Glenn Caldwell is the Vice-President of Sales for NAL Insurance Inc.and Healthy Trucker. For over 25 years, Glenn has worked closely with many fleets across the country to ensure their Owner/Operators have the protection they need to Keep Rollin’. You can reach him (800) 265 1657-3350 gcaldwell@nalinsurance.com www.nalinsurance.com www.healthyfleet.com.

Labour Day ….it’s a great time to take another look at things from a different perspective.  Your summer vacation dreams have hopefully been realized and you now have the last part of 2013 to look forward to.

glenn-caldwell-cartoon
Glenn-Caldwell

Remember those New Year’s Resolutions you set for yourself 9 months ago?  How many of them have you stuck with?  If you’re like many people, something may have come up (like life) that may have possibly changed the direction on where you wanted to be today.

For many years, I have been involved in a group we call “Talent Bank”.  This is a group of like-minded individuals who get together once a month. We generally meet for about 3 hours over lunch and talk about business ideas and discuss our personal goals amongst the group. Talent Bank is mainly an accountability type of group where each member holds each other accountable for the goals we have set.

Too often when we think of setting goals we think of setting business or financial goals.   Part of the goal setting process includes setting goals in the following 7 areas of our lives.

  • Family
  • Health
  • Spiritual
  • Social
  • Educational
  • Business
  • Financial

We set goals in the areas we feel are most important, as it helps to ensure we live a more balanced life.    As an example, one of my goals last summer was to get in better shape.  To help me stay focused on this goal, I committed one of my health goals to working out 3-4 times per week.  To get started and help me keep focused, I found myself an accountability partner that had a similar goal.   The first few weeks were tough (and painful) but we kept going and we kept each motivated on why we wanted to achieve this goal.   Knowing I had to pick my buddy Ray up at 6:30AM really helped me stay focused when some mornings my body was telling me to hit the snooze button for few extra minutes of shut eye.

The result from the past year is I have maintained my work out schedule… most of the time.  For the times that I did slip, I found it was much easier getting back to it because I knew I needed to report how I was doing to my group.   Without that initial and ongoing accountability, I’m not sure I would have stuck with it this long.

Three months ago, I wanted to take my health goal to the next step.  Getting all that exercise was certainly better for me but I was challenged to pay more attention to the foods I was eating.  Through the Healthy Trucker Program which is a Health and Wellness program currently being piloted with a number of NAL clients, I’ve had numerous phone conversations with a Registered Dietitian (RD) who has helped me understand how I can eat better.   Although she hasn’t completely changed my eating habits, I definitely find myself making better choices of what to eat and when to eat it.   I’m drinking more water and less pop, choosing more chicken/fish over beef, munching on more veggies/fruit throughout the day and trying to stay away from fried foods.

We’ve all heard the saying that ‘an apple a day keeps the Doctor Away’.  As my mentor Jim Rohn used to say “what if that’s true…and we’re not doing it? It’s easy to do…but it’s also easy not to do”.       We really need to do more of the things that are easy to do to look after our health.

Each night I receive an automated email where I’m asked to answer a few questions about my eating/exercise habits for the day and complete a daily food log.  I’m then ranked with all the others that are part of the Healthy Trucker program.  It only takes a few minutes to complete and even though the results are anonymous, this tool alone has really kept me focused on my health goal.

I personally find that without the accountability of my group, my RD or the food log, I can get caught up in current events of the day and sometimes forget to do what really matters most. In other words, I’m a bit of a procrastinator and tend go with the easy not to do approach.

So what about you?  What’s your current situation?  Are you having a hard time staying focused on what really matters most?  Do you need to form a type of talent bank or get your own personal Registered Dietitian (RD) to remain focused on your goals?  Maybe not, but if you do have certain goals that you really want to achieve, commit them to someone that will agree to hold you accountable.  The more accountability you have I guarantee you, the closer you will get to achieve those goals you set for yourself 9 months ago.

About the Author

Glenn Caldwell, Vice-President-Sales, NAL Insurance Inc.

(519)432-8333 ext. 3350 (Phone)

(800)265-1657 (Toll Free)

(519)434-5220 (Fax)

(519)671-1060 (Cell)

www.nalinsurance.com

www.truckingforwishes.com

 

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Glenn Caldwell is the Vice-President of Sales for NAL Insurance Inc.and Healthy Trucker. For over 25 years, Glenn has worked closely with many fleets across the country to ensure their Owner/Operators have the protection they need to Keep Rollin’. You can reach him (800) 265 1657-3350 gcaldwell@nalinsurance.com www.nalinsurance.com www.healthyfleet.com.