Setting Goals

I haven't been keeping this blog up to date for years, and the only reason I am re-starting it again, is so that I can track my progress over the next couple of years.

Now I have been basically drifting when applying myself to build my part-time business. I haven't set any concrete plans or goals to get myself to where I would like to be. I have splurges of activity, for a short period, then procrastinate, and do very little in the way of activity!

So, now to actually try an experiment to see if what I have been reading really works.

A couple of years ago, I joined a book club, where every month I receive a book on personal development. It is safe to say, that I haven't read most of them yet, but I have started to listen to the audio books (making good use of my time walking our dog). Two books grabbed my attention and started to rings some bells in my head.

The first book is called Appreciation Marketing, by Tommy Wyatt & Curtis Lewsey. This book gave me some helpful insights on how I would like to be thought of by others. I already do some of this on a daily basis, just not to the extent that they suggest. So that is something for me to aim on improving.

The second book I listened to was The Answer, by Allan & Barbara Pease. Now this book basically started talking about how your brain works, or more to the point, your R.A.S. (Reticular Activating System). What this books drives home is that once you decide to do something, your brain starts to find a way to achieve what you want to do. One message that struck a chord with me, was "Think of what you want to achieve, not HOW you are going to achieve it. The how will happen without you realsing it, if you just keep picturing in your head everyday the end result of what it is you want.

One of the tasks the book tells you to do is create a list of goals you want to do in your life. It can be absolutely anything you want, from doing charity work, or sleeping under a bridge with the homeless, to being a millionaire and living the jet-set lifestyle! The list of goals is only as good as your imagination! What did you want to do when you were a child? What ambitions did you have as a teenager? What projects that you secretly wanted to do, but never had the time to do them?

I have started my list today, and I will be adding to it whenever something crosses my mind as something I would like to try. There are further stages to the process of setting your goals, such as prioratising them into those you really want to do as soon as possible, those that you want to do, but just don't have the resources (money or time) available right now. And the the final section of those that sound interesting, but you don't have a burning desire to pursue right at this moment. But first you have to make your list of goals, before you can sort them into any order. So I am giving myself one week to make my list before making an attempt to sort them into any sort of shape for my future.

Now, tomorrow, is the Annual Conference of the Network Marketing Company that I am affiliated with. When I come back from the event, I will be a lot more motivated than I am today. This Company consistently rewards us for the work we do in building our businesses. One of the incentives I have been hoping to achieve is the chance to get a brand new BMW Mini. To get this Mini, I need to gather more customers until I have a minimum of 75. I average gathering about 3 to 4 customers a year, and with only 38 customers at present, you can see it will take me about 20 years to get there!!

I am now going to set myself a goal of getting the Mini in March 2021, as there is a particular reason I want to be ready to order it at that time. I want the Mini to have a personalised number plate and it will be this UW21CTM. To achieve this goal I will need a minimum of 37 more customers over 2 years, which equates to about 2 customers a month (allowing for some to leave and need replacing). Now switching from 3 to 4 customers a year to 2 customers a month (24 customers a year), is going to be an enormous jump for me. I am not looking at HOW I am going to do this, only that this is what I WILL achieve! I will let my R.A.S start working on the solution in the background (subconscious). I will keep you posted on my progress.

Weekly Update

Tuesday 1st April

As many of you will have probably found out, today is traditionally a day for pranksters to come out in force, and try to fool as many people as possible. The biggest prank of all has been played on all of us by the Government. below is my reason for thinking this.

At 9am today, most people will embark upon another eight hours of doing something they don't enjoy, which makes someone else more money than it makes them, and they'll continue going back everyday for another 45 years, reaching retirement age having had precious little free time or control over their lives.

When offered the chance to retire in 3 to 7 years, and to get paid over and over again for a job you did just once, some people will snigger and make fun, as if it's our system that's broke, soulless, without control, with no free time, glass ceilings and unrewarding, when it's theirs.

This is the system our schools and governments teach.

Actually, this isn't an April Fool. This is the reality for most people and it's our job to help them realise that there is another way. The more people you help, the further away you push yourself from this broken system.

So, my April Fools Day has been a busy one. I just completed a mystery shop at a restaurant in Leighton Buzzard (no, I won't mention who it was here), along with my wife and daughter.

Then I had to chase up Sports Direct about our online order. It got delivered to us on Saturday, but had one item missing, one item was the wrong size, and two were faulty! They have a wonderful returns system - fill in the returns form and then pay the postage to send it back to them. I spent a long time searching the internet, trying to find out if I could take the items back to a Sports Direct shop for an exchange or a credit note (this still wouldn't have helped with the missing item). From what I could determine, it is very much up to the individual store and it seems that you have to put your foot down with the store manager to get them to accept items bought online.

Another option was to send Sport Direct an email detailing what was wrong with the answer. I sent my email out on Sunday, and only got an automated response that it will be looked into.

Finally today, I tried another alternative, phoning them up. I found on the MoneySavingExpert forum other people who had had this problem, and someone posted up Sports Direct's contact number which was 0845 129 9200. This time, I got to speak with someone, and it proved a very productive call

First, the missing item would be sent out again. Second the faulty goods and the wrong item could be returned to them, but instead of having to pay the postage, I was given a freepost address! So if anyone requires to send back goods bought online at Sports Direct, but do not wish to pay the postage, then all you need to do is post it to the following address

FREEPOST
RRGJ-ZZSB-GLBX
Sports Direct
PO Box 9034
Mansfield
NG18 9DD

After sorting out the above problem, I then went out and stood on my local High Street for 45 minutes. Not as good a result as Friday, but I still look at this as gaining another 4 entries into next years prize draw.

Location	Time Taken	People Asked	Forms Filled	Call Back	Appointments
Stony Stratford	14:50 - 15:09	28	1	Nil	Nil
	15:09 - 15:15	4	1	Nil	Nil
	15:15 - 15:25	10	1	Nil	Nil
	15:25 - 15:35	8	1	1	Nil
Totals	45 Minutes	50	4	1	Nil

After all this activity, I then had to prepare to go to work commencing the first of seven night shifts! To keep up my momentum, I took some special business opportunity newspapers with me, which I placed inside the free Metro newspapers first thing on Wednesday morning. I try not to put them all in one place, but place a few at the stations I travel through. Interestingly, where I work, I get a lot of contractors coming in overnight to work too. One of them became interested in the newspaper, and took it away with them. Hopefully, they will get in touch with me to ask a few more questions!

The rest of the week has been fairly low key, as I have been feeling exhausted with the amount of contractors to deal with at work, and getting broken sleep at home (getting cold calls in the morning!). However, I have been going through my contact list and making a few phone calls each day. One call has resulted in an appointment to see them next week! I am also in the process of educating myself with a bit of personal development. This week, I am reading a book by Gerry A. Ford about how coaching people is a very important part of building a successful Network Marketing business. Until I started reading this book, I hadn't realised there was a learnable technique to coaching! The funny thing is, is at my full time job, I am on a list of available Supervisor's that trainee Supervisor's can shadow, and learn from. So this book is now going to help me in BOTH areas of my working life!

Here we are, the end of the week (Saturday). As I had to take my wife to work for 15:00, this gave me a reason to do another High St WAM (I'm all ready out and about right?). Again I stopped of in my local village of Stony Stratford. This time I only spent 20 minutes there, as it was quite chilly, and I hadn't dressed properly (short sleeved T-Shirt) for the temperature! Even those 20 minutes proved productive (see below). Now I will just have to see if the appointment is successful on Friday!

Location	Time Taken	People Asked	Forms Filled	Call Back	Appointments
Stony Stratford	15:10 - 15:22	10	1	Nil	1
	15:22 - 15:30	14	1	1	Nil
Totals	20 Minutes	24	2	1	1

Currently Reading... Again!

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Currently Reading

Synopsis:

With the American rebellion growing in intensity all around them, Jamie and Claire know they must navigate a difficult course to survive. For not only is being on the winning side no guarantee of safety; Jamie would also rather die than face his illegitimate son, William, a young lieutenant in the British Army, across the barrel of a gun - even as the chances of war conspire to bring them together.


Making their way back to Lallybroch with Jamie's nephew, Young Ian, to fulfil a family promise, might seem one way of thwarting fate. But in the chaos of war every avenue of escape is bristling with danger, and even the time-travelling Claire cannot foresee the tragedy that could tear her and Jamie apart forever.


Meanwhile, in the apparent safety of the 20th Century, their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger read Jamie and Claire's letters, breathlessly watching the unfolding of Brianna's parents' story - even as the past is sneaking up behind their own family to threaten them in the present.



This is the Seventh book in the series. I bought this book in January, and I have been steadily working my way through the series reminding myself of the story so far. The list of the books in chronological order are as follows -

• Outlander (American title) / Cross Stitch (British title)
• Dragonfly In Amber
• Voyager
• Drums Of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath Of Snow And Ashes

I have found that it is always better to read the first book in these sort of series and read them in chronological order, otherwise it spoils the adventure. Nowadays, some authors tend to write their story over a series of books, rather than in one self contained novel. The trouble is, if you like the story in one book, you want to read more adventures about the characters in that book!

The reason I am making this point is that the critics gave a poor review of "An Echo In The Bone" on the grounds that it was not a self contained novel, rather a continuation of the story told in the previous 6 books! That is exactly what this book was meant to be!

I always think of critics as frustrated artists, who do not have the inspiration or ability to produce something original themselves. Instead they can only write derogatory remarks in the hope that the more vicious the report, the more publicity they will receive, and thus give them the impression of increasing their own self importance.

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Synopsis:
The Industrialist
Henrik Vanger, head of the dynastic Vanger Corporation, is tormented by the loss of a child decades earlier and convinced that a member of his family has committed murder.

The Journalist
Mikael Blomkvist delves deep into the Vangers' past to uncover the truth behind the unsolved mystery. But someone else wants the past to remain a secret and will go to any lengths to keep it that way.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic, delinquent and dangerous security specialist, assists in the investigation. A genius computer hacker, she tolerates no restrictions placed upon her by individuals, society or the law.

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Synopsis: In the Micronesian Islands, a top-secret, US government-sponsored undersea lab conducting vital biomedical research on a rare jellyfish known as the Blue Medusa suddenly disappears. At the same time, off Bermuda, a bathysphere is attacked by an underwater vehicle. Stranded half a mile below the surface, its passengers - including Zavala - are left to die. Only Kurt Austin's heroic measures can now save them from a watery grave.

Austin, suspecting a connection between the two mysterious events, puts the NUMA team on the case. He has no idea what he has just got them all into - a hideous series of medical experiments... an extraordinarily ambitious Chinese criminal organization... a secret new virus that threatens to set off a worldwide pandemic... Austin and Zavala have been in tight spots before, but this time it's not just their own skins they're trying to save - it's the lives of millions.

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Synopsis: They watch you through mirrors.....

'Your mother was twenty-seven when it came to her. Now you're twenty-seven, and it's come to you.'

The skin of Alex's arms tingled with goose bumps. By her twenty-seventh birthday insanity had come to his mother...

Turning 27 may be terrifying for some, but for Alex, a struggling artist living in the mid-western United States, it is cataclysmic. Inheriting a huge expanse of land should have made him a rich and happy man; but something about his birthday, his name, and the beautiful woman whose life he had just saved, has suddenly made him - and everyone he loves - into a target. A target for extreme and uncompromising violence...

Where do you turn when your own reflection spells doom?

This book was a birthday present from my wife, and I am already halfway through the book already! If you have read Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series, you will find this book has some connections to the series. I will have finished this book by the end of this week, and then I will have to wait for another year before I can read the next instalment! Damn!!

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Synopsis: Autumn 1541

A giant cavalcade a mile long is wending its way through the Vale of York. Following the uncovering of a plot against the throne in Yorkshire, King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to overawe his rebellious subjects there. Accompanied by a thousand soldiers, the cream of the nobility and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, the King is to attend an extravagant submission of the local gentry at York, the climax of the greatest Progress of Tudor times.

Also travelling to York at the behest of Archbishop Cranmer are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. As well as assisting with legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission for Cranmer - to ensure the welfare of an important but dangerous conspirator who is to be returned to London for interrogation.

But the murder of a York glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to the prisoner in York Castle but also to the royal family itself. As the Great Progress arrives in the city, Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret documents which could shake the Tudor throne, and a chain of events unfolds that will leave Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age...

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Synopsis: It is 1537, a time of revolution that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church. The country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers it has ever seen. And under the orders of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent throughout the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: Dissolution.

But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's commissioner, Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed from his body. His horrific murder is accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege - a black cockerel sacrificed on the church alter, and the disappearance of Scarnsea's Great Relic.

Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death, accompanied by his loyal assistant Mark. His duty is to uncover the truth behind the dark happenings of Scarnsea.

Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything that he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes...

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This is a very short book, so it will probably only take me a day or two to read it.

Synopsis: Few of us can resist the lure and fascination of a genuine mystery - the unsolved crime, the inexplicable disappearance, strange gifts and powers, the enigmas of past and present.

Who or what killed nurse Helen Smith? Who was the real Jack the Ripper? Can people have out-of-the-body experiences? What is really behind hypnosis, miracle healing, acupuncture? How did the Dogon learn the secrets of Sirius?...

This intriguing book examines some of the most celebrated and puzzling mysteries that have baffled the scientists, medical experts, historians and criminologists of the world.

Update: I have just discovered in one of the chapters about Amnesia, is an article about my father!!! It is about his battle with Alzheimer's disease, and how he volunteered to be a human Guinea Pig for the new drugs being tested. I am not sure if it was such a good idea though. The drugs couldn't reverse the the disease, only slow it down. So instead of taking the average 7 years to die from the disease, it actually took him nearly 20 years to die!!! Not a very pleasant experience for the rest of the family to go through though.

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Book 5 of 5. I've read this book once before, but I cannot remember anything about it now. So this one should be almost as good as reading a brand new book!

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Book 4 in a series of 5. This one is the hardest to read, as it has very little action, and endless descriptions of the environment the characters are travelling through.

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Book number 3 in a series of 5

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