3 Secrets I Learned to Grow My Career

I Found It, I Found It, I Found It! I was going through old boxes I’ve had in storage for the last 7 years. I was looking through old pictures from my martial arts training, old copies of different Ninja magazines I had during my early training days and there it was. I found the old book that contained the 3 Secrets I Learned to Grow My Career. No, it wasn’t a book of Ninja secrets. It was a book of career grown secrets I found somewhere. I can’t remember where. I think it was laying around one of the offices I was in at one time. I don’t know who it belonged to. I picked it up and began to read it. I was amazed at the ideas and concepts it held. I stuck it in my briefcase and took it home with me.

S2-E47 – I Want To Be A World Champion Speaker

Never turn down stage time.

~~ Darren LaCroix

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It’s Time to Crown the World Champion of Public Speaking.

I’ve entered the Toastmasters International Speech Contest for the last 3 years, since I started Toastmasters. The International Speech Contest is held in most Toastmasters clubs around the globe. This is the only speaking contest in Toastmasters that goes past the District level to the international level. Each year, those contestants that have won Club, Area, Division and District move up to the next level – The Semifinals. The semifinals are held each year at the Toastmasters International Convention. This year it is in Washington, DC in the the United States. It is this week. It is scheduled start August 17th. Yes, it is this week, tomorrow, and I am going to be there.

This year I entered for the two clubs I belong to. My company club, First Republic Toastmasters is a closed club and only open to members of our company. I also belong to an open club, Cable Car Toastmasters. Cable Car is one of the oldest Toastmasters clubs in San Francisco.

I will include a link to our club in the show notes. If you are in the downtown San Francisco area at 7 a.m. on Tuesday mornings and want to wake up with a bang, the bang of the gavel as the club starts at 7 a.m., connect with us and we will great you with open arms. Yes, I said 7 AM. Yes, it’s early. Yes, you will have fun and get a jolt of adrenaline to start your day with positivity.

I’m Not A Semifinalist

I guess I should go ahead and break the news before we go any further. I am not a semifinalist. I did not make it past the Area level this year. I have been to the Division level before, but this year I didn’t make the First Republic club, but did win the Cable Car club contest. I won 2nd Place at our Area level contest.

Our District 4 winner, Gina Grahame is a Semifinalist and will be competing this week in DC. Our First Republic club officers are attending the International Convention as well as many of our District 4 leaders. We are looking forward to meeting new friends and are looking forward to cheering Gina on as she goes to get her goal of World Champion Speaker.

I want to be the a Toastmaster World Champion Speaker. This is one of my goals in my path to become a paid motivational speaker.

This episode of Goal Getting Podcast is part of our Back To School Series. I consider myself in school to learn to be a Toastmasters World Champion Speaker. I am learning from some of the best. I watched as Gina ascended from Area through Division, and win the District level awards. This week I will get to watch her compete on the World stage with great Toastmasters. I want to be there. I will be cheering her on and visualizing myself on the stage as well.

What am I doing to learn to be a Toastmaster World Champion Speaker? Never turning down stage time, as 2001 World Champion Speaker Darren LaCroix said on the How To Become A World Champion Speaker CD.

World Champion Speakers

I have had the pleasure and honor of meeting Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp at a couple of our San Francisco Toastmasters events. We had the opportunity to host her for a seminar at one of our First Republic Toastmasters club meetings where she shared some educational and inspiring advice. I learned a lot in that visit. Cable Car Toastmasters also sponsored her for an event in June and again she shared valuable advice about speaking and presenting. She is a dynamic lady and a tremendous speaker. The interesting fact is she actually began her Toastmasters journey at Cable Car Toastmasters. I won’t say the year, but it was a while ago. At the Cable Car event, she gave away her CD How To Become a World Champion Public Speaker to the attendees. This CD features Patricia Fripp facilitating an entertaining, action-packed, idea-rich National Speakers Association session with two Toastmasters International World Champion Speakers, 2000 Champion Ed Tate and 2001 Champion Darren LaCroix.

I am excited to meet these two gentlemen at the Convention this week. Ed Tate is speaking Wednesday night.

I had the opportunity to listen to the CD over the Independence Day weekend as I drove my dog, Sophie across country to Atlanta. I had long days of driving and listened to the CD over and over again. I think I listened at least 10 times over the 3 day drive. If you are a Toastmaster or you want to learn speaking skills from two World Champion Speakers, you should pick up a copy. I will have information on how to get a copy at the end of the show notes. I will also have contact information on how to contact Patricia, Ed and Darren.

These great speakers present the exact tips that helped them win their competitions. Patricia also offers several points of advice. She, too, is a great speaker and teacher.

There is so much information on the CD that I won’t go over it today, but I do want to share the tip that stuck with me and has become part of my life at this time.

Advice from a World Champion

Darren offered the audience the tip that he learned from one of his mentors who advised him, “Never turn down stage time.” The funny thing about that quote on the CD is the CD starts with Patricia talking about how she was on a tour in New Zealand with a group of National Speakers Association members. She recognized Ed Tate as being the 2000 World Champion Speaker and asked him to give his speech he presented as his final speech for the 2000 World Champion Speaker contest. Ed, on a full tour bus, going 40 miles an hour through New Zealand stood up, grabbed the tour guides microphone and gave his award winning speech. Ed did not turn down the stage time! Ed took the opportunity to tell his story in front of those National Speakers Association members. I am looking forward to hearing his speech on Wednesday night as the keynote speaker at the Opening ceremonies.

I am excited. I am going to do my best to interview as many people as I can from all over the world. I am going to try to interview some of the amazing Semifinalists as well as past World Champion Speakers. After all the best way to learn is to listen to them speak.

Back To School

So, I will be in school all week at the convention learning how I can become a Toastmasters International World Champion Speaker.

Is your goal to improve your public speaking skills? Do you have a fear of public speaking? You should join a Toastmasters club. I have learned so much. I wasn’t a rookie speaker. I have been a martial arts instructor, a crime prevention speaker, I’ve given seminars on many different topics to audiences from 1 to over 400. However, I didn’t know how to speak well.

If you give presentations or hold meetings at work you may need to join Toastmasters. If you are a Startup Founder pitching to an investor or a Shark, you need to be able to present your story well. Toastmasters is a place to learn.

If you don’t have time or the ability to attend a Toastmasters meeting, you might need to find a coach. You can work with one of the World Champion Speakers or me. I offer coaching services as well. Perhaps you are a startup founder and need to get prepared to do a pitch. Let me help you get ready. I’ve attended a few of the events in San Francisco and will be attending more. I have heard some of the pitches given. You are very intelligent, have a great idea or product and have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it (that sounds like a good name for a band….. ). You should be prepared to tell your story and have the investors be just as excited about it as you are. I can help.

Keep listening to the show. I will try to post some interviews and posts from the Toastmasters International Convention.

Contact Cable Car Toastmasters if you are in San Francisco FiDi on Tuesday mornings. We meet from 7:00 am – 8:00 am.

Contact these great speakers

Patricia Fripp – PFripp@Fripp.com | (415) 752-6556 | www.Fripp.com

Darren LaCroix – Darren@Humor411.com | The Humor Institute, Inc. | (888) 528-4451 | www.Presentation441.com

Edward Tate – Ed@EdTate.com | (813) 221=5254 | www.EdTate.com

Go Out and Make Today a Great Day!

S2-E46 – A Back to School lesson from Dr. Seuss

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It’s back to school time

and whether you are sending your kids back to school or you are going back to school, Dr. Seuss always has great wisdom. Dr. Seuss may be thought of as a children’s book author, he is really a life author for everyone.

If you have kids you are sending back to school, you should tell this quote every morning when they leave the house. You should post this quote on their mirror in their bathroom if they have one. It’s important for our kids to start early believing they can achieve their goals. This quote by Dr. Seuss tells us that we are off to great places and we can be great.

“There are mountains to climb and summits to reach.

These are the lessons to our kids we should teach.

Get up early, don’t dilly or dally,

Go get your goals if you are a Tom or a Sally”

OK, it’s not Dr. Seuss, but I gave it a shot. If you are going to school yourself, whether you are young, in high school, or going to college. You will need to set goals. Determine what you want to do, what grades you want to receive. Once you know that, you can work with the teacher to learn what it will take to achieve the grade you want.

Most likely you will have specific tasks for each teacher or professor. Learn what is require and write down what they are and when they are due. That will be the first big step. If you know what you have to do and when you have to complete them, you can then start scheduling your days to work on each task. I like to work on the toughest ones first. If I can knock the most difficult items first, then I should have time to breeze through the easy assignments. How about you? How have you been working on your assignments?

Do you find it hard to plan working on your tasks. Maybe you need some help. You can pick up my Goal Achievement Success System Action Worksheet and use it to outline your daily goals. The measurement worksheet will allow you to track the tasks each day that must be accomplished. When you complete those tasks. I want to help you do great in school. Mom’s and Dad’s work with your kids or let them work with you if you are the one going to school. That’s right. You may need some help from the kids if you are going back to school these days. Even Tiger Woods has someone he works with on his swing.

If you need help, let me know. We can schedule a 20 minute Clarity Call to talk about where you are and what you are working on. We’ll talk and give you some actionable tips to get you started. We’ll put a little GASS in your goals and get your engines going.

If you want to set up a 20 minute Clarity Call, email me at Tony at GoalGettingPodcast.com. We’ll schedule something and get you on track.

Remember. You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so be on your way.

Go Out Today and Make Today Your Day

S2-E45 – Are You A Visionary or Just a Dreamer?

In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a moment, an hour, a day. Some are dreams, some visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between them. To some, they are the same; however, not all dreams are visions. Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. But visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person’s vision may not be that of another.

To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. The spiritual side of life knows everyone’s heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision. ~~ High Eagle

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Dreams vs. Visions

What’s the difference? When is a dream just a dream? High Eagle says that we often don’t know the difference between a dream and a vision. Many of us feel they are the same. But are they? What makes one different from the other? Are all dreams visions? Why not? What do you think?

What High Eagle goes on to say is that Visions are more than mere dreams. Visions come from the Great Spirit. They are messages that are different for each person because they are for different purposes in life. These are your life’s purpose. This is what I believe High Eagle is talking about. What is your purpose in life?

I think the second part of this quote is the the key to understanding what High Eagle says.

To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it.

As I was growing up, I had a dream. I wanted to be a teacher, to share my knowledge and skills with others. At the time I wasn’t ready to receive that vision of where I needed to be. I wasn’t ready to accept it.

I thought of other things. I wanted to make more money than what I thought teachers made at the time. I wanted to experience other thrills in life. I wanted to be somebody important. I wanted to be successful.

What happens to a lot of us as we get older, we start wondering if we made an impact with our life. Were we able to be significant to others, our fellow man? Did we live a life of significance and purpose. Sometimes it isn’t until we reach this point in our lives that we start thinking about that higher calling, that purpose.

What is our calling?

What is our purpose?

One of my favorite quotes is by Mark Twain. It hangs on my wall.

The two biggest days in our life are the day we are born and the day we find out why.

The two biggest days in our life are the day we are born and the day we find out why. ~~ Mark Twain Click To Tweet

The day we find out our why, our purpose, is one of the most important days because when that happens we learn how to be significant. We are now ready to receive the vision, we are ready to accept it. Learning our purpose, our calling will turn those urges we have had into reality and we will then be able to receive and fulfill the real visions, the goals we need to achieve that purpose.

Receive your vision

We have to be ready to receive it and accept it and then we will have the commitment needed to be able to achieve those visions and make them reality. This get’s back to one of the key motivators for Successful Goal Achievement – Knowing Your Why!

When you know your why, you will be able to keep the commitment to your visions, your goals. When you work toward your purpose, what you are meant to be, to do, then you will be able to turn your visions into reality. Taking the actions necessary will turn those dreams into visions.

Are you working on visions or dreams?

I think this is why many of us have not been able to achieve our dreams. A dream has no action, no commitment. A vision when realized as a part of your purpose, your calling will be driven by your commitment. Commitment brings action. Action leads to fulfillment and achievement.

Are you ready to receive your vision? Are you ready to accept it?

How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out.

Do you know what your purpose is? Do you need help to understand what you want to be and how to achieve it?

Some times we all need a little help. The best way to get the help needed to understand is to look outside of ourselves and the best way to do that is with someone else’s eyes.

Can I help you?

We often need a coach to help us bring new eyes, new thoughts, new perspective on what we are doing, or not. I use a coach to help me with the visions I have and what I need to do to make those visions a reality. I decided I needed to follow my purpose, my calling to teach, inspire and motivate people to achieve their goals.

I have started offering coaching services to those that want to understand how to create their goals effectively and to have an accountability partner to keep them on track. Check out my Services Page on our Website at GoalGettingPodcast.com/Services or search Services when you are on the GoalGettingPodcast.com website.

I put together 3 packages to help you decide what you want to do with your life. Check them out and if you want to work together to Get the Goals You Set just email me at Tony@GoalGettingPodcast.com

S2-E44.2 – Are your SMART Goals making you feel dumb?

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If you listened to this post before you will notice I had the wrong audio on the other version of this post. I bet you thought you were losing it. What did Brooke Shields have to do with SMART Goals. I don’t know what I did with the audio, but I believe I have the correct audio here. Please accept my apologies.

Albert Einstein was smart. But you are too. Most of us are smart, but we don’t have the fortitude to stay with our problems until we solve them. The same is true for our goals in most cases. Most of use have heard of SMART Goals and follow this methodology as the script when we create and write our goals. Do you set SMART Goals only to feel dumb when you don’t achieve them? Don’t feel dumb, it’s not that you aren’t SMART, it’s that SMART Goals don’t go far enough.

What are SMART Goals? The methodology of SMART Goals was developed for setting business or management goals.

SMART Goals are

Specific
Measurable
Achievable (or Assignable)
Realistic (or Relevant)
Time-bound

There are several interpretations for each of the letters, but the two most ambiguous are A and R. If A = Achievable and R = Realistic, isn’t that saying the same thing? If my goal is achievable, it must be realistic, right? If it isn’t realistic, it most likely wouldn’t be achievable.

If we are thinking in a business or management mindset, a goal should be assignable. In other words, someone must be able to be assigned to complete it. There must, therefore, be certain tasks that someone must complete for the goal to be achieved. I think it would be smarter to make the A = Actionable, thereby making someone Accountable for completing the action. So maybe Accountable should be the A.

Well, Realistic shouldn’t be used for R if Achievable is the A. But if A is Actionable, Assignable or even Accountable, then R should be Realistic. Why? Your goals should be Achievable, wait, I mean Realistic. Well since they both are the same thing they should be either or both; Realistically Achievable.

So, are you feeling dumb already. Don’t! Even if you understand what SMART should stand for, it still isn’t enough and you probably still feel dumb. You set SMART Goals. You followed SMART to the T. Your goals were set correctly by the SMART standards. But, you still aren’t achieving your goals. You can’t seem to get the goals your set.

Why not? If my goals are SMART, then I must be dumb. You are not dumb. You just don’t know.

What you don’t know are there are really 9 Steps to Successful Goal Achievement. The 9 Steps include elements of SMART Goals but they also contain the essences of SMARTER goals, too. The 9 Steps to Successful Goal Achievement will make your goal setting successful.

I wrote my eBook, 9 Steps to Successful Goal Achievement and you can find it on Amazon here.

What are the 9 Steps that will make you feel smart and successful?

Successful Goal Setting

Write it Down – Clearly Defined (specific) / Written Goals
Be Realistic – Realistically Achievable Goals
Set A Deadline – Time-Bound Goals
Set An Action Plan – Actionable Goals
Measure It / Track it – Measurable Goals
Define Your Why – Relevant, Meaningful Goals
Visualize It – Believable Goals
Make a Commitment – Accountable Goals
Reward Yourself – Motivational Goals

If you want to learn how you can put these 9 steps into effect in your life with the Goal Achievement Success System, check out my Coaching Packages here. I am committed to helping you get the goals you set.

If you set New Years Resolutions or Goals at the beginning of the year, Well, the year is almost half over. Where do you stand today? Have you achieved your goals? Are you feeling DUMB instead of SMART? Don’t. Let me help you.

Contact me today to sign up for coaching. Even the best need coaches. Professional Golfers have coaches. Athletes hire coaches. Executives hire coaches. I have a coach.

Contact me at Tony at Goal Getting Podcast dot com and let’s get your goals this year. Don’t just feel smart, feel successful.

S2-E44 – Are your SMART Goals making you feel dumb?

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Albert Einstein was smart. But you are too. Most of us are smart, but we don’t have the fortitude to stay with our problems until we solve them. The same is true for our goals in most cases. Most of use have heard of SMART Goals and follow this methodology as the script when we create and write our goals. Do you set SMART Goals only to feel dumb when you don’t achieve them? Don’t feel dumb, it’s not that you aren’t SMART, it’s that SMART Goals don’t go far enough.

What are SMART Goals? The methodology of SMART Goals was developed for setting business or management goals.

SMART Goals are

Specific
Measurable
Achievable (or Assignable)
Realistic (or Relevant)
Time-bound

Why not? If my goals are SMART, then I must be dumb. You are not dumb. You just don’t know.

I wrote my eBook, 9 Steps to Successful Goal Achievement and you can find it on Amazon here.

What are the 9 Steps that will make you feel smart and successful?

Successful Goal Setting

Write it Down – Clearly Defined (specific) / Written Goals
Be Realistic – Realistically Achievable Goals
Set A Deadline – Time-Bound Goals
Set An Action Plan – Actionable Goals
Measure It / Track it – Measurable Goals
Define Your Why – Relevant, Meaningful Goals
Visualize It – Believable Goals
Make a Commitment – Accountable Goals
Reward Yourself – Motivational Goals

Contact me today to sign up for coaching. Even the best need coaches. Professional Golfers have coaches. Athletes hire coaches. Executives hire coaches. I have a coach.

Contact me at Tony at Goal Getting Podcast dot com and let’s get your goals this year. Don’t just feel smart, feel successful.

S2-E42 – The only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot. – Nadia Comaneci

I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot.

~~ Nadia Comaneci

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I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to esape fear is to trample it beneath your foot. When I was growing up, I had the biggest crush on Nadia Comaneci. Nadia was the Romanian Gymnast in the 1976 Olympics that stunned the world with her uneven parallel bar performance. She was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10. Well, I was about 18 at the time and I just thought she was cute! I was amazed at what she could do. She was amazing, and she was cute.

She, like many top tier athletes don’t run from challenges. They embrace the challenges and as Nadia said, they run toward them. That is what makes them exceptional athletes. When most of us would give up, would whine and complain, they get out and try to find the way to win.

How do you handle your challenges? What do you do to overcome the obstacles and struggles you have to go through? Do you give up? Do you stop trying to achieve your goals?

Are you a winner or a whiner? I remember when I started my martial arts training in Ninjutsu, we had a T-Shirt you could get that said, “There is no H in Winning!”

Don’t whine about the circumstances. Don’t complain about what you can’t change. Find what you can do and start doing it.

If you have a goal that you want to achieve. Something that you want to be or do, figure out what it is that you are going to have to do to achieve the goal. That’s exactly what I mean when I say do. Achieving your goal requires action. It requires you to do something.

My goal this year is to get to 185 pounds. I have certain tasks that I must do to achieve that goal. I can’t just sit around watching TV, surfing the web, eating crappy foods. I have to take the action steps needed to burn the calories or eliminate the intake of calories to be able to lose the weight. I have to be smart about it and eat the right foods. That doesn’t mean just lettuce and veggies. There are proteins and fats I have to eat. There are certain foods that I should avoid eating.

There are tasks that I must do to burn calories. We could call it exercise, but that sounds like work. Find something that requires movement that you love to do. If you like to walk, walk. If you like to dance, dance. If you like to play softball, football, soccer, tennis, then go out as often as you can and play.

Do you remember being a kid and your friends came over and asked if you wanted to come out and play. I used to run out of the house, down the street go hang out in the woods, climb trees, ride bikes, for miles. This wasn’t exercise. This was play. This was fun. Go find something you find fun and active and do it.

If you have a goal, and you have struggles or challenges, run toward them. Fix them, fight them, beat them. Do what it takes to overcome those obstacles, those challenges; just don’t run from them. Face the fears, fight the urge to quit and keep moving forward.

Go Out Today and Do Like Nadia – Trample Fears Beneath Your Feet

S2-E41 -Never allow waiting to become a habit. Live your dreams and take risks.

Never allow waiting to become a habit.

Live your dreams and take risks.

Life is happening now.

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Hi my friends. I hope you are having a great day. I love the quote above. I believe in taking risks, trying to be better than I am today. Believing in my dreams and working to achieve my goals. I know you are like that too, or at least want to be.

Some times you have to step outside of your comfort zone. You have to take a look at what you want to do and take a leap of faith that you can achieve that dream. That goal. Yes, it will be scary, but you can’t keep waiting around for the perfect time.

Back in 2003 I wanted to go into sales as a Loan Officer. The market was the best it had ever been. Ever. More people were buying homes. Mortgage lenders were making a lot of money as well as everyone in the real estate, building and finance industries. I had been a consultant before I accepted my current role in as a CIO. I loved doing sales presentations as a consultant. I loved meeting the people, going to trade shows and networking. I loved sales. I wanted to get back into it.

With the mortgage market booming, I knew I could do well and wanted to step out. It was a big risk. Going from a 6 figure salary and bonus to 100% commission was scary. I had a daughter in college and one getting ready to in a couple more years. I wanted to make that jump. I was nervous.

When the President of the company said they wanted to take the company paperless to save money and be more efficient, he hit one of my other passions. I always believed we could take the mortgage industry paperless. So I accepted the role as the head of this new project and decided to wait on my goal to go back into sales.

We worked tirelessly to implement the new system. We worked for the next couple years through struggles in that area and finally were ready to implement into our post closing department. Shortly after going live, my position with the company was eliminated. I was now out of a job with the company. They gave me a great severance package. I was excited to start looking for something new. It was now April of 2006. Three years after my initial desire to go into the career I had dreamed of.

I spoke to the head of the sales team at the same mortgage company and said I wanted to be a loan officer. I had spoken to them about it in 2003 and explained that after having my position eliminated, I could now pursue the position. The market was still doing well, I had a cushion of money coming in for 6 months. They agreed to pay to send me to Loan Officer training. That was a big expense. It was a big risk, but I was unemployed and had to find a job. It would be easy to sell loans since I knew the industry so well and just had to learn how to sell loans. It would require taking a risk.

But I finally took the risk.

I started out doing well after I got out of Loan Officer training. Then the market took a bigger nose dive than I did in the 5th grade off the high dive. And it hurt much worse. Not just for me but for thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands more.

I took the risk. The market crashed and hurt me and many others.

I had to start looking for work. I reached out to vendors I had worked with for years and the Imaging Vendor I had been working with the last three years agreed to hire me. During salary negotiations, the Mortgage Market went in the tank even more and most of their mortgage customers went out of business. The hiring manager called me to tell me the company wouldn’t be able to hire me. They were going into a hiring freeze.

So I had to start doing something. I took my money out of my 401K and started a new business.

I started a business opening a Coffee News Franchise. Several of my friends were doing well selling advertising for years. But with the mortgage market crashing and the area economy driven by that market, ad sales dwindled and so did my new business. I had to shut it down.

Two businesses failed back to back. We lost everything, We had to file bankruptcy. I took a job at a grocery store to pay the bills and eventually went full time to be able to pay for insurance. You have to do what you have to do.

I later found a great job in California making a salary for a great, stable company that takes great care of their teams.

Yes, I took a risk and it failed. I crashed. However, I learned a lot from that crash. First, I wasn’t the only one. It wasn’t because of what I did that caused the failures. The market crashed and destroyed many careers. It was a tough market. The point of the story us you can’t keep waiting. If you make waiting a habit you could miss the best opportunities. Had I went ahead in 2003 and become a loan officer, I likely would have done very well and things would possibly have turned out differently. Or they might not have. The point is I wouldn’t have known either way if you don’t take the risk and get the experience.

People are going to give you grief when you take risks. But don’t let waiting around become a habit. Take the risks and live your life. Life IS Happening Now! You can live it, too.

Go Out Today and Take Some Risks – Live Your Life Today

S2-E40 – Who do you think you are? No really? Take This Personality Test.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
~~ Bruce Lee

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Don’t go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself. . . .

Who Do You Think You Are? Who are you? What is it to be yourself?

About three years ago, I started wondering who I was, or more specifically I was looking for what my calling was. I wasn’t happy with my current career choice. I had worked in the field for many years but wasn’t feeling it any more. I had actually changed careers from that career about 5 years earlier, but went back into it after the mortgage crash.

I had left IT and Enterprise Content Management and went into a sales role as a Loan Officer. I loved it, but the mortgage crash dashed that career.

At the end of that run, I also purchased a Coffee News franchise. I became a publisher of “Good News” and sold advertising to local businesses. I loved it, too.

While doing these two careers I started attending Business Networking International (BNI) and learned how to network.

I joined and worked in the local Chambers of Commerce. I loved it. I loved to network with the local business and community leaders. I loved helping businesses grow and build their business and networks.

Unfortunately, the economy that was driven by the real estate and building market in the local areas I worked went down considerably and that business failed as well.

I was unable to pay the bills, unable to afford insurance, etc. I found a part-time job working at a local grocery store bakery for a couple years and work my way to a Bakery Manager position. I always strive to be my best and excel. I couldn’t just be a bakery clerk. But, this wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.

I started looking for something with my prior experience and skills that could bring in a good salary. I was offered a position in the field I had left before in Enterprise Content Management in Lending and moved to California.

After a couple years I realized I wasn’t happy doing this. It paid well. I was well respected among my peers, but I just didn’t enjoy it anymore. I wasn’t feeling like I was making an impact. I wasn’t feeling satisfied or significant.

I heard about and then read Jeff Goins‘ book, The Art Of Work. Jeff said to think about what you were doing when you were the happiest in your life. What were you doing when you loved going to work or what did you do when you weren’t at work that made you the happiest?

Pick up Jeff’s book here:

GoalGettingBook.com / Audible

I sat down one day when I went for an early morning walk in the East Bay hills near my house, which I loved to do. I started thinking about when i was happiest. I realized it was when i was when I was doing these things:

meeting new people
marketing
business networking
working with and building communities online and offline
speaking at events
training people
motivating others to reach and achieve their goals
social media
writing

I joined a new Toastmasters club our company started so I could improve my public speaking and start meeting new people in the company.

I started taking marketing and social media classes at UC Berkeley Extension. I decided I wanted to start working towards a career in marketing, social media, public speaking.

I realized that the type of career that would work well for what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, what would make me happy and satisfied was something in the line of Community Management. I started researching and learning.

This was who I was. This is what would make me happy.

Really? How did I know?

This has been a long discourse to get to the point of this podcast episode, which is to talk about “Who Do You Think You Are?” If, as Bruce Lee says, you should “be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself” then shouldn’t you know who you really are?

How the heck do you do that?

I started by doing what Jeff Goins suggested.

I did find my dream job as a Community Manager. One of the great benefits of our company is that they value their employees. One of the benefits is they often allow us to take personality tests. Yes, there are personality tests. I’ve taken a few over the years, but I never really took the results and looked at what they meant. They are developed to give you an idea of the strengths and weaknesses you have based on your personality. YOUR PERSONALITY, not someone else’s. As Bruce said, “don’t look for a successful personality and duplicate……”

There are several of these types of tests:

Gallup StrengthsFinder
Myers-Briggs
DISC
16 Personalities
and more. . . .

We have been given the opportunity to take a couple of these this year and I have been amazingly surprised how accurate they are. I took the Gallup StrengthsFinder and the 16 Personalities tests.

Gallup StrengthsFinder

The StrengthsFinder Test cost a few dollars to take, but it is well worth it. There are 34 Themes in this test. We signed up for the Top 5 Themes test that shows your 5 themes that define the majority of your personality.

My top 5 are:

Strategic
Activator
Self-Assurance
Significance
Futuristic

These are my most dominant themes of the 34 the test shows. These are very important. The program also puts together an Action Plan for you to maximize these strengths.

To help show what this means, here are the top 2 of 5:

Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles.

Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

Activator
“When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance.

Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go . .

16 Personalities

When I took the 16 Personalities test, which is FREE, I find I am an ENFJ – The Protagonist. You can learn what each personality is and the characteristics of each. Like the StrengthsFinders test, I found the 16 Personalities test to be pretty accurate.

Here are a couple of points from this test that I feel describe me:

ENFJs are genuine, caring people who talk the talk and walk the walk, and nothing makes them happier than leading the charge, uniting and motivating their team with infectious enthusiasm.

Charismatic – Charm and popularity are qualities ENFJs have in spades. They instinctively know how to capture an audience, and pick up on mood and motivation in ways that allow them to communicate with reason, emotion, passion, restraint – whatever the situation calls for. Talented imitators, ENFJs are able to shift their tone and manner to reflect the needs of the audience, while still maintaining their own voice.
Altruistic – Uniting these qualities is ENFJs’ unyielding desire to do good in and for their communities, be it in their own home or the global stage. Warm and selfless, ENFJs genuinely believe that if they can just bring people together, they can do a world of good.
Natural Leaders – More than seeking authority themselves, ENFJs often end up in leadership roles at the request of others, cheered on by the many admirers of their strong personality and positive vision.

Very interesting, and I have to agree they are fairly accurate as well. Essentially both tests say the same things about my personality. If you look at these traits and characteristics of my personality and the things that made me the happiest when I was doing them, you can see why.

It is me. It is who I am.

What’s the point of all of this? It’s to understand what Bruce Lee is said, AND it is to understand YOU.

If you want to be successful at your career, if you want to live a happy, satisfied, fulfilling life, then you need to be you. You need to be yourself, express yourself and have faith in yourself.

Find your calling. If you are in your calling, live it with passion. Find these personality strengths and take the action needed to use them for your life.

I have a career now doing what I am. I am a Community Manager for the company I work for. I am a Podcaster, helping people set and achieve their goals. I help people take action and Get The Goals They Set.

I am the happiest I’ve been in a long time doing what I love and what I am.

Are You? Take one or many of these tests if you haven’t. Be honest when taking them. Find out who you really are and then set your goals to be what you are. If your goals are not in alignment with who you are, then you will have the hardest time achieving them. Your subconscious mind will work to sabotage you. Don’t let your mind play goalie for the other team!

Go Out Today – Be Yourself, Express Yourself, Have Faith in Yourself.
Be You and Be Successful

I get a lot of my quotes from great books that I read. And if you like to listen to books on Audio like I do, I put together a deal with Audible to give Goal Getting Podcast listeners a FREE Audiobook of your choice AND a 30 Day Trial of Audible’s service to try them out.

Just click the link in the Blue Box to get to the Audible sign up!

Get Your Free Audiobook Here

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Goal Getting Masters Private Facebook Group

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Are you a Goal Getter that wants to learn to Master Goal Getting!

We’ve started a private Facebook Group to have a place for you to meet other like-minded, Goal-Oriented people that will support you and help you Get The Goals You Set.

If you want to be a part of the Goal Getting Masters Group, go to Goal Getting Podcast.com / masters

If you like our podcast you can easily go Subscribe to our show on iTunes at Goal Getting Podcast.com/itunes

QUICK & EASY – Click here to go leave a review on iTunes

Make Today a Great Day!

Please follow us below on your favorite social media channel. We would love to hear from you there, too. Send us a Tweet, or Instagram Like.

You can connect with us on your favorite by going to GoalGettingPodcast.com / and then Twitter or Facebook, or Instagram

They will easily take you to the social media platforms and make it easy to follow us.

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Podcast at @GoalsPodcast
Tony Woodall, Your Host at @TonyWCMB

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S2-E39 – See the positive in negative events . . . Joel Osteen

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’
See the positive in negative events.
Joel Osteen

Click Below to Listen to Today’s Show

Hi fellow Goal Getter. I appreciate you listening to the show. I really apologize for the delays in getting back to the show. I am going through some challenges and changes in my life at the moment and I have allowed it to affect my thoughts and my attitude. I am a positive person and do my best to keep myself and other thinking positive and keeping our motivation going so we can achieve our goals.

I am going to start a series on Positive Thinking Quotes. I think it is important to think positively. To be positive. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe that positive thinking alone will be what it takes to achieve our goals. Reading and quoting positive thoughts won’t get you farther. It will help keep us motivated and inspired and help you remember your Why.

And it’s certainly makes us feel better to be positive than to be negative, right?

The power of positive thinking is powerful. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale wrote the great book, The Power of Positive Thinking. I highly recommend it. I read it so many time when I was young. I remember after the first time I read it, I told my minister I was excited about the idea. I remember standing on the front steps of our church after a Sunday service and him saying, “Tony, thinking positive is a bad thing. You need to be realistic.”

I was amazed with this statement. This was my last Sunday at this church. I couldn’t believe that a preacher, a man of God would not believe in the power of positive thinking. God wants us to be positive and to believe in ourselves. I did not believe that this man spoke for God.

We are going to go through tough times at points in our lives. We are going to experience stress, sadness, and issues. However, as Joel Osteen, another man that speaks for God, says above, these tough times are happening to you but for you. It is a learning experience. Like, failure, which is a tough time for most of us, we should see these in a positive light. What can we learn from it? What does it teach us? How does it help us toward our feelings. Are we going to let it strengthen us or defeat us?

See the positive in the negative events in your life and you will grow.

Go Out Today and Think Positive About the Negatives in Life

Just click the link in the Blue Box to get to the Audible sign up!

Get Your Free Audiobook Here

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Goal Getting Masters Private Facebook Group

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Are you a Goal Getter that wants to learn to Master Goal Getting!

We’ve started a private Facebook Group to have a place for you to meet other like-minded, Goal-Oriented people that will support you and help you Get The Goals You Set.

If you want to be a part of the Goal Getting Masters Group, go to Goal Getting Podcast.com / masters

If you like our podcast you can easily go Subscribe to our show on iTunes at Goal Getting Podcast.com/itunes

QUICK & EASY – Click here to go leave a review on iTunes

We are now on Google Play Music

Make Today a Great Day!

Please follow us below on your favorite social media channel. We would love to hear from you there, too. Send us a Tweet, or Instagram Like.

You can connect with us on your favorite by going to GoalGettingPodcast.com / and then Twitter or Facebook, or Instagram

They will easily take you to the social media platforms and make it easy to follow us.

Like our Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/GoalGettingPodcast

Follow us on Twitter:
Podcast at @GoalsPodcast
Tony Woodall, Your Host at @TonyWCMB

Follow us on Instagram at @GoalGettingPodcast

Never turn down stage time.

~~ Darren LaCroix

It’s Time to Crown the World Champion of Public Speaking.

I’m Not A Semifinalist

World Champion Speakers

Advice from a World Champion

Back To School

Contact Cable Car Toastmasters if you are in San Francisco FiDi on Tuesday mornings. We meet from 7:00 am – 8:00 am.

Contact these great speakers

Patricia Fripp – PFripp@Fripp.com | (415) 752-6556 | www.Fripp.com

Darren LaCroix – Darren@Humor411.com | The Humor Institute, Inc. | (888) 528-4451 | www.Presentation441.com

Edward Tate – Ed@EdTate.com | (813) 221=5254 | www.EdTate.com

Go Out and Make Today a Great Day!

It’s back to school time

“There are mountains to climb and summits to reach.

These are the lessons to our kids we should teach.

Get up early, don’t dilly or dally,

Go get your goals if you are a Tom or a Sally”

Go Out Today and Make Today Your Day

Dreams vs. Visions

The two biggest days in our life are the day we are born and the day we find out why.

Receive your vision

Can I help you?

SMART Goals are

Successful Goal Setting

SMART Goals are

Successful Goal Setting

I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot.

~~ Nadia Comaneci

Go Out Today and Do Like Nadia – Trample Fears Beneath Your Feet

Never allow waiting to become a habit.

Live your dreams and take risks.

Life is happening now.

Click Below to Listen to Today’s Show

Go Out Today and Take Some Risks – Live Your Life Today

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. ~~ Bruce Lee

Gallup StrengthsFinder

My top 5 are:

16 Personalities

It is me. It is who I am.

Go Out Today – Be Yourself, Express Yourself, Have Faith in Yourself. Be You and Be Successful

~~~~

Goal Getting Masters Private Facebook Group

~~~~

Are you a Goal Getter that wants to learn to Master Goal Getting!

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’ See the positive in negative events. Joel Osteen

Go Out Today and Think Positive About the Negatives in Life

~~~~

Goal Getting Masters Private Facebook Group

~~~~

Are you a Goal Getter that wants to learn to Master Goal Getting!

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
~~ Bruce Lee

Go Out Today – Be Yourself, Express Yourself, Have Faith in Yourself.
Be You and Be Successful

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’
See the positive in negative events.
Joel Osteen