Photo by aarmono

One of the goals I set for the first months of 2009 relates to losing some weight. I’m excited to say I’m off to a quick start and I’m now only 4 lbs off my target weight.

Likely there are many of you who are also looking to shed a few unwanted pounds.  This is building on my success of 2008 where I was able to lose 14 pounds.

Here are the steps I have taken to help with weight loss.

1. Exercise 5 Days a Week

This first step is probably the most obvious one.  Exercise should be anyone’s first step if they are looking to get in shape or lose weight. You need to find a way to exercise that you find fun and that keeps you motivated.  For me it is using an elliptical training while I watch favorite television shows (that I record with the purpose of watching while I exercise), videos I’ve downloaded, or listen to a podcast (check out my top 10 podcasts).

Finding someone to hold you accountable to your exercise goals is also important.  My wife and I hold each other accountable.  We usually do this with the simple question, “are you going to exercise this morning?” This kind of simple question serves as an encouragement not a guilt trip. These techniques keep exercise fun and help me stay excited to exercise each day.

2. Accelerate the Value of Exercise

Proper nutrition can dramatically accelerate the value of your exercise. If you are lifting any weights or doing exercises that you help will help you build or maintain muscle mass you should be supplementing your diet with a protein shake immediately following your workout.  I also use a special patented exercise bar before I work out that increases my bodies ability to burn fat and decreases the lactic acid so I get less sore muscles. (To find out more, email me:  dannygamache [at] gmail [dot] com)

3. Eat Until Less than Full

One of the biggest problems we face in North America relates to serving sizes.  Whether at home or at a restaurant we tend to end up with plates filled beyond what we need. I notice this anytime I travel overseas.  The serving sizes are significantly smaller. Interestingly, even with the smaller serving sizes I don’t feel any more hungry after eating.  In part, this is because you are really full before you have the sensation of being full. To apply this at home, I simply try to eat until I’m a little less than full.  That gives my stomach and brain time to catch up to each other.

4. Eat More Fiber

In the western world we eat far too little fiber.  Very few people get the recommended 25 to 30 grams a day.  Eating more fiber can have numerous health benefits including reducing the risk of heart disease and other sicknesses.  Eating more fiber also helps with weight loss. Each day I consider ways of getting extra fiber and I will supplement with a shake or bar if necessary.

5. Take Multi-vitamin/Mineral Supplement

Another important step for me has been finding a good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement.  A good supplement will improve your overall nutrition, help you sleep better, give you more energy and because of these things increase your metabolism. Take your time looking for a good quality supplement.  Most supplements have very little absorbed by the body.  Find a supplement with a very high absorption rate.

6. Set Your Goal as an Ideal Weight

Rather than setting your goal as losing a certain amount of weight, you should use your ideal target weight as your goal. If you set your goal to lose a set number of pound you may reach your goal and quickly yo-yo back up.  By setting an ideal target weight as your goal you can create the lifestyle changes that will help you reach and maintain that weight.

Hopefully if you started the New Year with a weight loss goal, you are making progress towards that goal.  If you haven’t, use this as an opportunity to start over.  Determine your ideal weight and set that as the goal.  Start moving towards it by taking at least one simple step today!

Related:
A guest post I wrote on Dumb Little Man: “7 tips to developing the habit of daily exercise”.

Leo @ Zen Habits shares about other ways to increase your fat burning.

Written by:
Danny Gamache
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Photo by Slopjop

As we end 2008 and start 2009 it is natural that we should be taking time to set goals.  Last week, I shared about the concept of setting shorter goals.  In that article, I shared how you can improve your goal setting and achievement by setting goals for either three month or four month periods.

As a professor, the four month goal setting period works perfectly because of the natural flows of the school year.  The first four months include a busy semester.  This semester, I’m teaching an extra class than normal.

The second four month period is the summer months.  During this time, I do not have classes to teach.  Instead there is time for increased study, research and writing.  My wife and I are also expecting our first child near the start of this four month period, so there will be many life changes to consider when setting goals for this time period.

The third four month period is again a teaching semester, with a different course load and different set of obligations. It is because of this natural life separation that I am setting goals for a four month period (rather than quarterly goals that are common in the corporate world).

I share my goals with you for several reasons:

• public accountability is always valuable when focusing on goals
• you can see the format I use, and the types of goals that I set
• you can hold me accountable to my goals
• you can get some ideas for goals of your own
• you can get to know me a little better

Be sure to share some of your goals in the comments below.

Here are some of my goals by category.  I have been intentionally vague on a few numbers that are rather personal (particularly financial goals). I do have specific numbers for these set in my goals.

Teaching/ Professor

• finish academic article and submit to peer-reviewed journal
• develop PowerPoint presentations for Human Resource Management course
• integrate more illustrations/videos into Quantitative Methods course

Success Professor Blog

• publish 6 guest posts per month
• increase to a total of 1500 RSS subscribers (approximately double current)
• average 4000+ visitors per month during period

Home Business Affiliate Program

• accept 12 new affiliate partners to work with
• total growth of 50%

Financial Goals

• put as much as possible on to retirement plan by Feb. 28
• increase emergency fund

Fitness Goals

• get to target weight (approximately 10 lb. drop)

Personal Development

• read 6 books, including one on writing

Spiritual Growth Goals

• continue role in church leadership
• read Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham

Now that my goals are set, I incorporate them into my weekly planning process. I also review my goals frequently throughout the week, and I will have another goal setting time at the end of the four month period.

What are your goals?  Share a couple of your goals below as a way of publicly declaring what you are going to work towards.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

Like many others, you may use the start of a new year to set goals for what you want to accomplish over the next year. These goals may be business goals, personal goals, or more informal resolutions. If you are like me, you enter the year with a lot of energy and excitement towards reaching those goals, and yet throughout the year many seem to fade out of focus and do not get achieved.

Part of the problem is that although a year is a brief measure of time in the course of our lives, it is often too long to stay focused on achieving our goals.  There can be too many unexpected events that can occur in the course of a year that through us off track and derail us from achieving our goals.

Some people solve this somewhat by breaking down annual goals into monthly goals.  This can certainly be a good step, but it is too easy to let the start of a new month go by without reviewing your goals and set goals for the next month.

To solve these problems, set your goals for a three or four month period.  If you ever follow the stock market, you’ll notice that corporations release quarterly reports.  This allows them to focus on distinct three month periods. The government also releases many economic statistics on a quarterly basis.  You too can take advantage of this premise by breaking your goals down into shorter periods.  By breaking the year into quarters or thirds you gain many advantages:

• you have a clear timeline that is of significant enough length to achieve recognizable and meaningful results
• you will have a better understanding of your schedule
• you should have a good idea about important life events in the upcoming time period that require your attention
• if you get off track on a particular goal you don’t wait until the end of the year to reengage
• you can use the understanding gained in one time period to set better goals for the next time period
• you get three or four points in the year for a recharge session where you are able to review your accomplishments and set new goals (perhaps have a quarterly celebration and/or retreat)

I leave the actual length of these periods up to you, as they should be based around your particular life schedule.  For example, I am setting goals for four month periods this year. For me, the four month time frame connects well with my schedule as a professor.  The first four months represent the first semester, this year with a heavy teaching load.  The second four month period represents the summer time period with a reduced teaching load and more time for research, writing and travel.  The final four moth period represents another semester with a different teaching load and different set of life circumstances.  By breaking the year down into four month periods I am able to focus on goals that are relevant to my life at each particular period of time.

As you go to set your goals here are some reminders to help you set good goals:

• set goals for each important area of your life
• make your goals measurable
• goals should be challenging and yet attainable
• short-term goals should be in alignment with your long-term goals and life purpose or mission

In upcoming posts I will share with you some of my accomplishments from the past year, as well as my goals for the upcoming four month period.  Start working on your goals and be prepared to share a goal or two.

Happy New Year!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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It has been just over two months since I started serious blogging.  Yes, I have posts archived back to 2005, but it was not until the end of August that I started serious blogging.  By serious blogging I mean:

• writing most of my own posts, rather than simple linking to articles on the web
• aiming to provide value for my readers
• working to bring readers to my blog (before August I averaged less than five visits a day).

For the last two months I have been diligent about writing my own original content that aims to provide value for my readers.  I have also have consistently worked on marketing the blog to attract new readers.  Hopefully some of what I have learned will also help you.

Photo by Star-dust

1. Writing Takes the Most Time

One of the biggest surprises for me was in how much time the writing process takes.  I’ve always considered myself a pretty fast writer, and compared to a lot of people that is true.  At work, I seem to be able to write quicker than many of my colleagues, when I was a student I could write faster than other students, and generally my writing speed is pretty high.  Even with that, it still takes longer to write than I had expected.  An average post takes about two hours to write, prepare and post.  Generally the first draft takes an hour, and the review, formatting and posting takes another hour.  The good news is that if I am consistent at putting in an hour a day, I can write and post about three articles a week.  I have been generally fairly consistent at using my Power Hour for this purpose.

2. Marketing Can Be Done One Step at a Time

Because writing good material is my priority, it means that marketing must happen a little more slowly than I had expected.  I have learned enough about promoting a blog that I could easily spend several 40 hour work weeks simply promoting the blog.  However, I have a busy life including my job as a professor, and my rapidly growing home business.  As such, I aim to take one step at a time in expanding my marketing efforts.  I set marketing goals for my blog each week as part of my weekly planning process, and work towards those goals each week.

3. Network, Network, Network

Probably the priority in my promotion efforts has been to establish a presence online by networking with other bloggers and blog readers.  Just like most traditional bricks-and-mortar small business, networking is the lifeblood of my blog. Blogs are not in competition with each other, rather the growth of one blog can support the growth of other blogs (Zen Habits author Leo Babauta has a great post about how success isn’t a competition).   There are several ways that I network with other bloggers and readers:

• leave good comments, including links to my articles when appropriate
• help increase awareness about other good blogs and articles (through sharing links on my blog, submitting their work to Digg! or StumbleUpon.)
• be in email contact directly with other bloggers

4. Contribute with Guest Articles

Another great way of promoting this blog has been through writing guest articles for other blogs.  Certainly this is a little more time consuming than some of the other marketing ideas, but it has been a very valuable way at connecting with new readers.  I have only gotten started at making a serious effort to write for other blogs, but what I have done has made a big difference.  Many of you may have first found your way here through guest posts including my recent guest article at Dumb Little Man. My current goal is to submit one article each week to another blog for a guest post.

5. StumbleUpon!

Again, I’m fairly new to using StumbleUpon but it has been a significant source of traffic.  If you are unfamiliar with StumbleUpon, it is a unique internet community that allows users to recommend websites to other users with similar interests.  My two biggest days for visitor numbers have been when a post received a number of “stumbles”.
Here is a great post about how to use StumbleUpon to increase your traffic.

6. Switching to WordPress and Getting A Domain Name

The first thing I did when I was getting prepared to start blogging more seriously was to switch from Blogger to WordPress and get my own domain name.  This entire process was easier than I expected.  The actual switch process took less than an hour, and learning to use WordPress was very simple.  I find WordPress easier to use and more functional than Blogger.   There are many free WordPress themes to choose from and many Plugins to make it work best for you. If you are looking to make the switch you can read this post about the process.

Hopefully these six steps will be helpful for you and your blogging or internet marketing efforts. Between now and the New Year my blog goals are:

• Double the number of subscribers and daily visitors
• Continue to publish guest posts around the internet
• Make a few small improvements to blog theme
• Add a few more static pages such as a FAQ section

How Can You Help?

• Share this blog!  Email your friends or add a link on your site
• Stumble the blog or your favorite article with StumbleUpon
• Comment on your favorite article
• Share feedback by emailing danny (AT) secondincometeam.com

Thanks for all of your support.  Have a great day!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

Hi everyone,

As we end one week and prepare to start another it can be a great time to reflect on our accomplishments and goals. Tuesday is month end. Do you have any goals you still need to accomplish this month? Why not go for them? Finish the month strong and then use the start of a new month to set new goals and start over!

Here are some great blog posts that I came across in the past week:

The new blog Lateral Action talks about Foolish Productivity.

Get Rich Slowly shares how being a successful entrepreneur Is Not About You.

Think Simple Now has a great article on How to Be Outstanding.

Leo @ Zen Habits writes about how to Attack Your Limitations.

Dumb Little Man shares How to be More Disciplined and Organized When Working From Home.

Here are a couple of blog carnivals that I was a part of this week:

Rich Life Carnival

Working at Home Blog Carnival

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Hi everyone,

Another week is complete.  It was a great week for me in many of my goals.  Here are a few excellent articles that I came across this week.

1. Zen Habits shares 6 Questions to Ask Yourself to Get the Most out of Life.

2. Millionair Money Habits shares why Failure is Not an Option, It’s a Necessity.

3. Mark and Angel Life Hacks compile a great  list of 22 Swift Tips to Increase Productivity.

4. John Jantsch has a guest article on Small Business Trends about the problems a lot of small business owners have with money.

5. Business Development in Context shares 4 Things You Can Do Today to Develop Your Business.
Enjoy!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

Personal development is a key to success. By reading this blog, you are demonstrating that you are committed to personal growth. Often people realize the importance of personal growth, but don’t do anything deliberate on a daily basis to provide for opportunities to grow. It is important that you commit to doing some form of personal development daily. This will ensure that you are always improving and moving towards your goals. Unfortunately, personal development is often one of the first areas that people let slip when they get busy. That is because it is never urgent, and it appears that it can always wait. While it may not be urgent, it is certainly important and in fact can be one of the most important activities you can pursue.

One way to ensure that you continue to pursue growth is to commit to a daily time of personal development. Many find that 20 minutes a day is an ideal number. It is not a long commitment. You can squeeze in 20 minutes even on a busy day. But 20 minutes is long enough to make a difference; to charge you up, and help you learn something important for your life.

So what do you do with 20 minutes to ensure growth? Here are six ways you can grow each day, and all of them can be valuable in just 20 minutes each day.

1. Read A Book – You should always be reading. Reading opens your mind to new ways of thinking and to new ideas. As you read you’ll be inspired, encouraged, and challenged. Chances are that no matter what goal you are pursuing, or what problem you are facing, that someone has faced a similar issue before and has written about it. By reading from them, you are able to avoid making mistakes that others have already made. If you don’t like to read, then make sure you get audio books. Audio books not only are valuable if you don’t like to read, but allow you to listen while you drive or exercise.

2. Pick a Few Blogs to Follow – There are many wonderful personal development blogs. By picking a few blogs and keeping up with them daily, you can continue to pursue growth with the blog’s author serving as your mentor or coach. Certainly, it is easy to get overwhelmed by trying to follow too many blogs. Eventually your list of unread posts grows and the list just overwhelms you; when that occurs you end up not reading any. By sticking with a few favorites, and subscribing by RSS, you can focus on picking up a few ideas each day.

3. Listen to Audio Trainings or Podcast – Listening to audio presentations can be another inspiring method of personal growth. You can listen to traditional training material from experts such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, or Tony Robbins. There are also dozens of other motivational speakers, trainers, and experts who offer free podcasts for you to download. Another example of the audio presentations available by podcast are sermons. You can listen to top preachers from around the world on a weekly basis.

4. Learn a Language – Learning a new language is a powerful form of personal growth. It helps to increase your creativity as you learn to thinking in a different language. It also prepares you to be more competitive in today’s workforce and business world. Further, it gives you greater flexibility in your ability to travel. You can learn a language at home through programs like the Rosetta Stone, through many other audio training programs or taking a local course.

5. Take a College Course – Another powerful form of personal growth is to take a course at your local college or university. Pick a topic that you would like to learn, whether that is just for your personal pleasure or to learn a new practical skill. After graduating, I have continued to take extra courses including a course in Racket Sports (to improve my tennis and learn a few other sports), a course in preaching, and a history course. All of these were valuable in my personal growth.

6. Hire a personal coach – A final way to ensure consistent personal growth is to hire a personal coach. Personal coaches are equipped to help you set and achieve goals in many areas of life. A good personal coach will help you to set goals, develop a plan, and become more effective as you move towards their achievement. A coach can help you in multiple areas of your life, by becoming a source of accountability as you live out your plan.

You certainly don’t need to do all of these things. Pick the one or two that you are most interested in and that fit best into your lifestyle. Commit to twenty minutes each day and start putting these activities into action.

Now readers it’s your turn. What are your favorite ways of personal development?

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Sunday’s will be designed for sharing some of my favorite links about success in personal or business life. The links will generally be posts I found during the past week.

1.  Alex Shalman gives us 7 Questions That Will Change Your Life.

2.  Pick the Brain shares Why No Response Does Not Mean Not Interested.

3.  Get Rich Slowly shares a wonderful video and story about The Best Salesman in the World!

4.  WiseBread offers tips on Effective Networking in a One Horse Town.

5.  A friend of mine launched a new business to help students balance their homework to achieve better grades with less stress.

And finally, my articles also appeared in a blog-carnival about all things manly.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache