|
Goal Setting Article
Five Secrets to
Creating a "Goal" Medal Life - Part I
By Ed Sykes
The
2004 Olympics just ended in August. As always, it was an exciting event with
its dramatic twists and turns, exhilarations, surprises, and disappointments as
these great athletes performed at their peak in front of millions, if not
billions, of fans for the glory of representing their country and possibly
receiving a gold medal.
You,
too, can experience the same excitement in your life. What are you doing
now
to achieve your “goal”
medal? What are you doing to realize your goals
in life?
You
don’t need to be a world class athlete to achieve
success
in life. However, you can use many of the same
success
techniques that these athletes use to accomplish their
goals.
The
following are five
goal setting tips that will help you stand on the winner’s platform in
life:
1.
Create Passion with Goal Setting
Take
time to write down the goals that excite you. Ask yourself the following
questions:
§
How will I feel
when I achieve these goals?
§
What is keeping
me from achieving these goals today?
§
What are the
times and dates I want to achieve these goals?
§
What resources
do I need to accomplish these goals?
§
What is my plan
B, or secondary route, to achieving these goals?
2.
Believe in
Greatness
Once
you have created your goals, take time to visualize your achievements. World
class athletes
visualize the victory before it happens. Take 15-30 minutes
just before you go to bed or wake up in the morning and do the following:
§
Find a quiet
place.
§
Quiet your
mind, slowing down your breathing.
§
Visualize that
you are already achieving whatever goal you want to accomplish. What does it
look like? How does it feel?
World
class athletes
prepare themselves yesterday, today, and tomorrow for success through intense
training and sacrifice. What are you doing to prepare yourself for your
success? Do a self-analysis to find out how prepared you are
today in relationship to your goals and what resources and skills you need to
acquire to achieve your goals. What sacrifices are you willing to make so that
you can achieve your goals? If it is a promotion, find out what skills,
education, and resources are required to obtain that position. If it is a
six-figure income, what sacrifices are you willing to make to realize it? Less
television, more education?
I
always say, “If you want something bad enough, act like you already have it.”
That’s what champions do. They already believe that they will win a
championship, a title, a gold medal. They have a positive, self-expecting
attitude and set the bar for others to try to aspire.
I love
tennis. One of my favorite tennis players is Roger Federer, the #1 ranked
player in the world. When watching him play, I can see he owns the court. In
his quiet, yet confident manner, he says to his opponent, “I am #1, I am the
best!” Then he goes out and wins. With his positive attitude, he expects to
win every time.
How
can you apply this principle? Well, one example is if you are a manager and
want to be promoted to vice president, act like a vice president today. That
means dressing like a vice president, making decisions like a vice president,
leading people like a vice president, etc. Also what it means is delegating
certain tasks so that you can learn the required skills of a vice president
(Read
Delegate to Accelerate Success). Do you expect to succeed at any
project with which you are involved?
3.
Create a
Mastermind Group
There
is a saying, “A wise person learns from his own mistakes, a wiser person learns
from other people’s mistakes.” That is what a mastermind group will do for you.
Winning athletes
have a mastermind group so that they will make fewer mistakes and take less time
achieving their goals. A mastermind group is an assortment of people dedicated
to give you the best advice, feedback, training, etc., so that you can achieve
your goals faster. The mastermind group also gives you
encouragement when needed.
In sports, this might be
a coach, a trainer, a physical trainer, manager, and agent. In your situation
at work, it might be the following:
§
A mentor that
has intensive corporate knowledge and can maneuver you around “corporate
landmines”
§
A human
resources specialist with thorough knowledge of skills needed for a promotion
§
A manager that
wants to showcase your skills to impress their manager
§
If you
are thinking about or have already started a business, it might be the
following:
§
Lawyer(s)
§
Accountant
§
Tax expert
§
Business
associate in non competing field
§
Retired
executive
§
Association
leaders
§
Customers
Note: Be very
careful about whom you allow in your mastermind group. Ask yourself, “Who can
help me achieve my goals through skills, knowledge, and honest feedback?”
Honest feedback is the key. You don’t want “yes” people around you; you want
people that will give you positive feedback that will set you back on course for
success.
4.
Embrace
Challenges
World
class athletes
embrace all challenges as a way for them to move to the next level. They have a
“bring it on” attitude and you can see it in their eyes. They realize that the
spotlight is on them and they relish it. They are bold in their actions and are
not afraid of making mistakes. If they make a mistake or have a defeat, they
“own” them. What I mean by “owning their mistakes” is that they say, “I
made the mistakes today,” or “I didn’t play to my full potential today.”
By taking ownership of their mistakes they take ownership for their actions. By
taking ownership of their actions, they take ownership for improving their
performance. They take time to learn from any setback.
What
challenges are waiting for you at work? How can you improve your community by
taking a leadership role? What challenges await you at home? Face them,
embrace them, learn from them, and grow with them.
5.
Don’t Ever Give Up!
H.
Ross Perot, the billionaire businessperson and pass presidential candidate said
the following:
“Most
people give up just when they’re about to achieve success, they give up at the
last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.”
How
many times have we seen people overcome insurmountable odds to succeed? In
sports, the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons won the NBA championship against the mighty
Los Angeles Lakers. The underdog Villanova University basketball team won the
NCAA College Basketball championship against powerful Georgetown University.
There’s the story of Gaston Gaudio. Many of you may be asking, “Who is Gaston
Gaudio?” Well, he is a 25-year-old tennis player from Argentina who turned pro
in 1996. During that time he had, at best, what would be called mediocre
results. Going into February of this year, he had a losing record on the tour.
Because he wasn’t winning, he barely earned enough money to get to the next
tournament. He asked friends in towns in which he was playing if he could sleep
on their floors.
He had
thoughts of giving up and going back to Argentina but he fought these off and
wouldn’t give up. He believed that better things would happen. He earned a
wildcard to play in one of the four biggest tennis tournaments in the world, the
French Open.
Then a
funny thing happened. He started to win against the best players in the world.
He won his way into the championship match. He was to face one of the hottest
tennis players and fellow Argentinean in Guillermo Coria, the #3 ranked player
in the world. Let’s say Gaston was not expected to win, much less be
competitive.
The
match started as expected with Gaston on the losing end, 0-6 and 3-6. Even the
television commentators suggested that Gaston quit playing, stop embarrassing
himself against Guillermo, and call it quits. But Gaston wouldn’t give
up. Guess what? Gaston started winning games against Guillermo. He wouldn’t
give up. He believed he could win more games…and he did. Then the incredible
happened…he won the French Open.
Gaston, just a month earlier didn’t have enough money to stay in hotels, took
home a $1 million paycheck and the tennis world took notice. He won because he
believed, persevered, and wouldn’t give up.
Do you
believe in yourself, your goals, enough to defeat any obstacle that may get in
the way of your success? Take a hard look at your goals and say, as Gaston did,
“I believe in myself and my goals. They are worthy of my efforts. No matter
what the naysayers say, no matter what obstacles get in the way, I will not give
up!”
Start using your success tools today. Apply these
goal setting and success tips and you too can have a
“goal” medal life!
Suggested reading:
Adversity: Your Seed of
Greatness (Three Secrets to Using
Adversity to Become Great)
Connect the Dots! Your Roadmap for Success
Every Super Hero Needs Theme Music. What’s Yours?
Take Time to Create a Life Balance Sheet for Success
It’s the Most Wonderful
Gift of the Year
Five Ways to Reduce
Environmental Stress (Part Two)
Set Yourself
Stress-Free
Set Yourself Free
Five Ways to Reduce
Environmental Stress (Part One)
Five Secrets to
Creating a "Goal" Medal Life - Part 2
The
Greatest Gift of All - The Gift of Empowerment
10
Action Steps to Motivate Yourself to Great Accomplishments
Ten Techniques for
Motivating Others Through Chaos
Have You Appreciated Someone Today?
Goal Setting Secrets to Jumpstart Your Life
|
