The art of the "personal offsite"

So we've all done them right?  We take time out with our Team, coworkers even sometimes the entire company and invariably we find ourselves asking "why don't we do this more often" right?.... or at least I hope you do.  I've been a big fan of these events and in my reading in recent weeks ran across a concept that I'd been practicing for some time...I just hadn't come up with a cool enough name for it...and that is the personal offsite.

For a number of years my wife and I have held what we have come to call 'goals retreats' where we head off to some exotic locations (at least exotic for us) and plan the next year.  In the last 60 days I've switched over to using a new goal setting methodology - The 12 Week Year (which if you haven't heard of it take a moment and check it out HERE) - which has altered both my approach to goal setting in general as well as the way I approach our annual planning.  It also fit perfectly into my renewed focus on reviewing goals constantly.

This week I'm in the midst of weeks 8-12 of my first "12 Week Year" (more on that journey in future editions), but suffice it to say that I've had an epiphany about both my work and the life that I've been fortunate to build and expand on since my "new" journey began from the nadir of 2001 (you can learn more about where my personal philosophy got its start HERE).  I now have a system - which this blog will seek to document - without which my life would have turned out quite differently.

Personal offsites are now a part of that effort.  Held at the beginning/end of each 12 week planning cycle, these checkpoints are crucial to ensure that I'm proceeding towards my larger goals... One major one is to share the wealth of what I've been fortunate enough to collect and put into practice over time.

As you think about how setting aside time every couple of months to think about how you can get more from your life, ask yourself this question - My company thinks that its important enough to the future of our business to spend time "thinking about the future" without distractions... Is my personal life and career any less important?

Some food for thought and would love to hear your thoughts.  Think personal offsite (or even planning) are a waste of time?  Have a great story about how planning and goal setting have made a difference for you?  Drop me a line directly at donegalhold@yahoo.com or leave a comment below.

Here's to you.. ..And another day in a Life Well Led.

Thanks for reading.

A life well led... Revisited

Several years ago when I began my other blog - The Intersection - I felt I needed a place to hold my thoughts on personal development, goal setting and general personal growth that didn't fit into the broader goals I've got for my tech blog.  This entry is the first in a while... But not because I'm any less busy than I was before.  I've found a new approach to goal setting and execution that allows me to both continue to maintain my core blog, work on the myriad of projects that I'm involved in and still leave time to sit back and think about how to "pay forward" what I've been fortunate to learn from a myriad of authors, thinkers, online friends, mentors and just flat out influencers.

I hope you'll join me on what will be just as much a journey for me as it will be for you... 

Welcome to A Life Well Led 2.0

A life worth living.... is a life worth recording

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Ten years ago this week, I was in one of the most challenging periods of my life.  My marriage was coming to an end, I'd been laid off from my position with a private equity firm and was struggling to find my way in the world.  Several months (and I would add a great deal of heartburn, angst and soul searching later), I was laying awake one night trying to determine how I was going to get out of the rut I was in... and who should I see on TV?  None other than Tony Robbins. 

Over the course of 2002 - and in no small part due to the Tony Robbins program - my life began to turn around and today I find myself in a position where I have not only "arrived" (at least in the sense that my goals for "phase 1" are complete) but am now in a position to truly start to "pay forward" what I learned not only from Tony, but from a number of other mentors and inspirational figures over the course of the past decade.










This blog is the third that I have started in the last year:  JRB Tech Daily - http://buckontech.blogspot.com/ and Eating with the Buckley's - http://eatingwiththebuckleys.blogspot.com/ and all are targeted at being true to something that Tony inspired me to do... document my life.... as my life IS worth living AND recording.


This blog will take that effort to another level as one of my goals for 2012 is to write and publish a book about what I've learned on this journey of life thus far... and truly "pay it forward" in terms of lessons that I think have made my life what it is today and hopefully can help to make other people's lives a little bit better as well.  As Zig Ziglar likes to say "You can get anything in life you want.... if you help enough people get what they want".  I look forward to working together with my readers... to do just that.


An additional feature of this blog will be to draw your attention to products, books and other content that has helped me achieve the terrific life that I've been fortunate enough to create.  Since the core of today's theme comes from Tony Robbins, I'll focus today on him.  The links below are NOT paid links... they just connect you to Tony's website (as well as Amazon) and give you a chance to view some content that made a huge difference in my life.  


If you're just "getting started" with Tony, I'd recommend that you purchase Awaken the Giant Within.  Although this book was written in 1992, the core of the concepts are just as sound today as they were when Tony first wrote them.  

If you're ready to "jump in" as you start 2012, I've also enclosed a link to Tony's Personal Power II program.  It's not cheap ($299) and it doesn't work if you don't "work the system", but believe me when I tell you that the ROI I've personally gotten from that small investment over the course of the past 10 years... is incalculable.

Tony Robbins:  Personal Power II
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/products/personal-achievement/personal-power-2.php


Tony Robbins:  Awaken the Giant Within
http://www.amazon.com/Awaken-Giant-Within-Immediate-Emotional/dp/0671791540/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325511040&sr=1-1


Hopefully, you'll be able glean something useful out of this blog and in the coming months will enjoy this next phase of my own personal journey as much as I know that I will..... and that you find some useful and helpful content here.


Photo credits:  Tony Robbins photo -Twitter.com public profile  /  Tony Robbins products - TonyRobbins.com