Thank Goodness It's Monday #341

WHAT TIME WOULD IT BE

IF ALL THE CLOCKS WERE STOPPED?

Odd thought isn’t it? Actually, it’s an old Zen saying. (Are there new Zen sayings?) I’m using it here to set up the more prosaic question – 

How do you think about time? 

If you’ve been to any event I have been involved with that touches on Time Management you have probably seen a visual that has the number 168 on it.  

That represents the number of hours each of us has every week. 

Why a week? In the context of how you feel about the way you invest your time, a week is probably the best standard unit of time to consider because it encompasses all the challenges to how you satisfactorily allocate this finite resource. 

Stuff happens, of course. The occasional hectic day or overbooked morning happens.  You can’t judge or run your life by that. 

But how you feel about your 168 is a pretty good benchmark for how you manage the bulk of your time and how that management might be improved. 

Time management with a difference.  Unlike most teachers of time management, we are not going to burden you with the task of keeping a time log; you know, one of those “note everything you do for a week in quarter an hour increments” lists. 

We feel, as you probably do, that it’s largely a waste of time.

You know where the time goes.  If you don’t, and you’re not happy with the way you feel about how you spend your time, simply rewind one recent mental movie of the time you feel dissatisfied about. 

Then play it back. It doesn’t take a detailed Time Log to recall the business meeting you never should have committed to … that started late and rambled on without an agenda or the facts needed to make decisions … wrecked your plans to finish your budget tasks on office time … made you late for your kids’ play date pick up and team practice … put you in the doghouse with your spouse … and kept you up way past midnight doing office work that should easily have been completed when that idiot meeting was going on! 

Got it?  Good.  So let’s be honest about your time allocation and -- wasting no more time covering familiar ground -- move on. 

As this New Year gets rolling, have you been wondering how you can fit it all in?

It’s not uncommon.  We all have a tendency to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and in the moments that seem, in afterthought or hindsight, to have stolen our time.

People tell us all the time that they are “Busy 24/7.”

Oh, yeah? Then answer this: 

Busy doing what?

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?  Time flies. You start the week with a “To Do” List and the best intentions.  And before you know it, the 168 hours have gone by. 

In a way that might seem like a good thing, right?  It is – 

• If …
• Make that a Big “If” …
• In fact, HUGE “IF” 

-- IF you're accomplishing your objectives and moving toward your goals. 

Oh yeah: Goals. Didn’t you end 2011 and begin 2012 with resolutions and goal setting as a priority?  And although maybe you were not fully aware of how the process would proceed, now that we’ve begun to talk about it, perhaps you realize –

Your Goals

needed to be in place

so that you can

Prioritize Your Time Activities

around them. 

We’re 30 days into 2012.  This is a wake-up call. 

If you are committed to having your Best Year Ever, this is the time to evaluate your activities, your schedule, and your priorities to make sure that your Goals and your Time Management Strategies are properly aligned. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: It’s when you are acting without purpose that you waste the most time. Fight to link everything to your goals. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Ask, “Is what I’m doing this minute moving me measurably closer to my goals?” 

Do The Right Thing. You must have the courage, integrity, and character to “do the right thing” for yourself and your goals, in spite of time pressure you feel to do other things. 

What’s right?  Often you’ll sense when “the right thing” is or isn’t happening.  Usually a “gut feeling” tips you off to the rightness of how you’re investing your time and your actions. 

Still, if you feel pressured to use your time one way -- and you don’t want to rely solely on instinct -- use of these – 

Empowering Time Questions

Get in the habit of asking the following 4 Key Questions.  While they may seem familiar in some respects, they encompass subtly significant differences in how you think about using your time.  They can effectively direct and focus your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions. 

Key Question #1:

What is the most valuable use of my time RIGHT NOW? 

This is the perfect question to ask whenever you’re unsure about what to work on next … or if you are challenged by an unexpected interruption … or when your “gut feeling” suggests you are not making good use of your time. 

Key Question #2:

What – ULTIMATELY – am I trying to achieve? 

Ask this in order to bring your thinking back to your real objective and goals.  It’s a reminder to not get sidetracked or caught up in trivial pursuits or bogged down striving for an unnecessarily perfect outcome. 

Key Question #3:

What am I giving up in order to do what I’m doing? 

Acknowledge the often-overlooked Universal Law of Decision Making: When you choose to DO something, you also automatically choose to NOT DO everything else you could have done at the time.  Make the conscious choice – or make the necessary changes – to invest your time in what really matters. 

Key Question #4:

Should I continue to do this? 

What distinguishes this question from the earlier ones that may seem like it is that, at its core, it’s focusing on what to STOP DOING rather than what to start.  This is the Q for you if you suspect you’re wasting time on something that should be finished by now or stuck and spinning your wheels in a time stealer that no longer serves your long-term goals. 

Make it a habit.  At first, you may have to frequent remind yourself to ask these questions about how your time is being used.  So it might even be useful to write them on a 3x5 card. Then put it in your pocket with your goals (you do have your goals there, right?) … or sticking out from under your phone … or in your desk drawer where you’ll come across it at the appropriate moment.  Eventually, if you keep asking consistently, the questions will become a habit that serves you for the rest of your life. 

Uh oh. Look at the time. (No Zen clocks around here.) Thanks for investing some of your time today in this TGIM. 

Looking forward to next time. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com  

P.S.  “The thief to be most wary of is the thief who steals your time.” Source unknown.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #340

ENTER THE DRAGON!

(YEAR OF THE …)

So, are you feeling lucky?

Chinese Zodiac lucky – not Clint Eastwood or Google-search lucky.

Perhaps you should be. Today, according to the Chinese lunar calendar based on a cycle of 12 years each of which relates to an animal sign, marks the beginning of –

The Year of the Dragon. 恭喜发财– transliterated in some places as Gung hay fa choy in Cantonese – is one simplified greeting roughly equivalent to “Happy New Year.”

Broadly speaking the 15-day Lunar New Year celebration just begun is chock-a-block with wishes for luck and good fortune, growth and prosperity, good health and longevity, harmony and togetherness.

And as I understand it, The Year of the Dragon focuses particularly on luck.

As luck would have it … Luck is a subject I’ve thought about. As, at one time or another, has probably everyone who ever existed.

In my completely unscientific survey of the info readily available (not all the 750 million options immediately accessible by Googling the word, of course, but …), I conclude that there are a lot of folks out there who –

Rely on luck. For example, it seems as if more than half the famous or even semi-famous person quotes about “luck” acknowledge its role in the success of the person quoted.

Good luck and Bad luck. Events that have worked for them or against them. They talk about happenstance … chance … the right moment … the factor beyond control … good fortune … about being in the right place at the right time.

However …

Those who ascribe some magical, beyond-my-control, Lunar-New-Year begins, or stars-align-to-make-it-happen quality to luck don’t get my endorsement.

The ‘fortuitous” part of the definition of “luck” just doesn’t work in my calculation.

Luck: The fortuitous happening of fortunate or adverse events.

Fortuitous: Happening by accident or chance; unplanned.

So, with due respect and apologies to the cultures who eagerly anticipate and celebrate the especially lucky aspects of The Year of the Dragon –

I’m not counting on an auspicious lucky new beginning today.  For me, almost any astrological stuff is –

Beyond understanding.  I confess I do look at my horoscope in the ink-on-paper newspaper. And I’ve got the daily Libra popping up on my computer home page. I figure, at the least, they are well-intended advice.

I’m certainly open to that.

So I read the transmitted wisdom with the fascinated knowledge that there is guidance to be gleaned in the cryptic messages (although that it is celestial and unwavering universal is highly suspect to me).

And that leads me, at this auspicious new beginning of The Year of the Dragon, to this –

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Good fortune, growth and prosperity, good health and longevity, harmony and togetherness are the result of the individual effort each of us makes to bring them into our world.

The balance of all those famous and semi-famous folks sharing their experience via the quoted word insist on this view.

• They conclude that luck is not chance. It is cause and effect.
• They conclude that luck comes only after preparation.
• They conclude that luck is having the proper frame of mind.
• They conclude that luck is being alert when the opening comes along.
• They conclude that luck is realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.
• They conclude that luck is the residue of design.
• They know that luck is hard work.

We make things happen. To us and for us. To paraphrase Cassius, the nobleman, speaking with his friend, Brutus, in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar:

"The luck, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves ….”

TGIM Takeaway: The golden opportunity you and I seek is in us. It is not in luck or chance. It is not in our environment or even in the help of others. It is in ourselves alone.

To be fair I’ll allow that there remains an element of chance that is ever present in our lives. But as we’ve said, luck is not chance. And even if it were, as Louis Pasteur famously observed, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

(What Pasteur actually said was “Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés” which translates as “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” But the simplified version seems sexier.)

As the “elder” co-creator with my buddy Eric Taylor of the Empowerment Group’s Best Year Ever Program! I feel obliged to commemorate any “New Year” observance and tie it to our message that –

Anytime is the right time to begin Your Best Year Ever!

Enter The Year of the Dragon with a mind prepared to make what you wish for so.

Our fate is not in the stars. The future is in our own hands. Self-improvement is the precursor to all improvement. Start today. We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work. There’s never been a more auspicious time.

Gung hay fa choy! Get started on Your Best Year Ever! NOW.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 -1832) said that.

Remembering Great American Music Makers

Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes

and

Jamesetta Hawkins.

Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes
(December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012)
better known as Johnny Otis.

“I get a wave of pride in America when I look back at what we’ve accomplished in the field of music.” Johnny Otis said that.

Jamesetta Hawkins
(January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012)
better known as Etta James.

"I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture." Etta James said that.

CELEBRATE BEN’S BIRTHDAY

Celebrate Ben Franklin's birthday, January 17, 1706.

He lived to age 84 following the 13 Virtues he spelled out when he was 20, namely:

1.    Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

 Benjamin Franklin.
Marble bust
  by Jean-Antoine Houdon:
1778

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

BTW: Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he would work on one and only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance". While Franklin did not live completely by his virtues and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point; in his autobiography Franklin wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit.BTW: Franklin didn’t try to work on them all at once. Instead, he would work on one and only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance."

While Franklin did not live completely by his virtues and, by his own admission, he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man, contributing greatly to his success and happiness . And it's been suggested that this is why he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point in his autobiography.

Franklin also wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit."

Sow these seeds and, perhaps, so shall ye reap.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S.  “The doors of wisdom are never shut.” Can you guess who also said that?

Thank Goodness It's Monday #339

LIFT YOUR VOICE AND …

In 1900 a school principal in Jacksonville, Florida -- James Weldon Johnson -- wrote a song for a group of schoolchildren to sing in honor of Lincoln’s birthday. His brother, music teacher John Rosamond Johnson, helped write the music.

That song was titled Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Eventually the brothers sent the song to a New York publisher and, so the story goes, thought little more about it.

But the public found it hard to forget. Children in the South, and gradually throughout the United States, continued to sing it. It became a popular selection for church choirs -- a tradition that continues today.

Perhaps you know it or recognize it. Here’s the first verse:

     Lift every voice and sing
    Till earth and heaven ring,
    Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
    Let our rejoicing rise
    High as the listening skies,
    Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
    Sing a song full of the faith that the
    dark past has taught us,
    Sing a song full of the hope that the
    present has brought us,
    Facing the rising sun of our new day
    Begun let us march on till victory is won.

James Johnson went on to many more accomplishments: composed more poetry, wrote a novel, was appointed U.S. consul to Venezuela and later Nicaragua. In 1920, he became executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP adopted Lift Every Voice and Sing as its official song.

And during the American Civil Rights movement Lift Every Voice and Sing became even more closely associated with Dr. Martin Luther King whose contributions we acknowledge today.

Music to my ears. As MLK Jr. Day approaches, my thinking about the commemoration invariably turns musical. I recall the heyday of the struggle for racial equality as a time informed by the music it engendered as well as the anthems it put forward. People came together and expressed themselves and shared their ideas and ideals through music.

Songs of unity and songs of protest.

Songs to incite and inspire and empower.
Songs to agitate and songs to soothe.
Songs that challenged and songs of solace.
Marching  songs … Peace songs … Freedom songs.

Name that tune. You can, easily. See them as persuasion or propaganda, no matter where you were or how you felt on the issues – or “are” or “feel” even today – you can’t deny the power and influence of the musical messages, especially in the 1960s and ‘70s.

• Lift Every Voice and Sing
• We Shall Overcome
• Eyes on the Prize
• What’s Going On?
• Which Side Are You On?
• Blowin’ in the Wind
• Give Peace a Chance
• Revolution
• Peace Train

And more, of course. Many, many more.

You might even consider the Jimi Hendrix rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner or the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen in this context of “Message Music.”

And speaking of a message: So what is the TGIM/MLK Jr. Day “message” in all this?

I think it's this challenge:

What beat do you march to? What’s the meaning of the musical medley you carry in your head and heart? Do you convey it to others in your daily behavior?

Getting a message heard is hard despite being in a digitally interconnected world. The busy folk around us are deeply absorbed in their own mishegas.

In our mp3, ear-bud plugged-in world the theme songs we embrace are increasingly “for our ears only.” Sure, maybe we broadcast a bit of ourselves via a favorite ringtone or fan shout out on social media. But precious few of us, it seems to me, lift our voices anymore to share the fundamentals that we imagine define us.

So maybe Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a good time to take a cue and clue from the anthems of the Civil Rights era.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds … Won’t you help to sing, another song of freedom ...” In 1979 Bob Marley sang that in his Redemption Song (some lyrics of which were inspired by a speech pan-African orator Marcus Garvey gave in 1937.)

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Lift your voice. Go tell it on the mountain. Let your little light shine. Keep your eyes on the prize; your hand on the plow (and hold on).  A change is gonna come.

In the wide world of inspirational MLK Jr. quotes, there’s this:

“Our lives begin to end

the day we become silent

about the things that matter.”

I’ll end this TGIM heeding that wise counsel. I hope you will too.

Speak up about the things that matter to you.

Sing out! Join me. “I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around.”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  Shedding a little more light: If you’re not already suffering from MLK Jr. media overkill, click through here and invest 4 minutes in a visual tribute set against a very appropriate 1991 James Taylor song that’s been playing on my mental jukebox for days.

THANK GOODNESS IT'S MONDAY #338

“A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA”

-- FINDING THE SUCCESS LESSON

IN THE PALINDROME

Today’s headline is one of the best-known palindromes, a phrase that, ignoring punctuation, reads the same front-to-back or back-to-front.

Why palindromes today? It’s about the goal-setting strategies we’ve been chatting about since before the start of the New Year. 

Big 2012 Q: So how’s all that goal setting been working out for ya, huh?

If you’re thinking sheepishly that you nearly instantly strayed from the path to success you envisioned, here’s –

Good news. You (ahem, “we”) are not alone.

First let me remind you again that the first purpose of setting any goal is to focus attention.

So let’s admit we lost our focus in the fog of adjusting to the New Year.

And that leads to the observation -- perhaps clichéd, but even clichés are grounded in a truth – that:

Failure’s not all bad. Derailed is not necessarily a train wreck. New Year resolution/goal-setting “failure” is seldom fatal.

Failure certainly lets us know our limitations under the conditions in which failure occurred. But in doing so it alerts us to areas that need attention; places where we still have room to change and grow.

So now’s as good a time as any to --

Push Reset. At the outset of almost any journey, the destination is a bit of an illusory end point. It’s where you think you need to get to. But what you learn along the way may inform or even alter that view.

So, especially if you stalled before you even started, perhaps –

The “going” should be the goal. We often believe we have a definite goal when the thinking about it is still in some foggy, nebulous stage. And maybe the lack of New Year’s action … the lack of getting going … was a sign that your “goal” was a bit vague.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: When you push “Reset,” readjust the goal-setting process to include the “going” – not just specifying a desired end-point.

To make it easier to do this, consider applying –

The Lesson of the Palindrome

The “goal” of an easy-to-navigate canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was a wish since early in the 16^th Century. (The earliest mention of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama dates to 1534, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through the Americas that would ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru.)

George Washington Goethals
1858-1928

But “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama” reminds us that the Panama Canal connecting the two great oceans become a reality only when the wish became goal of a man – the engineer and military leader George Goethals –

A goal he diligently planned and a plan he diligently executed.

TGIM Takeaway: The end point of goal-setting can be reached only via the vehicle of a plan in which you must earnestly believe and upon which you must enthusiastically act.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: The best plans are straightforward, spelling out the famous “who, what, when, where, why and how much.”  Strategic planning done this way at the outset helps you fully uncover the available options, set priorities for them and detail the methods you anticipate will enable you to achieve them.

A true goal is a solution to a problem. Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it NOW.

As George Goethals proved: When schemes are laid out in advance, it’s surprising how often the circumstances that arise will fit them. (After the completion of the Canal, among the many honors bestowed on him, Goethals was promoted from Colonel to Major General.)

Let’s give Theodore Roosevelt, the 26^th US President who was instrumental in getting the Panama Canal built and gave Goethals his promotion –

The last goal-accomplishing word: “Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity; and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.”

My new plan: Use the power of planning to accomplish more in 2012. You, too?

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “Aha” palindrome moments: Was the first palindrome coined in the Garden of Eden? Perhaps, if the first man’s pick up line to Eve was “Madam, I’m Adam.” And, if you investigate, you might find the President of the Palindrome Society drives “A Toyota.” Or maybe it’s a “Civic.” And, although my friend Eric Taylor is fond of, and somewhat famous for, noting in his more distracted moments, “Oh look … a bunny on the lawn,” I sometimes find myself asking palindomically, “Was it a cat I saw?”

A verifiable very-early palindrome is graffiti found buried by ash at Herculaneum, in 79 AD. It reads: "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" (The non-palindromic translation: “The sower, Arepo, holds works wheels.”) Added wonder: It can be arranged into a word square --

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

--that reads in four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left. Wow!

P. P.S. You and Eric Taylor and I can talk more about “bunnies on lawns” and many more ways to accomplish much more in the days and weeks ahead at the –

Business Breakthrough 2012

…Live Event!

Thursday, January 26th 2012

5:30pm to 9:00pm

Location: Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center - Eatontown, NJ. 

There will be plenty of opportunity for informal networking and chat with scores and scores of your like-minded peers. Plus there’s a guaranteed uncut and uncensored opportunity to –

Get Real Answers to Your Biggest Business Challenges

During The Interactive Workshop!

Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll hear:  

•How to Develop a Practical Marketing Plan That Works

•Why Social Media and Your Website Aren’t Working for You

•How to Create and Expand Your Personal & Business Brand

•How to Position Yourself as an Expert

•Why Your Value Proposition Isn’t Valuable

•Real World Marketing Tactics That Generate Quality Leads

•How to Create Personal Referrals and an Army of Business Ambassadors

•How to Cut Through B.S. and Sell More, More Easily  

Seating is limited and the event is filling up FAST. 

ACT TODAY! Click through HERE: Business Breakthrough 2012 to – 

Watch a Preview and Reserve Your Place  

A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are also available.

CLICK THROUGH for contact info.

THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY  

TGIM #337  

I’M NOT MAKING ANY RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

-- AND YOU SHOULDN’T EITHER

Resolutions are for wimps.

Here’s what I mean: My ink-on-paper dictionary defines “resolve” as, “To make a firm decision about.”

• “Honey, I’ve made a firm decision about buying that Jaguar XKR-S convertible.”
• “Boss, this year I’m all about exceeding your expectations.”
• “Kids, as your parents, we’ve resolved that, except for doing homework, starting January 2, no electronic devices will be used in the house after 6:00 PM.” 

Wimpy, right? And you can easily intuit the outcome of these resolutions.

No wonder analyzers of such things maintain that 75% of the New Year Resolutions people have proclaimed in the run up to December 31 and January 1 are broken after the first week.

So it’s no resolutions for me for 2012. 
 

However …

I AM setting goals.

And you should too.

High achievers like TGIM readers know that an ongoing process of disciplined and meaningful goal-setting is the path to success.

You do not drift through life fiddling around with wimpy resolutions and allowing chance and hope to determine your future. (Remember: Hope is not a strategy.)

You know that the opportunity to manage your life and make solid choices occurs more than once a year in January. And you take setting and achieving your goals very seriously.

You’re smart. So this year, instead of mucking about with wimpy annual resolutions, you’re going to embark on a recurring goal-setting, goal-getting path that’s also –

S.M.A.R.T.

If you don’t know the goal-creation steps made easily memorable and actionable by the letters in this useful acronym, you should. So here goes:

Your goals should be S.M.A.R.T.:
S is for Significant. Goals must have significance for you. Choose things that are important … that get you excited … things that will make a difference in your life. Don’t waste time chasing trivial goals.

 Case in point: If you are thinking merely “that’s a nice idea” about a goal, forget it! It’s not a goal. It’s just what you think it is: A nice idea. Put your energy toward something more meaningful.

M is for Measurable. A goal without a specific result is just a pipedream. As someone wisely said, “What gets measured gets done.”

 Cases in point: While you can’t achieve a pound of “happiness” or a foot of “self-esteem” -- you can make it a goal to do your job in a way that’s 25% more valuable and so makes you worth 25% more. You can train with the intent to run a mile in under 7 minutes or do 100 sit-ups. Maybe you can’t be at each and every kid event but you can spend Saturdays as a family. You can manage your business with a mind to logging a15% sales increase this quarter.

A is for Achievable. Goals should be just out of reach, but not out of sight.
And you should feel that you’re both willing and able to achieve them. You want to stretch yourself, not end up bedridden because you strained after truly impossible dreams. Set goals you can and will achieve, achieve them, and then aim higher.

Case in point: If you haven’t run in years, don’t set a January goal to run in the first marathon in the spring. Your brain won’t buy it. Set a goal today to walk down to the park and then run back. Then set a new goal to run both ways. Then go farther. Nothing succeeds like success.

R is for Rational. Some say “Realistic” or “Relevant.” Your goals should make sense when you explain them to family and friends. Have a plan. Take carefully calculated risks. Play odds others concur are favorable. Work your plan.

Case in point: Realize that, although you might – might – hit the mega-jackpot playing the lottery, that’s not very rational, reasonable or relevant in the near term. However, given reasonable circumstances, you can retire a millionaire by methodically saving and investing 10% of your income.

T is for Tangible. Some say “Timely” or “Time Bound.” Go for things your senses will enjoy and that you can clearly visualize. Choose goals that you can see, hear, smell or touch. And have a foreseeable date in mind for their completion.
Cases in point: Even abstract concepts like “peace of mind” are more powerful if you redefine them as something quantified and concrete such as “a half hour a  day of private time every day just for me.”
 
The brain may have a hard time focusing on “financial security.” But it can appreciate a chart showing the future value of reinvested dividends and compounding interest. It can visualize years of quarterly brokerage statements with increasingly large dollar values.

So let’s summarize: No wimpy resolutions for 2012, only S.M.A.R.T. goals.
And how will you insure your 2012 goal-getting will be S.M.A.R.T.-ly done?
 
Challenge them with these questions:

• Significant. What exactly will be accomplished?
• Measurable. How will you know when you have accomplished your goal?
• Achievable. Do you have the energy, commitment and resources available? If not, will you be able to get them?
• Rational … Realistic … Relevant. Why is this goal significant for you?
• Tangible … Timely … Time bound. How will it play out in your life? When do you get your payback or rethink your strategy?

The purpose of goals is to focus our attention. The mind will not reach toward achievement until it has a clear objective. The magic begins when we set goals S.M.A.R.T.-ly. It’s then that the switch is turned on, the current begins to flow and the power to accomplish becomes a reality.

Resolving to take this life lesson to heart and put it into action in 2012.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst

Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com 
  
P.S.  “What an immense power over life is the power of possessing distinct aims. The voice, the dress, the look, the very motions of a person, define and alter when he or she begins to live for a reason.” Poet, novelist and women’s rights activist Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844 – 1911) said that.

 
P. P.S. We can talk – face to face -- about S.M.A.R.T. goal setting and much, much more that we can accomplish in the days and weeks ahead at the –

Business Breakthrough 2012

…Live Event!
Thursday, January 26th 2012

5:30pm to 9:00pm
Location: Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center - Eatontown, NJ. 

There will be plenty of opportunity for informal networking and chat with scores and scores of your like-minded peers. Plus there’s a guaranteed rock ‘em/sock ‘em opportunity to –
 

Get Real Answers to Your Biggest Business Challenges

During The Interactive Workshop!

Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll hear: 

• How to Develop a Practical Marketing Plan That Works
• Why Social Media and Your Website Aren’t Working for You
• How to Create and Expand Your Personal & Business Brand
• How to Position Yourself as an Expert
• Why Your Value Proposition Isn’t Valuable
• Real World Marketing Tactics That Generate Quality Leads
• How to Create Personal Referrals and an Army of Business Ambassadors
• How to Cut Through B.S. and Sell More, More Easily

Seating is limited and the event is filling up FAST.

ACT TODAY! Click through HERE: Business Breakthrough 2012 to –

Watch a Preview and Reserve Your Place
  

A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are also available.

CLICK THROUGH for contact info.