It’s Tuesday and I am so glad you’re reading this because it’s Election Day
in the USA.

Today is the day that the next President of the United States of America will
be determined, as well as many local and national government positions.

I don’t know about you, but I will be glad for the day when we all move on as
a country and unite behind whoever the chosen one will be.

Please vote.

I learned a valuable lesson on September 11, 2001. I was in Kona, Hawaii
for a week long personal development seminar when the World Trade Center
Twin Towers were targeted by terrorists. There were 2,000 people from
around the world with me at Read the rest of this entry

In countless hours I have invested in working with clients from all walks of life and studying the most successful people of our time, I have found that there are two primary two distinct approaches to learning.

1. Learn what unsuccessful people do and then don’t do it.

and…

2. Learn what successful people do and then do it.

Both are valuable and provide tremendous insight and I credit the lessons from both perspectives with helping me develop more of my own potential in the different areas of my life. It’s pretty simple. Avoid the behaviors and patterns of the unsuccessful and instead adopt the behaviors of that are most likely to bring a successful outcome.

In this lesson I am going to provide you with what unsuccessful goal setters do to sabotage their results. In my early days of goal setting, I have made most of these errors myself at one time or another.

Have you ever worked hard on a goal that didn’t come to fruition? I bet somewhere you did one or more of these things below. The interesting thing is that people who do not achieve their goals often invest just as much time, energy and effort (or even more time) than the people who DO go on to achieve their goals.

A flawed or incomplete approach will bring about flawed or incomplete results.

If you see yourself in any of these bad habits, don’t worry. At the end of this article, I provide the perfect solution for you to salvage any goal and you can begin applying it immediately to begin advancing and achieving your goals.

How NOT To Set a Goal: 10 Mistakes that Guarantee Failure

1. Be vague. Pick a goal, any goal. Don’t give it much thought, don’t think about it in much detail and only use generalities to describe it. Don’t think about the long term effects on your loved ones, or the long term impact on your life, just pick any bright shiny object and go for it. Don’t spend any time to develop a crystal clear vision for what you want. Just pick anything and get to work.

2. Embark upon a goal that someone else chose for you. Go after things that you don’t truly want because you’re trying to make someone else happy, or because you think it will get or keep their love.

3. Keep everything in your head. That’s right. Trust your memory. Don’t commit anything to paper or Read the rest of this entry

Sharing your goals provides valuable feedback

One of the most common questions I get on the subject of Goal Setting is whether or not you should share your goal with others.

The short answer is… it depends.

I think the better questions is actually, “With whom should I share my Goals?”

There are clearly times when it is in your best interest to tell people and more specifically, there are times when you should share your goals with certain people.

For most of us, our goals and dreams are our most personal and sacred ‘possessions.’ However not everyone will treat them as such. Factor in that we all have different sensitivity levels when it comes to how we will be impacted if and when we receive negative feedback, criticism or even worse, the inevitable reaction from a harsh and heavy dream crusher.

Do I share every goal I set with anyone and everyone? Nope. But I do have some guidelines and recommendations for you to help you determine the appropriate people to share your goals with.

If you share your goals with no one, then you deprive yourself of the often valuable input and help that other people can offer.

Ten People With Whom You Should Consider Sharing Your Goals:

1. People who have goals of their own and more importantly, people who are actively engaged in advancing goals of their own. A person with no goals is probably not going to be able to relate to yours or offer much in the way of positive feedback and encouragement. They may lack the skills and ability to give your goals the value they deserve.

2. People who are Read the rest of this entry

No matter who you are and how well versed you are at goal setting, there are a number of experiences we have all encountered at one time or another  when en route to our goals. One of the most common is fear. The bigger your goals are, the greater the fear you are likely to encounter. Looking at fear from the outside, it seems ridiculous to allow the mere possibility of something less than optimal occurring keep us from attempting something, but fear is one emotion that is so powerful, it can lead to delays or even hold even the best and brightest back from achieving their dreams.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the definition of fear.

Fear –noun 1.a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

Now that we have a general idea what fear is, we can take a closer look at the ways in which it appears in our day to day lives. For some it is a small blip on the radar, for others, it’s a crippling reality, rearing it’s ugly head and acting as a virtual roadblock, standing in between their God given potential.

Since none of us is immune to fear and we will all experience it at one time or another, doesn’t it make sense to demystify it and find ways to harness it to work for us and our greater good, rather than hold us back?

Let’s look at a very simple formula for conquering fear.

Five Steps to Overcoming Fear

1. Catch yourself in the midst of feeling the fear. It is so easy to get caught up in the cycle of telling yourself and others, “I’m so afraid, I’m so afraid, I’m terrified,” etc. Have you ever had this type of dialogue running around in your head on repeat? The more you say this, the more the fear grows. If you can catch this mental chatter while it’s occurring Read the rest of this entry

 Back in 1939, a Russian Jewish immigrant songwriter was working on location for a movie in Beverly Hills for an extended time.

Legend has it he was homesick while separated from his wife and
children, and at that time, wrote some parts of a song and then
stored away the incomplete, half written work in a “song trunk.”

After two years had passed, he dusted off the half written song
and put the finishing touches on it.

He called it the best song he had ever written.

It was a simple song.

54 words.

67 notes.

The songwriter was Irving Berlin.

The song was White Christmas.

It became the most sold song in the world.

To this day, it is an enduring symbol of Christmas, the spirit
of the Holiday season and evokes warm, loving memories for Read the rest of this entry

I was working at home today and looked out the window and saw a huge hawk sitting on my deck.  I watched him for a few minutes and it occurred to me I was witnessing a very important life lesson.

Usually when I see hawks they are either high up in the sky or sitting high upon a tree branch where they can see the land below which is where their food source is. Today is a record day of high winds in Chicago and the hawk sought refuge on my deck where my house shelters him from the wind gusts.

I thought about the habits of this hawk. Sometimes he is flying and sometimes he is sitting on a perch but he always has a clear perspective on his goals (his food). He is never walking around wandering on the ground looking for food. He might become food for something else! He knows how to position himself to see what he needs to see. Even in high winds, he can spread his wings to float, almost still while the winds around him blow by. He has this big picture perspective of his menu and when he sees what he wants and decides to go for it, he swoops down and usually gets it.

In today’s busy pace of life, with all of the responsibilities we juggle, we must remember to take the time to stop and look at the big picture of our life and our goals. When we do this, we can often see a better perspective than when we are engaged in the day to day activities. And just like the hawk, when you decide upon a goal, focus all of your energy and attention into getting it and give it your all.

Live Your Dreams,

Jill

Have you ever sabotaged yourself just as you were about to achieve a very important goal? This most often manifests istelf via procrastiantion, avoidance, perfectionism, and many other ways. It is a very common phenomenon. Here’s how to recognize it when it’s happening and breakthrough to achieve your goal