2011 Goals

At this time of the year, many people are starting to think about 2011 and what they may like to achieve. Therefore it is timely to share some thoughts on goal setting.



There has never been a better time in all of human history to be alive than today. There are more opportunities for you to accomplish more things, in more different fields, engaging in more different activities, than have ever existed before.
This can be relationships, career, sporting, financial etc

Resolve today to make the coming year the very best year of your life. Resolve today to draw a line under your past and to focus very clearly on your future. Resolve today that you are going to set goals, make plans, take actions and achieve more in the coming year than perhaps you have ever accomplished in any one single year before.

One of the great rules for success is this: "It doesn't matter where you're coming from; all that really matters is where you're going!"

No matter what you have done or accomplished in the past, "that was then and this is now."

The very best days, weeks, months and years of your life lie ahead. The most exciting accomplishments and the greatest achievements are still to come. As Shakespeare said, "The past is merely a prelude."

As it happens, everyone has goals. But some people seem to accomplish their goals far more systematically and with greater assurance than others. Why is this? The answer is simple. People who accomplish goals at a higher rate than the average are people who use a systematic, proven method of goal setting and goal attainment.

Perhaps the two most important qualities of success are focus and concentration. Focus means knowing exactly what it is you want and concentration means having the discipline to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, until it is complete. (Napoleon Hill calls this Chief Aim)

If you have these qualities, and both of these qualities are learned through practice, you can accomplish virtually anything. There are no limits on your future if you can focus and concentrate every hour of every single day.

The starting point of setting goals for the coming year is for you to project forward and think back. Practice what we call "Back from the Future" thinking. Project forward to the end of the next twelve months and ask yourself, "If everything happens perfectly, what will it look like?"

The one quality of men and women who become leaders in their own lives and societies, throughout all of history is the quality of vision. They have the ability to visualize. They can see the future well in advance of it becoming a reality. They can then see the steps that they will need to take to get from where they are to where they want to go.

So if your next twelve months were ideal, in every respect, what would happen or, what would have happened, at the end of that twelve month period?
You need to set goals that are multi-dimensional. You need to set goals for every part of your life so that you function like a well-oiled machine, like a balanced wheel that goes around smoothly in every respect. You need goals for your health, for your career, for your finances, for your relationships, for your personal and professional development, for your community and for your spiritual growth. Nothing happens by accident. Everything happens for a reason. And you are the "primary creative force" in your own life. You are the reason. Things are happening in your life because you make them happen, not because you sit around and wait for them to happen.

Here is the basic seven-step model of goal setting. You can use this like breathing in and breathing out on a regular basis to accelerate your attainment of any goal you can imagine for yourself.

Step number one is for you to decide exactly what you want. This immediately moves you into a separate category of people because most people have no idea of what they really want. Clarity is the most important single quality of goal-setting and perhaps the most important single quality of success. Decide exactly what you want in each area of your life. Instead of fuzzy goals like more money, better health and happiness, be specific about exactly how much more money you want to earn in a specific period of time and combine that with exactly what level of health and fitness you desire.

Most people are unconsciously preoccupied with the fear of failure. It is the greatest single obstacle to success in adult life. And the fear of failure can work on you unconsciously by blocking you from setting clear specific goals. Why? Well, if you don't set clear, specific goals, then you can't fail to achieve them. So your subconscious mind is actually protecting you by helping you to avoid failure.

You must resist and overcome this tendency by having the courage to be bold and specific about exactly what you want. This is step number one.

Step number two is for you to write it down. Only three percent of people, or adults anywhere for that matter, have written goals. Everyone else that thinks about a written goal and plans to write them down, someday. But they never get around to it. Most people spend more time making a list of groceries before they go shopping or planning a vacation than they do in planning their lives. But again, this is not for you. Success begins with a pad of paper, a pen and a few minutes of your time. One of the most important keys to success is to "think on paper."

All successful people "think on paper." And here are two important points. If you cannot write it down clearly and specifically on a piece of paper, then it means that you are not really clear about it yourself. Perhaps you don't even want it. What is worse, it may be that you are afraid that you may not attain it. Nonetheless, a goal that is written down is merely a fantasy or a wish. A goal that is clearly written and described on a piece of paper takes on a power of its own, it is now something concrete that you can touch and feel and work with.

The second principle of writing goals down is that something miraculous happens between the head and the hand. When you actually write a goal down, it is as if you are programming it into your subconscious mind and activating a whole series of mental powers that will enable you to accomplish more than you ever dreamed of. By writing it down you intensify your desire for the goal and you increase your belief that the goal is possible. You begin to expect to achieve the goal and you start to attract people and circumstances into your life that are consistent with the attainment of the goal. Writing your goal down is one of the most amazing of all goal-setting skills and it is a key to your success.

The third step is for you to set a deadline. If it is a large goal, set a series of sub-deadlines. A deadline acts as a "forcing system" on your subconscious mind and begins to move you toward your goal rapidly while it moves your goal toward you.

Sometimes people ask me, "What if I set a goal and I don't achieve it by the deadline?" The answer is simple. Set another deadline. Remember, a deadline is a guess-timate of when you will achieve it. Sometimes you will achieve your goal well in advance of your deadline. Sometimes goals will take much longer than you expect. But you must have a target time before you set off.

It is like making a reservation at a restaurant. You may be five minutes early or five minutes late, but you always have a specific time for which your dinner is reserved.
The fourth step is for you to make a list of everything you could possibly think of that you will have to do to achieve your goal. The more comprehensive your list, the more motivated you will become, the more intense will be your desire and the more you will believe it possible.

One of the things that hold people back is even if they get to the point of a written goal; they do not take the time to lay out a list of all the little things they will have to do to get there. And with additional experience, you will add new items to your list until it finally becomes complete.

The fifth step of goal setting is for you to take your list and organize it into a plan. A plan is really quite simple. It is a list organized by priority and importance. You decide what you will do first and what you will do later. You decide what is more important and what is less important. And most of all, you decide upon the one thing that is more important than anything else that you can do immediately to begin moving more rapidly towards your goal.

Step number six is for you to "take action!" This is the big killer for most people. They are procrastinators. They have great ideas combined with great hopes and dreams. They may even get to the point of writing down their goals. But when it comes to taking action, they always have a reason or excuse to procrastinate to put it off until a later time. However, as the Bible says, "Faith without deeds is dead."

It is when you launch toward your goal that you begin to feel the desire and power that goes along with goal setting. And once you have launched toward your goal, it is much easier for you to continue moving in that direction.

Step number seven is for you to do something every day to move you toward your major goal. Never let a day go by without you engaging in some action that helps you move another step in the direction of what you really, really want in life.

Remember, you can't hit a target that you can't see. And if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. The simple seven step act of deciding exactly what you want, writing it down, setting a deadline, making a list, organizing the list into a plan, taking action on the most important item on your list and then doing something every day towards your goal will change your life and your future in ways that you cannot even dream of today.

Remember to leave a comment on what you are attaining in 2011.

Power of our mind in health

Recently I have been the most unwell I have been in my entire life. I have been run down with no energy and this past week my shoulder has had an infection. I have been asking myself what is the cause of this? What is my body trying to tell me? Then I was reminded of the power of my mind in the healing process.
There is a story that I came across:

A little while ago we had a visitor from the great state of Texas, who brought with her the largest assortment of self-prescribed drugs I have ever known one person to possess.

She carried a suitcase filled entirely with tranquilizers, aspirin, sleeping pills, bromides, stomach settlers, and nerve pills which she took at regular periods set by an alarm clock.

She ran out of one of her drugs during the night and I had to get out of bed to go down town and get her a new supply. Here was hypochondria (imaginary ailments) at its worst.

The imagination is a powerful thing. It can make people sick and it can make them well. It has been estimated that 75 per cent of the people who think they are sick have nothing wrong with them that their own minds could not correct.

Drugs, properly prescribed by skilled doctors, can be a blessing. In the field of medical research the dreaded disease of cancer is rapidly being tracked down and eventually may be brought under complete control through drugs.

But imaginary ailments which send people to the pill bottle every time they feel the slightest discomfort is a growing evil in America.

Physical pain is wonderful - wonderful because it is nature's language which every living creature understands and heeds. But the person who cuts the line of communication, when pain is sending out a hurry-up call to the brain for help, thereby affronts the Creator who gave man this very necessary signal system.

The person who needs, or thinks he needs, a "pain killer" also needs something more. He needs to find out what is causing the pain.

I have "pains" at times, but I also have a remedy which does a remarkable job of driving them away. It is a simple remedy. I get busy in my garden until I work up a healthy perspiration, or I whip up the keys of my typewriter so enthusiastically that the "pain" becomes disgusted and goes away.

I also have another remedy which serves as a sort of overall insurance against physical ailments. I keep myself so busy doing the things I like to do that physical ailments cannot get into my consciousness.

You can build up a "sound health consciousness" by a very simple procedure: every night just before going to sleep offer a prayer of gratitude for being blessed with sound health during the day.

When you arise the next morning, express the same sort of prayer for the dynamic energy and fine health you expect to enjoy throughout the day. Do this with enthusiasm and you will be surprised at what a wonderful effect it will have on your physical body as well as your mind.

Then clean out your medicine chest and throw the contents down the drain. Place a neatly printed announcement on the mirror of your medicine chest: "When I need drugs I will have my doctor prescribe them."

There may be times when you will need drugs, but you will display practical wisdom if you don't try to determine for yourself when you need them, or which ones you need. This is the work of doctors.

Of course, you can overdo the "doctor habit" also.

If you will form the habit of thinking of yourself as sound, energetic, and full of the joy of living -- and keep so busy at your work that you feel you can't afford such "luxuries" as physical illness - you will seldom need a doctor.

At birth you came into this world blessed with many miraculous things. One of these was an invisible doctor and a chemist that assimilates your food and diverts it into the health and maintenance needs of your physical body.

You can do your part in helping these servants by keeping your mind free from thoughts of physical pain and ailments.

And when you have a sleepless night, instead of rushing to the sleeping pills, try singing the little song which says, "When you are tired and can't go to sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep."

Whether ailing or not, I know of nothing that will bring peace of mind and sound health more quickly than the habit of counting one's blessings and recognizing them in a prayer of gratitude.

Each night before i retire to bed i give thanks for the day and the things I have learnt and how I have aided others. This is a new day. I am at my peak health.

I look forward to our next meeting.

Fraser