The fact is that most North Americans equate the “long weekend” with cottages and barbecues laden with meats of all kinds and a good amount of drinking. It’s no wonder most people don’t feel that great when they get back to work on Tuesday.

What does meat consumption have to do with “not feeling well”? Well, high meat consumption creates more acidity in your body… And when your body (really your blood) becomes more acidic than what is optimal, things start breaking down and not working as well as they should.

I’m a big proponent of an alkaline diet, which essentially boils down to eating more fruits and veggies, and so too are hundreds (if not, thousands) of studies which show that eating more plant foods is the KEY to greater health.

But still, there are many cavemen (sorry, I mean dietitians and doctors) that still don’t get it. Just yesterday, I was doing some research on this topic of the alkaline diet when I came across an article on the website of “Brigham and Women’s Hospital” (which is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School). I thought, “Ok, cool. Maybe they’ll have some new info or research on this topic that I don’t know about yet.”

I was pumped. But then I was outright livid! The DIETITIAN writing the article on alkaline diet and cancer concluded with the following question and answer:

“Do dietitians and other health professionals recommend alkaline diets? No. Studies of alkaline diet are limited to animal and test tube trials. While research is currently in progress regarding the correlation between alkaline diets and bone health, there are unfortunately no major human studies in regards to alkaline diets and cancer at this time.”

Come on lady! Are you on drugs? What planet have you been living on? If she or other health professionals (apparently I would be included under that umbrella) don’t recommend an alkaline diet, what would they recommend instead? An acidic diet?

It’s no wonder the meals at any hospital in our country are outright nasty. White bread, chocolate milk, pudding, etc…

As you can tell, this kind of nonsense really gets me going because these “health promoters” are essentially telling patients that eating fruits and vegetables doesn’t really matter and that they WON’T improve your health or lessen your risks of cancer, bone loss, or other problems by doing so.

Thankfully, there are many studies that do show the importance of keeping your body alkaline, especially when it comes to bone loss and osteoporosis.

Backing the Alkaline Diet
Did you know that in 1999, 1,167 scientific articles on bone health and osteoporosis were added to the index Medicus database, representing about half of the peer-reviewed studies published on the subject that year? And that number continues to grow as osteoporosis continues to cost our society in big ways.

The worst part is that all of these osteoporosis and bone loss issues are avoidable, witnessed by the fact that osteoporosis is uncommon in many cultures outside of the western world. For example, no sign of bone loss can be found among the Maya Indians, who eat an alkaline diet. Africans have been classified as “almost immune” to osteoporotic fracture. The Chinese were found to have only one-fifth the U.S. fracture rate, despite eating as much, or nearly as much protein (but predominantly from plant sources). Societies with the lowest osteoporosis rates follow the basic premise of eating a predominantly alkaline diet – that is plant-based foods.

Compare that with what’s happening in the US: only 15% of the total United States population meets the fruit (2-4 servings) and vegetable (3-5 servings) recommended intakes on a daily basis. And even those recommendations are outdated and still too low. And french fries do not count as a veggie!

Among children, only 7% consume two fruit servings and three vegetables per day, with french fries accounting for nearly 25% of vegetables, in diets of the children surveyed.

I think it’s pretty obvious that our dietary and lifestyle choices are the most important factors determining our health. That’s why I keep telling you that you must take 100% responsibility for your health. Anyone telling you otherwise is full of you know what!

Alkaline Raw Food Diet and Weight Loss
A raw food diet and weight loss go hand in hand. Alkaline foods are best eaten raw as they retain the vitamins and minerals that would otherwise be lost by cooking them.

The benefits of eating more raw foods are numerous and once you understand them you’ll probably wonder why you haven’t eaten more raw in the past. You’ll also think twice about eating dead cooked foods ever again.

Raw Foods Give You More Energy
I don’t think I know of a single person who eats at least 80% raw foods who doesn’t enjoy far more energy than the average person. I know that when I transitioned away from eating a diet made up of breads, dairy, and cooked foods, and adopted more of a raw foods diet, my energy went through the roof. And I’m not talking about the quick surge you would get from an espresso but rather long-lasting energy that enables you to do more with less.

For instance, eating raw will allow you to sleep less and have far more energy than you ever thought possible. When I’m eating at least 80% raw, I can easily function on just 4-5 hours of sleep. I literally bounce out of bed and don’t require any naps throughout the day. Oh yeah, did I mention that I workout every single day as well? Sometimes, even twice!

Energizing Enzymes
There are several reasons why a raw food diet will give you more energy. First, raw foods are rich in food enzymes. Enzymes are required for every single reaction in the body. Unfortunately, our bodies only have a finite number of these enzymes, so when we run out, we run out of life! To add to this, when you heat foods above 118 degrees fahrenheit, you destroy the food enzymes that are naturally present in all raw foods. Therefore, if you eat a predominantly cooked foods diet, you’re not getting enough food enzymes, which means that your body will have to produce and use more of its own to digest and metabolize your foods.

The more energy your body needs to divert towards digestion, the less energy you will have for other activities. You will feel more lethargic and tired as your body is trying to breakdown “dead” foods and figure out what to do with them.

So, the food enzymes inherent in raw foods are a big reason for boosting your body’s energy. They are the spark plugs and are intricately related to the next property that make raw foods so energy-boosting.

Life Force
When raw foods are left intact, they are also known as living foods. They are called “living” because they carry an incredible amount of life force. Now, since every living being has an aura or energy field illuminating from their body, which foods do you think would enhance yours? High energy raw foods or cooked foods that dead? I think we both know the answer. As I like to say, “eat alive and you will thrive”.

Raw Food Diet and Weight Loss and Beautiful Skin
The other highly sought-after quality of a raw foods diet is its ability to help you lose weight and beautify your skin. Almost all raw foodists have reported losing weight they could never lose. At the same time, they notice an instant improvement in their skin. They look younger and have a natural glow that comes about because of the “living” nature of raw foods, their abundance of enzymes, and of course the plethora of nutrients that are ingested when eating more fruits and vegetables.

You will find it easier to lose weight on a raw food diet because your getting more nutrients and, therefore, your body won’t crave “dead” foods. Second, the enzymes help to breakdown the foods you are eating and excess energy and fat stores in your body. Third, raw foods are water-rich, which helps you feel more satiated, as well as hydrated.

Many of these reasons also help us explain why living foods make you look younger and beautify your skin. Enzymes, life force, water, and high quality nutrients all play a role in natural skin care.

We could talk about the benefits of a raw food diet for hours but the only way to truly understand them is to experience them for yourself. So why not take action today and start to enjoy the health, the body, and the vitality that you deserve!

About the Author
Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s leading holistic nutrition and health experts. If you want to lose weight and live your healthiest and most energetic life ever, then learn more about his raw food diet and weight loss course: Eating for Energy.

References:

• Food pH List – Balancing Acid/Alkaline Foods
• Brown, S. & Jaffe, R. (2000). Acid-Alkaline Balance and its Effect on Bone Health. International Journal of Integrative Medicine, Vol 2 (6).
• Schweitzer C, et al: Dietary intake of carotenoids, fruits, and vegetables in the US: CSFII 1994-1996, a national survey. Proceedings from the 12th International Carotenoid Symposium, July 18-23, 1999, Cairns, Australia.
• Krebs-Smith SM, et al: Fruit and vegetable intakes of children and adolescents in the United States. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 150:81-86, 1996.

Recommended Reading

• Daring to be Yourself
• How Music Affects Water and What This Means to Us
• Trans4mind eBooks ~ Bonus eBook: Metamorphosis – by Franz Kafka
• What is Personal Development and Why Bother?
• We Have It Backwards!
• Daring to be Yourself (Book)

From the Daring to be Yourself blog at Trans4mind

GSPET – Tracking And Review

Tracking is the only way you can know whether you are moving in the right direction
~ Vincent Tan

An airplane is off course 90% of the time but how does it get to reach its destination? By consistently tracking the direction it is flying and making the necessary changes along the way.

Tracking is important because if you do not track your progress, you will not know whether you are moving in the right direction. If you don’t want to get lost or end up somewhere that you don’t want to be, then you need to start tracking your progress now.

The more you track and review your progress, the less likely you will stray off the track. If you want to reach your goals, you better make sure that you are tracking and reviewing your progress regularly.

Tracking Your Progress With These 5 Factors In Mind

1. Track Regularly

You need to track your goals regularly and this means tracking your progress daily.

There are people who review their goals once per year. However, it is too late at that time to make any changes. You want to keep your eyes on your goal at all time. Doing your tracking regularly is going to help you to achieve that.

If your goal is important to you and you decide to make this your breakthrough year, you had better make sure that you are tracking and reviewing your progress every single day. It is much harder to get off track when you are tracking regularly.

It is like driving a car. You won’t want to get your eyes off the road because you want to stay on track and avoid getting into any accident.

2. Tools For Tracking

You can simply use a pen and paper or use Excel spreadsheet to help you track your progress. Open Office or Google Docs are good free alternatives if you do not have Microsoft Office.

Write down your goals and list down the tasks that you need to do (you should come out with your tasks in Part 2 of the series) to help you track your progress.

Simply go through them and check the tasks off whenever you completed. This helps to give you motivation, as you are able to see progress.

Lastly, remember to update your progress results in your tracking worksheet. You will be able to see whether are you getting desirable results when you are completing your tasks.

An example; if you are trying to lose weight, then your daily progress will be your weight and your tasks include daily exercises.

After 4 weeks of exercising, if you find that you are not losing any weight (through your tracking worksheet) even though you are completing your tasks, you will need to start rethinking about what are some changes that you need to make. The tracking worksheet allows you to see your progress at all times so that you will be able to make the necessary changes when needed.

3. 4 Important Things To Find Out

When you have a tracking system in place, you will be able to see what have you done and what are the results you are getting.

When reviewing your results, you will need to ask yourself these 4 questions.

1. What to do more
2. What to do less
3. What to stop doing
4. What to start doing

These are the changes that you will need to make to ensure that you reach your destination.

If you are trying to lose weight and after 3 weeks and you are still not getting any results, you should start asking yourself these 4 questions.

The answer may turn out to be…

1. What to do more – Include more interval training into your workout schedule that will promote fat loss.
2. What to do less – Less muscle isolation exercises that will not promote fat loss as much as interval training.
3. What to stop doing – Should stop eating refine carbohydrates for lunch. It is hindering your weight loss progress.
4. What to start doing – I should start to include more fruits into my diet to supplement my carbohydrate intake as I reduced my refine carbs. This is to prevent yourself from craving junk food.

There isn’t any plan or strategy that will be 100% foolproof. Hence, you will need to keep making minor adjustments or even change your strategy to ensure that you reach your goals. With these 4 questions, you will be able to keep making changes to ensure that you reach your goals.

4. Getting Your Critical Numbers

There are critical numbers that will affect the results that you get. For example, a salesperson will get more sales if he makes more cold call.

The number of cold call is his critical number. Do you expect salesperson A that makes 10 cold call per day to have better sales results than salesperson B that makes at least a 100 cold call per day?

The number works in the favor for Salesperson B.

There are critical numbers for the particular goal that you are pursuing and you need to know what they are.

Once you know your critical numbers, aim to increase the number. Simply by increasing the number will improve your results.

What are your critical numbers? Are you spending enough time on your new business? Are you spending enough time working out? Are you doing enough joint ventures that will help promote your business?

5. Final Evaluation

You have a deadline to your goal and you will make the final evaluation at this point.

There will be only 2 outcomes and it is either you had achieved your goal or you have not achieve your goal.

If you had achieved your goal, congrats! You are the master of your life and you are already making improvements to your life.

At this point, you may want to start thinking about what other goals do you want to achieve. Are there any other areas of your life you want to improve or passions that you want to start following? Keep on growing and improving!

If you have not achieved your goals, it is time to take a step back and reflect upon what went wrong.

You may want to look at whether have you follow through all your tasks.

If you had followed through all the tasks but you still did not achieve your goals, then go backand rethink about your strategy.

If you haven’t follow through on your tasks, then you might want to start spending some time on your planning stage again. It may be that you haven’t plan your time well to make sure that you get your tasks done.

Another possibility is that you are not motivated by your goal. Spend time thinking about your goal again. What is the underlying motivation behind your goal? Is this the goal that you truly want?

Your Goals And Your Journey

Regardless of whether have you achieve your goals or not, give yourself a pat on your back. You gave it a shot and this matter. In your pursuit of your goal, you end up gaining new knowledge and experience, which are beneficial.

The journey of pursuing your goals is rewarding and pleasurable. It is the journey that builds your character.

Finally yet importantly, remember that perseverance is the key to achieving your goals. Even though sometimes there may be obstacles in your journey, but the one who kept moving forward will ultimately have the pleasure of reaching the finishing line.

We have come to the end of the series. Thanks for reading until the end and I hope that The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide will benefit you greatly in your personal development journey.

Cheers
Vincent

Complete Series

Part 1 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Introduction to GSPET
Part 2 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Setting Your Goals
Part 3 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Coming Out With Your Strategy
Part 4 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Time To Put Things Into Plan
Part 5 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Turning Dreams Into Reality
Part 6 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Keeping Your Eyes On Your Goal At All Time

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 6: Keeping Your Eyes On Your Goal At All Time

Related Articles

• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 5: Turning Dreams Into Reality (2)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 4: Time To Put Things Into Plan (4)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 3: Coming Out With Your Strategy (7)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 2: Setting Your Goals (5)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1 (12)

Dr. Emoto put water into containers and wrote or typed different thoughts and feelings on labels and put them on the containers. Immediately afterwards, the water was frozen and the combination of a microscope and high-speed photography resulted in photos of water crystals. Beautiful water crystals were formed when Dr. Emoto used beautiful words, such as love and gratitude, while misshapen and distorted crystals were formed when slang or swear words were used. Polluted water formed ugly crystals, but after polluted water was prayed over, prettier water crystals resulted.

Such amazing findings show that words, both written and spoken, can actually have an effect on water. But what about music? Dr. Emoto also did these water crystal experiments with music. He put water between two speakers and turned on a specific piece of music for several hours. Then the water was frozen and photographed by Dr. Emoto.

Classical music such as those by Beethoven and Bach resulted into beautiful water crystals. Dr. Emoto also found that the Tibet Sutra and the Kawachi Folk Dance all produced pretty water crystals. However, rock music did not have the same results – instead, rings of cracks showed up when the water exposed to rock music was frozen.

These results by Dr. Emoto and other scientists since then have shown that some music has healing properties and others don’t. What’s even more amazing is that music actually has an effect on non-living, physical matter. Since 70% of our bodies are made up of water, we can apply the healing properties of classical music to our own bodies.

Every piece of music has different frequencies, and these frequencies can reach different parts of our body to assist our immune systems and minds to achieve healing and other positive effects. Dr. Emoto has said that he sees energy as vibrations moving through matter. These vibrations are called hado by Dr. Emoto. Hado translates as “wave motions” or “vibrations.”

For example, listening to “The Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana can reduce irritability and energize the lymphatic tissues of the body. Dr. Emoto attributes this to the hado in the music that can cancel out the hado of irritability. The music also resonates with the hado of lymphatic system. Other examples include listening to “The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss II will revitalize your central nervous system, while listening to the opera “Lohengrin” by Richard Wagner will remove the hado of self-pity from your thoughts.

In all, Dr. Emoto and his research and findings on how music affects water has profound implications for us and the role music plays in our lives.

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Recommended Reading

• Daring to be Yourself
• Trans4mind eBooks ~ Bonus eBook: Metamorphosis – by Franz Kafka
• What is Personal Development and Why Bother?
• We Have It Backwards!
• Freedom to Change
• Daring to be Yourself (Book)

From the Daring to be Yourself blog at Trans4mind

Click here to download the new Trans4mind eBook Catalog
+ complimentary eBook: “Metamorphosis”

In the book, Gregor wakes up to discover he has turned into a giant insect. This change makes him literally and emotionally separate from his family members – indeed, from humanity in general – and he even refers to it as his “imprisonment.” After his transformation he stays almost exclusively in his room with his door closed and has almost no contact with other people. At most, his sister Grete spends a few minutes in the room with him, and during this time Gregor always hides under the couch and has no interaction with her. But as we learn over the course of the story, this feeling of estrangement actually preceded his transformation. Shortly after waking and discovering that he has become a bug, Gregor reflects on his life as a traveling salesman, noting how superficial and transitory his relationships have become as a result of his constant traveling. Later, Gregor recalls how his initial pride at being able to support his family faded once his parents began to expect that support, and how he felt emotionally distant from them as a result. In fact, the alienation caused by Gregor’s metamorphosis can be viewed as a reflection of the alienation he already felt as a person.

Gratitude Widget

Gratitude is a key factor to living a happy life. Here is a Gratitude Widget, which you can add to your website or blog. It serves as a great reminder of the many ways we have reason to be grateful in the present moment. You can see the widget in action in the right sidebar. Then go direct to Core Freedom.com and grab your free code. You can customize the widget with your own text to suit your needs, like I did. They also have further, more esoteric widgets, for Ho’oponopono and Law of Attraction. Best of all, the Blueprint4love Forum is one of the best places I’ve found on the Internet to find like-minded, aware, compassionate persons.

Deep Truth

No doubt you have heard some of the hyperbole about 2012 and the end of the Mayan Calendar? What does that actually mean to you? What does it mean to the world at large?

Join bestselling author, visionary scientist and 2012 expert Gregg Braden as he separates fact from myth, discusses centuries-long scientific patterns, and demonstrates how we can harness the changes occurring and create the life we want to live. Friday, January 27th 7-9 pm and Saturday, January 28th 9-4:30 pm. At the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N. Knox, Chicago – free parking onsite. Full event description and tickets here.

Bestselling author Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. A computer geologist, Gregg spent more than 20 years searching high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to uncover their timeless secrets. He has authored several books that show beyond any reasonable doubt that the key to our future lies in the wisdom of our past.

Recommended Reading

• Daring to be Yourself
• How Music Affects Water and What This Means to Us
• What is Personal Development and Why Bother?
• We Have It Backwards!
• Freedom to Change
• Daring to be Yourself (Book)

From the Daring to be Yourself blog at Trans4mind

Execution – GSPET

The important thing is somehow to begin.
~Henry Moore

This is part 5 of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Series.

If you have not read the earlier parts, please read them before you proceed with this article. The guide is written in a step by step format and you will benefit most by reading it in a sequential manner.

We have come to the most critical part of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Series. This is where you turn goals and dreams into reality.

Turning Your Dream Into Reality

When you set goals, it helps you to create a vision of what you want to achieve. However, it is only possible for you to turn your dream into reality if you are able to execute your strategies.

Your goals are like seeds and your execution is the sunlight, nutrients and water that the seed needs in order to grow. One cannot do without another.

What You Can Do To Start Taking Action?

You already did the part of coming out with strategies and planning. You had also allocated all your ETs into your daily schedule and all you need to do is to start taking action.

Taking action wouldn’t be easy if you are not clear on what you need to do. Clarity is the key.

You had done that in Part 3 and 4 of the series by coming out with your strategies, ETs and planning them into your daily schedule. You had already made it much easier to take action. All you need to do is just execute them.

Problems You Might Face

There might be some problems you might face and these includes procrastination and lack of motivation.

Here are some articles that you might want to read to help you.

• How To Stay Focused and Achieve Great Results
• How To Get Things Done Even When You Do Not Feel Like Doing Anything
• How To Motivate Yourself In 6 Simple Steps
• 33 Things You Should Stop Doing To Double Your Productivity
• Why You Should Stop Complaining About The Lack Of Time
• Warning: Are You Spending Too Much Time With Time Vampires And Wasting Your Time Away?
• 5 Kick Ass Productivity Tips – How To Get Your Butt Off The Couch

Unleash Your Productivity Genius

I am currently finishing up my ebook, Unleash Your Productivity Genius and I will be launching it soon.

The aim of this ebook is to help you defeat procrastination, get the essential things done and start getting real results.

If you would like to be notified first when this ebook is out, you can sign up by entering your name and email below.

In the next part of the series, I will be covering the topic Tracking. That will be the last part of the series and I hope everyone is having a great time setting their goals for the year and taking action.

Have an awesome day!

Cheers
Vincent

Following Up:

1) Here are the series of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide

Part 1 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Introduction to GSPET
Part 2 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Setting Your Goals
Part 3 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Coming Out With Your Strategy
Part 4 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Time To Put Things Into Plan
Part 5 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Turning Dreams Into Reality

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 5: Turning Dreams Into Reality

Related Articles

• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 4: Time To Put Things Into Plan (1)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 3: Coming Out With Your Strategy (3)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 2: Setting Your Goals (3)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1 (11)
• Don’t Create Your Vision Board Until You Read This (12)

This is a YouTube downloader program to let you save streaming web videos or music onto your computer. This is one of the best tube downloaders out there if not the very best. This is simply because of its reliability and unmatched unique ability to adapt dynamically to changes on YouTube website without requiring an update. Most youtube downloaders work once in a while unpredictably and crash very often and one in ten don’t even work at all. Don’t worst your time on such software regardless on how long it has been in distribution with fame. Just use our software and you won’t regret it. After all it’s absolutely free with no registration needed.

Capture streaming media for later viewing on your desktop or mobile device. You may then convert files to MOV, MP4, 3GP, WMV, AVI, or MP3. Watch the videos or listen to the music you capture in your own convenient time. The downloading can be from 2 to 10 times faster than regular YouTube download software tools. This software program allows you to select the quality at which you want to download the videos. The selectable video quality levels include lower quality flash videos, mp4 wide screen quality to high definition quality.

Download the Software Here

If you use a Mac, as I do, the best I’ve found to download YouTubes is with the browser plugin/extension FastestTube.

Recommended Reading

• Daring to be Yourself
• What is Personal Development and Why Bother?
• The Best Inspirational Quotes and Personal Development Videos
• Counterpoint featured authors
• Bye Cultivate Life Magazine – Hi Trans4mind Newsletter!
• Daring to be Yourself (Book)

From the Daring to be Yourself blog at Trans4mind

Planning – GSPET

A goal without a plan is just a wish.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

After reading The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, you should have your goals and the strategies on how to achieve it. Right now, you need to start planning on how to make full use of your time and allocate your tasks into your daily schedule.

First thing first, you need to know your ETs (Essential Tasks). You already know what are your ETs when you are coming out with strategies to help your achieve your goals. These are the 80/20 tasks that will give you the most results with the least amount of effort and time.

What you need to do in the planning stage is to allocate your ETs into your daily schedule. In the planning phase, you will also commit all your tasks into your daily schedule to help you to follow through.

Don’t Start Your Day Without Going Through This

I like to work with a calendar and I recommend Google Calendar. It is free and it is what I use to help me plan my day.

I go through my Google Calendar everyday to help me know what are the things that I need to do for the day. This helps me to remind what my ETs and priorities are for the day. My ETs are scheduled into my day and I will make sure that I work on them.

Using Google Calendar, you will be able to plan in time blocks of 30 minutes. We will be using this feature to help you plan your time.

I set my Google Calendar in weekly format and I make plans with it every Sunday. What I do is that I allocate my ETs into my free time. I like to allocate my ETs in the morning and work on them as the first thing for the day. You can allocate your ETs on your free time or at time when you feel you are most productive.

Why plan and write down your tasks in Google Calendar? Writing down your ETs and allocating them a time block in your day means that you are making them priorities. When you write it down in your calendar, it also reminds yourself to be committed to your tasks.

If you start your day without any plan in place, there will be distractions and interruptions that will push you off track.

There will be scenarios like your friends may call you out for a drink or you may want to hang out with your friends after work. You will go ahead and attend these activities when you do not make plan for your ETs.

Having your ETs set in your Calendar means that you are committed to doing it. If your ETs are scheduled on the 7pm to 9pm time block on Thursday and your friends call you out for dinner that night, you must be able to say No to them because that is the time block that you set for your ETs. The only thing you are going to do in the time blocks that you had committed is you working on your ETs. That’s all.

You have to start protecting your time. When you make plans for your ETs that will bring your closer to your goals, you have to protect your valuable time that you can use to execute your tasks.

Start planning for your ETs. Allocate them the time blocks and give them the top priority over any other thing else.

Problems You Might Face

You might be working 9 to 5 and a huge chunk of your time is spent in your office. There isn’t much time for your ETs except the morning and night.

If you are pressed for time, don’t worry. There will be enough time but only if you know what are your priorities.

TV Sucks Life Out Of You

There wouldn’t be enough time if you spend your evening watching LOST and you choose to wake up late because you spend the previous night watching TV.

The average American spend around 4.5 hours watching TV. (I wonder how they get their time to watch TV?) That is about 1642.5 hours a year and that equates to 2 months in a year. Assuming you are 70 years old, which means that you are glued to the TV for around 12 years of your life. Is that how you want to spend your lifetime?

It doesn’t make sense if you are spending 2 months watching TV in a year and you say that you don’t have enough time to work on your goals.

I stopped watching TV programs with regularity when I’m 18. I thought that there are things much more interesting than watching TV programs.

I use these valuable time to:

• Create HealthMoneySuccess
• Build several niche sites
• Workout regularly
• Completed 3 marathon
• Wrote my ebook Unleash Your Maximum Potential
• Writing

There are so many things that you can do with your free time if you are able to get off the couch and stop watching the TV.

Not to mention that there are many negative media that will pollute your mind when you watch TV programs.

If you are watching TV and you complain about the lack of time, it is time to stop doing it and start creating magic in your life with the new found free time.

Internet: The Time Sucking Beast

The internet connects us to people and news all around the world. It is a good thing because we are able to get more information faster freely. It also helps us to stay connected to many more of our friends.

The downside to the internet is that we are so addicted to it that most of us can’t get through the day without staying disconnected.

Think Facebook, Email and Twitter. These are the common time wasters that many people indulge in.

If you are spending at least 2 hours a day on these social media sites then you shouldn’t complain there isn’t enough time for you to work on your goals.

Conclusion

You do have enough time. The thing that you need to know is your priorities. If you do not know what your priorities are, then you won’t have enough time even if there are 48 hours in a day.

Start planning now and schedule your ETs and tasks into your Calendar and plan for success.

Following Up:

1) Do you know why sometimes failing is needed in life?

2) Here are the series of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide

Part 1 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide::Introduction to GSPET
Part 2 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Setting Your Goals
Part 3 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Coming Out With Your Strategy
Part 4 Of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: Time To Put Things Into Plan

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 4: Time To Put Things Into Plan

Related Articles

• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 3: Coming Out With Your Strategy (3)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 2: Setting Your Goals (2)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1 (9)
• Don’t Create Your Vision Board Until You Read This (12)
• The Trick To Achieve More Success – Holding Yourself Accountable (14)

GSPET – Strategy

Strategy is a plan of action to help you achieve your goals.
Source~Wiki

A strategy can help you to plan your course of action to achieve your goals. Most likely you will experience frustration and failure if you fail to come out with strategies that can help you to achieve your goals.

Here are the 5 steps that you need to do to set up your own strategy.

1. Break things down
2. What do you need to achieve your goals?
3. What stops you from achieving your goals?
4. Identifying the 80/20
5. Create accountability

1. Break Things Down

Once you have your goals written on a piece of paper and it is time to break it down into smaller pieces to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed.

Breaking your goals down into smaller tasks or milestones can make it much easier to reach.

Here is an example:

If your goal is to lose 30 lbs, you may want to break it down into losing 2.5 lbs every 2 weeks.

You then follow up by breaking your goals down even further into tasks such aiming to run 3 times per week and perform resistance exercises 3 times per week.

You may also want to make some changes to your diet and you think that restricting yourself from eating refined carbohydrates is going to help you lose the weight fast. Hence, you aim to go without refined carbohydrates for 6 days per week and have one cheat meal.

You also come up with the plan of having an accountability partner who will help increase the chances that you will succeed in achieving your goals. Hence, you decided to seek out any of your friends who want to achieve similar goals.

This is what strategy is all about. You break things down into milestone and tasks so that you can execute them.

Remember to write down what you had broken down (milestones, tasks, etc).

2. What Do You Need To Achieve Your Goals

You need to start brainstorming about ideas to get to your goals. There are 3 questions that you need to ask yourself.

1) What do you already know?
2) What knowledge/skills do you need?
3) Is there anybody who does it better than you?

1. What Do You Already Know

You need to assess yourself on your skill/knowledge from a scale of 1 to 10. What is the skill/knowledge you already have on hand that can help you to achieve your goals?

If you want to lose weight, how much do you know about fitness, diet, fat burning, metabolism, lifestyle and nutrition?

There are so many things that you need to learn in order to achieve your goals.

If you want wealth, you need to study wealth. If you want success, you need to study success.
~Jim Rohn

Rate your skills/knowledge that you need in order to achieve your goals on a scale of 1 to 10.

Once you done that, you know where you stand and you will proceed to the next step to ask yourself….

2. What Knowledge/Skills Do You Need?

You want to make sure that you are on a scale of 8 to 10 on the skill/knowledge that you need to achieve your goals.

You will fail easily to achieve your goal if you do not have the skills or knowledge required.

You will fail easily to achieve your goal of having a slim/well cut body if you do not have any idea about metabolism, nutrition, exercises, interval training and healthy lifestyle.

Be a Master of the skills/knowledge that you need and you can easily achieve your goals. It is time to live first class!

If your goal is to lose weight, you need knowledge about fitness, exercises, diet etc.

Go and get at least 3 books and subscribe to at least 1 blog that cover topics on fitness and weight loss. You will start to learn and get all the skills that you need to achieve your goals.

The internet makes it possible for us to get all the information that we need. It all lies on our fingertips. If you want to learn something, there are tutorial types of videos on YouTube or there are blogs and books that cover on the topics that you are interested in.

The library is also a huge resource. It is a waste if you are not making full use of your library. It is free to borrow books in Singapore (I believe it is the same in your country too) and I make full use of it.

Go get some books now and start reading now about the skills and knowledge that you want to pick up. Remember, read at least 3 books and subscribe to 1 blog on the skills/knowledge that you want to pick up that will help you achieve your to achieve your goals much faster.

3. Who Does It Better Than You?

Life is too short for us to go through everything with trials and errors. There are people who had gone through what we went through and we are able to tap into their skill and knowledge just by simply modeling them. hence, seek out people who have done what you want to do and learn from them.

It will be good if you can get them as your mentor or if it is not possible, find out whether they have any blogs or books and start reading them. This can accelerate your growth and make you much better in a shorter amount of time.

3. What Are The Obstacles That Are Stopping You From Achieving Your Goals?

Brainstorming about possible obstacles that you might encounter is a great way to help you be mentally prepared for it. It You can also try to prevent the obstacle from appearing at the first place.

If you are trying to lose weight, there are many obstacles that can stop you from losing weight such as:

1. Festive seasons (Think junk food)
2. Your kitchen is filled with junk food
3. Lack of time to work out
4. Drinking with your friends
5. Your love of chocolates.

Or the obstacles may seem like this if you are trying to create your own business at home.

1. You like to spend time lying on bed.
2. Distractions from family
3. You spend too much time on surfing aimlessly online.
4. Procrastination is a huge problem.
5. Lack of time.

Obstacles will lie ahead of you when you try to pursue your goals and dreams. The only thing that matters is how you deal with it.

You don’t complain about how hard it is too conquer your obstacles. You focus on how to overcome them or prevent them from being obstacles in the first place.

I believe strongly in setting ourselves up for success. Willpower and discipline is limited and if you are depending on them to help power you through the obstacles in the long run, you are going to fail – miserably.

If you love to eat junk foods such as chocolates and you are trying to lose weight, you have a problem – a big one.

When your kitchen is filled with all kinds of junk foods, you are not going to be able to resist all the temptations of these lousy junk foods in the long run. You will give in to your temptations in a matter of time.

Why not set yourself up for success and get rid of all of the junk foods in your kitchen?

You won’t need any willpower or determination in this case and you are simply setting yourself up for success.

If you think you are wasting too much time surfing online and you can’t get anything done on your new online business, why not work offline or use applications to help you block off your time wasting sites? (Exp: Stay Focused for Google Chrome)

So ask yourself what are the obstacles that you think you are going to face and how you can prevent them from happening?

Not all obstacles can be prevented. If your obstacles can’t be prevented, at least you are mentally prepared to face it and make sure that you won’t give up on moving towards on your goals when your obstacles pop up.

Start brainstorming for your obstacles now and find ways to set yourself up for success.

4. 80/20 Principle – How To Get The Most Results In The Least Amount Of Time

The essential thing that you need to know about the 80/20 Principle is to get the biggest result using the least amount of effort.

You can read more about the 80/20 Principle in this article that I had wrote.

Not everything is equal. This includes your tasks. Since you have gone through the steps of breaking down your goals into tasks, you will need to make sure that you give priorities to the tasks that are essentials. I call these tasks ETs (Essential Tasks).

What are the essential tasks if you want to set up your own online business? It is to have a website, have a product and start making some sales.

The important thing is not about getting a new computer, chair, office or getting a logo designed. The only way you can have a successful online business is to have sales and in order to do that you will need to make sure that you have a product that you can sell on your website.

What if you want to lose weight? You want to burn fat away so that you can achieve a well cut body.

If you spend your whole time running, you may get results but you won’t get significant result unless you are doing interval training that will maximize fat burning in the least amount of time.

Go through your tasks and think about what tasks will give you the most results using the least amount of time and effort? Once you identified these tasks, put an asterix beside them or highlight them.

These are your ETs (Essential Tasks) and you will need to make sure that you prioritize them every single day. I will talk to you more about what to do about your ETs at the Planning Stage in GSPET.

5. Create Accountability: The Rope That Will Pull You Along

Do you work harder when your boss is around? Of course! You work harder (even just a little) especially your boss is around.

You don’t slack around when your boss is around isn’t it?

We will create the same effect over here. It is call accountability. The possibility of following through will increase drastically due to accountability.

Is it harder to work out alone or with a friend?

It is harder to work out alone because there will be bad days when you feel you are too tired, quarreled with your spouse or your dog peed on your favorite couch. When these happen, you have a good excuse to not workout for the day.

You can come out with 101 different excuses to stop yourself from taking steps to achieve your goals when you have no accountability. But if you promised your friend that you will go with him/her to the fitness class together, it is much harder for you to give yourself an excuse and skip the workout.

I still have my Mastermind Group (It is only 2 of us) and we meet weekly online or offline. We use the time to discuss what happened the previous week and what we will do for next week. We create accountability for our tasks and we make sure that we will complete it by next week. This will help to keep us on track and ensure that we are accountable for our tasks and taking action.

You can read more about how to create your own Mastermind Group here.

There are so many ways you can create accountability. You can create your own Mastermind Group, publish your goals on your blog, rope in your friend who want to achieve similar goals or even through posting on personal development forums (or any forum for your particular goal).

Right now, think about 3 ways that you can use to create accountability for your goals and write them down.

This is the end for the series today. Tomorrow, I will cover the other step of GSPET, which is the Planning Stage of the 5 steps process. This is when we will start allocating your ETs and start planning your day to make sure that you follow through. Have a great week ahead!

Cheers
Vincent

Following Up:

1) If you have not read part 1 and part 2 of The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide, you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

2) Find out how to unleash your maximum potential.

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 3: Coming Out With Your Strategy

Related Articles

• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 2: Setting Your Goals (0)
• The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1 (1)
• Don’t Create Your Vision Board Until You Read This (12)
• The Trick To Achieve More Success – Holding Yourself Accountable (14)
• Baby steps to success (13)

GSPET – Goals

If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.  ~Lawrence J. Peter

This is the second series of the Ultimate Goal Setting Guide. In this post, I will cover the first step in GSPET, which is G – Goals. In this series I will give you some criteria that your goals should have and do go through them when setting your goals. Here are the 5 factors that you should take note when setting your goals.

If you haven’t read the first part of the series, you can read it here now.

1. Must Be Something That You Truly Want

Even though you set your own goals, there are people who set goals that are not what they truly want.

Your parents, peers and society can put pressure on you. Hence, this will cause you to set goals to please them or you simply set socially acceptable goals (goals that are deem OK by the society).

You are setting yourself up for failure if you did that. If your goal is something that you do not want, you will end up failing or giving up.

Achieving your goals is not easy. It may be losing weight, becoming a raw foodist or setting up your own business, and you will end up failing if it is not something that you want to achieve in the first place.

Are you going to give 100% effort to achieve something that you don’t really want or you are not sure whether do you want it or not? You won’t give 100% of your effort and focus to do something that you don’t really want.

Read more about the power of certainty here.

2. What Is The Underlying Motivation Of Your Goals?

Do you want to become a millionaire?

I bet most of you said yes.

But the truth is you are not interested in being a millionaire. You are interested in the millions in the bank that will get you the car, the house, the party, the gadgets, the holiday trip and every other pleasurable item that you can get into your life.

If you want to lose weight, what is the underlying motivation to lose weight? Is it because you want to fight against a disease? Is it because you want to look good and feel good once again? Is it because you hate the way you look yourself in the mirror? Is it because you want to get into a bikni and be proud to show it off at the beach? Is it because you want to change your life for the last time?

What is your underlying motivation?

Think about what is the real underlying motivation in setting your goals and this reason will help spur you on at the point when you feel like giving up. It is your most powerful tool in helping your achieve your goals. Write down your underlying motivation.

3. Think Big, Think Huge

If you aim for pennies, you get pennies. If you aim for millions, you may not get millions but you definitely get more than pennies.

Thinking small will get you nowhere. If you think small, you get mediocre results. Even if you achieve it, where is the fun in achieving something that is small?

It is important to take small steps, but small steps are little steps that will move you towards your huge goals.

Thinking big helps. When you think big, your goals are huge and it is much more challenging. It will be easier to get yourself to be enthusiastic about your goals especially when it is something huge and challenging.

Will you jump out of your bed with energy thinking, “I’m going to try make pennies today!” or “I’m going to try make millions today!”?

Of course the latter.

Instead of trying just to lose 10 lbs, why not set a goal to get six pack abs? You will look much better at the beach. If you are setting income goals, instead of aiming to have an increment of a few hundreds, why not aim to double your income?

Go through your goals and think whether you are thinking big enough. If not, make some changes to your goals.

4. Be Specific, Very Specific

Ambiguous goals get you nowhere.

Which option will take a longer time to reach your destination?

A) When you have a rough idea of where you want to go

B) When you know exactly where you want to go

A is the correct answer! When you don’t have a clear goal in mind, you may end up running in circles.

When you have specific goals, you make things much easier for yourself. You have a clear idea of where you want to end up in and it is much more easier to plan for it.

Goals that are not specific include:

1. I want to be healthy.

2. I want to be rich.

What do you mean by being healthy? Does losing a pound means that you are healthier? Does eating less fast food means you are healthier? What is it that you mean that you want to be healthy?

Here are some examples of goals that are specific:

1. I want to lose 30 lbs (Health)
2. I want to undergo a raw food diet for 30 days. (Health)
3. I want to exercise 6 days a week. (Health)
4. I want to set up an online business. (Finance)
5. I want to have 10,000 subscribers to my blog. (Blog)

Look through your goals. Are they specific enough? If not, start making it specific.

5. Have A Deadline And How Do You Know You Accomplished Your Goals?

A goal without a deadline is a dream. A deadline helps you to create a sense of urgency and it helps you to get moving.

Having a deadline will give you the pressure to deliver and sometimes we need a little pressure to help us deliver.

You will also need to know how your goals are reached. This will not be a problem if your goals are specific.

If you aim to exercise 6 days a week, you can aim to complete a 21 days challenge. Once you completed the 21 days challenge, it means that you had completed your goal.

Income goals will be easier to know that you had accomplished it. You accomplished your goal once you hit the figure that you aim to hit. When you don’t know what is the criteria that you accomplished your goals, it is like running a marathon without a finishing line. It is demoralizing and you will end up giving up.

Create a deadline for your goals now and think about what are the exact criteria that will show that you had accomplished your goals.

6. What To Do With Your Goals?

First of all, your goals must meet all the criteria below (which are what we went through just now).

1. Must be something that you truly want.
2. You know your underlying motivation behind your goals.
3. You are Thinking Big.
4. Your goals are specific.
5. Your goals have deadline and you know what the accomplishment criteria are.

It is time to start making your goals come alive and be part of your everyday lifestyle!

A. First thing First, Write Them Down

I hope you had written down your goals and your underlying motivation for achieving your goals on a piece of paper.

When you write down your goals, you have your goals imprinted in your mind and you have lodged it in your long-term memory. Once you had written down your goals, you free up your mind and allow more space for your creativity to help you pursue your goals.

You also activate your subconscious mind or your Reticular Activation System. In short, you activated the power of your mind to help your search for ways to achieve your goals when you write down your goals.

Writing down your goals and your underlying motivation also means that you are serious about your goals and you have a way to keep yourself accountable and track your progress.

So if you have not written your goals and motivation down now, go write them down now.

B. Create A Vision Board

A vision board is a board where you paste pictures of the goals you want to achieve on it and you place it somewhere you can see it every day. We think more in pictures instead of words and pictures can invoke emotions.

When you have strong and positive emotions towards you see pictures of your goals, it makes it so much easier for you to achieve them.

When you have these strong and positive emotions, you don’t need to worry about motivation anymore. If you have something that you like so much, you will have very strong positive emotions toward it and doing it will not be a problem at all. I love running so much that I would wake up early just to go for a long run. However, I won’t be able to wake up much earlier for the day if I will need to go for a 9 – 5 job.

Read this article on how to create a vision board.

C. Go Through Your Goals Every Single Day

When you have written down your goals on a piece of paper or you have a vision board, place it somewhere that you can see it every day.

I have a morning routine when I will go through all of my goals and think what to do for the day to bring me closer to my goals.

This helps to remind me of what are the Essential Tasks (ETs) that I will need to prioritize over other tasks. ETs are tasks that will bring you closer to your goals and they are the 80/20 tasks that will have the highest impact. These ETs must be prioritized over other tasks.

I will cover more on this topic in Unleash Your Productivity Genius, my latest upcoming productivity ebook that aims to help people to defeat procrastination, takes massive action and achieve incredible results.

That will be all for today series. Start thinking about your goals for the year and think about whether your goals fit all the criteria stated above. Remember to write your goals down.

Tomorrow, I will cover the other step of GSPET, which is the Strategy Stage. This is when we will start to break things down, look for your ETs and brainstorm for faster ways to achieve your goals. Stay tune everyone and have a great day ahead!

Cheers
Vincent

Following Up:

1) If you are not in our awesome community yet, join us by clicking here.

2) If you haven’t read the first part of the series, you can read it here now – The Ultimate Guide To Goal Setting: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide Part 2: Setting Your Goals

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Some of my readers requested me to write a goal setting guide. I believe goal setting is important and it does deserve to have a well detailed post. This is the most comprehensive guide that I had written about goal setting. However, the article is also too huge for me to post in a single post. After getting some feedbacks/polling from my readers on HMS Facebook Page, it is decided that I post this goal setting post in series.

I divided it into a few series and I will post it every following day. So in the meanwhile, read on, start setting goals for yourself, and be the best that you can be.

Step By Step Guide To Goal Setting

Having a goal is the core of personal development. We need a goal in everything we do. Having a goal give us something to look forward to and it helps to provide us with a direction.

Without a clear direction of where we want to go, we will stay idle and not move anywhere.

Having a goal is in our everyday life. You even have goals when you want to shop for groceries. Your goal is to go to the supermarket, shop for all the items in your shopping list, and get all your groceries home.

You also have goals when you drive. Your goal is your destination. You don’t leave it to chance and allow yourself to drive all across town and end up somewhere where you don’t want to be.

We are setting goals subconsciously in our everyday life. But right now, you will learn how to set goals consciously and how to set yourself up for success.

Benefits Of Setting Goals

There are several benefits of setting goals and they are:

1.  Provide you with a clear outcome of what you want.
2.  Focus – You will be focused because having a goal means that you have a target.
3.  Accountability – With a goal, you can create accountability when others know about your goals.
4.  Tracking – When you have a goal, it is easier to keep track of your progress in life. It helps to document all your goals down so that you can see how you have grown and progressed in life.
5.  Be the best you can be – Setting goals means that you are serious about your personal growth and you want to be the best that you can be.

If you are convinced that you need to set goals and you want to, congrats! I will walk you through the whole process and introduce you to the framework of setting goals.

Setting Yourself Up For Success In 5 Steps – GSPET

Goals – Specific goals that you truly want
Strategy – Steps that will get you there
Planning – Allocation of time
Execution – Taking massive action
Tracking and Review – Getting feedback to help make decisions

Or in short GSPET

I will walk you through the 5 Steps of GSPET in order to ensure that you set yourself up for success in achieving your goals.

Throughout the whole framework, I will use various examples such as losing weight or earning a higher income. Nevertheless, it can be applied in all scenarios that I can think of. I’m just using a few examples to help you to understand the steps involved in setting goals.

This is part 1 of the series and I will post up the subsequent part in the following day. The next part of the series is on Goals, which is the first step of the process GSPET. Have a great day ahead people!

Cheers
Vincent

Following Up:

1) If you have not join our friendly and awesome community at HMS Facebook Page yet, you can proceed to join by clicking here.

2) I will go ahead and do a goal setting template in pdf format so that you can print it out and work out your goals.

Post from: Health Money Success

The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide: The Last Goal Setting Guide You Ever Need Part 1

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