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Are You Chasing Too Many Rabbits?

By Blogpost, Goals

When people are asked to list their top 10 or top 5 goals, it’s not uncommon to see a list of great, exciting goals, but they are not prioritized and so they remain wishes and dreams. With all of that marvelousness looming ahead, how do you choose? How do you decide which personal and business goals to fit into your life? While it’s really tempting to want it all, and to try to achieve multiple goals at once, you’ll have much better success if you only chase one rabbit at a time and if you make sure that rabbit is going in the same direction as your values.

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Look at your goals list and see how each one of them fits into your life (because right now, as you are living your current life, is when you are designing and working on your future life). For each goal, ask: What is the driving force behind this goal? What fires you up about it? What makes it worth fitting into your life?

Adding goals (the act of bringing new things and experiences into your life) to a busy schedule means you have to be ruthless about choosing only goals that are meaningful – the ones imbued with a sense of urgency and need; the ones that make you come alive when you think about them; the ones that feel non-negotiable. Goals mean a redirect of time and energy that can’t go to something else so don’t waste your personal resources on minor goals.

Your greatest goals (the “must-haves”) are closely aligned with your values and priorities. How do you know what your values and priorities are? Look at your life. If you value time, you probably chose a career that allows you the maximum amount of leisure time (and/or time spent doing what you love). If you value money, you probably focus on investing, savings and you avoid excess consumerism. If you value relationships, you spend as much time and energy as you can on your loved ones. Of course in reality, life is a soup of compromises and sometimes seemingly opposing values; but in general, you are what you repeatedly do. Your values are clearly represented in your lifestyle and your choices.

How do your top 10 or top 5 goals fit into that scenario? You won’t. But by examining your goals to see how aligned they are with your values, you’ll quickly cull the herd. Are there goals that will immediately get the axe because they don’t fit in with your values? Hopefully so! That will help narrow your focus to the one that mean the most to you. The rabbit that’s most worth the chase.

Inspired by Jill Koenig’s blog on www.goalguru.com

The Components of Goal Sucess

By Blogpost, Success

Goal achievement is a very dynamic process. Sometimes you’re flying along; other times you’re wondering if all of your hard work is ever going to pay off. Sometimes you neglect your goal. There is doubt. There is confusion. There isn’t enough time. So how do you keep motivated when you’re in the thick of it? And how do you fit your goal into a busy life?

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These are the key elements of success:

1. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS! Narrow the list down to the top 5, so you don’t overwhelm yourself – and focus most of your energies on the #1 goal. Magic happens when you write what you want. It’s the first command you give to your brain: “This is what I want.”

2. GIVE YOURSELF DAILY COMMANDS. You’ll have moments of doubt and fear; or times when you focus on the problems and not the solutions. Create a daily habit of visualization and self-talk, imagining and speaking of your goal already achieved. The more detail and emotion you incorporate, the better. Now, I know that some people view this as silly new-age lala stuff. But think about it – anytime you’ve ever achieved something, you first pictured yourself doing it.

Even getting yourself a cup of tea requires an instant’s worth of visualizing yourself having a cup of tea. It is a command to your brain to help you take the physical actions required to make tea. Before you get out of your chair, walk to the kitchen and fill the teapot, you picture the goal (enjoying a cup of tea) as already accomplished. You don’t sit there and picture yourself not being able to turn on the faucet to fill the teapot, or spilling tea all over your desk! And you certainly don’t get up and make a cup of tea without first having the idea to do so!

You picture yourself HAVING TEA. Goal. Accomplished. Only then does your brain know what to do next! You have to give your brain a command so it knows what to look for in your environment (the people and resources to make your goal happen). Visualizations/affirmations create BELIEF that your goal can, and will, be achieved – and then you’ll take action. Without belief, you won’t get up and do a thing. If you believe that for some reason you can’t have a cup of tea, you’ll never get up and make one.

3. CREATE AN ACTION PLAN. How do you get from A to B? Look at the big picture and then break the whole thing down into TINY daily action steps. Unless you’re able to work a goal full-time, you will have to be realistic and fit it into your schedule. Finding 10-30 minutes every day to work your goals is realistic and manageable and eliminates the excuse of “I don’t have time.” Sorry- hate to take that excuse away, but there it goes!

10-30 minutes a day is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Make daily action a HABIT. Commit to working your goal every day. Just like you brush your teeth every day. Persistent and consistent action will get you there. Sporadic activity will not. Set aside a short scheduled chunk of time where you can focus on your goal (10-30 minutes a day), and DO something.

Persistent and consistent action is easier and creates more forward momentum than taking occasional huge leaps. It’s like spending 10 minutes a day cleaning the house (it’s nothing!), versus spending an entire weekend at it and resenting and hating every second because you’d much rather be playing or relaxing!

Track your progress. Milestones and deadlines are great motivators. Set milestones as part of your action plan, and you’ll feel great about how much you’ve already accomplished. Create a timeline or a chart and set deadlines for yourself. And reward yourself by celebrating the milestones you achieve!

4. GET SUPPORT. You might need help creating an action plan (most of us haven’t got a clue as to where and how to even start, let alone continue!); you might need help with skills and knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Don’t be afraid to ask someone to mentor you!

Together, these steps will move you closer to your goal every day. Don’t let the big picture overwhelm you! Achieving any goal is easy, if you ‘see’ it, feel it and work it, every day.

Inspired by a blog written by Tracy Brinkmann on www.goalsontrack.com

Self-Motivation for When the Going is Tough

By Attitude, Blogpost

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We’ve all been there – that situation when, despite your best efforts, the road is rocky and you are increasingly worn out from the effort… and the light at the end of the tunnel is probably an oncoming train.

Many people enter a project or start working on a goal with an unconscious self-defeatist attitude! It’s not that they lack motivation, it’s that they’ve predestined failure by not having the self-esteem necessary to follow through on a goal. They say, “I’ll try” – which implies, “I will work until it’s too hard, or too uncomfortable, or too scary, or too whatever… and then I’ll say that I tried and it will be okay to quit.”

NO! Wrong attitude!!

How can you get past this slump to the success on the other side? No matter what your business or personal goals are, you CAN motivate yourself to keep going – and more importantly, to keep giving your best. You CAN learn to persevere even in the face of “obvious” defeat. Most goals are, in fact, abandoned just shy of success.

Success is in the mindset. We are, all of us, naturally lazy and prefer to take the path of least resistance. When an obstacle comes up, it’s easier to give in and say, “not this time” or “it wasn’t meant to be.” But is that going to move you toward your goals? Of course not.

 

The problem with writing an article on self-motivation is, there is no one perfect way to motivate everybody. Depending on how you perceive the world; your level of self-esteem; your beliefs about your goals and many other factors, you will have to come up with your own secret formula for motivational success. That said, here are some tools you can use. Try one, try them all, and NEVER GIVE UP.

 

1: Small steps are better than giant leaps.

Be realistic in your goals. Unrealistic expectations (usually related to rigid timelines) set you up for failure before you even start. Any business takes time to grow; and taking a business from zero to a million requires time and a plan. Set measurable, ever-increasing goals that you use as stepping-stones to success. Break your goals down into small, daily actions and stick to your plan. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And then another, and another. One step at a time is all you need to focus on. Think about it: what would you rather do: be overwhelmed into inaction-paralysis by a huge goal, or have a small daily action to take care of? Which is more motivating?

 

2. Instead of a to-do list, make a “Daily Hit List”.

These are tasks that are important for your goals; and do these before you do anything else that day. Set aside 10-30 minutes of laser-focused activity and get these important things out of your hair. Feel the satisfaction of having moved another step forward. If there’s time to “do it all,” great. If not, at least the important things have been done.

 

3. Do not allow yourself to quit.

You’ve probably heard the old cliché, “winners never quit and quitters never win.” It’s true! But don’t keep banging your head against the wall using the same techniques to problem-solve, when they aren’t working. Be innovative! When you’re up against an obstacle, use meditation to help you visualize alternative outcomes and innovative solutions. When you attack a problem head-on using logic and reasoning, you may not come up with a solution – but if you engage your imagination and creativity, you’ll be absolutely astounded at how clever you really are.

 

4. Talk about your goals with supportive people.

They will hold you accountable, cheer you on, give you ideas and mentor you. The more you talk about your goals, the more real they become in YOUR mind, too, and the more valuable information you will get as people love to share their knowledge.

 

5. Hold yourself accountable.

And also expect 100% effort and dedication from yourself. Your goals are your dreams, right? Why wouldn’t you give 100% to yourself? Do not doubt yourself and do not fear. All it takes to vaporize fear and self-doubt is taking action! Having a plan with small, incremental steps makes it EASY to take action. Action leads to confidence, higher self-esteem, and forward momentum!

 

6. Intense visualization.

Use two or three intense visualization sessions every day to keep yourself fired up about your goal and to maintain a positive mindset. Take 2-3 minutes, find a quiet place to close your eyes and intensely visualize SUCCESS in your goal. That’s all it takes! Your mind will mobilize to find the “how” – that’s its job – and your only task in visualization is to give the command that this is what you want.

 

You are both your greatest ally and your worst enemy. When you think about your goals, which are you? Be your greatest ally and choose right now to take small steps forward every single day, rain or shine. As Albert Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves.

 

 

Inspired by Wayne Hartzell’s blog on www.personal-goal-setting.com