Hard to believe the movie "Groundhog Day" will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. I just love this movie.

The premise of the movie focuses on an arrogant, egotistical, self center weather man named Phil. He feels it’s beneath him to cover Groundhog Day for the 3rd year in a row. He puts no effort or enthusiasm in covering the story and can’t wait to get out of Punxsutawney.  A blizzard leaves him stranded and he must stay overnight. The next morning he wakes up in horror to discover it ground hog day all over again.

He keeps reliving this day over and over and over again while seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day.

Does Your Life Feel Like You Experience Your Own Groundhog Day?

By now most New Years resolutions, promises and intentions are out the door. Life just seems to grab you and keep you in the same place. When this year ends, many of us will find ourselves pretty much in the same place with very little change.

At first our weather man Phil, played by Bill Murray, comes to realize he is going nowhere and decides to take advantage of the town people for his amusement and entertainment.  After all, he does know what they will all do.

The antics eventually become boring and drives Phil to the brink of depression. He remains stuck here and nothing seems to change no matter what he does. Every morning he wakes up to experience the same day again.

He decides suicide looks like the way to escape. However, after every attempt, he wakes up to hear the same Sonny & Cher song blaring through the clock radio alarm. (warning: do not attempt suicide, can prove fatal. All suicide attempts in the movie were done with professionals and a Hollywood script bringing him back to life)

Our weatherman finally resigns to his fate and accepts the fact he will wake up every morning to relive groundhog day. He changes his mindset and thoughts.

He decides to make the best of his situation. The day isn’t going to change. The people and what they do won’t change. He begins to change himself, the only thing that can change.  He starts with an attitude change. He changes his thoughts. He changes his belief system about this "hick" town and the people living in it.  He evolves into a better person.

(movie spoiler ahead)

Near the end of the movie, He feels happy and full of confidence while enjoying the town festivities. The town honors him, he’s made many friends, improved other people’s lives, becomes an accomplished pianist and ends up with the love of the new producer Rita.

Yes, a new day does finally dawn for him.

What About You?

Often our thoughts and belief systems keep creating the same outcome over and over again that it can feel like groundhog day. Nothing seems to change.

Tonight when you go to bed will you wake up to your own groundhog day again ?

Today, just like in the movie, groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow thus predicting six more weeks of winter. No early spring.

Why not take the next six weeks to change one habit, replace one thing in your belief system or change one thought. Make the best of your current situation knowing you possess the power to alter it’s outcome.

Let me know below what is the one thing you’ll change over the next six weeks to end your groundhog day experiences.

You can arm yourself against your inner critic using your Magical Essence Declaration you created in step 4

It’s important for you to keep remembering your strengths. That’s why you don’t want to dismiss reading your self description twice a day.

Your inner critic won’t give up easy, so today I’ll give you some additional strategies to let him know you will not buy into his lies anymore.

1. Your Strength Affirmations
Take your strength statements and turn them into affirmations. In addition to reading your new accurate self description, read your affirmations daily

2. Daily Affirmations
Write a new affirmation each morning. Focus on it and repeat it through out the day.

Read this article series on writing effective affirmations

3. Reminder Signs
Write your affirmations on 6 x 9 index cards or large post it notes. Tape and/or post your affirmations throughout the house.

Write them on smaller 3 x 5 index cards and place them in your purse, briefcase, car, jacket pocket, office desk drawer… etc.

4. Bathroom Mirror
I used a dry marker and wrote a new affirmation each day on the bathroom mirror.  You can also reinforce the affirmation by looking into your eyes and recite it out loud.

5. Snap It
My critical judgmental voice did not want to shut up. My therapist suggested wear a rubber band on my wrist. Every time my critic kept exaggerating and using negative generalizations, I snapped the rubber band. Very effective.

That wraps this series on creating an accurate self description using your self concept assessment.

Please let me how this series helped you and feel to share your strategies on how you integrated your accurate self description.

Site just went through a major site overhaul

Going from Studio Press’s older Lifestyle theme to the new Genesis Framework… took much longer than I anticipated.

WordPress evolved so much that the older theme no longer supported many of the "cool" changes. It keep requiring more and more work to keep the theme updated.

Time to take the plunge… bit the bullet… do the upgrade… and rev my site up with the Amped theme.

At first glance Genesis looks like a nightmare to figure out and many asking for support felt the same way. But once I got the hang of it, I soon realize a site on the Genesis Framework will make life so much simpler.

Deep inside me is a repressed nerd/geek that likes to come out and play from time to time. I enjoyed tinkering around with this great framework over the holidays.

I’m not completely done and there are a few minor tweaks but it’s time to open the site back up.

Following in the advice of my friend and mentor Bob "the Teacher" Jenkins… I’m doing a Take Action Revise Later approach. 

All the original content is available and I’ll be adding several new "goodies" over the next few days so don’t panic at the "placeholders."

Besides the only way I can receive the support for the minor problem area, is for the Studio Press team to see what I’m talking about.

"Do you really expect me to go to Bethlehem?" Joseph banged down his chisel on the scarred bench.

Ephraim, his cousin, had just entered the low workshop. "You don’t have a choice, Joseph. If you don’t go the Romans will confiscate your house and your precious tools. Just try to carve a yoke with your fingernails."

"What are we, cowards?" the carpenter retorted. "Mark my words, Ephraim, this ‘Enroll-in-your-ancestral-city’ business is nothing more than a way to squeeze more taxes out of us. If we give into those foreign tyrants now they’ll just be back for more money."

"What’s more," Joseph continued, "you’re crazy if you think I’d take Mary on a trip this month. She’d probably have the baby on the way!"

"Couldn’t you just leave her with your mother for a couple of weeks? She’d be all right. Nobody says the women have to go. It’s the heads of households who have to register."

"Register, hah! Be taxed, you mean.""

So why not leave her at home?"

Joseph brushed the woodchips aside and motioned for his cousin to sit down. The carpenter spoke in a low but earnest voice. "Mary’s aunt has made life miserable for her ever since she found out Mary was pregnant. Some people were willing to let it go. Not Tabitha."

"She got my wife all stirred up about it," Ephraim volunteered.

"Not just your wife. Most of the women in this town go out of their way to avoid her. At the village well they whisper, "Little slut!" just loud enough for her to hear. Many’s the day she’s come running home in tears."

"People sure can be cruel," Ephraim said. "At least you and Mary went ahead and got married."

Joseph bit his lip, but didn’t say more.

Ephraim got up. "Well, you are going to Bethlehem, aren’t you? You’d be a fool to get the Romans on your back. You know what they did to old Ben."

Joseph stood up slowly. "Yes, I’ll go. But Mary will have to come along. There’s no way I’d leave her in Nazareth by herself!"

However, when Joseph talked to Mary about it, she didn’t seem nearly as sure as her husband. "How could I walk all that way?" she said. "I waddle now. I just can’t make it."

"Mary, we’ll bring old Jake. You can ride him when you get tired."

"Have you ever ridden on Jake?

"Well, no."

"That animal is the most bony, jolting mule in Nazareth. I’d rather walk!"

She did ride, though… some of the way. Joseph would finally stop for the day when Mary just couldn’t take any more. He’d help her down off Jake, then he’d fix a fire while she would unload their heavy blankets and try to find some shelter under a tree or large rock.

Mary would always be the center of attention among the few women traveling that time of year.

"I remember when I was carrying Levi," one would start. "Made my feet swell. I couldn’t do anything for months."

"That’s nothing," replied another, "my sister got so big everyone thought she was carrying twins. But her time came there was only one baby. Died though."

Joseph glanced over at Mary in the flickering firelight. He could see fear flit across her face. Her hands moved to her swollen belly so she could feel the baby’s reassuring kick.

The women didn’t notice. The first one went on, "Oh, the pain’s so awful! I’m glad I’m too old to have any more babies."

Joseph put his arm around Mary’s shoulders and pulled her close. Only one more night on the road before Bethlehem.

They reached the sleepy village of Joseph’s ancestors just about dusk the fifth day. Joseph went to the inn and nearby houses trying to find a place to sleep. "God," he whispered as he combed the town, "can’t You find us a decent place to have this baby?" Nothing.

All at once he saw Mary’s face tighten. She tried to suppress a groan as she fought with the pain. It was a long moment before she relaxed, but he could see worry written all over her.

Joseph went back to the innkeeper again. "Are you sure there isn’t any room? My wife’s about to have a baby. We’ve got to find a place out of this wind tonight!"

The innkeeper thought a while. "Did you try the house at the end of the street? They sometimes take people in."

"I tried an hour ago."

"Any relatives in town? Any second cousins?"

"No."

Mary was shivering now,in obvious discomfort. "Joseph," she said weakly, "I’ve got to lie down somewhere."

"Well,there’s the stable in the back," offered the innkeeper at long last. "Of course, it’s full of animals from all the visitors in town for that blasted Roman census. But if you can find a place in the corner, I guess that’d be okay." He paused. "Just don’t keep the animals awake all night."

It was the other way around. The dozen donkeys in the strange barn never stopped moving. And the smell was overpowering to Mary who had been fighting nausea as her pains got stronger.

In the wee hours of the morning Joseph knocked on the innkeeper’s door again.

"What do you want this time of night?" the innkeeper snarled when he finally came to the door.

"Is there a midwife in town?"

"Oh, it’s you. A midwife? Yes, old Martha lives in a little house about three blocks from here. You go down the main road, turn left at the two-story house, and go to the alley. You can’t miss it. You go down the alley and across the pasture. Shelives in a shack just behind the third house after that."

"I … I really don’t think I should leave my wife. Her pains are coming awfully fast now…. Could you go?"

"Jonathan!" the innkeeper yelled into his darkened house. "Get up and fetch old Martha. A lady’s having a baby in the barn. Hurry!"

He turned to Joseph as he closed the door. "Have some pity, man. My whole family’s awake now."

Pretty soon the door opened again and a young lad ran off in the chilly air. After a while he returned, walking slowly so he wouldn’t outdistance the old midwife whose arthritis certainly didn’t to take to cold winter nights. The boy was shivering by the time he got to the stable.

"Here’s Martha, sir," he muttered quickly, and darted back into the warmth of his house.

The old lady put them at ease right away. She had Joseph fetch water and cloths from the innkeeper. It must have been nearly two in the morning by the time the baby came, and another hour before Joseph dug into his robe for a few coins to give the old woman as she hobbled away.

Then he returned to his wife and took her hand as they looked into the puffy face of their son. Alone at last.

"I’m so tired, Joseph," Mary said,settling back into the blanket-covered straw.

The baby finally stopped crying and drifted off to sleep.

Joseph stirred a few minutes later as some men peered from the darkness into the lamp-lit stable. He nudged Mary awake and reached for his staff.

"What do you want?" Joseph said to the men in a forced whisper. "Don’t wake the baby."

"We’re shepherds," one called out. The baby started crying.

"We saw angels out on the hills an hour ago." The entire story tumbled out as the shepherds edged into the stable to see the baby. Joseph relaxed his grip on the staff.

The shepherd continued, "And the angel told us, ‘To you is born this day in the City of David a Savior which is Messiah the Lord.’ The angel even told us about the swaddling cloths and the manger here."

"The angel told you about the manger, too?" Joseph interrupted.

"Oh, yes. That’s how we knew where to look."

Joseph glanced over at Mary. Her eyes met his. He squeezed her hand.

"This baby is the Messiah, isn’t he?" Joseph said quietly. "After all these hassles I had started to question. But…" He paused. "It’s almost like God planned the whole thing: the trip neither of us wanted to take." He chuckled. "He must have seen you on bony old Jake." Joseph laughed out loud. "Even this smelly old barn and it’s manger."

He stood up, still chuckling. "What do you know? In spite of the problems–no, in the midst of the problems–God’s been at work all along."

To this day I still have the Christmas card with the story "One Solitary Life."

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never had a family.

He never went to college.

He never put His foot inside a big city.

He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself…

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies.

He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree at this time of the year for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it. You know, the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma, the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner city church. The kids were mostly black.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without head gear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously couldn’t afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said."They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids-all kids. He understood kids in competitive situations, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.

That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me.

His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition – one year sending a group of mentally challenged youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas – on and on…

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. Still, the story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. Yet Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad.

The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further, with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation, watching as their fathers take down their envelopes.

Mike’s spirit, like the spirit of Christmas, will always be with us.

Accurate Self Concept Assessment – Step Four

Step One – you created a list of words/phrases to describe yourself in eight areas of your life.

Step  Two – you took all the word/phrases with a minus sign (weakness), put them on a separate sheet and rewrote them in a positive and accurate way.

Step Three – you took all the word/phrased with a plus sign (strengths) and put them on a separate sheet. You took those strength words and created complete sentences for them. Hopefully you tooted your horn when you did.

Turning Your Self Concept Assessment Into A Magical Essence Declaration

Note: This assessment is a condense excerpt from the book Self Esteem by McKay and Fanning

This is where the magic happens – You will use the revised versions of your strengths and weakness that you completed in steps 2 & 3.

Now take these two revised list and join them together into an accurate, fair and supportive self description. There should be no negative or "false" positive, sarcastic words and/or statements.

Your new description should cover all eight areas from your assessment. Ideally it should be at least one paragraph for each of those areas.

It should acknowledge weakness you may want to change. More importantly, you’ll also include the personal strengths (assets) that are undeniably part of your identity, that Magical Essence that make you… YOU.

Embracing Your New Authentic Self Description

Ready to began the journey to change the warped image you see of yourself?

Embracing and making this new self description is the first steps to changing your inner reflection.

I remember feeling very uncomfortable doing this at first, often my inner critic would challenge my "real" self description. I want to encourage to do these steps regardless. In the final wrap up of this series, I’ll share ways to disarm the negative voice within.

Twice a day for four weeks read your self description statement out loud. This is the minimum requirement to make the changes happen.

It took years of repeated negative and untruths to give you your warp self image.  Visualize taking down the old fun house mirror that reflects your warp reflection and put a new mirror reflecting the true you.

The Law of Repetition will help you learn a more forgiving way to accurately think about yourself when you read your new self description every day.

I’ll see you with our final step on stopping you inner critic from beating you up while you start accepting your true, accurate self image.

The Association for Psychological Science shows that the best way to boost self-esteem is to forget about yourself altogether and think about others.

Sometimes you can become so wrapped up in your own world and desire for success and happiness that you close yourself to others. Start giving and you’ll see a real change in your life.

Giving increases self esteem of the giver and makes you feel better about life in general. Giving should be a blessing to both parties. You increase your happiness and fulfilment through giving .

Power Quotes on Giving

Want more Power Quotes on Giving? Receive your FREE Self Empowerment Thoughts Power Quotes eBook with 5 easy success steps you can start using right away to program your subconscious to tap into your inner magic.

Everybody in this world, in the past, in the now and in the future, will always remain completely and totally 100% ruled and influenced by their existing set of habits.

Life is about habits. The only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is the quality of their habits. Unsuccessful people own unsuccessful habits.

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.~Tyron Edwards

Bad habits form more easily, but extremely hard to end. Good habits, on the other hand, tend to take more time to make. Scientist agree the average person needs at least 3 weeks to form a good habit.

Habits Change The Outcome Of Your Life

Changing habits does not change the person. You remain your true unique self. New habits will give you radically different results and improve your performance. You will experience dramatically and completely out of the ordinary life.

If you don’t like direction of the current path of your life, you can make a course correction through habits.

Understanding The Laws Of Habit To Simplify Change

Habit Law #1
You remain 100% strictly controlled by your current set of habits. You cannot get anymore disciplined to them. That’s because of Habit Law #2

Habit Law #2
All habits in your life feel natural at the time you possess them. Both good and bad habits feel natural and herein lies the problem. It feels unnatural when you start to change a habit. Your subconscious keeps pulling you back to your established habit.

Habit Law #3
Fortunately, it only takes a short time period of time for your new habit to form. Scientific research says it takes approximately 21 days to establish a new habit. After 21 days, it feels like your new habit belongs to you, it starts to feel natural.

Habit Law #4
Now the hard part of changing your habits. It’s not really hard, but human nature like to complicates things and go to extremes. People get in trouble when they decide to change their lives because they want to change all of their habits at once.

The problem arises because you can only change ONE habit at a time! Your mind can only handle one single habit every 21 days. Your new habit gets engrained in your subconscious by following another law of nature… the law of repetition.

Here is the good news… often changing one habit, several ther habits will change automatically with it.

You really don’t need to change all your habits. Just pick some pivotal habits and change those and a lot of other things will change.

Habit Law #5
Success in life results from goal directed habits. Get a clear goal in mind and use that goal to direct your habit changes for the rest of your life.

Action Creates New Habits – Habits Determine Your Destiny

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. ~Unknown

Did you know over 3 years you receive 52 gifts of 21 day periods? You can change 52 pivotal habits in your life over a 3 year period.  Can you imagine the spectacular and dramatic results?  All by focusing on changing a single habit every 21 days.

Realistically, some habits may take a little longer, perhaps 30 days instead of 21 days… You still would create 36 life changing habits. You would still experience spectacular and dramatic results in you life.

4 Actions Steps Toward Spectacular Results

1. Make a list of the habits you want to change.

2. Pick ONE pivotal habit from your list.  Write out how the desired outcome will feel. I recommend putting the end result on an index card or post it note etc.

3. Focus all your attention this new habit. Create and design a daily and/or weekly routine to incorporate your new habit in your life. Remember, the new habit you create will  force you to often make very challenging changes. It will feel unnatural at first… don’t beat yourself up in the process.

Review your end result and reflect on how it will feel when accomplished.

4. Repeat The Process: Once you create your new habit, select the next habit from your list you want to create. Before you know it,you will have developed 12 – 17 new habits in one year! Imagine you will create a whole new life full of success… one habit at a time.

What habit do want to change the most in over the next 21/30 days?

Share your thoughts below on what you received from this article. Remember these laws the next time frustration sets in while making positive changes to your life.

Accurate Self Concept Assessment – Step Three

How are you coming along with your Self Concept Assessment? It took me awhile to complete mine. Some parts of it made me feel very uncomfortable. Especially doing step three: Acknowledging your strengths.

My self esteem was practically nonexistent. Doing this Self Concept Assessment was no easy task. Especially growing up with critical parents. I felt everything about me was wrong.

Society also hesitates in commending someone who acknowledges their strengths. You can find yourself labeled a braggart, boaster, audacious just to name a few.

The current politically correct attitude that resides in America today doesn’t help. There is a big emphasis on "equality" and "fairness" and nobody should do better than somebody else.

God gave you those strengths and talents to make your dreams happen. (Believe in Your Inner Gifts)

Today you will enthusiastically acknowledge your assets… your talents… your strengths… the very things that make you… YOU!

Step Three – Listing Your Strengths – Assets – Abilities

Note: This assessment is a condense excerpt from the book Self Esteem by McKay and Fanning

I want you to toot your own horn… be audacious… acknowledge the things to appreciate about you.

You’ll need a fresh sheet of paper and your Self Concept Assessment.

Write down all the items with a plus sign from your assessment.

Look over your weakness list and scan for where you wrote corresponding strengths. Are they on your strengths list? if not, put them on your list .

Try to think of other special qualities or abilities you didn’t mention yet.

• What compliments did you receive?
• What about successes, awards, prizes and good marks you received?
• What obstacles and adversities did you overcome?

Keep reviewing your list and continue adding to it.

Now go over your list of strengths, item by item, an rewrite them in complete sentences. Make sure you use synonyms, adjectives and adverbs to elaborate. Replace any negatives with positives.

If you’re like me, you spent years polishing and dwelling on your negative qualities. It’s really important to devote equal time to your strengths.

Be bold and toot your horn loudly… so loud it begins to drown out your inner critic.

A great way to counteract your tendency to downplay your strengths is to pretend you’re writing a recommendation letter for someone you really love and want to see succeed.

Keep reading over your list and embrace your qualities and strengths.

We’ll blend all the work you did on your self concept assessment in Step Four. This will give you a powerful tool to eliminate your warped self image.