You Can be Great If You Really Want To

A 7th century Arabian genius once said, “Success is the result of foresight and resolution, foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning, and the most important factor of planning is to keep your secrets to yourself”. The name of this genius was Ali Ibn Abi Thalib, one of the most illustrious, noblest and brilliant leaders of the continent-sweeping Islamic civilisation that was left behind by the Prophet Muhammad.

However, it is not the object of this article to discuss a religious figure or the history of a civilisation. The quote provided above is to set the impetus for the rest of this article.

“Success is the result of foresight and resolution, foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning, and the most important factor of planning is to keep your secrets to yourself”.

It is impossible and illogical by definition and reality to achieve any measure of success without any thought, planning or goal setting put into it. Any attainment that is borne out of randomness and chance is not to be regarded a success at all, just as a momentous lottery winning should not be called an achievement.

The achievement of a goal, by definition, requires that there be an element of conscious planning and subsequent effort put into it, because a goal is a purpose that any person, entity or enterprise is working consciously towards. No matter how vague or clear the goal is, some degree of planning, implementation, tracking and refinement is definitely involved.

If you are to observe the life stories of achievers either in your lifetime or in history, you would realise that the truth about their success can be attributed to a number of very common, universal, timeless and unchanging factors – or principles.

These undying principles are universally applicable to almost every area or field of endeavour, from industry to academia, from the ivory towers of the corporate world to the warmth, comfort and safety of a nursery. Changes and challenges that are developing in the world neither add to nor subtract from the validity of these principles, they only serve to create permutations and evolutions in the application of them and not the essence.

Now, what are these principles exactly? Here I shall be listing a few of my findings -

1. The greatest achievers are driven by a huge, humongous, all-consuming Vision either for their lives or for the world. They view the world as a perfect playing field to manifest and make concrete their visionary ideas and are often driven by this vision, whether or not they are consciously aware of it from moment to moment.

2. They set targets and objectives that are in alignment with this grand vision of theirs. They also have the discipline to reject and ignore so-called opportunities, developments, innovations and temptations that are not in alignment with their great vision, often creating enemies because of this. Nevertheless, those who stayed faithful to these achievers and their vision prove themselves worthy as true friends and partners in bringing about their visions to reality.

3. They seek out the best possible methods to accomplish what they seek, never settling for mediocrity or lackadaisical efforts. To these achievers, the terms ‘laziness’ or ‘hard work’ are concepts foreign to them. What they are driven by is their vision and the goals they must achieve in order to meet that vision. Whatever it takes to accomplish those targets of theirs, they will accept, and although they are humans too and can feel exhaustion, they do not view the necessary work as something to dread, but something to live with, even enjoy.

4. The great achievers are constantly learning. They learn from their mistakes, from other people’s mistakes, from their observations of the necessary goal-attaining processes in which they are engrossed.

5. They do not stop at simply learning, they also put their learnings into action, dynamically and consistently refining their methods in real-time. Sometimes the growth and improvements they obtain from their gradual evolutions borne out of their learnings can be very minimal, sometimes they may achieve tremendous improvement, even breakthrough.

But in their minds, they do not discriminate between small improvements and big improvements, neither obsessing over making huge improvements nor being content with only small improvements. All sizes and manners of growth are welcomed by them.

If all the goal setting secrets of the greatest achievers could be condensed into a handful of principles, the 5 listed above would suffice. Every other discussion of planning, thinking, programming, intending, organising, managing or controlling are simply corollaries of the above 5 principles.

The literature, which supports the effectiveness of proper goal setting, is overwhelming. I must emphasize however the words ‘proper goal setting.’ The small percentage of people who do set goals, do so incorrectly which is why over half of people who make New Year’s Resolutions abandoned them after three months. One of the biggest problems for people in the goal setting process is that they fail to set measurable goals. Take for example the following list of some of the most popular goals set by people.

• Spend more time with family.

• Get in shape

• Have more fun

Proper Goal Setting requires your goals to be measurable.

These are all great ideas but they are not goals. Remember when you went to the family reunion and someone had set up the volleyball net. Slowly more and more people made their way over to the court while you rallied and played around. After a period of time, rallying gets boring an inevitably someone says, “let’s play for real.” Suddenly the game changes. Now you have people getting in their ready stance, positioning becomes important, people start diving for balls and arguing whose ball that was that just landed in between them. What changed to make people behave differently? The ball is the same, the court is the same, even the people are the same. What changed was the fact that now you are measuring. Now as you count points, effort matters. At the end of the game there will be a winner and a loser.

The principle is true for all areas of life. If you really want to change something then you must measure it. Another way to look at this is whatever you measure, you focus on, and what you focus on you change. When you engage in goal setting, you have to set goals that can be measured.

Lets take a look again at the goal ‘Spend more time with family.’ How are we going to measure this? How will we know when we have reached the desired amount of time to deem ‘successful’? We need to break this down and ask ourselves, what does this goal look like? I once had a goal setting session where I set a goal resembling ‘Spend more time with family.’ My family helped me out by defining it for me. This is what they said:

• Stay off the computer between 5:00pm and 8:00pm

• Take my wife on a date every other week.

• Once a week have a one-on-one with one of the kids.

Now I had something I could measure. At the end of a few months I could even give you a percentage of how I had done. My family was not looking for perfection here but improvement. If I could show my family that 80% of the time I had done what they had asked, they would certainly determine that to be successful. My family really helped me out that day in my goal setting process.

What about the goal ‘Get in shape’ what does that look like? Last I checked ’round’ was a shape but I don’t think that’s the shape you are talking about. If this is one of your goals you have to break this down into something you can measure. Is it a certain weight you want to reach, inches you want to lose, a cholesterol number you want to get to, a blood pressure reading you want to lower? After you have defined what ‘Shape’ is then you have to set some measurable goals that are going to get you there. They might be things like exercise for 45 minutes three times a week, or stick to my meal plan everyday, or cut out all junk food. Make sure you goal setting is as practical as possible.

Now let’s take a look at the last goal to ‘Have more fun.’ Again, how will you know when you have reached this? Last time I checked there was no such thing as a Fun-Meter, which you could hook yourself up to and get a reading. First of all what activities are fun for you? Once you determine that then do some goal setting to motivate you to do those activities more often. Lets say hanging out with friends is what really gets you jazzed, then set some goals for times with friends every month. You might want to set aside two Saturdays each month for entertaining guests and designate one weeknight as movie night where you go and check out the latest movies. Goal setting in the areas of things like time with friends may seem a bit weird, but if it helps you build some new habits, it is worth it.

The secret is to make your goals measurable otherwise they are not really goals at all but rather good intentions. But if you take the time to find a way to measure your goals and create the supporting steps to help get you there, in no time at all you will experience incredible success in your life. Remember that your goal setting must be measurable.

Its amazing and magical how creative visualization works to make success for the he person who is visualizing. Yes, its magic ” totally natural magic and one of the most superb aspects of being a human being!

What is Magic? Magic is just understanding and getting in tune with the natural principles that govern our universe, and using those principles in a consciously creative way. Focus, visual focus is the key to success and Id like to take a few minutes to explain it to you.

How is Creative Visualization going to Work

Lets recapitulate how Creative Visualization works, by looking at 5 Universal principles:

1. The physical universe is made up of energy, (Law of Physics).

2. Energy is a magnetic force in nature (Law of Physics)

3. Equivalent energies attraction to each other (like attracts like-Universal Law of Attraction)

4. Form follows brainwork. Form/physical substance is created by thought/ mental energy. (Einstein)

5. Visualizing something creates a focus – a thought form, from your mind ” to Universal mind. (What you focus on. amplifies.)

6. Whatever you put out to the Universe will be get back to you. (What goes around comes around!)

The Four Basic Steps for Effective Creative Visualization

1. Set your objetive ” Tell yourself what you want

2. Create a clear idea or picture ” Imagine looking the way you want to look! See the goal achieved! With this close your eyes and see it in your minds eye many times a day. Feel your desire intensely.

3. Focus on it as much as possible

4. Give it positive energy. Think only good about it, feel only positive feelings.

Work this process until you achieve your goal, or you dont want it anymore. Goals often change before they manifest. If you lose interest, it usually means you need another goal.

Now, you too, can break through the barriers, remove all barriers in your life, have achievements, enjoy wellness, experience awesome levels of happiness, feel a motivational spirit within, develop more self motivation, motivate yourself and others, improve your health, be more healthy than ever before, feel inspiration day, inspire others, know the secrets of life, and achieve your own potential. Taianna Camarado is a personal life coach and trainer. Her Amazing E-book contains recipes and audios to help you take control of your life and dramatically improve your mind and body today.

Wouldn’t you like to Live an Amazing Life?Live an Amazing Life Master life in only 30 days and Live an Amazing Life! Live an Amazing Life Isn’t it time for you to live an Amazing Life? Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.