"TIPs & QUIPs" Archive

Subject: Lifescope TIPs & QUIPs [14] "Principles of Goal Setting"

Many experts have many different 'takes' on what's involved in this vital
skill of goal setting. This week we continue our extended exploration of
the topic. 

TIPs & QUIPs, the free occasional email of helpful hints and quotes (and
sometimes challenging suggestions) for getting the most from life.

In this issue:
     *** WiseWords
     *** This Issue's Theme
     *** Suggested Resources
     *** Thrive On! Recommended Site


*** WiseWords ***
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"Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch Life from 
 the sidelines. For those who play the game, an hour may be 
 a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity."
  --Gabriel Heatter

"Great minds have purposes, others have wishes."
  --Washington Irving

"Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, 
 but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them."
  --Carl Schurz


(For a collection of some of our favorite WiseWords, see our web page at
<http://www.lifescope.com/pages/WiseWords.html>.)


*** This issue's theme:  PRINCIPLES OF GOAL SETTING
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Continuing our extended exploration of the vital skill of goal setting,
this week we cover some of the guiding principles related to the topic.
To promote better learning, we are approaching the subject from several
different angles. Some of these may resonate more with you than others. You
may be a free thinker/feeler who likes to ponder the amorphousness of a
subject, or you might like to attain specific results by working a
step-by-step how-to guide. Or perhaps you respond well to each at different
times, reminding us again of the benefit of balance.

This week, we hear again from an author who's given this topic
considerable thought: Brian Tracy. The following is from his book/tape
"Maximum Achievement," excerpted with permission.


Goal setting can be a powerful, life-changing experience, if you do it
properly. There are five basic principles of goal setting that are
essential for maximum achievement.

* Congruency
The first is the principle of congruency. For you to perform at your best,
your goals and your values must fit together like a hand in a glove. Your
values represent your deepest convictions about what is right and wrong,
what is good and bad, and what is important and meaningful to you. High
performance and high self-esteem only happen when your goals and your
values are in complete harmony with each other.

* Area of Excellence
The second principle of goal setting is your area of excellence. Each
person has the capacity to be excellent at something, and perhaps several
things. You can achieve your full potential only by finding your area of
excellence and then by throwing your whole heart into developing your
talents in that area.

You will never be happy or satisfied until you find your heart's desire and
commit your life to it. It is the one thing that you are uniquely capable
of doing in an excellent fashion. It is your job to identify it, if you
haven't already.

Your area of excellence may change as your career evolves, but all truly
successful men and women are those who have found it. And your area of
excellence is invariably doing what you most enjoy and doing it well.

* Use What You Have
The third principle of goal setting is the acres of diamonds concept. Acres
of Diamonds was the title of a talk by a minister named Russell Conwell.
The talk became so popular that he was eventually asked to give it more
than five thousand times, word for word.

     In the story, an old African farmer became very excited one day upon
     hearing from a traveling merchant of men who had gone off into Africa,
     discovered diamond mines and become fabulously wealthy. He decided to
     sell off his farm, organize a caravan, and head into the vast interior
     of Africa to find diamonds so he could crown his life with fabulous
     wealth.
     
     For many years, he searched the vast African continent for diamonds.
     Eventually, he ran out of money and was abandoned by everyone.
     Finally, alone, in a fit of despair, he threw himself into the ocean
     and drowned.
     
     Meanwhile, back on the farm that he had sold, the new farmer was out
     watering a donkey one day in a stream that cut across the farm. He
     found a strange stone that threw off light in a remarkable way. He
     took it into the house and thought no more of it. Some months later
     the same merchant, traveling on business, stopped for the night at the
     farm. When he saw the stone, he grew very excited and asked if the old
     farmer had finally returned. No, he was told, the old farmer had never
     been seen again, but why was he so excited?
     
     The merchant picked up the stone and said, "This is a diamond of great
     price and value." The new farmer was skeptical, but the merchant
     insisted that he show him where he had found the diamond. They went
     out on the farm to where the farmer had been watering the donkey, and
     as they looked around, they found another diamond, and another, and
     another. It turned out that the whole farm was covered with acres of
     diamonds. The old farmer had gone off into Africa seeking for diamonds
     without ever looking under his own feet.

The moral to this story was that the old farmer did not realize that
diamonds do not look like diamonds in their rough form. They simply look
like rocks to the uneducated eye. A diamond must be cut, faceted, polished
and set before it looks like the kind of diamond that you see in the
jewelry stores.

Likewise, your acres of diamonds probably lie right under your own feet.
But they are usually disguised as hard work. "Opportunities come dressed in
work clothes."

Your acres of diamonds probably lie in your own talents, your interests,
your education, your background and experience, your industry, your city,
your contacts. Your acres of diamonds probably lie right under your own
feet if you will take the time to recognize them and then go to work on them.

Remember the words I quoted earlier from Theodore Roosevelt who said, "Do
what you can, with what you have, right where you are." You don't need to
move across the country or to make a major upheaval in your life. In most
cases, what you are looking for is right at your fingertips. But it doesn't
look like an opportunity on the surface. In many cases, your great
opportunity will simply look like hard, hard work.

* Balance
The fourth principle for success in goal setting is the principle of
balance. The principle of balance states that you need a variety of goals
in the six critical areas of life in order to perform at your best. Just as
a wheel on an automobile must be balanced for it to go around smoothly, you
must have your goals in balance for your life to go smoothly.

You need family and personal goals. You need physical and health goals. You
need mental and intellectual goals, and goals for study and personal
development. You need career and work goals. You need financial and
material goals. Finally, you need spiritual goals, goals aimed at inner
development and spiritual enlightenment.

To maintain proper balance, you need two or three goals in each area, a
total of twelve to eighteen goals in all. This kind of balance will enable
you to be constantly working on something important to you. When you're not
working on your job, you can be pursuing family goals. When you are not
working on physical fitness, you can be working on personal and
professional development. When you are not practicing meditation,
contemplation and other inner development work, you can be working on your
material goals. Your objective is to make your life one continuous stream
of progress and achievement.

* Prime Purpose
The fifth principle of goal setting is the determination of your major
purpose in life. Your major purpose is your number-one goal, the goal that
is more important to you than the accomplishment of any other single goal
or objective at this time. You may have a variety of goals but you can only
have one major central purpose. The failure of a person to choose an
overarching, dominating major goal is the primary reason for diffusion of
effort, wasting of time and the inability to make progress.

The way you choose your overarching goal is by analyzing all your goals and
asking, "Which goal, if I accomplish it, would do the most to help me
achieve all my other goals?"

Usually, this is a financial or business goal, but sometimes it can be a
health or relationship goal instead. The selection of your central purpose
is the starting point of all great success and achievement. This goal
becomes your "mission," the organizing principle for all your other
activities. Your major purpose becomes the catalyst that activates the Laws
of Belief, Attraction and Correspondence. When you are excited about
achieving a clear major goal, you start to move forward rapidly in spite of
all obstacles and limitations. All the forces of the mental universe begin
to work on your behalf. You become an irresistible force of nature. You
become virtually unstoppable.


*** Suggested Resources ***
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum Achievement
"A wake-up call to the wonders within us all," this terrific new title by
Brian Tracy, author of the best-selling Psychology of Achievement, will
help you boost your performance in all areas of life. In a fast-moving
series of steps, you'll learn this system of concepts and methods which
Tracy has distilled over the last twenty-five years and has brought
together for the first time here. A veritable encyclopedia of success
skills and strategies, you'll find yourself referring to it often.

     (softcover book, 352pp) Item# E1279-BK
          SRP$12.00  (see link for special price)
Buy this item online now at Lifescope.com or Amazon.com.
Your satisfaction is assured with our RISK-FREE Guarantee!

     (2 audiotapes, 2 hrs) Item# E1279-AT
          SRP$16.00  (see link for special price)
Buy this item online now at Lifescope.com or Amazon.com.
Your satisfaction is assured with our RISK-FREE Guarantee!

     (hardcover book, 353pp)  Item# E1279-BH
          SRP$22.00  (see link for special price)
Buy this item online now at Lifescope.com or Amazon.com.
Your satisfaction is assured with our RISK-FREE Guarantee!

A Goal Is a Dream With a Deadline
As a teacher, Leo Helzel dedicated his life to showing others, especially
young people, how to make their dreams of success come true, as many of his
have. One of the best ways to help people achieve their goals, he
discovered, was with brevity and humor. So he gathered the hundreds of
aphorisms in this book to benefit others yearning to succeed in business.
These pithy sayings from Leo and his friends - who include the CEOs of the
Gap, Bank of America, and Williams-Sonoma - capture the wisdom and know-how
of successful entrepreneurship. Often homey, always savvy, these sayings
and hundreds like them form the heart of Leo Helzel and friends' message.
Reaching beyond the fast-paced entrepreneurial life, they have something to
say to the heart of every person who dreams of success.
     (hardcover book, 176pp) Item# C3303-BK
          SRP$12.95  (see link for special price)
Buy this item online now at Lifescope.com or Amazon.com.
Your satisfaction is assured with our RISK-FREE Guarantee!


*** Thrive On! Recommended Site ***
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional and Personal Coaches Association (PPCA) 
<http://www.ppca.com/who.html>
It's natural for us to seek specialists to help us in areas we desire to
develop. A trend which continues to gain momentum, is the process of
seeking assistance in guiding our own lives. Just as substantive new ideas
start as 'fringe' and progressively become respected, Coaching is maturing
to professional status.

Coaching is an ongoing relationship which focuses on the clients taking
action toward the realization of their visions, goals, or desires. Coaching
uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client's
level of awareness and responsibility, and provides the client with
structure, support, and feedback. The PPCA is an association which promotes
the professionalism of this endeavor. Although this site isn't intended for
consumers, it's a good place to learn a bit about the direction coaching is
headed -- especially if you are an individual committed to your own
personal growth.


DISCLAIMER
The contents herein are solely the opinions of Lifescope editors, and should 
not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of 
validity or accuracy. Lifescope therefore assumes no responsibility for injury
and specifically disclaims any warranty, express or implied, of fitness or 
merchantability for a particular purpose. Besides, actual mileage may vary.

Copyright © 1998-2007 by Lifescope Inc. 
Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this newsletter 
only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged.

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