Are you going to set yourself some New Years resolutions?

I know it’s a bit early but it’s not a bad idea to start thinking about next years goals right now rather than, as most people do, think about it on New Years Eve! Last November I set myself an income goal for 2010 and because of the momentum I created over the next few months I’d achieved that goal by the end of the first quarter! If you want 2011 to be your best year ever, now is the time to set the goals and start planning your work load.

Before we decide on some targets it may be worth looking at the areas we could set goals in. Not everyone is interested in just having a set of challenging financial goals, and in fact it would probably put us out of balance if we did. In order to give ourselves some balance perhaps we should consider looking at an exercise called the wheel of life that I came across many years ago.

Draw a cross on a piece of paper and then bisect the cross to make eight lines, making sure that all the lines are of equal length. Now add some titles to each of the lines representing all the important areas of your life. Some suggestions might be: your Career, your Financial life, your Physical life (health and fitness), the Relationships in your life, your Emotional life (the awareness and understanding of your emotions), your Educational life (areas for study, qualifications etc), your Spiritual life (relationship with or understanding of a higher being or purpose), etc.

You’ll notice that I’ve only made 7 suggestions as many people have another very specific area in their life that requires particular attention. In my case it’s my competitive swimming achievements which I regard as very separate to my levels of health and fitness and this warrants a spoke all to itself. For other people this extra spoke may be their part time business, their charity work or even a relationship with one specific person.

For each of these 8 areas you’ll need to give yourself a score from 0 to 10 according to how happy you are with that area of your life right now, 10 being extremely happy and 1 being not happy at all. If you’ve lost your job, are totally broke, have no possessions, are up to your ears in debt and have no way out of this dilemma you may want to score yourself a 0 or 1 on the financial area! If, for example, you are considering the spiritual side of life but have no interest or desire for knowledge in that area and are totally happy with that situation, then you’d probably score yourself a 10. These scores would have nothing to do with how other people see you or how the world might judge you but how you see yourself. It’s simply how happy you feel with that part of your life.

Now I’d like you to imagine that each line is a spoke on a wheel and each spoke has numbers on it running from 0 at the centre of the wheel to 10 at the rim. Place a cross on each spoke according to the score you have given yourself in that area and join up the crosses with a curved line to create your Wheel of Life which will probably now look far from round!

Now I’d like to ask you a question. How comfortable would your journey be if the wheels on your car were the shape of your wheel of life? If it’s anything like my example then the answer is probably not very comfortable which shows us why our life may be uncomfortable or a bit difficult right now!

Doing this exercise really shows us where we need to set some goals in order that our life experience can become a more comfortable one. It helps us to see how far out of balance we are and what areas we need to focus on for the coming year. We can set goals in any of the areas we have discussed and we need to be very specific with those goals. For example if you find that you have a failing within the relationships area of your life, perhaps with one individual then you could set a goal of spending at least one evening a week alone with that person concentrating on your relationship rather than on the TV or some other distraction.

We aren’t necessarily looking to score 10 on every spoke but we are looking for similar numbers on all spokes which will create some balance so that we have a smoother ride. In the past I’ve found that once I’ve done the wheel of life exercise, set some goals I immediately feel happier because I know how to get myself back on track. If I then work hard towards those goals for a couple of months and get some more balance and then re-do the exercise, I come up with a completely different shape of wheel and I have to set some more goals to get balanced again.

Hope you enjoy the exercise and that 2011 is your best year yet!

Talk is cheap.

Do you ever feel like half the world is running on a different set of rules to the other half? Almost two years ago an old friend of mine asked to borrow some money to help him achieve a project that he was obviously excited about. He said he’d pay me back in three months when he got a grant for a bike ride and I accepted this but he missed this deadline and all the ones he subsequently set, finally paying the back almost two years later. He succeeded in his quest, achieved the outcome he was looking for but has in my mind failed to get there with integrity. Now you might be right if you were to suggest that I don’t pick my friends very well but it does seem strange to me that someone would make a clear promise and then make excuses when he fails to deliver. Although I’m upset about not getting my money I am more disappointed that my ‘friend’ doesn’t think he needs to keep his promises to me.

Maybe it’s my line of work but I find that I come across quite a few people that tell me they are going to do something and then end up doing something completely different or nothing at all. If I push them on it they usually have a great excuse but the fact still remains that they made a promise, set a deadline, agreed a course of action and then failed to deliver.

On my goal setting programme Getting exactly what you want I get people to set a 10 week goal. I ensure that the goals are well defined and accurate and to keep people motivated I ask people to attach a reward and consequence to it (how they will reward themselves when they achieve it and what price they will pay if they don’t get there). I then help people to become really committed to their goal by making the whole process as transparent as possible and publishing all the goals to everyone involved. Even with all this in place a percentage of the goal setters never communicate with me again, they don’t deliver on their promise and, what is worse, I suspect they don’t take their consequence when they fail!

Now either these people didn’t think enough about their goal before they set it or they don’t have the self discipline to carry through on what they promised. To me it’s really simple; if you promise something - you deliver; if you’re not sure about it, don’t promise. If you promise something and fail to deliver then be accountable, admit your mistakes and do everything you can to put things right.

I always feel let down when people fail to deliver on their promises. Let down in the sense they don’t think enough about their word, their integrity. I’m quite happy for people to attempt something and fail - in fact I think failure is very important but what I hate is if they then try to wriggle out of their commitment or try and hide behind some lame excuse.

After reading Seth Goddon’s book, Tribes, I’ve decided to form my own tribe of people. People that deliver on their promises and if they fail, they admit their mistakes and put things right because I’m sick of dealing with the ones that don’t. I’m going to call this the TIC tribe; the Talk Is Cheap tribe.

· Talk is cheap.
· Actions speak louder than words.
· What you do speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say.

To become a member is really simple; you need to have:

1. Set a big goal
2. Worked really hard to achieve it probably with much pain and failure on the way.
3. Achieved it and then told people about it.
4. If you failed then you immediately admitted your mistakes and kept trying until you succeeded.

If you’re a member of the TIC tribe you’d get to know other TIC’s. Imagine what it would be like just to do business with other TIC’s, how much less hassle you’d experience? What would work be like if you only employed members of the TIC tribe?

I’d like my kids to grow up surrounded by TICs; they’re going to be influenced by the people around them and I’d like them to learn integrity and commitment from people like you.

I’ve not decided how this is going to work yet but if you’d like to join my tribe then please let me know and send this onto other carefully selected people who qualify.

Staying positive in these tough times

10 Practical tips to help you feel more positive in these tough times

• Raise your game. The saying goes that when the going gets tough the tough get going and that couldn’t be more true right now. This is the time to put in more effort than you normally do, focusing on the activities that bring in business. Remember: Anyone can succeed when the conditions are easy, it’s the tough time that really define us.

• Turn off the TV. The media delight in telling us how bad things are at the moment and the more we listen the more we buy into their message. If you want to stay positive then don’t listen to their messages. Turn off the news and watch a Billy Connelly DVD instead!

• Flush the negative people. Have you ever noticed how, if you let your guard down, the grumps of this world are able to bring you down to their level. Now is not the time to spend time with the negative people that you know, seek out the positive ones and spend your time with them.

• Focus on your successes. The simplest way to get depressed is to focus on all the failures you’ve had in your life. We all have failures, challenges and bad times and the more we focus on them the more we feel negative. When we focus on our successes we feel so much better.

• Get out of bed on the right side. Most people struggle out of bed and spend their first few moments of their day in a sleepy haze. Zig Zigler, one of the original ‘Motivational Speakers’ used to preach the following morning routine: Throw the bed covers off, leap out of bed and shout “IT’S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY”. If you follow this routine I bet you won’t be able to stop smiling all morning!

• Read some good stuff. The computer industry used to use the following to describe bad programming: GIGO: Garbage in, Garbage out. If you apply this to your brain you’ll understand why it’s so important to read uplifting articles, books and magazines if you’d like to stay positive.
  

• Listen to some good stuff. I hope your car is like mine, full of motivational and inspirational CD’s. When we listen to the radio not only do we get the news every half an hour but we then have no control over what goes into our brains. Turn off the radio and control your input.
  

• Attend uplifting presentations. When you hear speakers tell positive, uplifting stories doesn’t it make you feel better? Attend at least one positive, motivational event every month. Join a networking group that contains positive people, attend breakfast presentations and conferences to ensure you stay informed and positive.

• Smile and walk tall. Our physiology dictates our mood and if we slump, walk slowly and look at our feet all the time we’ll find it difficult to feel powerful and motivated. Next time you are taking a walk try this: Imagine that you’ve just won the lottery and you are on your way to pick up the ticket before the deadline expires. Smile and the rest of the world will wonder what you’ve been up to!
  

• Take regular exercise. Everyone feels better after they’ve exercised. Go for a swim at the early morning session, park your car away from the office and walk the last few kilometres, don’t take the lift, use the stairs and then go to the gym on the way home from work. Exercise is good for you and it’ll make you feel great.
  
  

Speaker's Bootcamp 2010

Are you thinking of a change of direction? Check out http://johnshack.com/?page_id=574 for information on this year's bootcamp and find out how you can make speaking your career. Early bird rates apply for bookings made before 1 October. Look forward to seeing you there!

Inspire Your Team

Finally my latest book is in print! Many people think that a leader’s job is to motivate their people but, in fact, if we spend our time doing this we actually make our team weaker, not stronger. If you are spending your time motivating people how will they learn to become more self-motivated? Our job as a leader is to inspire people, not motivate them and Inspire Your Team outlines the process used by many of the world’s top sports coaches to inspire their charges and demonstrates how you can apply the principles to your business life.

If you would like a copy check out the website - www.johnshack.com and enjoy your read!

Resilience - 10 tips for Mental Toughness

10 ways to get mentally tough and achieve your goals

1. When you have a setback think of it as a challenge to be overcome that will lead you to future accomplishment, not as a reason to give up.

2. When you encounter people who are negative about your aims remember that the key to achievement is to stay positive in the presence of negativity – it is easy to remain positive in the absence of negativity! Negativity is their problem, not yours.

3. When you have a failure let it be a lesson, learn from it, and then remember a time you succeeded and focus on that instead.

4. If you come to the realization that your goal is not achievable in its present form then amend the goal or the achievement date and then refocus, do not give up completely.

5. If you find that some part of your goal is outside of your control then review the goal, focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t so that you remain on track.

6. Make the decision to take massive action towards achieving your goals and not to procrastinate, decide what needs to be done and do it now.

7. Take notice of the experts. If someone has already achieved the goal that you are aiming for then find out how they did it – read their book, email them, take them for a coffee, talk to them and use the information to your advantage.

8. Review regularly. Keep the end result at the forefront of your mind so that your sub-conscious knows what it needs to achieve, but check your progress throughout the process to keep on track and make adjustments when necessary.

9. When we are tentative we have no power so give your goal 100% effort. If you aim half-heartedly at your goal then your results will be equally lacklustre. Put everything you have into it to maximize your outcome.

10. Celebrate your achievements. Decide how to reward yourself for a successful outcome, have smaller rewards for reaching significant milestones. If you put some fun, and some pleasure, into the process it won’t be a problem remaining in the game

Do you want to live to be 100?

‘How to live to be 100’ – that sort of headline tends to grab people’s attention, most of us want to live as long as possible for a variety of reasons; to enjoy our retirement, see our grandchildren grow up, the list is endless. Ironically though statistics suggest that we may be the last long living generation, obesity and the diseases related to it mean that our children may not outlive us

I would suggest to you, however, that for most of us the aim is not to live as long as possible but to have more life in our years, than years in our lives – it is better to be an active, alert 90 year old, than a bedridden senile 100 year old. So, how can we make sure that we maintain a healthy body and mind as we get older?

Explorer and writer, Dan Buettner, has traveled the world and identified five areas he calls Blue Zones in which people live the longest, healthiest lives – Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and Icaria in Greece and studied the reasons for their longevity. Obviously it’s not practical or feasible for us all to move to these areas to extend our life span so let’s take a look at Dan Buettner’s conclusions and consider applying them to our lives to ensure we maximize the life in our years.

• Move naturally – a simple principle but in our world one we tend to neglect. Don’t drive short journeys – walk, don’t take the lift – climb the stairs. Find an activity you enjoy and book a regular class in it. Play soccer or tag with your kids. Keep moving!
• Cut calories by 20% - serve yourself a smaller portion, don’t go for seconds, don’t finish up what your kids leave. Eat at the table, not in front of the TV so you don’t mindlessly shovel food in.
• Plant based diet – this doesn’t mean turning vegetarian, just increase the amount of fruit and vegetables that you eat. Add pulses to your diet. Have nuts as a snack instead of chippies and chocolates – they have the added benefit of lots of additional nutrients – selenium from Brazil nuts, vitamin E from almonds, omega 3 fatty acids from walnuts.
• Drink red wine – in moderation obviously – a couple of servings a day. In clinical studies evidence suggests that the resveratrol and quercetin, which are found in red wine, boost the immune system, block cancer formation and possibly protect against heart disease. Sadly beer doesn’t offer any of these positive effects!
• Determine your life purpose – decide why it is that you get up in the morning and what you aim to achieve during the day. If you can’t think of a reason find yourself a new challenge and set some goals.
• Relax – Plan your time to minimize your stress. Aim to be 15 minutes early for appointments so you don’t have to rush. Reduce noise, don’t have the TV, radio and computer all going together, reduce the sensory input and enjoy silence. Take ten minutes to sit with nothing to do but relax.
• Belong or participate in a spiritual community – this may not be for everyone, depending on your views but if you have an existing commitment of church or alternative spiritual tradition then deepen your involvement.
• Family first – make your family, whanau and loved ones a priority. Schedule in regular family time, Sunday lunch together round the table, weekend walks, board games – any activity that promotes conversation and togetherness to enhance your relationships.
• Pick the right tribe – those around you will have more influence on the way you live your life than anyone else, so pick the right people to surround yourself with, those who share your values and outlook and who will promote your lifestyle and health. Move away from those who are negative or try to undermine the way you live.
  
  These principles are very simple, and the population of the Blue Zones live very simple lives – they don’t rely on drugs to prolong their life, they use their diet to maximize their health; they don’t rely on liposuction and Botox to keep in shape and look good, they use exercise to maintain weight and strength; they don’t live their lives by the clock, worrying about emails and mobile phones, they take each moment as it comes and enjoy it. Doesn’t it seem that there is an awful lot we can learn from them so we, too, can get the most out of life for as long as possible?
  
  To find out more about Dan Buettner and the Blue Zones go to www.bluezones.com.