This is not my post but there is so much for you to read into it:

How to Have the Best Year of Your Life (without Setting a Single Goal)

Posted: 05 Jan 2012 08:15 AM PST

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer.

This new year, do something different: stop setting goals.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then making resolutions for another year is a sure-fire way to drive yourself crazy. I did it for years, and it got me nothing.

Resolutions are pipe dreams, and goals are a waste of time. They are designed to trick you into believing all you need to change your life is a plan.

But plans don’t work. Life is too chaotic and busy. For most of us, it’s impossible to stick to a list of goals for more than a few weeks, not to mention an entire year.

So how do you change your life? By controlling what you can: your daily habits.

The Pointlessness of Plans:

Most good things happen without a plan: friendships, falling in love, finding a job, and so on. If you want to make your new year count, you’ll need to be intentional — not by setting goals, but by making space in your life for what really matters.

This was how I was able to get into shape, launch a blog, train for a half-marathon, get a book deal, and keep my day job this year — while loving every minute of it.

Most productivity systems focus on beginning with the “end in mind” and setting goals to get there. Many are based on the assumption that in order to get what you want later, you’re have to give up what you want now. You work the plan, endure pain, and win.

But this is not the only path you can take.

I just finished one of the best years of my life, and most of it was completely unplanned. How did I do it? By creating new disciplines I actually liked doing. I wasn’t only fixated on the end results; I also enjoyed the process.

This is the secret to a healthy, productive life and to making an impact on the world. Create good, sustainable habits that you enjoy, and you’ll end up with a life you can be proud of.

Instead of Goals:

There is an alternative to setting goals that will bring you closer to the life you want. Focus on a few practices you can enjoy doing on a regular basis. The trick here is consistency. These four helped me:

• Get up early. When the world wakes up, distractions abound. If you are going to focus on creating a new life for yourself, you’ll need to find the time. The best way to do this is to work while others are sleeping. At first, I didn’t like waking up before the sun, but eventually my body adjusted and I began looking forward to the solitude.
• Over-commit. The adage “under-promise and over-deliver” is a farce. It only propagates the status quo. Real difference-makers push boundaries. They test, prod, and poke until something gives. You can do this, too, by saying “yes” to more things than you’re comfortable with. Learn to stretch yourself. You might be surprised by what you’re actually capable of. Your confidence will grow, too.
• Talk to strangers. Relationships are what make the world go round. This is true for your career, personal well-being, and inner life. When you meet new people, you make connections that can lead to all kinds of future breakthroughs. Even when it’s uncomfortable, reach out and introduce yourself to new people. The worst they can say is “no.” Fortunately, many won’t.
• Practice generosity. Give away your time, money, services, and ideas. When you do this, you will get a lot more than you give. People will learn to trust you, and if you really help them, they will tell others about you. This will build your reputation, and you will have more friends than you know what to do with. And as the saying goes, what goes around really does come around.

After a year of doing these things, I ended up with a life I couldn’t have imagined or planned for. And I had a blast doing it. So I’m going to do it all over again, without setting a single goal.

The best year of your life is within reach — if you are willing to give up on the craziness of plans and instead focus on creating new habits. The first step is to begin.

Read more from Jeff at his blog, Goins, Writer, or get his free eBook The Writer’s Manifesto.

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“Marketing is NOT a separate entity; it is part of being who you are and offering ways to be of service to those who are naturally attracted to who you are as a Creative Person. Marketing is making yourself known to as many people as possible in as many creative ways as
possible to make them aware of what you are doing – while you are just having a darn good time.”

Now my daily marketing plan is simply getting myself in front of as many people as possible in as many creative ways as possible so that those people who are looking for what I am offering can find me.

It does not make any difference if you are a seriously spiritual individual or a hard core scientist who does not believe in anything spiritual; the truth is each religion and scientific discipline tell us with overwhelming conviction that each and every one of us has an innate capability to create our personal happiness.

We really do deserve to have the life we want!

Abundance, wellness, prosperity, and love are in all places. Look at all the people in the world who are happy, healthy, and prosperous.

Do you seriously believe that they somehow deserve to have more than you? Of course they don’t, we are ALL entitled to a great life!

If you simply cannot recognize this truth, it’s surely guaranteed to be tough going meeting any of your goals. The bottom line is if you really don’t think you are good enough why would anybody else?

Make it a daily exercise to tell yourself, and to believe that you most certainly deserve to be happy! Even if you don’t believe right now just keep telling yourself it’s true; once you hear it enough you’ll start to believe it.

I Will Seek Wisdom,

One would think this ideal is a no-brainer but then one has to look at oneself. More than anything this is a lesson of action and acceptance. To me it is so obvious that “seeking wisdom”  is not what you can learn through reading books, audio tapes and lectures alone. I am not saying these are not good sources of extreme importance but they are only a small but important part of the picture. One would assume that personal experience is possibly the best means of becoming a wise individual. I have lots of  experience but I can’t say I am much wiser because of it. Wisdom brings balance, discernment and good judgment into a person’s life.

It is suggested that a person becomes who he associates with. My ability to sabotage myself in that my thinking tells me I am not as good as the group of people I long to associate with, that I am an outsider restricts my growth and capacity to learn. I need to stop comparing myself to others. My comfort zone is too comfortable! Inside I know that reaching out is the key to gaining acceptance, learning and acquiring a “council of wise men”. There is safety in council. This is a person’s mastermind group as Napoleon Hill states. Solomon says “find a wise man; a person or group who has accomplished what you wish for yourself, and listen closely to their words”.

I believe there is something wrong about how we think. There is nothing more important in our lives to seek and learn than, –”that we are not our thoughts”. The thoughts that rush through my mind are not mine.  I do not create them, they come from somewhere outside me. I don’t realize this so I take them to be my own thoughts.  I soon believe I am these thoughts. The problem is that I carry these thoughts around all the time believing that I am it!

The answer to this De Lima is to think in a new way. You need to watch your thoughts. Think about what you are thinking about so to speak. My thoughts are as close as my own breath, but I never take a close look at them. We all need to learn to stay awake and not get lost in our thinking otherwise the thoughts you have will run you ragged,  on auto pilot in a sense. They never stop!!  Just watch and listen to your thoughts.  It is also true as you watch your thoughts; you can focus on changing them, consciously, so that you can become what you are thinking about (like the “Law of Attraction”).

Through serving others one can achieve serenity of thought. The rewards of helping others bring a satisfaction to yourself that cannot be compared to anything. To give is to receive. I am not saying to get something I must give something.  Give from the heart;  put yourself in the other person’s shoes and come to know what they truly desire, need or want. If you cannot help, find someone who can. Help them indirectly in this way. Do not expect anything to come back to you. Giving and receiving is not a one to one measure.  Just believe that giving always comes back to you, sometimes without even recognizing it.

These ideas have enlightened me in the areas of the importance of others and the positive influence they have on you and you on them.  The power of your thoughts on thinking, and that helping others, giving of yourself expecting nothing in return really gives back more than one realizes. It builds a group of peers around you that contributes to the wisdom you gain. There is no greater power than love and compassion for your fellow man on this earth. To me this is a Wise Man’s Secret….

LET IT REALLY SINK IN…… THEN CHOOSE

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.  When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply,  If I were any better, I would be twins!

He was a natural motivator.  If an employee was having a bad day,  John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.  Seeing this style really made me curious,  so one day I went up and asked him,  I don’t get it!  You can’t be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it? He replied,  ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself,  you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood.  I choose to be in a good mood.  Each time something bad happens,  I can choose to be a victim or… I can choose to learn from it.  I choose to learn from it.  Every time someone comes to me complaining,  I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life.   I choose the positive side of life.

Yeah,  right,  it’s not that easy, I protested. Yes,  it is,  he said.  Life is all about choices.  When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice.  You choose how you react to situations.  You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.  The bottom line:  It’s your choice how you live your life.  I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter,  I left the Tower Industry to start my own business.   We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later,  I heard that he was involved in a serious accident,  falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.  After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care,  he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.  I saw him about six months after the accident.  When I asked him how he was,  he replied,  If I were any better, I’d be twins… Want to see my scars? I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. ‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,  he replied.  Then,  as I lay on the ground,  I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or… I could choose to die.  I choose to live.

Weren’t you scared?  Did you lose consciousness?  I asked.  He continued, …the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses,  I got really scared.  In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man. I knew I needed to take action.  What did you do?  I asked.  Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,  said John.  She asked if I was allergic to anything, yes,  I replied.  The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply…I took a deep breath and yelled, “Gravity”

Over their laughter,  I told them, I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.  He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors,  but also because of  his amazing attitude…I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.  Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,  for tomorrow will worry about itself.   Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

by Mike Virgil on MySpace Blogs

I am a network marketer and absolutely love the opportunity it allows me to attain the things I desire and achieve the goals I set for myself. I have no boss, no daily commute or stress. I am grateful for my fortune, working from home and meeting great people. It is an exceptional online business opportunity. The products I market focus on Health, Wealth & Wisdom. A great combination of attributes for these times of economic uncertainties. All of which are attainable if one so desires.

Exactly my POINT! My business requires an individual to submit an application that has a small fee, 100% refundable if not accepted, or, if the person doesn’t feel this internet business is right for them. I engage with opportunity seekers on a daily basis and am amazed at the number of people who will not move forward because of this small investment.  It’s an opportunity to discover the vehicle that could change their lives, achieve their dreams and passions.

Now that I think about it…. Quite frankly, if you are unwilling to take a step to learn something of benefit for you and your family, “without risk”, why are you looking? Why bother…

On the other hand, if you are – Right Now Is How

If you don’t want the next 10 years to be like the last, then now is the time to do something different. Do it now!  http://RightNowIsHow.com

THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE OF ALL

So you want to start your own online networking business? The most important advice I can give to you is:

Showing Up!! That’s the crucial thing. What do I mean? Do The Work! After all, it’s your business and your livelihood. When you are working full time for an employer you do the work and earn what they think you are worth. When you do the work for yourself you determine how much you want to pay you. The secret is to develop the habit of showing up and doing something every single day. Some days it will feel like you haven’t achieved anything. You need a specific time every day where you sit down and practice the craft of internet marketing. Yes, it’s a craft.  Sit down and do the work – typing for those 60 minutes, or producing the videos or doing the market research – all the vital elements to build a thriving business. Acquiring new skills and knowledge, this is absolutely imperative, but, should be done at another time*, not during productive output time. Make this time a habit, a process!

What is your motivation for starting up your business? You really must Have A Burning Desire** to make it happen. You must know there is a market out there or you wouldn’t be doing this. Possibly you want to show people that you know something that works and could actually make money. Maybe it is about leadership and building a team of entrepreneurs. Maybe you want to educate your team on all the facets of internet marketing and building a home based business. What’s the one piece of advice that you can give people just starting out now? What’s the one thing they should watch out for? Do you need to teach them how to create product, how to produce content, writing articles, filming video’s, recording podcasts, transposing PDF files, presentations, keynotes, holding webinars/teleconferences, ways to reach their audience, social media like Twitter, Facebook,Youtube and the like. How do they all fit together? It’s A Full Time Occupation.

You Have To  Commit To The Challenge! As you learn you will have many successes but the fact is you will try many marketing schemes that don’t work. For every winner there is a half a dozen losers. At the same time you need to have fun with all the things you are doing. Who said that you can’t have fun? Fun is the glue that keeps you striving because at times things can become really disheartening. Maybe it is something that’s going to help in your market research, possibly something that will help you get more traffic, or something to help you convert by getting more people to get what you’d like them to do. Possibly to help you create a more engaging/compelling product.

This has lead me to what is most important to a successful enterprise. Sure, you need to be contributing into your market, understanding the market, leading the market but the one thing you have to do is create revenue. You need to practice making money just as you would practice for a marathon. Diligently! If you don’t you and your cash flows will have a very limited future, there is no magic pill; you need to be contributing into your market. Do The Work!

Being an entrepreneur isn’t a walk in the park. It is not easy. You will be asking yourself to learn new stuff, cultivate new skills, develop a new mind-set and then, when you think you have mastered all there is to master, you’ll get to start all over again because a new game is in town. You have to set your mind right. With hard work, great mentors and persistence you will succeed.

* To help you make big money online you need a cutting edge education and  SOMEONE You Can Trust http://bit.ly/AFO3M

** Want a Free Think And Grow Rich Book? It’s Already Created a Million Millionaires. I’ve Got a Copy Reserved for you at:  http://bit.ly/4DH661

The next time you run into some familiar blockage or begin to feel unsuited to face some new and difficult personal challenge, don’t do what you’ve always done before. Don’t try to think your way around it. You no longer want a way around your troubles because what goes around, comes around! What you want is to grow beyond the level of that disturbance. And to do that, you must not act from it.

So don’t allow yourself to be pulled down into any anxious concern or confusion over not knowing what to do about your present condition. What you really want is an insight into your situation, not a fight with it. The two have nothing in common. So make it clear to yourself once and for all: nothing that hounds you can help you.

Draw yourself back from your usual thinking. Quietly observe it race around looking for the shelter of a conclusion it can recognize. Have nothing to do with its frantic motion.

You’ve gone as far as you can go with what you know. Now it’s time to know that, so that you can let what you know go, and let something unthinkable occur to you. Just relax.

Pressuring yourself to come up with a happy ending to a sad or shaky situation only goes to show you still believe that you can resolve these troubles. But if you could have, you would have by now. Besides, your lower nature wants you to confuse these feelings of pressure for being some kind of proof of personal progress. It’s done its job well. After all these years you’re afraid to live without this feeling of habitually prodding yourself, for fear that without it, you might get stuck! The solution here is to see that, in fact, you are stuck! This powerful insight releases you from the pressure of wanting anything from yourself.

Now you’ve done what you can do. You’ve prepared the stage, your own mind, for the arrival of a higher nature and a new kind of freedom. But learn to expect it in the unexpected. To paraphrase the New Testament: be ever watchful for you don’t know when — or how — something higher will make itself known to you.

There may come a flash of insight, a clear glimpse into some self-created cause of your own continuing inner captivity. Or, perhaps, a sudden and sweet deep sense of wholeness will sweep through you, a quiet but profound intuition, wherein you know yourself, for that moment, to be one with all of that life pulsating around and within you.

However that Light breaks into the darkened room of self, consider each brief illumination as an appointed messenger, a heavenly herald sent in advance of a greater freedom to come. Learn to embrace each appearance, for regardless of what may be revealed — to you or about you — these insights are not unlike the sound of the shouts of liberation heard always just before the arrival of the liberating forces. A new freedom always follows. Now, follow it.

– Guy Finley

If you’re trying to be a leader and be a success, don’t lose your fire and your desire to continue. When you have these things you have the winning spirit that you need to move forward, even when things seem difficult. If you lose them, though, you really have nothing, even if you’re making money. Not having a passion for what you do will kill a business, so you have to do something that matters to you if you really want success.

Leadership isn’t about telling people what to do. The main principle of leadership is to be a quality person who doesn’t need to tell people what to do – those people simply follow you because they see your value and they want what you have. If you can be that kind of person (and it can be learned) you can be a good leader and show the world what you have to offer. Adhering to that will bring you success.