610-793-6609 michael@achievable.com

How to Develop Personal Leadership Mastery

Aug 6, 2019 | Goal Setting, Happiness, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

First, you need to define what “Best Year Ever” means to you; you have to know what you want in order to achieve it.

 

Step 1.  Know what you really want in life and in business. Know what goals and outcomes you would like to achieve by the end of 2020 and know exactly what you don’t want. Create a list of personal goals and business goals for the next 12 months. Start with what  you really want to accomplish for yourself by focusing on “what really matters most in your life” so that you can say yes to that list and no to everything that is going to try to derail you from you goals program.  Create goals for personal health and well-being. Spend more time on your most important relationships. Stay connected with your kids as they grow up and/or pursue their college or post-college adventures? Pursue that special hobby or interest you have been putting off. Block more vacation time in your planner right now? This is the most important time you will spend if you want next year to be your best ever. Take time out of your busy schedule before January rolls in to recharge, relax, and re-energize with powerful and meaningful goals for next year.  Get the pen to the paper right now and start mapping our your future. 

 

Step 2. After you create your goals schedule an appointment with yourself every week to work on the action steps to move your goals forward.  Our lives are built on the foundation of these six major areas: Family & Home, Financial & Career, Mental & Educational, Physical & Health, Social & Cultural, and Spiritual & Ethical.  These areas are the foundation, the pillars that you will build a totally integrated life on. So make sure you are spending at least  1 hour a week in your plan of action. Your personal plan of action is the master plan for the rest of your life. Your planner should contain a master list of priority business and personal goals.  Success in life is the result of progressive realization of your predetermined goals. The world is infested with distractions and noise designed to take us off our goals program and put us on someone else’s goals program which is why we have to continue to work in our personal plan of action weekly and continue to crystallize our thinking about what really matters most in our life. 

 

Step 3. Develop a relentless focus on what really matters most, what is most important and significant in your personal and professional life by setting up ironclad boundaries so you are not interrupted with the tyranny of the urgent which usually isn’t really important. Focus on what you want and not on what you don’t want. Everything that isn’t important figure out a way to simplify, eliminate, delegate or outsource the activity. Then take massive action on your goals, make this a daily habit and you will be guaranteed to achieve your goals. Continue next week…………..

Mid-Year is Approaching, Are You Ready?

May 21, 2019 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Goal Setting, Leadership, Leadership Development, Productivity

Over the past few weeks, we really hammered down the importance of goal-setting and planning and how it is essential to success both personally and professionally. This is something I know to be true from first-hand experience and working with clients. Equally important is reflection on these goals and the progress made toward achieving them.

The process of reflection gives business leaders necessary insight to make strategic decisions. It creates opportunities for celebrating successes and examining weaknesses. The current environment we live in is fast-paced, ever-changing, and global. Regular reflection and realignment of goals is a requirement to stay on track and ahead of the competition. I recommend taking the time to do this regularly but especially at mid-year.

Here are five questions to consider:

What are the major successes so far this year?

Take a look at what you and your company are doing right and have a party! When successes are celebrated, it increases motivation and engagement, resulting in higher productivity. You also need to know what is working because these are the high-payoff activities that you should focus the majority of your time doing.

What were the biggest challenges?

Review the areas where you and your organization are struggling. What goals have you made the least progress toward? Was there an unexpected catastrophe that could have been prevented? Did the original SWOT analysis underestimate your competition? If you want continued success, you need to be proactive in identifying obstacles and plan for them. When you fall short, you want to understand why and avoid repeating the same scenario in the future.

What have you learned?

This is self-explanatory. Look back at the past six months and think about what you know now that you did not know before. Apply what you have learned to your future goals and plans.

What are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) saying?

Look at the numbers, analyze and interpret them, and then make necessary changes. Measuring KPIs is worthless if you do not utilize the insight they offer.

How can you improve results?

Once you answer the first four questions here, this should be clear. What can you do to increase revenue, bring in new clients, grow your business?

Automobiles start breaking down without regular oil changes and maintenance. Computers and electronic devices need to be updated and restarted regularly or they will fail to operate. Businesses (and business leaders) need the same attention. Take some time at mid-year to refresh, refocus, and recharge.

Written Goals Build Confidence, Add Sense of Value and Reduce Guilt

May 14, 2019 | Goal Setting, Happiness, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, Success

There are a number of benefits to planning and goal-setting:

Written goals build confidence. When you know where you want to go and how you plan to get there, you are more confident in your ability. You develop a more positive attitude, a belief that you will be able to achieve more challenging goals. Planning gives you the tools needed to help you overcome negative conditioning by forcing you to concentrate on positive results. Your self-confidence grows and your frustration level is immediately lowered when vagueness and doubt are replaced by focus and concentration.

Written goals add a sense of values.

Goals encourage you to reflect on your values and take a look at yourself in relation to your expectations. Live your life from the inside-out based on your personal values. Making sure your goals are in alignment with your values is a critical success factor. You must have congruence between your goals and your values if you are going to achieve your goals. Written goals reduce conflict. There is a real security in knowing what you want to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish it.

Written goals help you identify conflicts among various priorities and eliminate damaging frustration.

It allows you to coordinate all of your time, effort, and energy on your goal. Written goals eliminate the possibility of unconsciously altering your goals.

Written goals help you save time.

One of the most powerful things about goal-setting is that you quickly learn to use your time constructively. When you know where you are going and how you plan to get there, you know automatically what to do next, what choices to make, and how to overcome obstacles. You move from clock time to goal time. For every minute you spend in planning and setting goals, you save 4 to 10 times that in execution.

Written goals serve as filters to eliminate extraneous demands bombarding us every day.

Written goals help you to focus and concentrate.

Once you really decide you are going to reach a goal, you can see, hear, and think of more possibilities for reaching it than you ever dreamed existed. Planning helps you visualize your future. Goals establish the direction for your attention and awareness. Focus on what you want and not on what you don’t want.

Written goals help you make good decisions.

It’s easier to decide on a progressive course of action if you have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish. Writing your goals lets you take charge of your life; it encourages you to make important decisions early, take advantage of opportunities, and eliminate weaknesses that get in your way. Goals provide a foundation for decision-making.

High Achievers Take Time to Create Goals and Plans to Achieve Them.

Apr 30, 2019 | Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

A Harvard University study and numerous other studies reveal that, of 100 people who retire at age 65, three are independently wealthy, 10 live comfortably with some excess income, 60 barely get by, and 27 are completely dependent on outside support.

What makes the difference in these groups?

The major difference is that the top three percent had set clearly defined goals and had placed them in writing. And this group accomplished 80 percent more than the rest of the survey. Consider what difference 80 percent more in results could mean for you and your business.

The next 10 percent have goals “in mind” but have no written plans for their accomplishment. The middle 60 percent sometimes wishes for something, but because they have no real meaningful goals, their wishes remain merely dreams. The bottom 27 percent have no goals except to exist. They spend a lifetime depending on outside help.

The conclusion is clear: A lifelong goals program is essential to success.

Study after study, book after book, validates this information. All high achievers take the time to plan and create clearly defined goals and action plans to achieve those goals. Effective planning and goal-setting take you more than halfway to execution and improves your results more than 80 percent.

I ask you: Is it worth it for you to become one of the top three percent of high achievers and dramatically improve your results?

Goal-setting and goal-achievement are about deciding to make a commitment to your own personal and professional success. Make a decision today to take control of your life. The rubber meets the road when you set goals and develop a basis for action.

Don’t wait another minute. You only get one chance at this life. Your life is not a dress rehearsal; it’s the real thing. It’s really about your commitment to your commitment.

Make no mistake about it: A life of meaning and purpose needs goals and specific plans of action to achieve them. Consider them the pulse of your life.

Creating a Crystal-clear Blueprint for Yourself and Your Future.

Apr 23, 2019 | Business Growth, Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to achieve so much more than other people? And do it over and over and over again?

In my work with thousands of entrepreneurs, business owners, and top salespeople over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common: They have taken the time to sit down and create a crystal-clear blueprint for themselves and their future. They took to heart what management guru Peter Drucker said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

The common fabric of all peak performers throughout history is their ability to set and achieve goals. Remember, your past isn’t your future, and you can do whatever you want with your future.

A consistent finding about successful people is that they put a significant amount of effort into planning and setting goals. They know what they want out of life because they are goal-directed.

They are long-term thinkers and take the long view with every endeavor. They are proactive, rather than reactive, and live their lives with positive expectancy. They know where they are going and how they are going to get there. Goal-setting is the most powerful force available for achieving success. In fact, Aristotle said, “The first step to achieving true success is to have a definite, clear, practical ideal – a goal.”

Anybody can set goals – just take out a piece of paper and start writing them down – but goal achievement is an entirely different challenge. The most successful people I work with are serious goal-achievers always creating bigger and bigger futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.

There is certainly no shortage of information on setting and achieving goals, yet so few people actually achieve their goals. Why?

The statistics overwhelmingly support goal-setting as a way to success, yet many people still today resist the process.