The Power of The Goal

Once again ThinkTQ.com has a very relevant article for the start of the new decade. Although it was posted back in March of 2008, it is just as necessary for today. Hope you get as much out of it as I have.

Be Blessed
Robert

From ThinkTQ.com Color Commentaryfor Thursday, March 20, 2008
By E. R. Haas

The 10 Simple Steps to Setting Crystal-clear Goals...

1. Make all your dreams real by first identifying and then focusing on specific, tangible targets for what you want.

Survey: Only 25% say they do this consistently.

The Power: You'll never make a dream real until you have something specific to aim at. There is no way you can plan for -- to say nothing of work toward -- a "better life." You can, however, stipulate a list of conditions that would define a better life. Each of those items can then be made into a precise target you can aim for, and immediately begin to work towards.

So, dream your dreams, then identify specific examples in the real world that best represent the desired qualities of your dream. Once you do this, you'll be well on your way to creating that "better life" you desire.

The Pain: Your dreams don't have a chance of becoming real. Negatives like "Wishful, Nebulous and Passive" start to take their toll on your performance -- quickly moving you away from the success you want.

2. Maintain at least one clearly defined goal for every major interest and role in your life.

Survey: Less than 3% say they do this consistently.

The Power: Creating an ideal life, where all of your roles are completely fulfilled, starts with setting clear goals. If you never define what you expect, you will only get what life gives you -- and that may be a whole lot less than what you want.

Why leave things to chance? Every major interest and role in your life deserves its own series of goals. Clearly defined goals for each of your roles provides a rewarding direction -- and an ever-present purpose for each area of your life.

The Pain: Without a goal, there are roles in your life that have no purpose or direction.

3. Set your goals so they are directly aligned with your life's mission.

Survey: Less than 8% say they do this consistently.

The Power: Your most powerful and inspiring goals are those that are directly aligned with what you value most. Goals that are aligned with your life's mission are those that bring an ideal personal vision closer to reality. Mission based goals will deliver the greatest sense of pride and satisfaction once accomplished.

You can only do so much in the time you have. Therefore, as you establish your goals, put them to the test: How connected are they to what you value most? If they're not -- change them or choose more "value-able" goals.

The Pain: Your goals lack the purpose and the power to shift your inner-drive into overdrive.

4. Create goals high enough to ignite your spirit and inspire you to take action.

Survey: Less than 55% say they do this consistently, permitting themselves to dream outside the box.

The Power: If you're not inspired -- every single day -- you need new goals. The higher the goal, the more it will excite and motivate you, day-in-day-out. Plan big. Why set mediocre, minimally acceptable goals when you could set ones that will change your life? Or the world?!

Life's greatest satisfaction comes from attaining goals that you once believed were beyond reach. If most of your goals are forgotten before they're achieved, you clearly need to create more exciting, more stimulating, more intoxicating, more adventurous, more ambitious and more heart-felt goals.

The Pain: You lack both the reason and the desire to achieve your best.

5. Write down all your goals in specific, measurable detail with declared target dates.

Survey: Less than 11% say they do this consistently.

The Power: Writing down exactly what you want, and by when, is the first step to success. If you won't commit to writing them down, you'll never do what it takes to reach your goals. Writing your goals in exquisite detail helps define them in your mind -- and provides the exact specifications for what you want to accomplish.

The more desirable qualities you add to the goal, the greater will be your satisfaction when you attain it. Be sure to write SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic and Tangible -- and don't forget a target date. (Because the difference between a dream and a goal is a date!)

The Pain: There is no way you can achieve your goals if they are not crystal-clear. Negatives like "Vague, Uncertain and Uncommitted" will take their toll on your performance.

6. Absolutely, unconditionally commit to hitting each of your targets.

Survey: Less than 50% say they do this consistently.

The Power: The best predictor of success is your degree of commitment to your goals. Whenever you set a goal, write out why you're committed to accomplishing it. The "why" is far more important than the "how." Commitment -- sheer passion and will power -- can help overcome any deficiency in time, money or education.

First, make sure each of your goals is worthy of the time and effort necessary to achieve it. Then, make sure each of your goals is getting the absolute, unconditional commitment it deserves.

The Pain: Lacking commitment you have little chance of achieving your most important and rewarding goals. Negatives like "Ambivalent, Lackadaisical and Doubtful" actually move you away from the success you want.

7. Share your goals with others for mutual accomplishment.

Survey: About 53% say they do this consistently.

The Power: Nothing is more powerful than a team of people all focused on the same goal. Dare to share your dreams with others. A shared goal is an extremely powerful force -- and a shared cause virtually guarantees success. When your goal benefits a host of other people, motivation and commitment to the goal increases proportionately.

When you align your goals with those of others, you dramatically improve the probability of each person's success.

The Pain: Your results are limited by what you can do alone.

8. Set a whole series of related daily, weekly and long-term goals, complete with starting times and completion dates.

Survey: Less than 2% say they do this consistently.

The Power: A series of goals that build upon each other is far more productive than the same number of random goals. First, start by setting a highly compelling destination. Then, set all the intermediary goals that will lead you to this desired location.

By setting a series of concrete objectives, you gain a long-term perspective, and a higher purpose for each daily goal. Once set, your enthusiasm, self-esteem and satisfaction will increase every time you achieve a milestone towards the final long-term goal.

The Pain:You lose sight of your goal when you can't see what to do next.

9. Take time every day to imagine how terrific it will feel when your goals are actually realized.

Survey: Less than 20% say they do this consistently.

The Power: It's impossible to keep striving for something for which you no longer have any feelings. The more you stay in touch with the rewarding experience, and positive feelings that each goal delivers, the more motivated and committed you'll be to continue the pursuit.

Each time you get in touch with the emotional benefits your goals produce, you'll feel energized and enthused to continue -- regardless of the distance to the goal. Celebrate your goals every day. Anticipation is half the fun, and most of the motivation for getting there.

The Pain: When passion runs out, determination and commitment is lost.

10. Take an action step toward the attainment of at least one goal every day.

Survey: Less than 8% say they do this consistently.

The Power: A goal is something beyond where you are. If you want to get from here to your goal, you must take the steps required to get there. Goals don't just automatically "happen." Obvious? You bet! But if this is obvious, why do so many people set goals then never achieve them?

Goals don't happen on their own. If you want the goal, you have to do the work. This means taking the steps necessary to get there, day-by-day.

The Pain: Your goals die a slow, agonizing death from a lack of attention.

"Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination." ~ Fitzhugh Dodson

Take our TQ Set Goals Test to rate yourself...

Think TQ - "The Power to Achieve Goals Without Limits"

I saw this article today in Today's TQ. I thought it was worth the time to post it here to help remind ourselves about achieving our goals.

I sincerely hope that if you have not taken the Think TQ Test you will take the time today to do it.

Be Blessed
Robert

The Power To Achieve Goals Without Limits.

Big or small, ALL goals require time and power to achieve. The bigger the goal, the more power and time it will take you.

You CAN achieve even greater and more inspiring goals... IF you improve your Power of TQ. This means turning your 10 Colors up to the point where your POWER exceeds the SIZE of your goals.

Yesterday I asked you to go through your 10 Colors, one-by-one, and determine just ONE thing you will DO to increase your personal power. When you do you will...

Heighten your sense of purpose, mission and direction —helping you live what you truly value most.

Create powerful force-multipliers—by broadening your team-building and leadership skills.

Build self-confidence in "impossible" situations—by learning to look beyond life's problems—focusing instead on solutions and opportunities.

Achieve your goals sooner—by turning your dreams and visions into a series of crystal-clear future expectations. (Learn to expect success rather than fear failure, and your goals almost achieve themselves!)

Turn key goals into rock-solid plans—by creating realistic milestones, objectives and deadlines.

Remain focused on top priorities each day—by concentrating your time on what's most important and rewarding... rather than permit life's urgencies to grind you down and wear you out.

Develop highly efficient organizational skills—by learning to simplify, reduce and eliminate the clutter clogging your systems.

Improve your ability to manage time—by ridding yourself of the three thieves stealing your life away: Distractions, Interruptions and Preoccupations.

Eliminate procrastination—by taking bold action to triumph over fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Transform your passion into powerful action—by boosting your level of optimism, enthusiasm and energy.

Discover happiness, satisfaction and joy in everything you do—by incorporating your core personal values into every goal... every plan... and every action you take... every single day.

How the ‘Third Influence’ Affects Your Ultimate Success

from "Secrets of Creating Wealth" by Stephen Pierce

The power of the third influence is a personal success discovery that I made a few years ago.

It is profound and impactful.

It helps you to understand that you can accelerate changes that you need to make and put yourself onto the right path toward the goals that you want to accomplish.

If you remember science classes for a moment, imagine water. There are two hydrogen molecules, and they have potential to become water. You need to add something else to them to make the water.

You need to add an oxygen molecule.

If you do this you have water, a living force.

If you take those same two hydrogen molecules and add the wrong third influence the outcome is different. For example if you add sulfur, this would create a stinky rotten egg gas that is highly poisonous.

This shows that if you have the wrong third influence in your life you can be completely off track from what you want to accomplish. There are many examples of where this has happened, such as with Mike Tyson, River Phoenix and Elvis Presley.

It is particularly commonly seen with young people, who are easily persuaded to get into drugs, early sex or alcohol.

There are third influences in your life that impact your life and decisions you make. Some of these things can be good such as certain movies or music, and others can be bad.

The Third Influence Chain Reaction …

There is often a chain reaction that takes place with the third influence. It can be seen with the young, in business and with scams.

What happens is this:
Something takes place to get your attention. In that process you accept that what got the attention may be probable or possible.

The third influence is extremely powerful. You have power and ability to control it.

However, after this thing gets your attention, you can enter the point of persuasion. You are persuaded by the concept or idea, and move towards the adoption process. You adopt the idea as something you want to accept and have as your own.

Then you have an outcome.

This can be seen with the young with something like smoking marijuana.
Something happens and it gets the kid’s attention. Perhaps the smoking is being done by the cool guys. This associates the cool factor with it. It becomes cool.

The young person accepts the act as being cool. At that point they’re being persuaded. They want to be cool so they adopt it as something that is cool and start doing it. Then there is the outcome, they can become hooked on drugs and bad things can start to happen in their lives.

Gaining a Better Understanding of the Third Influence …

We have to understand the third influence. We can control the things we’re influenced by and we can counteract them. We can’t control what’s being said around us, but we can control what we watch on TV and who we hang around with, what we listen to and what we read.

One of the best ways is to find a mentor or someone who you can look up to who has accomplished what you want to.

Consider what your goal is, what is your objective? Are you aligned properly and congruently with this, to accomplish these things, are you letting yourself be influenced by the right things?

For your mentor make sure that you choose someone with a proven track record of success that you want to achieve as your third influence.

Think about who has accomplished what you want to achieve and how you can best be influenced.

You may not be able to go to that person’s house necessarily, but perhaps you can buy their books or CDs.

Ask yourself how you want to be in X area of your life, e.g. financially. Say you want to make $100,000 per year. Say you’re now making $50,000 per year in sales, and you want to double your income.

Look for role models – what are people doing in other areas. How can you look at and modify their ideas, how can you adjust and adapt that to improve your results in your area.

Find out who in your organization is already making that. What are they doing? Engage in conversations with them. Get hold of training material about it, get one on one coaching. Align yourself with this.

You need a timeframe. Look at how many more prospect you need to call on, how you can refine openings and closings.

Model yourself on who knows how to do it best in your industry. This third influence in your life aligns you with what you want to accomplish.

To learn more about the “third influence” as well as other secrets of creating wealth, please visit my link - creating wealth site.

Motivation: Fulfilling Personal and Emotional Needs

You cannot force a person to do anything, even if it is in their own best interest. This is a fact. Each person has their own personal motivations, different methods or ways of being motivated.

My research has brought me to some very logical conclusions which I have summarized below from the following information which I received from reading "Motivation and Goal Setting: The Key To Success” by Jim Cairo.

We must come to realize a person's primary motivator is fulfilling their personal needs as it relates to goals and aspirations.

So as we go on our personal roads to success, while also trying to help those along the way I have given below some key points that we should not forget and always consider. It has been a help to me. I hope it is a help to you also.

Be Blessed

Motivation: Fulfilling Personal and Emotional Needs

Four Primary Motivation Methods

1- Fear. You may get results – once. But you’ll get resentment forever.
2- Incentive. After the reward is given, what is the incentive to continuing producing?
3- Attitude. You must present a reason for a change in attitude.

4- Fulfilling Personal Needs.


Eight Basic Personal Needs

1- Belonging. Being a part of a group provides us with a sense of comfort, security, and partnership. When we belong, we share experiences with others, which provides emotional enrichment.

2- Achievement. Everyone needs to feel a sense of accomplishment. It gives our lives purpose, and it reinforces our self-esteem because it demonstrates our competence.

3- Advancement. Advancement is a measure of our success. To feel a successful, we need to feel as if our lives are expanding and our careers are moving forward.

4- Power. This is tied to advancement because an advance in a career usually means more power or increased authority.

5- Responsibility. With responsibility comes respect, both for the person given responsibility and for the person who delegated it. And self-respect is a very powerful motivator.

6- Challenge. We need challenge to grow mentally and emotionally, personally and professionally. The alternative is to stagnate, which breed’s negativism, low self-esteem and dissatisfaction.

7- Recognition. Knowing we did a good job is important, but having others know it as well is essential. Otherwise, we feel as if we are living and working in a vacuum. A letter or memo, an award, a gift or a bonus are all forms of recognition. Reserve this for above average performance.

8- Excellence. Along with the need for self-esteem comes the need to be proud of our work and accomplishments. Doing an excellent job is often a reward in itself, which explains why million of workers can find joy in their work even when it is routine.

Methods or Principles - What Do We Employ???

Below is a quote I have incorporated in my discussions with others concerning success. I have recently been reading several articles and books, attending seminars, etc concerning success, or getting ahead, or being a winner (you chose the terms which best fits you). In addition, it seems that many who I have enquired of me how to be successful really are not interested in the real specifics but appear to want to "get rich quick" or need to be financially stable yesterday.
But let's just consider the quote.

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man/woman who knows how will always have a job. The man/woman who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man/woman who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man/woman who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

How often are we as entrepreneurs looking to try new methods but really do not stick to the time proven principles to succeed? Do we actually seek out the principles or just look for the best methods to go along with our "ambitions"?

Just a thought to consider when we run after the next "method" to help us to be financially stable without adhering to the time proven principles.

Success on Purpose

Recently, I have come across some writings by Napoleon Hill which made for great reading. His book "Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons" has had a profound affect on my business marketing and, overall, how I should be pursuing a successful business. As I surfed through the Internet to gain more information about his 16 lessons I have come across some good excerpts, presented below, by others who have considered his writings. I will present these in my next few blogs and welcome any comments concerning his principles.

Develop Definiteness of Purpose

• Success and progress towards achieving your goals in life begin with knowing where you are going.
• Any dominating idea, plan, or purpose held in your conscious mind through repeated effort and emotionalized by a burning desire for its realization is taken over by the subconscious and acted upon through whatever natural and logical means may be available.
• Your mental attitude gives power to everything you do. If your attitude is positive, your actions and thoughts further your ends? If your attitude is negative, you are constantly undermining your own efforts.
• The starting point of all human achievement is the development of a Definite Major Purpose.
• Without a definite major purpose, you are as helpless as a ship without a compass.
  

Mastermind Alliance

Establish a Mastermind Alliance

• A mastermind alliance consists of two or more minds working actively together in perfect harmony toward a common definite objective.
• Through a mastermind alliance you can appropriate and use the full strength of the experience, training, and knowledge of others just as if they were your own.
• No individual has ever achieved success without the help and cooperation of others.
• The value of "gathering together those of a like mind" is self-evident.
• A group of brains coordinated in a spirit of harmony will provide more thought energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will provide more energy than a single battery.

What is italicized above is what is discussed in the first 2 lessons. I believe that just these two are key to any successful endeavor but many fail to realize this.

The book goes into much more depth with specific examples. Hopefully you will have time to read it.

Financial Freedom Through Your Home Based Business

Today, who is not familiar with someone who has been downsized or layed off. Almost daily now we hear on the news of another corportation condering or actually downsizing. We have been groomed over the years to believe that working for a large corporation would give one the idea that their job is safe and secure, after all, a business needs employees to function. If you are a satisfactory employee, then you should not have anything to worry about, right? Wrong. In the last couple of years, many hard working employees have been laid off for one reason or another. Companies have sent their work offshore, which diminishes jobs in this country. It is not uncommon that corporations are starting to rely on machinery to do the same work that humans did years ago.

Whatever the case may be, job security is no longer defined by good economic times, good job performance, and being employed by a large corporation or business. Often times, these corporations take little or no effort in understanding what effects these layoffs have on the employee and their family. The only sure way to never get fired is be your own boss. To be the boss, you have to start and maintain your own business.

Now consider this before you get excited and quit your job - you must realize that the majority of new businesses fail within the first year of business. This is not meant to scare you, but rather prepare you so that you will not make the same mistakes that others have made in the past. Why do so many businesses fail - simply because they do not take the time and effort it properly start a business. They run out of patience and jump ahead of themselves. To start a healthy and viable business, you must learn from other`s mistakes, and do it correctly.

Having fears when it comes to starting a business is normal. Starting a business is a major life change. With a normal 9 to 5 job, you are able to leave at 5 o`clock and not think about work again until you arrive in the morning. Not so with your own business. You may leave at 5, only to be called back because an employee is having a problem. You may even have to carry work past 5 o`clock and work at home as well. Facing your fears help you to decide if you are up for the challenge.

Now, you should take the time to learn ways to setting up your own business. There are many business startup books available at your local business store. These books, provided that they are not get rich quick schemes, will provide you the detailed information that you need to start a business properly. Alternatively, it is highly recommended that you to talk with a person experienced in this field, whether it be another successful business owner, or someone who you believe could help you as a mentor through the process. Never discount the type of knowledge they would have and the willingness they will have in helping you as well.

Success will not necessarily occur overnight. In fact, in may take many years for you to build up your business so that it is profitable. You will want to make sure that you are financially stable to not only support the business until it is successful, but also have enough to support yourself and your family. This may mean that you will have to keep that not-so-nice job for awhile. Patience will ultimately be a key for you.

Are you considering your own starting a business of your own?

Click here to download our FREE report for home based business opportunities.