Mastery In Goals

Achieve More By Doing Less

If you believe that being busy and taking lots of action on a number of items on your TO DO list makes you more productive and helps you achieve your desire faster, think again. In fact, please consider that the opposite is true.

Even if you have been able to successfully juggle a number of tasks on a daily basis, there will come a time when you will burn out- physically, mentally and spiritually. To boot, you will look back and notice that you have still to reach your dearest desires.

What if you feel you have many obligations and you do not have the option to prioritize? 

Let’s be very clear, you always have the option to prioritize.  You may choose not to, but that is your decision. 

If you do decide to prioritize, please choose what is most important to you and then focus on it.  Remember importance not the number of activities or size of the goal. Please don’t fall into the trap of multitasking - multitasking makes you a slave to the event. 

Focusing on what is important brings all the other pieces together.  Please read this again and make sure you understand it.  Focusing on what is important brings all the other pieces together.

Let’s look at an example: 

Suppose that you are working full time, you started your own business on the side and you want to spend more time with your daughter. When asked which of these 3 is most important in your life, without hesitation, you say that your daughter is.

In reality, you know that it has been a while since you played with your daughter or spent true quality time with her.  You rationalize it as ok because you are keeping the family financially secure while building financial freedom and, in the end, you are creating all of this for her. 

The problem is, that you feel guilty about missing some precious moments and, far too often, you are purely too exhausted to really do much more with her than provide the basics. 

Enter your action plan.  Your daughter is most important which means that work and, yes, even the new business will have to be de-prioritized over spending quality time and fully participating in your daughter’s life. 

How do you de-prioritize important and vital activities? You de-prioritize them by saying NO.  This does not mean you say NO all the time and to all activities related to your work and starting a business.  It does mean that when there is an important event taking place for your child you may need to forego an office impromptu meeting or even a business trip.  It means that you do not break your commitments to your child for any of the other 2 activities.  It may also mean that, for the time being, you spend less hours, or maybe no hours, working on starting or developing your own business.

You may be asking yourself if the title to this article should be “doing less is achieving less”.  Let me assure you that it should not.  When you prioritize activities around what is most important to you, all the other pieces come together. 

The business trip that you choose not to attend, may free you to come up with an innovative, profitable and high profile concept you implement at work.   Even though you decide to take the next few weeks off from working on your new business, you discover a company you could outsource certain activities to. Because you no longer need to take these activities on yourself, it frees your mind to think of an even more Unique Service Proposition (USP) for your business.  This new USP accelerates earnings, profits etc..

When you decide to focus on what is important to you, and you make a commitment to prioritize activities accordingly, you:

·         Have a healthy, rested and contended body, mind and spirit

·         Uncover opportunities that otherwise you might have missed

·         Find that you often accomplish your secondary goals as well   OR

·         Have more traction against your secondary goals (more so than if you attempt to prioritize them too)

Please have the courage to do less of what is not your #1 priority.  I promise that you will be pleased with the results. Remember the saying “Less Is More.”?  It applies here.

Live With Passion!

Joanne Roibu

To Be Do Have Or Do Have Be? That is The Question.

Is Be Do Have What Gets Goals Achieved?

Nearly everyone will freely admit that they need to set goals in order to achieve success. However, the methods that people use for their goal achievement are vastly different. They might believe in setting achievable goals, but then they go about the process completely backwards. So what exactly is the secret to achieving success? The best way to go about your goal achieving process is to be what you want, then do it, and then have it. Most people go about this process completely opposite to this. They try to do first, then have it, and then be what they wish.

What happens when we do first?

Before we can do something, we must first be something. When people get this backwards they will always struggle. For example, this is probably a common scenario in your life or someone you know. In your job you take on all kinds of extra tasks just hoping to get noticed. You come in early and stay late. This means that you are doing something first. You tell yourself that by doing this you will get that promotion (having something). Then as a result of all of this, you will be happy and fulfilled. You are trying to do, have, and then be. The result of this type of thinking will get you frustrated and you’ll feel like you’re spinning your wheels. More often than not you will continue to work the twelve hour days and it won’t matter. You’ll get more discouraged and promotions will continue to pass you by because of your attitude.

If it’s OK For Athletes, Why Not For Everyone?

Most of us who watch sports accept this methodology as the norm. It is completely the norm and we accept that. Think about it for a second. We know that athletes visualize what they want to do. All of the great athletes talk about this. Jack Nicklaus wouldn’t even pick up a golf club until he had seen the shot in his mind and got the feeling he needed. Therefore he was being successful in his own mind first. This is paramount for athletes. In basketball, if a shooter isn’t completely confident and they know that their shot is going in, it won’t. So why do we perform completely differently in our daily lives?

Why Conforming Does Not Equal Success?

The truth is that conforming to the masses method of Do, Have, Be is a losing proposition. If you implement this method in your life, you will be struggling throughout your life. Just because everyone does it that way doesn’t make it right. Only a small percentage of the population actually experiences massive success in their life. This isn’t because they followed the mass. They went out with the method that they knew was right and they did it. It was best summed up by Thomas Troward when he said, “I am, therefore I can (Do) and therefore I will (Have).”

Finally, Achieve The Goals You Set!

Sometimes, we just don't know enough about what we are trying to achieve.   

                                                                                                             Stuart Wilde

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The question that I am asked most often is….

 

How can I be sure that, this time, I achieve the goals that I set?

And my answer is….First, get clear about what is that you want to achieve.  You may think this is obvious but, more often than not though, I find that prospective clients who come to me thinking that they are clear about what they want and, in fact, are not.

 

So, how do you determine if you are clear about what you want?

Start by asking yourself a few simple questions. Can you succinctly state what it is that you want?  Can you explain why you want this?  How will you feel when you’ve achieved your goal?  

 

 

Let’s look at an example.  Suppose that you want to be rich. Ask yourself what this means.  Is it a certain amount of money, or is it specific possessions such as a car or a mansion or maybe a particular life style that you are after?  Be clear about what rich means to you.

Next, ask yourself why you want this.  Let’s say that you’ve established that rich, to you, means having $1,000,000.  Ok. Why do you want this $1,000,000?  I am sure that you do not want to simply amass bank notes.  What do you want this money for?  Is it that you want to exchange the money for luxury vacations, or to become debt free, or buy the home you always dreamed of…go ahead, you fill in the blanks.

 

What’s next… now that you know What you want and Why?

Once you determine exactly why you want to achieve your goal, establish how achieving this goal makes you feel. This part is always very enlightening.  Ask yourself what your life will be like. Picture it if you are visual, feel it if you are sensory, or think it if you have a more cognitive nature.  The point is get to the essence of why you want what you want. 

 

What is the Essence?

Essence is the ultimate nature of something i.e. having $1,000,000 makes you feel secure, peaceful and confident.  Really dig deep here – experience the essence.

 

Don’t risk getting more of what you have…

Skimp on getting clear and get more of what you have …Unrealized Goals.  We both know you don’t want that!  So, go ahead ask yourself 3 simple questions:

1)      What is your goal?  Be specific!

2)      Why do you want to achieve this goal?   

3)      How will your life be different when you achieve it? Get to the Essence of how you feel.

Invest the time and get clear about what you want up front. Remember that,  sooner or later, you will need to do this anyway.

 

Getting clear about what you want is the 1^st   step in Goal Achievement.  Need some more help? Grab your Free 5 Part mini-course at http://www.lifemasteryguide.com/  

 

Live with Passion!

 

Joanne Roibu

Life Mastery Guide©