Make 2010 the Start of a Decade of Directed, Determined Choice

10 years ago today, I woke up to a world that hadn't been destroyed by Y2K, a still-fledgling marriage (less than a month old), 2 young children, and a welcome day off from working as a retail ad salesman for the Salt Lake Tribune/Deseret News. I was in Toastmasters, but didn't have any designs at that point of becoming a speaker or coach - I hadn't even competed in a contest yet.

This morning, I woke up to a world that hasn't been destroyed by terrorism, despite our worst fears, a stronger-than-ever marriage (yes, to the same woman), 6 kids, and no days off from pursuing my passions of being a speaker and coach!

The 2000's
The last 10 years have been dominated by five activities: growing my family, growing myself, physical challenges, searching for focused career goals, and competing for the World Championship of Public Speaking - with mixed results.

My family has certainly grown, in size and maturity. I married not just a wife, but her two kids, and we've added 4 more. Watching them grow and mature, seeing how they take cues from me and Kristi, it's an amazing process to nurture an individual to model behavior and determine their own.

Growing myself had never been that big a priority. I'd been sent to a seminar that featured some professional speakers, including Zig Ziglar, Peter Lowe, Mary Lou Retton, General Schwartzkopf and a couple others in the 90's, and I was vaguely aware that for a few thousand dollars I could buy tapes from a guy with big teeth named Tony that would help me Awaken The Giant Within. But it wasn't until 2001 that I actually listened to Tom Hopkins sales training (loaned to me by someone who asked if I was related to Tom). I started reading Robbins, Tracy, Covey, getting deeper and deeper into discovering the world of self-development, and the role speaking played in it. This part of my life would have a significant aspect on my career choices the rest of the decade.

My physical challenge put me into position to make a choice I never imagined having to make - trading the substandard manufacturer version of my lower left leg in for a Super Deluxe Robot Leg. Waking up in January of 2006 without being able to take a step on my long-deteriorating ankle led to a series of appointments which led to a voluntary amputation. I had other options, they just weren't good ones, in my eyes. Little did I know at the time this was the genesis of what would later become my quest to create the Champions of Choice.

My career goals of being a speaker and coach didn't become clear until 2005, but the vehicle by which I work to reach them would change often, and continues to remain in flux even now. The experiences I've had selling newspaper and magazine ads, working as a media buyer, coaching speakers, speaking to audiences on everything from competition to leadership to goal setting to speaking, and even co-writing three books have given me more experience than many would expect over a ten year period. Working for myself has been my choice the last few years, but there are opportunities for me to take my skills to the workplace, which 2010 may see me do.

I never did win the World Championship of Public Speaking, despite competing 9 out of 10 years, finishing in the Top 100 worldwide 6 out of 8 years, the Top 20 five times, and actually making it to the final competition in both 2006 and 2008, finishing 3rd in '06 (competing even while recovering from the amputation). I learned a tremendous amount from my experiences. I coached my first speaking client in 2004, helping a nervous father give a 15 minute toast at his daughter's wedding, which was taking place in a castle in Austria. I gained skill and confidence as a speaker, and realized how much I enjoyed it, eventually finding my way to paid speaking engagements in 2005, even before I made it to the finals.

The Genesis of the Champions of Choice
It took me another 3 years to realize that everything I wanted to tell people boiled down to their willingness  to choose to do them - and that if I didn't talk to people about reclaiming their power of choice, everything else could easily end up as so much blather. The Champion of Choice was born, and in its first 9 months suffered from all the pangs of babyhood as I realized I was not living up to my own standards. If you've been reading, you've witnessed the unevenness of it all!

It takes more than believing in the Power of Choice. It takes consistent Choices of Action as they relate to your Choice of Desired Results. It takes the Choice of Personal Responsibility combined with the Choice of Personal Forgiveness, followed quickly by the Choice of Persistence.

The Challenge of 2010
This year, I am choosing to take action every day to develop into a stronger Champion. I want to help as many people as possible this year Choose to take the Actions necessary to take their lives to a higher, more successful level than ever before. By the end of this year, I want 2010 success stories from 2010 different Champions of Choice. Even though I've heard from many of you over the last few months who've changed jobs, lost weight, and set new goals, 2010 sets the higher than ever.

No matter where my choices bring me (and I've got some surprise choices in the works this year), I will be leading this charge all year long. I will be blogging every day, even if its just a few lines. I will be adding features, contests, and content on a regular basis. My first choice is to continue to be open and honest about my victories and defeats, and encourage you to do the same. I've battled between the marketing angle of looking perfect vs. being real. I've been told by experts that people only want to follow those that have already reached the promised land, and I've been told by experts that people want to follow those they can identify with. In light of that, I'll simply choose to be the latter as I journey towards the former. And when I reach the promised land, you'll have taken the journey with me.

The last ten years, at least for me, have been a Decade of Education & Discovery - often by accident. The next ten will be the Decade of Directed, Determined Choice. Follow the blog, leave a comment, join the NING site - stake your Choice for all to see!

Three...Two...One...2010!

A bit less than 3 days left in the year, and the decade, for that matter. What choices could you make in the next three days that will change your life? Are you waiting for January 1st to plan? If so, you're cheating yourself out of 48-60 hours of time that could put you that much farther ahead come the New Year. Besides, who's going to sit around making choices when they could be watching Dick Clark for what could be his last year on Earth? (and we've been saying that for how long?)


I'm busy preparing the 2010 launch of Champions of Choice - a new look for the Challenge and all the Champions who've been a part of it to this point. This includes a re-invigorated approach to the NING site, a re-boot of the Newsletter, and a re-boot of the Facebook Fan Page - and that's just the beginning! More details to come.

How has the Champion of Choice Challenge helped you this year? How would you like to see it improve? Leave your comments, or email me at Rich@richhopkins.com - I want to hear from you. The good, the bad the ugly, about you, and about me.

In the meantime - get busy gettin' ready - the time to jump on 2010 is now!

Scrooge Always Has A Choice

I both love and hate Christmas.

On one hand, I love everything about Christmas, from the music to the shopping excess to Santa Claus - and that's just the secular aspect. Despite being well aware of Christmas' origins, I love the religious aspects of the holiday. I read the story of Christ's birth AND Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. I love stockings and anticipation that keeps kids from sleeping until 2 am just to get up at 5 am to jump on Mom and Dad's bed. I love chocolate santa's, Brach's Christmas candies, and those assorted nuts at the bottom of the stockings.

And I have some great memories of Christmas and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lula Hopkins house, even though they had a (gasp) FAKE tree! Grandma did up Christmas just like Thanksgiving, but added homemade chocolate candy and chocolate fudge to the mix. There'd be candy bowls full all over the house. How much could I eat out of each one before people started to notice?

But Christmas also stresses me out beyond belief. To the point my wife thinks that I actually HATE Christmas. She's right. I get incredibly tense thinking about whether or not everyone will be happy with what they get (that costs HOW MUCH? then multiply by six...who's going to think they're ripped off? why aren't I a millionaire yet?). I hate dealing with 'arrangements' - where are we going when and to what? Externally, I'm always pretending not to worry, and that we should be happy even if we have a Christmas like they had on Little House on the Prairie when Laura only got a small doll, a tin cup, and a penny. This does not instill confidence in my wife. But internally I'm fretting not living up to the perfection I really want Christmas to be.

Beyond those conscious, somewhat logical irritations, I also have a visceral response to the season that puts me on edge, tensing me with increasing power the closer we get to the 25th, until I'm so stressed and tired that Christmas morning its all I can do to smile and pretend to enjoy watching the wrapping paper fly through the air.

If I was talking with Oprah, I'd probably talk about my parent's divorce and all the Christmases that followed without Dad. I might open up about the many relationships, even an engagement that crumbled over the Christmas holidays. If I was talking with Dave Ramsey, he might suggest I adjust my expectations to my income - though if I were talking to Tony Robbins, he'd tell me to adjust my income to my expectations.
Maybe its just knowing the kids are home for 2 weeks and my productivity is doomed to dive-bomb dramatically.

In the end, all of these excuses for me to be an annually grouchy humbugger are not worthy of the Champions of Choice. The Past is Past, the Present (and Presents) is just fine, and the Future is ours to decide. I never chose to feel negative during the holidays. I didn't think I could control it, as deep-seeded as the emotions were. That's the key - I didn't think I had a choice. Of course, I do. Whether it's Christmas, Fourth of July, or Bastille Day, how we feel, and the actions reflecting those feelings, are completely within our control.

This year, I'm choosing to enjoy every second of Christmas, even if it kills me. I'm certain the kids will be happy with what they're getting - we've been blessed beyond belief this year. The decorations are up and the music is blasting (Harry Connick Jr., at the moment). We're handling the event and the food here this year, eliminating any concerns about who sees who for how long. The real test will come if anything goes awry, I suppose.

I have loved and hated Christmas, know it or not, by choice. Time to choose just love. Which is, after all, what this season should be about in the first place. Welcome home kids - let's have a great Christmas break....now go clean your rooms!

What is Most Important to You?

They say you can tell what's most important to people just by walking into their house.

What is most prominent when you walk in? The TV (as the picture above illustrates, the size of the screen doesn't always determine the size of the priority)? Bookshelves? A family Bible? Perhaps a comfortable sitting area? Perhaps its artwork on the wall, or family pictures. A piano, a china cabinet, or a computer desk.

Closets are a close second. Plenty of shoe storage space? Is it well-organized, or a place where clothes end up hung up only by chance?

And of course their checkbook. Where does all the money go, regardless of how much there is?

All these show the world, and reinforce to ourselves, what we are really about, what choices we really care to make. When the television is the easiest thing to access, its likely pretty high on the list of priorities. This isn't a post to beat any of us up - heck, my family has a TV in the living room, and in all the bedrooms. It's a pretty important part of our lives.

Instead of beating ourselves up over the 500 DVDs that line our living room walls while the Wii Fit sits idly by in the bottom drawer of the entertainment center, can we take a moment to refocus? After all, if you're journaling one moment about changing your life in the fast-coming new year - spending an hour a day exercising, making time to finally write your book, and spending more quality time with the kids - couldn't you reinforce those decisions by changing your environment? Leaving your living space the way it is lends itself to creating the same results you've been getting.

If your DVD's are put in a room out of the way (except, of course, for those Richard Simmons work-out video's), your family games are prominently placed in your living room, and your workspace is void of distracting paraphernalia, do you suppose that would make a difference?

If you are saving for a car or a house, does your checkbook betray you? If you added up the money spent in drive-through's, at movie theatres (even though you have 500 dvd's at home), and the wine of the month club, how much closer to your goal would you be? Amazing how even in the tightest of times, we are able to find money for what's really important, even if we would swear an oath in court denying these things are important at all!

Instead of waiting for the New Year, start taking some inventory. If an archeologist went through your household 1000 years from now, what would they determine to be the most important parts of your life? Of course, even if you're a dedicated exercise nut, you may run the risk of being seen as a Richard Simmons devotee - but isn't that better than being caught with the DVD's of every season of the Roseanne, ER, and Star Trek? But enough about me....

2010 belongs to the champions...The Champions of Choice!