Tag: goals

Self Improvement · Teamwork · Uncertainty

December 30, 2017

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Are our best days behind us? Or do you see a promising future? Either way, it is mostly perspective. If I look back wistfully to a better time when I was happier, smarter, taller, thinner, fitter … the view is tainted with nostalgic naivety. I remember the best of times in the past and have conveniently forgotten any discomfort, stress or anxiety. Troubles seem to have melted away, and I see only the high points. This is probably a healthy outlook (back look) because there is very little that can be done to change yesterday and if we narrowed our perspective on the negative, we would find ourselves swimming in the same pool of despair and discomfort. Beginning the next adventure with that cloud hanging in the rear window can suck the enthusiasm and possibilities out of the journey.
When we look forward to moving forward and anticipate remarkable opportunities, we are most likely to be attentive and observant, so we see them as they appear. (they don’t really appear, we create them by intentionally doing those things that are necessary, but if we aren’t looking for them, we pass them by).

As I tear another page off the calendar and hang a new set of pages on the wall, I am aware of a couple of potential projects and need to continue to cultivate relationships and knowledge so I will be involved. I have committed to five daily actions that lead to my five 2018 goals, but none of them will happen unless I am diligent and intentionally habitual. Completing five new tasks every day (none of which are directly related to the work that I do) requires me to change my morning routine and move some current practices to other times or eliminate them from my priority list. I have spent years learning about my disposition and tendencies and recognize that if I don’t apply rigor, accountability, and positivity to my priorities, I am prone to self-sabotage and excuse making. 2018 is the “Year of No Excuses”. I can accept that there are reasons within my control and much that is outside my influence that can and will impact my progress but those reasons can not become excuses for not continuing, for not overcoming and for not finding a different approach. My self-examination and reflection over the past five years have verified that I am ‘destined’ to doing great things when I am prepared for, confident in and hopeful about all my tomorrows, whether I can see them from where I am standing or not.
If you haven’t taken time and exerted energy in examining your life so far, your conditioned practices, and your desires for the upcoming trip around the sun, I encourage you to block a couple of hours today, tomorrow and Monday to reflect, write, plan and ready yourself for the “Year of No Excuses”. Some helpful starting points for your reflection and planning might be in these questions.

1. What action, project or assignment from 2017 are you the proudest to have been involved with?
2. Why does this action, project or assignment from 2017 make you proud?
3. Are there similar, associated or ancillary projects that could be part of your 2018?

4. What work did you undertake in 2017 to improve your physical, emotional and mental health?
5. What resources; people, material, practices were helpful in the improvement?
6. How can you jumpstart the next level of physical, emotional and mental health improvement?

7. Who was your most important relationship in 2017? Do they know how important they are to you? Did you add value to their life in 2017?
8. Did you neglect relationships in 2017 by being too busy to connect? Can you change the situation?
9. Are there people in your life that drain your wellbeing? Do they know how they impact you?

10. What three desires/goals do you have for 2018? How will you feel on December 31, 2108, when you celebrate that you have achieved them?

If you haven’t taken time yet to answer questions like this and can’t/won’t make time to respond over the next three days, don’t throw your hands up in frustration. It is always better to start late than not at all. If you need a kickstart, we can provide you with a Q1 coaching program with an hour session every week until March 31, 2018. We can help you work through these questions and other exercises that will help you with accountability to those things that are important to you. You can join us in the “Year of No Excuses” and make the next 8760 hours the best so far.

Make this year remarkable,

Bob

Original Thought · Self Improvement · Uncertainty

Grab a Pen and Paper

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

If you are reading this today, it is too late. Let’s look towards tomorrow. Before you crawl into bed tonight, stop and write down your 3 goals for tomorrow. Put the list of three things somewhere where you will see it first thing in the morning. I always try to follow Mark Twain’s advice around goals; “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Once I get the biggest, least appealing goal out of the way – often within the first hour, I am on track to accomplish even more.

remarkable-people

Back to the night time list. If you write meaningless or vague goals that don’t inspire you, they will likely get left undone or you won’t be able to recognize when you have achieved them. Goals beget goals like steps turn into a movement. Start with something smaller, and meaningful that begins where you are. There is no point in creating an unrealistic goal of doing 100 push-ups if you haven’t ever done 1. But ” I will complete 10 push-ups before 9am and another 10 push-ups before noon” may be doable and specific enough to succeed. This type of goal can progress by adding reps (10 3xs a day) or more push-ups (11,12,20…) or becoming habitual 2×10 every day.

I prefer to set goals around my strengths. So reading 150 books in a year was feasible and I am well on my way to exceeding the target. I needed to break the big goal into smaller chunks. ” I will read 100 pages of “Superstitions” by Bruce M Hood before 9pm tomorrow” is specific enough for me but if my schedule and lifestyle was busier, I might need to ” read 100 pages of “Superstitions” by Bruce M Hood between noon and 1pm and on my 40 minute commute home, tomorrow”. Knowing how you succeed and what will work for you is the path to capitalizing on the opportunity.

I am a morning person and a, usually up about 5am so getting stuff done early in the day works for me. If you tend to be a night owl, that might be better. I can’t draw a circle, freehand, but I can write 1500 words a day so if I have a goal of shring a position, an idea or a message, I play to my strong points.

If I have a monthly monetary expectations like $5000 in sales commissions, or $3000 in new business, or $10,000 return on investment, I need to set daily goals that will keep me on track to do the work that leads to the money. ” I will make 5 follow-up calls to clients between 10am and 11:30am”, ” I will prospect 10 new leads by cold calling 60 names from the company list tomorrow afternoon. I will keep calling until I have reached the 60 calls.”

When you set a good goal and can’t ever achieve it, ask what isn’t working. Maybe you are playing against tendencies, against best practices, or against your best interests. Or the goal doesn’t really have meaning for you. Or you don’t have the resources or tools to complete the tasks. Evaluate and adapt the goal or drop it.

Start tonight by writing your goals for tomorrow and then wake up ready to get started.

B

Self Improvement · Uncertainty

Where Are You Going?

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

The beginning of a new calendar page and the start of the 2nd quarter of 2017 affords us all an opportune moment to look ahead and reflect back. The quarter that was brought me unimagined opportunities, physical challenges and a two surprise financial commitments (one that I needed to meet and one receivable that lapsed). Despite the unexpected or maybe because of it, I managed to stay on target for my 1st quarter goals. I wrote 295,000 words in three projects. I added five new clients and added value to three others. I needed to adapt my run mileage goal because of a nagging and recurring foot injury but was able to clock the missing mileage on a rowing machine. My health improvement was confirmed by my doctor. My reading goal of 150 books this year remains on target (actually one book ahead of target).

How was your quarter? Did January, February, and March live up to your expectations? Did you? What was the highlight of last week? last month? last quarter?
Could you have improved your performance in any element of your life or business?

What are you looking forward to this term? Spring has officially arrived where I live and longer days, early morning sunlight and the greening of my yard and neighborhood is always invigorating. Spring is my third favorite season but coming off what was and felt like a long winter, I am pretty sold on the possibilities ahead.

My goals for the next quarter are my goals and I doubt that they fit well with your circumstances or ambitions. I try to set reachable goals that I can manage if I follow a plan, in all seven elements of the Remarkable People Life Wheel and do an assessment of how satisfied I am in each today and a check-in at the end of June.
I post my goals here as an example of what kinds of things you might consider and to create a public record that holds me to account.

Family – I commit to spending both quality and quantity time with the 20 people in my life that mean the most to me. Quantity – 1 hour a week for most and 8 hours a day for the most important person. Quality – is a reflection of perspective so I commit to being present with each encounter and doing things that the other finds interesting and fun.

Finance – I commit to collect all debts or set up a payment schedule for receivables. There are some large outflows this quarter as we complete a real estate transaction so I commit to reducing expenses by 10%. There are some opportunities in the next three months to reduce or eliminate personal debt so I commit to taking advantage of 3 debt reduction strategies.

Fun – Most of the other six elements of my life contribute to the fun I have in my life. My relationships make me happy and I smile and laugh aloud a dozen times a day. I play games, read great books, write, run, row, rest, and relate which all add to the fun bank. This would be a 10 in the Remarkable Life wheel satisfaction index but I commit to be observant and ready to take in new fun.

Health – This is an ongoing commitment – a higher order habit to live a holistically healthier life. That means that monitoring and maintaining my current blood pressure. I commit to losing another 5 pounds this quarter (which gets me to a 3 year healthy weight loss goal). I commit to eliminating alcohol for April, sugar for May, and coffee for June – for no particular reason other than making a cleansing commitment is good for my constitution. I am receiving treatment for the foot injury so I can commit to daily exercise and a minimum of 100 km on trails each month.

Work – I have three ongoing writing assignments and I commit to writing every day this quarter, alternating projects. I am best at this commitment first thing in the morning so I am ready to return to writing 750-1500 words before 7am each day.
I have space for 4 new clients starting this month (so take this as an invitation to reach out, if you could see us co-creating value in your life). I will send out three newsletters and finalize the content for an online goal achievement course.

Side Hustle – this is my personal category for element 6 (you can pick something that resonates with you – some have opted for travel, projects, relationships, spirituality…)
My side hustle basket is empty right now. I am not testing the waters, surveying, scanning, budgeting any interesting projects. Two ongoing civic hustles are on hold until the October municipal election. I have committed to assist three candidates with their campaigns for election and need to firm up expectations and time needed.

That is the simple accountability and reflection process that takes a couple hours because I keep an inventory running through the quarter and use technology to keep track of achievements.

If you could use some assistance in creating your Life element goals, I would be happy to offer a complimentary one hour Skype session to readers. If that is of interest, please comment here or reach out to bob@remarkablepeople.ca

Self Improvement
Bob McInnisLeave a comment

 

remarkable-peopleCan you design the life you desire? For most the answer should be yes. For those reading this, the answer is definitely yes? But where can we begin? We can’t identify barriers or set targets if we don’t know where we are or where we want to be. We need a destination and best it is one that won’t disappoint when we arrive.

I use a 1000 day horizon quite often because it seems close enough that I can imagine what my world will be like then (as opposed to 25 years). It is far enough away that almost anything is possible. I can’t be a medical doctor but I can be in my 2nd year working towards it. I couldn’t be a doctor – I don’t handle other’s pain and frailty particularly well and I know that I would be impatient with patients.

So 1000 days from now what do you want to be doing? Travelling? Writing? Running? Serving? Sharing? How do you know that any or all of these would bring you joy? How do I discover what is bringing me joy and conversely what is dragging me down? In the whirlwind of our days the rainbows of elation and the clouds of dissatisfaction blend and we miss seeing where they begin and end. What if we took 168 hours; one week and recorded throughout the day those activities and actions that we are involved with and record whether we are energized and joyful or exhausted and dejected or somewhere in between?

We could begin to see the kinds of stuff we should be doing more of and the stuff we should be doing less of. Then we can begin crafting the first 100 day segment. What do I need to do today to have more of what I want and less of what I don’t? What are the first 5 steps – which is first? Begin doing step one and move to step two. As you complete the fifth, re-evaluate : where am I, where do I want to be, what are the 5 steps? This won’t necessarily be 100 day segments. Sometimes the five steps can be accomplished in an afternoon, sometimes it will take a year. But if you keep a record and reimagine every 100 days it will serve as a motivation and you will become proficient at building a plan and completing it.

I usually say ” easy to say harder to do” but in this case I believe it is easy to say and do. Check in every morning, focus on the goal in front of you, move to the next and the next. Progress begets progress. You will soon find yourself closer to understanding what, why and how you want your life to be in late 2019 and you will be 20,30, 100 steps closer to it being true.

Make Today Remarkable, by noticing when you are and aren’t

B

Self Improvement · Uncategorized

Remarkable People

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

Is there a cause or correlation between the effort you put out and the results you achieve? Is there a connection between the quality and quantity of time that you put into a project and the value you add? Are you monitoring your efforts and results or coasting through your days, weeks, months life? It seems entirely possible that someone can fake their efforts, actions and receive undue credit form leadership but does it leave them empty, guilty, and demotivated? Are you willing to step up your game and become a remarkable person using your strengths to strengthen others and to add value in every situation? If you answered yes to any or all these questions you could benefit from a season of remarkable people coaching.

We are adding clients for the fourth quarter and offering a winter special to those who are ready to commit to achieving greatness. Did you set some 2016 goals that have fallen by the wayside? Do you think they are impossible to reach this year? Are the goals still meaningful to you? If you don’t get started soon (this week, next month) you are probably right to believe that you won’t get to the goal. But if you are ready, we have an opportunity for you. If you sign up for 5 discounted coaching sessions (regular $1000), we will add a 6th complementary session. Each solution focused, feed forward coaching call will last 40 minutes and focus on setting a meaningful and realistic goal and removing internal and external barriers to success. Over 5 weeks, we will work through difficult circumstances with wicked impacts that need your specific and unique strengths to overcome them.

Are you ready to reach remarkable objectives? Visit http://www.remarkablepeople.ca for more information. You can send an inquiry through the site or contact me bob@remarkablepeople.ca to begin the process. If you make a decision to make 2016 a remarkable year, we will provide you with 5 sessions plus bonus complimentary call for $567 plus GST.

I look forward to working with you.

B

Self Improvement

What is Your Urgenda

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

I know, I just made up another word but I hope that it prompts you to consider how your are spending your time. By combining urgent with agenda I want you to consider if you are only reacting in the moment rather than attempting to follow your ‘plan’.  Plan is in ” because as readers here know I believe that in our ever changing world plans can’t be rigid do I guess I’m asking are you following your flexible life agenda to your preferred future?

Yesterday, I needed to remind myself that the urgency I was feeling needed to be examined and found that I was reacting to the reasonable expectations of someone else. Their expectations (demands) were reasonable for them to reach their shot term goal but unreasonable for me because it took me off my change agenda and pulled me away to do something that wasn’t important (to my goals).

I am not sure how we deal with these external challenges or the internal procrastination voices that create false urgency when we should be focused but examining the moment is worthwhile. Yesterday, I was able to say ” I am working on something else right now but will make time after 3 to take a look at your request”. They were a bit surprised that I didn’t jump to their request but seemed to accept my response.  I then turned on Pomodoro and did four 25/5 sessions that quieted the voice of delay and guilt in my head. I got a lot accomplished and then returned to respond to the urgenda of someone else.

Make Today Remarkable by recognizing what is important,

B

Uncategorized

Are Some Goals Unachievable?

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

Generally I would say all reasonable goals are achievable but just like the serenity prayer I have a discernment problem.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The courage to change the things I can,And the wisdom to know the difference.  My problem is that haven’t mastered the wisdom part.im possible

I have been chasing some goals, that I still believe are reasonable but progress towards them has slowed or ceased. For example, I set a goal of running a sub 25 minute 5k. Seems possible even though 2 years ago I was running around 35 minutes and that I am not 61 years old. In the first few months my time fell and my pace went up. I plateaued at 30 minutes for a while and took up some coaching to break the next barrier. I can run under 29 most days and ran 27:35 in an October race but haven’t broke 28 minutes since.

I understand that there are so many circumstances at play – rest, nutrition, elevation, motivation, injury but I am disappointed that the progression hasn’t been on my schedule.

Should I let the disappointment deter me from chasing the goal – I don’t think so because the happiness is actually in the pursuit of stretch goals. (there is another circumstance – should I stretch before or after or both). Maybe what I am learning is that my other goals that I easily achieved were too easy.

How about you? Are you chasing goals that exceed your immediate grasp?

Make Today Remarkable, in the happiness of pursuit,

B

 

Uncategorized

New One Minute Manager

Bob McInnis4 Comments

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To say that the original “One Minute Manager” is a timeless classic seems silly but it has been one of the most read business books of the last thirty years.  13 Million sold and published in 37 languages speaks to the popularity and importance of this short work. So when IO received a notice from Becky Robinson – Weaving Influence  that a new version was launching very soon (next week) I started thinking about where I was twenty years ago and how the book (among a few) helped shape me.  To be honest, I hadn’t thought about one minute goals, one minute praises or one minute feedback, at least not consciously, for years.

Twenty years ago, I was doing a job, going to work every day, getting the job done – barely. I remember having an attitude of complacency and getting by. I didn’t feel the day-to-day was meaningful. Work to live. Blanchard was one of a few authors I read that changed by my attitude along with a practical approach to making the day-to-day productive and fun. It was a stress reducing, meaning making tool that I put away on a bookshelf.

I am anxious to get New One Minute Manager ;  the new version for the new times where there seems to be so many distractions, pressures, and so many fewer person to person opportunities.

Make Today Remarkable, by praising someone,

B