Realgoalgetter.com » 2008

Where Has The First Quarter of 2008 Gone?

Hi WINNERS!!!

I just wanted to take time out first and wish everybody a Happy Easter. This holiday means different things for different people, but almost everybody could use a long weekend no matter what their beliefs are. LOL!

Yesterday we talked about questions and how better questions result in better answers, and in better strategies.

I’ll be asking myself some hard questions this next week as the 1st quarter is just about over and as of April 1st, the second is ready to go. I always do my planning regularly.

Life is a vapor isn’t it. Time flies when you are having fun.

Let’s all plan to make the second quarter even better than the 1st one and believe me, at least in my case this quarter was awesome! I hope that it was for you too.

As I read these articles, I try to absorb the meaning behind the words, I mean, I try to really get what the author is passionately writing about. After all these articles were written with us, the readers in mind.

When you study the content of articles, do you ask questions of yourself?

Do you ask yourself how you can assimulate the information and how you can start to make a significant difference in your life, or make even more of a difference than you already are?

How can you get yourself to consistently take the MASSIVE Action necessary to propel yourself towards what you really must have in your life?

If you are already making great progress, then, ask yourself how you can accelerate it at the same level of effort? I mean how can you get more done without putting more time into it?

Questions bring about the answers to our challenges.

The better quality question we ask ourself, the better quality answer we will come up with! Ask great questions and see the difference!

Questions will help us make the necessary distinctions that could exponentially explode our momentum towards our goals.

I just wanted to add this bit since it follows with yesterday’s post.

Have a great weekend and as always go for it! See you next week . . .

Are You Asking Yourself The Right Questions?

By Al Smith | No Comments

The topic of this article tonight is really about asking ourselves the right questions in order to find accurate information to proceed in the direction of our goals.

Let’s make sure that we are proceeding with goals that are in alignment with our highest values, and that the goals we choose are taking us in the right direction for our most fulfilling life. Good questions do that.

“Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.”
– Elbert Hubbard

Stephen Covey questions traditional personal time management and brings home a very important point by asking ourselves not only “Am I doing things right?, but more importantly, “Am I doing the right things?”

Asking the right questions will increase the chances of finding the right answers. There are some good questions in this article by Paul Keetch.

Are You Ready To Coach Yourself To Success?

Many people claim to want more happiness, more money and more success in their lives. But most aren’t willing to take the steps necessary to go out and create the life they want.

Others feel confused by the multitude of options available and aren’t sure which direction to turn. Still others have been conditioned to do what other people tell them for so long that they are just now starting to understand that they have the power to choose their life – and for these people, the truth can be a scary thing!

So here are 20 powerful questions you can ask yourself, starting right now, to begin clarifying your life in a way that is meaningful for you.

As you go through this list, some of the questions won’t seem to mean very much to you right now, while others will literally jump off the page (or screen) at you. That’s okay! In fact, that’s exactly what should happen.

Pay close attention to which questions do the jumping and consider carefully why you think they might seem more appealing to you. It could be that they are the questions you most need to answer right now and, if so, you’ve made a great start.

The alternative is that these questions are jumping out at you in order to prevent you from seeing the truly important questions. If this is the case, your ego is simply trying to protect itself. It sees that you are about to embark on a voyage of change and it wants to keep you exactly where you in – in your comfort zone.

1. If you could wave a magic wand and do ANYTHING you wanted, what would you choose?
2. What one thing in your life would you NOT change under any circumstance?
3. What feeling would dominate your life if all your dreams and goals were already realized?
4. Are you searching for more money, more happiness or both?
5. Can you identify ONE thing that you’re currently doing that doesn’t serve or support you?
6. What do you want MORE of in your life?
7. What do you want LESS of in your life?
8. What do you need to learn in order to begin the process of realizing your dreams?
9. What action could you take THIS WEEK to move you one step closer to your goal?
10. On a scale of 1 to 10 rate how important your dreams are to you right now.
11. On a scale of 1 to 10 rate how excited you are about achieving your life’s greatest dream.
12. What price will you have to pay if you don’t take action to realize your dreams?
13. If your spouse, significant other or important friend came to you with your problem, what advice would you give them?
14. What is your favourite way of sabotaging your own success?
15. What are you doing really well in your life?
16. What are you doing that you really love in your life?
17. What are you most grateful for in your life right now?
18. Name three of your greatest strengths, talents or natural attributes.
19. If you have a hero or other mentor, what do you think they would do in your situation?
20. If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?

Print these questions off and look at them regularly. Write your answers on a piece of paper or type them out on your computer in order to make the answers real for you.

Then post them up around your house where you will see them on a daily basis – on your bathroom mirror, the refrigerator or in your bedroom. That way you will remind yourself several times throughout the day where you intend to take your life.

Envision your success as though it has already been accomplished. Do this and watch your life begin to soar!

To your success.

By Paul Keetch

Paul Keetch is a writer, philosopher and success cartographer, living in West Vancouver, Canada. He strives daily to find joy and happiness in all he encounters and has dedicated himself to helping others uncover their hidden genius and live a life of true happiness and success. Visit Paul online at http://www.PaulKeetch.com

Concentrate Your Powers, Manage Your Resources, Get Your Goals

By Al Smith | 2 Comments

In goal setting, focusing on one major area is the most powerful and effective strategy to concentrate your energy, manage your resources and therefore reduce the time it takes to reach your goal.

Too many times we are distracted from our main goal and purpose by all of the different things out there that we want, or think we want. Instead of making choices, we seem to want it all, everything we come across. Too many conflicting desires is a recipe for disaster.

With every goal which does not align with our main definite goal or purpose , our percentage chance to achieve it goes down. With dilution, our focus and concentration lose strength, and we lose momentum with each direction change.

Another potential downside to having too many goals and not attaining them, is the potential negative hit to our self image. This could be disempowering in the long term if not put into it’s proper perspective.

So what do we do? Hold our desires in check? Forget about all those other things we want?

No way! Never isolate yourself from your desires. Bond with them, make them important, and “do or die” – “what ever it takes”. You can happily move towards their achievement. Timing and Strategy may change but the goal is in the bank.

First thing to do right now is DECIDE that wanting more is OK. This is a very human thing and it drives progress. It is wanting many conflicting things where we start to get ourselves into trouble.

Napoleon Hill stated that ‘The Master Key To Riches’ was the development of a burning desire for the achievement of a major definite purpose. (loosely quoted, but this is true)’

Riches’ do not just include money or things, but everything that enriches our lives, and this is different for everyone.

Now to take ‘Nappy’ literally, one would have to have a single focus that they would develop into a Magnificent Obsession, again nothing negative about this.

If you want several different things all at once, and if you do not have a plan for their attainment, then, it is likely that it will split your focus in too many directions, and you will achieve none of them.

However . . . if you connect them up by going after a single massive undertaking which when achieved gets you all of the above, then your focus would be laser sharp and your concentration would be unbroken. And you would have all of the objects of your desire! This is truly where we maximize our powers.

Now, if you do not have a Single Massive All Encompassing Focus, then, a substitute plan might be to list all that you want on paper. Then, start arranging them in order of importance to you. Most important on top, least important on bottom.

Decide what is most important to you. If that is difficult, then start eliminating those goals you can do without. (eliminate them just like those reality shows do) You will be left by default with the most important goal to go after. As for the others, Go after them one at a time.

Either way you must come out with a single focus so that you can plan a strategy to attain it. Your power will be centered and your momentum will build towards achieving what you want without distraction.

Take it for what it’s worth . . .

See you next time. As always, Go For It!

Does Your Procrastination Have A Deeper Meaning?

By Al Smith | No Comments

The Root Cause for Procrastination

Why is it that we as human beings often behave in ways that we don’t really want to? How often have you said or done something only to cringe at the thought of it afterwards? The truth is that your behaviour is mostly driven by your unconscious mind, especially behaviours that is hard to explain from an intellectual point of view.

Procrastination is knowing what to do, having the ability and desire to do it, but still you don’t do it. Although there are many apparent causes for procrastination, the root cause for this illogical behaviour resides in your unconscious mind.

Your conscious mind is very limited in its ability to deal with life. That over which you have conscious control is mostly limited to one thing at a time. This is why using your willpower to create any real change rarely works long term. What you need to do is to change your automatic behaviour which resides in your unconscious mind, that part of you that controls all the vital function of your mind and body.

You can try and overcome procrastination by using willpower but it will usually be a short term change. The cause for procrastination is not your conscious actions, but your unconscious associations that is to a large extent responsible for your behaviour.

Your nervous system is designed to preserve you and when fear presents itself your nervous system, through the working of your sub-conscious, will “kick in” to “protect you. The ironic thing is that we train ourselves, unconsciously, to fear certain things by making false associations about the meaning.

Nothing in life has any meaning but the meaning you give it. You literally create neurological links to experiences that gets “stored” in your nervous system so that you can act quickly and accordingly next time. Whenever something happens to you, you assign a meaning to it by the way you communicate the experience to yourself.

Unconsciously you are always trying to establish meaning and at a very basic level you are trying to establish whether something means pain or pleasure. This meaning then gets stored in your unconscious mind that will help you act (or re-act) appropriately in the future.

The challenge is that when associations are reinforced you build up beliefs that will greatly influence your behaviour and is often the cause for procrastination.

Although procrastination makes no sense intellectually it actually reveals a lot about your unconscious and your self imposed limitations and (in)abilities. The major cause for procrastination is fear, and more specifically your fear that taking action will lead to pain or a painful experience of some kind.

At some level your unconscious mind combines and searches it’s “files” to come up with a “link” that associates the action to a painful experience. This can range from something which is mildly uncomfortable to something physically painful. Although you consciously want to do something your unconscious will prevent you as it associates pain to the action.

As human beings we automatically reach for comfort and will almost automatically reach for whatever feels comfortable in the moment. This is why you often procrastinate on tasks that do not feel good in the moment although it will mean much more pleasure in the future.

Learning to push against this need for comfort is what creates all the growth that is necessary for you to really produce results. When you start to see procrastination as a blessing in disguise; you can start to use it and embrace the behavioural insights it holds for you.

Procrastination reveals your fears and, quite by design, gives you the necessary resistance needed to expand and grow in your capacity to push past your fears and create the things you really want for your life. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of “discomfort” you can comfortably deal with.

Procrastination can also shed some light on the goals that you value most, as your concern over procrastinating on it shows that some part of you care enough to be concerned.

It’s been said that first we form our habits and then our habits form us. This is also true for habits of mind and procrastination often manifests itself as a habitual pattern of thinking. Your thoughts lead to and help create your actions. Like the engraved pattern on a record your behaviour will “play the same tune” every time.

Your associations to pain and pleasure play an important part in your habitual behaviour in that it determines what you will or will not do. By repetition you form habitual patterns of thinking that will cause you to automatically act or retract in certain ways when your habit pattern gets triggered.

Being aware of your associations to pain and pleasure is critical in dealing with the root cause of procrastination. There are many symptomatic solutions that will not create a lasting result. Although you have to use your willpower initially, your aim is to re-establish your associations to the tasks you are avoiding.

You can be, do or have whatsoever your heart desires providing that you can overcome your self imposed fears and take action. Although the real cause for procrastination resides in your unconscious mind, you are ultimately in control with your conscious actions.

By Deon Du PlessisThis article is published with the permission of the author, Deon Du Plessis. He is the founder of The Self Improvement Gym, and author of (in)action, a groundbreaking new action guide on eliminating procrastination.

When Life Hands You Lemons Accept Them!

By Al Smith | 1 Comment

Do you even have to have bigger goals? Sometimes you just can’t seem to get to them.

So fate gave you a raw deal. You were shortchanged. You deserve something better.

Life’s so unfair!

Well, let’s say that you’re absolutely right! You really deserve something better than what you have now. You deserve to get your bigger goals.

But before you go and jump off the nearest bridge, slow down and think about it. Remove your emotions from the facts first.

Let’s say you’ve gained some weight and however much you diet, you can never get that last ten pounds off.

And when you can’t huff and puff all that overstaying fat away, you start blaming your trainer, your career, your parents (for making you drink vitamins when you were a kid), even your DNA for having fat cells!

Everyone and everything seems to be against your pulling it off.

Or let’s say that you’re stuck in a career that has become so stale that you feel moss creeping up your desk drawer. On top of that, you feel like you do all the work but the boss gets all the credit plus the top salary!

Oh my! That is so unfair.

You have become miserable and you whine at fate for all of the wrong it has given you. You feel helpless and can’t do anything about it anymore.

So what can you do about it?

More often than not, you’ll find that it’s really not as bad as you think. All you have to do is look at it from another perspective, a calmer, more positive perspective.

As crazy as this might sound, why not accept it? Accept that you‘re plump, accept that you’re in career limbo, accept the fact that others are better than you in your field and accept that you can’t have everything you want.

Accept that you are human. Accept it and do one more thing – be practical about it. And be happy with it.

I’m not saying quit on your goals, but you might want to evaluate them to see if they still make sense to you or whether you are just doing it because someone else thinks you should.

Check to see that you are going after the right goals for you.

Change the way you view the problem and you’ll find it in your heart to even be thankful for it. You have food to eat that’s why you gained weight, be thankful – half the world’s population barely eat.

You have a job you’re bored to death with, be thankful – you have a steady income while others are out looking for jobs. See the pattern?

You can choose to alter what you’re facing now and have a positive spin.

Acceptance frees you from unrealistic expectations. You don’t really have to drop those last ten pounds do you? You don’t particularly have to advance at work do you?

When you accept and you are set free, you’ll find that new ideas can refresh your outlook – choose a new style to complement your full size instead of hiding or get a hobby to get your mind off your work sometimes.

Take control and stop whining, it’s counterproductive!

Do something about it or just accept it and be happy that you’re alive. Work harder – or just step back and re-evaluate.

It’s your life. Do whatever you do for yourself, and not just because someone else thinks you should.

One door closes, another opens.

So life’s unfair? Yes it can seem like it. We can deal with it and come out a better person.

So life seems unfair, What Are You Going To Do About It?

See you next post . . .

Q.U.I.E.T. Method Of Personal Growth And Development

By Al Smith | 2 Comments

Neat Post over at Today Is That Day Blog today.

Do you know what the Q.U.I.E.T. method is? Check out Aaron’s blog post and find out.

5 Not So Q.U.I.E.T. Methods of Personal Growth and Development

Here’s a teaser. We will start with a little bit from “Q.”, but you will definitely enjoy his entire article . . .

Quit

No, I don’t mean quit trying, I mean quit whatever circumstances have consistently been holding you back; and yes, that could certainly mean your job, your relationships, or even your friendships.

People are so afraid that they won’t be able to succeed in the various areas of their lives that they cling to lame or generic circumstances like a life raft, but then wonder why their lives aren’t getting any better.

If you want something better, then go GET something better. Do it like you mean it, too, and don’t be a pansy about it. If you’ve got what it takes on the inside (and you do), then you will excel no matter where you go, or what you do.

Stop clinging to the parts of your life that you don’t like. Cut the cord, free yourself, and go create the life you want to live by quitting the circumstances that are not to your liking.

—————————–

See you next time.

Visualization – The Key To High Achievement

By Al Smith | No Comments

The saying that “you can do whatever you can put your mind to,” is true.

If you have read the success stories of countless men and women’s rise to the top, you would note that there is a lot of dreaming involved. Some took dreaming to a higher level.

When Eva Longoria did not win the title crown in her first attempt at a beauty pageant, she set her mind to winning it the next year by working her hardest to immerse herself in being the Miss Corpus Christi.

She lived and breathed getting the crown by watching videos over and over and immersing herself and basically focusing on being the queen that she knew she had to be.

She had what we all need to have to reach our own crowns: tenacity, focus, and the will to visualize. She had to, she had big dreams. And she still has.

Visualizing your way to success needs commitment and focus.

You have to want your goal so bad that you are willing to do everything it takes to get there. You have to live and breathe your goal.

If this doesn’t excite you, you may have the wrong goals . . .

So first, get very clear and specific about your goal. Believe in it, commit to seeing it through to the moment you attain it and beyond.

There are plenty of stories of overweight people who would post pictures on their refrigerator of the people they would want to look like, and then worked their tails to make it happen.

Surround yourself with pictures of what you want to be, or what you want to attain; that way you can see your goal with crystal clarity.

Next, wake up every morning with your goal in mind. Spend some time right as you wake to enjoy the feeling you get from mastering your goals.

You may get distracted during the day but allow yourself to come back to your goals frequently.

Do not allow yourself to believe that your dreams are too far to reach. Believe instead that you are living your dreams right now. We can choose how to think. We can choose what to believe.

Just keep yourself focused on the goal, and nothing else. If you do stray, realize that you are human, and go back to focusing on your goal.

This is what you said you wanted, this is what you said was important to you. Invest some time and concentration into this.

Arm yourself with knowledge. Research your plan. If there is one thing that frustrates people and causes drifting, it will be the lack of knowledge during the chase.

Research. Do your preparation ahead of time. Opportunity is where chance and the prepared mind will meet. Put luck on your side.

Learn everything there is to learn about your goal. Use this knowledge as a base to progress on your path, and learn more as you go.

Once you have lined up your options in attaining a specific goal, choose the best path for you and stay the course.

You will run into roadblocks. This is just part of life. If something happens that you get frustrated with your chosen path, then strike out on your other options. This is time for Plan “B”.

Determine that you will keep at it until you see a path opening up, and you can see yourself progressing towards your goal.

Visualize yourself succeeding and celebrating!

Keep on dreaming all the while taking these concrete steps towards your goals. Seize every opportunity that presents itself, that leads to your goals.

Remember that you only fail if you succumb to the temptation to quit.

No mountain is too steep to climb. No journey is too difficult to finish.

We just have to put one foot in front of the other. Take one step at a time.

Surely then, no goal will be impossible when we can see through to it’s completion.

Just live and breathe your goals. Actively pursue your dream. And visualize success.

That is where the real joy is anyway. See you later . . .

Defeat Procrastination Before It Strikes!

By Al Smith | 2 Comments

The Best Way To Overcome Procrastination is to Develop Your Vision For Your Life

Taking into account all factors, this is the single best way I know of to keep you on the move and increasing momentum towards your goals.

Have you discovered your purpose in life? Do you have long-term goals? If not, why not?

Finding and focusing on your long-term goals is the most powerful cure for procrastination. It is both proactive and tremendously effective.

A vision is simply a statement of what you want to achieve in life, and how you plan to achieve it. Plan your life, just as you would plan your career, or your wedding, or your vacation.

Allow for flexibility, but spend some time and detail out how you want your life to be. Without a vision, it’s easy to fall into a lifestyle of procrastination.

And without a clear statement of your vision, you’re more likely to give up on projects in the face of difficulties.

If you haven’t written your vision, you need to make this your No. 1 priority.

Your goals and your attention will shift from one project to the next, year after year, if you don’t have a vision to guide you.

1. Make a written list of your lifetime goals. Wishing alone won’t make it happen – writing down a goal is the first action you can take to conquer procrastination.

One research study discovered that people who write down their goals earn ten times more than people who don’t. You may think you have a goal, but if you haven’t written it down, research suggests your chances of accomplishing it are small.

2. Break down your long-term goals into measurable tasks. This is the only way you can stay focused enough to keep moving toward your long-term goals.

Without a series of clearly-defined milestones to measure your progress, you can delude yourself into thinking that you’re moving toward a goal when in fact you haven’t taken the first step yet.

Do you constantly miss deadlines? Do you make up reasons to justify why you didn’t finish an important task, rather than tackling it and getting it done?

Are you sincere enough to recognize the real reason why you missed your deadline? Do you have a written plan of attack for finishing the job without further delay?

3. Perfectionism is one of the main causes of procrastination. Recognize the difference between striving for excellence and getting stuck in a vicious circle of perfectionism. Ask yourself what type of work demands perfectionism.

If the job you’re doing is not the type that requires perfectionism, then remember that your goal must be excellence rather than perfection.

4. Always keep a journal or idea book with you. Use spare time to jot down ideas about how you plan to attack your next goal. When you’re working on one project, what do you do when you get random ideas about other things? Do you write them down?

Writing is a great way to use spare time and unleash your creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Create more detail and a better life plan as you go, but you must have a foundational vision to start and work with.

Don’t worry about spelling or grammar-just get your thoughts down as quickly as you can. If you need to show what you’ve written to someone else, you can revise it later.

Remind yourself that every task you face today is part of a divine plan for your life and is worthy of your best effort.

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will,” Shakespeare wrote.

You were created to accomplish more than you think you can. Do some “rough hewing” on your life’s goals today.

Invest time in yourself and your future today . . .

First, See your life as it is.

Second, See your future the way you want it to be.

Third, go make it the way you now see it!

Another blog post I created on Procrastination here.

You can do it. See you next time.

Goals: The Short 'How To' In A Nutshell

By Al Smith | No Comments

Quick Tips On Achieving Your Goals

Want to achieve your goals faster?

Edward W. Smith, motivational speaker, author and TV show host, who specializes in quick tips on how to move your life ahead even faster, offers the following advice.

First, take your top priority goal, and write out the goal to help etch it into your mind, then plant reminders of the goal in places you will see during the day.

Next, set up a way to measure if you are making progress towards the goal and develop a way to get feedback on if your are making progress.

Then, continually repeat the goal to yourself, visualize or daydream yourself achieving your goal, and go on record to others that you are going to achieve your goal.

Use the power of positive expectations to pull you towards your goal by only viewing the goal as something that you can’t fail to accomplish.

With every action you take throughout the day, ask yourself if you are moving yourself towards your goal, or moving away from your goal.

Next, use your feedback system to see what is working and what is not and make the necessary corrections as you move towards your goal.

Finally, keep repeating these steps and your goal will change to an accomplishment.

Edward W. Smith is the author of Sixty Seconds to Success, hosts and produces the Bright Moment TV show, is a motivational speaker and is president of the Bright Moment seminars.

Contact Information:
Edward W. Smith
PO box 8106
Englewood NJ 07631-8106
201-568-0019
edsmith@brightmoment.com
http://www.brightmoment.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Goals: The Short ‘How To’ In A Nutshell