“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)

“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

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” ~T. E. Lawrence

I am a dreamer and I am proud of it!  I love dreaming.  I believe that our dreams come to us for excellent reasons – to motivate us, to educate us, to help us find our purpose – our place in the circle, and sometimes to frighten us – if we need to pay attention to something.

I start all of my clients off with a dreaming exercise.  One of the reasons I do this with my coaching clients is motivation – their motivation.  I think that all of the power and energy that we need to manifest our goals comes to us in our dreams and I want them to have that power.  My clients love this beginning process and next time I will begin sharing with you just how I do this with them.

Till next time…Jack

Juice Fasting Update

Day 13 – down 18 pounds this morning.  I was hoping for a faster rate of weight and fat loss.  Still, this is a great start and I have many weeks yet to go.  My energy level continues to rise; I am starting to sleep better and feel less need for a nap or break during the day.  My skin is getting smoother than it has been in years – dare I say that it glows?  Well, not quite yet and I’m not completely sure that I want glowing skin.  Just thinking about that term seems to lower my testosterone level just a bit.

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“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” ~Walt Disney

“All babies are beautiful.” ~Jeanne Calment

 I attended my older daughter’s ultrasound today – she is having a baby in a few months and today we found out that the baby is fine and is a girl.  We even got to see my upcoming granddaughter’s face, in 3d ultrasound; I think she has my nose.

I’m glad I was able to be there – to share this moment with my daughter and her husband.  I will always remember it and I used this time, this experience, to recommit to the goals that I had already made about my elder daughter and her family. How about you?  When is the last time that you recommitted to achieving your goals?

I’m going to start sharing on this blog the goal setting process that I move my clients through – this same process is the basis for my upcoming book about goals.  Come back often and let me help you make some of your most heart-desired dreams become reality.

Bye for now…Jack

Juice Fasting Update

Day 12.  Down 17 pounds now and my energy is picking up; even drinking only fresh juices I have more vitality than I did before I started this adventure.  My skin is clearing up and I took an entire size of clothing to goodwill – I am never coming back to this size.

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“Babies have big heads and big eyes, and tiny little bodies with tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens atRoswell! I rest my case.” ~William Shatner

“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

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” ~Mary Anne Radmacher

Last time I was talking about the day that I decided that I was going to write a book.  It was an important day for sure and it could, and perhaps should, have lead to a book being out in fairly quick order, but it didn’t.  There are lots of reasons for this, most of which I understand now and over time I will share them here – at the very least I want to be an example of what not to do as a fledgling author!

Writing the Book is not the Hardest Part

For me, the hardest part of the process of bringing a book successfully to market was not the writing of the book – although this has certainly been challenging.  The hardest part for me as a first time author was deciding to become my own publisher, at least for this first book, and then committing to doing what I needed  to do in order to make the book a success.  I am still learning what it takes to build a successful author platform and I work on the marketing channel for my book every single day.  This building of the marketing channel has been the hardest part.

Next time I will talk about why I decided to go the self-publishing route and the consequences of that choice.

Bye for now…Jack

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Juice Fasting Update

This is the seventh day of my juice fast and I am feeling pretty good.  I didn’t lose any measureable weight since yesterday, but my gout has relented a bit more and my energy is still acceptable.  I worked out this morning for twenty minutes, Tae-Bo kick boxing, and I think that is decent for early on in this fast.  I expect that my energy will continue to rise as my body converts ever more into fat-burning mode.

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” ~Epictetus

“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