Use Goals to Help You Grow

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

Our inventions, big and little, our medical discoveries, our engineering triumphs, our business success – were first visualized before they became realities. A goal is an objective, a purpose. A goal is more than a dream; it’s a dream being acted upon. A goal is more than a hazy ”Oh I wish I would”, A goal is clear “This is what I’m working toward”. Nothing happens; no forward steps are taken until a goal is established. Without goals’ individuals just wander through life. They stumble along, never knowing where they are going, so they never gat anywhere. Goals are essential to success as air is to life. No one ever stumbles into success without a goal. Get a clear fix on where you want to go. The important thing is not where you were or where you are but where you want to get. Without goal we cannot grow. No goal is like going to an airline ticket counter and saying “Give me a ticket”, the people selling the tickets just can’t help you unless you give them a destination. And the most important lesson in career planning, before you start out, knows where you want to go.

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now”

Two steps that will help you to forward planning:

1. Visualize your future in terms of three departments: work, home and social. Dividing our life this way keeps you from becoming confused, prevent conflicts, and helps you look at the whole picture.

2.Demand of yourself clear, precise answers to this questions: What do I want to accomplish with my life? What do I want to be? And What does it take to satisfy me?

Planning guide below help us an image of me, 10 years from now:

A.Work Department: 10 years from now.

1. What income level do I want to attain?

2. What level of responsibilities do I seek?

3. How much authority do I expect to gain from my work?

B.Home Department: 10 years from now.

1. What kind of standard of living do I want to provide for my family and myself?

2. What kind of house do I want to live in?

3. What kind of vacations do I want to take?

4. What financial support do I want to give my children in their early adult years?

C.Social Department: 10 years from now.

1. What kind of friends do I want to have?

2. What social groups do I want to join?

3. What community leadership positions would I like to hold?

What worthwhile causes do I want to champion?

Success requires heart-and-soul effort, and you can put your heart and soul only into something you really desire. Switching from what you don’t like to do to what you do like to do is like putting a five-hundred horsepower motor in a ten-year-old-car.

People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future.

Five weapons are used to commit success suicide. Destroy them, they’re dangerous:

1. Self-depreciation. Example: I would like to be a doctor (or executive, etc.) but I can’t do it, I lack brain, education, etc.

2. Security-it is. Person who say “I’ve got security where I am” use security weapon to murder their dream.

3. Competition. The filed is already overcrowded.

4. Parental dictation. But my parent wants me to do this so I must.

5. Family responsibility. It would have been wise for me to change over five years ago, but now I’ve got a family and I can’t change.

The only way to get full power, to develop full go force, is to do what you want to do. Surrender to desire and gain energy, enthusiasm, mental zip and even better health. And it’s never too late to let desire take over. Successful people have their eyes focused on a goal, and this provides energy. The point is this – energy increases, multiplies, when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal.

When you surrender to your goal, the goal works itself into your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is always in balance. Your conscious mind is not, unless it is tune with what your subconscious mind is thinking. Without full cooperation from the subconscious mind, a person is hesitant, confused, indecisive. Now, with your goal absorbed into your subconscious mind you react the right way automatically. Example: Our goal through our subconscious mind signal us saying “do this” or “don’t do that it won’t help get you where you want to go.” The goal constantly speaks. “I am the image you want to make real.” Here is what you must do to make me real.” Use goals to live longer. No medicine in the world and your physician will bear this out – is a powerful in bringing about long life as is the desire to do something.

The person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. A house is built a brick at a time. Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishment. Commit this question to memory and use it to evaluate everything you do: “Will this help take me where I want to go?” If the answer is no, back off, if yes, press ahead. Examine yourself. Decide what specific things you should do o make yourself more effective.

Lots of conscious effort, invested day by day, made the person what he is. Building new positive habits and destroying old negative habits is a day by day process.

It’s true that many factors outside your control do affect your destination (maybe serious illness, death in your family, you may meet with an accident). So here is a point we must fix firmly in mind: prepare to take detours in stride. If you are driving down a road and you come to a “road closed” situation, you wouldn’t camp there, nor would you go back home. The road closed simply means you can’t go where you want to go on this road. You’d simply find another road to take you where you want to go. (Ex. Military leaders do, when they develop a master plan to take an objective, they have a plan A that if doesn’t’ work, switch in to plan B). When we detour we don’t have to change our goals. We just travel a different route.

The biggest and most rewarding kind of investment is self-investment, purchasing things that build mental power and proficiency. Profit comes from only one source: investment. To profit, to get the extra reward above a “normal” income in the year ahead, we must invest in ourselves. We must invest to achieve our goals.

Two sound self-investments that will pay handsome profits in the year ahead:

1. Invest in education. True education is the soundest investment you can make in yourself. Let’s be sure we understand what education really is. Some measure education by the number of years spent in school, or number of diplomas, certificates and degrees earned but these doesn’t necessarily produce a successful person. (Ex. General Electric with 12 out of 41 executives has no collage degrees and two of the most outstanding presidents never had an opportunity to attend collage. They (the business) are more interested in competency not diplomas). A diploma or degree may help you get a job, but it will not guarantee your progress on the job. Real education, the kind worth investing in, is that which develops and cultivates your mind. How well educated a person is, is measured by how well his mind is developed – in brief, by how well he thinks. Anything that improves thinking ability is education.

2. Invest in idea starters. Education help you mould your mind, stretch it, train it to meet new situations and solve problems. Idea starters serve a related purpose. They feed your mind; give you constructive material to think about. Resolve to purchase at least one stimulating book each moth and subscribe to magazine or journals that stress ideas. But it costs too much. Obviously a much more successful minded person replied. “Well, I’ve found that I can’t afford not to take it” Again, take your cue from the successful people. Invest in yourself

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Manage Your Personal Environment

“Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” Earl Nightingale

Mind food is your environment – all the countless things that influence your conscious and subconscious thought. The kind of mind food we consume determines our habits, attitudes, personality. As the saying goes, you are the product of your environment.

Recondition yourself for Success.

Most people you know can be classified into three groups:

First group: Those who surrendered completely – the majority of people are convinced deep down inside that they haven’t got what it takes, that real success, real accomplishment, is for others who are lucky or fortunate in some special respect. You can easily spot these people.

Second group: Those who surrendered partially - this group enter adult life with considerable hope for success. These people prepared themselves, they work, they plan, but, after a decade or so, resistance begins to build up, competition for top-level jobs looks rugged. This group then decides that greater success is not worth the effort. They rationalize, “We’re earning more than the average and we live better than the average. This group developed a set of fears: fear of failure, fear of social disapproval, fear of insecurity, fear of losing what they already have. This group includes many talented, intelligent people afraid to stand-up and run.

Third group: Those who never surrender. Maybe 2 or 3% of the total. Doesn’t let pessimism dictates, doesn’t believe in surrendering to suppressive forces, these people is the happiest because it accomplishes the most. Let’s be honest, all of us would like to be in the third group.

Supposed you tell several of your average friends with the greatest sincerity: “Someday I’m going to be vice president of this company. What will happen? Your friends will probably think you are joking. And if they should believe you mean it, chances are they will say “You poor guy, you sure have a lot to learn”.

Now, assume you repeat the same to the president of the company. How will he react? One thing is certain, he will not laugh. He will look at you intently and ask himself, “Does this fellow really mean this?” Because big men do not laugh at big ideas. Or suppose you tell some average people you plan to own an expensive home, and they may laugh at you because they think it’s impossible. But tell your plan to a person already living in an expensive home, and he won’t be surprised. He knows it isn’t impossible, because he’s already done it. Remember this: “People, who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment”. “Accept negative advice only as a challenge to prove that you can do it.” “Birds of a feather do flock together, so be sure you’re in the flock that thinks right.”

Make it a rule to seek advice from people who know.

Do’s to help your social environment first class:

• Do circulate in new groups.
• Do select friends who have views different from your own.
• Do select friends who stand above petty, unimportant things. Friends who really do want to see you succeed. Find friends who breathe encouragement into your plans and ideas.

You can test your proneness to be a gossiper by taking this test:

• Do I spread rumors about other people?
• Do I always have good things to say about others?
• Do I like to hear reports of a scandal?
• Do I encourage others to bring their rumours to me?
• Do I judge others only on the basic of facts?
• Do I precede my conversations with ‘Don’t tell anybody?
• Do I keep confidential information confidential?
• Do I feel guilty about what I say concerning other people?

Using verbal axes and grenades on another person doesn’t do one thing to make you a better or me a better me.

How to Turn Defeat into Victory

“Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can!! and I will!!”

Each person in the elite corps of successful men has encountered opposition, discouragement, setbacks, personal misfortune. Learn the background of the president of your company or the mayor of your city. Or select any person you consider a real success. When you probe, you’ll discover the individual has overcome big, real obstacles.

“If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.”

It’s impossible to win high level success without meeting opposition, hardship, and setback. But it is possible to use setbacks to propel you forward. Salvage something from every setback. We can turn setbacks into victories. Find the lesson, apply it, and then look back on defeat and smile. Next time things seem to go wrong on the job or at home, calm down and find out what caused the trouble. This is the way to avoid making the same error twice.

We human being are quick to accept full credit for our victories. When we win, we want the world to know about it. But human beings are equally quick to blame someone else for each setback.

Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build the personal strength and efficiency needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from proving that someone else is wrong. Don’t run away from inadequacies. Be like the real professionals, they seek out their faults and weaknesses, and then correct them. That’s what makes them professionals. Stop blaming luck. Blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go.

Persisting in one way is not a guarantee of victory, but persistence blended with experimentation does guarantee success. (Ex. Thomas Edison’s more than 1000’s of light bulb experimentation). Many ambitious people go through life with admirable persistence and show of ambition, but they fail to succeed because they don’t experiments with new approaches. Stay with your goal, but don’t beat your head against a wall. If you aren’t getting results, try a new approach.

“We find that people's beliefs about their efficacy affect the sorts of choices they make in very significant ways. In particular, it affects their levels of motivation and perseverance in the face of obstacles. Most success requires persistent effort, so low self-efficacy becomes a self-limiting process. In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, strung together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.”

Two suggestions for developing greater power to experiment, the ingredient, that when blended with persistence, get results:

1. Tell yourself, “There is a way”. As soon as you tell yourself, “I’m beaten” there’s no way to conquer this problem, but instead believe, “there is a way to solve this problem.” And positive thought rush into your mind to help you find a solution. It’s believing there is a way that is important. Psychologists say, an alcoholic is doomed to alcoholism until he believes he can beat his thirst. A problem, a difficulty, becomes unsolvable only when you think it is unsolvable. Attract solution by believing solutions are possible.

2. Back off and start afresh. Often we stay so close to a problem for so long that we can’t see new solutions or new approaches. When I live with tough design problems for a long stretch, I’ve got to get away and let some new ideas soak in. See the good side and conquer defeat. All things do work together for good if you’ll just develop clear vision. Remember, there is a good side in every situations, find it, see the good side and whip discouragement.

Think Right Toward People

Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others. (Example: Salesman depends on people to buy his product, Executive depend on people to carryout his instruction, if they don’t, the company president or owner fire the executive, not the employees. Collage dean depends on professors to carry forward the educational program. Politician depends on voters to elect him.)

Ten simple but tremendously powerful “like people” rules makes US Pres. Lyndon Johnson long before he became president.

1. Learn to remember names, Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing.
2. Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe kind of individual.
3. Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you.
4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all.
5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you.
6. Study to get the ‘scratchy’ element out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.
7. Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest basis, every misunderstanding you may had or now have. Drain off your grievances.
8. Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.
9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
10. Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you.

Take the initiative in building friendship.- Leaders always do. It’s easy and natural for us to tell ourselves, “Let him make the first move”, “Let them call us”, Let her speak first” It’s easy too, virtually to ignore other people. The most important person present is the one person most active in introducing himself. Say: “I may not be very important to him, but he’s important to me. That’s why I’ve got to get to know him.”

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Six ways to win friends by exercising just a little initiative:

1. Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity. – a parties, meetings, at work, everywhere.
2. Be sure the other person gets your name straight.
3. Be sure you can pronounce the other person’s name the way he pronounces it.
4. Write down the other person’s name, and be mighty sure you have it spelled correctly, if possible get address and telephone no.
5. Drop a personal note or make a phone call to the new friends you feel you want to know better.
6. Say pleasant things to strangers. It warms you up and gets you ready for the task ahead.

Suggestion:

1. Recognize the fact that no person is perfect. Some people are more nearly perfect than others, but no man is absolutely perfect.
2. Recognize the fact that the other fellow has a right to be different. You don’t have to approve of what another fellow does. But, you must not dislike him for doing it.
3. Don’t be a reformer. You have a right to your own opinion, but sometimes it’s better to keep it yourself.

Key fact: No person is all good and no person is all bad. The perfect person just doesn’t exist.

The person who does the most talking and the person who is the most successful are rarely the same person. The more successful the person, the more he practices conversation generosity, that is, he encourages the other person to talk about himself, his views, his accomplishment, his family, his job, his problems.

Conversation generosity paves the way to greater success in two important ways:

1. Conversation generosity wins friends.
2. Conversation generosity helps you learn more about people.

The average person would rather talk about himself than anything else in this world.

When things go wrong, just do two things:

1. Ask yourself, “What can I do to make myself more deserving on the next opportunity.
2. Don’t waste time and energy being discouraged. Don’t berate yourself, Plan to win next time.

Practice courtesy all he time. It makes other people feel better. It makes you feel better too. Don’t blame others when you receive a setback. Remember, how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

Make Your Attitudes Your Associates

How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.

Grow these three Attitudes. Make them your associates in everything you do.

1. Grow the attitude of I’m activated. To activate others, you must first activate yourself. To get them to be enthusiastic, you must first be enthusiastic yourself. Enthusiasm can make things 110 percent better.

Three steps procedure that will help you to develop the power of enthusiasm

• Dig into it deeper. Use this technique to develop enthusiasm toward other people. Find out all you can about another person. What he does his family, his background, his ideas and ambitions and you’ll find your interest in and enthusiasm about him mounting.

• In everything you do, life it up. Life up your handshaking. Make your hand clasp. Say I’m glad to know you, “I’m glad to see you again”, Life up your smile, Smile with your eyes. Nobody like artificial pasted-on rubbery smile. For when you smile, people don’t see your teeth; they see a warm, enthusiastic personality, someone they like. Life up your “thank you”, life up your talk, Is your ‘good morning!’ really good?. Are your ‘congratulation’ enthusiastic?. Does your ‘How are you?’ sound interested? People go along with the fellow who believes what he says. Say it with life.

• Broadcast good news. Good news does more than get attention; good news pleases people, develops enthusiasm and even promotes good digestion. Transmit good news to your family. Tell them the good hat happened today Recall the amusing pleasant things you experienced and let the unpleasant things stay buried. Transmit good news to the people you work with. Give them encouragement; compliment them at every opportunity, Listen to their problem. Be helpful. Let them know you believe they can succeed, that you have faith in them.

2. Grow the attitude of you are important. Each human being, whether he lives in Exclusive Villages or Slump Areas, whether he’s ignorant or brilliant, civilized or uncivilized, young or old, has this desire: He wants to feel important. Has a natural desire to feel he is somebody. – this is the strongest, most compelling non biological hunger.

How to make people important to you:

1. People do more for you when you make them feel important. The big thinker always adds value to people by visualizing them at their best, because he thinks big about people, he gets their best out of them.

2. When you help others feel important, you help yourself feel important too. You must feel important to succeed. Helping others to feel important rewards you because it makes you feel more important. Try it and see.

Here‘s how to do it:

1. Practice appreciation. Make it a rule to let others know you appreciate what they do for you. Never, never let anyone feel he is taken for granted. Practice appreciation with a warm, sincere smile. Letting others know how you depend on them, makes people feel necessary. Make no exceptions; all of hem must be important.

2. Practice calling people by their names. People like to be called by name. It gives everyone a boost to be addressed by name.

3. Don’t hug glory, invest it instead. Remember, praise is power. Invest the praise you receive from your superior. Pass praise on down to your subordinates, where it will encourage still greater performance.

Daily exercise that pays off surprisingly well: Ask yourself everyday, “What can I do today to make my wife and my family happy?” – Do something special for your family often. It doesn’t have to be something expensive. Its thoughtfulness that counts. Get the family or your team. Give them planed attention.

3. Want to make money? Then get the put-service first Attitude. Put service first, and money takes care of itself always. When your record shows that you deserve more money you’ll get more money. You can’t harvest money unless you plant the seeds that grow money. And the seed of money is service. Always give people more than they expect to get. Each little extra something you do for others is a money seed.

Determination - "Try and fail, but don't fail to try.”

“If were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable/predictable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.” Ann Landers

“The possibilities of what life can be if a person has a goal in mind, then puts his or her heart, soul, and mind into meeting the goal.” “Decide what you want out of life; look on the positive side; and never give up until you achieve it.” Bill Porter

“I feel all these setbacks were tools for me to learn from. I used them as stepping-stones and didn’t see them as failures. A failure is when you stop trying, and I never did that.” Tom Monaghan

“Nothing comes easy, you have to work hard for everything. And no matter how small your voice is, I believe you can make a difference.” Laura-Beth Moore

“I knew instinctively/unconsciously that my unyielding/firm drive was my most important asset. Perseverance will always be just as important – important as talent. Never stop believing! Never give up! Never quit! Never.” Joan Rivers

“I persevered against the odds/probability and against the rules because I believed in my dreams. It would have been more difficult for me to live with that unfulfilled passion than it was to fight to make it happen.” Shirley Muldowney

Action Plan: Perseverance Rewards Your Efforts

“Never…Never… Never quit”

Step 1: Focus on Your Goal

Achievers keep their eyes on the target at all times. They often use visual keys to remind them through the day of goal they’re working toward. Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner arrange his entire apartment so it would remind him everyday of his goal and since the high hurdle was his weakest skill, he placed a hurdle right in the middle of the living room, where he had to step over it as many as 30 times a day.

Action: Create a constant reminder of your goal. By now, I’m hoping you’ve identified your purpose, written your statement of calling, and created a dream that evokes your passion. The next step is to keep that dream and the goals that support it at the forefront of your mind. Here are just a few of the many ways you could do so:

• Write your statement of calling and goals on note cards or Post-It Notes and strategically place them throughout your house and office.

• Record your statement of calling and goals on an audio cassette and play the tape as you’re driving chores, resting, or meditating.

• Put your goals on the screen saver of your computer.

Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he discovered the law of gravity and he replied, “ By thinking about it all the time.”

Step 2: Accept Failures as Learning Experiences

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.”

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” Confucius

Determined people don’t believe in failure. They see mistakes as opportunities to learn and develop new skills and strategies, not as failure. Failure implies waste that nothing has been gained. On the contrary, people can gain much from every mistake and setback along the road to success. Mistakes and failures are inevitable/predictable and even essential; they are evidence of action – that you are doing something. The more mistakes you make, the greater your chance of succeeding. Failures indicate a willingness to experiment and take risks. Unstoppable people know that each failure brings them a step closer to achieving their dreams.

“Many people dream of success. To me, success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents the 1 percent of your work that results from 99 percent that is called failure.” Soichiro Honda

Honda has said that hundreds of other achievers have said before him. You may remember that Edison said he would have invented the light bulb without first failing at 4,000 experiments. Being able to see failure as an opportunity for learning and improvement is critical to becoming unstoppable. People who can’t bear a moment of failure have doomed themselves to mediocrity, for they’ll never be able to push themselves past a point that is uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Yet it is beyond that point where success dwells.

“If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Jim Rohn

Step 3. Be Patient – Cultivate a Long-Term Mentality

We live in a society that demands and has grown accustomed/familiar to instant gratification/fulfillment. Most people today lack the persistence necessary to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, there are no fast-food outlets serving up our dreams. Achieving your dream takes time. Every moment you are working, you can take comfort in realizing you are moving closer and closer to your dream. That work, the journey itself, is the adventure and half of the reward. Don’t shortchange it.

"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success."

“Don’t let me ever hear you use the word ‘impossible.’ If I’ve learned anything over the course of my career, there’s no such thing as impossible. Overnight, the impossible may not be possible. But over time, the impossible certainly becomes possible.” Earl Graves

Step 4: Never Quit

Ann Landers advises us to “expect trouble as an inevitable/unavoidable part of life. When it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, “I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.” Pursue your dream with confidence and never, never, never quit. If you don’t give up, you simply cannot fail. Not only will you achieve your dream, but the combination of your commitment, courage, and faith will rise as the greatest triumph of all.

“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by then I was too famous.” Robert Benchley

“I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed: and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.” Tom Hopkins

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”