There’s more to life than work, work, work!

Week three of the New Year is upon us. Are you still firing on all cylinders, focusing on achieving those big goals in business this year?

I know my energy is high as I put in the hours towards achieving some big business goals in 2016.
Even though I’m really excited, work in itself is not enough for me. As the old proverb goes: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. That’s code for we get bored and we also become boring!

I don’t know about you, but I ain’t having a life like that!

So the big question is then, “what’s all the hard work for?”

I’m sure we all have a different response to that question. But I hope the essence is the same…. ‘to have a better or different lifestyle’.

But do you know what that lifestyle ‘looks like’? Do you have a vision for the way your future could be or will be?

If that vision isn’t in place, then you’ve got nothing to aim for.

David (my husband) and I have a VERY clear vision on where our life together is heading. So, when we’re toiling away at our work, making a few sacrifices in the meantime, pushing through the challenging times, we still see the ‘big picture’ and feel that we’re getting closer to achieving it.

Exciting stuff!

But what about interim goals? Aren’t they important too?

Absolutely! When I reviewed my 2015 year, I realised that I hadn’t focused on achieving personal goals – things that would give the year that real ‘feel good factor’. 2015 felt like a lot of work and very little ‘play’ for me. Grrrr!!

2016 will be different.

I’ve now set some personal goals that will give me a thrill to work on and achieve over the next 12 months. I can’t wait to tick ‘em off throughout the year.

For me, it’s important to set personal goals around seven key areas, being:

Wellbeing (my personal health and fitness goals)
Achievement (my big BRAZEN personal goals that will take effort and focus to achieve)
Growth (my own personal development)
Experiences (the key things I want to do with my family)
Relationships (key people in my life and deepening our relationships)
Spirituality (nurturing my soul)
Legacy (memories I create in the lives of others)

In each of those areas, I’ve set very clear and accountable personal goals. I know what I want to achieve and by when. Bring it on!

So how about you? What are your personal goals? Not the goals that are linked to business plan.

What are the goals that nurture you as a human being?

The goals that make the hard work worthwhile?

The goals that make your heart sing and give more meaning and purpose to your life?

Here are my Experiences goals for 2016.

In July 2016, to take a helicopter ride over London with David, Gemma and Alex (our kids), Nicola (my PA), and my dad who will be visiting from New Zealand (this goal is a secret – thankfully my family don’t read my blogs :)).
To have a three week holiday in New Zealand and Australia (Melbourne and Perth) in August 2016 with David and Gemma.
While in New Zealand in August, to visit Queenstown (in the South Island) and to do a Bungy Jump (slightly mad perhaps, but I’ve always wanted to do it).

Your turn now. How about taking some time for yourself and thinking about what you’d like to achieve in the seven key areas I’ve mentioned?

Finally, to inspire me daily towards the achievement of my goals, I’ve typed them up and put them in a photo frame that sits on my desk in my office. Every day I stop and take a few minutes to visualise myself reflecting back on 2016 in December, having had a year filled with love, joy, the achievement of my personal goals….and much more.

My year will be enriched. My year will be extraordinary!

May your year be enriched with life, love and achievement outside work. May your year be extraordinary too.

ACTION: In the comments below, how about letting me know of ONE key personal goal you’ve set for yourself this year? Perhaps your goal will inspire others with theirs.

Would some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to make an appointment. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

Goal Setting Tips #3

Salutation to the Dawn

Look to this day.
For it is life, and the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The slender of beauty.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And tomorrow, a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

By Kālidāsa – a classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. Approx 5th century AD.

To support you with goal setting tips, I have created the BRAZEN Goals System™. If you would like to know more about how to set goals that are BRAZEN, meaning Bold, Ranked, Accountable, Zealous, Expedient and Nurturing, then please click here to receive my FREE BRAZEN Goals System™ and BRAZEN Goal Action™ template.

Could some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to book a meeting. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

Other articles on Goal Setting:

Successful Goal Setting Tips
Goal Setting Tips #1
Goal Setting Tips #2

Goal Setting Tips #2

Recently, I was reading through some very old motivational files I had, and I found this article, which I thought was a great read and motivation for goal setting, so I have reproduced it as Goal Setting Tips #2. Enjoy. Ax

The Best Advice I Ever Had

by Arthur Gordon

A simple, ten-word sentence has the power to transform your life.

Once when I faced a decision that involved considerable risk, I went to a friend much older and wiser than myself. “I’d go ahead,” I said unhappily, “if I were sure I could swing it. But…”

He looked at me for a moment, then scribbled 10 words on a piece of paper. That single sentence contained the best advice I’ve ever had: Be bold – and mighty forces will come to your aid.

The words my friend had written were, I discovered later a quotation from The Conquest of Fear by Basil King. They made me see clearly that when I had fallen short in the past, it was seldom because I had tried and failed. It was usually because I had let fear of failure stop me from trying at all. Fear is the most paralysing of all emotions. It can stiffen the muscles and stupefy the mind and the will.

On the other hand, whenever I had plunged into deep water, impelled by a flash of courage or just plain pushed by the rude hand of circumstance, I had always been able to swim until I got my feet on the ground again.

Be bold – that is no exhortation to be reckless or foolhardy. Boldness means a deliberate decision, from time to time, to bite off more than you are sure you can chew. And there is nothing mysterious about the mighty forces referred to. They are the latent powers that all of us possess: energy, skill, sound judgment, creative ideas – yes, even physical strength and endurance in far greater measure than most of us realise.

In other words, boldness can create a state of emergency to which the organism responds. I once heard a famous mountaineer say that occasionally a climber will get himself into a position where he can’t back down; he can only go up. He added that sometimes he put himself into such a spot on purpose. “When there’s nowhere to go but up,” he said, “you jolly well go up!”

The same principle works just as surely in something as commonplace as accepting the chairmanship of a civic committee or seeking a more responsible job. In either case, you know you’ll have to deliver – or else. And, unless you’re hopefully unqualified, you will deliver. Your pride, competitive instinct and sense of obligation will see to it that you do.

Admittedly, those particular mighty forces are spiritual ones. But they are more important than physical ones. While it was a hurtling pebble’s centrifugal force that killed Goliath, courage enabled David to face the Philistine giant in the first place.

It’s curious how spiritual forces often have their counterparts in the physical world. A fellow student of mine was a star footballer, noted particularly for his fierce tackling even though he weighed much less than the average player. “It goes back to something I discovered when I was a timid youngster,” he said. “In one game I suddenly found myself confronting the opposing fullback, who had nothing but me between him and our goal line. He looked absolutely gigantic! I was so frightened that I closed my eyes and went for him like a panicky bullet – and stopped him cold. Right there I learned that the harder you tackle a big player, the less likely you are to be hurt. The reason is simple: momentum equals weight times velocity.”

This trait – a willingness to extend yourself to the utmost – is not one that can be acquired overnight. But it can be taught to children and developed in adults. Confidence is a cumulative thing. Sure, there will be setbacks and disappointments in any program of expanded living; boldness in itself is no guarantee of success. But the person who tried to do something and fails is a lot better off than the person who tries to do nothing and succeeds.

Bold self-confidence and decisiveness often mark leaders in the business world. The most successful executive I have ever worked for made almost instantaneous decisions. “At least,” he used to say wryly, “I make my mistakes quickly.” On one occasion someone asked this man if he didn’t believe in the adage, “Look before you leap.”

“No,” he said cheerfully. “The trouble with that axiom is if you look too long, or too often, you never leap at all.”

Some people claim that our preoccupation with security is weakening our willingness to take chances. Initiative, they say, is the instinctive response to the lack of material comfort.

I disagree; people, I believe, will always seek new and more challenging worlds to conquer. When I was a boy, a man visited our class and was invited to say a few words. I don’t remember who he was, but I have never forgotten what he said: “Love life. Be grateful for it always. And show your gratitude by not shying away from its challenges. Always try to live a little bit beyond your capacities – and you’ll find your capacities are greater than you ever dreamed.”

Condensed from Guideposts (October 1985) by Guideposts Associates Inc. Carmel, N.Y.

I have created the BRAZEN Goals System™. If you would like to know more about how to set goals that are BRAZEN, meaning Bold, Ranked, Accountable, Zealous, Expedient and Nurturing, then please click here to receive my FREE BRAZEN Goals System™ and BRAZEN Goal Action™ template.

Other articles on Goal Setting:

Successful Goal Setting Tips
Goal Setting Tips #1
Goal Setting Tips #3

Goal Setting Tips #1

I am constantly on the lookout for goal setting tips. Are you? Here is a poem I discovered about goal setting. It was written by Peter J Daniels, a well known Australian entrepreneur and life coach.

Goals

If you are uncertain, timid or vague,
If you are not sure which is the way,

If you are concerned what the future will bring,
If you are dissatisfied with any old thing.

If you are fearful of what tomorrow may be,
If you are willing to forever be free.

Then you need to take hold of our life from this day,
And you must plan a far better way.

It’s goals that you need to straighten you out,
To smooth out the paths and to get you about.

For goals set a sight that is clear and is bright,
And goals give you purpose to strive and to fight.

Your life is of value and the world is your home,
So stop now and think of where you should roam.

Just make a new start, to win and to claim,
A fresh firm new goal with a definite aim.

Then chase after your goal with a desperate desire,
With passion and excellence, as if you were on fire.

Do not be timid or reluctant or slow,
Just move into top gear and let all systems go.

Copyright – Peter J Daniels, Australia
I have created the BRAZEN Goals System™. If you would like to know more about how to set goals that are BRAZEN, meaning Bold, Ranked, Accountable, Zealous, Expedient and Nurturing, then please click here to receive my FREE BRAZEN Goals System™ and BRAZEN Goal Action™ template.

Other articles on Goal Setting:

Successful Goal Setting Tips
Goal Setting Tips #2
Goal Setting Tips #3