Friday, January 15, 2010

Reflect back and plan forward....

2 weeks into the New Year, are you rolling? Are you on your way to making 2010 truly better than '09?

The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect back and plan forward. Here are some great questions to springboard that thinking. (Remember; you're more likely to achieve something if you plan for it and write it down, so ... get your pens ready! Here goes:

As you reflect on this past year, what were your two or three most significant accomplishments, breakthroughs, and/or achievements?

1.
2.
3.

Looking back over the year, what (if anything) blocked or held you back as you moved toward your goals/objectives?

Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently? (While we can't change what was, we can use this input/learning as we move forward.)

As you look forward to next year, what are your three most significant goals that you wish to accomplish within the year? What will be different? How will YOU be different?
1.
2.
3.

What are the top two or three things about your business that you most want to be different next year?

1.
2.
3.

What two or three changes do you most want to see in your personal life?
1.
2.
3.

What do you want your practice/business to look like one year from now?

What actions are you prepared to take to reach your goals and objectives next year?

Having gotten clear on what you want to achieve next year, the next step is to develop the strategies and actions that will move you to reaching your desired outcomes. And if you don't yet have a coach or an accountability partner to keep you on track ... GET ONE! (... we happen to know a few good coaches!)

Let's prepare to make 2010 our most exciting, rewarding, and personally fulfilling year!

Enjoy Life!

Jon Bohm
(Adapted from my friends at Resource Associates Corporation)

Monday, January 11, 2010

Networking 101- Add Value!!!!


Every group contains 2 types of people, "givers" and "takers."

Givers are always focused on what they can give to help others, to make the world a better place, to grow their business, to have bigger impact, and to add value.


Takers are always focused on what they can take to help themselves, to make their little (I emphasize little) world a better place, to grow their business, and add value to themselves. The irony is that by doing so, they lose value, shrink their business, and lose influence in the world.


Networking can be hell or it can be heaven. It just depends on who you are networking with... "givers" or "takers."


Take this little allegory as an example:


A man spoke with the Lord

about heaven and hell.


The Lord said to the man,

"Come, I will show you hell."


They entered a room where a group of

people sat around a huge pot of stew.

Everyone was famished,

desperate and starving.


Each held a spoon that reached the pot,

but each spoon had a handle so much

longer than their own arm that it could not

be used to get the stew into their own mouths.

The suffering was terrible.

"Come, now I will show you heaven,"
the Lord said after a while.

They entered another room, identical to the first -
the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons.
But there everyone was happy and well-nourished.

"I don't understand," said the man.
"Why are they happy here when they were miserable
in the other room and everything was the same?"

The Lord smiled.
"Ah, it is simple," he said. "Here they have learned to feed each other."- Heaven and Hell, The Real Difference by Ann Landers

If you want to be a great networker, grow your business or life, make more money, reach your dreams, and have a bigger impact than you have to learn to be a giver and network with other givers. Which one are you?

An honest test: 1. Make a list of everything someone or something has done for you. 2. Now, make a list of what you have done for others.

How can you add more value to the world and your clients? Answer that everyday and watch your success explode.

Be a giver!

Jon Bohm


Sunday, January 3, 2010

New Year + Focus = New YOU!

"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they do their lives. Perhaps that's because escape is easier than change."
- Jim Rohn

2010 is here! I hope you are as excited as I am!
I don't mean to be over excited, but as a cancer survivor, I take every milestone as a chance to celebrate life. What it means to be here for 2010 is more than words can ever describe. So congratulations...YOU are here for 2010 as well!

If you are anything like me, you are expecting 2010 to be your best year yet. Not just because 2009 seemed to have so many challenges for so many people, but because you are continually BECOMING a better person-who brings more value and good to those around you-every year. That is exciting!

I have a few things planned for this year. I have a new plan to be a better coach, father, and husband. I have Financial, Family, Friends, Fitness, and Fun goals that I will be working toward. All of them require resources and mental shifts from where I am now to where I will be by the year end. What about for you? What do you have planned for 2010?

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's a laundry list to some degree--similar to mine. Do you know the best way to insure hardly any of it happens? I do...DON'T focus on any ONE thing.

I have recently taken up bird hunting which is great fun and great food :) (Sorry bird lovers.) When I walk within 10 feet of the right bush I can see 20 doves come out and fly all over the place. I have about 2 seconds to take a shot. What I have found is that if 20 fly out, I hardly ever walk away with even ONE!!! I see them, I hear them, I get crazy excited and I don't seem to have enough time to pick ONE out of the crowd. So, I take a random shot and nothing happens. BUT...if I walk near a different bush and only ONE flies out...then I'm having dove for breakfast!!

The New Year will be the same for me, and I bet for you, if you have 20 goals all flying out of YOU at the same time. You will be lucky to walk away from 2010 with even one goal completed and in the bag.

We have to FOCUS, focus, and (I will say it again) focus. We will have to pick ONE goal out of the crowd and take a shot, before we ever move on. So, here is a practical and easy guide I recommend for making 2010 be productive and successful in BECOMING a better YOU:
  1. Make a list of the top 5 things you would like to change about you, or your circumstances. (For me, I'm starting with getting back in shape)
  2. Answer this question; "If you could change one thing in your life that would have the greatest positive impact on your life in 2010, what would it be?" Do not move to step 3 until you have a confident answer for number 2. Many of my clients say something with the five "F's" (Financial, Family, Friends, Fitness or Fun) for number 2 in some way. What is yours? Got it?
  3. Ok, now number 3 is to separate that goal from the crowd, and make it specific and put a time frame on it. What will you do and when will you do it?
  4. Now, put everything else on the shelf, and set your sights on only that one change.
  5. Ask yourself; What do I have to know? What do I have to do? Who do I have to become? for that goal to be in the bag by the date I set?
  6. Go get it! Protect it, focus on it, resource it. Do not rest or look at another goal until you achieve it.
Although for me, goal achievement is an art that requires skill, time, commitment and usually some professional help, the take away that I want you to get (which is 90% of the process) is to FOCUS on that one thing.

I am convinced that one of the biggest reasons that so many people live in mediocrity with so much available in our world, is because so much is AVAILABLE that we lose focus.

A new year is here. The pages are blank for 2010. It is time to write the first page. Pick one thing--only one thing--and FOCUS on it until completion. Then move onto the next thing until completion, and so on. Write the greatest story of your life...ONE page at a time...in 2010.

Live a great story!

Jon Bohm
YOUR personal, business, and strategy coach