Archive for December, 2007

As 2007 draws to a close I wanted to share with you some ideas for the coming year. This is always a good time to reflect on the past and look forward to tomorrow.

For me 2007 was a watershed year. It was a time of preparation for the future along with a time of learning and testing. This was also the busiest year that I had in some time. My regular job would regularly run 60-70 hours per week over the past few months which causes all sorts of things to get out of whack.

I’ve learned…

How valuable time is and how easy it is to squander it away.

How stress can effect so many things in our lives.

Just because something is urgent doesn’t mean it is important.

This year has also had its exciting moments, with a trip with my wife to Alaska and seeing the amazing glaciers and wonderful small towns. Some other highlights were spending time with my daughter and her husband in Seattle, taking our annual trip to the wine country of Santa Barbara, and listening to some amazing audio books.

One of the greatest things I’ve learned this year is the importance of doing things that you are passionate about. A few weeks ago I published a 20 question Top-5 goal list. After spending about a half hour going through it and looking at my results I found that the answers really surprised me.

Almost all the answers relate to communicating and relating with other people. Learning new things, teaching others, and creating new products and services. I took an online test earlier this year from the Gallup Organization which revealed my top five strengths. They are…

1. Ideation
2. Positivity
3. Futuristic
4. Learner
5. Individualization

These strengths need to be a part of what I do for a living. Currently I have a regular job that is almost 180 degrees out from this. So I’ve put together a list of goals that will help me move in that direction.

One of the best things I’ve found to move forward with a goal is to find someone who has done what you are attempting before and has been successful at it. A mentor if you will.

Three amazing people come to mind that have done just that. I want to learn from…

Brian Gardner: The creator of the amazing Revolution Wordpress Theme, began 2007 without a domain name, had never touched a piece of WordPress code, and knew nothing about blog design. As of this writing he is going to quit his day job and go full time into his own web design business. His story is very inspiring.

Yaro Starak: I have learned an amazing amount of things from Yaro. His blog optimization site, Entrepreneurs Journey, has helped thousands of people create better blogs. He is one of the most open bloggers about his life and his business. The story of his year end wrap-up for 2007 is sure to inspire you.

Rosa Say: Rosa has been an inspiration and a friend since my first week of blogging. She has be a coach and mentor to me and many popular bloggers over the past few years. She brings a positive motivational message to all that visit her blog and she has created a great collaboration of bloggers at Joyful, Jubilant Learning. Read about the amazing things this group has in store for 2008.

All three of these people have inspired me to do what is really important in 2008. To put aside things that are mediocre and follow a new path.

Fellow readers, thank you all for your feedback and inspiration this year. You have made writing this blog a real enjoyable activity. I look forward to some great things in the coming year.

Why not take a minute today and reflect on your past year. Click on some of the links above and be inspired. If you haven’t taken the Gallup Strengths Test, Pick up the book today and take it online. For added inspiration, take a half hour and explore some lifetime goals.

Then put it all together and set a course for 2008. Happy Trails!

With the New Year approaching it’s time to review our goals for the coming year. It’s a great time to look into the future and go over our one, three, and five year plans. There is nothing better than to plan out a course of action… a roadmap if you will… of the roads and paths we will take to get there.

For myself I have been developing some printed documents that help me visualize where I am going. I am setting one up for each of my major goals. They list the goal in bold type and then the steps it will take to get there. Since they are organized by goal all the steps to accomplish them are easy to see and in one place.

The problem is, I like to keep my goals where I can see and review them during the day.

I have tried leaving them on my desk, posting them on my computer, and even framing them on my wall, but nothing seems to work better than a plain old…. Notebook.

This simple binder gives me easy access anytime I want it, yet allows me to store them away for a tidy work area. I have setup dividers for the different length goals so they are easily accessible for reference.

A cool trick that I have found is to use a business card page to keep some of my Goal Setting and Motivator cards in for quick access.

I like to keep a plastic business card holder on my desk to put my goals or daily motivator cards where I can see them at all times. The business card page gives me a place to store and access these cards that I put in the holder.

This notebook works great along with a Daily Planning Sheet. It’s easy to reference action steps from the goal documents and copy them onto my daily planner.

Over the next few weeks we’ll look at strategies for putting together a Goal based notebook. For a quick start you can download our Goal Setting Toolkit and Motivator cards. Modify the cards for your needs and print them out on Avery Business Card Stock.

In your notebook include a plastic Business Card Page. Store your numerous cards for quick reference. If you use a larger notebook you can setup a section to store your Daily Planning Sheets before and after you use them along with a section for your Lifetime Goals Questionnaire.

To keep up to date with our upcoming goal setting tools and notebook, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and sign up for our Success-Connect Newsletter.

Have a Successful New Year!

The year 2007 is coming to a close and I would like to share with you my annual list of the top five bloggers who have impacted my life this year. 2007 seemed to be the year of the blog, with many great new blogs popping up in March and April.

I think that the blogging tools finally matured enough this year that you didn’t need to be a web guru (or know one) to create a powerful blog presence. With the addition of Widgets to Wordpress, and a proliferation of wider blog templates, the average blog grew from 800 pixels wide to over a 1000. This made for a much more compelling experience as the number of new interactive elements increased.

Someone who took full advantage of the new technology with a complete blog redesign as well as a whole new blogging genre is our top award winner this year. Congratulations to…

1. Brian Clark of Copyblogger

Brian is an amazing guy. He has taken the science of copywriting and applied it to blogging. His traffic truly soared this year with his subscriber base now over 28,000 people. He also teamed up with Blogger Tony Clark of Success From The Nest and created TeachingSells, an online learning site for creating Interactive Learning web experiences.

What I personally like about Copyblogger is the friendly atmosphere and the great tips. Brian speaks to you like a friend and offers some incredible insight from his many years in the print publishing copywriting business.

Some of his top posts include…

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write?

Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques

Be sure to sign up as a subscriber. I’m sure he would like to hit 30,000 subscribers in 2008.

2. Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog

Liz is a repeat winner this year. She teamed up with master relationship blogger, Phil Gerbyshak and other popular bloggers from around the Chicago area and put together SOBCON 2007. This was one of the best blogging meet-ups of the year with attendees from all over the world.

If you blog, Liz is one person you want to meet. She is one of the most helpful people on the net and she will make you right at home on her Tuesday night interactive comment sessions.

Be sure to get on her subscriber/e-mail list and she’ll notify you each week of the upcoming topic. It’s not uncommon for her to have over 300 comments on her blog in one night.

3. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits

In an amazing rise to prominence this year, Leo has taken the personal development community by storm. His blog grew from a few hundred subscribers in February 2007 to over 26,000 as of this writing. This is an amazing feat and his blog currently ranks almost as high as Personal development guru Steve Pavlina on the Alexa charts.

What makes Leo different, is that he is an achiever (ran a marathon, quit smoking, got organized) yet he writes like a coach and good friend. Leo is a regular guy, a father of 6 kids, and he works as a freelance writer. He writes about his successes and his failures which makes his writing come to life.

He just changed over to a new and wider blog template and has organized his content by subject in his interactive footer. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with this amazing writer!

4. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs Journey

Like winner Brian Clark above, Yaro has been busy this year creating an interactive online learning community. His Blog Mastermind program really took off this year with hundreds of people signing up for the inaugural launch. Yaro is a true rarity in the blog optimization business as he speaks from a true insiders perspective to the outside world.

Yaro has personally helped me in many different ways from blog optimization tips to search engine strategies. He also added video previews and interactive learning clips to help all blogger’s improve their sites.

He is currently working on a new blog template and has a current post to help you improve your blogs visibility so that your readers will stay longer. Be sure to sign up for his helpful newsletter.

5. Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Workweek

As a follow up to his insightful book, The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss always has unbelieveable things on his blog. At 30 years old, this world traveling entrepreneur has amassed quite a portfolio of accomplishments.

They Include….

1. First American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango
2. National Chinese kickboxing champion
3. MTV breakdancer in Taiwan
4. Hurling competitor in Ireland
5. Actor on hit TV series in mainland China and Hong Kong

What I like about Tim’s blog is that he gives detailed instructions how he managed these incredible feats of human accomplishment. He includes pictures, timelines, and step by step guidance for anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps.

If you want to escape from the 9 to 5, travel the world, and experience amazing things, this is the blog for you. Be sure to subscribe to his blog so you’ll be onboard for his next amazing adventure.

***************

There are so many other incredible blogs it would be hard to list them. Want to learn something new in 2007? Be sure to check out Joyful, Jubilant Learning, Genuine Curiosity, and Managing with Aloha, for some of the best educational sites on the net.

This has been a great year for blogging. Hundreds of unique new blogs came on the scene in 2007. Here at Success Begins Today, we have a lot of new things in store for 2008 including some exciting new productivity tools. Be sure to subscribe to our feed and sign up for our newsletter so you’ll be among the first to download them.

Thank you to all of you who visited here in 2007. Have a great New Year!

When I was growing up as a kid, Christmas was a special time. The magic of the day started months before the actual date. The thoughts of colorful presents under the tree would start appearing in my mind in early October.

It wasn’t to hard to imagine a new bike, the latest toy, or something advertised on TV having a significant presence under that Christmas tree. But there was something different about our holiday celebrations that my sister and I had that no other kid in the neighborhood would experience on that magical day.

We had a Dad that made Christmas an exciting event and we were center stage. On Christmas night, we would have to go to bed early… and then the magic began. My Dad would wrap our packages in plain brown wrapping paper. The kind used by businesses in their shipping departments.

Once the packages were wrapped he would take chalk and markers and draw wonderful pictures on the brown canvases. He sometimes would caricature my sister and I, other times it would be Santa and his elves. Our names would be prominently displayed in colorful chalk calligraphy.

What joy it was to poke our heads around the door on Christmas morning and see the personalized gifts. He would also create gifts for our Mom, and the whole room was lit up with unique magic of a master artist.

I don’t remember much of what was in those packages so many years ago, but I do remember the packaging and the love our dad expressed to each one of us. Christmas was truly a special day.

Later in the day Dad would usually make a long distance phone call to his sisters in Ohio. Even though that call would cost a fortune, it was important for him to have us kids say Hi to our relatives many states away.

Dad passed away a couple of years ago and Christmas is not quite the same. His humor and creative sense of joy are now in Heaven for all the inhabitants to enjoy. We all miss you Dad!

Maybe this Christmas it might be time to start a new tradition. To personalize a gift, to call a far distant relative, or to thank a parent or family member for the magic they bring to your life. Simple and personal, make this a special day to remember.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

John Richardson

P.S. This post was inspired by a moving Christmas story by Liz Strauss over at Successful-blog. Thanks for the inspiration Liz!

The new year is almost upon us. It’s time to think about goals and where you want to go in the new year. Why not decide now to do something new and different. Something that will push you. Something you can do remarkably well.

Take it to new heights.

Be the best you can be.

Stand out from the crowd.

Build from your strengths.

Here is a simple plan to get started.

1. Find Out What Your Strengths Are

Give yourself a present this holiday season. For under $20 you can quickly find a direction for your life. Order the book Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. Take the online strengths test included in the book. Print out your strengths assessment.

2. Create a Strengths Action List

In your printed strengths assessment will be a list of your top five strengths. Take a look in the book under each strength for Ideas for Action. Download and print our Action Statement Creator for MS Word and write down one or two action ideas in each strength box. (We have included a sample document that is filled in with five random strengths for use as an example)

3. Create an Action Statement

In the center of the Action Statement Creator is a box to create your action statement. Look for keywords in the action ideas under each strength. List your keywords under each strength in the box provided. Combine the keyword ideas and create a concise action statement

4. Print Out Your Action Statement

Print your action statement in a nice large font in Word on a letter sized sheet of paper. Put it in a frame and post it where you can see it on a daily basis.

5. Take Action on a Daily Basis

Use your action statement to guide your actions at work or at home. The keywords will help you mold your actions to fit your strengths. Create a daily action plan to use your strengths to further your goals.

6. Mentors

In each of the strength boxes is a place to put mentors names. Put down people that you know that exhibit this particular strength in a positive way. Get to know them and have them help you fully develop your similar strengths.

7. Go from here

There are many other strengths based resources available such as Marcus Buckingham’s Now, Discover Your Strengths and his new book, Go Put Your Strengths To Work

This tool has been useful to help me better see my strengths and find practical ways to apply them. I hope you will take the time to find your strengths in the coming year and hopefully you’ll find this tool helpful in taking action on them.

(Please note that we are not affiliated with the authors of these books or the Gallup organization. This is a personal worksheet that I have found useful for writing a strengths based action statement. Hopefully you will find it useful too.)

As you are walking down the corridor at work, you turn the corner and there in front of you… on a silver platter… is a plate full of brownies. They stare back at you, covered in their powdered sugar glory. They taunt you with ever step. You know you want one, but the 700 calories of sugar, flour, and oil will surely ruin your diet.

What do you do…???

You are in the check-out line at your favorite hardware store and you notice on the shelf to the left the All in Wonder Tool Set. This just isn’t any tool set… no… the tools in this set can fix that leaky faucet, hang the new curtains, and magically fix the broken sliding glass door. This is the solution to your problems… but at $295 it might just break your budget… better pull out the credit card…

What do you do..???

The holidays have been rough and you notice the spare tire growing around your middle (too many brownies?). All of a sudden a new infomercial comes on the TV for the save-all, end-all, exercise system. This baby has it all, power rods, adjustable seat, multi function, and four easy payments of $199. Just four easy payments… you glance at your gut and then reach for the phone and your wallet.

What do you do…???

The impulse to do something right now is overwhelming. You need to make a decision and make it now. Do you brush off that small little voice that says you shouldn’t do it and grab the credit card…???

Or do you…

Count To Ten

Do you take this simple step and give yourself time to think… to make a logical decision… to match the decision with your budget and with your goals…

Or do you fire the impulse and just go for it… and worry about it tomorrow.

Do You… Count to Ten or Count the Pounds?

Do You… Count to Ten or Count the Credit Card Bills?

Do You… Count to Ten or Count the Calls from the Loan Company?

It’s Your Decision…

Once you Count to Ten you may want to use the Desktop Decision Maker to help you make the right choice.

Just remember… you’ll thank yourself in January for your thoughtful decisions today.