Goal Setting and Success For the Rest of Your Life

Desert High Stretch

Desert High Stretch

The activity YOU do toward reaching YOUR GOALS creates the kind of excitement you need to accomplish your goals. Having goals can chase the blues away because accomplishment breeds happiness. I know a lot of people who try to use logic to feel better and it doesn’t work. Can you think of people who you know who do that? I’m sure you can think of dozens we all know many people who do that. Once and a while I’m guilty of that myself it’s just something that needs more attention and self intervention. Logic does not change emotion. ACTION changes emotion and goals create action.

Approximately 95% of all people die without living what they believe to be a successful life. This statistic is in unison with the failure rate at which people set life changing goals and neglect to cultivate those goals into success. This 95% figure isn’t a law. No one is bound to a statistic like this. What this statistic does is reflect a sad truth that only 5% of all people are willing to do the things necessary to cultivate their dreams and life changing goals into success.

Get out a pencil (not a pen) and a sheet of paper. I’m going to teach you an exercise for setting and achieving goals that I learned from a VERY successful entrepreneur; Jeff Olson. Don’t feel constricted by this exercise you can always modify, add to it and make changes later so use a pencil.

This exercise is going to help you envision your success. Envisioning involves doing everything you can to make it real even before it becomes real. You do that by making it physical and involving your senses. When you write it down and make picture boards it becomes tangible. If you say it out loud it becomes more powerful in your mind. The moment you do something beyond the confines of your skull it starts to become real. If you can’t envision life changing success you won’t achieve it. It’s the 95% of all people who are fooled by thinking, “My goals are in my head that’s good enough”. Keeping a goal or a dream only in your mind by definition is wishful thinking, not envisioning. Wishful thinking is like saying, “I’ll give it a try”. Giving something a try just doesn’t cut it. As Jedi Master Yoda Said, “Do, or do not. There is no try”.

There are four parts to this exercise. Write the following down and make sure to leave space between each section…

1.) My Dreams for my Health:

2.) Price to pay:

3.) Plan to start:

4.) One simple daily discipline:

My Dreams for my Health: Be specific, aim high but make them attainable. Be vivid and with a timeline. Without deadlines you leave everything open ended and diminish your chances of reaching your goals. Remember, the longer you wait the more of life you run out of.

Price to Pay: With every dream lived or life changing goal accomplished there is a price to pay, period. Most people aren’t willing to pay the price of their dreams and goals (Approx. 95%) and instead live quiet lives of despair; regret. The price to pay to live your dreams and accomplish your important goals is worth it. It generally includes teeny tiny small sacrifices. On the other hand; the price to pay for regret is far greater than the price to pay for the daily discipline required to reach your big objectives. Disciplines weigh ounces and regrets weigh tons. I.e. A price to pay for a dream of great health could be giving up junk food, postponing purchases, practicing some delayed gratification, initial discomfiture in exercise etc.

Plan to start: The important point is to start. Remember that no matter what has gone on before, no matter how far down the curve of failure you’ve slid, no matter what’s in your past you can begin fresh and new any time you choose. The past can’t be changed but the future can be. Your future will always be determined by what you do right NOW. There is no tomorrow; tomorrow will always be a day away. Your life exists right now and right now determines success or failure in the future. It’s never too late to start. It’s always too late to wait. Very simple philosophies no need to make any of this complicated 🙂 Notice I said plan to START and not plan to get you to the finish line. Initially you need a plan to get out of the starting gate. Your plan will change as you monitor what’s going on and make corrections that keep you on the path toward success.

One Simple daily discipline: It really doesn’t take much but if you do it every day with the compounding affect over time it makes all the difference. The one simple daily discipline could be to workout every day. If your nutrition is bad make a second daily discipline of cleaning up your diet. If you need more daily disciplines add them but be honest with yourself and write them down. The most drastic life changing differences are often the result of the littlest of things compounded daily over time. You don’t need to be a super human here. Anybody can do these things.

Once you have all of that in place create a daily to do list of just a few simple things and check them off every single day. At the top of my daily to do list is “Work out”. Any task that you give yourself, if compounded over time, will make a drastic difference over time ESPECIALLY the seemingly insignificant mundane daily things so make them all work for you. Otherwise they will work against you because there is no middle road. Time will expose you or promote you.

Last but not least keep this sheet of paper out in the open where you will see it several times every day (i.e. computer desk, fridge etc).

If you follow this easy system PLEASE write me and let me know how it has worked out for you. I would absolutely love to hear about your successes 🙂

– Tom

Poison Something to Believe In


2 thoughts on “Goal Setting and Success For the Rest of Your Life

  1. I love this post. It definitely hits me between the eyes as I am full of thoughts but slow to put things into actionable plans. Conquering the world isn’t impossible if you take one step at a time.

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