“What is the best way to get motivated?”

I get this question almost daily from my newsletter subscribers (haven’t signed up yet? Sign up on the right and also get my free 5-Day Ultimate Goal Setting e-Course) as well as random visitors to this site.

Undoubtedly, the last time that you started a big project or goal you were initially full of heaps of motivation, energy and focus.

There wasn’t enough time in the day to accomplish everything you wanted, and you were positive, optimistic about not only the work involved, but your desired outcome.

But then what happened?

Your motivation began to wane. Doubt began to creep into your mind. And before long, you were wondering if this goal was worth doing at all.

It’s those lowly, hard to get motivated days that I am going to talk about in this How to Get Motivated guide. I’m going to try and give you a deeper understanding of motivation and how it works so that next time you feel that ebb you will have the tools to combat it.

Get Motivated :: Reasons for a Lack of Motivation

The reasons we have for the ability to get motivated evaporating before our eyes are varied, but can often be traced back to several over-arching causes:

1 // RESULTS NOT HAPPENING FAST ENOUGH. We live in an impatient time. We have instant messaging, instant relationships (via Facebook), and instant food. From this comes the expectation that results should be instant as well. Not the case. Some things will always take time, and brag-worthy success is one of them.

2 // FEAR. Most often, it is the fear of failure. We are scared that we will never recover from the devastation that would result from failure. We talk ourselves into believing that they us of ten years, five years, or even one year from now will never recover from failure. Our brain is wired to avoid conflict and duress – if it senses there is the potential for duress in the future (in this case, the disappointment of failure) it will go out of its way to talk you out of following through on your plan of action.

3 // UNWILLINGNESS TO MEET SETBACKS HEAD ON. When we start something big, we think ourselves invincible. We think our goal is so perfect and awesome for us that there is no way anything could come between it and us. In this naivety we neglect to consider the inevitable – setbacks, roadblocks and outright failures. This naivete causes is to be so shaken when setbacks do happen that we never recover. Success in any field is never handed out. It’s accrued by finding a way over and around setbacks and problems. Success is built on a foundation of failure.

4 // LACK OF PURPOSE OR INTEREST. It’s hard to get motivated about something you don’t really care about. The moment that you want success as bad as you want to breathe, that’s the moment you will succeed, no matter what it is you desire.

5 // LACK OF ACTION. There are a few different words for this—procrastination, laziness, apathy, etc. When we continually put off acting on our goals, it is very, very hard to get motivated. Why? Action creates momentum, and action creates results. And momentum and results are two fantastic ways to get motivated.

Get Motivated :: Ways to Boost Motivation

What’s the Negative Outcome? What will happen if you don’t achieve your goals? Don’t just think about them, write them out on a piece of paper so that they get out of your brain and become more tangible. While I always feel like you should be setting positive goals and striving to avoid negative outcomes, it can be beneficial and motivational to have the alternate outcomes listed out on paper.

Assess Your Environment. If we are a product of our environments, what does yours say about you? John Donne said it best – No man is an island. And he is right. The people we choose to surround ourselves have a massive influence on how we live our lives. Look at your friends, peers and family and take a moment to seriously ponder—

Does this person have my best interests at heart?

Am I the best version of myself around this person?

Is this person an enabler?

Does the way I act around them conflict with my goals or who I want to be?

You’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to get motivated when the people surrounding you have the same priorities and values as you do.

Likewise, you should always be striving to find like-minded people to surround yourself. This could include finding a mentor, or groups specific to your goals in person and on-line.

Imperfect Action is Your Get Motivated Superweapon. When all else fails… And you are feeling lower than low… Adopt the policy of imperfect action. I catch myself being guilty of this on occasion. I convince myself it is better to wait for a perfect moment to act, when conditions are just correct. There is no perfect moment. The stars will not align, there won’t be a sign, so don’t wait for it.

I find that the biggest key to learning how to get motivated on a daily basis is the habit of action, or more precisely, imperfect action. The last time you talked yourself out of doing something that was in line with your goals, what was the excuse you gave yourself?

“I’ll go tomorrow when I feel more up to it.”

“I’ll start running when I have new running shoes.”

“I’ll start my own business when I know more about accounting.”

This is something called “someday” syndrome. You are waiting for “someday” when you will FEEL like doing what you have to do to achieve your goals. The reality is this:

You will NEVER feel like it.

Action is and the outcomes they produce will give you unstoppable enthusiasm over the long term. The process of planning and executing is a revolving door of motivation that you can continue to draw from long after that first big burst of enthusiasm has passed.

Want to truly get motivated? As talked about, elite motivation comes from action, and I can show you exactly how to take your goals and apply imperfect action with Ultimate Goal Setting. It’s a free 5-day course that will show you the best way to get motivated today. Sign up below.

Get Motivated | How to Get Motivated When You Just Don’t Feel Like It is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

SMART objectives

Which is too bad.

I’m going to break down how SMART objectives work, and then I will provide you with some alternative aspects to goal setting that should also be considered the next time you sit down to put together your goals.

WHAT ARE SMART OBJECTIVES?

The acronym SMART has been around in general use since the early 1980’s when it was first cited by George T. Doran in “Management Review“. There are various definitions of what the SMART objectives consist of, but the most common one is as follows:

S – SPECIFIC. Your goal or objective should be as specific as possible as to not leave any guesswork.

M – MEASURABLE. You should be able to quantify your goal.

A – ATTAINABLE. Your goal should be realistic and attainable based on your current or future abilities.

R – RELEVANT. The goal should be worthwhile to you. It should be worth the effort required.

T – TIME-BOUND. Your goal should have a closed-ended time-frame.

SMART objectives is a good introduction to goal setting, but there is so much more if you are serious about using goal setting to achieve the big, awesome stuff you want to accomplish.

THE PROBLEMS WITH SMART OBJECTIVES

1. Phrasing. There are some subtle tricks that you can play with the actual phrasing of your goals that can make a difference on whether or not you achieve all of your goals. Most people phrase their SMART objectives in the following manner…

“I want to…”

“I’m going to …”

“One day I’m going to…”

The problem with these goals is that they talk about the future. Not about what you are doing right now, at this very minute to achieve your goals. Instead change the tone of your goals and objectives to…

“I choose to…”

It’s a simple turn-of-phrase, but you will find that it works wonders.

2. Planning. Once you write out your goals according to the SMART objectives, you are left standing there with a shiny goal, but no idea of where to go from there. Some might argue that goal planning and goal setting are separate entitities, but I will argue them until I am blue in the face. They are so interlinked that it is foolish to believe that they can co-exist without one another. Effective goal setting requires planning, and planning requires having a powerful goal to drive the plan.

There are so many factors to consider when planning your goals, and I am not going to go into all of them here, but the most significant component is to be prepared for failure.

You know things aren’t going to go perfectly. No matter how wonderful our goals, how extensive our plans to achieve them, life will come around and find a way to mess it up. The key is in being prepared for these setbacks, roadblocks and curve-balls. How do you be prepared for something you don’t see coming? By adopting a policy of flexibility and commitment to see your goals through, regardless if you have to scrap your goal plan and rewrite a new one. Your goals and objectives should mean that much to you.

3. Purpose. Without purpose we don’t have motivation, and without motivation, you have a shell of a goal. I have worked for a few companies in the past that mistook what they perceived as purpose for their employees.

Sure, SMART objectives talk about relevance, but relevance isn’t enough to stay motivated over the long term. Your goals should instill a powerful sense of drive and purpose.

How do we do this? There are several ways, but one that I have found that works consistently is making the goal bigger then the individual involved. For example, being wealthy is a common goal. Perhaps one of the motivations or benefits of achieving this goal would be to start a foundation, or give a certain amount to a charitable organization on an annual basis. Make the goals bigger than your own self-satisfaction and you will achieve true purpose.

4. Play it Safe. SMART objectives place a large reliance on making your goals realistic. For some people this is a simple guideline, for others it’s a strident rule. Your goals and objectives should be lofty as hell, they shouldn’t be so grounded in reality that they bring little reward when you easily achieve them. Personal reward comes in being challenged and overcoming, not in setting easy goals and crushing them. The moment you stop challenging yourself is the moment you stop growing.

Ready to go beyond SMART objectives? Sign up for Ultimate Goal Setting (for FREE) below and I will show you how to take those SMART objectives and make them powerful goals you can’t help but accomplish.

SMART Objectives | Going Beyond SMART is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

“Why bother learning time management?”

This is a question I hear frequently from people who believe that they would rather live “in the moment” and would rather “go with the flow” than suffer the indignation of taking control of their time.

In reality, while these people feel like they are living life on their own terms, what they are really doing is letting the time they do have slip like sand through their fingers.

The cold, hard reality about life is that it is very finite. We have a very limited amount of time to spend, so why not do it doing exactly what you want?

When you build your time management skills you do the following—

• Prioritize your time and energy according to what you want to achieve most.
• Are able to set and plan your goals, whether short, medium or long term goals.
• Organize your daily schedule, maximizing the time you have available to you.
• Decrease stress by being able to plot your personal goals and plans more effectively.
• Are able to make intelligent decisions about your time more effectively.
• Achieve more by beating procrastination to the side.
• And most importantly, effective time management allows you to take complete, unequivocal ownership of your time and life.

Time Management in 3 Parts

PART 1 / Assessment

First thing you need to do is track where your time is going. Think of it as a budget. Each day you are given 86,400 seconds. Think of each second as a credit. Where are you allocating your credits on a daily and weekly basis?

One thing you will notice upon doing this exercise is that the repeated daily waste of time is staggering when you multiply that by the months, years and even decades of your life.

Often enough this simple awareness can be enough to lend you more focus on the things you care about most.

For example, let’s say you spend an hour per day on Facebook. Over the course of one month that is 30 hours, and over the course of one year that equates to 360 hours. (How much is 360 hours? Two weeks.)

Essentially you are taking a two week non-paid holiday…on Facebook. Crazy, right?

Your challenge: For one week track where your time is going. Write it down. Commutes, TV watching, emailing, work, social events, etc. At the end of the week, write down how much time each task is taking up.

PART 2 / Prioritization

From the list above, note the top 10-15 time gobblers and write them out on a separate piece of paper. Beside each of them jot down the level of priority you wish to ascribe to them. Just a simple 1-10 numerical value is fine.

What activities can you tone down on? Which activities are you neglecting?

All too often I hear people say that they don’t have enough time.

“I would love to start going to the gym again but I don’t have enough time.”

“I really want to start my own business but I’ll never find the time.”

Baloney! The time is there, you simply need to reallocate it from tasks and activities that are literally draining your life away.

PART 3 / Kick Procrastination in the Junk

Procrastination affects everyone. I battle with it every day. But it’s a battle I refuse to lose. I decline to allow my life to be taken away because I “don’t feel like it.”

There are almost limitless reasons for why we procrastination, but the most common one that I encounter – both with the clients I work with as well as with myself – is the self-told notion that we must wait until conditions are better. It’s a trick our brain plays on us in order to take the path of least resistance.

“I’ll start going to the gym tomorrow.”

“I’ll start that home business when I know more about what I’m doing.”

“I’ll study for my exam tomorrow when my mind is more clear.”

These are all stalling tactics. And they are frighteningly common, so don’t beat yourself up if these thoughts start popping up in your head. Ever heard of the term “imperfect action”?

It is something that I tell myself to do when I feel that sensation of perfectionism creep over me. It’s always better to take action – regardless of whether you are ready or not – than to sit and wait for the “perfect” moment.

Time Management Tactics

Keep a Daily Organizer. When you create a schedule for yourself, it’s easier to follow through on the tasks you have created for yourself. Once it’s down on paper, it becomes official, and your brain has a more difficult time talking you out of it.

Prioritize Your Tasks. If you have a big day ahead, and there is a chance that you won’t be able to get everything, prioritize your tasks and goals. The only thing that I ask of you when doing this is to always pay yourself first. Always – always – take care of your goals first.

Evaluate Your Effectiveness. Ever get that feeling that you are spinning your tires, not getting anything done? It’s a wretched feeling – only know when you manage your time you can actually see how much time you are allocating to those tasks, and hopefully eliminate or minimize them.

Don’t Be Scared to Plan. Most people who are adamantly against time management are the ones who “like to go with the flow.” Personally, I would much rather be the one directing the flow than letting it take me for a ride. Like I mentioned above, when you practice effective time management, you are not only going to achieve a ton more, but you are going to gain ownership of your time and also your life. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me!

Be Willing to Be Flexible. Life has a funny way of telling us who is the boss every once in a while. Flat tires, unexpected weather, alien landings, whatever the case may be, realize that your schedule and time will not always go 100% your way. Allow a little wiggle room for such instances.

Time management can dramatically improve your standard of living if you are willing to adopt its simple principles. It is particularly helpful when it comes to goals and goal setting. For help with your goals, I have developed a comprehensive 5-day Ultimate Goal Setting e-Course that is delivered straight to your inbox for free. Sign up below!

Time Management | Learn How to Manage Your Time Effortlessly. is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Undoubtedly you have set long term goals in the past. Perhaps you wrote them down, stared at them for a while, but then what? Life got in the way. You got distracted. And then soon enough those awesome long term goals were collecting cobwebs.

WHY SET LONG TERM GOALS?

The pursuit of your long term goals means so much more than achieving an end result. Employing the effective use of goal setting to accomplish your long term goals can provide you with several massive benefits:

DIRECTION. Long term goals have the benefit of providing our lives with a compass.  We know what direction in which we want to take our lives. Without this type of direction it is easy to get lost in the bubble of today and tomorrow. It is important to be able to see the bigger picture in order to give today the perspective in sometimes deserves.

FOCUS. Zeroing in on exactly what you want and what you have to do to achieve it will knock off the distractions in your life. This type of focus has no room for people who waste your time and for activities that fill your day but leave you feeling unaccomplished.

CONTRIBUTION. Generally when people achieve big things, they do so with a mindful eye on how their long term goals can afford them the opportunity to give back and make contribute to the community at large. Undoubtedly we all want to leave a legacy – by using the power of long term goals you can wield your own legacy.

TIME MANAGEMENT. Similarly, you will be able to organize your time more effectively in order to carry out the daily tasks required of your goals.

BIG REWARD. Achieving short term goals can give you momentary bursts of motivation and satisfaction, but there are massive amounts of self-confidence and self-esteem to be found in the achievement of your long term goals.

No matter what type of long term goals you may have for your life, there are a set of common techniques that the most successful people on the planet employ to make them reality.

HOW TO SET LONG TERM GOALS

Goal setting is a skill, and like every skill, there are nuances and systems for accomplishing the outcomes you want to achieve. The most common one out there is SMART goals, and while I think they are an okay introduction to goal setting, there is much more to be learned about goal setting.

(Want to learn the way the most successful people on the planet are setting goals? Sign up for Ultimate Goal Setting, a FREE 5-day e-Course that gets sent straight to your inbox. Simply sign up on the box to the right and presto! ——— > )

1 // CHOOSE YOUR OVER-ARCHING GOAL. This part is relatively easy. You have probably mulled over your long term goals long before you ever arrived at this page. Now it is simply time to give them some shape so that they can become actionable goals.

Your long term goals should full-fill several criteria—

Specific and Time Bound. Your long term goals must be measurable as to leave no doubt to what it is you want to achieve. A deadline has to be affixed to it as well to instill some sense of urgency.

They Should Give You Overwhelming Purpose. Perhaps you crave to be wealthy, or lose a bunch of weight. Undoubtedly you know what the personal benefits are for yourself, but what type of purpose can you find for these goals that originates from helping others? In other words, how can you make your goals even bigger than yourself? How will the achievement of your goals benefit the community, the world at large?

They Should Be Uniquely Yours. Choose your long term goals because it is what you want for your life – not because what your friends, family, or even what society demands of you. Long term goals that are created for someone else’s benefit are frail and tend to not last.

2 // DON’T BE AFRAID TO PLAN. This is where SMART goals really falls short. It’s great to have your specific and realistic goal, but without a goal plan your long term goals are simply ideas or dreams. Building a proper goal plan requires some effort, but once completed you are armed with a blueprint for precisely how to achieve your goals. Do your long term goals look too intimidated to plan? Start backwards! I have found that it can be much easier to start from the end and work your way back to the where you stand today.

3 // BE PREPARED FOR SETBACKS. Life isn’t perfect. No matter how well we plan, inevitably life is going to have something to say about it. It is impossible to predict how the economy will react, the actions of others, or what the weather will be like. But there is one thing you can control – you decide to react when adversity comes knocking at your door. Make a commitment from day one to see your long term goals through regardless of the setbacks, derailments or failures that come your way.

HOW TO ACHIEVE YOUR LONG TERM GOALS

So now that we have talked about the benefits, and how to set them, I want to share with you some of the best advice I have received when it comes to executing long term goals. After all, we can talk about our goals, even write them out, but the fun part is when it comes to actually accomplishing them!

LONG TERM GOALS SUCCESS IS A HABIT.

The most powerful advice I have ever received was from one of my earliest swim coaches. He was paraphrasing Aristotle when he told me that success was more than just a result or a single act, it was a habit. It was the process, the day-to-day effort that you put in. This was what made you a true success. Picking up this habit of daily action and renewing discipline and focus will insure that you achieve any long term goal you desire. Personal success is not a part time job, it is something you work at every day.

ALLOW YOURSELF THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE FLEXIBLE WITH YOUR MOTIVATIONS.

The journey is going to shape you much more then the result will. Who you will be when you reach that long term goal will be different from the person reading this right now. Accordingly, it is likely that the reasons you have today for accomplishing your long term goals will look nothing like your motivations in the future. And that is okay. Embrace the changes in the current, and follow them.

KICK FEAR IN THE BUTT AND START ACTING TODAY.

Getting bogged down with the details of how you are going to accomplish something 2-3 years from now should not stop you from what you are doing today. There is no better day to start than today.

Fear of failure is a massive deterrent, and is common reason many people have – and will continue to – toil in mediocrity, always on the other side of their goals, looking in. It’s paralyzing effects have kept you and many others from acting on their goals for entirely too long. Sometimes it is much better to stop thinking and to simply act, regardless of whether conditions are perfect or not.

Want to know what the next step is for your long term goals? Sign up for Ultimate Goal Setting and I will show you how to take those lofty ambitions of yours and turn them into workable goals.

Long Term Goals – How to Stay the Course is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Tired of not seeing the results you want?

Fed up with watching the life of your dreams fade slowly into the horizon?

Undoubtedly you have big plans and dreams for your life. They are the type of goals that keep you up at night and are never far from your thoughts over the course of the day. Perhaps you have taken the first few steps in your big awesome goal plan, but you aren’t sure where to go from here. Or maybe you have tried in the past and stumbled, hit a roadblock and shelved those big, greasy goals of yours.

WHY LEARN HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL?

Seems like a rather silly question, right?

But take a moment to actually define for yourself what it means to be a success. Obviously being successful comes in many different shapes and forms. Everyone’s perception of success is unique to themselves.

While your idea of a full-filling and successful life may be different from everyone else’s, the methods and practices to achieve this success are identical.

What kind of life do you want to lead?

What type of person do you want to be?

What sort of legacy do you want to leave for your family and friends?

How will you extend your success so that it benefits not only yourself, but your community as well?

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL – 6 TIPS

If there is one thing you take from this article I hope that it is the following:

Success is a Mindset, Not an Outcome.

To learn how to be successful it is essential to adopt the mindset of a successful person. What does this entail? Lots of things, but I would argue that the following characteristics are the most pressing:

Refuse Failure. Successful people are flexible and stubborn. These might seem like contradictory terms, but they can be used in conjunction to achieve great things. Failure doesn’t happen to successful people. Instead, they make learning opportunities. They take their stumbles, setbacks and roadblocks and learn from them. With lessons in hand they are better equipped for the next round of work.

Commitment to Excellence. Understanding how to be successful means having a commitment to excellence. And I am not just talking about excellence in terms of money or abilities. I am talking about every part of your life. How you treat others, how you carry out the daily tasks in your life, etcetera.

The late Steve Jobs was world-renown for his vision and commitment to innovativeness. But he was also ruthless about his products being the best. He wanted the inside of his products to be just as aesthetic pleasing as the outside. What makes this especially interesting is that most of his products were designed specifically so that they could not be opened up.

Which means, 99.99% of the population would never see the inside and how well built it was. Most people would say, “Whatever, no one is going to see it, so why not skimp on quality?”

But he didn’t. His perception was that excellence was a full-time trait, not something you could use in moderation.

Alas, don’t confuse the pursuit of excellence with perfection – the latter is an ideal, not an achievable result, and it has driven many people to insane lengths in its pursuit.

Focused. Successful people choose something, zero in on it, and hammer away at it until it is accomplished. This type of laser-like focus eliminates needless distractions and the clutter of everyday life that makes you feel like you have been busy all day when in reality nothing has been accomplished. (Facebook, anyone?)

Take Accountability. Take ownership of your life and of your own personal success. Realizing how to be successful means that you are are always where the buck stops. Successful people understand that how they perform ultimately comes to them. They don’t blame their setbacks and failures on others—they accept them and use them to mold new plans and future success. Likewise when they succeed – they are able to accept the little victories and use them as motivation for the future.

Unafraid of Commitment. To not be committed to your plans is to be perpetually floating, much like a ship without a rudder. Unless you anchor to something, you will never feel any attachment or control over your goals and success. To figure out how to be successful means that you commit to your plans and resolve to see them through. Many people get timid when it comes to making 1, or 3, or 5 year plans, because they are afraid of the commitment involved. The uneasiness of long-term commitment is nothing compared to the regret of a live being lived unfullfilled.

Open Minded. Smart people know something the rest don’t – that they don’t know everything. Only a fool believes that they know everything. Successful people are always learning, always adapting, always feeling the tides of change and instead of resisting them, find a way to use the tide to their advantage. To compare it to military strategy, a person who is closed off to new knowledge has taken on a siege mentality.

Locked behind tall walls, perpetually warding off the waves of change pounding at the door. To discover how to be successful is to always be attacking, always be on move, looking for the next trends and embracing new knowledge. Yes, it takes more work, but the rewards are massive compared to the ignoramus who prefers to lock himself in his own ignorance and unwillingness to learn.

Aren’t Afraid to Set Goals. Goals and goal setting are the easiest and most effective tools available when it comes to learning how to be successful. No matter what your dreams and hopes are, efficient goal setting can help you get the personal success that you have always craved.

Ready to learn how to be successful?

How to Be Successful | 7 Proven Tips for Success is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Not sure where to start?

Goal setting is hands-down the most powerful way to achieve the dreams and aspirations you have for yourself and those you care about. The trick is in learning how to use this powerful tool to get that success and happiness you want so badly for yourself.

What are Short Term Goals?

There is no hard, specific rule on the time-frame for short term goals. They can last a few days, a few weeks, or a few months. Generally whether or not they are short is in reference to how long your long term goals are.

Why Make Short Term Goals?

Short term goals are excellent road-posts for your over-arching goals. They are usually the stepping stones to your big dreams, and as such take on a significant amount of importance.

The problem with our long term goals is that they are so far into the horizon that it is often impossible to see them at all. With distance comes an emotional detachment and more importantly a lack of urgency.

Short term goals can help remedy this by instilling a sense of immediacy, which in turn will propel you faster towards your big dreams.

For example, a common long term goal is financial independence. If phrased properly it would look a little something like this:

“I choose to be making $275k per year as a consultant within the next 5 years.”

Unfortunately this goal is a long ways off, and because it is so far off, easy to continually put off to the point that it never gets acted on. To combat this type of apathy, it is helpful to set short term goals (and medium term goals) to help get there.

Some typical short term goals that would help in the achievement of the over-arching goal could include:

“I choose to find a mentor within three months.”

“I choose to register my new business within two weeks.”

“I choose to have a website designed within a month.”

The short term goals described above are the “nitty-gritty” of the big, awesome goals you have.

Tips for Powerful Short Term Goals

Adopt the Concept of Imperfect Action. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start acting on your short term goals – such a moment does not exist! Instead, act right now, at this very moment with whatever you currently have at your disposal.

Understand the Ebbs and Flows of Motivation. Most people tend to set goals and come out with guns blazing. After a few days or weeks the fire begins to fade. Realize that it is impossible to maintain that type of fire over the long haul and be prepared for those initial thoughts of doubt.

I talk about more about how to maintain your motivation so that you continue to act towards your goals here.

Keep ‘em Specific. Just like your big dreams, your short term goals have to be specific. Give yourself as clear as a bulls-eye as you can so that there is absolutely no mistake in what you have to do. Making your short term goals vague and hazy (“I want to do better in school” or “I want to be thinner”) leaves them open to interpretation and gives yourself an easy way to get out of having to do accomplish them.

Reward Yourself. Isn’t this the whole point of setting and achieving short term goals? Make sure you have a reward system set up to congratulate yourself with when you carry out what you plan to achieve.

Write Out Your Short Term Goals. There are as many ways to do this as the day is long, but no matter what – write your short term goals down. Putting them down on paper makes them concret, makes ‘em real and far more likely to be carried out.

Monitor and Evaluate Your Short Term Goals Mercilessly. You should always be evaluating to see where you are doing well and where you aren’t. Doing so will mean that you spend more time on the things that work, and ditching the plans and strategies that do not. Always be searching for ways to be able to do more with less.

Ready to get your short term goals on track?

Short Term Goals Made Easy is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Today I am going to share with you some powerful and timeless motivation techniques that you can use today to turn that spark into a bonfire.

Building and maintaining motivation can be a daunting task for those looking to make big changes and accomplish big things. Not having enough motivation is a huge reason why most people will never toil amongst their dreams.

Yet harnessing the power of true motivation can guide us into those upper levels of achievement once we know how to do so.

Motivation comes in peaks and valleys. Some days you will be floating on clouds of energy and focus, other days you will feel yourself literally slugging through the motions, just trying to stay on track.

The key in getting over lapses in motivation is knowing that they are bound to happen. Period.

No matter what happens, how excellent our goals or goal plan, no matter how much purpose and drive we have, there will be points where motivation drips.

At the outset of our goals it is typical to get so blinded with enthusiasm and optimism that once this initial wave of supercharged enthusiasm crests and draws back, we begin to see holes in our plan that we might not have seen before. Idiosyncracies and weaknesses in your plans become much more apparent at this point.

I’ll give you a quick example to illustrate the experience.

Recently I embarked on a new project developing a series of custom made goal books for two Fortune 500 companies. At the outset, all I could think about was the endless potential and boundless benefits, and since I hadn’t really started the “work” part of carrying out the tasks involved, I wasn’t in tune with the difficulties and work involved. This initial surge in enthusiasm is beneficial and necessary because it kick started me into work.

Inevitably, however, this euphoria peaks and slides. Results don’t come in quickly enough, and I began to feel like perhaps this project didn’t have the possibility that it initially held. My confidence began to sag and doubt began to seep in. And soon enough, even the very thought of giving up began making periodic forays into my thoughts.

So what’s going on here?

WHY DO WE LOSE MOTIVATION?

Absence of Reward/Purpose. Motivation can be hard to come by when our goals do not inspire us sufficiently. This commonly occurs with goals that reward little in the way of incentive. Many managers make this mistake by not properly incentivizing employee goals. People hoping to lose weight look at the overall goal of losing a specific number of pounds instead of how they can make their weight loss jounrey bigger than themselves, thereby giving them a far deeper sense of drive.

Hazy Focus. Procrastination and apathy tumble into this category. When we are not embedded with a laser-like amount of focus, we begin to meander. We start looking for shortcuts or quick-fix solutions to our goals. And soon enough, that lack of focus has led us astray from our goals and sapped us of  motivation.

Unrealistic Goals. When we start out on the path towards our goals we are firing on all cylinders. We are so full of motivation and enthusiasm that we feel invincible. Inevitably, these emotions will pass. And when they do, those big lofty goals will start too look fat too lofty for our current emotional state. And once we view our goals as being unrealistic or near-impossible, then motivation plummets and our goals get shelved indefinently.

Alright, so now that we know why we lose it, what can you do to make sure that your motivation levels are peaking as often as possible?

11 MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES

11. DON’T WAIT FOR THE PERFECT MOMENT TO ACT. Particularly on days when you are not feeling up to your best, or your motivation levels are waning, avoid over-thinking and simply take action. It doesn’t have to be perfect, nor does it have to be timely. It is far more important to act. Take the first step of action, and the rest will begin to flow.

10. CONFRONT SELF-TALK HEAD-ON. The conversation we have in our brains, our thoughts and self-talk are what largely constitute how we feel. An action or event is merely that until we assign feeling to it. What are the feelings you ascribing to the events in your life? For example, if in the past you struggled with a goal, or suffered a setback, what were the resulting thoughts that went through your head? Was it something along the lines of:

“I knew it, I never would have achieved this goal.”

“I don’t deserve success, might as well give up.”

Or was your self-talk focused in the following manner:

“This is a hurdle to be overcome.”

“How will I make this the best thing to happen to me?”

“I refuse to give up. I will see this through.”

9. BE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS. Living perpetually within your comfort zone not only severely limits achievement, turns you stale with boredom, but it also inhibits motivation. The same can be said for people who set goals that are overly safe or achievable. If there isn’t a possibility of failure, the reward is undoubtedly unlikely to keep you motivated.

8. BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS. When was the last time that you learned something you didn’t know about? Or mastered a task, skill or ability that was previously foreign? Do you remember the ‘euerka’ moment that you figured it out? It’s a great feeling, you no doubt remember, and one that you can harness by continuously learning and broadening your skill set. Not only will your motivation and confidence levels swell, but the broadening of your horizons will also correspond to a greatly enlarged number of opportunity. Learning new skills makes it possible for you to apply these skills and abilities to your newfound benefit. Win-win.

7. PLAN YOUR MOTIVATION FOR THE LONG TERM. Each time I have emarked on a new plan or goal I find myself full of enthusiasm, so much so that it becomes impossible to maintain that brand of fiery motivation for much longer than a week or so. So how do we maintain a level of motivation to last us the long term? Restrain yourself. By doing so you will avoid burning yourself out before you have a chance to see the accomplishment of your goals.

6. BE WILLING TO CONFRONT THOSE BOUTS OF DOUBT. If your goal and goals are worthwhile and ambitious, there will times of strife. Undoubtedly during these trials you will be overcome with the sensation of quitting or giving it up. Be ready for these urges – they are natural and part of the ebb-and-flow of motivation. Your plans and motivation will rarely go perfectly, so it is best to understand this at the outset, for once those urges arise you will be more likely to give them less attention.

5. BUILD A POWERFUL SUPPORT SYSTEM. This could mean searching out a workout buddy. People with similar ambitions and values can help us stay the course over the long term. Surround yourself with positive influences who are vested in your success and you will find that your motivation will stay high.

Additionally, seeking out the services of a mentor or a coach can also be another powerful way to sustain motivation over the long term. Not only will you benefit from the experience and wisdom of someone who has been there before, but you are more likely to stay on track with your goals if you have a senior person of authority watching over you.

4. LIMIT DETRACTORS. We all like to think that we live outside the influence of people around us. But as mentioned above, having positive people around us can boost motivation and enthusiasm for our personal success. So can the same be true of people in our environment who are more interested in seeing us fail? Of course!

Detractors are all over the place. There will always be people that say we cannot do something, that we don’t deserve it, that we are incapable. They scoff when you bring up your goals, or they believe that since they were unable to achieve said goal that it is impossible for you to do so.

Sadly more often then not the detractors are some of the closest people in your life. They may excuse their negativity based on wanting to protect you from possible failure, but in reality their negativity is based on their own insecurities or envy. Be sure to identify your detractors and move swiftly to limit their influence.

3. HAVE A CLEAR PLAN. Paint yourself a clear a target as possible. It is hard to get motivated for goals that are vague, unclear or ambigous. Put up a crystal-clear bulls eye, so that you can direct every last of energy and motivation like a laser towards the accomplisments of your goals.

2. BE WILLING TO BE FLEXIBLE. Nothing saps motivation quite like unrealistic goals or expectations that are not met. The reasons that we don’t accomplish our goals can be varied, yet when we don’t strive to accomplish them the end effect is the same – our motivation and confidence tumbles. So how do we combat this?

First, it’s essential to build a plan for your goals that is flexible and open to change. If one thing doesn’t work, try something new. Over and over again until you find the magic combination that works. Imagine yourself as water – no matter what the obstacle or obstruction, you find a way under, around or over it!

1. MIX IT UP. Similar to the above point of being willing to be flexible, you should vary your plan of attack. This will do two important things:

1. It Will Keep You Interested and Your Mind Fresh. Keeping yourself stimulated with new techniques or approaches will not only broaden your horizons – as you will be required to learn – but the brain responds favorably to this type of stimulation and will keep you enthusiastic and brimming with motivation.
2. You Will Find Quickly Which Approaches Work Faster. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t will give you the opportunity to dial yourself in on the approaches that work, while also discarding the ones that didn’t.

Now that you know how to keep your motivation afire for the long haul, let me also show you how to set goals that will keep that motivation burning brightly with my FREE 5-Day Ultimate Goal Setting e-Course.

Motivation Unleashed | 11 Bullet-Proof Motivation Techniques is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Self-confidence is one of the leading indicators of success

But how do you achieve awesome levels of self-confidence?

For those who don’t have it seems like an almost mythical quality, something that is genetic or only available to a lucky few. Fortunately, this is not the case. Powerful, endless self-confidence is available for all of us to grasp.

In this quick and dirty self-confidence guide I am going to outline the root of low self-confidence, and also give you 12 other powerful tricks, techniques and tools that you can immediately implement to supercharge your self-confidence and start achieving all of your personal goals.

1. Be Honest About Your Shortcomings. Before you can start building powerful self-confidence, it’s essential to know what it is that is causing your insecurities to begin with. Having insecurities are part of being human – we all have them, we all suffer from them, and we all will have to live with them in some form or another. The key is in being able to identify and manage them. Write out 3-4 insecurities that you have. You might not be comfortable with having to be so forthright with yourself, but I promise you that taking the time to be honest about your insecurities will give pay huge dividends when it comes to building genuine self-confidence over the short and long term.

2. Correct Your Posture. Did you know that slumping over can dramatically impact the way you view yourself? Not only is sitting and standing up straight benefit you physically – and who wants to look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame? – but recent studies have proven that it also gives you significantly more confidence in yourself. A study done at Ohio State in 2009 found that students who were slumped over in their desks were far less optimistic when it come to how they would do as a future professional.

3. Take Pride in Your Appearance. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sure, this might have been a nice axiom on the playground, but this is the real world, where appearances count. How we present ourselves is often a reflection of how we feel about ourselves. Today are you going to dress sharply, or haphazardly get dressed and fall out the front door? Take that extra couple minutes to prim yourself a little bit so that you can begin by acting the part of brimming with self-confidence. Ever heard the expression “fake it till you make it”? Very applicable here!

4. Set and Follow Through With Your Goals. True self-confidence, the burning, powerful kind that will fill you with energy and determination comes from achievement. You don’t need to win a Nobel prize to get this feeling – you can start by making small and medium range goals. It could be as basic as losing 5 pounds, or saving $1,000. Write ‘em out, follow through with them, and you will get a powerful

5. Don’t Be Your Own Worst Enemy. Self-talk is something that gets left in the dark when people talk about personal development. For a moment think about the dialogue that you are having with yourself over the course of the day. Are you being unduly harsh on yourself? Much of the conversation that we have with ourselves is permeated with limiting and negative chatter. “I don’t deserve to be successful”, “I’ll never achieve my goals” and more are extremely common. First step is being aware of this dialogue. The second is to correct it. Don’t give yourself the chance to talk yourself out of being confident and successful.

6. Get Some Exercise. Regular exercise, done several times per week is scientifically proven to substantially improve mental health, and by extension, self-confidence. Not only does regular exercise help to demolish symptoms of anxiety and depression, but as an awesome side benefit you will also look better in the mirror. Whammy.

7. Remember that Perfection Is an Ideal – Not Reality. Self-confidence, and having that feeling oyou can take on the world, is unleashed when you aim for excellence and your personal best as opposed to a perfect ideal. Look, not all of us are going to be billionaires or have three percent body fat. But we can do the absolute best with what we have. Perfectionism is a marketing gimmick made by companies to get you to buy their crap. And remember – behind that “perfect” life or face there is a person with insecurities and self-confidence issues as well.

8. Describe the Last 5 Times You Nailed It. You’ve had successes in your life. I know you have. Write out a few of them and take a moment to reminisce about how awesome you – yes you! – are after all. Remember what it felt like to carry out those accomplishment, what the after-glow was like. Embrace it, and project it on your future endeavours.

9. Treat Yourself Well. This is your life. You are allowed to enjoy it, right? Right? Right! So treat yourself when you are having a bad day, when you are having a good day, when you deserve it and when you don’t.

10. Learn Something New. One of the best feelings in the world for me is figuring something out that was completely foreign to me at one point. If you want to take it one step further, master something new. The self-confidence you get from mastering something utterly is intoxicating.

11. Surround Yourself with Positive People. If we are a product of our environment, what are you? Are the people in your life bringing positivity and self-confidence to you, or are they showering you with bitterness, whining and negativity? Life is far too short to spend it in the company of those who would prefer to swim in misery and have you drown in it with them. Identify them, and distance yourself. Seek out those with similar goals, similar dreams who have positive outlooks. Energy – whether it is positive or negative — is contagious.

12. Accept Compliments. Avoid the desire to roll your eyes and mutter, “Sure, yeah right.” Accept them graciously, and take the moment to realize that someone else sees the good that you are capable of as well.

13. Focus On Achievements. Wanna know the best way to build self-confidence? The type of self-confidence that will power you through the ups-and-downs of your life? Develop a system of consistently setting and achieving goals that are challenging. Ultimate self-confidence stems from the manifestation of our plans. When we make a plan and follow through with it, the result reinforces all of the positive stuff that we like to think we are capable of: “I do deserve to achieve great things.” “I can do whatever I want when I set my mind to it.” And more.

So get to your goal setting and let’s get your self-confidence on track!

Self-Confidence | 13 Tips for Rock-Star Self-Confidence is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

Are you ready to take your personal goals to the next level?

Ready to finally live the life you have always wanted to live?

Like me, you have big, juicy personal goals that you are really passionate about. You think about them endlessly over the course of your day. You lay in bed at night and fantasize about what it is going to be like to achieve those awesome personal goals as you doze off.

Maybe you’ve had some small successes with personal goals, but now you want to take your personal goal setting to another level. Or perhaps you have had difficulty with personal goals and want to find out what the correct way to set personal goals — no matter if they are fitness goals, career goals, whatever — is.

BENEFITS OF PERSONAL GOALS SETTING

Personal goals setting can do a multitude of things for you, not limited to:

GIVES YOU FOCUS. You know that sensation of tunnel vision, when you are focused like a laser on something? During this phenomenon the outside world might as well not even exist. You zero in on exactly what matters to you most in that moment. Having personal goals can help you achieve this. When you achieve laser-like focus pointless distractions and activities fall to the side. Those hours that you spend on Facebook suddenly don’t seem that important, that show that you don’t even really care about suddenly starts collecting dust on your Netflix account. Instead, you devote your unwavering attention to the things that truly matter to you – your personal goals.

ENHANCED TIME MANAGEMENT. Out of this focus comes another remarkable benefit – your time suddenly becomes much more finite – and therefore you stop dilly-dallying on activities  that only serve to clutter up your day. You know those days when you run around performing errands, and then suddenly it’s dusk and you feel like you haven’t actually done anything? That’s a lame feeling, and something that gets put in check when you begin prioritizing your goals.

INSTILLS A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT. You know this feeling – that warm, fuzzy sense of doing good, of living up to your potential, of following up with your plans. There are few things in the world that feel better than seeing your dreams become reality.

GIVES YOU THE UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE OF KNOWING PRECISELY WHAT YOU WANT. How many times have you heard friends sigh and say, “I don’t really know” when it comes to their life? Probably a lot. Most people wander in life. You on the other hand, are steaming full-bore ahead, personal goals plan in hand.

ROCKSTAR CONFIDENCE. With the knowledge that you are working towards something special and that you truly want, you begin to develop a certain confident swagger. It’s a good feeling – and it only perpetuates itself the further along your journey, until before long you can’t remember not being this confident, strong person.

FORWARD MOTION. Surely you have experienced being a rut before. Perhaps you are in one now. Spinning your wheels is a crappy feeling. Having personal goals insures that you are continually moving forward. Much like a fanged out great white, you never stop moving, always on the prowl for your next set of personal goals.

GAINING CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE. This cannot be understated. Being adrift in life is a tremendously hopeless and helpless feeling. When you put together a plan to move forward, and you begin crushing those little personal goals one after the other, you suddenly find yourself behind the wheel of your life again.

SELF-MOULDING. It’s pretty cool to think that we are exactly what we want to be. We have the ability – with every moment granted to us – to make ourselves into whatever it is we want to be. Pretty sweet, right? Take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to make you the person you have always known you were capable of being.

QUICKER RESULTS. The whole point of setting personal goals is to achieve them, obviously. Putting the dreams you have for yourself down into workable, actionable goals makes you considerably more likely to achieve them. And isn’t that the whole point?

Alright, so now that we have talked about how utterly rad personal goal setting is, and what it can provide us in terms of tangible benefits, it’s time to actually set some!

Did you know that there is a very specific way to set your personal goals that will greatly increase the likelihood of you achieving them?

Or that most common goal setting methodologies out there are utterly inadequate? (Here’s a hint: SMART goals.)

Not only will you learn both of these with Ultimate Goal Setting, but I will also show you how to plan and execute your personal goals with some powerful tips and techniques you won’t find anywhere else.

Sign up for Ultimate Goal Setting and I will send you this 5-day e-Course for FREE. Booya!

Personal Goals Made Easy is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy

It’s “in style” as some would say. Others might call it the “bee’s knees.” Some might even call it “all that and a bag of chips.”

Phooey.

SMART goals are a fraud. A sham. A bunch of repetitive baloney.

Okay, let me back up for a minute here.

For the uninitiated, let me quickly clarify what SMART goals are. According to the collective wisdom of Wikipedia, SMART goal setting has been around since the early 1980’s, where it was first mentioned in Management Review by George T. Doran.

Since then it has infiltrated countless classrooms and company handbooks to the point that SMART goals has been the generally accepted form of goal setting, whether it’s personal goals, career goals or weight loss goals. There are various interpretations of what the acronym stands for, but the common definition is as pictured to the left.

If you are serious about achieving great things, extraordinary things, than you need to look beyond SMART goals.

While they provide a very basic introduction to goal setting, SMART goals fall far short of what it is going to achieve greatness.

4 REASONS WHY SMART GOALS STINK

1. SMART Goals Don’t Deal With the Biggest Problem Most People Have With Their Goals – Failure.

There is no mention of setbacks, roadblocks, distractions or outright failure when it comes to SMART goals. No indication that at some point, there will be struggles. Why is it necessary to talk about the “ugly side” of goal setting?

Because inevitably, no matter how well we plan our goals, no matter how well intentioned our goal plan is, no matter how hard we try, life will find a way to throw a smelly monkey wrench into the midst of our plans.

And for most people, this is enough of a reason to throw their entire goal plan straight out the window. Which is a complete and utter shame.

Goals that are intelligent (see what I did there? They aren’t SMART, they’re intelligent!) require an advanced knowledge and acceptance of the fact that there will be failures on the road to our success. Most people set goals according to the SMART principles and whammy, think they have bullet-proof goals.

2. SMART Goals Don’t Push You Beyond Your Comfort Zone.

Achieving easy goals is no fun. There is no internal reward for accomplishing goals such as “wake up” or “eat food.” You get a serious case of the warm and fuzzies from blasting away goals that are challenging and difficult.

Many people when setting goals according to the SMART goals principles will do so cautiously. In other words, they are actually impeding their own development and limiting their capability to achieve awesome stuff by playing it too safe.

Ever heard of positive stress? It’s that little adrenaline rush you get when you are put in a challenging situation in which you believe that you can handle. It’s studying your butt off for that exam, working hard at the gym, or taking on a difficult project in the workplace. Life without this type of pressure is indeed a boring one. It’s essential to push beyond “attainable.”

3. SMART Goals Don’t Talk About Purpose.

Perhaps you have sensed it before. That overwhelming sense of drive and purpose when your goals (and achieving them) not only greatly benefits yourself, but also greatly benefits those around you. When our goals are about more than just ourselves, about giving back or inspiring others, then our goals become significantly more powerful.

Achieving your personal goals will greatly benefit yourself. This is a given. But to give yourself that extra little kick in the butt make your goals even bigger than yourself. How can we do this?

Start by looking at the ways your goals will benefit the people around you. Will achieving your goals provide a tangible benefit for your loved ones or the community? (I talk about this extensively in Ultimate Goal Setting. It’s a FREE 5-Day e-Course that I email straight to your inbox. Sign up on the right.)

4. SMART Goals Don’t Talk About How We Feel About Our Goals.

A massive indication of whether we accomplish our goals or not lies in how we feel about our goals. Huh?

Let me explain…

Close your eyes and visualize your goal. Where you are when you achieve it. What it smells like. Note who is there. The elation that you feel when you achieve it. Feels pretty good, right?

According to a neat little study done by LeadershipIQ, this is the dominant factor in whether or not you are going to achieve your goals. Simply picturing how awesome you are going to feel when you achieve it. Crazy, right?

But it makes sense, when we think about it. If the goal is going to make us feel great, then that means it gives us purpose, and gives us the opportunity to grow and become better by challenging ourselves to overcome setbacks.

Boom.

Ready to go beyond SMART Goals Setting?

SMART GOALS | Why SMART Goals Setting Doesn’t Work is a post from: Your Goal Setting | Powerful Goal Setting Made Easy