The Dart Maker Blog

Several weeks before the baby is planned to come along you will be on full baby alert. The baby can come pretty much any time now, so lets get ready. It would be a good idea for your wife to get all her stuff packed up and chances are that she already has, she will know what she wants, but what about you?

It’s not uncommon for labor to last for days, and you could be in the hospital for as much as a week in some instances. But you should just plan on packing for two days. Bring some games to play while you are waiting, or the baby is sleeping, it’s nice to have some things to do in the off time. Bring the iPod, and CD’s with you, music can relax your wife and help her through contractions and keep you from losing your mind. Most hospital has a DVD player in the birth rooms, if not brings a portable DVD player. Bring the list of phone numbers of people to call, and most important the video camera so you keep this memory forever. Talk with your wife about what you want before hand and the birth will go very smooth for everyone.

Ask anybody on January 2nd 2006 if they have New Years Resolutions or goals and nine out of ten will say, “Yes!” …Ask the same people about their resolutions three months later and they’ll look at you like a small goat discovering a new fence for the first time.

All good intentions aside, exhaustive studies have shown only 3% of the population engage in some form of goal-setting and only 1% on average, write them down.

Moreover, there is no small coincidence in the 1% that write goals down and the highest achieving, highest income-earning men and women around the world.

Setting goals is the genesis from which things great and not so great are accomplished. Read any book on achievement or watch the Biography Channel and see the quintessential message is clear: Goals = Success!

If it’s that simple though, why then are most people so unsuccessful in the fundamentals of Real goal setting?

One legitimate answer may be, our generation is busier than any generation in the past. Life today is not static and our preoccupation with just trying to ‘get by’ runs juxtaposed to the activities needed for maintaining concentrated goal achievement. Fair enough.

On the other hand, these same studies, mentioned above, are just as clear on the real reason most people - the ones who bother to set goals - will never achieve them. They fail to write them down relying rather they be left to our memories to manage.

The Fact is: Your goals are future landmarks on paths created by You.

Goal experts, however, will be quick to point out, “Unwritten goals are nothing more than Wishes”… and we know the world is full of people with plenty of wishes. Go to any lottery office or anywhere they sell things like DotCom Stock. In one place, they wish they’d bought more, in the other they wish they hadn’t bought any at all!

Real goal-achievement has so nothing to do with merely thinking of what we’d like to accomplish and everything to do with Not Forgetting.

As the young man once said, “My memory is the thing I use to forget with”. If we buy-off on the precept, we are now the busiest, most preoccupied generation, it’s no stretch then to believe the experts when they say, “Goals left only to memory are destined to fade like so many wishes”.

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Before we look for the remedy to the goal-achievement challenge, it is important we understand the fundamental psychology of goal setting. That is to say, how it works.

Psychological studies on the highest achieving men and women demonstrate, people with clear, specific goals, immediately and by default, become psychologically Goal Oriented individuals. [No mystery there].

Since goals take place in the future, those with goals also by default become psychologically, motivationally, Future Oriented individuals.

Finally, since we can agree, we go to the trouble of having goals because we want to achieve them, another automatic psychological outcome is, we immutably become psychologically, motivationally, human-behaviorally and actively, Success Oriented individuals.

[To put that into perspective, we can all think of people we know who are naturally, ‘Failure Oriented’ individuals].

These hallmarks are known as the Three Unique Psychological Success Orientations - the stuff that governs everything we do in the present, the moment, the now, as we go about our lives putting people, places and things together to affect positive outcomes in the future, as it relates to our goals.

That is, however, if we don’t forget them!

The good news is, the simple act of reviewing our goals and activities on a daily basis, serves, in and of itself, to ensure we don’t forget them - thereby keeping them fresh, clear, specific and at the front of our mind.

As mentioned and psychological studies show, unforgotten goals quite naturally engender Unique Psychological Success Orientations that by default, impact in a positive way, our thoughts and activities as we go through our lives focused undauntedly in the moment on things we wish to accomplish.

The Bottom Line:

Those without goals, more often than not, find themselves directionless relying mostly on things like luck. Goal-Setting is only the first step. Constant Goal-Review is the activity that ensures Goal-Achievement and Success!

Paul Shearstone, international Keynote Speaker, Author and Chronic Fatigue Survivor, is one of North America’s experts on Stress-Reduction and Peak Performance. From his in-depth research and real-life experience, Paul developed a new and unique strategy he calls, The Resilience Formula based on his 3Rs [Recognize, Respond and Resolve]. This formula and the strategic tools Paul shares are the stuff that made him four-time National #1 Salesman in a Fortune 500 Company… the stuff integral to re-galvanizing employees by teaching them how to reduce Stress and increase Peak Performance.

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It happens every year, doesn’t it? You think up some ‘resolutions’, maybe set a personal goal or two, but by the time Thanksgiving or Christmas rolls around again, you realize with a big sigh you haven’t accomplished what you had hoped. So you ‘resolve’ once again to do a better job next year. Maybe the problem last year was that your resolutions or goals were not specific enough…or worse, not written down.

Get a load of this: A study was conducted a few years ago of graduates from a well-known business school. Only three percent of grads had clearly articulated and written goals…but those grads earned ten times more than the 83% who had no goals at all. Even those grads who had some sense of their goals, but had not written them down, earned three times as much as those who hadn’t given goals a second thought. How’s that for motivation to get your goals down on paper?

To begin defining your goals, set aside several hours of quiet time (possibly over several days, if necessary) and write these headings on separate sheets of paper: Career, Money, Life (or Lifestyle). Many people’s main focus is their career, so we’ll start with that. If you can’t get the quiet time you need at home, lock yourself away in one of those study rooms at the local public library. You won’t regret it!

Think of where you want your career to take you. Write it down. You may have more than one idea; write them down as well. Allow your thoughts to be ambitious, but remain realistic (for instance, if you know you can’t endure a decade or more of additional education, don’t plan on being a surgeon). These are your long-term goals.

The next exercise is to determine what intermediate steps must be accomplished to reach your long-term goals. If you want to be, say, president of a corporation, determine what skills a president needsexperience in finance, marketing, and operations, perhaps. There are some goals for you.

Continue working backward chronologically (from president to senior management to junior management to supervisor to team leader, for instance), listing the skills, education, and professional contacts needed to hold the positions you have listed until you find yourself listing skills, education, and contacts you currently have. Don’t get bogged down in detailsyou should be outlining the major milestones which must be accomplished. These are your mid-term goals.

After outlining the major milestones, the final step is determining the specific actions needed to accomplish them. Write down those things which can be done in the next six monthsthese are your immediate goals. They might include joining a professional association or researching graduate programs. These goals develop into your daily or weekly To Do list.

Next, list those things which you intend to accomplish within the yearyour short-term goals. Again, talk to counselors, network contacts, and librarians if you don’t know exactly what might be involved in accomplishing a goal.
Although the example here was career goals, the same exercise should be done for your financial and lifestyle goals as well. Immediate financial goals may be to open a money market savings account and conduct research on stock mutual funds. Short-term goals may be to commit to putting $25 per month into your savings account and to join the 401(k) retirement plan with your employer.

Lifestyle goals can be trickier to define. Do you want to have a wide circle of friends who are involved in cultural activities? learn to cook like a gourmet? vacation in the Caribbean each year? marry an intelligent, active, funny person and have three children? Some of your lifestyle goals will be tied into financial goals, such as the annual vacation. Others will have mid-term and short-term goals which may include such tasks as participating in community activities, joining social clubs, or committing to an exercise plan.

You may find that you need several sessions to complete this exercise. Make the time and do it now. It is vital to your success and worth the time and effort expended. Guaranteed.
To stay active in the pursuit of your goals, mark off immediate goals as you accomplish them, and develop new ones which relate to your short-term goals. As you accomplish your short-term goals, develop new ones based on your mid-term goals, and so on. Continue this process of gradually moving goals up on your lists so you are always working on a piece of a task which will propel you toward your ultimate goals.

Okay! You have your goals written and assigned to a timetable. You’re set, right? Not so fast. What will you do if one of the planned events doesn’t happen–you don’t get promoted to supervisor or an unexpected car repair costs several hundred dollars? These events can prevent you from reaching your goals. Now what?

Don’t wait until a roadblock is thrown in your path before planning on how to get around it. Devise a contingency plan, a Plan B. For each of your major milestones, develop an alternate set of goals which you will implement if the milestone cannot be met. This is not to say that you should devise an entirely different scenario for yourself. “If I can’t move into the manufacturing department, I will never be president, so I’ll open a daycare center instead” is going a bit far.

If you miss a promotion, or an opportunity you were hoping for doesn’t materialize, perhaps the answer is to move to another company. Another very real possibility in today’s business climate is being laid off. Your Plan B will be a guiding light for you in this situation. In searching for a new position, review your plan to determine the right place to pick up the path toward your final destination. You won’t make panic-induced decisions if you have a contingency in place–keep your cool and continue to move ahead.

This is a slow time of yearif you can, slip away and get the roadmap for your success laid out on paper for a prosperous 2006!

Kathryn Marion is the President of Education for
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What is your goal setting choice?

Do you have the luxury to wait to set your Goals?

Success is a process that starts when you take
ACTION.

For a lifetime of Dreams and Goals accomplishments
you must take a Focused Actions that are
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic with a
time frame associated with them.

They are called SMART Goals.

I had a goal of being retired when I was 50. I achieved that
goal but since I was not specific enough, my wish was
achieved but not my Dream.

I was retired on disability.

I wanted to be drinking sweet ice tea
on some island beach resort
without a care in the world.

To make matters worse:
I had a Heart attack on my
Birthday.

To make matters more tragic,

I had to have Open Heart, quadruple
By-pass surgery after that.

The doctor said that I could have another Heart attack or stroke at any time. I could become totally disabled or die at any second.

The doctor told my wife that she had one-hour to get all of our affairs in order.

How will that mess up your Goal planning?

The point of this story is that that we never know how much time we have to accomplish what we think we are after in this lifetime.

How much time do we actually have?

We just don’t know.

Do we?

That brings us to 2006.

What will this year bring us?

Without taking focused action right now we may never know.

Do you want Success in 90 Days, 180 days or in 2006?

Start right now.

Set your Goals.

Frank Gasiorowski or as his is known on the internet as “Mr. 90 Day Goals”, has been teaching since 1973 and his current mission is to provide easy and effective ways for individuals to achieve their true potential through, http://www.90DayGoals.com and http://www.TotalSelfMastery.com coaching programs.

There are many things that I would like to do. In fact I have made a list of 100 things I would like to do before I die. I have been checking quite a few things off the list in the last couple of months, including a fire walk and a hot air balloon ride. One of the things I am learning is that there are things that doing once is plenty.

When I made my list of 100 things I wanted to do before I die eight years ago, I put hot air ballooning at the top of the list. It was something my father always talked about doing and I thought it would be fun. Although I have a huge fear of heights, I still wanted to attempt the feat. While attending the Albuquerque, New Mexico Balloon Fiesta my dream came true and I was fortunate enough to take a ride with one of the top woman balloon pilots in the world, Cheri White. The balloon ride was amazing, exciting and I would never do it again. I was terrified when I was up in the balloon, but I managed. Being up in the balloon was nothing compared to landing in it. We had a crash landing in the weeds and burrs, and the basket was drug for a distance before we finally stopped. I wasn’t hurt, but I was convinced I would never do it again.

It is funny that when I tell people that I would never do it again, most look confused and wonder why. The truth is I wanted to do it just because. I don’t have a passion for hot air balloons or being off the ground for extended amounts of time for that matter. I just wanted to try it. And for me that is fine. There are things you only have to do once to know if you want or need to do again. For me the balloon ride was worth trying once, and now I can move on to the other things on my list.

I believe that it is important to try things at least once. Recently I heard someone tell his friend, “I have never done it but I know I wouldn’t like it.” You don’t know until you try. I would have always wondered what it was like to take a balloon ride. Now I know and I don’t have to do it again. It doesn’t mean that I am not glad I did it. I am happy I tried it. But there are plenty of other things I want to do, so I will just continue to move down the list.

Coach Rachelle Disbennett-Lee, PhD, is a Certified Master Coach specializing in working with business owners and professionals in being more profitable and productive while staying sane and balanced. Coach Lee is the publisher of the award winning e-zine, 365 Days of Coaching. Her first book, 365 Days of Coaching - Because Life Happens Every Day (Universal Publisher, 2004) was named a finalist for Best Book 2004 by Publish.com and has a five star rating on Amazon.com.

Imagine feeling depressed when the sun shines and the weather is warm. Believe me, it’s actually not as unusual as it sounds. You’ve probably heard of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in the form of winter blues, but less common is summer depression, which is said to affect roughly 600,000 people in the UK. For these people, the arrival of summer makes them feel gloomy and fatigued.

I know how they feel. I’m one of them. Though I suffer from depression all year round, I’ve noticed how much worse it gets between the months of March and October, with June, July and August being the most unbearable.

It is April as I write this. It’s been quite a cool month so far but it is due to get warmer during the next few days. Already I am feeling the dread. The only place I can write is in the south-facing living room of my tiny flat. This makes matters worse as I have to keep the curtains drawn to stop the sun attacking me. Yes, it really does feel like that. Too much sunlight seems to drain my energy and I am unable to get on with things, adding to more frustration. It feels like a prison. As well as the curtains drawn against sun and heat, I am usually listening to music with headphones on to block out all noise (and there is a lot where I live - I’ve got neighbours from hell). And as a writer, it’s no surprise that I get the worst case of writer’s block during this time of the year.

I’ve never enjoyed being out in the sun and loathe sunbathing. In fact, I’ve never sunbathed. I don’t see the point. I like my pale skin, thank you very much. And it amazes me really, how others seem to be obsessed with getting a tan and just go on ignoring the warnings about skin cancer. The sun is not your best friend. You’ve got to believe it. Yes, it’s true that you need it in small doses for a bit of vitamin D, but other than that, beware.

If you think about it there is every reason to be depressed in the summer. For a start you see people out having a good time (a better time than you, probably) and if you are already depressed and lonely, it gets you down even more. There are also a lot of weddings in summer, and people do tend to socialize more, so if you’re single you are likely to feel worthless and alone.

But this isn’t my problem. What really bothers me is the heat. It makes me feel irritable and I hate feeling sticky and dirty. And if it’s too hot I sleep badly. In fact, I don’t sleep at all some nights. And then there’s the creepy-crawlies. I tell you, I absolutely detest them. Spiders being my biggest phobia of all. Is it just me, or are they getting bigger? It just makes me afraid to leave the windows open so I feel even more frustrated and upset.

Many people look forward to going somewhere hot for their holidays. Well, not me. I can’t imagine anything more stressful than sweltering in the heat. When I holiday I prefer to go somewhere cool, and for the last few years I’ve been going to Sweden. Now, don’t get me wrong, they do have summers in Sweden, but they are short and not very hot. Even if they are, you don’t seem to notice much as there are large areas of open space and it’s always breezy (especially on the south-west coast where I like to visit).

When autumn arrives I notice that I start to feel so much better. As the nights draw in I feel calmer and more comfortable with life. For me there is nothing better than creating a warm and cosy atmosphere indoors with lots of low lighting and curtains drawn against the cold frosty nights. Autumn has always been my favourite season anyway, and I love the colours and the smells, and the fact that winter is coming (bringing with it some snow, hopefully).

I do love nature and being outdoors, but I would rather go out during the autumn and winter months. What can be more refreshing than a cold bite of wind against the skin? It seems to energize me. And what can be more beautiful than seeing everything covered in a blanket of snow? Another thing that I’ve noticed is that in the winter I can control my depression instead of it controlling me. Maybe that’s the real reason I hate summer.

If you suffer with summer depression here are some ways to help you cope:

Drink lots of water as dehydration leads to more irritation.

Keep cool with an air conditioning or a fan.

Wear cool clothes of natural fibre.

Make sure you have thick curtains that can block out the sunlight.

Wear sunglasses when out in the sun.

Avoid junk food and eat more healthy food such as lean meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Take vitamins B complex and C. The mineral magnesium is also important as you lose this when you sweat.

Avoid caffeine as it leaves you feeling tired and lethargic. It’s best to avoid alcohol too as it dehydrates you, making you feel even more hot and bothered.

Make sure your bedroom is cool at night by leaving a small window slightly open.

See your GP as he may be able to prescribe some medication to help with your depression.

Marie Seymour is a freelance writer, copy-editor and novelist. She has written articles on writing, music, astrology and health and is currently working on a novel about vampires. She lives in London but dreams of escaping all the pollution, litter and noise to live in the countryside where she can write novels for a living in peace.

http://www.marieseymour.com

http://marie-deepthinker.blogspot.com/

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A difficult challenge in achieving goals is simply remaining aware of them and staying on track. How many times have you set a goal, started working on it with the best of intentions, and then at some future time, you realize it somehow slipped through the cracks?

External influences exert forces to knock us off track. And if you have a busy life, these influences can come many times each day. Phone calls. Emails. Postal mail. A new memo. A drop-in visitor. New items to add to your to do list. New things to think about. But most are just distractions from what’s really important.

We therefore must exert a countering force to get back on track, pointing ourselves back towards our goals again and again. Reviewing your goals once a month or once a week is just too infrequent. I find I must review my major goals every single day, and if the day is filled with a lot of fire-fighting, then I must do it several times a day. Otherwise I start getting too far off course, lured into working on what’s merely important instead of what’s wildly important. It’s a process of constantly re-checking the compass and figuring out the correct next step.

For 2005 I have 14 written goals. They’re divided into 3 primary goals and 11 secondary goals. All of them are important. But the primary goals are those which will make an absolutely huge difference. Achieving any one of those 3 primary goals is more important than achieving all 11 secondary goals.

But those secondary goals are so tempting to work on first. They’re easier. They yield an immediate sense of accomplishment. Some will take care of themselves just from continuing existing habits. Most of the others can be knocked off with about 20-40 hours of work on each one. But the primary goals are not automatic, not certain of being achieved, and each one requires hundreds of hours of work. So if I don’t do anything special to keep taking myself back to the primary goals, the most likely outcome would be that I’d finish all the secondary goals and make a dent in each primary goal but not complete any of them this year. And that just isn’t good enough.

So how I do to stay focused on my primary goals, despite so many pressures to work on other things? I maintain a Personal Accountability System (call it PAS if you like acronyms). This is a regular 3-ring binder with a 1/2″ spine. It contains my 1-sentence purpose and 2005 goals (1 page), my Q1 2005 goals (1 page), my projects list (1 page), and my next actions list (1 page). I have other planning documents I maintain on my PC, but these are the ones I keep in this binder.

First, this helps me because I always keep this binder on my desk, and I open it and look through it every day, usually many times per day. This is automatic because it contains my next actions list. So I read my goals frequently, and I’m always noticing which three are the most important. It’s a process of constantly rechecking that I’m still on course and making adjustments as needed.

Secondly, I break my projects list and my next actions list into two parts: primary and secondary. The primary projects and next actions are those that lead directly to the achievement of the primary goals. The secondary projects and next actions either lead to secondary goals, or they aren’t linked to goals at all (like doing my taxes, something I must do but that’s not a major goal).

You can probably begin to see the benefit in this approach. Whenever I look at my next actions or projects lists, the primaries are at the top of the page. So this makes it very clear which next actions are the most important. I still sort each group by context (office, errands, waiting for, etc), but this doesn’t complicate things much because my primary goals involve mostly office work.

It’s very difficult sometimes, and I don’t always manage to achieve it, but I aim to spend at least 50% of each day working on my primary goals. Knowing which set of next actions are linked to those goals is very helpful. I can just go straight to my next actions list and start working on the primary actions.

At the end of the day, I can see whether I’ve crossed off a lot of actions from the primary list or whether most were from the secondary list. I immediately know whether I focused on the wildly important or got off course. If I don’t cross off actions from the primary list, I know with certainty I’m off course. There’s no way to rationalize it or justify it as being on track when it isn’t. This is one way of keeping score every day and always knowing where I stand.

The glue that holds everything together is the PAS. This keeps accountability in my consciousness, since I actively use it every day. Whenever I have doubt about a next action, I can turn the page to see the project it links to, and turn the page again to see the goal behind it. And with only 3 primary goals, each in a different area of my life, it’s always very clear which goal I should be working on.

Systems trump intentions.

Without some systematized method of daily accountability, the natural result will be to stray off course. Then at the end of the year, you look back and say, “If only…” In order to prevent that yearly “if only,” you have to squeeze that annual accountability down into each and every day. When you look back on your day and see you goofed, you can immediately regroup and recommit to doing a better job the next day. Better to do this every single day instead of “going dark” and then being painfully surprised at the end of the year. Purposeful transformation is better than tragic realization.

The best of intentions will be dominated by whatever system you have in place. If you have no system, then either old habits or just plain chaos will dominate in the long run, regardless of your intentions and motivation. The PAS is just one tool for staying on track it’s my current favorite because it takes goals and links them all the way down to the level of actions in the moment. So accountability exists at all levels. But the real key is that it’s an integral part of every day. Without daily (sometimes even hourly) refocusing on the wildly important goals, it’s just too easy to lose sight of your goals and get sidetracked. So even though it requires a bit of effort to put together a PAS, it’s worth it.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

Strategic (or performance) indicators are your company’s score card. They let you know how well you are doing at any given time. Most business owners know there is value hidden in their numbers, but few actually take the time to do anything with them. Why?

In considering the most useful metrics for Wardell Professional Development, we began, as most people do, with the financials. It seemed like a logical place to begin because the numbers were already being tracked. We just needed to formalize the process. Then, as time went on, we added numbers from other departments to give us a more rounded picture of our business.

The process worked, but no one was particularly excited about it. The numbers were meaningful, just not meaningful enough. So over time, we found ourselves paying less and less attention to them.

I knew something was wrong. After some discussion, it occurred to us that most of our metrics looked backwards. Our income statements, for example, represented a financial slice in time that is dead and gone. Even our customer satisfaction surveys told us how our customers used to feel. The information was old the moment we received it. What we needed, were forward looking numbers. You can’t predict the future, but we felt this type of information could greatly benefit our decision making process.

Reasoning that predicting the future is really more about understanding the odds, we came up with a simple definition. Forward looking metrics are those that vary in relation to future metrics. Prospecting activities, for example, are measurable today, but they have a direct impact on future sales. All things being equal, more prospects equal more sales. So at Wardell, we now know how many new prospects we speak to, the estimated dollar value of potential sales to those prospects, the average length of time it takes for a prospect to become a client, and most importantly, the odds of turning those prospects into clients.

As we continued to sort through our list of performance indicators, we often found that small shifts in our thinking, rather than reinvention, was the order of the day. The question we kept asking ourselves was, “how does this number vary in relation to a future number?” For example, customer satisfaction surveys became forward looking tools once we measured and understood their relationship to our client retention numbers.

Once our metrics were in place, the greatest lesson we learned was that they needed to be shared. By keeping them locked away in the ivory towers of management we were missing out on a huge benefit. We realized that if we wanted to empower our people to make independent decisions, we needed to give them the tools for measuring the results of those decisions. The numbers suddenly came alive for us once we made them public and began incorporating them into our regular staff meetings.

Mark Wardell is President and Founder of Wardell Professional Development, a business consulting firm, focused on the unique needs of small/mid sized growth companies.

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