Change 1 Goal And You Can Change It All!

When I ask my new consulting clients and coaching club members what their goals are, they often have no answer. Their eyes drift off and they think about it. They’re busy in their mind trying to come up with a number, or a story to justify the number, or a number they feel safe saying as long as no one else hears it, and so on.If you want to achieve a Goal, rather than wait to see if it happens to land in your lap this year, it’s time to own your own goals.

Take a sheet of paper and something to write with. Ask yourself:

“What exactly do I want to accomplish this year?”

List at least 5 things that you want to achieve by the end of the year - things that will increase the abundance in your life and the lives of others.

Now write them where you’ll see them on the 15th of each month to remind you to align you activities with those goals.

© 2007 Linda Feinhol

December 30, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

BE THE 10% WHO MAKE IT TO THE HIGH PAYOFF WINNERS CIRCLE

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

90% of professionals are just ‘in motion’ in their business. They don’t have any expectations, goals, or path they’re following. Their results are incremental and their business growth may even be based on the efforts of others more than their own.

If you prefer to be in the 10% who are steering their own path to their own success, then take a look at the commitments you’ve made in the past, and the ones that still serve you in building your business.

Each year at this time I usually do a quick ‘re-set’ for the next 12-months. You can think of it as hitting the ‘reset’ button on an electrical outlet - it doesn’t change my purpose, or my fundamental vision. But it sure clears out the distractions, frustrations and amnesia that creep in as I spend time in the trenches of my business.

1. Reset Your “Focus”

Some years I make slight course corrections. Others times I radically redesign my business and life focus. I could not do either of those effectively if I didn’t do it deliberately.

Spend some time re-thinking your big picture for the coming year. Do you want to change your professional role or image in your market place? What do you want to be known for? Do you want a life style business? A job? A professionally managed company?
Write it down.

2. Create A Revenue Goal

98% of professionals surveyed couldn’t honestly name their financial goals. And their results are equally vague.
In contrast, one of my consulting colleagues has been crystal clear with his revenue goals for the past 5 years. The year he said “$200,000″ he made $195,000. The year he said ‘double that’ he did. The year he declared his target was $1,000,000 in sales, he hit $800,000. When he pushed for $2,000,000 the following year he hit that target in November.

By setting his goal, he aligned all his activities behind that goal. Even when he ‘missed’ the target his results were impressive, don’t you think? I know I do
What target are you aiming for? Pick a number you can see happening. If it’s unrealistic you won’t put any energy in to achieving it. If it doesn’t stretch you from the results you have right now, you won’t have any motivation to give it attention. Choose a number that isn’t wishful thinking but does get you thinking about what you’ll do with that money!

Write it down.
3. Outline A “Mini Plan”

Plans are made to be road maps and guidelines, not rule books. Just like a cross-country trip you’ll drive, you want to know the major stops along the way. You won’t need to know all the towns and truck stops you’ll be passing, just the ones that will feed you, gas up your car and get you to the sites you want to visit.

What are the 5 key events that you need to accomplish to hit your Goal? What are 3 activities you’ll focus on that will drive you to the events on a daily or weekly basis?

Write it down.

4. Identify The Obstacles To Your GoalMost often, the biggest obstacle is not your competition, your pricing, or your unique selling proposition. It’s your Distractions! Most of my coaching time with my clients is spent on clearing out the items that have their attention “everywhere but” on accomplishing their Goal. Those distractions are energy wasters and time suckers and productivity killers.

Get clear on your boundaries - what you’ll spend time on and what you won’t.

Everything on the “won’t” list needs a home. It might be in your “Long Term” list of things to think about, or in your “I’ll Do It Tomorrow” list. Even better is if it’s on your “Delegate It Today!” list. And when it doesn’t fit immediately on those lists, it’s a complete and utter distraction - dump it!
If it’s on YOUR list, or your delegation list then …

Write it down.

5. Get A Support System In Place
Do you keep waiting ‘until…’? I mean “until I’m missed my goals” or “until I run into problems” or “until I’m frustrated enough” or “until the right person for the job show up” or…
You get what I mean.

If you keep waiting ‘until’ then you’re already behind and making it hard on yourself. STOP THAT! Get set up with a system that will keep you on track from the very start.

For some people, “support” means working with a coach - someone to help you learn how to get to your destination more effectively. For others “support” means a MasterMind group to run ideas by and have a community of minds offering their observations and knowledge. It may mean it’s time to bring on partners, staff or collaborate with another organization.

Write it down.

Here are this year’s High Payoff Commitments. Take everything you’ve written down and pull out your calendar and transfer everything you wrote down into that calendar.

Every time you look at a meeting request or email message you know if it’s helping you meet your goals. And as you plan your own actions, you’ll find them useful in getting all of your energy streamlined and focused where you want it in the coming year.

December 27, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Insight And You Can Change It All!

I truly believe that living from our Gifts creates the best world we can have.

When we recognize that unique aspect of ourselves and use it on purpose, the work we do becomes play, the conflicts we run into become interesting challenges, and the people we work with become teammates in creating a vivid, exciting world.

Someone you work with is unaware of their Gift. Yet you see it. You see it and your blessing in their life is to tell them so this week.

Take a sheet of paper and ask yourself:

“Who do I know that does something with such ease…

and they’re unaware that it’s a gift?”

List all the people who come to mind, and what it is that they do so easily. Remember, what you acknowledge in them enables them to offer it in greater abundance.

Now drop them a quick not and tell them of the Gift they’re bringing to your world, whether at work or outside it, and how much it’s appreciated.

December 24, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Ideas, Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment 

HOW TO MAKE 2008 THE YEAR OF YOUR IDEAL LIFE

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

I truly believe that each of us can create and live our ideal life.

Our Ideal Life is the life that meets our Core desires, and provides an outlet for our Gift - our innate skills and intuition. It’s the life that allows us to recognize our unique gift and use it - to purposefully choose work that lets us live our deepest self. It’s the life that inspires those around us to do the same with theirs.

Can you describe what yours looks like? Would you say you’re living it now?

All too often we have a clearer sense of our Core Desires when we’re children, yet loose track of them as the world around us bombards us with messages full of “should” and “have to” and “can’t”.

We have hints of our Gift, using it unconsciously and tune it out, waving it out of sight because it’s so easy for us to use. It doesn’t look anything like the effortful activities we’ve been told any valuable effort must be.

Imagine the life you’d create if you founded it on having every one of your Core Desires, and using that effortless Gift. Wouldn’t that be a fabulous life? I think so!

You don’t have to walk away from the life you’ve built to live that Ideal Life. My client Shannon felt out of sorts most of the time – dealing with complex international business logistical issues and fractious personalities from three different generations. She’d risen in her career based on opportunities that presented themselves and she was ready to walk from it all.

When we uncovered her Core Desires to be a peacemaker and to nurture people early in their career, she deliberately shifted her focus from managing the logistics of an international business, to solving strategic partnership challenges for the company and mentoring new members of the team.

The High Payoff results were that Shannon loved her work, the company saw turnover drop 30 percent in the first year among junior staff, and management was able to retain all the knowledge and experience Shannon had built in her career.

As for me, my Core desires are for health, continuous life long learning, and companions to share the journey. I’ve built a life that brings me each of those, and that let’s me use my gift for cutting through chaos and confusion to get to the core issues and find practical, easy, High Payoff solutions to them.

So, tell me, are you living your Ideal Life now? Or, have you spent a lifetime being sent off down other paths?

Fear, opinions of others, self-doubt have gotten in the way of your living your ideal life with ease. They’re no longer reasons for suppressing who you are. Think of them merely as the creative entertainment provided by the society you live in.

If you have fear or doubts about living from your Core, tell yourself “Fear is no longer an excuse.”

You have a purpose in being here and your only responsibility is to bring your gifts to the world to enrich it and create a vibrant life for yourself and for others.

If you’re ready to bring you Core Desires and your Gift into focus, here’s a technique I use with my coaching clients and MasterMind members. It will take you less than 1 hour and can unveil the stepping stones to your Ideal Life.

  • Take 2 pieces of paper and something to write with. Divide each piece of paper with a line down the middle, top to bottom.
  • On the first page, label the left-hand column “What I loved at that job…” and the right hand column “… because it let me…”
  • On the second page, label the left-hand column “What I hated at that job…” and the right hand column “… because it prevented me…”
  • Starting with your first ‘job’ fill in all 4 columns. Do all four columns for each job you can remember right up to today. If you need the space, carry your notes over to additional pages. Even if the answers seem similar from one job to the next, write it all down.
  • When you’re done writing, read your answers out loud and listen to the pattern that will reveal itself in the answers you’ve recorded.

Even better - take this exercise into a group of others who know you well, to do it as a group. Pair off and have one person prompt the second person with the phrases over and over and act as the scribe of what is said out loud for them. Then reverse who is talking and who is scribing.

Then, as each person reads their own responses out loud, as partners you can listen and suggest patterns you’re hearing. The listeners will ll also be able to suggest what they’ve experienced as the other person’s Gift – “the thing you do with such ease that is so uniquely you.”

Engage your Core, your Gift, your entire self and watch what you can create in this life, through your work, our relationships, your play.

I so want to live in the world you’ll help create for all of us.

December 22, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Ideas, Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment 

A Quick Note!

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.It covers:

  • The best blogging techniques.
  • How to get traffic to your blog.
  • How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

December 20, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Supporter And You Can Change It All!

© 2007 Linda Feinholz.

One of the reasons our dreams can take a long time to manifest is that we hold them inside.

We don’t give them much thought. We don’t put them on paper. We don’t include them in our conversations.

We don’t invite our dreams to become a real part of our life.
So take this opportunity to strengthen your connection to your dreams. Decide for yourself :

“Who is one person I’ll share my dreams with, this week?”

Now pick up the phone and make a ‘date’ with that person. It could be over a meal, or it could be in a meeting.

It can be as simple as “There’s this idea I’m working on…” or “I’ve decided to devote time this year to…”

The key is to be sure to share your dream with them. And you’ll create the opportunity for them to share theirs with you. And let’s just see how your dream shows up for you this year!

December 19, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting | Leave a Comment 

HIGH PAYOFF QUICK & SIMPLE PLANNING FOR 2008

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

Normally we act. Action is good. But not always. Action with no planning usually means you spend 60 percent of your time off course, off topic, off tack to the goals you say you want to achieve. All for lack of any time spent in ‘planning.’

Many of my business clients don’t even attempt to plan because they think ‘planning’ means 20-30-40 hours of blocked out time diverted from “getting business done.”

Planning is crucial to actually getting your goals accomplished.

  • Without planning, there is no chance to notice the amazing new opportunities just out of the line of sight of our everyday attention.
  • Without planning there is no potential for creating breakthrough results instead of incremental shifts.
  • Without planning there is no linking our dreams with our actions.

Frankly, I know I cannot change everyone’s perception of the value of ‘planning’ in one conversation. So I’ve designed quick, simple, incremental, High Payoff techniques that get planning done easily.

“Done” so we can get back to Marketing. “Done” so we can get back to delivering our services. “Done” so we can get back to building long-term relationships with the people who make our business a success.

Or something else altogether.

“Done” so we’ll be willing to put 30 more minutes into it the next time around.

So today’s planning steps are the launch to your simple planning.

Just sit comfortably, with a piece of paper or your key board in hand.

Away from your distractions. That means no phone, no computer, no email, no conversation.

Look at your clock and write down the time. Right Now.

Now answer the following 5 questions:

1. What were the last goals I remember setting for my business?
Don’t go looking for notes. Just stay right here, with your attention focused on the question. In silence. In reflection. Write down the answers that come to you.

2. How do I feel about the results I’ve achieved?
Are you satisfied? By what, exactly? Are you dissatisfied? By what, exactly? That’s all.

3. What would satisfy me 12 months from now?
Be to the point. Be specific. Answer what you would want to create as a result that is observable. That you’d know when you see it and experience it.

4. What would be even better?
If you could create an even better result, what would it look like? Is it ‘bigger?’ “faster?” “easier?” “quicker?” Is is more clients? Fewer clients and more revenue? More markets served? A more targeted niche? Clearer branding? Shorter turn around time?

5. What 3 activities will you take to achieve “better?”
Name the three steps you’ll take that will move you forward every single week to that result.

Now look at your clock. How long did that take?

You can use this technique to reflect on anything that is important to you. Your business. Your family. Your life. Just go back to the first question and reword it to change your focus to a new topic.

And of course, you can have everyone on your team do the same exercise and then come together to share your plans and create one that will move all of you forward to the future you dream of.

December 16, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Managing | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Meeting And You Can Change It All!

Many of my clients tell me their time is being wasted by being pulled into meetings all day long. If you’re running into the same challenge, take a look at the next meeting you have on your calendar and ask yourself :

“What is the outcome I want from this meeting?”

It may be to get closer to your goals, to become more expert on a topic, to educate others at the meeting, or to hand work off and free up more of your own time and energy.

Whether or not you are the person who set that meeting, who booked the time, who designed the agenda, you can influence the value you get out of it. Walk into that meeting with the answer to that question written at the top of the page and use every opportunity to create that result for yourself. And even for others.

Right Here. Right Now.

December 9, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Processes | Leave a Comment 

5 FOCUSING QUESTIONS THAT ACCELERATE YOUR BUSINESS RESULTS

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

You know that commercial, the one with the cell phone guy wandering the world, pausing every few feet to ask if the person on the other end of the phone can hear him? Well, sometimes those brilliant creative guys in the Advertising agencies come up with an icon, an image, an idea that has life beyond its original purpose.

In this particular instance my long time clients and I have a tool we use often during our discussions about results they’re trying to accomplish.

When my client’s attention is wandering during our discussions it can be for several reasons. Distraction, anxiety, competing priorities. The phrase I use snaps everything back into focus. I use with everyone of my clients on occasion. It’s a phrase I use with them so often that they report using it on their own as they prepare for meetings with me and with others.

When they sit down to discuss a topic we’re working on and everything they put in the conversation is about other issues, I ask them “Are you here, now?”

When their mind is on stories about what went wrong in the past, even a year ago, I ask them “Are you here, now?”

When their pages full of plans get long and complicated and involved and full of steps and inter-connecting activities, I ask them “Are you here, now?”

That phrase is our shorthand for the 5 Simple Questions that every professional needs to keep in mind daily.

1. Will this get me closer to my goals?
This is the basic, Number One High Payoff question. Too often we get caught in our own momentum, following a path, committing resources, and spending our time on activities that are off track. We do it because the actions are familiar. We do it because they’re habits. Or we do it because they’re easier than the activities that are really needed to move us towards success. The first step is to be honest about how you’re using your time, intelligence and energy. Right Here. Right Now.

2. How and WHEN will it get that result?
You’ll notice I worded that nicely. I used the word result. But let’s get honest here. I’d rather be in the Swiss Alps. You’d rather be skiing, or snorkeling, or even sitting on a beach. Everybody in your business has someplace they’d ‘rather’ be. The reason you’re reading this article is because your real question is “When will it make me money?” That’s the whole point of this time you’re spending and the attention you’re using, and the cash you’re investing. It’s to make more money. Even my clients who are inside organizations learn that I have them tie the question back to goals that are bottom line and quantifiable. And then show me HOW each thing they put their effort behind will build the money engine to make it all worthwhile. Right Here. Right Now.

3. Will it position me as an expert?
Few of us get pleasure out of just marking time. If we’re putting in 500 hours, 1,000 hours, 2,000 hours in the foreseeable year, we want to know it was worth it. That means that if you or I devote so many of our weekday, daylight hours to an endeavor, we want to actually grow! So ask yourself whether the actions you’re putting time into will position you as an expert, a go-to resource, in your field, in your team, in your town. The answer should be a resounding “Yes!” Right Here. Right Now.

4. Will others benefit from it?
My ideal clients experience my own personal and professional results. As I learn how to produce greater results, I take those tools, simplify them and teach them to the folks I work with who want to improve their results professionally or personally. So when you look at the questions you ask, the actions you take, are you clear about the wider value it has? Right Here. Right Now.

5. How will it help me have more time/energy/freedom, etc.?
Remember how I said our momentum can get us stuck in actions that are ‘easy’? Well when you ask yourself this last question you’ll be forced to look that issue straight on. Now is the time to decide whether you’re dodging stepping into new actions that have a High Payoff return. Right Here. Right Now.

You may not have an answer to all 5 of these questions right off the bat. But when you take the time to answer them, you’ll find the five to ten minutes spend checking before taking action will make your activities 20-30-40 percent more productive every single day.

December 7, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Assumption And You Can Change It All!

Are you getting results you hoped for … or are you slightly off track? If you’re seeing outcomes other than those you anticipated, here’s a quick way to sort out what may be going on.

Take a piece of paper and list all the assumptions you made… Assumptions about what you were aiming for, about how you decided to approach it, about the resources you took on or rejected, about the obstacles you anticipated and about those you ‘knew’ wouldn’t get in your way.

Then, one at a time as you read back through that list, ask yourself:

“If in reality this ONE factor were actually the opposite, what might that mean?”

Make a note of the implications of each of your assumptions, and the new insight and possibilities you have for your efforts.

December 2, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Processes | Leave a Comment