Goals

What’s Essential?

/ Scott / Leave a comment

Why is it so easy to get distracted from pursuing our goals?  Even more so, why does it often seem like our progress is moving at glacier-like speed, leaving us feeling like we’ll never get where we’re trying to go in life?  I think it’s possible that we’re concentrating our efforts on tasks that won’t yield the high level of results we’re looking for.

I was reading Pamela Slim’s book “Escape from Cubicle Nation” recently (yes, I’m planning an escape!) about a person who was gaining control over their finances.  When asked what the most important thing they did to gain control over their finances was, they responded with, “Simplify to identify what’s essential, and then eliminate as much as possible everything that isn’t essential.”

That makes perfect sense in the context of personal finance.  It also got me thinking about how this same principle could be applied to the pursuit of goals.  I find plenty of examples in my own life where my focus is on something that is non-essential to an objective I’m trying to achieve.  The result is usually wasted time and delayed results.

For example, I recently signed up and created a user profile on a social networking site for voice overs.  As part of creating my profile, there was an option to add a photo.  A photo wasn’t required, it was optional.  Stated another way, it was non-essential to creating my profile.  Would you believe I wasted close to an hour trying to decide on the right photo to use?  What’s wrong with me?!  I had plenty of other essential tasks to do, instead of wasting time on this non-essential task.  (In my own defense, I learned this concept AFTER the incident I just described)

It’s amazing how quickly an hour can be lost to a non-essential task.  Imagine doing several non-essential tasks over the course of a day, a week, or a month.  Carry that out a year, and it’s staggering to see the negative compounding effect of wasting time on things that aren’t essential.

If you really want to cause something to happen in your life, start identifying what’s essential and what’s not.  Strive to spend the large majority of your time on essential tasks, and seek to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, the amount of time you spend on non-essential tasks.  You’ll notice a marked increase in the progress you make toward achieving your goals.

Give a Damn

/ Scott / Leave a comment

Give a Damn

“Whatever!”  Have you heard this phrase recently?  Have you said it in a conversation, or used it as a quick retort?  It can be fun to throw out when joking around with friends.  It can also be used to instantly communicate that your interest in the topic of discussion has been exhausted and you’re ready to move on.  However it’s used, the message it conveys is clear:  “I don’t give a damn.”

It’s become trendy not to care and to be cynical and apathetic as opposed to giving thought to a topic or perspective and actually caring.  Perhaps it’s easier to do so because people are busy or are mentally engaged elsewhere.

I was recently listening to another Entrepreneur on Fire podcast and was struck when the guest gave his favorite success quote.  It was simply, “Give a Damn”.  Something about this quoted really resonated with me.  It reminds me to actually care about the things I’m pursuing, the people I’m with, the effort I give, and the person I’m becoming.  This phrase reminds me to be engaged and committed to what I devote my efforts to.

There’s another thing I love about that quote.  No matter what I’m doing, I can add “Do I…” to the front of it and regularly ask myself, “Do I give a damn?”  That’s a powerful question!  No matter what I’m doing or what I’m engaged with, I can stop and ask this question of myself.   If my response to that question is “Yes” and my effort or engagement is sub-par, then I clearly need to step my game up and engage at a higher level.  If I answer, “Yes” and I am fully engaged, that confirms I’m right on track.

What if the answer to this question is, “No”?  Then what?  It seems like the next logical question might be, “Why don’t I give a damn?”  This question warrants an honest answer beyond simply, “because” or “I don’t know”.  It may be that a bad attitude is to blame.  That’s easy to correct, because we have complete control over that.  What if the attitude is good and the answer to the question of whether we give a damn is still, “No”?  This could be a strong indicator that we’re pursuing something that doesn’t align with our passions, strength, or values.  It could also mean the people we’re with, or activities we’re engaging in are not fulfilling or causing us to grow and be stretched.

Let’s be mindful of what we’re spending our time and effort doing.  Yes, there are some things in life that we need to do, which we may not care about.  However, the point here is not to voluntarily waste significant portions of our lives on things we don’t give a damn about.

Make sure that you give a damn in your efforts to cause something to happen.  Greatness never came from someone who didn’t care.

Get Out of the Zone

/ Scott / Leave a comment

We all have one.  For some, it’s pretty big.  For others it can be rather small.  Regardless of its size, the fact is everyone has a comfort zone.  However, what each person’s comfort zone represents to them, and how they view their comfort zone can be quite different.  I believe how we view our comfort zone has a lot to do with how we view life’s opportunities and challenges.

What I especially like about our comfort zones is that they are flexible and can be stretched and made to grow, becoming ever-larger as we gain new skills and experience and seek new opportunities.  My comfort zone also makes me aware of boundaries, either real or perceived, that are holding me back.  Its boarder represents opportunities to try new things, travel to new destinations, to meet new people, to learn and to grow.  Just beyond its boarder represents endless possibilities for a more enriched and fulfilling life.

The best part is that when we continually venture beyond its borders, our comfort zone expands, providing us with additional opportunities just beyond its newly expanded border.  What a great way to live!  I’m excited by the thought of having a comfort zone that grows larger with each year.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.  Where some see a comfort zone a something to be stretched and grown, others see it as the walls of a mighty fortress, never to be breached or crossed.  To this mindset, the comfort zone represents the entirety of whom they are and who they will remain.  Anything beyond its boundaries is for other people, is impossible to attain, or is too far out of reach.  Anything outside of their comfort zone is of no interest.

But there’s one thing even worse than a comfort zone that never expands.  That is a comfort zone that has begun to contract.  This can occur when, for whatever reason, a person gives up trying to stretch and actively pulls back from activities that cause growth and development.  In this scenario, the comfort zone becomes the walls of a prison, within which our growth and potential serve a life sentence.

This is not how our comforts zones should be.  As we continually seek to cause something to happen that betters our life and the lives of others, we can be assured that our comfort zones will be stretched as part of the process.

John Maxwell gave a similar illustration with a rubber band in one of his Maximum Impact lessons.  His question was, “When is a rubber band the most useful?”  The answer:  when it is being stretched.  How true of our comfort zones as well!

Commit to regularly stretching your comfort zone just beyond its borders.  Be mindful of daily opportunities to do so and take advantage of them.  Perhaps begin journaling each opportunity you take to expand your comfort zone.  Do this and, in the future, look back and see how much you and your comfort zone have grown as a result.

Unwilling to Settle

/ Scott / Leave a comment

Expectations, motivation, excitement, and confidence are high.  You have a plan and are ready to cause something to happen.  Don’t you just love the beginning stages of a new undertaking?

But what happens when the planning stage is over and it’s time to start executing he plan?  This is where challenges start to arise and where the excitement and confidence can begin to wane, as we face uncertainty, doubt, fear, and our own negative self-talk.  Left unchecked, these feelings can begin to cause us to re-evaluate the goals and dreams we have for ourselves, and adjust them down to a level that doesn’t seem as scary and challenging.  The worst case would be that we abandon our dreams completely, and return to our lives as they were, being ever-haunted by regret and the thoughts of…”what if…” or “I wonder if I could have done it”.  Personally, those are thoughts I don’t want to saddle my future self with the burden of carrying.

I’m currently in the process of learning how to do voice overs and will soon begin doing that professionally.  As I look at some of the things I need to do, I can easily get overwhelmed.  Along with that come the familiar feelings of fear, doubt, and the negative self-talk saying that perhaps I should consider backing down, and just go back to doing what I’ve been doing.  When these thoughts come, I immediately remind myself what I don’t want to just settle for what comes along in life, but I choose to chart the course that I want for myself.  I also remind myself that everything I need to do does not have to be completed that day, or even that week.  The goal I’ve set for myself is steady progress on a daily and weekly basis.

The main thing I’ve been doing is visualizing what success looks like.  Doing so causes me to get a feeling of what it would be like to achieve this goal, making it more difficult for me to decide to give up before I even get started.

I’m convinced that the biggest barrier to greatness people face is their willingness to settle for the easy route versus persevering through initial struggles on the road to achieving personal success.  We’re too unwilling to endure struggle, too unwilling to stretch out of our comfort zones for an extended period of time.  I want to flip that thinking around.  Instead of being too unwilling to stretch out of my comfort zone, I choose instead to be unwilling to settle for taking the easy route and whatever happens to come along.

Where have you been settling?  What are you unwilling to settle for any longer?

Your Word of the Year

/ Scott / Leave a comment

We all have our favorite quotes, phrases, and sayings that we recall when situations warrant.  These can range from words our parents used to utter when we were growing up, to familiar quotes from famous people, or even words of Scripture.  They offer comfort, encouragement, and familiarity in our busy, ever-changing lives.

Instead of a quote, have you ever considered being motivated by a single word?  At the end of 2011 I was looking back on the passing year, as well as subsequent years, in order to gain perspective as I considered how I wanted 2012 to take shape.  My reflections on 2011 revealed that I was often going through my days on auto pilot.  The majority of my responses to events and people were automatic and required little thought on my part.  That’s no way to live an exciting, fulfilling life.  I knew I wanted to do better in 2012.  I wanted to live more intentional than automatic.

As I was thinking about this, the word “mindful” sprang into my thoughts.  I my decision making, planning, and interactions with people I want to be mindful of my actions and responses.  Being on autopilot was no longer good enough.  I needed to mindfully decide how I would live my life in 2012.  That meant giving thought out answers to questions for others instead of knee-jerk, cliché responses.  It also means taking an active role in building existing relationships with family and friends, instead of waiting for others to take the initiative to do so.

Being mindful also reminded me to “be there” no matter what I was involved in.  Be present in the current situation whether it’s a meeting at work, a conversation with a friend, reading the Bible or praying, or just doing life with my wife Mickey.  Value the present moment, and be there.

I enjoyed the focus and positive attitude the word “mindful” created in my life in 2012 that I decided to make it my word for 2013 too.

So what’s your word for the year?  What’s that one word that will remind you how you want to live life as you continually cause something to happen this year?  Spend some time thinking about what your word will be and then apply that word to all facets of your life as you live out this year.

Death, Taxes, and Compounding

/ Scott / Leave a comment

It is, indeed, a powerful force!  In the previous blog, we talked about the magic and the power of compounding and saw how compounding can have a significant positive effect in our lives.  Compounding is a great thing, right?  Well, it depends.

The principal of compounding will occur in our lives when we choose to apply it to something positive.  Here’s the alarming aspect about compounding that we may not be aware of:  compounding will occur in our lives whether we actively peruse it or not.  The choice we are responsible for is whether we will shape and direct the compounding in our lives, or whether we’ll allow negative compounding to occur, yielding results we may not want or desire.

Last post we talked about the compounding that occurs from lifting weight on a consistent basis day after day, for several years.  Let’s take an opposite scenario.  Say a person isn’t pursuing a healthy lifestyle.  Suppose they eat their favorite fast foods for lunch every day, and drink large quantities of unhealthy, high sugar or high calorie beverages.  Let’s also imagine that at the end of every day our “compounding unaware” example plops down in front of the TV for several hours until they drift off to sleep.  What effect will this have on a person after 1 day?  I’d say very little to none.  What happens when we add compounding into the equation?  What happens when our example strings several weeks of this consistent behavior together?  Let’s carry the equation out even further and say this behavior continues consistently for 5 to 10 years.  My guess is that these results are far different from the person who started lifting the 10lb weight 5 to 10 years ago.

Here’s the truth about compounding that is so important to grasp:  compounding will occur in our lives whether we actively choose to harness its power or not.  Our consistent actions, whether positive or negative, will yield significant results in our lives.  It doesn’t matter if we’re aware of the principal or not.  Compounding will occur regardless.

This principal gives us tremendous opportunity, but I also think it comes with tremendous responsibility.  Knowing that compounding will occur, we should cause something to happen that will allow compounding’s power to move us in a positive direction, toward the goals and dreams we have to change our lives for the better.  Why waste this principal’s precious power on results that don’t enhance our lives?

If you’re interested in learning more about compounding and how it can be applied in your own life, I highly recommend Darren Hardy’s excellent book, “The Compound Effect”.  Check it out and learn more about this under-utilized principle and begin applying its power in your life.  It will motivate you to stay consistent and encourage you to be committed to positive compounding for the long haul.

The Magic of Compounding — It’s Not Just for Dollars!

/ Scott / Leave a comment

How in the world does lifting a 10lb weight turn a person into a body builder?  Likewise, how does one shovel full of dirt turn a city block into a massive sky scraper?  The truth is… it doesn’t.  Picking up and lifting a 10lb weight will no more turn a person into a body builder than will one scoop of earth struck by a shovel create a skyscraper.  Each of these single acts is too insignificant to yield impressive results.

However, suppose a person were to lift that same 10lb weight several times a day, day after day for a month.  It would soon become too light as the weightlifter grew stronger from continually lifting the 10lb weight.  They would soon need to begin lifting 15, or 20lbs several times a day, day after day, until this weight also became too light. Now suppose our weight lifter repeated this process day after day, month after month and year after year.  What would the result be after 1, 5, or 10 years? They would be far stronger, and more muscular, than they were when they first started lifting the 10lb weight.

Here’s the question:  Which day of weight lifting was the one that made them strong and improved their physique?  What is the very first day they began lifting the 10lb weight? Was it their most recent day in the gym?  The obvious answer is:  it was every day!   Every seemingly insignificant day spent lifting weights.  Every day of not seeing results, yet pushing forward (or up in the case of weightlifting).  Every day’s commitment to staying focused on the goal and giving consistent effort.

By themselves, each day’s effort doesn’t amount to much.  But when coupled with the effort of the days before, and the days that follow, they collectively become a powerful force.  This force, this magic, is called compounding.

We often hear of compounding in the context of investing or saving money.  We’re told to put a little money away each month and over the years the “magic of compounding will cause the amount to grow to an incredibly large sum.   It’s no different with our effort in other life endeavors.  If you want  something different in your life, cause something to happen daily to move you closer to your desired outcome.  It doesn’t have to be an extraordinary effort.  All we need is small, incremental progress done on a daily basis over an extended period of time.

This is an incredibly encouraging concept to me.  It reminds me that regardless of my endeavor, I don’t need to have all the answers before I can get started.  I don’t need to have my plan all filled out and perfect first.  I just need to take the next step today and each subsequent day.  These small steps will carry me toward my goal.  I just need to provide consistent effort over an extended period.  The magic of compounding will take care of the rest.

Share your comments:  Have you had an experience with the power of compounding?  Were in your life do you need to provide the seeds of consistency to all allow compounding to take root?

Let the power of compounding encourage you to cause something to happen… starting today!

Don’t Shortcut the Process

/ Scott / Leave a comment

High school Spanish class seemed like an eternity ago.  Probably because it was!  At the time I wasn’t motivated and I really couldn’t see the value in learning a new language.  It wasn’t until several years later, in 2011, that I decided to learn Spanish at the local community college.  This time I was motivated, because I had more opportunities to use Spanish than I did in high school.

My thought was that I would quickly pick up and be speaking Spanish semi-fluently in a few short weeks.  After the first class, I realized it was going to be a longer pursuit than I thought.  There was no quick fix for learning Spanish, short of total cultural immersion.  Even that would have taken significant time.  I was presented with the realization that learning Spanish is a process.

Most worthy pursuits in life are like that.  There is a process to their achievement and mastery.  A shortcut rarely exists.  How, for example, would you shortcut the process of raising healthy, productive children?  Could that be done over a couple of long weekends, or in a few short days?  What about earning a degree or becoming proficient at a skill or profession?  Does a person earn a college degree in a week?  Are significant weight loss goals achieved in a couple of hours?  Hardly.

So why then are we surprised that our big goals, dreams, and desires should take any less time?  Are we so hungry for instant results that we’ll ignore known processes for success because they take commitment over an extended period of time?  Sure, we read about the individual or business that seems to have “made it overnight”.  What you’ll rarely hear about are all the countless weeks, months, or years they repeatedly followed a process in order to become an overnight success.

I’ve learned that you can’t shortcut a process.  You can take steps to speed up the process, like devoting more time to practice and preparation.  You can avoid common mistakes by talking to people who have already followed the process and can point out common pitfalls.  You can even give up on the process; deciding that it’s just too hard.  (If you’re reading this blog, I don’t think that’s a choice that sounds very appealing to you.)  The one thing you can’t do is reach your goals by short-cutting the process.

The process is the road we travel as we pursue our goals and dreams to reality.  It’s continually making the choices that move us in the direction we want to go.  We build this road daily by repeatedly causing something to happen that will move us closer to our goals and dreams.

As you set out to do great things, realize that there is a process to get there.  Embrace it, and don’t attempt to shortcut it.  You’ll be amazed by the power of the process.

3 Simple Steps That Cause Something to Happen

/ Scott / 1 Comment

I’m a big fan of Columbia Sportswear Company in Portland Oregon.  They have great clothes for outdoor activities like hiking, fishing, snow shoeing, or just for wearing around town.  If you need clothes for the great outdoors, Columbia has got you covered

Fortunately for me, I’m relatively close to several Columbia outlet stores.  These stores are great!  They sell Columbia gear (obviously) at prices far lower than you’d pay at a full retail sore.  If I’m anywhere near a Columbia outlet, I am instantly drawn to the parking lot and into the store.  I can’t help it.  It’s like the mother ship is calling me home.

Every time I enter a Columbia store, my first several seconds are spent in a state, where I’m overwhelmed by all the choices in the store, and don’t know where to start looking first.  I usually begin by halfheartedly looking at one section, and then quickly jumping to another, before I finally calm down and think about what I need, or want, and then start looking around with focus and purpose.

It can be like that when deciding on a big goal or challenge we’d like to pursue.  We’re motivated and fired up at the thought of a new endeavor.  However, we quickly become overwhelmed, or even immobilized, by the scope of our undertaking and don’t know where to begin “causing something to happen”.   If we stay in this state too long, our motivation and enthusiasm will soon leave the scene, and our desire or goal will be relegated to the domain of wishful thinking.

So how do we avoid this?  What can we do to gain clarity in our thoughts and direction so we can determine what we need to do to get started, on whatever pursuit we set for ourselves?  I believe there are 3 simple steps we can take to move us forward.

Step 1: Decide where it is you want to go.

It may sound obvious, but if we don’t know where it is we want to go, or what it is we want to achieve, we’ll become unclear as to what actions we should take, causing confusion, frustration, and discouragement on how we should move forward.

I have applied these steps in my own life.  In 2012 I decided that I wanted to get into doing voice overs professionally.  This was clearly the goal I had set for myself and the direction I wanted to go.  Step 1 had been decided.  I knew where I wanted to go.

Step 2:  Determine where you are currently, in relation to where you want to go.

This step is important because it helps determine the starting point of the journey.  It’s like planning a road trip.  Everything begins with your starting point, right?  You determine how long the trip will take based on how far your destination is from the starting point.  The potential route you’re going to take is all predicated on where trip begins.  It’s no different with a goal or desired achievement.  The planning begins with determining your starting point.

After I had set my goal of doing voice overs professionally, I took stock of where I was.  It didn’t take long to realize that I was as far away from doing voice overs as I could get.  I didn’t know anything about the industry or how it worked.  I had no knowledge of how voice over artists operated or how a person goes about becoming a voice over talent.  All I had were some decent public speaking skills, an eagerness to learn, and a good attitude.  I knew where I currently was.

Step 3:  Take the next (or first) step.

This is where you cause something to happen.  Once you know where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to determine what that next small step is that will move you toward your goal.  Once you know that next step, TAKE IT!

For my voice over pursuit, I realized that I needed to learn how people get started in the voice over industry.  So I took the next step of researching how people get started.  Once I learned that people got started by getting trained in voice over techniques, I took the next step of researching trainers and coaches.  I again took stock of where I was, and knew I needed to get trained by a voice over coach.    The next step was to find a voice over coach and sign up for training, so that’s what I did.  I am currently in the process of completing my initial voice over training, but I’ve already begun looking ahead at what my next step will be.

These 3 simple steps keep our focus on what we should be doing right now.  As we move toward a specific goal, we should constantly ask ourselves:

  1. What do I want?
  2. Where am I right now?
  3. What’s my next step?

This simple process eliminates confusion and frustration that come from a lack of clear focus and direction.  It’s a simple process, and it works.

What about you?  Where are you right now and where would you like to go?  What’s the next step you need to take today, to cause something to happen that will move you closer toward your goal?

Your Dreams Are Calling

/ Scott / Leave a comment

I like to start each year with a new set of goals or an area in my life that I’d like to change.  In the past however, I often got to the end of the year and realized that I hadn’t done anything in the previous 12 months that moved me any closer to where I wanted to be.  At the beginning of 2012 I decided to get serious about moving toward the life I desired.  The same pattern of empty wishing and wanting, without results, was getting me nowhere.  I needed a new approach.

As I was thinking about what I needed to do different, I remembered a favorite quote from Legendary Alabama Football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, “Cause something to happen!”  It’s so simple, yet so powerful and encouraging.  It doesn’t say, “Hope something happens”, or “Wait for something to happen”.  It says, “CAUSE something to happen!”  It is clearly a call to action.

When I reflected on this quote I realize that if there’s something I want in life, nobody is going to walk up and hand it to me.  Sitting around waiting for perfect conditions isn’t going to bring about the changes I desire.  If there’s a specific outcome that I want, the ONLY way it’s going to come about is if I take repeated actions to move me in the direction I want to go.  I am responsible for the cause.

This became my motivational quote for 2012.  I strategically placed it so I was certain to intersect with those wise words during my daily routine.  This quote soon became a small voice inside my head that grew ever-louder, encouraging, and pushing me to action. Whenever I have an idea to move me forward I hear this voice encouraging me to “cause something to happen”.  The more I am exposed to this quote, the louder this voice becomes.  Early in 2012, it started small and quite in the back of my mind.  Now, when presented with a decision point to move toward my goals or to shrink back into the comfort of the status quo, this voice is loud and commands me to ‘CAUSE SOMETHING TO HAPPEN!”  It’s like my ambitions and goals are shouting to me from inside my mind, urging me to take steps to bring them to life.

How could I read that quote or hear that voice commanding and encouraging me to pursue a goal and respond with anything but action?  To do so would be to sentence my goals and dreams to the realm of wishful thinking, destine to remain void of any hope of ever becoming a reality.

What’s the primary goal or dream in your life that you need to take action on?   Is it a career change?  Getting out of debt?  Getting in shape and losing a few pounds?  Is it having better relationships with significant people in your life?  Or is it pursuing a new skill, hobby, class, or degree?  Where do you need to cause something to happen?