I take self-help stuff these days with a pretty good-sized grain of salt. I’ve been reading self-help and business success stuff since I was in high school, so I’ve seen and heard pretty much anything that one could say in these types of books and, well… there are only so many times I want to re-read the same old tired principles.
But I have to admit that I’ve come up against a few walls in the last 18 months, and I’m ready to move past them. Ready enough to take a second look at a coaching program of some sort.
I found Darren Hardy’s stuff just before the new year and I was impressed. It wasn’t something that I just stumbled across, though, it was something recommended to me – and I saw such a profound change in this person over the course of the 3 months that he was implementing what Darren taught, that I was excited to take a look.
I waited until I had a bit of quite time and then sat down with his package.
Now, maybe it is because I *am* ready for a change, that I took what I read with a different perspective. I’ll admit that there is not a lot new in the concepts that he presents, but the way he connects the dots were completely new for me.
An example of this is that he starts you off by making you write down all these things that you are grateful for – this is because in a few minutes you are going to be looking ahead at what you what; i.e. what you don’t have. Figuring out what you already have that is meaningful to you keeps you from going into an idea of lack and ensuing depression as you look forward. I think this is a particularly sound idea – I suspect the lack & depression are one reason there is not as much follow-through on long-term goal setting. I know I came away from that exercise especially charged-up.
In fact the whole work-book approach I find really good – not only does it make me commit harder by actually writing down my goals, but it gets me a lot more involved because of the hands on approach.
Within the book part of the process he does take time to stress removing bad habits and creating good habits. One of the things he stresses is a good breakfast. Hey! I eat a good breakfast – I drink Italian coffee – and not some American grocery-store brown-colored-water garbage! It has three main food groups: caffeine, water and milk. WHAAAAAAAT!?!?!
Ok, maybe a protein smoothie is more in order. I *can* actually make that before coffee… well, most of the time 
So what has changed besides my diet? (and yes, for those of you worried about me and the future of Theme Zoom, I DO still drink coffee )
Surprisingly lots,but it goes beyond what I’m reading in his book, and here is another important point he makes: Get up an hour earlier every morning and spend time meditating, planning your day, and keeping you eye on the big picture.
I don’t get up early… Any body who knows me knows that that would be like going without coffee… certain death However, I have rescheduled the first hour to 90 minutes of my morning for these other activities – I’m batting only about a 60% success rate with that, but it’s significantly more than the nothing it was before.
I’ve always been a strong believer in planning my day, this I’ve always done. But being an over achiever, what I have planned for my day usually takes me about a month to actually accomplish – so I’ve practiced reigning that in… and the other things, meditating and big picture… well…. yeah, that’s been very helpful.
It’s during these activities that I’ve had several major epiphanies – many of them relate to self defeating behaviors, such as sitting at the computer long past the point of diminishing return. And while he doesn’t talk about many of these things in particular, I’m sure it’s other stuff he’s said that has stirred my brain to recognize these less than optimal patterns and behaviors.
Other things he recommends: Read or listen to something that expands your mind every day (part of that morning ritual) – it’s always my intention, but now I’m making time for it and that’s been great!
Finally, the thing that really shook me up? What do I want to be when I grow up. My pat answer has always been that I don’t want to grow up, and while he says that’s fine, no plan is still a plan, it’s just a bad plan !
Also, frankly, he couched the question in a way that I’ve never thought of before and it really gave me pause. I don’t have an answer yet, but I think about it often throughout the day, and it’s brought back to mind goals that I had in my earlier years that I had since let go of – and it’s nice, if nothing else, to look at those goals now and see if they have merit.
I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when and if I actually grow up, I suspect the rest of the workbook will be more useful with a specific goal or goals in mind, so I’m paused until I figure that one out.
But in the mean time, I wanted to share this great resource with anyone looking to make this year their best year ever!
http://www.success.com/bestyearever/ – he has the book / workbook that I’ve talked about here, the electronic version is only $39 at the moment. He also offers a monthly magazine and other books that I’ve not looked at yet. http://www.thecompoundeffect.com/resources.php - Great stuff! (notice these are NOT affiliate links – I genuinely like this stuff and just wanted to pass it on!)
To your success!
–Sue
About Sue Bell
Sue Bell is the CEO of Theme Zoom LLC, co-inventor and mastermind behind Theme Zoom's 'Krakken' Online Marketing Tool and Domain Web Studio. Her experience with web design and expertise with systems design facilitated the creation of a tool that makes the life of an online marketer easier by automating both the difficult and mundane aspects of Market Research, Keyword Research, Website Site Structural Design, Implementation and Ranking.
