A fun blog to comment about life.

I am a proponent of goal setting but I recognize that a lot of people, including myself at times, struggle with setting goals because it can sometimes not be easy to deal with personal and important items. There are numerous books all about how to deal with internal struggles which Seth Godin calls confronting the lizard brain. A few excellent examples are Seth Godin’s Linchpin, Rick Carson’s Taming Your Gremlin, and Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.

Scott Scheper has written an ebook, How to Get Focused, which is about dealing with distraction in our digital fast paced world so you can achieve stuff that makes a difference in your life and the lives of others.

His chapter on Focused Goals that is posted on his How to Get Focused blog takes a simpler approach to goal setting than the normally advocated SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals.

His approach to focused goals has what I call 3X3 elements:

1. Emphasis on developing the proper motivated state of mind specific to the goal by combining 3 items (humility, meaning and passion).
2. 3 word mantra for each goal to identify, repeat, and recall the goal
3. Stick with the goal as a priority for at least 3 monthes (this applies to big goals).

I see this as an enhanced front end to my modified 8 step Zig Ziglar goal completion process where once you have firmly established the goal in steps 1 and 2, you use project management techniques to help yourself follow through – hopefully by involving others.

In his book and blog post Scott includes inspiration videos like the one about Nick Vujicic who was born without arms or legs but has an incredible attitude. Be sure to scroll down in the Focused Goals blog post to watch the 4 minute video. Nick is a professional speaker and he sells DVDs on his web site Attitude is Altitude.

There is always more to learn about setting and achieving goals and what could be more important than that. Just do it.