It seems that we’ve arrived suddenly in 2017! You might well ask where 2016 went? – a very good question.
Some probably don’t want to think about 2016 – it’s simply too painful. For others, the treadmill was going so fast you felt as if your feet got burned trying to keep up.
Maybe you felt you achieved a lot in 2016, but it wasn’t really what you wanted to achieve.
I’ve got some news for you: You can’t change yesterday, ‘Yesterday’s gone’ as Fleetwood Mac sang many years ago, but you can change today. Mother Teresa put it this way, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How are you going to change today, and the rest of this year for the better? How are you going to build a foundation for success? The answer is quote simple – you must begin to set Goals.
Most people are on the road to nowhere. We bump through life, hoping that accidentally, things will get better and we will get to where we want to be. But if we don’t know where we want to be, how are we going to get there? There is a saying in the Proverbs, ‘Without a vision, the people perish’. What is your vision? What are your dreams and how are you going to achieve them?
I started setting goals for study on a voluntary basis in my last year in primary school as a 12 year old boy. I blanked out 6 Saturdays in the lead up to my end-of-year exams and set up a detailed goal setting plan for extensive study. From memory, I topped the school or came second. All I really know is I got into the A class at high school and stayed in the top half-a-dozen in my year until the school certificate.
I can assure you there were a lot more brighter kids than me in my first four years of high school but my ability to set goals and then follow through on those gaols carried me forward whilst some of my brighter friends fell by the wayside. As I grew older I applied this goal setting ability to my family and it has served me well. Personally, my big goals in life are to ‘love God, love my wife and love my children’. They have not changed in 41 years of marriage except that I now have to add grandchildren to the list which is not a bad addition.
Goal setting worked for me and I know it can work for you. However the question is: What type of goals should we set?
Dale Carnegie speaks of having a secret gold standard operating in your life. Just as a point of interest, Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, written in 1936, is still in the Top 50 Amazon Bestselling list. To have a top selling book still in the list 80 years after publication is a major achievement. Dale Carnegie’s advice has well stood the test of time.
Currency fluctuations can devalue a currency overnight, but gold, tested by fire, is the only safe, long-term fiscal investment. Gold has integrity, a long life-history and an even stronger future. So do the goals that are set by the secret gold standard, or higher values in life: value-driven goals. You could also call them integrity-driven goals.
Let your life goals be set by the secret gold standard that is operating in you and your family’s life. True integrity in goal setting will produce true success when the goals are achieved. Only this sort of success will last the test of time. I suggest that you break your life goals up under the following headings which line up with the Seven Secrets for Success which I will share with you next week.
Life Goals
1) Personal & Self Goals
2) Family and Relationship Goals
3) Self-development, Learning and Attitude Goals
4) Health and Fitness Goals
5) Giving Goals
6) Work and Financial Goals
7) Spiritual Goals
You must write your goals down. Where possible talk them over with those close to you. Place them where you can see them every day. Simplify them. Re-evaluate and reset your goals. Ideally your goals should be part of a 5 or 10 year plan.
Hopefully you will develop an overall life purpose. This could well tie into your family mission statement. Whatever the case, it is critical for you to start to contemplate your overall life purpose. This will help you with your yearly goal-setting exercise. Work out a daily and weekly goal plan to implement your goals.
Plan your work and work your plan and then celebrate your achievements at regular intervals.
Lovework
Do your family a big favour and set some goals for yourself and your family as you launch into 2017. Don’t forget your children will become what you are, rather than what you say. That’s why self-development for a father is critical. Remember if you can’t love and look after yourself, you will never be able to love and look after your family.
Good life goals are motivated by love. That’s what the gold standard is all about. These type of goals begin with you and then go out to help others.
Just get a blank sheet of paper and start writing them down. Stick them up somewhere so you can see them. Also write them down in the front page of your diary. Remember to put some fun goals in for you and your family. Life is too short not to have fun.
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