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

Your Reticular Activating System acts as a heat seeking missile which allows your subconscious mind to work on your goal whether you realize it or not.

Write your Goals on paper bridges the gap between your imagination and the real world. As you create and advance your plan it takes your ideas from the intangible to the tangible.

We train in creating plans for achieving your Goals inside Goal University

(raw footage from my climb of Eagle Tower)

I recently spent some time in Door County, Wisconsin on a relaxing little weekend getaway.

Can You Create a New Habit in 21 Days?

“Fake it ’til you make it.” We’ve all heard the cliche for approaching something that seems out of reach. There may be some method to the madness of that approach.

But have you ever given much thought to what it takes to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be when it comes to eliminating old habits and forming new ones?

Success is habitual.

We have all witnessed those who seemingly achieve amazing feats over and over. Think of Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan. What allows one person to be an automatic peak performer every day without fail while others experience failure after failure? Most likely, the achievers have created and practiced success systems, habits and rituals that serve rather than detract from their goals.

If everything affects everything, which is, of course, true, then it pays to take a holistic look at the current habits and patterns in ALL areas of your life, at work, at home and at play.

You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge so it pays to get real and be brutally honest with yourself so you can finally align your habits with your dreams.

How to Create New and Empowering Habits

1. Identify your current habits, the good, the bad and the ugly. You have probably practiced many of the same habits throughout your life without realizing it. Keep a pen and paper handy throughout the day to capture habits as you become aware of them. From the moment you wake up to the moment your eyes close at night, most of your thoughts, words and actions are habitual. Write them down on paper. If you get stuck, ask others around you what habits they notice in you. This might take a few days.

2. Once you have identified your dominant habits, identify the source of those habits. Most of your habits were programmed into you at a very early age without you even realizing it. Many of your habits come from observing your dominant parent or caregiver. If you are habitually late, perhaps this trait was modeled for you by someone you admire. Not always but often enough. From the brand of car you drive to the brands of food you purchase, many of these habits were modeled for you and you practice them subconsciously.

Here are some common negative habits:
reading the newspaper first thing in the morning
vegging out, watching tv all evening
going to bed too late
hitting the snooze button every morning
cleaning obsessively
exercising excessively or not exercising at all
eating fast food frequently
saving money or not saving money
excessive credit card debt
choosing toxic relationships
not reading self-improvement books
not setting goals
procrastination
having many started projects and none finished
impulsiveness
dishonesty
infidelity
hoarding
negative self talk
criticism of others
complaining
depression
worry
blame
smoking
overeating
sugar addiction
skipping breakfast
workaholic
alcoholic
overcommitting to things because you can’t say no
etc.

Often you can look at your parents, examine their habits and see them in yourself. <gasp> I know I do on both the positive side and the negative side. They’re there alright. This exercise is not to judge others or yourself. It is simply to identify. This is especially important if you have children because your current habits are likely to be modeled by those who look up to you. What habits and traits do you want to instill in them?

3. Next to each habit you identified, decide which of these habits are empowering and which habits are disempowering. An empowering habit serves your greater good. It usually serves the greater good of the people around you too, those whom you love and care about. A disempowering habit does not serve your greater good, in fact, it likely detracts from your life.  Disempowering habits are roadblocks to your dreams.

Next to each empowering habit, draw a smiley face :)  Next to each disempowering habit, draw a frown :(   There is no neutral.
4.  The best way to eliminate an old disempowering habit is to replace it with a new more empowering one.  Next to each disempowering habit, write down a description of the opposite habit you want to replace it with. 

For example, if you come home after a long day’s work and turn on the television vegging out mindlessly for hours while your belly magically grows, perhaps an evening walk with your mate is what’s called for. Perhaps instead of reading the newspaper each morning and being bombarded with negative news and advertisements, perhaps you will opt to replace it with reading a chapter of a personal development book or listening to an audio while you prepare for the day. Instead of surfing the net, perhaps you want to write a few pages of that book you’ve been putting off. If you’ve been hoarding to the point you barely have a path to walk through, perhaps some purging and organizing is in order. If you habitually criticize your mate, perhaps you can create a new habit of focusing on what’s great about them. If you were a habitual procrastinator, you could become a habitual action taker.

5. Prioritize which habits you want to tackle first based on their importance to your life. Write #1 next to the #1 most important habit you want to focus on, #2 for the next most important habit and so on. To begin, focus your time and attention only on the habit you have determined is most important that will have the greatest positive effect on your life. I’m not going to tell you to turn your entire life upside down overnight by tackling them all at once. Some can do this successfully because they seek a complete life makeover. Others who are easily overwhelmed and lack confidence will sabotage themselves and fare much better by focusing on one habit at a time.

6. Imagine a role model or someone you admire. What habits and rituals do they consistently practice to achieve the results they do? Now here’s the bigger question: What beliefs underlie those habits? Model the habits of those whom you admire. Model the habits hight achievers. Focus on the beliefs underneath that support those empowering habits. Fake it ’til you make it is ok to begin but it only gets you so far. Many copy the action steps in an effort to duplicate a formula, and complain when things don’t work out. They only went through the motions. The real magic happens when you in embrace the underlying Principles, beliefs and mindset that produced the success.

Sometimes creating a new habit can lead to a new belief.
Sometimes creating a new belief can lead to a new habit.

Ultimately, they must be congruent to move you in the direction of your Goal.

7. Celebrate your existing empowering habits and the new habits you seek to create. Imagine the positive effect on your life and the people you love. Revel in the ways you will impact the people around you for the better. Imagine your life in one month, 6 months, 1 year, 5-10 years from now. What will your life be like because you adopted these new and empowering habits and beliefs. Pretty remarkable I would think.
                                                                                                                            
When your current thoughts and habits are congruent with your Goals and dreams, you will begin to move towards them more quickly and with seemingly less effort.

You know you have successfully created a new habit when the practice of it is automatic and effortless.

How long does it take to break an old habit or form a new habit? It varies. Most experts assert you it takes 21 days. I believe it could take an hour, a week, months or years. The greater your desire and commitment, the faster the change will occur. Practicing the new desired habit consecutively (every single day without fail) increases the speed in which you will see results.

When the identity shift occurs inside you, you are well on your way. When you no longer think of yourself as a smoker, but a non smoker. When you no longer view yourself as overweight, but rather a healthy vibrant person who lives a healthy lifestyle. When you no longer think of yourself as a complainer, rather an person who finds the good in every person and situtation-automatically. That is when you will have successfully created the new empowering habit.

After you have accomplished successfully creating your #1 top priority habit, move on to # 2, then #3 and son on.

When your identity is congruent with the beliefs, thoughts and actions necessary to carry out your Goal, you have become the person necessary to achieve your Goal.

Resolve to do whatever it takes to improve the quality of your life.
Live Your Dreams,

Jill Koenig

http://www.GoalGuru.com

Jill Koenig, The Goal Guru, is America’s Top Goal Strategist. A self-made millionaire by age 30, she has dedicated her life to teaching the principles of Goal Setting, Productivity and Self Improvement to individuals, entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 companies. She is a highly sought after Author, Peak Performance Coach and Motivational Speaker. To learn how to achieve your Goals at TURBO speed, visit: http://www.GoalGuru.com

What Firefighting Taught Me About Goals and Priorities

This is probably one of the most important subjects I could ever share with you as it relates to your Goals and how they
contribute to improving the quality of your life.

As we have discussed before, most people don’t have clearly defined Goals. It is estimated that only 3% of the population
have any Goals at all, and certainly of that 3% even fewer have Goals in relation to a total holistic life design concept with action plans, timelines and priorities for each the different life areas.

One of the most common mistakes that holds people back from achieving their Goals is having have a long list of exciting Goals, but no system for organizing the order of priority for them.

Imagine how many decisions you make throughout any given day. What time will you wake up? What will you do when your open your eyes? Will you hit the snooze button or will you get up and get moving? Will you be excited about the day? What will you do next, will you exercise, read a little, listen to a personal development audio? Will you rewrite and review your Goals Cards? Will you eat breakfast and if you do, what will you have? Will it be rushed, will it be nutritious? You see what I’m talking about? You have just opened your eyes for only a few minutes and already you have made several decisions that will affect your day and over time, those daily minute to minute decisions become habits that accumulate to create your life, whether you realize it or not.

If a Goal is worth setting, it’s worth examining it’s relationship to the values and priorities in your life.

The Goal is the what, the priority and value is the why, and where it fits into your life. When you know the what and the why, the how is easy.

One of the most common complaints today is overwhelm. In a world where information overload is a daily occurrence, the solution to overcoming overwhelm lies in knowing which
information and which opportunities truly matter. And you cannot know the answer to that until you examine your values and determine your personal life priorities.

The Priority Principle

I would like to introduce you to The Priority Principle. The Priority Principle means knowing your values and priorities and arranging your life so that you spend your time, energy and money on what matters. It means you qualify each Goal and action by ranking the order of importance in advance. In a world where your potential is infinite, but your time is limited to 24 hours each day, the only way to navigate intelligently through life is to know what is most important to you and then act accordingly. Only when you have taken the time to examine your values and priorities carefully, can you know which opportunities, people, inputs and actions align with them.

My first major lesson in priorities came was when I was 18 years old on the job working as a Firefigher/Emergency Medical Technician. I was an art student by day and Firefighter by night and on weekends. I know, quite the combination, right?

Most people don’t think about emergency responders until they need one. If or when you have a situation like a fire, an accident, an illness or some kind of extreme crisis, you dial 911. A trained professional like a police officer, Firefighter, Paramedic or EMT arrives to help and take over the situation. They have the tools and the access to whatever it takes to bring the emergency, big or small, under control.

There are small scale emergencies that are non life-threatening, like broken bones and surface cuts that are relatively simple and easy to process, for example, one patient with one minor injury. And then there are larger scale emergencies like car accidents that can have multiple
victims, with multiple traumatic injuries, as well as enormous disasters with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of victims.

When there are more patients than manpower available to handle every victim immediately, there is a process that has to occur and it has to occur very quickly. That process is called Triage. Triage means to sort. Triage as performed in an emergency situation means someone has to quickly assess and sort through all of the victims and prioritize which patients will be treated and in what order. Even with one patient who has multiple injuries, when you can only treat one thing at a time, you have to prioritize which injury to treat first.

When there are multiple patients, a person who has a gaping open would would likely command a higher priority than another person who has all of their faculties who can walk and talk with no signs of urgent distress. I don’t want to get into all of the different variations of injuries here,
I just want to clarify that some patients will have a greater need for urgency over others. There are guidelines for determining which types of injuries get priority over all others. Emergency responders are trained and practice disaster drills so that when a crisis does occur, they know
what to do. Because no two crisises are identical, this training and practice in advance is often the lifesaver for many.

In times of calm, instructors clearly outlined in advance what the parameters were for the different valuations of urgency and priority of care so that when we were faced with the day to day activities of constant crisis, it would be almost second nature to make the right decision amidst
whatever circumstances arose.

With regards to medical emergencies, seconds mean life and death and decisions are made in milliseconds. Fortunately with your Goals, you don’t have as much pressure unless you are in crisis and most crisises can be prevented if you take the time to carefully examine your life regularly over time.

I transformed my life when I applied The Priority Principle.

In my 20’s I went through an interesting phase where I went from poverty to earning enough money to support myself and enjoy some of life’s luxuries. I didn’t really know what to do with the money. I had never had any before! But I was learning how to earn it and could breathe a little easier. I bought a new car and 2 motorcycles. I was making more
money than I ever had before but there didn’t seem to be enough cash to invest in the things I needed in order to grow my business. There is always a next level and I wanted to reach it. I wanted a bigger business, more income, more financial security and a big house.

One day I looked out at my motorcycles and thought, look at the money that is tied up in those bikes. They also served as a distraction as my biker friends were police officers and firefighers and worked all different shifts, so I would get invitations to go riding together at all hours of the day and night. I had not yet fully developed the habit of discipline so there were times I was riding motorcycles when I should have been working on myself and my business.

When I paused and thought about my motorcycles, in the scope of life, I realized that they are toys. I needed to rearrange my priorities. I figured if I valued my financial future more than my toys, then I should sell the motorcycles. After all, I could always buy another one in the future. So I rearranged and re-clarified my values. I needed to start valuing my financial future more than I valued those motorcycles.

So I sold them and invested the money into my business. Things grew so fast I could hardly keep up. Within a few months I moved into a 6,000 square foot house in the White Eagle Country Club in Naperville, IL. The girl who grew up in a 2 bedroom ghetto shack was suddenly living amongst CEOs, NBA stars and some of Chicago’s social elite. I am not trying to impress you, I just want to illustrate how quickly you can change your life when you become clear about your values and priorities and back it up with your actions. I went on to become a millionaire by ag 30 and never looked back.

You have got to invest the time into Triaging your Goals, dreams and life responsibilities. In a major medical emergency, if you don’t Triage properly, people die unnecessarily. In your day to day life, if you don’t Triage your Goals and apply the Priority Principle, your dreams die. I want you to Live Your Dreams.

I outline my own quick process of how to determine your values and priorities in simple terms, and great detail in Chapter 3 of http://www.TheTimeCommandments.com where you learn how to become crystal clear on your Goals and priorities in only 2 hours. Whether currently in a crisis or not, it is so important to take the time to look at what matters most to you in life. If you don’t, you will spend an awful lot of time feeling overwhelmed, putting out fires and responding to crisis after crisis, wasting your energy, instead of achieving your Goals with ease.

The good news is that when it comes to goal setting and life design, you have the luxury of deciding what your priorities are in advance IF you will invest the time and effort into learning the success system for doing it.

You are already deciding which Goals will be achieved and which ones will not whether you realize it or not. But now, by learning a new level of consciousness with regards to your priorities, you can achieve your Goals faster and have a lot more fun in the process.

I once had a Goal of owning a motorcycle. But in the scope of life, at that time, it meant nothing compared to my other Goals and priorities. Because I clarified that, I was able to take decisive action and move forward to more important, long lasting matters quickly and easily .

Don’t major in minor things. -Jim Rohn

Don’t focus major time and attention on Goals that are minor in the scope of your life.

It’s not our abilities that define who we truly are, it’s our thoughts, choices and our actions.

If you have never consciously thought about it, you might be wondering, “How do I know what my current values and priorities are?”

The answer, whether you like it or not, is that they are revealed in your current actions, patterns and habits. If you value time, you don’t waste it. If you value honesty, you don’t lie. If you value money, you invest it wisely. If you value growth, you work on self improvement. If you value
family, you invest your time and attention on nurturing them. If you value your spouse/partner, your words and behavior reveal this too. You are not what you say you are, you are what you repeatedly do.

Ultimatey, what you spend your time, energy and money on is a clear indicator of your values and priorities.

And if what you are currently doing is not working for you, you can change that and rearrange your priorities today in the next 120 minutes. You will increase your focus and productivity in every area of your life.

If you have never done this before, it’s worth the investment of your time. It will change your life.

To get clear and create your own personalized plan as it relates to balanced life design, learn how at

http://www.TheTimeCommandments.com

Live Your Dreams,

Jill Koenig

Some of my most cherished memories from childhood are from pickup football games my friends and I played on the school lawn down the street from my house.

There are lessons all around us contained in art, theatre, movies, athletics, nature and even in the most unexpected places.

The other day I was going through an old box of pictures and I found a picture of myself and my friends in front of the schoolyard where we used to play football together and it got me thinking about many of the lessons I learned about Goal Setting by watching and playing football. If you are a football fan, you will appreciate this.

The Top 10 Lessons Football Taught Me About Goal Setting

1. He who scores first gains momentum. Have you ever heard a coach talk about an upcoming game? Almost always the coach declares the intention to score first, to put points on the board as soon as possible. This is so important because it gives the scoring team a psychological edge. Scoring first has the potential to boost your confidence and deflate your opponents psyche. I have seen many games where two teams with equal talent are won by the team who scored first.

2. Every inch, every yard forward counts because it gets you closer to your Goal. Most of your offensive plays gain at best an average of a few yards, but over time, they accumulate and contribute to forward movement. Inevitably at times you go backwards a few yards, but if you stay focused on your Goal, you can make up for it on the next play.

3. You cannot play defense the whole game. You cannot just sit back in reactive mode, waiting to see what everyone else is going to do or spend all of your energy responding to circumstances. You have to be proactive, play offense and move yourself towards the Goal by making things happen through deliberate thought and effort.

4. To be effective, you must manage the clock. There are four quarters in a game and there are four quarters in one year. Carefully and strategically allocate your time, energy and manpower to perform at your peak from beginning to end.

5. Take quarterly time outs to evaluate. Schedule these into your life. Examine your stats and measurements. How are you doing? You may need to make an adjustment in your game plan, tactics or fine tune your game plan for better results. If you are in need of a short break to re energize, or are off track at any time, simply call a time out and regroup.

6. You need a strategic Game Plan. Before the game is ever played, every player must know their part and be prepared to execute.

7. You need a great Coach. Even the most gifted, talented players need a Coach to bring out the best in them and keep them focused on the executing the plan. A Coach has a different perspective than the players. A great Coach brings experience and a holistic view of the game and can see things in the big picture that most players cannot see.

8. The greatest players in the game condition themselves year round. Those who enjoy longevity work just as hard on themselves outside of the game as they do in the game. They surround themselves with positive people who support their Goals. If luck is where preparation meets opportunity, the prepared outperform those who are not conditioned every time.

9. An effective Blitz can change the momentum and turn the game in your favor. Focusing all of your energy and attention on one area can catapult you forward by leaps and bounds.

10. Be a Leader, be a play maker. On every team, in every game, you know who the go to guy is who will get the job done when the game is on the line. You know who puts in the extra effort and that in a close game, that extra push is what makes a winner. Be that play maker in your chosen field.

In the game of football and in the game of life, be a team player. Be a leader and approach every important goal as if it your own personal Superbowl.

Enjoy the game and live your dreams.

Jill Koenig
http://www.TheGoalGuru.com

Former drug addict, example of real life makeover

Have you ever seen that tv show called Extreme Home Makeover, where they take a run down wreck of a house and transform it into a virtually unrecognizable, beautiful work of art?

I love that show and I always get emotional
because the first 25 years of my life resembled
the “before” (run down, falling apart) until I learned and applied some specific strategies to my life, and things are very different now. The tv show is great metaphor for what is possible in any area of your life when you have the right tools, support and strategies.

Below you will find my interview with a person who made a similar remarkable transformation in his own life.

His Before looked like this:

He lived in poverty, was a high school dropout, drug addict, Alcoholic and made more than one suicide attempt hoping to end his own life.

Until he managed to create a remarkable turnaround in his life and now…

His After looks like this:

He got and stayed clean and sober, became a counselor to others struggling with the same cycles he once battled, went on to college,
earned a 4.0 GPA and was honored in the National Deans List, lost 50 pounds in 3 months, and became financially successful despite his
earlier years of poverty. He has an amazing relationship with his wife and two daughters and lives a rather extraordinary life now.

Listen in as I interview Mike Kemski, creator of Banabu Life where he reveals EXACTLY what he did to transform the circumstances of his life “from worst to first” and how you can too!

Press the arrow to play. Click the link to download the mp3 to your computer

Download the MP3
(Right-click and select “Save Target As…” or “Save File As…”)

Live Your Dreams,

Jill

ps. please forward this to a friend if you know someone who would benefit from learning from this amazing, uplifting, real life turnaround example