If you have been following my last few posts, I have been setting you up for this goal setting article.

With guiding principles to help steer you in the right direction and a bold and audacious attitude, you are ready to establish the goals that will help you generate the life you desire and deserve.

Everything in life is a choice.

How do you make your choices? What are they based on?

When we are clear about what is most important to us, we can make choices that are aligned with what we want in our lives. Guiding principles help keep us focused throughout the year and give us a foundation to determine the choices we make every day. It is through those daily choices that we build our lives.

Here's a quick visualization exercise you can try to help you create your guiding principles. Journal about the following:

I wanted to share a quote from a book called The Rythm of Life by Matthew Kelly.

"Everything is a Choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of our power. Not power over others, but the often untapped power to be ourselves and to live the life we have imagined.”

He goes on to say that it’s a hard lesson because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living right now.

Hello Everyone

I wanted to wish you all a very healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving for me is a time of reflection and a time to come back to the present. It is a time for me to be grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life- most importantly my wife, my family, and my family of friends.

There couldn't be a better week to talk about gratitude. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some ideas to show gratitude toward your people.

When a team member is either overwhelmed with their work or underwhelmed, it can lead to a low level of engagement. In other words, responsibility level has to be in line with competency and potential.

Here are a few other thoughts to "gauge" the level of engagement with your team members.

Your life today is an answer to the questions you have asked up until now. The good news is that you can change the questions anytime you wish. Ask better questions and you get better answers. Sometimes changing our lives can be as simple as changing the questions we habitually ask ourselves and others.

- Matthew Kelly, Off Balance

Entitlement:

• What will you (boss, team, organization, community) do for me?
• What will you (boss, team, organization, community) provide for me if I do that for you?
• I am waiting for you (boss, team, organization, community) to give me an opportunity.
• I am stuck with these choices.

Empowerment:

I often hear leaders say "I want my people to contribute more in our team meetings."

What most leaders don't realize is that limited conversation is often the result of their individual behaviors. For example, I recently attended a client's team meeting and noticed that he would ramble on for several minutes at a time and then ask "any questions?" and without hesitation begin talking again.

And, he didn't even know he was doing it.

Want to generate more conversation in your meetings?

Try these three ideas.

Another  common and costly leader mistake that can result in a loss of  credibility and trust.

MISTAKE: Drawing clear lines in the sand.

The challenge in many organizations is that most leaders don’t get to know their people well enough to create a motivating environment. They like to draw lines in the sand between business and personal.

Actually, our business and personal lives often intersect and have a huge impact on each other.We need to make business personal.