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

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

I bring this to your attention now so that you can give yourself the ability to make a conscious decision of what you want to create for yourself in the final 33 days left in 2007. That gives you plenty of time to tie up loose ends get a handle on any unfinished business you want to wrap up before December 31st.

For some this time of year brings great growth and positive momentum, yet others experience a decline or negative momentum, as in a slow down.

There are many myths about the Holiday Season when it comes to business. These myths apply to both online and offline businesses.

The Biggest Business Myth of the Holiday Season: “Only retail and gift businesses grow during this time of year, every other business slows.” This is simply not true. I love it when people tell me that business is slow this time of year and that my business will slow whether I want it to or not. It seems like a rather helpless proposition, doesn’t it?

In most cases, business slows for them because they stopped doing the daily method of operation that their business needs in order to continue moving forward. Many business owners actually reduce their efforts and fail to follow their own action plan during this time because they believe it is a slow season, because someone told them it would be and so it becomes true for them. Because they believe and accept this erroneous prediction, they stop trying, they stop injecting life giving effort into their business. That is why business slows for them.

Yet for others, this is the time or year to create exponential growth. If your competition is reducing their efforts, and most are, it is the perfect time for you to rev it up and make your move.

Don’t get caught in the trap of reducing your efforts because the media, your peers or anyone tells you that business slows. Do not ever accept that invitation to slack or minimize your efforts. This is the most critical time of year to practice consistency for any business. Every action you take in December contributes to a stronger January. Keep the ball rolling.

The keys for thriving during the Holiday Season are persistence and consistency. Every day people are looking for whatever information, service or product you offer. Those who keep up, stick with their plan or even increase their focus and efforts this time of year are the ones who will reap the rewards and explode their growth in the coming year.

Choose to be one of them.

You do not have to succumb to the myths that others use to rationalize their own laziness or reduced actions that are based purely on opinion.

Momentum breeds Momentum.

Winners know that finishing strong in December is the catalyst for massive growth in January as it sets the tone for the rest of the year.

Live Your Dreams,

Jill Koenig

I think we all agree that there is a huge gap between passively learning a thing and the actual Mastery of it. Anyone can pick up a paintbrush and splash some color on a canvas, but not everyone will go on to create a masterpiece. While everyone CAN create a masterpiece, everyone has the capacity, not everyone will employ the belief, drive, discipline or even the desire to develop their inborn dormant talent or skill.

There is one area in which each of us must become the master of, and it is that of our own life design. We are given the blank canvas at birth and for a time, we are guided by others on how to fill it in until we realize that we can begin anew with a blank canvas anytime we choose. In fact, we can add as much color and depth as we want and we can paint over whatever we previously created.

Don’t wait for someone else to give you permission to paint your canvas. Choose your own color palette, mix it up and fill your life with rich textures, and make your life full of color, depth and expression. Aim high, think big and go for your dreams with all of your might.

You are the artist.

Your life is the canvas.

Make it a masterpiece.

Goal Achieving is the #1 life skill, but most people become complacent about it and take it for granted. They understand it to some degree in theory, but rarely activate the immense power of integrating it into their day to day life.

Goal Setting is very easy to do. It’s also just as easy not to do. And herein lies the danger. It is one of the most powerful “unseen” forces in the world, yet it is one of the easiest to take for granted or engage in sloppiness and mediocrity.

For example, most people only think about Goals once a year. You guessed it, January 1st. Millions of people take a stab at setting some half-hearted New Years Resolutions. They make random wishes in the hopes of achieving or obtaining things they have no commitment to and within a few weeks, they are forgotten… until next year. And then they do the exact same thing. Most resolutions have little motivation attached to them, no plans for their attainment, no strategy for measuring their progress and no support or success system to ensure their progress.

One of my early mentors said to me, “Find out what failures do and then don’t do it. Find out what successful people do and then do it.”

So don’t do what the failing Resolution crowd does, which is clearly “set it and forget it.” Learn how to stay plugged in to your Goals every single day, 365 days a year. Here are some helpful tips:

The Three Stages of a Goal

In my observation of those who embark upon the journey of Goals, I estimate that 97% of those who attempt to pursue a Goal barely succeed beyond the first stage of Goals and therefore never progress to the second or third stage. It’s easier than you think to realize your most significant Goals once you understand the magnitude.

Stage 1. Goal Setting

Over the course of my life and in my decades of studying success and leadership, I learned key distinctions about how to create success systemsâ„¢. A system is a formula that dictates a sequential order of a process. Call it what you will, in sports, it’s a game plan, in cooking it’s a recipe, in business it’s a business plan. For example, when someone start a company and it succeeds, in many respects, they can model the steps that led to a successful outcome and duplicate them when creating the next company.

And the greatest success systemâ„¢ you could ever learn is that which leads to the advancement and achievement of your most cherished Goals.

The Goal Rush success systemâ„¢ is your recipe, a formula that when followed will lead you to a successful result. I found that those who consistently achieve their dreams, whether consciously or not have followed a system. The system and the first stage of the process is critical for your success. At this juncture Goal Setting is more than just making a wish. Goal Setting in it’s essence is deciding, visualizing, planning, beginning to take the necessary actions, measuring, adjusting where necessary which will then lead to the Goal’s advancement and finally Goal Achieving.

You see Goal Setting is only one aspect of the equation. The setting of the Goal is the envisioning stage. It’s one of the early steps in a process of having, being, doing or giving something. Did you know that there is a surefire process for selecting Goals? Then and only then, can you pursue your most cherished Goals based on a holistic perspective of your life and from there, from only the Goals that pass the test and meet the criteria, you will begin the journey of moving towards it and attracting it. The only thing worse than not setting Goals, is tying up your time and energy on Goals that have no meaning. Even more damaging, is the habitual act of pursuing Goals are detrimental to you and the people around you, the Goals that rob you of your most precious resources and detract from the other areas of your life.

Goal Setting is the stage of decision. Deciding what you want and clarifying it in precise detail.

Stage 2. Goal Achieving

Goal Achieving is the outcome or result of actually hitting your target. After you learn the art of Goal Setting, you will drastically increase your success rate. I don’t know anyone who achieves every Goal they set, not even me. Bill Gates, Tiger Woods and others who are world class Goal Achievers don’t reach all of their Goals either, but they are winners in the game of life because they aim higher than most people ever dream and therefore they reap a higher level of reward. World Class Goal Achievers know the simple process of selecting Goals that are in harmony with your life’s purpose, planning for their attainment, and increasing the likelihood of it’s success. There are a multitude of things you can do to stack the odds in your favor. Goal Achievers understand it is possible to live in a constant state of joy, even when things don’t go as planned, even when things don’t work out.

The joy is in the journey.

Stage 3. Goal Mastery

Goal Mastery is the state of habitually and consistently being in touch with your life’s purpose and leading a Goal directed life. In this state most or even all of your life areas are working at optimum levels, meaning your relationships, career, health, financial and spiritual lives are all feeding and adding to each other. You easily attract what you want. Some call it balance, but it is rare to have all of those areas living in total balance. Instead, strive for harmony. Your life Goals allow you to live a life where no one area gets neglected or suffers. Whatever you call it, Goal Mastery is a state of positive growth in all areas.

Mastery of anything is not a one time event. It is a constant process of never ending improvement. When you think you know it all is precisely the moment you will begin to backslide and regress. That is what leads to complacency and depression. How many people do we know who were incredibly gifted at something but stopped developing their God given gifts because they got comfortable or distracted? How many people do we know who settle for much less than the are capable of and go on to lead lives of quiet desperation.

If repetition is the mother of skill then just like I and so many others have, you too, have the power to condition yourself for success, and along with that comes the means to choose and achieve your destiny.

You are the artist.

Your life is the canvas.

Make it a masterpiece.

Live Your Dreams,

Jill

To make your life a masterpiece, enroll in Goal University today!

http://www.GoalUniversity.com