Getting from Alpha to Omega

Once you have set your lifetime goals — goals that excite you to the core of your being — the best thing that you can do is set a long-range plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Let’s take a classic example from politics. For instance, when JFK formalized his goal of becoming President of the United States back in 1960, there were many in the press, especially the editors of major news organizations, that dismissed his chances. They had followed so many presidential campaigns, and thought he was, as Ben Bradlee put it, “too young, too Catholic, too eastern, too urbane.”

In fact, several of these editors gathered together with JFK at the house of CBS News Executive Blair Clark to put him to the test. As Ben Bradlee put it, “They gave him the hardest of times, slamming questions at him, obviously skeptical of the chances of a man who was too young, too atholic, too eastern, too urbane.”

So when Newsweek reporter Hal Lavine asked him, in front of this group, what he was going to do that would convince the skeptics that he wasn’t “just another pretty boy from Boston and Harvard, he got an answer he would never forget: Kennedy, despite the grilling from these editors, was enjoying himself. With a sardonic smile, he stopped Lavine dead in his tracks: “Well, I’m going to fucking well take Ohio, for openers.”

Jaws were left hanging open.  They had never heard a presidential candidate say such a thing. They respected his candor and the line never appeared in print. Kennedy took Ohio and the rest is history. Ohio was a stepping-stone to the bigger prize.

That was similar to Senator Barrack Obama this year having a goal of winning the Iowa caucuses when he was so far behind in the polls. But he built a grassroots organization and layed the groundwork that made it happen. People elsewhere in the United States started to take his candidacy seriously.

It’s a snowball effect. The attainment of smaller goals gives you more to work with – more resources, more possibilities, and more helping hands. The seemingly impossible becomes possible when the preliminary goals are reached. By achieving the smaller goals you lay out for yourself and the final goal becomes more and more a certainty.

Nobody ever succeeds at attaining a goal that was forced, however. Those that tried never really got what they were hoping for. In rushing through and trying to achieve your goals quickly you will likely miss a few key aspects that can really change your outcome. In rushing through you lose the inner connection.

The smaller goals can be used like building blocks to create your vision of success. But building blocks don’t create a building unless there is a blueprint. The blueprint comes from within. Inner vision. If you can create a blueprint, you can realize your ultimate goal by placing one building block after another. By putting them where they are supposed to go, you are assured of success.

At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. It might be getting a degree, or learning a new skill. All of these steps come easily if you are connected to your inner source – Consciousness. When your outer world, or your aspirations for your outer world, are aligned with your inner world, a certain kind of effortlessness comes into play. It is then that inspiration and intuition can be of great assistance.

Once you have decided what your first set of plans will be, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis.

You have to periodically review the longer-term plans, and change them to reflect your changing priorities and experiences in your life.

Setting your Goals Effectively

There is a difference in setting your goals and setting them effectively. Setting them effectively entails doing the inner work – “to know thy self.” Anyone can set a goal, but doing it in a way that is in harmony with who you really are goes a long way in assuring that it will actually get done.

There are so many things that you can do to better your life, but if you don’t know how to go about it you are stuck.

The following guidelines will help you to set effective goals and help you manage your time in an efficient manner that will cause those goals to become reality.

State each goal as a positive statement. Express your goals in a positive way. That is a key component to setting goals that you can attain.

How often have you been excited to accomplish a goal that didn’t even sound good when you brought it up? If you are not comfortable or happy with the goals that you have set, the likelihood of you succeeding is pretty low.

If you want to express your goals in a positive way, you simply have to first think of a goal that puts a smile on your face when you imagine it completed. Why would you want to set a goal that made you frown, cringe or cry?

When you are beginning to set your goals it helps when you are talking about them to others in a manner that states your actions as positives because it will have others seeing it as a positive as well.

That will garner you a great deal more support. In the end, don’t we all need a little support when we are trying to do something positive in our lives?

Be precise

Set a precise goal that includes starting dates, times and amounts so that you can properly measure your achievement.

f you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.

Being precise in setting your goals is no more than setting them with exact details. It is easier this way because then you can follow a step-by-step format. That’s all there is to it.

Set priorities

When you have several goals, give each a specific priority.

This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones and follow each in succession. Setting priorities will force you into the step-by-step format above.

By doing the most important first and moving to the least important in succession, you are enabling each task to be easier than the last. It causes the accomplishment of each task to get easier and easier which will encourage you to complete your goal.