Part 1 – About Goals

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I will give you someone who will make history. Give me someone with out a goal and I will give you a stock clerk”
J.C. Penny

Proper goal setting is almost without question the best tangible tool we know of for achievement. Human beings are truly goal oriented creatures and that is why we are taught to have goals. Read any success book or story and you will find the author talking about goals. Goals are essential to life. Our parents tell us, our leaders tell us, our preachers tell us, our teachers tell us. Goals are the fuel of life. They are our dreams and passions worked out in a tangible form. Consider Roger Bannister who performed the amazing feat of breaking the 4 minute mile when medical experts said humans were not capable of running at those speeds. Henry Ford for producing the supposedly impossible design of the V-8 engine. Thomas Alva Edison who became the world’s greatest inventor with only 3 months of formal schooling and said “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” as he tried no fewer than 6,000 vegetable growths, and ransacked the world for the most suitable filament material to create the light bulb. Consider the athletes, artists and business persons whose goals are clear and found the motivation, perseverance and determination to achieve what they wanted.

Good things happen to those who know exactly what they want. Achieving goals is not the problem. As goal-oriented creatures we always reach our goals. The problem is being clear on what it is we want and what we do in order to get there. Most people never clearly define their goals so they just end up somewhere. If it doesn’t matter to you where you end up, the things you acquire or the person you become then you do not need to set goals. If you are one who desires to be the most you can be then you must clearly identify your goals and set those which are most important to you. The purpose of this planner is not to load your schedule with 100 things to do or to get you so overly focused on one specific goal that other important things slip by without attention but to:

• learn and master the art of goal setting.
• clearly identify and prioritize your goals and values.
• set those that are most important.
• learn planning, task and time management.
• create balanced schedules that allow for flexibility and keep important things first.

Few people really know how to actually write a set of goals that can keep them balanced, productive and effective in life. The claims are that only 3-5% actually write goals and plans and everybody seems to work for them. These are people who understand inspirational goals that produce vision, mission and power. Everybody else has general goals that do little but keep one going day in and day out.

 

General Goals and Motivational or Inspirational Goals
General goals are what everybody has. These are the kind of goals people make at New Years, their wish lists, the lists people make like to lose a few pounds or buy some new furniture, buy a new car or travel to a new country for a holiday. These are great and we all have them because we are goal oriented creatures but please don’t mistake the fact that having these goals in your mind or even written down on paper is what it means to have “set your goals”.

This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make. They have a couple of lists or a few vague ideas in their head and they think they have “set their goals”. These are just the natural actions or developments of our unlimited minds, these are our dreams. Please don’t stop dreaming either. Dream big dreams and keep on dreaming — just don’t mistake them for “set goals”. If there are no major obstacles between you and your goals then they are only activities and will not give you the motivation or life experience I am talking about.

What I really want to talk about are motivational or inspirational goals. These are the kind of goals that cause men and women to risk their life, the kind of goals that stretch you beyond your present abilities, the kind that change you from the inside out. The kind of goals that keep you up at night, dreaming about them, reaching them, living them, owning them. More often than not it is one goal, your primary goal. Your major definite purpose. It is the one you can write a personal mission statement around. The one that taps into your desire power, and the one that you develop your strongest passion for and use your best talents and skills to achieve. It is here that you will find the meaning and purpose for your life. People of all kinds are seeking and searching for goals that create purpose, meaning and direction. It is for this need that I created The Life Goals Planner a tool that helps you identify all your goals, organizes them and then walks you though a unique process to prioritize your goals leaving you with a clear look at what is most important to you. It helps you identify your primary aim, your A1 goal and form that into a passionate mission for your life.

Michael Gerber is the author of the best selling business books The E-Myth and The E-Myth Manager in which he communicates the importance of having a primary aim. He says it is the starting place for the entrepreneur and the manager he says. “The question every manager must ask, and then answer is what do I want? It is a life defining question and one of the first rules for defining your primary aim. It is my hard belief that without asking this question, then answering it, no one can be successful at managing anything.” This is precisely what the Life Goals Planner produces — the main reason or reasons for your life.

I agree with Gerber on the importance of asking and answering this question. In fact The Life Goals Planner not only helps you define your primary aim, create vision and mission but helps you keep balance with practical applications and processes for getting results. The truth is how else can you really be effective as a human being, effective with your time, efficient with your resources, your money or your skills? The answer is you can’t without having prioritized your goals and values, and defined your life’s purpose. It won’t make much difference if you spend time and talent on things that don’t matter that much. Being busy does not mean that you are being effective. We must not only ask if we are doing things right but are we doing the right things. Brian Tracy says that there is no greater waste of time than doing things well that need not be done at all. This is part of the reason so many climb the corporate ladder only to find it is leaning on the wrong wall or to wake up from some loss or tragedy to realize that they are not fulfilled and wonder what went wrong. Nothing went wrong it was simply that we never clearly identified where it was that we wanted to end up.

Purchasing The Life Goals Planner is one of the best investments you will ever make. As you work through these processes you will begin to understand the power of clarity. It will take some effort though. Do your best and be as objective as possible. Let go of the attitudes and beliefs that may have held you back, your cynicism, doubts, fears and inhibitions. These processes are practical, proven and used by all high-achieving men and women whether they are aware of it or not. Once you have completed all the exercises you can decide for yourself whether you are going to commit to anything here or not. It is your choice and always has been your choice, and that is why you are where you are. Now it’s time to have a look at your life from a different angle, have a look from an ideal picture looking back and see what you see. Believe me the view will be so compelling you will never look the other way. Don’t let a little hard work scare you for that is what success always comes disguised as. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary so be ready to put in the effort so you can enjoy the rewards that will follow. To help you get motivated let’s look at some of the immediate benefits that properly set goals produce.

 

The Benefits of Proper Goal Setting

• Proper goal setting clearly identifies your targets.
• It helps you concentrate and focus for high productivity.
• It develops discipline, perseverance, persistence & determination.
• It promotes, motivation, excitement, and enthusiasm.
• It helps provide accountability.
• It develops passion and burning desire.
• It promotes good decision making.
• Goals allow you to control change in your life.

 

The Benefits of The Life Goals Planner

• It produces all of the above and more.
• It prioritizes values and identifies the most important.
• It promotes good habits and disciplines.
• It produces true purpose, meaning and direction.
• It develops life balance and keeps check as you grow.
• It promotes character development.
• It provides review templates and a perfect little system to help you keep track and keep on top of your goals without a lot of time or effort.

Why don’t more people set goals properly? Lets look at what two well known goal setting trainers have determined and see if any apply to you.  Zig Ziglar in his video “Goals” points out four reasons why the majority of people don’t set goals;

1. Fear of what people may think if they didn’t reach their goal. Criticism and ridicule.
2. Poor self image. They can not see themselves being successful.
3. They have never really been sold on the need to set those goals.
4. They just don’t know how.

Brian Tracy’s “Action Strategies for Personal Achievement” identifies seven reasons why people don’t set goals;

1. They are simply not serious.
2. They have not yet accepted responsibility for their life.
3. No confidence in themselves to reach a goal so they don’t set them to avoid the guilt.
4. They don’t realize the importance of goal setting.
5. They don’t know how.
6. Fear of rejection or criticism.
7. Fear of failure the greatest obstacle to success.

I have found all of these to be true in the hundreds of men and women I have worked with in the past several years. The biggest reason being that people just don’t understand the importance, the power and value of thinking through and working through a process to achieve their goals. Another misunderstanding or expression I find very common is people will say to me; “I know what to do. My problem is that I do what I want instead of what I should do.”  This is a critical mistake in wording and quite possibly an insecurity not just a lack of discipline. Most don’t really know what to do or how to go about it and that’s why they are not doing it. The inability to admit not knowing a key life skill — especially if it is a foundational life skill like goal setting can be lethal. In Part 6 we discuss some of the characteristics of success and failure for you to evaluate and check within yourself. This is an area where you need to be humble and face some truths about what you know and don’t really know. One of the main reasons people fail in life is their inability to admit a mistake or that they don’t know something. The above thinking is an example of a common misunderstanding that if you don’t get straight may cost you more than you want to bear. The truth is the things we want to do are the things we know will bring us more success in life but we opt out for the easy things because of one hundred and one reasons. Mostly a lack of discipline, courage and direction and we misquote it in our mind and say “I should do this or I should do that but I just want to watch TV or I just want to take it easy”.

This is what I suggest we say “I want to go to the gym” or “I want to take that work shop” or “I want to read that book on success” but I am going to take it easy and do …..! Do see the difference. Most of us want to be happier, we want to be healthier, we want to be wealthier and we know that it takes discipline, clear direction and effort. That’s what we want but many have fallen into the trap of saying it backwards. This kind of misrepresenting the truth to your mind does you no good; in fact it is more likely going to give you the opposite effect that you desire. Your mind and body want to pursue the things you want, so if you continually say to yourself the easy things are what you want and the hard things are only what you should do then your mind is going to work against you and go for the easy things. Get the wording right and you will soon find yourself more motivated to do the things that will bring you the real success you want.

If you find yourself with one or more of the above reasons for not having set your goals then I encourage you to rethink your position and complete these exercises in full to determine yourself the value of proper goal setting. Do not let your fear, pride or ignorance rob you of the experiences and joys of properly set goals. Open your heart and mind and let the magic of your uniqueness, your creativity, your thoughts and ideas work miracles in your life as you set your life’s goals.

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response.
I don’t know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter”
Lewis Carroll