Goal Setting

What Is Goal Setting?

Why is goal setting so fundementally important in both life and business? Goal setting is a fantastically powerful way for focusing your mind about your future. It then gives you the motivation and drive to transform your dreams into reality.

So Why Do People Set Goals? Usually goal setting is for people who are feeling somewhat cut adrift from the world. They may be working hard but don’t see any improvement within certain areas of their life. Maybe they have become complacent and have not spent enough time to actually sit down and think about what they ultimately want.

There will be certain times in your life when something acts as a trigger for you to asses your life. This will force you to sit down and go through your own goal setting excercise. You may have already thought about things that you would like to do, but have you done anything about it.

When I think about it goal setting all stems from when you are a child of about 12-13 years of age when for the first time somebody asks you “What do you want to do when you grow up?”. This forces you at an early age to think about what your goals are in life.

What you say at that age and what you end up doing maybe two different things but that thought process is embedded into your brain and evolves with you as you get older.

It did for myself. I wanted to become a photographer. I always had a camera near to hand happily snapping away. That did not happen for me mainly because of the lack of opportunities in the area that I live especially in the early 1980’s.

What it did do though was really set my first goal in life. I wanted to be my own boss. I knew from the age of 15 that it would happen and it did when I was 21. So I ticked that box.

Personally my goals where to meet somebody special, settle down and buy a house and I always wanted children. I ticked all of those boxes. My marriage eventually broke down, we drifted apart and that was mainly due to myself working around 80 hours a week in my cleaning business. Even with that happening I still achieved my goals and I don’t see it as my marriage failing because I had three wonderful sons who I am very proud of.

What it did do was to make me reevaluate my life and I went onto another goal setting excercise. My goal was to expand my business and double my income which I achieved by simply offering more services to my clients which paid me more. Again box ticked.

My next goal was to be happy again and fortunately I met my wife. What I found out is that she had the same goal of having a property abroad and through hard work we achieved that in 2007 when we bought our property in Cyprus.

My Apartment In Cyprus – The Top Balcony

At the start of 2014 we both set the goal of moving there full time. This made me think of just how we could achieve it and within what timeframe. This also made me set the goal of having more time freedom for doing the things that we wanted to do when we got there.

I personally love to play golf and there are some fabulous golf courses in Cyprus. Here in the UK my cleaning business does not allow me that much time off to play golf so I knew that this had to change. We also like to eat out but often we find find we are to tired to go out.

So I thought about what I could do to make this happen to achieve the time freedom we would need. The business I have has been successful for over 20 years but it is bound by geographical restrictions and although it is my business at the end of the day I have a job. So how am I going to achive this goal of having time freedom and earning an income to allow me to enjoy the time.

As a business owner I have always been on the look out for any other opportunities and had read stories of people making a living on the intenet. I was intrigued and looked into some of the different systems but nothing ever really caught my eye. What it did do was give me more clarity. I knew that this was the kind of business I needed to have the life we wanted in Cypurs.

A business with no geographical restrictions and would be a lot more flexible than my cleaning business to give me that time freedom. By chance I clicked on an advert and I watched a video presentation and I was hooked. With what this person was saying it suddenly all became clear to me and made sense and I knew there and then that this would deliver my goal.

You can watch the exact same video that I watched by clicking here. In February 2014 I joined this company and in May 2014 we have set another goal. In May 2016 we will be moving to Cyprus. This is all down to that video and what I am doing now.

The thing about goal setting is that you have to set them but also you have to have a plan of action and execute it. This is what I have done and I am now in the position of executing it.

So What Are Your Goals?

I advise you to sit down and evaluate where your life is now. Determine what your goals are. If your life as it is can deliver them then all well and good. If it can’t then you have some decisions to make on how you are going to achieve them.

Only just a few days ago I was on a training webinar with the company I am involved with and there was a really good excercise. It my sound a bit silly but sit down and put your arm in the air. Visualize your goal and reach out for it. If your current circumstances will not allow you to reach your goal then reach out a bit further with your arm and experience that feeling you get in your shoulder. Remeber that feeling when you are applying the actions to achieve your goal. This will be that little bit extra you will need to do and it will really drive you on.

This Is On My Vision Board

Also another good tip is to start a vision book. In there put pictures of the things that you want. This helps because if you look at it on a daily basis it will really spur you on. It may be a car, a holiday, a new house, the list is endless. Also if you have a whoteboard in your office write your goals on there.

On my board I have written where I am now, where I want to be by Christmas and where I want to be in May 2015. These are all progressive steps in my business and my life in general.

The only material thing I want by May 2015 is an Audi A5. I also have on my board a picture of my apartment. This represents time freedom.

I really appreciate you reading this and I know it is a bit of a long post but I wanted to share things in my journey up to now so hopefully this will strike a few cords in your mind about your own goal setting and how to achieve them.

As always I wish you well.