To ensure the results you intend when you are communicating in writing, the key is to know your purpose from the very beginning of the process. Why are you writing? What is the point? What is the best way to get what you want? There are two things that come to my mind immediately.

First, it is essential that we actually know what we want. Both for us and what you want your reader to do. Too often we receive poor results from our efforts simply because we do not know what we want when we set out to write a letter or to write a request.

Without a clear target to shoot at or an end result in mind, it is difficult to lead others to see things your way and take action. Let us face it; writing Read More...

If you’re a reader of this article, there are a few things I know about you. You are likely more knowledgeable about goals than most. I’d guess that you and most of your peers would describe you as “goal oriented” in the most positive sense of the word. In fact, many of you have even been to one of Freedom Personal Development’s goal setting workshops, congratulations!

Even knowing this, if we were face to face right now I’d ask you how well you’re getting the MOST important characteristic of your goals.

How meaningful are your goals to you?

Now, like many of Read More...

Today’s post is based on a very easy question. But this question that has led many people to profound answers and discoveries of things that they did not even know about themselves.  Once you complete this exercise you will have some clues into what your purpose is on this planet and where truly meaningful goals will come from.

To being, you will need a pen and paper. Some people take five minutes to answer this question and for others it may take a couple of days. Take as long as you need.

Here is the question you need to answer:
What would I do if time and money were no concern?

Number your paper 1 to 25 and list a minimum of 25 things you would do with or in your life if money and time Read More...

What is you purpose?

A good friend of mine recently asked me that a question. He couldn’t have asked me at a better time because, at that junction of my life, I had lost my motivation, lost the “why” behind the things I was doing and lost the direction I was heading.

Can you relate? Do your actions feel empty at times?

Many people think that they know their purpose. Then, in times of hardship when that purpose is challenged, they suddenly realize that that purpose does not motivate them anymore. At that time they feel that they must have lost their purpose.

In college, my first sales job was selling books door to door during the summer. One year, Read More...

If you remember, yesterday I asked the question “What is the purpose of external accountability?” Many of you didn’t have an answer, and if you are like most people you were wondering why I included the word “external” in the question.Well, today the answer shall be revealed. And it will change the way you feel when someone else helps to keep you accountable or when you ask someone to be your accountability partner.

Think about this, why would we ask someone to hold us accountable? It is because when we tell someone else we are going to do something, we will keep ourselves more on track to accomplish that thing, be it a task, assignment, or goal so that we Read More...

Accountability is one of the most powerful tools and motivators that many of us have at our disposal. Most of us have had either an accountability buddy, coach or manager that held us accountable from time to time. But most of us do not realize that there are different types of accountability and that they each have a separate purpose.

We are all familiar with external accountability. That is when someone else holds us accountable. We must understand its purpose before we graduate to the next level of accountability. Without understanding the purpose of external accountability it can sometimes feel as if our accountability buddy or manager is pushing us around, micro managing, or giving us a guilt trip Read More...

One of my favorite analogies for effective business writing is the clear window. Below are five simple guidelines to ensure your written communication is effective.

Write the Way You Talk

Imagine your reader is looking through your words, not at your words, for the meaning beyond the text. Whenever you use ultramajestic, high-fallutin, quadrasyllabic words, you force the reader to look at the words, often stopping to comprehend their meaning. When this happens, the message is clouded and even lost. The beauty of short, simple words is they speak clearly and in language that is typically the way you would talk in person. Write the way you talk. Great business writing means the Read More...

If you haven’t heard Dr. Randy Pausch’s story yet, this video is a MUST WATCH!!!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

Dr. Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his doctors are saying he has a few months to live. He reprises the last lecture he gave to his students on the Oprah Show.

All around us there are amazing examples of people living their lives in way that serves as an example for us all – this is a truly amazing one.

It has been downloaded over a million times on the internet.

Be Read More...