ExecMagazine » motivation

Motivation – You can if you think you can

admin — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:28:12 +0000

Click here for an inspiring way to start or finish you week.

Why People Fail To Achieve Their Goals

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:14:07 +0000

Most people claim to understand the importance of goal setting in order to attain a better life, but in fact, approximately 80 percent of people never set goals for themselves. This is especially prevalent among people who are not involved in some sort of business or entrepreneurial endeavor that promotes goal setting.
Even more surprising, of the 20 percent of the population that does set goals, roughly 70 percent fail to achieve the goals they have set for themselves. And when you take into consideration the fact that many of these goal-setting people strive for easily attainable, small goals, it’s a wonder that anyone accomplishes anything remarkable at all in business and in life.
But before you rush out and set goals at random, you need to know what traps to avoid. This week Promotional Consultant Today will look at the top 10 reasons why people fail at achieving their goals. Avoid these roadblocks and goal attainment will be yours.

Fear Of Failure? Success?
Some people are afraid they will fail, or even worse, they may actually succeed. As such, they don’t even bother trying to attain a goal. Such people lack belief in themselves and in their potential. In their mind, if they fail, everyone will think negatively of them. And if they succeed, people will be envious and think negatively of them. So it becomes a lose-lose situation no matter how they look at it. But realize that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Believe in yourself and your abilities and others will, too.
Understanding The Goal-Setting Process
Many people mistakenly believe that goal setting simply means putting a goal on paper, setting a date for completion, marking off checkpoints as they occur, and then starting all over again. Such a mentality hinders people from success, because a goal isn’t a one-time thing that you eventually scratch off a list. Setting a goal is really about changing yourself for the long-term. Goals aren’t short-term, quick-fix things; they are fixed and immovable destinations that show the world who you want to become or what you want to achieve.
Source: Douglas Vermeeren is an international speaker and best-selling author on goal setting and human performance. His most recent book, Amazing Success, combines more than 400 interviews with top achievers and highlights the attributes and similar patterns they followed to achievement.

Goal Setting vs Direction

admin — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:19:01 +0000

We are goal-setting and goal-achieving creatures. Throughout our lives, human beings have lots of targets or benchmarks (“goals”) and we achieve most of them. As kids, we have goals to ride a bike or to stay up past 10:00, to get our first date, first kiss, first car. As adults, we save for our first home, and so on. Goals are good and we all have them.

For many people, goal-setting is the tool for achieving most of the big things in life. For them, goal-setting works almost every time. If they can define a goal to learn Spanish or buy a Mercedes, they can figure out a plan and make it happen. For them, goal-setting “makes sense” and I wish them well.

But, it doesn’t work that way for me, and I don’t think goals are the “tool of choice” for millions of other people, either. Call me crazy, but for some of us, direction is far more important than a specific goal.

For some of us, goals feel “heavy.” They’re too concrete and they seem limiting. They are too focused, too narrow, too linear.

My theory is that for people who tend to be more “left brain” (to use that clumsy analogy), goals are wonderful. People who tend to be engineers, who prefer logic and clear instructions and who enjoy following a good recipe, goals work well. As one client said, “It’s just logical!”

However, for those who are more “right brain,” goals are too logical. For those who prefer intuition and spontaneity, for people who find the music more important than the words, goals don’t always work. Sometimes we want to “wander around and enjoy the process.” That can drive goal-seekers (and our spouses!) bonkers, but it can be great fun!

So, here are two key points:

1. In any given situation, use the right tool for the job. When it’s important to arrive at a specific destination, set goals. But when the “goal” is to enjoy the journey, set a direction, stay the course, and see what happens. Sometimes it is important to actually hit a target (“increase sales by 10% or we’ll have to let you go”) and in those cases you need a clear goal, a specific plan, and daily action steps. But in other cases (“Let’s drive to the mountains and relax for the weekend.”) you just want a direction and some creativity.

2. In life, honor your personal style. Some people love setting goals, others don’t. If you’re a goal-setter, good for you! But if, like me, goal-setting is not your natural preference, consider this your official permission to stop using a tool that doesn’t suit you. Relax! Focus on your values, your desires and dreams, and trust your instincts. If you’re smart (and you are), if you work hard and keep moving, most of the time you’ll “get there” just fine.

Motivational speakers emphasize goals for good reason. Many things in life are linear and we need a great “map” or strategy to achieve them, step by step, over time. But when either the project or your personality prefers to set a direction and use your creativity, intuition and spontaneity to get the job done, trust that. The world needs us “artists” as much as it needs engineers.

Source: www.philiphumbert.com