A glimpse into the book, Permission to Win

What if you were to decide today that tomorrow would be January 1^st?  With this type of thinking, you’ll renew the excitement of starting new, resolving to do better with the thought that everything happening before December 31^st was in the past.

That is one of the main themes throughout Ray Pelletier’s book, Permission to Win.   He believes this is possible by having a balanced “Circle of Life.”  This circle is made up of the following areas where you should give yourself permission to win: goals, attitude, education, family, professional life, community/charity, finance, spiritual, leisure and physical fitness.

Pelletier urges his readers to determine their mission, or purpose in life. By having a concrete, written mission, you’ll be able to set goals and visualize a game plan for achieving those goals.  With passion and commitment, you can visualize your goals as branches of a tree with your goal being at the very top. I think too often we don’t make our goals concrete, instead, flying by the seat of our pants and changing what our missions might be. I liked his idea of writing the goal down and visualizing how it can be achieved.

His second component in the Circle of Life, is attitude.  He stated that negativity has a huge impact on a person’s subconscious and conscious minds.  By surrounding ourselves with positive influences and people who believe in the importance of a positive attitude, we will look at failure as an opportunity for success and will be able to reprogram the negative thoughts in our mind.

I’m a firm believer in Pelletier’s third component, the belief that learning makes everything possible. When you decide that education, whether formal or informal, is important, you will always be eager to learn new things. By doing this, you will make yourself more valuable as an employee.  You will learn that knowledge is power and you will be able to see and appreciate the potential you have.

Next, Pelletier reminds readers about the importance of communication.  Think before you speak, learn to express yourself and observe how you and others communicate with body language, which are all important characteristics of communication.  However, I could have done without his viewpoint that tone and emotion are big factors in communication.  Tone is something that gets me every time when I fail to communicate well, especially with co-workers.  But it’s something that I am working on, after all, every failure is an opportunity to do better!

Finally, balancing a healthy family life by providing those around you with unconditional love and respect is an essential aspect of contributing to a positive life at home.  Too many times in relationships, people have a December 31^st attitude rather than a January 1^st attitude, bringing along baggage from the past.

I’m going to finish today’s blog with a summary of his first five components of the Circle of Life and continue Pelletier’s thoughts again in tomorrow’s blog.  

Pellietier uses his book to encourage his readers to concentrate on creating a mission, or purpose in life, with goals.  By allowing yourself the permission to win, you can have a healthy attitude, good, positive communication skills and a well balanced home life.

What a great thought, to be able to look at each day as though you have a fresh start. The ability to create the same atmosphere as January 1^st, leaving all the baggage of the past year, all the mistakes we’ve made, behind us. Why not try it... pretend that midnight is just around the corner!