Get Enoch for Technology Training & Ideas

I want to share a valuable "other" if you want to understand, move in, and prevail in this technological world. I highly recommend you visit www.GetEnoch.com.

I first met Enoch 5 years ago. We were presenting at a regional business conference together (happily we've both been invited back each year since). I was glad that I wasn't speaking opposite Enoch. I felt sorry for the other 3 breakout speakers that were speaking opposite him. He completely dominated his time slot. I'm guessing that he had 85% of the conference attendees in his room, his wall, and his hall. Everyone got Enoch that year.

It's been the same for the last four years. Enoch's presentations so dominate the conference that other speakers wouldn't accept assignments during his time zone. Not only do we not want to speak to empty rooms while everyone attended his sessions, but we want to get Enoch too.

He speaks to a whole range of technology issues. The first year I thought he was "the gadget guy." He completely covered an 8'x4' table with PDA's, cell phones, small laptaps, slate computers, and all kinds of other gadgets. In 45 minutes he explained, demonstrated, and wowed us with gadgets. He was so much more than "the gadget guy" however. His topics help business owners, executives, managers, and all those who want to become any of those things. See for youreself at www.GetEnoch.com.

His breadth of topics amaze me. It really took me five years to get Enoch's vision. Last year he tied the Meyers/Briggs Interest Inventory into making your web site more appealing to the different types of people who will see it. The year before he taught us how to improve our presence as experts in our field in ten minutes a day. He also entertained us with his Peruvian flute and guitar (which he used to teach at a major music school). He created an entire field he calls "social media." He helps people understand the Internet, social networks, and mainstream programs like MS Outlook. His tips truly help you run everything faster, better, and more effectively.

That's why I was thrilled to see that Enoch created an on-line community. He offers free stuff that change all the time. I am hooked on his 10-minutes-a-day ideas. They really allow me to expand what I'm doing, making it more effective in only 10 minutes a day. Want some free stuff www.GetEnoch.com.

He also offers a low cost $19.95 a month membership that provides 3 5-7 minute interactive learning segments, step-by-step technological instructions, twice monthly on-line training sessions, access to other decision makers discussing technological issues, and more. I've seen what he offers. I think you will find it well-worth the $20 a month. It's already returned enough good ideas to pay for my entire year's investment.

If that isn't enough you can buy CD's of his presentations for just $14.95.

I know I sound like I'm Enoch's sales rep. I'm not. I just like to see people accomplish their goals. I suggest you www.GetEnoch.com right away. Look at his free stuff and 10 minute ideas. Sign up for his monthly membership. Enoch is one of those "others" that can help you reach your goals.

Giving as a Goal

The past few weeks the world witnessed the devastation of Haiti. Rocked by an earthquake tens of thousands died, hundreds of thousands suffered injuries, and millions experienced despair. The world rallied with telethons, food, water, and medical help. Donations flow to Haiti through the selfless giving of the world.

You can establish goals of giving, donating, and volunteering without focusing on one specific disaster. You can establish an annual goal to give something. Ted Turner, the media mogul, set a goal to donate $1 million a year to worthy charities. John Huntsman Sr. determined to give away $1 billion a year for as long as his money held out. He's still giving. Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft to work full-time on the charitable foundation he and his wife created. In addition, Gates encouraged others who reaped the benefits of Microsoft's financial harvest to establish charitable foundations of their own. More than 120 did.

Giving extends beyond the wealthy. All people may donate their time, talents, or financial means. A $10 a month donation to the United Way provides a homeless family one night under a warm roof. Two hours a week volunteering for Big Brothers and Sisters changes a child's life. Six hours on a Saturday once a month cleans and restores dignity to a struggling neighborhood. I know of a women's conference that each year assembles 15,000 hygiene kits for survivors of disasters. Each woman spends 1-2 hours a year working with other conference attendees. Little donations build to significant good.

I encourage you to a SMART goal each year to give. Ensure that your goal is

• Specific in terms of what you want to give


• Measurable as to how much time, money, or goods you will give


• Achievable given the financial, time, and other demands on your personal resources


• Relevant to your personal values and to the people in need


• Timely with a deadline to give each week, month, quarter, or year

Your donations multiply when combined with others through well-run charitable organizations. Seek for organizations that pass at least 75-80% of the donated money, goods, or time to those in need. Well-run organizations need less than 25% for administration. I donate my funds to one that passes along 100% of all donations to those in need. Several charity watchdogs can help you explore organizations' financial administration. Try http://www.charitywatch.org/ or Google "charity watchdog groups."

Your joy will increase when giving becomes a goal. You recognize the bounties you possess. Your heart fills with compassion for others. Start small, but let your largess increase each year. You can change the world--at least for the beneficiaries of your donations.

Act, Act in Faith, and Act with Excellence

Let me preface this blog by saying my last few blogs were too long. I will ensure this one is shorter.

You must act to achieve your goals.
I know this seems obvious. The number of people who think they can get what they want without doing anything would surprise you. Then, they gripe and complain when they don't achieve what they wanted.

A great teacher once said "He that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with a doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned." I believe he outlined the only three things that can prevent you from achieving our goals. First, don't do anything until you have to. Second, act doubting that you can achieve anything. Third, act slowly and poorly. Your inaction, doubtful action, and sloppy action will stop you.

The reverse is also true. If you act, and act with faith, and act with excellence; you shall achieve your goal. It's that simple. You must believe that you can achieve your goals. You need to believe that effective actions create success. You should believe that you deserve good things to happen to you, or that you can do good things for others. If faith can move mountains, then faith can surely help you achieve your goals.

Others Can Help You Act Effectively
Other people probably already achieved your goal. They can share what they did to achieve the goal with you. In fact, many people already shared what they did in books, blogs, articles, and other publications. Others may not have written what they did, but would be happy to share their ideas with you. You can find them on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also find them in professional associations and service clubs.

You can discover what works by studying their actions. Usually, they describe the successful actions and the less successful ones. Studying what they did helps you prevent making the same mistakes they made. Following their advice can save you time and frustration.

Others can also brainstorm ideas of actions you can take, even if they haven't accomplish the same goal.

Try this experiment.

1. Get 2-3 friends together. Pick creative and outgoing friends.
2. Tell each friend to come to the meeting with at least one goal they would like accomplish.
3. Explain to them that each person will share their goal with the others.
4. The others in the group share ideas (as quickly as possible) how achieve the goal.
5. The person writes down all the ideas without criticizing or commenting.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for the next person until everyone has had a chance.
7. Examine how the exercise changes your feelings about achieving the goal.

Select 2-3 actions to do in the next 30 days

Many people fail to achieve their goal because they try to do too much all at once. They can't sustain the actions and soon give up. I recommend, instead, that you limit your actions to 2-3 a month. Do a little bit each month. Let the momentum build. Evaluate the consequences of your actions. Refine what you want to do. Persist with your plan.

Soon you will find that you move forward at an accelerating pace. Your pace accelerates even more if you synergize your actions with a GoalsWork team each month. We'll discuss more about actions in later blogs. I suggest you try the experiment. Choose 2-3 actions you will do this month. Then, act, act in faith, and act in excellence.

Limitations: Scope, challenges, and windmills

Limitations happen when you set goals. That is why Limitations constitute the fourth step of the GoalsWork model. All goals contain limitations. You can classify almost all limitations into three main categories: limitations you want, real limitations, and windmills (false limitations appearing real). Let's review each type briefly. We will also examine how to deal with each type.

Limitations You Want to impose on your goal. You establish certain limitations when you set your goal. You may define the limitations you want as the scope of your goal. Typical limitations include

• Time is one of the obvious limitations you set. You determine when you will accomplish the goal. You set a deadline. You should also define the limitations or the amount of time you will spend on achieving your goal. You may want to define how many hours a day, week, or month you devote to the goal.
• Money is another limitation you should establish for your goal. You call the financial limit you set a budget. The budget not only limits how much money you use, but how you will use it. Quicken and other accounting software programs eases the budgeting and accounting process. Too many people don't create or follow-through on this vital limitations. Sadly, the joy of achieving their goal reduces because of the cost or debt incurred achieving it. So, set financial limitations.
• Quantity also limits your goals. You may limit you goal to only purchase one car this year instead of six. You may also set a limit on how often you do something. For example, you may say I want to go to Disneyland once every two years (or two months). You may set a goal of how many books you want to read or write.
• Geography typically applies to vacations or trips. Geography definitely impacts where you work or live. Storefront businesses limit their market populations by the geographical location of the business. Hence the oft repeated warning that the three most important things in establishing your business are location, location, and location.
• Other limitations include whatever may impact your goal. Businesses set market niche goals limiting their business goal to a clearly defined client. You may wish to limit your goal to a specific purchase, trip, character trait you wish to develop, or charity to which you wish to donate..

Real limitations you didn't establish frequently deter you from achieving your goal. Ignoring real limitations doesn't help. You can overcome real limitations. In fact, the ability to overcome them defines the difference between real goals and windmills (which will be discussed later). Resolving real limitations requires planning. Others help you find the resolutions and create the plans. Frequently, they encountered the same limitations when they achieved the same goal. Let me share the three most common limitations and options to solve them.

• Time can limit your goal. You may not find enough time to work on the goal. You may not feel that you can accomplish the goal in time. Overcoming this limitation usually requires managing or reallocating your time. For example, I have to give up some television and reading time to write my blogs and books. You many need to sacrifice evening entertainment to finish college or to build your boat. Time is one of the easiest limitations to overcome--on paper--but difficult to overcome in reality. A good time-management course or tool can help resolve this real limitation.
• Money definitely limits goals. Careful budgeting can frequently reallocate money from paying debt to accomplishing goals. I do not advocate delinquency on debts. I advocate setting a goal to get out of debt. Dave Ramsey, Clarke Howard, M-velopes, and others can help you start spending your money the way want to. Businesses can still find money for expansion during these difficult times. Many credit unions, for example, still offer business loans. Micro finance and other sources give small loans (under $10K) to help businesses grow.
• Expertise limits many goals. Frequently, you can't achieve your goal because you don't have the skills. The easiest answer to this limitations requires learning the skill. Several options exist for learning skills: you can read books, go on-line, take a class, or ask someone with the expertise to teach you.

Windmills (False Limitations Appearing Real ) haunt most people. I refer to them as windmills based on Don Quixote's experiences. He and his compatriot Sancho Panza traveled the road. Sancho Panza saw several windmills along the side of the road. The disoriented Quixote saw giants with huge arms waving a challenge to the knight errant. Many times we falsely perceive a limitation. Frequently, we exaggerate the limitation into a giant. Usually, the limitation only exists in our head.

You may discern whether a limitation is real or a windmill by observing how it responds to a plan. Real limitations become manageable with a plan. Comfort and reassurance replace frustration when real limitations encounter a well-laid plan. Windmills resist plans or any kind of resolution. If no matter what you do, the limitation remains usually consider it a windmill.

May I share an example. One woman had a life-long goal to write. She wanted to write short-stories, books, and articles. She heard "You can't do that." every time she mentioned this goal to her mother and father. They firmly established "You can't do that" in her psyche. One day, in her 30's, she quit her job at an advertising agency (where she did not write copy), went to the family cabin, and wrote. She supported herself working freelance as production assistant on commercials. She wrote over 100 short stories, 3 books, and about 50 articles over the next two and half years. She never published them because publishing was not her goal. Writing was her goal.

Now comes the windmill. Every three months during the entire 30 months she called me. "I can't do this" she would say. I responded "OK. Let's talk about it. Are you writing? [Yes] Are you getting freelance jobs? [Yes] Did you earn as much money in the last three months as you would have at the ad agency? [Yes. In fact, I made more money than I would have at the agency. BUT I CAN'T DO THIS]" At this point I would invite her to come to my office and we would discuss what she wanted to do. She never came to my office. She faced the windmill in our conversation and stepped around it without defeating it. As a result she would call me three months later when she met it again, and we would repeat the process. That is how she dealt with her windmill. By the way after writing for 30 months, she left the cabin and went back to work at the same advertising agency as a copy writer. Having achieved her goal she move on with her life.

Since windmills are irrational and illogical, then irrational and illogical methods work best on them. I will share some of the common windmills and the illogical tools to defeat them in a later blog.

In summary
Limitations occur when you try to change your life. Limitations raise their head when you set goals and begin to work on them. Limitations come in three flavors: limitations you want, real limitations, and windmills. Don't ignore limitations face them, deal with them, and resolve them. Others can help you do so. Actions make it so.

Good luck dealing with your limitations. List some of your limitations as comments on this blog and see how others can help you resolve them.

Special New Years Blog--Let GoalsWork for You

I believe in goals. We accomplish amazing things in our lives, our families, our careers, our organizations, and our communities when we set and work toward worthy goals. The GoalsWork model drives us to just that. In fact, the GoalsWork model generates so much success that we warn people to be careful what goals they set.

 

Goals include all aspects of life. You can set a goal to buy something, to go somewhere, to give something, to do something, to become something, and more.

 

Let me share some examples. Allen set a goal at age 11 to animate for the Disney Company. He now animates for the Disney Company. Dave wanted to support himself making stained glass. He tripled his profits in six months and supported he and his with stained glass for the last six years. Stephen found a great job in New York paying $250K with $1 million in annual bonuses. Carol wanted to take her family of 8 to Disney World for a week. Her family talks about that as one of the best vacations they ever took. A professional organization wanted to grow. In three years it doubled its membership, tripled it revenues, and opened new chapters in 4 countries. The GoalsWork model enriches thousands of people and organizations.

 

The model uses the word Goals to remind us of the steps. While the graphic illustrates the model, let me provide a little more detail:

1. Goals: Write your goals. Review your goals to ensure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time limited (SMART). Read your goals and monitor your actions each month. 
2. Others: Other people will help you achieve your goals. Some others already achieved your goals and will share how they did it. They will tell you which actions were successful and which were unsuccessful. Many write books, articles, and blogs about how they did it. Others will synergize to motivate, encourage, and help you overcome limitations to your goal. 
3. Action: You must act to achieve your goals. Your first act should be to review progress on your goals each week and each month. Outline your action after consulting with others. Act appropriately, decisively, and wisely. Don't waste time floundering in non-productive action. Don’t despair when some actions don’t work. 
4. Limitations: Establish your own limitations when you set the specifics and time portions of your goal. Act to overcome unwanted limitations. Recognize the windmills (false limitations appearing real) and act appropriately to resolve them. 
5. Synergy: Meet once a month with 4 others goal-seekers. Report your actions and consequences for the past month on you active goals. Brainstorm solutions to limitations preventing success. Outline actions you will take in the next month.

 The GoalsWork model structures my blog. You will see different aspects of the model each week. You will learn more about SMART goals. You may discover others who can help you. You will read about actions others took. You will explore limitations that inhibit your success--and how to overcome them. You will see synergy accelerating successful achievement of your goals.

 

So, don't set New Year's resolutions this year. Set goals and make your GoalsWork for you.