While there may be many varied reasons given, ultimately they all stem back to just one: many people simply have never learnt how.

Having common sense is a little like having free will: having it doesn’t mean you will automatically use it. There was a time when our schools were focused on drawing on children’s common sense to produce wisdom. Now, however, schools are focused on pumping facts and knowledge into our students’ heads so that they can pass exams and wave their qualifications at potential employers.

But leading employers now prize ‘mindset’ or wisdom above ‘skillset’ or knowledge. The reason is simple: technology is moving so fast that organisations will need to teach new skills to people – even the best of graduates – within a few years of the person joining, and it’s actually much harder to get someone to change their attitude (or demonstrate common sense) than it is to keep their skills up to speed.

Fortunately, leading education centres are realising the mistake and are now empowering their teachers and students with the vital life-truths and personal development skills that create success.

There are many lessons to learn with applying common sense and thereby achieving your dreams to live your best life. However, the most important lesson to master is how to set and achieve goals. This is the one skill that helps all people achieve all other skills and objectives.

Success is not an accident. Long-term sustainable success only happens on purpose as the natural result of learning to live by common sense. Being able to set a goal is a natural ability that everybody has – but it also one that not everybody develops into ‘goal mastery’ and the life-skill of achieving their aims.

Goal Mapping helps you live in a common sense, down-to-earth, practical way so that you continue taking small steps everyday towards your dreams, aims and ambitions.

Empower yourself, your team or loved ones with this simple, fun, fast and extremely effective success system. It will help you make common sense common practice, and lead to extraordinary results and the achievement of your dreams.

Download the free adult or child Goal Mapping guide and template at www.liftinternational.com

Or use our free Goal Mapping software online at www.goalmappingonline.com

The Goal Mapping book by Brian Mayne is available in paperback from Amazon, or as an ebook from the following stores:

• Amazon Kindle
• iBookstore
• Kobo
• Waterstones

At the beginning of March, we posted an article by Brian Mayne entitled Being a Winner. The article looked at the ‘ways of being’ that are necessary for success, and how quality of character is becoming as important – if not more important – than knowledge and skills. Just a few days later, these ideas were echoed by the coach of the England rugby team, Stuart Lancaster.

After its well-publicised underperformance in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the England rugby team were seen to be well and truly in the doldrums. People said that they lacked the qualities necessary for success, and many predicted a dire or at-best mediocre performance in this year’s Six Nations tournament.

But the prophesised doom and gloom didn’t materialise. Instead, we saw a fresh and resurgent team that thrilled fans, won-over critics and finished second in the competition.

A key victory was against France in Paris on 11 March. In the Six Nations, no team had beaten France in Paris since 2008, so the chances of success for the recently put-together England team and their interim coach, Stuart Lancaster, seemed slim.

But England prevailed, beating France by 24 points to 22.

So what was the key to their success? It certainly wasn’t experience – many of England’s youthful team had few top-level matches under their belts compared to their French counterparts. Nor was it two of the other ‘usual suspects’ that people typically cite the foundations of sporting success – strength and skill.

Time and again in his post match interview, Stuart Lancaster (who has since been elevated from the position of interim coach to become the permanent head coach) echoed the ideas put forward by Brian Mayne, and attributed the win to the character the team showed both collectively and individually.

You can watch the video of the interview via the link below:

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17334456

As Brian stated in his article, “A student may spend many years in education – and even higher education – but not receive a single hour of instruction on how to develop their winning qualities of character to empower their skill sets and knowledge. Instead, we are expected to learn these important ‘winning ways’ for ourselves, from our family or role models.”

So, while it’s fantastic that the importance of character is seen by Stuart Lancaster and nurtured within his charges in the England team – and while it would be great for the team to become role models for others – there is much more to be done if the value and benefits of developing winning qualities of character is to reach the masses.

The first step is to develop the winning qualities of your own character. Learn how to do this with the help of Brian and Sangeeta Mayne’s excellent book, Life Mapping. 

The next – and possibly most important step – is to help others. Our forthcoming Goal Mapping Practitioner Programme on 15 to 17 June will equip you with the skills to empower friends, family, students, colleagues or clients with the ways that will help them achieve sustainable success.

Finally, if you missed the Being a Winner article referred to several times above, be sure to take a look!

By Sandra Roycroft-Davis

Slimpods are a series of unique voice recordings that help you to achieve effective weight loss – whether you want to lose 5lbs or 5 stones. Unlike other methods of losing weight, there are no diets, no calorie counting and no willpower required. Listening takes just 10 minutes a day.

Slimpods have been developed by Thinking Slimmer’s Harley Street experts and use modern approaches to the science of unconscious persuasion to gently retune the mind and adjust the way slimmers think about the world, especially in relation to food, health and fitness. Because it’s like having your own personal mind coach, weight loss becomes simple and effortless.

People have different reasons for losing weight, so each Slimpod has been tailor-made to help achieve a specific weight loss goal, whether it’s dropping a dress size, dropping two sizes or more, fitting into a wedding dress, losing baby fat or controlling middle-age spread.

There is also a Slimpod for men who want to lose their love handles and Fitpods, such as the Couch Potato Cure, which make you want to exercise more,.

Slimpods create a healthy and normal relationship to food so it’s no longer the enemy – and they free people from the endless torment of yo-yo dieting.  By putting people back in control, this true lifestyle change means that, unlike dieting, your weight-loss can be permanent.

Sandra Roycroft-Davis, founder of http://www.thinkingslimmer.com says, “I’m delighted we have teamed up with Lift International. Brian and Goal Mapping changed my life many years ago and now we’re working together to help others change their lives too.”

Sangeeta Mayne from Lift International says, “We love the Slimpod because it is totally aligned with the Lift philosophy of ‘Thinking your best thoughts, feeling your best feelings and taking your best actions’. In fact, we believe that using it in conjunction with your Goal Map will allow you to naturally create weight-loss that is sustainable and effortless. We’ve therefore created a Goal Mapping Online application dedicated to thinking yourself slim in collaboration with Thinking Slimmer.”

The new Thinking Slimmer Goal Mapping Online application has been designed to take you through the seven steps of Goal Mapping, to easily create a map that you can print, share and use daily to achieve your weight-control target. Find out more at www.goalmappingonline.com/thinkingslimmer.aspx

The level of success achieved in any career, occupation or task, will always be determined by a combination of your knowledge, your skills and your ‘ways of being’ or quality of character.  

Studies have shown that if five people are chosen for a specific task, and all receive the same training, typically one will excel, three will be average, and another will require additional coaching.

The key difference between these people – and what determines your level of success – is the result of their mind set, which empowers their skill set and leads to their achievements.

When you choose to be your best, the things you do become easier and the results you have are greater.

Leading organisations are increasingly recruiting based on quality of character more than qualifications or skill set.  However, authentic leadership qualities such as responsibility, honesty and self-motivation are among the least consciously taught or developed aspects of a person’s personality.

A student may spend many years in education – and even higher education – but not receive a single hour of instruction on how to develop their winning qualities of character to empower their skill sets and knowledge.

Instead, we are expected to learn these important ‘winning ways’ for ourselves, from our family or role-models.

Here’s a simple exercise that illustrates the value of developing winning ways. Think of a ‘champion’, someone successful that you admire, and list the main things that you believe makes them a winner.

The Profile of a Champion

1 ………………………………………………………………

2 ………………………………………………………………

3 ………………………………………………………………

4 ………………………………………………………………

5 ………………………………………………………………

6 ………………………………………………………………

7 ………………………………………………………………

Now review your list and note how many are ‘ways of being’ as opposed to skills or knowledge. Generally the ratio is 80-20.

In the words of Charles Reade (and paraphrased in the recent film The Iron Lady):

Sow an act and you reap a habit
Sow a habit and you reap a character
Sow a character and you reap a destiny

To learn more about shaping your character and winning ways of being, why not attend our forthcoming Life Mapping event on 31 March 2012. The event takes place at De Vere Village Hotel, Centennial Avenue, Elstree, London WD6 3SB, UK.

Places cost £125, but until midnight on 20 March 2012 you can book your place at half price. Simply click the booking link below, then enter LIFTMAR12 at our online checkout.

Book your place now ››

In 2011 I left a full-time-teaching and education-advisory career of over 30 years. Through my work in education, I became more and more convinced that our schooling system judges children and young people by how good they are ‘at school’, not whether they are doing well ‘in’ school. So I decided to take a risk, and ‘do’ and ‘be’ something different.

This would lead to inspiring and empowering children and adults to love, trust and believe in themselves so that they can participate, take risks, make mistakes, learn and live a great life.

Today’s challenge for our young people is to walk into adulthood being the best they can be and:

• Make choices
• Be who they want to be, to live their best life
• Be a leader of their own life
• Be able to lead
• Be a problem solver
• Know about learning styles and intelligences, particularly their own
• Be flexible

The teaching profession is pressured and undervalued, and schools are under resourced. However, they all do their best to attempt to equip young people with the skills necessary to succeed in the 21^st century.

The previous Labour and present Coalition Government recognised the shortfalls in our already stressed and stretched education system and introduced SEAL. This is a comprehensive whole-school approach to promoting the social and emotional skills that underpin effective learning, positive behavior, regular attendance, staff effectiveness and the emotional health and wellbeing of all who learn and work in schools.

SEAL focuses on five social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy and social skills. I believe that Goal Mapping is the key to schools delivering a SEAL whole school approach.

An holistic Goal Mapping culture within schools and educational establishments would ensure that young people could be the best they can be. We know that Goal Mapping is flexible and therefore can be developed for:

• School governors
• School leadership teams, to produce school development and strategic plans.
• Educators
• Young people
• Parents and carers
• After-school staff
• Local authority intervention teams.

Taking Sam the Magic Genie, The Seven Magic Keys or The Success Workshop into schools, colleges, further education, home tuition and parent/carer groups will make a huge difference – and will make sure that we give the gift of unlimited possibilities to our young creative generation.

Now is the time to let head teachers, principals and local education authorities know that you are passionate about Goal Mapping. Make sure that they get the message that Goal Mapping can create an ‘I can’ culture in their situation, and make a positive difference to young people’s learning, achievement, confidence and success.

Elaine Mace

Inspirational Training & Education Programmes
elaine@elainemace.com

http://elainemace.com

Over the last year, change in our lives and in the world’s economic, financial, social and environmental systems has accelerated at ever increasing speed. In a similar fashion, 2011 saw Lift International experience another record increase in demand – and all indications point to same again in 2012. What’s interesting about this is the reason why.

I believe it is because in times of extreme uncertainty, unrest and rapid change, people look more and more for that internal stability, security and courage to take control of their lives and their future.

Lift’s systems of success fit this bill perfectly because they are principle-led as well as universal in their application. They help people to find their ‘true north’ in the midst of chaos and turmoil; have clear direction; and turn change into the stepping-stones of success.

Success in life is not an accident: authentic success happens on purpose. It is the natural result of thinking successful thoughts, living winning attitudes and taking effective actions.

I share these secrets of success through seven universal principles. Each one is like the rung of a ladder, and helps people overcome obstacles, climb out of ruts and clear chasms on the path towards the achievement of their goals.

I have learnt through my own journey of success and working with thousands of others that it is not knowing these principles that makes them work, it is living them.

You don’t go to the gym once and get fit. It’s regular exercise that keeps you healthy. Likewise, it is applying these principles to your life over a period of time that brings true and lasting success. And the more you live the principles, the faster they work.

For this reason, starting on Thursday 5 January, I will be running a seven-part webinar series. For anyone that may have been to one of my workshops you will already know that these seven principles form the power behind the Goal Mapping system.

Each month I will be guiding you to apply the principle to your life and desires, and to update your Goal Map with any new insights or ideas that have been inspired through the webinar.

Wherever you are, and whatever you wish to achieve, join me, book your place and take a giant step towards achieving it.

More about our webinars ›

When you have an addiction your whole life revolves around it. Days become months, months become years, and before I realised it I was a 31-year-old woman with no idea how to survive in the ‘real’ world.

I got clean from heroin – and had been clean for approximately 11 months – yet I found myself lost and scared with nowhere to turn. I had such a clear picture as to what I wanted from my new life, but not a clue as to how to get there.

My mental health symptoms (which had been masked by my use of heroin) came flooding back. Facing a long wait ahead for a mental health reassessment, I slipped up and had a small relapse.

I had almost given up on myself, but one day when I dragged myself out of bed to get the post, there it was – the letter confirming the start date of the Goal Mapping course.

A couple of days after receiving that letter, I had my rewind sessions with Jane and I couldn’t believe my luck. I had been seeing various counsellors and psychiatrists since the age of 15 and nothing seemed to work for me, but Jayne was like a miracle.

The Goal Mapping course is an essential tool for people like myself (and believe me, there are plenty) who are desperate to get away from their predicament but just cant see life after addiction.

At first I was worried I would be stuck in a room with a load of junkies who had no intention of moving on, but were on the course as a get-out clause for some reason or another. You can’t imagine my delight to find I couldn’t be further from the truth. They was such a diverse range of people from all walks of life, and who I am pleased to say I will stay in touch with and become life-long friends.

The tutors, Accredited Goal Mapping Practitioners Jayne Bell and Bethan Stritton, could not be more suited to the job – talk about finding your vocation in life! I have never met anyone like them; they understand us, share their own experiences with the group, and can see the good and potential in each and every one of us. The tools they use are like nothing I have seen before and would not be able to have access to if it weren’t for this course. I have always known I was put on this earth for something special and thanks to Jayne, Bethan and the people who fund this scheme, I am no longer a thinker but am becoming a go-getter.

As my Dad says… don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the Moon.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in us and being willing to put time into a group of people who are not a lost cause – we were just lost. So many people can benefit from this opportunity and I am privileged to have been one of the first.

We are not all motivated by the same things or in the same ways. Being clear about your own motivations and drives will enable you to generate natural enthusiasm for any endeavour thereby maximising your effectiveness.

Identifying your purpose and setting clear goals turns motivation into inspiration. Purpose is to a person what fuel is to an engine – without it we end up going nowhere.

Everyone can find a sense of purpose for his or her life. When we live with purpose, we find our passion, our power, our flow, and it feels as if life is working with us. When we are not on purpose, or off track, our power to create is dissipated and every last chore seems to drag.

To be ‘on purpose’, you must first find or know your purpose – you must discover ‘that thing that makes your heart sing’ the thing that you are passionate about. This is one of the great lessons of life, for when you find your purpose you also find your power.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover you are a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
Patanjali 1st-3rd Century BC

A sense of purpose

We are all born with an automatic motivation programme that urges us to move towards pleasure and away from pain. Identifying a sense of purpose that we feel genuinely passionate about will help us lead life from our right brain towards pleasure, while the left brain works through natural fear to warn us of any potential danger. Once again it is the balance between the two achieved through goal setting that helps us be at our best.

Purpose is like an on-going journey of adventure: it doesn’t have a defined finish date. Goals do. A purpose is an on-going endeavour, a long-term mission, or life-vision. Purpose is like the path you tread; goals are the significant milestones along the way; motivation is your reason for making the journey.

People who live with a sense of purpose feel inspired – and from that inspiration bubbles natural motivation.

Being on purpose is one of the seven principles of Goal Mapping. If you need a little help to define and articulate what your purpose is, why not join at one of our Goal Mapping events?

View our events calendar ›

As Goal Mapping Practitioners we are all passionate about what we’ve learned and want to share that knowledge with as many people as we can so they too can benefit from Goal Mapping and the wonderful benefits it can bring to their lives.

Moving from becoming a Goal Mapping Practitioner and all the excitement that brings, to successfully being able to share your knowledge and build your Goal Mapping business can provide some challenges.

Uplift 2012 will help you focus on that 20% that will ensure you achieve your goals.

Uplift 2012 has been developed by Practitioners for Practitioners, to give you what you need to progress your Goal Mapping business.

We had some wonderful feedback and comments further to last year’s events – take a look!

So what can you expect from Uplift 2012 and how can it benefit you moving forward in your Goal Mapping business? Here is a preview of the programme:

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Friday 17 February 2012

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Welcome and network, relax and meet other practitioners, learn what others are doing to succeed (over a buffet dinner).

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Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 February 2012

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Raising Your Awareness

Are you aware of any limitations or fears you have which may be holding you back, or may have resulted in putting actions off?

Discover, from someone who’s done it with great success this year:

• How to find your Winning Edge
• Identify the Difference that will make the Difference
• Turn your Thoughts into Actions

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Developing Your Possibility Consciousness – Which is your Goal Mapping Target Market?

Are you really sure which market you want to deliver Goal Mapping to? Understanding the market you want to deliver to can make the 20% difference to get 80% of the results.

Understand the different Goal Mapping Markets and where your strengths and experience lie in each of these. Learn how sell Goal Mapping in each market, discover where you can make the 20% change to maximise your business. Looking at;

• Where your own strengths and interests are, and how to use those to your advantage
• How to use Networking Groups to get your Goal Mapping business heard and build leads
• How to sell specifically in your chosen market
• Selling techniques, cold calling, email, referrals
• Developing your Goal Map (marketing plan) to get your business moving
• What do to do in your first meeting and closing the sale
• How to provide excellent customer service throughout the whole journey
• How to ensure your Goal Mapping Workshop is fabulous

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Involve to Evolve – Funding agencies and how can they help

There is a wealth of funding out there waiting to help businesses, charities and schools benefit from Goal Mapping. Involving these funding agencies will help evolve your Goal Mapping business. Learn how to access this funding by understanding;

• Who the different UK agencies are and their markets
• What funding is available from the different agencies
• What eligibility criteria is required for gaining grants for different agencies
• How to claim the funding and how long it will take
• How to find a contact within the grant team and building relationships with them

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Be On Purpose – Using social media to share your love of Goal Mapping and how it helps to lift so many lives

Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube is used by business in a variety of ways with. Learn how to show that you are On Purpose by discovering:

• Which forms of social media are particularly relevant to which types of business
• How social media can be used in to grow revenues from markets including:
• General public
• Education
• Business
• SME
• Large / Global
• How to build a social media strategy, and why doing so is important

Our guest who knows everything there is know about social media is Adam Gray, an expert is helping businesses to use social media in a smart way to gain competitive advantage.

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Maintaining a Positive Focus – Keeping in touch with the global Goal Mapping community

We all know how important it is to communicate with like minded people, and that’s why keeping in touch with your fellow practitioners is so important.

Find out about the global Goal Mapping community.

• For all non-UK practitioners to experience inclusion and support within the community regardless of distance
• To raise awareness of the amazing Goal Mapping work being done internationally and to act as further inspiration for all
• To enhance the opportunities of lifting lives across the globe.

So whether you’re just starting out in your Goal Mapping business, looking to take it to the next level, or are considering a different Goal Mapping market and aren’t sure how to take it there, then make sure you come to Uplift 2012 and:

• Hear about the amazing success stories of other practitioners (can we insert photos or a link of some of them) and take some of their learning’s into your own business.
• Make new friends with other practitioners
• Get advice on any aspect of Goal Mapping

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Make sure you don’t miss out on this weekend! Book your place NOW!

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Whatever stage you are at on your Goal Mapping practitioner journey, you simply need to be at the lift off with Uplift 2012 on Friday 17 to Sunday 19 February at De Vere Uplands House, High Wycombe. A practical and inspiring ‘must attend’ weekend, it’s been created for practitioners, by practitioners (on a non-profit basis) to provide you with all the strategies, tools and tips to help you take your business to new levels of success in 2012.

Don’t delay: earlybird offers end 31 December 2011.

Visit the Lift Academy shop and book your place today!

We looking forward to seeing you in February at Uplift 2012!

Written by the Uplift 2012 Planning Group in association with Brian and Sangeeta Mayne

Brain Mayne reflects on the reasons why too much choice isn’t always a good thing…

I believe we’re becoming an increasingly overloaded society in many ways. Perhaps the biggest of these is choice. You’d think having plenty of choice would be a good thing. But actually, more choice equals more responsibility, which often leads to more stress.

The trouble with choice is that you have to choose. And, in today’s world, more of us need to make more life-changing choices – about our work, about our family, about our own beliefs – than ever before.

The world is changing so fast, it’s now normal for people to have more than one career, more than one family, more than one ‘life of experience’ within a lifetime. The greater freedom that humanity has for so long strived for brings with it greater choice – and greater ‘response-ability’.

You may not have voted for a fast-changing world but it’s becoming reality for the vast majority of the population – and the pace of change is increasing.

Anyone starting their working career today is likely to experience half a dozen career changes and over a dozen different job changes within a 25-year career.

Overloading any system beyond its capabilities is always disastrous in the long term. In our hectic and overloaded lives, one of the main dangers is stress and mental shutdown. When we have too much to do in too many areas of our life, and too little time to do it, we become stressed.

Stress causes our brain to shut down and narrow its focus to just the problem at hand. This is a natural survival instinct designed to help our ancestors escape from threatening situations, but today’s overloaded world can leave us feeling stressed on a regular basis.

Choose your choice

The solution is to choose. Make a fundamental choice about the pace you want to live at, and the quality of life you want to enjoy, and then make plans to move to towards it. This is a trend that’s gaining momentum as record numbers move from city to country in an effort to escape the overload trap.

The most important thing is to do whatever you can do, however insignificant it may seem. Making decisions about your life – however small – is empowering, and a great way of regaining a feeling of control, and reducing stress.

As well as looking for a physical retreat, practise creating a mental retreat – a quiet inner place you can enter whenever you need to calm yourself. Breathe.

My preferred way of turning negative overload into manageable growth in any area of life is simple: decide what you want, set it as a goal, and start working towards it.

Over the years, I’ve developed two techniques to help people achieve the life they want to live: Goal Mapping – a success system for physical achievement, and Life Mapping – designed to help people develop their qualities of character, such as response-ability and self belief.

So, if you’re feeling overloaded – whether at work, school, or in your home life – relax… help is at hand. Find out more about Goal Mapping and Life Mapping ››