Ram*Blings.

Smart Goals: Put Objectives in Writing for Better Goal Setting

It seems like a silly exercise at first.

Of course, you know that your goal is to be successful. However, what does success actually mean? Most people don't know how to set goals. Less than half of today's corporate workers could answer that question with what their specific personal and professional goals are. Try it for yourself. Write down five specific goals you wish to accomplish over the next month. Then write down five goals you wish to accomplish over the next year. What about what you plan to accomplish over the next five years? Do all your goals align with one another?

It is one thing to have goals and another thing to write them down. Setting goals down in writing makes them real. The pen to paper gives substance to what are otherwise just hopes and dreams. What is it about written goal setting that is so important?

Writing down your goals helps you to identify what you really want.
Really, everyone should write down his or her goals. However, it is especially important for the corporate worker who does not have the same typical sources of motivation as the average blue collar American. Things like a linear career path with tangible milestones such as promotions and pay raises just do not exist in the blue-collar world where many get stuck working in obscurity under the upper echelon of management. The corporate worker must create goals to assist them in moving forward towards career-based milestones.

It probably feels strange at first to think that the sky is the limit. However, as a corporate worker, you have more freedom and control over your goals and the direction of your career than you might think. Corporate America is a vastly large collection of multi-billion dollar companies. You do not have to stay with your current company to accomplish your goals. Though you should remain practical in your goal setting, your goals should ultimately be the greatest you could envision yourself achieving in the specified time period. Writing down your goals allows you to identify the milestones you wish to reach in your corporate journey.

Writing down your goals forces you to envision your success.
Remember, that you can define success many different ways. Let's take a freelance writer as one example. Success may be based on a number of things for this one person, even if we are just speaking with regard to writing. He or she may have personal development goals such as expanding into different genres or improving his or her creative writing. She may have relationship goals such as developing contacts within the industry. She may also have income goals.
Regardless of what your goals are, putting them down on paper forces you to envision what success means to you and flesh out the details of what that success entails. Reaching your goals is about completing the action required to accomplish them. Writing down your goals allows you to envision what the finished product of your goals will be.

Writing down your goals makes you think them through.
Asking yourself how to get from where you are at the present time to where you would like to be, forces you to envision all the steps to success. Doing so has the beneficial effect of turning your long-term goal into several short-term goals.

For instance, if you are in sales and you want to hit a certain revenue goal for the following year then you must ask questions like "How many clients will I need to retain to make my goal?" From there you need to devise ways to make contact with and retain more clients. Naturally, you will derive your monthly, weekly, and daily goals from that one revenue goal.

At this point, you will have a logical plan that you can present to others for feedback and refinement. Writing down your goals assists you in visualizing the required action steps to accomplish them.

Writing down your goals helps you focus on what is important.
One trait that is common amongst successful corporate workers is a knack to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas. This ability is both a gift and a curse. Many fresh ideas can lead to innovation. Unfortunately, it can also lead to a lack of follow through.

As people, we tend to get excited by the next big thing. New ideas are exciting, but if we let them distract us from the important and more practical goals that we have set for ourselves, then they can actually hurt our productivity. By writing down our goals, we are forced to focus on the matter at hand and shelve the next big thing until it can be seamlessly weaved into our plan. When we write down our goals, we are able to see how each goal fits into the bigger picture and we can prioritize our actions based on that larger snapshot of what is actually going on at the time.

Writing down your goals provides you with a purpose.
Lastly, and most importantly, writing down your goals gives you a reason to get up every day. The minutiae of your daily life can get you into a rut when you stop seeing the forest for the trees. Connecting your long-term goals to your every day routine puts everything into perspective and gives that routine purpose. Without purpose, work is typically an unrewarding and boring exercise, and you will simply be working for a paycheck. However, when you frame it in the context of the pursuit of happiness, even the most unpleasant task will be given the appropriate amount of attention and care.

When you decide to put it all on paper — so to speak — you open up the possibilities of personal success and satisfaction. Taking the toil out of the 9-to-5 and adding peace of mind with a sense of purpose. You can be successful without writing down your goals, but your journey will make more sense if you put them all on paper.

courtesy of workawsome

Posted by Ram in News & Information

Why Public Speaking Is Good for You & Your Brand

by Tony Bacigalupo

Most freelancers and small business owners are required – like it or not – to spend a substantive amount of time on marketing. To ensure that the jobs and the clients keeping coming, we are constantly hustling – pitching new projects, updating our portfolios and CVs, and taking exploratory meetings. Yet, one of the best ways to build and promote your individual brand or company is one of the most oft overlooked: public speaking.

Though many of us might break into a cold sweat just thinking about it, public speaking can be an exhilarating experience. It can also be a great way to boost your reputation and your business.

Perhaps as a healthy reaction to the increasing amount of time we spend online, more and more offline events and conferences are cropping up – particularly within the creative community. These gatherings offer a significant opportunity for anyone with a niche area of expertise to become a part of the conversation – and not just for self-promotion but for personal growth as well.

Here are a few notes on the benefits of public speaking, and a quick primer on how to get started.

The Benefits of Public Speaking

1. Present yourself as an expert.
If you're highly knowledgeable about something, nobody will know about it unless you demonstrate that knowledge. By speaking publicly on topics within your area of expertise, you can position yourself as an authority within your industry.

2. Build your knowledgebase and connections.
In many cases, a good talk involves a significant amount of participation from the crowd. Attendees might challenge your viewpoints and offer valuable insights that, ultimately, will give you a more well-rounded perspective on the topic at hand. If you go into a talk expecting not just to teach, but to learn, you create an opportunity to really engage with the people at the event in a meaningful way.

3. Increase your visibility online and offline.
When you speak at an event, the content that you prepare is intellectual property with a value that can stretch beyond the roomful of people in attendance. By recording the talk and posting a video online (Vimeo, YouTube) or just sharing the slides (SlideShare.com), you take better advantage of the content you've created for your talk by making it accessible to a wider audience.

Getting Started

But what if no one is begging you to speak at their event yet? There are a number of ways to plant the seeds for public speaking engagements, which also happen to be good marketing tactics in their own right:

1. Identify your passion & what you would want to speak about.
This seems like an obvious prerequisite for public speaking. However, taking a critical look at where your expertise and your passions lie may reveal that what you think you want to talk about and what you're actually equipped to talk about are two different things. Often, it's better to give a talk on a very specific area of expertise than to present a more generic talk about a topic on which you have less to offer.

2. Attend the events that you would like to speak at.
If you want to speak at certain events, you need to do your homework. Pay attention to the kinds of people who speak and get to know the organizers. If you can establish yourself within that group, you'll be more likely to be invited to speak, or at least more likely to be accepted if you ask to speak. People are far more likely to pay attention to someone that they've met before.

3. Blog.
While blogging has taken a backseat to the Twitter and Facebook buzz lately, there are few better tools to establish yourself as an expert than a carefully curated, well-maintained blog. People who write about specific subjects consistently and intelligently will, over time, be increasingly regarded as experts. Once you have established yourself as a unique and vital voice, speaking opportunities will naturally arise.

4. Execute.
Nothing beats action. Do and build things that show you're good at what you do in a real, tangible way, and people will take notice.

But you're already doing that, right?

via the99precent.com

Posted by Ram in News & Information

Jason Randal: Stretching, Rewiring & Growing Geometrically

About This Presentation

If ever there were a man of action, it's expertise theorist Jason Randal, whose boundless passion has led him to develop a jaw-dropping array of specialties. In his kinetic talk, Randal discusses how to use "stretching" to increase memory and focus, the relationship between play and learning, and the transformative power of surrounding yourself with enthusiastic, passionate people.

Posted by Ram in News & Information

The Little Rules of Action

Too often we get stuck in inaction — the quagmire of doubt and perfectionism and distractions and planning that stops us from moving forward.

And while I’m no proponent of a whirling buzz of activity, I also believe people get lost in the distractions of the world and lose sight of what’s important, and how to actually accomplish their Something Amazing.

And so today I’d like to humbly present a few little rules of action — just some small reminders, things I’ve found useful but by no means invented, common-sense stuff that is often not common enough.

1. Don’t overthink. Too much thinking often results in getting stuck, in going in circles. Some thinking is good — it’s good to have a clear picture of where you’re going or why you’re doing this — but don’t get stuck thinking. Just do.

2. Just start. All the planning in the world will get you nowhere. You need to take that first step, no matter how small or how shaky. My rule for motivating myself to run is: Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. The rest takes care of itself.

3. Forget perfection. Perfectionism is the enemy of action. Kill it, immediately. You can’t let perfect stop you from doing. You can turn a bad draft into a good one, but you can’t turn no draft into a good draft. So get going.

4. Don’t mistake motion for action. A common mistake. A fury of activity doesn’t mean you’re doing anything. When you find yourself moving too quickly, doing too many things at once, this is a good reminder to stop. Slow down. Focus.

5. Focus on the important actions. Clear the distractions. Pick the one most important thing you must do today, and focus on that. Exclusively. When you’re done with that, repeat the process.

6. Move slowly, consciously. Be deliberate. Action doesn’t need to be done fast. In fact, that often leads to mistakes, and while perfection isn’t at all necessary, neither is making a ridiculous amount of mistakes that could be avoided with a bit of consciousness.

7. Take small steps. Biting off more than you can chew will kill the action. Maybe because of choking, I dunno. But small steps always works. Little tiny blows that will eventually break down that mountain. And each step is a victory, that will compel you to further victories.

8. Negative thinking gets you nowhere. Seriously, stop doing that. Self doubt? The urge to quit? Telling yourself that it’s OK to be distracted and that you can always get to it later? Squash those thoughts. Well, OK, you can be distracted for a little bit, but you get the idea. Positive thinking, as corny as it sounds, really works. It’s self-talk, and what we tell ourselves has a funny habit of turning into reality.

9. Meetings aren’t action. This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings!

10. Talking (usually) isn’t action. Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.

11. Planning isn’t action. Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.

12. Reading about it isn’t action. You’re reading an article about action. Ironic, I know. But let this be the last one. Now get to work!

13. Sometimes, inaction is better. This might be the most ironic thing on the list, but really, if you find yourself spinning your wheels, or you find you’re doing more harm than good, rethink whether the action is even necessary. Or better yet, do this from the beginning — is it necessary? Only do the action if it is.

Become a Famous Graphic Designer

1. Do Online Interviews

There are plenty of design blogs, sites and magazines looking for potential people to interview. Why wait for them to come to you? There are tens of thousands of designers and if you want those interview spots, you better start contacting sites! The key to a successful interview is to be honest and think about how you can help other designers with each question. The more interview you do the more recognition you will get and sometimes when one site interviews you, others will follow, meaning it can become viral and spiral into even more press for you.

2. Get Featured in Magazines

Being featured in magazines is a bit harder, but there is no reason you can’t pitch yourself to magazines as well. For magazines you may need to try and come up with an interesting pitch, such as having a cool new design style or an interesting background story. Getting yourself in magazines is one of the best things you can do because people tend to take things in print more seriously and the few design magazines out there are read by a large part of the design community and by this I mean designers of all skill levels.

3. Write an eBook

Graphic Designers are always on the prowl for helpful tips, so why not share your experience in the form of a free eBook? Free eBooks can go viral very quickly and if your name is attached to it it can help your personal branding efforts a lot. Make sure you create an opt-in email list using software such as MailChimp to give away the free download so you can build up a large email list.

Then when you release other stuff or new news such as an interview you just did you can send a newsletter out to all your subscribers. Just try not to abuse the list and keep your emails to a minimum, maybe one or two a month max.

4. Publish a Design Book

Publishing a book is going to be more difficult than getting an eBook out, but if your book becomes popular it can work wonders. Your book could be on a lot of topics such as a collection of your work or studio’s work, design theory, design resources, tutorials and so on. Getting published by a large publishing company might be difficult, but Self Publishing is always an option.

5. Create a Design Related Web site

New design blog's, galleries and other types of sites are being created every week. If you can create a new popular design site you will be able to gain massive exposure. A simple about page that talks about who you are on a popular site can skyrocket you in the online design community.

When creating a new design site try to think of something that has never been done, but also be sure to factor in the price and time it will cost you to create and market such a site. If you are lucky you should even be able to make a profit from your online investment!