YOUR DREAM AND YOU [MOTIVATIONAL]

I read this article and found it useful for people like me who have dreams and which to achieve them.  

Please take time in reading through the summary and comment

INTRODUCTION

Change is hard. If it were simple, everyone would be living the life of their dreams.

√ Success takes personal sacrifice.

√It takes the ability to overcome adversity.

√ It takes an enormous amount of REAL discipline. That’s right... discipline.

√Success doesn’t care if you were not hugged enough as a child or if you grew up on the right street.

√Success and goal attainment are about taking full responsibility for where you are in life and your ability to do whatever it takes to make the desired change.

If you are willing to put your personal baggage and self doubt on the back burner, read on, you may have an opportunity for REAL change and the true potential of living your dream….

Step 1.

First things first

Before jumping in and setting goals to change your life for good, it is necessary to evaluate where you are and what is most important to you. Here are four key questions to ask yourself and to answer honestly in order to make sure you have the best chance to achieve your goals. Take some time to really reflect and think about these.

a. What were my Successes in previous years – personal and professional?

b. What were some of my Shortcomings in the previous years?

c. What three things could I change professionally and personally that would have a significant impact on this year?

d. What am I truly grateful for?

Step 2.

Set Smart Goals

Once we fully understand where we are, where we have been and what is most important to us, we can then focus on setting the right goals. In setting each goal, keep in mind they have to be SMART,

•S mart

•M easurable,

•A ttainable,

•R ealistic and

•T imely. Be sure to put each goal through the SMART test.

Step 3

Define the obstacles and how you get past them

There are always obstacles in the way of achieving goals. Life happens fast. Kids need to go to soccer practice, the house needs to be cleaned, dinner needs to be made, etc… There will always be things that vie for your time and detract you from the activities needed to attain your goal. Make sure you take the time to identify the obstacles in business and in life that will hinder your goal achievement.

Once they are defined, determine how you will overcome them. Kids can not miss practice and we all need to eat, you can’t stop doing the things that are important to you and need to be done. However what you can do is adjust schedules and plan to get up earlier if needed – whatever can be done to do what you need to do to address the obstacles.

Step 4.

Develop the Action plan 

Without a plan to make your goal happen it is all but a wish or a dream - that most likely will never materialize. An action plan is the detailed outline of the steps needed to achieve the desired outcome.

The more detailed the plan with time, dates and specific actions steps needed, the better. Your action plan is your road map from where you are now, to where you want to go.

Step 5.

What are the Critical Mile Stones?

Milestones are like measuring points to compare your progress to.

Milestones are critical as they measure your progress and tell you if you are ahead of plan, which is always good, or behind which may require changes to the action plan to get back on track in order to attain any time frame goals. In recruiting setting yearly goals is very important. But backing them up with quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily targets are even more essential. If you don’t ever hit your daily goals, nothing else will matter.

Step 6.

Get an Accountability Partner

It is extremely difficult to do this stuff alone. While you doing your best to be as disciplined as possible and facing the adversity that the world has thrown at you, it can seem insurmountable. Having someone there to keep you on track and give you encouragement along the way can make all the difference in the world. Find someone who knows you , who will be honest with you if get off track, but also someone who can inspire you when the chips are down.

Step 7.

Believe In Claude Bristol book, “The Magic of Believing”2,

he spells out the power of belief. In studying miracles all over the world that have occurred in different religions, the findings were staggering. It didn’t matter what the religion was that affected the outcome. It was the strength of the "Belief” that was the major factor in the miracle actually happening. Your personal belief that you can achieve your goals is critical to your success in goal attainment

Your belief in yourself and your passion for your goal can help you overcome any obstacle. 

Step 8. 

Define your Why? 

If there is one thing that you could do to insure you reach any goal you set, it’s developing a powerful why. Your “WHY” is the reason you do what you do. It’s what will motivate you to climb any mountain or even walk through a brick wall in the face of adversity. It could be a person or an event that happened in your life. It could be an experience that you never want to experience again, or something that you feel so much for, you will never ever let them down. By defining your why, and truly letting it become part of your soul, you can become unstoppable in achieving anything you put your mind to.

Step 9.

Dream Big and Set the Bar High

In the information on goal setting, Locke and Latham say to not make the goals too big. We as humans however are capable of achieving great things. Every year, world records are broken for speed, strength, intellect and how many hot dogs someone can devour. We have no idea still of the potential of any human being. The only thing we do know is - we are far from reaching it.

You really have no idea of what your true potential is – in recruiting, in business, in sports or in life. I don’t claim to know why we were put on earth, but I do know that it wasn’t to be average. We are not sheep, born to follow. We were given life to excel and do the extraordinary.

I encourage you to set the bar high and see what unlimited potential can be achieved in your life.

Step 10:

Reward yourself…

Celebrate A reward system works wonders to keep you passionate and motivated.

When you reach a milestone, you need to celebrate.

When you overcome an obstacle - celebrate.

You need to develop a habit of rewarding yourself for a job well done. When you hit your metrics for recruiting – you need to celebrate and reward yourself.

Achieving a goal is like climbing a mountain. At each new altitude you reach, stop for a second and celebrate your progress. On the other hand, if you come up short, ask yourself why it happened, make the corrections needed and go forward. Don’t get too down on yourself, be disappointed, but believe.

In then end, it’s not about the individual game, it’s about being on top at the end of the season. Your success will spur you on to achieve even greater things in going forward.

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My inspiration in writing this article is to help anyone who is now struggling to reach what they want in life.

If you are like most people – there are many things you would like changed in business and other areas.  

💢Change is not easy. Like many things in life, the secret to goal achievement is in understanding the process and the key elements involved.💢

Take time to ask the relevant questions to evaluate where you are before you goal set.

Set SMART goals,

Establish Milestones,

Identify your obstacles,

and Determine a plan to over come them.

If you develop a good action plan and back it up with a strong why, you will be 99% of the way to achieving what you want. 

💓I look forward to celebrating your success with you in 2017💓.

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References:
Locke, Edwin A., & Latham, Gary P. (2002) Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation. In The American Psychologist Vol. 57, No.9, 705-717
Bristol, Claude M. (1948). The Magic of Believing – With a New Introduction By Nido Qubein.
New York: Pocket Books. Knight, Don, & Durham, Cathy C. & Locke, Edwin A. (ref. article) The Relationship of Team Goals, Incentives, And Efficacy To Strategic Risk, Tactical Implementation, And Performance.
In the Press – Academy of Management Journal – Relationship of Team Goals 1