photo credit: Misserion

When people set goals, they’re often dreaming of some ideal version of themselves or their business that isn’t founded in real characteristics. In other words, if you resolve to lose 20 pounds but you’ve spent the better part of the past year traveling and eating road food, and you don’t see your travel schedule changing in the foreseeable future, that resolution is going to be difficult to achieve. Unless, of course, you address the travel issue.

And that’s the key. Looking at where you want to go and really aiming to get there means looking at where you’ve been and what’s kept you from reaching your destination. The most obvious obstacle may not be the one that’s holding you back.

In my professional life, I’ve been part of many, many goal planning sessions. They inevitably involve some kind of quasi-introspective exercise, like a SWOT analysis, and then when it comes to goal-setting time, everyone almost always promptly forgets all the would-be insights from the introspection. It’s a challenge to be brutally self-honest, and even more of a challenge to continue to be optimistic in the face of that kind of self-evaluation, but that’s what it takes to shake off the anchors of previous years and previous quarters and move on to what’s possible now.

When you’re tasked with setting goals, you’re often reminded to make them SMART — that is, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely — but who’s to say what “attainable” really means? Only you know the context of what’s preventing you from achieving greatness. Only you can address the root issues that need addressing.

As we end and begin a quarter, a calendar year, and a decade, I wish this for you: that you will bravely confront what keeps you from being and doing everything you dream of, and that you will boldly vow to overcome it. And then that you will overcome it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

photo credit: alexkerhead

The end of December is always full of parties and year-end lists. This one is no different, except, well, there are decade-end lists, too.

It’s a good time to stop and think about what you accomplish this year, and what you want to accomplish next year.

Did you have goals for your business and for yourself? Did you accomplish them? Do you have goals for next year? Are they aggressive enough, or are you sandbagging? Can you push yourself to do more?

Was 2009 the year you took a risk? Made big changes? Got laid off? Figured out next steps? Went back to school?

Is 2010 the year you’ll make a big change in your career? Start a business? Go back to school?

A year is a long time while you’re living it, but easy to compress into a snapshot in retrospect. What you take away as the memorable moments from 2009 will define what the year meant in your life. You have a chance to influence what those will be in 2010. What will you remember?

Happy Monday! Go get ‘em, tiger.

By the way, if we’re missing out on a topic or theme we should be covering, please let us know in the comments.

Here’s the first one:

My solution? Use iSpeak It to convert the analysis text into an MP3 and listen to it during my run…

He wants to know what your geeky time-savers are, too, so hit up his blog and give your reply or leave a comment here and let us know. Or both! Especially if you can, you know, find a geeky way to do both quickly.

photo credit: Jodiepedia

It can be awfully tempting to use your weekend to catch up on what didn’t get done this week, or what perenially never gets done. I know: I do it all the time.

But downtime gives us perspective, lets us recover physically and mentally, and allows us to perform better. So here’s a thought: as you go about your Friday, look for simple ways to tie up loose ends a bit tighter than usual so that you can use your weekend to recharge. Maybe it’s as simple as tidying your desk before you leave. I promise you, you’ll come back fresher on Monday for it.

Have a great Friday, and a very relaxing weekend.

Tammy Erickson, a workplace expert and author of Plugged In:The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work, advises that if you’re unhappy, see if you can upgrade your contribution to the company, or find a way to be more creative about your job.

via How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace – Management Essentials – HarvardBusiness.org.

Sometimes it’s not about how much you’re getting from your job, but how much of a difference you feel like you can make. If you don’t feel like your work has value, it’s hard to get excited about it. But you usually do have some control over that.

photo credit: Ange Soleil ( a.k.a Tweng )

Next time you’re feeling down about your job, peek at this list of Top 10 Ancient Jobs That Sucked Big Time and maybe you’ll look at your to-do list with renewed enthusiasm.

You don’t even have to go back to ancient times; there are plenty of jobs today that pretty much suck, and if you’re here reading this, they’re probably not yours.

Sometimes we all need a little perspective.

Happy Monday! Hope this turns out to be a great week for all of us.