Goals
Setting goals is the single most important step you will make in creating your Perfect Lifestyle. Spending one hour today setting and writing out your goals will give you the biggest return for an hour’s work you will ever receive.
Critical Principle 1: The best return on your time (ever) will be the time you spend setting goals.
Every successful person, successful business and successful sports team sets goals. You cannot achieve your Perfect Lifestyle unless you set goals and put strategies in place to achieve those goals.
Each goal must have three attributes:
1. It must be achievable.
2. It cannot be too easy to achieve.
3. It must be measurable.The following statement for example is not a goal: To earn a higher income.
Whereas the following statement is a goal:To increase my income by 30% by the end of next year.
First, it is achievable, second it will require you to make some changes in order to achieve it and third, on 31 December next year, you will know exactly whether you achieved your goal or not.
Add Power to Your Goal Setting
There are three critical techniques to make your goals more powerful:
1. Write them down.
2. Review them regularly.
3. Commit key goals to accountability partners.It is important to remember that dreams are not goals. Your dream might be to climb to the top of the seven highest mountains in the world. You can day-dream about it and talk about and read about it until you are too old to actually do it. But, if you make a goal that you are going to climb these peaks within three years, then suddenly you have to start planning and saving and preparing. If you put this goal on your wall, make it a priority, and tell your friends and family, you will achieve your goal.
There is a perfect time to set your goals – Right Now!
I suggest you stop reading, get a pen and complete the following goal setting exercise.
Goal Setting Exercise
This is a vitally important exercise that literally has the power to transform your life in a very short period of time.
You need to set a number (at least ten) of specific goals for your life. Make these goals ones that if you achieve them will radically improve your life and Lifestyle.
Remember you must make each goal achievable, measurable, and a stretch.
You may want to set goals for a number of different timeframes i.e. Daily, Weekly, Annual and Long Term.
Part 1 – Set Your Initial Goals
Set at least one goal for each of the following:
• Income;
• Health/Exercise;
• Relationships;
• Career;
• Personal Interests (for example travel, hobbies);
• Creative;
• Spiritual;
• Investment;
• Educational;
• Contributing/Giving.Print out and complete the list on the next page.
Specific Goal Achieve by date
1. ___________________2. ___________________
3. ___________________
4. ___________________
5. ___________________
6. ___________________
7. ___________________
8. ___________________
9. ___________________
10. ___________________
11. ___________________
12. ___________________
13. ___________________
14. ___________________
This is not your finalized goals list but it is a good start. It is important you do not overload yourself with goals. Ideally, your personal goals should fit easily onto a standard sized piece of paper. You should be able to review it quickly to see where you are at.Part 2 - Think Through Your Goals
It is worthwhile thinking over your goals, especially if this is the first time you have ever done it. Take a couple of days to think about where you ideally want to be in five years (and longer) and what goals you need to set in order to get there. In a day or two, re-work your goals so you are happy with them, and then transfer them to a standard sized piece of paper. Then laminate the sheet and put it up in your shower so you can review your goals every day.
Your goals need to be regularly updated as you and your lifestyle changes. You may need to re-write some of your goals every few weeks. This is an important part of the process and it is fun.
When you have finished your goals list, it will look something like this example:
Daily Goals
1. Eat five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables.
2. Get up at 6am and go for a walk or exercise.
3. Read one chapter of a book.Weekly Goals
1. Exercise three times a week.
2. Read one book per week.
3. Spend an hour one-on-one with each of my children.
4. Spend four hours practising guitar.In the Next Year Goals
1. To lose five pounds (three kilograms) by 31 December.
2. To purchase a rental property by 30 November.
3. To join a rock band by 30 June.
4. To read three motivational books and go to one motivational seminar by 31 October.
5. To start sponsoring a child in the developing world within three months.
6. To increase my income by 20% in the next year.Long Term Goals
1. To be debt free within ten years.
2. To run a marathon within three years.
3. To be able to retire at 50 with a passive income of $150,000 a year.
4. To be able to spend 10 hours a week working with people in need within five years.
5. To have a business earning a net income of $100,000 within five years.Part 3 – Create Your Standard Sized Goals List
Now you need to prioritize your goals and print them on to one standard size sheet of paper. Use the guide above and break your goals into:
Daily Weekly 12 Months
Long TermPart 4 - Pick Your Three Most Important Goals
Go through your goals list and pick the three most important goals. These are the ones that if you achieve them will have the greatest positive impact on your life.
Choose two people you really respect and email them telling them that you are committing to them that you will achieve the goals. Ask them to keep you on track, and tell them you will update them in one month. These are your accountability partners.
Part 5 - Review Your Goals Weekly
At least once a week review your goals list. Modify and change where necessary. Remember your goals list is a living, breathing creature. It is not an engraved block of stone!
Part 6 - One Month Review
Set a reminder in your phone or your calendar to completely review your goals one month after you first set them.
Have you set goals that are too easy? Have you set goals that are too difficult?
Have you achieved some “one year” goals already? Have your circumstances changed?
Rewrite your goals list at this point. Once again print them on a standard size piece of paper.
You now need to email your two accountability partners and update them on how you are progressing with your three goals.
Summary
If you diligently follow this simple eight part process, no-one and nothing will get in the way of you achieving your goals.
Clear everything else off your calendar and complete this process.
Do it now!
Tick Lists
You may also need to have a separate page as a tick-list. For example, on my wall in my office, I have my goal’s list (and one in my shower). Next to it I have a sheet I fill in for my exercise goals. My exercise goal is to complete 150 exercise sessions a year – either in the gym, on my bike or swimming. On the check sheet I have 150 squares. I tick one each time I complete an exercise session. This way I know exactly where I am at with my goal. If I do less than three sessions in a week I know I am falling behind my schedule.
Lifetime Goals
There are a separate set of goals I call Lifetime Goals. Since the movie “The Bucket List”, some people say “That goal is going on my bucket list” i.e. they aim to achieve the goal before they kick the bucket!
It is great to have Lifetime Goals. They don’t have a specific achievement date but clearly they have a finite time period - before you die. Of course the goal may also be constrained by your age and health. You may not be able to climb Mount Everest at 90 years old.
I encourage you to write a list of 100 Lifetime Goals. Make them so wonderful that it will be a momentous day in your life when you achieve them. Make the goals fun, some easy to achieve some very difficult. Some will be goals you may only get one or two chances in your lifetime to achieve. One of my Lifetime Goals is to walk on the moon. I’ve had this goal since the early 1980s. Back then people just thought I was crazy. Now that commercial flights into space are in the planning stage people still laugh at my goal, but now they’re not so sure!
I am sure you have some Lifetime Goals, but you may never have put pen to paper. Remember writing down goals makes them more powerful. Reviewing them regularly forces your mind to think about how and when you can achieve you goal.
For example, say one of your life time goals is to visit the Great Wall of China. If you are reviewing your goals regularly, you might remember you have a conference in Hong Kong and have a spare day in your schedule. It is an easy flight from Hong Kong. If you hadn’t written it down and reviewed this goal, you may have just had a shopping day in Hong Kong instead.
Other Goals
You might have some other specific goals you want to make a list for. I know people (myself included) who have a list of people they would like to meet. Once again if you write down goals and review them regularly, life has the habit of hugely increasing the probability of those goals being achieved.
Whatever dreams, aspirations and wants you have, make them into a goals list. Write them down and review them regularly. You will be amazed how effective this simple strategy is.
Brian Tracy’s Goal Strategy
I have started using a strategy of Brian Tracy’s which I have found to be powerful.
“Rewrite your major goals every day, in the present tense, exactly as if they already existed.” - Brian Tracy
This is powerful for a number of reasons. First it focuses you on your major goals every day. Second it puts you in the positive frame of mind because you feel like you have already achieved your goals. And third it activates the law of attraction to bring your goals to reality.
Try it! I have found it to be very powerful.