August 2013 Newsletter and free eBooks

You can still achieve Your Goals for the Year!

As the year draws to a close, anyone would be justifiably anxious, and indeed apprehensive, wondering if he/she would still be able to accomplish the goals earlier he/she had set for the year. Feeling a little desperate? No need. You have come this far on your first steam. Maybe it’s time to take a breather and reconsider your strategies.

If you're like most successful people, you started the year by creating a plan. You know that not having a plan is like being lost with no map or GPS; there's a slight possibility of getting to your destination but it's more difficult and less likely.

Unfortunately, while many people have a plan, many have trouble following it. Like your New Year's resolutions, the plan was easy to follow in January, but each passing month brought with it new opportunities and new challenges. As a result, by this time of the year many people have shifted their focus from the well plotted course to the new realities of their lives/careers.

For example, you might have planned to grow your career this year by attending a number of courses or getting additional qualifications, but you didn't expect so many things to derail your plan. Such as an increased barrage of emails, transfer to a new location, increased workload due to firing/resignation of a colleague, or a technical glitch with which you had to deal.

Are you feeling off course? You are not alone in this. Most people have also gotten off track from the plans they laid out in January. What is required here is a little bit of course-correction.  According to Dave Lavinsky, President and Founder of Growthink, most entrepreneurs have gotten off track from the plans they laid out in January.   "We see this a lot," says Lavinsky. "If business owners (or individuals) don't course-correct now they will end the year no better off than they started it. Or at least not in the position they could have attained."

The good news is that one-third of the year is still left, which is plenty of time to accomplish some or most of the goals you previously set for 2013. Here are the simple steps that Lavinsky recommends to get you back on track.

1.      Make a new list. 

The first step in this course correction process is to review the big annual goals that you set at the beginning of the year. Now create a new list. What can you realistically achieve in the remainder of the year?

2.      Think about how and why your two lists differ.

Why are certain goals no longer attainable? Did new opportunities get in their way? And are these new opportunities working out? More likely than not, any new, unplanned opportunities you pursued so far this year were mere distractions from your plan. Think about what else has gotten in the way of your goals. Have you spent too much time answering phone calls or emails? Have you been stuck in too many meetings, or had to work tirelessly to satisfy the needs of certain customers? Figure out what has caused certain goals to fall out of reach, and most importantly, what you can do differently to achieve them (such as holding off on new, unplanned opportunities, or only checking email once per day).

3.      Next, create a plan for achieving your top goals this year.

Start by identifying the one goal you absolutely must achieve by the end of the year. Write down the five things you need to do in the next thirty days to progress toward achieving that goal. Then, after thirty days have passed, confirm you have achieved those five things and create the list of five things you must accomplish during the next month. Doing this will get you in the habit of constantly setting and accomplishing short-term goals that result in the achievement of your bigger goals. It will also help you figure out how to stop the myriad of distractions that needlessly burden most people.

Remember, that one-third of the year is still left. We've all seen sports teams make amazing progress in the final period and outperform their competitors. You can too if you create and stick to the right game plan.

On this positive note, we invite you to sit back and enjoy our featured story and articles for the month.

Featured Story: The Blind Man and the Advertising

A lesson in what can be achieved by just changing the message or the strategy.

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written 'Blind - Please help'. No one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

 "It says," said the stranger, “‘it’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.'

Don’t do Goals? Then see a Priest!

Adapted from original text by Mervyn Murray, Leadership Trainer at GTC

There are many benefits to having a structure that provides us with a way of making sense of our world and bringing fulfillment and achievement, Yet people have real issues with setting and maintaining meaningful goals. If you find goal-setting an issue, then help is at hand! Instead of thinking about goals, think in terms of outcomes or even better why not have fantastic outcomes? So what’s the difference between goals and outcomes? A goal is a single step on the road to an outcome and all steps/goals should be easily achievable or you will trip and fall.

Here is a model for setting well-formed (Fantastic) outcomes: P. R. I .E .S .T… read more

Confronting Inter-Regional Disparities in Nigeria

By: Ayo Teriba, MD/CEO, Economic Associates

Disparities in endowments of agricultural, mineral and commercial wealth across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones determine the rates at which the different regions can grow. Economic activities and growth are concentrated in four regions, while the remaining two regions are largely excluded from the growth processes. This calls for urgent efforts to make economic growth more inclusive. Investing in fast and efficient rail links between rich and poor regions is suggested as a win-win national redistributive strategy that could bring resource-poor regions closer to needful inputs, ensure benefits of growth are more evenly distributed across regions without hurting any of the resource-rich regions, ultimately eliminate inter-regional growth disparities, and ensure the peaceful coexistence that is required to sustain growth.… read more

Free eBooks of the month

Please click on any of the titles below to download the free eBooks for this month.

Are You Sinking Your Business

Improve Your Writing Skills

Boost Your Sales and Attract New Customers

Our September training calendar is out! Follow this link to view it:

http://www.nigerianseminarsandtrainings.com/search?month=September+2013&category=

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We wish you all the best in the coming month.

Best Regards,

Nigerian Seminars and Training Team