Picture yourself inside the goal – the rest is nothing but details. (
Remember that comic book in the corner store? It was just sitting there on the magazine shelf… kind of calling your name. Sure, you may have spent your 5 cents on the Bit-O-Honey, leaving you not nearly enough for that 95 cent paperback wonderland.
But this day was different from any other. You weren’t going to let that lack of a few cents get in your way. You were going to eat your Bit-O-Honey, shuffle on home, and start to work on just how you could get that magazine into your squirmy little hands. It would be yours before the month was over.
How is it we can be so adamant about such a little thing as a comic book when we were little, but when it comes to something like oh… I don’t know… planning for our financial well-being in our later years… we tend to, well, eat our proverbial Bit-O-Honey and then complain to our Honey at home how we’re never going to make it?
Break that pattern, my friend. You comic book awaits. Here are the 3 Simple Steps for Achieving Goals – visionaries style!
(1) Develop your mental plan from start to finish , then put it into action.
“Oh sure… I could have told you THAT!”
Yes. That little statement may seem a bit silly, over-used, and not entirely helpful. Given. But did you know that in a comparison of Basketball players that did only mental preparation (and no physical) and another team who did only physical practice – that the “mental only” team performed to 66% capacity of the physical practice team? That’s pretty good for not breaking a sweat.
Just getting their minds right helped them get pretty darn good at what they needed to do. Get your mind right before you set out on your visionary quest to accomplish your goals. Run through your plan, set your goals in the S.M.A.R.T. format (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound), and then prepare yourself for victory.
(2) Keep your end goal always in mind.
When is the last time you did a puzzle? Yeah – it’s been a while for me, too. Okay well think back to one of the last times you did a puzzle. Was it a 25 piece? 500 piece? 2,500 piece? What was your first step? Did you separate by colors? Maybe do the edges first? Or did you just go right in and start trying piece by piece? Nah – no one does that. We all have our own way of planning to work through a puzzle.
Move from the vision stage to the reality stage of your goal by focusing on the specific, small steps you will need to take in order to get there. Don’t get discouraged by your goal to “Have $1,000,000 by 08/15/2012” – anyone would be intimidated by that goal. Chunk it down into bite-size goodies. For instance, what is a small task that would probably only take a day to complete that you could do now? Read 3 articles on investing? Go to the library and borrow a Warren Buffett biography? You get the point. Each little step gets you that much closer.
(3) Link every action to your long-term vision.
So you’re sitting at your desk at work, you’ve completed your tasks for the day, and it’s only noon. Now what? Pop on over to Facebook and check on your Mafia or Crops? Sure – it probably popped up in your mind, but did you do it? Why not? Was it because you value your job? Enjoy that paycheck? Of course you do… making the decision to play games would not be in-line with your overall goal of working and being compensated for it.
Keep within this same line of thought when it comes to your goals. Whenever you are about to embark on a new task or adventure, remember to ask yourself, “Will this bring me closer to my goal?” Honestly answer the questions. As a matter of fact, ask yourself “HOW will this bring me closer?” 3 times and see what you come up with by the 3rd time. You’ll be laser focused on your long-term vision in no time.
Visionaries Achieve Goals
Whether or not you choose to go for that Comic Book is up to you. We all love our Bit-O-Honey candies, but at some point we have to stop and ask, “How many Bit-O-Honey’s have I had and how much sooner could I have had that Comic Book if I really wanted it?”
You’ve got the vision – you were given a keen set of eyes and an even keener sense of using them. Clean off those glasses, put down the candy, and crystallize your future in today’s mind, now.
Heck, commit yourself publicly right now – post your SMART goal in a comment below – and watch the vision get clearer every day!