"New beginnings..."

New beginnings. This year went by at just the right speed. Sure, parts were fast parts were slow, but the total quality and quantity of life packed into the past 365 days was good and right. 2011 is less than 24 hours away and for the new year to begin, the old year must end. I implore you to take time today to relive the best parts of 2010 and savor them one last time before making your new start; making your new beginning.

Practice what you preach. We've spent a lot of time this year talking by email about goals and achievement. I even get invited to speak about it, so I thought it appropriate to share my use the tools in my own life this past year. As I share the results through quotes and stories, know that there is good news: this stuff actually works when you work at it.

"Begin with the end in mind."
- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This year was only the 2nd time in my life I wrote down my goals. This was after re-re-reading "The 7 Hidden Secrets To Motivation: Unlocking the Genius Within" by Todd Beeler. Written goals have a way of clarifying your thoughts and creating the picture in your mind of success before it happens. Beeler promotes the idea that by defining the ending results of your goals you make goals "magnetic".

Clear goals, magnetic goals pull you towards completion. When you "begin with the end in mind", you subconsciously align your actions to get you to your goal. You become magnetized to it.

"You need a plan to build a house.
To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal."

Zig Ziglar, Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs to Know

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”
– Winston Churchill

Clear your vision. Know where you are going. Use your goal process to clearly set the end point for your goals. If you want more profit, more time, more vacation, more work - whatever, set it clearly. How much profit? $10,000? $100,000? WHow much time? 3 hours per week? 10 hours?

Set the goals PRESCISELY to clear your vision, so you can see the end. So often I find myself answering questions such as how much money with "more!" Open-ended goals are de-motivating because you can never achieve them. By writing down your goals, assigning real numbers to them with real deadlines you crystallize your thoughts into actions. Choose an "end" when you start and celebrate victory when you reach it.

"People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine."
Brian Tracy

Powerful reasons "why". Goals and deadlines and numbers are great, but if you don't assign a big enough reason "why", you'll never find the motivation to complete the task.

Why am I setting this goal?
Why do you want more profit?
Why do you want more time with your family?
Why do you want more vacation?
Why do you want to pay off the loan?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Use the family example: you don't want to spend more time with your family because Dr. Phil says you should! You want to spend more time with the kids because they are important to you, you love them, it energizes you, it's important for you to be there for them. THOSE are powerful reasons "why"!

Use the loan example: You want to payoff that loan, not because of the threat to your financial well-being, but because you want to savor the freedom on the other side of the payoff when you get to tell the banker to "shove it!" The feeling when you go to bed without the loan hanging over your head! That's motivating!

Once you set your goals with the end in mind and clear your vision, load each goal with powerful reasons why you want to achieve it. Write them into the same document directly with each goal.

Hammer the last spike. I came across this story in my research for upcoming presentations:

Construction was to begin and certain California people decided that there ought to be a great ceremony. A host of dignitaries were invited to gather at the place where the first rail was to be laid.

One of those invited was Collis Huntington, perhaps the railroad's most important West Coast backer in California.

But he declined, saying: "If you want to jubiliate [celebrate] over driving the first spike, go ahead and do it. I don't. Those mountains over there look too ugly. We may fail, and if we do, I want to have as few people know it as we can ...Anybody can drive the first spike, but there are months of labor and unrest between the first and the last spike."

Wow. No kidding. How many times have you "jubiliated" over "first spikes" and NEVER MADE IT to the last spike?! I know I am guilty as charged.

Live for the last spike. As you prepare your plans for 2011, choose wisely which goals to pursue, then dedicate yourself to live for the last spike. No matter what you choose, see it through to the end of the task and celebrate your victories as they come.

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”

– Aristotle
"READ your statement out loud when you first get up every single morning, without fail. READ your statement out loud just before you go to bed every single night, without fail. AS YOU READ your statement two times every day, see and feel and believe you already have what you desire."
 - Andrew Carnegie

Are you leaving your 2011 to chance? Activate your goals through repetition. You can argue that you don't have time or that it's silly to read out loud to yourself, but Carnegie was, from humble beginnings as son of a hand loom weaver to become on of the richest men in the world. (The sale of Carnegie Steel to US Steel in 1901 earn him $200 million - in 1901!) I can personally attest that this works in focusing you on the days tasks that will lead you to success in your goals.

So did it work for me? YES. Remember, this was only the 2nd time I really took time to write out my goals - in my life. I also read the goals out loud for the first 30 days after setting them.

Results: We hit our attendance and growth goals this year. We hit our maze client growth goals. We delivered all our materials on-time to our maze design clients without rush shipping (which I consider a "mistake expense"). We stayed on budget without chasing random project ideas, products or advertising deals and held costs down. We implemented a solid, consistent social marketing plan. I spent more time with my family and I develop myself along the way.

Written goals were instrumental in focusing our efforts this season.

That said, I did fall down on a number of occasions and come up short of delivering the products and service that I wanted to deliver in some areas. This year, I know what works and what doesn't.

You can bet I'm purposely setting goals to improve in those areas this year. No system is perfect (and I'm surely not perfect!), but what if trying this out helped you completely meet even 50% of your goals? Would that be worth a try?

The best part is that the whole goal-setting system is FREE. Just sit down, work through it, and read your goals once in the morning, once at night.

Ask yourself the same question I asked myself at the beginning of 2010: "If you can't commit to writing your goals down, how committed to achieving them could you possibly be?"

Tomorrow, "jubiliate" and remember all that you accomplished in 2010. Look forward, then, to 2011 with a clear vision as you start with the end in mind.

Take the rest of the year off, and have a Happy New Year!
- Hugh

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