“Just as a sapless tree will split and decay
  So an inflexible force will meet defeat” – Tao Te Ching

Flexibility can have as much power or more as sheer force of will and determination. Think of the power of water. One of the greatest athletes of all time, Bruce Lee, used the example of water in his philosophy in life. What is more flexible and soft than water? It can flow between gaps we cannot even see. It molds itself to any situation or container, yet over many years it can carve deep canyons. Though its methods are long and we may see it as a slow and weak flowing substance, can it not crash and cause devastation, or seep into cracks and then freeze, splitting things apart?

This relates to us in ways that may not be immediately clear. Just as water may be immediately diverted from its path, so may we. That does not mean that we stop. We continue on, find the little cracks and crevices in life and flow toward our goals.

We may not take the path we originally envisioned, but as long as we keep moving forward in a positive direction, does it really matter how we get there?

P.S. I will be taking on 4 new clients for a one year intensive coaching programme starting April 1, 2010 - more details to follow. Please email me: Donald@zonedinperformance.com

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
- Stephen Covey

You may know one of those people who have forged something from nothing, or you may be one of these people. Seeking their goals with a determination which is quite amazing. This could be someone in business, in sport or in any other sort of pursuit. The point is that these people seem quite amazing at first glance and our first reaction can be admiration or envy.

Let’s take a second glance. Often these people are amazing at single-mindedly pursuing one goal. This could be profit in the case of a businessperson, sometimes started because of childhood experiences or a desire to change things for their family. This could be awards, recognition, fame or other such things for a musician or an actor. It could be the next record for an athlete. The challenge with this is not the pursuit of these things. It is the imbalance the pursuit often causes.

Sometimes people often lose sight of the importance of other aspects in their lives and become so consumed with their end goal that they often damage or lose the reasons they had for starting in the first place. Forsaking family, friends, relationships. When it is all said and done, what is left when they’ve attained their goals?

The important thing is to know where your heart is, and pursue that goal in a way that is aligned with who you are and what is important to you. Never lose sight of your true reasons and don’t sell your soul regardless of the glittering prizes you may see in the distance. Your future isn’t all about wealth or fame.

It is about the sense of fulfilment you get when you practice your craft or when you’ve provided a suitable environment for your family.

It is about enjoying each moment instead of obsessing over what more you could gain.

It is about knowing when to pause and enjoy your “rich moments” rather than pursuing some future bliss, which may never come.

P.S. I will be taking on 4 new clients for a one year intensive coaching programme starting April 1, 2010 - more details to follow. Please email me: Donald@zonedinperformance.com

So!  You know that to make 20010 you’re amazing year, you need to decide specifically what you want, take action and pay attention to what actually works.

Then you have to keep working on those things that do work until you reach your goal.
If something you are doing is working for you…
…keep doing it!

You can also try and improve your results by making changes to that process that is working for you.  Tweak it here and there and see what happens.

If you have great results – continue doing that thing or improve the process again for even better results.

If on the other hand you get a bad result, don’t despair!  Remember Mr Edison!

Keep going and never give up!

Persistence really is KEY when it comes to achieving your goals!

You won’t get to your goal otherwise, so keep on keeping on.  Focus on the positive things that are working and give yourself rewards for that.

For instance, if your goal is to lose weight in the new year, set milestones for yourself.  And once you reach a milestone, be sure to treat yourself.

If you fall off the wagon, don’t worry! Just make sure you get back on for the next day.

What will motivate you to keep on persisting is the achievement of those mini milestones.  As great as that is though, you need to focus on the end goal.

Each day, take a few minutes to read your goals out loud to yourself.  It’s also a good idea to create a positive affirmation and read that out aloud in the morning and in the evening as well before bed time.

The affirmation should be written as though you have already achieved your goal.  For instance, “I am feeling so amazing now that I’m 10 kilos lighter!”

And when you say that affirmation out loud, feel the feelings that come with the achievement of that goal.

By doing this each day, you are staying motivated – and that will help you to stay on track.  It will help you to keep on doing those things that work, until the materialization of your goal!

Have fun with it!

Goal-setting and setting up a plan to achieve the goals shouldn’t be an arduous task.  Make it fun by following the four steps inspired by Anthony Robbins’ famous quote!

And remember this!  2010 WILL be your amazing year if you decide ASAP what you want, take action to achieve it, pay attention to what works and what doesn’t and NEVER give up until you get there!

P.S. I am starting group coaching programme for those that are wanting to make 2010 an amazing year. If you’re interested, please email info@zonedinperformance and put “group coaching” in the subject line and detail what is your “wow” goals for 2010.

Now that you understand the importance of getting specific about your goals and taking action to achieve them, it’s time to elaborate a little more on the action part.

Sometimes in the process of taking action to make our dreams happen, things don’t work well.

We may find that a particular course of action works really well, yet another course doesn’t yield results at all.

Now, this is where people can fall into a pretty significant trap – one that is detrimental to the achievement of a goal.

Many people focus too much on the stuff that doesn’t work!

Say for instance you are really passionate about your £200,000 income goal.  You get what you think is an amazing, earth-shattering idea when you are in the shower (yes – that’s where many of us get our lightbulb moment ideas!) and dry off with every bit of excitement!

You put your energy into the idea that you think can help you achieve your income goal.

But then you find that this idea doesn’t help you at all.  In fact, the idea you had is a real flop!

What do you do about it?

It’s natural to be disappointed, but given the situation there are two things you can do:

1. Be disappointed, yet get back to the task of achieving your goal by implementing other ideas; or
2. Be disappointed and get into a big depression over it…that stops you dead in your tracks!

Unfortunately, too many people do the latter.  They get so down about the outcome of a ‘failed’ idea that they just give up.  The wheels completely fall off!

If you are to actually achieve your goals, option 2 just isn’t an option.

You have to do as successful people do!

You have to pick yourself up off the ground after a disappointing outcome and say, “What went wrong?

What can I do NOW to get on track to achieving my goal?”

It all comes down to how you approach perceived (yes I’m using that word here) ‘failure’.

All of us will encounter ‘failure’ in our pursuit of goal attainment.

But it’s not so much the failure that can make us fall short of our goal – it’s our response to it.

Failure is an OPPORTUNITY for us to assess what works and what does not.  It’s an OPPORTUNITY to help us get on track.

It’s a stepping stone to success.

Imagine for a moment if that wonderful inventor of the incandescent light bulb –

Thomas Edison – gave up after the 100th attempt at getting that bulb to light up?

It took him hundreds attempts to finally make it work.

If he gave up at attempt 100, he would never have achieved success.

The reason why Edison prevailed?  He saw failure as a stepping stone to success!

He even said in his own words, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

Persistence is what will get us to our goal. And we need to focus on the things that work and not the things that don’t.  This way we will stay motivated and on track!

And that’s what you too must do in your pursuit of achievement!

P.S. I am starting group coaching programme for those that are wanting to make 2010 an amazing year. If you’re interested, please email info@zonedinperformance and put “group coaching” in the subject line and detail what is your “wow” goals for 2010.

In my last blog post where I talked about step 1 and deciding what you actually want to achieve, I introduced you to a visualization technique.

It’s a technique that will definitely help you get excited and passionate about the specific things you want to achieve in 2010.

Now that you’re excited about making all of that great stuff happen, your mind – whether you realize it or not – is already working overtime to help you achieve everything!

Your mind is LOOKING for opportunities!

When you sit down and decide what you want to achieve – then feel the excitement of achieving those goals – it’s as though you’re asking your mind to make it happen.

In your excitement, your mind gets to work on your behalf.

And that’s when you start noticing opportunities.

Allow me to give you an example.  Let’s say for instance – we’ll revert back to the goal of achieving £200,000 worth of income – you want to make that much money in 2010.

Now you may not have any idea how you’re going to do that.  But once you actively visualize that goal – and feel the feelings of achieving it – you’ll start to notice opportunities.

You’ll get ideas in your mind geared towards helping you make that money.

And when you get an idea…

…You MUST act!

You don’t want to just do nothing!  Remember, you have a very specific and very clear goal that you’re passionate about.  You want that £200,000 income in 2009, so go get it!

Your mind is already working hard to help you get it.  So when your mind gives you a great idea, chase it up!

Take action!

Go over every idea with a fine tooth comb, and pursue the opportunities that come to you!

It’s not enough to just write down what you want.  It’s not enough to go into great specifics about something you want…then do nothing about it.

If you do nothing – if you do not act – then you will not achieve your goal.

You must take action to make it happen.  No exceptions!

So keep an eye out for the opportunities that will present themselves to you.  When you stay focused on your specific goals, it is inevitable that opportunities will come to you.

The people, the places, the circumstances…it will all come to you to help you in the achievement of your goals.

So have fun with that!  Enjoy the journey!

Because 2010 is going to be a GREAT year for you!

P.S. I am starting group coaching programme for those that are wanting to make 2010 an amazing year. If you’re interested, please email info@zonedinperformance and put “group coaching” in the subject line and detail what is your “wow” goals for 2010.

Now that the festive season is behind us, we’re looking towards 2010 – the new year, with all its newness and excitement.

So, what plans do you have for 2010?

If you’re anything like the majority of people, chances are you have sat down in years’ prior – with the very best of intentions – and thought about the things you want to achieve in the year ahead.

New year is definitely the time of year when people take stock of their lives and look back with an attitude of review.
From my own experience, it’s great to do this.  It’s great to assess your last year and the progress you have – or have not – made.

But most people fall into a trap!

They end up looking back at the ‘to do’ list of years past and think, “I didn’t end up doing most of that” or “I didn’t end up doing any of that stuff at all.”

Or they look at their previous ‘to do’ lists – and they don’t have to be written down mind you – and see that the same tasks keep coming up.  Year in, year out!

They focus on the negative!

And the result?

They feel hopeless and uninspired!  They feel completely depressed.

They feel doomed to just making the lists of the “I’m going to do’s”…and end up doing nothing.

And in their depression, they just resign themselves to the ‘fact’ that, “I’m probably not going to end up doing any of this stuff, yet again!”

Does that sound like you?

I know a few years ago, that sounded like me.  Sure, I might be a coach now and spend my time inspiring others to set goals and achieve them – but there was a time when I too made ‘to do’ lists and did very little or nothing to achieve the tasks!

It’s a pretty demotivating thing.  But you can learn from it!

Anthony Robbins summed it up nicely!

He’s one of my favourite life coaches and whenever I listen to any of his recordings, I feel motivated and ready to turn my dreams into a reality!

But he actually summed up this whole achievement thing really nicely.

So nicely in fact, that I’m actually going to discuss in more detail – in my next four blog posts – the steps he outlines in this amazing quote which reads:
“The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing you can’t accomplish if:
(1) You clearly decide what it is that you’re absolutely committed to achieving,
(2) You’re willing to take massive action,
(3) You notice what’s working or not, and
(4) You continue to change your approach until you achieve what you want, using whatever life gives you along the way.”

It’s an exciting quote isn’t it?

Stay tuned on this blog for the next four posts where I’ll go through the four steps to helping you ACHIEVE in 2010 !

P.S. I will be taking 2 new coaching clients early in 2010 for an intensive 1 year coaching programme. Contact me directly at Donald@zonedinperformance.com if you are interested. A place on the programme is not guaranteed and I will be working with people totally committed to creating the “WOW LIFE” they desire and acting fearlessly to make their vision a reality.

“To be nobody-but-yourself-in a world which is doing its best , night and day, to make you everybody else-means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” – E.E. Cummings

Life is all about self-discovery. It’s about deciding who we want to be and then going out and doing the stuff that makes it happen.

We’ve been talking about self-discovery for the last few days now, and one of my favourite self-discovery quotes that I thought was worthy of a blog article comes from Julien Green.

He said, “The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.”

Now we know that self-discovery is a lifelong thing, and we know that self-discovery is all about aspiring to be who we want to be.

We create our own life – we’re making it up – as we go along. We’re winging it basically!

And to do that, we don’t need to go to the ends of the earth, up to the top of the world’s highest mountain or into a teepee for a month vowing to stay silent the entire time as we meditate continuously!

No, self-discovery doesn’t have to involve that. It only involves that if you WANT it to!

It’s all about deciding who we want to be – and that’s based upon the things we believe are important. The things that make us happy, the things that make us feel good. The things that make us feel fulfilled and satisfied in life.

We tap into who we are when we determine who we want to be, and then we really get to create who we are when we do the stuff that makes it all happen. When we go out there and live our lives, taking into account our purpose…of making this dream happen. Of doing the stuff that helps us become that person we want to be.

That’s pretty empowering stuff isn’t it? Often we give ourselves too little credit! We think we’re at the mercy of some greater plan that we aren’t in control of. We think we’re like a powerless character in a story, at the mercy of the author.

But the reality is, we hold in our very hand the pen that writes the story. We are the author of our life. We are in charge of our self-discovery journey…and we can find whatever we WANT to find!

P.S. I will be taking on 3 2 new coaching clients early in 2010 for an intensive 1 year coaching programme. Contact me directly at Donald@zonedinperformance.com if you are interested. A place on the programme is not guaranteed and I will be working with people totally committed to creating the “WOW LIFE” they desire and acting fearlessly to make their vision a reality.

When you think of self-discovery, what do you think of? Do you think of taking a wander into the wilderness and sitting in a teepee for a month without creature comforts?  Do you think about meditation for a long period of time, so it just comes to you at a subconscious level?

Contrary to what you think, true self-discovery isn’t about finding yourself, you’ve never been away.  It’s about finding the person you want to be behind the self imposed constraints of your “personality”. Andm don’t let your past determine who you are going to be in the present.

Robert Brault put it beautifully when he said, “Never mind searching for who you are.  Search for the person you aspire to be.” As you know, we’re on earth for experience.  We’re here to enjoy our lives and create our own reality.  Do what we want to do – all of course, within reasonable parameters.  For instance, being who we want to be and doing what we want to do, without hurting or harming any other individual in the process of doing that.

So, it’s all about becoming who we want to be. When we know who we want to be, we can then make preparations and plans in our lives to become that.  We can set about doing the stuff we need to do, in order to become the person we want to be, one step at a time.

Self-discovery’s outcome is ultimately our happiness. So of course aspiring to be the person we want to be, and then making it happen is all part of that process.  Once we decide who we want to be, it’s up to us to make it happen.

We can always be looking to better who we are.  To become better people.  And that is why the self-discovery process is a life-long one.  It won’t end when people for instance, make their goal of making one million dollars happen.  It shouldn’t end when we achieve the goal of losing weight.  It’s ongoing, to be the best version of “me”.  And we can make the most of our journey – each and every day because even if you strive to be the “better you” paradoxically you are “alright’ as you are, so relax and enjoy the ride!!

P.S. I will be taking on 4 3 new coaching clients early in 2010 for an intensive 1 year coaching programme. Contact me directly at Donald@zonedinperformance.com if you are interested. A place on the programme is not guaranteed and I will be working with people totally committed to creating the “WOW LIFE” they desire and acting fearlessly to make their vision a reality.

My coach Michael Neill often has asks the question, “what would you do if you were not afraid?” I use this question as a guide to what projects I decide to pursue and often my initial fear of undertaking a project is in direct proportion to the positive impact the project could have on my life. Fear is often imagination used poorly or False Expectations Appearing Real.
Challenge your fears and have The confidence to create…