Author: didibarbour

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Make End of Year Time Count

As this year winds down, most of us are experiencing either a sense of pride at the progress and success achieved or pangs of remorse or frustration for falling short from our set goals.  At this point you can decide to write off the year or choose to spend remaining time more productively.  I plan on pushing a bit harder each day for a stronger close by making the most of every remain moment, as well as laying the groundwork for 2026.

I like to approach year’s end by taking time to solidifying a better foundation for next year by looking back to review and assess, all the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly.  Next, focusing on the positives that occurred to replicate the process when applicable.  Create & schedule dedicated time to focus on priorities specific to areas for personal, professional growth, as well as  community contribution.

The next evaluation point is assessing the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ that unfolding – to pinpoint the particulars that set Murphy’s Law into motion.  This places the spotlight on where important components, projects or goals got derailed.  To identify these missteps can help in planning future improvements to anticipate ways to better mitigate, as well as avoid repeating ineffective scenarios.  Determining cause that sabotages success, typically tend to point to lack of planning, preparation or follow through – or combination factors.

December is a perfect time to reflect on what worked well and what proved to be less than stellar, and to create more effective strategies for implementing future success goals.

This process engages & energizes the mindset for motivation for invest more time to evaluate and apply insights from this year’s achievements as well as missed benchmarks.  This involves some key questions to clarify areas for improving success for the upcoming year.

How can you leverage end of year time to position for a stronger finish this year?

What key priorities would be foundational in making a marked difference in next year’s success – personally and professionally?

How do those priorities shape your vision for next year? Get as specific as possible.

How would a successful year support your longer term vision?

What lessons do you need to apply going forward?

What are the consequences if you continue with the status quo approach?

How would using a priority based framework create improvements in the year ahead?  What would that look like? Get as specific as possible – again.

The objective is to clarify top priorities to better allocate key resources of time, energy, and focus to support what is most important. To dedicate time now for assessing, planning and preparation that will serve for execution to fulfill your vision in achieving top goals for success.

Now is the perfect time to review this year to better plan, prepare and strategize for the launch of 2026 as the best year yet!

“You can mark time or invest time making it count on what matters, where it counts the most .” dlb

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Gauge Your Mindset

‘March’ in to contemplate the operational software of our individual lives.  Our mindset is the composite of components shaping how we live our life.  The state of our mindset forms the a crucial foundation for a meaningful & successful life. Think of it as the life compass with the set points for the direction of our life.  It is also the source that energizes us to seek expanding our knowledge & skill capacity as we determine & pursue our priority goals to fruition. 

The first step is to assess & gauge the operational software that is our mindset.  With awareness & a Success Calibration System process, each of its components is malleable & can be calibrated to better serve us.

How would you rate the state of your mindset?  Is it one focused on effort towards growth & achievement or fixed, with a tight grip on maintaining the status quo?

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Shift Into A Strategic Mindset For A Stellar 2025

If you have yet to plan, prepare, & create structure for this new year – now is a perfect time to get your strategic mindset on making this an outstanding year.
January is the ‘fresh start’ time to review & renew our aspirations with top goals for the year.  What are your key goals for the year & what metrics will you use to chart progress?

Yes we all face the daily life whirlwind with obligations demanding attention and at times the challenges of unexpected dramas & circumstances that yank us away from our accomplishment goals.  When achieved, priority goals deliver a  signifiant quality of life difference.

Here are several strategy tips to remain on target:

Plan & structure your schedule with dedicated time blocks for laser focus on top priorities.  Make that time sacrosanct – for working however long is possible on one of the key goals.

Focus on the important & manage the urgent.   Avoid the rabbit holes & shiny objects that unwittingly turn into time & energy deficits.

New beginnings deliver a clean lens to view potential new opportunities for forward focus towards progress & growth on the goals of significance that matter most!

#GoalsForSuccess
#InspiredLeadership
#Mindset #Wisdom
#YourLifeCompassExecutiveCoach
#CalibrateForSuccess
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2024: The Gift of a Brand New Year

The Dawning Of A New Year

2024 is delivering a bounty of boxed gift sets.   Yes, that’s 12 months, 52 weeks, 7 days per week, with 24 hours per day.  That’s a total value of 366 gifts.  A treasure of opportunities not to be squandered.

So – what will you do with each hour of each day, within each week, and each month?  You can invest the time, energy & focus so it compounds into a priority focus mindset leading to a successful year.  Or, just haphazardly spend & let it slip away.  

To use those gifts working to impact & influence all that is within your control is a choice.  It’s a decision to calibrate your focus for the shift into working on what matters leading to what you define as success.  To make this a successful year begins when your focus on your priorities and undertake what you can with those gifts of time.  To pursue and progress in achieving meaningful goals creates a cascade of valuable change.  The biggest positive change with the highest ROI is the one that takes place within you, and the evolution of who you become.

That – is a gift beyond measure. 

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FALL Into An Empowered Mindset

FALL Into An Empowered Mindset

Let’s launch the arrival of this new season by turning the page to a more empowered mindset!

Decide on all you want to achieve for a stellar year’s end!

 

 

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Daily Bright Spots

To find our daily bright spots we need to consciously look for them.  To shine a light on life’s bright spots energizes us & lifts our spirits for a bit of reprieve from some of the rough weeks we’ve all experienced.  Holding on to the wonders of this world not only get us through but helps us cherish the small delights.  Connecting to those simple bright spots eases the way when emotions are raw & life feels harsh beyond measure on so many levels.

  

Personally, on these summer days – I begin with a soothing cup of coffee as I immerse in a multitude of green shades accompanied by a chirping symphony from a flight of feathered friends.  To greet the sunrise each day affirms & helps us acknowledge that life, along with nature is filled with awesome splendors we can find solace & joy.  To identify & name life’s bright spots – we can then hold & use them to ground us,  even when our personal or collective world axes feel out of whack.

 

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It’s YourLife – Take Charge Of It!

It’s #YourLife #TakeCharge! Powerful & so crucial to remember – yet easy to forget. Especially when initiating work on a major goal or project, while facing the overwhelm of consistent challenges. Keep your focus on the mission – the why of your goal to feel grounded & more in charge.

What is one step you can take NOW to begin building a better mindset?

 

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How To Fulfill Our Limitless Capability Capacity

Powerful quotes to ponder wisdom of the ages:

From Abraham Lincoln ~ “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday “

To Thich Nhat Hanh ~ “ Waking up this morning, I smile.  Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion. ”  

The ‘wisdom of the ages’ message is clear – as each day unfolds before us, we are blessed to have another day.  

Gone: 24 days – 341 remaining this year.  Each moment within each day is an opportunity.   To acknowledge our humanity.  To be kind to ourselves & others.  

Only by striving day by day can we realize the full potential of our limitless capability capacity – to learn, grow, achieve, appreciate & be grateful.

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“Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of HOPE.” MLK ~ “I Have a Dream” 1963

“I have a dream…” Martin Luther King Jr turned vision & dream into a goal, turning personal resolve into a collective revolution.  Hi vision & dream continues to bring change beyond what the status quo was in our country.  He demonstrated patience with the understanding that big changes seldom happen overnight.  His enduring legacy empowers & motivate us to keep striving & working on what matters personally and globally.  As we pay tribute to his lifetime of dedication & what he started  – we also recognize that much yet remains in need of change.

Taking that inspiration to a personal level, our own dream begins with a vision. When a dream is formulated into a goal it can progress in real life, with metrics and benchmark targets to keep us moving forward, orienting us in the right direction toward that vision.

        ‘Soaring from vision into reality’

Goals are powerful motivators when founded on the power of our values, deep convictions, and desires.  Our activities become choices that transform us, the way we live and impact the communities that shape our world and beyond.

Life goals help us improve specific aspects about ourselves, as well as specific areas in our personal and/or professional life. The pursuit of our goals helps us score internal points, building confidence and self-trust.  Goals are about following through on objectives, tasks and the specifics we identified that need to be done to bridge the gap from where we stand in the present, to a future where our aspirations materialize.

Effective goals keep us stretching and reaching towards the vision of not only what we seek, but more importantly the why we want our life to move in a particular direction. We each have a dream waiting to be fulfilled and when put into action that cherished dream can be the catalyst for the change we seek.  To invest our creative energy, and resources, fueled with passion and the tenacity of deep commitment, in pursuit of our dreams for meaningful success.  That collectively creates a cascade of positive change not only in our world, but in the world at large.

Have you identified what and why you are committed to achieving daily, each month, every quarter, and the remainder of this year? To develop and set goals with strategies & a process to implement them infuses vitality in your daily routine for momentum launching this brand new year and seeing it through to culmination of unparalleled achievement.

To your success in everything meaningful that matters most!

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The Benefits Of Developing A Priority Focused Mindset

“Ultimately, each person chooses whether he comes out of the tumbler crushed or polished.” Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

We all find ourselves in overwhelm or the paralysis of feeling stuck at some point. The saving lifeline is in having clarity with focus on our priorities.  Determining what is most important is foundational.  A priority focused mindset anchors that & becomes as a ballast to what matters most to us!  A priority focused mindset help in homing in on the important goals & the strategic steps to propel us forward beyond overwhelm or paralysis. Having meaningful goals generates intrinsic motivation.  Priority goals require the support of solid plans & structures helping to sustain our focus.  Making the important central in our schedules help us honor the decisions made to achieve them, anchoring our commitments, guiding us beyond the demands, whirlwind and overwhelm from everything else going on in life.

Success in life, whether abundant or lacking, tends to correlate with the consistency of of our choices and decisions. The ones many we make, the ones we avoid, and the ones we are ignorant about. Life is indeed full of them. Our personal and professional growth & success balances on our grasp of our identified priorities & the level of confidence we have regarding how and where we habitually choose to focus our attention with the actions we take.

A priority focused mindset serves as a compass for executing on these priority goals.  It is a guiding system & an inherent process for transcending obstacles, challenges, and circumstances.  It provides a forward focus for planning, anticipating, perceiving & responding differently when the disruptions of change or the unexpected happen.  That mindset is shaped with internal motivation, to keep progressing towards the goals that matter most for progressive growth into our realm of power and confidence to succeed.  Especially when the inevitable challenges, obstacles or adversity materialize.

The journey towards our best self is in how we manage the challenges & obstacles.  We actualize our potential through experience, using all our skills, talents, and capabilities to keep stretching into our progressive best.  A priority focused mindset is formed with continual and deep engagement with the belief in our vision & our potential best self to regularly propel us through the short & long distance, focused forward towards what matters most.

“Success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one’s origins and one’s final achievement…”           Michael Korda

 

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Spring Forward Towards Your Priority Goals


“You are successful the moment you start moving towards a worthwhile goal.” Charles Carlson

Spring is the season of new beginnings and growth, and one we look forward to.  If you are still looking for a reason to begin implementing on meaningful and profoundly important goals – then this season is an opportune time.  Those are the goals that will significantly improve quality of life.   That first step tends to be the hardest,  but the alternative of not taking the first step and delaying, means remaining in the same place.  To find comfort in the discomfort of being stuck.  A rocket ship launch takes tremendous effort and energy, but it also generates the momentum for the journey.  While, none of us are launching rocket ships, we can take charge and begin to take that first action step, however small, to create our own momentum.

To begin is to propel ourselves beyond any self-imposed limitations.  If we don’t, then the barriers that life and the world inevitably imposes on us – will mount and feel exponentially  insurmountable.

Imagine achieving your important, meaningful goals.  Can you clearly envision and articulate your priority goals?  The goals that will create a positive impact not only in your life, but will make a difference for others in the process.  Those are the goals that matter enough to overcome the inertia of the status quo & begin taking the first of any steps needed to achieve them.

Take a page from nature’s playbook this season, and moving forward towards your worthwhile goals.

Your Life Compass Coaching | Success Calibration System™

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I Have A Dream…

“I have a dream…” Martin Luther King Jr turned vision & dream into a goal, turning resolve into a revolution beyond what the status quo was in our country.  He demonstrated patience with the understanding that big changes are never an overnight achievement.  His enduring legacy empowers & motivate us to keep striving & working on what matters.  As we pay tribute to his lifetime of dedication for what he started  – we also recognize that much yet remains needing to be changed.

Taking that inspiration to a personal level, our own dream begins with a vision. When that dream is formulated into a goal it can progresses in real life, with metrics and benchmark targets to keep us moving forward, orienting us in the right direction toward that vision.

‘Soaring from our vision into real life’

Goals are powerful motivators when they reflect the power of our values, deep convictions, and desires.  Our activities become choices that transform us, the way we live and impact the communities that shape our world and beyond.  Life goals help us improve specific aspects about ourselves, as well as specific areas in our personal and/or professional life. The pursuit of our goals helps us score internal points, building confidence and self-trust.  Goals are about following through on objectives, tasks and the specifics we identified that need to be done to bridge the gap from where we stand in the present, to a future where our aspirations materialize.

Effective goals keep us stretching and reaching towards the vision of not only what we seek, but more importantly the why we want our life to move in a particular direction. We each have a dream waiting to be fulfilled and when put into action that cherished dream can be the catalyst for the change we seek.  To invest our creative energy, and resources, fueled with passion and the tenacity of deep commitment, in pursuit of our dreams for meaningful success.  That collectively creates a cascade of positive change not only in our world, but in the world at large.

Have you identified what and why you are committed to achieve daily, each month, every quarter, and the remainder of this year? To develop and set goals with strategies & a process to implement them infuses vitality in your daily routine for momentum launching this brand new year and seeing it through to culmination of unparalleled achievement and success in everything that matters most!

As always, to your meaningful success!

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Mighty Mindset: 3 Step Plan

YourLifeCompass.com_Bridge

“A priority focused mindset is the operational software of a powerful engine driving goal achievement with strategic actions, aligned & aimed at desired target results.” Didi L. Barbour

Haven’t planned for this day, this week, or month yet? It’s not too late – take 10 – better yet 20 minutes to think and schedule in a couple of game changing initiatives that will created impact in narrowing the gap between where you are, how you plan your work & where you want to take you life.  Yes, that would be in addition to the long ‘to-do’ list of the routine activities, you know the stuff that has to get done to maintain your work and life.  Beginning each day of each week knowing exactly what needs your attention most will deliver the best results.

Did you know that your mindset behaves like a target seeking operational system in need of objectives and direction? If you don’t give focused it targets to aim at,  with clear priority goals for orientation, it will operate on the default setting of the past & a stagnant status quo.

Planning for the week, the upcoming month or quarter shifts your mindset when provided with direction & focus.  It becomes more receptive as it perceives & seizes opportunities as they show up. Opportunities that may prove pivotal in achieving what matters. Opportunities that will go unrecognized without target goals and a plan for executing on the mind’s radar detection system.  Try this very simple plan to better orient you.

➢First, define what matters most to set your priority goals. Top two or three goals that would make a quality difference when you begin work on them this week, & when sustained, will compound over time.

➢Next, arm yourself with a plan to align your focus, time and energy,  placing priorities central in  your schedule.  Designate time blocks to work on specific action steps each day for progress towards those goals.  Making priorities central in our schedules, transforms our routines into more meaningful pursuits.

➢Finally, if you’re aware of your priorities, yet you keep placing them on the back-burner,  it may be a sign that you need to enlist for support to more effectively structure & incorporate the element to achieve them.

Planning is crucial for creating a mindset shift,  A foundational shift with set-points for consistent attention for focus on execution progressing toward desired results.

A success calibrated compass for taking charge of what matters.

Your Life Compass ~ Success Calibration System™ – Coaching | Training | Consulting

 

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New Year Launch In February

https://www.yourlifecompass.com/

February feels like a less of a pressure month than January to review & renew our aspirations and goals for the year. Endings and beginnings require pause to reflect on the past and to project forward to a desired future.

Regardless of what this past year has been like or what it failed to deliver, it’s helpful to keep in mind that we all have our share of self-doubt, & temporary setbacks.   There are times when the obligations of everyday life can feel like a succession of detours and roadblocks to our desired success. Yet, we persist and persevere, slowing down perhaps, but continue striving toward our vision of achieving our priority goals!

Anytime is the perfect time to look back to assess & calibrate personal and professional elements that need changing. With increased awareness, we can identify habits, activities, circumstances, distractions, as well as the people who hijack our attention, and drain our energy. Awareness helps us to better plan and chart our course moving forward.  A plan to better manage, change, totally eliminate, or at least minimize those aspects that may subvert our potential to succeed.  Decluttering our emotional & mental fields, frees up our finite energy, focus and commitment for aiming it on what matters most.

As we project forward into 2022 – it’s also crucial to identify what has worked well & determine how can we replicate, and do more of that to expand on the successes we experienced thus far.   Having taken inventory we can more readily plan, prepare & implement strategies for finalizing or launching initiatives, projects and undertakings for progress towards priority goals.

Endings offer opportunities for glancing back to review & assess so we can better position for new beginnings with forward focus towards progress & growth on our priority goals!

 

Your Life Compass | Success Calibration System™

 

 

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Taming Your Dragons 101

dragon

“If you lack the iron and the fizz to take control of your own life, then the gods will repay your weakness by having a grin or two at your expense. Should you fail to pilot your own ship, don’t be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked.” Tom Robbins

 

Ghost, goblins & gremlins, oh my!! It’s that time of year when those creatures surface for some fun to ‘Trick or Treat’. But when they move in to reside as your constant  internal critics – they will adversely affect your mental, emotional and physical domains.  That’s no treat!

Every heroine and hero needs to master taming or slaying some form of monster on the road to achieving her/his goals and quests.

These monsters are shape-shifter, and can show up regularly or at the most inopportune times while taking on different forms to blind-side you. Sometimes they are people near and dear to us, other times, they are the toxic strangers judging us from a place of ignorance, but the most insidious of these is the one residing within.

Imagine yourself breaking free of the defeating, limiting, fear based conversations you’ve been having for years advising you to remain safe by hiding under the proverbial bed, instead to venturing out to think in a bigger way, take worthwhile risks, and meet the challenge of new opportunities.

The taming and eventually slaying of all these dragons by silencing them is a skill to master, and with practice becomes second nature.

First, you need to develop awareness. Knowing the situations and patterns that seem to trigger those toxic conversations is a turbo charged arsenal in your toolbox to combat them. <p\>

Next, acknowledge and thank them for wanting to keep you safe. That really is one of their functions, otherwise they may actually be the internalized saboteur echoes from the past tightening their grip as you attempt to change the status quo.

Finally, be vigilant and keep practicing to raise your awareness, and ready response (rehearse the conversations you’ll have) to address them without giving them any power. The more you do this, the better you will get at loosening the grip allowing you to live more fully without the shadows of manipulation from ghosts of old, scaly dragons and distracting gremlins.

Determine where & to whom you are giving up your power & what you need to do to step into it to claim it.  To presence your own power, is to claim or reclaim it as you strip any saboteurs of theirs over you!