Mental Fitness Challenge – Create new habits!

It’s been a week since I wrote the article about Claude Hamilton and the Team’s Policy Counsel launching their flagship product, the “Mental Fitness Challenge”. I must say I was expecting great things from this product and my expectations were well founded! There are so many people leaving comments on the different leaders Blogs about how they are already seeing results after only two weeks involved on the 90 days challenge. If you want to view some of these comments I’ve added links to some of the RT and PC members blogs on my homepage. I strongly recommend that you click and read through them and you’ll witness some great stories of personal victories.

Research has shown that “eight in ten (78%) of Canadians have failed to keep passed resolutions; only two in ten (22%) of us have managed to keep all of  our resolutions in the past. These statistics come from a recent Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Sun Life Financial, the title of the article was “Canadians Quick to Make New Year’s Resolutions, But Slow to See Them Through”.

You have to admit that those statistics are very revealing and strongly support  what Claude Hamilton and Orrin Woodward have been telling us all along: “It’s mind over body”. Is it that the resolutions were not worth keeping or that most of us don’t have the mental discipline to actually follow through? How many of us know people who don’t follow through on their commitments? You might know a father who’s been telling his wife and kids for the last few years that he’ll take them away on a camping trip but it never happens. It’s maybe even gotten to the point that the children don’t even ask anymore.

Last year I witnessed something very sad, one of my good friends (names will remain anonymous to protect the guilty!)  had been promising his daughter he’d finish a room for her in the basement. One night I was visiting and the conversation turned to the basement room, his daughter (10 years old at the time) said “Ya he’s been promising to finish a room for me but like all his other promises they never happen!”. Needless to say I was caught off guard. The sad part in this story wasn’t only the lack of commitment or the obvious lack of respect that this little girl had for her father but his wife who was present couldn’t even jump in and defend my friend. Don’t get me wrong I’m totally against  children disrespecting their parents but how many times did this little girl have to sit there and listen to her father talk the talk but never walk the walk?

On the flip side of this coin I have another story. Over the last few years I’ve had the great honor of mentoring with Claude Hamilton and one thing he’s thought me is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a small commitment or a big one, a commitment is a commitment! Late last spring my wife Sonia, my daughter Olivia and myself were driving back from Ottawa on a road trip where my mother had given Olivia a trampoline as a gift.  This voyage is a twelve to fourteen hours drive so if you have children you can surely appreciate the great degree of patience and creativity needed to keep a 2-year-old entertained for twelve hours. As a bribe I told Olivia if she was good I’d set up the trampoline and we’d go jump on it that same night once we got home. After being on the road from two A.M. to four P.M. we finally arrived in the little town where we now reside. We stopped in for supper at Sonia parent’s house and everyone except Sonia were surprised when I advised everyone that we were in a hurry to get home so that I could follow through on the commitment I had made to my two-year old daughter. We got home, I spent the next hour setting up the trampoline and Olivia got to jump on it for approximately fifteen minutes before heading to bed.

I know you might be thinking “she was just two years old, was it really that important to set it up that night?” You’re right, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed or remembered my promise and I could have just set it up the next day and she would have been as happy, but I would have noticed and known that I wasn’t following through. I have Claude to thank for helping me incorporate that great principle in my life.

We could list off a bunch scenarios of people who haven’t followed through but the point I’m trying to make is that there’s a serious need in today’s society for men and women who will follow through on commitments. As Orrin Woodward as often said “Anyone can find problems but it takes leaders to find solutions”. With the self-assessment test  you have the tools to identify problem areas and then the solution is to take the “90 Day Mental Fitness Challenge” which has been setup to help us create new habits in our lives that will on a daily basis take us closer and closer to “Living The Life We’ve Always Wanted“.

Albert Einstein once said “the definition of  insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If what you’re doing today isn’t giving you the results you want, It’s time to change! Take the Challenge, and take a front row seat to your victory!

Boldly pursue excellence,

Mike