Hocus, Pocus, it's all about focus. That's
the real magic of goals!
'Once set, the final thing to do is to make
our goals visible. Put our written down goals where we will see them everyday.
Look at them often and surely success will follow, as day follows night.'
The above success principle has been praised
by just about all those who have applied it. Those who do not apply it usually
get left in the dust, goal-less. There are some who are able to bypass this
principle and still enjoy great succcess, but they are few and far in between.
In my experience with goal setting, past and
present, I find that in addition to writing them out, pictures of my goals and
associated items, help me to visualize actually having them, just as if they
are in a layaway catalogue, all I have to do is pay the price to pick them up.
This allows me to think that it is just a matter of time until they arrive! This
really helps to allay any negative vibes that may crop up during the adventure.
At the time, I was rarely successful at
staying consistent and focusing steady on anything important. I mostly just
played at life. I knew all the rules of success but was haphazard at applying
them, no consistency. This does plague me from time to time.
That is until I got serious . . . 1987. That
year I quit smoking, quit drinking, and quit being lazy! I dropped 60 lbs. in 3
months, and worked up to running 5 miles a day. I experienced the power of
Focus! I wrote an article about how I made that happen. I called it, Set Your
Mind To Win and you can read it at:
http://www.realgoalgetter.com/articles/smith/set-your-mind.html . In it I
explained some of what I did to achieve those goals. This article actually
follows up on that one, with a little more detail, and in a different way.
That next year, 1988, I made a decision to
take my wife to Hawaii. I remember it was a vacation trip though that I really
wanted for my wife and I. It was her dream trip to Hawaii, she had never been
there. So we planned two weeks in October that year. It all seems so long ago,
actually it was. At the time of this writing it is 2004.
Back then, I didn't have any of the the
resources that I needed to take this trip, and I didn't know how I was going to
do it. I was flat broke. But I did know that I wanted it for my wife and I.
This was a tremendous amount of cash for me to come up with in so short a time.
For me this was nigh impossible! There were no past references in me to even
think this was possible. I didn't even have a savings account at the time.
Being in Sales and Supervision at the time,
one of the procedures to make it easy for people to buy was to break down the
necessary actions, payments etc. to the ridiculously simple, so they would
believe it was not only possible but absolutely doable! I brainstormed all the
things we wanted to have and do on our trip, all that it would cost, and
totalled it up. I would need at least $8,000.00 in order to make it happen. I
needed to break this down into timelines.
I pushed the negative self talk aside every
time it came up. (And it came up often, believe me) I came up with ideas I
needed to act on and I started to break them down into 5 smaller actions, and
then into 5 smaller actions until I came up with a ridulously simple thing,
that I could believe I could do and that I could do right there and then, and
just waded into them one at a time.
I booked the trip in May, without having all
my ducks in a row, heh, heh. I booked the time off at work and having told all
my colleagues what I had planned, I couldn't back out. Talk about a public
commitment, and a commitment to my wife is not easily broken, so I pulled out
all the stops to make this trip happen. I tightened my belt on a lot of things
that I didn't need and also worked my tail off to earn extra income so I could
save some for the trip. I lived and breathed that trip every day.
I surrounded myself in my car, house, and
office, with post cards, pictures, magazine articles, travel books, videos, sun
tan lotion, even a fake grass skirt that I picked up in a yard sale and hung
around my bathroom mirror.
I made an audio recording and listened to my
own voice on tape of how I was making things happen, and I visualized
(imagined) how successful I was at taking each of the actions necessary. I set
out my intention. (Positive Self Talk in my car) This was weird stuff, believe
me I felt weird at the beginning.
I talked about it all the time. It served
it's purpose though and kept my focus strong, and concentrated my power! I
never let myself forget for a moment that I wanted this Hawaii trip badly, and
that I was on the hook for this. I kept reminding myself in every way possible
that this trip was important, I mean, almost life or death important.
Well, I made that trip happen just the way I
wanted it, and my wife was ecstatic. One week on Oahu, and one week on Maui. We
took 33 rolls of film in two weeks, a visual reminder of the fun and good times
we had. My wife had her dream trip, and I had a real life reference that would
change how I went after my goals forever.
Making this trip happen really made it clear
to me that goal setting really works big time, as long as you keep your eye on
the ball. Since then, I work on my goals regularly, always keeping them in
mind. I have a dream collage of pictures framed on my wall, and I have a long
list of 'wishes' that I have yet to take action on. I just have to pump up the
volume from time to time.
I am not perfect by any stretch but I keep at
it. After I met this challenge, I sure haven't got any excuse for not having or
doing something.The best reward I got from that experience was the feeling that
I could achieve basically anything providing I stoked my desire high enough,
and managed my thoughts and focus.
When you have one gargantuan goal, that by
going after it, you automatically achieve all of your others, this helps to
keep your focus concentrated, and your energy does not get dissipated by going
in a lot of different directions. Just like Napoleon Hill writes about how
powerful a 'Magnificent Obsession' can be.
Please do not take this as 'bragging' as my
intention is only to demonstrate that anyone can do, have, or be whatever they
want as long as you pay the price asked. Who in their right mind would brag
about a small amount like $8,000.00 anyway in this day and age?
Let's see some of the focus activities I used
in doing this:
1. Write down my goal and review it
frequently. Immerse myself in it.
2. Surround myself with associate items,
pictures, smells, feels, and/or tastes.
3. Think as if it's on layaway, it's in the
bank, and confidently pay the price.
4. Create future references by visualizing
you have received them already.
5. Talk about them all the time, and record
my own enthusiastic voice to listen to.
6. Control my focus by crowding out the
negative, overwhelming it with positive.
7. Break down my actions to the ridiculously
simple, be specific.
8. Commited to myself, my wife, and everyone
I cared about. (built up importance)
9. Set my mind to 'win', there is no other
option to consider.
10. Have faith that this will happen, use the
peak to peek principle.
One focus to success. Build momentum in all
things instead of distraction. It is all about focus. You can make this work
for you too. The real question to ask yourself is this:
How can I take these 10 'focus' strategies,
use them as a ckecklist of sorts, apply them to my most important goal, make
them work for me, and enjoy the process?
Well, how can you? And will you? You Can Do
It!
Go for it!
Hi. I’m Sana ur Rehman Designer of This Blog. I’m CEO/Founder of Pak Zest. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
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