Veronica Lim talks about whether you really need to think about setting and achieving your personall goals in her article ...
Do We Really Have to Set Goals?
© Veronica Lim 2003
The answer is both Yes and No.....and no, that's not a politician's reply!
I suspect that you have heard or read about the power of setting goals, writing them down and how all highly successful people share this trait in common. But if you think about it, you already do this on an everyday basis without even thinking twice. After all, what is your to-do list if not a kind of goals list?
Writing down your goals is about keeping in the forefront of your mind what you want to achieve. It also reminds you when you need/want to achieve that particular item by. Generally speaking, the to-do list is something which is task-based, whilst goals often tend to be more specifically related to a vision or dream.
With to-do's, there is usually little internal resistance to the item on the list. By internal resistance, I mean fear or doubt. The to-do's are usually things which we know we can do and it's just a matter of fitting it in. We list them out as to-do's and we merrily go our way (though there might be misgivings about the number of to-do's!)
Now, those to-do's which may be related to our vision or dream, we may have somewhat more resistance to. We may doubt our own ability or confidence, and those, we tend to procrastinate on. When there is even more resistance, we then call them a goal. You may not even notice that you do this.
For many people, because their internal resistance is so high, the goal doesn't happen. They don't achieve their goal, and eventually, they stop setting goals altogether - because they now think "I never achieve my goals" or "Goal-setting doesn't work".
So how is it that virtually every highly successful person seems to set goals and stick to it, and more than that, achieve it?
Here's what I have discovered - both through my research and my own experience. Highly successful people don't focus and talk about the goals that didn't work! Unless you ask them specifically, they will spend time telling about the ones that they did achieve. Here's the other thing. As you work on your internal resistance, and reduce those, your desire to set goals increases, plus your confidence about achieving them and ultimately doing so increases exponentially. Then setting goals becomes quite natural and, believe or not, something that you want to do, because it helps you to keep focused.
What does this tell you?
Most of us have the cart before the horse. We think that we have to see success in order to be successful. The truth is that we must feel and be successful inside first and then we will be attract success on the outside.
Our society doesn't teach us to work that way around. Have you come across the catch-22 situation where you can't get the job without the experience but you can't get the experience without first getting the job? But if you approached, say, the job interview with such confidence because you felt like you already had all the required experience inside, how much do you think you'd improve your chances of getting the job?
When you feel successful already, you think differently. You don't see failure as failure, you don't feel dejected or rejected in the same way, you persevere because you know you can't fail. You know it's all a matter of time before you get exactly what you want, if not something better. This is crucial. Especially if you want to make your mark as a millionaire too!
Thing is, are you, and how would you know if you are (already) successful?
Get into Millionaire Thinking® today!
Action Points
(1) What is your definition of success? Define it in something other than just financial terms. Clue: One of my definitions is making jelly in the middle of the afternoon on a week-day when everyone else is at work...!
(2) Now, visualise that picture that you have created based on your definition of success. What do you see? What do you hear? What can you feel, touch, smell and taste in your mind's eye?
(3) Describe that feeling as best you can. Is it freedom? Joy? Contentment? Excitement? Capture that feeling. This is the essence of your very own definition of success.
(4) How can you feel more of this essence every day? What are the simple pleasures that can bring you this feeling more and more each day?
Veronica Lim
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