You can do anything... if you...

I have to write.  I have to write down what's going on or I'll explode.  I don't know if anyone will read this, and that part really isn't important because writing for me is like therapy.. getting thoughts and feelings out there instead of pent up inside and me not knowing what to do with them.
I am a strong person.  I am 53 years old and I have raised 5 kids, 2 of those children came to me at one time.  I survived and thrived.  I LOVE my children and the memories I have of raising them.  I was probably more of a pushover than I should have been, but all in all, they all turned out great.  My husband helped raise our family - he was very involved with decisions and the direction our parenting went.  He knew a lot and I don't even know where he learned it from.  He is a valiant son of God, striving to keep the commandments.
But this isn't really what I want to write about today.
I think I'm going to take the 365 blog challenge.. blog every day for a YEAR!  Why?  I don't really know.. because I want to see if I can set a huge goal and accomplish it.  I have done many things in my life and I find myself now wanting to improve and learn and stretch myself to do more.  I want to help others, be a positive influence for good, stay close to my family, children and grandchildren and love and help my brother and sisters all I can.  I have held many responsible church callings in my life and have learned a lot about leadership and delegating and getting things done.  In fact, my activity in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints has helped me become more than I would be if I wasn't active or attending.   My religion and what I believe is a whole nother blog post though,
I was thinkking while I drove home this morning after taking my 24 year old son to his workplace (my car is in the shop and that's a whole nother blog post!) and I thought of that famous saying "You can do anything if you put your mind to it".  I do not know who to credit that quote to, but I was thinking about it and when I heard it as a teen, I thought that if you 'thought' hard enough, you could accomplish your goals, do anything you wanted to do.  Well, that doesn't work.  You can't just think hard about something and accomplish a goal, any goal.  What I've learned over the past few years, is that when you want something bad enough and you change your thinking and believe that anything is possible, with the right kind of work behind it, you CAN do anything.  But it takes work!  It takes a process.  It takes learning what works for you and then doing that process and not just setting a goal and sitting there thinking hard about it and hoping it will come to pass.  Often we cannot change circumstances around us.  We can't change the weather. We can't change the 'economy'.  We can't change other people's choices.  We can't change people to do what we think they should do. We can't control actions of others that affect our lives.  What we CAN do is change the way we look at our circumstances.  We can change the way we think, feel, and act.  We can choose to have a good attitude.  We can choose to work hard on ourselves to improve so we can reach our goals for ourselves.  We can become the best person we can be, with hard work and good ethics.

You can do anything if you put your mind to it is true... but it takes action..  Your mind comes up with an action plan and you work that plan over and over and over again until you see the results you want.  If you don't like the results you are getting, make adjustments, look at yourself and work on being your best.  These are all directed towards ME by the way.  Replace the 'we' with 'I' and it's all for me.  I need to change and work and grow for my dreams and vision and goals to come to pass.  
I have a goal to get up earlier in the morning and listen to uplifting personal development talks or read good books for 15 minutes every morning.   I know this will start my day on a positive note and get me off thinking the right way about me, my life, my circumstances, and my relationships.
So, I am declaring that I'm getting out of bed, that's out of bed and not looking at facebook on my phone, which is what usually happens for about 20 minutes before I get out of bed, at exactly 6:30am from now on.  I'm doing it.  I've written it so I'm doing it.    I'll do Personal Development for 15 minutes and after I've mastered this new habit, I'll add another activity to my morning routine, and so on for my day.  I need to develop structure and good habits for my business, social, intellectual and spiritual growth.
Ok.. First blog of 365 started.  I'll try to post photos to go with the posts.