Countdown to 2013

It has been a very changeable, happy, difficult, rewarding, challenging and eye opening year so far.
Aside from the personal losses, such as my Mother passing away, this year has been one of positive change.  What I would call one hell of a roller coaster year.  I am SO ready to begin a new year I am buzzing with excitement....so much to do and so much energy to make it happen!  Now the good news for you.....It’s that time of year again!

'Hmmm, do all those online courses
in my email box work?'

THINK!.....

Have you noticed that beginning in November, your Inbox fills up with all kinds of programs the sender claims “will make 2013 your best year ever!” Some of the ones I’ve received involve three day live events where they help you dig through your past and release all the limiting beliefs and negative self-talk that’s holding you back; another offers a “once-in-a-lifetime, special deal that will disappear at midnight” (I got that one three days running! Go figure that!) on a 36 CD program, complete with transcript, workbook and two live group calls, blah, blah, blah, work, work, work; and my favourite, the people who guarantee they will reveal how The Secret really works and how to make it work for you (which leads me to believe that the real secret to The Secret is all the people who are making a ton of money from telling other people how to get it to work)

What all these programs have in common, is they’re all about telling you things you can do and actions you can take, that will somehow magically turn you into “a money-making magnet.” But at the end of the day, all these live events, these “secrets”, these CDs and workbooks fundamentally are, are strategies, strategies that will supposedly “release negative patterns that are holding you back”, “rewire your brain for success”, or some equally bogus hype.

Why is it that all these claims, promises and allegations don’t work?

It’s very simple: what these programs are all about is teaching you a method, a strategy whereby you take something you’re doing, stop doing it, and instead do something else. Like the bright, glossy, shiny CD/DVD program they’re selling you.

I have news for you! Replacing one behavior with another behavior is not going to change your life or make a long-term difference on how successful you are in 2013. Substituting doing something with not doing something is a STRATEGY, and will only work as long as you maintain the willpower, vigilance and discipline to continue to do that strategy.

So, what's the real secret?

The real secret to lasting success is;

• Become a person who naturally and instinctively does whatever needs to be done to be successful.
• Become a person who easily and effortlessly acts and behaves in a certain way because that’s who you are.
• Don't use a strategy to fix what you’re doing or not doing. This won’t work because you’re still the same person you’ve always been, you’re just forcing yourself to act in a different manner.

And, that’s why you, and everyone else, inevitably fails and reverts back to doing what you always do.

You go back to being who you really are.

I know, it can be confusing, you might want to go back and read what the Real Secret is again.

My early Christmas gift to you...

It actually is possible to become the person who makes the choices you’d really like to make, who does the things you’d really like to do, so that you can achieve the success you really want to have. And it doesn’t involve dredging up the past or listening to dozens of CDs and filling out workbooks or flying across the country and spending thousands of dollars on a live event. You don’t need to develop your willpower, walk on fire or glass, be relentlessly vigilant or subject yourself to strict discipline for the rest of your life either.

What you do have to do is be willing to keep an open mind, and allow yourself to consider that something that sounds like the 21st century version of snake oil could actually work,

We are closing in on the New Year, and you, too, are probably getting a lot of emails from people who have products, on-line courses, are holding live events, etc. that promise to “make 2013 your best year ever!!”

I’m sure they have the best intentions, but…

What none of them seem to understand is that replacing one behavior with another behavior is a STRATEGY, and strategies like this only work as long as you have the willpower and the discipline to do them on a consistent basis.

For example, a diet is a strategy, making and prioritizing the next day’s To Do list is a strategy, only checking Twitter/ Facebook and your email twice a day at a predetermined time is a strategy – you get the picture? As long as you can make yourself do it, it works. And we all know that pretty much nobody is able to keep doing it for very long.

Great… so what does work?

What works is becoming the person who instinctively makes the choices you know you need to make to get you the results you’re looking to get. In other words, doing what needs to be done because that’s who you are.