Five Reasons Why Success Plans Often Fail

Goal Setting: How to Tweak Your Strategies for Better Results

Are you a positive, goal-oriented person who would like a bit more success with your goal-setting strategies? Here are five ways success plans sometimes fall short, and how you can tweak your own plan for better results.

1) Vaguely defined goals and/or strategies If you want to get to New York from Chicago, you could probably get there by climbing in the car and simply starting to drive, but you’ll get there faster and more comfortably if you plan the trip, have daily destinations along the way, and bring a roadmap with you. It isn’t enough to make something your goal. You have to define the steps that will get you there.

So often we set goals like “I will lose 25 pounds,” then can’t understand why we put on 5 instead. We do better if we plan the steps, such as lose 2 pounds a week, exercise at the gym twice a week, and have a daily intake of so many calories. These steps are our strategies. Having a goal without clearly defined strategies is like driving around the Midwest countryside hoping you’ll stumble upon New York.

Solution: Break your goal down into the practical steps or strategies you must take to reach it. Write these strategies out in clearly defined, measurable terms. Rather than “I won’t work late as much,” write “On Tuesdays and Thursdays until June 1st, I will leave the office by 5:10 p.m.”

2) A reluctant commitment With or without strategies, if you don’t want a goal enough to commit to doing what it takes to achieve it, chances are you’ll drop out before you reach your target. Motivation is extremely important. Think about the times you’ve wanted something with every fiber of your being. Didn’t you find it easy to stick to your goal plan and didn’t you achieve your desired outcome?

Solution: Pick goals you’re strongly committed to. If you really don’t want to start that workout regimen yet, don’t create a goal program for it. Doing so before you’re ready will only lead to failure, which will make it yet harder to get started with the regimen, because you’ll have your added guilt to contend with. If you know you ought to do something, and find yourself resisting, ask your subconscious mind to reveal to you the attitude that prevents your moving forward. Then look at that thought.

3) Forgetting to make it fun When goal setting programs are too arduous, we balk at implementing them. Doing the work required to reach a goal isn’t typically easy, so making the process as enjoyable as possible is part of achieving success. Intrinsic motivation goes a long way in helping, but rewards and celebrations for milestones are needed, too. Having a reward to look forward to keeps us going when the goal looks far off, or when our commitment flags due to physical and emotional fluctuations.

Solution: Make fun a major consideration of your goal-setting program. If you know you need to exercise five times a week to reach a weight goal, for instance, you’ll have a better chance of sticking with your weight loss plan if your strategies involve exercise activities you find fun instead of the kind you abhor. Structure rewards and celebrations for milestones of progress right into your goal plan. The boost to your enthusiasm that celebrating gives will get you over your rough spots. Rewards need to be planned and specific, so you can look forward to them as self-promises. It’s the looking forward that is motivating.

4) Neglecting to track your progress As you move toward a goal, it’s important to track your daily or weekly progress (for longer goals, your monthly or yearly progress as well). This keeps us accountable so we don’t “cheat” and lie to ourselves. It also provides motivation, as we see a visual record of our progress. Without motivation and positive reinforcement, it’s easier to give up on goals than to keep working toward them.

Solution: Make a chart that measures your progress. Post it inside your closet door, on the wall of your bedroom, or inside your personal planner. Record all the times you perform the strategies you’ve committed to at the time you resolved to perform them. If you find you’re repeatedly failing to do a strategy, take a look at it to see why. If the strategy needs tweaking to be workable, just tweak it. It’s natural for strategies to need adjustment as you move toward your goal.

5) Expecting too much of strategizing Unlike visualizing, which can be applied to any goal, strategizing is only appropriate for some goals. In visualizing, a person can ask the universe to create most anything, but strategizing only works for some things. When we goal-set for targets we have no material control over, strategizing becomes interfering or manipulation, and we set ourselves up for disappointment and resistance.

Solution: If you’re having trouble moving toward a goal, rather than berating yourself, consider whether the goal or strategies could be at fault. Is this goal something you really want and that’s good for you to have? Is it also good for other people, or are there those who don’t want you to succeed? Are your strategies effective in moving you toward your goal or did you conceive them before you had knowledge of what is really needed to reach this target? Getting down on yourself makes no sense if the reason you’re not having more success has to do with answers to these questions. Adjust your goal or strategies to be realistic, and you’ll be back on the path of progress and enjoyment.

Goal setting is a skill, and like any skill it takes practice to be done smoothly. Learn from your experiences in goal setting so far, and adapt your efforts to your growing understanding.

And pat yourself on the back for your tenacity! Those who stick around long enough to learn a thing become the experts. That’s going to be you.

If you'd like more information about Goal Setting there are a number of articles and tools on one of my other websites - www.4lifeselfhelp.com

Download our free Goal Setting Ebook - '7 Pointers to Goal Setting Success'

Why Your Kids need to Learn Goal Setting

Good parenting is a task fraught with responsibilities. In between all the bustle, we sometimes come up for air long enough to ask ourselves, “Just what do I need to be teaching my child?” Because of course it isn’t enough to cook, clean and chauffeur. We need to pass on values and skills that will help our kids lives happy and successful lives, both now and as adults.

One of the skills that children need to learn somewhere along the road of life is goal setting: how to turn a vague desire into a committed ambition and how to then take action that will achieve their dream. Imagine if you had this kind of success training as a young person, how different your life would be today. So many adults meander through life, wishing for this thing and that, never understanding the principles that turn a wish into a goal that then can be achieved and experienced. Without the skill of goal setting, so many things we could have had slip right through our fingers.

That’s why kids need to learn how to set a goal, how to create strategies to reach it, how to make a commitment to their dream, the importance of rewarding themselves along the way, and how to track their own progress. When kids learn these techniques as steps toward achieving something they genuinely want to work for, they not only attain the object they desired but they learn the skills of success in the process. They then carry those skills in their experience bank, to be drawn on next time they want to achieve anything.

Success, for kids or adults, is not a random occurrence. It is had by applying principles that successful people have used as their own personal guiding stars down through the ages. Children need success tools as greatly as any coping tools we can teach them. Learning how to goal-set can make the difference between a random life for children in their adult years versus a focused and fulfilled one.

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Successful Goal Planning

My partner Anneli and I have really got into our goal planning in the last few months.

Three nights a week, after putting the little munchkin (our daughter) to bed, we get a pen and an exercise book out, sit down and really getting into the nitty gritty details of each and every goal that we have set for 2008 and beyond.

We have gone well beyond just writing up each overall goal and looking at it every day.

Now we have broken each goal down into mini goals; each one being a step towards how we are actually going to achieve this overall goal, and then making an action plan, setting a timetable, and finally, making the step that many people fall short of............doing it, making it happen.

And what a phenomenal feeling it is to see the goal coming closer to you, when you achieve each step and start seeing results.

Here is a recent article that I have written which describes in more detail how to set and achieve goals.

I would love to hear your comments.

Successful Goal Planning

You hear a lot about Goals and Planning these days – but is it just a waste of time, or does it really work? Won’t just making a quick list of things to do be just as effective, and much quicker? Please consider these ideas.

There are several steps we can take to increase success, whether personal or business, individual or group. One of the major components of successful outcomes is goal planning. High achievers in business and in life know that goal planning is a cornerstone to success. Learning how to plan goals, and then implementing your plan equals goal-planning success. And goal-planning success leads to overall success.

What are goals?

The best way to define the word “goal” is to say that a goal is a marked point in a process that indicates progress. Think of goals as the path markers on a trail. Every time you pass one, you know you’ve made further progress towards reaching a predetermined end or the final goal.

Why should I set goals?

You should set goals because of what they are – a way to see if you are progressing towards an objective or final result. So goal planning leads to success by creating a sort of map for you to follow.

How do I choose the right goals for goal planning success?

Well, that depends on the outcome you are hoping to achieve, but here are some guidelines:

First, determine exactly what it is that you want to achieve. Is it a fit body? A successful business? A happy family?

Next, define what that means. What exactly do you consider to be a fit body, a successful business or a happy family? Your definition will not be the same as your neighbor’s. Please don’t let anyone else define that for you.

Third, map it out. Ask yourself, “What are the ingredients that I need to fulfill this outcome”? And “In what steps should the ingredients be added”? If your final goal is a fit body, the ingredients will be different types of exercise, healthy foods and drinks, maybe even spa treatments and massage. In what way do you need to put these together to equal a fit body? This is where you can see your goals start to take shape.

• Goal one might be to check out the gyms in your area and join one.
• Goal two would be to actually go to the gym a certain number of times per week to workout.
• Goal three might be to hire a dietician to help you with your food choices.
• Goal four would be to take that dietician’s advice to heart and begin to follow an eating plan.
• Goal five might be to do research on body treatments that help the look of your body or help detoxify your body.

As you follow these goals you will start to notice changes in your body that are leading to your final outcome of fitness. Now, this example is a bit watered down, but you get the idea.

When you begin to understand how to use goals, you will experience goal-planning success in every part of your life. Your life will become much easier and you will experience fewer disappointments as a result. If you have work projects to finish and you are feeling overwhelmed, it will help to use goal planning as a tool for better organization and more success. If you need to accomplish certain tasks each day, goal planning will help with that. If you have personal goals such as finding a wonderful partner or returning to college to finish your degree, you can use goal planning for those things too.

Goal planning success means a more happy and successful life. If you are unsure, use goal planning for a small project and see how well it works for you. Then begin to use it to accomplish larger successes. Before you know it goal planning will become second nature and you’ll enjoy a more successful life.

My verdict – stop wasting time just wasting time! Set a Goal and plan the steps to fulfillment, and get to work on achieving those steps.

For more great information and tools to use about setting goals, try this website: Goal setting

A ‘Secret’ message to a friend.

After a wonderful break over the Christmas, New Year period I am back on board and ready to start the new wonderful year ahead.

What better way than to start with a new video that we have just made.

Inspired by The Secret movie, my partner Anneli has designed some beautiful e-cards that you can use to send a message to your friends. Pass on your love, friendship, happiness or say thank you to a friend or loved one. Show them that you are inspired or motivated by them, or let them know that they really can achieve their dreams by following their heart.

These e-cards are free to use, please enjoy them.

Check out the video below and then go to Free Secret e-cards.

Make someone smile today.

Here's to an awesome 2008.

Richie.

A ‘Secret’ message to a friend.

Vision Poster & Guidebook (Yours to keep)

“I have a dream”…”Well, pin it up on the wall then!”

Turn My Dream into Reality Vision Poster & Guidebook.

Free for you to download and use.

You may have read one of my previous posts about setting goals.

Here is a terrific ‘goal focus’ tool that I have used effectively, which has helped me to stay centered and focused on what I really want to achieve.

The Law of Attraction states that what you focus on, you will get, but you must have a very clear picture in your mind of what exactly you want.

Having a beautiful poster on the wall in front of you every day with your goal and how to achieve it is a great way to help you focus on your goals.

I have done 3 vision posters, one each for my 3 biggest goals which I have pinned to my bedroom wall. I look at them every morning when I wake up, and every night just before going to bed.

The Vision Poster has been designed by my partner Anneli, who is also the webmaster/graphic designer for our website www.the-secret-dvd.net

It is a high-resolution poster that you can print out in any size up to A2, and pin up in a prominent place in your bedroom, office, on the back of the toilet door – anywhere really.

The Poster also comes with a guidebook to help you with setting up your own vision poster.

It is free to use and send to your friends.

Click here for Vision Poster

Click here for Vision Guidebook

I will be posting a number of other free tools over the coming months so please stay tuned.

Each self help tool that I post will of course will not be enough by itself to change your entire future, but it will be one more piece in an overall system of powerful tools and strategies that will help you improve your life and work towards your dreams.

How to beat Procrastination

"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment. "

~Robert Benchley

Does this sound like you?

Here is an article written by my mother Winsome (who also writes for our Secret Website) who has, in the past been a famous procrastinator in my circle of family and friends. They are very simple suggestions about how to deal with procrastination, but are very effective.

Sit down at the start of the day and set your priorities...........Read on.

Procrastination 101 - Don’t do it Now – Put it on Your List

Do you have a “To Do” list?

Do you constantly have trouble completing your “To Do” list?

Here are some of the BEST hints I’ve ever heard about how to tackle something that seems to be innate in most humans – Procrastination!

If you are really well organised, get things done in a timely manner, and do NOT have a huge undoable list called:
“LIST OF THINGS TO DO”,
then don’t waste your time reading this

Procrastination………I am really well qualified to write on this topic, because I have been known to not only have a list of things to do, but in that same list I have even written – ‘read this list’.

I mean to say …….

I am happy to report that I am getting over this ‘List Addiction’
If this strikes a cord with you, then I have discovered the best hint ever. I am not kidding; this has really helped me….

Procrastinate no longer.

We are nearly all aware these days of the importance of goal setting.
You may have read about the recent Harvard study of a class of young men, a generation ago now. Some of whom wrote very clear goals, and some of them didn’t. I don’t think I need to spell out the outcome 40 years later….

So you probably have goals, I hope you do; and have even written them down. We know that goal setting and being very focused about our dream is crucial.
But while you are busy, busy with a list of ‘Things To Do’, a list often of trivial things, you are not really focusing at all.

So what is the BEST hint for Procrastinators?
This is it. From today’s list of things to do – PRIORITISE, look at those tasks and put them in order of importance.
Start with Number 1 and do it until it is done. Then and only then can you allow yourself to move on to Number 2.

Prioritise – what does that really mean?
It means put at the top of the list the MOST IMPORTANT things that will lead you towards your goal.
And all those silly little tasks you put on your list that are easy to do, and that don’t move you directly towards our goal – down to the bottom of the list they go.
It means things like – don’t go checking your emails every 5 minutes to see if something new has arrived, no nipping out for a coffee every so often, instead of doing another task.

It also means doing the important things and NOT the ‘urgent things’. It means not jumping to fill in a survey that was sent to you, or fixing up something for the person who shouts the loudest. It means not putting off something that seems a bit uncomfortable – just get on with it.

Once you start, then you will see what the next step will be.

Bonus Hint Number 2

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." ~Eva Young

If there is a 2 minute job (or less) that pops up – do it NOW.
That’s it, that’s all. Don’t put it on the list to look at over and over again. Just get it out of the way now – and out of your head so that it doesn’t take up valuable space.

Now you will have some time to really work on getting clear about your goals.

"Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow." ~Gerald Vaughan

This quote is a little rude so I have put it at the bottom of this blog. It made me laugh though:

"Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself." ~Author Unknown

Visualising – How to keep your goals in focus.

Almost everyone will agree that to achieve something big, you need to set a goal.

You need to have a vision of what you want in your mind so that you can work towards it. You need to make your goal detailed, and you need to hold that vision persistently in your head.

But what if we don’t even know what our goals are, let alone describe them in detail?

And once you have set a goal, how do you hold that vision in your mind every day with so many day to day distractions around you?

Well, here is the method that I use every day to achieve my goals and hold that vision.
Every day, I write down 3 gratitude points, and write about “My Perfect Life”.

Here is an excerpt from May earlier this year.

My Perfect Life.

Gratitude

22/05/07

1. I have had a really good day, attitude wise. I have felt really good all day and I feel like I have a really positive attitude. I am really happy about this, it is so much better to have a good, positive attitude than a negative one. It’s such a better state of mind to be in.
2. I love a winter’s day. Today has been showers on and off with a biting coldness to the air. The change of seasons makes me feel alive.
3. I completed all of my tasks today on my list. What a great thing to happen. This will certainly be happening a lot more from now on. In fact, all the time.

Lifestyle, The Freedom I have, The time I have

22/05/07

This is what I have dreamt about for a long time but always thought not possible in the past.

Time for me has been one of the biggest issues in my life, especially in the last 5 years. In the past I never seem to have had enough time. Tasks were not being done, I felt like I was going nowhere.

What a turnaround. At last I only have to work (realistically) 2 days a week at the most, and they usually finish well before 5pm and often don’t start until well after 9pm. In fact, I don’t really have to work at all for money if I didn’t really want to, and that is probably what I will do in the near future. Maybe just a bit of share trading or looking for another investment property.

But this wonderful new amount of extra time that has been freed up because of the freedom of not having to work has given me so much freedom to be able to start doing the things that I really wanted to do. Being involved in the local tree planting group, spending a lot of the time in the veggie garden. You should see the veggies!! Virtually all of the fresh produce that we eat, including fruit, veggies, nuts, coffee, honey, eggs, meat, even the flowers that we put in a vase on the table, comes from our property. Only occasionally do we swap produce with other neighbours or the guy from the local organic shop for stuff that is out of season, or can’t be grown in our area such as mangoes. All of this wonderful extra time that has been freed up from working in the past has given me the time to develop this amazing, rich, bountiful, vibrant garden.

Sounds good doesn’t it? This is exactly the picture that I have held in my mind since May and it has been a very easy vision to maintain.

But before I discovered this method of holding my vision, I was struggling.

When I first learnt about visualising to achieve goals, I would set myself down in a quiet spot every morning, my biggest goals written down neatly in front of me and go through them one by one in my head, seeing myself already in possession of these goals.
This worked for quite a while, but soon it started to dwindle. After a while my mind would begin to wander during these peaceful morning sessions, and I started to have trouble concentrating and focusing on the task – to visualise my goals.
And the truth that I was losing concentration made it even harder because I was also losing my passion and enthusiasm for my goals.

I needed another way to stay on track.

And then my partner came up with a fantastic idea, and we created “My Perfect Life”.
It’s a bit like me being the author of my own book of life – My…Perfect Life.
It has helped me to stay so focused and excited about my goals and for me it is a really wonderful way to help me visualise.

It can also be of great help for those who aren’t’ really sure what their goals should be in the first place.

Here’s how to create your “Perfect Life”.

Spend 15 minutes a day doing this – no more, but do it every day. The trick is to push yourself for at least 30 days, and then it will become a habit.
You can type your daily entries in a word doc but you could also use a nice exercise book.
I usually put on some good music to get me in the mood. (Music is one of my passions that really inspires me and gets me into a visualising mood).

The first thing to do is to get into an “attitude of gratitude”. Simply write down 3 things that you are grateful for on the day.
They could be as simple as “I just love my beautiful daughter, she is so cute”, or “Gee I’m glad my football team won this weekend, what a team!”, or even about the weather or the simple fact that you have a roof over your head.

The next task is to focus on the goals that you have set for yourself. If you don’t have any goals, just work out some broad topics.

My topics are:

• Lifestyle, The Freedom I have, The time I have, Doing the things I love.
• My partner, my family, The people in my life
• My soul, my journey, my growth, my state of mind. I am happy.
• The money I have
• Holidays, The big adventure next year
• My health, my body
• My house, my garden, my surroundings, this is where I live.

It’s easiest to choose one topic per night, rather than tackling all of them at once, and just ‘go for it’.
Put yourself totally into the place that you are writing about, see yourself there, enjoying whatever you have in your mind. Describe the colours, the smells, your feelings, describe everything in detail. Make it in the present tense – be in that place, now. Be really descriptive.

Don’t hold back either, this is your “Dream Life”, you can write about whatever it is you desire, there should not be any limitations.

One of the reasons I think that this method of goal setting and visualising works so well is that the act of writing it down seems to make it much more concrete. It becomes a physical description of what you want, rather than just a fleeting thought through your mind. You can read back over it too which is a fun thing to do, and again, this brings you to the place that you really want to be when you read it again.

You’ll find that after a while you start to get into the real ‘nitty gritty’. Once you’ve been doing this for a month or so you will have gone through all the topics several times so you start to describe things in real details.

It really is a wonderful exercise and after a while you will start to see things really clearly.

After all, you have been writing about “Your Dream Life”, so plainly, these are what your goals should be.

Coming up next – What I have achieved using this method.