Earl Nightingale said that “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.” Because he was instrumental in the realization of my success through the many books and tapes he produced (and that my successful father encouraged me to read and listen to), I wanted to dedicate this first of the Achieve Master series of articles.

In this article we will look at the part of Mr. Nightingales quote “the progressive realization…” If you have not, please read my other article “A Worthy Goal – Part1: Cutting the Crap…”

Once we have established a worthy goal, we must then make the journey to get to it. If our goal is truly worthy (ie: it is a true goal, it is an uplifting goal, and it is inherently a good goal), then we must ask ourselves: “Is this something stretch me as a person to achieve?” Or “Is this something I can do right now without much effort?”

It’s not a goal if you can do it now; it is just a task in that case.

I have developed a software system that helps people achieve their greatest dreams, and the primary “memory mnemonic” (if you will) is the statement “Do This Now™”. But this refers to Tasks. Goals, on the other hand are things you cannot do “now”, but that will requires you grow or change in some way (learning a skill, strengthening muscles, practice at a skill you have to get to the next level, etc.)

Once a goal is perceived it must be crystallized. There is no room for vagueness, as best as you can you must visualize every detail and nuance of your goal. It should excite you and generate intense interest for you to do this. Here are some examples:

Example 1:
Jack Sprat says: “One day I’d like to be a captain of a dinner cruise boat.” When his friends ask what he has done about this dream of his he says he has a few magazines with boats and once went on a dinner cruise with his wife.

Example 2:
Joe Smith wants to own his own dinner yacht where he can ply the inter-coastal waters around the Carolinas and have several well paying guests on board. He loves the idea of being on the water and socializing with guests while feeding them marvelously prepared dinners using local cuisine and telling them about the sites and history of the area. He has gone to several yacht makers to see what kinds of boats are available. He is currently taking a course on the history of the area and has started an account where he is saving as much money as he can spare. He has also begun talking to a business friend about how to write up a business plan so he can raise more money for equipment. In addition to this he has called up several cooks he knows of at various local restaurants to see if they would be interested in such an idea. Joe has gone on all of the dinner cruises in the area and written down his observations about how they work, what methods are better than others, and how he could differentiate his idea from theirs for a truly unique experience. When his friends ask what he has done about his dream, Joe pulls out his large folder of pictures and business plans, showing them his latest list of things he needs to do and those that he has completed.

Now after reading these two examples, which one strikes you as most likely to succeed?
Now, to be fair, Jack Sprat has done some correct things (getting boating magazines, going on a cruise) but his statement of what he is doing is very fuzzy (he still calls a yacht a “boat”). He is dreaming, but he is not doing much about the dream, and really does not know where to begin or what to do next. Joe, on the other hand has a crystal clear set of goals and tasks, and is always updating and re-clarifying so he can move towards that goal. Joe is always making sure that he is doing something to move him closer. Jack, not so much.

I am not sure Jack would ever reach this goal, but nothing short of death is going to keep Joe away from it.

And that is the secret of “the progressive realization”, daily making a concerted effort to do something NOW that will move you, if only just a little, towards your goal.

If you have ever used a navigational system or an online map system like Google Maps or Map-quest, you know how this basically works. You tell the system where you are now, and where you want to go. These are the two endpoints. Goals are the same, you need to know where you are now (your situation, education, finances, skills, etc), and where you will need to be to achieve your goal (to the best of your knowledge).

The mapping applications always give you a list of points you must reach, turns you must take, and the good ones can help with obstacles and alternate routes. In the same way you must break down the steps to reach your goal so you know what things you need to learn, what money you will need to raise, what skills you will need to develop, etc. You will also have obstacles, and alternate routes. You need to know all of this, or as much as possible,

The best possible way to do this is to use “backwards planning”. Backwards planning is starting where you want to end up (your goal) and moving backwards one simple task at a time, until you arrive back to where you are at now. How to perform backwards planning is the subject of my next article so don’t miss it!

- David T. McKee

Note: This is copy-righted content, Copyright  2008, David T. McKee

The Achieve Master Series: Getting There…

(Note: Some of the following may seem offensive or controversial to some…well, I’m sorry but anything interesting enough to read  usually is)

Earl Nightingale said that “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.” Because he was instrumental in the realization of my success through the many books and tapes he produced (and that my successful father encouraged me to read and listen to), I wanted to dedicate this first of the Achieve Master series of articles.

Most of us have at least a fuzzy idea of what success is and if we are of that precious few who have made the attempt to make this idea more concrete in our thinking, we may be sure we know what success is. But what does it take to be a Master of Achievement?

First let’s clear the air a bit.

There are so many books, tapes, methods, philosophies, techniques, etc. on success and self-improvement that the mind is quickly boggled. A quick visit to a library or bookstore will verify this fact. Much of the current crops of titles combine a panoply of various new-age gobbledygook with just a sprinkling of actual common sense. Add to this a massive marketing budget and you have another best seller destined to be sold in a few years at the bargain basement used book-store. I should know… I have a ton of this stuff on my own bookshelves.

Let’s dig through some of this stuff, past the yellowed, dog-eared tomes of the past few years until we find some of the first ideas that actual successful individuals used to achieve awesome levels of success, the kind of achievement that you want for yourself.

Let’s begin with the statement that is also the title of this article:

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.”

Look at the last 3 words: “a worthy goal”. What makes a goal “worthy”? What does that even mean?

Let’s start by cutting the crap that most guru based new-age self improvement types dish out… None of this “Worthy goals are different for different people…blah blah blah.”

Obviously different people want different things, but some of those things are not worthy. And sometimes the things people say they want are not what their actions show they really do want.

People get what they actually want.
That is a basic principle. There is nothing “mystical” there, nothing magical (unless you did not realize that this was actually the case!). People get and have the things they truly in their heart focus on.

Now some will argue this pointing to those who are in horrible situations like Hurricane Katrina or who live in some horridly oppressive third world. However there are success stories even in those situations. I do not mean to imply that the external situation you find yourself in is under your control—it’s not, but your attitude about what you will do, and what you will focus on, always is.

Some who lived through Katrina have thrived despite perhaps losing everything, and some in oppressive third world countries escape those situations, many times to come to America and in a few years become wealthy themselves! They had a burning desire for a worthy goal, and let nothing stand in the way of achieving it.

But others who were born here in The United State of America (or other free democratic countries), who are able bodied and fit, will whine and complain that they can’t be successful, that their circumstances don’t allow for them to achieve anything, that they need help from those who do produce, their “need” being the blank check against those who have actually achieved something. These people are also getting what they truly, ultimately desire…

Abject failure.

That is what they truly want, that is what they focus on – and their subconscious mind, their projected intent goes out into the universe.  And the universe returns to them what they actually asked for, it can do nothing else.

(and of course there are so many politicians in government just waiting to softly massage them and tell them that they are right in thinking this way, and hand them a government check that was cashed against actual achievers output.)

So let’s review: A worthy goal is any goal that you have that will raise your personal worth to yourself, to your family, to those around you (neighbors and community), and to posterity. It can be small or big, but to be worthy, it must first be true, it must uplift, and it must be good - it must be something you know deep in your heart lifts those around you as it lifts you.

It must be True: – If your goal states or implies falsehood, it is not worthy. Notice the welfare bums in the previous example who complained that their experiences or circumstances were not ideal for them to be successful. The truth is nobody has it perfect, if they did there would be no challenge and nobody would be uplifted by achievement. (Note: I am not implying anyone who has ever used assistance is a bum – only those who have decided that they are entitled to it and intend to continue to live on it).

It must Uplift: If your goal leaves you where you are at currently, or pushes you or others down into the gutter, it is not a worthy goal. (“I want to be known as the greatest bank robber ever!”) That has been the unworthy goal of some actual bank robbers, but it did not uplift, it was therefore not worthy. (“I want to create a fast food restaurant that provides high quality fresh, hot food, fast, excellent service, and a wonderful customer experience.”) That was the worthy goal of Wendy’s creator Dave Thomas. Compare the two and you will quickly understand worthiness in a goal.

It must be Good: Notice how a worthy goal’s three points flow into each other. Goodness is simple. Does it help or does it hurt? Does it inspire others or does it confuse and cause fear in others. Does it create a wave of enthusiasm? Good goals build up and cause a spin-off of more good goals.

So that wraps things up for this part of the Achieve Master Series. Remember, you always get what you really want. The trick? Knowing what you truly want and making sure that it is worthy of you.

Please be sure to read my next article about how we progress in our destination towards our goals.

I am developing a software system to help with this process of achievement called “Achieve-Master”. Would you be interested in being a Beta Tester of this software? I have 15 slots available as of the posting of this article. Be sure to check out my site http://www.achievemaster.com and look for the link to sign up.

- David T. McKee

P.S.
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Note: This is copy-righted content, Copyright  2008, David T. McKee

(This is a reprint of an article I wrote a year or so ago on ezine articles…)

Nightingale-Conant corporation has been producing audio tapes, and disks for many years, ever since Earl Nightingale recorded his famous “The Strangest Secret”. That secret was that “We become what we think about”. Today we see the new book and movie “The Secret”, which is basically a rehash of the same principle with lost of intrigue and Hollywood graphics (oh, yes, and don’t forget Oprah fawning all over it as if it were some new thing….)

The truth is this secret is not. It has been know for thousands of years, it is even in the Bible (Proverbs 23:7). It is not so surprising that we become the person that reflects what we think about, because it is the ability to think that is so uniquely human. It is what gives us the ability to create vehicles, and skyscrapers, and artificial hearts, and poems and music, etc. It is not so surprising that our success or failure is also tightly linked to this capability.

James Allen wrote the classic book “As a Man Thinketh” way back in 1902 and gathered together many of the important aspects of how thinking correctly and with focused intent is so very important. Many great men and woman have recognized this little book as a starting point of their personal success.

Thinking is hard work, at least focused thinking is. Most people do as little of it as possible, the problem is, the thinking motor of the mind never really stops, so if a person is not thinking in a focused way, then that motor is just running wildly and grabbing any unrelated impulse and sense that floats by. When this happens the person becomes unfocused, and his life becomes unfocused.

The analogy of a rudderless boat has been used in the past, but I submit the boat has a rudder, just that no-one is holding onto it. The rudder handle is flailing back and forth, and the ship is meandering all over the waters until it runs into a reef and the boat, like the life, sinks.

I have discovered in my own life, that when I listen, I am gripping the rudder. If I listen to something worthwhile, I am not only gripping the rudder, I am steering it. If I listen with the intent of going to a specific location (or achieving a specific goal) I am steering the boat for all it’s worth. But first I listen because that focuses my thinking motor. I have discovered that listening to audio about success or business opportunity, or uplifting music, or news or what ever is a very good way to get into tune. This gets the hands on the rudder and starts the mental juices flowing. That is why I personally like success tapes so much, and talk radio, and my MP3 player!

It is so much better than TV which to me seems to just take the place of the thinking motor, you feel like a zombie many times…

Getting back to the original premise of this article, I wanted to show how listening to success oriented material is a good way to put into practice the principles that James Allen laid out so well in his book. While I don’t agree 100% with everything Mr. Allen wrote, I agree with much of it and have used it myself.

- David T. McKee

Note: This is copy-righted content, Copyright  2008, David T. McKee

We all have many things to do each day – pick up the kids from school, go get the groceries, mow the lawn.  And in our business life as  well as our goal plan, we also have many tasks.

The problem is, we usually do not prioritize these tasks.  Most of us have a vague notion of what our priorities are – what is important… but usually what drives us is something else: urgency.

Now urgency is not a bad thing, in fact is is quite useful, but when it is sitting in the seat of importance, it will screw up your life.  Most of us live this way though, we do what is most urgent on our list regardless of how important it is.

And that is a major reason we seem so hopelessly behind in our efforts to achieve ultimate success, and grasp our dreams.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower used a particular methodology to solve this problem for himself.  He was the 1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe during WWII, was the 1st Military Governor of the American Occupation Zone in Germany, and the 34th President of the United States. He accomplished many great things in his life.  His special method for achieving success has since been nicknamed “The Eisenhower Matrix“.

The Eisenhower matrix is fairly easy to understand: Take your list of things you need to do, and put them on a 2 by 2 grid labeled “Urgency” vs “Importance”.  An example is shown below:

Importance of an item increases from left to right, and urgency increases from bottom to top.

Basically you must make subjective decisions on where your daily tasks fall within this matrix, but it forces you to think about your tasks and make important decisions about if you should even be doing some of them. If something is neither important or urgent, dump it. If it is both important and urgent, do it first. If it is important, but not urgent, do that later, after your important and urgent things are complete. Finally, if something is urgent, but not so important to you, you may either want to dump it, or at most, delegate it to someone else if possible.

You could eliminate many of your unimportant tasks and free up you most valuable asset, time. Doing this allowed President Eisenhower to accomplish so much in his life, and can do the same for you.

The Impact Effort Matrix…

There is a variation on the Eisenhower matrix called the “Impact/Effort” matrix.  What the Impact Effort matrix attempts so do is allow you to discover the tasks that will give the greatest impact for the least effort.  The best possible world is to use both matrices when evaluating your task list.  Then you would want to do your most important, most urgent, least effort tasks first.

Prioritization of tasks is one of your most powerful tools for leveraging your time.

David T. McKee

P.S. Achieve-Master the software contains both priority matrices in the prioritization tab, sign up to be an Achieve-Master beta tester!

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Note: This is copy-righted content, Copyright  2008, David T. McKee

(Article originally titled “Look at Me! Look at Me! Getting Noticed in the Internet Marketing World Using the Protesters Model”)

Anyone who has read my blogs or other articles knows that I am a pro-Liberty minded, conservative individualist and I make no bones about it. I have been criticized for how I comport myself when I get too passionate about my views – I detest the politics and philosophical ideas of progressive liberals and socialists – mainly because they are wrong, they don’t work, and they hurt people.

But politics aside, I have to give progressive liberals, especially those we might call “the rabid protester” some credit.

They know how to get noticed.

In the internet marketing world, getting noticed (that is, positioning) is next to getting paid. The second does not happen without the first. So it behooves us to examine any tactic that actually works.

Most protest groups, no matter who they represent, suffer from many of the same problems that most nascent internet marketers suffer from: lack of both money and brand recognition. So what do rabid protesters do that internet marketers might copy that would greatly leverage their small resources in such a way as to increase brand recognition?

I believe there are some basic steps to this approach, the first three of which are:

1. Know your target audience.
2. Get your information out to your target audience.
3. Motivate your target audience to take specific action.

These three are basic and most marketers should know them – and they are no different for the rabid protester. Those protesters may look disorganized, bizarre, unprofessional, and angry, but effective protests are run with specific goals in mind, and the three principles above are never deviated from.

The first interesting thing to notice is that the target audience of the protester is NOT the people or institutions that are being protested against! That bears repeating: The specific audience of the protester is not those whom they are protesting against.

The protesters audience is like minded people. Their primary (and usually unstated) goal is to motivate those who believe as they do to join with them and then work toward their stated goals.

So I have developed a list of seven points in the order of their priority on how to get noticed in the Internet world. Notice how protesters use most if not all of these to achieve their stated goal, which is the first item on the list.

1. Have a Specific, Stated Goal.
2. Position Yourself Where Your Target Audience is.
3. Be Interesting, Be Different, Be Crazy – Your Unique Brand.
4. Have A Unique Selling Position.
5. Don’t Be Afraid Of Offending People.
6. Give Back, Give Away, And Give Value.
7. Be the Expert, Even If You Are Not.

So we begin by having a specific stated goal. You need to know what you’re selling and what you wish to accomplish. Then you need to put yourself where your target audience is – they don’t buy what they can’t see. This is perhaps one of the more difficult tasks to perform in today’s Internet, you don’t want to be labeled a spammer, but there are just so many blogs, websites, links and social networks they are outstripping the people who use them. How do you get noticed even if you are where the customers are?

The protester gets loud, garish, holds big signs, gathers tones of people is a small place, and sits where everyone has to pass by them, in other words they position themselves.

The next principle states that you must be interesting, different, and even crazy! You must present a unique brand so that you don’t look like all the rest. This segues right into your Unique Selling Position – an essential you must have. You have to be able to give the so-called “elevator pitch” of your product, the protester know how to do this – they scream their USP’s in your ear!

The fact is, if you are going to be different, unique, and stick out, you are going to bother somebody out there – well, as they say, even bad publicity is better then none! People will be offended by your marketing techniques – they may even call you a spammer, or worse… even though all you are doing is making sure everyone sees what you have to offer! Too bad, they don’t have to buy it, but you must sell it if you are going to survive.

You have to give good value, and be willing to give bonuses and free stuff – not junk either but really good stuff. That is how you attract anything from flies to customers – by having really good stuff to give away. When customers see the value of your free stuff, they will really value what they buy from you – provided your products and services are excellent as well. Most well run protests give away at least some T-shirts and bumper stickers.

Finally, in light of the last point, you need to make it your business to be the expert – continually improving. You need to position yourself as the expert even if you are not… There will always be someone who knows a little bit more than you, but you can always learn more and then be better than you were. Be the expert, and make sure your customers know you are.

I will be writing more on this topic as I address each of the seven points specifically in future articles, so start thinking of ways you can “bootstrap” yourself into that vast landscape of the Internet, or wherever you do business.

- David T. McKee

P.S. If you want to start being the expert in Internet business right now, may I suggest buying a compilation of Internet Business, Marketing, and Copywriting books, articles and reports written by some of the most well known internet businessmen such as Yanik Silver, Michel Fortin, Dan Lok, Joe Vitale, and many others. This is a collection of over 250 books, reports and articles: Marketing Magic Collection 1 For only Seven Bucks ($7.00).

Note: This is copy-righted content, Copyright  2008, David T. McKee