Goal Focused - Home Business

Goal Focused

On many a night, you vow to yourself you will exercise in the morning, eat healthier foods the next day,   and/or not have that alcoholic beverage when you get home from work.  It is now morning, your alarm clock sounds and you decide to hit the snooze button six times making you rush to get to work on time, eat a pap tart for breakfast, and open a bottle of wine right after walking into your home at night. 

Here are some suggestions that can help you make the changes in your life that you truly feel you want, are willing to apply some personal effort, and dedicate some real time to reach your goals.

Suggestion 1 - Set positive goals.  You don't have to see the world in a positive Pollyannaish light all of the time, but you are advised to structure your goals as to what you are going to do and not what you are not going to do anymore.  Human brains are wired to accomplish tasks, thus setting a course of what you are going to do is much easier to achieve than figuring out your next stop when you are attempting to not do something. You are far more likely to be successful in reaching the goal of making three new outreach phone calls one day rather than setting a goal of not surfing the internet on a particular day.

Suggestion 2 - Spend five minutes each day visualizing in your mind what your life looks like after you have made your desired changes.  Your boss in constantly praising your work in front of your coworkers.  You feel stronger, are standing taller, and have more energy each day now that you are exercising regularly, eating better, and drinking less alcohol.

Suggestion 3 - Figure out what you can do and start there.  Asking yourself to exercise 60 minutes a day, seven days a week when you haven't even broken a sweat in the last month is an unreasonable request of yourself.  But if you know you can get to an exercise class 1-2 times this next week, this is where you should start.  Or what about staying an extra ½ hour at work this next week and responding via email to everyone in your inbox?  You could also ask your friend that you have been meaning to meet up with to meet you at the next networking event, and then together meet three new people at the event who you plan to follow up with the next workday, and then go out to dinner, just you and your friend.

Suggestion 4 - The more information you collect, the better.  Research shows that recording your behavior, even if you don't actively try to modify your behavior, leads to a positive behavior change.  Individuals, who record their sales calls, their eating and exercise behaviors, and their attempts at being more assertive in meeting, are all more likely to yield positive results than those who have not monitored and recorded these behaviors.  Furthermore, changing a pattern of behavior requires one to know their behavior patterns.  Knowing what environmental, emotional, and or physical stimulus contributes to continuing patterns of unwanted behavior provides understanding into why you continue to act our problematic behaviors.  This knowledge allows you to intervene on many levels such as modifying your environment and or managing your internal emotions to create behavior changes that positively affect your external world.

SOCIAL MEDIA LESSONS

-Start early.

-Build to scale.

-Innovate where necessary; do everything else incrementally better.

-Make it easy to find, forward and act.

-Pick where you want to play.

-Channel online enthusiasm into specific, targeted audiences that further the campaign's goals.

-Integrate online advocacy into every element of the campaign.