Success Connections

3 Tools For Goal Setting

The time between Christmas and the New Year is one of my favorites.  It feels fabulous to reflect back on the past year, clear out a little clutter, and begin planning for a brand new year!

Have you started thinking about it yet?  If you don’t get started soon, January will have come and gone and you’ll be wondering where it went. 

Here are 3 tools that will guide you through a relatively painless process.  If it’s too time consuming for one setting break the exercise down into manageable chunks.  Doing anything is better than doing nothing.

Year In Review

Start by looking back over the past year.  Curt Rosengren over at the Occupational Adventure is writing a series on how to review your past year.  Start with his article titled Year In Review Questions – Building A Foundation For 2007.  Then follow the rest of his articles to complete the process.  They’re all listed on the right column of his blog.

Rate Your Satisfaction

Now that you’ve looked back, how do you feel about it?  It’s helpful to create a visual image that measures your satisfaction.  One of my favorite tools for measuring satisfaction is called the Wheel Of Life.  Norm Shrewsbury over at The Path Of Happiness has a tool called Life Balance Sphere.  Complete the Life Balance Sphere and print your results.

Set Your Goals & Write Them Down

This last tool is one of my all time favorites created by the great Fred Nickols.  If you do nothing else, use Fred’s Goals Grid to get clear about 2007.

Special Note: The Goals Grid was created and a strategic planning tool for organizations, but don’t let that stop you from using it for your life and/or career goals.  It’s a little bit hard to find on the website, so follow these instructions.

1. Go to Fred’s site
2. Click on “Articles” (top left side)
3. Click on the “Work & Management” link
4. Scroll down to the “Goals Grid Job Aid”
5. Print it off, follow the instructions, and get to work

There you go!  3 great tools that will get you in gear for the new year! 

If you get stuck or you need help, I’m only a phone call or email away! 

Farewell President Ford

I’m honored to say that President Ford and I share the hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As I write this, just a few miles away from my condo, the Gerald R. Ford Museum is feverishly preparing to bring him home one last time.

As the news broadcasts from the TV in the background I’m hearing announcements about the official funeral and burial schedule, friends sending their condolences, and people sobbing through interviews as they share a memory of “their boy Jerry” as he was affectionately known.  Almost everyone has a fond memory of an experience with him or one of the family.

If you remember the angst the country was feeling as the Nixon administration exited the white house, you probably know that Ford’s presence was exactly what the doctor ordered.  Much work needed to be done to rebuild the trust of the nation. 

He stood up and pardoned Nixon from his crimes as a wise father might say, “It’s time to forgive and forget”.  And even though you may have disagreed with his decision there was something about his character, his values and his calming presence that made it just a little easier to swallow.

And with that, I bid my own farewell to President Ford.  Thank you for the memories and for making me proud to share Grand Rapids with you.  Thank you for carrying us through some trying times.  Welcome home!  We’re proud to have you back home with us.

Use Your Pause Button

As we approach the end of another year, it feels as though everything begins to shift into fast gear.  Suddenly our “to do” lists double in size, the stores overflow with frenzied shoppers, and traffic seems to move at the pace of a turtle.  By the end of the day we’ve bottled up so much stress that we feel used up and just plain overwhelmed. 

The trouble is, that bottled up emotions often uncork themselves when we least expect it.  The least little thing can trigger a release as intense as an erupting volcano.  And often there’s an innocent victim on the receiving end of our spew of emotion.

If this sounds familiar to you and you’d like to change it, try using your pause button throughout the day.

It’s helpful to visualize your pause button, so pick one that works best for you.  I use the “easy button” from the Staples commercial, and just imagine that it says, “pause” instead.

Here’s how it works:

1. Recognize The Trigger - Notice when you start to feel the stress in your body.  Maybe you get a knot in your stomach, you clench your jaw, or you get the urge to snipe a sarcastic remark at someone.
2. Press Your Pause Button – Imagine yourself pressing PAUSE before you do or say something impulsive. 
3. Take A Deep Breath – Breathing helps you gather your thoughts and act with a clear head.
4. Think – What are the choices in front of me?  Which response will result in the best possible outcome?
5. Respond – It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing an email, talking to your customer, or driving your car.  You’re now ready to respond intentionally rather than react to raw emotion.

You might say, “This takes too long.  It won’t work in the heat of a tense moment.”  Yes, it does take a little longer than just bottling up your emotions and letting them erupt all at once.  But that behavior isn’t working for you.

If you try it and practice, I bet you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can work yourself through the process.  Once you get the hang of using your pause button regularly, it becomes a new habit.  And you just might find that it can work wonders!