Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

We’re back from our holidays.

It was a 4 day 3 nights cruise to Penang (an island on the west coast of West Malaysia peninsula, near the Malaysia-Thailand border) and Phuket (an island on the west coast of Thailand, it was on of the place devastated by the 2004 Tsunami) on board the SuperStar Virgo Cruise Liner.

It’s was very fun and relaxing. We enjoyed lots of good food, quality time with my family and in-laws. As you folks know, I like to set goals for whatever I do. I did again for this holiday and my goals was:

“To make sure everyone enjoyed the trip”

Now you must be thinking, that goal does not comply to anything I have been teaching in my online lesson? It’s neither SMART nor Big! Am I contradicting myself? Not exactly.

Objectives - Very Short Term Goals
There are times where we set Big, Inspiring goals that are SMART and we put them in black and white. This type of goals are typically mid-term to long-term goals, not always the case but typically. Even short-term goals are typically a week to a month in duration.

But there are times where we set goals for the moment. Goals that are rather clear in idea but vague in execution (i.e. you know you want to enjoy but you are probably unsure of how you would be enjoying or what you would be enjoying). Some people refer to this type of goals as objectives. So I shall use the same term too

The truth is that everyone sets objectives (in their mind) but because this objective weren’t written down, most people loose sight of their objectives the moment they get into the action. If their action produced a result that matches their original objectives, they will be happy with their actions. But sometimes, the opposite happens and they will be unhappy with the result or the event itself.

Where Do People Set Objectives
They may set objectives when they:

- Go shopping
- Go on holiday
- Go for meals
- Go for a short study session
- Attend a Seminars
- Go for a show
- Exercise
- Do anything that may produce a result (which probably covers almost anything we do)

Have you ever been unhappy after doing any of those simple day-to-day activities above? Did you happen to end up doing something contradicting to what you started off wanting to do? I bet you do, sometimes I do too.

My Holiday As An Example
Let’s take my holiday as an example.

On this particular trip, we had 2 land excursions - one in Penang and one in Phuket. We could book a pre-planned excursion or go free and easy on our own. We decided to take their pre-planned shopping excursions for both locations.

On our shopping trip at Penang, we noticed that our girl Stella was not that excited and was grumbling towards the end of the 5 hour excursion. She said that it was all walking and not that exciting for her. It was true in a sense. I wasn’t all that excited myself. I looked around at the other kids in our group and sure enough, many were bored and some were already sleeping on their parents shoulders.

At the end of that excursion, I had to make a choice if we wanted to bring Stella along for the next excursion to Phuket as it would probably be more shopping, more walking and we are expecting spicy foods and lots of bargaining at Patong beach flea market. I had to asked myself honestly if she would enjoy such a trip and my answer is no. I asked her if she would enjoy such a trip and she said no.

So we made changes to our plan and placed her with the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion. That decision cost us a S$12 excursion ticket (it was non-refundable and we already purchased it) and an additional cost of S$72 for the stay at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre. But was it worth while? Definitely! She enjoyed herself hugely for the whole day and we had a memorable shopping spree at Patong Beach, Phuket!

On the excursion at Phuket, I saw some parents disciplining their kids who were kicking a fuss because they were bored and that probably ruin their mood on that trip for the rest of the day. I do not believed that those same people came on trip wanting to have a bad day. In all reasonable sense, they probably had the same objectives as myself. But what happened?

Remembering Your Objective And Be Flexible
I think the difference was that I remembered my objectives and was flexible enough to make changes to accommodate the situation. While those other parents either did not realize the situation they were in, did not remember their objectives or wasn’t flexible enough to make changes to cater to the changing situation. Probably a little of each factor.

It is interesting to note that there were a handful of children at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion which means I am not alone in making that kind of arrangements. So there must have been other parents who knows their objectives well too

You Should Try It
Don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself. You will be surprised at how frequent you walk away being happier then before.

That’s all for today. There will be more post coming up and also stay tuned for Goal Setting Lesson Four.

Cheers,
James

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Hey Folks,

I’ll be away on a short holiday. Taking my family and my in-laws for a short cruise to Thailand and Malaysia along the Straits of Malacca. So don’t be surprise if you don’t find any post for the next 4 day, my lessons on goal setting will continue when I am back.

I’ll be enjoying my holiday and I hope you are all enjoying yourself too.

Stay Positive,
James

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Hey Folks,

Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson Two. I will be covering some basic, time-tested goal setting techniques here so you can write down your first goal clearly.

SMART
It is general accepted that goals need to be SMART. So what does SMART mean? It’s actually an acronym for:

Specific
A goal has to be specific so you know the direction you are heading towards.

“I want to grow my business” is a loosely defined goal. Which part of your business do you want grow? The revenue? The profit? The size of the company? It has to be specific.

A specific goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business“. Now you know clearly which part of your business to focus on growing. No more ambiguity, right?

Measurable
A goal has to be measurable so you know the distance you need to cover to reach your goal.

“I want grow the revenue of my business” could not be measured. How much of the revenue do you want to grow? 5%? 10%? 100%? One thing for sure is that you will never know when you have grown sufficiently and you will never know exactly when you have reached your goal.

A measurable goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 20%“. Now you know which part of your business to focus on growing and how much you want it to grow .

Attainable
A goal has to be attainable with your current resources at hand, level of competency or state of being to handle that given goal. In another words, do you have the physical means and resources to achieve the goal you set.

“I want our new advertisement to attract 10,000 customers a day” might be attainable by a business with a big budget to advertise on TV, Radio, does branding and the like. But will the same goal be attainable for a neighborhood convenience stall that only have a budget to distribute pamphlets only?

Knowing all your physical means and resources you have at hand will help you set attainable goals.

Realistic
A goal has to be realistic. Where attainable relates to your physical means and resources. Realistic relates more to conditions and circumstances surrounding us.

“I want to grow the revenue of my business by 500%” might be realistic for a new business in it’s expansion/growing phase in a new market but for a matured business that has grown almost to it’s current market limit, it is unrealistic.

A more realistic goal for a matured business would sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market“. Make sense?

Time-Bound
Every goal needs to be bounded by a time frame so it can be measured and a baseline can be formed for future goals of similar capacity. Also a time-bound goals will lead to an urgency to take action and measure performance against.

“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market” would not give you any urgency, you could take a year, two years or maybe forever. When it takes forever, it’s called day dreaming.

“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market by [fill in your date]” would give you a dateline that you can start measuring your progress against. A dateline would ensure that you move towards your goal in a steady and consistent manner. Even when you missed the dateline, it would not be far off the mark as compared to not having one.

Summary
Look at the goal(s) that you have set, are they SMART enough? If not, isn’t it time to do something about it.

Cheers
James

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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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Hey Folks,

If you have been following us for the past 5 post, you know we are currently on the topic of goal setting. If you have missed them, you can revisit them below:

What Are Goals and Goal Setting?

Can Dreams Be A Good Goal?

Are You A Day Dreamer Or Achiever?

Playing To Win

Even My Hamster Has A Goal

By now, you probably have, at least, made up your mind whether you should or should not have a goal. It doesn’t matter, to me at least, if you have decided that goals are not for you. It’s your choice and I’ll respect them.

For those who decide to set goals and pursue them, Congratulations! You have taken the first conscious step towards your dream and ‘ll show you what you can do next.

In the next couple of posts, I will be sharing the following topics about goal settings:

- Where to start and what goals to set
- General goal setting techniques
- Dream big and be inspired
- Taking it one step at a time
- Understanding your strength and your weakness
- Where to focus your effort
- How to set a right time frame for your goal

So before we go on with the first topic in the next post, I strongly encourage you to download The Ladder Of Dreams™ (Left side bar, top. Free Download), so you can follow us to plan your dreams.

Once you have downloaded The Ladder Of Dreams™, leave me a comment here. I would like to congratulate you personally for taking charge of your life and walking down the road of countless accomplishments.

Cheers
James

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