Self Improvement Information

In today’s culture the word “goal” has become a buzzword.  Many people say, “my goals is to ___”.  That is good, in the respect, they are stating what they want.  In that statement, they have substituted the word “goal” for what might, more appropriately, be called an “intention”.  If it has become such a buzzword, why is it that only 2% of the population have written, specific goals?

When I coach and work with people in business, I am always surprised that people find setting goals so hard to do.  They talk as if they will sit down and write their goals, but unless they have a business coach, who will keep them accountable, they tend to stick it in the section of their minds labeled “I will do this tomorrow”.  Why do people struggle with setting goals?

I believe, one reason is, they really don’t know how to set goals.  After gathering the information on how to set effective goals, some will still not do it.  The reason could be that many people are afraid of success.  When people hear that, they tell me they aren’t afraid of success, they are afraid of failure.  Let’s look at that statement a little closer.

As we progress through life we stumble, fall, and fail at many things.  We start this process off, early, as infants learning to walk, feed ourselves, and how to explore our environment.  When our parents tell us “no”, or we fall down, that is failing.  We all learn coping skills for the dreaded failure scenario.  Would it be safe to say most of us have a tool in our toolbox of life called “dealing with failure”?  Don’t misunderstand me, failure can be devastating if you perceive it that way, or it can be a tremendous learning experience.  It is all in perception.

Success, on the other hand, is a bit more frightening for most people.  They really don’t have a clear concise mental picture of what it would look like to succeed.  Our quest for success is often the place were we find most of our limiting beliefs.  Limited beliefs are what stops us from going where we want to go.  Limited beliefs are dis-concerning because, most often, we have no idea what those limited beliefs are until we get a mentor or a coach that can help us uncover them and hold us accountable.

Another area that trips up the goal setting individual is not taking responsibility for the people they hang around.  We are all products of our environment.  Our incomes will, often times, be very similar to the 5 people we associate out with the most.  Think about that for a moment.  Picture in your mind the 5 people that you are in contact with the most.  Are you all in the same economic bracket?

The last thing I want to propose to you is that most people are not in tune with their values.  They haven’t thought, consciously, about what they value the most or the least in their lives.  When we don’t know what our values are, it is easy to set a goal that is in direct conflict with a value we weren’t aware of.  For instances, if a person’s top value is their family and the time they spend with them, setting a goal for the next promotion or starting a business might be in direct conflict due to the increased time it will take to accomplish it.  Can you see the friction in obtaining that goal?

I have found the product called “Mind Movies” to be very helpful in developing a conscious mental picture of what you want.  Their workbook is exceptional in helping to pinpoint what we want and what we value most.  The Mind Movie is an excellent visualization tool for accomplishing the goals we have set.

I have for you, today, a 6 minute video entitled “12 Goal Setting Mistakes in 5 Minutes or Less”.  It has some very good information for you.  As Huxley said, “There is only one corner of the Universe that we can change and that is our self.”  If you gleaned some information that you feel others could use, feel free to pass it on!

Have you heard the saying “most people take more time planning their 2 week vacation than they do planning  for a successful life.”   Could it be because people don’t understand how to plan for their successful life?

Most of us would love to win the lottery.  Some people dream about winning the lotto and they don’t even buy a ticket.  You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket.  My focus here is not boosting lottery sales.  Life is like that lottery ticket.  If you don’t put some things in place, the life you desire will be only a dream, not an actuality.  Here are a few tips on going after that life of your dreams.
 

YOU MUST PREPARE

Pack your dad-gum bags in life!  You wouldn’t go on a 2 week trip and not pack a bag.  We must do our due diligence to have the life we want.  We must take time to prepare. 

The action personality can have challenges with preparation.  They are action oriented.  They leap into action and sometimes they struggle because they didn’t prepare.  Here are some ways to prepare.

1.  Set goals.  We must have an effective goal setting system that inspires us and helps our mind focus on those goals.  Without goals, we are lumbering around in the dark with no clear mental picture of how to reach the life we want to live.

2.  Research your dreams.  Read books on the subject.  Surf the net and glean all the information you can.  Be a sponge and soak it all up.  Develop a vision.  Support your vision with knowledge.

3.  You must commit to arming yourself with the latest knowledge on your given topic.  You must be willing to invest in yourself and your success by continously learning the success principles within your area of interest and passion.

Don’t confuse preparation with lack of action.  This is where the analyical personality has challenges.  They can get paralysis through analysis.  They are so busy researching and learning that they fail to pull the trigger and take action.

YOU MUST TAKE ACTION

If you don’t take action, nothing happens.  I know there are a some people who believe that everything will just flow to them.  Yes, it will flow to you, but you must put action in the equation or there is no energy to flow.

Mark Joyner, in his infinite wisdom, uses the analogy of a thirst person and a glass of water.  A person can be sitting in front of a glass of water and be thirsty.  They can mediatate about the water flowing into their mouth and quenching their thirst.  They can pray about the water nourshing their body.  But, nothing happens until THEY take action and LIFT THE GLASS AND DRINK!

1.  You don’t need to know how to do something to act.  That sounds like a direct contradiction to preparing.  But, I have witnessed very talented people that are so unsure of themselves that the don’t do anything.  They prepare and prepare, but they can’t seem to do anything.  They are so afraid that they don’t know enought  to do any thing.  What they don’t realize is that thinking is hard, doing is fun.

2.  Get outside the box.  The entrepreneurial mindset is, “find out what people need and then provide that service.”  Think like a founder.  What is a founder?  That is someone who puts a system in place for a business that has the capacity to grow huge.  The only difference between the big dogs in business and those that haven’t had the same success is in the way they think.  Big dogs think differently. Study how they think.  Then take action to do what they do.

3.  Take some risks in life.  Caution!!!  This might lead to failure.  Develop the mindset that Failures are just another way not to do something.  Learn to fail fast and move on.  Screw up, learn from it and move on…quickly!  Don’t let failure distract you.  Don’t let fear keep you from taking action, because fear is overcome by taking action!

I have a 2 minute video today from Brian Tracy called “Powerful Success Secrets to Get Goals Faster!”  This video gives us a glimpse of “How” successful people think.

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Most of us are told we should set goals and  strive to live a balanced life.  What is a balanced life?  Picture in your mind a wheel.  You are the center of that wheel.  Coming out of that center, which is you, are 4 spokes.  Those 4 spokes are spiritual, family, health, and career.  To live a balanced life means having all those areas working equally to balance, or round out your wheel. 

Is a balanced life really possible?  Yes, I believe it is.  When designing our goals we can strive to encompass every area of our lives.  Many people only think of their professional life when they are creating their goals.  The beauty of goals is that they can help us strive for more balance by what we choose to focus on.

Is a balanced wheel always practical?  I know that everyone has periods of their life when their wheel is out of alignment.  Maybe, you are launching a new career that takes time away from family.  Focusing on that launch could, also, take time away from your usual exercise routine, or, maybe, you are working on Sunday and find it difficult to make your weekly trip to church.

Being out of balance for short time is not detrimental to your wheel of life.  At times, it is unavoidable.  But, when a person stays out of balance for extended periods of time, that is when marriages and families encounter problems.  We might encounter a health challenge, or the person out of balance could suffer depression from losing contact with their spiritual wellspring.

A question that should always be seriously considered is, “will this lack of balance, now, bring me closer or farther away from a more balanced life?”  If that time spent with your career eventually brings you more time with God, family and good health, then that would be a wise move.

Every so often, it becomes unavoidable to be moving through life with a wheel that has gotten flat or mis-shapen.  A health challenge, with many trips to the doctor, could leave our professional side of the wheel flat because of  less time and effort.  But,on the reverse side, a health challenge could boost our spiritual side of the wheel in our quest for divine intervention.  It could also bring our family closer as the health challenge might cause us to question what is important to us.

Here are a few tips for helping us strive for our well rounded wheel.

1.  Set goals in all four areas of our lives; spiritual, family, health, and career.
2.  Communicate with our loved ones when we know we will be taking time away from them, such as spending more time on your career.  It is important to communicate your reasons for being away from them.  Without their buy in, the end result could be a great career and more money, but without our loved ones.
3.  Don’t set goals that you aren’t going to do your best to accomplish.  Work at your goals like mad and then re-evaluate how it is going every 90 days.  90 days gives you a chance to get results and get momentum moving on your side.
4.  Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone.  The times of our best growth is always outside of our comfort zone.
5.  Grow every month.  Learn something new.  Pursue self improvement.  The only way to become more valuable is to know more.

Are you are one of the fortunate people that has signed up for pre-launch of Gary Ryan Blair aka the Goals Guy’s 100 day challenge?  We are getting closer to launch day, which is September 23rd.  Have you been enjoying the exciting and motivational videos that Gary has been sending out every day?  I know I have and I am excited about launch day!  If you are going to be one of those lucky people that is going to see quantum leaps in the accomplishments of your goals you should get signed up today!  Click here to find out more!

For those of you that want to find out more about setting effective goals, our free 7 day set goalsCourse is  available.  It is a great way to get great goal setting nuggets delivered to your email box every day for a week.  Check it out here!