Posts Tagged achieve your goals

To Achieve Your Goals Share Your Goal Widely With Others

Step 11 in my series, The 12 Steps to Achieving Your Goals

In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle can contain it or stand against it. – Jane Smiley

Sharing your goal with others is vital to your success. However, many people are uncomfortable doing this, so they make the mistake of hiding their goal, or only sharing it with one person.

When you don’t share your goals it may be an unconscious attempt at self sabotage. If you don’t tell anyone about your goals they will never become real in your mind. When they don’t feel real it will be hard to be serious about them. You might feel uncomfortable at first, but hiding your goals will not help you.

Instead, you will find that when you have the courage to share your goal, you articulate it more clearly for yourself, and you strengthen your commitment to it. Sharing your goal also allows you to receive objective feedback. By sharing your huge goal, you will undoubtedly inspire friends, family, and colleagues. So please consider doing what we always ask children to do, and share! Read the rest of this entry »

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To Achieve Your Life Goals, Set Clear Milestones on Your Path to Success

karimmilestonesStep 10 in my series, The 12 Steps to Achieving Your Goals

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo de Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown

Sometimes reaching a goal feels miraculous, like a quantum leap. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that the goal was attained by moving from one step to the next. To make steady progress, it is critical to define steps and time frames along the way. Time frames allow you to assess your goal, determine your progress, and take corrective action if needed.

Many people make the unfortunate mistake of not setting clear milestones or well-defined steps with clear time frames while trying to achieve their goals.

I have found that it is best to define 90 day milestones. Why 90 days? It’s long enough for you to achieve meaningful progress (rather than a 30 day time frame, which can sometimes be too short). But it’s much shorter than an annual milestone, thus allowing you four times in a year when you can measure progress and take any required corrective action.

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Goal Setting – To Achieve Your Goals, Focus on the Solutions to Overcoming Your Obstacles

karimsolutions

Step 8 in my series, The 12 Steps to Achieving Your Goals

The next step in achieving your goals after you define your obstacles is to find solutions. If you have defined the possible obstacles to your goal, your mind will suddenly perceive solutions where none existed before.

This is because as humans are instinctive problem-solvers. Most people make the mistake of not listing their obstacles on paper; maybe because we are afraid to acknowledge they exist. But once you do your perspective usually changes.

Don’t make the mistake of not thinking of solutions. For each obstacle you defined brainstorm one or more possible solutions and write them down. If you find that you are unable to define all your solutions on the first try, don’t worry. Just keep coming back to your list, and eventually solutions will become apparent to you.

Remember, problem solving is ingrained in our nature as human beings!

I have used as an example for outlining the steps to achieve your goals, my audacious goal to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. I set a clear time frame to reach this goal in 1.5 years. My measurement of success was to get to the top of the mountain without endangering my life or those in the group. I defined 10 compelling reasons why I was undertaking the climb and printed these out to review whenever my resolve waivered. I defined the key benefits I would gain by reaching my goal. I then defined and listed the consequences of not achieving my goals. I wrote down the many obstacles there were many in my path. Read the rest of this entry »

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How Bullfighting Can Help You With Goal Setting

Attacking bull.I read something interesting about bullfighting the other day that I want to share with you. There is a place in the bullring where every bull feels safe. If the bull reaches this spot, he stops running and rests.

It might seem like the bull has given up or injured himself when he enters this place, but this is not the case at all. Rather, this break from the action enables him to gather up his full strength again so he can continue fighting.

This safe place is called the “querencia.” This spot is different for every bull. It is the job of the matador to figure out the location of the querenciais for the bull and then prevent the bull from entering this sanctuary.

What is the “querencia” in your life? It doesn’t have to be a physical place, although it can be. It can also be a state of mind or a particular memory or mental picture that makes you feel safe and whole. It can also be as simple as a photograph or other object that, when you look at it, makes you feel at home and secure.

When you find it difficult to achieve your goals or to temporarily get off the treadmill of your life, enter your “querencia,” even if just a few minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Goal Setting Step 3 – How to Measure Your Success

mesaurementimageSo far we learned how to define a huge goal and set a deadline in our process to achieve our goals. Today we will discuss how to measure our success.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is not defining clearly how they will measure “success”.

For some goals, it is easy to define how you will measure progress. But I believe everything can be measured, directly or indirectly via a proxy.

For example, if your goal was to “lose weight and get fitter,” you could measure weight loss, your Body Mass Index, the distance you can easily walk or run in a given time, etc. These are very concrete ways to measure weight loss and fitness gain.

If your goal was “improved family relationships,” it is more difficult to measure progress.

In this case you may have to define a whole set of “soft” performance measures to give you a good way to assess your progress.

In this example, is the frequency of family contact increased, especially if there is geographical distance between family members? Are the interactions deeper and more meaningful and satisfying? Are you increasingly happy emerging from those interactions?

Remember my audacious goal was to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 feet, one of the world’s seven peaks and Africa’s tallest mountain. I  set a very clear timeframe of reaching this goal in 1.5 years, taking the opportunity of a three week school break in January 2005 that my daughter would have to undertake the trek with me.

My measure of success was simple: get to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro at 19,340 feet without endangering my life or those in the group. Read the rest of this entry »

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Goal Setting – Learn Why Creating a Life Blueprint Will Make You Happy

If you are like most people, whether in your twenties or eighties, there are likely a number of areas in your life that leave you feeling disappointed. Are you satisfied with every aspect of your life? Are you living the life of your dreams, and thriving, day to day, month to month, year to year – or is your life a struggle. Are you just surviving or getting by?

Ask yourself these 10 questions and answer yes or no.

1.       Do you have the financial freedom you desire? Is your family’s financial future secure, and well able to ride out economic downturns?

2.       Are your family relationships everything that you desire them to be?

3.       Is your health, fitness level, weight and energy at an optimal level?

4.       Do you love what you do and are you using your talents to their maximum?

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