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Achieving Your Goals!

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Goals and Setting Goals

When consciously and actively utilized, Goals represent the targets or objectives toward which we are actively working to realize.

Goal setting is the conscious, active process of identifying your goals.

How we go about identifying and setting our goals will, to a very large degree, determine how successful we are in our attempts to achieve those goals. Goals and goal setting are common themes in Personal Development and the intent of this lens is to serve as an introduction to the concept.

Identifying and Setting Your Goals

Identifying and Setting Realistic Goals is the Key to Successfully Realizing Your Goals!

What Do You Want in Life?

Start by Making a List

If you are new to Goals and Goal Setting, start by making a list of what you want in life. This is a list of the things YOU WANT, not your spouse, not your parents, not your friends, not your Boss, ...YOU. Make a list of the things YOU want in life.

Divide your life up into its major phases. For example, your family, financial, work, friends, hobbies / recreation, education, etc. The categories you use are up to you, however, realize that your life does have separate phases, it can be divided (and sub-divided) into categories. Choose an initial set of categories and get to work. You can always add or subtract categories as you progress.

In each category, compile a list of things you would like to do, skills you would like to learn, places you would like to see, awards or other forms of recognition you desire ... in short, a WISH LIST of what you want in each category. Be as creative, bold and imaginative as you wish. Compile your "Bucket List" in each category. The only restriction at this point is your imagination.

If you are married and have children, include YOUR list of what you want to do with your spouse, your goals and wishes for your children. Ideally, they would similarly prepare their respective lists involving you.

Prioritizing Within Each Category

Organizing your Wish List

Now you must decide what is realistic and within what timeframe.

If you are single and not dating, getting married in the next week is, arguably, not a realistic goal. However, perhaps it might be a reasonable goal over a year or two. If you have just started work at your first job, it may be unlikely that you will be the President, with a six figure income, by next month. However, perhaps a 5-10 year timeframe is realistic.

Prioritize the items in each category according to a timeframe, from those that can be achieved within a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly timeframe. You might also want to create sub-categories. For example, some goals might pertain to your current job, which is a stepping stone to your future ideal job. Perhaps you have some Personal Development items on which you wish to work in order to pursue other objectives.

Identify any items within your varous categories which require preceding steps. For example, if you are just finishing High School and you want a Ph.D., you will need a B.Sc. first. If you currently work in a research station in the Arctic and want to live in Florida, you might want to look for another job and a residence of some sort in Florida.

In addition, identify those items in any category about which you are extremely motivated to achieve, for which you have a Burning Desire to fulfill.

Goals

What Are Goals?

"A Goal is a Wish with a deadline" - Author Unknown

So, now we need to convert the items on your "Wish List", item by item, into their corresponding "Goals".

At the outset, be aware that it is very important to realize that in many, perhaps all, of your goals, you will encounter disappointments and even defeats in your attempts to realize those goals. However, it is you that will determine if a defeat becomes a failure to achieve any goal. How determined are you to reach your goal? How persistent will you be in pursuing your goal, in overcoming adversity and opposition? How badly do you want your goal? Those items on your wish list for which you have a "Burning Desire" are the items you are most likely to achieve.

Goal Setting

The Process of Setting Goals

There are many ways to establish Goals. The method we will use here is in the form of a written contract with yourself. The intent of a written contract is to make it more formalized and to demonstrate a level of commitment for yourself to your goal(s).

Goals should be SMART:

  • SPECIFIC

  • MEASURABLE

  • ACTION ORIENTED

  • REALISTIC

  • TIMEBOUND

SPECIFIC - Your Goal should be stated clearly and unambiguously. The sub-conscious mind is very literal and simple and your instructions to the sub-conscious should similarly be simple and literal. In a manner similar to "Affirmations", your goals should be in the "PRESENT TENSE", POSITIVE AND WRITTEN DOWN, SPOKEN ALOUD or, ideally, BOTH.

MEASURABLE - The Goal you develop should be measurable, should have some means of determining if you have achieved it.

ACTION ORIENTED - Your Goal should involve a component of Action. You need to do something in order to move yourself closer toward your goal. The action required might be Direct or Indirect, but there must be some form of input from you toward realizing your goal.

REALISTIC - The Goal you identify must be a realistic goal. You, personally, must be able to achieve the goal you set for yourself. Carefully review your WISH LIST to determine if it can realistically be converted to a corresponding Goal.

TIMEBOUND - Set a timeframe within which to accomplish your goal. The timeframe must also be realistic and it must be definite and unambiguous.

Your Contract with Yourself

One Contract per Goal

Given the above "SMART" guidelines for setting yur goals, each goal will consist of about a paragraph or two, depending upon how specific you have made it.

It is easy to set up a template which you can "Cut" and "Paste" around your goal.

  1. Date - Place Today's Date above your Goal

  2. Goal - Paste your goal below the date

  3. Signature - Print out and Sign your goal (It is a contract after all)

You may group similar or related goals together but each should be signed separately.

Working With Your Goals

Keep Them Fresh in Your Mind

You have converted most of the items in your Wish List to Goals and, having done so, you must now keep them in front of you.

Two very useful tools are the Vision board and Mind Movies. They are highly visual methods for keeping your goals in mind and for motivating you.

(NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org)

Review your goals on a regular basis, once a week or once a month, and modify / revise your goals as your circumstances and/or progress changes. Most important of all, should you encounter obstacles or adversity in achieving your goals, PERSIST!. If it is a realistic goal and one you desire, persist until you overcome the adversity or find a way around the obstacle

(Note: see Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture with regard to achieving Childhood Goals and Overcoming Adversity).

Rewards

Rewarding Yourself

Rewards should be an integral component of your Goal Setting program in two key areas.

1. Your Goals should be something you strongly desire. Ideally, your goals should be accompanied by a "Burning Desire" for their achievement. As such, achieving your goal, realizing your goal in your life should be a reward in, and of, itself. Achieving your goal should be beneficial, enriching and self-rewarding.

2. Achieving one (or more) of your goals is a SUCCESS! You have set yourself an objective, worked toward and successfully achieved your goal. This is a SUCCESS and deserves an appropriate acknowldegement, a reward.

In the workforce, significant goals are often (but, unfortunately, not always) recognized. The reward may only be a handshake or a pat on the back, but it may be a Bonus or a promotion.

Similarly, recognize your success in achieving your goal. The nature of the reward is up to you, but do something to recognize the significance of achieving, completing, realizing or otherwise bringing the object of your goal into your life. Reward yourself in a tangible way, as you would recognize someone who had contributed to your life by achieving your goal on your behalf.

Integrated Success Program

Available Resources

The Integrated Success Program consists of an integrated set of resources, comprised of a web-site featuring the original, classic texts of classic authors, a blog site with a wealth of supporting material, a Yahoo Group and a Forum to provide forums for discussing the myriad of topics under the "Personal Development" theme.

Please feel free to leave your comments on this site (above) and make use of the other resources provided. I would sincerely love to hear from you, your opinions (Pro and Con) on my posts, thoughts, opinions and interpretations. I would love to initiate a dialogue in either or both of the forums.

Your input will only serve to improve this site, as well as the other resources provided.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Integrated Success Program web-site
WALKER ENTERPRISES has gathered many of the worlds classic, most sought after personal development, self-help, self - improvement and /or New Thought texts providing inspiration, insights, methods and/or personal success philosophies dedicated to improving your life as the initial component of our INTEGRATED SUCCESS PROGRAM. The wisdom contained in these texts is timeless, explaining why they are still so much in demand.

Integrated Success Program Blog
WALKER ENTERPRISES has developed the Integrated Success Program Blog in support of its INTEGRATED SUCCESS PROGRAM web-site. The blog is intended to provide supporting and background information on the many authors and their respective texts, as well as to provide a forum in which to present opinions, reviews and commentary to, and from, those seeking such information.

Integrated Success Program Forum
This Forum is dedicated to Personal Development in support of the Integrated Success Program web-site and the Integrated Success Program blog. The web-site contains many of the classic personal development texts, including Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" and "Law of Success", Charles Haanel's "The Master Key System" and the inspiration books of James Allen, including "As A Man Thinketh".

The Blog site provides a forum for distributing additional material, including YouTube video clips, articles and posts, pertaining to the broad field of Personal Development.

After exploring the content available in this forum, please visit the web-site and blog for further content.

Integrated Success Program Group on Yahoo
This group was created to discuss thoughts, opinions and interpretations originating, in part, from the classic personal development texts (James Allen, Charles Haanel, Napoleon Hill, etc.) and other related topics of interest (i.e. Law of Attraction, Creative Visualization).

Researching the power of the mind and, more specifically, the sub-conscious mind over the past twenty years has allowed me to discover of many gems of wisdom buried in these timeless texts, as well as more recently published texts. The recent release of "The Secret" has had the result of drawing considerable attention to the "LAW OF ATTRACTION", however, I believe the process underlying its application to one's life was missing from the movie.

Contrary to the hype attending release of "The Secret", the LAW OF ATTRACTION is not a recent discovery in metaphysics, nor has it been actively suppressed by the Church or hidden societies. It simply passed into relative obscurity through the passage of time. It has been, and remains, available to everyone who searches for it and is willing to actually apply it to their lives.

The formula is available, and is, in all likelihood, well known to most. In its simplest form, it was concisely summarized as follows:

Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened

Matthew 7:7 (Luke (11:9) NIV

In short, visualize your desired outcome, then take the appropriate action to receive its manifestation. ACTION is an integral, necessary part of the three part formula to realize (manifest) your desired outcome.

Do You Set Goals?

Planning the Path of Your Life

Identifying and Setting Goals is an important component in realizing and achieving those goals in your life.

Do you set goals? If so, do you use the method described here? Do you use another method?

Leave your comment here.

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  • Reply
    corteeze Jul 19, 2011 @ 12:33 pm | delete
    Yes, I got in the habit of making goals for myself -- from daily achievements to five-year plans -- for all aspects of my life. They are not etched in stone, and leave plenty of room for flexibility and spontaneity, but they serve as a roadmap for where I'd like to travel on this life journey.
  • Reply
    Dynamic1 Jul 21, 2011 @ 3:20 pm | delete
    As far as I am concerned, your comment serves as a concise summary of how to achieve goals. Actively make and pursue goals, yet keep them flexible as you grow, mature and change. Your analogy is a road map, which serves very well. The one I like is either a flight plan or a ships course - you need to know where you are going before you leave the airport or harbour, otherwise you will not get there.

    Thanks for your comment!
  • Reply
    Jan 2, 2011 @ 10:53 pm | delete
    I have always written down goals as well as visualize them.....I think I really like seeing the written word, it's quite powerful and serves as a 'shopping list' for the soul.
  • Reply
    HorseAndPony Jan 28, 2010 @ 12:10 pm | delete
    I do not set goals. I know what I need and need to do and just do it. I believe that setting goals often leads people to a path of failure. I think in order to be successful it is important to be flexible and able to modify or completely abandonee both your personal and professional plan of action. However, it you have so many goals and contracts set where does one find this freedom. I think that it is good to continuously progress in life/work. So, if you are no longer progressing make a change. Even if it means abandoning years of work. If the change you made does not work, change again. So many people that I have met stay on a path of failure because they are achieving their goals. I believe that people should spend more time improving their self-esteem and then they will better understand what they need to do to progress in life.
  • Reply
    Dynamic1 Jan 28, 2010 @ 1:10 pm | delete
    Good Points. Thanks for the feedback!

    My goals, to date, have all been those within my mind. I think the value of writing them down and going so far as to make contracts with yourself is to strengthen them in your mind, however, your goals MUST remain flexible and dynamic, not static. If circumstances change, change your goal. If the goal is no longer valid or realistic, let it go. As life changes, goals should change accordingly.

    I suggest the benefit of writing them down is that you are using both Visual and Kinesthetic components of the mind to help fix the goal in your sub-conscious. Ideally, the goal should be reviewed periodically to determine if it is still valid and appropriate and, if so, read aloud (so as to incorporate the Auditory as well).

    I think the key is the get your conscious and sub-conscious minds congruent, syncronous and focussed on your goals.

    Bottom line: Keep using whatever is working successfully. If you want to try different ideas (i.e. Goals as a contract), do so, but evaluate them with regard to how they work for you!

    A Final thought - A failure is only a failure (rather than a defeat) if it stops you. A defeat may indicate you are pushing your boundaries and, as a result, growing.
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The key aspect of "Goals" and "Goal Setting" is to program your sub-conscious. Achieving your goals is made significantly easier if your conscious and sub-conscious minds are congruent, meaning in harmony, directed toward the same objective.

The following lenses provide further information on the Sub-conscious Mind and effecting desired change in your life.
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The following is a list of other lenses available from the Integrated Success Program. These lenses represent additional information for some of the classic Personal Development texts available through the Integrated Success Program web-site. In addition, these lenses mirror some content on the Integrated Success Program blog.

Note, however, that there is considerably more material on both the web-site and the blog that has not been posted on Squidoo and, as such, are worth visiting for more information.
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I have been a student of personal development for over 25 years, with specific interest in the ability and latent power of the mind, particularly the subconscious.... more »

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