I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions.  Not because I wouldn’t keep them, but because I find the annual ritual meaningless and, quite frankly, self-defeating.  As if by sheer will alone we can leave our wired, burned-in neuronets behind to make a promise to ourselves that, well, we promise to keep this time!

Instead, I strive to create my day, each day, and thereby create a new year and a new life every day!

I do this in several ways, all are deliberate.  The first way is to keep a Daily Abundance Journal so I can observe, celebrate and accelerate the flow of abundance in my life.  This is one of the practices of “allowing” that Michael Losier talks about in his book, Law of Attraction.  You’re probably familiar with the phrase “you get more of what you track.”  Track your number of sales calls, appointments set, presentations made, orders closed… and you’ll tend to get more of everything.

It’s the same with abundance whether it’s a lucrative contract you just landed, or just landed the last parking space in front of the store you’re going to.  When you observe something, you get more of it, whether you want that thing or not.  We attract to ourselves whatever we give our attention, energy and focus to… whether positive or negative.  In a large sense our life is a self-fulfilling prophecy based on our positive and negative vibrations.

This whole mysterious realm of Law of Attraction gets even more mysterious, or more clear, depending on your perception of it, at the level of quantum physics.  Everything is essentially energy pulsating at a specific frequency, we are all a part of this energy, and all the parts, including ourselves, are connected and entangled.  It is at this substratum of consciousness that thought manifests reality.  This is why we get more of what we observe.  Observation creates the object observed.  (Please note: There is NO consensus, even among quantum physicists, that such a radical “philosophical idealism” is actually operative, or whether and to what extent it scales up to the world of the senses we know so well.  Nevertheless, I personally subscribe to this particular viewpoint.)

And so I observe and celebrate and believe that in so doing I am accelerating more of the same.  One thing is for certain, belief – which is the absence of doubt – is necessary for attracting anything!

Reflecting on Last Year’s Successes

So I observe my abundance each day, and I do so in reflection of what I accomplished over the course of the year.  2011 was a great year for me and 2012 is even greater.  Reflecting on the accomplishments of the past year is the second way I deliberately create my day, my new year, and my life.  In 2011

• I became a Certified Law of Attraction Facilitator and Trainer with Michael Losier; and conducted numerous LOA seminars in 2011 (continuing in 2012);
• I brought on the Waterfront Beach Resort (Hilton) in Huntington Beach, CA as an ongoing corporate client, for whose executive team I conducted strategic planning (continuing into 2012);
• I brought on Alandale Insurance Agency as an ongoing corporate client for whom I delivered weekly trainings to their sales team (continuing into 2012);
• I became one of just a handful of select business coaches for Top One Coaching, a subsidiary of the JT Foxx Organization, and for whom I have nearly 20 coaching students (continuing into 2012);
• I brought on the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) as an ongoing non-profit client for whom I am facilitating strategic planning (continuing into 2012);
• I conducted Strategic Planning for Pro App Creators, LLC, whose mission is to “create innovative apps that bring life to your mobile device,” and I became a minority owner in this startup;
• I co-founded Business Elite Mastermind™ to give entrepreneurs and business owners an unparalleled experience of building their enterprise and legacy; DVDs of the launch event are available here;
• I wrote a chapter called, “What is Your End Game?” for a book on goal setting by Eric Lofholm, John Assaraf and others titled, Step into Your Vision: Top Business Leaders Share Their Goal Setting Secrets;
• A business partner and I conceptualized a product to enhance neural reconditioning in vision building as described in the Assaraf-Murray Smith book, The Answer; the product will be available in March;
• I began negotiations with a Latin American company to become its coaching arm in Latin America.

I did not go through this litany to boast in an arrogant or egotistical way, but to share my successes with these...

This line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s late eighteenth century classic, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, tells a tale of being surrounded by abundance we cannot access [the ocean] and of being the creator of our own ruination [by killing the albatross].  OK, so this is my liberal interpretation from the perspective of a personal development coach and certified Law of Attraction facilitator.  Granted.

But there are other “water metaphors” as well that speak directly to the issues of mindset, paradigms, belief systems, and one's view of reality.  Consider these three:

 Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

As well known and probably as overused as the riddle of the chicken and the egg, this metaphor speaks volumes about world view and our conscious as well as unconscious belief systems through which we filter [and create] our experience of reality.

If you see the glass half empty, you tend to operate out of lack, fear, pessimism, disappointment, cynicism, defensiveness, dissatisfaction, discontent, or a multitude of other expressions of negativity.  Like the seafarer who kills the albatross, you also may be a master of self-sabotage. Collectively these personality traits and their underlying beliefs and emotional addictions are called poverty consciousness. 

Of course you see yourself as objective and realistic.  You tend to see those who view the glass half full as naïve, unrealistic, wearing rose colored glasses, even delusional.  As a critic you often feel superior to your glass-half-full counterparts because you know how people are and how the world works, whereas those other poor souls are living in a dream world that doesn’t exist… or so you think.

The opposite cluster of beliefs, personality traits, and emotions is called abundance consciousness.  Positive thinking, optimism, gratitude, making progress, getting there, people are basically good, opportunity abounds everywhere, and a multitude of other expressions of sanguinity – you don’t understand why others are so negative and always complaining.  Neither do I.

The real significance of the glass-half-empty-half-full metaphor is the direction of the water in each glass.  The liquid in the glass half empty continues to go down, continues to evaporate, leaving a parched and dried out vessel filled with the sediment of regrets, recriminations, and I-told-you-so’s that reinforce for our thirsty friend just how bankrupt reality is.  Of course, what’s bankrupt is the paradigm; it can’t lead anywhere else but down.

The water in the glass half full continues to rise.  There’s always enough to quench one’s thirst, nourishing and replenishing itself until eventually it overflows the brim, and the tipping point is realized in the material world as we attract abundance of all kinds into our life.  This is the paradigm of emotional compound interest. 

In both scenarios – glass half empty, glass half full – we get what we expect.  What do you want and what do you expect?  Are these congruent?

Water Naturally Runs Downhill.

In Newtonian Physics, which governs in the macro-environment perceived by our five senses, water will flow downhill unless it is redirected by a force or conditions strong enough to overcome gravity and/or inertia.

It is the same with our emotions and the tendency of some people to love gossip, negativity, criticism, putting other people down, and a host of other emotional addictions that has the perpetrator unwittingly stuck in his or her own mire, and of course dragging others down with them.  That’s the fun part, or at least what is required for validation.

Misery loves company, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel, and if you allow yourself to get sucked into this energy, even just to be around it, it can carry you away in a flashflood of mental, emotional, and spiritual destruction.  Remember the glass half empty?  There’s no quicker way to empty it than to succumb to or participate in negative thinking whatever its guise.

The course correction is first to recognize that in the world of Quantum Physics, the vibrational world, the foundational substratum of energy in which we are all connected or “entangled,” we get what we vibrate.  In this world everything is frequency specific.  What you put out is what you get back, whether positive or negative.  Which would you rather receive?  Are you able to?

The second piece of the course correction is to become aware of how our habitual language, the people we hang with, the media we wash our brains with may be causing us to give attention to and focus on what we don’t want.  So, what do you want?  Decide.  Then take appropriate action to bring about and allow your dreams to materialize.

The River Doesn’t Become Less When It Empties into the Ocean, It Becomes the Ocean.

I have paraphrased an Indian spiritual teaching above which states that to become greater, we must surrender our limited ego identity to a higher, all-encompassing reality.  Not proselytizing here, just pointing out that you can choose to see yourself as small or great, and however you see yourself is how you will manifest.

The ocean is the perfect metaphor for the cycles of life, rising and falling like the tides, the water’s edge encroaching and receding as if it were the incoming and outgoing breath of cosmic lungs.  To be emotionally centered in the stillness and perpetuity of this movement, is to live in the space where we create our existence.

Marketing guru, wealth builder, and business coach extraordinaire Jay Abraham says, “If you are willing to let your improved emotional state be the evidence of your progress, then the progress will continue; you will continue to feel even better, and the tipping point will come where physical evidence can be seen.  But if you look too soon for the evidence, and you do not yet find it, you will lose Vibrational ground.  The need to see the immediate evidence of progress is the most significant hindrance to most people.  When you attempt to take score of your progress too soon, you move further from the results you seek…

"When you discover the power of feeling better first," he goes on, "by the deliberate focusing of your mind away from problems, struggles, irritants, and any other manner of unwanted things -- and focus your mind upon the simplicity of your own breathing -- you will have found the key to the power of allowing [my italics].”

* The following blog post is a chapter in a forthcoming book on Goal Setting by Eric Lofholm.  Jim Alvino is among a number of award-winning authors who wirte on this subject.  Contact Jim today to reserve your copy of the book, which is due out in January 2012.  Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and write Goal Setting Book in the subject line.

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else.  For whereas the openings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and end game must be studied in relation to the end game. – Jose Capablanca

Imagine you are sitting in front of a Chess Master, and this is your first chess match ever.  You are playing white, which means you make the first move.  Thinking that the center of the board might get a little congested, you decide to get creative, take an oblique approach, and attack from the flank.  Seven moves later, you’re in checkmate!

This is the Fools Mate that can befall a neophyte for violating the principles of the game: ignoring the center of the board (in chess you fight to control the center); moving the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, or other heavy artillery out too soon or too frequently; leaving the King, the prize you are supposed to protect, vulnerable to attack or entrapment.  Many entrepreneurs are playing this kind of opening with their enterprise, and they have no end game.

If this is you, don’t despair.  You are not the only one.  But to achieve your goals in business, as in chess, a winning strategy is crucial.  Timing and sequencing are important.  Creating a successful strategy requires that you think differently.  Just as in playing a game of chess, you need to look and think ahead to see potential scenarios.  You have to think/assess/determine how different scenarios play out, how they might affect you, how you will respond, and where you can be proactive.  This is how you’ll win your game of business.

In a game of chess there is an opening, a mid-game, and an end-game.  When we launch a business, it is common to charge ahead with energy, enthusiasm, optimism, and a heavy dose of blind faith.  It is less common to know where we’re going and usually unheard of to think about an end game.

When I founded Monetize Your Niche®, Inc. in 2009, I sought trademark protection immediately as I wanted to establish formally “first commercial use” in the event that another company sought to claim the same down the road.  During the filing process, my attorney asked me a simple question: “What’s your exit strategy?”

I didn’t have one.  I barely had a notion of what my entry strategy was, but again, the key word here is strategy.  You may be in the same boat.

What Is Strategic Thinking?

Once you become more familiar with the game of chess, you become more adept at strategizing and planning your moves ahead.  It’s the same in the game of business.

Over the course of a 25-year career in the corporate world as well as association management, I was the top executive for four organizations, not including my own entrepreneurial ventures.  In each case our goal setting was guided by a strategic planning process which set clearly defined and objective targets we called Quantifiable Measures of Success [QMS].

You will derive an Action Plan from these targets, 5 W’s that detail WHO does WHAT by WHEN WITH WHAT [Resources].  The 5 W’s indicate specific allocations of resources toward specific end games set in advance.  In a game of chess each piece has a numerical value (e.g., pawn = 1, Queen = 10), and each has a capacity to make different kinds of moves.  You might sacrifice a pawn, which can make very limited moves (usually one square at a time) to gain an advantage on a Rook or Castle with a numerical value of 5.

In similar fashion, you might give away a lower value product or service (“lost leader”) with the goal being to inspire your customer or prospect to buy a higher priced item.

Measurable targets, your Quantifiable Measures of Success, are the end points for a designated time frame (day, week, month, quarter, year, 3-5 years, etc.), and they dictate your daily actions.  In short, you begin with the goal or end point in mind, and reverse engineer your steps. 

As in a chess game, the sequence of strategies and tactical moves (your action steps) that lead to checkmating your opponent (attainment of your goal) is likely to change along the way; flexibility and creativity in the face of changing market conditions, circumstances, and opportunities are critical.  But you still begin by visualizing the total picture from start to finish.

Upon completing your annual [or more frequent] planning process, post a large chart of the 5-7 QMS on the wall above your desk to serve a) as a visual reminder of your direction and goals; b) as a graphic benchmark of having hit a short-term or longer-term target; and c) most significantly, I believe, as a filter in the event that you or another team member wanted to include a new project you had not talked about previously.  This happens frequently in entrepreneurial ventures.

Goal Set with Creative Problem Solving (CPS)

Apply a short decision making protocol [oversimplified flowchart below] to determine the feasibility of an idea and whether it would take you closer or farther from your goals: 

1. Does the new project or idea fall under one or more of the 5-7 QMS?  If NO, end of discussion; if YES, under which one(s)?
2. Is the new project or idea an obvious Top Priority?  If NO, it goes to back burner; if YES, is it equal to or greater than other Top Priorities under the specific QMS?
3. If NO, it goes to middle burner; if YES, a discussion ensues on Resources needed to incorporate new project; impact on plan, budget, team, and the like.
4. Overall, how does this new move feel?  It is positive?  Are there any red flags lurking in the unconscious urging you to address them?  What is your “little voice” telling you?  [As Donald Trump asks himself: “What am I pretending not to see?”]

To assess the relevance and feasibility of a course of action taking you closer or farther from your goals, you can employ an objective, 6-step Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process I learned from creativity pioneer E. Paul Torrance, in which you began with a description of murky issues, identify an underlying problem, brainstorm multiple solutions, set evaluation criteria, evaluate the potential solutions, and arrive at one you determine to be the best. 

Among the key evaluation criteria is congruence with your company’s values.  Put the “best solution” to the same “feel right” test as you used in entertaining the new idea or project in the first place.

I used this same CPS process in deciding to found my company (among numerous other possible options for myself); and I am using this same CPS process in crafting an exit strategy, my end game, described at the end of the chapter.

Become the “Chess Master” of Your Entrepreneurial Niche

Many entrepreneurs I have coached are not only uninformed or uneducated as to how to “make the first move” [they don’t know what they don’t know], but once in the game, they become opportunity seekers, jumping from idea to idea hoping something will stick and make an impact on their cash flow.  It would be like our neophyte chess player first moving out his pawn on the far left flank, then the pawn on the far right, with the result being an even quicker demise. 

To become the “chess master” of your entrepreneurial niche, you require an understanding of how the board is set up, how the game is played, and what constitutes an appropriate opening, mid-game and end game.  What will your foray into the marketplace look like?  What business model will you adopt or adapt?  Who is already successful in your niche that you might model, and how will you differentiate yourself from them?  In a variety of scenarios, what might your expansion look like?  How will you leverage what you do?

[To get the digital vervion of my CD on Advanced Business Development, for $17 OFF the download price, click here, and use the Coupon Code CHECKMATE when checking out.]

An exceptional entrepreneur, like a Chess Master, must be able to visualize several moves ahead, learn to anticipate...