In Search Of Ourselves - on Smashwords

It has come to my attention in the recent weeks that there are far more ways to read electronic books than just through Amazon's Kindle.

With that new knowledge, I have come across Smashwords, a site where they are able to format ebooks into various other formats for reading on various contraptions of your choice...

So while yes, the ebook is available at amazon, it is now available at Smashwords. (and better yet, you can preview the 1st half of the ebook for free. So go check out In Search Of Ourselves at Smashwords.

And for the writer in you, the 200 Writing Prompts will be added to the Smashwords collection soon. But it is at Amazon for the Kindle if interested.

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David Stoddard

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/djstoddard
Balance your biz-life and your life-life at www.biz-e-life.com
Yorkie fan? Check out Terrific Yorkies.com

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Characteristics of Our Goals

This continues the Articles from the past adventure.

I've done the goal setting things in the past. I heard of the studies where only the successful 3% have goals written down. I had ideas of what I wanted to accomplish. But for differing reasons, I didn't always reach them as often as I would have liked. Some were just ideas which stayed ideas. Others I worked at didn't turn out as planned. So I wondered why.

From what I came up with, some were due to things I was or wasn't doing. Not happy with that as an answer, I looked around for other possibilities. And I came up with my own list of what goals have in common. Characteristics if you will.

Check out the video interpretation of this article on youtube.

A goal must be:

ACHIEVABLE: Just because we may not have done something doesn't make it impossible for us. Odds are, someone, somewhere, at some point in time, has done what we would like to do. That by itself, makes it possible. And, like running the 4-minute mile, what seemed impossible before, is now achievable.

BELIEVABLE: Can we do it? Can we learn how to do what it takes? Do we have the time? Can we find the time? Do we have the self-discipline it will take to keep going to achieve it? Have we made any steps toward it? Have we reached any other goals in our lifetime no matter how small they seem now? As long as we can answer yes to some of those questions, and our goal is within reason, it can happen for us.

DESIRABLE: Whatever we set as a goal, it must have meaning to us. We should have our own set of reasons as to why attaining this goal is important. By knowing why we want to attain something is a powerful force behind our getting it. Things will happen to derail us, but keeping focused on why we do what we do, will help considerably on those days when things seem to be against us.

MEASURABLE: We need to know we are getting someplace. All too often we feel as if we are stuck just because we haven't gotten where we wanted to go yet. We don't always see how far we have come, we just see the long road ahead. By having our goal set up in such a way that we can see the steps we can take, will help provide the momentum needed to keep going.

WORKABLE: Each step along the way is part of our plan to get there. The plan should be written out so we can see what we will need to do next. Plus, it gives us something to mark off along the way. Like a shopping or to-do list, the plan gives us a basic guide for what needs to be done. It's up to us how to work it.

FLEXIBLE: Our plans should provide room for changes along the way. We have learned so much from Murphy's law that whatever can go wrong, will at some point. We need to be able to just go around the problems we face. It may mean adjusting our goal a bit or re-working our plans. But as long as we have room to change, we won't get stuck.

I hope something in this article inspired you to begin looking at your own goals. Well, at least that was MY goal.

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David Stoddard

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/djstoddard
Balance your biz-life and your life-life at www.biz-e-life.com
Yorkie fan? Check out Terrific Yorkies.com

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A Cookie Well Deserved

This continues the articles of the past program.

A Cookie Well Deserved
by David Stoddard

Many would call sitting in a room at a table with 60 others in the area, watching the clock for your turn to talk, waiting for the unknown to arrive and pat you on the back and give you a cookie, a waste of a day.

Actually, I decided to get up and get my own cookie from one of the vendors. After 6 hours, I learned it wasn’t just going to hop off the plate and come to me by itself.

My main reason for being there was to give a presentation on the personal side of working from home. That tied in well with the conference theme, as well as with the motivational end of what I hoped to continue to do.

I’m glad my friend Terry (of TerrificYorkies.com fame) agreed to take part in the conference with me. We believed that if nothing else, it would be a bit of exposure for the two of us. And the presentations we were giving would certainly mean something to those in attendance. At least that was our main thought at breakfast.

To make a long story short, 270 people attended the event. There were about 50 vendors set up in the main room. We had maybe 20 people visit our table, 10 who filled out entries for the drawings we had, and a grand total of three attended our presentations throughout the entire day.

Needless to say, that part was pretty depressing. But I should mention that my presentations had twice as many attendees as any of the other presentations. I had 2 people come to see me. (Oooooh!)

On the other hand, I think of it this way. Just maybe my advice or suggestions during the presentation got the two of them started in a whole new direction. Maybe they discovered new working opportunities they might not have previously thought of. Maybe one is writing an article about the conference right now and sending it out to a newspaper.

The person in Terry’s audience bought one of his e-book CDs. It turned out to be the only sale Terry made that day. But it meant something to him. That one sale gave him the push to keep going, to keep striving, and has kept him believing in what the two of us talked about earlier in the year with this being the year we get things moving forward, could truly happen.

You see, for years the two of us had been doing a lot of talking and thinking of doing different things. Eventually we got deeper into it. We began to actually plan things. We planned to think about thinking about what we could do or become. Still, we never quite got to the point of getting off the ground.

When we met for breakfast earlier in the year, we talked about a lot of things. We made the decision that this was going to be the year. We knew we could not just keep waiting for the perfect moment, or for the planets to align, or for that winning $220 million lottery ticket to be drawn.

Little did we know, that one decision, along with a lot of little things we had done, would bring us to playing a central role in a conference.

As mentioned, things did not work out as well as we had hoped. But in the end, we got out there and did something different. So what if it seemed “out of character” for either of us? We made the commitment not only with the conference organizer, but with each other and ourselves. We learned a lot of different things, not only about the conference or what it takes to get prepared for one, but also about ourselves.

We learned that you have to take chances at times. We learned that just because things don’t work out as you may have hoped, it isn’t fatal. We learned that saying things like “But there is so much to do, why even bother,” is just an excuse. We learned when you make the effort, no matter how small, great things can begin to happen. And we learned that we can do more than we ever thought in the past.

And for that, I think we deserve a cookie.

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David Stoddard

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/djstoddard
Balance your biz-life and your life-life at www.biz-e-life.com
Yorkie fan? Check out Terrific Yorkies.com

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Put Some Pep In Your Speaking Style

For the next several weeks, I'll be running articles from once upon a time. (not all that long ago, though). First of all, just to get them back out here, and 2nd, to add more stuff to this blog (which has been missing a bit as of late).

It starts here with an article I wrote for Presentations magazine about putting pep into your speaking style. What can I say, I was in the presentation technology field at the time and the topic was just there. The link to the article at Presentations is here.

This article can also be redone in a way that it relates to your life, your job, your business, your relationships, your hobbies or whatever. See what you feel in the course of this. Change presentation or speaking items for whatever you wish.

Put Some Pep In Your Speaking Style
by David Stoddard

Like the guy in the old Dunkin' Donuts commercial who wakes up every morning, gets out of bed and waddles out of the house because he's "gotta make the donuts," presenters can easily slip into that same mode in their careers.

If you are an expert in your field, respected by millions, and called upon by countless others to give presentations, you may have reached a staggering point of contentment. Unfortunately, this kind of success comes with its own dangers. You can lose that spark that ignites an audience, that "oomph" that makes you enthusiastic. You can end up going through the motions instead of being excited about it. In other words, you end up like the donut guy, thinking about how you "gotta make the presentation," rather than how to do it to the best of your ability.

So, what can you do to bring back that passion, the feeling that you love what you are doing and want the whole world to know it? Here are some tips to freshen up the familiar.

Branch out to different fields

So, you're an expert in your field and have given this presentation for years. You know all there is about it. You even constantly make up-to-the-minute changes to the topic and can think of nothing else you would rather share with others. But you're just not as excited as you once were.

Why not tie your topic to another industry? For example, if you have been giving presentations to people in education for years, could this information be modified for trainers? Or clergy? Maybe even coaches, parents or students? Brainstorm as to how you could recreate your presentation for new audiences.

Search out new topics

Many fields of expertise are interconnected in some way, and the addition of related topics to present may be just the boost you need. It may be the most cliché answer, but it's probably the easiest to move forward with. By adding a variety of related topics to your speaking collection, you can reach different audiences, different venues and provide different information.

If you are into banking presentations, then by all means look for other topics and angles that have to do with banking, money or finance, such as presenting about personal finance at a community level, or creating a beginning investment seminar for a company's 401(k) rollout. Or, if you are into motivational speaking, seek out different ways of looking at what motivates people or what they need at home or work.

Change your presentation persona

Your topics are wonderful and people in your field love you. But you desire a change because you are boring yourself from time to time. Perhaps a change in your persona is in order.

This does not mean drastic changes, such as putting on a clown wig and floppy shoes to give a presentation on health care. Rather, consider subtle changes. Start slower, add humor to your presentations where appropriate and find a "character" you can play for certain presentations. Experiment with new Q&A techniques. Branching out beyond the routine can be frightening, but it's very exciting. It may take a bit of time to decide what is right for you and your audience, but the rewards could be fruitful.

Mingle with colleagues

While speaking is definitely a people profession, it can be a rather lonely one as well. Most presentations are written and created alone. A lot of practice is done alone. Building your speaking career doesn't need to be a solo effort,though.

Find other presenters in your area and get to know them. Attend conferences, local Toastmasters meetings and go to where other presentations are given. Talk to those who have been speaking, even if it is just a small gathering of 10 people. There is something to be learned from everyone you come in contact with.

Finally, remember why

Why did you get into your field or industry in the first place? Why do you enjoy speaking about it? What is it about this topic that is important for you to share with others? What would you do differently if you were not doing this? Where do you see yourself down the road?

There will be times when a little lull in your career can turn into a rut. It's during those times when you need to pull yourself up and find out what needs to be done to change it.

Maybe all you need is a change of scenery, different topics, different angles, different routines or just a different perspective. Once you do that, chances are the pep in your presentation will return, and your audiences will continue to be wowed by your enthusiasm.


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David Stoddard

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/djstoddard
Balance your biz-life and your life-life at www.biz-e-life.com
Yorkie fan? Check out Terrific Yorkies.com

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Start With a List - Then Do Something

To get anywhere, to do something, to be better, to have more, to learn more or to just not get carried away when you go to the store, you should start with a list.

Why a list?

1. Lists are easy to write
2. Lists are easy to read
3. Lists are easy to expand
4. Lists get you started
5. Lists show you where you are
6. Lists keep you motivated
7. Lists keep you on course
8. Lists can expand
9. Lists can keep you focused
10. Lists can take you different places than you originally began
11. Lists can go on and on.

What do I need to do to get started?
1. Start a list of 10 or so things you want to accomplish this year
2. With each, write a reason you wish to accomplish this item.
3. With each, write how you or others will benefit by your accomplishment
4. Rank these items starting which would be the most beneficial.
5. Of the top 5, rank those which you feel can be done in the shortest time
6. Of the top 3 of these, create a list of steps for each you would need to work on to reach this accomplishment.
7. Get started on them.
8. Keep these lists someplace where you will see them often during the day.
9. Do a little bit (or a lot when possible) on at least one of them every day.
10. Reward yourself along the way as you press forward.

Mine for this blog post:
1. Pick a topic---------------CHECK
2. Find a related image----CHECK
3. Write post----------------CHECK
4. Look over post-----------CHECK
5. Publish post--------------Give me a minute on that one.


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David Stoddard

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/djstoddard
Balance your biz-life and your life-life at www.biz-e-life.com
Yorkie fan? Check out Terrific Yorkies.com

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