Posts from — September 2005

Why is it that some people set goals and give up on them while others set goals and achieve them with amazing ease? The answer almost certainly lies in applying the following 7 secrets of goal-setting.

1. Start With Your Strengths. Although you can base your goals on anything you want, your chances of success are greater if, first, you base them on your strengths and second, on the current opportunities in your field.

To find out your strengths, do some self-research, such as a personal SWOT: your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  Click to read the full post...

“Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.” – Mark Twain

Another year is upon us and you have your list of resolutions or goals you want to accomplish in the upcoming year. It’s time to plan your goals so that it’s not just another conversation this year, but a focused plan for success. I will share with you five goal setting techniques guaranteed to help you achieve more out of life. Use the goal setting techniques listed below to help you achieve your targets:  Click to read the full post...

I just Googled the phrase “goal setting”, and found approximately 3,600,000 web pages that relate in some way to that phrase. This shouldn’t surprise us, because conventional wisdom is that goal setting is an important skill.

It is easy to document both through anecdotal evidence as well as through research that setting goals can help us achieve more. There are hundreds of books, tapes, speeches, workshops, and websites that will provide us with tools and processes to set goals. One would think for something as important as goal setting, with as many tools as there are available, that everyone would be a goal setter.

I ran across an interesting site called, MyTicklerFile.com which is a web based tool that, you guessed it, promises to duplicate a tickler file. In case you’re wondering, a tickler file is: a file of memoranda or notices that remind of things to be done.

If you’ve read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, then no doubt you’ve learned the importance of using a tickler file — as well as some other pretty darn handy tools for both getting organized and, well getting things done

The Pursuit of Potential
by Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE

The 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Canada. I am a rabid downhill skier, so I was watching the televised events with great interest.

Of particular interest to me was Pirmin Zurbriggen, 25, Switzerland’s brilliant all-around champion. The serene and religous young man was also a fierce competitor. Before the Olympics, Zurbirggen had told the media”I like pressure. I like to fight. I like to be at the best level of my talents.”  Click to read the full post...

You have the idea so therefore you have within you the ability to make it a reality. Such is one of life’s great truths. This may not always appear to be the case, but rest assured deep down you’ve got all the ability it takes.

The problem is that far to often we don’t lay a foundation so that we have in place what it will take to make our idea a reality. First of all, we have to understand that things often don’t just happen. They are the result of following out carefully planned steps and taking daily action until we have reached our intended destination.  Click to read the full post...

Having a dream or a goal worth failing for is a sure reason for not quitting. Let me give you a powerful example then I’ll follow it up with more examples and finally a personal experience of my own.

Milt Campbell was an Olympic athlete. In 1952, in Helsinki, Finland he won a silver medal in the decathlon, a grueling series of events. But a silver medal was still one place short of where Milt wanted to be.  Click to read the full post...

Using my Sidekick II to keep track of my Goals …

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t going to be a cleverly written article advertising T-Mobile, or the Sidekick II for that matter. The reason I am writing this is that I’m often asked what techniques I use to keep track of and manage my goals. Since I do a combination of things — not the least of which involves using the nifty gadget you see above, I thought I’d share a bit about it here for you. In particular how I use it myself.

You know where you want to go, but how do you get there? You may find that making some decisions is easier than others. What do you do first? How long will it take? Will you need help getting there? How do you decide what’s right for you?

It helps if you understand what makes you tick; your personal value system. These values are the ones you live with, not necessarily every day, but over the course of your life, that enable you to live with your decisions.

First, sit down and make a list of the top 20 or 30 values that are important to you:

A goal is the result or achievement toward which effort is directed. Without setting goals in exercise or nutrition, there is far less value and purposeful direction; and they need to be measurable and realistic. For example, a thin teenager weighing 120 pounds wishing to weight 220-pounds of muscle is both specific and measurable. However, he cannot hope to achieve such a physique, especially not soon and probably not without growth-enhancing drugs. Therefore, in this instance, the goal to gain 100 pounds of muscle is specific, it is measurable, but it is unrealistic.  Click to read the full post...