I’d been feeling an urge to clear my plate for a while. Probably since late spring/early summer 2022. I’d made some half-hearted attempts to make some changes and figure out what’s next.

The Stock Investing/Trading Quest that I’d been on for the past 2 1/2 years had pivoted to a less active role. That was quite a rollercoaster. A lot of lessons learned that I’ll save for another post.

I was starting to look for the next quest but the message I kept hearing was to clear my plate.

“Life has seasons, stages, and phases. For there to be anything new, old things always have to end, and we have to let them go.” ~Dr. Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings

As I said, I made some attempts: my buddy John and I listed our duplex for sale, my brother Joe and I made plans to sell our final remaining barbershop, and I continued shifting my active stock holdings to more passive shares as opportunities arose.

Frankly, none of those attempts seemed to be working. Neither property sold and my investment portfolio fell to prepandemic levels.

2022 was a rough year.

Then it got worse.

In October, I found myself stepping into a very demanding role at Sound Wisdom. My services were needed to transition the company through a difficult time.

In my new day to day reality I began to clear things off my plate very quickly.

• The first thing to go was a consulting gig I was doing to help a buddy in his business. Not sure I should have let that project go but I needed to free up my time and mental space quickly.
• Next I closed down my barbershop hobby. It was hard to say goodbye to some of the clients that I’d come to enjoy spending time with, but barbering was taking a good bit of time and wasn’t a high value skill in the way I was using it.
• I became much more aggressive in shifting my portfolio allocation to safer assets that take less time to research and stay on top of.
• This year I resigned from my CFO role. Letting go of this title that I’ve held for so many years was harder than I expected. Psychologically, my identity was tied to being the money guy. But it was glaringly obvious that time was up there.
• My buddy John and I cleaned up our duplex and sold it this fall.
• My brother Joe and I still have one property left from our barber shop adventures. It is currently up for sale.  If you’re looking for a small town lifestyle right next to a river and walking trails, have I got a deal for you! =)

I don’t recommend having such a rough year en route to making the changes. Unfortunately, I do have a history of doing things the hard way. =/

I read a helpful book this fall called Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud. It confirmed some decisions I had made and might have given me more confidence to make changes quicker had I read it earlier.

Dr. Cloud recommends the following:

“In business and in life, executing three types of necessary endings is what characterizes people who get results. (1) If an initiative is siphoning off resources that could go to something with more promise, it is pruned. (2) If an endeavor is sick and is not going to get well, it is pruned. (3) If it’s clear that something is already dead, it is pruned. This is the threefold formula for doing well in almost every arena of life.”

How about you? What changes are you undergoing or contemplating?

I just graduated from Martin’s Barber School in Huntingdon, PA. The experiences and stories of the past year could probably fill a book. I’ll start with a blog post. Almost all of these are universal lessons. They apply to most things we do in life—jobs, hobbies, relationships, sports, etc.

1. You get out what you put in. Some students (just like some employees) dial it in. They show up—some of the time. But they avoid difficult tasks like flat tops and women’s hair cutting/styling. They hang out in the back and only come out to do a couple cuts a day. They are only hurting themselves. They graduate from school not having polished their skills. They missed the benefits of learning new things with a teacher at hand to walk them through. They get a diploma but miss the opportunity to learn real-world skills. This ultimately hinders their chances to make as much money as they could with higher level skills. The opposite should be our goal. Try everything. Make mistakes. Learn. Try again. Improve. Get as much input and feedback and practice as possible to get better.
2. Most people are good people. It was valuable to get out of my comfort zone and make new acquaintances. I met tons of solid people this year both in the chair and behind the chairs.
   • My classmates had extremely varied backgrounds (from prison guards to ex-cons, from retired teachers to current high school students). All were there for different reasons. Most are heading off in different directions after school. I made some new friends.
   • The people in the barber chair had even more diversity. Farmers, WW II vets, cops, fugitives (an arrest went down during school), lawyers, judges, factory workers, doctors, nurses, infants, college students, men, women, boys and girls. They all come to get cleaned up and they all have a story. Some of those stories are fascinating.
3. Overcoming fears takes persistence. Using a straight razor on clients really freaked me out for the first couple months. I mean to the point that I would break into a sweat and be lightheaded midway through performing a shave on someone. I had to take deep breaths and get ahold of myself before moving on. And, yes I did cut some people. Ask the police chief or the pediatrician in Huntingdon. Or a handful of others that I nicked early on. Fortunately everyone was very understanding. Over time I gained competence and confidence and eventually overcame the fear(almost completely).
4. Speaking of confidence…I was reminded that confidence grows. Week by week, month by month as I got more and more practice doing various kinds of haircuts, beard trims and styles I gained a level of confidence that lets me jump into any haircut you throw at me. It may not come out perfectly the first time, but it’ll look good and I’m not daunted by the vastness of the transformation. In fact, the bigger the transformation the more rewarding the feeling at the end.
5. We’re never too old (or young) to learn new skills. Two very talented people that came through barber school are at opposite ends of the spectrum. A guy in his 60’s and a 16 year old kid are both very good at cutting hair and will be great barbers. And I’m in my 40’s picking up skills completely unrelated to other ventures I’ve had. Turns out I enjoy cutting and now I’m good at it.
6. It feels reassuring to have another useful, enjoyable, money making skill in my tool belt. I don’t intend to be a full-time barber (clashes with my semi-retirement). But I will cut hair on the side. And I’ll make some extra money…always need more cash to invest!
7. Good barbering is an art. Michelangelo said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” It’s the same way with barbering. When someone sits down in my chair and describes the look they want, the challenge is to see the finished product before I start. Then I just remove the excess hair and style it into the look they desire.
8. Take pride in your work. The feeling you get when you step back from the freshly mowed lawn and say, wow that looks good. Or you finish a project and know you gave it your all. THAT’s the feeling I get when I nail a haircut. When I can step back and say, Damn, I did good. What a great profession to be able to get that feeling multiple times a day!
9. Bonus: when client feedback matches my own elation with a job well done. Sometimes the client is just as excited as I am with the new look. This is much more common in kids. They get a huge smile when you spin them around to look in the mirror at their handsome little faces. They haven’t learned yet that it’s not cool to be so excited. Or maybe they haven’t started comparing themselves to everyone else and deciding they don’t look as handsome as some movie star. Either way, it’s an extra proud moment when the client says “That looks awesome!” or “Perfect.”
10. Going to the next level feels amazing. When I started school I already cut my own hair (what’s left of it), my son’s hair and carved designs in my daughter’s undercut. What I learned very quickly in school was how much better each of those could look. Blending, tapering, fading, designs, line-ups, beard shape-ups all take practice. The next level of skill comes when the knowledge and experience marry up with the artistic eye. All that takes a lot of practice.
11. Hands-on is THE way to learn. From day one I was cutting hair. Joe (my brother, the school owner/director) believes in jumping in right away before you have time to “get in your own head.” New students watch a video for a couple hours then immediately set up their kit at a work station and begin cutting (with the help of a teacher). Over the course of the year, I cut around 1,000 heads. If you paying attention, you can’t help but improve with that much practice!
12. Learn from everyone. Huey, Clay and Nick all do sick fades. Ali works magic with scissors. I have a whole separate list of things I learned from my brother Joe. Youtubers Chis Bossio and MC Barber fade, cut and style as true professionals. Jesse is the beard king. Victoria taught me multiple tricks on women’s cuts. I was able to watch them all do their thing closely. Then I tried it myself. Then I modified to fit my style. They all saved me hours of time by showing me their best tactics they’d developed over time.
13. The right tools make a huge difference. In our kit, we get professional clippers, trimmers, shears, etc. You can buy cheaper versions at Wal-Mart. I have cut hair with cheaper versions. Night and day difference when using professional grade tools. Quality tools used correctly will make your task so much easier and the result so much better.
14. Show up and do the work. Consistently showing up puts you ahead of most. Consistently show up AND do the work—now you’re in the top 10%. It’s sad, but the bar is low. There were many, many days I didn’t feel like driving over the mountains to go to school. Almost all the times I felt like that I made the trip anyway. Some of those days were my best. Some I had a lot of cuts. Some I did amazing work. When you do amazing, you feel amazing.
15. Push through the dip. Seth Godin wrote a great little book called The Dip. In it he talks about the struggle we all encounter in any project we take on. We come to a point in the project or job where we just want to quit. We’re bored, tired, not seeing results, etc. That is the dip. The dip is where we must decide to quit or to push through. Rewarding success and ultimately mastery only come from pushing through the dip. If it’s a worthwhile endeavor, it’s worth pushing through the dip. Reaffirm the commitment and keep going.
16. Finish strong. Maybe you’re familiar with short-timers syndrome. When coming up on the end of anything there’s a tendency to slack off and not work as hard. My last day we were short handed. I jumped in and did 7 cuts after I had received my diploma. Some of them were fantastic cuts. A couple were transformations. It felt rewarding to be cutting right up to the end of my time in school. I would have missed out on that feeling had I succumbed to the temptation to chill out in the office or bounce out early.
17. This is just the beginning. So much more to learn! Anders Ericsson’s famous study reveals that on average it takes around 10,000 hours to master something. Barber school was 1,250 hours of intentional practice. Only 8,750 to go!

Those that know me in real life know 17 is a favorite number for me. So it’s kind of cool that my graduation day landed on April 17th. Another fun coincidence—it was Tax Day. A significant day since I prepared taxes for clients for several years during and after college.

Also, a huge thank you to my wife, Becky, for holding down the fort while I went to school. All those evenings and Saturdays away put extra work on her at home with the kids. Her support made the school experience much easier and more enjoyable.

Now on to the next adventure…

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I’ve posted here! So much has happened. Can’t wait to share. (Please forgive the multitude of I, me and my’s. As this post is an update of my Financial Freedom journey the past two years, it couldn’t be helped.)

In early 2016, I felt a strong urge to make some changes in my routine. My work felt stale and I craved new challenges. My initial plan was to take a year off. A sort of sabbatical to take some time to explore what I wanted to tackle next. After discussing some of this with the owners of the company I’ve worked for since 1999, we agreed on a scaled back version of my job. So by summer I was, as my brother Seth calls it, “semi-retired.” I began researching some of the things I’m interested in and quickly found myself wrapped up in many projects and busier than when I had a full-time job! As I spent a little time catching up with friends and family that summer, here’s what happened…

• I reconnected with my childhood friend who I hadn’t kept up with very well over the years. John was also transitioning out of a full-time job and contemplating his own next steps. With an entrepreneurial spirit and a sales background, he was already repping as an independent for a couple different products. We talked several times about teaming up on a business–so far we haven’t pulled the trigger. Another stream of income he has comes from rental units. Over the years he has accumulated many rental properties, mostly duplexes. We decided to find and buy one together. Sure enough, in the fall of 2016 we found a duplex in Huntingdon, PA. We had fun as we bought it, fixed it up, and rented it out by year-end. Thanks to John’s expertise, landlording has been a seamless process and a nice little stream of passive income.

• Another person I talked with that summer was my brother, Chris. We both had money invested in a small company that trades on the stock market. That summer the stock price was very low. We decided to put a chunk of money together and invest more into this company. The company seemed to be taking the right steps and the stock price nearly doubled by early 2017. Unfortunately, the next quarter they didn’t do so well. The stock price slid back down last summer and has been struggling since. The good news is that some of the board members as well as some of the C-suite have been replaced. The new team is leading the company to higher sales and profitability. The market is skeptical but the stock price will rebound after the new team posts a couple strong quarters.

• My biggest project began when my brother Joe and I started exploring the possibility of starting a barbershop in Altoona, PA (also Summer of 2016). Altoona’s largest barbershop had just closed and like many towns, Altoona didn’t have enough shops to serve all the people wanting haircuts. A true barbershop provides a much different experience than going to Wal-Mart or Great Clips for a haircut. By fall of 2016 we had located and purchased a property suitable for a barbershop. It was a former beauty salon. The pink sparkly walls wouldn’t do, but the location was ideal. We did a makeover on the place with massive amounts of help from Ehredt Construction and opened up shop in January 2017. Mansion Park Barber Shop was born. Many ups and downs followed; all in all, 2017 was a good first year for the shop.

 

• Shortly after Mansion Park Barber Shop was up and running we saw a property in the nearby small town of Williamsburg, PA go up for sale. Williamsburg’s barber had recently retired due to health issues. That left the town without a barbershop. We wanted to test out the barbershop business model in a small town. This was our chance. We opened Riverside Barbershop in Williamsburg, PA in July 2017. It’s been a much different experience with this shop and I think we’re figuring it out…slowly.

• In the midst of starting barbershops and having barbers as employees, I decided it would be helpful to immerse myself in the barber world. Since May of 2017 I’ve been attending Martin’s Barber School in Huntingdon, PA. (The one my brother Joe started in 2014). I should graduate this month, April 2018. After that I’ll be eligible to take the state boards. Upon passing the state boards, I’ll be a licensed barber. It’s been a long year of driving back and forth over the mountains, but I’ve really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about the barber industry.

 

• One benefit of driving two and half hours or more a day is that I’ve been able to listen to tons of audiobooks and podcasts. Oh…and I always make time to read physical books. Over these past two years I’ve read and/or listened to around 200 books. I read mostly business and personal development books with some classics, biographies, and fiction sprinkled in.

• Speaking of personal development, I still get to spend some time and do a little traveling with my buddy Dave Wildasin of Sound Wisdom. Over the past couple years we traveled to Dallas, Charlotte, New York, Columbus, Long Beach and probably a couple other places I’m forgetting.

  

  I got to meet some of my favorite business and personal development speakers: Jeffrey Gitomer, Les Brown, Lewis Howes and Tom Bilyeau. We also got to see many more amazing speakers at live events: Simon T Bailey, TD Jakes, Brendon Burchard, Mel Robbins, Jim Stovall, Keith Ferrazzi and on and on.

• I’ll wrap up with my most recent investment of time and money. In November 2017 I started down the rabbit hole of cryptoassets. Like everyone, I began with Bitcoin. I quickly expanded as I learned more and more about this young industry. I’m still learning. I now have more than 20 different cryptos and use six to seven different exchanges to buy/sell them. I am fascinated by what’s happening and excited to be following along and experimenting at this early stage of such a world-changing time.

As you can imagine, each of these projects has been quite an adventure in itself. I intend to write expanded posts on each over the next few weeks. They have each impacted my financial freedom in different ways. Let me know if you have specific questions about anything you’d like me to give more detail on. Thanks for taking the time to read this update. I’ll do better at keeping you posted going forward.

$714.20! That’s how much new tires cost on my wife’s vehicle yesterday. Not too long ago we would have had to put the tires on the credit card and pay them off over time…a few years time. By then the tires would have cost over $800 when you add credit card interest.

Fortunately, we now have plenty of money set aside in a bank account for just such an occasion. No panic. No worries. Just a “What a bummer” and on with the day. We do still charge the expense on the credit card (don’t want to miss out on Discover Card’s cash back). The difference is we pay our card off in full every month so there’s never any interest.

The thing about unexpected expenses is…you kind of have to expect them. Maybe unplanned is a better word. Life is unpredictable. When it comes to a house, car, pets, kids or health—things break. And then they need repaired or replaced. And either solution costs money. Having a cushion of cash won’t protect you from everything life throws at you, but it does allow you more options.

A little trivia:

Talking about credit cards and automobiles got me all nostalgic. Becky and I bought our first car as a married couple on a credit card. We didn’t have any money saved up(in fact we were deep in debt as we worked our way through college). But we received one of those credit card offers for one year at 1.9% or something like that. The card had a limit of $5,000. When our only car(my first) broke down for good, our friends drove us to the Honda dealer and we picked out a car that we liked—and that was in the ballpark of our limit. The sales manager had to squeeze the card pretty tight to get the whole car plus taxes onto that card. And off we went…$5,000 deeper in debt with a used Honda Accord to get us to classes and jobs.

So glad we don’t have to squeeze purchases on to a credit card any more. After a lot of work and MANY lessons learned the hard way, we have a pile of money in the bank that we can use to cover the unexpected bills and also take advantage of unexpected opportunities (like the 2008-2009 stock market—but that’s another story).

One of the biggest money mistakes people make is not building an emergency fund. If you don’t have one, start today…buy a frozen pizza instead of takeout and put the $10 difference in a separate savings account. You’ll begin to taste financial freedom immediately.

My brother Seth recommended a book to me recently, which I then read and thoroughly enjoyed. The book was Education of a Wandering Man by the author of so many great Western books, Louis L’Amour.

Throughout Education of a Wandering Man, L’Amour tells stories of his “education” and how he came to be such a good writer. His qualifications didn’t include a college degree or even a high school diploma. Education doesn’t only come from school. In fact, many things are best learned outside of school.

L’Amour dropped out of school at 15 years of age and traveled the world. He picked up any odd jobs he could to earn money along the way—not an easy thing in the 1920’s and 30’s. Since he was able and willing he found work as a ranch hand, miner, sailor and sometimes amateur boxer. He traveled extensively in the western part of the United States as well as overseas. He often asked locals about the history of the area wherever he was. He listened to the gunfighters, lawmen and cowboys who had lived the stories of the Old West firsthand. He explored the towns, mountains and country sides of those old stories. This level of immersion into history and geography helped him write incredible, page-turning novels later in his life. L’Amour said, “No matter where you go, east, west, north, and south, there are stories. People are forever asking me where I get my ideas, but one has only to look, and to live with awareness. All men look, but so few can see.”

Another way L’Amour continued his education was reading. He had books with him wherever he went. He frequented libraries and also spent some of whatever money he earned along the way to buy books. He often read over 100 books per year. By the time he wrote Education of a Wandering Man he had amassed a personal library of over 10,000 of his favorite books. Of course he also wrote 86 novels, 16 short story collections and 3 nonfiction books of his own! Not bad for a high school dropout.

Here are a few more Louis L’Amour quotes to think about this week:

• “A book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”
• “One becomes a writer by writing.”
• “I do not believe the human mind has any limits but those we impose ourselves.”

As you probably know by now, I’m a huge advocate of books, lifelong learning and self-education. I partially credit Louis L’Amour books for my love of reading. I read many of his novels in high school. I also read the Narnia books, Hardy boys, Nancy Drew and a smattering of non-fiction. Any kind of books are useful to get a person into the habit. I now read a ton of non-fiction(18 books so far this year). I’d like to tell you that I gained my financial freedom by reading books. But sadly, I dragged my wife through many lessons the hard way. Don’t follow my path, follow my advice. Read the books. There are MUCH easier ways to financial freedom than the challenges I took on. As L’Amour says of learning the hard way, “I believe adventure is nothing but a romantic name for trouble.”

The following is an excerpt from Ben Franklin’s Guide To Productivity–the new book I posted on Kindle this week. I hope you find it useful food for thought.

Choose your friends carefully

The rotten Apple spoils his Companion. [Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736]

Just as one rotten apple in a bushel basket will soon cause other apples to become rotten, so one rotten person will soon cause other people around him to be rotten.

This affects our productivity more than we realize. If we hang around successful people who are busy improving the world or at least their world, we’ll be more motivated and likely to be busy improving our world. If those we hang out with aren’t very motivated, optimistic, or hard working, it will be very hard to stay motivated, optimistic and on task. We won’t receive encouragement to keep up the good fight. Quite the contrary. They won’t understand why you would want to work hard or why you don’t share their perspective on things. Slowly and often subconsciously, we begin to adopt the viewpoints of our peers.

Stay away from rotten apples. Instead, intentionally seek out like-minded people to spend time with. You’ll advance your career much faster and have more fun in the process. You’ll get far more done, and your new friends will help keep you on track by challenging you to work on your most important and valuable priorities.

As Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Action: List your current five closest friends. Are they helping you move toward your goals? List the five people – you may not know them yet, so feel free to list the characteristics – you need to surround yourself with to be more productive. If your two lists match, congratulations. If not, figure out how to spend more time with people on the second list.

I’m not starting the year as quickly as I had hoped in the writing area. I’ve had this little book written for a few months and finally got it cleaned up and uploaded to Amazon. Same format as Ben Franklin’s Guide to Financial Freedom. Short chapters to give some food for thought each day. If you haven’t read that one, shame on you! Just kidding. Your procrastination paid off. This week (Monday through Friday) Ben Franklin’s Guide to Financial Freedom kindle version is free on Amazon.

While you’re at it spend the $.99 for Ben Franklin’s Guide To Productivity and let me know what you think. Better yet, leave a review on Amazon and let everyone know what you think.

Have a great week!

I finally found my theme for 2016. While watching an Inside Quest video this morning, I heard Tony Robbins say “don’t be an f’n dabbler!” and I was instantly convicted. If that quote offends you, try this one from the Bible…”whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might.”

In other words, don’t be a “jack of all trades, master of none.” I’m guilty of this WAY TOO OFTEN!

In this same interview Tony Robbins goes on to say “There’s a power in mastery.” He talks about how progress equals happiness. If we stop every time something gets difficult and don’t continue progressing toward mastery we’ll never find happiness. Mastery takes real work. Real work keeps going past the easy parts. Hours upon hours upon hours of practice.

Last night I had the privilege of watching someone who has mastered his craft. My family sat in the front row at an Adam Trent show. Adam is a very talented illusionist and entertainer. Adam has been practicing his craft for years and years. One result is that he captured the attention of hundreds of people in the audience. Ninety minutes seemed to fly by in an instant. Another result of his hours and hours of practice was that his slight of hand acts truly seemed magical. As I watched trick after trick from only 15 feet away I couldn’t figure most of them out. Even the ones where I knew what he was doing were nearly impossible to detect. In fact, in one act I was right on stage with him with the cards in my own pocket and missed the switch. The number of hours required to pull those tricks off and then more hours necessary to be an entertaining presence on stage are mind boggling. He did say he didn’t have girlfriends in high school. He wasn’t dabbling in magic. He was and is all in. Sacrifice is required to be a master of anything. But there are rewards. A line of people after the show wanted pictures with him. They waited so they could thank him and buy his DVD’s. And that was just in our little town. He’s on Broadway now.

What will you master?

1. Find something worth throwing yourself into. Something you’ll stick with through the tough parts.
2. Model the best. Who has mastered something you respect? How did they get there? Personal development philosopher Jim Rohn said, “success leaves clues.”
3. Stay at it. Keep progressing. Bill Gates says, “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

What will you work on that will move you closer to financial freedom and living the life you choose?

This week I’m working to finalize my next little book, Ben Franklin’s Guide to Productivity. The following is an excerpt from one of the chapters:

 
Easier said than Done

‘Tis easy to frame a good bold resolution;
But hard is the task that concerns execution. (Poor Richards Almanack, 1743)

New Year’s resolutions have become a joke in many circles. We have the best intentions when we make the list of tasks we’ll accomplish, the amount weight we’ll lose, the books we’ll read, and the people we’ll meet. Sadly, by February most of us have completely given up and forgotten all about those resolutions.

If you struggle with implementing your New Years’ resolutions list, try the following at the start of a new year—or at any time of year.

I start by choosing the one thing on my list that would mean the most to accomplish, and which I can accomplish in a relatively short period of time. I have big goals like becoming a millionaire, rearing kids who grow to be well-adjusted, independent adults, and spending winters in Florida, but most of those big goals make lousy New Year’s resolutions because they can’t be accomplished within a few months!

Sometimes I have a few goals for my career, my finances, my family, etc. Some people use complex philosophies or formulas to select goals for different areas of their lives. They then pick goals for each. This is too much for me. I find more than three goals at a time is too distracting. One main goal is best for me.

I like using the SMART acronym for testing my goal:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Results-oriented
Time-bound

Having pictured a successful outcome and assigned a timeline, I dive in. Ideally the goal is something I can take action on at least once a week. If possible, break tasks down to daily actions. This keeps positive momentum going. Do at least one thing to move your project forward each day.

The other tip that works well for me is to have someone you can talk to at least once a week who will encourage you, sometimes kick your butt, but never discourage you from finishing your quest. You have to be very careful about this. Even your best friends can get jealous if you’re taking on new challenges and growing. They may not intend to, but they may say things that will cause you to lose excitement about your goal. If you ever find that happening, IMMEDIATELY find someone else to keep you on task. You can talk with that person about other things, but you have to know who will push you forward and who—even subconsciously—wants you to stay where you are and who you are. This has been a big one for me. Seems like so many people have a vested interest, directly or indirectly, in our decisions. Listen politely, but trust only yourself.

If you pick resolutions you are passionate about, you CAN and WILL execute. After you have a few of these under your belt, it may begin to be addictive. You will be a Get It Done person!

Action: Take the time to think through some things that you’ve been wanting to do. What would move your big goals forward? Pick something that would push you to get it done in less than a year, but that is realistic. Now come up with a plan to make that project happen by your due date. Break it down into milestones if necessary. How will you celebrate achieving this goal? Take action!

Thank you so much for taking the survey and replying to my question last week about whether or not to share goals publicly. The overwhelming response was “share selectively.” Specific comments included:

• “Sharing gives you support and accountability. But with those you have relationships with, not the world.”
• “It depends on the goals. Some it helps to be more open with (weight loss), some it may be better to keep closer to your vest (some financial info, some personal goals or family goals).”
• “’Test market’ your ideas to people you trust, get feedback, refine, and then test again to a larger audience.”
• “If you’ve agreed with another individual(s) to tell each other your goals and hold each other accountable for achievement of those goals, it seems like a good idea. Otherwise, it does open the door for unwanted criticism beforehand or loss of credibility afterward if you fail to attain announced goals.”

Based on your feedback, I’ve decided to test by posting a couple of my six-month goals here. Six-months is a timeframe that allows realistic, achievable goals. I have ideas about what I’d like to accomplish or where I’d like to be in five years, but life happens in unexpected ways. It’s difficult to follow that long a path step by step(at least for me). So here are a couple of my six-month goals…

In six months I will have:

1. Written and published 5 mini-books. Having spent so many years in the publishing industry, it’s been fun to begin experiencing the author side of the publishing equation.
   • I’ve already put one out…Ben Franklin’s Guide to Financial Freedom
   • The second will be available this month…Ben Franklin’s Guide to Productivity
   • That leaves 3 more to write and publish in the next 6 months. A doable goal. Now that I’ve told you, I’ll be sure to hit that goal.
2. Written for 6 blogs or magazines. One strategy for gaining credibility as a writer as well as growing the list of people to communicate with regularly is to write for other blogs, magazines and websites.
   • This will be more of a stretch. At this point I’ve written for exactly 0 outside of my own blog.
   • I’ve learned some different tactics from Sue Anne Dunlevie and Kimanzi Constable. Now I’m ready to practice what they teach.

What goals are you working on? At least the ones you’re comfortable sharing.