The Harvard Goal Study
Mark McCormack, the author of What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School, tells a story of a study done in 1972 with Harvard MBA students. In the study, the students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”
Here are the numbers:
1972 –
- 3% had written down their goals and plans
- 13% had goals
- 84% had no specifi goals at all
1982 – 10 years after study
- The 13% that had goals, earned on average twice as much as the 84% who had no goals
- The 3% who wrote down their goals, were earning 10x the amount as the other 97% put together
The power of setting goals and having a clear vision can make you extraordinary.
Daily Affirmations Will Change Your Life
An affirmation is a declaration that something is true. More specifically, an affirmation is a carefully formatted statement that should be repeated to one’s self and written down frequently. For an affirmation to be effective, it needs to be present tense, positive, personal and specific.
What do you want? What do you want to become? The affirmations may not be true, right now, but you are telling your mind exactly what you want to become.
Reading and saying positive affirmations out loud on a daily basis will change your life. Below are some examples of my daily affirmations that I have in my bathroom, (forcing me to read each day).
- I am always smart and confident when speaking in public
- I am strong and healthy
- I live each day with passion and purpose
- I am a brilliant businessman
- Money flows to me from expected and unexpected sources
Do not write affirmations as something you don’t want. (In negative terms). Some people focus on what they don’t want rather than what they want. The subconscious doesn’t know the difference and in fact will bring you the things you don’t want. Some examples of focusing on what you don’t want:
- I don’t want to be in a lousy relationship
- I don’t want to be poor
Your subconscious just hears lousy relationship and poor. Guess what you will bring into your life?
How Google Sets Goals
This post was actually on my to-do goal list and I am glad I ran across Don Dodge’s most recent post entitled “How Google Sets Goals and Measures Success”.
I recommend reading Don’s complete post. I experienced Google’s audacious goal setting first hand and there is a reason why they set these audacious goals. “Because you can’t achieve amazing results by setting modest targets. We want amazing results. We want to tackle the impossible.”
Business Goal – How to Get Mentioned in TechCrunch
If you are a technology website business, the holy grail is to get your company mentioned in TechCrunch.
TechCrunch is one of the most popular blogs on Earth. A Simple mention of your product or service can increase your traffic dramatically overnight. When rentBits was mentioned, our traffic increased 25%.
A question I have been asked is, “How can I get my Company mentioned in TechCrunch.” Below are 5 tips to help your company get mentioned.
1) Develop a great product or service
- Why is your product different?
- What problem does it solve?
- Tell a story.
2) Provide a frame of reference
- i.e. The Google for Rentals
3) Get their attention
- The editors of TechCrunch receive many emails a day. They should know exactly what your business or service does by reading the first two sentences of your email.
4) Help them get to know you
- Add your company to CrunchBase
- Got technology news? Send them tips with a link to your blog post. We got two links to our blog from this and this post.
5) Don’t use PR Superlative “fluff”
- Stay away from terms like, “best”, “fastest”, “most”, etc. Also stay away from words like “revolutionary”, “web 2.0″, “leading”, “disruptive”
The 1% Rule – The Power to Change
Here is a math challenge for you. If you were to improve 1% each day, how many times better would you be by then end of the year?
The answer is 37 times better than you were in the beginning of the year. Alfred Lin, the COO of Zappos, the $billion company that was recently acquired by Amazon, wrote about this in a blog post entitled, “The Power of 1%.”
Wake up every day and ask yourself not only what is the 1% improvement I can change to make Zappos better, but also what is the 1% improvement I can change to make myself better personally and professionally – because we, Zappos, can’t grow unless we as individual people grow too…
Imagine yourself making 1% changes every day that compounds and will make you and Zappos 37x better by the end of the year. Imagine if every employee at Zappos was doing the same. Imagine how much better you, Zappos and the
world will be next year.
On another note, we will discuss the power of compounding, or the “most powerful force in the Universe,” as Einstein called it in the following posts, but wanted to give you another math riddle.
What if you started out with one penny today and each day you compounded the penny. For example day 1 you had 1 penny, day 2 you had 2 pennies, day 3 you had 4 pennies, day 4 you had 8 pennies and so on, how much money would you have after 31 days?
The answer is over $10 million……
Go out and positively compound your life each day. You will become extraordinary very quickly.
The “Invisible Forces” That Motivate Actions
Tony Robbins presented at TED about “invisible forces” that motivate everyones actions.
Notes:
- Tony is the “Why” guy – Why do you do what you do?
- The “invisible force” – Internal drive is the most important thing in the World
- At times, we don’t work in our self-interest – Emotion changes the game
- Effective leaders have the ability to consistently move themselves and others to action because they understand the “invisible forces” that shape us
- Two master lessons:
- The science of achievement (How do you take the invisible and make it visible)
- The art of fulfillment (About appreciation and contribution)
- Decision is the ultimate power
- When people fail to achieve their goals.. what are the reasons they give? (No time, No Money, No resources, No technology, Not right manager, etc…
- The defining factor is not resources but rather resourcefulness
- The ultimate resource is human emotion
- The right human emotion can get us to do anything
- Decisions shape destiny
- There are 3 decisions of destiny
- What am I going to focus on? Produce emotion and create meaning (focus=feeling, past/present/future, self or others?)
- What does it mean? (Is it the end or the beginning? Are you being punished or rewarded?)
- What are you going to do? (Are you going to give up or move forward?)
- Emotional fitness and psychological strength is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary
- There are 2 “invisible forces” that shape us
- State – In the moment (Physical and Emotional)
- Long-term – (the filter)Our model of the World: the shaper of meaning, emotion and action
- Made up of three parts:
- What are your needs? What drives you?
- What are your belief systems?
- What is the fuel that drives you?
- There are 6 human needs:
- Certainty
- Uncertainty
- Significance
- Connection of love
- Growth
- To contribute beyond ourselves
- Emotion – There are 6,000 emotions in the english language
- We experience less than 12 emotions
- What would you do if you had 6 days to live?
TheGoalSherpa 2010 Vision Map
Every company and individual should sit down and write out their 2010 vision map. A vision map is a vision of what you or your company will look like on Dec. 31st 2010. Everything is written in past tense as if it already happened. (Other forms of Vision Maps to follow in separate post)
Anyone who reads your vision map should know exactly what and where you want to be by the time line proposed in the map.
TheGoalSherpa (Our goals)
Our following vision, what we call our Vision Map, helps illustrate what TheGoalSherpa will look like, feel like, and act like on December 31st, 2010.
These are TheGoalSherpa’s short-term goals that will be accomplished by the end of 2010. They are as follows:
- Write over 300 blog posts
- Acquire 5,000 twitter followers
- Speak at 5 large known events
- Develop over 20 Video Posts
- Have 4 “extraordinary” people write a guest post
- Share 10 stories of lives affected by goal setting
- Develop goal setting application
Our Vision Map (How are we going to reach these goals) :
Brand Presence
TheGoalSherpa is becoming an admired brand and resource within the business and personal growth communities. TheGoalSherpa currently has over 25,000 unique visitors a month and each post generates lively discussion. The service appeals emotionally to our readers needs, wants and desires, giving them the tools, information and opportunity to reach extraordinary heights.
People, Culture and Values
TheGoalSherpa culture is the most important aspect of the business.
Each of our 10 core values, “Be Positive”, “Work Together, Grow Together”, “Share Knowledge”, “Do More with Less”, “Laugh”, “Be Committed to Go Beyond”, “Be Open”, “Ideas Come from Everywhere”, “Always Learn, Always Grow”, and “Take a Risk” are practiced each and every day.
We stay focused on our goals, values and vision through constant recognition and dedication to continued growth. We have incorporated the ‘wall of goals’, ‘personal painted pictures’, ‘tracking solutions’, ‘feedback tools’, ‘monthly TGIF’, ‘Innovation boards’, ’Philanthropy One’ (1 company wide community service / quarter), and more.
Our energy and optimism is contagious.
Content
TheGoalSherpa content is of high quality and value. Each post opens up an opportunity for discussion and follow-up communication that will help shape the lives of many who read it.
Internal Communication
GoogleWave has been implemented company-wide to help streamline company communication and increase transparency.
Tracking Growth
What gets measured improves.
Based on the company vision map, each department and employee has created their own. This is how we align individual and corporate goals. Departments meet frequently to ensure action is taken and each goal is met.
Media and Speaking Engagements
TheGoalSherpa has become the industry thought leader. TheGoalSherpa has been written about in the major news publications including the Denver Post, Entrepreneur.com, AOL and other major local and national news outlets.
TheGoalSherpa has also been invited to speak at various social media, business, real estate, fitness and apartment events.
Becoming Extraordinary
Developing an extraordinary service depends on all of us reaching and exceeding our goals. The result is predictable success. Together, lets become extraordinary!
No More Excuses – Think Positively
The biggest limitation in personal and professional growth is the negative excuses and thoughts of uncertainty that enter the mind on a daily or consistent basis.
Your subconscious does not know the difference between what is real and what is not. If you think you will not succeed, your mind will make this “wish” a reality.
Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. At the age of 5 I started playing t-ball and worked hard to improve on a daily basis.
When I was 15 years old, in 9th grade, I was preparing for tryouts for the high school baseball team. I would stay awake at night thinking that I was not strong enough, talented enough or fast enough to make the high school team. My palms would sweat and my heart would beat faster as I saw myself telling my dad I didn’t make the team.
During the tryouts, I made errors, struck out twice and fell down the first base line trying to run the bases. All of those nights thinking of the negative things that would happen inevitably helped make them come true. I did not make the team in 9th grade.
The following months, I worked harder and got stronger both mentally and physically. Each day I would visualize hitting singles, doubles, triples and home runs. I would focus on the positive feelings that came along with these accomplishments.
One year later I made the baseball team and during my senior year, accepted a position on the NCAA OWU College baseball team. I didn’t make it to the pros but playing college baseball was a major accomplishment that I would never have been able to achieve if I didn’t believe in myself.
Eliminate the excuses in your life. Each night before you go to sleep, think and feel the positive things that will happen. Your mind will strengthen bringing more confidence and good fortune into your physical life.
It Starts with a Vision
“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” – Helen Keller
One of the hardest things for an individual to do is to sit down and write down what they want to accomplish within a predetermined amount of time.
I recently got an Android ( by Google) phone and one my favorite features is the turn-by-turn navigation system. This is the perfect tool to get me to a specific destination, but if I don’t tell it where I want to go, I cannot move forward. This is how many people move through their life, with no specific destination.
While working at Google, we knew exactly where Google was going. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a very clear vision of what they wanted Google to be. They wanted to organize all of the Worlds information and make it easily accessible by any person on any device. This extremely clear vision became the roadmap to Google’s success.
I was recently watching a talk show and on it they had a famous rapper. This rapper had numerous rubber bands around his wrist. The host asked the rapper why he wore these rubber bands. His response, “As a child, I wore these bands because I had a vision of being able to wrap these rubber bands around hundred dollar bills. I wear them today, to constantly remind me of where I am, and where I want to go.”
You too can reach your goals but it first must mean you have a clear vision of where you want to go.
Action Items:
- Today – write down 5 things you want to have accomplished by Dec 31st, 2010
- Write it has if it already happened (i.e. I have lost 15 lbs and feel as healthy and confident as ever.)
- Share them with your family and friends. (This will be your support team)
- Constantly be reminded of your vision (Post it in your bathroom and read it aloud everyday)
