March 01, 2009
The Goal Kicker – March 2009
Welcome to this month’s edition of “The Goal Kicker” – the monthly ezine produced by achieve-goal-setting-success.com - dedicated to helping you achieve your goals by providing goal setting related articles and reviews of the latest goal setting products available.
In this edition you’ll find:
- An article on “The Importance of Life Planning”
- A review of the software“NovaMind Mapping” , and a FREE E-Course on the ‘how-to’ of mind mapping
- A review of the book “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”, by Susan Jeffers
- A review of this month’s Featured Link to www.comotivate.com
- ToolBOX Talk – the new ”Financial Series” E-Courses (also FREE)
- Our inspirational quote of the month explained.
Yours truly,
Sam Sander
Achieve Goal Setting Success
Your Money and Finance
The Success Squid
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”The Importance of life planning”
What’s this article about?Human life is an incredible journey. It is exciting, challenging and at the same time, it is stressful and full of surprises. In life, uncertainty is there. If you can manage the level of uncertainty from life through a proper planning process, success is yours!
Here’s the Article…
It is true that, after a major life event, your financial needs may change. Therefore financial planning is an essential part of life planning. In general, life planning may include the following events.
1. Getting a permanent job
2. Getting married or establishing a loving relationship
3. Buying a home for the family
4. Raising a family
5. Retirement
But there are many many other milestones along the way. And the events and milestones that you include in your life plan, are different to everyone else’s because your life is yours.
Every one must plan ahead. The above events are examples of what could be included in your life planning. And to achieve your target, small details should not be overlooked. As goal setting forms and templates are available from our website, anyone can prepare a life planning chart using these tools.
Marriage is a big event in life. It changes your financial situation, social status and brings a lot of responsibilities. Therefore proper planning is required to tackle this step. One needs to have sufficient financial security before marriage. And this doesn’t come in one day. Therefore, you should plan ahead so that when the money is required, you don’t have to borrow it from somebody else.
And who doesn’t want to buy a house? Though buying a house is a dream that everybody holds, a small portion of those people actually can buy a house. If proper life planning is done in advance, then things become easier.
Raising a family is not an easy job. Determination is required. Goal setting is must. You should set goals in advance and step ahead. If the goals are well sought out and realistic, you will achieve the goals in due time, that is for sure. Even the number of children that you will have in life should be planned as well. Some people make decisions without considering the future and make mistakes.
Saving for your children’s’ education requires some pre-planning as well. These days, college and university education have become quite expensive. When children enter colleges, most parents do not have enough money to back them up. But if proper life planning is done, there will be no problem.
And then there’s retirement. You spend your whole life planning for events along the way, and you need to spend your whole life planning for retirement too so you can live your final phase of your life in the lifestyle you want.
There are books and tools available to help you understand how to set and achieve goals. Reading these books and using the tools are indeed a good idea to get a better hold of the situation. Additionally, goal setting forms and templates help people to stay focused.
Life has become quite complicated these days. Without proper life planning and goal setting, it will be rather tough to succeed in life. If you know how to set and achieve goals, it becomes easier to handle future uncertainties.
No matter what the future holds, if life planning is done properly, then life will be fulfilled with satisfactions. Achievement and success will come in due time.
You can plan your own life using the FREE Life Planning Workbook and supporting tools.
And refer to the ”Goal Setting” tab on the NavBar for more information on how to set and achieve goals.
Product of the Month – “NovaMind Mapping Software” and FREE E-Course
You may recall we introduced the concept of mind mapping in our August 2008 edition of the Goal Kicker, where we also featured mind mapping software from NovaMind. Concept or Mind Map is a useful tool not only for goal setting but for planning of any home or work project – and you can prepare one on the back of an envelop, on a whiteboard or in a notebook.Or you can use software like NovaMind, which is an excellent graphical tool for mind mapping and works wonderfully simply in a way that almost hides its complexity and wealth of intuitive features. And best of all, you can get a 30 day free (and obligation and risk free) trail – just click here.
Now, in this edition of the Goal Kicker we want to introduce something new from NovaMind – their FREE 14 part video E-Course. And if you want to learn how to use Mind Mapping techniques effectively – whether you use their software or do your mind maps by hand - then you must register for this FREE Video Training Course. It goes through the 18 main uses of Mind Mapping and gives you in depth information about how to benefit from using Mind Mapping for each of those purposes.
The course covers:
- How to take notes effectively using Mind Mapping
- How to prepare and deliver great presentations using Mind Mapping techniques
- How to create Mind Mapped to do lists
- Problem solving using Mind Maps - from simple to complex problems
- Decision making - how to make great decisions confidently, no matter how difficult the decision is
- Information and knowledge management and how to get the most out of what you know
- Project planning and management using Mind Maps
- Creative thinking and brainstorming
- How to write articles, technical documents and books using Mind Maps
- Business and strategic planning using Mind Maps
- Life management and goal setting
NovaMind has also written a comprehensive book on the ‘HOW TO’ of mind mapping. This book is not just for NovaMind mapping software but is designed for anyone who needs to be more organized and efficient at life or who is looking for something to help them with their problem solving or pitching ideas. The book does refer to the NovaMind software for examples, but you can apply the principles in this book to other mind mapping software and to the good old hand drawn versions too!
You can get a copy of the book here.
Mind Mapping on your iPhone or iPod
And for all you iPhone and iPod addicts out there, it is now possible to prepare mind maps on your portable with iBlueSky Mind Mapping for iPhone and iPod Touch integration with NovaMind.
The first release of the integration is being rolled out in two stages - firstly with the ability to create your Mind Maps in iBlueSky and send them as NovaMind files that you can open up directly in NovaMind to use the full power of NovaMind. The second stage is expected to be available soon, and will include the ability to also send a NovaMind file to iBlueSky, so there will be a two way round trip possible between the two applications.
Having a great Mind Mapping application in your pocket, available at any time is great for ad-hoc Mind Mapping, making your to-do list on the go, brainstorming new ideas wherever you are, taking notes in meetings, and so on.
But the real power comes in when you combine it with a fully featured Mind Mapping program like NovaMind so that you can enhance the Mind Maps with great graphics, full color control, different branch shapes, and add to the depth of the data with branch notes, hyperlinks to web pages and other supporting documents, as well as task information, and you have all the ways of using the Mind Maps like using the NovaMind presenter, exporting to MS Word, Powerpoint, Keynote, Merlin, MS Project etc.
Refer to the ”Software” and ”Systems” tabs on the NavBar for more reviews on other goal setting software and systems available.
Book of the Month – “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”, by Susan Jeffers
In today’s’ troubled economic climate, it’s easy to feel fear for the future and worst still it’s easy to let fear paralyse you and stop you moving forward into the future. And this is the worst thing you can do. The future will happen – with or without you. Don’t get left behind because of fear.
“Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” by Susan Jeffers is a book of advice on how to cope with fear of various kinds, such as public speaking, self-assertion, decision-making, intimacy, being alone, ageing, the future, losing a loved one, and ending a relationship.
Jeffers discusses the crippling effects of fear in her personal life and explains how she formulated a course of action for conquering it. Her answers are simple, her course of action difficult only because it requires courage. She explains how fear is based on the uncertainty of change – and this is one of the biggest fears facing our world at the moment – the changing economic climate and what that means for your own personal finances.
There is no psychological lingo - just case studies, simple explanations and a clear-cut action plan that, when followed, should help you unlearn your misconceptions about fear and replace them with attitudes of strength and conviction.
The book is also available as an 8 CD set – just search through Amazon!
Featured Link of the month - www.comotivate.com
I get asked a lot of questions about how to stay motivated to achieve goals. And one of the recommendations I religiously give is to find someone to share and support your goal setting journey – a friend, a loved one or a work colleague.But what if you can’t find someone? Or you don’t want to burden your mates with your goals (particularly if it is a little sensitive)?
Well there is another option - www.comotivate.com.
CoMotivate is your goal setting E-buddy where you can find someone who is just like you and who is striving to achieve the same goal. You can track and share progress with more confidence and work together with your perfect E-buddy to keep each other motivated and on track to achieving your goals.
You can also join teams of like minded goal setters, where you can share your experiences and advice on your wins and your losses towards your goal, and get advice from other members of the team.
CoMotivate has goal setting teams and buddies in all life aspects you can think of - quitting habits, losing or gaining weight, getting fit and healthy, finding happiness, passing exams, reducing debt, preparing for an event, starting a business, getting a job, learning a skill and even reducing your carbon footprint.
So what are your goals? Who do you have in your support network? Do you need an E-Buddy to help you achieve your goals – if so then check out www.comotivate.com.
ToolBOX Talk – the new ‘Financial Series’ E-Courses
The ToolBOX on the website contains FREE forms, templates and worksheets for all your goal setting needs.You’ll also fin a range of E-Courses on goal setting and 2 new ones on how to manage your finances!
The first E-Course is the ”The Belt Tightener” E-Course. We all need to reign in our expenditure from time to time and “The Belt Tightener” E-Course that steps you through over 100 ways to save money is just the tool to give you a helping hand.
Just register at our sister site here.
Each lesson of this 7 part E-Course gets you to focus on a different aspect of your spending, and provides tips and techniques to help you save money. Topics covered include:
- Shopping habits and spending priorities
- Saving money on utilities – power and water – and save the environment too!
- Making your grocery budget go further
- Dealing with pester power – how you can save money with your kids and why it’s good for them too!
- Saving money on transport
- Optimizing your insurances, loans and other contracts
- How you can actually enjoy frugal living!
So, register now and start tightening that money belt today!
Or you can try the ”Healthy Finances” E-Course. The Healthy Finances E-Course helps you work through the foundations of good, solid personal finance by helping you understand the basics – budgeting, saving, debt management, investments and more. And the best part about it is that it’s FREE!
Just register at our sister site here.
Each lesson of this 7 part E-Course gets you to focus on a different aspect of your personal finance, and steps you through the basic processes of managing your finances. Topics covered include:
- Mastering the basics of personal finance – it’s not rocket science!
- How to prepare a personal budget – and what you need to do next
- How to manage debt and prepare your own debt reduction strategy
- Assets and wealth protection for holistic personal finance
- Investments and planning for retirement
- How to make more money if you need to
- Summarise and recap.
For more information on all things financial, refer to the ”Your Money and Finance” website.
Have you got a better goal setting tool that you’d like to share with the world? Well, send it in and we’ll add it to the ToolBOX – kudos to you of course!
Our Quote of the Month – explained…
“The Best way to Predict the Future is to Create it.”This is a very apt quote for this month. Many people I talk to are concerned about the future, and understandably so. The recent economic turmoil has sent so many people packing back to their proverbial comfort zones, where just economic survival is now the top goal on everyone’s goal sheet.
And we DO need to make sure our families and finances are looked after in these times, but we also need to keep the future in our minds too. In a way, this economic crisis is an opportunity to look at our lives and look to the future and plan our way through.
You can’t predict the future – afterall, not many people saw this crisis coming – but you still DO have control over your own future. So use this opportunity to re-evaluate your life goals – what do you really want? What is REALLY important to you and your family?
And how do you go about achieving this future? What steps do you need to take, and more importantly, what is the first step you need to take to secure your future. Now take this step.
The way I see it is you have 2 choices in the face of adversity – you can crumble into a wreck and incite sympathy for your losses, or you can rise from the ashes like the phoenix and come out of this crisis stronger and more determined, despite the odds. Psychologists will often report that people who adopt a ‘victim’ mentality won’t recover from adversity. However people who adopt a ‘survivor’ mentality will overcome life’s hurdles and will ultimately be the victors.
So be a survivor in this crisis, not a victim. And use this opportunity to plan and create the future YOU want.
Well, that’s all for now!
But don’t worry, the next edition of “The Goal Kicker” is only a month away.
We would love to get your feedback on “The Goal Kicker”– what do you like? What don’t you like? - so we can make it even better.
Catch you next month!