Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article is titled “How to Make 2011 Your Best Year Ever”. [Copywriting Article]


Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article:

How to Make 2011 Your Best Year Ever

Dear Web Business Builder,

A new year is upon us … a time of reflection, renewal, and goal setting …

Over the next six weeks or so, more self-help books will be sold that at any other time of the year.

Resolutions will be made … new leaves turned … and millions of people the world over will discover (or rediscover, many for the thirteenth time) the secrets of achievement, manifestation, and true happiness ““ thanks to the power of positive thinking and purposeful living.

Change will be in the air … and for a few weeks after the New Year, all manner of neural gyrations will ensue …

Out of shape dudes and dudettes will be busily visualizing how trim and sexy they’ll look having shed x pounds by x date …

… The materially ambitious will be frantically delegating to document the specific details of the new car, house, or vacation of their dreams … pictures collected and pasted into little “dream books” …

…The lonely will be describing their ideal mate on 3×5 flash cards and pulling them out of their purses and wallets to read three times a day …

… And entrepreneurs will be reciting power affirmations to keep them on track and moving diligently toward their new revenue and profit goals for the year ahead.

By the end of January, most of this mental exertion will have fizzled. And almost everyone will have returned to the Christopher Columbus School of goal setting: They won’t know where they’re going. Won’t know when they get there. And will have no idea where they’ve been when they get back.

Six months to a year later, the process repeats … more CDs, books, seminars and home study courses. The lion’s share of buyers will be no further ahead as a result. The self help industry has made a science of exploiting the terminally aimless and perplexed.

Most people have no idea what they truly want from life. Nor an inkling of what’s inside them that could empower them to fulfill that desire, if only they knew what it was.

Like leaves in the wind … they float through life …ready to adopt other people’s goals and agendas as if they were their own … all the while waiting for someone or something to miraculously sprinkle pixie dust on their life as a result. The self-help industry actually caters to this dependence.

Goal setting has become a euphemism for wishing …
The theory goes that focusing on a goal long enough and hard enough will mysteriously bring it to fruition.

I don’t believe in mysticism and miracles and the sugar plum fairy …

…but I do believe our sub-conscious minds act like servo-devices, auto-correcting our perceptions and actions relative to the instructions (or goals) we give them. This is the true power of goal setting.

Thus, when opportunity knocks, we are more likely to recognize and act upon it, provided a few other important pre-requisites are in place …

First, your goals must be congruent with your larger vision of who you are and what you want out of life. Only then will you be able to muster the will to consistently carry out the sometimes painful or frightening actions any worthwhile goal demands.

If your goals are incongruent with your personhood … or if they are somebody else’s goals masquerading as your own … no amount of creative visualization, affirmation, or positive thinking will sustain you on your journey. At the first or second inevitable setback, you’ll jump ship.

On the other hand, when your goal and your identity are in alignment, the journey becomes enjoyable ““ just as important to you as the destination. And no amount of adversity can stand in your way. It’s just part of the game. Bring it on, you say.

All of your goals should be questioned …

Why do you want them?

Chances are, your goal is a physical means to an emotional end. Maybe you want to earn a million dollars next year. What does that achievement mean to you emotionally?

The answer to that question is your higher goal. Maybe there are better ways to achieve it. If you mistake a means for an end, you may end up climbing a tall ladder up the wrong wall.

Secondly, a goal without a detailed plan remains mostly a wish. Much of the self-help movement is long on goal setting. And short on detailed planning.

They spout fluffy phrases like, “Keep your eye on the prize and the universe will take care of the rest. No one can foretell the future, so none of us can foresee how our goals will ultimately be achieved.”

Does that mean detailed planning is futile?

Hell no!

It means detailed planning is indispensible. How else will you be ready when plan A turns to sh*t, as it inevitably will?

If goal setting attunes your sub-conscious mind to opportunity, detailed planning supercharges the process …
Trouble is, planning requires thinking, not mere wishing …

It is the detailed inventory of resources … the breaking down of goals into supporting objectives …and the formulation of methods for achieving them.

You should make a point of regularly locking yourself in a room, discontenting from the world, and focusing on these critical aspects of goal achievement.

Resources: Make a list of assets you currently have in your possession or at your immediate disposal ““ such things as subscriber lists, customer lists, products, employees, partner relationships, hardware and software, cash, credit, skills, etc. Don’t limit yourself to the resources that are obviously necessary to the achievement of the specific goal you are working on. Make your list as inclusive as possible.

Also make a list of raw materials that will be required to meet your goal, but that are currently beyond your reach. This list will grow as you define your objectives and brainstorm your methods.

And don’t forget the most important resource of them all: your time. It is finite. New activities will require your daily attention. Some of the old will have to be dropped. We excel at what we enjoy. Which activities will you enjoy most? How can you outsource or automate the rest?

Objectives: If you goal is to earn $1,000,000 dollars in 2011, you can visualize what you’ll do with that million dollars all you want, but if you don’t have a realistic action plan for creating multiples of that figure in value, and transferring that value to others, you’re goal is nothing more than a pipe dream.

You need to visualize the journey as well as the dream.

Break your goal into a series of supporting objectives. Maybe that means a new product release each month for the next twelve months. How much revenue will you need to generate per release? What must you offer to justify those revenues? At what dates must those releases be ready for sale? When will the revenues need to be realized? What resources must be marshaled to meet those objectives? Do you already control such resources? If not, what will you do to obtain them?

Here’s a little creative exercise to help you. Imagine your goal is already achieved. There you are going about your day with your goal in place, enjoying the fruits of your labor, and the emotional satisfaction your achievement brings you.

Now, remaining in that moment, finish this sentence, “Things really started to come together quickly when ______________.” Don’t think about it. Just finish the sentence. Take a piece of paper and finish that sentence ten times without thinking. Just write whatever comes into your mind. Something inspiring and unexpected is sure to come out.

Next, create a mental movie leading up to that turning point in your journey, and then beyond to the ultimate realization of your goal.

When you’re finished visualizing the journey, write down the major milestones that occurred along the way, in reverse order.

This is called backwards planning, and it will help you to brainstorm your interim objectives on the way to your goal.

Methods: Exactly how will you achieve each objective? Break the steps required to reach each milestone down in detail. Seek the council of those who have already achieved similar objectives, and adapt their methods.

Inevitably you will encounter constraints that are unique to your situation. The cookie cutter method is largely a myth. The fact that someone else achieved something similar in a certain way is merely a clue. Intelligent adaptation is almost always necessary. Every situation is different.

Documenting your methods allows you to recognize holes in your resource base that will need to be filled and adaptations that will need to be made.

This is the hard work that most dreamers find so discouraging. It deals in stone, cold reality, and forces you to pursue goals that really matter to you and that are integral to your personality.

Change and sacrifice are necessary.

A clean chin costs a beard …
You may have to abandon certain behaviors that are incongruent with your new goals.

You may have to forego some leisure activities to make more time for work.

You may have to give up doing things in the comfortable ways you’ve always done them in favor of strange new ways that frighten the daylights out of you.

And you will have to retool when things don’t go according to plan, and rise above your disappointment. Nothing worthwhile comes without a struggle. If it hurts, it means you’re probably doing it right.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis

Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.

He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.

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