Current Newsletter We've Moved 2004 Newsletter Summer 2004 Newsletter Workshops and Events  View My Portfolio				Winter 2007 It's the New Year!...Again? Ever feel as though the last "new year" was just here and gone? Does your life resemble that movie "groundhog day" where the same things keep happening year after year and every year you promise yourself that you are going to make a change? Why is it, that it is so hard to change yourself? Time…isn't that the excuse…no time?? Are you one that is too chained to your business success that you feel that you can't walk away or everything will fall apart? Are you having to keep up a status or a lifestyle that just won't allow you to find time much needed for yourself and your passions? The common excuses, too busy with work, too busy with kids programs, too busy cleaning your house…and the ever popular one with exercise…you need new sneakers or an MP3 player so you can work out properly. Well stop beating yourself up…we've all used them… and ironically the last two were my particular favorites over the last 6 months of trying to start a regular exercise program. Why do hundreds of thousands of people say tomorrow I am going to start to diet, tomorrow I am going to get control of my spending and my debt, tomorrow I am going to put away for my retirement, tomorrow when I retire things are going to change and then they consistently fail? Scientists still are unclear the definitive age old answer to this question…they have come up with some inconclusive evidence that for some its genetics, others the way they were brought up, some it is a neurological/chemical stimulation in the brain, some never struggle. It truly is just the way your brain works…that is it. This newsletter will be the first in a four part series that will hopefully inspire you and guide you to live life in pursuit of your passions. We are going to set you up with some strategies that will help you work with your brain to change your patterns successfully. I am going to share with you some things I have learned over the years that I have seen successfully work with my clients and my friends, and things we have learned from some of the top professional business coaches in North America. I am finding that in the first stage of our Wealth Creation system, we ask people what has to happen over the next year or three to make them happy about their progress. For some that immediate response is "I don't know." Its kind-of like shopping in a store, that you know what you are looking for and you can't find, but your first response to that store clerk who kindly asks you if they can help you is "just looking." Sometimes I get the feeling that many want help that start our process and then get into that "just looking" mode. Others have taken the mode that it is "the cost of success" and they hope it will go away eventually. Well, I think your life is too important "just to be looking"… to take a back seat and "we'll see what happens" approach. You have to make it happen! YOU have control over your own destination of where you are going to be one year from now. One thing I can tell you without a realistic plan for change, that's highly unlikely you will remove yourself from the groundhog movie that your life may feel like it is in. We are going to start today with 5 Confidence and Goal creating tips. Top Confidence and Goal Creation Tip #1 Learn to become an optimist The reality is that the world can be a sometimes hard but sometimes wonderful place. Recent research suggests that an optimistic state can be improved with practice…like riding your bike!!! Good News! If you start speaking to yourself…be careful of that inner voice..in a positive way when you both succeed and fail, you will gradually feel more optimistic. It is often as easy as a smile. Have you ever had someone be so wonderfully nice with a big smile, they make you smile back, or that stranger on the street that smiles…have you caught yourself returning that smile? Be that difference in someone else's life. Try that experience today when you are walking down the street, catch someone's eye and smile like you have known them forever and see what happens. Have you noticed those cranky sales clerks? (I am not sure why I am choosing to pick on sales clerks, it must be my recent Christmas experience that is fresh in my brain). Don't you just love those great people who are short in response and seem to have that grimace of hating every minute of existence on this earth. Ever stopped to see how they made you feel? It brings to mind, one of my clients and friends, who for every moment of her life is quite a positive role model for anyone, including her hilariously positive daughter…sorry "Tracy" but I am going to tell this story…She met "such sales clerk I talked of" and had actually asked for help, the store clerk was so rude and never helped and then proceeded to take a call when the other store clerk hollered to her that the phone was for her. Obviously one of her friends were calling her, she proceeded to tell her friend that she didn't get paid enough to work there and continued to talk for over 15 minutes while Tracy waited for help. " Tracy" finally fed up says "excuse me, but I need some help!" The girl turned and said in a unbelievable tone…"can you not see I am on the phone!" "Tracy become so enraged, that she leaned over the counter grabbed and ripped the phone cord clear out of the wall, and said.."good you're off!" I laughed so hard I almost ripped my stomach open. "Tracy" the ever positive person let this activity take charge of her emotions and actions, and allowed the negative thoughts to poke into our consciousness. For her she took charge, and was able to come back from this moment of rage. Others are known to be more pessimistic and this experience would have had them dwell and dwell on the situation. Research has shown this is the single most important tip, it doesn't matter what happens but how you describe it in your brain, as to the real outcome. It is easy to be envious of the "Jones' but remember no matter how bad things get, no one has died (hopefully!) and there's always someone who is more worse off. I loved this quote off the recent movie Rocky 2006 I saw this last weekend that Sylvestre Stallone ( rocky) says which I do think is very true…."Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you!" Top Confidence and Goal Creation Tip #2 Brainstorm and list all the things you want to do or change in your life Whether you do this with us for your own Wealth Creation Model, or do on your own, we can build these into manageable goals to meet each month, each quarter or even every year. Many people say they get paralyzed by fear that they just have too much to accomplish, or too little to dream about. They don't know what they want from life, but something just isn't right. You have to start somewhere, so take some quiet time, and time yourself to twelve minutes to write down everything you can think of that you would like to do for the entirely of your life to make you happier, even if you think it is retirement that is going to free you of all of your stress…what does retirement mean to you? No idea is right or wrong, too big or too small, or too far away. One idea for us, can help us lead you to the next. You have to get real with yourself here. Some preparation for this exercise may be to take a good look inside and see what is really causing you not to change. Get disturbed, get upset, this will spur you on to action. Top Confidence and Goal Creation Tip #3 Review your list and pick the top 10 things that will provide you with confidence RIGHT NOW. Can you imagine that maybe your own "messes" were holding you back? Did you have the realization that you now have 10 ideas that will energize you and make you happier and healthier and will lead you to your passions? Exciting? Still scared? Now write these 10 things in a journal, or your plan, the refrigerator, even a napkin? They have now become a written goal. Writing your goals down becomes the first step to achieving them, and making them a reality. Top Confidence and Goal Creation Tip #4 Take the 10 things that you are working on, and write beside them all the rationalizations that have stopped you in the past and your new optimistic belief of how you are going to accomplish them this time. By looking at things as an outside person, you take the emotional element out of your decisions to take action. You can strategize what will make you successful and recognize the dangers that will stop you. This way you set yourself up to win. Have you ever looked at the research that has gone into the health of a person and their happiness? Why does one that was exposed to the same illness as another not get sick? Often people who contract disease and illness are too born with stress and emotion in their lives. All the things holding them back in life. Today we are all becoming healthy, wealthy and wise! I am going to challenge you all to do this…and email Kelly, Jacci or myself with your goals and your passions, even your fears and obstacles, which by now you realize are really are excuses of what stands in your way. We WILL hold you accountable. But instead of us checking on you…you are going to email us. We are not the authority on your life….you are…. But having a goal which now you have discussed with someone else now makes it real. You are accountable to someone else not just yourself. See us as the listeners, the support we all need, the soft shoulder to cry on, the hand that help you when you need a helping hand or one to lift you up. We are also the ones following your Wealth Creation system you have chose, and the system, to which your dreams, goals and passions in life rely on. You can't find the time? Come to our workshops and learn a time system that can change your life as it did mine. The only person you cheat here is YOU! Top Confidence and Goal Creation Tip #5 Find encouragement in confident groups. Set yourself up for success. Find and join or set up your own group of 3 or more "accountable" people you don't know, 5 close friends or family members, or a group of people that are getting the results you want. Ensure these people encourage and reward you emotionally for your efforts. These people should be there for support, to tell your exciting news to, be happy for you- not try to pull you back to be like them…the "crawdad" effect. Turn to these people when you are afraid and want to give up…(and you will!!) and use them for support and to lead you back in the right direction. Join our New Confidence and Wealth Creation Community™ starting this year in February for four sessions and continuing each quarter, have the forum to make you succeed, give you the support you need, and the education to set proper goals and ensure your success. Share strategies used by other successful people, learn how to be "wealthy" right now. Learn how to take your business and life to "the next level." Learn financial traps to avoid and expand on your business success by being in a session with other successful professionals or entrepreneurs like yourself. We define wealth by what wealth means to you… for one it may be more time with his family, for another it is how to get their life back, for another its how to set goals. We set the groups up by level of success- based on income, entrepreneurship or professional, and on goals so the groups are matched in order to provide the best success necessary for each level of growth and support. Interested in the Confidence and Wealth Creation Community™ Seminars? Email us at: info@thetowergroup.ca Top Your are your possibilities. Knowing that, you can do anything. From all of us at The Tower Group, we can't wait to see the success in you all!
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