2018 Goal Setting Strategy

In this video, you’ll get an overview of winning tools you can use to support goal creation and execution. You’ll learn techniques to rewire past habits that do not serve you. And finally, learn some tips that will help you complete tasks, which lead to goal attainment.

Video Transcript

Consciously, you know that wealthy, innovative, and successful people achieve their goals because they know what direction they are going. It isn’t magic; these folks are laser-focused on their goal. They intentionally create habits that ensure their tasks and actions are completed in service to their broader goal.

How can you do this too? First, answer a couple of questions as you start to create your 2018 goals.

What area of your life do you want to optimize?

Is it Health, Family & Relationships, Career, Wealth, or something else? Take time to stack rank what is important to you and where you want to focus in 2018. Please do not skip this step.

Second, as it relates to your top choice, what do you want to achieve?

Write this goal in the present tense. Pick only one “big goal” to work on throughout the year.

By associating purpose and feelings to the goal, how would you feel and what you would see when you have accomplished the goal, you help your subconscious engage into goal realization. The subconscious brain can’t differentiate from the thought of you realizing the goal and actual goal attainment.

Lastly, answer in the positive and use the B-SMART goal setting framework. This means the way you write this goal is Believable, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic or Repeatable and Timely.

Examples of well-formed, B-SMART goals:

Extrinsically motivated:

I am so happy and grateful I am earning $______ as the founder of an innovative tech company that makes the world a better place by 8 am, January 1, 2019.

or

Intrinsically motivated:

I am so happy and grateful that I have obtained my healthy weight through diet, exercise, and 10,000 daily steps by 8 am, July 1, 2018.

You’ll notice in these examples that there is no mistake about how winning is defined or by when. You MUST define both of these things.

Next, you are finally at the point where you can determine the tasks that will get you there. Here’s where you make the goal attainable and know exactly what you must do to cross the finish line.

When asked, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet stated the #1 talent that contributed to their success was their ability to focus.

So, if you are like many of us who fall into the trap of constantly checking email or are distracted by the shiny object or the phone ring pulls you off task, understand that this is caused by your need for an immediate endorphin release.

Now, if you can focus or are ready to learn how to focus, consider incorporating a mindfulness practice, journaling, or creating a task/accomplishment list to support shifting and owning how you receive your endorphin release.

All success in life is based on task completion. When you complete your most important tasks, tasks YOU’VE CONSCIOUSLY identified as important. You are releasing endorphins.

Research tells us that 90 percent of diets and gym memberships are abandoned within 7 to 10 months, and only three percent are maintained at the end of two years.

Design your path to become the three percent by developing a daily routine.

By creating a healthy habit for completing a task, rather than focusing on email or the bottom 80% on your task list, you are fighting to achieve the top 20% of tasks that will move you closer to goal attainment and sustainment.

Remember, everything is hard before it is easy, we are reestablishing the habit of focus as an automatic response. You can rewire your habits by creating successful practices focused toward your B-SMART goal. Once your goal is stated in the positive, then create actions or tasks that can be accomplished to give you the endorphin release and reward.

Start a daily self-care routine:

  • Check out the Pomodoro technique to eliminate distraction
  • Use a tool like the Veevra app (in private beta) to identify your optimum career path and create a plan to maintain daily tasks
  • Start a mindfulness practice using the Calm or Headspace app or journaling
  • Take a walk or time alone to think and be, versus always doing

Inspire yourself to engage your creative confidence, develop mindfulness and purpose to your goal, focus on the tasks that will attain your goal, and empower yourself to achieve your goal. Give yourself permission to own your goal.

Well, we covered a lot of material in a short amount time. To improve goal realization reach out to a like-minded friend who will be your accountability partner or hire a coach who aligns with your values. Find someone who will provide you techniques to sustain goal motivation and task completion to take your 2018 goal across the finish line.

Thank you so much,

Michelle Zeiser

 

Why is it so hard to work with other generations? Because we are so different.

We have different needs, wants, and we value different things. Organizations are intentional in delivering and communicating purpose through the company mission, vision, broad goals, specific goals, and strategy to accomplish objectives. Leadership delivery and messaging of the vision is vital for a teamwork driven generation. Building an inclusive communication platform increases the likelihood of reaching the broader audience. Gone are the days of limited scope and reach within an organization. Leadership must assess multiple vehicles of communication to ensure information diversity. Creating a broad inclusivity of data that reaches all audiences.

Boomers use rapport-building techniques to increase communication effectiveness. However, disputes over communication skills and behaviors intensify with the use of technology. These differences can cause limitations and internal conflict or resentment across the multigenerational organization.

Gen X is a more realistic, some say a pessimistic generation that is not likely to follow orders without challenging the status quo. They are dreamers and entrepreneurs seeking to disrupt traditional lines of thinking by demonstrating growth mindsets toward complex problems. They prefer work-life effectiveness versus an always-on approach to business and this shift can upset other generations within the workforce.

Gen Y employees are articulate and self-assured however they have the least amount of experience within the workforce and more precise, organizations. This optimistic generation thinks hard-work, confidence, achievement, and setting goals will lead to their fulfillment of dreams. Other generations, at times, overlook their capability due to their immaturity within a corporate occupation.

The variety of value systems and motivations are the center of communication standards including the diversity of values that are ingrained within the generational segments. Communication skills have intensified stylistically with technology advancement. Where Boomers prefer face-to-face contacts, generation X and Y are more comfortable with email, voicemail, and text messaging conducting business uniquely. Ethical communication is a challenge for leaders managing multigenerational workers. It requires multiple vehicles of content to satisfy the needs of the evolving organization. The art of leadership includes knowing when to involve and excite generational dialogue for the greater good of the organizational structure and advancement of human capital.

Michelle Zeiser

Executive Coach | Strategist | Consultant

@SelfIdeate

 

 

Is it Magic or Another Lens

Another Lens is a research kit for inclusive design through bias identification and organizational limitations (Airbnb.com).  The output of their research resulted in following guiding principles:

Balance your bias | Consider the opposite | Embrace a growth mindset

Bias

•      What are my lenses?

•      What details are unverified, unfair or unused?

•      What am I holding onto that needs to be released?

Opposite

•      Who is impacted by my decisions?

•      Who am I nervous to talk to?

•      What do I believe?

Growth Mindset

•      How am I challenging myself?

•      Is my audience open to change?

•      How can I reframe mistake in a way I can learn?

As leaders, coaches, and mentors, you must demonstrate appropriate behaviors for followers to model, modifying how they show up within the organization. Building their esteem by leveraging employee strengths, supporting their journey on how they show up every day and encouraging work-life effectiveness. Your consistent and repetitive coaching, with positive reinforcement, will help improve the employee lens with which they view the organizational ideology.

Cast the vision to the team and ensure effective messaging, including two-way feedback, throughout your change model is constant. Be the change you wish to see!

What I learned from 58 days of Mindfulness

For the past 58 days, I have been deeply rooted in a mindfulness training as part of my Professional Certified Coaching (PCC) completion. Mindfulness for me includes personal and spatial awareness, grounding in what matters most, gratitude, self-care, and exploring limitless possibilities.

What evolved from my consistent mindfulness practice is reduced anxiety and stress, increased focus and attention, and expanded creative confidence toward complex problems.

If you are continually distracted or impacted by email, technology, traffic, and the news, it doesn’t have to be that way!

For anyone starting a mindfulness practice, searching for a different way to show up and level up, engage an accountability partner or mindfulness coach to reach your mindful path.

#Mindfulness #MindfulnessCoach #SelfIdeate

6 Simple Steps to Transformational Leadership

So you have been a leader of people for many years, but your team performance is down year over year, and the business is making changes, are you safe? Or will you be mid-life trying to reboot a new career with increased demands on how leadership “shows up”?

If you are ready to transform your leadership style and take control of your destiny, let’s delve deeper into ways you can make it happen! Continue reading “6 Simple Steps to Transformational Leadership”

2 minutes and 40 seconds can change your life

Today was historic, and a once in a lifetime event for some who witnessed the moon passing between the earth and the sun within the path of totality. For the rest of us, unable to journey to the 70-mile band between the coasts, did you pause, take a break and behold the Great American Eclipse? Or were you in an office answering endless email, hopping on conference calls or “dialing for dollars”?

8/21/17 for me was an opportunity to be part of and celebrate something bigger. It was significant to feel the energy from the brief 2 minutes and 40 seconds of collective awe across the United States. It was a moment to share with my family and other people who were curious, and couldn’t stop looking up for fear they might miss one second of this wondrous event.

Even if science or an Eclipse isn’t “your thing” or you found yourself stuck in unavoidable meetings, today was a reminder to pause. Take time to recharge, if only for 2 minutes and 40 seconds, and prioritize you.

The Principal Ingredient for Meaningful Work is Passion

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion!” Just ask Simon Sinek, author, and creator of the concept of “Start With Why.”

When you love what you do and who you work with, you demonstrate your passion through:

  • Bold actions
  • Positive reception to changes that move the Company closer to its vision
  • Increased focus on exceptional service to clients and communities

If you are seeking optimum performance, check out “Finding your Element” by Lou Aronica and Ken Robinson. The book took me on a self-identification exploration leading to an understanding of where my natural talents converge with my passions.

Being in your element gives you strength often demonstrated through positive energy. Alternatively, when you are not in your element or outside of your comfort or social norm, you may develop negative emotions manifested by anxiety, stress, anger, and impatience.

The book provokes self-reflection through a series of question such as: Have you ever asked yourself, “What do I do exceptionally well?” Have you ever challenged yourself to flex these areas of strength to bring you closer to being in your element?

As we quickly approach the end of 2017, reflect on your exceptional strengths. What drives your passion? How can your gifts have an even greater positive impact on your work, your community and your loved ones?

Go ahead. Leap into your magnificence!

Building a Growth Mindset for Unlimited Possibilities

When you have ability, why should you need learning?” asks Carol Dweck, author of “Mindset the New Psychology of Success”.

Many of you are aware that I am a voracious, curious reader and audio consumer of input. “Mindset” was recommended to me by a mentor who identified my struggle to understand and my need for patience to find grace when encountering individuals with a fixed mindset.

Here is a self-identification opportunity; do you demonstrate a growth or fixed mindset?

Growth Mindset Attributes:

  • Understanding strengths and weaknesses
  • Stretch and develop self through learning and self-enablement
  • Seek challenge and take risks

Fixed Mindset Attributes:

  • Stands in the way of development and change
  • Lose interest when faced with challenge or something new
  • Seek success and validation, often blame and make excuses upon failure

Spoiler alert! If you identified as fixed, you CAN change your mindset, after all mindsets are just beliefs.

The next time you feel intimidated or overwhelmed while performing a task that became hard or you became bored; recognize you are in the fixed mindset. Believe in and motivate yourself to positively engage, using this opportunity as a growth experience.

 “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”            – Anatole France