Now, I realize that is exactly what they wanted to accomplish in this commercial for whatever reason. However, the reality is that many people live their real lives this way.

Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh was another one that talked in monotone and was not really excited about life. He made statements like, “When someone says, ‘How do you do, just say that you didn’t'” or “There are those who will wish you good morning. If it is a good morning, which I doubt”, and even “And how are you?” said Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side. “Not very how,” he said. “I don’t seem to felt at all how for a long time.” Eeyore could usually find something in anything to be disgruntled about.

Photo by blhphotography.

How Excited are You About Your Life?

What about you? How excited are you about life, career, marriage, relationships, finances, economy, religion, etc? We can hear so much negativity from the news and radio stations that we get sucked up into it thinking our life and life itself is just plain old negative. It is amazing to me how human nature magnifies the negative so much.

Something terrible happens in the United States and we have to broadcast it on every station for a whole week. We remember the mistakes, failures, and shortcomings of our spouse more than their strengths and victories. We say stuff like, “Man, it would be great if I got that promotion, but I probably wont”. We count ourselves out without even trying.

We must be careful. Lacking in vision is not a good place to be at. What would be the purpose for living if you have no vision? People who have no vision can be angry and grumpy people. They are just mad at the world. Many people who did not have vision commit suicide.

Do this exercise after you read it. Close your eyes tightly and answer this question. How awful would it be if you did not have your eyesight any longer? Go ahead and do it now. It is one thing to be born blind, but quite another thing to have your eyesight a good portion of your life and suddenly lose it totally. Some people would lose hope and could not live on any longer. Others would take on the challenge, learn this new way of life, and continue living.

The same is true with vision for our life. Yes, there are many things that are negative around the world, but there are also positive things. The key is not to lose hope and continue having vision.

Photo by Fr Antunes.

How to Become Excited about Life Again

How do I do that? It starts with you becoming excited about life again. What is your vision for your life? In other words, what would you like to see happen in your career or business, your marriage and children, finances, your relationship with God, friendships, your attitude, behavior, and lifestyle?

Write that vision down. Write down exactly what you want to accomplish. Write down your goals for every area of your life you desire to work on. Do not speak in general terms about your goals; you must be specific. You can first write them down in general terms, but you must rewrite them afterwards in specific terms.

In other words, having a better marriage or attitude is the general goal. Now, be more specific about what a better marriage or attitude looks like. How do you define your marriage being better? How do you define your attitude being better? What exactly do you need to do in order to achieve better? For more on how to set specific goals you can read my article Concrete Resolutions.

After you write the vision down you have to get it into your heart. Don’t just write it down, place it in a folder, and put it away. Keep it before you all the time. Place it in different visible places so you can see it over and over. Some good places might be the refrigerator door, bathroom mirror, office, computer monitor, etc. You will get in down in your heart and become excited about it when you are constantly seeing and visualizing it. Visualize how good life will be once you accomplish that goal and fulfill that dream. Only those who have vision can really visualize.

Lastly, you need to share your vision with anyone and everyone. Share it with family, friends, co-workers, and church members. Some people may discourage you, but others will encourage you in this dream you have for yourself. It is also a form of accountability when you share your vision with others. They will ask how far along are you or how is it going?

Another thing, on this road of accomplishing your goals people will come along side you who can help. They may help you with simple words of affirmation and encouragement. They may help with resources, instruction, and training. People cannot help if they do not know what you need help with. The fact of the matter is we all need help. It was never designed by God for us to do things by ourselves with no help from anyone. We need each other to fulfill the goals, dreams, and vision we have for our lives.

Live Life in Vivid Color

Monotone is boring and lacks excitement. Get your bullhorn out and begin to broadcast your vision. Don’t allow anything or anyone to stop you. Aside from transferring the vision from your head to your heart; you have it written down so you can go back to it when life hits you with temporary setbacks or when people share discouraging words. Continue in the excitement and let the vision for your life be your motivation as well as people and life saying you cannot do it.

Photo by jurvetson.

For the uninitiated, a vision board is a poster with images of what you want to have, do and be in your life. The idea behind this is the same as putting your goals, tasks and intentions in a place where you see them everyday; you make it easier to attract these things into your life.

It was easier and more fun than I thought. I bought a cheap board from Ikea, a few magazines, printed some inspiring photos, got it done and now it’s hanging in front of my desk.

You’ll see a Macbook, a symbolic photo of gold bars, very healthy salads, nice shoes, a buff physique, a beautiful room, an inspirational Al Gore, my lovely girlfriend, me at the center of it all…and yes, that iPhone.

How I Attracted an iPhone into My Life (Sort of)

If you’re reading this from the US or Europe, the iPhone hasn’t been officially launched in Asia yet. The official word from Apple is that it’ll be here in 2008, which could be a long wait yet since we don’t know exactly when in 2008. But I think it’s absolutely gorgeous – how could anyone not want one?

The wild thing was that 2 nights after I put my board up with my iPhone picture on it, I bumped into someone on the train – using an iPhone! I started a chat with her and found out that she and a group of her friends have all been using the iPhone, she even gave me a shop to check out where they were selling iPhones.

I promptly went to the shop (it’s on the 5th floor of Funan Shopping Mall) to have a look at the iPhone. Not only did I see it, I also got to hold it. And after that, as I was meeting a friend for dinner – I saw another iPhone at another shop we walked past!

It was iPhone mania!

How to Create Your Own Vision Board

Now, maybe you don’t want an iPhone – I wouldn’t too right now because I’d rather wait for the official release, but it was a very interesting experience of the vision board for me.

To create your own vision board and attract your own ‘iPhone’ – something you want to have, do or be in your life – Christine Kane has written a great guide on how to make a vision board.

She also shares how she envisioned a house into her life in Vision Boards: A Quick Story. And to help you get started, check out these beautiful vision boards from her workshops.

Vision Boards – An Inspirational Gallery

Vision Boards – Another Inspirational Gallery

Yup, welcome to the reality gut-check post – not for the faint-hearted.

After years of setting goals; achieving some and not others, I realized the difference that makes the difference is you must have a way to measure your progress.

We’re coming to the end of March soon, so this is the quarter-year check. If you haven’t already taken some steps towards achieving your goals, here’s the gut-check: it ain’t gonna happen until you start…now.

My Progress Report

Because point 6 of the Life Coach Manifesto is ‘the most important person you coach is you’, I’d better start with my own reality check.

I committed to living this year with courage. One of my goals to help me strengthen my courage was to meet more people, specifically strangers – people who aren’t friends of friends.

In the last 3 months I’ve made a few new friends online, approached 2 (I can count them!) on the bus (where they couldn’t escape muahaha), made casual chit-chat with store assistants, cashiers, waitresses (2 of my fellow coaches will remember the ‘ice-cream incident’ fondly).

Deciding to live courageously also made me overcome my fear of rejection, and I finally submitted my posts to Lifehacker. It led to not 1, but 2 of my posts being mentioned; and traffic and income both exploded.

That led me closer to my goal of making $1000 a month from Life Coaches Blog. While it hasn’t happened yet, that level of success helped me see that it was possible, and it brought me a step closer.

I’ve also been going to the gym every Sunday – not always but close. This is the longest regular commitment I’ve made to the gym, so it’s a nice step.

I’ve also passed my Basic Theory, the first step towards getting my driving license, and booked my Final Theory to be taken in May. Now all that’s left is to get an instructor.

I’ve also been doing little meditations, not as often, but I’m stepping that up a notch too.

Hmm. This is my first look back, and the last 3 months have been shaping up pretty nicely after all.

Act Before You Lose Any More Time

I find we often overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a year.

What else do you want to do now, to take your life in a bigger direction?

I know what I have to do is to set more specific plans towards my goals, and to get my organizer back into place – I’ve been letting it slip too far.

We’ve already spent the a quarter of this new year. If we want to make our ambitions happen, it’s now or never.

Today, we kick-start your new year in the best direction forward – because it’s never too late to start a new year And I won’t be doing it alone, I’m bringing along luminaries like Steve Pavlina, Christine Kane, Senia and Tony Robbins to help you along.

Steve suggests picking one primary focus for the year; out of the different areas of your life like your health, finances, family, relationships, career, you pick one and then proceed to go full-tilt boogie on it.

If there’s one area of your life you’d love to have super kick-ass by the end of this year, what would it be?

Christine suggests choosing one primary direction for the year, by picking a word and letting that word guide your actions for the year.

If you were to choose one word to live by for 2007, what would that word be?

Mine is courage and Pam’s is obviously freedom.

Senia’s is yes, which is a very good word, for you to say yes to the new, the challenging, the growing, to the most important things you want. Once you say ‘yes’ to those things, it becomes easier to say ‘no’ to things that no longer serve you.

And I don’t know why Tony and his gang didn’t release it for this year, but good old Life Coach Alvin has a copy of his very useful The Power of Momentum – 7 Steps to a Fulfilling 2006 for you. Just cross out the 6, put in a 7, block out some quality personal time, go through the questions and start off your new year with jazz, pizazz and style.

Happy new year my friends, let’s make this year above and beyond the last.

I’ve been living on a more micro than macro level the last couple of months, ever since being inspired by Adrian Savage’s The Simplest Path to Success post. Instead of asking myself, ‘what would go on my 10 year plan?’, I’m just asking ‘what’s the next best thing to do?‘ instead. I figure if I take the next best actions, the next best future would settle itself.

I’ve found that living this way is a lot more relaxed and fun than the whole ‘what’s my life-long plan’ thing. Maybe I didn’t get the long term planning method, but the last few months focusing on short-term goodness has been great. I figure that after a few months of getting my act together, I’ll still have time to go strategic long-term planning later.

I think living like this helped lead me to the train of thought that happened this week…

What’s the 20% of Your Effort That Would Make 80% of Your Happiness?

Last week, while I was innocently working away, my unconscious IMed my conscious mind with a sudden question:

What are the top 3 goals in your life right now, that if you achieved them, would make you deliriously happy?

Strange question, but curious enough, I answered generally:

1) Making tons of money (hard at work at my workstation, and driving Life Coaches Blog upwards and onwards, check).

2) Going to Japan to train at my martial arts home dojo (saving up monthly for that, check).

3) Losing that gut (erm, erm…)

Then it hit me, if these 3 goals would make me the most happy, then I should be spending most of my time to make them happen, shouldn’t I?

I have this idea: that for most of us, to make us deliriously, deliciously happy doesn’t take a lot, it only takes a few core things. Those core things can be small or big deals, requiring a lot of or a little work. But if these core things that are only a small fraction of the total goals we have can make up most of our happiness, then we should be spending the most time on them, shouldn’t we?

I know I just scheduled time in for next week to pump some cardio out :p

So What Are The Top 3 Goals In Your Life Right Now That Would Make You Trippy Head-Over-Heels Happy?

What’s your answer? Are you as surprised (and guilty) as I was? Or do you find you’re on track (as I was on 2 too)?

Caveat: Nobody wants to be the guy who slaved to become a millionaire, only to lose his health and family in the process. What goals you came up with, remember to ask if they’re good for others as well as good for you (ecological and sustainable, for those of you who like big words).

And that’s reason why you should be comfortable coming out of your comfort zone.

If you remember the earlier post by Alvin on stretching, yes, stretching will get your comfort zone bigger and you should be comfortable with getting stretch.

In this case you just go out of your comfort zone, act comfortably, have all the great fun you can acquire and get your comfort zone bigger. This is what I call “Process Oriented Goal”.

You must have “Process-Oriented Goal” POG to get comfortable outside your comfort zone. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have “Result-Oriented Goal” ROG what I saying here is to add “Process-Oriented Goal” too.

“Result-Oriented Goal” makes you stretch, give you stress and uncomfortable which will leads to vision, focus and expand your mind.  Traditional Push and Pull Forces

“Process-Oriented Goal” brings you joy, happiness, comfortable and ease of doing it.  Stabilizing factor to balance the Push and Pull Forces

Set ROG and make sure POG is in place, then forget about ROG and focus POG and you will get to ROG in no time.

Example;
ROG: I have to reduce 10 Kg before Valentine Day
POG: I can enjoy jogging with my dog every morning.

ROG: I need to earn $1,000,000 in 3 years
POG: I learn to love what I have, who I am and what I do every single moment.

I learnt this hard way; because when I weighted 106 kg, I’ve been “TRYING” very hard to reduce weight…it took me 12 months to reduced to 97 kg. But once I apply POG, I went to 87kg in 5 weeks.

Got the picture?

Like what I always do during my coaching session on fitness or trading with my clients, we will develop the balance approach of POG and ROG.

I encourage you to leave your ROG as a comment and let see how can we set POG to balance the forces.