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Why is it important
to set goals?
By: Debra Lohrere
Having a goal
enables you to focus your energies on devising ways to achieve it. When
someone makes a decision and begins focusing on achieving a specific
goal (and even better in a specific period of time), the powerful
subconscious mind goes to work and begins playing with ideas and
developing strategies of various ways to bring about the successful
completion of the goal.
When you set yourself a goal both your conscious and subconscious start
working on it and begin to develop an action plan. You will find you
begin asking yourself questions about what needs to be done to enable
you to reach your goal. You may find yourselves coming up with amazing
ideas and solutions to problems or obstacles that have been in the way
of achieving your goal. Solutions and ideas that you are surprised you
ever thought of may start popping into your mind.
Our subconscious is an extremely powerful tool. The more often you
remind yourself of your goal, the more your mind will work on ways for
you to achieve it. Some people find answers come to them when they are
asleep and dreaming.
Have you ever noticed that there is no correlation between being wealthy
and having a high IQ or a university degree? If there were, every doctor
and university graduate would be wealthy, and as statistics show, most
of them end up in the same situation as 95% of the population.
The main thing that the majority of independently wealthy people have in
common is that they have set goals for themselves and achieved them.
They invest time in reading and learning about wealth creation and are
happy to learn from other people’s mistakes and experiences, as well as
their own. They set goals, and realise that they will be far better able
to achieve them if they familiarise themselves with the ways in which
other people acted and the things that others have done to succeed.
Wealthy people create wealth by carefully utilising the income that they
have available to them to their best advantage. They know that working
harder and longer hours is not the way to achieve financial freedom,
instead they have to utilise what they have, and make it grow.
Setting Goals.
When you begin to work out your goals you need to make them as specific
as possible. A vague idea or generalization like “I want to buy
investment properties and become wealthy” is not enough. You need to be
much more detailed. “I want to own my first investment property within
six months. I will save for the legal and bank fees, and borrow 100% of
the value of the property. I will find an extremely well priced, three
bedroom brick veneer house that is close to schools and shopping centres.
It will be either brand new or less than ten years old. It will be
structurally sound, and require a minimal amount of maintenance. I will
find a good agent to manage it, who has a lot of experience and will
find me a good tenant.”
This is a specific goal, and you could add a lot more to it. Because
your goal is specific your mind immediately begins to ask questions such
as “How much money will I need for the fees and charges? How much does
that relate to if I break it down on a weekly basis? Will I have to look
at my current expenses to see where I need to cut back so as to make up
the difference for the amount I need to save?” Specific goals help you
to create specific, realistic action plans and as the old saying goes,
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
You will find that if you write down your goals on a piece of paper, and
put it in a prominent position, so that you will read it often, your
subconscious as well as your conscious mind will start asking questions
and coming up with answers, and you will find that you have already
begun to take the necessary steps to achieving your goal.
It is helpful to have a series of goals, ranging from daily, weekly,
monthly, yearly, ten yearly and thirty to forty yearly. You can always
refine and change your goals as time goes on and situations change.
You may find that it is easier to start at the 40-year mark, and then
work backwards. Try to work out what steps would be needed to achieve
your 40-year goal, and spread them out over the different time spans, to
what you would need to achieve to end up with the final result.
Try to make your goals realistic and achievable. Do not set a goal that
is too hard. Set lots of small, easily achievable goals and work step by
step to achieve your road to success. Stay positive. Believe in yourself
and your abilities to succeed, even if other people patronise you or try
to put you off, or tell you there is no point.
Setting and achieving goals help you to create a stronger character. It
is always helpful to remember that our brain cannot entertain both
positive and negative thoughts at the same time. If you stay positive
you will dispel negative thought patterns. Even if you come across
little obstacles that get in the way of your goals, don’t give up. Focus
on finding a solution, rather than focussing on the problem – utilise a
positive response. Focussing on finding solutions enables you to put
your brain to work, to find ways around things. If you just see an
obstacle as a problem and just accept that life has dealt you a blow,
and let it stop you in your tracks, then you will never learn and grow.
Remember that children learn to walk by falling over. Focus on the
long-term achievements that you want to fulfil, and it will be easier to
overcome your problems.
Article Source:
http://www.articlerich.com
Debra Lohrere is the author of several books on
property investment, creating financial security, goal setting and the
power of compounding. Please visit her homepage
www.debra.lohrere.com/home.shtml or storefront
at
www.lulu.com/DebraLohrere
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