Your New Year’s Resolution Needs Stickability!

Making your New Year’s Resolution ?

Whether it is starting a new business, going back to school or loosing the few pounds you put on during the holidays, keeping your resolution  requires work.  It is “easier said than done”. Yet, it is do-able.

Here’s one word that you can put in motion to make your New Year’s Resolution  produce the results you want.

Stickability!

I first read the word in the book Three Feet from Gold by Greg S. Reid and Sharon L. Lechter. I thought, “What a great word! Catchy. Makes you think. Is it made up?”   I checked an online dictionary and there it was:

Here are 3 things you can use do to add stickability to your New Year’s Resolution !

Decide to stick to it:
Your New Year’s Resolution in its simplest form is change.  Change requires an overhaul of thinking and continuous movement until it’s achieved.   Believe that you can do it!  Don’t stop until you see the change.  Should you stop, get back into the fight.

Asses your ability to stick to it:
Resolving to change something is great. Knowing your capacity for changing is wise.  Does your New Year’s Resolution call for a certain skill set that you may not possess? If so, then your ability to change will require back up.  Research what it takes to get the success you want.  Apply what you learn. If  you need expertise that would take  you six years in college to learn. Then find the scholar that has completed the college journey. Either ask them to mentoring you, barter and trade skills, or whip out your credit card and pay.

Get staying power!
Like most, your New year’s resolution  will spark and fizzle out like a defective firecracker if you lack staying power. Some people are laser focused and can make anything work. While others need a little push to keep it going.  Get a buddy that has the same goals planned as you. Partner up and keep each other motivated and accountable.  Start a social media group on Facebook. Create a community of people with the same goals in mind. Give and receive motivation from a group of like minded people like yourself.

There you have it, 3 things you can do to add stickability to your New Year’s Resolution!

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In closing, here are my hopes for 2013.

• May our 2013, be bigger, brighter and better than 2012. 
• May we learn to forgive swiftly, learn from our mistakes.
• May we live out our God-given gifts and talents to build our dreams. 
• May we love harder, work smarter and give more.
• May our communities be safer and families closely knitted in love.
• May we live out God’s plan for our lives

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.- Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Remember, Your New Year’s Resolution  needs Stickability.

Blessings,
Cherise Taylor

Hope In A Season of Brokenness

It was chilly a morning in Dallas. Probably the coldest so far this winter. I got a text message from one of my sons.  They are staying with a friend until we are able to secure our apartment. This was message:
Mom, it was snowing and cold when I woke up. I really need jeans and a sweatshirt like ASAP!

I set out to Wal-Mart to make a pair jeans and a sweatshirt work with the little cash I had.  I pulled into my parking space and sat for a second. A man slowing approached the car.  I could tell he had been in the cold for a while. He was wearing a royal blue coat, his skin was bright red and his eyes watered from the cold air. Standing at a safe distance, he says, "Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me with $13 dollars. I need it help pay for a night at a hotel nearby." I replied, "Sir, I am so sorry. I am here to grab my son a pair of jeans and a jacket, with the little cash, I have." He graciously smiled at me and said, "Hey, I totally understand. May God Bless you!"
He walked away, I sat there and prayed.

"Lord, will you provide that man with everything that he needs. You have been so gracious towards us (my family) in our time of need. You are not a respecter of persons. What you will do for one you will do for another. Please help him on today."

I walked into Wal-Mart, passed the self check-out, and there he was paying for one banana with a few coins he had in his hand. I walked up to him and told him, " I can help you get food with my "other card". What do you need? He said, "Well, the Lord has me on a Daniel Fast. I could really use some nuts and something things for salad. " I told him to get what he needed.  He hurried down the busy aisles and grabbed what we needed.  As I stood there across from the produce section, my eye caught the bananas. I went over and grab a full bunch.

The man happily made his way back to me with a small bag of salad and a jar of nuts. I took him back over to the produce section. I asked, "What else do you need?"  He grabbed a bag of apples and some oranges.

As we made our way back to check out or groceries. I shared with him, that my family and I were probably a step above where he was. Had it not been for family, friends and our church, my family would have checked into the same hotel in August.
I told him to hang on! God always provides what we need. He told me that sometimes, God requires brokenness to get us where we need to be.

He was okay with where he was. He said that he was on the Potter's wheel, being made over. He had hope because he had "one foot out of the hole".  He was starting work in a few days at a steakhouse, someone in the parking lot gave him a $20 bill.  I thought, "Wow! God gave him more than just $13 he asked for!"

Before we parted, I asked him what was the scripture that gives him hope. He said with his groceries in hand, "Well I've been in the Psalms a lot. Psalm 23 is always good." Then he thought about it for a second and started reciting the Psalm 91. We promised to pray for each other. I asked his name. He said it was Steve.  Steve headed out the door to his hotel room and I over to the Mens Department to find jeans and a sweatshirt for my son. God is not a respecter of person. He blessed us both!

Here is what I learned from my encounter with Steve.

-Where you are broken, others my be whole or just a little cracked. That means, even in what feels like the worst of situations, we have something to give.  Be willing to show God's love where you are in the capacity in which you have more than enough.
-Where there is brokenness, there is always hope. Don't give up! You can make it. It's not over yet. Keep going!

Brian J. King, Sr., a Mentor, Speaker and Founder of 1 True Hope posted this today on Facebook:
If you're in a tough situation remember the word "Hope". Its definition defeats the odds and opens the possibly of breakthrough. # painmgmt. 

As Steve and I experienced God's love through each other, I pray that this blog post find someone needing hope in a season of brokenness. May Steve and I reach our financial breakthroughs. May you reach your breakthrough (whatever that is for you) and be hopeful in the process!


Blessings!
Cherise Taylor

The Christmas Music Playlist With A Whole Lotta Soul!

On vinyl, 8 track, cassette, cd and now digital, the Christmas Music playlist  has always been apart of the soundtrack of my life.

Christmas is hands-down my favorite holiday. As child, Christmas started the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday). We'd put up our Christmas decorations and enjoy really a soulful Christmas music playlist. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Let It Snow - Boys To Men
2.  Who Would Imagine a King - Whitney Houston
3. Christmas Rappin' - Kurtis Blow
4. This Christmas - Donny Hathaway

5. Emmanuel - Norman Hutchinson
6. 8 Days of Christmas - Destiny's Child
7. Tidings (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) - Israel and New Breed
8. The Most Wonderful Time of The Year - Brian McKnight

9. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
10.  Christmas In Hollis Queens -Run DMC
11. Give Love On Christmas Day - New Edition
12. Every Year, Every Christmas - Luther Vandross

13. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
14. Baby It's Cold Outside - Glee Cast
15. Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto - James Brown
16. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - The Jackson Five

17. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
18. Silent Night - The Temptations
19.  Oh Holy Night - DeNetria Champ
20.  Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

There you have it, just 20 on my Soulful Christmas music playlist. 

There are too many to put in this blog post! The list really does go on and on! My Christmas music playlist  probably has a little over 30 songs! Oh yeah! I can't forget Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer - Temptations!!  That will be my 21st song on the list!  Definitely one of my favorites too! See, it can go on and on!
Enough about me. What are some of your favorites? Did I list some of your favorites?

Leave a comment, tell me what's on your Christmas music playlist!

Blessings!

Cherise Taylor

Dealing With Disappointment The Right Way

Dealing With Disappointment

by Cherise Taylor | on December 4, 2012

If you keep on living, whether it’s business or personal, you will have many bouts with dealing with disappointment.

 

Dealing With Dissapointment:  Sad Face whitneygaskell.com

I’ve tackled a few in the last 2 weeks. Looking back, I could have done better.  I learned, the best thing to do is to learn how to play the card well when it’s dealt.  Dealing with disappointment has it’s place.  Blaming, wallowing in anger, or drowning in despair, or feeling like God really isn’t in the prayer answering business are sure fire ways of being consumed with utter defeat. It is defeat because it doesn’t allow you to regroup and move toward a positive state of mind. So, it is safe that that it is NOT the way to go!

Here are great ways of dealing with disappointment  I found by surfing the internet.

 

Seeing everything in it’s proper perspective is life changing!  I have linked back to the original internet source so that you can read further and apply it when you are dealing with disappointment.

From the blog The DailyOM, Madisyn Taylor suggests:

Accept, Feel, Process and Move On:

-The more we are able to accept how we are feeling and process it, the sooner we will move into new emotional territory.

Don’t Dwell On the Coulda, Woulda, Shouldas:

– The gift of disappointment is its ability to bring us into alignment with reality so that we don’t get stuck for too long in the realm of how things might have been.

Cross the Bridge:

– The beauty of disappointment, though, is that it provides us a bridge to its other side where the acceptance of reality, wisdom, and the energy to begin again can be found.

Dr. Steve Arterburn of New Life Live! says,

Fight Pessimisium:

- Be slow to reach the pessimistic conclusion that God has failed to answer one of your prayers.

Wait and see:

- Let things unfold awhile. See what happens.

Delay is Not Denial:

- Given time, you’ll often find that God has answered your prayers, but in ways so far beyond what you actually prayed that you hadn’t even noticed how richly and abundantly your prayer has been answered.

Iyana Van Zant in the book Living Through The Meantime:

Loving behavior at all times:
- If you are not giving and receiving love in all of your life experiences, you will find yourself in one mean time experience (a place you have to be until you reach the place you want to be! my insert) after another.

The key to dealing with disappointment as you can see is, approaching it in a healthy way.

It’s one of those things you wish you didn’t have to encounter, be it you are the giver or the receiver of it.  Hey, what can I say…it happens? You never know what goodness is awaiting you!

Remember this, when dealing with disappointment is done properly, elements of understanding that will aid you in being a stronger, resourceful and wiser person in the long run!

 

Blessings!

Cherise Taylor

P.S.  Join me in Empower Network!