Goal Setting - Learn how to set yourself up for success

Any business, sporting, or life coach will tell you that goal setting is important in life. Not only do goals give our lives direction, they also provide a sense of meaning and something to live for.

There are many areas of our lives in which we can set goals, whether they are big or small, related to projects, hobbies, sport, career or even friends and family, achieving your goals rewards you with a level of accomplishment and satisfaction. Research supports that people who have ambitions of some kind are more likely to find a sense of meaning in being alive and tend to be more healthy and happy.

Think of a goal like a rudder on a sailing boat. A sailing boat without a rudder is practically useless as you have limited control of where you are going. A wise man once said... “If you don’t know where you are going, there is a fair chance you will end up somewhere else”.

A rudder not only orients a sailing boat and gives it direction, but it also helps the boat to get to where it is going. Likewise goal setting helps to orient our lives, gives them direction and a sense of accomplishment and achievement. If we have ambitions, we tend to respond to life’s daily challenges in a meaningful way. If we have no ambitions, we can end up going from one situation to the next without direction or purpose. And like a rudder on a sailing boat, our ambitions help us when life throws up a squall. They help us through the tough times.

A goal can be defined as the purpose to which an endeavour is directed. It is important however to understand that setting a goal without an action plan is nothing more than a nice dream that we hope to fall into one day. Simply setting a goal is not enough to achieve it, you also need to take the necessary actions to get results.

Goal + Action = Results

Most people unfortunately just expect success to happen, what they fail to realise is that success comes to those who make it happen. On this page we will step you through the goal setting process and show you how to set yourself up for success by setting the right objective from the start. But first an inspirational story....

Keizo Miura’s Inspirational Story (Feb 2003)

To celebrate his 99th birthday Japanese mountaineer Keizo Miura set out with his 70 year old son, 37 year old grandson and great grandson on an adventure to climb and ski down Mont Blanc - Western Europe’s highest mountain. The first part of the descent is so steep it must be made on foot, carrying your equipment on your back. The ski run itself is 22kms long and is notorious for avalanches.

Moral to the story, you are never too old to have life adventures and to set and achieve new targets!

Goal Setting - The SMART Way

“The reason most people don’t achieve their goals is that they didn’t really set them in the first place.” - Dr Dennis Waitley

A SMART goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Action orientated, Realistic and Time stamped. At the bottom of this page you will find a template that you can use to step you through this process.

Specific – your objectives need to be specific, what exactly do you hope to achieve and why? Losing weight for example is not a smart goal because it is not specific enough. To be successful you need to understand why you want to lose weight and how much you want to lose?

“He who has a why can bear with almost any how!” - Nietsche

Measurable – Your objectives need to be measurable. You need a way of measuring your progress to see whether you’re target. This will allow you to tweak your action plan if needed, to get the desired results.

Action orientated – You need an action plan. How are you going to achieve what you want? What are the necessary steps? What are your daily, weekly and monthly tasks?

Remember Goals + Actions = Results. Therefore you need to make a commitment towards implementing your action plan.

Realistic – Is your action plan and objective achievable? If not go back and tweak it such that it is.

Time stamped – Put a date on achieving your targets and ensure that you remain accountable.

“A goal is a dream with a deadline” – Napoleon Hill

A good idea is to involve others into your goal setting process such that you are committed and they can help keep you accountable. This ideally should involve someone who actively sets and achieves targets on regular basis (an expert) and someone who is willing to be honest with you if you regularly stray from your plan of action.

Goal setting with a smart objective from the start helps to steer you in the right direction, however there are additional factors that should also be considered to increase your chances of success. These include the resources that are necessary and the potential barriers which may stand in your way.

Resources
What resources are you going to need to help you achieve your desired outcome? If you are trying to lose weight for example, you’re going to need some advice on your diet and an exercise plan. Additionally it is also important that you timestamp each of your resources. For example if you need a new pair of walking shoes to participate in your exercise program, it’s no good waiting 2 months to get them. Setting out a resource list and when you need them can help to keep you focused and on target.

Barriers to Success
With almost all ambitions there will be potential barriers to success. More often than not these barriers are psychological and not physical barriers. Regardless of what the barrier is, the trick is to identify these barriers from the start and to develop strategies to counteract these problems if and when they arise. This will again help to keep you focused, on track and further increase your chances of success.

Making Mountains out of Mole Hills
Dr Denis Waitley (the most listened to personal coach in history) suggests that when setting goals, you should continually aim for something just out of reach. It makes achieving your goals more realistic and allows you to gain momentum and ultimately keeps us focused on the big picture.

Quite often achieving an overall target can appear quite daunting, for example saving to buy a house or studying a PHD might take many years to achieve. Breaking large ambitions into smaller tasks, keeps you focused and helps to make a hard target more achievable. Targets should be broken down into short-term, medium-term and long–term.

“Perseverance is not a long race, it is one of many short races one after the other” - Walter Elliot

Write in a Positive Way or Present Tense
One more additional point to consider when goal setting is that your objectives should always be written in a positive way. Therefore, you do not want to quit, neglect or lose anything. Remember, goals are generally set to improve some aspect of your quality of life, therefore they should always be written in a positive way, where the ouytcome makes you feel good and emotionally involved. For example instead of trying to quit smoking your objective should be to become a non smoker, instead of trying to lose weight you should aim to improve your body image and clothing size. Your intentions should be written with the end in mind - what will you become or achieve, and how will that make you look or feel?

An alternative goal setting method is to write your objective in the present tense. This basically means that you write the end as if you have already achieved it. For example your network marketing business goal might be “I am a successful network marketing entrepreneur that earns $1000 in residual income on a weekly basis and enjoys spending quality time with my children on a daily basis.”

Download your free SMART goal setting template, which includes an example.

Whilst this website is predominately tailored towards network marketing, it is important to understand that this goal setting process can be used to improve any aspect of your life. It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to set a business goal or improve your fitness, this process can help to get you there.

It is recommended that when starting your network marketing business you prominently display your goals in your office or somewhere you can review it every day. You may even wish to attach some photos, so that it becomes more personalised and visually stimulating in drawing you toward continuous action such that you get results. It is also recommended that you send a copy of your completed goal setting template to your upline members such that they know what support to offer and how to keep you accountable.

Network marketers can help retain their downline distributors by understanding their ambitions and what support to provide. Additionally holding downline distributors accountable to their action plans will help keep them focused and assist them along the road to success.

Know that you have set your SMART Goal, it is important to emphasise that your actions will ultimately determine your level of success. Learn what actions are necessary to run a successful network marketing business. Good luck we look forward to hearing of your success.

Now that you have finished goal setting, let’s develop your Network Marketing Plan of Action

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