with Brian Tracy (www.briantracy.com )

Tape 1 Side 2.

These are my notes on this wonderful tape: 

The starting point to time management is clarity with respect to goal objectives. Forgetting what you set out to do and losing track of what you are trying to accomplish is the biggest time waster you can have. Many people work very hard not knowing what their real goals are.  Plan and organize your time to accomplish your most important goals in the quickest time possible. 

Less than 3% of the people have written down their goals, and they are the most successful people in every field.  Less than 1% review their goals on a regular basis. 

If you do not have goals yourself, you are doomed forever to achieve the goals of someone else. 

Goal setting is the master skill of success.

Goal setting begins with a pad of paper, a pen, and you.  Here are some goal setting principles to keep in mind: 

1)     Dream big dreams.  They will inspire you.  Don’t settle

2)     Goals must be in writing in the present tense to program the conscious mind.  Write and rewrite your goals in a notebook. Review the goals to drive them into your subconscious

3)     Your goals must be balanced covering the three most important areas of your life.

• Business, career, and financial, personal, family, health goals (Why goals. Why you want to achieve other goals)
• Personal and professional development goals.  (How goals How you achieve “the what” to enjoy “the why”.)

4)     Decide on a major definite purpose.  One goal that is more important than any other.

This goal should lead you to the accomplishment of other goals you have more than any other single goal. 

5)     Goals must be defined by the specific actions and activities necessary to achieve them.  Be detailed in your goals to be successful. 

Here are some questions that you can ask to help you get a glimpse of what your major definite purpose is. 

1)     What would you do different in your life if you won a million dollars cash in the lottery tomorrow?  What would you start, stop, do more of, do less of, where would you go?  What you really want to be doing is most likely what you should be doing.

2)     If you could write your own life story at the end of your life, what would you like to put in that life story, or if you were going to write your own obituary of who you were and what you accomplished in your lifetime, what would you want that to be?  What would you like said in your eulogy?

3)     What would you attempt if you were guaranteed absolute success in any one thing?  What one thing would you dare to dream if you know you could not fail?

4)     What do you really enjoy doing? What gives you pleasure, satisfaction, joy and energy?  What gives you a feeling of importance and self esteem? 

Exercise #1:  Do a quick list method.  Write out your three most important goals every single morning.  Then write out your goals and plans for the day. 

Exercise #2:  Goal setting exercise: 

List everything you would like to be, have, or do in the next 5 years.  Take as long as it takes and imagine that you have no obstacles for anything you want to accomplish. Think back on things you wanted to do in the past but gave up on because of lack of time, money, relationships, travel or other constraints. Let your imagination run wild. 

Go for quantity. 

Now organize it according to priority labeling each item with and A, B or C in front of each one of the goals.

An A goal is something that is really exciting, the accomplishment of which could change your whole life.

A B goal is something you want to achieve, it is important, but not so much as an A goal.

A C goal is something that would be nice to do, have or achieve but it’s not as important as an A or B goal.

Transfer all you’re A goals onto a separate sheet of paper. Go through them and organize them into your A1, A2, A3 and so on. 

Your A1 goal is the most important goal.  The one goal that would make more of a difference in your life than any other goal.  Bring you more happiness, satisfaction than any of the other A goals. 

Ask yourself, if you could accomplish only one goal on this list and would be guaranteed absolute success in achieving this goal, what would it be? 

Now ask, if you could only accomplish one more thing on this a list, which would that, be?  And so forth. 

Take your A1 goal and transfer that goal to a new sheet of paper.  Now make a list of everything you can do to achieve or accomplish that goal.  Write down at least 10 action steps you can take or do in the future to that will bring you closer to your goal. 

Organize this list by the ABC method.  If you could only take one action, which would it is to help you to accomplish your goal.  If you could only do one more action, which would that be and so forth. 

Now you have a list of clear goals organized in priority and a list of action steps organized in priority. 

Now you are in the top 3% of goal setters in the world. 

Here are five keys in which you can achieve your goals: 

1)     Create a clear mental picture of your goals as already realized.  Imagine it as already achieved.  Enjoy it.  Your body will create the outer world to equal the inner picture you have.  Play this over and over in your mind to trigger the law of attraction to magnetize the stuff necessary to achieve the goal.

2)     Enthusiastically affirm your goal over and over to yourself.  Emotionalize your goal in present tense.

3)     Accept 100% responsibility for everything necessary to achieve your goal.  If it is to be, it’s up to me.

4)     Act as if it were impossible for you to fail.

5)     Do something every day to move towards your major goals. By the yard it’s hard, but by the inch it’s a cinch.  This keeps you activated, motivated, positive and enthusiastic.

Resource: Nightingale Conant Tape Series How To Master Your Time by Brian Tracy 

Helpful Links and References:

Nightingale Conant 1-800-323-5552 www.nightingale.com