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Home » Lose Weight Safely » Set More Ambitious Goals This New Years Eve! – Forbes

From scientific studies we know that lots of very successful people commit to their goals for the ... [+] year ahead in writing.

In less than two weeks, television shows will be sending their reporters out onto the streetsas they do every yearto ask shoppers and people heading back to work what goals they have set themselves for 2020. Time and again, these sidewalk interviews feature cliched figures like the overweight man who says he has set himself the goal of losing weight as he pops a French fry in his mouth and laughs. He is laughing at himself because he has already abandoned his New Years resolution within days of making itas he does every year.

According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, only 8% of people actually achieve their New Years resolutions by the end of the calendar year, while around 80% have failed to live up to their good intentions to improve their lives by as early as mid-February, says U.S. clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani. Given findings such as these, some experts advise people that it is better to set no goals at all, or to set smaller, more easily achievable goals, in order to avoid guilt-driven remorse and frustration. When it comes to setting goals, the terms small and realistic are frequently used as synonyms. By this logic, small goals are seen to be reasonable and attainable while ambitious goals are unrealistic and unachievable.

The Greater The Goal, The Greater The Motivation

But isnt it true that anyone who has failed to achieved their goals in the past is likely to fall short with small goals in the future? With every failure, they have proved that they have the wrong mindset and, above all, that they are not serious about setting goals. In many ways it is actually easier to achieve challenging goals than small ones because bigger goals are the source of far greater motivational power than small goals. In any case, it is always important to formulate them in the most specific terms possible. For example, rather than saying I want to lose weight and have a more attractive figure, effective goal-setting involves precise targets, such as, I want to weigh 75 kilograms by 31.12.2020.

Numerous scientific studies into goal-setting theory have confirmed that demanding and specifically formulated goals lead to better outcomes than easy goalspeople who set specific goals are always more successful than people who set vague goals, do your best goals, or no goals at all.

From the biographies of some of the worlds most successful people, it is clear that they set themselves extremely challenging goals from very early in their lives:

Dream More Than Others Think Practical

Howard Schultz was born the son of an unskilled laborer in Brooklyn in 1953 and grew up in a deprived neighborhood. He turned his company Starbucks into a leading brand with more than 27,000 branches worldwide. He prefaced his 1997 autobiography by advising readers: Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible. Larry Page, the cofounder of Google, is a strong proponent of what he calls a healthy disregard for the impossible. He lives by the maxim: You should try to do things that most people would not. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, which was at one time the largest corporation in the world, explained the secret of his success by saying: Ive always held the bar pretty high for myself: Ive set extremely high personal goals. The legendary entrepreneur and billionaire Richard Branson was equally clear on the subject of setting goals: The lesson I have learned throughout all this is that no goal is beyond our reach and even the impossible can become possible for those with vision and belief in themselves. Setting easy goals, unambitious goals or no goals at all in order to avoid potential future frustration is tantamount to giving up before you even start.

The Superrich Overwhelmingly Commit To Their Goals To Writing

In The Wealth Elite, a study into the psychology of the superrich, interviews were conducted with 45 exceptionally successful individuals, most of whom were self-made entrepreneurs with net assets of between $30 million and $1 billion.

For many of the interviewees in The Wealth Elite, committing to their goals in writing was a crucial component of the goal-setting process. Some followed the advice of popular wealth literature to the letter. They set themselves specific financial goals and exact deadlines for achieving them. An overwhelming number of interviewees described a process of detailed goal-setting, which they carried out once a year. They took the time to define milestones for the next year, while also reviewing the goals they had set for the previous year in order to assess what they had achieved.

A number of the interviewees carried out their reviews at shorter, more regular intervalsevery month and, in some cases, even on a daily basis. Such planning needs to be done in writing, they emphasized. After all, only written and quantifiable goals are ultimately verifiable. A number of the studys interviewees extensively documented the goals they set. They developed life plans, seven-year plans, five-year plans, monthly plans, which in extreme cases filled thick folders or huge Excel spreadsheets on their computers.

Many described the detailed visualization techniques or other rituals that they were convinced had helped them reach their goals. One of the interviewees had worked with a feng shui consultant to create a wealth corner in his house, where he prayed for the achievement of his financial goals every day. Another had fixed an aspirational $1,000,000,000 in large figures above his office door. Another formulated 200 detailed questions that he regularly answers in writing. Yet another spends one week at the beginning of each year fasting and setting goals for the year ahead.

And many of The Wealth Elites interviewees do not restrict the process of goal-setting to setting financial targets. One interviewee, for example, also sets goals for his body weight. Another once wrote the precise dates of his future engagement and marriage on stones and gave them to his future wife. One reported that he had set down in writing a precise description of how his next girlfriend should look. If you define your goals as precisely as you can, then you have the greatest chance of working instinctively towards them, in order to actually achieve them, emphasized one interviewee who, incidentally, was among those who didnt set themselves financial goals but later regretted not having done so. I really should have done that; it would have made things a lot easier, he confessed.

Nevertheless, not all of the interviewees employed such goal-setting techniques. A number explained that, although they set revenue targets for their companies, they do not formulate personal financial goals. Others expressed general skepticism and questioned whether it is at all possible or even worthwhile to spend time setting long-term, life-spanning goals.

But when so many extremely successful people tell you they have always committed to their goals in writing, why not give try it for yourself? I have been committing my goals to writing every New Years Eve for the last 25 years now. I use a book to write down my goals, which include different areas of life, such as fitness and finances. On the following New Years Eve I review my goals and check off those that I have achieved. In my experience, it works. If it didnt work, I wouldnt have been doing it year in, year out for the last 25 years. Of course, I dont always achieve every single goalif I did, that would be an indication that I hadnt set my goals high enough.

Dont Be Afraid Of Falling Short

Gordon Moore, the American IT Pioneer and cofounder of Intel, once observed that, If everything you try works, then you are not trying hard enough. Being a winner doesnt mean being somebody who never fails. On the contrary, winners set themselves ambitious goals and experiment until they achieve them. They dont ask for foolproof guarantees before trying something. They realize and accept that a lot of the things they try wont work. As the acclaimed film director Woody Allen once said, If you dont fail now and again, its a sign youre playing it safe. And the founder of Nike, Phil Knight, once observed that it is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few. Even a financial genius like Warren Buffett has to stand up in front of his shareholders every year and report on the investments that didnt work out. Nobody can get things right 100% of the time. But it is important to get things right more often than wrong. Anyone who is on the verge of a potentially risky endeavor and doesnt feel scared of the next step may have to acknowledge that the next step is nowhere near as bold as it ought to be.

So, set ambitious goals for 2020goals that are challenging enough to really motivate you. And dont be afraid of falling short. Always bear in mind the lyrics of the famous Rolling Stones song: You cant always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you find get what you need. Have you ever really thought about what these simple lyrics actually mean? They tell us that we rarely get more out of life than we want and that we may not always get precisely what we were aiming for. Nevertheless, we should still aim as high as possible because the effort of trying to achieve challenging goals is rewarding in and of itselfand will eventually give us what we need. On the flipside, if we are too timid even to strive for what our hearts desire, what we really want, we will never be successful in life. These lyrics encapsulate Mick Jaggers philosophy of life, which has made him one of the most successful, if not the most successful, rock musician of the 20th century. The German sociologist Max Weber said essentially the same thing: Certainly all historical experience confirms the truththat man would not have attained the possible unless time and time again he had reached out for the impossible.

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Set More Ambitious Goals This New Years Eve! - Forbes

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Home » Lose Weight Safely » Set More Ambitious Goals This New Years Eve! – Forbes