If you've come in search of hilarity, mirth and entertainment today, you best look elsewhere. Because today I'm sharing some old-school, self-help, get-yer-shit-together... love.

Got a buddy (surprising I know) who is always just about to turn his life (career, body, relationships, finances, living situation) around.
Spoken about him once before.
Always at the threshold of something amazing.
Always about to re-invent himself.
Never actually doing anything... but always about to.

Always got a plan... never actually doing anything with it... but always got one.
He's the plan man.
Talks a great game but never gets off the bench.
By choice.
Got all the answers.
In theory.
If life was a theory... he'd be a champion.
Wants great.. but chooses crap.
Keeping in mind that.. doing nothing... is a choice.

Saw him yesterday.
We had that conversation.
The same one we have every year.
The.. "I've realised a few things about myself lately, I know I've wasted a lot of time and I know you don' believe me Craig.. but it's gonna be different this time"... conversation.

It was like groundhog day.
And I was Bill Murray.
With biceps.

All that talent and all those brains... if only he'd put 'em to use.

It's like owning a Ferrari but never taking it out of the garage.
So much potential, so many possibilities and yet he leaves the super-car in the garage and 'drives' a thirty year-old Toyota.

If only he'd stop reading, hoping, planning, researching (sitting on the couch), thinking (procrastinating), talking (making more excuses) and actually do something (for more than a week), he could do, create and be... amazing.
Because he's a smart, talented guy who's wasting his potential.
And time.

If only he'd stop waiting for the planets to align and an angel to visit him in his sleep with instructions from the Almighty....
If only.

Some of us are going to wake up tomorrow (seemingly) and it will be 2012.

Five years will have passed and August 2007 will seem like yesterday... and not because we have an amazing memory.. but because nothing will have changed in our life.
We will have done nothing new or different.
Despite the fact that we desperately want... new and different.

Some of us will still be doing the same things, the same way, in the same situations and circumstances and still having the same issues and the same conversations with the same people and struggling with the same problems... five years from now.

But for some of us, it won't be the same.
It will be worse.

And not because we can't change.. but because we don't.
And we will be frustrated.
Possibly angry.
Yet again.

And some of us will still be doing the things that (today) we swear we're about to change (give up, stop, fix, address)... will still be held captive to those destructive habits.. and still be finding reasons to rationalise the life-we-don't-want.. but continue to inhabit.

And again we will justify and explain our failure to do what needs to be done. And again we will hope the 'change fairy' turns up while we sleep... and fixes our life.

Or maybe we'll beat ourselves up yet again and continue to feel sorry for ourselves... because nobody has it as tough as us.
And nobody understands our situation.

Fortunately, it ain't all doom and gloom.
Thank goodness.
The good news is we don't need to (stagnate).
Really.
The good news is that we can create amazing results (in way less than five years) if we do a few simple (but not necessarily easy) things.

And no, this is not some psycho-babble, feel-good, positive-thinking crap; I have too little spare time to sit at my computer and write rubbish.
This is truth.
This is an absolute possibility... if you believe it and make it real for you.

This is not me trying to make you feel good or get you in positive frame of mind for ten minutes. No, this is me talking to you about the practicalities and realities of changing your life. I'm not trying to motivate you... I'm trying to beat you into action.
Because action creates change.
And motivation (the feeling) lasts five minutes.

I have worked with MANY people who have created amazing results (in a relatively short period of time) with limited talent, skills or resources because they simply got to that point. And when people get there... stuff happens.
Big stuff.
Different-forever... stuff.

If only we can get out of our own way, we can achieve greatness.
Sometimes my biggest hurdle... is me?
And I know all about this stuff!
Waddabout you?

If today we are prepared to get real (serious), change our mindset, change our behaviours and take total responsibility for who we are, where we are and why we are.. then tomorrow (yes tomorrow) our life will be different because we will be different.

And when we change, our life changes.

If you want your life (or parts of it) to be incredibly different in five years (or way less), there are a few no-brainers yer gotta get yer head around and do something about:

(1) As a rule, there is no perfect time. Waiting for the perfect time is another name for procrastination.

(2) The decisions we make (or don't) and the things we do (or don't) today will shape what our reality looks like 1, 2, 5 years from now. Not making a decision... is making a decision.

(3) If nothing changes (attitude, behaviours), nothing changes (reality, results).

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over.. and expecting a different outcome"... yet this is what many of us do every day of our lives.

I know you know this... call it a reminder.

(4) If you don't address (do something about) what has held you back in the past (laziness, apathy, ignorance, fear, lack of preparation, attitude, inconsistency) you will continue to spin your wheels and stay where you are.

(5) Your biggest challenge will always be you (specifically your thoughts and your emotions), not your boss, not your genetics, not your bank balance, not your situation or circumstance, not your parents and their lack of support or understanding and not your ability or lack thereof.

(6) You can't be objective about you. Consider involving someone (in your change process) who will tell you what you need to hear, encourage you, support you and slap you in the back of the head periodically.

(7) Create time lines and work ferociously towards them. You need to create and maintain momentum... time lines help.

(8) Live with purpose.
Get excited about stuff.
Get passionate.
Get off your ass.
If you wanna create amazing... yer gotta do amazing.
Stop walking around like a lame-ass and wondering why your life is crap.

(9) Make some significant decisions today. Now. Even though they may not be easy, convenient, practical, comfortable or popular. Make them because your life needs to change.

(10) Many people let their past determine their future... when in fact what we've achieved, done or experienced to this point in time has little or nothing to do with what we may do or be in the future.

If the last five weeks, months or years has been an unproductive, unsatisfying, frustrating blurrrr for you... then maybe it's your time.

Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.) is an Australian motivational speaker, qualified exercise scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, and owner of one of the largest personal training centres in the world.

He can be heard weekly on Australian Radio SEN 1116 and GOLD FM and appears on Australian television on Network Ten's 9AM.

Motivational Speaker - Craig Harper http://www.craigharper.com.au/