Archive for Goal Setting
5 Tips for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
Posted by: | CommentsYes I know it is the end of January and most people are no longer talking about their New Year’s Resolutions or their goals for the year. However, I have found that this is mostly because they are no longer applying themselves with the same level of passion to the goal that was there when they made the New Year’s Resolution. If you have a habit of setting resolutions at the beginning of the year and then abandoning them a few days or weeks later, now is your chance to try something a little different. Imagine how, by just trying something a little different, the course of your life could change for the better when you follow through on your resolutions until you achieved your goals!
Change Your Thinking
With a few basic tips, it is very possible to overcome your habit of giving up on New Year’s resolutions. First and foremost, avoid viewing your resolutions as something to aspire to and then neglecting them when they are seemingly less pertinent no interesting. New Year’s resolutions like goal setting can be enormously self-improving and enriching if you will just find a way to maintain them and their importance to you throughout the year.
Here are some tips for keeping your resolutions (and other goals you set as well):
- Make a commitment. In order for your resolutions and goal to be successful you must be willing to make a firm commitment to change. Believe in yourself, know deep inside that you can, and will, accomplish what you are setting out to do. When you give yourself such unwavering support from within, then you will strengthen that conviction and achieve what you seek.
- Choose New Year’s resolutions and goals that you genuinely want to achieve. Avoid picking a resolution or goal that someone else wants for you that you truly do not want for yourself. Then, make positive resolutions. Focus on all the positive aspects of achieving the goal.
- Share your “give up” goals and resolutions (I’m giving up smoking, giving up drinking etc.) with everyone. When all your true friends know what you are setting out to achieve, they can help hold you accountable.
- Share your “go up” goals (I’m going to be the number one salesperson, I’m going to be valedictorian) only with those that will be supportive. If you have competition for your “go up” goal you might not want to share that goal with those you are competing against.
- Plan ahead. Avoid choosing your resolutions at the last moment. Spending more time planning and preparing for your resolution goals will exponentially improve you results.
- Be Realistic. Achieving your goals relies heavily on continued motivation. By setting the bar too high you risk setting yourself up for failure, which can be profoundly de-motivating and result in a spiral in the wrong direction.
- Set your sights realistically, rather than too high. Do not get me wrong, you should give yourself a challenge, but not so much of a challenge that you cannot not believe in it and end up setting yourself up for inevitable failure. Also, remember you can break down larger resolutions into smaller goals – then focus on that smaller more realistic step!
- If this year’s resolutions are mimicking last year’s (or are very similar), step back and consider why last year’s resolutions faltered. Determine first what did not work last time and why. Then you can plan accordingly to avoid a repeat performance (or lack of performance).
- Write down your goals. When you put your resolutions into writing they become more concrete, you make them real. Put your commitment down on paper, then display your goals where you will see them daily (actually many times a day), in that written form. This way you will be frequently reminded of what you are striving to achieve this year.
- Map out your goals. Just saying the words on January 1st is only a small step. You need to take the next and most often forgotten step. You need to plan the how of achieving your goal. Write out a plan for each resolution that you are going for rather than just hoping for the best.
- Create flexible goals. Remember everything is not going to work out just the way you hope and plan, so be flexible and create flexibility within the goals that you set. Rigid resolutions can throw you off track when something does not go quite how you planned it (and it often will). Try to predict the obstacles you will face, and create a back-up plan for getting around over, under or through those obstacles.
Bottom Line
With a little bit of planning and preparation, you can keep and achieve your New Year’s resolutions. Just like any goal setting process, the key is to be realistic about your goals and the challenges you may face in trying to achieve them. The more realistic and flexible you are, the more likely you’ll be to achieve your goals.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
History is a Learning Tool
Posted by: | CommentsHistory is a great learning tool. You can read the biographies of great men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others, learning from their actions and more importantly from their mistakes. As I write these posts I am sitting across from a wall of book that I have bought, read, re-read and studied over the course of the past three decades. These books include but certainly are not limited to; goal setting, writing skills, presentation skills, sales skills, consulting skills, relationship skills, memory building, computer programming, how to be a better parent, how to get everything you want faster than you thought possible and well you get the idea, the list goes on and on and on.
So the key message I want to share is this short little post is that while I write to share bits and pieces of knowledge on goal setting, motivation, success (personal and professional); know that it is not JUST my personal take on these topics. I am merely making an attempt to share my personal version of what you are able to do, be and have by empowering yourself via goal setting, motivation, etc. Call it my personal distillation of what I have read combined with what I have experienced over those three decades and in some cases even longer.
But, do not just take my word for it, go out and get yourself another source of information. Read another blog, get a book and another book and even another if that’s what it takes. What I truly want you to do is to find whatever catalyst you need at this moment in your life to sit down and choose your own worthy goal, to set your Success Atlas and begin making it come true in your own life this very minute. Not tomorrow, not next week, next month, next year or a decade from now. I want you to take some step, small or large, to begin making your dreams come true TODAY.
It would sincerely be one of my most honored blessings if someday someone came up to me and said, “Tracy, because of you I….” and they told me about a goal or dream they realized. That they became something that made a difference in their life or they did something that was a dream of theirs.
One day I know for a fact that I will be sitting the front porch of my home, rocking slowing in a rocking chair overlooking my yard. Listening to the birds sing and inhaling the sweet smell of the day. I will tell my grandchildren of some of the things I have done. I will share with them some of the mistakes I have made in the hopes that they will not have to make those same mistakes. Then I will tell them of that person I was able to reach out and touch and move them to live the life that they dreamed, desired and deserved.
When you are sitting in your rocking chair later in life, what stories will you be able to tell?
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
You ARE already goal setting
Posted by: | CommentsWorthy goals push, drive and motivate you to do more, to be more and to have more. If I think back to my childhood, I can remember one of my earliest goals in life. I was a small child, and I mean that in stature not just being young. To give you a better vision of what I mean, I was only four foot three inches in the ninth grade. So as you can imagine, many of the bigger boys made not only a goal of but a pastime out of picking on me. I internally set a goal to create situations in my little life that would help me avoid as much of this school yard harassment as possible.
So, how does a small boy accomplish this large feat? I accomplished this goal by breaking it down into three smaller goals. First, I learned from my father (who by the way was six feet three inches tall) that making people laugh was the quickest way to reach inside them. So my first sub goal was to hone my sense of humor. You see, if you can engage a person, and make them laugh, I found they were far less likely to want to mistreat you.
Second sub goal was to leverage a powerful force to my side. What powerful force you ask? Well, let me explain and I am sure you can figure out which one of the primary human drivers I was leveraging for this goal. Every school year (and throughout the summer) I would make friends with some of the more popular and pretty girls. I did this knowing that some of those ‘more manly’ boys would want meet and learn about these girls. Thus, having those lovely ladies as friends gave him and I some common ground. A side benefit of this goal was the obvious ego boost that came with being friends with some of the more popular and attractive girls at school.
Sub goal three was set as a back-up plan…when all else fails you should know how to
1) Run
2) Fight
So I learned both. Why fight? Because you cannot always far enough or fast enough. Why run? Because you cannot always fight your way out. Even though by the time I had gotten into high school I had about three years of martial arts under my belt (no pun intended) – there were times when running WAS and IS the best option. One such time was when I was surrounded by nine guys whom did not like the fact that I had befriended a girl named ‘Tracy.’ Tracy’s boyfriend was in juvenile hall and when he got out they surrounded me as I left school. I am no Jackie Chan or Jett Lee, heck I am not even Steven Segal, so running in this case was the best solution. However, in those times when the odds were a little better I was able to use the martial arts I had learned to defend myself and others. Again a side benefit of this sub goal was the self-esteem, self-confidence and inner calm that come from feeling strong enough to protect yourself and those you care about even when you choose not to use it.
All this goes to show that goal setting has been a part of my life since very early in my life. I am betting that setting goals has been a part of your life from an early age as well, directly or indirectly. Did you have your eye on someone you wanted to date? Were you able to get that first date? Did you see that new TV in the advertisement and figure out how you could make it fit into your budget? Did your child come to you and say how much they really really really wanted you to be at their play/recital/show? You see even indirectly goal setting is already a part of your life.
Now is the time to make it an ACTIVE part of your life and truly compound and reap the benefits that a focused goals plan can get you. It has been said that we are only truly happy when we are actively working towards a worthy goal. And you know what – this is not new news!
You need to set and work towards worthy goals and yes I will be taking you through an entirely new way to set your goals in up-coming posts – but in the mean time you can find many other great tips and techniques for goals setting, (including brainstorming your goals) in previous postb. Let me know your thoughts, questions and concerns!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Goals Choices and Change
Posted by: | CommentsEnvision if you will, spending the day with a beautiful woman (or handsome man) having a wonderful dinner, going to one of the happening nightclubs in the city and dancing the night away. Drinking a little and laughing a lot. Then returning home after a night’s worth of partying, opening the front door to you home only to find it ransacked, even worse, realizing upon closer inspection that your home was not ransacked by thieves, but rather by the local police.
This is where my rollercoaster of a life had taken me. The choices I made; choices in friends, choices in lifestyle and even the choices in the person I had choose as a mate were coming to an ugly head. I was about to lose everything. And I do mean everything, even my first child. Have you ever been faced with that moment in your life when you were about to lose something or someone that meant the world to you? If you have ever been faced with loosing anything or everything you have built, loved or cherished then you will know what I mean when I say – it was time to make new choices and time to set some new goals and most importantly time to make a change.
At that very moment I set a mental goal, to change my life, clean up my act as well as my body. I was determined to not to fall any farther into the bottomless pit that the current roller coaster ride I was on, was diving me into. I was time to make new choices, to begin searching for a better way and to make changes. Battered but not broken, I set a goal to pull myself out of that pit, and sail to new heights. Thanks to the help of my parents (RIP Daddy & love you Mom!) as well as some very close friends (Thank you Robbie!) I begin a new life, one that has set me upon a path of new choices, discovery, goal setting and self-improvement.
Over the course of the next couple years, I scratched and clawed my way back to reality. I worked temporary jobs and in a warehouse at a major department store to pay the bills and re-build my self-esteem. Then I set another mental goal to land a job that would pay enough to enable me to move back out on my own and raise my beautiful daughter in a healthy, happy and stable home – free of unwanted rollercoasters.
Tough choices had to be made for such a change. Did I want to keep the seemingly fun and thrills of the easier dark side? Or did I want to become truly successful, happy and fulfilled buy getting all those things that money CAN NOT buy? I had to make changes. Changes like breaking away from the places, habits and even the people that had aided in, and in some ways even urged on, my downfall.
Once again, goals were set, choices were made and changes put in place and I succeeded. I began working for a Fortune 5 company and climbed the ranks in that organization. In addition I found someone special to share my life with. Within about six years I was managing a team of people and millions of dollars in marketing materials that serviced all of North America. The only way I was able to accomplish this, is through an on-going process of goal setting, wiser choices/change and consistent self-improvement.
I don’t tell you this story to impress you, I tell you in the hopes that you will see that you are not alone in having gone through tough times (or going through them), that I have been there and done that and made it back from the dark side (so can you). My dark side was worse than I would wish upon anyone and I still made it. So can you. That is part of the journey we will be going through here. Sharing with you the tips, techniques and tools I used to make it from the streets (or should I say gutters) of Southern California, to a beautiful office in a Fortune5 company and beyond.
Are you ready to set the goals, make the choices and changes that will take your life to the next level? What about the level after that? What about to a level that you haven’t even dreamed is possible? I am betting you are ready and that is why you are still reading now.
In my next post we will discuss what can motivate you whether you are 9 or 90. Until then….
Think Successfully & Take Action
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Goals Setting, Rollercoasters and Screams
Posted by: | CommentsRollercoasters are a great past time of mine and in many way a great analogy for not just goal setting but for my life and I am willing to bet for your life and goal setting as well. You often spend lots of time, even hours more, than you would like, waiting for the moment that the ride actually begins (that first step towards your goal). Then comes that slow climb to the top, you heart racing in your chest, and WHOOSH you are off to the races. The first invigorating plunge into your major goal then right turns, and left turns, U-turns and screams combined with more climbs up and dives down. This happens over and over again with a couple of pauses before the next plunge back into your goal. But ONLY pausing long enough for you to just catch your breath then it hits you all over again until BAM, it’s all over.
For a little while your heart continues to race, your turn to your friend and excitedly share what just experienced, whether it’s perceived as good or perceived as bad, then you leave. Sometimes, you leave the ride (the life experience or the goal that you set) wanting more. Perhaps you want to do it again. You might even rush right back into line to do just that. Other times you leave the ride or the goal setting or life experience never wanting to do it EVER again – and so you don’t – then you become one of those left out of the experiences as the stand at the exit, pouting feeling left out, when see all the riders (goal setters) coming out exhilarated and wanting to do it all again. Has your life been a bit like that, even partly, at specific times? I know mine has!
First off, let me say it is not my goal to try and spin some sob story of being the product of an under-privileged household or abusive parents because honestly I was neither. While we did not attain riches by any means (and I mean that by the standard of dollars) – we certainly did not live in squalor either. I did not grow up with too many brothers or sisters; actually I was an only child. Let me take that one step farther by letting you know I was adopted, so I knew I was wanted, even when my parents didn’t make it a focused goal of showing it. My father proudly served in the US Army the bulk on my childhood so I gained the benefits of growing up all over the United States as well as spending years in Europe. Thus, I am unable to say that I grew up with a narrow focus of what types of people, personalities or cultures exist in our world. I came to know many of those culture, races, religions and personality types from a young age will into my adulthood.
Like so many others, even you perhaps, I gained a well-rounded and diverse set of experiences while growing up. Yet, I still made a series of poor choices during my early adult life. Choices that, as I look back with 20/20 vision, were the result of not knowing what I wanted, not knowing where I wanted to go and, basically, not having any kind of goal to look forward to in my life. Choices that put me in a place I never imagined I would be (and never want to be again). I experienced some dark times in my life (as I know many of my readers have – often far worse than mine). Times when I thought I would not see too many more years – or even days. Times when I thought the whole worlds goal out against me. Times when I felt like nothing I did was going to pull me out of the seemingly bottomless pit I was not only leaning over, but now I was clearly falling fall into.
It was during one of these dark times that I realized and set a goal to get focused on what I DID want. I was not longer going to let the tracks of someone else’s rollercoaster (their goals) suck me down another unknown, dark and unwanted tunnel filled with screams of fear and pain rather than the screams of joy and excitement.
This is the journey I want to take you on – the journey of facing off and breaking out of the grip forged by this type of thinking, the fear, the mental and success paralysis that it carries with it, and share with you the learning’s, the tips and the keys I used to flip my life from a fear filled rollercoaster ride of emptiness, to the goal of having a joyful, fulfilled life for me and those that I am about to touch.
The posts from this blog we be coming at you more frequently then you have experience in the past as I take you on and share this journey with you – I look forward to reading your comments, hearing about your experiences and seeing if you too can benefit from goal setting, rollercoasters (where you are in control) and screams (of joy!).
Think successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches
