Change your thoughts » Finance

5 Lessons Learned From a Failed Product Launch

Steven Aitchison — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:07:00 +0000

Earlier this year I embarked upon a five month blogging/business lesson that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

December 2009 I had this ‘brilliant’ idea to write and produce a complete personal development course to help others to change their lives, as I had. I had around 8,000 subscribers to the blog and thought they would love it. I called it ‘Alter Your Jacket’, the naming of the program itself took nearly 4 weeks. I drew inspiration from my mentors Eben Pagan and Frank Kern and copied their product launch style with 4 free videos and bonuses at the end of the free video course.

Once I had the name, it was time to begin with the preparation. I needed video equipment: good camera, lighting, background materials, mics, sound editing etc. I then needed to start writing the program, which I completed in around 4 months. Once I had done this I needed editing software for the videos, transcription services to transcribe videos to PDFs, a website, software for readers buying the product, and finally a marketing plan.

My Chance for Glory

All in, the entire program from conception to writing, and producing took around 5 months. I put my heart and soul into this and honestly believed it would help to change people’s lives and would change mine in return. Once I had completed the program, built websites and wrote to a few blogger friends to become affiliates to start testing it I released it to the world thinking: ‘This is it, this is my chance to make a name for myself and go up another level in the blogging world and get enough money to be able to financially support my blogging full time’ (no I’m not full time yet).

700 subscribers in two weeks with the help of 3 of my well known blogger friends and I managed to get 5 sales at $67 for the program. I then tweaked it and offered payment plans, another 4 sales. I then tweaked it again and again and nothing. 2 weeks later I closed the program but still kept the free videos up.

It’s quite disheartening to see a product you’ve put so much effort into go down the toilet and it’s only in the last month that I’ve been able to say;’ this program didn’t work’. The problem was, I produced the videos as a talking head a la Eben Pagan. However Eben Pagan is a business guru and that format didn’t transfer well into the personal development world and I received a lot of feedback to say that watching 7 x 30 minutes videos of a talking head was not conducive to learning. There was also problems with the sales page, the copywriting. It was all business and not about the reader.

The 5 Lessons I Learned

Always do the research. Find out what your readers really want. Once your readers have told you what they want, find out if the rest of the world wants that as well, chances are if your readers want it a lot of people looking for your niche products will want it as well.

Never follow the money. Once I had the idea and basked in the glory of my brilliance I kept thinking about how the money was going to change my life. It couldn’t fail, after all who doesn’t want to change their life in some way? How wrong could I be. If you do it for the money, you are doomed from the start, sure you might get initial returns on your investment but it’s all about connecting with your readers, really connecting.

Once you drop the money aspect of your business and start thinking about the connecting aspect, you will find the money will come naturally, whilst still focusing on connecting with your readers.

Being specific. Readers don’t want a program that will help them with every aspect of their life. Readers are looking for specific programs to help them change ‘one aspect’ of their life, it’s our duty to find out what that ‘one aspect’ is, and then find another aspect, and then another.

Imagine you want to change your eating habits and want to try a vegan diet. Which book would you buy:

Try a vegan diet for 30 days – the complete guide

How to change your life

That is essentially what I had done with the ‘Alter your Jacket’ program. I offered everyone a solution to change every aspect of their life. This doesn’t work in the business world and in the readers mind it’s not going to work either. That’s why we have different models of cars, different styles of houses, different everything. We are all different and we don’t want a one size fits all to anything in our lives. We want to feel as if a product is specifically made for our needs.

Learn from your mistakes. It would be so easy to give up and say ‘I’ve given it my best shot, there’s nothing else I can do, it’s time to give up.’ I have learned a huge amount from the ‘Alter Your Jacket’ experience: producing videos, editing videos, writing, networking, discipline, determination, marketing, copywriting, website building and so much more and it only cost me 1 failure to learn all that.

Keep the passion. There’s a lot of talk about finding your passion in life and so many people are struggling to find their passion. I realised that I am one of the lucky ones, I have a passion that will never die and I have nurtured it even more after the mistakes of ‘Alter Your Jacket’. I love writing, love blogging and love the readers I connect with. I am so excited to get up in the morning, I really mean that, I literally open my eyes at 4.30 or 5am and spring out of bed as I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me for the blogging day ahead and start writing and being creative in some way. My head is so full of ideas it’s hard to contain them.

If all you are blogging for is the money, then I would advise you to stop right now and re-evaluate. Try and find your centre and start thinking about the information you are giving to the world. Start writing from a centre of deep concern, start writing from a centre of passion and make sure you convey that passion to your readers.

Did I really fail?

I am still extremely confident about my abilities and even more so now that I have a new set of skills behind me. I took me 1 failed product launch to learn everything I learned and I am willing to go through another 10 failed product launches if they all teach me something. Do I feel like a fool? Not at all, if you can learn anything form this then the product launch was a complete success. (Am I just saying all that to stop me from feeling foolish? – of course I am )

Free eBook – How to Reach 10,000 Blog Subscribers

Steven Aitchison — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:57:06 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to find out what readers of the blog would like more information on. So I emailed my subscriber list and asked them. 4 titles topped the polls and one of them was ‘How to get more subscribers to your blog’.

This kind of surprised me, but I asked the list what they really wanted to know about this topic and in true ‘let the readers decide’ I have produced a first draft of an ebook entitled: How to Reach 10,000 Blog Subscribers.

I am giving this away for free to all CYT readers.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK HERE

Who is it for?

Anybody who has a blog and is looking to increase their exposure in the blogging field. You can be in any niche and benefit from this ebook.

What you will learn

Why your subscriber count is important.
The four aspects of your blog you must focus on to capture readers attention
7 ways to dramatically increase your subscriber count

Do you like it? was it helpful? If so, I have two simple requests

1) Let me know. Share your feedback in the comments section or write to me directly.

2) Help spread the word. Pass this along to the everyone you know, maybe no everyone, I don’t think your Gran would like a copy, but you know what I mean. Would be great to Tweet this as well.

I hope you enjoy ‘How to reach 10,000 Blog Subscribers’ it and look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

50 Fantastic Free eBooks to Enhance Your Online Business

Steven Aitchison — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:11:42 +0000

When I first started reading ebooks way back at the end of the 1990’s I didn’t ever think there would be a time when there would be free, valuable, information on the net. It’s only when Rich Schefren and Eben Pagan started moving ‘The Free Line’ that things really started moving. Then of course, more recently, Frank Kern started releasing his free videos packed full of information for marketers and entrepreneurs to help start and drive your business forward.

I have scoured the net for more recent bloggers and businesses who have released ebooks and manifestos to help others drive their businesses forward.

It’s an approach I am now taking and will be releasing 2 free ebooks before the end of the year which will be packed full of great info. For now I will share some of the best ebooks I have read which you can grab for free (you might have to sign up for some of them but believe me they are worth your email address), Also I have not set the links to open a new tab (not got my faithful Dreamweaver here in Turkey) so right click each link and click on ‘open in new tab’:

50 Fantastic Free eBooks to Enhance Your Online Business

Break Out of the Avoidance-Apathy-Regret Cycle

Belinda Munoz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:00:04 +0000

AVOIDANCE

We’ve all been there. Not wanting to do anything, ignoring a call, declining an invitation. Often, this happens for a good reason. We have demanding jobs and personal lives, a household to maintain, kids to keep out of trouble, all of which make up a fully- loaded life. Our days are in perpetual lock step with responsibility and obligation, and we feel no urge to disrupt the balance we’ve worked so hard to achieve.

And so, a degree of ennui sets in that makes us not want to take on anything beyond what we’ve already committed to. We stay fixed as we are, put off getting started on a personal goal, turn down an opportunity to engage, and pass on showing up for anything where our presence matters.

It’s all very understandable. We max out our energy. For some, we’re set in our habits and can’t break them or feel we don’t have the time. For others, we want to go through life as seamlessly as possible and feel we’ve achieved some semblance of balance not to be messed with.

Like I said, we’ve all been there.

CAN’T CATCH A BREAK

But all this avoidance, intentional or habitual, can turn into apathy that can lead to something worse than not getting involved. It can lead to regret. Bitter, unshakable, unmistakable regret. An unfortunate and undesired result of things left undone and passion left unpursued. A condition that is often a challenge to reverse, resistant to good intentions, impervious to a vow to do differently going forward.

Who signs up for a helping of regret?

The funny thing about regret is it’s never planned. We don’t ever set out to look back wishing we’d done something or gotten involved. It just happens. As we go through life in our finite plot of space and time, sticking with things that bring predictable and calculable results, time unwittingly passes us by.

Until one day, we find ourselves longing for bygone days. When we could’ve made a difference in someone’s life. When we would’ve been able to affect meaningful change. When we should’ve lived more passionately.

Once regret sets in, we’re forced to live with it. We deal with it by shaking it any which way we can; by trying to sublimate it; or by deluding ourselves into thinking we have no regrets.

Sometimes we succeed in letting go of regret. Other times, not so much.

The good news is, it’s never too late to do something. For as long as we have the ability to be apathetic, we have the ability to care. And as long as we have the ability to care, we have the ability to change our thoughts, and therefore, change our lives.

BEATING AVOIDANCE AND APATHY

How do we break down the walls of avoidance and apathy? Here are a few simple ideas:

1. Ask yourself some questions and answer them as honestly as possible.

What’s missing in your life?
What motivates you from within?
What’s in your life that you can do without?
What’s in your life that you can’t live without?
What would you do if you knew you only had one year to live?

2. Dare to Dream. Have lots of them. Big ones, little ones. Make sure they’re yours and not other people’s dreams. Dreams stoke the fires of passionate living and guide us so that we may see possibilities beyond our current realities.

What images of you are you shoving in the back of your mind? What inner voices are you silencing? Ask yourself what you would do if you believed your potential was limitless.

Would you live your life as your message a la Gandhi?
Would you rock out while at the same time eradicating poverty a la Bono?
Would you immerse yourself in as many cultures as you can in one lifetime?
Would you start your own thing, with your very own brand of uniqueness, and grow it as big as you can?

Then ask yourself what’s stopping you. Is it because you think you can’t? What if it turns out that, with a little help from others, you can?

2. a) Make a commitment and take small steps on a regular basis. As we keep our dreams alive, a certain level of commitment combined with consistent itty-bitty steps are required to gain traction. Committing to a dream is not dissimilar to committing to doing our basic chores, paying our mortgage or rent, keeping our fridge and pantry well-stocked or regularly doing laundry. How do we manage to complicate something so simple?

3. Connect with other people who inspire you. Seek out others who are actively getting involved or literally building something and be inspired by them. A good place to start would be your community. Perhaps your town has a local celebrity you admire and whose work intrigues you.

Not too long ago, I met a young man named Mark Hanis, a grandchild of four holocaust survivors. He is the founder
of Genocide Intervention Network, an organization that empowers individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. Mark and so many others provide inspiration to those looking for a swift kick in the rear.

4. Accept an invitation. To what? A luncheon, tea, a party, an art gallery opening, a concert, a fundraiser, anything. Attending an event is one of the easiest ways to beat avoidance and apathy. If you’ve been wanting to support a local organization, consider attending an annual benefit. What you know on paper about an activity or an organization comes alive when you see theories in practice and when you witness the players in action. The amount of time it requires to be present at an event may be a solid few hours, but the education, motivation, inspiration and enrichment could very well end up being quite invaluable.

5. Begin to see that everything is interconnected. On the surface, it’s easy to blame others when something breaks down in a system. Whoever is in charge is likely the one to blame. But as we get older and acquire more demands and obligations in life, it becomes clear how interconnected everything is; that we are all responsible and that our action or inaction has consequences that affect others. As we warm up to this idea, we begin to understand a little bit better that each of us plays a part in the grand design and that we, with no exception, have the capacity to impact others beyond our small circle of family and friends.

ON GOING A LITTLE BIGGER

Most of us are well-meaning everyday folks with good intentions; with immense potential to make a splash; with incredible talents and gifts too good to waste. And yet months, years and even lifetimes go by with too many of us safely playing small. Taking only calculable actions with calculable results. Shooting only for demarcated goals that can be achieved well within our imagination. Caring only for people and about things that we know.

So often, we make priorities in life: about family, health, career, etc. that make sense to us. And this is great. But in doing so, we unwittingly subject ourselves to a limited worldview and leave out a critical fact that is undeniable and right there in front of us — our connection to others and how we are part of a bigger family: the human race.

What’s our role in strengthening this connection? Do we do something about it? Do we ignore it? What if all it takes is a simple “yes” and suddenly, a door swings open to a wider circle? One that can give us an outlet for the good intentions unrealized within us. One where apathy and avoidance are squeezed out. One where we nurture instead of neglect each other. One where our common thread of compassion, love and humanity thrives.

Believe it or not, this wider circle exists now. Shall we explore it together?

Free Personal Development Video Course

Steven Aitchison — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:00:58 +0000

The shiny new Alter Your Jacket life change free video course has now gone live. You can get the course by clicking on:

FREE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT VIDEO COURSE

The free course is a set of 4 videos over the space of 12 days and on the 12th days there will be some bonuses just for watching.

As you know I have been working hard over the last 3-4 months working on this and it’s finally completed.

Special Person to Thank

I want to take a moment to thank one person for making all this happen, someone who has given me belief in my work, someone who has encouraged me with their comments, someone who has supported me over the last 4 years of blogging….

That person is YOU

Every single person who has read ‘Change Your Thoughts’, every person who has commented, subscribed, emailed me and everyone how has written for this blog. I honestly wouldn’t have written and produced ‘Alter Your Jacket’ if it hadn’t been for you all – honestly I totally mean that.

Alter Your Jacket

I would love it if you could head over to www.AlterYourJacket.com, sign up and get the free video course and comment on the videos, I think you will love them, not because I made them but for the content. It would also be fantastic if you could comment on the videos as well (There’s some coolgreat prizes for the best comment on each video)

Thank you again for all your support, and I hope to respond to all your comments over at Alter Your Jacket.

This Skill Will Provide Infinite Returns!

Stephen Borgman — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:08:54 +0000

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

Dr. Silver Spencer, a scientist at 3M, was singing in his church choir. He noticed that his bookmark would often fall out, causing him to lose his place. Ever attentive to new ideas, he went to work on this problem, and came up with a concept called Sticky Notes. The rest is history!

How much do you think that idea was worth? How much do you think 3M has been reimbursed for that idea? How much success do you think it brought to Dr. Spencer and to his career?

Seth Godin, in his prolific writings, challenges all of us to become thought leaders. It’s not enough to mass market yourself; it’s not enough to parrot what everyone else is doing. People around us, employers around us, and customers around us are all hungry for people who will stand up and generate new and fresh content.

“Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.” Michael Porter

Would you like to achieve career prosperity and security? Develop your skill of being an innovative thinker, and you will be well on your way to achieving your goal.

Here are some key success factors to becoming an innovative thinker, employee, and/or business owner:

Change Your Mind!

This has been my number one stumbling block. “I’m not creative. I’m not original. I can’t think of anything fresh. There’s nothing new under the sun.” These are the automatic thoughts that come to mind when I see the terms “thought leader” and “innovator.” It’s ok to have those thoughts, but then ask yourself, “Are these thoughts taking me to where I want to be? Are they producing the results I want in my life?” I don’t think so!

Get used to gently or forcefully challenging those negative thoughts and beliefs with new ones: “I’m creative! I have a beginner’s mind! I am open to new ideas, and they come easily to me.”

As Henry Ford, inventor of the automobile, stated, “Believe you can. Believe you can’t. Either way you’re right.” In other words, are you going to choose to listen to your automatic thoughts, or are you going to cultivate new ones?

Cultivate Curiosity!

Here are some practical ideas for becoming curious in your business or industry:

Listen to your customers!

Listen to the happy ones, who are telling you what you are doing right! Listen to the unhappy ones, who are telling you what you are doing wrong! Listen to the creative ones, who are telling you what you should be doing! You can do this by using polls (SurveyMonkey is a great resource for generating surveys you can send to your customers: there is a free/basic option, and a low cost option) on your blog, or on your main website.

Expose yourself to different industries, books, opportunities. How often do you attend conventions within your industry, so that you can ‘rub shoulders’ with your competitors. How often do you read books that are totally outside the sphere of your normal industry/niche? Do you read fiction sometimes, if your preference is non-fiction, and vice-versa? The idea here is to mix it up: see if there are patterns from these different sources that you can incorporate into your own business or niche.

Keep a Journal

A great resource I would recommend is called the Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. Ms. Cameron is an award-winning poet, playwright, and filmmaker, and was a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, for a number of years. She believes that writing your thoughts out by hand have a way of building creativity.

If you prefer typing, I enjoy utilizing Evernote to store all kinds of information.

Keep a creativity box in which you can put an assortment of objects, article clippings, etc. that will help you develop your innovative side.

Escape!

When was the last time you took a day off from your normal routine? Get relaxed, go on a walk, sit alone in a room, play with your dog (or cat). Create some rituals to get into a ‘creative zone’, whether that is sipping a cup of warm tea, taking a relaxing bath, or practicing yoga. Some of my best creative energy comes when I am going on a long run.

Learn from Benjamin Franklin!

This founding father of the United States of America did two things that largely contributed to his creative state of mind. Mr. Franklin started the public library system and the postal system in the United States. He read books, he read books, and he read more books! For a period in his life, he did not participate in any ‘fun’ activities other than studying his books for at least one hour per day. In time, he felt a need to get together with other businessmen to discuss ideas, and out of this came many business ideas, public service activities, and other discoveries. In essence, he formed a mastermind group of creative and studious types who, together, were much more creative than any one person alone.

This patchwork of ideas is just a beginning. I hope that you will put on your creative thinking cap and start developing your innovation muscles. Because when you do, the world will benefit from your thinking!

The Biggest Mistake that Self-Employed People Make

Hulbert Lee — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:00:36 +0000

Often times, I spend my time in forums where many self-employed people interact with each other. One thing that always strikes my curiosity is the self-defeating threads that people start –

“I’m broke, in debt, and depressed,” “I hate my life,” “I have no girlfriend, no job, starting to feel very depressed,” “Starting to lose hope,” “I still haven’t made a dime,” “Fastest way to make $2000 – $3000 in one month?”

Surprisingly, these are the threads that usually get the most replies. There’s usually a lot of hype in them, even a little bit of excitement, but one can definitely feel the energy of the atmosphere as everyone is telling their own personal story to get it on the action. After many responses, the original poster receives wonderful tips to help improve their life. The scary thing is days later, weeks later, and even months later, you will find the original poster there, in the same thread, asking people for the same advice. This has made me realize that there are really two types of self-employed people in the world.

The Ones Who Take Value for Themselves

Some people need to have the perfect plan before they start taking any action. They think they have to read all the books, watch all the videos, listen to all the audio tapes, attend all the seminars, or get all the best advice from people on the forums before they start doing anything. The biggest mistake is that self-employed people make is thinking that by reading a book, watching a video, listening to an audiotape, or attending a seminar, it is the same as producing value to other people. It’s not. Rather, they’re taking value from other people who are giving it to them.

Even if the book they are reading has the answers to every single problem imagined to achieve success, if they have done nothing, they still end up just taking value. If this person doesn’t take action, nothing really changed besides them becoming more knowledgeable. They may feel more powerful or energized, but soon even this feeling will fade away into the distance when they realized that they haven’t given any value back.

So in order to regain that power, energy, inspiration, motivation, or feeling again, they will find it in another book, another video, another audio tape, seminar, or thread reply, until one day they’ve realized how much time has passed by and how much they are in debt. The credits are maxed out and the ink from crossing out all the days of the calendar run dry. Like how a powerful king who falls from the throne when he becomes too greedy, a self-employed person will fall out of greed to know everything, eventually putting them in a helpless, powerless state to do anything.

The Ones Who Give Value to Others

There is hope though. Although in today’s highly competitive world, a normal person – with or without all the rich knowledge of the information age – can still succeed and see themselves rise up to being a king, but not only a king that serves himself (or herself for women reading this – Queen), but a leader who serves the people. And this is done through giving value to others.

There’s a catch to this however. The word “value” is often times misused or misunderstood. The reason for this is because when a word is used too much, the meaning of it becomes inflated. Other examples are words like “best,” “top,” and “most.” But when you look at the word “value,” what does it really mean to you?

Most people might replace the word “value” with the word “something”. So the phrase of this paragraph’s title would read, “The Ones Who Give Something to Others”. This “something” usually comes out to be a form of rehashed or regurgitated material from a common source. What is value then?

In chess, value is not the pawn, knight, or bishop. It’s the queen. Value is something of quality. Value is something important. Value is something unique. It is not something.

So I guess the biggest question is how can you give value to other people? Although human beings may seem different in a hundred billion ways, we have an innate characteristic that enables us to detect on a deep, personal level whether or not the value we are receiving is actually making a genuine positive different in our lives.

This could be something that makes us laugh, makes us think, makes us wonder, or even better, all of the above. But it’s not something that makes us disappointed, frustrated, or even just walk away as if nothing had happened except for time passing by.

You can stand out from the rest; you can rise to the top; you can be the king. But the one thing you must always ask yourself is this question. Are you truly making someone else’s life better?

What Body Boarding in Hawaii Taught me About Life

Ryan Schmitz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:00:28 +0000

A few weeks ago I was able to head up to the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii to see some of the biggest waves on the planet. In the winter months the north shore of Oahu sees monsters that draw surfers from around the world. Recently “The Eddie Contest” which sported waves up to 40 feet, was held, which drew thousands and caused massive traffic jams on the whole north side of the island. Mention the word Waimea Bay to any surfer and you’ll create drool from their mouths as if they were Pavlov’s dog.

I hadn’t been to the north shore before, as I recently moved to Hawaii via a one way, but was pleasantly surprised by its sleepy town feel and delightful sense of community. Families were barbecuing in parks along the beach and everyone seemed content. My friends and I made our way to the bay and grabbed our body boards as we stepped out of the car and ventured towards the crowded beach.

I’d never body boarded before, but there was a buzz of excitement and I was ready to go. The water was surprisingly cold and the rushing water began to engulf me and make me it’s puppet. The sleepy town feel was soon forgotten as I began a battle with the waves of massive intensity.

: Waimea Bay on a Calm Summer Day

As the waves broke they exerted a surprising amount of force on me; Wave after wave it was relentless. With so much force built up and a momentum that could only be described as ruthless, these waves constantly rejected me from getting past the break point.

I struggled as I attempted to run, then walk, then swim past the never ending force. Giving it my all I pushed forward harder and harder. Suddenly, as if by magic, I had reached past the breaking point and the waves were no long crashing upon me.

As I sat there on my body board past the break point I began to realize that life is much the same, constantly beating us back mercilessly, until as if by a miracle we’ve suddenly made it. Many of the most successful people I’ve met in my life have battled with the waves of life for years or even decades before reaching past the break point. To many they look like overnight success stories, but they’re the product of their previous battles with the waves. We have to learn to overcome these waves by being even more resilient and more relentless then they are.

Life has many lessons to teach us if we’re observant, but these are the 3 lessons the waves taught me while body boarding on the north shore of Hawaii.

1. Waves Will Always be Headed Towards the Shore
Waves will always be coming in. They may change in intensity but, like clockwork, they’ll continue to break at the shore. Much like the waves I experienced when body boarding you’ll experience negativity in your life and forces that will want to hold you back. These waves of negativity are relentless and will never stop. You need to come to terms with this and act accordingly. Just like the waves kept knocking me back on my way to get past the break point, the waves of negativity and self doubt will keep knocking you back as well. That is, unless you’re more persistent.

2. Persistence Always Wins
In my continuous battle with the waves it was two steps forward, one step back. Then two steps forward and one step back; This happened over and over. With each two steps I took, I gained a little more distance and got closer to the break point. Through persistence I eventually beat the waves. Persistence is one of the most valuable attributes you can gain in body boarding and life, which was illustrated brilliantly by American President Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

You may be the most talented body boarder in the world, or even the most educated person who can explain how body boarding works down to a science, but unless you persist each day against the waves, you’ll never truly know what body boarding is.

3. The Rewards of Persistence are Priceless
Once you pass the point where the waves are crashing you’ll be in calmer water where you can look back and see everyone else trying to get past the break. Sitting upon my board without resistance I was living the high life, but it got better! I had my pick of which wave I wanted to catch to ride in. What was once my enemy now became my ally as I harnessed the power of the wave and let it propel me forward with such force that it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. What a rush!

When overcoming your waves through resistance the fruits of your labor will be priceless and just as rewarding as catching a wave in Hawaii. The amount of persistence it takes is directly related to the reward, so the bigger the waves I overcame the bigger waves I got to ride down after I reached the break point. It’s a long journey to the break water, but catching your wave is oh so sweet.

Next time you’re struggling and fighting towards your goals think of the waves of Hawaii. See your battle as something that is necessary, but also think of the adrenaline rush of the results of your persistence. For me that reward was catching a huge wave and feeling as though I was flying through the air, what will your rush be?

For anybody who doesn’t know what bodyboarding is here is a short video:

Images from Maccanti and Smichael

52 Personal Development Blogs To Watch in 2010

Steven Aitchison — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:09:18 +0000

Following the lead from many from Problogger.net post about the best in your niche, I have gathered a list of 52 bloggers who I think will make it big in 2010 with their personal development blogs.

Watch out for:

1. Jonathan Wells – AdvancedLifeSkills.com

Blog: AdvancedLifeSkills.com

Jonathan has been a great source of inspiration over the last year. His wisdom, knowledge and support to everyone is great to watch. His blog is an extension of his book 7 Simple Steps is perhaps one of the best personal development books I have read.

Posts by Jonathan:

personal excellence with advanced life skills/

time to focus on abundance instead of scarcity/

optimism and the spirit of renewal/

2. Dragos Roua – DragosRoua.com

Blog: DragosRoua.com

Dragos is flying at the moment and with good reason. He is a passionate blogger who I have come to known over the last year and he has been a good friend with some great advice and support. He is dedicated to his craft and I predict big things this year for him.

Posts by Dragos:

33 Ways To Start Your Day

100 Ways To Love A Better Life

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

3. Robin Easton – NakedInEden.com

Blog: NakedInEden.com

Robin ‘Angel of the internet’ Easton is a beautiful soul with a beautiful heart. her comments are famous in the personal development field, if you’ve ever had a comment from her you’ll know what I mean. Her blog is just amazing and her posts ooze wisdom, higher self thinking, and personality.

Posts by Robin:

When You Know You’re Alive

What Are You Waiting For…Perfection?

Share Your Legacy?

4. David Peralty – LifeSnips.com

Blog: LifeSnips.com

David is an entrepreneur who has recently started Lifesnips.com with high hopes and big plans for it. I have written several posts for him and his enthusiasm and business skills lead me to believe his plans for LifeSnips being the next DumbLittleMan will be realised this year.

Posts by David

How Being a Geek Made Me More Productive

Best Password Practices Guide

101 Ways To Boost Your Energy Levels

5. Stephen Mills – TheRatRace.com

Blog: RatRaceTrap.com

Stephen Mills is another blogger who writes with passion, knowledge and wisdom. His posts are always from the heart and often based on his personal life with a message for everyone.

Posts by Stephen:

Are We Disconnecting From Real Life?

The Investment Banker and The Mexican Fisherman

A Values-Based Approach to Goals

6. VinMiller – NaturalBias.com

Blog: NaturalBias.com

Vin Miller is a great blogger blogging about health related issues. He is not afraid to speak his mind and has a great sense of humour in his writing as well. His blog is growing in stature and I think Vin will double his readership this year.

Posts by Vin:

KFC Grilled Chicken: Unthink Your Health!

13 Ridiculous Food Labels that Might Be Fooling You

7 Ways We’ve Failed Miserably at Trying to Outsmart Nature

7. Armen Shirvanian – TimelessInformation.com

Blog: TimelessInformation.com

Armen is relatively new on the Personal Development scene, started in May 2008, but he is starting to make an impact. He has been a guest poster here several times and each time his posts have been well received. He has recently started experimenting with videos which has showed his real personality and he is actually quite funny. I definitely think he is one to watch.

Posts by Armen:

The secret to getting better and better

100 Ways to show your boldness

Instant vs delayed gratification

8. Douglas Cartwright – LivingWords.net

Blog: LivingWords.net

Douglas is another blogger who has just come onto the scene and writing a lot of guest posts. His writing is top class and is thought provoking. He is a life coach who I think will do great things this year. I believe with a revamp

Posts by Doug:

Psychological Knots

Can feel it

9. Zeenat Merchant Syal – ZeenatSyal.wordpress.com

Blog: ZeenatSyal.Wordpress.com

Another angel of the internet. Zeenat has a unique style to her blog in that she writes from the heart and is not afraid to put up quotes, videos, anything to get the message of living positively across.

Posts by Zeenat:

Recurring patterns

Smiles and laughter

RAOKA: My pursuit of happiness

10. Lisis and Alison – QuestForBalance.com

Blog: QuestForBalance.com

The writer is Lisis and the technical and social media person is Alison. Together they make up a great team in promoting a great blog with loads of interesting and thought provoking articles. Lisis and I had an unplanned cross/blog conversation which was fantastic and opened my eyes to the power of blogs and the people who run them.

Posts by Lisis

Book Review: Female Brain Gone Insane

Goal-Setting, and the Key to a Peaceful Household

The Star Trek Guide to Enlightenment

11. Patrick Stoeckmann – UnwrapYourMind.com

Blog: UnwrapYourMind.com

Patrick was someone I met at the A-List blogging bootcamp run by Leo Babauta and he has turned out to be a fantastic find. His writing is fantastic. His posts are long, always stimulating and he is going to be huge in 2010.

Posts by Patrick:

Kill Your To Do List Before It Kills You.

No Fu – The Warriors Way to Say No

Release Your Fear of Scarcity

12. Ian Peatey – QuantumLearning.pl

Blog: QuantumLearning.pl

Ian Peatey is someone I came across toward the end of last year and I am grateful I did. He is someone who delves into the hearts of readers and leaves you wanting more. His comments are always spot on and his blog hits you where it needs to.

Posts by Ian:

10 Books That Shook My World

Do My Words Improve Silence?

Curse Of The Lightning Brain

13. Mike King . LearnThis.ca

Blog: LearnThis.ca

Mike was the one who started the ‘Mega list’ which snowballed and ended up with my current line of books 100 Ways To________ so I have to thank Mike for that. His blog has some fantastic writing on leadership and personal development in general.

Posts by Mike:

How to Free Yourself From Gossip

The Problem with Leadership

Thinking about Personal Development

14. Lana Kravtsova - DreamFollowers.com

Blog: DreamFollowers.com

Lana first came to my attention as she was such a prolific commentor on other personal development blogs and she has been supporting me for a long time. Her blog is coming along brilliantly and she has stepped up her writing and is producing some wonderful stuff.

Posts by Lana:

The Ultimate Guide to Creative Visualization

How To Spend Time With Yourself and Why.

You are NOT responsible for anything and how it can help you reach any of your goals.

15. Celestine Chua – CelestineChua.com

Blog: CelestineChua.com

Celestine’s style of writing grabbed my attention last year and I think she is going to be a tower in 2010.Her blog is about Personal Excellence and she is a life coach who is actually helping people to live their dream life.

Posts by Celes:

Passion or Money?

Discover Your Real Purpose (7-part series)

Are You Sleepwalking Your Life Away?

16. Tim Brownson – ADaringAdventure.com

Blog: ADaringAdventure.com

I have known Tim for a few years now and you won’t find a more dedicated person to blogging, living and helping others live their life for the better. Authro, life coach, British and living in America he personifies what personal development blogs should be about. He has a unique style of writing, not afraid to speak his mind and writes what he wants to write.

Posts by Tim:

The Ultimate Goal Setting Post

Call That A Goal? THIS is a Goal!

The Real Purpose of News

17. Mary Jaksch – GoodLifeZen.com

Blog: GoodLifeZen.com

Mary is another blogger I met at the A-List blogging bootcamp as she was helping Leo to run it. I hadn’t heard of her before but she was already running a very successful blog of her own at the time. Mary’s posts are often long but never boring and I have often bookmarked them to go back and read.

Posts by Mary:

How to Develop Intelligence at Any Age

How to Start Meditating

How to Make a True Friend

18. John Anyasor – HiLife2B.com

Blog: HiLife2B.com

John wrote a post for me back in August of this year and I was extremely impressed with the way he was going about his blogging career. He seemed to be everywhere and reminded me of Leo Babauta. His writing always hits the mark and if he sticks with it will be huge in 2010.

Blog Update: The Road Ahead

Hatred Only Serves to Hurt, Not to Help

How to Get Your Groove Back: Writing, Dancing, Singing, Etc.

19. Gail Brenner – AFlourishingLife.com

Blog: AFlourishingLife.com

Gail Brenner came onto my radar at the latter half of last year and recently wrote a great post on CYT. Her writing seems to grab the reader and suck them in from the very first sentence. I think she could be another ‘Angel of the net’ and one to watch in 2010.

Posts by Gail:

Is It Time to Forgive?

The Wisdom of Restraining Yourself

How (and Why) to Make Fear Your Friend

20. Steve – MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

Blog: MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

I have known Steve for some time now as well and whilst his blog is not strictly personal development it has helped me a lot over the last year. His blog looks at his and his wife’s online store and how they went from $0 to $100,000 per year with their online linen store. It is inspiring and fantastic to read.

Posts by Steve:

How We Stopped Short Of Becoming Lazy Pieces Of Crap

Pricing: Psychological Mind Games That Stores Play

Starting Your Own Business: Do You Have To Risk Your Life Savings?

21. Nadia – HappyLotus.com

Blog: HappyLotus.com

Nadia is another recent blog I came across due to her writing comments on other blogs as well as mine. I love her spiritual writing and quest for enlightenment. her blog is like visiting a Zen garden, I am always at peace when I leave there.

Posts by Nadia

Deja Vu All Over Again: Personal Journey 2.0, My Poetry Book & A Very Important Question For You

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The Power of Re-Invention

22. David Cain – Raptitude.com

Blog: Raptitude.com

David only started his blog 1 year ago and it is a rising star in the personal development world. I came across him via Twitter and read a few of his posts and immediately signed up to his posts via Google reader.

Posts by David:

88 Important Truths I’ve Learned About Life

Six Amazing Songs That Illustrate What it Means to Be Human

Why Happiness is Such a Struggle

23. Lance – JungleOfLife.com

Blog: JungleOfLife.com

Lance is one of the most down to earth but enlightened bloggers I have read. His conversational style is engaging and yet always teaching. I think he will be bigger and better this year.

Posts by Lance:

Weeds…In Your Life

Clarity = Direction

Shhh….

24. Lori Franklin – JaneBeNimble.com

Blog: JaneBeNimble.com

Lori is another find of late last year and some I signed up to straight away when I read her about me page. NIMBLE is an acronym and you’ll have to visit the blog to0 find out what she called it JaneBeNimble. her writing is funny, enlightening and quirky.

Posts by Lori:

My Writing Life: An Answered Question

Front Porch: Cardboard Sleds, Machu Picchu, and Sami May

Random Acts of Kick Arse: Wacky

25. Jeffrey Tang – ArtOfGreatThings.com

Blog: ArtOfGreatThings.com

Jeffrey’s blog is simplicity in itself. A great design coupled with fantastic writing and topics and you have the makings of a great blogger. I met jeffery at the A-List Blogging bootcamp and he has gone from strength to strength.

Posts by Jeffrey:

A Guide to Self-Reliance Minimalism

Why I’m Cutting Back on Multi-Tasking (And You Should Too)

The Number One Question Entrepreneurs Forget to Ask

26. Dani – PositivelyPresent.com

Blog: PositivelyPresent.com

Dani’s posts are always interesting and quirky and is a mixture of life lessons. poetry, life affirming readings etc. I came across her with her prolific commenting policy on other blogs which seems to have paid off.

Posts by Dani:

A positive present for you

How to be beautiful from the outside in

The difference between happy and not unhappy

27. Arvind Devalia – ArvindDevalia.com

Blog: ArvindDevalia.com

Arvind has had an amazingly busy year this year with lots of projects under his belt. he is a natural leader and writes about peace, love and everything personal development. I think he will go on to be a star on the blogging world.

Posts by Arvind:

6 Key Lessons in Life from a 140 year Old Man

Make It Happen in 30 Days – Just Go On An Adventure!

Blue Moon means its Time for New Beginnings!

28. Friar – DeepFriar.com

Blog: DeepFriar.Wordpress.com

Friar has to be the funniest personal development blogger I have read. His posts are always worth visiting and you will never be disappointed when you read his posts.

Posts by Friar:

An Open Letter to Lucky Charms

Corporate Buzzwords

French Candian Expressions

29. Anastasiya Goers – BalanceInMe.com

Blog: BalanceInMe.com

Anastasiya is another wonderful soul writing on the internet. I met her at the A-List Blogging bootcamp (so many great bloggers came from there) and she has gone on to be a great blogger and great support over the last 6 months.

Posts by Anastasiya:

The Myth of Personal Independence. Are You Falling for It?

Balance Your Life in Two Days

A Simple Guide to Frugal Organic Eating

30. Lodewijk van den Broek – BeAnOriginal.net

Blog: BeAnOriginal.net

Lodewijk has been around for a number of years but has recently re-invented himself and his blog. he has always been a great support and always written some great posts in the past. I am hopeful for him in 2010 on his new domain and am looking forward to his writing again.

Posts by Lodewijk

On Being original

New Beginning

31. Amit Sodha – UnlimitedChoice.org

Blog: UnlimitedChoice.org

Amit has been a very recent find for me and he is a great poster for how blog commenting can be useful to get your name and face known to other bloggers. I seem to see him everywhere, so much so I had to check his blog out and what a great blog it is. Definitely one to watch for 2010.

Posts by Amit:

Perception Vs Reality

Going It Alone

Anchoring

32. Carolyn Rubenstein – CarolynRubenstein.com

Blog: CarolynRubenstein.com

Carolyn is a rare soul who goes out of her way to help others in life. She has worked with children with cancer and is an author, frequent television guest and blogger on huffinton post and Psychology Today and when you read her writing you immediately get the reason why she is so sought after.

Posts by Carolyn:

50 Ways to Add Joy to Your Day

You Don’t Have To Know

Are the odds in your favor?

33. Rosie Jones – LoveLifeGodSexMoney.com

Blog: LoveLifeGodSexMoney.com

Rosie is a baulchy, outspoken, but an extremely talented individual. She is a songwriter, singer, producer, writer, and coach . her writing will grab you where it hurts but it always delivers the message.

Posts by Rosie:

Attitude of gratitude

The power of ‘Just get on with it’

Letter to Jennifer Ellison

34. Ayo Olaniyan – DiscoveringPurpose.co.uk

Blog: DiscoveringPurpose.co.uk

Ayo has been fantastic over the last year and I am so glad I met him. He was the brains behind ‘Meet The Coach’ series which went down well with readers and he also guest posted a few times. His blog is also a fantastic read.

Posts by Ayo:

Tips To Become Hot!!!!!!!

20 Ways To Build Resilience

My Final Word: THANK YOU!!!

35. Nik Karlil – PersonalDevelopmentPro.com

Blog: PersonalDevelopmentPro.com

Nik Karlil was a member of the A-List blogging Bootcamp and has gone on to good things over the last year. A regular commenter and guest author on CYT, I have grown to really like him and his blog and wish him big things in 2010.

Posts by Nik:

How To Be Interesting

15 Ways To Get Smarter (and wiser)

Houdini, Blank State and Calmness

36. Eduard Ezeanu – PeopleSkilsDecoded.com

Blog: People Skills Decoded

Eduard burst onto the scene about 4 months ago and really got himself known with his guest posting and commenting policy. His writing is refreshing and his blog equally so. He is going to be big if he continues doing what he’s doing.

Posts by Eduard:

Effective personal development starts here

Positive thinking won’t help you now

Smile! Real, fake, people can’t really tell

37. Jonathan Beebe – DevelopMinds.com

Blog: DevelopMinds.com

Jonathan has only been blogging for about 1 year but is doing great and making big strides on the blog front. He is interested in the same kind of mind tools which is why he stood out for me and he subsequently guest posted on CYT. I think he has a great future ahead of him.

Posts by Jonathan:

Feed Your Mind – Part One

Stress and Your Mind

Best of Develop Minds Blog 2009

38. Mr Self Development – MrSelfDevelopment.com

Blog: MrSelfDevelopment.com

A no nonsense blogger who I admire a lot for his tenacity and view of life, you can’t help but love his writing and I think he will make it big time in 2010.

Posts by MrSelfDevelopment:

5 Steps to a Six Pack

Sex Contracts

How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose in the Next 10 Minutes

39. Tess Marshall – TheBoldLife.com

Blog: The BoldLife.com

Tess is another blogger who regularly comments on other blogs. She has recently written a great post on CYT and I have checked out her blog on and off over the last few months and I’ve never been disappointed when I visited her blog.

Posts by Tess:

Local Grocery Store’s Happiest Employee

60 Ways To Become The Person You Love

Love Yourself: Be The Underdog

40. Sherri – SereneJourney.com

Blog: SereneJourney.com

Sherri is yet another blogger from the A-List Bloogging Bootcamp. Sherri has a great blog here and has also started one at ZenFamilyHabits.net which is an offshoot of the famous Zen-Habits.net blog by Leo Babauta.

Posts by Sherri:

Quick Clean Your Home In Under 20 Minutes

Secrets of the Perpetually Unhappy

Purge Just 7 Things – A Weekend Challenge

41. Belinda Munoz – TheHalfWayPoint.net

Blog: TheHalfWayPoint.net

Belinda has a blog which has a simple, clean design which is like her writing. She has been another great support to CYT over the last year. I think this is the year her blog will take off.

Posts by Belinda:

Philanthropy 101: Learning to Give

50 Simple Ways to Pay It Forward

5 Critical Skills We Must Never Lose in the Information Age

42. Dayne – TheHappySelf.com

Blog: TheHappySelf.com

Dayne is someone I met through twitter and have followed his blog posts with interest. He has a great design on his blog and I like his writing style and overall feel of his writing and think he will make 2010 his own.

Posts by dayne:

Living Naked: Personal Transformation Through Bare Simplicity

Two Magic Words To Eliminate Anxiety and Panic

Zen and The Awakened Soul

43. Eren McKay – EmbracingHome.com

Blog: EmbracingHome.com

Eren has a great blog but when I first visited it I thought it was a girlie girlie blog, but then I read her writing and quickly changed my mind. She is a christian blogger who doesn’t mind hearing other peoples opinions. It is a family oriented blog with a christian outlook and even though I am not a believer of God I respect her writing.

Posts by Eren:

How to organize important office files organizing papers – end clutter today

Weight Loss Motivation Tips and Encouragement

Goal Based Ethics — Why is Setting Goals Important?

44. Justin Dixon – ALittleBetter.net

Blog: ALittleBetter.net

Justin is a blogger who doesn’t mind speaking his mind and I have spoken with him on several conference calls from the bootcamp. His writing is top notch, and is a frequent guest blogger. I haven’t seen him around for a few weeks so hopefully, he’s only having a little break.

Posts by Justin:

How to Prepare Yourself For a Marriage That Lasts

13 Profound Statements Via Twitter

How to Choose and Attract Friends Wisely

45. Walter Adena – LionSlinger.com

Blog: LionSlinger.com

Walter has a great blog which is well design and easy to navigate. I recently discovered his blog through his commenting and found it to be a great place for personal development. He has already made strides with his blog and I believe he will do even better this year.

Posts by Walter

Nobody wants to listen

Why are we having problems with problem?

Pitfalls of instant gratification

46. Mark Foo – TheBigDreamer.com

Blog: TheBigDreamer.com

Mark is a very recent find for me and I have only read his posts through email and other bloggers blogs due to a problem with his site. I think he will be one to watch this year.

Posts by Mark:

Positive Thinking – Why You Need It To Succeed

25 Ways To Influence Others

How To Raise Your Self-Esteem By Acknowledging And Accepting Yourself

47. Brett – DareToExpress.com

Blog: DareToExpress.com

Brett is young blogger in every sense and I love his style of writing and the way he is not afraid to use new media to get through to his audience. A lot of people will now brett through his comments and his blog, only a few months old, will be huge in 2010.

Posts by Brett:

How To Disarm Fear

Presence Makes Everything You Do A Celebration of Your Life

Memento and The Dark Side of Personal Development

48. Robin Dickinson – RadSmarts.com

Blog: RadSmarts.com

Robin has been a great help to CYT over the last year and I only recently visited his blog and discovered how great it was. His writing is a mix of business and personal development and written with a very intelligent, and clear voice. I hope Robin makes it as big as he deserves.

Posts by Robin:

How leading bloggers write highly effect…

A perfect tweet

An incredibly effective writing formula

49. Nea – Blog.SelfImprovementSaga.com

Blog: SelfImprovementSaga.com

nea’s blog is about the law of attraction but definitely falls into the category of personal development. She has been seen a lot around CYT and I think her blog is a great place to spend some time and read her writing.

Posts by Nea:

Law of Attraction Bible Debate: Is It Against Your Religion?

Self Improvement Journey from Zero Talent to Extraordinary Success

Inspirational Story – Blind Mountain Hikers

50. Evelyn Lim – AbundanceTapestry.com

Blog: AbundanceTapestry.com

The lovely Evelyn Lim has embraced the internet in all it’s glory and uses it for her business, her life coaching and her writing. Her writing is focused on the law of attraction and there are some great articles over there.

Posts by Evelyn:

How To Love Yourself In 17 Ways

A Random Act of Kindness: 15 Ideas To Kickstart Your Intention

Reduce Junk Food Cravings in Only 9 Minutes

51. Alex Fayle – SomedaySyndrome.com

Blog: SomedaySyndrome.com

Alex is another blogger who I found out about through twitter and I am so glad I did. His posts are infrequent but they are worth reading when they come out. If he is still into blogging and posts regularly he has a hit on his hands.

Posts by Alex:

Resolving to Be Happier: The Happiness Project

Dealing with Detours & Limited Visibility: Planning vs Living

Course Changes on the Someday Journey: Reorienting Goals

52. Timothy Enalls – InspirationPro.net

Blog: InspirationPro.net

Timothy has been supporting CYT for a few months now and with his comments I have followed his blog and I think he will make it big and be one to watch for 2010.

posts by Timothy:

12 Fundamentals of Instant Charisma

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Greatest Message to the World

9 Powerful Techniques for Persuading People

Can You Feel It?

Douglas Cartwright — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:44:24 +0000

I’ll bet that many of us are starting the New Year with plans and a new sense of purpose for 2010. That’s great, and the New-year, New-start philosophy can provide a welcome breath of fresh air, especially if 2009 has been a bit of a slog.

If you compare Jan 1st 2010 to booting up your computer, wouldn’t it be great to have some new powerful programs to run on start-up? I’m sure you’ve already made some personal development purchases or are planning too.

But if setting new intentions is like the beginning of an installation process you’ll ALSO need to install the new internal resources to support the programs. Otherwise you might be working with an operating system that needs a processor/version upgrade in order to run your new program properly. (If you like new PC games and you have an older computer – you’ll know what I mean!)

Upgrades Needed

Well, I know some of you reading will already be planning to install some new beliefs if you need them. And that may well be enough. You can find plenty of NLP installation techniques around the net or in NLP books.

However, for some of us, even when we do install new beliefs this doesn’t mean the .exe (execute file) gets loaded along with them. What do I mean?

Learned Tendency

Well, each person has a learned tendency (on a continuum) towards action or inaction when they receive new information. In Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) these processing tendencies are metaphorically referred to as meta-programs and this one listed as Somatic Response in Figuring out People refers to how excited the motor-cortex gets and how much that excitement gets you to DO.

Basically, at one end of the scale you have extreme pro-activity, represented by the person that would decide to RUN to Macdonald’s if they suddenly felt the urge or would want to start exercising RIGHT NOW if they got inspired to get fit.

At the other end you have the inactive meta-program represented by the coach potato, the person who finds it difficult to get excited about anything nor act upon it.

The difference may well lie in the person’s reaction to incoming information and our expectations of what information is for.

Memory Knowledge

To me, part of the problem is that we live in an age when you can be (on the surface of it) be considered to ‘know’ something if you can recite facts and information. There is a certain value in ‘being an intellectual’.

However, this type of ‘knowing’ falls apart when you start to apply it to practical things. For any budding guitarist who has ever muttered “I can play it better than that” and then been asked to prove it, the doing soon shows how much you ‘know’. You can either play that riff or you can’t…!

So the .exe file referred to above is your tendency to ‘execute’ or act upon the things you need to do. And some of us have corrupted .exe files where we know a heck of a lot but we don’t DO much. So we get frustrated. And read some more.

Training Our Minds

The good news is that we can force and train our minds to re-open the route between our mind and our bodies. We can repave the road to from idea to implementation.

After all, you mentally conceived of how to ride a bike before you could actually peddle down the street, right? Every time you fell off you still knew how it ‘should’ on that wonderful day when you could ride and stay on!

I’ll bet your fingers know how to type but how many of you actually can recite the entire QWERTY keyboard? It’s like your mind has passed into your muscles (fingertips).

Imagine a time when you highest values showed up in your eyes, your movements, your breathing. When just the thought of doing something towards your future made your physical body tingle and your soul ring with joy!

How Does The process Take Place

Think about what happens when you jump away from an oncoming car: your mind creates a representation so powerful that it translates it into energy and instructions to your body – and you react. At that time the feelings are so strong that you could not stay there and ponder your next action even if you wanted too!

As you were learning to cycle you felt the motivation of ‘wanting’ to ride, and you sent instructions to your body to do the movements. Then with each attempt you calibrated what worked, and didn’t work, and did it again. It took time but with repetition and feedback, you mastered it.

Whether you realised it or not, you asked yourself:

What do I understand? What are the principles of riding? (Balance, direction, observation, pedal)
What do I believe? (That you could ride).
What do I decide? (That you were going to do what it took to learn to ride.)
What emotions do I feel? (Excitement, anticipation etc)
What is one action I could take to put this understanding, belief, decision and emotions into practice? (balance, push off, steer)

And you did all of this with the energy and enthusiasm necessary to push the idea into the very fibre of your muscles, mind and being. The process was extended over time (maybe months) but you did it. Imagine if that process could be compacted into a few minutes.

Above are the essential steps of the process that can be used to turn ANY great idea or principle into a felt conviction. As the full version is longer, you can get the basic outline plus notes for free by signing up to my mailing list at www.overcomingprocrastination.co.uk

The process clears out blockages between thinking and doing and creates a streamlined process for becoming a powerful implementer. I won’t lie to you, it does take perseverance to get it working and Hall says it can take a few minutes to an hour for a person to ‘get it’ the first time but after that it begins to become a habit. And the road becomes an implementation super highway!

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that our personal development books are fantastic and full of excellent principles – which we often don’t ‘feel’ strongly motivated to implement.

But the more deeply you install an idea the more likely it is to stay with you in the times you need it. There is a difference between a passing thought and a felt conviction. We encourage each other to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ but we also need to ‘feel the principle and do it anyway’.

When a valued idea like “wealth is built by saving 10% of my income” becomes a felt conviction in your gut, you’ll more easily act upon it. Someone once said “people cannot but move in the direction of their values.”

Once you get the habit of installing great ideas you can start doing what I call “ a rolling map update” whereby you are doing what Tony Robbins calls CANI – constant and never-ending improvement.

And that can’t be bad for a great 2010.