Becoming the Ultimate Goal Setter

Why set a goal?  Goal setting motivation is sometimes the most difficult component of making change in our lives.  And every time we attempt our goal, we fail and never want to try it again.  This failure causes to look at goals in a very wrong way.

I love Stephen R Covey's book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."  In the book it's divided into 3 sections:  Private Victory, Public Victory and Renewal.  When we celebrate "Private Victories" it helps us build confidence and allows us to build towards even larger goals.  But it's about making sure we commit to goals that we set ourselves.  And we always need to be celebrating the small victories which far too often we fail to do.  When setting the goal, we must have the end in mind.  Find out what you want in life, and then set goals in that context.  This helps you set goals that you really want to achieve with a hungering desire.  Put first things first.  This is where time management comes in handy.  That will be for another post.

Celebrate the "Public Victories".  A key point Stephen R Covey brings up is to always think win/win.  When negotiating, there's either win/lose, lose/lose, lose/win, or win/win.  Everyone will gain if we're always seeking after win/win rather than win/lose.  One of my favorite quotes from Covey, "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.  In any dispute or negotiation, always listen before speaking your mind.  Work on synergy, the idea is that two people working together are more powerful than each of us fighting on our own.

Celebrate the "Renewals".  Sharpen the Saw, we need to take regular breaks and holidays.  We need this time to help recharge our batteries.  But his is more than merely resting, but taking the time to boost other areas in our life.

So what does this have to do with setting and achieving goals?  We only get the results we want when we do what it takes.  We only do what it takes when we see ourselves as the sort of person that does those things.  But achieving personal goals depends very much on how we build our inner strength to become the sort of person who achieves the goals we set.

With that said, here are some of my goals for 2014 in regards to the 4 core areas:

Fiscal
-Make $4500 in dividends
-Maintain a savings rate of 60% of net income
-Have 35 positions in my investing portfolio
-Live the most frugal lifestyle my wife will allow me too

Mental
-Listen to a new book a month in my car while driving
-Read a new blog a week and make comments

Physical
-Workout Mon-Fri for 20 min in the morning
-Fit back into my suit I wore on the mission
-Eliminate all high fructose corn syrup

Spiritual
-Finish the BOM as a family
-80% Hometeaching for the year
-Attend the temple once a month
-Give to the needy and less fortunate by doing at least 2 hours of service a month

I'm planning on adding more goals as this is just a start.  And I hope through the year, I'll be held accountable to achieve these goals with help from those around me.

Thanks for reading!
PB

What goals have you set for yourself?