by admin | Oct 7, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Accountability Challenge Week 40: Performance Groups
This week I wanted to share with you the real power of accountability and support when used effectively. I call this the Power of the Performance Group.
If you’ve stayed connected to us for the last 40 weeks, then you know how important the power of personal accountability is in achieving your goals and dreams.
However, there is a real danger of playing it safe and remaining a spectator instead of committing “full on” and getting into the game.
Ask yourself this important question: Have I been following through on the Accountability challenges or merely “thinking about them?”
If you are honest, and you are human, then the probability is that you’ve done a bit of both, but not as much of the former as you would like.
I know because I put myself in the “thinking about it” camp much more often than I would have liked.
When I look at some of my “big, hairy, audacious goals” –particularly in my business-I have fallen short. Why is that?
When I looked in the mirror, I realized that I was really only playing lip service to my own personal accountability to “do the work” that my business goals were asking me to do.
Several weeks ago, I realized that if I was serious about making progress towards “these” goals (which I was!) something had to change-I had to change. I also recognized that I needed “help” to change.
It was at this point that I made the decision to follow through on organizing my own Performance Group of like-minded individuals within the financial advice profession.This group would meet on a weekly basis, and we would commit in writing in the form of a weekly Performance Contract to commit completing a specific number of performance activities. These activities would move us toward our personal income/business related goals.
It is important to emphasis that my commitment was to a specific targeted activity not a result. For example I committed to making 10 “prospecting” telephone calls four days during the business week. I had no control over the outcome of each call, but I could control whether or not I made the effort to pick up the telephone.
We have now completed our second week as a Performance Group, and though it may be too early to judge the long term results, I can tell you with certainty that this has been by far the most effective performance enhancing tool that I have ever used.
Let me repeat that, creating a Performance Group (there are currently three of us in the group)has been by far the most effective performance enhancing tool I have ever used!
The power of making a personal written commitment to another person, or group of people is simply a life changing experience. I can virtually guarantee that either of two outcomes will come as a result of your own participation in a Performance Group:
If you follow through in your commitment, and your weekly contracts, over a specified period of time, generally 8 -12 weeks, you will experience a Quantum Leap toward the achievement of your goals. .
- If you will quit the program at some point before completion, you will go back to square one.
I admit that there was a tremendous amount of personal Resistance (otherwise known as the enemy within) on my part in organizing this performance group. After all, I had known about this concept (in theory) for ten years. My internal demons were doing their best to convince me otherwise: “you will never find a group of people who will commit to this type of thing”. “ It’s too much work”, “but what will “they” think-“it won’t work” etc., etc. etc.
Fortunately my own Powers of Persistence have grown strong enough over the past 51 weeks, for me to finally check my self-doubts and self-defeating behaviours at the door.
I sincerely encourage you to do the same.
All you need is two or three people who have goals that are similar to your own and who are open minded, and likeminded enough to recognized that it is ok to ask for help. It is in fact strength rather than a weakness.
If you are serious about achieving the goals that are important to you, and to live the life of your dreams, you simply must take action on this concept.
My challenge to you is to go out and create your own performance group.
I’m here to help if you need it
Expect Success,
Coach Mark,
Thought for the week : ‘In Union there is Success” Aesop
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
by admin | Sep 29, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Accountability Challenge Week 39: “Three Flaws in Goal Setting”.
I have mentioned in the past that one of my favourite books on personal development as it relates to achieving our personal and professional goals is Pyscho Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. This book was written back in 1960. It went on to become one of the most influential books of all time in its field.
Dr. Maltz has long since passed away, however his work has continued to endure. An updated version of the book was co-authored by marketing guru Dan Kennedy, called The New Pyscho Cybernetics. He also created a terrific audio program that I highly recommend.
In the audio program. Kennedy outlines Dr. Maltz’s discovery of why most people are unsuccessful in achieving their goals. He cites 3 major flaws in the typical goal setting process:
Three Flaws in Goal Setting are:
Insincerity refers to when we set goals that really aren’t our own; typically these are goals that other people set for us, or feel we should achieve. We must be sincerely interested in the goals we set for ourselves. Take a look at your own goals and ask yourself whether these are goals that you truly desire for yourself, or are they goals that other have set for you.
Incongruence means that we although we may consciously desire to achieve a certain goal (Earn $100,000 of income, or lose 30 pounds) however subconsciously our self-image has been programmed to believe that we cannot achieve it. In other words our desire and our belief are not congruent.
Imprecision means that we have not clearly defined exactly what our goal looks like or what the steps are to achieve it. Until we have a crystal clear vision of our goals, we will not be successful in achieving them.
Now that we know the three flaws to goal setting let’s quickly look at the…
3 antidotes to goal getting:
Sincerity: Develop and commit to goals that you sincerely and earnestly desire.
Congruence: Present goals to your self-image with clarity in vivid detail.
Precision: Trying to implant a goal that is incongruent with the self-image is like dropping seeds on rock hard, bone dry ground.
Expect Success,
Mark,
Thought for the week: “It’s time to go from goal setting to goal getting”.
Mark,
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:
https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/
http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/
http://cashflow-specialist.com/
by admin | Sep 21, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Accountability Challenge Week 38: Finding Your Happy Place.
Last week I was in the gym and had just finished up a swim workout when I bumped into my good friend Anthony. Even though he didn’t particularly feel like it, Anthony had gotten himself to follow through on completing his workout. He shared with me how he had had an internal battle with his own Power of Resistance-telling him that he didn’t need to do his workout today-how he was tired and how it was ok, to just skip the exercise he had planned.
Fortunately in the other corner-his Power of Persistence also showed up. Anthony described how he tapped into his own storehouse of positive artillery to overcome and defeat his Resistance-much of which he credited to the materials we have been sharing in this Power of Persistence program.
We joked about how he had drawn strength from pulling up powerful, positive memories of personal successes from the past to find what actor and comedian Adam Sandler in the move Happy Gilmour referred to as his own “Happy Place”.
For Anthony that meant picturing in his mind and connecting emotionally the successful completion of the extremely arduous, and demanding physical fitness regimens that he completed when he was in the military two decades earlier.
If he could successfully complete the physically and mentally exhausting marches and manoevres carrying 75-100 lbs of equipment, then he could surely complete his daily workout.
Whether it is a commitment to complete your workout for the day or to choose to make healthy eating choices, or to make your daily sales calls, the reality is we are going to feel Resistance. Each day we wage a silent battle between our Resistance to avoid doing what we know we must do to achieve our goals, and the Persistence, or positive powers of our dreams, and desires that move us another step closer to our goals.
One of the best ways to win this battle as illustrated with my meeting with Anthony is to go find your own personal Happy Place.
Where can you find your Happy Place?
List out as many Victories & areas for which you are Grateful from your present or past that you can. Go back as far as you like. Here are some possible examples:
* Completing your first speech in Toastmasters.
* Completing your first speech in grade school.
* Completing your first 5k, 10k, ½ marathon or marathon.
* Your first real job.
* Your first promotion.
* Your first sale.
* The birth of your children.
* The day you got married.
* The day you fell in love.
* The day you completed your workout instead of sitting on the couch.
* The time you went that extra mile in your job, at school, or at home.
* The day you choose to go goals and leave your comfort zone behind.
Go ahead and do the exercise. This will help to give you access to the powerful positive forces of Persistence that each one of us has within us.
The next time that Resistance comes to call to do what it does best-which is to stop us from doing the work that we know we must do to live the life that we were meant to live-you’ll be ready.
Go now and find your own Happy Place!
Expect Success,
Mark,
Thought for the week: “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” Benjamin Disraeli
Mark,
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:
https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/
http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/
http://cashflow-specialist.com/
by admin | Sep 15, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Accountability Challenge Week 37: Fear vs. Faith.
“The underlying cause of all trouble is fear” Emmet Fox.
Take a moment to digest these words. To me they pretty much sum up everything that ails society as a whole, but also everything that stands in the way of you and me achieving the goals and dreams that are most important to us. Fear in its many forms and incantations prevent us from living the life that we were meant to live.
Those are some pretty powerful words.
Let’s take a look at what’s dominating the business headlines around the Globe right now that are impacting us on a collective level.
Fear of recession in the US and in the global markets.
- Fear of the high debt levels in Europe
- Fear that the US will not be effective manage and control its huge government deficit.
- Fear of unemployment
- Fear of Inflation.
- Fear of losing money in the stock market
- Fear, fear, and more fear
These are all serious and important issues that need to be dealt with in a responsible, competent and expedient manner.
Are these fears new by any means? Certainly not-each of these fears has been around for decades if not centuries, and tend to rear their heads on an alternating but consistent basis.
Despite all of these long standing fears, if we are to take look through the lens of historical perspective we see that the financial and economic conditions of the countries and the inhabitants of our planet have been steadily improving. Life expectancies today are light years ahead of where they were a scant 100 years ago. Living standards are continually improving around the Globe. Information and medical technology is also improving at aphenomenal rate.
Allow me to share with you a practical example and a great story to illustrate my point. Go out and buy the DVD, (or better yet, watch it in on Netflix if it is available) for the Movie Apollo 13. Watch the part where they are trying to figure out how to safely return to earth the three Astronauts played by Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and the guy from Twister, You’ll notice that all of the highly intelligent NASA space staff, which includes the smartest scientists and engineers down on planet earth, were relegated to using slide rules to solve the problem.
Why you ask were they using slide rules? They were using them because the mainframe computer at NASA had literally crashed. They had overloaded the computer with so much information and so many calculations that it would no longer function.
Now, go and take a moment and look at your blackberry, your iPhone or smart phone of choice. Do you realize that what you are holding in your hand has a computer in it that is a million times smaller, a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful than all of the computing power that was at the disposal of NASA back in 1970.
How is it again that despite all of advances that we have made, we are still living in a world dominated by fear?
It’s because fear is imbedded in our DNA. As Emmet Fox so profoundly stated, “Fear is the underlying cause of all trouble”.
The bad news is that fear is here to stay. It will never go away.
The good news is that each of us has a weapon at our disposal to fight and defeat this fear, regardless of what seems to be going on in the world around us, or more appropriately in the world “within us”.
The greatest weapon that we have is FAITH.
Yes, this can mean our spiritual faith, and I encourage you to deeply explore and tap into your own particular branch of spiritual based faith.
From a practical, non secular point of view it also means faith in ourselves and faith in the future. Faith that life in general is getting better, and that as long as we tap into our faith through positive thought and action to overcome our own individual fears our lives are also certain to improve.
I believe that failure in business or life can only come from a loss of faith. We fail when we give in to our fears either on a conscious level or more insidiously, on a subconscious level.
Yes, it does take courage to face your fears head on, but the rewards are worth the risk
Fear by definition comes from a perception of imminent danger or risk – whether or not the risk or danger is real.
Bertrand Russell another great author and highly influential “new thinker” from the last century wrote these powerful words that I encourage you to dwell or meditate upon.
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Finally, the next time that fear takes a hold and tries to take you off course remember…each of us has a choice-we can choose to fall victim to our fear, or we can choose to move forward with faith.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to choose faith!
Expect Success,
Mark,
Thought for the week:
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. Henry Ford Expect Success,
Mark,
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
by admin | Sep 9, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Accountability Challenge Week 36: “Choose Love Not Discipline”.
I was reading a Globe and Mail newspaper and came across an article on former NHL hockey player, Gary Roberts that intrigued me greatly. Mr. Roberts, who hails from the Toronto area, played 21 years in the NHL, including several with the home town Toronto Maple Leafs. If you follow hockey at all, then you may be aware that Roberts has become known as the health and fitness guru among his fellow professional athletes.
After a serious neck injury Roberts was forced to retire before he was thirty years old. At this time he made a commitment to return to hockey, but to do so he realized that he needed to make a dramatic change in his personal health & fitness routines. One of the people that he turned to for advice was renowned strength & fitness specialist Charles Poliquin.
Upon implementation of the advice he received from Charles Poliquin and other trusted advisors as well as his own arduous study Roberts went on to play professional hockey at an extremely high and “super fit” level until he was 43 years old.
My own curiosity in this ultra-important area of our lives, led me to find out a little bit more about Gary’s mentor, and my search led me to his highly informative and content rich website www.charlespoliquin.com.
I realize you may not be a professional athlete, (I sometimes still dream of being one ☺) however if you are serious about taking your health and fitness to a higher level, then you will be well served by much of the information and articles on his website.
We have heard all through our lives that if we want to be successful then we must have lots of DISCIPLINE… And it’s true to be successful we must be properly disciplined in our thoughts and actions. However, for many people the word discipline also carries with it a negative connotation. Thoughts of punishment, pain, sacrifice, and self-denial spring to mind to name a few.
It’s no wonder so many people have trouble achieving lasting success in their lives. It takes just too darn much disciple, or does it?
I found the following article on the fore-mentioned website of Mr.Poliquin and found his perspective to be quite refreshing and also transformative. Remember, he is strength and conditioning expert, so some of the terminology may not apply to your specific health and fitness goals, but the general concept and message still holds true.
Enjoy,
Coach Mark
The Myth of Discipline by Charles Poliquin
There is no such thing as discipline. There is only love. Love is the most powerful creative force in the universe. You are the result of what you love most. You either love finely etched muscular abs more than donuts or you love donuts more than wash board abs you could do your laundry on. It is as simple as that. Don’t beat yourself up that you have no discipline or further drown yourself in a sea of refined carbs. Admit that you like crappy food more than you love strength. Or ask yourself this, what do you really love? Self-esteem is the reflection of self-judgment. One of the best ways to raise self-esteem is to make truly loving choices that lead to increased strength of body and mind. For example, if you truly love yourself in the gym, you choose the full squat with chains over the leg extension machine. At the restaurant, if you truly love yourself, you pass on the heavenly smelling basket of bread and creamy butter, and ask for some more limes for the water. Limes alkalize your body which in turn helps your bones, muscles and your ability to deal with stress. When you are faced with difficult choices, ask yourself, in context of course, what would a loving expert recommend? For example, when working chest, would a loving strength coach recommend the pec deck, or full range dumbbell presses. When choosing desserts, would the loving nutritionist recommend a bowl of berries or the triple decker brownie submerged under melting vanilla ice cream? How to free yourself from the outdated concept of discipline:
- Accept that all your choices are reflections of what you truly love.
- Love is the greatest creative force of the Universe. Use it wisely.
- Choose to love yourself more than external things.
- Treating yourself well accelerates the growth of your self-esteem.
- When people comment on your results and say things like “Wow you have a lot disciple” answer “No, I just make loving choices for myself”. Reinforcing your own positive behavior will help you grow in strength.
- What you appreciate appreciates. Whenever you make a truly loving choice, say to yourself ‘Thank you for taking care of me in a loving way”. The more you talk to yourself like a loving parent, the faster you will grow. Let’s say, for example, you just did a single on the squat with a load you didn’t feel like doing. Say: “Wow! I am impressed with your strength of mind, that’s why you are a champion”. By documenting and rewarding your successes, they will grow in magnitude and frequency. Whenever I meet a goal, I reward myself with positive things like a vacation or a new piece of equipment. When I get something better, I make the choice of giving away the old piece to someone who will appreciate it. Living a clutter free life allows for more growth.
- The more you believe in yourself, the more objectively you will be able to take the advice of authority figures.
- “Use your faults” was French singer Edith Piaf’s motto. I don’t like to stretch athletes. It is too time consuming and requires too much energy. Using that fault, I developed the Poliquin Instant Muscle Strengthening Technique (P.I.M.S.T.), which is a system that uses a myriad of body work techniques such as acupressure points that instantly give increases in flexibility. No wonder it’s always the fastest selling course we offer in the PICP!
There is an old Hindu saying: “The World is as we are”. Are you tired of seeing the condition of the world around you? Start by changing yourself- be the change you want to see in the world.
Expect Success,
Mark,
Thought for the week:
“Choose love, not discipline”
Expect Success,
Mark,
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:
https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/
http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/
http://cashflow-specialist.com/
by admin | Sep 2, 2015 | 52 Week Accountability Challenge
Power of Persistence Week 35: “You’re stronger than you think”.
I came across a story recently about Canadian long distance swimming legend Vicki Keith that I felt had an extremely important lesson for each of us.
If you think an Ironman triathlon (swim 3.86 km, bike 180 km, and run 42.2 km) is a big deal, wait till you read about Vicki Keith’s Tri Till You Cry Marathon Triathlon challenge.
The event took place in Kingston, Ontario on June 24th and was created to help raise awareness and funds for three organizations that support children.
Each charity was represented by two participants, so there were 6 participants in total.
Each person undertook the challenge of completing 2 hours of swimming, followed by 2 hours of indoor biking, followed by two hours of running on a treadmill. The event was repeated non-stop—meaning it would continue until the competitors said ‘Uncle”, and there was only one person standing.
It is also important to note that this was not a relay format. You were on you own for 24/7.
Not surprisingly after 48 hours, Vicki Keith was the last person in the competition. Unbelievably, she continued alone until she had met her own personal goal of 72 hours nonstop.
When asked about this feat of phenomenal endurance afterword, Vicki provides the following comments that her accomplishment:
“If there was one thing I wish I could do, is to teach each young person this lesson. “Push harder, deep deeper, accept discomfort and frustration. Fight beyond what you believe possible, because on the other side of that line is a wonderful world of possibilities. This is why I continued on.”
As a note of interest, Vicki attributed part of her success at this event to being able to sleep while riding the stationary bike.
Thought for the week:
“You are stronger than you think you are”
Expect Success,
Mark,
Mark Hudon, CFP™, CCS™
Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™
Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™
Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:
https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/
http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/
http://cashflow-specialist.com/
