Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

I hope you have enjoyed the last post and had a better understanding of:

- How simple a goal can be
- How simple it really is to apply goal setting in our daily life
- The benefits of having a goal as opposed to not having one

Do You Have Have A Goal?
I probably don’t know most of you and I have no idea what you went through in your life. Certainly, I have no idea if you had ever set any goals in your life.

My Hamster Has One
But I say if my pet hamster has a goal (that I could see), you probably have one too! Let me show you his goal:

That’s Hammie, Stella’s Pet.

Hammie’s Home Sweet Home

Hammie’s Goal
You can guess what Hammie’s goal really is. No prizes here, he belongs to the rodent family so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Hammie’s Daily Focus

Hammie’s Goal Achieved
Anthony Robbin said that we are either motivated by Pain or Pleasure. Hammie obviously knew how painful it would be for me to replace the cage. So here’s mine solution (He stopped widening the hole after I got him this):

Hammie’s Goal Achieved

What About You
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not asking you to inflict pain on someone to achieve your goals. That’s not right!

But tell me, do you have a goal? And have you done anything about it?

Cheers,
James

Popularity: 6% [?]

Hey Folks,

Todays post is very interesting. It involves practical goal setting, application of plans/strategies and the mindset to be successful, all applied in a simple game. So sit back, relax and read on.

Yesterday was family day and our family dropped by one of our favorite weekend entertainment center, Downtown East. After a morning of fun and a sumptuous lunch of Sushi, we went to the arcade.

Here’s What Happened

At the arcade, we saw this contraption where you get to scoop some sweets to fill out a moving table. Then the sweets will get push off the moving table and fall into a collecting tray. Whatever in the tray is your prize. Piece of cake, right?

But would you pay a dollar to grab a couple of sweets you probably could have bought at a convenience stall for much less? Probably Not!

But from what I observed, that’s what most people do. Right there before my eyes. They pop a few coins (by the way, it was S$1 per game), scoop a few sweets, deposit them on the table and grab a few sweets and they stop.

Most of them stare at the Jackpot prize (The little stuff toy at the top of the machine) and wonder if anyone could get it!

We played this once, spent S$10 for a bag of sweets so I had some idea how it works. This time round, I set a goal. I wanted to get that Jackpot prize for my little girl. So this is how I plan it.

I started off with a goal to win the Jackpot prize.

To win the Jackpot prize, I need a plan to fill up the jackpot counter (Picture to the left) by hitting the checker (Bottom Picture, the little RED tab extending out from the table is the checker) with sweets.

I also plan to scoop the larger sweets, thinking that since they are big, they could probably move more sweets down the table. Now I have a goal and a plan, time to take some action.

I changed S$10 worth of coins which translated to 12 scoops of the sweets. Actually, I am not sure how many tries it would take to win the jackpot, so I test and measure.

First couple of tries was a mixed of success and disaster.

Disaster - Attempting to scoop a large amount of larger sweets, usually end up with an empty scoop. I realized that the scoop was a flexible plastic, it flexed and bend under load and bounces its load of sweet all over the place.

Success - Attempting to scoop just 2-3 packets of larger sweets went well and it dropped loads of sweets into the collecting tray. So now, I changed my tactics and aim for smaller load.

Be Focus

Remember that we mentioned that to win the Jackpot prize, you need to focus on hitting the checker and move the counter.

That was what we focused on all the way. It does not matter how many sweets was dropped, if it didn’t hit the checker, it didn’t count towards our goal.

I noticed that many players from the other stations focus on trying to drop the Maximum number of sweets. I am not sure if getting the most sweet was their aim or not but if their goal was the Jackpot, then their action and goal is not in alignment.

Never Give Up

After the initial 12 tries, we were closer to the Jackpot but not close enough. So do we give up or do we push on? Of course, we pushed on! Giving up is as good as wasting all the effort that you have put in so far, all the experience you gain also goes down the drain.

The time, effort and money I estimated at the beginning is just an approximation, now that I had a baseline, I could determine how much more effort the whole project would take. I estimated another S$10 would do it. So we pushed on, focus and just did it.

At the end, it took exactly 2 more try then I had expected but we did win the Jackpot prize. Check out the prize, blue doggy soft toy and the HUGE bag of sweets! And of course, a very happy little girl!

Inspirations

The most amazing thing wasn’t our winning the Jackpot. What was amazing was what happens because we won. Our little game attracted a crowd around us and the cheer went up after we hit the Jackpot. More amazingly, all the other stations were filled with players who is now inspired to be the next Jackpot winner!

Our energy built up while charging towards our goal was transfer to the audience around us and inspired them to take action. That was amazing and we are talking of a simple game here. Think of what you could inspire if you achieve that goal in your life or at work?

Here’s one last picture of Stella and yours truly. Enjoy your weekend.

Cheers,
James

Afterword: What I have just shown is some very basic stuffs used in goal setting and it can be applied to everyday task as simple as playing a game. If you want a system that can help you with goal setting, check out The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Hey Folks,

In our last post, “What Are Goals and Goal Setting?“, I invited you to share with me your opinions and I am very happy that I got a warm response offering different opinions. I love every single one of those comment and I thank you for sharing with me. Keep them coming.

Goals Need to Be Real?
One of the comments in the last post was this:

I disagree with Napoleon Hill’s definition.
Goals are too reality-based to be dreams.

It is a perfectly normal perspective and I was, for the better part of my adult life, thinking the same way. In my ex-profession as an engineer, I had to have goals that stick to reality. No doubt that whatever I plan for was “on solid ground” but the goals always lacks inspiration and excitement. Hence, I never really found anything worth pursuing on a long term basis.

Can Dreams Be A Goal?
Since I embraced the idea that I should set goals that I can dream about, I have found excitement in setting goals again. The excitement drives me forward, drives me to take action and I have found myself in place and situations that I would never otherwise have thought possible. Such as being a full time blogger, such as being able to share my experience and share positive thoughts reaching out to hundreds and thousands of people.

Would all this be possible if I had a reality-based dream? I think not.

Are Dreamy Goals Natural?
In fact, it is my belief that it is a natural thing for us to dream and dream big. Children’s dream a lot. They never really understood the difficulties of achieving what they want but it doesn’t stop them from dreaming. Here are some examples:

- They dream about being famous actors or actresses when they can’t even read a script
- They dream about being doctors even when they are scared stiff at the sight of a nurse with a syringe.
- They dream about being teachers but hate the spelling test they are getting from them

They are not afraid to dream and some of them do become what they dream they would be one day.

So What’s Missing

“If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.”
- Henry David Thoreau

So, can dreams become good goals? Absolutely, as dreams are typically inspirational and motivating by nature. You just need to have a direction and a plan to achieve it (that’s the foundation). Does that make sense to you? Now is your turn to talk.

Cheers
James

Don’t Miss This: Need a tool to plan your dreams? Subscribe For The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Hey Folks,

We have recently talked about why career planning is important, if you want to refresh your memory or if you missed them, click here to trace the story.

Ladder Of Dream - Career Sample
Today I will give an example of how simple it is to create a career plan using The Ladder Of Dream (Click on image to get a bigger view):

Method Of Planning
This is a sample of career progression from a fresh graduate aiming to be a Financial Controller one day, not so far in the future. Was that hard to fill? Not really, you just need to know your goal and where you are now. Then you fill in the blanks in reverse (i.e. the logical step just before you reach your goal, etc) and your career path is drawn.

Important Note
It is important to remember that you don’t need to like any of the job in between, they are there as part of a career progression. You need to learn the skills in that position and do well enough to progress and move on. Your dream is that job listed in the number 1 position. But of course, if you like the job in between, it helps to keep you motivated naturally.

Why It Benefits
The number 1 factor that kept many employees from progressing (other then not having a plan) is - “I don’t like the next job that comes along with that promotion” but they love the next job beyond that. The job that incinerated most careers are called “Middle Management”. But with a little planning and a new perspective of it, you will be able to handle it.

Get Your Planning Tool Today
If you have not downloaded the free template and guide, click here to get it absolutely free. Share it with your friends and colleagues. Keep yourself updated when we release new tools, tips, templates and guides by subscribing to our newsletter here

Cheers
James

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hey Folks,

I’m back with part 2 of this post. I encourage you to read part 1 first before reading this post to get a full picture.

How Do You Achieve It
To achieve your long-term goal in your career, you need to plan far ahead. For example, if your desire is to be a CEO in 15 years time, You need to plan your career path to learn the necessary experience and skill set that enables you to fill such a solution 15 years later.

You can start by defining the skill set and strength of a typical CEO (by check recruitment sources on the internet) and plan what other pre-requisite positions (again by checking similar sources) you need to fill before that. Soon, you will have a road map that is your planned career path.

More often than not, employees get to where they are by chance. If midway through their current career, they suddenly decide some other job is what they really wanted, they find that they have a huge mismatch of skills or lack of certain criteria to change job. It is still possible to get there but it will take a lot of extra effort to retool their skills and gain the necessary experience to fill in the new job.

Where Can You Achieve It
With your career plan in hand, you will next need to find a company that have a position that requires your current skill set and has the opportunity to learn and progress to the next pre-requisite position on your career plan. Once you achieve that position, reevaluate if you can learn the related skills and experience for the next higher pre-requisite position in your current company, if you can stay on. If you can’t, it is time to move on to another company to further your career.

Remember, your dream is to be a CEO, not whatever position you are holding at that moment, so it is important to learn, gain experience and move on. In this phase, you will always find yourself learning more then you contribute. But whenever you can contribute, you contribute massively. That is how you learn and reciprocate at the same time.

Keep repeating and learning until you have gained all the necessary skills and experience required for your dream job. At this point, you will need to stop moving and work to deliver the massive value appropriate of your dream job. This is the time you make the big push to show case your value, skills and knowledge to make a name for yourself and land the job you dream of.

Why Do You Need To Achieve It
The last question that you need to ask yourself is why you need to achieve this dream job? Here are some typical reasons and the associated job that allows them to meet their needs:

- Wanted a job that pays me to travel the world and meet people (Regional Sales Director)
- Wanted a job that pays me to make policy and help people achieve better life (Civil Servant, Social Development)
- Wanted a job that allows decent pay that allows me to work from home so I can raise my kids while working (Telemarketer)
- Wanted a job that allows me to meet the rich and famous (TV Reporter)

Everyone has his or her own reason but this reason must be a strong pull factor that you are willing to work towards. Focus on the benefits of achieving it, the type of lifestyle that you want to achieve at the end of that road. You will need to keep reminding yourself of what is at stake because along the way, there will be some transitional job position that you won’t like but is necessary. So if that push factor is stronger then the pull factor from your dream, you will most likely give up.

So remember, a reason such as “it’s cool to be a CEO” will never get you there. Find a reason for yourself and make it a good one.

Tomorrow I will share with you a goal setting tool. Stay Tuned!

Cheers,
James

Popularity: 10% [?]