GOALS! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

Goals presents a practical know-how of setting clear goals for all the aspects of life and achieving them. As the data from various study suggests, written goals have higher chances of achieving. Although the book is spread out of 21 chapters, the summary below presents concise form where all the chapter arranged in sequential manner.

Why goals matter-

Goals instill meaning & purpose to the things you do in life. It gives you that feeling of being responsible for your life, that feeling being in control of events. It is about living an intentional life, where happiness is tied to accomplishments, accomplishments are tied to goal, and goals are tied to purpose.

Know yourself-

Clarify your values- Value defines a person the way they are, what they believe in and forms the non-negotiable part of character. You’re the happiest when what you do outside is congruent with your values.

Analyze your beliefs- Your beliefs are manifested in your words and action. All beliefs are learned. Be aware of your self-limiting beliefs and replace them with life-enhancing beliefs.

Be an expert in your field- According to Napoleon Hil, “find out what you really love to do, and then find a way to make a good living doing it”. There are, according to author, eight ways one can identify their special talent. Special talents are those skills that you’ve a natural ability to perform, things that you do better than others, love to learn about it effortlessly, been a reason for your success among many other.

Know your purpose-

Starting on the journey of goal setting is to know your definitive purpose. Definitive purpose is that one thing that gives you meaning. It has to be quantifiable, measurable, achievable.

Create your future-

Set a vision for yourself that aligns best with your purpose. Asking the questions like “What do I really want to do with my life?” helps you defining vision for you. The quality of your vision sets you apart from those who doesn’t have one. Once you’ve a great vision for yourself, imagine your perfect future. The next immediate step is to figure out “How” that stimulates creativity and triggers ideas. And then, strong “action-orientation” that helps putting the words into action.

Making a start- Take a stock of where you’re today, what’s the reality. Evaluate every aspect of life to understand where do you stand today. The same applies to your skills and knowledge, what are things you are good at? How can you build from there?

Measure your progress- There are three drivers to achieve your goals- commitment, completion, closure. One popular tracking mechanism to track your progress is “Balanced Scorecard” which is a popular tool used in businesses but can also be used in personal goals. Because if you can measure it, you can manage it.

Remove your roadblocks- “The Theory of constraints” says that, between you and your accomplishment, there is constraint or limiting factor that stops you going faster. Your job is to identify it accurately and then focus all of your energy to alleviate that constraint.

Managing your time- Acquire the skills to get out of low-value activities towards being in control of your time. One of the ways to prioritize your time is 80/20 rule, which signifies 80% of values come from 20% of effort. Practicing these over and over helps you develop the time management skill.

Perseverance- Persist until you succeed. Persistence is Self-Discipline in Action. Self-Discipline is decided by strength of character, meaning that “doing what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not”.

Quotes:

• You become what you think about – most of the time
• The greatest enemies of success and happiness are negative emotions of all kinds
• Leaders have vision. Non-Leaders do not
• The happiest people in the world today are those who are living in harmony with their inner most convictions and values
• It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from; all that really matters is where you’re going.
• You could be one skill away from doubling your productivity, performance and income.

Want to get a copy for yourself? Order the hard copy or kindle version directly from Amazon