1. Mindset vs. Knowledge
The first thing
that we need to understand about turning dreams into reality is that we will
need two distinct attributes. We need to have both the right Knowledge and
a positive Mindset. Many people forget about Mindset and
consequently are more likely to fail in their attempts to achieve what they
want, when they want.
As you can see
the act of achieving anything is mostly having the right mindset. In fact it is
about ¾ Mindset and ¼ Knowledge.
Having the
right Knowledge is pretty straightforward, it is learning the skills and
strategies required to carry out the tasks you will set for yourself. The Mindset
however is something the many people struggle with.
To have a
champion Mindset means that you are highly Motivated and have the
Determination and Will Power required to make the sacrifices you
will need to make.
2. Finding Your Life Purpose
One of the
biggest Barriers holding most people back is that they do not have a
clearly defined ideal to strive for in their lives. That is that even though
these people may state they want a big house and a Porsche, and even go as far
as setting these items as goals, they do not realize their true purpose in
life.
To work out you
Life Purpose your need to ask yourself some questions. You need to make
a list of what you do and do not want in your life. These can be feelings,
people, ideas or objects, anything you can think of.
Next make a
list of Obstacles that stand in your way of getting these things that
you want in your life.
Then think
about what you want your family, friends and colleagues to say about your life
after you have died. I know that sounds a bit morbid, but thinking about your
life in this light can be very motivational.
Finally, write
up your Life Purpose as a statement of a few sentences. Print this out,
pin it up in a place where you can review it daily.
3. Getting Motivated
One of the
great methods I like to use is dream posters. The basic idea of this is to cut
out pictures from magazines of houses, cars and boats etc. that you want to have
in your life. Then take some time every day to review your poster and Visualize
the life you want for yourself.
Another method
is to print out Inspirational phrases and Quotes and place them
on the walls in your personal workspace.
Take some time
to Meditate, just sit quietly with some music that you like and Visualize
your life the way you want it to be. See yourself on a holiday in the
Bahamas or spending time with your kids in the park, use your imagination.
4. SMART Goals
Before we set
any goals it is important that we have an idea of how to write effective goals.
We want goals that are Well Defined and are easy to motivate ourselves
toward and, ultimately, achieve.
The best
framework that I have come across is the SMART philosophy. That is
our goals must be:
Specific,
Measurable,
Action-oriented,
Realistic, and
Time/Resource constrained.
So, now that we
have a proven framework to base our goals on, we can now start setting some
goals.
5. Defining Objectives
We now need to
think about an Objective that we want to achieve. This is something
which is quite large like owning a house on the waterfront or getting a job as
an Engineer.
We will of
course break this down into Milestones and then into individual Tasks
later to make them more achievable.
However, for
now you need to decide on some area that you want to improve and then write it
out using the SMART philosophy outlined above.
6. Signposting Milestones
Now we can look
at the main Milestones that we need to take in order to achieve our Objective.
Carrying on
with the example of getting a job as an Engineer, there are certain major steps
we need to take in order to realize this goal. For instance, the most obvious Milestone
we need to reach is to complete an Engineering degree.
As you can see,
we are progressively breaking our goals down into smaller, more manageable
pieces.
7. Setting Tasks
Next we need to
break these Milestones down into specific Tasks. These are great
because you can effectively set yourself a Task and then check it off
your list. It is so easy to check your progress.
To use another
example; our Objective this time is to ‘make $1 million from the
stock market in 3 months, from an initial investment of $10 000, by
investing in stock options,’ notice this is a SMART goal.
Then let’s make
our first Milestone to ‘learn how to invest in the stock market,’ we
could then proceed to break this down into smaller Tasks.
We would then
of course write this up on a checklist, in our Daily Planner or on a wall etc.
And check it off when done.
8. Success Credo
You can draw
parallels between your Success Credo and the statement of your Life
Purpose. However, your Credo is more of a statement of your Beliefs and
Promises as to how you will live your life.
It will provide
a basis for your decision making and also serve as yet another motivational
reminder. Feel free to include some affirmations like ‘I am always calm in a
crisis,’ these words will provide some extra motivation.
And if you
state and believe these words often enough, with conviction, your behavior will
change subconsciously to reflect this.
9. Success Questions
It does not do
much good, when you are reviewing your goals every day, to simply say to
yourself “well, I think I’m going OK” and that is the end of it.
You need to
actually look at your progress and ask yourself Questions along the
lines of; ‘How can I be doing this better?’
By asking these
questions, answering them and then implementing the solutions you will truly
start to make same PHENOMENAL progress.
10. Confidence
The final part
of the puzzle all comes down to Confidence. This is the most important
part of effective goal setting. Confidence is closely related to having
the right Mindset, which we discussed in section 1.
It is crucial
to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals or you will never
carry through with any of the promises that you write down on paper.
Extra point to
remember
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