Some people let their fear destroy their dreams.  Others learn how to use it as the very tool needed to craft the life of their dreams.

Fear.

It's amazing.  If you can rise above it and look at it objectively, you can see that beneath the instinct to "run and hide," there lies an arrow pointing directly in the direction that you need to go.

We cannot draw out with absolute precision the map between where we are and where we need to be in order to arrive at this goal or that.  But we can consult our compass - our fear.  Because the very step that you're afraid to take is precisely the step that you must take next.

Start changing your relationship with fear.  Improve it.  Mature it.  Grow up.  Because as long as you're committed to learning and growing, you'll always have fear.  So you might as well stop running from it and learn to run with it, through it, and past it.  Have fun with it and eventually it won't feel like fear anymore.

• Quit waiting for someone else to give you a map.  Draw your own.
• "The most common way that people give up their power is by thinking that they don't have any." - Alice Walker
• Everyone is sitting around waiting for someone to pick them.  Stop waiting.  Pick yourself!
• Poking the box means jumping in and taking action again and again and again.  It means throwing your fears and excuses out the window and just start, GO, and keep going.
• Soon is not as good as NOW.
• Does your goal, project, or idea scare you?  Good.  It's worth doing then.
• "Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn't do.
  If you lived in that world, what would you do?
  Go. Do that." 
• If you're not failing, then you're not doing, starting, going.  Avoiding failure is counterproductive.
• Make a habit out of starting.
• Get off your butt and try something.  Take ACTION.  Go.  Change the world.  ;)

What do you do when you just don't feel like doing what you're supposed to do?  Let's face it - you're going to have those days no matter how clear you get on your goals and what you want out of life.  It's so easy to slack off and lose momentum.

Not every day is going to be perfect and I hope you're not shooting for perfection anyway.  You're never going to get perfect, you can only and always get better.  You have to think progress not perfection!

So with that in mind, how can we make progress every single day?  Here's a tip that I got from an article by Robert Pagliarini that I've tried on a couple of areas in my life and it works.  Think "I can at least...".  This practice will save you on those days when you're feeling too tired, or stressed, or "blah" to do as much as you planned.

Here's an example:
Let's say you have a goal to save $5 every day because ultimately you want to have money specifically saved to invest in a mutual fund by the end of the year.  As easy as this sounds, you'll probably have days where that $5 disappeared on gas or emergency groceries or maybe you just blew it on candy.  Instead of feeling that you messed up for that day, do the next best thing instead.  In this case, you say, "Well, I can at least save $1 today."  And do that. 

This is about more than the "something is better than nothing" principle.  When you can't accept anything less than $5 a day and you miss it, you've not only sacrificed a day, you've sacrificed a precious bit of your momentum and you've made it that much easier to miss it again and again.  Before you know it, the year is gone and you've gotten nowhere because you've sabotaged your success with your need for perfection.  It's funny how obsessing over perfection so often leads to its exact opposite.  That $1 saves you.  It preserves your self-respect.  It's a symbol of your commitment to progress no matter what.

Now, before you say, "What's the big deal?  I can make up for missing a day by saving $10 tomorrow.  So it's ok if I don't do anything today."  The money in itself is not the point.  Your mindset is the point.  Really successful people know that their success is the result of the little things that they do every day.  They understand that this is how the magic of the compound effect works in their lives.  Success is not a result of what you do to make up for what you didn't do.

So, what's your back up plan?

Here's some ideas:
Goal: I exercise for 45 minutes a day
Back-up: I can at least exercise for 10 minutes today

Goal: Study Spanish for 1 hour every day
Back-up: I can at least study 10 words today

There is another awesome benefit about this principle.  When you think, "I can at least ..." and you do it, you'll find it easier to keep going and you'll find yourself on top of your game anyway.  For instance, if the thought of exercising for 45 minutes feels too daunting for you one day, but you get up to at least do 10 minutes, you're going to find after 10 minutes that you feel good enough to do the next 35!

Remember: Think progress not perfection.

Hello, OWL team members! Today's assignment is more on the challenging side, but the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward!! So, your 2nd weekly assignment is to watch this video and take a few minutes to do as he recommends. At our last meeting I recommended keeping a folder and notebook to keep all your OWL assignments and notes together. At our next meeting later this month, we can share our experience accomplishing these assignments, so don't fall behind! Attend to your dreams and let's move forward together!

p.s. If you haven't completed OWL assignment #1 yet, it was to listen to and take notes on this short video: http://thesecretowl.blogspot.com/2011/06/jack-canfield-success-principles.html

I learned an interesting way of viewing obstacles in life from a CD I was listening to recently. It talked about how if you keep tadpoles in a container of nothing but water, they will never grow into frogs. But if you put in a rock, an obstacle that they have to climb over, then they will be able to develop their legs and become frogs. In other words, in order to become all they're meant to be, tadpoles need obstacles in their environment.

The CD went on to explain how the same goes for humans. If our lives were always smooth and easy and free of any type of resistance, we'd never feel the pressure to rise up to greater levels of achievement - to overcome and become.

Yet when we're faced with obstacles, it can be intensely difficult to keep this in mind. All we see is the obstacle and not what lies on the other side - a stronger, better, wiser version of ourselves.

However, if we make the decision to consciously change our attitude towards life's obstacles - if we choose to see them as necessary for us to become more, to become all we're meant to be - then the negativity and strife that we associate with them will gradually fade away and we'll see them as stepping stones instead.

We tend to try to run away from obstacles, but when we do that, we are actually running away from a better version of ourselves and a fuller, grander version of our lives. As Robin Sharma so wisely said: "Your greatest life lies on the other side of your fear. So run to the things that frighten you."