2011 winding down... Did you achieve your goals?

January 1, 2012 is fast approaching... Where did the year go? Seems like yesterday (well maybe not yesterday, but you get the jist) that we were all talking and tweeting about the topic of 1-1-11, 1-11-11, 11-1-11, and 11-11-11.

In January (1-11), I made a decision to move to sunny southern California from snow-Hio (Ohio) before 11-1-11. I developed a plan of action, I took steps towards it's achievement, and as it turns out - I achieved my goal 2 months early, making the relocation happen on 9/1/11.

It's been a busy, whirlwind, but exciting year for me. As I reflect on the year, and all that was accomplished, I cannot help but go into the New Year with excitement and anticipation as to all the possibilities for the goals I am targeting to accomplish this year.

In 2012, I am going to set the mark higher - so that I have to stretch to achieve them on time! (A little pressure never hurt anyone, right?)

My relocation was a personal goal.

I had a vision for how it could happen, I developed an action plan on the steps that I believed were required to achieve it, and I achieved my goals, in a way that exceeded my own expectations.

The funny thing about my plan of action - the more I believed in the vision that I had for making the move effortlessly and with ease, the easier and more effortless the plan became to fulfill.

It's like the Universe just put the right people, places, and things in my path to get to the next step more quickly.

Do you have a goal to achieve in the coming year? Do you need help developing an action plan?

Let's chat!

Improve Your Approach - Improve Your Life!

If "Life is a Process", then it is capable of continuous improvement. This is the first blog in a three part series that describes how the methodologies used in business to support continuous improvement can also be used to improve our personal lives.

DMAIC is a five-step approach for driving costly variation from manufacturing and business processes: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. In this blog I'll cover "Define" and "Measure" the other three components will be discussed in a future post.

As the backbone of the Six Sigma methodology, DMAIC delivers sustained defect-free performance and highly competitive quality costs over the long run. Business leaders use it as a structure for improving performance in areas such as customer satisfaction, operational costs, service quality, and countless other possibilities – each business has its own performance metrics that are critical for success. Each of us as individuals also have our own unique set of performance measurements - depending on what we want to achieve in our lives.

Define:

Define is the first step in the process. In this step, it is important to define specific goals towards achieving the results you want from the process.

For example:

The desired result is weight loss
Specific goals would be:
- Lose 5 lbs before Mary’s birthday party.

You want to lower your credit card debt
Specific goals would be:
- Lower your debt by 10K by New Years.

Measure:

You need a starting point and a baseline measurement.

In the examples above
- What is your starting weight?
- What is your current amount of debt?

In this step, accurate measurements must be made and relevant information must be collected so that future comparisons can be measured to determine whether or not improvements have been made.

Now that you know what you want to measure, you need to set goals or milestones towards achieving your goal. Break down into reasonable chunks

- How much time do you have?
- What is the maximum commitment I can make each week?
- How much can I reasonably achieve?

Once you have defined your goals, performed a baseline, and determined milestones and measurements, you will be able to utilize the "Analyze", "Improve", and "Control" phases of the DMAIC approach to aid you in achieving them.

Think about some areas of your life your would like to see improved. Define exactly what it is that you want to achieve, determine where you are currently at relative to the goal, break into small steps.. LiTtLe cHuNks.. mini-SucceSSes.. and have SUPER CELEBRATIONS!!

Sh*t Happens... But you have choices!

It's true, sometimes in life, sh*t happens, but you have choices. You can choose to:

- walk around it
- walk through it
- or just stand there

These choices are available almost everytime we encounter an obstacle in our life.

Those who refuse to let an obstacle get in their way and just choose to "walk around it" are able to do so, because they do not let the obstacle cause them to take their eye off the goal. They merely stay focused on where or what they want to achieve and take a few steps to the left and push on forward. This is usually the best approach, but as I said not the only approach.

There are others who choose to just "walk through it" -- they come through the obstacle, but not without a smelly mess. However, going straight through an obstacle keeps you on course with no risk of taking you off track with the few steps to the side as described in the "walk around it" approach. Those willing to go right through the obstacle might come out a little worse for the wear on the other side - but no doubt having gained some valuable knowledge and experience along the way.

Finally, there are those who let the obstacle overwhelm them - they are paralyzed and can no longer see their goal. They "just stand there."

There will be times in each of our lives when the obstacle or situation seems so overwhelming that "just standing there" is all we can do initially; but the great thing is - in every new moment - we have the opportunity to make a new choice. We can decide to go ahead and "walk through it" - risking some muck on the bottom of our shoe; or we can opt for the "walk around it" approach, and show up at our goal, with a smile on our face - smelling fresh as a daisy.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." ~Henry Ford