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Take your Resolutions from Goal to Reality

Nov 14, 2022 | Goal Setting, Motivation, Strategic Planning, Success

Three Game Changing Words to take Resolutions from Goals to Reality

 

It is time for New Year Goal Setting and people are taking their resolutions much more seriously than in years past. This is no surprise for leaders in the field of business strategy, productivity, and leadership because we know the critical importance and power of goal setting. 

 

There is a lot of optimism that this coming year will be better.  You will see realization of your hopes and dreams with a rigorous planning process to kick off the new year.  There is no doubt that life and business will continue to change because change is the only constant. Management guru Peter Drucker wisely said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 

  

Setting goals or resolutions is not enough.  Studies continue to show that less than 10% of people who make resolutions succeed. How can you beat the odds?  These three areas are key to success in every endeavor: Clarity, Focus, and System.

 

Clarity.  Far too many people have clarity around what they don’t want rather than what they truly want their future to be. Hazy goals produce hazy results, but SMART goals get you to the finish line. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Tangible goals.  Paul J. Meyer, founder of Success Motivation Institute, said, “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.” A crystal-clear strategy and a daily routine of habits will drive you toward your goals.  Your goals must be in alignment with your core values; people never make difficult changes for goals that don’t support their most important values

   

Focus. Goals provide focus and direction.  You should only have a few significant goals at a time. The more goals you have, the less resources you can commit to them.  “If you aren’t making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals aren’t clearly defined,” explains Paul J Meyer. Focus is so important because you will only achieve goals you are fully committed to.

 

System. To achieve an important goal, it is critical to have a system. John Dryden said, “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”  Your daily routine, daily huddles and focus on high payoff activities are the backbone of your personal and professional life.  You will never achieve your goals until you change your daily habits and routines.   

 

At Achievement Unlimited, we have the tools, systems, and software to make your New Year goals a reality.  

 

10 Secrets to Creating Your Best Year Yet

Nov 4, 2022 | Goal Setting, Motivation, Strategic Planning

10 Secrets to Creating Your Best Year Yet 

 

Step 1.  Get clarity about what your best year would look like.

Know what outcomes you want and what you don’t want. Start with “what matters most” so that you can say yes to that and no to everything else. We will always have more goals, wants, and desires than time to reach them. The key to success is making choices about which goals to commit to – and then making a 100% commitment to those. Get the pen to the paper before January and start mapping out your future.   

 

Step 2.  Goal setting is essential for success and achievement.   

Goal setting is the bridge between where you are now and where you want to go. Nothing will improve performance and success more than a clearly written goal, a plan to get there, and a deadline. Goal setting forces you to focus on what is most important. 

 

Step 3. Review & execute. After you identify your goals, schedule a weekly appointment with yourself to check in on progress.  Focus on what matters most by setting up ironclad boundaries so you are not interrupted by the tyranny of the urgent.

 

Step 4. Review your successes and failures. Build on your successes and learn from your failures. “What Worked, What Didn’t, What’s Next?” The key is to evaluate often- objectively- and then move on. Looking at what happened with a healthy degree of detachment allows us to make better decisions.

 

Step 5. Focus on the present. Remember, input equals output so be sure you’re putting plenty of good stuff in. Life is lived out one moment at a time; it is critical to develop the habit of living in the present moment with an upward view of your bigger future.  

 

Step 6. Stop living out of your inbox. Plan to work on your highest payoff activities and cut or delegate your low payoff activities. Start to live your life by design and not by default and see how your motivation grows. 

 

Step 7.  Invest in yourself. What do you want to learn, do, or become? Be specific and put these activities on your calendar to make sure they happen. Start to journal.  Ask yourself daily: “What went well today? Why?” and “What did not go well today? What did you learn?”  Journal about how you can change your actions to do better the next time.

 

Step 8. Create a Mastermind Group. Establish a personal board of directors, people whose wisdom, knowledge, and character you respect, to encourage you. Enlist the help of an experienced mentor and/or coach to help you identify where you can improve, refine your process, and focus for success. They should hold you accountable, keeping you on track and moving forward. 

 

Step 9. Take ownership of your attitude. You choose to have a positive or negative attitude about life. Develop an attitude of gratitude.

 

Step 10. Create a morning routine. The first hour of the day should be a power hour for you to center yourself before rushing into the day.

 

Goal setting is ongoing experience. Each daily goal should serve to help you realize your corresponding monthly goals. I challenge you to pause and consider how today’s goals will help you realize your life’s legacy and overall purpose. 

 

We can help you to get started creating your goals, find your stumbling blocks, and set up an accountability plan to keep you working on your plan all the way to success.

5 Ways to Eliminate Time Wasting

May 28, 2020 | Business Owners, CEOs, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning

5 Ways to Eliminate Time Wasting           

How often do we excuse unaccomplished goals with the statement “I don’t have time?” I believe that we all have the time to achieve everything we want in life and business if we focus more on what really matters most – high payoff activities. You want to spend time doing the right thing in the right way at the right time and for the right reasons. As business leaders some high payoff activities include personal development, building a high performing leadership team, providing strategic direction, goal setting and planning with your team, tracking results, and managing capital. The reality is that we get so caught up in daily operations and navigating through crises that we put off these high payoff activities for when we have time – and the time never comes.

You can apply the S.E.D.O test to all organizational tasks, activities and processes and refocus your attention on the high payoff activities. S.E.D.O. stands for Simplify – Eliminate – Delegate – Outsource. And 5th test, Automate, has been recently added to remind us that technology can help us handle repetitive tasks without wasting our time and energy.

Simplify  – What task, activity, or process can be simplified, streamlined, consolidated or rearranged?

Eliminate – What task, activity, or process that no longer has value to the organization can be eliminated?

Delegate – What task can be delegated to other team members?

Outsource – What task, process, or project are you currently doing that is not part of the core of your business? How can you outsource it?

Automate- Create systems and processes to handle repetitive tasks.

When you spend your time on high payoff activities, you will be more productive. You will have more energy. Your people will be more engaged, and you will increase your opportunities to achieve your overall vision and mission with less stress. Not only will you have time to do what you want in life and in business but you will be happier too!

Click here to download the S.E.D.O tool for free.

 

 

Adversity is Transformational

Apr 21, 2020 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Leadership Development, Motivation, Success

The old saying, “This will either make you or break you” carries a lot of truth. Every contact we have with adversity gives us the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge a great character. It is our choice to accept the challenge and proceed forward or succumb to the pressure and surrender to defeat.

It is in moments of adversity that we see what people are truly made of. Adversity brings out our internal resources. The Roman poet Horace said “Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.” When everything is going well, we coast. There is little stress, and we are operating on autopilot.

But when adversity comes, we begin to draw upon every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity, then, keeps us sharp and strong. Body builders work their external muscles to build them up. Leaders must do the same thing with their internal muscles.

Adversity strengthens character How will courage, discipline and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested?

If we look at adversity as an opportunity for growth, we will come out the other side better than when we started. We can use our influence, as leaders and coaches, to hep others improve themselves as well.

Take some time to reflect on these things: What part of your character is being tested and built up? What resources have you employed during this time that you have not used before? What can you learn from these interesting times about yourself and others?

Remember, Setbacks are setups for future success and breakdowns are setups for future breakthroughs.

If you haven’t had the chance to read Dan Sullivan’s “The Scary Times Success Manual” yet, here it is again: Click here (https://achievable.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Scary-Times-Success-Manual-Dan-Sullivan-The-Strategic-Coach.pdf) to download.

What Power Do Business Leaders Have Now?

Mar 25, 2020 | Business Owners, CEOs, Ethical Leadership, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation

The level of uncertainty in business and in life is rising in America and around the world, or is it? Did we ever really have certainty about the future? We made plans and we made contingency plans but many of us never planned for this. How can we continue to achieve our goals in business and in life? How do we begin to overcome the challenges we are facing and how do we help our employees do the same?

One quote from Napoleon Hill describes a positive perspective in answering some of these questions, Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. Some sources quote Hill replacing “benefit” with “opportunity”. What can we learn from every obstacle we are facing and are we going to allow this adversity to improve our strengths or limit us? What good can we find in this? What opportunities are being placed before us today?

You might be feeling powerless over your circumstances, but you have power over your attitude and your actions. These will determine your success or failure – that is one thing that is certain.

Attitude is the lense through which we choose to see the world. We can choose to feel overwhelmed and then become defeated or we can choose to adapt our strategy to the current environment. We can be stagnant or creative. We can stand stunned like a deer in headlights or move forward. What do you choose?

Check out our blog next week as we continue discussing positive leadership attitudes and how we can find value in adversity.

 

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…………..