Thanks to those who already bought my book Strategic Project Management Made Simple: Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams. If you have a copy, I'd love to hear your comments. If not, get yours wherever books are sold. Get a couple - they make great birthday and anniversary gifts for that special thinking person on your list.
BE MY GUEST AT A GREAT EVENT
In these tougher economic times, every professional can benefit from understanding the art and science of resource planning. I'll be a presenter at the Resource Planning Summit in Chicago, June 29-30 (www.ResourcePlanningSummit.com) I'm speaking on EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACTION as well as doing a pre-conference session on strategic project management.
The registration fee is $995, but I have a couple of complimentary tickets for readers who would like to attend. Just drop me a note, tell me why you'd like to be there, and I will select two people to be my guests!
12 Smart Steps to Prepare for an Uncertain Financial Future
By Al Herter
This months guest writer is Al Herter, the hippie philanthropist whose blog is www.TheSmartMoney.wordpress.com. Al is a self-made millionaire and successful investor. By way of full disclosure, Al and I shared a house in Washington DC in the 70s when he worked for Legal Services Corp and I worked for the Secretary of Transportation.
Al always had a way of living comfortably on a small budget. By living simply and following the Quaker philosophy, he became financially independent by doing both well and good. In these troubling financial times, his twelve steps offer practical and simple advice we can all benefit from.
Notice: These smart steps can alter your life and your future outcomes. Following them again and again will put some traction in your action.
- Think simple living. The Quakers are the standard. Want what you have. Do what you can. Be who you are. Count your blessings.
- For a month, keep track of every penny you spend in a small notebook (but don't go out and buy one). Review each bill you pay or have paid. Need all those cable channels? The lattes? The smokes? The cleaners? The maid twice a week?
- Mend clothes, darn socks, turn off lights, and re-heat leftovers. Think small, cheap, and affordable.
- Sell anything you don't use, want, need, or are just storing for posterity, for the children, or for a rainy day. Get onto craigslist.com and sell all that extra stuff you have and don't use. It declutters and puts money in your pocket.
- Look for other revenue centers that you can profit from, such as rent out a small room as an office; or rent out the garage or even the basement for storage. Explore how you can rent or exchange apartments rather than use hotels.
- Health is number one on my list. Eat better. Eat less. Practice yoga, take walks, ride your bike.
- Plant a veggie garden. It saves money and is better for you-and may even be something you can sell to others and/or barter with them. You do tomatoes, and the neighbors do corn/beans/squash. You share the tools, knowledge and harvest. Not only will your garden grow, but so will your neighborly community.
- Starting to get the drift that the landscape has changed dramatically?
- Cook and entertain at home. Invite others over for potlucks. They're cheaper, easier nicer and more fun!
- Walk, use public transit, use your bike, car pool, or any combination thereof (but not all at once, of course).
- Be preventative with your health through diet, exercise and relax. When necessary, use generic drugs.
- Breathe, relax and enjoy life! You've only got this very moment to live it to the fullest-and that's one thing that is for certain!
One of my early careers was international development. As a consultant to the World Bank and USAID (United States Agency for International Development), I had the opportunity to work on interesting projects in developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
My favorite consulting project was leading a project team in the Sultanate of Oman, where the government faced the challenge of "winning the peace" after "winning the war." A much tougher proposition.
While this topic may be far afield from your work, this month's project design shows the power of the Logical Framework approach to help leaders plan, execute, and evaluate complex and important undertakings.
The Power of Visual Feedback for Building Success Habits
Over decades of experimenting with self-mastery strategies, I've discovered the motivational power of visual feedback in helping to accomplish valued personal and work goals. Maybe my tools will work for you, too.
Start by clarifying your major goals. Ask yourself how you might measure each. Be sure to recognize the difference between measuring inputs (the tasks required to achieve goals) and outcomes (the completed/fulfilled event). You'll want to track both.
For example, one of my current goals is to shed ten pounds and reclaim my Greek-God physique (yea, right). So, how do I measure my progress? I start by tracking inputs, which include: (1) How much food I eat; (2) How well I eat; (3) How frequently I exercise. Conscientiously managing and tracking these input tasks will lead to my weight-loss goals. The logic behind any goal-achieving effect is "if inputs, then outcomes."
Of course, I also track my desired outcome - weight lost. Once a week, I weigh in. I do this Friday so that I can splurge a little on the weekend and get back on track throughout the week, if necessary (allowing some flexibility keeps it realistic.)
A few simple charts and graphs will give you the visual feedback that motivates and keeps you on. Here's what I use:
Tool #1 - A daily chart labeled "Food Choices" has columns which let me track the type and quality of what I eat. I put check marks or numbers in the columns for my healthy choices (fruits & veggies) as well as unhealthy choices (ice cream and cookies).
Tool #2 - My daily chart "Exercises Performed" captures both the length of exercise (in minutes) and the type (aerobic, stretching, lifting, etc).
These two charts track inputs, for monitoring outcomes I use:
Tool #3 - A wall chart labeled "Weigh To Go" helps me follow my weight-loss progress. I have posted a graph consisting of quarter-inch grids on the fridge. The legend on the vertical Y-axis represents a half pound per line; while, the legend on the horizontal X-axis plots out the next ninety days. My target of losing ten pounds in ninety days is broken down to a do-able three pounds per month. To allow fine-tune monitoring, I have also sketched in some trend lines mapping out the slope of a three pound per month loss, four pound per month loss, and five pounds per month. I weigh in each Friday morning (daily measurement has too much variation), plot the number, then connect the dots.
The daily and weekly ritual of filling these in allows me to emotionally reconnect with the benefits of this goal - an attractive, strong, sexy, and healthy body. If I get off track, I ask if the target is realistic; or what factors got in the way (darn you, Mrs. Field cookies!); or even if it is something that I really want in the first place.
When visually tracking your goals, I remember is to look at your tracking tools often enough to stay motivated and keep going! Quantitative goals are reasonably easy to track.
The Portable Coach: 28 Sure-Fire Strategies for Business and Personal Success
by Thomas J. Leonard
I bought this book ten years ago as airplane reading and still find myself occasionally thumbing my well-marked copy on a flight. Thomas Leonard was a pioneer of personal coaching; and the founder of Coach University, a coach training organization that has trained over 20,000 coaches in 38 countries.
His writing is brilliant, lively, and practical. This book offers 28 macro-strategies in 28 chapters, with 10 ways to execute each strategy. You'll find strategies such as "Create a Vacuum that Pulls You Forward"; "Develop More Character than You Need"; "Become Incredibly Selfish"; and "Unhook Yourself from the Future." Each chapter offers tests that help you reflect on your current situation as well as simple step-by-step guidelines to change your current situation for the better.
As a reader of dozens of self-mastery books, I especially appreciate Leonard's "no struggle" approach. Rather than clawing and striving your way to success, his method has a Zen quality to it, which is that of keeping your mind clear and staying in the flow state where good things happen. Leonard shows that by being aware and sensitive to yourself and your environment, you create an attitude of mind where living well and experiencing success becomes almost effortless and automatic.
Leonard believes that by removing the physical and emotional clutter in your life, you create the space for success to occur.
Leonard died of a massive heart attack at age 47, but his lessons will live on for a long time.
The Meaning of "UP"
(Adapted from a forwarded email, original author unknown)
English is a crazy language because one single word can have multiple meanings. The two-letter word UP has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and the dictionary lists it as an adverb, preposition, noun, verb or adjective.
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list; but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the candidates UP for election. Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, or polish UP the silver. We warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
UP fills the bill many ways. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is common; but to be dressed UP is special.
Now it starts getting confusing and contradiction: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning; but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
If you feel UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP can be used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
We could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now. My time is UP. Now… drum rolls please… let's demonstrate the power of a space between two letters.
Here we go. What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U…. P !
Okay, now I'll shut UP.