Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

In the previous installment, we reassessed and realigned our “reference group,” or the associations that can help or hurt us in achieving our goals.

Now we need to talk about the most powerful influence in your life: the information or input you feed your mind.

If we want to produce different results in life, we have to think differently, to nurture a different mindset. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

If your thinking is stinking so will your results. What you think about, you create. This is why all the monumental classic personal-achievement books have focused on how you think: Think and Grow Rich, As a Man Thinketh, The Power of Positive Thinking, The Magic of Thinking Big, etc.

You are not what you think you are, but what you think… you are!

The most constant influence of conditioning that affects our lives, our results and our ability to achieve is the information we feed our mind.

Our minds operate as simply as a computer. Computers are complex systems, but how they work is rather simple. What you input is what it outputs. It doesn’t judge or discriminate; it simply acts on the input. That is also how your mind works. It does not judge or discriminate the information you feed it; it simply acts on the input. I am sure you have heard the axiom “Garbage in, garbage out.” This is true for computer programming, and for the information you allow to program your mind.

This is why it is crucial that you read more »

Review: INTRO,
GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10

So you now have your well-designed goals—fantastic!

You also have your plan of action to achieve them—hooray!

You even have your achievement-management system set to keep you on track with that plan—bravo!

What could possibly get in your way now?

Actually, 6,692,030,277 things (the world’s current population), or at least those people whom you circulate with regularly.

This reminds me of the title for one of Connie Podesta’s books: Life Would Be Easy If It Weren’t for Other People. So true, so true.

Your associations are one of the most powerful influences (I will discuss the most powerful influence on Thursday) that determine whether you will stick to your goals or get forever derailed.

Dr. David McClelland of Harvard University concluded after 25 years of research that the choice of a negative “reference group” was in itself enough to condemn a person to failure and underachievement in life. Whoa! Scary, isn’t it?

His discovery indicates that your reference group is more important in determining your success or failure than any other single factor.

“Associations are both subtle and powerful.” —Jim Rohn

Your associations don’t shove you in a direction; they nudge you ever so slightly over time. Influence is so subtle that it is like being on an inner tube out in the ocean; you feel like you are floating still, until you look up and realize the subtle current has pushed you half a mile down the shore.

Jim Rohn explains: “You will become the combined average of the five people you hang around the most. You will have the combined attitude, health and income of the five people you hang around the most.”

In the worksheets, I am going to have you do something very frightening: I want you to determine the five people you hang around the most and then total up the numbers. You will see clearly that read more »

A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM DARREN HARDY:

Here’s a summary of week five in our journey towards Designing the Best 10 Years of Your Life where I answer your questions and give you a course update.

I’ve also selected some of your questions and observations left in the comments sections along with some of my responses. I hope you find it helpful to peruse through the common questions and insights shared by others experiencing the process along with you.

Please watch the video:

>>>You can listen to my private interview with the great Jim Rohn HERE<<<
This was included in the premier launch issue of SUCCESS magazine, April/May 2008

Questions and Answers with Darren Hardy:

From Renee: “I am really enjoying this program and look forward to working through this process, thank you! The worksheet on designing SMART goals is really helpful and I see that goals need to be measurable, attainable, and time sensitive. To me, my most relevant goal for myself for 2010 is to be more open with myself and others… I know this is what I need and what I want, but I am not sure how to make that into a SMART goal. How do you really measure that? Or should I rework my goal? Any suggestions?”

[DARREN HARDY] What does “open with yourself and others” look like? How would we know you are or aren’t? What are the visible and measurable effects of that description? Why do you want that? What will be the benefit and outcome of being that way? Maybe the ultimate outcome of being that way is what your goal really is. Keep asking yourself read more »

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9

Have you ever heard the adage, “I will accomplish this even if it kills me”? Well, in my early years of goal setting and achieving… I almost died! I also missed a lot of other opportunities along the way.

I became so focused, so dogmatic about the goals I had set and my specific plans to achieve them that my blinders kept me from 1) seeing easier and faster routes to my destination, and 2) that some of the goals that were important earlier in the year or at the beginning of the decade were less important than I originally believed.

One of the greatest challenges to success is learning how to stay focused on your goals while remaining flexible enough to adapt to needed change.

Even though we have declared S.M.A.R.T. goals and designed a very specific strategic plan to achieve them, it is equally important to remain open and flexible along the way. If you look back at most of your defining moments, or the pivotal events that transformed your life, I bet most were unplanned and happened unexpectedly. Life is a mystery; you never know what might show up and you can’t be so myopic that you miss opportunities and solutions you couldn’t have even fathomed before.

Murphy’s Law and the T-shirt Philosophy

You know ol’ Murph right? The oh-too familiar friend who always seems to show up at your party at the most embarrassing and worst-possible times. Well Murphy lives to teach us this: If something can go wrong, it will. Don’t be too attached to the route you first charted, as you will undoubtedly be reevaluating and readjusting all along the way.

Imagine read more »

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8

Wow! We have covered some incredible ground thus far! You have your ambitious and appropriate goals that are based on your strengths and opportunities and have been whole-life balanced. You know who you want to become, who you want to serve and you have the strategic plan of action to achieve all your worthy goals.

Now it is time to create an execution system to implement your plan in the real world—your world.

Some of the best of intentions and greatest plans have failed because there wasn’t a system of execution to see them through. When it comes down to it, your new plans, your new actions, your new behavior, have to be implemented into your monthly, weekly and ultimately daily routine. A routine is something you do every day without fail… and eventually without thinking about it.

Consider this: read more »