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Keep It Fun

How much fun are you having working on your biggest goal? I do best with the goals I work on that provide a sense of fun. Maybe it's the work, maybe it's the people, maybe it's the crazy commitment it takes, but big goals that engage my sense of fun move faster. When it stops being fun it's harder to get done. Keep it fun! What makes a goal fun? Well, that's up to you! What's fun for me might be different than what's fun for you, but here are some indicators of a fun goal: it's challenging it creates the need to learn other people smile a lot when you talk about it you laugh there's a sense of progress, maybe even score-keeping as much as you want to achieve the goal you almost don't want it to end it's filled with surprises that both challenge AND delight you Yes, we should act relentlessly on our goals -- and we should have fun in the process. What makes a goal fun for you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leader

Recognize Your Goal's Barriers

Have you identified everything that might slow down your progress toward your goal? When it comes to achieving our goals, things that can seem neutral might actually be barriers. Things like a co-worker who doesn't care about our process changes. Things like a set of resources that are more dynamic than reliable. Things like shifting organizational goals. Anything that doesn't contribute to your goal has the potential to slow it down. Do you have a risk strategy for emerging barriers? Should you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

Provide Reasons to Support Your Project

Do other people understand and support your biggest project? I sometimes take for granted that people who should care about my project do care about my project. It's not that easy. People need to know about what's going on. They need to be involved. They need to connect with the creative reasons for even doing the project. And, they need to understand the benefits to a project. Just because you take your project seriously doesn't mean that anyone else will -- unless they have a reason to. Do you know the reasons why people should take your project seriously? -- Doug Smith

Ask Curious Questions

What kinds of questions do you ask when you're solving a problem? Do you stay curious enough to be open for whatever the answers are? I've discovered that once we identity the problem, the best path toward solving it is to change that problem into a goal. What is it that we really want? The next step is to identify the barriers to that goal. What's preventing us from achieving our goal? Then I change those barriers to questions. It's a bit like using the classic problem solving tool of the "Five Whys" -- asking a series of whys to get to the root of the problem. In this variation, we're asking curious questions to figure out how to get beyond whatever is constraining us from achieving our goals. Solving problems starts with asking truly curious questions. What questions could help you solve your biggest problem? Are you ready to ask them? -- doug smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership: High Performance

Share Your Goals

How many people know about your most important goal? Here's why it makes sense to tell more people about your goals: - It helps find people who are eager to help you - Talking about your goals gives you new ideas on how to achieve them - Once your goals are known you feel more accountability - People can help you figure out how to solve the problems you will encounter It's safe to keep our goals to ourselves. That way, if we don't achieve them there's no one to ask what happened. But that way, we are less likely to achieve them. Who needs to know about your goals? Will you tell them today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership: High Performance Leadership Training

What's Stopping You?

Is there something between you and your goal? I can usually identify something that is working against my goal.  It could be a distraction, or it could be a valid concern like another goal or a persistent problem. Things pop up to stand in our way. What we need to do is work through that. We need to identify our constraints and surpass them. We need to defeat the goal blockers and persist. We need to act relentlessly on our plan. Find the barriers and break them down. Identify your impasse and get over it. Your goal is waiting for your motions to success. -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership: High Performance Leadership Training

Find What's New

Have you ever been stuck in a routine? It happens to me sometimes - I get really comfortable doing things in a certain order, eating certain types of food (I'll never get tired of pizza) and working at certain jobs. These little ruts are comfortable but not where I want to live. To live creatively we do better to break out of those routines. We need a change of scenery. We need to meet new people. We need to rock our own world enough to get off center long enough to know what our center really is. But it doesn't need to be earth shaking. We don't have to turn our lives upside down. We could even be happy with the way things are. That still leaves plenty of opportunity to see new, hear new, feel new, experience anew what may have been right in front of us all along, but brings a breath-taking newness to our life. There is something completely new about this moment in time. It's unique. No matter how familiar it seems, we've never lived this moment before

Famous Cards for Everyone

LEARNING ACTIVITY (allow about 20 minutes) Purpose : To help the participants focus on their vision, their mission, and their key measures. It's also an opportunity to practice drawing. Materials : At least one sample baseball card for everyone in the group (you could use cards from another sport but I'm partial to baseball cards). Blank index cards for each person as well. More than one is recommended in case they need to do-over an early attempt. Process : Review the sample baseball card. Identify what makes it so useful. What does it report? Note the picture - what does it say about the person on the card? Write your vision and/or mission at the top of the back of your card. Do your best to keep it to ten words or less. If you don't currently have a mission, now's the time to write one! Think about what is important about what you do for a living and how those things are measured. Identify 3 to 5 key measures that you are held accountable for. Write a

Creativity As A Necessity

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe What would we do without creativity? Life would be so much less colorful. Songs would not be sung. Pictures would not be painted. And leaders would use the same old strategies that irritated people before. Creativity helps us grow. Creativity IS growth, and we must never stop growing. Creativity is a necessity. The next time someone implies that you don't have enough time to be creative, ask them how they'd feel without the things that make life worth living - joy, celebration, examination, and love. Yes, even love - for how much can we love without getting creative?  What creative work of art (or commerce!) are you working on today? -- doug smith doug smith training: developing creativity

Try Fearlessness

What are you afraid of? Just kidding. I'm afraid of lots of things. Losing my phone. Falling over a cliff. Wandering naked in the street. Just kidding. But, aren't we all afraid of some things that are irrational to be afraid of? Don't we all hold ourselves back far more than we need to in order to protect ourselves from embarrassment, from harm, from making mistakes? We will make mistakes. We will hurt feelings. We will stub our toes. That's part of the creative life. That's part of living. Creativity needs a certain fearlessness. We must be able to let go and let loose. We must be able to laugh at the fear that paralyzes our impulses and push through those walls of warning. Full speed ahead! Imagine what we'll learn! Developing Creativity: Talk to someone who scares you just a little. Not an actual criminal or dangerous person, just someone who scares or intimidates you a little.  See a scary movie, whether or not you like scary movies. Not

Be As Creative As You Want

Could you be more creative? I could. I think I'm already plenty creative but I know that there is always an unlimited amount of creativity there for me to grab. I can always pull up some more. How about you? You are about as creative as you want to be -- and your creative potential is unlimited. Let's go! Being Creative: Draw a picture. It doesn't matter how great it is. Draw it. Take a picture of something at an unusual angle. Get all Orson Welles with it. Feel the difference. Describe it. Write about it. What if it were used for something completely different - what could it be? Tell yourself this: "I am becoming the most creative person I know and I love it." -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals   Front Range Leadership: Training Supervisors for Success What have you learned today?

Deepen Your Relationships

How deep is your deepest relationship? Do you know everything about them? Can you talk about whatever is on your mind? Do you know each other so well that you can make each other laugh with the slightest gesture or word? We can't get to know everyone that deeply. It would likely wear us out. But, we can get deeper on so many more relationships. So many of our friends and acquaintances barely know us. We can change that. We can creatively build relationships that help us smile, grow, learn, and solve problems. Isn't it through our deeper relationships that our happiness blossoms most prominently? Aren't we most creative when we are with other creative souls? The faster path to solving problems and achieving goals is thru deeper relationships. Who can you get to know better today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success What have you learned today?