The Life Purpose Project

Get Something Done!!

2009-07-31T10:27:00.002-04:00

See "And the Pursuit of Happiness" by Maira Kalman, and be inspired to create. Have a happy day!

Influences

2009-06-11T15:03:00.003-04:00

New project here at LPP - I'm writing prominent people and asking them what books have had the most influence on their lives, their career choices, and how they view their lives. How did their reading choices change them? What book had the biggest influence on them?

I'm curious to hear what reading choices you've made that have had the biggest impact on who you are and what you're doing now? Please comment here, share with us. I'm pondering what books I'd put on my own list, as I read 2-3 books per week and that's a lot of books to choose from.

Happy reading!

Guest Article: 6-Steps Goal Achievers Take To Make Things Happen

2009-06-08T19:13:00.003-04:00

6-Steps Goal Achievers Take To Make Things Happen
by Ilene Meckley

The other day a friend gave me a “Goal Achiever Planner” that has been used for many years as part of a business course at Yale University. He told me a similar “Planner” is used by Zig Ziglar and a number of high-achieving individuals in both business and education.

I offer this “Planner” to you with examples taken from direct sales. I hope you find it useful.

Step 1: Select a goal you really want. A goal needs to be realistic, attainable, and yet make you stretch. For example, a direct seller may decide to sponsor one new recruit a month during the next twelve months. That goal is very realistic, certainly attainable, and if you have not yet recruited someone into your team, a challenge that will make you stretch a bit. If you’re already a champion recruiter, increase your sponsoring average by twenty-five percent!

Step 2: Set a deadline for achievement. In our example, the “deadline” comes in twelve months. Whatever goal you determine to pursue, always have a deadline. Without deadlines, we seldom achieve our goals.

Step 3: Determine obstacles to overcome: The quest for any worthwhile goal will likely involve challenges and obstacles. In growing a team, a direct seller may lament, “I don’t know enough people.” Another may question, “How will I meet people interested in my business opportunity?” Regardless of the challenge you face, identifying the concern is the first step in overcoming it. Need to meet more people? Hold more parties. Wherever you go during a typical day, there are people. Talk to everyone you meet. Some are seeking the opportunity you offer.

Step 4: Obtain the knowledge and skills you require. In direct sales, there’s help just about everywhere. Work with your upline manager, take advantage of meetings, seminars, and conferences offered by your company, read books, and listen to audio CDs. Study others to learn the “words” that can help you share your business opportunity with others.

Step 5: Create a Plan of Action: Once you have a goal, a deadline, have an idea of what obstacles may need to be overcome, and are working to expand your knowledge and sharpen your skills, create a plan of action. In our sponsoring example, a direct seller’s plan of action could include booking three parties a week, following up with at least five recruit prospects each week, or calling at least five new contacts a day.

Step 6: Grasp the Benefits. The final step is the “pot of gold” at the end of your business “rainbow.” Plant firmly in your mind the benefits of achieving your goal. It may be increased income for yourself and your family. It could be cash to send a child to college. Having a goal is good. Realizing the benefits of achieving a goal is great. That’s the sweet reward for a job well done.

If you enjoyed this article, please visit Ilene's blog. Ilene is a success coach and owner of the Success Center of Las Vegas.

Think I've been procrastinating? Think again (okay, well, maybe a little).

2009-05-24T13:42:00.003-04:00

The surprising thing about posting about procrastination was, for me, realizing how bad procrastination's hold has been over me.

It also got me doing something about it, much to my own astonishment.

After I posted on the topic, I started paying attention to my responses to the things I do, the things I avoid, and the things I try to avoid as much as possible.

Some of what I noticed was funny. When faced with a tough web-site related issue, I'll try to tackle it immediately. About 15 minutes in, if I can't figure out the problem and get things working correctly, I start to panic. Then I start to eat. Then I start to call people on the phone. If that fails, I'll decide out of the blue that I have to run some particular errand right now.

If I can get my head cleared after all that, I pinch myself to make sure I'm still awake, and go back to the task. Then I repeat the cycle if I run into problems again.

Now certainly, some people work well until they hit a snag, and then go do something else - take a walk, listen to music, watch TV, or whatever it is that takes their mind off the problem at hand.

My diversion? Getting as far away from the problem as possible, and never going back.

This method doesn't work, as I'm sure you know. You get nothing you want to do done. You get nothing you have to do done. Bottom line: Nothing gets done.

When I realized what I was doing - and that realization only took a couple weeks' time - I changed tactics.

Instead of walking away, I stuck with it. I wouldn't budge. It was frustrating, and it still is at times, but I'm getting things done. Which is the hurdle I wanted to clear.

This "not budging" method probably won't work for everyone, but for some of you, it just might. I'd like to learn to have more balance - to be able to hit the wall where I can't get something done because of external circumstances, say, or the learning curve problem. But I just can't go take a walk and come back to the problem at hand at this point. I'll flee the scene for good. When I have more things accomplished, I'll give it a try.

But for right now, I'm enjoying finishing projects, meeting at least some of my goals, and staying focused on others until they're done, too.

It's all good.

Confessions of a Procrastinator

2009-04-26T13:05:00.004-04:00

I have a confession to make: I am a true procrastinator.

All of us are, to a degree. It's normal.

Some of us are, to a greater degree. I'm one of these.

Procrastination is a lousy habit, but it's one we can develop over time simply because we exercise our ability to put things off. We'll put things off for lots of reasons, such as:

Having something we'd prefer to do instead of the task at hand;
Fear of failure;
Fear of success;
Fear that if we begin something, we may not have the ability to finish what we start (that's me)

There are others, of course, and you can probably come up with a long list of your own. In my own life, I have begun many projects, only to hit a snag, or to become so overwhelmed with everything involved in completing a project, that I simply STOP. And then I don't even pick the project again, because I can't handle the sheer scope of it.

How did I get to be this way? I have some theories, but in my life, there are two recurring themes that fuel my procrastination. Both are like tapes that play in my head before, and during, my work on a given project:

"If you're going to do something, do it RIGHT [translated, in my mind, as "PERFECTLY"] or don't do it at all!"
"You don't have the ability [translated, for me, as "SMARTS, IQ, EDUCATION"] to follow through with your goal."

Both of these are very loud and very emphatic, and cut me down every time I set a goal and start working towards it. They have become so aggravating for me that for a long time I have decided not to have any goals at all.

Where did these obstacles come from? I can pinpoint a few possibilities of when and where they first appeared, but I'll abstain from boring you with the details. Those are my personal matters to sort through.

However, what matters is now, not what happened then. Now that I've narrowed down the genesis of my procrastination problems for myself, it's time for me to do something about them, or remain forever in the hamster-wheel of a life with no goals and no achievements.

Here's my plan to overcome procrastination. You may have a goal, or possibly several goals, that you don't feel you can accomplish. Perhaps some of these ideas can be applied to your situation, and can help you move forward, too.

Set a small goal. Nothing too complicated, nothing that can't be achieved, say, in a two week period.
Set aside a small amount of time every day to work towards the goal. Work for the short time on the goal, and then STOP at the allotted time limit. Don't do any more until the next day, to avoid burnout and possibly getting back into the procrastination cycle.
Work on your goal every day, during the allotted time. If you hit a snag (for example, you need to get in touch with someone else for info, and they're not available on a given day during the two week period), work around the snag. There is probably some other portion of your goal that you can accomplish while you wait for the snag portion of your goal to be un-snagged. Work on that.
Give the goal the full two weeks to be accomplished. If you start to feel like you can't accomplish the goal, determine why you feel that way, feel the feelings, and then get back to work. If you're worried it's not perfect, or you don't have the know-how, remember, we all have to start somewhere, and gain knowledge as we go along. EVEN IF IT'S NOT PERFECT IN YOUR ESTIMATION, YOUR BEST EFFORTS ARE WHAT COUNT. You are accomplishing a goal; if you want to improve on things later, you can do that, too!

I'll be posting my 2 week goal soon, and posting my daily progress here. That way, I have the added bonus of accountability to propel me forward in achieving my goal.

Do you have problems with procrastination? In what areas? How has it affected you, and how do you overcome it?

I hope you'll share your thoughts here.

To achieving your goals!
-Lynn

Can spring be far behind?

2009-02-23T13:38:00.002-05:00

How's everyone doing? Here in Maryland, the winter has been amazing, with alternating bouts of freezing cold and summer-like temperatures. Me, I've been in hibernation, making new plans, both personally and for this site.

As you can see LPP is going through a re-design, and new features are being added. Some of the links had been deleted purely by accident and I'm adding those back, too.

I'm going back to my original plan for LPP, namely, a comprehensive site with helpful links, book reviews, and current information related to the big question about life, namely, "Why am I here?"

If you know of any links or books you think would be helpful, please post or send me a message at editor@lifepurposeproject.com.

In the meantime, I'll be back to work on new info for the site!

-Lynn

Some days, just the right thing lands in your inbox!

2008-11-25T14:14:00.005-05:00

After being on hiatus so long, I was wondering if I'd ever get back into the flow of things here at LPP. But the Universe likes me, I suppose - this article from AARP Magazine ended up in my inbox today in the form of a Google alert.

It's a good consolidation of several books and articles I've read over the past couple of years about life purpose and longevity. Take a read for yourself, let me know what you think.

What caught my attention about the article is the first paragraph. My grandmother went through something similar, but she had a strong will. She allowed herself time to grieve, but then got right back up and continued living her life. She spent time with family, visited friends, and even traveled outside the country for a time. I hope I have as much inner strength if I'm ever in a similar circumstance!

The hiatus from blogging is over, and I'm back. Once again, I got stretched far to thin with too many projects. That's something I need to take a look at, I think - why do I end up buried in projects that really don't matter that much to me? Poor planning? Not enough focus? I'll be taking some time to ponder this question.

You'll also note that I have updated the look of this blog. It's a little less "bloggy" looking now, don't you think?

Have a lovely day, and check back for more!
-Lynn

The Many (and the Unusual!) Paths of Discovery

2008-06-21T14:03:00.004-04:00

One of the fun aspects of the process of discovering my own life purpose has been reading over all the possible ways the discovery can be made. There are so many possibilities, from the more mundane personality Myers-Briggs type-testing to the esoteric concept of Human Design Analysis. And since I still read as much on the subject as I can, I'm bound to run into something really unique every now and then.

Enter Handworks International (http://www.handworksinternational.com), which uses hand reading as a guide to finding life purpose. The lines on our hands undergo changes throughout our lifetimes, and can be used to determine our purpose now. "Your hands reflect the inner patterns of your personality, your motivations and your behaviors", says the Handworks International web site, "When you change, the lines and hand shape reflect the changes."

Nothing on the site strikes me as being overtly along the lines of "psychic", and although it's not clear to me what is meant by such terms as "Life Lesson", and "Life School", it's still a nice alternative to the typical workbook-backed programs out there.

An ongoing internal debate - would love some feedback!

2008-06-20T15:46:00.003-04:00

It's been 7 years since I started kicking around the Life Purpose Project idea, and over that time I've realized there is already so much information on finding one's life purpose out on the web, published in books, magazines, and on television, that I'm not quite sure anymore what this site is supposed to be.

My goal originally was a full-blown site with an online forum, links to tools, links to other sites, book reviews, etc. The original versions of this site has forums, but hackers did those in. It then became a static blog site, where there could be interaction but it would be fully moderated by me using comment screening.

I'm not sure the blog version can do the job, either, so I'm asking for suggestions. What would be truly useful here? Helpful?

Drop me a line, let me know what you think?

Need ideas? Check this out!

2008-06-17T20:30:00.001-04:00

I've been on the internet since 1996 and have visited many web sites, but I especially enjoy sites that help spark creativity, generate ideas, and make us believe we can accomplish our dreams.

When I find a site that meets all three criteria, I'm going to brag about it.

How I came upon this site in the first place I can't recall, but here it is:

IDEA SANDBOX
http://www.idea-sandbox.com

I haven't even scraped the surface of the site's content yet, but have spent a lot of time on the site's blog. Ideas and ideas about ideas abound here. Now that I've spent so much time, just on the blog itself, I'm in full-scale creative mode.

Check it out sometime, let me know what you think!

Six Dollar Haircuts

2008-01-30T22:41:00.000-05:00

This is a true story about a third generation barber in a small community in the Mid-west. The shop had been handed down from his grandfather and developed not just a hair salon but more of a community center where the farmers and families would come in not only to get their hair done, but enjoy the coffee and donut bar and spend time with their neighbors sharing the news of their farms and families. This shop had grown to include 10 stylists who cut all the men's hair and all the women's hair in the community.

The owner’s son came home from graduate school over spring break, to find his father depressed and reclusive. Finally getting his father to share what the problem was, the father confided that there was a new, national chain that had been moving across the country, bringing in cheap hair salons into all of the different communities and driving everyone out of business. And so, even though the community had loved all of the work that he had done, the perms and the haircuts and the styles over the years, right down the street opened up this new shop. It offered six dollar haircuts. Person after person had left to go to the new low cost shop.

The father told his son, “There is absolutely NO way I can compete with $6.00 haircuts. So much of my clientelle has now gone to the new shop that I have no choice but to close our shop. After three generations, we are going bankrupt. I can’t pay the stylists or the overhead anymore,” he despondently said with his hands covering his face so his son would not see the tears rolling out of his eyes.

The son said, "You know, this last semester I took a “science of success” program that was offered for extra credit in my marketing class. One thing I learned was something that Einstein said. He said that “The significant problems we face can never be solved at the level of thinking of the problem." So, Dad, we have to find another way to think about this. We've got to find another way to see this. Another one of the strategies I learned may help us.”

So the son left the room and brought back a notebook and a pen. He told the Dad about “Masterminding”, a strategy introduced in the 1930’s by Napoleon Hill who had been commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to study the patterns of extremely successful people.

“Here’s what we do. We let ourselves think of any idea that comes to mind and we write it down. No editing. We get a flow of ideas for 15-20 minutes and try to get as many as possible. No idea is off limits. Let’s go.”

The father said, “Well, the only idea I’ve got is….close the shop!” The son said, “Well, you’re right that IS an idea.” He wrote it down. Then the son said, “Ok, let’s keep going.” Before long the son and the father started getting a flow of ideas and writing down every one of them, even every crazy thing that came to mind. When they finished, one of the ideas absolutely jumped off the page and they looked at each other in astonishment and said, “This just might work!” The son left the next day to go back to college.

The father implemented the idea. Within 6 weeks, not only had his drop in clientele completely returned, but the number of customers was now 11% higher than ever in the history of the shop. Do you know what the idea was that turned sure failure into a new course of increasing success?

The idea was, “Place a BIG sign on top of the shop that read,

“WE FIX SIX DOLLAR HAIRCUTS!!”

This story has meant a great deal to me particularly when I am tempted to think that the problem is “out there” in the land of circumstances. Any time I think the problem is “out there”, THAT THOUGHT is the problem. As Einstein said, “The significant problems we face can not be solved at the level of the problem.” Learning to think in a new way brings Freedom and Power.

Note from Lynn:

Always think outside the box. Never assume the end of a matter before you begin it.

Mary Manin Morrissey

Mary Morrissey is a minister, teacher and author. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education, a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and a Doctorate of Humane Letters. Take a look at her latest collaboration with Bob Proctor here: http://www.insightoftheday.com

Resolutely Resolve to Make Meaningful Resolutions for 2008

2008-01-30T22:15:00.000-05:00

Up until the past ten years or so I would make resolutions for the new year. Usually it was the same resolutions that I hadn’t followed the previous year, such as:

Lose weight
Get healthier
et my home organized
Find a better job
Start a savings plan
Make better use of my time
Spend more time with family and friends
Spend less time on the computer

All of these are fantastic resolutions to make. Who doesn’t want to be healthier? Be better organized? Use time wisely?

Year after year I’d jot all this down on paper, anticipating success, and then, on January 2nd of the new year, I’d resolve (on some subconscious level) not to work at any of my resolutions. Within six months of making them, I’d find my written notes in a crumpled paper ball within the “dust bunny zone” under my bed. By then, the resolutions had long been discarded in my mind, and the paper ball would be tossed into the garbage.

Maybe next year…

The reality is that many people do the same thing. Year in, year out, they resolve, and then forget. They may start, and make it into the new year with their new resolutions in action. But something happens, and more penciled-in dreams on small sheets of paper become filler for the trash can.

Why doesn’t making resolutions work? What happens from the seed of crafting a resolution in your mind to the almost wholesale self-sabotage of the actual effort towards actually growing and achieving it?

There are, of course, a host of easy answers. I just got lazy. I just became too busy. I have to put it off until another time, the time isn’t right. We’ve all made and heard these excuses ourselves.

If we look truthfully at our resolutions (short- and long-term goals), it’s not these reasons that held us back from their successful completion. It’s the by-product of the possibility that we have been asking ourselves the wrong questions about our deepest desires and goals. We set our goals too high, enabling us to never have to achieve them, or too low, keeping us from doing things that would really fill us with a sense of happiness and accomplishment.

If you’re planning on making resolutions for 2008, consider the following questions as you contemplate your options:

Will the accomplishment of this goal make me happy? Is it something I’ve always wanted for myself, or is it something others want me to do?
Is this goal a short term goal or one that will affect the rest of my life?
Does the goal match up with who I am? Am I willing to change my essential values to accomplish it?
Is the goal realistic?
If the goal might take more than a year to accomplish, am I willing to break it down into smaller, achievable goals and work towards it anyway?

There are, of course, many other questions that you can and should ask yourself before setting goals. Please share yours in the your comments!

In the meantime, remember that goal setting is an important part of planning and achieving your dreams, whatever they are. Being honest with yourself about what you deeply want or don’t want in your life will make a huge difference in your likelihood of success.