Tag Archives: goals

3 Skinny Gems To Help You Achieve Your Goals

3 Skinny Gems

We’re officially 6 weeks into the New Year. So how are you doing on your goals? I ask because with the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day over and the weather still crappy, this is the time when a lot of people lose their fire and start skipping out on their promises to themselves.

I don’t want this to happen to you, so I’m recommending 3 inspiring little books that can push you forward.  And by little, I mean short, the longest no more than 3/4 of an inch thick. I’ve read them all many times, and I have an extra copy of one I’ll give to one of you. Continue reading 3 Skinny Gems To Help You Achieve Your Goals

The Blue Monday Myth

Blue MondayEvery year at this time, the media declares the third Monday of the month to be Blue Monday. The Most Depressing Day of the Year. This past Monday was it for 2017. It kinda makes sense, since the holidays are over, the credit card bills are in, and the weather sucks.

But it’s actually a total pantload.

The Blue Monday Origin Story

The guy who coined this term in 2005, Dr. Cliff Arnall  from Cardiff University, came up with a mathematical formula to measure this:

(W)Weather plus the difference between your debts (D) and your (d) salary, multiplied by the time since Christmas (T) times how long ago you already quit on your New Year’s resolution (Q). All this over your low Motivation  level (M) multiplied by your need to take action (Na).

Cliff’s work was quickly debunked as a paid journalism piece used to promote a travel company. Mathematicians abused Cliff for his “theory.” They called it “farcical” with equations that “fail even to make mathematical sense on their own terms.”

His university rushed to distance themselves with this smackdown: Continue reading The Blue Monday Myth

Start Planning 2017 Now

Start Planning 2017 Now!No I’m not out of my mind. Yes, like you, I hate that stores display Halloween gear in September, Thanksgiving stuff before Halloween, and Christmas crap before Thanksgiving. Hate it. But I’m not trying to rush things here, so please hear me out. Before you start heading headlong into that final dash towards the holidays, it is time to start planning 2017 now.

You know how it goes. Your best intentions end in a flurry of last-minute impulse buying, sappy holiday movies, and binge-eating sugary baked goods. That’s all okay.

You deserve all that. A nice celebration with family and friends and a break from work. But to get the New Year started like a sprinter out the gate, you need to do your planning and goal setting now.

The next three weeks will be hectic, but it’s important to schedule time to slow down and review the past year. What went well. What you accomplished. What you struggled through. What you learned.

This is a crucial process to your success next year. So we’re going to start now by giving 2016 it’s due. Continue reading Start Planning 2017 Now

The Final Piece of The Plan

If you spend any time in Corporate America you’ll hear this phrase over and over: “What gets measured gets done.” The reality in today’s metric-crazed business climate is that you have to measure things or people won’t do them. Lots of sad truth to that.

Often it’s just about focus. Most people are assigned more work than they can finish, so they make sure they finish the things that are going to show up on some muckity muck’s scorecard. Everyone knows that when a muckity gets a bad score, someone has to pay. And since, as they say, sh*t flows downhill, it’s probably going to be you. So you make damn sure you get those visible, measured and punishable things done, stat, above all else.

But this same dreadful principle that sucks in business, can help you win big with your personal goals. You won’t have to worry about being punished, either. Because when you measure and get things done for you, you’re the big winner, not some glad-handing, credit-stealing, kiss-up kick-down Vice President. Continue reading The Final Piece of The Plan