“Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.” –Aristotle

It seems like there’s always a good amount of talk about goals and goal setting. While it may feel overdone, honestly, there’s a good reason for it. If we don’t know where we are going, how are we going to get there? Obviously it’s an issue many need help with – otherwise it wouldn’t be such a popular topic. I’ve found that the problem with goal setting for most people falls into two categories – selecting a goal and staying on course. Today’s bit of “zen” is going to focus on staying the course.

When we take a road trip, there are two methods of approach. One is to consider traveling to the destination as part of the journey and allow yourself to get distracted along the way with whatever novelties catch your eye. The other is to suck it up and just get there. Neither approach is wrong, however, depending on your situation one may the better choice at the time than the other. If you have things you need to accomplish at your destination, than the quickest path is going to be more advantageous for you. If you have nothing better to do and your trip truly is your journey, then by all means dawdle at every step.

When it comes to business, your dreams and your big plans for the future, however, dawdling can become more than just another rest stop on the road of your life. It can get in the way of real progress. It can become the excuse you use instead of confronting what you really want to do. Basically, it becomes a justification as to why you haven’t gotten where you want to be yet.

Keeping Aristotle’s words in mind, think about when you’ve been the happiest and most self-fulfilled. Chances are it’s when you were striving for a reachable goal. If you’ve fallen off track or allowed yourself to be distracted, take this time to become the navigator and captain of your own life and get back on course to attaining your dreams and desires.

What could you accomplish if you knew you couldn’t fail at the task at hand? This question is asked frequently in self-help and motivational workshops and seminars, and I have to wonder how many people have ever truly felt the empowerment and freedom that understanding the answer to this question creates. The reason for this, I believe, is simple. We live in a society that focuses on the negative and as a result of this, we tend to let our failures (or perceived failures) stand out stronger and taller than our successes. This is unfortunate, because it completely negates the power of averages.

Average you say!? Most people with an entrepreneurial spirit are taught early on that we should NEVER settle for average. Average is the kiss of death in a competitive market where you need to stand out and shine. In this case, I’m not talking about creating something that is “average.” I’m talking about looking at your “failures” from a different perspective. Let’s look at averages this way… If you have one or two glaring failures and ten to fifteen glowing successes, with the law of averages, how do you think you’re faring overall?

So, if you’ve been feeling a little unmotivated or if past failures of have gotten your confidence down, apply the law of average. List all the things you think you’ve failed in and then list all the things you’ve done well or succeed in. Clearly some things will have a little more weight then others, so you’ll have to use your own discretion at comparing the lists. In most cases, you’ll find that your average rate of success is pretty high.

If you find your failures are pulling more rank, look at what the cause may be. For many, the problem is that once they hit their first failure or possibly second failure, they never give themselves the chance to average out and truly succeed. Just keep in mind that you’re going to have failures. The key is recognizing that the real goal is to have your successes outweigh your failures.

Personally, I’ve always been a goal-oriented person. I’m not necessarily a person who has the next five years of my life mapped out, however, I have a good general idea of where I’m going. For me, goals are a great way to keep yourself in check – kind of like a road map. I use them to figure out where I want to go and the best route to get there, but if something interesting pops up, a little detour isn’t going to hurt anyone, as long as there is a clear way back to the original route.

With the excessive amount of distractions to “entertain” us, goal setting is even more important than ever. For most people, there’s no real purpose in their day-to-day life. They get up, go to work, come home, spend time with family, go to bed and do it all over again. There’s not much creativity or inspiration with the daily grind.

Goal setting is a way to move past this. You can use it to help you professionally or personally. The best part? The method is incredibly simple.

First, pick your main overall goals. They could be anything from starting your own business to developing a new hobby. Maybe you want to lose weight or quit a bad habit. Whatever your goal is, be clear about it.

Next, do something EVERY day (or nearly every day) to take you closer to that goal. If your goal is to lose weight, do something each day to get you there. Take a walk, drink more water, or eat more vegetables. It doesn’t have to be a huge lifestyle change. Just do one thing each day.

I’ve found this approach is incredibly helpful with the goals you think may be unattainable or just a little out of reach. If you’re able to do just one thing each day that will get you towards your goal, you’re one step closer. After six months or even a year, you’re considerably closer to your target then you were when you fell victim to becoming overwhelmed.

So how do you put this into a practical application? Here’s what I do…

I start each day with one or two specific goals for the day in mind. For instance, get everything on my work to-do list done and have time to go to the movies with the family. As distractions enter my day, it’s easy to avoid them or quickly handle them and get back to the bigger picture of what I’m trying to achieve that day. This works for both professional and personal issues. On days off, my goal may be to finish laundry and find a new restaurant to try. If I do those things, I know my day has been a success.

On a broader perspective, I also do this for my week and month. On a Sunday evening or Monday morning, I look at everything I want to accomplish that week. It could be to finish a certain number of projects, write a post every day for the blog or try three new recipes that week. I try to keep things fairly general, because this type of goal setting should be fluid and work intuitively with you. The more specific you are, the more it becomes like another to-do list – not very inspiring to finish.

Each year, I also create a very loose set of things I’d like to achieve. This year, I want to get my house more in order and work on improving existing areas of my work. Last year was about setting things up, this year’s focus is on improving those things.

This method works extremely well for me. I’m able to handle multiple projects at once, homeschool my daughter, run my household, manage a retail store and still have personal time. My hope is that it helps inspire you to also get moving towards those bigger dreams you’ve been unable to confront. Just remember to take it one day at a time!

It seems like a lot of my consulting work as of late has heavily involved teaching clients how to get their content strategies off the ground or how to get better results from what they’re currently doing. The more I do this, the more cemented I become in the belief of how crucial your content is for getting traffic. In my mind, it has become a keystone to any successful online marketing strategy.

If you’re new to content marketing, you may be wondering how content can help you sell a product or be used to generate traffic. Let’s take a closer look and explore some of the benefits of using content for your marketing efforts.

Of all the benefits, from a traffic generation standpoint, creating backlinks and a viral movement is the most significant benefit. Sure you can pay X dollars and get X traffic via paid search results, but for those who are looking for deep, long-lasting results, getting people to link to you has the highest pay off in the end. Not to mention, it’s free. If you’re paying for traffic, what happens when you stop paying? If you have prominent links and mentions regarding your site on related websites, not only do you have instant social proof, but you have traffic that won’t immediately vanish.

So, if getting links is so important, the next question to ask is naturally, “How do you get people to link to you?” This is where planning your content marketing strategy really gets fun and creative. You want to write content that will motivate people to spread your message. You want content that others will willingly post on their own sites. To help lead you in the right direction, here are a few key elements to writing content that stands out and begs to be spread virally.

Obviously, not everything you write is going to be a stroke of literary or marketing genius. However, a good amount of attention should be devoted to at least two to four “killer” articles per month. Personally, I would try to write two for your own site and two really great guest posts per month to get started. As you get going, you’ll be able to determine what efforts are best suited for your particular business or project.

It used to be said that content is king. When it was mentioned before, it was from the understanding that whoever had the most content “wins.” I still believe the phrase to be true, however, the context has changed. The smart use of quality content is where the focus should be. Content definitely is king, but learning how to market it and make it useful is definitely queen.

What are your thoughts? How do you use content to gain more traffic?

A lot of talk is given to inspiration and tips for success, but in my business adventures, I’ve found one thing that trumps everything. If you have this one thing right, then everything turns out great. When you have it wrong, you can almost certainly guarantee failure. So what is this key ingredient to success? It’s a little thing called attitude.

“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect It’s successful outcome.” –William James

For me, attitude is everything. If I get up in a funky mood, the rest of my day tends to mirror that funk. When I’m charged and excited about something, the outcome of whatever I’m doing usually reflects that enthusiasm. When I stumble into a case of writer’s block or experience a break in creativity, I can usually trace the source of my lack of inspiration down to my attitude toward the project. In most cases, I’m putting too much pressure on myself to be a creative genius, instead of just “doing it” and working as inspiration hits me. So on a personal note, I know I can change the outcome for anything I’m doing by changing my attitude.

“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” –Muhammad Ali

I believe fear is probably the most motivating and demotivating force a person experiences. You either react to avoid a negative outcome, or you do absolutely nothing to keep the possibility of failure at bay. This is where attitude can be a great adversary against the battle of controlling your fears. If you believe in yourself, and if you believe in the outcome of your tasks, you’re taking away the power of your fear. In return, every action you do takes you one step closer to actually being who you believe yourself to be. There’s a reason “fake it ’till you make it” is repeated as a mantra.

“Of all the ‘attitudes’ we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.” –Zig Ziglar

There’s much written on the topic of positive thinking. In fact, if you are a fan of self-help books, you’ll probably find that the topic has been fairly exhausted. However, what is now getting even more of the attention is the topic of gratitude. Of all the attitudes you can have, an attitude of gratitude is the most powerful. It is the secret behind why positive thinking works. It’s not just enough to hope for good things – you need to be thankful and pay forward the successes and “good things” you experience in your life. When you give from an attitude of thankfulness, your cup can’t help but be overflowing with positivity.

“A healthy attitude is contagious, but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.” –Anonymous

The personal approach is only one way attitudes are important. I can be in the most amazing mood ever, and have someone be around me who is clearly having a bad day, and the mood rubs off. It may not completely ruin my mood, but it certainly dampens it for the time I’m around the other person. In this regard, I try to remember to keep an open mind and help others by keeping my mood uplifting. The next time you’re feeling the stress or annoyance of something running afoul, keep things in perspective, and realize that a positive outlook will make things work more smoothly and is significantly less toiling emotionally.

There’s no shortage of comparisons you can use to correlate how the relationship between success or failure and your attitude relates. If you’ve found that there are some areas you could improve, try one of these tips for flipping the attitude switch:

• Start your day by writing down three things you will be extremely thankful for.
• End your day by writing down three things you were thankful for.
• Before starting a task, think about what you’re about to do and focus on getting mentally psyched to do great work.
• Feeling down? Force yourself to smile for a few minutes. The physical act of smiling releases endorphins that actually make you happy.
• Need to be super inspired? Be a positivity Nazi and keep negative news at bay for a while. Only let in media or information that will inspire you.
• When you’re feeling bogged down, take a break and go do something just for yourself.
• If someone or something is getting you down, take a few minutes and think up positive thoughts or resolutions for being involved with the person or project.

Remember, at the end of the day you have one freedom no one can ever take away – the power of free thought. You get to choose whether to live happily or depressed. It’s all a question of attitude. What’s yours?

If you love gaming as much as I do, then you’re probably looking for ways to justify your time dedicated to pillaging villages and completing epic quests. Well fear not, my game loving friends, there actually happen to be extremely beneficial lessons to be learned from the online realms of adventure.

The spirit behind most multiplayer online games is in community. The more you interact with each other, the richer your experience with the game is. Through my time spent in these alternate worlds, I’ve discovered a few key correlations that can be applied to the business world. So if you’re ready to level up your Intelligence, read on…

Lesson #1: Be Where The People Are
Often times in games you need the help of others for a variety of reasons. You might need an item they have, help finishing a quest, or guidance in finding a particular location. In all these instances, you have a greater chance of connecting with someone who can help if you are in one of the major cities, simply because that’s where the greatest number of people are. In real life, when you want to make connections with like-minded individuals, you need to be where they are. In the social media realm, those “cities” are places like Twitter or Facebook. Where are your people? Do some research and find out where your peers and customers are. That’s where you need to be making connections.

Lesson #2: Have a Quest or Mission Others Can Get Behind
Once you’ve found where you should be most visible, you need to give people a reason to befriend you. In gaming, it’s usually an invitation to join in a battle to the death over the destiny of the online world. In real life, your mission may not be quite as epic, but it should still be something that inspires and motivates. What is your quest? What is it that you are trying to achieve? Use that as your base and find creative ways to spread your message so you’ll pick up helpers and followers.

Lesson #3: Reward People for Networking with You
Loot is a powerful motivator in online games. Everyone wants their just rewards for helping out. In real life, it’s not much different. People want to know that you appreciate their efforts and gifts of time. Make sure to leave no doubt of your gratitude. The more you can give back and reward contributors, the closer your connection will be with them. They’ll also consider you a valuable ally for future business adventures.

Lesson #4: Keep In Frequent Contact
When you’re faced with the possibility of connecting with over eleven million players, it’s easy to forget about someone. If you’ve made a valuable connection, keep the momentum going with frequent communication. Drop a line to see how they are doing, take them out to lunch, or connect with a quick chat or message via Twitter or Facebook. If you stay on a person’s radar, you’ll never be far from their mind.

Lesson #5: Join or Create a Guild (Tribe)
When you find people you want to connect with on a daily basis, or when you’re looking for a group to help you level up and complete quests, you usually join a guild. The guild then becomes your online family, the place you go for help and friendly banter. In the real world, finding a like-minded group or tribe is essential to growing and getting support in your field of choice. Now that online communities are so prevalent, it’s even easier to find a group willing to accept you into their fold. With the right group, you’ll find an amazing support system ready and able to help you achieve your goals of a true epic destiny.

While the online world is a great break from the stresses of your daily life, nothing quite compares to the feeling of real life achievement. If you use these tips, you may find the adventure of your real life even more rewarding then your latest online achievement.

Do you have a passion for gaming? In what ways has gaming helped or hindered your business goals?

How much time do you spend reading Twitter updates, Facebook posts or your RSS feeds? How often to you visit your favorite websites or read an inspiring book? All these actions can be extremely beneficial for your self-improvement and business success, however, there can be a downside if you’re not monitoring your exposure.

With so much information easily accessible at our fingertips, it’s easy to reach information overload. This is when you’ve taken in so much information that you’re almost paralyzed from making any forward progress. You have so many ideas or concepts in your head that your mind just gives up in confusion.

Luckily, the solution to this problem is simple. The best way to handle too much information is to output information or ideas. There’s a measurable balance between outflow and inflow. The more you outflow, the more able you are to receive new ideas and inspiration. If you really want to move forward, make sure to take a break from “receiving” good ideas and shift to “giving” them instead.

Some examples of this in action:

• When you read an inspiring book, instead of going straight to the next one, give some time for the ideas to really sink in and then force yourself to “do” something about it.
• If you spend an hour reading Twitter or Facebook updates, spend some time actually posting some yourself.
• If you’re reading articles, engage in the conversation by leaving comments.
• Reading emails daily? Send some out to your subscribers or get caught up with business contacts.

The beauty of this formula is that it works for many other areas of your life besides informational intake. If you’re not experiencing the growth you desire in an area, put more attention on it and find ways to output information or ideas. It’s definitely an application of “you reap what you sow.”

So, how can you benefit from a little outflow today?

“You can’t build a reputation on what you intend to do.” –Liz Smith

I love this quote. So often we get so caught up in what we want to do that we forget to just go out and do it. It’s far easier to think about doing something great than to actually get up and try to do it (and possibly fail).

No one wants to do something wrong or make mistakes. Even if it’s a necessary evil in life, it doesn’t feel great. The fact still remains that most people will do everything they can to avoid feeling pain or embarrassment.

So how do you overcome the fear factor and chug along anyway? Here are my tips for pushing through the wall of fear.

1. Realize what you’re feeling is completely normal.
The more amazing, incredible or potential-filled your idea is, the more resistance you’re going to feel about moving forward. In fact, the closer you get to realizing your idea, the harder your lizard brain is going to try to stop you. Everyone goes through this. What separates the successful from the dreamers is the courage to push past your internal naysaying.

2. Get clear about exactly what you’re doing.
Sometimes a lack of preparation can cloud judgement and create extra roadblocks that don’t need to be there. A confused mind stops in its tracks. It doesn’t want to take any steps forward because it doesn’t know which way is forward. With a proper road map, it’s much easier to reach your destination. If you’ve found yourself hesitating for long periods before taking any action, more than likely you’re not clear as to what specific action to take. Take some time and really put together a plan of attack for what you’re trying to do. Even if it’s the wrong thing to do at first, some action is better than no action.

3. Think positively about your outcome as often as you can.
Consider this step a way to retrain the negative tape running through your head. Everything you want to achieve or have is possible. It’s just a matter of finding a way to make it happen. Sit down and really think about how this project or endeavor will benefit you. What do you hope to achieve from it? As often as you can, consciously think about it. Imagine how it will feel and what it will be like when you’ve reached your goal or hit your target. Keep that thought in your mind as often as possible.

4. Have an accountability buddy.
It’s funny how we’re more concerned with letting someone else down than we are ourselves. When it comes to motivation, however, this is a great trait to exploit. Let someone in on what you’re doing and keep checking in with them. If you have a group or following, let them know your goals and keep them updated with your progress. You’re more likely to follow through with something when you’re being held accountable for it.

5. Be realistic.
While every goal is attainable, you might not get the results in exactly the fashion or time frame you were looking for. Keep an open mind about when and how you’ll attain your goal. Sometimes, what seemed like a roadblock ends up being blessing in disguise. If you’ve planned ahead for these possible interruptions, they’ll feel less like detours and more like small speed bumps.

It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there and create something. However, it always pays off in the end, even if they only payment is wisdom gained through the failure. I’ve shared my own personal habits for pushing through the wall of fear. How do you push through yours?

Unless you’ve been under a rock these past few years, you probably know about Facebook. If it’s a tool you’ve overlooked in your marketing efforts, you might want to reconsider. Its 500+ million active users share more than 30 billion pieces of content each month. In fact, the average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events. If you want to be where the people are, then you need to know how to leverage Facebook to find potential clients, connections and sales.

There are two ways to use Facebook to promote your business – via your own personal account and through Facebook’s Pages feature. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about marketing via your own personal account. I’ll address how to use Facebook Pages in an upcoming post in this series.

When you start to think of Facebook as a business tool, the question of privacy and how much to share with work and personal contacts can become a concern. Most people don’t want to let their boss or clients know “exactly” what they did over the weekend. Lucky for us, Facebook has set up a great way to control exactly what your connections see. You can control just about anything, so you can feel comfortable and secure using your Facebook account as a medium for business, while still saying your hellos to Mom.

Getting this kind of security is achieved through a feature called “lists.” This feature allows you to create lists, similar to Twitter, that you can add your friends to. Then you can go through and create privacy setting based on these lists that will determine who can see what. To get started, use this simple tutorial as a guide.

STEP ONE: Set Up Your Lists

1. Click the Account link on the top right of page. A drop down menu will appear. From there, click the “Edit Friends” link.

2. On the left side of this page you’ll see a list of links. Under the Lists heading, click the “Friends” link.

3. A list of all of your friends will now appear. At the top of this list will be a button that says “Create New List.” Click this to begin creating a new list. These lists allow you to separate your friends and family from work or professional contacts.

4. Once the lists are created, add your contacts to the appropriate list. I like to make sure I keep everyone in just one list so I don’t accidentally expose someone to content I don’t want them to see.

1. Click the Account link on the top right of page. A drop down menu will appear. From click the “Privacy Settings” link.

2. At the bottom of the chart there is a link that says “Customize Settings.” Click this to personalize your settings.

3. You’ll find three areas where you can customize your settings. The first is controlling who sees what you are sharing. The second determines who sees what other people post on your wall or about you. The third handles your contact information. Go through and create your settings. If you want to exclude a list from seeing something, click on the Customize link. Begin typing who you wish to exclude in the “Hide this from” section. You can exclude multiple lists using this feature.

Sometimes you want to post something that is outside your created settings. You can do this with the privacy feature when you post your status updates. Next to the Share button is a lock icon. Click this and you will see a drop down menu. Click on “Customize” to set who you want to exclude your status update from. Just like in the privacy settings, you can also exclude by list.

In an ideal world, competition with others wouldn’t exist. People would realize that everyone benefits when more people are interested in a subject. It would be common knowledge that focusing on creating a new way of approaching a subject is much more rewarding than spending your days trying to sabotage another’s efforts. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world.

Competition is something we all face. In business, it can be something we have to confront on a frequent basis. Not much can dampen your spirits like finding out your competitor is engaging in actions that could potentially cause you a loss in business. When you’re giving your everything to pursue your dreams, it can be incredibly easy to lose focus and fall into the trap of trying squelch the competition at all costs.

This is probably one of the most detrimental actions you can take. In any endeavor you pursue, any time you put your attention on negative behaviors you end up hurting yourself. There is a common belief that I have found to be true in all aspects of life from business to personal.

“Whatever we put our attention on will grow stronger in our life.”
–Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

If you allow yourself to get caught up in other people’s affairs, you are taking time, energy and momentum away from your actual business. Instead of doing actions that will move your business forward, when you fall into the “competition zone,” you end up leaving your business at a stand still. How? If you’re focused on someone else’s affairs, you certainly aren’t giving 100% to your own.

As a business owner, I realize this outlook can be tremendously difficult to have at times. It’s not hard to fall into the trap when someone is price cutting you or knowingly trying to sabotage your efforts. You may not have experienced it yet, but as you succeed you’re going to run into it at some point. Someone is going to do something that will make you want to fall victim to the competition trap. When it does, keep these tips in mind for staying focused on your own affairs:

Confirm the facts
Often, rumors are started from someone who didn’t get all the facts straight or someone who enjoys the attention spreading gossip gets. Before reacting, always take a step back and verify what’s going on. Most times, I’ve found things to be a giant misunderstanding and saved myself a lot of aggravation by just confronting the source directly.

Acknowledge your feelings
While you certainly don’t want to obsess on an issue, you do need to acknowledge what you’re feeling. When faced with an upset like this, give yourself some cool down space so you can come back to the problem later and look at it objectively.

Keep it private
In most cases, you’re going to want to talk about whats going on. When you do, make sure you are venting to people who know you’re just venting. Do it privately, and never in front of potential customers or media. Gossip has a nasty habit of getting back to the person it’s about, and you never want to intentionally give your competitors a reason to feel justified for doing something unethical.

Everyone has a right to pursue their dream
Let’s face it, you’re not the only person in the world that can do what you do. In fact you’re probably not even the best. You do what you do because you believe in it and feel passionate about it. Everyone deserves this right, even if it happens to be in your industry. If they’ve done something more clever or interesting, treat the situation as a challenge instead of a threat. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, someone will always be up and coming. Don’t let yourself get complacent or feel entitled.

Focus on the positive
You excel at something your competition does not. Remember that and keep perfecting that differentiator. Sometimes competition can be a good thing. It gets you up and moving and doing things you probably should have been doing from the beginning. Use this as a sign that it’s time to refocus and apply what you know works or even branch out into some new areas you’ve been reluctant to venture into.

Keep your own house in order
The competition can’t knowingly affect you if you’re not actively looking for it. It’s good to know what’s going on around you, but after that it makes sense to forget about them and focus on your own affairs. Remember – whatever you give attention to will grow. Value what you spend your time thinking about. Picture your thoughts as your mental real estate. What thoughts will yield you the best return on investment?

Do you have a specific way of dealing with competition? Share your story or solutions!