by Benjamin Goss, MBA
There are 12 areas that Eff up people’s lives.
You know most people, historically including myself, typically make goals that are around one thing: money. Having it, or not having to pay it to someone else … whatever.
In fact a lot of people ignore some of the most important areas where goals need to be written.
They fail to hit their income goals. And then the rest of their quality of life either continues to suffer – or it grows worse.
Up until the last four years, my income broke the low six figures, but it never really stabilized there. I rode an income wave that rocked and rolled with my focus and emotions.
It wasn’t until I did two critical things that life began to change:
- I started to focus on the Book of Proverbs, just a chapter a day – each day.
- I began to focus on making last years annual income my monthly income.
Our emotional brain and our rational brain are amazing. As a Christian, I believe that our psyche and our intellect physiological framework is/was designed. From a rational standpoint the complexity of thought is far too intricate and wholly other to have evolved on its own. Otherwise shouldn’t we have other rational thinking animals? I don’t know, some say dolphins are capable of rational thought. Regardless … forget the evolved-designed bunny trail.
Let’s talk about what IS. What we know is that it is proven scientifically, anecdotally and experientially that what we focus on is what we accomplish.
Henry Ford stated: “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right. Which one are you?”
Peter Drucker said “What gets measured, gets done.” When it comes to goals you need to be specific, lay them out, and them execute on them. If you don’t measure your progress and regularly review them, then is it a goal or a wish?
Rhonda Byrne in “The Secret” writes, “Set a goal so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your mind.” I believe in creating Bodacious Monster Ideas & Goals (BMIG). They say in sports “Go Big or Go Home.” Another author has talked about Big Hairy A** Goals (BHAG), stating that “if your goal doesn’t scare you, then it’s not big enough.”
What’s the point? When you set massive stretch goals and regularly review them, your mind and circumstances will begin to align to help you achieve that which you have laid out for yourself. However, your faith, your mentality, your physicality as well as your relationships need to align – or you will struggle to achieve them.
Here is what most people miss about goal setting, and in missing this they often fail to achieve. Not for lack of wanting or desire, but because they have not triggered that mechanism in the brain that brings intense focus.
Simon Sinek in his book “Start with Why” talks about how a base or a foundational aspect of what someone wants is what drives behavior and accomplishment; not the goal itself necessarily.
IMHO – That is critical and key, but it’s not all there is.
Companies as organizations follow the Drucker mantra I mentioned above and they focus on KPIs. Key Performance Indicators. Production is measured in data. We function in relation to and in accordance with data.
BUT… that is simply not all there is to it. I could tell you many times I drill into my data, I focus on the details, I understand my “why” and still I fall short. Why?
Compare this to stories about people that chase the seemingly impossible bc their passion drove them to succeed. They dreamed an impossible dream and accomplished the impossible by grabbing hold of what they could control in that moment.
Consider the improbable story of the 1980 US hockey Olympic “Miracle” team. Or the 11-6 Giants beating the nearly undefeated Patriots in 2011(?).
The statistics said “no way in hell.” But the dream was bigger, the passion burned brighter and the improbable winners burned brighter.
Why?
Because they found that magic happens when you stack: vision on top of mission on top of skilled performance on top of specific finely tuned goals. It is the improbable multiplicative effects that happen when you “stack the hack for impact.”
Mentally it is critical that we focus on our goals daily because we need to activate our Reticular Activating System (RAS). That mental program that has you seeing a New model Ford F-150’s “everywhere” because you bought one two weeks ago. Or, you see [—-] everywhere because you [___].
A complete goals system takes 2 structural pieces applied to 10 areas of your life, or life plan. That daily system reviewed brings your RAS online in particular and focused action. This is “why” the “Secret” works.
You and I, we are hardwired for success. We just fail to properly implement a complete strategy that aligns everything we do in a manner that leveraged impact and produces results.
A complete system takes into account that you are a completely integrated whole as a being.
Your goals must take Into account the fact you are: a) physical b) emotional c) intellectual and c) spiritual.
A) means you take up space in a particular geography
A) also means that I perform physical functions to do
B) means that emote in response to stimuli
C) means that there is a rational-causal aspect of how you operate, this is how we think
D) this is the soul of you. That thing that takes our conscience, and moves it to the point of sentience, such that we can consider not only other time & place, but whole other plane of existence. Because we think and have a conscience- it means that we are. Existence is not ephemeral but intensely personal and real.
If your goal system is not a) daily reviewed and b) stacked for impact – then you will continue to struggle to grasp for significance and impact. Or, who knows but you may accidentally achieve it in unsatisfying fashion.
Want to do more and be more? Write to me and we can talk about how to 2X10 Eff up your life.
You could call it a 12-step program to achieve maximum impact, but in actuality it is a two step program that you apply to 10 areas of your life, and then subsequently review on a daily basis.
And – it only takes about 15-20 minutes a day once you’ve set it up.
How do you currently set goals, tracks and achieve them?
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