The biggest mistake I see newbies make is lack of focus.

The best thing about the internet is that it allows entrepreneurs to have access to many opportunities that require relatively little startup costs.

And the worst thing is that it's easy to switch gears.

The key is just having focus and discipline to stick with one thing.  You'll get so much accomplished paradoxically by doing less.

I love the beginning of the year.  As soon as Christmas finishes, I focus on what I want to achieve over the next year, and write down everything.  Then I refine, and add new goals.  Some very easy.  Some stuff I just want to make sure I read, and lots of business stuff.

Now the trick with goals is to realize they are NOT all the same.

I'm going to share some key resources with you today(for free) that will really help you achieve more.

OK, the first thing to understand is that goals are different.  The easiest are the goals that are either complete or incomplete.

To track these types of goals, I use Toodledo

Now there is a free version, but I pay $14.95/yr.  The free version by the way is almost completely functional.  This allows me to tag, group, organize and time all of the things I need to do as well as sort by priority.

This isn't going to be a full review, just a quick overview of some software you can start using in 2009.

I spent over 25 hours looking for the right software.I also use their free firefox pluginto quickly add new goals from my firefox browser.

My second choic, which is a little more literal in terms of GTD is GTDAgenda.

I really like GTDAgenda, but it was a bit too literal for me and it was a little less flexible.  However, it was superios in terms of checklists.  It's also free, by the way.

But for me, I tried both and preferred Toodlelo.

These are great for network marketers and internet marketers who DON'T need a more robust (yet still simple) project management team collaboration software like BasecampHQ

But that's the simple part of goals.

The hard part is the overall guidelines.  Like going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Or eating more fruit.  Or drinking less coffee.

Those are the sorts of things you can never complete.  The lifestyle goals.

So what do you do?

Mentally seperate them.  Actionable goals go into GTDAgenda or Toodledo.

The Lifestyle goals/Checklist goals go into JoesGoals.com

Now JoesGoals is another free online software.  I just check in once at the end of the day and check off all the things I've scheduled to do.

You can assign points for some items, which helps increase the reward factor.  (So certain tasks will get your more points.)  So you can use this to increase your motivation to do those hard tasks.  Like working out, or whatever your hardest task is.

Another cool thing is that you can assign NEGATIVE goals.  And you if you check of an item, you lose points.  (Great example is eating cake or smoking.)  So you can easily see the ying and yang of your checklist-style goals.

By using these 2 goal systems, you will get much more done.

PS – Another cool tool is Lifetick.com, which allows you to look at your goals from major life categories you define (ie spiritual, business, health).  But I personally find JoesGoals to be the best for those recurring tasks and overall goals.

Let me know what you use:

These are the most common brainwave frequencies.

(….excluding those ranges higher than beta such as gamma)

BETA waves 13 to 30 Hz the fastest waves, most commonly found during our waking state, associated with outward awareness, engaged mind, arousal, actively perceiving and evaluating forms of data through the senses; also present with fear, anger, worry, hunger, and surprise.

ALPHA waves 7 to 13 Hz associated with non-drowsy but relaxed, tranquil state of consciousness, less engagement and arousal, pleasant inward awareness, body/mind integration, present during meditation and states of relaxation

THETA waves 3 to 7 Hz associated with increased recall, creativity, imagery and visualization , free-flowing thought, future planning, inspiration, drowsiness, present during dreaming and REM states

DELTA waves .1 to 3 Hz associated with deep dreamless sleep, deep trance state pituitary release of growth hormone, self-healing, present during deep levels of non-REM sleep.

So during Beat is not great for creative work. I find that during the afternoons when my productivty goes down, it’s easier to get dragged into this state. When quite returns at night, sometime i find myself working productively.

Just a cool chart you can reference.

I was listening to a personal development CD this morning as I was spending smome time with our new baby, and there was a quick exercise proposed.

"If you had only 30 seconds to tell your children the 3 most important things about life, what would you tell them?"

Well, the 3 things that popped into my head are:

1. Persistence.  Persistence will over come any obstacle.  I think this is the reason I am a very successful marketer, and I know how powerful a consistent persistence is every area of life.
2. The ability to change with your spouse/partner.  I believe that the single most important factor in a long, happy marriage is the ability and willingness to change together in the same direction.  People that have relationship problems are very often inflexible and set in their ways.  It's more important to be happy than to be right.
3. Be an entrepreneur.  You will either work for somebody else or you will have other people work for you.  Start preparing for this as early as possible.  I had to learn how to become an entrepreneur, but if I knew, I would have started learning earlier.  Entrepreneurs just think differently.  Start now.

But let's turn this post into something really powerful.  What are the 3 most important things you would tell your kids if you had 30 seconds?

Even if you just answer with 3 words, I think you'll find this exercise helps both you AND others… So take 30 seconds right now and share YOUR insights below…