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Setting & Achieving Goals

www.rhodes2success.com This is 10 minutes of scenes from my Setting and Achieving Goals presentation recorded live in June 2009 when I was Guest Speaker at a BNI Big Breakfast Networking event. The video shares some of the key points about Goals from a Personal Development perspective, as well as sharing information about me, and how I got to become a speaker. Goals like my other subjects are delivered for companies and events and workshops and also to the general public at my own public seminars. Other subjects include Building a Success Mindset, Limiting Beliefs and Comfort Zones, Success in a Recesion, Effective Communication.

2. Ask yourself why you really want the things you determined in step 1). Is it to enhance your relationship with your family or with your Creator? To grow closer to those most important to you? Perhaps if it is financial, is it to better provide for those around you and leave more time for charity and ministry? Without understanding why we want the things we do, it is often difficult to really become motivated to get the things we want.

3. Write out a list of things that would need to change in your life in order for your goals to come true. Sometimes the only reason we don’t accomplish our goals is that we don’t have a written plan of what needs to be done. Without having the ability to review the goals regularly, we tend to lose our focus. Before we know it, a month or two has gone by, there is no progress, and we are frustrated that we are no closer to the realization of our goals.

4. Break each goal down into a series of minigoals-smaller accomplishments that, when all are completed, would result in the achievement of your primary goal. When you break your goals into smaller segments, the goals do not appear to be as formidable—just take things one minigoal at a time, and after awhile your primary goal will be accomplished.

5. Create a time frame for achieving each of your goals. Often we don’t achieve simply because we don’t create a time constraint. Give yourself a deadline and you will get more done. Remember when you were in college and you finished the semester-long paper the night before it was due-if not the very morning it was due? As much as we don’t like to admit it, we often need deadlines to help us achieve our goals.

6. Ask a trusted friend to hold you accountable in each area where you want to improve, grow, or achieve. This should preferably not be your husband or wife, but rather a same-sexed friend from whom you can easily take criticism and who will feel comfortably pushing you a little when you aren’t following through on your goals. When we involve others, we tend to feel a greater sense of urgency.

7. Celebrate each time you achieve one of your goals or minigoals. We humans tend to like celebration, and it can help motivate you to achieve the next goal on your list.

Bonus:

8. Once you have completed your goals and celebrated, look back over the process and ask yourself what you could have done to achieve your goal more smoothly or quickly. This is one of the most critical steps in the long-term realization of goals, because it can help us become more efficient at achieving our goals in the future.

You are not alone. The struggle to move from what we don’t want to what we do want is, unfortunately, a fundamental struggle for many individuals. Believe it or not, it is very common for people to struggle against what they want and to actively limit their good.

In order to have what you want, you must be willing to end the struggle and move into action. Your success is dependent on your ability to reach your goals and achieve.

The easiest way to move from “stuck” into action without struggle is to be authentic and to be in alignment with your authenticity. Authenticity means that you are connected to your core and that your desires are a true reflection of your inner self and soul.

Alignment means that your entire being is in agreement with the goal you want to achieve. For example, you come home from work one evening and you are very tired. But this evening is your work-out night. You sit on the couch and actually have to talk yourself into getting into your gym clothes and heading off to the gym. What you did in convincing part of yourself to go to the gym when it really wanted to rest on the couch is called alignment. You got yourself into alignment with the idea and intention of going to the gym no matter how tired a part of you felt.

To end struggle and successfully achieve goals, all parts of you must work together for manifestation. That means all bodies, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual, must be in agreement concerning a goal. There can be no doubts, limiting beliefs or attachments. The following describes a process you can use to do an authenticity check concerning your goals and bring yourself into alignment with your goals.

Step One: Sit quietly ? create a peaceful, serene and nurturing space for yourself. It must be a space where you feel comfortable and secure. Spend several minutes in quiet and inner reflection upon your goal. Have paper and pen handy.

Step Two: The Authenticity Check: Ask within if this goal is the appropriate goal for you to achieve at this time. If the answer is yes, skip to the next step. If the answer is no, ask what a more appropriate goal would be for you right now.

By asking this question, you move from being ruled by the needs of the mind (survival issues) and begin to access the soul within. You leave behind the petty desires of the ego and move into realizing the desires of the soul. As a result, your goals become truer and more authentic.

Write down the response you receive. If you need additional clarity concerning the response, ask for it. Keep asking within until you feel complete.

Step Three: Alignment. Once you have a defined and authentic goal, it is time to create alignment. Remain in your space of quiet and comfort; ask to speak to your mental body. (You will repeat step Three with each of the bodies) Ask your mental body if it is willing to be in alignment with you goal. The purpose of this question is to uncover any blocks or limitations that reside in the mental body concerning the goal. If the answer is yes, proceed to the next body: physical, spiritual and emotional.

If the answer is no, simply begin a conversation with this part of you. Some questions to begin with are: Why are you not willing to be in alignment with this goal? What would it take for you to be in alignment with this goal?

When a part is not willing to be in alignment with an authentic goal, the cause may be fear or insecurity. Usually the situation is remedied by helping the part understand that it is taken care of, that it is safe and that it has nothing to fear. Simply, have a conversation with the part and inform it of the truth.

Once you receive the willingness of all the bodies, remember to thank them for supporting the manifestation of this authentic goal. Affirm your alignment with this goal and your intention to manifest it.

By completing this process, you have created an authentic goal and brought yourself into full alignment with this goal. You can now move forward without struggle because all blocks have been removed. Success shall be yours.

It doesn’t matter what you write, and the more things you can think of the better. When writing the list, try not to think of whether something will be possible or impossible to do, but instead write as though you were writing a wish list where you could have anything you wanted.

By doing this you take one step closer to achieving your goals, as often many of our goals are simply left in the mind and forgotten about because we believe that we are incapable of achieving them. However you would be surprised at how many things you thought were impossible, were actually possible if you just took the time, and made the effort to go after them.

Once you have created your wish list you should now choose 5 goals that you want to start working on immediately. These goals can be anything you like, although to give your life balance it is a good idea to choose 1 goal for each area of your life. For example, a goal for financial, romantic, personal, spiritual and health are good areas to begin with. Although do what you feel is best, so if you want 3 financial goals and 2 health goals that would be ok. However avoid concentrating your goals on one single area, as this will unbalance your life.

Whilst it may be tempting to choose more than 5 goals, 5 is a good number to begin with as it allows you to focus your mind on a few specific goals, and devote more of your energy to accomplishing them. If you choose too many goals to begin with, you may feel overwhelmed and give up before you even begin.

Once you get the hang of goal setting, you can then begin to add more goals later. In fact it’s a good idea to have as many goals as you can, but only when you feel comfortable with the process of setting goals.

With the 5 goals that you have chosen, your next step is to write them in a goal format. This simply involves writing your goals in the present, positive tense. For example, I have or I am.

This is extremely important as it tells the mind this is what you should have, rather than what you want or will have. So writing I Will or I have should be avoided.

Now that you have your goals written in goal format look at them daily, and rewrite your goals in the morning and night to burn them into your mind. The more you focus on your goals, the stronger the desire will be to accomplish them.
If you need more detail on goal setting please visit my website for more tips on how to set goals, and how to choose the goals that are right for you.

Most of us, at some time, have been told that an essential part, if not the major part, of being successful is setting goals. If that were true many more of us would be successful millionaires, actors, parents…etc. In this article I show you why many people fail to achieve their goals and how to be successful whatever you want or need.

1) What is a goal?

A goal is a target achievable in measurable attainable steps. It is more than just a desire or a need and has an existence of its own. A desire or a wish is less tangible and often just fleeting. Who doesn’t desire or wish to win the lottery with all its millions in prize money. Very few would not but, despite the widespread desire, it is not a goal. A goal is a desire, wish or need achievable by actions you can take. It is more than a mere wish or desire.

2) How to set a goal?

Setting a goal is a process which starts with an achievable wish, need or desire. First you must decide on the following

What do you want?
Where do you want to be?
Your status, career or qualifications?

A goal can relate to any desire, wish or need achievable by actions you can take.

You then break down the goal into small individual steps or actions. Achievable goals are goals where you can influence their realization and measure your progress towards them. Achieving long term life changing goals is a process of achieving, step by step, short and medium term actions.

3) What actions are required?

Goals require action on your part. You first need to decide what action is required to achieve the goal. Your first action is always to always write your goals down. Putting pen to paper, and this is one time when a real pen and paper are required, gives your goals an existence of their own.

Writing a plan is an essential step in achieving your goals – without it you will, over time, amend the long term goal to fit your reality. You will eventually reduce the goal to a wish, and wishes only come true by chance.

4) Analyse the results

You then need to analyse, and work out in detail, how you are going to accomplish each individual goal. This means writing a detailed plan of what tangible actions are required to achieve each individual goal.

These actions then become smaller shorter term goals leading to major longer term goals.

5) What steps do I need to take today?

Every day ask yourself “What steps do I need to take today?”. By now it should be all planned in advance so check your plan and make sure you take each step every day. If you discover additional steps are needed add them to the plan.

6) Review your achievements every week and month

Every week review your progress for the week. Check what you’ve done and what you may have missed. Adjust your plan for the next week or month.

Your plan should always take into account what you will do today, tomorrow, this week, next week before the end of the month, in the next 3 months, 6 months…? Always write down your results.

7) What if things go wrong?

If goals were easy to achieve everyone would be successful millionaires. Goals are difficult because they move you outside your comfort zone to do things differently. To be successful you have to face your own fear of failure and take risks. There will be setbacks, expect them, they are part of the process.

If you are not prepared to take action towards your goals then you are wasting your time. True success comes from the daily actions we all take. Using goals ensures that all the actions you take are moving you in the direction you wish to go. Daily or weekly reviews keep you on track and applying these simple tips will ensure you achieve your goals

If you don’t feel like doing something or start doubting whether the activity has any value, do it ‘anyway’ and then see what the results are later after you have completed the activity.

Some results can be seen or felt almost immediately. You reluctantly go for a walk but feel great as soon as you get home. Other results may take a week or so. You start eating less and feel slimmer in two or three days’ time.

A few days ago I started eating less before going to sleep instead of having a large evening meal. Today I had my reward. I was walking past a local farm when the farmer took a long look at me and then patted his stomach saying:

“You are losing it!”

He is no lightweight himself but I took his encouragement in the spirit in which it was meant and replied: “Thanks; that will encourage me for the next six months”

You can always stop doing whatever activity you think is a waste of time at a later date but if you stop too early you will never know whether it would have worked or not.

Another example is the key task of keeping your room tidy. You decide to tidy up your room and plan to move 5 less used items out of the room every day. After a day or so, you may feel your plan is making no difference whatever – your room still looks a complete mess.

Keep following your plan anyway. After a week you will probably see a difference and this fairly quick result will encourage you to keep going with your plan until your room is a model of tidiness. Try it out and see what happens.

I tried this plan yesterday and not only moved 5 books out of the room but created a database to record where I put them plus a database for my internet courses (the numerous ones I have not yet read). On top of that I changed a light bulb that had been out of action for several days!

However, my room still looked a mess!

I tried the plan again today and immediately benefited from the side effects of tidying up. I discovered several videos I could use again and found where I had put my video of ‘The Hulk’.

Another result was that the left side of my room was now looking almost tidy!

However, the main benefit of carrying out any plan is not the results produced. It is the character produced. Our self-esteem and confidence rise every time we carry out a plan however small it is.

As Marlon Sanders, the great internet guru, would say: “If a thing ain’t done, it ain’t done.”

Unfinished products are useless. No money can be made from them and no one can benefit from them. It is vitally important that we complete what we begin even if we lose interest and start having doubts.

We need to finish our projects anyway. We will then start believing that we can achieve anything.

At the time of writing this, Ellen MacArthur, the great yachtswoman, is sailing round the world on her own. She has just passed the Canary Isles and is two hours ahead of her nearest competitor.

She is fulfilling a giant plan but what preceded it was the fulfilment of many smaller plans like learning how to tie a useful knot and how to take part in sailing competitions.

At least one of these yacht races was so stressful that she was in tears for much of the voyage. But she kept going anyway.

Carrying out her plans built her confidence and will power to a point where sailing round the world in record time became a real possibility.

Lloyd Scott has just finished cycling across Australia from Perth to Sydney on a penny farthing bike to raise money for leukaemia research.

He is, not surprisingly, rather sore even though he has probably prepared by cycling shorter distances on his penny farthing.

Doubtless, there were many days when he felt like giving up but he kept on cycling anyway.

He celebrated by swimming in the sea at Bondai Beach.

The more we make use of the word ‘anyway’, the more we will achieve our goals and celebrate reaching them.

If we keep on using this amazing word, celebration will become a way of life for us.

Step Number One

Spend some quiet time and write down exactly what the change or changes will be and why you want them, this is the first crucial step towards achieving goals. At this stage, write only what it is you’d like to achieve and why. The ‘how’s’ and ‘when’s’ can come later.

Step Number Two

This step too is very important, and it has everything to do with you accessing a state of inner peace. The peace I write about has little to do with listening to relaxation music, essential oils in a burner or harps playing (though they can help). Achievement of your goal requires having peace through a quiet mind and inner calmness regardless of the chaos around you and how long this chaos reigns.

When you have this (peace) you’ll have greater clarity, your creative self will make itself known, you’ll gain foresight into how you will achieve your outcome, focus, and negativity will have minimal impact.

There are individuals who know how to step into the state of peace; however others may require some gentle guidance.

If you find achieving a peace state challenging, there are 5 options listed below that may help you:

1. Find yourself some quiet time when you know you’ll be undisturbed and paint, draw, write, or map out all you can about your intended outcome.

2. Embark on a meditation program that will teach you a selection of meditation techniques.

3. If you’re willing to be coached, find yourself a reputable personal coach who can help you work through limiting beliefs and help you discover what your values are.

4. Seek out a mentor. This would be someone whom you admire, is inspiring, motivating, and successful, be available to you and who is a fundamentally positive, peaceful and calm individual.

5. Embark on a spiritual development program.

The world of alternatives is huge. To find something you’ll be happy with may take a little research, start by asking friends and family members to point you in the right direction. If they’re just not into that kind of thing it may be wise to broaden your search through the internet, books, and/or other members of your community.

Step Number Three

This important step is about gifting yourself with a fresh outlook on life.

Looking at things in a totally different way and from a new angle will give you a more global perspective revealing greater possibilities and may be achieved by:

1. Asking parts of you what is important to you, each time you receive an answer continue by asking why that answer is important. When you can go no further ask yourself “how can you change this issue?” This may sound a bit strange, however from experience this works.

2. Transformational Coaching.

3. Understanding your motivation or lack of motivation. Once you’ve gained an understanding of you, you’re in a position to become proactive into making necessary changes toward achieving your goal.

4. Reading autobiographies of how successful people did it.

Step Number Four

By now you know exactly what you want; you can step into profound inner peace at will; have picked up great self-help and self-healing tools; eliminated limiting beliefs; and worked out your values. Now it’s time to finally pinpoint exactly how you’re going to go about achieving your goal.

There will be many ways on how you’ll achieve your goal; however the time frame will vary greatly depending on what you need to acquire first. Maybe you need:

1. To acquire new skills such as sales, writing, technology, or marketing skills etc. for that new career you’ve always wanted to be part of.

2. To seriously start networking yourself and your product. Become known in your community.

3. To gather a team of like minded individuals that will motivate and inspire you into achieving your goal, whatever it is. Constant negative input can quickly extinguish dreams.

4. Start an investment portfolio for your future if you’re after a secure financial future.

5. Read as much as possible on whatever your goal is, it will give you a fundamental understanding of what it’s all about.

Step Number Five

This last but important step (they’re all important) is the calculation of when your outcome will finally eventuate. If you’ve followed the previous steps adding Step Number Four into the equation, you’ll be able to determine the time you can celebrate in a really, huge way of finally reaching the pot at the end of your rainbow!

1. Calculate the time it takes to complete your training courses or higher education.

2. Investment portfolio goals as discussed with your investment adviser.

3. Discuss with your business/personal development/ transformational coach how many sessions and ‘home-play’ will be required of you for you to achieve your goal.

4. Factor in time it takes for people to get to know you if you’re selling a product or you are the product. Speak with a marketing professional or someone ‘in the know’ first.

5. It’s important to be realistic about timeframes. Sometimes our greatest plans will go awry and will take much longer than expected (much like newly discovered actors and singers who have been plugging their trade for many years before hitting the big time!)

Sometimes, incidents will happen and be out of our control no matter what we do. Like my computer taking with it all my electronic office equipment earlier in 2005 (one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve ever had). To keep going required perseverance, patience and flexibility ? it would have been so easy to give up!

Anyone can achieve goals through inner peace, perseverance, patience, flexibility and sometimes viewing situations from an entirely different angle.

Michaela Scherr Transformational Coach

Originally posted here:
My Intents – Goal Setting Training

My Intents users will learn how to use the Goals Module.

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7 Steps to Setting and Achieving Goals

Keep in mind that there is a whole process to setting goals and you will need to complete the process for each and every personal goal. Basically, you will find that it is in your best interest to set personal goals, set the paths with milestones for each goal, and that you re-check the goals every now and then so that you know that this is still what you want. A lot of people will forget to rethink about their goals, and that is the silliest thing to do. Keep in mind that you will need to give up on the goals that you no longer care about, but you also need to keep in mind why you need to reach this goal. The motivation will keep you going strong.

When it comes to goal motivation you will find that the success of a goal is so moving that you will be able to build self-confidence quickly. You will find that the success of one goal will help push you to reach your next goal. You will want to keep in mind that some people get a little too cocky or proud about their success and that is taking a positive and making it a negative. You need to strive to be better, but you also need to learn to take a step back and not allow the success of your goal setting to get out of hand. Basically, you should always have one foot on the ground at all times.

Also, when it comes to personal goal setting you will need to take others inconsideration. You will need to include your family in on some of the goals that you wish to achieve and you will also need to take co-workers inconsideration when it comes to personal work-related goals.

You will also want to keep in your focus in mind. Your goals need to be clearly defined so that when you get started there is no blurry line. You will also find that there are times where you will get off track, but you have to have the self-discipline to push yourself further. Personal goals are necessary for your happiness, but you will find that it’s hard work to achieve true happiness.