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Hey Folks,

Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson One.Congratulations to those who have downloaded The Ladder of Dream™ Template, you have gotten yourself a flexible and powerful tool to plan and achieve any goals you can dream of. If you have not downloaded it, you can still get it on the side bar to the left.

Let me assume that this is your first time setting goals or, at the least, first time setting goals consciously. So where do you start? Or more accurately, where should you start?

Where To Start
I would recommend that everyone start from something simple. Really simple meaning something from our day to day life, such as:

- Being more productive at work
- Keeping the house in order
- Maintaining a physically fit body
- Maintaining a healthy body
- Maintaining a balance lifestyle between family, friends and work
- Keeping up with technology/current affairs/etc

“These goals are written in plain English, not following any Goal Setting Guidelines, to make it simple for beginners to understand. Next post, we will talk about those guidelines for writing a clear and concise goal”

As you can see, we are not talking about awe inspiring goals such as making a million dollars, creating an empire of retail stores kind of goals. These simple goals we are asking you to consider are pretty close to what most people are struggling to cope with (one way or another).

Why Do You Set Simple Goals First
Since it’s the first time you decided to consciously set goals, the most important aspect is not how big or grand the goal is. The most important aspect is that you must believe that the goals are achievable and when you achieve the goal, goal setting becomes believable.

Once you believed that goal setting is a tool that can truly help you achieve the goals that you set, you can start setting bigger goals for yourself and achieve them.

Important Lessons
Most people believe that goal setting is for big dreams and not for the mundane stuffs. Hence, simple goals are often left out in goal setting exercises. They reserved their goal setting for big goals but their belief system in goal setting may not be strong enough to handle the passage of big, long-term goals.

When they embark on those big, long-term goals and met with obstacles or set-backs, their belief in whatever plan that was drafted during their goal setting exercise is shaken. When it is shaken sufficiently, they will start losing faith in their plan and their goals. They may lose faith in their belief in goal setting completely too.

By starting simple, you get a chance to build a strong foundation. A foundation that is build on a strong belief that goal setting is a tool that could help you achieve your goals. With this strong foundation, you will never doubt that you had started on the wrong footing.

From this point onwards, you will learn how to be persistence and how to be flexible. Persistence will help you reach you goal, sooner or later. While being flexible and adapting your plans to changing circumstances, you will learn to navigate obstacles.

Now, you have the most basic qualities to achieve anything you want in your life.

What Is Your First Goal
So where will you start and what’s your first goal? You don’t have to tell me your goal but write it down in your “The Ladder of Dream™ Template”. You may wish to choose something in your daily life that you always wanted to do but have not done so or have not achieved your desired results so far.

Cheers
James

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“In The Long Run We Shape Our Lives And We Shape Ourselves …
And The Choices We Make Are Ultimately Our Own Responsibility”
- Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of President Franklin Roosevelt)

Listed here are 10 things that no one can take responsibility for me except myself and by extension no one can take responsibility for you except yourself. This are my personal opinions drawn from my own experience and what I observed. There is no right or wrong, only whether it applies to your or not.

Attitude
You attitude determines how you interpret the events you encounter, the things your perceive and experience you gain in life. Hence, it directly affects the decisions and actions you take as a result. A positive attitude will allow you to see opportunities in adverse situations, while learning and growing stronger with the experience gained. A negative attitude will blind you from all opportunities around you while you focus on the tiniest problem. See the difference? You are responsible for choosing the attitude you take in life. Choose wisely.

Career
Someone once told me “Your career is yours to wrack”! Somber thought. What that fellow was trying to say was no one is out to ruin your career and you are solely responsible for making your career fly high or dive for a crash. You can choose to work hard or work smart or not to work at all. If you are drowning in your assignments but somehow your bosses keep piling work onto you. It is your responsibility to sound them out and decline more assignments. So far as I know, people lose jobs from a bad job done but none from declining an assignment. Think about it.

Dreams
Your dream is just that, your dream. It is not your colleagues dream, not your buddies dream and certainly not my dream. So if you want to realize your dream. Take responsibility for it, work on it and make it happen. If not, it will remain just that, a dream.

Fitness
My fitness instructor once told my platoon, if you want to pass your fitness test, you have to run. Watching your buddies run ain’t gonna help you pass. He will pass, not you. So quit watching and start running. If you want to pass, you follow my orders. I say run, you run and don’t think about stopping until I order so. And so I run and I pass! You think my instructor was responsible? Nope. He was there to do a job and his job was to make us run by motivation, coercion or any methods that will get us to run our guts out. But it is up to us, those who wanted to pass anyway, to run like hell and bring our fitness up to pass the test. If I had ran half heartedly, I doubt that I would have passed.

Health
I admit, I have to admit. I know I am responsible but I just cannot keep my hands off that fried chicken, especially Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love them. But I try to minimize consumption. I cut down from 3 pieces to 2 pieces per meal if I do indulge in them. I still enjoy them but I need to balance them with my health concerns. No one can take care of my health except myself. Just as your health is your responsibility, my health is mine to care for.

Life
Life is a journey that many people accompanied us in. Our early days are defined by what our parents and teachers taught but most people get to choose when they reach their teens and certainly have the right to choose during adulthood. You choose what you will be, could be or want to be. You can choose to be a servant of god or a slave to money or a motivation for youth or a no body slumping at a corner under the bridge. You have a choice, be responsible to yourself.

Money
Really? Do we have to be responsible here? It is our money and we can do as we wish right? I thought so until I learn that there are people who spent beyond their means. They earn $5,000 a month but spend $8000 on credit, earn another $5000 next month, pay off $5000 on credit, roll over the $3000 balance and chalk up another $5000 on credit …. and before they know it, they have reached their spending limit and have a hard time repaying just the interest! Young adults have gone bankrupt this way and there is a trend that is getting some economist seriously worried. So do you think you need to be responsible for your money?

Self Improvement
Like it or not, we are in the new economy. Company loyalty is a thing of the past, secure permanent jobs are as secure as the companies bottom line is healthy and yearly increments that employees use to enjoy in the 80s and 90s are a thing of the past. In this new economy, your increment/pay package depends hugely on the sales you can generate for your company or the perceived value you create for your company. If you don’t invest in your self improvement, you will find that your value diminishes over time and you may get to see the door sooner than you ever thought possible.

Safety
Cats are said to have 9 lives but humans commonly have only 1. But I frequently witness pedestrian jay walk with such recklessness that you thought they were daring the vehicles not to stop. Well partly, our laws here are to be blame as it penalize drivers rather than pedestrians. But I thought the pedestrians would have cherished their lives and be on the lookout for oncoming vehicles. The drivers may lose their driving license but they may lose their life. Or worst, be permanently disable, wheelchair bound or bed ridden for life. Surely that justifies the effort required just to check for oncoming vehicle and delay crossing the road for a couple of minutes right?

Time
Everyone of us are blessed with 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds a day. We could either waste them or make them useful. If we spend the time doing things in line with our goals and dreams, we are being responsible and making full use of our time. If we spend them doing thing that do not have an impact on our life, it is just wasted time. If taking 3 hours extra sleep a week means you are resting in preparation for a longer journey, it is not a waste. If you are running errands on someone else behalf that rip no benefits to your goal or dream. It would be considered a waste.

There you go. I have listed them and what do you think? Agree or not, do share with us. Or if you have other things you think should be included, share them too. It’s your turn to talk.

Love,
James

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