Skip to main content

Getting Smarter

How can you be specific about your goals when they are just a bunch of vague, foggy, wishes, hopes and dreams? It's time to take that pie-in-the-sky endeavor down from its celestial pedestal and see if it tastes as good as it looks from afar. (Forgive me for bringing up desserts so early in your diet-shackled day)...Is it really, truly unachievable, or that your perception because you don't currently have the means or mechanisms to reach it?

If there is a yellow-brick road to your dream, I promise you that underneath lies a foundation of solid research. It's the best preparation for turning those dreams into reality. Would we have ever reached the moon, or even this continent, without it? As brilliant and passionate as the explorers of Earth and space were, without their tedious hours buried in books at a drafting table, we would probably all still be back in the old world, and certainly never beyond it, thinking the Earth was flat and all of space was unattainable. 

Start building a sales proposal--to yourself! Research, plan, and pull together whatever supporting facts you need to convince yourself that the things you've decided to do, ARE do-able.  Whenever you begin to get discouraged or doubt yourself, refer to the proposal. From it, begin building a plan to achieve a SPECIFIC goal, not based on wishes or hopes, but on a solid foundation of facts that will bridge the abyss of distance between where you are now, and that proverbial pie-in-the-sky.

Ready to begin? Research, read, and ask around, until you find out what it may involve to get there. How good does it need to be? When you build a proposal, of course, you must always remember who your audience is. In this case, it's that mean girl in your head. Yes, I know we are treading on dangerous ground, taking note of her opinions, but this is, in fact, very necessary. She gets to play the devil's advocate, and we get to disprove her wicked-witch-of-the-west, negative-nancyisms, failure-floggings, and everything demeaning that has ever glared at you from your rear-view mirror, taunting you for every past deficiency.  It's time to quit cowering and get going.  

Psalm 27:3
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.





Copy and paste the worksheet below and begin building that winning proposal.

SMART GOAL PLANNING, PHASE ONE

GOAL: ??? [NAME IT!]
       
      RESEARCH:
              1. What resources are required to achieve this?

              2. Funds (be precise):

              3. Hours per week can currently commit: (be realistic)

       BRAINSTORM:
              1. What connections do I have that could help me achieve this?
              2. Are there some creative modifications or shortcuts that would make it more achievable?

       ACTION ITEMS:
              1. Schedule time on your calendar each week to work on this goal, and be faithful to keep those appointments with yourself!
              2. Schedule a phone call, lunch, or coffee with two people you think could help you achieve this goal. 
              3. Tell your spouse or best friend what you are trying to achieve. Ongoing conversations about your goal will not only keep you accountable--they will keep you going!

PS: thanks to my daughter Sarah for the graphic above.... custom graphics by www.couturecheval.weebly.com



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NEMESIS, TRAPS AND DIGRESSIONS, OH MY!

Let's begin at the beginning. You have challenges. You have issues. You have enemies. All of the above would be true for any of us -- from slacker to slave, from victim to hero -- but there is actually one very small but highly distinguishing characteristic: perspective. Yes, the thing that makes mountains out of molehills--and vice versa--is undoubtedly the key to success or failure, and the common thread through the story of every hero. Something interesting about perspective: it can be found, lost, and regained -- although sometimes elusive, it's always attainable.  Through the next week, we will explore the various things responsible for our lost perspective, and talk about how to get it back. I was about to say that there are three things that generally rob us of our proper perspective, but that would imply that it can be taken from us, by force. The fact is, unfortunately, we sometimes "lose" our perspective as easily as we misplace our keys, cell phone, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guardrails

Thank  From the winding ascent of Black Snake Road through the mountains of Arkansas to the many breathtaking overlook points in the Rockies in Colorado, you’ll find miles and miles of guardrails. Like sentries marching alongside the road, they stand as barriers between the safe and level asphalt and a sometimes cavernous drop into the depths below.  We don’t question guardrails on roads like that. N fact, when we see a potentially treacherous road without them, we wonder why they aren’t there.  Yet we have a desire to careen carelessly through life, without boundaries or barriers — without commandments.  This is a hard thing to convey — that the God whose mercies are new every morning and whose love stretches to the skies also has rules. But like little children, we stretch out our little hand and touch what he’s already told us “no—that’s hot,” and then we are angry with Him because we got burned.  It’s not from tyranny that He says “don’t” or puts up guardrai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ever After

This weekend, we re-watched “Ever After,” a historical fiction drama based on the fairy tale of Cinderella. As a most beloved daughter reduced to a despised servant in her own manor house when her father died, the girl endured heartbreak and hardship for many years...until...! Long story short, when she stood next to the throne with the royal family, the newly crowned princess and future queen, she was in a completely new position in the presence of her angry stepmother. She was no longer under the wicked woman’s control, to order around and abuse. No longer subject to her unkind words or doubled labor. No longer her slave. She has nothing to fear or dread from the woman who had held her captive in the cruelest way her whole young life, because now she wore a crown.  Imagine your life with the same kind of triumph. Freed from the voice that condemns you and tells you you’ll never be good enough. Free from the ever-increasing burden of plodding through your days with the weight of t...
Post a Comment
Read more