A life best lived is a life by design.
It goes without saying that when you have clearly defined goals you are much more likely to achieve them, but so many people still fail to set goals, and when they do, they are not effectively thought out!
The danger of not setting goals is you drift through life, and nothing gets achieved, for some, that’s fine, for others, it’s a sure-fire way to depression-Ville.
Great satisfaction can be found when you achieve your goals, and often the achievement of seeing through your goal is much greater than actually achieving the goal, it proves that you can create something out of thin air and turn it into reality.
Here’s an excellent goal-setting process that can help identify four clear goals for you to work on.
Create four rows and in each row write the following:
1. Personal Goals
2. Business Goals
3. Toys/Gadget Goals
4. Charitable Goals
Next set a timer for 60-seconds and start to write goals for the personal goals section, try not to think too hard about this, just let whatever is on your mind flow out, don’t put any blocks in the way, feel almost like a child again.
Nothing is out of reach, and nothing is silly
Once the 60 seconds are up, set another timer for 30 seconds, and now start working through the same list of goals adding a time frame. i.e., two weeks, one month, twelve months, three years, etc.
Again don’t ponder too hard about this, just write.
Finally set a timer for 2 minutes, but before you begin, identify the goal with the shortest time frame and spend the two minutes writing two paragraphs (1 minute each). The first section outlines how you feel after achieving the selected goal, the emotions and feelings, and the second section how you feel after missing the goal.
Once you have completed this process, repeat the cycle for business goals, toys/Gadgets and charitable goals.
Toys/Gadget goals are the gadgets that you wish to have, things such as a private plane, a supercar, that bling or pen, etc.
And charitable is what you are willing to give back, is this feeding the hungry, working with the homeless, donating to a cause, or offering your time as a volunteer.
After the exercise is complete, you will have clearly identified four goals within the shortest period and conditioned yourself to feel the emotional pull that will help you win. The final part of this exercise is to take the necessary action to achieve these goals.
Add appropriate time to your diary or calendar and be sure you give everything you can to achieve the goals in the agreed time frame.
And hey presto, you have proven that goals can be fun, easy to implement and very achievable.
Have fun and do share with me how you get on, leave a comment below or share on Twitter @Jon_Covey.
Need a hand with setting goals?
Goal setting is a fantastic skill to develop, after all, what else gives you the ability to build, design and shape your entire future? It’s not by mistake that the most successful, fulfilled and happy people achieve so much; you just don’t get there by chance, or by wandering through life following the herd.