The Bitch Ditch

Action learning provides a structured approach to making progress on difficult and sometimes emotive issues. Taking part in an action learning set can help improve skills vital to leading a business forward, namely:

Being objective and making decisions

Improving listening and questioning

Creating the climate for purposeful discussion

An action learning set normally numbers between 5 and 7, and at the start is facilitated to give the group a good foundation. Each member of the group gets a period of time to explain their issue, and then gets questioned by the rest of the group. Each member of the group can take a turn. A good set has trust between the members, a good set of ground rules that have been adopted, and individuals learn to ask the right questions so that another member of the group can make good progress.

They probably learn this from each other.

Action research is quite similar. Using similar questioning and listening techniques it may be possible to make progress on an issue that has been difficult to resolve. Again the key is asking the right question, and exposing yourself to an answer that may be uncomfortable.

Within action learning having the right sort of climate is important. Trust is key to this.
For instance if you were having a meeting and the following signals were given, how would you feel?

1.’I'm judging you’

2.’I'm in charge’

3.’I can manipulate you’

4.’I don’t give a damn about you’

5.’I'm superior to you’

6.’My mind is made up. Nothing you can say will alter it’

(Gibb, J, (1961). Defensive communication. Journal of Communication, 11, 141-148)

One of the problems of considering joining an action learning group is that it could be uncomfortable and public, at least with the other group members. Another Gibb (AA Gib, Enterprise Culture 1987), suggested that entrepreneurs focus on active learning and the opportunity (amongst other factors). An interesting debate is whether entrepreneurs have learnt these skills through experience, or possess them naturally as they are inquisitive.

If this is so - that suggests that good business people are able to create the climate in which they can learn from others.

Many small business owners find creating the right environment quite difficult, especially if it might involve some aspect of change on their behalf. This manifests itself in frustration, anger, submissiveness and fails to create the right climate. This in turn may expose them to making comfortable decisions and not succeeding in the way they would have liked.

Although many action learning sets are set up with the aid of a facilitator, the intention is for a set to be self sustaining. With no outside help.

This makes them very cheap, and an environment where you can learn some of the fundamental skills needed to be an effective businessman.

Roger Croft is Managing Director of PRD partnership which helps commercialise ideas into new products, services or new processes. He also works with the University of Bath Small Busines Hub, writing and delivering courses and seminars for small businesses. roger.croft@prdpartnership.com http://www.prdpartnership.com

Are you one among the people who have trouble in dealing with all your daily activities? Are you tired because you fail to manage all these activities?

Keep that frown away. You can manage your time in ways that are more useful in many ways. Read this article and learn how to deal with time management

Typical person got many activities to do everyday. These things should be done to facilitate living. People however need to work to survive life. Earning for living is one among the major task of every individual. It is never easy to gain money; everyone should work hard for it.

It is not only the working people who experience busy lives, but almost all people including the ones that lives at home, they are the ones who do all the house hold shores. Students as well, they also live busy lives. You, as a student, know how busy a student life is. Schools have so many activities and task to be done.

Sometimes these activities are even brought home. Students are pre-occupied with these activities almost everyday of their lives. If they will not manage it well, they may neglect some of their activities that also need attention.

These activities are also worthy to our life, like bonding with family members, spending time with friends and mingling with other people. A student may need to know how to handle all their tasks well to be able to manage it properly. How are they going to manage all these task well?

Being a nursing student is also a hard task. Nursing students deals with study of care to the people who need it. Nursing is the care for the sick and healthy people as well. It deals with activities such as feeding and caring for infants, promoting growth and development, promoting prevention to all the diseases, to preserve injuries and promote health faster wound healing and promoting good health to the entire citizen.

A student nurse should learn these tasks. These students are learning how to deal with diseases that are not easy to learn. As you know, science is never an easy subject but most of the subjects in nursing course are under the curriculum.

In nursing course, students need to learn many skills that are important for practicing the nurse profession. With all these activities, student nurses are not able to do some of their tasks other than learning nursing alone.

Student nurses may need to prioritize all their activities to provide more room for other activities that are important as well. Time management maybe the best tool for student nurses.

Time managements are one of the most important techniques that everyone needs to learn. This is a technique used by many people to facilitate better management of time. Activities are done in an organized manner. With the use of time management, these nursing students will be given the chance to perform other useful activities other than the nursing course itself.

These are the suggested techniques that should be followed by the student nurses to manage time in a systematize manner.

First thing to do is to organize all the activities to do. Make a checklist of the tasks with proper prioritization. After the end of the day, check off the completed or accomplished tasks. This is a great help in the identification of the tasks not yet done over a day.

Begin to focus on the activities giving less priority to the things you do not need to do. Before venturing in to the activities that are not included in the list, your priority tasks must be done first. Avoid interruptions such as chatting with classmates and doing unnecessary activities. You can entertain these activities after your tasks are done.

Avoid the activities that will suck all your time. There are many activities that needs so much attention but with less productive outcome. Things like watching televisions, sending emails, chat on internet and telephone conversations are just some of the less important things you need to do for a day. Never give so much time on these activities.

With proper time management, student nurses will be able to do other activities that also enhance their personality. Things like dealing with other people and establishing rapport during meeting other people.

It is also healthy that people like student nurses give themselves a break from all of their activities for the day. This will be a great help to manage the precious time.

Gord Shin is owner of content based websites on specific niche topics. Please visit Time Management
Tips For College Students, Identity Theft Protection, Bass Fishing Guide

Everyone at the office thought that using the company e-mail system to share jokes and funny stories was great fun. That is, until one offended employee decided to sue his employer for having helped to create a hostile work environment.

Employee access to E-mail and the Internet can help to streamline communication among employees, and between employees and customers. But, just like conversations or information communicated on paper, E-mail messages have the power to create significant liability issues for employers who fail to adequately supervise how the medium is being used.

Here are just a few of the risks that unregulated access to E-mail and the Internet can create:

Loss Of Proprietary Company Information: Most business owners are extremely careful about the distribution of hard copies of company confidential information, and take great pains to ensure that such materials are kept secure. But, an ill-intentioned employee can easily attach electronic copies of confidential materials to outgoing e-mails, all from the comfort and convenience of their own computer terminal.

Wrongful Access To Proprietary Information Of Others: Just as your proprietary information can easily slip into the hands of others, so too can employees tap into the confidential information of other companies, or misuse their copyrighted or trademarked properties. Such actions can place your company
in the direct path of charges of corporate spying or of infringement of intellectual property rights.

Creation Of An Evidence Trail: As the Microsoft antitrust cases clearly demonstrate, copies of E-mails are increasingly being subpoenaed as evidence in legal cases. Seduced by the ease of E-mail communication, many users become surprisingly candid and may openly discuss business strategies and tactics that may come back to haunt your company.

Contribution To A Hostile Work Environment: As we noted above, offensive E-mail messages sent to other employees can be just as problematic as the employee who begins every conversation with an inappropriate joke. Unmonitored use of the corporate E-mail system to circulate such material can land employers in hot water for contributing to the creation of a hostile work environment.

Potential To Alienate Customers: Employees using the company’s E-mail system to solicit for a favorite political cause or to proselytize personal religious beliefs place the company in the position of unknowingly supporting those positions. Such unwitting support can jeopardize relationships with customers, prospects and vendors.

Increased Risk To Company’s Computer Infrastructure: E-mail is the distribution method of choice for computer viruses that can cripple your computer network. Less devastating but no less taxing on your computer resources are the scores of junk e-mail messages received by employees that participate in Internet chat rooms and discussion groups that are unrelated to their work responsibilities.

Lost Productivity: Although E-mail and Internet access can improve communications, they can also serve as diversions from an employee’s work responsibilities for all of the reasons noted above.

The best defense against such exposure? A policy that makes clear the restrictions on the use of the company’s E-mail system and Internet access can go a long way to help your employees understand the power, and the danger, inherent in E-mail communications. And, while having a company E-mail policy won’t insulate you completely from possible legal exposure, it can help to support your claims of having taken reasonable efforts to minimize such risks.

William von Achen is president of Strategic Management Resources, an executive coaching and management consulting firm offering advice and counsel to business owners and senior executives. For more information visit our web site at http://www.smrweb.com

Most of us have found ourselves working on a team at one time or another. That means we have been asked to attend, and even participate, in lots of meetings. Unfortunately, few of us found these meetings to be particularly effective. Many in fact are a complete waste of valuable time and resources.

The difficulty with most meetings is that they are typically planned and run by extroverts, who do not take into account the needs of the introverts. Why is this important? Because a key diffentiating characteristic between extroverts and introverts is in the way they process information.

Extroverts will tend to “think out loud.” They verbally walk themselves through the thinking process. Introverts however want to process new information on their own, in their heads, before commenting or vocalizing their thoughts.

And that’s just the beginning of the problem. Extroverts do not take into account the needs of the Introverts or the way in which they prefer to process the information to be shared or discussed. Because Introverts require time on their own to process information, they are not prepared (or willing) to make decisions on items that are only being discussed fo the first time in a current meeting. All too often Extroverts bring a new topic up in a meeting, even if it’s not on the agenda, and expect everyone to get engaged and act on it right away. Because the Introverts are processing the new information, they may not comment. To the Extrovert, no news is good news and this only means the Introverts must be on board.

Decision-making bias is highlighted when the meeting is controlled by the Extrovert. Extroverts view the quieter more contemplative members as:

“I just assumed that they weren’t interested.”

“I thought they had nothing to share or say.

“I figured they were a bit stuck up, stand-offish.”

But let’s not blame the Extroverts for all our meeting problems. Because Introverts prefer to process new information before speaking, they may plan the agenda and arrive at meetings thinking their decisions are foregone conclusions without ever engaging others for input or discussion. In fact, if the normally self-sufficient and reserved Introvert had his way, all meetings would occur by telephone or web conferencing or even email. The electronic meeting minimize the extra-curricular comments and diversions that occur when you put a bunch of Extroverts in a room. But like the Introvert who needs time to process, Extroverts need the opportunity to talk out loud and see who is doing the talking.

Now let’s take a peek inside the Introverts’ heads. What are they thinking about their group-oriented, outgoing Extroverted colleagues?

“They’re all blow-hards.”

“Not one of them has a clear thought in their heads.”

“They don’t know what they’re talking about.”

You can see how valuable insights might be ignored or interpersonal conflicts arise when personality and behavioral styles aren’t considered. When other people’s behavior patterns do not match our own, it is not unusual for us to begin to “make up stuff” about why others agree or disagree.

Don’t fall into the trap of making stuff up about others without even knowing you’re doing it. Understand your personal style, then understand how style differences drive and bias decisions.

Ira S. Wolfe is founder of Success Performance Solutions (http://www.super-solutions.com), a consulting firm specializing in helping employers fit the right employees to the job, on the team, with the company culture. He has also authored two books, Business Values and Motivators and The Perfect Labor Storm. He is also the a frequent guest on TV and Radio Cable shows as well as the subject of several interviews for the likes of Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek Online. You can contact Ira at iwolfe@super-solutions.com or 800.803.4303.

Chances are you’re not very smart. That’s not an insult, just statistics. With intelligence, as is true with most things in life, there is a natural bell-shaped distribution. In other words, there is a small number of morons in the world, a small number of geniuses, and a lot of people in between. That works out for me because this article doesn’t target the morons (sorry, no hope for you), nor does it target the very smart people (you don’t need this article). It does target those in between, which is almost everyone. In this article, I’m going to explain how average managers can become great managers and advance in corporate America.

Talk to any martial arts expert and he’ll tell you that it is very important to know your weaknesses before heading into combat. If you’re missing a leg, doing a flying jump kick may not be the best idea. Likewise, if you want to advance in management, you must know your weaknesses and act accordingly. Even if you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, it by no means prevents you from advancing. You simply have to use different tactics to achieve your goals.

So, you’re a manager. You want to know what it takes to make it to the top; to win recognition from your peers; to be regarded as successful in your field. You’ve probably taken a few classes, studied all about planning, executing, delegating, reviewing and analyzing. But for some bizarre reason, although the extra knowledge didn’t hurt, it didn’t help you move up in the world. It didn’t take you to the next level. That’s because you’re seeing it all wrong.

So you want to know the real secret? It’s simple. If you’re a business owner, then you’re a good manager if you delegate absolutely everything, to the point where you need to do virtually zero work. If this is not possible for financial reasons, then the business plan is flawed. If you’re a manager working for an employer, the same principle applies, only there’s a catch: If you want to hang on to your job, you have two options. The first is to not delegate just enough to make yourself needed. The other is to use various tactics, which I’ll describe later, that create the illusion that you are needed. The last method is the preferred one, and the one I describe in detail throughout this article.

There are two very important points I want to make: First, perception is reality. Anyone who says differently knows nothing about human behavior. Second, if you work for a company, the only thing that will keep you employed even in the toughest of times is if the top executives have the perception that you are absolutely needed for your department to function properly. They have to believe that if you were gone, the group would fall apart. That can be challenging, because as was discussed above, a truly good manager creates a department that is completely self-sufficient. Thus the challenge is not to simply plan, execute, review and analyze your group, but rather to create a self-sufficient department while maintaining the uninterrupted perception that if you were gone, everything would fall apart.

So you want to know specifics. How can you get to the top? Schmooze with those other top executives? Well, look around you. Who are those executives? What are they like? How did they get there? If you ask any company President or Chief Executive, he or she will tell you proudly that their company hires the smartest people in the industry. Now recall the natural distribution - there are very few dumb people, very few brilliant people, and lots of people in between. If you reread the last two sentences, you’ll notice a contradiction. It’s nice that every company claims to have the best employees, but that is simply not true. It is statistically impossible. By definition, most employees in most companies are mediocre. True, you can segment employees into various seniority levels, but the same principle applies: within senior management, most employees in most companies are mediocre senior managers. To better grasp this concept, ask yourself this: would you like your child to be mediocre? Would you like your child to be average? Would you like your child to be abnormal? Most parents would like to have children who are not mediocre, not average, but who are normal. Unfortunately, that’s impossible. By definition, a mediocre person is an average person (a.k.a., a “normal” person). Following that logic, we can deduce that most executives are not handpicked superstars, but rather mediocre senior managers. What really helped most of those mediocre executives get to where they got is their ability to perform their previous functions at relatively satisfactory levels (average skill needed), remain with the company for an extended period of time (average luck needed), and employ various tactics that help them become distinguishable within the company (no skill or luck required).

The first two requirements are where the vast majority of decent American workers are. They’ve performed their job well, they’ve managed to stay with the company for a substantial period of time, and are generally well-regarded. Yet, it doesn’t get them to that next level. The step that most people miss is that required to make them stand out. Before I go into the various methods that will make you stand out, you must remember that these will take time and effort, and if your department is chaotic, you won’t have the time needed. The first step then is to streamline the process in your department so that you are virtually not needed. This can be a scary thing for some, especially those who consider themselves “control freaks” (a.k.a., people with low self esteem). The trick is this: Don’t create a one-to-one-to-many org chart structure by hiring a supervisor to oversee day to day operations while you oversee that supervisor. Doing this can be dangerous because if times are tough, the company will most likely cut you out because they know there’s a supervisor in place who demands a smaller salary and who is keeping the department running just fine. Instead, fill various positions that fill roles within your department as independently as possible. For example, if you currently serve as an authoritative figure who signs off on important tasks, simply hire someone (or designate an existing employee who you trust) to fill that role. Your ultimate goal is to create a one-to-many org chart that has you on top and many direct reports underneath, where each subordinate works as independently as possible.

Once you get to that point, you should be able to step back and only become involved when overwhelming problems occur (as a good manager, you should have an employee who is in charge of looking at complex issues that regularly come up, since that is a part of doing business). Your other main responsibility is to have regular update meetings with your staff to make sure things are running smoothly. Beyond those two insignificant duties, you will be free to make yourself distinguishable. The following are tactics you should use:

• Get into meetings: Senior executives spend most of their time in meetings (internally or with clients). You must volunteer yourself to join as many meetings as possible. Some may be annoyed at first by your trying to “butt in” everywhere, but sooner or later there will be a perception that you are a significant contributor (especially if you actively use the rest of these tactics). And remember: especially with chief executives, perception is reality.

• Dress and look professionally: This may seem obvious, but if you want to reach the top, make sure you are well-groomed, wear expensive clothes, and look as attractive as possible (as attractive as an average looking person such as yourself can look, that is). If you look like a million bucks, you’ll soon start earning one.

• Be loud: It may seem silly, but it’s very true. Senior managers tend to be much louder than their junior counterparts. You must be loud and vocal, especially in meetings. Never mumble. Never stutter. Speak slowly and clearly. You must be known as one of those people who love to hear themselves talk. True, you’ll annoy some people, but those people will soon be left behind.

• Use choice words: Regularly use positive words like “great”, “opportunity”, and “value”. Also, use words that are generally associated with creative people, such as “out of the box”, “innovative”, and “pioneering”. Is it cheesy? Absolutely. Does it work? You bet it does.

• Be accessible: There’s a common misperception that top managers shouldn’t associate with lower ranking employees. That is not true. You should be friendly and accessible to all employees, from the CEO to the janitor, as long as you remember to present yourself with a certain presidential quality. It’s close to being arrogant, but not quite there. You should be able to speak to the lowest ranking employee and make him or her feel like you’re deeply interested, yet still maintain a level of superiority. If you’re ever unsure how to handle a situation, think of how former President Bill Clinton, who had this quality mastered, would have handled it.

• Send the message of manageable chaos: When asked how you’re doing, no matter how calm or chaotic things are, always say something like: “Wow, there is so much going on. But it’s very exciting”. The point is to make people think that your department has a lot of work to do and that things are hectic, but with your leadership, it’s staying under control and a positive attitude is maintained. Remember: This could be the farthest thing from the truth, but that doesn’t matter. Perception sooner or later becomes reality, whether it wants to or not.

• Recap the obvious: In meetings, especially the long ones, there are often heated discussions that go back and forth. Typically, this takes place between a smart individual and an average-to-below average individual. Especially when your boss is present, you should avoid taking sides at first and only fuel the fire a little bit. Then, after a while, it will seem obvious who is right (usually the smart person). When the argument is just about to conclude, stop it short by saying something like: “Look, how about we just….” and complete by recapping what the argument’s winner was saying all along. Over time, you will be positioned as the “voice of reason” who “just tends to get it”. You’ll have to be a little crafty so it isn’t too obvious, but this method can yield great rewards.

Similar tactics may be followed, as long as they help achieve the goal of creating the perception that you are a top-notch manager. Understand that the point here isn’t to be a horrible manager while getting paid heftily. The point is that most chief executives don’t understand who truly good managers are (those who delegate everything and create a self-sufficient department). For that reason, if you become a good manager, which means you soon won’t have much to do if at all, but do nothing else, top executives will think you do nothing and are therefore expendable. Most people don’t notice silent greatness. They only notice heroic greatness. As an analogy, a President who manages to run a tranquil country for a decade will not be seen as powerful as one who creates tension, invites an enemy attack, and then fights a large-scale war that defeats the enemy (while needlessly claiming thousands of lives).

Great leaders, whether they lead nations or service departments, should strive for a consistently peaceful and tranquil environment. The challenge for those working under an employer is that the vast majority of top executives use the wrong criteria to evaluate managers’ effectiveness. Therefore, while you may be a great manager, if you do nothing else, there will be a perception that you aren’t useful. Thus, you should also use the tactics listed above to create the perception that you are a top-notch manager (as it is judged by most executives).

As you can see, the strategies described in this article don’t require much skill. They don’t require much intelligence. If you consistently follow these guidelines, you’ll soon find yourself advancing in the company. As you move up or around the company, simply look at the current situation, reorganize it in a way that makes your group self-sufficient, and then focus on making yourself distinguishable. You just might become your company’s next CEO.

Time tracking is the act of recording the amount of time spent on each activity in a day. Typically, time sheets are used for time tracking. A conventional and simple time sheet lists the start and end time of tasks or the duration of each task. It can also have a more detailed breakdown of the various tasks done, as well as the results obtained from each of these tasks. Traditionally, time sheets were designed to keep track of the employees’ time management, in order to determine their productivity. Time cards or punch cards are the most basic form of time tracking programs.

Time tracking is very beneficial for businesses. Time sheets can also be used to track other things like billing, payroll, project cost and estimation, and others that are very beneficial for management. There are several direct advantages of time tracking: make payroll processing easier by tracking the exact hours an employee worked, increase revenues by correct invoicing, and make database management easier. It also helps the user to determine exactly what went wrong with a project. There are also some disadvantages of time tracking: employees do not appreciate it they feel too much pressure for showing results for every minute; or the information may not be used properly. Time tracking is especially beneficial for attorneys, writers, programmers, self-employed professionals, consultants, contractors, artists and other professionals who do not work as per scheduled timings.

There are sophisticated time-tracking programs and software packages available today. These software packages are very easy to install and use, and they can be used in any environment. They can also be custom-designed to suit all kinds of requirements. Some time tracking software also contains other functions like invoicing, billing, expenses tracking, project management and other applications. Some of these are offered as freeware, while others have to be purchased. Standard time tracking software costs around $100 for a single user and $1,200 for a 10-user program. However, prices vary significantly depending on the program. TimeWhiz, Timesheet, Titrax, Hours, Seconds Count, AllTime, PicoTrack, Standard Time, Doing, SDS Time, and TimeMate are some of the popular time tracking software packages available today.

Time Tracking provides detailed information on Time Tracking, Time Tracking Software, Time Tracking Programs, Employee Time Tracking and more. Time Tracking is affiliated with Time And Attendance System.

Any gap in an organization’s or even an individual’s performance is detrimental to success. The most consistent leadership gap that I have discovered in my many years of business and through executive coaching with my small business clients to corporate executives is implementation - How do I get from where I am now to where I desire to go?

Many companies have a fairly clear vision of where they wish to go and have specific criteria as to how to measure that forward progress. However, the challenge of leadership in implementing that vision in many cases creates a significant gap between the desired goals and the results.

Business and performance improvement experts have recognized this gap and have addressed this challenge through numerous books including The Balance Scorecard and Good to Great Yet, the gap persists and in some cases appears to worsen. Possibly, the answer to closing this leadership gap begins with understanding why the directed actions failed to bridge this gap.

Most organizational development solutions focus on the behaviors of those involved. However, behaviors really are the manifestation of our attitudes, which are formed from our beliefs within our complex belief systems.

Beliefs are those foundational, internal thought processes that determine what I do. In the belief model, this concept is caught in the term “attitudes.” Attitudes are habits of thoughts that have evolved from the sum total of what I know to be true and what I perceive to be true. Therefore, attitudes are observable behaviors. HINT: Many training programs offered through human resource departments or public workshops ignore this key factor in improving performance and therefore these programs do not demonstrate a positive return on investment nor sustainability.

So in practical terms, how does this work for an organization? For example, if the plan is that the company will grow by 10% and some, if not all, of the sales staff within the department have a belief that this is a ridiculous expectation due to their experiences within the market arena, this belief will drive their attitudes demonstrated through specific behaviors. These behaviors may range from negative and highly sensitive to any directions to poor work ethics. The outcome of these behaviors might be the failure to meet sales’ goals which then creates a gap between the vision and the results.

What further happens is that since beliefs are in many cases subconscious, individuals now lose control over the outcomes of their behaviors. They believe that they are doing everything necessary to meet the sales goals, but in actuality, they are as the old expression goes “shooting themselves in their feet.” These beliefs must be clearly identified and acknowledged before the gap can begin to close. In many cases, this may not happen because of other factors such as fear or an unacknowledged poor self-image.

Several years ago when working with a group of new supervisors, I saw how individual beliefs can dramatically affect the leadership’s implementation of any organization’s strategic plan. These new supervisors were asked to quickly identify the strengths that they brought to the table in their new capacity. The pens for the most part did not move and only one person (the owner of the company) listed more than one strength. When they were asked to list their weaknesses as potential supervisors, the pens literally flew off the page. In today’s world, people have a very strong belief in their weaknesses and an even stronger belief not to “brag” about their strengths. Yet, winning teams win because of the strengths of all team members. Until these new supervisors believed in their own strengths, implementation of the strategic plan would indeed be a challenge for all concerned.

Beliefs are the true beginning in overcoming any leadership gap. This may take time and may be somewhat a challenge in today’s politically correct workplace, but until the Beliefs are identified and acknowledged the gap between vision and results will not be bridged.

Leanne helps individuals and businesses to double their results or performance in real time to learn some additional secrets and tips. Sign up for a free monthly newsletter. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601. If you truly don’t believe doubling your results is possible, read some case studies where individuals and businesses took the risk and experienced unheard of results.

Have you ever chased something (or someone) only to discover afterward that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be? I suspect most of us have experienced this at some point in our lives.

What’s up with us? Are we destined to be perpetually unsatisfied? Is it human nature to continually reach for something new? Does the cycle of wanting, achieving, and then just wanting more continue our entire lives?

Probably. But it’s also worth checking out whether you’re trying to fulfill someone else’s definition of success.

Years ago my marriage, career, and even my car reflected someone else’s idea of success. After spending too much time with an unlucky husband, a puzzled employer, and a sports car that didn’t fit my three-dog lifestyle, I realized this wasn’t my gig.

I eventually had another go at it, this time without giving a rip what others thought. As a result, I painted a much different picture than before; one more fulfilling than I dreamed possible. You may be surprised to realize where your “feel goods” come from, but it’s crucial to get in touch with or you’ll perpetually achieve one goal after another only to feel internal emptiness quickly returning.

Take the King of Bhutan, for example, who declared his country’s measure of prosperity to be GNH (Gross National Happiness) rather than the traditional GDP. He uses well-being instead of consumption as the measure for success. How cool is that?! Or my client who gave up her career as a record label executive to build shelters in a third world country, reporting she’s never been so satisfied. Or my neighbor who quit his six figure job to stay home with kids after his wife finished school.

Check in on your current intentions and goals. Are they genuinely yours? Or are they someone else’s idea of what yours should be? Make sure if you’re going to the trouble of achieving something that it’s in alignment with who you really are and what you really want.

As a wise person once said: “There’s only one definition of success that matters. Yours.”

Jeannette Maw is an Attraction Coach and founder of Good Vibe Coaching in Salt Lake City, Utah, who helps her clients make their wish lists come true by leveraging the Law of Attraction. Free tips to manifest your dreams are yours by signing up for her monthly Get What You Want ezine at http://www.goodvibecoach.com

In the last newsletter we talked about ‘Your Reason Why’, and how having emotional reasons for doing things gives them real power. To see this article go to www.mypowerfulmind.com/articles/article/1823709/25320.htm

The next logical thing to consider is how do we find our reason why.

In doing this I am aware that everyone is at a different place in their lives. Some have thought about these questions often, and others are only aware of what things they enjoy. The method that I will outline here is just one way that has worked for me. Feel free to take what you want from it, and leave out or change what does not feel right to you. Also be aware that this is not a process that is done once, and is finished. It evolves and changes over time. It is not necessary to do each step until you are 100 percent satisfied with it, before moving on to the next step. However, I believe it is necessary to do each step, and to write down the results of each step, and then to review and update that document periodically.

The first step is to define your vision statement. If everything was perfect, how would the world look?

For a start you may like to just define how your town would look, or how your family would be, or how your work place would be. This works best if your vision is for something bigger than just yourself, so if you need to, reduce the scope from the world, down to a manageable part of the world, or a manageable area of life. You may like to initially limit this to just thinking about something that will make you feel satisfied or fulfilled.

There are a number of questions you can ask to help you in defining your vision. Questions like:

• What do you enjoy doing?

• What are you really passionate about?

• What do you hate?

• What was the time in your life when you were most happy, and why was that?

• What difference would you like to make for yourself, for your family, community, or for the planet?

• What would you like people to say about you at your funeral?

• If you knew that you would die tonight, and everyone came to a big meeting to hear your last words, what would be in your 15 minute speech?

Visualise that you are on the stage at that meeting, see everyone’s faces, feel the atmosphere and emotion, and see the effect that your words are having on the people.

From the answers to these questions, and others like them, you can start to see what your real values are. They might be things like self discovery, love, contributing to something, creativity, or adventure. Review what you come up with to see if it is a real value, or a symptom of a value or a need. For example if you had hard work as a value, you may find when you thought about it, that this was a symptom of your desire for recognition, or of a value to be productive. Hard work may not be the actual value, and the real value may be able to be satisfied in another way.

From these values you have discovered about yourself describe your vision. What does your perfect world, or part of your perfect world, look like? You should feel yourself getting emotionally involved in that vision. If you don’t, then go back and look at it again, until you have a vision that inspires you. It is not a problem if it takes time to come up with an inspiring vision, but it is a problem to move on to the next steps if you don’t have an inspiring vision, that you feel emotionally involved with.

Once you have your vision, the next step is to decide on your role or mission in achieving that vision. How will you bring about that vision, or contribute towards bringing it about. This does not have to be very specific. It’s purpose is just to act as a bridge between the inspiring vision and the specific actions and projects that you will be a part of, in contributing towards that vision. As an example, your vision might be to live in your community, where everyone there feels free to express their opinions openly and without fear. You might see your role or mission in achieving that as being to use and teach others effective communication techniques.

Now that we have our inspiring vision and our mission, it is time to define the projects that we could get involved in. There could be any number of these, but I suggest you start with at least 30. These are the things you could imagine that you might do to contribute towards your inspiring vision. They could be things like find a partner, write a book, get elected to public office, progress your career or speak to 100 people about your vision. Have fun with this. Be creative. Switch off your reality checker while you do this. Be as unrestricted and open as you can.

When you have a list of projects, group them together. One group might be career related, and another might be family related for example. This will help you to define more projects that fit in each group. If you find that one of your projects is actually several smaller projects, then record the smaller projects.

Most people that have taken the trouble to go through a goal setting exercise stop at this point and start planning the activities that each project requires. I suggest that this is the reason that many goal setting exercises don’t produce long lasting results, or really powerful results. There are still a couple of steps to follow.

To see the complete article go to www.mypowerfulmind.com/page/page/1981648.htm

Tony McGlinn runs personal development programs, writes and is a life coach and consultant. You can visit him and subscribe to his newsletter at http://www.mypowerfulmind.com