Failure can offer great insight.

Failure can help us change direction

Failure can offer abject proof of something that didn’t work.

Unfortunately, admitting failure is usually painful. In so many cases, it’s easier to just move on, than to actually analyze the situation and learn from it. And here is one thing that I know for sure…

If we don’t learn from our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them.

So.. on this note I decided to come up with a failure checklist.

It works very simply…

You write down and describe the failure and then you answer four questions…

1. What can we learn from this?

2. How could we have done things differently?

3. Where do we go from here?

4. What does this make possible?

Actually taking a few minutes and writing down the answers can yield some amazing results. Putting things on paper allows our mind to consolidate thoughts and come up with solutions.

To make this easier for you, I’ve created the failure checklist in a MS Word template that you can download and print out for free.

If you had some things that didn’t go so well last year, why not write them down and take a few minutes and go through the questions.To help you get started, you might want to read a couple of posts on the subject that might give you greater insight…

How to Fail Well, a guest post by Nathan Rouse

What Does This Make Possible, by Michael Hyatt

This simple exercise has given me greater clarity as I plan out my goals for the New Year. It has given me some surprising answers to some tough problems. The act of actually writing them down has allowed me to visualize the problems and come up with solutions.

Question: Do you think a sheet like this might be helpful? Are there other questions that you might ask?

  1. Twenty Steps. The first place to start is to determine your top goal for the New Year. Brian Tracy talks about a simple technique to help you find your top goal in his book, Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires. It’s actually rather simple.

He devised a simple four step process that anyone can take to get started on this path to success. Here are the instructions…

1. Take out a sheet of paper and write down ten goals you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Things you want to have, do, or become.
2. Look at all ten goals and ask yourself this question. If you could only accomplish one goal on this list, but you could accomplish it in 24 hours, which one would would have the greatest impact on your life? Brian says in most cases it will jump out at you. Write the goal down in bold writing and set a completion date.
3. Turn the paper over and write down twenty action steps to accomplish this goal. This step will be easy at first but will become harder as you progress down the list. Don’t stop until you have filled in all twenty.
4. Each day take at least one action step to accomplish your goal

To make this easy for you, we have a free worksheet to get you started. Just download the  two sided MS Word document called the Top Goal Worksheet that has ten boxes on the front and twenty on the back. Unzip it, and open both sheets in Microsoft Word. You can add text to the document in Word or print it plain to fill in with a pen or pencil.

When you are ready, print it front and back on both sides of a sheet of letter sized paper.

To fill it out, just follow the four steps above.

You’ll find complete instructions here

If you are having trouble with your Top Goal, you might want to go through Michael Hyatt’s Life Plan first

2. Goal Setting Toolkit. Now that you have your top goal written down, along with some action steps to take, you’ll need to keep this goal top of mind. The easiest way to do this is to write your Goal(s) down using our Goal Setting Toolkit. This kit includes 9 different pocket sized cards that you can take with you in your pocket or purse. You can stick the cards up at work, at home or even in your car.

You’ll find complete instructions for using this kit here along with the free download.

3. Daily Planner. Now that you have your goals set and your action steps listed, it’s time to take daily action. This is where the daily planner comes in. This one sheet, MS Word document has a place at the top for your top 6 priorities for the day as well as a complete section for creating a daily to-do list. It’s simple to use and it will keep all of your priorities listed in one spot.

You’ll find complete instructions here.

Overall: These three items should get you started for the year. Why not take some time today to download them and put yourself in the driver’s seat for the New Year.

Question: What Is Your Top Goal For The New Year?

Yet each time my personal goal has come to fruition, I’ve felt a little empty.

There always seems to be something missing.

It’s hard to put a finger on

An invisible concern

Discontent

Yesterday something changed

I read something very profound

It brought things into a better focus

It finally answered that nagging question

How do I set goals that are truly meaningful and lasting?

I found the answer in a very unusual place. It wasn’t in a book, podcast, or lecture.

It was in a mysterious, almost ethereal place.

It was a tower!

A tower that you construct.

A tower that has amazing implications.

People live and work in this tower. They consume your ideas, your inventions, and your art.

Their lives are changed.

The tower continues to grow, year after year.

The tower you create exists, even after you die.

You see, the tower represents your LEGACY.

You add to this tower when your goals and actions include others.

Life is a series of purposeful choices that can produce great rewards from great
effort. Choose to craft your life around creative work that goes up like a tower and out to the world.

There is a sign on the side of the building with this admonition…

We must work on our lives the way we would work on any other project. Instead of knowledge, pleasure, or happiness, the purpose of life is to create something meaningful that will endure after we’re gone.

Every day, wake up and think about these two things:
•     What am I making today?
•     Whom am I helping today?

After reading the Tower Manifesto by Chris Guillebeau, I realized that the missing link in my goal setting plan was simple. Mine were strictly personal goals. They were inward focused. They didn’t include others.

With a simple focus change, I can change this.

My goals can now have IMPACT!

They can create enduring and lasting value.

The secret is the focus…

We’ll look at some examples in a future post…

Question: Are you building a legacy?

This is a similar experience that I have had with goal setting. I’ll be going along just fine with a freshly polished goal and then someone or something will break my continuity. It may be a holiday, a weekend, or an unexpected event. All of a sudden my best laid plans to complete the goal are thrown off. Many times I won’t even realize it is happening.

The problem is, if I don’t take action quickly to correct it, the goal dies an immediate death. The longer I wait to do the correction, the harder it is to get going again.

Here are three areas that can cause you to stumble…

1. Intersections: If you are on a diet (goal) and you open a restaurant menu highlighting Sugar Free Jello and a Chocolate Mousse Pie (intersection), you may be tempted to have the Chocolate Pie. If you hadn’t encountered the intersection, the temptation would not be there. As with our train example and also with goal setting, the problems come at the intersections. The more intersections you encounter the greater the chance is for failure.

Solution: Just like your mother said, avoid dangerous intersections

2. Friends: In the areas of goal setting, some of the hardest things to overcome is the actions of your friends or family. Take the diet example we used above. Just let one of your friends bring over a special recipe, homemade apple pie to your holiday party. She cuts it into slices and hands you one on a plate. Obviously you could say you are on a diet, but your friendship and hospitality are at stake. In most cases you’ll have a piece (albeit a small one). It’s funny how our friends can know about our goals but sabotage us just the same. I remember my friends playing with my train set. They loved to make it go full speed around the corners and fly off the track. It was fun for them, since it wasn’t their train.

Solution: Mom was right again. Pick your friends wisely. If they are constantly sabotaging your results, you may need to make some new friends.

Sidenote: Sometimes your friends can be de-motivators. They will disparage your goals and give you every reason not to do them. Sometimes this is due to jealousy, other times it may be fear or lack of information. The best way to deal with this is to keep your goals close to your vest. Tell only a select few people about them and make sure they have a positive outlook. Coaches and mentors are key here.

3. Schedules: If you don’t schedule time to do your goal activities ahead of time, you won’t do them. This is so true with activities such as fitness training and long distant running. When planning a goal it’s best to plan and schedule it way in advance. 12 weeks works well for many types of goals (we have a 12 week planning sheet and one for fitness goals). When planning long term, it’s always a good idea to have buffer days when you aren’t doing anything. That way, if you have to miss a scheduled day, you can always make it up on your free day. I remember my train set. My parents gave me an additional locomotive one Christmas, and put it on the same track as my other one. If I didn’t schedule them right, they would run into each other causing a derailment.

Solution: Schedule your goals in advance to keep from being derailed.

Overall: While setting goals is relatively easy, sticking to them can be a different story. Avoiding dangerous intersections and friends that don’t have your best interests at heart can help you along the path. Scheduling them ahead of time, will make sure you have time to complete them. Our Goal Setting Toolkit can help. Good luck in the New Year!

Question: What things have sabotaged your goals in the past?

However… if goal setting is so easy, why don’t we all have buff bodies, books on the bestseller list, and ribbons from the Boston Marathon?

Why can’t we stick to our goals once we set them?

The shocking truth is we give up way too soon.

At the slightest bit of trouble we bail

We can’t stick with it

We give up

We fail

But why?

Why do we stop?

Why can’t we keep going?

Why do we stop when we’ve just got started?

Why does it feel impossible to complete the task?

I’ve pondered this topic for years. It seems like such a simple problem, but it isn’t. In talking with others it is a rampant problem. It’s widespread. It affects professional people and lay people alike. While there are many factors at play, I’ve found three that will really trip you up. Here they are…

1. Broadcasting To The World That You Set A Goal. I used to think this was a smart thing to do. Why not have all your friends hold you accountable for that goal that you set? But from experience, I’ve found that two things happen.

• Your friends or co-workers will tell you a thousand reasons why you will fail. You’ll get a barrage of negative messages. Some of your friends may be jealous that you are attempting something new. Others may have had a bad experience in the past. You’ll hear things like… Diets always fail, Running will blow out your knees, Nobody will want to read what you write… I’m sure you’ve heard many things like this. Negative messages can stop you cold.
• You’ll get the same emotional boost from telling everyone what you are going to do as you will from actually doing it. So when the first day of the goal comes, you may find yourself dreading it. Instead of wanting to accomplish the goal, now you have to do it. Having to do something becomes a chore quickly. The joy disappears and you end up hating yourself for taking on the goal. You look for excuses or just hope everyone forgets about it.

Solution: While it’s great to have someone hold you accountable, it’s best to confide in only a few people and these people need to be positive motivators. This is where a good coach or mentor comes in. Positive people will help you move forward. Negative people will tear you down.

2. Focus on the future instead of the task at hand. While a goal is just a dream written down, many people continue in the dream stage way too long. To actually accomplish the goal, you need to write it down, break it into action steps, and focus on the action steps , one at a time.

Focusing on the finished goal can stop you dead in your tracks. While it’s good to focus on your progress from time to time, to get the job done, you need to break tasks down into small actionable steps. Things you can actually do. Then schedule time to do them.

For example. Lets say you want to do a weight training regime to get six pack abs. Focusing on the six pack abs will give you an initial motivation, but you need to focus on the individual exercises to move forward. Focusing on the 50 pushups at hand or the 12 rep bicycle crunch will move you along. Creating a schedule and a checklist will keep you on track. The six pack abs will come with time, if you perform each exercise in your plan over time.

3. Trying To Accomplish a Goal All By Yourself. The hardest person to motivate is yourself. While you may have great intentions, your internal voice can constantly find excuses and diversions to knock you off track. Procrastination will raise its ugly head. Finding a good coach or mentor is key. They will help you create a strong personal discipline and be there to monitor your progress.

Look at any championship football or baseball team and you will find a great coach. While the individual players need talent, a great coach will add motivation, drive, and determination. If you truly want to experience greatness, find a great mentor or coach with your best interests at heart.

Overall: Speaker Myles Munroe said it best, When you announce to the world you are going to do something, it is obliged to test you. The criticism and challenges will come fast and hard. If you are not prepared, it will knock you down cold.

Why not give yourself an advantage. Keep your goals close to your vest. Announce them after you have accomplished them, not before. Find a trusted coach or mentor to help you get there. Focus on the individual steps and your goal will take care of itself.

Question: Have you experienced challenges and criticism after announcing your goals?

1. Life Plan: Leadership guru, Michael Hyatt, has put together a wonderful life planning e-book that you can download for free. What better place to start with your gifts than with a plan for your life. You’ll need to sign up for his mailing list to get it and spend a good part of a day contemplating the questions and filling it out, but the results are worth it. You’ll truly know where you are going in the New Year!

2. Goal Setting Toolkit: Once you know where you are going, you’ll need to set some goals to get there. With our popular Goal Setting Toolkit, you can write them down and take them with you wherever you go. Since they are written on business sized cards you can put them where you can see them for quick reminders throughout the day. The cards include short term, long term and BHAG goals.

3. Daily Planner: Once you get your goals in place, you’ll need to break them down into daily goals. This is where a goal oriented daily planner comes in. Just write down up to six priorities for your day at the top and then compile a to-do list at the bottom. You’ll have everything you need for success right on one sheet, including phone, e-mail, and meeting lists.

4. Personal MBA Book List: Now that you have your goals setup, you’ll need to research and learn more about them. Josh Kaufman has assembled a powerful book list to help you do just that. With over a 100 personal development books to choose from, you’re sure to find some titles here that will help you on your success quest.

5. Free Audio Book: Now that you have some books picked out, you’ll have to buy them and find time to read them. Here is a better way. Why not get them in Audio Book format so you can listen to them while running or commuting? Audible (now owned by Amazon) has made this easy to try by offering a free audio book for just trying their service. This list can get you started.

6. Writer’s Manifesto: Now that you have your goals in place and are learning new things, you’ll want to write them down and share them with others. Jeff Goins‘ free e-book will give you a new insight into writing that can make it more fun and provide a better outcome. He has compiled this into a free Manifesto for your viewing pleasure.

7. Blogging Starter Kit: John Saddington has an amazing guide to take your writing talents and share them with the world through blogging. He’ll show you how to setup a blog, add new features, and get it off the ground with a bang. In just a few hours you can be conversing with the world.

8. Cheat Sheet For Writing Viral Blog Posts: Now that you are writing and blogging, you need your words to go viral. Our friends at Copyblogger have a free cheat sheet to help you write posts that will have the viral effect of ten puppy videos. Soon your words will resonate around the globe.

9. Marketing Grader: Now that you have a blog and are sharing it with the world, you need some stats to see how you are doing. HubSpot has a great new tool call Marketing Grader that can help you visually see your stats. Just create a free account and see how the numbers look.

10. Fascination Test: Now that you are done with your list and have created your life plan, written out your goals, published articles and gone viral around the world, you’ll definitely need to find out how fascinating you are. Well Sally Hogshead has just the tool. Click here to take her Fascination Test.

Summary: Hopefully you’ll take advantage of some of the links above. Why not give yourself the gift of success for the new year. This list also makes a great gift for your friends or family, so be sure to pass it on.

Question: What is your favorite gift above?

The real question is…

Do you give a DAM about your life?

Do you have DREAMS you are pursuing. Is there something bigger than yourself at stake?

Are you taking ACTION, or just sitting back, taking things as they come.

Are you MOTIVATED, realizing that life is short, and today is important.

If not, it’s about DAM time to make a change. Here are three things you can do…

1. Dream BIG Dreams. Start with a powerful dream, picture it in Technicolor, hear the sounds, feel the emotion. Then write it down and set a date. Now you have a GOAL.

2. Take Action. Take your goal, break it into smaller parts, then fill in the details. Picture your goal completed, then work backwards. Write down the action steps necessary to complete it. Take action on one step today.

3. Stay Motivated. Big dreams are exciting. They help you wake up with excitement in your heart. The best way to stay motivated is to share your dream with a coach or mentor. Someone who will share your vision. Give them permission to check in with you.

If you truly want to make a difference in your life and the lives of others, it starts with

Dreams, Action, & Motivation.

Here are three tools to get you started.

1. Top Goal Worksheet: This tool will help you quickly determine which goals to pursue.

2. Goal Setting Toolkit: Write your goals down here and take them along with you.

3. Daily Goal Sheet: Write your top priorities out for the day and put them on a to-do list

When you truly give a DAM about your life, things will change. When you have a powerful goal you are pursuing, life becomes interesting and exciting again. When you take action and see the goal take shape, you quickly realize that amazing things are possible if you make incremental changes over time.

There is one additional secret to make it all work. It’s the little n at the end of the word…

DAMn

This one is really important…

The only day you can take action is today, and the only time you can get started is NOW!

Isn’t it time to get started…

Question: What do you give a DAM about?

What is even more amazing than the dreams themselves, is the fact that they can actually come true in real life. For years I dreamed of writing a book. One day I went to the front door and there was a package containing a book with my name on it. Opening the box and holding that book was the culmination of years of dreaming. From the title, to the characters, to the evolving story, all had been dreams or ideas before they became reality.

Yet, an even more curious fact emerges. Some dreams come true, and some don’t. Some really simple dreams linger on in my mind, year after year. Others take shape right away. I’ve often wondered what makes the difference.

I’ve talked with wonderful writers who have never been able to put a book together, while other, less talented writers, have published dozens. What makes the difference? What makes companies like Apple and Disney, be able to take magical dreams and turn them into realities?

While there are many factors, Here are three important ways to make your dreams come true.

1. Write Them Down: A dream written down and attached to a date becomes a goal. It sounds over-simplistic, yet that simple act is the difference between a dreamer and a doer. The statistics are staggering. People who set written goals are much more successful than those that don’t. Putting your goals where you can see them is really important.

2. Dream BIG Dreams: It’s funny, but the amazing thing to me is the fact that it is easier to accomplish a BIG dream than a small one. Big dreams are exciting and keep us motivated. They get us up in the morning and keep us motivated through the day. They attract other people to get involved. Little dreams are easily forgotten and often abandoned.

3. Focus on One Dream at a Time. An old Chinese proverb states that “A man who chases two rabbits, catches none.” Focus is critical to achieving our goals. Steve Jobs commented that the single thing that made Apple successful was the thousand projects they didn’t do. Focusing on one important goal at a time will help you stay on track.

To help you turn your dreams into reality, we have developed some tools that can help you take the first step.

1. Goal Setting Toolkit. This simple card based system gives you a place to capture your short and long term goals and keep them in front of you wherever you go.

2. Daily Planner: This handy sheet that you can print out on your printer has a place for your top 6 objectives for the day. It’s a great place to put the action steps necessary to achieve your goals.

3. Empower Hour: The best way to stay focused is to turn off distractions and do ONE thing for 48 minutes. Check out the short video that accompanies this post and see how this simple solution can revolutionize your workday and increase your productivity.

Question: What dreams would you like to see come true?

Theme: Metaphor

The week started out with a fundamental argument on blogging. It boiled down to this. Should I blog every day or should I blog only when I have a profound blog post ready to go. Should I hold off posting until I have something amazing to say.

The two sides of the issue can be seen in these two opposing posts

Blog Every Day: How I Write Eleven Blog Posts a Week by S. Anthony Iannarino

I know a lot of people who blog regularly, and each of them has shared the experience of writing the post they believe is a complete throwaway only to have it draw the most comments and emails.

You see, you don’t get decide what other people find valuable; they do.

Blog Effectively: The Unproductive Writers Guide To Success by Martyn Chamberlin

Attention is a difficult thing to get, and an easy thing to lose.

You must play your cards wisely.

It has nothing to do with productivity, and it has everything to do with efficiency.

How does this affect you? Instead of spending five hours writing ten blog posts, spend five hours writing one good post. This means the amount of attention you are asking is less, and the prose you are offering is superior.

I truly struggled with these ideas at the beginning of the week. I decided to follow Martyn’s advice and put together a truly awesome post with amazing graphics, powerful tools, and a free download. I spent hours on it… only to come up with … nothing.

Monday-Tuesday: I tried to create the ultimate post only to fail miserably

Wednesday: A Metaphor Is
A description of Metaphor and a Logo-Graphic to go with it.

Friday: An Experiment in Blogging
A complete look at the creative argument I was having with myself and my blogging style. I came to the conclusion (which is sort of a metaphor)… Blog Frequently and Do It Well.

Links mentioned during the week:

Mike Lieberman adds to the debate with a post about six great reasons to blog every day.

Jeff Goins recommends taking a break from blogging to regain your writer’s soul

Chris Brogan argues that you should aim for a post (almost)every day.

Thanks for joining us this week. Next week’s theme will be motivational speaking, with some great info from World Champion speakers Darren LaCroix and Ed Tate along with some interesting surprises.

Make sure to sign up for our RSS feed, our FB Fan page, and join us on Twitter. We are also on Google+ now.

Have a Great Weekend

I’ve had visions just like this on Sunday night as I write in my calendar for the following week. I set aside a time block here, I put a fun task there, and soon my week is completely full. I go to bed knowing that the coming seven days will be total bliss.

As I awake on Monday morning, the sun crawling through the blinds, I look across the room. My day planner is where I left it the night before. There is total quiet in the room. This is going to be a great week, I tell myself. I step out of bed, and walk slowly across the room to open the planner and start the day. As I walk past the dresser I happen to notice the alarm clock on top. As my eyes focus, I make out…

It’s seven bleepin thirty… the STUPID alarm clock was supposed to go off at 5 am. I’m two and a half hours late for my perfect day. YIKES. I need to be at work… now. How could this happen?? I take the alarm clock and bang it down on the dresser, the lighted display now flickering. I can feel my blood pressure rise, and my mind is thinking up excuses for why I am late. I stumble to the bathroom and I trip over my well placed shoes. Bammm … flat on my face. As I pick myself up from the floor, I pick up my planner and turn to the front page… ARRRGh I was supposed to start the day by working on the Smith project and send 10 emails out to the account managers of our branch offices. Now they will be behind, and I’m to blame. I can see my bosses beady eyes now as I pull into the office an hour late… HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN???

Have you been there? I certainly have. The best laid plans always seem to get messed up.

Here are three simple things I’ve learned that help when I plan out my week.

1. Projects and Tasks always take longer to complete than you think!

When scheduling always allow extra time for completion.

2. Schedule the block of time but not the exact activity.

When scheduling, be flexible with your task list. This will lower your stress level and help you be more productive.

3. Set your alarm clock.

Getting up late will throw off your schedule for the whole day

While these three things can help you get through your week, you may want to know a great system for planning your week out in advance. Michael Hyatt, a very busy executive, has a great article on this: How to better control your time by designing your ideal week

A great way to plan out your day is to use our Daily Planner

Have a great week!

Question: What tools do you use to plan out your week?