Reasons That Move You Bring Clarity, Focus, Determination, and Momentum
August 21, 2008
Are your goals SMART? ? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Rewarding, Time-Deadlined
Just about everyone has heard about the SMART Goal Setting method. But are you really using it. Proper goal setting seems to be a lot of work, and takes considerable time to set up. Many people stop short of completing the necessary detail to maintain their focus long after the novelty has long worn off. Hence, “The New Year’s Resolution” syndrome of stopping short of getting what you want, prevails.
Goal Setting is easy and fun to maintain, once you have the fundamental work completed, because you are gathering momentum, and attaining success one step at a time! It is much easier to continue along a chosen path when you know that it is only a matter of time until you have what you want.
Magnify and Intensify your Desire, bring it closer, see it clearly and make it larger, sharpen and maintain your focus. A-h-h-h. There’s the rub, How do you maintain focus, and minimize distraction on the road to what you want? When all seems lost, how do you keep getting back up for more? Have Great reasons, and Keep Them in Front of You Always!
Whenever possible, once you decide on what you want, take some action, view the exact model of what you want, and do it as many times as necessary to burn the desire you have for this goal into your subconscious mind. Write down every detail that you love and appreciate about your goal.
Use all of your senses in describing it, eyes for seeing how it looks, nose for smelling how it smells, mouth for tasting exactly how delicious, how it feels to the touch, experience all the different textures, etc., capture every delightful detail in your mind. This will always magnify, and intensify your desire and focus, instead of just looking at pictures alone. However, you will still want pictures too!
Take Pictures of your goals and place them everywhere:
On and in your day timer
On your fridge
On your bathroom mirror
On your bedroom wall, frame a collage of pictures
In work binders
On home office wall
On your desk at work
Make them your wallpaper on your computer
Email pictures to yourself, or have a close friend email them. Put them everywhere you spend time each day.
Make your own audio tape in your own voice, using your posture and physiology of excitement, energy and determination, make it descriptive, from a script taken while looking at what you want - smell, touch, feel, and imagine it. Listen to this tape frequently.
Have someone make a video presentation of you with your goals - detailed, then do theirs! Have fun with this. Watch videos of the rich and famous. Experience everything!
Goals like cars or boats, or winnebagos - to dealerships, get in, take pictures, smell them, feel the upholstery, go for a test drive, sit in them, close your eyes and visualize you in it, feel the emotions rising up, those you hold onto, go see them as often as you need to - get it in focus, and maintain your high levels desire
Dream Homes - get home magazines, real estate papers, architectural magazines, any publications that are relevant to your focus, immerse yourself totally!
Go to open houses, new home models, take pictures when you can, and you will come across something that fires you up.
Go to places like Home Depot, find everything you want, inside and outside, go to the furniture store, pick out the furniture, just like you want - visit these places as often as needed, with everything, take pictures, feel the feelings, as if you already are in possession of it all! Lock in that thought.
Travel Goals - pick up brochures, read magazines and books pertaining to the places you want to go, the things you want to do and see there.
Talk to travel agents that take a lot of trips to those areas that interest you and seek the inside story on the places to take in while you’re there.
Make a budget for all you want to do and have during your stay, and imagine you are already there and ready to go!
Make up score cards and update them frequently so you can see your progress towards each goal.
See in your mind’s eye how you are making it. Immerse yourself in it! Have it on your mind always. Look for every opportunity to concentrate your power on getting it.
The human brain is the most awesome instrument for creating what it focuses on. Keep what you want front and center, and your subconscious mind will go to work for you and show you the way! And remember that you can only think one thought at a time, so make it a thought that serves you.
There are many ways to get your internal fires burning. Find out what works best for you. This is enough to get you started for now.
Copyright 2004 Al Smith
Al Smith writes for and publishes The Realgoalgetter Ezine, The Realgoalgetter Blog, and The Realgoalgetter Website. His articles deal mostly with goal setting, self improvement, motivation, and overall health and fitness. If you enjoyed this article, there is more information on The Realgoalgetter Website. Subscribe FREE to The Realgoalgetter Ezine at: http://www.realgoalgetter.com/ezines/
Housewife….Is That All You Are?
August 17, 2008
Scenario: You have taken care of the house, the kids, your husband and everything in between for years. You get a sense of happiness and joy taking care of your family, although you get tired sometimes. You husband works hard to provide for the family, so you think that it’s the least that you can do. There is nothing wrong with feeling this way at all. Here’s where the problem comes in: He works and works and works keeping very long hours. You never see him. He is on business trips very often and his luxurious secretary just happens to accompany him on every trip. Well you’ve suggested that you can take the trips with him to keep him company sometimes. He insists that the kids need you at home, you agree, you stay at home, and the conversation is over. Well, he is still working long hours and you start to express to him that you miss him being at home with you and the kids. He explains to you that he works to provide for you and the kids and that you are starting to nag him. You start to feel guilty and you stop what he calls nagging, because you don’t want to upset him. Right? You are just happy to have a husband that provides for you and your wonderful kids.
Your husband has just come home from one of those long work days and told you that he is leaving. You think he means just for another business trip. He really means he is leaving you for someone else. You are in shock and your whole world has just fallen apart. You are now wondering, what are you going to do now. You start thinking about how you have kept the house up, you’ve taken such good care of the kids, you’ve made sure he had a decent meal every evening that he did make it home on time, and how you’ve been such a good wife. What more could you have done? The answer is …………..You could have planned for a day like this.
No woman should go into marriage thinking of divorce, but you should always have a cushion to fall on so that your butt won’t hit the ground so hard if and when you fall. If you want to accomplish a goal while you are married, you need to do it! Go back to school if you’d like. Start a business if you’d like. Don’t allow your husband to tell you that he thinks it’s best that you wait until the kids are grown. You can wait, but only if it’s a decision that YOU have made for yourself. Do not lose your total self in your husband. Do not live your life through him and for him. Live your life for you. Accomplish your goals now so that if he decides that he wants to trade you in for a much younger version, you’ll be prepared.
To find out more, please visit my websites at www.monicamburns.vstore.ca and www.flashbuilder.net/users/monicaburns. If you would like to subscribe to receive my weekly articles, send an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line to monicaburnsinc@yahoo.com.
2005 Monica M. Burns
Monica M. Burns is a writer, editor, and expert author featured on many websites. She owns Monica M. Burns, Inc., small web based businesses for women providing self-help informational products. To find out more about this author, please visit her websites at http://www.flashbuilder.net/users/monicaburns or http://www.monicamburns.vstore.ca You may also email her at monicaburnsinc@yahoo.com.
Are Your Goals Exciting?
August 14, 2008
This may sound like a strange question, but are you really excited about your goals? Of course, I’m making the assumption that you have already invested the time to think about what you want your life to be like and identified some of your goals in several areas. If not, please do this immediately. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there.
Having written goals will change your life; I guarantee it! Spend some time thinking about what you’d like your life to be like. For the sake of this exercise, let’s set goals you’d like to have accomplished one year from now. Of course, you can set shorter and longer goals as well.
What would you like for your relationships? How about your health, career, and finances? How about your mind and emotions? What would you like to experience? What would you like to do, be, or have? Invest some time now to identify these things and write them down. This will greatly increase the likelihood of your accomplishing them. If you want to know more about this, there are lots of books, including mine, to help you. That’s not really the topic of this story, however, I’m asking you now to revisit your goals, particularly your short-term, six month to one year ones.
Do they make you want to jump out of bed each day eager to get going? Recently, I was feeling “less than great.” I was even bordering on becoming depressed, something I rarely experience. I felt unmotivated, and wound up being pretty sick for several weeks. Upon closer examination, and because I agree with Plato that an unexamined life is not worth living, I realized one of the things that I had done was to reset some of my short-term goals to be “more realistic.”
I think I believed what I was hearing about the current economic situation. Of course, some of what “they” are saying is true. Some people are experiencing an economic downturn. Interestingly enough, the Horchow Catalog, a collection of some of the highest priced, one-of-a-kind items you can find, is expecting another year of double-digit growth. This is as compared to a 1 or 2% for the rest of the catalog industry. They were quoted as saying that “there are always well-healed people willing to pay for fine things.” Obviously, not everyone believes in the economic downturn!
What I had noticed about myself was that in the interest of being realistic, I had lowered my expectations. While this may seem like a reasonable thing to do, in reality, it left me totally uninspired and feeling pretty unmotivated about my goals. For example, if you have a goal of making enough money to “pay the bills” how exciting is that? Is that going to make you jump out of bed in the morning saying, “oh wow, I can’t wait to get going, so I can make money and pay the bills!” I doubt it.
When I understood what I was doing, I immediately set new goals. I set goals that were way beyond my reach. Goals that were huge enough to really get my juices going. Now, when I think about my new, bigger goals, I get excited just imaging what it would feel like reaching them and what my life would be like having accomplished them. I get jazzed just thinking about my new income goals, for example. And even if I don’t fully reach it, I know I will go way beyond what I might have accomplished and will feel better along the way. After all, isn’t feeling good what it’s all about.
Now, go get your journal, and let’s start setting some new goals for the coming year. Following is a simple exercise to help you become clear about your goals and begin creating the life you’ve always wanted.
1. Write what you don’t want. This will help you get clear about what you do want. Afterwards, you may want to throw this list away.
2. Write what you want. List everything you want to do, be, and have for the upcoming year and beyond.
3. Write each goal in the form of an affirmation. Do goals in all the major areas of your life - spirituality, health, relationships, social, career, things, and money.
4. Next to each one, write why you want this and how you will feel when you have accomplished it.
5. Write at least one action you can take right now to move toward your goal. What simple step can you take immediately (today)?
Each day, read your list of goals, concentrating on the feelings associated with having them. Feelings like freedom, value, love, secure, safe, prosperous, etc. The more you can feel the feelings your goal will produce, the faster you can draw it to you.
After you reread your goals and are feeling the good feelings associated with having them, ask yourself, “What is the next action I can take to move toward this?” Do this daily and watch your life change.
If you had all the information and tools you needed to live your dream life, would you use them? Yes? Click here ==> http://www.jimdonovan.com/ebookoffer.html
© 2004 Jim Donovan - PO Box 1147, Buckingham, PA 18912 - (215) 794-3826
Jim Donovan is the author of “Handbook to a Happier Life, a motivational speaker and coach. For a no cost bonus product & more, visit http://www.JimDonovan.com
How To Score Your Own Goals With Sarah
August 11, 2008
Do you know where your company is going? Do you have a vision of where you want to be?
Often in an attempt to get company staff to have a shared view of where they’re all going a vision and mission statement are prepared.
Unless you’re a large company it’s a waste of time.
Mainly because your company works to the beat of your drum.
You’re the one who sets your own company’s agenda. Whether you realise it or not.
Your whole attitude to risk, customer service, planning, budgeting, recruitment and cost control are being followed by your employees.
They want to stay on the right side of the boss don’t they? They’re not likely to rock the boat. But more than that they don’t see why they need to do what you say unless you do what you say too.
The staff may influence you to a certain extent. But when the buck stops it’s with you.
Maybe you have excellent staff and you can leave them to get on with lots of stuff in your absence. Maybe they produce brilliant results.
Great.
But if you had some goals I guarantee you’ll all achieve more.
Lewis Carroll said “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Without goals you can either take the short road or the long road and you’ll still get nowhere.
One thing you need to understand about your brain is that it will go all out to help you achieve your goals. Your Reticular Activating System (a little group of cells that are probably the most primitive in your brain) is the driving force for you to get your goals. It filters all communication to your brain and stops you going mad from information overload.
The good news is that the Reticular Activating System (RAS) can be programmed to achieve the goals you want. That’s done by using visualisation and “faking it till you make it”.
By that I mean fooling your RAS into thinking you’ve already achieved your goal. It works to make sure that you get the benefits accruing from that goal. Which means that you then achieve it! Simple, eh?
It’s so great I call the RAS the “Goal Scorer”.
So how do you set goals?
Firstly dismiss the thought that they’re just for January the 1st. Or you set them once and then forget them. Goals don’t work that way. A little later I’ll explain how you can use a method I call SARAH to help you check your goals.
Now what are the most important things about setting goals?
The most important thing is that …
…it must be important to you.
If it’s not no amount of goal setting will make you achieve it. Do you have something worthy but boring that you’d rather not do?
You can put it off forever can’t you?
When you set goals you must promise yourself that you’ll achieve them. If it’s a boring goal tie its achievement to something interesting or rewarding.
I can’t emphasis enough how important importance is to your achievement of your goals.
Next you need to clearly decide what it is that you want to acheive. An all embracing statement such as “All areas of my life will work well” isn’t much use as a goal. It’s much too general for your poor “goal scorer”.
Instead you need to make each goal specific and so that your goal scorer knows when it needs to be achieved you give it a time limit.
The other secret to using the goal scorer is to phrase your goal as though it’s already happened.
For example: “I’ve got 5 new clients who each paid me a $5,000 retainer by the 30th of September 2005″.
Finally make sure that you will know in some measurable way that a goal has been achieved. When that happens celebrate!
Now write the goals down. No I don’t mean into your computer. Although you can put them in later. Write them longhand.
Why longhand? Because you have a special hand-brain connection which means you’re programming your brain as you write.
Also don’t overburden yourself with hundreds of goals. Focus on writing specific goals for what is really important to you. Ideally you should have about 7 to 10 goals to begin.
Later as you get used to achievement you can add more.
Once they’re written down put them some place that you can see them every day. Don’t just look at the goals imagine yourself at the point where they’ve been achieved. What can you see, smell, taste, hear and feel at that moment and afterwards? Visualise yourself as already having achieved your goal. Feels great doesn’t it?
I promised you that I would introduce SARAH, my method for goal checking.
SARAH stands for the following:
S - Set an achievable, important goal
A - Act. Start something on your way to achieving the goal
R - Review it regularly, either monthly or quarterly.
A - Ambitious, check that you have some ambitious goals
H - Honestly assess whether the goal needs changing and do it
If your goals start being completed long before you expect review them more often!
These methods can be used for you or for your business. They work just the same. Use them and watch how your results improve.
When you kick-off with the power of goals your business is going to move in exactly the direction you want.
Jim Symcox, also known as the Marketing Magician has worked as a consultant since the mid 1980’s.
He is a marketing coach, copywriter and the author of “How to Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors”.
For a free chapter from “How To Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors email Jim at web@acornservice.com with “ezinearticles” in the subject line.
Goal Setting and Goal Getting: What Would You Like to Accomplish in 100 Days?
August 7, 2008
Here’s a question for you:
What would you like to have accomplished 100 days from now?
Why 100 days from now?
Well, why not? Besides, 100 is a nice round number.
You might think, “That’s not enough time. What can I possibly accomplish in only 100 days?'’
Very much if you put your mind to it and use the right tools.
So what would you like to accomplish in the next 100 days?
Would it be:
Begin to save money. If you simply gave up that soda and/or candy bar each day, that $1-plus would be more than $100 by the end of the year.
Get rid of that excess weight you have been carrying around? Sure, it would be nice if you could get rid of a pound a day, just like saving a dollar a day. Though it doesn’t work that way, you could be well on your way to getting rid of that extra weight.
Start the business of which you have always dreamed.
Get your priorities in order.
Change a destructive pattern in an important relationship.
Break a bad habit and replace it with a positive one.
Whatever it may be for you, there are certain key rules that should be followed to achieve your goals. Here are just a few to get you started:
The Rule of Ink - The dullest ink is stronger than the sharpest memory. In other words, write down your goals. Commit them to paper. Just this simple action greatly increases the likelihood of meeting your goals.
The Rule of Work - Richard Bach said “There is no such thing as a wish without the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.” Goals require work, as do many things worth doing.
The Rule of Dreams - It has been said that “a goal is a dream with a deadline.” One of the keys to successfully achieving goals is to have a deadline that other people know about. This will help hold you accountable. And then if you really want to change your life, achieve the goal before the deadline.
The Rule of Persistence - In the battle between the rock and the river, the river always wins. Not because the river is stronger, but because the river has the power of persistence. Stick with it! Don’t die of thirst a few feet from the water fountain.
The Rule of Action - Never leave the place where you set a goal without taking some action toward it. This prevents the No. 1 goal stealer _ procrastination _ from setting in, and it creates momentum toward your goal. Then, keep taking action and taking action and taking action and taking some more action.
Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our f*r*e*e 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.
Lessons from the First Space Strike
August 4, 2008
On Apollo 13, the crew staged the first strike in the history of space travel. The date was December 27, 1973. Mission Control had sent more commands than the crew could cope with. Commander General Carr put a stop to this when he radioed in to Mission Control. "You have given us too much to do," he complained. "We’re not going to do a thing until you get your act in better order."
He then shut off communications for 12 hours. The astronauts used the time to catch up and enjoy the unusual view.
The Success Principle
Success happens in small steps. Scale down big projects. Go for small victories. Over time, small victories add up to complete the overall goal.
The Principle At Work
In the story, the space crew scaled everything down to regain control of their mission. They reduced an overwhelming situation to a manageable one. Here you have an example of scaling down the element of time. While the projects remained the same size, they were extended over time. They became more manageable, easier to get done.
The key word here is manageable.
Scaling down can also be done in terms of size. A project can be broken down into smaller units, into sub-projects. When the parts of a whole are disconnected, each part can be worked on. A system with fewer interconnected parts is easier to comprehend, easier to control, manipulate, improve. Science, itself, is based on boiling down the vast complexity of nature into small, comprehensible units of information called scientific laws. Gradually, the completed parts are assembled into a whole again.
In your own life, when things get overwhelming, scale them down. Either do less of them, diminish the size; or do them all over a longer period of time. Scaling down means working at a level of competence. It means doing only a few things, and one thing at a time.
Ultimately, scaling down means shunning big wins for smaller wins. Going for big wins creates high stress, confusion, loss of momentum and balance.
When a large problem is broken down into smaller chunks, stress is reduced in three ways. First, a small win cuts the pressure. "This is no big deal." The price of failure is low. The pain of failure is minimal. Consequently, you are willing to try again and again, until you figure out the pattern which ensures success. Second, it cuts demand. There is less to do. And it is less strenuous. "This is all that needs to be done." Third, the level of skill needed is sufficient. Performance anxiety is reduced. A sense of competency exists. "I can do at least this much."
What is a small victory?
A small victory is a concrete, complete, clear-cut outcome of modest value. By itself, one small victory may seem trivial. But a series of victories at small but significant tasks, lowers resistance to opposition. Small victories are controllable opportunities. They produce visible results. Small solutions single out and define problems clearly. By looking at specific, limited conditions of a problem, it is easier to find a solution that fits. The problem is easier to see and the solution easier to try out.
Small victories emphasize the importance of defining limits. They avoid defining problems diffusely. "The establishment stinks." They avoid open-ended solutions. "Burn the system down." They define problems more precisely. "This is what is wrong." They narrow solutions. "This is the first thing we have to work on."
Once a small victory has been secured, energy is released and powerful forces are set in motion that favor another small victory. When a problem is solved, the next solvable problem appears. This happens because information is clear. When our perceptions are sharper, more resources, both inner and outer, can be tapped.
Small victories change a situation. They stir up change. Even when complexity does occur in the future, you will have the skills to meet them. In time, more complex tasks are handled with more mastery.
Small victories provide information. This information speeds up learning and adaptation. Small attempts are miniature experiments. They test theories. They offer insight into viable strategies. In little experiments, numerous theories can be postulated, numerous strategies tried out, until something clicks, a pattern is discerned, a meaningful solution appreciated.
Small victories are also more emotionally stable. A small defeat does not result in despondency, a small victory in exuberance. Everything is relatively even-tempered. A large, sudden victory can be overwhelming. Lottery millionaires, for example, have been known to lose all their money rapidly. This is different from the businessman who understands how to manage his money, even when it runs in millions, because he has built his business over a series of small victories.
Essentially, then, the best big victories are those that have arrived over a period of time as a series of small victories. These victories have stability, balance, and perpetuating power. They have matured over time because they have been built up over a process of events. Big corporations, for example, sometimes break themselves down into smaller departments to stimulate the creativity and dynamism of a small group. Above all, when you initiate a small-scale project, or break a large project into small-scale projects, there is less that can go wrong. There is a closer link between cause and effect. Simple patterns can be created, observed, tested, discarded, tried out, and finally trusted. Immediate feedback is available as to what works and how long it takes. Clarity of vision, manageability of tasks, immediacy of results ? all these arise from pursuing small victories.
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Saleem Rana got his Masters degree in psychotherapy from California Lutheran University. His articles on the internet have inspired over ten thousand people from around the world. Discover how to create a remarkable life
Copyright 2004 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It’s a shareware article.
