2011 Year In Review- Progress Against My Goals

Back on January 8 I outlined my goals for the year. Even thought the year is not through, we are nearing that time, and I feel like it's a good time to reflect on whether I have made sufficient progress towards my goals. Reviewing your action plan and your progress is the first step before you can lay out goals and an action plan for next year.

Goals:
1- Accelerate my new found love for my body
2- Live in another country
3- Help others more than they help me
4- Be more disciplined with my finances

Progress:
1- I did not reach my goal of doing a full set of push ups or pull ups, but I can confidently say that this has been the healthiest year of my life. I have continued to eat in a relatively healthy manner, choosing to cook over eating out when possible, and keeping up a regular (but not as intensive as I would like) workout routine.

2- For those of you who didn't hear through the grapevine, I had actually planned to move to the US within my company to take a new position. This is currently on hold for a variety of reasons, the largest being immigration has tightened up given all of the economic trouble down there.  At first I was really bummed about this, but I've since come to realize that where one door closes, many more open up. I'm not disappointed that I didn't achieve this goal this year, as it's truly a long term plan on this one.

3- This one has been a really funny goal. Reason being is that I'm not sure if it's achievable. I feel like I was very successful in spending an inordinate amount of time helping others, but somehow I wasn't able to tip the balance to me helping others more than they help me. I suppose it really is true that the more you give, the more you get back. In case you were wondering what I'm talking about in terms of helping others, I've reviewed and given feedback on approximately 10 resume's of folks who are looking for work, I helped an acquaintance get a well paying job at one of the big Canadian Banks, I made extra effort to ensure that all of the interns we had in our department this summer felt right at home even though they didn't report to me, and I prioritized helping others in my work group over doing my own work (even when this meant I had to work more hours to catch up). I'm not looking for an award here- but I want to capture this so that one day I can look back on it and reflect on the times and how I can get better in this area of my life.

4- Hmmm... the finance question. This one has mixed results, but only because my standards are high. I think overall I would call this bucket successful, as I refinanced some of my higher interest debt recently, and I have been saving about 10% of my income for the future. That reminds me, I probably need to write a post on why you should be saving because pensions are likely going to be something we reminisce about by the time I get there. I have definitely gotten more disciplined in sticking to my monthly budget, but there is more work to do. Some of the line items (eating out, booze) really could be reduced, and if I could do that successfully, I'd actually be helping out with Goal #1.

Overall, this year has been amazing. I feel like I have continued growing as a human being across all aspect of my life; economically, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Over the next 2 months (and 2 weeks of vacation during Christmas) I'm going to take a hard look at the year and my goals and figure out what 2012 needs to be all about.

I'll leave you with this thought, which was shared with me by Rafael Alencar while he was working with me at P&G. I am going to try and apply this to my goals for 2012.
"People often try to do too many things in 1 year, and not nearly enough in 5 years. You should have one or two small goals for the year, and 3-5 big goals for 5 years."

Think about it.

What I Learned At The Art Of Sales Conference

I attended the Art of Sales the other day courtesy of my good friends Robert Lavigne at The Digital Grapevine and Robert Kavanagh at the Art of Sales. I wouldn't have been able to afford to go on my own, and with the help of these fine gentleman, I was able to participate at a discounted rate and now I can spread some of the great knowledge I learned to the masses (LOL) who read this blog.

My Initial Takeaways From The Conference- Courtesy of Robert Lavigne:

Other Things I learned at the Art of Sales:

1- From Barbara Corcoran I learned that there are only two kinds of people in the world; expanders and containers. I also learned that when you combine expanders and containers (diversity) you can do great things.

2- I learned that when you ask someone to raise their hand as high as they can they never go full out the first time because they expect that you will always ask them for more from Seth Godin

3- I learned that I wasn't crazy for making a list of people who I needed to meet and interact with in order to further my career from Keith Ferrazzi

4- I learned that my challenge is to unlearn how to be boring vs. learning how to be fun from Sally Hogshead

5- I learned that business is the most power force in society from Jerry Greenfield. Church and Government used to play critical roles in our lives but as time goes on corporations are playing the roles that these institutions used to fill.

Seth Godin Getting Ready To Sign Some Autographs

Other Cool Things:

-I met two great gentlemen from Brantford, Robert Langley and Bill Jol
-I got a signed copy of Seth Godin's book, Poke The Box
-LinkedIn Canada was on site doing professional headshots. This was really cool, as my current pic is over 1.5 years old! New online visual incoming!

Overall, it was a great day and a worthwhile investment of time, money, and energy. The next Art of Event is in the Spring of 2012... stay tuned!

Real Leadership Is Shown AFTER The Crisis

Recently I had a very good friend come to me with an issue at work. Although she is a top performer and excellent at what she does, she had a meeting with a senior leader who gave her negative feedback in a very nonconstructive manner. She left the meeting feeling deflated, unmotivated, and really unappreciated.

I'll spare the details to protect all those involved, but to make a long story short, she was trying to figure out whether she should say something to her manager about the situation, or whether she should just let it slide. I called her and gave her a pep talk about how leadership has nothing to do with the crisis itself. Point being that she had a personal crisis, and that if she let it slide, she wouldn't be a very good leader for herself.

Many examples of this came to mind, both good and bad.

Good Example: When 9/11 happened, no one blamed Mayor Giuliani for the attack itself. However as soon as it started going down he didn't blame anyone (like he could of), but instead swung into action to provide support, leadership, and direction to a city that was in chaos. To this day, Rudy Giuliani is commended for his efforts after that tragedy. He knew what needed to be done even though it wasn't easy, and made the tough decisions that the average person wasn't able to make.

Bad Example: The 2011 American Congress' "Super Committee". America is in the midst of a crisis as we speak, and the politicians "swung into action" during the debt ceiling crisis by forming a committee and kicking the can down the road. Sure enough, we are merely days away from the deadline set forth by congress itself with little to no progress on negotiations. Real leaders would step up, lay out the hard decisions that need to be made, and help the country move forward. Instead we get rhetoric and party politics. Ironically enough, the Government is likely going to bring the US down in the long term, which is exactly what the founding father's were trying to protect against in the constitution.


So What Do You Do If You Are In This Situation?

If you are the leader giving negative feedback, you need to remember the following:
-No matter what you do, you cannot avoid the crisis. You can mitigate the risk, but it's a matter of when, not if the crisis will hit.
-Your followers will not lose faith in you because the crisis happened, but they will lose faith in you if you don't take the challenge to fix the problem head on in a constructive manner.
-Your employees want to do the best they can for you. Remember that they are significantly more upset than you are because they feel like they let you down.
-Giving negative feedback is pointless unless you deliver it in a way that encourages change in the person's behavior.  Making them feel like crap won't get you anywhere. Your job as a boss is to make people feel good.
-If personal issues/feelings/emotions are top of mind vs. the feedback you have to give, reschedule the meeting. DON'T give feedback while you are mad/angry/upset.

If you are the employee/colleague/friend in the pickle that my friend is, you need to remember the following:
-Everyone has a crappy day. You are having a crappy day, but your leader was probably having a crappy day before you sat down together. Try to put yourself in their shoes and understand why they might be upset.
-Remember that you are a valued employee. This one feedback session went poorly, but 99% of the time you are getting positive feedback, so don't let 1 bad day crowd out the overall good trend.
-Sleep on your thoughts and feelings. When you wake up the next day, reflect write down how the meeting made you feel.
-In a couple of days, meet with your leader to discuss the feedback session. Acknowledge the feedback you received and what you need to go work on, but also address how the previous interaction made you feel. Be sure to focus on how YOU feel- people can't argue with your feelings.

If you are a solid leader, or work for a solid leader, then it's likely the leader will already have reflected on this interaction and will be prepared to admit their mistake. Of course, if you work for someone that is always behaving this way and doesn't want your feedback, you may want to consider a change of employers.

Has anyone ever been in situation like this? How did YOU deal with it?

Jumping Out Of A Plane Will Make You Crave Adventure

My "quarterly update" is on it's way, but I'll write and post that one later. For now, I really want to share my entire story on the skydiving adventure. 

On July 16th Nick, Mallory and I went all the way up to Barrie to jump out of a plane. We got ourselves super pumped up, filled out the forms, watched the safety video (which was filmed circa 1984), and we were lining up to get our gear. And then it happened... "how much do you weigh?". I shared my (large) number and then I was informed that there wasn't anyone small enough to jump tandem with me! Needless to say we were super disappointed, but the good news was that there was a national skydiving champion who usually works at the place who could jump with me a few weeks later. 

We left that day disappointed, but fixed the whole situation by making our own pub crawl route up and down Yonge/Eglington area. :)

In the mean time, my good friend Dustin from university asked me if he could come jump with us (apparently it's hard to find people to do these things!) and of course I said it was a great idea!

Finally- On August 6th, 2011, we did it! The best part is, as we were getting our stuff ready, Mallory decided that she couldn't live with herself if she didn't also jump. She was worried about peeing her pants, but with some encouragement we got her to gear up! Here's a shot of us before we went up in the air:

I'm not a very religious person, but I do believe in something larger than us. Floating through the air was an absolutely amazing experience and it was literally life changing. What would you be thinking to yourself if this was you?

For me- it was as simple as "Holy Crap! I'm actually falling through the sky! This is amazing!". Somehow it really did touch me deep down inside... almost like I realized there are so many things in this world I've never experienced, which makes that drive to experience them that much greater.

In the end I landed safely, made some amazing memories with some of my best friends, and wet my appetite for more adventure. 

Would I do it again? Absolutely.

Will I do it again? Probably not- I want to seek out something I've never done before.

2 Guys and 1 Plane- No Agreement On A Soundtrack [VOTE]

This is myself and my best friend from University, Nick. Him and I have been talking about skydiving for about as long as I've known him. We have procrastinated, put it off, and generally ignored it for a long time.

Well, I'm happy to say that TODAY is the day we are going to go and jump out of a plane.

Is it crazy? Probably
Will it be awesome? I'm sure of it.

The Problem
We are getting a video made of our jump and we have to pick a soundtrack for it.

Corey's Choice: Not only does it seem appropriate for a high risk sport to have some cranking metal music in the background, but listen to the lyrics around 0:52 seconds.


Nick's Choice: Yeah, I don't really have anything else to add about this...


The Solution
Put which song you prefer in the comments below- or suggest another one!

2011 Goal Status Check

I can't believe it's the middle of April already! 2011 is flying by and I think it's time I give everyone an update on some of the goals I shared in January. 

Before I do that, I'd like to share a cool website I just joined today, www.43things.com. It lets you write down your goals, both short and long term and then let's you connect with others who have the same goal. Everything I've read about goal setting is that writing down your goals is the first step, as once they are written down you can focus on how to get there! 

Overall the site is really good. The site would be 5/5 but mainly due to it's poor use of Facebook Connect I would give it a 4/5.

Pros

• Easy to sign up (using Facebook connect)
• Simple interface. Type in a goal or search for goals others are trying to achieve
• Easy to share your goals with anyone
• It is empowering to see others who have completed the goal you are trying to complete. Success breeds success.

Cons

• When you first sign up and you are entering a lot of goals, it spams your Facebook wall pretty hard
• The setting that would prevent you from spamming your wall does not allow you to change the "auto post" functionality
• There is no way to filter who see's your Facebook wall spam (as you can with status updates)

So with that, here's the brief update on how I'm doing against My 2011 Goals

1- Accelerate the new found love for my body. Unfortunately, this is probably where I'm having the most trouble. I have continued to eat healthy and it has had some really great benefits, including a very clean bill of health from some recent blood work. Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, and Blood sugar were all in perfect condition while my BMI is a bit off track (shocker, I know). The BMI piece is really being held back by me not going to the gym enough, which has been caused by a combination of factors. The reality is that there is no excuse, and I committed to going to the gym 3 times/week. I'm not going to go soft on myself for this one. All I can do is recognize the reasons why I'm not going to the gym enough and fix them. 

Step 1- quit making up excuses. (too tired, busy, sore, blah, blah, blah)

2- Live in another country. As I said before, this goal is not something I can directly work on, but I can form many of my actions and contexts around this goal to help it along. At work I've already been onboarding to some of the great projects happening in the US that I have never worked on before. It's going to be a challenge to take on this new work, but I'm excited to learn more about the US marketplace and retailer environment even more deeply. On the personal side, I've been reading a lot about investing in foreign countries, as well as some US tax law. From what I can tell, US tax law is a heck of a lot more confusing than Canadian tax law, but if you can do the required research, you can really set yourself up for long term success. 

Here's a fun example; did you know that each of the 50 US states has a different savings program for your child's education? Also, did you know that it doesn't matter what state you live in, you can register for any of the savings programs you want? Neither did I. :)

3-Help others more than they help me. I'm not going to be able to claim victory on this goal for many many years, but I think I can share some of the things I've done to help others. Funny part is, the more I give, the more I get.

• I helped my gym, Crossfit Quantum,  move from their old location down the strip mall to a larger, much more awesome location. This pic in this post I took while we were moving the barbell racks. A bunch of people helped with the move, and my trainers were very grateful. Now we have an awesome new space to workout in!
• I helped my friend prepare for an internal interview at his work. He didn't end up getting the position, but he said that it was a great experience and he learned a lot about the role and what is needed. He also thanked me for the help. Although not directly related to this act of giving, what I'm getting back is the honour of standing in my friends wedding next fall. More to come on that another time!
• I participated in a Brock University MBA Speed Networking night, which was really cool! The giving back part is when some of the students I met asked me if I could help them with their resume and their job hunt. So far I've helped 2 individuals refine their resume with the end goal of helping them secure employment once they are done their studies. One of these students (check her out) even gave me a recommendation on LinkedIn! Again, the more I give, the more I get.

4-Be more disciplined with my finances. I've been doing very well on this front. I've been mostly sticking to my budget and I've also been very picky in terms of when I go out and spend money. I had a couple "impulse" purchases which included a couple nights out for dinner with friends and a small stereo for my iPod

If you ever need inspiration on this front, I highly recommend you check out www.manvsdebt.com

So that's it for now. If you want to talk about anything I have written in this post, let me know via a comment or shoot me an email!

Are You All In?

I don't have many rules in life, except for some very high level ones. One of the things that is unique about me is that you are either "all in or all out". What I mean by this is that I'm not going to commit to something and then do a shoddy job. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely made mistakes and learned from them, but if I commit to something, you know I'm giving you 110%. This likely means I commit to less in totality than some others you may know, but you know when I do commit, you are going to get a good result.

This applies to almost everything in my life, including "work life balance" (whatever the heck that means). Because I work a "9-5" job, I pretty much dedicate myself to work during the weekdays and then take the weekend for my own. Put another way, "I'm all in" during the workday and "I'm all in" on the weekend.

Luckily, rules are meant to be broken and that's what happened today. I just "finalized" a big research study yesterday at around 2pm, and then sat back and congratulated myself. As I should have known, it's never over until it's over, and I received some pertinent information last night/this morning that impacted the study. SO here I am, Saturday morning cranking through some emails and reviewing survey questions.

The funny part is, I don't even mind! I guess it's possible to enjoy your job so much that a couple hours on a Saturday really isn't a big deal. The other thing I'm starting to realize is that if I really want to get to where I need to be, some of these extra weekend hours to organize and do some deeper thinking are very valuable. Maybe it's time for an adjustment to the rules?

Nah, the rules are good. I think maybe I'll just follow Peter's lead here!



But this really begs the question... Are you all in or are you just doing enough to not get fired?

Sometimes NOT Blogging Is A Good Thing

Here we are. The year of 2011. It's been a full 3 months since my last blog post, but luckily for me, I don't dwell on the past. The lack of blog posts actually speaks to some of the great things that have been going on in my life lately, both on the personal and professional side.

Here's the quick recap of the last 3 months!

Personal:
-I finished up my volunteer position with the Chris Tindal campaign. Unfortunately Chris didn't win but he had a strong showing against some season veterans in city politics.
-I wrote my GMAT and got a decent score. Of course I likely could have done better, but I'm satisfied with where I ended up
-On Nov. 1 I began a new lifestyle which involved working out regularly, eating as healthy as I can, and generally worshiping my body instead of treating it like something that is going to be young forever. I joined Crossfit Quantum in Toronto, and if you are looking for a fun, motivating environment to "get huge", I highly recommend them. The trainers are great and I'm after 3 months I'm in the best shape of my life.
-I spent a glorious two weeks with my little brother, who is making his family so proud. He is current in Halifax serving with the Canadian Navy Reserve and is on the adventure of a lifetime. As his older brother I am honoured to tell the people I know that my brother is serving is country and bettering himself at the same time.

Professional:
-As of October 1st I got a new manager and a new 1 up manager. Both of them have been great at both supporting me in my work and pushing me to always be better. For that I thank both of them.
-In the next few months they are going to be expanding my role to include more work on US research, which I'm very excited about. This is further going to drive my understanding of the North American market, which I think it a great skill set and experience to have.

So with that I look forward to the year ahead, and frankly, I think it's going to be a defining one in my life. When I talk to my mentors, they often look back on their lives and tell me stories about a defining moment or a defining decision that set them on a different path had they chose a different answer. With all of the things going on in my life, I truly feel like this year could be one of those, but I suppose only time can tell!

I'm not a big New Years resolution guy, but I am a goal setter and the new year is a great time to review your current goals, set new ones, and craft an action plan. I'll spare all of the process details since there are other blogs for that, and skip straight to the goals.

1-Accelerate the new found love for my body. I'm not perfect, I never will be. However the small changes in my life have made me feel infinitely better about myself, and others have noticed too. Not a week goes by where I don't get a compliment on how I am looking good, and there is still much work to do. Sometimes this attitude comes across as a "holier than thou" message, but I assure you this is not my intent. I just know where I was 3 months ago and know where I am now and I can't help but tell people how great of an experience it is! Along these lines, 2011 is when I can do a full set of real push-ups and a full set of real chin ups. Those are real challenges that I'm going to have to work hard for.

2-Live in another country. While this may not happen this year, it's one of the reasons I'm doing the work I do now. This is still a big goal of mine and everything I do in 2011 will be related to this somehow. More networking, more projects, and more results will hopefully get me there.

3-Help others more than they help me. I really enjoy helping others, but sometimes it's easy to fall into the trap of taking more than giving. My first couple of years out of school has put me in this position, mostly out of necessity. This year is going to be about giving back, both at work and my personal life.

4-Be more disciplined with my finances. Although I am a great planner and have the best of intentions, when it comes to shopping I have low will power. I am also a very social person so I almost can never say no to a social situation, regardless of cost. The discipline comes in two forms; One is sticking to the monthly budget I've set out, and the other is when I do decide to go to a social interaction, to be very thoughtful of what I really need to spend money on and what is just my innate desire to blow cash.

They are broad, they are big, but these are the goals I'm working towards. I can assure you that I have an action plan against each of these, and I'm hoping I'm be able to share progession with you as they start to come to fruition.

So 3 months of not blogging and I feel better than ever. I guess now I have something to blog about!


With that, I leave you with a quote and a video that exemplifies my feeling right at this moment.

"We've come a long long way together, through the hard times and the good..." -Fatboy Slim



PS: My favourite part is around 3:07. Only people who truly enjoy their work could pull that kind of awesome off!