Cassandra with Keven Coker, the Commando Krav Maga instructor

Cassandra demonstrating a Krav Maga technique

Cassandra working on her technique

Cassandra with Laurel Blackburn, the owner of Boot Camps to Go - www.bootcampstogo.com

For those of you who don’t know, Ian is my husband of over seven years.  We’ve been together for more than ten years.  Ian has a MBA and works as a project manager.  He does photography as a hobby and has gotten quite good at it as denoted by his recent publications.  You can see more of Ian’s work on his website at www.iandigital.com.

Beth with Miss Tallahassee USA Cassandra Register

Congratulations to Lisette Garcia, the new Miss Florida USA! A special thank you to her pageant director Miss Rose Martinez for her mentorship and friendship to me during the pageant weekend!

Continue to check the blog as I’m asking both of my titleholders, Miss Tallahassee USA Cassandra Register and Miss Tallahassee Teen USA Caitlin Harrison, to contribute during their reigns.  Look for future appearances as both ladies will continue to represent Tallahassee.

 When prioritizing and planning your time, consider the following points:

 • Key questions
 What is the highest value-added action I can do?
 What can I, and only I, do that I’ve done well before to make a difference?
 Why am I on the payroll?
 The answers to these questions help identify all that needs to be done and in what order. That, in turn, will bolster personal productivity.

 • Values
 Decide what’s important to you, and in what order. Make sure your values don’t conflict with work. Energy spent worrying diminishes your abilities.

 • Consequences
 Every action has consequences—good and bad. Consider what rewards you’d reap by completing a task. Then compare those rewards with the consequences of putting it aside. This process makes it easier to see which goals have a higher value.

• The Pareto Principle
 Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th-century engineer, argued that 20 percent of what you do accounts for 80 percent of the value. When considering the importance of a task, ask yourself whether it’s among the 20 percent that creates the most value.

• Urgency vs. Importance
 An unexpected phone call or a drop-in visitor may be urgent, but the consequences of dealing with either may not be important in the long run. The urgent is other-oriented, it’s caused by someone else. Important things are self-directed and have the greatest value for you.

• The Limiting Step
 Standing between you and what you want to achieve is the limiting step. That’s the bottleneck that determines how quickly you can reach your goal. It’s important to identify that step and focus single-mindedly on getting that one thing done.

• A Written Plan
 Lists of goals, tasks and objectives are of no help unless they’re written. Putting your plans on paper makes a seemingly elusive goal more concrete. There’s a connection that takes place between the brain and the hand. When you don’t write it down, it’s fuzzy, but as you write it and revise it, it becomes clear.

• Visualization
 See yourself doing what you need to get done. Visualization trains the subconscious to focus on completing tasks. Say, for example, that you want to begin each morning by exercising. Visualizing yourself doing sit-ups and push-ups the night before conditions the mind to do those the next day. When you prime your mind, it wakes you up even before the alarm clock goes off.

Remember, you are a winner, and preparation goes a long way in helping you achieve all your goals.

Here are what I consider to be the principles that we must commit to if we are to leave the legacy we desire:

1. Life is best lived in service to others. This doesn’t mean that we do not strive for the best for ourselves. It does mean that in all things we serve other people, including our family, co-workers and friends.

2. Consider others’ interests as important as your own. Much of the world suffers simply because people consider only their own interests. People are looking out for number one, but the way to leave a legacy is to also look out for others.

3. Love your neighbor even if you don’t like him. It is interesting that Jesus told us to love others. But he never tells us to like them. Liking people has to do with emotions. Loving people has to do with actions. And what you will find is that when you love them and do good by them, you will more often than not begin to like them.

4. Maintain integrity at all costs. There are very few things you take to the grave with you. The number one thing is your reputation and good name. When people remember you, you want them to think, “She was the most honest person I knew. What integrity.” There are always going to be temptations to cut corners and break your integrity. Do not do it. Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the cost.

5. You must risk in order to gain. In just about every area of life you must risk in order to gain the reward. In love, you must risk rejection in order to ask that person out for the first time. In investing you must place your capital at risk in the market in order to receive the prize of a growing bank account. When we risk, we gain. And when we gain, we have more to leave for others.

6. You reap what you sow. In fact, you always reap more than you sow–you plant a seed and reap a bushel. What you give you get. What you put into the ground then grows out of the ground. If you give love you will receive love. If you give time, you will gain time. It is one of the truest laws of the universe. Decide what you want out of life and then begin to sow it.

7. Hard work is never a waste. No one will say, “It is too bad he was such a good, hard worker.” But if you aren’t they will surely say, “It’s too bad he was so lazy - he could have been so much more!” Hard work will leave a grand legacy. Give it your all on your trip around the earth. You will do a lot of good and leave a terrific legacy.

8. Don’t give up when you fail. Imagine what legacies would have never existed if someone had given up. How many thriving businesses would have been shut down if they quit at their first failure? Everyone fails. It is a fact of life. But those who succeed are those who do not give up when they fail. They keep going and build a successful life - and a legacy.

9. Don’t ever stop in your pursuit of a legacy. Many people have accomplished tremendous things later on in life. There is never a time to stop in your pursuit of a legacy. Sometimes older people will say, “I am 65. I’ll never change.” That won’t build a great life! No, there is always time to do more and achieve more, to help more and serve more, to teach more and to learn more. Keep going and growing that legacy!

These are core principles to live by if you want to become the kind of person who leaves a lasting legacy. Thank you Jim Rohn for your legacy and your words that will continue to motivate and inspire us forever!

What part of your idea are you in love with?  Kiss it goodbye!

Source:  Roger von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
http://www.creativethink.com/

This is the poem that I read during the Remembrance Ceremony at Tallahassee’s Light the Night walk to benefit to Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  It’s a beautiful remembrance of those who have passed on.

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
we remember them.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
we remember them.

In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember them.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
we remember them.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
we remember them.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength,
we remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember them.

When we have joys we yearn to share,
we remember them.

So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us,
as we remember them.

“I am a nice person,” the man says to himself. “How come this other guy is happy and prosperous and I’m always struggling?” He asks himself, “I am a good husband, a good father and a good worker. How come nothing seems to work out for me? Life just isn’t fair. I’m even smarter and willing to work harder than some of these other people who just seem to have everything going their way,” he says as he slumps into the sofa to watch another evening of television. But you see you’ve got to be more than a good person and a good worker. You’ve got to become a good planner, and a good dreamer. You’ve got to see the future finished in advance.

You’ve got to put in the long hours and put up with the setbacks and the disappointments. You’ve got to learn to enjoy the process of disciplines and of putting yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. You’ve got to be prepared and willing to attack the challenges if you want the success because challenges are part of success. Now that may sound like a full menu of activities, but let me assure you that the process of going from average to fortune isn’t really all that difficult. Thinking about it is the difficult part. Anticipating all the effort and the changes and the disciplines is far worse in the mind than in reality. I can promise you that the challenges you’ll meet on the road to success are far less difficult to deal with than the struggles and the disappointments that come from being average. Confronting and overcoming challenges is an exhilarating experience. It does something to feed the soul and the mind. It makes you more than you were before. It strengthens the mental muscles and enables you to become better prepared for the next challenge.

I’ve often said that to have more, we must first become more, and to become more, we must begin the process of working harder on ourselves than we do on anything else. But in addition to gathering new knowledge, new skills and new experiences, it is also important to discover new emotions. It is how we feel about what we know that makes the biggest difference in how our lives turn out. How we feel about the chances we have and the choices we have determines the intensity of our effort. Whether we try or don’t try. Join or don’t join. Believe or don’t believe.

I’d like for you to discover some strong feelings about your life and about what you want to do with that life. You probably have much of the knowledge and a lot of the experience and perhaps most of the skills that it takes to become successful. What you may be lacking are the strong feelings about what you want and what you want to do. You may be one of those who have become so involved in the process of earning a living that you’ve forgotten about the choices and the chances you have for designing your own life.

Let these strong feelings help you take a second look at your life and where you’re headed. After all, you’ve only got one life, at least on this planet. So why not make it an adventure in achievement? Why not discover what you can do and what you can have? Why not discover how many others you can help, and in the process, how that can help you?

Why not now take the Challenge to Succeed!