Here are some strategies to help you achieve your goals. Using these strategies* can help you reach your goals faster and with far less effort!

Strategy #1: Make sure your goal is inspiring. Take a look at your goals – are they merely interesting? Are they goals you feel you ‘should’ or ‘could’ or ‘ought to’ do? Make sure you feel really excited and inspired by your goal.

Strategy #2: Outsource or delegate your goal. Who says that you have to reach your own goal? Why not cheat a bit and have someone else do the work for you? This is often a win- win situation.

Strategy #3: Set goals that express your values. If your goals are value based, they are often easier to achieve because they are an expression of what is important for you. Clarify your vision and your values then set your goals.

Strategy #4: Work with an achievement partner / coach. Reaching goals is much easier with synergy and support that a partner provides - even if you are certain you can reach the goal on your own.

Strategy #5: Have your goals “in your face”. Have your goals ‘pop up’, constantly reminding you about them, makes achieving them easier. There are some great tools / products to help you with this, including Goal Genie.

TIP OF THE DAY – Look into some tools such as Goal Genie to make achieving your goals easier.

My challenge for you: is a stretch strategy – go for an impossible dream AND be comfortable that you may never reach it. But in the meanwhile, you’ll reach lots of smaller goals along the way.

Final thoughts: Knowing your destination is half the journey. Anon

* Source: Coaching School of Coaching

Michelle Zelig Pourau of Personal Power International is a successful business & life coach & professional speaker. She has considerable experience in all types of coaching around the world. Michelle started her coaching career when living in New York in 1992 & continued coaching in New York, while still working on Wall Street. On return to Melbourne Australia in late 1996, she returned to Management Consulting. In 1999 she decided it was time to re-ignite her coaching career & has been coaching since. Given Michelle has had over 20 years corporate experience, one of her speciality areas is executive/corporate coaching – helping people to understand & distinguish behaviours that are effective & those that impede their success. Once these are understood, Michelle then works with clients to work through these issues. Other coaching specialties are motivation, building confidence, de-stressing, setting &achieving goals, creating balance & life transitions, relationships and wellness. Michelle is past President Interntaional Coach Federation 7/2002 - 12/2003

So many people struggle with the issue of time management.

"There’s so much to do!"
"It takes so long!"
"So many little things!"

What many of these people don’t realize is that they are spending a lot of time on activities that are of little or no value to them. In this case, the problem isn’t with their time, it’s with their choice of activities.

If you were to ask a time-troubled individual, "How many of these tasks are part of one of your goal plans?" chances are good you would get a blank stare.

It’s easy to fill up your time. It’s a little more challenging to fill it up with value-rich activities.

In a recent discussion with a client about her time management issues, I told her this:

"Technically, there is no such thing as time management. Time cannot be managed. It cannot be saved, and you most certainly can’t ‘make’ time. You can only spend it as it comes in.

"It’s important that you learn how to ’spend’ it wisely. Don’t waste time on activities that don’t have any value to you. Learn to say ‘no’. Set goals that help you use your time effectively, and that enhance your quality of life. Always be moving forward."

When you decide to set a goal, you must think very carefully about your reason for choosing that goal. Ask yourself:

Does this goal enhance my overall quality of life?
Does it move me forward?
Will it make other opportunities available for me in the future?"

If the answer to any of these is no, seriously re-evaluate your goal.

If you are already in the process of working on achieving a particular goal, and you are struggling, ask yourself the above questions. Struggle can be a sign that your goals are not aligned with your lifestyle, that you are not passionate about achieving your goal, that your goal does not move you in the direction that you want to go, or that you need a more structured plan for achieving your goal.

Perhaps at one point, you WERE passionate about a particular goal, but after several years and many changes to your lifestyle and career, the goal just isn’t that important to you anymore. Don’t beat yourself up over it - cut your losses!

Each day is a brand new opportunity to create the future you will live into. When you select goals that enhance your quality of life, that future is a marvelous one.

*** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ***
Kimberly D. Wells specializes in goal setting and achievement. Find out more about the BE SMART Goal Achievement System at http://www.besmartgoals.com, or visit Kimberly’s Blog to receive one-on-one goal setting advice: http://besmartgoals.blogspot.com
*** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ***

A realistic look at the role of money in setting goals

True story…

A teenager once said to me that she did have a goal, but she would never reach it because she didn’t have money. Her goal was to go overseas.

I told her that she should not only look at the big picture, but that she should break down her goal into do-able steps. I spent some time with her and explained that if she break her goal up into steps, she could reach it.

I suggested that she look at finding part-time work, and that she save the money she made. With part-time work paying little money, I recommended that she use part of her savings and look at starting and running a part-time business (she was interested in making bead jewellery) - that way she would earn more money.

After I had finished talking to her, she felt a lot more positive.

- - - - - -

This example is a no-brainer as far as understanding that money is directly needed for the accomplishment of the goal.

That’s all fine and well, but you may be saying, "What if I don’t have goals that involve money?" Relationship goals, fitness goals, study goals, or a myriad of other "non-monetary" goals.

My friend, I cannot think of a goal that does not involve money, in one way or the other.

Let’s say you have fitness goals, study goals, or maybe a goal to improve your relationship. How can money have anything to do with these goals? For fitness goals you need to go to the gym, for example. Relationship goals mean meeting a special someone, or improving your relationship with a loved one. So, where does money fit into the picture?

On the surface, without further thought, you’d think I was crazy to suggest that money had a role to play in these "non-monetary" goals.

Let’s look at where money fits in with non-monetary goals.

Fitness goals

You want to cycle every day/week? The bicycle costs money.

You want to go the gym? Membership fees cost money. The correct clothes costs money.

You want a heart monitor to check your level of fitness? Costs money.

Relationship goals

You want to woo that super special person? Gifts, restaurant meal, movies - costs money.

You want show appreciation for your loved one? Again… gifts, week-end away, whatever - costs money.

Study goals

Register for a course? Need books. Exam fees. This costs money.

- - - - - -

Does this mean we should just throw in the towel, and give up on all our goals?

No, no, no, no, noooooooo!

Focus. It means we need to prioritize our focus. And what does it mean to prioritize our focus?

How Important Is Money In Your Goal Setting? Part 2

Want to see how I could buy my son’s full cricket outfit, got myself a rare (imported) DVD, bought some great books, without using a cent from my salary?

Visit this page.

Most of us are regularly exposed to information offering get rich quick schemes and ways to make our fortune for little or even no effort. This is probably even more the case for students of Self Improvement than for most other people.

There may even be some people who have become rich as a result of such offers!

However, if you study the lives of successful and wealthy people you will be unlikely to find many, if any, that achieved their success with little effort. Most worked very hard for their success, and you’ll find few, if any that didn’t have one of the fundamental skills of self improvement and success – discipline..

It takes discipline to do the things you know you should do when you don’t feel like doing them. It takes discipline to be able to follow your vision despite indifference or negative opinions of friends and family. It takes discipline to work on you dreams when you could be relaxing with friends or watching TV. It also takes discipline to search for and read the books, listen to the tapes, learn the skills, or get the training that can greatly enhance your progress towards your goals.

And there are countless other examples. If you desire success, you need goals and you need to make plans to reach them. But without the discipline to take the actions and to follow through, your dreams are likely to remain just that - dreams and nothing more.

Self Improvement Quote of the Day:

“The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.” - E.M. Gray

Garry Zancanaro is the founder of Self Improvement Directory, a website dedicated to Self Improvement and Personal Development, and to helping people live more successful and fulfilling lives by providing a directory of the highest quality Self Growth resources available. Includes many FREE eBooks and much more. Visit http://www.selfimprovementdirectory.com/index.html

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”. - Henry David Thoreau

The headlines shouted, “Easy Steps to Organization.” As I stand in the supermarket checkout line, one magazine issue right after the other expounds the virtues of being organized. Everyone is writing about getting organized and even TV reality shows chatter about the possibility of getting clutter under control.

Is it as easy as the magazine articles and TV programs claim? Sometimes yes, but most often no. Reaching your goal to get and stay organized (or any goal you choose) depends mostly on your dream and the strength of your commitment. In other words, how badly do you want it? Is it just a wishful thought or a vision built upon an action plan?

A top New Year’s resolution is to get organized. Every year on January 1, millions of people resolve to do a better job at decluttering and every year millions of people reach July still wishing they were better organized. How are you doing with your resolutions? Are you steadily progressing toward your goal or still hoping to find the time to start the project?

Why do so many people struggle with getting organized and never reach their goal? The answer is simple – self-imposing obstacles! Obstacles are the constraints we place upon our dreams that prevent us from moving forward. Many people begin with high hopes and end up with “excusitis” – a disease of making excuses when things do not end up the way we dreamed. Excuses range from not enough time, not enough money, not enough education, not enough help, not enough____ . You fill in the blank. Face reality! An excuse is just that, an excuse for you to not keep a promise made to yourself.

Sharing in a Dream

My older son has a scuba diving facility in Florida. His dream was to build a business that would allow him to share his passion of the underwater world. For three years, he and his wife have worked day and night to achieve their goal. By the way, my son started to swim when he was 6 months old and loves to tell people he was born with gills. Should I wonder why he chose a profession in the water?

Over the years, I have watched him grow in his skills and observed his continued learning process. He is now one of a few scuba instructors working with physically challenged individuals - OurOceanDreams.com

My son had a dream, a commitment and a plan. By systematically executing his action plan, he attained success. I watched this process and got caught up in his enthusiasm. When he broached the subject of me learning to scuba dive and share in his passion, I said yes. Now, I had a dream, a commitment and a plan.

Participating in a home study program, I read the book and watched the DVD before heading to Florida to complete the pool work. Finally, the day arrived and we boarded a plane for Bonaire where I discovered just how deep my commitment would be. Believe me, it was a mountain of fear to overcome – physically, mentally and emotionally. On the fourth day and after completing the list of qualifications, my son pulled out his underwater slateboard and wrote, “Congratulations, you are now a scuba diver and I’m proud of my Mom.”

It was a dream with lots of obstacles. But, the goal was clear and each obstacle was surmounted. Yes, I am now a certified scuba diver. Most obstacles are fear driven. When we face those fears, we can climb over, under, around or through each obstacle we meet. It can be done!

Summary – Think Big!

It is time to review your goals Are you on the right path or have you stumbled into the bushes? What is stopping you from reaching your goal?

I have learned that the only thing that stops people from achieving their dreams is the size of their thinking. So start to think big! How big you think determines the size of your accomplishments.

And, here is another truth – action cures fear. In other words, just do it, as Nike tells us. Put on those shoes, fins or skates and take the first step. What is holding you back? Are you fearful of the process or the results of decluttering? Just start! Sit down at your desk and start the clearing process. Pull out those clothes from the closet and start purging. Head to the basement and decide what is important enough to keep and occupy the valuable space.

Action is a confidence builder and tool for success. As David Schwartz, PhD states in “The Magic of Thinking Big,” an idea without action is a car without an engine. Successful people have ideas, develop an action plan and follow through.

Get in contact with me if you need help in the process. You will succeed if your commitment is strong.

Clutter can entangle you in chaos and confusion and plunge you into depression. Clutter has a negative effect on all aspects of your life – physical, mental and emotional. It traps you into living in the past, fearful of the future. Take the steps to eliminate clutter and rejoice in your peaceful surroundings. With the help of Judith Ann Kirk you will learn to eliminate stressful clutter and find joy in your surroundings.

In many of his wonderful talks the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar states “you’ve got to have goals.” Have you ever asked yourself why?

You are instructed that you need different types of goals. There are fitness goals, financial goals, relationship goals and spiritual goals. Your list of goals can be endless. There are some successful people who are working on more than fifty goals in developing their personal and business life. There is pride expressed in the fact that the more goals they have the better person they are.

There are more and more people becoming goal junkies.

There will be those of you who will give me good reasons for setting and achieving goals. I ask you a deeper question. This question is “For what purpose?” You think if you do not set goals nothing will be achieved. There are many who when setting goals feel increasingly conflicted.

Rather than more goal setters this world needs people to simply be present to their lives. Rather than live in the future-focused achievement-directed mode just take time to relax. Learn to let go into the present. In this way you can develop real confidence and presence. In this way you learn to live your life on purpose. The results will drive your energy higher than any goal setting routine. You will feel in harmony with who you are rather than simply what you do.

Goal setting for some has become obsessive.

You measure your worth by what you have achieved and not by who you are. Then this dynamic is visited upon the children. You rationalise your life into segments. You are the sum of the parts (ratio) but you do not feel whole. You measure your life in comparison with others. Everything in your life becomes a measure. It becomes something to be judged “good” or “bad”

As it says in the beautiful poem Desiderata, “do not compare yourself with others for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself.

Do you think Jesus Christ was a goal setter? Do you think Buddha set goals. Can you see either of these Beings sitting down late into the evening ticking off their list of accomplishments? Do you think that they carried the modern equivalent of a filofax? We have much to learn from the leadings of these masters.

You are a creative being.

Learn to trust this experience. Instead of doing a goal setting program learn to be more your SELF. Do you think God is asleep? Allow this power of universal consciousness to move through your feeling self. Then you will accomplish more than you ever dreamed off. Learn the secret of doing more by being more.

This experience of allowing yourself to be will be enough. Your goals are more likely to manifest without your constant interference. Allow your life to flower. Stop forcing the beauty of the moment into some future fixed result. Allow sometime for the spontaneous and the synchronistic. You are part of the play of this world. Play has been forgotten in the rush to achieve.

Remember you are enough now and forever. So be it.

Tony Cuckson is an Anam Cara. This Celtic term means “Soul Friend.” He specializes in providing insight for the spiritual journey, Blessings for YOU, words of wisdom and finding inner peace. Visitors to Irish Blessings Matter website and Tony’s Blog get the opportunity to develop a purpose driven life through articles, newsletters and other programs.

Get your free report called “7 ways to it’s a wonderful life” at http://www.irishblessingsmatter.com/, or go to Tony`s Blog at http://www.irishblessingsmatter.info/ where you will find links to information related to spiritual parenting, spiritual coaching and spirit in business.

Why is it that 95% of people who set themselves goals fail to reach them? In one word: impatience.

The most important and difficult stage of goal-building is the immediate stage after you set your goals. In the first stage, there’s a brief blip of euphoria. But this soon passes and then you hit the arid plateau of learning. It’s in this phase that most people lose their way and give up.

But this is the phase when you have to hang in there despite appearances. Otherwise, it’s like digging up the seeds a week after sowing them. So, here, for those who need a roadmap through the arid plains of goal-building, is a 6-step guide to managing your impatience and keeping your plans on track.

1. Have Plenty of Motivation Reminders. One of the cruel tricks that life plays on us is to make goal-setting easy and goal-building hard. This is no more true than in the opening phases of working towards a new goal. When we choose a new goal that seems within our reach, we are full of excitement and anticipation. It’s like the start of a marathon when everyone cheers us over the start line. But the cheers soon become a distant memory when we move into the second phase, the hard slog. It’s in this phase that we need to have a ready supply of motivation reminders to keep us going. Here’s one I often use. It’s from Ray Kroc, founder of the global restaurant chain McDonald’s. Kroc was an amazing entrepreneur. He says that it is in the early stages of working towards a new goal that you learn the most: “When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot.”

2. Be A Fly, Not A Bee. The chief problem with the early stages of goal-building is that you can never be sure of the right way forward, particularly if you are breaking new ground. You try something and it doesn’t work. You try again and it doesn’t work again. And again. And again. That’s tough. But it’s essential. Because you’re learning. Karl Weick says that in this situation it is much better to be a fly than a bee. When you place a fly and a bee in an upturned jam jar, the bee will head straight for the light and repeatedly buzz against the bottom of the glass. The fly on the other hand will dive frantically around the jar exploring every corner until he finds a way out. That’s the example to follow when you want to succeed: be a fly, not a bee.

3. Accept The Struggle. Those who are eager to succeed often treat the second phase of goal-building as an unnecessary waste of time. They would prefer to skip it and jump to the next phase of success. But this is to misunderstand the whole point of the second phase. It’s there to toughen you up. You may have heard the story of “The Man and the Butterfly” about the man who saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. To help it out, the man cut a bigger hole in the cocoon and pulled the butterfly through. However, instead of flying away, the butterfly was unable to fly. Its body was too swollen. What the man did not understand was that the butterfly’s struggle to emerge through the hole forces fluid from its body to its wings and thus makes them strong and ready to carry its weight. Like the butterfly, we need to struggle to succeed.

4. Be Objective. In stage two of goal-building, it’s valuable to stand back and distance ourselves from what’s going on. We need to be tripeds not bipeds. Bipeds are people who see only themselves and others. Risk-taking is a do-or-die undertaking. Progress is either a triumph or disaster. Life is black and white, winning or losing. Tripeds, on the other hand, can distance themselves from their situation by finding a third position where they can observe things with objectivity. Life isn’t either-or any more. It has depth, colour, and many angles.

5. Don’t Judge Yourself. Our win-lose culture puts great pressure on us to consider ourselves at any moment in life as either winners or losers. This means that failure is a bad thing and winning is everything. One of the most quoted expressions in our modern culture is: “Failure is not an option”. But this is to misunderstand the real nature of success. We need to fail in order to succeed. And we need to fail big-time in order to succeed big-time. Practically every successful entrepreneur, from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, experienced failure many times over. But they didn’t judge themselves. They interpreted failure as “not succeeding yet” and saw it as just one more step on the road to success.

6. Manage Your Morale. Of course, it’s not always much fun to be stuck in the hard slog phase of goal-building. Nobody’s cheering any more. You have nothing to show for your efforts. And the dream still feels as far away as ever. That’s when you have to manage your morale. That means managing your stress, keeping things light, and working on the things you can’t see: your thinking patterns, your emotions, and your spirit. And, like the fluid in the butterfly, these may just be the things that will make you fly. “I can say: “I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won’t do it.” Or I could say: “Get used to being uncomfortable.” It is uncomfortable doing something risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?” (Barbra Streisand)

We human beings are very similar to the plant world. We grow best when we work with Nature and time. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to achieve your goals. If you hold on with faith, certainty, and determination, you’ll get there in due course when the time is right.

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

For instant solutions to all your management training needs, visit http://www.managetrainlearn.com and download your FREE personal copies of our training software. And while you’re there, make sure you try out our prize quiz, get your surprise bonus gift, and subscribe to our newsletter. Go and get the ManageTrainLearn experience now!

It is important to have goals because they are good for your physical and mental health. You can have goals for all areas of your life. Here are a few ideas: Career, Learning, Clubs, Money, Community, Politics, Contribution, Professional, Emotional, Reading, Family, Relationships, Health, Service, Home, Spiritual Interests, Travel.

What Makes an Effective Goal?

Not all goals are motivating. If a goal is too vague, hard to measure, or impossible to achieve, it will lack effectiveness and ultimately be a wasted exercise. Goal statements should be:

• Stated with action verbs

• Specific

• Measurable

• Challenging

• Written down, with completion dates

Effective goals have all five ingredients.

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule (also known as Pareto’s Principle) says that 20% of what we do produces 80% of the results.

Here are a few examples:

• 20% of the area in your house requires 80% of the cleaning.

• 20% of the stocks in an investor’s portfolio produce 80% of the results.

• 20% of the kids in a class cause 80% of the problems.

• 20% of the books in a bookstore account for 80% of the sales.

It’s important to remind yourself not to get bogged down on low-value activities, but to stay focused on the high-value 20%.

High-Payoff Planning

High-payoff (HIPO) time is the 20% that produces the desired results. Low-payoff (LOPO) time is the 80% that produces only 20% of the results. The challenge is to find the HIPO tasks and work on those first.

The HIPO strategies:

• Setting a deadline increases the chances that you will accomplish a task.

• Setting a specific time to do something increases the chances that you will accomplish it.

• Divide and conquer: Break a task into smaller pieces and it becomes easier to complete.

• Motivate yourself by listing the benefits of completing a task.

• Motivate yourself in another way by rewarding yourself for completing a task. The LOPO strategies:

• Don’t do it at all.

• Do it later.

• Do it with minimum time investment or at a lower standard.

Think of your own life. Can you identify five high-payoff and five low-payoff targets and the activities that contribute directly to each?

Identifying and writing down these items increases the chances that they will be accomplished.

Force Field Analysis

For every goal that you set, there are conditions (forces) that encourage its completion. There are also conditions that discourage its completion.

The Force Field Analysis process helps you identify two kinds of forces: (1) the forces that are pushing with you as you work toward your goal (encouraging forces), and (2) the forces that are pushing against you (discouraging forces).

The process of force field analysis (developed by scientist Kurt Lewin) is based on a law of physics that says that when two equal but opposite forces push against one another, there is no movement.

Why is this important to a person working toward a goal? Because a similar dynamic can prevent you from achieving your goal.

The idea here is to avoid paralysis and encourage momentum by increasing positive (encouraging) forces and decreasing negative (discouraging) forces. For example:

Goal: Run in a marathon in 2002.

Discouraging forces:

• I haven’t exercised regularly for the past five years.

• I tend to start projects and then get bored quickly.

• I live in the Midwest and weather can be a problem. Encouraging forces:

• I am in good health.

• My neighbor is a runner and has encouraged me to take up the sport.

• My family thinks this is a good idea.

After identifying as many encouraging as discouraging forces, you can map a strategy to build on your strengths—the forces in your favor—and reduce the barriers.

I encourage you to choose a goal of your own and make a list of the encouraging and discouraging forces. This will help you develop an action plan and increase your chances of success.

Your Action Plan

Once you have identified the forces that both favor and discourage the achievement of your goal, it’s time to make an action plan. Here is an example:

Force: I haven’t exercised regularly for the past five years.

Actions I can take:

1. Start slowly.

2. Map out a plan where I start with a 20-minute walk this Saturday morning.

3. Buy a running magazine.

4. Visit a few running web sites.

5. Straighten up the room where my exercise bike has been serving as a clothes rack. Clear away the junk and move a TV in to encourage me to use the bike every other morning.

Who can help me:

1. My neighbor, the runner.

2. My family members will encourage me. I well tell them that I need this.

3. The woman in the next cubicle started an exercise program last year. Now it’s your turn. Just fill in the blanks.

Force:

Actions I can take:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Who can help me:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Garrett Coan is a professional therapist,coach and psychotherapist. His two Northern New Jersey office locations are accessible to individuals who reside in Bergen County, Essex County, Passaic County, Rockland County, and Manhattan. Garrett also offers online and telephone coaching and counseling services for those who live at a distance. He can be accessed through http://www.creativecounselors.com or at 201-303-4303.

My husband and I recently spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast inn in New Hampshire. One of the selling points of this particular B&B was that the room had its own fireplace. When we came back from dinner, I set about making a fire for us. I’m not exactly Mountain Woman, but I know how to make a pretty good fire. Try as I might, though, I could not get this one going. Neither could my husband . . . until he figured out what was wrong. He said, "There isn’t enough draft from the flue. We have to open some windows." Which of course made perfect sense: midwinter in New Hampshire, open some windows to let in some cold air so we can have a nice cozy fire! One thing I’ve learned being married for 28 years is that the path with heart doesn’t always "make sense." He opened some windows a bit and in no time we had a rip-roaring fire.

Lighting and tending a fire requires attention and skill. Sometimes the fire gives dramatic cues – a spray of sparks, a burst of flame. And sometimes the cues are subtle – as in the case of the missing draft.

Igniting and tending the fires of personal intention also require attention and skill. Getting the fire going in the first place typically requires three elements:

– Clarify your intention.
– Identify some next steps.
– Get started taking those next steps.

The greater challenge seems to come during next stage, which requires that you:

– Take the action.
– Listen to the information that the action produces.
– Apply that information to determine your next step.

This stage can last a very long time. You essentially repeat these steps until you reach your intended goal, change your intention, or lose heart and let the fire go out. Did you know that the most common reason people let the fire go out is that they haven’t learned how to listen to, and apply the feedback from their actions?

Here’s an example. A small business owner I worked with several years ago wanted to increase her customer base. Although her marketing strategy was delivering very poor results, she remained stubbornly committed to it because, as she put it, "it should be working." Meanwhile, her business was dropping off and she was getting more and more discouraged. Her fire was going out, but she was unwilling to move the logs around, use the bellows, or put on another log. I could not convince her to use the feedback. She eventually stopped working with me and closed the business.

Another client of mine used "negative" feedback much more effectively. Her intention was to strengthen her boundaries at work and to stop doing other people’s jobs at the expense of her own. This meant going against her natural instinct, which was to always help other people. When she started paying closer attention, she noticed that she felt angry when she was doing work that she didn’t want to be doing. She learned to use the anger as a cue. As soon as she noticed herself feeling angry, she would step back and ask herself whose work she was doing. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the anger signaled that she was doing someone else’s work. She would then do something about it, such as return the work to the person whose job it was. Over time she became quite skilled at this and learned to not take it on in the first place unless she really wanted to and had the time for it.

THE FEEDBACK OF "YES"

It’s just as important to honor the positive feedback – no matter how subtle or unusual it looks. While engaged in some activity, you may feel flow, or you may have the sense that you’re just getting going and you don’t want to stop. This is feedback that you are on course. Don’t discount it. Let it in. It will fan the flames of your intention. Or you may notice a delightfully synchronous occurrence. As my friend Chris sat in her mountain home writing about her connection with animals, her cats gathered outside her window, looked toward her and meowed. This is the feedback of "yes."

And every once in a while, your action will result in what I call a "huge nod from the universe." You will experience a resounding "yes!" A client of mine had a very clear intention to reach more people with her work. One of her action steps was to hold a series of workshops. Several things happened. First, a local retail store decided to sponsor and publicize her workshops. Second, the turnout for these workshops was high. Third, the response at these events was very enthusiastic. Her energized, excited participants swarmed around her after the workshops to express their appreciation and gratitude. They became private clients, they signed up for her clinics, and they came back to her subsequent workshops with friends in hand. Can you imagine how this positive feedback affected the fire of her intention??? Like putting a match to crumpled newspaper under kindling. Foooooom! A HUGE flame!

Sometimes the huge nod from the universe seems to come from within you: the creative breakthrough you experience after writing every day for several months; the blast of exhilaration you feel finishing your first Walk for Hunger; the sheer fun of finally "getting" swing dance in your body. These are vivid experiences of affirmation. The message is clear: "keep doing this."

Possibly the hardest feedback to interpret is what feels like no feedback at all. You see minimal results - neither a yes nor a no. Often this means there just isn’t enough information yet. Hang in there, keep doing what you’re doing, and pay attention. Sooner or later, you’ll receive the critical mass of information you need. I urge you to pay attention to the information your actions generate in a way that keeps the fires of your intention burning. If your actions are producing satisfying results, know that you are on course, and see if you can turn it up a notch. If your actions are not bringing satisfying results, do something different. You may need to open a window!

COACHING TIPS:

Answer these questions:

1. What are you working on, currently?

2. What action steps are you taking toward reaching your goal?

3. What is the feedback from taking these steps?

4. Are you using that feedback to determine your next steps?

Copyright 2003 Sharon Teitelbaum. All rights reserved.

Sharon Teitelbaum, http://www.stcoach.com, a Work-Life and Career Coach, works with high achieving women with young children, people at mid-career, and professionals seeking greater career satisfaction and work-life balance. She coaches by phone and in person in Boston. Her newsletter, Strategies For Change, offers practical tips for work-life success.

Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, Sharon’s first book, was published in 2005.

A motivational speaker, Sharon also also delivers keynotes & workshops on work-life issues. Clients include Children’s Hospital Boston, SunLife Financial, Arnold Worldwide, and many parent and alumni groups. She’s been featured in national publications including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Working Mother Magazine.

Married for 30 years, she is the mother of two amazing young women.

If you’re considering hiring a coach to help you with challenges like these, contact me for an initial consultation at no charge.

Note: This article was originally written at mid year so it is good reminder around June but the principles are applicable anytime.

In a sporting event, the players are given a break at the half in order to refresh themselves, look at how they played in the first half, and set strategy for the second half. So as you approach halftime, here are some thoughts. Do you have a vacation planned in the next two months that will give you the needed break and refreshment? If not, schedule one this week! How did you "play" in the first half of this year? Have you met your goals that you established at the beginning of the year? Here are a few ideas to evaluate where you are at with your goals as you approach the halfway mark.

Take some time to sit down alone and review your goals. How many are you on mark to make? How many have you not even begun on? How many have you achieved?

For those you haven’t even begun, my suggestion would be to reset your goal at 10 percent of the original goal. Obviously this goal hasn’t been a priority, for whatever reason, and most likely won’t suddenly become so. But you can make some ground. Set a small increase for the remaining six months and get ahead a little in these areas.

For the goals you are on pace to achieve, try to stretch about 10 percent. So, to give it a numerical value, if your original goal was 10 and you have already reached 5 after halfway, stretch yourself to try to achieve 11 by the end of the year. This will give you a good reason to kick into high gear as the year progresses.

For those goals you are on pace to break strongly through, try an increase of 50 percent.

And finally, for the goals you have already reached, try to set the new goal at 100 percent of the original goal.

In all of these remember that it is better to try hard, and even fail at a higher goal, than to take the easy route and attain nothing at all!

Best of luck as you re-evaluate your goals!

About The Author:

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams.

To see Chris "live" at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on the subject of Secrets of Influence go to http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434