Are you a student of success? I’m guessing since you are reading
this, you probably are.
I have been a student of success for as long as I can remember.
For decades I have asked the question, “What makes one person
succeed and another person struggle?” Even in my childhood I was
a virtual sponge. I noticed the words, behaviors, and patterns of
the people around me and the results they manifested.
I have committed to a lifelong study of success, to learn what
works and what doesn’t work so that I might duplicate positive
thoughts and habits in my own life and share those lessons and
observations with others. It pays to study success. It also pays
to study failure (your own and other’s) to avoid unnecessary
mistakes and the pain they bring. Mistakes and missteps are
inevitable, and failure often provide as much benefit as success
as long as you are paying attention.
Most high achievers I have studied took 100% responsibility for
their life and made a concerted effort to learn the art of goal
setting. Most goal achievers invest their own time, energy and
financial resources. Many have joined clubs, communities,
organizations and hired a coach or mentor to further instill the
mastery of this crucial life skill.
There are literally hundreds of ways goal setting benefits your
life. I have identified the top ten to serve as a reminder the
many ways you can gain more control over your life and why it is
crucial that you do whatever it takes to learn and master the art
of goal setting.
The 10 Biggest Benefits of Goal Setting
1. Greater Peace of Mind. There is nothing in the world like
going to bed at night knowing you are investing the days of your
life in the areas of your chosen endeavor. Nothing brings you
greater peace of mind than having the certainty that you are
consciously creating your destiny, living a life of your own
design. Goal getters realize that you create your life goal by
goal. If you want a better life, set better goals.
2. Clarity of Purpose. Having carefully chosen goals gives your
life greater meaning. Show me a person who doesn’t know their
passion or purpose in life and I will show you a person who Read the rest of this entry
Your Reticular Activating System acts as a heat seeking missile which allows your subconscious mind to work on your goal whether you realize it or not.
Write your Goals on paper bridges the gap between your imagination and the real world. As you create and advance your plan it takes your ideas from the intangible to the tangible.
We train in creating plans for achieving your Goals inside Goal University
Dear Jill is a new series we have created to answer the questions that come in to our inbox and in working with clients so that you can benefit from the lessons others experience en route to their goals.
Bring us your biggest questions or most pressing issues by either commenting below or emailing us through our contact form on the top of this site. Allow the questions of others to serve you and allow your questions to serve others. It takes all of us to make each of us.
I recently spent some time in Door County, Wisconsin on a relaxing little weekend getaway.
On my last day there, I set out with a girlfriend to explore Peninsula State Park, a beautiful nature preserve located on a bluff high above the waters of Green Bay.
As we went through the park, we stumbled upon Eagle Tower. Eagle Tower is a 75 foot wooden tower built in 1914 that sits on a cliff above Green Bay, exactly 250 feet above the water.
For whatever reason, I was attracted to the tower. I quickly assessed it and decided to climb it. I figured if it’s been here since 1914 and it’s open to the public, it must be relatively safe, right? So I grabbed my video camera and began my ascent.
Upon first glance it seems like it would be a breeze to climb to the top, that is, until you get started, then you realize the tower is one big wobbly staircase.
Now I’m from the city so this is not the first staircase I have conquered. My home is three levels and I climb those stairs every single day. The art school I attended was 14 stories high and I loved using the stairs. It is however quite daunting when you realize that the individual stairs of Eagle Tower go straight up and have no backing, no walls. So this means you get to feel the wind in your face, you cannot avoid seeing the height you are climbing to while the landmarks below you shrink with each step you take.
I was so happy to be climbing Eagle Tower and was especially excited to be sharing the experience with my dear friend. After all, we are stronger together… that is until I lost her, and then I had to be strong by myself.
Can you relate? My friend turned back after about 20 feet up. She didn’t just turn back, she got a little cranky with me, told me climbing this thing just wasn’t important to her and just like that, she was gone. She was back on the ground. Little did I know that climbing this pile of wood would become a deeply moving spiritual experience that I could draw from for the rest of my life…
The Ten Lessons I Learned While Climbing to the Top
1. There will be times you will have to go on without your support system. The people you want to be there with you will not always be there with you. Be willing to go forward anyway.
Have you ever felt stuck or lacked motivation on any given day?
Have you ever found yourself making a commitment and when the time came to follow through and do what you said you were going to do, you failed to follow through just because you didn’t feel like it?
One of the primary distinctions I have discovered between people who habitually achieve their goals and create the results they desire is that successful people follow through whether they feel like it or not.
Successful people follow through whether they feel like it or not.
Imagine scheduling your wedding and the minister failed to show up to your ceremony because he/she didn’t feel like it.
Imagine your kids not doing their homework because they didn’t have the motivation, they don’t feel like doing it.
It sounds preposterous that we can be so moody and fickle when it comes to our goals in life, but for many individuals, this is how they habitually operate.
The key to following though and getting things done is to have a plan and follow through on it long after the mood has left you. That is true commitment.
So it’s a gloomy day, you have a goal to exercise but you don’t feel like it. Do it anyways.
Whenever you set a goal, write it down, set a deadline and make a list of 10 compelling reasons why you MUST achieve this goal.
You need to determine your motivation up front when you first set the goal.
Every time you follow through whether you feel like it at the moment or not, you build your self confidence, commitment and resilience muscles. You condition yourself to becoming a goal achiever, instead of a goal setter.
“Fake it ’til you make it.” We’ve all heard the cliche for approaching something that seems out of reach. There may be some method to the madness of that approach.
But have you ever given much thought to what it takes to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be when it comes to eliminating old habits and forming new ones?
Success is habitual.
We have all witnessed those who seemingly achieve amazing feats over and over. Think of Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan. What allows one person to be an automatic peak performer every day without fail while others experience failure after failure? Most likely, the achievers have created and practiced success systems, habits and rituals that serve rather than detract from their goals.
If everything affects everything, which is, of course, true, then it pays to take a holistic look at the current habits and patterns in ALL areas of your life, at work, at home and at play.
You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge so it pays to get real and be brutally honest with yourself so you can finally align your habits with your dreams.
How to Create New and Empowering Habits
1. Identify your current habits, the good, the bad and the ugly. You have probably practiced many of the same habits throughout your life without realizing it. Keep a pen and paper handy throughout the day to capture habits as you become aware of them. From the moment you wake up to the moment your eyes close at night, most of your thoughts, words and actions are Read the rest of this entry
What Firefighting Taught Me About Goals and Priorities
This is probably one of the most important subjects I could ever share with you as it relates to your Goals and how they
contribute to improving the quality of your life.
As we have discussed before, most people don’t have clearly defined Goals. It is estimated that only 3% of the population
have any Goals at all, and certainly of that 3% even fewer have Goals in relation to a total holistic life design concept with action plans, timelines and priorities for each the different life areas.
One of the most common mistakes that holds people back from achieving their Goals is having have a long list of exciting Goals, but no system for organizing the order of priority for them.
Imagine how many decisions you make throughout any given day. What time will you wake up? What will you do when your open your eyes? Will you hit the snooze button or will you get up and get moving? Will you be excited about the day? What will you do next, will you exercise, read a little, listen to a personal development audio? Will you rewrite and review your Goals Cards? Will you eat breakfast and if you do, what will you have? Will it be rushed, will it be nutritious? You see what I’m talking about? You have just opened your eyes for only a few minutes and already you have made several decisions that will affect your day and over time, those daily minute to minute decisions become habits that accumulate to create your life, whether you realize it or not.
If a Goal is worth setting, it’s worth examining it’s relationship to the values and priorities in your life.
The Goal is the what, the priority and value is the why, and where it fits into your life. When you know the what and the why, the how is easy.
One of the most common complaints today is overwhelm. In a world where information overload is a daily occurrence, the solution to overcoming overwhelm lies in knowing which Read the rest of this entry
Some of my most cherished memories from childhood are from pickup football games my friends and I played on the school lawn down the street from my house.
There are lessons all around us contained in art, theatre, movies, athletics, nature and even in the most unexpected places.
The other day I was going through an old box of pictures and I found a picture of myself and my friends in front of the schoolyard where we used to play football together and it got me thinking about many of the lessons I learned about Goal Setting by watching and playing football. If you are a football fan, you will appreciate this.
The Top 10 Lessons Football Taught Me About Goal Setting
1. He who scores first gains momentum. Have you ever heard a coach talk about an upcoming game? Almost always the coach declares the intention to score first, to put points on the board as soon as possible. This is so important because it gives the scoring team a psychological edge. Scoring first has the potential to boost your confidence and deflate your opponents psyche. I have seen many games where two teams with equal talent are won by the team who scored first.
2. Every inch, every yard forward counts because it gets you closer to your Goal. Most of your offensive plays gain at best an average of a few yards, but over time, they accumulate and contribute to forward movement. Inevitably at times you go backwards a few yards, but if you stay focused on your Goal Read the rest of this entry
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