.KEYWORD resolutions
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Set goals and make resolutions on your Palm handheld
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY It’s that time of the year again. Time to reflect on the past year’s events and time to look forward to the year ahead. What do you want to accomplish? What kind of year do you want? In this article, success coach Heather McDaniel takes a look at a program called My Resolution that will help you use your Palm handheld to meet your goals.
.AUTHOR Heather McDaniel
It’s that time of the year again. Time to reflect on the past year’s events and time to look forward to the year ahead. What do you want to accomplish? What kind of year do you want? A new job? A new house? In this article, we’ll take a look a program for your Palm handheld called My Resolution at http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=38317.
My Resolution is an easy to use program that can help you organize your goals. It’s divided into four main sections: Goals, Quotes, Vows, and Techniques. These are shown in Figure A.
.FIG A My Resolutions has four sections to help you set and achieve your goals.
.H1 Quotes
The Quotes feature allows you to write inspirational quotes into your device. From the main menu, just tap on Quotes. In Figure B, you can see that I chose to use a quote from Aldous Huxley.
.FIG B I found this quote from Aldous Huxley to be inspirational.
If you tap on the detail button in the lower right hand corner, you’ll see a space to write what you take away from that quote, why it inspires you, or any notes about that quote that you’d like to remember. This is shown in Figure C.
.FIG C My interpretation helps me remember why this quote means so much to me.
.H1 Goals
Goals are separated into short-term goals and long-term goals. I like to separate my goals into short term and long-term goals because doing so helps me remain focused on achieving the goals.
Make sure your goal is very specific. Make sure it’s clear and specific enough that when you attain it, you’ll be able to have the sense of satisfaction that comes from reaching a definite completion. Be sure to set a deadline for the goal, as well. Give yourself the gift of tangibility in the goal you set. Make the picture of it very real in your mind. A goal set in this way might look like: "I will own my own home in a neighborhood where I feel a sense of community. I will be living there by this time next year so I can throw a New Year’s Eve party there for my friends."
It’s important to break down a really big long-term goal into several short-term goals, so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Let’s continue to use the house example. That’s a pretty big goal.
Ask yourself what steps you need to take in order to buy that house. Do you need to decide what neighborhood you want to live in? Researching neighborhoods might be a short-term goal for the first month. You could do research online and narrow it down to a handful of neighborhoods. Then, spend an hour every Saturday morning walking around getting a feel for the areas you’re interested in. This has the added benefit of meeting your exercise goals as well, because you’ll be doing your cardiovascular workout (walking) at the same time.
You might make goals related to reading a book about home buying, securing a mortgage, finding the type of house you want, etc. The list goes on and on. You can plan out and tackle each of these steps and set specific deadlines for yourself so you stay on track. You can set this as a short-term goal like I did in Figure D.
.FIG D Setting short-term goals helps make long-term goals attainable.
You can look at all of the short-term goals at once by tapping the table button in the lower right hand corner. This is shown in Figure E.
.FIG E Here’s a list of my short-term goals.
.H1 Vows
Vows are solemn promises or undertakings. A New Year’s resolution is really a vow. In the Vows section, you can jot down notes about steps that you’re going to take to create the desired change in your life. You might want a better relationship with certain people in your life or you might want to reconnect with people you haven’t seen in a while. What are you willing to do to make that happen? What kind of commitment do you feel comfortable making? The Vows section of this program is a place to journal about each vow you’d like to make. Make sure you’re fair to yourself when you make vows, so you’ll be able to live up to them. That way, your sense of your own personal integrity grows with each success.
Vows may turn into short-term goals. Making a list of friends you’ve lost touch with and sending each one an email or telephoning them within a week to make plans would be an example of a short-term goal that might arise from this sort of vow.
.H1 Techniques
The Techniques section of this program is like a toolbox to which you add your own tools. What kinds of things work to get you motivated? What has worked in the past? For example, researching things online is one of my favorite ways to gather enough information to make an informed decision. Figure F shows how I’d enter that technique into the program.
.FIG F This technique helps keep me motivated.
Enter every technique that has helped you achieve goals in the past. Enter good ones that you hear from other sources. Enter new ones you invent. Sooner or later, if you’re feeling stuck, you’ll find you have a great number of tools you can use to get yourself unstuck.
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.H1 Conclusion
My Resolution is a very handy program to keep you focused on attaining your goals. One thing to keep in mind is that this program requires a lot of input to your handheld. It’s a lot easier to do this by using the Palm Portable Keyboard (at http://www.palm.com/products/accessories/keyboard/).
Reading the manual was just as much fun as using the software. The author of My Resolution, Hwee Wai Tey, has some funny and witty insights to offer. I highly recommend you take a look for yourself.
Many success management software tools are quite expensive, but My Resolution is available for only $5. Maybe your first resolution should be to get My Resolution. That way, you can be sure you can complete at least one New Year’s resolution right away.
By the way, many of you have known me as both news editor and sales manager for ZATZ, publishers of this magazine. I’ve recently started my own own personal success coaching business dedicated to helping people reach their goals. Although no longer a ZATZ employee, I’m still a member of the ZATZ extended family and I’ll be writing for PalmPower on topics about personal growth and development.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on My Resolution, visit http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=38317.
Want to reach your goals? For a free coaching session, contact Heather McDaniel at heather@zatz.com.
For more information on the Palm Portable Keyboard, visit http://www.palm.com/products/accessories/keyboard/.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Prior to starting her own personal success coaching business dedicated to helping people reach their goals, Heather McDaniel was both a longtime news editor and sales manager for ZATZ, publishers of this magazine. She’s widely acknowledged as a leading expert on the handheld industry. Although no longer a ZATZ employee, she’s still a member of the ZATZ extended family and now writes for PalmPower on topics about personal growth and development. For a free coaching session, contact Heather at heather@zatz.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6fbf2
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