Connecting with your Goals: Creating a road map for success

• Challenge yourself to work on areas that need improvement
• Goals should be challenging, measurable, self-referenced, and within your control
• Technique goals, practice goals, competition goals, mental training goals, strength/conditioning goals, etc.
• Goal Planning (begin with the end in mind, develop specific action plans and strategies for achievement)
• Set short term goals (daily/weekly, monthly) in relation to long term objectives (Career)
• Balance outcome goals with performance goals
• Outcome goals (Bonuses)
• Performance goals (In order to win the big accounts, we need to commit ourselves to …)
• Write your goals down and specify timetables for achievement
• Monitor, evaluate, and adjust your goals based on the progress you are making (adapt and persist)
• Get in habit of using weekly journals
• Think of creative ways to quantify and measure your goals
• Take Pride and Ownership over your goals - be accountable to yourself and to your teammates
• Finally, have a passion for you are doing - challenge yourself to raise the bar in your pursuit of excellence

Putting Your Mind in a Position to Think Confidently and Compete Well

Motivation and Commitment

• Personal Meaning and Incentives (what drives you to reach your goals)
• The Psychology of Personal Excellence (Terry Orlick, 2000, "In Pursuit of Excellence")
• Knowing where you want to go (having a vision)
• How much you really want to get there (commitment)
• How strongly you believe in your ability to arrive at your desired destination (belief)
• Connecting with each step in front of you (focused connection)
• Ask yourself "what type of engineer do I want to become here at XXX, and what is it going to take for me to get there" (vision and commitment)

There are four segments in the Massachusetts Economy, and last month all four areas show growth for the first time in years:

The four areas are: (In the order of Economic Impact)

1. Health Care
2. Education
3. High Tech
4. Tourism

High Tech was one of the areas of the economy that hasn't shown strong growth in a while.

Alan Greenspan and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee will be meeting tomorrow to talk about raising the short term rate about a quarter of point. However, this is a very bad idea:

1. Oil prices are close to hitting $45 a barrel and could cause another spike in gas prices. An increase in gas prices has a negative effect on businesses, and many will probably hold off spending in anticipation of raising gas prices.
2. Unemployment numbers are still not great. The last two unemployment reports have fallen short of analyses expectations.
3. Retail sales in June were below analyses expectations.

The Federal Open Market Committee should just keep the rates as they are and issue a warning that rates may increase in September. Remember its always easy to cool off a hot economy, but it takes a while to heat up a cool economy.

This mornings AP Labor Wire, contained this statement:

The quarter-point increase was the first change since the funds rate was cut to a 46-year low of 1 percent in June 2003.

That had marked the 13th Fed rate cut in a series that began back in January 2001 as the central bank battled to jump-start an economy staggered by a series of blows, from a plunging stock market and the 2001 recession to terrorist attacks and two wars.

So what this is saying is that this is the first time in George Bush's administration that the Feds increased their rates. Why did George Bush want to Allen Greenspan to stay on?

There's a report out this morning that predicts that the inflation rate in the United States will be higher than originally reported.

"Rising prices of energy and other industrial commodities are contributing to the higher inflation, but so too is robust growth," said the group's president, Duncan Meldrum, chief economist at Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

I believe that the rapid increase of energy cost (Oil) is the main factor in the inflation rate. This weekend I saw that the price for gas at the pump at Meeting House Pond in Orleans cost $2.99 a gallon. This high gas price not only effect the weekend boater, but also the day to day New England Fisherman.

George W. Bush will be on the air tonight addressing the American Public in a prime time speech, not on the sudden fuel surcharge, but on the situation in Iraq.

I found a pretty good article about "Corporate citizenship." A Corporate citizenship is a CFO, CEO that opts not to have a layoff or downsizing because they care for their employees.

The article explains why layoffs are an essential component to a free economy and the roll a government plays in the unemployment.

I would highly recommend reading this article:
Corporate Chiefs Should Refuse Clinton

495nsg in Trouble
In 2002 a Networking support group was created for people that were unemployed in the area around 495 in Massachusetts. The group orginal goal was to offer job search support and to bring guest speakers to talk about how to get a job.

By the summer of 2003, the support group started to loose its steam. Many people were fustrated with the political rambling between volunteers that were running the group and membership started to fall off.

Currently on the mail server there is word that the officers never approved the bylaws and an election that was supposed to happen on the 21st of this month will not occur.

I would highly recomend that if your looking for a support group in the Boston area to consider Wind Networking. This is a group that is run by career professionals who are focus on the job market and not the polical issues of running the organization.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had some positive things to say about the economy in a speech this morning to the Securities Industry Association. He appears pretty optimistic about the growth in the economy and how low inventories will lead to increase employment.

I personally think that the Federal Reserve made a mistake back in November 2000 by not lowering the short-term interest rate. I believe this was because the Presidental election recount was a distraction. Had they lower the rate early enough the recession would have been much shorter.

It was one year ago that I was laid off from my job in San Jose California.

I was working at the company for 6 years. Today the company is a fraction of the size it once was.