Setting mini goals

Have you noticed my weekly reports seem just a tad disorganized? I sure have!  Sometimes life seems to disrupt a plan more than it does just living (in other words the more things I commit to, the less that seems to get done.) The stress from last week translated into a twingy back muscle that didn’t go away until I realized that the bottle of Advil in the medicine cabinet was two years past its expire date and switched over to the almost as old bottle of generic Ibuprofen. It probably would have been a good idea to have checked that a year or so ago!

What I have gotten done is all the prep work to be able to blog remotely (still untested, but I think I’m ready) and clear up a bunch of other odds and ends.  I’m still working on marketing which is part of why this blog has suffered just a teensy bit – the others have been getting a little bit more of the attention which will now switch over.  It’s fascinating to see how fast things can change and what terms people use in search engines.  While it may seem minor I finally achieved my goal set back in May to reclaim the number one spot in Google for my own name. I know it’s not really important, but would you want to place second to an adult-film actress?

My approach right now is just to set mini goals for the week and for each day that allow me to contribute something to each of my profit centers, I do think several things have suffered from waiting for a huge block of time to be devoted which just isnt’ happening.

If I can keep that up then the bigger blocks of time can go towards the bigger projects like ebooks and new jewelry designs.

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, doing less

The No Excuses Project: Phase 2

So if you’ve recently found this project or been following along from the beginning you will have noticed the theme of one excuse per week. Yes, that probably could continue to run endlessly but my goal was to make this only a year long project!  So we started with my 26 most common and limiting excuses which wrapped up last week.  Now comes the really hard part of 26 weeks of  looking at goals and where those excuses come into play and whether there are still any lingering remnants (I’m pretty sure there are…)  Since I only have myself to analyze we’ll be using my goals and knowledge of when I call in the excuses but hopefully you will also find something to relate to.

In general here’s how my life breaks out into areas where I would like to make improvements or more progress.  That should work out to about two weeks per topic and we’ll just see how it goes. I hope you’ll be a part of it!

• Career
  • Jewelry
  • Photography
  • Writing
• Relationships
  • Family and friends
  • Significant other
• Health
  • Losing weight
  • Getting in shape
  • Checkups
• Environment
  • Home improvement
  • Garden
  • Chores
• Personal growth
  • Travel
  • Treasure hunting

Next week: The goal of photography and what’s standing in the way

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, no excuses

The very last week of the year

My single biggest accomplishment for this week was creating a “line sheet” for the sea glass jewelry and sending it off to the first prospective buyer.  I’d never done one before and all the advice I could find had to do with pieces that can  be ordered in bulk even when they’re handmade.  I’ve no idea of what I came up with works as it should but there’s only one way to find out.  I did take great care to make sure fonts matched and spacing was perfect.  Now I need to send it out to other prospects and keep refining.  The first step is always the hardest!

My marketing education continues and the website I’ve built for class made it up to #8 on Google for it’s main keyword and then slipped to 11th – which isn’t bad for something that didn’t exist at the beginning of December.  Sometimes it scares me that this stuff works.  The bigger challenge is applying some of it to my true business endeavors which have a great deal more competition and where “BUY NOW!!!!” isn’t really the appropriate tone!  However, I know a whole lot more than I did five weeks ago and I am starting to see the benefits of what I’ve applied so far.

Now it’s time to take down the lights and the Christmas tree and start working even more efficiently – new projects loom large like learning about ebooks and subscription lists!

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, learning new things

The No Excuses Project: ‘Help will not be available’

This is one of the sneaky excuses – few people will blatantly say they aren’t going to do something because no one will help them, but many of us have said that we aren’t ‘ready’ to do whatever it is that feels like putting on a backpack and heading off solo into the wilderness without a compass or a cell phone.  Most of us will never be ready for that kind of experience! I can’t prove that help will show up, but if you look back I’m guessing that it always has in the past especially if you allow for a liberal definition of help to include finding that useful book on Amazon, or an inspiring website, or a friendly ear on an airplane. Heck, help even shows up sometimes as rejection which can either strengthen our resolve or show us that an alternate path might yield the goal more effectively.

Subconsciously I have used this one a lot. Not being particularly good at asking for help, as well as being more inclined to work alone (as opposed to teams) I have a tendency to feel like I’m supposed to be able to figure it all out on my own.  But most people with big dreams have been in the same position as those of us still dreaming.  So while they may not have travelled the same path or have a specific answer, they remember the feeling and aren’t inclined to stomp all over people.  They will show up in your life.  As will the books and anything else that you need to move forward, it just may not be at the exact moment you think they should!

I have gotten better in the last few years about asking questions with positive results so like any other new habit or thought process this one takes some getting used to.  I’m simply resolving not to use the excuse going forward, to make sure that I’m not subconsciously stopping myself with the belief that help will not show up.  It will, my job is to be open to it.

Next week: ‘The past still has hold of me’

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, asking for help, living your dreams

Patience may just be paying off

I’m resolving from here on out to start doubling my estimates of how long it’s going to get something done – it ends up taking that long anyway and I beat myself up for not getting to the rest of the things on the list!  That aside, it’s been a productive week, at least for the jewelry side of the business.  I finished a few show-stopper pieces and got them photographed, got a few smaller and lower-priced items loaded up to Etsy and finally got a website up – http://jewelry.julietchase.com so that I can direct people to the buying end of things.  My view for website analytics now stretches to two pages.  I will not even make the attempt to blog on this page – my goal is just to keep the pictures fresh with the latest and greatest and make sure any show and selling information is accurate.  It took me a full day just to decide on the WordPress template I liked the best, sometimes too much choice is a bad thing.  I’ve also configured some online advertising and ordered business cards and even got a free car decal included – I’ve never been one for bumper stickers but if I can pull in just one person to take a look at the website, then it’s worth it.

And then yesterday I got a request from a major magazine to use an old photo for an internal advertisement.  I chose not to push for money but instead hope that the wide distribution with a photo credit is like free advertising for me. It was completely unexpected although it did result from my putting some things out there for free Internet use which I talked about back in April.  I think it was probably a very good idea.  Crossing my fingers that this is just the beginning of something great.

On the non-business front, I’m picking a new volunteer case today, it’s always interesting to learn people’s stories and find out what I can contribute to the kids.  I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter there. I’m also keeping the exercise in my routine although I’ve not put in quite as much time the last few days – I’m determined not to let that dwindle into nothing, however. I have a good feeling about the next few months…

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, Health and Happiness, solopreneur, synchronicity, the way to happiness, time management

Do romance and dreams make goals more successful?

For some reason the Voyager spacecraft have been popping up on my inner screen lately.  I’m old enough to remember when they were launched in 1977 and the wonder of the golden records.  The thought that anyone would even try to introduce Earth through pictures and music! A lot of the ’70s is worth forgetting, but not those. They didn’t have a website back then which left a lot to the imagination, but now you can see some of the pictures (awfully focused on reproduction!) and the music scores; you can even listen to the recorded greetings in various languages. It’s a romantic idea even if it’s guised as science.

I’m not sure if the scientists really expected either spacecraft to make it out of the solar system; it’s been 32 years and they aren’t there yet and they’ve stayed in communication long past anyone’s expectations.  On the picture above they are somewhere between Pluto and the purple band beyond – power and communications will cease in the next fifteen years. So were the golden records part of marketing? I don’t know -the Cold War seemed to be enough of a motivator for funding in those days.  I would like to believe that they were made a part of the spacecraft as a tribute to possibility, something that Carl Sagan (who got to head up the selection team for the contents) was more of an advocate for than most.  And I think that’s why they’ve lasted so long – they were built for more than just one specific mission (explore Jupiter).  They were designed to adapt to the ‘and then’ and to adapt to the expected like radiation while leaving room for dreams of encountering an intelligent species.  We’ve lost the knack for that as things around us get increasingly disposable.

So if you took a frequently requested goal like ‘quit your job and live by the beach’ and added ‘and then’ and another ‘and then’ and maybe a ‘what if?’  would it change your perspective at all?  Would you do anything differently then you are doing now?

Technorati Tags: achieving goals

What are baby steps, anyway?

I’ve been reading This Year I Will…: over the weekend and finding even more things to think about then the last time I read it. One thing in particular that stood out for me was the chapter on making changes by taking baby steps – only these were minuscule steps. For example if you wanted to be more consistent about flossing your teeth, starting with just one tooth and then working your way up.  I’ve been used to hearing about people that worked their way up to marathons by running one block and then one mile etc but not by running past one house and then two! Possibly I need to dial down my efforts a bit and they just might stick better.

The question I’m now wrestling with though is what are these minuscule steps if the topic is neither flossing nor running?  If the goal is widening your social circle to include both friends and potential dates, does that mean simply varying your routine by going to a different Starbucks?  Or doing one web search for local lectures? Or something else entirely?  It’s a puzzle, but one worth figuring out.  The alternative path would be do jump into yet another online dating site or speed dating etc.  That might seem like baby steps, I would have categorized it that way before, yet clearly that’s bigger than what we’re talking about here. No wonder the success rate of those things is so low; people are overwhelmed.

I’m also wondering if I could start running if I did just try it house by house – whee, I’m up to running past three houses!?  It might be an interesting experiment. Who cares how long something takes if you reach the goal?

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, baby steps

First steps

Moss on a rock is certainly not a new thing. Did you ever stop to think how it got started? Where did the first green appear?  Everything had to start somewhere. What first step did you take today? What have you carried forward just that much farther from the day before?

Wallace Falls State Park, Juliet Chase, all  rights reserved

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, baby steps, meditation images, minute meditation, Online Meditation, online relaxation

When you’re ready to stop, do just one more thing

Yesterday was one of those days filled with a lot of non-critical errands and tasks that all needed to get done relatively soon.  I have a lot of days like that – any particular task could get put off for a day or two without dire consequences yet they add up to become overwhelming.  It’s also pretty easy to stop when you get tired under these circumstances.  Sometimes that’s the right thing to do and sometimes you can find that you have untapped reserves with the right approach.

So yesterday, that’s what I did.  When I got to that point of ‘well, maybe that could wait to tomorrow…’ I got up and did just one more thing on the list – since that was making an apple pie from the rapidly spoiling apples I’d picked earlier in the day, maybe it would have been healthier to wait.  However, it turned out I wasn’t that tired after all – as the pie crust got made and chilled, the apples peeled and sliced and the whole thing baked. And yes, it was delicious! It turned out I could manage to bring up boxes from the basement too. Strangely enough, doing just one more thing turned into doing about three or four more things.

I am so much more productive when I take this approach you would think that it would be easy to make it a habit. It isn’t. But I keep hoping and trying.  And it keeps working – whether it’s stuck energy or not knowing where to start, somehow doing just one thing seems to move me back into the flow.

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, getting things done, Importance of Motivation

5 ways to get traction on that project that never gets done

I have had a home repair project hanging over my head for the last three years.  Ignoring it not only doesn’t make it go away but is starting to make me embarrassed about the front of my house.  It started with the discovery of rot at the base of one of the columns. Since there was a couple of hundred pounds sitting on it, things were starting to lean.  So I geared up my bravery and google and learned how to jack up a column and replaced the base.  Then I found rot in less structural areas because the paint was coming off. So last summer I excavated all of that and stopped any further damage but not before the fall rains started leaving me to wait until this summer to finish it. Also leaving the porch with peeling paint, gouged out holes, and unfinished wood where I’d gotten in a few replaced pieces.  In short it looked like Mothra had visited and then left in disgust.  Ughh! The time it’s taken to deal with a relatively common issue is frustrating.  I’ve not been lazy about it, rather more intimidated.  I don’t love using power tools and I’ve been afraid of what I’d find next.  Which is pretty much the perfect recipe for not getting something done.

The one strategy that definitely doesn’t work is waiting until everything else gets done and there is no other choice.  I am tackling it this week and will finish it soon.  Here are the five things I’m doing to finally get this off my plate and my guilt list:

1. Break it down into small tasks and only tackle one per day.  So on Monday, I inspected everything to see what might need to be redone from last summer and what was still to be done. Tuesday I  cut and nailed in the replacement parts. Today, I’m scrubbing the old paint and going to the hardware store for exterior wood putty.
2. Radically decrease the importance of anything else – the bathroom isn’t getting scrubbed this week and I’ve not been quite as good about blogging as I normally am.
3. Go easy on yourself – a little sleeping in for one week isn’t going to do any damage, particularly if it lets me focus that much harder on the task at hand.
4. Go for ‘as good as you know how to do’ instead of perfect.  The real benefit to an older house that was build soundly but not perfectly is that repairing it doesn’t have to be perfect either.  Some of my corners match what was there and some don’t, because I’m replacing the wood the best way I know how. If I were going for the perfect restoration job, I’d have to stop, learn, and buy equipment to cut the angles that were originally used.  I’m not cutting corners (no pun intended) on the structural integrity but I’m allowing for adequate on the cosmetic side of things.
5. Rewards – incentives work!  All the fixings for making a caipirinha are in the kitchen and I can deal with anything if at the end of day I can sit on the shaded deck with an icy, lime drink in hand.

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, facing fear, getting things done

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