Pick Four (4 Pack - Designed to Share) [Spiral-bound]

This is a review of my experience with the original planner, not the one here, which I published, hence no conflict of interest...

When I first encountered Zig, my business was bust. I had no revenue, plenty of rejections, few prospects for a change and a loud noise in my head. Zig's tapes became a constant companion in the car--it got to the point where people refused to drive anywhere with me unless I turned him off.

At the core of the message was Zig's relentless positive attitude and his focus on written goals. I started writing down my goals, keeping track of daily effort, which led to daily progress which led to a dramatic shift in my working life.

It's an incredible privilege for me to modernize this work and bring it out in this new form. But the essence is still the same: if you do the work, if you write it down, things will change. And faster than you expect.

Go, do the work.

Thank you Zig.

"Pick Four" by Seth Godin is a very simple but very powerful 12-week goal program. Basically, Seth Godin has taken Zig Ziglar's Goals Program and updated and simplified it. Both the great strength and the great weakness of the book is its simplicity.

The simplicity of the book is one of its greatest strengths because unlike other books that deal with setting goals and the change process, this book contains a bare minimum of theory. In essence, the research on change and setting effective goals shows that 3 things are necessary:

1. Small steps
2. Consistent effort
3. Group support

The simplicity of the book makes the concepts easy to find, understand, and implement. I've tried plans for setting goals and changing by Stephen Covey and others but for some reason have not kept up with them consistently. I'm hoping that because the plan is so simple that I'll stick with this plan for the rest of my life.

The plan takes the reader through the process of selecting meaningful and important goals and narrowing them down to the most important 4. Then, for each goal, a 2-page analysis of benefits, obstacles, and the plan for the goal are listed. Most of the book actually consists simply of a daily log for 12 weeks in which the reader tracks how well he's doing on his goals.

The simplicity of the book is also its weakness. Although it's possible to get weighed down by too much theory, I would have liked to see more explanation of the philosophy of setting goals and change. Also, it would have been helpful if there were more information about how to adapt the goals if they're not working out for some reason. Some people, too, might need more help in formulating the goals or in getting motivated. The book only contains a brief introduction and only spends a little time on preparing the goals: most of the book is the daily goal analysis pages.

Another weakness of Pick Four is that it comes in a 4-pack. What if I only want 1 copy of the book and can make or use my own daily planner? Seth should sell the book in single copies as well.

Overall, I look forward to using this simple plan, sticking to it, and seeing the fruits of my labor in my life and the lives of others.

I heard about these planners through Seth Godin's blog. Having benefited so much from Seth's books and his core principle of "ship it," I ordered these as soon as they were out. I was not disappointed. I took them on a personal retreat last August and came up with 4 goals for the next 12 weeks. Last Friday was the final day of my 12-week journey with these 4 goals. I did not fully achieve all four, but one of the four was to launch a new business venture. THAT one was spectacularly fulfilled. I was so encouraged each week--each day in some cases--about how I was making progress toward this goal of having this venture up and running and very profitable from the start. I gave myself a week off and am starting another 12 weeks with a new set of goals next week. Even on the goals I did not fully achieve, I got so much more accomplished toward them than I would have done otherwise. And the analysis that the planner walked me through each week helped me understand the resistance that kept presenting itself on those goals. So I now have a better handle on why one of the goals in particular was so hard to achieve.

I have used other goal systems, but this one takes you by the hand and actually walks you through the pursuit of the goals you set. That gives it a kind of accountability factor. If you actually take the daily small steps toward the goals you write, you will find yourself so much farther down the road at the end of the 12 weeks than you would have been without this focusing/accountability tool. It sure worked for me....and I am ordering 2 more packs of them to give to clients and relatives as New Year's gifts. Thanks, Seth, for putting these together again.