Why goal setting can kill you and what to do with it?

This is my first article here and as headline shows I pick a really serious topic – goal setting. I was thinking what to write about in my first article last couple of days. Since we have a new year here, which is favourite time for setting goals and resolutions, I decided to share my knowledge on goal setting.

Goals are not just a goals

I know that you’ve heard about it hundred times and maybe you’re thinking: “ Yes I know about it, you set a goals, write them down, read them every morning and before going to bed…” But I want to tell you that goal setting is not just a goal setting. There is much more behind it.

Goals create your future. Setting goals releases incredible power to human person. When you define a goal and set a commitment, you have made a decision, which removes little faults of your personality. For example you are no more hesitating.

When a commitment is made, enthusiasm is releasing. Commitment unlocks powerful energy of your soul, and it doesn’t matter if you are young or old. Age is not a matter of calendar. It’s a matter of what are you thinking about in your head. If it is dreams & goals then you’re alive. But if you don’t have dreams & goals, then it makes no difference if you are 20 or 50. You’ll be dead and bored.

Here we come to the answer to my headline. Goal setting can really kill you – mentally – when you don’t do it. So goal setting is not just a goal setting. It releases enthusiasm, which means you are dynamic, creative, full of enthusiasm. You like living rather than dying.

Many people are dying soon after they retire. Now I guess you know why. They don’t have enthusiasm. And it’s because they don’t want to commit themselves to new goals. They fall into laziness and think they feel good and relaxed. But it’s a dangerous freedom and as said, it will kill you spiritually and you have nothing to live for.

Goals & The Secret

I think that all of you who are reading this are familiar with The Secret movie or book. The Secret is about manifesting our thoughts. And I just want to remind you that it all starts with goals. You remember: “Step 1: Ask. You ask by making it clear about what you want – your goals.” So for The Secret to work for you goal setting is critical.

Goals & achieving success

I have read many books on achieving success and when I think about it, each and every book on personal development is covering principles of success in some way or just some of the principles. And there is one think in common.

When talking about how to be successful, the #1 is always a dream. It all starts with having dreams. I don’t want to get into details about dreams here. It could be a topic for whole article. Let’s stay in goal setting. So #1 is always a dream, but that’s just the half of the truth.

In fact, dream is #1a and #1b is a goal. I’m sure you’ve heard it before – dream with a plan of action becomes a goal. If you just have dreams, and never set appropriate goals, success won’t come to your life. It’s that simple. The Law of attraction doesn’t work without goals. Success doesn’t work without goals. Nothing works without goals. You see now that goals are fuel of our lives and you know they are aligned with achieving success.

Goals & me

Goals are about taking action. Goals are about taking a responsibility for our lives. I want to share with you what I did at the turn of 2008/2009.

The first important point was that I started thinking about goals for 2009 before it came. Actually it was last days of 2008. I have learned in the past that start thinking about goals for new year on 1st January is too late. Best way you can do it is have it done and written by 31st December. That’s what I did.

I grabbed a paper & pen and write down these three lists:

• List 1: specific activities or areas which I want to dedicate myself to (mainly daily activities). These are things that I know I need to be doing in order to achieve my primary goals. For example, reading a book for 1 hour, meditate 30 minutes, watch mind movie in the morning and before going to bed, create articles and so on. You get the idea. 

• List 2: things or tasks that I am procrastinating. This is a bad habit that I need to get rid of. 

• List 3: specific goals closely connected to the list 1. Each activity from list 1 should result in goal from this list 3. Example: activity – reading 1 hour a day, goal – read 50 books in 2009.

One more thing that I have to say. I wrote down this three lists for the period of 90 days, not for the whole year.

I learned this concept of 90-day challenge from Dennis Karganilla. In fact, it’s nothing new. Every major company in the world is planning in quarters of year. That’s 4 periods of 90 days in 1 year. Very powerful concept.

So I have set my game plan for 90 days starting from 1st January. This plan was the last piece of the puzzle. In order to be effective, it needs to be very specific.

I took a table ‘Weekly plan’ from Stephen Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. If you didn’t see it, it’s basically a table where you have all 7 days of a week hour by hour in front of your eyes. Your task is to fill that table = plan your week. Best time to do it is Sunday before that week you’re planning.

So I filled that table with activities from my list 1 and I still have some blank spots. There I put some things from list 2, because it’s the list that I want to get rid of, you remember. And the fastest way is to put it into schedule immediately and do it.

Next step is just to stay with the schedule and repeat the process every week. I am not saying that it’s easy, but it is simple – plan your week and fulfil the plan. I think with right, good chosen goals this challenge is fun & life changing!

I hope you found some golden nuggets within my article, that you can implement into your life and have results. I would love to see some feedback from you. Wish you all to be 2009 your most successful year!

Tomas Kuracina