If you have been a reader of this blog for any length of time, you know that his first book changed my life. In twelve weeks following the Body for Life program, I lost over 25 pounds and cut my body fat percentage by over 30%. And the muscle that I gained, helped me keep the weight off for years.

Bill’s new book is more holistic than his first, covering not just diet and exercise, but also mindset and well being. His weight training and exercise program is a kinder and gentler version of the original but still achieves amazing results. It’s written from the viewpoint of someone in their forties, that wants to live an incredibly healthy and happy life.

It’s the inspiration from this book and my experiences with weight training and exercise that I want to use to create a focused goal planner for fitness that can help us lose weight and create a focused and sustainable exercise program. The planner will be flexible so you can use it with most of the popular fitness programs on the market such as Body for Life.

To do it , we’ll modify our planner in a couple of different ways that will allow us to track our progress with multiple check-off boxes and keep a weekly tally on our weight.

We’ll aim for a twelve week initial program and focus on a standardized start and end time. We’ll also look at bringing in a coach or mentor to help keep us accountable along the way. Stay tuned as we get started.

The planner is a free download and comes in two formats. One is completely customizable in Microsoft publisher and the other is a print only PDF version that you can print on any machine that has Adobe acrobat reader on it.

Here are the major components…

The planner is based around a twelve week time frame, but can easily be expanded with multiple sheets. There is a place for project title, work location and timeframe along with our focused work time, accountability partners, and project milestones.

The sheet is easy to set up and has two boxes per day for easy check-offs. To give you an idea how the system works, I’ll post three example setups in the next few days which will include…

• Our Name and some personal information
• The focused time period we plan to work (example: 48 minutes)
• The scheduled time for the focused time period (example: 6 to 8 am)
• The location we plan to work on our project
• The time period to reach our goal (example: Twelve weeks)
• Milestones along the way to keep us on track (example: weekly review)
• Completion date and intended results (example: lose 12 pounds by Oct 15)
• Checklist that will mark mark daily/weekly completion
• A list of people that will hold us accountable and contact information
• Tools and supplies needed for success

Why not download the template today and give it a try. Stay tuned over the next few days as we put the FAST system planner through three different planning challenges.

Fast Planner Download

Tony’s company is called The Energy Project and his work is focused on improving workplace and personal life performance. I found this book ties in with many of the things I’ve blogged about here at Success Begins Today. From diet and exercise, to time management, and goal setting, this little book has some practical and workable solutions to many of the things we all struggle with.

One of the best items in the book was the idea of focused time. Similar to our 48 minutes program, Tony presents the idea of creating rituals, where you work on one thing in a focused manner for a set length of time. He takes this a step further and makes sure that these rituals are scheduled in advance at a set time and place.

This really opened my mind about our popular 48 minute program, where you work on one focused thing for 48 minutes and then take a twelve minute break. Incorporating some of Tony’s ideas I came up with an acronym that will help take this popular program to a new level.

I’ve used the Acronym F.A.S.T. to illustrate how it will work. Here are the components…

• Focused
• Accountable
• Scheduled
• Time

1. Focused work means working on one thing at a time. You turn off all distractions such as e-mail, web browsers, and close your door if possible, and focus on one key task.

2. Accountable means setting a short term and long term goal for your project and letting someone else hold you accountable for completing the task.

3. Scheduled means setting a time and place for your focused activities and also setting a completion schedule with milestones along the way.

4. Time is the amount of focused time you will spend on each interval of the project and also the amount of days or weeks to complete the project.

Here are a couple of real world examples how the FAST program works.

Let’s say you want to write a book. You’ll need to figure how much time each of the components for creating a book will take (first draft, editing, formatting etc.) and then schedule a time and place where you can focus on writing your book. You’ll set short term goals and a long term completion date. Then you’ll setup a schedule to complete the project with milestones along the way and ask someone to hold you accountable for each milestone.

Here is an example that I used when writing my first book…

Daily Focused Writing Time: Two 48 minute focused sessions a day, each with a twelve minute break.
Schedule: Write each day starting at 5 in the morning. Finish up at 7am.
Accountability: Aim for a minimum of 1000 words/day. Long term goal of four months to complete the first draft. Have an accountability partner read your work on a daily or weekly basis and provide feedback. Schedule these times in advance.
Time: Setup project milestones to keep you on track (ie..three chapters/week)

Here is an example I used with the Body for Life program…

Daily Focused Time: 48 minute workout session with a 12 minute cool down session afterwards.
Schedule: Mon, Wed, Fri, strength training for 48 minutes. Tues, Thurs, Sat, interval aerobic training for 48 minutes. Sunday off
Accountability: Weigh in on Monday mornings. Put weight and waist measurements in a fitness journal. Check in with a coach on a weekly basis.
Time: Daily 48 minutes (short term goal) for 12 Weeks (long term goal)

As you can see, this program will help improve your focus and reach your goals in a timely manner. Since you schedule focused time in advance and have someone hold you accountable, the probability of success is greatly increased.

To help you implement this program in your life, I’ll put together a FAST program guide later this week with a printable strategic planner to put all of these elements in one place.

I’ll include some techniques to improve focus and concentration as well as great references to help you stay on track. The program will also give you a guide to performance accountability. Stay tuned…

I’ve been pitched enough faulty products, unworkable MLM businesses, and million dollar get rich schemes, that I am skeptical about anything that seems too easy or doesn’t require much time and effort.

Yet… what if someone handed you a cool new product and wanted you to endorse it… would you have enough faith to do it?

This is what heavyweight boxer George Foreman faced when his boxing career was coming to an end. A small little kitchen appliance company wanted him to endorse a little two sided electric grill and put his name on it.

The company gave George a sample grill and wanted him to use it. But George, just put the grill on the back shelf and never bothered to try it. He though it was a gimmick. The company called month after month and George just brushed them off. It wasn’t until George’s wife pulled the grill off the shelf and gave it a whirl, that she realized what a great product it was. “George, you gotta see this,” she said.

She told George how easy it was to use, and that he should give it a try. After months of ignorance, George finally tried a hamburger on it. It cooked quickly and both sides were done at the same time. It turned out juicy and full of flavor. George made a decision right then and there that would change his life forever. That day the George Foreman grill was born.

This little grill took off slowly, but with George as the pitchman, it soon became a household name. Almost everyone has a George Forman grill of some sort and we all have George’s wife to thank for the discovery. The George Forman Grill became the best selling electric appliance in history.

Yet without a stroke of luck, George Foreman, would have left that billion dollar product on the shelf. It begs the question…

Do you have a billion dollar product or idea sitting on a shelf somewhere?

A great way to explore your options is to pick up George’s new book, Knockout Entrepreneur. He gives a great outline on what it takes to be successful through the analogy of a heavyweight fight. He tells you who needs to be in your corner and what obstacles you face in your bout. It’s a great read, and if you are a blogger, you can get his book (and others like it) for free through “Book Sneeze.”

I highly recommend the book to anyone starting a business, especially the guys who love boxing. He’ll take you round by round and help you take on the world.

Here are three quick ones that come to mind from my life experience.

1. Savings Plan. Save at least 10% of what you earn.

2. Set Long Term Goals. Write them down and plan action steps to complete them.

3. Faith. For me, faith in God is so very important. Everything else revolves around it.

These are three that would be at the top of my list. What about you?

What Items would you include on a Success Checklist?

At a certain point, you’ll need to add additional weight to maintain your training routine. The same thing works for many of the goals we set. With repetition things get easier.

With the New Year upon us, why not take a look at some of your daily routines and see if they have become too easy. If so, why not take them up a notch?

Nothing radical… just a notch.

Why not…

If walking is your goal, walk a little farther

If sales is your game, make an additional sales call

If writing is your passion, create another paragraph

And see your productivity increase

And maybe your paycheck as well.

But here is the rub, if you can’t see them on a regular basis you’ll soon forget them. The key is to put your written goals in a visible place where you will see them during your day. I have two ways that you can do this.

1. Written Goal Cards: The first is to download our Goal Setting Toolkit and print out the template on business card stock. You take the resulting cards and write down your goals. Once you have them on the cards, you can place the cards in easy view at your desk, in the car and anywhere you’ll see them during your day (on the refrigerator door works well for diet goals ).

Here is an example card for long term goals…

Here is a daily card that you can carry with you…

As you can see, their handy size will let you put them almost anywhere.

2. Goal Word Cards: While specific goal cards are great, you may not want the whole world knowing that you are hankering for the CEO position in 10 years. Chris Brogan, the social media guy, has a great solution. He usually sets three primary goals each year, and gives each goal a one word title. The word instantly brings up the goal in his mind, but the word only means something to him. His words for 2010 are ecosystems, owners, and kings.

I personally like this system as a word is much easier to remember than a detailed goal statement. This is where our motivator cards come in. The default template has motivational words on it that you can print out and keep in sight. All you need to do is take your goal words for the year and replace the words on these cards in MS Word.

Here is the cool part, you can take your three words and make a goal tower right at your desktop, with a clothespin, two micro clips and a pencil. All items that you probably have handy.

Once you have this setup you’ll see your words all day. Your co-workers may ask about them and you have the choice of telling them the whole story.. or not.

And there is one last caveat, the motivator cards have a remember me card that will remind you to bring home the milk. This is one goal that will get you brownie points in a hurry!!

You can some amazing things in that amount of time..

You can do the Body for Life program and change the way you look and feel.

You can join Michael Hyatt and train and run a half Marathon.

You can Join Toastmasters and improve your speaking skills.

You can create a blog and communicate with the world.

You can write the first three chapters of your new book.

Or you can put it off to tomorrow… or the next day…

Here is a simple toolkit to get you started.

A Buffer is an “extra” that helps take up the slack until things get back to normal.

Here are three buffers that you might want to consider for the new year.

1. Income Buffer: With the ups and downs of the economy and a record unemployment rate, many people have found themselves out of a job or taking a pay cut. When something like this happens it is always good to have a “rainy day” account.

Best selling author Dave Ramsey, in his insightful book, Total Money Makeover, suggests putting aside three to six months of income into an emergency fund. He gives an insightful quote…

"49% of Americans could cover less than one months’ expenses if they lost their income."

He suggest putting aside 10% of your income into this emergency fund, until you have created a buffer of at least 3 months. His book has many budgeting tools to help you get there.

2. Posting Buffer: If you are a blogger or write articles for publication, it’s always a good idea to have an extra post or two in your back pocket. As I have looked at many of the New Year resolutions out in the blog-o-sphere one of the most common is “I will blog three to four times per week for the next year.”

As a long time blogger I can tell you that this sounds simple, but is actually hard to do on a consistent basis. The solution is to have a buffer of posts or articles, so you can post one of them when conflicts occur.

I have found for myself that Saturdays work well for creating short and insightful posts that can be added at a later date. While it’s tempting to post them on the weekend, it’s better to put them aside and leave them for a weekday when people are at work and traffic is higher.

Having a buffer of two or three back pocket articles can reduce the stress of blogging and take it from I have to  back to I want to.

3. Buffer Days: Many of the resolutions that I have seen lately include a daily regimen. Whether it is exercise, eating better, or a daily reading habit, many of the plans have something happening every day. The problem with this rigid type of plan is that unexpected things come up and mess up the rhythm of the plan.

With any type of daily schedule it’s best to have a buffer day included. For example, when I did the Body for Life exercise program a few years ago, the plan was setup with a free day each week. I usually set the free day for Sunday, but many weeks something would come up during a week day that prevented me from exercising. A simple solution was to make that conflict day my free day and do the scheduled exercise on Sunday.

Having that buffer day made all the difference in staying on the plan.

Another buffer strategy is to move the deadline for projects or long term goals back a few days to allow for the inevitable problems that may arise. For example, if I am scheduled to give a presentation on Friday, I may move my deadline for completion back a few days to Tuesday, to allow for any last minute changes and to reduce my stress level.

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With the New Year upon us, try implementing buffers into your plans. They will help you be more successful and certainly reduce your stress level. I would love to hear your buffer ideas and success. Please comment below.

Here are five simple action steps that you can take today to make your dreams come true. Goal setting should be fun, so find a comfortable quiet place and spend a few minutes and do at least one right now.

1. Set Time Aside: The first step in setting a goal is to design in some time in your coming year when you can actually take action to complete your goal. I suggest you find a block of time during your usual workday that you can set aside for just this purpose.

If you are a morning person, find time early in the day. If you like to stay up late at night, carve out some time in your evening. Aim for an hour of uninterrupted time. This may mean giving up some TV or getting up an hour early, but if you really want to be successful, time is a must. Do not go to step two until you have determined a time block you are willing to set aside.

2. Paint the Big Picture: Visualize in your mind completing your goal. Picture the book you are publishing or the marathon you are running in. See yourself on the scale twenty pounds lighter. Whatever your goal is you need to experience it with all five senses in your mind. You want to hear the roar of the crowd, taste the wine, feel the rush of excitement, smell the fresh air flowing in your face, all the while seeing the finish line coming at you.

It’s helpful to have printed pictures of others who have gone before you and been successful. If a marathon is your goal, cut or print out pictures of others crossing the finish line, if a book is your goal, create a mockup with your title, for weight loss, find pictures of actual people who have had success. Once you vividly experience yourself achieving the goal in your mind, you can move on to the next step.

3. Choose the Words and Write Them Down: Popular social-media expert, Chris Brogan, has a great technique for goal setting that is real helpful. He chooses one word that describes each goal. The word needs to be big enough to encompass the entire process, not just the action. I think this is a great way to keep your goals fresh in your mind.

Just take the vivid picture that you painted in step two and set aside a word or word combination that has meaning to you. Then take a card or sheet of paper and write it down in bold letters. You may have to do a little experimenting to find a word that is all encompassing. For example, “Run” might be a word that works for a marathon, but “Finish-Line” is stronger and more encompassing. The word “Chapter” might work for writing a book, but “Blockbuster” would be more motivating.

Underneath your main word you can write down two or three action words that describe the steps to complete your goal. But the main thing is to come up with ONE word that works for you and WRITE IT DOWN. The act of writing it down will cement it in your mind and you’ll have a quick point of reference. Don’t go on to the next step until you have your word where you can see it in bold letters, written down on a card or sheet of paper.

4. Give Yourself a Deadline: Goals without deadlines are just dreams. The secret to successfully achieving your goals is to set deadlines and milestones, but allowing yourself to be flexible enough that the unavoidable time conflict doesn’t ruin your effort.

Some goals naturally come with a deadline, such as a marathon. You sign up for a marathon and it is run on a certain day. End of story. Writing a book is a different event altogether. With creative endeavors you may not have a true idea how long something will take.

This is the power of setting time blocks. Your “goal” is to write for a certain time period a day. As you progress, it will become apparent for example that you are completing a chapter a week. This will give you an idea of the completion date. You need to be very diligent about your time block, but flexible on the end date.

Here is a common New Year goal that many people will have trouble with…

I want to read through the bible in a year.

The accompanying literature has the daily chapters that you need to read every day to accomplish the goal. The problem here is the end date is fixed and you have no buffer days. If you miss a day of reading you have to read twice as long the next day to catch up. Instead of 15 minutes you now have to spend 30. If you miss three days it’s 45 minutes etc.

The one thing I can guarantee is that there will be days during the year that you will be sick, or some type of emergency will come up. Goals like this are so inflexible that people soon have to miss a few days and then give up because they do not have the larger time block to catch up.

Setting a goal that has a time block will be much more successful.

I will set aside 15 minutes a day to read my bible during the next year.

In this case if you miss a few days, you can just start back up and continue from where you left off.

Common deadline time periods that work well are one year, twelve weeks, and weekly. A common technique is to schedule an end date earlier than the true end date. For example, if I am doing a presentation on the 10th, I’ll set my deadline a week earlier on the 3rd. If something comes up I have a 7 day buffer. This reduces stress and allows for the inevitable conflict or delay.

On your goal card, write down a realistic deadline for your goal underneath the word(s) that you chose above. Allow buffer time. Underneath the deadline, write down the time block you will use to accomplish this.

5. Bring In a Mentor: The real success I’ve found in goal setting is to develop a mentor. Someone who has accomplished the goal you are striving for. They have been there and done that.

While it is best that this is a real person, it can also be a book or program. For example, let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds. You can join a gym and hire a personal trainer. While this may be somewhat expensive, your chance of success has really increased because you have someone training you and holding you accountable.

You can do a similar thing by buying the book, Body for Life, and following the 12 week program. You can sign up online and connect with others in the same program to hold you accountable.

If you are writing a book, a personal editor will be very helpful, but for less money you can join a writers group, where everyone critiques each others work.

To complete your card, write down the name of a mentor that can help you achieve your goal underneath the time block you wrote above. Someone that is willing to hold you accountable. If it is a program or organization, write that name down.

Finishing Up: Now you should have a goal card with a meaningful word at the top, a realistic deadline underneath, the time block you will use to achieve it, and a mentor to hold you accountable.

Put this card where you can see it. You now have completed one written goal for the new year. Be sure to touch base with your mentor and keep the word picture in your mind.

Realistically you can have up to three of these cards at one time. Just be sure that the time blocks are doable and do not overlap.

Insuring Success: To help you with your goal, try using the Power of 48 Minutes technique. This is a simple single tasking exercise.

Here is how you do it…

Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions (e-mail, web etc) and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get coffee, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary.

We also have the following downloadable tools that may help…

Goal Setting Toolkit

Five Minute Diet Planner

Daily Goal Sheet

Good luck with your goal setting activities!