Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, is a friend.  The other day I got an email from him that was so compelling, I decided I had to share it with readers of this career success blog.  Check it out…

It’s here, the 4th quarter of 2011 is about to begin and it’s time for a serious reality check!

To help you do that, I’ve assembled a number of important questions for you to consider as you take inventory of your year to date performance and subsequent results.

1. What big accomplishments have you made so far this year?

2. Have you increased profits or are you losing money?

3. Have you gained more customers or are you struggling to survive?

4. Have you increased your savings or gone deeper into debt?

5. Have you achieved your important goals or going around in circles?

6. Have you improved your quality of life or are you merely holding ground, or worse falling behind?

7. Have you lost the weight or are you still wrestling with your waistline?

8. Has this been the best year of your life? Why?

To make the best use of the FINAL quarter of 2011, you need to analyze your behavior and the results derived from those behaviors, and you need to DO IT NOW.

WHY?

Because, if you’re not happy with the answers to the questions I just proposed, and simply plug along doing the same things you did all year long, than I really feel sorry for you, your family and your future as your heading for a cliff.

THE BLUNT UNVARNISHED TRUTH

You must understand that the single best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and if you continue to repeat the same behaviors, you’re delusional if you think things will improve in any area of your life.

NO WAY–NO HOW!

Let me be as direct as possible; If you want better results, you must change your behavior NOW before it’s too late.

SO what exactly should you be doing RIGHT NOW to make full use of this 4th quarter – this final quarter of 2011?

What better behaviors should you be practicing?

The answer is so simple and transparent that it will escape most people who read this message.

The things you NEED to be doing in the 4th quarter are the EXACT same things you should have been doing all year long!

REREAD THAT LAST LINE

It deeply concerns me when people think that they can really improve their 4th quarter performance by engaging in the same performance, the same habits, the same strategies, the same beliefs, and the same work ethic that got them in the lousy situation in the first place.

THE GOOD NEWS

It’s not too late to turn your year AND your life around, just a bit later than it was, and I’d like to show you how for less than $1.

I’ve put together the most extreme goal achievement and performance acceleration program that you’ll ever find.

The program is called the 100 Day Challenge and enrollment is taking place right now at:

http://www.100daychallenge.com

Use this code ( group97 ) to save $50 and your entire investment for this life changing program comes in at only $97.00.

That’s right, for less than $1 a day, I will show you how to turn it all around and finish the year strong!

I’ll also GUARANTEE it and give you back every last penny if I’m not able to deliver on my promise.

So what are you waiting for?

I have made this as affordable as I can, I provided you with a guarantee and the 4th quarter is about to begin.

As mentioned earlier, if you are currently behind target and do not do something different, and do it immediately, I really feel sorry for you as your future is already written and it’s not a happy ending.

This is your chance to redeem yourself.  More than 42,000 people from 87 countries around the world have already proven that the 100 Day Challenge is a life changing experience.

Don’t waste another minute, get started right now:

http://www.100daychallenge.com

Use this code ( group97 ) to save $50

Everything Counts!

Gary Ryan Blair

I’ve joined Gary’s 100 Day Challenge.  I’m working on my goal of getting 300 new members for my corporate career success membership site My Corporate Climb.  Gary’s ideas are powerful and moving me close to my goal.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Your life and career success is dependent on setting and achieving high goals.  As Tweet 29 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Aim high.  Set and achieve high goals.  Do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.”  Enrolling in Gary Ryan Blair’s 100 day challenge is one thing that you can do to achieve your 2011 goals and position you for your career success in 2012.

That’s the career advice I have for you on achieving your goals.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thought with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  One is 140 bits of career advice, all in 140 characters or less.  The other is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I’m a lucky guy.  Cathy, my wife, and I were out on Saturday.  She said, “We’ve got to get home.  I want to watch the NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony.”  How many guys can say something like that?  I love football and so does Cathy.  We got home in time to watch and I found some great career advice in what the inductees had to say.

While I’m a Pittsburgh guy and love the Steelers, I live in Denver and follow the Broncos.  I was especially pleased when Shannon Sharpe the Broncos’ great tight end got selected to the Hall of Fame.  Shannon was a great player.

In his speech he talked about his dream of playing in the NFL…

“People often ask me how does a small town kid from Glennville, Georgia, who went to Savannah State College now Savannah State University, who won three Super Bowls and at one time owned all significant receiving records for a tight end? I want all you young people to listen to my answer. It’s called the three D’s: Determination, Dedication, and Discipline. Three traits that translate in any generation and any job setting. There is a reason they called it chasing your dreams and not walking after them. Don’t hope someone gives you an opportunity, create one for yourself.

“When I left my grandmother’s home in 1986 headed to Savannah State with two brown grocery bags filled with my belongings, nothing was going to keep me from realizing my dreams. When people told me I wasn’t going to make it, I listened to the one person who told me I was, me. You may not know this, but I was never supposed to be a Hall of Fame tight end or any kind of tight end, or even a Hall of Fame player. I’m here today for a lot of reasons. Some have everything to do with me. Some have absolutely nothing to do with me and everything to do with the kindness and patience of all the people that guided me through my life.”

That part of Shannon Sharpe’s speech reminded me of the career success advice in Tweets 31 and 40 in my career advice book Success Tweets.  “Plan how you will achieve your goals.  Then do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.” (31)  “Vision without action is a daydream.  No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become a reality until you act on them.” (40)

Your goals won’t get done just because you’ve set them.  Common sense career advice says that you have to workto achieve your goals.  There are two steps here.  First, plan how you will achieve each of your goals.  Second, work your plan.  You can have all of the good intentions in the world, but if you don’t plan how you will achieve your goals and then work your plan, you will not achieve the life and career success you want and deserve.  Just ask Shannon Sharpe – you need dedication, determination and discipline.

Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, and author of a great book called Everything Counts makes an important point about the importance of working your goals…

“Good intentions, while honorable, are of little use when you let weeks, months, and years of potential and possibility slip by.”

Gary has a weekly ritual of reflecting, reviewing and updating his goals.  He said that this ritual has allowed him to continue to grow and make significant performance gains for twelve straight years without missing a beat.

Check it out.

Every Sunday night, or Monday morning, isolate one goal and ask yourself the following five questions:

1. What are my current year-to-date results in relation to this goal?
2. What has gone right so far this year?  Why?  Identify strengths and strategies to repeat.
3. What has gone wrong so far this year?  Why?  Identify weaknesses and strategies to drop.
4. What corrective actions will I immediately implement to remain on target?
5. What will I commit to doing this week to ensure that I will meet or achieve this goal?

I love this exercise.  I have committed to doing it every Monday morning.  I did it this morning.  As a career success coach, I encourage you to do the same.  Give this exercise the time and attention it deserves, and as Gary says, “you will have positioned yourself for having a breakthrough week.”

The most important part of tweet 31 in Success Tweets is the part that says “do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.”  Gary Ryan Blair, the Goals Guy, provides a great exercise to help you stay on target and move ahead toward achieving your goals.  Even if you don’t feel like reviewing one of your goals every week, I suggest you do it.  This is solid, common sense and great career advice.  The more you focus on your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them.

I got the inspiration for tweet 40 in Success Tweets from a Japanese proverb…

Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare.

No matter how big, your goals, plans, thoughts and dreams will never become a reality until you act on them.  You have to commit to taking personal responsibility for achieving your goals and for creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  And action is the single most important word when it comes to demonstrating your commitment.  Just ask Shannon Sharpe or any of the people in the NFL Hall of Fame.

In his speech on Saturday, Deion Sanders said much the same thing…

“I made a pledge to myself that I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care what it may take, I’m not going to do anything illegal, but my mama would never have to work another day of her life.”

Neon Deion had a dream.  NFL success would allow him to take care of his mother.  I loved wht he had to say about dreams…

“If you’re dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.”

Deion’s dream was bigger than him, it included his mother.

You have to have dreams to focus your action.  Action without vision truly is a nightmare.  You’ll never get where you want to go if you don’t have a clear idea of exactly what you want to achieve.  That’s why you have to set goals.  Your goals are your vision for the career success you will create.

Goals give you direction and focus.  Action makes your goals a reality.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people, like NFL Hall of Famers Shannon Sharpe and Deion Sanders, followed a path similar to the career advice in Tweets 31 and 40 in Success Tweets.  “Plan how you will achieve your goals.  Then do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.”  (31) “Vision without action is a daydream.  No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become a reality until you act on them.” (40)  Your dreams and goals are the foundation of your life and career success.  You need to do two things to make them come true.  First, create a plan.  Second, implement your plan; do whatever you have to do to achieve your career success dreams and goals.  Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, suggests focusing on one of your goals every week.  Figure out how well you’re doing on this one goal.  Then commit to doing the things necessary to move you closer to achieving it.  If you rotate through your goals, one week at a time, you’ll be moving in the right direction.  You’ll be on the road to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  This technique works.  Take it from a career success coach who uses it.

That’s the career advice I found in Shannon Sharpe and Deion Sanders’ NFL Hall of Fame induction speeches.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

I’m a lucky guy.  Cathy, my wife, and I were out on Saturday.  She said, “We’ve got to get home.  I want to watch the NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony.”  How many guys can say something like that?  I love football and so does Cathy.  We got home in time to watch and I found some great career advice in what the inductees had to say.

While I’m a Pittsburgh guy and love the Steelers, I live in Denver and follow the Broncos.  I was especially pleased when Shannon Sharpe the Broncos’ great tight end got selected to the Hall of Fame.  Shannon was a great player.

In his speech he talked about his dream of playing in the NFL…

“People often ask me how does a small town kid from Glennville, Georgia, who went to Savannah State College now Savannah State University, who won three Super Bowls and at one time owned all significant receiving records for a tight end? I want all you young people to listen to my answer. It’s called the three D’s: Determination, Dedication, and Discipline. Three traits that translate in any generation and any job setting. There is a reason they called it chasing your dreams and not walking after them. Don’t hope someone gives you an opportunity, create one for yourself.

“When I left my grandmother’s home in 1986 headed to Savannah State with two brown grocery bags filled with my belongings, nothing was going to keep me from realizing my dreams. When people told me I wasn’t going to make it, I listened to the one person who told me I was, me. You may not know this, but I was never supposed to be a Hall of Fame tight end or any kind of tight end, or even a Hall of Fame player. I’m here today for a lot of reasons. Some have everything to do with me. Some have absolutely nothing to do with me and everything to do with the kindness and patience of all the people that guided me through my life.”

That part of Shannon Sharpe’s speech reminded me of the career success advice in Tweets 31 and 40 in my career advice book Success Tweets.  “Plan how you will achieve your goals.  Then do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.” (31)  “Vision without action is a daydream.  No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become a reality until you act on them.” (40)

Your goals won’t get done just because you’ve set them.  Common sense career advice says that you have to workto achieve your goals.  There are two steps here.  First, plan how you will achieve each of your goals.  Second, work your plan.  You can have all of the good intentions in the world, but if you don’t plan how you will achieve your goals and then work your plan, you will not achieve the life and career success you want and deserve.  Just ask Shannon Sharpe – you need dedication, determination and discipline.

Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, and author of a great book called Everything Counts makes an important point about the importance of working your goals…

“Good intentions, while honorable, are of little use when you let weeks, months, and years of potential and possibility slip by.”

Gary has a weekly ritual of reflecting, reviewing and updating his goals.  He said that this ritual has allowed him to continue to grow and make significant performance gains for twelve straight years without missing a beat.

Check it out.

Every Sunday night, or Monday morning, isolate one goal and ask yourself the following five questions:

1. What are my current year-to-date results in relation to this goal?
2. What has gone right so far this year?  Why?  Identify strengths and strategies to repeat.
3. What has gone wrong so far this year?  Why?  Identify weaknesses and strategies to drop.
4. What corrective actions will I immediately implement to remain on target?
5. What will I commit to doing this week to ensure that I will meet or achieve this goal?

I love this exercise.  I have committed to doing it every Monday morning.  I did it this morning.  As a career success coach, I encourage you to do the same.  Give this exercise the time and attention it deserves, and as Gary says, “you will have positioned yourself for having a breakthrough week.”

The most important part of tweet 31 in Success Tweets is the part that says “do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.”  Gary Ryan Blair, the Goals Guy, provides a great exercise to help you stay on target and move ahead toward achieving your goals.  Even if you don’t feel like reviewing one of your goals every week, I suggest you do it.  This is solid, common sense and great career advice.  The more you focus on your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them.

I got the inspiration for tweet 40 in Success Tweets from a Japanese proverb…

Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare.

No matter how big, your goals, plans, thoughts and dreams will never become a reality until you act on them.  You have to commit to taking personal responsibility for achieving your goals and for creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  And action is the single most important word when it comes to demonstrating your commitment.  Just ask Shannon Sharpe or any of the people in the NFL Hall of Fame.

In his speech on Saturday, Deion Sanders said much the same thing…

“I made a pledge to myself that I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care what it may take, I’m not going to do anything illegal, but my mama would never have to work another day of her life.”

Neon Deion had a dream.  NFL success would allow him to take care of his mother.  I loved wht he had to say about dreams…

“If you’re dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.”

Deion’s dream was bigger than him, it included his mother.

You have to have dreams to focus your action.  Action without vision truly is a nightmare.  You’ll never get where you want to go if you don’t have a clear idea of exactly what you want to achieve.  That’s why you have to set goals.  Your goals are your vision for the career success you will create.

Goals give you direction and focus.  Action makes your goals a reality.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people, like NFL Hall of Famers Shannon Sharpe and Deion Sanders, followed a path similar to the career advice in Tweets 31 and 40 in Success Tweets.  “Plan how you will achieve your goals.  Then do whatever you have to do, not want or feel like doing, to achieve them.”  (31) “Vision without action is a daydream.  No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become a reality until you act on them.” (40)  Your dreams and goals are the foundation of your life and career success.  You need to do two things to make them come true.  First, create a plan.  Second, implement your plan; do whatever you have to do to achieve your career success dreams and goals.  Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, suggests focusing on one of your goals every week.  Figure out how well you’re doing on this one goal.  Then commit to doing the things necessary to move you closer to achieving it.  If you rotate through your goals, one week at a time, you’ll be moving in the right direction.  You’ll be on the road to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  This technique works.  Take it from a career success coach who uses it.

That’s the career advice I found in Shannon Sharpe and Deion Sanders’ NFL Hall of Fame induction speeches.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

It’s July 1.  2011 is officially half over.  How are you doing on your career success goals?  This is a great time to step back and take stock of your progress.

This post is more about goal achievement than goal setting.  You know that you need to set goals in all parts of your life.  You know you need to set S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound) goals.  You know that you need to break your goals into manageable milestones.  You know that you need to keep your goals with you.  You know that you need to write your goals and share them with others.  All of this is a great start.  However, it’s just the start.

Successful people do whatever it takes to achieve their career success goals.  This takes commitment and tenacity.  It means working towards your goals when you are tired.  It means not giving up in the face of problems and setbacks.  It means doing what needs to be done, not what you want to do, or feel like doing. How did you do on these fronts in the first half of 2011?

This discussion reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Malcolm Forbes…

“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”

It takes thousands of years and tremendous amounts of pressure to turn coal into diamonds.  While you don’t need to spend thousands of years creating the life and career success you want and deserve, you do have to stick with it.  If you give up every time you run into a problem setback or roadblock, you’ll never become a diamond.  If you can’t take the pressure, you’ll never become a diamond — or a career success for that matter.  You have to stick to it and bear up under the pressure.  It doesn’t take a career success coach to tell you that you need to be persistent if you’re going to achieve your goals.

I am a fan of Lindsey Vonn, an Olympic gold medal-winning alpine skier, who makes her home in Vail; so she’s a local as far as I’m concerned.  She is the most successful American woman skier in World Cup history.

She’s 27 years old and has been skiing for 25 of those years.  She moved away from home and her family at a young age to pursue her dream of being a world class skier.  She started skiing competitively at seven and competing internationally when she was nine.  She is devoted to her sport.

Check out what Lindsay Vonn says about going for your goals…

“When you fall down, just get up again.  Get up stronger, hungrier, more ambitious.  Setbacks help you concentrate.  When success falls into your lap, you lose sight of your goals.”

Lindsay Vonn always gets back up.  I’ve seen her compete after falling and sustaining a terrible bone bruise on her arm.  She had a terrible injury just prior to the Olympics and still won the gold medal in the downhill – the most prestigious skiing event – in the 2010 Winter Games.

I tell my career success coach clients that Lindsey Vonn is someone who can be likened to a lump of coal that has turned into a diamond because she’s stuck to her job.  Remember her story the next time you feel like giving up on your goals and career success dreams.  Remember her story these last six months of 2011 when you run into a rough patch – or just feel like blowing off work to enjoy the summer weather.

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – it’s a staple in undergraduate social psychology.  In case you haven’t, or need a refresher, here is a quick recap.

In 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called, “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he described his ideas about what motivates humans.  He suggested that human beings have a series of needs which we strive to meet and that the best way to motivate someone is to appeal to the need most relevant to him or her at a given time.  He arranged these needs in a pyramid.

Physiological or survival needs like breathing, food, water and sleep are at the base of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggested that until these basic survival needs are met, human beings will not be motivated by any other needs.

Safety and security needs are the next up on the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once people feel that they will survive today, they will be motivated by the need to survive tomorrow, the next day and in the long term.

Love and belonging needs are next.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once human beings experience a reasonable level of security, their needs turn to developing friendship and family relations.

Esteem needs are next.  Once people feel secure and loved, Dr. Maslow says that they seek gratification that comes from achievement, self respect and the respect of others.

Self actualization needs are at the top of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow often described self actualization as “being all that one can be.”  And therefore, one can never be truly self actualized.  Dr. Maslow suggested that self actualization is the pursuit of perfection.  In other words, once you accomplish something that you previously thought of as the pinnacle, you will find that there is more that you can accomplish.  This is in keeping with the advice in Tweet 30 in my career advice book Success Tweets which suggests that becoming self actualized is a process in which you set  a new and higher goal whenever you accomplish one of your goals.

That’s why I say that career success is a journey, not a destination.  Successful people see themselves as works in progress.  Successful people are never finished becoming all that they can be.  If you want the life and career success you deserve, you need to think of yourself this way.

I’m not suggesting that you take no time to celebrate your successes and look back at them with pride.  I am saying however, that if you want to build long-term career success, you will use your successes as springboards to bigger and better things.

This is true for the balance of 2011.  Set a new career success goal every time you accomplish one.  Develop plans for achieving your new goals.  Work your plans.  And then do it again.  Think of yourself as someone who is “becoming” not as someone who is “complete.”  Successful people realize that there are always new challenges and opportunities.  Some of the best career advice I ever received was from an early mentor who told me to see beyond the horizon, to keep actively looking for new ways to learn, grow and succeed.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  Aim high.  Set and achieve high goals – month after month, and year after year.  Do whatever it takes to achieve your career success goals.  You can begin achieving your career success goals by taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  Do whatever it takes to succeed ethically.  Stick with it when the pressure gets strong.  Do whatever it takes to achieve the life and career success goals you set for yourself.  Respond positively to the negative people and events in your life.  Remember what Malcolm Forbes has to say about career success: “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”  Become a diamond.  Stick with it.  Set high goals, achieve them.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Best of luck in achieving your goals in the second half of 2011.

That’s my career advice on goals and the second half of 2011.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  If you’re in the USA, enjoy your holiday weekend.  Have fun and be safe.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

It’s July 1.  2011 is officially half over.  How are you doing on your career success goals?  This is a great time to step back and take stock of your progress.

This post is more about goal achievement than goal setting.  You know that you need to set goals in all parts of your life.  You know you need to set S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound) goals.  You know that you need to break your goals into manageable milestones.  You know that you need to keep your goals with you.  You know that you need to write your goals and share them with others.  All of this is a great start.  However, it’s just the start.

Successful people do whatever it takes to achieve their career success goals.  This takes commitment and tenacity.  It means working towards your goals when you are tired.  It means not giving up in the face of problems and setbacks.  It means doing what needs to be done, not what you want to do, or feel like doing. How did you do on these fronts in the first half of 2011?

This discussion reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Malcolm Forbes…

“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”

It takes thousands of years and tremendous amounts of pressure to turn coal into diamonds.  While you don’t need to spend thousands of years creating the life and career success you want and deserve, you do have to stick with it.  If you give up every time you run into a problem setback or roadblock, you’ll never become a diamond.  If you can’t take the pressure, you’ll never become a diamond — or a career success for that matter.  You have to stick to it and bear up under the pressure.  It doesn’t take a career success coach to tell you that you need to be persistent if you’re going to achieve your goals.

I am a fan of Lindsey Vonn, an Olympic gold medal-winning alpine skier, who makes her home in Vail; so she’s a local as far as I’m concerned.  She is the most successful American woman skier in World Cup history.

She’s 27 years old and has been skiing for 25 of those years.  She moved away from home and her family at a young age to pursue her dream of being a world class skier.  She started skiing competitively at seven and competing internationally when she was nine.  She is devoted to her sport.

Check out what Lindsay Vonn says about going for your goals…

“When you fall down, just get up again.  Get up stronger, hungrier, more ambitious.  Setbacks help you concentrate.  When success falls into your lap, you lose sight of your goals.”

Lindsay Vonn always gets back up.  I’ve seen her compete after falling and sustaining a terrible bone bruise on her arm.  She had a terrible injury just prior to the Olympics and still won the gold medal in the downhill – the most prestigious skiing event – in the 2010 Winter Games.

I tell my career success coach clients that Lindsey Vonn is someone who can be likened to a lump of coal that has turned into a diamond because she’s stuck to her job.  Remember her story the next time you feel like giving up on your goals and career success dreams.  Remember her story these last six months of 2011 when you run into a rough patch – or just feel like blowing off work to enjoy the summer weather.

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – it’s a staple in undergraduate social psychology.  In case you haven’t, or need a refresher, here is a quick recap.

In 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called, “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he described his ideas about what motivates humans.  He suggested that human beings have a series of needs which we strive to meet and that the best way to motivate someone is to appeal to the need most relevant to him or her at a given time.  He arranged these needs in a pyramid.

Physiological or survival needs like breathing, food, water and sleep are at the base of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggested that until these basic survival needs are met, human beings will not be motivated by any other needs.

Safety and security needs are the next up on the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once people feel that they will survive today, they will be motivated by the need to survive tomorrow, the next day and in the long term.

Love and belonging needs are next.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once human beings experience a reasonable level of security, their needs turn to developing friendship and family relations.

Esteem needs are next.  Once people feel secure and loved, Dr. Maslow says that they seek gratification that comes from achievement, self respect and the respect of others.

Self actualization needs are at the top of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow often described self actualization as “being all that one can be.”  And therefore, one can never be truly self actualized.  Dr. Maslow suggested that self actualization is the pursuit of perfection.  In other words, once you accomplish something that you previously thought of as the pinnacle, you will find that there is more that you can accomplish.  This is in keeping with the advice in Tweet 30 in my career advice book Success Tweets which suggests that becoming self actualized is a process in which you set  a new and higher goal whenever you accomplish one of your goals.

That’s why I say that career success is a journey, not a destination.  Successful people see themselves as works in progress.  Successful people are never finished becoming all that they can be.  If you want the life and career success you deserve, you need to think of yourself this way.

I’m not suggesting that you take no time to celebrate your successes and look back at them with pride.  I am saying however, that if you want to build long-term career success, you will use your successes as springboards to bigger and better things.

This is true for the balance of 2011.  Set a new career success goal every time you accomplish one.  Develop plans for achieving your new goals.  Work your plans.  And then do it again.  Think of yourself as someone who is “becoming” not as someone who is “complete.”  Successful people realize that there are always new challenges and opportunities.  Some of the best career advice I ever received was from an early mentor who told me to see beyond the horizon, to keep actively looking for new ways to learn, grow and succeed.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  Aim high.  Set and achieve high goals – month after month, and year after year.  Do whatever it takes to achieve your career success goals.  You can begin achieving your career success goals by taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  Do whatever it takes to succeed ethically.  Stick with it when the pressure gets strong.  Do whatever it takes to achieve the life and career success goals you set for yourself.  Respond positively to the negative people and events in your life.  Remember what Malcolm Forbes has to say about career success: “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”  Become a diamond.  Stick with it.  Set high goals, achieve them.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Best of luck in achieving your goals in the second half of 2011.

That’s my career advice on goals and the second half of 2011.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  If you’re in the USA, enjoy your holiday weekend.  Have fun and be safe.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is my new career success coach book.  I’m proud to say that it has just gone into its second printing.  I want to thank all of the kind folks who have posted a review of Success Tweets on Amazon.com.  You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore or on line at amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook version for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 85…

Always be on the lookout for new ideas.  Find opportunities where others see obstacles.

Henry Ford once said…

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

Good one Henry.  I have a great story about this.  It involves a trash can and a hair dryer cord.

In our bathroom at home, the trash can sits under a shelf.  Cathy keeps her hair dryer on the shelf.  The cord loops down in front of the trash can.  Being the frustrated NBA player I am, and also being a normal guy who turns even the most mundane things into sport, I make a game of tossing my used tissues into the trash can.  For the longest time, I focused on the hair dryer cord as I tried to swish my tissue into the waste basket.  I hit the cord almost two thirds of the time, missing my game winning shot in the 7th game of the NBA Finals.

Once day I saw Henry Ford’s quote on line.  The next day, I began focusing on the waste basket opening – which is a lot bigger than the hair dryer cord anyway – and I swished the shot; thereby winning the Denver Nugget’s first NBA championship.  I kept doing this in the days that followed, and I ended up with more NBA championships that Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, Kobe Bryant  and Shaq combined.  I couldn’t miss – all because I kept focused on the goal (the trash can) not the obstacle (the hair dyer cord).

This may sound like a stupid story told by an overgrown adolescent.  It’s not.  It makes an important career success point.  When I tried to avoid the obstacle, I hit it very frequently.  When I tried to hit the goal and ignored the obstacle, I began making the shots – achieving my goal.  And that’s what you need to do too. 

Here’s the career advice that comes from this story.  Keep focused on your goals.  Don’t take your eyes off of them because you’ll begin seeing all of the obstacles to overcoming your goals.

30 years ago this September, I enrolled in a PhD program at Harvard.  I had to overcome quite a few obstacles to get my degree.  First, I had to get accepted.  Once I was accepted, I had to figure out how to pay for the privilege of attending an elite university.  Then I had to make sure I graduated.

I spent the time necessary and wrote the very best application I could.  I got accepted, one obstacle down.  I sold my car when I moved to Cambridge.  This money – along with grants, student loans, work study jobs and a part time teaching job at Northeastern University — were enough to pay for my education.  By the way, I was in my late 40s when I paid off my last student loan.

Graduating became a little more challenging.  I left Harvard after I finished my course work, but before I had completed my dissertation.  I took a full time job in New York.  Professors advised me against this.  They told me that it is very difficult to work full time and write a dissertation.  They were right.  It took me four and a half years, but I submitted a dissertation that my committee accepted.  I kept focused on the goal – the right to call myself “Dr. Bilanich.” – interestingly enough I never use the title except when I want to get a reservation at a crowded restaurant.

I have too many friends that are ABD – “all but dissertation.”  These folks wander the earth with a sense of profound incompletion.  I promised myself that this was never going to happen to me.  I kept my eyes on the goal – even though I had quite a few obstacles thrown at me along the way — and I achieved it. 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people achieve their goals because they stay focused on them.  They follow the advice in Tweet 85 in Success Tweets.  “Always be on the lookout for new ideas.  Find opportunities where others see obstacles.”  Obstacles often are opportunities in disguise.  Successful people see opportunities where others see obstacles.  And, as Henry Ford said, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eye off the goal.”  My best career advice here is to keep focused on your goals – whether it’s bathroom basketball, or getting a PhD — and you’ll be able to turn obstacles into opportunities.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 85.  What’s yours?  What obstacles have you turned into opportunities?  What goals did you accomplish a result.  Please take a minute to share your story with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is now available on Amazon.com and in bookstores.  I am in the process of blogging about each of the tweets in it. You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com.  If you like it, I’d appreciate a positive review on Amazon.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 32…

Stuff happens as you go about creating a successful life and career.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.

It’s simple, really. Success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it. We all have to take personal responsibility for our own success. I am the only one who can make me a career success. You are the only one who can make you a career success.

Stuff happens: good stuff, bad stuff, frustrating stuff, unexpected stuff.  Successful people respond to the stuff that happens in a positive way.  Humans are the only animals with free will.  That means we – you and me – get to decide how we react to every situation that comes up.  That’s why taking personal responsibility for yourself and choosing to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens to you is so important and is some great career advice.

I tell my career success coach clients that personal responsibility means recognizing that you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. It means that you realize that while other people and events have an impact on your life, these people and events don’t shape your life. When you accept personal responsibility for your life, you own up to the fact that how you react to people and events is what’s important. And you can choose how to react to every person you meet and everything that happens to you.

The concept of personal responsibility is found in most writings on success. Stephen Covey’s first habit in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is, “Be proactive.” I have a little book called Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People also by Stephen Covey.  It is one of the most read books that I have.  I like it because it provides a little snippet of career advice from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People everyday. 

The daily reflection for September 24 goes directly to the career advice in this tweet, and it gets to the heart of personal responsibility and life and career success.

“It’s not really what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.  Of course, thing can hurt physically or economically and can cause sorrow.  But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all.  In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well.”

Dr. Covey provides some great career advice here.  We can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react to both the positive and negative experiences we have as we go through life.  Successful people choose to make lemonade out of lemons.  Unsuccessful people choose to complain about the bitter, tart taste of the lemons they are handed.

I know the “lemons into lemonade” line is a cliché.  However, clichés become clichés because they have an underlying truth.  The important point is that human beings are blessed with free will.  As such, we can choose what we do and how we react to the world around us.  We can choose a positive, productive path; or we can choose a path of self pity and inaction – and hurt only ourselves in the end.

The 7 Habits advice for September 25 carries on in the same vein…

“Proactive people can carry their own weather with them.  Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them.  They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn’t a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.”

I love the concept of carrying your own weather with you.  It is great career success coach advice.Choosing to react positively to the negative people and events in your life is the best way to carry your weather with you– and to take personal responsibility for your life and career success.
 
The common sense career success coach point here is clear.  Successful people know that they can choose how they respond to everyone they meet and everything that happens to them.  They know that “the devil made me do it” is never an accurate statement.  They also know that no one can “make” them mad.  In short, they follow the advice in Tweet 32 in Success Tweets.   “Stuff happens as you go about creating a successful life and career.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.”  If you want to create the career success you deserve, remember Stephen Covey’s advice.  Carry your weather with you.  In this way, whether it rains or shines on the outside, it will be sunny on the inside.  Choose to react positively to the negative people you meet, and the negative things that happen to you.  When you do, you’ll find that you’ll have less negative things happening and fewer negative people entering your life.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 32 in Success Tweets.  What’s your?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is now available on Amazon.com and in bookstores.  I am in the process of blogging about each of the tweets in it. You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com.  If you like it, I’d appreciate a positive review on Amazon.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 32…

Stuff happens as you go about creating a successful life and career.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.

It’s simple, really. Success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it. We all have to take personal responsibility for our own success. I am the only one who can make me a career success. You are the only one who can make you a career success.

Stuff happens: good stuff, bad stuff, frustrating stuff, unexpected stuff.  Successful people respond to the stuff that happens in a positive way.  Humans are the only animals with free will.  That means we – you and me – get to decide how we react to every situation that comes up.  That’s why taking personal responsibility for yourself and choosing to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens to you is so important and is some great career advice.

I tell my career success coach clients that personal responsibility means recognizing that you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. It means that you realize that while other people and events have an impact on your life, these people and events don’t shape your life. When you accept personal responsibility for your life, you own up to the fact that how you react to people and events is what’s important. And you can choose how to react to every person you meet and everything that happens to you.

The concept of personal responsibility is found in most writings on success. Stephen Covey’s first habit in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is, “Be proactive.” I have a little book called Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People also by Stephen Covey.  It is one of the most read books that I have.  I like it because it provides a little snippet of career advice from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People everyday. 

The daily reflection for September 24 goes directly to the career advice in this tweet, and it gets to the heart of personal responsibility and life and career success.

“It’s not really what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.  Of course, thing can hurt physically or economically and can cause sorrow.  But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all.  In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well.”

Dr. Covey provides some great career advice here.  We can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react to both the positive and negative experiences we have as we go through life.  Successful people choose to make lemonade out of lemons.  Unsuccessful people choose to complain about the bitter, tart taste of the lemons they are handed.

I know the “lemons into lemonade” line is a cliché.  However, clichés become clichés because they have an underlying truth.  The important point is that human beings are blessed with free will.  As such, we can choose what we do and how we react to the world around us.  We can choose a positive, productive path; or we can choose a path of self pity and inaction – and hurt only ourselves in the end.

The 7 Habits advice for September 25 carries on in the same vein…

“Proactive people can carry their own weather with them.  Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them.  They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn’t a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.”

I love the concept of carrying your own weather with you.  It is great career success coach advice.Choosing to react positively to the negative people and events in your life is the best way to carry your weather with you– and to take personal responsibility for your life and career success.
 
The common sense career success coach point here is clear.  Successful people know that they can choose how they respond to everyone they meet and everything that happens to them.  They know that “the devil made me do it” is never an accurate statement.  They also know that no one can “make” them mad.  In short, they follow the advice in Tweet 32 in Success Tweets.   “Stuff happens as you go about creating a successful life and career.  Choose to respond positively to the negative stuff that happens.”  If you want to create the career success you deserve, remember Stephen Covey’s advice.  Carry your weather with you.  In this way, whether it rains or shines on the outside, it will be sunny on the inside.  Choose to react positively to the negative people you meet, and the negative things that happen to you.  When you do, you’ll find that you’ll have less negative things happening and fewer negative people entering your life.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 32 in Success Tweets.  What’s your?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is now available on Amazon.com and in bookstores.  I am in the process of blogging about each of the tweets in it. You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com.  If you like it, I’d appreciate a positive review on Amazon.com.

Today’s focus is Tweet 29…

Aim high.  Set and achieve high goals – month after month, and year after year.  Do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.

This post is more about goal achievement than goal setting.  You know that you need to set goals in all parts of your life.  You know you need to set S.M.A.R.T. goals.  You know that you need break your goals into manageable milestones.  You know that you need to keep your goals with you.  You know that you need to write your goals and share them with others.  All of this is a great start.  However, it’s just the start.

Successful people do whatever it takes to achieve their goals.  This takes commitment and tenacity.  It means working towards you goals when you are tired.  It means not giving up in the face of problems and setbacks.  It means doing what needs to be done, not what you want to do, or feel like doing.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Malcolm Forbes…

“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”

It takes thousands of years and tremendous amounts of pressure to turn coal into diamonds.  While you don’t need to spend thousands of years creating the successful life and career you want and deserve, you do have to stick with it.  If you give up every time you run into a problem, setback or roadblock you’ll never become a diamond.  If you can’t take the pressure, you’ll never become a diamond.  You have to stick to it and bare up under the pressure.  It doesn’t take a career success coach to tell you that you need to be persistent if you’re going to achieve your goals.

I am a fan of Lindsey Vonn, an Olympic gold medal winning alpine skier who makes her home in Vail; so she’s a local as far as I’m concerned.  She is the most successful American woman skier in World Cup history. 

She’s 26 years old and has been skiing for 24 of those years.  She moved away from home and her family at a young age to pursue her dream of being a world class skier.  She started skiing competitively at 7 and competing internationally when she was nine.  She is devoted to her sport. 

Check out what Lindsay Vonn says about going for your goals…

“When you fall down, just get up again.  If you fall get up stronger, hungrier, more ambitious.  Setbacks help you concentrate.  When success falls into your lap, you lose sight of your goals.” 

She fell hard earlier this year and had a terrible bone bruise on her arm.  She didn’t miss an event.  She had a terrible injury just prior to the Olympics and still won the gold medal in the downhill – the most prestigious skiing event – in the 2010 Winter Games.

I tell my career success coach clients that Lindsey Vonn is someone who can be likened to a lump of coal that has turned into a diamond because she’s stuck to her job.  Remember her story the next time you feel like giving up on your goals and your dreams.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 29 in Success Tweets.  “Aim high.  Set and achieve high goals – month after month, and year after year.  Do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.”  You can begin achieving your career success goals by taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  Do whatever it takes to succeed.  Stick with it when the pressure gets strong.  Do whatever it takes to achieve the life and career success goals you set for yourself.  Respond positively to the negative people and events in your life.  Remember what Malcolm Forbes has to say about success.  “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”  Become a diamond.  Stick with it.  Set high goals, achieve them.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.

That’s my take on Tweet 29 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute or two to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is now available on Amazon.com and in bookstores.  I am in the process of blogging about each of the tweets in it. You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com.  If you like it, I’d appreciate a positive review on Amazon.com

Today’s focus is Tweet 28…

Write your goals.  Share them with others.  You are more likely to achieve goals that you write and share.

Accountability is the key career advice here.  When you write your goals and share them with others you are choosing accountability.

Writing your goals demonstrates your accountability to yourself.  Written goals are real and tangible.  Goals that you keep in your head most often are fuzzy and poorly defined; little more than wishes. 

Besides being solid career advice, taking the time to write your goals, and then making them S.M.A.R.T. (see my recent post) puts some rigor into the goal setting process.   You end up with a set of well defined goals on which you can build your career success.

Sharing your goals with others close to you is another way of choosing accountability.  When you share your goals, you are making a public statement about what you are going to accomplish.  This makes you more likely to do the work necessary to achieve them.

Let me give you an example.  I have made a big effort to improve my level of health and fitness in recent years.  A few years ago, I set a weight loss goal.  I shared this goal with several of my friends, especially those who are committed to their own health and fitness.

One of these people is one of my clients.  I was visiting his office one day.  There was a big platter of oatmeal raisin cookies left over from a meeting sitting in an open area near his office.  As we passed the cookies, I took one.  I was beginning to take a bit when he turned to me and said, “Do you really want that?”

In the moment, I really did.  But in the greater scheme of things and given my health and fitness goal, I really didn’t want to be eating cookies in the middle of the afternoon.  I tossed the cookie into the trash.

Sharing my health and fitness goal with this guy helped me achieve it.  By asking me a simple question, “Do you really want that?” he helped me make progress toward my goal.  He helped me fight the temptation to do something that ran counter to achieving my goal. 

But remember, he never would have asked me the question if I had not first shared my health and fitness goal with him.  This is one of the basic ideas behind the Weight Watchers program.  This works for goals in all areas of your life and career.

Here’s another example.  I was having a conversation with Doug Westmoreland, king of motivational videos.  He and I were talking about email list building.  I mentioned that I have a goal of growing my subscriber list.  Doug asked a few questions, made a few suggestions and then said something really profound.  “Bud, you’re a great guy, you give lots of value to your subscribers.  It’s about time that you begin offering them the opportunity to reciprocate by making products available for sale in your electronic correspondence with them.” 

Doug’s comment was really helpful.  He got me to rethink how I communicate with my subscribers.  I never would have received this great advice if I hadn’t shared one of my goals with him.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people set and achieve high goals.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 28 in Success Tweets.  “Write your goals.  Share them with others.  You are more likely to achieve goals that you write and share.”  I have found that writing your goals and sharing them with others are two of the best ways to ensure that you achieve them.  Both of these simple actions increase your personal accountability for achieving your goals.  When you write your goals, they become more real for you.  When you share them, you invite others to help you achieve them.  You build a support network that can keep you on track and moving forward in creating the career success you deserve.

That’s my take on the advice in Tweet 28 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts – and goals — with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud