Happy New Year!
Listen to Extraordinary Minds.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity.

Its first chapter is New Years Day.

~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

What do you want? Do you have any idea how hard it is for most people to answer that question?  Even many who practice productivity management are sorely lacking in details.  Maybe you, too.

New Years is for reconnecting with the cycles, realizing how many choices we go around making every day, and thinking about making this cycle count for something different, or special.

It makes sense to decide what you want before trying to get it!
What do you want your life to look like in 3 months? — a year from now? — 5 years?

What are the secrets of making and keeping good plans?  Extraordinary Minds say…
(To learn more about the League of Extraordinary Minds free broadcasts, go here.)

One secret is in Reaching Out.  Here are some ways to connect with your opportunities more clearly:

Reaching Out with your mind.
The beginning of all change starts with an idea.
Think of what you want and reach out for it with your mind.

Reaching Out with your heart.
The beginning of motivation is in the heart.
Connect your desire with your ideas, and reach out with your heart.

Reaching Out with your hands.
The visible beginning comes from daily action.
Reach out with your actions and connect motivation with practice.

Reaching out with your heart and mind is powerful, and takes courage.  You risk wanting something without knowing the outcome.  This ‘inner game’ part of reaching out is scary for many people.  If we admit to ourselves how much we want something to change, it brings the tension of unknowing and responsibility.  And if we take no action, that can cause inner conflict and all kinds of negative emotions, like guilt and shame, even feelings of low self-worth and failure.

Enter: Daily Action.
(Daily Action wears a Mighty Mouse cape, and is singing, “Here I come to save the day…”).

If you want to find those opportunities and keep your resolve, there is a secret within the secret:  Repeat steps one and two, reaching out with mind and heart, again and again, to shore up Daily Action.

As you start to practice the new habit, revisit your ideas and motivation daily. Think of more new ideas, about how to keep motivation high, and about exactly what will help you want to succeed. Then act upon your ideas.  Observe your progress without judging.

Where are Your opportunities?  How do you get involved in your own goals? After the thinking, and desire, doing your dailies is the only answer which brings success.  It’s the one that falters first most of the time.  But you can be different…

By reaching out.  And reaching out.  And Daily Reaching Out.

As you listen to one of the last free broadcasts of the world-class coaches in the League of Extraordinary Minds, start imagining yourself moving toward that kind of success.  Then Reach Out to your goals bravely and make a New Years difference in your own personal and professional life.

Go for Your New Years Opportunities!

There appear to be insider similarities between certain puppeteers and really good entrepreneurs.  These five tips were discovered recently and we offer them to you, for your Apt Success:

Be able to speak with more than one voice.

• Communicate effectively with lots of people
• So they feel your attention is specifically on them, and
• Help them feel you understand and care for each one.

Get caught doing something that makes you happy.

• Communicating your satisfaction and happiness
• Makes you a source of positive motivation
• And encourages interest and audience participation.

Be willing to share the spotlight.

• No one likes a mega-limelight hog.
• Collaboration can make competing even more effective
• And send you to stardom with less ego bruising.

Use your talents and skills for good causes.

• Give back to the community
• It’s good business —
• And it’s the right thing to do.

Leave your audience wanting more.

• Athletes call it leaving at the top of their game
• Great singers say their voice will tell them when to retire
• The most effective marketers put out a clear call to action
  and then let the buyer make the decision to act

Find The Five Hidden Tips and More Here:
Eben’s Fabulous Free 47-minute Business Training Video

Veritably all successful entrepreneurs (or other performers) know these rules.  Comedians use common experiences to establish feelings of connection among their audiences.  Listeners feel they are a part of the process because they catch glimpses of themselves in the act.  Sometimes both figuratively and literally!

Laughing is contagious.  So is happiness.  Broadcast your positive image and be a presence everyone will want to associate with.  Invite participation both directly and indirectly.  Model the attitude you hope to foster in others.

How engaging would a ventriloquist be all alone on the stage?  Much of her best material could not be communicated in it’s usually effective way.  The same is true of entrepreneurs who need others to help them achieve goals and dreams.  Going Big means getting support, sharing tasks, collaborating on projects, and sharing the spotlight. Be appreciative of your helpers, mentors, and cohorts.  Find good ones.

Giving and giving generously are standard markers of success.  Whether referring to moral character, community image, networking acumen, or business strategy, giving is good.  For all the right reasons.

This is the hardest one for most folks.  Saying your piece and exiting, leaving your audience wanting more, is a learned skill.  Getting to the place where you have confidence can be a lengthy journey.  Shorter, much shorter if you have good teachers.

Find The Five Hidden Tips Here:

Find The Five Hidden Tips and More Here:
Eben’s Fabulous Free 47-minute Business Training Video

(Way more than Five Tips)  Enjoy Taking Action!

For the last month, we’ve been talking about how learning new skills and habits can lead to success.  We’ve explored some existential questions and pondered the value of using great teaching resources to move us forward.  Sounds serious.

Whether you get to ‘follow your bliss,’ as they say, is huge.  And yet, we can all think of someone who is so serious about it all, they couldn’t find bliss in a bowl full of bliss.

This post wants nothing from you but this:  Mix it up!

Yes, yes, improve your mood and increase your energy with more and more of what helps you succeed.  Great teaching can be unspeakably helpful.  Follow the good ones.

Then go forget about everyone else for awhile and be.  Try actually being with yourself!  As noted in the Attention Age report, that’s not so easy.  Way too many pieces of information vying for top-dog in our brains.

Employing your imagination is born out of giving it room to wander.

Find your next resource and begin learning — AFTER you make joy.  Sustainable entrepreneurship covers more time-distance than the sprint.  Joy helps maintain the stamina and resilience you’ll need on that challenging road to success.

P.S.  Anyone know this little fellow?  Source is lost, but can’t resist using this.  Please let us know!

First, think of something you wish everyone knew.  Well, at least everyone you wish well!  (We’re working on wishing everyone well.)

Next, think of something very valuable you wish everyone could have in their lives.  Tangible or Intangible, Practical or Just for Fun or Beauty.  These should be things you really believe in for this thing to work.

Now put those two steps together:  (an example in action:  Jeff Johnson’s new video)

Think of how to make it possible
for more folks to know what they need to know
to have the valuable things they want and need.

Some people learning how to be affiliates begin by trying to answer those questions.  What do I wish I could teach people so they could have the freedom they desire?

The freedom to pursue their passions,
and the freedom from life’s pains.

One way to accomplish this is to find outstanding teachers and connect them with new students and followers.

• Teachers who actually care about their students,
• and who practice what they teach.
• Trainers who are ethical, experienced,
• and in the case of entrepreneurs, highly successful long-term.
• Coaches who fit their leadings into the broad context of people’s real lives.
• Students who want to know the material being taught — because they want that value and freedom in their lives.

We at APTservicesgroup.com are very picky.  We have done some serious homework in finding you reputable and talented resources.  We have checked out every person we recommend, and have studied something and benefitted from every one.

These are the Cream of the Crop.

Their courses, newsletters, products, and email lists deliver massive value to someone trying to live healthily, get their own online business going, manage time more effectively, kick fears away, and in short, Move Forward.

This week, check out Jeff Johnson’s new video on his blog.  If you don’t know Jeff, he’s a fast-talker.  He moves so fast, video is perfect — you can replay it to take your notes and capture all the juicy gems he tosses out to you.

If you’re a newbie, Don’t let the marketty-sounding parts turn you off.  Get past that and think of the value and benefits his training could bring your life.  He’s a family guy from Michigan who is so comfortable with his knowledge of business that he’s not even embarrassed to sound marketty.  But he takes beginners from clueless to ethical cash with great care and skill.

You’ll want to try his mailing list for awhile.  He sends out great content and free software all the time.  He never spams and every email includes an opt-out option.  We love his clear, detailed videos. Put your email address in the bold green bar on Jeff Johnson’s Underground Training Lab blog.  Yeah, we know, it looks “marketty.”  But it’s safe and wonderful.

Are you still here?  Go find out how to make it possible. Get the means to have

Yeah.