Why is it that the second hand on your watch seems to go around the face quite slowly yet the days flash past, weeks whizz by, the months slip easily one into another and the years well just do not seem to exist, or am I starting to get old.

It is the time of the year when we should look back and take stock of where we were in January ’08; where we are now, how many of the goals we set out to achieve have been reached or are well in progress and how many have fallen by the wayside.

No matter how many fell by the wayside never think that you have failed, you may have a lack of results but the very fact that you set out to achieve something this year placed you head and shoulders above 95% of the population.

So many individuals live by the seat of their pants every day, reacting to situations and blaming the government, their bosses, friends, family and neighbours for their situation. Instead of taking a hard look into the mirror on the wall and asking when was the last time they took full responsibility for everything that happens in their lives.

I have been privileged over the years to run a number of training courses helping individuals to discover what they would like to achieve and giving them stepping stones to help them.

I do not care if you wanted to achieve a major event or what may have appeared a minor event in your life the important thing is to decide that you want to achieve something in the year ahead.

Here is a little phrase to study and learn from:-

In order to HAVE you must DO, in order to DO you must BE – BE; DO; HAVE is the order of achievement. So many people get that the wrong way around and wonder why they have a lack of results. They want to have before anything else hence the ‘have now pay later mentality’.

• What is meant by BE in the above statement?

  When setting a goal unless you see in your minds eye a picture of your life as if the goal was already achieved and how it has effected you and the people around you, you will never achieve the goal. It is called creating your future history. Best example is that of Mohammed Ali the greatest boxer in the modern era, he used to say “I am the greatest”, not “I want to be the greatest”. He was castigated at first for adopting this stance but he SAW himself the champion of the world when he stepped into a boxing ring for the first time. His utter belief drove him on.

• If you get the BE correct the DO becomes easier. Begin with the end in mind as long as you do that the DO (How) sets itself out. Look if I want to drive to a strange part of the country without the aid of Sat/Nav (that’s cheating). I get my road map out, look up where I want to go; when I find it I look around the page to see if I recognise anything, another town or Road, etc. I then trace a route back to my starting point. That way I know where I want to end up, the route I took to get there and where I am at this moment. You cannot do it the other way around. You cannot set off unless you KNOW where you want to go.
• When the BE and the DO are in place you have the HAVE, it is automatic. If you set your goals correctly using a technique I developed in my book “The First Step” you are guaranteed to achieve them.

You will not have the same situation you have now, a feeling of ‘Could do better’, just like my old school reports!

To set you on your way here are a few questions you should ask yourself in your annual appraisal:-
1.What were your top ten achievements for 2008?
2. Did you celebrate any of your achievements?
3. If you did celebrate, how did you celebrate and who did you celebrate with?
4. If you didn’t celebrate, what got in the way?
5. Come up with a solution for each obstacle you identified.
6. Brainstorm a list of ways you can celebrate and reward yourself for your achievements. Make sure at least a quarter of the items on your list are low-cost or no-cost options.
7. As a result of these questions, what are you committing to? What date do you commit to follow through with your commitments?
8. What would, no WILL, you achieve in 2009?

Tags: achievement, career goals, Goal, goal setting, goal setting book, goal setting for success, goal setting theory, personal development, self development, smart goal setting, success

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.