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.

Before you do, we need to dissect the question.

We start with what you’ll be doing: What is the product you produce or the service you provide? Why do you want to do it? What makes it enjoyable or productive? Why is your world or the world around you better because of it?

Next is payment. Oh, yeah! Profit is a good thing…bills to pay, wife and kids to feed, stuff to buy. Getting paid when you add value isn’t greed– it allows you to keep working and to keep serving.

The intersection of what you want to do and what someone is willing to pay for is where your passion meets your income. Going off and doing whatever you want is fine (moral, ethical and legal limits apply). The trick is that someone has to be willing to pay for it!

Examine the extremes:

• Do what you love and no one pays you for it = Fun hobby at best
• Hate what you do and make a living (maybe even get wealthy) = J-O-B and a numb soul

Now you can answer the question: What do you want to be paid for?

If you can, congratulations! You’ve uncovered a real mission statement for your work or business.

If you can’t, what are you going to do about it? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Talk with your spouse, parents, a friend or pastor
• Read a good book on significance or purpose (I recommend Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People or Robert McGee’s The Search for Significance to start)
• Engage with a coach (it works or I wouldn’t say it!)
• Join a relevant community like 48Days.net or FreeAgentAcademy.com (they work too!)

Whatever you do, don’t do nothing!

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

Note: Written 6/2/2010…see update 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 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! :)

]]> http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/06/24/challenging-myself-with-a-public-declaration/feed/ 2 http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/06/02/bluf-compass-and-roadmap/ http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/06/02/bluf-compass-and-roadmap/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:06:34 +0000 James Woosley http://www.woosleycoaching.com/?p=732

My friend and fellow Free Agent Academy Professor Justin Lukasavige offered an intriguing post last week that I just can’t get out of my head. Is it more important to have a compass or a map? As the FAA Professor for the Roadmap Group, I just couldn’t resist a hearty response. The comments on Justin’s post have been flying, and here’s my thoughts:

Bottom Line Up Front: You need both!

A compass is great for giving you an orientation to a fixed point. A physical compass always points north, which means you can always chart a course in any direction (east, west, south, etc.). In life and business, to me a compass represents your belief system and the principles you live your life by. My compass tells allows me to look at a situation or opportunity and decide it if fits who I am and who I want to be. It makes the decision to go forward or go back easier.

But a map…I love a good map! Not only can it show you where you’re at, but where you’ve been and where you could be. It shows you what’s over the hill and around the bend. The wisdom of those who’ve been there before drip off the edges of the map. Maps allow you to plot a course to where you want to be…helping you to see the biggest obstacles and sites before you get there.

Even more powerful is when you make your own map (read Seth Godin’s latest book Linchpin if you really want to understand the power in this concept). By plotting your journey–past, present and future–you create what only you can create. It’s personal and it’s experiential. It’s yours, and you own every wrong turn and successful breakthrough.

So if all you have is a compass, pick a direction and go forth! Just be sure to make your roadmap as you go. It makes everything more powerful!

Things have been quiet here on the old blog. Peaceful? Not on the internet! Rather pretty stagnant. There are lots of reasons, but one is above them all.

For about the past month my daughter Anna has been ill. She’s spent about eight nights in the hospital on three different occasions. The doctors have been practicing on her. I guess that’s what they call it when they don’t know what’s wrong and just run test after test. Some have been good and some…well…I’ll just be nice and stop there.

I won’t go into the specifics of her ailments or treatments for her sake. But she’s still sick, and we’re tired of it.

On Friday she had her tonsils out, and now she’s going through Popsicle therapy. We’re hoping and praying that everything is somehow connected to her bad tonsils and this is about to be over. So far, she’s not complained about anything much other than her throat hurting.

So what’s the business or life lesson in all of this? Quite simple: sick kids trump blogging.

Business has continued in the background. I can’t afford to pay the medical bills otherwise. But it’s been tough compartmentalizing between worry and work.

That’s what it takes sometimes to be a good dad. I’m thankful for a good wife and mother who doesn’t have to shift her focus. Anna will be better sooner because of it.

Regular blogs resuming soon…

Legend has it that seven time NASCAR Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt could “see the air” on the racetrack. His incredible skill at knowing how his car would be affected by wind drafts—especially on the restrictor plate tracks at Daytona and Talladega—helped him win 76 races before his unfortunate death in 2001.

Earnhardt’s skill was incredible, but how he exploited it is even more fascinating.

At first, he probably didn’t even recognize his talent. Most drivers and fans saw Earnhardt as supernatural. But to Dale, it was an innate skill…no different than being able to breathe. Yet it was a gift from God (and therefore it really was supernatural!).

Somewhere along the way, he realized that he had something no one else did. That’s an advantage to be exploited, especially in the ultra-competitive world of stock car racing. So he honed his ability and the legend was born.

Individuals and businesses need to explore this concept. What are you doing that makes you successful? Are you overlooking the obvious? Are you ignoring what you do best because you assume that everyone else can do it too?

In Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin, he calls it your superpower. It’s more than mere ability or talent…it’s something special to be perfected into overwhelming excellence.

What’s your superpower and how do you discover it?

1) Observe—When do you find yourself losing track of time or feeling that everything else in the world fades away? Maybe even moments where everything moves in slow motion?
2) Ask—What do your friends, family and colleagues compliment you on? Are they ever in awe of you but you dismiss what you do as “no big deal”?
3) Accept—Study the answers to those questions and themes will emerge. Then accept it and act on it.

You may not be able to leap the RSA Tower in a single bound, but maybe you make the city’s best sweet tea, or have the best customer service, or can sell anything in a down economy because you know how to relate to people.

Tap into your superpower. Once you know what it is, you can develop a strategy to use it for fun and profit (and the good of mankind).

The tights and cape are optional.

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

]]> http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/05/03/god%e2%80%99s-gift-to-you-your-gift-to-the-world/feed/ 2 http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/04/27/on-sickness-and-internet-downtime/ http://www.woosleycoaching.com/2010/04/27/on-sickness-and-internet-downtime/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:51:14 +0000 James Woosley http://www.woosleycoaching.com/?p=712 Nothing in the world is worse than being ill, except when it’s not you but someone you love. Throw in the internet at my home being down and it just about makes having a website meaningless.

I’ll get back to posting again soon, but figured a quick note might keep the heartbeat of the site going.

It was a mixture of nervousness and excitement, anticipation and relief. I had no vision of children, a career or a business at that time. Somehow I was solely focused on one beautiful redheaded 16 year old girl. Nothing else in the world mattered as a 16 year old boy.

That night was awkward. We talked some, but I think we mostly watched TV. A VHS copy of Disney’s A Little Mermaid.

Another redhead seeking her prince.

I can’t remember a lot more about that night. It started when she picked me up in her ~1980 tan/beige Toyota Celica (I didn’t have my license yet). It ended with a ride home. No kiss…it was the first date. She was a good girl, and I was a gentleman.

Somehow I did well enough to warrant another date a week later (and a first kiss), then a trip to the Junior-Senior prom a few weeks later.

Nearly two years passed before I lost her. Nearly four passed before I found her again. That’s another story for another day.

Something started twenty years ago today…my first date.

My first kiss.

My first love.

My first (and only) wife.

Two wonderful children, countless pets and almost 14 years of marriage.

It all can trace back to an April night 20 years ago. I wish I could remember it better. But it doesn’t matter. I have the last 20 years worth of memories to know that something special happened that night.

And I’ve never worried about a broken mirror, walking under a ladder or a Friday the 13th since.

It’s not enough to have a good idea. You must be able to implement your idea to make it real. You must take action or it will die from starvation and lack of attention.

Planning and strategy can seem daunting, but plans don’t have to be complicated to be effective. In fact, simple plans are often more powerful because they are more tangible.

What’s ONE thing you can do today to move your business forward? To help you achieve a big goal? To make your dreams a reality?

Define the ONE thing…and then do it.

Do ONE thing each day…and after a year you’ve done 365 things.

I guarantee you’ll see progress looking back a year. And probably every day as well.

Confession time.

In February I didn’t declare millions of dollars I gained upon returning from Dan Miller’s No More Mondays Cruise. Lock me up and throw away the key…

Actually, the title is true, but it wasn’t illegal. When we returned to the Port of Miami, I had to fill out a customs declaration form based on the value of the items I was bringing back into the US. I put about $180 down to cover the gifts I purchased in Jamaica and aboard the ship.

But I didn’t, I couldn’t and I wouldn’t declare what I really had of value. It was hidden out of site…in my cranial cavity!

The past year has been a period of personal growth and discovery. Instead of staying where I was (stuck), I bit the bullet and started spending money to achieve my dreams of self-employment. It began with a visit to Dan Miller’s (of 48Days.com) Sanctuary in Franklin, TN (sounds cult-ish when I put it that way…it’s not, but never mind) for 48 Days Certification training. Just spending time with Dan, his family and the others in attendance convinced me to do more.

So I joined what is now known as the Free Agent Academy. FAA is run by Dan’s son Kevin Miller and uber coach Chuck Bowen. FAA is all about helping entrepreneurs/solopreneurs and wannabe’s grow their businesses in order to live life and work on their own terms. It is the single best self-employment resource on the planet (I’m biased…more on that at the end).

That led to attending FAA events in June and September, and again in January of this year. Each time I made new friends and further refined my business ideas. But I left the January event empty. Something wasn’t right and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Attendees - No More Mondays Cruise 2010

It was during a presentation by Chuck that I had an epiphany. In an instant, I was able to connect all that I had been learning over the last year, and actually the entirety of my life. In one moment, everything was crystal clear. I am a strategist, gifted by God, and my purpose is to help others achieve their goals and dreams by making their paths clear and productive. A late night discussion with Chuck on the last night of the cruise nailed it down.

I didn’t get a single million dollar idea on the No More Mondays Cruise. I got a bunch of them. I just didn’t tell customs!

My head was spinning during the 12 hour drive home from Miami the next day. Since then, I’ve continued to refine my business approach and started getting new clients and leads. I’ve even become a part of the leadership team at Free Agent Academy as the new Professor for Strategy and Planning (our Roadmap group).

So if I disappear in the weeks following this post, you’ll know the men in black came and deleted me (and this post probably…you better print it for evidence!).

If I don’t disappear, you’ll probably find me on the next No More Mondays Cruise in February 2011. Perhaps I’ll even be invited to present…

Dan? ;-)

Can’t wait for next February to advance on your business?

Join me in Colorado for the next Free Agent Academy event!

May 21-23, 2010 -- Hosted by Kevin Miller & Chuck Bowen

Watch the preview from Kevin:

Click Here for Details & Registration Info