Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
Posts tagged goal setting
Vision Review and a Question
Jan 20th
“Change always comes bearing gifts.” ~Price Pritchett
America is very excited today. Barack Obama will shortly become the president of the United States – a monumental occasion for many reasons. Mr. Obama was not my choice for president; my choice did not make it through the primary process. Still, I wish him the absolute best. He is taking over a country with many serious issues and we need some new ideas and a strong leader. May that be Barack Obama!
Now, to Your Vision - I thought it would be useful to recap what I have talked about so far regarding creating a life vision before we move forward on the process.
1) Having a clear and exciting and compelling vision of your future is a critical element for success. With the right vision, you can become fearless. With the right vision, you are naturally focused. With the right vision, stress disappears and you are pulled towards your dreams by great positive feeling of anticipation. You create this vision with smart questions and self analysis.
2) Answer this question for yourself: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? What would you attempt to become or achieve or do, if you knew that it was impossible to fail?
3) Create an inventory of your dreams. I want you to pretend that it is Christmas Eve and you have been very good indeed – Santa is going to bring you whatever you wish. This should be a comprehensive list that looks from today all the way forward to 20 or more years from now. I don’t want you to worry at all about how you will accomplish any of these goals. I don’t want you to put any limits on these goals. I just want you to dream, across all categories of your life, and write these things down.
I’ll give you some categories to help your creativity. Try to end up with at least a dozen notes in each of the following categories of goals. Spend anywhere from a minimum of 5 minutes to whatever amount of time feels right to you.
Goal Setting Categories:
- Your Physical Body Goal
- Personal Development Goals
- Family Goals
- Relationship Goals
- Business Goals
- Spiritual Goals
- Financial Goals
- Fun / Delight Goals
- Possessions
- Emotional Goals
For those of you that have taken one of my annual goal setting workshops, you will notice that this process is very similar so far. The process of creating your goals for a year and creating your life vision are closely connected. When you create compelling goals for yourself, you are creating parts of your life vision.
Here is the question for today: Really, it is more of a task than a question. Take all of these goals, hopefully a long list of things, and put a timeline on each of them. How soon do you expect to complete each of your goals? 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years, 20 years – whatever it is, write your estimated completion time next to each of your goals. Simple enough huh?
Till next time…Jack
“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” ~Christopher Reeve
Your Vision of the Future Part Two
Jan 15th
“Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth.” ~Martin H. Fischer
Hey. Did you answer the question from the last entry? Let me repeat it: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? What would you attempt to become or achieve or do, if you knew that it was impossible to fail? How did you do with that question? For me, I can still remember the first time that I heard this question, more than 20 years ago now, and how frightened I was by it. Yes, frightened.
It was frightening to me to put down on paper what I really wanted – the secret dreams of my heart, without knowing how I would accomplish them. Somehow it was safer if I kept these dreams locked up in my mind without even a piece of paper to incriminate me. Funny reaction I know, but some of you might also be finding some resistance to this question. The question does not ask you to formulate a plan, or be logical, or be reasonable – all of those things come later. What it does is presuppose that you will find a way and that the best way to proceed is to come from a place of certainty: I don’t know how I am going to get there, but I know that I will.
So, what was your answer? Write it down and let’s move on to the next question. Actually, before that, let’s do the “priming” that I had mentioned in the last entry. I have written about this before and any of you that have attended one of my live seminars have experienced priming first hand. As a recap, priming is a very powerful technique designed to help you to enter optimal, peak states. I’m not going to go over how it works today. Just follow these instructions – read these words:
Destiny Destined for Greatness Explorer Achievement Powerful Self Confident Successful Unstoppable Grateful Deeply Fulfilled Excited Adventure Satisfaction Playful Delight Ready to learn Fun Ready for new experiences Dreams Heart’s Desire Marvelous Gifts What Matters Most to Me What I truly want My Dreams My Passions My Loves
Great. Now let’s move on to question two. Question 2) Let’s create an inventory of your dreams. I want you to pretend that it is Christmas Eve and you have been very good indeed – Santa is going to bring you whatever you wish. This should be a comprehensive list that looks from today all the way forward to 20 or more years from now. I don’t want you to worry at all about how you will accomplish any of these goals. I don’t want you to put any limits on these goals. I just want you to dream, across all categories of your life, and write these things down.
I’ll give you some categories to help your creativity. Try to end up with at least a dozen notes in each of the following categories of goals. Spend anywhere from a minimum of 5 minutes to whatever amount of time feels right to you.
Goal Setting Categories:
- Your Physical Body Goals
- Personal Development Goals
- Family Goals
- Relationship Goals
- Business Goals
- Spiritual Goals
- Financial Goals
- Fun / Delight Goals
- Possessions
- Emotional Goals
Have fun! It is impossible to do this wrong and we will debrief the results next time.
Jack
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I am with you kid. Let’s go.”" ~Maya Angelou
New Year’s Resolutions Part Five
Jan 9th
“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” ~Pietro Aretino
Well hello. I am looking out at a beautiful winter scene as I write this entry. I spent much of my youth in Chicago and the winters there were often quite extreme. I can remember one Christmas break from college, I was working at Amtrak between college semesters, and we had a nice cold snap. For two weeks the temperature hovered near 50 below zero (Fahrenheit) and with wind chill – wow! It turned out to be a real blessing for me. Amtrak could not turn off the diesel locomotives, it was so cold that they could not be restarted, so I was paid overtime everyday to stay and tend things. For a college kid, this extra money was a great gift. I am still grateful more than 30 years later.
I was thinking about this time today when others around me were complaining about the weather. Winter doesn’t bother me. I know it will end. I know it is a natural part of life and needed for all of the plants and animals that are native to this area to rest and rejuvenate. I also know that I cannot change it and I will not allow something that I cannot change or influence to have control of my moods. I was also thinking about how sweet spring will be after this cold winter. So, thanks winter!
I was also thinking that every rough patch in my life, and there were some very rough patches indeed, always had a gift for me – if I was smart enough to find it. Even looking back at the darkest times in my life, poor, getting divorced, living in the back of my car, fighting for custody of my daughter – there were gifts for me in that experience. Now I was not smart enough to see them, those gifts, at the time. It took years of growth and reflection before I could achieve that place. Today, when I find myself in a rough patch, I ask myself two questions: 1) What is great about this and 2) What could be great about this if I looked at it from the right perspective? And you know what? There always is a gift waiting for me!
Last time I had you put your 5 driving goals on the front of three by five index cards. Here’s why. I want you to put the following questions on the back of the index cards:
- Why is this goal important to me? Above and beyond the goal itself, what will the accomplishment of this goal allow me to do or be or experience or feel?
- How great will it feel when this goal is accomplished?
- What do I need to change about myself to ensure that I accomplish this goal?
- What is the most important thing that I need to do today, to move myself along the path of achieving this goal?
- What else can I do to make it even more certain that I will achieve this goal?
- What can I do to make sure that I have fun, a blast, as I work to achieve this goal?
So, add these questions to the back of the cards. Do you have that done? Great! Now here is the critical part. Keep the cards with you and every single day, at least a couple of times per day, review your goals, all five of them, and then flip the card over and answer the questions. Within a short time you will feel the difference, you will begin to find the answers you need, make the changes required and you are very likely to achieve those goals! I know lots of more techniques, but I know of none easier and more certain at the same time.
And now a bit of fun and trivia: Some of you know that I am related to Robert Burns the Scottish Poet and that I have visited his hometown and gravesite in Scotland. Did you know that when you sing, on New Year’s Eve, “Auld Lang Syne”you are singing one of Robert’s most beloved creations? Since this is the last entry that will talk about New Year’s Resolutions, at least for awhile, I thought it would be fun to give you the poem/song here (sing with gusto!):
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and days of auld lang syne?
CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
and days of auld lang syne?
CHORUS
We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since days of auld lang syne?
CHORUS
We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared,
since days of auld lang syne?
CHORUS
And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
and days of auld lang syne?
Till next time…Jack
“Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.” ~Plutarch, Moralia
New Year’s Resolutions Part Four
Jan 8th
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” ~Abraham Lincoln
Did you choose 5 marvelous goals for 2009? Great! Take a minute and review them against these questions.
- Are these goals really exciting? If they aren’t then change them until they are.
- Are these goals spread across all the areas of your life? Make sure that they are not all focusing on just one or two topics. Balance!
- Are these goals big enough to excite you when you think about them actually being completed?
- Are these goals small enough, or realistic enough, that you can believe that is truly possible to accomplish them before the end of the coming year? If you don’t believe it, you won’t achieve it.
There are many other great questions that can be used to fine tune goals. Those four are enough for this entry. Here is the last thing I will ask you to do today with your five goals: write each one of them, individually, on the front of a three by five index card. Then keep these five cards with you all of the time. We will cover shortly why this matters and what you will do with the cards to actually ensure that you achieve the goals that are written on them.
Till next time…Jack
“My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.” ~Elaine Maxwell
Goals Part 4
Oct 12th
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” ~Larry Lorenzoni
I recently had a birthday and I found myself in a very self-reflective mood that day. I believe that I have significant control over my emotional states and reactions and I could have changed this one, since it showed up unplanned, but I decided to go with self-reflection and see what it offered me.
It offered me this: What could I do – achieve, by my next birthday, that would be a wonderful gift to myself? I found this exciting to think about. I have an entire year to work. Now, what can I do in that time, for me, that will make my next birthday a real treat? This was fun! I spent the next hour or so walking around and doing a mini-goal setting session.
What could I achieve related to:
My body – my physical health?
My finances – my savings and investments?
My business – my coaching and writing and speaking?
My family?
My skills and talents – my toolbox of things that I know how to do?
It isn’t that I haven’t looked at all of these things many times in the past. I have. I am a dedicated and habitual goal setter. The difference was that I was looking at the achieving of the goals as a gift – a gift to myself! This change in perspective was powerful for me! Instead of looking at my goals as something that I needed to do, now I had added the feeling that achieving these things was something I got to do and it was a gift. I felt different and more empowered.
So, let me ask you this: What would you like to achieve, before your next birthday, that would be a gift to yourself? What would you like to do that once done, would make you feel great, or proud, or free, or satisfied or whatever way you would like to feel? Try this. If you only have a few days until your birthday, then choose something small – perhaps something you have been procrastinating – and do it and get it done and then on your birthday – celebrate!
If you have more time, then you can go thru an entire goals setting process as I am laying it out here and add the perspective of a gift to yourself. I believe it will make a difference for both you and I.
Till next time…Jack
“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” ~Jennifer Yane
Goals Part 2
Sep 4th
“Establishing goals is all right if you don’t let them deprive you of interesting detours.” ~Doug Larson
The last entry told you that we would be doing dreaming together as part of goal setting. Tis true we will. There is great power in your dreams and I want you to have that power. It is the power to get past the things that have stopped you before. It is the power to get yourself to take the actions that you must in order to change your dreams into your reality. It is the power to put of procrastination and take action right away. Power. Power for good lives in your dreams and that is why we start goal setting with dreaming – we want, we need that energy to get past the obstacles that will absolutely come up.
For today, I just want to ask you a few questions, questions to prime you for the work we will be doing together:
1) Where are you in your life? Are you on track for where you want to be or have you gotten derailed somewhere along the line?
2) If you knew that you could not possibly fail, what would you be doing for a living?
3) When you look at your life right now – are you living your dreams?
4) When you look at your life right now – is this the life you wanted or is this the life someone else wanted for you?
5) Are there any big dreams that you have given up on? Why?
Give those some thought. Write down the answers. If most people set their goals for the year 5 minutes before New Years Eve, while drunk, and never review them again until the next New Years Eve; we are going to follow a path that ensures much better results and more fun. And you might start to get excited now – it’s okay. There is power in goal setting and once you have been thru the process once, your life is forever changed for the better.
Till next time…Jack
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” ~George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) an Irish playwright – the only person awarded both the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938) – perhaps best known for his play and movie Pygmalion
Goals Part 1
Sep 3rd
“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” ~Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France; perhaps best known for Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Do you like to dream? Have you been known as a dreamer? Have you ever been told to “stop daydreaming and get your head out of the clouds”? Wonderful! Great! Good for you! Those skills will serve you well and the process of goal creation is going to be easy for you.
If you are highly practical, if you like to always stay “down to earth”, if big dreams seem wrong or grandiose or ridiculous to you, then you might find the process of goal creation, as I teach it, a bit of a stretch. Go ahead – stretch with me. You can always be practical tomorrow.
All, and I mean all, of my coaching around goal creation and goal achievement starts with dreaming. I start with dreaming because it works – when my clients and seminar attendees begin with dreaming, they achieve more, faster, and with more pleasure along the way. I also use dreaming as a critical beginning element of the process of goal setting because my teachers and mentors also believe in the power of dreams. Anthony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Lee Pulos, Brian Tracy – all of these great teachers and many more incorporate dreaming into their work.
I am not sure how long this series of articles will be yet. I have been doing some very ambitious goal setting of my own lately and this process has been much on my mind. I also just ordered 5 new books related to goals, books written since my last indepth study of the topic, and there may be some new ideas to discuss. So, this series will last as long as it needs to. I promise you this though, follow along and you will get to your dreams faster and have more fun along the way.
Till next time…Jack
“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~Marsha Norman
(born 1947]) is an American playwright, screenwriter, television writer and novelist.