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Fuel Up

What keeps you going? Is it a great conversation? Maybe a note from a trusted friend? Or could it be that long phone call with someone you haven't talked with for a long time? I find all of that energizing. Also, reading great books, taking long walks, and yes of course - achieving goals along the way. Every goal achieved is fuel for even greater success. So as I work on my smaller goals, I know that they are leading to bigger goals. As I achieve my big goals, I know that I'm ready for even more. How about you? -- Doug Smith What have you learned today?

Add Up Your Goals

What do you goals add up to? Do they add up to major changes? Do they show the progress in your career? Do they provide motion for your growth and change? I realize that many people wander thru life with no true goals. They clock in and out. They go thru the motions. They walk beside their shoes. We are meant for more than that. We are meant for great things. We are meant to leave footprints that help others to walk - not cause them to trip. Our goals add up to a different life. A different life than the one we started out with. A different life than the one we are living. A better, more purposeful, more directed, more powerful life. A life of growth, change, and helpfulness. I'm going to start paying more attention to what my goals add up to. How about you/ -- Doug Smith What have you learned today?

Relaxing My Temptation to Judge

How often do you judge people? In my most judgmental of times I can judge everything about a person and find them constantly wanting. But what good does that do? How do I feel about being judged myself? Where does it all lead? We are all deeply flawed humans. We make bad choices. We break things. We hurt people's feelings. That's all true (and more) about me and yet what makes me feel entitled to judge others? It's another mistake. The right balance, the right combination, the right focus, the centered degree of compassion, courage, clarity, and creativity makes much less room for judging others and much more room for working to understand. I need to better understand other people, especially when they aren't sure that they understand themselves. I need help in being understood especially when I'm not operating with the best of clarity myself. It's a dance, but a dance of cooperation, not comparison. It doesn't matter if someone achieves more, gain

Create Better Goals

How do you get better results? Create better goals. It's not all that you need but it's a great place to start. Whenever I create a goal that I find to be energizing that translates into more attention and action. Whenever I create a goal that has a noble outcome, I feel better about devoting resources to achieving it. Great goals are exciting. Great goals contain opportunity for growth. Great goals get you going. Here are what I believe to be the three key ingredients for great goals: ACTION WORD: The action word explains exactly what you will do. Create, make, deliver, teach, propel, design, change, sell, fabricate, transplant, modify, steer, obtain, tell, paint, draw, write...words like that. RESULT: The result is what you plan to achieve, usually expressed with some unit of measure. For example - a 200 word novel, 150 pounds, a graduate degree in chemistry, fifty new prospects, a year without crime, three healthy meals a day...whatever it is that you want to a

Stay Encouraged

Do you ever get discouraged? It's not a weakness, but it is a roadblock. Even when we don't choose to get discouraged, once that feeling is there it can stand in our way. We missed. We made a mistake. We failed. Crap happens. What I've learned (and keep relearning) is to dust myself up, jump back up and find something compelling to get encouraged about. Sometimes picking the positive path really is empowering. Getting discouraged isn't going to get you what you want.  Remaining unhappy won't achieve your goals. Let's move forward. I've had some really big disappointment in my personal life this year and yet as I see sparks of sunlight at the end of a rather dark tunnel I know that I've kept moving through the encouragement of friends. When I am not able to encourage myself, I am not without help - friends will encourage me. Do you have friends who encourage you? Are you encouraging your friends? We're all in this together, my friends.

Don't Wait

Have you ever set a goal and then later realized that for some crazy reason you were waiting for it to achieve itself? Or been assigned a task, knew it was yours, and somehow found yourself waiting for someone else to get it done? Not too often, I hope, but possibly sometimes? I have. It's alarming when the wake-up call hits but the wake-up is needed. It's up to us to achieve our goals. It's up to us to act relentlessly on our plan. There's not much point in waiting for someone else to achieve our goals. It's up to us. What are you waiting for? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High Performance Leadership Training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals What have you learned today?

Prioritize Your Goals

What is your number one goal? Which goal, if given the opportunity, you'd want the most people to know about? We've all got tons of goals. Sometimes we have too many goals to keep track of them all. When I find myself getting lost in the details and spinning my creative wheels it's likely due to having too many goals. It's good to have lots of goals, but we still need to prioritize. We need to have a number one goal. As one of my great mentors Anne Delaney once said to me, "You have one number one goal. When you achieve that number two gets a promotion." That has always stayed with me. How to prioritize your goals - which one would you most like to talk about on The Tonight Show? That's your number one goal. What's your number one goal? What are you doing to achieve it right now? -- Doug Smith