My Favorite (Brian Tracy) Goal Setting Technique

Happy New Year!

How is the goal setting going?

If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed with setting goals in each area of your life, or if you are overwhelmed now that you have set goals in every area of your life and you are already wondering where you're going to get the time to do it all, then you're not alone.

I've been goal setting for years, and while I (and the rest of the world) may get pumped up by all the wonderful things I'm going to accomplish and all the changes I'm going to make, what I've learn is that there is only so much time. 

It's an old story, but if you want to know how much of the goal setting (and accomplishing) really goes, just drive by your local gym's parking lot during the first week of January and compare it to the first week in March. 

I once heard Brian Tracy talk about setting goals, and he recommended a technique that not only made a lot of sense, but that turns out to be so powerful, it is life changing...

He said what you do is make a list of your top ten goals for the year. Think about what's most important to you in the different areas of your life, and write down ten things. 

Next, prioritize that list so that the most important goal is number one. The way to determine which goal is number one is to ask yourself which of the ten would have the most impact on your life if you actually reached it.

Once you have your list prioritized, throw away the other nine goals and make a commitment to making that number one goal a reality in the coming twelve months. 

And once you've made that commitment, ask yourself what one action you can take today, right now, to begin reaching that goal. And once you have identified that, do it.

Before you go to sleep tonight, identify the one action you're going to take tomorrow, and then commit to taking it.

And then do this each and every day until you have accomplished that one most important goal.

When I heard this, my first thought was, "Yeah, but what about the other nine goals? What about balance and all that?" 

And that's when he explained that despite our best intentions, most goal setting starts strong, but by March we've given up on half of them, and by the summer most - if not all - have been abandoned. 

That's why identifying one goal, the most important and most impacting goal, is a better way to go. 

Think about how much your life will change (and the lives of your family members) if you reach your number one, most important goal.

If your goal is to become a top producer in your industry and double or triple your income, think about the impact that will have on your family! Think about buying that new home, or providing for your parents, or allowing your wife or spouse to stay home.

If your goal is to finally write that novel, think about how your life will change when you finally accomplish that this year! Think about the weight off your shoulders now that it is a reality rather than just another dream.

If your goal is to lose weight, get in shape, and get off your medication and live a longer, healthier life for yourself and your family, think about the long term rewards achieving that goal will bring you! (And think of the consequence if you don't.)

Whether or not you agree with Brian, I'm here to tell you that it's more impacting for you to hit the most important goal in your life than it is to set ten and not hit any of them...

And, hey, if you reach your number one goal by July, you can get to number two!

If you've set goals for years and not been very successful at following through, then why not take the pressure off yourself and try Brian's method? Take his 14 day goal setting challenge: 

In just 14 days, gain clarity on exactly what you want to achieve in every area of your life. Create a plan of action to start reaching your goals immediately from BrianTracy.com.

How bad would it be if you actually reached your most important goal in 2017?

6 Ways Structure Can Help You Achieve Peak Creative Performance

As a business coach for freelancers and creative professionals, I specialize in working with people who are in a place of transition in their career or creative business. While their unique circumstances vary, more often than not they share one key challenge; they're not fulfilling their creative and commercial potential. I've come to believe that a successful creative business is a blend of four things: 

(1) a great product or service 

(2) good strategy 

(3) hard work and 

(4) a willingness to be out of our comfort zone more often that not. 

Hey, if it were easy, everyone would do it, right?

But the creative business is a unique and sensitive animal. If it's all about strategy and objectives, we lose the creative magic and if it's all about creativity, nothing gets done. So, how can we find and maintain balance?

After working with creative professionals for 15 years, being business owner myself for eight and benefiting from the wisdom of mentors and coaches, I've come to the conclusion that success comes down to one thing:

Creating a solid structure, within which there is a lot of freedom.

If you're in that place of transition and don't know how to balance structure and freedom, I'd like to share 6 strategies that have worked for me: 

1) Know what you want from your business

If we don't know where we want to go, we can't create a plan to get there. Set aside some uninterrupted time to really think about what you want from your business. When we're honest with ourselves, the answer is sometimes very different from what we think we want. For example:

- Are you starting a business and want to build a roster of ideal clients? 
- Are you happy with your business and clients, but would like a few more? 
- Do you want to build a business that is flexible enough to work around your family's schedule? 
- Do you want to be known as a thought-leader in your industry? 

You can see how the strategy would be vastly different for each of these businesses, so it's important to get clear from the outset. 

2) Write down everything you need to do to achieve your goal

Doing a brain dump is a great way to get all of your ideas out of your head and into one place. I love the mind-map method. It's simple, effective and perfect for visual types. Here's how you do it:

Take a piece of paper and put your main topic, e.g. your business name, at the center. As thoughts come to mind, draw branches from the main topic and write down that thought or objective (use as few words as possible). You can create sub-branches for additional thoughts or action steps. 

I love Goggle for creating mind maps that look pretty too! 

3) Prioritize and calendarize 

(I know it's not a word, but it should be!) 
Take your mind map and number your goals by priority. Start with number one, let's use Networking as the example, and list action steps you need to take. They night be: 

 
(a) Research BNI and visit one chapter this month  

  (b) Become a member of Freelancer's Union and attend one event this month 

   (c) Research local AIGA chapter

Now enter those action steps into your calendar. Once it's in the calendar it moves from a "should" to a done deal. Now you're free to do something else. 

4) Bundle your to-do's

Have you ever ended your day feeling exhausted and frustrated because you ran around like a headless chicken, without much to show for it? I have and it sucks.
I now bundle similar tasks together and take care of them in one sitting. I set Friday aside for book keeping and general admin. Monday is dedicated to content development and marketing and I cluster my coaching sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so that I can stay in the zone and be as present as I can. Clustering your efforts also helps you balance "doing" and "creating". 

5) Work with your natural rhythms

It's no coincidence that my writing/content work is slated for Monday when I'm fresh and my boring admin is on Friday, when I'm spent. I go for an early morning run on one of my coaching days, knowing that I will benefit the most from the boost of energy and clarity it provides. 

6) Make time to play and create

Do you deny yourself downtime because you feel guilty that you're not being "productive?" I struggle with this and, while we may think of it as a noble trait, it's really not. The fact is, we need time to dream, play and create. It's what gives us the magic, the inspiration and energy we need to do all of the above steps. Down time should be as much of a priority as everything else. So put THAT in your calendar and stick to it!

7 Skills People Should Master To Be Successful

A lot of people spend so much time developing skills that are not vital in every person's life. Like, sure, it would be handy once in a while to know how to repair a broken lamp, but it is not vital to one's existence. Some people master the art of repairing their car, but we could hire someone else to do it for us. 

We can learn how to sew an entire dress, but we can buy ready to wear clothes from any clothing store. In short, there are just some skills that are not essential if they are not applicable in your personal life.



But there are just some that people simply cannot do without because they directly tie up with everyday living.

Examples of these maybe knowing how to read and write or use a computer - these skills are vital when any person does another thing necessary - which is to earn a living. Of course, without a steady source of income, you will not have food to eat, a house to live in or clothes to wear.

In order to survive in any job, and to be successful at it, there are simply some skills that one cannot do without. You learn these skills over time, experience and constant practice. As you work on them more seriously, you increase your chances of being successful.

Here are 7 of the master skills any ambitious potentially-successful person must know.

How to prioritize and to manage time. In any job, a schedule is essential. There must be a deadline or an allotted amount of time to accomplish tasks, otherwise, work will drag on forever without full completion. 

Success depends on effective action, and part and parcel of effectively is to be able to do task well within a schedule. A successful person knows how to properly prioritize the more important things over the less vital. With the increasing amount of distractions surrounding us, time management is a much-needed skill - and definitely something any person must learn.

Logical and informed decision making. In life, you can never be successful without making decisions. It is a prerequisite to action - unless you plan on acting without thinking. Logical and sound decision making is knowing how to act based on the information and facts present. Remember - it is not about how quickly you can decide, but it is more on being able to make the best decisions based on the circumstances you are faced with.

Basic accounting and money management. Are you one of those who seem to constantly be in a quandary about where your money went? Do you leave the house with a pocketful of money, then be puzzled when you get home and discover how much you have left? Well then, you can never be successful if you cannot even fully account for every dollar of your own personal money. Imagine being responsible for the funds of an entire company? Basic accounting, no matter how simple, is crucial to the individual success of a person. 

You must know how to spend money - wisely or on once in a while whims. Like they say, it does not matter how much you earn, but what matters is how much you save. Money, whether we admit it or not, keeps a roof over our heads, food in our bellies - which are some of man's most basic necessities. Knowing how to properly manage your money and income is a skill that not only helps one survive - it also is the key towards a sound and secure future.

Effective communicating and negotiating. To be successful, give people the information they need, rather than expect them to know what they should know. Don't rely on actions too much, because sometimes actions can be misinterpreted, and seen within the context of the beholder. Instead of making people read you mind, master the art of proper and effective communication. And when there are time when miscommunication happens, be able to "negotiate" and defend your point - within reason, without offense to anyone. Always be honest and sincere when speaking - even when you must relay bad news. 

Remember the saying, it is better to be slapped with the truth than to be kissed with a lie. 




Relationship networking. The key to survival nowadays in business is to be able to establish as many contacts and relationships as possible. They may be business relationships, friendships, or a client-supplier relationship. 

The ability to stay afloat relies on a business person's ability to earn the trust and confidence of as many people as possible. 




Positivity. When people act according to how they feel, then their actions will be greatly influenced by their mindset. When you are optimistic and see the lesson behind every failure, then you are always eager to get up and try again. When you are pessimistic and encounter failure, there's a big chance you will never get up after a fall. No matter how bad things may be, having positivity in your life will always make the world seem brighter and happier, and life is easier to live. 

Self-discipline. Discipline is acting rightly when no one else is watching. Although it is a trait, it is also a skill - meaning, you can develop it over time and patient sacrifice. It involves acting according to what is right, and giving up other more enjoyable things while being trusted to do a task. You have all the time in the world to do other things, but it takes self-discipline to give a task 100% of your attention when temptations abound. Self-discipline is ultimately that which will lead you towards success.