5 Ways To Visualize Yourself Doing, Not Achieving

Posted in Tips, tools, tricks, goal setting, life goals, setting goals on July 27th, 2010

I have long been an advocate of setting audacious goals and using visualization as a tool to help you achieve these goals. Success starts in the mind.

However, visualization can be counter-productive and even sabotage your goals if done improperly, so I believe it’s important to address this.

People who visualize taking the practical steps necessary to reach a goal have more success than those who simply visualize the outcomes, like a new house or car. So says psychologist Richard Wiseman in his book 59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change a Lot.

He cites studies that show how those who, for example, visualize themselves practicing tennis have more success than those who visualize themselves winning a tennis match.

The reason it can be ineffective to focus exclusively on the outcomes of achieving your goals is that it doesn’t prepare you for the inevitable setbacks you will face. Also, some outcomes are beyond your control, and if you focus exclusively on outcomes, you are likely to become quite unhappy when you don’t achieve your outcome, as sometimes happens. More on that in a minute.

First let’s take a look at 5 steps to help you with this type of action-based visualization: Read the rest of this entry »

How to Achieve Your Goal – 3 Tips For Your Own ‘Grounding the Ships’ Moment

Posted in Tips, tools, tricks, life change, life goals, setting goals on July 10th, 2010

Even though I’m a big believer in setting audacious goals, I always have a plan B in mind as well, even if it’s way in the back of my mind. The key, of course, is to make sure plan B doesn’t become the default position or completely sabotages plan A (A = audacious, of course). Good can become the enemy of great, as you well know. This applies to all areas of life, including relationships, business, career, hobbies, health, etc.

For a plan A lesson, if you’ve ever studied history, perhaps you’ll recall that the Spanish acquisition of the Aztec Empire in 1521 was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. I’ve heard people refer to this story as a life lesson for all of us, even today. One of the events was when Cortez grounded his 11 ships to prevent his colony from turning back from the new world. He had invested considerable resources and took on large debt in order to build those ships and undertake the expedition.

Sometimes that’s what it takes to achieve your audacious goal. Have you had any moments like this where you sacrificed much in order to focus on a goal? Read the rest of this entry »

What Does It Mean To Be Rich?

Posted in life change, life goals on June 11th, 2010

How can you live a richer life? I don’t believe one has to have a lot of money to be rich. One can be rich in many ways. Riches can include family, close relationships, meaningful work and more.

Those are all wonderful things, of course. But today I will focus on the three things that will help you live a richer life that aren’t dependent on other people and are things mostly in your control: health, wealth and inner life.

Aristole said that a life of virtue is the chief ingredient of happiness and that adequate health (goods of the body), adequate wealth (external goods and property) and goods of the soul (wisdom and virtue) were necessary for this kind of rich and happy life.

Let’s begin with health. I know many people who are financially secure but don’t take care of their bodies and have chronic back and knee problems, heart disease, are very overweight, etc. They aren’t truly “rich” even though they have a lot of money.

Read the rest of this entry »

How to Achieve Your Goals – 3 Ways to Achieve Your Goals by “Doing the Right Thing” 

Posted in General, goal setting, setting goals on May 25th, 2010

Karim Ismail Do the Right Thing

Just “do the right thing.” It seems a cliché to say that these days. What is the right thing anyway? How do you go about doing the right thing? Because my work focuses on helping people with goal setting—especially setting bold, audacious goals—in the workplace and in one’s personal life, I will share with you 3 ways to focus on doing the right thing within that context.



1. Pursue Inner Peace

Although I would never recommend that you always trust feelings over logic, I ask you to think of situations where you felt totally at ease and peace with both yourself and those around you. How did you feel internally? When you do the right thing, that sense of inner peace follows and you’ll know you’re doing the right thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Goal Setting – 5 Ways to Achieve Your Goals With Speed

Posted in goal setting, life goals, setting goals on May 17th, 2010

Achieve Goals + SpeedYou’ve probably heard the phrase, “money loves speed.” That’s because it’s not enough to have a goal or a good idea. You must quickly implement it in order to have success.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have long term goals, of course. But the forward motion you gain from focusing on getting things done quickly will help you achieve even your long term goals too.

Let me give an example. Twenty minutes after Jason Mark used an iPad for the very first time he came up with an idea for an iPad bracket. The bracket serves as a frame for the iPad, much like a picture frame. It lets you mount the iPad on a wall for presentations in meetings, displays in museums, etc.

Three days after coming up with the idea he presented it to a manufacturing company and within 21 days they had a working prototype, marketing plan, website and their first sale, which came an hour after the iBracket was mentioned on a blog. Note that this was a physical product yet still they got it out the door in record speed.

With today’s technology and social media it’s very possible for you to achieve similar things with great speed. This applies to any area of your life, like fitness goals, plans to redecorate, saving money for a vacation, etc. Speed helps everything.

Here are 5 steps for you to accomplish your goals with more speed:

1. Set an audacious goal. Make sure it’s one you are passionate about. That passion will energize and sustain you in the early going. By audacious I mean a goal that might seem outrageous on the surface or hard to achieve but one that will motivate you because the potential payoff is great.

Read the rest of this entry »

Goal Setting – 12 Steps to Achieve Any Goal in Business (Part 2 of 2)

Posted in goal setting on May 9th, 2010

Today I will continue my discussion of the 12 Steps to Achieving Any Goal as it applies to the workplace.

7. Define the obstacles to achieving your goal. It may seem counter-intuitive to put any focus on obstacles, for fear of indulging in negative thinking. But I encourage you to embrace the obstacles in your way because the solution to achieving your goals actually lies in your obstacles.

Obstacles make you think harder and force you to be versatile. If you clearly define your obstacles, your mind will get to work at finding solutions. If you are using this approach in the workplace with a departmental or group goal, you’ll experience synergy as you define obstacles together and commit to overcoming them.

8. Focus on the solutions to overcoming your obstacles. Now that you know what your obstacles are you and your team can focus on the specific ways to overcome them. Remember, problem-solving is ingrained in our nature.

If your obstacle is lack of funding for a piece of equipment or software to make a certain aspect of your business run more efficiently, then brainstorm possible solutions such as cutting back expenses in other areas, like travel, conferences, etc. If your obstacle is a boss who shoots down innovative ideas, possible solutions would be a seminar on communications, talking directly to the boss about this problem in a constructive way, looking for a new job, talking to a coach or therapist about how to become more assertive, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Goal Setting – 12 Steps to Achieve Any Goal in Business (Part 1 of 2)

Posted in goal setting on May 8th, 2010

Today I want to take my popular 12 Steps to Achieve Any Goal and apply it to the business world. These 12 steps will help you as you advance in your career or even as you switch careers. We will cover the first 6 steps in this article:

1. Define your most important and audacious goal. This is the goal you most want to achieve, even if it seems unrealistic or not feasible. Although you don’t want to be totally unrealistic, be bold. Whether it’s to retire by age 50 or become CEO of your own company, it should be a goal that is completely in line with your true self and values. You can also set an audacious goal for your department or entire business and enlist your co-workers in this process.

2. Have a clear deadline. Unfortunately, being the human creatures we are, most of us won’t achieve our goals without a deadline. How many projects would you complete if your boss said, “It doesn’t matter when you finish this project.” How many clients would you acquire if your attitude was, “I don’t do deadlines.” You should also set deadlines for your goals. It’s so easy to not take your goals seriously and to not assign deadlines to them but I urge you to do so. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll accomplish once you start setting deadlines. Read the rest of this entry »

To Achieve Your Goals, Make Promises, NOT To Do Lists

Posted in goal setting, life goals on April 23rd, 2010

Do you remember when you were a child and had a promise broken? How did that make you feel?

Well, let me share one incident that is still, 38 years later, as vivid in my memory as though it happened yesterday.

At age 10 (Grade 5), when I lived in a small town in Kenya, I wanted a bicycle, one that I could eventually ride to school. Looking back, I am sure it had a lot to do with independence, being able to go see my friends, and having my own possession. Rite of passage I suppose!

My parents, who were not well off, promised me I could have one, if I saved up for one (from my pocket allowance) and that they would match my savings once I reached the half way mark. In other words, a 50/50 split.

So for almost two years, I was very frugal, and saved hard. I REALLY wanted that shiny new red bicycle. As I got very close to my goal, I even hit up my younger sister for a loan so that I could get to my goal quicker! She kindly agreed.

When I finally reached my goal, I went to the bicycle store, reconfirmed the price (for the 10th time), and then proudly told my Dad that I had saved up my 50% of the cost.

He congratulated me, but pointed out that the family was going through a tough time financially, and that I would have to wait a bit (which to a child seems like eternity!) before he could contribute his 50%.

I was crushed at this broken promise. I had saved so hard and was so keen to have the bike . . .! Read the rest of this entry »

Three Patterns to Develop So Your Behaviors Reflect Your True Self

Posted in goal setting, life goals, setting goals on April 20th, 2010

To achieve your life goals you must often change your behavior. This is often  not easy to do because your behavior never lies. It is always a reflection of what you believe to be true about yourself.

Your behavior tells me how you think, how you talk about yourself even when no one’s around, and what you do every single day. The real essence of truth, of who you really think you are is not found in what you say, but by what you do.

So how do you change those behaviors that don’t accommodate the goals you have set?

It can be difficult to monitor our own behavior because it’s easy to fall into ruts and unhealthy patterns. Today I will give you three measuring sticks to use, which will help you develop behaviors that will be a better reflection of your true self so you can then achieve the goals you have set.

1. Are You Consistent? - Being able to count on someone is a very important quality. People who show up on time, are faithful and steady are indispensable. We know that we can always count on them. They don’t have explosive temperaments and although they are far from perfect people, their emotional reactions to things are mostly predictable Read the rest of this entry »

Part 2 – Achieving Your Goals – How to Create Your Vision Board to Help You Achieve Your Goals

Posted in goal setting, setting goals on April 12th, 2010

In my previous post we discussed how a Vision Board can help you achieve your goals because it allows your mind to experience your goals just like they have already come to fruition. When you use all your senses so you actually see, smell, feel and taste your goals they become more real in your mind.

When they are real, you will be motivated to take the next action steps to achieve them even when those steps become difficult or time consuming.

There are 2 ways to create your vision board. You can do it physically by glueing images on posterboard or cardboard or you can purchase computer software that is designed to help you create a Vision Board on your computer.

If you create a computer generated Vision Board you can then use it as a screen saver or desktop background.  Looking at your Vision Board on a daily basis will help you visualize and focus on your dreams and goals. Read the rest of this entry »