Just a quick announcement. We just did a international press release for our product The Ladder Of Dreams™.

With this release, our goal setting tool is officially launch. You can read about the press release by clicking here.

Cheers,
James

After many months of work and 4 weeks of intensive preparation, we are please to announce that The Ladder Of Dreams™ is ready! You may have been acquainted with the concept of The Ladder Of Dreams™ from as far back as June 2007 from this blog when I share with you how I set my goals - 9 Secret Steps To Life Transformation: The Ladder Of Dreams.

I received very positive feedbacks from readers and friends alike and began working on a system that I could share it with everyone. My original idea was to give out the system free for all who wish to set and achieve their goals while documenting my experiences in goal setting using this system to be sold for a small fee to supplement my income.

As some of you already know, I gave out the system for free in Sept 07 and shared extensively on goal setting alone in Sept 07 and Oct 07. I have rename this part of the system The Ladder Of Dreams™ Essential and it consist of a template and an instructional manual. I hope everyone found it beneficial and enjoyable and more importantly, achieved more goals in the process.

It is available for downloading at the http://TheLadderOfDreams.com/.

If you have been craving for more tips and tricks, methods and principles or even examples and variations, I have prepared a guide book called The Ladder Of Dreams™ Companion Guide which will share all the above and more.

It took almost four months to put it in writing. The value of the information contain within cannot be described in dollars and cents but in days, weeks, months and possibly years that you will save when you avoid traps, obstacles and impasse normally associated with working any goals.

For my readers who have downloaded a prior copy of The Ladder Of Dreams™ Essential, you will be receiving an email shortly to get you acquainted with The Ladder Of Dreams™ Companion Guide. For the rest, you can start by getting the free copy of The Ladder Of Dreams™ Essential.

Cheers,
James Soh

Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson Five.

What Position Do We Start From
Very often when we set goals that we dream about, it involves doing something that we have little or no competency in accomplishing. Hence, it is my opinion that most of the time, we begin our journey to our dream from a position of weakness.

That is the very reason why many people fail to take the first step after they set their goal. They could not even begin to do what they set out to do due to the lack of competency.

For those who manage to get started with their limited competency, most manage to turn around in circles after a while and give up their dreams in frustration.

So is there any solution?

In my opinion, it either your improve your competency or outsource the task that you need to get done (this not applicable in all cases).

Outsourcing
What are the cases that you can apply outsourcing? Here are some examples:

- Getting your household chores done with minimum intervention (don’t laugh, this is one of my dream)
- Designing the decor of your dream house
- Building and configuration your dream entertainment room
- Creation of a new product from your idea (for those online marketers reading this)
- Telemarketing effort for your business

Basically, anything that can do without YOU and has a ready professions or companies to take on the outsourcing. Outsourcing helps you move your goal forward tremendously, in terms of time saved and frustrations avoided.

If you should want to take on every task single handedly, be prepared for a longer journey but you might find more satisfaction and achievement at the end of the journey.

Do It Yourself
What are the cases that you cannot apply outsourcing?

- Becoming a world class athlete
- Becoming a Lawyer
- Becoming a Entrepreneur
- Becoming a Parent

Basically, anything that cannot do without YOU. In this case, your first action would be to improve your competency by taking on courses, training, studies, etc.

Typically dreams that cannot be outsourced requires time for you to gain competency. It could be shorten if you are smart, hardworking or an outright genius but short of those, stick to a more realistic dateline.

For example, I cannot expect myself to go from grade 1 to grade 10 pianist in 3 years when attaining grade 1 will takes 18 to 24 months for the average Joe. Well, unless you are Beethoven.

But It Can Be Done
What I would like you to take away from this post is to understand where you stand, your strength but mostly, your weakness. Choose your path to tackle your weakness and keep your expectation realistic. Work on your goals and dreams relentlessly and you will achieve it in due time.

And for those who had the competency and hence the strength to take on their dreams in the first place but never got started, I could not even begin to understand why?

Cheers
James

I was reading a post by Armannd @ ProjectArmannd.com titled “Life essentials, kindergarten version” and he was sharing about the lessons he learned in Kindergarden. I love that post as it reminds us of some important lessons that we tend to forget in our adult life as we compete in our society for a better social or financial standing. Read it, I believe you will love it!

Kids And Their Goals
It also got me thinking about the relation between kids and goals. Do kids have goals and dreams?

I believed so. Although most of them never writes them down and even if they do write them down, it will probably be in a dairy expressing what they want and not done as a goal setting exercise.

I know a lot of their dreams are fairy tales and impractical stuffs like “Want to be [fill in their favorite superhero]” or “Want to be [fill in their favorite princess]” but they do have practical dreams, such as “Want to go to [fill in their favorite theme park]” or “Want to get [fill in their favorite toy]”. And you know what? Usually their dreams come true!

A Kids Unique Strength
So why is it that their dreams come true when they have never done any goal setting exercises such as we adults? I believed that it is because they have one quality that most adults lack:-

“Naiveness”

In their young minds, nothing is impossible. Being naive, they dare to try everything and anything. Being naive, they are not afraid to ask and pester their parents, uncles, aunties and, especially, grandparents for what they want. Being naive, they tell everyone their goals and dreams without any concern with regards to who knows about it - actually, the more people who knows about it, the better for them. Being naive, they do everything that adults won’t dream about doing and inevitably, someone from those above will fulfill their dreams.

So how does kiddish goals measure up to adult goals? Do they comply with S.M.A.R.T.? Lets See:

Specific - I know kids are very specific in what they want. They will point to that commercial on the TV and yell “That’s the one I want!” or drag you into the toy department, grab the toy they want and pull you right over to the cashier! Do you need them to be more specific?

Measurable - The only thing you really need to measure is whether you have sufficient cash in your wallet to buy whatever you were dragged into buying since you are standing at the cashier counter already.

Attainable - Since you will be the one standing at the cashier counter with the toy in one hand and your wallet in the other, I think you would be in a better position to tell me if it is attainable.

Realistic - The only realistic thing to consider is how are you going to get out of that situation if you decide not to buy it.

Time-Bound - The only concept that kids know about time is “NOW”. Nothing else matters, not yesterday, not tomorrow, only “NOW”!

So do you think little kids goals are S.M.A.R.T. enough?

Time For A Story
Let me finish this with a true story.

Once I brought my little girl Stella to Popular (a local chain of bookshop) and she wanted 3 books. I said “No, you can choose only one.” She didn’t argue and choose one book. I took the book and went about my browsing before making payment.

At the counter, the cashier totaled up the merchandise and billed me for 3 books! I asked her to clarify the total and she told me the total was for 3 books including 2 that a little girl passed to her while pointed to me and said “Daddy will pay”. I knew it was Stella as I recognized the 2 other books was Stella’s other choice so I asked her “which little girl”. She pointed to little Stella standing at the entrance of the bookshop smiling cheekily at me.

In the end, I gave in to her ingenuity and bought all 3 books for her.

I’m not sure if she had the goal in mind to get 3 books. Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. But I believe actions speaks louder then words and so I believe that it must have been a goal she wanted in her little mind.

Cheers,
James

Welcome To Goal Setting Lesson Four.

Now that you have understood the basic principles of goal setting, build your foundation and set your sights on that big dream, it’s time to move towards your goal. We don’t do it by quantum leaps, like one or two or even three huge steps, but a small step at a time.

Building A House
Think of working towards your dream like building a new house from scratch. The completed house is your big dream so what should your first step be? Get a blueprint of the house? Probably. Or maybe deciding on which location it should be built upon and acquiring that piece of land? As good a place to start as any.

Once you have done either of that, you need to get a permit to build the house (if it is necessary where you live) or buy the raw materials necessary to build it. Next you start laying the foundations, building the walls brick by brick and so on according to the blue print your acquired. As you can see, there is a process of multiple small steps to get you from nothing to that beautiful house you desired.

Building Your Dream
Similarly, in order to reach that big goal, that dream of yours, you need to know your process or plan and you will need to take on one small step at a time.

If your dream involves doing something someone has successfully achieved, you can seek those people out as mentors and get valuable advices that will help you reach your goal faster and in a smoother manner.

If your dream involves doing something no one else has done before, it will be more challenging but still achievable if you plan ahead and take it a step at a time.

Importance Of Small Steps
You keep hearing me repeat this phrase “taking it a step at a time” because it is important. Remember Goal Setting Lesson One where we start with simple task and goals? It’s the same, by breaking up a big goal into small ones, we make a tough goal look simple. That is the Key in taking small steps.

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
– Henry Ford

When facing big or tough goals, our mind induces that thought “How am I going to complete that!“. But when the same big or tough goal is broken down into simpler goals, our mind changes the thought into “That’s easy, I can do it!“.

A Garden With 50,000 Roses
If you enter a garden with 50,000 stalks of roses, your breath would be taken away immediately by it’s grandeur. It is by any standard a grand undertaking when it was done by one gardener.

Could the gardener have done it in one giant step by planting all 50,000 stalks, water them, care for them all at the same time? Unlikely. He will probably be exhausted just thinking about undertaking such a daunting task all at once.

A plan with a better chance of success would be to plant a stalk of rose a day and move on. It may take a longer time but you will get that garden at the end of the road. If you want it faster, maybe you can try planting 2 or 3 or 5 stalks a day. But 50,000 or 25,000, or 10,000 a day is definitely out of the question unless you have an army of gardeners.

I think you get the idea.

Reviewing Your Goal
So take some time to review that goal or dream that you have set. What’s your mind telling you when you read that dream/goal? Take some time and break it down into smaller goals. Now read those smaller goals again, what does your mind tell you this time? Can you do it now?

If you still can’t, break it down further.

If you can do it, what are you waiting for then? Go get it!

Cheers,
James

Disclaimer: I am not a gardener and that illustration about planting rose is for illustration purpose to bring a point across. Technically, I don’t know how to grow roses.

We’re back from our holidays.

It was a 4 day 3 nights cruise to Penang (an island on the west coast of West Malaysia peninsula, near the Malaysia-Thailand border) and Phuket (an island on the west coast of Thailand, it was on of the place devastated by the 2004 Tsunami) on board the SuperStar Virgo Cruise Liner.

It’s was very fun and relaxing. We enjoyed lots of good food, quality time with my family and in-laws. As you folks know, I like to set goals for whatever I do. I did again for this holiday and my goals was:

“To make sure everyone enjoyed the trip”

Now you must be thinking, that goal does not comply to anything I have been teaching in my online lesson? It’s neither SMART nor Big! Am I contradicting myself? Not exactly.

Objectives - Very Short Term Goals
There are times where we set Big, Inspiring goals that are SMART and we put them in black and white. This type of goals are typically mid-term to long-term goals, not always the case but typically. Even short-term goals are typically a week to a month in duration.

But there are times where we set goals for the moment. Goals that are rather clear in idea but vague in execution (i.e. you know you want to enjoy but you are probably unsure of how you would be enjoying or what you would be enjoying). Some people refer to this type of goals as objectives. So I shall use the same term too

The truth is that everyone sets objectives (in their mind) but because this objective weren’t written down, most people loose sight of their objectives the moment they get into the action. If their action produced a result that matches their original objectives, they will be happy with their actions. But sometimes, the opposite happens and they will be unhappy with the result or the event itself.

Where Do People Set Objectives
They may set objectives when they:

- Go shopping
- Go on holiday
- Go for meals
- Go for a short study session
- Attend a Seminars
- Go for a show
- Exercise
- Do anything that may produce a result (which probably covers almost anything we do)

Have you ever been unhappy after doing any of those simple day-to-day activities above? Did you happen to end up doing something contradicting to what you started off wanting to do? I bet you do, sometimes I do too.

My Holiday As An Example
Let’s take my holiday as an example.

On this particular trip, we had 2 land excursions - one in Penang and one in Phuket. We could book a pre-planned excursion or go free and easy on our own. We decided to take their pre-planned shopping excursions for both locations.

On our shopping trip at Penang, we noticed that our girl Stella was not that excited and was grumbling towards the end of the 5 hour excursion. She said that it was all walking and not that exciting for her. It was true in a sense. I wasn’t all that excited myself. I looked around at the other kids in our group and sure enough, many were bored and some were already sleeping on their parents shoulders.

At the end of that excursion, I had to make a choice if we wanted to bring Stella along for the next excursion to Phuket as it would probably be more shopping, more walking and we are expecting spicy foods and lots of bargaining at Patong beach flea market. I had to asked myself honestly if she would enjoy such a trip and my answer is no. I asked her if she would enjoy such a trip and she said no.

So we made changes to our plan and placed her with the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion. That decision cost us a S$12 excursion ticket (it was non-refundable and we already purchased it) and an additional cost of S$72 for the stay at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre. But was it worth while? Definitely! She enjoyed herself hugely for the whole day and we had a memorable shopping spree at Patong Beach, Phuket!

On the excursion at Phuket, I saw some parents disciplining their kids who were kicking a fuss because they were bored and that probably ruin their mood on that trip for the rest of the day. I do not believed that those same people came on trip wanting to have a bad day. In all reasonable sense, they probably had the same objectives as myself. But what happened?

Remembering Your Objective And Be Flexible
I think the difference was that I remembered my objectives and was flexible enough to make changes to accommodate the situation. While those other parents either did not realize the situation they were in, did not remember their objectives or wasn’t flexible enough to make changes to cater to the changing situation. Probably a little of each factor.

It is interesting to note that there were a handful of children at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion which means I am not alone in making that kind of arrangements. So there must have been other parents who knows their objectives well too

You Should Try It
Don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself. You will be surprised at how frequent you walk away being happier then before.

That’s all for today. There will be more post coming up and also stay tuned for Goal Setting Lesson Four.

Cheers,
James

I’ll be away on a short holiday. Taking my family and my in-laws for a short cruise to Thailand and Malaysia along the Straits of Malacca. So don’t be surprise if you don’t find any post for the next 4 day, my lessons on goal setting will continue when I am back.

I’ll be enjoying my holiday and I hope you are all enjoying yourself too.

Stay Positive,
James

Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson Two. I will be covering some basic, time-tested goal setting techniques here so you can write down your first goal clearly.

SMART
It is general accepted that goals need to be SMART. So what does SMART mean? It’s actually an acronym for:

Specific
A goal has to be specific so you know the direction you are heading towards.

“I want to grow my business” is a loosely defined goal. Which part of your business do you want grow? The revenue? The profit? The size of the company? It has to be specific.

A specific goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business“. Now you know clearly which part of your business to focus on growing. No more ambiguity, right?

Measurable
A goal has to be measurable so you know the distance you need to cover to reach your goal.

“I want grow the revenue of my business” could not be measured. How much of the revenue do you want to grow? 5%? 10%? 100%? One thing for sure is that you will never know when you have grown sufficiently and you will never know exactly when you have reached your goal.

A measurable goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 20%“. Now you know which part of your business to focus on growing and how much you want it to grow .

Attainable
A goal has to be attainable with your current resources at hand, level of competency or state of being to handle that given goal. In another words, do you have the physical means and resources to achieve the goal you set.

“I want our new advertisement to attract 10,000 customers a day” might be attainable by a business with a big budget to advertise on TV, Radio, does branding and the like. But will the same goal be attainable for a neighborhood convenience stall that only have a budget to distribute pamphlets only?

Knowing all your physical means and resources you have at hand will help you set attainable goals.

Realistic
A goal has to be realistic. Where attainable relates to your physical means and resources. Realistic relates more to conditions and circumstances surrounding us.

“I want to grow the revenue of my business by 500%” might be realistic for a new business in it’s expansion/growing phase in a new market but for a matured business that has grown almost to it’s current market limit, it is unrealistic.

A more realistic goal for a matured business would sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market“. Make sense?

Time-Bound
Every goal needs to be bounded by a time frame so it can be measured and a baseline can be formed for future goals of similar capacity. Also a time-bound goals will lead to an urgency to take action and measure performance against.

“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market” would not give you any urgency, you could take a year, two years or maybe forever. When it takes forever, it’s called day dreaming.

“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market by [fill in your date]” would give you a dateline that you can start measuring your progress against. A dateline would ensure that you move towards your goal in a steady and consistent manner. Even when you missed the dateline, it would not be far off the mark as compared to not having one.

Summary
Look at the goal(s) that you have set, are they SMART enough? If not, isn’t it time to do something about it.

Cheers
James

Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson One.Congratulations to those who have downloaded The Ladder of Dream™ Template, you have gotten yourself a flexible and powerful tool to plan and achieve any goals you can dream of. If you have not downloaded it, you can still get it on the side bar to the left.

Let me assume that this is your first time setting goals or, at the least, first time setting goals consciously. So where do you start? Or more accurately, where should you start?

Where To Start
I would recommend that everyone start from something simple. Really simple meaning something from our day to day life, such as:

- Being more productive at work
- Keeping the house in order
- Maintaining a physically fit body
- Maintaining a healthy body
- Maintaining a balance lifestyle between family, friends and work
- Keeping up with technology/current affairs/etc

“These goals are written in plain English, not following any Goal Setting Guidelines, to make it simple for beginners to understand. Next post, we will talk about those guidelines for writing a clear and concise goal”

As you can see, we are not talking about awe inspiring goals such as making a million dollars, creating an empire of retail stores kind of goals. These simple goals we are asking you to consider are pretty close to what most people are struggling to cope with (one way or another).

Why Do You Set Simple Goals First
Since it’s the first time you decided to consciously set goals, the most important aspect is not how big or grand the goal is. The most important aspect is that you must believe that the goals are achievable and when you achieve the goal, goal setting becomes believable.

Once you believed that goal setting is a tool that can truly help you achieve the goals that you set, you can start setting bigger goals for yourself and achieve them.

Important Lessons
Most people believe that goal setting is for big dreams and not for the mundane stuffs. Hence, simple goals are often left out in goal setting exercises. They reserved their goal setting for big goals but their belief system in goal setting may not be strong enough to handle the passage of big, long-term goals.

When they embark on those big, long-term goals and met with obstacles or set-backs, their belief in whatever plan that was drafted during their goal setting exercise is shaken. When it is shaken sufficiently, they will start losing faith in their plan and their goals. They may lose faith in their belief in goal setting completely too.

By starting simple, you get a chance to build a strong foundation. A foundation that is build on a strong belief that goal setting is a tool that could help you achieve your goals. With this strong foundation, you will never doubt that you had started on the wrong footing.

From this point onwards, you will learn how to be persistence and how to be flexible. Persistence will help you reach you goal, sooner or later. While being flexible and adapting your plans to changing circumstances, you will learn to navigate obstacles.

Now, you have the most basic qualities to achieve anything you want in your life.

What Is Your First Goal
So where will you start and what’s your first goal? You don’t have to tell me your goal but write it down in your “The Ladder of Dream™ Template”. You may wish to choose something in your daily life that you always wanted to do but have not done so or have not achieved your desired results so far.

Cheers
James

If you have been following us for the past 5 post, you know we are currently on the topic of goal setting. If you have missed them, you can revisit them below:

What Are Goals and Goal Setting?

Can Dreams Be A Good Goal?

Are You A Day Dreamer Or Achiever?

Playing To Win

Even My Hamster Has A Goal

By now, you probably have, at least, made up your mind whether you should or should not have a goal. It doesn’t matter, to me at least, if you have decided that goals are not for you. It’s your choice and I’ll respect them.

For those who decide to set goals and pursue them, Congratulations! You have taken the first conscious step towards your dream and ‘ll show you what you can do next.

In the next couple of posts, I will be sharing the following topics about goal settings:

- Where to start and what goals to set
- General goal setting techniques
- Dream big and be inspired
- Taking it one step at a time
- Understanding your strength and your weakness
- Where to focus your effort
- How to set a right time frame for your goal

So before we go on with the first topic in the next post, I strongly encourage you to download The Ladder Of Dreams™ (Left side bar, top. Free Download), so you can follow us to plan your dreams.

Once you have downloaded The Ladder Of Dreams™, leave me a comment here. I would like to congratulate you personally for taking charge of your life and walking down the road of countless accomplishments.

Cheers
James

I hope you have enjoyed the last post and had a better understanding of:

- How simple a goal can be
- How simple it really is to apply goal setting in our daily life
- The benefits of having a goal as opposed to not having one

Do You Have Have A Goal?
I probably don’t know most of you and I have no idea what you went through in your life. Certainly, I have no idea if you had ever set any goals in your life.

My Hamster Has One
But I say if my pet hamster has a goal (that I could see), you probably have one too! Let me show you his goal:

That’s Hammie, Stella’s Pet.

Hammie’s Home Sweet Home

Hammie’s Goal
You can guess what Hammie’s goal really is. No prizes here, he belongs to the rodent family so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Hammie’s Daily Focus

Hammie’s Goal Achieved
Anthony Robbin said that we are either motivated by Pain or Pleasure. Hammie obviously knew how painful it would be for me to replace the cage. So here’s mine solution (He stopped widening the hole after I got him this):

Hammie’s Goal Achieved

What About You
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not asking you to inflict pain on someone to achieve your goals. That’s not right!

But tell me, do you have a goal? And have you done anything about it?

Cheers,
James

Todays post is very interesting. It involves practical goal setting, application of plans/strategies and the mindset to be successful, all applied in a simple game. So sit back, relax and read on.

Yesterday was family day and our family dropped by one of our favorite weekend entertainment center, Downtown East. After a morning of fun and a sumptuous lunch of Sushi, we went to the arcade.

Here’s What Happened

At the arcade, we saw this contraption where you get to scoop some sweets to fill out a moving table. Then the sweets will get push off the moving table and fall into a collecting tray. Whatever in the tray is your prize. Piece of cake, right?

But would you pay a dollar to grab a couple of sweets you probably could have bought at a convenience stall for much less? Probably Not!

But from what I observed, that’s what most people do. Right there before my eyes. They pop a few coins (by the way, it was S$1 per game), scoop a few sweets, deposit them on the table and grab a few sweets and they stop.

Most of them stare at the Jackpot prize (The little stuff toy at the top of the machine) and wonder if anyone could get it!

We played this once, spent S$10 for a bag of sweets so I had some idea how it works. This time round, I set a goal. I wanted to get that Jackpot prize for my little girl. So this is how I plan it.

I started off with a goal to win the Jackpot prize.

To win the Jackpot prize, I need a plan to fill up the jackpot counter (Picture to the left) by hitting the checker (Bottom Picture, the little RED tab extending out from the table is the checker) with sweets.

I also plan to scoop the larger sweets, thinking that since they are big, they could probably move more sweets down the table. Now I have a goal and a plan, time to take some action.

I changed S$10 worth of coins which translated to 12 scoops of the sweets. Actually, I am not sure how many tries it would take to win the jackpot, so I test and measure.

First couple of tries was a mixed of success and disaster.

Disaster - Attempting to scoop a large amount of larger sweets, usually end up with an empty scoop. I realized that the scoop was a flexible plastic, it flexed and bend under load and bounces its load of sweet all over the place.

Success - Attempting to scoop just 2-3 packets of larger sweets went well and it dropped loads of sweets into the collecting tray. So now, I changed my tactics and aim for smaller load.

Be Focus

Remember that we mentioned that to win the Jackpot prize, you need to focus on hitting the checker and move the counter.

That was what we focused on all the way. It does not matter how many sweets was dropped, if it didn’t hit the checker, it didn’t count towards our goal.

I noticed that many players from the other stations focus on trying to drop the Maximum number of sweets. I am not sure if getting the most sweet was their aim or not but if their goal was the Jackpot, then their action and goal is not in alignment.

Never Give Up

After the initial 12 tries, we were closer to the Jackpot but not close enough. So do we give up or do we push on? Of course, we pushed on! Giving up is as good as wasting all the effort that you have put in so far, all the experience you gain also goes down the drain.

The time, effort and money I estimated at the beginning is just an approximation, now that I had a baseline, I could determine how much more effort the whole project would take. I estimated another S$10 would do it. So we pushed on, focus and just did it.

At the end, it took exactly 2 more try then I had expected but we did win the Jackpot prize. Check out the prize, blue doggy soft toy and the HUGE bag of sweets! And of course, a very happy little girl!

Inspirations

The most amazing thing wasn’t our winning the Jackpot. What was amazing was what happens because we won. Our little game attracted a crowd around us and the cheer went up after we hit the Jackpot. More amazingly, all the other stations were filled with players who is now inspired to be the next Jackpot winner!

Our energy built up while charging towards our goal was transfer to the audience around us and inspired them to take action. That was amazing and we are talking of a simple game here. Think of what you could inspire if you achieve that goal in your life or at work?

Here’s one last picture of Stella and yours truly. Enjoy your weekend.

Cheers,
James

Afterword: What I have just shown is some very basic stuffs used in goal setting and it can be applied to everyday task as simple as playing a game. If you want a system that can help you with goal setting, check out The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.

The last 2 post about Goals and Dreams had generated a fair amount of discussion, which is good and I am very happy about it. If you would like to read about them, Click here and here.

In this post I would like to establish the fact that everyone has goals and dreams based on my observations of people around me. The only difference is whether they know it consciously or not and if they know how to achieve it or not. I categorize them into 4 types of people and here’s the matrix and their relative state of consciousness (about their goals) and their competency in achieving them:

Day Dreamers
Majority of the working class belongs here, unfortunately. They have a general goal in life, probably defined as “I need to work for a living, raise a family, enjoy while I can while staying out of trouble, hope my boss don’t fire me before I reach sixty, hope I am not too sick by then to tour the world while still have enough money to finance my retirement“.

Their goals/dreams are somewhere in their head, never written down, never shared but it’s there. Even if you manage to convince them that they have a goal, they will have no idea how to properly plan, execute and achieve it. Their idea of planning and execution following the trend of work hard and work even harder. Rings a bell?

The Dreamers
Like in the show, The Matrix, these group of people have taken the pill and has waken to the idea of what a goal is and how useful and helpful to have one written down and to focus on. They have taken the first leap towards achieving great things in life with a focus on the goals they set.

Most new entrepreneurs falls in this category.

The Motivated
This group of people are a positive and determined lot. They normally follow their guts or higher calling and they take actions to get what they want. Your working class high fliers who seemed to achieve greatness out of no where commonly falls into this class.

Generally, they will progress to become an Achiever halfway through their career once “take the pill”. It is an easy step for them as they are a motivated lot to start with.

The Achievers
All successful people falls into this lot! Believe it or not.

They know their goals/dreams.

They plan for it and take massive actions to achieve it.

They are unwavering in their determination.

That is why they are successful.

What Shall It Be
So which group do you belong to? It’s your chance to talk again.

Cheers
James

In our last post, “What Are Goals and Goal Setting?“, I invited you to share with me your opinions and I am very happy that I got a warm response offering different opinions. I love every single one of those comment and I thank you for sharing with me. Keep them coming.

Goals Need to Be Real?
One of the comments in the last post was this:

I disagree with Napoleon Hill’s definition.
Goals are too reality-based to be dreams.

It is a perfectly normal perspective and I was, for the better part of my adult life, thinking the same way. In my ex-profession as an engineer, I had to have goals that stick to reality. No doubt that whatever I plan for was “on solid ground” but the goals always lacks inspiration and excitement. Hence, I never really found anything worth pursuing on a long term basis.

Can Dreams Be A Goal?
Since I embraced the idea that I should set goals that I can dream about, I have found excitement in setting goals again. The excitement drives me forward, drives me to take action and I have found myself in place and situations that I would never otherwise have thought possible. Such as being a full time blogger, such as being able to share my experience and share positive thoughts reaching out to hundreds and thousands of people.

Would all this be possible if I had a reality-based dream? I think not.

Are Dreamy Goals Natural?
In fact, it is my belief that it is a natural thing for us to dream and dream big. Children’s dream a lot. They never really understood the difficulties of achieving what they want but it doesn’t stop them from dreaming. Here are some examples:

- They dream about being famous actors or actresses when they can’t even read a script
- They dream about being doctors even when they are scared stiff at the sight of a nurse with a syringe.
- They dream about being teachers but hate the spelling test they are getting from them

They are not afraid to dream and some of them do become what they dream they would be one day.

So What’s Missing

“If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.”
- Henry David Thoreau

So, can dreams become good goals? Absolutely, as dreams are typically inspirational and motivating by nature. You just need to have a direction and a plan to achieve it (that’s the foundation). Does that make sense to you? Now is your turn to talk.

Cheers
James

Don’t Miss This: Need a tool to plan your dreams? Subscribe For The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.

For the next couple of posts, I’ll be writing on Goals, Goal Setting and related topics.

I know most of you, my dear friends and readers, are familiar with what a goal is and you have probably done some goal settings at one point or another in your life. But for the benefit of those who might be new to the topic, let’s have a recap on what a goal is and what goal setting is about.

Wiktionary defines a goal as “A result one is attempting to achieve” but I love Napoleon Hill’s way of defining a goal:

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
- Napoleon Hill

This is the closest definition of Goal Setting which I personally prefer that I found at The Magic of Goal Setting:

“Goal setting in broad terms is the process of
deciding on something you want,
planning how to get it,
and then working towards the objective.”

Do you have a different idea of what a goal is? Or what goal setting should be? Do leave a comment and share it with us.

Cheers
James

Keyword researches, analysis of competitors, marketing plans and strategies to penetrate a market should be a focus here. But don’t dwell on it too long as opportunities come and goes. Once you have identified what you want, plan and execute it.

Focus On Site Design
Site Design is usually a focus before you launch a site/blog but it should not stop there. Continuous improvement is a necessity in fine tuning your site/blog to make it easy for readers to subscribe your RSS, comment on your articles and opt in to your mailing list.

A Good site design makes reading visiting your site/blog a pleasant experience where advertisements are merged seamlessly into or around your content and archived articles are easy to find. It will also encourage readers to help you drive your traffic by sharing your articles through Web 2.0 buttons/link and convert readers to clients.

Focus On Content Creation
Every person has a wealth of content to share. You may think that what you know has already been shared but I can promise you that your perspective has not been shared before. It’s yours and it’s unique and that’s what your readers want to know. When they like your style and perspective, that’s when you convert them from visitors to readers.

If you think you have no content to share, then surf the web and read up on contents! Once you find contents related to your niche, track back to that article and give your views on it. Never copy and paste, unless you get express permission to do so.

So who says you have no content? Your views and perspective are your unique content!

Focus On Tracking Results
In order to know if you have done something right and to allow you to focus on what brings you the best results, you will need to test and measure. In Online business terms, it means tracking your traffic source and sales conversion. If you know where you are getting results from, you can tune your marketing activities to drive maximum results with the least effort.

Tracking Results does not take a lot of time, just set things up at the beginning and monitor it once a day follow by an analysis of the results once a week. Fine tune or discard activities that bring little or no results, focus more time and effort on activities that gives the best result or add new activities and track the performance.

Focus On Driving Traffic
Driving Traffic must be the most talk about topic in any online business. Every single site/blog that talks about internet marketing, online business or making money online will have a whole section (if not all the content) on this topic alone. So what I’ll highlight here is this, Driving Traffic is just the beginning. You will also need to focus on the next 2 items below to make driving those traffic worth it’s while.

Focus On Traffic Retention
So you have a good niche, a fantastically designed site, added great content and drove a ton of traffic. What if you did not retain them? You start from ground zero again the next day. Kind of lame right? This is exactly the case where many sites/blogs have stagnant growth - traffic surge at the beginning and then levels off, never to grow again.

What’s lacking here is the lack of a Traffic Retention policy. Offering a weekly/monthly ezine, offering full feed RSS, hosting a forum for discussion, interacting with readers that comment are some strategies to retain your traffic. Focus on these and you will build up your traffic to new heights over time.

Focus On Selling
It does not matter if you are selling a product, service or information. It does not matter if you are canvassing for a cause or charity. It does not matter if you are promoting a way of life or belief. It is all marketing and the end result is that you need to sell something.

Selling a product, service, information requires the same process as selling an idea, belief or donation. And unless you learn how to sell effectively, one of your main objective of your site/blog will not be met. So the focus you need here is a call to action.

Focus On SEO
If you have configured a self hosted wordpress blog properly, you are pretty optimized for SEO already. What you need to focus on is to optimized your headlines and articles with keywords and key phrases to attract more organic traffics. If you are not on a self hosted wordpress, it’s time you think about it.

How To Focus
If you are now suffering from information over load or at a lost about what to focus on, you need some help. On the left side bar, there is a free tool known as The Ladder Of Dreams. It has been proven to help online entrepreneurs set a clear path to their goals and keep them tightly focused on the critical activities they need to take action upon to achieve success.

Go ahead and download it, it’s FREE.

Cheers
James

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to teach internet marketing or how do you carry out an online business. It does highlight the crucial areas that an online business should focus on and some activities which are commonly neglected by internet marketers and online entrepreneurs.

This post was inspired by a post I read at positiveblog.com about “7 habits of highly ineffective people” and since I just met up with more then 700 hundred internet markets last month. I thought what I am going to be sharing here would help online entrepreneurs hugely.

Addicted To Traffic Statistic
Tracking your traffic is important to any internet marketer. It tells you what works and what don’t. It also tells you what is your traffic, sales and opt-in’s are from. But you just need to check it once a day, maybe twice. If you find yourself checking your statistics every 30 minutes. You are addicted!

Tell you something, it doesn’t matter if you check it 50 times a day or 1 time a day, it won’t increase your sales. Once a day is enough to see a short term trend or if your newly implemented tactic is working. Once a week is good enough to check if your strategy is working well enough for you and which source provides good traffic. Got it?

Addicted To Instant Messaging
I seldom use IM but I know a couple of fellow bloggers who are IM fanatics who cannot get off IM. True, it’s a good way to build relationship online and provide support for friends but there are times where IM is a pain. If you don’t know how to control your IM, it will interrupt your schedules at the most inconvenient time.

The result? At best, you take a longer time to complete your task. At worst, whatever you wanted to do never gets done. You might want to consider setting up a time where you will switch on your IM. Let your online friends and buddies know about the timing and you get to network with them during that window. This way, you get the best of both worlds

Addicted To Email
I guess in some ways, anyone with an email account are in some ways addicted to email. Similar to traffic statistic, we tend to check this all too often. Sometime people get so carried away, they just stare at the screen willing another email to pop in. It is as if you are some kind of pest control guys wanting to get rid of every pest and the emails are the rodents.

Let’s face it, unless you are working as a online tech support, you don’t need to check your email that often. The emails won’t run away and it won’t self destruct. So, just like our solution for traffic statistics, check your email once or twice a day is sufficient. I check mine once in the morning and once at night.

Addicted To Web 2.0 Site
Now the new fave of the internet are Web 2.0 sites or what is commonly known as social networking sites. It’s fun with loads of information, people to meet and interesting stuffs to do. It is actually a marketing haven for Internet Marketers to socialize and get to show off their wares. All Internet Marketers should get involved in Social Networking Sites if they are serious about their online business.

What’s wrong here is that some marketers get too addicted to a particular site and that’s all they do - Stick to one site. Now, it’s good to be focus but you need to move on after you have build up the rapport and credibility to “explore new land”. Sticking to just One or Two sites just don’t cut it. Think about it.

Addicted To Finding The Next New Thing
I know everyone is looking for the latest and greatest in Free Traffic Strategies, Viral Marketing Tool, etc. How I know? I am one of them too.

But what’s important here is when you find one, stick to it, put some time and effort in getting it to work. Once you get it to generate a decent, if not outrageous, kind of traffic then you move on. What many marketers do is to sign up and leave it on it’s own and start looking for the next big thing again.

Do you really think it’s gonna work that way? I don’t.

Addicted To Surfing
Now don’t get me wrong. As part of an internet marketers daily routine, you will have to surf the internet and surf a lot at that. The problem is after sometime, some marketers get addicted to surfing and surf for the sake of surfing! What do I mean by that?

Look, an internet marketer surfs for publicity, knowledge and relationship building. Even if you are not a internet marketer, this applies to you if you wish to promote your charity site, online dairy or share your secret. Wherever you go, leave a trace and by that I mean a comment, a remark on visitors log, a reply on a forum, a note to the author, etc.

You have already hit the site and read the post why not leave a trace? Think about it.

Are they Bad?
The 6 things above are important tools or habits for any internet marketers if used in the right dosage. Going overboard and getting addicted will be counter productive and side track you from your real goal. So take some time to think over and I invite you to share your experience and thoughts about them.

Cheers
James

Have you ever gotten a mental block? You know those type where you just cannot come up with any ideas at all? I am suffering from one right this moment.

I have about 12 partially completed articles and have around 100 pages worth of information stowed away that I can turn into useful articles for my readers but for some reason, everything I write today just does not feel right. I can’t even think of a joke worth laughing at this moment.

So here I am today blogging about my mental block and to ask you, my dear readers, if you have ever suffered from a mental block and how you get over it. Do share with me.

Cheers
James

Success Leaves Traces
What does the term “Success Leaves Traces” mean to you? To most people I know, it means following that successful persons footstep. To most of the participants at UYMG (the internet marketing seminar by Stephen Pierce, just concluded at KL, Malaysia), it means finding that success blue print which brought the speakers to fame. But are those really whats left by success?

I don’t think so.

What Are Those Traces
If you haven’t notice, most successful people don’t become successful from a single identical plan. Well, some of them do to but the majority had their claim to success following vastly different paths. In my opinion, whatever success blue print or plan that brought them to fame are just a by product of something common among them and at a very basic level.

I firmly believe that common thing is called Mindset. All successful people have a Mindset geared towards success and they build their mindset over the years by investing in something known as Personal Development.

Think about it. In our thousands of years of recorded history, there are untold numbers of successful people and I dare say all of them have a different route to success (most common being literature and warfare prior to the industrial age and there was definitely no internet back then). But if you get a chance to read their life stories or whatever account that is left behind, you will definitely notice that they have strong characters and a mindset geared towards success.

Do You Believe In Personal Development
So do you believe in Personal Development now? I do!

But many participants at UYMG don’t. Why do I say that? Because as soon as a speaker starts talking about personal development stuffs, they fall asleep or start doing their stuff on their notebook. It’s quite obvious that they don’t believe in the importance of Personal Development.

Shame on them. I hope they realize it sooner rather then later if they ever wanted a chance at success.

More Evidence That Personal Development Is Important
They may not have realized it but Stephen begins each day of the seminar with a video that relates a success story that was meant to train their mindset. He devoted his entire opening on his first day training the participants mindset. Next, he arranges for 3 personal development coaches to share about different aspects of self improvement over the next 3 days.

If personal development is not important, would a successful internet marketer like Stephen Pierce bother spending a good part of his seminar teaching it? Absolutely not!

What Can You Do
So what can you do invest in your Mindset? Simple and here are some of them:

1) Read more Self Improvement books.
2) Read Biographies of Successful People.
3) Visit more Self Improvement Sites (such as ours).
4) Get yourself a mentor.

Why don’t you gain those experience naturally over the course of your journey? Real simple again, each of those 4 methods contains years and years of experience condensed into something you can read in hours or minutes (if you speed read). Your time is your most precious asset. Don’t waste it.

What’s Your Take
So do you believe in training your mindset and investing in Personal Development? Tell me about it.

Cheers
James

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