Year-End Mastermind Party Program

(What is your word of the year?)

I started 2015 off right with a Year-End Mastermind Party. We had it potluck-style, in the evening, at my house. We ate and chatted first, and then we got down to business.

(My Year-End Mastermind party, January 2015.)

There is untold power hidden within the folds of a mastermind group. Here's a suggested format you can use to uncover some of that goodness at your first/next mastermind party:

Bring:

Notebook and pen

Program:

• 7:30-8:00 Potluck and socializing
• 8:00-9:00 Round-the-Table Discussion
• Did you achieve last year's goals?/Evaluate how you did last year in terms of your goals.
• What is your focus for the new year? (business idea/ goal/ plan)
• What is your word for the year? (Your word for the year is like an affirmation; it backs up your focus and your belief in your abilities. My word for the year is "win" because I want to win in all of my endeavors.)
• 9:00-10:00 Listen to Audio: 
• "Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump-handles" by Zig Ziglar was played.
• 10:00-11:00 Round-the-Table Discussion
• Talk about a few of the notes you took during the audio presentation. What did you get out of it? How does it apply to you/make you think/make you feel? What does it make you think of? (This is just a great time to hear what resonates with the different people in the room.)

A goal-setting printable was provided at the end of the meeting so that everyone could take it home and work on it.

This format can be used for annual, bi-annual, and quarterly mastermind meetings, with a few variations. Hope you got an idea of what you can do! I'll be sharing the weekly mastermind format soon!

Note: When the discussions are taking place, although the flow is conversational, we try to let everyone speak one at a time.

Mentor Moment: It's a Struggle!

"It's a struggle!"

Thus spoke a successful woman in the business of real estate, Toni, whom I had the pleasure of spending time with when she agreed to sit down with me and my mastermind group the other day. She dropped a lot of gems as she described her life to us, so this post about her may be the first of many.
She was a mother of two, suddenly single, twenty-odd years ago. She had a job she hated, and a desire to create a better life for herself and her sons.  She was working for the airlines when she faced the reality that she had to do something different; she had to escape the life of an under-paid, over-worked, mistreated employee. So, she jumped ship.

"Don't be afraid to go for a swim and struggle!"
She had to struggle to be independent of her parents. She had to struggle to provide food and education for her sons. She learned that:

"Life motivates you."

and she pointed out that

"When you have a choice, you're complacent."
Sometimes God asks us to struggle by showing us that we have no choice to do otherwise. He asks us to go down paths that we don't necessarily like. Toni said that she herself had hated the path she had to follow! But she had faith and she persevered. She says that when you are ready, and God is ready, a light bulb will go off, and you will know what you have to do. And you will struggle. But you'll know you're in the right struggle. The key, according to Toni, is to remember to

"Always focus on how life can always get better."

And then you'll look back someday, like Toni, and know that you'd struggled for reasons much bigger than you can presently imagine.