If you have not yet subscribed to this newsletter, please sign up to gain instant access to a number of F*REE gifts. Also, we encourage you to share this with your friends.

The Institute of Success and Goal Achievement, at www.i-saga.net, is an organization that I founded to help people like you define what success means to you, and gives you access to great resources to accelerate your goal achievement. I encourage you to visit often and make i-saga part of your toolbox to help you create your story.

• i-saga Updates
  - No New News is Sometimes Good News
  - Resources to Help You Achieve Your Goals in 2009
  
• i-saga Guest Interviews
  - Calendar
  - Interview Highlights
• Spotlight Article: "Don’t Let Tolerations Get in the Way"

Please add info@i-saga.net to your whitelist or address book in your e-mail program so you don’t miss an issue of this newsletter. Also, feel free to forward this newsletter to people you know who might benefit from reading it.

No New News is Sometimes Good News

Hello to all in the i-saga community!

Here we are in mid-February already. I love the fact that the buckets of snow that have been on the ground have been slowly melting away with the “warm spell” we’ve had. (For those of you who live outside New England, that means it’s been above freezing and even hit 40 degrees some days!)

I’m also amazed at how so many good things are happening with my Results Coaching and Consulting work – I’ve had a couple of clients that I’ve been helping rather intensively since the start of this year, and they're making great progress!

So what does this mean for the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement? Not a whole lot has changed since we last shared our newsletter – “No New News”. Sure, the ideas are plentiful, and I have a vision of upgrades to the website, how the content is delivered, and the benefits to members. All that is coming.

For now, this means that the format is the same as you’ve come to enjoy. The good news is that we have taken the time to introduce new i-saga guests to you, and that you’ll hear them in the upcoming weekly interviews.

So, check out the fantastic and insightful content that I draw out of the guests each week on the i-saga blog. I know you’ll enjoy the new guests!

Catch the most recent interviews while they are still posted for f.r.e.e at i-saga-guest-interviews.com! I have not yet pulled them down, so grab all you can before I tuck them into the archive!

Spotlight – Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”

I know I shared this in last month’s newsletter about resources for 2009, but it gets better!

Jack Canfield’s book, The Success Principles, is well on its way to becoming a timeless classic that should be on everyone’s reading list. My copy has highlights, handwritten notes, and marks all over it, as I’m sure yours will too when you read it.

Of course, reading a great book that is full of helpful ideas that will change your life is one thing, but what about the opportunity to spend a day with Jack himself as he leads a workshop based on The Success Principles?

I am thrilled to share with you that Jack is holding 1-day Workshops RIGHT NOW! The first one is on February 28th, so you’ll want to reserve your seat today!

Also, if you don’t have it, the information about this great book is below, as well. I know you’ll benefit from this terrific opportunity to hear Jack live, and you might want to have the book before you go.

Enjoy!

Jack Canfield’s book, The Success Principles, is one that I’ve re-read many times, and I continue to gain useful insights from it!

The Success Principles will teach you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and realize all your ambitions. Not merely a collection of good ideas, this book spells out the 64 timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history. And the fundamentals are the same no matter what your profession or circumstances—even if you’re a student, stay-at-home mom, or currently unemployed.

Here’s the information again on the 1-day Live Workshops with Jack, which will lead you through the exercises that will help you make 2009 the best year of your life!

Return to top

Interview Highlights

Please visit i-saga-guest-interviews.com every Friday for access to the weekly interviews. That's the "guest interview" category section of the i-saga.net blog page.

Remember, the intent is to keep these as a f.r.e.e. resource to you so the replay will be available in the blog posting for one week after the initial broadcast. After that, we’ll put it into the archive where members can gain access to ALL of the interviews and transcripts, so you can come back as often as you like!

We are in the process of making these changes, so as of right now, you can still go to the “Guest Interviews” section of the Success Stories Blog for highlights of the recent interviews, and catch as many of the replays as you want before we move them to the members only archive.

Return to top

Don’t Let Tolerations Get in the Way

If you’re part of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement, then you are clearly a driven person. I’m guessing that you have huge aspirations for what you want to achieve, and for the level of success you want in your life.

I expect that you certainly have the habit of setting goals, and I’m guessing that you are also conscious of the contributions you are making – you have unique talents that you share with the world in some way.

I go through the process each year of setting goals across all areas in my life. I have many projects that I am excited about and want to see through. I feel like we’re connected in this way.

In 2009, I plan to have my children’s book published and my business book on Strategic Goal Deployment™ finished and released. I have my Results Coaching and Consulting clients that I want to help achieve quantum leaps in their success levels. I have the Dear God Letter process that the world deserves to learn about. And, of course, the overhauls and improvements to the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement are exciting and forthcoming!

Additionally, because I do believe that all areas of my life are important, I have built time into my calendar and goals this year for my family, friends, and self, as well.

With all that we want to achieve this year, who has time for the tolerations that distract us from focusing on our goals? Tolerations are those things that we have allowed into our lives that are not as they should be, but we have not bothered to handle them yet. As a result, they actually distract our mental energy from what is important.

Let’s come up with a few examples.

• My office is a bit of a mess. As mail comes in, I look quickly to see what is important, and then I put the rest in the inbox. Well, that inbox is overflowing now, and extra items on my desk (way beyond what I’m working on right now) are staying there until I scoop them up and drop them on top of the inbox.
• The door lock on my car’s driver door sticks. I hit the power lock button on my keychain, and it sometimes stays down. I have to hit lock then unlock a few times before it pops up.
• I have a number of books on my bedside table – all really good ones, to be sure. Some I’ve read most of, some I’ve thumbed through, and others I have yet to start. But I’m certainly not reading them all at this minute.
• My “all-in-one” printer somehow lost the ability to fax documents a few months ago, and instead I’ve been scanning to pdf and emailing.
• My blue-tooth headset went through the laundry. Yep – it was washed, and dried. At least it solved the puzzle of where it could have possibly disappeared to! However, it no longer works. I have been relying on my old plug-in hands-free device when I drive, but the sound quality is quite poor.

You get the idea. What tolerations do you have right now? I bet you could come up with a list at least as long as the one I’ve created, and I’ve only scratched the surface!

Here’s what happens when you allow for these tolerations. First, they take up some of your mental energy and attention. At a minimum, each time something isn’t working the way it should, you give a little groan of dissatisfaction.

Second, they are probably causing you to lose personal productivity. If your office is a mess and you spend time looking for something that should have been filed in an obvious place, then you can appreciate the productivity loss.

Lastly, if you have allowed it to go on so long that you don’t even realize you’re taking the extra step – such as creating a pdf where a fax would have done the trick – then you’re actually sending out signals to the universe that it’s OK for things not to work perfectly for you and that you’ll just handle the extra complexities and frustrations.

So what can you do? The first step is to pause and take a look around to recognize those things that have indeed been tolerations for you. Make a master list of “my tolerations”, and post them on the wall. (Leave space for you to mark the “completion date” next to each item.)

Of course, you don’t want to keep these tolerations around for long, but you do need to be at peace with what might be an overwhelming list. The second step, therefore, is to make a decision that you accept these tolerations until you decide to handle them. (This is a secret to managing anything that is frustrating – start by accepting it.)

The third step is to decide which toleration to handle next, and then take it to completion. Clear the books from your bedside table and put them away. Organize your office or hire someone to do it for you. Get a system in place and follow it from this point forward. Schedule an appointment for that irritating problem with your car.

Next, commit to making progress on your toleration list every week. It doesn’t have to be a big step, but you should take a conscious action toward completing the next toleration, and keep going until it is handled and gone for good.

Finally, celebrate your progress! Write the date you completed all the actions to get rid of this toleration. That way, you can have the list that is posted on your wall actually reinforce your successes. Now, give yourself permission to enjoy something you love that you would not have done had you not cleared the toleration. Go out for ice cream. Buy yourself a gift. Watch your favorite movie. What it is doesn’t matter, but do tie the reward to the fact that you earned it with clearing the toleration. We love rewards, and this action will help reinforce that which we’re trying to create – a list of completed tolerations!

* * *

I encourage you to review this list and start with step one today. It only takes a few minutes to write down the things that you’ve been tolerating for a while – you know what they are. It becomes easy to follow all of these steps once you’ve gotten into action, so start with this list now while you’re thinking of it. Need to be held accountable? Email your list to me at info@i-saga.net.

To your highest success,

Pete Winiarski

Note: This article is published concurrent to the newsletter as a blog posting on the i-saga.net blog, SuccessStoriesBlog.net. Please visit the blog, and post a comment to let us know your thoughts about this article.

Return to top

We'd love to hear from you.
We appreciate you for sharing your thoughts – please connect here to leave your feedback. Or, to call in a testimonial via phone, please dial +1 800-609-9006, x7829 and follow the prompts.

Please tell your friends about i-saga!
We want to reach over 100,000 people and help them obtain new levels of success faster because of the i-saga expert interviews and success resources. Please tell them about i-saga.net In fact, we make it easy for you. To tell your friends about i-saga, please visit our Tell A Friend Page.