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live life on purpose work at what you love follow your own road
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   Changing Course Newsletter: Issue 14Date: Mar 1, 2001Subject: Changing Course Newsletter: Issue 14 Changing Course Newsletter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ Issue 14 - March 1, 2001 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by Changing Course http://www.ChangingCourse.com Dedicated to helping you: ~ Live Life on Purpose ~ Work at What You Love ~ Follow Your Own Road Barbara Sher, author of "I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was," calls Changing Course "wonderful, inspired and informative." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE FOR THE DAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best. ~Napoleon Hill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THIS ISSUE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ LETTERS FROM FELLOW TRAVELERS ON THE ROAD TO RIGHT LIVELIHOOD ~ FROM TIME MANAGEMENT TO FOCUS MANAGEMENT Some thoughts from Dreamer-in-Residence Valerie Young ~ FEATURE ARTICLE Preparing For Your Startup Venture ~ INSPIRATION TO FOLLOW YOUR BLISS Words to Live By ~ LIVE YOUR DREAM MARKETPLACE Products and services you might like to know about ~ FEATURED RESOURCE OF THE WEEK Free Consulting for Aspiring Entrepreneurs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LETTERS FROM FELLOW TRAVELERS ON THE ROAD TO RIGHT LIVELIHOOD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Valerie, As I was reading a back issue of the Changing Course Newsletter , I had a thought from my aviation background that I think is very applicable to this process of "changing course." Perhaps you are aware of this, but there is an instrument called the Course Deviation Indicator (CDI). When you are some distance from the desired course, the needle swings very little, if at all, as you make heading corrections. But, when you get closer, the needle begins to swing more and faster, letting you know you are getting very close. It is a great feeling to make that final heading correction and find yourself right on course with the needle centered in the middle of the instrument. I think this analogy and same feeling could apply to "changing course" in real life. Early input does not provide immediate results, but if you stay on your heading the "needle will center" and the feeling will be great. Best Regards, Steve Tolley CSA,Ltd./Kuwait ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FROM TIME MANAGEMENT TO FOCUS MANAGEMENT Some thoughts from Dreamer-in-Residence Valerie Young ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First I would like to once again thank to Steve for sharing this wonderfully on-target analogy. It is easy to get discouraged when the goal seems so far away. Yet, when we do "stay the course" by pursuing our dreams the destination is well worth the trip. Steve also sent in what I consider to be an essential "best practice" of changing course. After reading the booklet, "10 Steps to Escaping the Job World," he says he was inspired to add a "10 Step" section to his daily planner giving him a handy place to begin capturing thoughts and ideas for each step. Once again, Steve is right on track! Don't have a daily planner? Then carry a small note pad or set up a section in your palm device or a file on your computer. Looking for a truly great planner AND a process that can help you to achieve your goals with less stress? A couple of times a month I hit the road to conduct a workshop called Staying on Top of Your Workload offered by a great company called Time/Design - and a former employer. (Another changing course best practice: Never burn those bridges!) For the record, I have ABSOLUTELY no financial incentive what so ever for recommending Time/Design. Even if I didn't have a professional freelance relationship with Time/Design I would still believe it to be the best there is. What makes the Time/Design System worthy of a capital "S" is that it goes beyond traditional time management. You've hear it before: You cannot manage your time, you can only manage yourself. But beyond this, with so much more competing for our attention these days, the real challenge, at least for me, is one of Focus Management. The Time/Design System helps busy people master five essential Self-Management, or if you will, Focus Management Practices. Namely: 1. Free your mind 2. Focus on the BIG picture 3. Manage the details 4. Seal the cracks 5. Make success routine Some of the thousands of participants I've had the pleasure of working with signed up for one of the many public workshops Time/Design holds in major cities in the US and Canada. Others come to in-house workshops sponsored by their employers. I've had the good fortune to meet managers and professionals from organizations as diverse as the Institute for East-West Studies, Fleet, QVC, SmithKline Beecham, Presbyterian Hospital, Smith & Hawken, and the US Navy. Common to all workshop participants is the challenge of trying to constantly juggle three things: Commitments, communication and information. Let's take a brief look at each of these areas: 1) Commitments. Arguably, your highest commitment is to yourself. No one is going to take care of your health but you. No one is going to attend to your spiritual and emotional well-being but you. No one is going to achieve your goals or make your dreams a reality but you. You also have an obligation to follow through on commitments made to others - your employer, coworkers, staff, clients/customers, loved ones. Finally here, you need to stay on top of outstanding commitments made by others; because when someone else "drops the ball," it can wind up wasting your valuable time and brain cells! In my experience, the Time/Design System works best for people who have lots of plates - projects, clients, initiatives, etc. - spinning at the same time. For people with far simpler lives, a calendar and note pad is sufficient. 2) Communication. It's coming at us from all sides in the form of voicemail, e-mail, the phone and those "got a minute" interruptions from others (not to mention how often we interrupt ourselves to check our e-mail, pop over to someone desk and the like). Too often we let these communication vehicles rob our attention from far more important commitments - like creating your own changing course plan! 3) Information. According to Katherine Alesandrini, author of Survive Information Overload, people waste, on average, 45 minutes a day looking for misplaced information. By centralizing key information such as project plans, ideas, client info, meeting notes, computer passwords, contact information AND all those great changing course plans, ideas and reflections - Alesandrini says you can reclaim much of that lost time. Just as Steve did with his organizer, I made changing my life course a "project" by first dedicating a section of my Time/Design System to my changing course plan. In fact, while still the director of training at Time/Design, I would sometimes be sitting in a staff meeting when inspiration would strike. Not wanting to lose the thought, I'd quietly flip to that section of planner. My then boss assumed I was capturing his every word. Truth be known, I was discretely jotting down a to-do that would ultimately lead me to blissful self-employment. (The key words here folks is "discrete!") Even though I am no longer an employee, I continue to work with Time/Design because for me, their System has proved to be far more effective than the calendaring approach of my previous organizer. What first impressed me about Time/Design is that it is a SO MUCH more than a calendar. What I have come to learn is that whether it is in paper or electronic form, the daily page is the most abused page/screen in anyone's personal organizer! In fact, when the Time/Design System was created in Denmark over 20 years ago (for you international readers, the company is known as Time/system outside the US and Canada), incredibly, there was NO calendar in the original version. The calendar portion was actually an afterthought! Used by over a million people in 28 countries, I believe Time/Design offers a great alternative to the maddening "roll those unfinished to-dos to the next day's calendar" approach advocated by Franklin Covey, Daytimer and other personal organizers. This is important when you consider that 80-95% of all the "stuff" on a person's To-Do list are not tasks they must "do on" a particular day, but rather are "due by..." some future date and time. If you'd like to learn more about what Time/Design is all about visit http://www.timedesign.com But whether your tool of choice is Time/Design or a note pad, the important thing is to have a centralized place to download all of those creative ideas and next actions from your head and onto paper or, as we teach in the Time/Design workshop, "If you "think it, ink it." Borrowing from Steve's flight instrument analogy, the momentum alone can be enough to get your "inspiration needle" swinging! And, if you happen to find your way to one of Time/Design's Staying on Top of Your Workload seminars at which I am the workshop leader, leading (in the next two months I'll be in Springfield and Boston, MA, Philadelphia and Baltimore) be sure to come up and introduce yourself as an Changing Course Newsletter subscriber (I promise not to tell your boss)! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FEATURE ARTICLE Preparing For Your Startup Venture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Charlene Rashkow, Copyright 2000 When you awoke this morning, you found yourself buzzing with a fantastic idea for starting a new business and you hadn't a doubt in your mind that you could turn it into a huge success. Now what? All those great ideas floating around in your head and you're excited about making them happen, but at the moment you don't feel nearly prepared. What is the first thing you should do as you contemplate your plan of action? The best suggestion I can make that will certainly pay off in the long run and probably will be the most effective strategy at this stage in the game would be to start writing things down. Even if the thoughts that occur to you seem insignificant at the moment, keep your ideas in a simple notebook so that when you're ready to prepare your plan, all your ideas are ready to go and in one place. It is amazing how quickly you can forget something that you thought would stay with you forever, so keep notes on all your ideas. I can't count the times I didn't write something down immediately upon thinking of it and later couldn't remember it no matter how hard I tried. Now I make it a point, even if the idea occurs in the middle of the night, to quickly jot a few words down on a paper kept beside my bed. Even if it's just a few brief terms, those few words will jolt your memory and bring the idea to the forefront when you're ready to address it. The next step would be to start preparation for a business plan. Whether you are applying for a loan, seeking investors or are going to present your idea to other business associates you need a well thought out plan. No one will take you seriously unless you have this. Furthermore, your plan will not only be utilized for presentation purposes, but it will in addition make your idea a reality. This crucial and important step of preparing a business plan, allows you to see your ideas take form, and what better way than in a precise and organized plan? I promise you, once you see your plan in print, you'll be provided with the impetus needed to forge ahead. At this point you are probably thinking that you have no idea where to start your plan or even what it should include. A good place to start, as with any other objective, is to construct a summary of what your plan will contain. Create a table of contents that includes whatever you think your plan should encompass. In all likelihood your plan will contain an objective, an executive summary, your product, marketing strategies, target market, competition, financial analysis and profiles of the key decision-makers. There may be other aspects that should be included in the plan but for now, the above mentioned are the primary ingredients for a good plan. You might also consider seeking the counsel of an attorney to be sure your plan and business venture is legal. What a disappointment it would be if you put a lot of hard work into your plan and later found out that some important legality was missing, requiring you to start over from scratch. In addition, the services of an accountant are of vital importance. Unless you are prepared to construct spreadsheets and graphs explaining how you intend to use your money and what projections you have for the future, you might want to hire someone who knows all the financial ins and outs of a business. I believe you now have a good beginning for organizing your new start-up venture. When your plan is complete, make sure there are no typos or grammatical errors. Perhaps you might want to have someone you trust review it before submitting it for consideration. In any event, good luck with your new venture and may your business become a huge success. Charlene Rashkow is a Writing Stylist who spends the majority of her time writing business plans, marketing strategies, promotional material, web site content, special letters, manuscripts, resumes and articles of interest for hundreds of professionals. She has just completed the editing of a manuscript for two Registered Nurses focusing on complimentary therapies. Contact Charlene at: Crwriting@aol.com or on-line at http://www.allyourwritingneeds.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Changing Course Newsletter is always on the lookout for articles on career/life change, following a dream, work/life balance, running a successful business, etc. Articles should be 400-700 words and include up to a 6-line bio (70 characters per line not counting your URL). Send your article to editor@habitinstitute.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INSPIRATION TO FOLLOW YOUR BLISS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure. ~ George Sand It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin You have to believe that the universe will provide. ~ Steve Crosby ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |