Two Easy to Keep New Year Resolutions

It is very difficult to keep most New Year resolutions, and in fact most are broken within a few days. I don't recommend making them anyway. Goal setting is a far better method of achieving what you want in your life, and is something which is constantly reviewed rather than just looked at once a year. I will spend several days in the near future explaining how to set powerful and life transforming goals. However, here are two New Year Resolutions which will be easy and fun to keep and will improve your life dramatically.

I want you to resolve to be more grateful for all the things that you already have in your life.

I also want you to resolve to be more happy.

Researchers at the University of California and University of Miami have discovered significant benefits of maintaining an attitude of gratitude.
· Those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the upcoming week.
· Participants who kept gratitude lists were more like to have made progress toward important personal goals.
· A daily gratitude intervention (self guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy.
· Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem.
· Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life and a commitment to and responsibility to others.
· Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods, and are more likely to share their possessions with others.
· Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of stress and depression.

Every morning try and spend five or ten minutes thinking of all the reasons you have to be grateful. Write them down if you have the time, perhaps you could keep a special Gratitude Journal. The film "The Secret" recommends keeping a "gratitude stone" in your pocket so that every time you touch the stone you think of reasons why you are grateful. This will transform your life. If you would like a free Gratitude Meditation (mp3 recording) please e-mail me at Trev@Intelligentlifestyles.co.uk and I will e-mail you the recording.

Happiness results in success, most people think it is the other way round. They think you become happy when you are successful. Happiness sets into motion a whole series of psychological and behavioural changes that make you more determined to set and achieve meaningful and realistic goals, that help you get over failures (which are inevitable), that help you overcome problems and setbacks, and that help you to develop deeper, positive and supportive relationships.

Every morning also ask yourself "What can I do today that will make me happy?" Here is a list of things that have been shown to boost happiness levels. Smiling; Socialising; Intimacy; Keeping a Journal; Meditation; Contributing (Helping Others, perhaps by volunteering); Developing your Spiritual Life; Listening to Music; Exercising; Engrossing Hobbies; Photography; Pursuing Meaningful Goals; and of course Expressing Gratitude. Some recent research has shown that as little as eight minutes participation in these "positive interventions" can lead to significant impact on your happiness and emotional well-being, and help reduce the national plague of "unhappyitis."

Two Free E-Books

Napoleon Hill wrote "The Imagination is the most marvellous, miraculous, and inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known". He went on to say "It takes no more effort to demand abundance and prosperity than to accept misery". You need to develop a prosperous mind set, and re-evaluate all of the beliefs that limit your wealth. Alexander Pope said "We have seen the enemy and they are us". The creation of wealth is a science, if you do certain things you will get rich! To help you along the way I would like to send you two classic e-books. The first is by Wallace Wattles entitled "The Science of Getting Rich", the second book is "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I have heard it said that one's wealth is directly proportional to the number of times you have read "Think and Grow Rich". I hope that these gifts provide the inspiration and momentum to enable you to make an "explosive jump" in your ability to create wealth, prosperity and abundance. Please e-mail me at Trevor@IntelligentLifestyles.co.uk to get your two e-books. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my newsletter, and I will send the books to all my subscribers. You will get the books quicker though if you e-mail me directly, (but please subscribe to my newsletter as well). Don't forget to request your free coaching session and I will phone you back to schedule it.

Chunking - Achieving Huge Goals Bit By Bit

If you have followed my instructions below you should have some really fantastic inspiring goals, but you may feel a little daunted by the sheer immensity of the goals. You need to break the goals down into more manageable chunks or "milestones". A favourite maxim of mine is "Life yard by yard is hard, life inch by inch is a cinch!" Break the big goal down into 6 smaller goals or milestones, that when achieved would mean that your reached your big goal almost by accident, or a as by-product of achieving the smaller goals. It's a good idea to reward yourself for completing each milestone, just to keep the momentum going. Once again a coach (www.lifecoachingonline.com) can help you with this by asking powerful questions like "Imagine you have got your goal, what would have had to have happened in order for you to get it?"

Milestones can be chunked down into "Action Steps" which are accomplished each week to move you closer to the goal. An action step should be challenging, achievable, in line with your values,

appropriate to the goal or milestone, and clear. If you are stuck for ideas try asking yourself what you would have to do in the next week to make you feel back on track.

Brainstorming your Goals

Having used the Wheel of Life exercise (described below) to decide which areas of your life you want to improve you now need to ask yourself "If this area in my life was perfect what would be happening?" Brainstorm absolutely everything and write it down on a piece of paper. A coach (http://www.lifecoachingonline.com/) will ask you powerful questions to facilitate the brainstorming process. Examples of such questions would be:

"If you had no fear what would you do?"

"If you knew you couldn't fail what would you do?"

"What do you really really want?"

"What else would you love to be, do or have?"

Your coach will keep on questioning you until they are sure that you have come up with absolutely everything you need for this area in your life to be perfect.

From the notes you have made you now need to formulate your goals according to the S.M.E.R.T.I.E. model below (25/07). It is important to use empowering phrases such as; "I love doing..", "I am delighted that...", "I am exhilarated..." They should also be written in the present tense, they must have a date and year, and they must not contain any negatives, which the sub-conscious mind cannot process. (The phrase "Don't think of a pink elephant" illustrates this point with alarming accuracy).

An example of a correctly worded goal would be something like "It is 26th September 2007 and I am now in a romance of storybook intensity with the girl of my dreams. She is fantastic and we get on amazingly well, enjoying many adventures and sharing much fun and happiness together. Our intellects are well matched and we take great pleasure in deep discussions which go on into the night. We enjoy working out at the gym as well as running and cycling. We are like catalysts to one another encouraging each other's personal growth and development. When we are together we are totally unaware of the flow of time. The relationship is destined to result in a enduring marriage of more romance, love, fun adventure and mutual personal growth."

You can have great fun writing out these goals, and as a coach it is one of the activities I enjoy most. I will write out three goals for you during my free introductory coaching session. Please contact me at Trevor@IntelligentLifestyles.co.uk to arrange a free coaching session.

The Wheel of Life

This is a simple but extremely powerful tool to use to identify what areas in your life need improving It is holistic, in that it will help you restore balance to your life, and help you set powerful goals to you transform your life and achieve your dreams.

Draw a circle on a piece of paper about 3 inches in diameter. Divide this into 8 equally sized segments by drawing vertical and horizontal lines through the centre and then a further two lines that also cross through the centre of the circle. You should now have what looks like a pizza cut into eight equal slices. Each segment represents an important area in your life. You can choose these areas yourself or use the following which are the areas that most of my clients identify; Emotions, Health, Partner, Vocation, Money, Personal Development, Family/Social, and Spirituality. These are all self explanatory with perhaps the exception of Spirituality which does not necessarily mean a religious faith of some type. It can just simply mean being in touch with your true self.

You now look at each of the areas in turn and rate your self from 1 to 10 on where you believe your life is now compared to where you think it should be. For example, if you are financially independent with £3,000,000 wisely invested, you would probably score yourself 10/10, if on the other hand you have too much month left at the end of the money you would probably score 1/10. Mark on the relevant segment your score, 0 is at the centre of the circle, 10 is the outer edge. When you have done this for each area join the dots to form your "life wheel". If you are anything like the majority of people you will end up with a rather distorted crumpled looking wheel. If you imagine this life wheel on your car, you can see you are going to get a very bumpy ride.

This indicates which areas in your life you need to work on to restore a sense of balance, the goal initially being to try and get the Life Wheel as round as possible. You can then select which areas you want to prioritise for growth.

Identify which areas have your lowest score, these are probably the best areas to work with to set some powerful goals to start transforming your life.

The "Life Wheel" is extremely adaptable and can be used in many ways to progress your life. Your life coach (http://www.lifecoachingonline.com/) will teach you many uses for the wheel, and how it can be used to prioritise your most important goals and get you powerfully motivated to start taking action. It is also possible to make smaller wheels for each one of the above areas. When I am helping clients improve their health and fitness I use a "Health Wheel" where the segments are labeled; Happiness, Exercise, Hydration, Stress, Weight, Nutritional Supplements, Diet, Fun & Recreation.

You should review your life wheel every couple of months. It is a good tool for finding where you are now, where you want to be, and for measuring your progress.

In my next session I will show you how to set powerful goals in the areas that you have identified that need improving.

Setting Goals

The best way to set goals is to ask a Life Coach to assist you (www.lifecoachingonline.com). However, this of such fundamental importance that I am going to take you through the process and give you some tips to help you progress. Whatever goal you give to your sub-conscious mind, it will work day and night to help you achieve it.

There are seven things to remember when setting goals. They should be Specific, Measurable, Evidential, you need to accept Responsibility for achieving them, they should be Timed, Inspirational, and contain an Emotional element to motivate you to action. You can remember all these ingredients with the acronym S.M.E.R.T.I.E.

The two most important criteria are that goals are specific and timed. A goal that is not specific is just a good idea. A goal that does not have a time limit is just a dream. Vague goals produce vague results. "I want to lose weight" is just a wish. "I will be my ideal weight by the summer is better, and would make a good affirmation. But best of all is "I will weigh 56kg by 1st September 2007".

A good goal will also stretch you, it will encourage you to step out of your comfort zone. It will require you to learn new skills, overcome fears, and meet new people. Jim Rohn said "You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it you become someone worth becoming."

The ultimate goal is "Life Mastery." The ability to be totally in control of your life, your health, your emotions, your finances, your relationships, and life purpose. You may be unfortunate to lose material things but you cannot lose life mastery, that is those skills you develop in the process of getting your goals.

Being clear about your vision for the future and the goals you need to set will put you into the top 3% of the world's achievers. To move into the top 1% all you need to do is write them down and then take specific actions steps every day to help you achieve those goals.

In my next entry I will show you the "Wheel of Life" and explain how to use this tool to set goals that will create a balanced and fulfilled life.

The Power of a Goal

"If you don't set goals for yourself, you are doomed to work to achieve the goals of someone else."
Brian Tracey.

One of the first things a life coach (www.lifecoachingonline.com) will do with a client is help them to set some powerful goals in their life. Last year I attended a Brian Tracey lecture. During the lecture he stated "If you write 12 goals down on a piece of paper, then do nothing else except put the piece of paper somewhere safe, then twelve months later you look at that piece of paper you will find you have achieved 6 of those goals without you apparently doing anything."

I shared this with a client of mine who did exactly this. One of the goals was to own a house in Spain. This appeared totally out of reach for my client but she wrote it down anyway. Yesterday she phoned me to remind me of the coaching session and to inform me that she now owned a house in her home town near Seville. We were both amazed. Incidentally, she didn't inherit the house, she is funding the purchase herself.

This process works like magic, but there is some science behind it. The conscious mind can only handle a few pieces of information at a time. The sub-conscious mind is capable of dealing with millions of bits of information every second, and it filters out everything that is not relevant. When you tell your sub-conscious mind what you want, i.e. your goals, then the reticular activating system in the sub-conscious mind no longer filters out the information that would enable you to achieve your goals. Instead it brings the information to the attention of the conscious mind enabling you to react to, and seize opportunities that otherwise you may not have noticed.

Furthermore, you attract into your life the things that you focus on. Most people focus on what they don't want rather than what they do, so they get more of what they don't want. I always ask my clients what they want to be, do, or have. Most of them don't know. However, when I ask them what they don't want they can talk for hours. They are passionate about the things they don't want. It should be the other way round!

I also think there is a bit of magic involved in the goal setting process as well! Ralph Waldo Emerson said "When you write down a goal the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it."

I should point out that you should always take action to reach your goals, including reading your goal list aloud at least three times a day, but the process of setting goals is so powerful, that even if you apparently do nothing you will still have a 50% success rate.

When someone contacts me for coaching the first session is always free. (All the other sessions come with a money back guarantee - if you are not satisfied at the end of the session you get a full refund of your fee, no questions asked). During the first (free) session I will help you set some amazing goals, so what have you got to lose? Contact me now through my website or e-mail me (trev@lifecoachingonline.com) and I will help you set some powerful goals.