Where are Your Habits Leading You? and LeaderShare Art

I'm away at LeaderShare in sunny LasVegas, NV enjoying the hospitality and friendship of my wonderful, amazing upline, Karen Morris!  I just LOVE the ability to schedule my posts ahead of time so I don't "break my chain"!  Speaking of habits, here is an inspirational article I found on the subject.  It's definitely food for thought!

Where are Your Habits Leading You?

Copyright 2010 ~ By Bill Bell

You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed to how you shower; how you dress; how you walk, sit and talk; how you respond to the world; how you act in front of others; and how you think, you are living out your habits. Habits are necessary. They free up your mind so that you can concentrate on how to survive every day. You don’t have to think about how to drive your car so you can be on the lookout for danger while you are driving. You don’t have to think about how to walk so you can concentrate on where you are going.

Unfortunately, habits can also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which will limit your success. To become successful, you will need to drop bad habits and develop new ones that are in line with the life you want to live. People do not suddenly appear in the life they want to live—habits determine their outcome! What are the habits you have that are keeping you from achieving your goals? Are you always running late? Do you return phone calls within 24 hours? Do you get enough sleep? Do you speak clearly and look people directly in their eyes? Do you eat healthy meals? Ask others what they observe about you and make a list of all the behaviors that keep you from success.
Imagine what your life would be like if all those habits were their productive counterparts. What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised and got enough sleep? What would your life be like if you saved money, stopped using credit cards and paid cash for everything? What would your life be like if you stopped procrastinating, overcame your fears and began networking with people in your field? Write down the more productive habits and visualize your life as it would be if they were your habits right now.

Decide to develop four of your new habits each year, one for each quarter. Create a method that will support your new habit. What will keep you motivated? How will you remind yourself of your new habit? You could write it down on a card that you keep with you and read over several times a day. You could make it a part of your daily visualization. You could enlist the help of an accountability partner who also has habits to change. Be specific about the steps that you are willing to take in order to drop an old habit and adopt a new one. Do not be vague about how you will change your habits. Spell it out for yourself so that you can recognize situations that call for you to act out your new habit.
Once you have picked your habit for that quarter, make a 100 percent commitment to stick to it. Do not tempt yourself by making it optional every time a situation arises. If your new habit is to go to bed by 10 p.m., then go to bed at 10 p.m., even if you are not feeling tired. Just go there and relax, read a book, visualize or meditate, but don’t compromise on your new habit. If you make an exception once, you are more likely to make an exception the next time, and soon you will be back to your old habits.
Even four new habits a year will dramatically shift your life to be more in line with your vision. And the more in line it becomes, the easier the other habits are to replace because your perspective is shifting and you see more clearly how your old habits are not serving you anymore. You can do it!

 Creative Corner: 
Karen asked me to help out with the Create and Take so I had the chance to make mine ahead of time and be able to share it with you while I'm away from my office.  I also participated in her Silent Auction to benefit Operation Smile by donating a piece(s) of artwork as well as entering the art swap/contest.  Here are the results of my creative time!

My donation for Karen Morris's LeaderShare Operation Smile Silent Auction

The box is filled with over 25 handmade cards - most are from my past workshops.

These are the dividers

This is the Layout we did for the Create and Take

Create and Take Cube - I discovered that it hold a square Kleenex Box!
I'm not a fan of clutter, so I was happy to find a use for it.

Cube before assembly

Top of Box                                                                                                        2 of the sided close up



other 2 sides close up



My swap entry - it's a Diamond fold Card - see Brenda's blog for a tutorial
http://brendafrerichs.blogspot.com/  March 1st Post

side view



Open - front



Open - back

Shout-Outs:

Congrats to Our Second Hawaiian Cruise EarnerLynn Como, a Director from Colts Neck, New Jersey, is the second person to earn our 2012 incentive trip—a seven-day luxury cruise through the Hawaiian Islands!  What an AMAZING achievement!!!

Quote of the Week:

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle