If you have a great list of Goals to support your exciting Vision, but you’re just not sure what to do next, join us for a lesson in goal architecture. Follow the system and your goals will be on-target every time!

PURPOSE is what you’re created for;

MISSION is what you’re meant to do about it;

VISIONS are the evidence.

GOALS are the means of achievement.

You’re probably well on your way to tapping into the artist in you and you’re creating amazing dream canvases and recording them. You’re making sure to nurture your vision and keep your passion alive. And you’re excited and anxious to get on with it.

In a garden, where you might have a pond or a rose arbor in a corner you would probably have a carefully laid stepping stone path to guide you there. Goals are the carefully laid stepping stones on which you will walk right into the reality of your Vision. They are the difference between attaining a brilliant vision and disappointment.

Our culture is extremely goal-oriented, particularly at the beginning of each New Year (i.e. resolutions). Most of these goals go unrealized, unachieved, for the simple reason that frequently they just don’t lead anywhere.

Though many are worthwhile, these goals amount to the same thing as planning a lovely flagstone path, lined with flowers – – guiding you nowhere. Goals must be part of an overall plan, one piece in a process that begins with understanding your Purpose, discerning your Mission and taking the time to create vibrant Visions. Without these, your goals, regardless of how carefully you lay them out, have no purpose, no direction.

If you’ve been following along with us in the process of bringing your dreams into reality, you’ve arrived at the crossroad separating the dreamer from the true visionary (see Become A Visionary – Tapping Into the Artist in You, an earlier article in this series). You have reached the point of designing On-Target Goals and you may even have begun, finding it labor-intensive, to say the least!

Be encouraged. As with all processes, if you stay with the plan, remaining focused and taking it one step at a time, it’s completely manageable. How do you eat an elephant? Goals are accomplished the same way – one bite at a time.

If you’re a true visionary, and you’ve taken sufficient time to paint a truly vibrant and brilliant Vision inside you, and you continue to nurture the Vision (See Nurturing the Vision from the last issue of The Commonsense Communique), you will have stoked the fires of your passion and the confidence it generates. The pressing need to see the dream realized will keep you focused. During the process of designing and implementing your goals, do not hesitate to take time to step back into your Vision now and again and walk around in it for awhile.

If you haven’t yet identified the 7 steps, the tools to insure that each dream manifests in a better reality, now is the time. Goal design is the work of an architect and it’s time to sit down at the drawing board. It is bringing those Visions which above and beyond the norm into the realm of reality, utilizing the tools of the real world, and changing the real world in the process.

Begin by listing the goals you believe will draw the vision closer to reality. Depending on its scope, each Vision will probably have no less than 6 goals, in order to see it realized. Think in small, manageable increments.

You’re far more likely to realize your plan with many bite-sized goals than you will with fewer all-inclusive goals. For example, if your goal is a completely reorganized closet, which plan are you more likely to accomplish – without stalling?

Plan A

1. Remove and sort current closet contents, arranging for disposal & pickup

2. Research and purchase closet organizer system

3. Choose paint color, purchase and paint closet

4. Replace closet contents

Plan B

1. Determine the purpose of your reorganized closet

2. Make several drawings of your desired end result and choose one

3. Develop a budget

4. Remove closet contents

5. Sort contents into 3 groups, TOSS, SAVE & GIVEAWAY

6. Package and arrange for pickup of giveaway items

7. Make a list of organizer resources using Yellow Pages and Internet

8. Request catalogs and begin to visit stores to price desired units

9. Etc.

As you work through the design process, be open to reprioritizing at every step. How might you rearrange Plan B to better suit your own way of operating? Stay with the process and employ an accountability partner to help keep you motivated, especially if the scope of your Vision is somewhat daunting with numerous goals that require entering new territory.

Bon voyage – the journey has begun!

Copyright 2006 So-lu’shunz Management Services

Karin Syren, CTACC, is a Life and Leadership Coach specializing in the EffectivenessCoachingTM process. She helps leaders at all levels to increase their personal and professional effectiveness by guiding them through the process of learning to live more powerful and significant lives. If you want to discover what makes you unique and how to form your future around it, join Karin for Discovering Your Purpose Program. Register at solushunz.com solushunz.com

Just a second ago, I picked up some paperwork my lawyer asked me to fill out.

This is normally the stuff that induces me to procrastinate, but not today.

Hmm, why is today different? I asked myself.

Answer: Immediately after getting dressed this morning, I attacked a counter full of silverware and dirty dishes, and loaded them into the dishwasher. I know, this doesn’t seem like much to do, and it isn’t.

That’s not the point.

It is an accomplishment, nonetheless, and it has given me some momentum. That’s the whole idea that I want to share with you.

You might take out the trash, first thing, as your way of getting at least one constructive thing out of the way. Or, consider feeding the dog or cat.

What you don’t want is to sit down and slowly think about everything you need to get done today. That can seem too daunting, and in my experience, that sort of planning should have been done last night.

Eyes hardly open, staggering from too little oxygen in the brain, start doing something that is nearly robotic, such as the tasks that I’ve outlined, above. Stay away from operating heavy equipment like forklifts, and vacuum cleaners.

Then, you’ll be ready to face those tasks that REALLY need your clear-eyed, energetic attention!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com/ Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: mailto:gary@customersatisfaction.com gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a bad situation where most of what was happening was not your fault?

You and I know that most of what happens to us is of our own design. We cannot make a car payment because we spent too much on vacation. We have a disobedient child because we refuse to follow any proper parenting guidelines. We have trouble with our boss at work because we refuse to walk in grace and submission. We have a fight with our spouse (or children) and make a conscious decision to stand on some crazy principle that just makes things worse. I am not talking about those kinds of situations.

I am thinking more about the situation where you are promised a specific thing from someone for 7-years of service and then when your time is up they trick you into taking something else. Yet, you still want that other item because it is beautiful and you love it. So the owner of that item agrees to give it to you if you work another 7-years.

It would be like being a business partner who is promised a huge bonus and a share in the company after 7-years. When the seven years are over you are tricked and offered a manager’s position with an option to work another 7-years for what was already promised after the first 7-years.

We would sue them. We would be furious. We would leave the company. There is no way we could be blessed in this type of situation.

Sheer trickery!

It is the story of Jacob. It is the Jacob who loved Rachel but was tricked, after 7-years, into marrying her sister Leah. It is the Jacob who then agreed to work another 7-years for his father-in-law Laban so that he could marry Rachel (read Genesis 29-30).

And it never says that Jacob was angry. Jacob did not leave the country to go back home and he was abundantly blessed in a bad situation not of his making.

In the middle of these circumstances, however, Jacob was extremely blessed. Jacob was the father of 12-sons and a daughter. He was greatly successful in his business endeavors. In fact, so successful that he became wealthier than Laban for whom he worked.

In the middle of a bad situation God continues to bless us. It is simply who He is. The painful situation that Jacob was in developed in him strength of character that he did not have before.

Do you remember that Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the family blessing instead of his older brother Esau? Back at home Jacob had a brother who hated him. Esau vowed to revenge Jacob’s deceitful act but during Jacob’s time in the desert God softened the heart of Esau so that when they were reunited there was peace instead of war.

God does not need the palace to prosper us. God does not need us to be in a good situation to bless us. God is not dependent upon the perfect set of circumstances to work His will in our lives.

Joseph was blessed and rose to the top of the empire while still an Egyptian captive never to be free again. Daniel was in the same situation—a foreigner who depended upon God and found great favor in the eyes of his captors which led to incredible access to kings and personal success.

Jesus, the Savior of our souls, was born into a people ruled by Romans and into an area occupied by an enemy army. Even in the midst of uncontrollable circumstances God can use us, bless us, and give us a life of peace.

You can bet on it.

Everyone has goals in life; whether it ranges from owning a bigger television set to becoming a president of an important everyday multi-million dollars business, these goals need to thoroughly thought, defined and written down. Thinking about them is just not enough, they need to be put in motion; everyday, you need to set your steps down so that you walk closer and closer to your final goal. The path of achievement may only be part of the battle, but you will soon discover that you do not need to be a genius to be efficiently planning your goals.

Self-Esteem

It may sound like a corny and simple way to start the article, but this does not make the lesson of Self-Esteem less valuable. If you do not believe that you can achieve extremely impressive goals, then the chances are that you will indeed fail, since you didn’t even believe in yourself. A good portion of the fight to the top requires you to actually rage war on the mental side of your very own brain; you do need to believe that you can achieve your goal. If you want to have a fighting chance, you do have to start believing that you are wise enough and well prepared, if you do not believe that you can do it, then you will never be able to have the drive nor the strength to carry yourself until the end of your journey. Furthermore, if you are not even interested in your own projects and that your goals require you to impress or recruit other people then how are they supposed to be interested in them?

Becoming your own Master

This title does not imply quitting your job and becoming self-employed. Unless your goal does target becoming self-employed, this article is in no way telling you to quit it. What the title “Becoming your own Master” means, is simply another extension to the previous paragraph. If you have the self esteem required to continue on, you still need to get a grip on your life. If your goal is quite big, then you should be aware that your everyday routine is not-good; you need to become the master of your life and routine and not have the routine be the master of you. You need to take the initiative, and start walking toward your goal instead of thinking that your goal will magically come closer to you, if you stay there doing nothing.

Your Brain Will Not Hold Everything

Even if you are the world’s most intelligent man, you cannot assume and believe that your entire plan will be perfect if it stays within your own brain. You should be writing down as much as you can; whether material came from some random brainstorming sessions or generic everyday talk with your coworkers, chances are that it is too much to remember, and you should definitely write it down. This is where a compute comes extremely handy. If you look at the right place and buy the right pieces of software, you can have a mighty arsenal at your disposal. If you are not very inclined technologically, you should know that the marvels of computers have gone further than simple word processors. Do look on the internet, search engines or other known sources, for templates and business-oriented software. Some software will allow you to design business plan as well as give you hint, tips, and general rules on how to create and manage them. You will soon realize that your productivity will have exponentially increased if you use software that was built for the sole purpose of helping those with big goals.

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