The universe operates through dynamic exchange . . . giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.
Giving: It’s what it’s all about.
One of the greatest laws is the law of giving.
It is a phenomenal law.
Give freely and happily. Always form a habit of giving cheerfully.
Give first before you receive. Whatever energy you give will come back to you in an amazing way.
You may give away your time, for example, and it comes back to you much later from an unexpected source in an unexpected form in a way that benefits you greatly. You cannot insist on a particular way and time it will come back to you, but you can be assured it will come back in the best way for you.
Give. Give. Give. And do so cheerfully and freely. It is the energy behind the giving that matters so do not give grudgingly. The law of cause and effect guarantees that you shall receive plenty for what you give.
Life is for giving…
Give what you have of your – time, money, smiles, love, compliments, anything. And you will get back what you do not have on you.
Give graciously and receive gratefully. Grace and gratitude are the energizing factors of giving and receiving.
By taking care of society and nature, you take care of yourself. Share with and give to nature and society often. It is the goose that lays the golden eggs, and it needs to be protected and nourished so that it can protect and nourish you.
Share. Give. Help others. In the proportion and to the extent that you cause others to build their wealth, so will you build your wealth.
Invest some time in and share your money with others. This enables others to build wealth. This is another great way for you to take care of society, to make it wealthy so that you may also get wealthier from it.
The Universe is all energy. Energy flows. Giving promotes this energy flow, placing you in harmony with the powers of the Universe. Whatever you wish to have, cause another being to have it first, and you will begin to have it in abundance.
Give and you will receive in multiples. For example, if you wish to have wealth, show others how to have wealth, and in an amazing way, you will soon find yourself wealthy. It is a very complicated system that works perfectly. Give cheerfully!
Share, share, share. It is an investment banked with the Universe that returns to you with amazing interest. Share gladly and genuinely.
What you wish to have, cause another to have. To have wealth and abundance cause another to have it. How do you cause others to have wealth?
Teach these lessons to your friends that are interested in wealth. Show them this book and others like it. Form study groups or mastermind circles with them. Where two or more are gathered, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Develop an awareness that enables you to look out for and see all opportunities where you can give something freely and cheerfully. You can give material things, your time, skills, or anything else.
Get out of the habit of thinking that you should receive something first before you give. That is not giving. That is an exchange.
Giving freely and cheerfully enables you to do business, if you wish to look at it that way, with the Universe. This is how it works: You give someone something that you have now with you - freely and cheerfully. The Universe, by the law, finds the best way to give back that energy to you in the form of something that you do not have with you. it gives you back in multiples, when it is most appropriate, in the most appropriate form. It is a magical process. Obviously, the more you give, the more magic you create for yourself. Life starts to work for you.
Develop a strong desire and persistence to give cheerfully and freely.
In your goal setting, remember to include several goals that are about free and cheerful giving.
Giving, under the law of cause and effect, is one of the most powerful actions you can take.
It returns in multiples, sevenfold. You cannot afford to leave out giving in your life plan. You cannot afford to leave it to chance occurrence.
Develop giving into a habit, something you do naturally without having to think of it. This makes you into a consistent and persistent giver and the Universe will work for you.
Give spontaneously.
Work on the habit of giving until you get to the point where you enjoy giving. Enjoy it thoroughly.
It is ok to think and know that when you give you will get back something from the Universe. You do not have to pretend you are not interested in receiving a reward for giving.
Expecting reward is good. In fact, expecting a reward is empowering a reward to come to you.
The violation of the law of giving comes when you start expecting to receive something back from the same being you give to, saying "Well, I did this for you so you should do that for me." In fact demanding a particular reward back is a violation. It makes you "trading" minded rather than "cheerful and free giving" minded. Never ask for or expect payback" from those you give to. The reward you receive will come from a source and a time and in a form that the Universe finds best suited for you.
You always have something to give. Time, complements, talent, money, knowledge, share a book, etc.
Giving has one bonus effect: it shows you what you have but did not know you had. Say you wished to have wealth. You then decide to give wealth first by helping others learn how to have wealth. You read books such as these, help where you can with such knowledge, share these kind of books, and so on. In that process, magically, you end up realizing you had a whole lot of wealth and wealth capabilities that you previously thought you lacked.
You are surrounded with abundant opportunities to give, but you only see them when you decide to start seeing them.
Learn also to receive graciously and happily. Do not feel uncomfortable receiving. You deserve it and by receiving, you are in harmony with the law of giving and receiving.
The trick to giving is to not force it upon those you give to.Offer your gift freely and cheerfully. Show your hand. Do not shove. Show. If the receiver does not wish to take your gift, respect that cheerfully. Do not get offended if your gift is not accepted. Allow the other person their full nature of freedom of choice. And do not make a person dependent on you. When a person becomes dependent on your gifts unnecessarily, you have not done them any good because you have reduced their belief and ability in themselves.
Here is a likely scenario. Imagine a person who does not have much in material possessions to give and share with others. But this person is very charming and kind. The person gives a thousand compliments to people he or she comes across without even getting one compliment back. This person uplifts their mood and confidence by finding ways to encourage and compliment them. But this person never gets a compliment back from anybody. Well, not to worry. The Universe keeps its accounts perfectly. This person’s giving builds credit in the universal system. One day, by the law of cause and effect, of giving and receiving, this person somehow gets the bicycle he or she has always wanted -just when the person needed it - in a way that looks like a miracle. It could be by winning some competition, or having it given to them by a stranger, or one of a countless other possibilities, what people call luck. That is how giving works. Sometime the Universe takes little things that you have, can give, and do give, and it puts them into one big thing that you do not have and require and it gives that to you at a perfect time.
All other things held constant, to the extent that an individual or society shares and gives in the right way, so will they have wealth and happiness. Now you know how to do business with the Universe, so to speak.
The Universe itself is a giving Universe, for life is for giving. You give and you receive sevenfold – you actually are rewarded for your kindness. The Source, Life, is all about giving, and the intelligence that runs the Universe honors your giving always, all ways. Give cheerfully! Everything in life is a gift. Especially with regard to wealth and happiness, never cease to cause others to have wealth and happiness, and you will have wealth and happiness in multiples! But what goes with giving? Receiving. And what goes with that? Gratitude...Let's have a look at that tomorrow.
In the mean time make this commitment.
I will put the Law of Giving into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:
1. Wherever I go, and whomever I encounter, I will bring them a gift. The gift may be a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Today, I will give something to everyone I come into contact with, and so I will begin the process of circulating joy, wealth and affluence in my life and in the lives of others.
2. Today I will gratefully receive all the gifts that life has to offer me. I will receive the gifts of nature: sunlight and the sound of birds singing, or spring showers or the first snow of winter. I will also be open to receiving from others, whether it be in the form of a material gift, money, a compliment or a prayer.
3. I will make a commitment to keep wealth circulating in my life by giving and receiving life’s most precious gifts: the gifts of caring, affection, appreciation and love. Each time I meet someone, I will silently wish them happiness, joy and laughter.
James Boehm
Showing posts with label goal setting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goal setting. Show all posts
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
9 Steps to Getting What YOU Want: Creating YOUR Reality
So you now have a goal you want so much you can taste it. You are living day-to-day thinking, breathing, and picturing the goal -- but alas, you have hit a road block. The barrier seems insurmountable. What do you do now?
Here are 9 techniques for facing fears and meeting challenges
1. Research How Others Overcame This Obstacle: This is often a straight forward approach for many people. If you come across an obstacle, see how others overcame it. The odds are, someone has already been in your type of situation and found a way out. Now all you need to do is find out how they overcame the situation and repeat it.
2. List The Blessings In Your Life: Using Gratitude To Overcome Obstacles Gratitude opens the heart and allows a healing to come in. Often simply listing your blessings from the smallest one to the largest one really helps. Include things such as being alive, breathing, being able to use your senses, etc.
3. Try Something Different: If what you have been doing isn't working, try a new approach. Often looking at a problem differently - or approaching it different will solve the issue.
4. Fear Room Technique: This is a synopsis of a technique is from How to Master Change in Your Life : 67 Ways to Handle Life's Toughest Moments by Mary Carroll Moore (page 76).
Imagine a dark, foggy room. You can't see in this room. It is dark, and very difficult to see in. Now imagine a truck with some hoses to suck out the fog and flood lights to brighten up the room. This takes a while, but after a few moments, you can see the room clearly and easily. What do you see? Write down as many details as you can.
What happens to your fears when the veils of illusion are removed and the light is shining on them?
5. Affirmations: There are many techniques on our Affirmations page. Sometimes simply repeating your goal over and over will bring you inside. I have have huge amounts of success using the 15x's a day technique where you write down a goal 15 times each day. Often this type of focusing will show me what I need in order to overcome the obstacle.
6. Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway: Simply feel the fear, fill yourself with as much love as you can muster, and do what you need to do anyways. Often this will get you through the process of doing something you are scared of that is recommended by your mentors.
7. Contemplation Technique: Do the exercise where you fill your self up with love and allow insights from spirit fill your consciousness with a solution to your problem.
8. Constant Reminder Technique: Find ways to remind yourself of your goals. Find an affirmation, saying, or song that matches your goal. Repeat them daily -- the more often the better. If you can't find a positive saying that supports your goal, make one up. Keep it simple and easy to repeat. Have it be positive. Play with it. Maybe sing it to a favorite tune. Then sing (or say) it again and again.
9. Simplify Everything: Examine your life in regard to your goals. Does everything in your life support your goals? Do you have beliefs, attitudes, habits or patterns that go against your goal? Get rid of the things in your life that do NOT support your goals. This will make your goals stronger and in line with everything you do.
Other methods of support are also available. Try Gemstone Therapy, Essential Oils, Feng Shui, Flower Essences, Herbs, and/or Massage. I have used all of these tools to overcome limitations.
James Boehm
Here are 9 techniques for facing fears and meeting challenges
1. Research How Others Overcame This Obstacle: This is often a straight forward approach for many people. If you come across an obstacle, see how others overcame it. The odds are, someone has already been in your type of situation and found a way out. Now all you need to do is find out how they overcame the situation and repeat it.
2. List The Blessings In Your Life: Using Gratitude To Overcome Obstacles Gratitude opens the heart and allows a healing to come in. Often simply listing your blessings from the smallest one to the largest one really helps. Include things such as being alive, breathing, being able to use your senses, etc.
3. Try Something Different: If what you have been doing isn't working, try a new approach. Often looking at a problem differently - or approaching it different will solve the issue.
4. Fear Room Technique: This is a synopsis of a technique is from How to Master Change in Your Life : 67 Ways to Handle Life's Toughest Moments by Mary Carroll Moore (page 76).
Imagine a dark, foggy room. You can't see in this room. It is dark, and very difficult to see in. Now imagine a truck with some hoses to suck out the fog and flood lights to brighten up the room. This takes a while, but after a few moments, you can see the room clearly and easily. What do you see? Write down as many details as you can.
What happens to your fears when the veils of illusion are removed and the light is shining on them?
5. Affirmations: There are many techniques on our Affirmations page. Sometimes simply repeating your goal over and over will bring you inside. I have have huge amounts of success using the 15x's a day technique where you write down a goal 15 times each day. Often this type of focusing will show me what I need in order to overcome the obstacle.
6. Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway: Simply feel the fear, fill yourself with as much love as you can muster, and do what you need to do anyways. Often this will get you through the process of doing something you are scared of that is recommended by your mentors.
7. Contemplation Technique: Do the exercise where you fill your self up with love and allow insights from spirit fill your consciousness with a solution to your problem.
8. Constant Reminder Technique: Find ways to remind yourself of your goals. Find an affirmation, saying, or song that matches your goal. Repeat them daily -- the more often the better. If you can't find a positive saying that supports your goal, make one up. Keep it simple and easy to repeat. Have it be positive. Play with it. Maybe sing it to a favorite tune. Then sing (or say) it again and again.
9. Simplify Everything: Examine your life in regard to your goals. Does everything in your life support your goals? Do you have beliefs, attitudes, habits or patterns that go against your goal? Get rid of the things in your life that do NOT support your goals. This will make your goals stronger and in line with everything you do.
Other methods of support are also available. Try Gemstone Therapy, Essential Oils, Feng Shui, Flower Essences, Herbs, and/or Massage. I have used all of these tools to overcome limitations.
James Boehm
Monday, January 4, 2010
Make your New Year's Resolution happen!
Want to make your New Year’s resolutions actually happen next year? This article will show you how to turn your New Year’s resolutions into goals and achieve them.
New Year’s resolutions are a great way to move your life ahead. They give you hope for the New Year plus direction for your life. New Year’s resolutions seem to bring out more creative, adventurous ideas, than if we told ourselves to make a list of goals for next year. In fact many more people make New Year’s resolutions than set goals. 32% of people 54 years old and up make New Year’s resolutions, and for the 18 to 34 year old group the figure is 57%. Whereas only about 5% of the population regularly set goals. Unfortunately, most New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside within a week.
You had some great ideas for New Year’s resolutions, so how do you stop them from falling by the wayside?
The first step is to write all of the New Year’s resolutions down and analyze them. Are any of them conflicting, such as making more money versus taking more time off? Next look at them and ask if they are really achievable. Do they call for physical feats you can never match? Do they seem silly now that you see them written out? So cull out the resolutions don’t past muster so far. Now you have a list that you can work with.
Next make sure you don’t have more than five resolutions on your list, as more than that will probably dilute you efforts. Concentrate only on the highest priority items.
The next step is to rewrite the resolutions into goals, as be as specific as possible. It is safe to call them goals now, as the part where we need to be the most creative in generating ideas for objectives is past. You had a resolution to make more money next year, so exactly how much do you want to earn next year, when will you earn it, how will you earn it, where will you earn it and so on. Make sure every goal is totally clear and it gives you some stretch, yet is still achievable. .
Once the goal is clear, look at the goal and make sure it is measurable, so you can track your progress, through feedback and then adjust accordingly.
Next you need a plan for each of the goals. Break down the steps needed to be done, in the order they are to be done. Once again, be specific, list who will do what and when. It also helps to assign a dollar and time budget to the steps so you understand what is involved.
Here is the biggest step. Take Action. Start to work you plan.
Once the plan is underway, start to measure your progress and correct what you need to as you move along.
As you move along on your plan, use affirmations as visualization to help you keep motivated. Affirmations are positive statements, starting with “I am” that describe you achieving your goal.
For instance if your goal is to make $100, 000 next year, each day, say out loud “I am a person who is earning $100,000 this year. Visualizations are guided daydreams showing you actually attaining your goal and should also be done daily.
Take setbacks in stride; turn them into comebacks by learning what went wrong, making adjustments and moving on. Don’t give up on a goal, if your timetable is thrown off. It the goal is still something you want, just believe it is better to achieve success late, than never at all.
While having New Year’s resolutions and goals are great, and achieving them is even better, there is an even better reason for setting them. The major reason for setting a goal is for you to become the person that can accomplish it. How you become a better person will always be of far greater value than what you get. The ultimate reason for setting goals is to become the person that will achieve them.
So start listing your New Year’s resolutions right now, regardless if you have been naughty or nice this year. You are on your way to making next year, your dream year. Happy New Year.
James Boehm Every Month A Million and the Daily Dose Of Good.
New Year’s resolutions are a great way to move your life ahead. They give you hope for the New Year plus direction for your life. New Year’s resolutions seem to bring out more creative, adventurous ideas, than if we told ourselves to make a list of goals for next year. In fact many more people make New Year’s resolutions than set goals. 32% of people 54 years old and up make New Year’s resolutions, and for the 18 to 34 year old group the figure is 57%. Whereas only about 5% of the population regularly set goals. Unfortunately, most New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside within a week.
You had some great ideas for New Year’s resolutions, so how do you stop them from falling by the wayside?
The first step is to write all of the New Year’s resolutions down and analyze them. Are any of them conflicting, such as making more money versus taking more time off? Next look at them and ask if they are really achievable. Do they call for physical feats you can never match? Do they seem silly now that you see them written out? So cull out the resolutions don’t past muster so far. Now you have a list that you can work with.
Next make sure you don’t have more than five resolutions on your list, as more than that will probably dilute you efforts. Concentrate only on the highest priority items.
The next step is to rewrite the resolutions into goals, as be as specific as possible. It is safe to call them goals now, as the part where we need to be the most creative in generating ideas for objectives is past. You had a resolution to make more money next year, so exactly how much do you want to earn next year, when will you earn it, how will you earn it, where will you earn it and so on. Make sure every goal is totally clear and it gives you some stretch, yet is still achievable. .
Once the goal is clear, look at the goal and make sure it is measurable, so you can track your progress, through feedback and then adjust accordingly.
Next you need a plan for each of the goals. Break down the steps needed to be done, in the order they are to be done. Once again, be specific, list who will do what and when. It also helps to assign a dollar and time budget to the steps so you understand what is involved.
Here is the biggest step. Take Action. Start to work you plan.
Once the plan is underway, start to measure your progress and correct what you need to as you move along.
As you move along on your plan, use affirmations as visualization to help you keep motivated. Affirmations are positive statements, starting with “I am” that describe you achieving your goal.
For instance if your goal is to make $100, 000 next year, each day, say out loud “I am a person who is earning $100,000 this year. Visualizations are guided daydreams showing you actually attaining your goal and should also be done daily.
Take setbacks in stride; turn them into comebacks by learning what went wrong, making adjustments and moving on. Don’t give up on a goal, if your timetable is thrown off. It the goal is still something you want, just believe it is better to achieve success late, than never at all.
While having New Year’s resolutions and goals are great, and achieving them is even better, there is an even better reason for setting them. The major reason for setting a goal is for you to become the person that can accomplish it. How you become a better person will always be of far greater value than what you get. The ultimate reason for setting goals is to become the person that will achieve them.
So start listing your New Year’s resolutions right now, regardless if you have been naughty or nice this year. You are on your way to making next year, your dream year. Happy New Year.
James Boehm Every Month A Million and the Daily Dose Of Good.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Personal Goal Setting - Find Direction. Live Your Life Your Way
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn this vision of the future into reality.
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.
More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find that your self-confidence builds fast.
Achieving More With Focus
Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
Goals are set on a number of different levels: First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life, and decide what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it.
We start this process with your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the things you can do today to start moving towards them.
Your Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or by a time at least, say, 10 years in the future) as setting Lifetime Goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):
Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
Attitude: Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.
Career: What level do you want to reach in your career?
Education: Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent?
Financial: How much do you want to earn by what stage?
Physical: Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure: How do you want to enjoy yourself? - You should ensure that some of your life is for you!
Public Service:Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these, and then select one goal in each category that best reflects what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals on which you can focus. As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want (if you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants, however make sure you also remain true to yourself!)
Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.Then create a daily to-do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.
Staying on Course
Once you have decided your first set of plans, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.
Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:
State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively – 'Execute this technique well' is a much better goal than 'Don't make this stupid mistake.'
Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today's goals from larger ones.
Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, for example, these reasons could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance. This is something we focus on in detail in our Daily Dose Of Good program, which not only helps you decide your goals, it then helps you set the vivid, compelling goals you need if you're to make a change in your life.
SMART Goals:A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:
S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Time-bound
For example, instead of having “to sail around the world” as a goal, it is more powerful to say “To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015.” Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!
Gain a deeper understanding of SMART goal setting in future post.
Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve! With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:
If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder.
If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier.
If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.
Failure to meet goals does not matter much, as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting program.Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go.
Key Points
Goal setting is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life.
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant, or a distraction.
Motivating yourself.
Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.
If you don't already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you'll find your career accelerating, and you'll wonder how you did without it!
These services and resources can help you set and achieve your goals more effectively:
Every Month A Million
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.
More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find that your self-confidence builds fast.
Achieving More With Focus
Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
Goals are set on a number of different levels: First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life, and decide what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it.
We start this process with your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the things you can do today to start moving towards them.
Your Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or by a time at least, say, 10 years in the future) as setting Lifetime Goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):
Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
Attitude: Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.
Career: What level do you want to reach in your career?
Education: Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent?
Financial: How much do you want to earn by what stage?
Physical: Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure: How do you want to enjoy yourself? - You should ensure that some of your life is for you!
Public Service:Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these, and then select one goal in each category that best reflects what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals on which you can focus. As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want (if you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants, however make sure you also remain true to yourself!)
Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.Then create a daily to-do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.
Staying on Course
Once you have decided your first set of plans, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.
Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:
State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively – 'Execute this technique well' is a much better goal than 'Don't make this stupid mistake.'
Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today's goals from larger ones.
Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, for example, these reasons could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance. This is something we focus on in detail in our Daily Dose Of Good program, which not only helps you decide your goals, it then helps you set the vivid, compelling goals you need if you're to make a change in your life.
SMART Goals:A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:
S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Time-bound
For example, instead of having “to sail around the world” as a goal, it is more powerful to say “To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015.” Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!
Gain a deeper understanding of SMART goal setting in future post.
Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve! With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:
If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder.
If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier.
If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.
Failure to meet goals does not matter much, as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting program.Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go.
Key Points
Goal setting is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life.
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant, or a distraction.
Motivating yourself.
Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.
If you don't already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you'll find your career accelerating, and you'll wonder how you did without it!
These services and resources can help you set and achieve your goals more effectively:
Every Month A Million
Monday, September 21, 2009
Using The Mind in Sports
Dr. Charles Garfield, former NASA researcher and current president of The Performance-Science Institute in Berkeley, California, talks about a startling experiment conducted by Soviet sports scientists.
The study examined the effect of mental training, including visualization, on four groups of world-class athletes just prior to the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. The four groups of elite athletes were divided as follows:
Group 1: did 100% physical training.
Group 2: did 75% physical training, 25% mental training.
Group 3: did 50% physical training, 50% mental training.
Group 4: did 25% physical training, 75% mental training.
What the researchers found was that group 4 – the group with the most mental training – had shown significantly greater improvement than group 3.
Likewise, group 3 showed more improvement than group 2, and group 2 showed more improvement than group 1.
The results were astonishing. Who would expect that athletes training mentally would be able to advance further than their counterparts who were training physically?
Garfield said, “During mental rehearsal, athletes create mental images of the exact movements they want to emulate in their sport. Use of this skill substantially increases the effectiveness of goal-setting, which up until then had been little more than a dull listing procedure.”
If mental exercises and visualization could have such a profound impact on athletes, what kind of impact could it have on you?
Can you use the same principle to improve your attitudes, confidence and skills? Could it impact your learning ability; your golf swing; your ability to shed weight and stick to a diet?
The study examined the effect of mental training, including visualization, on four groups of world-class athletes just prior to the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. The four groups of elite athletes were divided as follows:
Group 1: did 100% physical training.
Group 2: did 75% physical training, 25% mental training.
Group 3: did 50% physical training, 50% mental training.
Group 4: did 25% physical training, 75% mental training.
What the researchers found was that group 4 – the group with the most mental training – had shown significantly greater improvement than group 3.
Likewise, group 3 showed more improvement than group 2, and group 2 showed more improvement than group 1.
The results were astonishing. Who would expect that athletes training mentally would be able to advance further than their counterparts who were training physically?
Garfield said, “During mental rehearsal, athletes create mental images of the exact movements they want to emulate in their sport. Use of this skill substantially increases the effectiveness of goal-setting, which up until then had been little more than a dull listing procedure.”
If mental exercises and visualization could have such a profound impact on athletes, what kind of impact could it have on you?
Can you use the same principle to improve your attitudes, confidence and skills? Could it impact your learning ability; your golf swing; your ability to shed weight and stick to a diet?
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