Feb 4, 2008
Photo courtesy of JKim1 on flickr.com.
It’s the beginning of February. If you’re like most people, you probably made a few New Year’s resolutions to improve your health, your relationships, your career, or your business.
We’re now a month into the New Year. Did you keep your resolutions? If you didn’t, it’s probably for a simple reason: you didn’t make a plan.
A Recipe for Achievement
To achieve anything you want in life, you absolutely must to do three things:
- Identify what you really want (vs. what you think you want) and create a positive, immediate, concrete, and specific goal that captures that desire accurately.
- Focus your energy by deciding what’s most important right now and what can be done later.
- Create a simple plan to ensure your daily actions will ultimately lead to the accomplishment of your most important goals.
Each and every one of us has a few things we’d like to improve about our health, our relationships, our career, our business, and our opportunities for relaxation and fun. Creating a “Personal Master Plan” is the best way to stop dreaming and start doing.
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If you're new to the Personal MBA, you'll want to check out the manifesto and recommended reading list to see what we're all about.
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Jan 2, 2008
Happy New Year - I hope your holiday season was enjoyable and relaxing!
Let’s kick off 2008 with two personal effectiveness techniques from Peter Drucker, the founding father of modern management. These techniques appear in a fantastic 1997 interview with Drucker by Inc. Magazine, which I highly recommend reading and saving for future reference.
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Nov 2, 2007
One of the most common questions people ask me is: “how do you find time to read all of these books, work on new projects, and maintain this site when you have a full-time job?”
My answer is simple. I don’t watch TV.
When we moved to New York City in January, my wife and I decided not to bring our TV. This simple decision saved us a very significant amount of time, money, and space in our small Manhattan apartment. As a direct result, we spend more time together, read more, and accomplish our personal projects more quickly.
If I spent my time watching TV instead of working on the Personal MBA, you’d still be waiting for the new recommended reading list!
Just like traditional MBA programs, the biggest cost of TV consumption is not the expense (although it’s significant)… it’s the opportunity cost of time that could be put to better use: investing in your skills, working on projects that are important to you, and enjoying the company of other people.
Here’s a recommendation: commit to 30 days of a TV-free life. Pay attention to how much unstructured time you have, and find ways to use that time as constructively as possible. Read a good book, take a class, exercise, write, or spend time with friends. You’ll be amazed at how much you get done and how much better you feel each day.
(For more on dropping your TV habit, check out this post by Kathy Sierra.)
