"Yes we can" starts with YOU

Great day for America and perhaps the world with Barack Obama starting off his presidency. Crazy crowds, a lot of hype and excitement and some would say the start of a new era. But wait a second...this is just one man we are talking about here. Once the hype dies down (don't forget everyone was excited that George Bush was leaving as well) it will be back to the daily living of life. Nothing has changed yet in anyone's life except for the perception that change will happen. However Obama is not a god, he is one human person who is shouldering a lot of responsibility given to him by the public. Talk about pressure and the chance for letdown.

Let me say that I went to a talk tonight that looked at a methodology that uncovered drivers of individuals' behaviours which was different to the personality assessments that usually look at the prediction of behaviours themselves. I will go into this in more detail when I have undertaken some research. But the bottom line is that Obama is regarded as a 'Peacemaker', one that is a visionary, does not want conflict and looks to bring people together. Whether by himself he is a strong leader or achiever is yet to be seen. But this is the thing...he cannot be strong at everything. The Peacemaker brings people together to perform and that is the nature of Obama's message, that everyone has to help themselves in order to help each other. That means many YOU's make a WE.

Obama's been incredible at breaking down all kinds of barriers in the USA and across the world. Again part of his personality profile. However he needs a contribution from everyone, needs everyone to be emotionally intelligent in order to work together and be self-aware of the contribution they can make to society. No act is too small. So I would encourage everyone, me included, to think of just one thing (to start) that we can do to improve our society. We may not all be great leaders or visionaries but we can surely manage one small act, thought or behaviour that when combined will go a very long way. This is what Obama is looking for, nothing more, nothing less.

Goal setting in face of financial adversity - part 1

When it comes to discussion around goal setting and achievement of those goals all the text books talk about having clear values, motivations, action plans and the like. They talk about time management and keeping focus as if it is something unknown to the 'uneducated' masses. But of course we might suspect that the people writing these books are not goal setting 'gurus', they are just writers who have decided to write a book that they hope to sell to make money. Quite simple.

However the one thing that many writers of goal setting books, coaches etc do not take into account very well is the influence of life/other uncontrollable or even some controllable events on the human psyche. Even the best laid plans for goals, even those you thought were important, can be adversely affected by other matters that are important. Today, briefly, I want to talk about how to consider setting goals even when you are being impacted by negative financial events.

So by now even the people living underground know that there is a massive upheaval in financial markets, asset worth and capital allocation in the world at the moment. Many of us are losing a good portion of wealth, seeing assets fall in value and becoming burdened with debt. Now another topic I will talk about soon is the fact that wealth is not real....but to most of us increased wealth makes us feel good and decrease makes us not feel so good. Many people I speak to say that their life goals are impacted by this feeling of becoming 'less wealthy' and seeing money being taken away from them. Many other goals are being pushed aside because of the stress of financial pressures and this is causing lack of motivation, determination, vision - even from those people who would state that they are not motivated purely by money.

This is not something that can be covered in one setting so I've made this part 1. At this time I would choose to leave you with these five thoughts;

1. Learn to focus on what you can control, not what you cannot control. Financial markets move in cycles and for 99.9% of us we cannot determine what happens. Therefore do not blame yourself for what has happened.

2. Whilst we all need money to live, take a breath and truly think about what money means to your lifestyle and way of life. Do you really need the money today? If financial markets move in cycles do you never expect your wealth to increase in the future? Exactly what have you lost? Perhaps it's not about the wealth itself, rather you feel something has been 'taken' from you. Take the emotion out of this thought!

3. Own up to yourself that being financially secure or even independently wealthy, or whatever it is, is important for you. Perhaps look at what you can do to control your finances better...but only within the realms of you can control.

4. Revisit your goals and ask yourself do you still want what achieving the goal will provide? Do they still equate to what you value as a human being. Refocus on these benefits and even include what you can gain financially. Standing still and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere - if you keep on moving forward things will happen. This is a fact of life - action results in change of status quo.

5. Look at improving your knowledge of investments and perhaps consider taking charge of your own finances a little. Many finance professionals know little more than you in many respects. My other advice is to invest in what you know - I have a friend who invests only in his business only because he knows the value of this in detail.

How to achieve higher levels of performance - Part 1

For many people what I am about to say is not new and a principle they live by on an everyday basis. However for many it is something either not known, not recognized or just ignored. What I am talking about is the concept of blocking out emotion and old mental anchors when it comes to breaking through new barriers to achieve new goals.

I would consider myself as intelligent as the next person so of course I would say I understand what I am talking about today. But do I follow this principle day in, day out? No. Do I think what held me back from achieving certain goals, blaming everything but myself? Yes. If this is you and you want to stop the frustration when this occurs by not making it occur then keep on reading. Otherwise feel free to continue with the old habits.

I am not sure why but on the rowing machine at the gym yesterday I was putting in quite an effort and the body and mind was becoming weaker as time went on. But I had said I wanted to hit certain numbers on the rower and unless I upped the pace I wouldn't make it. At one point I thought (well the instinctual self or Id part of who I am)'who cares, I'm still getting a good workout' but the Rational or Ego self and Internalized/Ego Ideal self said 'no way, you need this to improve plus you already said you were going to do it. If you don't you'll continue to make average okay to achieve'.

Very good you may say but what next. Then I determined a purpose and defined the principles for what I was about to do over the next five or so minutes; better health, keep word to self, achieve goal, feel better - this created a value framework which I could operate within and move forward, rather than perform an action 'out of habit'. When the going gets tough, the principle of instinctual self will look to protect you and make it okay not to follow through unless you have a stronger underlying principle that supercedes. This is a key factor in achieving new goals or targets.

So I had resolve, princples and purpose but still some pain and exhaustion. Well I looked deep down and asked myself 'how did I truly feel'. The answer was actually not bad...my brain had created a upper limit based on past exercise and it was sending me a message that I was nearing this threshold. However what the brain knew was not what my body was capable was - in fact no where near it. The pain was not real, the state of exhaustion was not real. It was all a mental perception based on past experiences and performance. Therefore the trick was to focus on the actual task of rowing along with the breathing etc and believe it or not the physiological change improved my emotional or mental state.

Therefore in finishing off what allowed me to achieve this task, better than I had before was; define your goal clearly and necessary action, establish principles and purpose for goal - including keeping your word to yourself and thirdly, be task oriented and do not let old barriers determine your emotional state and thus your physiological or mental performance. Focus on doing and you'll find your emotional state switches and supports you.