Dan Miller on His Tractor

We were talking about Dan’s plans for next year and the goals he had set for this year. He told me that he’d had a goal to create 12 new products in 2011, a product each month.

Sadly, he failed to meet his goal and only produced 10 new products. He is a miserable failure, right?

Well, how many products did you create this year?

Dan went on to relate that he’s disappointed in himself if he doesn’t fail to meet his annual goals because it means he was thinking too small.

Are you ready to create some goals to fail at for next year, and end up succeeding because of it? Any you’d like to share with me?

Zeno of Elea (great name!) was a Greek philosopher from the 5th century BC. He is famous for creating philosophical paradoxes documented by Aristotle. I first heard one of them in an algebra class in high school, and it’s stuck with me ever since. It basically goes like this:

Suppose I wish to shoot an arrow at a target ten feet away. In order for the arrow to hit the target, it must first travel half way, or five feet. But in order to travel the five feet to halfway, it must travel half of that distance, or two and a half feet. It must always travel half of the distance first, dividing in half to infinity. Therefore, the arrow can never reach the destination, and is in fact, motionless.

Of course, we all know that an arrow can travel the ten feet and hit the target. That’s what makes it a paradox. It can both hit and not hit the target based on logic and observation.

The answer lies in Calculus, a subject I never mastered. Basically it has to do with dividing an infinite distance with an infinite time to get a finite result or something. Try Google if you want a better explanation!

What I love about this paradox is not the paradox itself, but the concept of breaking any task into smaller tasks. If I have a major goal, I can move myself halfway to that goal. And before I can get halfway to that point, I can go halfway still. Eventually I get down not to infinitesimally small steps, but realistic and doable steps.

The division of the steps may be different to different people, depending on our skills, talents and abilities. But at some point, we look and say that the first step of our journey, not matter how small, is doable! And therefore, the big goal, no matter how big, is therefore also doable if we will only take each step on the path to achieving it.

UPDATE: The event has passed but the replay is available below…be sure to sign up for the newsletter to receive notifications of future seminars and events!

What is it going to take to make 2011 a stellar year for you? Surely you have dreams and goals for the coming year…but do you have a plan?

I want to help you “Build a Better Plan for 2011″.

Join me for a FREE tele-seminar designed to help you get a great kickstart to 2011! This is going to be 30-40 minutes of solid information you can use to make a workable plan for the coming year.

I’ll be covering:

• The Importance of Knowing What You Want
• Goals, and a Project-based Approach to Accomplishing Them
• Breakdown to Breakthrough!
• Why and How the Tenants of Journalism Apply to Your Projects
• The Key to Success

I’ll also speak for a few minutes at the end about my Man vs. Plan Coaching Mastermind Program (it’s a free seminar so there’s a brief commercial at the end…no pressure, just some info).

• When: Wednesday, December 15th at 7 pm Central
• Dial-in Number: 1-712-432-3100
• Access Code: 563498
• Presentation Slides: Click Here to Download
• Replay Info: Click Here to Listen or Download

BONUS: Sign up for my free newsletter and the details for the live event and replay will be sent directly to your inbox, along with a special bonus! You can unsubscribe at anytime.

What you do is important. Why you do it may be more important.

If you’re outlining a goal or making a plan, your motivation is of supreme importance. It will motivate you and sustain you if it’s right.

If it’s not, why bother? While you may press on to the end just to finish what you started, the achievement will be empty. Don’t prostitute your efforts.

Dig deep. Your motivation may not be easy to see before you make your plans or set your goals. But don’t start if you don’t know.

So what’s your goal? What’s your plan? What’s your motivation?

Answer those three questions and you’re a step ahead of your ambitious but empty hearted competition.

Need a kickstart for 2011? Check out Man vs. Plan!

One of the things I enjoy most about teaching and coaching is helping create something tangible out of the intangible! Knowledge is great and teaching lets me see those “light bulb” moments of understanding. And as a coach, I get to help my clients take an idea or a goal, turn it into an actionable plan and then get real results.

I enjoy doing one-on-one coaching with my clients, but unless the situation calls for it or the personality fit is just right I prefer groups. Why? Because I feed off of the energy of the group and believe the group interaction brings a deeper, richer experience.

As the Professor of the Roadmap Group in Free Agent Academy, I lead classes and offer advice about planning and execution to our members seeking self-employed success.

And while FAA and the Roadmap group are helping people become the solopreneurs and business owners they dream of becoming, there’s a need for a deeper, more personal, hands-on approach. And with more than 130 group members and growing fast, I just can’t serve them all with that level of attention.

I want to do more for those who are serious about advancing forward and realizing their dreams, goals and ideas. I believe I can do that best in a small group setting where I can really take the time to make a profound investment.

So, are you serious about realizing your dreams, goals and ideas? If you want this sort of coaching, support, and accountability, then I want to help make this happen for you.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

This month I’ve decided to say thanks to the people who have fed my hunger for knowledge and personal development this year. The order will be random…and likely incomplete!

It’s hard to say anything new about Zig Ziglar. He’s simply one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and will continue to be in the 21st.

I grew up knowing the name. Zig Ziglar. It’s a great name! Makes me want to go by Wooz Woosley or something.

But even though I knew the name, I didn’t know his message. I hadn’t read his books or heard his talks. He was just this really smart motivational guy. Yet he is so much more.

A few years ago I started hearing more and more about Zig. Probably from listening to Dave Ramsey’s radio show. I started getting the Ziglar podcast, then went to Ziglar.com and checked out the resources there. I signed up a s a member of the Ziglar Vault (now Success 2.0) and enjoyed the online lessons and downloads. Dave Ramsey even sent me a DVD of Zig’s goal setting program for being an FPU coordinator. And two years ago I skipped work to attend a Get Motivated seminar in Mobile, AL where Zig spoke with his daughter Julie.

But this year, though I had heard it before, I listened to Zig’s How to Stay Motivated series again. I always learn something new when I listen to it, and it makes me a better person every time!

Zig may be older and slower now, but his message of success through serving others resonates just as strong as ever. Maybe even more so.

Some of my friends from Free Agent Academy recently visited the Dallas area and spent some time with Zig and his son, Tom. They said that Zig repeats himself a lot, and that no matter what you ask him he brings it back to one of just a few key points (including faith, service and marriage). At first they had some sympathy for him. Then they realized that the more he repeated himself, the more the message started to penetrate their hearts.

If you know Zig, you know what I’ve written here is true. If you don’t, I hope you’ll take this as an invitation to introduce yourself to him. Go to Ziglar.com and explore, and be sure to sign up for the Ziglar Podcast. You won’t regret it!

Zig Ziglar is a national treasure and will be one of the first people I put on my Wall of Gratitude. And while I may never have the opportunity to meet him in person, I will always treasure the gifts he has shared with us. His words will positively impact generations to come. That is a worthy legacy for any man, especially one born in lower Alabama and raised in Yazoo City, Mississippi!

I love October. The heat and humidity of summer ends and the holiday season begins. Sadly, it’s also the time when people stop working and push everything important until “after the holidays”.

Last time I did the math, as of October 1st a full 25% of the year is remaining. What can you accomplish between now and when the ball drops in Times Square (or the Moon Pie drops in Mobile)?

You need a plan or you’ll be looking back regretting three months wasted.

But planning doesn’t need to be hard to be effective. Here are a few tips for developing a simple plan for the rest of the year:

1) Brainstorm
Write down everything you feel you need to do, but focus on a major project for personal or business development. Write everything down and don’t hold back. Crazy ideas may be the best!

2) Categorize and Prioritize
Analyze your thoughts and put them into buckets. Some are definitely more important than others. Keep the best, throw out the junk and put some on hold for the future.

3) Pick Five
Select five key objectives to accomplish by the end of the year. Pick the most impactful or profitable that can be done with effort (remember, no effort = no impact).

4) Breakdown
Break the five objectives into step by step actions and establish firm deadlines for each. Keep them specific and actionable.

5) Get to Work!
Do at least one thing every day to move yourself forward. Even on a bad day, taking one small step forward puts you closer to your goals. And on good days, knock out a few!

6) One Last Thing
Get an accountability partner or group. You’re going to need some people on your team…or at least a few cheerleaders! They must love/respect you enough to want to see you succeed, and to get in your face when you want to give up.

Now go out there and make something happen. Finish 2010 strong and repeat often for a successful new year!

Note: This article originally appeared in October 2010 issue of the Tri-City Review.

A few weeks ago she conducted a series of focus groups in an effort to get solid feedback from her target market. She knew she needed to do it, but she wanted to do it right and that required a lot of preparation. That led to procrastination, and procrastination will kill your progress.

The key to her success in the focus groups lies in having a great product and a firm deadline. The product was a result of years of work. The deadline was simply a forcing function to move her one step closer to launching.

A deadline forces execution. Planning is worthless if you never execute.

With the dates marked on the calendar, she was able to focus on specific actions. She had invitations to send and a presentation to prepare. She had to practice and promote. There were a million little things to be completed.

She had everything inside her to be successful. But it was one little thing that pushed her to completion: a deadline.

A good deadline will challenge you to perform. It should be aggressive enough that you can’t procrastinate, but realistic enough to not overwhelm. It will hold you accountable, and that accountability will be greater if you make it public.

What do you want to accomplish? Could the key to your success be as simple as a deadline?

Note: This article originally appeared in Aug 2010 issue of the Tri-City Review.

Note: Written 6/2/2010…see updates below.

Have you ever wanted to write a book? That’s one of the most cited dreams people have. Sadly, too few follow through and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). The dream becomes a lifelong regret after decades of neglect.

I have about 20 book ideas. None have gotten past a few pages, and most are simply interesting concepts, great titles or rough outlines.

My desire to write a book goes back at least as far as the second or third grade. I remember doing a “book” project, writing a cookie-cutter story about snakes having tails or something. It’s probably sitting in a box of old papers somewhere in my attic.

Writing always appealed to me, and I ended up as the editor of my high school newspaper. Wrote a lot of articles, won some awards…but never got the book thing going.

Now it’s almost twenty years since I graduated and still no book sits on my shelf with my name emblazoned on the spine. That’s about to end.

No, I’m not making an announcement about my recently completed book. I’m announcing a challenge to myself, in public, that my book will be written and published by November 1st, 2010. As I write this it’s nearly midnight on June 2nd, 2010. I’ve got 152 days to write it and print it.

I have no illusions of it being a best-seller. It’ll be self-published (easy to do these days). Maybe my mom will buy a copy (she’ll get the family discount).

There’s no title. There’s no topic. There’s nothing but a dream and a public declaration.
Why do this? It’s simple. Everyone who reads this and knows me will be asking me how the book project is going. I’ll have a support system and a lot of people I don’t want to disappoint.

Your dream doesn’t need to be a book. It can be anything. But if it stays in your head or your heart, you’re betting against yourself. Put it out there. Promise someone it’ll be done by a certain date. That’s the best way to take a first step and have momentum into every step ahead.

What are you willing to do to realize a neglected dream?

Note: This article originally appeared in the June 2010 issue of the Tri-City Review.

Update: 22 days later I have a working title, an 18 chapter outline and a lot of help from Dan Miller’s Write to the Bank seminar…more on that later! Progress is good! :)

Update 2: Failure! (or is it?)

]]> http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/06/24/challenging-myself-with-a-public-declaration/feed/ 3 http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/01/04/the-laws-of-sucessful-goals/ http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/01/04/the-laws-of-sucessful-goals/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:12:50 +0000 James Woosley http://www.woosleycoaching.com/?p=501 Continue reading →]]> My friend Victor Encinas outlined the 8 Laws of Successful Goal Setting as we were working on our Goal Victory Seminar. Here’s my take on it as a companion to my post yesterday about goal failure.

Knowing the things that will derail your goal success rate are important. Defeating those things will only get you to zero though. To win and be truly successful in your goals, you have to follow these laws:

1) Put Goals in Writing
A written goal is tangible and real. Think Pinocchio after he became a real boy. We can lie to ourselves about losing weight or getting a new job or getting out of debt, but if we don’t write it down, we haven’t taken a single step in making it real. Written goals can be accomplished. Unwritten goals…aren’t really goals at all. You could call them dreams or wishes I guess, but that’s probably granting them more reality than what they are.

2) Be Realistic
A good goal is realistic. It can be achieved within the parameters in which this world exists. I cannot realistically set a goal to gain Jedi-like mind powers in order to win the lottery. Not going to happen. But I can have a goal to double my income in the next five years. Daunting goals are fun and challenging. Have some smaller ones to keep you motivated, but the BHAG‘s will inspire you.

3) Clarify Motivations
Why is this your goal? Your life has a purpose. Your goals should align with that purpose. Dream a big dream. Have an amazing vision. Just keep it lined up with your overall purpose. Otherwise, you may achieve your goals but miss the point altogether.

4) Have a Plan
Jesus told a story about a man who began to build a tower and became a laughing stock in town because he couldn’t finish it. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t have the money or the bricks or the mortar or the tools. He didn’t just get sick and fail to finish; people wouldn’t mock him for that. He’d have had everything he needed if he had only had a plan. Hmmm, wouldn’t a plan ensure the first three laws were met before starting? There’s a reason architects use blueprints.

5) You Must Take Action
Let’s just say you’ve done well so far. You’ve written down your goals and they are realistic. You know your purpose and have the perfect, fool-proof plan. Except that if you fail to act, you fail. Period. Done. Game over. The fool failed to execute and the fool-proof plan was worthless.

6) Stay Focused
Remember that whole vision and purpose thing? Take your eyes off of that and it’ll ruin you. The thing about plans is that there really are no perfect plans. There are an infinite number of variables that have to be adjusted for, and any one of them can take you out of the game. But most can be overcome if you stay focused and remain true to your vision. Remember that ordinary light can be focused into a laser beam (or at least concentrated enough to burn ants). Focus will help you with #8.

7) Become Accountable
When you invite another human being into your goals, you’re valuing them and letting them value you. A true accountability partner will not only challenge you, they’ll help you. Remember, they’re investing a part of their life in you…and they want you to succeed! Don’t go it alone.

8) Must Follow Through
The sports analogies here are plentiful…but they’re right! A batter and a golfer have to finish their swings. A quarterback must finish their throw. A, uh…karate guy (?) has to see through the board in order to break it. Fight through the obstacles. If you get knocked down, get back up. (There’s a time and a place for quitting, but it’s not normally at the first sign of opposition.) If it’s a good and worthy goal that’s aligned with your purpose, you’ll have the energy to see it through.

Need some help discovering, documenting or achieving your goals? Join Victor Encinas and myself for our goals seminar starting January 13th. Just go to http://www.GoalVictory.com for details and to register. (BTW, the 10% discount has been extended through Jan 10th!)

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