So, Have you read the book 'Transformation' yet? What is the single most powerful thing that you've actually learned from the book?

Did the book put to words and thoughts some things that you already knew? If so, here's a question: If you already knew these things, and you've likely known the rewards and consequences associated with these things, why haven't you implemented them in your life? Are you lazy or unintelligent? Is it that simple? What is it that gets between what you know and what you do?

Have you succeeded in losing weight by following a structured program, only to lose steam and revert to your old patterns afterwards, or even before completing the program? What happened?

Do you get a little frustrated when you see other people succeeding and sustaining, by wondering why can't you put it all together, they make it look so easy?

Do you strive to make it look easy by not sharing your struggles and only posting 'good' things? Do you think that maybe, by being 'more real' with sharing your journey, you'll help people understand and relate to what it takes to really make progress? <-Side Note

But still, even knowing that everyone has struggles, and everyone has bad days, do you still feel the frustration that you just can't put it together and keep it together on any sort of consistant basis? I'm talking about the simple stuff like getting up early, finding your keys, charging up your mp3 player, planning and packing your meals, getting to the gym?

Does it seem like the harder you try, the harder it gets?

Do you have a hard time expressing yourself clearly? When you sit down to blog, does it take what may seem to be forever before 'the right' words flow from your fingertips?

When you sit down to participate in the community, do you find yourself easily distracted by instant messengers, interesting thoughts, emails, google searches, forgotton to-do's... only to realize up to several hours later that you haven't hardly touched what it is you set out to do when you sat down?

When you put all your eggs in the Transformation basket, and really 'tighten the screws' on planning, working the steps, interacting with the community, and exercise and meals, and blogs, and groups, and... does the rest of your life start to fall apart?

If you can relate to many of the questions above, do your efforts at Transformation only represent one aspect of an ongoing and recurring frustration in your life?

Once you have resolved to accomplish your goal, and you have set up your nutrition plan, do you find yourself stumbling by eating enticing foods that will not help you get to your goals? Did you do it on impulse, even though you have visualized success, gone over your goals, told yourself numerous affirmations... Do you beat yourself up over these appearant self-sabotages?

Do you find yourself often wanting to push the 'reset button' and start over?

Do you lose track of time more than the average bear?

Do you emotionally over-react a lot?

Are you less prone to succeed when there isn't much structure, or obvious short-term rewards and consequences?

Are you chronically disorganized?

When other people say they understand how hard it can be to find balance in life, do you get a little frustrated, and wonder if they really understand how hard it can be?

Are you often late?

How many times have you tried to 'get organized' or figure out how to better manage your time?

Do you spend hours of your life looking for critical things like keys, wallets, phones, etc?

Do you have fantastic days and weeks only to crash into a wall the next, regardless of external circumstance or effort on your part?

I'm not an expert at these things, but I do know that these things represent only a few of the challenges that I face daily. My success in 2009 came during a time when I had minimal responsibilities or distractions. I had an optimal environment for making the changes that I have made. That's the sort of thing that doesn't last forever. Throughout 2010, after abruptly and enthusiastically diving into my role as a father of two, a husband, and sharply increased professional responsibilties, things have changed.

I have taken my successes from the previous year and I've applied the confidence and determination that I found and applied that to succeeding in this new, more challenging envrionment. I've uncovered these underlying difficulties and have dedicated much of my time to understanding them better and applying what I've learned to my life. My successes have been slow but I have definate signs that I am going in the right direction.

Today I'm taking another big step in that direction by starting a group here, dedicated to people who have similar challenges. In the most extreme form, these challenges (and many others) group together and are often called ADD or ADHD. Keep in mind, I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, or even a therapist. I'm not even yet diagnosed with ADHD. But ADHD is just a name, regardless of the name, these are a good sample of the challenges that tend to cripple me.

People can have these challenges on any level. Normal people do, and abnormal people do too.

So if you've identified with these challenges either in your life or in the life of someone very close to you (to the extent that it definately has a direct impact on your life), and want to just make some progress in these areas so that you can achieve the goals you've set in step 1. Join me, share your struggles. Encourage other people who have them. Share your successes, ideas, research. Lets work together to make Transformation something we can do without everything else falling apart. Let's work together to set ourselves up to succeed. For many of us, it's not that we're lazy or dumb. In fact, often we have to work 10 times harder just to achieve the same results as others. Knowing that you being here right now, is very much something that you can be very proud of! I know how hard it can be, and how sometimes it just feels like too much. This isn't a group just for ADHD'ers, this is a group for anyone who struggles with the type of challenges I've listed above.There is a way through this, and you can apply many helpful things to your transformation efforts, and succeed. I'll be showing the way, participating, and sharing my journey.

Oh and by the way, you may find this interesting... Throughout each of the books that I've read on the subject, there are some things that pretty much everyone agrees on in regards to improving the typs of challenges I've listed above:

Exercise!

Yep, that thing that we struggle to do is, in fact, the best medicine for those who struggle with doing the simple, day-to-day things standing between us and actually doing it.

It's not the only familiar remedy: Community connection, nutrition, finding purpose, setting goals are right up there on the list as well. I'll be sharing them frequently in the group, in it's threads, and I look forward to a great discussion on each of the topics. In this group we will focus on Transformation with the added perspective of doing what it takes to do what it takes.

I encourage you to share your thoughts on all of the topics, but mostly this will be a group where we focus in on ACTION and what it takes to get the things done that we need to do to succeed as we transform in all areas of our lives.

So I invite you to join me in the new group, Transformation Focus.