The Goal Kicker – May 2010 Edition

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:

• A review of the “Goals On Track” goal tracking software
• ToolBOX Talk – a great new tool for kids, submitted by one of our readers
• A review of the book “Cell Phone Etiquette”, by Michelle Cimino
• A review of the updated Brian Tracy website

Are your Goals on Track for 2010?

One of the most common failures of goal setting is not monitoring your progress against your goals. Why? Because without tracking progress, there’s no real way of knowing whether you’re actually achieving your goals – and more often than not, things will slip.

You can track your goals using manual task lists, a diary, post-it notes or even a mind map, but one of the most effective methods is to use computer based software and productivity tools.

There are heaps of tools you can try – but today we’ll just discuss one: Goals On Track.

Goals On Track is a free web based goal setting and tracking site which lets you set your own goals online and helps you to achieve them by keeping track of your progress using real-time graphs, statistics and even by sending you daily reminders of what tasks are due, over-due and imminent. It also allows you to upload inspirational images with your goals to trigger your goal setting enthusiasm and motivate you to achieve.

We tried out the program to see how it fares – and here’s what we found:

• It has a great Intuitive Design which makes it simple to create new goals or tasks, manage your task list and track your progress. And the dashboard gives you a snap-shot of all your current goals and your progress using red percentage graphics so you can easily see where you’re on track and where you’re not.
• Setting even detailed goals is easy, as you can assign as many tasks to each goal as you need to get them done. And we all know that the best way to achieve complex goals is to break them down into bite-size pieces, and this program allows you to do that easily and then by tracking your progress on each task, you can also see how you’re progressing towards the main goal.
• There’s a Goal measurement and time tracking function that you can use to keep track of goal progress and time spent on your goals. This information is useful not just for your current goal, but it gives you better perspective for setting time frames and measurements for future goals, making them more realistic and achievable.
• The comprehensive graphs on goal progress are great for giving you a visual representation of your goals and help you keep a track of where you’re up to. This feature gives you real progress of each active goal and highlights the progress made each day, week and also for longer time frames. The goal status icon shows the progress of each goal and which ones are on track and which ones are behind.
• The program issues Automated daily emails listing your goals and tasks for the day, which tasks are overdue and which goals or tasks are coming up. These are great little reminders to keep you on track and keep your mind focused on what’s important to get done NOW, without worrying that you’re going to forget what tasks are coming up.

So if you’re struggling to keep on top of your goals for 2010, don’t put them off until 2011 – try goal setting software like Goals On Track and see for yourself the positive difference it will make to your goal achievement.

New Tool for Kids!

Thanks to one of our readers – Susan – who submitted this great tool for kids!

Susan wanted a way to keep track of her daughters interests, so she could help them follow their dreams and goals. Afterall, if you know what interests your children you are much better able to connect with them as well as help them with their life goals.

So Susan put together this little booklet for parents to record it all – dreams, activities, sports, movies, books and so on. Her concept for this booklet is illustrated here: My Journey Concept – it’s a bit like a mind map, which I think is an excellent way to sort your thoughts…

You can download this little booklet (it’s FREE) here: My Journey

Susan would love to get some feedback on her booklet, so if you’d like to provide some comments you can either use the feedback form on our website and we’ll pass it onto her, or email Susan on sgauvin@mail.com

And of course, we’d love to promote YOUR tool too! So if you have a goal setting or personal development related tool you’d like to share, then send it in!

Some Light-Hearted Reading on Cell Phone Etiquette

Do you have a cell (mobile)-phone obsessed teenager? Or perhaps you know someone who needs to brush up on their cellphone etiquette – or learn it from scratch!

From the author of NETiquette (a guide to On-Line Etiquette) by Michelle Cimino comes this light-hearted look at the etiquette missing from today’s cellphone users. As well as the DO’s and DON’T’s of cell phone use, the book contains humorous stories and anecdotes from Michelle’s own observations of cell phone use by her teenage children, which leads to practical advice on good cell phone etiquette.

It also includes a Texting Quick Reference Acronym list (in case you still don’t know what LOL means) and how to make those emotion symbols like :) and more…

Best of all though, Michelle’s honest sense of humour makes the book enjoyable to read – even your teenagers will love it!

This book would make a great gift for anyone with a cell-phone, or just something to give you a smile and good laugh :)

Visit Michelle’s website for details.

Brian Tracy Update

And now he's onto something big...

He's revealing his exact step-by-step method guaranteed to increase sales and profitability in your business, AND he's personalizing it for YOU.

Click here to learn more.

How's he doing it? He's offering a business assessment - a complete diagnostic tool for your business. The same tool he's used in consulting sessions that's he's charged $25,000 a day for. But for you, it's at no cost.

Click here to take the Assessment.

This offer is only for a select few and I encourage you to take advantage of it while it lasts. So take a minute and see what kind of improvements you can make in your business and life.

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.