Magazin On The Secrets Of Selling

Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a source of cost reducing. The greatest savings are expected to come from lower labor cost and reduced project timelines. However offshore outsourcing also creates new challenges and expenses for the organization involved. Those may include vendor selection costs, legal costs, costs of transition and many others. That is why despite the evidence of possible major up-front cost savings many outsourcing vendors have yet to prove that they are able to provide positive ROI in a complex project.

Yet businesses have to perform deep analysis of its strategic program and goals before making a strategic decision to outsource part of their activities. The main driving factors are as follows:

Lack of special expertise/knowledge. This is probably one of the most important factors that force companies to outsource. Many projects require technical expertise that is not present within the company. Moreover, very often the company can not hire employees with required expertise, or it is not reasonable to employ them full-time. As Outsourcing Institute has suggested “outsourcing is a clever alternative to hiring”.

Floating demand for personnel. Often a company that engages itself into a large project is reluctant to search for new skilled employees, because it estimates that upon its completion it will be forced to discharge them (say, in a year or two). It is wise in such case to outsource part of the project to an offshore vendor acquiring also the possibility to reduce costs.

High risk level. Companies working in high risk spheres often prefer to reduce them by finding an offshore vendor with advanced expertise in the same domain. Also it is not reasonable to shift all responsibility to outsourcing partner, attracting mature specialists with needed skills and technical knowledge in most cases allows reducing risks.

Process management perfection. Outsourcing vendors earn their profits in many respects because they have standardized their internal processes. Take the example of software developers who integrated Capability Maturity Model raising their processes from ad hoc, chaotic level to mature, disciplined software processes. Partnering with such mature organization may allow for transfer of best practices across project boundaries, thus providing some standardization for the outsourcing organization as well.

Reduction of time spending on management. Transferring secondary functions and processes to outsourcing vendor will allow management of the company to concentrate on core processes and projects that have maximum priority.

Achieving objectivity. Often companies fall into the trap of inertness of its workers. The reason is that people minds can not manage with rapid technological changes and employees are reluctant to refuse “old approved techniques and methods” thus being not able to find and apply optimal solutions. Internal obstacles may delay or even block new initiatives. That is why it is worth recruiting independent expert company that will suggest the most appropriate solution for particular business needs.

The company shall clearly recognize all possible reasons for outsourcing and rank their priority. A coordinated approach of management must be formed, in other case valuable time and resources may be spent on finding a vendor whose effectiveness will not satisfy one of the managers. As practical experience shows main reasons for resorting to outsourcing are:

- increasing the overall company effectiveness;
- expanding technological advantages and manufacturing capabilities;
- cutting managerial costs;
- improving technical support and customer service;
- concentration on core activities;
- lack of qualified personnel;
- etc.

Probably the most important point to keep in mind while making decision whether to outsource or not is that outsourcing is not the means to solve all company’s problems. All problems arising within the company require careful examination. If their cause is badly defined strategic aims, outsourcing is likely to worsen the situation, not improve it. If a company does not realize its needs, it will neither be able to explain them to exterior vendor nor gain success.

Will outsourcing be really profitable for your business? It depends. In first place it depends on you and how much effort you put into pre-outsourcing preparation and analysis. We hope that this article will help you to identify your needs and acquire more clear vision of possible reasons for outsourcing. If you are still not sure and hesitating, you may contact us, and our analysts will definitely help you.

Denis Syropushchinsky is a Marketing Manager in Qulix Systems - Offshore Outsourcing Software Development Company, located in Minsk, Belarus, Eastern Europe. Our client-oriented approach and effective offshore software development services are the things that will help you to achieve your business goals. If you have further questions about offshore outsourcing, please contact us.

Copyright 2005 Denis Syropushchinsky. All rights reserved.

This article may be freely reprinted on your websites. We only require that the article and the resource box at the bottom of each article remain unchanged.

Business planning involves a host of different functions, from production to sales to marketing. But rarely does it include time and vacation planning - especially for the solo entrepreneur.

Learning to take time off is a critical part of your long-term plan for success. Research has shown that those who take a regular vacation are sharper and more productive than those who don’t.

Here’s a five step plan to ensure you get the time you deserve.

1. Get a calendar for the year. I find that printing a blank calendar from Outlook serves this purpose well. (Check the Help menu for instructions on adding a new calendar if you’re not familiar with the process.)

2. Mark off all of your currently scheduled major obligations. These will include conferences, trips, speaking engagements, etc. Do not include recurring meetings unless you have made a special commitment to that event for this year, such as assuming the presidency of an organization.

3. Looking at the trips you already have scheduled, where could you add just one more day and double the impact of your trip? For example, if you’re attending a conference plan to stay one more day. You’ll be able to think through the notes you took and create a plan to implement the ideas. Plus you’ll avoid the crowded flights on Sunday evening!

Now take another look at those trips. Are there vacation opportunities in those locations? Sometimes adding another day or two allows you to see the sights in a city you might not otherwise visit. Since conference rates are often the best available you’ll have a favorable room rate - and you won’t have to pack and unpack again! It’s a great way to see the country!

4. Now decide on the number of days you want to take as vacation days. Count what you have already in travel vacation days, then start scheduling your additional days. Do you want to take off the major holidays? Schedule them. Want to take off your birthday? Your childrens’ birthdays? Your anniversary? Just mark it off!

One of the eye-openers you may have is that you want to take more than the traditional “two weeks” vacation. And that’s one of the joys of being the boss - you can take that time off if you want! Will your business suffer? Probably not! You’ll likely focus better when you are working, knowing that you have a vacation day coming up shortly.

5. Now take all those delicious vacation days and put them on your permanent calendar for the year. Create an electronic document that lists all of your vacation days then share it with your staff, your family, and your business partners. And print a copy for yourself to help you “remember” what you promised yourself.

Remember, as the head of your company, only you can take care of you! And giving yourself time off is your first obligation.

Dr. Jeanette Cates, The Technology Tamer, works with independent professionals who are ready to turn their knowledge and their websites into gold. She offers weekly tips, trends, and techniques in http://www.OnlineSuccessNews.com

Managing time is always easier said than done when you work long hours. If you have a family, children, and other duties and responsibilities, and work long hours, you know that time is of essence. Since you have a heavy responsibility load, you want to work out a plan that includes goals.

Time management skills are essential for success, so it is important to learn strategies and tips, as well as setting goals that will help you become ‘highly effective, while staying focused. When you waste time, you are loosing contact with what really matters most in life.

Goals:

A great place to start with time management is by setting goals that work with your time management. Goals are essential for getting ahead and staying in the game of life. Setting goals are not difficult. First, you must decide what your work entails, and plan to work through each activity in a timely manner. I found that creating a list always helps to plan goals. For example, I decide what my day requires of me, set up a list with the most important task first, and finish the task before moving on to other tasks. This has been a successful strategy for me and still works today.

Typically, goals start off small and work their way into a long-term goal plan. For example, in the next five years where do you see yourself? Long-term goals are often longer than five years, and to set long-term goals, you must ask yourself, where do I see myself in ten years? Once you have a five-year goal, you start working through your daily schedule and list to achieve the expectations of your long-term goals. As a rule you can work through your long-term goals while working through your small-term goals, it is important however that you keep focused on the smaller goal. This is why some people work harder than they should, since they strive to get their long-term goals meet, without considering a short-term goal. Often these types of plans and goals fail.

Time management is not as difficult as many believe. Rather time management is understanding the value of time, setting up goals, and working hard to achieve these goals. If you work long hours, you might want to consider working through your list as quickly as possible and sufficiently so that your, long hours are reduced, and you have quality time for your family and self.

You may want to consider another job that works less hours and pays as good as your current job. This is an idea, but if you are dedicated to your job that works you long hours, time is essential since you need to spend time with your family, and take time out for your self. You can ask yourself how much your time is costing you. If you are investing more in the hours you are spending on managing your time, then you will need to find a solution to equal the balance between investment and time. Time is money, and money is time!

For more great free resources on how to manage your time visit Gabae Time Management.

Also for more informative articles on time management visit Gabae Time Management Articles.

Decades ago, as a rifle platoon commander in the Marines, I saw leaders who could motivate troops to do extraordinary things — and leaders who couldn’t get the troops to do much at all. I wondered what was the difference between the successful and unsuccessful leaders; and if that difference be taught.

Those two questions have stayed with me throughout my civilian life as I have worked with thousands of leaders worldwide for the past 21 years.

Now, at last, I can say I’ve answered those questions. I’ve cracked the code.

The difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders is the successful ones are able to engage in deep, human, emotional relationships with the people they lead, the unsuccessful ones don’t. It’s as simple as that, yet it’s more complicated than you think.

The power of those relationships has been demonstrated since the dawn of history. In all cultures, whenever people needed to do great things, one thing had to take place: A leader had to gather those people together and speak from the heart. In other words, deep, human, emotional relationships had to be constituted for great things to be accomplished.

Look at it this way: Leaders themselves must be motivated, that’s an absolute truth. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be a leader. But the burning challenges in leadership are, Can you transfer your motivation to others so they are as motivated as you? And can you translate that motivation into great results? Great leaders successfully meet those challenges.

There are three ways to transfer your motivation to others. Give them information, make sense, and make your experience their experience.

The most powerful is the latter, having your experience become their experience. One way to make this happen is with the “defining moment” technique.

This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. It can be the most effective method of all, because when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

Generally, people learn in two ways through the intellect and through experience. In our school system, the former predominates, but it’s the latter that is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, because our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

Look back at your schooling. Which do you remember most, your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students? In most cases, people say their experiences made the strongest impressions on them; they remembered them long after book knowledge had faded.

This is where the defining moment comes in. Its function is simple: to provide a communion of experience with you and the people you lead, so those people will be as motivated as you are to meet the challenges you face.

The process of developing a defining moment is simple, too: put a particular experience of yours, a defining moment, into sharp focus, and then transmit that focused experience into the hearts of the audience so they feel the experience as theirs. Out of that shared feeling they can be ardently motivated to take action for results. It’s easy, and it’s a game changer.

But if you don’t get the defining moment right, it can backfire. In fact, you could wind up having people motivated against you. So follow carefully as I show you the precise steps in developing and transmitting defining moments.

Take the first step in mastering the defining moment. Review experiences from your past. Don’t try to figure out how to use them or how they relate to developing and communicating a defining moment.

They needn’t be wrenching, shattering experiences; everyday experiences will do. They don’t need to have taken place recently; you might want to look back upon experiences from your youth. Finally, they don’t need to have taken place in an organizational context. Look at every aspect of your life. Any of your experiences, at any time, anywhere, can make a good defining moment.

Make sure, however, that it is your experience (I’ll say more about this in Part Two.) and be aware of the difference between personal and private experiences. Usually, our personal experiences are those we can share with others, and our private experiences are those we want to keep to ourselves. The dividing line between personal and private is embarrassment. If you would in any way be embarrassed talking about the experience with others don’t use it.

In Part Two, I will show you how to put together a defining moment to communicate.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - All Rights Reserved

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com

The Ferrari is a car steeped in history and development. For 100 years the company has been producing automobiles Ferrari have made over 60 models of car. This makes for a huge used ferrari market, with the Ferrari Enzo for sale being the most popular car for sale and one of the hardest cars to acquire. Out of this huge market a new breed of car seller has been born, one that literally only deals in cars of more value than 100kGBP - these cars give high returns if sold and high losses if unsold - each seller tries their hardest to get all the classic ferrari’s as well as the new hyper ferrari’s in order to sell them on at a markup.

Time is of the essence. And in business, time is money. We all agree to that, but what do we seem to have the least of? And what can we do about it….

If you only had half the hours in your week, what work would you feel took priority? How would you be able to do just those things and still have time left to get on with other priorities?

This week the challenge is to let go of some to the ’stuff’ that gets in your way. And better, to stop doing much of what you do - especially if it is someone else’s agenda.

Time to pass the buck that has been so handily passed to you, back to the giver - with thanks!

Work is all about behaviours. Over time, our own behaviours take on a life of their own. They are not who we truly want to be (nor where we perform our best) and we get all uncomfortable with how those behaviours dictate our time. It truly is like forcing a square peg into a round hole - can you feel that pressure?

To get round this you need to take a look at all the things that are getting in the way of doing and effective and efficient job.

Sometimes this means getting out of the nice-to-do-but-a-bit-of-a-waste-of-time things - your ‘comfort-blanket’ things that keep you busy, if unproductive. Time to get real about where you best add value at the level you are at.

Couple of examples? Sure!

• What about that member of your team who needs following up on all the time - how much is that wasting your time?

• What about that boss you have who is always dropping extra work on you that you haven’t planned time for?

• And then there is the time you spend chasing after new recruits, because you are losing people way too often.

To dump some of this waste, it’s time to get deep down and honest with yourself and decide what is not serving you best and dump it - tough though it might be.

Time to assess where those wasted hours go and lose them, one by one, to the benefit of you, your job and the rest of the people in your team.

So, take a look at the job you do and get together that wish list that would free up half of your time in the next week.

What are the jobs that waste your time - look hard and if you can’t find much, have the balls to look more closely at you, yourself because that’s the place to start - and finish!

© 2005-6 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

One part of David Allen’s Getting Things Done system I’ve discarded was the idea of sorting next actions by physical context bins, such as phone calls, paper work, computer work, etc. Maybe that makes sense if you travel 200 days a year or work in a high-interruption environment where you can’t concentrate for more than 30 minutes at a time, but given that I work in a home office with virtually all of these contexts within easy reach, I find it worsens my productivity to sort actions by physical context. I get good mileage out of batching errands where I must physically go out, so I do maintain a separate errands list, but otherwise I’ve dumped this part of GTD.

The problem with sorting actions into context bins is that you scramble actions from different projects together. Perhaps you make 5 phone calls in a batch, each of which is associated with a different project. That’s fine if you’re out of the office, and you want to put your cell phone to good use, but what if you’re at your desk in your office? Does it still make sense to batch phone calls just because they all involve physically picking up a phone? If the calls are unrelated, then I’d say probably not.

My preference is to focus on a single project for as long as possible, doing a variety of actions in a row. Once I’ve loaded a project into my brain’s active RAM, I don’t like to unload it. Much efficiency is lost in the process of rebuilding awareness of a project. If I haven’t worked on a project for a while, it can take me anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours to fully reload the project into my brain this is especially true for technical work or very large and complex projects. So I’d rather work on one project all day long instead of doing a smattering of different actions from ten different projects. I realize that not everyone has the luxury of doing that, but I do.

Taking on too many projects at once and switching between them often during the day will limit the complexity of the projects you can handle. This is fine for simple projects or if you do cog-like work, but it kills productivity on large projects where you need to keep a lot of information in your head at once. Some examples of the latter would be designing a new computer game or a web site, writing a book or screenplay, or doing strategic planning work for a business. In order to work productively on such projects, you can’t keep switching between projects, or the work will take forever. You need to load up a single mental context and stay with it for a long time, preferably days at a time but at least for several hours. Minor interruptions are OK, but you want to keep yourself from having to re-load a whole other mental context. Imagine writing 10 different books at once, working for 30 minutes a day on each one. It would be much more productive to knock off one book at a time.

Sometimes the mental context is a lot more important than the physical one. Sticking with a single project and moving all around your office building to perform the different physical actions may be better than staying at your desk and doing desk work from 5 different projects. Getting up to do something in another room may cost you a couple minutes, but switching projects will often cost you a lot more. When are you working most productively on a project? Definitely not during the first 15-30 minutes.

I think this is one of the hidden causes of procrastination. What happens when we procrastinate? We put a certain project off to the last minute, so we end up having to do the whole thing (or a large part of it) in a single marathon session. Say you put off doing a school paper until the day before it’s due. By procrastinating you ultimately force yourself to do the entire thing in one session. You load the mental context once, do all the next actions in sequence, and then you finish and release the context. This is very efficient in my opinion, a lot better than spreading the work out across several weeks and doing just a little bit each day (and forgetting must of the understanding you gained during the previous week). This is how I did assignments when I was in college, and I managed 31-39 units per semester. If I had a big project, I’d allocate a whole day to it and do it in one session do the reading, research, writing, editing, etc. If I had to do a book report, I’d read the book at then write the report immediately afterwards. If a teacher allocated a month or two for a big assignment, I’d still try to do it in a single session.

I no longer maintain a separate next actions list, although I used to. Now I keep only a projects list, and I dynamically break it into next actions as needed. For some projects I make detailed plans of all the next actions, but for most projects I break down just enough actions to fill a day or two, and then I do them. Once I’ve completed those actions, I figure out more next actions and then set about doing those. I find this to be a highly productive balance that avoids underplanning on one side and analysis paralysis on the other.

Think of this as dynamic planning. I don’t tend to plan out the details of a project until it’s on my doorstep, and I aim to handle only 1-3 projects at a time. I barrel through, get them done, and then it’s off to the next project. This quote from Tryon Edwards basically sums up my approach:

Where duty is plain, delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may provide both wisdom and safety.

In other words, if you at least know what to do today, then go do it. Go back to planning when you hit the edge of the fog again. Dynamic planning: plan, do, repeat.

If a project is really, really big, then I’ll break it into subprojects, and the subprojects will be scheduled accordingly. Also, since there are always little things to do that don’t fall into any major project (like paying bills and such), I batch those little things up and then dispatch them in a marathon session too. For example, one Saturday I spent the whole day doing 20 unrelated home repairs. And often I’ll write a few days worth of blog posts in one session, scheduling each post to go live on a different day.

The downside to working like this is that once I’ve loaded up a particular mental context, it’s hard to let it go. I become semi-obsessed. My phone will ring, or my wife will walk into the room and talk to me, or my son will be crying in the next room, and I’ll automatically tune them out. It’s as if my brain has allocated all available RAM to the given project, and nothing else will fit. If anything else tries to squeeze in, I’ll chase it away with a growl. On the other hand, if I’m spending a day out with my family, I’m usually fully there with them, not thinking about other projects at all.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

A Leader is not a certain type of person or position of power. It is not the one at the top of the golf leader board at any specific time or the person at the top of an organisation. It is YOU. In this article we want to show you how to reveal the leader within. To give you some ideas, methods, tips that will make you think and, if you want to, enable you to reveal the leader within you.

First; What is a Leader? Ponder this question for a while.

What is a leader to you?

What image does the word leader conjure up for you?

Is it someone with charisma?

Perhaps it is someone who is able to get others to do what they want?

Or someone who is able to get individuals to do the impossible?

Is someone born a leader or are they made?

What about world leaders. Are they bred, made by their political parties or carbon copies of their idols?

It is difficult, isn’t it, to define a leader. But we all know one when we see one or are in the company of one. We would like to suggest that a leader is YOU. You have inside you the skills and abilities to lead others. All you lack is the belief, confidence in yourself and the determination to succeed.

Now think of your life.

Spend a little time answering the following questions:

What are your priorities in life?

Do you know what you want or what you need?

Quite often wants and needs are transposed and become confused. Try the following exercise:

Take a piece of A4 or letter size paper and write at the top: What I want is……….

Now write down the things that come into your head don’t edit or hesitate. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous they appear just keep writing until you feel you have exhausted all topics. After all you are the only one who is going to read them.

Now, on another piece of paper write: What I need is……………..

And repeat the process.

At the end you have a list of wants and needs look at them, think about what you have written. What are you trying to tell yourself? Are there any themes?

You should now have a rough idea of what your priorities in life are. Can you answer the following:

Where am I now?

What really drives me?

What is my passion?

Where am I going?

You now have an idea of what you believe in. What it is that really drives you and is your passion. You now have what the text books refer to as a clear vision. A vision about which you are deeply passionate. To be a successful leader all you need is zeal and enthusiasm for your passion and the capabilities to put your passion into action. Unlike the text books we are going to suggest;

1. You have the capabilities and what you don’t have you will pick up on the way. If you build your vision from your capabilities it can only limit your vision. The secret is to build your vision from your passion and then the capabilities come flooding in. The more you follow your dreams the more experience you gain.

2. You do not need influencing skills. Leadership influencing skills are many and various but most involve some form of manipulation e.g. rousing speeches, getting help from persuasive others, persuading others to do what you want but all the time pretending you are doing what they want etc. etc.

For us, the most important style is: Being an Example or a Sample. Remember actions speak louder than words….Walk your talk…… We all know that if someone does not do what they say we soon get discouraged and question their ability and credibility.

To be an effective leader you just need to live your passion. If people like what they see they follow you. You lead by setting an example for others regardless of what influencing skills you do or do not have. As Theodore Levitt, a Harvard University professor, stated, ‘Only people who believe in themselves generate believers’. All you have to do is believe in yourself.

Chrissie is a McTimoney Chiropractor. A very good chiropractor who believes passionately in what she does and the method she uses. A quiet person who lets her expertise do the talking. She rarely markets herself, other than to give lectures on her subject, but her surgery is always booked and she has a loyal following of patients. How does she get her work? It’s simple. Her patients tell their friends. If you told Chrissie that she was a leader she would disagree giving many points to the contrary. But, Chrissie always has time to listen, is always focussed on the patient and their diagnosis, is always caring and her whole being tells you, you are in confident, professional hands. The result is, people travel miles to see her. She has followers, therefore she is a leader. She lives her passion, her beliefs about the McTimoney method, and because people like what they experience they follow. Chrissie does not want to be the best in the world she just wants to give her personal best to each and every patient. To her, success is the feeling that she has done all she can to relieve the pain and suffering of her patients.

The secret Chrissie has, as well as determination, skill, passion and desire, is love for her patients and the world in general. For us, Love in Leadership is so important. Love ensures that you are not stuck in your own ego. It keeps you focussed on what you want to achieve and ensures you operate from a place of inner strength; your feelings rather than your head all the time. When you operate from a place of love you tend to really listen to others and respond to their true issues and concerns rather than manipulate the situation to get what you want. Love ensures you use such qualities as self confidence, self respect, consistency, decisiveness, integrity and honesty in your decision making.

To reveal the leader within, discover what you really believe in… what is your passion… then start talking about it. Your excitement will start to influence others and before you know it.. You have followers. You are a leader. To move forward and lead is a personal choice. It is your life. The only right answer is whether the result makes you happy.

About The Author

Julie and Graham live in the Canary Islands where they pursue their love for writing, photography and spirituality. More of their work can be found at:

www.desktop-meditation.com

graham@desktop-meditation.com

Beware of “burn out.” This usually happens after you have achieved a short-term goal. You pat yourself on the back and decide to “kick it up a notch,” but your body is at the limit. You have to listen to your body. Although you can make improvements “in leaps and bounds,” it is not a machine.

Use different approaches: Walk, use cardio machines, swim, and use weights. If you are bored, jump into a group fitness class such as Yoga, Pilates, cardio kickboxing, spinning, aerobics, body shaping, or something else. You may find one of them to be your “calling.”

Don’t knock anything until you have tried it. Many people perceive an exercise to be one thing, until they are deeply involved in it. There’s nothing wrong with being the only man in a Yoga class. Also, there’s nothing wrong with being the only woman in a martial arts class.

Fitness is an equal opportunity environment, so get the stereotypes out of your head and don’t buy into classic excuses. I had a client with Cerebral Palsy on one side of her body. She had also been involved in a traffic accident, which caused permanent damage to her knee and ankle, on the other side of her body.

She used to drive an hour from her home in Massachusetts to our location in North Providence, Rhode Island. She was around 60 pounds over her ideal weight. She never made excuses or missed an appointment. She lost all of that weight within two years, and she is now a personal trainer.

Make sure the people you surround yourself with are supportive of your goals. For example: It’s hard to lose weight if your husband insists on bringing home a supply of Big Macs every night. Your resolution may turn into a disaster if this is the case.

You may have to adjust your lifestyle to be persistent, positive, and goal oriented. Once you carry through, and succeed with one resolution, it will be a fantastic experience. This is the beginning of using goal-setting skills to enhance the quality of your entire life.

Lastly, remember this all started with writing down a plan that I mentioned in Part One. Your resolution should be as detailed as possible. Clearly define your resolution with realistic time frames and deadlines. Your odds of following through, making progress, and reaching your goals, will exponentially increase just by putting it in writing. Consider this a contract with yourself.

Paul Jerard is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher. http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Here are some strategies to help you achieve your goals. Using these strategies* can help you reach your goals faster and with far less effort!

Strategy #1: Make sure your goal is inspiring. Take a look at your goals – are they merely interesting? Are they goals you feel you ‘should’ or ‘could’ or ‘ought to’ do? Make sure you feel really excited and inspired by your goal.

Strategy #2: Outsource or delegate your goal. Who says that you have to reach your own goal? Why not cheat a bit and have someone else do the work for you? This is often a
win- win situation.

Strategy #3: Set goals that express your values. If your goals are value based, they are often easier to achieve because they are an expression of what is important for you. Clarify your vision and your values then set your goals.

Strategy #4: Work with an achievement partner / coach. Reaching goals is much easier with synergy and support that a partner provides - even if you are certain you can reach the goal on your own.

Strategy #5: Have your goals “in your face”. Have your goals ‘pop up’, constantly reminding you about them, makes achieving them easier. There are some great tools / products to help you with this, including Goal Genie.

TIP OF THE DAY – Look into some tools such as Goal Genie to make achieving your goals easier.

My challenge for you: is a stretch strategy – go for an impossible dream AND be comfortable that you may never reach it. But in the meanwhile, you’ll reach lots of smaller goals along the way.

Final thoughts:
Knowing your destination is half the journey. Anon

* Source: Coaching School of Coaching

Michelle Zelig Pourau of Personal Power International is a successful business & life coach & professional speaker. She has considerable experience in all types of coaching around the world.
Michelle started her coaching career when living in New York in 1992 & continued coaching in New York, while still working on Wall Street. On return to Melbourne Australia in late 1996, she returned to Management Consulting. In 1999 she decided it was time to re-ignite her coaching career & has been coaching since. Given Michelle has had over 20 years corporate experience, one of her speciality areas is executive/corporate coaching – helping people to understand & distinguish behaviours that are effective & those that impede their success. Once these are understood, Michelle then works with clients to work through these issues.
Other coaching specialties are motivation, building confidence, de-stressing, setting &achieving goals, creating balance & life transitions, relationships and wellness.
Michelle is past President Interntaional Coach Federation 7/2002 - 12/2003