I watch very little television but do manage to catch some big events occasionally, like this year’s Academy Awards.

Forest Whitaker, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, caught my attention with some key lines from his acceptance speech:

“When I was a kid the only way I saw movies was from the backseat of my family’s car at the drive-in,” Whitaker said.

“It wasn’t my reality to think I would be acting in movies, so receiving this honor tonight tells me it is possible,” he said. “It is possible for a kid from East Texas, raised in South Central L.A. and Carson who believes in his dreams, commits himself to them with his heart, to touch them and to have them happen.”

Read that last line again carefully and commit yourself to the idea that it’s possible for you too, “who believes in his (her) dreams, commits himself (herself) to them with his (her) heart, to touch them and to have them happen.”

Remember when you thought you could do and be anything? The innocence of early childhood is perhaps the last time you were unencumbered by perceived limitations and labels. Personal goal setting was simple, and there was no doubt you could achieve anything.

When asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” you would have responded with whatever struck your fancy that day, whatever you were “in to.” You did not concern yourself with how you would do it, if you could do it, or if you should do it. Your dreams were based on what you wanted, pure and simple. You set personal goals based on wonder and curiosity, not practicality.

The dreams of childhood were big dreams. Travel into space, win a medal at the Olympics, become a rock star. Soon enough the dreams become modified to reflect what is practical and expected of us. This is precisely when most people start having trouble setting personal goals. The dreams are no longer larger than life, so why take steps to achieve them?

Read more here….

I’m a big believer in yellow legal pads. I have scads of them around my house for jotting ideas and doing mind maps and the like.  John Goddard became the world’s #1 Goal Achiever starting with a legal pad, so its use is not such a bad idea.

During this time of reflection on the year just passed and in anticipation of the year to come, here are five probing questions you should commit some serious effort to while recording the responses on a trusty legal pad.

1) What do I really enjoy doing?  What seems almost effortless to me?

2) How can I monetize it (create income from it)?  Don’t automatically assume you can’t make any money from it.  That’s probably just an old paradigm raising its ugly head.  Elaine Hodgson loved to play video games and found herself increasingly drawn to the idea of creating them.  Her company, Incredible Technologies, now has $60 million in sales.

3) What are five things I can do this week to determine the feasibility of #2?

4) Who can I get to help me?

5) What is my deadline to “fish or cut bait?”

With a New Year just around the corner, here are some goal setting tips to keep in mind:

• Make goals meaningful. Goal setting for the sake of goal setting almost always ends in disappointment. Goal setting is simply a tool to use in achieving a favorable outcome — what some people call a “Dream.”
• Use positive language and the present tense when setting a goal. It is better to say “I weigh a healthy, trim and fit 185 pounds” than “I want to lose 20 pounds.”
• Always put your goals in writing. Every expert agrees that setting a goal without putting it in writing drastically reduces your chances of success.
• Goal setting should take place in every area of your life, including Health, Relationships, Spiritual, Career and Financial.
• Setting Life Goals will add dimension, excitement and texture to your life.
• Failure doesn’t always mean that you did something wrong in your goal setting or implementation. It may just mean that the time you allotted for success wasn’t adequate. A thorough review process should be undertaken before setting the goal again.

And when you’re looking for a goal planning solution, be sure an check out all of our outstanding goal setting programs for 2007… 

It took me many, many years to learn this secret. So pay close attention. It’s worth my weight and your weight in Gold.

Yesterday as we were getting ready for our big Champions Club 2007 launch, we were working feverishly to meet our launch deadline and had no time to spare. We’ve spent months and many man hours preparing for the event and now on the last day before kickoff everything started to go awry. First, the video wouldn’t work on our test page. Then we had shopping cart problems. And on and on it went. Then to tie a nice little bow on top of everything, I sent someone off in my fairly new Escalade to go do an important errand. When they turned the key nothing happened. It’s completely dead. So after quickly ascertaining it wasn’t the battery, I called the Cadillac dealer who hauled it away on the back of a truck. And I went back to the chaos.

Now, if this had happened twenty years ago (and similar things did), or even ten years ago, I would have gotten so caught up in everything that was going wrong that I would have (1) been in a terrible mood and (2) lost all my focus on the task at hand.

Not so this time. No, this time I actually smiled to myself on one occasion and out loud said, “this launch is going to be huge!”

How could I say that?

Because I’ve learned (after many bumps, bruises and tears) that when I am in hot pursuit of a long-held goal, and things start going haywire, it probably means I’m on the edge of something BIG —- if I don’t get distracted.

In fact, James Allen, who wrote the classic As A Man Thinketh, says as much. In describing successful people he says, “They hold fast to an idea, a project, a plan, and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend and develop it; and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender; indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.”

And that last sentence is the true secret:

“indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.”

If you can internalize and apply that secret, you will have one of the true “keys to the kingdom.”

How did it turn out for me this time?

Well, when we opened the doors to the Champions Club earlier today we were signing people up at the rate of one per minute in the early going. Things have slowed down some, otherwise we would have been out of spots in the first two hours.

As it is, more than half the spots are spoken for (in the first seven hours!) and registrations are still pouring in. It has been an incredible launch and a great bunch of interesting members for 2007.

Here is the link one more time if you missed it:
http://www.goals-2-go.com/champClub2007.htm .

And if you haven’t yet gotten your copy of the widely acclaimed 13 Secrets of World Class Goal Achievers, get it here: http://www.goals-2-go.com/13secrets.htm

There aren’t a lot of movies that are great lessons in the power of having a Big Dream and a Big Goal…of the power of belief, even when the odds are against you. Akeelah and the Bee is worth owning (and watching) everytime your Dream seems too far away.

Order DVD from Amazon…

If an unemployed, twenty-something could turn a simple, red paper clip into his dream of owning a home, what can you do with your dream?

In a matter of days we’ll be entering the fourth quarter of the year and many of us have lost focus on the goals we set during January.

In some cases we were making great progress and then something (call it LIFE) happened. All of the air went out of our balloon and we haven’t been able to regain the momentum we had earlier in the year.

In other cases, we never really got started on a goal plan and we’ve spent most of the year rudderless, bouncing from crisis to crisis with no real progress in our life since January.

Well there’s still hope. In fact, the 90 days we have in the fourth quarter (beginning October 1) is more than enough time to achieve some pretty incredible results. Stop and think about it: 90 days is usually plenty of time to see a significant result from a weight loss plan. Most businesses are launched during a 90-day period and many, many books are written in 90 days. In fact, Napoleon Hill wrote the classic Think and Grow Rich in under 90 days.

The U.S. Marine Corps can take an out-of-shape recruit who’s never held a weapon before and in just under 90 days turn him or her into the finest fighting “machine” in the world.

Our four seasons are 90 days apart. You can go from the harshest of Winter to the overflowing, abundant life of Spring in just 90 days. Most of our agricultural crops have a 90-day growing period. From seed to harvest in 90 days. It works with plants…and it works with dreams and goals.

Does that give you some hope that you might have a shot at hitting your goal this year after all?

Want some help? For free?

The Success Training Network, or TSTN, prides itself in presenting original programming designed with your success and achievement in mind. One of those programs is my show — Goals2Go. You may have seen the show where I’ve interviewed Bob Proctor, Mark Victor Hansen, Jim Rohn, and others.

The folks at TSTN are very serious in their mission to give you and millions of others the resources you need to take your life to the next level. When I mentioned to them the idea of having a special series of our Goals2Go programs devoted to achieving in the fourth quarter they responded enthusiastically….and quickly.

They immediately booked five LIVE shows that you can watch from anywhere in the world AND, even more importantly, you can call in to me during the program for answers to your questions about how to maximize the fourth quarter.

This special series is appropriately called “Fourth and Goal,” an analogy to the situation found in American football games when Champions manage to overcome the obstacles in the last quarter of the game to win.

During five live shows this Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I’ll be sharing strategies you can use to “win” your big goal this year.

This is a live, call-in internet television program. Talk with me live, or email me your questions before or during the show.

Goals2Go will be live on the following times and dates:

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006
8:00 p.m. ET – topic: Always know “Down” and “Distance”
9:00 p.m. ET – topic: Put Your Best “Players” on the Field

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006
7:00 p.m. ET – topic: Winners Manage the Clock
8:00 p.m. ET – topic: Is it Time for a “Trick Play”?
9:00 p.m. ET – topic: The First Three Quarters Don’t Matter

All times are ET (New York time). For a time zone converter, go here: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

The number to talk to me during the show is 1-800-983-1870. You can email your questions to G2GLive@TSTN.com.

If you are not yet a subscriber to TSTN, you can still watch for FREE. Please Read: To watch or to participate in any of the five upcoming episodes of Goals2Go live, please click on this link live.TSTN.com to register for the live event. Bookmark the link and tune in. Be ready with your questions!

NOTE TO TSTN SUBSCRIBERS: All five topics will be broadcast live on the ”Events” tab in SplashStream. The fifth show, at 9:00 p.m. ET on September 13, will be LIVE as part of our regularly scheduled programming on TSTN. If you’re not watching TSTN on SplashStream, you’re missing out! Get it free today at http://www.downloads.tstn.com/splashstream or call customer support at 800-980-TSTN (8786). We’ll get you up and running in just a few minutes.

If you need that extra motivation to finish the year strong, make it your goal to watch Goals2Go this week!

I just got back from the gym about 30 minutes ago and wanted to share an important success ‘reminder’ with you.

I’m not sure about you guys, but getting to the gym is sometimes a pain in the butt, but we all have to do some things we don’t want to do, right… : }

At the gym I was doing bicep exercises and my goal was 12 reps each set.

Each set I did, I tried to increase the weight and make it a bit tougher.

It got much tougher.

So much, that by the 8th rep, I wanted to ‘throw in the towel’…but I didn’t!!!

I wanted to stop so badly, but I didn’t.

What I did instead was give just 5% more effort and I didn’t stop at 12 reps, I went to 15.

You see, we need to be reminded that the MAGIC doesn’t happen on the 1st mile, it happens when you go the EXTRA mile for yourself and for others.

Anybody who knows anything about weight training or dieting will tell you that you get most of your results from those last 2-3 reps you don’t want to do, or from those last few weeks that you really don’t want to diet.

But here’s the catch.

Read more…..

Christopher Guerriero is the highly acclaimed author of Maximize Your Metabolism as well as coaching and consulting numerous top models and celebrities.

 Most of us struggle with goals that underwhelm us, keep us constantly frustrated and frankly offer few psychic (or other) rewards if we were to achieve them.

And we can’t figure out why we can’t keep our enthusiasm at a sufficient level to achieve the success we crave.

The reason is almost always in the “WHY.”  Why do you want to achieve it?  Why is it important to you?  Why will you give up your time, your treasure, your fear and most things you hold dear?  When you can answer the WHY, you’ve got a strong goal. 

My friend Bill Cobb sent me this story of what you CAN do when you know WHY.  Turn your speakers on and watch the video with a box of tissue close by…