Goal Setting
Next Step vs. Next Goal

Next Step vs. Next Goal

Most people know that it's helpful to break down very complex, long-term projects into smaller steps. This is crucial for achieving your goals. But I'd like to explain an important difference between identifying the "next step" as opposed to identifying the "next...

Measure What’s Important

Measure What’s Important

You have probably heard, "If you don't measure it, you can't improve it." True. You can't make something better unless you can get objective feedback on how you're doing. By choosing a metric, and periodically measuring it, you can see whether the changes you are...

How Can You Become More Realistic When Setting Your Goals?

How Can You Become More Realistic When Setting Your Goals?

One of the members of the Thinking Lab mentioned that he has difficulty setting realistic goals for his major projects, because his expectations are unrealistic. I'd venture to say that most people set unrealistic goals in at least some areas. This is a big problem....

Adapting Advice to Your Own Purposes

Adapting Advice to Your Own Purposes

A friend once shared with me how her 17-year-old daughter adapted some advice for her own purposes. It's an inspiring story with several lessons. The young woman was training to become an opera singer — an ambitious, long-term goal. It was particularly challenging for...

What’s So Hard About Planning Projects?

What’s So Hard About Planning Projects?

When you make a marketing plan, or a 5-year strategic plan, or even just a plan to complete a complex project, you sometimes don't know much. You know what you wish would happen. You know some things you need to do so you can make that happen. Everything else is...

Three Signs You Need to Check Your Premises

Three Signs You Need to Check Your Premises

Ayn Rand coined the catch phrase: "Check your premises." A premise is a past conclusion that supports your present thinking. Her point was that if you arrive at a contradiction in the present, there is an error somewhere in your past conclusions. You need to find that...

Want to be Happy? Set Objective Goals

Want to be Happy? Set Objective Goals

I am often asked what's wrong with setting a goal to "be happy" or "feel good." The problem is that these "goals" are subjective — ultimately circular. Goals need to be objective. To understand that goals need to be objective, first you need to understand what a goal...

Thinking About Affirmations

Thinking About Affirmations

I'm reading my friend Alan Zimmerman's book, The Payoff Principle, which explains the process he teaches for achieving "what you really, Really, REALLY want." He is inspiring me on many levels, including convincing me to take a second look at some practices that have...

Don’t Motivate Yourself, Lead Yourself

Don’t Motivate Yourself, Lead Yourself

There was a theme in the questions that members of the Thinking Lab asked me this week. They all involved some form of, "how do I motivate myself?" I've had an epiphany. This is a mistaken way to conceptualize the problem. Motivation is an effect, not a cause. When...

What’s the value of planning?

What’s the value of planning?

You have probably heard the saying, "no plan survives contact with reality." There's a lot of truth in this — so what's the value of planning? Planning pays off before you take action, while you are taking action, and after you have taken action. The most obvious...

Achieve Your Lifetime Goals by Thinking About Them Every Year

Achieve Your Lifetime Goals by Thinking About Them Every Year

"Change your smoke detector batteries when you change the clocks to or from Daylight Savings Time. Otherwise you'll forget." This little trick suggests a way to help you achieve some of the most important goals you'll ever set: your lifetime goals. Your lifetime goals...

Four Reasons Why Reviewing Written Goals Helps You Achieve Them

Here's a piece of advice you may know: Write down your top goals and re-read them every day. Simply implementing this daily review can make a significant difference in whether you achieve the goals. If this sounds like some kind of magical thinking, it's not....

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