The old saying is that people rank the fear of public speaking higher than they rank the fear of death so people would rather be dead than speak in public.  While this statement is obviously an exaggeration, it does bring up the point that people are often afraid of speaking in public.

If you have this kind of fear, you are not unusual.  Fear grips many people who speak in public. Often this is simply a comfort zone issue.  If speaking is outside of your comfort zone you will naturally be fearful when you start doing it.  The same is true for anything outside of your comfort zone.

The good news is that your comfort zone expands with time. As you begin to speak in public you will start to feel more and more comfortable over time. Many people will eventually feel fully at ease with public speaking once they have expanded their comfort zone.  Admittedly, public speaking carries with it such a perception of being a fear-worthy event that some people carry a fear with them for some time.  Even for these people, more frequent speaking and better preparation helps to limit the effect of this fear.

Aside from experience, preparation is the most important ingredient in giving better speeches and in lowering fear levels. Simply taking the time to know and understand a few key things about your presentation can make you more effective and confident.

1. Know Your Objective

The first thing to understand is your objective for giving a presentation.  You need to know why you are speaking (and the answer can not be simply that your boss told you to).  Ask yourself, what is my desired outcome?  The outcome you are hoping for is your objective.  It is why you are giving the presentation.

There are many different reasons for a speech and they are tied directly to your outcome.  These include:

• debate – to defend and argue for a position, such as in politics
• inform – provide information such as a progress report on a project
• persuade – presenting a request for funding or making a sales presentation
• amuse – when your goal is to entertain or provide humor
• motivate – to inspire, encourage or challenge people into action

Any of these objectives are valid reasons to speak in public.  By knowing what your objective is you can focus in on how to accomplish your goal. You will be more effective and less distracted.  Make sure your speech sticks to your objective.  If your goal is to debate, don’t spend all your time providing basic information.  If your goal is to persuade don’t spend all your time trying to amuse.  Stick to your objective.

2. Know Your Audience

The second key is to know your audience. Your audience is who you are speaking to, directly and indirectly.  The direct audience will be people who are hearing your speech initially – likely those people who will be sitting directly in front of you.  The indirect audience will be people who will hear your speech later – perhaps through an audio recording, podcast, or published transcript.

You need to know who these people are.  Learn as much as you can about them. An effective teacher learns as much as she can about her students.  A pastor learns as much as he can about his congregation.  Professional speakers will also do significant research into the company that has hired them to present.  I have seen many professional speakers who are able to directly interact with the company that has hired them through the knowledge they have gained about the company, its products, and business.

If you are called on to give a presentation, take the time to do this research.  If you don’t know who the audience will be you need to ask:  Who are they, and what do they expect?  How many people will be in attendance?  Are they there because they choose to be, or because it is required?  What are they hoping to get out of the presentation?  Knowing these factors can go a long way to understanding your audience.

Once you understand your audience you are able to make your speech relevant. You can connect the presentation details to the people you are talking to.  The effective teacher will use what she has learned about her students to provide illustrations that the students can connect to.  For example, in one of the classes I teach there are a high proportion of student-athletes.  Because of this, I look for opportunities to use athletics as an example.  Tailor your speech to what you have learned about your audience.

3. Know Your Information

You also need to know your information.  This may be obvious, and yet far too often people think they can get by with a surface level understanding of their topic.  You need to take the time to learn so much about your topic that you could have a detailed conversation with someone about your information with no notes to guide you.

When you give your presentation you should use notes.  There are three levels you could use for how much to have written down when you start your speech.  On one end of the spectrum you could have every word written out in a manuscript. The other end of the spectrum is to have everything memorized with no notes.  There are excellent speakers who use each of these options.

For most, however, the third option is most effective.  This involves having a detailed outline of what you will say that you can refer to from time to time.  If you know your material very well you can use an outline to keep you on track but then speak from your memory and your knowledge base the rest of the time.

Your outline could be in many formats.  You may chose to use a regular piece of paper, index cards, or PowerPoint slides that you present to the audience.  To effectively use your outline include notes on the following:

• detailed introduction and main idea so you can start your presentation well
• the main points along with reminders about stories, illustrations, or important statistics
• your conclusion, including exactly what you want to say to finish your talk

So take the time to really understand your objective, your audience, and your information.  This knowledge will help you make more effective speeches and presentations.  Further, it will help ease the nerves you have as you will feel more prepared and ready for whatever comes at you.

Written by:
Danny Gamache

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This article is a follow up on my popular articles Six Ways to Grow Daily and The Success Professor’s Top 10 Book Choices.

Podcasts are a fantastic way of learning, being inspired, and for personal growth.  They are audio presentations that you download and are able to listen to at your convenience, whether on iTunes or on an iPod (or other Mp3 player).  If you don’t currently listen to any podcasts the first step is to download iTunes. After subscribing to podcasts, such as the ones listed below, iTunes will automatically download any recent episodes every time you open the program.  I listen to some podcasts directly on my computer and download others to my iPod.

Each of these podcasts can be found by searching for the title in the iTunes store, or by subscribing at the webpage linked to in the title of each podcast.

1. Inspiring Words of Encouragement – Zig Ziglar

Motivational expert Zig Ziglar offers this excellent podcast.  The subject list is diverse within the framework of living a positive life.  Past episodes include tips on success, lessons for salespeople, and even parenting advice.

This podcast is updated every two weeks, and I never fail to be encouraged, inspired, and to learn from every episode.  The full archives are available for download also, giving you lots of powerful motivational material.

2. Mosaic – A Community of Faith, Love & Hope

One of two churches that make the list.  I hesitate to call it a church.   Partly because it meets in a night club, and partly because it is nothing like most churches you may have experiences with.

Pastor Erwin McManus is an amazing communicator of God’s word.  He does it in a way that communicates the true message of Jesus.  He speaks of important personal development topics such as work, relationships and money.  Be sure to make your way into the archives of past messages.  My favorite messages that I recommend you check out are entitled, “Fear”, “Work”, and “Everyone Gave”.

3. Dave Ramsey Show Podcast

Financial guru Dave Ramsey and author of the Total Money Makeover (one of my top 10 books!) hosts a national daily radio show that talks about your life and your money.  The podcast is a one hour segment (forty minutes because no commercials!) each day from his radio show.

In this segment Ramsey helps people with life and financial issues, guiding listeners to make a change in how they think about money.  His goal is that “you will live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.”

4. The Daily Boost

This is a powerful motivation podcast from motivationtomove.com   The free podcast is generally a once a week motivating message, that comes out of their daily podcast service for “premium” members. Currently they are sharing the top 10 messages of the year with all free subscribers.

The messages are short, about 10 minutes a day, and provide a powerful personal development tip that motivates you to move forward.  I am considering upgrading to the paid premium membership, the podcasts are that good!  At least check out the free version.

5. Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

John Jantsch, author of the book Duct Tape Marketing, hosts this excellent podcast filled with interviews of marketing experts and entrepreneurs.  It is always informative and helps to keep up to date with trends in the world of marketing, particularly social media and new marketing. These podcasts come approximately once a week and there is a fantastic archive of previous episodes.

6. Alex Shalman Podcast

Alex Shalman’s personal development podcast is an outgrowth of his excellent blog.  This podcast is a weekly podcast that interviews people on the topic of personal development.  Alex asks excellent questions that give you an insight into how successful people think about their lives.  This podcast is brand new and that is the only reason it isn’t ranked higher on my list.  If the quality continues as it has in its first few weeks it will quickly move up my ranks.  The podcast is weekly and comes every Monday.

7. Meeting House Podcast

The second church service on our list is led by pastor Bruxy Cavey.  Bruxy is the author of the book “The End of Religion” which might give you a pretty good picture as to why this church is so unique.  They consider The Meeting House as the irreligious church.  Bruxy is an excellent communicator and speaks on many relevant issues of today including topics such male/female differences, the God debate, and even a series called The Secret Revealed.

8. CBC Radio Vinyl Café

Stuart McLean is a master storyteller.  This podcast of his weekly radio show is a fantastic break from the ordinary as it allows you to listen to a master story teller at work. This podcast is a wonderful break for relaxation and stress reduction.  If you are looking for a personal development angle beyond the rest it is this: listening to Stuart will help you become a better storyteller for all of your presentations.

9. Harvard Business Review Ideacast

This weekly podcast from the editors of Harvard Business Review shares interviews with the author of an article in the current issues of the Harvard Business Review.  Listening to this podcast allows you to hear about import research in the world of business and get application ideas directly from the author.

10. Maximum Impact Podcast

This podcast from the leadership experts at Maximum Impact (John Maxwell’s company) provides excellent lessons on leadership.  It is filled with interviews and insights with each episode feeling like a diverse radio show.  Unfortunately they have not released a new issue in several months.  That is the only reason this podcast slipped so low in my rankings.  It is well worth going through the archives and catching up on previous episodes.

I hope you get as much out of these podcasts as I do.  Now it’s your turn.  Did I miss any?  What are your favorite podcasts, and why?  Share in the comments below!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Last week, I wrote about momentum, and how it can be a leader’s best friend.  The focus in that article was creating momentum.  In that article you learned about creating forward progress, having a vision, applying the principle of massive action, and about following up one success immediately with another.  You can read the full article here.

In this article, you will learn how to maintain momentum.  While creating momentum takes the largest amount of effort, its benefits will be short lived if you don’t take some deliberate steps to maintain it.  All your hard work will be in vain and your momentum will disappear – much more quickly than it came about.

The good news is that maintaining momentum is much easier than creating it in the first place.

STEPS TO MAINTAIN MOMENTUM

1. Keep the vision and goals out front.

You need to have a burning vision, a reason why you are going to work your business, a reason why you are going to make the next approach and a reason why you will place that next ad for your web site or product.  Take this vision and keep it out front.  Keep it where you will see it every day, where it will always beyond your mind.  Write it down, visualize it and gather photos that remind you of your vision.

2. Remind team members about the vision.

Don’t just keep the vision in front of yourself, keep the vision out front of your whole team, so that everyone knows where they are going, and every knows WHY they are going in that direction.  Continually recasting the vision for your team will be an important part of your maintaining momentum.

3. Develop consistency in your efforts.

You need to be continuously moving.  Don’t get some momentum going and then think you can stop and your business will grow on its own.  You’ve clearly been doing something right to create momentum – so don’t stop doing those things.  Set your self a pace that you can keep consistently.  Determine what activities you need to do to reach your goals and commit to daily action on those activities.

If you are calling potential customers, determine a number of approach calls that you can make each day and determine a number of follow up calls you can make each day.  Then follow through on that commitment.  How often will you post to your blog?  How often will you work out?  Whatever area you have momentum in, determine the activities you need to do on a daily basis; Then don’t stop.  You won’t need to work as hard as you did when you were creating the momentum, but you will have to work much more consistently.

4. Beware of the sprint/stop syndrome.

One problem people often face when they create momentum is that they fall into the sprint/stop syndrome. This is when people go break neck speed towards their goals for short time and then stop.  This is acting like the hare from the “Tortoise and the Hare fable”.  In that fable the Tortoise wins the race by continually moving forward, beating out the Hare who does a sprint/stop style of race.

There are many motivations for this sort of attitude.  People may stop because they want to reward themselves, so they take a week off or go on a vacation; they may stop because they get stressed out and need a break; they may collapse from exhaustion; or they may get so many sales they have to spend a week catching up on paperwork that got behind.  All of these are equally dangerous.  In each case you have broken the consistency of action and put your momentum in jeopardy.  Sure it may seem like you are still acting, that paperwork needed to be done after all, right?  Even in this case you are moving away from action that moves your business forward and are focusing on action that only maintains the current position.

5. Creating balance in your life.

Working hard and consistent at your business, but don’t burn yourself out.  Creating balance will allow you to maintain your energy. Allow time for personal development; allow time for spiritual growth, and make sure you stay physically active.   Develop a pace to life, one that is aggressive and forward moving, but one that you can maintain for long periods of time without needing to collapse or take a significant rest.  It is good to rest, but take short rests,  take a little time here and there, at most a day here and a day there, but you shouldn’t need to be taking days off to recover from you pace – if you do, you’ve been working too hard.

Momentum can be your best friend as you work towards personal or business goals.  There are deliberate steps you can take towards building momentum and maintaining it.   Now get started!

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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No matter what type of organization you lead, business you run, or what kind of personal goals you are pursuing, one of the keys that will determine the level of your success is momentum.  Momentum is defined as “the force of movement”.  It can help decide how high you will go and how quickly you will get there.  At the same time, momentum can often prove illusive; something that seems to be here today and yet is gone tomorrow.

WHAT DOES MOMENTUM LOOK LIKE

John Maxwell calls momentum “the big mo”.   In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, he says that “Momentum is really a leader’s best friend.  Sometimes it’s the only difference between winning and losing.”

You know you have momentum when you run over obstacles in your path like they were nothing.  Momentum is when things happen with ease, one success follows another and forward growth comes quickly.  Momentum allows leaders to move past mistakes quickly, and any kind of change is possible.  People throughout the organization are motivated to achieve more, and at a higher level. Momentum makes the leader look good, because success seems to happen easily.

If you’re in sales, momentum is when sales come easy, one after another.  In fact you are confident going into the next sales call that you will make the sale.  In your personal life momentum is when you are meeting your goals one after another.  It is when your life is in balance and everything is going right.  You get the idea – it’s like dominos once one thing falls, the rest follow suit.

HOW TO ACHIEVE MOMENTUM

1. Achieving momentum starts with creating forward progress.

Getting started is the most difficult part.  It’s like the law of inertia:  an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  Momentum is what happens when you get moving.  Whatever your goal is take a step towards it now.  This is why I suggest starting your day with a power hour. Your power hour allows you to do something first off in the morning that gives you progress towards your goals right away.  You create success within the first hour of the day, helping you gain momentum.  Once you are in motion for the day you are more likely to stay in motion and continue on towards your goals.

2. You are responsible for the momentum of your team.

Momentum starts with the leader, and then moves outwards and impacts the entire team.  If you lead a team of people in any form then you are responsible for the momentum of your team, you can’t place the responsibility on anyone else. Team momentum starts with your personal momentum.  You need to be motivated yourself and moving forward, before you can motivate others.  Understanding this will allow you to help your team to follow these steps towards momentum.

3. Have a clear vision and goals for your future.

Develop a vision for where you want to go and keep that vision out front.  Continually remind yourself and your team about the vision you are pursing.  Your vision should be important, not just to yourself but some way of contributing to the world and the well being of others.  This kind of vision will inspire. Then starting from your vision set your goals.  Make your goals clear, concise and dated.  Develop ways to remind yourself about your goals and vision.  Review your goals list daily, and put photos around your workspace and home that remind you of your goals.  Use these reminders to inspire you to move forward.

4. Apply the principle of massive action.

In the Olympic 100m sprint, the most important part of the race is leaving the starting blocks.  Sprinters that have a quick reaction time and are able to leave the start with power are often able to get so much momentum that they can’t be caught later in the race.  In your business you need to leave the starting blocks fast.  Even if your business is established you can get out fast by restarting your business – do that today and go!  If you are looking for customers, make a massive amount of prospecting calls bringing in a large amount of new customers; if you’re promoting your web site, do massive amounts of promotion – whatever you do to grow your business or to achieve your personal goals, start creating momentum by doing massive amounts of what it takes to succeed.

5. Follow one success immediately with another.

When is the best time to try to set an appointment with a prospect?  The best time to make a new prospecting call is immediately after you just set an appointment.  When is the best time to do a sales presentation? It is immediately after you just made a sale.  Far too often people will stop and take a break after they meet some goal or objective.  They think they deserve a reward and they take a break.  I’m all in favor of rewarding yourself for success but if you do it immediately after a small success, you’re limiting the momentum you can achieve.  If you’ve just had success in a particular goal, whether its making a sale or meeting a deadline you have gained a tremendous amount of energy and confidence from that action – so take advantage of it and make the next step.  You are most motivated immediately following a success, make use of that motivation to continue the forward motion you’ve started.  Reward yourself later, keep moving forward now!

6. Create Wins for Your Team

Having seen your success, the motivation of your teammates will be rising.  You can capitalize on this by putting them in situations that allow them to see some wins in what they are doing.  Look for any way you can of helping them succeed.  The more wins they can have, the more confidence they will have and the more momentum they will be build.  Make sure you are not neglecting the massive personal action at this time as well.  You need to maintain personal activity while working with your team members at the same time.
Following these steps will help you create “the big mo”.  Hold on tight, because momentum can propel you and your business further towards your goals in a short time than you might even imagine.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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One question that can help predict the level of success people have is to gain an understanding of how big they think the pie is.  The pie, or course, is the economic potential around them.  How big do you think the economic potential around you is?

Do you think in terms of scarcity?  Is the pie small enough that you need to fight to get what you can?  Or is the pie very large?  Is the pie so big that there is enough for everyone to get what they want, for everyone to win?  Your answers to this question will tell a lot about your potential for success.  There are three different mentalities that people can have about the economic potential around them.  The mentality you have will affect your potential for success.

The Scarcity Mentality

The first type of person views the economic sphere as very limited.  The only way to get more of something is for someone else to have less.  The only way to grow is at the expense of others.  If you are gaining, someone else is losing.  This is the typing of thinking characteristic of the scarcity mentality.

The problem with the scarcity mentality is that you view success as a difficult battle.  If you have to gain by taking from someone else then it will be a struggle.  Further, if you view the fight for economic gain as a win-lose, you’ll likely feel that you are doing harm to others by growing your own level of success.  While some people will justify this kind of harm, others will simply use this as an excuse to move away from successful activity.

The Large Pie Mentality

The second type of person views the pie as very big.  These people will see that there are lots to go around, and that by being successful they are not necessarily taking success away from others.  These people believe that there are lots of opportunities around them, and places for them to fit in.

This type of person will still think in terms of competition, but believes that there is room for many competitors.  These people will be willing to work hard to get as much of the pie as they can.  They know there is lots of pie out there, and they are willing to work to get it.

This is a good attitude to have, but it can get better.

The Ever-increasing Pie – The Abundance Mentality

A third type of attitude is when you view the economic pie as ever-increasing.  People who hold this attitude will believe that as they achieve success it expands the economic pie so that others have more and more economic benefit as well.  This view believes not only are there lots of opportunities, but by taking advantage of an opportunity there can be multiple benefits.

The abundance mentality reflects the economic ideal of our system and the way that business should be done.  If you create a great product or service and sell it for a price, you should be getting more for it than what you put in.  The customer who purchases your product should also be getting more benefit than what they spend.  Therefore both you and the customer have gained an economic benefit – the pie has just expanded.

The understanding the economic pie is increasing allows us to truly think win-win.  Negotiations are no longer a competition, rather they are an opportunity to work together to determine how to provide the best possible win-win scenario.

Stephen Covey conveys this by writing, “Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions… Win-win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.”

So what attitude do you have about the economic pie around you?  Do you carry with you a scarcity mentality, a large-pie mentality, or an abundance mentality?  The attitude that you carry with you will impact your success.

If you have the scarcity mentality you will struggle to grow your business, because at some point you believe that your success is hurting someone else.  Most people don’t want to hurt someone else and end up sabotaging their own success instead.

If you have the large-pie mentality you will see lots of opportunity for growth of your business and for success.  You may even see a large measure of success.  Unfortunately you will still approach negotiations and business sales from a competitive mindset.  While the negative side of this might not always be evident, some of your clients will feel the difference and turn you down because of it.

Finally, if you have the abundance mentality people will be attracted to you.  You will seek win-win in every negotiations or sales call that you make.  Because of it, those you deal with will come to trust you and believe that you have their best interest in mind.  This is where true success comes.

The good news is that you can choose your mentality.  You can choose to have the abundance mentality.  It may take time for you to change how you think, but by being conscious of the decisions you are making you can always look for win-win.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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There is more to you than meets the eye. I know there is. Inside you are gifts in abilities that only you know about, and some that you don’t even know about. You have been created with a unique set of gifts and abilities that come in a combination that no one else has.

Paul Potts is a great example of this. Watch this clip from Britain’s Got Talent:

Paul Potts’ performance is indeed incredibly inspiring. It is wonderful to see a performance that you don’t expect from someone. The thing is each of us has that kind of a performance within them. No, maybe not as an opera singer, but in something; we all have some talent that will awe and inspire others.

But talent alone doesn’t make the difference. You have to do something with that talent. Look at what Paul Potts did:

• He took a big risk. — Paul could have easily kept his talent to himself, singing in the shower, or maybe before a small group of friends. He certainly did not need to take the risk of going in front of a large live audience, a much larger television audience, and of course judges like Simon Cowell! What an intimidating group. Paul’s big risk requires a significant amount of bravery. Sometimes making use of our talent will require this kind of risk. But you can do it! You can be that brave!

• He pretended to be confident. — Through the interviews we can certainly see that Paul Potts was anything but confident in himself. And yet, if you look at the video of him on stage he portrayed a large level of confidence. No, he wasn’t cocky or over-the-top, but he went out there with a clear purpose. When he was asked what he was there to do he replied very matter-of-factly that he was there “to sing opera”. Notice he didn’t say that he was there to “try to sing” or that he “hoped he would be able to sing” etc. He stated his intention with confidence. It is possible to pretend to be confident, even when inside you are very scared. No one else needs to know how scared you are.

• He knew what he was born to do. — Paul stated that he wanted to sing opera because that is what he felt that he was born to do. What were you born to do? Look at your skills and gifts. Learn about yourself and how you can shine. Likely the gifts and abilities you have are pointing at the type of thing that you were born to do. You will only be truly happy, and meeting your full potential when you are using your talent in that way.

• He shared his talent with others. — Knowing your talent is one thing, but success and fulfillment in life comes when you share that talent with others. That talent may come through your job, your business, or what you do on the side. Just be sure that you don’t hold it in. By sharing his talent with others Paul was able to entertain people, inspire people, and make their lives better. You can to. When you use your talents, you can make a difference in other people’s lives.

What are your gifts? You have been made with a unique set of talent that you can use to make a difference in this world. By using your talents each day you will feel more fulfilled and you will impact others in a positive way. Once you know your talents, take a risk, be confident and take the next step. The rewards will follow.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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When you combine a burning passion with a clear goal and add in a strong level of persistence, you will be able to achieve almost any goal you set.

My Olympic experience was a clear example of this. And surprisingly, it was not watching the amazing athletes move towards their goals (although these points would certainly be evidenced in many of their stories) rather it was the pursuit of a goal that my friends and I set out to achieve.

The event I most wanted to see at the Olympics occurred on the very first day of competition: The Cycling Men’s Road Race. The race contains the top professional cyclists, most of whom have just completed the Tour de France. At the Athens Olympics, the Road Race took place through the streets of downtown Athens past the Acropolis and other historic sites. The race had been sixteen laps so my friends and I wondered the course watching the athletes go past at a variety of key places and making sure we ended up at the finish line for the final lap. Athens was perfect for spectators as the race was very easy to watch.

Not so in Beijing. Everything about the race made it difficult for spectators. To start with, the official Olympic website was very vague about the race. In fact even now, after the Olympics have been completed, the venue information on the website shows the race as TBD (To Be Determined)! Eventually in the weeks leading up to the games a prominent cycling website posted the map. The race, of 245 kilometers, would start off in downtown Beijing and end at the Great Wall with 7 laps of a finishing circuit. Getting to the Great Wall has some challenges and can be fairly expensive on a normal day, but in the Olympics and when an event is happening made it seem nearly impossible.

Our pursuit of the goal of seeing the Road Race began almost as soon as we arrived in Beijing. My friend and I went to work trying to figure out how to get from downtown to the Great Wall. Our goal was to see the start of the race and then move out to the Wall to catch the finishing laps from a position along the track. Our first option was to find a bus or train that could take us there. We knew this would be the cheapest way, and from the Lonely Planet travel book we knew that a bus was supposed to go from near our hotel to this particular location on the Great Wall for only about $3 a person. I went to the bus stop and after scrounging for someone who spoke enough English to understand me and waiting as several Chinese volunteers worked to find the information, I discovered that the busses would not be running during the race. My friend found out the same information about the train.

We were not completely surprised by this, so we started looking at other options. We naturally thought about a taxi, and while taxis in Beijing are very inexpensive they have a maximum capacity of four and our group had five people wanting to see the race. Instead we started making use of all of our local contacts to find another option. Until the day before the event we did not have an option that would work. Thankfully our hotel manager came through and was able to arrange a minivan and driver for us to hire. The cost was higher than we would have hoped, but there was little other choice. The government restriction on vehicles (each vehicle could only drive every other day) had lowered the supply available thus increasing costs.

The day of the Road Race came and the real adventure began. Sure we had to have persistence to arrange for the vehicle and driver, but that was nothing compared to what was to come. The driver first took us to the Start Line where we had hoped to see the start of the race. Leading up to the Olympics everything published about the race stated that it was a “free event with no ticket required”. When we got to the start line we quickly found out that to the surprise of everyone except about 200 locals they had placed a ticked section around the immediate start line. We were there in plenty of time so we showed the volunteers the Official Olympic Guide Book where is stated clearly that there were “no tickets required”. We were shuffled from one volunteer to another as they each tried to find someone in authority that could help us get in. No one was able to make a decision and so they all stuck with the rule as they understood it. We needed a ticket.

The start of the Men's Road Race

Thankfully, I eventually found a local willing to give me a free ticket to the starting area. The rest of my team settled for watching the race start from about 500 meters down the course. Getting in to the ticketed section was amazing. I was able to watch the cyclists getting ready and warming up. Seeing many of my heroes up close like this was awesome. The cyclists were eventually introduced one country at a time and came out and took their positions at the start line. It was neat being able to watch them interact with each other while they waited for the full field to be announced and the race to start (about 15 minutes of a wait for the first riders to be introduced).

After the race began my friends and I reconnected and found our driver. We set off to get to the Great Wall. We had hoped that we might get to the primary road to the Wall before the cyclists did so that we could beat the road closures. Unfortunately we missed them by only a few minutes. As we were being forced off the road by the blockade we actually saw most of the riders enter the road up ahead of us. The road to the Great Wall was about 70 kilometers which meant that it would take the cyclists most of two hours to get there. We spent those two hours in our rented minivan with our driver trying anything he could to get us closer to the wall. Unfortunately all the traffic normally going on that road was trying the same thing and so we spent as much time sitting in traffic as moving.

Eventually our driver persisted and found us a way to get passed one set of blockades and to the town nearest the finish line. Unfortunately at this point all the roads were closed except to local traffic (and no taxis). We saw that other foreigners were getting out of their hired vehicles and taxis at this point and starting to walk so we had no choice but to join in. We realized very quickly that the finish line was still 8 kilometers (or 5 miles) away so it would be a long walk.

What would you do in a foreign country, where almost no one speaks your language and you need to get 8 kilometers as quickly as possible? Stick out your thumb and hitch hike of course! Almost immediately a local picked us up. I don’t think she had any idea about what we were doing or where we wanted to go but she did drive us a short distance until another road block stopped her. We got out and continued walking. After going the wrong way for about 10 minutes we eventually found ourselves on the correct road. At least we assumed it was the correct road because of the scattering of other foreigners walking towards the supposed cycling course.

The day was hot (close to 100 degrees) and very humid, and the road was uphill so the walk seemed to take forever. Occasionally a car would pass us and we’d try to hitch a ride. Every car seemed to be either already filled with foreigners who they had picked up, or was an official Olympic vehicle that was in no way going to stop for anyone. After about 45 minutes of walking we were finally picked up by a local. She drove us rapidly towards the Great Wall. We quickly became very thankful for the ride as we realized that it would have taken at least another hour to walk that distance.

Even after arriving at the course things were difficult. The spectators were restricted to a small section of the course and were not allowed to walk the entire course as we had hoped. We didn’t care too much by this time. Our adventure had taken us by rented minivan, hitch hiking through a foreign country, and through a long walk. The section we were at was a great spot to watch the race come through and we made it just in time to see the second of the seven laps. We didn’t miss much and had an amazing adventure to go with it.

Looking up the course to the Great Wall

That night I reflected on what it took to achieve that goal. The day was a success but it didn’t come easily. In fact the adventure we went through became as important to us as the race itself. By the end of the Olympics we all chose that day as our highlight. Success truly was a journey more than just a destination.

The first key was that we had a clear goal. We knew exactly what we wanted to achieve. Not only did we have a goal but we had a high level of passion to achieve it. How passionate about your goal are you? If we didn’t have a strong passion to achieve our goal we could have given up at many points. Thirdly we committed ourselves to achieving the goal. After we spent the money on the car and driver we were committed. We had spent the money and were going to get our money’s worth – no matter what we had to do to get there. Finally we had persistence. We never gave up. We moved passed the each obstacle that was presented to us.

What is your goal? Take your goal and get clarity. Develop a deep passion to achieve your goal and you will do everything you can to achieve it.

Have a great day!

The Success Professor

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Effective planning and goal setting is important. Often we hear lessons about having long-term goals, and annual goals, but to keep on track and keep your business, and life, moving forward the goals and plans to achieve those goals must be broken down into weekly and daily bites. As the famous saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. By following these simple steps, you will get more completed, you will accomplish more of the right things, and you will reach more of your goals.

Step #1 – Define your life roles
In his book, First Things First Stephen Covey recommends dividing your life into the various roles you fill. For example, my roles including: my job as a college professor, my role as a blogger, and my work as an entrepreneur. I also have an important role as a husband, and another with my involvement in my faith community.

Beyond these sorts of roles, everyone should also include personal development goals. Covey recommends capping your number of roles at seven. These roles will change from time to time as your life changes, but they should cover the important aspects of your life.

Step #2 – Set goals for each of your life roles
Now that you’ve divided your life into a number of manageable roles it’s important to set goals for each goal. By setting important goals each week in each of your roles, you will be able to keep a better balance in your life. I recommend setting about 2-4 goals in each of your important roles. Now at certain times you will need to be in a period of focused imbalance for a few weeks, putting more efforts into one of the roles than the others, but over the long-term you should remember to always be setting goals in each of the life roles. The goals on this list should be based directly off of your long-term goals. In other words, you should be doing things each week that help you move towards your long-term goals. It is these activities that are your weekly goals.

Step #3 – Schedule all meetings and booked times
Each week you will likely have a number of appointments, meetings and scheduled events that you have to be at. These are things that you can’t avoid as you have to be at a certain place at a certain time. Schedule these into a day planner. I strongly recommend using a planner with a week at a time view. Each week I book in the classes I need to teach, any athletic events I’m participating in, and other meetings and obligations. You should still have plenty of blank space remaining for the rest of your tasks and other meetings that may pop up.

Step #4 – Schedule time for your most important projects
Using your goals list that you developed in step two, schedule the most important ones into the space left in your day planner. Be sure to allow time for goals in each role including those that are not directly professional goals. Allow for time with your spouse and children. Allow time to serve others and time to grow.

Step #5 – On a daily basis plan your next day
Each night before you go to bed, take 10 or 15 minutes with your weekly goals sheet and plan a daily to do list for the next day. Use your weekly goals to plan tasks to do the next day. Write this list in order of importance starting with the most important tasks to complete the next day. Add to this list any phone calls you need to make, emails you need to send or any other small things that may have come up throughout the day. By writing them down you won’t forget any important details. With a daily plan like this when you start each day you will have a list of priorities that correspond to your weekly goals.

Step #6 – Remember people are most important
One risk with any type of weekly or daily plan is that you can become so focused on the goals and schedule that you don’t have time for anyone who comes in your way. You may find yourself angry when you are interrupted by your child or spouse. While some uninterrupted time is important, it is also vital to remember that people are more important than things. Chances are that you are working so hard in order to provide for your family. Don’t neglect the opportunity to act with love towards them now. Use your schedule as a guide but don’t let it control you.

As you follow these steps, be sure to adjust them in anyway you need so that you can be most effective and most efficient at what you do. Set weekly goals, organize your daily tasks and work hard to achieve them. You will reach YOUR goals!

Danny Gamache
The Success Professor
Visit: http://dannyg.makemoreathome.com