Some years ago, following the example of one of my heroes, John Goddard, I created a life list of goals that I wanted to achieve. One of those goals was to celebrate the New Year in a different International city every year. Lisa and I have been on a yacht as we watched the fireworks explode over the Statue of Liberty. One year we were on a different yacht on the Thames River as we watched Big Ben stroke midnight. We were in the famous Moulin Rouge (and the Eiffel Tower later in the evening) for one memorable New Years in Paris. This year we added another experience as we stepped outside the New Years celebration at the Four Seasons to watch the fireworks explode over the celebrated Vltava River in the Old Town district of Prague in the Czech Republic (the locals call in Praha).

How’d we get here?

First we had to have a DREAM backed up by a decision to do whatever it took to achieve it. Then we had to have a plan. It wasn’t real complicated but it was a plan, otherwise we’d still be sitting at home. Then we had to take ACTION (keeping the Dream in front of us to keep us going when the obstacles appeared).

What’s your Big Dream for 2009? You CAN live it. If you need some help, check out all of our goal setting solutions here…

Dream it. Believe it. DO IT! It got us to Praha and it’ll take you anywhere you want to go. Happy New Year!

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…

Watch the video to learn how you can get first in line status for our new video series “The 11 Reasons Goals Fail” PLUS a brand new Special Report, “The Common Denominator of Success for 2009.

Well, I suppose I knew deep down inside that unloading some free videos of some of the best content we’ve ever created would eventually cause people to wonder what the heck’s going on…

So I guess it’s time to finally spill the beans (along with another free video

For several years I had dreamed of taking what I know about creating massive momentum to achieve massive success, and working with a small group of people in a 90-day, high intensity, hands-on program to deliver massive results. After seeing the many successes from our highly acclaimed one-year Champions Club program, I knew the time had come to take the next step.

Amazon.com in 90 Days and Think and Grow Rich Too

I have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in thought and study about “the 90-day cycle.” I have experienced and witnessed a multitude of people who have achieved massive success as a result of “90-day cycles” during which they created massive momentum. Jeff Bezos took his idea for an online bookstore and after an intensive 90-day period in 1995 launched Amazon.com. Four years later he was Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Though he spent more than twenty years in research, Napoleon Hill actually wrote the number one success book of all time, Think and Grow Rich, in about 90 days. So much success is generated by companies and individuals alike during “the 90-day cycle” that it almost seems to me at times to be some sort of natural law at work.

Nature in fact seems to rely on “the 90-day cycle.” Our four seasons are 90 days apart. You can go from the harshest of Winter to the overflowing, abundant life of Spring in just 90 days. Most of our agricultural crops have a 90-day growing period. From seed to harvest in 90 days. It works with plants…and it works with dreams and goals.

Momentum is a cornerstone concept of physics…and goal achieving!

We know “momentum” to be a cornerstone concept of physics. And while I don’t understand physics, I know that when I climb on a bicycle, I can expect the first few turns of the pedal to require some significant effort to get me moving. I also know that I can use a short burst of intense energy to pedal the bicycle up to speed, and once up to speed, I can relax as I pedal only enough to maintain the speed or momentum.

So one of my mentors, Bob Proctor, and I teamed up to coach a small group of people (49) in a program designed to maximize their momentum over a 90 day cycle and achieve some massive goals in the fourth quarter of the year. We called the program Maximum Momentum and it would be an understatement to call the program a massive success!

Earlier this year I came across the recordings we made of this program along with the other comprehensive materials that participants used to achieve some of their biggest and hairiest goals. And that got me thinking again about how many more people we could expose to the magic of the 90-day Maximum Momentum cycle.

Your Maximum Momentum Begins Tuesday!

So next Tuesday (Sept 23) at 12 Noon Eastern we’re going public for the very first time with the program that one participant said was the cause of a “monumental shift in my thinking, actions, and results.” Another participant wrote to say her “90 days spent on Maximum Momentum has now resulted in the signs of a breakthrough for me. I made the “decision” that I was not going to repeat any of the actions that had been holding me back and since that day my trades have been consistent “winners”.

We’ll be sharing lots more about Maximum Momentum in the next few days, but that’s enough for now…

Time for another video to get you ready for the best Fourth Quarter you’ve ever had. This one’s about “How to Manage The Clock” which seems to be a challenge for more than a few folks.

BTW, when you’ve watched the video how about sharing your comments by clicking the comment link below. And if the video opened your eyes, how about sharing it with some friends by click the ShareThis button.

As you prepare to have the biggest fourth quarter you’ve ever had, it’s important to follow the example of great sports teams — make sure you’ve got your best “players” on the field!

To learn how to use this principle to achieve your big fourth quarter goal, check out this “Fourth and Goal” video.

After you’ve watched the video, please leave your comments below. And if it helped you, why not use the ShareThis button to let your friends and associates know about it.

Every Championship quarterback always knows where they are on the field of play. To reach your goal in the fourth quarter you’ll also need to know where you are on the field. This video gives some great insights, using the analogy to the football principle of “down and distance.”

After you’ve watched the video, please leave your comments below. And if it helped you, why not use the ShareThis button to let your friends and associates know about it.

With the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2008 just a few weeks away, it’s important NOT to give up on those big goals you set in January.

There’s still plenty of time IF you get started NOW. Watch this video for some steps you can take today.

After you’ve watched the video, please leave your comments below.

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…

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….