Know what you want to succeed

 In a study conducted in the Yale University in the 1950s, they asked the graduating students if they had a goal written down with a specific plan to achieve the same. Only 3 percent had such written goals. In the seventies the researchers interviewed the surviving members of the group. To their astonishment, the three percent with written goals were then worth more (in financial terms) than the entire other 97 percent combined! It was also found that these 3 percent people were happier enjoying more peace of mind and joy in comparison to the others.

Those who did not have specific goals before their minds must have had been in a fog of confusion. They went one way and then tried another and later a third and so on. They took up a job and then retreated and went for a totally different one. They were not focused.  They dissipated their energy here and there without steadily climbing up in any profession or job.

Only when the mind has a defined target it can focus and direct all its energies until the intended goal is reached. Without a defined goal its resources are dissipated and squandered.  A key part of this is to know what you want in life, what you want in 5 years or ten years from now. This is a must to enable your mind to move you in a particular direction.  The chances that you win or lose in life very much depend upon your ability to decide what you want and imprint the same in your conscious and subconscious  minds. Spend an hour or so now to make a map of the road you want to travel in your life. Decide what you want in crystal clear terms and figure out how you will get them-now.    

How to achieve a goal?

A new year is on  and may  be you want to set a goal and achieve the same. First of all let the goal be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to your situation, realistic and time-bound.  Set your practical goal well beyond what you think you can accomplish.  Write it down in the present tense and the reasons for wanting it.   Writing reinforces thoughts and gives more power to your intentions. Write down too how you would be feeling after achieving it. Also bring to your mind all the past achievements including even your  small wins.  Do list down all your personal strengths that will help you in achieving it.  Decide to analyze your past mistakes and learn from them. Record your goal in an index card and review them twice each day: once just before sleeping and once just after waking up. Once you have set the goal, think about what you can do to accomplish your goal and stay focused on track.   Suppose you want to become the GM of your corporation, list down all your plus points that will propel you to that position. From now to the time limit you have set to achieve the target, note down what you want to achieve at each interval of time.

We all set goals and start in right earnest. But the procrastinator in us fails us.  Hence work towards your goal each day; ask yourself, ‘what can I do today to get one step, however small, closer to achieving my goal?’ Do not lose focus and believe in yourself regardless of how others think. If there are different ways to reach your goal note them down too. ‘I will save 5000 bucks each month’ to buy a million dollar house after 10 years or ‘I will reduce my weight by a Kg a month’ to shed off 10 kg in an year.  Fix deadlines for each step and do not give scope for procrastinating. Close your eyes and visualize your goals as already achieved. Do this often.  No one can tell you exactly what you should do to achieve your goal, but you can seek guidance from those who have done already what you want to do. Learn from the experience of others and incorporate useful hints. Seek help from other people, books, audio, or video programs.  As you go along, believe always that you will achieve what you want and if you stop believing you will certainly fail in your attempts. You need to monitor your journeys with benchmarks or milestones. If you have not reached where you planned to reach, hasten your steps, bring in additional work, time and resources to catch up.  

As you move forward, be careful about your internal communication. Remember whatever you say inside affects you physically, emotionally and mentally. Is your past, limiting beliefs and perceptions a real stumbling block along the way? Start a new positive internal dialogue. Recall all your wins however small they may be and fill your mind with the same. Unless you are passionate about your goal, you will slowly run out of fuel and stop dead on your way. Recharge your batteries and refill fuel tanks with renewed decisions and vigor. Evaluate your journey so far and make the required changes and contingency plans to meet emergencies and setbacks. Let your eyes and ears be open for new opportunities and options that come up along your way. Sometimes they may, unintentionally, lead you to where you want to go.

Some steps may seem less exciting than others but make sure to keep going until the end!  Always stay in a good mood when you pursue your goals; it is  proven goals get finished 2 to 20 times faster when you're in a good or great mood. Imagine your goal getting finished 20 times faster! How easy it will be to focus on a good mood! Things don't always work out as you had planned. Stick to your goals, but be flexible. Often, something will work itself out in a different way than you expected, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Don't share your goals with people who might wear you down.

When you're trying to reach a new personal or a professional goal it often means changing what you've been doing so far in your life. And it's so easy to slip back into your old ways - often without being aware of it. Suddenly you realize that you've forgotten all about the goals you set.  No one can achieve them for you without continuous action on your part. You are the only person responsible for achieving them. Make small successes on your way.  Success breeds success - but if you're not careful, perceived failure breeds further perceived failure. Dr Maxwell Maltz was the first person to explain how your self image controls your ability to achieve any goal you set. Keep motivated as you work towards achieving your goal and manage your time well. In general, you will not do anything that will not progress you towards the desired goal. You can find time management tips and vital motivational tools  from self help books, and articles. Good luck!

The Road Map to Success

When I was a young poor boy, I used to dream about becoming somebody. But I did not know where to reach nor how to go about it.  There was some amber that burnt inside compelling me to go forward: I had to be somebody in my life at any cost. When I was 15, I had completed grade X and it was time to join a college for further studies. But my people could not even afford me a square meal, let alone send me for higher studies. I was working too to meet the bare necessities of life.    

Everything seemed so dark. It was then the diocesan priests admitted me into their seminary as an aspirant for priesthood. I did not care much for religion or God but there was no other way to keep myself afloat. But as soon as I was there, I started devouring English like a hungry destitute eats food. Later, the proficiency in English and the good accent I had developed opened avenues I had not dreamt of.  

I could not follow my innate interests (which I realized much later): speaking, writing (both fiction and non-fiction). And instead  I leant construction engineering (I am in a way grateful to it as this fetches me a good income even now) even though I was better cut out for the other things mentioned. If there was someone to guide me at an younger age to focus all my attention on what I enjoyed doing, perhaps I could have done much better later as an author and speaker. Now I know we succeed when we devote all our time and all our resources on one particular line. Dabbling in so many unrelated subjects will make us a jack of all trades and we will not be able to excel in any one of them.

From self help books and from the lives of a number of highly successful people, I have learnt a big lesson: success comes after relentless efforts and concentration on a single target. Lucky are those who land up in pursuing what they enjoy from an early age. To succeed at anything we need a few essentials: 1.  A clearly defined profession and goal (not vague, not unclear) which will be in harmony with your innate aptitudes and talents. Let your profession and goals harmonize with your inner you. Listen to the still voice, the inner guide within. Let your inner instincts and the reservoir of intuition guide you in your choices. As a rule, by the time you are in your early twenties you will know what work or profession you enjoy, what harmonizes with your inner you.  Chose a profession in which you have a passion which is like a hobby.

One of the timeless secrets of a long happy life: pursue a work that you can enjoy. The common denominator of the happiest souls is that they all loved their work. It was fun for them. They did not work a single day. It was all play and work. The truly successful ones simply pursued their goals without knowing whether they were working or playing. 

This is the greatest criteria you should bear in mind.   Not the pay and perks.  Not the management and the working climate. Not the scope for promotions or personal aggrandizement. Not the pension or the distance from your home or anything else.

It need not be a regular job; you follow what your mind is after. It can be photography, singing, painting, bird –watching, animal or plant love, nature conservation, fashion, movie direction, sculpture, selfless service,  whatever.

The question is: ‘Will you enjoy doing it? Will you be able to develop a passion for it?’ This should be the only guiding principle in choosing your work or goal.  2.  An intense passion to get there. This is not a desire but an all consuming obsession so much so that you devote every bit of your emotional energy pool to attain it. It cannot be a vague desire or a passive goal which you are entitled through the present occupation. This should be a goal you have consciously chosen after considerable deliberation and inner search which you will reach in any case, come what may. For developing an inner passion there are three basic requirements:

a.        You have an intense desire to get there. b. The target is sufficiently big enough to motivate you  

c.        Your inner you like the profession and the work associated with it.  

3.       Think it and dream it more than half the time you are awake. 

The last of the three requirements above, is very crucial.  Earlier, you were told to work or act continuously until you get what you want. But let me change the prescription: you don’t have to work at all; just think about it, at least half the time you are awake and action would follow. But thinking about more than half the time awake is not all that easy. Our minds drift from one subject to another, from one thought to a totally different one, just like frames come into focus one after another in a movie.