"No Hands" by Adam Hawkins http://anodizeproductions.com

Should you set big fat hairy audacious goals or stick to the reasonable, more easily achieved variety?

Many interviews with highly successful people reveal that they set themselves huge goals, fired by a burning desire to achieve something specific and that these goals determine their direction and purpose in life and colour all their decisions and actions.

They also freely admit that when they set these goals it’s usually without any clear idea of how to achieve them.

 

What they do have however,  is an unwavering belief that they CAN.

What happens is that when a goal excites you enough, you start to live every day in a way that makes it possible to achieve it and obstacles don’t seem so daunting. Setting reasonable goals rarely leads to that sense of excitement so there isn’t the same incentive to overcome obstacles and the goals  just becomes another “so what?”

All great achievements begin with an idea, a want, a longing, a desire.

While she was still Posh Spice, Victoria Adams said she wanted to be “more famous than Persil”. As Mrs Victoria Beckham she got her desire but many of our wants and longings never get past the wishing and dreaming stage.

If you’ve ever had your dream laughed at, if you’ve been told to ‘get real’, keep your feet on the floor, your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone (ouch!) you’ve probably let go of that dream and it may now be just a vague longing.

How would you feel if you re-ignited that flame? What’s stopping you from blowing on the coals of your burning desire and setting off on an adventure of achievement?

My guess is, that interfering with your thinking, your determination and your belief is a very small word called FEAR.  It may be fear of failure, fear of success or simply a series of “what if’s?”

Fear is a tricky emotion. Most of the people who have achieved big fat hairy audacious goals say that the magnitude of what they were trying to achieve scared them – but they did it anyway.

If you knew that you could not possibly fail, what would you attempt?

I’ve been verbed! At a recent meeting, a delegate told the gahering that he’d been
“Anned” (thank goodnes my name isn’t Roger ).  Becoming
a  verb isn’t something I set out to do but I’m not
complaining!

If the first action in achieving success is deciding what you want (your  major definite purpose and all consuming goal) and creating a plan to get it, this also involves ‘starting with the end in mind’.

Victoria Beckham famously said that she wanted to be “more famous than Persil” and she got her desire. Lots of people have become more famous than Persil but that was a side product of what they really wanted.

If you can’t decide on your major definite purpose or all consuming goal then starting with the end in mind may help.

Do you believe you can get what you want? If not, what are the thoughts that are holding you back? The first step to working on a lack of self belief or self confidence is to acknowledge that you have them. The good news is that self-confidence really can be learned and built on. All other things being equal, self-confidence is often the single ingredient that distinguishes a successful person from someone less successful.

Action Plans:
1. Decide on your definite major purpose or all consuming goal. What is the end result going to be?

2. Write down your goal and read it aloud twice a day. Imagine that you have already achieved it.

3. Do you believe you can get what you want? If not, find out what is stopping you and work on it.