Article by dennis white
Take out a sheet of paper, and write the following heading; “MY GOALS FOR THIS YEAR.”
Now take that sheet of paper, fold it up, and bury it in a glass jar in your backyard. In exactly one year, go dig up that glass jar, pull out that piece of paper, and read your goals again. Chances are, if you wrote down 10 goals, you will have accomplished 2 of them. Sort of. Your goals may have changed but, for the most part, you accomplished 20% of your goals by just writing them down!
Believe it or not, this was my introduction to goal setting. Not sure how many of the goals that I wrote down were accomplished because I never could find where I buried the glass jar! But let’s say that I accomplished 20%. Is that good? Not for me, and I imagine that 20% is not good for you, either.
This “write them and forget them” goal system is horrible, but it does accomplish one critical step; It gets you to write down your goals. But it, and many other systems fall very short. I am not content with a 20% or even 50% success rate, but many goal systems focus to you hitting around half of your goals. Why? Actually, the answer is not in the goal system, but it is with your goals themselves.
Many goal setting programs follow the same steps;
1. Write your goals down.
2. Keep your goals handy so you can read them often
3. Keep track of your progress
4. Alter goals that need to be changed
5. Start every day with your goals in mind
6. Continue until you achieve your goals
7. Set new goals.
Pretty simple process, and, sometimes, for some people, effective. But my experience is that the vast majority of people set goals but NEVER accomplish them. Why? Why is it that some people seem to always accomplish what they set out for and others give up a few hours, days, weeks, months, or years after they start off? I believe I have found both the reasons and the cure. Stick with me and I think you’ll see why this Goal Setting System is so much more effective than any other you may have used before.
MY APPROACH
I don’t have any special or exciting name for this process of goal setting. But over the years, I have realized, through trial and error that the secret lies in the goals, not in the program. The best way, I feel, to explain this approach to you is by showing you an imaginary example of how I would use this approach in helping someone else to set their goals. Though this system is easily adapted to a “solo goal setting workshop,” I believe it works better if you have a friend test your goals for you. In this example, I’ll show how I would approach testing “Ken’s” goals.
“Ken, let’s go over your top goal for the year.”
“My main goal is to earn $ 100,000 for the year,” Ken said in a slightly excited voice.
“Great goal,” I offered back. “Why $ 100,000?”
Ken’s face went blank for a quick moment. “Making that much will allow me to have the lifestyle I want,” he answered.
“And what lifestyle do you want?” I asked.
“The kind of lifestyle that comes with earning $ 100,000, I guess.”
Ken really had no idea why he wanted to earn $ 100,000. To him, it was just a number that sounded attractive. He probably heard that earning $ 100,000 affords many a better lifestyle, but Ken never really knew what that lifestyle was, why he wanted it, and how his life would be better if he did earn $ 100,000.
If you don’t know why you want a goal and what accomplishing the goal will give you, I can almost guarantee that you won’t accomplish the goal.
“Ken, why exactly do you want to earn $ 100,000?” I pushed back
“That will give me enough money to get out of credit card debt, and will make things easier for my wife and I,” he answered as if the reason was ready to jump out of his mouth.
“Great reasons. But why do you want to get out of credit card debt, and how will earning the money make life easier?”
It took around 10 minutes of questioning before Ken realized that the reason he wanted to get out of debt was so that his wife could stay home with their newborn baby. His income up to this point was not high enough to support his lifestyle and his wife had to work as well. Ken’s son had to go to daycare while he and his wife worked. Ken hated this but seemed resigned to daycare being part of his and his son’s life.
“So, you want to earn enough money so that your wife can stay home with your son? Is that really your goal?”
“Yes. I guess it is.”
“Ken, what if you earned $ 90,000 this year? Would that be enough to make your goal happen?” I asked
“Sure, that is more than we make now. That would be fine.”
“What if you earned $ 80,000? Would that still work?”
“I guess so. We would have to cut out some things but my wife would be able to stay home,” Ken answered, seemingly getting more excited.
“How about $ 70,000?”
“No,” he answered quickly and with certainty. “That is less than we earn now. No way, I have to make at least $ 80,000 this year to make it happen.”
“Congratulations,” I said, “You have your goal, and are already half way to accomplishing it.”
The secret of goal setting lies in the following system:
1. Knowing exactly what your goal is and why you want it
2. Testing your goal. For example, if you set a goal to lose 40 lbs, ask yourself if losing 35 is good enough. If it is, then your goal is not to lose 40 lbs, it is to lose 35. Keep testing your goal to you won’t accept anything less. Once you arrive at this point, you will have an emotional response.
3. Write your goals down in clear detail. Write about why you want the goal and what accomplishing the goal will bring into your life. Write about what would happen if you didn’t hit your goals and all the pain that would result. Write about the person you will become and how it will effect other people in your life. Make the goal so real that your brain can’t tell if you are imagining it or if it is already real.
4. Read your goals everyday! That’s right, everyday. Passion is like a fire that will burn hot when it has fuel. Without fuel, it will burn itself out. Keep adding fuel by reading your goals and charging them with fresh emotion every day. You will start each day with a hunger for your goal. And when you start to realize that the goal is coming to reality, your passion and emotion will only grow stronger!
5. Celebrate once your goal is accomplished. If your goal was a challenging one, you deserve some celebration time. Reward yourself for what you have accomplished.
6. Take a day off, and create new, more challenging goals, and repeat the process.
Yes or Else
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