Write it down

This rather gloriously drawn image poked its head out at me while I was “de-cluttering” today. Now, clearly I’m not Picasso, but I do appear to be a pretty good fortune teller.

I’m not sure when I drew this, but it clearly lists three goals I wanted to achieve before I exited my 20’s (15 March, 2009).
- Baby Teresa
- Graduate MBA
- Travel Egypt

As I write this today I’m 33, so a couple of years have passed, but each one of these goals can well and truly be classed as completed (well – one is still and will always be a work in progress – Baby Teresa).

So here’s how I went:

I travelled to Egypt in 2010 (so a little later than predicted) with a gorgeous girlfriend Peta. We spent 5 glorious weeks in Egypt and Jordan and it was phenomenal. I learnt basic Arabic, I ate new exciting dishes like fuul (yum) and best of all I saw the Pyramids and Petra.

I finally (and I say finally because I was at uni on and off for 12 years!) graduated university with an MBA on August 17th 2009. Now on this one I actually did hit the time frame because I finished my last class in January of that year just missing the graduation ceremony so I had to wait until August to officially graduate.

And Baby Teresa (www.baby-teresa.com) launched in September, 2009. It’s a project I’m so passionate about and lucky to have co-founded with my gorgeous business partner Sammie. It’s a clothing line where for each romper we sell we also donate another to a baby in need. We’ve now done donations in over 20 countries world wide.

Now, looking back, am I fussed that 2 (almost 3) of these goals were achieved after the time frame I’d drawn on my piece of “art”? Not really! I was pretty close scraping them all in within 10 months of my time frame.

What’s most important here is that I set myself targets and I achieved them. I wrote down what I wanted to do and become and here I am with every one of them done.

I don’t usually goal set in this way above (pretty pictures, vision boards etc), I have a box of goals which I blogged about here in 2008. It’s super low tech, just a file card box with one goal on each card. When I achieve something I write the date I did it – and usually a little smiley face. I don’t think it matters HOW you go about detailing your goals – just that you do it?

What are your goals? Write them down. Heck – write them down by telling them to me - I want to know – head on over and let me know on
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KirstyDunpheyEmail

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

My New Hero (and she's only 12)

This is my new hero - she's 12 and her name is Lauren.

What she's holding up there is her Dream Board full of things she wants to do, earn, be, have invest in and go to in life.

Lauren's fabulous parents were constructing their Dream Boards when Lauren decided off her own back to head to her room and start clipping and searching and planning for her own future. She was so enthusiastic that her board was the first one completed in their house.

It's an awesome example of someone not content to life drift by them, someone who wants to reach out and create the life she wants.

Just goes to show you you're never too young to start dreaming, planning and working towards your goals. Now if she's 12 and is already a rock star at this - what's stopping you?

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By Kirsty Dunphey with 5 comments

What Will Your Tombstone Say?

I was very thankful tonight to be in a room surrounded by creative, energised people in my hometown of Launceston, Tasmania. There were ideas circulating a plenty, but one of them still has me thinking at 11.17pm, so I decided that had to be the one I shared with you.

Graeme Walker, founder of Walker Designs spoke so passionately about one of his mentors and a tool this mentor had taught him that the entire room went silent as he shared what he'd learnt. The tool was something I interpreted as a great way to prioritise things in your life.

The lesson was simple, but beautifully succinct in it's simplicity and was: figure out what you want your tombstone to say at the end of your life, and when faced with a dilemma, remember back to your tombstone and chose the option that leads towards what you want it to say.

Can't seem to get it out of my head!

I just came across this post from September 11 this year by one of my favourite bloggers Seth Godin which also reinforces this message.

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Daily Fun

I’m a big fan of the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.

He’s got a great blog with lots of useful resources and today I want to share one of my favourite parts with you.

Consider the question: What would you do, day-to-day, if you had $100 million in the bank? If still blocked, fill in the five “doing” spots with the following:

1 place to visit
1 thing to do before you die (a memory of a lifetime)
1 thing to do daily
1 thing to do weekly
1 thing you’ve always wanted to learn

Excerpted from: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/lifestyle-costing/

Until I read this, I rarely thought about my wild-dream-style goals in terms of what I’d love to be doing daily or weekly. Most of my daily goals revolve around actions I believe I have to take that perhaps aren’t always the most fun stuff in the world (exercise, learning, eating correctly).

But if I had $100 million in the bank, what would I like to do daily? Thanks Tim, this put a whole new spin on my thinking.

And if you haven’t read the book I couldn’t recommend it more.

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Can Childhood Dreams Come True?

When I was a kid, I had one recurring dream (that wasn’t a nightmare about Witches from Roald Dahl’s book of the same name). I would climb our fence and jump off it with a towel strapped to my back, just before I hit the ground I would swoop up into the air flying away or towards whatever that dream happened to be about (giants, piles of lollies, you get the drift). I know lots of you have had the same or similar dreams, maybe even a few of you have acted them out with the same painful consequences I encountered, but in watching the following video, which I’m ga-ga about, I realised that if my childhood dream of flying could come true surely nothing is impossible.



If you think back to your childhood your dream may not have been flying, it may have been going to Disneyland, having a happy family with 7 kids, buying your Mum a brand new car, starting your own business or eating 25 big boss cigars in a single sitting.

Maybe you even dreamed of selling a sibling (hey – if James Blunt can do it…)



I don’t know what your childhood dreams were, but I do know that in this world, not much is out of the realms of possibility. Take 5 minutes today and think about what you dreamt of when you were a child, and if you still want it, get to it. I’ve put base jumping in the flying suit in my goal box what’s going in yours?

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By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Why do I have 42 goals?

After the tragically early passing of a friend last year at the very young age of 42, I wrote the number 42 on my hand and kept rewriting it there for days afterwards. I was stunned that someone so vital could have their life cut short at such a young age.

Right now, I have the number 42 on the side of my laptop, always in sight. It’s not there to be macabre, it’s not even just there to remind me of this fabulous man I knew.

42 reminds me that:

1. I probably won’t have much of a say in when my last day on earth will come (difficult for a control freak).

2. That day could come when I’m in my 80’s (http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080707-Women-live-longer-by-the-beach-men-in-the-cold.html?source=cmailer) or it may come sooner or later, either way, see point 1.

3. When that day comes, I do not want to look back and say “I wish I’d done…” or “if only…” or “why didn’t I make time to…”.

So often people ask me about how to set goals for themselves. When it comes to life’s larger goals, I use 42 and ask myself the question: “If I could transport myself forward in time to my last day on earth, what are the things I would have liked to accomplish during that time?”

When you ask yourself that question, often you’ll find a list of life goals will simply flow.

To check out one man’s adventurous search for goal achievement in his life head to: http://johngoddard.info/

To listen to a truly inspiring speech entitled “the last lecture” by Dr. Randy Pausch often spoken of as “the dying man who is teaching people to live” head here http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/06/wow-last-lecture.html

To see what short term goal I just achieved, check out http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/06/goal-achieved.html

If your goals includes travel, you might enjoy: http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/06/goals-need-update.html

To see how I keep track of my goals: http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/02/secret-weapons-to-success-could-be.html

http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/ and check out the final blog of “the world’s” oldest blogger, who lived and blogged into her 106th year before her passing on the 12th of July 2008.

Postscript: I wrote this blog last week, and then this week I was sadly informed of a distant friend, a father of two young boys, who passed of cancer at age 33. I’ve held the blog back, not even sure that I wanted to print it given the recent news. But then a conversation with this man’s close friend showed me that I needed to print this. In his last months, knowing that his last day might be very soon, this father of two took his family away and they enjoyed the trip of life time. They really lived, loved and enjoyed his last few months. My wish for each of you reading this is that you can look back and say that you truly lived as many of the months in your life as possible. Don’t wait until an illness makes you realise your mortality, 42 and now 33 remind me of that each day.

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The A-Z Guide For The Future Entrepreneurial Superstar

Want to be an entrepreneur? So do a lot of people! And a lot of people go to their grave saying “I wish I’d…” and “If only I’d…”. If you’re determined not to be one of them, run through the A-Z and see if you’re on track.

Action – nothing starts without it. What are you doing today, right now (not tomorrow) to get you closer to your goals?

Bare yourself… (to yourself). Ask what it is you really want, what are you passionate about and what are you prepared to do to get there. More importantly, what are you not prepared to do to get there.

Care – Any entrepreneurial endeavour that has clients who care about the company has one leg up. Who are your raving fans? Who cares about what you do? What can you do to further cultivate that?

Dare – Risk doesn’t necessarily have to mean risky, but any entrepreneur dares where others don’t. Are you ready to be daring?

Eat up knowledge – anywhere you can and do it daily.

Friends – know who your real ones are and keep them close to you as you rise to the top.

Get up and go. No-one can train this into you. If you get up in the morning and want to go back to bed rather than off to pursue your entrepreneurial visions – get new visions that inspire you to get up and going.

Hug it out. Thank often and sincerely. Clients, staff, mentors, friends, parents and even your garbage person if they’ve helped you.

Individuality – what makes you special, unique and individual? How can you harness your special talents

Joke – keep laughing and smiling, you’ll need it for those less than perfect days.

Kill them with kindness. There is only one type of revenge you should ever enact on people who’ve slighted you in the business world, or said you couldn’t make it. Become amazingly successful! Nothing else you can do would make their stomachs turn even half as much.

Leverage – get the most talented people you can around you (people who are a heck of a lot smarter than you in their field). If you want to be all and do all yourself you’ll never have a saleable scaleable business.

Motion. Stay active in your mind and in your body. You’re no good to anyone if you’re not fit and healthy.

No. Learn how to say it. You can’t get to the top being everything to everyone.

Off switch. Find yours. Whether it’s yoga, gazing into your partner’s eyes or a marathon xbox-ing session, learn how to turn it off when you need to.

Passion! Even if your business is cleaning toilets, find something you can be passionate about within it. Whether it’s the systems, the service, the clients or even the relaxing sound of toilets flushing!

Questions – ask heaps! Find people who have done what you want to do, who drive the car you want to drive, whose staff think of them the way you want to be thought of and ask them questions.

Rough, tough and ready for critics. Got your tough outer shell on? The ride won’t always be easy and the comments about you won’t always be pretty.

Systems. Put them in place early and assess often. If your business can’t work without you – it’s not a business, it’s just a job for you.

Toxic people – get them out of your life! If you work with them, are friends with them or even have them in your family – stop hanging around them all the time. Strive for associations with positive, fabulous people who make you a better person.

Ubercool. Can you and your business be übercool? Are you setting in place the things that will make people one day say “I want my business to be just like ”

Voice. Find yours and make it heard. Publicity, press releases, media schmoozing – it’s all out there for free if you can make your voice heard.

Want a lot of stuff (success, things, travel, lifestyle, to be able to be philanthropic). Want it badly. And then get out there and get it.

X-ray like vision – use yours to stay on top of the latest trends, movements and shifts in your industry and in others. Challenge the status quo at every opportunity!

You are the CEO of your own life. What are you going to do with it?

Zorbing – do it or something you think is as much fun (skydiving, ride a roller coaster, travel to the pyramids, join the mile high club) as often as you can – why do you want to be an entrepreneur if not to do amazing things with your personal life as well.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

What's on your list?

I'm passionate about lists.

I'm passionate about goals.

Knowing that can you even imagine how passionate I am about my list of goals?! They sit in a box by my desk and each week I add to them. I add to the things I want to do before I leave this earth.

I found this great video online at: http://www.goals-2-go.com/ showing one person's goal list and what they've done with it. Enjoy!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments