Turn Your Life Values into Daily Task Lists
By: Dr. Tim

Did you make a New Year’s Resolution for 2010? If you did, chances are by now you have already given up on it, or you will give it up by the end of this month. Most people start out the New Year with good intentions to accomplish their dreams, but they lack the ability to follow through with their resolutions. The reason is they don’t understand the little tricks behind setting goals.

The trick to truly being able to look back at the end of 2010 and say you accomplished what you set out to accomplish at the beginning is to take your life time values and turn them into daily task lists. If you can find a way to do that, then you can accomplish all of your goals.

The first step to accomplishing this is to go into hibernation mode, where you take time to reflect, review and set goals without the normal daily interruptions going on in your life. If you have been setting goals for awhile, take out last year’s goals and review them. Take out your journals and reread them to evaluate what lessons you learned over the previous year.

If this is your first time to attempt goal setting, congratulations! You are taking a very important step in changing your life. Remember if you do not have a plan for where you are going, you are never going to get there.

STEP ONE: Set Yearly Goals
The first step in creating your Life Values Daily Task List is to set goals for 2010. These goals should focus on the four pillars necessary for anyone’s life to be successful.

1) Health Goals: These should include: Diet, Exercise, Sports Competitions, Marathons.
2) Wealth Goals: What will it take for you to feel successful in your finances both emotionally and physically?
3) Relationship Goals: These should include: Spouse, Parent, Co-Worker and Family Member.
4) Character Development: These should include: Constant and Never Ending Improvement, Spirituality, Education and Play (Travel, Hobbies and Adventure).
5) Career Goals: These are opotional, as they are not part of the four pillars. But your career directly affects the other four goals. What do you want to do with your career this year?

Write down all of your goals for each category, and then go back and evaluate the five most important goals for each category. The top five for each category should become your Yearly Goals List.

STEP TWO: Create a Top 10 List
Look at your yearly list, which should now consist of between 20-25 goals and create a Top 10 List. If you only had the ability to accomplish 10 of the things on your Yearly Goals List, which 10 would they be?

As you create your Top 10 List, evaluate to make sure your goals are reachable. Remember a wish is something you hope for, but you don’t make a plan for. I wish I could be a concert pianist, but I’m not willing to put in the time and effort that it takes to be a concert pianist. A goal is something that is time specific, achievable and you’re willing to work for and sacrifice for.

Once you have your Top 10 Goals, rewrite or review them every single day. If you review them every single day, you are always thinking about your goals. Your mind has the ability to become what you constantly encourage it to think about.

STEP THREE: Monthly Goal Setting
At the start of the year, decide what tasks you can accomplish first in order to achieve your goals. Then create a Monthly Master Task List for the month broken down into the same categories listed in your Yearly Goal List. Towards the end of each month, review the progress on your goals and decide what tasks need to be carried over to the next month.

STEP FOUR: Weekly Goal Setting
Every Sunday, take at least 30 minutes to review your monthly goals and to plan out your week. Review your Monthly Master Task List and set two or three things for each goal you can accomplish for the week. I use Planner Pads to set my goals. Once you have set your goals, create a to-do list below them. The to-do list is your action plan to accomplishing your weekly goals.

STEP FIVE: Daily Goal Setting
Every night, review your weekly goals and set-up a daily to-do list for the following day. This daily to-do list should be realistic. Decide how many things you can truly handle in one day. I have found I can accomplish 10-15 things a day, depending on their complexity. Highlight or note the most important things on the list. Another option is to prioritize the list and then rewrite it in the order you are going to accomplish it.

You might be thinking to yourself, “I already make a daily to-do list, why should I go through all of these steps?” The answer is simple. If you just get up in the morning and make a daily to-do list, that list is not related back to what is really important to you. Using this system, your to-do list is. You have to make time to accomplish your life goals or you will never do them. This goal setting system allows you to intentionally do something about your goals. By the end of the year you will have 365 daily task lists that revert directly back to your life values.

STEP SIX: Have Discipline
Discipline is the magic key to making your goals become a success. It is the ability to do what you said you were going to do after the moment passes in which you said you were going to do it. Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily and doing them every single day. As the weeks and months go on, if you accomplish these lists every single day, you will be able to live the life of your dreams.

[Ed. Note: This week, Dr. Tim knew his lesson on goal setting was important, so he created a step-by-step video to show you how to turn your life values into accomplishable daily task lists.  You can view that video on his blog.]

How Lessons from Dr. Tim Changed My Life
By: Tina Baiter

In September of 2008 I realized I had spent the last nine months complaining about how much I hated my job, which in turn was making me hate my life. So I decided to do something about it. I sent out resumes and was fortunate enough to be hired by Dr. Tim as the marketing director at Healthcare Express. Little did I know how much I would grow as a person over the next year thanks to Dr. Tim’s training in goal setting, leadership classes and motivational one-on-one talks.

Since starting work for Dr. Tim in October of 2008, my life has changed in many ways. To begin with, Dr. Tim believes you have to have a “success team” in order to make any business work. As part of his “success team” at Healthcare Express, and as editor of his weekly newsletter, Dr. Tim trusts me to do things the best way I know how with few questions asked. Having a boss who allows me to be creative and who trusts me makes me truly enjoy coming to work.

Dr. Tim has also made me realize the importance of growing my own dreams. In August of 2009 I launched my own marketing company, First Thought Marketing, as a part time hobby, and I started free lance writing. I currently have two steady clients who I build brochures and websites for and am writing monthly for a local magazine.

Because Dr. Tim has taught me the importance of having financial goals and saving a portion of my income, I now not only save 10 percent of my income, but I also save everything extra from my side jobs and from my bonuses at Healthcare Express. Over the last nine months I went from living pay check to pay check to having over $7,000 in a savings account. That number continues to grow weekly.

During our executive committee leadership classes at Healthcare Express, Dr. Tim teaches the importance of delegation. He encourages all of us to make a list of things we do consistently that could be handed off to someone else to do, freeing up our time to concentrate on more important projects. While delegation is a skill I still struggle with, Dr. Tim’s advice has helped me create more time for myself over the past year.

Perhaps my favorite part about Dr. Tim is his constant pursuit of knowledge. Dr. Tim stresses reading and continuing your education. Dr. Tim encourages all members of our executive committee to read at least 10 pages a day. Prior to starting work at Healthcare Express, I had only read two books since leaving university in 2005. Over the last year I have read no less than two books and two professional magazines a month. I have also subscribed to two professional daily newsletters. Thanks to Dr. Tim, my knowledge base continues to grow daily.

These are just a few of the many ways Dr. Tim has helped me improve my life and my work ethic. I am very excited that Dr. Tim is releasing his self-help book, The Polaris Principle, to help others. I am living proof that following Dr. Tim’s advice can change your life.

If you would like to be notified when The Polaris Principle is released, please e-mail iwantmylifeback@timreynoldsmd.com.

[Ed. Note: Tina Baiter is the marketing director of Healthcare Express and serves as the editor for Dr. Tim's weekly adventure newsletter.]