How will you use your Junoon in 2012?

Do you promise to make radical changes every year, but fall short?

Do you create your resolutions, only to forget them or worse, give up on them?

With the end of 2011 coming near, we begin to review our year and take account of all the success and failures we’ve had throughout the year.

Undoubtedly, many things have happened in our lives, and we look towards 2012 as a year of continual growth and contribution.

But often, as with many resolutions, we fall short of our own expectations. Sometimes we demand too much of ourselves, but more often we lose focus and energy on a given project.

I know the challenge of launching a new project. In fact, I’m going through one right now.

I recently co-founded and launched a business called 113 Industries. The mission behind the company is to utilize Open Innovation to help companies solve their most pressing research and development issues.

Launching this business has been an extremely challenging, and very rewarding journey.  With each step of the process, my own Junoon has invigorated me to press through and tackle the multiple obstacles that all founders face.

My point is…

The challenges will always exist.

There will always be reasons for not doing something

There will always be the easier route

But these actions rarely ignite your Junoon

If you’re interested in learning more about finding your Junoon, download the my workbook that will help you find you Junoon.

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to pass it along to your friends and family.

Are you waiting for the perfect time to launch into your goals?

Are you ready to take the jump and find Achievement in Life?

I’ve had the privilege of interviewing fellow Achievement Lifestyle enthusiasts about how they create and obtain goals. Achievement in life is something many strive for, but we fail to make the crucial connection that will leads us to the next step. I want to explore this concept through the collective wisdom of the people.

Awareness: Don’t let your PIG and APE stop you from achieving your goals

This interview, with Krishna Pendyala, focused on being aware that your PIG (Pursuing Instant Gratification) and your APE (Avoiding Painful Experiences). The key is to remain aware that these forces are in your life, and resist the temptation for them to direct you or your goals.

Junoon takeaway: Getting into Fanatic Focus This wave transcends ordinary concentration. You could say that you are bewitched by it. You live in it and through it, and absolutely nothing distracts you from it. Don’t let your PIG or APE stop you from achieving your focus.

Building: Deconstructing Your Passion

Danielle built Tupelo Honey Tea from the ground up. She also was able to raise a family while building the business! What Danielle tapped into was “metaphysical energy”.  One way she was able to achieve such a level of energy was to first deconstruct what she wanted to start. Her formula was Find something you love + you’re good at + contribution = Time to launch.

Junoon Takeaway: Metaphysical energy, a phase that engenders energy in you beyond your wildest imagination. You’re up and running at the crack of dawn, and you don’t fall asleep until the early hours of the morning.

Growing: Build a community that carries you higher

When Raheel went on his amazing quest to lose weight (he ended up losing over 150 lbs), he had trouble finding the motivation to keep going. The quest was long, the hours were intense, and his energy was running low. Luckily, Raheel was able to focus and grow a social environment that was able to motivate him to keep going. Sometimes the road will be long, hard, and even lonely, but when we have a positive community behind us, the journey not only becomes about your goal but also an exploration into the power of your community.

Junoon Takeaway: sixth sight. This wave takes you deeper into Junoon; and no, it is not what you call “visualization” in which you see only an end result. Sixth Sight conveys your entire plan; you feel the textures, smell the smells, and taste the tastes related to your goal. You see what you need to do, how you need to do it, and why you need to do it.

Research: Study and learn what the world wants and needs

Dave Nelsen knows social media.  A social media pioneer, Dave founded TalkShoe, a podcasting platform. But what makes Dave successful is his ability to identify the needs of a community. He develops a strategy, knows how to focus, and execute in a way the delivers value to its members.

Junoon Takeaway: Social Junoon. It moves out of from you like a web of attraction as you communicate your vision to likeminded people who can’t help falling in love with it. Before this, Junoon centered within you as an individual; now it moves through you and beyond you to carry your inspiration to engage others’ hearts and minds.

Take a moment and reflect on one of the perspectives above. What’s stopping you from finding your achievement lifestyle?

If you want more information on the concepts above, I’ve created a free Junoon Workbook. Click here to view it

Are you stuck trying to figure out what’s the first step?

For answers to these questions (and many more), please join me in my Junoon and Achievement Lifestyle Spotlight:  Danielle Spinola’s Junoon to start a Tea Company

What's stopping you from your Junoon?

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Danielle Spinola, founder of Tupelo Honey Tea (http://tupelohoneyteas.com/), and her amazing journey through the world of entrepreneurship. As the interview progressed, I was amazed at how many responsibilities she had to juggle at once!  At the start of the company, she was a Mother (her children were 6 and 20 months!), a wife, and a bootstrapping entrepreneur.  Courageously, in the face of adversity, Danielle decided to launch Tupelo Honey Teas, a company which she plans to make “The Starbucks of Tea”.

During our conversation, I was impressed how Danielle moved through the different stages of Junoon, especially the fourth wave of Junoon, Metaphysical Energy, a phase that engenders energy beyond your wildest imagination.  It’s easy to see how a mother of two, wife, and bootstrapping entrepreneur needs the fourth wave of Junoon to accomplish her goals!

In the interview, you get insight on:

• How Danielle was able to launch while balancing her family and work life
• How to find your passion (Hint* The formula is:  Find something you love+ you’re good +contribution = Time to launch!)
• Ways Danielle micro tested her idea
• And much, much more

If you love tea, looking to start a business, want to accomplish an amazing goal, lead an achievement lifestyle, or just like some inspiration, then this podcast is for you.

Click Here to Listen to the Podcast

These heroes are not “magical” people, they possessed no super human capabilities, and they required little or no additional drive to help them become everyday heroes. While there are many people involved in the recovery and growth from 9/11, I would like to take a moment and remember the firefighters who stood at ground zero on that fateful day. They did not question their calling, they did not wait, and they did not stand back. They were at the front lines, risking their life, while asking for nothing in return. At the moment of tragedy, they gave their lives in order to help secure of the future of their fellow citizens. These acts helped lift us up as a nation, at a time when we were at our lowest point.

While we have made enormous progress and recovery since in 9/11, many firefighters still suffer from the selfless acts they performed on that fateful day. The toxins released by the towers were taken in by the first responders, which gave rise to cancerous cells in their body. The fight and commitment they made on 9/11 now carries on through a series of doctor visits, surgeries, and strenuous post operation recoveries. Even though we have many brave citizens around the world, helping protect and secure this great nation, we must also remember those who are still suffering from the poison they ingested on 9/11. They now fight every day, knowing that their body is going through the turmoil of trying to fight one of humankind’s deadliest diseases.

Let’s always remember that these ordinary citizens were able to achieve extraordinary feats of human potential through their service. As a way to honor their courage and outstanding accomplishments, I would like to challenge you to do two things:

Contact (visit, call, email) someone you know who was directly affected by 9/11. Remind them that they are not alone in their recovery, and that the courageous acts taken by those they loved will always be appreciated, honored, remembered

Think about how you can achieve your greatest potential. Discuss ways you can contribute and make an impact to you, your family, your community, and the world.  During this day of remembrance, let us also think about ways you can help build a brighter future.

Feel free to re-post, tweet and forward this post to your network.

“You have to imagine the entire product in advance before you build it.” –Tony Fadell

Junoon in action

Do you find it difficult to make your dream a reality?

Does it seem like the world is stopping you from obtaining an achievement lifestyle?

In the 1990’s, Tony Fadell was one of the industry’s leading experts. He was the co-founder, CTO, and director of Engineering for Mobile Computing Group for Phillips.  At the height of his career, Fadell decided to take a turn and create his own consumer electronic company. His new company, Fuse, was set to launch when tragedy struck. The company failed to raise a second round of funding, and had to close even before taking off. Instead of looking for the comfort of an old job, Fadell pressed forward, and began pitching his ideas to companies…one of which was Apple. Apple was excited about his idea of a personal music player, and decided to bring him on board.

His ability to press on, to obtain fanatic focus, is what helped him stay focused on what he wanted to achieve. This fourth wave of Junoon, fanatic focus, does not let the individual become distracted by things outside their ultimate goal. Fadell was passionate about his idea, and wanted to move it into an arena where it could be successfully executed.

Fadell entered Apple in 2001, and began to work on a product that he had already finished in his mind. His ability to see the whole product, imagine its finality, focuses on another wave of Junoon, Sixth Sight. In the sixth sight, you see what you need to do, how you need to do it, and why you need to do it. You experience a breakthrough. You translate your plan into practical reality.

During his time at Apple, Fadell has been accredited as being the unspoken genius behind the Ipod. His ability to find his Junoon and pursue his greatest goal, led him to develop a device that would change the world.

Click here to download your free Junoon Workbook.

Are you afraid of failing?

Are you afraid of failing?

Do you find the thought of failure paralyzes you from achieving your goal?

For entrepreneurs, innovators, or anyone taking on a demanding project, the idea of failure can be a paralyzing force. We look around, and see our personal heroes: They are strong, confident, and more often than not, wildly successful. But behind every success lies a dozen failed attempts. We ignore these failures because we only see our heroes as “successful”…they were born to be great. This is a comforting thought, but sadly it’s not true.

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan

Our success is created through the learning and perseverance that is developed through failing.  This energy, this passion, is part of the fourth wave of Junoon called Metaphysical Energy.  This is the state that propels your mind and body beyond a normal state of awareness. You can work harder, and longer than ever before. You drive yourself through the many obstacles (and failures) that come with the road to success, and you begin to see results from your countless hours of work.  Remember that failure is part of the path, and your success can be determine by your ability to learn from your mistakes.

Download the Junoon workbook and learn about the 4th wave of Junoon.

The Secret of Happiness

“We become too attached with our titles, but that’s not who we are”

Krishna Pendyala

BEYOND THE PIG AND THE APE

As we move through our days, we often are focused on the monumental amount of “things” or “stuff” that just needs to get done. Half the time, we focus on productive, meaningful goals, while other times it seems we are simply spinning our wheels in the mud. For the latter, we are “in a rut”. This metaphorical rut moves into our emotional lives, until we hit an emotional rut. At this point, we have decisively concluded that we “are not happy”. But where does our notion of happiness come from? How does this setback affect our personal identity? And how does this emotional rut affect our Junoon?

For such extraordinary questions, I decided to reach out to my friend Krishna Pendyala, who recently wrote an outstanding book titled, Beyond the Pig and The Ape, which looks at notions of happiness and reconstructs them in a simple and direct manner. I invited him to my Achievement Lifestyle podcast so that we could further explore his concept of fulfillment, and happiness.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the topics we covered,

• How to observe our ego, and breakdown our impulse towards Pursuing Instant Gratification (PIG) and our desire to Avoid Painful Experiences (APE)
• How to view common definitions of happiness, and how to reframe the meaning of happiness so that it is fulfilling to you
• The difference between thinking and knowing, and how to achieve a state of clarity and calmness while pursuing the position of the Knower
• How to construct a personal framework that helps you balance and observe your ego while pursuing your greatest Junoon.

To listen to the full interview, please click here

To learn more about Krishna Pendyala and his new book, “Beyond the Pig and the Ape”, please click here: http://www.krishnapendyala.com/

As always, thank you for stopping by. Your support helps me fuel my own Junoon. If you ever have questions, please email me at razii@drivennation.com

Razi Imam

facebook.com/DrivenNation

@RaziImam

Driven Book

Building a movement using social media

We’ve seen it all over the headlines and have watched in amazement as thousands of people have stood up for their rights and desires as citizens: the Arab Spring. It’s a reminder to never underestimate the power of a small group of passionate people. We all possess within us the power to change the world and with the current social media tool climate, mobilizing groups of people for a cause is all the easier.

This conversation contains ACTIONABLE STEPS IN SOCIAL MEDIA from my friend Dave Nelsen, the founder of the social media podcast tool, Talkshoe. As we were talking about the social and political change in Egypt, Nelsen provided the audience with how to build you’re own passionate community through social media.

The conversation covered many things, including the four questions anyone has to ask when trying to create an online movement:

1. Who is my target audience? Describe this as narrowly as you can and try to understand your audience demographically.

2. What are my objectives?

3. How can I create value for my audience independent of the bottom line overt goal that I have? Creating value for the audience may not yield fruit for your objective right away, but cultivating an audience who values your content will benefit you over time.

4. What’s the best platform?  Before implementing your created value, you have to understand your demographic and where they seek information online.

Other areas we covered included:

• How Dave Nelsen began his process of building TalkShoe over 8 years ago
• The concept of exponential growth, and how its principles will affect your ability to focus a community
• Examples of people who’ve successful launched their social media campaign, and how it can be used to launch yours
• The “Cocktail party” method, which determines the value of your content

Who is this podcast for?

Anyone looking to help change the world by tapping their inner Junoon and building a passionate community

Who is the podcast is not for?

Anyone who believes the status quo is the best we can do, and the best you can do.

You can listen to the interview here.

For more information on Dave Nelsen, please visit www.wesocialize.biz

As always, thank you stopping by. Your support helps me fuel my own Junoon. If you ever have questions, please email me at razii@drivennation.com

Here is a good news segment explaining how social media help create the social movement in Egypt.

News segment explaining how social media helped create a movement

It is a lifestyle followed by a select group of individuals who go against the commonly held belief that a solution to a known and accepted limitation is impossible. These individuals range from being everyday housewives/husbands, blue-collar workers to doctors, scientists, engineers, astronauts, and entrepreneurs.

When most of us would see challenges, problems and barriers. They see opportunities, solutions and successes. They see life from a different lens.  I highlight the fact that they are a select group of individuals because so many of us go through life focused on our day-to-day struggles. These individuals face the same or even harsher struggles yet some thing in their mind forces them to pick up a known barrier and overcome it.

Two such individuals who live an Achievement Lifestyle are Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari. I do not know them personally only from what is available on the web. They helped break a known exploration limit by donating $10M towards a competition to develop a non-government funded reusable manned spacecraft. Currently NASA spends well over several billion dollars in sending the space shuttle. They wanted the private enterprise to do it for 1/100 the cost. In 2004 the coveted prize was won by Tier One project with two flights into the edge of space. This accomplishment forever changed the accepted limitation that space exploration and travel belonged to government agencies with unlimited budgets.

X Prize - Breaking the Myth

Achievement Lifestyle individuals have unique thought processes. They have an inner energy that drives them to push the known limits. It could be a scientific, economic, or a social problem such freedom of an oppressed society from tyranny, violence and abusive human rights. And when all hope is lost, Achievement Lifestyle leaders such as Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela rise up and go against the known limits of their society and liberate their citizens.

You also see regular Achievement Lifestyle individuals in your daily life, they are your average John Smith and Jane Doe going through life with a clear mission and intense focus to solve a serious problem and when they come into your life you cannot help but join their movement.

So how do you become an Achievement Lifestyle individual?

You become an Achievement Lifestyle individual when you access your “Junoon”. Junoon is force we all have that gets us into a state of positive obsession to break a perceived or real, personal or social limitation. This limitation could be as simple as trying to get your dream job, buy your first house, build your company, invent a new machine, discover a cure or as large as attempting to eradicate world hunger.  It does not matter, the state of Junoon helps you break all barriers.

Achievement Lifestyle individuals when in a state of Junoon experience a moment of pure inspiration. It is as if the universe speaks to them and unleashes a super human sense of clarity of what needs to be achieved to break the known limits. They see what they need to do, how they need to do it, and why they need to do it. An extreme focus spawns over them and it appears that they begin to warp situations and coincidences that help them achieve the goal. They start to operate with incredible physical stamina, mental energy and acute will power to never give up. Their state of Junoon attracts like-minded people and before they know it their goal to break the known limit starts a movement where initially 100s and eventually 1000s of people support them. This is the state of Junoon and all Achievement Lifestyle individuals naturally know how to access it.

Visit my site www.DrivenNation.com for more information on Achievement Lifestyle and how to access the state of Junoon.

“Losing weight is 95% an emotional issue,” confessed Raheel, who had become sick of the ridicule and depression that came along with his obesity.

Raheel before and after, lost 150 pounds in one year

So how was Raheel able to channel his inner Junoon, and transform himself in just one year? Here’s a recording of our conversation which covered:

• What happened to inspire Raheel to take charge of his weight and life
• The importance of building a community, which helped him channel self doubt into a powerful source of Junoon
• How to use your community to stay accountable while pursuing your goal
• How to take negative energy and redirect it towards achieving your goal. Raheel had a TON of energy, but it was all focused on being negative.
• How to identify others who have high levels of achievement, and how to use their progress as a source of inspiration

Raheel was also interviewed by WBAL NBC in Baltimore about his amazing accomplishment.

Raheel's interview on NBC

Please leave your comments for Raheel, encouraging him and recognizing his commitment for living an achievement lifestyle.