“Bring the past only if you are going to build from it.”  ~Doménico Cieri Estrada 

When I first started giving this seminar that I call “The Annual Goal Setting Process”, I did not include any material on changing or using our pasts.  This is partially a bias of mine – I personally love to spend time in my present and I love to spend time planning and creating my ideal future.  Also, goals and goal achievement tend to be naturally forward looking.

And the seminar was just fine without talking much about the past.  People enjoyed it, they learned from it, they told me how much attending had changed their lives. So why are we going to talk about the past today?  Because of my feedback sheet.

I give each of my seminar attendees a form that I encourage, plead and beg really, for them to fill out after the seminar is completed.  They can fill it out right away or mail it or fill it out and email it – as long as they get it back to me!  I ask for positive feedback and I ask for negative feedback – this is the hardest to get and by far the most valuable.  In fact, right now, as you are listening and watching me, I am intending that you are seeing yourself filling out this form when our time is over today! 

To be continued…

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

This is day thirty of my juice fast – although it is now a modified fast for a few more days.  I injured my back working out earlier this week and I was not recovering.  I guessed that I did not have enough protein intake to recover in any reasonable time while juice fasting and so three days ago I added some whey protein to my diet – about ninety grams of quality protein daily.  This has completely stopped my weight loss, but my back is healing very nicely.  I think I can go back to my “pure” juice fast in just a few more days.  I also think that I am adding back muscle mass that I had been slowly losing, certainly I feel much more solid, and I have not added back any weight.  I am hoping that this little break will actually restart me on another cycle of quick weight loss and should also reduce some of the weight spring-back potential that I have been worried about happening when I finally end this juice fasting adventure. 

“Excessive time and attention put into your past is energy you are stealing from your future.” ~Jack Bergstrom

“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.  You may have to work for it however” ~Richard Bach

 Today is a further continuation of my virtual seminar that I am creating for us both.  Be sure to read the last few posts as well as this one to get up to date – it will be worth your time.

“Here is our agenda for today:

1) We are going to start with an exercise called “Putting the Past Behind Us”.

2) Then, a brief and powerful Networking Training session.  Unless your goals are very small, you will never accomplish them by yourself.

3) Next, we’ll continue our goal setting session by creating an inventory of your dreams.

4) Then, I’m going to ask you a stimulating and unusual series of questions designed to further define and refine your goals.

5) Next, we will do an exercise called “Creating Your Compelling Future” – making your future so bright and exciting that you can’t wait to do whatever you need to do to make it happen!

6) Then, another Networking Training session.  In just a few minutes working together today, you will know more about how to network successfully than most people ever learn in an entire lifetime!

7) Finally, we will end our time together with a couple of Threshold Exercises – my gifts to you to make sure that our time together really pays off!

Ready?  Ready or not…Let’s begin!”

To be continued…

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

This is day twenty nine of my juice fast although it is no longer a pure juice fast, at least for the next few days.  I am experimenting with adding some whey protein and seeing what that does for my exercise recovery and my rate of weight loss.  So far, with only one days data: I feel a bit more energetic, I do seem to be recovering a bit faster and I also seem to have stopped my weight loss – at least for this one day.  It will be more telling to see my results tomorrow after a second day of working out and having some whey protein with my freshly extracted juice.

“It will not do to leave a live dragon out of your plans if you live near one.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien…The Hobbit

“I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first.” ~Benjamin Franklin

Today is my continuation of my virtual seminar that I am creating for us both.  Be sure to read the last few posts as well as this one to get up to date – it will be worth your time.

“You are attending a seminar today called Annual Goal Setting – The Key to Your Best Year Ever.  I don’t know what brought you here today, but let me tell you what my intentions are for you.

I intend this to be the most valuable three hours that you have ever invested in your entire life.  For most people, if they plan their lives at all, they will do their annual planning while they are drunk, five or ten minutes before New Years and then they will wonder why those New Years resolutions don’t work.

You are going to leave here today with something very different – something wonderful!

You are going to become very clear on what you want to achieve in this incredible life of yours and you are going to understand why you want what you want.  This is true power and motivation!

You are going to leave here feeling excited and empowered and with a sense of manifesting your own marvelous destiny.  And should that feeling start to fade, you are going to know how to bring it back – whenever you want.”

To be continued…

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

Day 28 today.  I have added back some whey protein to my diet.  I decided to do this to see if it would help my lower back recover more quickly after I injured it working out a bit too vigorously.  So far, with just one day to report, I do think the protein is helping my recovery rate.  I also think it will inevitably slow my rate of weight loss.  Still, I will keep it up for a few days and see if I can get my back healed – then back to my straight juice routine.

“So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.” ~ W. Clement Stone (American best selling Author and Founder of Combined Insurance Co (now a part of Aon Corp.), 1902-2002)

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” ~Abraham Lincoln

 One of my most popular seminars has always been my annual goal setting workshop.  This seminar takes right at three hours and the attendees leave with great goals that are authentically theirs and workable plans to make them happen.  For most of my attendees, they will have, in just three hours, more clarity about what they really want, and why, then they have ever had in their lives.

I’ve decided to do my best to recreate this process right here on my blog.  This will serve me and I intend for it to serve you – my readers.  For me, I have been asked many times to create a product around this seminar.  For you, well, you get to attend a great workshop for free – although instead of a three hour block of time, you will have to invest a few minutes a day, for an underdetermined number of days, while I create this.

So, imagine you are in a beautiful comfortable seminar workshop.  Put the location wherever you want.  I’m going to imagine myself in a large conference room at a nice hotel on the Amalfi coast of Italy.  (If you are going to be a bear, be a Grizzly.  If you are going to dream, dream big!)  You have a nice comfortable seat and a table in front of you with a large pad of paper and a nice pen.  (You will be doing a lot of writing, but I promise; it will be worth it.)

The room is full, people are chatting and someone comes to the front of the room, gets everyone’s attention and reads my introduction.  After my introduction I come to the front of the room, say hello, and I immediately begin:

“I am going to read you some words, some words carefully selected to put you into a great state for our time together today.  All you need to do is listen to the words and let whatever happens, happen.  Ready?  And then I slowly and clearly read these words aloud:

Destiny                   Destined for Greatness                Explorer

Achievement                   Powerful                     Self Confident

Successful                     Unstoppable                         Grateful

Deeply Fulfilled                Excited                            Adventure

Satisfaction                      Playful                                 Delight

Ready to learn                   Fun       Ready for new experiences”

Then the seminar continues…

This is a process that I call priming and at another time I will talk about the why’s and how’s of this deceptively simple process.

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

This is the 27^th day of my juice fast.  I decided to add some whey protein to my diet today; my back is extremely sore from working out and I want to see if I recover more quickly with some added protein.  I will let you know how this works tomorrow.  Otherwise I feel good.

Many people have been asking lately just what I am drinking on this juice fast.  Here you go:

I drink sixteen ounces of freshly extracted fruit juice first thing in the morning.  This is generally a mixture of green apple and pear.  As long as the apples and pears are crisp they juice beautifully.  This is my favorite juice of the day.

My next three juices are a mixture of mostly vegetables with just a bit of fruit for sweetness.  I generally, but not always, drink a mixture of:

Kale – one large bunch.

Celery – one large bunch, sometimes I need a bit more to make up the desired amount of juice.

Cucumber – generally two small or one large English cucumber.

Lemons or limes – two of them peeled and dropped in the juicer.

Ginger – a chunk approximately one inch by one inch.

Green apples – two.

That’s it.  Recipe is called “Mean Green” online and it is drinkable.  Is it great?  Well, not to me – but it is drinkable and it works.  I am generally not hungry and I am losing weight and rapidly getting rid of gout (the plague of the last 12 years of my life!).

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” ~Oscar Wilde

“A philosophy of life: I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.” ~Paulo Coelho

Last time I was talking about dreams and dreaming and how I start all of my coaching clients out with some dream work.  I  do this to tap into their true motivations and to give me the information that I need to effectively help them.  For you, I’m going to do my best over the next entries to give you the same experience that my clients have.  In live client work I would typically use hypnotic language patterns and priming to get them into a great state for lucid and awake dreaming.  With you, dear readers, I will have to be a bit more creative.

Let’s start here – if there were no limits, if you could have anything that you really wanted, anything at all; what would you want?

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

This is the 26^th day of my juice fast.  Overall, it has been a great experience – so far.  May it continue!  My results so far:

• I have lost twenty three pounds of bodyweight.
• My energy is slightly better than it was before I started the juice fast.
• My skin has become much clearer and smoother.
• The nearly constant pain that I have had for years from gout is much reduced – although not yet gone.
• I have cut one of my gout medicines, allopurinol, completely out of my diet.
• I have reduced the other gout medicine, indomethacin, from 2 per day to 1 every other day – a huge improvement.
• I am generally not very hungry – I must remind myself to drink my five glasses of freshly extracted juices (16 ounces each glass).
• I have taken an entire wardrobe to goodwill and unboxed and am now wearing a size smaller that I have not been able to wear for more than 10 years!  Wow!
• My feet have become smaller – I am now wearing, comfortably, almost a full size smaller shoe than I was 26 days ago.
• I don’t need, or want, as much sleep.
• My waist has, or the bulge above my belt where my waist will be someday, has gone down by 2 inches.
• I only need to shave every other day now.

Downsides?

• Travel is challenging – I tried grocery store bought bottled juices a couple of times and they made me hungry and lethargic – I have to carry a cooler and my own freshly extracted juices.
• I crave meat – almost all the time.  I am hoping that this gets better.
• I dream about meat!  Bacon, steaks, eggs, chops, roasts: all of these follow me to sleep and tantalize me.

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.” ~Robert Fritz

“The best of all medicines is resting and fasting” ~Benjamin Franklin

 My First Book is About Goals

My first book is going to be about goals.  Even though I was originally inspired to write a book while I was giving a seminar about MasterMind Groups, I decided to start with goals.  It was awhile before I made this transition though so the book about MasterMind Groups is also well along.

So why start with goals?  Because it is exactly where I start with all of my clients.  I have been evolving, testing and tweaking my goal setting and achievement process for more than 20 years now and it is excellent.  Come back often as I will be sharing much of the content of this book over the next few months.

Till next time…Jack

Juice Fasting Update

Day 9.  Down fifteen pounds.  Energy fair.  Lots of skin breakouts – I’ve read that this is common at first.  Craving for meat.  People are starting to comment that I look thinner – I like that!

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“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.”  ~A.A. Milne

  “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”  ~Alexander Graham Bell

 My first book will be out for sale, on my website and through my affiliated partners on Thursday, October 25th, 2012.  I will be self-publishing this first book.  I call it my first book because I have already begun writing the second and the third books.  I think I have more than enough material based on more than 20 years of coaching to write at least 20 books – if I choose to do so.  But why did I choose to self – publish?

Why did I Choose to Self-Publish?

It wasn’t because I couldn’t find a publisher.  I was fortunate enough to have a couple of smaller publishers approach me after seeing me speak and ask if I wanted to work with them.

I decided to self-publish for 2 reasons:

1) I wanted to make more money than publishers could realistically offer a first time author like myself.

2) I thought I had a decent author platform already and that I knew enough that I would be able to build a great marketing channel for my first book and then use that channel for marketing other self-improvement products that I might create in the future.

Would I make the same choice again given what I know now?  Yes I would, but after working on this first book for so long I have a tremendous appreciation for all the work that publishers do for authors – they do earn their money!

Till next time…Jack

Juice Fasting Update

This is the 8th day of my juice fast.  In that time I have not eaten any solid food – I have only drank freshly extracted vegetable and fruit juices.  I intend to continue this juice fast for a total of 67 days.  In the first seven days I have lost twelve pounds of bodyweight, a decent start, and my energy has certainly increased.  My only complaint so far is that I have lost so much weight in my face that my former double chin has now become a turkey waddle! Tighten skin – tighten!

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“Note to self: finding a cool quote and writing it in your journal is not a substitute for Getting. It. Done.”  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” ~ Gloria Steinem

I talked last time about my big plans for this newly started year.  One of these big plans is to finally get my first book out into the marketplace.  I have needed a book for many years now, really since the first time I spoke professionally in front of an audience, and I am embarrassed that it has taken me so long to get to this.  I shudder when I think about all of the extra money that I didn’t make because I didn’t have a book.  I shudder even more when I think about all the lives that I didn’t touch – lives that I could have touched and improved.

Seven Years in the Making 

I first became serious, well I guess only semi-serious given how much time has passed, about writing a book almost seven years ago.  I remember the group and the room and the topic quite clearly.  I had just finished a presentation, a presentation about Mastermind Groups, in front of approximately a hundred small business owners and twenty or so of them asked me if I had a book that they could buy.  I could only respond negatively as of course I didn’t!  (And still don’t – but that is changing!)

Something was Different This Time

I don’t know why it bothered me this time that I had no book – but it did.  Speaking and referrals from existing and past clients had always kept me more than fully booked as an Executive Coach and Consultant and I had viewed having a book as unnecessary. Still, something was different this time and I went home pondering just what it might do for me if I did write a book.

To be continued…Jack

Juice Fasting / Feasting Update

This is day six of my juice fast and it has been going well.  I am down ten pounds so far, my skin looks healthier than it has in a very long time and my energy is getting quite acceptable – indeed I have more energy than I did when eating “regular” food. Is my energy where I want it yet?  No, but it is heading in the right direction.  Is gout completely gone?  No, but it also seems to be heading in the right direction and after all, I have just begun this juicing adventure.  I intend to consume only juice for a total of 67 days and expect lots of very positive changes. More to come…

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“Dreams get you into the future and add excitement to the present.” ~Robert Conklin

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” ~Lewis Carroll 

Happy 2012!  Are you ready to make this your best year ever?  I know I am.  I’ve been planning this coming year for most of the previous month and now I’ve started.  Wow! – do I have some great plans for this upcoming year:

I am finally, ready or not, going to release my first book.  Look for lots of information here about this over the next 10 months or so and an official release date of Thursday, October 25th, 2012.

I am going to do whatever it takes to get back in great shape.  I intend to lose, as quickly and delightfully as I can make it, more than 100 pounds of bodyfat.  You can read and even watch this process right here.  (As I write this, I am on the 5th day of an alkaline juice fast.)  Much more upcoming about this entire adventure.

I’m going to start traveling and speaking again.  I moved my family from Colorado to Iowa 3 years ago to care for my mom and that has occupied much of my energy.  I have things arranged now so that I have more freedom – time to start doing much more speaking to entertain and educate at the same time – I love it!

I am going to start accepting new coaching clients again.  I haven’t accepted any new clients since I moved to Iowa- I just supported and nurtured my existing clients.  Now I have time to work with some new people – I love helping others to achieve their dreams.  It is so fulfilling and exciting to be involved at such a deep level with clients!

I am going to get my website current and re-release my newsletter.  I have neglected this more than long enough.  Look for the first issue of my weekly newsletter the last week of January and look for updates to my website almost daily.

Enough talking about taking action – time to do something!

Bye for now…Jack

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“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.” ~Jonathan Safran Foer