Setting Goals That Work

By Traci Vincent | Published February 21, 2011

smart goal setting conceptWe all know people who love to set big outrageous goals and many of us may have even voiced goal statements such as, “I want to make $100,000/year and only work 20 hours a week.”  That’s fine to be think big and be creative like that, but the hard part comes with implementing such a plan.  Setting a goal is necessary, but it’s definitely not enough.  We must know how to implement our goals.

First, most people are not specific enough when setting goals.  I have heard people say, “I want more customers” or “I want to lose weight” or “I want to pay off my debt”.  This type of goal setting is not really concrete or measurable.  To make these goals attainable, you must ask yourself questions like, “How many customers to I want to have?” “What should my body mass index be for my height?” or “What debt do I need to pay off first?” By making your goals specific, you create a guide to follow or a roadmap, so to speak.

Next, if you don’t set specific goals, there is less urgency to reach these goals.  Rather quickly, you will find yourself making the “first exception” time and time again and losing consistency to reach the desired goal.  By setting goals with timelines, you have something to work towards each day and avoid being thrown off track by statements like “I’m too tired to exercise” or “I want to go out with friends” or other self-sabotaging statements.  Without well-defined goals, it becomes easy for you to just do what most people do and that is, to just give up.  Without the guide or map, we will lose direction, veer off path and probably crash.

We’ve talked about the basic components for short term goals, but let’s not forget about long-term goals either.  This is where our dreams and aspirations reside.  We must put action steps together that will link our short term and long term goals together. For example, let’s say you wanted to earn $2000/month in residual income but over time this grew into a $10,000/month income. Would your dream be to quit your day job? Travel more? Build a custom home? Start another business?  It’s up to you to decide the destination of your goals.

Defined goals give us feedback to know if we are staying on track.  If we discover that we are not, we are able to make the necessary changes in the short-term that will allow us to be successful in reaching our long-term goals.

  • What are your short-term goals?
  • What is your time frame or time budget to accomplish this?
  • What are your long-term goals?
  • Link all these together.  Working with the example from above….You might have the goal to make $2000 residual income, working 15 hours a week within 6 months from today.  You will continue to grow this model until you are able to cover living expenses, pay off debt, then finally quit your day job and travel to South America for one month.

Take the time to write down your goals.  Putting them on paper will be a great motivator and put you in the right frame of mind to move forward each day.

Traci Vincent

Facebook
Posted in Goal Setting | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

The “IF Chronicles Part 3

By angelogeonie | Published February 21, 2011

If1

This is the Third of my IF chronicles, IF is a poem by Rudyard Kipling and it asks us very penetrating questions toward our self fortitude, so I will share my insight line by line, hope you enjoy it.

If

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, ?Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, ?Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, ?And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

These amazing lines are full of wisdom. The first line speaks of patience and being able to wait and to not consider waiting something that needs to be endured. What is patience, patience is accepting the current moment for what it is, without having to change it. That is a difficult one for most of us, for we have a compulsive urge to have things the way we want it, this is usually a knee jerk response, that we have been conditioned too. But with awareness we can change anything we have been previously conditioned too. Now the next part of that line speaks of not being tired of waiting. This is a little more advanced process, for in the beginning we act patient even when our mind is not, but with time, patience becomes our nature, so there is nothing to endure or wait through. Now these next two lines teach us not to respond to what is sent our way, we are not children going back and forth with name calling or angry words, we are adults and anyone who is reading this I expect is on a path of personal growth and discovery. If you find yourself still having your buttons pushed, then is it time for some deep deep contemplation of your values. It is similar to looking deeply into a mirror and liking or disliking what we truly see. The last line is about humility, in my Buddhist practice we speak of remaining natural with changing our aspirations. What this means is it is all about inner development not outward appearance, and what we do and how we change inside should only show up in our wise kind actions, not with outward pride or appearance, but with outward calmness and peace or whatever fits your own constitution. I hope this is helpful to all who read this. Until the next time my humble thanks

Angelo Geonie has spent more than a decade studying and integrating the metaphysical principles that enhance and transform the quality of our physical, mental, emotional, and energetic life, and combining the practices with the science of the 21st century quantum physics to produce one of the most transformational technologies. Angelo coaches others to integrate these into their personal rituals for life-long change. Visit Angelo’s spiritual Blogs post at http://acgeonie.com/

Facebook

Posted in Positive Thinking | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The outer world serves as a mirror to our inner Reality

By angelogeonie | Published February 21, 2011

thumbnail

As within so without, that is a timeless saying, and it is extremely deep and profound, revealing deep metaphysical principles. The world that appears before our eyes, is only a reflection of our internal thoughts. I am sure you remember being at a wonderful event and maybe feeling just sad and lonely, maybe your mind was just dwelling on some past event.  Again we can be at some place such as work where most of the people are having a bad day, and you come in full of joy and happiness, you probably experienced this situation just as ease and flow, and then maybe the next day those situations where a difficult, what changed, just your mind. So is it always the situation, no it is our mind and how we perceive events. And yes some situations can stimulate a feeling of happiness or sadness, but what is being stimulated. The only thing that is ever being stimulated our mind. But once we start to shine the light of awareness on what we are thinking and how we are experiencing our world, we have taken conscious control over our reality. For the only thing we truly have control over is our mind, outward control is an illusion, so work on the one and only thing you can influence and this is that beautiful mind. Water it with good thoughts and powerful positive messages. Just as JB speaks about in his podcast, fifteen minutes of positive personal development each day in the form of reading, listening or meditation. This sets the stage of our mind for a great performance. So off I go to prepare the stage of my mind for its next great performance.

Angelo Geonie has spent more than a decade studying and integrating the metaphysical principles that enhance and transform the quality of our physical, mental, emotional, and energetic life, and combining the practices with the science of the 21st century quantum physics to produce one of the most transformational technologies. Angelo coaches others to integrate these into their personal rituals for life-long change. Visit Angelo’s spiritual Blogs post at http://acgeonie.com/

Facebook

Posted in Spirituality | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Circles of Life

By Paul Bond | Published February 18, 2011

Many people these days have the idea that they “need” someone else to complete them. I take great exception to this concept. I don’t think you “need” anyone else to “complete” you or make you whole. Allow me to explain

EAch of us is a whole person in and unto ourselves. We don’t need another’s brain to think of someone else’s lung to breathe for us. We are all born with the power of individual thought and have the ability to make decisions for ourselves. And while they may not be the one’s society would have us make, we can still choose to make them. Even those who are born without the ability to walk, speak, hear, or some other physical limitation have the ability to do anything they choose. I hazard to even use the term “limitation” since there are many documented instances of people who had/have “birth defects” who have gone on to be great leaders and inspirations to us all!

One way to look at this is visually. If you think of a circle with ourselves at the center, you will begin to “see” what I mean. Use this graphic to better understand what I’m talking about.

circles

This is not to mean you are the center of the known universe.

You can however, see how each consecutive circle doesn’t “complete” the former one, but adds to it. In this way, others around us don’t complete us, they simply add to our experience of life

Some may ask where God fits into all of this. That’s easy! He is at the very center of you! The Bible tells us we are all made in the Image of Him and therefore, we co-exist with Him. This is an important point to remember also. For if this is how you believe, how could you possible think God would need anyone or any thing for that matter to make HIm complete? He is all and is everywhere. Hi is omnipotent and all powerful. There is nothing he longs for except to see each of us reach our full potential and lead happy and fulfilling lives!

It is with this in mind that I say none of us “needs” anyone else to make us complete. We are complete in and of ourselves for we are one with God! Call it the Universal Energy if you like, or any other term you choose. But it all comes down to the same thing. If we be still and listen to the words between the noise around us (those that are in the silence), we will find that we are not alone. There is someone or something with us at all times….helping us, urging us forward, cheering us on to do well and succeed. If we only listen!

Just as circles have no beginning and no end and are complete unto themselves, so too are we. We have everything we need to succeed within ourselves. All we have to do is tap in to it and listen to that little voice in the background. Some will find it easy to hear, and others will struggle at first. But eventually, we can all hear it if we choose to listen for it. The next step is to believe in what it is saying to us and trust in both ourselves and it. If you do this, you will never feel incomplete or in need of someone else to make you whole.

8DFS0002_smPaul Bond is a Registered Nurse and award winning Nurse Educator who produces a twice monthly podcast called Emergency Nursing Today. His company, Paul Bond & Associates Consulting, offers courses and coaching on such topics as positive thought, reaching your potential and improving your life experience. He also offers courses for continuing education credit for health professionals through PhoenixCE. The podcast can be found on iTunes, and PhoenixCE offers  “podcast extras” for more in-depth coverage of the podcast material.

Paul is also the President of the Morning Coach advisory board and currently pursuing his coaching certification through Morning Coach.

Follow Paul on his journey and learn more by visiting his website at http://www.paulbond.com. If you enjoyed this post, or have a comment about it, he would enjoy hearing from you! You can email him at paul@paulbond.com

Follow Paul online:

FacebookTwitter

Posted in Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Without a Net

By angelogeonie | Published February 18, 2011

Trapeze Connection

Life without a net, that can be a scary thought. We seek safety stability and consistency, our whole life is usually about making our world predictable. But does this really serve us, for the most growth or wonder that come from when we step outside the comfort zone.

It is hard sometimes to take a leap of faith in life, we were raised mostly by parents who with our best interest at heart, taught us to play it safe, always calling out BE CARE FULL ,GET DOWN YOU ARE CLIMBING TO HIGH. So we learn to play it safe and only take very small chances in our lives, and I believe most people think that is what we are meant to do, find safety. Well I have realized that going outside our comfort zone, or as the wise Buddhist Nun Pema Chorden used in the title of her beautiful book Comfortable with Uncertainty, is the place where we find out what we are made of and where are abilities are stretched to their limits. We start to make fear are friend and welcome the rush of energy that comes with embracing it, we feel fully engaged in life’s essence.

Don’t get me wrong I am not about being careless or reckless, I believe wisdom should always be employed in our actions, but without stretching ourselves in body mind and spirit, we become stale and rigid, in other words we become old. We are meant to live fully until our last breath, our body might be failing but we can still stretch and leap with our minds. So off I go into the wild wild blue yonder without a net, looking to soar a little more and in different ways each day.

Angelo Geonie has spent more than a decade studying and integrating the metaphysical principles that enhance and transform the quality of our physical, mental, emotional, and energetic life, and combining the practices with the science of the 21st century quantum physics to produce one of the most transformational technologies. Angelo coaches others to integrate these into their personal rituals for life-long change. Visit Angelo’s spiritual Blogs post at http://acgeonie.com/

Facebook

Posted in Personal Development | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments