The Goal Achievment Blueprint

A very effective expression of the most important goal setting guidelines is that you should set SMART goals. What the SMART goal setting guidelines actually mean is that your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding, and Timely.

With a SPECIFIC goal you can clearly see what it is you want to achieve, and you have specific standards for that achievement. In making your goals specific it is important that you actually write them, which is crucial with all goal setting guidelines. The more specific your goal is, the more realistic is your success, and the shorter the path is to it.

When you work on making your goal specific, you actually program your subconscious mind to work for you. Then, your feelings and thoughts will lead you to your goal instead of pointing at the obstacles. To make your goals specific you also need to work out the other components of SMART goal setting guidelines below.

For a goal to be MEASURABLE you need a way to measure the progress and some specific criteria that will tell you when you can stop and the goal is achieved. Feeling the progress is very important for you to stay motivated and enjoy the process of achieving the goal.

An ATTAINABLE goal is a goal for which you see a realistic path to achievement, and reasonable odds that you get there. This does not mean that the lower you aim the more likely you will reach success. It is well known that goals that work best have a challenge in them. They are chosen as ambitious as possible, but still reachable. Then they will give you more motivation and sense of achievement.

A goal is REWARDING when you have clear reasons why you want to reach that goal. This is one more reason why it is important that the goal is really yours. Have your specific reasons and expected reward in writing. If possible, even with some visual pictures.

Imagine how you are going to feel when the goal is finally reached. This will ensure that the goal is really worth achieving. Then, every time you get stuck and don't feel motivated enough, read your reasons and look at the pictures. This is a known and very powerful practical technique of how to get through difficult moments and not quit.

The final requirement of the SMART goal setting guidelines is that your goal should have a specific TIME LIMIT. Time is the price you pay for the reward from achieving a goal. Setting the deadline will protect you from paying higher price than the goal is worth. This is also your protection from procrastination and perfectionism.

Besides, you typically have many goals competing for your time. A goal with clear time limits is much easier to fit with the rest of your goals, minimizing risk of conflicts, distractions, and disbalance.

PEOPLE DON"T PLAN TO FAIL THEY FAIL TO PLAN

1. Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds.

I remember when I started taking rodeo more seriously. I began to set my sites on the PRCA Texas Circuit. Why? I knew there was no way I could hit the road to the NFR on the National Circut with a wife and new baby at home that needed me, so the next best thing was the highest regional professional level. Pretty cool, right. Wrong.

Sure, when I was talking to people about my rodeo goals it sounded pretty good, and many people were quite impressed. Fortunately I began to see through my own charade.

I had been involved in rodeos for a long time. I had to work selling land to provide for my family and new that my goals were going to require sacrifice. I was not ready to sacrifice everything to obtain my goals and go for the big show.

When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values. In other words you can't sacrifice all your goals to achieve one unless the price is worth it.

2. A goal cannot contradict any of your other goals.

For example, you can't buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year and you can't hit the rodeo circuit for 200 days a year unless your willing to leave your family behind and hope you win enough to send the a check to pay the bills. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. Non-integrated thinking can also hamper your everyday thoughts as well. We should continually strive to eliminate contradictory ideas from our thinking.

You have to sit back, think about all your goals and make sure they don't conflict with each other and that there are enough hours in a day to spend on each area of your life that you should set goals.

3. Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:

Family and Home
Financial and Career
Spiritual and Ethical
Physical and Health
Social and Cultural
Mental and Educational

Setting goals in each area of life will ensure a more balanced life as you begin to examine and change the fundamentals of everyday living. Setting goals in each area of life also helps in eliminating the non-integrated thinking we talked about in the 2nd step.

You can't give your best to Yourself if the other areas in your life are out of balance. This will just cause problems with your marriage, kids, health, social life, mental attitude, and will result in burnout so it will also eventually affect your career. This is why you have to leave home at home, work at work, and while at work be working towards reaching those career financial goals.

4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative.

Plan your work, and then work your plan! Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it cannot determine right from wrong and it does not judge. Its only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get.

Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don't limit it to goal setting. Write out not only what you want, but also why you want it and how you will feel after achieving it!

5. Write your goal out in complete detail.

Instead of writing "A new home," write "A 4,000 square foot ranch style home with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a porch around the entire home, a view of the Texas Hill Country on 150 acres of land with horses, cattle, a nice barn, stock pond, and roping pen.

Once again we are giving the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the clearer the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become.

Can you close your eyes and visualize the home I described above? Walk around the house. Stand on the porch off the master bedroom and see the horses running in the pasture to the left. Look down at the garden full of tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. And off to the right is the other pasture with cattle and in the distance you can see the fog lifting off the pond with Bass hitting the top water for breakfast. Can you see it? So can your subconscious mind.

6. By all means, make sure your goal is high enough.

Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll still be in the stars. Earlier I talked about my rodeo goals and how making it to the top level of the PRCA did not mix with my values. Some of you might be saying that I'm not setting my goals high enough. Not so. I still have very high goals for my rodeo career at the regional level. My ultimate goal was to be Texas Circuit Champion and win enough to still make it to the NFR. If I never make it, everything I do to reach that goal will make me a better rodeo cowboy and a better person. If I make it to the state championship but not to the NFR, then I was still among the top rodeo athletes in the nation. Shoot for the moon!

7. This is the most important, write down your goals.

Writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them.

Sometimes we realize we have to revise a goal as circumstances and other goals change, much like I did with my rodeo career after getting injured. If you need to change a goal do not consider it a failure, consider it a victory as you had the insight to realize something was different.

So your goals are written down.

Now what? Plan your work, and work your plan!

First of all, unless someone is critical to helping you achieve your goal(s), do not freely share your goals with others. The negative attitude from co-workers, family and friends can drag you down quickly. It's very important that your self-talk (the thoughts in your head) are positive.

Reviewing your goals daily is a crucial part of your success and must become part of your routine. Each morning when you wake up read your list of goals that are written in the positive. Visualize the completed goal, see the new home, smell the leather seats in your new car, feel the cold hard cash in your hands. Then each night, right before you go to bed, repeat the process. This process will start both your subconscious and conscious mind on working towards the goal. This will also begin to replace any of the negative self-talk you may have and replace it with positive self-talk.

Every time you make a decision during the day, ask yourself this question, "Does it take me closer to, or further from my goals." If the answer is "closer to," then you've made the right decision. If the answer is "further from," well, you know what to do.

If you follow this process everyday you will be on your way to achieving unlimited success in every aspect of your life.

The difference between a goal and a dream is the written word.

Summary:

1. Develop a DESIRE to achieve the goal. The desire must be intense. How do you intensify desire? Sit down and write out all the benefits and advantages of achieving your goal. Once the list goes between 50 and 100 your goal becomes unstoppable.

2. WRITE your goal down. Once it goes into writing it becomes substantial and starts etching itself into your subconscious.

3. DEADLINE your goal. Analyze where you are now in relation to the goal and then measure how long you will reasonably need to complete the goal. Then set the latest outside date.

4. IDENTIFY 1) the obstacles you will need to overcome, 2) the help you will need to acquire, e.g. knowledge, people, organizations. In each case write them out in a clear list and analyze them.

5. Take all the details of steps 3 and 4 and make a PLAN. List all the activities and prioritize them. Rewrite the list, optimize it, and perfect it.

6. Get a clear MENTAL PICTURE of the goal already accomplished. Make the mental image crystal clear, vivid in the mind's eye. Play that picture over and over in your mind.

7. Back your plan with PERSISTENCE and resolve. Never, never, never give up even when you hit setbacks.