I love the quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
"Until one is committed, there is hesitance, the chance to draw back.
Always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elemental truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans;
that the moment one commits oneself,
then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now."
Welcome to 2007.
For those of you that have just celebrated Christmas and New Year I hope you had a wonderful time.
I guess there are currently many eZines and newsletters floating about the Internet discussing goals and how to achieve them in 2007.
I would like to tell you that I have all the answers and if you follow my formula all your dreams will come true but I cannot. The fact is I have achieved some of my goals while others I have not yet accomplished.
Over the last month I have been trying to analyse the goals I have achieved to find common threads, the differences that make the difference. It has been quite a surprising process.
I introduced the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. method of stating your goals.
(click here to read)
I still think this is a useful way to state your goals that aids in their achievement.
However, I have framed several of my incomplete goals in this format.
Many people would suggest that you review your goals daily, and this is probably very good advice, yet I have achieved many of my goals without doing this.
Let me mention a few incidents in my life to make a point.
In my final years at high school I had a large study workload. I was doing one more subject than I needed to do. Many of my teachers advised me to drop a subject, there was no need to do the extra one and I was only diluting my efforts carrying the extra workload. While all they said may have been true, I WANTED to do all those subjects, I had made a DECISION and there was no way I was going to drop one. (Sounds a bit stubborn doesn’t it?). Well I achieved very good results in those exams, in all those subjects, with some effort on my part but not nearly as much effort as many people thought I would have to make.
The firstly really big order I landed, as a sales person is interesting too. Nobody in the company, except me (and possibly my sales manager), thought the deal could be put together. Yet I was never in doubt.
(For details see article #17 and article #18,
In my mid thirties I went through a divorce. Like many other people divorce left me much poorer than I was beforehand. In fact, I had no money in the bank but, luckily, I had no debts either. I vowed (sounds like another decision) that I would own my own home; free of debt by the time I was 40. I forgot all about this goal until I was about 42 when I found the goal written in an old notebook. I had achieved the goal even though I had totally forgot about it!
Also, during the divorce process I was granted custody of my son. After about two years my ex-wife refused to return him after he had visited her during school holidays. She lived in another State. I had every right to take her to court but figured the big looser in such a battle, involving lawyers and psychologists, could only be the children. I decided not to fight for custody but had this really strong feeling that my son would return to me. My friends and family could not understand it. However, my son was back living with me within four months.
There are other examples but I think these are enough to make the point.
The common things in all of these scenarios were my decisions that something was going to happen and my absolute faith that my goal would happen.
Unwavering faith.
I don’t know why I knew these things would happen I just knew they would.
Given that this year is 2007 and that “007” is an icon known to many of us maybe we could take a look at the James Bond character?
In these “007” movies Bond makes a habit of succeeding in seemingly impossible situations.
Does he ever doubt his ability to survive and achieve his mission?
Does he even think about failure?
No, he just does what he does, gives his best and deals with every obstacle as it arises.
Now James Bond may be a fictitious character but I’m sure there are many of you who know other people, famous or not, whose achievements are just about as miraculous.
Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Soichiro Honda and even Colonel Sanders are all examples of high achievers and you can bet they all faced their share of obstacles.
As I looked back at some of my achievements I realised they were never a struggle.
It just all seemed to happen or I made it happen by just doing what I do.
The thought of not reaching my goal never entered my mind.
Now I’m not saying that this is the ONLY thing to achieving goals but it seems to be a big piece of the puzzle.
Please re-read the quote at the start of this post.
The more I think about it the more I think Wolfgang von Goethe’s words are very true.
Making a decision that you will achieve something and being willing to act on it with unwavering faith in your outcome is the commitment that he talks about.
What have you decided to achieve in 2007?
What will you decide to achieve in 2007?
How strong is your commitment to achieving these goals?
How certain are you that you can do it?
If you need help strengthening your commitment or your belief that the goal is possible maybe you could get some coaching.
To all my readers be safe, be healthy and have fun achieving your goals in 2007.
Until next month,Here's to YourSalesSuccess.
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