Yesterday was the day of bugs. I’ll tell you how this relates to my blog in a minute.

For starters, in the morning as I went to grab my bike and leave for work, a small brown spider scuffled across the inside of my helmet. Panicked, I dropped the helmet and to my terror LOST THE SPIDER. If I don’t find this damn thing, the next time our paths cross he’ll be crawling on my face. After five minutes of searching desperately to no avail, I gave up, hoping the spider had spontaneously vanished into thin air. Skip ahead ten minutes. I’m merrily riding on the bike path (now on month three of the No Car Challenge - can you believe it?) and who do I see?! The spider! Crawling on my handlebars! I grabbed a branch and whisked him off into a nearby tree. I think it’s the first time I have actually saved a spider.

Now fast-forward to the ride home. First a bug flies into my mouth. Then one goes up my nose. THEN I ride straight into a swarm of gnats. All the meanwhile I’m squinting, spitting and ducking just to get home without filling up on bugs for dinner.

All these bugs got me thinking. (You knew I’d get to the point sometime, right?) Last week I had a rough week at work. I felt like emails and tasks kept flying at me and I could barely swat them away before getting bombarded by the next swarm.

Not to be confused with eating frogs, sometimes you have to ride through bugs with your head down to actually get home. You can’t always get from A to Z without a few annoyances here and there - the ride isn’t ALWAYS sunny and enjoyable. The bugs (and seemingly random tasks) keep things interesting - and keep us on our feet. We should learn to tolerate and maybe even enjoy them! I got a pretty good laugh out of the bugs yesterday, even though at the time it didn’t seem very funny. Sometimes we forget to keep our sense of humor amidst the craziness of work. And rather than being paralyzed by fear, sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. Close your eyes, put your head down, pedal a little faster, and make it through the week.

It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it.”

What if I told you that you already have all of the skills, resources and talent you need to pursue what you really want?
What if you already knew all the right people?
What if your current job was the perfect one to equip you with the lessons you need for your future goals and dreams?
What if your next opportunity was already available to you?

Let’s try it this way:
Stop for a minute. Tell your inner critic to go take a walk.

You already have all of the skills, resources and talent you need.

So what’s next?

I’ll be the first to admit - I’ve become an assessment addict lately. I’ve taken every self-assessment I can get my hands on, starting with Myers Briggs, the book StrengthFinders 2.0 and most recently a fantastic online tool called the VIA Institute on Character - Signature Strengths survey. In the past, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my weaknesses and areas for development. These assessments have helped me realize the incredible power available to me if I actually tap into my strengths and turn up the volume on innate talents. To that end, I found the VIA Survey to be incredibly helpful, rich with data and free!, which is why I’m sharing it with you.

The survey contains 240 questions “designed to reveal individual character strengths” and takes about 30 minutes to complete. Once you finish, it spits out a report with a ranking and description of your top five “signature” strengths. You can also expand the report to show all 24 characteristics, ranked in descending order of how much of each strength you possess. The idea is that your top five strengths are the ones to pay attention to and find ways to use more often.

If it’s of any interest to you (perhaps some of these have come out in my blog posts), according to this report my strengths are:

1. Hope, optimism and future-mindedness
2. Creativity, ingenuity and originality
3. Perspective (wisdom)
4. Judgment, critical thinking and open-mindedness
5. Love of learning

Click here to take the VIA Signature Strengths survey and uncover your own strengths - you might be surprised by the results!

I first saw this image on a blog called Power of Mortality: it’s a picture of 936 “blobs” or dots that represent the average number of months in a person’s life. Seeing it visually is very powerful - it caused me to really question what I’m doing with the minutes, days, and weeks contained in each little dot. Click on the image to see it closely for yourself:

As Patrick, author of Power of Morality, puts it: “Remember that 936 is just the statistical norm. It’s not a number that you are guaranteed, owed or otherwise entitled to.”

Setting goals is easy. Pick something you want to do or have and follow the SMART formula. Sticking to the goals you’ve set is an entirely different story.

Some goals are slippery - they never really seem graspable, and before you know it you’ve forgotten all about them. Really meaningful goals are sticky - they take on a life of their own, and you can’t help but work on them consistently and tirelessly until you reach them. I ran 21 miles this past weekend (yes, me!), something I never thought would be possible, and it got me thinking about sticky goals - and how I’ve been able to stick to my marathon training.

The following strategies have helped me stick to my goal and get to the point where running the marathon actually seems possible and enjoyable. I give all of this information with the caveat that I have *not* actually achieved my ultimate goal yet (finishing the marathon in October) – but I feel successful (and like I’ve learned a ton) having even come this far.

How to “Stick” to your Goals: 

Get Inspired
I had been tip-toeing around the idea or running a marathon for almost a year before I finally committed to doing it in June. My friend Laura trained for a marathon on her own last year, and I was completely awestruck and inspired that she could do it at all, let alone on her own. That got me thinking, then someone – a complete stranger - gave me the last little push I needed.

Mark, author of the blog Marathonomy, read a blog post of mine and commented about running. I wrote back to thank him and told him I “was still too scared to train for a marathon…can’t tell you why.” He wrote back with a link to the following video: Running My First Marathon - and I was so inspired that I made a decision to commit right then and there, and haven’t looked back since. What struck me most about the video is that the woman running wasn’t an Olympic marathoner - she was just like me, and if she could do it, then so could I!

Even though I’ve never felt like a natural-born runner (did I mention I was the last one to finish the 25K earlier this summer?) I’ve also been inspired by my Dad, who ran several marathons in his lifetime in  cities like London, Greece, Paris and San Francisco. When I find myself questioning my motivation, I ask him to tell me stories about his experiences (one involved getting booed by thousands of people as he passed an 80-year-old man at the finish line).

Getting (and staying) inspired - whether by videos, friends, family or a cause that’s important to you - is an incredibly important part of sticking to a goal - its what recharges your battery when you’re ready to quit.

Set-up Regular Accountability
As soon as I committed to my goal, I called my Dad and let him know. I also wrote 10 questions on a piece of paper, and asked if he would help keep me accountable by reviewing them with me every Sunday. Questions like, “Did you do your long run?”, “What did you learn from running this week?” and “Are you having fun?” help keep me on track and focused not just on the goal, but on the process too. Plus – I know I can’t get away with completely quitting – otherwise what would I tell my Dad on our Sunday call?!

Visualize Success
I can’t stress enough the importance of visualizing success – seeing yourself from the perspective of someone who has already achieved their goal. It creates a positive reality to work toward, and cements what success will be like. I designed a SELF magazine cover and taped it to my bathroom mirror to visually represent my goal. I also wrote a “feature” article as if I were being interviewed about the diet and exercise habits that led to my success, and how great I felt as a result.

When my morale dips during a run, I reconnect with my original vision - picture myself crossing the finish line at the actual marathon, surrounded by friends and family, and how elated and proud I will feel.

Consider the Alternative - Not Sticking to Your Goal
The alternative to sticking to my goal is giving up. When I think about giving up, I think about how that would make me feel. I would feel deflated, discouraged and disappointed.

As challenging as it can be to get motivated sometimes, I know it would feel far worse to let myself down. If my mom taught me one thing throughout my years of sports and after school activities, it’s that I am not a quitter. I learned the value of sticking with something even when it gets rough, knowing it will make me a better teammate, and ultimately a stronger person, in the end.

Avoid the ‘All or Nothing’ Trap
Maybe you’ve experienced this before: giving up on a goal after just one slight misstep. On a diet: I ate something I shouldn’t have for breakfast, so the whole day is shot and I might as well go completely overboard for the rest of the day. Or, I didn’t go to the gym on Monday, so the whole week is shot and I might as well not start again until next week.

I call this the ‘All or Nothing’ trap - its the feeling that if I can’t do something 100%, I shouldn’t do it at all. Or if I veer off course, I might as well stop and let everything fall apart rather than make an adjustment and get right back on track. There’s a Wikipedia article about Perfectionism that references this negative type of thinking, “where [people] believe that an achievement is either perfect or useless.” So how does this apply to running, or sticking to your goals? It’s important for me that if I miss one run (or more!) that I keep going and start right where I left off.

Take Your Goal One Hour, One Day, One Week at a Time
At many points in my early weeks of training, I got completely overwhelmed at the thought of running 21 miles on my own, let alone a full marathon. At that point I felt like 8 miles was my max. I had to constantly remind myself not to worry about the future weeks – just next Saturday’s long run. I told myself I’ll have plenty of opportunities to worry about those longer runs later, so why start now?! And little by little, week by week, I built on the previous weeks’ accomplishments and was able to achieve just a little bit more, to the point where the next leap didn’t seem so impossible anymore.

The same goes for when I am actually on the long run – I take it one step, five minutes, one hour at a time. I don’t worry about how I am going to finish, or if I can make it the full 4:45 minutes. I just GO.

The point here? Don’t let yourself get scared away by the magnitude of your goal. What makes it sticky is that you break it down in to smaller steps that seem more possible, and that build on each other to create confidence and stickiness! Plus, once you’ve built on your goal over time (and told friends, family and your blog readers!), you’re truly invested and it’s a lot harder to just give up and walk away.

Don’t Forget About Gratitude
Rather than complain about how miserable I am during my run, I focus on everything I am thankful for. I’m thankful that I am able to run at all. That I am healthy and strong. That my body is willing to put up with me throughout this crazy training process. That I get five hours outdoors, to think and be alone. I am thankful that I get to enjoy nature – the blue sky, the birds, the water and the people-watching. I am thankful for the huge boost in self-esteem I feel after I finish a long run.  I am thankful for my supportive friends and family, who encourage me every step of the way. I am thankful for my blog readers (especially those who made it to the end of this long post!), who help encourage me and keep me accountable, and who allow me to have an outlet for sharing this great experience.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts or tips for how you stick to your Big Scary Hairy Goals - and have them stick to you!

I’ve neglected posting to the food category of this blog, mostly because I’m a terrible cook and spoiled by Google food. That said, I just got a reader tip about a fantastic recipe search engine called Super Cook: Recipe Search, Served Well Done.

The site allows you to search for recipes based on ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. There’s a box on the left called “Your Kitchen” that keeps track of the ingredients you list (the site says “for best results enter all the ingredients you have at home”). Recipes will then populate on the right-hand side of the page based on the ingredients you’ve listed. You can view all results at once or filter by Starters, Entrees and Desserts. Funny side note: I used “garlic” as a test ingredient and a few desserts actually came up! Lemon-garlic sorbet anyone?

To learn more, you can take a tour or read the excerpt from their About page below:

“Most recipe search engines are very simple: a user types a query (like ’shrimp with garlic’) and the engine returns a list of recipes which contain those words. Typically, the recipes returned will require many additional ingredients the user might not have at home. When coming across an interesting recipe, the user then either leaves out the additional ingredients or heads out to the supermarket to buy them. It is precisely this problem that Supercook aims to solve. Supercook returns recipes you can actually make right now with the ingredients you have.”

Happy searching, cooking and eating!

I’m taking a break from being so serious all the time. Here are some fun (hilarious, actually) websites that have nothing to do with your career, your bank account, or your life dreams. Enjoy!

Passive Aggressive Notes (Painfully polite and hilariously hostile messages)

Sorry I Missed Your Party (Pictures of other people’s parties from Flickr)

Fail Blog (Mishaps, mistakes and other unfortunate incidents captured and shared for the world to see)

Vice Do’s and Dont’s (similar theme - laughing at others’ expense…I’m starting to feel guilty about that, but here it is anyway)

The Office Life (The ridiculous business jargon dictionary)

Daily Puppy (Your Daily Fix for Puppy Pictures) and Cute Overload (all kinds of animals, all kinds of cuteness)

Now I KNOW some of you reading this have your own artillery of funny sites and would like to give me (and others) a much-needed laugh by leaving them as a comment. Plus, comments on my blog make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

With so much personal information floating around about me (and others) on the web, from blogs to Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter, I’ve become increasingly aware of the messages I’m sending to the world. Right now they seem scattered, impermanent and miscellaneous.

Who am I? - it’s a question I will be asking for a long time. But right now the more appropriate question seems to be “who am I” to the World Wide Web and it’s millions of users? To my boss and my co-workers? Of the abundance of available information about me, what is the central message that captures the core of who I am and who I strive to be? Enter personal branding. I’ve tuned my antennae to this concept recently, and wanted to share a number of resources with you on how to create and convey a powerful message of who you are and what you can deliver to this world.

Blog: I mentioned a site called Idea Sandbox earlier this week that focuses on creative problem solving and branding. Here’s a post called “Elevator Pitch: YOUR TV Show Opening Narration” about boiling down messages you deliver about what you do (or what you are working on). Paul also put together a FANTASTIC resource called “Pave Your Life Roadmap” that walks you through simple exercises for identifying your passions, finding themes to arrive at core values, articulating what is important to you and what you want in your life, and bringing it home with action steps. This is one of the most simple (and fun!) approaches to life planning I’ve seen in a long time, and I find that no matter how many times I think, “I’ve already done that” - I come up with something new.

Update: Check out Dan Schwabel’s Personal Branding Blog for more great resources. Thanks for getting in touch, Dan!

Article: The Brand Called You (Fast Company). “Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand.” The author, Tom Peters, breaks his advice down to address the following key questions: What makes you different? What is your pitch? What’s the real power of you? What is the future of you? The article is detailed and thought-provoking - definitely worth a read.

Podcast: Authors Christine Hassler (20-Something, 20-Everything), Alexandra Levit (They Don’t Teach Corporate in College), and Lindsey Pollak (Getting From College to Career) chat about “how to establish and communicate your personal brand, why a strong personal brand is essential in the 21st century work world, and how to effectively self-promote without bragging.” Listen to the Podcast.

TV: Donny Deutsch’s Big Idea: What’s Your Brand? “Successful people know exactly who and what they are - and the most successful brands evolve. Four cornerstones to brilliant branding and help you create your business and personal mission statement for success.”

Book: Career Distinction - Stand Out by Building Your Brand (William Arruda). From the inside flap, “As a professional, your reputation is your most valuable career asset. Whether you’re climbing the ladder at your current company or seeking a new job, in today’s fast-paced work environment, you must proactively and continuously position yourself for success. Your credibility, visibility, personality, and personal style all make up your brand. Build and nurture your personal brand and you’ll make yourself a must-have, can’t-fail professional—and you’ll do it without having to be someone you’re not.”

Arruda describes the following key elements to building a brand:

• Brand yourself for career success
• Determine how others perceive you
• Develop your unique value proposition
• Define your target audience
• Tell your brand story
• Express yourself clearly and consistently
• Build and manage your online identity
• Stay on-message and on-brand every day
• Increase your “career karma

As for my brand? Still working on it.

It’s been a while since my last “Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself” list, so I present you with the next round (this is by no means comprehensive, as I can barely keep up with my feeds):

• No Idea Left Behind: 25 Tools for Capturing Ideas Anywhere (LifeDev)
• 5 Tips to Beat Procrastination (Idea-Sandbox.com)
• 5 Reasons to Write Down Everything You Eat for a Week (Dumb Little Man)
• 8 Essential Skills they Don’t Teach You in School (Stepcase Lifehack)
• Living up to your Potential is BS (Brazen Careerist)
• Learn to Build and Manage Your Credit, While You’re Young (Mint.com)
• Getting Back on the Right Life Path (The Change Blog) - thanks for sharing in Reader, Kristi!
• 9 Tips for Staying Motivated to Exercise (Happiness Project)
• Back to Basics: Projects (Stepcase Lifehack)

Read any great blog posts lately? Do tell!

I love to read. At any given time, I’ve got three books in progress (most related to business and personal growth), and I religiously read two newspapers a day (the NYT & WSJ). When I was growing up, I always ate my breakfast while reading the back of a cereal box. Now I read (and highlight) at the gym on the elliptical, while walking my dog, and while eating breakfast. For me, reading is how I teach myself new skills (with a healthy dose of practice, of course).

For some, reading is enjoyable and educational - for others, a complete chore. For those of you kinesthetic, tactile and visual learners who prefer to learn by watching and doing - there are a number of websites to help you do this. The New York Times Magazine ran an article on Sunday about this very topic, called “Tiny Talents: Instruction, especially in trivial skills, is one of the Web’s great giveaways.”

The following are popular instructional sites mentioned in the article to get you started:

Howcast: “Cool how-to videos and guides from cutting-edge filmmakers, savvy experts - and you!”

eHow: “How to do just about everything”

WonderHowTo: “Video instructions, tutorials and hacks”

Instructables: “The World’s Biggest Show and Tell”

SuTree: “Learn How to Do Anything on the Web”

VideoJug: “Life Explained. On film.”

ExpertVillage: “How to videos, free clips, and more”

And of course, there is always YouTube (motto: “Broadcast Yourself”). Happy Learning!