Goals!
Ok, indulge me. I am so committed to goal setting that I teach it every time I have a chance. If I could go back to my days of teaching elementary school, I would teach this amazing principle of life development to my students. I certainly taught it to my children. Although they did think I was a bit odd when I made them sit down at our dining room table while we planned family goals, they do set goals in their adult life today. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.
The research continues today by the institutes of higher learning on the impact of goal setting on individuals and on businesses. The results remain the same as they have throughout time. Those entities (you and I or our businesses) who write down our goals, design a specific plan of action for the accomplishment of those goals, and when we include our teams in the process, accomplish more than the 97% of people who do not follow this process. You will be in the top 3% of people who fulfill what they want to accomplish in business and in life of you follow this process.
People. It’s not that hard!!!! It doesn’t take that much time. I sat down for about an hour (Ok—maybe an hour and a half) and reviewed my goals of last year and wrote my goals for this year. Now, let me make this clear: I review my goals on a very regular basis. I don’t’ write them down once and never look at them for a year until I review them on New Year’s Day. Nope. I review them regularly to make sure I am on track. Life is too short to let a quickly passing year fly by without a truly desired goal being either worked upon or accomplished. But, I still review them as I prepared to write the new ones.
Sometimes, I have made progress on a goal, but have not accomplished it yet, so I go to the next level with that one. Sometimes, the goal is fulfilled and a little inner celebration takes place. Sometimes, I think, “Why did I write that goal?” and I take it off the list. And, sometimes, I think—I want to do that so badly, but I have made no effort to make that happen. Why? And, I make a completely new plan of action—and must realign my own motivation to go about the goal in a new way. All of this is good. Adjustment is just fine. Doing nothing on things that are important is not fine.
I do not want to get to the end of my days—or the end of the days of my loved ones and wish that I had done something I didn’t. So, I write goals. I encourage you to do the same thing.
Bear with me. I am going to use the next few blogs to go through the process again. Why? Because I don’t think I can give you anything more important to the fulfillment of your life—personally, professionally, physically, financially, or spiritually. In each of these important areas of your life, set goals that are important to you. Then, be about the business of making these things come to pass. You can do it. Now is the time. Why not now. If not now. When?
