Chapter 7
Goal-Setting
Setting & Achieving goals
In the way of achieving your success, first of all, we have to choose an aim, we have to choose our goal, then only we can decide the way where we are going to. In ancient India, there is a story about how a disciple set a goal and how he achieves that. Read the complete story in the following paragraph;
An ancient Indian sage was teaching his disciples the art of archery. He put a wooden
bird as the target and asked them to aim at the eye of the bird. The first disciple was
asked to describe what he saw. He said, "I see the trees, the branches, the leaves, the
sky, the bird, and its eye.."
The sage asked this disciple to wait. Then he asked the second disciple the same
question and he replied, "I only see the eye of the bird." The sage said, "Very good, then
shoot." The arrow went straight and hit the eye of the bird.
What is the moral of the story?
Unless we focus, we cannot achieve our goal. It is hard to
focus and concentrate, but it is a skill that can be learned.
Why are Goals Important?
Goals are like oxygen to our dreams. Unlike without oxygen any living organism cant live as like that without goals our dream is valueless. Without goals or focus your abilities and talent are useless, no matter how talented you are there no value if you don't have a goal. Goals are what give you direction in life or direct towards your dream. By setting goals for yourself you are able to measure your progress because you always have a fixed endpoint or benchmark to compare with. When you set a goal for yourself you making yourself accountable to finish that task. The root of all the motivation or inspiration you have ever felt in your entire life are goals. Goal setting provides you the foundation for your drive. By making a goal you give yourself a concrete endpoint to aim to get excited about.
On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick was on her way to becoming the first woman to
swim the Catalina Channel. She had already conquered the English Channel. The world
was watching. Chadwick fought the dense fog, bone-chilling cold, and many times, the
sharks. She was striving to reach the shore but every time she looked through her
goggles, all she could see was the dense fog. Unable to see the shore, she gave up.
Chadwick was disappointed when she found out that she was only half a mile from the
coast. She quit, not because she was a quitter but because her goal was not in sight
anywhere. The elements didn't stop her. She said, "I'm not making excuses. If only I had
seen the land, I could have made it."
Two months later, she went back and swam the Catalina Channel. This time, in spite of
the bad weather, she had her goal in mind and not only accomplished it but beat the
men's record by two hours.
On the journey to life's highway, keep your eyes upon the
goal. Focus on the donut, not upon the hole.
Dreams
To know about the dreams first we have to know the difference between Dreams and Wishes. Dreams and wishes are nothing more than desires. Desires are weak, it can be strong when it meets with the following 5 d's;
- Direction
- Dedication
- Determination
- Discipline
- Deadlines
Goals are nothing but dreams with a deadline and an action plan. There are some steps which can turn our dream into reality;
- Have a definite, clear written goal.
- Have a plan to accomplish it.
- Read the plans twice a day.
There are some reasons so some people don't set their goals; the reasons are:
- A pessimistic attitude -- Always seeing their pitfalls/ fails rather than the possibilities.
- Fear of Failure -- People subconsciously think that if they fail in achieving goals they became a failure in their life and in society too, so they don't even try.
- A lack of ambition -- Our limited thinking prevents us from progress. So some of us cant ambitious. There was a fisherman who, every time caught a big fish, and would throw it back to the river, keeping only the smaller ones. a man watching this unusual behavior and asked the fisherman why he was doing this. The fisherman replied, "Because I have a small frying pan." Most people never make it in life because they are carrying a small frying pan. that is limited thinking.
- A fear of rejection -- Some people fear rejection means if they can't do it what other people say about that. This is the most common thing everyone noticed, but the achievers are never caring about this, they only think about is they tried or not.
- Procrastination -- "Someday, I will set my goals." This ties in with a lack of ambition. This causes excuses, and excuses are the big enemy of success.
- Low self-esteem -- It is the reason for which people get demotivated and they slowly become internally no inspiration.
- A lack of knowledge about goal-setting -- People usually don't have knowledge about the plan behind the goal-setting, so they can't satisfy their goals.
Choosing goals must be SMART;
S -- Specific. Make wish a specific, meaningful, wishful dream.
M -- Must be measurable. If we cannot measure it, we cannot accomplish it.
Measurement is a way of monitoring our progress.
A -- Must be achievable. Achievable means that it should be out of reach enough to be
challenging but it should not be out of sight, otherwise it becomes disheartening.
R -- Realistic. The goal must be realistic. A person who wants to lose 30 kg in~30 days is being unrealistic.
T -- Time-bound. Ther should be a starting date and a finishing date.
Goals must be Balanced
Our life is like a wheel with six spokes.
- Family. Our loved ones, our supporters are the reason olive and make a living.
- Financial. It represents our career and the things that money can buy.
- Physical. Our health, without which nothing makes sense.
- Mental. It represents knowledge and wisdom.
- Social. Every individual and organization has social responsibilities without which society starts dying.
- Spiritual. Our value system represents our character.
These are the spokes which supports our life to move further. As like that, we have to find the spokes or supporters through which we can move towards our success/dream. Some of the spokes we read goal-setting, character, attitude, inspiration, self-esteem, and must be realistic, if we set an unrealistic goal and if we are unable to achieve that then are motive and self-esteem will down, and we can't dare to take another step like that.
Quality Not Quantity
Supposing you went to the best restaurant in town where they gave you white-glove
service with cutlery from England, crockery from France, chocolates from Switzerland,
and on and on. You picked up the gold plated menu and ordered a dish of barbecued
chicken. The waiter within minutes brought back a small cube of the most deliciously
prepared chicken. You ate it and asked, "Is that all I am going to get?" The waiter replied,
"It is not the quantity but the quality that matters." You said that you are still hungry and
he gave you the same reply.
I hope the message is clear. Our families need both, quality and quantity.
Health -- We lose our health in the process of earning money and then we lose money in trying to regain our health.
Social Responsibility -- In the process of making money, we neglect our social responsibilities and let the system deteriorate until we become victims ourselves.
Scrutinize your goals -- Our goals should be high enough to motivate yet realistic enough to avoid discouragement. Anything we do, either takes us closer to our goal or further away. Each goal must be evaluated in light of the following.
- Is it the truth?
- Is it fair it all concerned?
- Will it get me goodwill?
- Will it get me health, wealth, and peace of mind?
- Is it consistent with my goals?
- Can I commit myself to it?
Goals should be consistent with our values
Goals are the event that shows our purpose in life. Choosing a goal is the first step towards success. Aim for the moon, even if you miss, you will become one of the stars.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
--Henry Ford
All of us in this world has a purpose in life. And that purpose may vary from person to
person. An orchestra would be pretty dull if everyone played the same instrument.
Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. . .
Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.
--Daniel H. Burn ham
It doesn't matter where we are. What really matters is in what direction we are heading.
Effort and courage without purpose is wasted. Worry leads to negative goal-setting. It is
thinking about things you don't want to happen.
Activity and Accomplishment
There is a big difference between activity and accomplishment.
This was demonstrated
by a French scientist named Fable. He conducted an experiment with processionary
caterpillars. Caterpillars follow the one in front of them blindly. Fable arranged them in a
circle in a flowerpot so that the lead caterpillar actually was behind the last one forming a
circle. He put pine needles (food for the caterpillars) in the center of the flowerpot. The
caterpillars kept going in a circle in the pot. Eventually, after a week of circling around,
they dropped dead of exhaustion and starvation with food only inches away from them.
We need to learn a lesson from the caterpillars. Just because you are doing something doesn't mean you are getting anywhere. One must evaluate one's activity in order to have accomplishment.
Meaningless goals
Before setting a goal we have to know about our values and add to compare with our set goal if it results positively we can try for that, but in any case if it comes negative then we have to either improve our value or we have to change our goal. Achievers are always tried to improve their values, they don't even think to change their goal. If you don't have that much determination, direction, discipline, and dedication then that should be a meaningless goal.
By the author of this book gave us an action plan by which we can easily set a goal and reach there.
- Make a definite goal.
- Write them down.
- Read your goals twice a day, morning and night
- Make goals slightly out of reach but not out of sight.
- Check your progress periodically.
*******
So this is all about the chapter 7 Goal-setting.
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This book is very good and really its helpful, now i set my goals after reading this book.....Thanks dear🤗👍
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