Tips & Insights for Top Performance

3.  Write goals in 1^st person, with emotion and as if they were complete. For example:

• I have a balanced and peaceful life working 40 hours a week earning $100K in a field I love, AND have 3 quality hours each day to spend with my family in addition to feeling great because I am healthy (energy), fit (140lbs.) and having fun (weekly activity).
• Accounting Solutions Inc. is proud to be the #1 leader in the Raleigh area to provide a one-stop for all small business accounting needs as evidenced by being the top choice for 40% of companies under 50 and servicing over 500 local companies. (December 2007)

4.  Break it down and develop a plan. If you want to accomplish your goal, break down the yearly goal into monthly milestones. What will it take each month to move you closer to your goal? Each month, break it down into weekly goals. What will it take each week to accomplish your monthly goal? Each week, break it down into daily goals of what it will take to accomplish your week’s goal. While this may seem like a lot of work, it is simply creating a road map for you to follow straight to goal success. It is overwhelming and often difficult to see the measurable tasks that need to happen daily to make your goal happen. By breaking it down, you are able to push and make sure your goal is realistic and attainable.

5.  Review daily. Post it in 3 spots where you can read it daily. Brian Tracey reports the single most effective thing you can do, though, is hand write your goal each day until it is done.

Why set goals?

• increase in energy and excitement as you start moving toward your passions & goals

• more powerful as you are making life happen rather then letting life happen to you.

• greater focus and direction and greater purpose.

What are you aiming for today? What are you excited about? Where do you want to be heading? Craft your goal today!

If you look around at the “successful” people in life, they are setting goals.

Often we are resistant to setting goals. There are many reasons, pessimism that they won’t work, fear of failure, lack of time, lack of thought, etc. The irony is you cannot arrive in a place you have not planned to reach. Either you can let life happen to you or you can be intentional about heading someplace. Flexibility and letting things take their natural course have their place, but if you have no destination picked, you are subject to what life will give you, rather than pursuing with passion what you want.

In the upcoming year, what do you want? Below are 5 tips to make your goals stick:

     1.  Visualize an inspirational goal. As you think back over the past year, what are you proud and excited about? What worked for you? What did not happen that you wanted? What did not work? As you think about the past, begin to think about the future (life, business, etc.). Where would you like to be one year from now? Visualize what it would look like if your life was exactly how you wanted it in one year. What would be happening? What would be different? Allow yourself to visualize your goal. A vision that gets you pumped up and excited is something you will work hard for. Begin by writing your vision of what your goal would look like when it is complete.

    2.  Be clear and concise. Given your visual of what you want your future to look like, what will it take to make that happen. Put this into the form of a SMART goal statement.

• Specific – precise (i.e. 20% over quota)
• Measurable – way to check progress (i.e. 3 trainings)
• Achievable – It is possible. (keep fantasies in check)
• Realistic – Challenge yourself to stretch and grow.
• Timed – Have a completion/ success date.

Remember back in January when you laid out your plans for the New Year? How are those plans coming? Ask yourself honestly, “How am I doing? What have I been able to do and what have I been procrastinating on?” There are several great books on this topic that offer tips and thoughts to keep you in motion. One you might enjoy: Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander.1 This is a funny, short and easy-to-read book that will inspire any action-oriented person to get moving! Scott Alexander has a creative approach to get you ready to charge forward into action!

The author makes the premise that there are two kinds of people in the world, “Cows” and “Rhinos.” You get to choose which one you’d like to be.

The fact that you are reading this article suggests that you are already rhino material! Rhinos are the people who charge ahead and don’t let things get them down. They get things done and see the possibilities even in adverse circumstances. Obstacles are merely hurdles to break through, not road blocks that immobilize. Now realistically, every rhino is going to have some “cow” days; the trick is to be a cow as little as possible, because rhinos simply get more done and are more successful. Cows have a different purpose altogether and are OK with mediocre, “good enough” and settling for living in fenced-in pastures, chewing their cud. I am not going to focus on cows, because the rhino is the one who is making things happen and moving forward through the jungle of life!

Strategies for living your purpose and expanding your awareness for life, people and the opportunities of each day

Rhino Mind-set:

• Positive Self-Talk. Scott Alexander talks about reading a focus statement daily. He suggests: “I am a rhinoceros. I have a damn-the-torpedoes spirit! I am full of energy and I can’t wait to get up in the morning to start charging!” Now, write your big picture goal and get moving!
• Expect Torpedoes. These are the obstacles and negative things that inevitably discourage, distract or serve to get you off track. Expect them and commit to not letting them knock you over. Develop a tough, thick skin so you can keep charging. These are traits like confidence, endurance, discipline, focus, and determination.

Rhino Behavior:

• Action is essential. Pick the most important thing you need to get done each day and do it first, before the smaller and more seductive things (e.g., checking e-mail, cleaning, personal calls, coffee breaks). Also, write the four other key things you need to get done each day, and focus on doing those. Make it your goal to accomplish these five key items every day.
• CHARGE! Rhinos are in the business of “charging” forward. They have a target in mind (the goal) and are focused and going for it. Since you have already developed your plan, you can be confident in your charge. Go for the next step and get it done. Success happens one step at a time, whether the goal is large or small. Whatever you do, do something, stay in action and keep moving forward.

1 (Laguna Hills, CA: Rhino Press, 1980)