Jim Rohn believes that “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Brian Tracy, on his part says that your ability to discipline yourself, to set clear goals for yourself and then to work toward them every day will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor. “You need to have goals to accomplish worthwhile things in life.”
It is believed that only three per cent of adults have written goals and plans, and this three per cent earn more than all of the other 97 per cent put together. Why is this? The simplest answer is that if you have clear goal and a plan to achieve it, you, therefore, have a track to run on every single day. Instead of being sidetracked by distractions and diversions, getting lost or going astray, more and more of your time is focused in a straight line—from where you are to where you want to go. Tracy believes that this is why people with goals accomplish so much more than people without them. “The tragedy is that most people think they already have goals. But what they really have are hopes and wishes. However, hope is not a strategy for success, and a wish has been defined as a goal with no energy behind it.”
The discipline of writing
In Tracy’s experience of working with several million people over the past several decades, the disciplined act of writing out goals, making plans for accomplishing them, and then working on those goals daily increases the likelihood of achieving goals by 10 times, or 1,000 per cent. This does not mean that writing out goals guarantees success, but rather it increases the probability of success by 10 times. “These are very good odds to have working in your favour, especially when there is no cost or risk involved in putting pen to paper—just a little time.”
Writing is called a “psycho-neuro-motor activity.” The act of writing forces you to think and concentrate. It forces you to choose what is more important to you and your future. As a result, when you write down a goal, you impress it into your subconscious mind, which then goes to work 24 hours a day to bring your goal to reality.
Success versus failure mechanisms
Your brain has both a success mechanism and a failure mechanism. The failure mechanism is the temptation to follow the undisciplined path of least resistance, to do what is fun and easy rather than what is hard and necessary. Your failure mechanism operates automatically throughout your life, which is the major reason why most people fail to fulfill their individual potentials. While your failure mechanism functions automatically, your success mechanism is triggered by a goal. When you decide on a goal, you override your failure mechanism, and you can change the direction of your life. “You go from being a ship without a rudder, drifting with the tide, to being a ship with a rudder, a compass, and a clear destination, sailing in a straight direction toward your goal.”
Take control of your life
Aristotle wrote that human beings are teleological organisms, which simply means that we are purpose driven. Therefore, you feel happy and in control of your life only when you have a clear goal that you are working toward each day. This also means that this ability to become a lifelong goal setter is one of the most important disciplines you will ever develop.
In nature, the homing pigeon is a remarkable bird. It has an uncanny instinct that enables it to fly back to its home roost, no matter how far away it starts or in what direction it must go. Human beings also have the remarkable ability of the homing pigeon within our brains, but with one special difference. “The homing pigeon seems to know instinctively exactly where its home roost is located. It then has the ability to fly directly back to that roost. In contrast, when human beings programme a goal into their minds, they can then set out without having any idea where they will go or how they will achieve that goal. But by some miracle, they will begin to move unerringly toward that goal, and the goal will begin to move toward them.”
Still, many people are hesitant to set goals. As a result, they do not even set financial success as a goal. But the good news is that you do not need to know how to get there. “You just need to be clear about what you want to accomplish, and the goal-striving mechanism in your brain will guide you accurately to your destination.”
For example, you can decide that you are going to find your ideal job, in which you work for and with people you like and respect and do work that is both challenging and enjoyable. You take some time to write down an exact description of what your ideal job and workplace would look like, and then you go out into the job market and begin searching.
After a series of interviews, you will often walk into the right place at the right time and find yourself in exactly the right job. Almost everyone has had this experience at one time or another. Tracy believes that you can have it by DESIGN rather than by chance simply by developing absolute clarity about what you really want.
The 10-goal exercise
This is one of the most powerful goal-achieving methods Brian Tracy has ever discovered. He teaches it all over the world, and he practices it himself.
- At the top of a clean sheet of paper write the word “Goals” and today’s date.
- Then write down 10 goals that you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Write down financial, family goals, educational goals, and health goals, as well as goals for personal possessions. Do not worry for the moment about how you are going to achieve these goals.
- Once you have written out your 10 goals, imagine for the moment that you can achieve all of the goals on your list if you want them long enough and hard enough. Also imagine that you have a “magic wand” that you can wave, that will enable you to achieve any one goal on your list within 24 hours.
- If you could achieve any one goal within 24 hours, which one would have the greatest positive impact on your life right now? Which one goal would change or improve your life more than anything else? Which one goal, if you were to achieve it, would help you to achieve more of your other goals than anything else?
- Put a circle around this goal and then write it at the top of a clean sheet of paper. This goal then becomes your Major Definite Purpose. It becomes your focal point and the organising principle of your future activities.
- Once you have written out this goal, clearly and specifically, and made it measurable, set a deadline on your goal. Your subconscious mind needs a deadline so that it can focus and concentrate all your mental powers on goal attainment.
- Make a list of everything that you can think of that you could do to achieve your goal. Organise this list by sequence and priority. Select the most important or logical next step in your plan and take action on it immediately. Take the first step. Do something. Do anything.
- Resolve to work on this goal every single day until it is achieved. “Failure is not an option.” Once you have decided that this one goal can have the greatest positive impact on your life and you have set it as your major definite purpose, resolve that you will work toward this goal as hard as you can, as long as you can, and that you will never give up until it is achieved. “This decision alone can change your life.”
“Resolve to work on this goal every single day until it is achieved. Failure is not an option.”
By Capt. Sam Addaih (Retd)
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