Happy November Ramily,

What a great Fall for Northwest sports. The Seattle Mariners had their best finish in 20+ years. I have to admit that it was a nice surprise to see our bars full of baseball fans cheering on the Mariners. How about them Seahawks? Who would of thunk? Geno Smith leading the Hawks to the top of their division when they were picked last by the experts. Amazing! In the NBA, our Portland Trailblazers are sitting third in the Western Conference. The Boise State Broncos currently sit atop the Mountain West with a perfect 5-0 conference record. Rounding out the Northwest the Huskies, Cougars, Beavers, and Ducks all are playing admirably. Let’s make sure these games are on for our guests to cheer on.

Big thank you to all who have provided Banger Smith and his team with all of the valuable input for our new menu which will hit the beginning of December. In my time with the Ram, this menu has gotten more thought, input, discussion, and engineering than any other I have seen. This menu has variety, favorites, value, and production efficiency. Well done team.

With a New Year quickly approaching it is time to work on our goals. Proper goal-setting is the essence of maximizing your performance. Specific, written goals create powerful images and emotions in our minds that lead us toward our desired outcomes. At the Ram, we have learned that writing our goals down as affirmative statements is the key to reaching or even exceeding, our goals. An affirmative statement is a written sentence, or multiple sentences, that describe new realities that we want in our lives.

When setting goals follow these principles:

Balance your goals
Prioritize your goals. Work on around three at a time.
State your goals positively – write down what you want to happen not what you want to avoid.
Clearly define your goals in writing. Be specific and review regularly
Lock on to an exciting, imaginable, realistic end result
Share your goals only with those who can help you exceed them
Update your goals regularly

Once we have written down our list of specific goals, we write our goals as “affirming statements”. An affirming statement is a tool, using written words, to impart positive visualization in our minds consistent with the person and leaders we want to be. Choose one of your written goals and use the following steps to write it as an affirmative statement:

Personal – Write a personal and positive statement that describes how you will feel once you have reached your goal.
Present Tense – Write your affirmative statement in the present tense as if you have already attained your goal.
Elicit Emotions – When writing your affirmative statement use words that trigger positive pictures and emotions for you.
Realistic – Be realistic when writing your affirmative reminders. Use words like, “consistently” and “regularly”.

Here’s an example: “I am patient and understanding. When under pressure, I take a breath and respond calmly. It feels great.”

Once we have written our goals as affirming statements, we use these daily principles to review them:

Review your affirmative statements when relaxed.
Review them 3 to 5 times a day for 21 to 35 days.
Use vivid, first-person imagery accompanied by emotion.
Hold the thoughts and pictures in your mind that your affirmative statements elicit for 10 to 15 seconds.

In November we say Happy Birthday to Beckey King, Michael Royster, Cooper Withers, and John Morse.

A very special thank you to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with the Ram this month: Trisha Watkins (15 years), Anna Jacobson (10 years), Yaneth Llamas (14 years), Maryann Montez (5 years), Aaron Perreira (5 years), Eileen Robins (6 years) and Norma Aguire-Ortiz (6 years). Thank you all very much.

“When we set exciting worthwhile goals for ourselves, they work in two ways: We work on them, and they work on us.”

~ Bob (Hope) Moawad