In 1963 at Yale University in the United States, only 3% of the musical students were said to have set goals and plan on how to accomplish them. 97% of the students did not. By the year 1973 (10 years later), those 3% have accomplished 97% of their set goals.
Why did the 97% that refused to set goals do so? You see in life we have an incredible amount of choices. Therefore we may decide to set goals or not.
Zig Zigler gave some reasons which I believe may be relevant:
1. Fear factor: Fear is ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’. These students have been taught to belief negatively that goal setting could not work for them.
2. They have a processed image/identity: We act in accordance with the image /identity of ourselves that we have created in our head.
3. They have never really been sold on the absolute necessity of setting goals. They do not know that goal setting could work for them.
4. They do not know how to set and reach their goals.
Elaborating a bit more on this, a study was conducted with a group of 100 men who start evenly at the age of 25 years. Imagine what will happen to them all by the time they are 65 years. For a start they will all believed that they would be successful. However by the time they were 65 years, only one was rich. Four out of the 65 were financially free. 41 were still working while 54 out of the 100 were broke. So much for all of the 100 men thinking they could all be successful.
So what is success?
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. The only person who is therefore successful is that who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. That is one who pursues something worthy and realizes it. Success is a woman who wants to be a good mother and makes a good job of it. Success is a man who wants to become a software developer like Bill Gates and makes a damn good job of it. Success is a thing you do deliberately and accomplish it.
If this is therefore so, have you ever wondered why some people dream of doing something but never achieve it? Or wondered why some people dream of doing things and successfully accomplish them over and over again. The reason is goals!!! People with goals know where they are going. They know their destination.
What are goals?
Goals are dreams we are willing to take action on and it must have a deadline. Goals have a beginning and an end. We all have dreams. We dream of buying cars or building houses for example. Supposing you decide to buy your car by December 2015 or pack into your house by May 2016, the dream has crossed the threshold of dreams and crossed into that of goals. This is because a deadline has been attached to the completion. Without a dream you cannot have a goal. Without a goal you cannot take positive action on your dream. Without taking positive action on your dream, nothing can bring you closer to your dream. We therefore set goals to accomplish our dreams.
BE --------- DO---------HAVE
Stretching the discussion on goals setting a bit further, after several decades of knowledge acquisition and experience I have come to the realization that the strategy I am about to discourse on is the most appropriate in curing goal setting disease yet. The three words above are at the heart of this strategy.
Goals are the ‘have’ part of this strategy. Your goals include such things like having a lean and slim body, having a great relationship, having a latest car, having a nice mansion or having a million dollars.
Once you figure out what you want to have (your goal), you begin listing what you have ‘to do’ to have it. This is basically the reason why people have ‘to do lists’. Consequently you set your goal and then start ‘doing’. For example many people believe that if you buy stocks, bonds, real estate or mutual funds (the way the rich do) this will make you rich and wealthy. However, doing what the professional investor do does not guarantee financial success. By doing this, you are only focusing on what investors have to do to get rich and that is erroneous. Rather, you should first focus on ‘being’ before doing. To become rich therefore, you have to first acquire the mentality, beliefs, attitude and mindset of the rich about money. Without this you will only be doing to have which won’t get you far. Rather than working hard to grow rich, you should think hard to grow rich. Rather than working hard to pay bills therefore you should work hard to acquire assets.
The same could be applied to the person who wants to have a perfect body. Most focus on doing what those having perfect bodied do, which is dieting and exercising. However this does not last long before they revert to what they have always been doing (indiscipline in their diets and fitness).
Think of setting standards and you will think of goal setting. Standards serve as our measuring rod for our progress in life. If you want any lasting change and progress in life you must set standards and you must set goals. With your progress comes your happiness. Human beings are happiest when making progress. Progress however is not automatic. You have got to work on it by setting standards, by setting goals.
To cure yourself of your goal setting disease, you must first acquire the mindset, attitude and beliefs of who you want to ‘be’ which will increase your chances of doing what you have to ‘do’ which will ultimately increase your chances of having what you want to ‘have’ (your goals).
If you want to survive and prosper in this rat race called life, you must emulate the habit of setting goals. Educate yourself about it. Make genuine efforts to practice it and seize the opportunities that come along with the discipline of goal setting to avoid the pain of regret.
Thank you for sharing your time with me.
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