This issue is made up of the following sections:

1. Personal Effectiveness Tips
2. Questions for Growth
3. Reality Check

1. Personal Effectiveness Tips

As January 2004 comes around so does the annual ritual of setting New Year's Resolutions. I am always amused when I go to the gym in January and find it hard to workout due to the large volume of new exercise buffs present. Come March, I can move freely from area to area, as most of those exercise buffs are gone, their resolutions long since forgotten or given up on. Why does this ritual occur on an annual basis? Because most people have good intentions-they want to improve their lives. They want to be in better shape. They want to feel better about themselves. However, they don't learn how to achieve balance in their lives. So each January, a bunch of out-of-shape but hopeful people set about getting fit. However, they do it in a way that is unrealistic and painful. They jump on treadmills and set it to the highest pace possible (much like mice on those exercise wheels), their faces turning a pinkish-red bologna color. They jump into lifting weights, and overdo it, only to be so sore the next week that their body secretly vows to despise lifting for a long while. They also jump into new diets (The Pineapple Diet, The Tree Bark Diet, or something similar) and hope to lose twenty pounds in a month. Inevitably, these well-meaning people end up sore, broken-down, malnourished, and disappointed. That's no way to start a year out! What follows are some tips to help you work more effectively towards your 2004 Resolutions:

• Be realistic. It's ok to want to lose twenty pounds, but you don't have to do it in a month. Set more realistic and attainable goals. Five pounds a month may not seem like much, but in a third of a year you will have met your goal.

• Stop the comparisons. Comparing yourself in any way to others is a waste of time. Other people have strengths and weaknesses that differ from ours, as do their life situations. The end result of comparing yourself to others is usually pain, and this is probably a result of the fact that we always seem to choose to compare ourselves to those people who are doing better than us in some area of life. If you MUST compare (for those of you who believe that you cannot live without it), compare yourself to those less fortunate. You will immediately regain focus and perspective about what really counts.

• Make time for fun. This means that you actively plan vacations, trips to see family members, time to pursue your hobbies, or time at the salon. Most of us do these things as an afterthought-once all the bills are paid, once all the work is done. Change your paradigm. Peace of mind is invaluable, and the benefits of scheduled fun time are endless. Best of all, scheduling time for yourself and/or your family serves to balance out our hectic lives, enabling you to become more focused once you return to work.

• Find a good role model, and emulate them. There are plenty of outstanding books written by those who have accomplished what we are setting out to accomplish. Don't reinvent the wheel-find out what they did and apply those principles to your life. Success always leaves clues.

• For those of you who want to lose some weight, invest in a heart monitor ($75-150) to wear while running. It is one of the best investments you can make for your health. If you are anything like me, you might detest the idea of running long distances for the sake of burning calories. Having a heart rate monitor allows you to stay within a specified heart rate range (based on your age) while running, allowing you to slow down and still burn calories. And, it keeps your focus off the distance you are running.

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2. Questions for Growth
1. What stops you from applying what you know towards increasing your success in any given area of your life?

2. What is your biggest strength? (Are you a hard worker, humourous, creative, patient...?)

3. How can you mold your life so that it revolves around activities that cater to this strength?

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3. Reality Check

People are inherently selfish. I as a human include myself in this statement, though it is not something I want embroidered on a tee-shirt or anything. However, one of the most difficult tasks we have as humans is the development of an altruistic self. This inherent selfishness can become even more striking during times of crisis, no matter the severity of the crisis. Our instincts are geared toward self-preservation above all else. We tend to our own interests, which may or may not be in the best interests of others.

If you analyze any heroic act, either by an individual or by a group of people, you will find that most of these people acted contrary to what their instincts told them. Whether that situation is of epic proportions (such as the storming of the beaches of Normandy on June 6th, 1945 against an entrenched Nazi defense) or of local interest (a local mom, badly burned herself, enters a burning house to save her sleeping child), the basic self-preservation instinct was ignored. The focus in these heroic situations was on what that individual or group could do to improve the lives of others.

This is the behavior that I believe is most valuable to us as humans. The more we can work to override that selfish autopilot program in our heads, the better we are at adding value to the lives around us. Many people learn this lesson through dramatic life experiences, such as a near death experience or the birth of their first child. We learn that life is much bigger than ourselves. I believe that the sooner this lesson is learned, the better the results will be in our own lives. The more value you can bring to your relationships, the more value is returned to you. The more value you offer to your professional work, the more it is returned to you. It is an irony that is worth savoring: To get you must first give. The quality of your life will be directly proportional to the value you bring to others' lives. All of us can do more in this respect, and with January, 2004 upon us, there is no better time to begin.

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