“People on diets that complain that they lack will power are usually suffering more from a lack of won’t power!” Jeff Olson

Just curious — how are you doing with those 2010 New Year’s Resolutions?

So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.  (Gal. 6:9; NLT)

Well, here we are at the beginning of February already. We got a newsletter from a colleague last week that made me think about those famous (or infamous) New Year’s Resolutions. How are you doing? How many of your resolutions are already history?

Read the rest of this entry »

“Modern science allows us to understand that the underlying nature of an addiction to pornography is chemically nearly identical to a heroin addiction”  Dr. Jeffrey Satinover

How successful are you at steering clear of Internet porn?

Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.  (Prov. 4:23; NLT)

Did you know that:

• The average age of first exposure to Internet porn is 8 (Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005)?
• In 2003, “Today’s Christian Woman” found that one in six women (17%), including Christians, struggles with pornography addiction?
• Pornography in many forms is invading people’s homes and is available 24 hrs a day. In a short period of time the Internet has become the most exploited instrument of perversion known to man?
• According to comScore Media Metrix, 71.9 million people visited adult sites in August 2005, reaching 42.7 percent of the Internet audience?
• The largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17 (Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005)?

Most of us are familiar with the whole idea of a “slippery slope.”  One starts out as ignorant and then gradually (sometimes fast and sometimes slow) begins sliding down the slope as follows:
Ignorant ==> Aware ==> Tempted ==> Dabbling ==> Using ==> Addicted

This same slippery slope applies to alcohol, tobacco, recreational drugs, and pornography.  Imagine the ignorance (innocence) of an 8-year old who while poking around on the Internet inadvertently accesses an adult site.  The image in their mind is not quickly erased.  Maybe never.  Their battle begins.  (Note that their gender doesn’t really matter.)

This morning, our pastor called a special meeting during the Sunday School for all the men of the church.  In this meeting he announced that the church had elected to cover the total cost to make Covenant Eyes software available to all men of the church for their first year.  For those of you who might not be familiar with Covenant Eyes software, I have made a short promotional video as today’s link of the day.

In a nutshell, Covenant Eyes installs on your computer and accumulates a list of every Internet site visited over the course of a week and sends that report to someone you have asked to hold you accountable to the intention of avoiding any and all visits to adult-content Internet sites.  In short, it is nothing but an accountability tool.

As a life coach, we are trained in the effective use of accountability relationships as one of the most effective behavior modification techniques available.  Accountability can (and has been) greatly misused and given a very bad reputation.  But, properly used, accountability is an amazingly powerful tool for change.

I share all this with you for a couple of reasons:

1. I’m proud of my church for making the decision to take proactive steps to help counter this increasingly powerful addiction.
2. I’m impressed with the Covenant Eyes software as an accountability device and want to be sure that all our readers know of its existence.
3. If you’re among the leadership of your church, you may want to propose a similar “cleansing of the house” to your church leadership.
4. You may know of someone whose life could be incredibly changed if you told them about Covenant Eyes and gave them the link to their home page.

Thanks for watching today’s link.

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for putting other like-minded individuals in our lives to who we can give permission to hold us accountable to live our lives in integrity.

Link of the Day
Covenant Eyes Promo Video

Blessings on you as you consider the life changing nature of this message

Photo by jeet_sen

“Wealth, fame and good looks may be a formula for anxiety rather than happiness.”  LiveScience.com

Would you rather have an apple or a donut?  Why did you make that choice?

Does my happiness depend on my wealth and all that I own?  (Job 31:25; NLT)

There was an interesting article posted on msnbc a couple of days ago…especially when read in conjunction with the article Sharon passed along yesterday.  According to another one of those longitudinal studies on happiness, this one only two years long and done by psychologists at the University of Rochester, happiness comes more from fulfilled relationships, health, and personal growth than it does from wealth, fame, and good looks.  Does that surprise you?  Probably not — if you give it some thought.

The U of R psychologists described two major categories of goals, extrinsic and intrinsic, i.e., external and internal.  Not surprisingly, at least upon some reflection, attaining the intrinsic goals bring much more happiness than do achieving the extrinsic ones.  “Achieving intrinsic goals led to higher self-esteem and a greater sense of well-being, the researchers statistical analysis revealed. But, in a snub for the American dream, attaining the extrinsic goals of wealth and fame led to anxiety and unhappiness.”

Fascinating article, but really interesting when you realize that in spite of an increasing level of well-publicized research and evidence to the contrary, people are not following a healthy lifestyle.  It’s the old story, put an apple and a donut in front of someone and ask which is better for them and virtually all would admit that the apple is the only contender.  Then ask which they would like to have right now, and you’d better have a couple dozen donuts with you as you conduct your little research study.  Why is that?  Even the U of R research is telling us that the apple will make us happier.

I believe that part of the answer lies in the significance of support, encouragement, and accountability (SEA).  SEA is the stock in trade of a life coach.  In order to consistently attain our goals, we will all do better with a plan (support), a cheerleader who believes in you (encouragement), and finally someone to whom you would rather not disappoint by making a wrong choice or by not fulfilling your commitment to them (accountability).

If you need help in accomplishing some of your goals, get a coach.  I have one.  Sharon has one.  Any other way is simply too much work and far too prone to failure.  Get healthy and be happy!  Make it a fantastic weekend!

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for guiding more and more credible research toward “revealing” the truths You present in the Manufacturer’s Handbook.  And we especially thank You for not losing your patience with us along the way.

Link of the Day
Key to happiness? It’s not money or looks

Blessings on you as you as you have a healthy and happy weekend.

“There are two obstacles to vibrant health and longevity: ignorance and complacency.”  World Health Organization

How much could a partner help you achieve a goal?

No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church. (Eph. 5:29; NLT)

On Wednesday, some of you were with us as we announced our coming e-book and seven-part webinar course on one of our most impassioned topics — wellness!  If you were able to be with us, we thank you for being there to share our excitement — if prior commitments kept you from being with us, we recorded the session and, one last time, our link today will give you access to that recording so that you too can hear what we’ve got coming beginning next week.

To quickly review, Dr. Randy Peck, Sharon, and I gave an overview of the upcoming weekly webinar course and e-book that will lead you through the six major factors that determine a person’s wellness.  That course will begin on Wednesday, April 8, at high noon EDT.  Details on how to be a part of that course are included with the recording of Wednesday’s webinar at the link below.

As we wrap up this little mini-series discussing four of the six keys to wellness, there is one last piece to put in place.  I call this one the “magic key” because with it the probability of success sky rockets.  Without it, the probability for failure sky rockets.

That magic key is structure.  You need a structure to make all this work effectively.  By structure, I simply mean that you need someone who is going to touch base with you each week just to see how you did with your goals for the week, and to support, encourage, and hold you accountable to keep taking those very simple steps.

Let’s face it…you know you should pick the apple instead of the donut.  You know that exercise is good for you.  You know that drinking water is good for your body.  But for most of us, it can be hard to stay on track.  If I may quote from a document that came to my attention a couple of months ago, “A recent study from the Public Library of Science Medicine Journal (January 2008) found that basic healthy habits can add 14 years to your life….  They found that what stopped people from changing their behavior was not a lack of knowledge, it was a lack of practical support.  Someone to help them make a plan.  Someone to help them stick to the plan.”  You know, that’s exactly what a coach is trained to do.

Please allow me to conclude this series with an invitation.  I would like to invite you to join us as we start the weekly webinar course covering each one of the six major factors to wellness in depth.  If that option is out of the question for you right now, as a second choice, I would like to urge you to give one of us a call at 757.482.4490 and let’s talk about the kind of structure and support we can offer you.  We invite you to become an active part of the health community we are creating.  It’s a lot more fun when you’ve got a buddy.

Have a better than fantastic weekend!

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for the privilege of sharing our passion for wellness with so many wonderful people this past week.  We pray that our messages have helped many of our hearers come to terms with some changes they need to make in order to fulfill the destiny You have created them for.

Link of the Day
Access to Recording of 4/1 Wellness Webinar

Blessings on you as you choose to become pro active regarding your health.