Happy New Year!

How time passes by when we are having fun. I cannot believe we are celebrating 2007. I find this time of the year refreshing and rejuvenating for my personal life and business life. Until the past few years I set goals like everybody else: start working out, eat healthier, lose weight, kick my caffeine habit and so on………… I soon discovered January was gone and nothing was accomplished toward s achieving my goals.

I had good intentions but never followed through with them. Have you ever asked yourself why that is? Was 2006 that way for you? Do not use this as an excuse not to set goals; but look at setting your goals differently this year compared to previous years.

My family and I visited Branson, MO last month and we went to see the “Acrobats of China” perform. If you want to learn about discipline and focus I strongly recommend this show. The intense daily training these athletes go through is unbelievable. The average acrobat starts at the age of seven and practices seven days a week and twelve hours a day. Their mental focus and physical stamina has to be perfect every moment; if they lose focus during their acts, it could be deadly.

I asked myself during the show how a seven year old could be so focused and disciplined on achieving his/hers goals. I came to the conclusion that they have found a love and passion in their life that most people will never experience. They wake up every morning consumed with achieving nothing but perfection and will not let any obstacle get in their way; unlike most loan officers who settle for mediocrity or less.

My question to you is what are your most burning desires in life and what will you do to achieve them? Will you sacrifice one, three, or five years of your life to achieve them? Do you love your career? Do you love coming to work or dread it? We are so blessed to be in an industry and nation to be able to wake up each day to unlimited opportunity.

My challenge to you this new year of 2007 is to sit down with your family and discuss what is important to you and your family. What sacrifices will you make to get there?

Find out and write down your deepest passions in life. Once you write them down, look at them daily and talk about them often. There is power in writing your goals down.

Several years ago I attended a goal setting workshop. For the first time I was pressured in to writing my goals on paper. I wrote down six major goals I wanted to achieve throughout my life and placed them in the back of my planner. To be honest, I completely forgot about them. Several years later I was cleaning out my planner and came across them; to my surprise I achieved five of the six goals I had on paper. This is an example of how powerful the mind can be by writing your goals on paper. A great book I strongly suggest on this topic is “Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz.

I have found that most people will not sacrifice and they will go through life saying “what if”. The doers will sacrifice short term to enjoy a long life of independence and no regrets.

The first step is to know what you want and go after it passionately. Secondly,
be totally focused, and thirdly, take massive ACTION.

When that occurs, you will start living and understanding the life of an Acrobat of China.

Adversity will surely always come. Friends and family can sometimes be your biggest roadblocks. Keep your eye on your passion and never accept mediocrity again. When that happens, 2007 can be a forever memorable year for you and your family.

By Brad Cooper

Brad Cooper is a nationally recognized mortgage expert and is the managing owner of Cooper Financial Solutions.