Innovate Learning

Sticking to it in the new year

It is the time of the year when the Jazzercize classes are packed and there's a line for the treadmills. Many of us yearn for new beginnings and a new year gives us an opportunity to consider what changes we want to make in our lives.

As is the case most years, I suspect there will be more elbow room in Jazzercise and the ellipticals will be ready for our feet when we're ready to hop on. It is so easy to have our aspirations translate into a lack of follow through.

Here are a few ideas to help keep your resolutions and achieve your 2010 goals.

Make it measurable

Just saying that you're going to spend more time with your kids or learn a new computer program for work isn't going to cut it. Answer the question of how will you know when you "got there" at the end of the year and you'll be on your way to measuring your goal.

POLL

State it as an affirmative

Part of the way we set goals can be self-defeating. Instead of saying that you're going to stop doing something (e.g. stop eating poorly), it can be very helpful to state the goal in a positive way (e.g. start eating healthy). Affirm yourself and the goal in the way you phrase it and be reminded of why it is so important each time you look at it.

Track it

Speaking of "looking at your goals," you need a way of tracking how you're progressing toward your goal.

In the interest of eating healthy and exercising regularly, I have found a combination of a calendar posted on my wall where I see it every day and an iPhone application as a good means for raising my consciousness surrounding my goal attainment.

I enjoy using technology to help track goals, but you can definitely get a lot of mileage out of a paper-based approach. Check out these great printable paper productivity tools, highlighted by Lifehacker.

Each time I've dedicated myself to tracking what I eat and how I exercise using the free LoseIt! app, I am successful at losing weight. I easily get distracted by the rest of life, however, so this year I'll be using their new feature of having accountability partners in my goal setting. Without sharing the details of my specific weight, I can instead just specify a weight loss goal and share my progress with individuals of my choosing. Those of you with iPhones can't go wrong with LoseIt! as a tracking tool.

For the big picture tracking, I enjoy the Vision Board iPhone app, which allows me to create various categories of goals and include quotes and photos to paint the picture better of my goals.

As it gets down into the details of executing the plans, I still am a huge fan of Remember the Milk. If you're a pro user ($25/year), you can use their iPhone (or Blackberry) app for free, giving you access to your tasks on your mobile device, as well as over the internet. I also love that you can email individual tasks via email, or entire lists over email, which makes it easy to forward emails that come in for future follow up, leaving an empty in box.

Keep it attainable

One of the other reasons we fail to achieve our goals is that we get carried away in terms of setting them. Pick three to five of the most important things you could achieve this year that would make the biggest difference in your life. Build your systems around making sure that these big dreams are fulfilled and if you're able to do even more than that - you'll be that much further ahead.

Give yourself lots of reinforcement around your top goals. Tell people about your goals. Write them down. Post them (and track them) somewhere where you'll regularly be reminded of how you're proceeding toward them. Build relevant reward systems into your goal setting, so help keep yourself motivated toward achievement. For example, don't tell yourself you'll take yourself out to dinner for a week if you achieve your exercise and healthy eating goals, as you'll negate the importance of the goal as well as possibly sabotage your early successes. Instead, consider telling yourself that you'll buy yourself a new workout outfit, or schedule a beach walk with a friend once you hit your first milestone.

RESOURCES:

ARTICLE: Introduction to the middle way of planning

ARTICLE: Making your resolutions stick (Lifehacker)

ARTICLE: Two lists you should focus on every day (Harvard Business Review)

BOOK: Getting things done (David Allen)

ARTICLE: Remember the milk and getting things done (GTD)

BLOG: 43 Folders (productivity)

Let us know in the comments section what else you'll be doing to maximize your potential in 2010 and beyond.

The Most Important Question

There are volumes of books and articles that teach how to do a proper needs analysis as a training professional. Ultimately, it comes down to speaking the language of your industry, business, and stakeholders - and asking the most important question you can ask.

What will success look like to you?

The answer can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. It might be something quantitative that has a definite measure of success. His or her answer may be more qualitative and could be that there is evidence that shows that people are using what they've learned and benefiting from it.

I had the opportunity to hear Don Kirkpatrick (considered the father of evalutation) talk at a recent event. He spoke of thinking instead of ROI (return on investment) for companies, to consider ROE (return on expectations). While I do think it is important to assess what a company is going to achieve by investing resources in training or other organizational development intenventions, it really does often come down to one simple-but-not-easy-to-answer question:

What will success look like to you?

Once you've identified all your stakeholders (individuals who have a stake in the outcome of the program), its time to talk with them (one-on-one, whenever possible) about their definition of success.

Lifelong learning with iTunes U

For those who are done with formal schooling, it can be easy to forget to exercise our brains. Apple has unleashed the power of online learning with the release of their iTunes University. We all now have the opportunity to go to school at Harvard, Stanford, and any of the University of California schools.

There's just no excuse for not commiting at least an hour a week to your lifelong learning goals. You can take the university life with you in your car on your commute, while you exercise, or even when you're waiting...

As John Medina, author of Brain Rules, reminds us:

"One of our best attributes is our ability to explore and learn at any age."

So get on our there and seize the opportunity to learn with iTunes U. Let us know what great finds you've discovered in the comments.

The School of Unlearning

There is so much emphasis on learning in our lives. Too much, perhaps. In preschool, we prepare for kindergarten. Then, we get ready for elementary school. Junior high brings huge lessons in survival and high school growth brings the goal of college into our sights. We’re continually learning and getting ready for the next thing. We become programmed for the constant acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

As we grow, a focus on unlearning seems just as important as the way our development is stressed when we’re younger.  Most important, we need to unlearn our:

Addiction to speed

Emails, voicemails, airplanes, and fast food. Many of us used to think that we were getting so much done, with our emphasis on multitasking. Turns out that the research shows that we’re faster if we focus on one thing at a time and follow through. Turn off your audible email indicator, slow down, and reinvent, renew, and recharge.

Excessive comfort

The other end of the spectrum is our desire to remain with the things we know and that which is familiar. When we notice that we’re not feeling uncomfortable, it might mean we’re not being stretched. The edge is the place to be: in the very place where we’re using our strengths, though we don’t have 100% certainty that we’ll succeed.

Fear of Failure

We’ll always stay in the comfortable places, if we forget to turn down the volume on our fear of failure. How do we do that? Surround ourselves with people we trust, but who are different from us and challenge us to think in new ways. Break the patterns and do something new. Stretch and we’re likely to identify strengths we didn’t even know we had.

Its back to school, ladies and gentlemen, whether you’re bringing a backpack and crayons or not. Instead of getting ready to learn a bunch of new stuff, it is time to unpack our bags and get rid of the learning we no longer need. Now is the moment to unlearn and prepare for the unimaginable.