Your best just got better

How to measure your goals and make them work for you

Here's an article we're submitting for publication to a magazine...any comments/edits you see?

Goals are only as good as the life you give them. There are goals that are said flippantly or  goals that you don't remember the next day.

Instead, you should know that goals can not just be met, but measured. And the journey from when you give birth to them to when you reach them may be the best of all.

Goal setting is so often misunderstood or torpedoed by other tasks, but that makes it more important for you to make it into a simple and important process in your work. What is most important to you? And, where would you like to invest your time, focus and resources over the next one to two years?

The process of goal making will bring out your best in two areas  — creativity and awareness. Goals engage your creativity and enhance your awareness of how you spend your time and work. Here is a closer look at these areas:

Creativity: When making goals, clearly identify what you want and you'll make it there faster. What you focus on makes the rest of the world fall quickly away. For example: Look around you, as you are reading this, for anything that is the color red. Quick, how many sources of the color red are there? Now, finish reading this sentence: Without looking away from this piece of paper, remember where all of the things are in the room that are blue.

If you did this exercise, you had to "see" through all the red in your memory, working hard to remember the blue. Did you notice that some of the blue – maybe something blue right in front of you – was out of your focus? Why? You were only focused on red!

Your focus controls your world. When you put your creativity to the test by setting an important goal you will be able to focus all of your vision on it and be able to move full speed ahead.

Awareness: When you focus is attuned to a goal, during the journey, your senses will be heightened and it will seem like a whole new spigot of information has been turned on for you. The closer you get to the goal, more you will be able to "see". Here's another exercise Get a blank piece of paper and a pen. Now, take out a one-dollar bill. Take a good look at the front. On the piece of paper, make a list of everything you know is on the reverse side of the dollar bill. And, don't turn it over! Make a list for about a minute.

Did you notice that even though you have seen the back of a dollar bill, you might not have really seen everything there? In fact, if you look carefully (go ahead, look at the back), you will find things you have never seen until just now.

What do these exercises have to do with goal setting? They change your perspective and stress the importance of focus and awareness. If you have seen everything about a project you are managing, stop and reconsider. Be creative with how you approach it. Look at the backside; raise your perspective; initiate a new way to see it; find something you have never seen before and turn it to your advantage. 

What would you like to experience over the next year? Your goals are so close you can go ahead and write them down on your calendar. A year from today  —  where do you want to be? Write it down. With this effective and deliberate goal setting, you will get all of this and more.

With focus, awareness and creativity, goals, dreams and wishes do come true! Direct your focus toward something and it will show up.

You'll be surprised how much of a journey you can take in a year.

Goal setting - begin with an end in mind, or...

...begin at the beginning?

Good news...it's not an "either-or" proposition! Start where you are. More than likely you're tracking your way toward many, many outcomes right now. Both personally and professionally, you have a lot of things you'd like to "have finished."

Start at the beginning...outcome managment is an important skill to practice, refine and enhance.

The ability to put "pen to paper" can radically improve the quality of your projects as well as decrease not only the stress or overwhelm the project may cause, but the time it takes to complete it as well.

For just a week, write more things down and see what happens to and about your projects.

Starting small, achieving big

As an "experiment" (those of you who are regular readers know I strongly recommend being a "student of you") this morning, I completed a mini-triathlon:

500 meter swim 16 mile bike 4 mile run

You see, I am writing an article for one of our publishers, and the topic is the title of this post. So, as a way to lean in to my own advice, and start small, I planned a training day accordingly.

Oh, check this out...this post is another way of "getting going" on this article! Just by sitting down to put this entry together, I've started the momentum to get this article started (and finished!).

One request: if you have a story of "starting small," please leave a comment below or email me directly!

Thanks...

They say practice makes perfect, what a lie!

Practice does not make perfect; practice makes something a habit. A dictionary definition of habit I found is: “a settled or regular tendency or practice, esp. one that is hard to give up.”

I believe there are habits we all have, consistent behaviors and anything that we do that is repeated over and over again that actually creates our day-to-day reality. And, over time we actually “go numb to,” that is we don’t even notice, our habits anymore.

In my own “scientific exploration” studying behavioral psychology, I have experienced breakthrough events where I pick up a NEW habit, or a work diligently, and very specifically, to eliminate a non-useful habit.

Every now and then, this is the one thing that is blocking, impeding or slowing down our productivity and performance at work and in life. The simple act of changing what you think about continually coupled with changing how you act will go longer and more effectively in creating major life change by iteration – that is, small things done one at a time.

In our seminars, we present ways you can acknowledge your habits. The easiest one to begin with is your “time use.” Identify where your time goes each day, and you just might find some things to do that are more effective, more efficient, and give you more energy. And, remember, the only reason I would EVER ask anyone to consider increasing their productivity:

So they can do more of what they WANT to do, by having done what they HAVE to do.

I have collected ideas for time-tracking over the years and will suggest anyone read Chapter 2 of Peter Drucker’s book called, The Effective Executive. After reading it many years ago, I have experimented with different kinds of time-trackers over the years. To start, get four 3X5 note cards (one for each of the next 4 days at work). Next, bring a timer (kitchen timer, digital timer, etc) to work tomorrow.

When you start working in the morning, set the timer for 30 minutes. When it goes off, write on the note card TWO lines of what you remember doing for the past half-an-hour. Then repeat. Do this 5-10 times throughout the day. Chances are, you’ll realize (like I do EVERY time I do this) that I am not QUITE as efficient or effective as I thought I was when comes down to “objective productivity!”

The "annual" get-away-from-it-all vacation

I'm off to Durango, Colorado to start my week-long bike ride through Colorado. Click on the picture to see the cities we'll pass through (and, of course, send an e-mail if you're around to join for a day (or even a couple of hours) of riding! That would be great... here is a post from last year!

Looking forward to THAT article!

Walking through New York City inspires me to no end. It seems like everywhere I look - from the newspaper dropped in front of my hotel-room door, to the tall buildings, to the people who walk SO darned fast! - there's something that kicks me into another level of innovation, creativity and goal setting.

So, when I walked by and saw myself in the mirror of this Wall Street Journal sign, I knew I'd just set a new goal. One day, I'll figure out a way to share some ideas of organization, development, productivity and personal performance with the group of readers who need to know, want to know, and will use what they now...as soon as they see it!

Do you have a goal that seems "bigger than you?"

Bruzzese: Turn adversity into dreams come true

In one of those "amazing-power-of-the-Internet" introductions, I was introduced to Stephen Hopson. I admit, I went about reading his blog (Adversity University Blog) without realizing Mr. Hopson is deaf! Here's a link to an article written about him by Anita Bruzzese recently...

Deaf since birth, he achieved his dream in 2006...to become an airplane pilot!

As a self-described kid who was "scrawny, with yellow buckteeth and ... a monstrous hearing aid box that was strapped around my chest with hearing aid cords that ran up to my ears," Hopson had big dreams about one day becoming a pilot.

Tags: StephenHopson, Pilot

What are you "thinking" of doing?

Occasionally, I see something that inspires me to sit down, take out a piece of paper, and start journaling...again. Usually, it is an inspiring story, the one where someone does something they are proud of, something that pushes them further, something they "didn't think they could do..."

I saw this great (six-minute) YouTube (thank you Michael Hyatt!) testimonial to running a 1/2 marathon...if you have a few moments, just look at these people, the smiles on their faces, and the pride in their voices. I missed running with this group in 2008, but I did finish the Nashville Country Music 1/2 Marathon back in 2002, with my brother, Nathan Womack..., here I am at the beginning, and at the end. (Something about running, it's easy to smile!)

Hey, what are YOU thinking of doing? Write it down, look at it from time to time, and let me know how it goes!

"Life" is a work in progress

So, I am sitting at our local Starbucks, reading through my collection of magazines (I was gone for about 9 days, and the magazine subscriptions keep on coming!). One of the articles I read was about "business building." As I read it, I realized that several of the tips are simply good, practical ideas for a successful work/life balance experience... (1) Spend 20 minutes a day learning about something new to you; (2) Talk with at least one person a week who is "ahead" of you, and heading in a direction you are following; and, (3) Attend workshops, seminars, lectures, classes regularly.

How do you know if you're "there?"

I enjoyed a great dinner-time conversation with a colleague in Colorado Springs last weekend. We met on a Saturday, after I had spent a training day with a few of my cycling coaches, and he had enjoyed a football day with his son...needless to say we had more than enough to talk about with just those two things!

But, our conversation spun around different topics of management philosophies, leadership programs and working with his executive coach. Toward the end of dinner he asked something to the effect of:

"How do you know if you're doing what you need to do?"

Well, this really grabbed my attention. And, the rest of the conversation revolved around a couple of things:

1) If one asks that question, my first assumption is that they are not there yet. Apparently, and I have not read it yet, Barbara Walters wrote about how it took a looooong time to get to "what she needed to do."

2) "Doing what you need to do..." implies that there is more than what is going on right now. And, this follows my belief, nay mindset, that balance is an illusive oasis that most people dream of, but never achieve. Nor, would they really know what to do if they made it there! You see, I have learned over the past few years that this is true:

Once someone achieves something they thought was a goal, they set the next one. They graduate high school, they go to college. They go to college, they major in something special. They get a job. They get married. They have children. They...and, you know, the list goes on. There is ALWAYS something next.

Now, the question, "How do you know if you're doing what you need to do?" is a good one, that still has me thinking. My research project for June is settled (and, for those of you who know me, you know I do a research project each month): I'm going to ask people, "Are you doing what you know you need to do? Tell me about that..."

I am looking forward to the learning!

PS: Thanks, John, for dinner!