Goal-Setting Archives - The Solopreneur Life | Work From Home

Can You Improve Your Solopreneur Mindset?

April 13, 2017 by Gregory Rouse Leave a Comment

Some people are naturals at Solopreneurship. They know how to generate business as easily as eating their breakfast. They seem to have a great business mindset.

For others, they struggle with business and it could be because they don’t have that same mindset as the superstars. Is it possible for those who struggle to improve their Solopreneur mindset?

The number of college programs and training programs teaching business methods suggest that your Solopreneur mindset can be improved. But in order for it to be effective, you have to determine what needs improvement or what you need to learn.

To determine what business functions to improve upon, take a look at your past performance and identify the areas that need of improvement.

Study the people that you admire. What do they do that you aren’t doing? Try to be as objective as possible when making these determinations. You could even approach these people and let them know your plan for observing them. They may offer up some tips and ideas to help you with your goals.

Pay attention to what your peers or colleagues are suggesting for you. If they are starting their sentences with, “you may want to try…”, etc., pay attention to those suggestions. While not every colleague is going be correct in their assessments, many will have good points to make.

It also pays to search within yourself to discover what you feel are areas of your Solopreneur life you would like to improve. You can start by thinking about times that you may have said to yourself, “I wish I were better at…”, etc.

When you identify areas in your Solopreneur life that need improvement, this sets up a roadmap for you to follow. It will take some work and a new focus in your daily activities. But the benefits to improving those aspects will well be worth the effort.

If you’re interested in more info on improving your Solopreneur Mindset you may want to optin for the Free Report:

Developing Your Entrepreneurial Mindset – CLICK HERE

The 3 Things You Must Do To Be “All In”

January 21, 2015 by Gregory Rouse Leave a Comment

Give your all to your life. You can’t be half-in, half-out.” –Urban Meyer

You’ve heard the term “all in,” haven’t you? It means being fully committed to something. The term is borrowed from poker, where “all in” means having all of your chips at stake in a particular hand.

Urban Meyer wants you to be "all in." — Urban Meyer says when you’re “all in,” choices become commands.

As you know, I’m a football fan. I enjoy watching the games, and I also enjoy learning life lessons from the sport, its players, and its coaches. Today I learned a lesson from Ohio State Head Football Coach Urban Meyer.

In 2012, Meyer spoke briefly to a group of high school wrestling coaches about the three things that must be present for a person to be all in for his or her team.

These same three things apply to your solopreneur life.
[Read more…]

Napoleon Hill on The 10 Major Causes of Failure in Leadership

March 9, 2014 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a cabin on the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. Hill’s mother died when he was 10 years old, and Napoleon’s father, James Hill, had difficulty taming his son’s wild nature.

Napoleon, enamored of the outlaw Jesse James, carried a six-shooter on his hip and went about the county pretending to terrorize its citizens.[1]

James Hill soon remarried, and his new wife Martha established herself as a force in the home. Martha saw Napoleon’s potential and encouraged him. She suggested he use his overactive imagination to become a writer. At age 13, Hill began working as a reporter for local newspapers.

In 1908, as part of a series of magazine articles about famous and successful people, Hill interviewed the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Hill learned that Carnegie believed the process of success could be outlined in a simple formula that anyone would be able to understand and achieve.
[Read more…]

Think for Yourself

February 18, 2014 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

There’s a short passage in the book “Moneyball” that can be paraphrased and applied to solopreneurship.

Think for yourself along rational lines. Hypothesize, test against the evidence, never accept that a question has been answered as well as it ever will be. Don’t believe a thing is true just because some famous businessperson says it is true.

That’s the essence of successful solopreneurship. But don’t take my word for it.

21 Things We Love and Hate About Being Solopreneurs (in GIFs)

February 7, 2014 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

In a typical day, how many times do you swing back and forth between loving the stuff you’re working on and hating it? Two times? Ten times? Fifty times? I’ve never kept track, but I know there can be a lot of love/hate for me, even within an hour.

But that’s the nature of the work. And it’s why we love the solopreneur life — it’s never dull and it’s seldom predictable.

With that, let’s look at 21 things we love and hate about being solopreneurs.

1. You LOVE Not Having This Guy As Your Boss

2. You HATE Your Inner Taskmaster

3. You LOVE Coming Up With Brilliant Ideas

4. You HATE When Your Ideas Don’t Work

5. You LOVE Getting Paid

6. You HATE When an Account Goes Past 60 Days

7. You LOVE Being Productive

8. You HATE When Your Computer Crashes

9. You LOVE Whipping the Competition

10. You HATE Anxiety Attacks

11. You LOVE Feeling Appreciated For Who You Are

12. You HATE When Nobody’s RT’ing Your Tweets

13. You LOVE Landing a New Client

14. You HATE When Your Biggest Client Dumps You

15. You LOVE Being Your Own Boss

16. You HATE When Your Website Breaks

17. You LOVE Your Staff

18. You HATE Being Bone Tired and Working Against a Deadline

19. You LOVE When Criticism Rolls Off Your Back

20. You HATE When Your Kids Have a Day Off From School

21. You LOVE It When a Plan Comes Together

How Five Famously Nonviolent People Used Aggression to Achieve Their Goals

February 2, 2014 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

As author Laurence G. Boldt explains in “Zen and the Art of Making a Living,” aggressiveness is the assertion of power, the use of power.

Aggression can be used for good or ill, and people who achieve the Holy Grails of their lives are masters of aggressive energy.

“Concentration is the assertion of a single idea, image, or train of thought to the exclusion of all else,” Boldt says “That exclusion is aggressive. Great artists are known for aggressive concentration on their work. One had better not interrupt Beethoven while he is composing, or Michaelangelo while he is carving.”

To hammer home the point, Boldt gives examples of how five famously nonviolent people used aggression:

Jesus was aggressive while confronting the money changers in the temple. Elsewhere, Jesus called men vipers, hypocrites, and serpents — aggressive terms, indeed.

Gandhi’s use of fasting was an aggressive act. He held his body hostage and threatened to destroy it unless changes he wanted were made.

Mother Teresa was aggressive in fighting for those in her care and in the demands she made upon the sisters in her order. If Mother Teresa’s followers couldn’t cheerfully accept the discipline she imposed, she dropped them.

Zen masters are extremely aggressive in their teaching of techniques: hitting, kicking, spitting, throwing things — shocking students out of their slumber.

Martin Luther King’s March on Washington was an aggressive act.

The examples illustrate that aggression is necessary for positive, creative action, and aggression is not necessarily violent.

So assert your power. Be aggressive.

My Goals for 2014

December 31, 2013 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

This is the eve of 2014, and I am writing a list of goals I want to achieve in the next 12 months.

My overarching goal for 2014 is easy to comprehend, yet difficult for me to accomplish: slow down.

Why do I want to slow down?

Well, consider that an asset of mine is acting quickly on new ideas. As solopreneurs, we possess agility: the power to “turn on a dime” and pursue new opportunities. We don’t require countless meetings and approvals in order to accomplish something.

But a close cousin of agility is haphazardness: darting from one thing to another without fully considering the ramifications/opportunity costs/ROI.

Thus, my asset (acting quickly on new ideas) can easily turn into a liability.

To put my mind into a place where it can slow down, I will be intentional about things that help me: Qigong and yoga, being grateful, listening, and establishing a spiritual practice. They will be my foundation for 2014.

With that introduction, here are my goals for 2014. I hope it sparks ideas for you. Some of my goals are big and encompass many steps and details; some are small and specific; all are important to me.

Body

• Practice Qigong or yoga daily (Qigong is sometimes called “Chinese Yoga,” and Yoga is sometimes called “Indian Qigong”)
• Explore a martial art
• Get down to 33-inch (waist) Levi’s; I’m currently at 38
• Eat breakfast
• Bring a glass of water to my desk at the start of each day (drink it and refill!)

Mind

• Read at least six books, with at least one book being outside of what I typically read
• Roam the stacks at the library (at least quarterly)

Spirit

• Establish a spiritual practice
• Write about one thing I’m grateful for (weekly)
• Re-read “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron
• Revisit my mission statement and read it each day
• Keep the bird feeders filled

Family

• Have lunch with Christine at least 1x per month
• Go somewhere as a family for spring break
• Encourage and go on college visits with Anna
• Read a book that Clare has recently read and discuss
• Have Christmas gifts purchased by end of November
• Listen

Business Possibilities

• Publish a second edition of The Solopreneur Life
• Develop a new features series for TheSolopreneurLife.com
• Decide what to do with my other websites
• Design new t-shirt(s) for The Solopreneur Life
• Combine my email lists
• Explore alternative e-book publishing methods (Bookpress, MagPress, others)
• Explore offering app-building services

Business “Musts”

• Establish a revenue goal that will challenge and motivate me
• Repurpose TheSolopreneurLife.com’s archive
• Overhaul my contacts database
• Send an e-newsletter once per week
• Ask for coachsulting testimonials
• Be intentional about bookkeeping/accounting each month

Other

• Clean out my office closet
• Find a comfy chair for my office
• Keep the driveway clear of snow
• Plan a golf adventure with friends, even if it’s only one day
• Doggone it, acquire a top QB for my fantasy football team

***Use this list as a basis for blog posts.***

Look Around. What Symbolizes Your Work and Life?

October 29, 2013 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

This month’s Smithsonian magazine includes a section titled “101 Objects That Made America.”

Photos of the objects, which are from the Smithsonian museums, include:

● Meriwether Lewis’s compass

● A plate from a John James Audobon painting

● A gold nugget from Sutter’s Mill

● Abraham Lincoln’s top hat

● Louis Armstrong’s trumpet

● Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit

● Sandra Day O’Connor’s robe

Are there objects in your life that someday will be worthy of the Smithsonian — or at least be valued by the people who come after you?

For example, my daughter Anna was confirmed on Sunday. As a gift, my Mom gave Anna a cross necklace that my Dad gave to my Mom when they were courting. It’s a symbol of his life as a pastor, husband, father, and grandfather.

Look around. What object will hold meaning to future generations? What object will people pick up and ponder? What captures the essence of your life and work?

Long-Billed Curlew, by John James Audobon

What Does Your January 2, 2014 Look Like?

January 7, 2013 by Larry Keltto Leave a Comment

A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is drudgery. A vision with a plan can change the world. (Anonymous)

You know what visualization is. And you know that visualization is a powerful tool that can be used to help achieve any goal. I encourage you to use visualization in plotting your course for 2013.

I want you to find a quiet place, and for 15 minutes I want you to close your eyes and think about the following questions.

It’s Thursday, January 2, 2014, the first work day of the new year. What does the day look like for you?

Where are you?

What are you doing?

Who are you with?

Who are your primary clients now?

Who are your prospective clients?

What was your revenue for 2013?

What cool projects did you work on?

Who are two interesting people you met in 2013?

How did you become better at your work? What new skills did you acquire?

How do you feel, physically? How is your health? How often did you exercise in 2013? What did you do for recreation?

What were the best books you read?

What industry events did you attend?

When and how did you step out of comfort zone?

Whom did you turn to for motivation and inspiration?

When you’re finished with the visualization, write down on a piece of paper what you saw, and keep paper in a place where you’ll see it every day.

Next, develop your plan for making the vision a reality. Write the plan this week.

From the UnCollege Manifesto: 12 Steps to Self-Directed Lifelong Learning

February 1, 2012 by Larry Keltto 2 Comments

Several months ago, at the encouragement of a good friend and fellow solopreneur, I read the UnCollege manifesto, written by Dale J. Stephens. If I could recommend only thing for you to read, it would be the UnCollege manifesto.

Today I re-read the manifesto, and I want to share this list from it.

12 Steps to Self-Directed Lifelong Learning

1. Always carry a book, pen, and paper

2. Teach others

3. Keep a to-learn list

4. Start something — a Web site, company, organization, movement

5. Find and be a mentor

6. Set your homepage to Wikipedia:random

7. Live abroad and learn a new language

8. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you

9. Think, write, and publish your ideas

10. Always ask “Why?”

11. Practice unlearning to challenge your views

12. Become an expert