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Re-Inventing yourself…What’s next?

July 12th, 2010
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If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential, for the eye which , ever young and ardent, sees the possible.- Soren Kierkegaard

I was hanging out with my 4 year old son the other day and I was impressed with the excitement he finds in all the little things in life like learning a new word, understanding how something works, the adventure of playing in the backyard, and eating a new food. His energy and adventure is contagious. As we get older, and we have lived a full life and tried everything under the sun. We can have the tendency to write off all the things we don’t like and embrace what we do enjoy, this causes the excitement and passion for life and new adventure to fade.


For example, I would love to get my pilot’s license and then fly the country in my own airplane. This is an adventure and it would be an incredible thrill for me. My Dad, on the other hand, has had his pilot’s license - he has been there and done that. The excitement has worn off, so what’s next? Maybe for my Dad it’s time to get some buddies together and build their own plane, time to take a passion and reinvent it. Re-create it with fresh perspective and new skills.


Once you have traveled the world, fought in 2 world wars, lived, loved and know yourself well. What is left? What excitement, challenge, and fervor for life and adventure is there? Maybe it’s time to re-invent yourself?

Is it time for you to get some new energy from an old passion? Is it time to date your spouse again? Renew your vows? Check an item off the bucket list? Build something? Find a new talent? Or maybe the greatest reinvention is to plant seeds off your tree of experience into the life and mind of someone else?


Enjoy this true story:

Anna Mary Moses loved to do needlework. She had been enjoying it since before she was married. But as she began to get older, she started to lose some of the dexterity in her hands through arthritis. By the time she was eighty, she could no longer perform even the simplest stitches. Therefore she decided to try something different—painting. The brushes were easy enough to handle, even with her arthritis, so she took it up full time, mostly painting farm and country scenes.


One day a traveling art collector stopped for a bite to eat in her town and saw her pictures in a drugstore. He decided that he liked them, and in a very short time the name of Grandma Moses was known throughout the art world. Although Grandma Moses didn’t even start painting until she was eighty years old, she was able to create over fifteen hundred works of art in her lifetime. She had an international following, and prominence as a world-class painter.

All this because she was forced to quit her favorite pastime and take up a new one.


Success cannot be measured in time, or what anyone else thinks. It’s personal and powerful when you are reaching your own goals. Never stop learning, dreaming, and re-inventing the wonderful life you have been given. The world is a playground, and there is always something new to explore. Sometimes the greatest exploration is done inside your own mind and life.


Dream it, find it, and live it. After all… this is YOUR one shot at life.


Jon Bohm


Goals, Innovation, Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Motivation

A Star is born

July 6th, 2010
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“Many an opportunity is lost because a (wo)man is out looking for four-leaf clovers.” ~ Anon

I was reading my son is bedtime story and it happened to include an interesting story about how a star is born in space. It requires 3 major elements for the star to be born; gas, gravity, and timing. Read more about the science behind this here.

What a great metaphor for each of us. We all want to be “stars” in our own world, family, industry, or peer group. We want to make a difference to bring the right things together and maybe the biggest motivator - we want to be recognized for it. We want to shine, brightly!

It’s easy to think that this is a function of luck.

  • If I had their background, looks, luck, than I would be a star too
  • If I had bought when they bought I would be rich too
  • If my daddy owned “x” company I would be in the right circles
  • If my kids were born without that disability
The more I work with people in a behind the scenes capacity with widely successful people the more I realize there is no four leaf clover, there is no lucky situation, and there is no lottery ticket. The magic bullet to success doesn’t exist.

What appears to be lucky timing or lucky resources is not luck at all - it’s simply preparation, passion to find resources, and the ability to expect opportunity (timing.) 3 ingredients that happen out of purpose and direction. To the skeptical outsider it appears to be lucky. But, it’s not.

You want to be a star? 3 simple ingredients must exist to shine brightly -

1. Prepare yourself to become who you want to become. You want to be a star, act like one, now.

2. Find your passion and you will find the resources. Trust me, if you want it badly enough you will find the resources- or they will find you.

3. Look for opportunity with an expectation, a certainty of someone who knows the sun will rise tomorrow.

Stars are born everyday, in every economy, industry, and family.

The only question is: will YOU look inside for the opportunity and put the ingredients in place or will continue to look for four leaf clovers and lottery tickets?

Expecting great things for you!
Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

Dog Cakes on the Path to Success

May 18th, 2010
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“Your sweetest successes always come after some of your most sour mistakes.”


Confusing a mistake for a failure is a common thing to do. We often (mentally or emotionally) think and feel that a mistake or a trial and error is a failure to some degree, but really it’s just a part of your next success.

You haven’t failed until you quit making mistakes, and therefore quit moving forward.

A client of mine told me a great story of Saturday pancake breakfasts at his house growing up. His Dad would be up earlier than everyone else and his Dad would start to make pancakes for the family. The smell would fill the house and by the time they got up, there was coffee brewing and a giant stack of perfectly golden pancakes. The family dog was normally a beggar, but never begged on Saturday mornings. Because, as it turns out, every Saturday before the family was up- Dad would burn the first batch of pancakes, which he gave to the family dog. These were the “Dog Cakes.”

The “Dog Cakes” had to be made, they had to burn the oil off the pan before you could ever get to the golden brown beauties that came next. The “Dog Cakes” were a right of passage, an important part of the journey towards a perfect pancake.

When you start a new venture, launch a new product, make your first cold calls, try to connect emotionally, give a speech for the 1st time since high school, or anything else- be ready and willing to have some “dog cakes.” But, don’t confuse a few “dog cakes” with failure.

“Dog cakes” are not failures, or even mistakes, they are a part of the process to the perfect success. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t run from opportunity because of them. Rather embrace them.

Believe me, your greatest successes will come after a short stack of “dog cakes.” The faster you burn the oil off the pan the faster you will taste sweet success.

Hungry for Life-

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Motivation

The Choice YOU have to make today

May 12th, 2010
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“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

I went for a hike in some of the mountains near my house the other day and it got me thinking about all the comparisons that can be made between a hike in the mountains and life. One in particular jumped out at me.

When I started my hike, I had to choose which path I would take. The trail map showed a rating for each trail based on:
  • Ruggedness of terrain
  • Elevation height
  • Elevation change
I chose, as I often do in life, to take the most challenging trail. I want the one with the highest peaks and the lowest valleys, I want the one with the hardest trail that can take my breathe out of my lungs and replace it with a burning sensation, the one that makes my legs ache and burn. But, this trail also offers me the greatest breathtaking views, the greatest sense of accomplishment, and the greatest overall rewards.

We have to make this same choice everyday. If you get married you are choosing a path with much higher highs and much lower lows than a single person will have. If you open a business, likewise higher highs and lower lows. If you step out and volunteer to give that speech, to write that book, to handle that challenging situation at work, to commit to a workout program, to ask that person out…you get the idea. Anytime we choose to step into the ring and pick the rugged trail in life with the most elevation change, you are picking a different life than the majority of people who are simply content to go for a stroll on a smooth flat path that will never experience the breath taking views nor the pain of the climb.

Which path have you chosen in your life? Which path will you choose in the future? Which path will you take today?

As for me, call it a curse, but I have to take the rugged trail to the top, the view is just to amazing to pass up on.

See you on the trail, I hope to see at the top!

Enjoy the Climb!

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation

Somebody SAVE me!

February 2nd, 2010
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Somebody SAVE me!

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

The fear of failure is a sub-conscious courage eater. It will rob you of passion, paralyze your mind, and urge you to give the responsibility for success to someone, or something else.

Have you ever felt that thing in the back of your conscious mind that wants you to run away, the moment you see the possibility that you could fail? We all have it. I think it’s purpose is to keep us safe, which would be fine, if we still lived at our parent’s houses with everything we need supplied by someone else in a perfectly safe world that was free from disease, pain, and suffering of any kind.

Since that is not the world we live in, and since our world is not SAFE. We have to come to grips with the reality that there is no avenue of retreat, we must arm ourselves. We must prepare mentally to live in the absence of safety, to live in a dangerous world with the possibility of failure forever lurking at the back of our subconscious mind, telling us to retreat.

What happens when the fear of failure is nagging you, and your subconscious is telling you to retreat? Our first instinct is often to scream “Save me” to anyone willing to listen.

  • Business owners yell “save me” to marketing firms and coaches
  • Mom’s yell “save me” to school programs and babysitters
  • Personal finances yell “save me” to financial planners or bankruptcy attorneys
  • People in need yell “save me” to anyone willing to listen
  • Sometimes big businesses yell “save me” to government
  • Sometimes government yells “save me” to taxes
Don’t get me wrong I am all for asking for help, collaboration, gaining partners, and teams. The difference between asking for help and yelling “save me” is this; asking for help implies that I am emotionally and mentally keeping the responsibility for my success and I simply want to team up, or ask for your help as a part of the effort to succeed.

Whereas; Yelling “save me” implies that I am giving you the responsibility for MY SUCCESS. And this will allow the fear of failure to destroy you. We can never give the responsibility for our own success to anyone. We can delegate, we can collaborate, we can orchestrate, and we can simply get help. But, if we give the responsibility for success to someone else, we have lost the war. We have retreated, and we have lost all influence in our success, guaranteeing failure.

So next time you feel that fear of failure begin to creep up on you, stop and make a plan. Stop and think about how to attack. Become even that much more committed to owning the responsibility you have to your own success.
And only then, ask for help and collaborate towards your success with marketing firms, coaches, attorneys, school programs, friends, government, and anyone who can help.

Don’t be a victim to the fear of failure, be an OWNER of your own success.

Owning it daily,

Jon Bohm

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

New Year + Focus = New YOU

January 3rd, 2010
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“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they do their lives. Perhaps that’s because escape is easier than change.” - Jim Rohn


2010 is here! I hope you are as excited as I am!
I don’t mean to be over excited, but as a cancer survivor I take every milestone as a chance to celebrate life and what it means to be here for 2010 is more than words can ever describe. So congratulations! You are here for 2010 as well.

If you are anything like me, you are expecting 2010 to be your best year yet. Not just because 2009 seemed to have so many challenges for so many people, but because you are continually BECOMING a better person who brings more value and good to those around you every year, and that is exciting!

For me I have a few things planned. I have a new plan to be an even better coach, father, and husband. I have financial, family, friends, fitness, and fun goals that I will be working towards. All of them requiring resources and mental shifts from where I am now to where I will be by the year end. What about for you? What do you have planned for 2010?

Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s a laundry list to some degree, similar to mine. Do you know the best way to insure hardly any of it happens? I do, DON’T focus on any ONE thing.

I have recently taken up bird hunting, great fun, and great food :) Sorry bird lovers. When I walk within 10 feet of the right bush I could see 20 doves fly out and go all over the place and I have about 2 seconds to take a shot. What I have found is that if 20 fly out, I hardly ever walk away with even ONE?! I see them, I hear them, I get crazy excited and then I don’t seem to have enough time to pick one out of the crowd and take a shot and nothing happens. But, if I walk into a bush area and only one flies out, I’m having dove for breakfast.

The New Year will be the same for me, and I bet for you, if you have 20 goals all flying out of your year at the same time, you will be lucky to walk away from 2010 with even one goal completed and in the bag. We have to FOCUS, focus, and I will say it again focus. We will have to pick one out of the crowd and take a shot, before we ever move on. So, here is a practical and easy guide I recommend for making 2010 be productive and successful in BECOMING a better YOU:

  1. Make a list of the top 5 things you would like to change about you, or your circumstances. (For me, I’m starting with getting back in shape)
  2. Answer this question; “If you could change one thing in your life that would have the greatest positive impact on your life in 2010, what would it be?” Do not move to step 3 until you have a confident answer for number 2. Many of my clients say something with the five “F’s” (Family, fitness, financial, fun, or friends) for number 2 in some way. What is yours? Got it?
  3. Ok, now number 3 is to separate that goal from the crowd, and make it specific and put a time frame on it. What will you do and when will you do it?
  4. Now, put everything else on the shelf, and set your sights on only that one change.
  5. Ask yourself; What do I have to know? What do I have to do? Who do I have to become? for that goal to be in the bag by the date I set?
  6. Go get it! Protect it, focus on it, resource it, and don’t rest or look at another goal until you achieve it.
Although, for me goal achievement is an art and this rabbit hole goes pretty deep, the take away that I want you to get, (which is 90 % of the process) is to FOCUS on that one thing. I am convinced that one of the biggest reason so many people live in mediocrity with so much available to us, is because so much IS AVAILABLE that we lose focus.

A new year is hear, and the pages are blank for 2010, it’s time to write the first page. Pick one thing, only one thing, and focus on it until completion. Then move onto the next thing until completion, and so on. And write the greatest story of your life ONE page at a time in 2010.

Live a great story!

Jon Bohm
YOUR personal, business, and strategy coach

Goals, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

When you are in a funk…H.A.L.T

December 28th, 2009
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Anger is a secondary emotion. You have to kill the root.

On a regular basis I have a client or a friend, kids, or myself that have a day you could put in the funk category. A day when you are not firing on all cylinders so to speak.

Have you ever had a day like that? We all do?  The occasional emotional setback. No big deal, right?

Depends, I guess on the day. If you spend your day in a funk instead of landing that new client it could have long term effects. I tell every client I have, if you are going to be an entrepreneur you have to embrace the fact that you don’t get the luxury of a crappy attitude, self pitty, or even a funk for very long if at all.

So, how do we avoid the funk? How do we keep the funky day from becoming a funky week, month, year, or your life? I can’t cover it all in a little blog post but I will give you this. In almost every situation when you find yourself in a funk it’s because 1 of 4 things; you allowed yourself to become too:

H.ungry
A.ngry
L.onely or
T.ired

Next time you feel yourself slipping into the funk, stop (halt) and ask yourself; “Am I too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?” The answer is yes 98 % of the time. So, stop and fix it, or take regular daily checks to keep the funk at bay.

It turns out my Mom new how to keep the funky days at bay with sleep, the right diet, good friends, and emotional health. And that alone can be a great New Year’s resolution.

Happy New Year and Cheers to the good life.

Live a great story in 2010!

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Motivation

Are you LIVING a story?

December 11th, 2009
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Are You Living a Story worth telling?

I am in the middle of a great book by Donald Miller “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.”

Great book, and it’s all about “story.”  What makes a great story?  What makes a story worth watching, reading, or even living?

It got me thinking about my life….. am I living a story?  Would anyone watch it as a movie?  Would anyone read it?  Does anyone care?  Or, would I have to add a bunch of things to my boring life to make it a real “story?”

I have concluded, I am living a story.  I don’t know that anyone would watch it, but it is an epic story.  What about you?

Are you living a story?

Every great story meets the following criteria:

  • It has a character that wants something so bad that they are willing to overcome any obstacle, run through any wall, and conquer any mountain to get it.  Without that, you don’t have a story.  You are the character in your story, are you on an adventure towards something you want?  What is it?  Are you willing to overcome the obstacles to realize your dreams?
  • Every story starts with a look into the character’s life and mind.  The story shows you that the character is a “good” person, a person making in a difference in some way. Why?  Because, nobody cares if the character wins in the end if we don’t know they are a “good” person, making a difference.  Are you making a significant difference?  Does the world see an impact because of you in some big or small way?  Do people want you to win in the end?  Do people rally around you and your cause? Or, are you standing idly by?
  • In every story the character doesn’t really and truly make changes towards the life they want until something makes them move.  Someone loses a job, loses a spouse, loses an opportunity, loses a life, a friend, or focus and they are finally forced or driven to change. Are you saying you want to do, see, get, or be someone someday?  What is it?  Why don’t you have it yet?  Are you waiting for an event to make you move?  What has to happen in your life before you are willing to go after the life you want?  What can you do to make it happen now?
Just some thoughts.  So, are you living a story?
Let me tell you; I want you to win in the end.  I want you to make a move now.  I want you to want something so bad you begin to really, really live a story.

The pages are blank moving forward, it’s time to start writing your own epic.  If you need help putting pen to paper and make your move, just give me a shout.  After all, you only get one time around on this life?  Don’t stand idly by.

Live YOUR STORY-

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation

What do YOU want?

November 2nd, 2009
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Living your entire life always doing what you SHOULD can give you a safe predictable life that leaves you completely disappointed in the end because you never answered the honest and simple question of “What do I WANT?”- Jon Bohm

What do YOU want?

I mean really what do you want, not what you SHOULD want, but what do you really WANT?

Sometimes those things are the same. I should go to work today and I WANT to go to work today. Great! That is an important distinction. When you live your life the way you should instead of the way you want your heart, emotions, desires, and mind are sitting on the sideline as you live your dutiful existence moving through the motions without passion.

What are you doing in your life that you SHOULD be doing?

What are you NOT doing that you SHOULD be doing?

I should go to church. I did go to church because I SHOULD.

I should go home and hang with my family. I did go home and hang with the family because I SHOULD.

I should make that sales call. I made the call because I SHOULD.

I SHOULD take my spouse out. ETC. ETC.

What is it that you do without emotional passion and desire because you SHOULD?

Now, don’t take me wrong I’m not saying we all need to ignore whatever we SHOULD be doing.  Instead of ignoring, we have to make the mental and attitudinal shift to quit saying I SHOULD and change it to I WANT to do this.

Most of the time it’s as simple as catching your self in the middle of a SHOULD and simply replacing the word SHOULD with WANT.  It’s time to get YOUR passions and emotions off the bench and into the game of life.

The bottom line is you have an incredible life to live.  Start living it because you WANT to and stop living it because you SHOULD.  It’s time for YOU to get emotional involved in YOUR life.  If you need help making the switch, please contact me anytime!

May we hit the ground living the life we WANT to live today!

Enjoy Life!

Jon Bohm





Goals, Inspiration/Values, Leadership, Motivation

The Most Powerful things in life are Simple but NOT Easy

September 28th, 2009
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“Everyone needs someone to help them take action on the simple things in life, because simple is not EASY.”- Jon Bohm

In high school I wore a baseball cap that had the name brand “SIMPLE” on the front.  SIMPLE is a great clothing and shoe manufacturer.  I had a boss that would always make fun of me for wearing that hat.  His jokes always themed around the idea that to be simple is to be slow… and basically a moron.

As you can imagine, I’m over it now- ok I still have a little resentment :).  As a matter of fact, I couldn’t disagree with that assumption (that “simple” means you can’t even tie your own shoes) more!  The mark of a brilliant person is to be able to take complicated ideas and make them simple enough to be useful and practical.

The greatest things in life are simple:

  • Love
  • Friendship
  • Compassion
  • Making Money
  • Saving Money
  • Starting a new healthy habit in the New Year
  • Quitting an old unhealthy habit
  • Staying active
  • Eating Healthy
  • Improving your quality of life
  • Raising truly great kids
  • Developing greatness in others
  • Making the world, or at least your world, a better place

Maybe, as you were reading that list you started to disagree with me?  What do you think?  Simple?  Is it simple to love your spouse?  Is it simple to raise great kids?  Is it simple to make money?  To eat healthy, make the world a better place….etc?

Of course.  It is SIMPLE.  However, it is NOT EASY.  Somewhere a long the line I believe just about everything in our culture has confused simple with easy.  For example,  if you want to stop smoking it’s not complicated.  All  you have to do is not put another cigarette in your mouth, don’t light it, and don’t puff on it.  This is not rocket science.  If you want to eat healthy all you have to do is put healthy food into your mouth, chew, and swallow.  Again not rocket science.  But NOT easy either.

So, let me ask you.  If you could change anything in your life and improve on some things, what would you change?

Take a moment….ok got it?

Now, let’s be real honest, is it a simple change?

I would be willing to bet all 3 of those things could realistically change in the next 12 months.  Could they?  If so, than why haven’t you changed them already?  What is getting in your way?  What simple thing has become complicated or difficult and why?

Let me ask another question?  Are you becoming more and more, everyday, the person YOU WANT to be in the future?  Are you pulling your future into your present?  If you are stuck in a rut,  or if you know what simple things you need to change, than change them and don’t make it complicated.  Or, reach out for help.  I help people every single day accomplish SIMPLE but not EASY things that they never thought were possible!

If you need help, reach out…. to family, to friends, to a professional like myself, or all the above and get your life moving.  Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it doesn’t give you an excuse to just keep saying that “someday I will be different, quit smoking, start a business, love my spouse better, make more money, etc.”

Enjoy your life and make changes NOW, because “Someday” never comes without changing things NOW.

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation