There is a story of a man riding a horse that is galloping very quickly. It appears he has somewhere important to go. Another man standing alongside the road shouts out, “Where are you going!” The man riding replies “I don’t know – Ask the horse!”
This is the story of most people’s lives. They are riding the horse of their habits with no idea where they are headed. If you have decided that 2015 is going to be the year you take hold of the reigns and move your life in the direction you really want to go then you must have some goals. Like me, you are a goal digger.
Success coach Darren Hardy taught me a lot about goal setting in his book ‘ The Compound Effect’. Over the past year I’ve achieved some pretty incredible results in my life by following his advice and putting it into practice. Today, I am sharing them with you.
1. Don’t just think it- Ink it! Make sure your goals are written down as I AM statements, and are in the positive. What you want as opposed to what you don’t want.
Example: “I am my ideal weight of X kilos by X date,” versus “I want to lose 20 kilo’s.” “ I have X amount in the bank by X date” versus “ I want to get out of debt”.
2. Write down WHY that goal is important to you. This really is key. Most people jump straight into the ‘how to’ without ever taking time to consider WHY that goal is important. If you’ve set a financial goal for the year, the chances are you don’t actually want physical money. You want the FEELINGS that having money brings. You want what money will allow you to have and share. So write all of those things down. Does it make you feel secure? Free? Powerful?
Here are some other ideas to think about: Will this goal make you a better role model for your children? Will that health goal improve your confidence? Will that financial goal mean you get more time with you kids or go on that family vacation you always talk about?
3. Think about who you need to BECOME to attain that goal. If your goal is to have an extra 10,000+ followers on your blog or twitter, you may ask ” Who do I need to become to have 10,000 people follow me?” Your answer might contain some attributes- stated in the positive.
If I’m ever stuck at this point I think about people I know who have already achieved what I want in their life and look to emulate qualities and attributes they have. For example If your goal is financial, look to somebody who has already achieved that level of success in their own life. Notice how they show up each day. How do they dress? How do they treat people? How do they shake hands? What do they do in their spare time? You get the point. When you get it allll written down and get really clear on who you need to become, it makes daily choices much simpler and you’ll be much more likely to achieve that goal.
4. Identify habits and behaviours that need to stop. We all have habits, some good, some bad and sometimes, we aren’t even aware that our habits are leading us in the complete opposite direction of where we want to be. To bring awareness to my unconscious habits, I use a tool Darren taught me called “ Tracking”. I pick an area of my life that I want to improve and I track every single thing related to that area. For example if I want to improve my finances I’ll track every single dollar that I spend every day for three weeks. By the end of week one i’ve usually uncovered a few habits around my spending, and by week three I am much more in control of them.
5. Identify habits and behaviours that you need to start. This one is simple. Write it all down and choose a couple that you are going to focus on implementing into your daily routine this week.
Once you have completed all the above steps you should be able to determine the magic factor for achieving your goals. If you have a goal for this year I’d LOVE to hear about it below. Please share with me!
And remember the magic comes from becoming the person you need to be, in order to attract the people or results you wish to meet or achieve. Good luck all my goal digging friends!
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