Goal Setting 101

After listening to Brian Tracy’s CD, The Psychology of Achievement, I couldn’t wait to share with y’all a couple of helpful “points” when goal setting, how important it is, and 7 questions to help you make your goals.  Goal setting puts purpose in to my life and keeps me driven.  With goal setting comes tons of challenges- but that’s what keeps me focused.  So, I hope each of you takes the time to set your goals and create a plan of action on how you are going to reach each goal!

Brian Tracy talks about Bunker Hunt for the first couple of minutes because Hunt believes that there are two things required for success… knowing exactly what it is you want to accomplish AND determining the price you are going to have to pay to accomplish that goal and resolve to pay the price to get it.  This is the whole focus throughout his speech.
^I sometimes worry too much about the money it will cost to get me there, or the troublesome, but this has really helped me put it in to perspective that unless I take the leap of faith, the goal will never be reached.

What about failure? Society is the only thing that calls it a failure, Brian Tracy calls it experience…  it’s only one step closer to your goal.

So, what goals can I set? Doing what you love to do. Our prime responsibility is to find what we love to do as adult human beings and to spend our time and effort to get there while expending all of our energy in that area.

How do we do this?  Balance of goals for a balance of life. 
We have to have about 3-5 goals in each of 3 categories:

• family and personal goals (the reasons why we do everything- the reasons we have to enjoy our lives: tangible and intangible, financial, etc.)
• business and career goals (more money, certain number of sells, etc)
• self improvement goals: develop higher levels of physical health, view themselves as an ongoing concept

These goals must be in harmony with one another.  In other words, they cannot be contradicting.  Set goals that are congruent with our basic and fundamental values.

Here are 7 questions that give you an acute insight of what your major goals should be :

1. What are the 5 things that you value the most in life?  The most important elements in life.  This forms the foundation for all other goals.
2. What are the 3 most important goals in your life, right now in 30 seconds?  The answers you write will be the most accurate and more important.
3. What would you do if you won a million dollars in the lottery tomorrow?  How would you spend it? What would be the first and second thing you would do with that money.  ((no limitations))
4. What would you do and how would you spend your time if you learned today that you only had 6 months to live?  What would you do, who would you see?  The answer tells you what your true values are.  ((2 and 3 should be within number 4… if not,take a deeper look at those goals))
5. What have you always wanted to do in your life but you’ve held back from doing it?  A habit (fear, anxiety)  holds you back, not reality.
6. What type of activities doing what sort of things in what sort of circumstances gives you your greatest feeling of importance (greatest feeling of well-being)?  You feel great about yourself when you engage in this particular activity.  A key indicator of where your area of excellence is.  One of the high duties of life is to guide our lives to what brings us the most joy and satisfaction.
7. What 1 great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?  This is your great dream and big ambition in life.

After I asked myself these questions and wrote out my goals, they became more concrete and more surreal.  I keep them with me everyday to remind me why I’m here and how I’m working to fulfill my purpose.  I challenge you to do the same!

My favorite quote throughout the whole CD was,  ”The human being is built as a goal seeking mechanism.  Without goals, we simply drift with the tide and end up nowhere.  But when we set goals we go straight and true. We develop purpose, direction, focused and channeled energy, and we accomplish more in a short period of time {with goals} than we would several years without them.” Goal setting demonstrates the difference between mediocrity and greatness.  Contentment vs. living.

What are your 1, 5 and 10 year goals?  What actions and risks are you going to have to take to get there?