Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
Posts tagged goal achievement
Is it Time to Share Your Dreams
Sep 2nd
“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~Marsha Norman
Is it time to share your dreams? Maybe. (Sharing dreams with a friend is a wonderful way to play and sort thru dreams and see which ones are ready to move from dream to goal.) If you have a recurring dream, one that excites you and you think it might be time to go after it, maybe. If you are also fortunate enough to have a friend or partner that will willingly hear your dreams, keep them safe as your secret to share, hear the desires hidden behind the dream – no matter how silly the dream itself may sound, and then will reflect back to you gently with their own insight added; then yes it is time.
Do you have this kind of person in your life? Count yourself amongst the lucky if you do. They are quite rare and if you have someone like this in your life, I hope you are nurturing them.
Are you this kind of person in someone else’s life? It is not an easy role for most of us and it certainly didn’t come naturally to me. But wouldn’t it be a real gift to the world to become this kind of person for someone that you care about?
Next time, I’ll begin to talk about going from dream to goal – they aren’t the same thing.
Till next time…Jack
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” ~Anatole France
Avoid These Mistakes When Starting Your Book
Aug 25th
“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” ~Rita Mae Brown
In 2005 I decided that I was going to write a book. As I mentioned in my last entry, this wasn’t a consciously made choice. My unconscious mind decided that it was time to take action and let me know this at the end of a seminar.
I am not sure why I made that decision at that particular time. I had known that I would benefit from a book for years; as a seasoned and in-demand seminar leader, I almost always had the opportunity to sell products at the end of my presentations. Instead I used this time for chatting with attendees and over time, many of these chats ended up becoming coaching or consulting clients. (Although I can successfully coach virtually anyone that speaks a common language with me, I only consult on a handful topics.)
So, these seminars, along with other marketing techniques, kept me with a consistently full coaching practice, commonly with a waiting list, and I was complacent. Not lazy, just complacent.
Use me as a BAD example
Once I had made the decision to become a published non-fiction author, I thought about it virtually every day. And there is the beginning of the first mistake. I thought about it everyday. I invested energy into it every day. I felt bad that I wasn’t writing more – almost every day. What I didn’t do was take action on it every day – that would have taken a different and much wiser decision!
Three Mistakes I Made
Looking back 6 years, I am embarrassed. I should have known better! As an NLP practitioner, I had helped hundreds of people get unstuck and begin taking consistent action from a place of pleasure. From my slightly more enlightened future, I can look back now and see three big mistakes that I made.
- My first mistake was not deciding – not committing to – taking action every single day.
- My second mistake: I was using a pitiful motivation strategy to get myself to take what little action I did take! (I’ve talked about good and bad motivation strategies before and I will again – really useful stuff!)
- Finally I was not accountable to anyone for getting this book done. The only person I was reporting to about it was me and that was just not good enough.
Next time I’ll talk about what I would do differently and what I am doing differently now to write books.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” ~Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras
I’m Back!
Aug 23rd
“Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.” ~Sofia Serrano speaking to David Aames in the movie “Vanilla Sky (2001)
I’m back!
I’m finally going to have the time to start updating this blog on a regular basis again. I’ve spent much of the past 4 months buried in writing the first draft of a book. What time I had left over from that adventure, I split between working with my coaching and consulting clients, working out 6 days per week with personal trainers and of course, my family time always comes first. Anyhow, enough excuses and as Paul Newman said so well in the movie The Color of Money “I’m back!”
What you can expect to find here
So, what can you expect to find here? Of the many blogs that you could decide to read, why add mine to that list?
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You’ll find useful pieces that you can use immediately to improve your life – these nuggets will initially be drawn from my upcoming book about goals and achievement. I’ll share everything I’ve learned about setting goals and the process of achieving them rapidly and pleasurably.
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You can watch and learn the entire process of getting a non- fiction book written and profitably (I intend!) self-published. You will also learn why I decided to self-publish even though I had offers to buy my book from traditional publishing houses.
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See me as I transform my 50+ plus year old body from a neglected, taken for granted shell to a fit, muscular and energetic living work of art! (Wow! That even motivates me!)
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Learn from all of the massive mistakes that I have made all along the way. That way you can either avoid them or at least have a heads up on what to expect if you go there yourself.
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Learn first-hand the tips, techniques and strategies that I have developed and used with my clients over the course of more than 20 years working as a coach and business consultant.
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Get my take on business books that you might want to read or maybe not read. I am an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction and I will be reviewing business books here on a very regular basis.
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And if I go or do something interesting, you can bet I’ll share that as well.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
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“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” ~Goethe
Stopwatch Today – Hourglass Soon
Jun 30th
“Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go.”
~Henry Austin Dobson
Just before I wrote this blog entry, I had been working on reviewing my goals for the year. As I write this, the 6 month mark is passing and I am heading into the second half of the year. How have I done so far this year on achieving my most critical goals? Frankly, not very well yet! It’s a good thing that I still have 6 months to get them done!
As part of the goal review process, I was thinking about new skills or habits that I had started to use this year – skills and habits that helped me to achieve more and have more fun along the way. The biggest beneficial new habit, other than lifting weights at 5am, is the use of a stopwatch! I’ll get into exactly how this ‘using a stopwatch’ has helped me later, but now I must go make a quick revision to my book in process and add some information about this very subject!
Till next time…Jack
“Time is the fire in which we burn.” ~Delmore Schwartz
The Birth of an Executive Coach
Feb 9th
“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Birth of an Executive Coach
Last time I finished talking about my decision to self-publish my first book even though I had traditional publishing offers on the table. This time I’m going to talk about some of the actual content of my upcoming book – a book about goals and achievement.
I was born as an Executive Coach in May 1989, although I did not know that this was my destiny at the time. Like most newborns, I did not have a clue what was going on and it would take me a number of years to make sense of the world around me.
In May of 89, I left my well-paid job in Retail Mega-Box management, well-paid but otherwise boring and totally unsatisfying, and went into Executive Search (headhunting) and the temporary employment business. I had only trivial experience in either of these businesses. I had been called by headhunters a few times, looking to move me from one Mega-Box to another. These headhunters didn’t seem too bright and they seemed to make a great deal of money. (Interesting combination. I certainly wanted to make a great deal of money and at times I was a veritable idiot. I filed this information away for further analysis.)
In the world of temporary employment, I had worked extensively at numerous temporary agencies in Southern California after I graduated from college. Eventually I found my first career position and stopped working temporary assignments. While working, I had gained some great information though – there was a great deal of money to be made in the temporary business and they, the owners that I had met, didn’t seem all that bright either.
What does this have to do with my first book on goals? I’m getting there, I promise!
Death as a Counselor
In December of 1985 my father died of leukemia. He was relatively young, 61 years old, when he died. Vibrant and healthy for most of his life, in 18 months he was stripped of virtually everything – his physical vitality, his freedom of movement, his privacy and eventually his life – in 18 short months he lost all of these.
I visited him almost every other day for most of this time. My blood was helping to keep him alive and we saw more of each other in this short time than we really had in years. He talked often of the things that he was going to do if he got out of the hospital. He was going to travel again. He was going to go see the pyramids. He had a long list of things that he wanted to do and experience. He died without having done any of these – he died with most of his dreams unlived.
His death affected me deeply. I was 26 years old when he died and I swore that I was going to do my best to retire before I was 40 years old and I was going to live my dreams – for both of us.
Goals were the Starting Place
I did manage to retire before I was 40. This early retirement only lasted about 10 years, no one had told me how much money could be spent if you had full time to devote to the process of spending, but my next early retirement is coming up fast. And this time, well, I have a much higher number in mind for my retirement! Come back next time and learn more about how goals were the starting place for me then and the drivers for me now.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” ~ Sir Edmund Hillary
Goals Part 4
Oct 12th
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” ~Larry Lorenzoni
I recently had a birthday and I found myself in a very self-reflective mood that day. I believe that I have significant control over my emotional states and reactions and I could have changed this one, since it showed up unplanned, but I decided to go with self-reflection and see what it offered me.
It offered me this: What could I do – achieve, by my next birthday, that would be a wonderful gift to myself? I found this exciting to think about. I have an entire year to work. Now, what can I do in that time, for me, that will make my next birthday a real treat? This was fun! I spent the next hour or so walking around and doing a mini-goal setting session.
What could I achieve related to:
My body – my physical health?
My finances – my savings and investments?
My business – my coaching and writing and speaking?
My family?
My skills and talents – my toolbox of things that I know how to do?
It isn’t that I haven’t looked at all of these things many times in the past. I have. I am a dedicated and habitual goal setter. The difference was that I was looking at the achieving of the goals as a gift – a gift to myself! This change in perspective was powerful for me! Instead of looking at my goals as something that I needed to do, now I had added the feeling that achieving these things was something I got to do and it was a gift. I felt different and more empowered.
So, let me ask you this: What would you like to achieve, before your next birthday, that would be a gift to yourself? What would you like to do that once done, would make you feel great, or proud, or free, or satisfied or whatever way you would like to feel? Try this. If you only have a few days until your birthday, then choose something small – perhaps something you have been procrastinating – and do it and get it done and then on your birthday – celebrate!
If you have more time, then you can go thru an entire goals setting process as I am laying it out here and add the perspective of a gift to yourself. I believe it will make a difference for both you and I.
Till next time…Jack
“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” ~Jennifer Yane
Goals Part 1
Sep 3rd
“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” ~Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France; perhaps best known for Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Do you like to dream? Have you been known as a dreamer? Have you ever been told to “stop daydreaming and get your head out of the clouds”? Wonderful! Great! Good for you! Those skills will serve you well and the process of goal creation is going to be easy for you.
If you are highly practical, if you like to always stay “down to earth”, if big dreams seem wrong or grandiose or ridiculous to you, then you might find the process of goal creation, as I teach it, a bit of a stretch. Go ahead – stretch with me. You can always be practical tomorrow.
All, and I mean all, of my coaching around goal creation and goal achievement starts with dreaming. I start with dreaming because it works – when my clients and seminar attendees begin with dreaming, they achieve more, faster, and with more pleasure along the way. I also use dreaming as a critical beginning element of the process of goal setting because my teachers and mentors also believe in the power of dreams. Anthony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Lee Pulos, Brian Tracy – all of these great teachers and many more incorporate dreaming into their work.
I am not sure how long this series of articles will be yet. I have been doing some very ambitious goal setting of my own lately and this process has been much on my mind. I also just ordered 5 new books related to goals, books written since my last indepth study of the topic, and there may be some new ideas to discuss. So, this series will last as long as it needs to. I promise you this though, follow along and you will get to your dreams faster and have more fun along the way.
Till next time…Jack
“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~Marsha Norman
(born 1947]) is an American playwright, screenwriter, television writer and novelist.
Getting Leverage on Yourself to Achieve
Jun 3rd
“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?” ~Anthony Robbins
Yesterday, I made a public commitment that I would have my first book for sale, in at least 2 formats, by 5pm Central Time on Wednesday September 17th, 2008. Why did I make that commitment here on this blog? I did it to get leverage on myself.
For me, and for most people that I know, it is easy to break promises that are made just to ourselves. When the promise is made to someone else however, someone that I like and respect, I feel terrible if I don’t fulfill that promise. Since I know this, if I am having an issue getting something done, then it is time to make a public commitment. This is exactly what I did on this blog yesterday and I can feel the power of this working already.
This is negative motivation and it is very powerful. I do most of my work, with myself and with others, from a place of positive motivation. There are times however, and this is one of them for me, when I also need the away from “push” of a strong negative motivator. I don’t want to feel the bad feelings that would be there for me should I not achieve my public goal; so I know I will take the actions that I have been putting off.
This power of the commitment to someone else, someone that you like and respect, is one of the reasons that coaching can be so effective. A good coach will be asking you to make well-planned and achievable commitments each and every time you work with them. What is well-planned and achievable? That is another conversation.
Till next time…Jack
“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.” ~Isaac Asimov