Squeaky Bubble

Achieve Your Health And Fitness Goals By Getting SMART

By Gregg Gillies

I’m not sure who was creative enough to make the acronym work, but work it does and it can fit in quite nicely with your fitness goals.

If you want to succeed you need to get SMART about your goals.
SMART is a great way to help you stay on track and achieve
your goals.

The S stands for specific. Be specific about the goals you
want to achieve. Forget things like, “I want to get in shape”, “I want to add muscle”, or “I want to lose weight”, or “I want to increase my bench press.”

Instead try things like “I want to run a 6 minute mile”, “I want to add 10 pounds of muscle”, “I want to lose 20 pounds of fat, or “I want to add 40 pounds to my best bench press.”

The M stands for measurable. This ties in very well with specific. You can’t measure ‘getting in shape”, but you sure can measure ‘running a 6 minute mile’.

With a pair of trusty skin fold calipers, you can also measure pretty accurately adding 10 pounds of muscle or losing 20 pounds of fat.

And of course, you can easily measure the poundage increase on your best bench press.

The specific and measurable aspect can be broken down even more to bring you closer to achieving your goals. For example, if you want to add 10 pounds of muscle, what other specific and measurable things must you do to reach your goal?

One could be that you must eat 6 high protein meals a day.

A second could be that you must eat 3,500 calories and 300 grams of protein every day.

You must train with weights three days per week.

You must add weight to your exercises at least every other workout.

All of these are specific and measurable. The more specifics that you have, the more likely you will add your 10 pounds of muscle as quickly as possible.

You can make a list of your daily, weekly, and monthly goals that you must do in order to meet your top goal of adding 10 pounds of muscle.

Each day, place a check mark next to each measurable and specific goal you achieved that will help you conquer your top goal. Obviously, the more checks you have, the more likely that you will achieve your goal.

In addition to specific and measurable, your goals must be A, or attainable. The R stands for realisitic. As I’ve said before, it’s important to set challenging goals.

Challenging, but attainable, that is. A goal of a 50 pound increase on your bench press max in 12 weeks would be a challenging goal, but also one that is possible.

However, setting a goal of bench pressing 300 pounds in 4 weeks when you currently bench press 75 pounds will do nothing but set you up for failure and frustration.

Obviously, weight loss is on the minds of many people, which is why so many fall victim to promises like “lose 30 pounds in 30 days without getting hungry and without exercising.”

As a reader of this newsletter, you know that the above is neither timely nor realistic. But many people do fall for such things because they want results NOW! They are setting themselves up for failure. Please don’t join them.

The T stands for Timely. If you do everything previously mentioned, it’s still not enough. You must give yourself a deadline to achieve your goal. More importantly, if your goal is attainable and realistic, but also long term, break it up into smaller goals.

If you wish to lose 75 pounds, start with losing just 10 pounds in 2 months. Reaching that goal will motivate you further and before you know it, enough time has passed that you’ve lost the 75 pounds.

But if you focus solely on losing the 75 pounds, which could take a year or more to accomplish, your motivation and discipline could wane, and you could fail to follow through on what you need to do to make your goal a reality.

Making goals timely hold you accountable and creates a positive sense of urgency. You may think twice about eating that piece of cake when you know you are having a body composition test and pictures taken in 2 weeks.

In addition to getting smart, celebrate your successes. And I don’t mean that you should allow yourself to dust off a gallon of ice cream in one sitting because you lost 10 pounds. That would be self defeating.

Read here some more expert articles by Pastor-Genève bvba

About Pastor-Genève bvba
Pastor-Genève
Pastor-Genève bvba
Pastor-Genève Tricks
Pastor-Genève bvba Techniques

Getting Started With an Employment Agency

By Ashley Toh

Looking for a job in Singapore has become tougher and tougher, and this is due to the increased competition not only from foreign talent which have flocked to our shores of opportunity, but from the persistent economic crisis that has hit us all the way from the US. When America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold, literally - as not only the economic crisis has affected our job prospects in this country, but the swine flu problem has placed an endemic worry on the job market here.

With increased competition, a large number of people looking for job and a worrying climate you need to up your game when it comes to looking for a job. While there are services like JobStreet, Monster.com, JobsDB, and the newspaper, the classifieds , the reality of the situation is that it is not enough for you to simply use these avenues when looking for a job for yourself. At this point of time, it is still possible for you to get the job that best fits your qualification and your experience.

Most people, especially in Singapore, seem to be stuck in a job situation where they are working in a profession that they really did not want to work at in the first place. If you are one of this people, then it is a condition that is called settling. Settling is not going to get you the career path of your dreams and not going to get you the kind of pay that you should be getting. If you have the willingness to work hard, all you need is the platform to launch your resume into the stratosphere and get yourself noticed.

The way you can do this is to sign up with any one of the Singapore employment agencies all over the country and you will be able to find yourself in the position where you can get the job of your dreams. The good thing about the job agency is that they have plenty of affiliates and plenty of connections, corporations and industries who are on the lookout everyday for candidates who are talented enough to be part of their team. There are many of these Singapore employment agencies all over the place, some of them are based online and some are based in the real world. Most of them have the connections necessary for middle of the line recruitment as well as managerial head hunting.

When you do go for an interview at the agency, make sure you bring with you knowledge on the industry that you want to penetrate, a rock solid resume and good referrals. You need to be professional, because the amount of confidence they have in you is directly related to the amount of referrals you get to companies looking for good talent. You need to get the edge in the employment game, and you can do this just by joining one of the many Singapore employment agencies and getting your hunt for the job of your dreams started on the right track.

Schlarbaum Mark Techniques
Schlarbaum Capital Management Blog
Articles About Mark Schlarbaum
Blog About Janet Schlarbaum
Mark Schlarbaum Features
Janet Schlarbaum News Blog
Mark Schlarbaum Guidelines
About Mark Schlarbaum

Janet Schlarbaum About Career Employment

About That Job Interview - Does it Resemble an Evening at the Improve?

By Rebecca Metschke

In the right context, good improvisation is amazing. The ability to skillfully create “in the moment” is crucial to comedians and musicians alike.

The keys here are skillful, and context. Oh - I almost forgot good. Yeah, good is important.

A lot of the acts on the long running show An Evening at the Improv were pretty good; obviously the network was playing for ratings so you tended to see the more talented performers.

There’s such a thing as poor improvisation, too, of course. Some people don’t have what it takes. Worse, others think improvising means to “make do” or “get by” or “wing it” or “fly by the seat of your pants.”

When it comes to your job interview, sloppy spontaneity isn’t exactly a winning strategy. If you think you can waltz into one of these conversations without having thoroughly prepped for it and still hit a home run, you are sorely mistaken.

You may get lucky - but don’t count on it. A betting man won’t be putting any money on you.

You can’t expect to excel during a job interview if you haven’t done your homework. Period. There’s no easy way out.

That means you must study and understand the company; acquire biographical information on the people you’ll be talking with; be prepared to support and discuss every piece of information on your resume; and have a list of questions ready. It means recognizing how your experience fits - and knowing how you’re going to position yourself as a solution to the hiring manager’s problem. (Problem? What problem? If you don’t know, you have more digging to do.)

This does not mean you need to memorize verbatim everything you’re going to say. The aim here is not for you to come across as a robot. Rather, the idea is to be extremely familiar with the “back story” and your talking points…to have them securely tucked away…so when you’re nervous and feeling the inevitable performance pressure, you won’t come up empty.

You need to walk into every interview knowing beforehand exactly what points you need to make. You must think through how you intend to handle any one of the scores of things that might get thrown your way.

And no…it’s not effortless. It takes work. But the candidate who is meticulously prepared holds a much better hand than the one who decides to wing it. A winning personality alone does not guarantee a good outcome.

So… back to An Evening at the Improv and a final thought about improvisation.

Good improvisation actually involves a lot of preparation and skill. It isn’t “winging it” at all. Those who are best at it have the technical understanding and proficiency necessary to create something special “on the spot.”

About that solo by the jazz trumpeter or the funny comment the comic makes playing off what someone in the audience said; while the solo and the joke are spontaneous, at the same time they’re very well prepared for. The performer has the tools at the ready and can pull them out as needed.

M Schlarbaum Articles
Janet Schlarbaum News
About Janet Schlarbaum
Mark Schlarbaum Weblog
Janet Schlarbaum Info
Janet Schlarbaum Internet
Janet Schlarbaum Web Articles
More Janet Schlarbaum

Article submitted by Janet Schlarbaum

Finding Prospects For the Freelancer

By Gordon H. Wood

Article placed here by Mark Schlarbaum

As independent business people, it is incumbent upon us to continuously look for new prospects: those contact names within organizations who may someday hand us a contract. Firstly, I’ll describe how I find prospects. This may not be the best approach for your target market, so by all means, customize it to fit your needs.

Getting a starting point for a newly-launched business can be daunting. There is a plethora of companies you can contact, but how many of them are going to be a total waste of time? Start with the following steps:

1. Determine the geographic region you are willing to work in.
2. Set a minimum size (people or revenues) for the company.
3. Determine how many companies to approach in your “campaign”.
4. Consult trade directories and regional business development web sites to obtain contact information. Target only companies most likely to need your services.
5. Send an introductory letter.
6. Follow up with a phone call within two weeks.

It is a well known fact that mailing campaigns typically yield only a 2 percent (maximum) success rate to get one qualified lead. That’s not necessarily work, but a lead that may result in work. Given that dismal statistic, it follows that you may need to send out and follow up on 150-200 letters to land your first job. Out of a mailing of this size, I did get a couple of good leads, and only one led to work.

On the subject of follow up, the biggest obstacle to making it successful is voice mail. People can hide behind it, and don’t have to deal with the caller. And forget about getting a callback from your message unless the recipient really needs your services badly.

Personally, I’m daunted by this problem, but others aren’t. Some are persistent enough to keep calling or find a way around this “gatekeeper”. One technique is to use the company’s phone directory, which may be one of the choices on their voice mail system. Then call someone else, or the operator, to find out if there’s an appropriate alternate person to contact.

If this still daunts you, consider subcontracting to a telemarketer - a persistent individual who thrives on getting through to the right person and schmoozing them. Interview them carefully, and make sure their phone pitch is informed and appropriate. The last thing you want your potential client to hear is a bully on the other end of the line who won’t take no for an answer.

If trade directories don’t give you enough quality leads, try a more targeted approach to making up your contact list. Get on job search web sites and search on terms specific to your area of expertise. Refine your search to your geographic area, and you should be able to determine what companies may consider outsourcing their needs as opposed to hiring. Two problems with this approach:

* The vast majority of listings will be by agencies, but a few companies may list directly.
* Even if you get a company name, you likely will still have to work through their Human Resources department. They may filter out any enquiries that aren’t from people applying for full time positions.

Regardless of the obstacles, this method helps you expand your potential contact list.

Another more direct form of seeking contacts is networking. If you live in an urban area, chances are good that you will find a networking group that will match your interest area. These are usually comprised of small business people like yourself, so prospects may not seem great at first. Occasionally, though, someone from industry may show up, either as an invited guest speaker or simply as an interested individual. Professional associations are also a good way to make direct contact with potential buyers.

Make sure you have an ample supply of business cards before attending the networking event. You’re going to give a lot away to people who might seem like a waste of your time, but they may eventually pass your card to someone who needs your services.

Remember - reliance on one client for your income is inadvisable. There will always be down time while you wait for your work to be reviewed. A good rule of thumb is never to rely on more than 25 to 30 percent of your income coming from any one customer. That means you’ll have to do a little marketing to get your client base up to four, or preferably five in number.

Photography from Janet Schlarbaum
Visit Janet Schlarbaum
Schlarbaum Capital Management
Janet Schlarbaum
Janet Schlarbaum Blog
Janet Schlarbaum Online
Janet Schlarbaum Posts