I'm ready to break out of the winter doldrums. Unfortunately, in central New York, old man winter seems to be pushing around Miss Spring and not really wanting to let go. Even on a day like yesterday, when the temperatures finally broke through for some warmth and sun in the late afternoon, the winds were so strong that one couldn't fully enjoy it.

And yet, this is the perfect time of the year to be working on a mindset that will push you forward in some fashion, hopefully in a great way. I have found that coming up with personal statements sometimes works for me.

My very earliest statement was something that reminded a lot of people of Nike's statement, though I hadn't thought about it when I came up with it. That one was "Just do something". Once I thought about it I felt pretty good about it, because the path to success of any kind starts with the first step, and the first step means one actually has to do something.

I liked that one. Then I went through a bad period and, when I was ready to move forward again I came up with something much longer, something that I ended up printing out, framing, and putting on the wall next to me. It goes like this: "Today I'm going to have fun, be prosperous and healthy, and live my life to the fullest." I think it says it all, and it looks pretty good as well, if you look at the image above.

Classic if you ask me. And I still have it next to me on the wall. But then I started thinking at one point "that's kind of long". I like it, but I didn't want it to seem like the Boy Scout motto anymore. Then my wife was out and she came across two metal engravings that became my next statement: "Achieve Success." Wow, what's wrong with that? Nothing! Short, sweet, and powerful. As I sit at my desk I can look at the wall in front of me, which is actually a closer that we've taken the doors off so I can use it for office storage, but over the top it's still wall, and that's where they sit.

Now I was cooking. But this is 2011, and those were so 2008. It's time for something new, something different. In an indirect way, it comes from my friend Kelvin, who has a daily short and sweet newsletter that you can subscribe to (for a small yearly fee) called Daily Dose of Vitamin K. One of the phrases he often uses to end his emails is "Have an awesome day." Of course, after awhile I stopped paying much attention to it, or so I thought.

A couple of days ago I was visiting another blog written by a guy named John Falchetto named Expat Life Coach and I commented on a post there. When he wrote back that one of the phrases I'd written should become my motto, I responded "I’ll see if I can work that into my 'think like you’re awesome' motto."

And thus, out of the blue, without really thinking about it, my motto for this year became "Think Like You're Awesome!" Positive, bold, energetic... I like it. And I'm going to use that this year, and I'm going to work on making this my mindset for this year, and hopefully for next year as well, and I'm going to expect great things from me.

And yes, you can use it if you'd like to. After all, I don't have to be the only one thinking that, right?

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