18
2014
A Different Kind Of New Year
An article by 
So the New Year was off to a bang.
2014 was under way and my own reflections and reviews of 2013 had some great milestones and progress for which I was grateful to have accomplished despite all the challenges and obstacles.
But curiosity had me follow the New Year’s eve from Hong Kong all the way around to Midway Island.
After observing the fireworks from my room on the 23rd floor of the Renaissance Hotel in Hong Kong another kind of fireworks was happening in my email inbox as slowly my inbox filled up as every marketer in town was pushing their New Years emails and marketing promotions trying to capitalize on peoples desires to start afresh with their New Years resolutions.
Weight loss commercials, financial planners, internet marketers, business builders, debt resolution companies… you name it they were all in the game
Well this year it was time to sit back and observe and just watch as the business as usual routine went underway and wait for the dust to settle.
Strangely enough there was nothing new. Same old same old. Business as usual.
Since I’ve been in business myself now for more than 20 years nothing has changed. It caused me to wonder if anyone else feels that there is more to life and more than just New Years resolutions that will be broken in the next two to three months?
What usually happens is that this process of making New Years resolutions leaves behind a trail of disenchanted and broken hearted people usually worse off than they were before.
As Scrooge said in A Christmas Carol “paying bills with no money and a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item presented dead set against you?”
Let me instead offer you a different approach.
One in which is not based on resolutions which can be so easily broken but rather a process that is ever evolving and continual where you make small strategic steps each and every month towards a clear objective driven by a deeper purpose.
Where your goals actually become milestones towards a powerful mission that is grounded in solid values…
Strategic Freedom
Let me introduce to you a process we call “Strategic Freedom.”
Strategic freedom has deep within its core an understanding that what people long for is both true freedom in every area of their lives and deep fulfilling love.
Freedom in their finances, freedom of their time, freedom from loneliness, freedom from their weight issues and insecurities…basically people long to be free from all that brings them down and weighs heavy on their heart and to feel deeply loved and accepted.
Yet the process to enjoy those desires is flawed in that one simply thinks that if they write them down or declare them they will simply enjoy them with minimal effort. They are looking for the change without the necessary transformation of heart and habit to see those desires met.
Change takes time and takes work that requires both sustained focus, feedback of your progress and support from those around you.
It also requires a strategy.
Wars are won or lost based on Strategy.
So is business.
So does it not make sense that your life should also be…wouldn’t you agree???
But it also requires a touch from the Divine CREATOR.
Now let me be clear here that I’m not getting all religious or ethereal but really just saying that this touch is played out in a heart that yearns to enjoy a fuller more abundant life and cries out for a touch or help.
That cry summons the source of all life to reach out and give that something extra to help them reach their desire.
Okay so allow me to share a snapshot with you a process from our Strategic Freedom Planning System to help you this year to have a Different New Year. One that you can find happiness and contentment. Let me help you structure a new way to enjoy your life.
Curtsey of Waiting for the World
This process was taught to me by my mentor Jim Rohn back in 1992 when he employed me. The concept was then adapted and further worked into a system we developed by studying one of the most elite military teams in the world.
Let me clarify that these two concepts are are almost diametrically apposed to each other in some way but that they are to be taken with balance in order to integrate them.
Reasonable Progress
The first idea that Jim taught me was called “reasonable progress in reasonable time”. The idea here was not to necessarily think that a goal had to be achieved by a specific date, but that constant continual progress towards it’s achievement should be undertaken and that it should be done in reasonable time.
Let us say for example one wanted to loose 200lbs.
The question then is “What if it took you 5 years to loose that weight?”
Would you be happy?
Answer…OF COURSE.
What if the goal was to earn 10 million dollars and it took you 30 years to do it.
Would you be happy?
What about your spiritual goals?
If it took you 7 years to learn the finer points of intimacy with the CREATOR and to overcome habits that caused you grief would you be happy?
If answer is yes then you have made reasonable progress in reasonable time.
But now let us say you trying to build a house and it takes you 50 years to build.
Unless it’s a hobby of yours, your expectation to live in it or sell it for profits chances are it would NOT be okay to take 50 years?
NO WAY.
Photo by World Bank Collection
So the first idea helps us to establish a mind frame that does not get bent out of shape if we don’t hit our objectives at the exact time and date we desire. So long as we are making reasonable progress in reasonable time we stay motivated and keep pressing on.
Plan, Do, Review
The second part of Jim’s advice to me was “Plan, Do, Review” You plan what you want to do and how to do it, you go out and work your plan, then you review your plan to see how you did and what needs to be changed or improved and then you start the whole process over again.
You do this for the day, the week, the month, the quarter, and the year.
Thus this New Years a review went under way while enjoying the fireworks. A review of our progress, what were the obstacles, what contributions helped us, what distracted us and what needs to change to reach our objectives in a reasonable time, as defined by me, not some one else.
Reverse Planning!
Photo Curtsey of Marsmeth Tallahasee
No I’m not talking about driving backwards here. Well….not exactly…
The second tip comes from the study of the elite military team.
They were able to deliver their secret warrior clients any where in the world plus of minus 30 seconds from their targeted
time.
A process they used was to use a reverse planning process where they would begin with the end objective in mind and flush out from end to start everything that had to take place and considering all possible scenarios, obstacles, and challenges.
So for example let us say you want to loose 200 lbs in 12 months instead of 5 years. Obviously you would map out how many ponds you need to loose a month for the next 12 months. But here you want to map out the exact steps from reverse to beginning.
You would begin by envisioning yourself at the final stage where your standing on the scale and seeing it go 200 lbs less from where your started exactly 12 months from now.
Then you would ask yourself what would I have to do just before that? In this case maybe you just finished a 20 mile bike ride. Then just before that step you would see yourself coming off a 2 hour run walk, then before that a 5 K.
You keep going till you see yourself at the start, where you are sitting down now determining how many lbs do you need to loose each month, and writing out your strategic sheet. You also want to take into account all possible barriers you may encounter along the journey. Like your relatives inviting you to next years Thanksgiving party, the days you may end up not working out and splurging…you get the idea.
By combining these two systems you have a better approach to reaching objectives and goals that leaves rooms for set backs, obstacles and interruptions while helping you maintain the motivation and vigilance to press on so you have progress in reasonable time.
The Extra Umph!
But truth be told is you can’t see your desires fulfilled like we explain in our strategic freedom series, if you don’t understand the third point which is your divine purpose.
At a deep heart level it is why your here on the planet. If you don’t know why you are here then you can’t grasp a vision that is larger than yourself and if those two things are not clear then your goals and desires lack the life sustaining force, the extra umph that is needed to keep you pressing on even when everything goes wrong, which it will at some point. (It was well said by Les Brown, your either in a major problem, on your way out, or heading into one.)
But without knowing those two things your going to keep getting the results you have always been getting. It will be business as usual..
Oh you may enjoy certain level of results but you will never find complete contentment and peace. You’ll always have this gnawing on the inside of you that something is just not right.
The Real Reason!
You see part of the purpose as to why you are here is to learn how to love and to bring love to those around you by using your gifts and talents to make life easier for others. To comfort them and help them along life’s journey, to pick them up and nurture them, to guide and encourage no matter what you do and to lead them to the ultimate source of love which is GOD.
The Real GOD is LOVE and you are a product or creation of that love and will feel most content expressing that genuine love and concern for your fellow humans in what it is you choose to
do. It is the power of love that transforms a human heart to change.
It is what each person cries out for and when received transforms a taker into a giver, a angry person into a kind and tender person, a selfish person into one who is selfless.
Everything you do that is birthed out of love for others carries with it the source and power of life to carry out the necessary tasks, even when your whole world crumbles and falls apart. If what you do is rooted in love, with the motive of love, you will see it to completion.
If it is birthed in selfishness you will either never complete it or eventually feel empty when you achieve it.
If you desire to loose weight do it because you want to be healthy and be around longer to love and help those you care about.
Do it because you love themIf you desire to expand your business do it because you truly care for people and desire to see them helped by what you have. Do it so that a portion of the profits you will make can be given to a cause close to your heart.
A Different Kind of New Year
This year make it your desire to have a different kind of new year. Take your resolutions and turn them into purpose driven mission with a flexible and reasonable time frame.
Then review your desires and adjust them for the benefits of others and not yourself and you will experience a real power you may have never known. Open your heart to receive LOVE that you may help love others…even when they are being ugly.
So allow me to encourage you to do something different this year.
Take a new sustained approach to the year. One in which on the next New Years eve you simply review your progress, what hindered you, what helped you and then determine the next mile stone, re-strategize and then present your plan to the ALMIGHTY CREATOR for HIS input.
If you have made your goal, then knowing your purpose and mission will help you see clearly the next objective you will need to accomplish on your journey called life. (As you have heard…Life is not about just our accomplishments, but in Scrooges Christmas Carol it’s about man kind. Aiding and helping them)
If you have never done this it is okay.
You can begin now from this day on even if the so called New Year has passed as this is a work in reasonable progress…it can be done any time especially if it’s broken down quarterly.
You can begin today using the resources below that we have linked to from Marisa Murgatroyd at http://LiveYourMessage.com as she has a great process that can help some one just getting
started.
If you want something a little more robust then consider checking out our Strategic Planning System which includes some significant audios on overcoming fear, some beautiful inspirational music, a 32 page work book, a special book about the elite team I mentioned earlier and a unique time management system called The Sacred Seven Time Management System.
Either way…at the end of your life you’ll look back and say…I made reasonable progress in reasonable time.
Remember that true freedom is only accomplished with a strategy that is rooted and grounded in a deep purpose of love and a clear mission to help as many as you can during your life while learning to love people and love GOD.
Along the way you’ll enjoy the ride and all that goes with it.
In the meantime why not share with us what you do to plan your business, life or year. Share with us any insights you may have picked up along the way during the course of your journey and help the rest uf us along this road we call life.
Remember to always “Fly Right”
Upward & Onward;
Roger
If you would like to learn more about the Strategic Freedom Planning System just
got to TVG’s Strategic Freedom Planning System
About the Author: Roger
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