Goal and Goal Achieving

  Goal Setting is probably the most vital achievement of all. Every Peak Performer is obsessed with setting goals! Why do so few people set goals for themselves?

Studies show that less than 5% of the population have goals. Less than 1% write their goals down!

In 1953, Yale University performed a study of the graduating class. Only 3% of the graduates had clear, defined goals set. In 1973, they re-interviewed these people. They found that the 3% that set goals 20 years ago were worth more financially than the other 97%!!!!!

  Studies also have found that, when the human being place a goal in their sub-consceince mind, the brain automatically begins to start in that direction similar to a heat seeking missile. The human brain is designed as if it were a “goal seeking” mechanism. Without goals, we wander around, sometimes in circles accomplishing very little. We just “drift with the tide” and end up going nowhere. Goals send us in a direction, a purpose, straight and true, with focus and energy. With goals in our lives, we accomplish in days what would normally take years without goals.

  So, if we know that the act of setting goals is so important, why do so few people set them? There are 4 reasons-

·         Most people do not understand how important goal setting is. Most people didn’t grow up being exposed to goals. In fact most of us are a byproduct of our parent’s values. An example of this might be- we now have 3-4 generations of families on welfare in America. A family raises their children on welfare; the kids grow up and raise their kids on welfare. These kids grow up and raise their children on welfare. For 3-4 generations, the talk around the dinner table has been living on welfare. These kids grow up with the concept that “living on welfare” is a way of life. They don’t know anything else. So, if we haven’t grown up with goals in our life, we don’t know any better.

·         People don’t know how to set goals. Our education system does not spend 1 hour of time educating student on the importance of goals. 12 years of school, not even 1 hour spent on goal setting. Did your parents spend any time with you on setting goals? Has any employer spent time with you on goal setting? Most of us, just don’t know how!

·         Fear of rejection. Many of us have found that anytime we have set a goal- someone comes along and tells you that you can’t do it, it is a waste of your time, you can’t achieve that, don’t waste your time on that, etc. One key basic on goal setting is to KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!!! Don’t tell people about your goals. Your goals should be confidential. 2 exceptions to this rule are: Share with other goal setting people and share with other people that you need to help or assist you with reaching your goals. So, in general KEEP YOU GOALS TO YOURSELF!!

·         Fear of failure. This is the greatest single obstacle to success in adult life! Race, color, education, demographics are not obstacles compared to fear. Most people do not understand how important “failure is to achievement”. You cannot succeed without failure. You must be able to risk failing- In studying the lives of the most successful people in history, they have all failed again, and again and again! Thomas Edison was a huge “failure guy”- He lost more time and money than any other inventor in modern times. He patented 1097 devices and made hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and companies. Thomas Edison failed over 10,000 times in his quest to invent the incandescent light bulb! In fact he failed so many times; the great scientific minds of the times were writing articles about him saying that Edison was wasting his time; he was out of his mind, that there was no future in electric light! After Edison had failed about 5000 times, a reporter asked him “Mr. Edison, why do you keep trying to invent this electric light thing, don’t you know that the coal-oil lantern is the best source of light? Isn’t it a waste of time to continue to invent electric light? Edison answered- “Young man, I have not failed 5000 times trying to invent electric light, I have simply eliminated 5000 methods that did not work. I am that much closer to the solution!” We MUST embrace the concept of failure to access success!

 The only thing in life that is inevitable is change! Change is taking place around us every day, every hour, every minute, and it seems the past few years, every second! Because we have a fear of change! Why? Because, we think the change could be worse than it is now! We always are wishing for change, but are scared to death of things changing. GOALS enable us to have a little bit of control over change. GOALS give us a direction for change in our lives! If we can agree that change is going to happen anyway, why not try to control some of that change!

In regards to GOAL setting, there are a few concepts that we need to discuss:
 

1)      Area of Excellence! Every human being has certain talents and skills that are average. We all share many of these average talents and skills. But, the AREA OF EXCELLANECE concept states that each of us also have a special area that we should excel in! Each of us has the ability to achieve excellence or make an outstanding accomplishment in at least one specific area! Every one of us are placed on this earth for a reason, we are not here at random. Each of us have a special or valuable contribution. A responsibility that each of us have is to figure out our “area of excellence” and channel our energy, efforts and focus to that one field! We know that if we intend to make a living for the rest of our lives, we have a responsibility to ourselves to develop excellence in at least 1 area! What is really astonishing is the hundreds of thousands of people that work 30-40 years in a career, and it never occurs to them they should become excellent in that field! One of the great tragedies of modern life is that most people walk around doing what they do every day in a mediocre fashion! They never think that they should be OUTSTANDING in something! Remember, the top 20% of people are never unemployed, the top 20% are always working, being productive and always have financial security! Every successful person on this earth has found their “area of excellence” and channeled their efforts and energy toward it! They decided to be outstanding in their area! In establishing goals, one of our goals must be to think in terms of where we can develop our area of excellence!

2)      ACRES of Diamonds! Russell Conwell- We all have the talents, abilities, education and backgrounds to realize our ambitions right here in our own community!

3)      Balance of Goals-

Family and personal goals

Business and Career goals

Self Improvement goals

Every “Winning human being” is focused towards a series of balanced goals

To help each of you to begin setting goals, you need to ask yourself these questions

(Review the Self Help sheet)

1)      Desire- Intense need or want/Cannot set goals for someone else

2)      Belief- You must believe that it can happen- Realistic- not too aggressive-but a stretch- 50% chance

3)      Write the goal out- if it is not written out it, it is only a dream. Your brain will program it with detail

4)      How will you benefit from the goal? Write out all the advantages.

5)      Analyze your current status. Measure your current status.

6)      Set a deadline. Must have a timeline.

7)      Identify the obstacles. On paper, those huge obstacles become small!

8)      Identify the knowledge you will need to accomplish your goal.

9)      Identify the people, groups, etc. who you need to assist you to attain your goal.

10)   Make a plan, complete every detail. List all the activities that you need to do to accomplish your goal.

11)   Clear mental image. We think in pictures. Visualize the goal! We carry these images in our brain.

12)   Back your plan up with determination. Resolve to never, ever, ever give up! Most loose it here!

Setting goals and thinking about them continuously raises your self-image, moves us toward our ideal self, causes us to like ourselves, and moves us toward peak performance and the full realization of our potential!!