“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.

Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.”
– Og Mandino

It has taken me a long time to learn how to effectively set realistic goals.  As I made mistakes and figured out what worked for me, I thought I was unusual – I thought everyone easily set goals except for me. Over the years as I’ve worked with and mentored people, however, I’ve learned my situation was not that unusual – in fact, it’s far more common than we think.

We’ve all been told that we should set goals, and we assume that we can – but most of us have never been taught how to set goals effectively so they are realistic and achievable.

One of the most sobering goal setting statistics I learned in my research on setting New Year’s resolutions was that 25% of resolutions were broken in the first week.  And the odds didn’t get much better for the first couple months – among gym goers, 80% drop out within eight weeks.

I think a large part of this is due to not having realistic goals – without something to shoot towards, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up.  It’s hard enough to make changes in our life and accomplish what we desire – if your goal is unrealistic, or not well defined, then you’re starting out with an immediate handicap.

So, what can you do to keep your goals on track? Here are seven keys for setting realistic goals.

Key #1 – Write Your Goals Down

Studies and surveys have shown that you are far more likely to achieve your goals if you write it down.  I personally like to write my goals down and refer to them daily to keep them at the front of my mind.

Writing down our goals also helps make them real to us.  If we just think about a goal, it’s not physically real – and it’s easy for us to change our minds.  When we write it down however, the very act of writing helps us commit to the goals – and also gives us something we can visually see and reflect on.

For more about written goals, see the article I wrote about a written goal setting study – and it wasn’t done at Yale or Harvard.

Key #2 – Set Short Term Milestones

Goals that are far out of reach are easy to procrastinate on and put off. It’s fine to have long term dreams – but in the short run, you should have regular mile stones as well.

For example, if your goal is to write a novel, rather than just saying you’ll write a novel this year and leave it at that, instead commit to a certain number of pages or words a month – these short term milestones will help you stay on track, and will make your long term goal much more manageable.

Key #3 – Be Specific

If your goal is to “lose weight” – how will you know when you’re done?  Going along with the above of setting short term mile stones, even if your long term goal is “get in better shape” – you can still be specific such as “be in good enough shape to play football for two hours twice a week.”

The more specific you are, the better motivated you’ll be as you get closer to achieving your goal. With vague goals, it’s very easy to get discouraged, because you may not feel like you’re getting closer to due to having no clear end in sight.

Use specific, tangible words in your goals such as measurements and (if applicable) a date by which they will be accomplished.

Key #4 – Measure Actions as Well As Progress

Sticking with the theme of setting fitness goals, many people I know get frustrated when they set a specific goal such as “lose 20 pounds by summer” – and then fall short of their goal. While it’s good to have aggressive goals, in some situations it may be better to measure your actions instead of your progress.

So for example, instead of setting fitness goals based on pounds lost, you could set goals for the amount of cardio you do every week and whether you keep your calories below a certain threshold.

This is also good for vague goals that may be difficult to measure, such as achieving proficiency playing a sport or playing an instrument. Setting goals based on perhaps 1 or 2 hours of practice a day may be more helpful than simply saying “get better before school starts.”

Key #5 – Start With Just One Goal

A classic mistake that I see over and over, and that I’ve made many times myself, is to be overzealous and try to change too many things at one time.  You may decide you want to turn your life around and set out to accomplish a laundry list of goals at once.

Unfortunately, trying to accomplish too many things at once is frequently a recipe for failure.  For most people, changing too many aspects of their lives requires an overwhelming amount of willpower, and ends up being unrealistic.

I prefer the approach advocated in Zen To Done – set one goal at a time, and then as you get that goal under control, slowly add more goals into the mix.

Key #6 – Schedule In Time For Your Goals

If you don’t make time for your goals, you’ll never accomplish them – it’s as simple as that.  Along those sames lines, generally speaking, the more time you allocate per day to your goal, the faster you’ll achieve it.

Rather than leave it to chance, I recommend scheduling a specific time every day for your goal. I think this is part of the reason why organized sports and personal trainers are so effective for people looking to improve their fitness – the activity has a set block of time on their schedule, and so people attend regularly.

My bias is towards working on goals first thing in the morning – but find the schedule that works for you.

Key #7 – Set Goals You Actually Want To Achieve

Rumor has it that a philosopher in Europe once posted this message on his telephone answering machine:

“This device is programmed to ask two simple questions:

Who are you and what do you want?

Most people live their entire lives without ever answering either one.”
– from The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting For People Who Hate Setting Goals

This last key took me a long time to learn, and I think really is the most important on the list.  Don’t set goals because you think you “should” or because they “sound good.”

Look at your life and the direction you want it to take – set goals that you realistically can achieve, but more important – pick goals you want to achieve.

I think this is so important that this concept is one of the first things we cover in my free personal development course.

Click here and get your free copy of personal development 101 now.

Further Reading:

• Opportunity Is Everywhere – Just Create Value
• You Only Need To Take One Step
• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• The Flip Side of “HELL YEAH!” o No – How About “HELL WHY NOT!”
• The Path, The Opportunity, Is Only Here For Today
• Start Things You Can’t Finish

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Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Altruism – One of the Keys to Happiness
2. Get Your Hands Dirty – How To Commit To Your Goals

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | 7 Keys For Setting Realistic Goals

“”Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.”
– Peter F. Drucker

Time is the most valuable resource we have – and yet we often squander it by making small mistakes, and telling lies to ourselves.  In my years mentoring and coaching, here are six of the biggest time management lies I’ve found – and I’m no better, I usually catch myself telling at least one of these lies before lunch!

Lie #1 I Have Time To Do Everything

Fact: There isn’t enough time in the day to do everything.  No matter how much we finish today, no matter how productive or efficient we are – we can only accomplish a limited amount of things and have a limited number of experiences every day.  Rather than trying to go in a million different directions every day, it’s better to pick a reasonable number of things we can do well – and enjoy.

Lie #2 This Will Just Take a Minute

Fact: Nothing ever takes just a minute – and even if it does, I’ve seen estimates that say an interruption can cost you anywhere from fifteen to forty five minutes.  One lie we tell ourselves every day is how we can squeeze little things in here and there because they’ll take “just a minute”

Lie #3 It’s Faster/Better If I Just Do It Myself

Fact:  This is almost always a lie. One thing I learned from  David Walsh in Source Control is just how effective we can be if we just properly train other people – virtual assistants, or otherwise.

Lie #4 I Just Don’t Have Time

Fact: We all have the same amount of time.  When you don’t have time to do something, it’s usually a problem of 1) over committing (having too many things on your plate) or 2) wasting too much time.

Lie #5 I  Just Need To Find The Right System

Fact: No time management/productivity system will be able to give you infinite time every day if the problem is ineffective follow through on tasks, or simply having way too much on your plate.  Of course, if you have a productivity system that’s not working for you, but that you’re still spending time maintaining – that’s going to cause more time management problems than it solves.  Really, ultimately I don’t think it’s about the system – it’s about habits that encourage productivity.  That’s why I like Zen To Done – it ends up being a system, but before it gets there, it changes your underlying habits so that the changes actually stick

Lie #6 I Can Manage Time

Fact: This is the biggest time management lie of them all.  The truth is, we can’t manage time – we can only manage our own use of it and how we spend it.  We cannot manage, save or otherwise control time.   As Stephen Covey put it: “Time management’ is really a misnomer – the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. ”  Want to manage your priorities better? A start might be using Covey’s Time Management Matrix

Further Reading

• How to Create Your Personal Development Plan
• Covey’s Time Management Matrix Illustrated with XKCD Comics
• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• The Ultimate Productivity System

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Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Nerdy Productivity: Covey’s Time Management Matrix Illustrated with XKCD Comics
2. A Powerful Time Management Strategy – The Time Budget
3. The Secret To Massive Productivity In Only 15 Minutes A Day
4. The Ultimate Productivity System
5. Free Time Is Never Free

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | 6 Bold Faced Time Management Lies We Tell Ourselves Every Day

“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal. “
– Friedrich Nietzsche

My buddy Srinivas and I run BlogcastFM – the premier site for blogger interviews, and one heck of a resource.

Looking back now, it’s hard to believe how far we’ve come – and how BlogcastFM might have never been started, and certainly wouldn’t have the success it has had, if it wasn’t for one of us stepping up, and being just stubborn enough for us to succeed.

Checks and Balances in BlogcastFM

Ever since the beginning, there’s been a clear difference between how Srinivas and I operate – he throws out lots of ideas, is ever the optimist, and I often try to look at things “realistically” (though, that’s often pessimistically!).  I play devil’s advocate a lot – I bring up shortcomings in the plans, I point out where we need to refine ideas, and where we need to toss everything out and go back to the drawing board.

And to his credit, Srinivas takes my feedback, thinks about it – and sometimes comes back with a new plan. Often, a better plan, and one that I agree with.

Other times though, he comes back and is convinced he’s still right, and that my read of the situation is too pessimistic and wrong

And you know what?

Srinivas is frequently right.  I frequently am wrong.

And that’s why we’re a good team:

Srinivas is Just Stubborn Enough to incorporate useful feedback – and keep pushing forward when he knows I’m wrong.

The Perfect Balance

I think this is a fine line to walk, and it’s not easy to get it right. So far though, on every decision that I’ve argued with him about, and that he’s fought back on – he’s been 100% right. From the promotional ideas he’s had, to the recent site redesign (which looks killer, and was an absolute steal to have done) to people who have agreed to partner up with us and work together.

Make no mistake about it though – there are times that I believe I have been right, and he’s been willing to look at the facts, and arrived at the same conclusions as me.

The other times?

He’s been just stubborn enough to let me know, and BlogcastFM has grown as a result.

Don’t Be Unreasonable, But Don’t Be a Pushover

I think there’s a lesson here for all of us – we need to know when to cut our losses, and certainly we need to know when we’ve made a mistake and correct course.

On the other hand though, we can’t let ourselves give up a little too easily, get deflated when someone shoots down our ideas or completely back off and be unwilling to stand up for what we believe in at the first sign of resistance.

So I encourage you to take a lesson from my buddy Srinivas from The Skool of Life and my co-founder at BlogcastFM – don’t be unreasonable, and don’t be a pushover.

Be just stubborn enough.

And if you like that, you’ll love Blogger Gems – it has the best advice from all the interviews at BlogcastFM, condensed in one ebook. It is pretty amazing. Check it out here: Blogger Gems

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Further Reading:

• Is This The Moment?
• The Flip Side of “HELL YEAH!” Or No – How About “HELL WHY NOT!”
• Knocked Off His Stride – But Not Off His Feet!
• The Path, The Opportunity, Is Only Here For Today
• Reclaim Your Dreams by Jonathan Mead

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Free Time Is Never Free
2. Work Versus Passion
3. Personal Development Favorites for May 6, 2010

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | Just Stubborn Enough

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle

You’ve heard the statistics – some studies claim it takes 21 days to break or form a habit, while others show it takes six weeks.  In Zen To Done, Leo Babauta offers ten productivity habits and recommends spending 30 days implementing each one.

Each of these recommendations, while varying in their time frames, are based on habit creation through repetition.

But what if habit isn’t about repetition?

I had an epiphany about Aristotle’s quote recently that I wanted to share with you – and I hope this gives you the same moment of clarity it gave me.

Excellence As A Habit Through Repetition

When I first came across Aristotle’s words, I interpreted and focused on the message in the quote like this:

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act,  but a habit.”

In my mind, I focused on the words repeatedly and act. In this context, I read the words as follow:

• Act to be an action: a single response in a single situation.
• Habit to be something done as part of a routine; the acts we do on a daily basis.

The implication of the above is that it doesn’t matter what we do on occasion, in one-off encounters; rather excellence is defined as a habit through your repeated actions.

So far so good right?  Now let me show you the epiphany I had, and flip the emphasis.

Excellence As Doing

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act,  but a habit.”

In the quote, instead of focusing on the word “repeatedly,” the meaning suddenly changed for me when I focused on the word “do.”  Doing, creating, being.

In this context, I reread the quote and the word act jumped out at me, and I thought of a different interpretation – not as an action. I reinterpreted the words like this:

• Act rather as a facade – faking it, posturing, pretending.
• Habit as the word it was derived from, “Habitus” –  the things we do as a reflection of our essential nature.

Therefore, I reinterpreted this quote to mean that the person we are inside is reflected by what we repeatedly do – not what we pretend we are, not what we say we will accomplish and not what we act like we’re doing.

I thought in general of the things I do that define me as a person – do they exude excellence?  Here are some examples I thought of:

• Procrastinating (but pretending we are on top of things) versus Being Proactive
• Projecting Confidence (while being unsure in our abilities) versus Being Competent

Interestingly, the philosophical concept of habitus itself appears to have originated with Aristotle – making me wonder, have I (and perhaps my friends) been interpreting this quote wrong all these years?

Excellence Is Not Defined Through Repetition

Looking at it this way, we could rewrite the quote, taking the word repeatedly out altogether:

“We are what we do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act,  but a habit.”

Get it?  Excellence as a habit manifests itself as excellence in all we do – we can posture and pretend to others that we have things under control, but only by actually doing things in conjunction with a consistent motivation deep inside us does excellence become a habit.

So today, my question, my challenge to you is this:  don’t just act.  Do. Don’t just posture excellence -

Be Excellent.

Get your free copy of Personal Development 101 – If you’re looking to get a solid foundation for your personal development, I encourage you to sign up for my free personal development course.  In Personal Development 101 you’ll join me as we form constructive habits to change your life – all in about 15 minutes a day

3 Brand New Resources For Excellence In Your Life

Some fellow blogging friends recently released some ebooks that you may enjoy – congratulations to Marelisa, Diggy and Celes, and I hope you enjoy these as well =).

• How To Live Your Best Life – A guide designed to show you how to use your life list to create a blueprint of your ideal life, then take the necessary action steps to build that life.
• Upgrade Reality – The no-nonsense guide to overcoming personal obstacles.   A complete guide to help you overcome all your own fears, limiting beliefs and personal obstacles.
• The Personal Excellence Book – Your handbook to personal growth. 120 articles spanning 774 pages, covering nine areas of personal growth.

Further Reading

• What Is Life? Favorite Inspirational Quotes About Life
• You Only Need To Take One Step
• Today Is Your Golden Ticket
• You Can’t Start a Fire…
• How to Create Your Personal Development Plan

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Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Playing To Your Audience – A Lesson From An Enterprising English Busker
2. How To Write a Thank You Card That Actually Says Thanks

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | A Timeless Leadership Lesson From Aristotle – Excellence As a Habit

“We don’t have an eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here.”
– Susan Taylor

What’s holding you back from accomplishing your dreams?  I’ve worked with many people over the years and have heard a number of different reasons.  One common reason I hear over and over is:

Time. Or rather, a lack of time.

We all need more time, and it’s true – if you don’t dedicate sufficient time to your dreams, they’ll fade away.  I’ve discussed time management before, and today I want to talk about bullet-proof, dead simple ways to make time for your dreams.  The powerful strategies I lay out below are time tested:  not only are these strategies I recommend – they are all strategies I personally use in my life as well.

Quick Announcement: The inspiration for this article is a free teleclass Jonathan Meade is hosting on How to Find the Courage to Follow Your Dreams. Click here to sign up for free, and to also get a free copy of the recording once it’s complete.   Hurry and sign up in case there are still seats left – Jonathan’s time goes for $150 an hour, and this is the first time I’ve seen him offer a class like this for free.

Five Dead Simple Ways To Instantly Make Time For Your Dreams

1.  Just Do it – First Thing In The Morning

Sometimes the simplest advice really is the best advice. I call it paying yourself first with your time. If you’re constantly finding yourself stretched in the evening, and unable to work on your dreams during that time – then why not spend some time in the morning working on yourself and your dreams instead?

Get up half an hour early, an hour early – whatever you need to do to make yourself a priority in your own life.

If you have trouble getting up in the morning, you can check out Dave Navarro’s guide Becoming An Early Riser.

2.  Outsource

When you hear the word “outsource” you might think of virtual assistants in a foreign country handling business while you sleep.  While I do have experience with that, you can also outsource everyday tasks fairly cheaply to people in your own area – and my favorite example is household chores.

One of the most popular articles on this site is my story of how I stopped my cooking (and even most of my shopping) by outsourcing my meals on Craig’s list.  I’ll give you the punchline – it turns out that you can put a price on your dreams, and the price of my dreams is only $60 a week.  $60 a week bought me enough time to work on some things I was simply stretched too thin to work on before.

Outsourcing my cooking immediately freed up the time I needed. What’s more, once I had a value for those spare hours, they meant so much more to me, because I had paid money to get them – and I spent those hours working out, working on my personal goals, and there’s no value you can place on the satisfaction I got knowing I had actively taken control of my own life.

If you do want to outsource business or personal tasks that can be done remotely, you may be interested in reading about my experience using virtual assistants.

3.  Stop Wasting Time Online

There are a number of ways people waste time online, from games to social networking to reading news articles.  One of my personal vices (and one that I still have to be conscious of to keep in check) is wasting too much time reading news and articles online.  If you’re reading articles just for entertainment value, then maybe it’s time to take a step back and put that time aside instead for your dreams.

If you absolutely must keep up with a large amount of information (for example, perhaps as part of your job) I recommend streamlining your online reading – here’s how I keep up with over 10,000 articles, blog posts and forum discussions a week.  You may not be able to cut down the amount of information you need to absorb – but why not try to make the process itself more efficient?

Side note:  Spending too much time dealing with email? Check out my article on strategies for dealing with email overload.

4.  Drop Some Commitments

There’s nothing complicated about this advice, but very often it is difficult to implement – and many people I’ve worked with believe their situation is an exception.  In my experience, very seldom is a commitment or obligation a true exception that you absolutely must keep. Instead, typically what’s really going on is we try to put off dropping commitments because we feel a moral obligation, and a sense of integrity.

Most people we’re keeping commitments to however don’t necessarily view our involvement as strictly necessary, and the world will go on even if you drop a commitment.  Trust me, I know – check out my article about canceling commitments.

5.  Ditch The Urgent, Unimportant Tasks

You may have read this bullet and immediately identified with it.  Think back to yesterday or perhaps earlier in the week, and you may remember a time where you spent hours on something that in the long run just didn’t matter.  It wasn’t important to you or your life – but it was urgent.  It had to be dealt with right away.

One example from my own life that I’ve stopped doing is clipping coupons.  I realized one day that I was sometimes spending an hour on the weekend looking at sales and cutting out coupons that I never used.  The task itself wasn’t important – I already had everything I needed to live.   It was urgent though because if I didn’t do it right away, I was afraid I’d miss out on a deal.

For a more in depth discussion on Urgent versus Important, I invite you to review my article on Covey’s Time Management Matrix – illustrated with comics!

3 Powerful Resources To Help You Work Towards Your Dreams

• How to Find the Courage to Follow Your Dreams – A free teleclass With Jonathan Meade where he discusses how to stop letting fear keep you from following your dreams
• How To Live Your Best Life – A guide designed to show you how to use your life list to create a blueprint of your ideal life, then take the necessary action steps to build that life.
• Personal Development 101 – My free personal development course.  Effective, simple exercises that I personally use in my life, and that you can do in about 15 minutes a day.  By the end of the course you’ll have noticeable improvements in yourself and your life, with many people noticing results in the first week.

Further Reading

• Nerdy Productivity: Covey’s Time Management Matrix Illustrated with XKCD Comics
• More Important than Money – Paying Myself First With My Time
• Stop Wasting Time Online! Tips and Start Pages To Improve Concentration Online
• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• A Powerful Time Management Strategy – The Time Budget
• How to Create Your Personal Development Plan

Enjoy this article? You should Tweet This and share it with your friends, or feel free to share it however you like using this shortened link: http://j.mp/simpletime

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Your Hunger Will Fade – Five Ways To Keep Your Dreams Alive
2. 13 Ways To Improve Your Concentration With a Distraction Free Work Environment
3. The Price of my Dreams – $60 a Week

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | 5 Dead Simple Ways To Make Time For Your Dreams

Hey guys,

There was so much awesome stuff I read this week.  I sifted through it and hand picked some of my favorites – hope you enjoy reading them this weekend as much as I have this past week!

Personal Development Favorites For June 19, 2010

• Your Brand New Day Starts Tonight over at The Bridgemaker
• After 15 years of practice… by Derek Sivers

Productivity Favorites For June 19, 2010

• How Starting A Blog Has Helped Me with my Day Job over at The Skool Of Life
• When to Cut Your Losses: Sunk Costs and Productivity over at Constructively Productive
• Chris Ducker on Effective Outsourcing, Virtual Lifestyles, and The Entrepreneurial Mindset over at BlogcastFM

Wildcards –  Random Awesome Favorites for June 19, 2010

• The Bloggers Guide to Getting Attention by Nathan Hangen
• How Snipers Succeed by Missing Their Targets over at the Q company
• My 2 Bucks on Pricing by Chris Ashworth

The Latest on SidSavara.com

• Start Things You Can’t Finish
• Opportunity Is Everywhere – Just Create Value
• You Only Need To Take One Step

Reader Favorites This Week

• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• How To Get Motivated – 8 Tips to Break Your Motivational Funk
• The Definitive Guide to Organize Your Life And Get Rid of Clutter
• Your Hunger Will Fade – Five Ways To Keep Your Dreams Alive
• A Powerful Time Management Strategy – The Time Budget

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Personal Development Favorites for May 6, 2010

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | Personal Development Favorites For June 19, 2010

“In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.”
– Amelia Earhart

I remember when I was young, I had no concept of what I was capable of – and I assumed I was capable of anything.  What a beautiful delusion to have had (and well, to a small degree, still have ;) ).

I had grand schemes, grand ambitions. Among them, a short list included:

• President
• NBA Athlete
• World Traveler
• Rock guitar god

Ambition was great, but unfortunately, I also had inconsistent follow through.  Inconsistent follow through paired with infinite belief in your own abilities is a recipe for failure (followed by more failure, and more failure, but surprisingly no self doubt).

I’ll give you an example.

The Suffering That Is Practice

I remember the first time my father relented and finally took me to take guitar lessons. I was in a little studio/office, and initially excited at the prospect of being the next Jimi Hendrix.  I remember the feel of the guitar strings stinging my uncalloused fingers, my uncoordinated and weak hands flubbing every note.  My instructor showed me how to play some scales (or something, I had lost interest by this point) and had me start practicing.

I think the next memory I have of me is me  quitting the guitar because how much I disliked practicing scales.

At a young age, I learned that practicing so you could be great was much less fun than performing once you are great.  That’s a whole other tangent, and a lesson for another time.

I Failed – But At Least I Started

I would go on to start and quit guitar perhaps a dozen times in my life, until college when I finally picked it up, learned a few songs and really got hooked on it (even the mundane practicing of it all).  The fact that it stuck with me in college surprised even myself. What finally happened? I had the good luck of meeting a friend to jam with.  The missing piece of the puzzle was that I hadn’t learned how much fun playing guitar could be with other people – I had been trying to learn it on my own.

Once I accidentally discovered that, it was easy.

The second thing I discovered was open mic nights – a community of people who wanted to hear me play and supported each other. Once again, something that I didn’t even know existed came into my life to help me achieve my goal.  Going to open mic nights exposed me to more musicians, opened the door to collaboration, and expanded the type of music I listened to.

And then there was Craig’s List, through which I’ve met dozens of musicians and bands that I’ve played with.

Wait, the little kid who quit the first time his fingers got sliced open by guitar strings was now playing on stage with a rock band?

You know it.

Cautiously Picking Your Battles Limits Options

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about  some of the goals I have in my own life, and how I cautiously pick my battles now.  I look at my goals and pick something that’s realistic, something that’s manageable.  No doubt this helps keep me focused and grounded, but  guess what?

Many of the things I’ve accomplished in my life weren’t realistic the first time I undertook them. My life is filled with failure upon failure – false starts, projects left unfinished to be picked up another day, random loose threads that get tied up years later.

Many times, I would continue to try different things, until something totally unexpected happened – I would meet a friend, or a mentor, or the external context of what I was doing would change, and magically pieces would fall into place.  Sometimes finding a friend or mentor opens the door to completely unexpected, tangent opportunities that I enjoy even more than the goal I originally set out to accomplish.

In retrospect, sometimes it seems like it was just dumb luck.  As one of the announcers said about Clint Dempsey’s lucky break (a shot that the England goal keeper should have stopped easily) that tied the US and England 1-1 in the World Cup 2010 – “You can’t win the lotto if you don’t buy a ticket!”

On the other hand, how lucky can you be if you fail over and over before things finally go your way?

Dreams Can Be Unrealistic

“If someone says:  That’s impossible, You should understand it as: According to my very limited experience and narrow understanding of reality, that’s very unlikely. ”
–  Paul Buchheit

I have a suspicion that when I was younger, if I had thought through many of the things I started, I would have “known” I couldn’t finish them – that they were goals that were unrealistic, and totally out of reach.

As I grew older  and became less naive, I have started to weigh things more carefully.  This may lead to safer (some would argue, generally better) decision – but I think it also leads me to discount what I “know” is not possible.    I wonder sometimes how many of these “impossible” opportunities I’ve passed up, perhaps even unconsciously.

Yes, You May Fail

Let me deal with one thing you may be thinking right now, and it’s this:  yes it’s true – if you knowingly start things you can’t finish you may fail.  I failed many times.  I don’t know why it didn’t discourage me, but perhaps it takes a little faith and optimism (and delusional belief in yourself ;) ).

While things don’t always end up going my way, sometimes the pieces do seem to  just fall into place at just the right time.

So, if there is something you truly are passionate about, something that you really want to try – I think just because it may seem difficult and out of reach, that shouldn’t stop you from starting. Just because it’s not possible right now, doesn’t mean it’ll never be.

And even if it is, failure and quitting is an option.  It’s ok to start things you can’t finish.

Further Reading:

• Opportunity Is Everywhere – Just Create Value
• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• The Flip Side of “HELL YEAH!” o No – How About “HELL WHY NOT!”
• The Path, The Opportunity, Is Only Here For Today

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© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | Start Things You Can’t Finish

Hey guys,

Lots of great stuff this week that you’ll want to take a look at.  The biggest news I’m excited to share with you: Ali Hale’s awesome new guide Regain Your Balance was just released!  It is a tremendous piece of work: practical advice, simple and effective worksheets, all beautifully written and wonderfully laid out.  I think you’ll love it. Scroll down to the bottom to download the introduction and first chapter free! Click here to check out Regain Your Balance now.

Hope you had a great weekend, and I’ll be in touch next week. Keep your eyes open on Tuesday for an email from me, and if you’re not on the email list already, sign up in the box to the right.

Hot Off The Press

• Regain Your Balance - A guide to balancing your life.  Complete with with your personal “balance questionnaire” – so you can decide which of 6 modules you want to start out with. Comes with worksheets, and a free Q&A with the author, Ali Hale.
• How To Live Anywhere:  A course about how to live anywhere, work from your laptop, and enjoy ridiculously extraordinary freedom (from a 29 year old dude who’s walking the walk) .  I’ve been a fan of Karol Gajda for a while and enjoy his work. If you’ve been posting on Ask Sid asking for advice on lifestyle design, this is really the guy you want to get advice from.

Personal Development Favorites For June 13, 2010

• Do You See Blessings in Your Challenges? over at Advanced Life Skills
• What is Your Life Gravity? by Raam Dev
• Risk, Reward and Bliss over at The Skool of Life

Productivity Favorites For June 13, 2010

• 6 New Productivity Principles to Live By over at Litemind
• Your Sentence and What It Means for Your Productivity over at Constructively Productive
• Life: A Balancing Act over at Aliventures

Wildcards –  Random Awesome Favorites for June 13, 2010

• The Secret to Great Marketing by Nathan Hangen
• How To Succeed Online Without a Business Plan over at Wage Slave Rebel
• Corbett Barr talks about 1000 Subscribers in 2 Months, 3 Pillars of Online Success over at BlogcastFM

The Latest on SidSavara.com

• Opportunity Is Everywhere – Just Create Value
• You Only Need To Take One Step
• You Can’t Change Your Life Until…

Reader Favorites This Week

• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• How To Get Motivated – 8 Tips to Break Your Motivational Funk
• Will Power: How To Improve Your Personal Self Discipline
• 7 Common Procrastination Excuses

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Personal Development Favorites for May 6, 2010

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | Personal Development Favorites For June 13, 2010

“Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards.”
-William Arthur Ward

Late one evening  I came home and saw an instant message notification –  ”Hey Sid!  It’s great to see you blogging again – I really like your articles, and the way you research them.” It was Luciano from Litemind – one of my favorite writers, and a guy whose work and opinion I respect immensely.  I was excited – until I realized the message was hours old, since I hadn’t seen it while I was at work.

From that brief instant message though, some amazing things have happened…

From Mutual Readers to Friends

“Movement creates inspiration, not the other way around.”
- Luciano Passuello, Imperfect Start

I had long been a fan of Litemind, and had no idea that Luciano read my site.  I was flattered and sent him a message thanking him for the comment and mentioning that I wasn’t often around on Facebook.  From that we started talking about different ideas we were kicking around and brainstorming for new articles, and, along with Alec Satin, started a mastermind group.

That mastermind group has been phenomenal for my personal productivity – not just in terms of ideas for articles, but in achieving goals in other aspects of my life as well.  It is no exaggeration to say that in the hundreds of conversations and emails back and forth we’ve had, I’ve probably received thousands of dollars of help and mentoring from these two.

And it all started with a casual conversation between a couple of people – but we kept the communication open, and good things started happening.

A key point to note though, is the situation I was presented with didn’t at all look like the opportunity it would turn into.

I’d like to give you a few more examples of how simple things can balloon into huge opportunities – you just have to look for them.

Hanging out With Leo From Zen Habits

Most readers know I’m a huge fan of Leo Babauta.  I often mention his books and how they’ve shaped my thinking, the most recent being The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.  What many readers may not know is I was lucky enough to meet Leo once when he was visiting Hawaii.

I noticed he mentioned that he was coming out here for the Honolulu Marathon, so I reached out to him to see what his plans were.   One thing led to another, and I organized a casual meetup with a few fellow Zen Habits fans.

In a small restaurant down the street from the University of Hawaii, Leo talked with us about everything from blogging to nutrition to marathon training to politics as we munched on gyros and greek salads.  He was incredibly gracious, knowledgeable, and a fun guy to talk to.

It was an opportunity few bloggers have had, and I think it was very kind of him to spend as much time with us as he did.  We initially planned on getting together for just an hour or two, depending on how his schedule worked out, but he ended up staying and speaking with us for something like four hours.

He even wrote about it on Zen Habits.

Some people have asked me what I got out of it, and why I organized it – what was my motive?  There was no ulterior motive.  Meeting up and hanging out was the motive.

I never thought of organizing a meet up with Leo as work.

Organizing the meetup and getting to chat with Leo was an opportunity.

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

One of the most exciting things that’s happened in the past couple weeks is the book 168 Hours came out. The book itself is amazing – it was an instant hit on Amazon, Laura has been all over the media and the reviews have been very positive.

What makes it even more exciting for me is I’m in it!  There’s a chapter about how individuals are outsourcing parts of their lives, and it opens with my story.   I mentioned the book previously in my article You Have More Time Than You Think.

I loved the book the first time I read it, even before I got to the section I was in.  However, I would probably have never heard about the book, spoken to Laura or been a part of the project if it wasn’t for being open to the opportunity.

How did I get interviewed and included in the book? I keep an eye out for authors who are looking for sources for magazine articles, books, etc – and when I noticed somebody had put out a call for people who manage to squeeze productivity into their day, I shot her an email.  She didn’t find the angle I gave her interesting – but she went a step further, read my blog, and found a topic that she wanted to expand on in the book.  In this case, linking up with her was my chance to open the door to the opportunity – but again, the actual opportunity that presented itself (to talk about outsourcing) was completely different.

By the way, in addition to the book 168 Hours, Laura also has a 168 hours blog.  Laura has some great stuff on there including:

• The Case Against Inbox Zero
• You Work Less Than You Think
• Feeding the Idea Beast

Opportunities for Partnerships

One point that jumped out at me as I was writing this is that many opportunities aren’t just about being in the right place at the right time – it’s about reaching out to the right people.

It’s always the right time – but do you have the right people? Very often, even if there’s a chance for us to take on a new goal or project, we may find it difficult if we go it alone – and yet effortless and even enjoyable with the right partner or team.

Let me give you a few quick examples of opportunities that came about (and exploded) from partnerships.

• Constructively Productive.  This is a new productivity blog put together by two of my favorite writers, Ali Hale and Thursday Bram.  They met up in Austin at SXSW, clicked (and had been familiar with each other before meeting up no doubt), and soon after launched this new blog.  The resulting website isn’t just Ali or just Thursday – it’s a blend of the two, and their partnership isn’t just successful as a separate site: it’s also making both of them better writers.
• BlogcastFM. I’ve previously talked about the story behind BlogcastFM:  Srinivas Rao contacted me for an interview, and I was blown away at the resource he was building interviewing bloggers and collecting their stories.  I mentioned we should start a separate website just for that purpose, and it has absolutely exploded.  I think it is amazing to think we (and by we, I mean mostly Srinivas) have published over 60 interviews.  He brings his personality and interviewing skills to the table, while I handle a lot of behind the scenes stuff. It’s a great partnership – and again, an opportunity that would not have come about if either of us had tried to undertake such a project individually
• The Dojo: A Guide To Doing What Matters.  Jonathan Mead and Charlie Gilkey are both writers I know and respect. They have unique views and followings, and when they partnered up they created something amazing that blended both their styles.  It’s some of the best work I’ve seen out of both of them.  I think part of that comes from the synergy of working together – and part of it comes from pushing each other harder.

Creating Value = Creating Opportunity

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
- Thomas Edison

In all the cases I discussed above, the opportunities didn’t look like opportunities.  Sometimes they looked like a chance to network and get to know someone better, or just a chance to reach out and see what was out there.

Ultimately though, what created the opportunities was someone putting themselves out there and creating value.  I think that’s a key principle for creating opportunities in life.  If we wait for opportunities, we’re passively waiting for something to come around. On the other hand, when we just get out there and create value, we’re actively planting the seeds for the opportunities that will flourish in the future.

In a previous article, I talked about how we don’t have to have every single thing planned out and approach everything as a big “project” –  you only have to take one step.  Similarly, with opportunities, we don’t always have visibility into the whole opportunity that may present itself when we take action: but we can still take small steps to reach out and create value, and see where it takes us.

I believe, and have seen in my own life, if you just take one step, and create a little bit of value, you might be surprised at the doors that open.

So the question no longer is – what are you waiting for?  Instead, I’d like to challenge you: what value can you create today?

P.S.  If this sounds Linchpin inspired, it’s because it is ;). I enjoyed the book, and on June 14th I am organizing the Honolulu Linchpin Meetup if you’re in the neighborhood

Further Reading:

• How To Actively Take Control of Your Time and Your Life
• The Flip Side of “HELL YEAH!” Or No – How About “HELL WHY NOT!”
• The Path, The Opportunity, Is Only Here For Today

Enjoy this article? You should Tweet This and share it with your friends, or feel free to share it however you like using this shortened link: http://j.mp/itseverywhere

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. The Path, The Opportunity, Is Only Here For Today
2. How to Create Your Personal Development Plan
3. You Have More Time Than You Think
4. Free Time Is Never Free

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | Opportunity Is Everywhere – Just Create Value

“Always I will take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.”
– Og Mandino

Have you ever played the “just one more lamp post” game?  If you aren’t familiar with it, here’s how it goes:  you start by running around your neighborhood. Maybe your personal best is a couple blocks, or a couple miles, or five miles – whatever it is, at some point you’ll get close to that personal best.  And your legs will feel tired, and you’ll be breathing hard, and you’ll start thinking “Hey, that’s pretty good for today – maybe it’s time to turn around?”

But you don’t turn around. Instead, a little voice inside your head says…

“How about we just go one more lamp post?” And so you think to yourself, well, one more lamp post, that’s not so bad, I can do that…and then if you make that, you do another, and another.

What Is Success?

There are a number of definitions of success, but let’s talk about one type specifically. How would you describe a formula for successfully accomplishing your goals?  If you break down success for accomplishing any goal, for me, I think a few things come into it

• Making a life changing decision
• Putting together a plan
• Taking the small steps daily to bring it to fruition

So, if you’ve already got goals, and a plan to accomplish them – what’s the one step that’s currently stopping you?

What’s The One Step You Need To Take?

Very often in my life when I’ve been stuck on a goal, there’s been one of two things that’s happened:

1. I’ve Been Prolonging Taking The First Step.  You know how this goes – you get caught up in planning, in metawork, in thinking about all the possible things that might go wrong, and about all the different contingencies that you want to plan for.  Oftentimes this comes down to one specific thing: procrastination, and specifically, procrastinating putting off the decision to take action.  When we’re afraid and unsure of what to do, we often hide behind the comfort of “well, I just don’t have enough information yet – let me research it some more.”  If you’re in this situation, I recommend you do not spend time aimlesssly researching.  Instead, outline what specific pieces of information you need to acquire to make your decision, and then acquire them and take action. If you can’t acquire them, make an educated guess.  Take the first step.
2. The Next Step Is Too Difficult.  If you think your next step is too large, or too difficult, then I think you’ll enjoy this solution.  One of my favorite things I learned from Getting Things Done was the concept of next actions.  Briefly, rather than writing large projects on your task list, such as “Write Chapter for Novel” (which then stares at you and mocks you, as it’s a large task that you can’t help but put off), you instead write down the precise next action that you can take – as granular as necessary.  So instead of “Write Chapter” it might just be “Write single paragraph: description of living room to start chapter.”  Just like when I’m running, I don’t tell myself another mile, or another block – just one more lamp post.

So, I urge you to ask yourself:  What’s the one step you need to take?  And why haven’t you?

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Further Reading

• This Is The Bridge – And I Must Cross It
• You Can’t Start a Fire…
• Today Is Your Golden Ticket
• My Secret For Personal Growth and Change: How To Change Yourself

Did you know ... this list of articles is custom generated for you? If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy these similar articles:

1. Speaking in Public: A Step-By-Step Guide to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety
2. How to Create Your Personal Development Plan
3. Free Time Is Never Free

© Sid for SidSavara.com, 2010. | You Only Need To Take One Step