My 2012 Goals

Here is my first draft of my 2012 goals. I’ve had these in my head for a couple of months. But they don’t count until they make it down on (virtual) paper.

  1. Log 10 hours of PPL flight time
  2. Gain 20 new monthly retainer clients
  3. Get 5 paid speaking engagements
  4. Get 5 speaking engagements outside of OKC
  5. Grow the Focus Inner Circle membership site to 100 members (invoiced, non-active income)
  6. Get the family income to $10K a month gross (active, invoice-based income)
  7. Get the passive income to $2000/month (passive = online, 24/7, non-invoiced income)
  8. Get bodyfat down to 25% (Stretch goal of 20%) (Read Workout Section)
  9. Gain 5 new monthly business coaching clients
  10. Get blood pressure back down to 110/70
  11. Save $2000 for cruise in November 2012
  12. Save $5000 in emergency funds
  13. Read at least one new book every month (Link to my bookshelf
  14. Get my working hours down to 20 a week
  15. Hire a VA full-time
  16. Hire an outside (1099) salesperson full-time
  17. Attend 2 major business conferences (Infusioncon 2012 + one other)

Most of these should be lined up with my long-term goals.

Let me know what you think in the comments below

Remember: Action is the great thing that escapes most people

Interested in how others are tracking goals? Check out my friends below:

@anyarizmClick here to see her goals

@rbbruceClick here to see his goals

Where I Am Going This Year. Where Are You Going?

These are not New Year’s Resolutions.

If you have seen my master goals list then you know I do have an aim in life. I do have direction that guides me every day. I do believe deep down in my heart in the power of setting achievement milestones (aka goals) for oneself. You don’t get from New York to L.A. in one big giant step. You get there by putting one foot in front of the other, and counting your successes for each mile of progress you make.

Recently a good friend of mine challenged me to layout my milestones for 2011. Let’s call him RB Bruce. RB and I met for lunch and decided to each make a blog post about what we were going to accomplish in 2011. A friendly wager of sorts (at least that is what I think we said. I can’t remember because I was in food heaven with the bacon cheeseburger). I am not sure what the winner gets, or what to do if we tie. That may even be up to you – the reader of this blog post.

What I do know is that this list will keep me in check for 2011. RB will keep me in check. And you, the StopDoingNothing reader will keep me in check.

Here goes:

Health: Lower my cholesterol measurement from 180 back down to 133. I give blood on a regular basis. The cool part about that is they check to see if I’m still alive. After that they check to see how healthy I am. I’ve been keep track of the critical numbers since 11/2007. The lowest measurement of my cholesterol level was on 3/25/2008 at 133. In 8/2010 it was 152. In 12/2010 it was 180. That is ridiculous. I am scared of having health related issues as I get older – especially any related to obesity or poor body maintenance. I used to be obsessed about what I ate and drank. I need to get there again.

Business: Grow my profit % and profit $ for 9 out of 12 months. 2009 was horrible for business. 2010 was better. 2011 is start off with a bang. I am planning a lot more bangs with the start of an AM/FM/Web radio show and a new client about every week. If I can keep that momentum this goal will not be difficult.

Pleasure: Log 20 hours of flying time this year. Right now I am out of currency. And I am very disappointed in myself. I love to fly. Let me repeat that. I LOVE TO FLY. My pilot’s license is something I am very proud of. I trained for it. I studied hard for it and I earned it. Right now it is a wasted piece of paper gathering dust in my wallet. I am going to fix that.

Financial: Save $5000 in emergency funds. Self-explanatory.

Business: Save  money to attend the Affiliate Summit West 2012 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is where the more brilliant minds of online marketing converge every year. As a stretch goal I’d also like to attend Blogworld.

Health: Reduce bodyfat down to my personal best of 19% (measured 4/24/2008). As of 12/2010 this was at 35%. Forget that noise.

Business: Hire an assistant. This will allow me to grow my business by focusing on shaking hands and kissing babies (but not babies hands – that’s just gross). The assistant will help me maintain a clean work mind and a focused business growth calendar. (That sounds pretty cool – I just made it up). An assistant will also help me organized. I am not the best person to organize my desk. I need to find somebody smarter than me to help me in this area.

Business: Start Focus University. I’ve recently learned that I have a lot of knowledge, but not a lot of time to share it with people that want it. I’ve been planning a new business venture (more like an extension of Focus Consulting) called Focus University. It will be a completely online paid membership education area. It will contain private videos, private forums, and private coaching opportunities with me.

Personal: Pay down debt. I am personally leaving this goal non-quantifiable for now. I will come back and update it later. But I’ve already started making small dent in this goal.

Update:

Personal: Commit to Remember the Milk. One of the things that RB teases me about is the time I lose/waste finding systems to help me manage my time. I am a walking irony. He is right – damnit. In January of this year I met a brilliant gentleman named Jake Fisher at the radio station where I have my show. He is 100% committed to the Remember the Milk system. Mainly for it’s speed and simplicity. After talking to him I decided to commit also. Is it the best system for me? That is what I am hoping to find out. I have a feeling that it will be great as long as I commit to it. My personal pledge is to give it the 12 month college try. I’ll reevaluate in January of 2012 whether it is working out. Check it out.

More to come. Ack – I just checked RB’s goal list. He has a big year ahead of him. I’d better try and keep up.

Watch this video about goal setting, then ignore it

I am a huge TED fan – I enjoy just about every speaker that hits the stage  – even the ones I wholeheartedly disagree with. Here is one for your viewing pleasure that you should ignore the advice in: Not telling people your goals.

Don’t ever do this. Shout your goals on the rooftop to the world and beyond. Write them on your bathroom mirror. Tell someone to check on you all of the time to see where you are. Publish them on your blog. Keep people updated about them. I still believe that sharing what you want to do with other climbers like you helps keep everybody accountable.

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Making the climb: Rock by Rock, Step by Step

StopDoingNothing.com is the project that I am the most proud of. It is a shame that it is the site I update the least. I love the concept. I love the site name. Yet recently I have been cursed by a lot of work. Work as a result of the StopDoingNothing mindset.

Where to begin:

1. As I may have pointed out in the past 2009 was a terrible year for my main business Focus Consulting. Nobody should have to go through as much stress as my family has gone through in the past 18 months. Some people have it better and some people have it worse. But we had ours. And I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I just did our P&L & Balance Sheet for October and was pleasantly surprised. The numbers were almost all in the positive. I hope that your business is seeing the same if not better revenue than you did in 2009. I hope to be turning down some of the lower paying work. I’ve heard that when you are too busy you need to raise your prices or start turning down what you don’t want to do. I’ll do the latter if I have to, but I would not mind raising my prices either.

2. I am starting to do more of what I want: Teaching and speaking. I am still heads down several hours a week in technical work because that is what pays the bills. But about every other week I have a speaking engagement. Some times two. This weekend I am crossing one of many milestones in my goals to do this professionally – I am giving my first keynote speech. Admittedly it is for Toastmasters – a group that trains others to speak better. But it is still my first keynote. Am I nervous? Yes. Am I prepared? I believe so. Toastmasters is a great group to speak to. And it is even better that I am not speaking about anything technical. The presentation is titled “Climber or Coaster: Which one are you”. In the presentation I am going to review some of the earlier mistakes I made when I was younger about apathy and associating with the wrong kind of people.

You have to believe. You have to have faith. Sometimes faith is all you have. You have to believe that things will get better. And you have to believe you are good enough to do what you want to do. You also have to realize that nobody is going to make you grow but you. Nobody is going to cheer louder for you than you are. I’ve learned to love and embrace the phrase “Shameless Self-Promotion”. I don’t see anything wrong with it.

Leave a comment below and let me know how your life is going. It is going in the direction that you want it to ? If not what are you doing to steer your ship the right direction?

xo – p

Is your body getting better or getting worse?

Over the past two months I’ve taken up jogging, ran my first 5k, and started taking better care of myself physically. If you are interested you can see my log and progress over at DailyMile. Create an account and friend me there if you’d like an occasional motivational kick in the butt.

It is hard. Life makes it hard. The pace of life and the easy choices that are thrown at us make it so easy to just sit on our butt and let them  grow. But I feel so good when eat healthy and when I exercise that I am going to keep at it. All that being said I did give blood today and was running behind and on an empty stomach. So I did stop at McDonald’s at get an Angus Mushroom Swiss Burger. I am not going to lie – it was good. Oh it was amazing, and I washed it down with two milks. But that red meat (or red meat like substance) will probably be on my bones for weeks to come. And who knows – I might have shortened by life by a few minutes or days. It is the price I am going to pay for my lack of planning to ensure I had the right food choices available to me.

I am of the belief that every moment you are alive you are getting stronger and healthier, or you are getting weaker and more unhealthy. Which mode are you in right now with your life? Which mode makes you more happy? The answer is pretty easy: If you are doing any kind of regular exercise program then you are taking care of your body and making yourself stronger. No exercise? Hello heart disease, poor health, cellulite, and doctor’s visits. Health eating is not good enough. You have to combine that with some kind of regular rigorous physical activity. You need to take your body outside of it’s comfort zone and make it work. Enough of this talking BS. Move something.

This weekend there is a  500m/5k event down at our new Oklahoma City Riversport complex. If you are local please consider dropping the $35 to join us. It is a small price to pay for the benefits you will gain. If you are not local to Oklahoma City  find something this weekend in your city that will challenge you. Start simple – walk a mile in the park or around your neighborhood. Then come back to your DailyMile account and log it for me to see. If you don’t like to run then please – just do something. Stop doing nothing!

Having trouble writing down your goals? Look at mine

I am sure you have heard it time and time again ; the absolute best way in the world to achieve what you want is to write it down. That is why I have page dedicated on this site to my goals. I just recently updated it and numbered it. The numbering will allow me to have conversations make improvements “by the numbers”, and also provide a common point of reference when I discuss my goals with you and other people.

If you are having any trouble writing down your goals look at mine for a starting point. In the version I have online right I have broken them down into some high-level categories. I don’t have action plans for most of them yet, and I don’t have them broken down into big rocks and little rocks yet. But I have a start.

My challenge to you: Write down your goals someplace online. Come back to the comments below or in my forum and share a link to your goal list. First of all – you will get some link love back from me. I even create a special new forum (follow the link) just for you to post your goal lists. Since it is a new forum area it is empty. Be the first to get in there and post. Make sure you update your forum signature so people can come read about your goals in detail over at your site.

The Next Post: Prioritizing the Goals

Do It Well, Do What You Want, and Get Paid!

Earlier this week I discovered this chart below – and I have been obsessed with it ever since. I made it the backdrop for my dual screen system, and I need to make it the backdrop for my laptop soon. It represents something that I, you, and most of the people in the world fail to keep in focus. We get so hung up in getting that check on the 1st and 15th. We get so hung up in meetings. We get so hung up chasing after business opportunities that seem like they will make a lot of money when in reality a lot of money is not your true motivator. The chart is probably the picture that best represents my mindset for having this blog. I consider the man who created it brilliant. He may not have come up with the concept, but he made it very easy for us to ‘get it’ in about 15 seconds.

Please spread this around to as many people as possible. I am not the originator of this chart – his name is on the chart. But if I could I’d climb up to the highest room of the tallest tower (Love my Shrek) and hang a banner with this on it. It is just that powerful to me.

Did you write them down… yeah… those goal thingys?

Happy New Year my fellow earth dwellers (shout out to those from off the planet that may be reading via RSS). Here it is January 1, 2009 8:32 Central Time. I am catching up on my RSS feeds, Twitter Feeds, etc. and sitting here wondering what the New Year will bring me. I am also thinking about what I will accomplish in the coming 365 days.

Have you thought about that? Yep… those trendy New Year’s resolutions that are so popular to talk about. You made them yesterday. Now it is time to ‘Cowboy Up’ and dig in and do them.

Don’t even bother.

Because you did not write them down. In the past 30 days if you verbally or mentally built a list of items that you want to accomplish in 2009 and you did not write them down you wasted your vocal cords and burned some brain cells that could have better been used elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong. I love New Year’s resolutions. As human beings we love to set goals that start on a major time period. Every morning when we wake up it is a new day and most of us feel it is a new time to start over and do something with our life. The same goes with Sunday morning  and the 1st of every month.  The New Year is a very large milestone in each of our lives (we usually get less than 100 of them) and therefore it is natural that we want to set very lofty goals for the next 12 months. It is also a great time to measure what we have accomplished in the past 12 months.

But if you did not write them down so you can see them then they might as well not exist. Writing them down is the equivalent of making a personal contract with yourself. Thinking about it (the gentleman’s handshake) is one thing. But we all know that handshake contracts can be  dangerous.  Actually writing it down make you legally bound with yourself to actually perform said services. Plus you don’t ever want to break a contract that you can see taped to the bathroom mirror every morning so you?

So the question to you is: Did you write them down? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Happy 2009 !

    Did you have your water this morning?

    A huge glass of water is one of the best things you can do first thing in the morning right when your feet hit the ground. Why?

    1. Warm water with lemon has health and immune system benefits. http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/lemon%20water.htm

    2. Your body has been lying around for awhile and now has to get all that flushed out. Got to pee!

    3. Keeping your body hydrated is an excellent way to keep the metabolism moving and…

    4. If you keep that metabolism moving…. you lose weight.

    So take a break from the email/twitter/blog reading/etc. and go drink a HUGE glass of water. Chug it like it was a beer. And then smile afterwards. And then…. come back here and brag about it.

    Go! Go! GO!

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    Leadership Series Part IV: Leadership Traits 1 of 5

    Continuing the series of a leadership speech I gave in Oklahoma City.

    Leadership Trait 1 of 5:

    1. Leaders are not afraid to stand up and say “I’ll do it”.

    When I was younger I was taught somehow somewhere – I don’t remember exactly where – that volunteering to help and raising my hand was a bad thing. You didn’t want to get called on by the teacher. And when the teacher or somebody else called on people to help with something you should slink and hide out of the way and hope the teacher didn’t see you.

    Do any of you do that?

    I know I did. But as I starting getting older I learned something that I am going to share with you right now. I learned that raising my hand and volunteering to help was the coolest thing around. It was not to be feared. It was something to look forward to. Why? Because when people see that you are willing to volunteer to help them or your class they remember that. They remember that that person is not afraid of a challenge. They are not afraid to do something hard.

    And as you get on in life you are going to learn that people LOVE people that volunteer. Because people that volunteer to help other are showing one of the traits of a great leader. They are not afraid to stand up and say “I’ll do it”.

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