December 28, 2006
Year 2006 is coming to an end soon. To me, it has been a great year for me as I’ve managed to bring myself out of my comfort zone and take massive actions towards my dreams and goals.
It has been a great year of learning and growth for me and I certainly look forward to another year of purpose in year 2007. I’ve picked up several success tips from severaly self-improvement books I’ve read and I would like to share with everyone.
Hence, in this success tips series, I’m going to share with everyone some success tips which I feel everyone should adopt in order to make 2007 a year to remember for all of us.
1. Set Empowering & Clearly Defined Goals
There’s this famous example about a research done at Yale University in 1952. In the research study, it was found out that only 3% of the graduating batch of students had set for themselves clearly defined goals. On the other hand, the remaining 97% had no idea what they really wanted in life.
Twenty years later, a follow up study was done and a shocking truth was revealed: The combined income of the 3% of students who had clearly defined goals was actually more than the combined income of the remaining 97% of students.
This is by no means coincidental. I’ve gone through several stories of the most successful people in the world and they all knew exactly what they wanted since a young age. Tiger Woods made a bold statement when he was only eight years old that he was going to become the world no.1 golfer. And look where is he now?
There are tons of other examples of similar success stories like his, and the similarity is these people all set clearly defined goals. Now by this I’m not referring to your normal new year resolutions. I myself have set tons of those only for them to be forgotten.
You’ve got to set goals that will truly stretch your limits and empower yourself towards attaining huge success. And you have to review and evaluate your goals constantly to ensure you remain on track towards achieving them.
One good formula I’ve learnt is the S-M-A-R-T Goals Formula:
1.
Specific
One of the main reasons people do not achieve what they want is because they are not definite about what they want. You’ve got to make sure that the goals you set are clearly defined and specific.
Do not set vague goals like ‘I want to make more money’. Well, this could mean making a few dollars extra, a few hundred dollars extra or even a few hundred thousand dollars extra. Unless you know how much more money you want to make, you will never be able to develop a realistic action plan to achieve your goal.
Hence, instead of saying you want to make more money, set a goal of ‘earning an income of $5000 per month’ for instance.
2. Measurable
If you can’t measure your goals, you can’t manage it. Hence, choose a goal with measurable progress, so you can see the change occur.
An example will be I want to lose 2Kg by February.
You should establish concrete criteria for measuring progress towards the attainminet of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goals.
3. Attainable
Now, by this I’m not suggesting you set goals that are easily attainable. In order to really stretch yourself and bring about greater success, you’ve got to set goals that are able to challenge and excite you.
The reason why people are not often motivated to their goals is because the goals they set do not excite them. Thus, in order to ignite the passion and fire in yourself, you’ve got to set challenging and inspiring goals.
Nonetheless, you’ve got to make sure they’re exciting yet attainable. If they’re not attainable, one would simply give up.
4. Realistic
Once again, this is not a synonym for ‘easy’. Realistic, in this case, means ‘do-able’. In order for your goals to be realistic, you’ve got to devise a concrete plan that will ensure that you’re able to achieve them.
Hence, you have the ability to make your goals realistic. Just be sure to set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement and formulate a consistent action plan.
However, unrealistic goals include changing the forces of nature or trying to change the science of how things work. So be sure not to fall into the trap of setting unrealistic goals.
5. Timely
By this, it refers to setting a timeframe for your goals. You’ve got to set a deadline by which you want to achieve a certain goal.
If you do not set a time, the commitment is too vague. There’s no sense of urgency and you will tend to procrastinate. Chances are, you will simply forget about that goal as you’re not compelled to take action.
Hence, always set a deadline that will force you to start immediately and stick to your deadline!
So there you have it! The S-M-A-R-T formula for creating empowering goals. So what are you waiting for? Start setting clearly defined goals for 2007 and I’m sure it will be a meaningful & purposeful year to come. Write it down and stick it on your wall so that you will be reminded of them every single day! Visualize yourself achieving those goals and think about how you would feel if you were to achieve them?
With that, I shall leave you to setting your own goals and I shall continue with my success tips tomorrow. Good luck and have fun setting your goals!
« Hide It
Tag:
Dreams,
Goals,
Money,
Success,
WealthPopularity: 8% [?]
