Setting Goals Is A Waste of Time! Right?

By now the majority of people, yes, each and every one of you, have sat through one or more goal setting seminars or workshops. 

You know the drill. There will be slides about S.M.A.R.T. goals and why this is very important. 

There will be a discussion about not giving up on your dreams and having great big goals. Someone might even ask the group, “How Do You Eat An Elephant?”  Answer – “One bite at a time.”   This may be true – what if you don’t eat meat! Seriously this is not meant to make fun of this important information.

All of our goals should be S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Here is the rub, with all of the articles and all of the books and all of the courses, why is goal setting looked at as a chore and worse yet as something that does not work and is a waste of time by so many people?  Why do so many goals which are set each year in December or January when revisited at some point are found to not be attained?

The reason is we all want to keep our goals to ourselves!

Setting Goals - Waste of Time?It is like we have a huge Do Not Enter sign up and no one is allowed to see our goals.

Now the goals we set should be for our career, our business and for our personal life and our families.  Why on earth do we feel these are private matters?

The best way to insure your goals are met is to create a method of accountability.

This may be accomplished in a variety of ways. You might have one or two people at work or on your advisory board for your business each share their goals with each other and have a regular meeting to hold each other accountable.  Unfortunately, this meeting will begin to take last place when a few weeks or months go by and then no one will be held accountable to each other.

You might have a close friend or family member set goals and you set goals and each of you agree to hold each other accountable.  Sad to say what often happens is each person will accept the excuses of the other person instead of pressing for the plan with each other due to the family relationship or friendship. Goal setting and attaining goals is not easy.

It works but it must be worked.

The absolute best way to set goals, achieve goals and move toward your bigger goals is to work with an experienced coach and a group which is guided through the process of goal setting, keeping accountable and continually communicating with the coach and others about your progress.

If you are ready to finally take charge of your goal setting, make certain you are signed up for my weekly newsletter. There will be a free call in December on goal setting. Yes, no charge. You must be signed up to receive the email which will announce the call information. 

Mitch Tublin owns a boutique consulting firm with a focus on leadership development, business strategy and executive coaching. Based in Stamford, CT with clients all over the globe.

 

Do You Focus? Or Are You Distracted?

focus-or-distractedNever before in the history of modern thinking has the lure away from focus on a specific item been more challenging. More importantly never before has the ability to focus on a specific item been more important.

It is more than technology. Let’s address technology first to get that big single item off the table…cell phone, smart phone, tablet, laptop, voicemail, texting, email, social media of all flavors from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube and more.

The majority of the population is tied to their electronics. It is as if everyone must be available to everyone else all of the time or their world would come crashing down.

Take The Challenge. Buy an old school little memo pad and grab a bic pen. Write the day of the week at the top of the page each new day. Use tally marks each day for a week to record every time you either read an email or a text and send an email or a text. At the end of the week add up the tally marks for each day and then the week. What is the weekly number for all of the emails and texts you sent and opened?

Do this again for the next week and add one new element. Circle the tally mark if the email or the text resulted in achieving any one of your personal or business goals. When you finish the week and total your tally marks, total the circled tally marks in their own category.

How many circled tally marks are there. None? A few? What percentage of the whole?

This is the issue. We have become distracted in our behavior. We each need to have personal and business goals. These goals need to be tied to action steps which are defined with specific actions to be taken by a specific date. Without a process such as this basic process described we end up distracted. We think we are busy. We think the small things such as answering every text or email immediately really matter. Yes the small things matter. The small things that matter are the small action steps toward achieving your designed personal and business goals.

The resulting behavior from this described daily ritual the majority of people go through has created a short attention span to any focus for a length of time necessary to establish real thinking and engagement in any one single item of focus. This is rapidly becoming a lost ability in a human being. The media is aware of this and contributes to reinforcement of the behavior.

Take a look around the next time you are in a restaurant. Notice how many couples are sitting across the table from each other and are not speaking with each other or having a conversation. They are each using their smart phones checking newsfeeds or social media or email or texting. What happened to focusing on their relationship and each other?

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified personal and business coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

Do you live in Fairfield County, CT. or Westchester County, NY? Check out L2:Learn-Lead Stamford – http://www.mitchtublin.com/L2Stamford

May I Buy Some Time Please?

buytimepleaseIf your printer runs out of ink or paper you or someone who works for you can just head over to the nearest STAPLES store and buy ink cartridges or paper.  When these are put into the printer you are back in action. The ink and the paper are commodities you use them and you just go and buy more.

On the other hand, time cannot be purchased. If you take an hour to work with a client who was booked for thirty minutes, the extra thirty minutes is lost forever.  If you are working on a marketing plan and had planned and scheduled to work on it for two hours and instead you work on it for six hours, the now lost four hours will never return, they are gone forever.

Everyone is busy, in fact, when surveyed, one of the top five items people wish they had more of is time. Every type of survey researching this question finds more time to be one of the top five most requested or wished for items. The question must be asked – if we cannot buy more time and we all want more time how do we solve this supply and demand imbalance?

The answer is we have to create more time within our day by re-allocating what each of us spends our time on. Here are three actionable steps for you to put into use right now.

The absolute number one habit to form is to create a time management system or process which you will adhere to and will work for you. In a perfect world this system would be combined with your goal tracking and action steps you may have set up. This does not have to be an electronic or digital system. It might make sense if you will be sharing the information with a number of other folks. However, the main point is that it has to work for you first.

The second habit is to stop trying to always be and look busy. Busy does not always translate into productive. Time spent being productive is one of the essential attributes we each have to have for ourselves.  Hands down regardless of the type of business you are engaged in, sales and marketing are where the majority of your time should be spent, and will be the most productive time you will spend in your business.

The third action item is grouping. The ability to group activities creates great efficiencies. A few examples would be to select an hour in the morning or the early afternoon to make your phone calls. Avoid texting and calling people up at all hours of the day.

Try out any one of these items or try out all three. Give yourself a full month or possibly two months to witness the efficiencies created.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

Top Ten Things Entrepreneurs Need To START Doing Now

toptenstartIn approximately one year David Letterman will host his last Late Night Show. In honor of the marketer and promoter of the Top Ten List here is my Top Ten List of things Entrepreneurs Need To START Doing Now:

10.     Decide as soon as possible if you intend to run a business or a hobby. The biggest difference is one choice means you must charge for your products and services and make money. The other choice is more about just having a good time or having something to keep you busy. Which is your choice?

9.     Create a plan for your business. Some may call it a business plan. It should cover every aspect of where you intend to take your business. Then you drill down and have a marketing plan, a financial plan, a staffing plan and more.

8.     Your clients and customers are going to make your business. Referrals are your best friend. When you are trying out something new or want feedback – go to your customers.

7.     Create a consistent brand. Weave this brand across social media platforms and live this brand in your daily life.

6.     Be strategic about Twitter, Instagram and other social networks. The wrong statement, recorded video or taken out of context quote is difficult if not impossible to undo.

5.     Calculate the value of one hour of your time. Anything you are doing which is not up to that level should not be done by you. Period. End of story.

4.     Do you need some help in your personal life to free up more time? Make a list of what these items are and either batch these yourself or with your significant other or hire some help.

3.     Each week or at least each month review your SMART goals and cross check these with your business plan. If something is not matching up – make an adjustment or assess what is going wrong and why? You cannot get from Point A to Point B  if you are heading in another direction.

2.     Find a Business Coach to provide you with accountability and to ask you questions to consider. This is not easy, running or building up a new business, and no one has to do this alone.

And the Number One Thing Entrepreneurs need to START doing now:

1.     Do it! Take Action! Overcome your fear of failure or your overwhelm. If it does not work out, get back up and try something else. Just keep taking action steps.

Are there some items missing from this list of the Top Ten Things Entrepreneurs Need To Start Doing Now? Please comment to this and add your item.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

Top Ten Things Entrepreneurs Need To STOP Doing Now

Top Ten Things Entrepreneurs Need To STOP Doing NowIn approximately one year David Letterman will host his last Late Night Show. In honor of the marketer and promoter of the Top Ten List here is my Top Ten List of things Entrepreneurs Need To Stop Doing Now:

TOP TEN THINGS ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO STOP DOING NOW

10.   Procrastinating – Eat the frog and don’t wait until the last minute

9.     Being distracted – Turn off your phone, walk away from Facebook, don’t watch the latest Youtube video. Focus on the task at hand.

8.     Forgetting the customer is always right – Good customer service always comes back to this basic principle.

7.     Staying on Facebook all day long – You have better things to do; designate a specific time per day when you will log in. You should be there for business and creating relationships. With this clear purpose in mind watch the clock and set a specific amount of time for facebook activity.

6.     Tweeting all day – Designate time here too and have a purpose for what you are using twitter for.

5.     Doing errands – Set your work schedule and stick to it. If you are going to or leaving an appointment while you are out this is a perfect time to stop in a store if you need to pick something up. As you are scheduling an important visit to the Doctor’s Office consider what else you might achieve while you are in this area or in transit. Are there any clients or prospects you might meet with nearby?

4.     Physically going to Staples, Best Buy, etc – How can you use online shopping and other features (like postage purchases) online to maximize your time?

3.     Not strategically thinking and planning for your business – Have a solid business plan in place and set SMART goals.

2.     Doing everything alone – You are not a webdesigner, an accountant, a marketer, a PR firm, a social media manager, etc. Build up a solid team to help you with the tasks you are not good at / do not have time or energy for.

And the Number One Thing Entrepreneurs need to STOP doing now:

1.     Avoid taking action – It’s great that you are taking time to learn and educate yourself on how to grow your business and achieve your goals. But what action have you taken? Jump in and tackle those action steps starting now!

Are there some items missing from this list of the Top Ten Things Entrepreneurs Need To Stop Doing Now? Please comment to this and add your item.

Coming soon: TOP TEN THINGS ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO START DOING NOW

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

What Time Is Check In Time?

check-inAnyone who travels much knows there is a check-in time for your flight or at the hotel where you have your reservation. In fact, for your hotel, it is right there on the confirmation statement which is on your mobile device or printed copy. You might ask yourself, “why is this necessary, I am here now, can’t I just check-in?” The reason is turnover or turnaround time.

When guests are departing they need to be allowed enough time to conduct their personal business of showering, eating their breakfast and packing up their belongings.  Then the hotel cleaning crew and the mini-bar accountants have to conduct their business. If there are any items in need of maintenance or repair these need to be taken care of as well.

It may seem odd, however, there are a good number of people who do not understand or recognize any of this as legitimate. Is it any wonder then that there are a majority of people who do not check-in with their business vision, mission and goals or their personal vision, mission and goals either?

At a minimum, a check-in should be conducted every three months, a quarterly process. A more progressive business would check in at least monthly. For the business, the leadership team should meet for half a day or an entire day, and review the current vision, mission and goals statement and check-in to see if these are still a reality or not.  Where is there a disconnect? Do changes need to be considered? Where are things running right in line with these statements? What are the reasons in each case for either the disconnect or the right in line activities or behavior?

Action steps with dates and names must be agreed to prior to the end of the meeting. A personal check-in optimally is a weekly activity. For example, every Sunday evening might be a great time to review and assess what you have planned in your own vision, mission and goals statements and then compare this to the reality.  What is going right and why? What is going wrong and why? Are these statements of your personal vision, mission and goals the right ones for you personally? Plan out action steps with time frames in order to make adjustments as necessary.

The goal of creating vision statements, mission statements and written goals is not to just have them. The goal is to live them. One of the ways to accomplish this is to check-in as often as necessary and analyze the reality.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.