Goal Setting: How to Live Above the Line
By Jeff Herring
The beginning of a new year brings with it a bit of a worn-out tradition:
Setting New Year's Resolutions.
Warning: This is goal setting and goal getting only for the
serious.
First, choose a goal that is big enough to inspire you. You want to
choose something that, come this time next year, you will be proud to have
accomplished because your life will be different. Wimpy goals produce wimpy
results.
Next, make sure you have a big enough reason to want to accomplish your
big goal. If there's a big enough reason, you can be powerfully and
consistently motivated. Having a big enough reason also allows you to blow
through the deadly "I want to's."
The first one to blow through is "I want to want to," which is really
just a should in disguise. As in "I know I really should save more money;
it's a good idea." It's intellectual assent with no intention of making it
real in your life.
The next one to blow through is "I want to," which is only a little
better than I want to want to. It's weak because anything that stands in
your way will easily throw you off course.
After you have chosen a big goal, with a big enough reason why, the next
step is to put your goal in writing. The weakest ink is still better than
the best memory. So put it in writing, and not just once.
Write your goal down on a 3-by-5 index card every day. This will remind
you what is important and helps keep you focused and on track. Write your
goal in what I call the positive present tense, such as: "I am so happy that
..." Write your goal as if you have already accomplished it. An example
would be "I am so happy that I am saving money for my future."
The next step is to live your life above the line. This is a concept I
recently learned from Mark Victor Hansen of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" fame
and recent co-author of "The One-Minute Millionaire." Above the line is
learning and personal responsibility; below the line is blaming. And when it
comes to achieving goals, we are very skilled at blaming. We blame others
when we think that someone kept us from our goal. We blame circumstances
when we believe if only this would not have happened ... And we blame
ourselves when we beat up on ourselves for slipping from the path to our
goals.
Living above the line means looking at each and every situation as an
opportunity to learn more about how to achieve our goals. Live below the
line and you will not achieve the results you want; instead you will just
have a few good-sounding reasons why you did not make it. Live above the
line and you radically increase your chances for achieving your big goal.
Your next task is to get way out in front of your goals. You can do this
in at least two ways. The first is to take at least one action toward your
goal immediately, in the same day you set your goal. The next way to get it
is to do so much toward it immediately that you build tremendous momentum
that will carry you through. Taking massive action toward your goal right
now is a sure-fire way to make certain your new way of living quickly
becomes a habit.
So get going, NOW. Because for our purposes, NOW stands for No Other Way.
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