Carsonified

I used to hate the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The whole concept sounded really selfish and almost a little “dirty”. Then my mom (who is the antithesis of selfish) mentioned that she had read it and that it was really packed with wisdom.

“Hmmmm … If Mom loves it, it must be quality,” I thought. So I grabbed myself a copy, and holy crap, it is packed with amazing advice.

“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it”

That’s Principle #1 from the section “Win People to Your Way of Thinking”. Carnegie points out that as soon as you start arguing with someone, you’ve lost the fight. Have you ever been won over by someone who argues with you? I know I haven’t.

Basically, every single one of us gets defensive when we’re attacked - even if we know we’re wrong. Nine times out of ten, you’ll dig your heals in and fight back.

So if you’re trying to convince someone, the last thing you should do is argue with them.

It’s all about the Good Will

Sure, you may win an argument. But will that person have good will towards you? Probably not. They’ll probably resent the fact that you were right and that you proved it to them.

If you really want to convince somebody of something, before you start an argument, take a quick step back from the situation and try to see things from their point of view. Why do they think the way they do? Why should they switch to your point of view?

Happy new year everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

I’m a big believer in setting goals. If you don’t do this, there’s no way to measure if your life is heading in the direction you want it to go. Every year, I sit down and have a hard think about my personal and business goals.

First of all, I think about my personal goals. Why do I nail these down before my business and work goals? Because I believe that business and work should help you achieve your personal goals, not the other way around.

I divide my personal goals into four areas:

1. Mind
2. Relationships
3. Body
4. Financial

After I’ve got those written down, I move onto business and work goals. I haven’t divided these up into categories, but if that interests you, feel free to do so.

Make them measureable

A really important part of setting goals is to make them measureable. You want to know for sure if you did or didn’t achieve them at the end of the year.

Here are some examples of measurable goals (good):

1. Excercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Achieve $10 Million in company revenue

Here are some hard-to-measure goals (bad)

1. Be more pro-active
2. Increase network of contacts
3. Be more positive

At the end of the year, you want to be able to look over your list and know whether or not you succeeded.

The most important thing about setting goals is that it allows you to step back from your life and look at the big picture. Are you happy with where your life is going? Are you becoming the person you always wanted to be?

Setting goals is a great way to pro-actively move towards being who you always wanted to be! Here is a sample of my 2007 goals:

Personal

1. Exercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Save £____ per month

Company

1. Increase profit by 30%
2. Have DropSend up to $20K revenue per month
3. Have £_____ cash in the bank

Feel free to share some of your 2007 goals below!