"Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values."

- Ayn Rand

One More Thing Before Setting Your Long-Term Goals: Figure Out Your Core Values

By Michael Masterson

This is the fourth in a series of essays I'm writing on "master planning your new life." So far, we've looked at what you need to do to make a major life change.

I started by suggesting that you have to take full responsibility for your life, admit that you want more, and make a deep and public commitment to change. I even asked you to commit to that change in writing. Next, we discussed why you need to follow a specific, proven master plan in order to achieve success. And last week, we talked about how you could turn your dearest dreams into specific, actionable, time-oriented, realistic goals.

Now, before you can jump feet first into master planning your life, you have one more job to do: Figure out what's really important to you.

Most people you meet on the street don't like their jobs, are unhappy with their family life, and want more money. They believe that if they could just do this or that, everything would be better.

Winning the lottery would make it all okay. At least that's what they think. But the truth is otherwise. Unless you live your life according to your core values, no success will be enough to bring you joy.

So before you attempt to set your goals, you have to spend 15 minutes figuring out your core values. What do I mean by core values? I mean the feelings you have about good and evil that are buried deep within your heart.

What does goal setting have to do with core values? It's all about insuring your long-term happiness. If you set goals that contradict your core values, you will wake up one day and say, "I did everything I said I wanted to do. But so what?"

You don't want to end up being yet another highly successful but fundamentally miserable person - a fate so common it's become a cliche. Here's how to make sure that doesn't happen...

Begin by imagining a funeral. It is taking place in an elegantly appointed room. The room is full of friends and family members who have assembled to talk about the deceased. You look around. You begin to recognize faces. "Who is the deceased?" you wonder. You look at the casket. Good God, it's you!

So what are the people at your funeral saying about you?

Imagine specific people: a parent, a sibling, a neighbor, a business associate, and even a stranger. Don't be vague about this. Think about individual, real people. And imagine them making very specific statements.

It's not enough to imagine your nephew saying something like, "She was a generous woman." You need to imagine a second, qualifying sentence, such as, "She always sent me expensive birthday presents."

And be honest. Don't sugarcoat the pill. Say it like it is. For example, your next door neighbor might be saying, "I thought he was a very inconsiderate person. He never picked up the mess when his dog crapped on my lawn."

Imagine everything the people at your funeral could truthfully say about you - and then think about the way their words make you feel.

If you don't feel good, it means that, in those relationships at least, you are not living your life according to your core values.

Now, for every negative statement you just imagined, ask yourself, "What would I like this person to be saying about me?" The answer to that question will reveal your core values for that particular relationship.

The goal of this exercise is to create a set of about a dozen sentences. Each sentence will be a statement that indicates what you think is important in a particular area of your life.

Let's say you imagined someone saying, "He was always struggling to make ends meet." That statement would make you feel bad, right? So then you imagine what you would like that person to say about you, and you might come up with, "He struggled for a while and then everything changed. He became very successful and died a wealthy person." If that statement makes you feel good, it's reasonable to say that acquiring wealth is a core value for you. And you would write it down like this: "I believe that financial success is a valuable and admirable accomplishment."

Got it?

Negative Statement: "He was always struggling to make ends meet."

Positive Statement: "He struggled for a while and then everything changed. He became very successful and died a wealthy person."

Core Value: "I believe that financial success is a valuable and admirable accomplishment."

I recommend that you shoot for about a dozen statements, because you want to address all the major areas of your life:

• Your health values

• Your wealth values

• Your self-improvement (personal) values

• Your social happiness values

Why?

Because your core values should determine your goals. And your goals have to be comprehensive.

Most goal-setting programs are not comprehensive. They focus on just one thing. Making more money. Or losing weight. Or being happy (whatever that means). Setting such singular goals can sometimes be effective if you have the flexibility in your schedule to focus on them. But most people don't. And that creates a problem. They start out enthusiastically and make progress for a while. But before long, life's many urgencies push their way in. Good habits are neglected. Bad habits return. Before long, the goal is abandoned.

You are going to avoid that very common problem by considering the full spectrum of your life - not just your health or your wealth but also your hobbies, personal relations, social obligations, and so on.

Here's what you should do now:

1. Take out a piece of paper and divide it into four boxes.

2. At the top of those boxes, write Health, Wealth, Self-Improvement, and Social Happiness.

3. Inside each box, write down statements in that category that you would like to have said about you at your funeral.

For example...

Under Health:

• "He was the fittest 80-year-old I ever saw."

• "He could run a mile in eight minutes."

• "I once saw him lift up a car by its bumper."

Under Wealth:

• "Of all the people who graduated from Riverdale High School in 1972, she turned out to be the wealthiest."

• "She had a huge mansion in Laguna Beach."

• "She left $4 million to charity when she died."

Under Self-Improvement:

• "He was the best chess player I ever knew."

• "He was also a published poet."

• "He knew more about home decorating than Martha Stewart."

Under Social Happiness:

• "She was the world's kindest mom."

• "She was also a very generous friend."

• "She was a strong supporter of breast cancer research."

Write down at least two such statements in each of the four categories. The purpose of writing them down is twofold: to fix them in your mind, and to have something specific you can refer to later.

You will be referring to these core values many times in the coming years. They should be a source of continuous inspiration. Treat them seriously. They are the crux of your master plan.

Strike While the Iron Is Hot

By Alex Mandossian

One of Aseop's fables has a priceless lesson for marketers...

A hungry wolf stalked a flock of sheep, but couldn't grab one as his next meal because the shepherd was vigilantly watching over them. So the wolf disguised himself with a discarded sheepskin, and managed to mingle with the flock without the shepherd noticing.

Instead of pouncing on the nearest lamb and making his escape, the wolf decided to wait until nighttime when the shepherd was eating supper. He thought he'd get the pick of the flock, enjoy a delicious meal at his leisure, and slip away unseen.

But that evening, the shepherd decided to treat some friends from the neighboring village to a feast. He went to the sheep pen in the dark, reached in, and grabbed and butchered the first animal he could put his hands on: the wolf.

The moral of this fable: Strike while the iron is hot.

A good marketing plan executed today - not tomorrow, not next month, not next year - is better than a perfect plan that's too late. (Or, worse, a "perfect" plan that never gets executed.) As Michael Masterson would say, "Ready, Fire, Aim."

Good marketing is about making progress, not trying to achieve perfection.

One way to focus on progress is to make sure you take at least one step in your marketing plan each day. It doesn't have to be a big step, and it doesn't have to be more than one. If you can do more than that, great. But all you have to take is one small step a day to keep making progress.

[Ed. Note: Alex Mandossian, CEO of Heritage House Publishing Inc., has generated over $233 million in sales and profits for his clients and partners since 1991.]

Boost the Power of Your Tea With a Squeeze

By Kelley Herring

If you frequently enjoy a splash of citrus in your green tea, you're doing your body a favor.

New research from Purdue University, published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, shows that catechins - the primary antioxidants in green tea - are destroyed by digestion. In fact, less than 20 percent of these free-radical fighters remain by the time they've traversed your tract. But the researchers also found that citrus juice boosted catechin levels by more than five times. The most potent juice was lemon, causing 80 percent of the tea's catechins to remain, followed by orange, lime, and grapefruit.

So don't let the healthy benefits of green tea go down the drain. Give it a squeeze of zesty lemon, sweet orange, fresh lime, or tangy grapefruit. You'll deliver pleasure to your senses and pack more potency into your cup.

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com), and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series.]

It's Good to Know: How to Find a Public Restroom in London

You're sightseeing in an unfamiliar city, you feel nature's call... and there is no restroom in sight. Travelers in London, at least, can rest easy. The Westminster City Council, which governs the part of the city with such popular tourist attractions as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, has launched a mobile phone text message service. Texting the word "toilet" to the number 80097 yields directions to the nearest public convenience.

(Source: Reuters)

Word to the Wise: Fillip

A "fillip" (FIL-up) is a snap made by pressing a fingertip against the thumb and suddenly releasing it. We also use the word for an embellishment that excites, revives, or stimulates.

Example (as used in Sify News): "Giving a big fillip to cooperation in the field of education, Britain today announced an 825 million pound grant for India, a major chunk of which will be spent on improving the educational infrastructure in the country."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2275, 02-11-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.