Instigator Blog

Most of us are one project away from total combustion.

The first entry in the Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project comes from The Digerati Life with So Much Business, So Little Time.

First, thank you for writing your goals down for everyone to see!

What I found most interesting about the post was the recognition that as some projects evolve and grow other projects, hobbies, desires, ideas, etc. are left behind. It’s inevitable. In the case of The Digerati Life’s author, she’s stopped updating one of her other blogs as frequently while a new business she’s cooking up starts to move more quickly.

You can only juggle so many balls.

(Incidentally, for me that number is 3.)

Giving something up can be tough; it’s not always obvious what should go. When looking at it, ask yourself these questions:

• What am I most passionate about?
• What has the most potential to make me happy?
• What can’t I live with?
• Why am I doing this?
• What am I most passionate about?

(Yes, I repeated a question in there on purpose.)

I want to thank the author of The Digerati Life one more time and encourage others to write down their goals and share them with us!

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Photos by antitezo and lepista

One of my post-Thanksgiving goals heading towards the Christmas holidays is to connect with 5 entrepreneurs in Montreal and find ways to help them. In return, I hope they’ll have ways to help me.

When it comes to helping entrepreneurs (and receiving help) the spectrum of opportunity is broad. Help might include contacts, a helpful ear, money, leads, etc. I’m flexible, and always looking for some help.

It’s been 6 months or so since I realized that one of my biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur wasn’t networking enough in my own backyard. I didn’t build up a foundation of valuable, local contacts that I could rely on. Oops. Stupid mistake.

Truth be told, I knew it was a mistake years ago but only recently started working to fix it.

I’m setting the number of new entrepreneur contacts at 5 because it’s ambitious in the short time I have, but not overly so. A few cocktail parties, introductions, etc. and I’ll have met 5 worthwhile people. Finding ways to help is the next step to that, and hopefully those opportunities will be obvious.

Part of goal setting is to be ambitious, but not ridiculous. Setting short-term goals like, “I want to rule the world,” is only going to end in disappointment. But setting goals that are too easily achievable will leave you feeling empty pretty quickly. There might be a short rush from succeeding but it won’t last.

So what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish from now till the end of the year?

Write a blog post (or more!) about your goals for the rest of the year and link back to Instigator Blog. Tag your posts (for Technorati), “post-thanksgiving goal writing project” and I’ll make sure to link back to you and try to connect you with others that can help you achieve your goals!

This post is part of my Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project. Participate today!

Thanksgiving is over, we’re all stuffed (I have some heartburn), content and ready to roll!

And now we start asking the important questions…

What are your goals?

From now until Christmas is a hectic time of year for almost everyone. Both professionally and personally, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is often a whirlwind.

To help with that, I’ve started the Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project.

It’s simple: write a blog post (or multiple posts) about your goals. They could be anything - big, small, personal, professional…

Link back to Instigator Blog and if you tag posts for Technorati, include the tag, “post-thanksgiving goal writing project” so I can better track all the posts.

I’ll link back in return, and hopefully we’ll stir up some discussion and encouragement on everyone’s goals. Need a bit of help finishing a big project? Want to lose some weight? Need to re-focus for 2007? Let the community around you help — write your goals on your blog and draw us all in!

Feel free to use the graphic on this post too, if you’d like.

I’m going to write at least 1 post/day about my goals. Some will be big, some will be small. Some will probably be completely for the fun of it…I hope you’ll enjoy!

Please subscribe for free to Instigator Blog via RSS. You can subscribe via email too! For more information, click here.

Starbucker and I go way back…it’s been, oh, at least a few months since we connected online via Open Mic Night at Successful Blog. In blog years, a few months is a long time!

Starbucker was the first recipient of Basil the donkey and the Fawlty Towers DVDs (which sadly seem to have gotten lost between Philadelphia and Belarus…)

Starbucker’s blog is Ramblings from a Glass Half Full. It’s worth reading — lots of entertaining ideas, thoughts on leadership, etc.

Last night, Starbucker, his wife and I connected in Montreal (where I live.) Starbucker and his wife were up for a mini-Thanksgiving vacation and it was great to meet a fellow blogger in person.

We had a great, rambling conversation on a ton of subjects: blogging, podcasting, information products, connecting online, a possible blogging conference in Chicago next year, ayurvedic health, yoga, eating healthy, travel, the future, entrepreneurship, Colorado, differences between the US and Canada, and much, much more.

Here’s a picture of the two of us at a fairly swanky restaurant/bar/club on St. Laurent street in Montreal:

(It looks like we’re in some kind of alien spaceship, but we’re not.)

Connecting online works. It builds real relationships that can grow beyond digital connections very easily.

I look forward to the next chance that Starbucker, his wife and I get to meet. The glass is certainly more than half full and sometimes you have to be the glass. (It’s true. Trust me. Be the glass. *smile*)

I don’t talk about technology here as much as I’d like. I’m really not sure why…perhaps because so many others cover it well already. Nevertheless, on occasion I find something worth mentioning and linking to.

Today that’s Classic Disruption: Microsoft Dismisses New Google Apps as Inferior from Michael Urlocker who has one of the greatest titles of all time, “Disruption Consultant.”

Microsoft’s Antoine Leblond told Reuters recently:

“The simple argument that ‘this is good enough for 90 percent of what we do’ has fallen on its face over and over and over again…When it comes to mission critical things and key pieces of how people run their businesses, the threshold is higher.”

I love what Urlocker says next:

Microsoft is right.

But being right could take Microsoft Office to a point of future irrelevance.

Urlocker notes that disruptive technologies are typically inferior to the incumbents on mainstream features. And that disruptive technologies start by appealing to those on the edges of mainstream.

He goes on to tell Microsoft why they’re wrong for being right, and why they should be worried about Google and their various applications.

I have to believe Microsoft is worried - they’d be blind, stupid or drunk (or a combination of all three) not to be. Google has proven itself smart and innovative, and even with hiccups along the way with certain products, they still have a ton of mindshare. And they attract the uber-business executives of tomorrow; young people who will grow up on the Google mantra and Google applications.

Urlocker on Disruption is well worth reading. Check it out!