| I was at a memorial service last year for a friend of the family. "Fred" was a nice guy, fun to hang out with. But he was also a failed pro athlete who had never gotten over it. He had a different job every six months, and bounced from cheap apartment to cheap apartment. At 44, he was still talking about his "dreams" and how he was going to turn his life around as soon as... this... or that. But he never got the chance. It was incredibly sad. Fred had so much untapped potential. But he had never found a way to trigger it and enjoy the success he could have had. Leaving the service, I had a scary thought. What happened to Fred could happen to me. I have so many dreams, so many goals I still want to accomplish. If I allowed myself to push them off, I might end up like Fred. Fast-forward to late last week. As I was reviewing a draft of Michael Masterson's new book, Creating Abundance: Your Master Plan for Living a Richer, Healthier, More Enjoyable Life Starting TODAY, one of the chapters galvanized me. It helped me understand how to avoid Fred's fate. It will help you, too, even if you think you're in control of your future. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Paul Lawrence Used to Be Ashamed of What His Wife Was Doing for a Living... But everything changed after she started her own "microbusiness." Microbusinesses can give you immediate income. Not a fortune, but a solid, cash stream. Plus, they can be accumulated, one after the other. And one day, they may be worth more than everything else you have put together. Learn how to launch your own microbusiness for less than $100.
"A man of financial wealth who values himself by his financial net worth is poorer than the poor man who values himself by his intrinsic self worth." Sydney Madwed Before you can jump feet first into changing your life with a set of long-term goals, you have a job to do: Figure out what's really important to you. Most people you meet don't like their jobs, are unhappy with their family life, and want more money. Winning the lottery would make it all okay. At least that's what they think. But the truth is... unless you live your life according to your core values, no amount of money will be enough to bring you joy. What do I mean by core values? I mean the feelings you have about good and evil that are buried deep within your heart. What does goal setting have to do with core values? It's all about insuring your long-term happiness. If you set goals that contravene your core values, you will wake up one day and say, "I did everything I said I wanted to do. But so what?" You don't want to end up being yet another highly successful but fundamentally miserable person -- a fate so common it's become a cliche. Here's how to make sure that doesn't happen... Begin by imagining a funeral. It is taking place in an elegantly appointed room. The room is full of friends and family members who have assembled to talk about the deceased. You look around. You begin to recognize faces. "Who is the deceased?" you wonder. You look at the casket. Good God, it's you! So what are the people at your funeral saying about you? Imagine real people: a relative, a neighbor, a business associate, and even a stranger. And imagine them making very specific comments. It's not enough to imagine your nephew saying something like, "She was a generous woman." You need to imagine a second, qualifying sentence, such as, "She always sent me expensive birthday presents." And be honest. Don't sugarcoat the pill. Say it like it is. For example, your next door neighbor might be saying, "I thought he was a very inconsiderate person. He never picked up the mess when his dog crapped on my lawn." Imagine everything the people at your funeral could truthfully say about you -- and then think about the way their words make you feel. If you don't feel good, it means that -- in those relationships, at least -- you are not living your life according to your core values. Now, for every negative statement you just imagined, ask yourself, "What would I like this person to be saying about me?" The answer to that question will reveal one of your core values. Let's say you imagined someone saying, "He was always struggling to make ends meet." That statement would make you feel bad, right? So then you imagine what you would like that person to say about you. You might come up with, "He struggled for a while, and then everything changed. He became very successful and died a wealthy man." If that statement makes you feel good, it's reasonable to say that acquiring wealth is a core value for you. And you would write it down like this: "I believe that financial success is a valuable and admirable accomplishment." Got it? Negative Statement: "He was always struggling to make ends meet." Positive Statement: "He struggled for a while, and then everything changed. He became very successful and died a wealthy man." Core Value: "I believe that financial success is a valuable and admirable accomplishment." The goal of this exercise is to come up with about a dozen statements that indicate what you think is important in all the major areas of your life. I recommend that you shoot for about a dozen statements. Why? Because you want to address what you think is important in all the major areas of your life. Your core values should determine your goals. And your goals have to be comprehensive. Most goal-setting programs are not comprehensive. They focus on just one thing. Making more money. Or losing weight. Or being happy (whatever that means). Setting such singular goals can sometimes be effective, if you have the flexibility in your schedule to focus on them. But most people don't. And that creates a problem. They start out enthusiastically and make progress for a while. But before long, life's many urgencies push their way in. Good habits are neglected. Bad habits return. Before long, the goal is abandoned. You are going to avoid that very common problem by considering not just your health or your wealth, but also your hobbies, relationships, social obligations, and so on. Here's what you should do now: 1. Take out a piece of paper and divide it into four boxes. 2. At the top of those boxes, write Health, Wealth, Self-Improvement, and Personal Relationships/Social Obligations. 3. Inside each box, write down statements in that category that you would like to have said about you at your funeral. For example... Under Health: - "He was the fittest 80-year-old I ever saw."
- "He could run a mile in eight minutes."
- "I once saw him lift up a car by its bumper."
Under Wealth: - "Of all the people who graduated from Riverdale High School in 1972, she turned out to be the wealthiest."
- "She had a huge mansion in Laguna Beach."
- "She left $4 million to charity when she died."
Under Self-Improvement: - "He was the best chess player I ever knew."
- "He was also a published poet."
- "He knew more about home decorating than Martha Stewart."
Under Personal Relationships/Social Obligations: - "She was the world's kindest mom."
- "She was also a very generous friend."
- "She was a strong supporter of breast cancer research."
Write down at least two such statements in each of the four categories. The purpose of writing them down is twofold: to fix them in your mind, and to have something specific you can refer to later. You will be referring to these core values many times in the coming years. They should be a source of continuous inspiration. Treat them seriously. They are the crux of your plan for the life you really want to live. [Ed. Note: You're ready to match your core values with a set of long-term goals. What's next? A set of immediate goals that you can start working on right away. It's hard to go it alone. But Early to Rise and success mentor Bob Cox are here to give you the encouragement and strategies you need to achieve your dreams and get what you want out of life. Check out the Epiphany Alliance today. One thing I've discovered about accomplishing goals is that when you make a goal public... you're much more likely to follow through with it. That's why I'd like to invite you to send us the life goals you hope to achieve. Simply send us an e-mail to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com and we'll post it online for all to see. Keep an eye out in the next week or so for the exact Web address for our Total Success Achievement Goals Wall.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Got It All? - You're grateful for what you have in life... but you still want more, right? More success. The ability to provide your family with financial freedom. And you really want to enjoy retirement. An early retirement, at that. But how are you going to get there? Do you have a plan? Bob Cox does...
"Just want you to know that your articles are so wholesome and eye opening. With so much information about everything on the Net, I must say yours stands out! Keep up the good, wonderful work. "I wish you a healthy, blessed, and prosperous 2010." Dorcas
Mombassa, Kenya -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- Delegating for the Web Entrepreneur - Do you work solo on your Internet business? Most start-up entrepreneurs do. And they work their butts off! Bob Bly doesn't (at least not on his Web business). Yet he makes an extra $7,000 a week. His secret: outsourcing. Find out how he does it... and dozens of other tips for making a full-time income from part-time work... here.
Today's Words That Work: Contravene To contravene (kon-truh-VEEN) -- from the Latin for "to come against" -- is to deny or be in conflict with. Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): "If you set goals that contravene your core values, you will wake up one day and say, 'I did everything I said I wanted to do. But so what?'"
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