Category Archives: Creating a Plan for Personal Success

Do you really ‘Have’ to do that?

“I have to submit this project tomorrow.
I have an assignment I have to complete tonight.
I have to go to a dinner with my partner.
I have to attend my child’s performance.
I have to prepare for a meeting tomorrow.
I have to. I have to. I have to.”

Guess what. You don’t.

You don’t “have” to do anything.

Sure there are consequences for not doing these things. There are also consequences for doing them too.

Which brings me to my point. Think about how differently you would apply yourself to the above activities if you actively chose to do them or decided that you are doing them because you want to do them rather than you “have” to do them.

Think about all the things that you are doing because you believe that you “have” to do them. What would happen if you didn’t do them?

Maybe the consequence would be that you would miss out on something that you really want, such as your partner feeling that you really do love him/her. Or maybe you would miss out on a promotion that you really want.

What if you were to switch from the perspective of “have to or else…”, to “want to because…”?

When you understand why you are doing what you are doing in the moment and how it will help you to achieve what you really want, it is amazing how much happier you are right now when you fully apply yourself to the activity whatever it may be. This also increases the chances that you’ll also be happier in the future.

This is one of the key success strategies when you plan and action personal success.

Try it out and let me know how you go. I’m confident that you will be positively surprised.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Richard St John’s 8 Secrets of Success

As a student of success I like to hear other people’s perspectives and views. This three minute video from Richard St John is one of the most succinct perspectives I have seen. It’s cleverly pieced together too!
I’m interested in hearing your examples for each of his 8 secrets of success. You can view the short video here.

To start things off I’m a big believer in being passionate about what you do. I love helping people get better at what they do and quite simply rejoice when they achieve the success they are striving to achieve! Recently one of my Executive Coaching clients shared how someone who they thought ‘wouldn’t make it’ in terms of the organisational change he was catalysing had, “had her light come on and could now see what we are trying to create!”. Now that’s a ‘Ka-Ching! Moment’ that re-enfoces why I am passionate about what I do.

The energy that you receive from living your passion, in my view helps us to sustain some of the challenges that are imbedded in the other seven secrets.

What is an example that you might have of implementing one of Richard St John’s 8 secrets of success

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Success lessons from comic Marty Wilson

Marty Wilson interviewed over 400 inspirational people to write his best selling What I Wish I Knew series of books. As an author and stand up comic, three of the key lessons that Marty discovered from his research were:

1. Take risks
Successful people take risks. They don’t die wondering. Marty explains that risk taking is not about jumping out of aeroplanes. It could be as simple as being yourself at work and not following the crowd.

2. Recruit mentors
This is no suprise to me but successful people actively seek mentors and learn from them, both their successes and failures. Do you have a mentor?

3. Lighten up
Yes Marty is a comic, but the it was his interviewees who told him that laughter and the capacity to see the lighter side of life was critical to success. Sometimes, on the rough road of life, laughing is the only way to survive.

If you would like to read the full article by Dale Beaumont in his Business Blueprint online magazine, please read it here...

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

An Introduction To The Discovering Your Personal Values Activity

As a result of an impromptu request from audience participants after his TEDx Talks ‘Plan For Personal Success’ keynote, Gary Ryan facilitated an exercise to help staff identify their personal values.

This short video includes the introduction piece to this activity.

Please Contact Us if you would like to speak with Gary regarding discovering more about personal values or facilitating a program for your staff.

The complete exercise is included in Gary’s new book What Really Matters For Young Professionals!

Length: 6 mins

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

TEDx Talks Plan For Personal Success by Gary Ryan

Keynote speech for TEDx Talks at NAB, Docklands Australia on Thursday 21st October 2010.

Gary Ryan, founder of Organisations That Matter explains the underlying concept and five principles and six vital strategies for creating a Plan For Personal Success.

Please visit here to discover more about our options for creating a Plan For Personal Success.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

What are you excited about?

This week my ten year old son headed off for his week long Year 5/6 school camp. His week will be filled with hiking, canoeing, ropes courses, flying foxes, storytelling, drama and all sorts of fun activities to thrill a ten year olds soul.

For weeks all he could talk about was his upcoming camp. he was packed (mostly) days before he was due to leave. He couldn’t get to school early enough on the day the camp was to begin. His excitement was tangible; you could feel it.

Watching him got me thinking. Short term goals are incredibly motivating. Having something to look forward to generates the energy to sustain many of the more mundane activities of life. For example I have recently launched my first book What Really Matters For Young Professionals! and welcomed my fifth child to our family, another son. Both experiences involved a long build up and great joy was experienced when both our son and my book arrived.

Life is not just about achieving short term goals for the sake of achieving them. Rather, the short term goals should be in the context of a bigger picture. For example, my book is part of my career, business and finance strategies. Clearly my son was about completing my family.

In this context, what are you excited about? How do your short term goals relate to your bigger picture?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Ben Cousins’ documentary highlights the importance of balance

Irrespective what you think about the content of the Ben Cousins documentary, a powerful message that the program highlighted related to the importance of balance as it relates to success.

Our society often applauds people for ‘making it’; whether that be as an elite sportsperson, a rock star, a movie star or in achieving a senior position in an organisation.

Success is defined purely by career success. Yet as Ben’s documentary highlighted, career success doesn’t necessarily mean that all other aspects of life are in balance.

As the attached illustration highlights, balance consists of a number of elements:

* health & fitness
* career
* education
* establishing a clear plan for personal success
* having the financial capacity to live the life that you desire
* establishing and maintaining relationships for enduring success

If any one of these key elements for success are not addressed, the individual is at risk of becoming stuck; much like the person in the background of the attached illustration. The outward appearance of being successful can be undermined by not having had a truly balanced approach to life.

Balance, in this context does not mean that all the key elements for success are equal. Rather, it means that an appropriate amount of focus is being applied to each key element for overall balance in the context of the life stage that the individual is experiencing. For example, university students will have a much larger focus on their education elements than other people, while graduate employees will have a much larger focus on their career activities than other people when they commence their first job. Likewise elite sports people will also have a much larger emphasis on their career element than the average person.

Where people lose balance is that they tend to completely neglect some of the key elements for success. So, while their career element is being addressed, poor health habits, such as taking drugs as highlighted by Ben’s documentary, can undermine their life balance and ultimately, negatively affect their career. For some people it is a complete focus on their career that causes them to neglect the key relationships in their life, resulting in relationships breaking down.

If you are interested in finding out how to create a Plan for Personal Success that includes a personalised approach to Life Balance, please email Gary at info@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan has assisted over 500 people in creating a Plan For Personal Success. Gary’s clients have included elites sports people and coaches including Troy Simmonds (Richmond Tigers), Kane Johnson (Richmond Tigers) and Darren Harris (Carlton Blues).

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Beyond a One Page Plan For Personal Success

Have you completed a One Page Plan for Personal Success? If so, follow the steps below to take your plan to the next level.

When completing your Plan for Personal Success it is critical that you take each of the main strategies in your Prime Chart and create a Support Chart for them. Support Chart timeframes tend to be less than your prime Chart timeframe. So, if your prime Chart is for ten years, your Support Chart may be for three to five years.

Support Charts follow the same structure as your Prime Chart.

Step 1
Complete the Title for your chart. This is the name that you have given the strategy in your Prime Chart. Next identify which one of the Six Vital Strategy areas the strategy directly supports, and write that in brackets next to the name of the strategy. This helps to ensure that when you review all your strategies, you can quickly determine if you have at least one strategy for each of the Six Vital Strategies.

Step 2
Complete your Desired Outcome specific to this strategy. Be clear and as specific as possible. As you did for your Prime Chart Vision, keep asking yourself why you want what you are writing. This helps to uncover your real reason for wanting to achieve this Desired Outcome and usually helps to clarify exactly what it is that you are aiming to achieve.

Step 3
Complete your Starting Point/Current Reality section of your chart. Provide as much information as possible that specifically relates to the Desired Outcome that you are striving to achieve. What is positive about your present reality, and what is currently a challenge.

Step 4
Determine your actions that will move you from your Starting Point to your Desired Outcome. Upon brain-storming actions, review your list and identify which actions will provide the greatest leverage. These become the most critical actions to complete because all the actions will tend to fall into place.

Complete this process for each of your Prime Chart strategies and you will take your Plan for Personal Success to the next level.

If you would like to know more about creating a Plan For Personal Success, or would like to be individually coached through this process, please contact info@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Webinar Example: Reviewing Your Plan For Personal Success

This webinar is a an example from a live webinar hosted by Gary Ryan from Organisations That Matter. The webinar is part of the Organisations That Matter Desired Futures Series. If you would like more information on this series, please visit http://orgsthatmatter.com/creating-futures.html or email gary@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Webinar Examples: The Seven Key Elements For Creating High Performing Teams

This is a sample webinar that is provided through Organisations That Matter and hosted by Gary Ryan.
If you are interested in participating in a webinar such as the example attached, please email gary@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com