New Year’s Resolution? This Time Stay on Track!

Another year has flown by – in fact – so has another decade! How are you going to make sure to stick to the resolutions you make in January? Wouldn’t it be great to break the cycle of starting and stopping on your goals? If only you had some way of keeping yourself on track.

The main reason people don’t reach their goals is that they give up along the way. Either they procrastinate, get discouraged or hit plateaus. And then of course there’s always Murphy’s Law. The difference between people who consistently reach their goals from those who do not, is that they keep plugging away until they get what they want.

Here are things you can do to overcome the common obstacles to reaching goals:

Procrastination: The hardest part for many people is just getting started. When you think about your goal it its totality, it may seem daunting. The key is to break it down into doable steps. Once you do that it’s easy to get started. During the course of your goal, if you feel the urge to procrastinate, keep the vision of your goal in mind.

Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong". Just when you were making real progress towards your goal, something unexpected happens and causes a set-back. Your attitude of how you approach a setback is key to achieving your goal. Some people will become discouraged and give up. Others will handle this in stride and find a way to get to their goal. Even if it feels like two steps forward and one step back, keep moving forward.

Plateaus: It’s normal after working on your goal for a period of time to hit a plateau. You know when you’ve hit a plateau because the same things that were working before, suddenly aren't working - and that’s exactly the problem. You need to do something different. Hitting a plateau means you need to shake things up, do things in a different order or try something new until you start seeing progress again. What worked when you first started on your goal may not work several weeks or months later. The key is flexibility.

Discouragement: Along the way to your goal you may hit a rough patch and become discouraged. The important thing to know about discouragement is that it’s just a mood and it’s temporary. If you’re telling yourself things like “I knew I couldn’t do it” that’s discouragement talking. The best remedy for that is to tell yourself something that’s going to give you energy to keep moving forward, like “I have everything I need to be successful.” That’s going to help carry you through when you feel like quitting.


Part of what helps successful people achieve their goals is that they know they’re going to experience obstacles along the way. They don’t know exactly which ones, but they know it’s inevitable. So, when something does happen, they’re not shocked, they’re not discouraged, they simply realize that this is part of the process. No matter what your goal is you will be faced with some obstacles that may appear to be insurmountable. Remember, if you keep on trying you’ll reach your goal.

Resolve this is the year that you will go after your goal with a new determination and the belief that you will achieve it.

Fred & Gladys
Whelan Stone
Executive Search and Coaching
Authors of GOAL! Your 30 Day Career Plan for Business & Career Success

Learn a New Language! Find the Time for That Or Any Other Goal.

People often assume they don't have the time to accomplish a goal without even knowing how long that goal might take. For example, how long do you think it takes to learn a language? People often say they don't have time for that, but how long does that really take?

According to Rosetta Stone, the language software company, it takes 180 hours to learn a new language. The people at Rosetta Stone say the most effective way to learn is to practice 3-4 hours each week (or 30 minutes a day) and in about a year you'll be speaking that new language.



Finding out how much time a goal really takes and then breaking it down into doable sessions makes it more attainable.

Time is a precious resource and sometimes we forget that we are in charge of how we spend our time each day. How do you think successful people get so much done? They plan every day. That's different from having a to-do list. When they assign a time for something it's not arbitrary - they look at what has to be done and figure out how long it should take. Then they schedule it. Planning your days is more efficient and frees up more time.

Another way to find time to do more of the things you want is to combine goals. You might be surprised at the goals that can be combined. For example, its commonplace now, but do you remember the first time you saw a parent jogging while pushing a stroller? Someone had the bright idea of combining those two - getting a workout while your child gets fresh air. We tend to put things in columns or categories and sometimes don't realize they can overlap. We all know how much business is done on the golf course. Those two categories were combined long ago and continue to thrive together. You can combine exercise, volunteering your time and spending time with your family if you all signed up for Habitat for Humanity. You could coach little league, that would combine your desire to be a mentor with spending time with your kids. There's almost always a way to combine at least two goals.

David Allen, the efficiency guru and author of "Getting things done" says
the best way to save time is to group like activities. If you have calls to make, do them all in a row. They don't have to be related because the calls are related by virtue of the fact that they are a like activity. That will save you time. Do the same for emails. Have certain times of the day when you're going to catch up on your emails. Put all of your filing together and do that, all the reading together and do that. And for your reading, if you have a backlog of stuff, like magazine and trade pubs, if you can't read the whole issue, just read the cover story. That's usually the most relevant article in the publication and it generally takes about 10 minutes. You'd be surprised at how many 10 minute windows you might have in a day.

It's important to find the time to work on the goals that matter to you. Research has shown that most people regret actions not taken rather than actions taken, regardless of outcome. Which is why it's so important to go after what you want. Start working on your goal today!

Fred & Gladys
Whelan Stone
Executive Search and Coaching
Authors of GOAL! Your 30 Day Career Plan for Business & Career Success

Too Many Goals? How to Get Started!

Carolyn, a woman who attended one of our seminars, had a problem — she had so many goals she didn’t know where to start. She felt good that she had lots of interests, but also felt like a bit of a slacker because she couldn’t get started. Carolyn didn’t know it, but her problem was not unique. Prior to working with us, many of our coaching clients had difficulty prioritizing multiple goals. We developed a strategy to address competing priorities in our book, GOAL! and helped Carolyn think through hers.

On her list of goals, none of them were time sensitive and none of them were dependent on accomplishing other goals. However, there was a subset of her goals that were mutually exclusive, so she did have to make a decision among those. The other goals were not mutually exclusive and theoretically, she could have picked any one out of a hat and just started. She hadn’t started on anything so far because she was unsure on how to proceed.

Carolyn’s goals were: Starting a business (mutually exclusive options), finishing her degree, writing a book and volunteering her time.

Here’s how we helped Carolyn get going:



For Goals That Are Not Dependent on Other Goals If there’s no sequence to your goals (i.e., none depend on the completion of other goals) then look at other factors. For example, is one an event driven goal? Those goals are tied to some specific future date, like losing weight to attend a college reunion or planning for retirement. If that’s the case then the date is going to drive when you should start these. If it’s not an event driven goal then you need to determine which goal is more advantageous versus the other.

Figure Out Which Goal Has the Advantage – If there are goals that have a common objective, (“I’ve identified two businesses which I can start that will both net me $100k”), figure out which one of those has an advantage over the other. Which one will require less time and energy? Which is less risky? Which one requires less capital? Or, which one will give you more joy? Figuring out the advantages will help you decide which one to go after.

If Both Goals Are Equal? If they are both equal in every aspect and you can’t figure out which one you should do, just arbitrarily pick one and start on that one. If they’re not mutually exclusive, when you reach one goal then start on the other. It’s important to take action because people will often end up doing nothing because they can’t decide between two good goals.

A Grid for Multiple Goals - Again, if all your goals seem equal and you can’t figure out which one to start first, you may want to make a grid. We can hear you analytical types saying “yes!”. Vertically down the page list the various goals you have in mind. These could be things like finishing up your college degree, writing a book and volunteering your time. Across the top of the page, list horizontally the key factors in your decision process, like: time, financial investment, enjoyment doing, satisfaction on completion, ability to involve your spouse, etc. You choose the criteria. Now you have created a grid. Give each of these a value from 1-10, 10 being the highest value to you (the shorter the time the higher the value, the lower the cost the higher the value). When you have filled in all the spaces on the grid, add the totals across for each goal and see which goal has the highest total. This will lead you towards the top goal(s). This puts you in a better position to choose which goal to tackle first.

What If You Can’t Identify a Goal? We always tell people to start with what they like doing. Sometimes people will say they’re not sure. If this is the case, start with what interests you and see if that leads you to something you like. For example, if you’re trying to select a career goal, start out with what you like doing or at least are interested in and figure out what careers would satisfy that. If you can’t figure it out on your own, hire a career coach and he or she can help you identify the careers that will leverage your strengths and be most fulfilling. If your goal is to find a fun hobby then again, start with what you’re interest in. A lot of people are interested in photography. Take a course or spend time photographing things and see where that leads. Someone we know had an interest in photography and noticed that all of her pictures tended to be of plants. That led to a garden hobby.
Goals can be incredibly fulfilling and amazingly frustrating if you don’t know where to begin. Lots of goals require lots of time, so get started now. The sooner you start the more fulfilling your life will be. Carolyn started business “A” and is volunteering her time on the weekends. She’s never been busier and never been happier, “Once I got started, everything fell into place.”

Fred & Gladys
Whelan Stone
Executive Search and Coaching
GOAL! Your 30 Day Career Plan for Business & Career Success

Finding Your Dream Job - You Had Me at Hello

It’s no secret that a lot of people are unhappy in their jobs. Given all the hours spent at work, wouldn’t it be better to do something you enjoy rather than stay in a job where you’re bored or unhappy? “Yes, BUT I need to pay my mortgage and this is no time to change jobs.” You’ll always have financial obligations and there’s no guarantee your current job will be there tomorrow.

Here's how do you go about finding that new exciting career that brings you back to life:

Use Your Current Job As a Starting Point – Even if you hate your current job, there might be aspects of it that can lead to your dream job. Let’s say you’re a brand manager and know you want to make a change. What part of the job do you like best? Is it the packaging, advertising, promotion, or market research? Maybe you decide it’s the market research. Do you like the qualitative side or the quantitative side? If you prefer the qualitative side, your new career could be a focus group moderator or someone who runs ideation sessions (this sounds like fun), or generates creative for a naming company, just to list a few. If you like the quantitative more, maybe you should go into risk management, become a go-to-market strategist, or a business consultant. There are many potential paths you can take that will enable you to do the aspect of the job you love most.

Listen to What People Say You’re Good At - Your co-workers, family and friends sometimes see you differently than you see yourself. If you hear people saying “oh, you’re great at staying in touch” consider opportunities that involve sales and networking. People might say “you’re good at giving advice.” Then ask yourself is there a teacher, trainer or coach lurking in you? Make a List of What You Like Doing – Don’t filter your responses. Make a laundry list of what gives you joy including things you used to do as a child. As a child, did you like to build things, write stories or perform? In addition to what you like to do in your current job, how do you like to spend your off hours? Next to each item on your laundry list, ask yourself what about the activity gave/gives you joy. See what epiphanies might occur and how you can translate these into your next job.

What’s Your Personality Telling You? – Some personalities are suited for certain positions. For example, if you handle rejection well and enjoy constantly meeting new people, sales might be right for you. Knowing who you are is a big part of finding the right career. Would you like to be a big fish in a small pond? If so, you may be cut out to be an entrepreneur (if you’re okay taking risks) or take a bigger role in a smaller company. Conversely, you may want the resources and cache of working at a large company and are willing to deal with multiple layers of management. Do you like being in a leadership role or a support position? Do you like working independently or in a team? Do you like project work or positions that require on-going building? It’s so important to find something that meshes with your personality. Otherwise, you’re a square peg in a round hole.

Be Open – Be open to ideas which can come from anywhere: when you’re reading books, newspapers and magazines; watching TV; talking to your family friends and co-workers. What ideas do you spark to? Being open means being inclusive – every idea is worth considering.

If there are a few career options that you have identified and need to know more about, go on informational interviews. If you’re still unclear as to what career suits you best, there are many great books like, “What Color is Your Parachute?” or career coaches (like us ) who can help.

It may be scary at first to think about changing careers, especially if you’ve been at it for a long time. But isn’t it better to face the fears than to stay in a job that’s not focused on what you enjoy doing most?

Yes!

Fred & Gladys

Whelan Stone

Executive Recruiters and Coaches

authors of GOAL! Your 30 Day Game Plan for Business & Career Success