by Roger Seip
Section 2
The Components of Your Record-Breaking Life
Component #1
Having Energizing Goals
Chapter 7
Five Characteristics of an Energizing Goal
It seems like every personal development book or guru talks about the importance of goals. So let's clarify, and talk about what goals are actually for. It's my belief that goals for business, health, relationships, money, or family are there to give you three things, and three things only. Those three things are:
1. Focus
2. Direction
3. A sense of urgency
That's it—that's all you need. Think about a time in your life when you had those three things in abundance; maybe when you were really locked in on hitting a sales goal or completing a project you were totally jazzed about. Maybe you were planning a wedding. Maybe you were training for a marathon or some other big athletic event. Anytime you had something that you were totally fired up about, especially if there was some type of deadline involved, you had a high degree of focus, direction, and urgency, didn't you? If you can picture that time, how did you feel during that time? My guess is that you felt energized, happy, maybe couldn't wait to get out of bed and get going each day—yes? Well guess what—when your goals are structured in the way we'll do it, they can provide that same energy and joy for you now. They aren't there to to be used as a weapon or a star to wish upon; they are there to give you focus, direction, and a sense of urgency. Let's break these down.
Focus
In order to function optimally, your brain must have a clear focus. Why is this so important? There are a couple of reasons.
Focus Quiets Your Mind
If you've ever been around a young child that is upset, you may know that the first thing to do is check if the child is hungry or wet or overly tired, and if it's not one of those things, you can assume that the child is simply freaking out. And when you give a young child something to focus on—a set of keys, a toy, your face—something they can latch onto and pay attention to, it calms their mind. The same is true for us. Yes, our subconscious mind has many of the same traits as an infant. When we have a clear picture to focus on, a goal that we are moving toward, our minds become much calmer. Most of our minds are prone to some fairly unhelpful habits: overanalyzing, worrying, imagining the worst, or just racing a million miles an hour. Providing your mind and your life with a clear picture to focus on will do wonders for your energy and productivity in the here and now.
Focus Turns on the Law of Attraction
A crystal clear mental focus is the thing that activates your subconscious mind to start seeking out and attracting the things you really desire. The only other option is playing the “negative attraction” trick on yourself.
My friend Dave was teaching his daughter Hana how to ride her bike without training wheels. She was just starting to get it, so Dave ran up the road ahead of her and said “You're doing great—now don't run into the telephone pole!” You know that a bike will pretty much go wherever you look, right? So of course, as soon as Dave told her what not to run into, that's where she looked, and just naturally ran straight into the obstacle. They repeated this until Dave made a small change. When he ran up the road and said, “You're doing great, Hana—now ride straight toward me!” she had no problem at all.
So the real deal with focus is that your subconscious mind is going to focus on something. We can't control the fact that it will find a focus. What we do have influence over is what it will find to focus on. If we give it nothing, its tendency will be to find something negative; that's just what the mind does. Then the next thing the subconscious does is to move powerfully toward its focus—without any questions. It's like a heat-seeking missile toward whatever picture it's seeing. By consciously providing your mind with a clear and positive focus, it turns that missile toward what you really want, rather than just what it finds by default.
Direction
We've learned that human beings operate best when they know where they are going, and that the destination is one they have decided upon themselves. Think about anytime you went on a road trip or vacation. One of the most exciting parts was right at the beginning, yes? As soon as you started moving, you got a lift just from knowing that you were heading toward something fun. Even though you weren't anywhere close yet, you got the buzz right away. Same thing is true in life. Example: If you've ever had to get out of debt, think about when you started getting excited about doing it. Most of my clients who've ever had to do this tell me that it's not when the last dollar gets paid off, it's when the first dollar gets paid off that the momentum starts to build and the excitement and motivation kick in. Same thing goes for an exercise plan. You usually start reaping the motivation and self-esteem benefits long before you start seeing significant results; you reap them as soon as you start moving in the direction of your goals. Earl Nightingale actually defined success as “the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal.” So in many ways, success itself, energy and enthusiasm, are all about simply having direction. Effectively structured goals will give you that direction, and they'll do it quickly.
Sense of Urgency
What is a sense of urgency? A sense of urgency means that you are moving quickly and with purpose. Have you ever woken up in the morning and you were just moving and grooving? Not rushing around, but you had a lot to do, you were excited about it, and you just needed to get going? Think about how you moved. You didn't linger over the newspaper or just stand in the shower till the hot water ran out—you were moving with purpose. Or think about when you were getting packed at the last minute to go on a vacation you were really excited about. Same feeling—not crashing around recklessly, but doing what needed to be done, quickly, efficiently, and without wasted time.
Well-structured goals will give you the same feeling. When you have a clear target in mind and you are focused on it, you derive a level of excitement and urgency that can't be found in a life lived by accident.
To sum up, your mind works like a GPS. I got reminded of this recently when I had to make a trip to central Wisconsin for a speaking engagement. The client was a bank, our meeting was happening in a small town, and I had to drive about 90 miles of two-lane highways to get there. To make it tougher, most of the way that morning was enshrouded in very thick fog. So I told my GPS the address I needed to get to. I said “Find 140 Huron street, Berlin, Wisconsin.” And my faithful Droid assessed where I was, located my destination, and literally drew a line right to where I needed to go. Neat!
Here's the key though: What did I need to give my GPS? That's right, I needed to give it exact, specific information on where I wanted to go.
What if I had said to my GPS, “Find bank”? What would have happened? My GPS would have basically just gone, “Huh?” It does a great job with specifics, but generalities return nothing but more questions. We've learned that your subconscious mind is almost exactly the same: If you give it very specific directions it does an amazing job of getting you there, but generalities it just doesn't know what to do with, so it tends to do nothing. Having clear cut, effectively structured goals is like providing your internal GPS with the specific directions that it needs.
So what creates an effectively structured goal? How do you create targets that will give you the focus, direction, and urgency that you need to overcome the adversities that you face? There are five characteristics that we've found make up a truly energizing goal.
1. An energizing goal must be meaningful to you. This may seem obvious, but most people skip right over it.
2. An energizing goal must be specific and measurable, and a deadline can really help. This is the part that I think most people tend to shy away from when setting goals. In live workshops I'll often ask my students to do the exercise that I had you do at the beginning of this book: Write down their most important goal. And do you know what? About 95 percent of what people write down is completely lacking in this trait. I see people wr
ite down things like “lose some weight,” “make more money,” “grow sales,” I actually had one person write down “Be Awesome,” Now these are what I would consider to be a good start, but they lack the power we find in specificity. Go back to the GPS example from earlier. Your brain wants and craves a clear, focused picture of where you want it to take you. When it has that, it gets really fired up and gets to work immediately, in ways we sometimes can't even understand. When it doesn't have a clear picture it goes nowhere because all it knows is to try and stay safe, right where it is. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do so many people resist the idea of a specific, measurable goal with a due date? Three words: fear of failure. When you say “I want more money,” you have wiggle room. You can always escape with “Yeah, someday I'll have more money.” You can procrastinate. I understand this not wanting to put it out there specifically, I really do. So you have a choice—you can either get specific in your intention and make something happen, or you can keep general and stay exactly where you are right now. The results are very predictable.
By giving your goals specific numbers, measurements, and deadlines you also create accountability, either internal or external. Accountability is yet another extremely powerful success accelerator, what most of us resist. All I can say is that accountability may the best and fastest way to get things done. When you accept accountability, you accept responsibility, and it is nearly impossible to make progress until you do this. Make your goals specific, and just observe how much more they do for you.
3. An energizing goal must be the right size. How big should your goals be? For your goals to work, they will need to be the right size. What is the right size for you? Two elements are important.
First, the goals must be small enough that you genuinely believe you can accomplish them. There is a psychological term called “gradient” that applies here. Essentially we all have a limit on what we believe is possible for us. If a goal or objective is too far above that gradient, our brains simply don't consider it real or possible, and they will tend to give up before we even start. So if you are looking to increase your sales by 500 percent from one year to the next when you're accustomed to increasing by 10 to 20 percent, you may be simply making too much of a jump for your brain to handle.
Second, the goals must be big enough to make you stretch; they must make you a little uncomfortable. At the same time, you'll benefit a lot if you make your goals big enough that they will test you. Sure, achievable and realistic are important, but your brain loves a challenge! If you've run a marathon, your brain can't get very excited about your goal to run a 10K. Plus, setting and going for goals that are just out of easy reach is how you stretch yourself and grow as a person.
How can you tell if your goal is the right size for you? If your goal is the right size, it will create two distinct emotional responses. The first is that when you look at your goal in its totality, it should make you a little nervous. Not totally freak you out, but it should make the heart beat a little faster, maybe make your palms sweat a little. The second response is: When you break down the specific daily or weekly action steps toward your goal's achievement, it should instill confidence. You should be able to look at your goal in small pieces and say, “Oh yeah, I can do that.” If you've got that combination of emotions, you can rest assured that you've got something that is at least the right size for you.
4. An energizing goal must be written down and ideally turned into images. I know, you've heard this one before: I need to write down my goals, blah blah blah. For some reason people tend to pooh-pooh this one, but if you're serious about accomplishing your goals, writing down your goals is not just a good idea that everyone talks about; it is one of the central elements that define an effectively structured goal. In speaking and conducting workshops on goals for more than a decade, I have found that nearly everyone pays lip service to this practice, but almost nobody does it on a regular basis. And it's crazy!
Napoleon Hill, in his incredible work Think and Grow Rich, describes a very specific process of identifying your “Definite Chief Aim” and then writing about it in a very specific way. I won't detail it here, but it's fantastically effective, and Hill says that the technique and the thinking behind it were so effective for him and his students that it “frightened him.” Read the book if you haven't, but he's basically talking about how the writing and reading of goals is one of the most powerful things one can do.
Here's a more modern example. A few years ago I hired a salesperson who was also a very successful competitive body builder. The discipline required to morph his body into a contest-winning work of art was staggering. But he did it—trained systematically and religiously, ate nothing but protein and vegetables for months on end, and regularly won bodybuilding contests. At the same time, he was failing miserably in sales. One day in a coaching session our conversation turned to his goals. I asked, “If I wanted to see your bodybuilding goals, where could I see them?” He said, “Oh, all over the place—my locker, my car, my apartment. I've got a whole notebook where they're written out and I've even got all kinds of pictures posted. Just talking about them right now is getting me all fired up!” I said, “Great, I love it. So if I wanted to see your sales goals, where could I see them?” And it was like I had punched him in the face. He was stunned, and slowly said, “You would have to look deep within the recesses of my brain.” Hmmm…written out goals and tremendous success in one area, no written goals and no success in another. Correlation?
Where should goals be written? There's no pat answer but here are some suggestions. I use a notebook that I review daily. Also, written notes in places you'll see them are very helpful. On the fridge, in front of your desk at work, in your car, on the back of your computer—basically anywhere you can post your goals so that they act as a constant subconscious reminder can be extremely powerful. One thing that's very popular these days is the concept of a vision board/vision book, which takes the process to a whole other level. Keep in mind that your subconscious mind thinks in pictures. If you can create an image of success for your mind to focus on in conjunction with a written description, it's even better.
5. An effective goal must be reviewed. I always encourage my students to develop a relationship with their goals. And by relationship, I mean just like a relationship with a person who's important. When you can relate to your goals in a way that they become part of you—internalized—then their achievement is virtually assured. A mentor of mine once said, “I should be able to call you at two in the morning, wake you from a dead sleep, and ask you your most important goals, and you should be able to state them as quickly as if I had asked you your name.”
Could you do that? Are you that clear and that well versed in the direction of your life? Most people are not, If you want to really develop focus, direction, and a sense of urgency through your goals you must spend time with them. You don't build a relationship with your spouse or your friends unless you spend time with them. You can't pass the 2 a.m. test if you've not internalized your goals, which doesn't happen at one sitting. You've got to review and re-view your goals. By “review,” I mean go over your most important goals weekly by studying and measuring your progress; and by “re-view” I mean have the visual images that will continuously remind your subconscious of the picture you want it to be focused on. By doing this, you'll discover that you find more energy, meaning, context, and purpose in nearly everything you do, and positive things may begin to manifest in your world, almost like magic.
So those are the five main characteristics of an effectively structured goal. It will be meaningful to you; it will be specific and measurable with (potentially) a due date; it will be the right size; it will be written down/visualized; and it will be re-viewed. Here's the best thing about having goals structured in this way—even when it doesn't work, it still works!
Example: I remember the first time my business partner and I ever found ourselves in debt. Neither of us had really ever carried any debt, but we made
some significant investments in our new business and found ourselves owing $47,000 at the beginning of a year. We were uncomfortable with the situation and set a goal of getting the entire amount paid off by my birthday, May 29. So we did all the things discussed here. We came up with exactly what we wanted to accomplish, gave ourselves the due date, and came up with every reason we could think of why it was important to us. We agreed that it would be a stretch but it was doable (right size), and we wrote all of this down. We even came up with signs with the number 4729 on them and posted them literally everywhere. It was actually a little ridiculous, but it worked. Good news is that our loan did not get paid off by May 29—it was actually paid on April 30. And I have to say, that result is very common. When you pick goals that are meaningful and then structure them in a way that really works, it's extremely common to achieve them faster than you ever thought possible. And even if it takes an extra week, month, or year, so what! If your goals are structured effectively, they will for sure provide you with focus, direction, and a sense of urgency that benefits you immediately, and that's worth the effort.
Reinforcement and Bonuses: This chapter has been Memory Optimized™ for your benefit. For your brief lesson and some great bonuses, visit www.planetfreedom.com/trainyourbrain with the access code in the About the Author section. Enjoy!
Chapter 8
Heighten Your Focus with Your Keystone Goal
What we'll do now is to show you how to set up, tweak, and systemize your most important goals in a way that heightens your focus. There are five things I'm going to encourage you to do with your goals here, and I strongly encourage you to physically do the first three of them immediately. For this chapter you'll need a calendar, a clean sheet of paper, and a pen. Please make it pen and paper, not your computer screen. The things we are about to do are much more powerful when you do them by hand, so if you don't have pen and paper, go get some.
