Goal Setting - Measure Twice, Cut Once

 

Bring in the big guns

 

Goat Setting - Get Your Act Together

 

Make sure that you have all the equipment, tools, resources, clothes and attitude you need to successfully reach your goal - before you start in on it. Nothing spoils a motivated mood faster than having to drop everything to find a pair of well-hidden tin snips, or getting to the gym and discovering that the skin-tight leotard you borrowed at the last minute from your sister doesn’t meet their more conservative shorts-and-shirts-only dress code.

Find a higher reason to reach your goal than just the goal itself

 

I need to be mentally sharp, physically and emotionally alert, and spiritually on top of things in order to do a good job for my clients. Knowing that none of these are possible without good physical fitness, when I feel like skipping or cutting a workout short, I repeat my mantra “Strong body, strong mind, strong spirit,” and picture all of the people counting on me to help them. This is a far more effective motivator than simply visualizing a fit body (which doesn’t cut it for me after about 15 minutes on the rowing machine!) and reminds me of the higher purposes for getting fit.

Goals Make You Stretch

I began enhancing my personal energy level three months shy of my 40th birthday and after 2 years of struggling with clinically-diagnosed depression. During this same period, I was challenged, immensely by the debilitating effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and being rendered permanently partially disabled as the result of being involved in two car accidents in six days (neither of which was I at fault). I recall an incredible sense of emptiness and a daunting feeling of being completely overwhelmed; especially when trying to figure out which pills went with what ills. Unable to return to the vocation I loved, I received disability payments and simply existed. Most of my time was spent in bed where I eventually became 48 pounds “over-fat.” When dreams and reasons for living are wiped out by the greatest, of the least unexpected, most people priorities typically change. My priorities? Well, they just disappeared. I was defeated physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and knocking on “Financially’s” door. Making the bed was not a priority; it simply went unmade. And when it came down to paying the bills, many went unpaid. One day I was moved enough to actually cultivate the emotion of being “fed up!” During this awakening, I made the decision to reclaim complete responsibility for my life. And I did.

6 Ways To Getting What You Want

Step 1: Clarify your vision/dreams - Have you ever considered all the junk we carry around in our brains? If our brains were computers, our hard drive would be full! In the midst of this clutter, we also carry around hopes and dreams for our life. If we don’t name and narrow them, our dreams just become wishes that float around in our head, taking up space.

Here’s a few questions to guide you in clarifying your dreams:

what do you want?

when do you want it?

what will it look like when you have it?

Goal Setting - Forget About It

Many motivational speakers and self-help books will tell you that you must have goals. I’ve even advocated goal setting myself in the past. You write down your goals and detail them for family life, friends, finances, career, recreation, health, learning, education and your spiritual life.

However, I’ve now come to the conclusion that successful people with strong self-belief don’t do goal setting in this way - why? - Because their too busy doing what they need to do to get what they want to get.

Reach Your Goals - Have a therapeutic meltdown

It’s crunch time: you’re two days behind and the deadline’s looming, your dog just ate your last clean hard copy of that oh-so-vital data and the helpful people at your computer company’s customer service seem to have left the building - while you’re stuck on hold looking at the “blue screen of death.” Time to lose it - constructively.

Reach Your Goals - Create A Nurturing Environment

When your work and living space are cluttered and dirty, when dishes are piled up in the sink or when your wardrobe is uninspiring, energy that you need to meet your goals will be bled out of you like a battery being run down by a forgotten dome light. You need all of the energy you currently have just to run your life, and you need to generate more to reach your goals. Do so by ensuring that your environment doesn’t just meet your needs (organizing, cleaning, maintaining, restocking, etc.) but goes the extra step to ensure that it actually creates energy by anticipating your needs and providing you with a reserve. How? Simple - overcompensation.

Reach Your Goals - Perfect the fine art of the end run

From time to time, the path to your goals is going to run smack into someone else’s version of reality, which they may not be happy to have you “play through.” In these cases, shift your direction of movement off-road and work around, rather than through, the problem. There are two important points to remember when doing an end run:

Win-win is always better than win-lose, even if you have to work harder. Burnt bridges can come back to haunt you later.

Creating your own version of reality, which is non-negotiable, is vital to a successful end run.

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