a springboard to action and creativity.  Maximize the positive.  When something goes well, take the time to celebrate.  You deserve it.  And, a small celebration will put you in a positive frame of mind, which in turn, will help you create more positives in your life and career.

On Tuesday, I did a soft launch of my Common Sense Success System.  I’m gave away a free DVD – almost an hour and a half of my best thinking on career and life success – to the people on my ezine subscription list.  Today, I am making the same offer to you.  If you are interested in receiving this valuable DVD simply go to…

www.CommonSenseSuccessSystem.com/freedvdoffer.

I mention this offer because almost 100 people taken me up on it so far.  I’m celebrating.  I’m accentuating the positive, or if you prefer, maximizing the positive.  You might say that 100 people choosing to receive a free DVD is not reason for a huge celebration.  I understand. 

However, this is big for me, so I’m celebrating.  I’m seeing some positive movement in move on line business.  This free DVD is just the first step.  Celebrating small wins is a great way to manage your stress and to not get overwhelmed by the negatives that will invariably creep into your life.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are competent.  They create positive personal impact.  They are outstanding performers.  They are dynamic communicators.  And they are relationship builders.  If you manage your stress you’ll be better able to perform at a consistently high level.  One way to manage your stress is to smash the negatives in your life and maximize the positives.  Use the negatives as learning experiences and the positives as reason for celebration.  Celebrating small victories is a good way to keep things in perspective and build the resilience necessary for dealing with the tough times.

That’s my take on accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative.  What’s yours?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

Positive habits are an important key to outstanding performance.  Positive time management is an important habit to develop.  Habits are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they get.

Here in Colorado, we are required to get our cars checked to ensure that they meet clean air emissions standards before we can renew our license plates.  It’s a good law, one that helps with the air quality in our beautiful state.  It’s also a pain in the butt.  It requires a trip to an emissions monitoring station and waiting in line for the test.  My plates renew in October, so yesterday I spent a couple hours getting my car tested.  It passed.

Cathy laughed at me as I was leaving the house with my briefcase, which had my cell phone, a couple of books and a bottle of water.  She said I would probably be the only one at the emissions testing facility reading a book.  That was OK.  I had just received a review copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crush It.  I wanted to read it so I could review it on this blog – and to learn a few things.  By the way, Crush It is a great book – not just for entrepreneurs.  I’ll do a post on it next week.

Carrying a book with me is one of my time management positive habits.  Sometimes it’s a novel.  Most times it’s a business or inspirational book.  I am in the habit of using spare moments to read and learn.  Yesterday, I was able to read the first four chapters of Crush It while I was waiting for my emissions test.  I also took some notes — ideas that I plan on incorporating into my business.  Not a bad use of my time.

I read while waiting for appointment with clients.  I read while waiting for my dentist, or doctor – and you know how long those waits can be.  I read when I go to get my car washed.  I read before a movie if I’m by myself.  This is a small habit, but one that allows me to read at least two more books a month than I normally would.  That’s 24 books a year – and a lot of good ideas to help me grow my business.

Reading spurs ideas.  These ideas give me inspiration for this blog.  They help me make decisions about my business.  They help me clarify my thinking on my passion – helping others create the career and life success they want and deserve.  Reading in spare moments is one of my most positive habits.  What is your most positive habit?  If you are thinking that you don’t have many positive habits, I suggest you check out Dan Robey’s site www.thepowerofpositivehabits.com.  There’s a lot to be learned there. 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are competent.  They set high goals and achieve them.  Positive habits will help you reach your goals – but only if you take the time to develop them.  Reading in “found moments” – the time I spend waiting is one of my positive habits.  I’m amazed at how much I can learn just by always having a book with me.  Today I learned a lot about personal branding by reading the first four chapters of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It.  Take the time to develop some positive habits of your own.  You’ll be surprised at how much they help your productivity.

That’s my take on reading as a time management positive habit.  What’s yours?  What are some of the positive habits that have served you well over the years?  How did you develop them?  Please take a minute and leave comment sharing your thoughts and ideas with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud