Goal Setting: 8 Steps to Build a Successful Life
The promise of the future is an awesome force. We look back for experience, but we must look forward for inspiration. Inspiration gives us the motivation to get up in the morning, do our job, learn new skills, and develop into all that we can possibly become. This promise can be so powerful that it overwhelms any adversity or difficulty you might face.
Develop an Appetite and a Zeal
The reasons that make the difference are your appetite and zeal for taking on challenges, doing the job, and becoming successful. You can overcome the most unbelievable challenges if you have enough reasons.
There’s an ancient phrase: “If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life, you will save it.” It means that if you invest your life, that is the best way to save it and multiply it many times over.
Investing life into life has the potential to create miracles. Investing life into life creates a new baby, but investing life into life with ideas, information, association, and influence can create an enterprise, a corporation, a business, a movement, or something that benefits many more people.
You Never Know Who’s in the Audience
You never know who’s out there that will make an impact on the world or do extraordinary things. Always be sincere and always do your best, no matter who you talk to, because you just don’t know who is there, ready to change your life. Do not be rude or arrogant to anyone, regardless of their social status.
Each day is a day designed to help you encounter someone who can change the course of your life. Opportunities are given, and it is up to you what you do with them. No matter the idea, someone will have to give you the opportunity to bring it into the world.
Whatever we create is not always entirely new to the world. Many people across the world may have the same idea. What makes us distinct is that someone gave us the opportunity to bring our idea to the world.
Millions of books are published every year, yet only a few make headlines. Thousands are rejected by literary agents and never see the light of day.
It Takes More Than One Voice to Help Us See
It takes more than one voice to help us think, make decisions, and evaluate. It takes a variety of personalities, messages, points of view, and the weight of experience to become who we want to become. When wisdom comes from several sources, it becomes incredibly valuable when you combine it all.
Once you discover your goals, gather books from diverse authors, listen to sermons, and build your life around them. Surround yourself with people who are moving in the same direction as you. Learn from hundreds of them.
If you want to become a gospel preacher, decide which portion of the Bible you will focus on. If it is love, gather Scriptures on love and build your life around them. Buy books on love and listen to sermons about love. Become the best you can be in understanding the love of God, the love of mankind, and every expression of love.
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Make a List of Goals
When I met a businessman named Earl Shoaff, not long after we had met, he asked me, “Mr. Rohn, maybe here’s one of the best ways I can help you. Let me see your current list of goals, and let’s go over them together.”
He said, “I’ve got the experience, and I can help you.”
I replied, “I don’t have a list.”
He said, “Well, if you don’t have a list of your goals, then I can guess your bank balance within a few hundred dollars,” and he did.
I thought, “You mean if I had a list of goals, it would change my bank balance?”
He replied, “Drastically.”
That got my attention. All those years ago, I learned how to set goals and write them down.
Study the Environment
We’re primarily affected by our environment—the political environment, the social environment, and the physical environment. Whatever surrounds us affects us: the city, the country, the countryside, the village, the office, and the people around us. Our reactions and decisions constantly shape us.
Much of our development depends on our environment, especially the physical environment. We all need to pay attention to it and make every contribution we can. After all, this is one small planet.
Remember those first pictures from space? Looking back at Earth, it looked so fragile. It looked so small. We thought, “Wow, so many people live there. How can that be?”
We must take care of our planet, and we must start right now. It’s the only planet we have. Let us do everything we can to preserve it.
My mother taught me those little things. “Rohn, pick up those papers. Don’t leave your trash on the street.”
I used to think, “These little things?”
I remember one time I got a toothpick at a café. I removed the little cellophane wrapper and simply dropped it on the floor.
Mother said, “No, no. You wouldn’t do that at home.”
I replied, “What?”
She said, “Just put it in your pocket, and when you get home, throw it in the trash.”
Someone might ask, “Well, what difference does that make?”
The difference is the habit, and the habit makes the difference—primarily for you.
Make Little Contributions to the Planet
Start by making small contributions, such as not leaving trash behind. It gives you an incredible feeling of self-worth because you are developing good habits.
The habit of turning off the lights when you leave your hotel room is a small contribution. But what if everybody did it? Energy consumption would decrease.
You might say, “Well, the hotel gets the benefit.”
It doesn’t matter who gets the benefit. The greatest benefit is becoming a person with exceptional habits. Habits not only improve your performance and skills but also make you feel good about yourself.
If it is so easy to do, why not do all the easy things that make a contribution? Who knows what the total impact could be if we all did it?
Even if everybody doesn’t, if you do it and I do it, we become better human beings. We feel better about ourselves. If I know you do it, I feel better about you. And if you know I do it, you feel better about me.
What’s Got You Turned On and Turned Off?
Make a list of what turns you on. It could be getting up early in the morning, staying up late, or maximizing your abilities all day long. List everything that energizes and excites you.
Then ask yourself, what’s got you turned off? Why don’t you have the zest, vitality, and appetite for daily accomplishment?
Start by making a list of the things that turn you off. Once you’ve identified them, make another list of what turns you on now and what will turn you on in the future.
As you develop this lifestyle, your life will never be the same again. This is a personal revolution that can make a 180-degree turn in your destiny.
It’s easy to become lazy throughout the day or the year when thinking about the future and what you want to accomplish. Don’t simply cross your fingers and hope everything will work out or that favorable winds will blow your way. It is not going to happen. You must intentionally create the future you desire.
Why Are Those Four Goals Important to You?
When the “why” gets stronger, the “how” gets easier. When your “why” becomes big, powerful, and compelling, the “how” suddenly seems much easier. Without a strong enough “why,” the “how” often feels too difficult to accomplish.
So, how do you manage your time? If you had strong and powerful enough goals, you would figure out how to manage your time. You would get a book on the subject. You would learn the necessary skills. You would do whatever it takes to manage your time if the goal was worth it.
Believe that you can do anything. You can get up in the middle of the night to read your book, take any class, make any change, develop any skill, or practice any discipline. When your “why” starts to grow, the “how” becomes simple.
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Read also Goal Setting: 6 Steps to a Successful Life
Inspired by Jim Rhon’s Message
