Feel Better About Achieving Your Goals
Recently I’ve been reading Double Your Income Doing What You Love written by Raymond Aaron (with Su Lacher).
In it, he talks about attending the Olympics in Montreal in 1976.
He was watching men’s volleyball. In the finals, the teams ranked first and second play for the gold and silver medals. The teams ranked third and fourth play off for the bronze medal.
On the medal podium, the gold medal winning team was naturally jubilant and excited. As was the bronze medal winning team. However, the silver medalists were dejected and silent.
Thinking about this a bit more, he came to the conclusion that the Gold and Bronze teams were happy because they had ended on a winning note. While the silver medalists ended their Olympics with a loss. In other words, they had not won the silver, in their minds, they had lost the gold.
He thought about how you could relate this to achieving goals. And whether setting your goals too high was a good or a bad thing.
Of course, the big advantage to setting your goals high is that, even though you might not reach them, you’ll likely achieve more just because you aimed higher. But like the silver medalists, you might not enjoy your success as much because you “win by losing”.
He wondered whether it was better to just set easy goals. Smaller goals that you’ll be more likely to achieve which, in turn, will make you feel better about yourself.
Soon after he was talking to a colleague who told him about a way to approach goals that was different than anything he’d ever heard before. It addressed the small goal/big goal question.
The approach was to, instead of just recording a goal, dividing it up into three levels of achievement.
The first level is called the Minimum Level. This is the part of your goal that you’ll get done easily.
Next is the Target Level goal. This is part of the goal that will be a little bit of stretch to do.
The third level is called the Outrageous Level. This is the most challenging part of the goal. One that might seem to be near impossible to achieve.
This is the example he uses in his book:
Example of a goal written the old way:
“I commit to cleaning my garage by August 15th”
Example of the Same Goals Written the New Way:
Minimum: Discard the three tires.
Target: Discard all broken tools.
Outrageous: Take everything out of the garage, paint the entire garage and replace only what I really need.
Dividing a goal up into three pieces, really gives you the best of both worlds.
The Minimum and Target Goals allow you to achieve something fairly easily, thus giving you a sense of accomplishment.
By setting and writing down an Outrageous Goal it starts your brain working on what you need to do to strive achieve it (even without being consciously aware of it).
Plus when you do achieve an "Outrageous Goal", you’ll have achieved far more than if you had not set a goal so big. And even if you don’t achieve the outrageous goal; you’ll still have two successes under your belt to feel good about.
How to Land Clients in 21 Days with Just Your Computer
How do I land my first client? It’s a question every aspiring freelancer asks eventually. Now, there’s a proven system for landing clients that removes the guesswork. Best of all? No cold calling. Learn More »
“That moment when you close your eyes, suck in your breath and say a silent "yes!" happened just recently when I got a royalty check in the mail. That one project has turned out to be quite profitable.”
If yes, you could be in big demand, earning big money, writing just a few hours a day from anywhere in the world you choose to be.
Get Nick Usborne’s step-by-step system for creating money-making information websites.
In just 6 hours and 35 minutes, you can be in business earning $60 – $150 an hour writing simple resumes.
Learn the secrets behind succeeding in this in-demand career.
The work is plentiful … the pay scales are generous and the competition is scarce!
Get the answers to the hundreds of questions and concerns commonly asked in specific, step-by-step details.
Use this eight-step plan to make the leap from aspiring copywriter to professional copywriter this year.
Let your fellow AWAI members show you firsthand the easiest, most powerful way to land your first client … BEFORE you finish the program.
Writing for the web is a huge opportunity for copywriters. Let web expert Nick Usborne show you how to write blockbuster web copy in record time … even if you're a complete internet “rookie”!
It’s an opportunity to make $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 a year or more … working just a few hours a day.
A once complicated profession is now something you can do on a standard computer – even if you have little or no “artistic” ability.
It’s one thing to have a website. But if your website can’t be found by the search engines, it may as well not exist.
The Internet creates new income possibilities every day. The biggest among them: online video marketing.
Get the very techniques top-performing copywriters use to rattle off one groundbreaking control after another.
In his new book, Michael Masterson teaches you his very own formula for powerful persuasion and how to apply it to direct mail sales letters as well as online promotions.
I was reading Michael Masterson's Confessions of a Self Made Millionaire last night. A chapter about dope addicts and goals. He asked which one of your goals are you putting off? My anwer.. making my list. hahhahaa
John Wiggill – May 21, 2009 at 9:59 am