Can you think of a time in your life when you just didn’t feel you were “good enough”? When your self doubts, and frustrations seemed to be a constant companion?You might be there today? I think we all get there at one point or another. Maybe you are struggling with losing weight or trying to learn a new skill or teach your dog a skill but you have hit a plateau and just can’t seem to push past it. Think of how you feel, how you act, how you walk with this burden of limitation enshrouding your thoughts.

Now imagine if someone made a small adjustment for you that created a clearer path to your goal. Perhaps a doctor found some sensitivity and helped you make a dietary adjustment so that the weight just started tumbling off. Or perhaps you were introduced to a training aid or mechanical skill that gave you the “oh THATS all I have to do!” moment to overcome your learning or dog training struggle.

Think of how you feel now and more importantly WHY do you feel that way now? If you have 80 pounds of body fat you want to get rid of and that small adjustment just helped you lose 3 pounds in the first week — heck you still have 77 pounds to lose so WHY do you feel so much better than you did 3 pounds ago?

The reason is that your frustration has been replaced with hope. You have a fresh outlook, a plan for a favorable outcome, your self doubts and self limiting thoughts have been replaced with empowering ones as a path for success has become more clear to you.

I just love this quote from Les Brown;

“When there is hope in the future, there is power in the present.”

Lately I have started Swagger’s training on his running contacts. I have taken a completely different tack that I did with Encore or Feature. Things have been going along extraordinarily well until a week ago I hit a bump. A similar bump I hit with Feature. Yes I felt the same frustration all of you feel when you are discouraged by a lack of progress. Then I remembered this quote. Once I made a tiny alteration things started to progress well again and all hope restored:). There IS power in the present when we have hope for the future!

If you are frustrated it likely means your hope has faded. When you re-gain that hope, map out a plan of action to bring you closer to your goal, it doesn’t matter how far away from the goal you may actually be, the hope for a better tomorrow brings power to your thoughts and actions today.

Here’s to finding your hope!

Today I am grateful for time off, I took a day off on Monday (unplugged from the computer) and I am thinking I need to do that more often!