Category: Motivation

Achieve Your Goals in 2017

The older I get the shorter my days seem to get. It is 2017, the start of a new year, and a great time to re-energize big plans, goals, and dreams for the future.

The challenge for most of us is keeping our focus on these important goals throughout the year. So many people have already given up by February. I want to review what you can do to help yourself achieve your goals.

Here is a quick glimpse at the process that helps me stay on track. If you want to know more about any of these just let me know.

1) Staying Organized – Maintaining focus requires having information, data, and results available. I mainly rely on David Allen’s Getting Things Done process for organizing my time and information. I highly recommend it. I have used it for over 15 years, and although I have tried many systems, I continue to come back to this system because it works. For me, one of the best features is the tickler file system.

2) Daily Planning – On a daily basis, I try to understand and capture what needs to happen next on my projects. An overall project plan is important, but I try not to get caught up in what needs to be done next month, until I complete what needs to be done today.

3) Daily Progress – On an daily basis, I allow 5 or 10 minutes at the end of my day to capture progress. I make notes about what I achieved, and my effectiveness. When necessary, this review results in a longer reflection session capturing a lesson learned.

4) Weekly Reflection – Most Saturday mornings you will find me reviewing my week, and planning for the next. I update my Getting Things Done system. I make notes about the highlights of my week, interruptions I encountered, and lessons I learned. This is a great time to make small adjustments in my project plans. It also helps me allocate larger time slots in my calendar where I can dedicate myself to project related work.

5) Monthly Review – This is my clarity session. Monthly I spend time to clarify in my mind all my goals and projects. It is where reality meets intention. It is a hard look at what I accomplished versus what I intended to accomplish. After this review I have a much clearer picture of what I need to do to achieve my vision for the next month.

That is my process. It sounds like a lot. I do struggle at times keeping these reviews when other activities and responsibilities get in the way. But I also have learned through experience that bigger goals and projects cannot be achieved consistently without this discipline.

With this process I am prepared for a great 2017. I wish for you the same level of success and joy!

Develop Your Skill of Being Reliable

There have been times in my life where I missed an event or activity that I had planned to attend. I made a commitment and I failed to follow through. I will never forget the first time. I was 16 years old, and working in the stock room of a drug store. I was scheduled to work, but I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go out with my friends. At sixteen, it seemed more important than work.

The next day when I went back to work, my manager was not happy. He said, “If you decide to do that again, don’t plan on coming back to work. You will be fired.”

It was a lesson with a huge impact on me. It taught me about commitment. There are very few times I commit to something and fail to follow through. However, there are still times I commit, follow through, but lack enthusiasm.

Reflecting on this experience has helped me identify three things that keep me focused on dependability.

1. Understand why I decided to commit. What was my motive? Keeping the why clear in my mind helps me from wavering on a commitment.It also helps me say no to things that are not important.

2. Be accountable to someone. If I know someone will hold me accountable, then I will work harder to follow through. I value other people, and I don’t want to let them down. Accomplishing something for someone else is much more rewarding emotionally.

3. Determine how I may grow. If I know the benefit to myself, I will be more determined about success. Every experience usually provides learning and growing if we look for it.

If you sometimes struggle completing a commitment, maybe these three ideas can help.

Luck or Skill?

Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” Successful people make their own luck.

Success is not about luck. Success comes from awareness, competence, discernment, initiative, preparation, and hard work. No one is just lucky. You have to work for luck. Do you want opportunities that seem to be lucky? Here are some tips to think about.

1. Prepare. Prepare yourself for the future you want. Become a student of whatever subject you want success. Hang out with like minded people, and study those that are successful. Know what it takes. Know what the opportunity will look like.

2. Be aware. Keep yourself ready to take advantage of opportunities when they appear. Most people will miss the opportunity because they are not looking. They are still waiting to be lucky. Put yourself in situations and environments where opportunities happen.

3. Take the initiative. When you see the door of opportunity you must walk through it. Successful people take risk. They do things despite their fear. They step out into the unknown. Many successful journeys start when you do not know how, but you are focused on why.

Prepare for success, find your opportunity, and make yourself some luck!

Is Your Day Filled With Chaos?

If life always went as planned, we would be bored. But we don’t enjoy days filled with chaos either. You probably, like me, experience both routine and hectic days.

William Braithwaite, an American writer, said, “It is simplicity of intention that gives consistency to life.” True. We never intend to have a chaotic day. We plan for productivity. We plan for success. Some days we win and some days we lose that battle.

When my day is filled with turmoil, there is one trick that always lets me regain control. It is simple, and very effective.

I just step back and take a look at the day’s struggles with a longer term view in mind. I put aside what I am trying to accomplish today, and think about my goals for the month and the year.

It can help release today’s pressure by revealing that today is only one day in my longer term plan. Irregardless of today’s outcome, I see the bigger picture, and then I can reset today’s goals. It also resets my attitude, my energy, and my focus.

Next time you find your day going badly, give it a try!