How To Set A Goal and Achieve It

“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.”  – Og Mandino

Og Mandino has written some great books …… The Greatest Salesman in the World (part 1 and 2), Secrets for Success and Happiness,just to name a few of my favorites.

Do you set goals on a daily, weekly or monthly, yearly basis?   Do your goals stretch you?

I am sure you have heard the acronym of SMART goals.  If you haven’t, or haven’t thought about it lately, SMART goals are:

Specific

Measureable

Attainable

Realistic

Timeframe established

Do you set goals for yourself?  Do you set base goals and stretch goals?  Sometimes you might even want to establish big audacious goals.  No matter what, we all set goals at some time or another, whether small or audacious, that we sometimes do not achieve.

So I want to ask you, why not realistically stretch yourself as you are setting your goals?  If you don’t, no one else will do it for you.  But when I say stretch yourself, don’t make your goals unattainable.  They need to be possible, but not small.

One thing some of the most successful people have in common is they take the time to list their goals and create a blueprint of how to achieve them.

Written goals without an action plan of how you are going to achieve them are probably not worth the piece of paper they are written on.

One other part of the equation is speaking those goals publicly to someone you respect, love or who you know will hold you accountable.  If no one else knows your goals besides you, it’s really easy to not work on them.

Your goals don’t have to be just business related, they can be personal as well.  What are you inspired by, what do you believe in?  What do you dream of achieving that will support your passions for making a difference? Those are a part of your core vales.    Your core values are what help shape you as you move through life.  Your values are also what determines your inner beliefs.  Those inner beliefs in yourself and your ability to achieve drive the cogs in your wheel.

What big goals are you going to set for yourself in the next 30 days?

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Who Is Your Competition Really?

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” ~ John Wooden

John Wooden was one of the most revered coaches in the history of sports. During his tenure as head coach at UCLA he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period—seven in a row— an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. He was named national coach of the year six times. He coached his players to be the absolute best they could be every day, not just in sports, but in every aspect of their lives. Wooden also believed we can always improve but should never compare ourselves to others. Their success does not define your success or your perceived lack thereof. I have compared myself to others successes most of my adult life. Even though I built 3 very successful businesses, I would always look at my competitors and think “They have achieved more than me, they built better shopping centers or developed nicer condominium projects than we did.

What I know is that comparing yourself to others only holds you back from believing that you can be the best you can be every day. You will only rise to the heights you think you can. So why not take every day to realize you are the best you can be. But in order to do that, you have to make a choice that you will put forth your best each day. At the end of the day when you reflect, you will know your best was good enough. Start the next day with an attitude of I am going to do better than my best from yesterday.

Every day, if you push yourself just a little more, you will eventually see quantum leaps in your level of success. So I ask you…Who is your competition – really?

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The Set of the Sail Will Determine Where You Arrive

“The same wind blows on us all. The economic wind, the social wind, the political wind. The same wind blows on everybody. The difference in where you arrive in one year, three years, five years, the difference in arrival is not the blowing of the wind but the set of the sail.” ~ Jim Rohn

 Sometimes, when we see an opportunity to make a big change in our lives, it’s a matter of changing the set of your sail.  A colleague in my business, changed the set of her sail to change her life and her family’s.  She was a very successful, busy executive with a large media company, commuting 4 hours a day from home to her job.  By the time her day ended, she had very little time to spend with her two young daughters and her husband.

She wanted to be more involved in her family’s lives, but didn’t know how she could make that happen.  Missing one of her daughter’s first steps was when she realized, something needed to change.  A friend introduced her to a new business she could do part time and begin supplementing her income and eventually replace her executive salary, allowing her to make the change she wanted.  At first, she resisted.  She was already too busy.  But when she thought about her future and what she really wanted, she made the decision to partner with her friend and take control of her life.

Today, she works her new business around  commuting to work, watching her daughters play sports, just blending it into her life.

We all want to make the most of our lives.  Thinking you are too busy to find a better way, or just not being open minded to new opportunities won’t always get you where you want to go.  You don’t want to let any of the moments slip away, lost forever while you were waiting on a train, or for the clock to chime six, or for an opportunity to find you down the road. Don’t kick yourself a year from now for missing out on an opportunity that is in front of you today.

What are you going to do this week that can get you started towards really living the life you want? This isn’t a rhetorical question. Seriously take the time right now and decide what’s the one thing you’ll do this week to get started.

Leave a comment below and declare it publicly. There is power in public declaration.

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