Set Goals…

“If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Giants”. God has been kind. I feel blessed to have been born in a wonderful and loving family; to have the best of education, and teachers who have touched moved and inspired; friends who have always stood by my side and encouraged; and colleagues who are supportive.

The one thing that has made a difference to my life, it is the habit of setting goals and an unwavering faith is Paul Meyer’s quote, “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire sincerely believe and enthusiastically act up on must inevitably come to pass.”

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire sincerely believe and enthusiastically act up on must inevitably come to pass.”
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire sincerely believe and enthusiastically act up on must inevitably come to pass.”

Life was pretty much usual and routine, until one evening in the year 2006, when I met up with my childhood buddy, Vivek Savla. Vivek attended a program on Leadership and Management, and shared with me his learning. He asked me what my goals were. The first thing that came to my mind was about our manufacturing business, and I told him that my goal was to achieve a certain number in business, work hard, to be the best in the field. What else? he asked. I said I wanted to be happy, have a great life, have lots of money, take care of the family. He looked up to me and said, who doesn’t want that? That’s not a goal. That’s wishful thinking.

Honestly, I was lost, I really didn’t know nor did I understand what my goals were. Like me, many of us don’t realize the importance of goals. We don’t have goals because we don’t know how to set them. Often, it is the fear of failure that stops us from setting our goals.

Imagine watching a football game, with 2 teams and 22 players on the field playing the game – a football game with no goal posts. Imagine leading a life, where each day all that we do is get up in the morning, have breakfast, go to work, come home, watch television and go to sleep; wishing and hoping that tomorrow things will get better for us. But that seldom happens, and will not until we take control of our lives and our goals. It was that evening with Vivek, that I learned the greatest lesson of my life – “Set Goals”.

Goals give a sense of meaning and purpose to our life. Goal setting, along with careful planning provides a sense of direction to keep us focused on what we want and to work towards its achievement.

Our life has many facets – all of these can be classified in 6 major areas; personal, professional, spiritual, physical and mental, family and social, financial. For a meaningful and successful life, we should set goals in all of these areas.

For example, my personal goal is be a bestselling author, a motivational speaker, and coach. My professional goal is to take our company to a leadership position in the field of mixing equipment in India and across the world. My spiritual goal is to remain calm and

My Goals - 2015
My Goals – 2015
at all times; my physical goal to maintain health and fitness levels so that I can run the marathon at any given time;, my social goal is to touch, move and inspire all those who look up to me and to make a positive difference to their lives by sharing my blessings. To be honest, my reason for me sharing this with you today is to work towards achieving my personal and social goals.

Written goals are the seedbeds of accomplishment. The important thing while setting goals is that you need to write them, because writing your goals forces you to crystallize and clarify your thinking. It is said that the human mind has more than 60,000 thoughts each days. Writing down the thoughts which matter, helps you focus on what is necessary and keeps you on course. Written goals form the basis of measuring progress. Written goals produce motivation. Written goals form the basis of an action plan. Above all, written goals stimulate visualization.

Goals to me are SMART dreams. By SMART, we me Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. A goal has be specific, it has to be clearly defined. A goal has to be quantifiable – something that can be measured, it has to be achievable and attainable within a lifetime, it has to be realistic – something that can be experienced in reality. Above all, the goal is a dream with a deadline for achievement. It is time bound.

How then do you set goals and write them? When you begin to set goals, write down your dream list. A dream list will have everything that you wanted to have – a loving family, a big house, promotion at work, more money; a dream list will have everything you would like to do – grow you business to the next level, enjoy a vacation at your favorite destination. Just write down everything that you would like to have and do, as if there are no limitations at all.

Once you have written your dream list, you need to write them down as your SMART goals.
For example, my dream is to have a BMW car. But my SMART goal is “To drive my own BMW, 5 Series, White Color, by December 22, 2017”. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.
I am often asked, “If it was so easy, why don’t most people achieve their goals?”
The answer to this question is explained in my favorite quote, by Paul Meyer, “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act up on must inevitably come to pass.”

The starting point of attainment of all goals is having an ardent desire. Your desire for the goal must be so intense that it will energize you to take action. It will give you the inner strength and drive to overcome any obstacle that lies between you and your goal.

The greatest obstacle that lies between you and your goals, is your lack of self belief. For achieving your goals, you need to believe in yourself and in your abilities. To overcome the negative thoughts and emotions that may crop in, you need to take complete responsibility for your situation. Once you accept total responsibility for your life, there are no limits on what you can be, do or have. Every step that your take with responsibility towards your goals builds your belief that you can set and achieve even bigger goals in the future.

Often people set goals, but don’t achieve them. This is because they don’t take the action required to achieve to goals. The most important aspect of achieving your goals is taking action, with enthusiasm. Having set your goals, you need to create an action plan for their achievement. You need to prioritize your goals, make a list of all tasks that have to be completed for accomplishing the goal, schedule time and set deadlines, create measures and standards to track progress, build the competency and skills required for achieving the goals, exercise self-discipline, identify obstacles and their possible solutions, identify people, groups and organizations who can help you in achieving your goals. Work hard to achieve your goals. There is no substitute to hard work. Action with Passion, Patience and Persistence is the key to achieving your goals.

My personal experience is that when you are absolutely clear about your goal, you do not even need to know where and how to achieve it. By simply deciding what you want, you will begin to get attracted towards your goal and your goal begins to move towards you.

Set Goals and take charge of your life. I’ll be happy to have achieved my goal through your’s.
God Bless

The Ultimate Secrert of The Miracle Man

 

The story of “The Miracle Man” is one of best examples to explain the power of our thoughts. It teaches us how to create a desired state of being, to build self- confidence.Thoughts just don’t matter – they become matter. The way we think affects our body and our life. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”

An emerging field of science called psychoneuroimmunology explains the connection between the mind and the body. Our thoughts are responsible for the chemistry of the brain. Whenever we think, we trigger a biochemical reaction in the brain. The brain then releases chemical signals which get passed on to the body. These signals act as the messengers of the thought. Every thought produces a chemical signature that the body recognizes and reacts to. The thoughts that cause the biochemical reaction in the brain make our body feel exactly like the way we were thinking.  This in turn determines how we feel. We then react to the feeling and transmit the same message to the brain. The brain responds to our reaction and generates the thoughts that produce the corresponding chemical messengers. We now begin to think the way we are feeling. Simply put, thinking causes feeling and then feelings create thoughts—an unending cycle. This continuous loop eventually produces a state of mind which determines how we behave and act.

When we think of positive, inspiring thoughts, our brain produces matter that is known as neurotransmitters. These chemicals make us feel uplifted and inspired. Scientists have discovered that the neurotransmitters regulate all our emotions. Likewise, when we have self-deprecating thoughts the brain releases chemicals called neuropeptides, to which the body responds in a corresponding way. The moment we think negative, the brain releases chemicals that produce the same feeling. We are short of self confidence and feel incapable of achieving. This feeling in turns leads to more of the same thoughts. Until this chain of thought is broken, the brain and the body shall generate the same biological feedback loop resulting in a state of mind that reinforces the negative state of mind.

Thoughts matter: they make us what we are. Thoughts become matter in our body – and control our state of being. Most importantly, not all thoughts are conscious. Over the years, we have learned to think and respond to situations in a certain way. As we continue to have the same thoughts repeatedly, these conscious thoughts turn into unconscious automated thought processes. They are like computer programs running in the background, controlling our lives, creating patterns of behavior that are almost involuntary. These behavioral patterns turn into habits that become neurologically hardwired in the brain. Conscious thoughts and actions, when repeated often, become unconscious thinking and ways of being.

How then do we guard ourselves against the auto-pilot?

To break this cycle of the unconscious thinking process requires a conscious effort. To do this, we must first consciously identify, through contemplation and self-reflection, the automatic thought programs that run within us. Next, it requires a deliberate effort of observing these thoughts without responding to them. In this way we shall break the chemical responses that are responsible for our habitual behavior, mindset and attitudes. It requires a conscious unlearning of the attitudes and the mindset that we wish to change. Once we have disrupted the automatic programs, we can then re-train our mind the way we want by exercising conscious control over our thoughts

Another example of the ‘The Ultimate Secret’

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon, must, inevitably come to pass” – Paul Meyer.

Related Books, References

The Ultimate Secret

– Sharing the words that changed my life

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon, must, inevitably come to pass” – Paul Meyer.

I first heard this quote from my dearest friend Vivek Savla, in 2006.

http://youtu.be/Eu6g7vFi7hk

Also watch ‘The Miracle Man

Goal Chart

Goal chart