Paul J. MeyerFull Circle Success Expert Contributor
Goal setting is the most important aspect of all improvement or personal development plans. It is the key to all fulfillment and achievement. Confidence is important. Determination is vital. Many different personality traits contribute to success. But they all come into focus in goal setting.
If you asked me to list everything that has gone into the achievement of my own personal success, probably 75 percent of what I would have to say would involve goal setting.
Let's begin by making this statement: If you are not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.
If you are not making the progress you want -- if your life doesn't seem to be fitting together, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.
A goal is a target toward which you move, but it is something more than that. There is something almost mystical about a crystallized goal when you have developed a plan and set a deadline for its attainment.
Such a goal produces in you a burning desire, intense self-confidence, and a firm determination to follow through.
In some miraculous way, a crystallized goal brings everything into the shape, form, and focus necessary for its achievement. Whether it be people you need, or money, or ideas -- all the ingredients of success seem to fall into line right on the exact timetable to hit your target date.
It has happened to me a thousand times. It has happened to other people who have mastered the art of goal setting. Let me just share with you some of the stories that I have collected over the years about people who set goals.
One day many summers ago John Goddard sat down in his bedroom and thought about all the things he would like to do when he grew up. It wasn't a particularly extraordinary flight of fancy for a boy of 15, but Goddard carried it a bit further than most. First he wrote down everything that occurred to him -- every adventure, every journey, every challenge, every pleasure. Then one by one, year by year, he set about accomplishing them.
Some of the 127 goals that he wrote down seemed easily attainable even then.
· Becoming an Eagle Scout -- that was number 5 on the list.
· Type 50 words a minute -- that was number 21. ,
· Visit a movie studio was number 10.
· Hold my breath under water for 2 1/2 minutes -- number 23.
Others seemed considerably more difficult.
· Milk a rattlesnake -- Number 9.
· Read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica -- number 50.
· Sail the South Seas in a schooner -- number 117.
· Learn to speak French and Spanish -- number 78 and 79.
Many seem downright impossible.
· Climb Mt. Everest -- number 8.
· Visit every country in the world -- number 89.
· Find Noah's Ark -- number 57.
· Go the the moon -- number 127.
John Goddard has real perseverance. He has now reached 107 of his goals, only 20 more to go. It is not really all that crazy as it sounds, he sits in the den of his home surrounded by hundreds of souvenirs he has brought back.
Here is the key: "1 had a wild imagination," Goddard says, "but it was also very disciplined and organized." So you can see he added some "do it now" and he added "action." Procrastination obviously is not a part of his mental makeup.
I believe that we can see from this illustration that it is important not only to fantasize and dream and visualize and make that a part of what we do for goal setting, but to put it down and organize it and then get into action.
Goddard goes on to say, "Even today I make lists of all the things I am going to do every month. It is only natural that I would make a list of what I was going to do in my whole life."
Goddard is quite unusual, isn't he? Few of us have formulated such a comprehensive list of dreams and then developed a plan to achieve each one of them.
But actually, that's all there is to goal setting. It is just simply writing down your dreams, crystallizing your thinking, and then developing a plan with a deadline for its attainment. Goddard decided what he was going to do in his lifetime; he set it out day by day, week by week, and month by month, and then crossed the items off of his list as he achieved them.
Anytime in my life that I have ever made a list of what I wanted to do or wanted to achieve, I have always accomplished it. In this tape I will share the methods I used to organize and achieve my goals.