Are you ready to sit down and start designing the kind of life you want? Before we get started, there are three major keys that every one of your goals must have.
They must be:
1) Be Specific & Measurable
The more specific you are, the more focused your mind and efforts will be. Specific and measurable outcomes will lead to effective strategies and actions. If you want your health to improve, you must set specific and measurable targets such as ‘how much weight do I want to lose?’
‘What pulse rate do I want to achieve’ ‘what is my targeted body-fat ratio?’ ‘How many hours must I spend in the gym each week?’ ‘How many calories will I allow myself to take in a day?’ ‘How many miles should I run or how many laps must I swim at each session and how many times a week ?
Under personal development goals, you may want to set goals such as ‘What new languages do I want to learn? And to what standard?’ ‘How many books do I want to read each month, and in what areas?’ You must also be specific about the time frame you are giving to each goal and list a specific date of accomplishment.
2) Passionate and Exciting
Have you ever been so passionate and excited about doing or achieving something that it kept you awake all night? You kept thinking about it every waking moment? Maybe it was your first trip to an exciting new destination. It could also be participating in an important tournament, meeting that special person or planning your 21st, 30th, 40th birthday celebration.
When we are passionate about achieving something vitally important to us, it gives us a level of energy and focus that cannot be matched. It is this level of passion and excitement that we must have for our goal(s), if we ever want to achieve it!
When people ask me, ‘Where do you get the energy and discipline to keep writing books, developing seminars and starting new companies?’, I reply by saying that I get so passionate and excited about my goals, to the extent that they charge me up continuously.
I sleep, breathe and dream my goals every single day until they are achieved! Then I set a new one, at a higher level!
When people seem to lack discipline or will power, it is not that they are lazy, it is simply because their goals are not exciting enough for them. They are not passionate about what they want to achieve!
Tiger Woods loves to play golf. Donald Trump loves the art of the deal, Steven Spielberg loves to make larger-than-life movies and Bill Gates loves technology and the idea of shaping the world. Even if they had all the money in the world (which they do), they would still be as obsessed with their goals.
So, you must set goals that you are passionate about. How? Simply ask yourself this question, ‘Even if I had $10 billion, what would I still want to do and accomplish? What would I be willing to do for free if I had all the money in the world?’
Write down what you are truly passionate about and what comes from your heart rather than just from your mind.
3) Stretch Goals for Quantum Results
Most people I know tend to subscribe to setting for themselves merely incremental goals. Incremental goals are goals that are slightly higher than what you are currently achieving. For example, if you were making $2000 a month in income, an incremental goal would be $2500.
A stretch goal, on the other hand, is when you set for yourself an outcome that is way beyond your current level of ability and skill. If you were making $2000 a month, an example of a stretch goal would be one aiming for $10,000 a month.
I believe that the most powerful goals you can set are stretch goals. This was a key ingredient that allowed me to achieve so much within such a short period of time.
Use these 3 keys and your goals will propel you towards the success you deserve in life!
