With the plenary of philosophers and self-improvement gurus in all forms of media, it is amazing how many times a day are we informed that all we need to do is, have a dream and go after it. Many of the clients of PARTNERING TO SUCCESS have told me that Partnering is the secret to success. Well I hate to rain on your parade, but there is no secret. Partnering simply addresses one of the Top Ten reasons for failure to reach your goals.

Although the accountability that “Partners” enjoy is a major key success factor, any one of the ten will lead to falling short in goal attainment.
The goals can be personal; IE, Lose weight, remodel the kitchen, get our finances in order, clean up my credit. Or, your goals may be work related; IE, improve customer service skills, make more cold calls, close more sales, listen better, improve my leadership skills, et cetera. Review the listing and rate yourself on each of the items. Be honest with yourself and identify the areas in your personal planning which need improvement.

10) I’LL DO IT TOMORROW: Procrastination! Too many people just keep putting of until tomorrow, that which they know they need to do today. Why? Because it’s easy! Short term, it’s always easier to do nothing. If you know you need to improve in some area, make it a priority, develop a plan, and Partner with someone to make it happen.

9) TOO MANY BALLS IN THE AIR: At times, we all feel like we are juggling too many things in our day to day lives. Many folks enjoy having things on their “To Do” list, simply to check them off. Select two, maybe three things that you want to work on this year. Make those your Priority.

8) DON’T REALLY WANT TO: It’s important to note that nobody can motivate you. Each of us can motivate ourselves, and only ourselves. If someone else tells you to go after this goal, it is not likely to give you the passion and drive you need to achieve it. The goal must be important to you and your success.

7) NOT SURE IT’S IMPORTANT: Once you have established a goal, it sometimes can become secondary to other objectives in life. If the goal is not important to you, it will not be achieved. By the way, just because it is important to the boss, it may not be important to the employee.

6) DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT! All too often people set goals for themselves, create a plan, and go after their objective. However, without the knowledge of how to do it, they ultimately fail. An essential element of your plan should be to test your knowledge and educate yourself. WARNING: Don’t overeducate yourself. Some people never get things done because they try to make it perfect. As the old saying goes, “don’t let perfect get in the way of good.”

5) CAN’T DO IT: Certainly every one of us has fallen into this category. We want to accomplish something specific, we make it a priority, we develop our plan, and we Partner to hold each other accountable. Unfortunately, we plainly don’t possess the ability to carry it out. One can plan to hike to the top of Pikes Peak; however, without the ability to cope with the altitude, the plan will just not come together.

4) SOMETHING IS MISSING: If the right tools aren’t in the tool box, the job will be difficult or perhaps even impossible. No matter what the task, if the proper resources are not available, the job won’t get done. Attitude and aptitude are vitally important, but without a computer, a PowerPoint presentation would be very difficult deliver.

3) CAN”T STICK TO IT: Every one of us gets distracted. The phone rings, a visitor stops by, something of interest enters our mind, new objectives are given to us or identified by ourselves, and the list goes on. According to a recently completed survey by NFI Research, two of the top sources of stress for managers are interruptions (47%) and conflicting responsibilities (37%). Focus, focus, focus! Post your major objectives in plain sight, put little reminders around your office or home, and remember that your Partner will help you maintain focus. If your goals are most important, then maintaining focus should not be a problem.

2) NO WRITTEN PLAN: Have a purpose. Too many folks go through life and never understand their purpose. “Things” take up the hours of our lives, but in the end, many individuals look back a simply regret many things they didn’t do. Once you have identified your major priorities, it’s time to develop a plan to achieve them. Make sure the plan is written and includes the following:

• Specific objectives and milestones. The steps to reach your goal
• Measures that will indicate how you are progressing
• Attainable elements…things you can do
• Results oriented statements and actions
• Timing of each objective so you know when you are finished

If you fail to plan…you plan to fail.

1) NO ACCOUNTABILITY: The number one reason people fail to accomplish their goals is lack of accountability. Any effective seminar, class, or workshop will include an action planning segment in the program. Participants write their action plan, often share it with others at their table, sometimes read it aloud to the entire group, and fully intend to implement the planned changes in their work and/ or personal life. Come Monday, they fall right back into the same old behaviors and fail to execute the plan. Be honest, you’ve done it, I’ve done it, everybody does it. That’s where Partnering comes into play. This process offers a simple and unique approach to accountability. Question, if we could hold ourselves accountable, wouldn’t we already be doing it? Are there things in your life you know must change, but never do? You need a Partner, and by the way, they need one too.

Don’t let any of these ten things keep you from achieving the success you expect. Prioritize, Plan, and Partner.

Have you ever set goals for something you really wanted to accomplish and then fallen short? Well, probably if the answer to the first part of that question is “yes,” then the answer to the second part of the question is “yes.” Falling short of the goal (notice I did not say failing!) is a normal part of the process! The question is: “Then what?”

First, you have to decide whether the goal is still important to you. Face it, things change. Sometimes we set a goal and gradually drift away from doing the work necessary to achieve it because we have lost interest in the goal. Something more important has come up in our life, or we find that the goal isn’t really worth the cost (effort, concentration, etc.) that is required to achieve it. So, reexamine the goal.

Now, assuming the goal is still important to you, reset the goal! This is important. Don’t just leave the old goal out there and say “Well, it’s still my goal, I’ll reach it sometime.” Instead, go through the same process you did when you originally set the goal.

Let me give you an example from my own life. Last year I had set a weight-loss goal. My goal was to lose 45 pounds in about 8-1/2 months because my wife and I were going to go on our first cruise. We wanted to lose weight to look better for the cruise, so that gave us good motivation. I had another motivator. I had a couple pieces of really fine clothes that I had never been able to wear on a regular basis because…you know why! The clothes would fit really well after I had lost 25 pounds.

I could see myself in those clothes because they were real, and I could easily visualize it. I lost 25 pounds in about five months and another five pounds in the month after that. Then I stalled. I kept the weight off (until after the cruise), but I didn’t lose any more. Even after the cruise I maintained my 25 pound loss.

Now, think about it…that is not a BAD thing! I lost 25 pounds and after 14 months from the start of that diet I’m still down 25 pounds. But, I want to lose another 20 pounds. So, I didn’t really fail, but I haven’t reached the goal.

What to do? Find new motivation (obviously, just wanting to lose it isn’t enough!) and reset the goal. Just remembering that I haven’t finished is not enough; I need a new, revitalized goal, one I can achieve.

My motivation came last week with the announcement that my high school class (of ‘63) has another reunion planned for this summer. There’s the new motivation; now I’ve reset the goal. I have the goal weight identified, I have a definite target date for accomplishing the goal, and I know the method I will use to accomplish it.

Let me summarize what I did to reset the goal:

1. I recognized the fact that I had not reached the original goal.
2. I decided that the goal is something I really want to accomplish.
3. I examined the reasons for having fallen short.
4. I found a way to correct those reasons.
5. I reset the goal with a new date, a new motivator, and a plan of action.

 

The key is to set a new goal; don’t just remember the old one. Concentrating on the old, missed goal is a negative and will not motivate you to succeed. Setting a new goal with a revitalized plan of action that you can believe in is a positive motivation…and you WILL succeed!

Are you in the same old place? Are you looking to have a break out year? Looking to take charge of your life?

Many people start off their Networking business with great hopes but no idea what it takes to make it successful. One must understand this simple but hard truth. We are where we are in life due to the way we think and the actions we take. If you are not in the place you want to be then we MUST change our thinking and actions. If you always do what you have always done you will always have what you had (author unknown). Learning to master this critical area will help you avoid a pitfall that derails most people.

Develop A Mental MAP

Nothing happens, nothing changes until we put our success plan into action. As simple as this is I have watched countless people get stuck right here. It is so easy to let our daily routine interfere with our plans to have a breakout year. So we are going to do something that I am sure your not going to like when I say it. That’s right-goal setting! Done wrong they can be a hindrance, done right it can be fun and motivating. Just a little note, all and I mean all successful people are goal oriented. If you feel like you don’t need to set goals then why do all successful people do it?

When you put a goal into your brain (especially when you review it daily) your subconscious mind will work unceasingly to bring this to a reality. First keep your goals somewhat achievable, shoot for the sky but be a little real (like maybe making a billion dollars in the next 10 days is a little unreal)?

Write out your goals in detail, as much detail as you can picture. If you want a house- describe it in every way. Size, color, location, square footage, design, furniture, the paint, the appliances etc.

Make your goals measurable, so anyone can measure the result. If you want to loose weight, don’t say I want to loose 30 pounds in 90 days. Instead state the exact weight you want to be on the exact date you want it. For example, I want to weigh 140 lbs. by June 1st, 2008.

Always write your goals in a fashion that you are in the process of becoming, in the present tense as much as possible. For example, I am excited that I am in the process of loosing 30 lbs and will weigh 140 lbs by June 1st. Now write a life goal, a 5 year goal, a one year goal, a 6 month goal, a 3 month goal, a one month goal, a one week goal, and a daily goal.

Now let us make a life MAP, a Motivational Action Program. To Motivate us we need reasons why we want to accomplish a goal. To loose 30 lbs. is not the why, it is the what. What will loosing 30 lbs. do for you? How will you feel? What will it help you accomplish? Having good reasons will help motivate us during the hard times.

Next write down all the Actions that you could possibly take to help you reach your goals. Write down as many different actions that you can think of. Having options provides hope and supports our motivation. Finally, write down the Program you are going to take. This is the planning part, which action(s) I will take, how often, how long, etc. This is even more powerful if you plan rewards at different levels along the way. A good example might be, when I loose 10 lbs. I will buy some new clothes.

Create goals for each of the following ares; body (physical), mind (self improvement), spirit(whatever your beliefs are), relationships, and financial. So under each goal you will have a section for motivation (M), a section for all the different actions you can take to reach that goal(A), and finally the actual program that you plan to do- what you will do and how many times a week, etc. (P). To attract the things you want in life, strive to have as much balance in all parts of life as possible. There are areas that you will be satisfied with and areas that you are always working to improve. I suggest that you rewrite your entire list every 3- 6 months.

Now let us put this MAP into motion. Set up one day a week, I use Sunday evenings, to do this. Take at least 20 minutes and lock your self away. I mean away, away from kids, pets, phones- everything and everybody. Review your entire goal lists, and visualize the emotions, the pictures, the sounds and smells that the accomplishment of each of these goals will bring you. Make it as real as possible, you will come to thoroughly cherish this time.

Take your daily and weekly goals and schedule it, actually write it down on a calendar or planner. For example, if I want to loose weight I would schedule in my exercise time each day, and maybe even a time to cook some healthy lunches to take to work with me. It doesn’t become real until you schedule it, until then it is just a good idea.

Now review your goals from last week to see if your on schedule, ahead or behind. Make adjustments, don’t judge and move on. Your daily goals will keep you on track for your weekly goals, which will keep you on track for your monthly goals and so on. Plan on reading and visualizing your short term goals (one year or less) at least twice a day.

Following this plan will give you motivation and excitement to keep on the track to success. The biggest thing it will give you is results; small daily steps add up to enormous results over time. Stay in action, and stay focused. Step 4 will show you how to do this on a daily basis.

There are several factors to take into account during the process of your own personal goal setting sesssion. This article will highlight some of the factors that you should be considering when you are going through the process.

The first factor is to choose the correct goal to work on. Most people that I’ve talked to over the years usually have more then one goal which they want to achieve at any one time. Although it is possible to work on more then one goal at a time, our brains function more efficient if it is focused on doing only one thing at a time.

When you multi-task, or in other words, try to juggle more then one task at a time, most of the time you will tend to do badly in both. Have you tried to compose a document while trying to talk to someone on the phone. Did you find it extremely difficult to concentrate on the conversation and also to finish creating your document?

Similarly, to achieve an optimal level of efficiency, we should only work on one goal at a time. However, this choice has caused many headaches among individuals because they have no idea which one they really want to do first. At this stage, I get the individuals to list down each of their goals and have them score their goals across a number of criterion that are personally important to the individual. They could be comparing their goals against factors like financial benefit, boost to self esteem to name a few. The goal that scores the highest means that is the goal that they should be going after at that particular point in time.

One of the common factors that I always tell individuals to include is the desire to have that particular goal. How badly they want to achieve a certain goal carries a lot of weight in the judging criterion because the amount of desire they have for a certain goal is proportional to the amount of motivation they will possess when they are working at that particular goal.

Second factor to consider is the formulation a proper goal statement. Most people who have thought they have set goals in the past but fail to achieve them usually have goals like “I want to get richer” or “I want to be fitter”. Goals that have no time frame, no emotions and no action words attached to it will not come true. Compare the latter statement with this one, “I will triumphantly lose 2 inches off my waist in 6 months time by going to the gym after work everyday”. Notice how powerful the second statement is ? There is a measuable factor of inches to lose from the waist. There is also a time frame attached to it so it immediately gives our minds something to focus on. There is also an action attached to the desire which is going to the gym everyday after work. Finally, there are emotions and feelings attached to the statement so we can activate our inner motivator, which resides in our subconscious mind to help us achieve our goals.

If you don’t care where you are going, it’s easy to get there.

On the other hand, if you have a specific destination in mind, planning your route ahead of time makes the journey much more enjoyable and increases the probabilities of a successful outcome.

If you can conceive it, and you believe it, you can achieve it. There is almost nothing that once you set your mind to doing, cannot be done. The power of your mind is limitless. Our biggest limits are those that are self imposed. Everyday you can test the limits of your mind power by willing success upon yourself. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do it. Perhaps at some point in their lives, they encountered some resistance and they decided that they were just not meant to succeed, so the quit. They give up and they settle for a life of less. Maybe these people need to be reminded that successful people are not those that met with little or no resistance in their lives, but rather, quite the contrary. Successful people have probably encountered more resistance than most, but rather than give up, they persevered and found out that resistance builds strength and failures are only failures if you quit.

The ironic thing about life is that more lessons are found in struggles than are found in success. It is the lessons that you learn from your failures that will propel you on your way toward eventual success. So you cannot give up at the first sign of difficulty. By setting goals, you make a commitment to yourself that no matter what difficulties you may encounter on the way, you will not give up or give in. You learn from your mistakes and you learn to not repeat them. You may make thousands of mistakes on your journey toward your goal, but as long as you don’t repeat any of the same mistakes, eventually you will achieve your goal.

It’s funny, but many people work hard to create a financial nest of security for our children in hopes that their lives may be a little bit better than their own. Ironically, many of the lessons that we learn in our struggles toward building a successful life for ourselves are lost on our children as we endeavor to shield them from the same struggles that tempered us and made us strong. As a result, our children may never learn how to be as resourceful as we are. Our minds are just like the rest of the muscles in our body. If you want to make them stronger, you expose them to resistance.

Goal setting will force you to challenge yourself and get you out of your comfort zone. Remember, you grow the most when you are forced to stretch. So set some goals that will challenge you beyond your limits. And once you set your goals, don’t give up at the first signs of resistance. Persevere and learn from the struggles. In the end, the journey will have been well worth it, regardless or where you end up.

The main importance of goal setting is that it provides us direction and purpose. When we set goals, we will know what we want to achieve so that we can focus our minds on a single worthwhile target and not get distracted easily.

Personal goal setting also provides us with motivation to achieve what we want to achieve.

The important trick would be to make our goals as detailed as possible. Trying to vividly imagine or describe every thinkable aspect of it so that it becomes clearer in our mind. Then it becomes relatively easier to pursue it. If you don’t have goals then you are just wandering in the wild without any clear idea of where you want to go. That is why goal setting is so important.

Do you know what is one of the most important point in goal setting? It is to take action right now, however small. A good technique would be to break up your future goals into small chunks. Then break those chunks down into further parts until you can find some actions which you can do right now or atleast within a week. Take small steps towards your destination, day by day.

For this reason it is important to break your goals down because it will help you keep focused and provide small do-able action steps right now. Many experts also advocate writing down goals and a list of benefits you stand to gain out of it. Making a list of 50-100 can really do wonders to your desire and determination in going after what you want.

Many people say different things about goal setting. Some might say that you should develop burning desire, others might say that you should have a desire to achieve your goal but at the same time you should be ok if you fail to achieve it.

This is because when you prepare your mind to try your best to achieve something while at the same time you will not be devastated if you somehow fail, it will keep you relaxed without any unnecessary pressure on yourself. So keep a healthy desire to achieve your ambitions and at the same time be ok with the idea that you can fail in achieving the desired results.

In this article I have briefly tried to answer your question about why is goal setting important and provided a few guiding tips. Hope these tips will be useful to you. I would be glad if you can get any benefit out of this article.

Most people will agree that goal setting is an important strategy in obtaining what we desire. If you don’t set goals you will not know what to look for to determine whether an achivement was truly a success or not. The sad thing is that only a very small part of those who understand the need for setting goals actually take the time to figure out what they really want to accomplish and outline a plan for reaching them. It goes without saying that with this approach or shall we say lack of approach, determining which accomplishments are successful or not will be a little arbitrary; ‘more self reliant’, ‘a raise in salary’, ‘clear skin’, ‘a new home’ or ‘a new car’. It has been proven time after time that the more specific your goal is, the more you are likely to achieve it and the more likely you are to know when you have or have not achieved them.

Goals should move you ahead. When you make your goals absolute and precise you will know what to look for to find out if you have achieved them. If they are to general you can’t really know if you have reached your goals or they can even mislead you into achieving something other than you planned for. Setting precise goals functions as an instrumental part or reference of any self improvement regimen.

Goals forms an hierarchical system: There are many levels of goals. They spring from your deepest values and are transformed via various levels to precise day-by-day action plans for accomplishing what you really want. So, what do you really want? Are you sure the first goal that appeared in your mind is what you really want deep inside?

To summarize so far: A system for setting goals in a certain area must include

• your main or ultimate goal in this area, which all other goals are just a tranformation of
• your end goal(s); which is a detailed and precise action plan for acheiving your main goal.

You must be sure what you really want to accomplish in a certain area according to your true values and you must know precisely what to do to acheive it.

Now, I’d like to tell you about a method of setting goals that I have used successfully myself.

The ‘Why – How method’ for setting goals

Take the first goal that appears in your mind right now. Let’s say you’ve found out that your big problem is that you just don’t have enough money from month to month and this is the rock in the road for you whatever you try to accomplish. So your goal is ‘to get rich’. Now you have two ways to go to elaborate and fullfill your work of setting goals and you should go both ways.

Ask ‘Why?’

Ask yourself; Is ‘getting rich’ my real goal or is this just a means to reach another, deeper goal? Ask yourself; Why do I want to get rich? Think over it for a while and write down all reasons why you want to accomplish the goal that has appeared in your mind. It might be; Financial security, freedom to travel where you want, freedom to visit any concert or opera-house you want, freedom to have a home you really feel confortable with etc. Whichever answer you give, continue to ask “Why” until you are not able to find any more reasons. If you have been honest with yourself, you probably found your deepest value, which equals the main goal you try to accomplish by ‘getting rich’.

Ask ‘How?’

Now, when you have revealed your ultimate goal or value by asking ‘Why?’, then start to figure out how to accomplish it. Let’s say you have come to the goal in your goal hierarchy that says ‘getting rich’. Your question now is: ‘How do I get rich?’ Your answer might be ‘Getting more income.’ Next ‘how much higher an income do I want, which also means; how rich do I want to be?” Then your answer might be ‘$20,000′. Continue asking ‘How?’ until you have made a precise action plan of what you will do to get these increased income of $20,000.

Reach milestones on your way

A goal can also be devided into several parts or milestones which marks that it is on it’s way to being fullfilled. Let’s take the $20,000 goal example. Let’s say one of your end goal is to

• ‘earn $20,000 within two years by promoting affiliate programs on 50 websites where each website is making you $16.67 per month on average.’

you should divide this goal into several smaller goals or milestones, let’s say one part of your goal is reached when you have earned $1000, one when you have reached $5,000, $10,000 etc. This way your goal achieving process becomes much more motivating and fun when you see the results fairly often.

Room for adjustments

A system for setting goals should also include a procedure for periodic adjustments; some actions are more likely to help you reach your goals faster than others. You’ll only know which actions or end goals these are by having a goal system that enables you to try out different action plans or end goals. You simply execute the end goals or action plans than you planned initially. If they work carry on with them and if they don’t or if you think of other ways that can fulfill your ultimate goal faster or better, than go for them. So, don’t forget that your system for setting goals must include this option also.

There are two things we cannot live without when choosing to get something into our lives. One is measuring, the other is goal setting. But what have “measuring” and “goal setting” got in common?

Without setting goals, it is hard to get what we want. After all, the process of goal setting is to focus our minds on what we want. Though we may goal set when we go to buy a coffee, goal setting in the sense we think about is a lot different. After all, a goal such as earning $1,000,000 in the next 2 years is generally going to need much more work than getting a cup of coffee!

Also, how are we to know when we have reached our goal? This is where measuring comes into effect. It is an odd fact that many millionaires don’t know they are millionaires! For all of those people, they are in some kind of business and have assets which equal million dollars, but have not been aware of it, until someone told them - usually an accountant doing a deep audit.

So, you decide on a goal, a worthy goal. You write your goal down, and set it. By setting we mean deciding. Without any kind of other alternative, you are set. You are going to live this vision, this goal, this life, etc. If you continue working towards that goal, how will you know when you reach it?

Measuring and goal setting are crucial for success. By measuring regularly, you will find that you know if you are heading in the right direction. If we hold to the example before of the $1million dollars within 2 years, then you maybe apt to creating lofty milestones in the beginning. Your measuring and goal setting may go something like the first milestone is $100,000. This is not the best way to go, especially if you have been on $30,000 maximum per year.

Often goal setters will put a lot of effort on climbing a mountain top in one go. But, climbing a mountain takes time, and you have to go from baby steps, to gradually grow to make a giant leap for mankind!

Measuring and goal setting go hand in hand. When you can take the small steps, and feel the confidence from those successes, then you can make those bigger steps and achieve success.

Where many fail by trying to climb the mountain in one go, you can succeed by taking those small steps. Measuring and goal setting go hand in hand, and when you take both and act on them, you will undoubtedly achieve success at some point.

Are you completely satisfied with your life just now? Which part of your life would you like to see improvement in?

If you are completely satisfied with your life, then this article and goal setting may not be suitable for you. However, for most of us, usually there are some parts of our lives which we wish to see changes. Perhaps some of us will like to get healthier and fitter while others will like to attain a level of financial wealth in their lives. Being human, everyone is undoubtedly aiming at something at some point in their lives. This is because we have a thinking ability and we have emotions. With this ability to comprehend and think, we will certainly always have the drive to do better and live better. However, because of this ability, we also have the tendency to resist the effort need to bring about the changes, even if the changes are beneficial to us.

So can we then change for the better and reach our full potential and live a more purposeful life? The answer is simple. Just give our brains something to aim for and we will almost immediately be more focused. The human brain is an amazing computer. It can comprehend patterns and some things far more efficient and faster then the fastest computer on earth. The human brain is also the main driver for our body actions. By giving it an instruction or a task to accomplish, it will find ways and means to complete the task. This is because our mind has a habit to complete things. Unfinished puzzles and questions or task creates an imbalance in our minds and our brains will try its best to solve this imbalance. For example, think about the last thing that you wanted to remember but for some reason, you just cannot recall what it is. A few days later, the answer just popped up in your mind when you least expect it. In this example, when you first wanted to recall something, you gave your brain an instruction. Your brain processed the instruction and it doesn’t stop until it has finished even thought you are not actively thinking about it.

This process is made possible by the portion of the brain that also controls our emotions and feeling. Its called the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the powerhouse portion of our brains. While the conscious mind controls logic, the subconscious part works silently in the background, controlling how we behave and influencing our habits. Why is the subconscious mind more powerful then the logical, conscious mind? Its because emotions and feelings are always more powerful then logic. When people mention their will power is very strong, what they are referring to is the power that comes from the subconscious part of their minds.

How does this subconscious part of the mind helps with achieving our goals? For one, the goal setting process specifically taps on the powerhouse portion of the mind to help us achieve our goals. Techniques in goal setting like setting up a plan and writing down the goals imprints our goals in our mind. During the goal setting process, you involve your emotions and feelings and these factors gives motivation for you to achieve your goals. When you draw up a plan on the steps that you will be taking to achieve your goals, you give your mind an imbalance and the need to complete the task. Each small milestone that you achieve in your plan provides you with a positive feedback loop which fires up your enthusiasm and motivation even more.

Goal setting, without doubt, gives us direction and provides us a platform and a structured way to achieve our goals. In that, it gives the control and power to reach our maximum potential in all areas of our lives.

In my goal setting research, I read many personal development books. I was first introduced to Tim Gallwey’s classic “The Inner Game of Tennis” while I was a teacher in the early 1980s. It has been a faithful companion through several career changes, mainly for the compassionate way in which Mr. Gallwey’s words have encouraged me to get out of my own way! In this article I would like to share with you 4 goal setting lessons I have learned from this wonderful book.

Goal Setting Lesson One:

Peak Performance is intimately related to the art of relaxed concentration.

Often people who set goals are interested in performance improvements in areas like career, relationships and wealth. One of the criticisms of using a goal setting approach is that it can increase stress and tension if the goal has been not met within an arbitrary deadline.

The key point here is to set goals which encourage your creativity to blossom during those (mostly) unpredictable peak performance experiences. There is no one easy solution for the confirmed goal setter as to how to do this - however, creating the desired vision of an activity where relaxed concentration appears to be effortless is an important component.

Goal Setting Lesson Two:

Learn to see the image of what you want before you do anything.

Experience with creative visualization methods has taught me that relaxed concentration comes about in the simplest of ways e.g. watching an exciting movie, walking in a beautiful park, going for a run. This is a feeling to continually cultivate when practicing with images of desired events related to your ideal outcome.

Goal Setting Lesson Three:

Learn to see non judgmentally.

If you are lucky you may have a coach, mentor or close friends (maybe all three!) who are truly nonjudgmental when observing your performance. They will tell you what they see and yet also hold up the unspoken words of what you might become.

The nonjudgmental sight that Tim Gallwey refers to, is your own! Don’t confuse this with the conscious self-talk which can be negative or belittling and prefers to berate rather than to praise and encourage. When this conscious self (one) quietens down or is ignored(!) there is an opportunity for a truly empowered self (two) to get on with doing what it does best.

Tim is also a real close observer of reality. He is suggesting that you see the reality of things as they are, not as you feel they ought to be. This type of awareness is in fact a key element of learning to get out of your own way.

Goal Setting Lesson Four:

The danger in trying to live up to expectations

As a former teacher, I guess I ought to know all about the dangers of others attempting to live up to my expectations. While anyone’s self-confidence can benefit from the “genuine knowingness” of trusted people about your abilities and aptitudes, there are many cases of folks who set goal after goal in a lifelong attempt to live up to the expectations of people close to them or in authority positions. And they might appear to achieve much - but perhaps at the expense of personal peace of mind.

At just over 120 pages this is a short book and rightly so. The author doesn’t pad the chapters with unnecessary material and I finished it in one day. For anyone beginning a major goal setting journey, or even just mastering a new skill, I highly recommend this book. I certainly wish I had read it before learning to drive a manual gear shift car in the UK!!

The Law of Big Enough

You need to have goals that are big enough to excite you and propel you forward. Small, wimpy goals bring no zest with them and are easy to forget.

Here’s an example of a wimpy goal — “Well, I guess I’d like to get rid of a little weight if I could.” I sure wouldn’t feel motivated by that one.

A big, strong and compelling goal would be “I will eat better and exercise more so I can be at my ideal weight, look and feel the way I want and have more energy for my life and those I love.”

Feel the emotional difference? The second one picks you up, builds momentum and propels you forward. That’s what we want.

The Law of Small Enough

You need to break the most compelling goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. Other than amputation, I know of no way to get rid of 40 pounds in a week. However, if you break this one down into small actions — what you eat and how much you exercise
each day — that can get you to your goal, then each day can bring a small success your way.

The Law of “Let’s Roll”

Some of the most compelling words that came out of that dark September day were “Let’s roll.”

So instead of sitting around thinking “I wish and I should,” and then at the end of the year sitting around thinking “I coulda- shoulda-woulda,” start today. Use these goal setting and goal getting tips and any others you can find to create the kind of life you’ll enjoy showing up for every day.

So let’s roll.

The beginning of a new year brings with it a bit of a worn-out tradition: Setting “New Year’s Resolutions”.

Warning: This is goal setting and goal getting… only for the serious.

First, choose a goal that is big enough to inspire you. You want to choose something that, come this time next year, you will be proud to have accomplished because your life will be different. Wimpy goals produce wimpy results.

Next, make sure you have a big enough reason to want to accomplish your big goal. If there’s a big enough reason, you can be powerfully and consistently motivated. Having a big enough reason also allows you to blow through the deadly “I want to’s.”

The first one to blow through is “I want to want to,” which is really just a should in disguise. As in “I know I really should save more money; it’s a good idea.” It’s intellectual assent with no intention of making it real in your life.

The next one to blow through is “I want to,” which is only a little better than I want to want to. It’s weak because anything that stands in your way will easily throw you off course.

After you have chosen a big goal, with a big enough reason why, the next step is to put your goal in writing. The weakest ink is still better than the best memory. So put it in writing, and not just once.

Write your goal down on a 3-by-5 index card every day. This will remind you what is important and helps keep you focused and on track. Write your goal in what I call the positive present tense, such as: “I am so happy that …” Write your goal as if you have already accomplished it. An example would be “I am so happy that I am saving money for my future.”

The next step is to live your life above the line. This is a concept I recently learned from Mark Victor Hansen of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” fame and recent co-author of “The One-Minute Millionaire.” Above the line is learning and personal responsibility; below the line is blaming. And when it comes to achieving goals, we are very skilled at blaming. We blame others when we think that someone kept us from our goal. We blame circumstances when we believe if only this would not have happened … And we blame ourselves when we beat up on ourselves for slipping from the path to our goals.

Living above the line means looking at each and every situation as an opportunity to learn more about how to achieve our goals. Live below the line and you will not achieve the results you want; instead you will just have a few good-sounding reasons why you did not make it. Live above the line and you radically increase your chances for achieving your big goal.

Your next task is to get way out in front of your goals. You can do this in at least two ways. The first is to take at least one action toward your goal immediately, in the same day you set your goal. The next way to get it is to do so much toward it immediately that you build tremendous momentum that will carry you through. Taking massive action toward your goal right now is a sure-fire way to make certain your new way of living quickly becomes a habit.

So get going, NOW. Because for our purposes, NOW stands for No Other Way.

Does personal goal setting work?

Many people want things, situations or accomplishments, call these goals, and then are disappointed when they don’t get them. Call desires goals if you want, but just naming your desires sure isn’t effective goal setting.

Good goals have some or all of the following:

1. They are specific. “I want to be healthy” is too general. “I want to lose weight and walk three times a week,” is better.

2. They are measurable. How many pounds do you want to lose? How much money do you want to make? How will you know if your relationship is better?

3. They are in writing. There is power in writing down your goals. It makes them more real, and this influences your subconscious mind, especially if you review the goals regularly.

4. They are realistic. Sorry, but even if it is possible that you could become an astronaut, if you’re already 55, you better try for becoming a pilot for now. Unrealistic goals set you up for failure.

5. They have deadlines. You’ll have a new job by when? Setting dates really helps your progress.

6. They become plans. Making a goal into specific steps makes it much more likely. It isn’t overwhelming to take one step at a time.

7. They are motivated. Having the goal for the right reasons is a good start. You should also learn how to re-motivate yourself, and reward yourself when you make progress.

8. They consider personal factors. Can you really get what you want if you feel like you don’t deserve it? Maybe, but good goal setting takes into account personal changes that are necessary or useful.

9. They are followed by action. One of the keys to motivation and to getting where you want to be is to start with any movement towards the goal. Action begets action. Start slow if you must, but start.

10. They are not written in stone. Goals naturally evolve. Why would you become a doctor once you learned that you liked doing lab work better?

The last one is a tough one. An excuse and a change of course are not the same thing, but to know the difference means you need a certain level of self-awareness. Develop that, apply the keys to personal goal setting above, and you’ll get to where you want to be.

Goal setting is important whether it is at work, in management, in sports or even just dealing with our personal commitment.

With proper goal setting, it not only helps to realize our dreams, it also constantly serves as a motivation to us and also providing us with a sense of direction of where we should be focusing. Without goal setting and resolution, we would not be able to achieve much in the long run. All successful people are able to set and achieve their own goals which will in turn lead them to achieving higher goal setting.

Year 2007 has come to an end and it is now time to set new goals/resolution for the year 2008. But before doing so, perhaps we should individually review the goal setting we have set for year 2007 and whether or not we have achieved all our goals. If yes, then my congratulations to you, and do keep up the good work, if not, perhaps we should review and understand the reasons for not being able to achieve our goal set for year 2007.

One of the most common reasons for not being able to realize our own dreams is due to the fact that most people often have the wrong misconception about setting dreams. Dreams are very often too unrealistic and not achievable in reality, for instance just merely dreaming to become a millionaire, dream of losing weight, dream of having a well toned body or even dream of having a condo but without actually properly plan and working hard for it will always be waiting for a dream to come true, where they are just waiting for things to happen and the same dream can remain year after year.

However, with proper planning by using SMART goal setting, we are able to quickly realize our dreams by focusing on both short term and long term goals where we are able to bring out our individual potential to its own limits.

Having a real understanding and being able to recognize our current standard, both our weakness and strength is the most crucial in the initial goal setting phase as we will then be able to realistically set goals which we will be able to realize eventually.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The following are the steps used for setting and realizing our dreams and we will be using Taichi sports to illustrate on the SMART Goal setting procedures.

1. DREAM

2. Breakdown into Goals (Short & Long Term)

3. Breakdown into STEPS

4. Focus on STEPS, seasonal goal will take care of themselves.
BASIC GOAL SETTING
(STEPS)

Goal Setting - Using SMART guideline to help athletes in establishing seasonal goals:

Specific - Goals stated must be specific, behavioral terms, within a given time duration and define standard of success. Plan long term goal follow by mid term goal and finally short term goals to focus on achieving. An example is to achieve kicking above shoulder level in a slow & controlled manner during Taichi routine.

Measurable - Goals must be quantifiable and progress must be measurable. An example is computing the success rate of movement during practices to measure improvement.

Achievable - Goals set must be achievable by athlete’s capability, both physically and mentally.

Realistic - Goals set must be realistic. The above goal set must be realistic with proper training planning by the coach and commitment by the athlete during training.

Timely - Goal set must be timely, that is it must be measurable, realistic and achievable. For example, a time frame of 10 weeks for progress to be seen in the improvement of the above technique is easily achievable by most athletes with proper guidance and commitment during training.

At the start of every year, millions of people will undoubtedly set their personal goals for the year ahead. The resolutions are strangely, almost always the same year after year. Whether getting more healthier by going to the gym more often, or trying to get rich, these people are thinking that this year will be the year that they will reach their goals. Can you think what is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong with this picture is that what all these people are doing is wishing. They wish that they can be fitter, more healthier or richer but they do not know how to go about doing it or what they should be doing to get what they want. They just harbor a thought in their mind of what they would like to become in the coming year and leave it as that. This is why most people fail in goal setting since they are not even setting goals at all.

When I always talk to people about setting goals, the first thing I always advise them to do is to write their goals down on a piece of paper. Most people don’t fulfill what they have planned for themselves because after a while, they forget what is it that they want to do. Sometimes it is not the fault that people forget their own goals due to the fast paced nature of modern life. Putting down goals on a piece of paper and putting it somewhere where it can be easily seen by you is already by itself, a powerful action that increases your chances of reaching your goals. Why is this so ? The act of writing your goal involves your motor skills and the action of actually putting your thoughts into words emphasizes the importance of the goal to your brain. Since young, we associate important things with writing hence by writing down your goals, you are telling your brain that the goal that you are setting for yourself is important!

Another reason that people find it so hard to reach their goals is that although they know what their goal is, but they do not take the time to plan how to achieve their goals. At this point, I know some people may be thinking that since they already know what they want, they don’t have to plan how they are going to get it. This assumption is a major reason why most people fail in achieving their goals. Forming a plan allows you to see exactly where you are at and how you are progressing in reaching your goals. If you do not have a plan, how are you going to tell if you are making progress or how much progress you need to make? Failing to plan means planning to fail. Getting a well-planned schedule on how you are going to reach your goals and having milestones in your plan allows you to monitor your progress and if necessary, make minors changes to your schedule.

Every day we are setting expectations of ourselves and those around us. It could be expectations that you need to set at work, at home, or even with friends. We don’t notice how often we are actually doing this, but we have expectations of everyone that we come into contact with.

Some people are really great at doing this because they go about it in a positive manner and they realize that it’s unreasonable to expect perfection for every little detail. Others are very forceful about it and they get angry when people don’t live up to the expectation (a.k.a. Type “A” people).

Having a more positive attitude about this will allow you to influence people more easily and have them respect you and your expectations. You can approach setting expectations in every situation in a positive manner with the help of goal affirmations.

Using Goal Affirmations to Get More Done

These goal affirmations may or may not be something that you share with others. We all need to remind ourselves about our goals, each day, so we can influence and motivate ourselves to reach and perhaps exceed our goals.

Free positive affirmations help us by simply reminding ourselves of our goal and how we can reach it with a smile instead of with a fist.

We have all met those people that set goals for us and were harsh about it, which, of course, only made us resentful, angry and non-participative in reaching the goal. We have all, also, met those people who were very goal oriented but were positive about it, and they made us all want to jump on and push toward the goal. This slight difference in mindset is often the difference between the most successful coaches and the average coaches. And which would you rather have as your chief motivator and manager? Which would you rather be?

Quiet Your Mind with Positive Goal Setting Techniques

Using goal setting expectations, you can quiet your mind for just a few seconds and remind yourself that a positive approach is always better. When you promote goals, both for yourselves or others, with an air of excitement instead of hysteria you will find that people, and even you, are more willing to participate. Free positive affirmations are something that a lot of people start using to help them reach their own goals and they soon find that when they use these goals to motivate themselves they are better able to motivate others.

If you believe it would help, share your goal affirmations with those that you are working with. Many people will take to free positive affirmations and will then share your excitement and help to motivate others, allowing for the group to reach or exceed a goal a lot faster and with a better attitude than you might have ever expected.

Goal affirmations can be a powerful tool in any setting, whether they are used in personal or business settings, because they give the individual something to focus on and they allow everyone to approach the goal with a unified positive attitude instead of stress and anxiety that often accompanies people in pursue of their goals.

We ask every leader we work with what they would do more of, better, or more often when they look back on their career, and the top answer is “Focus.” When asked how they would do that, they answer that they would be even more goal oriented than they had been. In their opinion, goals create focus that creates accomplishment. With so many demands intruding or attempting to intrude on their attention and energies, goals that create focus are their firewall, and their primary path to success.

Given that so many highly successful people look to goals for focus, why is it that so many organizations and people can’t state their personal goals or the goals of their organization - let alone how their personal goals align with their organizational goals?

One reason given is time - “We don’t have time for that - we’re too busy. ” Another reason (or, “excuse”) given is the belief that an individual has no control over their future - too many things outside a person’s control can cause things to change, so just go with the flow.

It turns out that most people spend more time focused on planning a two week vacation than they do planning their career. I suspect that’s because planning a vacation is controllable, pleasant, and near term - it’s easy to focus on it.

But to succeed and prosper, it’s vitally important to have a personal set of goals. - they keep us in the game - whatever game is being played. And personal goals that closely align with organizational goals create a tremendous amount of energy, commitment and focus.

Personal goals are even more important when organizational goals don’t exist, or aren’t expressed, or exist in name only. It’s very tempting in those cases to simply give in to the flow of the day to day, and go with whatever comes along - with little if any focus.

Goals help balance the very human tendency to be distracted by the pressing, in - your - face things that happen every day - it’s called being “flexible.” Flexibility can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness - when flexing becomes a habit and we look back and see that flexing took us far away from where we wanted to be or needed to be.

A friend shared a joke with me that illustrates that point - “Inside every 65 year old is a 40 year old wondering what the hell happened?”

Focus is the difference between wondering what the hell happened, and landing where you wanted to land. It’s the difference between throwing a touchdown pass - or throwing a superball - and watching it bounce every which way - with high energy, but with no idea where it will land - and what good - or damage - it will do.

Here are 6 steps to create focus:

1 - Write down where you want to be in one month, six months, one year, three years and five years. I know, it sounds like a lot of work. It is. But I can tell you from personal experience that those time frames will blow right past you if you don’t take the time to plan them now. And you’ll end up like that 65 year old wondering what happened.

2 - Define how your source of income - your job - your profession - fits into your own goals. How do your work goals fit in with your personal goals? Are they the same? How can they come together in the near term to provide long term benefit? The closer your personal goals align with the goals of your organization or profession, the better your chances of accomplishing them. This is the key to focus - being convinced and directed to success through goals that embrace you personally and professionally.

3 - Start with short term goals, but with the end in mind. Weekly, monthly, quarterly. Define the top 3 to 5 things that you need to do now to get you to where you want to be. No more than 3 to 5 - and 5 is a stretch. Remember, you can only really focus on doing one thing at a time. There is no more powerful way to become discouraged than to “over goal” yourself at this stage.

4 - Express your goals in positive terms. Express your goals in terms of what you want to achieve as opposed to what you want to avoid or get rid of. Optimism loves positive outcomes - work to think in those terms.

5 - Define your goals using the SMART formula - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time - framed.

6 - Keep track. Hold yourself accountable. Review your goals at least weekly. Carry them with you wherever you go. Make them part of your thinking. Make a habit of reciting your goals and the outcomes of achieving them. Make them your way of life. And when they need to be revised - and that will happen often - just do it.

If you’re feeling frustrated and busy and not sure where you’re going, start this process today. It isn’t easy. It requires personal discipline. It requires faith in yourself. But the rewards of a sense of purpose, focus and freedom are worth the effort. And when you look back in a few weeks to a few months, you’ll be surprised at how far you’ve come, and making goals the cornerstone of focus will become a habit - a habit of success.

About the Author
Andy Cox is President of Cox Consulting Group LLC. The focus of his work is on helping organizations and their people increase their success in the hiring, developing and enhancing the performance of leaders and emerging leaders. Cox Consulting Group LLC was started in 1995, and has worked with a wide range of organizations, managers and leaders - helping them define success, achieve success and make the ability to change a competitive advantage. He can be reached at http://coxconsultgroup.com

In my articles I often stress the importance of keeping your thoughts as positive as possible and to balance up your negative thoughts with positive ones. You know, in todays society a lot of people tend to choose a negative view on things and look for reasons why something wouldn’t work. However, keeping your own thoughts and feelings positive amongst this negativity is crucial when you are on a journey to achieve your big goals and dreams. It is these positive feelings of gratitude and anticipating of your dream life that assist you in attracting this dream life to your reality. As you will always have negative/dis empowering thoughts now and then, it is important to consciously work on creating positive thoughts as well by using positive visualization, creating a gratitude journal, creating a plan of action etc.

A similar principle could be applied to the people around you. Some people can be real “dream stealers” (I am sure you have come across at least one of them….) and you can really let them affect your attitude about your goals and dreams in a negative way. Other people on the other hand will encourage you to go for your dreams and will be able to inspire you in times you need some encouragement.

The easiest thing would be to just “let go” of these negative people around you, but that is not always as easy if it concerns your mother, brother or a close work colleague you have to deal with in your daily activities. Apart from consciously trying to “block” the energy around their negative comments and input, it is important to actively surround yourself with positive, like minded people who share your “big thinking” and are open to the magnitude of some of your dreams. So think about it…

“Do the people around you inspire you to act upon and achieve your goals?”

If a lot or most of them don’t, it is time to take some action to balance up the energy around you and create a more inspiring, empowering environment. Join inspiring groups, communities, etc., that are like minded and focused on making things happen instead of on problems. People that are interested to work on their goals and connect with others who want to do the same. Look for articles, books and other resources that describe success stories, personal journeys and valuable tips on how to achieve your goals. It will be a “shower of light” for you to be surrounded by this positiveness!

One resource that will certainly assist you in this process, is a new on line visualization community called VisionLounge. Www.visionlounge.com is the most empowering community of people with a common goal to achieve their Goals and Dreams, sharing a Journey and inspiring others in the process! VisionLounge offers you a supportive environment to learn, grow and be inspired and to connect with people who are visioneers like yourself! The amazing thing is: this valuable community is offered completely free of charge, and anyone can join! Reading other people’s goals and connecting about common interests really creates an environment for you that is positive and that helps to vibrate on a high energy level. This will assist you in manifesting your Vision.

So make sure not to get influenced by negative people around you who try to convince you that your Goals are not ‘realistic’ or achievable. Your Goals are always worth believing in, and working for. Keep positive and surround yourself as much as possible with people who appreciate and applaud your Goals, who have huge goals themselves and inspire you to dream even bigger! No dream is too big!

About the Author
Cornelis Boertjens is the CEO of OrangePeel Vision Boards, an innovative company focused on inspiring people to achieve their goals in life using a unique software tool called “Vision Board”. “Vision Board” is an easy and very powerful way of creating a Vision Board on your computer, combining your own dream images with your chosen affirmations and power words. It is the world’s most powerful manifestation tool. For more information feel free to visit http://www.visualizeyourgoals.com.
Cornelis can be reached via email at cornelis@orangepeel.co.nz or phone on +64 9 828 0555

Imagine you are a tourist in a foreign land and you want to move around and visit all the beautiful places in that particular country. What is the one thing that you will need to have to find out where all the places are? You will probably be carrying a map! This map that you will be carrying will not be like an ordinary, basic map. It will be probably highly detailed on giving you instructions on what types of buses or public transport to take you to your destination. It may even give you an estimated figure on how long you should be walking before reaching your destination from the point that you are at. Can you then imagine going around an unfamiliar place without any maps whatsoever?

Life is almost identical to the scenario that we have written above. We navigate each day in our lives, encountering different types of situations and challenges. However, not a lot of us actually have a map of where we want to go and what we want to do. The scary part of it all is, some people actually live their entire lives like that, going round in circles and they are not even aware of it until its too late.

People always say life is short. The statement is true to some extent. Our time on this earth is relatively short. To live a fulfilling life, all we have to do is to give ourselves a direction to go, but before that can happen, we have to know where we are right now. Only then, we can plan where we want to go and how we shall go about doing that.

At this point, some people may argue that setting goals will surely take out the spontaneity in everyday life. This statement, to a large extend, is untrue. The fact is, if you don’t have a goal of what you want to do, you will never have the room to be spontaneous.Why is this so ? Well, if you don’t have a goal in life and everyday you are just doing whatever comes up, the greater challenges will probably slip by you because you are too busy working on mundane things. However, if you already have a fixed goal of what to accomplish in a certain time frame, you can handle anything life throws at you because you can be flexible with your goal schedule. Building flexibility in goal schedule is an important part of goal setting. Sometimes when we are trying to attain our personal goals, we may take a wrong turn. If we don’t have a detailed map telling us how to get back on track, then we may be lost.

Hence, the most important thing in the personal goal setting process is the drawup of a detailed map and plan what is it that you want to do, where is it that you want to go, how is it that you want to reach there.