Part 2- Giving yourself the permission to win

In my last blog, I started a review of Ray Pelletier’s book, Permission to Win.  He uses his book to encourage his readers to concentrate on creating a mission, or purpose in life, by establishing goals.  To give yourself the permission to win, you must choose to have a healthy attitude, good, positive communication skills and a well balanced home life. These are the components of what Pelletier believes are part of the Circle of Life.

Today, I’ll look at the rest of the circle, comprised of professional aspects, community and charity, and fiscal fitness.

First, Pelletier encourages his readers that beginning today, you can decide to be successful.  With this decision, you will need to resolve issues with bosses and co-workers and decide not to hold grudges against people whom you feel have done wrong.  After all, you are responsible for your career and attitude is everything! There is no time for excuses in the professional world, you want results. One of Pelletier’s reminders throughout the book is, “You’re better than that.” There are many times I can use this phrase in my professional life. Pelletier goes one step further to illustrate his point that we need to be fully committed to our tasks by saying, “Treat every day like a bacon and eggs breakfast, the chicken’s involved, but the pig is committed!” What a funny way of looking at commitment!

His thoughts on community and charity state that because we are choosing to be champions, with a well-balanced Circle of Life, it is better to give than to receive and we should volunteer to help others.  By doing so, we will be re-enforcing our commitments to be champions, therefore coaching our views to be positive and confident.  This will happen when we become more aware of the intensity of life's beliefs.

Next, Pelletier believes that in order to pursue our mission in life, we must be able to be fiscally fit. Too many times in today’s society, people live for instant gratification and purchase items that will make them happy for today, not considering how they will pay for that gratification.  He suggests that people should guard their credit, borrow respectfully and make it a priority to pay yourself by saving money. 

He writes about the importance of having the water of life. He believes water is as essential to life as spiritual, physical fitness and leisure are to being a champion.  I agree with his writings about spirituality, because he wasn’t preaching that you need to believe in the Bible, go to church, etc.  He wrote about how spirituality is a sense of knowing right from wrong, of being decent, honest, fair, forgiving others and having compassion for those around you.  Although these are things I already know and try to practice, it is always nice to have a little reminder. He encourages readers that forgiving others and themselves for things that happened in the past is an opportunity rather than a challenge.

Finally, he touches on the importance of taking time and giving you permission to win, in matters of physical fitness.  Pelletier admits that this chapter was the hardest to write, because he has battled his weight his whole life and continues to do so. Like many of us, he knows what to do to lose it and he knows the attitude he needs to succeed, but knowing and doing are two separate things and he continues to strive for permission to conquer his fitness challenges. 

Like many motivational books, Pelletier ‘s message is a bit hokey at times, but challenges his readers with motivational messages  as he encourages them to be champions who decide to give themselves permission to win.  He uses short stories to illustrate and remind readers how these elements of the Circle of Life are important.

I have read this type of motivational book many times, but I do so with an attitude of acceptance for information that I may already know.  Many of these books have the same outlook and teach roughly the same ideas, but I find the short stories and necessary reminders a bit reassuring.  I know it’s alright to have bad days, I know there will be times when my attitude is terrible, but I am always trying to improve.  As Pelletier mentioned in his chapter on physical fitness, we all have things we need to improve upon, we are all searching for permission to win.