Goal Boosting at Starbucks

This was a first for me. After having tea and checking my email, I started writing this blog post on my iPad at Starbucks. I arrived too early for my client appointment and had some extra time.

I'm a frequent Starbucks customer, and while I’ve spent many hours at various locations sipping lattes and relaxing, I’ve never done any writing on the premises until today.  I find this funny because I always see other people working on their laptops and wonder how they can focus with all the noise.

My preferred time and place to write my blog has typically been at my desktop, surrounded by the quiet, privacy, and comfort of my home. Starbucks has an entirely different atmosphere. There are many sounds like continual music, steamed liquids being prepared, the buzz of many conversations, beverage requests being taken, feet shuffling, and chairs moving. To add to the activity, the Starbucks where I sat was in New York City. There was as much going on inside as there was outside.

To my surprise, I enjoyed the change of scenery from where I usually write. It breathed new life into one of my 2011 goals of writing a weekly blog post. This month, I’m writing about "Fresh Start," which corresponds to chapter one of my book, The Other Side of Organized.

Beginning again with a clean slate or a completely different slate can be enervating. It's what I experienced this morning. So, as you're setting your goals and making some changes, think about shaking things up. I accidentally stumbled upon this at Starbucks simply by changing the location where I usually write. What slight alteration can you make to bring you closer to accomplishing one of your goals?

I’d love to hear about your best goal-boosting strategies.