“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

“Everyone must choose one of two pains: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”  ~Jim Rohn 

I’ve had it and I’m not going to take it anymore!  That’s why I started a juice fast, and properly used, this is why I will make the entire 60 or more days that I intend to juice fast.  This is my second day on this fast and I am going to make it all the way!

Have you ever had a time when you just became so fed up, fed up with a situation, or job, or relationship or whatever – and you somehow mentally flipped a switch and committed to making a change and then you made it  happen?  All of us have had this experience at one time or another and in my terms you crossed a threshold.  You, and I, had a “Threshold Experience”.  Can you remember one now?

Till next time…Jack

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own.  No apologies or excuses.  No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.  The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.  This is the day your life really begins.”  ~Bob Moawad

“One reason I don’t suffer ‘Writer’s Block’ is that I don’t wait on the muse, I summon it at need.” ~Piers Anthony

Last time I mentioned that I am creating a muse for myself.  This time I will begin to go into that process in greater depth.  Strap on your safety belts…here we go!

Project: Create the Ideal Muse (Creating a Great Muse in probably good enough for now and I can evolve it over time)

Deadlines: Created by January 1st, 2011;  Tested, de-bugged, installed in myself and fully operational by February 1st, 2011.

Resources:

1. My memory of great writing sessions and what that felt like.
2. My memory of poor writing sessions and what that felt like.
3. The readily available information (thanks to the internet) from other famous writers about writer’s block and what they did about it.
4. The readily available information from other famous writers about what it was like when they were in a great writing place – what I am going to call for now: a place of connection and flow.
5. NLP and my ability to model excellence in other people.
6. That fact that I am really fed-up with not being more productive in my writing.
7. My compelling vision of how my writing and speaking business life can be once I am writing freely, consistently and well.

Definitions of Success: How will I know that I have successfully achieved my result?  How and what will I measure to know that I have a created a great muse for myself?

I’ll talk more about this next piece more next time.

Bye for now…Jack

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“For hundreds of years people have talked about artists having inspiration, but often, some persons would say, write us a symphony or write us a song, on commission. The artists would come up with a masterpiece without waiting to have their muse inspire them.” ~Tom Glazer

Muse…Noun: The spirit that is thought to inspire a poet or other artist; a source of genius or inspiration. ~ from Ancient Greek Mythology

I have been spending an every greater part of my business life writing.  This is certain to be a permanent change and I have been working diligently, sometimes intelligently, to make myself a better and especially quicker writer.  Some days I am great.  Some days I would need to improve quite a bit just to be terrible.  It is well past time to make the great days much more common and the terrible days mostly a thing of the past.

Over the next few entries I am going to talk about creating an ideal muse…in some NLPish terms, creating the perfect set of nested and related emotional states and beliefs and I am even going to create an artificial entity – an ideal muse.  Once I create it, then I will start to use it, to use this newly created muse on a daily basis, and then share my results with you…I expect it to be fun and effective!

For now, read this article from the Washington Post, written by Stephen King, where he talks about his muse…just excellent!

Till next time…Jack

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When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, “Why God? Why me?” and the thundering voice of God answered, “There’s just something about you that pisses me off.” ~Stephen King

“Learn to cook–try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” ~Julia Child

I recently had the pleasure of reading “My Life in France” written by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme, the grandnephew of Julia’s husband – Paul Child.  Wow!  I had a great time reading this book and there were many wonderful life lessons that jumped out of this autobiography at me.  Come back soon and see how you and I can improve ourselves by learning from Julia Child’s incredible life.

Till next time…Jack

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“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” ~Julia Child

“Be happy.  It’s one way of being wise.” ~Colette

When I was younger, the ink barely dry on my University diploma, I was very focused on achieving goals.  Like many others, I wanted to earn a lot of money, live in a great home and drive the right car.  I was sure that once I achieved these things – then I would be happy and you know what?  I did achieve them, rapidly, and I was happy – at least for a little while.

This all sounds okay doesn’t it?  I set goals about things that were important to me, took action, learned and adjusted, took more action and eventually I achieved these goals and felt great, a real sense of accomplishment, once they were done.  So what’s the point here – what’s the issue?

The issue is that I was miserable and/or unhappy much of the time that I was working towards my goals.  I wasn’t miserable or unhappy because I had to be – I often felt unpleasant emotions because those were the rules that I operated under!  I used pain to drive myself to achievement – and I only allowed myself to feel great once things were done.

Achieve then be Happy or Happily Achieve?

I can clearly remember the day that I realized I had a choice about how I motivated myself and that I actually could choose different rules that enabled me to feel great (or ecstatic or blissful or endlessly curious or expecting the best or any combination of these and many other positive emotions) while I was working towards my goals.  What a revelation!

I was early into my NLP training, now nearly 20 years ago as I write this, and we were looking at the structure of effective motivation strategies.  I will get into topic in great detail in future entries, but for today, here is my point and my question:  How do you choose to feel while you are working towards your goals?  Do you make sure that you feel great along the way or are you working to get things done and then you will feel great?

Till next time faithful readers…Jack

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“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise man grows it under his feet.” ~James Openheim

“A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should.” ~Author Unknown

This article assumes that you have some interest in getting a non-fiction book published some day.  You might find it interesting even if you don’t have any such desires!

Book Writing Mistakes Cost $100,000

Last time I talked about the mistakes that I made after I decided to write a book.  I would guess that those mistakes cost me at least three years – three additional years where I did not have a book working for me to increase my income.  Guessing what that has meant to me in lost income from additional speaking engagement fees, increased coaching income and direct book sales to my seminar participants, without out even calculating in any book sales thru Amazon or other sources, I am going estimate that not having a book for those three years cost me at least $100,000 in additional income. (Wow!  It even hurts to type that out and read it!)

What will it cost you to add an additional three years onto the book writing/publication/marketing cycle?  I don’t know, but I guarantee it will cost you at lot!  Depending on your business, it could cost you much more than $100,000!

So what would I do differently if I was starting a book today and wanted to get it done and working for me as quickly and elegantly as possible?

11 Steps to Non-Fiction Publishing Success

1. I would completely forget about getting my first book published traditionally and I would immediately start the process of becoming an expert on self-publishing.  (I’ll talk about the why of this in future entries, and notice that I said first book.)
2. I would find and join or create a non-fiction writer’s group that met weekly and made me read new, not revised, material each and every week.  (I’ll talk more about this in future entries as well.)
3. I would immediately start blogging, however short the entries, 5 times per week.  (More to come here as well.)
4. I would immediately hire an email newsletter service and start collecting names of people that like my material. (More coming)
5. As quickly as possible, I would start to release a weekly newsletter to those collected names – however short the newsletter! (More coming)
6. I would create a Mastermind group of like energy and achievement minded and completely different skills people and we would begin to meet weekly.  (Much more about this process later – this is one of my strongest passions!)
7. I would decide and commit that I was going to write every single day, no matter what, and I would slowly amp up the volume of that writing.  (More coming)
8. I would hire a book writing coach, if I could afford one, or join a monthly book writing coaching membership site if I could not afford a personal coach.  (More about this to come as well)
9. If I wasn’t already a public speaker, I would join Toastmasters and start the process of becoming one!  (Yes – you guessed it…more coming)
10. I would open a twitter account and start following people that interested me. (More to come!)
11. I would start on account on LinkedIn and then dedicate just a bit of time each week here.

I wouldn’t expect to get all of these things done right away.  But I would expect to have most of them in place within six weeks and all of them in place and working for me within six month.  (In point of fact, I don’t quite have all of them in place myself yet, but I will within a couple of weeks!)

Did I mention yet that I have a non-fiction book coming out in September of 2011?  I do!  More about that next time as well.

Till next time faithful reader…Jack

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“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” ~John Wooden

“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” ~Rita Mae Brown

In 2005 I decided that I was going to write a book.  As I mentioned in my last entry, this wasn’t a consciously made choice.  My unconscious mind decided that it was time to take action and let me know this at the end of a seminar.

I am not sure why I made that decision at that particular time.  I had known that I would benefit from a book for years; as a seasoned and in-demand seminar leader, I almost always had the opportunity to sell products at the end of my presentations.  Instead I used this time for chatting with attendees and over time, many of these chats ended up becoming coaching or consulting clients.  (Although I can successfully coach virtually anyone that speaks a common language with me, I only consult on a handful topics.)

So, these seminars, along with other marketing techniques, kept me with a consistently full coaching practice, commonly with a waiting list, and I was complacent.  Not lazy, just complacent.

Use me as a BAD example

Once I had made the decision to become a published non-fiction author, I thought about it virtually every day.  And there is the beginning of the first mistake.  I thought about it everyday.  I invested energy into it every day.  I felt bad that I wasn’t writing more – almost every day.  What I didn’t do was take action on it every day – that would have taken a different and much wiser decision!

Three Mistakes I Made

Looking back 6 years, I am embarrassed.  I should have known better!  As an NLP practitioner, I had helped hundreds of people get unstuck and begin taking consistent action from a place of pleasure.  From my slightly more enlightened future, I can look back now and see three big mistakes that I made.

• My first mistake was not deciding – not committing to – taking action every single day.
• My second mistake: I was using a pitiful motivation strategy to get myself to take what little action I did take!  (I’ve talked about good and bad motivation strategies before and I will again – really useful stuff!)
• Finally I was not accountable to anyone for getting this book done.  The only person I was reporting to about it was me and that was just not good enough.

Next time I’ll talk about what I would do differently and what I am doing differently now to write books.

Till next time faithful reader…Jack

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“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” ~Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras