Goal setting needs a plan, a roadmap to success

If you have been following the articles on the blog you will notice that there is a theme here. The theme is one of having the proper mindset to materialize your goals. We will soon get into how to write them properly using the S.M.A.R.T. goal setting principles but at first it is imperative that we have a "roadmap to success". Knowing what, when and why we have a burning desire for something are the most important ingredients in goal setting. Combine what you want, when and why you want it, with affirmation and visualization tools and your goal will materialize the way you want it to. Leave out any of the necessary ingredients, and you should be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.

Now if you are wondering why it is so important to have a "roadmap" for setting and materializing your goals, check out this true story about a goal being set, without reference to the why, the when or what life will be like once it is achieved. This is a goal that was achieved just because the burning desire was so great. Unfortunately it materialized without a plan. This is a true story and should help you in realizing just how important it is to accomplish this goal setting process properly.

"July 2005, we returned from a family vacation and I will never forget how I felt coming back and dreading, I mean really dreading going back to work. At the time I was General managing an automotive franchise store and it was pretty successful. This vacation was the first one that we had taken in a very long time, unless of course you count the ones we spent in a tent or borrowed trailer from time to time.

Now that I look back upon those times it is actually very funny. You see we live in a rural community and my car dealership was pretty well in the center of the City. What is funny though is the times we spent camping in the tent or borrowed trailer were in a campground within the city limits. We actually came into town to go camping.

You are probably asking yourself why we did this and the reason is very simple. I still had to work. Yup, I would leave my family at the campground on Friday and Saturday, while I went to work. I actually brought my suits, shirts and ties with me, camping. I remember thinking at the time that it would not take me as long to get to work those days and as a result I could justify it. I am actually laughing as I write this, thinking back to the times when upon return to the campsite I would start chopping wood for a campfire in my shirt, tie and dress shoes.

So it was upon return from that family vacation in July of 2005 that I said to myself, and my beautiful wife, that's it I am going to get out of this Job and especially this industry. I told myself that every day and meant it as a goal. I put little thought into why I wanted out, as that appeared obvious to me and I set no plan in action. I didn't consider what I was grateful for in the job I had, I didn't think about what it would be like when I was out of it and I didn't even care what I would do instead: I just wanted out.

It only took 2 months or so for that goal to materialize for me which tells you just how effective a burning desire can really be. I got out of that job on September 30, 2005. The problem was though that I got out of it as a result of a massive heart attack at the age of 45. September 30, 2005 I was admitted to the hospital and October 11, 2005 I had a quadruple bypass and came back home on October 16, 2005.

All I could think as we went through the diagnosis, the realization, the surgery and the short recovery period in the hospital was how grateful I was, all of a sudden, for the company I worked for. I reassured myself and my wife that I had not given the notice I had written and that everything was going to be ok. I never thought for an instant that after 8 ½ years of dedicated service to that organization they would let me go after a heart attack.

When I got home from the hospital, made my way to the couch in my living room, I picked up the phone and called my employer. I told him that he didn't have to worry. I would be able to run the store from home if he set up someone to work with me, be my eyes and ears. I meant it too, I really believed that it would only be 5 or 6 weeks and I would be able to be back working the 10 – 12 hours a day 6 days a week.

Then, in the blink of an eye, my goal materialized. I was informed over the phone on a Sunday afternoon, just after open heart surgery that I had been replaced and there was no position for me with the company that I had dedicated my last 8 ½ years to. I had no plan, no roadmap to direct me after my goal had materialized".

Today we are so thankful and grateful that we discovered, and became students of personal development. By putting focused energy into our future, and our goals we have learned how to put the personal back into personal development and materialize our goals.