Step 5 in my series,
The12 Steps to Achieving your Goals
Opportunities? They are all around us…. There is power living latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it.-Orison Swett Marden
To achieve your life goals you need to define the key benefits or results you expect to gain. Once you do that, you will be more driven to do what it takes to achieve those goals. Make your list of benefits as detailed as possible: the more benefits to be gained, the greater the focus you will have on the goal.
Getting clear about the benefits of achieving your goals is therefore critical to achieving your goals, which is in turn crucial to keeping your promises to yourself, your family and the rest of the world.
I have used my audacious goal to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s seven tallest peaks, as an example for outlining the steps to achieving your goals. First, I set a clear time frame to reach this goal in 1.5 years because of a three week school break in January 2005 that my daughter would have to undertake the trek with me. Then I decide to measure my success as getting to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 feet, without endangering my life or those in the group. I defined 10 compelling reasons why I was undertaking the climb.
My next step was to define as many compelling reasons as possible why I was undertaking the climb. I printed these out and laminated them onto a small card, which I kept with me at all times. Then during the climb, every time I wanted to turn back, I was able to think of one of these reasons, and it would spur me on to put one foot after the next.
Some of the key reasons I defined were:
- To prove to myself that I could go way out of my comfort zone;
- To be a role model to others: if I could do this, I figured anyone else could!
- To raise $1 million in 5 years for developing world projects
Your Next Step: To achieve your goals define the benefits you expect to gain by reaching your goals?
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