Goal Clarity: It's Do or Die
By Corwin Smith
When I started college at Harvard University, I decided to challenge myself by setting multiple goals in a number of different areas to see if I could accomplish everything that I had been obsessing and dreaming about since my days as a high school freshman (This powerful process is what ultimately led to my joining the ranks of motivational college speakers around the world).
Since I loved aggressive sports my first goal was to win a slot on the Harvard Rugby Team and ultimately lead the team as its captain. It was crystal clear in my mind that rugby was going to be a major priority in college and I would focus an intense level of effort to the achievement of my dream.
At the same time, I wrote down in my personal ramblings a radically new objective: I decided that I wanted to start up and run a money making business out of my dorm room. Now at the time, I had absolutely no idea whatsoever what the nature of this new enterprise would be but I was so impressed by the legendary Harvard dropout Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft out of his dorm room that I felt obliged to model his success. Somehow I just knew that if I focused intensely on this objective the perfect product would appear.
I had a number of other personal, academic and relationship goals, but they were all secondary or designed to be supportive of my goal of becoming the team captain and running a successful business.
If I had to name one foundational rule; one core value crucial to the successful achievement of your goals I would tell you without hesitation that it is focus. You can never lose your focus. And the more focus the better.
Now I don't tell you this story to impress you but rather to show you my commitment to this process.
Clarity is Key
The first thing you need to achieve is absolute clarity as to the nature of your goal. Second, you must write the goal out in as much loving detail as possible. Leave out nothing! Play with the goal, think of all the pleasure its attainment is going to provide. Involve your feelings and mentally visualize the process as fun. For example, take time to sit back and visualize the goal as already having been achieved. Think about how you will feel; how you will look; hear what amazing things people will be saying about you.
And finally, you need to dwell on how the accomplishment of this goal is going to change your life for the better. In my research at this time, I learned that the subconscious brain cannot tell the difference between an intensely, powerfully defined dream and reality. As a result, I knew that my brain would be working twenty-four-seven to bring this goal into reality.
Set Achievement Milestones.
An important aspect of goal setting is setting achievable milestones. Since I was going to be in college for at least four years, I felt that by breaking my goals down into eight semesters it would allow for a decent period of time to show dramatic and measurable changes particularly if I set crystal clear goals in advance. For example, what overall physical conditioning goals would I have achieved by deadline: January 1st. What would I be bench pressing? Would I have achieved all my endurance goals? Am I generally considered to be the hardest-working, most committed, most supportive player on the team?
Conversely, if what I am doing is not bringing me closer to achieving my goals, I need to change my direction. This is not a failure or set-back, it is just a fact of life. Since I knew the outcome I desired, the solution to getting back on track was generally obvious to me.
The best way to envision this correction process is to compare it to a plane flying from Boston to San Francisco. Did you know that the plane is off course 90 percent of the time? If the pilot did not make constant corrections to her flight plan she would, of a certainty, never arrive at her destination.
And this is why milestones are such important steps on the road to goal achievement. Finally, if you are not yet at the point of clarity, then by all means make that your first goal, for without focus and clarity of purpose you will never achieve your dream.
And just like with my dream to become the best of college speakers, you are going to have reversals, disappointments, and unexpected hurdles but if the goal or the outcome that you desire remains constant you will achieve it.
For more information regarding College Speakers, please visit Marcwayshak.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Corwin_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Goal-Clarity:-Its-Do-or-Die&id=6049856
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น