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This Christmas I went to see the film The Avatar. It’s a great film, especially the world created in breathtaking 3D. Sitting in the Imax cinema it was like being on a beautiful colourful planet filled with exotic plants and creatures.
The film is rumoured to be the most expensive film ever made. The end credits seem to go on for ever as there is a vast army of people involved in the making of the movie.
Many of the notable makers of Avatar have personal assistants. This got me thinking, wouldn’t it be great to have a personal assistant to organize my life for me.
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Many years ago I had the idea to write software that would help organise my life. Five years later and the goal is about to be achieved.
Why did it take 5 years? The answer will be revealed later.
If you want to build a shed in the back garden you don’t just think, I’ll get 10 planks of wood from somewhere and some nails then just sort of start building the thing. No, you follow a procedure:
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Here are 10 common ways that people use to achieve their goals. How many of these strategies do you use?
- Make a step-by-step plan
- Motivate yourself by focussing on someone who has achieved a similar goal
- Tell other people about your goal
- Think about bad things that will happen if you do not achieve your goal
- Think about the good things that will happen if you achieve your goal
- Try to suppress unhelpful or negative thoughts about your goal and how to achieve it
- Reward yourself for making progress in your goal
- Rely on willpower
- Record your progress
- Fantasize or visualize how great your life will be when you achieve your goal
I was looking at my doctor’s website yesterday and in particular the statistics on what they have treated. Ten per cent of patients are treated for depression. How many more people are not yet at the stage of clinical depression, but are very unhappy?
Are you happy? If not, what can you do about it. Positive psychology believes that it has the answer to happiness. Research has shown that 40% of happiness is under your conscious control. The other 60% is due to our circumstances, where you live, the family that you are bought up in and so on.
Happiness has two main components. You can asses yours by asking yourself the following questions:
- How satisfied are you overall with your life and are you progressing in your life goals?
- How often do you feel positive emotions and how often do you feel negative emotions?
- Image by thinkpanama via Flickr
The smart goals formula is a great way of helping you achieve success.
I once went with two friends to see a motivational speaker who told us to make a goals about how much money we wanted in earn in the next year.
In the car on my way home from the talk one of my friends asked us to say how much money we wanted to earn. He said £500,000, my other friend said £250,000 – and I laughed thinking that the whole exercise was just picking a figure out of thin air. I had no idea how much money I would earn during the year.
After 12 months I found out that neither of my friends had earned anything like the figure they had quoted. I did not earn much money in that year.
So, what stopped me and my friends earning a lot of money? Where had they gone wrong? What is stopping you earning your desired amount of money?
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Do you lack smart goals?
I was on a self service cafe this weekend with a friend. As we stood at the counter waiting to order our food a man came up to us holding a bowl of soup.
“I’ve been waiting 10 minutes for a spoon to eat my soup and my soup is getting cold.” he said.
My friend caught the attention of a member of staff and asked for some spoons. A few seconds later the staff member handed over the spoons. She gave one to the man.
“Thank you, but my soup is getting cold,” he complained.
“Why don’t you ask them to replace your cool soup with hot soup?” she asked.
“But my soup’s getting cold,” said the man as he walked away.
The man focussed on lack:
- Lack of a spoon
- Lack of warmth in his soup
My friend focussed on the solution:
- Obtain a spoon
- Replace the cold soup with a fresh bowl of of soup
Do you focus on lack or solutions?
Many teachers in the self development movement recommend goal setting. Goal setting is a complex but rewarding activity.
I once had a friend who hired a consultant to help expand his business. The consultant said that his business must use goal setting strategies. So he asked my friend what his financial goal for his business was for the next 12 months. My friend replied:
“To increase turnover from £30,000 to £500,000.”
When the consultant said that this goal setting target did not appear realistic, my friend took offence and accused the consultant of trying to “spoil his dreams.” He fired the consultant!
What this story illustrates is that goals need to be SMART.
This stands for:
The Bucket List [DVD] [2008](UK) The Bucket List
What is a Bucket List and how does this relate to goal Setting and self development?
I watched the DVD the Bucket List yesterday. In this film two elderly men meet in hospital and find that they both are predicted to die of an incurable diseases within the next few months.
One of them compiles a bucklet list – a list of things he wants to do before he dies, or ‘kicks the bucket’. They decide to compile a bucket list together and complete the list during their short time left. This sends the two characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman off on a great adventure that includes
- Philosophizing next to the Pyramids in Egypt
- Being scared out of their minds whilst skydiving
- Crashing shiny cars in a thrilling race
- Eating gourmet food in France
Through their adventures their characters begin to change. Jack Nicholson starts out as an angry, frustrated and bitter man but gradually acquires a more positive attitude to life. Morgan Freeman, tempted by an extra-marital affair realizes that he loves his wife and decides to repair his failing marriage.
So how does all this relate to goal setting?
Do you practice goal setting? If not, do you know what advantages goal setting can do for you?
Like the person in the following story, I didn’t used to bother about goal setting.
The chief executive of a large supermarket chain in the UK was interviewed on television. He said that his career path was never planned. He worked hard and opportunities just came his way as if by accident! The way he related the story implied that he aimlessly wandered through life and then one day he was invited to have dinner with the chairman of the company who asked him to be the new CEO.
I used to have this philosophy. I worked at my job and opportunities just seemed to appear. The difference though was that I did not always consider carefully if it was the right direction to go in. A job opportunity arose and I took it.
This resulted in me taking one or two jobs that I was not really suited for and with bosses who turned out to be nearly insane! I was fired from one job because the boss and I just could not get along. I should have known this from what was said in the job interview. She was a control freak and I am a person who likes to be left alone to do the job.
The more my boss kept checking up on my work progress, the more mistakes I made. This led to a lack of confidence and self esteem.
Maybe the wait to see-what-turns up approach works for you.
I found that goal setting is a better way to help me be more successful in life. Here is why:
I’ve been looking at time management and goal setting. Time management is about making productive use of my time – knowing how long to work at a task, when to have a well-earned rest, prioritizing the things that I do.
Goal setting is not just a question of setting goals – there also needs to be the actions necessary to successfully complete the goals. Being part computer geek, I also looked at software that can help me organize my time, my goals and all the bits of information and notes that I need to keep track of. There is a lot of it out there – but I still have not found one that does everything for me. Being primarily a Mac computer user I was particularly looking at Mac programs.
I’ve been reading stuff about the Law of Attraction lately. The simple version of the law of attraction is:
- Know what you want.
- Ask the universe for it.
- Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
- Be open to receiving it.
This definition omits two vital factors. The first of these is self-sabotaging beliefs. You may state that you want to be wealthy, but you subconscious mind may be giving you conflicting messages:
