Welcome to your first Own Your Life Club Newsletter!
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement over the last two months, as we've been building the Own Your Life Club website. And today we're excited to welcome you to our first Newsletter!
This is written through bleary and tired eyes! Why? Well, for the last two weeks we've been up late watching the Tour de France and cheering on Cadel Evans. 
Unfortunately he didn't take 1st place in the race but it was worth it just to see the quaint villages and stunning scenery along the route through France and Italy.

More late nights to come, with the Olympic Games
just around the corner! We're in awe of these amazing athletes and what they achieve. Just imagine all the training, discipline and focus that's required to reach the pinnacle of their sport and stay there!
The qualities that drive them are the same qualities that should be driving all of us to achieve better things in our lives.
With the Tour de France behind us and the Olympics ahead of us, we'd like to introduce you to Andrew May, one of Australia's leading experts on health and performance. He has worked with Olympic athletes and gold medal performers in track and field, swimming, basketball, netball, hockey and tennis.
Andrew provides an insight into his extensive knowledge about physical activity, goal setting and how these elements can affect your performance and productivity.

What does success mean to you and how does one achieve it?
Success means different things to different people. One of the biggest mistakes we make in modern society is only linking success with money, power and prestige. Sure, money can help you improve your quality of life but there is no direct correlation between money and happiness. To me, success is dual-layered. The first layer is about doing the absolute best in whatever role you choose to excel in (be it as a mother, father, teacher, student, lover, worker and so on). The second layer is about really making an impact on the world and creating a legacy that will live long after you have disappeared.
What have you found to be the best methods or strategies for keeping motivated and focused?
Optimism is definitely the key to remaining motivated and focused. Optimistic people live in the same world as everyone else, they just view it differently. They focus on opportunities, believe that everything will work out for the best and take the appropriate action to ensure it does. I believe that optimism is an integral part of performance. How do you think optimistically if you aren’t one of the ‘lucky few’ who was born a natural optimist? Easy, you learn!
Optimistic thinking is a skill and just like any skill, you can learn what to do, then practise.
Think about how you think – this is not as crazy as it sounds. It’s all about increasing your awareness of thinking (cognition). The best way to do this is to start keeping a thought diary. This involves writing down your thoughts (and feelings) throughout the day and carefully noting the relationship between certain types of thoughts and specific situations.
Identify unhelpful Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) – this is another name for ‘bad habits’. We all make mistakes and sometimes these mistakes are in our thinking. For example, being too black and white, making mountains out of molehills, or over-generalising. Constant ANTs lead to reduced output and performance (not to mention increased levels of distress).
Challenge your ANTs – thoughts are not necessarily facts and they’re not always true. If ANTs are causing you unnecessary distress you can learn to challenge or change them. This is simply the process of questioning your thoughts. Are they true? Are they helpful? Is it really that bad? I believe that optimism is an integral part of performance.
Replace your ANTs with Positive Optimistic Thoughts (POTs) – the final step in the optimistic thinking process is to plant positive and realistic thoughts. To achieve this, focus on all of the good things in your life, view difficult situations as opportunities to learn, and believe that good things will happen in the future. Becoming an optimistic thinker might not happen overnight, but it will (if you work at it) happen!
If you'd like to read more from Andrew May, click on this link:
Andrew May's Body and Mind Printed Interview
There's still time to register for your free tickets to Stuart Zadel's Think and Grow Rich seminars, coming to Melbourne 2 and 3 August; Adelaide 30 and 31 August; Perth 13 and 14 September; and Brisbane 20 and 21 September.
Click here for more information and to register
Finally, to all Own Your Life Club members, make sure you check out our Blog because we have a special announcement for you!
We have added a fabulous new feature! We're giving you your own personal Profile Page where you can tell us all about yourself and interact with other Club members!
You can even add your URL and promote your business and website, gaining important links back to your website.
To find out more, click on the link below and read the Blog entry entitled Drum Roll Please - Special Announcement:
http://www.OwnYourLifeClub.com/login
Until next time, here's to your Success,
Richard and Julie
Creators of *Own Your Life Club*