2007 HAS ARRIVED - NEW YEAR, NEW POSSIBILITIES

What are the potential pitfalls in the context of you achieving your dreams in the coming year? Kevin Kelly explains.

Kevin Kelly, Irish motivational speaker

Kevin Kelly advises us on how to motivate, communicate, and achieve your goals the right way in 2007.

Described as the ‘coach behind the tiger’, Kelly is Ireland's leading speaker on leadership, personal excellence, and motivation. His unique, interactive courses and workshops have inspired, informed and stirred thousands of potential entrepreneurs, business leaders, teachers, community activists, and personal development enthusiasts.

When Ireland's National Development agencies were looking at nurturing the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, the new Irish tigers, they engaged Kevin to inspire them to take the next step. Over the past fifteen years, his unique training style has captivated and inspired audiences worldwide. Whether it is a one hour keynote speech or a one day seminar, Kelly has the ability to engage people one hundred per cent in his interactive experiences.

Kelly weaves his magic with a cocktail of exercises, fun and stories that are based on his unique experiences around the world, inside and outside corporate corridors.

Kelly Talks About Comparing Yourself To Others

Don’t fall in the now popular pattern of benchmarking your success off others. About eighteen months ago, I started conducting a survey with course attendants. The following propositions were put on the table. Number one, I was offering them a salary of €50,000 and everyone they knew would be on €25,000. The second offer on the table was a salary of €100,000, and in this case everyone they knew was earning €250,000. The attendees were then told that all other factors were equal.

Naively I thought it was a simple choice, €50k or €100k. This wasn’t to be the case. A significant minority choose the first option to my amazement and many, and I mean many, had to think about the answer. This backs up the latest research from Firebaugh and Tach that many people’s happiness level are determined on how well they are doing relative to their peers.

Comparing yourself to others is the direct route to a lifetime of stress and missed opportunities. Happiness will be always one acquisition away. Compare yourself to yourself for a life less limiting.

What Do You Want From Life?

Not knowing what you truly want from life? Normally when you ask this question, many people will give you a wish list of things. Ironically this is not what they really want. What they really want are the positive feelings generated by having these things. Very simply the universal dream or goal is to be happy.

When you acknowledge this you will find many, many routes to this dream, apart from just accumulating things.

Listening To The Wrong People

Who should you listen to? Too many of us are swayed by the unsolicited advice. It is imperative that as we journey towards our goal, we only accept feedbacks from people that have travelled that path before. Go up the mountain with a mountain climber, not someone who has read or written about it, even drawn it, no someone who has been to thepinnacle, is my advice.

Becoming the guardian to your mind is a key skill, and one everyone should develop in 07. As your mind works similar to a computer it is imperative we reject garbage at source.

Paralysis By Analysis!

Another potential pitfall is over-analysis. Be aware that regardless of what your dream is, when you consign it to a ‘pros and cons’ analysis, you will in all cases find enough reasons not to act.

There is no dream on this planet that someone couldn’t left brain out of existence. When you consider the fact that people who truly engage in life, who dare to dream and commit their goal to paper always end up in a place they recognise as better than their starting point, it is important that our focus and intent is on the dream, not on the analysis.

If when I set the goal of writing a best seller my focus was on the fact that I had just passed my English exams, had no background in writing, had no publisher, the goal would never have been achievable. When you focus on obstacles, obstacles occur. Dare to dream and focus on possibilities for 2007.