• Did this month flash by?
• Is there anything significantly different about your life?
• Did you move any closer to making those changes you promised yourself?
• Or are you in the same place you were a year ago today?

It's the end of January and one twelfth of 2008 is already history. I hope you've managed to keep motivated and that your plans to transform you life are on track. Before you know it another week, another month, even another year will have slipped by. Don't allow yourself to go back to living by default. God has more for you than that.

If you haven't already, it's time to set clear goals for 2008. If you already have goals, now is the time to remind yourself of your goals and intentions for 2008, make a step by step plan and take action. It's time to focus.

I have an article from Mr motivator himself this month. There are free resources to download too. There's still plenty of time to make this the best year yet.

By the way, don't beat yourself up for not making more progress than you have. Celebrate your achievements so far and take steps to get back on track.

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update

The New Year is bringing many new ventures for me. In addition to Christian life coaching, I offer article writing and marketing coaching and will soon be launching a search engine optimization mentoring programme. If this is something you might be interested in, please email me.

By the end of February, I will have an e-mail coaching programme available for people who would like an affordable alternative to working one to one with a coach.

I am writing another book, How To Hear God, and I would appreciate your help. I'd like to know the biggest questions you have about hearing God. Please take a moment to hit the reply button, share your biggest questions with me and help me to write a book that will help you to grow in hearing God.

Be blessed,

Lynne

Blog Updates

Have you visited the Christian life coaching blog recently? There are some new updates.

You'll also find new posts on http://acloserwalkwithgod.blogspot.com

If you are interested in making money from writing articles, you might like to visit my new blog

www.ArticleWritingAndMarketing.com

And if you have a website or are thinking about having your own website, I'd like to offer you the first chapter of Optimize Your Website for free. It's a must if you'd like to know ho to get more visitors to your website. http://www.seoissimple.com/optimizeyourwebsitefreechapter.html

Raising the Bar

It began as a test of military readiness. To prepare soldiers for service, someone put a bar between two poles and commanded the troops to jump over it. Soon it turned to sport. More than likely it was at the ancient Greek Olympics that the first competitive high jump took place.

The first recorded high jump competition was in the early 19th century, and that unknown jumper cleared a height of 5'6". By 1895 the World Record stood at 6' 5 1/2". To get to that height, jumpers used a method known as the "scissors kick." Approaching the bar backwards, jumpers would kick one leg up and then another, in a scissors fashion, to get over the bar.

But that technique had its limits as there was only so high you could go. So when the bar was raised, a new technique had to be developed.

Around the turn of the century, the "Western Roll" became the way to go. The jumper made a forward-facing approach, kicked his inside leg up, and then rolled over the bar belly first.

With the Western Roll, the World Record went up to 6' 7". But it too had its limits. So when it was found that the bar had been raised once more, innovative jumpers modified the Western Roll by adding a bit of speed and developed what was known as the "Straddle Technique."

By doing so, by 1957 the World Record was quickly raised to 7'. Valeriy Brumel of the old Soviet Union was the master of the straddle. But it too had its limits.

There was only so high one could go using that particular technique. And the bar kept being raised. So in 1967 an American named Dick Fosbury developed a most unusual, but very effective method of clearing the bar that has come to be called-quite appropriately-the "Fosbury Flop." Running toward the bar, the jumper twists his body and arches his back as he goes over the bar.

Using the Flop, the World Record has been raised several times, and is currently held by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor. In 1993, he cleared an amazing 8' 1/2". The history of the high jump shows an interesting trend. Every time the bar was raised, a new technique to get over it had to be developed.

It's Time to Raise the Bar

I am sharing this message with you not because I want you to know the history of a sporting event, but because it speaks directly to you and everything about your life, career, family and legacy.

We are each called to "raise the bar" in our own lives.

No, let me rephrase that. With all my heart, I believe that events in our world have already raised the bar and that we are called to jump higher than it ever has before.

You know as well as I that in the last few years our world has changed like never before. The stakes are so much higher today than they were yesterday. All you need to do is listen to the evening news or read the morning paper to know that is true.

We are individually and collectively called to raise our expectations, to become better people, parents, managers, leaders, and citizens.

But it seems clear that so often we try to meet those challenges and increased expectations in the same ways we have in the past. We're using the Straddle and not making the height.

If we are to answer the call, if we are to clear the bar, then finding new techniques to get over it will be essential.

Copyright Gary Ryan Blair Used with permisssion

Gary Ryan Blair is President of The GoalsGuy He helps business owners, executives and sales professionals to manage their time, set priorities, and stay focused so they can achieve their goals, grow their business, and be more successful. Gary can be reached for speaking, coaching and media requests at 877-462-5748 or by sending an email to Gary@GoalsGuy.com

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Be Blessed

May you be blessed as you sit back, turn up your speakers, and watch Bless You. I can almost guarantee you will be blessed as you still your soul and watch and listen and ponder.

Just click on the link below, and do think about sharing this short movie with your friends and family. It might just make their day!

Bless You Movie

"Cheshire-Puss...would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to go to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where," replied Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."

"In the long run men hit only what they aim at." Henry David Thoreau.

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Lynne Lee is a Christian life coach, who helps people to see themselves through God'e eyes and live life as He intended.