It??™s worth remembering that very few people reach the end of their lives and look back and wish they??™d done less, or tried fewer things, or wasted more time, or taken less action or fewer risks.

If you think you can??™t achieve your ideal life, you??™re probably right. But if you truly believe you can achieve it, you??™re also right. The choice is yours and yours alone.

www.SelfImprovementDirectory.com

A special warm welcome if you are one of the new subscribers to have joined us in the last week.

If you??™re a new subscriber, or if you haven't yet claimed your Free copy of Napoleon Hill??™s classic book ???Think and Grow Rich???, you??™ll find the link to the download page further down in this Newsletter.

Regular readers will know that one of the biggest frustrations I??™ve experienced since moving to Ireland a few months back has been trying to get the phone connected to our new house. This has been causing constant disruption to my newsletter and website, not to mention general inconvenience. Fortunately I??™ve had access to the phone line at our old house as the sale is still going through, except for some periods when we??™ve been renting the house out, when I??™ve been had to use other people??™s houses and phone lines.

Well it??™s finally happened! We??™ve actually got the phone connected this week and fully functional for outgoing calls (incoming has been available for over a week). This is great news, but the bad news is that the broadband service won??™t be working for at least another 2 weeks! Dial up is available, but it??™s not great for doing this newsletter. Anyway, at least we??™re getting there.

This week??™s Tip offers ideas that can help with clarifying what you want to achieve in life and setting goals. This really is one thing that anyone serious about personal development and making more of their life needs to spend some time on.

Our Guest Article features one of our regular contributors, the amazing Brian Tracy who undoubtedly knows as much about setting and achieving goals as anyone alive.

I do hope you enjoy this issue and welcome your feedback, so feel free to email with your comments or suggestions.

Very best wishes for your success and happiness!

Garry

1) Tip of the Week

2) Quotes of the Week

3) Guest Article

4) Did you know?

5) Free "Think and Grow Rich" download

Reading Time ??“ Approximately 9 minutes

Anyone who has spent any time at all looking into self improvement will undoubtedly have come across the subject of goal setting. This is one of the most commonly written about and discussed of all subjects in the area of personal development.

So why is goal setting considered to be so important? A simple answer is that goals provide you with the destinations you want to reach in your life, and give you the inspiration and motivation to build a roadmap to reach these destinations. If you don??™t have goals, how do you know where you are going? If you actually know what you want to achieve, you not only know where you??™re going, but you??™ll inevitably and almost automatically take actions that will move you in the direction of your goals.

Many people know they are looking for more from their lives, but aren??™t exactly sure what they are looking for and what will make them happy. Have you taken the time to really think and search within yourself for your dreams of a perfect life? Have you clarified your values and the things that are most important to you as a person? Click here to read our last edition which was about Personal Values Have you stopped and listened to your heart to uncover your unfulfilled desires that may have been all but lost in years of just living and getting by, or from listening to other people tell you that you were being unrealistic?

We??™ve all been given the ability to dream dreams, to decide what we want from every aspect of our lives. Perhaps even more importantly, we??™ve also been given the ability to make details plans and to take actions to make our dreams reality.

However, our unique ability to reason can also work against us. It can cause us to think that we are expecting too much being, or being unrealistic in expecting to achieve our dreams. It can allow us to be easily put off by the opinions of other people. This can result in limited ambitions, which prevent us from ever achieving our biggest dreams, and can even cause us to forget altogether the things that are important to us deep down.

But the good news is that it??™s not that difficult to rediscover the things that were once so important to us, or to uncover what??™s most important to us now. We must establish exactly what we really want from life. There??™s little point spending years of your life climbing the ladder of success, only to find out way too late that it??™s been leaning against the wrong building!

The first thing to do is to dedicate some quiet time to yourself when and where you know that you won??™t be interrupted. You don??™t want any distractions at all so turn off your computer and phones and find yourself a comfortable place to sit.

Next, completely relax and try to clear you mind of any distractions and thoughts that enter your mind. This can be easier said than done, and it may well take concerted effort. For many of us, given the pace of modern life, this may actually be a complete novelty, but quiet time alone like this can, in itself, be incredibly therapeutic and a great way to relieve stress.

This time is for dreaming and to think about what excites you, and the things you would most love to do. For starters, try thinking about:

What would your ideal job or vocation would be?
How do you, or how would you love to spend your time?
What things have you done in the past that caused you great happiness and satisfaction?
What you would love to achieve with your life?
What you would do if you knew you couldn??™t fail?
What dreams of your youth have been long lost in day-to-day living?
How would you live your life if you won the lottery?
What would be your ideal lifestyle?

I??™m sure you can come up with many more areas to think about.

Write everything down as it enters your head. This is one of the most important parts of the exercise, you must write everything down. Why? The act of writing down your thoughts gives them emphasis and clarity. It makes them more than just dreams - and you don??™t want to forget anything.

Don??™t put any limitations or restrictions on your thoughts, and whatever you do, don??™t try to be logical or even realistic. Remember, you are trying to establish the things that would bring you the greatest satisfaction and fulfillment in your life. Just let all your thoughts flow freely and write everything down. What you??™re doing here is creating your vision of your ideal life. Don??™t be vague, wanting a million dollars is of little use ??“ exactly what would you like to do with it and why do you want it? Try to be as clear as possible about your desires and fill in as much details as you can.

Once you??™ve written down everything you can think of, you can then be a bit more logical. Look at everything you??™ve written down and put it in order of importance, or try to group things, for example, into tangibles and intangibles; short, medium and long term; or family, personal, career, financial etc. Look at how they could relate to each other. For example, could you make a living doing the activity that you most like to do in you leisure time? You may not want to take more time to look at what you've written, and perhaps rework it or add more details in a day or two.

If you??™ve done this exercise properly, you should have in front of you a list of the things you truly want from life that would make your life as fulfilling and happy as any person alive. These dreams and this vision is yours and yours alone. They reflect your deepest desires and should be based on your personal values as a person.

What happens next is entirely up to you. You can rationalize that you were just dreaming and think that you could never really achieve these ???fantasies??™. You may decide it??™s not even worth the effort of trying and forget all about it. Or you can set about making plans to achieve the dreams that would create your ideal life.

It??™s worth remembering that very few people reach the end of their lives and look back and wish they??™d done less, or tried fewer things, or wasted more time, or taken less action or fewer risks.

If you think you can??™t achieve your ideal life, you??™re probably right. But if you truly believe you can achieve it, you??™re also right. The choice is yours and yours alone.

In our next edition we look at some specific steps that can help you on the way to turning your dreams into goals and setting action plans to achieve them.

???Big thinking precedes great achievement??? ??“ Unknown

???If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else??? - Yogi Bera

???Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfill.??? - Zig Ziglar

???Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk.??? - J.C. Penney

???The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it??? - Mack Douglas

???Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; cant's into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality. Don't just think it - ink it!??? - Author Unknown

???If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is were they should be. Now put the foundations under them.??? - Henry David Thoreau

???You must have an aim, a vision, a goal. For the man sailing through life with no destination or 'port-of- call', every wind is the wrong wind. ??? - Tracy Brinkmann

???All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord.??? - Earl Nightingale

SETTING YOUR GOALS - By BRIAN TRACY

In my conversations with hundreds of top salespeople over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common. They have taken the time to sit down and create a clear blueprint for themselves and their future lives. Even if they started the process of goal setting and personal strategic planning with a little skepticism, every one of them has become a true believer.

Becoming A True Believer

Every one of them has been amazed at the incredible power of goal setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has accomplished far more than they ever believed possible in selling and they ascribe their success to the deliberate process of thinking through every aspect of their work and their lives, and then developing a detailed, written road map to get them to where they wanted to go.

The Definition of Happiness

Happiness has been defined as, "The progressive achievement of a worthy ideal, or goal." When you are working progressively, step-by-step toward something that is important to you, you generate within yourself a continuous feeling of success and achievement. You feel more positive and motivated. You feel more in control of your own life. You feel happier and more fulfilled. You feel like a winner, and you soon develop the psychological momentum that enables you to overcome obstacles and plough through adversity as you move toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.

Determine Your Values

Personal strategic planning begins with your determining what it is you believe in and stand for-your values. Your values lie at the very core of everything you are as a human being. Your values are the unifying principles and core beliefs of your personality and your character. The virtues and qualities that you stand for are what constitute the person you have become from the beginning of your life to this moment. Your values, virtues and inner beliefs are the axle around which the wheel of your life turns. All improvement in your life begins with your clarifying your true values and then committing yourself to live consistent with them.

Fuzzy or Clear?

Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.

Building Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem

Values clarification is the beginning exercise in building self-confidence, self-esteem and personal character. When you take the time to think through your fundamental values, and then commit yourself to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well being. You feel stronger and more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent of accomplishing the goals you set for yourself.

Action Steps

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, decide for yourself what makes you truly happy and then organize your life around it. Write down your goals and make plans to achieve them.

Second, begin with your values by deciding what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit yourself to live consistent with your inner most convictions - and you??™ll never make another mistake.

One of the world??™s leading authorities on personal development and maximising human potential, best selling author, speaker, coach, consultant and motivator, Brian Tracy has inspired millions of people in both their business and personal lives. With Brian??™s The Ultimate Goals Program you can learn the 21 most important strategies and techniques ever discovered to help you accomplish more of your goals, faster than you ever have before.

Achieve Your Dreams! Get The Ultimate Goals Pro gram by Brian Tracy.

The Story of Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder Plot

On 5th November 1605, two years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, soldiers discovered a man called Guido (Guy) Fawkes in a cellar under the Houses of Parliament. He had with him at numerous barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was arrested and tortured. He told his torturers about a plot to blow up Parliament together with the king, James I, his ministers and Members of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes was a Roman Catholic who was angry with King James, the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, because he wanted more religious toleration towards Catholics. Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators were executed as traitors.

The tradition of Guy Fawkes related bonfires actually began the very same year as the failed coup. The Plot was foiled in the night between the 4th and 5th of November 1605. Already on the 5th, agitated Londoners who knew little more than that their King had been saved, joyfully lit bonfires in thanksgiving. As years progressed, however, the ritual became more elaborate.

Soon, people began placing effigies onto bonfires, and fireworks were added to the celebrations. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and sometimes those of the Pope, graced the pyres. Still today, some communities throw dummies of both Guy Fawkes and the Pope on the bonfire (and even those of a contemporary politician or two), although the gesture is seen by most as a quirky tradition, rather than an expression of hostility towards the Pope.

Bonfire Night is not only celebrated in Britain. The tradition crossed the oceans and established itself in the British colonies during the centuries. It was actively celebrated in New England as "Pope Day" as late as the 18th century. Today, November 5th bonfires still light up in far off places like Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland in Canada.

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