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During the height of the New Year’s resolution season, I explained that I don’t think traditional goal setting is the most effective way to get where you want to go in life. In my view, traditional goal setting is like using a map to plan your route, and never heading off that route. This can work really well when the road to your destination is straightforward and you don’t have many choices of how to get there.

The problem is that life doesn’t usually work like this. We rarely encounter roads that are free from detours and traffic jams. At certain points, it may be more efficient to detour from your planned route. Maybe you’d find it interesting to take your time on secondary roads rather than speeding by on the Interstate. You may have an opportunity to take a short cut, or you may even decide that you don’t want to go to that destination anymore.

This is why I advocate using a compass, instead of a map. By knowing the general direction you want to go in but not the exact route, you have more flexibility to take those faster or more interesting routes. You may consciously decide to veer off course a little bit, but you’re not lost and you can head back in your desired direction at any time.

Okay, enough with the analogies…

How Does This “Compass” Thing Actually Work?

In a word… theme. Instead of creating painstakingly planned out goals with specific actions, measurable results and hard deadlines, choose one word or short phrase that embodies the theme of what you want to accomplish. As I explained, in relation to my blogging for 2008, I want to focus on Adding Value to people interested in personal and organizational change. There are many ways to do this, but there are also many ways to dink around and not accomplish much of anything as a blogger! Fortunately, because I have my compass point set to “Adding Value” I can ask myself the guiding question, “Does this blogging related activity add value for my audience?” I have done this frequently during the past three months.

Now, to be honest, not everything I’ve done has added value. Sometimes when I asked my guiding question the honest answer was, “No, but it’s fun!” That’s fine with me, so I kept at those things. The good thing is, having the compass to guide me keeps me from getting too far off course. The result is that I’ve done a lot of things that are both fun AND add value, but I didn’t know I was going to do all of these things on January 1. For example, I discovered Utterz and started recording podcasts a few weeks ago. This format makes my site accessible to a wider audience and provides variety to my regular readers. I also had the opportunity to participate in the March 2008 Bloghology group Ebook, which gave me the opportunity to interact with other bloggers and spread my message to a wider audience.

What are the Results? 

Oh, you want numbers? You want proof that this stuff actually works?! Well, okay.

According to Google Analytics, from October 1 through December 31, 2007 this site had 3,202 visits. This number nearly tripled to 8,714 visits from January 1 through March 31, 2008. Somebody (actually a lot of somebodies) took some time out of their lives to pop by humble blog. That’s pretty good growth and I’m happy with it. What makes me even happier is that the traffic came from lots of sources and was spread around to lots of posts.

Here are my top 5 most read posts:

1. Having Goals Will Make You Blind!
2. What Is Adaptive Capacity?
3. How to Do Scenario Planning
4. 7 Things to NOT Do If You Have Seasonal Affective Disorder
5. My 4 Hour Workweek: I Get My VAs For Free (actually the whole series did really well)

I also got a good amount of traffic through my forum and blog commenting participation. For example, I got over 500 visitors from Zen Habits, a blog that I comment on frequently. This shows me that I’m adding value in those communities and drawing visitors to my own blog community. That makes me happy

I hope this post has persuaded you to give the Compass method of goal setting a try in your life. Just start with a small area where you want to accomplish something in the near future and see what happens. And as always, if you’ve had experiences with this method, please share them in the comments.

Photo by… Oh dear, I don’t remember where I got this one. If this photo is yours, please email maria (at) neverthesamerivertwice (dot) com and I will give you due credit!

Wow. How was that for a cheesy title? If you’re getting worried, I promise I have not gone to the “Dark Side” of Internet marketing. Instead, I’m happy to announce the Never the Same River Twice has been included in the March 2008 Bloghology compilation.

What the Heck is Bloghology?
I’m glad you asked. Bloghology is the brainchild of Mert Erkal of Search for Blogging. He realized that it’s difficult for small and medium sized blogs to gain attention in the information-overloaded world that we all live in, so he decided to do something about it. Roughly once every 3 months, he releases a compilation of interviews with a variety of bloggers covering many subject areas. It’s in a .pdf Ebook format. This is obviously a great way for bloggers to gain exposure, and if you are a blogger I definitely recommend you sign up on the Bloghology homepage.

Why Should I Download Yet Another Free Ebook?

Because I asked you to?

Okay, for real, you should download this Ebook if you are interested in exploring up and coming blogs. Since you are reading this post, you are obviously a blog reader and we tend to have short attention spans. I know I’m always looking for new blogs (and always moving away from established blogs that have grown stale) and I’m guessing some of you do the same. Here’s just a sample of some of the bloggers featured in this edition of Bloghology.

• Blissful Travel which features awesome posts like The Best Beaches in Mexico
• Reason 4 Smile a personal development blog that will teach you All You Need to Know to Create Your Own Happiness
• And (this is definitely a new one for me) the very funny Henson’s Hell which devoted an entire post to The Strange Facial Contortions of Celine Dion. I think I like this guy!

The Ebook is a quick 52-page read and includes some bonus material from Mert on creating podcasts. I’m sure you’ll get some value out of Blohology, so just right-click on this HUGE image and download it today!

I received an email a few days ago from my blogging friend Holger Nauheimer of the Change Management Blog and the Change ManagementToolbook. He is leading a course called “Be the Change” in Boston, MA on April 3-5. The event includes:

A free, half-day pre-conference on emerging trends in change management

A two day course on change management fundamentals

If you can be in the Boston area at that time, I highly encourage you to check this out. More details can be found at the Change Management Toolbook’s Events page.

I’m honored and excited that Henrik at the Positivity Blog has published my guest post, Five Reasons to Appreciate Winter. It’s a little ironic that the post actually went live while I’m staring at a beautiful mountain sunrise in Phoenix, Arizona but I’ll be back to snowy Michigan soon!

If you enjoyed my post you may also enjoy some of the posts in my Personal Change category such as:

• Recipe for a Personal Development Weekend
• What is Personal Development?
• How Can Having a Cold Help You “Think Different?” 

I’m glad you stopped by. Please take a look around and let me know what you think.

Hey, ho. I’m taking a short break from the dog days of winter by visiting a friend in Phoenix. Not only will I get to shake off the worst of my Seasonal Affective Disorder, I also get to take this opportunity to feature a couple of awesome guest bloggers. Here’s what you have to look forward to:

Tomorrow Evan Hadkins of wellbeingandhealth.net will share some tips for dealing with complexity in life. Evan is from Sydney, Australia and his blog talks about many aspects of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social health.

On Monday Cindy Posey of Go Workout Mom explains how to apply the principles of the 4 Hour Workweek to managing a family. Cindy is a formal U.S. Navy officer who is now a physical trainer and full-time mom. Her blog teaches moms how to find time for their own health and fitness.

I hope all of you enjoy these great posts. If you find these posts useful and high quality, please show your love by using the I Love Social Bookmarking! list below each post