Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Power of Written Goals
Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010.
So, what do you plan to do in these last few days of 2009?
Whatever you may have planned, I suggest you give yourself at least a couple of hours and write down your goals for 2010.
Okay already, one hour.
Your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Yada, yada, yada.
Yeah, maybe.
Don’t be frazzled by all the spiel about setting perfect goals. You can always update them later.
Timing is everything.
Write down your goals for 2010 before the sun sets on 31 December 2009.
Better yet, write them down immediately after you finish reading this.
The most important point is to write them down. Write. Them. Down.
Not convinced?
In his book, When Success Is Not Enough, Adam Walker describes a survey at Yale University in which the graduate class of 1953 were asked about their future plans.
One of the questions was: “Do you have any written goals for the future?”
Though they were among the brightest students in America, only 4 percent had written goals.
Twenty years later, the researcher tracked down the surviving members of the class to find out what they had made of their lives.
The results were truly astounding.
Those who had written down their goals 20 years previously were on average 30 times richer than those who had not.
In fact, the combined net worth of the 4 percent with written goals was more than the combined net worth of the 96 percent who did not have written goals.
More importantly, the 4 percent with written goals were happier in other non-material ways. They reported better health, better-quality relationships and a greater sense of fulfillment.
So what are you waiting for?
Grab a pen and a sheet of paper and keep that hand moving.
So, what do you plan to do in these last few days of 2009?
Whatever you may have planned, I suggest you give yourself at least a couple of hours and write down your goals for 2010.
Okay already, one hour.
Your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Yada, yada, yada.
Yeah, maybe.
Don’t be frazzled by all the spiel about setting perfect goals. You can always update them later.
Timing is everything.
Write down your goals for 2010 before the sun sets on 31 December 2009.
Better yet, write them down immediately after you finish reading this.
The most important point is to write them down. Write. Them. Down.
Not convinced?
In his book, When Success Is Not Enough, Adam Walker describes a survey at Yale University in which the graduate class of 1953 were asked about their future plans.
One of the questions was: “Do you have any written goals for the future?”
Though they were among the brightest students in America, only 4 percent had written goals.
Twenty years later, the researcher tracked down the surviving members of the class to find out what they had made of their lives.
The results were truly astounding.
Those who had written down their goals 20 years previously were on average 30 times richer than those who had not.
In fact, the combined net worth of the 4 percent with written goals was more than the combined net worth of the 96 percent who did not have written goals.
More importantly, the 4 percent with written goals were happier in other non-material ways. They reported better health, better-quality relationships and a greater sense of fulfillment.
So what are you waiting for?
Grab a pen and a sheet of paper and keep that hand moving.
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran - Book Review
Twenty-six Lessons on Living
If I were to be marooned on an island and could choose only one book as my companion, I would opt for The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It’s only 132 pages, and yet, each time I read it, I marvel at the profound wisdom in each line.
The Prophet is the story of Almustafah. He had been living for twelve years in the city of Orphalese. Now his ship has arrived and he is returning to the isle of his birth. The people of Orphalese first try to persuade him to stay and then entreat him to “disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death”.
In the next 26 chapters, he answers their questions about Love, Marriage , Children , Giving, Eating and Drinking, Work, Joy and Sorrow , Houses, Clothes, Buying and Selling , Crime and Punishment , Laws , Freedom, Reason and Passion , Pain, Self-Knowledge, Teaching, Friendship, Talking, Time, Good and Evil, Prayer, Pleasure, Beauty, Religion, and Death.
Each of his sermons is deceptively simple yet profoundly insightful.
For example, when asked about marriage, he advises, “Love one another but make not a bond of love.”
About work, his words contain this stern rebuke, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
“It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.” He advises a rich man, who asks about giving.
About religion, he says. “Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?”
Finally, before leaving, he says enigmatically, “Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body.A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.”
Published in 1923, the Prophet’s wise words are timeless and equally relevant today. It is a store-house of invaluable treasures; an unfailing fount of fresh inspiration and new insights. I feel every writer should have it close at hand.
The Prophet is Kahlil Gibran’s best-loved work and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Since its publication more than 80 years, The Prophet has never been out of print in the United States and elsewhere.
Don’t take my word for it; you can download it here:
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
If I were to be marooned on an island and could choose only one book as my companion, I would opt for The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It’s only 132 pages, and yet, each time I read it, I marvel at the profound wisdom in each line.
The Prophet is the story of Almustafah. He had been living for twelve years in the city of Orphalese. Now his ship has arrived and he is returning to the isle of his birth. The people of Orphalese first try to persuade him to stay and then entreat him to “disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death”.
In the next 26 chapters, he answers their questions about Love, Marriage , Children , Giving, Eating and Drinking, Work, Joy and Sorrow , Houses, Clothes, Buying and Selling , Crime and Punishment , Laws , Freedom, Reason and Passion , Pain, Self-Knowledge, Teaching, Friendship, Talking, Time, Good and Evil, Prayer, Pleasure, Beauty, Religion, and Death.
Each of his sermons is deceptively simple yet profoundly insightful.
For example, when asked about marriage, he advises, “Love one another but make not a bond of love.”
About work, his words contain this stern rebuke, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
“It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.” He advises a rich man, who asks about giving.
About religion, he says. “Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?”
Finally, before leaving, he says enigmatically, “Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body.A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.”
Published in 1923, the Prophet’s wise words are timeless and equally relevant today. It is a store-house of invaluable treasures; an unfailing fount of fresh inspiration and new insights. I feel every writer should have it close at hand.
The Prophet is Kahlil Gibran’s best-loved work and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Since its publication more than 80 years, The Prophet has never been out of print in the United States and elsewhere.
Don’t take my word for it; you can download it here:
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
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