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

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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.

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Hey Folks,

The last 2 post about Goals and Dreams had generated a fair amount of discussion, which is good and I am very happy about it. If you would like to read about them, Click here and here.

In this post I would like to establish the fact that everyone has goals and dreams based on my observations of people around me. The only difference is whether they know it consciously or not and if they know how to achieve it or not. I categorize them into 4 types of people and here’s the matrix and their relative state of consciousness (about their goals) and their competency in achieving them:

Day Dreamers
Majority of the working class belongs here, unfortunately. They have a general goal in life, probably defined as “I need to work for a living, raise a family, enjoy while I can while staying out of trouble, hope my boss don’t fire me before I reach sixty, hope I am not too sick by then to tour the world while still have enough money to finance my retirement“.

Their goals/dreams are somewhere in their head, never written down, never shared but it’s there. Even if you manage to convince them that they have a goal, they will have no idea how to properly plan, execute and achieve it. Their idea of planning and execution following the trend of work hard and work even harder. Rings a bell?

The Dreamers
Like in the show, The Matrix, these group of people have taken the pill and has waken to the idea of what a goal is and how useful and helpful to have one written down and to focus on. They have taken the first leap towards achieving great things in life with a focus on the goals they set.

Most new entrepreneurs falls in this category.

The Motivated
This group of people are a positive and determined lot. They normally follow their guts or higher calling and they take actions to get what they want. Your working class high fliers who seemed to achieve greatness out of no where commonly falls into this class.

Generally, they will progress to become an Achiever halfway through their career once “take the pill”. It is an easy step for them as they are a motivated lot to start with.

The Achievers
All successful people falls into this lot! Believe it or not.

They know their goals/dreams.

They plan for it and take massive actions to achieve it.

They are unwavering in their determination.

That is why they are successful.

What Shall It Be
So which group do you belong to? It’s your chance to talk again.

Cheers
James

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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: 10% [?]

Hey Folks,

For the next couple of posts, I’ll be writing on Goals, Goal Setting and related topics.

I know most of you, my dear friends and readers, are familiar with what a goal is and you have probably done some goal settings at one point or another in your life. But for the benefit of those who might be new to the topic, let’s have a recap on what a goal is and what goal setting is about.

Wiktionary defines a goal as “A result one is attempting to achieve” but I love Napoleon Hill’s way of defining a goal:

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
- Napoleon Hill

This is the closest definition of Goal Setting which I personally prefer that I found at The Magic of Goal Setting:

“Goal setting in broad terms is the process of
deciding on something you want,
planning how to get it,
and then working towards the objective.”

Do you have a different idea of what a goal is? Or what goal setting should be? Do leave a comment and share it with us.

Cheers
James

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