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Goals and Focus for Success
We've seen that, to generate more of what we want, we first need positive, empowering beliefs about ourselves and others. We need clear and specific goals to aim for. And we need to take action aimed at achieving the results we want.

Positive, uncomplicated goals
Keep your goals positive, short and uncomplicated. It's easy to keep clear goals constantly in the back of our minds. They become part of us. We will automatically focus our energies and our efforts on achieving them. We'll keep moving in the right direction.

Focus your attention on goals within your control or influence. See them clearly so it will be easier to achieve them. And easier to get feedback on how you're doing.

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Measurable goals
Express your goals in specific, preferably measurable, terms. The more precise we can make our goals, the easier it is for our subconscious to get to work on them. Precise goals will help us identify all sorts of opportunities and sources of help to draw on. Specific goals fast-track our progress. Measurable goals are the most clear of all.

Results and activity
Focus on results and activity. Effective goals spell out both the end results and the activities needed to achieve them. Results Goals point us in the right direction. They often depend partly on outside factors that we can't fully influence or control. So they must be realistic enough to be achievable and challenging enough to be motivating.

Activity Goals without Results Goals are pointless. They'll keep us busy, but will scatter our energy. Activity Goals need to be pretty much within our control. They provide good feedback on our day-to-day achievements.

Reachable goal
Make your goals reachable-with effort. If a goal is too hard, what's the point in putting in a lot of effort? We know we'll never reach it! If it's too easy-we won't even bother trying. We probably won't even achieve the standard of performance we could have reached, had the goal been more demanding.

The best goals are realistic and, at the same time, challenging. They invite us to work at our 'cutting edge', where we continually strive to improve our performance. This often takes us out of our comfort zone, and this means we need high self-esteem.

Target dates
Set target dates. Target dates provide a sense urgency and increase the precision of our aim. They also help us to divide a large goal into smaller subgoals, each with its own target date. This gives us a way to track our progress. Deadlines can keep us 'on track' and propel us towards our goals.

Plan of action
Make an action plan. The first two letters of goal are go! Focused action will achieve results much better than aimless action! This is why we need action plans. Action plans don't need to be fancy-a list of activities or steps is usually enough. Even just the first three steps will get us moving in the right direction.

If you don't want to make an elaborate action plan, develop a rolling action plan listing three steps at a time. As long as you know clearly where you're headed and what you need to do, you'll make progress.

Source of Reference:
Kris Cole, Crystal Clear Communication : Skills for Understanding and Being Understood , Prentice Hall. You can obtain this fine book here

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