Six and a half years ago Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, 28 years old, had never skied before. Six years ago, when he first tried to ski, it took him 30 minutes just to figure out how to go down in a straight line and stop without falling. He was working in an artificial ski center in England – an indoor ski hill where the conditions never really changed. When he shared his vision of skiing in the Olympics with others he was criticized and ridiculed.

Fast forward to February 2010. Kwame, 34 years old, is competing in the Olympics in the tall, fierce mountains of British Columbia with athletes who have been full-time skiers most of their lives. He is a husband and the father of two children. He has gained international acclaim for his willingness to go for his dreams and test to see if the impossible might actually be possible. He is also supporting two charities, one that protects the endangered snow leopard and another one that takes at-risk inner city youth into the mountains to show them a different way of life. He is making a tremendous difference.

Kwame’s quote that characterizes his achievement most is “I think it was like sending a Ghanaian to the moon.” So the question is what got him from where he was six years go to where he is now? Was it that he had loads of mechanisms and ways of achieving his dreams figured out in his head and he decided to use one of those mechanisms? OR was it that he was so clear on his vision, so convinced it was his path, that he was relentless in his pursuit of his dream whether he had mechanisms or not – not blindly forceful, but relentless in his optimism, passion, and willingness to take risks?

I suggest that it was the latter, that it was his total commitment to his dream that got him to the Olympics. And just as importantly, it was his willingness to trust himself more than he trusted other people’s negativity. His intention was so clear that the mechanisms to create his dreams appeared in his life. It’s no coincidence that the Snow Leopard is in the Olympics, that he is making a difference, and that he is inspiring thousands of others around the globe to pursue their dreams. He decided it would be so and he didn’t waver from that decision.

What are you not doing in your life because you don’t see a way to do it? Where in your life might you be allowing other people’s negativity and limited thinking to affect how you look at what’s possible? Is there somewhere in your life where you feel a compelling tug to do something great but you’re holding back? Where in your life have you made a decision to do something and you’re wavering on that decision?

Take the first step and attend a free Champions Workshop to learn the ‘Formula of Success‘ that will enable you to produce results and achieve your goals.

Scott Cundy
Personal Mastery Facilitator

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A Difference Maker

It’s about Alexandre Bilodeau, the Olympic moguls gold medalist who was inspired every day by his older brother who has cerebral palsy. It talked about a father who became a skating track official after his wife passed so he could be part of his sons’ journey to fulfilling their dream to be in the Olympics. It’s a sister’s will to live against all odds after a near fatal car accident so she can see her sister compete in her final Olympics before retiring. And the stories go on and on.

So as I reflect on these stories I think about all the people who have made a difference in my life. Some that are obvious and others who had a significant impact but were more subtle in their involvement. From those in my past to those who actively influence my current life, each one has somehow woven themselves into the tapestry of my life. And this inspires me to remember that it’s my responsibility to let all those people who have made a difference in my life know what a gift they have been and the gratitude I feel – for I have been truly blessed.

But it’s more than that. Importantly, I also get the chance to look at the difference I make in others’ lives. At Klemmer & Associates our mission is to “create a world for everyone with no one left out”, so the challenge for us each day is to touch at least one life and leave it better than before we entered it.  A difficult task? Perhaps.  But then I get to ask myself…..if not me, then who? And if not now then when?

We all have the choice as to how big we want to play in life.

In whose life will you be ‘the difference maker’?

Sona Van Der Hoop

Personal Mastery Facilitator

Let Klemmer & Associates be a difference maker for you. Learn about our results-oriented personal mastery training, it’s guaranteed!

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Proud of the welcoming committees, established so athletes from competing countries would feel our hospitality right from the start, to the outstanding opening ceremonies which included such reverence shown  for Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian athlete who suffered a fatal accident,  to the camaraderie displayed between the representatives from  across this country and around the world.

But beyond that sense of pride what motivates me to rush to watch the Olympic coverage is this overwhelming sense of inspiration.

Olympic Dreams and Goals

Whether you are a sports fanatic, a casual fan or have little interest in sports it’s hard not to be touched by the infectious sense of excitement that is all over the world media.  For me these games represent so much more than the sports the athletes compete in. As a matter of fact I would argue that for many, the sport is the least important part of this journey.

As I listen to the stories of some of the athletes it is humbling to realize what so many of them have endured to be here. For some it has been physical challenges, recovering from serious injuries and operations followed by grueling hours of physiotherapy just to get them ready to start even more grueling hours of training.

For others it has been the emotional challenges of persevering while surviving a family crisis or just learning how to cope with extreme disappointment when one small mistake led to having to wait 4 more years just to see if you’d even have the chance to compete again.  Yet, the message remains the same.  Everything in life comes at some price.

In all our seminars at Klemmer and Associates, starting with Personal Mastery, we explore the concept of prices and benefits. Whether they are hidden prices or obvious ones, we will pay some price to reach our goals. The question we each get to ask ourselves is “am I willing to pay the price to get what I want?”

So personally, the Olympics  have created the space for me to reflect on what’s important  and ask myself if I’m really willing to pay the prices to go for what I want or am I just fooling myself.  Mmmmm….

Something to contemplate while watching the Canada-USA  hockey game!

Sona Van Der Hoop

Personal Mastery Facilitator

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Watch this short video to learn more about the 3 elements of olympic greatness and receive a valuable tip that you can put into practice today in your own life.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The full length interview is availabe in “Interviews With The Experts“, along with 7 other interviews such as Mark Victor Hansen on the mastermind prinicple, John Gray on male female communications and Jack Canfield on self image.

“Interviews With The Experts” is available in 3 formats:
- Immediate access mp3 download
- CD
- Cassette Tape

Take action today to receive the special offer, available for a short time.  Just click on the link for the desired format, enter the desired quantity, then type “hope” in the Promo Code box at the top of the page and click the “go” button.

You Are Extraordinary,

Brian Klemmer

Founder and CEO

Klemmer and Associates

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Ultimately, “THERE” IS NO BETTER THAN “HERE”

When your “there” has become a “here” (when you achieve or accomplish this or that), you will simply obtain another “there” that will, again, look better than “here”. In the game of life, it’s the way things work. The illusion comes in when we think we are going to be more happy when we get “there”.

OTHERS ARE SIMPLY MIRRORS OF YOU

You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. Put another way, you can only be inspired by another because it reflects something living in yourself, at least as a seed of possibility.

WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS TOTALLY UP TO YOU

You have all the tools you need; what you do with them is up to you. The choice to act is yours.

YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE OF YOU

The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. Like approaching an old railroad crossing on a country road, all you need to do is stop, look and listen—and I would add, trust. Trust in the guidance of something much grander than yourself.

YOU WILL MOST LIKELY FORGET ALL OF THIS…

AND YOU CAN REMEMBER

It’s important to reward yourself as you remember (that you forgot). To punish yourself or beat yourself up for forgetting is simply another symptom of forgetting; an example or proof that you haven’t fully remembered.

There you have it. The beauty of these principles is that it doesn’t matter if they are true or not. Your life will transform simply by operating “as if” they are true.

Learn about powerful strategies to transform your life in our personal mastery workshop.

Dan Dorr

Personal Mastery Facilitator

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Pretty basic, and you may or may not like the one you’ve got, but it’s worth acknowledging that this is the one that will be yours for your entire life. Notice how much negative thinking and physical disregard has been put into a body that has done a pretty good job of keeping things going despite the negative mental and physical input. It’s not a coincidence that it’s been referred to as a temple.

YOU WILL LEARN LIFE’S LESSONS.

You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn life’s lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid; it doesn’t matter.

THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS.

Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works. Others have reported, and I concur from my own life experience, that the most difficult experiences were the ones that ultimately gave the most learning and insight.

A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL IT IS LEARNED.

A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Unfortunately, a lesson that is avoided will too often be presented in a more difficult set of circumstance in the future. The kicker about a ‘lesson’ is that when you have learned or mastered it, you get to go on to the next lesson, because…

LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END.

There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there is still something to learn. Here’s a simple test to see if you still have life’s lessons to learn: check your pulse. Still there?

I’ll include the last five ‘rules’ for being human in my next post.

To receive 52 FREE lessons on life and leadership click here now.

Dan Dorr

Personal Mastery Facilitator

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The ugly side of dreams is an article I am in the process of writing that refers to the unknown prices we will have to pay to make dreams happen. I recently made some of the toughest decisions I have ever made involving friendships and the business of Klemmer & Associates Leadership Seminars Inc. I had no idea I would have to make those kinds of decisions when I started Klemmer & Associates.

It has caused me to reflect on other prices I have had to pay for any dream I have had. My wife and I just celebrated our 25th anniversary. To make an exciting intimate relationship last that long I have been challenged and stretched and paid prices that never crossed my mind when I proposed.

Overcoming resistance

When I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ as both my Lord and Savior I never suspected that my biggest critics would be Christians not non-believers. When I enrolled at the United States Military Academy in 1968 to serve my country I knew I would have physical challenges but I had no idea of dealing with drug addicts returning from Vietnam who were good people or having a gun held to my head by someone in our army.

Maybe it’s good that we don’t know all the prices up front or we probably would not start or follow very many dreams. At the same time there seems to be a need to prepare people that nothing in life comes free. When we start a dream we are infatuated with possibilities which are good. I think we also need to have someone as a mentor who toughens us up for the onslaught of resistance we will meet.

I have often said that “nothing great becomes great without overcoming great resistance”. So share your thoughts with me on a dream you have and prices you paid to get there that you had no idea you would encounter when you signed up for the dream. Click here to leave your story.

Brian Klemmer

Founder, Klemmer & Associates Inc.

PS – Learn the million dollar secret formula of champions in our FREE Online Champions Workshop.

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If you take the complete totality of our commitment to be 100%, then we could assign to that total various percentages of sub-commitments and intentions. There is no doubt that there are various things we want in life and ways we want to be. There are certain impulses that pull us forward and impulses that too often pull in competing directions.

When we are motivated or inspired, that pull gives us meaning and a reason to get up in the morning. The question remains, what is the commitment level needed to accomplish what we say we want? The greater the degree or percentage of commitment that a person aligns or identifies with his or her goal, the more powerfully and quickly that goal is attained.

And ultimately, to fully achieve something we need to be 100% committed. But in the beginning, is 100% commitment an absolute requisite?

Tom used to say that in the beginning, you didn’t need 100% commitment to something. Initially, that may seem like too gigantic a leap. But for momentum to be in your favor, simply move past the 50% level of commitment. When that line is crossed, he stated that consistent, measurable results would begin to accrue.

Once you achieved 51% and more, a wave of momentum would begin to swell in your favor and you draw toward you a synergy of forces. So the interim goal, Tom suggested, was to build and align one’s commitment to break through the 50% level. Then, get ready!

Dan Dorr

Personal Mastery Facilitator

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Research has shown that up to 99% of all decisions we make, are actually made by our belief systems. And, these are influenced by two key factors, repetition and emotional involvement. So when we think about how many times we have heard specific messages growing up and the number of different ways it was communicated it is no wonder that we think and behave in certain ways.

Belief Systems

Whether it was something that caused us to believe in our self or not, these messages began to form the programs that would shape our thinking. Now couple that with hearing these messages from people who we were emotionally connected with – such as our parents, grandparents, teachers, pastor etc. and gradually the thoughts that would carry through our life became fully shaped and formed.

Because I have a deep understanding and awareness of this you would think that I would not be surprised by people’s behavior. And yet every day seems to bring a new lesson. Of late I have been reminded again of how what we believe to be the ‘smallest’ of gestures become programmed into those we have the greatest affect on – specifically our children.

Recently my husband went to visit one of our daughters, who is a student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On his way home from the airport, I received quite an emotional call from him. He said to me “you will never question again the influence you’ve had on her life after you see what I’m bringing home”.

Apparently when he said goodbye, our daughter gave him a bag with fruit to take on the plane in case he got hungry (sound familiar parents?). When he opened the bag he found a note inside with a message of love just like the ones we used to put in her lunch all those years through elementary and secondary school.

That note now has a place of honor on our fridge as the first note from “the next generation”.

So just a thought, that even when you don’t think people, especially our children, notice the extras you do – remember it’s often the little things we do over and over from a place of love that will count the most.

Sona van Der Hoop

K&A Personal Mastery Facilitator

PS – Learn out about the POWERFUL experience of our FREE Online Champions Workshop!

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Parkinson’s statement, over time, has also been known as, “The scope of the job will always expand to fill the time allotted.”  And indeed I, as many others, have experienced this to be completely true. If you have ever hired someone to do a job for you likely you experienced this law as well.

A plan is developed for the scope of the job and low and behold the full amount of time set aside is consumed completing the job. Although Parkinson’s Law was based on his study of the British Civil Service bureaucracies it seems to cross into every aspect of human life.

The Secret To Reaching Your Goals

For instance, have you ever had a dream that you thought could take an extended period of time to accomplish?  Say, 1, 5, 10, 15 or more years? And it did! It’s a phenomenon for sure. As humans, we have an insatiable need to “Be Right” and will go to extremes to validate our rightness. And at times, at the expense of our deepest desires our dreams and goals.

As a personal development and leadership facilitator I work with people every month that allow Parkinson’s Law to run in their lives. I hear people say they want to grow their network marketing businesses by $10,000 to $50,000 or more per month and they are willing to take five or more years to accomplish this.

But, what if by becoming crystal clear on the dream and getting fully committed one could accomplish this same goal in one year or less? Isn’t it just as easy to get committed to a short period of time as it is a long period of time? If you truly have a burning desire to accomplish a goal then crossing the finish line sooner rather than later can be a huge win for you and your loved ones.

What does it take, one might ask? Emotion. Emotion is a fuel that will drive one to create. We’ve all read of Albert Einstein and how he worked day and night inventing all kinds of modern conveniences. He ate infrequently, slept little and became an inventing machine turning out one invention after another. He was completely emotionally involved and got his energy from that emotion.

One’s passion for service to mankind will become the fuel needed to make this a lifetime experience. Emotional involvement is what drove Mother Teresa. And there are literally thousands of examples throughout history. If you aren’t emotionally connected to what it is that you say you want, consider getting a new dream. Because without the emotion to drive you to create your odds of success drop dramatically.

At Klemmer & Associates our clients gain clarity on their dreams and goals while reigniting their passion through our experiential leadership seminars. If your energy for your dream has flattened out or left you completely enroll into our Personal Mastery seminar at www.klemmer.com. You’ll be thrilled you did.

John Edwards
Advanced Leadership Facilitator
Quickening Client Services

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