Last week I discussed the half-dozen ways people stumble on their New Year’s resolutions and goals right at the starting line. It generated a healthy discussion and I appreciate everyone’s contribution.

This week I’d like to offer you the half-dozen ways you can explode off the starting blocks and set yourself up to not only stay in the race (this time), but actually finish victorious!

1. Big 3

If you are using Living Your Best Year Ever, it guides you through making several goals in all 8 key areas of life. It then helps you reduce your plethora of goals down to your Big 3. I know you will want to accomplish ALL your goals, but it is critical you reduce it down to just 3 to supremely focus on.

Pick the 3 goals that are most important to you and would have the most dramatic impact on your life and lifestyle. Resist the urge to chase after other shiny objects that come into your field of vision.

2. One Thing

As Curly in City Slickers said, “Find your ‘One Thing’.” In this case, it is the one key behavior that is most important to you accomplishing each of your Big 3 goals.

Examples:

Goal: Liberate 20 pounds to become ideal weight of 180.
Key behavior: 45 minutes of exercise, 3 times per week at a sustained target heart rate of 175.

Goal: Earn $200,000 in sales income.
Key behavior: Collect 5 “no’s” 5 days a week.

Goal: Deepen intimacy with spouse.
Key behavior: Say something appreciative or acknowledging 3 times per day, (at least) 6 days a week.

3. Installation

You can figure out your Big 3; you can even identify your One Thing that will be key to making it come true, but remember this very key point: read more »

Have you made New Year’s resolutions or set goals before and failed?

Have you entered a new year beating your chest and proclaiming your magnificent transformation from every mountaintop only to have it dwindle to a whimper by the time January gets torn off the calendar?

What went wrong?

In my experience, there are about a half a dozen ways you can trip yourself up right at the start. Let me help you avoid these common trip-ups:

1. Too Many, Too Much

You try to tackle too many goals, change too many ingrained behaviors and attempt too much too quickly. Look, you have probably been building, developing and reinforcing a poor habit for 10, 20, 30, maybe even 40-plus years. Breaking one poor habit and trying to install a single new success habit is tough enough (and worth it). If you try to do too many, you won’t do any.

2. Too Tough, Too Soon

Remember Richard from The Compound Effect? He had never worked out in his life, but then started working out 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I told him to back it down to 45 minutes, 3 days a week—something he could maintain for the next 50 years. He swore up and down he could maintain this and was committed to his new plan. By the time the book went to press, he had just started this program. Guess how long he works out, and how many days a week today? Zero and zero. He set himself up to fail and he did. Don’t be a Richard. (Suggestion: refer to “Ease In” section, page 80 of TCE).

3. Too Hardcore

Is there such thing as too much discipline? Yes and yes. Yes, if you want to have any levity, fun and joy in life. And yes, particularly in the beginning of a transformation. Too much discipline too quickly will send your emotional and psychic system into a state of shock, then meltdown. Willpower fails, eventually, every time. Can you hold your breath indefinitely? Neither can you hold your willpower indefinitely.

4. Too Rigid

Give yourself some room for error. You will be off course 80% of time. Life will happen. You will fall. Just don’t stay down. Get up and get back on. Over and over and over again.

read more »

Are you feeling a little bummed or even disappointed in where you are in life right now?

Did you think you would be doing a little bit better and be a little further along in life by now?

Are you a little down on yourself about how you have let your body go… or your relationships wane a bit… or maybe you’re frustrated about the fact you aren’t doing better in your job or business… or you haven’t been the parent you wanted to be?

Maybe it’s even worse and you have recently filed for bankruptcy… or maybe you are recently divorced or just suffered a heart attack or some other serious health condition?

If so, it’s time for a turning point.

You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity—doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. You’re not insane are you? If you want the next year to be different than the last year, then now is the time to do something different.

Here is a very inspiring realization: No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future.

When you wake up tomorrow the canvas of your life is blank. You can paint a completely different picture tomorrow than you have ever painted before. Your past does not equal your future. You can hit the reset button to your life at any time. I want to suggest you hit it today.

I want to help you. I can show you how to achieve in a few months what it takes others an entire lifetime to achieve. If you’ve got the ambition and the passion to radically redesign your future

Please enjoy the final video in this series below.

Do you want to make THIS year the year you not only set big goals, but actually achieve them? read more »

I promised you in the last video I would explain the process of how goal setting, and far more important, goal ACHIEVING actually works. This is the mystery of the ‘secret’ REVEALED.

This is how the Law of Attraction really works. It is not some mysterious, esoteric voodoo, as it sometimes sounds like, as it is being described. It’s far simpler and more practical than that.

By the end you will say… “Ah, I get it.” And, “Now… I know how to make it work.”

More good stuff to discover in this video:

• What 3 boys out hiking can teach you about kicking butt in a competition.
• 5 BIG reasons why most goal setting attempts fail, miserably. Don’t make these mistakes. Ouch! And costly.
• Oh, and what Reggie Hammond (as played by Eddie Murphy) can teach you about proclaiming your goals.

In the next (and final… don’t be sad) video I will show you how to I can help navigate you through all the potential pitfalls to insure you have the precise formula for achieving the boldest goals and wildest ambitions you can dream up.

***Order Living Your Best Year Ever–
A Proven System for Achieving BIG Goals***

Inspire us! Tell us your goal setting and goal achieving testimonial. When did you achieve something you never before thought was possible until you set a proper goal and plan to achieve it?

Do you remember all the big dreams you had when you were younger?

Dreams so exciting that you could barely wait to grow up so you could pursue them. You had those dreams for a reason—your inner potential was casting a vision of what is possible for you.

I want to help you rekindle those dreams and show you they’re not only possible, but attainable. I want to show you the path that will lead you directly and expeditiously to them.

I also want help you answer some life-changing questions—what’s your grander purpose in life? What really motivates and ignites your passion? What will keep that passion burning long enough for you to achieve your wildest, most outrageous goals?

In the second video (if you missed: video #1) of our Living Your Best Year Ever series, I will discuss those issues as well as:

• A secret I know about you… especially if you finish watching this video!
• Radically speeding up your achievements
• The two most common traits of today’s greatest super-achievers
• A specific plan to multiply your results by 10X

Enjoy the video below!

***Order Living Your Best Year Ever–
A Proven System for Achieving BIG Goals***

CONGRATULATIONS to Cassandra! She won last week’s contest for best 2011 Head Start idea:

“In my case, the competition is my own overly creative mind that wants to pursue everything at once. To get a jump on “the competition” I’ve created a massive target board with my various projects for 2011. I can see what I have completed for each and how they come together. Each task is on a card and set up in a road map fashion to activate my linear thinking. This idea can really help those of us with big visions not lose sight of the bigger picture of what we are trying to accomplish in 2011.”

Honorable mentions: Jon Le Boeuf, Jacqueline, Corey Janke, Robert Warde, Penny Tapp, Bryan Howard (and many more!)

Please share your reflections, comments, thoughts and ideas about this week’s video and message in the comments below.