Tag Archives: goals

Growth Books, Self-Help, Travel

Zig Ziglar part 2 and Personal Goals

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Goals : Setting And Achieving Them On ScheduleOn my way to work and back, the Zig Ziglar Goals CD really got me thinking.

Some ideas from the cd:

Take an amazing archer and blindfold him and spin him around. What if this archer is so good he still hit’s the bullseye. Impressive. Now, what if there’s no bulleye? How can you hit something that doesn’t exist? (It sounds a lot better on the tape with the background and in depth explanations and Zig Ziglar’s use of language and humor.)

Every person should write a book, not necessarily for publishing, called “How to Make My Life Meaningful”, and live by it.

The people who are always “about to” do something, never get anything done.

Every night, spend ten minutes reviewing your goals and what you’ve done to accomplish them. Before going to bed, write down what you’ve done to get there in your notebook. For the next day, choose the top six most important goals, and focus on those.

I had been keeping a log because of Think and Grow Rich and it helped me get the guts and will-power to I leave my first day job. This was in November. I left for Thailand at the start of December and came back last week. The trip really changed some of my time-limes and goals and this is quite dangerous. Ultimately my goal is to become a good father and a good husband. To accomplish this I need to have enough time and energy to dedicate to my family. To accomplish this I need financial independence, my own businesses/investments, and a true love of what I’m doing. My current goals and decisions were all geared toward this, but now another element came into the picture.

My trip to Thailand changed a few things: 1) I’m no longer as eager to marry within the next few years. 2) I want to travel. 3) I want to make a huge difference for the better in many people’s lives, and I know I have the means to make it happen.

As far as marriage goes, I think marrying later and traveling more may actually make me a better husband. By understanding more about myself, knowing more about the world, I’ll better appreciate my partner and have more to offer. As far as career goes, this may not be the best option. I didn’t make the most of my education and right now is the time to make up for it. If I run away to a distant land, would I be working toward my goal or just enjoying myself and losing more time. On the other hand, if I don’t do it now, I’m not sure I’ll ever will get a similar opportunity. My two weeks of travel taught me more about life than at least a semester at Cal. Perhaps some time abroad may lead to further growth and realizations?

I understand that in looking at goals, one needs to look at one’s goals and work backwards, not look at what one likes and find justifications for it. One should also look at the reasons for one’s goals. If I elevate travel to goal level, I better have a meaningful reason for it. Similarly, although I’m lucky to live in a place where I may have more opportunities than anywhere in the world, maybe it would be worthwhile to truly widen my scope and experience before aiming for a target.

It’s always both scary and fantastic to have your world view shaken. My first shake came from my first job out of school and my awakening with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I chose to be rich. That’s my goal. I know amazing fathers and husbands that aren’t rich, but I choose to become an amazing husband and father that is rich. My second shake came from my trip to Thailand. I’m on the verge of adding another goal, and this goal may have a huge impact on many of my other choices.

I need to figure these things out before making any commitments and decisions in the next few weeks (and another interview awaits me this morning).

Growth Books, Self-Help

Zig Ziglar Goals

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Goals : Setting And Achieving Them On ScheduleDriving back from San Francisco, I realized I had an audio book I didn’t get to hear in library returns bag: Goals : Setting And Achieving Them On Schedule.

The CD was a very pleasant surprise. First of all, the seminar is filled with hilarious tidbits and combined with his accent, listening is pure pleasure. The content is even better. Stories and powerful statements that get you to change your life. In the tape he gauranteed that if one hears the tape and doesn’t set a goal, that person won’t be able to sleep. He was right, I thought about, said, and wrote down a quite a few. The tape’s motivation and insight is very powerful. He starts off, after introductions, about reasons why people don’t set goals and in so doing motivates people to see their problems from a third person view, meaning they’ll far more easily fix them. The entire tape is like a little speech booster. I could see someone holding a copy of these tapes and just playing them over and over each week. Although, the point of the audiobook is practice not just listening.

It’s been an insane week for goals, goal-setting, and questions, and the Zig Ziglar Goals CD’s are a perfect catalyst to get even more accomplished. It’s the fourth mentor this week to remind me that we must strive toward greater goals to live a truly meaningful existence.

Update: It seems as if there’s a hidden power in goals. As soon as a plan is set, if it’s written down, it’s as if the world moves to both help and test you. Two phone calls came this morning. I can’t be more specific at the moment, but those who set goals know what I’m talking about. As soon as they’re set, opportunities start coming at you. It’s very pleasant, but one needs to stay focused and know which follow the plan and which don’t. One should read the goals and the plan of action at least daily and re-evaluate the goals and the plan at least weekly, to have full confidence in where one is going and that one is on the right path to getting there.

Good Business, Growth Books, Self-Help

Think and Grow Rich

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Think and Grow Rich“Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill is an amazing plan-making, goal-setting, entrepreneurial book. It comes from one of Dale Carnegies’s (How to Win Friends & Influence People) industrious students. The book really focuses on how to create plans, see visions, and realize them. At times it gets a bit long, perhaps the author didn’t know that most people don’t remember lists of more than seven things, but the content is fantastic. I had my first business idea after reading the book and following its steps and because of this I learned about patents, product evaluation, goal setting and following through on plans.

I got the recommendation for this book from Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“. After reading that book, I realized that my web development job was going nowhere and just wasting my time. I was eager to start a new business. The plan was to teach SAT’s, however that wasn’t exactly a business rather a self-employment thing. Still not sure about what to do and excited to learn more I followed up with this book. The first thing it said was to set a goal, visualize it, and make a plan for it. My short term goal was to make twenty thousand in assets by the end of February. Since I was planning on studying for the GMAT and teaching SAT’s (the two help each other out quite nicely), why not make a new innovative product. The idea finally came, a special card game for memorizing new facts and words. I wrote down the plan to accomplishing it, and read the commitment to it and the steps every morning and evening.

Among the first steps was to read a book on patents. I accomplished this in the first week, even with work destroying my energy. By the following week I started a website and started thinking about the design. Eventually I did an analysis and realized that manufacturing and distribution of the game would force a fairly high price on everything and perhaps it would be better to get the whole thing going online. After about a week of planning and brainstorming, everything seemed clear. I told my roomate and we sat down to see the closest competition. Then came the big lesson. Someone had already created such a website a few years back. It actually had all the ideas we had and worked really well. It also charged about twice as much. At that point I joined a small start-up and had no time to work on any other projects until I quit my day job. On one hand it was a bit disappointing not being first, on the other hand it was an important lesson about doing one’s research. The lessons learned through this experience and inspired by the “Think and Grow Rich” book were priceless. The book gets kind of strange at times, but nonetheless if one follows its steps, he or she will surely gain a wealth of knowledge.