2014 After Action review

2014 After Action Review

And so it is another year passes and we enjoy the opening of 2015. No doubt crossing that line in the sand, as the clock passed to 0001hrs many set the resolution to change, commit, get focused and achieve their goals. Here’s the thing, what underpins the why, the drive to change, do things differently? What drives the decision in the first place? Is it a level of dissatisfaction, not managing to achieve what you set out 12 months previously? Setting the bar too high and being unable to reach it?

I firmly believe in the formula for success ‘Dream – Goal – Learn – Plan – Act’ and when it is fully applied it will result in success. I’m also a firm advocate of ‘feedback not failure’, failure is a state of mind, whilst feedback can open your eyes to different opportunities. This has shaped my dreams for 2015 and set my personal and business goals, From my military service I have continued to reap the benefits from taking a look at the rear view mirror.  Conducting the After Action Review (AAR).

In the military context the after action review forms the critical part of the planning and execution cycle, to put it into context it is the ability to revisit, review and learn from the actions and experiences of specific activity over periods of time. The AAR is a function which is effectively applied at all levels from the operational end of tour AAR or short training exercise AAR. It isn't the role of the senior officers (CEO),rather a collective review conducted at all levels. It enables a complete detailed review in order to build on lessons learnt, best practice and ensure the entire organisation applies the findings. The key to the success of AAR is the application of the recommendations and conclusions in the following planning cycle. It also majors on the effect of experiences from all levels and takes a 360 view.

And so after a year it is time to conduct my after action review. What does your after action review look like? As I review my business plan and my personal aspirations from 2014 it allows me to make informed decisions for 2015. Looking towards my dreams for 2015 and beyond I can see, with clarity where and what I will aspire to and achieve in the long term; to be precise 4 years from now, and indeed having a vision to 10 years from now.

Looking back over 2014 there are some simple pointers to consider as you look to the future: 

• What are the real big dreams and how much closer has 2014 brought you to them.
• Have you defined the little dream? Remember it’s not all about the big stuff, the little things make a big difference in the long run and lead to achieving the big dreams.
• With clarity in your dreams you can then strive to set the goals to achieve them.
•  Make sure your goals are SMART.
• Specific, when making your goal be as specific as you can in what it is.
• Measurable, how will you measure progress?
• Achievable, you must be able to achieve the goal. No point in setting out to achieve the unachievable!
• Results orientated, having a distinctive outcome.
• Time based, without setting a time to have the goal achieved it will simply be something to do.
• In order to achieve the goals what do you need, what’s the learning required:
• I may need to do more of…….
• Which may mean I need to stop or do less of……
• I may need to associate or meet with…..
• I may need to stop associating or meeting with……
• I may need to learn……
• I may need to read……
• I may need to be focused on…..
• I may need to have greater self-discipline with…..
• I may need to commit to…..

·        With the learning the plan can be shaped to achieve the goals.

·        All that is left is to act.

So how 2014 was and what can you learn to further your journey towards your goals in 2015 and your dreams beyond?

Here's looking to the future.

Happy New Year 

What do you want to achieve? Goal Setting.

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. 

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant).
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T - Time-bound (or Trackable).

http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

21 - 30 Days to change

Back in the 70s NASA conducted a study, astronauts
were fitted 24 hours a day with goggles that inverted their visual fields. This visually turned their entire world upside down. To monitor the stress of constant inversion, physiological responses, such as higher blood pressure and heart rate, were tracked. It was not until around the 21 days of wearing the glasses, that the astronauts began to mentally accept their altered world and show physical signs of being unstressed and comfortable in their new environment. In fact, some of the astronauts took off their goggles for a period of time and they found that the reconditioning started again. This means that you need consistent, daily focus and attention over a 21 day span.

So What? The Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) regards the need to be consistent in change, if you allow a set period (significant period) between 21 - 30 days to master the change of a habit it will and is more likely to become a replacement of the habit. Here in the TED video Matt Cutts highlights this as trying something new for 30 days.  So go on have a go try something new, but don't take my word for it.......

The Why

The Why Guy, one of TEDs talk top 20 for good reason.

Come On Get Your Goals Set & Realise Your Dreams

 

Read a great book and wanted to share the philosophy with you all; 7 Strategies for Wealth and happiness by Jim Rohn.

To keep it really simple just follow these instructions, however before I get started a health warning! Don’t read on unless you really do want to move your life in a direction you aspire to, you want to achieve, you have dreamt of and feels right for you. Tired of that negativity in your mind telling you ‘not to be daft, you’ll never achieve that, who are you trying to kid, let’s get back to reality ‘ or you ‘so call friends’ telling you to be realistic, there are more important things to deal with, it’s a nice idea BUT!

Let’s remember dreaming is a right we inherited as a child, dreaming of what you were going to get for your Birthday or Christmas, what you were going to be when you grew up! What happen, when did you lose the ability to dream and by virtue change and take control and responsibility for your life? Maybe it’s because we are not happy with a label like dream, it’s too fanciful, too fairy tale and not realistic! OK let’s put a ‘grown up’ name to it, let’s call that dream a goal. The biggest difference having grown up is realising there are ways and means to realise a goal or a dream.  We didn’t know what would be involved with becoming an astronaut as child, however we have a better idea today; probably a few scientific degrees, I guess being able to fly, maybe fit and healthy. Now clearly that sounds simple enough, but we can all see that alone is a great deal of work and commitment. The point is you are all able to achieve our goals once we know where we want to go.

So what? This is about choice, deciding to do something different, if that you then this simple exercise is as good a starting point as any………READ ON>>>>>

So we are going to have a brain dump! First step is to find yourself a piece of paper and a pen. Got it GOOD, now divide the page into 6. Top left write BE, Top right write DO, the left to right in the remaining boxes SEE, HAVE, GO and finally bottom right SHARE:

 

 Now this is the good part, don't get into a 'flat spin' or 'too in depth' just start writing and write down your goals for the next 10 years under these headings.

What do I want to BE?

What do I want to DO?

What do I want to SEE?

What do I want to HAVE?

Where do I want to GO?

What do I want to SHARE?

The key here is not top write to much detail, the the saying goes 'keep it simple stupid'! So don't write lengthy descriptions, just write a brief memory jogger. "I want a Porches 4S" as 4S.

So how long should this take...well no more than 15 minutes, there will be time to refine and reflect in due course. The important thing is to write what comes naturally.

Next you'll need to write the number of years it is going to take you to achieve each of the goals. Don't be too definitive round it up or down to years, general 1, 3, 5 or 10. Now just pop the number with each of the goals. What's important here is to ensure you have balance in your forecasting. There's little point to having lots of 5 and 10 years goals and no 1 or 3 years, its likely to result in 'just putting things off', postponing what it is you need to get started. Likewise without the long term goals you'll be lacking some long term vision and something to really strive for. At this point you'll end up with multi-layered goals, you'll be able to maintain momentum, as you reach and achieve one goal you'll be already on the way to the next and so on!

Now with all the goals you have written you need to prioritise the top 3 or 4 in each time category. Your now going to distil what each means and represents, you need to write a paragraph on each detailing the following:

• A description of what you want; and be detailed, really tap into your minds eye, relay visualise the goal.
• The reason why you want to achieve or acquire the item, its likely at this point that you will find out if you really want it or its just a passing fancy and not a goal. Bottom line if you cant define why you should class it as a whim and reprioritise and replace it with a goal.

The point here is the real reason is the driving factor the real motivation behind the goal, so spend some time here as this is what will inspire and keep you focused on achieving it.

Once you have completed this process why not have your goals written out and presented nicely in a  journal or diary and then make sure you review them each and every week. Assess what progress you make and measure it, how much closer you are to achievement. Doesn't matter how little it matters that you are ever closer towards realising.

So get writing!

Here Jim talking about Goal Setting:

 

Jim has some great books which will help in your pursuit of your dreams and making them a reality.