March 31st is 25% Of The Way Through 2006

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

Today is March 31st. The first quarter of 2006 ends today. Part of my trademarked Goal Formula requires creating a schedule to track and measure your progress. How else would you know if you're heading in the right direction? So if your goal embodies money or counting numbers, pounds, etc, you need to check your stats regularly. Here are some time increments that you can schedule to check in on your stats.

Daily
Weekly
BiWeekly
Monthly
Quarterly

Any less frequently than that and, well, you are probably not paying close enough attention to your goal. The likelihood of it coming to fruition is low. Please don't wait until next January 1st to take another sloppy stab at your dreams.

By March 31st you should be 1/4 of the way towards your goals for the year. If you are on track, yippee, take a moment to celebrate! If you're not, get yourself back on track. Grab your calendar or Day Timer and schedule your activities in advance, including checking your stats. Often a minor adjustment can make a major difference.

Are you subscribed to my Goal Newsletter? Is your entire team subscribed to the Goal Newsletter? Do you need a Goal Rush to jolt you forward? How about a Goal Makeover? Goals don't happen by accident. Hunker down, dig in, renew your commitment. Have FUN! Call your Coach and ask for help and make 2006 your BEST YEAR EVER!

Don't forget this amazing software that I highly recommend:

http://www.GoalSystem.com

Live Your Dreams,

Jill Koenig Jill@GoalGuru.com

What's On Your Screensaver ?

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

Here's a fun, quick tip to help you advance towards and achieve your goals. It's something that will take about 2 minutes to set up and the effects will be long lasting. In fact it's so easy and so simple that most people underestimate the power it has over time.

I have used this little secret with great success many times in my life. I used it to build my first custom home, to buy cars, vacations and to achieve numerous goals. I still use it to this day. It's a no brainer.

Look at your list of goals (if you have not created a written list yet, jump on jotting down some things you want to be, have, give or do).

Next find a picture that represents one of the goals closest to your heart. This could be a picture from a travel brochure, resort, car dealer, boat, an award, a beautiful body you aspire to model yours after, a photo you have taken, anything that makes you say aaaahhh and ooooohhh when you look at it and think of your goal. You can find as many pictures as you want later, but for now stick with one, otherwise it will take longer than it needs to take and turn into an ordeal, rather than a quick and easy action that you can complete today. That's one of the principles of success- take an action now, take an easy step forward and add to it, modify and improve it later.

Sometimes you can download a picture from a web site. Car manufacturers often make these available, hotels do as well. If you cannot download a picture, try to find one somewhere for now that represents or symbolizes your goal. Buy a disposable camera for $6 and take your own pictures. You can take your photo to any Kinkos, Mailboxes etc, Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, etc and for a few bucks, they will scan any photo and either give it to you on disc or email it to you. If you're a computer novice and this seems complicated to you, find a local kid, family member or friend who can help you do this. You have got to get the pictures downloaded on to your computer.

Once the picture is on your computer, here's how you create your own personalized Goal Screensaver:

On your computer
Right click on the blank space of your desktop screen
Left click on Properties
Left click on Screensaver -several options will display
I Left clicked on "My Picture Slideshow" so it displays the all pics I have downloaded on my computer and rotates them -slowly burning the images into my very powerful subconscious mind
Left click Apply
Left click OK

That's it!

As I add more pictures to my computer, they will automatically be added to my Goal Screensaver! I can change it anytime I want.

When you got your computer, someone else programmed your screensaver at the manufacturer. When your computer sits idle for a moment and the screensaver comes on, you're probably looking at a logo for Windows software or whatever. You don't have to be conscious of all the ways the media is programming you, but it's happening.

Why don't you take control and start programming yourself to achieve your dreams and goals. Take control of the images you see when you're working on your computer at home and at work. This will help you motivate yourself and stay focused on what you truly want.

This Goal Screensaver technique will keep working on you and keep programming your subconscious mind without you even realizing it. But it can't work if you don't do this. Little things add up, and there's really no excuse to skip something so simple, yet so powerful. It works if you work it.

What's on YOUR screensaver?



If you enjoyed reading this, imagine how you will benefit from all the tips you'll get when you subscribe to my free newsletter. Enter your email address at the right or go to http://www.GoalGuru.com and subscribe there. What if your friends, employees, and co-workers were also getting these quick tips? Please recommend this to your peers. Remember the little things add up. Do it now!

Are You A Team Player?

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

I am a big sports fan. I played sports virtually my whole life and I reference sports metaphors constantly in my writing and coaching. In grade school whenever I made the honor roll I was awarded free White Sox tickets. It was a big deal to go to a major league baseball game.

So I paid special attention in 2005 as the White Sox battled their way to the playoffs, against all odds, and won the world series. They accomplished this major feat without having any of the highest paid players in the game. At the beginning of the season that year, I didn't recognize most of the players, in fact I had never heard of them. The salaries paid to the Sox roster were a tiny fraction of the other top contending teams. During the playoffs, I saw an interview with Ozzie Guillen, the Coach that led them to their ultimate victory. Ozzie was asked what made the biggest difference for the team this year, why this amazing transformation?

Without hesitation Ozzie commented on the philosophy that was used by himself and the Sox General Manager, Kenny Williams, to reconstruct the Sox roster. Ozzie and Williams received a lot of criticizm for trading away their biggest home run hitters for players with other strengths such as speed. Ozzie credited their success with this, "We didn't pick the best individual players, we picked the best TEAM players."

This is crucial:



"We didn't pick the best individual players, we picked the best TEAM players."



That is a major key to any orgainization's success. It doesn't matter how great an individual performs if he cannot work with and contribute to the entire team.

A unified team with a shared focus can accomplish miracles.

In fact, Ozzie's coaching roster is comprised of HIS former teammates back when he was a player on the Chicago White Sox. No matter how great you are at what you do as an individual, the key to your success is likely built around who you surround yourself with and what your contributions are to your team. What is your shared focus? Who is on YOUR team and are YOU a team player?

Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

Lastly, even in the high stakes game of baseball with players who are the world's greatest, commanding multi-million dollar salaries, they still need a coach to tie it all together and create a game plan. A great coach helps you bring out the best in yourself. A great coach helps you develop and perform at your highest potential. A great coach helps you maximize your strengths, minimize and even breakthrough your weaknesses and achieve your ultimate success.

If you would like a coach to assist you with mastering your goals and developing the greatness inside you, please contact me at Jill@GoalGuru.com

Goal Rush!

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

In my last article, I covered the “Goal A Day” method of goal setting for people who feel stuck and overwhelmed when they ponder the magnitude of approaching larger goals. It’s a great approach for beginners who are not necessarily self starters. It’s great for building new disciplines.

With my coaching clients, I help them identify which approach will bring them the best results based on their specific goals, deadlines and their own unique schedule.

For some, A Goal A Day is simply too slooooooow.

That’s why I created the Goal Rush method to pursuing your goals. A Goal Rush is creating a plan for your goal and taking action at turbo speed.

When I started my first business, I did not have another source of income. A Goal A Day would not have been the right approach. I did not have the luxury of taking my time. I had to succeed and I had to move quickly. I chose to create a Goal Rush. I had to build an instant income and act with a sense of urgency like never before. Be advised, a Goal Rush is meant to be a temporary approach, because it is not a model for a balanced life. You are not supposed to neglect your family, your health or any other responsibilities. But some projects will never get off the ground if you don’t set aside large chunks of time to focus, dig in and blast off!

Here are some basic principles of a Goal Rush:

You hire a Coach to help you create an effective plan
Your Coach helps set your priorities
You predetermine a set amount of time to focus
-usually 30, 60 or 90 days
You set your work hours in advance
You stick to your plan except in cases of emergency
During this period of time, you put your blinders on
You raise the bar to a higher standard than normal
You wake up much earlier in the morning
You stay up later at night
You forego most ordinary social activities
-like sporting events and parties
No social lunches or dinners
No distractions
No TV
No radio
No newspaper
No seminars
No surfing the net aimlessly
No wasting time
You don’t take social calls during your work hours
-in fact you don’t even pick up the phone unless it is imperative to your project
Most or all of your hobbies take a back seat
You eat, sleep and breathe your dream
You must exercise
You must eat healthy
No procrastination
No excuses
No blaming
No complaining

The purpose of the Goal Rush is to create INSTANT MOMENTUM. When I am in Goal Rush mode, I can accomplish more in one day than most people do in an entire week.

A Goal Rush is strict, intense, demanding, thrilling and fun to watch your dream progress by leaps and bounds. You will be taking massive action in a short period of time. It will challenge you. It will stretch you. It will excite you. It is one of the main reasons for my business success and an approach I can apply at will anytime I want to jump start the momentum on any given goal. It is the approach I used to write my first book.

If you applied a Goal Rush to one of your major goals, what would it be? Would you start a new business? Create a part time extra income? Learn a new skill? Launch a web site? Decorate your house? Restore an antique auto? Write a book? Lose weight? Learn to speak a new language? What would make a difference in your life?

The Goal Rush method is not for everyone. If you would like to launch a Goal Rush to help you get a goal off the ground, contact me at Jill@GoalGuru.com

A Goal A Day

By Jill Koenig

Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

When I look at my list of 101 Goals, some of them seem downright daunting. Especially the long term goals. Some people have absolutely amazing ideas but they abandon their goal because it seems too overwhelming and they quit because they become discouraged. They have an achievable, attainable goal, they just don't know how to break it down into bite sized pieces.

For example: If you have a goal to start a business of your own, but you currently work a full time job, this approach is critical. If a larger goal seems to big or too overwhelming, and you really want it, the following is a great approach to keep you going after it.

Break down your large goal into many smaller bite sized goals. I call this approach the A Goal A Day method. It is very simple. You set and complete one small goal each day, everyday which will advance you towards your goal. This removes the feeling of being overwhelmed with your major goals. The focus is not on everything being perfect, the focus is on taking progressive steps.

On a foggy day, sometimes you can only see one block ahead of you at a time. However, if you walk one block forward, you can see one block further and if you walk another block, you can see another block further -until you get where you are going. If you do this one block at a time for ten blocks, you just walked one mile. It didn't seem like a lot because you broke it down into smaller steps.

You are not always going to have a complete detailed plan from start to finish for every goal when you are first getting started. That's okay. If you set your goals using this method, the accumulative effect will bring you closer each day and you will have genuine momentum. You can revise your plan as you go along.

Remember, this method requires at least one ACTION each day. Tasks such as cleaning your office or reading a book ARE necessary and important and make you feel good and keep you motivated, but they are not exactly the type of action that is going to propel you forward. You won't be able to see a measurable result. You can clean your office, read books every day and never be any closer to your goal. Busy work or is not what we are talking about. I know people who are extremely busy but they never make any progress towards their goals. They are just filling time aka killing time.So complete your result producing, momentum gaining goal for a given day and then clean your office after you're done.

For best results, plan your Goal A Day in advance, at least one week or perhaps even one month ahead. The reason for that is because if you wake up in the morning and then try to figure out what you are going to do, you are going to pick whatever is easy instead of what is truly going to advance you.

You can complete more than one goal a day, but the point to this approach is to complete AT LEAST one Goal per day. You will also be creating a new discipline. Research shows that it takes anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks (21+ days) to create a new habit. This approach also counteracts discouragement since there will be no stagnation that accompanies lack of consistent action (aka procrastination). This approach will provide you the ever important daily sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. In addition, this approach will help you enjoy the journey of pursuing your dreams.

Often a Coach can assist you with creating a plan that will save you time and money and help you with a plan that enables you to prioritize your activities and achieve your goal in the fastest time.

For information on Coaching, email me at Jill@GoalGuru.com

Goalercise

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

As spring approaches I thought I would write about a fun mind stretching exercise that is designed to grow your capacity to think and dream bigger. After a long winter, if you were to put on your running shoes and attempt to run 50 miles without stretching, warming up and working up to it, you would probably hurt yourself. The same applies to stretching and exercising your mind for goal setting. If you have never set huge goals before, at first this might seem as foreign as learning to speak a foreign language. But this is probably one of the most important steps to expand your mind.

I call this lesson "GOALERCISE"

I first did this with my friend Tim. He suggested I make a list of 101 Goals. He did the same and we met face to face and shared our lists with each other. This Goalercise is not meant to be perfectionistic, there are absolutely no timelines involved and each goal should be described briefly in 2 or 3 words, in fact the only rule is to force yourself to THINK BIG and force yourself to think of 101 Goals. The crazier the better. Here's how the Goalercise works. Get a few sheets of paper and write numbers 1-101 like this:

My 101 Goals
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

all the way to 101

Then let your mind run wild and capture as many DREAMS and GOALS as you can imagine. Imagine that nothing is impossible, you can have anything you want, you can become, achieve and obtain everything that you include on this list. What would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail? Imagine that this list will determine the next 5, 10, 15 20 years. Imagine what would inspire you to the heights of adventure and fearlessness for rest of your life. What would give your life meaning? What would you like to have, be, give or do? Don't hold back. Imagine that if you don't put it on the list, it will never happen.

Your list of 101 Goals might look like this:

My 101 Goals
1. Learn to Play Guitar
2. Write a # 1 book on Goals
3. Get Pilot's license
4. Skydive
5. Teach class at the Homeless shelter
6. Run Chicago Marathon
7. Travel to Italy
8. Work with Oprah
9. Write a song with Diane Warren
10. etc
(these are from my list of goals)

You see how it works. Give absolutely no thought to past failures. Give absolutely no thought to your current financial limtations. Give absolutely no thought to how much time you think it will take. Give absolutely no thought to what is practical. Give absolutely no thought to anything that could possibly limit your list in any way. List things that would put a big smile on your face, in your heart and be contagious to the people you love. What gifts would you like to give to humanity? It took me several sessions of sitting down and adding to my list until I got to 101 Goals and now I can't stop adding to it. Now that I have stretched my mind, I find that nothing is impossible. In fact, I looked at my list the other day and found that I had achieved many of the goals I set two years ago when I first started the list! When at the time I made the list I had absolutely no idea HOW I would do it, but because I wrote it down on paper, my subconscious mind started to lead me towards the Goals and attracted people into my life that brought them into reality.

Goalercise Guidelines:
*List 101 Goals (dreams) on paper in no particular order
*Think REALLY BIG as if anything is possible
*Do this with a friend and if your friend doesn't make a list of 101 goals, or if you can't find someone to follow through within 7 days, share your list with me jill@GoalGuru.com


"Dreams are the seedlings of reality." -James Allen

And any dream can be yours if you will dare to claim it and go after it...

March Forth !

By Jill Koenig
Author, Coach, Motivational Speaker

I wrote this a while back after being struck with the symbolism and hope and the double meaning of a child being born on March Fourth. These were the thoughts that I would wish for a new life entering into the world. I thought it would be fitting to post it today.

March Forth Jill Koenig Copyright 2004

You arrived like a ray of sunshine
An Angel born on March Fourth
May your light shine ever so brightly
And may you always March Forth

A body and soul forever growing
Right before our eyes
A life rich with possibility
As endless as the sky

There are many lessons you will learn
As you go through your days
May your heart overflow with love
For you this I pray

We'll be near watching over you
In awe of your transformation
What may lie ahead for you
Is as infinite as your imagination

May you welcome all in friendship
Of every color and race
We are all someone's son or daughter
On Earth here to share this space

May you always live in harmony
With every living being
We are all the same in God's eyes
With many gifts to bring

You were born with gifts to share
In time you will soon uncover
You'll make mistakes through trial and error
This is how you will discover

The sooner that you get this lesson
The easier life will be
The greatest treasures don't require money
The best things in life are free

A smile from a friend, a hand to hold
A hug, a song to sing
A pat on the back, a kiss on the cheek
They'll never cost a thing

Don't overlook the simple things
Like the meaning of true wealth
Love, happiness, peace of mind,
Your spirit and your health

And when you're blessed to make a new friend
Love them with all of your might
Love can conquer anything
If you keep your dreams in sight

For a dream would not be inside you
If it wasn't yours to keep
May you always believe in yourself
And have the courage to seek

May you learn and be bold in challenges
And be strong in the face of fear
Things that first seem impossible
Are not always what they appear

The answers are always inside you
To find them just be still
Always hold tight to your heart's desires
Your dreams will come true, they will

For you were a dream once held in the heart
And now you are real, you are here
You're living proof, dreams do come true
And that God is always near

You arrived like a ray of sunshine
An Angel born on March Fourth
May your light shine ever so brightly
And may you always MARCH FORTH!