Goals 1: Designing Your Future

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We have now examined the process of self-improvement to the stage where we are becoming more aware of our dreams and, I hope, considered how they could fit into our lives.


Introduction to Goals

Dreams are essential to success but they only really work if you commit yourself to their attainment by allocating a date by which they are to be achieved and they then become goals.

I'm sorry if I repeat some ideas previously laid out in the dreams blogs, but I am realising just how important, and how so often overlooked, is the subject of Dreams and Goals. A list of well thought out goals gives you direction, a purpose.

Not having goals has been compared to presenting yourself at the ticket desk of an airport and having the following conversation:

Airline Representative: Good afternoon, can I help you?

You: Good afternoon, I would like a flight ticket please.

AR: Certainly sir, where would you like to go?

You: I don't know.

AR: Hmmm, okay, when would you like to arrive?

You: I don't know.

AR: I'm sorry sir, but how can I help you if you don't know where you want to go or even when you want to get there?


That was a very restrained response - I think I might have been ruder. I'm sure you would agree this conversation would be unlikely: It's too silly, right?

And yet most of us have this conversation with life much of the time. We spend more time planning a holiday than our lives. I know I did.

How can you get somewhere if you don't know where you want to go?

Or, as that great teacher, Zig Ziglar, puts it: "It's just as difficult to reach a destination you don’t have, as it is to come back from a place you have never been."

In my opinion, one of the best books on goals is Jim Rohns 'Seven Strategies for Wealth and Happiness':


"Guess how many people face the future with apprehension? Right, most do."

"You've seen the type - always worrying, worrying, worrying. Why are these individuals so apprehensive? Because they haven't spent time designing their futures. In many cases, they live their lives by trying to win the approval of someone else. In the process, they end up 'buying into' someone else's view of how life should be lived. No wonder they are worried - always looking around, seeking approval for everything they do."

"On the other hand, those who face the future with anticipation have planned a future worth getting excited about. They can 'see' the future in their minds eye, and it looks terrific. The future captures their imagination and it exerts and enormous pull on them."


I also return to Robin Sieger's book 'You Can change Your Life Any Time you Want:'
"Very few people sit down and take the time to ask themselves 'what do I really want out of life.' Most of us just bumble through from day to day, struggling to get by, moaning about the job we have because it is not the job we want or because we feel unappreciated; complaining about the house we live in because it is not big enough; finding fault in out partners because they do not make us feel as good about ourselves as we think they should. We go through life asleep to the possibilities all around us."

"Until you determine exactly what it is that you wish to achieve, it is impossible for you to achieve anything of value. Goal setting is easy. But beware - no sooner will you have set the goal, then the negative beliefs will appear as a voice in the back of your mind saying, 'You'll never do it.' It requires dedication and determination to sit down, to spend time alone, thinking about the life you really want to live. Looking forward to that time way in the future when you can look back upon your life and think, Wow, I did all those things.'"


So, yes, goal setting requires some work and discipline but the rewards can be massive - and you define just how massive!

Jim Rohn again:

"Why are goals so powerful? How can they cause all this to happen? I don't know. I guess this question falls into that special category I call 'the mysteries of life.' All I can tell you is that it does work. Find out for yourself. Give yourself the chance to become all you can become and to accomplish all you can accomplish."


A Constant Process

You can do nothing about what is in your past - it has gone - but you can make incredible changes in your future. And you can hardly imagine how great your life can be.

I have heard dreams and goals compared to viewing a horizon. You can only see as far as the horizon and no further, but if you advance in that direction, you will see a little more into the distance. Move a little further still and you will see more: in fact, every time you advance, a little more is revealed. So it is with goals. The more you achieve, the more your abilities grow and the more you can see yourself achieving - and you believe more in your even greater destiny.

Zig Ziglar, puts it this way: "Yes, you just go as far as you can see, and when you get there you can always see farther."

In the book (and movie) 'The Secret', Jack Canfield describes it in this way. Imagine you undertake a car journey at night. You can only really see as far as your headlights allow but as you move forward you see more and more revealed in the lights (as what has passed disappears). In other words you are constantly heading towards what you can see illuminated and yet you can cross entire continents in this way - a few feet (or metres) at a time. By such small steps you reach your ultimate destination. So it is with goals; you move to one goal, achieve it and move towards the next goal.

The key is obviously to have the next goal available at every stage so your journey into success is a continuous, unbroken progression.

This is particularly true of sportsmen and women. Legendary yachtsman Sir Chay Blyth, in the book 'Mind Games' says:

"With any project I take a blank sheet of paper and I write down the aim of the exercise - the goal - and take it from there. It's very fulfilling when you've written down an aim, planned everything and then you bring it to a successful conclusion. It's tremendous. I use the same process for business that I used for my sailing adventures. I set down the goals, I set down all the relevant factors involved and carry on from there."

In case you doubt you have the abilities to keep going, be reassured that life has a remarkable habit of providing you with the knowledge you require at every stage. You just need to have faith and accept opportunities when they arise.

Conclusion

And so I will end this introduction to setting goals. Next time I will start to examine how to identify your goals and the dates of achievement. This should be interesting, as I badly need to understand this myself.


So, until next time, please accept my very best wishes, and I leave you with another quote from Zig Ziglar:

"Successful people get to the top because they identify their objectives, use their talents and constantly sharpen them by dedication and hard work. Their 'breaks' come with commitment and objectives - and so will yours."



Keith


http://www.keithbraithwaite.com/