TBP Open Your Mind

“The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, I wish someone would come by and turn me on. What if they don’t show up? You’ve got to have a better plan for your life than that.”

– Jim Rohn

…open your mind, achieve your dreams…

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
– William B. Sprague

…open your mind, achieve your dreams…

I have always found that if I move with 75 percent or more of the facts, I usually never regret it. It’s the people who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.
– Lee Iacocca

…open your mind, achieve your dreams…

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
– Theodore Roosevelt

…open your mind, achieve your dreams…

A Big Shot is a Little Shot that kept shooting.

…open your mind, achieve your dreams…

“There’s no such word as can’t”, How many times did you hear that when you were little and didn’t have the confidence to do what you had been asked - or was it that you didn’t want to do something?!.

It is interesting how often people use the word can’t, even when they are grown-ups and the task they are describing clearly could be done, or should at least be attempted with a high possibility of success.

If saying “I can’t” is a habit you would like to change, there are two alternatives:

The first is instead of saying i can’t, say i won’t. This way has a nice honesty to it because you are acknowledging that the task in question is (or at least could be) possible, and that you are making a choice not to do it.

You may find that a bit too confrontational, or maybe not effective enough at encouraging you to attempt new things. An alternative approach would be to ask the questions how can i do that? and what would happen if i did?

Taking this last idea further, you could ask yourself additional questions such as what is the worst that could happen if i attempted this? (and what could you do to prevent that happening?!)

By stopping to question yourself before saying i can’t, you are allowing yourself more freedom and potential for success - which is better than giving up before you start…

Setting realistic goals is one of the hardest things to do because you do not always know exactly where you are going…and you shouldn’t!

If you followed our earlier article Setting Up The Goals you should have created yourself some goals and actions.

Now that you have taken action towards your goals it is important to achieve the balance between focusing on that goal, and ignoring everything else (we’ll call these external events).

The solution to this comes from asking yourself the question “how does this external event affect my goal?” There are three possible answers:

1. It slows or prevents you taking the actions towards your goal.
2. It helps you with your actions towards your goal.
3. It gives you an unexpected way to achieve your goal.

If you got the first answer you should ignore that external event and return your focus to making progress on your actions.

If you got the second answer then well done! Your goal has become closer in a shorter timeframe than you were expecting.

Great as that is, the third answer provides the real reason for giving external events consideration. If you are attacking your action list for your goal with the blinkers on like a race horse, you will likely miss out on some of the alternative ways of achieving your goal. And afterall, achieving the goal is the result you want, isn’t it?

Part of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals.

However it is very important not to confuse a goal with an action. A goal is an outcome. Actions are what you do to achieve that outcome.

For example, you may say ‘my goal is to own a nice car.’ Not quite. The goal or outcome is what you expect from a nice car. This could be a feeling of happiness, respect from your friends or colleagues (interesting choice of friends), maybe the freedom to go on longer journeys without the fear of breaking down, or simply the sense of pride for achieving one of your dreams.

Ultimately, as a person, you want to feel an emotion (or in the case of the car breaking down, remove the fear or inconvenience of breaking down). This is perfectly normal and is how we all operate ‘underneath’.

Okay, so we have the goal - where does our original statement ‘my goal is to own a nice car’ fit into the outcome we desire? By saying you would like to own a nice car, you are really saying you want the feelings or emotions you associate with owning a nice car. To experience these you have decided you need the car, so getting a car is an action towards the goal.

This action ‘getting the car’ can then be broken down into smaller actions, such as saving up so much money each month, or having a clear out and selling some things you don’t need, and so on. It can also include non-financial steps - things like asking friends for car recommendations (or ones to avoid), comparing prices and features to determine your shortlist, test driving cars on your shortlist, etc.

Once you have the list of actions so can start working through them. This may take weeks or months. This is why it is important to have defined the outcome in advance…so you have the reason and motivation to keep at it.

Also having a clearly defined outcome helps you recognise when you have reached it, and when you should prepare the next one!