A book on goal setting

Browsing the web I became engrossed with the concept of data backup and data loss. There is almost an almost unlimited amount of information covering subjects such as how to keep computer and server data secure, how to back-up data, how to restore data, how to replicate data, who will remove your backup tapes to an remote location, which companies can restore data from corrupt disks. With all this information and data technology available I keep asking myself the same question over and over again, how and why is data terminally lost?

Much information on one web site does tend to contradict information on another site, but after all, most companies with sites of this nature are trying to sell you their solution so you will never get an overall unbiased picture, but there is one underlying fact which we can not get away from, a fact that is stated on most sites and the following fact that I totally agree with is, “Data is the lifeline of all companies and organisations; if data is terminally lost then the chances of a company trading efficiently or even surviving after 2 years of the disaster not at all good”. There are various statistics relating to this fact, but it is accepted that 50% to 70% of companies will go out of business within 1 year if data is lost. It is also acknowledged that everything within a business can be replaced, desks, chairs, buildings, even people can be replaced, everything but the data. Imagine, you sit on a chair and it breaks, you buy another one, you get the picture but imagine the consequences of data loss, you don’t know who your customers are, you don’t know who owes you money, you don’t know who you owe money to, you don’t know what orders you have to ship or who you are supposed to be visiting. Dire times are ahead.

Taking all of the above into account I go back to the original question, if people, companies or organisations understand the true value and importance of their data, how do they manage to lose it? Data loss is totally unnecessary and unacceptable! I honestly feel most IT administrators do have the best intentions when it comes the preservation of data. In my experience data loss stems from only a few sources, human error, lack of resource or lack of planning. Total data loss should never occur when hardware fails.

Human error – I forgot to take the tapes offsite when fire or flood struck offsite tape removal company incorrectly labelled your tapes, I did not test the tape prior to backup and consequently my data was not backed up, I forgot to backup! I did not put my tapes in a secure safe and they were stolen overnight. My backup server crashed in the middle of a backup. The web is littered with stories like this; they are almost a comedy of errors. Responsibility for data backup cannot ever be placed upon the shoulders of one person or one team of people, if there is room for human error, then you have a flaw within you backup system.

Lack of resources – If you work for a corporate, your backup and restore system will have probably cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds. You will enjoy an automated disk to disk system replicated to a second remote location. Even though you are replicating to an offsite location, for added security, you will most likely use this second site to backup to tape. This replicated infrastructure is way out of budget for small to medium enterprises backup to tape is still not a cheap task, by the time you have purchased a tape drive, server to fit the drive into, tape media and the backup software you will have spent at least Ј3,000, plus backing up to tape in the conventional way is still prone to the same potential human errors. The humans that make the error also have to be paid, if a backup solution is not automated then you will have to employ someone to take care of this, I would prefer my staff to be carrying out more proactive, revenue generating tasks.

Lack of planning – probably a harsh way of putting it, a lack of understanding potential disasters may sound more forgiving. It all amounts to the same thing, but a lack of planning was recently highlighted in the UK when the Bunsfield oil terminal exploded. Companies who backed up to tape and secured said tapes in a fire and water proof safe were cruelly exposed when their building collapsed as a result of the explosion, backup tapes could not be recovered for weeks as they were in the safe under hundreds of tonnes of rubble. Their ability to trade was rendered impossible. Most companies feel that this situation will never happen to them, but let’s put this situation into context, Bunsfield is only the fifth largest and one of over 40 oil terminals and depots in the UK all of which are near major towns and cities, so it could happen to you. This case is one of many where buildings have been destroyed and data has been lost as a result.

If you are still with me you will notice I have only mentioned reasons for and ways of losing data. The rapid growth of cheap high speed internet connectivity and consequently the greatly reduced cost of highly secure, fully automated offsite backup solutions is the reason I ask “how can companies and organisations lose data?”

Offsite backup, also known as remote backup, online backup, is a solution that ticks all the boxes for a small to medium companies with limited budget and resource. Why is this the case I hear you ask? If you deal with a reputable company, remote online backup is cost effective, solutions start at around Ј25 per month, totally automated therefore requires no human intervention resulting in no human error and your data will always be available as it will be replicated between two data centres. To summarise you have an enterprise class backup solution at your disposal for less than the cost of a low end tape drive.

To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit

How Rules Rule Your Life

1. Determine precisely what your goals are. What have you always hoped you could do, but have never had the time or money? What would you do if money and time were plentiful? What do you want to accomplish in the next five years? What do you wish you had done in the last five years? What do you feel God wants for your life that perhaps you aren’t doing?

2. Ask yourself why you really want the things you determined in step 1). Is it to enhance your relationship with your family or with your Creator? To grow closer to those most important to you? Perhaps if it is financial, is it to better provide for those around you and leave more time for charity and ministry? Without understanding why we want the things we do, it is often difficult to really become motivated to get the things we want.

3. Write out a list of things that would need to change in your life in order for your goals to come true. Sometimes the only reason we don’t accomplish our goals is that we don’t have a written plan of what needs to be done. Without having the ability to review the goals regularly, we tend to lose our focus. Before we know it, a month or two has gone by, there is no progress, and we are frustrated that we are no closer to the realization of our goals.

4. Break each goal down into a series of minigoals—smaller accomplishments that, when all are completed, would result in the achievement of your primary goal. When you break your goals into smaller segments, the goals do not appear to be as formidable—just take things one minigoal at a time, and after awhile your primary goal will be accomplished.

5. Create a time frame for achieving each of your goals. Often we don’t achieve simply because we don’t create a time constraint. Give yourself a deadline and you will get more done. Remember when you were in college and you finished the semester-long paper the night before it was due—if not the very morning it was due? As much as we don’t like to admit it, we often need deadlines to help us achieve our goals.

6. Ask a trusted friend to hold you accountable in each area where you want to improve, grow, or achieve. This should preferably not be your husband or wife, but rather a same-sexed friend from whom you can easily take criticism and who will feel comfortably pushing you a little when you aren’t following through on your goals. When we involve others, we tend to feel a greater sense of urgency.

7. Celebrate each time you achieve one of your goals or minigoals. We humans tend to like celebration, and it can help motivate you to achieve the next goal on your list.

Bonus:

8. Once you have completed your goals and celebrated, look back over the process and ask yourself what you could have done to achieve your goal more smoothly or quickly. This is one of the most critical steps in the long-term realization of goals, because it can help us become more efficient at achieving our goals in the future.

People often say they have no choice when faced with a dead end. They say they have no choice but to take the one direction available, which is often a wrong one.

When they say that remark, they must understand that they have to take the blame for the consequences of what they will do.

However, truth is far from the often-circulated concept that man has no choice.

We do have choices. As long as you have rights to protect, you have a choice. When rights are denied, then so are options. When you let your rights be denied, this too is an option.

Just look at slaves. Most of them obey not out of willingness, but because they have no rights; and thus, they have no choice but to obey. Yet, in another light, it is really their choice that they are slaves. Even not having a choice is still a choice.

Some are willing slaves. They voluntarily throw their rights away because they believe the person to whom they render service to is worthy of treating them as such.

Some simply accept their lot as slaves, and that is their choice. Some refuse to be slaves and choose to assert their rights. All these are choices.

The kind of life you have is the life you choose. You cannot blame anyone for how your life ends up.

For instance, you can choose to live happily or miserably. It all depends on you. If you live a hectic life, that’s because you choose to be busy. No one can force a kind of life upon you, not even a superior who points a gun to your head. Every choice has its consequence.

Thus, if you choose to be healthy, live up to that choice. Be healthy. The choice will have to be followed by a decision to be disciplined.

Being disciplined means that you must exert effort to attain and maintain a healthy body. Eat right, exercise right, sleep right, and live right.

Don’t blame anyone else if you get sick. Getting sick is a choice. Some people cannot afford to be healthy because they choose not to afford it.

They can spend for something else but not for good health. To be able to prioritize good health in your budget, you have to live a simple life. Every choice entails a consequence, so you have to live up to your choices.

You’ve tried everything but that thing you are addicted to….. and it doesn’t really matter what it is, yes I said, it doesn’t matter what it is!
The addiction is what you do, it is not the problem!
Anyway, it just won’t go away. So you start looking for external things to solve the problem. I mean things like nicotine patches, self help books, step programs or articles like this one.

Now don’t get me wrong these things can all be useful. They prepare you for the final revelation which will help rid you forever of your addiction.
You do deals with yourself. If I don’t have (insert your personal addiction here) today, then I will be able to have one tomorrow or I am useless because I can’t control this. I feel so bad today I need my little helper. Maybe, your inner voice tells you no-one understands how hard it is, or you are just more sensitive than others, or it makes you interesting, or my friends wouldn’t like me any other way or or or….

We can run in these circles for years, swapping addiction for addiction. Blaming everyone for our problems. I was an unloved child My father was an alcoholic I have issues with commitment. Sound familiar? Now please, don’t get me wrong. Being the child of an alcoholic is no small thing! I am not belittling it, just as I would not dream of belittling anything that someone believed was the cause of there addiction.

But, and here is the problem. If you believe something external caused you to set off on the road to oblivion, then you are going to need an equally powerful external tool to make you change that path. Well, it’s not going to happen! There is nothing external to you that will alter your course. Sorry, but thats the truth.
You can justify, lie, blame others and spend a fortune on self-help guru’s, until you realise one simple truth and that is this.

The secret to stopping your addiction is to Stop. Yes Stop! and the point is you won’t until you realise the answer to your difficulty lies inside you.
Fear is stopping you contacting the part of you that can help. Whatever it is you do to allay that fear, your addiction, stops you hearing that clever part of you.
The trick is to recognise the fear for what it is.

Understand it is standing in the way of you hearing your inner voice.
You have been tricked into believing that the fear is as deep as you can go. The fear is shallow. Make the decision to Stop, Stick with it and move on. Once the thing you are doing your addiction is no longer ruling you then you have a chance to work out how you got into this mess, That’s if you feel you need to? Maybe just getting on with your life is an option too?
Remember! The answer to the question is you! The secret of stopping, is to stop!

shifting our day-toward -day behaviors could be easier than previously imagined. via meditating on with repeating motivational and motivating quotes, we are better prepared to change our thought patterns, behaviors and into turn, amend our lives.

Here’s how it’s done.

rider we suppose something to survive easy, we find little, qualification any struggle in accomplishing it. However, condition we picture something to be difficult to realize, then our struggle becomes more apparent. during fact, if we imagine that it is difficult to amend a specific activities, then we resolve always find experiences that force justify that belief.

obtain this for example. We wake awake one morning and decide that:

This is the day I create losing load. When possessions get difficult, I force not attain for junk food, bar instead I will center on something else to keep my mind busy. It’ll be harsh at first, but I’m leaving to bequeath it a try.

but you continue with this thought prototype and belief, don’t survive surprised to find yourself struggling new often than not. Why?

but we look at this illustration closely we find a couple of thought patterns and beliefs previously in place. We have gritty to complete something good for ourselves, bar we do ourselves a disservice in choosing certain unconstructive thought patterns, beliefs and words that go along with it.

We have believed,

When clothes get difficult….
(This is already haughty that there will be complex moments! Strike lone!)

It’ll be hard at opening…
(This is already assuming it will exist difficult at first! clout two!)

…but I’m going to give it a try.
(Remember the movie The Karate Kid… There is no try, nearby is only do. wallop three!)

Now there are hundreds of products away there that force assist citizens in losing weight. Some, if not all of them, may job for various people at various stages of their goal. But for many people who boast convinced themselves that losing weight is difficult, some harvest may fall short when our thought patterns are stronger than our desire to change.

now is something that I’ve through to change a behavior I no longer desired.

I recently gone 20lbs in about 12 weeks. I didn’t like the way I looked, felt or still thought for that matter. I needed to change with take some feat towards it.

First, I realized that I had to alter my way of thinking about losing burden. My older thought patterns were no longer functioning for me. My opinion were like modest tiny pictures that I projected during my mind of how heavy I was. I no longer wanted these pictures or thought patterns a part of my life. I had to choose a thought pattern and conviction that would be easier to believe about.

I chose this thought,

behind weight is easier than I thought.

possibly not the most ideal for everyone but it worked for me.

Secondly, I chose a word I hunted to focus on for that daytime, week or month toward help me in accomplishing my end (Start with presently a daytime, or just an hour for that matter. be it uncomplicated.) The speech I chose needed to be into relation to the revolutionize I desire to make. For example, I chose the word FOCUS, since I felt that that’s what I needed to think about most of instance; focusing more on losing weight than gaining it. decide any word as stretched as it relates to your situation. (Attitude, force, Action, Believe…)

subsequent that, I scoured the Internet for motivational and stirring quotes that resonated within me that related to that specific word I chose. Quotes that I could remember, especially ones that really spar to what I wanted to accomplish.

But here’s the most crucial part.

I looked-for quotes that were powerful adequate to adjust my thought patterns the moment I read them. Quotes that REALLY strut to me when I my eyes fell upon them. Quotes that forced me to hiatus and think for a moment. Quotes that had that extra edge someplace my mind said, okay. This is one.

These are all cipher of a quote that held power for me. I focused within on the subsequent quotes.

All that we are is the result of what we have deliberation. Buddha

The only way toward discover the limits of the possible, is to go beyond them into them impossible. Arthur C. Clarke

It’s not what you achieve into the end that matters, it’s who you become in the process. writer Unknown

In information, I originate dozens of quotes that I resorted to from time to time, excluding these three I always came backside to. They spoke of who I was, what I wanted to accomplish and who I sought to become because I worked towards my object.

I wrote them down. I carried these quotes through me constantly. I understand them and meditated on them whenever I had the opening to. At occupation, home or at the gym (yup, I finally got myself to exercise, primarily through focusing on Arthur C. Clarke’s excerpt!), I focused on these three powerful quotes to help me FOCUS on what I wanted.

Because I untouched my thought patterns, over time, I can directly say I am 20 lbs lighter and a full lot happier. I can honestly say I am 20 lbs lighter and a whole quantity happier. Yes, I’ll be the primary to admit that accomplishing the object involved more than now thinking but it all began with my thoughts. The thoughts then permeated into my actions. (Now I need to hub on maintaining that heaviness, so for me a whole innovative thought pattern begins.)

Here are the three ladder again:

1. Decided to change your technique of belief about a behavior, creation it easier for you to reflect about it. Phrase it in a uncomplicated way.

2. Choose a word to focus on to change that behavior for a period of time.

3. Find a minimum of three motivational or inspirational quotes related to that unambiguous word that are controlling enough to revolutionize your current thinking patterns the moment you read them. Meditate on them and repeat them, silently or out earsplitting, every opportunity you get.

Be serene. Stick with it. Give it some instance.

Why perform you believe companies offer a 30-day money back guarantee? They know that condition you perform something for 30 being it becomes a habit and you no longer require to return it! (academic something, huh?) Give it time.

The first pace to what you want to accomplish is altering your mind and the thought patterns and beliefs associated by your behavior. Thoughts are the sign to action, connotation that thoughts occur before any action takes place. That’s what needs to be altered first. Your view.

It worked for me with I hope this inspires and motivates you to achieve your goal.

sense positive.

Ray Schiel

Every time you get in your car to go anywhere, you are working on achieving a goal. There is somewhere you want to be, so you take action to get there. The three major things that get you where you want to go when driving are a specific destination, directions for getting there, and a way to track your progress. You must also have these three things to achieve any goal.

Specific Destination

Before even getting into your car, you must know where you are going. Unless you have a specific destination, you’re just moving the car and wasting gas. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with this; some people enjoy just driving around and looking at the scenery. But if you want to get somewhere, you must know where you are going.

When setting your goals, you must know exactly what it is that you want. Get a clear picture of it in your mind. If it’s a new job, picture yourself in that job. If it’s more money, visualize that monthly bank statement. Imagine what you will feel like when you reach whatever it is you are striving for. Write it down, like you would write down the address of a house you are visiting for the first time.

Directions

If this is a destination you’ve been to before, you don’t need directions. It’s automatic, like tying your shoes or chewing your food. But what if it’s somewhere you’ve never been before? How do you get there?

You ask. You ask someone who’s been there before. You pull out a map. You check the Internet. The directions may not be perfect, and often they aren’t. It’s either the second or third light, I can’t remember which, is something often heard when getting driving directions. But you get the best directions you can.

Goal setting is the same. You get in touch with others who already have what you want. You read books, you listen to tapes, you attend seminars. You get as much information as possible that will assist you in reaching your goal.

Tracking Your Progress

You know where you are going and you’ve got your directions, so now it’s time to take some action! You hop in the car and you’re off!

But wait! It wasn’t the second or third light, it was the fourth! So what do you do when you realize you are off course? You check your map, you pull into the nearest gas station, or you make a phone call. You try to get back on track. But you don’t give up! You don’t turn around at the first closed road and go back home, saying I didn’t really want to get there anyway. If this were to happen, you’d never get anywhere you hadn’t been before, and your life would be pretty limited. Even if you have to head all the way back home, you start again. Eventually, you get to that destination, and isn’t it even more exciting when you get there after a difficult journey!

You may get sidetracked on your journey. If you get hungry, you stop for a bite. If you need to use the restroom, you stop to take care of that. But do you stay stopped? Do you sit in the restroom all day, wondering why you aren’t where you want to be? No, you do what you need to do and continue on.

Don’t quit on your goals, either. There may be setbacks, dead ends, even car accidents. But don’t forget that you’ll never get there if you don’t keep taking action and moving towards your destination. When that prospect says no, it’s not a failure; it’s another mile under your belt. When nothing seems to happen for a long period of time, you’re just getting closer to that next landmark. If you’re not sure what to do next, don’t be too embarrassed to stop and ask for those directions!

Surprisingly few people regularly make lists of their goals and even fewer put their lists where they can see them. This article suggests that it is worth doing both. It also takes a look at the life goals of Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan.

A lot of money was once paid for the following famous goal setting advice given to a rich businessman:

Each night make a list of 6 things you need to do tomorrow and list the 6 tasks in order of priority. When tomorrow arrives, start on the first task and complete it. Then move on to the second task. If you don’t finish all your tasks add the unfinished ones to your list for the next day.

Goals could be listed for each day, each week, each month, each year and for life. You could even make lists for each project you are working on.

Recently, Minnie Driver, the singer was asked: What drives you? She gave a thoughtful reply:

• To live fully – to pursue every gift I’ve been given.

• To think what am I going to bring to this day as opposed to what I am going to get from it.

• I want to have kids and live by the sea and write records, have a great partnership with someone and maybe do some teaching.

Very few people could have come straight out with such a clear life mission statement. Minnie is going to make the most of her singing talent and give rather than get. She wants kids and wants to live by the seaside and so on.

Ask yourself what the main goals of your life are? Could you come up with a great list like Minnie Driver’s if someone put you on the spot? Do you plan:

• To become all that you can become?

• To help others become all that they can become?

• To live an extraordinary life?

• To help humans, animals and even insects?

• To see the wonders of the world?

• To love your neighbour as yourself? etc. etc.

It is worth making a list and revising it regularly. You can always change your mission statement or list of life goals whenever you wish to. In the mean time life goals will give you a guiding light for much if not all of your life.

However, goals are soon forgotten unless you look at them and revise them regularly. Some people put their list of goals on post it notes and stick them on their computers. Some buy computer software that will parade their goals across their computer screen.

I put my goals on the wardrobe to my right where I can look at it all day. This reminds both my conscious and subconscious minds to focus on the goals. They are thus much more likely to be completed. They will also be finished with much less conscious effort.

Try sticking your goals list somewhere prominent where you have a bit of space. My walls are already covered with A4 sheets of things I need to remember so my wardrobe is the only space left.

One of my goals on the wardrobe list for today is to finish this article. I now have the satisfaction of crossing it off my list and moving on to my next goal which is to prepare for a class I am teaching this evening.

We all need to get a move on with our goals before our time runs out. Genghis Khan’s life goal was to conquer the whole world. In the end he conquered a huge space twice the size of the Roman Empire but he died too soon to fulfil his life mission. At the age of 65 on his death bed he said:

I have conquered for you a large empire but my life was too short to take the whole world. That I leave to you.

Even after death, the power of his goal lived on.

His sons doubled the size of his empire. They invaded Russia, Poland and Hungary but as the Mongol armies approached Vienna in 1242, Ogodei Khan, the son of Genghis died and all his armies went back to Mongolia for his funeral. They did not return to Europe.

A century later his empire began to crumble. However, genetic studies suggest that 1 in every 200 men on the planet today are genetically related to Genghis. Some goals will never die!

What do Minnie Driver and Genghis Khan have in common? They both set themselves clear life goals. The resemblance stops there. Minnie Driver’s goals are much, much greater than the goals of the Universal Ruler – Genghis Khan.

Personal Development, at its basis, is anything that allows us to grow into an ordered life that is of our choosing. This is one of the most cherished of goals among self improvement practitioners. There are some excellent methods available for achieving it. However, it is easier said than done. Here are a few hints and tips to get you started.

Clean the clutter from your life. There is an excellent saying in the personal development field, “a tidy desk is a tidy mind”. Often times your outer environment is a reflection of the way you think and feel. Is your living or working space always cluttered? It’s important that you start to order your environment to reflect the ordered life you are building. Clear away unnecessary clutter from your surroundings. This may sound like a meaningless task but you are sending a very clear message to your subconscious mind that you intend to get organised.

When you begin to organise your living and working environment it allows you to develop the basic skills needed for organising your life. This can be achieved through goals. You should structure your goals in such a way that each one builds on the other and ensure that they are not in opposition to one and other.

Don’t be too set on achieving your goals in exactly the manner you intend to. A major factor in the non-attainment of goals is the inability to restructure plans and change direction when circumstances dictate these should be done. Remain flexible.

You learn from your mistakes and from hardship! This may be something that you do not want to hear because the very point of self improvement and personal development is to eliminate the suffering we feel in our lives and make to create a life we want to live. However, challenges and failures have a tendency of bringing out the best in us as we rise to the challenge and learn from our mistakes. You can’t truly know success unless you have failed! Learn from the failure and move on.

Don’t focus on the mistakes. Simply analyse them and learn the lesson they are trying to teach you. By staying focused on your failures, problems or toils you are actually creating more of them or at least keeping them in your experience. Focus on the solutions or at least focus on the fact “your still in the game”. Consider any mistakes you’ve made as life lessons. Apply what you have learned from them and use them as references (of what not to do) in the future.

Always set goals for yourself that are realistic yet will stretch you beyond your current “comfort zone”. Each goal should be an aid to progressing to your next.

Make sure you follow through on your plans. Persistence can accomplish things that nothing else can. How many times were you close to the end of the rainbow, and without even knowing how close you were, you quit? You may be someone who has drive at the start of a venture but find your enthusiasm waning as you progress, lacking the motivation that is needed to “keep you keeping on” during times of hardship. Those who persist, especially in times like these, are those who ALWAYS win!

Never, ever, ever give-up!

The only true failure occurs when you quit. If you keep trying then obviously you haven’t failed because the final verdict isn’t in yet. But by quitting there is no more chance of success and you have failed!

Recreation is a must! You should aim to spend time with family and friends as this will offset any stress you are feeling and give you a balanced outlook. Human interaction is natural, healthy and enjoyable. Most goals will come to you through other people. This is a simple fact! No-one achieves anything worthwhile and worthy without some type of help or interaction from and with others. By keeping your social network open, alive and healthy you will open up avenues that you never knew existed.

Over the years I have experienced some amazing results with people who have been secure enough to view their leadership or personal capacity through the eyes of corporate vision.

In one situation, the general manager stood down in preference to his assistant taking his role. They changed roles and the result was growth and expansion for the organisation, greater synergy and momentum.

Why?

A person’s visionary capacity will determine the outcome!

Leading people or an organisation without a clear Mental vision, is the last place you should be.

Power games, position seeking, and climbing the corporate ladder can never fulfil the requirements of vision. Leading others (whether it be in your own business or in an organisation) will most likely bring frustration and a slowing down of momentum.

An organisation that has not established its core values and vision will unlikely keep visionaries within it.

Visionaries will likely take less pay, work longer hours and suffer extreme circumstances that none-visionaries would quit over.

Why is that? Because the “buy in” factor, goes way beyond natural circumstances and into the realms of values. Value in a natural sense we put a price on, whereas vision is priceless.

The amazing thing about vision is it is not impoverished. It will reward in the end, way beyond our primal anticipation.

What value would you put on vision?

Ask Martin Luther King junior. or maybe Winston Churchill!

I can guarantee they did not look for a vision, the vision looked for them. It arrested them and consumed their life. They lived within the parameters of their vision and died spent, yet fulfilled by it.

Vision is the awakening of our life’s purpose and the force that compels us to exist!

It moves us from country to country in the search for people of similar spirit. It stands for something rather than falling for anything.

Vision will either empower you, or expose your vulnerabilities.

As for me, I would rather live in pursuit of my life purpose, than exist within the restrictive fences of being Mr average.

Personal Empowerment Is Activated Through Vision!

I had a conversation this week with a visionary. During the conversation I recalled how every organisation I have ever led, has drawn people (in the first two years), so full of vision that the nuts and bolts people pulled their hair out. Why?

Vision inspires and brings momentum. Visionaries love such an environment as it allows for creativity, (an essential component to release vision) but it does not guarantee fulfilment. Vision needs practical, systematic, analytical support players. These analytical individuals however, can often frustrate visionaries, as they need clear lines of communication and boundaries.

Visionaries break boundaries and are often so caught up with new ideas, that communication is “wrongly expected” to be generated (through each individual player) that has partnered into the vision. Buying into the enthusiasm that is generated out of sharing the vision does not transfer automatically to fact based people.

I can hear everyone that has ever been a part of one of my teams shouting a loud AMEN!

Vision is powerful, but it must be measurable, definable and most of all achieved through multiple strategies. If you have got great ideas, an enthusiastic mandate and a passion to succeed, you need to heed this one statement!

You will never achieve it without the help of others!

I can tell instinctively those that will succeed in their vision, because they are big enough on the inside to recognise their weaknesses, yet strong enough to manage them. That’s why synergy demands momentum and momentum needs a clear strategy.

Have you ever wondered if what you know about data recovery is accurate? Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on data recovery.

Sooner or later your company could become the victim of a natural disaster, or something much more common like a lightning storm or downed power lines.

Just because your company may be a small business doesn’t mean it’s immune to data disasters. If a small business does not have a good and tested disaster recovery plan in place when disaster hits they may never fully recuperate and it may even cause them to go out of business. Sometimes even a data recovery service is unable to be of any help.

Following are some questions that should be answered in order to give you some idea of what you need to do to that will help you if you do have a data disaster situation.

Do you know where your company’s most important data files are located?

Are these files being backed up and by what means?

How often do you run these data backups and are they verified and tested?

Do you have automated controls that correctly and on a consistent basis do the backups?

Do your data backup tapes go off-site and how often?

Do you have some kind of security against tampering or theft of your data backups?

Do you keep your servers, routers, hubs, and phone system controllers in locked areas to keep them more secure?

Does just anyone have access to your servers and your other technology assets or do you limit access to at least two, but no more than four people?

Do you run a locally securable operating system, such as Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4,on the company’s desktop PCs and notebooks?

Do you have any confidential data stored locally on any desktop PCs or notebooks? Are any of these systems running an inherently in-secure operating system, such as Microsoft Windows 9x or Microsoft Windows Me?

Do you prevent unauthorized boot-ups or tampering with BIOS configuration settings by using power-on passwords?

On your desktop PCs and notebooks, how are main updates, service packs and releases kept current?

The bottom line is that you can’t plan when a data disaster may strike but taking a few steps beforehand may help with your company’s survival in the days and weeks following a disaster.