Tag Archives: Life targets

Reflections and Resolutions: Building a Better Future, One Category at a Time

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Image by Simon from Pixabay resolutions

Less than three weeks before the year draws to a close.

It’s a perfect time to reflect on the journey traveled and set the course for the year ahead.

I’ve found that breaking down my life into specific areas has helped me focus on what truly matters.

Here are the eight categories I use for my year-end review, and perhaps they can inspire you too:

  1. Faith: Reflect on your spiritual journey.

Have you nurtured your faith this year?

Whether through prayer, meditation, or community involvement, acknowledge the growth and set intentions for deepening your spiritual connection in the coming year.

  • Family/Friends: Relationships are the cornerstone of a fulfilling life.

Take stock of the time and effort you’ve invested in your family and friendships.

Consider ways to strengthen these bonds and create lasting memories together.

  • Wealth/Investing/Income: Assess your financial goals and achievements. Celebrate the wins, learn from the losses, and adjust your financial strategies accordingly. Whether it’s saving more, investing wisely, or exploring new income streams, aim for financial growth in the upcoming year.
  • Lifelong Learning/Books/Music: Learning is a lifelong journey.

Consider the books you’ve read, the new skills acquired, and the music that has inspired you.

Set ambitious yet achievable learning goals for the next year, be it picking up a new instrument, diving into a new genre of books, or exploring different forms of art.

  • Care of Self: Your well-being is paramount.

Reflect on how you’ve taken care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Identify areas for improvement and commit to self-care practices that promote a healthier, more balanced life.

  • Politics: Stay informed about the world around you.

Reflect on your engagement with politics and consider how you can contribute positively to your community.

This could be through volunteering, advocating for causes you believe in, or simply staying informed and participating in civic activities.

  • Fun & Optimistic Living/Writing: Life is meant to be enjoyed.

Take stock of the moments that brought joy and laughter.

Embrace a positive mindset and look for opportunities to infuse more fun into your daily life.

If you enjoy writing, consider journaling your experiences and thoughts as a way to preserve memories.

  • Daily Life Support – Must-Do Items: Sometimes, routine tasks can be overlooked, but they are the foundation of a well-organized life.

Reflect on the efficiency of your daily routines and adjust where needed.

Streamline tasks to create more time for the activities that truly matter.

As you work on this year-end review, remember that it’s not about perfection but progress.

Embrace the lessons of the past year and use them as stepping stones toward a more fulfilling and purposeful future.

Make 2024 your best year yet!

Thank you for reading this post.

Get started today.

Good luck next year!

Goal Setting – 95%+ People Do Not Write Their Goals

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Image by Rosy – The world is worth thousands of pictures from Pixabay

3 Things need to be completed for 2023.

It is reported that 95+% of people going into a new year do not have written measurable goals.

We all have heard this bit of wisdom, yet we still do not have written goals.

Begin now to look toward goals for 2023.

Do these three things during December, and you will be part of the 5% of people who have written goals.

1. Set an appointment time with yourself, 30–60 minutes. Get a blank paper or a blank computer screen and begin writing your thoughts and ideas for accomplishment next year. This first attempt at goal setting doesn’t have to be neat — take time to think about and write your ideas, thoughts, and expectations for 2023. The first attempts are pretty messy and unorganized. Then put this information away for a few days (Be sure to put it in a place to easily find it).

2. Set another time with yourself for 30–60 minutes and get your first list and notes out. You will be surprised at the progress you will have already made toward thinking about and planning for next year. Review your first session, subtract, add, and modify your original list and notes.

3. Set a 3rd time with yourself near the end of December. Many people tell me they like doing this during the holiday season when not working and can really spend time thinking about wants and goals for next year. Make this list as neat and useable as you want. Put your list in place to retrieve it often. Do not be afraid to change, delete, or add goals; this is a work in progress, and it may never be complete.

Doing this every year and setting up a tracking system, and measuring progress ensures that you will see goals completed.

You will do and accomplish more.

Try for yourself and get into the 5% group of people who write and strive to achieve their goals.

Let me know if you would like a template and sample goal review. [email protected]

Thank you for reading this article.

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Do you have a system to record Life experiences?

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“Life is a collection of experiences, people met, and books read” – according to Jim Rohn

Have you heard of and followed the extraordinary life and business philosopher, Jim Rohn? 

I have read his books, articles, listened to tapes, and attended his seminars. 

One article captured my attention and prompted a change in my behavior many years ago.  

Jim Rohn talked about the habit of writing down daily life experiences. He described his early journaling as a process of continuously writing things down all day long so that he wouldn’t forget the thought of the moment. 

He wrote on scraps of paper, napkins, post notes, anything he could find. Then he put them in a drawer. He then described having a drawer full of information that was not neat and was hard to organize.

We all want to remember and save ideas of the moment. Many of us either forget the idea later, or like Jim Rohn, we have a great collection of paper scraps with notes.  That was me.

Jim Rohn changed and thought it best to journal, in a sense, all day long. He started keeping a notebook at his side to jot down notes and thoughts of the moment.

I decided this was something worthwhile and started carrying a notebook with a daily date and began writing whatever thoughts I had that seemed essential to keep. Some days hardly anything. Some days I filled two pages. 

My books are messy and not organized, but I have a chronological method of getting experiences on paper. Generally, each month I go back through the past one or two months looking for ideas’ thoughts, or things that still seem significant.

I talk to people who want to start journaling but don’t know-how. This method has been working well for me. I have taught it to others.

I have books of my life experiences, and I attest to it –“Life is a collection of experiences, people met, and books read.”

Start keeping a daily running book of life, and you will be astonished at how you and your life can be changed and influenced.

Make 2022 your best year yet!

Let me know your thoughts.

Lean Manufacturing!

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I started on my Lean Journey in 2007. I joined a group of likeminded people wanting to improve Aerospace supply chain. After reading about Lean Manufacturing and hearing testimonials I took a complete leap into the world of Lean. I was producing approximately $10 million per year in sales, had good quality, very low (terrible) inventory turns with only reasonable on-time delivery.

I wanted my Company to be the best in class for our products. I hired two Lean managers, told one to start at the front end of our manufacturing process and the other to start at the end and eventually they would meet somewhere in the middle.

1st year I had no increase in costs. The lean initiatives paid for the two Lean managers. 2nd year my costs started dropping, profit improved and we began seeing improvement in quality and delivery. Inventory started dropping, inventory turns started an upward trend.

I was so naïve those years that I hadn’t realized I wasn’t even in the game for Lean — Yet. Gradually I began to see the benefit for my entire enterprise, from sales, order entry, engineering, and manufacturing through after delivery service.

Do you have a lean understanding or do you view it as a personnel and cost reduction opportunity?

Make 2017 your best year yet!

Give up? – Never!

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“Never, Never, Never, Never — Give up!” –  Winston Churchill

So drive by gyms on the way to work — What do you see? Parking lots with fewer and fewer cars.

Tiresome to write about goals when inside you know that you won’t or can’t keep them going.

End of first quarter is near. Are you feeling good about the accomplishments so far this year? Will you feel good about completing the first three months.

Interesting question — especially for me. I am pretty much meeting or exceeding my goals set for Q1 of 2017. I always look back and see that I could have done things differently, or better. However, I do feel good with progress made so.

Comments?

Make 2017 your best year yet!

Last month of 1st quarter 2017!

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What is your attitude toward the first quarter of the year?

  1. Are you ahead and going to finish the first quarter of the year with sales, personal, family, financial, etc. goals on-track or ahead of schedule?
  2. OR— Are you the person who says “I did Ok this quarter, just a little or just a lot behind — Not to worry! — I have three more quarters to catch up!”

Like most people I have talked with, we all seem to fall into one of the above categories.

In my career I was the person always going to have plenty of time in the last three quarters to catch-up. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t.

Several years ago I read a great article and when I find it again I will most likely publish it and recognize the author. The gist of the article was to get the feeling of success as soon as possible with new a new year and new goals. Try really hard to get goals accomplished monthly. But — Be extremely diligent in getting the goals completed and even get ahead for the quarter. The feeling of knowing that you are there or ahead is mesmerizing. It can literally fuel you to do better the next month and quarters ahead.

You owe it to yourself and the “Stakeholders” / “Stockholders” around you to be the best you can be.

Make 2017 your best year yet!

 

Readers

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“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ― Harry Truman

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Some years ago I was giving a toastmasters speech titled “All leaders are readers.” I felt something was missing from the title. This quote by Harry Truman sums it well.

I am an advocate of continuous reading. I started a reading program many years ago. As a slow reader, the idea of reading one book per week really was not viable in my life style. I decided to begin a practice of reading minimum 5 minutes per day. I read several books that first year and I tracked my reading habit. After several years I grew my goal to 20 minutes per day, and several years ago I switched to reading pages per day. This year 2017 I have a goal of reading minimum of 20 pages per day.  Does this mean I am diligent and read every day — No! But I do average 20 pages per day.

As I have discussed in the past I really look to Jim Rohn – Author, Entrepreneur, Speaker – as a mentor on business and living. He had a philosophy of reading that included all types of books. Get in the habit of reading for your profession, but also read books on opposite thinking and throw in a few good novels.

Harry Truman was right “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Do some “Internet” research and you will find most leaders are readers.

Think about reading for your 2017 goals. Begin a reading program and track it.

Make 2017 your best year yet!

Momentum! (A powerful word)

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Momentum – What a powerful word when thinking and working on your goals for 2017.

I have many goals that I really want to accomplish.  Some of my goals can’t be completed in a day or month or a year.  These longer harder goals are important and may take several years to accomplish.

Well — After writing and thinking about this early last year, I reaffirmed my longer term goals as being very important to me when accomplished.  I have reaffirmed and dedicated daily time 15 – 20 minutes to stay on task. I didn’t miss a day during last year 2016, I kept the momentum going.

My reaffirmation was easy.  The hard part was not making a very easy to use measurement tool to follow progress.  For longer term goals I was halfheartedly tracking progress with nothing really jumping out to me saying — “You are not on track here, keep up the momentum!”  Now I have a tracking system that shows Green when on track and Red when off track.

Do you have a measurement system for your important Goals?

Make 2017 your best year yet!

2017 is here! Goals set? Are you measuring your goals?

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I have started working on 2017 goals and measuring them.
Day 1 we should all be aware and moving forward —- 2016 is gone!

Here are 5 tips to keep your goals moving for 2017:
1. Make sure you have goals written down and easy to find.
2. Look at your goals daily.
3. Make time to work on your goals daily, even if you spend a few minutes.
4. If a goal seems too hard, revise it. Or, look at smaller parts to work on.
5. Never give up — Make 2017 your best year yet!

Goals – 5 tips to keep your goals moving for 2016!

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I read that some people already have stopped working on their Goals for year 2016.  Hopefully you have made it easy to see your goals and review them for progress frequently.

Here are 5 tips to keep your goals moving for 2016:

Make sure you have goals written down and easy to find.

  1. Look at your goals daily.
  2. Make time to work on your goals daily, even if you spend a few minutes.
  3. If a goal seems to hard, revise it.  Look at smaller parts of each goal to work on.
  4. Never give up — Make 2016 your best year yet!