Mindset

Setting Goals: Making Behavior-Based Goals Work For You

Nearly everyone knows about the importance of setting goals to achieve anything in their lives, but how many actually do it?

The problem is that we hear it so often that we tend to take it for granted and don’t really realise their effectiveness.

There are many different types of goals that you can use; SMART goals, DUMB goals and behavior based goals to name a few.

In this particular post we are going to focus on behavior based goals.

The easiest way to demonstrate the incredible effectiveness of behavior-based goals work when used in tandem with outcome-based goals is to give you a short narrative of someone utilizing both.

To that end, let’s say we have a man named Dan who owns his own business and wants to secure three or four new clients each month in order to increase his business revenue.

Up until recently, Dan has relied heavily on word-of-mouth for advertising, and he’s done okay. In order to step it up a notch, he realizes he’ll have to do things he’s not very comfortable doing – things like attending networking events and cold-calling on businesses. Doing things that he’s not used to doing will call into play his self-discipline.

Dan is also aware that he is going to need to do these things repeatedly and consistently in order to secure the new business that will grow his business. For Dan, the fear of keeping his business at the same level, year after year, is more painful than stretching his skills to do the things he needs to do to secure that business growth.

In this situation, business growth is the quantifiable outcome-based goal. Increasing self-discipline and consistency are two of Dan’s behavior-based goals.

The outcome-based goal is the end-all-be-all goal. It’s the prize possession, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

But the habit-changing behavior-based goals are what will ensure Dan gets to the end of this particular rainbow (and beyond).

By strengthening his own self-discipline practice and learning to do things over and over again in a more consistent manner, he can accomplish things like attending networking events and giving out handshakes and business cards.

He’ll be able to sit down at his phone, and cold call businesses who likely need his services, and set up meetings with decision makers.

By combining the outcome-based goal with a few behavior-based goals, Dan has a much greater chance of actually achieving all of these. In turn, he will have developed his positive habits and skill sets, and that will serve him not only for this particular goal but in many different areas of his life, for many different goals.

Hopefully, this short narrative will have shown you the beauty of combining these two valuable ‘goal-setting and achieving’ techniques. Utilizing them both, your chances of success are much greater than using one of them alone.

Another way to increase the effectiveness of any goal setting strategy is to add rewards along the way.

Rewards will motivate you to keep going when you reach a particularly tough obstacle (and this will happen, guaranteed, and it also helps you to actually enjoy the journey to reaching your goal which so many people miss.

By the way, if you want to know more about enjoying the journey then check out Enjoy The Journey. It is a premium training that will show you how to embrace the process and enjoy life’s journey when working towards a goal. Check it out here.

So let’s take a closer look at how you can pair rewards and behavior based goals to dramatically increase your chances of success.

Rewards And Behavior-Based Goals

Even when you are focusing on behavior-based goals, you want to start out by creating a goal that is more of a “big picture” – the end-of-the-rainbow scenario. One creative way to do this is to visualize what it is you want or need to come up with a picture that represents to you the outcome.

Practice bringing up this picture in your mind and get all of your senses involved. What types of sensory effects does this picture create for you? The more you can involve your entire brain in the process, the more realistic the big-picture goal will be.

When you’ve solidified your end goal, turn your attention to what types of actions you’ll need to take in order to secure that goal in your future.

What kinds of skills and habits will you need to form, or build, and of these, which seem inherently more difficult to you, being the unique person that you are?

One of the scientifically proven ways to increase your success in achieving your goals is by giving yourself small rewards along the way. With regard to behavior-based goals, this might mean setting a goal where you practice a new habit for seven days, and if you succeed in that, you give yourself a small reward.

This process is much more realistic than simply setting a goal and expecting to motivate yourself through the time, energy, and work that it will take to achieve that goal. You are much more apt to keep your momentum if you know that, periodically, you’ll reward yourself for a job well done.

Rewarding yourself often will work in your favor, and will help you keep up the ambition and drive to reach the end goal, as well as keep up the positive habit changes while you’re getting there.

Sometimes half the fun of goal-setting is not only visualizing the end goal but thinking of creative ways to give yourself rewards along the way. Some people enjoy monetary rewards, and others might be more motivated by taking some time just for themselves in a favorite quiet place. One person might want a night out on the town, while another might reward themselves with learning a new skill. To each their own but utilizing a reward system while continuing to develop behavior-based goals can work in all areas of one’s life, whether it is business, relationships, health, or personal development!

And having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to staying disciplined and motivated to achieve your goals, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 🙂

Create Habits To Keep You Motivated

It should come as no surprise that the habits we form will determine our success or failure. After all, habits already dictate a lot about our lives. If we, for example, eat large amounts of food regularly and don’t exercise, we can expect to have physical consequences for our actions.

That’s why it’s so important to form good habits so that we can reach our fullest potential.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that these same good habits can help us to stay motivated when it comes to realizing our goals.

Let’s look at some examples of habits that you can create for yourself that also boost motivation:

1. Take Care Of Yourself

If you’ve ever been sick then you know it’s impossible to be productive, or even to have a positive attitude when you’re not feeling good. That’s why it’s so important to take charge of your health.

Carrying extra weight not only drags you down but affects energy levels which in turn affects productivity.

Setting up some healthy habits such as going to the gym more often, or making changes in your meal plan then will help you to stay motivated longer just because you’re feeling better when your body is in sync.

Your improved health makes this a win-win all the way around.

2. Revisit The Reason You’re Doing What You Do

When you make goals, you tend to feel that initial surge of enthusiasm for the project.

Sadly, this motivation tends to wane over time. Build a habit that forces you to revisit the goal to bring that motivation level back up.

For example, if you’re doing something that will benefit a specific group of people somehow, then plan to spend time each month with that group to remind yourself of why you’re doing this.

3. Be Proactive

Getting the jump on things is a habit that not only keeps your boss happy but also gives you a rush of dopamine to the brain.

Build habits of being early or do things that help you to think ahead.

For example, make lists that keep you not only on task but ahead of the game.

4. Focus On The Small Stuff

If you’re dealing with a big goal, such as some serious weight loss, it’s easy to lose your motivation when it feels like you’re not making progress.

Having small goals gives you milestones to celebrate and builds motivation back.

These kinds of goals come from small changes, like planning to eat a little differently (cutting carbs for example), or in taking the stairs instead of using the elevator.

5. Surround Yourself With People Who Motivate You

That is an easy habit for you to build, in that it involves choosing a little more carefully what company you keep.

Building a habit of meeting with this group on a regular basis not only keeps you motivated but has the added benefit of cementing relationships with those around you.

Building good habits is an awesome way to stay on track to reach your goals.

The best part? As with any habit, if you do it enough, you’ll wind up acting without thinking, making motivation an automatic part of your life. How cool is that?

As you are probably already aware, creating habits takes discipline so lets look at how you can develop the self-discipline needed to create habits in the first place.

Discipline in Bite Sized Steps

One of the ways that people struggle with developing self-discipline, is trying to make too many changes at once. Not just by doing more than one goal at a time, but by making those goals way too large.

Either of these approaches tend to lead to failure.

An example of too many goals at once might be someone choosing to quit smoking, go on a diet, exercise regularly, build a successful business, and get out of debt.

All of these are good goals that can be done. If you try to do them all at once, though, you will probably find it to be too much and quit. This is one of the reasons why resolutions rarely work out. Instead, focus on one or two of these for at least 1 to 2 months and make them consistently a new habit first, before tackling new goals.

For example, take quitting smoking, you might start with that one since it has the most negative impact both on health and finances.

So you might start with just quitting smoking. You could spend a couple of months getting rid of the cigarettes and using aids like the nicotine patch to help. Then once you have completely quit smoking and no longer need the patch, you can move on to the next goal or goals on your list.

You may find changing your diet and exercising more to be really overwhelming goals because they are huge ones. So, another tactic to help you with discipline is to break them down into smaller goals. Instead of just quitting overeating, maybe you break it down into this week you cut your soda intake in half, then week two you cut it out completely.

If you do this week by week making one SMALL change, you may find it easier to stay in control.

Another way you can break it down is by intensity. So say you want to exercise more, but you have not exercised in years. If you start with something like a full workout, you may give up or get injured and then be unable to exercise at all.

So instead of going full tilt, you can start by doing mini workouts at a lower intensity for a few days, and over time add more minutes to your workout until you reach at least 20 to 30 minutes of activity. You can also over time increase the intensity of your workout as you get stronger and in better shape.

By breaking down the goals into bite-sized steps, you can make it easier to develop the discipline you need to accomplish them. You will also improve the chances of success in changing your habits.

And having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to staying disciplined and motivated to achieve success, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 🙂

Using Vision To Guide Your Success

Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Shakespeare, and Leonardo da Vinci; what do all these people have in common?

The first thought that comes to mind is that they are “greats”. They are great leaders, great inventors, and great artists. They are not greats because they are famous. It is their greatness that has brought them fane.

The list of names that humanity considers great is endless. But what exactly makes a person great? What secrets or special qualities does that person possess that others do not? Is it true that some people are just born to do great things?

The truth is, there is no mysterious code or magic recipe for greatness. Nor does destiny choose some people to become great and overlook others.

Every human being has the potential to become great.

You don’t necessarily have to change the world if you don’t feel that that is your calling. You don’t have to carve your name in history books. However, you can achieve greatness in your own niche by learning from people who have left their unique mark on humanity.

We all want to be great at something. None of us willingly chooses to be mediocre. The longing for greatness is an innate need within each one of us.

The big misconception is that we don’t think we were born for greatness. We think that greatness is a quality that a very few unique people are blessed with. We look at people like Oprah Winfrey or Mark Zuckerberg with awe and envy and wonder, “What’s their secret?”

The secret is a simple set of qualities that you can learn to develop. These qualities interact and fuse together, enabling you to create your own personal greatness in whatever you choose to do.

It doesn’t have to be something world-changing, but it will be life-changing for you. You may want to be a great parent, a great spouse, or great in your career. You may want to become a great advocate for a cause that you are passionate about. And if you want to reach higher and change the world – by all means, go for it!

Whatever measure of greatness you want to achieve, these “secrets” of greatness will help you fulfill your personal calling.

In this post you will learn about one of the most important of these “secrets” and that is your vision. By the way, there are seven “secrets” in total and if you want to learn the rest then you can download them in a free report here.

Vision

Steve Jobs had a vision when he started building computers in his garage. His vision was a computer in every home, making technology easily accessible to all people.

Martin Luther King had a vision when he was still an obscure pastor. His vision was a word of equal opportunity without discrimination or racial barriers.

Both men turned their respective visions into a reality that revolutionized the world.

The first step in your journey to greatness starts with having a vision. What is your life goal? What is it that you are most passionate to achieve? What is the legacy you would like to leave behind you? Have you ever really sat down and thought about it?

Vision Versus Goals

The first thing you need to do is to distinguish between your vision and your goals. Think of your vision as the destination that you want to arrive at. Goals are the “stations” along the way that slowly but surely bring you closer to your vision.

Having a clear vision is your foundation. It allows you to decide on the steps you need to take to achieve it, to plan structure and to gear your life towards reaching the destination.

Once you have identified your vision, you will start to set the short- term and long-term goals that you need to achieve.

For example, if your vision is to become a pediatrician, your first long-term goal would be to finish medical school. Short term goals would be to study and pass exams. The next long-term goal would be an internship, with short term goals being to learn all the practical skills you need.

The culmination of all these goals will fulfill your vision, which is a successful practice where you can help and heal sick children.

Now that you know the difference between a vision and a goal, take some time to sit down and think it through. Write down your vision and the goals you need to make to get you there.

Set a target date for achieving each goal. Goals can be daily, weekly, monthly and yearly or all four.

The Three Elements Of Vision

Purpose. A compelling vision is one that has a purpose. It’s knowing why you were put in this world and what you need to do to leave it a better place. Without a strong purpose, you will lose your motivation.
Seeing the bigger picture. This means envisioning –closing your eyes and seeing what your future will look like when you have reached your ultimate life goal. Picture what your life will look like in 10 or 15 years when you are running a successful and reputable business. Visualize the great service or product you are offering your customers that adds so much value to their lives. Bask in the feeling that this picture gives you. Do this as often to keep your purpose string.
Values. A good vision is one based on good ethics and values rather than greed, self-indulgence or empty fame. Good values should be your guiding principle in daily life as you move towards achieving your vision. Reaching the top unethically is not the quality of great people

Use Your Vision As A Tool

Great people have a unique way of making their visions a reality. They use them as a tool to motivate and propel them. This can be done by regularly picturing the result to always keep it top of mind.

The bottom line: Great people can see the future. They can articulate their vision in descriptive and specific terms. They can visualize the result with clarity. This crystal-clear articulation and positive self-talk keep the vision alive. It enables you to set relevant goals and harness your determination and resolve to attain them.

Don’t forget that if you want to read an expanded report that contains 6 other “secrets” you can download that here

And having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to staying focused and motivated to achieve greatness, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 🙂

5 Ways To Stay Motivated

Losing motivation? It happens to the best of us. But there are tricks to staying motivated, many of which involve taking a hard look at your goals.

With a little preparation and solid planning, there’s no reason why you can’t stay motivated all the way through whatever project you’ve set out for yourself.

How? Well, let’s take a look…

1. Start With The Big Picture

What is it you’re trying to accomplish? Having an idea of the eventual goal will help you to stay on track.

The clearer the vision, the more likely you are to keep going, even when times get tough. Ask yourself what it is you’re trying to achieve – and then picture yourself achieving it.

The visualization step is the most important one here. We tend to perform in the way we expect to. So if we expect to fail, we do. By seeing success, you’re more likely to attain success.

2. Make Sure This Is YOUR Goal

Now that you’ve gotten the big picture make sure this is YOUR goal. At first glance that statement seems ridiculous – why would you make a goal that isn’t your own?

This answer can be found most easily in asking WHY you want to accomplish what you are. If the word “should” comes up, then chances are you might want to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

We often set goals because we feel like they’re something we’re supposed to do, and not because they’re something we want to do. You’re less likely to stay motivated when you’re on the path of ‘should.’

3. Break Tasks Down To Make Them Manageable

Next, you’ll want to break those tasks down into something manageable.

Now that you have a goal and are sure it’s something you want to do, you might feel a little overwhelmed about how you’re going to accomplish that goal.

By breaking it up into smaller pieces, you regain the feeling that you’re doing something possible.

Like a pro tip? Celebrate the small successes then as you go. That will help keep the motivation levels high.

4. Get Organized

If you’re still a little overwhelmed, get organized.

It might be that you don’t feel prepared to work on this project because you lack the research or supplies.

Figure out what you need, and then go about making sure you have the proper tools to get the job done.

It’s easier to stay motivated when you have what you need to succeed.

5. Remember Your Why

If all else fails, remember why you set the goal in the first place. It could be you only need a little reminder of your previous motivation to find the fresh motivation to keep going.

Motivation isn’t something you have to lose as you work on a project. You can keep your motivation levels high with a little forethought and planning.

By keeping on track with your goals, you’ll find that motivation will likewise keep on track, guiding you all the way through the job at hand until completion.

And this is why routine is so good for you and helps to keep you motivated so let’s look at the power of routines next…

Why Routine Is Good for You

You’ll hear people refer to routine as being dull or boring. It implies that life is the same from one day to the next.

However, routines are a great way to get your work done. It’s also a great means for teams to work together towards a common goal.

When everyone has an understanding of what needs to get done, i.e., what routines each team member needs to perform, projects tend to run smoother.

We also have routines in our society. In some ways, laws can be considered routines. You know that you aren’t supposed to run a red light and that can be thought of as a routine.

When you come to a red light, you stop as best as you can. There may be instances when you accidentally go through one here or there. But, most people will stop for red lights. And this is good to reduce accidents.

You set up routines for your kids in the form of chores. You know that certain tasks need to get done each week. Many parents tie kids’ allowances on these chores.

When the kids finish their chores, they receive their allowances. It teaches the kids a work ethic. They need to perform tasks, and when they complete those tasks, they receive money for them.

When you pay bills, you tend to have a routine for this. Some people like to get everything sorted on one day and pay all the bills on that day. Others will pay them whenever they receive them. Others, still, will set up their payments to be paid automatically by their bank or brokerage.

There isn’t a right answer for how to do this. Whatever works for you is the right answer. However, the method you choose will be routine.

Contrast this to people who don’t have routines to manage their lives. They tend to handle tasks when the mood strikes them. These people are usually late with their bills and have messy environments.

Some of these people will say that this way of life works for them. However, for most people this is chaos. It’s something that can easily be avoided by setting up routines for the tasks you need to complete.

Of course, people are not robots. Hence, they do break up their routines on occasion. You may use weekends to do activities that you don’t get to do during the work week. Also, many families use vacations to help break up their routines.

So, use these tips to stay motivated and use the power of routines to keep you on track too. Hopefully you will be surprised by the results.

Having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to staying focused and motivated, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 🙂

A Proven Way To Boost Creativity And Focus

You might be a creative who wants to find more ways to up your productivity and your focus. But if you’re like most creatives, focus might not be your strength. You’re not alone in thinking that way.

Most creatives don’t think in concrete, specific terms when it comes to business things. That’s because the business side feels removed from the creative side. So what you need to do is tap into the creative side to boost the business side.

There is a proven way that you can boost your creativity to get more accomplished and be able to reach your goals. You have to get specific with your thoughts. Sort of having an idea of what you want, or need isn’t going to work.

It’s only when something is specific that you can identify it and work on accomplishing it.

Once you’ve narrowed down what it is you’re after, add a time constraint. For example, if money is what you need, you wouldn’t spend time saying, “Think about where or how I can get more money.”

Instead, you’d say, “What are 5 business models I can put into effect within 10 minutes?” This helps you to develop concrete ways to help take your creativity to the next level.

By having a specific goal with your thoughts, you’ll come up with ideas to improve whatever it is that you need.

This step of coming up with ideas within a certain time limit keeps you from wasting time, but it also works for creatives because they don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking of the business side, which can drain creativity.

The ideas that you come up with by adding time constraints can also be put into play faster than if you were vague and spent hours or days trying to come up with a solution.

With your business, you’ll need to learn the best way to market it.

You might have gone back and forth trying to come up with ways that you could do this, but you weren’t able to pin anything down.

Rather than spending a lot of effort thinking about this step, you could say that you were going to make a list of the pros and cons of a certain kind of advertising within 15 minutes.

By giving yourself that time limit, you turn it into a game and this can produce quicker results and give you ideas for solutions.

Plus, when you’re specific about what you want and you introduce that time limit, it boosts your creativity because your focus is intentional rather than running in different directions. It does this because it’s easier for the mind to focus for shorter periods of time versus thinking that you have several hours or days to come up with something.

OK so you can see how specificity can help you to become laser focused and thus boost your creativity.

So, let’s flip it and look at the reverse and take a look at something that can be detrimental to your creativity and focus and it seems so simple and innocuous that you may feel that it won’t make a difference.

However, just bear with me and give it a go and see what difference it makes for you.

The simple idea to try is to only use your workspace for work and nothing else. Make sense? Well, let’s dive a little deeper…

Don’t Use Your Work Space For Other Things

There’s a reason that the IRS says if you have a home office it should be used solely for that purpose and nothing else. It’s because using a home office for multiple purposes can lead to a crossover between professional and personal use.

If you have a workspace, you should be working. Mixing up the space can happen anywhere that you’ve set aside to work. It happens when you let boundaries slide.

But it really is best just to use it for the intended purpose and not for any other reason that people commonly choose to do.

For example, some people choose to eat at their desk or whatever their workspace is. This is a bad idea – not just for health reasons, but it’s also bad for productive purposes. You get less done physically and mentally.

When you mix work with eating or any other habit, it blurs the lines between what’s work and what isn’t. You can easily make the mistake of setting yourself up to think that it’s okay to work and it’s okay to not work when you’re in your space.

At your desk, your purpose should be to focus and to be productive to work on whatever task or project is before you. But when you choose to eat or to do something else instead, it steals that focus and productivity.

This happens because the brain is straddling two functions when you do that. You need to have boundaries between personal tasks and professional ones. Otherwise, your brain remains in the work mode and doesn’t relax and get a break from the work.

This can lead to overwhelm, which in turn can lead to brain fog. On the other hand, if you’re constantly using the space for other things in addition to work, the brain won’t want to get into work mode.

It’s important to establish what your workspace is for and what it’s not for. Your space isn’t supposed to be a spot to hang out and watch TV. It’s not meant to be the area where you play with your pets or your kids.

It’s not supposed to be the place where you play games or wonder what you’re going to have to eat for dinner. When you treat your workspace like any other space, you lose the benefit of conditioning the mind to fall into the habit of work recognition.

You can establish the work habit to create a routine in the mind. As soon as you sit down in your chair, your brain automatically kicks into thinking, “It’s time to work now,” but if you use the space for other purposes, it won’t do that for you. Save the relaxing activities and tasks not related to work for other spaces. You’ll get more done.

Having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to nurturing creativity and staying focused, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 🙂