doug smith training

What's your excuse for not achieving that big goal? Can you allow me to speak with a bit of an edge here? Can I be frank with you (and myself!) here? Nobody cares about your excuses. People care about results. People care about people. People care about goals. But absolutely no one cares about your excuses. Why not give them up? Why not take up residence where, as one of my bosses at Whole Foods used to say, "the land of no excuses"? You won't miss them. You don't need permission to fail. You need power to achieve. You need to finish your goals. If you want to achieve your goals, drop all excuses. There. I said it. Thanks for letting me get that out. I promise I'll work to eliminate all excuses from my work. How about you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

Why do people lie? It's aggravating. It's inconvenient. It's often easy to spot. And yet, we all do it. I'm not pointing any fingers here because I know that I've spun my own version of the truth sometimes. I'm working to stop that. The older I get the more I see the value in pure, unfiltered truth. But truth is sometimes hard to take, and maybe that's why we sometimes lie. Lies blur our vision. Lies bruise our relationships. Lies block positive energy and fill space with something much worse. We should tell the truth. As centered leaders, problem solvers, and goal achievers we should also bring out the truth. We should create the kinds of spaces and places where people know that they are free to tell the truth - and more than that must tell the truth because we insist on it. Every little lie creates a vast chasm. Let's do better than that. Let's tell the truth. And, taking the next step, let's also insist on the truth. What "t

Are you doing your best to achieve your biggest goal? I know there is always more that I can do. It takes discipline. It takes persistence. And, it takes a willingness to stretch and grow. I had a close friend who was fond of saying "I did my best" to get forgiveness for her failure. While I was willing to forgive (what's the point in withholding forgiveness?) I usually thought that she could have done best. If the intention and effort are both there, we can usually do better. We can do better when we've done well, and we can do better when we've missed the mark. "I did my best" is seldom true. Your capacity is much greater. How can you move from "I did my best" to doing better on your biggest goal today? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

What does it mean to serve your goals? Setting a clear goal is a great start. Creating an action plan gets you moving. Acting relentlessly on that plan keeps us on the path to achieving our goals. Do we need to serve them as well? Here are some ways to serve your goals: Stay open minded - the needs may change. Involve other people - the goal might be bigger than you. Talk about your goals. Work on your goals first.  Revisit your goals before you finish the day - how are you doing? Moving forward on those action items that seem to keep alluding you. Serve your goals and they will serve you well. What can you do to serve your most important goal today? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

Who judges your creativity? Yes, we do need to analyze our problems and yes, we do need to evaluate our choices but when it comes to creativity we are better served to leave the judge behind - at least for awhile. Have fun with it. Go wild! Let your creativity find its flow and go where it wants to go. Safely, of course. With some dignity, perhaps. But let it fly. Creativity has no need of judges. Analyzing has its role and I'm all for supporting that role when the time comes. When it comes to creating new things though, whether they are works of art, splendid performances, or evolved processes, creativity flies best unimpeded. What creative work are you ready to open up today? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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