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for Setting Goals and Taking Action, Douglas K. Smith

      Planning for Your future – Organizing Your Life

      Statistics show that people who write their goals down are eleven times more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t.

      Writing your goals down is simple, but many people neglect to do it. You can set yourself apart from the masses by taking this one simple step. If you do this one thing, you ignite the catalyst that will fuel your path to success. If most people knew what a significant and powerful experience it was to just write down their goals, they’d be sprinting to get a pen; but whether it’s laziness, indifference, or ignorance, very few people take that initiative.

      Once you have a big “Possible” goal set up, it’s time to break that up into small tasks. Tasks such as, “develop an advertising campaign,” “’roll out a new product,” or “make a brand for myself.”

      The problem most people have is that they think this is the place to start from, but that’s far from the truth. Each “task” must be divided into steps or the exact actions that you have to take in order to complete that task. If you can’t complete the step in an hour, you’re still working on something too general. Break it up as many times as you have to. The smaller the step, the greater the chance is that you’ll do it and complete it.

      Now line up all of the steps needed to complete one task and make a checklist. As you accomplish each item, check it off on the list. There is something about physically crossing something off that increases productivity and delivers a specific sense of satisfaction. The mind recognizes that you’re making progress, and in turn makes more progress.

      Remember you’re not prioritizing your schedule. Doing this takes you out of the driver’s seat so that your tasks are demanding to be prioritized. When you schedule your priorities, you are putting yourself back in control. Figure out what needs to be done and do it.

      After a period of checking items off consistently, it will get tiresome. The tasks on your lists might seem menial and inconsequential. When these moments of resistance crop up, it’s time to take out your initial long-term goal. Focus on this for a few minutes. After all, this is why you’re doing all of these small things in the first place. Get yourself recharged and inspired again. Once you get your mind focused back on your vision, the mundane stuff will get easier and seem purposeful. Anytime you notice yourself becoming resistant to the daily minutia, pull out the overall goal that you’ve set and reflect on the reasons you want it and how it will feel to attain it. This is sure to get you excited and pumped up again and give you that little added boost to take the next step.

      Distractions will come from all directions, but your job as a businessperson is to maintain focus. Schedule an hour to make all of your calls, and when you’re done, put the phone out of the way. If it rings outside of that hour don’t answer. Let it go to voicemail.

      Email is perhaps the biggest time drainer. If you can save your email answering until after your day gets going, you’ll get more of what YOU need to get done before replying or reacting to what OTHERS need done. Once you’ve completed a few items on your checklist, then start thinking about your inbox. There are so many emails and links ready to set you off into an entirely different direction. One thing leads to the next and before you know it, it’s lunch and you’ve yet to do anything productive. If it’s essential that you touch base with your email, PRIORITIZE. Deal with the emails that need immediate attention and then get out of there. You can’t expect to be successful because you answered a bunch of emails. Remember your goal, your tasks and your steps…you’ve got work to do!

      Another big time drainer is food and coffee. It can be hard to get back into the groove after lunch. I’ve found that the best way to make sure you get off the ground running again is to plan something simple to do just before you leave for lunch, something so simple, it will take you ten minutes. Then do it, and notice how easily your mindset switches back into business mode.

      When you can collect the minutes that others usually waste, your productivity will increase drastically; and when your productivity increases, your goal gets closer and closer.

      As you’re working through your lists, circumstances are going to change. Problems will come up that will force you to alter your priorities, add new ones, and scratch others. But as long as you keep your eyes on the prize, you’re certain to blaze a trail of success toward your ultimate goal.

      It’s one thing to make your to-do lists and start checking items off, but it’s equally as important to schedule some breaks. That’s right. Schedule them! If you don’t schedule them, your breaks are bound to be the first thing you’ll skip. Contrary to what you might think, breaks are like the gas stations on the side of the highway. Eventually you’re going to run out of fuel. Without that recharge, you won’t make it to your goal. So take the breaks. You’ll be more productive with it than without it.

      You can decide what and when these breaks are based on your work style. If you’re not the kind of person who can work for long stretches of time without getting restless, schedule smaller breaks more often. If you find yourself more productive if you’re not interrupted, work straight through a long block of time and follow it with a longer break.

      It does no good to work yourself to death. Successful people know that being successful doesn’t just mean being successful in business. Would you really want to even be successful if this was the case? Successful people are well-rounded. There are four sections of your life in which you need to be fulfilled: Financial, Personal, Mental, and Spiritual.

      Financial – We all need money to survive. That’s a given. But we need greater amounts of money to do greater work. There is so much in this world to inspire, challenge, and excite our minds, but a lot of it becomes closed off to us when we don’t have the money to open these doors. In order to travel, educate ourselves, help the less fortunate, nurture our health, and experience greatness, we need money. Money doesn’t bring happiness, but it provides the resources for us to find greater depths of happiness. Money is a door opener, a tool that can open us up to all of life’s possibilities. It’s entirely possible to be happy with little money, but in order to experience the full bounty of what our world has to offer, it sure helps to have money. Personal – Our personal lives are what we live for. These experiences make the most impact on our lives and souls. The people we love and the relationships we have are all part of our personal happiness. When we have good people around us, we can handle just about anything. It’s the quality of these relationships that we’ll remember when everything else ceases to matter. Without the cultivation of a healthy personal life, the other areas in our lives will suffer. Mental – A stimulated mind keeps us energized and alive. It’s the thirst for education and self-improvement. There’s always something to learn and some new problem to solve. When our mental life is not nurtured and challenged, we can become indifferent and uninspired. We must make continuous effort to take care of our minds and keep ourselves open to new ideas. When we close ourselves down to new influences and resist growth, our minds will lose their luster. Mental acuity is essential to happiness; it adds depth and meaning to our personal experiences as well. Spiritual – Our belief in a higher power keeps us centered. When we lack the connection in which we feel part of something bigger than ourselves, we can feel aimless. Eventually, we’ll start to question the point of everything that we’re doing on a daily basis. Being in touch with our spiritual center is vital for us to feel balanced and whole. It doesn’t matter what or who you believe in, just that you believe in something. To know that there is more to ourselves than just skin and bones empowers us to persist through those hard times. We need to nurture this part of ourselves just like we nourish our physical bodies. Only then can we truly find happiness and success.

      If you’re lacking in any one of these areas, it will show in the way you run your business. That’s why sometimes the people who seem successful, running Fortune 500 companies and earning boatloads of money, eventually break down. You can’t truly thrive if you are successful in one area and deficient in another. It will surface eventually. You’ll

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