I received this goal getting formula twice in the same day from two very different sources. Both suggested I would enjoy the formula and they were very right. As my Brit friends say, “it is spot on.”

Setting Means Getting – By Tom Hopkins

The average human being has the ability to achieve almost anything. Lack of basic capability is rarely the problem, but rather finding out what you want and being willing to sacrifice, change, and grow to satisfy the want. In the sales training seminars I conduct throughout the country, I teach a 20-step system of goal setting to help people achieve and I firmly believe it can be applied to all walks of life. Here it is:

1. If it’s not in writing, it’s not a goal. An unwritten want is a wish, a dream, a never-happen. If it’s in writing, it’s a commitment.

2. If it’s not specific, it’s not a goal. Broad desires and lofty aims have no effect. It must be concrete.

3. Goals must be believable. If you don’t believe you can achieve a goal, you won’t pay the price for it.

4. An effective goal is an exciting challenge. It must demand your best and a bit more or it isn’t going to change your ways and elevate your lifestyle.

5. Goals must be adjusted to new information. Adjust them down if they become unbelievable or up if they’re too easy.

6. Dynamic goals guide our choices. If you want it badly enough, you’ll turn off the TV and get to it. Goals will show you the right way to go on most decisions.

7. Don’t set short-term goals for more than 90 days. If you set a short-term goal that takes more than 90 days, you may lose interest.

8. Maintain a balance between long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals tend to be hidden in a fog of the future, so have some short-term goals – like clothes, cars, vacations— to keep your excitement up.

9. Include your loved ones in your goals. Involve them and they’ll buck you up when you need encouragement.

10. Set goals in all areas of your life. Have other goals besides career objectives.

11. Your goals must harmonize. Whenever you detect a conflict, set priorities that will eliminate the conflict.

12. Review your goals regularly. Remember, long-term goals can only be achieved if they are the culmination of short-term goals.

13. Set vivid goals. Define not only what you want but by when you want it, and concentrate on it for a few moments every day.

14. Don’t chisel your goals in granite. Sometimes you have to change goals to conform to your growing awareness of what’s really important in your life.

15. Reach out into the future. The idea of goal-setting is to plan your life rather than taking it as it comes. Begin by setting 20-year goals. Then 10-year, five-year, 30-month, 12-month, monthly, weekly, and finally goals for tomorrow and each day for the coming week.

16. Have a set of goals for every day, and review results each night.

17. Train yourself to crave your goals. Visualize yourself possessing what you’ve set your goals for.

18. Set activity goals, not production goals. Activity will lead to production by itself.

19. Understand luck, and make it work for you. Expect good things to happen, and they probably will.

20. Star now. Give goal-setting two hours of concentrated through today. Then set aside 10 minutes a day for the next 21 days to review and revise. After that, two minutes a day and one hour a week is all it will take to keep you on track.

Try this system if you want to achieve your goals and within 21 days you’ll be well on your way to an immensely greater and richer future.

Go to www.TomHopkins.com for a great Tip of the Day…

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For years I have promoted Toastmasters as a key “goal setting tool.” In fact, we strongly encourage all of our Champions Club members to join Toastmasters. As James Allen says, people “do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.” As you become more, you attract more.

Amit Chaudhary had a great post on his blog about Toastmasters and his experience and I have included most of it here:

Toastmasters International is an organization of clubs around the world which help members in public speaking. The clubs tend to be small in size to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak.

Late Jan 2008, I went ahead and attended the Yahoo ToastMasters club in Sunnyvale, called Yapsters as guest. It was definitely worthwhile and I became a member and have delivered my first speech.

It is obviously about public speaking, however it is useful in many ways:

As Amit mentions, Toastmasters can help you even if you don’t have any intentions of using in for public speaking. It will give you tremendous confidence and most importantly — you will be surrounded by like-minded people — and that’s a huge key to success.

If you would like to find a club near you go here….

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The first letter of the acronym for SMART Goals, the letter “S”, stands for specific. And it’s long been taught by the sages that a goal has to be specific to be effective. Now there’s some scientific evidence to back that up.

Here’s part of a story from Psychology Today: “When it comes to working out, you might think trying your best would be the way to make the most of your exercise time. But you’d be wrong. For a study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that pitted several motivational techniques against each other, researchers had 56 female undergraduates attempt to do as many sit-ups as possible in 90 seconds. Those who were given the vague directive “do your best” averaged about 43 sit-ups on each day of the four-day study. On the other hand, women assigned specific long-or short-term targets–”do 10 percent more than you did last time”–managed 56 sit-ups by the last day’s session.”

And it doesn’t just apply to sit-ups. Being as specific as you can possibly be “turns on” an internal system much like the homing device in a guided missile — it makes it far easier to hit your goal when your system is “on.”

To read more from the Psychology Today story go here….

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Effective goal setting is a process. With the first of the year upon us, here’s some timely advice as you begin to adopt your 2008 goals.

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It ain’t over till it’s over. Please excuse my bad grammar, but that famous saying by the man himself, Yogi Berra, really has a lot of meaning.

Now, if you’re a football fan, there’s no doubt you’ve heard of “The Play.” You’ve certainly probably seen it on television whether you’re a football fan or not.

It happened in 1982. California and Stanford are playing in a big game, and for all practical purposes, the game appears to be over. Stanford, with the future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, John Elway, drives the length of the field, they kick a field goal to go ahead with just four seconds left in the game.

They’re going to kick off to California and everybody thinks the game is over, everybody except the California football team.

They get the ball, they lateral, they lateral, they lateral, five times they pass the ball off to one another. And, if you remember, the Stanford band thought the game was over and they ran onto the field and the California player ran through them and he scored in the end zone.

That’s just an example of the idea that it ain’t over till it’s over.

December is a month, folks, that you shouldn’t write off when it comes to your goals. A lot of people do.

I’ll give you a good example. I know that there are a lot of people in the real estate business who just kind of check out for the month of December.

They assume people aren’t interested in houses in December, they’re interested in the holidays, they’re interested in shopping.

Well, I’ll tell you a little secret. A lake house that I bought two years ago, I bought in December not long before Christmas because of an ambitious realtor who recognized that there are people looking for property during that period of time.

He didn’t assume that I would be shopping. He didn’t assume that I would be too caught up in the holidays. And that’s a common misconception.

Let me just share with you that there’s a lot less competition in December, in whatever business that you’re in, unless you’re in a retail business going head-to-head with Walmart or a big department store.

If you’re in insurance sales, for instance. A lot of people take off in December. If you’re in any type of sales business, in most cases, people take off in December.

If you’re in the direct sales business, and you’re recruiting people, December can be one of the greatest months of recruiting. Why? Because money’s on people’s minds. And you’ve got a way to show them how to make more of it!

They’re out there and they’re looking at their gift list one part of the time and then they’re looking at their budget. Their gift list and their budget; they don’t meet up. They’re thinking about money. It’s a great time to show them your opportunity.

If you decide December is going to be a big month, it’s going to be a great month.

What can you do to swim against the tide? What can you do to set yourself apart from your competition?

See, if you’re out there and you’re running hard in December, people are going to notice. Your customers are going to notice. Your prospects are going to notice.

You can also use December to get a running start on the New Year.

A lot of people wait till January before they ever sit down and start their goals, for goodness sakes.

Well, I’ll tell you what happens on January 1st for me and members of the Champions Club. We zoom by the start line. While everybody else is trying to figure out when they’re going to get started, we’re at a full-tilt sprint. We’re running by. And that’s because we use December to get ready.

Evaluate the goals you worked on this year and you haven’t made much progress with. Did you put the wrong date on it? Sometimes the goal’s not wrong, it’s the date that is wrong. So, we just reset the date. There’s not a problem with that. There’s no loss of esteem for doing that. We just reset the date and we go after it again.

Ask yourself, if I keep doing what I did this year, will success eventually come? Sometimes the answer is, “we’re just doing the wrong things.” Did I engage in the wrong activity?

Many times you’re out there busy, you’re working hard, but you’re doing the wrong things. What can I do differently next time I go after it? That’s what you have to ask yourself as you go into the New Year.

December is a month that can give you the greatest results you’ve had this year, regardless. This is fourth and goal. This is your play. So, go for it. And never forget — it ain’t over till it’s over!

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Vic Johnson, founder of Goals-2-Go.com and co-founder of the popular Champions Club, will be “riding along” with NASCAR’s John Andretti during this Sunday’s Checker Auto Parts 500 Nextel Cup race in Phoenix.

Andretti’s #49 Dodge Avenger will sport the image of Johnson along with six other experts from the website HealthLife.com which launches in December. Johnson was chosen by HealthLife to be its resident expert on goal setting.

“I’m really excited to be a part of the HealthLife team,” Johnson said, “and I’m honored to be included on the #49 car during a major NASCAR race. Racing, especially at the Nextel Cup level, has a lot of lessons for all of us who are looking for ways to achieve bigger goals and dreams. Focus, persistence, commitment, preparation and belief get you across the finish line first on the race track and on the life track as well.”

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