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THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

Epilogue – Checks and BALANCE

One final (and VERY IMPORTANT) area of guidance…

Your goals become the roadmap by which you navigate the direction of your life. Before you begin the journey toward your new goals it is important to take a step back to gain proper perspective on exactly where you are going to be directing your life.

Too often you see people focusing exclusively on one area of their life, at the sacrifice to every other area.

Have you ever seen a guy who has giant arms but skinny little legs? Looks a bit ridiculous, right? That’s how many people’s lives look. Too much focus in one area and not enough in another.

We all pity the man who has the big house on the hill filled with expensive cars and trinkets yet no one to share them with.

People Magazine and other such celebrity rags demonstrate this principle seemingly daily. We see people who have become successful in one area of their life, but are utter failures in many of the other areas. The grocery isle is constantly laden with the headlines of bitter divorces, drunken driving arrests, family feuds, racist rants, bulimia, drug rehab, depression and suicide attempts.

Many of these same people, the ones most of

America

idolizes, are also some of the most unhappy, insecure and depressed people you will find. Why? Well, one is what we covered in installment 6 of 7.5 - The YOU Factor - their extraordinary income far exceeded their actual personal development and the money only exasperated the troubled feelings they felt inside. Secondly, their focus on the one area of their life created a great imbalance with the rest of the areas.

Be careful what you sacrifice in other areas of your life the pursuit of what you want in one area.

Also, be aware of the price that needs to be paid to achieve the prize you seek. Some prizes might cost too much… and it might only be realized after payment has been made.

I mentioned “The Wheel of Life” in installment 5 of 7.5 when giving you the categories of your goals. Now that you have completed the goal development process it is important to check-in and see if you are directing your life in a balanced manner.

First, map out on The Wheel where you are now on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) in each area of your life:

Then connect the end points and see just how balanced your life is to start.

Let me give you a for instance. I recently helped a friend with his goals and this is how his started:

Then when we mapped where he had focused is goals. This is how it came out:

You can see the danger he is in if he doesn’t adjust his goals. What good will achieving the financial and professional goals be without the health to enjoy it and if ultimately he gets his finances reduced by “half” because he neglected his marriage? Not to mention the mental and spiritual bankruptcy he is headed for.

Hey, I have seen many cases on the opposite side of imbalance as well... and it is just as problematic.

A man who is fervently committed to his church, loves his wife and kids but eats too many donuts that shorten his life and fails in the marketplace so he unnecessarily burdens his family with undue stress and financial hardship.

There is also the gym rat or the super model who are fanatically committed when it comes to their health, but they have a hard time holding an intelligent conversation and you will always have to pick up the tab when you are out with them.

The key is to be sure you are giving appropriate attention and setting worthy goals in all important areas of your life. The reach of one goal might need to be adjusted to make room for time and attention in another area to create a more balanced Wheel.

“Life without balance can cost you your relationships. Life without balance can cost you your health. Life without balance can cost you your spirituality. Life without balance can cost you your wealth and your happiness. So find things to motivate you from all areas of life. Your success depends on it.” ~Jim Rohn

True achievement and life fulfillment is when you have success at home, in the marketplace and with the triad of your being – body, mind and spirit.

Now, go out and live the life you were meant to live.

~Darren Hardy

See the entire series of THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(The .5 of 7.5) The Short cut

(click here to see 1-7 of 7.5)

The simplified version to goal achievement

Since I have done intensive goal setting and introspection for many years now on some New Years Days I do an abridged goal setting process.

Don’t let the complexity or intensity of the planning process paralyze you from making any plans at all.

Here is what I used as an abridged goal development process:

I. Year in Review

A. 10 great happenings in 2006

B. Lessons learned in 2006

II. Gratitude

A. What’s great in my life right now?

III. Top 10 goals

IV. Top 3 goals

V. Who do I need to be to achieve my top 3 goals this year?

VI. Action Plan – milestones of achievement

A. End of Q1

B. End of Month1

C. End of Week1

D. Next 24 hours

That’s a wrap! You now have the formula to achieve any outrageous and ambitious dream you can conceive.

You know why, you know how, you know what, you know when, you know the rewards and consequences it is now just up to you to…

“Just Do It” ~Nike

Really do it, do not procrastinate one more minute. Seize the amazing potential that lay dormant inside you; dust off the dreams that have been given to you as your purpose.

Yeah, I'm talking to you... yeah, you, the one staring at the computer screen. This was written for you. Consider this your tap on the shoulder, etched tablet or “burning bush”. YOU are the one who was supposed to read this.

No longer engage in the maintaining of an existence rather than the designing and living a life of substance. Don’t let a million dollars of consumed and disposed of goods be the only evidence that you were here.

The great tragedy of life is not poverty, or hunger, or even death. The great tragedy is that we could, but we don’t; we should, but we won’t. With us all exists the capacity for uniqueness, for accomplishment, and for freedom from unwanted obligation. Do not fall prey to the great tragedy of could, don’t; should, won’t. Beginning at this very moment, you need never be the same again – except by choice.

Make THIS the year you really turn it on; the year you plant the flag in your life and shout to the world, "THIS is WHO I AM" and let the world pause and take notice.

From this day forward your life shall be one of movement toward greatness and toward extraordinary accomplishment.

"Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose." ~Benjamin Disraeli

Let your 2007 achievements be an inspiration and a testimony to others of what’s possible when you focus your creative intentions on a worthy ideal. Light the path for others to follow with the torch of your example.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." ~Henry David Thoreau

Share your results with me. I can't wait to meet Who You Are by the end of this exciting year ahead.

The DarrenHardyBlog will be your ally in the year ahead.

Let's go do it!

A Happy, Safe, Blessed and Prosperous New Year!

May you become all that you were intended to be.

~Darren Hardy

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THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(7 of 7.5) Execution & Sustainability

(click here to see 1-6 of 7.5)

Action!

All the planning, pondering and philosophizing alone won’t produce your desired results. As Rohn says, “You must learn to translate wisdom and strong feelings into labor”.

All the affirmations, chanting, positive thinking, and the rubbing of crystals won’t materialize your goals.

“Affirmation with out action leads to delusion” ~Jim Rohn

Committed, disciplined and sustained action is the final ingredient in the miracle process of materializing any achievement you can conceive.

“Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you” ~George Zalacky

Now that you have decided what you want and who you have to become to achieve your goals, you must now “strike while the iron is hot”. The time to begin is when the emotion is high and intentions are strong.

“Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value” ~Jim Rohn

The NEXT 24-48 HOURS:

So do not delay, decide what you can do now. Within the next 24-48 hours, what will you do to put at least one of your goals into action? You will create momentum by taking action now. What one step will you take in the next 24-48 hours?

Example: Go to the dealership and get a brochure of the car you want. Go purchase a greeting card and mail it to your wife telling her how much she means to you and your intention for creating a magical and romantic year. Get the catalogue from the community college you are going to take some courses in, etc.

The next 30 days:

 Identify what you need to do over the next 30 days (by Feb 1st) to put some of your goals into action. What will you do?

Example: Make your first donation and deposit your set savings according to your plan. Hire your personal fitness trainer and start your program. Recruit your mentor. Make the necessary prospecting calls. Designate the planned family night and engage fully.

Support and Follow-up

Consequence

Write out what will happen if you do not stay committed and accomplish your goals. It is important to not only know the promise available if you do achieve, but also the pain associated in not accomplishing your goal. Realize how you will be living out the remaining years of your life forever reflecting on what you might have done.

The fear of failure is often a more powerful emotion than the desire for progress.

Example: The family vacation everyone is eagerly anticipating will have to be canceled. Your children cannot go to the University your whole family has attended. You will not be able to move out of the neighborhood that threatens your family’s safety and influence. You will not live long enough to enjoy your future grandchildren, etc. 

Reward

It is important to acknowledge and celebrate the small achievements along the way to reaching your big goals. I set all sorts of rewards along the way – quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily and sometimes throughout the day.

Example: Take a week vacation at the end of every quarter. You can work like crazy for 90 days knowing you have an impending fun and rewarding vacation coming. Take a four day weekend every four weeks. Give yourself a “cheat day” if you are strict and disciplined the other six days of the week. Go home an extra hour earlier if you make ten more calls than what’s on your plan for the day. Earn a special snack or an “upgraded” lunch if you achieve an extraordinary milestone in your day, etc.

Workout partner

This is one of the most valuable things you can do to insure accountability. People will often do much more when someone else is watching than if they can fail without anyone knowing.

Share your goals and your plan with someone (colleague or mentor) and ask them to hold you accountable. Schedule reviews in regular time intervals to check-in on your progress along the way. Ask them to not let you off the hook no matter what excuses you give later for not wanting to do the review.

Books and tapes of support (movies too!)

Continually bombard your mind with the input and information that will support you on your path to your goals (nothing better than TSTN!). Be wary of that which might distract, debilitate or dampen your creative and positive spirit.

Read Secrets to a Stress Free Life (4 of 10) WHAT is Controlling You – Your Associations and Environment Have Influence for more information.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great.” ~Mark Twain

Additionally, I am a fan of inspirational movies. I get reinvigorated about my own goals and purpose in life when I see a rousing epic or triumph-against-all-odds flick. Feeling uninspired? Put in Braveheart, Rudy, Gladiator or The Last Samurai (admittedly a bit in the testosterone category so find your own movies that stir your heart and incite your spirit).

Visualize – the power of Focus

I often play out a situation out in my head before I do it in real life. I will visualize myself conducting the meeting I am going into or the important dialogue I am about to have. Every time I do, I discover something I can do to improve my performance when it is done for real.  Visualization in the achievement of your goals helps you further “see” who you have to be and how you need to operate to accomplish your objectives.

“Your imagination is your preview to life's coming attractions" ~Albert Einstein

Another way to reinforce your visualization practice is to prepare a personal visualization board with pictures or other items that remind you of all your goals and mount it someplace you can see it every day.

“Act as if” principle

Begin to act now as you will act when your goal is reached.

“Do the thing and you will have the power” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

If you were already a millionaire how would you walk, talk, shake hands, enter a room, etc.?

If were already an amazing, romantic and considerate husband how would you enter the house from work, how would you embrace your wife, how would you talk, listen and behave?

If you were already your ideal weight, how would you walk, hold your shoulders, carry your head, dress, groom and present yourself?

Be that what you want now and you will certainly become it. The only thing that separates the act from the reality is a few more planetary spins.

Stay tuned… .5 to come!

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(6 of 7.5) The Magic Factor

(click here to see prior installments)

Turning goal setting into goal achieving

This is it, this is the greatest discovery I have made in how goals are achieved rather than just conceived.

Goal setting has a tendency to be the writing of a wish list. Once the list is written then it is expected that some mystical and magical process takes over and all you have to do is sit around and wait – not so.

When detailing your goals, I have found that you cannot want to DO something or HAVE anything; you can only BECOME what is necessary to attract what you desire. As Jim Rohn says, “If you want to have more, you first have to BECOME more.”

The YOU Factor

YOU are what needs to be worked on, not your goal.

This is the most important personal development distinction you can realize. The issue is not IT (health, marriage, money, career, etc.), the issue is YOU. It will only be as great as you are. If you work on IT, it will continue to elude you. If you work on you, it will rise to the level of the new you.

Let me try to explain this visually. In the image below, the expanded circle in red is the improvement or your goal in that area of life. This is the problem. You might be able to expand the circle to the perimeter of the red circle, but it will be TEMPORARY. Ultimately it will go back to equal the perimeter (level of achievement) of where YOU are.

“The human tendency is to engage itself in the study of effect, but give little attention to the cause behind all effects.”

This is why 90% of the people who have won an extraordinary amount of money in the lottery end up losing it all and end up about where they were before they came into the windfall. Subconsciously they (their “you”) was not comfortable with the disproportionate inequality of money-to-you ratio so it did all it could to sabotage the inequity until it ultimately got back to equal.

“If you won a million dollars, the first thing to do is to become a millionaire.” ~Jim Rohn

This is also why people who make a goal of losing a bunch of weight, diet, actually lose the weight end up going back to the same or worse weight than when they started. Why? Because in the end the weight was not the source of the problem, only the effect. If you work on the effect (goal), over time it will ultimately find its way back equal to the cause – how one feels about themselves, their personal philosophy and attitude about what they feel they are capable and worthy of.

Freaky huh? That’s how it works. You can only have, be or do what is in equality to what you feel you are worthy of, deserve or have in character.

Now, here is the magic… Work on improving the YOU in this equation and every effect (money, career, relationships, health, etc.) will grow in equality to the new proportion of YOU.

So here is what to do to transform goal setting into goal achieving.

Take each of your top 10 goals and ask and answer these questions –

Who do I have to become to achieve this?

What actions would this type of a person take?

Example:
Goal – I am earning an extra $100,000 in income this year.
Question – Who do I have to become to achieve this?
Answer – I am a smart, confident and effective leader. I am a master of time efficiency. I focus solely on high payoff and high productivity actions. I wake up an hour earlier and review my priority objectives each morning. I fuel my body properly so I am energetic and highly effective each work hour. I am influential, passionate and an accomplished leader, etc., etc.

Goal – I am my target weight of 130 lbs.
Question – Who do I have to become to achieve this?
Answer – I am a beautiful, radiant and strong woman. I make healthy choices with everything I put into my mouth. I exercise with weights twice a week and get my heart rate up for more than 20 minutes three times a week. I eat healthy at least five times per day and get at least eight hours of sleep a night.

Repeat this process with:

Who do I want to be in my career/ business?

Who do I want to be in my family?

Who do I want to be with my friends?

Who do I want to be in my community, church, health and most important, who do I want to be to myself?

We do not attract what we want, we attract WHO WE ARE.

The world (and your goals) will meet you where you are. Focus on improving you – your attitudes, skills and philosophies and everything will improve for you.

Up next – How to execute and stick to your ambitious goals all year long…

Want to forward this series to a friend? Send them this link: http://darrenhardy.typepad.com/blog/the_formula_designing_your_best_year_ever/index.html

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(5 of 7.5) The Design

(click here to see 1-4 of 7.5)

Designing the person you have always wanted to be and the life you have always wanted to have.

This is the easy part, the part you already know, but still the part where you need to challenge your inner potential, conquer your limiting beliefs and give voice to your dreams.

Below are seven areas of life. In each category write out what you would like to become, accomplish, have or do. Again, if anything were possible what would aspire to? If a genie popped out of a lamp and could grant you ten wishes in every one of these categories, what would you write down? Don’t filter or qualify as you write. There will be plenty of time to separate out the outrageous and absurd. For the exercise just write what you would ask for if anything was possible.

The Wheel of Life – setting balanced goals in every area of your life.

 1. Professional
Ex. - Learn new skills, find a mentor, mentor someone else, improve time management, etc.

 2. Financial

Ex.- start saving $250/month, begin investing, earn extra money and pay off debt in full, educate self about money with courses and books, cut up credit cards, make a budget, automate bills, create a financial independence plan, buy a home, make more money, spend less, donate money regularly, etc.

 3. Physical

Ex. - Reduce sugar, caffeine, fatty foods, go to bed earlier, exercise 3 times a week for an hour, take a yoga/kickboxing class, lose 25 lbs., get up to date on doctor appointments, start meditating, get a massage once a month, work with a nutritionist, read a health related book once a month, cut back on alcohol, upgrade appearance with new wardrobe or hairstyle, etc.

 4. Mental

Ex. - What do you want to learn, refine or advance your knowledge or capacity in? What practice do you want to integrate into your weekly/daily life that stimulated and grows your mental edge?

 5. Family

Ex. - spend more time with family and get closer, nightly reading ritual to 5 year old son, date night with spouse each Friday, visit parents 2 times a year, send birthday cards to all friends, find Mr. Right, develop friendships with a monthly girls night out, attract higher quality people, get more affection from spouse by being more affectionate in return, etc.

 6. Spiritual

Ex. – What do you want to practice, study, get involved with, teach, contribute, volunteer, etc.?

 7. Lifestyle

Ex. - If you have some facet of personality you’d like to change, write it down. Want to break a habit? List it. Tangible wants or needs, list them – a new home, a swimming pool, a boat, new furniture, a certain kind of car. You want to travel; you want to provide for your children’s education (or even advance your own)? You’d like to develop a new skill: learn to play the piano, take up tennis and play it well, or develop some other athletic or artistic skill? Anything you dare to dream should go onto your list. Remove all clutter from home and office, hire a weekly maid service, move to ideal home or city, surround yourself with supportive people, beautify your home and redecorate, create a haven at home, etc.

Top 10:
Narrow down to your top 10 overall goals and set deadlines to accomplish them:

You think, act, and react with the urgency and with appropriate energy defined by the task. Just as your muscles prepare in one way when you stoop over to pick up the morning paper and react in an entirely different manner when you prepare to lift a 100-lb barbell, so your mind prepares your body and your attitudes for responding appropriately to the deadlines you set for yourself.

Deadlines create a challenge and you respond to the challenge. In sports, the tension mounts as time runs out. The most exciting plays are often in the last few minutes, especially if it is a close game, because people respond in dramatic fashion to the challenge of deadlines.

Top 3:
Isolate further to your top 3 goals

1. Break down into small steps

Ex. – Run a marathon – think of the first 5 miles, then the next 3, etc.

Write a 500 page Book – 5 days a week for 2 yrs; 1 paragraph every 2 hours; 1 line every 15 minutes; 1 word every 1-3 minutes.

2. Other actions to support the main goal – What actions will you take reinforce these values/goals each month, week, and day?

3. Determine if they are S.M.A.R.T. goals.

S- Specific, M- Measurable, A- Attainable, R- Realistic, T- Time sensitive.

OK, now we have the design. Next, we will discuss THE MOST IMPORTANT ingredient in goal achievement. I call it the “Magic Factor”. Not because there is any magic involved but because of the miraculous results that are created when you focus on this ONE factor. Get ready to learn the magic factor for achieving any wild ambition you ever set your mind to.

Be a friend to a friend and send them a link to this series: http://darrenhardy.typepad.com/blog/the_formula_designing_your_best_year_ever/index.html

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(4 of 7.5) Guidelines

(click here to see prior installments)

Subtle and inconsequential adjustments transform wishes and hopes into achievements and actualizations.

1. Don’t just think it – INK IT.

"Reduce your plan to writing... The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire." ~Napoleon Hill

Unless you write down your goals, they are often lost in the shuffle and excitement of new problems, new challenges, and new decisions. Eliminate outside interruptions.

2. Suspend reality

Don’t filter, qualify or judge. In the beginning don’t factor in experience, resources, ability, etc. Let the giant that lay dormant inside you out to play – if you had every skill, resource or ability in the world, what would you do and what would you set out to accomplish.

“The same thinking that has led you to where you are is not going to lead you to where you want to go” ~Albert Einstein

Don’t worry, you are not committing yourself, you are just playing a game and scratching ink on paper. You can decide later what you really wish to do and tackle. During the process, let it flow.

3. Think Big

What is your BHAG? Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal. What is that one thing that even when you think of it, it makes your palms sweat a little.

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it." ~Michelangelo

 

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for" ~John A. Shedd

 

"“Don’t set your goals too low. If you don’t need much, you won’t become much.” ~Jim Rohn

 

"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” ~Johann von Goethe

4. State in the positive

Decide what you want to move toward, not away from.

Examples:

“I am my ideal weight of X lbs by X date” versus “I want to lose 20 lbs”.

Or, “I have a positive net worth of X by X date” versus “I want to get out of debt”.

Or, “I have a loving, respectful and intimate relationship with my wife” versus “I want to repair my marriage”.

5. State in the “I AM”

State in the present first person. I am X versus I want X. The latter only reinforces just that – the wanting versus the having.

If you write a goal like: “I want to be a millionaire”. Your creative energy will only produce exactly more of that outcome – the “wanting” of being a millionaire. If you say, “I am a millionaire by December 31^st, 2007”, then your creative power will now go to work on producing what you have declared to be so.

6. Be sure they are YOUR goals

Many people set goals that they think they “should” have rather than what they truly want for themselves. Don’t let your family’s’, your colleagues’ or societies’ ideals or expectations dictate your ambitions. In fact, if your written goals are not from your true heart and inner ambition, your creative spirit will not work to produce them anyway. All it will do is frustrate you and give you the illusion that you are a failure and not capable, when in actuality you successfully avoided (didn’t achieve) what your inner spirit didn’t really want anyway.

7. Make sure they align with your values

Some goals aren’t worth going for. Every promise has a price. It is important to be sure you don’t sacrifice your core values to pay for the acquisition of a promise less worthy.

Goals must fit your own values, standards, and desires. They must meet your own needs. Or you will find it impossible to remain interested or involved in them.

Next, (Just in time for New Years Day) The Design…

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(3 of 7.5) Start in Gratitude

(click here to see 1,2 of 7.5)

Preventing the Fatal Mistake

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey

To set your creative power in motion you have to operate from an attitude of abundance, not scarcity. The very process of setting goals (deciding what you want that you don’t already have) can focus your attention on what you lack versus the blessings of abundance you already possess. Focusing solely on what you don’t have actually turns your creative power against you.

Traditional goal setting can actually perpetuate your focus on what you don’t have and thus continue to create more of it.

Gratitude is the attitude that changes everything. To be grateful for something is to stop resisting it. Resistance pushes away; gratitude and an abundance mindset attracts more of itself to you.

            "Gratitude is what starts the receiving process" ~Jim Rohn

Knowing the power of gratitude, and to calibrate my creative “attraction magnets”, I start my New Years goal writing by first reminding myself of what I am already grateful for.

 · What are my current assets? (Contacts, good career, education, experience, time to accomplish, etc.)

 · What is great in my life right now? (Family, friends, finances, health, resources, community, etc.)

 · What’s great about me? (Specific skills, personality, attributes- passion, ambition, desire, willingness, etc.)

Feeling blessed and abundant already? You should because you are and it just the mindset and expectation that will refocus your orientation to what’s possible and what you CAN accomplish versus what you lack and what you have failed to get thus far.

Like attracts like. An abundance state of mind will be the proper workshop for your inner creative genius to work its magic.

Now that we have the miracle magnet of the attitude of gratitude turned on, next we can start peering into the future of what we want to create…

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(2 of 7.5) Year in Review

(click here to see 1 of 7.5)

There is an important process I learned in life called - Plan, Do, Review

Before venturing off into another year it is important to stop and take a look back over the year just finished – take an inventory, add it all up and see how you did. What were the successes and where did you come up short? What has worked, what didn’t? Which were good decisions, which were bad?

Otherwise you might stray off course and never realize it, until too much time has passed, too many resources have been spent and your life is on the rocks.

Short list:

· 10 great happenings in 2006

 · Lessons learned in 2006

Long list:

· What was your biggest triumph in 2006?

 · What was the smartest decision you made in 2006?

 · What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2006?

 · What was the most loving service you performed in 2006?

 · What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2006?

 · What are you most happy about completing in 2006?

 · Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2006?

 · What was the biggest risk you took in 2006?

 · What was the biggest surprise in 2006?

 · What important relationship improved the most in 2006?

 · What compliment would you liked to have received in 2006?

 · What compliment would you liked to have given in 2006?

 · What one word best sums up and describes your 2006 experience?

 · What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2006?

We’ve decided “why” it is important to make a plan for the year, we’ve tallied up and learned from the experiences of last year, next we will start the design process to your best year yet…

THE FORMULA: Designing Your Best Year EVER

The 7.5 point plan to achieving your wildest ambitions in the year ahead

(1 of 7.5) Why set goals?

(read the introduction)

Better know Why before you get lost in How.

A. If you know Why, you’ll figure out How.

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

If the “Why is big enough the “How is easy. Conversely if “Why” is not identified or significant than the any level of difficulty in the “How” will be enough to defeat you.

Example: If I put a 20 foot steel 2X4 on the ground and told you to walk the length of it as a fun challenge, you would do it no problem. If I then took that 2X4 on placed it 10 stories high, bridging two buildings, and told you to do it for fun, I’m sure you would say, “No way!” Why? The “How” is too difficult and risk and the reason for doing it is too small.

Now, if on the roof of the second building was your one-year old child and the building was on fire and your child was about to be engulfed in flames if you don’t cross the 2X4 and save her/him, would you do it now? Of course! What’s different - same 2X4, same length, same difficulty? The “Why”, the reason for doing it became far greater than the difficulty or risk of the “How”.

Any “How” is possible if the “Why” big enough.

2. You cannot hit a target you cannot see.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” ~Yogi Berra

The world is goal oriented. An airplane needs to have a destination set in order to design a flight plan to reach it. When you get in your car you have to know where you want to end up before you even pull out of the driveway.

Example: Three boys hiking came to open field. They created a contest to see who could walk straightest line. First two were bending and zigzag. Third boy focused on two trees at the edge of the clearing and walked a straight line.

When you know exactly where you are going and focus on that point, you will more directly and expeditiously go directly to that end.

Without a focus for your direction in life you will wander aimless until you are hopelessly lost and confused.

3. For what it makes of you.

“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.” ~Jim Rohn

“You will become as great as your dominant aspiration” ~James Allen

"Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true." ~Napoleon Hill 

Set big goals that challenge you to ignite the great potential that lies within you – to become the person you were meant to become.

Step 2 in THE FORMULA coming next…