Improve Yourself! Week 7: Communicate for Success
Welcome to week 7 of the challenge, and Happy Valentine’s Day! This week I want to focus on just how important communication is to success in all areas of our lives. Let’s see if I can communicate my thoughts effectively… 
Think About Your Areas of Success
When I take some time to reflect on my life and identify areas where I have been successful, I can quickly see that good communication is a key to success. In my career as a consulting engineer, it’s not math or even reason that sets apart the best engineers and companies. Nope, it’s the ability to convey complex ideas in understandable terms both in person and in written form.
Engaged Marriage has a lot of growing to do to meet my goals for this site and its reach to married couples throughout the world. However, I think it’s fair to say that our first 5+ months here have been quite successful. Obviously, the content is critical for the success of any blog.
Improve Yourself! Week 6: Stick With It!
Here we are entering the sixth week of this 8-week challenge, and I am proud of you for reading this. I am particularly proud if you are an original member of the Improve Yourself! group, and you have not given up on yourself or your goals.
Don’t Quit!
Do you know what 26/64 represents? For one, it represents about 40%. It also represents that only 26 people checked in with their results in Week 5 even though 64 folks originally signed on and committed themselves for the 8-week challenge.
I am not at all surprised by this ratio, but I am disappointed. Those 38 “drop-outs” had awesome goals and a lot of energy. Unfortunately, for many of them, the end of 2010 will look a lot like the end of 2009 with unfilled promises to themselves and some repetitive New Year’s resolutions.
Take a few minutes and give some thought to the SMART Goals you declared in Week 1. Are those goals worthy? Do you still want to accomplish them? Are you still willing to put in the work and sacrifice needed to make it happen NOW?
Improve Yourself! Week 5: Don’t Be Perfect, Be Remarkable!
As we enter week 5 of this challenge, I am willing to bet that you have lost any illusion of perfection in meeting your goals that you may have had at that start. I know I have stumbled along personally, and progress hasn’t been as steady and smooth as I had hoped. However, I know that I am still on the road to…
Be Remarkable!
This week’s book giveaway is centered around a fantastic idea that I have tried to apply to all areas of my own life. You do not need to be perfect, you simply need to be remarkable in what you do. That’s what
So, just what does it mean to be “remarkable”? The back cover of the book gives some great examples:
Remarkable is being unafraid to stand out.
Remarkable is failing often and then trying again.
Remarkable is having a fire in your belly and an idea that won’t quit.
Improve Yourself! Week 4: YOU Are Responsible for Your Progress
This challenge was started under the theme of “Your Goals, Your Actions, Your Results.” Do you notice the word that’s repeated three times in that short tag line? This is your challenge, and your competition is yourself and your own level of personal commitment.
Personal Responsibility is the Key to Personal Progress
This week’s book giveaway is centered around an incredibly simple but extremely powerful concept: it is your problem, your job and your responsibility. Personal responsibility is key. That’s what QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
In QBQ, John Miller implores us to get away from the blame-game and our inclination for making excuses for the challenges we face in both business and our personal lives. Instead of asking who is to blame for the situation, we should ask, “What can I do to improve the situation?” so we can take ownership of the problem and take proactive action to solve it.
Improve Yourself! Week 3: Prioritize Your Time for Progress
I hope you were able to continue making strong progress toward your goals through the Improve Yourself! 2010 challenge this week. As always , I trust that these weekly posts will offer value to anyone looking to improve their life and their marriage, regardless of whether you are officially part of the contest.
If you are a participant, you must leave a comment below giving an update on your personal progress. Please do so by Tuesday, January 19th at 11:59 p.m. central time to be eligible for this week’s giveaway. If you are not signed up, feel free to leave a comment anyhow and give your thoughts on this week’s post or your own progress…you just won’t be winning any prizes.
Time Keeps on Ticking…
If you have not read this week’s giveaway book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
My favorite principle from the book is Habit 3: Put First Things First, which is focused on personal time management. Basically, there are four areas, or quadrants, where we can classify every task in our lives: Urgent/Important, Not Urgent/Important, Urgent/Not Important, and Not Urgent/Not Important. The key to success is to maximize the time you spend in “Quadrant II: Not Urgent/Important” and this is where many of us struggle.
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I'm Dustin, the guy behind Engaged Marriage. I'm living and loving the crazy life of a young husband and Dad.
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