Photo by Porcelaingirl

Unless we’re unlucky enough to be permanently locked away in a box somewhere, or have the social-appeal of a saliva-flecked serial killer, most of us will probably interact with a fair number of other people on any normal given day.

Often, those interactions will begin with a “Hello” or “Hi”, and quite frequently “How are you?”

How do you respond when someone asks how you are?

Do you take a moment for a considered answer? Do you trot out some rote phrase? Do you snap out a few quick words based on your emotional state at the time?

For years, I had two responses to this questions: “I’m getting there” and “Soldiering on in the face of adversity” Both of which I thought were fairly positive and encouraging, without being too Pollyanna. I felt like I wanted to be upbeat, but in a subtle, British sort-of-way. Despite airing these phrases whenever I was asked, I never really elicited any meaningful reactions… And I don’t suppose I ever expected that I would.

About 6 months ago, someone caught me on a particularly good day… I’d either solved a huge problem, or was enjoying the fruits of a creative venture, when they asked me this question… And my response was an instant, resounding “I’m fabulous. How are you?”

Talk about a difference in response - Instead of the usual rueful smirk, or nod of the head, I got a huge smile in return and a heartfelt “I’m really good. Thanks.”

I realized instantly that I was onto something, and began using “I’m fabulous” as my response any time anyone asked after me. From then on I seemed to be moving through a much happier universe… everyone was much better and more positive than they had been before.

I loved it, and have been using “fabulous” as one of my favorite words ever since. I might use “moderately fabulous” if asked in a business setting, or by someone in a bad mood. I tend to be fabulous from about 5:02 AM until about 11PM at night.

Try Being Fabulous…

This is such an insanely simple but powerful change, I cannot recommend it enough…

Next time someone asks how you are, respond instantly with “I’m fabulous” or “I’m having a fabulous day”, don’t even think about it. Then, when the fabulousness has had a chance to sink in, watch how this changes the dynamic of your conversation - instantly, you’re both on a more positive footing. It’s great!

Try it today… Start right now to respond with fabulousness and verve. It doesn’t even have to be true… By saying it you start to make it true!

Go on, be fabulous… I dare you!

Bonus Tip: For those readers who are into Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites, why not go there now and change your status to “I’m fabulous, how are you?” It will take seconds, but you’ll feel better I guarantee!

Photo by Scramblejam

There are many different aspects involved in setting and keeping goals, and in building positive new habits - one of the most important I think is having some visible way to track your progress.

Our chosen goals and desired changes can often become lost in the myriad demands on our time, and without a consistent system for openly monitoring our day-to-day progress, we are restricting our ability to successfully stick to a our plans.

Whilst there are lots of possibilities for intelligently tracking progress towards an objective - weight charts for the dieters, savings graphs for financially astute - I regularly tackle goals that warrant tracking a daily or few-times-a-week occurrence.

If you’re trying to give up smoking, manage your spending, meditate daily or visit the gym 3 times a week - an invaluable tool to help you establish your habit is a visual tracker that allows you to cross-off/mark/star the days when you have successfully achieved your aim.

Over the last few years, I have experimented with various different systems for monitoring my daily habit changes - Joes Goals is a very popular online system, and is completely free; I’ve also tried the Goal Pro software, which I didn’t get on so well with. My preferred type of tool is a tangible paper-based system - I’ve toyed with the Ben Franklin Hack from Zen Habits and have created more than a few different versions of my own tracker worksheet.

Once I began to play around with these systems, discovering what worked and what sucked - I was able to figure out what my ideal solution was going to do for me, and how it needed to work. Eventually my system evolved into the tracker I use now, every single day, and which I highly recommend.

Daily Habit Tracking with the Compact Calendar Hack

The Compact Calendar is a visual calendar planning system, invented by Dave Seah (a very clever chap). His original idea was to use the Calendar for planning in meetings - enabling users to visually map out blocks of work and to plan resources. I originally downloaded the calendar to do just this, but found I hadn’t really needed to use them as intended - the printed copies I had were hanging around unused.

It was then I realized that the simplicity and elegance of the Compact Calendar layout lent itself wonderfully to a Daily Progress Tracking system - I could mark the days with a sticker, a square, circle or whatever (or some complicated notation system) and I had a huge space on the right to add notes, ideas, mini-mind-maps, feedback and comments where needed.

I started with playing with the system the next day, and found it had everything I needed, and was so simple and easy-to-use that it just worked.

Now, for every new change I am trying to make, or new goal I am trying to reach, I create a Compact Calendar Daily Tracker - I write a motivating title for my goal, write down the important notes and caveats which are relevant to my goal (visit gym for at least 30 minutes, don’t buy chocolate, drink lots of water) and I’m done - My goal is set, the rules are laid out and I have a customized daily tracker where I can mark my progress as I go.

As far as tracking your goals is concerned, it doesn’t get much easier.

Notes and Suggestions

• This tracker system works really well for well-thought-out, objective goals, where you can be damn sure about whether you achieved it or not. I know exactly whether I got up on time or not, or if I ate chocolate or not - make sure the criteria for a successful tick are crystal clear.
• If you’re starting a tracker part-way through the year, you can minimize the negative impact of a big blank unsuccessful space at the start of the year by coloring it in, outlining it or writing over the top of it.
• Don’t be put off by the visual impact of a whole year on one page - if you’re tackling a 30-day challenge or tackling a short-term goal just draw an outline round the designated time period and forget about the rest.
• There are no rules for using this system really - You can write whatever you want on the right, and fill-in the boxes on the left in whatever way floats your boat at the time.
• Get creative! - Use your worksheet as a chance to get really creative and fun. Achieving your goals is supposed to be a challenging, but enjoyable process - make filling in your worksheet enjoyable too! Use bright colours, squares, squiggles, mini-diagrams, sketches of yourself… Whatever works!

Habit Tracker Gallery

Below are some scanned worksheets that I have been working on since the beginning of the year, showing progress towards some of my current goals.

Blank tracker Worksheet	Blogging Worksheet 2008	Exercise Worksheet 2008