Accountability: A Key to Achieving Goals

Recently, people suggested I spend more time on the Synergy portion of the GoalsWork model. They highlighted the power they received from this key element of the model.

The synergy step suggests that you create a GoalsWork Team (others refer to them as mastermind teams). Your team should consist of 4-5 people who also want to work on goals. The team should meet at least once a month for about 90 minutes. The team agenda includes each person

1. Stating the goal(s) they are currently working on
2. Explaining what they did since the last meeting
3. Outlining action they plan to take before the next meeting
4. Asking for ideas if they cannot think of what to do

A GoalsWork Team significantly accelerates success. You will act more on your goal because you know you have to report. You also reduce despair or doubt about your goal because other people confirm or give you feedback about whether your goal is achievable and relevant. In addition, your focus continues on your goal because you regularly discuss it with others. Finally, you progress on your goal because your team will brainstorm ideas when you stall or sputter.

So, act now to create your GoalsWork Team.

• Make a list of 8-10 people, that you know, who believe in improvement and growth.
• Prioritize your list with the people with whom you would like to collaborate on top.
• Contact them and propose you form a team (stop when you get 5).
• Explain the purpose and demands of the team. Ask if they wish to participate.
• Invite those who agree to meet at a specific location, time, and date for the first meeting.
• Follow the agenda outlined above. Keep the meetings to no more than 90 minutes.

Share your efforts with others by commenting on this blog. We'll discuss this important key in later blogs.

Our Trip to the Holy Land

I wanted to share some of the feelings engendered during our trip to the Holy Land. I've explained in previous blogs that I am a man of faith. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe he is the literal Son of God. I believe that he atoned for our sins and that he broke the bands of death through His resurrection. You can imagine how thrilled I was to visit the place of His earthly ministry.

Our trip generated multiple memories. I cannot prioritize them. So, I will attempt to display the kaleidoscope of images I remember.

People surrounded us from all over the world. We encountered tours from Italy, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and more everyday. They came to worship, to honor, and to experience communion with their Savior. Their faith and sacrifice amazed me.

We sang Christmas Carols in a cave in the Shepherds' Fields just outside of Bethlehem. The resonance of the cave echoed the resonance of the spirit. We felt closer to the Babe born in Bethlehem.

We sat in the Garden of Gethsemane among olive trees similar to those when he went their one fateful night. Our faith sets great store on this Garden. We hold it in equal stature to Golgotha and the Empty Tomb. We believe that, among these olive trees, he took upon him the punishment for our transgressions. We believe that the excruciating pain caused him to "tremble and bleed at every pore." We believe that through his Grace, Charity, and Mercy; he gave us the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father clean and pure. Our choice is whether we accept His sacrifice, repent, and keep His commandments. If we do so, He awards eternal life. All of this we pondered in the Garden.

We visited the Garden Tomb rather than the more popular Church of the Resurrection. Peace pervades the garden surrounding the tomb. Our guide first took us to the overlook of a skull on the mountainside. We contemplated the crucifixion of the Lamb of God. We pondered his forgiveness to those who "know not what they do". We contemplated the anguish when even His father withdrew so that no one could accuse Him of special privilege.

At the tomb, mere yards from Golgotha we met outside a simple door in the rock. Two small rooms proceed from the door. The tomb remains empty. We contemplated the words of the hymn. "He is risen. He has burst His three-day prison. Let the whole wide world rejoice. Death is conquered. Man is free! Christ has claimed the victory." I remained grateful for a faith that does not rely on a cross, but instead focuses on an empty tomb.

We basked in the peace found around the Sea of Galilee. We grew to understand why he loved the people and the area around that surprising small body of water. My wife pointed out that as the Creator of this world, he must have prepared that special spot for peace, renewal, and sanctuary. We fell in love with the area.

In summary, our trip allowed us to visit his places, to see his vistas, and to draw closer to him. The trip did not increase my faith in Jesus Christ. I do not know more than before that He lives. I knew of His divinity before I visited the Holy Land. I knew that, because of His atonement, I will see Him again. The trip, however, allowed me to ponder it even more.

I would recommend everyone try to make the pilgrimage.

How I Achieved a Major Life's Goal

GOAL: I didn't post a blog last week because we were touring the Holy Land. I set a goal to visit the Holy Land more than 45 years ago.

Our family visits the Holy Land. My father taught Sunday School for more than two decades. He could draw free hand maps of the Holy City. People who visited the Holy Land swore his drawings were accurate. He had never been to Jerusalem. He visited the Holy Land with my mother in the 1990's. My grandparents visited the Holy Land in the 1970's when they were in their seventies. I visited it last week with my father, my wife, my brother, my sisters, and our spouses. My mother could not come due to health reasons.

OTHERS: My mother and father helped us achieve the goal. They paid for all of us to go. They put together a private tour when our original tour cancelled four weeks before our departure. They worked with the tour guides to make the tour great.

ACTION: We worked hard to prepare for the trip. My wife and I read several books about the Holy Land and the life of Jesus Christ. I listened to Cd's of the Old Testament to understand what happened anciently. We watched three documentaries of more than 16 hours each. We acted to mentally prepare. We also prepared physically by walking more, climbing more stairs. and eating less. Our actions made the trip more meaningful. My wife, who suffers extreme motion sickness, tested some medical patches, that helped her travel well.

LIMITATIONS: We recognized several limitations to our trip. Carol suffers motion sickness. We wanted money to spend. We wanted to be able to physically keep up with the others. We overcame these real solutions by testing patches, exercising, and saving money. My parents resolved how to pay for the trip. We also encountered several limitations in addition to real limitations. My wife suffered a windmill in her fears of sickness, allergies, and not sleeping her own bed. We dealt with them through prayer, psychology, and illogical methods.

SYNERGY: Finally, we met frequently to review other people's pictures and experiences. We exchanged multiple emails to keep one another informed and motivated. We reported our preparations to one another.

I loved our trip to the Holy Land. I treasure the memories stored in my mind forever. I'm grateful to my parents, especially my mother, for making the trip possible. Finally, I appreciate that GoalsWorked to make it happen. I will add another blog about the trip tomorrow.

Stephen Covey One of the "Others" Who Will Help You Succeed

The Utah Valley Chapter of the BYU Management Society awarded Dr. Stephen R. Covey its Pioneer in Leadership Award last night. He shared his current research with us. We rediscovered why Time Magazine called him one of the 25 most influential Americans in the 20th century.

My father first introduced me to Stephen Covey in the 1960's. My wife took several classes from Dr. Covey while she was in college. I attend every presentation I can. I changed my behavior and focus in life each time I read on of his several books. His 7 habits helped me achieve professional and personal success and satisfaction.

Last night Dr. Covey explained our need to grow as a whole person. He defined four parts of our being: the body, the heart, the mind, and the spirit. Each part strives to fulfill an imperative. The body strives to live, the heart to love, the mind to learn, and the spirit to leave a legacy. He reviewed how using industrial age management styles of control and restriction will deflate organizational performance. He highlighted how using management styles that release the human potential enhance both human and organizational performance.

He illustrated how the first three of the 7 habits of highly effective people (be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and first things first) lead to a private victory. He demonstrated how the second three habits (seek first to understand then to be understood, synergy, and seek for win-win negotiation) lead to the public victory. He told how sharpening the saw circumscribes the other six habits to keep us alert.

Then, he emphasized how the 8th habit transforms our effectiveness into greatness. He showed us children in Singapore, Alabama, and other locations who discovered the Leadership in Me. His work includes giving children a new vision of their potential and inner strength.

I don't have room to describe all that he shared with us. I suggest you visit his web site www.stephencovey.com to learn more. Dr. Stephen R. Covey is definitely one the others who want to help you achieve your goals.

Action Achieves Success

Achieving success requires action. While apparently self-evident, many never achieve success because they never act.

Small, consistent action yields best results. For example, making 10 phone calls a day to current, future, and past clients can generate far more sales than 2,000 mailers. Yet, the phone call seems too mundane. The mailers require pondering the promotion, writing the copy, designing the mailer, overseeing its printing, and ensuring it gets mailed. After all that work, you just sit and wait for the sales to pour in. We become enamored with the glamorous project.

The small, successful actions get ignored. For example, I have to sit down and write this blog. I spend a lot of time pondering the message I wish to share with you. Sometimes, the message expands to a long blog. Short blogs carry more clout. Yet, whether the message is expansive or simple, nothing happens until I sit down and type it.

Consider your goals. Examine what you have done to achieve them. Are your planned actions overwhelming your actual actions. Try simplifying them. Small consistent actions achieve success.

The Windmill of Focusing on Failure

A friend reminded me this week that "GoalsWork for Success." Is it that simple?

Studies show that setting goals improve work, productivity, families, and lives. Setting goals increases success. No hype, just fact. We accomplish more when we set--and write down--our goals. We feel better when we act on our goals. Others help us identify useful action when our reservoir of ideas goes dry. Our success accelerates when we our report our actions to others. We achieve more when we set and work on goals.

We may not achieve all our goals. That is acceptable. Several people focus on the goals they did not achieve. They let the failures pull them down. They feel like failures. They allow despair to shadow their lives. Some vent anger at themselves and those around them. Many become fatalistic and surrender to their feelings.

I call false limitations appearing real windmills. My reference comes from Don Quixote who thought he fought giants, when in reality he fought windmills. All of us face windmills in life. All of us see limitations that don't exist.

Focusing on our failures is one of the windmills that limit our success. I've met people who achieved several goals. They lived better lives. They moved their careers upward and more satisfactory. They took their family to amazing places for vacations. They eliminated debt, increased savings, and grew investments. Yet, for all their successes, they could only see their failures. Their windmill, focusing on their failures, overwhelmed any joy of success.

One method for defeating this windmill is to print each success on strips of bright red paper. Print failures on pale yellow. Put them both on the wall, refrigerator, or tack board. Your eyes will be drawn to the red papers first. You will naturally start seeing your successes. It sounds irrational, but since windmills are irrational, we must defeat them irrationally.

Give of Yourself

Our model teaches that "Others will help you achieve your goals." Recent events emphasize that point. When we give of ourselves, even a little bit, we can make the world a better place to live.

I witness the power that others bring to making GOALSWORK. I would like to share a few for your benefit:

• A mother who sacrificed her own money to pay for her children and their spouses to go to Israel for a week. The preparation and anticipation for the trip bring all of them to Christ and together.
• A woman who invites friends, family, and others to enjoy a retreat at her weekend home. These annual events bless those who attend with peace, happiness, and respite.
• A business owner asks three members of a professional association to help him resolve a conflict with a long-time employee. Their advice helps him find a solution that resolves the problems and strengthens the employees resolve.
• A cousin with skills in business development sits down with another cousin to develop a plan to grow the business to $10 million in four years.
• A professional association sponsors board members from around the world to attend a conference where they learn how to grow their chapters lifting tens of thousands of professionals around the world.
• A neighbor brings enough meals to feed a family for 3-4 evenings when the wife has surgery.
• Colleagues rally together to share ideas, successes, and resolve problems. As a result an additional 3,000 people find jobs, enroll in school, start or improve their business.
• A friend provides a wonderful experience to a man and his son, by taking him sailing at a time that the man needs a lift and to forget unemployment and school challenges.
• Church leaders share their insights, counsel, and witnesses to millions across the globe. Their messages increase giving to others, strong families, personal growth, and service. They inspire, lift, and strengthen their fellow beings.

I could list a score more examples. Yes, others will help you achieve your goals. Remember, however, that you may be the "other" that will help someone else achieve their goals. It doesn't have to be a big task. Just look around you and you will see what you can do.