The impression you create is the one they're going to have

Before you pick up that pen or, more likely, create a new document, keep in mind that setting out to write something—anything—is just like any other task on your To Do list. The only way you’ll know that you’ve done what you set out to do is if you have a goal.

Let me say that again: Good writing requires having an objective, and your objective should be clear and specific, just as it would be with any other goal. This is an important step, and one that’s easy to skip. You can just start putting down words, in a reasonably organized manner, and once you’ve mentioned all the pertinent points, you stop. The end.

But that’s not the same thing.

No matter what audience you’re writing for, when they’re finished reading, you want them to…

do something,

know something,

feel something,

think something,

want something,

understand something or

remember something.

You want to leave them somehow changed, albeit microscopically, for having read it. To do that, you need to keep the objective in mind as you’re writing. So you need to have it in mind before you start.

My late mother as a young woman.
Wasn't she beautiful?

Yet another thing in life where preparation, even a little, is way more valuable than it should reasonably be. Your mother always told you that, right? Well begun is half done. And in this case, "well begun" is just a little bit of thought.

Oh, hey! Look at that segue, talking about mothers. Instead putting a pretty picture that has absolutely nothing to do with anything, since tomorrow is Mother's Day, and since I just asked about what your mother always told you, today we'll have a very pretty picture, indeed!

Do three things

Whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re working on—whether it’s a job or career goal, a personal goal, or just something you need to get done to keep peace in the household—the way to make progress on it is to move forward.

Well, duh.

But let’s back up from even that remarkably obvious point. You either get things done or you don’t. That is, you move along the path towards accomplishing your goal or completing your task, or you spin your wheels. Put it off. Sit and think about it. Or just sit and think about how you should be thinking about it. If you’re reading this, it’s possible you’re on the Thinking About It side of the line.

Unless this is the first time you’ve faced this particular conundrum, you already know that you should

1. Define your goal
2. Develop an action plan for achieving it
3. Measure your progress

If you didn’t know that, write that down somewhere, or maybe print out this page and keep it somewhere handy.

Though the above steps are not always as cut-and-dried they sound (goals and objectives can be slippery things sometimes), that’s a subject for another day. Right now we’ll assume you have a pretty good idea of what you want to achieve, know a few steps you have to take to get there, and have some way of knowing when you’ve done it.

So now all you have to do is make. some. progress. Well, here you go. Here’s the magic bullet you’ve been looking for:

Do something.

In fact, do three things. They don’t have to be big things; as a matter of fact, you’re better off making them simple, discrete actions that have a definite beginning, middle and end. But all three should support your big goal and move you perceptibly down the path towards achieving it. You want to have more business? Make three phone calls to perspective clients. You want to learn French? Memorize three phrases. You want to write a book? Write three paragraphs, read three articles about the subject, find the names of three experts you could interview (and tomorrow find their contact info, the day after call and schedule appointments…). You get the idea.

Write down the three things. Cross them off when you’re done. Again, they shouldn’t be big, daunting tasks. They should be fairly quick to accomplish, and finishing them should be a high priority. If there’s some reason you can’t get them all done, add the unfinished task(s) onto your next day’s list.

The idea is to take action. Or, even more to the point, be ready for action. Be prepared, cultivate the mindset of doing something to achieve what you want to achieve.

Getting where you want to go involves taking a step. Or three.

Tick, tock

The days are passing by, and you'll notice I haven't posted any new entries, which would imply (see previous post) that I don't have three of them written yet.

However, I do have the first two Oktoberfest meetings scheduled. And…er…other stuff as well.

I'll get back to you on that.

Here you go. Another pretty picture, courtesy of my friend Don Comedy of Marble Falls, Texas.

More later. No, really!

I have a new goal for March

I just set a new goal for March, even though we're well into the month. Here it is:

• Come up with a list of thirty topics for my business blog (this; what you're reading right now).

I just came up with 33 of them.

Great! Check!

Oh, all right. That was actually my goal for this afternoon, not the whole month.

Well, okay, to be honest, it was my goal for this week because I thought it would be harder; this afternoon's goal was only five ideas, plus a nap. But I had somehow forgotten that as I read articles that spark my interest or trigger some train of thought about an appropriate subject, I jot down notes or copy the link to the article and stash it in my "Business blog" folder. So when I went through all the files in that folder, I had 27 ideas, blam! right there. I thought a bit and came up with the next three so I could say I reached thirty, and the three extra were 1) because they occurred to me, and 2) because some of the ones earlier on the list now sound kind of boring.

I've had enough of writing about things I found boring. I'll do that for money, but for free…nuh-uh.

So here's the real March goal, updated and expanded: I'm going to write those 33 blog entries. I'll post three a week, starting as soon as I have three of them written. If I don't get it done…hmm. Well. There should be some sort of penalty involved, shouldn't there? I know, if I don't get them done, I have to go to some networking group I know I won't like, preferably one that costs money. Any suggestions?

So check back and see if there isn't some actual, you know, content here soon. In the meantime, look at this pretty picture.

In New Bern, NC. No, it doesn't have
anything to do with anything, but it's pretty.

Keep it sharp

Happy holidays, everybody!

Now that the niceties are out of the way, lifehacker.com once again has great advice to offer about editing what your write. That is, knowing how to improve the words you churn out yourself.

Personally, I don't print everything out, but I have a pretty significant amount of experience at this. The Take a Break, Pretend You're the Intended Audience and—especially—Be Ruthless parts are pure gold.

Back to more congenial matters. Have a great, festive holiday (whatever it is you celebrate) and I hope the upcoming new year is your best one ever. Heck, I hope it's our best one ever!

I love this so much I may get a tattoo of it.

I do. I love this SO much, I'm going to make everyone I know read it. Everyone I know! Plus a bunch of people I don't know, but who post comments and reviews online in places where I come across them, and read them, and then gag a little:

15 Grammar Goof That Make You Look Silly (and not in a good way)

Once everybody's up to speed on those, we'll start on a few slightly finer points. Number and amount go along with fewer and less. Same deal — if you can count it, use number. If you can't, use amount. It's not (ever), "The amount of cars that use the bridge…" or "The amount of people who…."

And while we're talking about people, remember that they're a who, not a what. Or, more properly, a that. It's "The number of people who…," not "The number of people that…." (You'd get credit for the number part of the sentence but, really, why not keep going and get the whole thing right?)

Yeah, I know, it's a little pickier (and it is 'pickier,' not 'more picky,' and maybe sometime we'll talk about the comparative form of two syllable words ending in 'y') and a lot more subtle. But as one who dies a little every time I see one of those mistakes, my heart is singing.

Seriously. Everyone I know.

Guest speaker at the Book Connection this Friday

The Southlake Chamber of Commerce Book Connection is delighted to have a guest speaker this month! Author (and networking friend, and all around good guy) John Carroll of Tres Coaching Services™ will be speaking on “How to Make a Global Difference.”

Author John Carroll

John is the author of the book Globalization: America’s Leadership Challenge Ahead, published this past January. A familiar face to business networkers in the north Texas area, John has enjoyed success in business for thirty years, serving as Director, Vice President and COO for Fortune 1000 companies, leading high-performing organizations that generated more than $1 billion in revenue. He’s also founder of the Back to Basics 2.0^SM business series, a program to help entrepreneurs and small business owners, “Achieve the results to move beyond their vision.”

Globalization takes a hard look at the interconnected nature of the global economy in this age of Internet, e-commerce and the instant, worldwide delivery of information through social media. Changes in this evolving business arena challenges business leaders and offers them the opportunity to take a role in shaping the future. Lisa Petrilli, CEO and author of The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership, says of John’s book, “By encouraging leaders to take responsibility for responding to the difficult questions of our time, and to empower themselves to create positive momentum toward global prosperity and peace, John shows us a clear and inspiring path forward.”

The Book Connection is offered as a service to the community by the Southlake Chamber, and is open to everyone. We meet at the Southlake Public Library, 1400 Main Street, Suite 130, in Southlake Town Square. It’ll look like the library is closed, but come on in. They’ll have free Starbucks coffee ready.

You can contact me if you have any questions about the Book Connection, either through the comments here or by calling the phone number shown at the right. You can get more information about John and Tres Coaching Services™ here, and about his new book on Amazon.

Hope to see you Friday morning!