Many of us grew up watching our parents. For some of us that meant hearing our parents complain about life. It meant listening to them complain about their jobs, the economy, or the government. Not only did we hear and listen to complaining. We were also witnesses. We were witnesses to the difficulties of adult life. We witnessed parents and other adults struggle. And, thus, they knew that the struggle was real.

 These difficulties, struggles, and the way with which they were dealt are foundational to who we are and the lens through which we view life. It tells us whether or not life is fair. It tells us about our destiny, the kind of life we will live, and the ceiling of our potential. Ultimately, it becomes an important factor as we form our own narrative about our own lives. Hopefully, the narrative that is created is one that is positive and lays a solid foundation from which one can launch a successful adult life. Unfortunately, this is often the case. And, one must be...

Thinking.

Ah, thinking. It is a simple act of generating and processing one’s thoughts. It can be a creative process. It can be an analytical process. It may require solitude. Or, perhaps, sometimes it is more fruitful as a group activity. Regardless of the process, it is the act of being contemplative that allows us to grow, develop, and ultimately move closer to achieving our goals.

The majority of my professional life is spent coming up with unique concepts around dreaming and creating an amazing life. I’m always thinking about what I can provide the world and how my unique circumstances can teach others how to be amazing. Bottom line is I need time to think, and if you were to look at my routine I might look like a bum.

I completely get why you would think you would look at me and say to yourself, “See that man there? Now, that’s a bum if I have ever seen one.” Afterall, I take many trips with my friends where all we do is hang out and have drinks....

Ahh… it’s that time of year again. It’s time for our annual family trip to the sand, the waves, the sun. We are off for our yearly vacation. Everytime we go, we are all completely excited. The children can’t wait to dig in the sand, frolic in the waves, and avoid bedtime. The adults, well, they can’t wait to watch the children dig in the sand, frolic in the waves, and of course, they can’t wait to take a nap.

 As much as I look forward to this trip, I also approach it with a slight sense of trepidation. I fear having to balance the demands of my business and the joys of being with my family. I mean, really, I am extremely committed to my business. I want to and I have to work. But then again, I am just as committed to, maybe even more so, to my family.

Commitment is a huge part of amazing success. Your goals and your dreams need consistent energy, time, money, and other resources. One of the issues with commitment is that sometimes your time...

Recently, I heard the story of a person who was given a task to complete. Rather than even start the task the person found a host of other activities that required immediate attention. Of course, none of these activities actually demanded prompt action. After all, these activities had not been attended to in quite some time, but they could serve as a ready-made excuse for avoiding completing the necessary task.

This is a story of lack of focus. It is a story that I have heard time and time again. I guess this means that it is not a particularly unique occurrence. Actually, I know that this happens more often than we would like to admit.

Every goal has a systematic process that has steps to achieving it. However, there are distractions, unexpected events, and emotions that can derail the process.

The antidote to derailment is- gaining focus 

There are just a few questions that remain.

How do you gain focus?

How do you be productive in the face of challenges?

How do you create...

There is a distinct difference between wishes and goals. Most people have wishes rather than goals. They want to be rich. They want to be healthy or they want to travel the world. It’s fun to wish and dream, but what turns a wish into a goal is direction and a plan to be able to produce the goal. One of my favorite books is Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg.

If you want to turn your dreams into goals and your goals into reality take what I have learned from Duhigg. There is no bigger dreamer than me, but at some point, I stopped being dream oriented and moved to being process oriented. The lessons from Duhigg’s book made the transition and the process easier. These are my thoughts on goal setting inspired by Duhigg.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Charles Duhigg talks extensively on stretch goals. Stretch goals are plans that are beyond our current reach and resources. In some cases, these are the toughest because when you live within a certain paradigm you...

One of my favorite people is Larry Winget. In 2005, I gave my first speech to a group of Persian women with my father interpreting for me. At the time, I was working with Frank Miles who is my mentor and the first speaker who I ever met. At the time, he was helping me outline a speech which would eventually be the basis for my first book.

In the lobby, Frank and I were chatting about the business and I was soaking up everything that he told me. He told me about a speaker named Larry Winget who was the top marketer in the speaking industry. I went home after the speech and bought some of his training materials including a book on speaking that I must have read a hundred times. I consumed Larry’s books and his training videos. I even sent an email in the early days of my speaking and he replied wishing me luck.

For the next few years, I followed Larry online and read his books. In 2011, I signed up to attend the annual meeting of the National Speakers’ Association. Before...

Are you having trouble sticking with your goals?

Read on

When people have goals or New Year’s resolutions they are excited because they imagine being richer, sexier, healthier, and so on.

Let’s face it. Having dreams is exciting. However, whenever people start going after their dreams it becomes well… work. Even the most exciting of endeavors become work at some point. Becoming healthier requires hours at the gym. Becoming rich takes decades of work. Having a great marriage and amazing children is a lifetime commitment.

Greatness is not being amazing for one time or two times. It’s being amazing the rest of your life.

After you set your goals, you must get to work.

There are a multitude of issues that you have to consider when you are actually working on your goals. As my buddy, Roberto Candelaria says you have to be a dreamer and a doer.

Are you ready?

Are you really ready?

Let’s get to work.

1. Properly define a goal. One of the problems is that...

Wow, 2017 was a great year at The Sourena V. Group, and 2018 will be the best year ever. We spent the last year setting up processes for online products, and in 2018 our promise to you is to give you valuable content so that you can live an amazing life.

Our mission is to empower people to take control of their own destiny through motivation, coaching, and teaching. We accomplish this through videos, writing, blogs, books, FaceBook Live, and live events.

Who We Are

I want to take a couple of sentences and reintroduce you to our wonderful team.

My name is Sourena Vasseghi. I was born with cerebral palsy, but I always had big dreams. I also do not want to accept or cannot accept that my disability prevents me from accomplishing whatever I want in life. I use a wheelchair to get around. My body and brain don’t communicate that well, and I speak with a speech impediment that is akin to a foreign accent. I have built a team that helps me with the business, and, more importantly,...

This year I have been a little MIA with my blog, but I want to commit to blogging every week. I thought that I would blog about Thanksgiving because I feel like gratitude is one of the best ways to deal with any challenge in life. More importantly, I have a truly amazing life and amazing people around me.

I have accomplished great feats in my life, and have many more dreams to come. If you had told me twenty years ago that I would be here today I would have fallen out of my chair. However, the long road ahead is bumpy and I know that there are challenges ahead of me.

My team, both professionally and personally, are amazing and I don’t know where I would be without these blessings in my life. In a moment, I’m going to make a list of the people I’m grateful for, but first, a quick look at perspective...

Like most people I have two hands; and, like some, I can do more with my left. Unlike most, however, I can do next to nothing with my right. Although I’m still...

Here is a video that Chris shot on a trip to Orlando. My partners Chris Stevenson and Marty Velasco are great friends and we all like to travel and have a good time. A key to this has been creating systems that allow the business to run with or without us physically being there.

Thanks to business systems, Chris was able to go to Orlando for two weeks, one week to speak and the second week to spend with his family at Disneyworld. He was also able to leave his gym business for two weeks and travel to Maui with his family this past August. While on vacation, his gym in California still runs and he has opportunities to speak with and without me. He could not do this without creating business systems that allow him to work from anywhere around the world. He has a staff and systems in place so that his business can run even when he’s away. Marty just took half a week off to help his friend move to South Carolina. He also owns a gym...