How can personal goal setting be successful?

To be a successful goal setter for recovery from low self-esteem, you need to:

How to set goals that will result in a lifestyle change

Irrational & confused thinking which sabotages goal setting

• It won't take me long to accomplish these changes.

• I can do it on my own & I don't need any social support group, teachers, or helpers to assist me.

• All I need to do is to read this book to achieve the changes I need in my life.

• All my problems will be gone once I change this behavior.

• If I spend enough money, I'll be able to get somebody to do what I need to change my life.

• I'm not in as bad a shape as I think I am.

• Professionals are always out for money & they only want me to change my lifestyle in order to make money off me.

• I can change easily & I don't need to do all these other things as long as I'm willing to go to a counselor at regular intervals during my life.

• I'm healthy. All I am is a little nervous. Why do I need this recovery lifestyle program?

• I don't have time to be bothered with all of these things.

• Why worry? I haven't gotten sick yet!

• All of these changes are too much to do overnight. I'll put this off until I'm older, when the need to change is more important.

• All of these people who are encouraging recovery & a balanced lifestyle are fanatics. They don't really enjoy life, do they?

• My family will never put up with these changes in my life.

• I'll do a little now & a little later on & eventually get to the rest of it after that.

• All of this requires too much thinking, too much work & effort & too much of me. Why aren't they helping me more? I pay them enough! They should be doing this for me!

• It seems so big & impossible to achieve all these things for recovery.

• I'm lost; where do I begin to change?

Tips for productive goal setting for achieving a recovery lifestyle

How Goals Unleash the Superhero Inside You! - By Jill Koenig

Within every human being, exists an infinite supply of creativity, strength & wonder.

You're capable of more than you know.

Let me tell you about a real life Superhero I know. His name is Mike Berkson.

Mike Berkson was born a few minutes after his twin brother David, on February 4th, 1989. Shortly after birth, Mike was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Doctors told his parents that he wouldn't be able to talk & he'd never be a student in a regular classroom.

By the time Mike was 3, he wasn't only talking up a storm but had a thirst for vocabulary. Mike sets BIG Goals. Mike excels in English & History, is creative in writing short stories & has ambitions in film making.

Mike lives in a Chicago suburb & now attends high school. He loves rap music, Seinfeld reruns, movies, girls & many other things most teenagers are interested in. Mike is unique in that he has to work around some obstacles in his day to day life that you & I will never be faced with.

Because he's confined to a wheelchair & has limited use of his arms & legs, he's paired with someone to help him thru the day so he can attend school & get the quality of education he deserves. For a few years, my friend Tim was fortunate enough to be paired with Mike & serve as Mike's aid & helper.

Ponder the things you do every day & imagine being physically unable to do them. Tim was responsible for taking notes for Mike, assisting him with eating, the bathroom, transportation & all the things that we do without thinking about.

As Tim & Mike grew closer & Tim became a member of Mike's family, Tim felt a yearning to share with the world Mike's awesome attitude & how Mike deals with prejudices, ignorance & inconveniences despite his circumstances.

Tim was so inspired by the Superhero within in Mike, that last year he set a goal to write a book about Mike & run 1,200 miles from Florida to Chicago to promote it.

Just one tiny problem... at the time, Tim could hardly run 30 minutes & in order to achieve his goals within 4 months, he would have write the book at blazing speed & get into the kind of physical condition to maintain a pace of running 40 miles per day for 31 straight days.

Impossible you might think? No. Remember I told you that you're more powerful than you think you are.

You see Tim had a unique source of motivation to fuel his goals. He had Mike. He had the examples from years of watching Mike display the traits of a real life Superhero. Tim had the inspiration of making a promise to an exceptional young man. Tim had the motivation of a purpose greater than himself.

Tim had the yearning to pursue a series of goals so much bigger than anything he had ever done before, that he just had to try. As a tribute to Mike, Tim had to push himself beyond anything he ever previously did, as Mike does every single day.

Some people in life believe you should only pursue goals you know you can achieve. Others believe the success lies in the growth that occurs from stretching beyond your previous wins & that all growth is success.

How do you define success?

I interviewed Tim recently on my radio show. Tim explains how he found an endurance coach & transformed himself from a couch potato into an ultra endurance champion. Tim didn't reach his goal of running 40 miles a day. You see, his plan was flawed. He made a lot of mistakes.

His schedule for the run was so tight, that he didn't allow himself any room for error, like weather, funding, or the hazards of running alongside traffic. His approach for raising money was limited. He had a skeleton crew of one to accompany him on the run.

He had to return home by a certain date, regardless of how far behind he was, so he had to drive the distances to catch up when he fell behind. Shortly after he started his journey, he realized he wouldn't be able to achieve the 1,200 miles & still make it home on time. But he kept running, anyways, he wanted to Keep On Keeping On. He'd rather continue stretching himself than consider quitting.

Why is Tim's journey considered a success by many? Because he dared to pursue it in the first place. Because he did finish his book about Mike in record time. Because he succeeded in transforming his body into an Ultra Endurance Machine for that time.

Because he DID succeed in running an average of 24 miles per day for a total of 700 miles. Because he didn't quit, even when he realized he couldn't reach every goal he set for himself.

Because he touched the heart of a young man who looked up to him. Because he inspired a lot of people to go beyond what they previously thought they could do.

Because for a moment in time, he tapped into the Superhero inside himself & unleashed more of his own potential.

Rising above circumstances like a champion inspires other people.

We must re-evaluate our perspective on what success really is.

Are you a success if you play it safe your whole life & never dare anything unless you're guaranteed victory?

When you set BIG Goals, it's important to set many smaller goals that coincide with it. Even if you fail to reach your deadline for one Goal, you'll still succeed at many & you'll build your confidence to a much higher level. Give yourself empowering reasons for getting up when you feel down.

There's a Superhero inside YOU.

What Goals can you set that will inspire you to unleash it?

Keep On Keeping On.

Live Your Dreams

Personal Goal Setting
Find direction. Live your life your way.

How to Use Tool:

Goal setting is a powerful process for personal planning.

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 & as you get into the habit of setting & 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 & achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision & short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge & help you to organize your time & your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure & 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'll also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability &competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Goals are set on a number of different levels:

1st you decide what you want to do with your life & what large-scale goals you want to achieve.

2nd, you break these down into the smaller & 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.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

This section explains a simple technique for setting personal goals. It starts with your lifetime goals & then works thru a series of lower level plans culminating in a daily to-do list.

By setting up this structure of plans you can break even the biggest life goal down into a number of small tasks that you need to do each day to reach the lifetime goals.

(Don't forget: If you want to fast-track your goal setting & get the most from it, then either join our Design Your Life program or talk to one of our coaches.)

Your Lifetime Goal

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime, 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 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 & 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? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?

• 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 by your existence? If so, how?

Once you have decided your goals in these categories, assign a priority to them from A to F.

Then review the goals & re-prioritize until you're satisfied that they reflect the shape of the life that you want to lead. Also ensure that the goals that you have set are the goals that you want to achieve, not what your parents, spouse, family, or employers want them to be.

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!

Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals

Once you've set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you're to reach your lifetime plan.

Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan & 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.

Achieving Goals

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 while achieving the goal you noticed a deficit in your skills, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Failure to meet goals doesn't matter as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal-setting program.

Remember too that your goals will change as you mature. Adjust them regularly to reflect this growth in your personality. If goals don't hold any attraction any longer, then let them go. Goal setting is your servant, not your master. It should bring you real pleasure, satisfaction & a sense of achievement.

Example: The best example of goal setting that you can have is to try setting your own goals. Set aside 2 hours to think thru your lifetime goals in each of the categories.

Then work back thru the 25-year plan, 5-year plan, 1-year plan, 6-month plan, a 1-month plan. Finally draw up a To Do List of jobs to do tomorrow to move towards your goals.

Tomorrow, do those jobs & start to use goal-setting routinely!

Key points:

Goal setting is an important method of:

• Deciding what's important for you to achieve in your life

• Separating what's important from what's irrelevant

• Motivating yourself to achievement

• Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals

When you achieve goals, allow yourself to enjoy this achievement of goals & reward yourself appropriately. Draw lessons where appropriate & feed these back into future performance.

The following services & resources can help you set & achieve your goals more effectively:

• Design Your Life: Design the life of your dreams & then set the goals you need to live the life you design, with "Design Your Life", Mind Tools life design & goal setting system. Click here to find out more.
  
  

• Make Time for Success: This Mind Tools course contains more than 140 pages of time tested tips, techniques & skills that can help you work better & get the most that life has to offer.

You'll learn how to set realistic goals, generate a life plan & leverage all of the opportunities that life has to offer. Many of the lessons include workbook exercises so that you really understand how to put these invaluable skills to work in your life. Click here to learn more.

Goal Setting with Mind Tools Career Coaches: Our coaches specialize in helping you understand your deepest motivations, set clear & appropriate goals & then help you make success, the achievement of these goals, a habit. Our coaches speed you on your way to well-balanced, long-term success.

GoalPro 6: GoalPro provides dedicated software support helping you set personal goals & to monitor your achievement of them. GoalPro has a 28-day trial period so you can try it before you buy it.

MyGoals.com: MyGoals provides pre-defined goal plans that help you get started with goal setting quickly & effectively.

To-Do Lists

What are relationship goals?

Steps to help decide on relationship goals

Step 1: Review Sections the suggested relationship goal issues together as they apply to your relationship

A POSITIVE NOTE

On a positive note:

• I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on & it'll be better tomorrow. 

• I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these 3 things:

* a rainy day

* lost luggage 

* tangled Christmas tree lights.

• I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.

• I've learned that making a "living" isn't the same as making a "life".

• I've learned that life sometimes gives you a 2nd chance.

• I've learned that you shouldn't go thru life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. 

• I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it'll elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work & doing the best you can, happiness will find you.

• I've learned that whenever I decide something w/an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

• I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. 

• I've learned that everyday you should reach out & touch someone. People love that human touch, holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. 

• I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

• I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, But, people will never forget how you made them feel.

• I've learned that you should pass this along to someone you care about. I just did. Sometimes you just need a little something to make you smile.

Self Help for Setting Goals - 3 Steps for Lasting Success - By Peter H. Thomas

Success, whether it's about personal happiness or career achievement, usually begins with setting goals. Unfortunately, self-help goals quickly set are often left unmet. So what goal-setting strategies move goals from creation to reality?

Setting goals is fairly easy. Setting goals that actually come to pass is harder & requires forethought. After setting a goal, one of the greatest challenges is integrating it into daily life, making sure it aligns with what you really value in life - a crucial step to seeing a goals thru.

Here are 3 useful steps & proven strategies for setting goals & making them stick.

Goals: Write them Down

Putting pen to paper makes the goal-setting process concrete. Write them down & create action steps to make them happen. These action steps may be daily to-do lists & reminders that should always be planned out the day before for the following day.

Now you have something that you can hold in your hand & refer to as a reminder & a motivator. Not only are you creating your own accountability system, writing down your goals & action steps will help you clarify your objectives & remain focused on them. And it provides you another tool important to your self-help goals - visualization.

Prioritize your Goals

As you set your goals & focus on them, reflect upon your life & remember your values - the past you've led & the future you envision. What moments have been rewarding?

Or disappointing?

What has remained important over time & what's most important to you now? Who are the people who you care about the most?

Of all the things that you have now, which could you give up? Which items, experiences & relationships could you not live without?

According to the self-help program Life Manual, the best goals - whether they're related to work, family, academic achievement or personal life - are the ones that align themselves with a person's core values.

Michael R. Ellison, CEO of TRIVITA, Inc., agrees. Since incorporating values-based goal-setting tools in the workplace, the workplace has changed. "Now, the discussions at our meetings concern not only the care of customers, but also the specific values & goals that impacted each member of our team personally."

Set goals that parallel & honor your priorities - the things that you value. Explore everything that you have now or have had in the past, to discover why you valued it & how you can continue to value it.

Share your Goals

Goal setting doesn't take place in a vacuum. Successful goals are usually visualized - & carried out - thru feedback from trusted friends, family members & co-workers. Listen to feedback from others. Are you making goals that are really aligned with your values & priorities?

People in your home, work & community are also there to provide support, motivation & applaud your accomplishments. They can also give you a friendly reminder when you slide off track. Sharing your goals with people you trust also makes you more accountable to your goals.

Additional Resource:

Learn more about the benefits of goal setting & values -based life planning with a free PDF or audio download at the LifeManual web site.

How Goal Setting Unleashes Your Potential - By Jim Meisenheimer

Braxton Bilbrey is a 7 year-old boy. He lives in Glendale, Arizona. He read about a 9 year-old boy who swam from Alcatraz Island to the city of San Francisco.

I imagine he started thinking if he can do it so can I!

So, he established a goal to swim the 1.4 miles of chilly waters from Alcatraz to the city. According to the article I read his mother wasn't too happy about the idea.

She apparently changed her mind when she realized how committed Braxton was to his goal.

He achieved his goal & completed the swim in 47 minutes.

He was motivated by his clearly defined goal.

He says his next goal is to swim the English Channel.

I'm confident he'll achieve this very ambitious goal.

A few observations:

First, Braxton is only 7 years old drawing inspiration from reading magazine articles. Maybe there's a lesson here for all of us.

Second, if a 7 year-old boy can set & achieve an extraordinary goal like this, shouldn't that accomplishment motivate you to become what you're capable of becoming?

Third, wouldn't every selling day be a better one if began your day with a specific & written sales goal?

On a different but related subject I started rereading Og Mandino's classic book, "The Greatest Salesman In The World."

The following quotes are from this phenomenal book.

"Failure is man's inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be."

Stupidity, in my humble opinion, isn't setting goals in the first place.

Success comes when you "combine what you learn with the experience you acquire." It's imperative you keep the wheel of learning in motion.

If you want to learn more about how to become a great salesperson you might want to get a copy of this priceless book for your personal library.

When you're determined to succeed it's impossible for you to fail!

Goal setting really does work, though sometimes in mysterious way, to help you unleash the potential within you.


Action step: Start every day with written sales goals.

Goalsetting For Success - 12 Winning goal smart Strategies - By Olga Graham-Try

There's a lot of goalsetting for success guidance being offered on the net today. However, it never cease to amaze me the extent of the over-strenuous emphasis on the term 'failure' or 'failing' by many so-called 'personal development' advocates. I've encountered numerous such dubious approaches, some of which I perceive downright disempowering to individuals who are desperate to bring much needed positive change into their lives.

Statements often run along the lines of 'Do you want to quit being a loser?', or 'Are you failing...?', or 'Do x y z or you'll continue to fail'.

True commitment to any individual's personal development shouldn't be centred around perceived past or present 'failings' but should instead focus on the positive aspects of the individual's potential, as well as being borne out of a genuine desire to promote his or her personal growth & the positive changes s/he can bring into his or her life.

As I see it, the only 'failing' being done is on the part of some of these irresponsible people, whose only motive would appear to be the promotion of their products &/or services. It sounds harsh but so is preying on someone's vulnerability.

Look at it this way. Whether implicitly or explicitly, if a person is told from the outset that s/he is a failure or is failing, this can only serve to reinforce any negative view s/he already hold about him or herself. That seed is already there but it's now being given further reinforcement to sprout. Don't underestimate the power of this kind of suggestion.

To give you an example of what I mean, let's say you're walking across a slippery surface; your goal is to successfully make it to the other side.

You're confident about achieving this & you're doing just fine until someone point out that you should take care not to fall!
What do you suppose happens?

You fall of course. In that split second your focus shifted from a predetermined, positive outcome, to - (for want of a better word), 'failing'. Why?

Because a seed of doubt was planted questioning your ability to complete that task successfully. That's the power of negative suggestions or negative thinking.

As you can clearly see from the example above, negative thoughts, ideas or suggestions don't necessarily have to come from you to be detrimental. When you're feeling vulnerable or experiencing a loss of faith or belief in yourself, the last thing you want & need is someone telling you, you've 'failed because....'.

So be mindful of what's being suggested to you since you might just internalize it - inadvertently making it your reality.

Regardless of what anyone tells you, there's no magical formula external to your own self when you're goalsetting for success. Your potential for personal growth & your many successes lies within you & no one else.

The extent of any appropriate outside guidance you receive is merely to point you in the direction that'll help you explore all your available options. You then choose the path that is right for you to successfully achieve your personal goal setting objectives.

In a nutshell, goalsetting for success rests with you & you alone in much the same way that non-achievement of your goals will do too. You're in the driving seat, so it's you who decide.

So what is the formula to goalsetting for success? It's really quite simple with the right quality of guidance. Goalsetting for success is a process that involve several stages you must work thru to achieve your personal goal objective. I refer to these as the 12 winning goal smart strategies for your personal goal setting success.

Development of your self-awareness & self-knowledge is one of the crucial components underpinning your successful & smart goal-setting & is your passport to achievement.

It's therefore imperative that you work thru the 12 stages, which are as follows:

1. Assessing your personal values to find what it is you really want

2. Clarifying with yourself that your wants are yours & yours alone

3. Prioritizing your wants in order of importance

4. Writing your smart goals

5. Drawing on your personal resources - strengths, past achievements

6. Identifying any challenges, barriers or blocks to you achieving your goal

7. Identifying your development areas - i.e. skills, further learning

8. Writing your personal goal smart action plan

9. Taking action - carrying out tasks to achieve your goal objectives

10. Reviewing & evaluating your progress with your smart goals

11. Rewarding yourself for your personal goals achievement

12. Building further on your achievement by expanding on
your goals

Here's an elaboration of point number one above & what it involves.

Stage 1: Establishing What You Want

It's not always easy knowing what it is you want when you're embarking on an activity goal setting process. Yet, if you don't know what you want, it becomes difficult to even begin the task of setting your goals. Here's an exercise to help you with prioritizing your personal values.

When you're goalsetting for success, it's crucial that you take time to think about your personal code, since this is what will govern the value you place on very many things in life as well as how you conduct yourself.

For instance, your personal code will influence the weight you put on such things as honor, sense of justice, fairness, truth, marriage, family, career, or even your health.

Consider what it is you value the most, or what's important in your life right now. For instance, if the area in which you want to set your goals is your health area you might consider, 'mental well-being, physical fitness, or even stress reduction, weight loss or healthy eating as important personal values for you. Remember, these must be your own. You simply can't choose values that belong to someone else.

By that I mean, if one of your personal values is weight loss, it can't be dictated by the fact that your partner would prefer you better slim or because you want to lose weight to please him or her. Your value will translate into your goal & it must be 100% yours & what you want!

This is one of the key goalsetting for success secrets.

Once you're clear about your important values in your 'health' area & about what it is you want, simply make a list of 10 of the things you want to achieve.

1 Step To Achieving Your Goals - By Wayne Perkins

In Jack Canfield &Mark Victor Hansen's original "Chicken Soup for the Soul," I'm reminded of the short story titled "Another Check Mark On the List."

This is a story about a 15-year-old boy named John who, on one rainy day, when it was too wet outside to play, he decided to write a list of goals.

John continued writing until he had 127 goals. These goals included exploring the Nile River, climbing high mountain peaks around the world & learning 3 foreign languages. He also wanted to be featured in a Rose Bowl Parade & play several musical instruments.

Of the 127 goals that he listed over 60 years ago, John has achieved 108. If he lives to become 75 years old he'll achieve 109 (he listed "live to see the 21st Century"). How did John achieve all of these goals? He wrote them down.

Step 1: Write It Down
Write it down, write it down & write it down!

Have you ever got to a point where you were going to write down a New Year's Resolution or some other goal you thought you wanted, only to find yourself procrastinate. One year later, did you need to achieve the same New Year's Resolution or goal? Why does this happen?

It happens because of that little voice inside of you that says, "I'm not good enough or worthy enough to be in possession of the benefits derived from achieving my goal." "I've been programmed for failure."

I recently read a motivational quote that said:

"If you can't write it down, you can't do it."

Let's think about that for a minute. Every day you may be compiling lists of things to do to run your household, perform your job, or plan your business trip or vacation. How many times do you really write down, exactly what you want out of life? How many long term or short-term goals do you write down?

Now when thinking about what you want to achieve focus your attention on specific words & ideas relating to your goals. Give those words & ideas your complete attention as you write them down.

Did you ever write a letter, business report or term paper & at times find your fingers flying across the keyboard?

Since written words are symbols of objects, ideas or feelings, could the physical process of entering these words onto a page actually create a subconscious connection?

I believe it does. When you use language to communicate on paper, you need to process the information on a subconscious level.

The help you're getting while creating your list of goals is coming straight from your powerful subconscious mind. Why not take advantage of the power of your mind in achieving your goals?

Write your goals down in your day planner, write them down & hang them on your walls. Write your goals on sticky notes & place them on your bathroom mirror or on your windows.

Every time you write your goals down, your body is moving towards them. The goals are getting clearer & clearer. The roadmap you create by writing goals down is projected straight to your subconscious mind & is being acted upon.

A now popular syndicated cartoonist wrote down 15 times a day, every day the following sentence. "I want to be a syndicated cartoonist." He did this every single day, even when he didn't feel like a syndicated cartoonist. Now, Scott Adams, the creator of the "Dilbert Cartoon" is a full-time, syndicated cartoonist, known the world over. Scott "wrote it down."

One way to state that goal in a more positive & immediate context is to say, "I am a syndicated cartoonist."

Act as if you already are in possession of the goal. It takes a lot of pressure off you during your daily activities when you feel the new role. You then become comfortable with it.

Write your goals down everywhere. As you write them down think about John, the 15-year-old goal achiever from the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" story. Now that John is in his seventies, what advice would John have for you when you ask him, "What is the most important thing I can do to achieve my goals?"

Listen to John whisper in your ear these 3 words.

"Write it down."

Driving to your Goals - By Lyman Dale Reed, Jr.

Every time you get in your car to go anywhere, you're working on achieving a goal. There is somewhere you want to be, so you take action to get there. The 3 major things that get you where you want to go when driving are a specific destination, directions for getting there & a way to track your progress. You must also have these 3 things to achieve any goal.

Specific Destination

Before even getting into your car, you must know where you are going. Unless you have a specific destination, you’re just moving the car & wasting gas. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with this; some people enjoy just driving around & looking at the scenery. But if you want to get somewhere, you must know where you're going.

When setting your goals, you must know exactly what it is that you want. Get a clear picture of it in your mind. If it’s a new job, picture yourself in that job. If it’s more money, visualize that monthly bank statement. Imagine what you will feel like when you reach whatever it is you are striving for. Write it down, like you would write down the address of a house you are visiting for the first time.

Directions

If this is a destination you’ve been to before, you don’t need directions. It’s automatic, like tying your shoes or chewing your food. But what if it’s somewhere you’ve never been before? How do you get there?

You ask. You ask someone who’s been there before. You pull out a map. You check the Internet. The directions may not be perfect & often they aren’t. “It’s either the 2nd or 3rd light, I can’t remember which,” is something often heard when getting driving directions. But you get the best directions you can.

Goal setting is the same. You get in touch with others who already have what you want. You read books, you listen to tapes, you attend seminars. You get as much information as possible that will assist you in reaching your goal.

Tracking Your Progress

You know where you're going & you’ve got your directions, so now it’s time to take some action! You hop in the car & you’re off!

But wait! It wasn’t the 2nd or 3rd light, it was the 4th!

So what do you do when you realize you're off course? You check your map, you pull into the nearest gas station, or you make a phone call. You try to get back on track. But you don’t give up!

You don’t turn around at the first closed road & go back home, saying “I didn’t really want to get there anyway.” If this were to happen, you’d never get anywhere you hadn’t been before & your life would be pretty limited. Even if you have to head all the way back home, you start again. Eventually, you get to that destination & isn’t it even more exciting when you get there after a difficult journey!

You may get sidetracked on your journey. If you get hungry, you stop for a bite. If you need to use the restroom, you stop to take care of that. But do you stay stopped? Do you sit in the restroom all day, wondering why you aren’t where you want to be? No, you do what you need to do & continue on.

Don’t quit on your goals, either. There may be setbacks, dead ends, even car accidents. But don’t forget that you’ll never get there if you don’t keep taking action & moving towards your destination.

When that prospect says no, it’s not a failure; it’s another mile under your belt. When nothing seems to happen for a long period of time, you’re just getting closer to that next landmark. If you’re not sure what to do next, don’t be too embarrassed to stop & ask for those directions!