Success Partners

"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future."
- Dan Pena

[Please note: the video is myself being interviewed on CBC about a business I started in 2008 and only works on the desktop version not the app]

Welcome to a brand new MeetUp community focussed on wellness and forward movement in ALL aspects of your life. We are group members both giving and receiving support for the purpose of achieving our life goals - we are “Success Partners!”

I learned about Success Partners back in 2002 from Rich Fettke’s book ‘Extreme Success.’ He spoke about how the wisest participants in extreme sports scale a mountain with the help of a ‘partner’ - someone watching from the sidelines, offering their perspective to help them get to the top. That’s what a good Success Partner does, offers support to help their partner achieve success.

And that’s what you’ll do as a member of this group: offer support to others, and reap the benefits of the support they’re willing to give back in return– it’s one big SUPPORT-FEST!! And don’t worry, Mr. Fettke is aware and excited that I keep his concept alive using it to help others. You can find his book, still in print, on Amazon.

Several years ago I ran a MeetUp group known as “Joyous Job Seekers Unite!” We’d meet each Monday to set our job search goals for the coming week using Mr. Fettke's ‘Success Partnership Form.’ You can find this form online by Googling Success Partnership Form word or PDF. It’s brilliant in its simplicity: How was the past week? Successes and wins? Challenges and obstacles? Goals for the month? Goals for the upcoming week? And that’s it!

I’d like to expand our goal setting to set yearly goals. Clarify your life purpose and values. Apply habit stacking, and go through the Life Balance Wheel exercise.

What does a life of balance look like?

• Mental and physical health
• financial empowerment
• social life, friends and family, possibly a significant other
• hobbies and interests
• volunteering or giving back

Did you know that when you have a hobby in your life that you excel at, it greatly reduces your day to day stress?

For now, just know that you can come out to our IN-PERSON meetings: the internet is not a substitute for in-person community! Get dressed, get out of the house, come and talk to everyone, and get that support you WANT, NEED, and DESERVE for those big goals you want to achieve. Remember, if the group setting isn't right for you, I offer one-on-one weekly goal setting for an hourly rate which includes unlimited texting (within reason! LoL) and one "refocus" phone call during the week. (One-on-one goal setting can be in-person or online.)

TWO AND A HALF MONTHS INTO RUNNING THIS GROUP:

As of Remembrance Day 2024: I am thrilled to announce that we have several highly committed Success Partners in this group, and we all look forward to continually bringing new members into the flock. The "Sunday Night Weekly Goal Setting" meetings have been a huge success for everyone who has made it a dedicated part of their week. For example, in just two months, I have managed to:

- assemble a brand new cover band for myself (I am the singer), our first jam is November 30th

- A memoir I began in the summer, but dropped off working on, has picked back up with a daily writing schedule

- stacks of disorganized papers throughout my apartment are now in order, and ready to be placed into folders or recycled, a stage I call "Slacktivities" that can be done while enjoying various media

I have the support of Success Partners in this group to thank for these major accomplishments!! Thank you everyone for making my dreams for this group, as well as my goals, come true.

You will notice many, many new meetings going up by the end of this week (details below). As the group is still only a few months old, while we build up the numbers, please know that I am making a commitment here and now to always be in attendance at these meetings, regardless of whether there appear to be one or two or ten Success Partners RSVPed for the meeting. This is because I plan to do an hour of timed writing towards my memoir prior to a meeting, on the evenings during which I have scheduled a meeting. If no one arrives for a meeting, I will simply do another hour.

Only in an extremely rare circumstance would I cancel a meeting, and there would be plenty of notice given in the form of a personal message to anyone who has RSVP'd for that meeting.

And remember: If a goal setting meeting only has a few Success Partners RSVP'd, you will have far more time to talk about YOUR goals.

Watch for the launch of these different meetings in the coming weeks:

• "Sunday Night Weekly Goal Setting" the mainstay of the Success Partners group
• "Actions Have Consequences: Prioritizing Effectively" Accurately predicting the consequences of taking certain actions over others. We'll practice using a chart and our master to-do lists
• "Life Balance Wheel Session & One Year Goal Setting" get clear on the 'categories' of your life, figure out how much time you devote where. To take place ahead of the start of 2025, repeated a few months later to ensure balance is maintained
• "Ultimate Management of Paper & Electronic Files" (UMPEF) several Success Partners have mentioned that this as a desired goal - it's certainly one of mine!
• "Mental Health Strategy Challenge" choose one area of difficulty and one strategy to apply for one month - two week refocus meeting
• "Live a Values-Based Life" Setting goals according to our values means living according to our Guiding North Star. Example: I live by, "How can I make *your* life better?" This applies to the kids I help filling in each day as office support at the TDSB, as well as to being a singer, a memoirist, and also to running this group! Living according to your values prevents pain from well-meaning yet critical friends and famiy because you know exactly why you make the choices that you do.
• "Remove My Money Block!! & Learning to Manifest" Getting beyond low income has been an issue for me due to health concerns. I still believe that I will one day be a millionaire!! How's that for optimism?! What does it mean to have a Money Block, groups like 'Underearners Anonymous,' learning to manifest wealth, and other goals and desires
• "Tipsy Training" tips on how I sustain the over five years of hard won Harm Reduction Recovery I have acquired - no more than two or three drinks in one sitting, nothing stronger than pot. (Tipsy Training is offered one-on-one)
• "Always Fans" a fan club for supporting our activities which may require an audience, or a group: Need a group to go skiing this winter? Ever thought about trying Stand-Up Comedy? What about singing or playing a musical instrument at an Open Mic Night? Karaoke!! A running group in the spring!! If you can think it up, we can pull together and support one another in your chosen endeavor. Many of our Success Partners have shared a goal of "finding a new circle of friends." "Always Fans" might just become a new personal friend-group. (Please be patient while I work out how to roll out this group, together with your input...)

So let’s get cracking! Life is not going to live itself!! Let’s be the winners we are destined to be. But it truly takes a village.

A lot of us are feeling isolated, like we don’t matter to anyone, insignificant… But we do matter! We most certainly do. I myself have a ton of personal challenges, and this is one of the reasons why I have chosen to create this MeetUp group at this time. I NEED YOU JUST AS MUCH AS YOU NEED ME! Let’s do this…

FLEXIBLE FEE: My meetings are a $2 - $5 flexible fee to be considerate of people's different financial situations. Meetings are FREE for Job Seekers, or those on Disability. I am confident that you will one day be able to afford the $5 fee to attend my meetings! You could even set this as a goal...

I am looking at monthly member dues that would be one reduced price for attending a larger number of meetings.

I may consider online meetings should the group grow significantly larger and people show a distinct interest in this.

RECOMMENDATION FROM J.B.:

“When I first met Lori she was leading a meetup group for people who were unemployed. Many aspects of Lori's involvement impressed me:

1. She has a genuine concern for people and wants to help - organizing a meetup and attracting members is a huge undertaking, both in terms of time and resources.
2. She ensured that everyone in the group spoke and was heard.
3. She ensured that everyone left the meeting with a goal to work on and was held accountable.
4. Finally, she employed a wide variety of exercises to help maintain interest by the members.

I highly recommend Lori for any projects or endeavors that include group work.”

YOUTUBE VIDEO - 'ADMIT AN ATTRACTION' ON CBC'S 'LIVING IN TORONTO' (Note: video link only works on desktop sites, not on the app. Please search YouTube: ADMIT AN ATTRACTION LIVING IN TORONTO instead if necessary. Thank you!)

What successful goal-setting can look like in one's life....

In 2008 I had an idea for a new kind of dating - it utilized online dating tools such as profiles and messaging, but attraction happened first, in person. (Hint: the way nature intended?!). I called my idea Admit an Attraction.

I shared this idea with the right person - i.e. someone with money - and he put up $50,000 for the US Business Method Patent to protect it. Next thing I knew I had a lawyer at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and was being flown to NYC for meetings, pitching the idea to the CFO of Match.com, as well as the CEO of Lavalife here in Toronto (this was my investor's business partner in another business). I even appeared on Dragon's Den!

Unfortunately, I became ill with a painful illness and my business didn't make it. But I have never let failure in any form deter me!! Mandela said: "I never lose. I either win, or I learn." And I have always believed that those of us with big ideas, and the tenacity to go after them, while possibly broke today, will one day cash in!! So join me, and LET'S DO THIS!!