Tips & Tricks Busy Professionals Can Use to Simplify Their Lives
Compliments of Ribary & Associates, LLC
www.tiaribary.com

The New Year is full of resolutions, goal setting and planning. It is now March, have you begun your planning?

This year, I took the time to plan and set goals for 2006, and it was quite powerful! While I am no expert on “formal” goal setting, I do have a few tips on setting and achieving your goals.

Set aside a morning or afternoon, have a cup of coffee or tea, grab a pad of paper and pen and begin dreaming! Think about the following:

• What do you really want more of in 2006?
   

• What happened in 2005 that inspired you to keep going? How can you do more of that this year?
   

• What happened in 2005 that made you want to quit, throw up your hands or simply not enjoy your job? How can you avoid that in 2006?
   

• Think about your life, your business, your family, your personal health and well-being - what do you want more (or less) of in each area of your life?

Write your thoughts to these questions down! As you write, it will free your mind to explore other options and delve deeper into your dreams.

You should now have an idea of what you want more (and less) of in your life. The next step, of course, is commitment. This means breaking your goals down into small, more manageable steps.

Begin this by prioritizing your goals. Decide which goals are most important to achieve first, and which build on top of each other.

Next, break each goal into step-by-step actions. What steps need to happen in order to reach that goal?

Finally, schedule those steps on your calendar. By the end of 2006, you’ll be surprised at what you’ve accomplished!

If you run out of time during the planning or commitment phase, don’t get discouraged. Simply schedule time on your calendar to continue the process.

A Realtor client of mine, Francine Corriere of PDXBROKERS.COM at Re/Max Equity Group is an avid goal setter. She offers this wise advice: “Is what you are doing today moving you toward one of your goals?” If not, it may not need to be done at all, or it may not need to be done by you!

If you’d like assistance in goal setting, I highly recommend working with a coach or consultant. I know some great ones! I’ll list a few of them here. Call me if you’d like additional names, or contact someone you already know!

Jason Stein, Working Awareness, LLC
Kathie Nelson, ConnectWorks
Shell Tain, Sensible Life Coaching
Vicky Trabosh, Executive Coach


Happy planning!

Tia Ribary, Professional Assistant

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