By Jack Perry
All goals require some degree of change. Maybe your goal is to buy a house, become more physically active, or to start your own business. Regardless of your goal, change is inevitably required if you want to achieve it. Obviously some goals are big, while others aren’t as life-changing. But to grow into any new goal, you must accept the fact that you will have to move out of your comfort zone.
True growth takes place when you choose to move. For example, a young child learning to swim must ultimately jump into the pool, and a rookie salesperson has to quit shuffling his prospect cards and pick up the phone to actually make prospecting calls.
Yes, all goals involve the possibility of temporary defeat. But once you have decided on what you really want for your life, no matter how impossible it might seem to you today, it can be yours in the future when you thoroughly embrace the following Six Be’s:
1. Be Bold
Limits only exist in your mind. Don’t be afraid to be bold and don’t let anyone else talk you out of your dreams. When Ingemar Stenmark was a ten-year-old schoolboy in Sweden he wrote an essay on how he saw his future. In his essay, Ingemar said that he wanted to be a ski racer for Sweden, but his teacher told him that his goal was very unrealistic. However, in 1989 Stenmark retired from the sport as the greatest technical skier who ever raced the slopes. When he put away his skis for the last time he had won eighty-six World Cup races. At that time, only one other skier had ever won just half as many World Cup races as Stenmark. His teacher obviously didn’t understand what bold focused determination could do in a person’s life.
In reality, no force on earth, no matter how strong, can permanently deter someone determined to achieve his or her dreams. Nothing. Therefore, only you can be in charge of your future. Only you can put your goals and dreams on hold, and only you can expedite the realization of your dream. Nothing can stop a bold, determined soul.
2. Be Accountable
The unwritten goal is nothing but a dream. To own a goal you must have the courage to write it down and be accountable for it. In 1966 Lou Holtz had lost his job, was out of money, and his wife was pregnant with their third child. His life had fallen into an unhealthy spiral until his wife gave him a copy of the book, The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. One of the exercises in the book was to list everything you wanted to do in life. Lou embraced this exercise seriously, and, as a result, he came up with 107 different personal goals.
Lou’s list included meeting the Pope, appearing on “The Johnny Carson Show,” having dinner at the White House, skydiving, hitting a hole-in-one, and coaching football at the University of Notre Dame and ultimately winning a national championship. As of the year 2000, Lou had completed eighty of his original goals. Remember where Lou started – at the bottom. If he can do it, so can you. Your goals should be clear, meaningful, and reviewed every single day.
3. Be Involved
Every day you must review your goals and visualize your situation and your life after you have accomplished them. For example, say you dream of owning a racing sailboat. To review and visualize this goal, place a photo of the sailboat you want in highly visible places. Try putting one on your bathroom mirror and one on the wall in your office. As a result, every day your mind will be involved with your goal and your laser focus will help make it a reality. It’s inevitable; you will move toward what you dwell upon.
4. Be Creative
No matter what your goals are, you will always have more than one way to achieve them. Sometimes the conventional ways just don’t work for everyone. That’s when you have to get creative and think outside of the box. The root of the word “creative” is “create.” That means when you hit a brick wall while working toward your goal, you have to create new ways of doing things, new directions to go in, and new ideas to inspire yourself and others.
You are a creative being. You entered this life without any limitations to your creativity. Think as no one else can think. Do things that no one else is capable of doing in quite the same way you can. Enlist your unique talents to help you make your dreams come true.
5. Be Focused
Your current situation might, at times, seem discouraging. It might seem that you are barely keeping your head above water and have no time to spend pursuing your dreams. But in the back of your brain sits your most-desired goal. It keeps tapping on the door of your mind. It won’t leave you alone. It is an all-consuming thought in your head—the film loop that keeps replaying day and night.
Why won’t this goal just go away? Why can’t it see that you can’t possibly pursue it right now? Because your goal knows things are not always what they seem to be. It sees through the murky waters of “what’s not possible right now.” It lives in the tomorrow you have always dreamed about. Mark Victor Hansen said, “Your dreams want you as much as you want them.” That is why they won’t leave you alone.
Your goals always work their way toward you as quickly and relentlessly as you work toward them. They can’t and won’t leave you alone. You and your dreams know you belong together.
6. Be Determined
What do the Grand Canyon, the Arches in Utah, and the towering spires of Bryce Canyon have to do with persistence? While these geological formations are some of the strongest, hardest structures in the universe, they were broken down and formed over time by the constant, persistent assault of wind and water. So, too, can your temporary, manmade obstacles be broken down and your personal and professional goals be reached through persistence.
You can achieve anything if you pursue it with relentless persistence. When you know what you want and you are hungry enough for it, nothing and no one will be able to keep you from seeing your goal become reality. Sooner or later even the best salesperson gets a “no.” But a determined salesperson doesn’t really hear the word “no.” She has replaced the word “no” with “I simply don’t have enough information to tell you ‘yes’ right now.”
Relentlessly Persist!
For every step you take toward your dreams, your dreams take two steps toward you. Sure, temporary, man-made obstacles and illusions of failure will present themselves during your pursuit. And you might run into temporary setbacks and repeated defeat. When and if this occurs, remember, every obstacle is simply the universe asking you, “Do you really want this? Are you really determined?” Answer with a resounding “Yes!”
When you remember the Six Be’s and pursue your goals with creativity, extreme focus, and relentless determination, you’ll experience only one possible result – success!
Goal-Achievement from The Respect Factor® Series, ©Jack Perry 2005. All rights reserved
THE RESPECT FACTOR® is a trademark of Jack Perry in the United States and other countries. Used with permission. ©2009 Jack Perry. All rights reserved
Comments