Personal Goals Achievement

Recently, I spoke with a client who wanted me to do a workshop at an upcoming conference. I offer a number of different talks, so I asked her what the focus of the meeting was in order to be able to suggest a relevant topic. She said that although the committee members had already picked several programs, they had not yet identified a focus for the conference. My first thought in response to this was, If you don’t know what you want, then how are you going to get it? However, I am savvy enough not to insult people, so we spoke a little longer and we came up with a program that she wanted me to present.

It never ceases to amaze me that people do not identify outcomes they wish to achieve. While the above example is related to a conference, it is by no means limited to that area. Many people engage in activities in their careers and businesses, but they haven’t defined what they want to attain. They are completing tasks, but they aren’t focused on accomplishing clear-cut results.

When I was a human resources executive, I often worked with people to determine the appropriate jobs that were needed in their groups. Many department heads would complete job descriptions for key jobs, which described all of the tasks that the employees would be required to do. It took a great deal of effort for me to get these individuals to realize that employees in key positions are not paid to perform tasks, they are paid to produce results. Through much coaching on my part, we were able to identify the outcomes that the individuals were expected to achieve in the various positions.

Why is it so critical to determine outcomes for a job, a meeting, a department, or any other situation? Because if you don’t know what your outcome is, the odds are that you will spend a lot of unnecessary time and money trying to reach a fuzzy target. And there is a very strong chance that the target will not even be reached. Outcomes let you know where you are going. They give you important information about how to use your resources, time, money, and employees. When you know your outcome, you can continually make important decisions is this going to help me reach my goal or will this take me further away from my objective?

Clearly defined outcomes can also be very motivating. I worked with a coaching client who had an idea about a new business that she wanted to start. When she first got the idea, she was very excited about it, however, she never took action to get the business moving. She continually came up with excuses about why she wasn’t doing anything to make the business a reality. I finally got her to sit down and write a detailed description of what the outcome was that she wanted to achieve with the business. That was the missing key. As soon as she wrote down the detailed outcome, she began to do the things that were necessary to get the business started. For her, defining the outcome spurred the action that is required in any business. Five years later, she has a very successful business that she absolutely loves.

Some people have a great deal of difficulty in trying to determine outcomes. It is because they are looking into a future that isn’t certain and they can’t identify what it is they want. An easy way to get around this is to imagine that the outcome has already been achieved and then to describe what it looks like. Going back to the situation with the meeting planner, the question that I asked her was, Let’s assume it is six months after the conference and you know that it was a huge success. What would have happened to let you know that it was successful? People are much more able to describe the past then they are to identify an unknown future. By asking the question this way, I was able to find out that according to the planner, the criterion for a successful meeting was that the attendees would have the tools they needed to be able to more easily and effectively handle the many changes that were going on in their industry. When I discovered this outcome, I was able to suggest a program that would help the organization achieve this desired result.

Before you take action (small or large), you need to identify what your outcome is what do you want to achieve? When you do that, you will cut down your time, streamline your efforts, accelerate your progress, and reach your desired goal. When you know where you are going, there is a good chance that you will end up getting there.

Does it feel at times as if you can’t achieve the goals you are setting for yourself no matter what you do? Do you feel as if all your efforts are a waste of time because nothing seems to get any better for you? Maybe it’s not the effort you’re putting forth that’s the problem. Maybe it’s the goals that you have set for yourself.

We humans have the habit at times of seeing the big picture as the issue we need to deal with at the moment. Then when the big issue hasn’t been dealt with in the time frame we envision, we get discouraged and decide that it’s not worth the effort.

Let me share a couple examples with you to show what I mean. Let’s say you’ve decided you need to lose fifty pounds to get to the weight you want to be at. That’s great. But what is your plan to lose the fifty pounds?

What changes in your diet and exercise regimen are you going to implement in order to achieve your goal? And more importantly. what is a safe and realistic average for you to lose each week and how many weeks will that plan take you to lose the fifty pounds?

Let’s look at another example. You have an internet business and you have set a goal for yourself to quit your job and work full-time on the internet within a year.

Once again, that is a great plan. But how much will you need to make in your on-line business on a monthly basis in order to achieve your goal in a year? And how much will you need to make each day in order to hit that mark each month? What markrting plans do you have in place and will thay make it possible for you to make that much each day?

You see, it’s not always your efforts that are the problem. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of not having a well thought out plan, and confusing goals with dreams. The big picture is the dream. That’s what you eventually hope to accomplish, whether it’s losing fifty pounds, working full-time on the internet, or whatever the case may be.

Your goals are the short term plans you have that link together to get you to your dream. If you try to achieve the big dream all at once without a viable plan made up of short term goals, you will soon get discouraged and give up without ever realizing your dreams.

So, if you’re expectations outweigh your achievments, then maybe you’re trying to reach the top of the ladder without climbing from rung to rung.

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Read more:
Goal Setting Steps — How to set and stick with your goals Part 1

www.EasyNetworkMarketingLeads.com Learn how to set personal goals, in this part of the video there are 3 steps which you need to complete in order to become successful and achieve your goals! HAPPY GOAL SETTING!

Have you ever heard someone say, I could do it if I could just set my mind to it. Have you ever uttered these words, even just to yourself?

You can you know. And me too. I really can achieve what I set my mind to. This belief has pulled me out many times from difficult situations, and for anyone discovering this feeling, you cannot describe the power inside. No bragging, just quiet confidence.

Have you heard about the story of mothers pulling great weights off their sons or daughters in order to save their lives. And then find out that the weight they lifted was virtually impossible! Tell that to a mother who is trying to save her children. There is no impossible in her mind. There is no other acceptable alternative other than total and complete success.

You can use this principle! We will move heaven and earth when we feel it is important to do so. You really can get anything you want in life if you set your mind to it. The timing and strategy may change, but the result is in the bank, ‘if you set your mind to it.’

OK. You have my curiosity stoked, you say. Now you ask, how do you set your mind to it? Ahhhh. There’s the rub. The question of the ages rears it ugly head once again.

I have written a success story of mine below. I am not proud of where I was, I am proud of how I handled it and came back.

1987 – This period of my life was both the worst time of my life and the best time of my life. Anyone hitting rock bottom can relate.

That year 1987, my life was in the “crapper”. I was in a downward spiral, and couldn’t seem to stop myself from ruining not only my life but my family’s too. I was drifting away from the very people who were most important to me.

It’s funny that even when you know that you are screwing up, you sometimes can’t seem to make change. That’s when you sometimes get lucky. At least I was.

I was drinking heavily, an alcoholic by definition, not by belief. I was up late drinking myself into a stupor and fell asleep with a lit cigarette in the ash tray. When I woke up the next morning, the cigarette had burned down, fell out of the ash tray onto the coffee table and burned a thin streak into the wood.

Now you would think that this would shake anybody up, but, this wasn’t the catalyst! No.

When our little girl Sheri came down this particular morning, she remarked, horrified, that I could have burned the house down! I could have died just from the look on her face. Well, I would move mountains for my family so it was enough of a picture that I gave up smoking right then and there. March 5, 1987 My focus was laser concentrated, quitting smoking was the most important thing to do in my life at this time.

If you notice, I never said that I gave up drinking there. No. Not enough leverage for that one yet.

Later that year we were at a friend’s wedding, and I still was drinking heavily. Probably more heavily if that could be possible. It’s a wonder that I didn’t get alcohol poisoning, I had no problem downing whole cases of beer, and requesting more. (24 packs in Ontario, where we were living at the time.)

When we came home that night, my wife and I got into an argument, and after verbally abusing her, the argument elevated. I HIT HER.

I struck my wife, a little more than 115-120 lbs soaking wet! What a big man I was. The argument continued for another few minutes, but she picked up the kids and left the house for her mothers.

At that instant, I realized even through my drunkenness that I had crossed the line.

When the next morning came, and I had sobered up a little, I could have cut my right arm off. In my life, I had swore that I would never become one who would beat on their wife. And I had hit her physically.

I have never had another alcoholic drink since that time. July 18, 1987. Quit cold turkey, with leverage that few people get to feel. Thank God for that. And of course I never hit her again. She is absolutely the most important person in my life, and I try to demonstrate that daily.

Change took on a whole new importance to me. I had tremendous leverage on myself. I had crossed a line in my mind, a threshold, that gave me absolute power over my actions. That is where we have to be when we expect change to last.

The results? That year, I quit smoking in the spring, and I quit drinking that summer. I started jogging at this same time and started out going around a little park behind our house, probably a 5 minute run but took me 11 minutes, pumping and puffing. During the next 3 months I worked up to 5 miles a day, and dropped weight from 245 to 185. My focus was concentrated solely on the fact that I knew I was better than this and I must change my life now. For myself and for my family.

I felt tremendous urgency. I felt better then than at any other time in my life. My mind was clear on the objective. Sure there were distractions, but my purpose was enough to get me through and manage them.

In 1988, I led my team at work to a company wide contest win, great recognition for me. And I took my wife Anne on her dream trip, a trip for 2 weeks to Hawaii. We took everything in we could, and took 33 rolls of film to sit together and look at later.

I journalled my thoughts and feelings at that time, but alas, I did not journal in a hard bound book, just a three ring binder. The pages tossed away sometime ago. Therefore, I have only my memory to serve me. (Journalling regularly is a great way to measure how much one has grown. I recommend it heartily.)

What really pulled me out was the realization that, not only was I completely fouling up my life and my family’s, but that I was not creating anything for them or myself. I was not being who I was supposed to me. My idea of who I am, was completely in direct contradiction to what I was acting out.

Now. Back to the Present.

So, how do you set your mind to it? How do you make what you want, the most important thing in your life for the time period needed to achieve?

How do you give it importance over those things you most value already?

Connect them up. Use what is already important in your life and connect it to what you want to have, with stronger, more powerful reasons associating the fact that one gets stronger and more potent with the other.

How do you take something you have doing for years and stop ‘cold turkey’, and turn it around to give you terrific momentum for the positive?

How do you take something that you have been trying to do for years, and failing, and turn it around so that you are successful at it immediately?

You must make it the most important thing to do in your life for the time period necessary to ingrain it into your life. And you must make it a MUST! Just like in the story of the mother saving her child. There is no other acceptable alternative other than total and complete success.

Connect it to something you feel is already critically important and merge them. Make one depend on the other and you will be pulled to success. Look forward to your new future!

My guess is that at some time in your life you have ’set your mind’ to something and cruised to victory. This is the feeling you want to remember and practice.

Think back, pull the memories of successful changes you have already made and you will have your own personal strategy that you know works for you. You just have to consciously remember and practice it.

There are many ways to change. You probably already know these but are you using them? I have found them absolutely critical to habit development and change. The degree of success you have will be directly proportionate to the degree you apply these principles.

They create a ‘pull’ instead of you having to ‘push’. Logical reasons will help, but emotional reasons have the most power. Here are 5 strategies that I feel are critical.

1. Decision to Commit – Pure resolve that I am doing it. No matter what, whatever it takes. There is no option acceptable other than to do it.

2. Great Reasons that move me to ACTION! Strong Empowering Emotional Reasons WHY I must do this.

3. Connection to what’s already important. Anchoring positive thoughts over negative to control focus. Look forward to your new future.

4. Associating with people who have done it or are doing it. Immerse myself.

5. Change My Identity, to a Self Image that is consistent with what I want.

I use these strategies in conjunction with each other. It does however depend on the habit you want to create or replace.

More later at another time, this will give you a great place to start. Go for it!

Have you ever wished you had stronger willpower? How can you make yourself stop doing things you don’t want to do? There are ways, and the first thing to do is to redefine the concept of willpower.

Self Awareness Instead Of Willpower

It’s hard to resist temptation sometimes, isn’t it? That piece of cake calls to you. What’s the simple answer to this? Don’t stand in front of the cake! Don’t go to the bar alone if you want a faithful marriage. Don’t have whiskey in the house if you don’t want to drink it. Stay away from people that lead you to trouble.

People often have this idea that willpower must mean being immune to temptation. What if true willpower is not only the ability to say no, but the wisdom to avoid temptation? Become aware of where your resistance is low, and don’t put yourself in those situations. Doesn’t that make more sense than fighting useless battles with yourself?

Other Ways To Strengthen Willpower

There will be times when you didn’t choose the situation, of course. Or at least that’s the excuse you’ll use. What can you do then? Try these tips:

1. Immediately begin to imagine the consequences of your actions. Give yourself a good scare, if you have to.

2. Substitute temptations. Quickly get a glass of your favorite juice or soda if you don’t want that beer.

3. Ask for help. If you can’t stop complaining, for example, have friends point out when you are doing it.

4. Relax. Willpower is low when you are stressed. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.

5. Energize yourself. Willpower tends to go up and down with energy levels. Sleep well, play energetic music, move around, or start an interesting conversation.

6. Find the cause of the temptation, and deal with it. A boring job or life can lead you to all sorts of stupid ways to find “excitement.” Consider changing what you can change.

You can call it willpower, or self control, or something else. You just want to stop yourself from doing harmful things, right? Using the techniques and tips here will help.