Archive for February, 2010

I hit all five of my goals for the month of February! However, my nature isn’t to dwell on the positive but to look for areas to improve. While my tracking sheet is green, I believe I could have done more in February and will continue to work my tail off in March to exceed my goals again next month.

It’s not that two successful months isn’t having an impact because I feel great about the success I’ve had. In fact, the encouragement from friends, family and readers has been an incredible source of inspiration for me.

I also did a quick calibration to see if my goals weren’t tough enough; however, I think they are aggressive and I know I’ll have to overcome obstacles each month. I’ll continue to evaluate the goals over the next weeks/months and keep everyone posted.

Thanks again for helping keep me motivated and focused through this transformation!

Here’s a link to my first post if you want a reminder of my goals and the reasons for each: http://www.elevation-coaching.com/why-a-blog/.

Up Next: Sources of Inspiration!

Make today a great day!
AmK

With the end of February approaching and another reporting period on my progress around the corner, I spent some time thinking about why I’ve been able to maintain momentum for 50+ days this year. The easy answer is I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of all these people who know what I’m trying to achieve. When I look a little deeper, I see a family who is supportive of each and every one of these goals, friends who are encouraging and a community willing to help along the way. It is definitely taking a team to support me, help me and drive me to achieve this transformation.

Having led and participated on many successful teams I’ve noticed they all have five common attributes:

1. Shared Values
2. Shared Goals/Vision
3. Shared Plans/Strategies
4. Leading by Example
5. Continuous Evaluation

Here at home, we call ourselves Team Krieman (real original, I know) and we are successful accomplishing our goals because we have all the ingredients of a successful team. We have shared values as a family including integrity, giving back and doing our best. We have shared goals in many areas including financial, spiritual, social and physical. The Athlete and I share our plans and strategies for execution. We also do our best to lead by example (seems to be easier for the Athlete than me). Finally, we continuously evaluate ourselves against our goals and strategies and have made adjustments along the way. As I’ve said before, we’re not perfect and we’ve found ourselves lacking in some of these areas. It’s not until we get back to these basics that we feel like we’re moving along as a TEAM again. One of my favorite quotes about teamwork comes from Henry Ford:

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Up Next: February Results

Make today a great day!
AmK

What a loser!!! I know that’s what you are thinking.

Ask The Athlete or my family and friends – they will tell you that there are few people on this planet more competitive than me. However, people tend to take losses more seriously and try to determine the reason(s) for their loss. You can learn a lot from winning but you can learn just as much – if not more – when you lose.

As you know one of my goals is to lose weight and as part of my strategy to achieve that goal, I signed up for a racquetball league at the Y. It’s a sport I love and played for more than 10 years in my teens and twenties. I haven’t played much lately but I knew it would be a good way to have some fun and insure I get some much needed exercise.

Earlier this week I lost my first racquetball match of the season after winning the first few. I was pissed off and frustrated with myself during all three games (each was close). However I walked off the court thinking about what I could have done differently. My thoughts came in many shapes and sizes, some with words that would make a sailor blush. It was good for me because it allowed me look inward and dissect the problem. This is something people, myself included, rarely do after a win.

It’s true in all aspects of life – sports, business, goal setting, etc. – people tend to reflect much more after a loss. I guarantee that Toyota has looked inward more over the past two months than over the past two decades.

I still don’t like to lose (and probably never will) but I’ll make sure I understand why I lost and make the necessary adjustments to put myself in the position to win next time.

Here are some common things to assess whether you win or lose…

1. Preparation – Did I practice enough? Did I practice the right things? Am I measuring the right things as part of my preparation?
2. Strategy – Did I deploy the right strategy while competing? Which part of the strategy worked? What didn’t? Was I prepared and able to switch my strategy on the fly?
3. Execution – Did I execute the strategy?
4. Communication – Whether you lead a team or are a participant, effective communication can be the reason for winning and poor communication can cause a loss.
5. Self Evaluation – Am I being honest with myself when I evaluate my own strengths or weaknesses? This is key when creating a strategy and preparing for the event.

Don’t be ashamed the next time you lose – learn from it and prepare for your next victory celebration!

Make today a great day!
AmK

I’ve loved the Olympics since I was a little kid. It’s probably because the Olympics have always been a blend of two of my favorite things – Politics and Sports. There were boycotts, cities getting slighted and fierce competition between clashing cultures. I still remember standing in my family room when the US hockey team beat those big goons from Russia (CCCP) to advance and play for the Gold Medal.

“5 goals? You must be crazy!!!”

“Sounds like a lot of work to me!!!”

“You over achiever…”

These are just some of the comments I’ve received since making my goals public last month. First and foremost – thanks to everyone for their feedback, comments, support, ribbing and interest! You are all helping keep me focused on my goals.

Secondly, thanks for making this easy for me. I love connecting with people! I love listening to peoples’ stories and sharing mine. Therefore, every comment, note and encouraging email makes the effort I’m putting in to transforming my life seem less like work and more like fun!

Combine your support with the fact that I’ve had some success on my goals and I am starting to enjoy the work part.. Putting together financial plans, working out, packing work out clothes for business trips, developing an auction strategy for the JDRF gala, and networking my tail off are FUN! Don’t get me wrong, there are some days when I sneak some chocolate or shorten a work out – I’m still not perfect! However, they are less and less and the knowledge that you are waiting for me to post my February scorecard gives me all the incentive I need.

I’ve recently come into contact with many people who don’t think of their jobs / careers as work. They are thrilled they get to do something they love every day and make a living from it. Forty plus days into 2010 and I’m amazed that transforming my life this year requires a lot of effort; but doesn’t feel like work at all!

Make today a great day!
AmK

Did you ever have a period in your life when you thought about death? A lot? Maybe it’s after a relative or friend passes away or maybe you come face to face with your own mortality or the mortality of a loved one?

My Aunt passed away earlier this week. And since hearing the news, I’ve thought about death quite a bit. My thoughts usually turn to the question we were asked to answer in an Ethics class I took in college…”When you die, what will your obituary look like?” In this class we were asked to think – do you want people to remember you as a generally good person or as an unethical one.

I’m not trying to be morose; but when thinking about transforming your life, it really is a great question to ponder… How will I be remembered? What will my legacy be?

For me, there wasn’t an easy answer to the question.. It’s easier to identify what I don’t want to be remembered for (typically bad and/or negative things).

You’re probably wondering where I ended up. Once I started with a list of action words it became very clear to me. I want to be remembered as the Athlete’s best friend and a loving husband, a participative father to the Dancer and Little Miss Sunshine, and as a generous loving person who had fun and exhibited integrity while giving ALL I had every day.

AmK Tip: If you find time to reflect and struggle with this question, make a list of words that either describe you or that are aspirational. Take that list and pick the ones you are already doing and set them aside (you never want to lose sight of your good behaviors). Then take the top two or three that are aspirational and create an action plan around them. For example if you want to be remembered as being a generous person, create a plan that identifies how you will be generous. It may be financially – I will give $x month to church and a charity (be specific). It may be time – I will spend 10 hours a month helping at the food bank. Then hold yourself accountable for following up. The goals I created at the beginning of the year all build towards leaving my legacy.

Up Next: I want to bang on my drum all day.

Make today a great day!

AmK

My Mom knew what she was talking about….. When I was five years old, my father passed away. He went to work and died of heart failure at the office. I still remember when the men from his office came to the house to tell Mom. I didn’t understand what was going on – just that I’d never seen her so upset.

I’d like to say that I’m perfect and that I really can do that every minute of every day; but I can’t…What I can tell you is that this one gift – the gift of appreciation – has gotten me through every difficult time in my life. It’s also allowed me to enjoy way more laughter and good times than I probably deserve. Her gift allows me to draw inspiration from people who have many more concerns than I do – people who are so much stronger than me in dealing with whatever life throws at them! I have dear friends who deal with so much in their every day lives and look their problems in the eye and say Cancer/Diabetes/Whatever – I’m going to find a cure and kick your ass! It’s not that I take joy in their suffering – I get to spend time with these people and share in their triumphs and help them through tragedies.

I know my Mom is watching over me and enjoying the fact that I get to live a gift every day. Mom, I won’t let you down – the transformation I am going through this year will allow me to enjoy the gift you’ve given me for many more years!

Many have said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over (and over) again and expecting different results. (If you know the real author, please advise as I’d love to give her/him credit).

The movie Groundhog Day portrays the same thing. Phil (Bill Murray’s character) relives the same day over and over again – but never changing anything. He eventually uses his time wisely and learns new things – only once he makes changes can he break the spell of living the same thing over and over again?

Have you ever felt like you are in a rut? Dread going to work? Dread having the same argument over and over again? I know I’ve certainly been there! It wasn’t until I changed a behavior or TRANSFORMED my behaviors that I was able to achieve a different result.

It’s precisely why many people who go on diets fail. Once they hit their goal, they say ‘my diet was successful and start living Groundhog day again. Don’t diet – change your lifestyle. The same applies to your finances and your career. If you want to change an area in your life, alter your behavior and tweak as necessary. It isn’t easy; but if Bill Murray can figure it out, so can you!

Stay tuned for ideas on changing behaviors.

Make today a great day!
AmK

Fun fact: Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow 97 times, has not seen it 15 times, and nine years are unaccounted for —through 2009.

Many of you have asked ‘How are you doing in regard to your goals?’ Well the above tracking sheet shows my performance versus goals for January. I use a simple green (exceed), yellow (met/exceeded with concerns) and red (missed) to give a quick visual reference.

Achieving goals isn’t just about creating and measuring (although both are important steps). The real key to success is knowing when to tweak your behaviors to ensure you stay on track! For example, I exceeded my goal for weight loss in January; however I wasn’t as diligent as I could have been in tracking calories. I believe I would’ve lost more weight and have made that adjustment for February and moving forward. Additionally, we contributed to a couple of Haiti relief funds and with our normal giving exceeded our goal for charitable giving; but we haven’t done our formal budget for the rest of the year yet. We’ll do that in February and I will be able to make that goal green again!

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement, feedback and support!

Up next: Groundhog Day

Make today a great day!
AmK