Goal Girl’s Blog

I wrote this post last March and never published it.  It’s still relavent, so here you go.     I’ve fallen down on the job as far as maintaining this blog and a couple of other goals, but I’ll forgive myself and move on now.

Photo Credit: Rob Wallace

Have you set too many goals? When you first get excited about the process of goal setting, and really get the bit in your teeth, it’s easy to vomit goals all over the place. The problem with this is that goals have to live in the real world, and unfortunately, the real world doesn’t usually stop so that you can pursue every single goal that pops into your head.

That’s ok. Try a bunch of goals on for size, the ones that you are really passionate about will stick with you and the rest will fall by the side of the road. Let them go for now; you may revisit them later when things get a little less busy.

Pick the one or two goals that really light your fire. This is what I am having to do. While losing a lot of weight would be a wonderful thing to do. I’m finding that with my current work schedule, it’s just not possible to do everything I need to do to make that a workable goal for the time being. I can still eat healthy food, try to get a little more exercise by say, letting my 4 year old piggy back while I hang laundry or park far away from the door, but as far as spending a couple of hours a day in the gym… with a 50-70 hour work week, that’s just not feasible.

What I find I can do with the little time I have is stuff relating to my other goal of replacing income. When I succeed at that, I’ll have a better shot at the weight loss goal, because ultimately that success will buy me a lot of time. Residual income does that for you.

So for right now, I’m focusing on that part of my goal-suite. I’ve found a product that I can believe in. The guy who owns that product treats his affiliates like gold, really helps them along… and this may be why his product has such great gravity in ClickBank (meaning that a lot of affiliates are making sales with that product). I was actually surprised when I found out who the true creator of the product was, since he used a pseudonym. I signed up for the emails that he sends his affiliates and it turned out to be a marketing guru whom I greatly respect, and from whom I’d already learned tons of good stuff.

My problem has been a)finding time to properly implement One Week Marketing/Bum Marketing and b)inertia.. when I’ve had a particularly difficult week at work (several of those lately), it’s super hard to get myself to get out of bed and work on my marketing projects after my daughter has gone to bed. With the resources that this fellow provides though, I can kick out two or three articles a day by stopping in a coffee shop by my daughter’s daycare 20 minutes before I pick her up. Now that’s not a ton; I know people who habitually write ten articles a day, but given enough snowflakes, you eventually have a snowball. I’m able to do something every single day to help grow my business.

And something I need to make a note of and put in my back pocket for later is this: By building a relationship with me over time (several months), I’m eager to promote this guy’s product. I believe in his success, so success seems that much more tangible when I play ball on his team. Of all the gurus I’ve read, contacted, subscribed to, this one guy is the only one who has really gotten down to a friendly, personal level.

Hopefully soon that success will buy me more time to spend with you guys and gals!

The Third Installment of Five: Time-honored Tips to Boost Your Goal Chasing Success.

Goals can be worded as either ‘avoidance goals’ or ‘approach goals’. I can set my goal as “get my projects completed on time to avoid being fired.” or “get my projects completed so that I have time to work on my proposal which might get me a huge bonus or promotion.” Consistently formulating your goals as avoidance rather than approach goals has a negative impact on your motivation to reach said goals.

Timothy Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa Canada says that tipping the scale in favor of avoidance goals relates to less satisfaction with progress on personal goals and feeling less competent in pursuing your goals.

Ergo, by couching your goals in positive terms, you give your motivation and self-esteem a little boost. Looking great on the beach is a better motivator for most people seeking to lose weight than “avoiding a heart attack,” even if the latter is less superficial and vain than the first.

The Second Installment of Five: Time-honored Tips to Boost Your Goal Chasing Success.

The virtuoso tenor stands behind the curtain, tux strait, handkerchief ready, the confidence born of years of preparation for this moment.

The curtain rises. The tenor steps forward, and blinks in shock at the disco ball,dancing poodles and kindergarten chorus singing “The Wheels on The Bus” to the accompanyment of rhythm sticks and triangles.

Do you think that our accomplished opera virtuoso can do his best work under these circumstances?

To maximize the probability of success, control your environment as far as possible. If your goal involves weight loss, hanging out in coffee shops where there are trays of almond croissant and choco-chocolate-chip muffins is probably not going to make your task any easier. I wonder if there are any gym cantinas that have free wireless? No? Can you afford a card with a service plan? If not, maybe you should limit your “hanging out time” and go for a walk. If you have to feel productive while you exercise, download some podcasts on your topic of interest. Or better yet, get a headset with a mic and record your own podcast/peptalk.

If your goal is to grow your content for your blog/article writing campaign/squidoo lenses/hub pages, etcetera, you have to create an environment conducive to writing. You should set an expectation with those who share your home, that at a certain time every day, you are not to be disturbed. Unless you are doing research (and really, research time should be a seperate time allocation), disconnect from the internet to avoid distractions. Gather your tools in one spot so you don’t have to search all over the house for them when it’s time to write. Get a word processing application with a visible word count… this will let give you a visible cue that you are making progress. Set a target word count. If you get to that point and the creative juices are flowing, keep going, but put something on the screen. Don’t edit when you write; do that later! Treat writing like sculpting… chip away what is not part of your article, but you have build the stone first in the case of writing.

Your goal is to learn Spanish? Then go hang out with some folks who speak the language and who are willing to help you! Don’t study the language in a library where you can’t really repeat the words and phrases, because language is as much a physical skill as a mental skill, and requires physical practice. You’re more likely to be successful at it if you actually put your mouth around the words, and actually hear native speakers using the words in context.

So don’t try to swim on a basketball court and don’t fish for shark in a drainage ditch. Really sit and list what environmental elements are likely to contribute or detract from your progressing toward your goal. Maximize the first, minimize the second.

Setting goals is find and dandy, but what if the goal conflicts with your values or life-purpose?  What if the goal is something that sounds good, is socially acceptable, but really doesn’t light your passions?

You want to get a tan.  Your friend Mike is a marine biologist, and he has a great tan.  So your goal should be to become a marine biologist, right?   Nope.   You slept through biology class in high school; it bored you to tears.  And you get sea sick. And you are deathly allergic to shellfish.  And the last time you tried to get a tan, you got a terrible case of sun-poisoning!  In your case, although the goal of becoming a marine biologist might get you the tan you crave, that goal is not a good fit for your preferences and limitations.

How can you choose the “right goals” for you?   The first step is to get to know yourself better:

• What are your values?
• What are your passions?
• What are your strengths?
• What is your life’s purpose?

The second step is to build a goal that you can believe is possible.  Now I’m not saying dumb down your goal until it’s something so miniscule that it’s not going to stretch you at all (e.g. “I’m going add $5 a month to my savings account”).   But if you can not honestly believe that you can learn to speak fluent Swahili by this time next month, no matter how much you meditate on that, it’s not very likely that you will accomplish that goal.   So pare that down until it’s just within the realm of belief, but still forces you outside of your comfort zone, for example “I’m going to learn to read and write 200 new Swahili words by March 1st.”    I am a firm believer in the intention-manifestation model of goal achievement.    Steve Pavlina wrote a good treatment on this several years ago. It’s impossible to form a firm intention if you don’t believe the manifestation (the goal!) is possible.   You’ll become your own obstacle.  You will subconsciously sabotage your efforts… ‘oh well, I can’t really fly an airplane, so why should I study for my flight school exams?’

Yes, road-blocks, speed bumps and long, long uphill climbs will come. Expect them. Prepare for them. How? When you set a goal, set your action plan. Then Act, act, act. Action plan implies action. You can’t steer a stationary vehicle.

I’m frustrated and discouraged with the affiliate marketing efforts this past week, hence the motivation for this post. Part of this is the lack of results thus far (in terms of money).  I had a great day last Wednesday, got a lot of stuff done on a new marketing campaign, but then… my daughter got sick, and when a four year old gets sick, they need attention, coddling, and occassionally, cleaning up.. they need all your discretionary time.   After a couple of days, K was feeling much better, but now I was sick, my mother was sick and my younger brother was also sick.   At one point my eyes were swollen shut from the cold and I could hardly read anything.

And also the frustration of marketing over a month without a single sale.    And not much traffic here either.  Even though I don’t expect to make money from this blog any time soon, saving my focus for One Week Marketing, I would like to see a little traffic…

Am I in “The Dip”?  Probably not yet… pretty early for that I think.    How do I deal with this frustration?  I act.  I push to finish my checklists for the campaign I started last week.  I write, write, write.  I try not to get to distracted by hundreds of things, though I do reserve an hour a day to read marketing papers, emails, ebooks, blogs, etcetera.   That said, I didn’t get a lot done today because K’s pre-Kindergarten was closed due to the ice storms.

Because my work-day job is pretty demanding, I am probably moving through the learning curve a bit slower than many would.  But I’m moving, grin.   Even unproductive campaigns are not a waste of time, because I learn from each one.

Ok, it’s only three weeks into the new year, so I guess I’m not *that* late posting my goals for the year! I really don’t have a ton goals, because I don’t want to spread my focus that thinly. Here they are in short form:

• Lose 50 pounds of fat.
• Reach $200/day in affiliate sales by year’s end.

That’s it. Those are my goals, which I will outline in greater detail below and discuss on a regular basis.

Lose 50 pounds of Fat

The Why’s:

• To decrease wear and tear on my knees.
• To be able to keep up with my preschooler and live to see her grow up.
• To enhance my martial arts practice.
• To not develop diabetes, which is prevalent in my family.
• To eliminated my pcos symptoms.

The How’s:

Cut Carbs. You may argue against ‘fad diets’, and that is fine. For me this not about following a fad diet. I have a metabolic syndrome related to insulin resistance. Among other things, it contributes to my weight issues (and vice versa by the way). I know from past experience that I can eat up to around 50g of carbohydrates a day and still lose weight at a good rate. In the past, however, I’ve taken those carbs as things like lower-carb bread, coatings on chicken, a tiny portion of chips or fries, etc… Well, I am doing it better this final time. In case you didn’t know, fifty grams of carbohydrates buys you a heck of a lot of leafy greens. Spinach, for example, has just over a gram of carb per cup (raw). A lunch of say, three cups of spinach with 1/2 cup of chicken, avocado, a tablespoon of bacon crumbles and an olive oil vinegret still leaves me with around 45g of carb to ’spend’, 48g if you subtract fiber from total carbohydrate (I’m not). A quarter cup of blueberries costs me around 5.5g (39.5 left). Dinner: A poached flounder filet with a cup of asparagus = roughly 5.5, let’s call it 6g since I put lemon juice on my asparagus. 34g to go. Add a cup of cooked cauliflower with a pinch of shredded cheese… now I’m down to about 30g of carbohydrate. Breakfast: Four scrambled eggs with half a cup of brocoli and 2oz of swiss cheese=~13g carbs, so I still have 17 grams to go! So add half a cup of cherry tomatoes, sliced and sauteed to breakfast, leaving 14g. I could add a cup of mushrooms to the spinach at lunch, to bring me down to 11g. I could add half a cup of babaganoush for something close to that.

So, on my horrible, fad diet, I would have eaten in a day:

3c spinach
~4oz chicken
1/2 avacado
tbs bacon crumbles
1c mushrooms
2tbs olive oil vinaigrette
1/4 cup blueberries
1 medium flounder fillet
1c Asparagus w/1tbs lemon juice
1c cooked cauliflower
1tbs shredded chedder
4 eggs
1/2 cup brocolli
2oz swiss cheese
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup of babaganoush (eggplant, tomatoe dish)

Hmm… I see plenty of veggies here for 50g of carbohydrate. Now I would probably add a little more of (healthy) fats to this menu… maybe instead of flounder, a good piece of fatty salmon? Anyway, the point is, a “lower carb” diet can be a very healthy one if healthy choices are made. And low carb works for me; I lost 20 pounds last summer on low carb (and have kept it off), and just need to get back into my routine. I expect this to result in a reduction in calories as well. I’ll add my daily fat, protein, caloric targets to this post later.

Exercise:

• I’ve recently added a 2-hour pilates private session each week to my routine.
• My daughter has discovered “Kid’s Club” at 24-Hour Fitness, so now she helps me stay motivated to go there three evenings a week.
• When I get to the point that my knees aren’t killing me all of the time, I’ll increase the time I put into my martial arts (at one point, prior to my daughter’s
  birth, I was doing Kenpo around ten to fifteen hours a week…).
• I’m also adding one day a week in the pool on my lunch break.

The When(s):

Here is my 50lbs-before-January 1st, 2010 goal broken down into smaller bites (with my current weight being 219lbs):

• 13lbs by April 1st, 2009 (206lbs)
• 26lbs by July 1st, 2009 (193lbs)
• 40lbs by October 1st, 2009 (179lbs)
• 50lbs by January 1, 2010 (169lbs)

Reach $200/Day of “Online Income”

Let’s clarify… since online sales will ebb and flow, the goal is to average $200/day over the course of a week, i.e. $1400/week, whether that is all made on Friday night at 8pm, or if it arrives in dribs and drabs over the course of a week.

The Why’s:

• This will give me capital to reinvest in my online endeavors to excellerate the growth of my business.
• Doesn’t quite replace my salary, but puts me on the path toward that wonderful state.
• I’ll meet the coolest people along the way (already am meeting some!).
• Eventually, when I go full time, I’ll be able to set my own hours… *very* important to a single mum!
• Who wouldn’t love an extra $72,800 a year?

The How:

• I love blogging, and I love it even more as I go along, but I think initially I’ll focus on Bum Marketing as my money maker, rather than trying to do battle on multiple fronts. I’ll continue to post to this blog (did I mention that I love it?), and I’ll keep the Google Adsense and The Goal Store, because it doesn’t take anything away from my Bum Marketing efforts, but I’m not going to spend a whole lot of energy on SEO just yet. I think good relevent content will go a long way toward that end.
• Squidoo, in conjunction with Bum Marketing. Squidoo, as others have quipped, has “Google Juice.” And it’s a lot of fun to boot. And addictive. Something addictive that will contribute to my bottom line more than my wasteline? I’m there, Baby!
• PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing.
  One Week Marketing method, which puts Bum Marketing and Squidoo together in a very succinct, well laid out weekly marketing plan with checklists, tweaking exercises, etcetera.
• “Kaizen,” the Japanese concept of constant, continuous improvement. Each marketing campaign will teach me something I can apply to the next one. When I learn something that makes a measurable difference in results, I can then apply it to existing campaigns (without obsessing about the old ones too much ). Each week (or more?) I’ll add another OWM campaign. Together, over time, the rewards from these will add up.

The When:

Before January 1st, 2010(hopefully long before!), I will have my first week of $200 days.

Breaking this down:

• First Affiliate Sale by February 1st, 2009
• First $100 week by April 1st, 2009.
• First $500 week by July 1st, 2009.
• First $1000 week by October 1st, 2009.
• First $1400 week by January 1st, 2010

This will definitely stretch me, because I have a ‘day’ job and a four year old, but I know this is doable.  For one thing, my efforts should be cumulative using the One Week Marketing method.