by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Quotes and Aphorisms
… but when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money— booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence.
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves, too. A whole stream of events issues from (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Technology Tips
I frequently encourage my CEO executive coaching clients to set specific measurable goals and to chart their progress visually. For example, my free trailing twelve month Excel template is very popular. Download it by clicking here.
Here is an even simpler and more visually striking graphic you can use. Enter your own title, goal amount and current status and get a one page, printable thermometer to display your progress for yourself or the entire team.
Click here to download your free copy now. No registration required.
Feel free to share this with your friends and colleagues. Please do not remove my name or web address from the Excel spreadsheet.
You may also download an improved version with schedule information, too, e.g., for a monthly goal the thermometer displays how much of the month has passed. Get it for free by clicking here.
See also Tony’s complete goal setting kit, with audio and workbook,
free on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Technology Tips
My
executive coaching clients and readers of this blog have found my quick and easy Trailing Twelve Month tool very useful. You can download the Excel spreadsheet for free here.
I also encourage my CEO clients to keep a close eye on margins. I have modified the Trailing Twelve Month tool to show monthly results and long-term trends for your business’s margin. The key difference is that since margin is a percentage it makes no sense to look at the sum of twelve months of margins. This new spreadsheet instead shows the twelve-month moving average of your gross margin. Download it by clicking here.
See also Tony’s complete goal setting kit, with audio and workbook,
free on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
The research suggests that the brain has more control over its own perception of passing time than people may know. For example, many people have the defeated sense that it was just yesterday that they made last year’s resolutions; the year snapped shut, and they didn’t start writing that novel or attend even one Pilates class. But it is precisely because they didn’t act on their plan that the time seemed to have flown away.
By contrast, the new research suggests, focusing instead on goals or challenges that were in fact engaged during the year — whether or not they were labeled as “resolutions” — gives the brain the opportunity to fill out the past year with memories, and perceived time.
Finally, the mind is perfectly capable of interpreting a fast-forward year, or decade, as something other than a frittering away of opportunities for self-improvement. In another series of experiments published in Psychological Science, psychologists found that when people were tricked into believing that more time had passed than was really the case, they assumed they must have been having more fun. The perception heightened their enjoyment of music and eased their annoyance at doing menial tasks.
The mind is a wonderful sense-making device: it takes ambiguous or confusing information and simplifies it according to rules of thumb.
–Aaron M. Sackett
Psychologist
University of St. Thomas
How the Brain Perceives Time
New York Times
Learn how to set goals: click here.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
How you put your goals into language has a huge impact on their likelihood of success. Above all, be sure your goals describe specific, measurable results (SMRs).
1. Remove all references to time and change.
Pretend you are at the completion date, the SMR is achieved, and describe how it is. This is different from, and much more effective than standing in “today” and saying how it will (might) be.
Write every SMR in the present tense, as of the completion date. Instead of “I will weigh 160 pounds on August 12,” write “I weigh 160 pounds.”
Remove any reference to change or comparisons. That means no “more,” no “increase,” no “lose.”
2. State everything positively
Remove all “not,” “end,” and “stop.”
Write “I have been breathing only clean air for two weeks.” instead of “Stopped smoking two weeks ago.”
For SMRs that are continuing activities or states, for example, “exercise for 30 minutes twice per week,” be specific about the performance period.
State exactly which weeks the activities will occur: 2 out of the last 3? All of the last 12? All are equally valid, you decide and specify a measure that describes a victory for you.
3. Banish all thoughts of how-to.
For now, consider only what you want. There’s time to work on the methods later.
Check to see if your SMR is actually a how-to for the SMR you really want.
One client had an SMR of “Eat vegetarian and visit the gym twice per week.” She changed it to “Going all day with energy and eagerness, caffeine-free.” Diet and exercise weren’t her goals, just how-tos. She got the result through a visit to her doctor and a specific treatment.
See also Managing Yourself with Specific Measurable Results, on this blog.
…see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.
–Napoleon Hill
Think & Grow Rich
by Tony Mayo | Communication, Conversation, & Confrontation, For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
You have probably heard the old adage, “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” Though often attributed to the very busy Lucille Ball, the insight may be as old as civilization. People who know how to get things done gain a reputation for effectiveness and have many opportunities to be busy.
My CEO executive coaching clients are very busy and receive many requests to get things done from employees, shareholders, clients, family members, churches, governments, non-profits, etc., etc. So many requests, in fact, that they often find themselves expending time and attention on things that are not their top priorities. They may also find themselves letting people down, backing out of promises, and feeling inadequate.
I often need to train my clients on how to say, “No.”
I developed my technique many years ago when I had established a strong reputation as an effective volunteer in an organization I supported. This reputation led to a deluge of requests, more than I could responsibly accept. Here is the formula:
(more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
How to Set Goals
1) Describe the objective or task.
2) Specify the measurements to be used.
3) Set the target.
4) Create a deadline or performance period.
5) Priority rank multiple goals.
6) Rate difficulty and importance of goals. (optional)
7) Determine who else needs to be involved.
Strongly suggested: Get someone else to monitor your performance.
Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique That Works!
Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham
See also Managing Yourself with Specific Measurable Results, on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Leadership Development, Quotes and Aphorisms
I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
—Ecclesiastes 9:11
Click here for more posts on luck.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
My client, Raj Khera, has started several successful businesses, including MailerMailer and the MoreBusiness site for small businesses. I am Raj’s client, too, since I use MailerMailer for my email newsletter.
Raj has just released a crisp and efficient e-book titled The Naked Business Plan — How to Strip Your Concept Down to the Bare Essentials. It is worth reading and following for independent professionals, people starting a business, and businesses looking to re-invent themselves in the face of the new economic realities. Download it now.
Also on this blog,
One Page Business Plan
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
I asked a wealthy client about the beginnings of his fortune. As a child, he accumulated $600 through odd jobs and gifts. While in college in the early 1960s, he invested this savings into the stock market. By the time he got out of school he had multiplied his stake into enough cash to support himself for years, travel to Europe, and finance his first business.
I remarked, “Even in the go-go bull market of the 60s, that is an amazing return. You must have made some very smart investments. Why didn’t you continue onto a career in investing?”
My client is not a modest or self-effacing man, but he does see events clearly. He replied, “I did make some good investments, but I was smart enough to know I was lucky.”
Maybe this is why we use the same word, fortune, for both “chance” and “wealth.”
See also, The Lucky Rich on this blog.
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