Now is no time to sit on your hands and pine for the good old days. Now is the time to Think Big! And there’s a great Australian magazine (you can get print and online versions) that will help you do that. This month features a cover story on Bob Proctor and yours truly also has an article in the current issue. It’s also got a Recession Busting Guide as well as articles by Kim Kiyosaki, Loral Langemeier and Chris Howard to name a few. Get a free online subscription here….

When the economic picture shifts, so do the criteria for success. Here’s an article in Forbes worth reading, especially as it relates to goal setting for business…

Looking for some ways to “unleash your power” in 2009? The January issue of Success Magazine has a cover story on Tony Robbins, four successful entrepreneurs talking about their big, hairy, audacious goals for 2009, and a feature article by yours truly. The article will help you with your goal setting for 2009 and you can access it and the articles in this issue here…

And why not give yourself a gift that will give back to you all year – a monthly subscription to Success Magazine. I’ve been reading it for more than 35 years and it only gets better. Believe it or not every issue includes a Dual Disc (CD AND DVD) inserted into the magazine! Get the details here…

And we’ve also got more tools to help you dream it, believe it and DO IT in 2009:

(1) Watch tomorrow for another free video in our highly acclaimed series “11 Reasons Goals Fail.”

(2) Wednesday we’re releasing our all-new Goals 2009 program.
More about that later, but you definitely want to be around at
12 Noon ET (New York time) for some outstanding “fast action bonuses.”

At the age of 41, Dara Torres is the first Olympic swimmer to compete in FIVE different Olympic games, oldest swimmer to win an Olympic medal and the first woman in history to swim in the Olympics past the age of 40.

Upon winning her third Silver medal at the Beijing 2008 Games, she answered a question about her age with the very telling statement, “You don’t have to put an age limit on your dreams.”

So whether you think you’re too young or you’re too old, forget your age and get started going after your DREAM!

In the 2004 Olympics Korean swimmer Park Tae-Hwan fell flat on his face in front of millions.

As he was awaiting the starter’s gun for the 400 meter freestyle event, he ungracefully tumbled into the water. Immediately disqualified from the race he slunk away from the platform to the dressing room where he remained for hours so we would not have to confront embarrassment from encountering anyone.

It is those moments when Champions are made — not the obvious moments when they conquer all and receive the accolades and admiration.

A mere 14-years-old when he made his colossal mistake, Park could have done what most would do. Abandon his goal for fear of further defeat and embarrassment. But Park is a Champion for the same reason that Dr. Robert Schuller wrote, “Success is Never Ending, Failure is Never Final.”

At that moment when all seemed lost, when all looked so bleak, Park made a new commitment to his success and then he went to work.

On August 9th he became the first Korean to ever win a Gold Medal in swimming and the first Asian male to do so in 72 years!

There’s a gold medal waiting for you too when you remember that your failure is never final!

Quite a few years ago as a young twenty-something, I found some of my greatest wisdom in a tiny digest-sized magazine called Success Unlimited. It’s a magazine that has its roots in the late 19th century when it was founded by Orison Swett Marden, one of history’s most prolific personal development authors.

The modern day version of SUCCESS maintains its heritage as the ultimate guide to achieving excellence, getting results, and realizing your greatest potential. Learn the insights, tips and strategies used by today’s leading entrepreneurs, CEO’s and personal development experts to get the competitive advantage and achieve more in life!

We are very honored to have an article in the August/September issue (pages 34-35). This new issue (as all issues do) includes a FREE DualDisc™ (CD & DVD in one) featuring personal development icons John Maxwell, Jack Canfield, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, Napoleon Hill, Terri Sjodin and Les Brown.

Go here to subscribe to SUCCESS or call 800-570-6414.

- Vic Johnson

I received this goal getting formula twice in the same day from two very different sources. Both suggested I would enjoy the formula and they were very right. As my Brit friends say, “it is spot on.”

Setting Means Getting – By Tom Hopkins

The average human being has the ability to achieve almost anything. Lack of basic capability is rarely the problem, but rather finding out what you want and being willing to sacrifice, change, and grow to satisfy the want. In the sales training seminars I conduct throughout the country, I teach a 20-step system of goal setting to help people achieve and I firmly believe it can be applied to all walks of life. Here it is:

1. If it’s not in writing, it’s not a goal. An unwritten want is a wish, a dream, a never-happen. If it’s in writing, it’s a commitment.

2. If it’s not specific, it’s not a goal. Broad desires and lofty aims have no effect. It must be concrete.

3. Goals must be believable. If you don’t believe you can achieve a goal, you won’t pay the price for it.

4. An effective goal is an exciting challenge. It must demand your best and a bit more or it isn’t going to change your ways and elevate your lifestyle.

5. Goals must be adjusted to new information. Adjust them down if they become unbelievable or up if they’re too easy.

6. Dynamic goals guide our choices. If you want it badly enough, you’ll turn off the TV and get to it. Goals will show you the right way to go on most decisions.

7. Don’t set short-term goals for more than 90 days. If you set a short-term goal that takes more than 90 days, you may lose interest.

8. Maintain a balance between long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals tend to be hidden in a fog of the future, so have some short-term goals – like clothes, cars, vacations— to keep your excitement up.

9. Include your loved ones in your goals. Involve them and they’ll buck you up when you need encouragement.

10. Set goals in all areas of your life. Have other goals besides career objectives.

11. Your goals must harmonize. Whenever you detect a conflict, set priorities that will eliminate the conflict.

12. Review your goals regularly. Remember, long-term goals can only be achieved if they are the culmination of short-term goals.

13. Set vivid goals. Define not only what you want but by when you want it, and concentrate on it for a few moments every day.

14. Don’t chisel your goals in granite. Sometimes you have to change goals to conform to your growing awareness of what’s really important in your life.

15. Reach out into the future. The idea of goal-setting is to plan your life rather than taking it as it comes. Begin by setting 20-year goals. Then 10-year, five-year, 30-month, 12-month, monthly, weekly, and finally goals for tomorrow and each day for the coming week.

16. Have a set of goals for every day, and review results each night.

17. Train yourself to crave your goals. Visualize yourself possessing what you’ve set your goals for.

18. Set activity goals, not production goals. Activity will lead to production by itself.

19. Understand luck, and make it work for you. Expect good things to happen, and they probably will.

20. Star now. Give goal-setting two hours of concentrated through today. Then set aside 10 minutes a day for the next 21 days to review and revise. After that, two minutes a day and one hour a week is all it will take to keep you on track.

Try this system if you want to achieve your goals and within 21 days you’ll be well on your way to an immensely greater and richer future.

Go to www.TomHopkins.com for a great Tip of the Day…

Almost a third of the year has already passed. If you’re not where you hoped to be with your 2008 goals, don’t wait any longer before you get some help.

And some of the best help you’ll ever get will be available in Chicago on 5/2-5/3 at Donna Krech’s Life Success Event. Start with Dr. Denis Waitley (who has helped me reach many a goal) and Loral Langemeier (The Millionaire Maker) and finish with a whole host of world class trainers, and it’s guaranteed to get you back on track.

I’m excited to be joining this stellar cast on stage so get your ticket today and meet me in Chicago…

For years I have promoted Toastmasters as a key “goal setting tool.” In fact, we strongly encourage all of our Champions Club members to join Toastmasters. As James Allen says, people “do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.” As you become more, you attract more.

Amit Chaudhary had a great post on his blog about Toastmasters and his experience and I have included most of it here:

Toastmasters International is an organization of clubs around the world which help members in public speaking. The clubs tend to be small in size to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak.

Late Jan 2008, I went ahead and attended the Yahoo ToastMasters club in Sunnyvale, called Yapsters as guest. It was definitely worthwhile and I became a member and have delivered my first speech.

It is obviously about public speaking, however it is useful in many ways:

As Amit mentions, Toastmasters can help you even if you don’t have any intentions of using in for public speaking. It will give you tremendous confidence and most importantly — you will be surrounded by like-minded people — and that’s a huge key to success.

If you would like to find a club near you go here….

The first letter of the acronym for SMART Goals, the letter “S”, stands for specific. And it’s long been taught by the sages that a goal has to be specific to be effective. Now there’s some scientific evidence to back that up.

Here’s part of a story from Psychology Today: “When it comes to working out, you might think trying your best would be the way to make the most of your exercise time. But you’d be wrong. For a study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that pitted several motivational techniques against each other, researchers had 56 female undergraduates attempt to do as many sit-ups as possible in 90 seconds. Those who were given the vague directive “do your best” averaged about 43 sit-ups on each day of the four-day study. On the other hand, women assigned specific long-or short-term targets–”do 10 percent more than you did last time”–managed 56 sit-ups by the last day’s session.”

And it doesn’t just apply to sit-ups. Being as specific as you can possibly be “turns on” an internal system much like the homing device in a guided missile — it makes it far easier to hit your goal when your system is “on.”

To read more from the Psychology Today story go here….