What do you WANT?

Living your entire life always doing what you SHOULD can give you a safe predictable life that leaves you completely disappointed in the end because you never answered the honest and simple question of “What do I WANT?”- Jon Bohm

What do YOU want?

I mean really what do you want, not what you SHOULD want, but what do you really WANT?

Sometimes those things are the same. I should go to work today and I WANT to go to work today. Great! That is an important distinction. When you live your life the way you should instead of the way you want your heart, emotions, desires, and mind are sitting on the sideline as you live your dutiful existence moving through the motions without passion.

What are you doing in your life that you SHOULD be doing?

What are you NOT doing that you SHOULD be doing?

I should go to church. I did go to church because I SHOULD.

I should go home and hang with my family. I did go home and hang with the family because I SHOULD.

I should make that sales call. I made the call because I SHOULD.

I SHOULD take my spouse out. ETC. ETC.

What is it that you do without emotional passion and desire because you SHOULD?

Now, don’t take me wrong I’m not saying we all need to ignore whatever we SHOULD be doing. Instead of ignoring, we have to make the mental and attitudinal shift to quit saying I SHOULD and change it to I WANT to do this.

Most of the time it’s as simple as catching your self in the middle of a SHOULD and simply replacing the word SHOULD with WANT. It’s time to get YOUR passions and emotions off the bench and into the game of life.

The bottom line is you have an incredible life to live. Start living it because you WANT to and stop living it because you SHOULD. It’s time for YOU to get emotional involved in YOUR life. If you need help making the switch, please contact me anytime!

May we hit the ground living the life we WANT to live today!

Enjoy Life!

Jon Bohm

Money, Money, Money

“Money Defined: An article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except Heaven, and as a universal provider for everything except happiness. Money is a wonderful servant and a terrible master.”- Anonymous, published in the Wall Street Journal

What is your definition of Money?

It's been said that if money doesn't buy happiness for you, then you simply don't know where to shop.

What about you? Do you know the power of money? Does your money work for you? Does your money serve you? Or... do you serve your money?

Every entrepreneur, investor, or professional has to answer this question with careful certainty. Money can't be ignored it has to mean something to you.

The bottom line is you are using your money or your money is using you.

Are you using your money:

• As a score card?
• As a tool to living your best life?
• As a tool to help others?
• As a tool to make more and buy time?
• As a tool to making our world a better place?

Or is your money making a "tool" out of you:

• As a slave to the "grind" so you always make more of IT at any expense?
• As a tool to the system of working in the "rat race?"
• As a slave to the never ending search for security at the expense of opportunity?
• As a slave to the never ending search for self worth in things and stuff?

Obviously the list goes on. Test yourself; does your money buy you more time? a better quality of life for you and those around you? does your money make a positive impact on your community or the world? bring you personal satisfaction? a better life?

If you can't honestly say yes to at least 4 of those, it might be a good time to check who is serving who?

Money can be an incredible passport to anywhere and just about anything, and one of the most powerful tools to making a positive impact on people and our planet.

Or...

money can be a powerful force that keeps you a slave to the intangible quest for happiness. Constantly slaving to the idea that if you can just get more you will find happiness and satisfaction. Of course, the big secret is that happiness is found deep within yourself, never in a certain amount of money or anything else. The choice is yours. And you don't have to be rich to make that choice, often people in debt have a harder time viewing money as a tool than the affluent, but it's still your choice.

No matter how much we have it can always be used by us or it can use us. Choose wisely and with certainty.

May we all make more money and use it as a tool to make the greatest positive impact we can on us, our friends, and the world.

Find happiness in you first. Then see money for what it really is, a big tool.

Enjoy life!

Jon Bohm

Emotion is the Difference

"Success is not driven by knowledge or skill, but by the emotional desire to achieve. We do not run on fuel from our head but rather fuel from our heart." - Jon Bohm

Have you ever wondered what separates the world's greatest performers from the rest?

What is the defining thing that makes someone successful? We have the tendency to answer that question in terms of skills, or knowledge, or luck, or circumstances. But, I have found it is not any of those things, those things play a role of course in the big picture, but none of those things are the defining difference.

Many studies have shown that the world's top performers usually had a sibling or several siblings that were more talented, had more knowledge, more skill, and better circumstances than they did and yet they are not the one's that became the best. Actually, you could probably think of several people you know yourself who were given opportunity, money, the education, and had the talent to do amazing things and yet have found themselves in and out of re-hab or living in the land of mediocrity somewhere.

Often, it's those who came from difficult circumstances and past hard knocks, lower skills, and less knowledge that find a way to the be the best. You can probably think of a few people you know in your industry. In case you need help thinking of some examples; Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, George Eastman, and the list goes on.

And of course, there are many world class performers that have come from very privileged backgrounds as well. But, thats my point. Their background, circumstances, skills, and knowledge is not the difference. It is the emotional drive above all else that makes the difference- every time.

Think about your life, ever tried to accomplish something that never happened, but would have changed your life had you been successful? A choice? An opportunity?

What stopped you from success? Make a list.

I'm guessing your list is full of circumstances, missing knowledge, lack of technology, lack of money, lack of time, lack of some kind of resource. Although those may be legitimate missing resources it is not why you didn't get it done. You didn't get it done because at the deepest level, you didn't want it badly enough.

You didn't have the emotional drive to get it done. That drive, that passion and emotion at the deepest level is what will get it done. You will find a way, you will be convincing enough, you will take the time, spend the money, learn the knowledge, and hone the skill.

Am I right? If you wanted it bad enough would you have done it? Be honest.

Yes, you would've. You might not know how, but you would have figured it out.

So, enough about your past let's look to the future. What do you want? What do you want to go, see, do, or become?

How bad do you want it? You better find some emotion if you want to be world class. At the end of the day it's emotion that drives you from the land of mediocrity.

Enjoy life today!

Jon Bohm

The Most Powerful things in Life are SIMPLE BUT NOT EASY

"Everyone needs someone to help them take action on the simple things in life, because simple is not EASY."- Jon Bohm

In high school I wore a baseball cap that had the name brand "SIMPLE" on the front. SIMPLE is a great clothing and shoe manufacturer. I had a boss that would always make fun of me for wearing that hat. His jokes always themed around the idea that to be simple is to be slow... and basically a moron.

As you can imagine, I'm over it now- ok I still have a little resentment :). As a matter of fact, I couldn't disagree with that assumption (that "simple" means you can't even tie your own shoes) more! The mark of a brilliant person is to be able to take complicated ideas and make them simple enough to be useful and practical.

The greatest things in life are simple:

• Love
• Friendship
• Compassion
• Making Money
• Saving Money
• Starting a new healthy habit in the New Year
• Quitting an old unhealthy habit
• Staying active
• Eating Healthy
• Improving your quality of life
• Raising truly great kids
• Developing greatness in others
• Making the world, or at least your world, a better place

Maybe, as you were reading that list you started to disagree with me? What do you think? Simple? Is it simple to love your spouse? Is it simple to raise great kids? Is it simple to make money? To eat healthy, make the world a better place....etc?

Of course. It is SIMPLE. However, it is NOT EASY. Somewhere a long the line I believe just about everything in our culture has confused simple with easy.

For example, if you want to stop smoking it's not complicated. All you have to do is not put another cigarette in your mouth, don't light it, and don't puff on it. This is not rocket science. If you want to eat healthy all you have to do is put healthy food into your mouth, chew, and swallow. Again not rocket science. But NOT easy either.

So, let me ask you. If you could change anything in your life and improve on some things, what would you change?

Take a moment....ok got it?

Now, let's be real honest, is it a simple change?

I would be willing to bet all 3 of those things could realistically change in the next 12 months. Could they? If so, than why haven't you changed them already? What is getting in your way? What simple thing has become complicated or difficult and why?

Let me ask another question? Are you becoming more and more, everyday, the person YOU WANT to be in the future? Are you pulling your future into your present? If you are stuck in a rut, or if you know what simple things you need to change, than change them and don't make it complicated. Or, reach out for help. I help people every single day accomplish SIMPLE but not EASY things that they never thought were possible!

If you need help, reach out.... to family, to friends, to a professional like myself, or all the above and get your life moving. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy, and it doesn't give you an excuse to just keep saying that "someday" I will be different and quit smoking, start a business, love my spouse better, make more money, etc."

Enjoy your life and make changes NOW, because "Someday" never comes without changing things NOW.

Jon Bohm

Key Questions when Hiring a Coach

"If you would attain what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you were pleased with yourself there you have remained. But once you have said, “It is enough,” you are lost. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing; do not stop, do not turn back, do not turn from the straight road." — St. Augustine

It's about time I gave some advice on what to look for when hiring someone to help you move your life and business forward. Some great questions:

• Are they a good fit for you? Do you like them and trust them?
• Are they results focused? A lot of people will charge you good money to listen to you. But, will they help you actually achieve the results you need in your life and business? Knowledge is NOT power- APPLIED Knowledge is power.
• Do they have legitimate names and numbers of people you could call to see if they are truly good at what they do?
• Are they focused on long termdevelopment of you and your life, or is it short-term training that you will have to try and remember?
• Do they help you get past the obstacles in your life and business or are they just focused on your goals?
• Do they help you in life and business? Or do they just focus on one or the other?

A couple pitfalls that are easy to fall into are:

Often people want to make sure the coach they are looking
at has extensive knowledge in their industry, but a good coach
can help you develop your skills and attitude in a field they
may not even know much about. If you need training look for
a good consultant or mentor. Although, some coaches do very
well in both roles.

Often people will look for a coach with the most degrees.
But, degrees do little in determining whether someone is
good atmotivating, inspiring, developing, and applying the attitudes
and action of others.

Sometimes people think they have it all figured out and
don't need help. We all need help, every good coach will hire
coaches themselves and they are always focused on life long
learning.

TigerWoods has three coaches and he is the best in
the world. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you have arrived.

Cheers to always moving forward with some collaborative help!

-Jon Bohm

Lighting the Fire of Success

You get the best results from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within." - Bob Nelson

I want to ask you a simple question today. What drives you?

What really gets you going? What makes you so excited you can't sleep? What makes you so angry you would run through walls to stop it? What do you care enough about that you would sacrifice for it? Where is your fire?

Don't say money. Money can be a score card. Money can be tool to be used to stoke your fire. Money can be something that opens opportunities, provides influence, or invests in a cause you care deeply about. But, what is that "cause?"

What is your "Cause?" What is your "purpose?" Everyone has a purpose just like everyone has a heart. What's yours?

This may surprise you, but I hire a personal coach every year to help me grow personally and professionally just like all my clients hire me, and my coach turned me on to a powerful story of a man named Ralph Metcalf (above on Right). Read about him on Wikipedia or in the history books, but something you won't read is that Ralph Metcalf had a stated purpose statement for his life. For Ralph it was "to honor and serve his country." That is why he ran in the 1936 Olympics against Hitler's German squad, this is why he volunteered to fight in World War 2, and this is why he ran for congress at a time in our country when it was obviously difficult for a black man to gain a seat in politics. Bottom line... his purpose statement was his "Fire within."

What's yours? Find it. Breathe it. Live it. Or, call someone who will help you dig it up and get to really living on "purpose." After all, if you want a fire you have to fuel it and you have to light it, before you ever feel the heat.

Make the next stage of your life a magnificent obsession, rather than a meaningless odyssey.

Enjoy Life and LIVE today!

Jon Bohm

Is it the Wise thing to do?

"Everyone can learn from one of 2 teachers, you can learn from either wisdom or consequences." -Adapted from Wayne Cordiero's book Divine Mentor

When it comes to ethics how do you determine how far is too far? How close is too close? When have I crossed the line?

We have to answer this question thousands of times everyday, don't we?

When I have a conversation and they ask about someone else's "business."

When my wife asks me if these jeans make her butt look fat.

When I have a chance at my second helping of desert.

When I have the opportunity to own a mistake that wasn't mine, or rat out a fellow employee.

When I count my strokes on the golf course...after all I had to move it there was a stick in the way.

Or...

A little white lie on my taxes.

A little "innocent" flirting with someone else's spouse.

A little extra bragging or "padding" the old resume.

Whatever it is, we have that choice to make everyday and often we make our decision by asking ourselves this question; "How far can I go?" That's a fair question isn't it? After all we can only go so far. But, I think this question, more often then not, leads us to learn from the great teacher "Consequences." "Consequences" is an excellent teacher, but it has a mean after taste and takes a lot longer to learn from than wisdom.

To avoid learning from consequences and learn from "Wisdom," on the front end don't ask; "How far can I go?" Instead ask "Is this the wise thing to do?"

In changing the question you ask yourself you will pull yourself back from the dangerous edge of consequences and find yourself operating and learning from wisdom in every ethical situation I can think of.

May we all learn from the great Teacher "Wisdom" and avoid the pain and hurt that always comes with consequences.

Enjoy Life ...live Wisely!

Jon Bohm