Consider everything as a work in progress and don't panic if it doesn't work right yet.  Remember Mosher's Law: "If everything worked right, you'd be out of a job."

-Pablo Guevara

Happy New Year to all! What will 2015 bring? July 3, 1985, the movie, Back to the Future hit the theaters, and the year of the future in this movie was 2015. So, welcome to the future ladies and gentlemen! 

As many do each New Year, I too, fall into considering change, a better self, and what improvements do I need to make to ensure a better me! For me personally, it is not about New Year resolutions necessarily, it's more about a new vision for the New Year. The beginning of a New Year is refreshing because it gives you permission for all sorts of new decisions that somehow don't happen as easily once the year is in full swing. One of my new visions for 2015 is to read more each day. So who better to inspire my vision for reading, than the inspiration king himself, Zig Ziglar.

The timing isn't ideal.  Is it ever?  Do you ever truly know when it's the right opportunity and the right moment for you to do something?  You're busy, you're stressed, you're struggling to make ends meet, you're about to get married and then you're about to have a kid...I hear you.  Life is filled with complications--today and six months from today.  If you wait for life to stop throwing you curve balls, you will die waiting.  There will never be a "perfect" time to change your life.  Make your choices here and now - not tomorrow or the day after.  A dream deferred is not a dream come true.

-Tabatha Coffey, Own It!

Many times during training and competition, an athlete will experience what I call "don't" thinking.  In "don't" thinking, people tell themselves what not to do.  For example, a hockey player with whom I work used to tell himself, "Don't screw this up, don't swing too hard, and don't hit the ice before the puck."  This type of thinking is not helpful, because by directing the mind to what is not supposed to be done, it increases the likelihood that the athlete will feel stress and anxiety.  This state, in turn, makes it harder to pay attention to the task at hand, and thus people are more prone to do exactly what they were hoping to prevent.

- Jason Selk, 10-Minute Toughness

I like to do this exercise with people starting a new business venture--it's a great way to troubleshoot any future problems.  Basically, you're going to brainstorm potential mistakes you and/or your staff might make in the future.  Be brutally honest:  Where could you possibly screw up?  What could go wrong if all hell broke loose?  Then talk through how you would handle it.  You are proactively avoiding these mistakes by anticipating them ahead of time.  No one likes to imagine the "what-ifs," but it gives you greater piece of mind knowing you have a plan to handle them.

-Tabatha Coffey, Own It!