What inspired me the most at this week’s BCBusiness Top 100 Luncheon 2010 were the words of a magician. Listening to the 92-year-old Dal Richards playing O Canada on his sax was a close second, but the keynote speech by Giovanni Livera really stood out for me.

Gio, as he calls himself, interspersed his motivational message with magic tricks. There was the bowling ball that somehow fit inside his briefcase, the card tricks, and the sleight of hand. But the real magic was in his talk about how anything is possible. What I took away with me — along with a full tummy and a great goody bag from BCBusiness magazine – is listed below. I must give full credit to Giovanni for the points written down here. They are either direct quotes taken from his speech, or my paraphrasing of them.

• Ask yourself what it is that you eat, sleep, and can’t get enough of. What is your passion? For me, it’s reading about others’ spiritual paths, talking about spirituality and making my own spiritual discoveries. I could do that all day. (And, hey, do you have a book on the topic you need edited?)
• When you are planning your goals, include that one huge dream goal of yours. Professionally, for me, that would be editing the manuscript of the next Deepak Chopra or Eckhart Tolle.
• Set your goals high. Make your ceiling your floor, stand on it and get on top of your potential.
• Know that “no” is not an option. In Giovanni’s words, “Life is too f-ing short.” Find a way to get it done.
• Tell everyone what you are going to do next, ask them to pass it on to everyone they know, then do it. There’s power in getting your message out to the world. And it helps if there are dozens of people willing to hold you accountable.
• When you have a setback, AND when you have a success, reset your goals. When you are successful, celebrate for a day or a week, then reinvent yourself. Don’t rest on your laurels. When you fail, wallow for a time if you must, but then reinvent yourself. Make a new plan. If you change nothing, nothing will change.
• Write it down. Getting back to the title of this blog post, write down your goals in order to be successful. Make the invisible visible. I don’t know how many times lately I’ve gotten the message that there’s something to be said about extracting what’s rattling around inside my brain and committing it to paper. I guess writing things down gives them a physical existence, or at least gives me something more substantial to work with.

Again, all credit goes to Giovanni Livera for the points above, and for this final message: “It’s the little things that you do in the middle of the day that go a long way.” Including committing your goals to paper. And that’s how writing leads to success. For more info on Giovanni Livera himself, go to giovanniexperiences.com.

Related posts:

http://www.zeneditorial.com/vancouver_editor/writing-about-what-you-dont-know