Posts Tagged ‘Goal Setting’

With all the financial markets around the world tumbling, it is in this economic climate that we require a sense of centrality.  This is where purpose and passion need to rise to the surface, or in fact need to be dusted off and revisited afresh so that the winds of change don’t blow us off course.

For if you have built your house upon the rock of faith, belief and hope – you will weather the storm.  But if your house has been built upon the shifting sands of chance, lack of integrity, indecision and abdicated responsibility – your crash will be great.

But be encouraged – at any time you can rebuild.

But how can you position yourself for success in this current global storm?

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Hugh Holger writes of his experiences gained from crossing the Sahara desert five times, in Timothy Freke’s book ‘The Way Of The Desert’.

He recounts that ‘You need to know what you are doing. One small fault with the truck and you’re finished. But if you prepare properly and take precautions it is safer than you might think. Despite this, each year a number of people who try to make the crossing will perish in the attempt. The most common reason is following mirages. If they just trusted the compass they would be fine, but seeing what they take to be habitation or an oasis they drive sometimes miles off course and that can be fatal.’

I live in a vast continent that has a far greater expanse of desert than lush, vegetated areas. In my travels I have, with my own eyes, seen the ghostly images of white, bleached bones and dusty plains with sparse vegetation, dry waterholes and river beds that once flowed freely with life-giving water. For when a drought strikes, the ground can become so dry that it shrinks and cracks.

In order to survive the harshness of the desert or a drought, there are two essential ingredients that will bring you through successfully to the other side.

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I am a firm believer in goal setting, and here is an article that proves just why…

‘Perhaps the most revealing exposition on the importance of goals comes from a Harvard study.

A synopsis of the study that was conducted at Harvard Business School between 1979 and 1989 is presented below.

In 1979 the graduates of the MBA program at Harvard were asked a simple question: “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” The results were very interesting. 84% had no specific goals at all, 13% had goals but they were not committed to paper, and only 3% had clear goals and plans that were written down.

In 1989, a good ten years after the first phase of the study, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. Their results were even more startling. The 13% that had goals but not written down were earning twice as much as the 84% that did not have any goals. An even more interesting statistic is that the 3% who had written down plans and goals were earning on average ten times more than the other 97%. Further more the mere act of writing a goal down on paper increased its chances of being accomplished by a staggering 90%.’

I  thought I knew a lot about goalsetting until I was recently challenged on two occasions, from two different sources, to write down my goals EVERY DAY.

That’s right. Don’t just speak your goals out. Don’t just visualise them. Actually take a pen and paper and take some time out to write your goals EVERY DAY of your life.

Why?

Because, as I have written in previous articles, when you write down a goal on paper, there is an incredible power that is released in the universe that makes things happen.

I have seen it time and time again in my own life, to the point that I am more and more convinced that to live a successful and fulfilled life we MUST write our goals and carry them on our person; that includes our daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, short-term, long-term goals and even our life goals.

If you are going to move up from mediocre to excellence in your living then you need to develop the discipline of writing out your goals DAILY.

Well, I’m not going to leave it at that. I’m going to show you what has now become an important part of my own life.

Success requires the outworking of goals in our lives.

Start a notebook that is devoted to goalsetting. The reason? So that whenever you think of something that you would like to achieve in your life, then write it down. It will be an incredible record for you to enjoy in the years to come.

Then on a daily basis, as Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen encourage us to do in their book ‘The One Minute Millionaire’, write your six major goals.

This idea was promoted by Brian Tracy, the famous public speaker. He apparently writes his major goals down every day. It magnetizes his mind to what he really wants to accomplish that day.

To maintain balance within your life record your top goals in each of the following six areas of your life:

1. Physical

2. Intellectual

3. Spiritual

4. Organisational

5. Social

6. Financial

The important thing too is to write these goals as if you have already achieved your success.

A DAY WITH A GOAL IS A DAY THAT IS WHOLE

So here are some examples of how you could write your own goals in those six areas:

1. Physical

I am happy because I exercise for twenty minutes four days a week and play indoor cricket once a week. I weigh 78kgs.

2. Intellectual

I am happy because I have understood investment strategies and have purchased two investment properties.

3. Spiritual

I am happy because I spend time each day reading the Bible and in prayer and meditation and apply its teachings to my daily affairs.

4. Organisational (Time)

I am happy because I work four hours a day six days a week. The rest of my time is devoted to my own education, for researching new deals and spending quality time with my family.

5. Social

I am happy because I have surrounded myself with a network of 100 key people.

6. Financial

I am happy because I have earned $100K during the past twelve months.

Now that you have an idea of how to write your goals, go ahead and write yours now.

GOALS STOP YOU FROM ACCEPTING MEDIOCRITY AS YOUR LOT IN LIFE

Here are some other ideas that might help you in setting daily goals:

- Write your six goals on a small card and carry it with you.

- Use the word ‘happy’ in your goalsetting because your attitude will determine your results.

- Write the service, product or information that you plan to render and in what quantity or quality.

- Refer to this card four times throughout the day, at breakfast, lunch, dinner and before you go to sleep.

- Sign and date the card and share your card with someone who can keep you accountable.

- Meet with this person to review your progress at least once a week.

- Update your goal card at least once a month.

- Think only of what you want. Visualise yourself earning the money that will transport you to your goal’s fulfilment.

Write. Read. Say and see your goals. Fulfilled goals happen!

Motivational Quote: GOALS = Grasp Opportunity And Live Successfully.

Having spent three days with my wife at a seminar that added to our knowledge of how to trade on the share market, there was one part of the seminar that really caught my attention.

It was to do with the psychology that would enable someone to become a successful trader.

Psychology is the study of the mind and if you can’t control your emotions, then they will have power over your actions and cause you to focus on your emotions and not on your goals.

In trading, this will make you broke, and in life in general it will destroy relationships and hamper your success journey time and time again.

It is important that we don’t allow ourselves to be pushed around by the crowd, but rather be and act as an individual who has clearly determined and identified both their weaknesses and  strengths. By doing so, you will be able to act apart from the pack and take charge of your own destiny whilst travelling the path that you have chosen for yourself.

This is the first step to living your life as VICTOR, rather than VICTIM.

Although you may not be a trader, there are principles of success that a trader requires that each and every one of us require if we are going to succeed in other areas of our life.

So let me take you on a short journey through the victor’s psychology for a successful trader and I am sure that you will be able to apply these very same principles to your business, your family and to other important areas of your life.

When it comes to trading, FEAR is one of the strongest emotions that can effect traders. Fear will cloud your judgment, timing and execution of your strategies.

A fear of being wrong will allow doubts to creep in and if you doubt yourself, and your strategies, your mind will focus on being wrong. This lack of confidence will lead to failure time and time again. Fear with the loss of a trade leads to panic and usually makes the trader to stay in the bad trade all the way to the bottom.

I know for a fact that fear kept me from investing in the share market for many a year. After attending another seminar some time ago, I came away from it thinking that share trading was just too hard. What I didn’t realise was that I had spent time listening to someone who had all the knowledge, and yet probably didn’t trade on the share market as much as he should.

The moral of that story is quite simple: be careful to whom you listen to.

Fear often effects inexperienced traders. The fear of taking a loss on a trade if it goes bad, or losing a profit on any of your trades after you sell them out.

You must learn to trade within your tolerance factor, not being afraid if you make a mistake, and learning by them when you do. Never be afraid of taking profits off the table when they are there. Defeat the fear of not taking a trade or not triggering a stop loss as necessary. Remove the fear of taking your profits too early.

‘FEAR’ IS TERRIFIED BY ‘FAITH IN ACTION’

GREED is like fear because it clouds the mind. In trading, you need to learn when to keep your trade going and when to sell it.

Overextending yourself is greed and it will make you impatient and cause you to rush in, hold, or trade too long. It will also allow you to trade with money that you can’t afford to lose.

Inexperienced traders will put too much money in too few deals. Greed is often triggered by initial success. We become cocky and think that we have the knowledge that will enable us to step in and take a quick and huge win.

However, we must never lose sight of the fact that our focus should always be on protecting our profits, instead of being concerned with how much we want to make.

Our goal should be to become neither fear or greed orientated, but rather goal orientated.

STARVE GREED BY FEEDING YOUR GOALS

In addition to dealing with FEAR and GREED we will need to develop PATIENCE and SELF-CONTROL.

Educated traders wait for the right signals and timing before they pounce. Fools rush in. If you trade through impatience you will lose everything. With patience you can learn to use your time wisely and become more and more proficient in your research.

When it comes to self-control, it is important to realise that if you miss one boat, there will always be another.This is where you must be an individual in both your thinking and in your action. If you’re not an individual, then you are one of the crowd. And these crowds of traders all try to get out of the same door at the same time.

How can you tell if you have joined one of these crowds? Ask yourself the following questions: Do you still think for yourself, or do you listen to opinions and tips, thus taking on board everyone else’s advice?

It is important that you be careful not to fall into this ‘crowd’ where price is the leader and where there are no free thinkers.

So what is THE SOLUTION? As individual traders you must focus on the market objectively, becoming totally emotionless with regard to decisions that surround your stock. You need to plan a system that will keep all your emotions in check whilst trading in the marketplace, and above all become disciplined.

Have realistic expectations and a positive attitude. Trade with knowledge. Accept the outcome of your decisions and learn from your mistakes. And in the process….PROFIT!

Motivational Quote: On the Stock Exchange Of Life: sell fear and purchase faith.