Day: August 21, 2012

Achieving personal goals: Work for results

Getting Results.

When you don’t get results:
Try something else.

If you don’t get the results you want:
Try something else.

And if you stop getting results:
Try something else.

View the image version of this bullet point.

Achieving personal goals series:

• Take action
• Do it for YOU
• Visualize your results
• Make a commitment to yourself
• Take personal responsibility
• Focus on what you CAN do
• No excuses!
• Work for results
• Focus on the positive
• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Be patient and disciplined

Related:

• Making progress is more important than making excuses

Achieving personal goals: Make a commitment to yourself

Make a commitment to yourself to make what you want happen. And then make a plan on what you are going to do to achieve your goal.

Understand your “triggers” and where and why you have failed in the past. Find an alternative positive action that you can take to avoid falling into the same traps.

Then take action, be consistent, persistent and determined and follow through with your commitment.

Achieving personal goals series:

• Take action
• Do it for YOU
• Visualize your results
• Make a commitment to yourself
• Take personal responsibility
• Focus on what you CAN do
• No excuses!
• Work for results
• Focus on the positive
• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Be patient and disciplined

Fuel your desire by visualizing your results.

“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.”  — Napoleon Hill

If you can’t picture the results you want in vivid detail, then there’s a good chance that:

1. You don’t have a well enough defined goal or
2. You don’t truly believe it’s possible.

The answer to 1. is easy — keep refining your goal until you can vividly picture what you want. If you have to, break it down into smaller steps.

The answer to 2. may have to do with the fact that what you want isn’t congruent with something about you.

Contrary to the saying, “You can do anything you set your mind to” — NO YOU CAN’T.

Some people would call this “being realistic” — but I agree with Will Smith who says, “Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.”

I think lofty goals that some people might think you are crazy for believing you can achieve are worth aiming for — because I think people are capable of achieving far more than they believe.

But there are some limitations — mainly, you cannot control things that are beyond your control.

Yes, you can learn to play the piano — perhaps sensationally, but you can’t turn back time and learn the piano when you were three years old and take that experience with you through your life.

Yes, you can learn to sing better, but you cannot entirely change the essence of your voice to sound exactly like someone else.

Yes, you can improve your fitness and dramatically change your body composition, but you cannot change your bone structure or will your body to grow a foot taller.

However…

You can always maximize what you already have to improve your health, habits, and skills. You can always find ways to better yourself. And by doing so, you can get results that others might not even believe were possible. But to do this, you have to have a very clear idea of exactly what it is you want to accomplish.

And when you know what you want to accomplish, then vividly imagine the changes you would like to see and how you will feel when you’ve reached your goal.

And don’t just do this once, do it often! What you imagine should inspire you. Use that as fuel and motivation to propel you towards your goal.

Achieving personal goals series:

• Take action
• Do it for YOU
• Visualize your results
• Make a commitment to yourself
• Take personal responsibility
• Focus on what you CAN do
• No excuses!
• Work for results
• Focus on the positive
• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Be patient and disciplined

Achieving personal goals: Do it for YOU.

Know why you want something and make sure you want it for the right reasons. If you’re doing things to try to impress or elicit a change in others, then you’re putting your efforts into getting results that are ultimately beyond your control. You can’t change other people.

While your actions may influence or even inspire others, you can’t make people do anything. And while you may achieve goals that make you more appealing to some, you can’t make people like you. You can only set a good example for others to follow or be attracted to.

If you’re going to do something, do it for the changes it leads to in you — and to a larger degree, your life.

Achieving personal goals series:

• Take action
• Do it for YOU
• Visualize your results
• Make a commitment to yourself
• Take personal responsibility
• Focus on what you CAN do
• No excuses!
• Work for results
• Focus on the positive
• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Be patient and disciplined

Related:

• Believe in yourself