I’ve been setting goals for years and have written about goal setting extensively. I’ve also written and published an eBook on goal setting, but through it all I have had one nagging problem.

Goal setting only worked part of the time. I’ve had some amazing, almost impossible goals come to fruition. Yet I’ve had very straightforward SMART goals, laid out to the tee, fail miserably. I’ve also had very simple goals work like a charm, but others seemingly easy ones fail in just a few days.

It always seemed to me that really hard goals worked, and also very simple ones. It was the ones in the middle, the well planned out ones, with a complete plan, that crashed and burned. It wasn’t until I ran into some goal setting research by Stanford professor, Dr. B. J. Fogg that things started to make sense. Once he put up a graph it all clicked. This simple visual showed me clearly what I had experienced for years.

Here is the graph…

The vertical axis represents motivation, from low to high. The horizontal axis represents how hard something is to do, with a declining scale from hard to easy. The yellow represents successful behavior change, while the grey is the failure area.  As you can see from the graph, there are two areas almost touching the axis. They are…

1. High Motivation combined with a task that is hard to do
2. Low Motivation with a task that is easy to do

The middle grey area is the tricky part. If we set a goal to do something very difficult and don’t have enough motivation, we will fail. Conversely, if we have a lot of motivation, but an unchallenging task, we will fail too.

This is exactly what I have experienced in my life. When I have worked with a coach or other motivator on really tough challenges I have seen incredible success.

Here is a short list of some motivated goal successes I have experienced.

• Completing a Triathlon
• Facilitating a Major Conference
• Losing 26 pounds in 12 weeks
• Taking on major leadership positions

Conversely, I have also experienced great success by making small changes to an existing routine or habit. (SMARTER Goals)

• Changed from drinking sugary soda to unsweetened iced tea.
  Lost weight over time.
• Changed from listening to the radio while commuting to audio books.
  Major learning advance
• Changed from using an ATM card to using cash.
  Saved considerable money over time.
• Deposited a small amount in to savings from each paycheck.
  Savings compounded over time.

Here are some of my goal failures. Great intentions, yet in the grey area.

• Trying to prepare for a second Triathlon without a coach
  (less motivation)
• SMART Goal to lose ten pounds
  (Too hard and not big enough to be motivating)
• Trying to blog everyday
  (Too hard and not enough reward)
• Taking on an Organization’s Leadership position I wasn’t motivated to do

I wish I would have had this graph and knowledge years ago. I have wasted considerable time and effort in my life in the grey area. With just some simple tweaks almost everything on my failure list could either have been avoided or modified for success.

Looking at the list above I would make these simple changes

1. Choose a different Triathlon and work with a coach
2. Modify an existing eating habit instead of SMART Goal
3. I wouldn’t have attempted to blog each day
4. Would have bypassed the unchallenging leadership position

Personally this graph is one of the most enlightening tools I’ve run into in my eight years of blogging. It answers a lot of questions I’ve had and will ultimately help me make better decisions. Tomorrow we’ll look at a powerful Motivation gradient and see how it can be plotted accurately in this graph. The resulting chart will allow us to accurately set goals and ultimately plan out our success. Stay tuned.

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Click! appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

When you set a goal, the difference between success and failure often comes down to one simple factor. It’s simply how motivated you are to complete the task.

Levels of Motivation in Football

When we look at motivation, I like to use a Football analogy. Take your average pro football team and your average player. What will motivate that player to success? In the graph above you can see the relative levels of  motivation. They are in link step with how transparent and accountable you are.

There are five levels listed

1. Coach: This person knows you inside out. They also hold you accountable. A good coach will make or break a player and a team.
2. Team: Having good teammates and working as a team will help you succeed. Accountability and transparency are high.
3. Crowd: The roar of the crowd can help motivate you to success. However, crowds can be unpredictable. They can easy turn on you.
4. Television or other Media: Doing well on TV can be a motivator, but when you are on the field, you are far removed from the screen.
5. Subconscious: You would think that your own mind would be your greatest motivator, but for most people this just isn’t true. You are far more likely to let yourself off the hook than any of the others.

Let’s look at how these line up on our Goal Chart from yesterday’s post.

Common Levels of Motivation

Our expertise makes our tasks easier over time. The more we know, the more likely we are to move to success.  As we can see the danger level is in the focused area in middle.  I’ve been here so many times in my life. I get started, dead focused on the task, but I’m unable to finish the project because the level of complexity made it much harder to do than I expected. Motivation waned, and I usually gave up. For success, I really needed to bring in others and use their expertise and motivation. When I’ve been part of a team, or hired a coach, the project usually gets completed.

The low end of the graph is where simple habit change comes in. The simpler the change of routine is, the more likely we are to see success. When I have made simple changes to existing habits, they work almost like magic.

Let me give you an example of  both ends of this graph and how they affected me.

Back in 2008, I set a goal to write my first fiction book. I had never written fiction before, so to complete the writing and get a finished book would take a lot of motivation and expertise. Here is how it worked out for me.

The first round went like this…

• Ingrained habit: I currently wrote non-fiction blog posts for two hours, first thing in the morning
• Habit Change: I changed to writing fiction instead of non fiction in the morning.
• Results: A first attempt at fiction. 80,000 words in four months.

The first round went rather well. I had an ingrained habit already created of writing from 4am to 6am. I just changed the habit from writing blog posts, to writing fiction.  At first it was a little clumsy, but I learned quickly along the way. My first draft was OK, but certainly not where I wanted it. This is where the project would have stopped had I not brought in a writing coach.

The second round went this way

• My writing coach took five chapters at a time, made corrections and offered suggestions.
• She took my clunky sentences and worked magic. The edited prose was very motivational.
• I learned from her at each step and made her suggested corrections, motivated to get better as I went.
• I compiled the final edit, and had beta readers comment. It actually sounded good.

My takeaways for developing a successful goal setting strategy.

1. Changing an ingrained morning habit made the initial writing easy. I just wrote fictional stories, instead of blog posts.
2. My goal would have ended at the first draft had I not brought in a writing coach. I didn’t have the expertise or the motivation to finish without her.
3. The more I learned about writing fiction, the easier it became to write well and the more motivated I was to edit and finish the book.
4. I need to use this graph to figure out when I need to bring in a team, hire a coach, or go out to social media for help.
5. So many of my goal failures have been the result of trying to do everything myself.

Bottom line. If you have a difficult goal you want to accomplish, make sure you bring in others to help. It may be a coach, small group, mastermind, or leadership organization.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the bottom end of the graph and see some amazing ways we can change existing habits to do amazing things we never thought possible. We’ll compose some Blended SMARTER Goals. Stay tuned.

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Levels of Motivation: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

Why does goal setting have to be so complicated?

You just want to accomplish a relatively simple goal like weight loss, but then it gets real complicated. You suddenly have to track calories, look at fat grams, watch everything you eat, exercise multiple times a day, go to the gym on a revolving schedule, input your progress in a phone app, and generally set yourself up for failure.

One thing I know. Complicated personal goals do not work over time. Period. (Personal being defined as doing it yourself)

I’ve tried to disprove this simple statement for years, yet every time I think I’ve got a new solution, it fails. I can come up with great and detailed goals with  action plans, worksheets, and colorful graphs, but the more complicated it is the quicker I give it up. That’s not to say I haven’t reached success. But here is the kicker. If I want to accomplish a major goal. I need to bring in other people. That may be a coach, a team, or a crowdsourced resource. They provide insight and motivation to help me get it done.

Those type of major IMPACT goals we’ll look at in a different post.

But for today, if you have a personal goal such as

• Losing a modest amount of weight
• Saving money
• Exercising
• Learning new things
• Giving to others

I have a simple plan for you. It’s based around my idea of SMARTER Goals. I just trimmed the acronym down and made it as easy to follow as possible, while adding an additional tweak that makes them more powerful.

The slimmed down plan is simply called TRIM Goals. TRIM stands for

• Trigger
• Routine
• Insert
• Mix ( Maximize and Monitor work here as well)

The trigger is an action that you take on a routine basis. Some examples

• Getting in the car
• Going to Starbucks
• Coming home from work
• Brushing your teeth

The routine is the current action sequence that follows the trigger.

• Getting in the car: Turn on the radio and listen to music
• Going to Starbucks: Order a Grande Latte
• Coming home from work: Sit on the couch and watch TV
• Brushing your teeth: Brush your teeth-rinse

The insert is another small action we can add to our current routine. Examples

• Make a quick sales call
• Talk to someone new
• Hug your spouse or significant other
• Floss your teeth

The mix is just combining our  basic routine with a small new habit.

The way this works is simple

1. Start with an existing trigger
2. Optimize your existing routine
3. Add another small action or habit to the trigger
4. Write a blended routine including your optimized routine and added habit.
5. Test and maximise the blended routine
6. Monitor your new routine for a while until it becomes a long term habit

So let’s take a quick look how this will work with our four examples above.

1. Getting in the car: Currently you get in the car and turn on the radio every morning on your commute to work. Something that most people do on a daily basis if you drive.  Enjoyable, but not very productive. You optimize the existing routine by listening to audio books instead of the radio. Then you add a small new habit of making a sales call via bluetooth. You blend the combined routine so it works for you. You just write out the new routine in a positive manner… a TRIM Goal is created.
   

   I will make an initial sales call and then listen to productive audio books when I get in the car every morning.

2. Going to Starbucks: Currently you go to Starbucks on your way to work and order a 600 calorie Grande Latte. You decide a rather painless way to lose weight is to modify this routine and replace the Latte with a green tea, which has no calories. You also decide you would like to meet new people, so you tag on a small new goal of talking to someone new each time you go to Starbucks. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will enjoy a delicious green tea every morning at Starbucks and chat with someone new while waiting in line.

3. Coming home from work: Currently you get home tired from the day and sit in front of the TV for an hour before dinner. You decide that you really want to make this routine more productive by writing a book. You also decide that you want to improve the relationship with your wife, so you create a new small habit of kissing her when you get home. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will kiss my wife when I get home from work and write at least 500 words in my new book before dinner.

4. Brushing your teeth: This is something you do before bed every night.  It’s a habit, but unfortunately you only brush for 10 seconds. You modify the routine by buying a new electric toothbrush that has a 90 second timer on it. Then you add a very small routine of flossing 5 teeth. Each time you floss you do different teeth. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will use my new power toothbrush every night before bed and floss five teeth.

So as you can see we have quickly setup some TRIM goals and written them out. This type of goal is easy to setup if you start with some of your existing routines first and then decide on doable modifications and small new habits. Keep the changes small and you’ll find they are really easy to implement.

Maximize and Monitor: Once you have your new goals written out, spend a few days testing them and see if you can make small tweaks to maximize their effectiveness. Once they are working smoothly, monitor them for a few days to make sure they become ingrained habits. Since they are based on current routines, they are not hard to change and the new small habit is easy to add. The key here is to keep things simple.

Reap the Results: If you were to simply implement the four TRIM Goals above, in the period of  one month (four weeks) you would have listened to eight audio books (20 min commute), made twenty sales calls, lost four pounds, made a handful of new acquaintances, have 10,000 words towards your new book, a happier spouse, cleaner teeth, and a lot less unused floss lying around. All with little pain or fuss and few willpower struggles. The nice thing is, after a month of doing these new routines, these have become ingrained habits that will keep on leading you to success, month after month.

Goal Setting Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick
Episode 7: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting

Set a Goal With Our Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Introducing TRIM Goals: The Absolute Easiest Way to Set a Goal and Reach Success appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

Habits are tricky things. Many of the activities we do every day are because of ingrained habits. In many cases we don’t even realize we are doing them. Good or bad, we do them almost automatically. This is where the real power of habit change comes in.  Knowing how they work will empower us to change them for the better.

The three parts of a habit are…

1. Cue or Trigger: Something that fires the habit
2. Routine: The course of action we take after the trigger to get the reward.
3. Reward: The reason we do the action

Example: You get in the car in the morning (Trigger), You turn on the radio (Routine) to enjoy music on your drive to work (Reward).

Figuring out the triggers and rewards can be a challenge at times, but for our purposes here let’s look at some easy triggers

1. Getting out of bed
2. Getting in the car
3. Coming home from work

Now that we have seen some triggers, let’s look at three important facts about habits and see how they work.

1. Researchers have found that it is much easier to change an existing habit than create a new one.
2. It’s easier to change the routine, than the trigger or reward
3. The smaller a new habit is, the easier it is to create

With just these three simple pieces of data we can construct a system that let’s us maximize an existing habit or routine.

1. Start with an existing trigger
2. Optimize your existing routine
3. Add another small action or habit to the trigger
4. Write a blended routine including your optimized routine and added habit.
5. Write it out in a positive statement. Test and maximise the blended routine
6. Monitor your new routine for a while until it becomes a long term habit

So let’s blend-up a couple of examples.

Going to Work

• Trigger: Getting in the Car for the commute to work
• Existing Routine: Turn on the radio and listen to music.
• Modified Routine: Turn on the radio and listen to audio books
• Added Routine: Make one sales call when you get in the car.
• Blended Routine: Make one sales call then listen to audio books
• One Month Outcome: 20 sales calls, listened to 8 audio books

Positive action statement: When getting in the car in the morning, I will make one important bluetooth sales call and then listen to engaging business oriented audio books.

Going to Starbucks

• Trigger: Walking in to Starbucks
• Existing Routine: Ordering a high calorie vente latte (600 cal)
• Modified Routine: Order a black coffee (Save 600 calories)
• Added Routine: Talk to someone new while waiting in line
• Blended Routine: Talk to someone new and order a black coffee
• One Month Outcome: New friends or contacts, lost 4 pounds

Positive Action Statement: When going to Starbucks I will talk with people in line while waiting for a hot coffee.

Modifications: Found that I missed the whipped cream on top of my drink. Started ordering black coffee with whipped topping and added cinnamon to make a delicious drink with only 15 more calories. Found it was easier to build a conversation if I had a business card, book, or other item with me.

Black Coffee with Whipped Cream and Cinnamon

New Blended Statement: When going to Starbucks I will engage in interesting conversation with people in line while waiting for delicious hot coffee with whipped cream and cinnamon.

New Outcome: Basically the same but much more enjoyment along the way

Change Your Life: This new blended habit system is easy to follow with my TRIM Goals Plan.

Trim Goals Plan

• Trigger: Find an existing trigger
• Routine: Modify the existing routine
• Insert: Insert a new small action or routine
• Mix: Create a positive blended action statement

Outcomes: Maximize your existing triggers and add new ones. Easy to create routines that lead to success.

Goal Setting Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick
Episode 7: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting
Episode 8: TRIM Goals: The Easy Way to Set Goals

Set a Goal With Our Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Habit Blend: An Easy Way To Enjoyably Change Your Life appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

I’ve sat through a lot of motivational programs, watched many motivational YouTube videos, and have had many mentors encourage me over the years. Through it all, nothing has motivated me like these four little words.

Four words that actually have been said in many different ways over the years, and by different people.

I wish I could say they should be written down and copied. But really, they shouldn’t.

Sometimes I wish they had never been said, but then I rescind.

You see, these four little words are extremely powerful.

They can cut you down, or in my case, lift you up.

The people speaking had various motives.

But one thing was always true.

They made me mad, and then…

They made me act.

Four little words…

You Can’t Do It!

Sometimes expressed as

No way, it’s impossible!

Other times it was

You’re not smart enough!

Then there was..

You’re crazy, no way!

This one really got me

You are too old!

Or just the old standby

Just give it up!

Four little words, that had I listened and taken them to heart, would have ruined my day. But instead, they motivated me like nothing else. These are better than praise, better than a pat on the back.

They are better because I didn’t believe them.

And I needed to show someone the truth.

The only way to show the truth!

Take action.

That I did!

The post Four Little Words That Motivated Me Like Crazy To Do Impossible Things. appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

10 Goal Setting Quotes

Here are 10 different quotes and viewpoints on setting goals that you may not have heard. While I truly believe in Goal Setting, there are times and circumstances that they may not work or be appropriate.

“Goal setting has been treated like an over-the-counter medication when it should really be treated with more care, as a prescription-strength medication,”  ~ Adam Galinski

Goals Gone Wild

“Most concentrate so hard on the goal that they become blind to other information, utterly failing to notice when a woman in a gorilla suit walks through the middle of the group.”

The Invisible Gorilla

 ”If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them,” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Walden

“Poor goal setting makes people cynical, wastes their time and fosters confusion about where to concentrate actions and energy.” ~ Susan M. Heathfield

The Darker Side of Goal Setting

Clearly envisioned goals motivate you; fuzzy ones frustrate you. ~ Bruce Elkin

Create What Matters Most

When it comes to your goals and future, impulsiveness is the mother of regret. ~ Gary Ryan Blair

Ten Reasons Why People Fail

“The 20 percent of the population that does set goals, roughly 70 percent fail to achieve the goals they have set for themselves.” ~ Douglas Vermeeren

Why People Fail To Achieve Their Goals

“Once we’ve given people excuses and accepted failure, we’re only a short hop, skip, and a jump from creating a culture where failure is expected. ” ~ Ted Harro

Three Reasons Unrealistic Goals Create a Culture of Failure

I cannot think of a single person who has successfully reached his goals and done it all by himself. You need other people’s help, however small it is and in whatever form. ~ Leslie Knowles

12 Ways to Fail in Goal Setting

It’s the ultimate goal setting cop out. “Ahh, I’ll set a goal that’s impossible to gauge! I will never fail because there’s no way I can tell if I’ve failed!” ~ Karol Gajda

Truth. No Consequences

Positive Reasons To Set Goals

5 Visual Goal Setting Quotes
Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

The post 10 Little Known Factors About Goal Setting You May Not Have Heard. appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

I ran into a great post about goal setting from Leo Babauta this morning. In it he suggests that the best goal, is no goal at all. He cites a quote from Emerson…

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a long time goal setter, I’ve always struggled with the rigid constraint of a goal. You set specifics and design action steps, but something always happens along the way.

You get derailed.

Leo addresses this in his article… The problem with goals…

In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps. Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off. And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. And goals are too hard to achieve. So now what?

Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals! Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself.

I’ve found that most goals exceed our motivation to do them. 

This chart shows where the problem lies… We usually set extensive and specific hard-to-do goals that fit clearly in the failure zone of this chart. As a creative, I’ve failed many times here. Leo suggests living a life without goals. He explains it this way… So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals.

You don’t set a goal for the year, nor for the month, nor for the week or day. You don’t obsess about tracking, or actionable steps. You don’t even need a to-do list, though it doesn’t hurt to write down reminders if you like. What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.

And in practice, this is a wonderful thing: you wake up and do what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s usually blogging, but it can be writing a novel or an eBook or my next book or creating a course to help others or connecting with incredible people or spending time with my wife or playing with my kids. There’s no limit, because I’m free.

Never Set Goals?? While I generally share Leo’s idea, I do think it needs some structure. And it ties in with two things I’ve talked about for years..

1. Habit Change
2. The Power of Focused Work

I like to have a general idea of where I’m going, but I like the freedom of spontaneous creativity. In fact, I’ve found that the minute that I get too rigid with my plans, I fail.

Here is a simple solution that has worked over the years for me…

I like to create time based habits based on the Power of 48 minutes. This works very well for items such as blog posts, writing fiction, creating content, or working with social media. It gives me the flexibility to be creative, with the structure to get things done.

Here are a couple of examples how I put it together.

Habit: When I get up in the morning, I’ll do two 48 minute sessions back to back with a 12 minute break in-between. The individual sessions are focused on one item, but I have total freedom to choose the item and choose what to do during the session. For example…

• Session one: Write a blog post
• Session two: Write a chapter for a non-fiction book.

If I get finished, great, if not I set it aside to a following day or time, but I do get things done without distractions. To make this even better, I usually start out the day with a 12 minute session where I write down my top priorities in my daily planner.

Here again, the secret is to be flexible. Once I have the priorities written down, I choose one and plug it into my 48 minute focused work plan.

Structure with flexibility and creative freedom.

I do set longer term goals, such as writing a specific non-fiction book, describe a general outline of a fiction work, or define a product I want to create. But I leave the specific details as open as possible. This allows my creativity to flourish, but has enough structure that I get things done.

Compared to ultra defined goals, this program rocks!

The post Never Set Goals, But Do This Instead appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

They sound like the same thing to me. Determination is merely the kind of stubbornness we like, while ordinary stubbornness is the type we don’t like. If you think someone is stubborn, maybe they’re determined and you’re just jealous of their determination.

Hi, i have put your link in my PR 4 blog.

Yrs is a great blog !!

can u plz tell me how did u put google ads in wordpress. as far as i know, wordpress doesnt allow that.

m going to buy a new domain name and web hosting & m lookin at wordpress as an option but i also want google ads to be shown on my website, that is why i am asking you… thanks in advance

I would not say, stubbornness is negative. It all depends on which angle u wish to view it. Being stubborn can be positive in the sense that you could be ask to go in a direction that u believe is not the right choice. Therefore u resort in the direction that is believe to have a more positive outcome.

You have designed and set the perfect goal for the New Year.

It’s based on an existing habit and you’ve designed a new routine that should be easy to follow. You followed the SMARTER Goals formula, and have written everything out. Now you are just waiting for January 1st to get started. Unfortunately, this goal will fail quickly if you aren’t prepared.

Let’s look at an example, based on the picture above. Let’s write out our SMARTER Goal.

Specific: I will lose ten pounds by making better food choices
Measurable: At the end of each week I will have lost one pound
Actionable: I will reduce my daily calories by 500 each day. 3500/week
Realistic: I will replace junk food with fruits and vegetables.
Time Bound: I will have lost the ten pounds after 10 weeks
Existing Habit: I will replace my fattening treat at Starbucks with Fruit
Routine: I will have my Latte with a banana instead of a scone

On the surface this looks like a great goal. You take your existing routine and make a minor change. It’s only when you do the math and test the actual routine that you run into problems. I’ve set many seat-of-the-pants goals this way over the years, and many have ended in quick failure because of some unseen factors. Let’s take a look at this particular goal and see what might happen.

Our existing routine happens on the way to work and on weekends. We stop every morning at Starbucks for a Latte and a scone or other high calorie pastry. Our goal is to replace the fattening bakery item with lower calorie fruit. Simple.

Day one comes and we go to Starbucks, we are running a little late, and we find they are out of bananas. So we decide to put off starting our goal until the next day. The next day comes and we are really in a hurry, we forget about our goal and automatically order a scone from habit. Day three comes and we try again. Unfortunately the guy in front of us buys the last banana. That scone sounds real good. Our goal soon fails. While it looked good on the napkin we planned it on, the reality was very different.

Let’s look at where we went wrong.

When we setup the goal we knew that a scone has a lot of calories. We figured it had around 500. We knew that fruit was healthy so we somehow decided it had zero calories. In our mind we had figured a 500 calorie deficit.  The day we were planning our goal in Starbucks, they had bananas on the counter. Simple substitution.

Reality was somewhat different.

Researchers have found that

1. We tend to round up or down when we plan out goals
2. View things differently if they have a particular label
3. Often overlook important details.
4. Figure things will stay as they are

In this case we did all four. Lets do the math.

By going to the Starbucks website and looking at nutrition we can see that…

Raspberry Scone: 480 Calories (We rounded-up a little high on this unhealthy item.)
Banana: 105 Calories (Since we viewed this as “healthy” we discounted the calories.)
Caramel Brulee Latte: 580 Calories (We completely overlooked the liquid calories)

So by actually doing the math we find that our morning trip to Starbucks has a huge load of calories. Many that we didn’t figure into the equation.

Current Calories: 1165

Now we have a lot of options:

• Change the Latte to a Black Coffee or Green Tea: -580 Calories
• Change the Scone to a Banana: -375 Calories

If we do both of these we can drop a whopping 1060 calories per day and still have a hot drink and sweet treat (banana) for breakfast.

New Calories: 105

To lose a pound of weight we need to drop 3500 calories. With this change we will drop over 7,000 calories for the week, and actually have a two pound reduction. We can even cheat on the days that bananas aren’t available and still do better than we originally planned.

Here is a realistic revised goal plan that has a much better chance at success.

Specific: I will lose ten pounds by making better food choices
Measurable: At the end of each week I will have lost one pound
Actionable: I will reduce my daily calories by 500 each day. 3500/week
Realistic: I will replace my latte with a black coffee or tea.
Time Bound: I will have lost the ten pounds after 10 weeks
Existing Habit: I will replace my fattening Latte at Starbucks with Coffee
Routine: I will have a no calorie coffee instead of a Latte (banana opt)

By replacing the scone most days with a banana, you’ll insure that your goal will be met. It’s always good to give yourself a buffer.

Important Final Step: If you write your final goal statement out in a positive way, such as “I will enjoy a slimmer me by enjoying a hot coffee and delicious banana everyday at Starbucks,” your mind will “see” success and then fulfill it. Leave out negative language such as lose weight, and the items that you can’t have, otherwise your mind will dwell on them throughout the day. Use the SMARTER Formula for planning, but write out a positive statement to keep in front of you.

My suggestions when planning SMARTER Goals

1. Get accurate data.
2. Do a few trial runs
3. Test and retest different options
4. Plan and write out your final goal in a positive manner.
5. Keep your goal where you can see it.

Nothing can kill your goals faster than inaccurate data, unforeseen obstacles, and forgetting the new routine. With careful and accurate planning, a few trial runs, and a positive written goal kept where you can see it, you’ll be on your way to successfully completing your goals in the New Year.

In upcoming articles we have a Set of Goals that can revolutionize your life along with an extensive toolbox to help you accomplish them. Stay tuned.

The Fight of Your Life: Goals vs. Habits

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals

The post SMARTER Goals: Testing and Fine Tuning appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

Goal Setting Quotes

 Goals need to have an action step. You can write down the best goal on paper, but it’s action that gets them done.

When you write down your goals phrase them in a positive way. Negative phrased goals such as losing weight, not eating brownies, or not watching TV, paint your goal in a negaitive light and are harder to accomplish.

Don’t let other people hijack your life. Set personal goals for yourself and embrace things you want to do in the New Year.

Almost every goal I’ve ever set, has come out differently than I thought it would. Most times, they came out much better than expected.  Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from setting and achieving your goals.

Worthwhile goals always require persistence. Don’t give up before  you reach the finish line.

Question: What is your Favorite Goal Setting Quote

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Other Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

The post 5 Goal Setting Quotes For The New Year appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

One thing that is common to most goal setting systems, including SMART goals, is the time-bound element.

Most goals are set with a deadline for completion. While this is a fundamental structure that allows us to see how we are progressing, it is really an inherent problem in the long haul. For example, how many people have set a weight loss goal for 90 days and done real well, only to gain it all back and then some once the goal was completed.

It’s very common and the statistics aren’t very good. Over 90% of people who go on a diet (weight loss goal) regain it. So, with this in mind, even if our time bound goals are successful, in many cases the results are short lived. The problem is, old habits resurface and doom us to failure.

This is where SMARTER Goals come in. We take the basic SMART Goal structure and add two letters to the end. Lets take a look at the difference between the two. Here is a basic New Year’s SMART Goal to lose ten pounds.

Specific: I will lose ten pounds by making better food choices
Measurable: At the end of each week I will have lost one pound
Actionable: I will reduce my daily calories by 500 each day. 3500/week
Realistic: I will replace junk food with fruits and vegetables.
Time Bound: I will have lost the ten pounds after 10 weeks

If we are successful we will have lost 10 pounds in 10 weeks. But there is nothing here to make that permanent.  In fact, the time bound nature says that our goal is over with after 10 weeks. So then what? For most people, they are relieved that the goal is over and revert slowly back to their old ways of eating.

Let’s look at a better way. Two added Tenets for Smarter Goals

Existing Habit: I will replace my fattening treat at Starbucks with Fruit
Routine: I will have my Latte with a banana instead of a scone

With SMARTER Goals we tie in Goal Setting with Habit Change. We identify an existing habit that we want to change or modify, and then write out a new routine. This does two things. It gives us an easier way to reach our goals, and because we have changed an existing habit, has made the process much more permanent.

In the example above, we have taken an existing habit: Going to Starbucks everyday and having a high calorie treat, and modified it in a subtle way. We replace the high calorie treat we usually have with a banana or other fruit, which has less calories. Since this is an ongoing habit, our change will become permanent. That is the secret of SMARTER Goals: The time bound part is just an initial guide. With a habit change our SMARTER Goal continues on, and so does our weight loss.

In fact, we should change our wording a little.

Let’s change Time Bound to Time Bound Guide and let’s add a caveat to our title. In many cases our SMARTER Goals can easily become SMARTER Goals for Life because we have changed a fundamental long term habit in our lives.

I have some really good news. In the coming week, I’ll share Five SMARTER Goals for Life that you can easily do in the upcoming year that can make a significant difference in these important areas of your daily life.

1. Learning
2. Exercising
3. Eating
4. Saving
5. Giving

Each of these goals can be easily implemented and all tie in with existing habits most people already have. But that’s not all. We’ll add in some important new information on habit change that will supercharge each one of them.
I can’t wait to tell you about our exclusive Habit Blender which will allow you to create powerful blended habits, that are designed just for you.

My team and I are designing a low cost program to go along with this system that will be released later this year, that includes step-by-step instructions, worksheets, instructional videos, and a fully operational Habit Blender, to help you set and accomplish SMARTER Goals that will last a Lifetime. Join us next week for the unveiling, and a special offer just for my blog readers that will help early adopters save 50% off the already low purchase price. Stay tuned!

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post SMARTER Goals for Life appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

I’ve been setting goals for years and have written about goal setting extensively. I’ve also written and published an eBook on goal setting, but through it all I have had one nagging problem.

Goal setting only worked part of the time. I’ve had some amazing, almost impossible goals come to fruition. Yet I’ve had very straightforward SMART goals, laid out to the tee, fail miserably. I’ve also had very simple goals work like a charm, but others seemingly easy ones fail in just a few days.

It always seemed to me that really hard goals worked, and also very simple ones. It was the ones in the middle, the well planned out ones, with a complete plan, that crashed and burned. It wasn’t until I ran into some goal setting research by Stanford professor, Dr. B. J. Fogg that things started to make sense. Once he put up a graph it all clicked. This simple visual showed me clearly what I had experienced for years.

Here is the graph…

The vertical axis represents motivation, from low to high. The horizontal axis represents how hard something is to do, with a declining scale from hard to easy. The yellow represents successful behavior change, while the grey is the failure area.  As you can see from the graph, there are two areas almost touching the axis. They are…

1. High Motivation combined with a task that is hard to do
2. Low Motivation with a task that is easy to do

The middle grey area is the tricky part. If we set a goal to do something very difficult and don’t have enough motivation, we will fail. Conversely, if we have a lot of motivation, but an unchallenging task, we will fail too.

This is exactly what I have experienced in my life. When I have worked with a coach or other motivator on really tough challenges I have seen incredible success.

Here is a short list of some motivated goal successes I have experienced.

• Completing a Triathlon
• Facilitating a Major Conference
• Losing 26 pounds in 12 weeks
• Taking on major leadership positions

Conversely, I have also experienced great success by making small changes to an existing routine or habit. (SMARTER Goals)

• Changed from drinking sugary soda to unsweetened iced tea.
  Lost weight over time.
• Changed from listening to the radio while commuting to audio books.
  Major learning advance
• Changed from using an ATM card to using cash.
  Saved considerable money over time.
• Deposited a small amount in to savings from each paycheck.
  Savings compounded over time.

Here are some of my goal failures. Great intentions, yet in the grey area.

• Trying to prepare for a second Triathlon without a coach
  (less motivation)
• SMART Goal to lose ten pounds
  (Too hard and not big enough to be motivating)
• Trying to blog everyday
  (Too hard and not enough reward)
• Taking on an Organization’s Leadership position I wasn’t motivated to do

I wish I would have had this graph and knowledge years ago. I have wasted considerable time and effort in my life in the grey area. With just some simple tweaks almost everything on my failure list could either have been avoided or modified for success.

Looking at the list above I would make these simple changes

1. Choose a different Triathlon and work with a coach
2. Modify an existing eating habit instead of SMART Goal
3. I wouldn’t have attempted to blog each day
4. Would have bypassed the unchallenging leadership position

Personally this graph is one of the most enlightening tools I’ve run into in my eight years of blogging. It answers a lot of questions I’ve had and will ultimately help me make better decisions. Tomorrow we’ll look at a powerful Motivation gradient and see how it can be plotted accurately in this graph. The resulting chart will allow us to accurately set goals and ultimately plan out our success. Stay tuned.

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Click! appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

When you set a goal, the difference between success and failure often comes down to one simple factor. It’s simply how motivated you are to complete the task.

Levels of Motivation in Football

When we look at motivation, I like to use a Football analogy. Take your average pro football team and your average player. What will motivate that player to success? In the graph above you can see the relative levels of  motivation. They are in link step with how transparent and accountable you are.

There are five levels listed

1. Coach: This person knows you inside out. They also hold you accountable. A good coach will make or break a player and a team.
2. Team: Having good teammates and working as a team will help you succeed. Accountability and transparency are high.
3. Crowd: The roar of the crowd can help motivate you to success. However, crowds can be unpredictable. They can easy turn on you.
4. Television or other Media: Doing well on TV can be a motivator, but when you are on the field, you are far removed from the screen.
5. Subconscious: You would think that your own mind would be your greatest motivator, but for most people this just isn’t true. You are far more likely to let yourself off the hook than any of the others.

Let’s look at how these line up on our Goal Chart from yesterday’s post.

Common Levels of Motivation

Our expertise makes our tasks easier over time. The more we know, the more likely we are to move to success.  As we can see the danger level is in the focused area in middle.  I’ve been here so many times in my life. I get started, dead focused on the task, but I’m unable to finish the project because the level of complexity made it much harder to do than I expected. Motivation waned, and I usually gave up. For success, I really needed to bring in others and use their expertise and motivation. When I’ve been part of a team, or hired a coach, the project usually gets completed.

The low end of the graph is where simple habit change comes in. The simpler the change of routine is, the more likely we are to see success. When I have made simple changes to existing habits, they work almost like magic.

Let me give you an example of  both ends of this graph and how they affected me.

Back in 2008, I set a goal to write my first fiction book. I had never written fiction before, so to complete the writing and get a finished book would take a lot of motivation and expertise. Here is how it worked out for me.

The first round went like this…

• Ingrained habit: I currently wrote non-fiction blog posts for two hours, first thing in the morning
• Habit Change: I changed to writing fiction instead of non fiction in the morning.
• Results: A first attempt at fiction. 80,000 words in four months.

The first round went rather well. I had an ingrained habit already created of writing from 4am to 6am. I just changed the habit from writing blog posts, to writing fiction.  At first it was a little clumsy, but I learned quickly along the way. My first draft was OK, but certainly not where I wanted it. This is where the project would have stopped had I not brought in a writing coach.

The second round went this way

• My writing coach took five chapters at a time, made corrections and offered suggestions.
• She took my clunky sentences and worked magic. The edited prose was very motivational.
• I learned from her at each step and made her suggested corrections, motivated to get better as I went.
• I compiled the final edit, and had beta readers comment. It actually sounded good.

My takeaways for developing a successful goal setting strategy.

1. Changing an ingrained morning habit made the initial writing easy. I just wrote fictional stories, instead of blog posts.
2. My goal would have ended at the first draft had I not brought in a writing coach. I didn’t have the expertise or the motivation to finish without her.
3. The more I learned about writing fiction, the easier it became to write well and the more motivated I was to edit and finish the book.
4. I need to use this graph to figure out when I need to bring in a team, hire a coach, or go out to social media for help.
5. So many of my goal failures have been the result of trying to do everything myself.

Bottom line. If you have a difficult goal you want to accomplish, make sure you bring in others to help. It may be a coach, small group, mastermind, or leadership organization.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the bottom end of the graph and see some amazing ways we can change existing habits to do amazing things we never thought possible. We’ll compose some Blended SMARTER Goals. Stay tuned.

SMARTER Goals Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick

Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Levels of Motivation: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

Why does goal setting have to be so complicated?

You just want to accomplish a relatively simple goal like weight loss, but then it gets real complicated. You suddenly have to track calories, look at fat grams, watch everything you eat, exercise multiple times a day, go to the gym on a revolving schedule, input your progress in a phone app, and generally set yourself up for failure.

One thing I know. Complicated personal goals do not work over time. Period. (Personal being defined as doing it yourself)

I’ve tried to disprove this simple statement for years, yet every time I think I’ve got a new solution, it fails. I can come up with great and detailed goals with  action plans, worksheets, and colorful graphs, but the more complicated it is the quicker I give it up. That’s not to say I haven’t reached success. But here is the kicker. If I want to accomplish a major goal. I need to bring in other people. That may be a coach, a team, or a crowdsourced resource. They provide insight and motivation to help me get it done.

Those type of major IMPACT goals we’ll look at in a different post.

But for today, if you have a personal goal such as

• Losing a modest amount of weight
• Saving money
• Exercising
• Learning new things
• Giving to others

I have a simple plan for you. It’s based around my idea of SMARTER Goals. I just trimmed the acronym down and made it as easy to follow as possible, while adding an additional tweak that makes them more powerful.

The slimmed down plan is simply called TRIM Goals. TRIM stands for

• Trigger
• Routine
• Insert
• Mix ( Maximize and Monitor work here as well)

The trigger is an action that you take on a routine basis. Some examples

• Getting in the car
• Going to Starbucks
• Coming home from work
• Brushing your teeth

The routine is the current action sequence that follows the trigger.

• Getting in the car: Turn on the radio and listen to music
• Going to Starbucks: Order a Grande Latte
• Coming home from work: Sit on the couch and watch TV
• Brushing your teeth: Brush your teeth-rinse

The insert is another small action we can add to our current routine. Examples

• Make a quick sales call
• Talk to someone new
• Hug your spouse or significant other
• Floss your teeth

The mix is just combining our  basic routine with a small new habit.

The way this works is simple

1. Start with an existing trigger
2. Optimize your existing routine
3. Add another small action or habit to the trigger
4. Write a blended routine including your optimized routine and added habit.
5. Test and maximise the blended routine
6. Monitor your new routine for a while until it becomes a long term habit

So let’s take a quick look how this will work with our four examples above.

1. Getting in the car: Currently you get in the car and turn on the radio every morning on your commute to work. Something that most people do on a daily basis if you drive.  Enjoyable, but not very productive. You optimize the existing routine by listening to audio books instead of the radio. Then you add a small new habit of making a sales call via bluetooth. You blend the combined routine so it works for you. You just write out the new routine in a positive manner… a TRIM Goal is created.
   

   I will make an initial sales call and then listen to productive audio books when I get in the car every morning.

2. Going to Starbucks: Currently you go to Starbucks on your way to work and order a 600 calorie Grande Latte. You decide a rather painless way to lose weight is to modify this routine and replace the Latte with a green tea, which has no calories. You also decide you would like to meet new people, so you tag on a small new goal of talking to someone new each time you go to Starbucks. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will enjoy a delicious green tea every morning at Starbucks and chat with someone new while waiting in line.

3. Coming home from work: Currently you get home tired from the day and sit in front of the TV for an hour before dinner. You decide that you really want to make this routine more productive by writing a book. You also decide that you want to improve the relationship with your wife, so you create a new small habit of kissing her when you get home. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will kiss my wife when I get home from work and write at least 500 words in my new book before dinner.

4. Brushing your teeth: This is something you do before bed every night.  It’s a habit, but unfortunately you only brush for 10 seconds. You modify the routine by buying a new electric toothbrush that has a 90 second timer on it. Then you add a very small routine of flossing 5 teeth. Each time you floss you do different teeth. You blend the new routine so it works for you and write it out in a positive manner.
   

   I will use my new power toothbrush every night before bed and floss five teeth.

So as you can see we have quickly setup some TRIM goals and written them out. This type of goal is easy to setup if you start with some of your existing routines first and then decide on doable modifications and small new habits. Keep the changes small and you’ll find they are really easy to implement.

Maximize and Monitor: Once you have your new goals written out, spend a few days testing them and see if you can make small tweaks to maximize their effectiveness. Once they are working smoothly, monitor them for a few days to make sure they become ingrained habits. Since they are based on current routines, they are not hard to change and the new small habit is easy to add. The key here is to keep things simple.

Reap the Results: If you were to simply implement the four TRIM Goals above, in the period of  one month (four weeks) you would have listened to eight audio books (20 min commute), made twenty sales calls, lost four pounds, made a handful of new acquaintances, have 10,000 words towards your new book, a happier spouse, cleaner teeth, and a lot less unused floss lying around. All with little pain or fuss and few willpower struggles. The nice thing is, after a month of doing these new routines, these have become ingrained habits that will keep on leading you to success, month after month.

Goal Setting Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick
Episode 7: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting

Set a Goal With Our Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Introducing TRIM Goals: The Absolute Easiest Way to Set a Goal and Reach Success appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

Habits are tricky things. Many of the activities we do every day are because of ingrained habits. In many cases we don’t even realize we are doing them. Good or bad, we do them almost automatically. This is where the real power of habit change comes in.  Knowing how they work will empower us to change them for the better.

The three parts of a habit are…

1. Cue or Trigger: Something that fires the habit
2. Routine: The course of action we take after the trigger to get the reward.
3. Reward: The reason we do the action

Example: You get in the car in the morning (Trigger), You turn on the radio (Routine) to enjoy music on your drive to work (Reward).

Figuring out the triggers and rewards can be a challenge at times, but for our purposes here let’s look at some easy triggers

1. Getting out of bed
2. Getting in the car
3. Coming home from work

Now that we have seen some triggers, let’s look at three important facts about habits and see how they work.

1. Researchers have found that it is much easier to change an existing habit than create a new one.
2. It’s easier to change the routine, than the trigger or reward
3. The smaller a new habit is, the easier it is to create

With just these three simple pieces of data we can construct a system that let’s us maximize an existing habit or routine.

1. Start with an existing trigger
2. Optimize your existing routine
3. Add another small action or habit to the trigger
4. Write a blended routine including your optimized routine and added habit.
5. Write it out in a positive statement. Test and maximise the blended routine
6. Monitor your new routine for a while until it becomes a long term habit

So let’s blend-up a couple of examples.

Going to Work

• Trigger: Getting in the Car for the commute to work
• Existing Routine: Turn on the radio and listen to music.
• Modified Routine: Turn on the radio and listen to audio books
• Added Routine: Make one sales call when you get in the car.
• Blended Routine: Make one sales call then listen to audio books
• One Month Outcome: 20 sales calls, listened to 8 audio books

Positive action statement: When getting in the car in the morning, I will make one important bluetooth sales call and then listen to engaging business oriented audio books.

Going to Starbucks

• Trigger: Walking in to Starbucks
• Existing Routine: Ordering a high calorie vente latte (600 cal)
• Modified Routine: Order a black coffee (Save 600 calories)
• Added Routine: Talk to someone new while waiting in line
• Blended Routine: Talk to someone new and order a black coffee
• One Month Outcome: New friends or contacts, lost 4 pounds

Positive Action Statement: When going to Starbucks I will talk with people in line while waiting for a hot coffee.

Modifications: Found that I missed the whipped cream on top of my drink. Started ordering black coffee with whipped topping and added cinnamon to make a delicious drink with only 15 more calories. Found it was easier to build a conversation if I had a business card, book, or other item with me.

Black Coffee with Whipped Cream and Cinnamon

New Blended Statement: When going to Starbucks I will engage in interesting conversation with people in line while waiting for delicious hot coffee with whipped cream and cinnamon.

New Outcome: Basically the same but much more enjoyment along the way

Change Your Life: This new blended habit system is easy to follow with my TRIM Goals Plan.

Trim Goals Plan

• Trigger: Find an existing trigger
• Routine: Modify the existing routine
• Insert: Insert a new small action or routine
• Mix: Create a positive blended action statement

Outcomes: Maximize your existing triggers and add new ones. Easy to create routines that lead to success.

Goal Setting Can Help You Find Success

Episode 1: Goals Vs. Habits
Episode 2: Fight Training
Episode 3: SMARTER Goals
Episode 4: Testing & Fine Tuning Your Goals
Episode 5: SMARTER Goals for Life
Episode 6: This Simple Graph Made Goal Setting Stick
Episode 7: The Secret of Successful Goal Setting
Episode 8: TRIM Goals: The Easy Way to Set Goals

Set a Goal With Our Free Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting Toolkit
Goal Setting Worksheet

Goal Setting Ebook

Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals for Success

Goal Setting Quotes

Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

Five Goal Setting InfoPics

The post Habit Blend: An Easy Way To Enjoyably Change Your Life appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

I’ve sat through a lot of motivational programs, watched many motivational YouTube videos, and have had many mentors encourage me over the years. Through it all, nothing has motivated me like these four little words.

Four words that actually have been said in many different ways over the years, and by different people.

I wish I could say they should be written down and copied. But really, they shouldn’t.

Sometimes I wish they had never been said, but then I rescind.

You see, these four little words are extremely powerful.

They can cut you down, or in my case, lift you up.

The people speaking had various motives.

But one thing was always true.

They made me mad, and then…

They made me act.

Four little words…

You Can’t Do It!

Sometimes expressed as

No way, it’s impossible!

Other times it was

You’re not smart enough!

Then there was..

You’re crazy, no way!

This one really got me

You are too old!

Or just the old standby

Just give it up!

Four little words, that had I listened and taken them to heart, would have ruined my day. But instead, they motivated me like nothing else. These are better than praise, better than a pat on the back.

They are better because I didn’t believe them.

And I needed to show someone the truth.

The only way to show the truth!

Take action.

That I did!

The post Four Little Words That Motivated Me Like Crazy To Do Impossible Things. appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

10 Goal Setting Quotes

Here are 10 different quotes and viewpoints on setting goals that you may not have heard. While I truly believe in Goal Setting, there are times and circumstances that they may not work or be appropriate.

“Goal setting has been treated like an over-the-counter medication when it should really be treated with more care, as a prescription-strength medication,”  ~ Adam Galinski

Goals Gone Wild

“Most concentrate so hard on the goal that they become blind to other information, utterly failing to notice when a woman in a gorilla suit walks through the middle of the group.”

The Invisible Gorilla

 ”If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them,” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Walden

“Poor goal setting makes people cynical, wastes their time and fosters confusion about where to concentrate actions and energy.” ~ Susan M. Heathfield

The Darker Side of Goal Setting

Clearly envisioned goals motivate you; fuzzy ones frustrate you. ~ Bruce Elkin

Create What Matters Most

When it comes to your goals and future, impulsiveness is the mother of regret. ~ Gary Ryan Blair

Ten Reasons Why People Fail

“The 20 percent of the population that does set goals, roughly 70 percent fail to achieve the goals they have set for themselves.” ~ Douglas Vermeeren

Why People Fail To Achieve Their Goals

“Once we’ve given people excuses and accepted failure, we’re only a short hop, skip, and a jump from creating a culture where failure is expected. ” ~ Ted Harro

Three Reasons Unrealistic Goals Create a Culture of Failure

I cannot think of a single person who has successfully reached his goals and done it all by himself. You need other people’s help, however small it is and in whatever form. ~ Leslie Knowles

12 Ways to Fail in Goal Setting

It’s the ultimate goal setting cop out. “Ahh, I’ll set a goal that’s impossible to gauge! I will never fail because there’s no way I can tell if I’ve failed!” ~ Karol Gajda

Truth. No Consequences

Positive Reasons To Set Goals

5 Visual Goal Setting Quotes
Inspirational Goal Setting Quotes

The post 10 Little Known Factors About Goal Setting You May Not Have Heard. appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson

I ran into a great post about goal setting from Leo Babauta this morning. In it he suggests that the best goal, is no goal at all. He cites a quote from Emerson…

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a long time goal setter, I’ve always struggled with the rigid constraint of a goal. You set specifics and design action steps, but something always happens along the way.

You get derailed.

Leo addresses this in his article… The problem with goals…

In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps. Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off. And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. And goals are too hard to achieve. So now what?

Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals! Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself.

I’ve found that most goals exceed our motivation to do them. 

This chart shows where the problem lies… We usually set extensive and specific hard-to-do goals that fit clearly in the failure zone of this chart. As a creative, I’ve failed many times here. Leo suggests living a life without goals. He explains it this way… So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals.

You don’t set a goal for the year, nor for the month, nor for the week or day. You don’t obsess about tracking, or actionable steps. You don’t even need a to-do list, though it doesn’t hurt to write down reminders if you like. What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.

And in practice, this is a wonderful thing: you wake up and do what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s usually blogging, but it can be writing a novel or an eBook or my next book or creating a course to help others or connecting with incredible people or spending time with my wife or playing with my kids. There’s no limit, because I’m free.

Never Set Goals?? While I generally share Leo’s idea, I do think it needs some structure. And it ties in with two things I’ve talked about for years..

1. Habit Change
2. The Power of Focused Work

I like to have a general idea of where I’m going, but I like the freedom of spontaneous creativity. In fact, I’ve found that the minute that I get too rigid with my plans, I fail.

Here is a simple solution that has worked over the years for me…

I like to create time based habits based on the Power of 48 minutes. This works very well for items such as blog posts, writing fiction, creating content, or working with social media. It gives me the flexibility to be creative, with the structure to get things done.

Here are a couple of examples how I put it together.

Habit: When I get up in the morning, I’ll do two 48 minute sessions back to back with a 12 minute break in-between. The individual sessions are focused on one item, but I have total freedom to choose the item and choose what to do during the session. For example…

• Session one: Write a blog post
• Session two: Write a chapter for a non-fiction book.

If I get finished, great, if not I set it aside to a following day or time, but I do get things done without distractions. To make this even better, I usually start out the day with a 12 minute session where I write down my top priorities in my daily planner.

Here again, the secret is to be flexible. Once I have the priorities written down, I choose one and plug it into my 48 minute focused work plan.

Structure with flexibility and creative freedom.

I do set longer term goals, such as writing a specific non-fiction book, describe a general outline of a fiction work, or define a product I want to create. But I leave the specific details as open as possible. This allows my creativity to flourish, but has enough structure that I get things done.

Compared to ultra defined goals, this program rocks!

The post Never Set Goals, But Do This Instead appeared first on Personal Success Today by John Richardson