Personal Success Coaching » goal

The Inescapable Law of Cause and Effect

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:07:09 +0000

Last night I was watching the winter Olympics — and I started thinking about the incredible ability the athletes have developed to keep focused on their goals – and to accomplish them. Their success is pretty impressive, wouldn’t you agree?

This lead me to thinking about the Law of Cause and Effect. How every cause (hours of dedicated, focused practice) leads to a knowable effect (phenomenal gold medal wining performance)!

Watching the US versus Canada Olympic hockey match reinforced this thought. As I watched 42 saves by the American goalie, I wondered how many goals he had blocked before this match. How many hundreds or thousands of shoots did he block in practice in order to be preform at an almost super human level on this one occasion. He invested the time, he paid the price.

Remember the Law of Cause and Effect during your daily Olympic run. Know that if you pay the price in life, the effect you are seeking will come. The Olympic athlete knows the pain, the sweat, the effort pays off. The Law is inescapable.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Commitment: The Missing Ingredient For Success

admin — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:58:12 +0000

Wonder why you set a personal success goal and can’t reach it? Most of us have. Sometimes we get stuck in an discouraging loop of getting excited, setting goals and then quitting shortly afterward. They can go round and around, not accomplishing anything at all in the end.

Why does this happen? One of the biggest reasons is a lack of commitment to the individual personal success goal. It’s been my experience that without commitment a goal will gradually shrink in importance compared to everyday events (family responsibilities, time with friends, the latest rush project, etc). The temptation to quit becomes more and more attractive, especially when Murphy’s law intervenes to cause setbacks and delays.

On the other hand, if you make a serious commitment and then continually remind yourself of it, you’ll be much more likely to persevere and achieve the goal.

Here’s how to make a commitment to your goals:

1) First and foremost, you have to make sure that every goal you set is of VITAL importance to you. This can be tricky because we so often fool ourselves into thinking we want one thing when we want something entirely different. Take some time with this part of the process, and be sure that you get to the heart of what you really want. Determine the who, what, why, where, and how of your goal. Who is going to benefit most form this accomplishment? What will it do for you? Why do you want it? What positive things will it bring to your life? Where will it help you? How will it make you feel when it’s accomplished?

Write all of this down on an index card and keep it handy. Carry it with you and refer to if you feel your commitment beginning to slip. Also ask yourself if your goal is worth the effort and sacrifice that will be needed to achieve it. If you can honestly answer yes, you are on the way!

2) Think about what will happen if you don’t follow through. Would nothing much happen if you don’t achieve your goal? If not, then you raise the stakes! You have to make your goal the most important thing in the world, and if you don’t do it, you’ll deal with terrible consequences. Use your imagination and indulge in a bit of “make believe” in order to do this. For example, visualize the disappointment and lose of respect for yourself you’ll experience if you don’t follow through. Use the carrot and stick approach; agree to give up something you love if you don’t make it happen – pick a reward to enjoy if you do.

3) Renew your commitment every day. It’s easy to be committed when you’re excited about your new goal, but you need to be able to REMAIN committed! Each day when you awaken, read through the your written goal, and review the reasons the personal success goal is vital to you. Promise yourself that you’re going to do as much as you can to work on your goal that day, and every day until you achieve it.

When it comes right down to it, no one can achieve your goals for you. If you want to achieve them, you’ll have to find the determination necessary to keep going. Inactivity and procrastination are usually nothing more than bad habits. Turning those habits into something more positive and productive is as simple as taking it a day at a time and working your hardest to change your life. The more committed and determined you are to making your goal happen, the more likely you’ll do just that.

Wishing you a larger life,
BB

Top Ten Tips For Reaching Your Personal Success Goals

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:30:38 +0000

One of the best ways to improve is by accomplishing your personal success goals. This leads to pride, to self-respect and to a better sense of responsibility.

1. Recognize your own path- when it comes to reaching your goals and improving your life, you need to be the leader. You are in control of what you want and your goals should come down to you and you alone. Just because your Dad wants you to be a lawyer and your Mom wants you to have 5 children does not mean this is what you have to do – it’s your life and thus, you are the boss.

2. Disassociate yourself from negativity- in the same way positive thoughts lead to positive results, negative thoughts leads to negative results. Negativity may be all around you- bitchy co-workers; unhappy neighbors; a depressing partner. Disassociate yourself from those types of people. You are in a happy, positive place- no negativity allowed.

3. Define your goals clearly- goals are what make life worth living. Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish and how you are going to get there. Make steps, include financial costs and put in as much detail as possible- the more defined your goals are, the easier they will be to achieve (and the more rewarding when you get there).

4. Push jealously aside – when you watch someone on a parallel path reaching their goals a lot sooner, it can be hard to sit back and be happy for them. But this is what you are going to have to do. Getting rid of this envy and resentment is a big hurdle in improving your self. But, once you overcome these feelings, you are a lot closer to reaching a state of Zen-like success.

5. Use visual reminders as boosters – being able to clearly see your goal can help motivate you and keep you focused on your game plan. Many people will post a picture of their ‘dream body’ on the fridge when they are trying to lose weight. Others will use their ‘dream car’ as their computer screen saver at work when those tough days get them down. A visual reminder can boost your motivation and drive to succeed.

6. See yourself at the end – as mentioned above, visualization is vital to reach your goal and improve your self. This is why it’s important to visualize yourself there. See yourself fitting into that size 10. Feel the breeze on your cheeks as you drive that sports car. Seeing is believing.

7. Use timeliness – tracking your success can help you put your goal into perspective and see how far you’ve already come. It’s important for self-improvement that you recognize your feats and be proud of what you have doing, or are planning to do.

8. Reward yourself on the way – be happy with your progress. Whether your goal will take you twenty days or twenty years doesn’t matter- the important thing is that you are doing it. You are getting there. To keep yourself motivated every step of the way, you need to reward yourself with small treats. Be proud of how far you have come and prepare for the journey ahead.

9. Look for role models – look to those who are on the same path as you for inspiration. Perhaps this is a CEO of the company, perhaps your father. Get a coach or mentor, or maybe two. Try to immerse yourself in their life and ask questions. Their positive energy may just rub off on you. And, if not, at least you are learning from the experts how to get where you want to go.

10. Make room for failure – it can’t be a smooth road all the time- there has to be plenty of bumps along the way. In fact, it is these bumps that make the road worth traveling. Failure is a big part of our lives and we need to learn to live, love and laugh at failure rather than give in to it. Henry Ford once said that every failed attempt is just another opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. Failure is experience and experience is power.